Hello and Welcome to the July 31st edition of The Comic Shop Blog!
Each time I check I am astounded by the sheer number of page views. Thank you so very much for taking the time to read my humble opinions! I'm very grateful and it has emboldened me to take on a few other challenges like my Breaking Bad Fan Blog "All the Remains" and my rasslin' blog. From the bottom of my heart I thank you for your continued support my dear readers. That's enough sap for now onto the topic of the day!
By now you hopefully have seen at least screenshots of the comic con footage from the "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" panel. If not it's most definitely worth a google search. It's hard to get too excited when the movie is almost two full years away, but that stoked the flames of this DC fan for sure. I remember in my youth (when I didn't understand how aging worked) I longed to see Adam West fight crime along side Christopher Reeve, and then much later I longed to see Michael Keaton suit up with Reeve. Nevermind that stylistically, at least, the latter pair wouldn't have worked it was an obsession of mine to see the world's finest united. I've read most of the major crossovers for the two titans, if not all. It's a powerful juxtaposition of ideals, methods, & processes that are ultimately to achieve the same end.
"Dawn of Justice" despite some of it's outward flaws and concerns represents the end to a lifetime of waiting for a fan like me. I have my concerns about the foundation for sure, but I'm hoping they use this film to right the course.
Borrowing from "The Dark Knight Returns" makes perfect sense in this scenario because in that piece of literature Superman was a government lap dog that had actually torn one of Green Arrow's arms off. The "Man of Steel" Supes hasn't torn any arms, but he's pledged a terse loyalty to the government, destroyed a city, & might have twisted a guy's head off. This all gives Batman, who in this narrative has layed low, cause to be skeptical of Krypton's last son.
As an aside I've made my feelings known about the ending of "MOS", but I will give credit to the fact that it does not insult the audience in the way that say spinning the earth backwards really fast would. I love the innocence & fun of the Donner films, but I also appreciate how WB/DC can say "we've done camp/fun. Disney/Marvel has the market cornered on that in this new gen so let's go dark at first." It makes sense to try these characters in a different setting instead of rehashing old storytelling.
To summarize the comic con footage it features Batman in his "TDKR" armor turning on the bat signal with Superman hovering with his red glowing eyes. Pretty straightforward, but also somewhat telling. WB also released a still frame of Gal Gadot in her Wonder Woman attire, and it looked fantastic! The only real question/concern for your humble blogger would be Jesse Eisenberg's take on Luthor, but that's yet to be seen.
I'm very excited to see what comes of this movie, but as I stated we are a ways away from the finished product.
That's all for today, but I'll be back to give my two cents on some of the other comic con happenings.
Happy reading and I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy review!
Hello and welcome to the July 29th edition of The Comic Shop!
Lots of news coming out of the San Diego Comic Con, but I'm not going to get into any of that today. Let's jump right into the review shall we? As always I will try to avoid spoilers and specific plot points, but read at your own risk.
The Good: There is a lot to love about this film. The soundtrack is fantastic and integral to the film's storyline. Director James Gunn uses the soundtrack several times to nod to the audience in a bit of fourth wall chicanery. The humor in this film is also top notch with almost every character having their moment to shine on that front.
Chris Pratt absolutely owns his role as Star-Lord/Peter Quill in this film, and I would say he's Marvel's best casting job since Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. Pratt definitely has the leading man material and he absolutely does not miss a beat. Zoe Saldana is good as Gamora but I'll get into my issues with the characterization of Thanos' adopted daughter later on in this review. Dave Bautista certainly doesn't act like he is a former professional wrestler as he makes the very literal Drax the Destroyer his own. If it weren't for Pratt; however, Bradley Cooper's Rocket Raccoon and Vin Disel's Groot would have absolutely stolen the show in this movie. I realize they are CGI rendered characters only voiced by the actors, but they bring a lot of the fun to the movie. Michael Rooker plays Michael Rooker in blue make up as Yondu, but he's good enough as that as well.
A certain mad titan may or may not make his film debut in this movie, and it may or may not be absolutely glorious (wink, wink).
The Bad: I often have a hard time being overly critical about a film after my first viewing. It often takes me a while to digest the information and really think about which things I have issues with. With this film my issues became a little more apparent initially.
My biggest problem is the way Gunn, his partner in writing the film Nicole Perlman, and Saldana chose to bring Gamora to the screen. In her history Gamora is the adopted daughter of a certain Mad Titan, and she is quite powerful. With superhuman agility, healing, and superhuman strength to boot she was trained by Thanos to be one of the more gifted warriors in the galaxy. With that history in mind it was quite disheartening to see her portrayed as incompetent at times, and as love fodder for Quill. Now it's not terrible, but when you give your warrior princess character dialogue that explicitly states "I am no helpless waif...." you should probably have the character live up to that on screen. It's safe to say that there will be several sequels to develop this character and I hope to see her become more of a brooding bad ass warrior in the future.
I also had a bit of an issue with Lee Pace's Ronan the Accuser and Karen Gillan's Nebula who went to the "bad guys are bad because they are bad school". Meaning they had enough motivation, that we learned about through exposition, but they were rather flat characters outside of that. They are good enough in their perspective roles; however, I feel like this movie was trying to accomplish a little too much to flesh out these characters. That said they still weren't on the crap level of marble mouth and "Batman Forever Electro" from "The Amazing Spider-man 2" but there is really nothing that stands out otherwise.
The Ugly: We have to wait three years to get the next installment of this wonderful movie!
The Verdict: Disney/Marvel has hit a home run with this out of left field film property. This film doesn't have a ton of exposition and the they get through a lot of it rather ingeniously. The humor and the action are top notch, which has come to be a common expectation from these Marvel releases. "Guardians of the Galaxy" is this summer's must-see, and it is accommodating to those that may have not seen other Marvel movies because it does not really tie-in to the other films at this point. The only real thread to the greater Marvel universe is a certain mad titan that made a post-credit cameo in "The Avengers".
That is all for today I will be back as soon as I can to talk about comic-con news, but get out Friday and see "Guardians". I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Lots of news coming out of the San Diego Comic Con, but I'm not going to get into any of that today. Let's jump right into the review shall we? As always I will try to avoid spoilers and specific plot points, but read at your own risk.
The Good: There is a lot to love about this film. The soundtrack is fantastic and integral to the film's storyline. Director James Gunn uses the soundtrack several times to nod to the audience in a bit of fourth wall chicanery. The humor in this film is also top notch with almost every character having their moment to shine on that front.
Chris Pratt absolutely owns his role as Star-Lord/Peter Quill in this film, and I would say he's Marvel's best casting job since Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. Pratt definitely has the leading man material and he absolutely does not miss a beat. Zoe Saldana is good as Gamora but I'll get into my issues with the characterization of Thanos' adopted daughter later on in this review. Dave Bautista certainly doesn't act like he is a former professional wrestler as he makes the very literal Drax the Destroyer his own. If it weren't for Pratt; however, Bradley Cooper's Rocket Raccoon and Vin Disel's Groot would have absolutely stolen the show in this movie. I realize they are CGI rendered characters only voiced by the actors, but they bring a lot of the fun to the movie. Michael Rooker plays Michael Rooker in blue make up as Yondu, but he's good enough as that as well.
A certain mad titan may or may not make his film debut in this movie, and it may or may not be absolutely glorious (wink, wink).
The Bad: I often have a hard time being overly critical about a film after my first viewing. It often takes me a while to digest the information and really think about which things I have issues with. With this film my issues became a little more apparent initially.
My biggest problem is the way Gunn, his partner in writing the film Nicole Perlman, and Saldana chose to bring Gamora to the screen. In her history Gamora is the adopted daughter of a certain Mad Titan, and she is quite powerful. With superhuman agility, healing, and superhuman strength to boot she was trained by Thanos to be one of the more gifted warriors in the galaxy. With that history in mind it was quite disheartening to see her portrayed as incompetent at times, and as love fodder for Quill. Now it's not terrible, but when you give your warrior princess character dialogue that explicitly states "I am no helpless waif...." you should probably have the character live up to that on screen. It's safe to say that there will be several sequels to develop this character and I hope to see her become more of a brooding bad ass warrior in the future.
I also had a bit of an issue with Lee Pace's Ronan the Accuser and Karen Gillan's Nebula who went to the "bad guys are bad because they are bad school". Meaning they had enough motivation, that we learned about through exposition, but they were rather flat characters outside of that. They are good enough in their perspective roles; however, I feel like this movie was trying to accomplish a little too much to flesh out these characters. That said they still weren't on the crap level of marble mouth and "Batman Forever Electro" from "The Amazing Spider-man 2" but there is really nothing that stands out otherwise.
The Ugly: We have to wait three years to get the next installment of this wonderful movie!
The Verdict: Disney/Marvel has hit a home run with this out of left field film property. This film doesn't have a ton of exposition and the they get through a lot of it rather ingeniously. The humor and the action are top notch, which has come to be a common expectation from these Marvel releases. "Guardians of the Galaxy" is this summer's must-see, and it is accommodating to those that may have not seen other Marvel movies because it does not really tie-in to the other films at this point. The only real thread to the greater Marvel universe is a certain mad titan that made a post-credit cameo in "The Avengers".
That is all for today I will be back as soon as I can to talk about comic-con news, but get out Friday and see "Guardians". I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Saturday, July 5, 2014
These things I think....film & page edition
Hello and welcome!
I have a lot I'd like to cover since I've been gone for quite some time.
First..... Lots of different news items in the last couple of months about WB's big "Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice". Jason Momoa was cast as the trident wielding Aquaman which makes for an interesting choice just from the basic look. While Arthur has typically been a blonde fella Momoa is definitively not that with a more exotic look. I'm excited for the casting, but I hope that they do not take too many liberties with the core story of the character. There have also been recent set shots of Henry Cavill in Clark Kent garb, and a studio shot of him in front of what appears to be Gotham city. Lot of little tidbits, but no main encore at this point. Newsworthy, to this blogger at least, is that director Zach Snyder has stated he has no interest in delving into Batman's origins. I'm happy that someone has finally had the courage to say "hey everybody knows the story of the god damned Batman if not they have the internet". While I have my concerns about this project I'm excited to see what a polished, grizzled, war-worn Batman looks like. The additions of the Bat-family will really open up the WB cinematic universe to ample opportunities for new film ventures.
Second.... The scoundrels over at Latino Review have a juicy rumor about the finale of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" with regards to Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. I won't go in to spoiler territory, but suffice to say it would make for a very interesting Hulk solo film. I quite enjoyed "The Incredible Hulk" and I think it is criminally underrated in it's place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I attribute this to the fact that Edward Norton was shown the door and the role was recast for the first team-up masterstroke. As with all Latino Review news I wouldn't put money on it's voracity, but it makes for interesting conversation.
Third... A short time ago on a movie set not so far away Harrison Ford broke his leg while filming the highly anticipated "Star Wars: Episode VII: The Search for more Money." I'm clearly a Ford fan from my "Indiana Jones" hero worship, but I have to say I think the poor guy is snake bit (pun so not intended). Seems like every movie that requires action ends up with the poor guy in traction, or he gets sick on location during the filming. The early word was that the injury would possibly delay the project again, but it appears that JJ Abrams and crew are going to try to work around and get some other things done while Ford is out. Early reports are that Han Solo will be a main focus in this first entry into the new trilogy.
Fourth..... On the page there are a lot of interesting things going on. At Marvel the big hit, in this blogger's opinion, is "Original Sin". Written by Jason Aaron this epic focuses on the impacts on the Marvel universe after the Watcher is murdered and someone uses his eye to release a plethora of deep, dark secrets. After several big event outings with Brian Michael Bendis Marvel gave the keys to Aaron and so far he has hit a home run. He has introduced new and unheard of pairings (Doctor Strange and the Punisher for example) and put them in otherworldly settings to investigate the Watcher's death. Aaron's wit and respect for the history of the Marvel library comes through in his work. For instance, during one tense interrogation scene (with Hulk & Wolverine as the interrogators) the subject asks "what is this the good cop bad cop routine?" To which Logan replies "More like the Stab Cop Smash Cop routine". Lots of good nuggets like that and other new editions to the canon make it a totally worthwhile read.
A lot more hit and miss with DC as production issues delayed the "Nightwing" and "Forever Evil" finales to the point that they started spoiling the ending to their own event in a sneak preview of the stellar first issue of the Johns/Romita Jr./Janson "Superman". Bleeding Cool ran the original edition of the final "Nightwing" in an art only form and I found it to be superior to the finale they ended up going with even with no dialogue. As I said "Superman" was pretty awesome out of the gate, but I always have to approach the big, blue, boyscout with cautious optimism because his success doesn't seem to last. Scott Snyder is winding down his "Zero Year" opus before Batman is kicked five years into the future in conjunction with "Future's End". I'd like to read "Batman Eternal" and "Future's End" but there is no way I'm buying a weekly comic. It would be really awesome to see Snyder add on to another Frank Miller work with a supplement to the "Dark Knight Returns" (much like "Zero Year" is an addition to the phenomenal "Batman: Year One"), but I imagine that is wishful thinking at this point.
Finally..... Lot of great things going on now for comic fans! Pretty soon "Arrow" will return to the small screen along with "Constantine", "Flash", "iZombie", and "Gotham". Not to mention "Marvel Agents of SHIELD" season two, and the first season of "Agent Carter" as well. We also have two more summer blockbuster releases with "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" set for August releases. We are living in an unprecedented era for comics and related media and I encourage you dear reader to live it up to the fullest.
Thanks for reading and I will catch you next time at The Comic Shop!
I have a lot I'd like to cover since I've been gone for quite some time.
First..... Lots of different news items in the last couple of months about WB's big "Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice". Jason Momoa was cast as the trident wielding Aquaman which makes for an interesting choice just from the basic look. While Arthur has typically been a blonde fella Momoa is definitively not that with a more exotic look. I'm excited for the casting, but I hope that they do not take too many liberties with the core story of the character. There have also been recent set shots of Henry Cavill in Clark Kent garb, and a studio shot of him in front of what appears to be Gotham city. Lot of little tidbits, but no main encore at this point. Newsworthy, to this blogger at least, is that director Zach Snyder has stated he has no interest in delving into Batman's origins. I'm happy that someone has finally had the courage to say "hey everybody knows the story of the god damned Batman if not they have the internet". While I have my concerns about this project I'm excited to see what a polished, grizzled, war-worn Batman looks like. The additions of the Bat-family will really open up the WB cinematic universe to ample opportunities for new film ventures.
Second.... The scoundrels over at Latino Review have a juicy rumor about the finale of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" with regards to Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. I won't go in to spoiler territory, but suffice to say it would make for a very interesting Hulk solo film. I quite enjoyed "The Incredible Hulk" and I think it is criminally underrated in it's place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I attribute this to the fact that Edward Norton was shown the door and the role was recast for the first team-up masterstroke. As with all Latino Review news I wouldn't put money on it's voracity, but it makes for interesting conversation.
Third... A short time ago on a movie set not so far away Harrison Ford broke his leg while filming the highly anticipated "Star Wars: Episode VII: The Search for more Money." I'm clearly a Ford fan from my "Indiana Jones" hero worship, but I have to say I think the poor guy is snake bit (pun so not intended). Seems like every movie that requires action ends up with the poor guy in traction, or he gets sick on location during the filming. The early word was that the injury would possibly delay the project again, but it appears that JJ Abrams and crew are going to try to work around and get some other things done while Ford is out. Early reports are that Han Solo will be a main focus in this first entry into the new trilogy.
Fourth..... On the page there are a lot of interesting things going on. At Marvel the big hit, in this blogger's opinion, is "Original Sin". Written by Jason Aaron this epic focuses on the impacts on the Marvel universe after the Watcher is murdered and someone uses his eye to release a plethora of deep, dark secrets. After several big event outings with Brian Michael Bendis Marvel gave the keys to Aaron and so far he has hit a home run. He has introduced new and unheard of pairings (Doctor Strange and the Punisher for example) and put them in otherworldly settings to investigate the Watcher's death. Aaron's wit and respect for the history of the Marvel library comes through in his work. For instance, during one tense interrogation scene (with Hulk & Wolverine as the interrogators) the subject asks "what is this the good cop bad cop routine?" To which Logan replies "More like the Stab Cop Smash Cop routine". Lots of good nuggets like that and other new editions to the canon make it a totally worthwhile read.
A lot more hit and miss with DC as production issues delayed the "Nightwing" and "Forever Evil" finales to the point that they started spoiling the ending to their own event in a sneak preview of the stellar first issue of the Johns/Romita Jr./Janson "Superman". Bleeding Cool ran the original edition of the final "Nightwing" in an art only form and I found it to be superior to the finale they ended up going with even with no dialogue. As I said "Superman" was pretty awesome out of the gate, but I always have to approach the big, blue, boyscout with cautious optimism because his success doesn't seem to last. Scott Snyder is winding down his "Zero Year" opus before Batman is kicked five years into the future in conjunction with "Future's End". I'd like to read "Batman Eternal" and "Future's End" but there is no way I'm buying a weekly comic. It would be really awesome to see Snyder add on to another Frank Miller work with a supplement to the "Dark Knight Returns" (much like "Zero Year" is an addition to the phenomenal "Batman: Year One"), but I imagine that is wishful thinking at this point.
Finally..... Lot of great things going on now for comic fans! Pretty soon "Arrow" will return to the small screen along with "Constantine", "Flash", "iZombie", and "Gotham". Not to mention "Marvel Agents of SHIELD" season two, and the first season of "Agent Carter" as well. We also have two more summer blockbuster releases with "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" set for August releases. We are living in an unprecedented era for comics and related media and I encourage you dear reader to live it up to the fullest.
Thanks for reading and I will catch you next time at The Comic Shop!
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