superman II Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When I closed my eyes and pictured the greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, I was surprised how often hair -- and headpieces -- come into play. That makes sense for those of us who are not costume purists because we're thinking of the character as a whole, and in movies we're very often looking at close-ups of villains. We want to get up close and personal, to study the sneer, to examine the evil eyes, to absorb the dismissive scowl, to observe the raised eyebrows.

Isn't it the whole package that sells a character as a villain? The actor makes all the difference in the world, no matter if he's buried under a ton of makeup or becomes nearly unrecognizable, but the costume plays an important role. In honor of all those who will sally forth this weekend in costumes that are good, bad, and ugly, we salute the designers of the top ten (plus a couple of bonus selections) greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, and the actors who wear them.

The Emperor Ming (Flash Gordon)

It takes a truly evil villain to pull off this particular outfit. Arrayed in varying shades of deep red and gold, Ming (the always game Max von Sydow) threatens to steal the show when those eyebrows are raised. Somehow Ming looks both sartorially forward-thinking -- what is that raised cowl doing back there except to frame his bald head -- and ridiculously, gloriously silly.

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Geek news I found while drinking some fantastic hot apple cider:

• If you, like me, are delighted by Marvel properties in animated form, you probably enjoyed the Ultimate Avengers movies. Following these flicks comes The Invincible Iron Man, another sure to be enjoyable direct-to-DVD animated movie from Marvel. Read Marvel's full press release here for official details on the film.
• Making their first appearance in a Geek Bytes roundup is Harbx, with a solid look at some Bumblebee concept art in both robot and vehicle form. You can also get a fun look at his weapons systems, complete with arm cannon goodness.
• IGN presents five exclusive clips from the Donner Cut of Superman II. I'm interested in hearing what classic Supes fans think of the Donner cut.
• As it turns out, MTV will not be getting an exclusive on that new Spider-Man 3 trailer this Thursday; it seems CBS will be running the clip as well. I still plan on holding out for the internet debut of the trailer a few minutes later.
• The first Fantastic Four video game based on the movie franchise was ... well ... a good deal less than stellar. Take-Two is going to handle the second video game -- let's hope they do a better job. (from Next Generation)

Last fall, the internets (including this one) were abuzz with the news that Richard Donner's cut of Superman II (the movie was taken from him by Warner Brothers and handed over to Richard Lester to finish) would finally be made available to the public via DVD. The way it was sold back in October, the new version would actually be made by Donner himself, recutting the movie and adding in his own, unused footage. The truth, it turns out, is decidedly less spectacular.

According to Donner, he has nothing to do with the forthcoming release. Instead, the new edit is being put together by his former assistant, Michael Thau, who went to Warner's himself and got their approval for the project. Thau has been working on "Donner's" Superman II for four or five months, and he's using all of the discarded footage that he can find. Despite the fact that Donner claims much of what he shot was destroyed, his impression is that Thau's edit will be "about 70% [Donner's] footage." So is "Donner's" edit still exciting news? It's hard to say. Interesting, for sure, but the fact that the director is totally uninvolved certainly detracts rather significantly from the value of this new version.

Meanwhile, in non-Superman news, Donner still really, really wants to make another The Goonies. Aw. Hey, if Sean Astin AND Donner still want to play, what's the damn problem? Well, apparently the director has some standards, and doesn't want to just make a sequel for sequel's sake (It's too bad he didn't feel that way before he made Lethal Weapon 4). He admits that some of the pitches he and executive producer Steven Spielberg originally put together for the sequel "weren't right," so he's now just sitting around hoping inspiration will strike. Said Donner, "If I could ever find a really good handle on a screenplay for it, I'd go pitch it again...But it's got to be right, or [I won't] do it...".