The Condor

The Condor 2007

Even though I watched this film before C2E2, I didn’t get the chance to write about it until now. I really didn’t know much of anything about this film aside from the fact that it was an animated film that came out about the same time as Mosaic based around an original superhero created by Stan Lee, and something about skateboards. It’s even been sitting on my DVD shelf for well over a year along with a dozen other movies that I bought off the clearance shelf specifically for this site that I haven’t gotten around to yet. I didn’t realize until the film started up with a nice little intro from Stan Lee himself that it was essentially based around an even smaller superhero minority than the woman superhero or even the Black superhero, the Latino superhero. As the origin story of the Condor, it basically combines the origins of Iron Man and Daredevil. The tone of the film was also a little off in the same way Mosaic was, where the plot was rather simple as if it was made for a child, but there were scatterings of adult themes tossed around that were a little on the inappropriate side for the younguns. I really wasn’t very fond of this one, it was obvious, dated, and even felt a little on the racist side of things.
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C2E2 photo gallery

C2E2 Days 2 & 3

C2E2 is already over and it’s been a long weekend. I’m going to be combining my details of days 2 & 3 into a single post for a couple reasons, first is that I did not get home from day 2 until rather late at night and I basically went straight to sleep, and second is that I did not spend very much time on day 3 so there’s not too much to report there. Overall, it was a lot of fun. I’ve got tons of pictures which will show up as their own post tomorrow and I’ve got a little video project that I’m working on and hope to finish within the next few days so I’m excited about that. Enough chat, let’s get onto the show!
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C2E2 Day 1

I’m home from my first day at Chicago’s Comics and Entertainment Expo 2015 and I am exhausted! I spent most of my time on the floor, I’ve got hopefully a nice little project in the works that I’ll be able to share after the event is over, and I also got a couple panel rundowns to share with you.
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Thursday Movie Picks

As I was wandering around the blogosphere today I stumbled upon an ongoing blogathon that I just had to jump in on for this week. Over at Wondering Through the Shelves they do a Thursday Movie Picks where there’s a topic each week and everyone who participates chooses 3 films that fit with the week’s theme. This week is superhero movies so obviously I had to jump in on it. Make sure you check out their choices and the other participants as well.
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Mosaic

Mosaic 2007

It feels good to finally be getting back into a somewhat regular schedule over here at my home for movies since spending so much time at my second home for television over at Channel: Superhero. I think it helps that I’ve decided to make this month animation month which tend to offer up much shorter movies than the live action versions. I have also been thinking about women led superhero movies so I thought it was a perfect fit to take a look at this film that you wouldn’t even know by looking at the cover art or the title was about a young woman who becomes a superhero. It was one of a brief series of films for original characters including this film, the Condor, and the live-action Lightspeed. Mosaic is about a shapeshifting race of people who evolved from chameleons and have remained hidden within the population, and a teenage girl named Maggie comes in contact with one of their runestones and is imbued with their powers. It generally feels like an 80’s or 90’s style low-to-moderate budget animation with more action than story, but it was a fun little adventure and happens to be free to watch on Hulu, so there’s that.
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Barbie in Princess Power

Barbie in Princess Power 2015

You know that superheroes are getting almost overwhelmingly ingrained in the popular culture when even Barbie is getting in on the action. It’s also a bit of a shame to think that before this movie came along the last superhero movie to feature a woman in the lead role of a superhero movie was back in 2009 with the DC Animated Wonder Woman movie. As someone with an 8 year old daughter, I have seen my fair share of these countless Barbie animated films which typically range from tolerable to ok. There’s nothing special about any of them with the exception of the webseries Life in the Dreamhouse which is actually quite funny. This one falls right in line with the rest of them with a fairly predictable plot, simple one-note characters, and a bit of a moral to the story in the end. It does have the benefit of tossing out a small handful of superhero references, though they are some of the most well known and obvious ones they could have pulled from. Obviously it’s not a film that I would recommend the average movie-goer to go out and pick up, but if you have a daughter between 4 and 14, especially if they like superheroes, this is one of the best choices available. More than that, along with Powerpuff Girls they are the only superhero movies led by females.
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The Glaring Reality of Women Superhero Movies

While I was beginning to write my latest review for a superhero movie I watched that was recently released on home video, it made me think about Women-led superhero movies and how it’s been so long since anyone has dared to make one, either on home video or in theaters. That movie happens to be the first movie that has been released in the US that’s led by a female superhero since 2009’s DC Animated Wonder Woman. If you’re curious, the movie is Barbie in Princess Power. Yes, it took a Barbie movie to break this streak. By my count there have been 80 superhero movies released in the US between 2010 and April 2015. This is the only one led by a female superhero. If I expand my search just a little, there is at least one other that I am aware of from a couple years ago in Japan called Nuigulumar Z but that’s it. When you look at theatrical features the prospects are even more grim considering the last female-led superhero movie was all the way back in 2005 with Elektra and the next one isn’t due until 2017 with Wonder Woman, that’s twelve years. Think about this: if a girl was born in 1999, she would not have been able to see a superhero movie led by a woman in the theaters until her 18th birthday.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights is going to C2E2!

Greetings all! I’m happy to announce that I will be attending this year’s C2E2 here in Chicago next weekend! I will be there as much as possible all three days and will be doing coverage here throughout that weekend and hopefully through the following week. It’s one of Chicago’s premier comic and entertainment conventions and I am absolutely thrilled that I get the chance to go as a member of the press. Not only will this be the first comic book convention that I will be attending as a member of the press, but it will also be the first comic con that I will be attending period.
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Top 10 Batman Movie Villains

This post is for the Great Villain Blogathon hosted by Silver Screenings, Speakeasy, and Shadows and Satin. For my part, there are plenty of great villains out there that I could have picked from, but in the superhero universe I don’t think there is any greater rogues’ gallery than the ones that live in and around Gotham city, so I decided to make a top 10 list of Batman’s greatest foes that have graced the silver screen or the home video screen. Yes, I am including the DC Animation direct-to-video films but I’m not including any of the television series, animated or otherwise. So here… we… go!
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