Don't blink. No, it's not about weeping angels, it's just creepy when Hal does it.
There's new Green Lantern clip that shows off GL fighting the movie's big-bad, Parallax (who really seems to have done well for himself since appearing as the cloud monster on "Lost"). It shows off some of the Green Lantern "make stuff with energy" powers from the comic, though they come perilously close to being too goofy. It also demonstrates why, if you can make a shield against incoming fire that's bigger than you, it might be best to opt for a dome structure rather than something that uses you as a cushion. But the most interesting visual tidbit, at least for me, is, once again, the mask. If you look near the end when there's a closeup of GL, he blinks, and we see the mask covers his eyelids, too. That's gotta feel really weird. It's one thing to have actors wear black eye makeup for "Batman" movies (which they never explain, really, as it vanishes whenever Bruce removes his mask), but it just looks so strange to see him... blink. What's even weirder is that this is how masks work in comics. My mother-in-law hadn't read comics for years when I started courting her daughter, and she'd looked at a few of the offerings from Marvel and DC on the internet. She was wondering why most mask-wearing heroes didn't have irises or pupils, since that had kind of been code back in the day (I'm assuming in horror comics, and it still holds true) that a given character had no soul or was possessed or something. I explained it made them look like bug-eyed monsters and was just an aesthetic thing, and it turns out it kind of holds true in "real life," as it were. One more weird effect of bringing comics to the screen, I guess.
Though perhaps more disturbing is a live action film based on Thomas the Tank Engine. Again, like "Cars," I think we're seeing another sequel to "Maximum Overdrive" aimed at children. :)
i09 quotes from an interview over at the AV Club about how the D&D episode of "The Community" almost didn't happen. I'm amazed there are still people nervous about Dungeons & Dragons, as if World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings movies, Harry Potter, Shreck, and How to Train Your Dragon never happened. People have pretty much played it even if they haven't. Honestly, can't someone say to these people "it's pretty much like [insert any video game with a sword and something that breathes/shoots fire], except everyone has to do what the computer does, and you can kind of argue when you think the game isn't being fair." I'd love to know what the producers meant by it not being accessible; is the hobby still evil, or is it just seen as obscure? If it's the latter, are we going to be invaded by hipsters, or are they just wearing the same glasses we do? :)
We turn to news of a new Star Trek video game coming out, based on the JJ Abrams film. It looks a lot like it's going to be a cover-based shooter, kind of like another sci-fi video game franchise. In that ME3 trailer, by the way, is it me or does the guy who says "we need a plan to stop them" sound a lot like Shatner? From what little I've been able to find out about it, it'll be a co-op shooting game (Kirk & Spock), and PS3 users will be able to buy a phaser prop that works with the motion control "Move" system. I'm hoping there's a mini game where the Kirk player tries to seduce someone while Spock has to get his captain back on task without resorting to emotion and/or violence. I'd also like an unlockable Easter Egg where you could fire up a copy of the cancelled TOS game, The Secret of Vulcan Fury. I know I've harped on that long-lost title before, but tell me hearing the original cast again doesn't give you chills. Okay, I'll stop now.
Now that I'm back in Dragon Magazine (or at least, doing cartoons for the website behind it. Ah, look! Strip #2!), I just remembered that I came across a box full of old Dragons in my attic recently. Every so often, I see a pile of them at a Half-Price Books or somewhere similar, but it's usually the same run of issues; I suspect that at some point in the magazine's history, more people bought them or there were overprints or something. These are pretty old, including the first "Best of" issue and some of Phil Foglio's covers. It made me wonder: What does everyone do with their old gaming magazines? One blog I look at from time to time has been putting up some of the classic ads, and I still love thumbing through the pages for nostalgia's sake. I have the first 250 issues on the infamous CD-ROM collection, and while we still get together for the odd RPG, I don't think I know any people who play with the older rules (or if they do, they try to stick pretty much to the 'official' stuff with some house-fixes for rules that contradict/don't make sense). Other than doing a rather ambitious decoupage project to fantasy-up a rec room, what uses do people put their collections to? Or are they destined to be like those stacks of National Geographic our parents kept: Something to be discovered by later generations, to be paged through for semi-naked pictures and then discarded at a rummage sale?
Since that may have made some feel old, let's start the linkdump with something the kids all love. Tongue piercings:
- Some science-types managed to make a tongue stud capable of giving paralyzed people control over mobility devices. How long before someone uses this to drive a car?
- I bear (sorry) no ill will to any Canadians anywhere, and I don't think people dying is particularly funny. However, you have to marvel at a headline that reads, Flying bear kills two Canadians in freak accident. I think the last three words are there to try and stifle panic until people actually read what happened.
- They beep out the swearing, but you might still want to turn down the volume for this next clip, as those involved sound like they might have brain damage and anger management issues. Anyway, Arizona's wildfires appear to be making inferno-tornadoes. Our natural disasters are trying to form Voltron, people...
- In case you're as confused as I am over the recent DC reboot, here's a guide to the history of DC Universe reboots.
- Of course we know that most movies are really the same story, especially now that we have a chart.
- I only vaguely remember parts of the schlock-fi movie, "Cherry 2000," but now it looks like its star, Melanie Griffith, wouldn't mind her daughter, Dakota, to star in a remake.
- This commercial billed as the most EPIC beer ad ever makes me think that if some brewery actually did install some of that stuff and made it known, their sales would double overnight for at least a month.
- I wouldn't exactly call this a Doctor Who spoiler, since we've been misled so many times in the past (and future, technically), but here's an ultra-short teaser for when the series returns later this year. If that wasn't short enough for you, how about this teaser for the canceled Wonder Woman show?
- This image comes from a fail-blog about the poorly dressed, but I think it's rather awesome and indicates many skill points well-spent.
- Perhaps the day will come when this will be considered the Penny-Farthing of its era, but I wouldn't mind riding one watching someone else try it out. :)
- Pixelated toxic death avoidance awaits you in Hazmat. Jump your way to each level's exit while keeping yourself out of insta-death vats of bubbling ick.
- One of the first voices for the Daleks and the Cybermen, Roy Skelton, passed away on June 8th.
- And speaking of Daleks, here's one apparently created during Davros' days at the art institute.
- It's only a gripe about full disclosure, and isn't a reflection of what the final product will do, but Nintendo's recent spot showcasing all of the games for its next-gen Wii used a lot of game footage from the Xbox and PS3 without noting that to the audience.
- I've suggested that it's sometimes fun to think that actors in different productions are often the same character but in disguise, so along those lines here's when fandoms collide. If (like me) you don't get one (or, like me, several) of them, the tags list which shows/movies are being discussed.
- Those who have to deal with blocks of text that will be added to a layout later may be familiar with Lorem Ipsum filler text. But in case that wasn't hickory smoked enough for you, there's now a Bacon Ipsum generator.
- From the 'okay, if they like that kind of thing' file comes Saturday Night Live: Japan. Scroll down for a clip of the intro.
- Whoa! What's going on in the Marauder's Map credit sequence from Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban?
- David Mitchell is back to lecture us about home movie technology. As a counterpoint, the age of VHS gave us the Action Max video "game" system. For a sample of the truly horrific gameplay (and I use that word quite wrongly), click here.
- Reminding me of a color-coded puzzle version of "Missile Command," Regrebluli is a game where the goal is to keep colored lines from passing from one side of the screen to the other by dragging a flexible line of the same color in front of it.