Go Read It!

My mom, Iffath Hasan, has been an Islamic education instructor all my life, starting with teaching my brother and I when we were wee ones, then moving on to other kids who lived in our building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and eventually teaching both children and adults all over the Chicagoland area for the better part of the past twenty years. In the meantime, she's also written a book aimed at making it easier to understand the style of Arabic used in the Qur'an, and I helped her set up a blog to connect with students across the world. I'm continually amazed and humbled when I meet people even way out here in California who've benefited from her instruction, and who speak of her with such reverence. Thus, I was understandably proud when the Chicago-based Muslim Women's Alliance presented her with an award for her work for the Muslim community two Sundays ago. Check out this article from the local paper detailing the event.

The Sisko System

Last week I began an unplanned excursion into the relative merits of the various captains in the Star Trek universe, starting with the original show's Captain James T. Kirk, and then The Next Generation's Jean-Luc Picard. In response to my Picard post, regular commenter Abdul-Halim said, "bald Sisko is the best captain," referencing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Avery Brooks shaving his head with the show's fourth season.

Now, you already know of my undying affection for the criminally underrated Deep Space Nine, but as it happens, and entirely coincidentally, Kendra James posted a piece to Racialicious.com shortly thereafter making the case for Brooks and Captain Benjamin Sisko's place of importance in the pop cultural firmament not just as a Star Trek hero, but for breaking boundaries as a black leading man in the traditionally white-dominated genre of science fiction. From the article:

Covering Carter

Despite the modest hope that my positive review last week would singlehandedly turn the tide of bad buzz, John Carter opened last week to just over $30 million domestically and a $100 million global total, which isn't a total embarrassment, but it does signal a long road to recouping the considerable investment (to the tune of $250 mil) Disney put into launching this franchise. And even though word of mouth has leaned positive, that hasn't stanched the flow of tsk-tsk'ing in the industry press, most of it fixated on that aforementioned ginormous price tag, as if the writers of said articles are shouldering the cost personally.

Given the size of its budget and the unfamiliarity of its subject matter, was John Carter a considerable risk? Yes, but it also represents a studio and filmmaker (director Andrew Stanton) taking a chance to bring a passion project to the screen. Instead of applauding them, the collective response has been to damn their hubris. When you consider the creatively bankrupt spectacles released annually that are given a free ride simply because they end up making a profit, the media dogpile on John Carter becomes even more baffling. It's the old ad crumenam fallacy writ large: "This thing cost x, and it didn't make y, so obviously it sucks. Duh."

In a piece earlier this week for AICN, correspondent Jeremy Smith (a.k.a. Mr. Beaks) went into greater detail on why the barrage of Carter attacks are so shortsighted:

Nostalgia Theater: Highlander: The Series -- Weekly Beheadings on a TV Budget

In the annals of science fiction and fantasy franchises, one of the stranger ones to maintain a devoted fanbase even through a wonky premise and increasingly erratic new entries is surely Highlander. As first dreamed up by writer Gregory Widen for a 1986 feature film, directed by Russell Mulcahy, it tracks Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), an immortal born in the early 1500s in the Scottish Highlands (thus the name of the movie).

Per the film, each of the handful of immortals throughout the world -- some good, some evil -- are engaged in battle that sees each square off with another until only one remains, after which the victor claims "The Prize," a nebulous something-or-other that involves having complete control over the universe. Oh, and the immortals fight each other with swords. And have to cut off each others' heads. To get their power.

From The Onion...

Given the primary results in Mississippi and Alabama last night, the kicker from this piece yesterday seems eerily prophetic:

Rick Santorum Relieved No One Has Asked Him About Interracial Marriage Yet 

LAFAYETTE, LA—Saying his campaign has "really dodged a bullet so far," Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told reporters today that, much to his relief, no one has asked his opinion on interracial marriage. "No question about it, what I'd have to say about the topic would absolutely terrify anyone with a conscience," said Santorum, adding that his longstanding and carefully thought-through views on whether two individuals of different races should be allowed to marry would put him so far out of the mainstream that it’d be "hilarious how insane [he]’d sound." "The truth is, if anyone decided to ask me flat out if I approve of marriages between black men and white women, for example, the flood gates would open and the bile I would spew would sink this campaign in 10 seconds tops." As of press time, reports of Santorum's mere reference to his incendiary views had caused his favorability ratings in Alabama and Mississippi to skyrocket.

Other Captain's Prerogative

Here's what I said about TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation back in '09 while analyzing the first of the four 24th century-era feature films in the Trek catalog:

If Star Trek (the original show) was ahead of its time (to its detriment, as it turned out), then The Next Generation was perfectly of its time. Whether it was the egalitarian nature of the ensemble, with the captain as first among equals, or the chair on the ship's bridge reserved for the captain's shrink, the telegraphed intent was to stand apart from the original, demonstrating on a weekly basis just how much things had improved since the franchise's '60s origins.

For the most part, I still think that observation holds true (though I may have been overstating it earlier in the review when I said the show just "didn't work"). While I've gone on to question how well Gene Roddenberry's back-to-formula take on his creation has withstood time's ravages -- for a variety of reasons -- I fully acknowledge that any issues with the show itself don't stem from the man in the center chair, Jean-Luc Picard, or the man who embodied him, Patrick Stewart. In this instance, both actor and character have earned at least as much iconic significance as their respective predecessors. I mean, how can they not, after acting the hell out of scenes like this:

Recommended Reading

As longtime readers know, whenever George Lakoff has something to say, I'm there to listen. His latest piece, analyzing the Republican messaging strategy through the prism of Rick Santorum's increasingly out-there campaign rhetoric, makes several worthwhile points about how policy and morality intersect in our discourse, and how imperative it is to understand that intersection. From the article:

The Republican presidential campaign is not just about the presidential race. It is about using conservative language to strengthen conservative values in the brains of voters -- in campaigns at all levels from Congress to school boards. Part of the Republican strategy is to get liberals to argue against them, repeating conservative language. There is a reason I wrote a book called Don't Think of an Elephant! When you negate conservative language, you activate conservative ideas and, hence, automatically and unconsciously strengthen the brain circuitry that characterizes conservative values.

Read the rest of Lakoff's thesis here. It's well worth it.

Captain's Prerogative

When I was a kid, I always looked up to Captain Kirk. Hell, I still do. Compassionate when he needed to be, confident when he needed to be, I think Star Trek's original captain (played by William Shatner, natch) remains the absolute perfect exemplar of the well-rounded leader we all hope we'll be when/if we're ever thrust into that role. To wit, Alex Knapp over at Forbes has an excellent post examining the positive leadership traits that Kirk embodies. From the piece:

"Kirk’s success was no fluke, either. His style of command demonstrates a keen understanding of leadership and how to maintain a team that succeeds time and time again, regardless of the dangers faced." 

As I say so often, we take our wisdom where we find it, and as an instructor in Small Group Communication, I've often invoked the patented badassery of James T. to make an actual point about how to hone and nurture our persona as leaders to maximize effective group throughput (although I do it a bit more gingerly -- don't want to blow my secret Trekkie double life, after all...), so it's gratifying to know I'm not the only one who's found some worthwhile life lessons in Trek beyond, "Never wear a red shirt. Ever."

Now where's the post about leadership tips from Captain Picard?

Nostalgia Theater: Jumping Back to 21 Jump Street

The cast of 21 Jump Street's second season: (L-R) Holly Robinson, Steven Williams, Johnny Depp, Peter DeLuise, Dustin Nguyen

Proving just how temporal our pop culture artifacts can end up being, two weeks ago, I was talking with my students in class, and one of them said they were looking forward to the upcoming 21 Jump Street feature film, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, which opens next Friday. I mentioned that I used to watch the TV show when I was a kid and was curious whether the movie would work, to which he replied, "What show?"

That's right. "What show."

*sigh*

So, yeah, this week, we look at TV's 21 Jump Street, yet another Stephen J. Cannell production from the late '80s. Created by Patrick Hasburgh, the show tracked a group of police officers as they worked undercover as high school students to bring down drug deals, rapists, arsonists, etc., Jump Street is known today (if it's known today) as the launching pad for the movie star supernova that is Johnny Depp. But as part of the very first lineup of programs on the brand new Fox network in April 1987, it helped put the netlet on the map, and was one of the most popular, buzzed-about shows of that era.

Zaki's Review: John Carter

That John Carter, director Andrew Stanton's expansive (and expensive) adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's classic literary hero, was a labor of love for the helmer of Pixar spectacles Wall-E and Finding Nemo is evident in the care and forethought that's been laced into every frame. This is a film that lacks in neither scope, attitude, nor ambition. And in the end, if it falls just short of being truly exceptional, it's because of something over which the filmmakers frustratingly have no control.

So many of the themes, so much of the imagery that Burroughs (more well known, perhaps, for his other literary creation, Tarzan of the Apes) pioneered in his many "John Carter of Mars" novels have been appropriated and scavenged by everything from Star Wars to Avatar in the century since they first saw print that it's a struggle to remind oneself that this isn't merely the umpteenth restatement of that iconography, but is rather the statement that all those others drew inspiration from.

My E-Mail Exchange With a Limbaugh Fan

You probably wouldn't remember this, but way back in '07, I posted here about how a group called VoteVets.org, after criticizing Rush Limbaugh for comments denigrating military critics of the Iraq war as "phony soldiers," was barraged by hate e-mails from the talker's faithful fans. At the time, I commented on how proud Rush must be to command such allegiance. Well, I now have my own "e-mails from Limbaugh fan" story to draw on as personal experience.

By way of context, my piece from two days ago about my own history as a Limbaugh listener went up at Huffington Post yesterday morning. Within half an hour of it going live, I received an e-mail from a fellow named Tom who was clearly upset with what I'd said in the post and, among other things, called me a brainwashed zombie. I responded to him, and was rewarded with another e-mail, and so it went throughout the day.

I've posted the entirety of our conversation after the jump (he's in bold). Nothing's been changed, either from him or from me. I'm sure you'll find it just as instructive as I did. Enjoy.

Rush to Judgment

There was a time when I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh. All the time. And not ironically, either.

As a junior high student in the thick of the '92 presidential election season, I'd stay up way later than I was supposed to so I could watch his short-lived TV talk show every night on Channel 66 out of Chicago. I'd even look forward to every day I'd have off from school so I could tune in to his radio show on WLS-AM. And even though I was only in junior high back then, I still look back and feel like a bit of a chump for the amount of sway Limbaugh held over my nascent political identity before things like a high school education convinced me to widen my worldview.

In fact, I have a friend from back then who is about as hardcore a conservative as I know today, and thumbing through my senior yearbook recently, I saw a note from him thanking me for first introducing him to Limbaugh -- despite the fact that my own ideology had long since parted ways with Mr. Excellence-in-Broadcasting. As I read that inscription again after these many years, I could feel a chill down the length of my spine as I realized that I may well have been the Emperor Palpatine who helped deliver him to the Dark Side.

Haters Gonna Hate

Total Film has compiled a list of the "50 Most Hated Movies Ever Made," and surprisingly for this sort of thing, I think most of it is pretty bang-on (for example, having just seen #35 last night for the first time since 1998, I can assure you its piss-poor reputation is 100% earned). Even if you disagree with some of the selections listed, it still makes for some entertaining reading.

Kinnaman Going Robo

It was just over a year ago that I first posted about MGM's current plans to restart their RoboCop film franchise, with director Brazilian director Jose Padilha tapped to helm (after an earlier reboot attempt under the guidance of Darren Aronofosky came to naught). Although I was initially quite wary at the prospect, questioning the need to remake a film that I think still holds up remarkably well, my stance started to soften as I got to know the perspective that Padilha was bringing to the project.

That resistance melted away entirely a few weeks ago, when I got a chance to watch the director's much-ballyhooed Elite Squad, finding it completely worthy of all the accolades that have been tossed its way. As a result, I'm now onboard for this in a way I wasn't a year ago when I first posted about this venture. While things have been quiet on the film since last fall, its development did take a big step forward last week with word that Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman has signed on to play the title role (no word if this iteration of the character is still going to be slain, cyborg-ified police officer Alex Murphy).

See? Me.

A few weeks back, the folks who run the Islamic Scholarship Fund, aimed at encouraging Muslim students' involvement in non-traditional education and career paths (i.e. not engineering or medicine), asked me to be a part of a panel discussion at Stanford University wherein myself and other professionals discussed with college and high school-aged students (and parents) the paths that have brought us to where we are now. I had a great time, and got to meet a lot of great people. In case you're interested in what I said, here's a vid of the event (you may need to crank the volume, depending on where you're watching):

Nostalgia Theater: Wiseguy -- Doing Brasco Before Depp

This week, we look at late '80s crime drama Wiseguy, one of the seminal series of not only that decade, but all the decades since, having helped pave the road for the kind of complexity and nuance that productions like The Sopranos and The Wire took to an even higher level.

Created by Frank Lupo and the late Stephen J. Cannell -- the same team behind the far more explodey (though far less ambitious) The A-Team just a few years prior -- Wiseguy was an attempt to up the ante from the traditional episodic procedurals that dotted the broadcast landcape back then (See: Exhibit A & Exhibit B). Following deep cover operative Vincent Terranova (Ken Wahl), working for the fictional Organized Crime Bureau, as he tried to bring down various criminal empires from the inside, Wiseguy anticipated the similarly-themed feature Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp, by a full ten years.

Here's the opening credit sequence -- with theme by Cannell's regular composer Mike Post -- from the "Sonny Steelgrave" storyline, the first season's first arc (they'd switch things up with each new story):

Assembling More Avengers Goodies

The last few days have been big ones for folks in fanboy circles who are eagerly awaiting every morsel of info that's coming out about this summer's Avengers flick (officially Marvel's The Avengers stateside, and Avengers Assemble in the UK -- presumably to avoid confusion with those other Avengers, who'd have the hometown advantage in Merry Ol' England.)

Tuesday saw the release of a decent, though unspectacular release poster (right), which has our various heroes posed and propped and otherwise Photoshopped to look imposing and heroic. More impressive, however, is the full trailer, which picks up the threads from the teaser and the Super Bowl spot, to really up the ante with the spectacle -- giving (almost) each of the heroes a nice showcase moment while spelling out the stakes that would pull this lineup together.

Honestly, I've said this elsewhere, but given how spectacularly unlikely the notion of an Avengers movie would have been even five years ago, I'm still in "pinch me" mode over the very notion of this thing actually existing. After you watch the trailer below, jump on over to Newsarama and check out their list of 10 observations about this assemblage.

Super Friends

This webvid from actor Tim Daly and his son Sam may just be one of the greatest things I've seen all week.

By way of set-up, Tim was the voice of Superman in the '90s animated series as well as several movies, and Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) has been the voice for the animated Green Lantern (with both actors reprising their roles in the just-released Justice League: Doom). That's all you need to know in order to enjoy it. Now watch:

Dumb & Dumber

Between Rick Santorum's loopy proclamations that separation of church & state make him want "to throw up" and wanting kids to go to college equates with snobbery, and Mitt Romney's painful inability to engage with voters in a human, non-focus grouped way, the Republican presidential primary isn't really shaping up as referendum on the party's best and brightest. Jon Stewart surveys the damage:

Get Carter

There's been a real dogpile going on in the industry press for the past few weeks vis-a-vis Disney's upcoming John Carter, a big budget epic starring Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch as the legendary space hero created by Tarzan's Edgar Rice Burroughs. And indeed, if the budget projections are true, then there's an ungodly amount of money on the line for a property very few people have heard of, starring an actor even fewer people know. But while this may well shape up to be a bit of a boondoggle for the Mouse House, that doesn't make me any less excited for the pic (which opens a week from Friday).

Unfortunately, the job of promoting the movie -- directed by Andrew Stanton, who helmed the superlative Pixar film Wall-E -- hasn't been helped much by the trailers, which do a nice job showcasing the project's scope, but do nothing to appeal to those not already versed in the intricacies of Burroughs, and the non-descriptive title, which removed "...of Mars" from after the character's name when focus grouping deemed it a tough sell. Needless to say, this one has its work cut out for it, but as this fan-made trailer put together by The John Carter Files shows, there's a compelling story in here that has real potential.

Nostalgia Theater: Night Man -- Marvel's Short-Lived Media Star

In this age of Marvel Studios starting up new film franchises the way Starbucks used to open java houses, it seems hard to believe -- and almost comical -- that there was a time when the comic company was a total joke when it came to transferring its properties to any medium other than print. By the mid-'90s, while DC had enjoyed quite a bit of success with its Superman and Batman movie series, all Marvel had to show was the triple threat of terribleness that was Howard the Duck, 1989's The Punisher, and 1990's Captain America.

A long-planned, long-promised Spider-Man movie headed up by James Cameron was languishing in legal limbo, with no end in sight, while an X-Men movie was also no closer to reality. And things weren't much rosier for Marvel on the television front, with no small screen successes to speak of other than the '77-'82 Incredible Hulk series -- which was itself almost twenty years old. It all turned around for Marvel in fall of '97, though, thanks to the emergence of a property that became, ever so briefly, Marvel's biggest media star. That's right, I'm talking about Night Man.

Uhh....who?

Clip-clip-cloppidy-cloo!

I'm staring down the barrel of a rapidly approaching Dreaded Deadline Doom on not one, but two different writing assignments, so while I'll still try to get it posted today, Nostalgia Theater may end up having to wait until tomorrow (it's the same DDD, by the way, that caused me to miss out on Ghost Rider last weekend despite my promise to the contrary -- but then, it looks like the rest of America found something better to do as well). In the meantime, here's a clip from Wednesday's Conan that's had a certain tune stuck in my head for two days now:

Still Divorced

Five years ago, on the occasion of Fox's The Simpsons hitting its landmark 400th episode, I posted this treatise from my friend and fellow disgruntled Simpsons fans Brian Hall, wherein he likened his frustration with the state of Springfield to a spouse finally walking away from a longterm relationship. Here's a piece of what he said back then:

I can’t believe I have stuck around for 400 episodes but I think it was necessary for me to see that it is time for us to part ways. I can never discredit you for all the good you’ve done for me and will always visit reruns to remember the good times. Scratch that, the great times. 

 I will miss you and truly do wish you the best of luck.

Unlike Brian, I've kept the series a part of my DVR rotation even though it's been mediocre-to-bad for even longer than it was good. But with The Simpsons' 500th ep airing this past Sunday, I reached out to Brian once more to see if his thoughts about his ex have changed or softened in the interim. Here's what he had to say:

Watch Out

I've mentioned on this site a few times how much I appreciate Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' Watchmen graphic novel from DC Comics, falling in with the plurality of those who consider it one of the finest works of comic art ever produced. Thus, when word broke a few weeks ago about DC Comics' attempt to squeeze some more blood from the Watchmen IP rights by producing a series of prequels under the umbrella title "Before Watchmen," it was natural that several folks reached out to me to offer up some kind of a reaction. After all, in comic book circles, this is sort of the equivalent of when they first announced the Star Wars prequels.

But like with that much-derided trilogy (though there it was only in hindsight), this too seems like a perfunctory addition to a story that was already complete in and of itself. It really didn't need any appendages tacked on to make it more effective -- something I'd be saying even if the original creative team was involved (something that is most assuredly not the case for Moore). And while I'd been planning to type something up about this new Watchmen venture for awhile now, I kept going back to comments I made in this post about my mixed feelings on Terminator Salvation in '09, which I think are equally applicable in this instance:

Rick Santorum's God Games

Even two months ago, the notion that Rick Santorum could pose a serious challenge to the financial preeminence of Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican nomination (much less actually leading Romney in many polls) would have been dismissed as fanciful hugger-mugger. And yet here we are and, well, here we are. It's yet another worrying sign of where what passes for today's Republican orthodoxy has taken the party of the once-Big Tent. More than that (assuming Santorum actually snakes the nomination), it also portents just how nasty the election fight is liable to get when it comes to the igniting of religious brush fires in the electorate.

Nostalgia Theater: America's Brief, Torrid Love Affair With ALF

A conversation with your friend and mine, Brian Hall, regarding last week's Dinosaurs post got me reminiscing about another puppet-based show that enjoyed a short surge of pop culture saturation a few years prior. I speak, of course, of ALF, a sitcom about the wacky hijinks that ensue when a suburban family has a space alien crash in their garage and move in with them (ALF as in Alien Life-Form -- get it?).

When looked at in hindsight, ALF is a textbook example of what I like to call "hangover" TV (not to be confused with The Hangover: The Series, which I'm sure some genius development exec is pitching even as I type this...). It initially shot up like a rocket (no pun intended), taking viewers on a dizzying bender that was over just as quickly as it began, leaving the audience feeling tired, confused, and ever-so-slightly guilty. "Oh man, did I watch that?"

Yep, that you did, America:

Squared Cage

Despite the fact that it's not being screened for critics -- never a good sign -- I'm still planning on checking out the second Ghost Rider flick sometime this weekend so I can post a review (I swear, the things I do for you guys...). In the meantime though, check out this very funny appearance by star Nicolas Cage from last weekend's Saturday Night Live as he exchanged words with...Nicolas Cage.

From The Onion...

Another brilliant one from The Onion, which has really been on a roll lately...

New Breeding Program Aimed At Keeping Moderate Republicans From Going Extinct

A snippet:

According to members of the Initiative to Protect the Political Middle (IPPM), centrist Republicans, who once freely roamed the nation calling for both economic deregulation and a return to Reagan-era tax rates on the wealthy, are in dire need of protection, having lost large portions of their natural terrain to the highly territorial Evangelical and Tea Party breeds. 

"Our new program is designed to isolate the few remaining specimens of moderate Republicans, mate them in captivity, and then safely release these rare and precious creatures back into the electorate," said IPPM’s Cynthia Rollins, who traces the decline of the species to changes in the political climate and rampant, predatory fanaticism. "Within our safe, enclosed habitats, these middle-of-the-road Republican Party members can freely support increased funding for public education and even gay rights without being threatened by the far-right subgenus." 

Working within a narrow three-election-cycle window to reverse the decline before extinction becomes imminent, political conservationists told reporters they have already begun the arduous process of tracking down members of the elusive breed of sensible, non-reactionary public officeholders, which a generation ago was one of the most plentiful GOP species in existence.

Much more here.

Nostalgia Theater: ABC's Dinosaurs

Back in the late '80s and early '90s, after The Simpsons' early runaway success helped put the Fox network on the map, we saw a brief rush of attempts by the other nets to capture some of that "animated sitcom" mojo for themselves, resulting in a flood of blink-and-gone primetime 'toons like Capital Critters, Fish Police, Family Dog, etc. One of the few tries that actually made it for a little while was Dinosaurs, a puppet-animatronic sitcom initially developed by Muppets creator Jim Henson in the late '80s, but brought to fruition just under a year after his death by son Brian, Disney and ABC TV.

From The Onion...

Oh, man. Talk about a page right out of my life...

Study Reveals Majority Of Suicides Occur While Trying To Put Fitted Sheet On Bed 

BALTIMORE—According to a study published Monday in Psychological Bulletin, more than 83 percent of suicides take place when an individual is faced with the task of putting a fitted sheet onto a mattress. "In the majority of these cases, people end their lives after trying in vain to get the short side of the sheet onto the long side of the bed, and at least one-third kill themselves after struggling with the final corner only to realize it is their own body weight preventing the sheet from stretching far enough," said Johns Hopkins University psychologist Dr. Khalil Mazarhi, adding that suicide victims are usually discovered in close proximity to fitted sheets that are either partially covering a mattress or balled up in a corner of the room. "The tragic irony of this phenomenon is that a significant number of people will actually use the sheet to hang themselves." The study concludes with a recommendation that, for personal safety, fitted sheets only be handled when a second person is present.

Recommended Reading

Interesting piece by Patricia Murphy for The Daily Beast on how the Tea Party, largely credited with winning the House for the Republicans in the last election cycle, may well have been rendered toothless thanks to the mechanics and maneuverings in the Republican primary that seem to have preordained Mitt Romney as the nominee. From the article:

“The Tea Party movement is dead. It’s gone,” says Chris Littleton, the cofounder of the Ohio Liberty Council, a statewide coalition of Tea Party groups in Ohio. “I think largely the Tea Party is irrelevant in the primaries. They aren’t passionate about any of the candidates, and if they are passionate, they’re for Ron Paul.”

Littleton is one of the many who have endorsed the Texas congressman; he blames the other GOP candidates for the lackluster energy they have generated in the grassroots that hosted a revolution two years ago.

Check out the rest here.

"One Guy in a Unitard"

With the big ol' batch of Super Bowl movie spots that hit the web over the weekend, one absence I found especially notable was the lack of any promo for The Amazing Spider-Man, which, lest we forget, is also due this summer. In fact, other than the teaser trailer from last July, it's been pretty much radio silence on Sony's risky attempt to reboot the hugely-successful Spider-franchise (the record-breaking 2002 first entry of which was instrumental in bringing about the Age of Movie Heroes we now find ourselves ensconced in -- and of which The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises are arguably the culmination).

While there's been a lot of skepticism surrounding this entry in many web circles, including from me initially, I've been consistently impressed with director Marc Webb's comments on his approach, and I've especially been impressed with star Andrew Garfield's take on, and passion for, the lead role. All of this has led me to think (hope?) that this film may well do for the Marvel Comics webspinner what Batman Begins did for the Caped Crusader in '05 -- create a more realistic, more relatable take on one of the most iconic of superheroes, and which pays audience dividends down the line. Thanks to the new full trailer that Sony put out last night at midnight, my initial optimism appears to be well founded, and I have a feeling a lot of naysayers will be quieted once they see this: