Death Note live-action movie

Had quite a treat today.
I got to see the Death Note live-action movie.
It was a 2 night only engagement.  I'd read several weeks back that it was going to be coming around, but then I completely forgot about it.  Tonight was actually the second night, so I almost missed it.  Fortunately my comic shop had a flyer for it and I noticed it when I went in to pick up my books this week.  Still, once I realized it was happening tonight, I had to figure out where it was playing.  So I pulled up the browser on my phone and tried to locate a theatre playing it.  That took over 15 minutes (the event web-site had the info, but their buttons didn't work on my phone's browser, so I had to dig around a few other sites until I found a listing).  Once I got the theatre and time, I only had about 40 minutes to get there.  Fortunately I made it with time to spare ... and even more fortunately, the show was not sold out.
I've never read the Death Note manga and have only seen a handful of the anime episodes (less than 10 altogether). Still, I've found the anime to be quite good (though I came in somewhere around the middle --- haven't actually seen the beginning), so I was definitely intrigued by the prospect of a live action film.

And it was excellent.
Very well done.
The dubbing wasn't even a distraction.
Great film.
I thought they did a great job with their selection of actors.  When Light was first revealed on-screen, I didn't think he quite fit the part.  But my opinion changed rather quickly.  And L was really spot on.  From the first moment he was presented in physical form, it was clear that he absolutely was L.  Misa Misa (who doesn't have much screen time in this film) was also a fitting choice in casting.  She was the exuberant and energetic girl one would expect.

The only disappointing thing about the film is that it was only part one.  I should have realized they wouldn't be able to tell the entire story in a single film given how long the manga and anime series are.  I was still a little surprised however when the movie ended and the story was only partially told.
On the plus side, that means another Death Note movie.
Definitely looking forward to part 2.
I have no idea when it will be making a run through the U.S. but I will definitely have to keep my eye out for it.

CAPE and Iron Man

I've been quite busy as of late (so much so that I have nearly three months worth of trade paperbacks sitting on my table waiting to be read -- and this after I was finally able to catch up on over 2 months worth of individual comics) and obviously haven't posted in a few weeks.
This isn't going to be a monolithic post though.
I drove up to Dallas to attend CAPE this past weekend (and also to catch the Sharks -v- Stars in the Stanley Cup play-offs ... unfortunately the Sharks lost a 4 overtime thriller that ended their season).  CAPE was quite a good show.  Plenty of great guests and lots of cool stuff to look at and buy.  This was my first time at CAPE so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.  I was suprised to see the guys from Red 5 Comics there.  I didn't realize they were based out of Houston.
It seemed like the non-big name creators (by that, I mean those who haven't done any work for Marvel and DC) were not getting the level of fan attention and appreciation they should have.  There was certainly a lack of action at a number of the tables during the time I was there.  That was really too bad since there was a lot of great product available from those creators that fans could have discovered.  I'm hoping next year we'll be able to do a little more promotion for some of those creators through the MZS APA.
I was glad to see our Zombie Zone FCBD sampler was getting handed out to all of the attendees.  Hopefully we'll see a little activity on the web-site in the coming weeks.
After I finished my tour of CAPE, I headed off to catch a showing of the movie Iron Man.  I'm not going to give a review of it here (maybe I'll do that in a later post).  I'll just say it was a GREAT movie.  It is definitely the new torch-bearer for comic-based movies.  Everything is going to be measured against it.  I don't think that bodes well for The Spirit (based on what I saw from the trailer).  Anyway, it will be interesting to see what impact this movie might have on Time Warner's DC movie properites.