storm vs. storm

I'm not sure what it says about my current mind set, but I have no interest in catching the new X-Men flick this weekend. That's surprising for at least two reasons:
1. I love super hero movies.
2. I adore the X-Men, having read most of the mutant comics for the greater part of my teens and early twenties.

But the first X-Men movie proved so unflinchingly awful, it sort of spoiled the franchise for me. I blame Halle Berry, who seems to suck in just about everything she touches, but was particularly awful playing weather goddess Storm. Bitch had like two lines in the whole stinker, yet still managed to ruin it. The photos of her from the new movie simply scare me. I'd hoped the producers would see fit to finally give us the punked-out '80s Ororo who I loved. But no, it's like Anita Baker Storm. "Watch out, Calisto, I'm Giving You the Best That I Got." Bitch, please.

I'm therefore urging everyone to hold off on seeing the new X-Men travesty and instead invest their weekend dollars in a truly mind-blowing movie-going experience. Wednesday night the BF and I stood in line for An Inconvenient Truth, the new documentary on climate change.

OK, I can sense some eyes glazing over already. The movie has become known as "Al Gore's slideshow," which sounds about as thrilling as, well ... nothing sounds less exciting than that. But the Truth is one of the most startling and compelling docs I've caught in ages.

The summary: Naysayers be damned, global warming is not just a theory. The polar ice caps are melting, world temperatures are on the rise and glaciers are drying up faster than Britney Spears' career. If the trend continues, we're fucked. If a large enough chunk of Greenland's glaciers melts into the Atlantic (a real possibility, given how the ice shelves in Antarctica are decaying), we're fucked.
In one of the movie's most shocking moments, we see how the world map would be redrawn if just half of Greenland and half of Antarctica melted: No more Miami, San Francisco, and half of Manhattan.
But then there's Al Gore, who may be this revolutionary film's greatest weakness. Don't get me wrong: He's great. He's matured in a good way over the past six years, and comes across less stiff and surprisingly likeable. Sure, he's still a goofball, pulling a couple of laugh-out-loud nerd moments in the lecture, but there's something distinctly presidential about his presence here. Too bad he had to include a segment on the 2000 election, which just doesn't mesh in the overall argument about changing climate.

I know I'm being stupid thinking folks will actually flock to see this movie. Hell, most of my friends will be cruising boys in P-Town, Pensacola or Fire Island this weekend anyway. But for those of you who aren't going someplace fab for Memorial Day, make a date with Al Gore.
Halle Berry can go to hell for all I care.