a99kitten's Musings

Finally watched my Wonder Woman animated movie that I think I have had it on my family room table, as well as with me whenever I go up to Tahoe for an extended period, for like…over a year. If not 2. But I’d prefer to not think it’s been that long.  Because that means I have aged 2 years and OBVIOUSLY that is not true.

I liked it a lot. Was a good story, great animation and I was trying to guess the guest star voices :) It kept most of the Wonder Woman beginnings that I remember from my childhood reading. And the changes weren’t so bad that I wanted to say out loud at the screen  “That’s Not Right!” (yes…I have said that out loud in theaters….embarrassing my friends :) )

Funny thing about Wonder Woman mythology is that on the surface it is pretty anti-man, anti-mankind as a whole. I don’t recall ever noticing that as a kid. And since I’m fairly anti-mankind nowadays, it doesn’t bother me at all now…adays.

This movie had some pretty funny lines. Mostly by Steve Trevor (possibly my favorite: [after Diana shows a girl how to swordfight] “That was sweet. Teaching her to disembowel her playmates like that.” I laughed out loud.) And some by Artemis voiced by Rosario Dawson who sounded nothing like the Rosario Dawson of movies (ZERO Puerto Rican accent.)

The bad thing about watching this movie is that is got me searching Amazon for the Justice League movie, JLA seasons from Cartoon network that I missed due to time constraints and putting the Clone Wars Season 2 in my cart.

I bought the Wonder Woman Kotobukiyi statue while at Comic-Con. I have found that the female figures done are a) way cooler and b) rarer since most geek buyers are male so buy them up FAST :) Don’t believe me? Sample of an eBay auction for another statue that I want: “Kotobukiya CATWOMAN Bishoujo statue by Shunya BOOBS!” Yeah…so…anyway….a fairly good investment. *shaking head*

I really liked her when I saw her. I wasn’t planning on buying her. I was at the booth to buy the Han in Carbonite ice trays as well as the Star Wars light saber chopsticks (yeah…what?) Anyway, I saw her and liked her. Impulse buy! Kotobukiya does a good job with their statues. Their Chewbacca has been on my Find and Buy list for awhile.

I put her up on the living room bookshelf. Husband “demands” the collectibles kept in the home office so the house doesn’t start to look like The 40-year old Virgin’s house. Whatever. I get it. But whatever. I keep my voice-controlled R2 unit in the living room. Anyway, I put the WW statue up on the bookshelf in the living room. On the shelf with some Greek mythology. That works, right? Let’s see how long it takes for him to notice :)

LOVED IT!!!!

Bought the tickets a couple days ago using my free Fandango codes from Groupon. Yay! Picked a Saturday afternoon show because husband had a couple out of town meetings on Friday and wasn’t going to be back until Saturday AM.  He is going out of town again but said flight wasn’t until Saturday night so we chose the 1:40pm showing. While I very much wanted to see it Friday, I would wait the half a day.  It wasn’t a Star Wars or Indy film after all. :)

Husband called me around 10am today saying he just got on the road about an hour ago. Huh? You said you were leaving “early”. I should have asked whose definition of early we were using. Grrr.  Oh…and that he checked his flight and it was actually leaving at 4:55 and not after 7pm like he thought (that’s the arrival time.) Doh! So he had to drive 3+ hours (always bad traffic on weekends so definitely a lot of +), pack for a week trip and then we would drive to the movies, watch a 2 hour movie after 20 minutes of previews and get him to SFO in time to check bags. Uh…sure…OK.

He did hit a lot of traffic. And got home after 12:30pm. And still had to pack. And we left the house in his truck at 1:04pm. With an empty gas tank. But we needed to take his truck since his surf case wouldn’t fit in my Rover. And hit traffic on Highway 1 because well…it’s the weekend. Tourists.

He says on the way “well, worst thing is I miss my flight and have to pay the $100 change fee for the next one. No big deal. I promised you this movie” Huh?  No big deal? Did the aliens from this movie abduct my husband??? Pretty sure yes…yes they did. Got to the theater at 1:39. I raced in while he parked. I scored us great seats though! Also – got to see the Mission Impossible trailer again. CANNOT wait to see that!!

I deliberately wasn’t reading any reviews of C&A because a) critics are generally stupid and b) I didn’t want any opinions or parts of the movie in my head while I watched it. So if you are like me – STOP READING.

The movie started and I would like to state for the record that I was NOT the only one who kind of quietly but still out loud said “YAY!” when Harrison Ford’s name came on the screen :) #geek #stalker

It was non-stop from the moment it started.  Everyone in it is fantastic. The action was fun and the effects never took over the movie. And a big thank you to Jon Favreau for deliberately not filming it in 3D (he talked about that at Comic Con last year.) I’m sure some effects would have been cool in 3D and all but his decision to go with an old Western movie feel definitely made a difference in the tone/feel (for the better) of the movie.

There are a couple scenes where you jump. So maybe not so great for little kids? Depends on them I guess. Personally, the Harry Potter commercials with Voldemort look scarier to me!  In one scene, our entire row jumped! And then we all giggled at ourselves for it right after. Hehehe.

Harrison Ford has some great lines. He plays a pretty grumpy guy and he made me giggle a lot with his grumpiness.  Kinda reminded me of my old boss actually. Seemingly grumpy with a soft (ish) gooey center. A couple lines were definitely Han or Indy lines :) I truly love Harrison Ford. How is he 69??? Oh, and Daniel Craig is totally awesome too! Although I think he had like 10 lines. He was more facial and action type acting. And Olivia Wilde (who is beyond beautiful.) And Sam Rockwell. And all of the other actors. But…well…no one is Harrison Ford, not even James Bond. ;)

There are a few scenes that are obvious winks at Return of the Jedi.  And one BIG wink and smirk to Indiana Jones. That…or I’m a goober who reads too much Star Wars and Indy into everything :) But I don’t think so. Well, I do think I read Star Wars and Indy into a lot of life, but that’s because they are SO awesome. And so applicable!

Oh! – the aliens want our gold. Me too! This also explains the gold bricks promotion at Comic Con.  But seriously…I want the gold too.

And there is a dog in the movie. So really – this makes the movie pretty darn near perfect. A husky would have made it perfect. But then we would all wonder what the heck a husky was going in New Mexico.  So, that’s OK :)

If you want a super fun popcorn movie that makes you smile – GO! If you only like art house crap…err…I mean indie films to make you think or ponder your emotions you should stick with Netflix tonight. Although…it may be too late since you might have stopped reading by now because I told you to earlier :)

My pics from SDCC :)

Spread it all out and looked at everything tonight :)

Purchased:
Funko SDCC Exclusive flocked Chewbacca – ran to get this when doors opened Thursday AM. Was sold out when I went by again on Saturday! Also got the flocked Gizmo on impulse :) This Chewie is something I saw on my tour at ILM and wasn’t allowed to talk about!
Kotobukiya Wonder Woman statue
Kotobukiya Star Wars Mace Windu (purple) chopsticks (I eat a lot of sushi at home so fully justified)
Kotobukiya Star Wars Han in Carbonite ice cube molds
Mimobot Han Solo with Carbonite case 16gb USB drive
Mimobot SDCC exclusive Bossk 8gb USB drive #106/500
Gentle Giant SDCC Exlusive Ralph McQuarrie concept Hoth Stormtrooper (IS Stormy’s full name so had to do it!) They are shipping to me so don’t know #
Sideshow “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope – Limited Edition” hardcover book by Morgan Spurlock #3849/5000
SDCC exclusive JLA tumblers (2)
Soft Kitty (Big Bank Theory) t-shirt
and my favorite:
Han and Chewie pic personally autographed to me by Chewbacca…err Peter Mayhew :)

Freebies (panels or on floor):
Cowboys and Aliens gold brick that was hunted and found (no premier tickets tho :( )
The Hunger Games poster (got this for a friend who loves this series)
SDCC 2011 bags with JLA, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Shark Week on them
SDCC Souvenir programs (2) with JLA cover art
Breaking Dawn “Save The Date” magnet
Breaking Dawn trading cards (including Edward – Squeee!)
Ringer chair (perfect for line sitting!)
Game of Thrones backpack w/book, t-shirt (House Baratheon), mousepad, screen protector, bookmark)
Metal water bottles from Fright Night party – say Holy Water (hehehe)
Fright Night fangs
Fright Night 3-D glasses with hard case (for all my home 3D viewing)
Oh! And the little Chewbacca plush that some guy randomly walked up to me on the floor and gave me for free because “I looked like I liked Chewbacca.” :)

And then I bought on eBay:
Gentle Giant Squirrel Pool (only 500 made – not sure of my number yet)

The fact that I bought this on eBay pisses me off a bit but I wanted it. And I waited for about 40 minutes in line but then it sold out before I got to the counter. This pisses me off because most of the sellers of this item on eBay had more than one to sell (some had 3 or 4.) They (Gentle Giant and all large vendors) should limit the SDCC exclusives to 1 per customer. Pisses me off royally that some scalpers don’t even go to Comic Con for the show, but just to buy the exclusives and get the freebies to sell all of them on eBay. Jerks.

I looked for the eBay seller that only indicated he had 1 for sale. He might have more to sell, but at least it wasn’t obvious. And at least he accepted my Best Offer and I didn’t pay as much as the buyers before me (although probably more than the people who buy any in a week or 2 I would guess.) I am still keeping an eye out on eBay for the official t-shirt with the JLA art in size small.

And then I bought a cool Wolf Sanctuary sweatshirt when I was up there on Sunday. And I buy ornaments from vacation places I go to so bought a Christmas ornament at the USS Midway store. So a consumer long weekend all the way around. Although in fairness to me, I bought much less than most Comic Con trips!

I need more shelves….

…it’s not really about the actual convention which I love but San Diego, the people all crammed in and around, etc. As we walked downtown to go to lunch away from the convention center today it was really trashy. And I don’t mean that the area is normally this way because I’ve been down here more than enough times when it’s not Comic Con time to know it’s actually a great downtown area. Much better than the slimy mudhole that most of San Francisco is.

But during Comic Con it has kinda turned into a weird Mardi Gras. Or the older, cheaper end of the Vegas strip. Where there are tons of people handing out tons of crap, too many people who throw that said crap onto the ground, a carny-like atmosphere with people hustling you for pedi-cab rides, to come into their bar, restaurant, etc, ads on everything and everywhere, people aggressively asking if you will sell them your badge, and way, way, way too many people. And these aren’t all convention goers. Just people who come downtown for the party that has now taken over the entire area and not just the convention center and a hotel or 2.

We walked about 15-20 minutes away and it was much quieter down there. But the closer you got to the convention center, the more obnoxious it became. It totally reminded me of the cheaper end of the Vegas strip. I never go down there anymore because it’s simply so annoying and Vegas can be annoying ion a good day. I stick by the Wynn. Although now that they opened the City Center maybe that will help that end out.

But yeah…it screams tacky. And yucky. Nerdy and geeky I take happily. Tacky, slutty, cheap and yucky – you can keep. And this is another reason I will only ever stay in a hotel right next to the convention center. So I can stay in my little bubble and be happy and unaware in it.

Simply put, San Diego has a beautiful downtown area/Gaslamp District. It just gets taken over for 5 days a year. And again, I am not going to blame the actual Con or the average con attendee. These are different sponsors. Different parties. Different crowd. I blame LA actually….

Took the day off from panels today. There were a couple that I wanted to see (Immortals and Snow White) but I had to sleep in a bit after a very laaaate night last night at the Fright Night event so was going to miss the Immortals start time by the time I got ready and Snow White was smack dab in the middle of the day and I had no idea what kind of lines there would be since Kristen Stewart is in it.

So we tried winning gold bricks for Cowboys and Aliens and sat outside in the sun while doing this. We did get gold bricks! YAY! But no premiere tickets – boo. Oh well. Guess a regular viewing next week when it comes out! Still cool to have a gold brick :) Plus sitting outside was nice after being mostly cooped up inside for the past 2 days. Then went to lunch off-site and stopped by the Chuck Jones gallery. Man, there is so much artwork there that I want to buy. So, so much. A couple cool Marvin the Martian pieces to go with my tattoo :) Although my favorite had to be 2 items of Marc Anthony and Kitty. That cartoon is one of my all-time favorites.I literally get a little misty-eyed every time I watch it:)

There was a Grinch piece that was great too. I had NO idea that he did that animation. There were a few other pieces there that weren’t Chuck Jones such as a signed poster from Star Wars Celebration IV and a JLA (a very red theme) and DC Villians (a very green theme) canvas that were both fantastic. As well as X-Men and Avengers. I love the canvas art. Like I said – so, so much cool stuff.

Then we toured the floor and checked out a lot of the cool booths and took pics of booths and some cool costumes. Oh and I bought a Soft Kitty BBT t-shirt and 2 SDCC exclusive JLA tumblers. I love the JLA artwork they are using for the SDCC exclusive stuff this year. The colors and images really pop. I mentioned to the guy that John Barrowman mentioned his tumblers in the Torchwood panel yesterday and he laughed and said he heard that from someone else. He said he has been very busy so he owes that guy a beer :)

Oh…and ran into Sam Witwer who plays Adian the vampire on SyFy’s show Being Human (adapted from BBC series.) I LOVE this show and love Aidan’s character the best (the vamps are usually my faves.) Also – he is hot ☺ And I saw him by accident. I was walking by the Star Wars car and saw a small crowd and thought it was a Star Wars-related crowd so stopped to see what was going on. Then I saw him and was like EEKS! So I tapped his arm and asked if I could take a pic with him and he said sure. So then I asked another guy looking at the car if he could the pic and he did – yay! I told Aidan…err…Sam that I really loved the show and he was so nice and touched my arm and said thank so much for watching it and that he really appreciated it. How sweet! AND HOT! ☺ So that made up for Underground Toys selling out of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man I wanted since I was walking back from there all pouty when I saw Aidan…err…Sam.

After walking so much all day (again) my ankle was d.u.n. So I came back to the room and have been icing it. We were invited back to the gallery for an event and tequila tasting tonight which would probably be fun since Randy Martinez, one of the Star Wars poster artists, is going to be there. Plus, there is an HBO documentary called “Superheroes” being previewed tonight at our hotel that sounds interesting. I want to see it but I might choose to get dinner downstairs (or even room service – my favorite!) and call it a night early. After so little sleep since Tuesday night and last night going to bed after 3 plus walking so much every day, I am tired!

Today was really the last day for SDCC since there is nothing I wanted to see panels-wise on Sunday so I planned an outing/tour at the Wolf Sanctuary in Julian as they were totally booked Monday. So I gave up an extra SDCC day (typically my floor day) to spend some time with awesome wolfies. I am VERY excited about this. I have been donating to them for years now but have never had time when down here for a tour or visit so this will be very awesome! Kinda funny since the SDCC has been so about the vamps – now I need my wolf fix since I am missing my huskies so much!

I first saw this book here at SDCC last year. I never bought it but now AMZN is offering the Kindle version for $0.99 for a short time!!! So if you are suffering from The Walking Dead withdrawals – go!!

I want Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter too. But that’s not on sale currently so since I have a gazillion books on my Kindle to read, I’ll hold off for now. Although, since the movie comes out in 2012, I can’t hold off too terribly long.

So we got home (well, to the hotel) last night around 1:30am ish. Husband googled Colin Farrell as we were talking about his earlier movies and he wanted to check some of them out. Apparently, one of the top pages that came up in the google results was colin farell + herpes. Awesome. So of course husband clicked story. It wasn’t so much a story about Colin Farrell as a list of celebs that have been seen buying the herpes medicine or have admitted to it. Fn yuck.

And the list was long. And not just filled with the obvious such as the Hiltons, Lohans and Kardashians of the world. But people like Bill Clinton (although I guess one is kinda obvious), Scarlett Johannsen, Brad Pitt, Janet Jackson and more. And then Katie Holmes was on that list?? WHAT?!?! Little sweet Joey from Dawson’s Creek?? She has had like 1 boyfriend and 1 husband. Oh wait…look down the list and there is Joshua Jackson. Oh Pacey…say it ain’t so…

But I have to sit and wonder what the hell is wrong with these people? If you know you have a communicable disease why are you having unprotected sex, kissing whatever with open sores??? ARGH! Guh-ROSS!!! What is wrong with you???

And Hollywood is just 1 big high school class so don’t you girls talk to each other?? Derek Jeter apparently gave 3 or 4 of the girls on the list herpes. Hello???

Now, I have no idea what is true about the list or not. And have no interest or intention in looking further. But if I had a low opinion of celebs before (which I did), it sunk even lower. I just don’t think most of them are very bright. And then they live in their weird bubble of warped reality. With a lot of money and no one to tell them no or teach them about clean living. Bad combo. This doesn’t mean all actors are like this. Big, BIG difference between actors and celebrities.

On the bright side though, Colin Farrell was extremely polite and gracious at the event last night. So many people were crowding around and asking for pictures (yes, me too as he came by) and autographs. And he accommodated everyone who asked and answered questions. Very nice. So I can only say why did you sleep with Lindsay Lohan and get diseased poor sir…

This was the website:

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message696798/pg1

Today was a busy day!! Up at 6am. Well actually my alarm was set for 6am but I woke up at 5:58am. Got ready and met my friend who graciously got in line at 6:30! The line was looooooooong. They made 1 giant line for everything but Hall H this year. We high-tailed it over to the Ballroom 20 line and were about 1500-2000 in line. So no problem on getting in – yay!

They let us in around 9:15 I guess and then the panels started at 10. I don’t watch Torchwood but have heard of it on twitter and tumblr. I didn’t know it was a Doctor Who spin off. So I know nothing of the show but the cast was awesome! Totally made me want to watch the show. The lead (John Barrowman) led us in song at the end of the panel – we all were singing Annie’s “Tomorrow” as the panel ended. He was a giant crack-up who I think must live on 5-Hour Energy shots. He was cracking jokes and puns every 2 seconds! And looks so much like Tom Cruise it’s weird. I am a little afraid to get excited and start watching  the show since that happened last year with Stargate: Universe and I bought the season 1 and 1.5 DVDs and caught all up in prep for season 2 and then they cancelled the show during season 2. What the frack.?? But Torchwood is on Starz and not SyFy so maybe better luck?

Then it was The Walking Dead panel.  I watched 2 (maybe 3) eps last year and stopped after the horse death. I just could not go on. But this panel and the scenes for Season 2 that they showed us convinced me to watch the last 3 eps in Season 1 (they made a short season). It does look really good. So I’ll give it another try. Much like with Game of Thrones books, I will just fast forward past the sadness.

Then it was Big Bang Theory!!!! Such a great cast. Last year’s panel was super fantastic and this year’s was awesome too. They are just so funny and great with the Q&A. Love, love, love them.

They cancelled the Bones panel for some reason (have never not had David B at a con – boo!) so I high-tailed it over to Hall H. Husband was already inside saving me a seat but it took me about 2 hours to get in. Ugh. But while in line I talked to the guy behind me. He had 2 tix to the Cowboys and Aliens premiere. I saw him take them out of his bag and said “those are so special.” He asked “do you know what these are?” I said “Sure do. And I’d kill anyone in this line to get them.” He looked at me and tried to judge how serious I was. Then I said “Nah, kidding…..maybe.” and smiled. I was quite jealous! I will add that all of the texts for the free ticket giveaways stated you had to have a SDCC badge. So that’s good. Still too many of them off-site and unable to get to if a Con attendee in reality, but at least it’s something I guess. Maybe Jon Favreau read my blog rant last night :)

Finally got in for the Sony panel – yay! They had the directors and cast for the Ghost Rider movie. It does look fun and Nic Cage is always kooky at panels. The director seems a bit insane. They showed some stunts that HE was doing to get certain shots. Very cool. So I will probably see it on DVD.

The next movie didn’t really belong at Comic Con genre-wise but it looked damn funny. Called “30 Minutes or Less” with Jesse Eisenberg, who was not there, and Danny McBride, who was also not there but sent a clip introducing the movie and apologizing for not being there and it was hysterical!, and then Aziz Ansari who was there and he was FUNNY! Definitely want to see this movie.  And I need to add Parks and Recs to my tivo line-up. I only have BBT for comedy and need more!

Then Total Recall time!!! Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston and John Cho. They were all great! Fantastic Q&A with both the moderator and the audience. The movie footage looked super cool and fun. Also – Colin and Kate are hotness. I definitely want to see this. And I was against a reboot/remake/retelling going in.

Then finally Spiderman. When I first heard of this reboot I was like “are you kidding? It’s only been a few years since the last Spidey with Tobey Maguire?!?” But the footage we got to see with Andrew Garfield as Spidey and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy looked excellent! Plus Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary – great cast! Again – I will see this one for sure.  And Andrew Garfield is kind of adorable. But what the heck? He is British ( I had no idea from The Social Network) and he is playing Spiderman and Henry Cavill (Brit) is going to be Superman – what the heck??? The Brits are invading!! Oh well…that’s ok…love the accent.

While husband was in Hall H, and me out in line, he saw the Fright Night panel (yes, another reboot) with Colin Farrell. And he won a ticket for a special premiere tonight. So we went over after the Con and the ticket was only for 1 admission but the bossman at the door let me in too (he must have liked the wolf ears I was still wearing!) Tons of yummy food and drinks. The place was decorated in gothic vampirey and slayer mode. Very cool. With all of the weapons that thy have in the movie on display.

Then the cast showed up! And I wiggled in and got a pic with Colin Farrell – yay!! He is so hot in real life. Yum. But he was also extremely nice and patient with people pushing in and asking for pics and autographs. Very, very cool. I also talked to Anton Yelchin and told him that I loved him in Star Trek J  Funny thing – Colin Farrell is much taller than I expected. I guess not all actors are short.

Squeee!

We then got to see the movie (with free popcorn, soda, water and candy!) The movie was super fun. I barely remember the original but the story came back to me as I was watching it.  Very fun, campy horror movie. Oh – and it was in 3D. So some cool effects. A very fun event. And funnily (my word), it’s the first movie I have seen entirely in 3D. I have not been part of the crown rushing out to see 3D movies. Not very cool of me I know. But I just don;t care unless it really enhances the movie. This movie was campy and fun so the effects being thrown at you were blood and vampires and stuff so that was pretty fun. But some of the movies they have done in 3D, I’m like “Hmmm….really?” I’m sure Avatar was amazing in 3D but James Cameron filmed that in 3D. Didn’t just add it as an effect. So my take is if it will enhance the story or my enjoyment – cool. If it’s just a way to add a few flying things and get a few more dollars in ticket prices – no thanks. But then I do most of movie watching at home from NFLX anyway.

Then walked back to the hotel at 1:30am where I am now icing my ankle which is the size of 2 ankles. But a fun, long day at Comic Con 2011!!  Not sure what the plan for tomorrow is yet. But I need a bit of sleep. And would like to try for my Con shirt (if any left in small) And you know what? I have not even checked out the Star wars booth yet. Sacrilege. Total Fail!!! Need. To. Do. Saturday!

So my friend got online at 6:30. I met her at 7am. And we are about 2000 back but Ballroom 20 holds about 4200 so we are good to get in. So now we are sitting here on our little chairs we “won” at the Ringer panel. Genius swag.

I think the bulk of these hardcore people are for Torchwood – which I don’t care about. Then it’s The Walking Dead and finally Big Bang Theory which is the reason I am here waiting!! The Bones panel was cancelled :(

I’ve had my picture taken already. Chewie and my wolf ears are popular :)

We saw a pair of what I think were furries. Creepy.

Another woman wearing high heels. Serious stupid. I’m all for being cute but heels are so dumb here. Like watching the LA douche couple get in line for Hall H yesterday – guy in his Ed Hardy finest and girl in a silk sheath dress with 5″ heels…sinking in the grass. Those are the real dorks here.

Oh – we are moving! Gotta go!