YouTube Spam – Seriously, how hard is it to implement a filter to keep people from posting their URL/Cam Site names as comments on my video posts. Any given day I can check and 1/3 of my new comments will be spam. Marking it spam never seems to work and I swear that if I mark it as spam, it reappears the next time I check the post.

Come on YouTube, let’s get some seriously good comment spam protection going.

Badly Formatted Top 10 Lists – You know that a good list (Top 10 Ways, Best, Most Sucessful, etc.) will get you on Digg no problem, but formatting that list with only one entry per page means that I probably won’t read it. How hard is it to make something easy to read? Do you want to turn away readers?

Here’s a good list – ASME’s Top 40 Magazine Covers and a bad list – AOL Money & Finance: Most Successful Movie Franchises.

Guess which one I read?

Swamp Thing Television Series Ad According to TVShows on DVD, that seems to be the case. Shout Factory, the same group that produced the amazing Freeks and Geeks DVD set has supposedly acquired the DVD rights to the 1990 USA Network series. Based on the DC comics character, the series took the basic idea of the character and spun it into a genre heavy series that thrived on a threat/monster of the week theme.

I remember watching this show off and on the last few years of high school. It was just a few years before that I had gotten into the classic Swamp Thing series from DC. Writer Alan Moore took a stock horror character and transformed him into one of the most interesting books that DC had at the time. Rick Veitch continued the trend after Moore left, but the series floundered for direction after Veitch abruptly left. The comic had the character increasing in power to near god-like levels and it was hard to find anyone or anything that could challenge the character.

Several attempts have been made to bring the character back, but all have failed. With the success of the 1985-1996 series and the fact that it help found DC’s now popular Vertigo line, DC editorial have been hesitant to remove the character from his horror filled roots and return him to the super-hero filled DC universe proper (despite the recent, constant pleas from DC editorial). I say let them have the character. Past history and success is keeping the character tied to a formula that a few writers had success with, but others have not been able to duplicate in over a decade. Give someone else a chance to see what they can do with Swampy.

For a full history of the character and TV show, be sure to check out Arcane Knowledge and Cult TV Man’s Swamp Thing page.

Ben 10 character Heatblast from the live-action movie

I had heard there was a Ben 10 live action movie in the works. I had no idea that it was practically complete and will be released in November of this year. For those that don’t know, Ben 10 is one of the more recent cartoons produced by the cartoon Network.

The show revolves around Ben Tennyson, his cousin Gwen, and his grandfather Max. During the start of their summer camping trip, Ben is nearly hit by an alien pod that fell from space and crashed next to him. When he examines it, he finds a mysterious, watch-like device, called the Omnitrix, stored inside. The device attaches to his wrist and gives him the ability to transform into a variety of alien lifeforms, each with their own unique powers, quite similar to DC’s “Dial H for Hero” comic. Although Ben realizes that he has a responsibility to help others with these new abilities at his disposal, he is not above a little super-powered mischief now and then.

It’s a very traditional cartoon, which is rare nowadays on Cartoon Network. I found a trailer for the film on director Alex Winter’s website. Yes, it’s that Alex Winter of Bill and Ted fame.

I can’t say that I’m overly impressed by the trailer. It looks a little too kid friendly. I’m worried that they took a half-decent cartoon plot and have dumped it in favor of a dumbed-down kids movie. The villain in the trailer doesn’t look like the Season 1 villain Vilgax, but just a generic alien/warlord. Still, it should be an entertaining enough to watch once with Carter. I wonder how many of the alien transformations they will showcase in the movie.

Digging around, it looks like it will be a TV movie instead of a theatrical release. That kind of surprises me, but it makes sense for Cartoon Network. One big plus (in my book) is that Grandpa Max is played by Lee Majors. How cool is that? TV’s The Fall Guy is now someone’s grandfather in a film. Actually, that’s not as cool as I originally thought, because now I feel old.

When Earth’s sun suddenly turns red, Superman loses his powers. The SuperFriends discover that a Kryptonian named Zycree has escaped from the Phantom Zone and is causing the sun to turn red in order to get revenge on Superman. In order to save Superman, the SuperFriends must stop Zycree.

Heath Ledger as the Joker

Lots of photos have popped up over on The Movie Blog Community and on a Flickr Page that show Heath ledger as the Joker, as well as several shots of Batman from the Summer 2008 Batman film, The Dark Knight.

I really like the way Ledger looks and I also like the fact that the “Joker look” appears to just be make-up and not some accident. The scarring around the mouth is hard to see and I wish that were a little more prominent, but overall, everything looks great and I absolutely can’t wait to see some footage from this.