Daredevil

Netflix recently released Its newest series "Daredevil".  It is based on Marvel's comic book series flowing Mathew Murdock, a blind man, who is fighting for the innocent in a corrupt world. Like any other superhero story, Murdock has a hidden life of Vigilante work where he disguises himself as "Daredevil".

Murdock is played by actor Charlie Cox who has also played rolls in Startdust, and The Theory of Everything. I personally think he is a good fit for the roll after watching the first few episodes of the series.

The Production quality of the show is excellent from what I have seen so far. My only complaint is the acting. The lead characters are all fine however sometimes the supporting actors come off as delivering lines which pulls me out of the world.

My favorite part of the show has to be the sound. The sound design for this show is phenomenal in my opinion. I may not be the most beautiful or fluid, however when following the life of a man who cannot see, one must see the word through sound and I believe the series is doing well with this so far.

Overall rate in my opinion is 8/10

Big Hero 6: Review

Hey guys, so guess what I saw last night. It's okay take your time to think about it. Did you guess Big Hero 6? Then you guessed right! I figured I would do a little review of this film for my post today!

Quick summary of the film for those you who don't know what it's about, much like me going in. The film revolves around Hiro, a young boy genius who teams up with Baymax, a robot designed for health care services (kind of like a nurse), and a group of college age teens- to fight an evil villain by using the advanced tech they design themselves. It's also based on a Marvel Comic book, which is a plus for me because you know how much of a superhero/comic book nerd I am.

I didn't really know what to expect going into this film. I had seen a few trailers for it and heard the song Fall Out Boy made for the soundtrack, but that was about the extent of my pre-knowledge going into the theater. This is also Disney's first Marvel film outside their extremely successful live action series the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" since they acquired the rights back in 2009, so I was interested to see how a different one of their studios handled the material.

I was actually extremely surprised and impressed by the film. For what sounds mostly like it's going to by a fun and goofy adventure film for kids, the backbone of Big Hero 6 is surprising the emotional relationships between Hiro and his brother, Tadashi, as well as between Hiro and Baymax. I found some of the best moments of the film to be those scenes in which these characters interacted and bonded.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this film was the setting and world building. The film takes place in the fictional "San Fransokyo", which is obviously a hybrid of San Francisco and Tokyo. The setting adds to the East meets West ideas of the film, and is brilliantly realized. All the shots of the city are interesting and intricate, and one of my favorite things about watching the film was discovering what was done to blend the cities together.

The only critique I can really give this film is minor, but it must still be said. I felt as the the secondary characters, Hiro and Baymax's friends and teammates, did not get as much time to shine as they deserved. That's not to say each of the characters were not unique or interesting, but we don't really get the chance to learn much about them other than their personalities. I know this is because the filmmakers wanted to spend more time with Hiro, Baymax, and Tadashi as they are the center of the film and it's message, but it would have been nice to learn at least a little more about some of the other characters who make up the Big Hero 6 team.

That being said, this was really fun to watch and overall a pretty great film. It's a fun film to go see with a bunch of friends. If you are a fan of Disney or animated films in general I would definitely recommend you go see it. I would give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer is out and I'm gonna talk about it

Hey friends. So, a few days ago a bootlegged version of the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer leaked. It spread around really fast and a lot of people saw it, so Marvel ended up releasing the trailer officially in HD- even though it was not supposed to be released until next Tuesday during the Agents of Shield episode on ABC.

Basically it was the best day ever for Lindsay, comic book movie nerd. If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it because it looks awesome.

So there's a lot of interesting things about this trailer.

First of all, this film looks much darker than the previous Avenger's film. (And really any other Marvel film's in this franchisee). This is an interesting direction for Marvel to go in, as they are generally loved for their "upbeat and fun" comic book films (Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, etc), while DC usually tends to go on the darker side (Dark Knight, Man of Steel, etc.). This is not to say that none of the Marvel films deal with darker themes, but overall the tone of most of their movies is fun and lighthearted.

But, it has seemed that since the release of the first Avengers film, Marvel has been progressively getting darker. Iron Man 3 was similar in tone to The Avengers, but the squeal to Thor was literally titled Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Solider which came out last April was certainly their darkest and most serious film to date. So it is not a complete surprise to see this new Avengers film going to that darker place, but when in comparison to the first film this squeal looks especially gritty.

For those of you who don't know much about comic books or the Marvel cinematic universe, you were probably a little confused by Ultron (the scary robot villain quoting Pinocchio). Some quick background, Ultron is a Artificial Intelligence (kind of like Jarvis, from the Iron Man movies) and he is created by Tony Stark (in the comic books he is created by Hank Pym, but that is not important, I'm just adding this detail as not to offend any of my fellow nerds) to help the Avengers protect and improve the earth. However, as his programing evolves he decides that the best way to protect the Earth is to wipe out humanity.

That song that plays during the trailer is in fact "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio.

A lot different from the version in the trailer, am I right? Disney did something similar when they released the trailer for Maleficent last year, remaking the classic song "Once Upon a Dream" to sounds more dark and eerie.

He quotes it in reference to the fact that he has evolved past humanity and the humans who created him can no longer control him like a puppet. Marvel was able to so blatantly reference/use disney music because Marvel is actually a property of Disney. I never would have thought to put a music from a children's movie behind a scary robot villain, but it somehow works extremely well. Ultron pretty freaky.

Basically to sum up my thoughts, I think this is an extremely effective trailer and I'm super excited to see where they take this film.

How to Make a Sequel

No one has to explain why there are sequels and I'm not here to say that sequels should or shouldn't be made. But if someone is trying to make a sequel, here are the best things to do and things to think about before you make one. First off, you should always always ask why. Why does there need to be a sequel and what does it offer? Do we need to see more robots blow up buildings or does the fifth installment tell a tale about an aspect the viewers have never seen. Does Optimus Prime fall in love with a human in Transformers 5? I would watch that. A film isn't interesting if you just slab the same plot with the same characters in it, no matter how interesting the characters. The key is to make a film feel new but by using character you love and a world you know.

So it's hard not to look at superhero films on this topic but it's the easiest to compare to sequels because as you know there's a lot of them. So let's look at a great example, earlier this year Marvel Studios released Captain America: Winter Solider the sequel to 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. The film released to rave reviews and shows how to make a sequel. The film takes these characters people love from the first film but breaks deeper into their lives. Anthony and Joe Russo created a film in a completely different genre but with the same characters. Now a spy thriller the film feels fresh and explores themes that are exciting but continue the story from the original. All of this plus beautiful cinematography, it's well written and it's well acted. Basically, if you have two more hours of the same characters lets learn something new and explore new ideas in this world. 

Someone should never make a sequel because of money, but sorry folks that's just the way the world works. Obvious sequels are created to make more money but I believe Marvel is trying to prove that sequels aren't always a bad thing. And this could be for the good or the bad. I believe every film could have a sequel in some way or another but the question is not whether you can, but if you should. (Well that reminds me of the moral of Jurassic Park. *crossing my fingers for Jurassic World*

Why comic book movies are dominating the Hollywood Box Office

For those of you who know me, you are probably not at all surprised by the fact that I chose to write my first post on this blog about comic book movies. If you do not know me yet, hello my name is Lindsay Koenig and I am a huge nerd. But according to the Hollywood summer box office, I'm not alone.

This summer Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, released a film based on a little known comic book called Guardians of the Galaxy. This was considered a pretty big risk for the studio because unlike previous films they'd released such as Captain America or Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy was not a popular comic book series. Not only this, but Guardians was by far the most "comic book like" of all their previous films; featuring a colorful cast of alien characters such as a talking tree and raccoon. The studio had no way of knowing if this quirky film would make any money at the box office.

But Marvel Studios needn't have worried. The film opened with a whooping 95 million dollars in it's opening weekend. Not only that but it has since made over 251 million dollars and has secured it's place as the top grossing film of the summer and is on track to be the highest grossing film of the year.

Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't the only comic book film to roll in the dough this year, however.
In fact, 4 of the top 10 grossing films of 2014 are comic book movies. Here's a look at some of the other big money makers.

Amazing Spiderman 2

Released May 2, 2014

$202 Million 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Released May 22

$232 Million

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Released April 4th

$259 Million 

So what is it about comic book films that makes them so successful? And why are some studio's comic book movies more successful than others?

To figure this out I'm going to start with the most successful studio out of the many currently producing comic book movies: the Disney owned Marvel Studios.

Back in 2008, Marvel Studios released it's first film. Iron Man became the first in what would become one of the most successful film series of all time. Iron Man was a huge hit not only with audiences, but also with critics. Before 2008 (which also featured the success of Warner Brothers comic book flick The Dark Knight) comic book films were looked at as a bit of a joke, or one notes without much depth to them other than actors in spandex fighting bad guys. 

What made Iron Man so unique, and I believe ultimately so successful, is that there is much more to the film than it's action and explosions.

Firstly, the main character of the film is flawed. Tony Stark feels like a real person, not the typical "do-gooder, responsible hero" type character one might except from a children's cartoon series. Because Tony Stark feels like a real person it is easy for the audience to relate to him and become invested in his story. I would argue that Marvel does an excellent job of making all their heroes seem like real people with real flaws, problems, and emotions. It would be easy for a larger than life character like Iron Man or Captain America to slip into something like a caricature, but these films do a great job of grounding their heroes and making them accessible to the audiences.  

Secondly, something that I found hugely important to the success of a film such as Iron Man, is the respect for the source material. While many might find the subject matter to be a bit of a joke, or something silly or goofy (see the Batman films outside of the Dark Knight Trilogy); Marvel Studios has been extremely respectful to it's source material. There is an element of seriousness to Iron Man and the other Marvel films, even when events on screen would seem far fetched in real life. The stakes are real for these characters, which makes it real for the audience. If you don't understand what I'm getting at think about it this way, Iron Man doesn't make "boom" "pow" nosies when he is fighting bad guys, does he?

Thirdly, and what I would argue most importantly, is that Iron Man deals with issues that are relevant to our world and society today. Within the first few minutes of the film our main character is captured by terrorists. Not only this, but Tony Stark's character arc involves him dealing with the fact that his company not only sold weapons to the American Military but also to terrorist groups, and Stark realizing his responsibility for what his company has done. These plot lines hit pretty close to home, especially in a world where terrorism is such a prevalent issue. By tackling such topics, Iron Man becomes more than just a movie about a superhero.

Since Iron Man, many other comic book flicks have tackled important societal and emotional issues. Iron Man 3 dealt with anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder, while Captain America: The Winter Solider had a heavy political subplot about government and power. Even Guardians of the Galaxy, for all it's crazy space shenanigans, contained undertones about loss and dealing with grief. 

Marvel Studios isn't the only studios whose comic book films deal with issues outside of what might be excepted for the average Hollywood action flick. 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise deals largely with the way society treats minorities, while Warners Brother's Dark Knight films focus on issues such as terrorism and corruption.

These are just a few of the many reasons I believe comic book movies have been so successful in recent years, and why they continue to dominate the box office. I can only open that other genres start to pick up on what makes these films so successful. If every popcorn flick was as good as the average comic book film, Hollywood would be in good shape.

Super Hero Movies

During my usual week check on Rotten Tomatoes, I noticed that the new Captain America movie scraped in 95 million dollars at the box office. It really made me think, why the hell are these super hero movies grossing so much money? What makes them so appealing these days. Well for one thing Super Hero movies are a form of escapism. We love rooting for the underdog, and in every super hero movie the underdog quality is always there. One interesting fact I noticed that the last time super heroes were so big was during their debut in the 1930's. The 1930's was the time of the Great Depression, comics like Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Wonder Women were all made to help people escape via reading during tough times. I find it so fascinating that these films have becomes so popular during tough economic times. "In the 1930s, the American Dream had become a nightmare, and I think comic books and superheroes in particular provided an escapist form of entertainment that allowed the American public to go into a fantasy world where all the ills of the world were righted by these larger-than-life heroes," says Erin Clancy, a curator at the Skirball. Despite weather you like these films are not, they definitely give us a lot of hope during tough times. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Did you watch it? Well if you didn't, then do it. Seriously. Now.

This trailer has revived my faith in reboots. At the start of the trailer, we see Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) discussing their weekends. The short conversation brings back much of the light humor from the first film as well as a reminder that Capt. isn't in his domain anymore--keep in mind he was frozen in ice for many decades.

As he jumps out of the plane, it's hard not to smile. "Was he wearing a parachute?" "No. No he wasn't." From those two lines, viewers are reminded of Captain America's greatest superpower: courage. It's cheesy, I know, but that's why Steve Rogers was chosen to be the world's first superhero, anyway. Wasn't it? Besides his super strength, quick reflexes, and devilishly good looks, the greatest thing about this hero is what's inside. It's why we all grew to love him in the first film.

"I joined SHIELD to protect people." This line worked as another great reminder of why we love this hero. The only reason Captain America does what he does is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. He swore that he would use his powers for the greater good of the world. Without his promise, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to be the hero he became.

"Captain, to build a better world sometimes means turning the old one down. And that makes enemies." Oh no! Conflict! What could it be?? We don't know, and that's the point. A good trailer doesn't need to flat-out tell you what the main conflict in the story is. Can they? Sure. But I'm personally a fan of showing rather than telling, which is what the trailer goes on to do.

We are then shown a shot of this man...

Say hello to The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), the newest addition to Marvel's movie heroes. The Falcon, also known as Sam Wilson, has the powers to telepathically communicate with birds and can see what birds see. Who knows if Marvel will stay true to these powers, considering they seem to like to stay away from supernatural powers in their films, but this hero is also highly trained in hand-to-hand combat and, yes, even gymnastics. I'm not quite sure how our new character will be incorporated into the storyline of this film, but at least Marvel can throw him into the Avengers in the upcoming sequel.

"Look out the window. You know how the game works. Disorder. War." It's easy to tell that this Captain America sequel will be much, much darker than the first. After just listening to this one line, as well as watching cars blow up, I suddenly knew that this film will probably not be nearly as light-hearted or comical as the first. Marvel seems to be going down this road with all their sequels. Iron Man 2 was clearly much darker than the first, but then much of the humor we loved from the first film  was brought back for the third installment. The upcoming Thor sequel looks much darker in content has well.

"We want to neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen." "I thought the punishment usually came after the crime...This isn't freedom. This is fear." I guess Marvel decided to take a more real-world approach in this film! Often with government agencies--the FBI, the CIA--people question the morals of the things they do and the way those things are carried out. Captain America takes the stance of much of the general public when Nick Fury tells him that SHIELD is taking a new approach to fighting possible threats. He accuses Fury of what many people accuse the U.S. government of doing--acting without just cause.

Next, we see Captain America kick and punch a group of guys in an elevator. Many explosions follow.

In the ending shot of the trailer, we finally get a better look at the villain of the film. They call him the Winter Soldier, but his real name is...wait for it...almost there...getting closer...Bucky Barnes!! Yup! It's Captain's best, dead friend from the first film. How is he alive? No clue. I'm sure I could ask Google and I'd find out in a matter of thirty seconds but I'd much rather find out when I see the film in theaters--probably on opening night.

Along with the excellent dialogue selections they chose from the film, the makers of the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier used some very visually appealing shots to even further enhance the effectiveness of the trailer. I'm not usually one to enjoy sequels, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jumping up and down in my seat after watching this trailer.

Marvel, The Punisher

"The Dead Can't Be Distracted" is a fan-made film based off of Marvel's character, The Punisher. Unfortunately, we'll never see this film because Marvel recently sent them a letter demanding that they cease all production and distribution:

“While we appreciate your affection for the character, we must demand that you immediately stop your unauthorized use, advertising, sale and/or distribution of any production of The Punisher or any other Marvel character-based films therefor, and any other use of the images, likenesses, artwork or other intellectual property owned by Marvel.”

“Your actions confuse consumers into believing that they are viewing an authentic Marvel production or one sponsored or licensed by Marvel, when they are not.”

“Marvel reserves the right to take whatever remedies are available to it at law and in equity, and shall do whatever best protects its interests.”

(Taken from this blog)

The creator of this film, Mike Pecci, was taken aback by this letter... many fan-made films have be released before. Wonder Woman and Judge Minty (based off of Judge Dredd), to name a couple prominent ones. Like these short films, "The Dead Can't Be Distracted"looks like an incredibly well done independent film. I mean check out this short teaser trailer:

This is no teenager-made film in a basement with a JVC 100 and flashlights. It's clear that he put a lot of time and effort into this. Mike Pecci is a big fan of Marvel and enjoys everything they've released. This made it that much harder when he received a letter from them to halt all production of the film.

On top of this he received full support from Marco Checchetto, the artist of The Punisher comic books, who said quote:

“HOLY SH$T!!!  I'm very impressed!!! I don't know how you did it, but you hit the full atmosphere of my pages!”

(taken from Mike Pecci's blog post)

So why now? 

Fan-based films have been released before, so why did Marvel choose to tackle this one? Marvel said it would confuse their audience, but Pecci clearly states in the film that it's a fan-made piece. It's possible that Marvel has it's eyes on making another Punisher movie soon and wouldn't want it to mesh with their creation. After all, the Avenger series will dry out in another 5 years or so and it seems logical they would then move on to the Marvel's Knights (which includes The Punisher). Regardless of the reason though, this brings light to a bigger issue... 

Greed.

I'm not here to go on a boo-corporate rant. That's not what this is. But recently we have seen an immense increase in audience-made content. Cameras a cheaper, and special effects programs are easier to learn. YouTube and other sites enable videos to be shared with anyone. It's inevitable that the remaking and remixing of ideas will not only continue, but increase. Why? Because people like to see content they're already familiar with. 

Everyone loves the Harry Potter Puppet Pals video because of their familiarity with the world of Harry Potter. The creators of this video didn't come up with Harry Potter but they wrote the song and created the video. Do they deserve recognition for it? I would say so. If they made a revenue, would J.K. Rowling deserve a piece of it? I would say not. I love the woman dearly, but she put in no work for the creation of this video besides providing a stigma of an idea. She wrote her books, and made money off them that she deserved. She also assisted in the creation of all the Harry Potter films produced by Warner Brothers, and I would say she deserved a piece of that revenue too. But what about a Harry Potter board game that she didn't help out with at all? Yes, she provided the idea. But I believe people deserve money for the work they do. And the creation of that board game required no extra effect on her part. 

It goes something like this:

"Hey! They're making money off my idea! I deserve some of that money too!"

It makes sense on the surface, but compared to the work the "idea stealers" put in, did you really DO anything besides come up the idea? Some might say you deserve money for that, but I say you should stop being so greedy and just let the real workers get their pay check. 

Obviously there's a big grey area. It goes on a case by case basis because some "idea stealers" are just in it for the money too. In fact, most probably are. So what we have to bank on is the work they put in for it. The creative, physical, and intellectual work. It's a rough system and it would need a lot of clarification. But the clarification is necessary because this is an issue that is not going away. Yes we are stopping the stealing of ideas with the current system, but we are also stopping a lot of genuine creative talent. That means there's room for improvement. 

Let me bring is back to Marvel real quick. Harry Potter Puppet pals was created with no problem and gained all the attention it deserved. "The Dead Can't Be Distracted", however, will not. And this film is not some cheap viral YouTube video.... there was a cast, crew, and excessive hard work. 

Of course we all understand the value of copyright. Without that protection, there could be no industry. But we're not talking about stealing someone else's property. We're talking about a cooperate machine that owns thousands of characters, most of which were bought from the original artists. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... love it or hate it, Marvel has been keeping us entertained for over 70 years. 

But fan films are important. They're important for the fans to feel like they're apart of the story and for the company's brand (in this case Marvel) to grow stronger with the audience. I would love to see "The Dead Can't Be Distracted", and if you would too then please send @Marvel a tweet and voice your support of fan-made material. 

Bring Our Heroes Home

I've always had a particular affinity for super-hero flicks. Spiderman was one of my first "favorite movies" outside of Disney animated films. I had read some comic books prior to the release of the film, and there was something special about watching the ink leap off the page and onto the big screen. Although I love the Nolan Batman, throughout my life, I've always been an ardent Marvel fan. There haven't been too many "duds" in the Marvel cinematic line-up, save a few, particularly those coming from 20th Century Fox. Recently, Marvel Studios has done a spectacular job under the tutelage of Joss Whedon and Disney. I think they've stuck a chord with the general public, a chord that reflects the nature of the Marvel Comics themselves. However, there is still an incomplete feeling in the total Marvel Universe, stemming from property rights.

In 2012, "The Avengers" became the 3rd highest grossing film of all time, and the highest grossing super-hero film. Although these summer blockbusters usually tend to do really well, there was something special about this film. I think the success of the film derives from the fact that this is essentially a crossover. It takes six heroes, four of whom had modern film adaptions, and pitted them against a common enemy. In each of the previous films based on only one hero, the hero struggles to save the world against a single enemy. If we assume that the badder the villain, the more action there will be, then a villain must be really really bad to warrant six super-heroes, and therefore the film will have a ton of action. In another sense, the very idea that some of a fan's favorite characters will be featured in the same movie is a big enough draw in itself.

"The Avengers" did not reinvent the wheel when it comes to crossovers. Crossovers have been a particularly good way to increase viewership in almost every medium in the past century. Successful video games such as Supersmash Bros. and Marvel vs. Capcom pit different characters in battle. Cartoons like "Scooby Doo" often featured notable celebrities and characters in episodes such as Scooby Doo Meets Batman and Bravo Dooby Doo. There were also numerous Flinstones and Jetsons crossovers. This trend doesn't apply only to cartoons and video games, successful television shows, geared toward adults, share characters, or feature characters from other shows for brief periods of time. There have been numerous CSI crossovers between "CSI: New York", "CSI", and "CSI: Miami". In comedy, the show "Friends" shared the character Ursula Buffay with "Mad About You".


The crossover has been an important tool throughout Marvel's history. There have been 86 official Marvel Comics crossovers to date, as well as an innumerable amount of brief, one issue cameos. Perhaps most recently and notably are Marvel's critically acclaimed Civil War comics, which pit nearly every super-hero in the Marvel Universe against each other in spectacular fashion. Featuring multiple heroes together has been at the roots of Marvel's success, success that the "The Avengers" was able to tap into.

As of right now, Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, still has control of the rights to a majority of the heroes in the Marvel canon. However, the heroes they don't own are integral parts of the the Marvel Universe. Twentieth Century Fox has the rights to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Elektra. Sony Pictures owns both Spiderman and Ghost-Rider. Lionsgate owns Punisher, and New- Line Cinema owns Blade.

Now, I'm not saying that the fact that the Marvel properties are scattered leads to inherently bad films. This wouldn't be either fair or true. Movies such as X-Men : First Class, have been spectacular. The Spiderman films, both in the early 2000's and recently, have been a consistent hit. However, they seem very one dimensional, being trapped in a microcosm of the larger Marvel Universe. I'm sure it's frustrating for the people working on the projects as well. There was recently a story about how Hugh Jackman was supposed to make a cameo in the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies as Wolverine, but was unfortunately not able to because of legal issues. That's so unfortunate because the Wolverine- Spiderman dynamic is one of the most fun in the entire Marvel Universe. There so many things that can be done with a complete set of heroes, and it's unfortunate that there are things standing in the way of creating the best product possible. The reason phase one of Marvel's plan of movies was so successful was because the creators realized that each individual story played into a larger one, and gave little nods  to the fans here and there to get that point across.

So, I'm making a plea to Disney. Your buying powers are simply amazing. You flexed your muscle last year by purchasing Lucasfilm for a whopping 4.6 Billion. Bring your stranded super-heroes home. It's in your best interest. Your current model is working. It's what I want, and it's what you should want. Make the Marvel cinematic universe whole.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

With Carl Potts arriving tomorrow, the following seemed pretty appropriate to post about.  I should hope that most of you are aware that there is in fact an Avengers movie franchise, brought to us by Marvel Studios.  This franchise has brought us three Iron Man films, one Thor film with another shortly on the way (October 30), one Hulk film, one Captain America film with another on the horizon, and of course the huge blockbuster that was the Avengers last summer.  

The Avengers grossed $1.5 billion dollars worldwide in Summer 2012.  This gave it the title of "Most Successful Week of All Time" and places it third for "All Time Box Office" (behind James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic).  I personally saw this film 3 times in theaters, which I don't often do.  With the intense box office numbers, it came as no surprise when Marvel Studios announced in July that there would be a sequel to The Avengers and it would be titled "The Avengers: Age of Ultron".  

At the end of The Avengers, there is a short teaser that features Marvel villain, Thanos (see right).  

With the announcement of Age of Ultron, the rumors and speculation that Thanos would be the next villain for The Avengers 2 were readily abandoned and speculation as to who would play Ultron immediately commenced.  As of the end of August, Marvel Studios announced that James Spader would play the role of Ultron. Spader has most recently been in the spotlight for his new show, The Blacklist, which scored top ratings for its time slot last Monday evening.  Spader has just recently sat down with Joss Whedon, the director of Avengers, and his also gotten his entire body scanned to assist with CGI and the creation of Ultron (Spader and Ultron below).

For Spader there will be a fair amount of travel involved if The Blacklist sees itself renewed, as the Avengers sequel is being shot at Shepperton Studios in England (and The Blacklist is of course shot in LA).  

The other recent tidbit announced for this movie comes directly from director Joss Whedon, who has promised that the Avengers sequel will feature even more of Black Widow.  He recently said the following:

"Natasha is a huge part of the sequel because you do want to concentrate on the people who don't have their own franchises. Although she in 'Cap 2,' [and] she's great. She was the most fun for me because she's not a hero, you know, and it's something that I read—and I feel bad that I can't remember who wrote the book—but it's in one of the books explaining, 'These guys are heroes, you are a spy. It's a different thing—it's a different skill set—and you don't have their moral high ground or any of that good stuff.' And that just makes her so interesting to me. So yeah, the stuff I've got going on with her in the second one is killer."

Many fans have been calling for a prequel for Black Widow and Hawk Eye, as they allude far too often to "Budapest" in the first Avengers film.  It seems that the origin story of them meeting may wind up to be something Marvel is too greedy to pass up. 
Overall I would say I am incredibly excited to see what Marvel is going to be producing not just from Age of Ultron, but other projects as well.  

Marvel vs DC Comics

     One of the most popular super hero movies as of the last 5 years has been Iron Man.  Since Disney Corp. bought Marvel in 2009, the superhero movies have been coming out of the box office like crazy. DC Comics has been trying to compete with The Dark Knight Series and now Superman: Man of Steel.  But the truth of the matter is that Marvel is several movies ahead of DC and has been generating a lot of revenue.  Because of this DC Comics plans on using Christopher Nolan as their weapon in the competition for superhero movies.

     This clash of studios is great for the industry and for the comics themselves.  A lot of merchandise and advertisements has been and will continue to pour into the market.  The two big blockbuster movies from each of these studios for the summer is Iron Man 3 and Superman: Man of Steel.  I have high expectations for both movies and I look forward to seeing them.  If all goes according to plan Christopher Nolan will continue to produce/ direct the DC films including the Justice League.  It is exciting to see what these companies have in store for an audience who is in superhero mode.

This week in movies...

Friday: Tonight, I've just watched Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino. And I've got to say I was taken aback by it. And I'm not sure if in a good or a bad way.

In one aspect it was beautifully done and in Tarantino-fashion. Lots of blood, lots of "F" and "N" words but wonderfully showed the grittiness of what it means to do a "job".

Maybe it's due to the last few of his movies I've seen are his quote-on-quote best movies, that I built it up as going to be just another Pulp Fiction but with more mobsters.

Hopefully if I watch it again in a few weeks or so, I'll appreciate it more... Of course I enjoyed when Blonde cut the cops ear off- the pacing of it was so well done that my ear only hurt once I saw the ear in Blonde's hand.

And like always, the soundtrack was on point... And I loved Orange's references to Marvel... made my night.

Saturday: This afternoon my boyfriend and I saw Gangster Squad. He wasn't sure on whether we should see it or not since the website, Rotten Tomatoes, gave it a low score. I usually hate what most critics say about a movie so I finally beat the whole "But Emma Stone is in it!" to a pulp and we finally got to see it.

It wasn't that bad. Now, I enjoyed Josh Brolin bash peoples' faces in and Ryan Gosling in a fitted suit but it was a movie you have to see at least once. The story telling was sub-par but it was still a good gangster movie. Brolin's wife in the movie was one of my favorite characters and the fight scenes were always exciting. 

Don't spend your money on the movie while it's out in theaters- wait till it's either at your $2 theatre or until it's at RedBox. If you like Ryan Gosling and gun fights, might as well check it out.

Iron Man 3

While browsing Youtube earlier this week I was excited to see an early trailer for Iron Man 3. As a huge Iron Man and Marvel fan, I’m looking forward to the film’s release and hoping that it will be a strong addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

The trailer indicated that the film’s story is based mainly on the “Extremis” story arc from the Iron Man comics. The arc involves Tony Stark becoming infected with the Extremis virus, a serum comprised of microscopic nanomachines that “rewrites the body’s repair center” in order to have the subject become a super soldier. The results vary for each subject, and for Stark the Extremis virus causes him to develop a technological link with his Iron Man armor and to process information at an accelerated rate. 

The main villain of the film is the Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. In the comics, the Mandarin uses ten magical rings to fight against Iron Man; it will certainly be interesting to see how the movie will balance science and magic. The trailer also showed what looked like the Iron Patriot, but after reading information about the film online, I found that the suit is actually the War Machine model with a patriotic paint job.

Iron Man 3 will be out on May 3rd, and I'm looking forward to seeing it! You can watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EjG-1U3wqA