Tag Archives: comic books
Who Won The Battle Of Summer Blockbusters?
I love comic books and I love movies so naturally, I’m a big fan of movies based on comic books. There is no doubt that this summer was enough to make many a geek wet themselves with delight.
Talk to the hand
The summer started off with a giant crimson and gold bang as Iron Man dominated theaters to the tune of $318,219,154. Not too bad for a movie about a dysfunctional millionaire with a really cool suit. Despite the fact that I think that Tony Stark is a giant douche bag in the comics, especially after Marvel’s Civil War, there’s no doubt that Robert Downey Jr. was flat out amazing. Throw in a nice cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury that set up the upcoming Avengers project, and this provided much geek glee.
Next up we had Speed Racer, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones and the Something About Aliens. I didn’t see Speed Racer because I fear having epileptic seizures. I don’t have epilepsy but the trailers were enough to keep me away. Plus, I’m not a big Speed Racer fan. Narnia was good, albeit a bit long and Indy was further proof that George Lucas is going insane. It should be noted though that I will be buying both Narnia and Indy because I am a geek and really enjoyed both movies.
Hulk contemplate the complexities of life.
Once the pre-summer blockbusters were out of the way, we were treated to Edward Norton getting all green and smashy in The Incredible Hulk which, surprisingly, did not suck. It even made a respectable $134,518,390 at the box office. I didn’t expect much from this film given the fact that Ang Lee’s The Hulk made me want to jump off of a bridge. That was a bad movie. The sequel, not so much. I may even end up buying it on DVD. Plus, there was a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony Stark. In case you forgot, it set up the previously mentioned upcoming Avengers project. There is also some alleged footage that was cut at the last minute that showed Captain America. It’s purpose? To set up the upcoming Captain America movie.
Between The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight, which let’s face it, is probably one of the best movies in the history of movies, we saw the release of Wanted, Hancock, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I didn’t see Hancock but the other two were good movies. To be honest though, at this point in the summer, I was just waiting for Batman to beat the crap out of some bad guys.
"I've never felt this way towards a psychopath before"
July 18 will go down as the day that the best superhero movie of all time opened. Yes, I’m talking about The Dark Knight. I’ve already reviewed this so I won’t do it again here but this movie is two hours and thirty two minutes of pure awesome. When all was said and done, it brought in $521,890,027 making it one of the most successful movies in history. With a re-release planned for Oscar season, who knows how much this movie will end up making.
We were also treated to The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I didn’t see X-Files. Not because I don’t want to, but because I was too busy. I’m sure I’ll eventually watch it though. For my thoughts on The Clone Wars, read my review. Needless to say, with a box office take of only $34,477,361, I don’t think I was the only one mildly disappointed by it.
This all got me to thinking, who came out on top this summer? Obviously DC Comics did well with The Dark Knight but Marvel had two offerings that were really good. OK, one that was really good, one that was awesome. However, Marvel set up future projects and actually did what the comics do in showing that these characters don’t live in a vacuum. With Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, an Iron Man sequel, and two Spiderman sequels all in the works, I think that Marvel is going to prove to be the big winner in this summer’s box office battles. With the cameos and the upcoming movies that they were able to set up, every geek should be jumping for joy. Now if only DC could pull of the same thing with the much rumored Justice League movie…
What Women Want
Before you get to excited let me clarify. This is not a review of Mel Gibson’s 2000 film. Nor is it my pitch for the sequel, What Men Want, because I quickly realized the answer was “Boobs”, and didn’t really think that could be stretched to feature length. It’s also not my editorial on what makes a successful husband, though as a psychologist I’ve thought about doing just that. No this is my quest to answer one of the great mysteries of the 21st century. What do women want in a video game? This is up there with who shot JFK, and why Reggis Philbon has a career, for the great questions of life. So I thought I’d give it a go.
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The Clone Wars Reviewed
The Clone Wars
Thanks to TardisCaptain, this morning I was able to attend an advanced screening of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. For those who know me, you know that I’m a big Star Wars geek so being able to see the movie a whole week before it’s released was awesome. (I think that it should help my geek cred. Maybe +5?)
I’m too lazy to write a plot synopsis so here is one from allmovie.com.
George Lucas continues his most popular franchise’s legacy with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a computer-animated 3-D film that takes place between Star Wars: Episode II and III. The first-ever animated feature from Lucasfilm Animation, this action-packed space adventure follows the heroic Jedi Knights as they attempt to maintain order and restore peace during a time of monumental galactic strife. The Clone Wars have engulfed the galaxy in chaos, and as the dreaded droid army of the Separatists wipes out everything in its path, the future of the Galactic Republic becomes increasingly uncertain. Meanwhile, Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan learner Ahsoka Tano embark on a pivotal mission that pits them directly against the dreaded Jabba the Hutt and his criminal minions while Count Dooku enlists the aid of Asajj Ventress and the rest of his sinister agents in ensuring that the young Jedi fails in his noble mission. Back on the front lines of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda attempt to fend off the forces of the dark side with the assistance of a massive clone army.
Anakin has a padawan? What? Since when? Oh yeah. I almost forgot that George Lucas has gone insane.
The animation in this movie surprised me. I’ve watched all of the footage that Lucasfilm has released and to be honest, I wasn’t very excited to see it based solely on the fact that I thought it looked bad visually. Even once the movie started, I wasn’t digging it too much. Then I realized that I was starting to actually like the look of the movie. The buildings, scenery, and ships all worked really well with the animation style. I even started liking the look of the characters with the exception of the Hutts. (They looked horrible.) One thing noteworthy about the animation is that it actually looks like it was painted with a brush and paint. I liked that.
I enjoyed seeing Asajj Ventress on the big screen but she seems a bit like the angry goth girl from high school. I also liked the new characters that they introduced, the clone, Rex and Anakin’s padawan, Ahsoka. It was pretty obvious that Ahsoka was there mainly for kids but she was still fun to watch.
As for the movie itself, it was fun. It felt like Star Wars. There was a lot of action and the plot wasn’t as horrible as some would have you believe. They did mess with the Star Wars theme in the beginning but made up for it at the end. There were a lot of problems with continuity however.
As I was sitting in the theater, I couldn’t help but wonder where this fit into the Star Wars time line. Sure, they say it’s between Episode II and Episode III but what about The Clone Wars cartoon from Cartoon Network? I thought that that was supposedly canon. The second season of that show portrayed the events that led up to Episode III, including the kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine. And let’s not forget all of the comic books. There’s nine volumes of The Clone Wars comic books in trade paperback form. What about all of that history? Oh right, the “Lucas is insane thing”. Honestly though, I’m sure that it will all be explained in the TV series.
If you’re a big Star Wars geek, you may have a tough time watching this movie because of the continuity issues. Even twelve hours after seeing it, I’m still perplexed beyond reason as to how what I saw fits into that special galaxy far, far away. Just try to enjoy it as a stand-alone story and you’ll probably be fine. If you’re just a causal Star Wars fan though, you should enjoy yourself while watching this movie.
Despite my complaints, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is still a good movie. Go see it.
X-Men 4?
LA Daily News reports that X-Men executive producer Lauren Shuler Donner is currently working on the cast for a 4th installment in the movie franchise. Renegotiations would be needed to secure the main stars of the previous three films.
Donner says “The newer cast members are signed, and the older cast members are not.” Considering the older names involved — Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn, Famke Janssen and Anna Paquin — that could run into a huge chunk of money.
All that’s putting the cart before the wolverine, of course, since Hugh Jackman is set to reprise his role as the manicure-challenged mutant superhero in his own film. “Next, we’re going to do ‘Wolverine,’ but not before the end of the year because he’s in the Baz Luhrmann film,” she says of the film maker’s untitled Australian epic with Nicole Kidman. However, “We have the script and are working on it.”
Shuler Donner reports, “We also have ‘Young Magneto’ in development.”
This Looks Cool
I’m a fan of the X-Men. Granted, due to the small percentage of my income that is allotted for comic books, I don’t get to read the various X titles as much as I would like. But that doesn’t change the fact that the X-Men have some very cool characters as members.
Well, it looks like the Marvel entertainment juggernaut is at it again, this time hitting television. Right now, it appears as though Wolverine and the X-Men will begin airing on Nicktoons sometime during the spring of 2009.
