Civil War

If you've been online in the past twenty four hours, then you've probably already seen the new trailer for the next Marvel movie installment - Captain America: Civil War.

If not, here it is. Enjoy.

If you're a Marvel nerd like me, then you're probably shitting your pants. 

All your favorite characters, plus some new ones, fighting each other in a battle for righteousness. 

We got the Captain himself, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Bucky Barnes, and Hawkeye versus Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, The Vision and (introducing) Black Panther. And then there will be cameos from other characters like Ant Man, Baron Zemo, Crossbones, and the new Spider-man played by Tom Holland (who I hope will redeem the catastrophe that cry-baby Andrew Garfield gave us). 

Anyways, a lot of people have been asking - why are these heroes, who are supposed to be on the same side, fighting each other?

The same applies to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Why are these heroes fighting?

Well, if you haven't read the comic book, Civil War, (which I highly recommend before seeing the movie), the government has issued a Superhuman Registration Act, a legislative bill which requires the mandatory registration of any person based in the United States with super powers. The act arose due to public pressure for accountability following a series of superhuman-related events causing significant damage and death within the Marvel universe. Iron man thinks this is a great idea. Captain America does not. This then escalades into a great battle between those in favor and those opposed.

The comic books features a lot of characters that probably won’t make the movie – including the Fantastic Four, Punisher, Tigra, a lot of the X-Men (who are owned by Fox) and many, many more.

But the thing I’m most concerned about is if Marvel will have the balls to really make this a good and gritty story. (Hopefully, they’ll learn from the success of Deadpool) But I don’t mean that there needs to be dick jokes every thirty seconds or Tony Stark has to say fuck a lot. What I mean is that you have two of the mightiest heroes in the Marvel Universe going at it in a war. And, in war, there is always a loser, and there are always casualties.

From the looks of the trailer, it looks like War Machine will definitely be one of these casualties thus making matters more personal for Iron Man.

I personally can’t wait for the movie.  And I can’t wait to see how they’ll end it. Because, we have two of the most beloved Marvel characters fighting, but one of them has to lose.

WHO WILL IT BE?!

I guess we'll just have to wait until May 6th...

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.  

Iron Man 3

Tonight, I was lucky enough to see Iron Man 3 in 3D.  Personally, I thought it was very well done.  I'm not really into the sci-fi kind of stuff, but I really did enjoy this film.

Two parts of the film that I found exceptional were 1) It was very comedic.  There were parts of the film where I found myself cracking up.
and 2) The special effects were amazing.  The (what seemed like) endless names of people who were on the special effects team goes to show that each effect was worked on and perfected by multiple people.

My only critique-- a predictable story line.  You knew who the bad buy was from the very first scene.  If the writing were a little less predictable, that would have greatly helped.

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