Another Movie Blog

Really? Another Movie Blog? There are already way too many movie blogs in cyberspace, but I just can't help myself. I've always loved action and adventure movies, science fiction, and comic books. We are living in a Golden Age of Entertainment, where the sketches and drawings of fantastic adventurers colored with ink and printed on cheap paper in decades past, now provide a rich source of unending stories, both nostalgic and earth-shattering at the same time.

My name is Bertman. I am the technician of Nerds in the Wood, nerdsinthewood.com. I love hiking, science fiction, ale, good food, fantasy adventure games on computers, gadgets and devices. I'm not great on social networking, but I have some ability. I am expert with the handheld GPS. It can be used to navigate while hiking. Mostly I ave the power of Metaphor: I have an uncanny ability to relate real life situations like formatting a disk to imaginary systems like farming and gardening.

I was raised on comic books and science fiction. I read my first few comic books at the age of four. I remember Flash, Green Lantern, Batman and Superman. That was when the first issues of Spiderman were made. The first words I learned were invulnerable dimension, universe and alien. There were super-powered beings who looked out for anything bad, watching over people like guardians.I was a child in a military family, living in a country where I didn't speak the language. Because we were moving every couple of years, it was difficult to make friends. Being new in town made me a victim of bullying due to being a nerd and a weakling.

I had lots of time, so I read lots of comic books. We didn't even have a TV until I was 10. I remember The Justice League, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin, and Green Arrow. I learned about the dangers of Kryptonite, and of a destroyed planet with the only survivors being Superman, Supergirl, the dome-encased Argo City, the Bottle City of Kandor, and the criminal inhabitants of the Phantom Zone. Then there were the bad guys, Lex Luthor and Braniac, and the imp Mxyzptlk.  Of course, being a voracious devourer of comic books, I also read Richie Rich, Sad Sack, Casper the Good Little Ghost, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Archie and dozens, nay, hundreds of other titles.

You could see where the concepts they used could expand the ability to think beyond the mundane, to imagine things. Of course, one would frequently be accused of living in a fantasy world, and one would be made fun of and laughed at. Well, I will show them whose laughing now!

As I got older, I read more books, by authors like Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke and Herbert. I watched Star Trek when it first came out, the 60's Batman series, Lost in Space, the very first Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a teen, I collected comic books. I had a collection of several thousand Marvel titles, like the Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, Thor, The Avengers, and many, many more. I bought them used in thrift stores, read them and bagged them, and dragged them around until I was in my 20's, then sold them. I often regret having sold them, but I needed the money.

The last few years have been great for movies about comic book characters. I can't even name all of the movies that were based originally on comic books, and on what are now called graphic novels. I do make it a point to see every sci-fi and comic book movie that comes out. There have been quite a few really good comic book movies lately.

This blog will review my picks of movies. Comic book adaptations, science fiction, fantasy, and movies based on video games, all are fair game. Stay tuned!

To be continued.....