Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!

Set pics from Conan...bid deal; don't show anything other than a little window dressing. I've never understood why people get excited over set pics shot from a distance that have no detail. Let's see Momoa in costume.

I can take or leave another MIB movie. The first one was OK, but I thought the second film was an uninspired dash for cash. In otherwords they were just milking the moneycow.

As for the Mandarin...I know he's Iron Man's arch nemesis, but I never liked the character. I always thought the rings were a little dumb. And I definitely don't want a Fu Man Chu-looking badguy because lord knows every Asian league this side of Mars will be spewing "It's a racist depiction...blah, blah, blah" crap not realizing it's just a movie not a political statement. Telling the tale of Mandarin finding the spacecraft in the Valley of Spirits would take too long to tell, so I don't think that's the logical way to go. Since IM2 sets the stage for a lot of countries trying to mimic the IM armor, doesn't it make sense that the Circle of 10 Rings would try to either design or steal the tech for their own battle suits? They could take their 10 best foot soldiers and put each in a specially designed suit that has a singular power. Since the suit is designed for just one weapon and the suit's power only goes to one weapon, the suit would be powerful. There could be a suit for heat, cold, black light, white light, holograms, repulsors, etc...ten powers all commanded by the Mandarin who has a suit of his own. A different take on the 10 rings. People might be bored seeing IM battle another group of battlesuits.

Rehairs, thanks for the correction. It's been awhile since I've seen Spaceballs.

I think they should stick with the 10 rings of power concept for The Mandarian.I think what fans most complain about in superhero movies is when they make changes that take the characters too far from the idea of the comic.  Making the rings only a metaphor for suits of armor or something else seems to stray a bit. Either have the alien tech origin or the supernatural power story for the rings but keep it as some evil villain of asian/central asian origin who's carrying around alot deadly force on his hands. 

Conan pics are up... looks like crap to me.  

http://operationkino.net/2010/05/momoa-conan-new-images-from-production-in-bulgaria/

I definitely don't want to see The Mandarin the way he used to be depicted because, yeah, no matter how  you slice it, it was a pretty damn racist depiction. Dude looked like some slanty eyed Fu Manchu knock off. Not cool. They could just make him an Asian businessman who uses the 10 rings to destabilize governments, in order to gain power. That would be way more reality based. He could dabble in the black arts mixing it with technology, like Doctor Doom does.

The fact that Thor is in this same universe instantly legitimizes magic as a possibility. How the hell else would they explain Mjolnir falling from the sky? They aren't going to change who Thor is so it will fit. Thor is a god. They may not believe him at first especially someone like Tony who is all about science.  I'm sure that'll be an issue in Avengers.

Am I the only maniac wondering where TV Wasteland is this week?

Hahaha! Thanks Amby! Barbarian chic! Conan looks like a low-budget crapfest!

Conan Problematic Already?

Okay, obviously I'm the only one who is worried that the set design already appears foreboding about the rest of the movie.

Does it bother anyone else that if these pictures are all inclusive of what will appear on film that there are 2 glaring problems to begin with.

First of all, next to the hut, there is a GREEN WHEELBARROW.  I wasn't aware they had a Dupont Paint Company in the MESOPOTAMIAN cradle of civilization.

And Secondly and more importantly the Wagon in the right forefront has METAL BANDED WHEEL WELL COVERS.  And exactly why are wheel well fender flares necessary with a cart being pulled by a horse? Do the wheels fling up that much mud?  Not even all the Roman Chariots had wheel well covers.  The majority if not all Wagons of the American Plains in the 1800s also were not covered. In fact wheel well covers were not even necessary until the automobile appeared because the gasoline engine would spin the the wheels fast enough to throw up mud and dirt.

Besides that, these are well crafted Metal Banded Wheel well covers. That's one great blacksmith with a hell of a Mesopotamian metal working Lathe Shop and not just a furnace to make the clearances over the wheels perfectly symmetrical.

Where's this all going?  Look if you're the Director and your directing a movie about the dawn of time and the cradle of Civilization don't you think set dressing is kind of important to stress the era of the movie?  I mean they might as well have a New York City Bus stop right in the center of town If SET DESIGN ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT. 

If you think set design is not that important, Just ask Favreau, "(Mandarin) also has 10 magical rings, and it just doesn't feel right for our thing, so it's either tech-based or the rings are not really rings, but maybe with 'Thor' and all those others you'll introduce magic to that world and it won't seem so out of place."

So again I ask you, does a green wheelbarrow feel out of place in the Mesopotamian Cradle of civilization?

Saw IM on Friday and I gotta say I enjoyed it thoroughly. I liked it just as much as the first. I thought Sam Rockwell was fantastic and I dont think I've heard anybody say anything about him yet. On a side not I caught Gweneth Paltrow on The Marriage Ref the other night. I never realized how F'ing hot she was before. The Mandarin will be a challenge to portray on screen but I think they can do it. We've seen him defeat enough battle suits and robots its time for a new challenge like the Mandarins alien tech.

As for Conan... Im a HUGE fan of Robert E. Howard. To me Conan isn't suppose to look like Arnold so Momoa's build is pretty much spot on. I just wish he weren't so ethnic looking. Conan is suppose to be from Ireland, Scotland or Wales. Otherwise his look is spot on. I'll wait to hear a bit about story before I pass judgment

Saw all of the Conan pics...disappointing. Sorry, but Momoa just doesn't look like Conan. He simply looks like a background character in some generic sword and sandal movie. He has no physical presence. Sorry, but unless the trailer blows me away I'll wait for this on HBO.