Going into the theatre, I knew absolutely nothing about the movie other than it had Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale playing rival magicians and that it was directed by Christopher Nolan. If you’re keeping score, that would be one reference to X-men and two for Batman. Oh yeah, and a couple of British guys named Michael Caine and David Bowie are in it.

Jackman and Bale both deliver solid performances, but in a way that leaves their characters somewhat cold. As an audience, we’re conditioned to find the protagonist and antagonist in a movie and cheer for one while deriding the other, but I can’t honestly say that you can make that distinction in the Prestige. None of these characters are people you’d really want to relate to. The acting is still excellent, but it’s meant to push the story forward, rather than draw the audience in.

This is probably a movie that I could only watch once - the first time would be for the story and any subsequent viewing would be to appreciate the techniques the director used to pull it off. The film is very atmospheric and there’s a mysterious, darkly whimsical quality about it which fits nicely into the theme of magic. Although the characters may leave you cold, the story definitely draws you in. Nolan is very good at cutting back and forth between time periods in his narratives and it keeps the pace up. Like magic, the story is told in layers (it dives 2 flashbacks deep and re-surfaces in the present timeline periodically for air) with multiple misdirections. It takes a bit of concentration at the beginning to sort out the film’s reality but, personally, I find it refreshing to watch a movie where I’m not bashed over the head by obvious details because the producers think audiences are stupid. Plus the work you put in at the beginning to keep up with the story really pays off at the end.

I just (about an hour ago) finished watching Superman Returns. Before I spill my thoughts on it, let it be known at some point you are going to see big, bold letters that say Spoiler Warning. Well, now you’ve already seen them of course, but that was just a test. The second time you see them, it will be for real.

Altogether, I’d say it was a pretty entertaining film. Not as solid as Batman Begins, I thought, and definitely not in the same league as Spider-man 1 and 2, but I think that has to do with the fact that it’s pretty hard to tell a good Superman story because the guy is so damn tough. Superman himself can never really be in any danger so you have to keep putting the people around him in peril and you can only do that so many times in a single movie before it gets old. Ultimately, the movie’s an homage to the old Christopher Reeve ones, which still makes it fun to watch. I hope if they do another though, that they’ll try for a different approach because we now have 5 Superman movies done in that style.

A few quick and dirty points:

1. Because Kate Bosworth and Brandon Routh both look so incredibly youthful and fit, I sometimes felt I was watching Superman: Laguna Beach.

2. Bosworth was not bad as Lois. She’s not as memorable as Margot Kidder - Kate doesn’t really display the personality for it - but her performance was decent. Routh on the other hand takes all of his acting cues from Christopher Reeve, hunching over and stuttering in a high pitched voice as Clark Kent, and walking around with his chin up and chest out as Superman. Reeve did it better though. Routh’s Superman is a little more cute than heroic.

3. Kevin Spacey probably has the best performance of the bunch (with Sam Huntington in second place as Jimmy Olsen). Admittedly, it’s a re-hash of Gene Hackman’s interpretation of Lex Luthor, but Spacey adds a darker edge to it and actually makes Luthor dangerous. You also get a few hints as to how Luthor sees himself as the champion of humanity in relation to Superman’s alien, god-like stature.

4. Cyclops couldn’t win a girl if his life depended on it. What is it with James Marsden playing the straight-shooter yet loserly second-fiddle love interest to all the pretty leading ladies?

5. The awe and respect that people (in the film) have for Superman sent chills down my spine. The first time he flies into action and saves the day, you can feel his presence and the impact that he has on the people of Metropolis. I think these moments are the best parts of the film.

6. Kumar beat up Superman.

7. While it worked in Spider-man, creating a digital replica of Routh in costume doesn’t really succeed, chiefly because Superman doesn’t wear a mask. It’s an impressive digital model and I can only wish I could make something like that, but still - I can tell the difference, especially when they cut back and forth between the model’s face and Routh’s. It would be interesting to know if other people can tell the difference though.

Bryan Singer has a very interesting take on Superman. First of all, the Christian allusions/imagery are all over the place: the disembodied voice of Jor El telling us over and over again how Superman has been sent as our savior; the recurring theme of the father-son relationship; the poses that Superman tends to be in (how many times is he floating around with his arms oustretched, hands out?). Also, if you pay close attention to the beginning of the movie, the scene of Martha Kent holding a battered Superman in her arms after he crash lands in the field is incredibly reminiscent of the Pieta. Combined with Routh’s cutesy acting skills, you end up with a much more gentle version of Superman, softer and more vulnerable. I would even go so far to say that this Superman is just a bit more feminine than any other incarnation we’ve seen before. He is most definitely not heroic in the classically macho-hero sense.

Another interesting thing that Singer has done is he’s made Superman the father of an illegitimate child. He’s an absentee dad, and Lois is taking care of their son while engaged to another man who thinks that it’s his son. In any other movie, this is standard fare. But this…this is Superman, the original superhero. As the guy who started it all, he, of all others, would be the one most identified with classical wholesome family-values. But here in this movie, that’s just not the case anymore (you’ll note that when Perry White talks about what Superman stands for, he says “Truth and Justice,” not “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Interesting, eh?). Personally, I think it’s a dig at the whole notion of wholesome family-values. They’re unrealistic expecations that even Superman can’t live up to because families are complex and unpredictable. It doesn’t make him any less super though.

The film is filled with these little complexities, but they’re never played up and it’s just wasted potential in the end. It’s still entertaining though, and if you’re a fan of Superman and the old movies, you’re gonna get goosebumps during the opening credits.

Admittedly, I haven’t been working out regularly anymore because of school and the NHL playoffs, but this is pretty ridiculous: two straight weeks of watching Oilers’ games at the bar while consuming copious amounts of wings, fries, burgers and beer has turned me into a sack of fat. You know Jared, the spokesperson for Subway who lost a gazillion pounds by eating nothing but subs? Well, now I’m the Anti-Jared. Footage of my gluttony should be spliced into a Morgan Spurlock documentary.

Anyway, go check out www.waylandliwushu.com, designed and implemented by yours truly, when not eating.

As always when driving, there is never anything good to listen to on the radio. After jamming the “scan” button repeatedly, I’ll usually end up on the local university FM station, where you can at least count on listening to something odd or eclectic. This time, however, I got what appeared to be a round-table panel discussion on the aesthetic and cultural significance of identity in film. Naturally, the discussion veered off into gay representation in popular culture, with the occasional nod to gender issues.

I will be up front and honest and say that I absolutely loved these types of discussions when I was in University. Yes, I majored in Computing Science, but over a third of my credits came from courses in the fine arts, humanities and literature. I probably have one of the strangest looking transcripts of any comp sci student ever. For me, science classes were often characterized by barely english-speaking professors reading powerpoint slides to you off the overhead. Arts classes, on the other hand, were filled with people who each had an opinion and a teacher who welcomed it and was armed and ready to disassemble that opinion and rebuild it from the ground up. Arts lectures were far more interesting than science lectures, to say the least.

So I listened to this panel discussion on the radio with a rather interested ear. You could tell that the people on the panel were university students themselves with the way they casually peppered their speech with “like”, “y’know”, “whatever”, and “sort of,” but aside from that they were well-spoken. It’s been about two years since I’ve listened to a debate like this and I was surprised I could still follow along. They tossed a lot of big words around; words like “commodification,” “commercialization,” “interrogation of such-and-such notion,” “gender politics,” “realization of identity.” And of course there was the relentless habit of arts thinkers to prefix something with the word “post” : “post-colonial,” “post-politics,” and everybody’s favorite, “post-modern.”

Like I said, I ate this stuff up in university - couldn’t really get enough of it - but today, while the speakers talked about the “commodifcation of the queer aesthetic by commercialized mainstream culture, and the post-post-modern (yes, TWO “posts”) struggle with myriad identities,” the only word I could think of was “pretentious.”

Don’t get me wrong - I thoroughly believe that these discussions are important, and that there’s a place for them. I credit them for giving me the ability to critically analyze anything I see on TV or read in the newspaper. An education in the arts (and I mean a dedicated education, not just one where you hit the bar during finals week because all your exams are take-home papers) is your own personal shield against the collective mentality - you have the ability to form your own informed opinions.

But what I heard on the radio wasn’t so much a critical analysis of anything as a chance for arsty college students say big words over and over again. The end result was that they were either saying the same thing repeatedly but with different phrasing, or they were saying nothing coherent at all. It was almost the arts equivalent of techno-babble or lawyer-speak. What could have been said in 15 syallables required 45.

It’s funny how your perspective changes after working in the “real world” for a couple years. Nobody actually talks like that. Thoughtful debates can still be had but you don’t need to pepper your conversations with big literary terms; first of all, nobody would understand you and secondly, if anything, you’d come off as naive for believing that any of those words matter outside of academia. What’s more when you talk to artists and writers, or read about their work process, they’re not thinking in terms of things like postmodernism - they’re just making art, telling it like it is in terms that people can understand. Which is why audiences like their work, but nobody likes the academic who critiques the work - because nobody can understand the academic.

In a way, academic discussions are a form of collective mentality themselves. The ideas bandied about are important, but the way they’re phrased isn’t. It’s just a way to look smart in front of smart people. I definitely don’t regret learning any of those “big words” myself. They’re important. But overusage turns them into a bad joke. Oddly, it seems that the real world has given me a shield of its own against that academic culture. I miss university sometimes, but going back to it with the perspective that I have now would make it impossible to again enjoy those classes that I used to love so much.

As I continued listening to the panel on the radio, I kind of wished that I could make a small cameo and raise one very important point: “hey guys, what are you going to do when you graduate?”

Caught the Oilers vs. Ducks game at Schanks last night, and as tense as it got, the Oilers prevailed and the bar erupted, followed soon after by a trip to Whyte Ave. Conference champions. Wow. A new banner up in Rexall Place, 16 years after the last one.

It was definitely a great moment. Oilers fans have been waiting a long time to celebrate something like this again and last night was it (for now anyway - there’s still a bigger prize ahead). What’s more, there’s an entire generation of Oilers fans who know the stories, but have never experienced the glory. Well last night, we got a taste of it. I myself had to finish elementary, go through junior high, grow a couple feet, pass high school, and then get a university degree to this moment.

And the smile on Kevin Lowe’s face from the general manager’s box - that was just pure gold. I don’t think the camera has ever caught him smiling like that before. Definitely, a moment.

Whyte Avenue was rockin’. Hard. For anybody who hasn’t gone down there yet, I heartily recommend it, if just for the fact that you can say you were there. I’ve never seen this city rock like that before. The whole street was closed off as people partied, dance, and randomly high fived each other. The intersection outside Chapters was the epicentre of it all. A couple blocks down was a small street hockey game. A block further from there was enough open space in the road so that you could stand in the middle of the street and look down it at the massive throngs of people marching down whyte avenue heading towards the party outside Chapters.

You ever watch news clips of thousands of protesters marching down the street protesting something? Well imagine you were standing 1 block ahead of them, dead center in the middle of their path, facing them and watching them bear down on you. And instead of being angry about something, all they wanted to do was give you a high-five. THAT was Whyte Ave.

Seriously, check it out. You’ve got four more chances to do so.

Oilers win their 6th straight to take a 2-0 lead on Anaheim. And they did it with two key players out with the flu. I dunno, if I were the coach of a hockey team and had a player with the flu, I’d send him onto the ice and tell him to sneeze on the other team. I guess that’s why I don’t coach hockey.