Filmwhys Spotlight: Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Filmwhys Spotlight where Bubbawheat shines a light on an underappreciated superhero film through the eyes of the fans who love it. This time around we are discussing the Edgar Wright theatrical bomb that is now a cult favorite with several of its biggest fans. Joining me are Stefan Gagne, a webnovelist whose work can be found at StefanGagne.com, Amy Taylor, writer and director of the webseries Jess Archer Versus which can be found at their YouTube channel, Debbie Rolf, podcaster who can be heard on her podcast You Haven’t Seen?!, and Nikhat Zahra, blogger and podcaster who can be heard on her podcast Across the Universe, the Chicks with Accents and her currently inactive film blog Being Norma Jean.
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Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 1974
Continuing my month of the more obscure and cult superhero films I’m taking a look at probably the least well known version of a popular superhero going back to the first TV pilot of the Wonder Woman TV show. Most people are familiar with the popular Lynda Carter show from the 70’s, but before they cast Carter they actually shot, filmed, and aired a very different version of the show with actress Cathy Lee Crosby as Diana Prince. And while I haven’t really seen any full episodes of the Carter version aside from a few clips, this felt very different than what I would imagine the later show went on to be. It had much more of a serious tone to it and felt more like a detective show rather than a superhero show. She barely wore the costume, there were no special effects to show off any super powers to speak of, and there was actually quite a bit of death and danger. It was quite fascinating to look back at this version of the character even though it barely resembled anything I knew about Wonder Woman aside from her name and the name of Steve Trevor.
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Superhero Podcast Review: Cinematic Universe
It’s time yet again for another round of Superhero Podcast Review where I take a closer look at a podcast that focuses on superhero and comic book movies. I’ve gone through most of my regular listens and have a couple more that I’ve listened to before but don’t listen to for every episode which actually has me adjusting my Subscribe/Unsubscribe rating ever so slightly which you can read more about when I get to it. Next week I’ll be back to a podcast that I’ve listened to most of the episodes but is currently on extended hiatus, and after that I’ll be switching to a bi-weekly review schedule. But first, let’s take a look at this week’s podcast.
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June-ing the Cult: Silver Emulsion and 3 Dev Adam
3 Dev Adam aka 3 Giant Men 1973
We’re halfway through this trip across a handful of cult superhero movies thanks to several of my cult blogging friends. Throughout the month of June, I’ve asked several bloggers that I know who often tackle their own fair share of obscure and cult films and asked them to each choose a superhero movie for me to check out and review. Thanks to Will from Silver Emulsion for picking today’s movie, if you go visit his site make sure to check out his thoughts on every Superman movie made, including many foreign knock-offs, including Turkish Superman.
Justice League of America
Justice League of America 1997
While I’ve delved through the entire depths of the Marvel film catalogue including their awful TV movie roots, I have yet to do the same for DC. I have seen nearly all of their films, but there are a handful of early animated movies from the 90’s and a couple TV movies including this one that was initially intended to be the pilot of a new TV series coming hot off the heels of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. But they also took a page out of the popularity of MTV’s the Real World which would have been on season 4 or 5 when this went into production and also would be near the height of the show’s popularity. So this show combines the superheroics with the daily life of the heroes alongside several “confessional” segments where the heroes talk directly to the TV audience. It’s bizarre how this managed to even make it to the pilot movie stage, the costumes and effects were lackluster, the characters were unlikable and barely resembled their comic book counterparts, and overall it feels roughly five years behind even 1997.
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Superhero Shorts: Healing Heroes
It’s once again time for another edition of Superhero Shorts, where I feature a superhero short film and ask a few questions of the filmmaker. Today I’m talking with Christopher Orangeo, creator of the short Healing Heroes which is a bit more of a proof of concept slash mini-pilot in the hopes of turning it into something bigger. As always, you can watch the film below or you can get more information about the film at the Healing Heroes Tumblr page.
The Spirit
The Spirit 1987
To go along with the other cult movies that other bloggers have picked out for me, I thought I’d follow along with some cult films of my own choosing. I have no idea whether or not this really counts as much of a cult film, though I have heard from at least two people who have seen this and thought it was much better than the theatrical Frank Miller version. This was made in the mid-Eighties with Sam J. Jones as the lead, better known as Flash Gordon himself. It also had Nana Visitor as his love interest who I was familiar with as Major Kira on Star Trek: Deep Space 9. But most of all, this pilot movie was extremely 80’s. From the music to the cheap sets to the power suits and cassette walkmen, it was very much steeped in the 80’s and for that reason alone, I had a lot of fun watching this. Most of it is even set up to have much more of a comedy feel than an action/detective vibe. It was as close to Adam West’s Batman with a bit more 80’s sensibilities than you could ever get.
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Superhero Podcast Review: Meanwhile…
Round three of my current project of superhero podcast reviews where I’m taking a closer look at some of the many superhero and comic book movie podcasts out there and seeing how they align with my own tastes. I’m still going with my regular listens though this time it’s a much more recent show having debuted within this past year. I generally listen to a lot of different podcasts, mainly indie movie podcasts, but I’m always looking to grow my subscription list so if you have or know of a superhero-focused podcast, primarily on the movie side of things, give me a shout in the comments or on Twitter so I can make it a future review.
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June-ing the Cult: Tars Tarkas and the Golden Bat
Ôgon Batto aka The Golden Bat 1966
Throughout the month of June, I’m taking a look at some of the more obscure and foreign cult superhero films with the help of some of my favorite bloggers who have seen plenty of cult films of their own. I’m a day late but still here for this week’s June-ing the cult where I’m taking a look at one of the first Japanese superhero movies from a blogger who has seen quite a few older superhero films himself. And so here’s Tars Tarkas who chose the Golden Bat.
What’s Wrong With This Picture? It’s All About ConteXt-Men
There’s been a mini-controversy rolling around the past couple of weeks. Technically, since it’s the internet age it was a controversy for a couple days and then most people moved onto the next thing, but it’s kept popping up into my view and certain things about how it was presented to me irritated me so much that I wanted to say something about it on the only real platform I have. Now, to start things off, I’m as much of a feminist as a middle-aged white male can be. And what really brought me to action here was when I did the one thing that you should never do: I read the comments.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 