Blog Archives
100 Essential Superhero Movies – You Decide! Condorman
Part of finishing off this list of 100 essential superhero movies is bringing in my audience, and so when I got down to the last 20 movies, I decided that I would let you decide. And what better than to reach out to other movie critics and reviewers and even just movie fans to let them argue the case for a superhero movie that they are a fan of and at the bottom of the post, there is a poll where you can vote whether or not you agree if it should be included in the 100 Essential Superhero Movies list. Today my guest is Aaron Maracle who is on Twitter at @IT_Spook who was a fan of City of Heroes alongside myself and a fan of superhero movies as well as this Disney spy/superhero movie from back in the 80s, Condorman.
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Moving!
No, the site’s not moving anywhere, just this guy who writes the things that go on the site. But I thought I would put this out there just as a bit of explanation in case I don’t keep up with my posts quite as much as I have been for a little while. It’s been a really stressful month and I’ll be honest, watching these movies and writing about them here for you has been a huge help in keeping the stress in check. One thing that has gotten lost in the shuffle is my Filmwhys podcast, as I haven’t had as much time tracking down and keeping guests on the schedule or e-mailing new potential guests so the podcast is definitely continuing on its brief hiatus, though I might use this downtime to spotlight some of the other podcasts that I listen to. I also still plan to support my 100 Essential Superhero Movies and would love to see more people join in! Also, if you’ve agreed to join in be sure and send in your article as soon as possible so I can get things set up for it. To finish things off here today, I’d like to say thanks to a couple people that nominated me for a Liebster Award, which I always appreciate getting though I don’t fully follow through with it anymore. I know it’s basically a chain letter but it’s not just “send this letter to 11 random people”, it’s “give this award to 11 sites that you really like”, so I’m still happy that another writer likes this site. So read over on my Facebook page to read my answers from the Taestful Reviews, and check out below for my answers for this brand new one.
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Graphic Horror Guest Post: Revival
When I put the call out for this blogathon, I was hoping for both people looking at horror movies that could become graphic novels as well as horror comics that could make the transition into becoming a movie. And Vic over at Vic’s Movie Den answered the call. But of course, since it’s Vic’s Movie Den and not Vic’s Comic Book Den, I offered to post his look at the horror comic “Revival”. So without further ado, I shall leave the rest of this post to Vic!
An FTMN Thank you for 100,000!
I wasn’t originally planning on doing one of these posts, sure I would share the news on Twitter and whatnot, but I didn’t think I needed to write a blog post about this milestone. But I was thinking about it a couple days ago and there were things that I’m grateful for that I wanted to share with my regular readers, and I thought that this milestone was a perfect time to do just that. So first off, I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my readers that have helped me reach 100,000 views. I really enjoy watching all these movies, writing about them, and talking with all of you in the comments, on Twitter, and on various podcasts, both mine as well as others. So on this milestone, I wanted to share some of the things that I’m pleased about when it comes to what brings people to this site.
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Relationships in Superhero Movies
So today is Valentine’s Day and I was originally planning on not doing anything special for it with regards to this site. Then I started having a few ideas, but they all would take too much time that I didn’t have. But then I thought of something that I could do, and that was to make a list of the best relationships in superhero movies. But when I started going over the list in my head, I had trouble coming up with good ones and came up with plenty of bad ones. I then considered doing a list of the worst relationships, but instead decided to just take a look at the whole situation, good and bad.
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Are Awards Important if You Don’t Watch “Awards Movies”?
Recently another film critic was in the news, it seems that lately the only time that film critics get in the news is whenever they go out of their way to shine a negative light on film criticism, whether it’s calling 911 during an industry screening, or yelling vulgarities during an awards ceremony. I’m one who rarely pays attention to any of the awards shows. When I was younger, I used to always watch the MTV Movie Awards for a couple reasons. One was that it was almost always an entertaining show, and two was that the movies that were getting awarded were the movies that I was very aware of and if I hadn’t seen them, I had really wanted to see them. Now I don’t even bother with that awards show. Some time during this past year the conversation was brought up about watching all of the Academy Awards Best Pictures winners. Several people on Twitter were discussing how many they had seen, and when I counted up my tally, I had about half a dozen, and they were all also commercial blockbusters as well. So what is my point exactly? I’m not entirely sure, but there is definitely a disconnect between the general public, and most film critics, whether amateur bloggers or professional critics, and in my opinion most of the time the only difference between the two is one of the two gets a paycheck.
Is Marvel’s strategy a bad thing for superhero films?
The other day I came across an article whose argument was basically that the Avengers have ruined the Hollywood concept of a superhero movie. Essentially, the fact that all of the lead up movies to the Avengers were all connected-yet-separate and then there’s this big movie that tied them all together which became a huge thing. And now it’s happening everywhere. DC is doing it by bringing in Batman, Wonder Woman, and who knows who else in the second Man of Steel movie, Sony is doing it with Spider-man with two more sequels in the works and they just announced that their two spin off movies are about Venom and the Sinister Six. Even Fox is getting on board with The Wolverine teasing Days of Future Past which connects the First Class franchise to the first trilogy and have already announced Age of Apocalypse in 2016, not to mention the fact that they’re also supposedly tying the Fantastic Four into that universe somehow. The question is basically asking if the days of the stand-alone superhero movie are gone and these movies are becoming more like comic books, only a part of a much bigger whole that will only end when the money stops. Not only that, but it’s becoming the only model, and that’s a bad thing. Personally, I think it’s a good thing and for more reasons than just getting more superhero movies, which I’m all for too.
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Am I Getting Tired Of Superhero Movies Yet?
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these more free flowing blog posts and one that’s been rattling around in my mind for a while is the question if I’m getting tired of superhero movies yet. I’ve been doing this site for almost two years now and superhero and comic book movies make up around half of my overall movie watching nowadays more or less. There’s often the theory that they are all pretty much the same kind of movie, a sci-fi fantasy action movie with a hero in a costume and half the time it’s essentially the same origin story, especially when they keep rebooting the franchise every few years. So what is it that keeps me from getting bored with superhero movies, or am I actually getting bored with them, hence the frequent lack of actual movie reviews around here for stretches at a time. The short answer is no, I’m not tired of this blog, these movies, or anything else surrounding it.
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This Film Is No Longer Available Due To Copyright Infringement
Whenever anyone chooses to make a fan film, the biggest risk that they take is the fact that they are using characters that they don’t own the rights to, and therefore run the risk of getting shut down by the company that does hold the rights to those characters. Of course, it doesn’t happen very often, and there’s the whole “fair use” excuse, often including a disclaimer at the beginning or the end claiming that they are making no profit on this intellectual property and the rights belong to whichever company it may be. On top of that, there are literally dozens of fan films that are made every year, some even get upwards of a million views on YouTube and they are allowed to remain with no consequences whatsoever. But what happens when it’s your project that gets shut down? What rights do you have, what options are out there, and if you’re just a fan that wants to see a good film regardless of who owns the characters, how can you actually get the chance to see it? Unfortunately, when a company chooses to use the dreaded “Copyright Infringement” hammer, there’s not really much you can do. And if they are the ones who own the character, isn’t it really their right to exercise?
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Second Opinion: Lego Batman the Movie – DC Superheroes Unite
For a little while, I’ve actually wanted to allow other people to share their opinions about superhero movies more than just in the comments section. And while I’d rather not post someone’s opinion on a movie that I haven’t seen or reviewed yet because I am still adamant in my quest to watch and review every superhero movie I can find, I thought it would be interesting to get someone else’s opinion on a movie that I’ve already reviewed. I’m sure sometimes it will be quite different, and in some cases it will be very similar. If you’re interested in sharing your opinion on a superhero movie, just let me know, especially if your opinion differs from my own. But today’s opinion comes from someone with similar tastes as me, and I often use him as a good estimation of whether or not I will like a movie more than just the general critic consensus and he’s got plenty of reviews under his belt over at Today I Watched A Movie.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 