Just Because I Want To

If I can be not-so-serious for a minute...

Sorry – been hearing a lot about Lance Storm lately and his appearance at the Ring of Honor show this past weekend in Toronto; just glad to see ya back, Lance.

Anyway, all seriousness aside – wait, that’s the point. There’s been enough stress, apprehension, tribulations, insert-noun-of-choice-describing-tension-here that I just need to vent in a completely different manner. And that would be by geeking out for a minute.


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Movies

In particular and in release date order, three that I’m excited about now that I’ve seen The Dark Knight (five-star awesome job by ALL involved!):

The Spirit – Hurrm. Now, I’m no expert on Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” at all, so I can’t comment on all the characters and that; only what I see. What I see in this fuller trailer is...different. At some point, Samuel L’s Octopus looks pretty cool, but then, in other shots, I’m wondering how he got talked into something like this. Still, with the Sin-City-meets-Dick Tracy look of the whole thing (both of which I’m marks for, I ain’t gonna lie), it still looks like something I definitely want to check out.

Oh, and I do hope that someone has the bright idea to let Miller direct his own “Hard Boiled” adaptation. That would be off the page.


Watchmen – To use a Matt Groening line from waayy back...o mais, oui. I lost count of how many times I’ve read this, arguably the greatest graphic novel not starring one of DC’s core characters ever. And the thing that knocks me out is that Zach Snyder is apparently serious as a heart attack in his faithfulness; just about every single shot and scene showed in the trailer (which, for 2 minutes, is quite a bit~~) I can pinpoint directly from the story and when, how, and why it happens.

Ye General Populace may or may not get it when it hits. I could give less than a thimbleful of damn if they do; to see a book I’ve always loved faithfully recreated like this gives me the chills every time I watch that friggin’ trailer. See if I don’t ask for the night off from work just to go see it opening night.


TR2N – Yeah, hey, look, I know the trailer quality isn’t that great. What can I do? – no one’s released an “official” version yet (although Disney should get on the ball because this won’t go away now).

Outside of that...very nice. I’m probably in the target demo for this since I used to have the action figures, read-along books and play the arcade game every time I crossed its path when I was younger because I dug the hell out of this movie. And now it’s back, with Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn in tow. Yeah, sing me the hell up for a seat to this, too.


Sad thing is, though, I’m looking at a potential timeline of a year and a half-plus before all 3 of these are out...and these are the only three I’m that excited to see. Yeah, I know all about GI Joe and Transformers 2...as well as Darren Aranofsky (sp?) remaking RoboCop (no disrespect to Aranofsky (sp?) because I haven’t seen any of his movies, but...”Who booked this crap?”) and an “Escape From New York” remake in the works (GROAN), but those I can wait for DVD or some time when I have a spare moment*. The three above, I can’t.

* - If I find out, however, that the GI Joe movie is done in the vein of the recent ”America’s Elite” comic series, then I’ll get good and geared up for that one, too. Devil’s Due does with GI Joe and Cobra what should have been done years ago.


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Now then, on to tonight’s (07.28.08) “Raw”. Hey, if Jake “The Snake Roberts can talk about it online (in much cooler fashion than I ever could), then why can’t I?

Don’t worry – this won’t be a straight recap or review or any of that crap that several hundred people could probably better than myself, anyway. Just some thoughts that stand out is all.

Speaking of which, I just saw this:

- Believe it or not, WWE has hired actor Freddie Prinze, Jr. (Scooby-Doo, She's All That, I Know What You Did Last Summer) as a new member of the creative team. He was at the RAW/Saturday Night's Main Event taping last night and has attended several WWE events over the past few months including WrestleMania. He has been a big fan for awhile and has also been a "celebrity blogger" on the WWE Fan Nation site. Prinze is married to actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

First of all, no, I don’t. But that’s just because I kinda don’t want to. Because, secondly, I’m almost afraid of the havoc Freddie Prinze Jr., of all people, could wreak on the booking committee.

On with the show.

Giving away Cena vs. Batista this soon isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but they’d have been better served putting it off until WM XXV. This is one of the few BIG-money matches WWE has left to build right now; they could make some serious bank by building for that long. Alas, someone felt the need to pull the trigger.

Main event was what I thought it may be, but I’d have made one stipulation: The winner of the fall meets CM Punk at SummerSlam for the World Title. AT least give them a reason not to trust each other aside from ye olde “they all want the same thing” party line.

I’ll be honest about it – when Michael Cole was announced as Lawler’s partner, I laughed. I needed the mirth, really. The desire to see him get worked comes not from an intense hatred of Cole or because I’m some JR-supporter that wants to see him back on “Raw”, but simply because, to me, that’s the kind of comedy they should book more often.

I was hoping against hope that they wouldn’t start a feud among commentators (they certainly hinted at it for a second), but in a way, I guess they did...

I know I don’t know much about discerning the difference between a “promo or a money promo” (heard that on one of Raven’s Shoot Interviews recently...decent stuff), Jericho’s Highlight Reel felt to me like a “money promo”. Raven has a point about people being able to talk people into the arenas to see the matches, and Jericho is great with that.

Mike Adamle as General Manager. Why? I can’t say that I hate or love the idea, and that’s the problem in and of itself. I couldn’t actually care any less that Adamle is the GM now. I was hoping for a little more exciting payoff, although I should know better by now. Judging by the live crowd reaction, I’m not alone in thinking that, which is why they have made a mistake here.