Toaster's Ramblings - Amazing Spider-Man 2 AKA the feature length trailer for The Sinister Six movie

So I have to level with you. This started out as a review of Amazing Spider-man 2, but it quickly devolved into a rambling session about Sony's plans for an expanded Spider-Man movie universe and how stupid the whole concept really is. I'm keeping spoilers to a minimum, but the review aspect of this entry gets a little murky at times. So... bear with me.

Like with a lot of flawed movies I watch, I didn't hate Amazing Spider-Man 2. However, as I watched that on-screen spectacle, there were these nagging thoughts that kept gnawing at me. Thoughts about how cartoonish Electro's origin was, how little time was being allotted to Harry Osborn and his transformation into Green Goblin, why this rebooted franchise is so obsessed with making Peter Parker's origin some kind of conspiracy theory and how at times Amazing Spider-Man 2 felt more like a feature length trailer for The Sinister Six.

I just want to say this right now on the oft chance that anyone from Hollywood is reading...

THE GOAL OF CREATING SEQUELS SHOULD NEVER TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER GOOD STORY-TELLING!

As I left the theater, those same nagging thoughts forced me to deconstruct what I just saw... and what I had just seen was an absolute mess that followed in the tragic footsteps of  X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Instead of giving us the best possible story they could, which in turn could have created new spin-off possibilities for the characters involved, we were treated to an overstuffed, flash over substance exhibition akin to throwing wet noodles at a wall to see what sticks... all to the tune hundreds of millions of dollars.

I get what's going on. Sony, like Warner Brothers and to a lesser extent Fox, has seen the incredible payload that Disney brought in from The Avengers and are salivating at the opportunity to create their own "movie universes" from the characters they hold film rights to. The problem is, Sony only has the Spider-man universe, which is actually a pretty small universe when you get right down to it. Warner Brothers, to their benefit, has film rights to all of the DC characters (though rather than take their time like Marvel Studios did, they prefer to just rush a Justice League movie right along). Fox, while only having rights to the Marvel mutants side of things, actually has an impressive amount of characters at their disposal. Given the nature of the X-men Universe, they can do tons of mutant films while never feeling the loss of web-slingers or Asgardians. But Sony doesn't have a big universe to work with.

Let's stop and think about what Sony gets with Spider-man. Obviously they get the Web-Head and all of his villains. They gets Catwoman Black Cat. They also get Venom and more than likely the other symbiotic characters like Carnage and maybe even Toxin. But other characters often associated with Spider-Man's world, like Daredevil, Punisher, Nova and pretty much all of his teammates from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon are owned by Disney. So where is this super team going to come from? Oddly, Sony thinks the answer is The Sinister Six, a group of Spider-Man's villains who team up to take on the Web-slinger... not exactly what I picture as an answer to The Avengers and The Justice League.

Seriously, they want to make a movie where the bad guys are the protagonists. This could be a cool idea (i.e. the graphic novel of Wanted), except we've been set up to root against them already in previous Spidey flicks. Now if The Sinister Six were a penultimate Spider-Man movie where he has to fight them, and maybe get help from a few other characters (Black Cat? Venom?) it would be fine. However, every indication I have seen or read says that the movie will be about the villains, not Spider-Man. Hell, he might not even be in the movie! So... who do I root for? Who do they fight... other Spider-Man villains?

On a side note, I wonder how far the licensing to the Spider-Man film rights goes. It could be possible for Spidey to form an extremely lesser known team called The Outlaws made up of D-List Marvel characters such as Silver Sable, The Prowler and Rocket Racer. Not exactly The Avengers, but it would at least make more sense than The Sinister Six.

So getting back to Amazing Spider-Man 2, here are my overall thoughts. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were both great. I still think Garfield is the best Peter Parker/Spider-Man ever. I think Dane DeHaan made for a better Harry Osborn than James Franco did. This new brooding, paranoid and angry Harry Osborn truly seemed to be the outcome of a lifetime of bad parenting and neglect. Unfortunately, the filmmakers tried to do in a third of a movie what the previous films did over the course of a trilogy in making him the Green Goblin. Not to mention, Franco's Osborn had a far better reason for hating Spider-Man in believing the Wall-Crawler responsible for his father's death. DeHaan's Osborn's bratty reasoning, that Spider-Man refused to give him a sample of his blood, is weak sauce.

The effects for Electro were cool, coupled with Junkie XL's Dub Step soundtrack to his scenes. However, his character was stupid. Somebody pointed out that Max Dillon's origin is strikingly similar to The Riddler's from Batman Forever... a lonely man barely holding onto his sanity becomes the number one fan of a super hero until an accident makes him crazy and hell-bent on destroying the hero he once adored. But somehow they managed to make Electro more cartoony than Jim Carrey's Riddler, and considering that movie was from Joel Schumacher, that's saying something! Seriously, Max Dillon wanted to kill Spider-Man because the Web-Head forgot Max's name? At that point, couldn't Max Dillon have just been a sociopath, like evil for the sake of being evil? I could have at least bought that.

I also think it was weird how easily and quickly both Max Dillon and Harry Osborn took to brutally murdering people. It wasn't even a hard decision, nor was there a moment of regret. No other Spidey villain from the movies were straight up murderers on that level. The Lizard was a brutal monster, but Dr. Conners was no murderer himself and regretted the actions of his reptilian Mr. Hyde. In the previous trilogy, Green Goblin was an insane split personality that convinced Norman Osborn to kill. Dr. Octopus was warped by the AI of his tentacles, but still didn't set out to murder people unless only attempted to if they got in his way. Sandman was a repentant one-time killer (of Uncle Ben... ugh, I still hate that). Venom was a killer alien parasite that fed off of its host's negative thoughts, but I don't remember Eddie Brock actually killing anyone. I also don't think James Franco's Harry killed anyone. But in this movie, the meek Max Dillon immediately takes to killing people with no remorse. DeHaan's Harry Osborn is willing to kill (sending Electro to do that) to get what he wants without any development of his character to show us his capability to go that far. Yes, I know he was supposed to be dying, but it was from a disease that clearly doesn't kill you for decades! I don't see survival desperation being a sound reason for him to be willing to kill.

I also want to point out that the Rhino suit is stupid. I wanted to like it, but it's just impractical. Why would anyone make an armored combat suit that awkwardly runs on all fours? It looks terrible, its clunky and I don't see any corporation pouring money into it. An Iron Man suit? Hell yeah! But a weird, oversized rhinoceros where the occupant faces stomach down, hoping for the best while the suit charges at an opponent head-on? No thanks.

So, in closing, Amazing Spider-Man 2 was far more concerned with pumping out sequels and spin-offs than giving us a good movie with well developed characters. Like I said, I didn't hate the movie. It was entertaining enough to watch, had some cool fight sequences and some great banter from Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man. Where the franchise goes from here seems to be a Sinister Six movie and more than likely a third Spider-Man movie that will probably makes the same mistakes of the last Spider-Man 3 by forcing along the "venom" saga within a muddled plot full of other villains and Mary Jane Watson, seeing as how they cut her from this past movie due to time constraints. I had high hopes after the surprisingly good Amazing Spider-Man, but now it's clear that Sony is banking on the instant marketability of the character rather than making the best product they can.

You know, Batman is an instantly marketable character, but Chris Nolan didn't settle for 'good enough.' Instead he and Warner Brothers created The Dark Knight, an ingenius film... the only comic book adaptation I have ever seen receive four star reviews. Oh, and word of mouth kept that movie in theaters for months and placed it in the Top 5 highest grossing films of all time.

Just food for thought, Sony.

Toaster's Ramblings - Justice League VS JLA Edition

For Christmas I received the first two volumes of Grant Morrison's run on JLA from the late 90's. I love it. It features the biggest heroes in the DC universe in larger than life storylines against epic villains, such as defending the Earth from an invasion of White Martians guised as heroes or fighting off an invading army of angels from destroying the Earth or the epic Rock of Ages storyline. This is what I wanted when, at the birth of the New 52 reboot, I subscribed to Justice League. I just don't feel like it delivered anywhere near as well as JLA did. So sorry, this is yet another bitch session about the New 52.

I really just wanted that super team book with big names and great storylines. New 52 gave us big names, but the stories have largely sucked. The first arc where they come together to fight Darkseid felt rushed and was the first big taste of how DC was making its timeless characters more "edgy." They made them into assholes. Green Lantern and Batman snipe at each other like kids on a playground. Their new interpretation of Superman would rather beat the living hell out of someone, causing massive collateral damage in the process, than... oh, I don't know... talk to them? Reason with them? Find out what's going on? You know, those traits that made Superman one of the most revered heroes ever. No, even though he is knowingly capable of killing almost anyone and can level cities, he would rather just kick someone's ass.

From there was the lousy 'Graves' storyline, where the guy who wrote about the Justice League became a bad guy with psychic powers to mess with the heroes... you know, like Despero, The Key, Dr. Destiny, Gorilla Grodd, Dr. Psycho and the litany of other psychic villains that are part of the League's rogues gallery. Like I said, the story was boring and crappy.

Then we got the Throne of Atlantis arc. This could have been good except for two problems. The first was that the Justice League book suddenly became the launching point for readers to have to buy a bunch of other titles to know what was going on in the storyline. JLA could tell a story within that actual book, but the New 52 Justice League has to spread its story out to other books. Granted, the only other book to buy here was Aquaman, but this leads me to the second problem... I just didn't care. You see, the whole Atlantis invading the land and using tidal waves to destroy cities and Aquaman having to come to terms with being the King of the Oceans and a hero and a part-time land-dweller... it's all been done before. This is a frequent complaint I have with the New 52. So the Teen Titans have to face Trigon for the first time... again? Oh no, you mean there are evil counterparts to the Justice League from another dimension? That's news to me! (More on this later).

The Trinity War followed. What a waste of time. We were led to believe that the Justice League would be fighting the US government founded Justice League of America (and for some reason Justice League Dark). It was an interesting set-up harkening back to the Justice League Unlimited plotline of the USA being distrusting of the god-like heroes who claim they were protecting them. The inevitable conflict that would arise from their confrontation would have made for a great read... and we almost got that for one part of the seven part series. The rest was a damn wild goose chase, a red herring to the advent of Forever Evil. I honestly feel lied to. Remember that Free Comic Book Day comic about the Trinity War where we saw several heroes fighting in the streets? That never happened. What about the advertisements that showed members of all three teams in a massive free-for-all? Nope, just bullshit.

I will admit, the introduction of the Crime Syndicate was cool. But the Forever Evil event... and I say event because it is a universe-wide storyline, except for several books that I guess can't be bothered (Stormwatch, the super-team tasked with the planet's protection from outside forces apparently have better things to do)... the Forever Evil event is just dragging on and on. This is turning into a year long arc that is rapidly losing steam. I was collecting it, but now I think I will just wait for a trade paperback collection... if it ends well. And to get back to my main point, this entire long storyline has left almost all the League members indisposed, so it really isn't a great Justice League story either. In fact, the book seems to just be this weird means to re-introduce other, seemingly forgotten DC properties such as Doom Patrol and The Metal Men.

You know, I want to point out that there are a hell of a lot of DC characters that could actually fight the Crime Syndicate and probably win, but for whatever reason have been dismissed. What about Apollo, Midnighter, Power Girl, Huntress, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Starfire, Red Hood, Arsenal, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Static and virtually everyone from that Justice League International book that was cancelled? They alone would be one hell of an army! Where are all the other DC heroes? Or did Johnny Quick somehow create a time vortex that they got sucked into like the Teen Titans? (Lame.)

Now to follow with another common argument I make when bitching about the New 52... how great the Marvel Now material has been by contrast! I started reading Uncanny Avengers from the first issue because it seemed interesting and it had Havok, one of my favorite Marvel characters, leading the team. Now this book is what I was looking for from Justice League! You have heavy hitter characters like Thor, Captain America and Wolverine mixed with various (and sometimes underrated) X-book names like Havok, Rogue and Sunfire. And they have awesome storylines, kept within their book so I don't have to buy a bunch of side issues to follow the action! They have fought the Red Skull who, with the super telepathic brain of Charles Xavier grafted to his own, mentally suggests to the humans of the world to kill the newly revived mutant population. Currently, there is this insane storyline about the Apocalypse Twins that I can't even to begin to explain how awesome it is. Let's just say they had their own "Four Horsemen of Death" comprised of Banshee, Grim Reaper, Daken and the Sentry! That alone is cooler than anything I've read in that Justice League book. The Uncanny Avengers is one of those comics that reminds me why I love comics!

I will probably stick with Justice League for at least a while after the Forever Evil story concludes. The new Justice League incarnation set to follow with Lex Luthor in charge seems promising. (Though I should point out that showing us advertisements for the team featuring characters currently "fighting for their lives" kind of lets a lot of the air out of the suspenseful nature of that big story arc.) I just wish that they would get back to good storytelling like from that other universe whose years of continuity were thrown away for a gimmick and some quick sales. But hey, now our heroes are edgy assholes, so that's something... right?

Toaster's Ramblings - Trinity War and Forever Evil edition

Jonny and I bitch a lot about DC’s New 52 relaunch. It’s not that we’re just perpetual haters; it’s that they took a universe that we had come to know and love, flaws and all, and restarted it under the pretense three factors. The first is that DC wanted to make their comics easier to access by their fans. Instead of having to pick up a comic with a decade or more of back issue continuity, fans could start with issue one. The second reason was to erase the mistakes of bad writing as well as de-age all the characters to keep them younger and more relatable to the target demographic. But the main reason was of course to make money… and in that respect the New 52 has been a huge success. However, there have been tons of problems that we have had with the relaunch and its subsequent storylines.

This leads me to my main point. From the literal beginning of the New 52 and for two years since, DC has been building to the “Trinity War,” this huge battle between Justice Leagues that was going to rock the universe. I decided to give the storyline a chance. What a friggin’ let down.

The Trinity War offered little in the way of the all-out war between the Leagues (as was promised by the Free Comic Book Day promo comic). Instead, it was really just a lame wild goose chase centered on a red herring. I did, however, like the ending of the Trinity War storyline of introducing the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 into the main DCU. But this in turn had me questioning, much like I did with Marvel’s Ultimate line ten years ago, how many new ways can you tell the same old story? How many times now has the Crime Syndicate of America been “introduced” into the main DC universe?

Moving on, there was a confusing jump where the CSA claimed that the Justice League was dead and that they (or evil) had taken over the world. Funny, I thought evil just took over the world a few years ago during the Final Crisis storyline. Huh. Obviously they aren’t really dead or else DC will have to pull something out of their asses like replace them with another alternate reality Justice League or even have to do another reboot.

Of course this lead to the new gimmick of releasing a month’s worth of villain-centric issues in place of the regular monthly titles. And just so we know that the spirit of the 90’s is still alive and kicking, DC offered those issues in neat 3D lenticular covers. I will admit that many of them looked really cool, even if they did tend to give me a headache.

I didn’t read all of the villain issues, but I have thumbed through those not in my pull box at the comic shop. They were pretty hit or miss. Some were pretty interesting, like the issues dedicated to Deadshot, Penguin, Relic and Doomsday. Others, like Deathstroke’s, Solomon Grundy’s, Darkseid and Desaad’s… not so much. The best one I read was Black Adam’s. That one not only explained his resurrection but also featured him kicking some serious ass! 

The best thing to come of these villain issues, at least with some of them, is the chance to learn what their current origins are in the New 52. Some are pretty much the same, while others like Bane’s, Cyborg Superman’s and Creeper (who apparently is now a villain) have been changed considerably. My point is that some of these issues are filling in the ambiguous origins of these villains post-reboot. That has been a major issue Jonny and I have had with the New 52.  Instead of beginning the reboot at, I don’t know… the beginning, they started the universe about 5 years in and didn’t bother to tell us what was already canon and what hadn’t “happened” yet. Worse yet, it seemed that the continuity of the Green Lantern books have carried over from before the reboot, despite much of that history not likely to have occurred? For instance, was Coast City destroyed and cause Hal Jordan to go insane and become Parallax? If not, why is Kyle Rayner around? If so, how was the universe restarted without the “big bang” created by Damage, who doesn’t seem to exist in the New 52? See what I mean? These villain issues at least give us some idea of this “lost” history.

Where the Forever Evil storyline is headed seems to be a big showdown between the Crime Syndicate versus Lex Luthor and whoever he can scrape together to back him up (shades of the original CSA story). Will it be any good? Probably not as good as what Marvel’s doing with their Infinity event. Since the Marvel Now rebranding (I don’t know what else to call it… it’s not a reboot) they have been doing some cool stuff. I find myself far more excited to read Uncanny Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova and Deadpool than I am any of the DC titles I have subscribed to at the comic shop. Maybe it’s time for another reboot.

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.

Live Action Casting - The Justice League

I had really meant to have this up last month but life got in the way, especially in the last week. (See, if I had one of those Black Lantern rings that wouldn't be an issue!)  So, here we are with the culmination of our months long project... the Justice League movie.

The roster for the Justice League is as follows:

Man of Steel has already established Henry Cavill here (in all his crotch bulging goodness) as Supermen...

and Ryan "2 Flops in 1 Week" Reynolds as Green Lantern.

Here are the other members we introduced in earlier Live Action Castings:

Alexander Skarsgard as Aquaman

Gina Carano as Wonder Woman

Patrick Wilson as The Flash

and Armie Hammer as Batman (which seems doubtful since he apparently doesn't want to play him.)

In this movie we would also add Cyborg to complete the current New 52 Justice League...

For Cyborg we pick Michael B. Jordan. Its funny because we picked him long before we heard he was chosen to voice Cyborg in the "Flashpoint Paradox" animated movie that just came out! We loved him from Parenthood, though. His performance in Chronicle only sweetens the casting for me.

Now for the main villain of the film, we are going back to the puppet master from Wonder Woman's movie Ares, played by Javier Bardem.

But Justice League will feature three other villains. The first is Maxwell Lord...

We want Luke Evans for Maxwell Lord. You may recognize him from Immortals or as the bad guy from Fast and Furious 6. He's a good actor and can play the master manipulating millionaire businessman with ties to the clandestine government organization Checkmate.

The second is Professor Ivo...

Michael C. Hall seems like a great candidate to play the twisted genius Professor Ivo. Granted, Ivo's role in the movie would be limited, it would establish him for future movies... possibly involving a certain "amazing" android?

The third isn't so much a villain but a whole mess of villains...

The OMACs, an army of robotic soldiers created to neutralize metahumans, will play a major role in the movie.

What follows is just a basic idea for the plot that Jonny and I came up with. If I were to actually write this, it would have to be enhanced greatly, with locations and subplots, to be a fully functioning story. We think its a great concept, so without further ado, here is what we came up with...

The movie would begin in S.T.A.R. labs where Dr. Stone is working with Professor Ivo are working on a breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence. Stone's son Vic (the future Cyborg) comes to speak to his father when an explosion occurs in the lab. Vic is mortally wounded and Ivo is (seemingly) killed with much of the research destroyed. Dr. Stone quickly uses what robotic technology he has save his son's life.

While at a fancy humanitarian fundraiser Maxwell Lord seeks out Bruce Wayne to offer him the "oppurtunity" to get in on the ground floor by helping to fund what he calls "a worldwide peace-keeping deterrent."  He won't divulge any further details but does admit to already having a major benefactor. Whane Wayne asks "Who, Luthor?" Lord replies "Bigger." Wayne politely rejects the offer until he can know more about the project. Lord walks away with a smirk. His nose begins bleeding, but he immediately stops the flow with a handkerchief.

Soon after, blue robots begin to attack various metahumans like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern. All of these robots feature adaptive means of taking on their opponents such as being equipped to to match Aquaman's speed and strength underwater while resisting deep ocean pressures. A robot takes on Superman, matching his immense strength, speed and durability. Batman shows up (I am assuming they would be friends by the end of Man of Steel 2) to disarm the robot with an EM Pulse grenade. Batman and Superman investigate the source of these robots.

It is revealed that Maxwell Lord has quickly risen up the ranks in the clandestine Checkmate organization and become its Black Bishop. Lord has been displaying the power of the OMAC project to other leaders of Checkmate (the various attacks on heroes, the OMACs sight capabilities also record what they see). He claims it to be a project to subdue the rising threats that metahumans have to the rest of the world. Lord goes onto explain that with the 'generous' permission to use of WayneTech's satellite, they can provide worldwide coverage.The White Bishop (Amanda Waller) is suspicious and decides to investigate Lord's newfound status and plans.

Superman and Batman follow the clues to S.T.A.R. labs where they meet the rebuilt Vic Stone (Cyborg), his new body built using the OMAC technology that was being developed. Vic is helping with the clean-up and efforts to get the advanced laboratory back online, partially by his own accessing of the computer systems to recover lost or damaged files. Vic tells his father as well as Superman and Batman that there seems to a lot of files missing concerning the manufacture and artificial intelligence research his father and Ivo had been working on. A small group of OMACs appear and fighting breaks out. Cyborg ends up being helpful in the battle. Cyborg should accompany Superman and him in order to stop the robotic menace.

Maxwell Lord arrives at his massive OMAC building factory and a massive super-computer to coordinate them. It is revealed that Professor Ivo survived the explosion, though not without suffering disfiguring injuries. The mysterious benefactor, remaining in shadows, tells Lord that he obtained Ivo along with the research necessary. Now it Lord up to him to get the Brother Eye system online. Maxwell Lord states that not only everything is going according to plan, but he is stepping up the attacks on metahumans. With this, Lord launches several more OMACs.

An OMAC attacks Green Lantern when Flash intervenes. They work together to defeat the robot. Wonder Woman arrives in Metropolis seeking Superman's help against the increasing robot attacks. Another OMAC appears and after a brief battle, is grabbed by the tentacles of a giant squid and smashed to bits by a blue whale... signaling the arrival of Aquaman.

Amanda Waller and an army of Checkmate agents storm Maxwell Lord's OMAC facility, citing suspicion of psychic persuasion on her fellow agents and superiors, evidenced by Lord's repeated nosebleeds after every encounter (an earlier scene would have shown Waller reviewing video records from the Checkmate 'Castle' headquarters). With a smile, Lord confesses. He is about to launch a swarm of OMACs on Waller and company when the benefactor stops him; he steps out into the open (revealing to the audience that he is Ares). The God of War decides to take them on by himself, something he hasn't had the joy of doing in quite some time. Ares kills the entire Checkmate squad by himself but only wounds Waller so that she might be able to witness the fall of man before she takes her final breath. Maxwell Lord, in a state of shock, wonders who his benefactor really is. Ares tells him that he is a God and that mortal men such as he should know that loyal servitude is the only thing that will keep his head attached to his neck. Then Ares commands Lord to launch an OMAC attack on Checkmate's Castle headquarters, resulting in an awesome, but one-sided battle that sees most of Checkmate killed... all witnessed by Waller. The OMACs then access Checkmate's computer files on every metahuman in the world.

Our details get a little hazy here. I'm not sure where Maxwell Lord's headquarters is nor where the future League members should congregate (probably Metropolis). Batman will find out that his alter ego Bruce Wayne actually did supply the information for his company's satellite to get jacked by Ivo and Lord, due to the latter placing a mental suggestion in Wayne at the fundraiser. The satellite aligns with Brother Eye's coordinates and activates 10,000 OMACs, which Ares has launched to attack every metahuman from the Checkmate files. Superman, Batman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern are forced to team up to both launch an assault on Lord's OMAC complex and fight off hundreds of the robots. There will also be scenes from around the world of other metahumans battling OMACs such as Booster Gold, Hawkman, Zatanna, Plastic Man, Shazam and more (setting the stage for more movies!).

After defeating a few hundred OMACs, the Justice League is met by Ares, whom Wonder Woman instantly recognizes and attacks. The God of War knocks her into a building, then proceeds to explain to the others that his strength increases when there is conflict across the Earth. Since the age of Gods ended centuries ago, he has been far weaker. Humans can only generate so much of the violent energies he needs to thrive, so he laid low and sowed the seeds for all out global conflict. (He almost succeeded twice.) Recently, he found that the rise of metahumans has brought him strength not felt since those days of old. Basically, with his newfound strength and invincibility, he's going to conquer the world of men.

Ares magically summons his full armor and takes on Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman in a huge fight that sees the God of War holding his own against them all. Batman takes on Maxwell Lord in a distraction so Cyborg can break into Brother Eye and disable the OMACs. Not sure how, but the good guys win (really not sure how Ares will be stopped, but I would want him to return in a third Wonder Woman movie called "Fall of the Amazons" cuz that sounds awesome!). Cyborg disables the OMACs, Batman kicks the crap out of Maxwell Lord, Professor Ivo escapes. More shots of other super heroes having defeated OMACs or just fighting them when the robot shuts down. Waller is rescued, but it implies she now has a deep distrust for metahumans. In the end, the Justice League forms.

Look for future installments of Live Action Casting that will feature some of those other superheroes in the DCU. Until then, Stay Strange.

Toaster's Ramblings - San Diego Comic Con Edition

So the San Diego Comic Con has ended. What was once an actual convention involving comic books has now become little more than a pop culture drive-by shooting. Its like Cannes for geeks, except instead of showing films, we get clips and Q & A panels. Once upon a time Jonny Prophet and I wanted to attend SDCC, but now it seems like a clusterfuck... nothing but crowds and lines and the desperation to be part of something limited to a few hundred seats or a few thousand exclusive copies. Not really our cup of tea.

As with any SDCC season, we are left with lots of news and trailers and such. I figured I would touch on a few tidbits and highlights that stuck out to me this year.

- Bryan Cranston is a freakin' genius! He attends the convention dressed as his character Breaking Bad Walter White! Nobody is going to expect the guy wearing the Bryan Cranston mask to actually be Bryan Cranston! But now that this trick was revealed, I just fret that future attendees doing cosplay might be assaulted by ravenous fans. Remember, just because he's wearing the Spider-man outfit doesn't mean its actually Spider-man.

- In speaking of Spider-man, Fox is just pumping out those films, aren't they? As long as they are as good as Amazing Spider-man, I'm okay with them squeezing out every last drop of life before they lose the franchise to "the Mouse."

- I call bullshit on Hasbro releasing the first of their 6 inch Star Wars figures (something I have wanted for years) as a SDCC exclusive. I call even bigger bullshit that its Boba Fett! WTF?! Okay, sure they said Fett would be re-released in the exact same colors in Wave 2 of the actual set, but come on! Plus, I doubt that one will have Han Solo in carbonite! Now I just have to wait for Wave 2 and not give into the temptation to drop a hundred or more on the exclusive. (I'm not that strong, dammit!)

- DC comics is apparently dropping 4 comic lines from its 52 line-up. They claim to be unable to support that many lines at once (Jonny and I think that number to be a lot lower... like around 30, but nevertheless). So now they can't be the New 52 anymore. Now what do I call them? How about the "Oh, Great... 48"? I think it can catch on.

- So the Thanos clip at the end of Avengers was for Guardians of the Galaxy? I guess that's cool. Kind of an odd cast. We have buff Andy Dwyer as Star-Lord, Batista as green Batista... I mean Drax the Destroyer. (Oh, Mr. Bautista? I'm sorry, Drax might be able to take Thor, but no way he can beat Hulk. Not gonna happen.) Michael "Merle Dixon" Rooker as Yondu? Yondu was part of the future GotG team! Lee Pace, the pie maker from Pushing Daisies, is Ronan the Accuser? That's just weird to me. Benicio Del Toro is awesome, but I don't know about him as the Collector. The whole time I'll have "flashbacks" to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. (As your attorney I advise you to take a hit out of the little brown bottle in my suitcase.) Zoe Saldana as Gamora is probably the best casting I have heard for the flick.  

- So GotG is going to have the team itself along with Ronan the Accuser, another Kree Accuser (whose name I forget and don't feel like looking up), Nebula, The Collector and Thanos? I hope this doesn't get too bogged down. Hmmm. I wonder if Fox has the rights to the Shi'ar since they were affiliated with the X-men?

- BTW, Karen Gillan with a shaved head? Still hot.

- I'm cool with Avengers 2 being 'The Age of Ultron', but I've heard that Dr. Henry Pym is not Ultron's creator. Considering that Pym is getting his own movie soon (Ant Man) that's just stupid. Why not introduce him early on? Please don't tell me Tony Stark made Ultron. Iron Man does not have to be the center of the Avengers universe you know! Wait, do you think the dunce cap wearing robo-arm that Stark has evolves into the human hating Ultron all because Tony was an asshole to it? Now that would be karma!

- I'm glad that Warner Bros. is not releasing Justice League in 2015 like I had heard, but 2017 isn't that much better when (unless they plan to count the Green Lantern flop) Man of Steel is the first movie leading to it! And Superman vs Batman in Man of Steel 2? I'm not sure how that will work, both in making sure Batman doesn't come across as a villain and him actually fighting the most powerful man on Earth. It does seem desperate, though. Sad that the only DC Superhero movie currently planned between 2015's Man of Steel 2 and 2017's Justice League is The Flash. I guess Wonder Woman and Aquaman will have to pop up real quick in Justice League. I'm sure it won't take long to explain the Amazonian warrior princess demigod and the half Atlantean king in a 120 minute movie... just so long as there isn't a villain. (The first movie is about them becoming a team. You'll have to wait for the sequel for them to fight anyone.) 

- X-men: Days of Futures Past looks more and more like it will be a train wreck. Jonny and I both cringed at Right after Bryan Singer took over for First Class director Matthew Vaughn, he made Jonny and I cringe upon saying "Days of Futures Past is going to fix the problems with First Class." What problems, Bryan? Okay, there was a little bit of continuity problems like Alex "Havok" Summers being Cyclop's younger brother who was in the 60's before Scott was born or Emma Frost being an adult in the 60's and a kid in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But beyond those, First Class was the best of all the X-men films as far as Jonny and I are concerned. Honestly, Mr. Singer, I would be more concerned with fixing the problems of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Those movies had real problems.

And now I will leave you with this simple message from your lord and master... Loki.

All hail Loki.

Live Action Casting: Justice League - The Dynamic Duo (part 1)

Here we are with the next in our series of fantasy castings for films based on DC Comics characters leading up to our dream version of a Justice League movie. Today’s installment is our reboot of the Batman franchise which we are calling The Dynamic Duo? Why that name? Because we can’t call it ‘Batman and Robin’ now can we? Jonny Prophet and I wanted this Batman franchise to shine a light on the origin and development of Dick Grayson who in the comics was the first Robin. Since the new Superman movie Man of Steel is titled after one of the character’s nicknames, we figured The Dynamic Duo would work just fine.

So naturally we begin by casting our Bruce Wayne/Batman. We wanted someone who is a decent actor, in his late 20’s/early 30’s, has the right look and can do action.

We have chosen Armie Hammer. This isn’t really that world shattering as he was already cast as Batman in the previous failed attempt at a Justice League film called “Justice League Mortal,” a project ultimately doomed by the 2007 Writer’s Guild Strike.  There’s a damn good chance he will be officially cast again as The Caped Crusader if The Lone Ranger does well. Hammer certainly has what we want for the part.

The next role to fill is that of Dick Grayson, the young acrobat who would become Batman’s crime fighting partner Robin. We wanted to avoid the mistake of the previous movie Robin by actually casting a kid (instead of twenty-something Chris O’Donnell). We also needed a kid who could do fight scenes and could be believable as an acrobat. We think we found someone perfect.

We pick Leo Howard. You might remember him as young Snake Eyes from GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra where he had an awesome fight sequence against young Storm Shadow. Or maybe you remember how bad ass he was as young Conan in the recent Conan the Barbarian film. Howard is fifteen and a black belt! Jonny and I think he is perfect to play Batman’s sidekick!

Now the part of Alfred Pennyworth is a tricky one. Michael Caine not only raised the bar for that part, but he then took that bar and chucked it off a suspension bridge into the ocean! I see no way to top that performance, plus Alfred’s role in this franchise will be far more scaled back (since he was arguably the “Robin” to Bale’s Batman). We want our Alfred to be comforting but also witty to provide some comic relief.

We are going with legendary British comedian John Cleese. He carries that proper Englishman persona that is perfect as Wayne Manor’s butler but is a comedic genius who will bring some great comedy, something necessary for a dark Batman movie.

We move on now to the role of Commissioner James Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department. Just like with Caine’s portrayal of Alfred, Gary Oldman made an amazing Gordon. We felt that we needed someone who had strong acting skills and could both be convincing and look the part.

We picked Bryan Cranston. We didn’t want to, not because we dislike Cranston, but that it was too easy… too predictable. Hell, Cranston even voiced the Commissioner in the DC animated feature Batman: Year One! That being said, he is perfect for the part. I am a big fan of Breaking Bad and Bryan Cranston has blown me away as an actor. (He’s come a long ways since being Malcolm’s dad!)

In our quest to find a Commissioner Gordon not named Bryan Cranston, we considered one of our favorite and underrated actors Vincent D’Onofrio. The problem is, Vincent has gotten kind of… big. I know, we all get older, metabolisms don’t work like they did, but D’Onofrio just doesn’t look like Jim Gordon to me. But who he does look like is Detective Harvey Bullock! This works well because we wanted to introduce another of the GCPD…

… Renee Montoya. We need a decent actress to play the Hispanic detective. She needs to be tough, look the part… oh, who are we kidding?

The role of Renee Montoya was practically made for Michelle Rodriguez! Jonny and I cannot come up with any actress better suited for the part and we aren’t alone. Rodriguez is a popular fan casting for the part.

Truth be told, we wanted to introduce Detective Montoya in The Dynamic Duo to lay the groundwork for a movie of The Question! However, we also think it would be cool to make a stand-alone GCPD movie within the “World of Batman” where Gordon, Bullock and Montoya have to take on the mob, like a classic gangster flick but with a cameo by a certain crime fighter. It’s at least a cool idea to consider.

In speaking of cameos, we wanted to include a little something for the fanboys with an appearance by former heavyweight boxing champion Ted Grant, who some may know as the Justice Society’s Wildcat. In the movie, we want Grant to run a training gym in Gotham City and also allude to the fact that he did help train Bruce Wayne years ago.

Jonny insisted that the part of Ted Grant be played by one of his favorite actors, Kurt Russell. I can’t knock the choice. The man was Snake Plissken. He can easily pull off the tough, hard nosed retired boxer.

And now we move onto the bad guys! First up with Tony Zucco, the mobster who killed Dick Grayson’s parents. This isn’t necessarily a huge role, but it is very prominent. We wanted someone believable as a lower tier gangster that could be ruthless and conniving.

Jonny and I want to go with Eli Roth. We loved him as “The Bear Jew” in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. He kind of looks like he could be a hitman for the mob, doesn’t he? We aren’t sure what kind of acting chops Roth has, but the part won’t require much. Come on, if the lead singer of the band James could play Mr. Zsasz in Batman Begins, Eli Roth should be able to play Tony Zucco?

For the main villain of the movie, we wanted to go with Black Mask, a character never before shown on film. The biggest plus of Black Mask is that he doesn’t require that much of a back story, so more time can be devoted to Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne. For the part, we need an actor with some serious skill. He has to portray the greedy and manipulative Roman Sionis and his rise to power, then after the accident that grafts the mask to his face, he must become more ruthless and slightly paranoid.

For the part of Black Mask, we are going with British actor Dominic West. You may know him from The Wire, the BBC America show The Hour, or as Jigsaw from Punisher: Warzone. It’s that particular role as Jigsaw that convinced me that West, with his amazing amount of range, was more than able to become the twisted, unstable and violent Black Mask. 

For the last part to fill, we wanted Black Mask to have a right hand man who helps him become the king of Gotham’s underworld. I thought it would be great to make this underling a more obscure villain from Batman’s rogues gallery and for this villain to bring some serious fighting skills to set up a showdown with the Caped Crusader. We settled on KGBeast. Since he would have to be pretty old to have been in the KGB, Anatoli Knyazev will be referred to by his nickname of “the Beast” due to his violent reputation in the Russian mafia as a “cleaner.” We would have the character dressed in an outfit similar to the comic book attire, complete with concealed face and his dialogue would be kept to a minimum. Consider “the Beast” to be kind of like a Russian hitman version of Boba Fett.

Jonny and I want Ray Park as “the Beast.” With his knowledge as a martial artist and stuntman, Ray Park has made many a film better. He was the best thing about Episode I and his work as Snake Eyes has made the GI Joe movies a lot better than they should have been. We figure Park could be the Fight and Stunt Choreographer, which would be freakin’ awesome. Just imagine… it would be like Snake Eyes versus Batman! Just the mere thought of that is enough to send fanboys into geek-gasms!

For note, Jonny and I were also considering making a couple of cameo parts for Adam West and Burt Ward, the Batman and Robin from the 1960’s program. Jonny thought of Ward as the C.C. Haly, the owner of the circus that featured The Flying Graysons. I thought West would be great to play the judge that makes the adoption of Dick Grayson by Bruce Wayne official. 

(Continued in Part 2)

Live Action Casting: Justice League: The Dynamic Duo (part 2)

As for the plot, Batman has been following leads in an attempt to bust the clandestine criminal organization known as the “Mask Society,” so named for their members wearing theatrical masks. This group seems to have the resources to not only stay one step ahead of Batman and the Gotham City police, but keep chiseling away at the power held by the Italian and Russian mobs.

Fed up with working for the Italian crime bosses, Tony Zucco tries to make a name for himself with the Masks. He takes several small jobs in the hopes of earning his place in their Society, unaware that only those considered Gotham’s aristocratic elite weld any real power in the organization. This is where Roman Sionis comes in. He is from one such affluent family; his parents even hobnobbed with the Waynes back in the day. Roman is treated like a failure by his parents, even going so far as to give him a ‘do nothing’ job within the family owned cosmetics factory to keep up the façade of the family’s success. After discovering that his parents are part of the Mask Society, Roman is reluctantly inducted, but again held to doing remedial jobs. It is Roman who gives Tony Zucco the order to give the returning Haly’s Circus a “shakedown” for the cut of the profits owed to the Masks.

Bruce Wayne is in attendance at the circus when Zucco, wearing a ‘tragedy’ mask, sabotages the high wire. When the Flying Graysons tragically fall to their deaths in what appears to be an accident, Wayne notices a man quickly leave the scene when everyone else rushes over to help. He changes into Batman and engages Zucco. After a brief fight with Zucco trying to shoot Batman, the police find an unconscious criminal tied up and dangling from a tent pole.

Bruce Wayne shows up at the police station to give his deposition as a witness. Upon speaking with Commissioner Gordon, he finds out Zucco is believed to have connections to the Mask Society and that the surviving son of the Flying Graysons may have seen something that could lead to convictions. Wayne remembers his own past upon seeing the devastated Dick Grayson, so he offers to take the boy in both out of sympathy and the will to protect him.

To be honest, the rest of the movie isn’t completely there. I would be more concerned if I were actually writing this script, but since I’m not, I will highlight some of the key plot points. Dick Grayson proves to be a bit of a detective himself by piecing together Wayne’s strange habits and figuring out he’s hiding something. He ends up finding the Batcave. Dick wants Bruce to train him to fight so he can avenge his parent’s deaths, but is refused. Grayson becomes obsessed with the idea of vengeance and finds Ted Grant’s gym. Despite being a kid, he demands to be trained, which Grant laughs off. Dick challenges and coaxes a boxer to face him in the ring. Because of Dick’s gymnastic and  acrobatic moves, the boxer can’t lay a hit on the boy. Grant is impressed. Wayne shows up at the gym (how did he find Dick Grayson? He’s Batman, duh!). Grant (who it is implied knows Bruce’s secret) tells him that either Batman can train Grayson or Grayson will go it alone and probably get killed. Bruce reluctantly agrees to train the kid. 

Roman Sionis strikes a deal with “The Beast” to gain his services and help clean up his mess. The Beast manages to get Tony Zucco out of police custody in an extremely violent and awesome sequence. Batman arrives and takes on The Beast, but before the fight gets really brutal, he and Zucco get away with the help of Roman in a car. Batman lets them escape because he put a tracer on the escaping vehicle, so they can lead him to the Mask Society. He arrives, a fight breaks out. Somehow the metal skull mask that Roman wears is grafted to his face, probably by fire. Like I said, these are just plot notes.

The Mask Society is left in ruin. Though they escaped, the members know that it’s only a matter of time before Batman and the police catch them. When his father confronts Roman and blames him, things get ugly. Roman, who insists on being called The Black Mask, has clearly lost it. He cites the ridiculous nature of his socialite parents and their spoiled peers putting on their ‘false faces’ to the world as philanthropists and secretly are monsters preying on the weak to get richer. He murders his father and mother. With the help of Tony Zucco and The Beast, Black Mask seizes control of the Mask Society, rechristening them the False Face Society and wages all out war on the Italian and Russian mobs until he is the king of Gotham’s Underworld.

Inevitably Batman and Robin (still not sure how he gets that identity) fight the False Face Society. Batman has an awesome battle with The Beast. Black Mask is beaten and apprehended by Gotham’s Finest. The climax of the film will probably center on Robin taking down Tony Zucco and whether his pain and anger gets the better of him and he kills Zucco or lets the courts decide his fate. Ultimately, he chooses not to enact his own vengeance, proving himself to Batman and setting the stage for him to become a great hero and for sequels! Plus I seem to remember something about a Teen Titans movie featuring the already introduced Garth, Donna Troy and Kid Flash.

With this, the next stop is the actual Justice League movie… coming soon (hopefully sooner than it took me to put up this article!)

Toaster's Ramblings... Rebooting Batman Edition

With the release of Man of Steel only a couple of weeks away, there is increased talk of Warner Brothers and DC Comics making their Justice League movie AKA their answer to The Avengers. There has already been a lot of speculation about Batman’s involvement. Will it be Joseph Gordon Levitt under the cowl, seemingly reprising his role from the final shot of The Dark Knight Rises? Will Warner Brothers drive a dump truck full of money to the doors of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale to get both involved in the super team movie? Will Warner Brothers just decide to start over the franchise and cast younger for the lead?

Jonny Prophet and I are honestly hoping for a reboot, which is sort of the purpose of this rambling session. Our next Live Action Casting for our (semi-plausible) fantasy Justice League movie will involve Batman. With that in mind, we realized that we needed to establish our reasoning for not just going with the default Nolan Batman franchise, hence this write-up.

Jonny and I loved the Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy but all good things must come to an end, less they become sad, limping, half-dead specimens of their former glory, or to put it a better way… Two and a Half Men. The Dark Knight trilogy was great… near perfect in many ways. The story came full circle and gave a very complete and fulfilling ending. Okay, many will disagree with those statements, but you have to admit that the way Nolan ended it, bringing back Bale as Batman would be problematic. Let’s examine why… SPOILER ALERT!

In The Dark Knight Rises Bruce Wayne loses his fortune because of manipulations by Talia and the League of Shadows. After essentially revealing his identity to Commissioner Gordon, Wayne goes on to fake his own death, seemingly sacrificing himself in a nuclear explosion. Wayne Manor gets donated to orphans. Alfred moves on with his life and we find Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle have settled down with a new life abroad. Lastly, “Robin” John Blake finds the Bat-Cave and one assumes carries on the fight.

Warner Brothers would have to reverse all of that for the Christian Bale Batman to plausibly join the Justice League. That’s a lot to consider. Wayne has to return to Gotham City, explain his absence to the media that will surely question him, try to get back his fortune and his company with the Research and Development division intact, kick out the orphans, convince Alfred to come back, hope things aren’t weird between him and Gordan and figure out what to do about Blake. Oh, and Wayne’s body is still falling apart from the toll of crime-fighting.

Maybe the Justice League movie takes place before The Dark Knight Rises? When? In that gap where Batman hung up the cape and cowl after Rachel and Harvey’s deaths and he was limping around with a cane? Maybe he found the time to join after escaping the underground prison but before rescuing Gotham City from Bane? Maybe it was in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight? Okay, we’ll just ignore that Christian Bale looks older now than when he did during Begins (a decade will do that to you). But the problem is that’s just lame. I hate it when a movie takes place before or during an established continuity like that. Let’s use the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as an example. While it’s doubtful they would kill the main character of the show, I like knowing the possibility that they could. But if Young Indy died, there would be no Indiana Jones movies (though in the case of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, that might not have been a bad thing). Would Batman die in a Justice League movie? Probably not, but did movie goers expect Spock to die in Wrath of Khan? It’s that possibility, however slight, that helps make these movies more exciting.

What about John Blake as Batman? I am a fan of Joseph Gordon Levitt; he’s a fantastic actor. But a Justice League big screen movie has never been done before. Do you really want to tarnish it right off the bat (no pun intended) by having a Batman that isn’t Bruce Wayne? To me, it would stick out like a sore thumb and I would actually have a hard time enjoying the film for that reason. It’s the same reason why music groups who replace a key member seldom do well. It just feels off.

And I am just going to come out and say it… Nolan’s Batman doesn’t fit into the Justice League very well. Where in his trilogy would you fit aliens, power rings and Amazonian warrior princesses? The Dark Knight movies were firmly grounded in the world of organized crime, whether it was the mob or the clandestine League of Shadows. There’s a reason why Ra’s Al Ghul didn’t have Lazarus Pits and Bane didn’t have super steroids to make him grow enormously muscular… its because those weren’t realistic. All of his adversaries fit into that realistic world, including the usually over-the-top Joker. The realism of The Dark Knight Trilogy is what set it apart from previous films and gave it an edge. But that realistic Batman, with his bodily wear and tear, wouldn’t fit in so well with the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern.

Now here’s why a reboot could be great. You could have a fresh new perspective toward the franchise, possibly focused more on the feel of the current comics but with a nod to the past. I don’t mean the goofiness of the Joel Schumacher years. In the same way that Captain America and Iron Man can fit in the same comic/movie universe as Hulk and Thor, I would create a Batman that can fight crime in Gotham but also be a member of the Justice League. Nolan told Bruce Wayne’s story, what if this reboot focuses more on Dick Grayson becoming Robin under Batman’s tutelage? That could be great! Guess what? If you reboot the franchise, you can have the Joker again! Burton killed the Nicholson Joker and since Ledger sadly passed away, I doubt Nolan would have ever cast another in that role. Lets up the ante… add Harley Quinn! She’s a fan favorite who has never been in a movie. Plus, Batman has lots of other villains that could be used, many of whom have never been on film. Batman has a big universe that the films have only scratched the surface of. Why not blow the lid off it?

So continuing in our effort to not just bitch but actually explain what we would do, coming next week will be our Live Action Casting for our Batman reboot that can lead toward the Justice League movie. Until then, stay strange!