gobbledegeek

Bryce Dallas Howard, the girl I fell in love with in The Village, will portray Gwen Stacy, the girl I fell in love with at the age of five, in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 flick. When old school crush meets new wave love, you just know it's destiny in the making. Scarlett Johannson is gonna be sooo jealous. And the transformation is incredible. From demure, anaemic-looking, blind-girl-next-door to full-blown, drop-dead gorgeous party animal.

I can't wait! She has the acting chops to pull it off, as evidenced by the afore-mentioned M. Night Shyamalan film (flawed though it was). And yes, her character in Lady In The Water lacked emotional range, written to express vulnerability and fear throughout the entire film, but she aced looking vulnerable and scared in spades. OK, I'm getting my metaphors mixed up, but that's just because I'm really excited. In the meantime, here are some pictures to whet your appetite:

It's in her eyes. The eyes! The eyes have it! Can you tell? Can you tell? Huh? Huh? Huh? She has the eyes! How can you not fall in love with either of them? No? Yes? Ugh. It's hard to deal with you non-believers...

In other news, have you seen the new Transformers trailer? I have my doubts, no doubt, including but not limited to the choice of Michael Bay as director, who is not known for subtlety. But then I'm thinking: this is a movie about giant robots smashing everything in their paths to have a go at each other, so is there really a need for subtlety? And I especially enjoyed Armageddon in all its abject inanity.

And at least it's not that Van Helsing director, whatsisname, Stephen Sommers or some sort or another. Whatever. If that guy doesn't represent over-the-top, bombastic crock that is the bane of real film-making, then I don't know who does. Michael Bay may not be the best choice, but he's definitely not the worst, either.

And to top it all off, those teenage mutated turtles with ninja training are coming back on the big screen in an animated feature. Oh, and a bunch of superheroes called the Fantastic Four will return too, this time with the Silver Surfer (he's silver, and he travels to far-flung galaxies on a surf board; is that cool or what?!). This is truly the year of the geek. I'm so glad I was born in the 80s.