Superman II - Take Two

30 years ago, when I was but a bump in a wedding dress, Richard Donner was filming a two-part Superman movie series. Like Peter Jackson of The Lord of the Rings fame, Donner was filming his movies concurrently. Once he had finished the first movie and sent it away for post-production, the producers put a stop to his filming so they could concentrate on getting the first movie out on time.

In a move that would make an interesting movie in its own right, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind took the 75% completed sequel and had one of their uncredited producers film the rest of the movie. The discarded much of Donner's original footage and storyline and Richard Lester was credited for directing the entire movie.

Recently, Warner Bros has released, Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut. It has over 45 minutes of brand new footage that was recovered from a damp warehouse. The movie has a very different feel and a totally different ending.

I was overjoyed to see that the whole sequence with Lois Lane in Paris was cut since that was one of my least favorite part of the original cut. The new opening fits much more clearly with the first movie now.

One of the most interesting parts is a scene that was actually never filmed. It was a scene that Donner saw as so crucial to the series that he used it as the screen test scenes. They have taken the actual screen test footage of Kidder and Reeve and inserted it into the movie. It takes place in a very small set and the costuming isn't up to the same level as the rest of the movie but it is a very interesting scene. It is the moment when Clark finally admits to Lois his secret. I wasn't as happy with this scene, not only because the quality is so low, but because it replaced one of my favorite scenes - the fireplace reveal.

It is very obvious that Donner was only able to shoot about 75% of the film. He reluctantly used a few of Lester's scenes to fill in the story and I think that makes for a weak plot at times. Many of the scenes, including the climax at the Fortress of Solitude and the Niagara Falls sequences are rushed and some crucial moments are
missing. Donner's ego wouldn't let him use barely any of the footage that this usurper filmed and unfortunately, the end product suffers. I agree that the movie would have been much better if he had finished everything he wanted to do, but this new cut is still a very good movie. Definitely worth taking a look at.

Happy Feet - By Daniel

We went to Happy Feet last night and I thought I would let Daniel write a review about it.

i liked it. it had a penguin in it. mumbo danced on the ice. i can't wait for it to come out on dvd. lol. it is a little bit scary when the seal hopped up on the ice. i want to dance like mumbo. you should see it.

Mid-season review

It's not really the middle of the season yet, but since I'm here, I'll do a quick update on my drama shows.

Battlestar Galactica

This season has been focused even more on broken people and broken relationships. They have covered military occupation, suicide bombers, vigilante justice, torture, genocide, alcoholism, treason, parenthood, post-traumatic stress disorder, slavery, religion, and plague - all in the first 6 episodes. The best part however is how the writers and actors treat the fall-out of all of these changes. Old friendships have been lost, possibly irrevocably torn, and new relationships have developed and grown. Calling this a show about space is like saying the pope is a "Catholic guy with a hat".

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

This show has been given a second chance. I think it's one of the most cleverly-written shows on TV right now. The humour takes some thinking. The pace is always very frantic and you have to pay attention to the dialogue. I've heard it compared to The West Wing, but I never saw that show so I can't be certain. The critics have been very positive but the ratings haven't been what NBC expected. I think it's too hard for people to get. It's a drama with comedic moments, or possibly a fairly serious comedy. I like it for its glimpse backstage to see how a show like this comes together. A sketch comedy series may not be as important a topic as the White House, or an emergency room, or a forensics department, but I'm into it.

Heroes

The one I had the highest hopes for. The one I also feared would suck the most. I remember having that same feeling in the summer of 2002 when I went to the theatre to see Spider-Man. As the opening credits rolled, I was excited for what I might see but I was so scared of it being like the 1960s Batman series. What could the kid from Cider House Rules and the girl from Jumanji do with such an icon. I sat for 121 minutes and when the closing credits rolled, I was fully satisified. I loved it. I knew that there would be a sequel and that we had entered a new age of superhero shows.

All this to say that after nine episodes, I am both fully satisfied and terribly frustrated with this show. I think it's my favorite show and when it's over I am frustrated that I have to wait another week to see what's happening. Every answer brings five more questions. The series has basically wrapped up their first major arc ("Save the cheerleader. Save the world") but has left the story more open than ever. We have our heroes being arrested, chased, knocked out, and straight-up vanished in time and we don't know what will happen. Next week's episode is called, "Six Months Ago" and should answer some of our questions, but will more than likely ask dozens more.

Getting into Drama

When I was younger I watched sitcoms and gameshows. 6 years ago, Survivor got me into reality TV. A few years ago, my channels of choice were Discovery and Food Network. For some reason though, this fall I have gotten into some new drama series. I haven't really had a drama show that I've watched regularly since I got married so we'll see if I stick with these.

Battlestar Galactica

I had heard people talking about this show for the last few years - mostly about downloading early episodes from the UK because it wasn't available here or something. It just didn't strike me as a show worth watching.

Then it kept coming up more and more. People at work were talking about how it is such a great show and puts all the Star... series to shame (Trek, Wars, Gate, and I guess Search). Father Roderick on the Daily Breakfast podcast (link in the sidebar) mentioned it a few times and talked about how it is an allegory for religious discussion and how the writers have made the shades of grey so subtle, it's hard to tell who the "good guys" are.

I rented the first season from the movie store about 3 weeks ago and have watched at least two episodes a night since then. I zipped through the first 13 episode season and then watched all 20 episodes of the 2nd season in less than 2 weeks. I am hooked.

The show is great. I am so glad I took the time to do this right and catch up before the third season starts this Saturday. The stories are so real and integrated that I really became involved in the lives of these people.

There's no way I can give enough backstory for a new viewer to jump in on the 7th and understand what is happening, who all these characters are. There are probably hundreds of good fansites out there that could help. I will however give a few things that I think make this different from other sci-fi series.

1) No forehead makeup. The aliens look like humans and that's a crucial part of the series.

2) No comedic sidekicks. Star Trek and Star Wars have always had at least one character (C-3PO, Jar-Jar, Phlox, Quark, Data) who is often used to lighten the mood with sarcastic one-liners. BSG takes all of its characters seriously and you really care about them.

3) Flawed heroes. A stubborn admiral and his drunk executive officer, a disobediant and insubordinate top gun, a top political figure who collaborates with the enemy, sleeps with anyone he can find, and is slowly going crazy, a crusty old doctor who doesn't listen to the commander and does things his own way. Well the last one is a lot like Bones McCoy but Donnelly Rhodes plays him so well I can overlook that.

4) Admirable villains. A woman who rises from the mistakes in her past to help save the crew and fight the enemy. She learns to love and overcome her "mechanical" nature and it is that love that gives her hope. Another cylon (enemy) character uses her love for a human to start a resistance movement that will likely play a key role in the new season.

5) People die - and not just "red shirts". They haven't killed off any of the major characters yet but there are a few - especially in the latter part of season two - that would definitely be defined as supporting players. People who we had learned quite a bit about and had played key roles in multiple episodes. And when they die, it means something. People grieve. Relationships are changed.

6) Less unintelligible techno-babble. Aside from "dradis", "CAG", "frak", "viper", and a few others that are used regularly and therefore are easy to figure out, there's not a whole lot of sci-fi language.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I actually was introduced to this show months ago. I do a lot of online surveys and was selected to be part of a focus group for the pilot of this season. I saw about 12 minutes of various scenes and was asked my opinion. I don't know if I would have watched it if I hadn't had that peek but I am really enjoying it.

It's a very interesting backstage look at the production of a late-night live sketch comedy series on a fictional network. It isn't afraid to show balanced and fair views of Christianity, drug abuse, office politics, and takes more than a few shots at NBC and television in general.

I don't know all the details about Aaron Sorkin and his previous problems with The West Wing. Other bloggers have covered that. All I know is that I don't normally watch dramas and this one has dragged me in. Maybe its my interest in seeing how things work and looking behind the curtains.

Heroes

The third drama I am getting into this fall is Heroes. The second part of the premiere is on tonight and I am really looking forward to it.

It's a new show about people all over the world developing incredible skills. Human evolution is about to take a new leap forwards and a small collection of people are discovering "gifts" such as flight, teleportation, remarkably fast healing / regeneration. In the first hour, we met close to a dozen characters and I was able to care about them all.

Like Battlestar, this is a very realistically portrayed fantasy world. Even though I expect they will be brought together in an X-men fashion, I highly doubt they will end up in yellow and blue spandex. These are people who didn't choose to be heroes but they will likely step up to the challenge.

The next episode is on in about an hour so I'll just post this now.

All In

While on vacation last month, I read a really good book by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback called All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker. Now, if anyone out there is an English teacher, I'm sure this will suck as a book report, but I thought I'd do a little review.

It's a really cool history of how this tournament grew from a publicity stunt put on by Benny Binion and 8 Texas road gamblers to a multimedia spectacle with thousands of competitors playing dozens of games and has given away more money than the four major PGA tournaments combined in their history.

It interrupts the stories of the tournaments with personal vignettes, glimpses into the lives of the players. For someone who has only been following professional poker since 2003 (like nearly everyone out there), it was very interesting to read the histories of people like Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim, Johnny Chan, Phil Helmuth, Johnny Moss, and Jack Strauss. Some of their stories are sad. Champions who had won millions of dollars in their lifetimes but who died like they lived most days of their lives, without a penny to their names.

It also went into the story of the Binion family who owned and operated the Horseshoe Casino that hosted the event nearly its entire run. Their story is the most intriguing. Sickness, murder, family feuds, court cases, hostile takeovers. It is an exciting tale of how the business of casino ownership in Las Vegas changed from the 1950s to the present day.

If you're interested in poker, or just looking for an interesting story full of compelling characters, give it a shot.

I feel like one of those kids on Reading Rainbow.