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 PTG Episode 50: The Disney-Marvel Deal [57:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (68)

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 50 is brought to you by 300, which you will be reminded of endlessly while watching Gamer should you choose to do so. Yes, Gerard Butler is playing an ENTIRELY different character possessed of an entirely different type of charisma, brooding and silent versus regal and defiant, but every time he speaks, it’s tough not to hear King Leonidas, regardless of the words themselves. OR you may be reminded of Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage, since those are the signature directorial works to date for the directors of Gamer, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Hopefully you’ll be reminded of a movie you enjoyed or still enjoy, and thus the experience of watching Gamer might be lifted somewhat. Believe it or not, the movie’s premise is pretty cerebral, and the future world it depicts is viciously satirical. Neveldine and Taylor were the screenwriters here, as well, and they seemed to have had a point and an agenda, which come off as much more important to get across than the film’s paper-thin plot and one-note characters carried along by that plot. What we get–a frenetic, exhausting mess of explosions, chases, and scenes featuring creepy internet clichés in place of believable characters–is presented with gleefully gratuitous exuberance that will leave you on the edge of your seat for all the wrong reasons. Makes me wonder what the result might have been if the script might have found its way into the hands of, say, Ridley Scott or Oliver Stone. Ah, well. Listen to the podcast for more on that.

From the title of this entry, it’s pretty obvious we spend some time in this episode talking about the Disney-Marvel deal that was the talk of Geekdom and beyond for most of last week. Also in this hour, top independent comic picks from last week, including Buck Rogers #3 and The Boys #34 from Dynamite Entertainment and Incognito #6 from Icon (not pictured above). Yeah, yeah, Icon isn’t an independent, it’s a Marvel imprint, but its world is in no way connected to what goes on in mainstream Marvel, so its close enough.