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

Toaster's Ramblings - The Lex Luthor Casting Edition

So they cast Jimmy Olson as Lex Luthor.

I really want to give Snyder, Goyer and Warner Brothers the benefit of the doubt on this, but I am having a really tough time. I'm not some die hard internet hater. I didn't cry out in venomous rage when Ben Affleck was cast as their Batman... I would rather wait and see. Gal Gadot was not my my first or even second pic to play Wonder Woman, but I think she will do fine (hopefully she follows through on her decision to 'build some muscle' for the role). But this one I am having a tough time with.

First of all, I think Jesse Eisenberg has the wrong look. He is skinny, scrawny and looks really young. Luthor is usually portrayed as being muscular. After all, by his account, Lex Luthor is the pinnacle of perfection for the human race... his body is at the peak of fitness, he is one of if not the most successful man on Earth and his intelligence is second to none. (This in turn fuels his hatred of Superman. The people love the alien and treat him with the reverence that Luthor thinks he should receive.) Now I can let the muscular body go; Luthor is known more for his mind that his brawn. However, Lex Luthor is supposed to be intimidating as knows he holds all the cards in any situation. Even in The Social Network, when Eisenberg was playing the super rich Mark Zuckerberg, he still came across more weaselly than confident. Likewise, his character in Now You See Me seemed to hide behind a wall of self-inflation and arrogance. Above those points though, he looks too young. He looks like a kid! He doesn't look like he would be a ruthless corporate mogul at the command of a multi-billion dollar enterprise. He just doesn't look intimidating to me... or believable.

Secondly, I just don't think Jesse Eisenberg has the acting chops to pull of Lex Luthor. I have seen him in several films and in every one he has that same fast talking monotonic voice. I understand that he has played characters with similar personality attributes to Luthor in both The Social Network and Now You See Me, and he did well in both films. But Lex Luthor is very complex. He needs to come across in a charismatic way in public and like a manipulative bastard in private. I have never seen Eisenberg pull off such a multifaceted performance. I will admit that he has about one more gear than his celebrity doppelganger Michael Cera, but that's not saying much.

I don't want to be the hater (that's Jonny Prophet's job), but I can't get over this weird casting. Does Zack Snyder know something that nobody else does? I had heard a couple of rumored names that would have both been better choices to play Lex Luthor. Bryan Cranston may be a little too old for the part, but his amazing performance as Walter White leaves me with no doubt he would have been excellent. Joaquin Phoenix would have also been great for the role. Anyone who saw him in Gladiator could attest to that.

The reality is, I could name over 20 other actors that I think would have been a better pick to play Lex Luthor than Jesse Eisenberg. Don't think so? Challenge accepted! Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortenson, Kevin Spacey (yeah, why not?), Bruce Willis, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (it would be like a Tudors reunion!), Johnny Depp, Stephen Lang, Bruce Greenwood, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Campbell, Matt Damon (mostly to have him fight Affleck), Gerard Butler, Joel Edgerton, Clive Owen, Guy Pierce, Jon Hamm, Dominic West, Karl Urban, Kyle Chandler, Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Idris Elba.

Yes I would accept a black Lex Luthor played by Idris Elba over Jesse Eisenberg...because at that point, the haters may cry foul but at least I know we would have an awesome Lex Luthor.

By the way, the other casting of Jeremy Irons as Bruce Wayne's butler and confidant Alfred Pennyworth is amusing to me. Beyond his professional scenery chewing abilities, I think Irons will prove the creepiest Alfred ever!