Heroes season 3

Just been lucky enough to see a preview of the first season three Heroes episode...
Wow...
I won't spoil anything whatsoever, don't worry (I can't anyway)...
But the quality just drips off it... So much happens...
I mean, I remember seeing the first season two episode, which only really had one exciting scene (between Hiro's dad and Peter's mom), and we all just assumed it would get better...
But this one - yeah, it's good. Some great scenes with Hiro, Claire, Sylar... Even Matt...
It actually reminded me of Twin Peaks in its moodiness and sinister nature, and it's also really really shocking and like a horror movie in places.
The effect are amazing too, and the music is gorgeous - if it keeps this tone, then we're onto a winner...
I can't really criticise it - the only criticism may be Mohinder's acting - which is a bit wooden - but it looks like he has a fun storyline this year.

Liar Liar

I seem to have begun a strange habit recently of...lying!!! Not horrible lies, but really stupid lies!
The other day, everyone in my house went up to the top floor to see the guy's new hatch and roof garden. So far so good. eveyone goes up the ladder - and suddenly I freeze halfway up! I'm not scared of heights, but i do have a thing about ladders, especially getting down onto one. So I made my excuses and said I had a terrible fear of heights (a lie). So of course this all backfired when everyone swooped around me to check I was okay, and asked tons of questions about my fear of heights ('it's been all my life') etc... Oh dear... I thought it was never gonna end.
And then just this morning, I was a the dentists and it happened again. Lies! You see, I have problems with my gums, and they'd got into a bit of a state again, and I was a bit embarrassed about them, so I just said 'Oh i'm sorry, I went travelling for a while, and you know what it's like when you travel...' (a lie). But obviously I didn't expect the dentist to ask me where I went to ('Egypt'?!!! WEll I'm going to Egypt in a month's time!), what it was like, where my tan was, oh god, again, it was endlesss...
Why do I do it to myself...

Big Brother...

Speaking of reality TV...
So yeah, I've said I always liked Big Brother, and I only missed one episode in the first 4 years or so! But I've got a bit bored of the gimmicks etc which alllways backfire, plus the fact that it goes on for faaaaaaaaaaaar too long. lazy Mo and cocky Rex are endearing for the first few weeks - but after 3 months? Not so much.
Heh, so they just did this stunt that totally backfired... They've been building tonight up soooo much, and so tonight they got each person to nominate in front of everyone, live (which was quite fun), and then ...they just do a Goldenballs rip-off. Is that it??? how embarassing!! Plus...the whole point of Goldenballs is that the contestants don't know each other from Adam, so they can totally screw them over without any worries - but here these guys have known each other for months - so they ain't gonna screw each other over.
Tsk, silly Big Bro.

Wendy Pepper

I’m still loving Project Runway Australia, although it’s gone a little bit flat without two of the most fascinating contestants, Mark and Helen.
I also caught up with season one of the US show, which I’ve never seen. Wow…
I mean, I know a lot of people look down on reality TV shows, but, and don’t laugh, I just find the psychology so interesting!
You see, there’s Wendy Pepper, a PR contestant. She’s 40, slightly overweight and awkward, but very confident. She’s a mum too - and - well this might be her main problem - she‘s not hugely talented. She starts off lovely, being mumsy to all the contestants and models - and all the forums say she’s pure evil. And it is actually so interesting to see her descent into evil! She just suddenly bursts into competitiveness, starts slagging off the other contestants first behind their backs of course, but then on the runway itself, in front of everyone, and then becomes this complete outcast, which is just painful to watch, because you’re actually not sure you love her or loathe her. At one point, she says to the camera how much she enjoys seeing her enemies squirm, which is so mean, and so stupid really if you consider that her enemies are all going to see it. By the final episodes, she’s not talking to anyone, except to lash out when someone defaces a photo of her daughter (which she may have defaced herself), and in the finale, no one minces words, especially in a huuuuge barney between the finalists. But she handles herself fairly well - in the reunion show, when accusations are flung around left, right and centre, about her, she just keeps fairly shtum and lets English soak Vanessa make an utter tit of herself instead.
Great, great show - I wish everyone would watch it!

Echo

Can I just officially say for the record - I think Echo is possibly the worst Avenger ever in the history of Avengers. I mean, what can she do? She's hardly Thor. The Avengers should be might powered people. I'm sorry Echo, but it is true.
Marvel should have made Elektra an Avenger instead, and that would have been more shocking when the Skrull revelation happened. I loved that recent Avengers issue focusing on Elektra, and it would have been so interesting.

The big printer mystery

Did I mention that I received a new printer in the post (a nice scanner/copier/printer jobbie?) a couple of weeks ago and had no idea where it came from? I mean, it's great and all that, but I was slightly concerned that I may have bought it in a drunken stupor, and the other issue was that I'd just bloody bought a new printer!
And there was no clear indication on the package where it had come from and no details of the company it came through....
finally got round to sending a letter to the Returns Address, and got a call from BT (from a woman who could barely string a sentence together hehe) and apparently it's part of the deal of signing up to BT Broadband.
I mean, it's marvellous, but what's the point of doing a cool deal like that if you dont' actually mention it???! D'oh! NOthing was said over the phone, there was no letter with the printer, there's nothing on the website. What a waste of good Marketing!
Bless 'em.
Now I have the dilemma of how much to charge my neighbour who wants to buy it off me ;-)

Lost again

Just got to the season 2 finale on my rewatching of Lost from the start.
Season two hasn't been as bad as I remembered it. It's been interesting to watch 'Henry Gale' from a different perspective... The numbers/countdown thingy wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be - even Ana Lucia wasn't that bad this time round. Of course there was loads of padding - did we really need the Rose/Bernard episode?
Dying to find out what Libby's all about...Hope they tell us.
It seemed like Rousseau didn't know Ben - but then she goes on to say she's the father of her child?
Feel so sorry for locke! He's just a bit misunderstood - and had had so much shit happen to him - his dad is such a wanker.
Looking forward to watching season three again - the season that almost made me stop watching lol

Secret Invasion

Hello Mr Bendis

I have just read Secret Invasion Issue 5. Why is nothing happening? No more Skrull revelations? Who cares about boring old Super Skrulls (who have never posed any sort of threat - they're just...there for a fight)? And the first 5 issues have taken place in about what, a few hours?
C'mon B, you can do better... Make it exciting!

Thanks,

Martin

Reading UPDATE!

Okay, I am now reading In Search of a Distant Voice by Taichi Yamada. Only 160 pages, so manageable. One chapter down… An immigration dude has chased an illegal immigrant and had an orgasm in his trousers…
Okay…

Lacklustre

What the heck is going on with Final Crisis? Why is it so uneventful? What is happening? Secret Invasion is better – but only just. Come on, Bendis, give us a few more decent Skrull revelations please!

Acheivements

I thought about posting this a while ago, but I’m doing it now… When I was watching Andy Murray in Wimbledon – that spectacular several-hour match he won – and then I flicked over to Big Brother and just thought “what exactly are these Big Brother people achieving?” It’s just the slacker generation, I guess.
And this morning, I was watching the Olympics diving, and it was so incredible, and again the thought occurred to me. I mean, I’ve always wondered what it might be like to go on Big Brother, but I think now I would be a bit ashamed.
Speaking of the diving – wow. I just don’t get it though – how do the judges mark it so fast! Don’t they need to think about it???

Project

Did I mention my utter addiction to Project Runway? When I’m watching the Apprentice, I’ll be horrified in thoughts of how useless I would be, but when I watch Project Runway (basically an Apprentice for fashion designers) I get all sorts of ideas as to what I would design. Shame I can’t sew…
So anyway, yeah, Project Runway – love it, love it. Heidi Klum is great as a presenter, and it’s so dramatic!!! Plus lots of bitching. Sadly, the latest US series has been a bit lacklustre so far though.
But best of all is Project Runway Australia! Wow, so good. All the contestants are adorable and funny, I’m utterly hooked. We’re halfway through, and it’s now painful to lose a contestant each week. Check it out on youtube, if you think this might be your thing!
On the other side of things – I’ve been watching ‘Shear Genius’ (Apprentice for hairdressers), which is abysmal – and you can pretty much tell that from the title. Sooo bad. And yet I’m still watching…

Illiterate

Despite having an English degree, I am an abysmal reader. I have absolutely no concentration span, so I'll read a few pages of a book but my mind will soon be on the evening meal, work stuff, O Men stuff, whatever... And then I'll just plough on and by the time I'm on page 300, I have no idea what is happening. I'm sure I'm not the only one - or maybe I am, lol...
In fact, the only author I can actually deal with these days is Stephen King - although his last few novels have been a bit of an effort...
But this time it's not my fault - I really tried! I tried The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by GW Dahlquist (I think those details are right, lol), and got to page 130, and I'm sorry, but there was just no indication of what was actually happening, that I just got really frustrated and bored. This follows actually re-reading the first 100 pages again, just to get a better grip on it...
I also think the chapters are too long. Averaging 60 pages per chapter - that's not a bad thing at all - but when each chapter focuses on one of the main trio of characters, meaning we're a third of the way through the book and we still haven't met one of the major players - well, I'm sorry, but this time it's not my fault!!!
So next up... I will attempt The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Can I fuck that one up?
Holiday reading - in a month's time - by the way, has been almost decided on...
Zot, Black Dossier, Fragile Things (Gaiman), and maybe Carter Beats the Devil (or whatever it's called).
Or maybe I should just give up and lounge by the beach...

A good weekend for comics

Well I have vowed to try not to buy any new graphic novels until i've read some of the huge pile sitting next to my bed - but failed this weekend... But you can't blame me - I went to Brighton and stopped by at Dave's Comics and you just have to buy something...
What did i get?
The new Alex Robinson thingy - loved his Box Office Posion, Tricked was a bit weaker. This is a lot slimmer, but a nice little treat for a tenner
Kwaidan - a Japanese type comic which looks gorgeous. Again, only a tenner - that's not bad.
And from the cheapo Dave's comics next door:
That Alien graphic novel adaptation by Walt Simonson and Archie Goodwin - for 2 quid!!! Man, i saw this in a comic shop when I was a nipper and regretted not buying it ever since. I got it!
Plus normal comics:
X-Men 500 - Hmmm. The move to San Francisco gives the title a freshness, but that's about it really. This is a weird issue - it doesn't reinvigorate the team at all - and it just makes them all feel a bit tired. Strange to see Magneto back too - as a cliched villain, sigh. And Land's art is really off in places.
Oh, and finally - holiday reading thoughts...
It's just over a month til my holiday, and I'm narrowing my reading list down... Thinking of getting the new complete Zot re-issue, and taking the Black Dossier with me too.

Infected

Jesus. I've just finished reading Infection by Scott Sigler. Ouch. It's a good book, but my god, it is DISGUSTING. Bascially, one of the main characters gets infected by spore alien thingys - seven of them - and he decides, over the course of the novel, to remove them - with forks, flaming towels etc. Really, really grim, and I hope they never make a movie of it. Turned my stomach.
Apparently it's the first of a trilogy, which is interesting, as to be honest, I thought it was going to be more global - like Cell, so hopefully it can expand more in the future books, and it'd be a great twist to have the infected character from this novel be a main part of the next two.

Gotham

oh, and one more thing on Dark Knight - Gotham looked incredible. Claustrophobic, intimidating, beautiful buildings - I don't know where it was shot, but give me this over Burton's over-the-top city-scape any time.

I want a Batbike!

I didn’t really like Batman Begins. It just seemed like an ‘Old Boys Club’ film - you know I like my strong female characters, don’t you! Plus there was the fact that I find Ras Arse Gull to be the most boring Batman villain ever and I think Liam Neeson is such a dull actor. Oh, and I thought Bale’s Batman voice was a bit silly.
So anyway, I finally saw the Dark Knight yesterday and was really not expecting to like it. I thought it would be the kind of movie I would come out of in a sulk, because everyone else liked it and I didn’t.
I liked it!!!
It’s just one of those movies that has quality written all over it and you’re watching it looking forward to watching it again.
It just takes the comic book movie up another notch - the action is so amazing - the truck tipping over and batman turning his bike up against the wall - amazing! Yeah it could have been shorter, but I couldn’t think of any part of it I’d want to get rid of.
Heath Ledger is superb. You feel like you’re watching a living comic book - his entrance is outrageous, his nurse’s uniform is hilarious, and the silent scene where he sticks his head out of the police car window is beautiful.
Two Face is amazing - and I hope Tommy Lee Jones and whatsisface who directed Batman Forever/and Robin watch this and are ashamed of themselves.
The story is brave, intelligent and in no way patronising - I just wish there was some kind of stand-alone comic out there that wasn’t an ongoing story - just told good solid Batman stories like this one. DC need to do some kind of Judge Dredd version of a Batman comic.
Oh and Christian Bale’s bat voice didn’t annoy me once.
Great movie. Although I must say that Michael Caine needs a bit of a slap. He’s become lazy! Is he really resigning himself to these ‘wry-old-geezer-with-twinkle-in-the-eye’ roles? Annoying!
On another note - before seeing this film, I was of the mindset that Heath Ledger killed himself because of the psychological impact of playing the Joker. Having seen the movie, I can't see this as a possiblity - Heath's whole performance is a very knowing, very look-at-me-I'm-having-fun thing. Yes, dark and disturbing, but there have been more dark and more disturbing roles. Either way, it's tragic that we've got the perfect Batman-Joker relationship and now it's over.