Author: Matt Raub

600 bare thighs

600 bare thighs

Starting off, I want to issue a warning to the readers out there who aren’t fans of scantily clad, bronzed, chiseled goliaths who seem to have leapt from the pages of Men’s Fitness Magazine. If you aren’t, much like this reviewer, you may not enjoy the true essence of the two-hour epic which is 300.

600 bare thighs aside, I wasn’t a huge fan of Zack Snyder’s interpretation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. I place most of the blame not on Snyder, but on Robert Rodriguez. Their promotion play was established by showing off the “graphic novel” style of filmmaking, which is essentially comparing the comic book pages to the frames of the film, fast-cut, music video-style editing, heavy rock soundtrack, and shooting the majority of the film in front of a green screen. Now I’d hope the majority of you realize at this point that the style I just read off was identical to the style that Robert Rodriguez practically invented for 2005’s Sin City.

Now in playing devil’s advocate, I could say that the reasoning behind the similar styles lies with the fact that they are both done in Miller’s vision, and his artistic didn’t change much between the two graphic novels, and you could be asking at that point “Why should the film style change between the two films?” I’ll tell you why, dear readers. If this film was done with Rodriguez behind the helm once again, or even with his “Troublemaker Studios” at hand (which is where the majority of the green-screen activity was shot) it would have been far more acceptable.

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NYCC – Much Marvel madness

NYCC – Much Marvel madness

During the New York Comic Con’s "Cup o’ Joe" panel Saturday, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada dropped some exciting new announcements concerning a few projects in Marvel’s coming year.

First off, the award-winning team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev will be taking the creative helm for Marvel’s Halo, based on the critically acclaimed video game franchise. The book is expected out this summer.

 New Avengers/Transformers was nnounced for this summer. The book will be a joint effort by Marvel and IDW Publishing. Taking the helm for the "widescreen" book is Stuart Moore & Tyler Kirkman.

Orson Scott Card will be penning the "Ender’s Game" story-appearing in the Red Prophet hardcover ONLY!

Finally, Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies cover artist), and Marko Djurdjevic (gaming artist) were announced as Marvel exclusives, and will be attached to a number of books including Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness and Daredevil  starting this Spring.