Toaster's Ramblings - New Year's Edition Part 2

Welcome back to part 2 of my new years ramblings! (I can't believe it's February already.) In this part I want to touch upon some of my anticipations for 2016 as well as some plans I have for future posts. So let's start with the year in film... or what may come to be known as The Year Movie-Goers Drowned in Superhero Films!

Yes, 2016 could be the year that people finally get sick of superhero movies. Why? Because this year will see the release of Deadpool, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War, X-men Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, and Doctor Strange! Also, to the best of my knowledge the Gambit movie is still tentatively scheduled to be released this fall, but I am guessing it will be moved to 2017 because I don't think the project has progressed very far.

Clearly this is a huge year for Warner Bros. and DC Comics. If their Batman Vs Superman movie doesn't impress, their plans to push out a Justice League movie as well as establish their movie universe could be over before it begins. Personally, I think the movie has a steep uphill climb to succeed with several factors working against it.  For one thing, Man of Steel was not nearly as well received as DC and Warner Bros. would have liked.

Second, some of their casting is questionable. I still have reservations about Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor (I am still predicting that Ultron from last year's Avengers movie will turn out to be a better Luthor than Eisenberg!). Some people also don't like the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman, citing that the movie Daredevil was bad. In my opinion, Affleck will be fine, but what do I know? I actually liked Daredevil... though the Netflix series makes the movie look like a turd with frosted tips.

Third, the plot seems kind of weird. The premise itself of Batman fighting Supeman is interesting in of itself, but the recent trailer showed they will be facing Doomsday as well... a Doomsday with CGI from the early 2000's. There's also a rumor about Bizarro showing up too. Again, it's a little weird.

This leads to the fourth reason, one that I think may kill this movie... it's too damn crowded! I was reading off the various celebrities and characters set to be in Batman Vs. Superman to TivoGirl and she was shocked! We already have Batman, Superman, Lois Lane, Percy White, Martha Kent, Lex Luthor, Mercy, Alfred, Doomsday, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and we are rumored to also have Victor "Cyborg" Stone, and Bizarro. But wait, that's not all! We also have Jena Malone (possibly as Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon), Ezra Miller as The Flash, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Thomas Wayne as well as Holly Hunter and Scoot McNairy. That's pretty damn packed. Now also consider that out of that long list, only Superman, Lois Lane, Perry White and Martha Kent were already established in Man of Steel. That is a hell of a lot of characters to introduce!

Now I will concede that likely a lot of these appearances will just be cameos (Cyborg, Flash and probably Aquaman and Wonder Woman) but that is still way too many big characters to establish and devote time to. Perhaps the fact that it is a two-part movie will help with this, but as Han Solo would say... OUCH! Um... I mean "I have a bad feeling about this."

Consider this, whenever a comic book movie tries to introduce too many new characters at once, it always becomes a jumbled mess. Think about it... Spider-man 3, Amazing Spider-man 2, Batman & Robin, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine... even Avengers: Age of Ultron bit off more than it could chew. To tell a proper story, you need time invested into the characters to understand their struggles and goals. When a studio tries to turn a movie into a jumping off point to create new spin-off franchises, it always comes at the sacrifice of story and character development, the end result being a dissatisfying movie experience for the fans.

Now I want to be clear... I do not want to hate Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice... man, that is a really stupid title when you write it out like that. Anyways, I am not walking into the theater with my opinion already set. I want to like this movie. A film where Batman fights Superman is new and interesting. Plus, I want new superhero films for characters that have never had one before.

So after that long, rambling diatribe, what are my opinions of other major upcoming movies for this year? Here's a rundown:

Deadpool - This movie seems to be the real deal, a Deadpool movie that feels authentic and is everything fans like myself wanted from that stupid Wolverine Origins movie. The trailers show an irreverent anti-hero prone to smart ass comments and extreme violence. In other words, everything looks freakin' awesome! I am very excited for this one.

Captain America: Civil War - Less excited for this one. I have a lot of the same fears for this that I have with Batman Vs. Superman... too many characters, a convoluted plot and an unsatisfying movie. However, most of these characters are already established and the directors made the awesome Winter Soldier movie, so Civil War has that going for it. My bigger problem is that I am not the biggest fan of the source material. Marvel's Civil War started out good and then degenerated into a series of weird directions and a very disappointing ending. Also, the comics event had lots of characters on both sides, involving virtually every Marvel hero (and some villains) except the X-Men and the space characters like Nova and Solver Surfer (who subsequently were involved in a way better major storyline called Annihilation). This movie has five on each side (not including Spider-man... not sure where he fits into the film yet). Five versus five seems more like a 50's gang "rumble" than a civil war.

One thing that I do like about Civil War is that it continues Steve Rogers' story concerning his world. The first film had his origin back in his world of the 1940's and led to his awakening in the present. The next movie (as well as Avengers) saw Steve's world turned upside-down as the government that he trusted and represented turned out to be corrupted and his best friend, seemingly killed in World War II, survived as a Soviet super assassin with no memory of the person he was. This movie appears to show Steve Rogers abandon his loyalties to help save his assassin friend, the last remnant of his former life back when his world made sense. That does make for compelling story-telling and I hope that story doesn't get buried under cameos, explosions and "universe building."

Hopefully Civil War will be good. Either way, they already have my money.

X-Men: Apocalypse - I'm weary of this movie... though to be fair I was weary of the last two X-Men films and both of those turned out great. However, I have high expectations for this one. It's supposed to be massive global damage, end of days kind of stuff. But the villain looks like Ivan Ooze! Why is Apocalypse look rubbery and purple? He doesn't look menacing!

I am interested to see what Apocalypse does to augment Magneto, Storm and Psylocke as his Horsemen. It looks like they are going with the comic version of Archangel so I just assume I know what he does... big metal wings that help him fly and throw metal blade "feathers" at his opponents.

I also want to see Sophie Turner use an American accent to play Jean Grey. She may be a good choice to play that character. It looks like Jubilee may be combined with Dazzler to some extent. I did notice in the picture of her with Turner that Lana Condor was wearing a "Light Brigade" shirt. It will be cool seeing more of Quicksilver too.

I have been waiting a long time for this X-men film. I hope Fox and Bryan Singer don't mess it up!

Suicide Squad - I am way more excited for this one than I am Superman Vs. Batman. The recent trailer looks great. I love it when we can get movies about lesser known comic book characters. There's less pressure to make a certain kind of film and allows the writers, directors and actors a level of freedom to make something unique. (Case in point: Guardians of the Galaxy.)

I am still not sold on "Jokallo." I realize that the filmmakers wanted to separate this version of Joker from Heath Ledger's and others, but I'm not sure that covering him in stupid tattoos and giving him a dental "grill." is the right direction. That said, I am intrigued with what Jared Leto may do with the character. I joked when he got the part that the only way Warner Bros. could find a way to one-up Heath Ledger's Oscar winning Joker from The Dark Knight was to hire someone who already won for Best Supporting Actor! Leto's backstage antics make me think he gets the character and won't just be redoing Ledger or Nicholson's Jokers.

Jonny and I have running bets on who will die in the movie. Generally, if we haven't really heard of the character, consider them dead. Deadshot and Harley Quinn? They're safe. I hope Will Smith will do Deadshot justice. Margot Robbie seems to have been a good choice for Harley Quinn. Killer Croc? Maybe. Diablo and Slipknot? Oh, they're dead. One of them might be killed before the mission even starts (like that one obstinate kid in Battle Royale).

I think Captain Boomerang is safe given that they hired up and comer Jai Courtney for the role and that having an established Flash villain may be good for the upcoming Flash movie. Jon, however, dislikes Jai Courtney and thinks he will die. Clearly it's just wishful thinking on his part.

Doctor Strange - Not very much is known about this movie. An image of Benedict Cumberbatch all decked out as Doctor Strange looked fantastic. That guy with the unpronounceable name from 12 Years a Slave was cast as arch-nemesis Baron Mordo and 'suspected robot due to never aging' Tilda Swinton will play the Ancient One. That's about all we have. Hopefully it will be good. I've never been a huge Doctor Strange fan, but before 2008 I didn't give a crap about Iron Man either, so who knows. I just hope we see Dormammu... maybe even Shuma "totally not Cthulhu" Gorath. That would be cool.

Moving on to the next year for this blog. I am thinking of reviving a few things I either stopped doing or just haven't had time for... such as Live Action Casting, Guilty Pleasures, The Underrated and Running Commentary. I have topics in mind for all of those. It comes down to motivation and time, but I will try to post a bit more than I did last year.

So until that next post,

Stay Strange

Hey! I've Seen Some Movies (part 1) Dracula Untold, Gone Girl, John Wick, Nightcrawler

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I've been putting this off so long that I've piled up a lot of movies. It's funny, in September I didn't go to the theater much, but October/November, it's been once or twice a week. So here are the first four. The next set will be up after I've seen the new Hunger Games movie since... let's be honest, I was going to see it anyways.

Dracula Untold - Did you like the Underworld movies? If yes, you'll probably like this too. It's less horror and more action oriented. What interested me in the movie was that it was a new take on the Dracula mythos. I was never a huge fan of the Bram Stoker story, maybe it's been done to death, I don't know. In Dracula Untold, it bridges the gap between the real life Vlad Tepes and the highly fictionalized Count Dracula.

I also learned that both Romanians and the Turks spoke English! Seriously, I love how when Hollywood needs a foreign language but doesn't want to go the subtitle route, they just use a British accent. Luke Evans did a good job, not great but given the material, he was fine. Howard Stark made an interesting Sultan, though I have got wonder why they couldn't get an actual Middle Eastern or at least Turkish actor. For that matter, why did they cast Joel Edgerton to play an Egyptian pharaoh in that upcoming Moses movie? It's just weird. Tywin Lannister made for a fun, creepy vampire guy though he wasn't in the movie very long... he at least left an impression, though.

I do have to point out something strategy-wise in the film. So the Transylvanians are at war with the Turks, but are vastly outnumbered (hence why Vlad decided to become a powerful vampire). So he and his people flee to a fortified monastery in the mountains. We see that the Turks have to walk through a canyon to get to the monastery, yet as they did so, they met no resistance! Why wouldn't you have had men lining the top of the canyon, firing down arrows, slinging rocks and pushing down boulders to crash into the Turks? As Obi Wan would tell you, the Transylvanians had the high ground! Use it! The Turks would have been sitting ducks! It was just stupid to me.

I enjoyed Dracula Untold for what it was. I knew going into it what the movie was going to be and it delivered. It was far from cinematic brilliance, but it was stupid fun. Like I said, if you liked the Underworld movies, you'll probably like this. 

Jonny's Contribution - Jonny refused to see Dracula Untold because "Bela Lugosi is dead and therefore there can be no Dracula." 

But if Dracula was already dead, then would Bela Lugosi need to be alive? Now I've just started a Skynet paradox!  

Gone Girl - I loved this movie. It was incredibly twisted both in story and its commentary on love and marriage. Gone Girl fits well with Fincher's other twisted works Se7en and Fight Club, although it has little in common with both of those films except weirdos like me will embrace it as I have the others. The acting (yes, even Ben Affleck's) was great, David Fincher's directing was masterful and the plot kept me guessing. I don't really even want to talk about it too much, you just have to experience it for yourself. Whether you end up liking Gone Girl or not, it is a refreshingly original film that will definitely leave an impression. 

Jonny's Contribution -  Wait, I'm confused. Am I still supposed to be hating Ben Affleck or what? Please geniuses of the internet, tell me what to think!

John Wick - I initially wasn't going to bother with John Wick, but the stars aligned just right and I found myself spending an evening alone outside of the house. The reviews were surprisingly good, like really good, especially for a Keanu Reeves action flick without the use of "bullet time." So, I thought 'What the hell, let's give it a shot.'

I was more than pleasantly surprised. While the plot was nothing new, it's basically a revenge flick, John Wick was stylized enough to feel fresh. The action sequences were brutal and awesome... almost to the level of The Raid movies sans the martial arts.

The story in a nutshell is John Wick, a retired mob hitman, has just lost his wife to cancer. He ends up getting a puppy from her posthumously, so that he could have something to love as he grieved. While he and his dog are out for a drive in his muscle car, they come across Theon Greyjoy (I don't remember the actor's name, but his character is so similar to his Game of Thrones counterpart, you won't even notice) and his lackeys. Theon wants to buy Wick's car, but is turned down. Feeling slighted, Theon and his goons attack Wick at home that night, beating him unconscious, stealing his car and killing his dog in the process. Unfortunately, Theon finds out from his father, John Wick's former employer, that he just pissed off the most skilled and legendary hitman ever to work for their crime syndicate. So yeah, John Wick brings the pain.

Keanu Reeves plays the title character well, his subdued acting style working excellently with a hardened mob hitman of few words. Theon Greyjoy has made a career of being the characters you love to hate. He is very good at being the whiny, entitled brat prone to violence to get his way. Adrianne Palicki was wonderful as a mob hit... woman. She needs to be used more. I know she's Mockingbird on Agents of SHIELD, but she is still such an underrated and underutilized actress. Willem Dafoe and Ian McShane have small roles, nothing spectacular, almost playing their usual screen-selves. They're fun to have in the film, though.

If you are a fan of shoot 'em up action flicks, I would definitely give John Wick a watch. 

Jonny's Contribution - Really, hasn't Theon Greyjoy been through enough?

Nightcrawler - When I first started watching the movie, I thought Jake Gyllenhaal's character Lou Bloom was kind of like Travis Bickle, Robert DeNiro's troubled character from Taxi Driver. Both seemed to have sleeping problems, were kind of off kilter and had that "orphan of society" vibe... you know, when a character slips through the cracks and is left without a place in our modern world. However, as the film progressed, I realized Lou Bloom was not Travis Bickle. You see, Travis Bickle had good intentions. He saw a world full of evil and wanted to make a difference. Lou Bloom was out only for himself, for you see... Lou Bloom was a sociopath.

I have to say, Jake Gyllenhaal did a fantastic job in Nightcrawler. I've seen him in various movies including one of my favorites Donnie Darko, the drama/thriller Brothers and last year's thriller Prisoners. However, I have never seen him like this. I have honestly underrated him as an actor. For a while there he was doing big budget films like the Prince of Persia bomb and that time travelling bomb on a train movie whose name escapes me because I didn't care enough to watch. Gyllenhaal really needs to do more indie flicks like Nightcrawler and find more juicier roles.

Nightcrawler is a character study, in the same vein as films like Citizen Kane and There Will Be Blood. We take a good, long, uncompromising look at Lou Bloom as he finds his place in society at the politely manipulated expense of those around him. In the film, Lou discovers the world of freelance video recording for television news... things like shootings, car accidents, fires and other violent things. Things get pretty dark and messed up toward the end.  I don't want to give anything else away, but I do recommend seeing the movie. It is original with a surprising amount of action, uncompromising darkly comedic moments and features what may be this year's most underrated performance. 

Jonny's Contribution - Jonny refused to see Nightcrawler as it had nothing to do with the X-man Kurt Wagner. 

Now I'm wondering if Bubble Boy could have joined the X-men. Couldn't have been any worse than Xorn. 

Part 2 Coming Soon!

Toaster's Ramblings: Batfleck Edition

Can everyone just stop and take a deep breath? Okay, Ben Affleck certainly would not be my top choice to play Batman, but this level of insanity is a bit much. How can anyone honestly know that Affleck would be terrible as Batman? Because he made some bad movie choices 10 or 15 years ago? Because he dated that American Idol judge? Could Affleck really be a worse Batman than Val Kilmer or George Clooney? And as I said before, bringing back Christian Bale would make no sense given how the Dark Knight trilogy ended. This diatribe here isn’t my declaration of love for all things Ben Affleck. I just think it’s unfair and kind of ridiculous to chastise a man based on what he might possibly do rather than what he's done.

The biggest outcry is that “Ben Affleck was terrible in Daredevil!” I actually liked Daredevil. (And yes, that statement got me laughed at by a sexually ambiguous video rental clerk many years ago.) The movie wasn’t great and certainly wouldn’t appear anywhere near my Top 10 comic book movies list, but I was entertained. I certainly didn’t walk out of the theater proclaiming that Affleck should never be allowed to play a super hero again! I even own the Director’s cut on DVD (I probably got the movie for $3 on sale or something). Truthfully, I thought the crappier acting came from Jennifer Garner as Elektra. I never had a problem with Affleck’s acting in the movie; personally I think he did the best with what he had to work with. I will concede, however, that had Colin Farrell not stolen the show as Bullseye, the movie would not have been as good to me.  

But hey, I’m not necessarily an astute critic of acting unless it really sticks out to me. But even if Affleck did suck as Daredevil, what makes you think his acting hasn’t improved in the decade since that movie premiered? I loved him in The Town and he was good in Argo too. (How can the actor who starred in last year’s Academy Award winning Best Picture possibly be so terrible as to not be able to dress like a bat and beat up criminals?)  Granted, Affleck did direct those movies, so maybe he knows how to get the best possible performance from himself… but I also have enjoyed him in Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting as well as Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy and Jersey Girl (yes, I was one of the dozen people who saw that one in theaters!). And Jay is certainly a fan… 

One online petition for his ouster from the film cries “Ben Affleck Doesn’t Look the Part!” I actually think he does. He’s handsome. He’s got the chin. He can pull off the brooding serious stuff (just look at him in Argo). He can pull off the Billionaire Playboy thing (he sort of lived it for a while in the 90’s). And personal trainers can do wonders to get you in defined muscular shape… not that Affleck is necessarily out of shape from what I’ve seen in the last few years.

I actually wonder how many of the people crying foul on this casting were the ones proclaiming Man of Steel to be horrible. Come on, can Batfleck really make something horrible even worse? Zero times any number is still zero. If you thought Man of Steel was so bad, would you really entertain going to a sequel by the same writer/director team?

Plus, whatever ever happened to “wait and see?” What happened to having an open mind? Since when does a casting decision automatically equal a bad movie? Sure, I have had reservations about certain film-making decisions but I am always willing to give it a chance… at least by watching a trailer or two. I was pretty leery of J.J. Abrams’ take on Star Trek with recasting the original crew, but I ended up loving that movie! I wasn’t sure about casting the gay cowboy that was in A Knight’s Tale, but Heath Ledger was brilliant as the Joker! I wasn’t sold on Chris Evans as Captain America, but he was really good too! Just give it a chance, people. If it sucks, then by all means bitch, moan and shit allover it like a geriatric almost making the toilet. But going nuts about it before the damn script is even written is just stupid. Plus, you’re playing into Warner Brothers’ strategy. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad advertising.

All I’m saying is just, give Ben a chance. Let’s allow him to try on the cape and cowl and give us a barely coherent growling of 'Why do you want to kill me?' before we send the villagers after him with torches.

 Yes, he may suck and then all the haters can dance the dance of vindication in the streets. But maybe he won’t be so bad. Maybe he might even be a decent Batman.