Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Comic Movie Takeover! You In?

By Carlo Nuño at 2:50 PM


Despite furious attempts by Nicolas Cage to single handedly destroy all credibility of movies adapted from comic book characters, see either of the Ghost Rider movies (ironically this is what I felt inside as I watched them), three comic movies are coming out this summer that I have no doubt will keep this superhero gravy train rolling.

The Avengers - Assemble Trailer (April 26)
To say I was disappointed when I heard this movie was being made without Edward Norton as The Hulk, would be a massive understatement. For myself and almost everyone I have ever spoken to about the Hulk movies he personified Bruce Banner better than anyone anticipated. Granted that is not saying much since our only sample size to that point was this douche. Fast forward a few years and now we are stuck with Mark Ruffalo, who I have to admit, has  had a few good cinematic moments.....actually I only really liked him in "Zodiac". Mostly he has put out crap like "Apartment 12", its on Netflix (don't bother), so my expectations for his Bruce Banner are pretty low but the addition of Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye will surely cancel out any bad moments by Ruffalo.



Thankfully the sharp-tongue quick-witted fast-talking Tony Stark is here to save this movie from itself. Has anyone ever been more perfectly type-cast in a role than Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark? Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool comes to mind (that movie is going to rock!). Iron Man will undoubtedly hold this script together. Along with Jeremy Renner, provided he gets enough lines, and Samuel L. Jackson if he gets the chance to go all Jules Winnfield on someone's ass. Chris Hemsworth's Thor looks like he can take a joke, Scarlett Johansson, probably the sexiest Jew ever, is really only in this movie for her sex appeal, and Chris Evan's Captain America, although entertaining enough, is kind of a pretentious dick. But bottom line - superheroes, a sexy woman, big action and Tony Stark? SIGN ME UP!

The Amazing Spider-Man - Trailer 2 (July 3)
Generally I don't like or think re-boots are necessary to franchises or titles that have done fairly well on their own as is. However, in the case of Spider-Man I could not be more excited to see this re-boot take place. Over the years I have made it well known that I thought the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies were shit. From the first one all the way up to the third one they got progressively worse and I found myself rooting for the villains to take Spider-Man down and toss that gargoyle Kirsten Dunst off a cliff. By the end of the franchise I was pulling for James Franco and Topher Grace all the way!

Andrew Garfield was surprisingly good in "The Social Network" and Emma Stone was hilarious in "Easy A". With the addition of those two, immediately this re-boot is way better than the originals. It looks like this time around Spider-Man actually has to invent his webbing that discharges from small cartridges on his wrists which, is what really happened, than have it be a biological mutation (lame), and lets face it Gwen Stacy was always the better of the two Peter Parker love interests. If after all this you still need a reason why this re-boot needed to happen...watch this.

The Dark Knight Rises - Trailer 2 (July 20)
When I heard this movie was being made I practically shed a tear (not really). Christopher Nolan has done such a great job interpreting the world of Bruce Wayne/Batman I thought the possibilities are endless! A Nolan inspired Riddler! A man who is every bit a Joker type sociopath but with more purpose and the integration of intellectual terrorism into the character by the writers Nolan and Goyer he could have the potential to be one of the greatest movie villains of all-time. Or perhaps a real Mr. Freeze (not the shitty Arnold one) a broken man looking for a cure for his wife's sickness. Penguin? Just kidding! Please...you can't do better than this. So many different paths he could take and when I heard the main antagonist would be Bane my first thought was "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Now I will readily admit that ass clown Joel Schumacher ruined the vision of Bane for me when he put this walking disaster on film in the George Clooney Batman, why God...why? That movie was so bad... What I also found interesting is they choose to re-boot the Catwoman character and I am not sure how I feel about that. I really liked the Michelle Pfeiffer Selina Kyle, perhaps she's not as untouchable (unless you're Halle Berry...don't get me started) as Danny DeVito but she was really really good. Anne Hathaway is fine, will she be a better Catwoman than Pfeiffer? Probably not but I'm not to worried about it.

Nevertheless as more and more pictures and video of the movie are released and finally some actual trailers, I find myself today back to the level of excitement I was when I first heard about this movie. I have officially let go of all judgements and reservations I had initially and I am just patiently waiting for the movie to arrive. In Christopher Nolan I trust! I do have one plot theory I will share, perhaps they choose Bane as the villain and announced this would be the last Nolan/Bale Batman movie because they are going to take a page from the comic book and end with a bang...                      

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