ye gods, am I tired.
But happy. And I haven’t crashed yet, so let’s see how I get through the upcoming happy hour/farewell to a coworker who’s off to (Wash U) med school. Lucky girl.
Anyway, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was all that and a barrel of monkeys. Well, one undead one, anyway. I liked it, perhaps not quite as much as the first, but well enough that I won’t be sorry to see it again. The ending is one heck of a cliffhanger that NO ONE in the theater saw coming. Orlando looked fine, though his dialogue wasn’t as good as it could have been. Johnny Depp was superb, again, even when he was being wacky.
It definitely suffers from middle-child syndrome, but so much less so than, say, Episode II. It has a beginning, middle, and end, but there are quite a few story threads and it can be difficult to keep track of everyone’s shifting alliances. Well, it was difficult for me, but that could just be because I was doing it on very little sleep and between 12 and 2 am…
I brought my hat, but decided I didn’t really want to tote it into the theater and risk having to put it on the floor. I should have done, though. There were quite a few other people dressed up. I almost did, but I wasn’t thinking clearly enough before I left for the theater to get one together. We lost the softball game (drat, again, and through some errors of mine, sigh) and it was a late game, too, so I didn’t have a lot of time to shower, eat and change. Oh well.
Okay, it’s time to get happy. Enjoy the weekend!

This time last night I was sitting in a movie theater, watching the premiere of Superman Returns on an IMAX screen in 3D. It was pretty cool.
First off, let me just say that I think Brandon Routh is quite good looking, and it would be worth it to see the movie again just for him. Of course, I say that now, while Pirates 2 is still a week and a half away.
So, about the movie. I liked it, quite a bit. It was probably better than X3, if we’re comparing superhero/comic book movies, on par with X2, possibly better than Spidey 2. Eh. Maybe not. I really liked Spidey 2.
I’m trying to remember what I said for the Fanboy Smackdown podcast, but as it’s rather late and I’ve still got a few chapters of the new Anita Blake book to read, so you will just have to listen to the podcast and find out what we (me and the writing buddies who saw the show) chatted about.
It was a visually pleasing show to watch. Lots of interesting ideas and a fair bit of plot for a comic movie. I liked that they managed to make Superman seem human even in his super-ness. I didn’t like how the CG artists couldn’t quite figure out how to render the superCape, but perhaps that’s just me and my odd aesthetics.
The 3D aspect of it was fun (especially the fact that all three trailers–that has to have been the shortest preview section I’ve ever watched–were in 3D too) but didn’t really do much for me. Part of that could have been because we were sitting in the third row from the screen, hence much neck-craning went on. The price you pay, I guess.
Speaking of price, it’s finally happened: I paid double digits for a movie ticket. I remember thinking back in 2003 when Pirates came out and I was in CA for Comic-Con. I saw Pirates out there, and paid 9.45 and was appalled. Well, these tix were $11. Sigh. Young, prices were reasonable, nostalgia, etc.
I’ll gladly see it again, most likely with the ‘rents, since that’s the way things go. However, tonight was special, since my parents decided at the last minute that they wanted to see Aida at the Muny. We were actually planning on just sitting outside and listening to the music or seeing if there were any free seats. So we go to check out the free seat availability, and my mom asks an usher if there are any left. He calls this woman over, and she consults a fistful of tickets, they debate, gave us three tickets, two of which were in the same row, another that was just behind.
We start walking towards the free seats, then look at the tickets. Lo and behold they are actually in the paying section of the theater! Sweet! We got good, comp tickets, and it turned out that we could sit together anyway because no one claimed the seat next to my parents.
Aida was good; I wasn’t expecting it to be spectacular, since I sort of mistrust anything that advertises itself as coming from Elton John. But it’s good. I like the songs and I guess one day I’ll get the soundtrack. It was pretty professional as Muny shows go; last year (I think…could have been before that, can’t remember) we saw Beauty and the Beast there, and it wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been. Yet another movie I’d like to see on Broadway. or at least at the Fox 😉
So who wants to see Superman again before Pirates comes along and knocks it out of #1? *fangirl giggle* There are other things I’d like to chat about for Superman, but not now. It’s definitely time for bed. If I’m ambitious, I’ll remember what it is that I wanted to say. If I’m lucky, I’ll see it again this weekend and have a better angle to present. Go see it and tell me what you think.