Archive for the ‘Watching’ Category

22
Aug

Don’t make Superman dark, make him Superman

   Posted by: Chris   in Watching

The fanosphere is aghast with the news from the Wall Street Journal today that Warner Bros. is considering a reboot of the Superman franchise, possibly one that sort of ignores “Superman Returns.” And I’m OK with that, since I also sort of ignore “Superman Returns.”

But the kryptonite in the woodpile is this quote from Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov:

Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.

Oh, for…

This is so obvious I am amazed it needs to be said. “The Dark Knight” did not succeed because it was dark. It succeeded because of several things, all of which can be boiled down to “make a movie that is true to the character.” And Batman, done properly, is dark. Superman is not.

The superhero movies that work are the ones that speak to the fans’ love of what makes the character great. The massively successful Spider-Man movies were true to his character. Except, of course, for the third one, when he went… um, dark.  The massively successful Iron Man movie did not try to make him gritty, it made him Iron Man.

WB, pay attention to someone who knows (i.e. the moviegoer). Get a director who loves the character and will fight to protect the core of him or her. Make sure that director has no driving urge to “say something” with the character unless that something makes sense (Singer’s outcast neuroses worked great with X-Men, not so well wth Supes). Then back that director to the hilt.

Or just hire Jon Peters to do it and write off superhero movies entirely. Maybe something with a giant spider.

It’s good to be reminded that all viewers have exactly the same tastes, so that all entertainment can be judged on a single basis. Of course you can compare “House” to “M*A*S*H,” “24″ to “The Simpsons,” “Gilligan’s Island” to “The Wire.” They’re all TV shows, so therefore they all have the same tropes, the same context, and the same audience. Thank you, New York Times, for reminding us of this simple truth.

Namely, in this article by Mike Hale, wherein he analyzes the aesthetic and commercial appeal of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and finds it somewhat wanting. Not compared to other Web content, of course, it’s fine there, a diamond in the muck. But when compared to television, it needs “beefing up.”

If the comparison is with television, the answer is murkier. On that scale “Dr. Horrible” falls somewhere between an amusing trifle and a dramedy that won’t make it to the 13th episode.

[...]

…you may prefer the slacker aesthetic of “Dr. Horrible” to the formulas of network television, but even in the summer doldrums, 45 minutes (after commercials) of “The Closer” or “Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods” is a superior piece of craftsmanship. (And even on its own anti-mainstream terms, “Dr. Horrible” has a ways to go to catch up with “The Sarah Silverman Program.”)

Really? “The Sarah Silverman Show” is the anti-mainstream bar all shows must strive towards? Maybe if “Dr. Horrible” had more poop jokes it would have passed muster.

I have no problem with people criticizing the show on its own merits and faults - there are plenty of both. But condemning it because it’s not as good as “The Sarah Silverman Show” or “The Closer” - two more different shows you’ll be hard-pressed to find - is ridiculous. Although actual criticism may be tricky and require more than 15 minutes, I’ll have to ask.

“Prominent gay subtext”? Really?

29
Jul

“Dr. Horrible” on MySpace and Hulu… and here

   Posted by: Chris   in Watching

“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” is now available, for free (but ad-supported) at MySpace and on Hulu. Woo hoo!

Which means I can also embed it here, and I think I shall. Enjoy.

20
Jul

Teresa spotting

   Posted by: Chris   in Listening, Schmoozing, Watching

Thanks to maru1221, I (and everyone else) can now see my wife Teresa at the Bon Jovi concert at the TD BankNorth Garden arena, July 10. She keeps a camera in front of her face during her screentime, but if you look closely, starting around 1:46,  you can see her trying to focus past Richie Sambora (12 feet away from her) to get a better picture of Jon (way the hell across the stage). She does have her preferences, my Teresa. Also, that piercing fangirl scream? That’s her.

16
Jul

What do you want on the Dr. Horrible DVD?

   Posted by: Chris   in Watching

Let’s start our wish list now! We know we’ll get all three acts of the show, commentary, and a separate, musical commentary. Most likely we’ll get a Making-Of feature, something on the music, and bloopers. What else would you like to see, to make this the most incredible Horrible DVD ever? Here’s my suggestions:

- An extra Dr. Horrible story, filmed for the DVD

- Promos from the characters; Captain Hammer talking to schools, Penny talking about the homeless shelter, Dr. Horrible doing something court-appointed (”Kids! Don’t do evil!”)

- A karaoke version

- A fan commentary, with notable fans giving their reactions (your assistant has my e-mail, Mr. Whedon)

- Features on the people involved, fan reaction, media reaction

- Video of the Comic-Con panel

- A RiffTrax commentary, already bundled in

- A feature showing the making of the Making Of feature

- A small comic book (a la the Serenity comic that came bundled with the Best Buy version of the Serenity Special Edition DVD) of “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me”

- The original storyboards, possibly in napkin form

- A feature on the already-existing mad science apartment that was used

- The entire run of “Apartment 4B” by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, including the 1st episode

- A feature on the special effects, done with all the gravitas and detail as anything about Gollum on the LoTR DVDs. “Here we had to sync up Nathan leaping off a chair into frame just as the van careened by, so it really looked like he was jumping off the van. Timing was critical for it to really feel right, so we were there, oh god, almost 7 minutes before we were finally happy with it, but that’s the kind of dedication we put into it. Then we had a Snickers.”

And most importantly:

- Previews of the sequel

What do you want to see?

16
Jul

Dr. Horrible on iTunes till July 29

   Posted by: Chris   in Watching

According to TV Week, anyway.

“I’m deeply psyched to be able to offer ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ on iTunes,” Mr. Whedon said. “It’s a way to reach way more potential viewers than I can personally call and harass into watching it. The idea that people can carry our little opus around on their iPods and iPhones is thrilling.”

14
Jul

Joss Whedon on “Dr. Horrible”

   Posted by: Chris   in Creating, Schmoozing, Watching

I was fortunate enough to do a phone interview with Joss Whedon last Friday on his new Internet musical miniseries “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” UPDATED: my article is up at www.news-journalonline.com/entertainment.htm, along with the audio of the interview. Here’s what was said.

This is Chris Bridges with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and I’m talking with Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” the show “Firefly,” the movie “Serenity,” the upcoming FOX show “Dollhouse,” and now an original online musical mini-series, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” Thank you for talking to me.

Thanks for having me.

Go ahead and give me the elevator pitch for “Dr. Horrible.”

There’s an elevator pitch?

I hope so.

I’ve never heard that phrase. Basically it’s your typical Internet musical about a super villain who’s trying to make his bones in the super villain community and get some respect, and maybe even work up the nerve to talk to the girl at the Laundromat.

So, like every other Internet serial musical.

Yeah, you know, I mean it’s a tired genre but I thought I could wring a few bucks out of it before it dies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday was an interesting day. And I use the word “interesting” with loaded meaning (couldn’t find the right smilie to indicate that, so here we are).

High point: finding out with an hour to spare that I would get to do a phone interview with Joss Whedon. All I really remember was that I was focusing on not sounding like a doofus, my painful discovery that it’s a big, big mistake to pound down a large Sprite to calm your nerves when you’re afraid to leave the phone long enough to pee, and that when he did call and we talked I sounded like a doofus.

With luck it’ll appear online Tuesday and in the paper later in the week. Only really new thing in it that I haven’t seen anywhere else: the Dr. Horrible episodes will appear on drhorrible.com pretty close to 12:01 am on their launch dates. Didn’t get if it was PST, I’m hoping to hear back about that. My favorite quote was when I was asking about his knack for attracting obsessive fans:

“That’s what I am, that’s what I grew up as. The things I love, I love very hard.”

Low point: immediately thereafter, when my car blew a head gasket on the way home and my brother-in-law and I spent four fun-filled hours next to Beville Road trying Bars Head Gasket Fix in the desperate hope that mine had blown in just the right way for this to work and save me many hundreds or thousands of dollars that I don’t, strictly speaking, have.

Results: I have an interview which I have now transcribed and will tomorrow edit, modulate, and possibly remaster until I sound like David Attenborough, am now working on my article. Car is running well if not smoothly, the oil has been changed, and we’ll see how that goes.

All in all, best thing about the weekend? Watching the little videos Teres took of the concert with our camera, where her fangirl shrieks can plainly be heard over the din. She’s been blushing nonstop, I’m working on making one of them my Windows startup noise.

15
May

First look at Whedon’s “Dollhouse”

   Posted by: Chris   in Watching

The first look at Joss Whedon’s new show “Dollhouse” is out; this is the trailer presented to the advertisers today.

Coming next January. Comments?

17
Mar

New from Joss: Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

   Posted by: Chris   in Watching

During the writers’ strike, Joss Whedon had some free time. And he’s not a man to laze about, really, and here was this whole big Internet needing content…

Posted at Whedonesque:

So…..

The bag is catless.

During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, 3 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each. Writing with me was my brother Jed, his fiancee Maurissa, and my other brother Zack. To my shock and surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed (with the help of many people I’ll be praising at length soon) to drag it into preproduction (yes, just as DOLLHOUSE was given a start date two months away and all my comics were due.) And today, after a grueling week of writing everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting. A musical.

This much I will say: It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. And I’m having the time of my life.

“DOCTOR HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG”

Neil Patrick Harris…..as Dr. Horrible
Nathan Fillion……….as Captain Hammer
Felicia Day………….as Penny

And a cast of Dozens!

Coming soon.

-j.