The Wonder Woman We… I Want.

Hey there to whomever’s reading this latest post of mine. I’ve noticed that my postings have been few and far in-between, but I aim to fix that…eventually. In the mean the mean time, I was talking with a co-worker of mine about things from our childhood; cartoons, movies and such.. and we came to the topic of Wonder Woman… or to be more specific, who should play Wonder Woman should they decide to make a film for her(with the obvious fact that a Justice League film is obviously looming overhead in the distance.)

So, here’s yet another geek-fueled post by yours truly. Here’s my top 5 list of the most capable female actresses who also happen to have the required looks to play the role of probably the most powerful female character in the entire DC Universe.

 

1) Jaimie Alexander: It may seem obvious to claim that Jaimie Alexander(the only female Asgardian on Marvel’s side)would be a more than perfect pick for Wonder Woman. As Sif,(In the film Thor)the female Asgardian warrior, she more than combined beauty with brawn. Believe it or not, Alexander’s been brought up in the past as a possible/potential Diana, but for one reason or another, her interest decreased. None the less, she would do a more than splendid job in the role.

2) Michelle Rodriguez: Being no stranger to the genre of action, Rodriguez has more than shown she can hold her own, whether it’s taking down the infected undead, fighting off an alien attack, driving really fast, or flying/firing from a gunship while kicking butt and taking names…like a boss. Aside from that, she..like every actress mentioned or to be mentioned in this list more than physically fits the bill. And while some may question her as a pick, due to her not being Caucasian, keep in mind…that Wonder Woman herself is not Caucasian… She’s Greek.

3) Jennifer Lawrence: Star of The Hunger Games, Lawrence showed us that she can do action, and quite well at that. As Katniss Everdeen, she’s shown she can hold her own in a lethal fight to the death, while inspiring that most important of things.. hope. And as good as she is as an archer(In character at least), the world would be a far more interesting place, and we would get a near-perfect representation of the Amazonian  princess.

4) Sarah Michelle Gellar: There’s no question that Gellar would be more than suited for the role of Amazonian princess. Her stint as Buffy Summers in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997-2003 more than qualifies her as capable. As the titled character, she’s faced vampire lords, eldritch deities, the apocalypse(on a few occasions) and even the very first evil to ever exist. We’re talking the embodiment of all evil here. If that’s not good enough reason, then there’s also the fact that she is an actually good actor. Her roles in The Grudge, the 2 Scooby Doo films, Cruel Intentions have proven that. And she’s even got geek cred having voiced April O’Neil in the TMNT film.

5) Lucy Lawless: Just like the 4 mentioned actresses above, Lawless has earned her action chops. In her case, it was in her role as TV’s Xena, Warrior Princess. The ancient Greek equivalent of Wonder Woman, she was basically everything Wonder Woman stood for and then some. She’s taken on monsters, warlords, demi-gods and the god of war himself, Aries. She’s even taken on angels and demons. She may be a little older now than when she played the title character, but I have no doubt that Lucy Lawless could more than handle the role and do it some major justice.

 

I should note that none of the images used in this blog post are by any means my property.

A Thought on the Devine.

“Man simply created G-d in order not to kill himself. That is the summary on universal history to this moment.”- Philosopher, Albert Camus.

An excerpt from ‘A Higher Good’:

“…That’s really the premise of this entire part of the book. All of the archaic documents of the western faiths (the Bible, Talmud and Koran) glorify a G-d that relatively primitive men chose because they mirrored their own twisted psyche and political purposes. There may have been, and probably were, documents around that described a Higher Good, but because those transcended man’s own egotistical ideals of justice, they were ignored or discarded. Because they did not describe a G-d with attributes and physical images similar to his own, they were ignored. Those he thought were inspired by G-d, were those that described manifestations of beings, or a being, that was a supernatural and super-powerful image of himself, similar to the deities the Greeks, Egyptians and Babylonians worshiped before him. To fit his egotistical imaging, and the idea that the world and the universe revolved around him, man chose documents that described a G-d who created him in G-d’s own image, right down to his fingers and toes and irrational woes…”

Long before man had ever erected a single temple or given name to the mysterious forces of the universe, before organized religion, our ancient ancestors had some form of belief in a spirit world of sorts. This is a belief supported by their ritual burial practices. So, long before we had people to tell us to believe in something.. we believed. The Egyptians, Mayans, ancient Vikings, Celts, ancient Chinese, Romans, Greeks… everyone since the time of our ancestors has believed in something greater than themselves.While I know next to nothing about the spiritual beliefs of many of these peoples, I do know a thing or two about Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology and belief. In all three instances, the pantheons of deities of those individual peoples were more human than not. They possessed all the aspects of a deity… limitless knowledge, power that could topple kingdoms, nations, and life itself, power to create life and take it away just as easily.

When it comes to those ancient peoples, one could simply say that their gods or deities were ways of explaining things they had no possible way of otherwise explaining. Nobody knew what caused thunder or lightning, so it was attributed to Thor riding his chariot through the clouds or Zeus angrily hurling a lightning bold here or there. We as a people had no way of knowing what was going on, so we created gods; and as our understanding of the world grew, our need for all powerful, invisible beings who were natured just as we diminished. Or did it? Somehow, despite our understanding of ourselves, our world, and what we think we know about the universe in which we live, we believe. Some of us that is. The ancient pagans believed in several gods… a pantheon if you will of deities. Each god or goddess served a specific function or role. A god for love, a god for war, a god of storms, and a god of …I don’t know.. calm winds. In early and modern Christianity, it’s believed that there is but one supreme deity who embodies every aspect given to each individual deity one could possibly conceive.

Now while some say, as I’ve stated before in this blog that deities such as Thor or Zeus were just ways for people to explain what they didn’t understand, the belief in a higher power of some sort still persists throughout a large portion of the world. If the Olympian deities, Norse deities, Egyptian deities and all other deities were nothing more than man grasping to understand the world and his(or her) place in it, can the same not be said of the current belief in the G-d of Abraham and Isaac who is still worshiped today? At some level does man still so fear the unknown that it must be named, given titles and power over us? Are we the great inventors who have created G-d? Or is it G-d who has truly created us? If in fact it is we who have created him(or her, or .. it even.), why then would we make a deity who while soo benevolent and loving, allows evil to exist in the world? On the other hand, if in fact it is G-d who has created us, then why so in his own image? Why create us at all? I honestly can’t answer any of those questions, but I can only guess and theorize…

G-d is as real as he is unreal. That is to say, as real as any idea conceived, if not more-so. Imagine if you will a time before life and the universe as it is now existed,where there was something…some force out there. Maybe it was completely coherent and knowledgeable of its surrounds and what it was doing or maybe it simply existed/exists no more than an amoeba does, only on a cosmic scale.  Now, this thing, this…force had no name, or title or even true purpose in all of its actions, but somehow, possibly through its sheer being, the big bang happened and in the course of time, humankind appeared and evolved into what we are now. Throughout the process of our existence and evolution we somehow became aware of or conceived the notion of this thing… this force and we couldn’t truly it which of course frightened us. Then we sought to name this thing… called it Zeus, Odin, Ra, Yahweh, G-d.. whatever. We gave it titles and made it more like us so that in the end, we wouldn’t fear it so much. We couldn’t control this thing, but we could understand it better and in doing so, we could understand ourselves and our place in life better. I suppose what I’m suggesting is what if G-d existed merely as a force of the universe itself? Not created by anything, but simply existing because it was in fact the embodiment of existence or reality. What if we were created because G-d exists and G-d exists because we were created and perceive him(or her) to be? We give name, shape and form to that thing that is existence/reality. We called it Ra, Odin, Zeus, The Dagda, and now call it Allah, or G-d. We are our creators creations and his creators. If… just if.. that was true, then everyone everywhere is both wrong and right when it comes down to the question of G-d’s existence. That could mess with a ton of peoples heads for a while.

Anyway, that was all just a thought. It popped into my head and I figured I would put it here for folk to read and give their opinion on. And in the event that this in any particular way offends anyone, just know that I myself do believe in a higher power; namely G-d, and this is in no way meant to slight anyone who believes differently than I do or for that matter, doesn’t believe at all.

And a big thank you to the artists of the pieces I’ve used in this post (as I did not do these works of art.). I’m not sure who you all are, but if you should happen to stumble upon this post and see your artwork here, thank you for creating it.

Enough is Enough…Isn’t it?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “The Avengers” has a new superpower: 3D. Walt Disney Studios said Thursday that the movie will be released in the format when it debuts May 4.

I’ve noticed an alarming trend recently. That trend being that there are more and more movies being made in 3D. Now don’t get me wrong, when I saw James Cameron’s Avatar, I had to see it in IMAX 3D. It was just that epic of a movie. So I’m not against 3D movies all together. There are a ton of movies that have been made 3D though and unnecessarily at that.  Upon checking Wikipedia, I found over 30 titles that have been released in 2011 alone in 3D; starting with The Green Hornet on January 14, 2011 and ending with the release of The Darkest Hour on December 23, 2011.

While I love my films based on super powered individuals as much as the next person, or a little more, I don’t really think that every single superhero film should be made in 3D.

Movies deserving to be made in 3D this year include:

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

Final Destination 5

These are the kind of movies that should be done in 3D, especially seeing as you don’t see these types of films being popped out every other day.

Movies undeserving of being made in 3D this year include:

Gnomeo and Juliet

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

TT3D: Closer to the Edge

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

Thor

Piranha 3D

Priest… the list goes on.

Now I’m sure you’ve noticed the first list is shorter than the second one, but that’s just the way I see it. I’m not saying that any of these movies are bad in any way(except the Justin Bieber one of course.) All I’m saying is that if you’re a film maker and you’re going to make a movie in 3D then you should be sure that the film is worth being put in 3D. You don’t see George A. Romero making every single zombie film he makes in 3D, do you? No.. and his films are awesome.

As a matter of fact, I’d say why not take a break from making 3D films Hollywood.?. I mean.. does 3D really enhance the films or is it just plain unnecessary? The average price about now where I live to see a non 3D film is $9.75 for an adult, $7.00 for children, and $7.00  for seniors. When it comes to watching those same films in 3D, the prices jump to $11.25 for an adult, $10.50 for children, and $10.50 for seniors. Sure, that’s only a difference of $1.50, but is it really worth it when the odds seem to always lean more towards the 3D being ill-used? If a family of 3 were to go on a movie night just to see.. “The Adventures of Tintin 3D”, assuming it’s 2 adults and 1 child the price for viewing the movie alone comes to about $33.00, not to mention the concessions such as drinks, candy, and or hotdogs…

Are you a slave to 3D?