Batman vs Superman: Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor? And Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth.

     We've got 2 more casting choices from Zack Snyder's Man of Steel 2.  And honestly, these are a doozey.  Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, and Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth.

     Irons as Pennyworth?  I can buy that.  He seems a bit too aggressive for a role like this, but he is a tremendous actor despite his recent statements in interviews.

     As for Eisenberg...  Ooof.  This one is a tough call.  Luthor is always played as a highly intelligent, but still slightly physically dangerous individual.  When you see Lex Luthor, you should think that this guy could not only know of a way to kill you, but have the will power to do so instantly.  A wolf among men.  Eisenberg just doesn't have that "look."  He needs to have a presence of intimidation.  All that patent Eisenberg passive-aggressiveness would wear the heroes down over time.

     Snyder said:

“Lex Luthor is often considered the most notorious of Superman’s rivals, his unsavory reputation preceding him since 1940. What’s great about Lex is that he exists beyond the confines of the stereotypical nefarious villain. He’s a complicated and sophisticated character whose intellect, wealth and prominence position him as one of the few mortals able to challenge the incredible might of Superman. Having Jesse in the role allows us to explore that interesting dynamic, and also take the character in some new and unexpected directions." 

    It appears that he is going for a super nerd version, and I am kind of worried for this film.  There's a piece of me that believes this movie will end up like Sucker Punch.  Will Snyder make Luthor a man to rely on what he expects of others to do rather than his own intellectual superiority?

     I suppose it's still a better choice than Michael Cera.

     Barely.

     Granted, if he pulls this off it could be amazing.  And after Now You See Me I actually do think he might be able to do this.  We'll have to just wait and see.  Perhaps he'll nail the xeno-hatred of an alien (from Krypton) destroying his beloved city.

     EDIT: I thought about this a bit more and I really do think Eisenberg could do this well if he plays Lex as the super-rich, super-genius mastermind.  No up and coming rich kid crap.  Lex is someone that is capable of manipulating the entire population into thinking he's a hero, while secretly battling Superman.  He is also someone that is able to go toe-to-toe with Batman (Bruce Wayne) in the business world.  The easiest comparison would be an evil Tony Stark (Iron Man).  He needs to exude unflinching confidence in his power as a tactician in both battle and business.  And I think he can actually do it.

     Source [ The Mary Sue ]

More pics of the Bay & Liebesman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Designs (Includes The Shredder)

     JoBlo Movie News has a few more pics of the controversial Michael Bay and Jonathan Liebesman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot designs.  They provide better images of Leonardo, Donatello, and a couple of the Shredder.  I find it odd the Shredder, being played by William Fichtner, has slanted eye holes on the mask.  And it's a bit reminiscent of a certain Lord of the Rings character...

     These reinvented images are not bad.  Although Liebesman did direct Wrath of the Titans, I can overlook that- my worries still hinge on the writing trifecta of Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Evan Daugherty.  The first two did Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, but Mr. Daugherty is responsible for Snow White and the Huntsman.

     To be fully honest- the Leonardo design below is f*ckin' awesome.  While the face is a bit too human, my worries about this film dissipated a bit after this single picture.  There are still plenty of worries, but this one image definitely lessened them significantly.

     Source [ JoBlo ]

     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

     Also check out:
          [ The TMNT Collectionary ]
          [ TMNT Block on Yardsellr on Facebook ]

Final Designs for Michael Bay and Liebesman's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

     So Comic Book Movie has posted this image showing what may be the final designs for the upcoming TMNT reboot.  They are not completely awful by any means, but still a bit odd.  Very hulking in size by the looks of it.  The kid's costume from a few days ago does have some similarity to the Michelangelo in this pic.  So I wonder if these maquettes are toys or if they are just plain old mock ups for reference.

I wonder what technological oddity Donatello has attached to his shell?

     They are nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, so that's a good sign.  And they kind of remind me of the bulky and absurd Jim Lee redesigned TMNT toys from somewhere around 1995.
 
     For now, I'll proceed with caution in the hopes department.  With all the rumors and things coming to the public, it's hard to maintain confidence in this endeavor.  Not bad so far.


     Source [ Comic Book Movie ]

     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

     Also check out:
          [ The TMNT Collectionary ]
          [ TMNT Block on Yardsellr on Facebook ]

The Hobbit: My 2nd Reading Response for Fantasy Literature: No Time For Describing Urgency

     Here's my 2nd reading response about the Hobbit.  It's kind of about my irritation about how the narrator breaks the story by telling you information and tell you about a situation's urgency, then cuts it off. 

Joshua Barsody
Reading Response 2 

     "No time now!" said the hobbit. (p178) 

     I have noticed that the narrator has a habit of inserting things to point out that there is a hurry.  Inserting offhand comments into the story to try and convey an extra sense of urgency of the situations in the part of the story being read.  I find it to be frustrating and annoying- actually making me somewhat angry at the story for disrupting the flow to say something like: 

     "There is no need to tell you much of his adventures that night, for now we are drawing near the end of the eastward  journey and coming to the last and greatest adventure, so we must hurry on." (p187) 

     Really?  If it wasn't important, why even bother drawing our attention to something unnecessary?  Why not just skip it?  Get to the important and urgent parts we want to read.  The same goes for the "as you will see."  Like when Bombur doesn't want a safety rope, "Luckily for him that was not true, as you will see." (p207)  We don't need to be told what to look for.  Even young readers will pick things up- not all readers, but I feel this is a redundancy in the book.  It would've been just as effective and just a bit less condescending to leave the "as you will see" off. 

     "That leaves you just ten minutes. You will have to run," said Gandalf. 

     "But-" said Bilbo. 

     "No time for it," said the wizard. 

     "But-"said Bilbo again. 

     "No time for that either! Off you go!" (chapter 2 online version) 

     They become speed bumps in the road and serve to knock one out of the story.  It becomes such a pain.  Here's a great example, and in fact the one I had the biggest issue with, "As a boy he used to practice throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they saw him stoop; and even grownup he had still spent a deal of his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort-indeed he could do lots of things, besides blowing smoke-rings, asking riddles and cooking, that I haven't had time to tell you about. There is no time now." (p158)  If there wasn't time now you wouldn't have wasted an entire paragraph mentioning things that aren't at least a bit necessary. 

     It feels like a cheap way to direct attention, but it is more of a distraction.  Information that could've been threaded through the book in small spurts gets skimmed and shoved into a small note, and promptly written off.  Hey here's a bunch of information I could've told you earlier, but I forgot- so here it is, oops wait- no time for that now! 

     "No time now!" cried the raftman. (p188) 

     The story should provide ample evidence of dire circumstances, we, as readers, shouldn't need to be reminded constantly.  It deprives us of the discovery and experience that is occurring in the story.  I mean really, what's that old advice?  Show, don't tell.

     I would've liked to tell you about how I searched for the quotes, and how the class is discussing various things, but there's no time for that now.

Bishock Infinite: Burial at Sea: Episode Two - Exclusive Preview Clip

***Potential Spoilers***



     Irrational Games posted this nice preview of the upcoming 2nd part of Burial at Sea.  Of course we knew it would be from Elizabeth's perspective from earlier interviews.  From the video I like the body of what looks to be the Booker/Comstock from the 1st Burial at Sea being dragged away, and then a sort of grayed "tear" looking Booker giving Elizabeth help once the body is gone.
     And then there's Atlus in person.

Community Season 5 & Alien: Mash-up Meme: In Space, No One Can Hear You Pop. (Magnitude)

     I've been thinking about making this since I first saw the second episode of this season's Community when Magnitude breaks a window and screams his trademark, "POP-POP!!!"  The idea just popped into my head (apologies for the pun.

     Then I went on a tangent and thought of ways to Meme other characters- like replacing Ian Holm's Ash from Alien with Richard Erdman's Leonard from Community.  They would all involve lines from both and end up with something along the lines of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) saying, "Shut up, Leonard!"


     Who knows, if I find some down time between school and work I might make a few more of these- there's so many swaps that could be done like Dallas (Tom Skerritt)/ Jeff Winger (Joel McHale).

Could This Be Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's Look? (Michelangelo)

     Is this awful kids Halloween costume an indication of the look we'll be getting with the Michael Bay Produced, Jonathan Liebesman  directed TMNT movie?  If so, I am once again losing steam for this project.  It started quite low to begin with, as Bay doesn't give me much hope with the liberties he takes with old IPs.  And then the Megan Fox as April O'Neil news.  Then of course the Shredder's casting choice, while being an actor I really enjoy (William Fichtner), doesn't fit the role.  Now this pic?  Good lord- is there no one in Hollywood with the capacity to stop this travesty?


     Source [ io9 ]


     For more of my Turtles posts [ TMNT ]

     Also check out:
          [ The TMNT Collectionary ]
          [ TMNT Block on Yardsellr on Facebook ]

The Hobbit: We Have a Gandalf Meme and a Reading Response

     I haven't blogged in a few days and I feel kind of bad about it.  The reason is because I'm back in school full time in addition to working 45+ hours a week in patient care.  Well, I figured I'd knock out a blog with a meme I thought of while writing a reading response to my Fantasy Literature class' first book The Hobbit.

     This is just a bit of irritation I feel at how Gandalf is used as a back door solution to EVERY problem that arises.  Clearly I'm not the best writer by any means, but you'll get the point.

     Here's the paper/response:

Joshua Barsody

Reading Response 1

     An issue of convenience.

     There is something that bothers me quite a bit about the Hobbit, and that is the problem of convenience.  Every step of the way a strange new peril arises and it's solution is so perfectly easy that it's a let down.  The peril wasn't really peril because [ fill in the blank ].  

     The first noticeable one is with the trolls encountered by Bilbo and the dwarves.  Bilbo tries to pickpocket a troll and the troll just happens to have a purse that happens to spek! (p36)  All right, a very odd occurrence in a strange land, I can accept that, but then things get better!  Gandalf arrives and saves the troup due to the stupidity of the trolls- and upon searching the trolls stash- they find two famous weapons(p42)!  Named blades, Orcrist and Glamdring, that Elrond know-it-all just happens to know on sight.  These two also happen to be recognized by goblins (later in the story), one would guess by such amazing verbal descriptions because I don't think goblins live long enough to recall something that happened "ages ago."(p52)  

     (Note: for the above, I know the weapons are named with runes, but wouldn't people name their weapons after others' famous weapons?  Perhaps, like naming a child after family or friends.  It just seems too easy for the weapons to both be singularly named and have a history known to Elrond and the goblins that probably should've been forgotten "ages ago.")

     Once again, that's not soooooo bad.  Now we get to a real whopper, the first one I rolled my eyes at.  “Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them,’ said Elrond, ‘not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were written.” (p53)  Are you effin' kidding me?!?  So they just happened to not only be there looking at the map, but also in the same season, under the same shaped moon (with the map held up to it's light, instead of being read in candle light), AAAAAND also -quite conveniently- with an individual that can read them?!?  It feels so ridiculous that all that happened by sheer coincidence that it knocked me out of the story.

     "Of course it was Gandalf." (p65)

     For the biggest piece of convenience in writing- Gandalf, the get-out-of-jail-free wizard.  In most circumstances the dangers our Ereborian friends (and Bilbo) get themselves into don't feel like actual danger.  They have a wizard!  One that's power is whatever is necessary at the moment except when it's Eagles, because somehow, Eagles trump Gandalf's ace card.  And on top of that- if Elrond is Mr. Knows-it-all, then Gandalf is Mr. Knows-a-guy.  When he needs answers he knows who can.  Why aren't there unanswerable questions and mystery?  Why isn't there real danger?  Granted, there is a chance it may play to the fact that if Gandalf leaves it'll force the over-reliance on Captain Cop-out with magic to save the day to end, and make the others actually save their own butts.

     Bilbo and the gang run into trolls?  A wild Gandalf appears! (p41)  Caught by goblins and in need of saving?  Gandalf to the rescue! (p64)  Surrounded in warg territory and stuck in trees?  Gandalf is on the job... with the aid of some Eagles. (p 107)

     Gandalf, while needed for the story, is too bothersome with how often he continually saves them (and vanishes).  It is bothersome enough for me to wonder- what are the dwarves doing anyway- he's practically babysitting them, and other than Gandalf starting them all forward, none of the dwarves has really contributed to their journey in any meaningful way yet.  They are just bearded children following the fix-all grandpa Gandalf, and feel unnecessary in what should rightly be their own tale instead of a checklist of things they were saved from by Gandalf.

     So without Gandalf and all the convenient saves/problem solving the dwarves would all be dead.  Disturbing but true.

Kim Possible 2: Drakken's Demise Game Boy Advance (GBA) Replay & Review (RE)2

     This game is a prime example of taking something that was mundane at best and improving every aspect.  Better graphics, sound, gameplay, and even story!  The first Kim Possible (Revenge of Monkey Fist) wasn't special in any way- simply put- it's a forgettable time waster, but did they ever pull out stops for the sequel!

Those ghost Kims are training holograms.

     Right after loading the game there are immediately obvious improvements in looks, sounds, and music.  The animations are smooth, making the first one look downright choppy.  The music is great and the sounds are spot-on. Then, once you get started, you can see they've added a battery save (including check point auto saving), increased number of gadgets, and vastly larger levels to navigate through.
     The narrative is very coherent, unlike Revenge of Monkey Fist, where I was quite confused as to why anything was happening, or what was going on in general.  The story is easy to follow and makes sense considering it's based on a show made for kids.

     Instead of merely plowing straight through levels, this time there are reasons to explore the level.  Hundreds of collectibles and multiple paths to the end of each stage open up the world greatly.  Sometimes the platforming requires the use of gadgets and gymnastics skill moves, or occasionally creating shortcuts by tossing bad guys through breakable walls- possibly opening hidden areas.  There is a small hurdle in difficulty, nothing awful mind you- it is a kids game-, but there are some definitely challenging areas to navigate.  The liberal check point saving can be a heck of a blessing in those cases, and very helpful if you replay for collectibles.

     As for the action, well our heroine Kim starts with 2 gadgets, typical punches, kicks, and combos (they've also added the ability to damage enemies by jumping on their heads) and eventually open up things such as wall-jumping, enemy throwing, and a sneaking suit.  While you start with the lipstick that allows you to turn holes into trampolines and the absolutely necessary grappling hook, kid genius Wade eventually gets you hot sauce packets to melt ice and snowmen, a stealth suit to become invisible, and a reflective compact for lasers and projectiles.  All of the controls are clean and tight- everything worked perfectly here even with a few buttons and plenty of moves- everything felt responsive.

     There are 20 total levels over 4 stages.  They also include stages where you fly, skate, or swim your way through to break up the monotony of platforming.  Granted there is a ton of stuff to look for once you unlock all your gadgets and replay levels in the Global Justice Simulator.  Replaying levels allows you to get to previously inaccessible places which will also unlock more villains to beat and collectibles and thus a higher score for the level- and more trading cards in the extras section.

     This game is so engaging and shows such an absurd amount of sophistication that I am at a bit of a loss for words.  It is a tremendous game for the GBA- or for any 2D platformer-loving gamers for that matter, and I was blown away by how good it is.  This is a game I would give very high recommendations to, seriously- you also get to play a level as Ron Stoppable and another level as Rufus... the naked mole rat (scandalous!).  Kim Possible 2: Drakken's Demise is a finely polished gem for the GBA and packs a short-but-sweet-and-memorable punch.
     Kim Possible 2 was truly one small step for GBA action adventures, and one giant leap for Disney's licensed games.

New Dark Souls 2 Trailer: Monsters, Bosses, and Curses, OH MY!

     A new trailer for the game has been released, and it gives us plenty of small things to see.  Bits of information on our curse- I personally believe it to be the meta curse of the player tormenting ourselves with struggling to come out alive in these unforgiving lands.  Monsters, bosses, and a few players awaiting the chance to cut us down.  There are legions of Dark Souls awaiting torment.

     Soon we will be lighting the bonfires...