Entry for May 24, 2007

Backing up a bit, on Saturday, 28 April 2007, Janice and I took a United Air Lines flight from Boston's Logan Airport south to Dulles Airport, where we rented a car. We stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel near my brother's place in Springfield, Virginia.

After four months, I finally met my newest niece, Lili, as well as Peter, his wife Kelly, and their older daughter Ava. The children were adorable as always, even if they took a little time to warm up to us relative strangers. In the process of running errands, we managed to grab lunch at Qdoba, one of our favorite burrito chains.

Janice and I walked from Peter's to chez Rothandler, where we met Steve M.R. & Aleece Z.R. and their toddler Connor R., plus Corbin A.Y. & Andria K.Y. Unfortunately, because it was a brief visit on relatively short notice, we were unable to get together with other friends. We had a pleasant dinner at Olympians, a Greek/Italian restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia. Peter, Corbin, and Steve's households were all in the process of looking for homes with more space, probably in the outer suburbs.

Corbin pointed out that there was a game shop in the same shopping strip, so we made a detour to check it out. We were pleasantly surprised: Eagle & Empire Game & Hobby Shop (www.eagleandempire.com) had some role-playing games, comic books, and models, and seemed family-friendly to boot! Later that night, Peter and I rewatched seminal fantasy films "Conan: the Barbarian" and "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring."

On Sunday, my parents and Kelly's mother Maureen joined us for a cookout at Peter & Kelly's to celebrate Ava's second birthday. We returned to New England on that Monday. The past weeks have continued to be busy with work, various games, and trying to keep up with genre television and comic books. More about those will have to wait for now, however…

Entry for May 15, 2007: Work and visitors

As you can probably tell from my infrequent posts, I've been busy during the past few weeks. I'm going to jump around a bit in time for the next few updates, so please bear with me.

After visiting my family and a few friends in Virginia during the weekend of 28 to 30 April 2007, I had two compressed workweeks. The first, from 1 to 3 May 2007, was because of my travel and CW's 40th anniversary celebration in downtown Boston on Friday, May 4.

The photo above shows my boss Michele L.D'F., myself, and new co-worker Ken G. at lunch in the State Room, which had a spectacular view of Boston Harbor and Logan Airport. Pat McG., our company's founder and a billionaire philanthropist, regaled us with tales of the early days of journalism about the computer industry.

After several weeks of damp, cool weather, we welcomed the arrival of clear weather. My short weekend consisted of lunch at Janice's and my favorite Chinese buffet and picking up my subscription at New England Comics in Norwood, Massachusetts.

As I've noted previously, Ken G. organized a group screening of "Spider-Man 3" on Sunday, May 6, at the IMAX theater near our office. From there, we carpooled to CW's annual editorial offsite retreat at the Warren Center in Ashland, Mass. The accommodations and grounds were pleasant, and although the copy desk had to overcome the disruption to our schedule, I felt our meetings were worthwhile. Of course, no meeting is complete without plentiful food!

We even bonded with the design and online groups over s'mores and a campfire! It was also good to spend time with former boss Jamie E. (I watched an episode of "Heroes" with him and Johanna A.), try playing with the Nintendo Wii that Ken had brought, and chat with fellow comic book fan Brian F., as well as with Mark H., Frank H., Angela G., and Eric L., who all proved to be knowledgeable about science fiction.

I returned from the offsite on Tuesday, May 8, but I canceled that week's games because of the truncated deadlines at work. Thus, the next regular Tuesday night D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy campaign resumes tonight. I expect to continue the adventures of Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and Byron V.O./"Ibrahim" tomorrow (Wednesday, May 16), and I rejoined the "City of Heroes" supergroup on Sunday, May 13, Mother's Day.

The other reason I postponed the various games was that Australian programmer Mark A.S., an alumnus of the Boston-area groups, was in town for a biotech conference. Mark, his wife Ann, and their children John and Brianna now live in New Zealand but might return to the U.S. We went to the "Fuji" Japanese steakhouse with Thomas K.Y. on Wednesday, May 9, and to reliable Italian chain restaurant "Bertucci's" the following night. Unfortunately, I missed the visit of former co-worker Jacqui M.D.B. and her husband Denis B., who now live in Des Moines, Iowa.

In addition, college chums Dexter and Stuart C.G. now hope to come up from New York during the second week of June — between a visit by my in-laws and my own family's gathering in Manhattan! It seems like juggling time will continue to be a challenge as summer approaches. Next time: Virginia visit, genre television, and gamer cohorts…

Entry for May 14, 2007: Spider-Man 3 review

Friends, since several of you have asked for my review of Spider-Man 3, here it is. Thanks again to Ken G., who organized the gathering of about a dozen of his friends, as well as Thomas K.Y. and fellow co-worker Mark H., on Sunday, 6 May 2007! We met for an early matinee at the IMAX theater next to Jordan’s Furniture in Framingham, Massachusetts, and found moviegoers already in line. Warning: There are a few plot “spoilers” below.

The superhero sequel had some of the same strong elements as its predecessors: spectacular fight scenes and computer-generated imagery (New York City has never looked so good) and good humor and acting (co-creator Stan Lee and genre veteran Bruce Campbell make more cameos). I also liked the themes of compassion and forgiveness.

On the other hand, as with the “Batman” franchise in the 1990s, “Spidey 3” suffers from sequel bloat: too many villains (Sandman, the “new” Goblin, and Venom), too long a runtime of almost three hours, and an annoying romantic subplot. The alien symbiote Venom was added over director Sam Raimi’s initial objections when the studio wanted a more recently popular villain. When Peter Parker briefly gives in to his darker side, the effect is more silly than scary.

I’ve always had a problem with the casting of these otherwise excellent Marvel Comics adaptations. While J.K. Simmons is perfect as bulldog Daily Bugle editor in chief J. Jonah Jameson, I’ve always found Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst too dour as hero Peter Parker and struggling actress Mary Jane Watson, respectively. Thomas Haden Church was convincing as the shape-shifting Sandman, as was Bryce Dallas Howard as romantic complication Gwen Stacy.

However, Topher Grace, who was so good in sparring with Laura Prepon on That ’70s Show, was more snarky than menacing as Eddie Brock/Venom. As for James Franco as the tortured Harry Osborn/new Goblin, I liked him and think he would have done well as Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels (along with Keira Knightly as Queen Amidala instead of Natalie Portman).

Overall, I’d give Spider-Man 3 about a 7 or 8 out of 10 — close to the first film, but not as good as Spider-Man 2, which had the best villain in Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus. Even a weaker Spidey, however, is better than many comic book adaptations, in my opinion (see also more discussion with co-workers Ken G. and Brian F.).

Why do genre movie series tend to peak at the second installment? Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Superman II, X-Men 2, and now, Spider-Man 2 are all examples. Sure, there are some that barely get off the ground with a strong first installment but disappointing sequels (Highlander and The Matrix come to mind), and a few others don’t mature until later, such as the “Indiana Jones” or “Harry Potter” series.

My theory for the strength of certain sequels is that after re-establishing iconic characters, the second installments in many franchises have both the faithfulness to the source material and the freedom to expand upon their fictional universes. By contrast, the third and subsequent flicks tend to suffer from directorial excess (again, see the “Batman” franchise) or sacrifice fidelity to the tone of the source material for the sake of a larger audience. Having just rewatched Superman Returns this past week, I can only hope that Bryan Singer’s overly reverential reintroduction is followed by a strong sequel.

In the coming week, I hope to catch up on this blog with planned postings about travel, other entertainment, gaming, and work. In the meantime, as Stan “the man” Lee would say, Excelsior! -Gene