Comic capers & The Final Word

One year after BATMAN BEGINS gave the most accurate movie of the Dark Knight yet( albeit a tad boring), it's time for SUPERMAN to follow the lead from the fabled DC COMICS line-up.
Unlike Batman though, they didn'y quite hit the RESTART button and begin from the top.. they've carried on to 7 years later when he returns from a mysterious hiatus..
Yet, all is not changed.. the original comic-book costume has been retained, right down to the "S-belt", the title song is a joyful rendition of the famed tune..heck, there's even ol' Lex Luthor to play the villian.
More than the special effects, though, it's the story. Ever since Spiderman started the trend, the focus as far as superheroes are concerned is on their personal angst.. and that remains true here too. I came out of the theatre admiring the love story and buildup of the characters more than the story itself. To think the actor has never acted before in a movie- wow!! He's done the role better than 99.99% of Bollywood could do it ( 0.01% being the remarkable Paresh Rawal in blue dhoti,red chaddi ) and looks set to be the Superman for many more movies to come.
Personally, I think the best of both these DC comics creations( Batman, Superman ) is yet to be encountered on celluloid. Personally, I think both movies have just wasted a key feature of any comic book-movie : the Villians!!! Batman wasted Scarecrow who could be really scary and played up the more dull Ra's Al Ghul and Mafia head Falcone, Superman too again battles Luthor..not quite the most original and towering villian he's faced. Now that they've finished showcasing where they come from, I hope they'll get around to telling a real good story in the future. Spiderman and X-men are already there. Hulk? Well, the skulking giant will just have to wait for someone who cares.. Daredevil and Hellboy too were vastly underrated for me.. both were really good movies, I felt.
Speaking of which, the first trailors of SPIDERMAN 3 are out.. and again, it's comic book territory heaven.. SPIDEY ain't back, he's BLACK!!! With Sam Raimi ( Evil Dead trilogy ) again directing, finally we're seeing the dark side of Spidey.. very much a treat as this was always the best storyline in the Marvel comics' Spidey series..

The World Cup is into it's final stages too and till now my team,the Italians, have held on even though they don't have a steady set of forwards. How much further? I can't say..but come tonight, I will be praying again as they play hosts Germany. But irrespective of the outcome, this has to go down as one of the best World Cups of all time. There have been plenty of great matches going right down to the wire and lots of shocks.It's been fun while it's lasted, though I find people's reaction quite funny.. so many friends calling to inform me how they've lost interest in the Cup now that Brazil's been "knockered" off courtesy the French. Sigh!! Boys will be boys.

FINAL WORD :
24 hours later and Italy have done it again, their 3rd consecutive "once in 12 year intervals" World Cup final appearance..a clliffhanger with a brilliant end. They now have 10 people who have scored..11 actually, but the last was an own goal so I don't think Zaccardo's gonna be wanting his name on the same list of goalscorers.

I forgot 2 very important points of SUPERMAN RETURNS that I just felt had to be put in here.
1. Scene of the movie : Many have been harping on the zooming in the sky scenes, the carrying the globe ( and other "things" he carries at the end ) but I don't care. I really don't care what scene presents itself in which movie for the rest of this year - my Scene of the Year is without doubt : When the token villain shoots Supes point blank in the eye..and the bullet crushes into a penny and falls down!!! That is awe- inspiring. I can already picture Shaktimaan producers wondering how to copy that scene into their serial!!

2.The second scene comes towards the end.. it isn't awe-inspiring, it ain't romantic..it ain't even meant to be funny. But I, Shaf and Siddu had so much fun laughing at the joke that crossed our mind I just had to put it in here..( warning: mild spoiler alert )
Superman is in the hospital recovering in the final scenes.. they show a nurse who looks suspiciously like a Malayalee ( credits proved otherwise- yup, we stayed to confirm!! ) walking towards Superman's room. And zooooooooooom!!!! The hitherto inert Supes disappears from his bed... he may have fought Lex Luthor, faced the wrath of Kryptonite and many other battles from far far away.. but even Superman knows to beware THE MALLU NURSE!!!! HAHAHA!!!