Category Archives: Marvel
Daredevil: Director’s Cut
Daredevil: Director’s Cut 2003
I was quite surprised when I heard the news of Michael Clark Duncan’s passing, so I did the only thing I could really think of to do my small part to honor his memory: watch one of his movies. And while Daredevil is near the bottom of the recent comic book movie heap, derided by many fans and movie lovers alike, and the director’s cut is widely hailed as the much improved version, if often grudgingly, that was the movie that I decided to watch. Ben Affleck was an interesting choice for the role of Daredevil, and I thought he did a passable job. The rest of the cast was pretty impressive too, with some small controversy about the race swap of the Kingpin. Or at least I remember it being a point of contention with at least one of my friends, who is a big comic book fan. I had no problem with it personally, I couldn’t think of a single white guy with the sheer mass to pull off the role as well as being able to act. I think the biggest fault of the movie is that it didn’t really have a singular tone. In some places it was very darkly serious, in others it was cheery and hopefully romantic, and in others it was over the top campy. Personally, I enjoyed almost every minute of it. I could see the faults of a bad film peeking through, but I looked past it into an enjoyable little flick.
Superhero Movie
Superhero Movie 2008
I was hoping that this would be the last bad movie I watched for a little while, but then Morgan from Morgan on Media pointed out this bizarre 80’s Australian superhero parody musical called the Return of Captain Invincible starring Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee, and after I looked up the trailer, it’s making me want to get back to some more classic cheesy superhero movies. At least after I watch Dick Tracy for our upcoming podcast, As You Watch. Which I should also mention that if you want to join in, I will gladly link any reviews to Dick Tracy so you can watch along with us, your deadline to get links in to me is Monday, August 27th. But back to today’s movie. I remember it being promoted as essentially a parody of all the superhero movies that were out at the time, though it primarily focused on the original Spider-Man movie, which was pretty dated even at the time considering that Spider-Man 3 came out before Superhero Movie. All of the other Superhero movie references are all just brief one-scene cameos, though the movie does stick with only parodying Marvel properties. I wasn’t much of a fan of the style of humor either, which basically consisted of playing a scene as close to Spider-Man as possible, then throwing in a sex/fart joke at the end.
Superhero Shorts: #DirtyLaundry
Superhero Shorts: #Dirty Laundry
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m pleased to say that I’m talking with Thomas Jane, who played the Punisher in the 2004 film, and reprised his role in a new short film created by his own production company Raw Studios. You can read our conversation below as usual, or for the first time, you can actually listen in. But first, you should check out the short film right below.
Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters, & Marvels
Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters, & Marvels 2002
After watching Confessions of a Superhero, I thought it would be a good idea to watch a couple more superhero themed documentaries, and since I actually own this one, I figured it was a no-brainer. It’s not a traditional documentary, in fact it’s almost more of a bonus disc to a non-specific movie. It was released right around the time Spider-Man came out in theaters, and the first part of the film is strictly about Spider-Man. It’s basically just director slash writer slash podcaster Kevin Smith, interviewing the father of Marvel comics, Stan Lee. As I mentioned, the first part of the interview is all about Spider-Man, and the second part covers pretty much the rest of his career. It’s quite interesting, as both Lee and Smith are both great speakers, even though it’s essentially just the two of them sitting down talking to each other for about an hour and a half.
Superhero Shorts: Death of Spider-Man
Death of Spider-Man Motion Comic
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Andrew Bates and Drew Lawson who came up with their own motion comic for Ultimate Spider-Man #158-160 written by Brian Bendis where Peter Parker dies. It’s very high quality both in terms of the animation as well as the voice work, it’s on par if not better than the few professional motion comics I’ve seen before. It’s a bit longer than many of the shorts I feature here with a runtime of just over 20 minutes, but it’s worth the watch.
Superhero Shorts: Disassembled
Superhero Shorts: Disassembled
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Junaid Chundrigar and his animated short film Disassembled. While the Avengers movie was all about how the heroes assembled together to form their team, this is what happens on a bad day when they get disassembled. It’s very Robot Chicken-esque with a bunch of very quick mini-scenes. And it’s not just the Avengers that were featured in the movie, it also features several other famous Marvel characters, many of whom I believe were also Avengers at some point in time. As always, you can watch the short right below, or you can watch it at Junaid’s YouTube Channel
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man 2012
So I mentioned before back when I watched the Avengers, that it had been four years since I had been to the theaters to see a movie, and this movie has been the second one so far this year to drag me out of my house even in this crazy heat to go to the theater and watch on the big screen. It was totally worth it. This was also a different experience for me because I managed to make a split and let Jena and her mother watch Brave the next theater over while I watched Spider-Man with one of my friends. I think one of the biggest questions anyone has about this movie is if it is too similar to the Raimi movies to make a difference on the audiences. I personally think it managed to take most of the best parts of Spider-Man 2, leave out some of the weaker parts of Spider-Man, and add in things from the comic that never made it into the original trilogy and come out with something at least as good as Spider-Man 2, which was my favorite of the original 3. I think it’s a worthy start to a new series and I’m all for the Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Superhero Shorts: Spider-Man Eclipse
Superhero Shorts: Spider-Man Eclipse
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m sticking with my current theme and found a Spider-Man short that was actually released this week right alongside the Amazing Spider-Man. It’s called Spider-Man: Eclipse and I got the chance to talk with the director Al White. You can check the short out at their website SpidermanEclipse.com or you can watch it right below.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2002
I end my trip through Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy at the beginning, rewatching the first movie so I can aptly compare it to the new Amazing Spider-man movie this weekend and there have been a lot of ups and downs. It was an interesting experiment and I think it was mostly successful. Of the three, I definitely enjoyed the second one the most. There were a few misgivings I had with this movie compared to the second, and the second had very few flaws. But this was easily head and shoulders above the third movie. I’m really looking forward now to seeing the new one and am just hoping it doesn’t rehash the story too closely or else it will feel pointless.
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 2004
If anyone else is thinking about rewatching all three of the Spider-Man movies before going out to see the new one, I would really recommend watching them in reverse order. Going from Spider-Man 3 to Spider-Man 2, it’s hard to believe that they were made by all the same people. They feel like such completely different types of movies. Where Spider-Man 3 was filled with action setpieces, fan service villains, and bland love triangles, yet feels empty and lifeless. Spider-Man 2 however still has a fan service villain, but only one of them, a love triangle, but only one of them, and still manages to come up with exciting action sequences. Overall, Spider-Man 2 has the heart that Spider-Man 3 is completely missing, even though the third movie tries to replicate it with the Sandman, but fails due to not enough screen time. Aside from a few minor moments, I enjoyed this movie from start to finish. It’s one of the superhero movies done right.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 