Blog Archives
Can a Kaiju be a Superhero?
It used to be that the only people that knew the term “Kaiju” were either the extreme Japanophiles or the extreme B-movie geeks that watched all the old classic monster movies. Now it feels like many more people know the term, either because of the shrinking of the world through the ease of communication, or because of the anticipation of Pacific Rim helping draw attention to the term. In case you don’t know, Kaiju is a term used for a giant monster used in a monster movie, the most iconic being Godzilla. Now, I have to admit that I have seen very few Kaiju movies, most of those have been the MST3K versions, especially the Gamera series. It’s hard to forget “Gamera is really neat, Gamera is full of meat, we believe in Ga-me-ra. And one of those has been the 1998 Americanized, or should I say the Emmeriched version. But one thing I do know, or at least am pretty sure of, is that often Godzilla is the “good” Kaiju battling the “bad” Kaiju. So, does that make Godzilla a superhero?
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How Much is a Movie Allowed to Change
aka when did “Canon” become a bad word?
Obviously, I just watched Man of Steel this weekend, along with a ton of other people, but not everyone was happy with the way Superman was represented on screen. Of course with 75 years of different writers, artists, comic books, TV series, and movies there’s bound to be some discrepancies, but when does it become too far removed that it no longer resembles what the original character is supposed to represent? Personally, I’m on the side that is much more forgiving of liberties with the character. In music, I’m a big fan of remixes and mash ups, and in a way I think this translates to some of these characters. I like both the Sam Raimi and Mark Webb Spider-Man movies for different reasons, just how I like both the original Christopher Reeve Superman as well as Dean Cain’s Lois and Clark, Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel, Tom Welling’s Smallville, and several of the various animated incarnations. They are all very different from each other even though they are essentially the same character.
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Follow Friday: Isaacs Picture Conclusions
Follow Friday: The IPC
Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday, where each time I feature and interview a fellow blogger and follow their suggestion to another blog to feature next time. I prefer this over a blogroll because it gives each blog their own time to shine, plus I personally rarely click on blogrolls so why would I expect you to? Not only that, but I get the chance to check out some great blogs I might not have found otherwise found, talk to some great people, and share the conversation with you. Of course, if you would rather see something like a blogroll, I have collected all of my previous Follow Friday sites in list form which you can find right at the top of the page. Last time I was directed by Chris from Film Hipster to check out Isaacs Picture Conclusions aka the IPC.
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Is “Direct-to-DVD” a Dirty Word?
Are Movies With Theatrical Releases “Better”?
I follow a lot of movie sites, and most of them have a focus on theatrical releases as well as back catalog favorites. But there is an entirely different market out there consisting of movies that skip the theatrical release and go straight to home video through services like Amazon and Redbox. When talking about these home video releases, many people think of things like Asylum films and their low budget mockbusters made to capitalize on the projected success of many of the Hollywood summer blockbusters. But there are plenty of other categories of “direct-to-blu” videos that aren’t so cut and dry. There are a great many DC and Marvel animated films that have come out in the past several years, and while the run time and budget speak to a home video release, the acting and story are often just as strong as any theatrically released animated movie.
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What ifs! You could make a sequel to any movie?
What if you had the power to greenlight and fun any sequel to any movie in the world, what would it be? Of course, since this site focuses on superhero related movie I’d love to also hear the answer to which Superhero movie you’d like to see a sequel of. There seems to be a lot of talk lately about the possibility of a Dredd sequel. Even though it received quite a bit of acclaim from fans, it got mixed reviews from critics and only had a less than stellar box office performance. Now there’s a few different possibilities on why a movie might need a sequel. If it’s based on other ongoing work, like most superhero movies are based on comics, then since the comic has continued on then there is still plenty more material to draw from. Even if it’s a stand alone movie, if it’s a good one, then people often wonder what would happen if those characters were revisited. Even in the case of a less than perfect movie, if there’s some element that worked in the original that could be expanded upon at the same time as the weaknesses could be removed. And such is the case for my personal choice for a movie that I would love to see a sequel to. I’ve always had a soft spot for the 2004 Punisher movie with Thomas Jane. Even though I’ve rewatched it last year and it didn’t quite hold up for me in the long run, it was mainly the silliness with the neighbors and the forced love interest that threw me off. I still enjoyed John Travolta as the over the top Howard Saint, and Thomas Jane was a fantastic Punisher, even moreso when he made his own short last year. So let’s hear it, what sequels would you love to see get made?
Do You Enjoy Watching Bad Movies?
I think I may have asked this question a long while back, but since I’ve been watching several bad movies lately I thought it was prudent to ask the question again. There are a lot of bad movies out there, and there are a lot of articles out there lambasting those same movies. Many of them appear to obviously have been a bad movie before the writer ever decided to watch the movie, so the question becomes “Why did you watch the movie if you knew it was going to be bad?” I can’t answer that question for everybody else, but for myself, it’s because I still enjoy watching them. Even a movie that I wasn’t really looking forward to going into, the Host, I still greatly enjoyed watching it because when those awful moments in the movie showed up, it made me laugh harder than some of the best comedies around. Besides superheroes and sci-fi, there are also plenty of horror movies out there that are atrocious and plenty of sites that are devoted to watching these low budget, occasionally good, but often just plain bad movies.
Comic Strip Double Dip Blogathon: Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman Double Dip
G Girl / Poison Ivy
It’s been a fun trip through my first blogathon and we’re down to the last week and this will be my own last entry. There were several posts this week and a few more to go to finish out the week. Thanks everyone who participated, I enjoyed reading all of them! For my last entry I chose an actress who I just watched onscreen in one of these two roles, I’ll leave you to (easily) guess which one. I’m talking about Uma Thurman who played Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin, as well as G Girl in My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Nominated for a Lammy!
If you’re a film blogger, you should know about the Lamb already. If you don’t, it’s the Large Association of Movie Blogs with over 1,500 member blogs and growing. They’re currently running their yearly awards for movie sites like this one and I’ve made it to the finals in the category of Best Genre Blog.
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Does a Film’s Budget Impact Your Expectations?
I review a lot of superhero movie on this site, not only the big budget summer blockbusters, but there’s plenty of low budget independent superhero-themed movies out there, and there are especially many different low-to-no budget fan films out there. And I notice that I tend to judge a movie’s special effects more forgivingly if it’s coming from a low budget film. If a no-budget film can manage special effects that look like they came from the height of the 90’s, I’m happily impressed by it. But on the other hand when a megabudget blockbuster comes out with special effects that don’t look 100% amazing, like many people felt with the recent Jack the Giant Slayer, then I’m disappointed.
Follow Friday: Head in a Vice
Follow Friday: Head in a Vice
Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday, where each time I feature and interview a fellow blogger and follow their suggestion to another blog to feature next time. I prefer this over a blogroll because it gives each blog their own time to shine, plus I personally rarely click on blogrolls so why would I expect you to? Not only that, but I get the chance to check out some great blogs I might not have found otherwise found, talk to some great people, and share the conversation with you. Of course, if you would rather see something like a blogroll, I have collected all of my previous Follow Friday sites in list form which you can find right at the top of the page. Last time I was directed by Mark Walker of Marked Movies to check out Tyson Carter’s site Head in a Vice.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 