I was chatting with somebody yesterday about comic book movies. I don’t think there’s been a truly great super hero movie yet. I’m talking about the movie that is to super hero movies what 2001 or Star Wars is to science fiction films, or The Godfather is to gangster movies.
Why hasn’t there been a great super hero movie yet? I’m not entirely sure. One reason, I think, is that most of them don’t aspire (or achieve) to sophisticated themes or allegory. I didn’t walk out of The Dark Knight thinking, “man, that was really an exceptional meditation on…well, anything.” Maybe they’ll never do that, but I think it’s almost a prerequisite for making a great movie.
I should specify that I’m referring to live action movies here. I think The Incredibles is a more accomplished and complete film that every superhero starring actual humans in rubber suits that I’ve seen. I’m excluding Sin City because it’s not really about super heroes, as far as I can remember.
I’m curious what you, dear readers, think has been the greatest (most accomplished, best or whatever superlative fits) superhero movie thus far. Here’s a poll. To keep the list shortish, I’m choosing the better films according to Metacritic. If you think Daredevil is the greatest superhero movie, well, shame on you.
I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch. I’ll add suggestions if Poll Daddy lets me.
I’m not a parent, nor have I been a child for quite a few years. When I was a kid, though, I remember that my brother and I sat in the back seat, even when there was nobody sitting beside my parent up-front. This was even true if it was just me in the back seat and only my mother or father up-front. In my recollection, we sat in the back seat until I was, I don’t know, eight or ten years old.
I’m not sure, but I think this behaviour is quite commonplace. I know, in recent years, there’s been a concern about the minimum size of the child and air bags and so forth, but that wasn’t the case back in the 80’s.
This feels like a very naive question, but why does this happen? And if you’re a parent, when did you give your kids permission to ride up front?
In the early years of Capulet, as with most businesses, we said ‘yes’ to nearly everything (we did refuse the mail order bride project). For the past couple of years, we’ve had the luxury of being selective about who we take on. These days we have to decline most enquiries because we’re too busy.
We obviously try to choose winners and avoid those companies that give us a queasy feeling in our stomach. But it’s nice every once in a while to take on a client who’s social goals really align with my own. DreamBank happens to be one of those.
On a more ascetic level, I have so much stuff already. So does everybody else in my family (with the exception, perhaps, of my more ascetic brother, and he doesn’t want anything). I have more difficulty creating a wishlist for myself than I do choosing gifts for other people (with the exception, perhaps, of the aforementioned Spartan brother). This isn’t humility on my part, it’s just a lack of wanting things. Particularly things that I don’t choose for myself. I suppose I should just ask everyone to give me vouchers for travelling. Hmm…that’s not a bad idea.
DreamBank is a Vancouver start-up with a mission that addresses this issue. Here’s the elevator pitch:
DreamBank.org is about helping dreams come true and doing it in a way that helps the planet and important social causes. Instead of giving gifts that, although appreciated may not really be wanted, with DreamBank you contribute to someone’s dream. As well as helping fulfill a dream, your contribution helps spare the planet some of the nasty side effects of manufacturing and packaging unused gifts. Plus your gift automatically generates funds that are given to important social causes.
It’s essentially collaborative giving with a charity angle. Or, if you prefer, a gift registry for everything. Here are a few sample dreams:
While running errands yesterday, I discovered two small inventions which pleased me. They’re probably not new to you, but I don’t get out much.
Too Drunk to Handle the Basket?
First, I was at the Market on Yates (”and on Millstream”–brand extension problem, there), a grocery store. They have these shopping receptacles which work as a large basket or a small, rolling cart. They have two folding handles, and casters on the bottom:
They seem like the perfect solution for an urban grocery store with narrow aisles. They’re also a good fit for Victoria’s aging population, who buy small amounts but may not be able to handle a full basket. Apparently you can also find them at liquor stores, where you can deploy the cart features if you’re too drunk to handle the basket.
Hockey Cards for Hair Cutters
I also stopped in at a hair salon on Fort Street to schedule a haircut. It was my first time there, and it seemed like an ordinary enough place. I booked an appointment, and the receptionist handed me this little stack of cards. They’re essentially hockey cards for the stylists (collect them all!):
These seem to serve a bunch of purposes:
They’re attractively designed, presumably reflecting the aesthetics of the salon.
They’re a practical reminder of my forthcoming appointment.
They’re a little conversation piece for me to take away and show potential customers.
They make the stylists feel a little like a celebrity, which probably helps with morale and employee retainment.
They cost very little to produce, but they’re a striking differentiator in a business where it’s often difficult to distinguish one salon from another. Being “the place with the hockey cards”, is a great hook to hang a brand off of.
As you’ve probably heard, Google Knol launched publicly today. It’s considered a more or less direct competitor to Wikipedia, as it permits anybody to author an article on pretty much anything. It doesn’t have the same degree of ‘wiki’ collaboration as Wikipedia, though–it’s more about individual experts. From the Google blog:
The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.
With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call “moderated collaboration.” With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!
What’s the marketing angle? In the coming days, I anticipate a great land grab as people author ‘knols’ on topics that matter to them. They’re going to permit multiple knols, but I anticipate something of a first-mover advantage. If Google Knol takes off (and odds are that it will), then it’s probably a good idea to write a knol on a topic in which you’re an expert. Knols may not be direct traffic drivers, but they may help cement your expertise in the space.
Julie and I put together a knol on social media marketing. It needs work, but I think it’s a satisfactory start. If you have the time, please consider rating, reviewing, editing or commenting on it.
This post is a slight detour from the previous ‘we’re building a house’ stories, but I figured last weekend’s activities merited documentation.
We decided that we needed some kind of semi-permanent structure on the property to house our big ol’ truck and possibly store other possessions. Plus, we figured the builders could use it once the official construction process got underway.
Then somebody came up with the bright idea of camping on the property over night, which sounded rather uncomfortable (Hello? Four star resort on South Pender) but I was game.
We recruited a work party of James, Monique and Lesley and went to work. There’s a sizable hardware store on the island, so we were able to order a kind of portable car port from them, and just pick it up when we arrived. The assemble went quite smoothly, and much fun was had when the instructions repeatedly referred to “elastic ball straps”.
The instructions made a classic technical writing blunder. We followed them carefully, first assembling the roof and then raising it up on the legs. Unfortunately, we reached step #8, which told us to be sure to attach the end covers before step #4, when you add the legs. That made for some precarious standing on shoulders.
All in all, though, the process was pretty painless. It definitely wasn’t a two-person job, so we were glad of all the help. The truck fits snugly inside the car port, with a little room for other stuff.
As you may have noticed in my previous post, we camped inside the car port. We deployed the actual tents to protect us from the mosquitoes. I’m not entirely sure why we put them inside the car port, though there isn’t that much flat terrain on that section of the property.
This was the most heavily documented car port assembly in history. Julie took a bunch of photos, and so did Monique. James has photos pending as well.
I’ve got a longer post pending on last weekend’s activities, but in the meantime I wanted to share this photo with you. It depicts the first time in twenty years (excepting a couple of guided experiences in Morocco and Costa Rica) that I’ve gone camping. You really need to view the large version to appreciate the expression on my face:
Yesterday I saw The Dark Knight. And I’ve gotta tell you, I was disappointed. Maybe I’d believed the hype (note to self: always heed the advice of Flavor Flav), maybe it was the creepy promise of Heath Ledger’s penultimate film, or maybe it was my affection for Christian Bale and director Christopher Nolan’s previous films (in particular, The Prestige). Regardless, the film didn’t deliver.
It’s a murky, manic movie with a cast of thousands. It’s at least twenty minutes too long, and yet never spends enough time with the right scenes. This is partially due to its remarkable roster of characters. Among the supporting roles with speaking parts are a ridiculous hierarchy of bureaucrats–assistant district attorney, district attorney, Jim Gordon, police commissioner and mayor–and a precinct’s worth of cops. It’s also because of a needless sub-plot involving D.A. Harvey Dent, which only distracts from the film’s central inertia.
Heath Ledger is extraordinary as The Joker, and you should see the movie to see his performance. He’s a jangly-limbed rag doll, capable of anything and slave to his own mad whims. He makes Jack Nicholson’s Joker from the 1986 Batman look, well, like Alfred.
Unfortunately, we don’t see enough of Ledger. And that’s where I was most disappointed. I’d hoped that the film would be a much more intimate examination of the conflicted relationship between these two outcasts who live beyond the law. That is, more like Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke (though clearly that was an influence).
Instead, we got a big-ass superhero movie. The stunts were impressive, though totally muddled. Nolan could take lessons on directing action scenes from, say, Doug Lyman or Martin Scorsese. David Edelstein puts it well in his New York Magazine review:
Nolan appears to have no clue how to stage or shoot action. He got away with the chopped-up fights in Batman Begins because his hero was a barely glimpsed ninja, coming at villains from all angles in stroboscopic flashes. There are more variables here, which means more opportunities to say “What the f— just happened?” I defy you to make spatial sense of the early scene in which Batman battles faux Batmen, gangsters, and the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy in a cameo that comes to nothing). If you can, move on to Level 2, diagramming the “Bat-tank versus Joker-truck versus cop car” chase. Then, finally, take the Ultimate Challenge: following the climax with Batman, the Joker, more faux Batmen, decoy hostages dressed as clowns, a SWAT team, and Morgan Freeman’s Lucius with some kind of sonar monitoring gizmo that tracks all the parties on video screens.
Speaking of Scorsese, compare The Dark Knight to The Departed. Both are crime epics full of violence and betrayal, yet Nolan’s work pales in comparison. Not only does Scorsese handle the large cast effortlessly, but you always have a clear grip on what’s going on in the action sequences.
In short, The Dark Knight is an average superhero movie with one extraordinary performance. It wasn’t awful, but it sure wasn’t the masterpiece I hoped for.
On an unrelated note, the movie was preceded by a teaser trailer for Terminator 4. Christian Bale is perfectly cast as an adult, robot-slaying John Connor. I really hope this film redeems the franchise after the dreck that was Terminator 3.
Earlier this month, I reported that Google Maps was testing walking directions on a small subset of users. This morning, I noticed that Google Maps now is offering walking directions for all Google Maps users.
For example, conduct a search for 200 Madison Ave to 200 Lexington Ave and you will see the option to take “Walking” directions, as opposed to driving directions.
Hmm…I’m underwhelmed. Compare the route from my old Vancouver apartment to Science World. Here are the driving directions, and here are the walking instructions. The only difference seems to be that the walking directions ignore one-way streets. In truth, shouldn’t the walking directions ought to run along the waterfront? Of course, that route would be longer than the prescribed one, but walkers (more than drivers, I suspect) don’t necessarily want the most direct route from point A to B.
Maybe Google needs to crowd-source this problem to optimize the walking routes?
On a CBC podcast last week, I heard about Solar Taxi. This Swiss dude named Louis Palmer is, with the help of academics and experts, driving a solar-powered vehicle around the world:
On 3 July 2007 I set off on my first journey around the world with a solar powered vehicle. Admittedly, as a regular citizen I cannot change the world but I can demonstrate to the world just how dire the global climate situation has become and how many sophisticated solutions to lower the greenhouse gases already exist, which bring with them many other advantages. So that we can have a better world and a more secure future. The solar taxi should rekindle hope and a zest for life, set an example to counteract resignation and stimulate reflection. And show that every single one of us can take a step towards preserving our planet.
Check out his route. Thus far he’s gone 34,644 km, with a goal of over 50,000.
He sounded really charming on the CBC, and his great videos bear that charm out:
Yesterday I saw