implicit art

I saw X-Men 2, the
movie, last night. The story wasn’t as cool or as politically charged as the first
(perhaps because they were using the same social message as a theme, without as
clearly developing it in relation to current sociopolitical events, as in the
first), but the action and graphics were far superior. The big news for X-fans
is that there were all kinds of references to The Phoenix. Think Jean Gray is
dead @ the end of the film? She burst into flames before being enveloped by water,
Xavier states that everything "will be OK," and then we see the outline
of a bird in the sea with Berre’s voiceover about "the power of mutants"
before the closing credits. Famke
Janssen has indeed signed on to do a third film, and mentions The Phoenix
here.
Although I’m still a geek, it’s been a long time since reading the original Phoenix
Saga (if I ever read it; hard to remember at this point). I’m guessing we’ll see
some interesting pages/sites up about what this could mean in the coming weeks
(lemme
know if you find one, and I’ll post it). In the meanwhile, here
is a link about Phoenix history (needs a spell check and some clarity, though),
and here
is one on Jean (beware the pop-ups! Use Safari
if you don’t want them). The story-line could be spectacular, or terrible; even
in the comics, the cloning, "real Jean," "daughter of Jean,"
"power of Jean" storyline got quite tired after a while. They’re going
to have to change it (which they already have) in order to make for another interesting
film. But I’m still looking forward to it :)
Here’s
an interesting story about China as an up-and-coming world power, and New Zealand’s
opposition to WW-III.
And here’s
a pre-Dem-SC debate article by ABC, while here’s
a post-debate review on CNN. I have a feeling the Dems might fall, divided, yet
again. At first I thought that the Dean
/ Kerry fight might be
putting Dean back in
the spotlight for the better, but as you’ll see in the
CNN article, Graham
articulately called them on how they are "not fighting each other… [but]
trying to select [someone] to be the opponent of George Bush." Sux to be
an American, donut? Looking forward to reading what The
Note has to day about the debate, tomorrow. You should, too.