Blog Archives
Are Fantasy Heroes “Super”?
As usual, I’m starting this off with a little bit of an update. I was really happy with my first Superhero Shorts article, taking a look at a brand new video that has just come out, and I’ve gotten to talk to two other video creators. This Saturday I’ll be featuring the video “Wolverine’s Claws Suck” by the video team of Greg and Lou from YouTube, and next Saturday I’ll be featuring Batman: Dead End by Sandy Collora. I’ve been really happy with the people that have gotten back to me and answered my questions, I hope the trend continues. As far as upcoming movies, Thursday is Batman: The Movie. I’m hoping to have another video with my daughter Jena talking about it, but I haven’t filmed it yet, so she might not cooperate, and I haven’t yet decided what two movies I’m going to watch to finish out the month, though I may end up watching Sky High and Zoom. But today, I’ll be talking a little bit about a couple other movies.
Women Superheroes in movies
Last week I talked about Black Superheroes in movies and there’s not very many of them, and there’s only a couple good ones in there. And I’m getting close to finishing up the movies for February so I thought I should make a plan for what to watch in March. There aren’t any new movies coming out until The Avengers in early May so there’s no help there. I looked it up online and like February is Black History month, I saw that March is Women’s history month. Then I went to my list of movies to look for movies that have a woman in the lead superhero role. I only found 6. Two of them I had already reviewed and they were awful, Supergirl and Catwoman. The next four didn’t seem to be much better, My Super Ex Girlfriend, Elektra, Barb Wire, and Tank Girl. I think I’ve heard mixed reviews on Tank Girl, but the rest are really bad.
Black Superhero Month
I knew it would be easy to guess my theme for this month, but when I needed to decide what movies I should watch for this month, I realized that it was Black History Month and I thought I would see how many black superhero movies there were. I managed to find 9 of them: Catwoman, Spawn, Hancock, Blankman, The Meteor Man, Steel, Blade, Blade II, and Blade Trinity. Some of them are pretty good, a lot of them are really bad. And I’m actually over halfway through watching them. I only have Steel and the Blade Trilogy left to watch. One other thing that snuck up on me was the fact that Ghost Rider and Chronicle came out this month. I managed to watch and review Chronicle already and plan to watch the new Ghost Rider and the old one for good measure. So I’m in for a busy month. In fact I was so busy writing the review for The Meteor Man that I almost forgot to write this blog post for today which is why I’m posting it just before midnight.
It’s really a sad state of affairs that when someone mentions a black superhero movie, they either think of Blade, or they think of a really bad movie like Steel or Catwoman. And honestly a lot of movie fans aren’t that fond of the Blade movies, especially when you get around to the third one with Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds. And a couple things that come up when talking about black superheroes is why has no one made a Black Panther movie yet? And of course there’s also talk I’ve heard going around of Michael Jai White wanting to make a superhero movie that I can’t think of at the moment and when I tried to search for it it seems to have been overtaken by talks from July about rebooting the Spawn franchise as a hard “R” rated movie. Which I think would be great. Spawn had a lot of potential but it was hurt by the PG-13, script issues, CGI issues, and acting issues. Michael Jai White has grown a lot as an actor and CGI has improved and gotten less expensive, I think it would be great to see a Spawn reboot. Forget that, I’d rather see a Spawn sequel, forget the reboots, there’s enough Superhero origin stories, just make it a sequel, skip retelling the origin, and get straight to the action. And if anyone wants to remind me of that other Superhero White was trying to get made into a movie, leave a comment.
I also wanted to mention that while I didn’t watch the Superbowl, I did manage to catch the new trailers for both the Avengers and The Amazing Spiderman. I’m really excited to see both of them. I didn’t realize that Denis Leary was going to be in the new Spiderman movie and I’m really interested to see what he brings to the movie. I also like the actor, Garfield or whatever his name is. I’m kind of torn over the mechanical webslingers for some reason though. I actually liked the decision that the first series of movies made to make the webbing be a part of his transformation rather than something he made on his own. I understand that a lot of fans thought that the chemical webbing showed a part of Peter Parker’s scientific side, my thoughts are “what’s the first thing you think of when asked what abilities does a spider have?” I’m pretty sure it’s not amazing strength or precognitive ability. It’s the ability to create webs. But whatever, it’s really a minor thing but what I’m most annoyed about that I’m sure will happen at least once during the movie is there will be a critical moment where Spiderman’s web fluid will run out at the worst possible time. On another more random note, I realized that when the movie comes out I will be watching the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies, but I will be watching them in reverse order. Starting with the worst of them all, Spiderman 3, moving to what some consider the best of them all Spiderman 2, and finishing off with Tobey’s origin story before watching… this guy’s origin story. Anyway check out my review of Hancock coming up on Thursday, until next time this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Here comes February!
It’s the last day of January already, I’m not going to make a big deal about how far along I am, I did that a couple weeks ago already. This is just more of a general update. Thanks for everyone who made suggestions early on, it helped me pick out several movies for January and I got to all of them except for X-Men First class. Sorry Josh, I’ll get to that one eventually. I’ve got all my movies picked out for February but I don’t have a strict schedule. Nine of the movies fit a special “guess the theme” for the month, and I also hope to watch and review Chronicle and Ghost Rider which come out this month as well as the first Ghost Rider to get ready for the new one. If you’re counting along, that’s 12 movies in 4 weeks, so every Tuesday this month will have a bonus review until I start falling behind or if I can’t get to the new movies. I hope to also continue these impromptu blog posts every Tuesday for updates and whatever else is on my mind at the time.
I’ll say right now that the “guess the theme” for next month should be pretty easy to guess and there is a fabulous no-prize to go along with it. Also if you’ve been following me on twitter I believe I already said what the theme is a couple weeks ago. But it’s been interesting so far, the most recent movie I watched was Hancock a couple days ago. I had forgotten how good the first half of that movie was, and the last half wasn’t quite as bad as I used to think it was. I’m not sure if I’m going to start on the Blade Trilogy or watch something more family friendly next.
There was one other thing that I was thinking about in the back of my mind, even though I’ve got plenty to watch for this year I bought the 5th and 6th seasons of Tales From the Crypt a few days ago. I realized that it fits with the overarching theme of this blog: video entertainment based on comics. It’s pretty far off from what I’ve narrowed down to focus on for this first year but I have high hopes that I will continue this blog after the first year, expanding into DVDs like all the animated Marvel and DC movies, and probably television shows. But then I wondered, what is the best way to go about doing a retro review for a television show? If I did an episode at a time, that would be way too many posts, especially for a long running series like Smallville. If I did one season at a time, that would be way too many episodes to watch for each post to keep it at two posts a week. Maybe I could just focus on however many episodes I’m able to watch in a week, plus a movie for the other post. But then again, I suppose I’m getting way ahead of myself. Right now I just need to focus on the 9 more movies I have to watch for this month. But if you have any thoughts on the matter, or if you want to guess next month’s theme, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Stay tuned for Thursday’s review of Catwoman to launch February’s theme. Until next time this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Should I watch Chronicle?
Even with having a Tuesday bonus review, I thought I’d still write up a short blog post like I’ve been doing every Tuesday. As far as a quick movie update/preview goes, I just got done with watching my rental haul, and I bought a bunch of movies for this month and later this year. I think I’ve spent a total of about $60 for the purposes of this blog. Aside from rental fees though, these are all movies that I bought because I enjoyed them in the first place, or a couple that were cheap and I was pretty sure I would like them. Coming up in the next couple weeks is my reviews of Super, Kick-Ass, Catwoman, and Spawn. And I picked up the Blade Trilogy, Hancock, Ghost Rider, and the Incredible Hulk to watch soon.
But the question of the blog is Chronicle. I only just recently learned about this movie from the City of Heroes message board. It looks pretty interesting, but the question I have is should I include it in a movie review blog about superheroes? Just going from what I see in the trailer, and a couple minor things I’ve heard online about it, here’s what I’ve got: It’s set pretty much in the real world using the “found footage” style like Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. It involves three teenagers who gain superpowers in the traditional superhero sense of the word. They get telekinesis, invulnerability, flight, and possibly other similar minor powers. They don’t become superheroes with this ability, in fact at least one if not more of them become more or less a villain. There is the chance that one or two of the other kids step up to become a hero and stop him, but there are no costumes or secret identities.
So what do you think? I believe it comes out February 3rd. I already have more than enough movies that I plan to get to in the entire month of February. It does look like an interesting movie that I wouldn’t mind watching regardless of this blog. But that’s the question of the day. Do you think I should review Chronicle in this blog? Or do you think it looks too sci-fi, too unheroic, too anything to fall into the realm of superheroes? Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Until Next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Superman Final Thoughts
It’s week 2 and I’m already slacking on my project. Luckily I’ve worked ahead enough that I won’t be missing any posts just yet. Finally got around to watching the new Captain America tonight, and the next two movies on the list I own so they shouldn’t be a problem to find. I tried to film a video of my daughter’s thoughts about Superman but this was all I was able to get out of her.
I think the Superman franchise is pretty troubled. Superman is a tough character to have good conflict. He only has one weakness, and he’s generally stronger than anything else that can be thrown at him. That’s probably why the two movies that turned out the best are ones that didn’t have him dealing with someone as powerful as him. The first Superman movie and Superman Returns both deal with Lex Luthor and natural (or technically not-so-natural) disasters. They also deal strongly with his personal relationships and the trouble of leading a dual life, without resorting to sitcom-esque hijinks of a double date. The others tried to give Superman a worthy foe to fight and the only one that came close was Superman II, but the Richard Lester version threw too much slapstick into the mix that deflated what drama was there. Superman III and IV were just awful combinations of low budget or shoehorning plots that don’t really fit just because that’s what the filmmakers wanted in their movie.
I have hope for the new Superman movie, although the only thing I have to go on is a few photos and the track record of recent Marvel and DC movies, then again the buzz wasn’t very good for the Green Lantern which I haven’t seen yet. As long as it’s not yet another rehash of the same plot that I’ve seen twice, and there’s no Braniac fighting a polar bear or a giant spider in the third act, I’ll probably enjoy it. What I would like to see in a Superman movie is a real look at the duality of his personality that’s not directly tied to a love interest. I’d like to see him face off against a worthy adversary that’s not Lex Luthor and is something that actually makes sense. But until then, I’ll just have to wait for it, at least I’ve got plenty of movies to watch in the meantime. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Violence in Superhero movies
Up until now, most of the movies I’ve been watching for this blog I’ve been able to watch with my daughter. She’s five, I like to think she handles movie violence pretty well. She’s snuck up on us watching some violent shows like Supernatural or Vampire Diaries, I don’t think it was during any of the really gory parts but I know for sure I’m not letting her watch either of those shows on purpose any time soon. But superhero movies can be kind of a grey area. Most older movies are pretty tame with just some physical violence but never any blood.
But watching the 1990’s Captain America gave me a slight pause. It’s the first movie we watched together that really has guns in it, at least guns that aren’t just ineffective tools when used against Superman or Supergirl. There was some blood, nothing major, but it was a bit of violence. Her response was “Is his shirt dead?” Most superheroes aside from the ones that are specifically geared toward an adult audience like Watchmen are geared towards kids and adults. I’ve already questioned which Batman movies might be too much for her. I imagine she should be ok with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, but the others I’m not so sure about, especially the Christopher Nolan ones.
What superhero movies are out there that are thought of as a “kid friendly” or at least one that you think of as one you might have grown up with that when you watch again as a parent, might be a little bit too violent for a young child to watch. Specifically, what about the new Captain America movie? Leave a comment, let me know what you think. I think I’ll have a short update, blog, or bonus review every Tuesday along with my regular reviews every Sunday and Thursday. Superman IV is up this Thursday to finish out the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. Until next time, this is Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 