What Lies Ahead?

So the countdown to Sin City has well and truly begun.
I attempted to buy a ticket in advance this morning, but they’re not yet available for sale.
I would assume that the local theater will have an initial showing of it sometime around 10 am on Friday, which is what I’ll be aiming for.
Once that’s over, I’ll probably grab a quick lunch, then turn around and see it again.
That would actually be a first for me. I’ve gone to see a movie more than once, but never on the same day.
The closest I came to doing something like that happened years ago when my friend Joel took me to see the special edition re-releases of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” for my birthday.
We went in to see “Empire,” watched it, stepped outside so that I could smoke, then walked back in and bought tickets to “Jedi.”
The girl working the ticket counter gave us a curious look, and we responded, “Well, we need to see how it ends.”
After I’ve seen the movie at least once, I will come home to post my review here.
I’m anticipating that the words “coolest,” “movie,” and “ever” will be used at various points in my review.
If not, well…in all honesty, as excited as I am about this movie, and as much as I believe that it will kick ass, I’m fully prepared for it to suck.
And if, by some chance it, does, I won’t fall into a suicidal depression.
Most likely I’ll say, “That sucked,” then go back to my usual routine (though some people seem to equate my usual routine with a suicidal depression).
After all, if one positive thing can be said about living a life filled with disappointments it’s that you pick up coping skills along the way.
In case anyone is wondering, there are actually some additional cinematic efforts that I am, with some amount of trepidation, looking forward to.
They include the obvious one, “Revenge of the Sith,” but do not include some that people might expect.
“Batman Begins,” for example, barely warrants a “meh,” from me, as I have no hope for it being any better than any of the other pieces of trash brought to the screen.
Yes, that includes all of the live-action Batman movies. I don’t think any of them were good. The simple fact that Burton didn’t go with the campy style of the TV series caused people to give him way too much credit. Just because it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been doesn’t mean it was good.
The only decent treatment Batman has ever received outside of the pages of the comics has been in the 90’s animated series and the related series that have come since, such as “Batman: Beyond” and the current “Justice League Unlimited.”
Despite its visual appeal, the “Fantastic Four” movie looks like garbage, and has the potential to destroy the current run of comic book-based movies. If it flops, it could derail many current projects and prevent any additional projects from even getting started.
Still, as mentioned, there are a few things I’m looking forward to further down the horizon, such as the “Hellboy” and “Spider-Man” sequels, which I don’t think can be derailed by the failure of the FF movie.
Much loser at hand is the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” movie, which looks like it could have potential.
Towards the end of the year, presumably, we’ll also be presented with “V for Vendetta.”
I say “presumably,” as there is still the potential for FF to derail existing comic book-based projects that, like this one, have not progressed too far as of yet.
I can’t honestly say that I’m looking forward to “V,” as I’m firmly convinced that it’s impossible for anyone to convey even a portion of Alan Moore’s brilliance on the screen, and if you can’t have it all, in this case at least, I see no point in even bothering.
To date, most attempts at transliterating Moore’s works have failed miserably (“From Hell,” “LXG,” the really, really half-assed attempts at bringing Moore’s version of “Swamp Thing” to life, and, while not lifted directly from his work, “Constantine” owes a debt to Moore).
And when I say failed I mean artistically, as some of them have done reasonably well commercially.
However, the Wachowski brothers (not to be confused with the Venture Bros., which has received the greenlight for a second season, by the way) of “The Matrix” fame are attached to “V,” which means that, at the very least, it could be visually interesting.
As for the rest, well…I’ll reserve judgment for if and when I see it.
There is also talk of making a “Watchmen” movie, which is something that I would be utterly opposed to, as there is no possible way that a movie deserving of the name could ever be made.
Years ago there was talk about making a movie, but, blessedly, it languished in pre-production hell and died…only to be resurrected as a result of the current comic book movie renaissance.
There is currently an entry for it at IMDb, and there is also an official site.
If the FF movie doesn’t kill the comic book movie genre, there is, unfortunately, a very good chance that the movie could get made.
I know that there's essentially no way that it could be any good, but at the very least I hope it’s made with a different script than this one, which was written by Sam Hamm, the hack who cranked out the script for the first “Batman” steaming pile.
Moore himself has refused to become involved with any film adaptations of his work, and, if I recall correctly (I haven’t been able to locate the source on this one) has basically refused to accept any money for any movies based on his work.
In any case, I thought that I should address some of what lies ahead after SC finally bludgeons its way onto movie screens across the country and I no longer have its arrival to anticipate.
I’m sure that I’ll be back with more later, but today is a very dark, wet, and gloomy day, and I’m beginning to think that the most sensible response to such a dark, wet, and gloomy day after having dealt with it for several hours with its darkness, wetness, and gloominess is to climb back into bed and curl up under the covers for a while.