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.

Ready for Summer!

After filming The Goods again, screwing it up by accident and only having one film to screen- I'm ready to relax and watch someone else's projects this summer.

Iron Man 3 just came out and I was lucky enough to see it the night before. It was amazing and a great ending to the trilogy. During the previews, there were a bunch of trailers for films coming out this summer and fall. And I've got to say, I'm super pumped for almost all of them!

Wolverine will be coming back to the silver screen to continue his origin story. Being a Marvel nerd, this makes me super excited for him being in Japan. It's a key point in his story and it also helps that I love Hugh Jackman...

The Great Gatsby is only a week away from premier! Like a lot of people, The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books. The cast is phenomenal and the director is fantastic. He's directed so many beautiful films such as Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet. Baz Luhrmann was a great choice to director this movie.

Star Trek is also creeping up this month and I can't wait to go to the midnight premier! Yes, I do have an Enterprise shirt that I'm planning on wearing to the screening and yes I'm a bit more excited to see this one than the previous film because Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are beautiful men.

Good luck to everyone at the screenings and have a great summer!

Another Les Mis Post

Yes, I know we just had a Les Mis post.  And I just want to say that I agree with everything that was said.  I loved the film, it was a great adaptation of the musical, and the acting and singing was incredible.  In fact, I can almost say that Les Mis was my favorite movie of the year (there were so many good ones!).  That said, I liked it so much that I can afford to be nit-picky.  There were a few technical aspects that I thought suffered because of the uniqueness of the film.

Despite the great performance, the framing and eyeline do not match

In a way, this goes back to a lot of the discussion we had in class regarding acting for film and acting for theatre.  Much of the film was shot in such a way to let the actors act as they saw fit.  Because the musical performances set the pacing of the film, the cinematography suffered because the pacing was not as tight as it would be under normal conditions.  For instance, there were framing issues throughout, as the steadicam operators struggled to keep up with the actors moving around so freely.  There were also some weird eyeline issues.  It is obvious that from a directorial standpoint, the performance was placed above the cinematography in terms of choosing which take to put in the final cut.  That said, I am glad they made that choice because it led to the great performances that we saw.

Like I said, this was a great movie that I enjoyed very much, and it was innovative in a lot of respects.  But because of these innovations, it led to some neglect of the traditional approach.

Also, in no way do I mean to knock the steadicam operators.  They did some awesome work as seen in the behind the scenes video below.

Huge Jackman!

Best known for his role as Wolverine or Logan in the X-Men series Hugh Jackman has come a long way from Australia to being nominated for an Academy Award with one of theaters most proud plays, Les Miserables.  I like Jackman as an actor and I believe he fits the role of Wolverine perfectly which is why you don't see his face in many other places.  When Hugh tried to play the role of Van Helsing the critics did not like him; not having seen the film since it came out in 2004, I have no opinion on his role.

Unfortunately for Jackman many directors and producers have not seen him in playing a lead role in a blockbuster other then Wolverine.  But he was given a chance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role.  If he gets it, not only will it promote the movie even more but it will give Jackman another chance at other lead roles besides Wolverine.  Jackman has been considered for many other roles for other comics but continues to be turned away for other stars or up and coming actors.  The role of Wolverine is one that is going down in the record books for one of films favorite characters and for Jackman for playing the role consistently over 5 films, beating Christopher Reeve as Superman for 4 films.

A New Production of a Classic

I would like to bring your attention, if it has not already been brought, to a remake of a classic musical that is set to come out in 2012. Now, I am not one to like musicals in general, I think that Rent and Wicked have gotten played so many times, and now whenever I hear a song from them my brain clenches up like a fist. Yeah, you could say I'm sick of them.

There is one musical, however, that ever since I was in it in senior year of high school never ceases to bring joy to my heart and a tear to my eye. That musical, ladies and gentlemen, is Les Miserables. The tragic yet uplifting story of Jean Valjean and his pursuer Javert amid the chaos of revolutionary France is nothing short of amazing. And IMDB says that they are set to remake it.

Not only are they going to remake it, but the cast that is rumored to star is crazy good. Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert, Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thenardier, and Geoffrey Rush is rumored to play Monsieur Thenardier. I mean...really. It going to be amazing.

It's going to be directed by Tom Hooper, who also directed The King's Speech.

You can read more about the new production here, and here is a trailer for the 1998 version starring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Therman and Claire Danes.