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Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 2013
This is the latest in the juggernaut that is Marvel Studios releases, and especially movies with Robert Downey Jr. in a metal suit. The early reviews were mostly blown away by the new sequel and as I had to wait an extra week for it to come out here in the States, I was starting to chomp at the bit to watch the movie. Of course, once it hit theaters around my neck of the woods, there started to be a few more rumblings of failure and a lot more opinion that this actually wasn’t the best of the trilogy. There were plot holes, and weak moments and ill-fated twists, and when I got the chance to watch the movie… I wasn’t quite sure what I really thought about it. It had it’s action moments, and Robert Downey Jr. doing what he does best as he has done in the past three movies including the Avengers, but there were also those plot holes and other things tugging away at the sides of my brain. I decided I couldn’t quite give the movie justice until I gave it a few days thought and watched the movie for a second time. 2D every time all the time for me FYI. I had an article previously where I talked about the Curse of Three, and while the impact has dwindled a bit with the release of The Dark Knight Rises, it hasn’t completely gone away and I still think there are weak elements in this movie that can definitely hinder the watching experience for some and completely ruin it for others. And fair warning, there may be spoilers in this review, I will try to be non-specific where I can, but I’m not going to dance around them if I need to call them out.
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The Rocketeer
The Rocketeer 1991
I know I watched this movie ages ago when I was younger, but rewatching it today I realized that the only thing I remembered from my first watch of this movie was that the guy had a rocketpack and it took place in the 30’s. When watching it again, I was really impressed with the style and the feeling of the movie. I also recognized so many different actors in this movie that I didn’t realize were in here. Mainly it was Alan Alda who I’ve been seeing in a lot of great roles recently. I did think there were some overly ridiculous plot points towards the end of the movie, but overall I quite enjoyed it. It’s been something pretty different than a lot of the movies that I’ve been watching lately for this site. It does slightly make me want to re-watch Captain America which was done by the same director, Joe Johnston. I don’t think it quite lives up to the quality of Captain America, but it still has quite a few charms to it.
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Lego Batman the Movie: DC Heroes Unite
Lego Batman the Movie: DC Heroes Unite
This is a home video release by DC Premier and Traveller’s Tales releasing on Bluray and DVD May 21st, and it’s actually rather interesting because most of this movie is drawn from the Lego Batman 2 video game. Many of the scenes may have been reanimated to improve the quality and make minor corrections, and there has also been some new material created for the connective scenes, but aside from that it’s directly taken from the video game. While there have been many movies based on video games, I believe this is the first video game turned directly into a movie. I’ve been a fan of the Lego series of video games ever since the first Lego Star Wars games were released on the Playstation 2, they have a very irreverent sense of humor and a lot of meta jokes based around the fact that they are in a Lego world and Batman is no different.
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2013 Summer Superhero Movie Preview part 2
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights Presents
The 2013 Summer Superhero Movie Preview
Welcome back to part 2 of this summer’s superhero movie roundup where I check out all the comic book and superhero movies coming out on home video and in theaters through the second half of the summer. While less focused on actual superheroes, there are still several comic book-centric movies coming out in the latter half of the summer and at least one potential blockbuster. So let’s take a look at them, shall we?
2013 Summer Superhero Movie Preview Part 1
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights presents:
The Summer Superhero Movie Preview
It’s now the start of April and next month hails the start of the summer movie season with Iron Man 3. While I didn’t do this last year, I thought it would be in my best interest to let all of my readers know what superhero movies are coming out this summer and when, and which ones I’m looking forward to. So without further ado, let’s start this bad boy off!
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UHF
UHF 1989
This is one of my favorite movies from when I was younger. I grew up listening to Weird Al’s parodies and when I saw that he had made a movie, I just had to see it. I was expecting a movie parodying movies just like his songs parodied songs. What I wasn’t expecting was a superhero movie. Weird Al plays George Newman, someone who can alter reality to suit his own means, and he uses his powers to defeat the evil head of the C8 corporation, R. J. Fletcher, a mastermind enemy with his cadre of henchmen trying to eliminate George’s base of operations, his UHF headquarters.
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The Adventures of the American Rabbit
The Adventures of the American Rabbit 1986
On this Easter Sunday, after my daughter’s romp through the house finding all of her Angry Bird eggs I decided to kill two birds with one stone by putting on a somewhat Easter themed superhero movie. It’s got to be Easter themed since it has rabbits in it, right? Anyway I actually vaguely remember watching this movie when I was a kid but man does it totally not hold up in any way shape or form. Even Jena herself got bored with the movie when it was about halfway through and it’s only 80 minutes long. I thought it was great because I recognized a few voices from my childhood viewing, like the voice of The American Rabbit was Barry Gordon who also voiced Donatello in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a smaller part, the gorilla Ping Pong was played by Lorenzo Music who voiced Garfield for a long time, though his voice here reminded me a lot more of Tummy Gummy from the Adventures of the Gummi Bears. But even viewing this movie through a soft haze of nostalgia wasn’t able to save it from the ludicrous plots of villainy and barely there presence of the hero himself.
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All Star Superman
All Star Superman 2011
One thing that I enjoy about this site is when I go into a movie completely blind. I’ve done a bit of research and have had help to create a very inclusive list of comic book and superhero movies, and yet when I actually choose one of the movies I’ve never seen before, I don’t seek out synopses, or watch trailers, I like to go into the movies completely blind, and this was the case with All Star Superman. Many of the Superman stories I enjoy the most are the ones that try to get to the heart of his humanity, and yet All Star Superman really embraces his alien nature more than just about anything I’ve seen before. I have to admit that at first it was quite offputting, but by the end of the movie there was enough heart in it to win me over.
Superman and the Mole Men
Superman and the Mole Men 1951
Whenever I see lists of superhero or comic book movies, typically the first movie on that list is this one. Superman and the Mole Men is generally considered the first full length superhero movie even though there were serials for both Batman and Superman before this one. I knew practically nothing about this movie before I watched it other than it was in black and white, it starred George Reeves as Superman as it was essentially the pilot for the television series, and it had Mole Men in it. I was expecting a cheesy, old timey movie with bad fight scenes between Superman and some Mole Men. What I got instead was something a little closer to the Twilight Zone where the Mole Men aren’t actually the antagonists and there is a lot more morality issues going on than I would have first expected. It did have some goofy old timey qualities to it considering that I rarely watch a black and white movie. In fact I can count them on one hand. But it was a lot better movie than I expected it to be. It’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of Superman and you enjoy the occasional classic movie.
What ifs! What if you could kill one superhero?
Obviously I don’t mean in real life. But if you had the power of publishing to greenlight the storyline death of any one superhero, which would it be? Would you pick a superhero that’s too popular for his/her own good? Or one that you just personally don’t like? Would you like to see them go down in a big throwdown fight to the finish, or do you just want them gone whichever way possible? Of course, one thing that’s usually inevitable when it comes to superhero deaths is that they never stay dead. Would you like to see that changed in your case? I think practically every major superhero has died at one point in time, most notably Superman. But Spider-Man, Captain America, Green Lantern, Batman have all died at one point in time. If a famous comic book character dies, should they stay dead? Does it count if someone else takes up their mantle? Often times a death raises the popularity of a character rather than ending it. Personally, I think Wolverine is a good choice to die. It’s a tough one to do though, since the X-Men timeline basically has his lifespan extended from the revolutionary war on through two generations of mutants or more in the future. He’s a great character, but I think it would be good for him to go away for a long while, a victim of his own popularity. What say you? Leave your answer in the comments! Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 