Lex Luthor's origin:

If only Lex had invested in pencil and paper.

I live by the Pinnacles, which have 2 caves open to the public (although the area with the bats is closed off to the public), but that is a National Park not forest.

Those pictures look so cool Bob, but the spider story is why caves freak me out lol, so I've only been in 1 Pinnacle cave, once.

Holy crap, this is happening now!!!!!

And I just rewatched Sarah Connor Chronicles over the last few days so I am still in the game, yes!

I went to see THE LEGEND OF TARZAN and in this case at least Tarzan is definitely a fantasy. At one point, there's a water buffalo stampede through a city, directed by a gorilla and some lions--I kid you not--and crocodiles join in. The most absurd thing I've ever seen in a Tarzan movie. This makes Disney's THE JUNGLE BOOK (the 1967 cartoon version, not the recent remake) look like a BBC nature documentary.

Thanks for that - and, now you quote that bit it seems obvious:


Fortress of SOLITUDE.

The very man!


...

I was reading up on Krypton, and found a few lines about the script for Returns. Namely:
Doesn't help much - "remains" means 'definitely gone' and 'deadly kryptonite'. And a Lex trick means another film Luthor hoodwinked Superman in a typically unbelievable and idiotic way to do something obviously stupid. Which is daft.

No idea on that. But if not, it's mildly odd - "no guns" is one of the core Batman rules... after the first several years and the fantastic (often callous) one-liners of Bill Finger & Gardner Fox. "Death... to Dr. Death" being the best.

Yeah, except then. And that other time, and-

I remember that, and thinking that's a bit better (but not much) reason for a lifelong pursuit than a bat flying in the window...

My favourite Lex logic is the deeply relateable/understandable/broadly-sensible mix of fear, jealousy, literal xenophobia and annoyance. HE should be the most important/brilliant man in Metropolis/America/the world. HE should be the protector of mankind, usher in a golden age and be hailed a hero. And Superman is, after all, an alien, with no true ties to humanity, etc., etc.

The near-postscripts to Mark Millar's Elseworld tale Red Son redeem alt-Luthor in a good way. Also, Alexander from Earth-2 (et al.) make a great case for just how thin the line is between reasonable paranoia/fear of the alien overlord and supervillian. It's the 'freedom fighter or terrorist' argument, basically.

Wrong reboot - that was Superman Returns.

Should have let him burn. As, apparently 60% of Supermen regularly do...!

took a break last night to go see Jaws on the big screen. I saw this film in the theaters when i was a kid in the 70s. The film still holds up today. It was my 33 year old girlfriend's first time seeing Jaws from start to finish. She thought it was excellent.

That's not *exactly* what happened:

---------------------
At age 8, after witnessing the murder of his parents, Bruce swears an oath to spend his life fighting crime. He engages in intense intellectual and physical training; however, he realizes that these skills alone would not be enough. "Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot", he remarks, "so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible..." As if responding to his desires, a bat suddenly flies through the window, inspiring Bruce to take on the persona of Batman.
---------------------

At least that's how it happened in my Silver Age comics. He was already going to be a crime fighter of some kind and the bat cemented his choice of disguise.

I know. I like the Year One expansions with (the real) Henri Ducard

Also, the single best Batman parody is in the LEGION Elseworlds Annual, where it's not a bat, but something else that strikes terror...

In any case, as reasons to hate Superman go, losing ones hair because one was monkeying about with chemicals; nearly dying because of your own mistakes and yet NOT dying because of the happenstance of a passing superhero.... doesn't really cut it! Maybe if John Henry Irons had twisted his shoulder when Superman grabbed him he'd have nursed a crazy grudge too.

Who can understand the mind of an egomaniacal sociopath.

I was talking about Noel Neill, Superman's first TV Lois Lane. She died Sunday.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/enter...s-95/86704354/

...and Ms Neill cameoed as the opening victim of a Lex scheme in Returns. So it seemed apropos..

First live action Lois on film, too, wasn't she?

I was sad to hear the news, though.

I think I am going to try and trick the wife into watching Sgt Kabukiman NYPD with me

I love going through caves. We have one near me called Crystal Caves, privately owned. It's really fun to go through. It has bats but so far (at least since last year), that white nosed thing had not reached them. They do request that if you go to other caves not to wear the same shoes/clothes that you wore there just as a precaution and help keep it away as long as possible. A few years ago, I went into the cave in Hannibal, Missouri, that Twain based part of Tom Sawyer on and that is a must see as well.

It totally is, after all, in a few years we'll all be living in one trying to survive nuclear fallout!

Yep and you still have most of the month left to go!

While I didn't watch the 8:00 movie, as I wanted to finish watching Resident Evil, I'd like to thank Dimension X for pointing out B Movie TV. It looks like a great channel. I saw the 6:00 movie wasn't sci-fi, but while I was waiting to see what it was, I saw some interesting commercials, and great trailers.

That's interesting that they asked visitors to not wear the same shoes *and* clothes worn in visits to other caves. They had some mats you walked on when leaving the caverns which are supposed to "clean" any possible fungus off your shoes soles - but I wondered about the clothing as they have 2 "bleacher" stops where you sit for a few minutes while they point out several features in those areas. I was thinking "If it can get on our shoes then it can get on our clothes, especially if we *sit* on something in the cave." But no mention was made of that. I'm planning to take the kids back in a few weeks to go on the longer of the two "basic" tours (over twice as long in a different section of the caverns) and may ask they don't mention this. Reading about the syndrom indicates the fungus *can* persist on clothing and new recommendations are to not re-use disinfected equipment. Since the fungus *has* been confirmed in Arkansas you'd think they'd close the caves here too.

I'd love to see the cave in Hannibal, but that's longer than a "day trip." It's 5-6 hours away so we'd have to spend the night (probably in St. Louis) and maybe go to the zoo as well to make it worth the effort. My wife used to have relatives who lived about a hour south of SL that we'd occasionally visit on weekends. I wish I'd thought about Hannibal then... They moved out of the area about 10 years ago and are now no closer than we are.

I noticed two things in the BUCK ROGERS serial (1939) that turned up on "Star Trek" 27 years later: a transporter beam and a phaser set on stun.

Well... I discovered that I can somewhat "on the fly" switch between the old and new fx shots using the angle button on the remote. There's a second or so delay so it's tough to compare short shots but I've also backed up and rewatched some fx sections to see what is different. Come to find out *many* of the reworked fx shots are very different than the originals. I'd just assumed they used the same angles, etc. in the updates. That's not the case. Angles on the Enterprise are frequently different. In one episode there's a shot of a stolen shuttlecraft on the viewscreen where the original shows the shuttlecraft coming directly at the Enterprise in a somewhat erratic course while the new fx is a *very* long shot of the shuttlecraft on a very straight course going across the viewscreen. A little difference but somewhat significant as it's mentioned in dialog the shuttlecraft is running rather eratically but the updated shot shown is anything *but*. So... while I'm still enjoying the clean look of many of the new fx I'm now more than ever leaning towards only occasional viewings of the updated version.

Apparently the Deceptions are allied with the Galactic Empire. I was watching part 2 of 'The Ultimate Doom' on Tubi TV, and noticed something I never noticed before. When Laserbeak flies, he sounds just like a TIE Fighter.

Yeah, 8 & 10 (they actually start a little early, so 7:55 & 9:55) on Wednesday night are the only guaranteed sci-fi movies, but they pop up here and there at other times. I tend to shut it off or mute it between movies now because they repeat the same stuff. However, the other night I turned it on a little early for the next movie and they were showing an episode of the old live-action Spider-Man. It was a good looking copy too.

6 o'clock was Terminal Rush with Roddy Piper. I haven't seen many of his flicks, so I was happy to sit through it. 8 was Universal Soldier II with Gary Busey.

i have that on blu ray but wasnt sure it counted in this challenge.