Can you spot all the actors who took part in this video, possibly for a huge pay cut than their normal rate? Hint: yes, that IS Julianne Moore. AND Zack Galfinakis. AND Friggin’ Henry Rollins. AND Olivia Wilde as the Baroness. And that dude at the end of the video wasn’t a cosplayer. Technically.

Seriously, this is probably one of the greatest things that I have ever, ever seen in my life.

…

What? Isn’t this the same company that used a pink-haired anime secret agent not too long ago and stopped airing them after they kinda got creepy?

You… are quite good… at turning … me on.

My GOD. The story is a little trite (and where’s the Rogue’s Gallery?) but that doesn’t matter because it’s all about the art. Francis Manapul’s art is easily the best that I’ve seen in the New 52. Manapul’s elevated the onomatopeia to an art form. The Flash is sleek and feels like he’s going fast all the time. There’s a scene where Flash’s costume wraps around him which totally justifies the new Jim Lee seams on his costume.

This is, by far, my favorite of the New 52.

Why not go all the way and name them the “Miami Gators” so we can finally get that much anticipated World Series showdown from Back to the Future II?

Ah well… there’s still three more years! Get your self-tying shoes ready!

I’m one of those people who was not a big fan of WildC.A.T.s when it first came out. I got it solely because of Jim Lee’s art, but when the first story arc wrapped up, I just could not be driven to pick up any follow-ups. The story was bland, the characters were uninteresting, and the villains — the Daemonites — were ultra generic. Cyberforce was where it was it. Heck, Youngblood had more personality.

But I still picked up Grifter. Why? Because everyone seemed to pitch it as “Sawyer from Lost as a superhero.” Now THAT’S a concept I can get behind!

Unfortunately, we’re only on hand to see one con, and we rarely get to see Grifter charm anyone, which is what you expect a comic about a superhero Sawyer should be about, right? Instead, he acts all crazy after he starts hearing voices, gets pegged as a terrorist by the government, and goes underground, breaking all ties from people he knew.

Also, those voices he’s hearing… are Daemonites!

… eh.

I’m not sticking around for this one unless Grifter turns on his southern charm and does way more grifting and way less William Shatner seeing gremlins on the wing of the plane.

I picked up a bunch of titles this week from DC’s New 52. One of the most divisive is Suicide Squad. The online reviews seem to be evenly split, with half hating it, the other half liking it.

I belong in the latter bunch.

I’ve read some of the original Suicide Squad, the one starring Rick Flagg, a heavy-set Amanda Waller, and a cast of disposable supervillains who were doing the job for their freedom. Hell, somehow original flavor Suicide Squad is even more timely today. Their first villains were a terrorist group called The Jihad. And the team was always fighting the fact that their superiors in the government might me even bigger villains than they were. It was a comic way ahead of its time.

The new Suicide Squad doesn’t capture the incredible character beats from the original, but, let’s face it, none of the New 52 is going to be doing that with the decompressed format. There’s no rick flag, but Suicide Squad breakout star Deadshot is still around. There’s also King Shark playing the role of heavy and El Diablo in the role of taciturn badass originally filled by The Bronze Tiger. There’s no fill in for Rick Flagg… though I supposed Deadshot will probably be filling in that role.

The cinematic format that seems standardized across the board in The New 52 works incredibly well for the new Suicide Squad. It felt like the first act of an action movie, where you get the lowdown on all the new characters. True, it lacks the nuance of the original. The squad is getting zapped by cattle prods rather than getting offered a deal by folks in suits like real adults would? I guess it’s more visually interesting. All that matters is that Suicide Squad fans know that, at this moment, you start hedging your bets on who’s going to bite it first.

Probably not Harley Quinn.

Incidentally, I don’t hate the new Harley Quinn design. Some people are describing it as juggalo, but I’m going to go ahead and say Suicide Girl, which is fairly appropriate for the title. Not so much a fan of thin Amanda Waller, but, geez, it IS the New 52, so I’m kinda curious to see where they’re going with this.

That said, probably the one of the New 52 that has me most excited to see what happens next… perhaps because the set-up is so unique. I admit Action Comics was well done … but it’s a Superman story, and we sorta know how those generally go. I liked Green Lantern with Sinestro as the lead, but we know that’s not going to last too long. But the Suicide Squad wiping out the Metrodome Megadome for some reason? I kinda want to be there for the ride.

Fortunately, I thought the movie was alright. I’m actually right there with David Willis: I thought the movie was an improvement over the previous one. The robots story were at least given equal face time as the humans (which, I think, everyone can agree is horrible). The stakes were ramped up to apocalyptic proportions.

But best of all, the 3D did a great job in communicating the size, scale, and heft of the robots. One of my biggest problems with the first movie was that when the robots clashed, it was hard to separate out who was punching who, with the sheer amount of metal pieces and gears and explosions cluttering the screen. The 3D here provided a lot of separation. You did get the feel of being in the presence of giant hulking machines. The team used the same 3D crew as the ones of Avatar, and it shows.

While it wasn’t a great movie, and while it did drag at the end, I thought it was well worth your money to watch.

• Ronald Colman does the whole two characters on the same screen bit here. (He plays King Rudolph V and his identical double, Rudolph Rassendyll.) It was probably movie magic back then, and we have more sophisticated techniques these days. Still, it was amazing, and the wife and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how the two Colmans shook hands.
• Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll) was a little prosaic at times, and we giggled a bit when she would pour out her heart in long, tortured sentences. Still, she’s beautiful. Ms. Carroll is the definition of movie star glamor that hasn’t been seen since.
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who plays the villianous Rupert of Hentzau, is the MAN. Seriously. The guy served in WWII sometime after the movie, and he pretty much invented the precursor to the Navy SEALS.
• There’s a great swordfight at the end, and it’s unparalleled. Nowadays, there’d be much emphasis on blood and gore, something you couldn’t get away with in Hollywood in the 1930′s. Still, the fight is brutal. Rassendyll and Rupert pound on each other, slice through the air, parry, thrust, and it’s very, very believable. I was actually worried for the actors accidentally getting their fingers sliced in a few points.
• By the way, all those vaguely German characters? They look like Nazis. Especially Black Michael, the guy trying to take Rudolph’s throne. Which was weird, since it was still 5 years before the US entered WWII, and the public did not know yet the depths of Nazi villainy.
• The locations are fantastic. Again, with old movies, it can sometimes seem like they’re stuck on a set full time. I have no idea if they shot on location, but there are some great scenes up in the mountains and next to a lake by a looming castle. And then there’s a shot after Rassendyll is crowned king and he descends down what seems like an infinite set of stairs. Incredible.
• I really appreciate that SPOILERS!!!!!! there was no happy ending. Oh, things turned out OK, but it was very bittersweet. It’s something Hollywood dares not do because it’s so risk averse these days. It was right up David O. Selznick’s alley, too. He’d later produce the similarly bittersweet Gone With the Wind.

So there you go. The Prisoner of Zenda — an action movie from the 1930′s that still holds up today.

Because it’s pretty much the only place where you can learn how Boba Fett taught Luke Skywalker how to snowboard.