Hello and welcome to The Comic Shop Blog!
It has been awhile, but I had the rare opportunity to sit down and get some thoughts out. So here we go!
First - Nothing has changed as of right now with me personally. I will be working 7 days a week for the foreseeable future, and budgeting to the point where buying comics weekly is not an option anymore. I had started to download select ones from the Pirates Bay; however, I no longer have time for that.
Second - The fall superhero tv shows are all back and running so make sure you are supporting your specific fandoms! I am making sure to watch "Flash" & "Arrow" as those are the two that enjoy most. I will be checking out "Jessica Jones" on Netflix in November, and waiting anxiously for the return of the best superhero show "Daredevil" in April or May.
Third - (Belated reviews in brief)
I have to start off by saying that Summer of '15 was disappointing for me superhero movie-wise. My favorite movies I saw overall were "Mad Max: Fury Road" & "Straight Outta Compton". "Black Mass" was quite good as well, and marked a return to some sanity for Johnny Depp's acting career.
"Avengers: Age of Ultron" was good, but I have to say that I expected more from the second go around, and maybe I set the bar too high. The glaring hole with most of these Marvel movies is that they rely on humor & not much else. After watching them several times it becomes like sitting next to your uncle on the couch as he elbows you until you half-laugh at the same joke he's told you a thousand times. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is my favorite Marvel movie because it actually has some subtext and gravitas to the events that transpire instead of spending much of the movie setting up elaborate sequences to make with the hardy har har. I am looking forward to "Civil War" as it seems to be the same type of movie from the outset as there will be serious repercussions from what happens. My review in the afterglow of watching AoU was probably more favorable; however, time and thinking about the movie have altered my opinion.
Fantastic Four - I'll start off by saying this I wanted to like this movie. I loved Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Josh Trank in other projects so I wanted this to be a great movie. I was sanctimonious about the bold casting choices because I wanted it to be a new era in superhero movies. Truth be told though if it were Jayden Smith and not MBJ I'd be on the side with the pitchforks and torches. Thankfully a bad superhero movie does not destroy a promising career (just ask Oscar winners George Clooney or Ben Affleck). Trank is probably done with anything big budget though as reports are that he wrapped filming without and ending and was difficult to work with in general.
There were things that I really liked about FF, but they were few and far between. I appreciated that the attempt was made to make this a horrifying experience for the inter-dimensional travelers in stark juxtaposition to other superhero movies where someone is automatically thrilled with a dramatic change in body chemistry. It was a film that attempted nobly to above all else not insult the audience's intelligence with the same trite good vs. evil story. This movie was more about the journey into heroism and the physical & mental pains to grow into something more than they were in the first act of the film.
All that said it was a bad movie with a rushed ending, and it was painfully apparent that the intention was to set up a sequel/universe with little regard to making a quality standalone film.
What happens now? I would hope to see a smart business decision between Fox & Disney in which Fox offers the valuable rights to FF, Doctor Doom, the Skrulls, & Galactus (villains that the MCU is in dire need of) for the rights from Marvel to create the X-Men tv show that Fox wants to put together. I think that would be a win-win scenario if there ever was one.
Ant-Man - I am of really mixed opinions about this film. There were things that I absolutely loved & things that I rolled my eyes at. I think Marvel specifically made this movie to accomplish two side goals. The first was to establish that the hero is not always the same person (in this film Hank Pym was in fact the first Ant-Man, but the mantle passed on) they did this because many of their more high profile Avengers' contracts are about to be up. So Tony Stark may be IronMan today, but it doesn't always have to be that way or we could see Sam Wilson or Bucky Barnes may pick up the shield of Captain America. It was smart and sublte of them to introduce this concept to their audience, and it will make the heroic transitions down the road a lot more easy. The second underlying goal I think was to bring shrink the size of the action. We've seen city, dimensional and worldly destruction time and time again in these movies, but this one climaxes in Scott Lang's daughter's bedroom.
Overall, I really enjoyed the performances of Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, & Michael Douglas. I thought Douglas especially shone as the conflicted & regretful Pym. Rudd fulfilled the lead Marvel smartass with great efficiency.
I did not enjoy the villain-of-the-week-evil-businessman-who-is-evil that has become a crutch for Marvel movies. Corey Stoll was a mustache away from being a mustache twirling bad guy, and it was just 50 shades of terrible. These two-dimensional villains are bringing down the quality of the Marvel movies and I would hope it will be something that they can fix in the future. I may have complained about the Raimi Spider-villains, but at least they were interesting! This is just boredom and suck incarnate.
I liked it overall though so I'd definitely watch it again. 4/5
I think that is all for today so thank you for reading. I will be back when I have more to talk about or share, but I can't honestly say how long it will be.
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