If you’re tuning in via your RSS feed, then you’re probably unaware that I launched a new design for Opus a few days ago. The previous design was launched in July 2011, which means it lasted almost a year — not too bad, given my constant restlessness when it comes to Opus’ look. Like the previous redesign, this one was involved updates to both the frontend as well as “behind the scenes”.

Continue Reading…

Long-time readers of Opus will know that I’m a big fan of Edgar Wright, the man behind such brilliant works as Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Wright is a busy fellow these days, with a number of new films in the works, including his own addition to the Marvel movie franchise, Ant-Man and an adaptation of The Night Stalker with Johnny Depp. However, the Wright title that I’m most looking forward to is The World's End, the final film in The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (with the trilogy’s other two films being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz).

Progress on The World's End has been slow, partly because Wright’s writing partner, Simon Pegg, has been a pretty busy fellow himself lately. But the script is now done, the film is set to be released in Spring 2013. A new Edgar Wright film in theatres in a year’s time? Yes, please. And here’s the synopsis, according to Deadline:

20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World’s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries.

This being a Wright/Pegg production, I think it’s safe to expect lots of clever and ultra-nerdy pop culture and movie references. Shaun of the Dead riffed on zombie movies, Hot Fuzz riffed on buddy cop action movies, and based on the synopsis, it sounds like The World’s End might riff on some sort of apocalyptic, “end of the world” genre. Given the film’s short production schedule, I’m sure we’ll find out pretty soon.

The venerable anime series Macross — which served as the basis for Robotech here in the States — turns 30 this year, and to celebrate, a full-scale version of a VF-25 “Messiah” Valkyrie variable fighter was on display in Tokyo until this weekend. No word on where it’ll go now that the display is over, but I think it’d look pretty slick in my basement. Kotaku has more photos of the display.

There's something especially delightful about reading Hannah Coulter in a quiet house on a warm and lazy Saturday evening. My interest in Wendell Berry had been piqued thanks to folks like Jake Meador and Rod Dreher, and so when I found a copy of Hannah Coulter sitting on our bookshelf, I took it as a sign. Ah, what writing… A passage like this just refreshes the soul:

And then, as the days lengthened past the spring equinox and the weather warmed, a change began to take place. Within the old appearance of friendship and Virgil’s strict regard for me, something new began to form itself. Often now, instead of going to a show, we would drive in his car through the long evenings, looking at the waking-up country, and often we would stop at some high open place along one of the rivers and look at the country under the moonlight or starlight. And Virgil started talking to me in a different way. He began telling me the things I needed to know in order to know him. He told me what was happening up on his father’s place as they were coming to the end of the winter feeding and beginning the spring work. It was better farming by a long way then my own father had ever done. Virgil spoke of how he liked the season and its work, and of what it meant to him. The mule teams were shedding their winter coats and beginning to shine as they left the barn in the early light to being the day’s work. Virgil spoke of that as something old in the world that caused an ancient happiness in him. He was trying to show me the shape of his life, and what might become the shape of it. He was seeing the time to come as a possibility, as a life that he loved. And thought maybe neither of us fully understood what he was doing, he made me love it. It wasn’t as though I was being swept away by some irresistable emotion. The thought of resistance never entered my mind. When I imagined him entering the life he saw, I imagined myself entering it too. It was becoming a possibility that belonged to us both.

It is entirely clear to me now. We were coming together into the presence of something good that was possible in this world. I have to see it now as a sad hope, because we were able to use up so little of it, but it was no less a beautiful one.

Then there’s this passage, which comes after a long, detailed account of a wonderful Christmas celebration in 1941 with World War II looming in the distance:

Counting noses, Bess missed Andy and went to look for him. She found him finally in the dining room, in the corner at the end of the sideboard, crying. The knowledge of it passed over us all. He didn’t know, as we grownups knew, what the war meant and might mean. He had only understood that what we were that day was lovely and could not last.

At the risk of sounding angst-y and melodramatic, I have always believed that one of the deepest emotions that we can feel is bittersweet joy, that is, joy tinged with sadness. Or, as Shelley put it so well in “To a Skylark”:

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Hannah Coulter is, so far, replete with such a feeling. Sadness lingers behind every word, but it is not a depressing sadness. Rather, it is a sweet and knowing sadness, akin, perhaps, to the Japanese concept of mono no aware. It is a sadness that doesn’t diminish or dismiss the hope, joy, and beauty in this life. Instead, it cherishes them and is all the more thankful for them because it knows such things are oh so fleeting in this broken and often violent and exhausting world.

Potential spoilers ahead. Consider yourself warned.

Yes, I admit it: I was one of those nerds who lost it during that post-credits scene in The Avengers when Thanos is revealed as the true “big bad” behind the whole “alien attack on Earth” thing. I’ve always been a fan of Marvel’s more cosmically minded characters and titles — the Silver Surfer is my favorite comic book character, period — and so the thought of future Marvel movies delving into that aspect of Marvel’s mythology is an exciting one. Does this mean we’ll see the Infinity Gauntlet appear at some point, or the Beyonders (who are the creators of the Cosmic Cubes, which is what the Tesseract really is)? What of Adam Warlock? Will cosmic entities like the Celestials, Eternity, the In-Betweener, the Elders of the Universe, and the Living Tribunal make appearances? The mind reels.

Of course, this begs the question of whether or not audiences will swallow characters like those. One could argue, of course, that if general, non-nerd audiences are already willing to see a movie featuring Norse gods as superheroes and supervillains, then it shouldn’t be that much of a leap to accept someone like the death-obsessed son of Mentor. All that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the movie version of Thanos deviates significantly from the comic version. Here’s hoping, however, that future Marvel movies will do a better job of explaining Thanos (and anything else cosmic) than X-Men: The Last Stand did of explaining the Phoenix. (There, the Phoenix was explained as Jean Grey’s repressed alternate personality, rather than a cosmic entity.)

Some other random thoughts about The Avengers:

• It is a very fun movie. Nothing revelatory, but still, a great movie to see with the guys (or the girls) at a late night screening. And as someone put it so well in the Arts & Faith forum: “I haven’t been in a movie theater where the cheering of the theater audience reminded me so much of the cheering for the home team at a baseball game. Marvel has created a collection of heroes that are genuinely loved — and loved by children. Whedon respects this, plays with it, and by the time he’s done, each hero is still worthy of the admiration of children. The grand entrances and shining moments are old-fashioned, yes, but they’re also justified.”
• I’ve never been much of a Hulk fan, but his were some of the movie’s best and funniest moments. The “puny God” scene where he puts Loki in his place and the little coda to his brawl with Thor were nice bits of slapstick. Additionally, Mark Ruffalo is simply great as Bruce Banner.
• Robert Downey, Jr. can toss out snark as Tony Stark like nobody else, and I love him for it. The “Legolas” line had the entire audience in stitches.
• Speaking of Stark, his interactions with Dr. Banner were solid. It’s nice to see him interact (finally, at least in his mind) with someone who is his intellectual equal.
• The “only one God” line from Captain America was awesome.
• I wasn’t sure I'd like Hawkeye — the whole master archer schtick and all — but I dug Jeremy Renner's portrayal of him as this no-nonsense, ultra-efficient and capable soldier. I’m now even more excited to see him in the upcoming Bourne film. I also liked the hints we get that something beyond mere camaraderie exists between him and Black Widow.
• I was sad to see Agent Coulson go, but it wouldn’t be a Joss Whedon title unless someone awesome and beloved got killed. However, I’m not sure that this is the last we’ll see of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. (Clark Gregg is reportedly in discussions to reprise the role for Iron Man 3, though admittedly, it could be for flashback scenes.)
• Joss Whedon certainly deserves a lot of credit for the movie. He had to have been under a tremendous amount of pressure — this is basically what the last few Marvel movies have all been leading up to, for several years now — and I’d say he delivered in a big way. Once again, he shows off his uncanny knack for working with large ensemble casts and ensuring that everyone gets at least one or two great lines/scenes. (Another example of this would be the interrogation scenes featuring Black Widow, which turn out to be delightfully more complicated than they seem at first.)

Between The Avengers and the upcoming Dark Knight Rises, I think it’s safe to say that comic book nerds and fans are going to be very happy this summer.

Nothing’s gonna stop me now… from telling you that the Perfect Strangers-inspired video game that you’ve always dreamed about is finally a reality, and it is magical.

You may now proceed with the dance of joy.

Earlier today, it came out that Twitter may be moving to a new authentication scheme that would require its users — even those who pay for Hulu Plus — to have a cable television subscription. This, of course, seems completely anti-thetical to the whole reason for Hulu in the first place, but its content providers — who seem to want nothing more than a lot of pissed off customers — are playing hardball and it seems only a matter of time before Hulu capitulates.

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the reactions to the news on Twitter, from myself and others.

Call me crazy, but I'm willing to pay a few extra $ to keep Hulu cable-free. I don't mind paying money for things I deem valuable.

— Jason Morehead (@jasonopus) May 1, 2012

But if/when Hulu requires a cable subscription, I have no problem w/ kicking them to the curb. And a pox on their content providers, too.

— Jason Morehead (@jasonopus) May 1, 2012

Hulu reportedly considering requiring its users to subscribe to cable or satellite. Oh, that'll go over well cnet.co/JwYkVx

— CNET News (@CNETNews) May 1, 2012

"Hulu requiring cable subscriptions is the best move they could have made. Count me in. " - Nobody. Nowhere.

— David Bisset (@dimensionmedia) May 1, 2012

WTF Hulu?Need a cable subscription to watch? It's like proving you own a car to hire a taxi.

— Michael Boyink (@boyink) April 30, 2012

.@Hulu is an amazingly clever advertisement for The Pirate Bay. Wait, they're serious? Nonsense! jwz.org/blog/2012/04/h…

— Alan De Smet (@AlanDeSmet) May 1, 2012

the reaction to this Hulu rumor is weird to me for several reasons, mostly because it's not at all new news or a surprise.

— Richard Lawler (@rjcc) May 1, 2012

I just heard that #Hulu is planning assisted suicide. Thats what moving to require users to have cable or satellite seams like to me.

— Mike Conley (@MikeConley) May 1, 2012

I'll just say this on the Hulu rumors: I'll be perfectly content to not give them money if they switch models.

— Daniel 'sRc' Cheney (@The_Bard_sRc) May 1, 2012

It's as if millions of Hulu subscriptions suddenly cried out and were canceled.

— David Chartier (@chartier) May 1, 2012

Yes, Clara looks awfully sweet in this photo, but don’t be fooled…

She’s ten times sweeter in person.