Optimistic Prime

It seems that, despite X3 being sort of a kill ’em off end the franchise total departure from the ensemble approach of the comics, some of the people making comic book movies might “get” them and how to do them justice. Superman Returns had some weird plot elements that for my money are still open and not conclusive. However Singer started the film proper with the original 70’s style cheesy credits and the dramatic John Williams theme that is iconic of Superman. By doing this he ensured a better connection between the previous movies and properly placed Superman Returns as the fifth movie.

A while back I posted about the upcoming Transformers film and just recently heard that it was announced at the San Diego Comic Con that the original voice actor Peter Cullen will be returning to do the voice for Optimus Prime in this movie. Both this and the Superman thing are superficial to be sure but they are important none-the-less and I like that these details are being taken into account. Surely the studio could have opted for some big name star power actor for the voice like they have in so many of these talking animal pictures but to go to the man who is Prime shows an understanding and appropriate reverence for the source material. I just hope that is also reflected in the script.

The Spiderman 3 trailer playing with Superman Returns looks pretty cool! I think we will be getting some Venom, Sandman as the incidental villian, and Harry will become the new Green Goblin (this is the climax which is the best part of any story to be sure). They are bringing the black suit out but it is a different design. Still I think Rami is going to be putting some of his personal touches on this film which looks to be much darker (usually cooler) than the first two.

On a sad note the actor Mako who was the wizard in the Conan films and did the voice for Aku on Samurai Jack and more recently Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender died at the age of 72. I’m not sure how many more episodes of Avatar he had recorded but this will certainly change some element of the story as Iroh was becoming more important in the second season. He had a unique voice in cartoons R.I.P.