A question from the Watchmen
So here is a question I always had from watching the Watchmen. If you read the comic you know that Ozymandias summoned a giant dead Cthulu-esque monster to take the blame for the destruction of New York City. However, I guess in the interest of making things easier for all the dumb consumers out there in the movie the made it so a bomb went off with Ozymandias simulating Dr. Manhattan’s power in each of the capital cities, causing Russia and America to band together against him.
The question I have is Dr. Manhattan has been working for America for decades and actually used his power to wreck the North Vietnamese. How is it the Russians didn’t even question the whole deal, or ask for some kind of accountability regarding Manhattan? Sorry, but from an actual nation building point of view dead alien Cthulu makes a lot more sense.
Still a great movie. This Dr. Manhattan image I found in Dave’s comic book movie collection. He only has a few from the Watchmen.
Jason
A question about Spider Man’s web shooters.
So I have a question about Spider Man. It looks like in the new movie they are adding in the artificial web shooters that he should have had from the beginning. I know I asked about this stuff before but another question occurred to me.
As any fan of the comic knows, Peter Parker used science to invent his web shooters and web fluid, which creates webs that dissolved after an hour. While this is cool and all, I have to wonder about how Peter Parker keeps himself supplied with web fluid.
Think about it. Spider Man shoots webs at every opportunity and in the comic he would often have to stop to replace his web cartridges. However, give the fact that he is a full time student, photographer, and spends hours a day patrolling New York City when does he have time to cook up more web fluid? He is pretty broke most of the time, so where does he get the raw material? I would imagine it’s it made of pretty esoteric chemicals. Where does he go to get his stuff? Also, couldn’t someone trying to find him analyze the webs and track him down through his suppliers?
Anyway, that’s it. This image I got from Dave’s Marvel comic t-shirt collection. Very very cool IMO.
Jason
Warner Bros. considering dumping Ryan Reynolds for next Green Lantern movie?
I say go for it. Like Dave said in his blistering review, Ryan Reynolds was the weakest part of the entire film. He just doesn’t come across as anything other than a sleazy good looking guy who’s only interest really is in hooking up with every chick on the planet. Honestly, that doesn’t really say Hal Jordan.
Actually, now that GL is out of the closet, that might make Reynolds an even worst cast, if that were possible. I’m not saying you have to cast a gay actor, but Reynolds seems to have a certain straight typecast going on.
Something else mentioned in the article I read is about Warner wanting to work with creative talent that “gets” the character. I couldn’t be more pleased to hear that. I honestly think this movie really missed the mark, and based on how poorly it did worldwide I’m not the only one. They need to stop hiring guys who know how to write movies for the general population and hire guys who know how to write comic book movies.
Anyway, I’m sure Ryan Reynolds will do fine in his next movie. Maybe Van Wilder II, since that is pretty much the only movie he seems capable of doing.
This image comes from Dave’s comic book t-shirt collection. For some reason he has like 1,000 GL shirts.
Jason
Dumb movie question from Star Wars Episode 4
Dave’s on his way to Italy, so it falls on me post blogs. Actually, he told me he has two reviews lined up and will try to post them from Italy, as well as talk about his time there. I expect a lot of pasta stories. Anyway, I know the easy ones to hit are episodes 1-3, but here is a question that has bugged me for a while about Episode 4.
The Death Star arrives in the system with the Rebel base. They are behind the main planet and have to wait 30 minutes to clear it and get a shot at the moon that the base is on, giving Luke and friends the time they need to hit the exhaust port. However, the Death Star is armed with a giant planet destroying turbo laser. Why not just save the time and blow up the main planet? The shockwave and debris alone would probably destroy the moon the base is on. It’s not like Tarkin was that interested in not blowing up planets. Would have been a huge time saver, and in Jedi they were shooting that thing off all the time, so you can’t say it would need to recharge.
For that matter, if blowing up the Death Star was a million to one chance, why weren’t the rebels bugging the hell out of there? They couldn’t leave Hoth fast enough in the next movie. I would have abandoned that base but left the fighters behind to go for that last ditch chance. Makes sense to me.
This cool Japanese Star Wars image I got from Dave’s movie t shirt collection by the way.
Jason
Dumb movie question from the Phantom Menace
I know the terms “dumb question” and “Phantom Menace” go together too easily and I am just picking low hanging fruit here, but this is another question that has bugged me for a while. Remember when the Trade Federation guys wanted to kill Qui Gon Gin and Obi Wan on board their floating space donut and gassed them for like 10 seconds? Why didn’t they let the gas sit in there for like three days? Or use a gas that didn’t look like smoke and have a distinctive odor? How about a nerve agent that is absorbed through the skin? Or just vent the room out into space? Hell, just reduce the O2 content of the room slowly and let them pass out. Did Lucas really feel the need to use a white easily identified gas out of a hissing vent in order to make his scene happen?
For that matter, what is wrong with just using a bomb? If I were trying to kill a Jedi I wouldn’t us an easily deflected blaster. I would use a 12 gauge shotgun, or the blaster equivalent. Sure, he might be able to deflect 50% of the shells, but that still leaves a lot of lead in the air. This is pretty much why modern military doesn’t use swords any more.
The Empire logo I found in Dave’s Star Wars T Shirts. One of the coolest logos ever IMO.
Jason
Who would win: Batman versus Ozymandias?
This is an interesting question. On paper it looks like Ozymandias would wipe the floor with Batman. Ozymandias is fast enough to catch a bullet, super strong, and hyper intelligent. Not to mention he is ruthless on a level far beyond the pale. Batman, while equipped with all sorts of cool devices and a never say die attitude, is still merely human.
However, the one factor you can never really account for is the fact that Batman has a resourcefulness that makes MacGuyver look like an amateur and a drive to save the lives of the innocent that gives him serious motivation. Faced with Ozy’s plan to kill millions of people to make a political statement I believe Batman would find a way.
Unfortunately, without time to prepare and just based on what we know from the comics and movies, I would have to put this one firmly in Ozymandias’s favor. Sorry Batman.
The Watchmen image I got from Dave’s Comic Book t shirt collection. He only has a few from the Watchmen. I really like the Dr. Manhattan one.
Jason
Green Lantern is Gay
I don’t mean that in any way as an insult. It is a fact. DC Comics has announced that they are having Green Lantern come out of the closet and enjoy his freedom to be whomever he chooses.
I see this as a really positive statement not just in support of gay rights but rather in support of human rights. Humans should have the freedom to have whatever makes them happy in their life, as long as that doesn’t interfere with other people’s happiness. I am also glad we live in a time where we are no long slaves to the negative stereotypes associated with gays and their abilities to be heroes of any stripe. We have gay cops, firefighters, and soldiers and I think they are all heroes. I furthermore applaud DC’s commitment to their support in casting a major character from their pantheon as gay. The easy and cheesy way would have been to either create a new gay superhero or take some minor character from the past and make him or her gay.
The interesting part for me will come in the months ahead as we can see how this revelation is received by the American public. Dave sells a good number of Green Lantern t shirts from his DC Comic t shirt collection and I am very curious to see if he sees either a spike or drop in sales. However, I say to anyone who drops his or her fandom of Green Lantern over this you should consider the fact that you were a fan when you thought he was straight. His orientation did nothing to change his actions. He is still the super hero he always was.
Jason
Who would win in a fight Batman versus Max Payne?
These questions Dave used to post as part of bigger review, but the fact is most of them came from arguments we would have on the whole who would win thing so I thought I would throw up my own.
This question seems pretty obvious to anyone who did not play Max Payne all the way through. Batman has taken down hundreds of gun toting thugs who look a lot like Max. However, as a fan of Max Payne I can say it wouldn’t be as clear cut as all that. Max, like Batman, is haunted by the deaths of his family. However, his deaths happened recently while he was an adult and included his child. This gives him a much more nothing to lose attitude that is almost a death wish. He, like Batman, has the ability to push through any level of pain and suffering to deliver more pain to his enemies. If you don’t believe me just replay the Baseball Bat chapter.
I do think Batman would triumph in this fight, but it wouldn’t be a easy or clean as most fights against normal civilians would be. Max has untested reserves and an unholy resourcefulness that might surprise the Bat. Plus he has bullet time.
This image I pulled from Dave’s Batman t shirt collection, another one where he has hundreds of shirts.
Jason
Another dumb movie question: Beauty and the Beast
Since I couldn’t find any Beauty and the Beast images, I pulled this one from the Incredibles from Dave’s movie t shirt collection. Pixar is owned by Disney, right?
Anyway, here is the thing that doesn’t make sense to me from Beauty and the Beast. When the teapot is transformed back into a human woman she looks and sounds like she is about 70, but her child the teacup is like 5. How old was she when she had them? I thought they were all supposed to be kind of frozen time or something.
For that matter, how exactly does a three candle candelabra get amorous? He has burning candles for hands! That implies something either really dangerous or really pornographic, or both. Am I the only one confused by this?
Jason
More dumb movie questions: Back to the Future
Time for me to do another dumb movie question, and this is one that has bugged me for a long time. If you recall from Back to the Future Dr. Brown got shot by Libyan terrorists for stealing about 500 pounds of plutonium. We go through the entire movie series and in the end find out that Dr. Brown read Marty’s note and invested in a bulletproof vest. All is good and happy.
Here’s the question: what happened to the van full of extremely well armed and pissed off terrorists that were chasing Marty in the time machine? Sure they ran into a photo booth, but it never looked like it was enough to take them all out. Shouldn’t Marty have gotten to the Doc just in time for their execution? For that matter, what happened to any other terrorists still associated with that first group? Do they really expect us to believe that they didn’t leave one guy back at the base with instructions to call Libya for more terrorists if they didn’t get back with the plutonium?
That’s pretty much it. The time machine blueprints I found in Dave’s movie tshirts. Not a lot of detail on that one.
Jason
