It’s the end of the year and I figured we’d highlight some of the best and worst things about 2002. And since it’s my list, it’s a pretty selective list of things that’s based on what I’ve seen, read, played, or just experienced as a whole.
On the one hand, we finally got a Spider-Man movie in theaters. And it’s great. Does it take liberties? Sure. Do I wish the Green Goblin costume looked a little better? Of course. Do I wish Spidey was more quippy? Would’ve been nice. But you know what? I got Spider-Man on the big screen and he moves as he should. The action bits aren’t too shabby, the characters are solid, Wilhem Dafoe’s turn as Norman is brilliant, and JK Simmons as Jonah is a revelation.
On the other hand, we’ve got another Star Wars prequel in Attack Of The Clones. That title is easy to make fun of, but I guess that’s the idea is to have a cheesy title for your cheesy movie. The problem is that the movie is just so bad. There were some stuff that I liked in it, but when the focus of the movie is between two characters that are supposed to be star-crossed lovers, but have absolutely no chemistry between the two actors… and also some of the line reads are pretty bad, too.
And then, there was the last Star Trek movie… man, I’ve heard all sorts of bad things about this movie before that worried me a bit, but as it turned out, Nemesis was just… fine. Sure, it bombed in the box office because someone thought it was a smart idea to have it open in theaters a week before Lord Of The Rings came along and killed everyone there… losing to another Jennifer Lopez rom-com or whatever they call those things couldn’t have helped, either. Calling this a Generation’s Final Journey and then tossing it before the One Ring like a piece of rotten meat does a disservice to this crew and almost made me wish they didn’t push that level of marketing.
Well, the good news about the Jarretts’ NWA-TNA promotion is that it’s somehow still in business and they’re still doing shows. I’ve seen the first few shows and they’re basically the continuation of WCW, which may or may not be a good thing. And then Vince Russo showed up on my TV so he can form his own nWo faction called SEX (Sports Entertainment X-treme… because a man who claims to be a writer has no clue on how to spell Extreme) and that’s where I’m like, “Nah.” I gave up on WCW when it was just shit show after shit show and this is looking to be more of the same. Hopefully, this is a phase that they grow out of because if not… meh.
Not a fun year for Vince McMahon, I’ll tell you that much. Bad enough that the XFL folded, but then the Panda people came along and forced him to change the WWF to WWE… and then as an added fuck you to the audience, you bring in all the guys from WCW that would’ve mattered in that shitty Invasion story and you do fuck all with them… unless you’re Hulk Hogan; then you give him a title run when Toronto lost their shit. Even outside of all the old people they brought in, you had the old people that stuck around. HHH made his comeback and is absolute shit. Undertaker lost the Limp Bizkit theme and became even more shit. I want to say that I had high hopes for Brock Lesnar and he was off to a fine start until they jobbed him to fucking Big Show.
It also sucks to be Steve Austin, who had to deal with shitty creative for his character until he decided to fuck off and go home because he didn’t want to job to Brock. And then the stuff with Debra happened and I feel depressed. Is this a sign that you hope to never meet your heroes because they turn out to be pretty miserable people? I’m miserable enough, already.
Finally, it double sucks to be Bret Hart. Has a bike accident and suffers a stroke. All the shit that guy had to put up with and then to add this on top of that. Hope he’s doing well.
Honestly, if you want me to pick a highlight, it’s Shawn Michaels coming back after a back injury forced him out of action four years ago. He had a couple matches with Triple H and the guy still has it. As much as I sour on the old-timers coming back and taking all the spotlights that they need to put towards building stars for the future, I wouldn’t mind HBK getting a few programs here and there if he can put up with it. If nothing else, four years out of the spotlight will feel fresh compared to McSon-In-Law’s run, which feels old, ancient, and tired. The only hard thing is figuring out if I hate this more than glory hog Hogan’s choking the main event scene in WCW. I might be leaning one way. We’ll see.
Power Rangers had their Forever Red team-up special, where they drag in every Red Ranger (minus Rocky, because who cares about him, apparently? Sorry, Steve) to fight a bunch of Beetleborgs… er, I mean, remnants of the Machine Empire trying to bring back Serpenterra… and then Wild Force Red Ranger drove his flying bike into the zord and blew it up… well, they gave the finish to the current Red Ranger, so there’s that. Say what you will about the whole deal, but I thought that was a cool little moment and something a little different from the usual team-up deal.
On the flip side, the sale to Disney has me worried. Are they going to treat the franchise well? Are things going to change or stay the same? Will there be more care put into future seasons, if there are to be future seasons beyond this Ninja Storm deal? Surely, if there’s cause to be excited for the new era, I would have found it by now. Honestly, right now, I’m more concerned about where this stuff is going to air. Because before it was on Fox, which I have. But now it’s on the Family channel, which I don’t have. So I’m pretty much screwed in that regard unless there’s another means of catching this show.
Also, what’s filling the old FOX Kids block?
Anyway, those are my thoughts on 2002… kind of a troubling year for me, personally, and sadly, my usual avenues of escape have come up short. Hopefully, 2003 will prove to be much more fruitful.
Have a good one, everyone. See you next update.
dtm666 