Best & Worst Film Adaptations of Comic Books

Inspired by a recent email thread, I'm soliciting opinions about the best and worst film adaptations of (reasonably well-known) comic books, preferably of the costumed/super-hero variety.

1. My top three, in no particular order: Batman Begins - Christian Bale is the best Batman, period (slight edge over Keaton), and the rest of the cast is awesome also; can't believe Frank Miller didn't get script credit though, plenty of nods to Year One and Dark Knight Returns. Tank Girl - fun movie, well-integrated comic-art cut scenes. Spider-Man 2 - both of Raimi's spider-movies are excellent, I'm just picking this one b/c Doc Oc was always one of my favorite baddies. Just missed my cut: Tim Burton's Batman, X-Men 2.

2. Worst three - so many to choose from here, and I haven't even seen the Fantastic Four or Hulk yet (although I know several people who really liked Hulk). And I'm not even going to link to Catwoman. I'm gonna have to go with Superman IV, which introduced us to Nuclear Man (anyone remember him?). Batman Forever, one of Schumacher's disasters, has to be next; could acting talent be wasted any more than Tommy Lee Jones' was as Two-Face? Fortunately, not many people saw the 1990 version of Captain America, which featured J.D. Salinger's actor son Matt as Captain A(wful).

Upcoming films, which certainly have the potential to make these lists:

• Jon Favreau-directed Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., due out in 2008.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 2007 release.
• Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage. This could be spectacularly terrible.
• Wonder Woman, directed and written by Joss Whedon. Intriguing...
• Spider-Man 3, with Venom! I'm stoked, dudes!
• The Dark Knight, the next Nolan Batman, with Heath Ledger as the Joker (2008).
• X-Men prequel, Wolverine, 2008.
  

Tunneling

A big part of my job right now is building and running simulations to support the design of sewer overflow storage tunnels in DC. There are similar tunnel systems in Detroit, Chicago, and a handful of other places, and most of them are massive. DC is no exception; tunnel diameters from 15 to 30+ feet, depths of up to 100 feet below the surface. They're built using tunnel boring machines (TBMs), which are used for all large diameter tunneling projects these days, including road/transit tunnels.

Maybe I'm just a big engineering geek, but these things are pretty damn cool. They're custom-made for each job, taking into account desired diameter and rock/soil conditions. They not only do the drilling, but the apparatus behind the drills lines the tunnel also. And my understanding is that since they're usually expensive to extract once the job is done (plus since they're custom-made, re-use isn't likely), they're left in the ground when the drilling is complete. Eleven of these beasts were used on the Channel Tunnel.

Here's a promotional video that shows how these babies work.

The Wizard of Ounce?

OK, I'm not the biggest Wizard of Oz fan, and I've never read any of the original books, but I was still surprised that I had never heard of this take on the story.

Am I alone here, or is this a new chunk of trivia for most people?

Last Minute Shopping Idea, Courtesy of SNL

Don't know what to get that special someone this Christmas? Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg have a suggestion (from last night's hilarious episode).

Here are a few more highlights. If NBC was smart, they'd replay this next weekend in prime time, instead of stale old Christmas cartoons (other than the Grinch, who kicks ass):

Opening Monologue Christmas Song w/Alvin & the Chipmunks

Cup-O-Soup/Homelessville

Celtic Solstice

Yesterday, Barry and I ran in the 7th Annual Celtic Solstice Five Miler in Druid Hill Park. It was a new race for both of us, and we both enjoyed it. Nice weather, fantastic course layout, and - unlike other races of mine this year - I was very pleased with the result; an overall time of 40:27, with all five mile splits faster than 8:30. No, I didn't set any land speed records, but those are decent numbers for me, and that's all that really counts, right?

Any runners or would-be runners out there, I would highly recommend this race. The course is of moderate difficulty but very manageable, the field is large but not too large (about 2K registered runners, 1500+ finishers), the premium is awesome every year, and the post-race food & beverage spread is top-notch. Plus, several people run in kilts, and there are a bagpipes player and drummer out on the course. Also, you run right past the statue of William Wallace that's at one end of Druid Hill Lake. Very Scottish. We certainly got lucky with good weather, but I personally think it still would have been fun if it were below freezing (like last year, when it snowed).

Blogger Upgrade, Tags, Site Feed

I just recently upgraded my blogger account to Blogger Beta, which lets one add tags to blog posts (among other new features). I've been slowly going through and adding tags, but when I do that it seems that the RSS feed considers it a new entry. So if use use a reader, sorry about that.

Flickr "Christmas Egg"

I saw this on Lis' blog, who got it from her friend Bill (credit where it's due, after all): Flickr's Christmas Easter Egg - egg nog, maybe? - that lets you add certain notes to photos that will show up as Santa hats and beards. Check it out on my Flickr page if you want to see it in action. [Update - it looks like you have to view an individual photo for the note to show up, it doesn't show up on the index page]

Wow, the notes feature is kinda cool unto itself, I had never used it before...

Mary Cheney

Today's Howard Kurtz column focuses on the attention given to Mary Cheney's pregnancy. His argument, right up near the front in paragraph two, is that it's unfair to her because she didn't ask to be a vice-president's daughter. I would agree - of course she didn't ask for that - but she did voluntarily work on her father's campaigns, campaigns that were based in part on willfully denying legal rights to a group of which she is a member. And while I appreciate any attempts to try to change bigoted thinking from within, it still reeks of sleeping with the enemy, dancing with the devil, et cetera [insert equally tired metaphor here]. Similar to my utter bafflement that a group like the Log Cabin Republicans can exist, it's difficult for me to be very sympathetic towards someone who's been employed by a White House political machine that courts the votes of the intolerant, who are attacking her now for exercising her right to have a kid.

Put it this way: her father is the political equivalent of Darth Vader, that makes her Leia - or Luke, I suppose. If Leia had worked for the Empire, (but secretly hoped to change it into a kinder, gentler force for evil) would any tears have been shed were she onboard the Death Star when Luke blew it up at the end of the first movie? Nope.

For All The Lovecraft/Illuminati Fans

Bring Cthulu home for the holidays! (isn't he cute?!?)

Pity the Congress

Democrats are making Congress work more days next year, so what do poor widdle Wepublicans do? They whine about it:

"Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says."

This is so tragic, I can hardly hold back the tears. These people get paid to "work" about half the hours of a typical taxpayer, and get a six-figure salary. Just when I thought that the GOP was incapable of disgusting me any further...

Are 'Good Losses' a Myth? O Christmas Tree!

I had never bought into the idea of the 'good loss', but yesterday's loss to Notre Dame might change my thinking. MD looked a lot like last year's team for good portions of the game - and that is not a compliment. Too much individual play, too many careless passes, not nearly enough 3-point defense.

We already have our Chirstmas tree this year, unlike last year's ten-days-before-Christmas purchase. There's just something very comforting about coming home from work in December, when it's already dark out, to the tree lights peeking through the blinds on the front window. It's not a big tree, but it's got a good shape, and is quite healthy considering its sundering from its roots. It could be a lot taller considering how high our first-floor ceiling is, but this isn't the year for us to be buying a $80 or $100 tree - a $50 tree suits well enough.