Geekboy Unfullfilled
Something occurred to me that has occurred to me in the past, but its still bothering me.
I go to a lot of message boards during the week, most of them focusing on what people within the realm call "genre" subjects. Basically stuff that deals in a sci-fi, fantasy, horror vein.
Whenever I read these, no matter what the topic is, 90% of the respondents respond to any new idea, any new product, by saying "wow, that sucks!" or "what the f*%$ are they thinking?!" or "wow, I could crap a better toy than that!"
It is my decision that geeks, despite their love of all things "continuity", attempt to reach for some unattainable level of perfection, finding faults in everything while ignoring what they liked and didn't like in the past.
A few recent examples:
- The first posting of Brandon Routh in the Superman costume. After years of complaining about Wolverines sans yellow spandex, rubber Batmen suits, and S&M Daredevils, they finally get a costume that is true to the character. So they start complaining about how dumb it looks.
- Brett Ratner brought in as a last-minute directorial replacement for X-Men 3. Not recognizing that a special-effects-laden movie that must be cast, filmed, post-produced, edited, and released by Summer 2006 doesn't exactly fit into Joss Whedon's calendar, X-Men fans automatically ring the deathbell for the franchise. They ignore the fact that Ratner has previous action movie experience, albeit action comedy, and has also directed some pretty dark movies in his time, too. They also ignore the fact that the director of the first two films in the franchise, who they now consider a sci-fi god, had no previous action movie experience, and was best known for a small, very dialogue-driven piece entitled The Usual Suspects.
- Everything Transformers. Every new toy posted, every new image posted for comics, for cartoons, every announcement made about the upcoming movie, is met with a cry of "why are they getting worse?!?". Quite honestly, I don't know what they're comparing these new things with. The original toys were crappy, blocky, non-flexible figures with hands and weapons that had to be removed and put god-knows-wherever, while the new toys are movable, posable, and completely self-contained. While the new cartoons are CGI-created and with large scope to their storylines, the original cartoon was terrible. I have the DVD of the first season, and it had episodes involving Incan jewels and time-travel to Old England, and had animation and dialogue that was sub-par at best. The new movie has an A-List studio (Dreamworks), the most famous movie producer on the planet (Steven Spielberg), and a director known for his incredible action sequences (Michael Bay). But its still not enough.
Geeks enjoy complaining, as you noticed by my previous few paragraphs. To fanboys and girls, only two things have gone right in the history of genre films:
1) Patrick Stewart cast as Professor X
2) Spider-Man's movie costume
Everything else, every little casting, every little toy, every little film, has been met with skepticism at best, downright bile at worst.
"This movie with Keanu Reeves about some computer world? SUCK!"
"Some horror director's taking our beloved Tolkien and pissing in his grave!"
"The guy who wrote Buffy's going to be doing an X-Men comic? TERRIBLE!"
"Some tall Australian we've never heard of is going to be playing Wolverine? He'll ruin everything!"
"A Welshman as Batman? HORRORS!"
All I can say is chill out, people!!! Take a minute to breathe, and recognize that geeks are getting a lot more in mainstream entertainment than ever before. Our fantasy movies are winning Oscars. Our comics are being written by top-line talent, with art that far surpasses anything from 15 or 20 years ago. Our toys are computer designed, highly-detailed, won't be missing a tenth of the pieces that we lost when we were first playing Transformers, GI Joe, or He-Man.
All is good in the world, calm down.
Or don't. I could make a mint selling ulcer medication on the Ain't It Cool News message board.
I go to a lot of message boards during the week, most of them focusing on what people within the realm call "genre" subjects. Basically stuff that deals in a sci-fi, fantasy, horror vein.
Whenever I read these, no matter what the topic is, 90% of the respondents respond to any new idea, any new product, by saying "wow, that sucks!" or "what the f*%$ are they thinking?!" or "wow, I could crap a better toy than that!"
It is my decision that geeks, despite their love of all things "continuity", attempt to reach for some unattainable level of perfection, finding faults in everything while ignoring what they liked and didn't like in the past.
A few recent examples:
- The first posting of Brandon Routh in the Superman costume. After years of complaining about Wolverines sans yellow spandex, rubber Batmen suits, and S&M Daredevils, they finally get a costume that is true to the character. So they start complaining about how dumb it looks.
- Brett Ratner brought in as a last-minute directorial replacement for X-Men 3. Not recognizing that a special-effects-laden movie that must be cast, filmed, post-produced, edited, and released by Summer 2006 doesn't exactly fit into Joss Whedon's calendar, X-Men fans automatically ring the deathbell for the franchise. They ignore the fact that Ratner has previous action movie experience, albeit action comedy, and has also directed some pretty dark movies in his time, too. They also ignore the fact that the director of the first two films in the franchise, who they now consider a sci-fi god, had no previous action movie experience, and was best known for a small, very dialogue-driven piece entitled The Usual Suspects.
- Everything Transformers. Every new toy posted, every new image posted for comics, for cartoons, every announcement made about the upcoming movie, is met with a cry of "why are they getting worse?!?". Quite honestly, I don't know what they're comparing these new things with. The original toys were crappy, blocky, non-flexible figures with hands and weapons that had to be removed and put god-knows-wherever, while the new toys are movable, posable, and completely self-contained. While the new cartoons are CGI-created and with large scope to their storylines, the original cartoon was terrible. I have the DVD of the first season, and it had episodes involving Incan jewels and time-travel to Old England, and had animation and dialogue that was sub-par at best. The new movie has an A-List studio (Dreamworks), the most famous movie producer on the planet (Steven Spielberg), and a director known for his incredible action sequences (Michael Bay). But its still not enough.
Geeks enjoy complaining, as you noticed by my previous few paragraphs. To fanboys and girls, only two things have gone right in the history of genre films:
1) Patrick Stewart cast as Professor X
2) Spider-Man's movie costume
Everything else, every little casting, every little toy, every little film, has been met with skepticism at best, downright bile at worst.
"This movie with Keanu Reeves about some computer world? SUCK!"
"Some horror director's taking our beloved Tolkien and pissing in his grave!"
"The guy who wrote Buffy's going to be doing an X-Men comic? TERRIBLE!"
"Some tall Australian we've never heard of is going to be playing Wolverine? He'll ruin everything!"
"A Welshman as Batman? HORRORS!"
All I can say is chill out, people!!! Take a minute to breathe, and recognize that geeks are getting a lot more in mainstream entertainment than ever before. Our fantasy movies are winning Oscars. Our comics are being written by top-line talent, with art that far surpasses anything from 15 or 20 years ago. Our toys are computer designed, highly-detailed, won't be missing a tenth of the pieces that we lost when we were first playing Transformers, GI Joe, or He-Man.
All is good in the world, calm down.
Or don't. I could make a mint selling ulcer medication on the Ain't It Cool News message board.
posted by Bill at 9:00 AM
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