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
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