Hey there..whoever watches and reads my Journal first entry of 2012 after 2 months anyway. Weather's been really weird up in the North Bay Area, 70 degrees in afternoons one week, back to it being rainy and feeling like Winter again now (hence the current moon) Well some good news for me is that I finally got my desktop PC repaired and upgraded (to Windows 7) by a VERY good friend who I owe bigtime now. And that means I can do better work with Photoshop coloring then I could with my slow and out of date PowerBook G4, so hopefully I'll get my lazy ass back to finishing more stuff to put on my gallery soon. AND I finally got my own Masters of the Universe Classics Teela figure for 40 bucks, which sadly was the best deal I could find on Ebay at the time. I later learned that Matty Collector.com had a Black Friday deal for 15 !
  And recently I saw John Cart (of Mars but didn't do the 3D cause I just hate that racket, plus my eyes just hurt when I wear those things too long. ), and I LOVED it :joy:, which if ironic since I can't remember the last time I EVER got excited for a Disney movie, but Andrew Stanton was the right person to direct something this ambitious IMHO, plus I think he managed to hold his ground against any Disney executives wanting to change things to be better marketable for the general audiences. Unfortunately that may have worked against him due to it under-performing at the box office sadly; in the US anyway, I head it was the #1 Movie in Russia of all places, so rockin' I hope international releases save it. I've only been reading the recent Dynamite Comics adaptations mind you, collecting every Joe Jusko cover he does , all the gripes about it not being entirely true to the books didn't matter to me, besides if a movie adaptation of a book or whatever actually DID stay page by page true to it's source, that would be a little boring for those so-called "fan-boys purists" I was able to get into it all the way without having read the original books. And I loved the way the Tharks were done, this was probably thanks to Andrew Stanton's direction,  being able to channel his Pixar expertise in making weird alien things having a believable range in emotions (and illustrating that there are good AND bad Tharks, unlike say the Na'Vi from Avatar whom we were just supposed to like because they had a unique language and an environmental plight to get behind...the audience wasn't being blatantly manipulated is what I mean), and that alien lizard-dog thing (Woola) really stole the show at a few points as well XD [link] As the Somethingawful.com review put it best, More Heartwarming than 1000 Jar Jar Binkses in a Blender. Come to think of it Woola looked like something you'd see in the background of Java's Palace in Return of the Jedi, only given some real life and strangely adorable.  What's ironic is that this film also stars a lot of not too famous actors (save for Dafoe as Tars and he wasn't gonna be recognized as a 4-arm bug-man) and the hero and heroine were both in that atrocious X-Men origins Wolverene film where they had bearly any memorable moments due to that being Huge Jackman's movie after all. I thought Taylor did a fine job as the reluctant hero type, his sudden turn to fight for a cause may felt a little cliche, but the action sequence made me not care and just enjoy the show. And Dajah...DYAMM Lynn Collins is smocking hot, it didn't even bug me that she wasn't looking the way Jusko paints her in those covers (like they could get away with that from a Disney film) but was pleasantly surprised that she still showed a good amount of skin al things considered, and her "arranged" wedding dress came pretty damm close to how she appears in those Frazetta/Jusko paintings. AND she made for a likable strong woman not letting herself being the damsel in distress and could hold her own in a fight. She sure was better then Gemma Arterton was in Prince of Persia POS, she read all her lines with about as much effort as a spokeswoman for a Zoloft ad, with a really robotic English accent to boot. And I really liked the way they paid homage to the actual author by having him play a part in the story which at first (in the beginning I didn't know what they were getting at), then connecting the dots at the end in, I think anyway, to be really clever but don't want to spoil it here for those who haven't seen it.
Now I've only read other adaptations of "A Princess of Mars" but was a little surprised to not see or hear about the Atmosphere Plant, since I recall it being one of the major plot points in the book, am I right?Perhaps they may do something with that in a sequel, which I really hope happens for this as a franchise. Hell Prince Caspian didn't do very well revenue-wise but they still made Dawn Treader anyway, I hope Disney give JCM another chance because I'll definitely be there for another ride.
On to some sadder new, I couldn't go to Wondercon due to the Moscone Center in SF being renovated this year, I was already looking at some Flickr photos and Youtube coverage and already got depressed in what I missed. I really hope it goes back to San Fran next year, I hate that Southern California is getting all the big comic conventions. All the Bay Area has is Wondercon and Big Wow comicfeast in San Jose: [link] which I now can't go to this May due to a family related obligation I was informed of back in February for the SAME EXACT WEEKEND before I could even bring it up ! My last hope for a geek outing this year will be Powercon in LA September; an all He-Man and Thundercats related event. I'm still hoping my friend will be willing to meet up for that since I'd be a lost puppy by myself in LA (never been there before ) Better Times !