Raymond Padilla

Today’s Poll: Sexy Green Women in Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Inspired by Marvel’s announcement of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I wanted to pick your brain on a hugely important topic — sexy green women. Gamora, as you know, is the Guardian’s kick-ass martial-arts queen. She-Hulk sexily splits time between fighting bad guys and serving as an ace attorney. Yvonne Craig dazzled as Batgirl, but millions of nerds know her as a sexy green alien from the original Star Trek. Poison Ivy wears skimpy leaves and her passion for the environment is hot.

Which green fantasy/sci-fi babe do you like best? Kindly vote in today’s poll and discuss!

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Random Thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises (Batman)

Thanks to a bunch of cats called The Avengers, my expectations were lowered for The Dark Knight Rises. I’ve enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s previous Batman movies, but I’ve also had several issues with the way the director has strayed from the comics. With lowered expectations and a love for comic-book purity in mind, I was blown away by The Dark Knight Rises. It’s not as much fun as The Avengers and it’s certainly more about Nolan’s interpretation of Batman than the comic books, but it’s a great superhero movie that wraps up this Batman trilogy nicely. Here are some random thoughts (not a review!) on The Dark Knight Rises. (Spoiler warning!)

Bane: Let’s get the bad out of the way first — Bane’s voice sucked. He sounded like Goldmember’s serious younger brother. I love the bad-ass South American character in the comics that’s driven by hate and powered by performance-enhancing drugs (this also describes most MLB players from 1995-2003). This movie’s Bane is very different. There were some aspects of this Bane that I liked. His fight scenes were fierce and he was the guy making things happen throughout the movie. I didn’t like that his mask pumped his body full of painkillers instead of performance enhancers. I also didn’t like the big reveal that he ultimately wasn’t the baddie behind all the machinations. Bane deserves his own stage. This version of Bane was a melange of coolness and annoyances.

Catwoman: Anne Hathaway was perfect as Catwoman. This is the Catwoman that I love in the comics — sultry, powerful, vulnerable, and morally scattered. Hathaway knocked it out of the park. If you like the version of Catwoman made popular by Devin Grayson and currently penned by Judd Winnick then you’ll love Hathaway’s Catwoman. To be completely honest, I also enjoyed that she spent a chunk of the movie riding a motorcycle that required her to stick her ass in the air. There were a lot of people that panned this casting choice going into the film. Many of them will owe Anne Hathaway an apology.

Full Circle: I really enjoyed how the movie used elements of the first two films and wrapped them up. Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins live on in Talia al Ghul and Bane. The truth of Harvey Dent’s inglorious fall is revealed to Gotham. Scarecrow shows up…to be cool and creepy. Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul shows up in a hallucination (or Qui-Gon Jin was using the Force in the wrong movie). The movie ties everything together nicely and works splendidly as a finale.

Surprises: I had no idea that was Matthew Modine playing Deputy Commissioner Foley. Dude got old. In my head, I still see the young kid in Vision Quest. I also didn’t recognize Nestor Carbonell as Mayor Garcia. I think it’s hilarious that the guy that played Bat Manuel was in the last two Batman movies. Bwahahahahahaha!!!

Michael Caine: He was awesome, as expected, but he was also a bit of distraction for me. Since Bane sounded like Goldmember, I kept waiting for him to have a scene with Alfred Pennyworth and address him as “Aushtin Powas Faja”.

Batman: Christian Bale was pretty much the same. He was great at “acting” as the flippant Bruce Wayne. His Batman voice was over-the-top. He brought more physicality to Batman than any other actor that has played the character. After two movies, people have already made up their minds about Bale’s Batman. The third movie isn’t going to change anyone’s opinion. Personally, I like him as Batman, but agree that his voice can cross the line from intimidating to ridiculous.

Catwoman: Let’s take a moment to look at her again. Anne Hathaway is stunning.

Fernet: I love that Fernet Branca played a part in one of Alfred’s big scenes. It’s an under-appreciated digestif in America.

Conclusion: If you look at Nolan’s Batman world on its own then you’ll think that The Dark Knight Rises is an undeniably great superhero movie. The storytelling is fantastic and most of the performance are strong. This 165-minute film moves at a brisk pace thanks to some slick action and clever directing. Staunch comic-book purists will have problems with the way some of the characters were rewritten and Nolan’s interpretation of these characters, which is a shame because they’re missing out on enjoying a perfectly fine film by being overly stringent. While I had more fun with The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises is a better movie on several levels — directing, cinematography, acting, score, etc. As a summer blockbuster, Marvel’s movie wins. As a film, The Dark Knight Rises is superior.

Rush Limbaugh on The Dark Knight Rises Bane Conspiracy

Congratulations to Rush Limbaugh for saying the stupidest sh*t I’ve heard all year! The popular conservative commentator believes that the Bane character in The Dark Knight Rises is part of a left-wing conspiracy against Mitt Romney. Limbaugh believes that the villainous Bane will get voters to think negatively about Bain Capital and Romney.

Wow. This is just beyond stupid. I must invoke the immortal words of will.i.am and ask, “What’s wrong with the world momma?!?”

Goldenvoice Announces SS Coachella Cruise

Goldenvoice is taking the Coachella music festival from the desert to the ocean on the SS Coachella. Hitting the Bahamas on December 16-19 and Jamaica from December 19-23, the seafaring version of Coachella features Pulp, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Yeasayer, and more. In addition to catching music, attendees will be able to enjoy high-end restaurants, shopping, gambling, yoga, a luxury spa, and more. Tickets for the SS Coachella go on sale this Saturday.

I love that Goldenvoice is thinking outside the box with the SS Coachella. That said, it’s very strange. When I think of Coachella, I think of thousands of dirty kids enjoying music in a crap desert in California. I’m fairly certain that a luxury cruise will not have the same spirit.

Of course, I could be wrong. What do you think? Will this ocean-bound venture be as successful as its desert counterpart? Are any of you interested in setting sail on the SS Coachella?

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Justice League: Earth’s Final Defense Coming to iOS

Netmarble has revealed that Justice League: Earth’s Final Defense will be submitted to the App Store and should be available for your enjoyment on the iOS device of your choice around August. The game looks like a classic beat-’em-up featuring DC’s finest heroes and heroines. The trailer shows Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash in action. Secondary heroes will be used as “support cards” that augment powers. While the gameplay doesn’t appear to be anything earth shattering, I’m completely down for a Justice League brawler on iOS. As a comic-book nerd, I love the alternate costumes shown in the trailer.

Check out the clip when you have a chance and let me know what you think. Are you excited for Justice League: Earth’s Final Defense?

Coffee Talk #498: Actors That Will Always Be…

Continuing a tangent started by RPadholic tokz21, I wanted to talk about actors and actresses that you’ll always see as one character. For example, Bill Pullman will always be Lone Starr from Spaceballs to me. No matter what movie or TV show Matthew Perry is in, it’s impossible for me not to see Chandler Bing…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the silly Dream Team vs. 2012 USA Olympic basketball team debate, iPhone 5 rumors, or Marissa Mayer leaving Google to become the new Yahoo! CEO, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Continuing a tangent started by RPadholic tokz21, I wanted to talk about actors and actresses that you’ll always see as one character. For example, Bill Pullman will always be Lone Starr from Spaceballs to me. No matter what movie or TV show Matthew Perry is in, it’s impossible for me not to see Chandler Bing from Friends. Tokz brought up Alison Pill from The Newsroom and seeing her as Kim Pine from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

The ultimate example of this (in my ridiculous head) is Lou Diamond Phillips. He will always be Ritchie Valens…or La Bamba. Stand and Deliver?!? That’s La Bamba Goes to School. Young Guns?!? That’s La Bamba Rides a Horse. I suppose Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker or William Shatner as Captain James Tiberius Kirk would have been easier examples, but La Bamba Goes to School is much funnier.

Anyway, kindly name some actors and actresses that you’ll always see in one role.

Thomas Jane Returns as The Punisher in “Dirty Laundry”

Thomas Jane reprises his role as The Punisher in the short movie Dirty Laundry. It’s powerful, visceral, and frickin’ awesome. Jane — famous for fighting smart sharks and portraying Mickey Mantle — totally owns the role. Check out the clip and let me know what you think (please)!

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as…Lobo?!?

Ladies and gentleman, The Rock says this: Dwayne Johnson could be playing DC Comics’ Lobo in the near future. Fans of the maniacal, genocidal, and suicidal Czarnian will be pleased to learn that the actor formerly known as The Rock tweeted, “Rumors of me possibly playing LOBO are true. Joel Silver and Brad Peyton working on it now. That could be fun.”

Personally, I’m not too high about the possibility. In my mind, Lobo requires an exaggerated ridiculousness that can only be achieved with CG. Furthermore, I loved the rumor of The Rock playing Black Adam in a possible Shazam movie. That works way better in my head. What do you think of the prospect of The Rock playing Lobo?

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A Weekend With the Google Nexus 7

Here’s the short version: the Google Nexus 7 is a high-quality tablet that runs the most current version of Android and sells for a bargain price. Before I get to the long version, I wanted to share my perspective going into my weekend with Google’s first “Nexus” tablet. I love both Android and iOS. At the moment, my primary phone is a Galaxy Nexus and my primary tablet is an iPad 2012. I use, enjoy, and appreciate Android and iOS for different reasons. Now here are some random observations (not a review) from three days with the Google Nexus 7.

Build Quality: Asus has been making quality mobile electronics for decades, so it was no surprise that the Nexus 7’s build quality is superior. While I wouldn’t put it in the same league as what Apple offers, the construction and materials are pretty close. The metal frame feels rigid. The reinforced Corning glass feels smooth and sturdy. The plastic back is dimpled, which gives it a nice grip and a leathery feel. Compared to the Amazon Kindle Fire and the smaller Samsung Galaxy Tab models, the Nexus 7 is a cut above.

Jelly Bean: While many people are going gaga over the hardware, the software is what grabbed me. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) was a major step for the OS in terms usability and aesthetics. Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) adds a lot of refinement. Thanks to some vsync and buffering wizardry called “Project Butter”, the OS feels smoother and the native Google Apps (Gmail, Phone, Calendar, etc.) are slickly animated. The Roboto font has been slightly altered and looks better than ever. The already outstanding notification system has gotten more powerful. Here’s the full Jelly Bean changelog if you want all the details. In short, this is the best Android has ever been.

Performance: The Nexus 7 is powered by Nvidia’s KAI platform, which is the company’s mass market Tegra 3 offering. This quad-core chip is clocked at 1.2GHz and accompanied by 1GB of RAM. The tablet handled everything I threw at it: 720p video, 3D games, etc. There are more powerful variants of the Tegra 3 available, but the one found in the Nexus 7 strikes a good balance between performance and battery life. Compared to top-of-the-line full-sized tablets, the Nexus 7 is a step behind the iPad 2012 and the Asus Transformer TF700. It doesn’t offer cutting-edge performance, but it’s close to the top.

Size and Weight: After using Apple iPads daily over the last couple of years, the relatively small Nexus 7 felt unusual to me on day one. I’ve handled small tablets before, but never for more than an hour. After a brief adjustment period, I came to love the size of the Nexus 7. The portability is fantastic and it’s great for almost everything I enjoy doing on tablets (more on that in the media section). The size and weight make it ideal for practically any situation. Whereas the iPad 2012 feels a bit cumbersome after an hour or so in bed, the Nexus 7 never felt uncomfortable. Naturally, a lot of this depends on your personal preferences and if you’re a giant. For reference, check out the photo above of the Nexus 7 sandwiched by an iPad 2012 and a Galaxy Nexus.

Screen: Due to its low price, I was expecting a mediocre screen on the Nexus 7. That was a mistake. The 1,280 x 800 IPS display on this tablet is bright and beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised by the screen’s high quality. I prefer the true colors of IPS LCD over the exaggerated colors many AMOLED screens produce. That said, there are a lot of people — like RPadholic smartguy — the prefer AMOLED offerings. No matter your preference, I think you’ll be impressed by the Nexus 7’s screen.

Gaming: As a huge fan of portable gaming, I was quite pleased with how the Nexus 7 served as a portable console. All the games I tried on the tablet performed well; at a glance, Dark Meadow, Riptide GP, Super Stickman Golf, Fruit Ninja, and Eve of the Genesis loked as good on the Nexus 7 as they did on the iPad 2012. Of course some of those games have specific Tegra 3 optimizations. In general, the seven-inch size is fantastic for games; you get a ton of screen real estate and none of the unwieldiness certain videogame genres bring to full-sized tablets. Your mileage may vary depending on the size of your hands (again, giants) and your personal preferences.

Media: For movies, music, TV, Internet video, web browsing, etc., the Nexus 7 is a great tablet. Where it falls short is with digital magazines and comic books. They just don’t read as well on a tablet this size. The text and images are simply too small. As a comic-book nerd, this is obviously a tremendous issue. Using the outstanding Comics by Comixology, I read a dozen or so comic books on the Nexus 7 and was unsatisfied with the experience. Comics and magazines are flat-out better on larger tablets.

Initial Conclusion: After using it for a weekend, I’m hugely impressed with the Nexus 7. It beats the pants off of the similarly priced Kindle Fire and offers nearly as much tablet computing as the iPad 2012 for less than half the price. It’s a powerful and well-built product that’s relatively inexpensive. That said, it’s not going to replace my iPad 2012 any time soon. I love comics too much and iOS still has the better software selection. However, as someone that uses a lot of Google products, I’ll be using this tablet quite a bit. Oddly enough, the Nexus 7 has me feeling unsatisfied with my Galaxy Nexus. For numerous reasons (IPS display, build quality), Google’s tablet has me wishing for a Google phone made by Asus.

I’m going to write more about the Nexus 7 after spending more time with it. For now, please let me know if you have any questions about the Google Nexus 7 by Asus.

Olivia Munn’s Dual-Wielding PhDs

Olivia Munn had more lines than ever on the last episode of The Newsroom. Previously, I was floored that her character, Sloan Sabbith, has a PhD from Duke and is an adjunct professor at Columbia. That’s pretty unbelievable. This week it was revealed that her character has two PhDs. Wow. I know she’s acting and I realize this is fiction, but this has crossed the line from “pretty unbelievable” to “are you frickin’ kidding me?!?”. Believing a woman portrayed by Olivia Munn has two PhDs is akin to actually believing you can get super powers from radioactive spiders.

On the slightly more serious side, the Sloan Sabbith character actually developed this week. She’s supposed to be “the smartest person on the show”, but she lacks social skills and understanding. Normally, I would find this irresistibly charming, but the characterization underscores what a poor choice Munn was for this role. While there are many things wrong with Olivia Munn, she’s certainly charming and gregarious. She just doesn’t work as a socially awkward economics nerd, don’t you agree?