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!
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
"SNIKT" "SNIKT" super short "X-men: Days of Future Past Review" (Spoilers)
Hey gang welcome to an abbreviated edition of The Comic Shop! Trying to write this while my son is sleeping so forgive me if I'm a little unorganized in my thoughts. I would like to address a lot of things on the page and coming to the screen, but that will have to wait for another day.
To get me out of the house my wife had me go see "DOFP" with a friend, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the finished product of this film. Things that at the outset that I thought I would hate like Evan Peters' Quicksilver were actually pretty entertaining. His prison break scene was one of thing that stole the show for sure. I continue to be in absolute man-love with Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Casting does not get much better than that, and as much as I've rallied against X-men solo movies I would plunk down $10 to watch Fassbender play Magneto all by his lonesome.
I would like to give credit to the director of this film, but I'm going to hedge on that because he has some serious pending legal troubles that I'd like to see pan out before heaping praise upon him.
While this was by no means a faithful adaptation of the source material it was an entertaining and fun journey that served the absolute purpose of making "X-men: The Last Stand" a distant memory. Kudos for Fox and company wiping the Ratner off of their rug, and having one of the biggest Memorial Day openings in history.
While I'm usually a J. Law fan I kind of got the feeling that this was a paycheck job for her. She didn't seem too enthused in doing anything other than delivering lines. I could be wrong, but we all know that she has other aspirations that do not involve wearing blue body paint and pasties.
Otherwise McAvoy and Jackman really carried the film with emotion and range. There was a TON of character development for Xavier in this film even though it was character development in reverse.
I would recommend this movie because it is that good, and it is that entertaining.
That's all for now...check me out next time at The Comic Shop!
To get me out of the house my wife had me go see "DOFP" with a friend, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the finished product of this film. Things that at the outset that I thought I would hate like Evan Peters' Quicksilver were actually pretty entertaining. His prison break scene was one of thing that stole the show for sure. I continue to be in absolute man-love with Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Casting does not get much better than that, and as much as I've rallied against X-men solo movies I would plunk down $10 to watch Fassbender play Magneto all by his lonesome.
I would like to give credit to the director of this film, but I'm going to hedge on that because he has some serious pending legal troubles that I'd like to see pan out before heaping praise upon him.
While this was by no means a faithful adaptation of the source material it was an entertaining and fun journey that served the absolute purpose of making "X-men: The Last Stand" a distant memory. Kudos for Fox and company wiping the Ratner off of their rug, and having one of the biggest Memorial Day openings in history.
While I'm usually a J. Law fan I kind of got the feeling that this was a paycheck job for her. She didn't seem too enthused in doing anything other than delivering lines. I could be wrong, but we all know that she has other aspirations that do not involve wearing blue body paint and pasties.
Otherwise McAvoy and Jackman really carried the film with emotion and range. There was a TON of character development for Xavier in this film even though it was character development in reverse.
I would recommend this movie because it is that good, and it is that entertaining.
That's all for now...check me out next time at The Comic Shop!
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Spoilery "Amazing Spider-man 2" review
Hello & Welcome to a surprise entry to my blog! No baby yet equals lots of nervous energy for your humble blogger. In the interest of brevity I'm going to keep this review to three distinct classifications: the good, the bad, & the ugly.
The Good: The lead acting in "ASM 2" is spectacular (beware there are puns a plenty coming). While I had my qualms with Garfield's "Spidey Humor" in the first go round, I found him to be more of an asshole than charming, he absolutely nails it in this go round with the character. His delivery is top notch & shows some comedic flair. His chemistry with Emma Stone is one of the more endearing facets of the movie, but it unfortunately is not something to look forward to in future installments.
I also quite enjoyed the overall tone of the movie which shed some of the darkness from the original, & some of last summer's entries into the superhero movie genre. It was light, hopeful, & has the humor and color that seems to be lost by some Hollywood studios.
The Bad: You should know this already but the "dumb Aunt May" routine was a distraction and undermined everything they tried to accomplish with Sally Field's take on the maternal figure. I also never really "bought in" to the whole Parker's parents mystery. I know it was taken from the comics, but the dead parent angle has been done to, well, death in superhero movies. I'm hoping this is the last we see of the Parker parents. The final bad for me is that Gwen's death would've been more powerful, poignant, & tragic if it had occurred like the comic from the bridge. In this instance with the added twist of having the "I love you" webbing still in play. I didn't not care for a central figure like Gwen being killed by a hailstorm of CGI sprockets & clock parts.
The Ugly: The worst parts of the film for me were the ham-fisted portrayals of Electro & Rhino by Jaime Foxx & Paul Giamatti respectively. Foxx's "Max" was a spot on copy of Michelle Pfeifer's Selina Kyle & Jim Carrey's Edward Nigma. Excessively cliched characters who may as well have had no dialogue & just walked around with a "loser" sandwich board hanging around their necks. Then they have their inciting event & they are all the sudden cool yet crazy. It's mind numbingly predictable, & really just a waste of everyone's time. Foxx's Electro was not much better, but it was not bad enough to stick out. I put Giamatti here because his "Russian accent" is less discernible than asthmatic despot Bane's mechanical voice. The final "ugly" has to be the marketing of this film. Wanna see the Rhino in "ASM 2" just watch the commercials, wanna see Chris Cooper watch the trailer, wanna see major plot points watch the commercials, & so on. It is embarrassing Sony had such little faith in this movie that they gave away much of the $7,$8,$9,$10 ticket price for free on television. The box office may end up being the final "ugly" for the underrated web slinging affair.
I can't rate Dane DeHaan or Chris Cooper for this. I'm not crazy about the choices they've made with the Osborn crew, but I'm willing to give them another chance.
That's all for now! I hit over 1,000 page views this week so I'd like to thank everyone that's come to see what I have to say! Thank you all! See you next time at The Comic Shop!
The Good: The lead acting in "ASM 2" is spectacular (beware there are puns a plenty coming). While I had my qualms with Garfield's "Spidey Humor" in the first go round, I found him to be more of an asshole than charming, he absolutely nails it in this go round with the character. His delivery is top notch & shows some comedic flair. His chemistry with Emma Stone is one of the more endearing facets of the movie, but it unfortunately is not something to look forward to in future installments.
I also quite enjoyed the overall tone of the movie which shed some of the darkness from the original, & some of last summer's entries into the superhero movie genre. It was light, hopeful, & has the humor and color that seems to be lost by some Hollywood studios.
The Bad: You should know this already but the "dumb Aunt May" routine was a distraction and undermined everything they tried to accomplish with Sally Field's take on the maternal figure. I also never really "bought in" to the whole Parker's parents mystery. I know it was taken from the comics, but the dead parent angle has been done to, well, death in superhero movies. I'm hoping this is the last we see of the Parker parents. The final bad for me is that Gwen's death would've been more powerful, poignant, & tragic if it had occurred like the comic from the bridge. In this instance with the added twist of having the "I love you" webbing still in play. I didn't not care for a central figure like Gwen being killed by a hailstorm of CGI sprockets & clock parts.
The Ugly: The worst parts of the film for me were the ham-fisted portrayals of Electro & Rhino by Jaime Foxx & Paul Giamatti respectively. Foxx's "Max" was a spot on copy of Michelle Pfeifer's Selina Kyle & Jim Carrey's Edward Nigma. Excessively cliched characters who may as well have had no dialogue & just walked around with a "loser" sandwich board hanging around their necks. Then they have their inciting event & they are all the sudden cool yet crazy. It's mind numbingly predictable, & really just a waste of everyone's time. Foxx's Electro was not much better, but it was not bad enough to stick out. I put Giamatti here because his "Russian accent" is less discernible than asthmatic despot Bane's mechanical voice. The final "ugly" has to be the marketing of this film. Wanna see the Rhino in "ASM 2" just watch the commercials, wanna see Chris Cooper watch the trailer, wanna see major plot points watch the commercials, & so on. It is embarrassing Sony had such little faith in this movie that they gave away much of the $7,$8,$9,$10 ticket price for free on television. The box office may end up being the final "ugly" for the underrated web slinging affair.
I can't rate Dane DeHaan or Chris Cooper for this. I'm not crazy about the choices they've made with the Osborn crew, but I'm willing to give them another chance.
That's all for now! I hit over 1,000 page views this week so I'd like to thank everyone that's come to see what I have to say! Thank you all! See you next time at The Comic Shop!
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Sabbatical
Baby Leffler is due sometime in the next 4 weeks, so I will be spending my time preparing for his arrival. I appreciate everyone that has read what I have to say and I assure I will return!
Thank you for reading!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
New Comics 04/16 & other news.....
Hello and Welcome to the 04/16/14 edition of The Comic Shop Blog!
First....
Due to budget concerns connected to the impending birth of Little Leffler I was only able to pick up two titles this week. I had to choose wisely so I went with Scott Snyder's "Batman" and the final issue of Dan Slott's "Superior Spider-man".
I have made my concerns with the current Zero Year storyline very clear in one of my recent posts. Overall, I have been quite fatigued with the pace of this story and it's overall length. That said the first chapter of the Zero Year finale reengaged me in the series. Finally getting to the "boss level" per se gives this issue a downhill running start, and makes it more engaging to me as a reader. I would definitely recommend picking up this issue.
I have been a real fan of the "Superior Spider-man" storyline from the very beginning. I am very disappointed to see it go, but I think it was brought to it's natural conclusion. I will say I was a lot more emotionally invested in the events of issue #30, and issue #31 honestly fell a little flat at the end. Obviously I'm being very vague, but I certainly do not want to spoil the Superior happenings for anyone.
Second...
Couple of news items from Marc Webb's "Amazing Spider-man 2" today.
First, one of the initial reviews of the movie was not favorable likening the second entry to the "Batman and Robin" of the Spider-man franchise. One of the main sticking points for the reviewer was the corny humor which I have expressed my own concerns about with the "dumb Aunt May routine" that we have seen in the tv spots. While reviews are a subjective prose it does send up a red alert when the early ones are not favorable from a nerd friendly source like IGN.com. I will still see this movie, but thankfully there are such a thing as matinee prices.
Secondly, several news outlets are reporting that there will be an "X-men: Days of Future Past" stinger at the end of "Amazing Spider-man 2". This isn't due to any intellectual property sharing between the studios, but because Fox allowed Marc Webb to do this follow-up instead of "500 Days of Summer 2".
Third.....
It's been a couple of weeks now, but as the Indy fan that I am I would be remiss to not address the rumors surrounding the future of that character. Several media outlets reported a few weeks ago that Disney would be interested in casting hollywood favorite Bradley Cooper in the title role for future installments. The more I think about this possibility the more I am honestly open to it. I think that despite "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" being a huge disappointment it did bring Indy's story to a close.
Future film installments could borrow from the "Young Indiana Jones" television show and have an elder Indy (played by Ford in this version) recounting stories from his younger days to his grandchildren to set up the new adventure with Bradley Cooper. I think doing it this way would placate the Ford fans, and introduce Indy to a new generation. One thing I continually bitch about; however, is that I would hope that they use more practical effects in future Indy installments because they are what made the original trilogy so very special.
Fourth....
One news item and one rumor from Disney/Marvel's "Daredevil" Netflix series. The news item is that the studio confirmed that they do in fact own the rights to the Kingpin himself Wilson Fisk. I think it would be smart to start incorporating mentions of Fisk right away in the Marvel Cinematic and Television universe. He is a big baddie that the Marvel Universe is sorely lacking as we have seen heavyweights like the Mandarin and Red Skull be underutilized. Rumor-wise Michael C. Hall (my personal favorite for Matt Mordock/Daredevil and formerly the star of "Dexter") said that he would be open to starring in the first installment of the Netflix Defender's series. Hall has the physique and the acting chops to pull off Hornhead, and I would hope he would join the Avengers for future adventures.
Fifth..... "FOREVER EVIL SPOILERS"...................................................................................................................................................
So, post-Forever Evil the "Nightwing" title will be cancelled and replaced by a new ongoing called "Grayson". A news item this week confirmed that much like Bucky post "Fear Itself" the world will be left to believe that Dick Grayson is dead as he adjusts to his new life as a super spy. I am a long-time fan of Dick Grayson, and I have followed him from Robin to Nightwing to his time as Batman with much fanfare. I have a bit of trepidation about this move, but I am more than willing to give it a chance.
That's all for today! For you rasslin' fans check out my Wrestlemania XXX breakdown over at my new blog site Turnbuckleblog.blogspot.com! It will in all likelihood be a monthly publication because I invest a lot more of my time and energy into comics, but if that is something you are in to please be sure to check it out!
First....
Due to budget concerns connected to the impending birth of Little Leffler I was only able to pick up two titles this week. I had to choose wisely so I went with Scott Snyder's "Batman" and the final issue of Dan Slott's "Superior Spider-man".
I have made my concerns with the current Zero Year storyline very clear in one of my recent posts. Overall, I have been quite fatigued with the pace of this story and it's overall length. That said the first chapter of the Zero Year finale reengaged me in the series. Finally getting to the "boss level" per se gives this issue a downhill running start, and makes it more engaging to me as a reader. I would definitely recommend picking up this issue.
I have been a real fan of the "Superior Spider-man" storyline from the very beginning. I am very disappointed to see it go, but I think it was brought to it's natural conclusion. I will say I was a lot more emotionally invested in the events of issue #30, and issue #31 honestly fell a little flat at the end. Obviously I'm being very vague, but I certainly do not want to spoil the Superior happenings for anyone.
Second...
Couple of news items from Marc Webb's "Amazing Spider-man 2" today.
First, one of the initial reviews of the movie was not favorable likening the second entry to the "Batman and Robin" of the Spider-man franchise. One of the main sticking points for the reviewer was the corny humor which I have expressed my own concerns about with the "dumb Aunt May routine" that we have seen in the tv spots. While reviews are a subjective prose it does send up a red alert when the early ones are not favorable from a nerd friendly source like IGN.com. I will still see this movie, but thankfully there are such a thing as matinee prices.
Secondly, several news outlets are reporting that there will be an "X-men: Days of Future Past" stinger at the end of "Amazing Spider-man 2". This isn't due to any intellectual property sharing between the studios, but because Fox allowed Marc Webb to do this follow-up instead of "500 Days of Summer 2".
Third.....
It's been a couple of weeks now, but as the Indy fan that I am I would be remiss to not address the rumors surrounding the future of that character. Several media outlets reported a few weeks ago that Disney would be interested in casting hollywood favorite Bradley Cooper in the title role for future installments. The more I think about this possibility the more I am honestly open to it. I think that despite "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" being a huge disappointment it did bring Indy's story to a close.
Future film installments could borrow from the "Young Indiana Jones" television show and have an elder Indy (played by Ford in this version) recounting stories from his younger days to his grandchildren to set up the new adventure with Bradley Cooper. I think doing it this way would placate the Ford fans, and introduce Indy to a new generation. One thing I continually bitch about; however, is that I would hope that they use more practical effects in future Indy installments because they are what made the original trilogy so very special.
Fourth....
One news item and one rumor from Disney/Marvel's "Daredevil" Netflix series. The news item is that the studio confirmed that they do in fact own the rights to the Kingpin himself Wilson Fisk. I think it would be smart to start incorporating mentions of Fisk right away in the Marvel Cinematic and Television universe. He is a big baddie that the Marvel Universe is sorely lacking as we have seen heavyweights like the Mandarin and Red Skull be underutilized. Rumor-wise Michael C. Hall (my personal favorite for Matt Mordock/Daredevil and formerly the star of "Dexter") said that he would be open to starring in the first installment of the Netflix Defender's series. Hall has the physique and the acting chops to pull off Hornhead, and I would hope he would join the Avengers for future adventures.
Fifth..... "FOREVER EVIL SPOILERS"...................................................................................................................................................
So, post-Forever Evil the "Nightwing" title will be cancelled and replaced by a new ongoing called "Grayson". A news item this week confirmed that much like Bucky post "Fear Itself" the world will be left to believe that Dick Grayson is dead as he adjusts to his new life as a super spy. I am a long-time fan of Dick Grayson, and I have followed him from Robin to Nightwing to his time as Batman with much fanfare. I have a bit of trepidation about this move, but I am more than willing to give it a chance.
That's all for today! For you rasslin' fans check out my Wrestlemania XXX breakdown over at my new blog site Turnbuckleblog.blogspot.com! It will in all likelihood be a monthly publication because I invest a lot more of my time and energy into comics, but if that is something you are in to please be sure to check it out!
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