Spider-Man 3 with Guest Riffer James Lileks

[bettertomorrowamy]

I don't see why we can't talk about his politics as long as we are civil.

Indeed, but the long-running meme of their political opponents being traitors or - as in Lileks's case - the terrorists' and dictators' choice of candidate can not be described as being civil.

It's not that Lileks is a conservative - there are plenty of principled conservatives who do not argue from the standpoint of their opponents acting in bad faith, being traitors or wanting to turn the US into a Communist One-Party State. And there are funny conservatives - PJ O'Rourke comes to mind. And, evidently, Mike Nelson.

I'd have been similarly concerned if they'd chosen Michael Moore as a guest riffer, to be honest. So it's not just about the shade of politics, but about how it's been expressed over the years. I'll give Lileks props for supporting gay marriage and adoption, even if it doesn't remotely counter-balance his war cheerleading.

Has he changed his gung-ho attitude a little now?  I mean a lot of democrats didn't seem to mind this war in the beginning.

I don't think your political slant precludes your involvement in Rifftrax.  That's why I'm hoping for a job still.

[RoninFox]

Spider-Man 3 had a ton of problems, but here are the main two I can point to.

1.  You don't NEED to make Peter more emo.  He's already whiny and weepy in his own barely standable way.  Turning him into the tainted-superhero form of the frontman for Panic at the Disco just goes too far into the depths of stupidity to take.

2.  Too many villains and not enough time to use them right.  (a.k.a. Stage one of Batman and Robin Syndrome)  Okay, so you have Venom, sort of, you just want to yell "dumbass" at him whenever he's on screen.  You also have Sandman, who if you're not following Spider-Man comics or the old animated versions you have no idea what to think about, then you have the "new Goblin" who shows up after two movies of build-up, is defeated quickly, and swaps sides by the end.  Now imagine if you took those villains and gave them each a movie to work with...with thought and proper planning.

[Teaflax]

Has he changed his gung-ho attitude a little now?

I don't know - not that I've been made aware. It's not like I really follow the guy except when he's mentioned on funny sites I do read. Even before I was aware of his politics, I found him neither funny nor particularly clever and thought his peculiar snotty disdain for - yet deep and abiding interest in - pop-cultural artifacts of the 50s and 60s was mostly tiring. A blogger friend of mine kept claiming that he wished he could be as good a writer as Lileks. I didn't see it then, and I don't see it now.

Either way, the kind of inflammatory and opponent-demeaning rhetoric Lileks has dealt in post- 9/11 isn't something you just go "oops, I was wrong" about. It requires a slightly more solid mea culpa, and I'm pretty certain I would have heard about something like that.

I don't think your political slant precludes your involvement in Rifftrax.  That's why I'm hoping for a job still.

It's not the slant, it's the style and the attitude. Honestly thinking that those who do not agree with you are out to willingly destroy the country (or the Western World, in the case of his views of European governments) is a pretty unhealthy attitude that fairly reeks of clinical paranoia. If you're only taking that kind of attitude as a rhetorical device, that's intellectual dishonesty of the kind that really should be neither tolerated or condoned.

And since that, above and beyond harping on about Weird Old Stuff and His Insectoid Daughter, the above is pretty much Lileks's stock-in-trade, I see hiring him to do a joint venture as either an endorsement of that or - at best - utter cluelessness as to what the man is about. Neither option really makes Rifftrax look good. At all.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Well maybe they should have somebody guest riff who is a liberal leaner just for balance, or just a Kevin and Bill Rifftrax.

[FBX]

I read that as "a liberal beaner just for balance", and had to do a double-take.

[Teaflax]

Well maybe they should have somebody guest riff who is a liberal leaner just for balance, or just a Kevin and Bill Rifftrax.

You know, much as I think Lileks is a huge mistake as a guest-riffer, I think trying to balance him would just make it worse, somehow. I can't intellectually explain it yet - I need sleep, I think. Or possibly cocaine...I mean caffeine.

It'll be sleep for now. Hopefully I won't feel as bad about this in the morning.

[Jason Martian]

All I know is Spidey just needed a good vacuum cleaner to handle the sandman!

[bettertomorrowamy]

I hope there is more moped action in Spiderman 4!

...or maybe Peter Parker on a segway...

Why must they make Peter Parker even more of a pussy?  Why don't they just have a digital Luke Skywalker as Parker?

[gammer]

I hope there is more moped action in Spiderman 4!

Me too!
That F'n rocks! 

[RoninFox]

I hope there is more moped action in Spiderman 4!

Me too!
That F'n rocks! 

I don't know, it'd be hard to top what they've already done.  Perhaps they should mix things up and have Peter on a segue.

[Ortega]

the only downside of the new trax is that i have a Blu-Ray version when i bought my PS3....now i'll actually have to track down a DVD version of this pile....

[Gaseous Snake]

the only downside of the new trax is that i have a Blu-Ray version when i bought my PS3....now i'll actually have to track down a DVD version of this pile....

Why would the Blu-Ray not work?

[bettertomorrowamy]

All I know is Spidey just needed a good vacuum cleaner to handle the sandman!

I love how that plot point comes out of nowhere, accomplishes its task, and then disappears. 

I was more interested in finding out what the scientists were doing than what Sandman's motivations were.

[RoninFox]

the only downside of the new trax is that i have a Blu-Ray version when i bought my PS3....now i'll actually have to track down a DVD version of this pile....

Why would the Blu-Ray not work?

Reauthoring I'm guessing.

[Gaseous Snake]

the only downside of the new trax is that i have a Blu-Ray version when i bought my PS3....now i'll actually have to track down a DVD version of this pile....

Why would the Blu-Ray not work?

Reauthoring I'm guessing.

The answer is always so simple, yet it always evades me.