Justice

Ah, Super Bowl V. I used to have an old Super Bowl video that my Grandpa left at my house, and I distinctly remember watching their little thing on that game. Colts vs. Cowboys, right?

They did let Grossman do something. Fumble it immediately after a great defensive strip.

In all honesty, I think a 'Justice League' movie would fail on multiple levels. A show is a great outlet for a team because it lets you develop, and you can showcase different people throughout the season. A movie, on the other hand, would get jumbled really quickly, plus the amount of money for the contracts needed to do a Justice League (Superman and Batman, we have a Wally West coming up, a Wonder Woman) would be outrageous. Plus you have the timeframe differences between Bale's Batman and Routh Superman (Bale is only just starting out, Routh has been around for years, etc...), and who would make a good villain... it's all just too much going on. It'd be a scattered mess. Justice League, just like "The Watchmen", is not a good concept for a movie. A great concept for a show or miniseries, but not a movie.

Yeah, I agree with the above. She's not as much a leading role person as much as a support person. Justice League was exactly the right format for her, because you could always get away from her when she was becoming too irritating. Frankly, a better female movie would be something along the lines of Birds of Prey or something. I'm not sure there's a female DC character out there that is built for her own solo flick.

Dwight questioning 'Ben' was hilarious. "Are you near-sighted or farsighted?" "Both, actually, which is why I invented bifocals." "AAARRRRRRRRGH!"

Michael getting advice from Ben Franklin is surreal. But him asking the stripper for help is even MORE surreal.

Batman's decked out in Arab garb, actually. Note the scimitar. So this might be Ibn, not Bruce. Could this be a shot of the Kingdom Come world? I mean, that was full of biblical reference...

My big problems with Civil War 1) It's almost-complete disconnect from any of the other major events that have happened recently. No, I'm not talking about things like roster line-ups and stuff, I'm talking about the complete lack of connection to House of M and Decimation. I remember when this was first being pitched, and the reason registration was going to come up was due to the Scarlet Witch warping Earth's reality freaking out the general populace (Or so someone on this board said). That's a great way to move into Civil War. What happens? The New Warriors fuck something up and we get an event that is not connected with anything currently going on causing this. No build, no connection, no nothing. Random event occurs (And worse has happened before) and we are suddenly divided. In comparison, look at Infinite Crisis. The build started two years before it started, and I don't know a comic book that didn't have some connection to the main plot via the 4 tie-ins. That's how you build a crossover that means something. And frankly, right now that's what I see as the big differences in the companies: DC is far superior in coordinating and building their universe, while Marvel seems to impulsively put out a great idea without thinking how they can connect and execute it. 2) The Main Series is completely lacking in content and fails to keep a coherent story thread throughout it. Seriously, the main book is almost useless. Sadly, this falls both on writer and artist for different reasons. First, writer. Millar's writing is so schizophrenic it's not even funny. We get a little bit of something, but before that develops, we are wisked off to something else before getting any sort of real value out of it. Nothing in the main series is seen long enough to get a good explanation of it. It's like watching a movie trailer over and over and over again; we are getting all the cool stuff ("WOW! CAPTAIN AMERICA SURFING ON A FIGHTER JET!" and "WHOA! THOR HAS SHOWN UP!") but we don't get enough story to really get a deep look at what is motivating these people. We have to look at the half a dozen ULTRA SECRET MEETINGS between Captain America and Iron Man to figure it out, along with half a dozen other random side-comics to find out what's really going on. There's no real substance in the main series to make it worth looking at. And while I love Steve McNiven's art... his large panels and full-page splashes hurt the story. Read IC: There are plenty of great moments, but they compress a lot of story into those pages by efficient use of each page. In Civil War, per page you're lucky to get 5 panels, and more often you just get 3 or 4 followed by a splash page or a two-page spread. It's great to have a lot of cinematic shots, but there needs to be those filler pages where people are really getting down to the exposition of the plot and moving it along. Both of these things make me feel like this whole thing is as shallow as a wading pool. Rather than being a really interesting take on registration, it just wants to be cool instead, and that just doesn't work this sort of story. 3) Characterizations that are confusing and sometimes contradictory within the crossover itself. Tony Stark can be manipulative, but he's not a Doctor Doom analog. Reed Richards can be oblivious, but he's not stupid and he has a strong set of moral guidelines and a devotion to his family that is almost unreal. Captain America is resolute, but not stubborn and grizzled to the point of not talking at all. It's all these out-there characterizations that are turning me off. Look at the differences in Tony from Civil War to Amazing Spider-Man to Iron Man. In the first, he's resolute but not completely unreasonable, then in the second he's pretty much a facist, and in the final one he's like a lost puppy. I mean, at least get your characterizations consistant. I know that Reed Richards can be too geeky, but watching him admit to Peter Parker that he's doing this because he's afraid of the government, along with the fact that he doesn't seem to believe in this at all and sacrificed his family for it is just too much. It just boggles my mind. 4) Frontline going from good to bad to worse. Frontline was one of the reasons that I kept watching this story for so long. It had two interesting main characters and provided some more information on things. Now, looking at it, it just seems to be a mess. We get an Atlantian plot that really goes nowhere (and gets the weirdest historical comparison I've ever seen), a Green Goblin plot that also hasn't paid off yet, and the little end things that were getting attrociously preachy. The new plot of 'Stark's doing it for the money!' seems tacked on and what was advertised as getting the 'little guy's perspective' doesn't really come through.1 5) Delays This is pretty self-explanitory. I haven't seen anything so fantastic that it would really warrent delaying everything for 3 months. This should have been planned and done and ready enough so that we'd only have a few minor (read: one-week) delays. This thing feels drawn out, and that's because it should have been over by now. 6) Inability to let people make their own choice. This was build as "Whose side are you on?" Well, let's look at the sides: - Captain America and the Freedom Fighters. - Iron Man's posse + World's Greatest Villains + Clone Thor. Seriously, we haven't seen anything that makes registration worthwhile. From Stark's Clone Thor to Richards' horrifying Negative Zone Prison to the use of the Thunderbolts to take down heroes to corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D. to possible insider trading by Tony and a whole slew of horrible things, we have no reason to even look at the Registration side with anything less than a plot by the government to turn the US into a military state. Millar's put a political spin on this comic that gets more and more unbearable as it goes on, and frankly it's just getting irritating. I supported registration when it first stated... and then they CLONED THOR for NO REASON WHATSOEVER. You have the damned SENTRY. Why do you need Thor? The whole thing seems to be one long political commentary showing us "Don't trust Big Guv-er-mint!" and it's just getting tired now. Whew. That was a rant I needed to get out.

Next week's preview: Big things, big things. - Glad to see Andy totally freak out, especially at something so damned lame, too. Him putting a HOLE IN THE WALL was completely out there, though. - This episode had a really weird feeling running through it. It was definitely a little more serious than the others, plus highlighting the differences between Dwight's hilarious hero-worship of Michael vs. Andy's weird stalker vibe made things feel a lot different. - A lot of growth from different characters. Angela showing off her emotional side, appologizing to Oscar like that was, well, pretty damn surprising. And Michael recognizing his mistake and showing some honest-to-God backbone completely blowing off Andy's sucking up was nice. I know it's not much, but it was good to see Michael not fall to Andy's compliments like he has been in recent episodes. - Jim, Pam, and Karen continue to run their circles. With Jim's admission, I wonder if Karen's going to leave in the next few episodes, or if Jim's really going to try and give it a shot with her. My Disappointments: - There wasn't much from the rest of the office in this episode. Creed, Meredith, Kevin, Stanley, Phyllis, even Oscar didn't get much screentime. Also no Darryl and Roy, which kind of disappointed me. I'd like to see a little more of Roy actually trying to get Pam back.

Oh. My. God.

That'd be dumb. The UK version was great... but it was built for a two-season, 12 episode end. Frankly, this Office has managed to keep original and interesting for triple that, while maintaining an excellent level of quality.

Here you go http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/web/thread....66&tstart=0 Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. There are a lot of big big HUGE developments this week. A proverbial homerun.

Kord died as the one person who picked up on the biggest conspiracy in the DCU, and when confronted with something that he couldn't possibly take on, he never surrendered. I always thought it was a great end for him. I especially loved it when Max said "Beetle, you were never second-string." Plus, the new Blue Beetle is pretty cool. They are really incorporating a lot of the weirder parts of the DCU into it. And at no extra cost, the original Peacemaker returns. Rock. Same with Conner. He died as one of the greatest heroes ever after doubting if he was even a hero or not. If anything, I want him to stay dead no matter what. He died a death more spectacular than even Barry Allen, and that takes some doing.

You know, I didn't think I'd like that choice. But after reading through some of the IC Mini-Series, particularly the ones that this person was involved in, they really, really deserved something like this. Odd how a re-reading can change one's perspective. Could you link the spoiler thread or post or whatever? I'm kinda interested...

You know, by the end of the season, I now think that Dwight's going to be rehired and Andy is going to be working for Staples, making occasional guest appearances.

Dwight quits... that's up there with the Jim/Pam kiss. Seriously.

WHAT THE FUCK.

Thoughts so far: - Wow. Dwight was actually pretty clever there. Both him and Michael actually look pretty competent in this episode (Michael would have made that sale if not for Andy). - Jim slapping Dwight like that was great. - Andy is a bigger asshole than I originally thought.

Ditto on SuperJerk's point. Where did you see anything that gave it to ?

See, I don't believe that. Why the heck would Jan come all the way down there and give a speech as to why he's the wrong guy if she didn't see the E-mail? Why else mention the 'self-destructive' part of things if she doesn't know about the amazingly destructive thing he just did? I think she came down there, and basically what she was saying was "I know what you did, you're a moron, but for whatever reason I still love you". Having her not know, and just come down there to say it when their Jamaican vaction seemed to be totally fine doesn't make sense.

Well, you can't like every episode. And this episode, outside of a few scenes, had a bit more of a serious feel to all of it. I actually thought something might possibly happen to Michael for doing what was easily the most dangerous and stupid thing he's probably ever done. Along with the Karen-Jim-Pam thing being a focal point, it really different from episodes like "The Convict" and "A Benihana Christmas".

This wasn't a great episode, but I think that it was definitely a good one. Parts I Liked: - Dwight's consoling of Pam was great. He was caring, yet clueless enough for it to be completely in character. - Darryl. Curry like's Creed (Who always has the best deleted scenes of all), and I like Darryl and the warehouse staff. Them unfolding the huge poster and Darryl's indifference to Michael was great revenge for the whole "Boys and Girls" incident in the Second Season. Dinkin' Flicka! - "Michael, I got it from my ex-wife. I don't even talk to her." - The development between Jim, Pam, and Karen. Seeing everything flip-flop in their relationship is interesting, and frankly Karen is probably a bigger hinderance than Roy was because Karen is a heckuva lot more likeable than Roy was and much more compatible to Jim. But that's just what I see. -Opening scene, as per usual. Not at the level of "Future Dwight", but then again, I don't think any other bit could really top that. Parts I Didn't Like: - In all honesty, I just didn't buy Jane's attraction to Michael as it was explained. Not even being angry at all for the email and stuff? I mean, I don't mind Jan liking Michael, but seriously, letting him go without even trying to make him grow up a little and be slightly responsible for his actions. Overall, I'd rate the episode somewhere between a 7.9 and an 8.1. It's not the best, but it's a good solid episode any way you look at it.

Bloom's okay. He's not fantastic like Depp, but I don't think he's detrimental to the actual film. Overall, I think it was an above-average film.

I can't believe no one mentioned Jim's face when he realized Michael couldn't tell them apart, nor Michael's brilliant way of marking his girl. The entire episode damn solid, especially Dwight having to sit on the other side of the couple.

It's been used by Orion to fly, and we all know Boom Tubes (There are apparently Hush Tubes now as well).