THE FUCKING EGOS OF THE ACTORS INVOLVED.

How much screen time did Spider-Man spend actually wearing an intact mask, sans tears? 3, perhaps 4 minutes?

Many of you have much to bitch about with FF1. One of my gripes was how Doom turned Chiklis back to pink for no other apparent reason other than to put his face onscreen for movie goers to remember what he looks like.

I thought Ghost Rider was pretty damn faithful to the comics. But toward the end, Cage was lighting up his head left and right like a Bic lighter, right down to the end where his only his face is in the sunlight, while the rest is all Ghost Ridery. Ridiculous.

Ever play the Daredevil drinking game? When someone other than Matt takes his mask off, you drink. When Matt himself takes his own mask off, you drink twice. Why? Because he willingly unmasked that sparingly by comparison, which was already frequent enough! You'll be blitzed long before the showdown with Kingpin.

Lastly, Topher Grace, Topher FUCKING Grace, as in, "Who the hell is Topher FUCKING Grace?!" Yeah, that guy. Even that no-name gave more head than Venom.

Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky is NOT good news. I have two predictions, one of which will doubtless come true: 1) We won't see any Abomination at all until the last minutes of the final reel, or 2) He will change back and forth ala the video game Ultimate Destruction, which means the character will hardly represent his pulpy roots.

I was intrigued by the casting of Norton, since Hulk is one of few characters you can play the "See? IT's me, ME!! playing the hero, you little audience people!!" game. But Roth as Abomination is bad news. His ego won't give the character enough time to shine on its own, similar to the Creel, Zzzax, Glob hybrid from Ang Lee's flick.

"I love you, Honey-bunny.

Alright, everybody be cool this is an Abomination"...*SMASH!!!*

cue the now way over-used Dick Dale surf music... also to feature an appearance by Travolta's Pulp hair piece.

More importantly, Abomination distanced himself from being a carboncopy Hulk; an anti-version of the hero by introducing the twice as powerful, unchanging, all mindless (vs. Hulk's semi-mindless) tenets of the character. Scroll up and you'll see my post about my concerns here. Can't help but think they'll 'reimagine' a character that need not be reimagined.

The Abomination looks like the Hulk. That is a lot of green. If you're going to go green, go all the way: FING FANG FOOM!!!!

And after the Hulk Dogs I am gammaed out. Choose something non-gamma for him to face, please!

Now, you could divert from this, by having the Leader (another gamma spawn, I grant you) invent stuff for Hulk to fight, or the Hulkbusters themselves. But even if you went with the latter, you should still throw Samson in there to act as Shield's conscience.

Venom looks like a musclebound Spidey with a Kiss fetish.

Bizarro looks like Supes with eczema and a logo spelled by a 2nd grader.

Black Adam looks like Captain Marvel with a black outfit and Soul Glo hairstyle.

Not quite seeing the 'looks too much like' angle here.

Personally I would have gone with someone like William Fichtner

And he didn't write Fantastic Four...he only contributed dialogue to the VIDEO GAME...not the movie itself.

Yeah, he wrote Last Action Hero (which I think is unfairly maligned) and Elektra...but he also wrote X Men 2 AND he wrote and directed the wonderful Werner Herzog mockumentary Incident at Loch Ness...and if you haven't seen it, rush out and do so...its a lot fo fun and Herzog is a riot. Think Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Spinal Tap...with about 5 minutes of material that doesn't really work. That isn't much for a 95 minute movie, and the rest of it is great.

So cut Zak Penn a break. He's never really gotten the chance to show us what he's capable of (most of his screenplays are co-written), and the fact that he thinks highly enough of Werner Herzog to create an entire project around him proves he's about more than getting laid and scoring bank (a la Brett Ratner).

I for one hope this is the project that elevates Penn to the big time. But if it doesn't, I'll still be there for the next film he directs...why wouldn't I? Herzog's in it!!

Puny talkbackers try to trick Hulk. Tell Hulk that Mr. Orange is playing Big Ears. Big Ears isn't orange. Big Ears is green. Hulk is too smart for puny talkbackers.

Hulk thinks that Hulk and Big Ears should team up against Shiney Board Man, who has movie coming out. Hulk has fought Shiney Board Man, and was in team with him. Big Ears fought Shiney Board Man in Shiney Board Man's own comic book, which sucked gamma bombs.

And finally, Hulk wishes puny talkbackers would shut up about Liv Tyler Betty and Jennifer Connelly Betty. Like puny talkbackers would have a shot at either Betty...

There are different schools of thought as to why X3 was so bad. Some blame ratner, some blame Penn, some blame Fox and Tom Rothman. I'm inclined to blame the first and third parties most heavily...Penn was simply a holdover from the last film, and since that film was easily the best of the X Men series, I don't get why so many people here seem to think Penn's involvement is a harbinger of failure.

Take a look at his screenwriting credits, even films like Behind Enemy Lines and Suspect Zero aren't entirely his work...this guy deserves a real chance after his Herzogumentary, and its obvious he has a lot of passion for comic books.

A good screenplay is essential, but a film like this (and X3) rises and falls on the efforts of the director and the studio that hires him. X3 was a rushed project that disrespected fans and instead tried to end the franchise to make way for lower budget (and thus more profitable) spin-offs. Tom Rothman is a piece of shit, and Brett Ratner deserves to be tarred and feathered for being his go-to gopher. But Zak Penn was on board because, well, he co-wrote X Men 2...don't crucify him for it.

Hey, if Penn's projects turn out bad, I'll be the first to tell it like it is. I just don't think he's shown us what he's capable of, and I think we should at least give him the benefit of the doubt. Whats wrong with that?