First Class

I guess this was inevitable.



I have mixed feelings about this.  One one hand, the last two X-Men movies have been terrible and the trailers for Marvel's other upcoming movies, Captain America and Thor, look rather pedestrian.  By that, of course, I mean more superheroics by the numbers.  One the other hand, the concept of X-Men by way of The Avengers (The 60's Emma Peel version, not the comics version) is intriguing and might prove to be the fresh take this franchise needs.

I like most of the films Matthew Vaugn has directed (Kick Ass was fine for what it was, I just didn't like what it was) but the fact that there has been extensive reshoots gives me some pause.  I'm guessing this will turn out to be nothing more or less than a serviceable superhero movie.  Since Marvel (and to a lesser extent D.C.) have flooded movie theaters with superhero movies over the last decade, I'm not sure serviceable is really going to be enough to get people excited enough to forget about X-Men 3 and X Men Origins: Wolverine.

...though, to be fair, I'm almost as excited about The Wolverine as I am about The Dark Knight Rises.

Brain Science

There was a pretty decent bit about brain health on last week's edition of Science Friday.  The NPR website is not the easiest thing to navigate, so you can use the toolbar below to hear the podcast version.



I'm acquainted with a few people who study the effect of exercise on the brain, though I'm not up on the research myself.  As far as I can tell, this is an accurate summary of the field.  At the very least, it debunks a lot of the pop psychology associated with maintaining a healthy brain.