doubledumbassonyou

About three years ago when I first started attending cons I became aware of a local group of artists in the Philadelphia area that I absolutely love, with one such talent being Dave Perillo. He’s an awesome guy with a great style that has a knack for picking on those most minute idiosyncrasies of the characters he draws.

So this year at Wizard World Philly I asked Dace to start off my new sketchbook with his take on the greatest of all Autobots, Optimus Prime. Even though he posted it already over on his blog, I figured that since I’m the owner of said sketch I might as well do the same here.

You can check out more of Dave’s work on his blog Montygog’s Art-O-Rama, or even purchase some of his from his online store. Tell him Jon sent ya.

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After two years of spoiler-free living this past week I saw TF:RotF not once, but twice (including an IMAX showing) and have yet to come to a conclusion as to how i feel about the His Bayness’ latest addition to his IMDB page. There were things that I loved about it while other gave me douche chills. Below I’ll list the top five things I liked/didn’t like in TF:RotF.

Five Things I Didn’t Like:

1) The Twins. It’s pretty unanimous across the Interwebz, the way Mudflap & Skids were characterized they would have been better off having a lawn jockey as their alt-mode. They did nothing to move the plot along, and took up valuable screen time from other newer and far more interesting Autobots.

2) Not Enough Sideswipe. Easily the coolest of the new arrivals, he kicked ass in the Shanghai sequence only to be relegated to the periphery later on in the film.

3) WTF is with the Decepticon Space Ship? So Megatron is reborn and immediately flies to the moons of Saturn where Starscream was holed up making decepti-babies with The Fallen? We couldn’t flesh this out more?

4) Not enough non-combat interaction between human NEST personnel & Autobots. Clearly they’d been fighting side by side for two years, but could we have maybe seen them interacting in a non-combat situation? Have Ironhide tells stories of encountering petrorabbits on Alpha Nine or maybe have Epps teach them Texas Hold ‘em.

5) Too Much Dick & Fart Humor. I love dick jokes as much as the next guy, but the sheer number of them in TF:RotF was staggering. Between the humping of Megan Fox’s leg (really can’t blame Wheelie though), the Twins stating that Leo had a “pubic fro”, or maybe Devastors fucking testicles! There is a place for it, but it was distracting and unnecessary.

Five Things I Liked:

1) Sideswipe. Refer to #2 above.

2) Optimus Primes’ Entrance Into Shanghai. “We need Big Boy!” Bad. Ass. Only Chuck Norris would make a cooler entrance into a hotzone.

3) The Optimus/Jetfire Link Up. Sure Jetfire may not have done much for me, but the powering up of Optimus was a mighty cool sequence.

4) Soundwave. Did he eject Ravage? Yup. Frank Welker for voice talents? Yup. His new mode served his ultimate purpose of espionage quite well. Sadly they didn’t modulate his voice, leaving him to sound more like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.

5) Bumblebee. So what if he can’t talk, I enjoy his “speaking” through sound clips. The sequence with Sam & Alice after the party was humorous. He was my favorite as a kid and remains so to this day, even if he is a Camaro.

TF: RotF was enjoyable for what it was. I think His Bayness ought to just take a Executive Producer credit on the next go around (someone is going to have to take the hit for the Twins). While there were more robots, just as he promised they weren’t all necessarily fleshed out or even properly introduced. We do need a little substance every once in a while.

This movie is and will continue to make an insane amount of money and while it may not be viewed as a good film, it will be financially successful. I’ll give it a ** 3/4 stars …

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Transformers fans remember (often with great ire) Wheelie, the juvenile prose speaking Autobot first encountered in Transformers: The Movie way back in 1986. He was small orange and quite frankly kind of annoying. Evidence of which can be seen below:

Now, in this exclusive clip from His Bayness’ blog we encounter the ‘new’ Wheelie. He remains diminutive in size, but has an obnoxious New York accent. Seriously? As ridiculous as the scene may be, it Megan Fox in a tight shirt and cut off really help keep it afloat.

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There is nothing but bad buzz emanating from GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. There were rumors last week that Director Stephen Sommers had been fired from the movie; and that Stuart Baird had been brought in to salvage the project after it was tanking in test screenings.

While I haven’t been overly encouraged by anything I’ve seen, and this latest tv spot which features Sienna Miller’s non-accent Baroness calling the pursuing Joes “…real American heroes”. Ouch.

And one thing that I’ve finally noticed after watching countless trailers … that Snake Eyes is wearing business slacks. I can almost deal with the molded lips and ab muscles, but outfitting the most bad ass ninja in history from the Men’s Warehouse … c’mon guys.

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News broke yesterday that Steve Rogers, the original Captain America would be returning to the Marvel Universe next month in a new series, Captain America: Reborn. Two years ago, Steve Rogers was killed on a court building’s steps after having surrendered in the aftermath of Civil War. In that time his former kid sidekick, turned brainwashed Russian super-agent, Bucky Barnes picked up the mantel.

With Steve returning, what happens to BuckyCap? Well I’m sure all of our questions will be answered, as Marvel PR was quick to get this in front of the press:

Captain America is making a miraculous recov
Two years after Marvel Comics knocked off its famous star-spangled superhero, he’s gonna be back and better than ever.

“The original Captain America is finally coming back,” Marvel Comics editor in chief Joe Quesada told the Daily News. “We’ve been patiently planning for this moment for 21/2 years.”

Captain America will return next month in a five-comic book series, “Captain America Reborn.”

In conjunction with this, Marvel has returned Captain America to its original numbering bringing this week’s issue to #600. I haven’t had a chance to pick this up, but the reviews I’ve seen thus far reek of a shitty retconning. I’ll wait until I get the issue in my hands on it.

Ed Brubaker has yet to let me down on this title, and I have a hard time believing that he would have put all of this work into Cap only to have it turn into another Clone Saga or One More Day.

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Granted I haven’t been keeping up with the latest news and reviews of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not jonesing for it. A while ago I made the promise to myself not to spoil or otherwise ruin the movie for myself. I have to say that I’ve done a pretty good job so far.

Here’s the most recent TV spot, featuring a lot of what we’ve already seen with the exception of the last 2 to 3 seconds which features Optimus’ gigantic firearm with its equally large caliber ammunition.

And have I mentioned how my wife went out and purchased opening night tickets for the two of us? She went out to theaters twice with me to see the first one (once in IMAX). She does in fact rule mightily.

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I caught the video for Screaming in the Night, by Switzerland’s own Krokus earlier this morning on VH1 Classic’s Metal Mania. I dare you to find a metal video from the 1980s that is crammed with more cliches and blatant Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome riffs.

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I’ve spoke of the general greatness of Incredible Hercules for well over a year. Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente have been turning out quality stories and haven’t missed a beat. In this issue, we find that Hercules and boy wonder Amadeus Cho are being sent on a mission by Athena (Herc’s sister) to rescue Zeus from Hades.

Here’s the rub, Hades is really accessed through a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. And in order to prepare for this journey to the Underworld our intrepid heroes have to bathe in the murky waters of the Atlantic Ocean and suit up. Who knew that Hercules had such a deep knowledge of Will Smith movie quotes?

Pure. Snarky. Awesomeness. This book is really worth the $2.99 cover price. Pak & Van Lente so rightly deserve your undying love and affection.

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Brian Blessed who played Prince Vultan of the Hawkmen who is arguably the second greatest aspect of the 1980 classic Flash Gordon (after the kick ass Queen soundtrack), has been cast as Thor’s father Odin in director Kenneth Branagh’s live action comic adaptation.

I always figured that Blessed would have made an excellent Volstagg, he of the Warrior Three, but this news makes my geek heart go pitter patter.

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Things are not looking good at all for McG’s Terminator: Salvation. Of the reviews I’ve read, they seem to range from “I fucking loathed it” to “meh, the robots are ok”. Good ‘ol Harry Knowles just eviscerated the picture after pretty much massaging McG’s prostate for the last 6-8 months; so it is understandable if I feel that his opinions don’t have much integrity.

My favorite comments have to come from FilmDrunk, where they said it is tolerable to a point and then it turns into:

a dick-fisted homage to Terminator 2, with the good guy cyborg protecting John Connor from the bad guy cyborg

A guy whose opinions I do value, Peter from /Film said:

That said, the character development is almost non existent, the pacing is a mess and the dialogue could’ve been written by a 10-year-old

It’s currently hovering right around 35% over at Rotten Tomatoes and with fan backlash starting early due to early Thursday screenings it might cause a big ding in the box office receipts. I’m still going to see this movie, and I’ll be sure to offer my thoughts once I do.

But here’s what it does have going for it … there’s no way it is worst that T3: Rise of the Machines.

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