Madonna's Magical Mirror

So dear ol' Madonna keeps 'reinventing' herself in an attempt to maintain a presence in popular music & to keep the ca$h inflow going.
Of course, much of this reinvention relies on the digital wonders of Photoshop & its ability to airbrush away the effects of gravity & old age on your face.
So once again Madonna looks amazingly young in the promo material for her new album MDNA & in the music vids.
I'd love to know just how many hours the digital retouch artists spent to make her look that young again...
Frankly, I think that she's secretly been funding the development of certain Photoshop tools, cos she has a vested interest in their magic affects. I'm sure that she also has a team of digital retouch artists that have been trained in her super secret special facility somewhere in Mongolia, where potential prodigies are trained from a young age to make her look good & digitally turn back the hands of time.
The digital retouching on her photos is starting to become extreme & I'm sure there's going to come a day where she will simply not be able to go out in public - because the digital & real versions will be so disparate that her physical appearance will become harmful to her brand.
She might even have to resort to becoming all 'mysterious' & wearing a cowl, like Emperor Palpatine. In fact, she might just be Emperor Palpatine... Which means that soon she will need an apprentice with a uniform that has a large cellphone attached to the front, with the Emergency Pizza Dial Button.

Spiderman Spiderman, does whatever a Batman can

So the first Spiderman movie was damn cool. It launched a whole new era for superhero movies. Spawning loads of copycats; some succeeding and some failing dismally, reminding us of those bygone days of cheesy comic book adaptations that no one took seriously at all - think George Clooney & Chris O'Donnel's bad chemistry and Uma Thurman's appalling attempt at Poison Ivy.
Of course, we all waited with bated breath for the second Spiderman movie, which turned out pretty dismal. Of the third attempt very little can be said, suffice to say that I think a goat herder in outer Mongolia could produce a more interesting movie.

I used to enjoy Spiderman cartoons as a kid, but the novelty wore off for me eventually. I think it was Mary Jane who was responsible for my diminishing interest. I found her pretty annoying in the long run & I had hoped that they would redeem her in the movies.
They didn't.
In fact, they seem to have exasperated the annoyance factor by playing up the fickle "I'm a blond idiot who can't decide on something & stick to it" trait.
So in all, the first Spidey movie received much acclaim, setting up audiences for what they hoped would be a sound set of sequels. But alas, the movies fell short of the fans' dreams. Way short.

Introducing: the relaunched Batman movie franchise.
Well-directed movies showcasing the gritty, dark reality side of Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne & the fact that being a superhero isn't about spandex, hot chicks & over-the-top villains. (Yes, I know the Spidey movies tried that too, but they just didn't get the formula right)
In short: the Batman movies worked because they were believable, well cast & weren't directed like one very long music video.

And so, now that DC Comics have kicked some serious ass with their relaunched franchise, Marvel are attempting to redeem themselves again by "relaunching" the Spiderman movie franchise.
Personally I think they're trying to torture us even further with Mary Jane, but that's just my opinion...
They've "fired" main star Toby Maguire & Sam Raimi, the director, so I guess we'll see who they chose to torture us with next.
Oh yeah, and following the major success of Avatar, Spiderman 4 will apparently be in 3D. So now you'll get to see Mary Jane whine in 3 dimensions.
Great.
Fortunately we can breathe easy for a while - the release is set for July 2012.
Unfortunately, we'll probably have to watch Zac Efron or one of the Jonas brothers squirt webs out of their wrists...