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Superhero Shorts: Gremlins 3 Warm Up
Superhero Shorts: Gremlins 3 Warm Up
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Sacha Feiner who created an absolutely astounding fan version of a scene in Gremlins 2. In the movie, there’s a scene where the film breaks and it turns out that the Gremlins are messing with the projector in the theater. For the original VHS release, that scene was updated so that it looked like the VHS messed up and the Gremlins invaded a John Wayne movie. But for the DVD release, they just went back to the original version. Sacha decided that it needed a version that was made for the DVD release, so he made one. But it wasn’t just a simple thing, he actually created brand new Gremlins based on the original designs and had them cause a ruckus in other movies. But don’t take it from me, check it out right below.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 2010
I have heard all sorts of praise for this movie since it came out, even though it seemed destined to become an immediate cult movie. It was a pretty dismal failure at the box office, making just over half of it’s fairly impressive $60 million budget. I find that it’s actually rather fitting that I watched this movie after watching Unbreakable. Because it’s like different sides of the same coin. Where Unbreakable was understated, slow paced, and ultra realistic, Scott Pilgrim is over the top, fast paced, and extremely stylized. Yet it can be said about both of them that there is no other movie out there quite like either of them. I went into this movie knowing very little about it. I knew the basic plot that Scott falls in love with an alt chick and has to fight her seven exes, and there’s a resounding comic book slash classic video game slash anime influence. That’s putting it mildly. It’s like an anime ate a comic book while playing a video game and had a love child with a superhero movie and this is the resulting child of that event. It’s definitely not a movie for everyone, I wasn’t sure where it was going at the beginning, but once I got into it I really enjoyed it.
Unbreakable
Unbreakable 2000
I’ve been a fan of M. Night Shyamalan a lot longer than most. He snuck onto the scene in the nineties with a pair of low budget independent movies (Praying with Anger and Wide Awake). But in 1999 he made The Sixth Sense and was instantly hailed as the next Hitchcock. Instead of another psychological thriller, as everyone anticipated, Shyamalan followed with Unbreakable, an understated, ultra-realistic, and altogether atypical take on the superhero origin movie. Although it went on to earn more than $100 million at the box office, many still considered it failure since it didn’t live up to the $300 million take of The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable shatters the mold created by previous comic book adaptations: there are no big budget effects or action sequences, no costumes or masks, and no secret identities. Nevertheless, it is every ounce a superhero movie, and easily claims a spot in my personal top ten.
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man 2012
So I mentioned before back when I watched the Avengers, that it had been four years since I had been to the theaters to see a movie, and this movie has been the second one so far this year to drag me out of my house even in this crazy heat to go to the theater and watch on the big screen. It was totally worth it. This was also a different experience for me because I managed to make a split and let Jena and her mother watch Brave the next theater over while I watched Spider-Man with one of my friends. I think one of the biggest questions anyone has about this movie is if it is too similar to the Raimi movies to make a difference on the audiences. I personally think it managed to take most of the best parts of Spider-Man 2, leave out some of the weaker parts of Spider-Man, and add in things from the comic that never made it into the original trilogy and come out with something at least as good as Spider-Man 2, which was my favorite of the original 3. I think it’s a worthy start to a new series and I’m all for the Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Superhero Shorts: Spider-Man Eclipse
Superhero Shorts: Spider-Man Eclipse
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m sticking with my current theme and found a Spider-Man short that was actually released this week right alongside the Amazing Spider-Man. It’s called Spider-Man: Eclipse and I got the chance to talk with the director Al White. You can check the short out at their website SpidermanEclipse.com or you can watch it right below.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2002
I end my trip through Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy at the beginning, rewatching the first movie so I can aptly compare it to the new Amazing Spider-man movie this weekend and there have been a lot of ups and downs. It was an interesting experiment and I think it was mostly successful. Of the three, I definitely enjoyed the second one the most. There were a few misgivings I had with this movie compared to the second, and the second had very few flaws. But this was easily head and shoulders above the third movie. I’m really looking forward now to seeing the new one and am just hoping it doesn’t rehash the story too closely or else it will feel pointless.
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 2004
If anyone else is thinking about rewatching all three of the Spider-Man movies before going out to see the new one, I would really recommend watching them in reverse order. Going from Spider-Man 3 to Spider-Man 2, it’s hard to believe that they were made by all the same people. They feel like such completely different types of movies. Where Spider-Man 3 was filled with action setpieces, fan service villains, and bland love triangles, yet feels empty and lifeless. Spider-Man 2 however still has a fan service villain, but only one of them, a love triangle, but only one of them, and still manages to come up with exciting action sequences. Overall, Spider-Man 2 has the heart that Spider-Man 3 is completely missing, even though the third movie tries to replicate it with the Sandman, but fails due to not enough screen time. Aside from a few minor moments, I enjoyed this movie from start to finish. It’s one of the superhero movies done right.
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 2007
While I wouldn’t recommend watching the Spider-Man films for the first time this way, I thought it was a perfect way to set myself up for the new Amazing Spider-Man next week. I figured I’d get the final and also the worst film out of the way first and end with the origin movie since it would be the one that would most closely compare to the new movie. This movie is one of those instances where since the first time I’ve seen it, I’ve heard so much negativity about the movie that I was prepared for the worst. And while it wasn’t all that great, there were some genuinely good moments in the movie too. But they were surrounded by bad ideas, too many characters, and too many subplots.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 2009
I was originally going to start reviewing the Spider-Man movies today, but I decided that I wanted to give myself a couple extra days of leeway to watch the new flick, and since I’ve watched the animated movies for Green Lantern, Superman, and Batman, I thought it was only fair to add the only other DC solo hero to get their own animated movie: Wonder Woman. It was especially a no-brainer because I already own the DVD. As a quick side-note, I should make a list of all the superhero movies I actually own and haven’t reviewed yet at some point, but that’s another day. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess with ties to Greek mythology similar to Thor’s connection to Norse mythology, although Wonder Woman is more of an original creation that’s rooted in Greek mythology where Thor is a repurposing of Norse mythology. For my part, I enjoyed it enough to buy it on DVD at some point, though rewatching it now I don’t think it’s as strong as some of the other DC animation. It’s still quite good, but it could easily be better.
Batman: Under the Red Hood
Batman: Under the Red Hood 2010
Even before starting this site, I was a fan of DC’s animation studio and had watched most of their earlier releases like New Frontier, Doomsday, and Gotham Knight. They were all pretty good and I enjoyed watching them as I did some of the Marvel releases around that point like Ultimate Avengers and Planet Hulk. All of them were good. Under the Red Hood is great. It’s interesting that I watched this after Superman vs. the Elite because they both deal with slightly similar ideas, and yet Under the Red Hood takes those ideas and instead of using some random anti-heroes/villains that were never heard of before or since, they take characters much more rooted to the core of the Batman mythos and break down the story on a completely personal level. I must say that this is the best one of these movies that I’ve seen so far. There are a couple weak spots, but it’s pretty impressive overall.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 