Most-noticably, Cap seems to have undergone a major “modernization” on his outfit: Traditional cowl with “pronounced” wings rather than the helmet/decal look of the WWII-set movie, sleeker material in general and the torso-stripes are now just “there” instead of being part of his gear-harness. I like it.

Iron Man is either wearing the older-style armor or a new suit with the “classic” circular chest-plate.

No “costume” in the traditional sense for Hawkeye, he’s basically wearing his “Ultimates” gear. Bit of a mistake in my estimation – the lack of visual-“flair,” however practical, only reinforces how small/limited he looks next to The God, The Walking Tank, Shrek and The Perfect Human. (Black Widow’s “flair,” obviously, came bundled with the actress…)

Let’s try this again, now…

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” and I are the same age. It’s in better shape than me.

Intermission: “About Critics: Part 2”

Steve Head and John Black graciously had me back on the PMP last week for “First Class,” and lots of “issues” cropping up on my end let posting it here slip my mind at first. Apologies, here it is.

http://player.wizzard.tv/player/o/i/x/130759196591/config/k-48276aa9ffcfb432/uuid/null/episode/k-9a51bc907b5d16f7
http://www.post-movie.net/?p=3412

Been a long time, old friend…

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

Well, DUH.
In lieu of banging out a whole schpiel on this here (busy day), here’s what I had to say on the matter in a talkback over at Hollywood Elsewhere, which I think sums my position up handily:

“Exchanging naughty emails with random chicks is not stupid. The stupid thing he did was LIE about it for week. Coverup is ALWAYS worse than the “crime” with these things.”

“But even THEN, everyone sensible knows WHY he did it (i.e. lying) he did it because he didn’t want to piss off his wife. So, really, the stupidest thing he did was get married in the first place – if he wasn’t married, this wouldn’t be a “scandal,” this would be “makes him more fun” points. Seriously – Weiner is young, he’s got money, he’s relatively decent-looking for a politician and thanks to his “liberal firebrand” street-cred legions of fine-ass politically-inclined coeds are lined up to jump his bones… WTF is he doing in any kind of monogamous relationship, let alone MARRIED? Is he a masochist?”

“American’s have this stupid obsession with their public figures either being “happily married” or monogamous… and it makes NO fucking sense. Newsflash: The people with the superhuman-drive to succeed in a cutthroat game like politics are NOT people who are “cut out” to play Ward & June offstage. You hear people say “Oh, we need them to be married so we know they’re honest.” BULLSHIT! Married people are the most dishonest people on the planet. They HAVE to be to survive day to day. “Oh, a single man will be too easily distracted to do a good job.” BULLSHIT! Married guys are the most distracted men you’ll ever meet. You know who’s NOT distracted? Rich/famous/powerful guys who know they never have to worry where their next lay is coming from – those guys have the clearest heads in the room, bar none.”

Well, I can give them this much: “montage of people getting wedding invitations, cut like a hugely-important epic thriller” is as good a visual representation of WHY this shit is so popular with it’s audience as you’re going to get…

…I’m weirdly thrilled that it looks as though they’ve filmmed the everything-shattering sex scene (only alluded to after the fact in the books) wherein a vampire supposedly made of marble-hard undead tissue with no blood or working organs somehow impregnates his human wife with a rapidly-aging telepathic Daywalker fetus. It’ll be an utter tragedy if they try and “fix” Stephenie Meyer’s godawful “Chris-Claremont-after-a-blow-to-the-head” approach to genre fiction and thus deny us a potential trainwreck-to-end-all-trainwrecks in the making.