Author Archives: Bubbawheat

The Powerpuff Girls Movie

The Powerpuff Girls Movie 2002

As Father’s Day was winding down, I decided that I wanted to watch a movie with my daughter that we could both enjoy. I’m sure most people who grew up in the 90’s remember Cartoon Network’s lineup including Genndy Tartakovsky’s Dexter’s Laboratory and Craig McCracken’s Powerpuff Girls. What you may not know is that in 2002 they went back and created an origin story which they showed in theaters. It’s not too surprising as it came out the same day as Men in Black II and was largely forgotten, though it has often been shown on the channel since then. It’s sugar, spice, and everything nice, with a little dash of Mojo Jojo mixed in for good measure. It’s a lot of fun, and irreverent even though there’s not a whole lot of depth to it.
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Filmwhys Extra #10: Women in Superhero Movies

Welcome to another episode of Filmwhys Extra, the show between my regular episodes of Filmwhys where I don’t talk about two different movies with a guest, but instead have an interview, a roundtable discussion on a film related topic, or something else entirely. This episode I discussed the general concept of women in superhero movies. Why there are so few, if anything has been moving towards change, and what might happen in the future. My guest this time around is Mirella Snape from Yam Mag.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – The Originals

I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. I’ve looked at plenty of movies that came from DC and Marvel, but there have been quite a few superhero movies that came from original creations made specifically for the movie that weren’t just parodies of other superheroes and it’s high time to honor some of them.
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The Amazing Cynicalman

The Amazing Cynicalman 2012

One of the joys I’ve come to find in running this site over the years is finding these little known indie superhero movies, whether they are fan films, short films, or a feature length film. So a couple weeks ago I stumbled across a listing for a movie called Cynicalman that I had never heard of and had come out a couple years ago. Looking it up, I found that it was a self-funded movie based around a web comic called Cynicalman, so I took a shot and sent an e-mail requesting a screener for review. Based on the trailer, I thought it looked like an ultra-low budget, cheesy, fun movie with bad acting, but obviously made with a lot of heart, and that’s exactly what I got. There won’t be any awards for acting, directing, cinematography, or sound editing here, but it was definitely made with a lot of heart and has some genuinely funny moments in it, which is helpful because it’s a comedy. If you would like to know more about the movie and pick yourself up a copy, be sure to check out his site for yourself.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! Daredevil

Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 15-20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. But I didn’t want them to have all the fun so today I will be defending the case for Daredevil, the much maligned outing where Ben Affleck plays a blind guy in red leather.
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Filmwhys #30: The Thing and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

It’s time once again for another episode of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Lackey from The Nightmare Gallery who asks me why I haven’t seen John Carpenter’s The Thing from 1982 which is a marvel of practical creature effects, tension, and paranoia set in the Antarctic wastes. And in return I ask him why he hasn’t seen Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Edgar Wright’s homage to video games, anime, and comic books as Michael Cera battles seven evil exes in order to win the heart of Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – Animation

I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. Aside from being a fan of superhero movies, I’m also a big fan of animation and there are plenty of essential animated movies besides the handful that came out theatrically there’s also plenty of great entries in the straight-to-DVD category. Of course there are some that I’ve already covered in other categories so I’ll only be looking at those I’ve yet to mention.
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The Phantom

The Phantom 1996

I vaguely remember when this movie was coming out back in 96. It was during that second comparatively small wave of superhero movies after Tim Burton’s Batman, and when the movies were still trying to stay true to the look of the comic book heroes but not always everything else, and while there was a minor change to the Phantom’s typical striped shorts making them solid purple it looked almost exactly like how the Phantom looks in the comic books, and in my opinion it looked completely ridiculous, and purple is my favorite color. While it’s billed as a superhero movie, it plays much more like a much lesser Indiana Jones adventure movie as it is set in the late 30’s, takes place mostly in the jungle, and they are even going after some skulls with crystals in them. I remember hearing about how bad of a movie this is, but it ended up being a lot more fun than I expected. It’s quite cheesy at times and has plenty of silly dialogue and plot elements, but I went in expecting a flop and came up with a halfway decent pulp adventure.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! Swamp Thing

Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 15-20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. But I didn’t want them to have all the fun so today I will be defending the case for the 80’s DC pseudo-horror movie Swamp Thing directed by none other than Wes Craven.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies

After running this site for a few years where I have been trying to seek out, watch, and review every superhero and comic book movie that I can find, I decided that I wanted to make a definitive list of superhero movies that captured the essence of the range of superhero movies. Going through the decades and choosing the most influential, the biggest disasters, and simply the best superhero movies out there I hope to try and capture what I like to call the 100 Essential Superhero Movies. If you are a fan of superhero movies at all, these are the first ones that you should seek out. Not all of them are great, but when studying history it pays to not just look at the successes, but to also look at the failures. Also, as this list is being made in 2014, this only includes movies made through 2013.
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