Thursday, August 22, 2013

Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury

The great storyteller passed away last year. I can think of no more fitting tribute.

Monday, August 12, 2013

The 20 Greatest Giant Robots Ever: Part 1

All right. Time for the main event of Giant Robot Month. Title says it all so without further ado...

The 20 Greatest Giant Robots Ever

Saturday, August 10, 2013

George Clooney steals art from Hitler

Monuments Men is a movie I've been looking forward to since I heard about it. It's the story of a group of American academics and art experts recruited by the US Army in WW2 to preserve important historical monuments from bombing and retrieve stolen art from the Nazis. Think The Da Vinci Code meets Inglorious Basterds. Here's the first trailer.



Digging it. The WW2 setting gives the story inherent drama and I like that our heroes are old guys and nerds instead of the usual beefy soldier guys. That gives the characters both humor and pathos. I also like that it has a sense of humor. A lot of war movies tend to be very dour, especially since Saving Private Ryan, so it's nice that this has a more pulpy adventure movie feel. Of course the actual movie could be nothing like that but it works in this trailer.

Thor: 1 Rock Monster: 0

Hey! New Thor: The Dark World trailer!



Thor is my favorite Avenger and this new trailer is making me really excited for his second movie. I like that the main plot seems to be an inverse of the last one. That was about Thor, Prince of Asgard having to adjust to small-town America whereas this one seems to be about rational Jane Foster of Earth adjusting to the grandeur of Asgard. That'll be a good way to keep things fresh and indulge in the big fantasy stuff you can do with Thor.

And unsurprisingly, we get a lot of Loki here. Tom Hiddleston has managed to turn a b-list Marvel villain into a fan-favorite so I don't begrudge the focus, but I hope the filmmakers don't forget he is a villain. Seems I shouldn't worry too much because every character already expects Loki's betrayal. That is straight out of the comics.

I'm disappointed we haven't seen more of Christopher Eccleston as Malekith the Accursed and his villain plan. The line "He's going to destroy all of reality" is worrying. Movies like this work better when the stakes are more personal, so giving Malekith the generic "I'm going to destroy everything because I'm evil" motivation could hurt the movie. But it's still early, so maybe we'll get some more idea of a plot closer to release.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Site Update: 08/07/13

Sorry about the lack of updates recently. My schedule has been out of my control thanks to work so regular posting has suffered. Things will resume as normal soon.

But rest assured The Wordsmith is as Serial as ever. And just because July has come and gone, don't think Giant Robot Month is over. More mecha goodness is on the way, with Big O Showtime Season 2 leading the way.

In addition, I'm now on Twitter and Tumblr. Keep up with the latest from me at @SerialWordsmith and  Beyond Your Wildest Imagination.

Keep watching this spot dear readers. More to come as always.