Disclaimer: As I’ve written before, the following post is a part of a larger series geared to air out more or less, ‘adult’ grievances and flush out underlying (as well as obvious) themes that I’ve found while watching these childhood movies over again.
*Please Note: I do not ‘blame’ Disney for any of my findings, as these are films based on very old fairy tales. However, as Disney has animated a vast percentage of these ancient tales, I will continue to say ‘Disney’ for continuity. *
*Also, not all cartoons animations of childhood fairy tales were the brain child of Disney, so I will attribute the production companies accordingly.*
It’s been years, y’all. But don’t think I forgot about this. And for our return to scratching our heads, let’s look at one of Disney’s messiest films, Sleeping Beauty.
It’s been a minute since I stepped into this Nerd Girl Corner and for this, I truly apologize to you all to leave you with no warning. That was truly rude of me. And to make my blasphemous actions even worse, I haven’t been keeping up with the likes of entertainment as I did in the past! Yiiiikes.
But much like this blog, I’m slowly making my way back to all things that gave me joy — like nerding out over all kinds of nerdy pop culture shit, so let’s do it! And I’ve got the perfect stuff to start with…
Your girl is back — and it didn’t even take me a whole month, either. See, I’m trying to do right by you all…
In any event, I have some cool nerdy news for you all and some of it has me all kinds of excited. Are you ready to head into the Nerd Girl Corner with me?
It’s been a month since my last post (forgive the delay), but I’m back with a new entry and it’s chock full of nerdy goodness. The headline barely covers the amount of ‘ish that I’ve been in my feelings about, but I’ll try my best to get through it all as quickly as possible.
First up in NGC news: Newsroom star and super geek girl Olivia Munn is set to portray Elizabeth “Besty” Braddock aka Psylocke in the new X-Men: Apocalypse movie.
So why is this a big deal to me? Well, for starters, Psylocke was always my favorite character to play in the Capcom video games back in the day and then again in X-Men Mutant Academy 2 for PlayStation. Next, I always loved the look of the character, even though the only incarnation I knew of her was of the Japanese assassin. And lastly, when I did finally dabble into the world of comics, it was with the Uncanny X-Men featuring Psylocke.
I must admit, however, I didn’t keep up with the comics, but I still maintained a soft spot in my heart for her. Also doesn’t hurt that she has purple hair and I did desperately wanted to streak my hair purple in high school. Yes, it was a phase, but I eventually got over it (not really).
Anyway, I’m excited to know she’s going to be portrayed by Ms Olivia, who was the chick I wanted to be at San Diego Comic Con’s coverage on G4. She knew her stuff when chatting with guests, looked like she was having a great time, and could hang with the rest of the “nerds,” while still flicking her fabulous hair. She’s also of Asian ancestry, which I think it a good look on Marvel’s part to get someone who many won’t question (too much) with regards to cultural relevance.
Moving on…
Mavel’s Daredevil is on Netflix!
Marvel’s Daredevil Season 1 officially released its 13 episodes for screening on April 10. Like most people, I kicked myself for not taking the day off from work to sit at home and binge watch them all, but I was able to sneak in one episode during the day, and I have to say, the premiere episode was interesting. If it’s one thing that got me, it was the fight choreography. My first reaction to it all was “I really like this fight choreography.” Then, when I got home, I watched the second episode (while live tweeting with Black Girl Nerds) and I really fell in love with the fight scenes. They were visceral and real. When homeboy got punched in the face, he took the punch, and when he gave them, he dolled them out, but not without showing just how much energy he exerted in the act. I like a fight that looks like a real fight in movies.
I decided that I was going to pace myself, and watch only two episodes a week, but I missed the bar (this week and last week), and am several episodes behind. Nevertheless, I will get around to watching the rest of the episodes in due course, savoring every fight — which I’m told gets better with every episode — and I’m so happy to announce that the show’s been renewed for Season 2! Sucky part? The show’s coming with new showrunners (*hiss*). Cross your fingers that they keep the momentum going ’cause this show has the makings to be something pretty great.
Oh, Charlie Cox aka Matt “Daredevil” Murddock gets honorable mention in this post for being a much better DD than Ben Affleck. Sorry, but search your feelings. You know it to be true.
And last but not least…
The trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice finally dropped. Go ahead, check it out if you haven’t already.
It starts out with news reporters, telecasters, and the like talking about Superman’s power and you, there are those who idolize him, and then those who loathe him. You know, the usual reaction foreign entities get when people are aware of their presence. Holly Hunter’s voice is clearly audible, which makes me a little happy to know that she’s going to be involved in this movie. Anyway, there’s a shot to a giant Superman statue which somehow has “False God” painted on it. (Note: who the hell got up there to right that in the FIRST DAMN PLACE?)
Next thing you know, Scar Jeremy Iron’s voice is heard talking about “that’s how it starts, the anger, the powerlessness” and we get a shot of Ben Affleck (aka Bruce Wayne) looking at his ol’ Batman suit. I’m guessing he’s put the cape away for a bit, but thanks to Superman causing villains and nimrod civilians to catch their feelings, he feels it’s about time to venture back into the night and fight crime. But lo! It’s not crime Batsy is after —it’s Superman! And with all the high-tech planes and cars from the The Dark Knight movies — oh, and an auto-tuning helmet, Batman comes after the sexy Henry Cavill — uh, I mean Superman, and the two appear to square off.
Now, I will not lie to you guys: I do not know the comic book history behind movie’s plot. I’ve seen a couple of DC animated films and this reminds me of Justice League: War, where all the superheroes kind of fight each other until they find a common enemy and then battle that. I’m going to hypothesize that this film is going along that route, especially since a Justice League movie is in the works, and several of the JL characters are going to be making cameos.
My thoughts thus far? I’m going to give it a chance. I shall admit, I’m not a fan of the whole “Batfleck” deal just because I didn’t like Ben as Daredevil. But, many people thought Ryan Reynolds sucked as Green Lantern and now he’s getting tons of love for Marvel’s Deadpool. So maybe the transitional magic will work for Ben shifting from Marvel to DC… I don’t know. I just hope his helmet isn’t set to auto-tune all the time. I get that maybe he’s supposed to be an older version of The Dark Knight‘s Christina Bale, but his voice was annoying enough and this mechanical version of it is not doing it for me.
Before I sign off on this post, I did need to give a condensed geeking to a couple other pieces of news that broke in the weeks that I’ve been gone. Brace yourselves because some of this is just pure awesome:
Finally, I’ve got some exciting news regarding the Suicide Squad movie: Jared Leto is officially the prettiest ugly Joker out there! Director Dave Ayers posted the first official look of Jared as Mr. J for the 75th anniversary of the character and I DIG IT.
I was weary that he was going to be too pretty, but he’s got this pretty ugly thing and I can only imagine where he’s going to go with the role. I also can’t wait to see his interaction with Margo Robbie who plays Harley Quin. Bottom line, I approve.
Is it time to pour one out for the homies? Word around town is that Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino have parted creative ways after working together for 10 years. Hypable reports that are their recent art show, where they give us that beautiful pic of Korra and Asami in the spirit world together, the duo announced that they were parting ways. I’m not sure if this report should be taken seriously — since no other outlet that covers ATLA and LOK has covered the news, nor has “Bryke” taken to the internets to confirm such split, but Hypable said the creators claimed they were “tired”, “burnt out”, and seeking to do other projects, but they were ultimately open to joining forces again in the future.
The Ant-Man trailer dropped. And as much as I love Paul Rudd, I have a feeling this movie will be one of Marvel’s lowest-performing films. Don’t get me wrong — it’ll make a good chunk of change. And there may even be some solid acting and fight scenes, but I don’t foresee a ton of people rushing to the theaters to see it. After watching some Avenger cartoons on Netflix, I’ve grown a bit of appreciation for Ant-Man, but it also left me curious as to why Marvel decided to introduce the superhero with this new incarnation that’s not Hank Pym. In the film, Hank is played by the elderly Michael Douglass. If Hank and Tony Stark created Ultron, why isn’t Hank Ant-Man? Ugh, I’m not even going to try to understand that. Anyway, here’s the trailer:
Archangel has also been cast for the X-Men: Apocalypse movie in the form of actor Ben Hardy (of East Enders).
Director Bryan Singer also released images of what Archangel will look like this time around since, you know, he’s going to be one of the Four Horseman of Apocalypse. shiny…
Speaking of X-Men, it looks like one X-Men we spoke in length about isn’t going to be showing his face in X-Men: Apocalypse after all! In a recent interview with MTV, Channing Tatum broke the news that it was a possibility his Gambit was going to first hit the screen in a solo film. Channing dished, “You know, I don’t know if I’m at liberty to say, but I don’t think I want to introduce Gambit until you can really explain who Gambit is.” Looks like we’ve gotten ourselves about two years before we finally meet Chambit, which should be well enough time for Channing to get that Cajun accent down… along with any other shortcomings people were weary of.
That’s all the nerding out I’ll do this time around. I did want to give a Season 1 exit review for some pilots, but since I stopped watching several of the shows I was geeking over… I’m going to have to go time some time, finish a couple shows, and then come back.
Until then, keep geeking folks and always, drop a line in the comments or hit me up on le Twitter!
It’s literally been a month since I last chatter with you, but don’t lose faith in me just yet! This past month was kinda rough, but you know what else? It was also kinda awesome too! This week alone had some pretty rad developments in the geeky universe in which I reside, and as such, I will get all in my feelings about them below. Continue reading →
There are people in this world who understand how to watch a movie. There are others who don’t. For those who don’t, this entry of “Ms. Manners” is for you…
(1)Be On Time. We know it’s hard to be on time. It happens to the best of us. But when you know that the movie is supposed to start at 8:10, and there are about 8-10 minutes worth of previews, don’t think it’s OK to just mosey on into the theater at 8:45 or 9:20. Do you really want to miss the beginning? Don’t you know that’s when everyone who matters is introduced? Don’t you want to be in the loop of what’s going on? Yes? Well, get there on time!
(2)Don’t Bring Your Kids If It’s Not Appropriate. Listen, we all know that PG means that the kiddos are OK to watch with parental guidance, but once they starting adding on numbers, it means it’s too grown for three-year-olds. If the movie isn’t rated G or featuring cartoon characters, or overall not intended for children, do NOT bring your kids to the movie theaters. If you can’t find a babysitter for the night, you weren’t meant to leave your house. No 4-year-old showed be seeing Hugh Jackman’s ass during an X-Men film, and we did not request to hearing 9-month-olds crying in the middle of Spiderman 2 either. Continue reading →
As I’ve previously written in the first installment of this series-long ‘editorial’ (if you will), the following posts are created to air out more or less, ‘adult’ grievances and flush out underlying (as well as obvious) themes that I’ve found while watching these childhood movies over again.
*Please Note: I do not ‘blame’ Disney for any of my findings, as these are films based on very old fairy tales, however, as Disney animated them I will continue to say ‘Disney’ as a reference. **Also, not all cartoons animations of childhood fairy tales were the brain child of Disney, so I will attribute the production companies accordingly.*
This month’s installment includes my head-scratching questions and off-the-wall theories about Disney’s retelling of the Chinese legend Mulan.
I’m not sure if this report should be taken seriously — since no other outlet that covers ATLA and LOK has covered the news, nor has “Bryke” taken to the internets to confirm such split, but Hypable said the creators claimed they were “tired”, “burnt out”, and seeking to do other projects, but they were ultimately open to joining forces again in the future.
Director Bryan Singer also 
shiny…
AljaTheWriter 