Who Should Play Ms. Marvel?

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With the exciting news that news that Ms. Marvel is going to be in the next Avengers movie a lot of people have been asking me who I think should play Carol Danvers.  Fox already has two of my top picks under contract for super heroes with Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence.  Ironically they both play the same character Mystique separated by time.  The current internet favorite is Katee Sackhoff, but I am not sold, so here are my five alternates in reverse order.

5: Yvonne Strahovski

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I mostly chose her because she has the look, but she has had a lot of practice playing a hero thanks to Chuck.

4: Ali Larter

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Again she is another “got the look” choice, but in TV show Heroes she was really good at giving that I am going to kill you look that would suit Ms. Marvel very well.

3: Emily Blunt

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She would need some hair dye, but she is talented actress who could hold her own against the growing number of leading men in the Avengers film.

2: Claire Danes

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She might be busy with Homeland, but ever since the underappreciated movie Stardust, I have been wanting to see her breakout in movies.  She has the acting chops to really bring Ms. Marvel to life.

1: Anna Trov

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The Fringe star has the ability to kick butt and dish one liners with the best of them.  She will never get picked because she is too perfect for the role, but if they did, I would be one happy Shmee.

Movie studios never seem to like my casting choices, but I will keep offering my advice anyway!  Do you guys or gals have any favorites to play the current Captain Marvel?

We Are Finally Getting A Ms. Marvel!

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There was some big news yesterday as it was announced that Paul Bettany would be playing The Vision in the new Avengers movie.  Since Bettany already plays the voice of JARVIS (Tony Stark’s AI butler) in the in the Marvel Movie Universe, it seems to point to the fact that Tony Stark not Henry Pym (Ant Man) will create the evil android Ultron, and in return Ultron will use Stark’s loyal companion against him.  At least at first if they follow the comics at all.

While that is all very cool news, and interesting to think about.  People seem to missing the even bigger news as the Latino Review pointed out, they are casting for Ms. Marvel (though he says Miss Marvel)!  It is about time Marvel finally brought a top tier female crime fighter in to the mix.  As a matter of fact Ms. Marvel is probably more powerful than the rest of the Avengers combined, so this version of Ultron is going to be one bad dude.

I mean no disrespect to Scarlett Johansson, but the Black Widow would be as useful in a fight against Ultron as a guy with toothpick versus a bunch of samurai with katanas, so to have the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ms. Marvel will let the ladies show up to the fight in force.  With the amount of firepower Marvel is packing in to this movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron may be the biggest movie of all time.

Shmee Gets Less Than Amped

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I read the book Wired not to long ago, and I liked it so much that I quickly read the follow up Amped.  I was less than impressed.  I wanted to like this book, but its forced plot and easy to spot twists ruin it.

The story continues to follow David Desh and Kira Miller as they lead a group of super smart scientists to solve the world’s problems.  However, people are still after them, and want their research for their own selfish gain, so Desh and Miller are on the run again.  Meanwhile humanity makes its greatest discovery of all time, but without the amped up minds that work for Desh and Miller can they hope to understand it?

The book’s main two protagonists are still very likable, and the thought of creating massively intelligent people is interesting, but this book just felt forced.  The tight plotting and action from the first book are gone, and instead it tries to focus on people thinking they are outsmarting each other.  Which would be fine if their plans were interesting.

It is a shame this book wasn’t as good as the first one, but at least I didn’t have to pay for it because it is free on the Kindle Lending Library.  If you need to waste some time, say on an airplane going to California, this book is passable, but it falls way short of its predecessor.

A Giant Week For DC!

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I rant about DC comics a lot, but since last time I checked this is my blog, so I am going to do it again today!  The reason for this is that there is a lot of exciting news going around, and I had to give my opinion on all of it.  Lets start with the movie news shall we?

Justice League Movie!

So the current rumor from the website Latino Review is that they will be filming a Justice League film directly after they get done filming Batman vs Superman, and that they are talking to Dwayne Johnson to be John Stewart, one of the cooler Green Lanterns, or possibly some other character, so Cyborg.  This makes a ton of sense since they could spend a lot money, but get two films out of the deal much like The Hobbit, and it would help them catch up to Marvel.  If this is true expect to see a lot of casting rumors in the next few weeks.

It is kind of scary to think that DC is finally getting its movie act together, but this is a large step in the right direction.  If they do this right we will get to see all our favorite DC heroes, but not have to sit through any more origin stories!  What a wonderful future that would be.  Now on to TV news!

Even More TV Shows!

In an earlier rant I talked about the three new DC TV shows in the works: Hourman, The Flash, and a Gotham Cop Show.  Well those are all still on the docket, with the exception that the Gotham cop show is now pretty much Batman Smallville, curse you Fox!  A cop show in Gotham sounded interesting, but a bunch of brooding teenagers fighting each other in high school sounds awful, but maybe it will turn out (it won’t).  I have my fingers crossed!

They also announced this week that NBC is ordering a Constantine show, and since they have already done a good job with Hannibal, Dracula, and Grimm this could be a great fit.  Heck he could fight those guys, and it could be a lot of fun crossing over everything together in a large NBC/DC universe.  They won’t do that, but still it is fun to think about.  That was not the only TV announcement either.

AMC is ordering The Preacher from Sony Pictures Television, and Seth Rogan is producing.  I don’t know if that means it is going to be a comedy (please no, but maybe yes?), or that Rogan just likes The Preacher, so he is putting some skin in the game.  I hope it is the latter.  Either way I love the work AMC does, so I am very excited!

Now if you are counting, the success of Arrow has spawned not one but five TV shows: Gotham (Meh), The Flash, Hourman, Constantine, and The Preacher.  I guess DC decided that they couldn’t beat Marvel in the movie game, so instead they are going to win at TV.  Not a bad plan.  So that means maybe the people running DC are not total idiots.  We live in a brave new world, and I am extremely excited!

Shmee gets Wired!

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I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but I will give one a chance occasionally if it involves a lot of Sci-Fi or fantasy.  Wired the 2010 book by Douglas E. Richards has the former.  Its premise is that the human brain can be used to its full potential by using a series of viruses to reprogram it.

The story follows a former special forces operative named David Desh who is called out of retirement to capture a bio-terrorist.  As with all thrillers, things are not as they seem, and he might not be the one doing the hunting.  DUN DUN DUN!  Can he save the world before it is too late?

Like I said in the opening paragraph, I don’t read a lot of thrillers, mostly because I hate plot twists for the sake of plot twists, and thrillers tend to do that a lot.  This book does have a few twists and turns, but none of them felt forced, and Wired keeps the action turned up to eleven, so I can’t forgive a few minor story shifts.

It is well written, so apparently Richards knows his craft, and I didn’t see any glaring plot holes.  Well with the exception that the premise is probably false to begin with, but that has never stopped me from reading a book before.  I may have to check out his other work.

I got this book because it was free on the Kindle lending library, but I quite enjoyed myself.  I guess it is good to try something different every now and then.  Heck I may even have to check out Wired’s sequel Amped.