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Summer Time is Here
Time to sit back and unwind. Unless you’re Marvel Studios, in which case you’ll be wanting to jump up and fire your whole publicity department.

Never mind the fact that my school just let out for spring break. It’s a beautiful 77 degrees in New York City today, the outdoor bars are open and I’m wearing shorts for the first time this year. Plus, the Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie Preview just arrived in my mailbox, giving me the signal that it is officially the blockbuster season. Sure, May 2nd isn’t for two more weeks, when technically Iron Man begins the summer movie stretch (can’t we just pretend The Forbidden Kingdom is the first summer action flick?), but nothing says, “break out the beach ball,” like the bible of blockbuster buzz.

Yet there’s something strange about this year’s issue. There’s a little less marketing-agency-fueled promotion and a little more reality checking. Maybe it’s because these days, thanks to the web, most moviegoers have already heard about the big releases. That would explain why EW devotes most of its two-page spread on The Incredible Hulk to describing its troubles:

On March 11, Nikki Finke’s industry blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, broke news of the scuffle between Marvel and Norton, declaring it a “feud.” And suddenly it was. Communication between Norton and Marvel seems to have stopped. “”The press is what kept Edward and Marvel from talking to each other,” Leterrier says. “[The argument] was nothing, but then it became something big.”

And that chunk comes after already setting up some less than exciting words about the movie:

It’s unfortunate that Hulk has been generating negative publicity lately, because there’s a lot at stake for Marvel: The company’s first two films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, are being released this summer. Marvel’s decision to cast Norton as Banner was a gutsy choice in more ways than one. Norton is an enormously respected actor, but the Fight Club star also has a reputation for being an intense presence behind the scenes.

Considering EW is typically one of the bigger places for publicizing movies, the negativity of the article is “unfortunate” indeed. And it’s not just Hulk that gets the bad buzz treatment. The first sentence for the Sex and the City spot reads: “The Sex and the City movie was supposed to come out ages ago. Remember?” Way to point out the problem of post-relevancy, EW. Can’t you be more up, as in the case of the first sentence for Wall-E (”Pixar has never had a flop.”)?

At least the preview does have a new kind of highlighter box, in which a number of just-off-the-radar movies are given due attention. Entitled “What the #@!* Is … “, we now get the goods on such significant yet smaller summer movies as The Foot Fist Way, The Mother of Tears, Hamlet 2 and … umm … Space Chimps.

In case you actually think this summer is going to be filled with awesome popcorn flicks, pick up the magazine, on newsstands now.

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Indiana Jones: Hero or Hypocrite?
Is he really safeguarding that icon or is he pilfering it from the gods?

With each Indiana Jones film comes the obligatory discussion of the title character’s merits relative to his field. So, in anticipation of the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there’s a story from NPR’s All Things Considered program that calls into question Indy’s heroic deeds. Is he a true archaeologist or is he nothing more than an adventuring thief, no better than the baddies he means to thwart? Real-life archaeologist Winifred Creamer appears to think the latter:

“You could say Indiana Jones is the worst thing to happen to archeology, because Indiana Jones has no respect for anybody and anything. Indiana Jones walks a fine line between what’s an archaeologist and what’s a professional looter.”

The story somewhat follows Indy’s fluctuating view on the matter, which is evidenced by his inconsistent words and actions throughout the first three films. Of course, as the story mentions, archaeologists and treasure hunters of the past were often considered heroes in their time only to be later labeled thieves by the nations or civilizations whose artifacts were taken. One of Creamer’s team, 17-year-old Dylan Breternitz, for whom archeology is the family business, comes more to the defense of Indiana Jones’ conduct:

“(Indy) does everything that all archaeologists would like to do,” says Bredernitz. “Go on crazy adventures, fight bad people, not steal stuff but save it from being destroyed by the bad guys.”

It isn’t like Indy keeps the artifacts for himself or tries to sell them to dealers, right? He secures them for view in a museum or, in the case of the Ark of the Covenant, to be stored away, either outcome being better than in Hitler’s hands.

NPR’s story also touches on the issue of Indy’s influence on young people (like Bredernitz) to become archaeologists, a good and bad thing for the actual profession. Certainly there are more people turned onto the field because of the films, but a number of people also apparently get the wrong idea of what the job is actually like.

Frustrating, sure, but helpful, too. When I took a class called Art & Architecture of Egypt, the professor constantly put things into perspective for students who’d seen the Indiana Jones trilogy, especially when describing her own archaeological endeavors. For me, a movie dork who relates nearly everything in real life to reel life, it made sense. But I also think such comparisons downplay the worth of the real-life profession.

Then again, I downplay the worth of film criticism to everyone who thinks this job is all fun and glamor, too.

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Iron Man to be Sabbath-Free?
Boo! The Playlist has details on the Iron Man soundtrack, and despite use of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” in various promos (see above) and intimations at last year’s ComicCon that the song would be in the film, it looks like it’s a no-go. “In fact, all the hard rockin’ songs in the trailer…are absent from […]

Boo! The Playlist has details on the Iron Man soundtrack, and despite use of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” in various promos (see above) and intimations at last year’s ComicCon that the song would be in the film, it looks like it’s a no-go. “In fact, all the hard rockin’ songs in the trailer…are absent from the soundtrack and that’s likely cause they won’t be featured in the film,” reports the blog. There *is* a version of “Iron Man” in Iron Man, but it appears to be a cover by a composer who may or may not have written the theme for Guiding Light. Can’t wait to see how that turns out.

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