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The Curse of Three
The Curse of Three
aka Why is the Third Superhero Movie the Worst?
Sequels have long been a sure sign of a bad movie. Take an existing popular movie, try it again and see lightning strikes twice. Most of the time it didn’t. Then somewhere along the line, maybe in the late 80’s early 90’s, filmmakers started making sequels that lived up to the original’s expectations. Or oftentimes in the case of superhero movies, exceeded them. Especially in superhero movies, once the origin story is out of the way, the sequel is the best place to get a good action filled story in. But then something else happened, it started with Superman III. Where the sequel was as good as the original, the third movie went way downhill in terms of plot, action, and just overall quality. Is it a curse, often times it doesn’t matter whether the third movie has a bigger budget or a smaller budget, the same people behind the scenes or new ones, they almost always end in crap. Is it a curse, and can it be broken?
Will a Superhero Movie Ever Win an Oscar?
aka Will a Superhero Movie Ever Win (another) (non-technical) Oscar?
The Superhero Movie has never really been thought of as Oscar material, it’s simple, light material without any depth or expert filmmaking involved. It’s easy to poke fun at a superhero movie because there are so many that win Razzies rather than Oscars, like Catwoman. But filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Bryan Singer can elevate typical superhero fare to something much more great. In fact, The Incredibles is the only superhero movie to win an award, but in the smaller animated category, Christopher Nolan is the only one out there that brought a non-technical win for Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight in a live action movie, though several years earlier Warren Beatty brought on a nomination for Al Pacino in his comic strip adaptation of Dick Tracy.
What ifs! What if you could pair up any two superheroes?
Crossover event, superpowered team up, whatever you want to call it, it’s usually an interesting thing to see two superheroes who normally would never exist next to each other suddenly team up to battle a common foe. Do you choose two heroes who are polar opposites to see how difficult it would be for them to work together like say Lobo and Captain America, or would you pick a more natural pairing that would compliment each other nicely like maybe Mr. Fantastic and Plastic Man. Personally, I think there could be a lot of fun interaction between Hellboy and Spider-Man, that would be a really odd team-up but could make for some very unique situations. So who do you think would make a good match? Anything is fair game, DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, from movies or only in comics, and anything in between.
Is Luke Skywalker a Superhero?
AKA: Are Sci-Fi Heroes Superheroes?
I was originally going to call this “Is Neo a Superhero?” since I had just watched The Matrix, but decided to go with a bigger name. Technically all superhero movies, except for some of the ultra-realistic ones, can be lumped into the broad “sci-fi” category, since people with super powers or aliens with super powers who look like people are technically science fiction. But the narrower definition of science fiction implies that it takes place in the future, or at least in a distant galaxy with more advanced technology than us, and most superhero movies take place in the present, or in the near future. But in true sci-fi, like the Matrix or Star Wars, there’s often a single hero who has special abilities that set him apart from the rest of the population. Skywalker is strong with the Force, and Neo is the One. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone refer to Star Wars as a superhero movie.
Is Blade really a superhero?
AKA are Vampire/Witch/etc hunters superheroes?
With Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters out this past weekend, I’ve been thinking about the role of the supernatural hunter in the superhero genre. The obvious example in favor of the argument is Blade. He’s part of the Marvel Universe right alongside Spider-Man and Iron Man, and yet if you look specifically at the movies, they’re pretty much straight up vampire hunter movies, without a trace of superhero in them. And for the purposes of this post, I’ll be lumping together vampires, werewolves, demons, and witches under the term supernatural hunter, since many of them follow the same kind of formula. So where does that leave other supernatural hunters in movies like Ultraviolet, Underworld, Vampire Hunter D, or even Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters? That’s what I’d like to figure out.
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Thanks for a wonderful 2012
Like many people, the holiday season has kept me busy, and away from the television for the most part. I’m currently taking in all of Watchmen for a hopefully epic post in the near future. I watched the theatrical version, and Tales from the Black Freighter, and plan to watch Under the Hood and hopefully the Ultimate Cut and some more special features before writing my post on it. But for now, I’ll join everyone else in taking a look back at what 2012 has brought me.
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Twas the tweet before X-mas
I thought I’d take a quick moment to celebrate the season, no I haven’t watched Elf-man yet, but I did take the classic poem and update it a bit. I originally posted it on Twitter, but thought I’d post it here too to share with everyone. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring except the click of the mouse.
The stockings were hung by the big screen with care,
if not by the chimney then I don’t know where.
Words without pictures: A Superhero novel
Infinite Crisis by Greg Cox
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve moved to the Chicago area and am now facing an hour’s train ride each way to work. To my surprise, my sister is a moderate fan of superheroes as well and she lent me her copy of Infinite Crisis: A Novel to read. I was familiar with the storyline and the previous event Crisis on Infinite Earths in name only. This is the first superhero novel I’ve ever read. When I was in my teens/early twenties I read a ton of fantasy books, mainly all of the Forgotten Realms series that was published at the time, as well as the Weis/Hickman written Dragonlance novels and Robert Jordan’s massive Wheel of Time series. One of the things I noticed fairly early on is how much is lost without visuals. Comic books and superheroes are very much a visual medium. And I understand that fantasy can be very visual as well, but for some reason reading about superheroes without the visuals to back it up felt a lot more silly to me. Especially when you get to the fact that this novel covers a huge crossover comics event that features literally hundreds of heroes and villains and has about a dozen main characters. And on top of that, seeing Batman survive being strangled by some superhuman villain is one thing, but reading several times how he’s only surviving because of his armored neckpiece just sits the wrong way with me. But aside from a few qualms, I generally enjoyed it.
Where I’ve been
As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty absent for the past couple weeks. That’s because I’ve moved. It’s not a huge move, but I did cross state lines, going from near one big city to near an even bigger city. I’ve gone from just south of Indianapolis to the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. My job is still the same, though I’m not only working an extra 5-10 hours a week, but also my travel time has increased to 12 hours a week (up from just over 1 hour), this will actually be a help to this blog… when I actually get a laptop that works because I can watch movies and write reviews during my ride, but that’s not for a little while yet. So things will likely remain slow for a while until my work smooths over or I get a new laptop. My original goal of reviewing 100 movies this first year is very close and I’m not letting that fall by the wayside. So keep an eye out and things will hopefully soon get back to normal. And by the way, be sure to check out As You Watch Podcast episode 7, where Nick, Joe, and Vern bring in Andrew and Sarah from Two Tickets For… to sub for me as they talk about Woody Allen’s Match Point. Check it out, leave some feedback. They’re calling it the best episode ever, I’m not sure what that says about me 😉 Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 
Special Features, do you still watch them?
Dec 1
Posted by Bubbawheat
I remember when I first started getting into DVDs. I was never very much a VHS collector. When I was in college, I had a massive collection of 10 VHSs. My DVD collection numbers well over 1,000. If I can remember well enough, my VHS collection consisted of: Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Seven, Disturbing Behavior, The Nine Inch Nails music video collection, The Game, and a couple others I don’t remember. But when I first got my Fight Club DVD (I also remember at the time that the DVD came about a full 9 months or so before the VHS was due out) one of the things that intrigued me was the four commentaries and a full second disc of special features. I watched at least 3 out of 4 of the commentaries, and I quite possibly watched them all, I also explored most of the special features on the bonus disc. And from the very start, I was hooked. If there was a choice between a single disc release and a two disc release, I went with the extra special features. I own the 3 disc Hellboy: Director’s Cut, the 3 disc Sin City, all three of the four disc extended Lord of the Rings movies, the ultimate Matrix box set with a full 3 discs of special features… which brings me to the point of this post.
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Tags: Blog, commentary tracks, discussion, movies, special features