We kick off our epic Avengers arc leading up to the release of he 2012 movie with a re-watch of the 2008 flick, Hulk. We discuss the magic of comics and what draws people to identify with one hero over another. We examine the Hulk’s history and speculate as to his involvement in the upcoming Avengers team. And we run down the week in geek, including changes in the in-the-works Ninja Turtles film, the story of the lost Star Trek episode and CBS’s reaction to the fan group Phase II’s desire to bring the episode to life, and a robot scrub nurse.
WARNING!!! EVERYONE PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!!! CONSIDER DUCK SCHLONG A BADGER LINK. DO >>>NOT<<< GOOGLE. THAT STUFF JUST AIN’T RIGHT!
BRAIN BLEACH!
ARGGGHHHHHHH!
Hunger Games is an extremely quick read. I got it free with my Nook Tablet on Tuesday and finished it Wednesday. I don’t think the movie was quite as good, but it didn’t have the advantage of knowing what Katniss was thinking, and was one of the few times where shaky cam actually annoyed me. Despite that, I think it might be better to watch the movie before reading the book.
Listening to the cast in bits…if I remember right Lou Ferrigino (sp?) is deaf, I kinda remember a big deal being made about it when the TV Show was hot…I think, I was kinda young then though…
Great cast crew. I saw the Incredible Hulk last of all the Marvel Movies, and was surprised at how much I liked it. The film managed to have plenty of heart, humour, and The Hulk versus Blonski (pre Abomination) fight, and the whole campus brawl around it, is probably one of my favourite, most intense fights in the whole movieverse. You can’t help to root for the guy a little, jumping around all ninja like.
I think chronologically, the Hulk takes place last in the series, although IM2, Thor and this all take place over the same 2 week period. On that note, i’d recommend everyone check out The Consultant short film on the Thor Blu ray (its also on Youtube). It expands on Hulks post credits scene and makes it hi-larious : )
It’s interesting yey talked about the parallels between this and Cap, when we see the serum used to super soldier Blonksi, it has the name ‘Erskine’ printed on it (The serum guy in Cap). Always liked that touch, made it really fit with the idea that the serum magnified whatever was inside you and explained the change in his actions (in Blonskis case, it looks like it magnified all his bad traits, his recklessness and anger, at the expense of the concern he showed earlier in the movie)
Stan Lee wasn’t in First Class (I think it had something to do with it being shot too far away or something), nor X-Men 2. Those are the only 2 cameo free movies as far as I can remember.
Goddamn this, I saw the movie last night and enjoyed it a lot, but I could barely tell what was going on in any of the action scenes.
As a child he suffered from an ear infection that resulted in permanent partial hearing loss. So maybe due to that fact is the reason he sounds the way he does.
Chuck, I think the robot you were thinking of was Omnibot.
The one that I always think about is the TOPO:
These robots were kind of robots in the loosest sense of the word. Omnibot and it’s cousins in the consumer world were mostly remote control cars in robot shape. TOPO was programmable, and I think had a few sensors on board that allowed it a little flexibility. Ownership of one of those in the 80’s implied to me that you were RICH (Like, Richy Rich rich). To program a Topo (or it’s descedant BOB), you had to have a computer already. And these things cost a small fortune ($1000-$2000 IIRC) on top of that computer.
In the 80’s, as a society we were all looking at household robots to be like Rosie from the Jetsons. An autonomous, and interactive part of home life. A lot of it (like you said on the cast) was a matter of interpretation and integration. We want robots to get a soda from the refrigerator, so we say “robot, get me a soda from the fridge”. Now it has to know where it is, where the fridge is, where we are, that fridge and refrigerator are the same thing, how to open the door, what in the fridge a soda is… and then we want to pile on top of all that that little Jimmy can’t have a soda until after his homework is done.
So, there are a lot of challenges. Fortunately, we’re in the future now, and a lot of these things are pretty easy to do. Computers are even cheap enough that we could put a mac mini on board and run the robot off of an Automator script.
There’s lots of interesting and fun information at The Old Robots.
hehehe … small world.
While reading this post my co-worker (Robert) walked past returning from lunch.
He pointed out the above picture he had taken and and sent me the link to his robot workshop website.
If you have a legacy robot question … Robert is the “go to dude”.
Here’s a link to Robert’s latest pieces of work:
again … small world … OB
Wow, you work with this guy?! I have visited his site at least a dozen times to read up on old robots from my childhood (not that I ever had any, but I sure loved them). That’s way cool
yup … Robert is the real deal. Send him an email and I’m sure he’ll share his wealth of robots and robot related goodness.
You can also check out his latest article in Servo magazine regarding spindle-bots.
OB
P.S. I help proof read his articles some times (beware my red mechanical pencil), but have no other interest in his efforts, other than an appreciation of all things robotic.
There’s a radio lab that discusses Ducks and their bizarre anatomy. Here’s the interesting point: The weirdness isn’t only on the male side.
Seriously. It’s a really interesting program, give it a listen
Who said corkscrew vaginas with multiple branching tubes to nowhere are weird? You’re weird!
Dude, Radiolab is one of my faves. Jad and Robert do such a wonderful job of marrying storytelling with science. I love Radiolab.
always fun pod listening.
I’ll bite on the “who to have beer(s)” with idea.
Here are my top 11 in no particular order.
Basically I chose for these criteria.
“fun to be around”
“epic stories discussed”
“how awesome to speak of later”
I went for scifi, fantasy, cool movies, comic books or anything else you might see at a Con.
Oddball’s 11
- Tyrion Lannister – Game of Thrones (HBO)
- Ellen Ripley – Alien(s)
- Chewbacca – Star Wars
- Groo the Wanderer – Sergio Arragone (cartoon)
- Jay & Silent Bob – Bong!
- Conan the Barbarian – R.E. Howard
- Montgomery Scott – Star Trek (TV)
- Jayne Cobb – Firefly (TV)
- Lara Croft – Tomb Raider
- Magneto – Marvel comics
- Danny Ocean – Ocean’s 11
OB
I had not seen either Hulk movie and had quite frankly forgotten it was part of the Avengers stretch. Yes, I knew The Hulk would be in Avengers but I didn;t make the connection that the 2008 Hulk movie was part of it. I wasn’t sure what to think about it. I had heard not so great things about the movie, especially after the 2003 version. So this week I put the 2008 Hulk movie at the top of my Netflix queue and waited. It came today and I watched it. What a great popcorn action flick. I’m glad I watched it. And I wouldn’t have without this GWC arc - so thanks guys.
I didn’t care for General Ross at all. His character was weak and not representative of any military general I have personally known. And I can’t think of a single Pentagon official that would have let him remain on this particular case of chasing The Hulk after so many failures. The Special Forces “Super Soldier” was also a week single-minded character. But every movie has to have bad guys. These bad guys were easy for me to hate.
My suggestion? If you are planning on seeing this summer’s Avenger’s movie and haven’t seen the 2008 Hulk movie you should make time to see it. It’s a great popcorn entertainment film and will definitely put you in the mood for The Avengers.
~Shooter Out
Branching tubes? Crap, one of them can be intimidating enough, all im imagining now is some kind of Death Star type maze trench run xD
As for who i’d go for a drink with, either for hanging out, or the hope it might go further, Power Girl or Wonder Woman would neatly fulfill either criteria. Would also be cool to hang with Bucky, Nova or Herculeas.
Oh, and when Audra was talking about Aquaman, all I could think of was the relaunched series xD
Sad Aquaman xD
I was looking for a link to follow up on Sean’s Twilight news but can’t seem to find one. Can anyone help me out?
For the sit down to have a beer question, I am going to have to go with Gen. Jack O’neil.
+1 … on both posts 
OB
Vote for your favorite GWC Podcast 318 quote(s). This poll will close on April 24th, 2012 at 07:27 AM.
So glad I’m listening to GWC again! Good, fun episode. I think the 2008 Incredible Hulk is a great film (far better than the '03 Ang Lee version), and I’m frankly disappointed that Ed Norton won’t be back as Bruce Banner. Oh, well. I’m not even a huge Hulk or Marvel fan, for that matter; but the characters are strong and engaging, the script is smart, the action is exciting, and the terrfic musical score doesn’t hurt, either. It’s available (or was, anyway) as an on-demand CD from Amazon - every note of music! - and I am glad I bought it. It’s a superior piece of work.
Speaking of Watson (IBM’s Jeopardy! computer), if you haven’t read the book Final Jeopardy by Stephen Baker, I highly recommend it. It’s a very readable (for us poor, non-tech savvy souls) account of how the computer was designed, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what its implications are for the future of the actual human work force. A really, really good book.
I really don’t get why CBS and Phase II can’t strike some kind of deal. I’ve read Spinrad’s script, and it’s not as though it is any lost masterpiece - it’s a pretty standard Trek tale, with danger on the planet and problem to the ship. I understand the legal principle and, frankly, support CBS’ right to stop production of the script… but if they’ve got a good relationship with Phase II already, as James Cawley says they do, why is this a flashpoint? It’s not like Phase II wants to remake an actual Trek episode or movie - actually, they just did, with “The Child,” so I don’t know why CBS doesn’t go after them for that, instead.
I kinda thought the ending of season 4 of Farscape was a perfect ending, and not nearly as good as The Peacekeeper Wars. Oh, well! Hybrid goo under the bridge at this point…
I hope you guys will do a Hunger Games episode at some point!