The Batman Vs Superman In Depth Review YOU NEED

Spoilers ahead, and some profane language. I’m going in, no holds barred. I’m going to be making wild speculations that could be completely wrong or totally right. Comments will be open for dialogue for all of my fellow comic followers!
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Ok If you’re still here I’m assuming you’ve seen the movie OR you’re one of those strange hellspawn type individuals that like spoilers.

I’m going to take you through the stages that I watched this movie so that you, dear reader, can understand exactly where I’m coming from. A lot of “stuff and things” have been said about this film. So I’m going to try to filter it all out and get to the bottom of it all.

The Story

So the first 30 minutes were boring. We relive Bruce’s parents being killed. Interesting point here, Thomas Wayne attempts to punch the mugger. This doesn’t usually happen, and when it does it usually denotes some sort of, alternate universe. When it happened in Justice League, it was Batman’s favored reality brought upon by Mongul’s starfish creature. Now of course, this time he still loses, but this tiny change could be an indication of a fractured universe/timeline, especially since we see flash come through the speed verse specifically to tell Batman “you were right all along.” A clear allusion to the Flashpoint run, one of the biggest game changers in the DC universe. Brings about the new 52, changes hero origins, puts superman and wonder woman together, completely mishandles Static Shock. You know, the big stuff.

We were all disappointed bro.

Thomas Wayne’s fist clench initiated that whole line of thinking. Different universe, fractured timeline. Now the question is, what’s going on? Superman has already shown he’s willing to kill, Luthor threatens his mother, who, we’ve already seen what he did the LAST time that happened (Zod). So I’m thinking maybe Justice Lords? (more on that later)

Back to the movie. Lane goes to some desert in order to follow a story. Shit hits the fan, superman comes in and tackles a guy(presumably human) through two buildings, apparently that doesn’t kill him, or it does, whatever who cares at this point, everyone’s dying. And that’s the point. The next scene an African woman who was there describes in detail to the US Senate, the horror she felt when seeing him come down from the heavens, bringing his wrath.

This whole time Lex Luthor is discovering a giant piece of kryptonite and figuring out how to use it.  While, as usual he has legitimate concerns about a seemingly all-powerful being operating under no one’s laws or supervision, his plan to handle it is devious and flat-out evil.

The movie gets a bit confusing (ok a lotta confusing) if you don’t follow the comics and or TV shows at this point. Dream sequences are thrown in apparently willy-nilly and are not explained at all. The desert scene with Batman would seem completely nonsensical. It actually made me angry how completely out of the loop the writers and directors left the  casual film goer. Batman is tricked into believing the kryptonite is in the truck, they turn on him killing everyone. Batman starts fighting, takes a gun, starts shooting. As all of this fighting is going on all of a sudden from the sky, Mosquito men come down.

(Ok I always called them that since I was a child, but I was informed by Lord Darkseid himself they are called parademons).

Get it right

But anyway, ALIENS COME DOWN FROM THE HEAVENS. With no explanation. Batman is knocked out and wakes up to Superman killing two of his comrades.  Then he wakes up again and is in front of his batcomputer and Flash comes through the speed force to tell him “Batman you were always right about him.”

WTF kinda fevered ass dream was that? If you don’t know about justice lords, Darkseid, Apokolips, AND Flashpoint you’re gonna be completely in the dark. Reason one why I can understand a lot of people giving this movie bad reviews. You shouldn’t have to have prior knowledge of 3 separate timelines in order to “get” a film.

A great part of the movie is the bombing scene. Where the Senator slowly realizes her tea is “granny’s sweet peach tea”, and allusion to an earlier conversation she had with Lex, the bomb goes off right after, leaving superman the lone survivor in the building.

Batman breaks into Luthor’s building and steals the Kryptonite, of course, he meets Wonder Woman there. Her role is pretty small, but opens the door for the Justice League to form.

Anyway following some great fight scenes with Batman, and some Messiah like scenes with Superman, it’s time for the final battle.

The hardest thing to write, I believe, must’ve been that fight. But I give all the kudos here. It was extremely well done. Full disclosure, I’m a Batman fan so I know why Superman fans are mad but go ahead and take the losers cape so you can be super mad at this. Batman beat his ass. At one point Bats LITERALLY DRAGS HIM. Now I don’t say this often, but at that point I was like YES DRAG HIS ASS!

The way the fight goes, it’s clear that Batman had the upper hand the entire time. He knew they’d end up at the bottom, right where he’d planted the spear (why a spear, idk, probably something about Jesus).

The fight was a great battle and showcases the difference between the two, brute strength vs skill. The fight ends right about here–

The only thing that stops Batman from killing Superman, is Superman begging for the life of his mother. As she happens to share the same name as Bruce Wayne’s mother, he pauses. It’s an extremely thin thread but they hang the plot twist of “let’s be friends” on it.

While Batman is saving Martha, Superman is watching Lex birth Doomsday. Strange that he let Luthor sit there and talk when he could’ve stopped him…

There’s a giant battle between Superman, Doomsday, and Wonderwoman. It’s a flashy battle with of course, lots of CGI. But It gets the point across I suppose.

Superman sacrifices himself to kill Doomsday which I suppose solidifies his “good guy” status with Wayne because he seems kinda torn up about it. The movie ends at Superman’s funeral. Bruce is talking to Diana(Wonder Woman) about starting the Justice League. Dirt begins rising from Clark’s tomb indicating that, of course, he isn’t really dead.
Which brings up a problem because Clark Kent has been declared dead as well, though his death was regulated to a back page of the Daily Planet. Won’t it be weird if he comes back as soon as Superman does?

Waaaaiit a minute…

All in all there were a lot of allusions to the comics…but that’s really a double-edged sword here. On the one hand, a lot of it was unfair to expect a casual film goer to understand. In the context of the dream sequence it was not explained, which was the problem with that. But some things like the weaponized Kryptonite gas, needed no explanation, but Frank Miller fans immediately recognized it. The line when the bad guy is saying “I’ll kill her!” and batman says “I believe you.” Classic, pulled straight from the comics and animated film. That kind of homage shows the respect and dedication that these people had to this film.

Themes and Philosophy

Woven intricately throughout the entire film are several intense questions.
What makes a hero? What makes a deed heroic? What is bravery? Is it saving a life?
If all it takes for you to save a life is you pressing a button and you have no consequence, are you a hero or merely a decent living creature with bare minimum empathy?
It’s always been an interesting theme to me and I’m glad they explored it here. What makes someone like Superman good or bad? If he sees a mugging and doesn’t help is he bad now? He has literally no risk associated with helping, so does that make him responsible? If so, his hearing has been demonstrated to be so strong that he can hear things around the world. So, is the only responsible thing for him to do is to sit in a chair listening all day? Because if he doesn’t, surely he will miss something and someone will die because he wasn’t paying attention. And wouldn’t that technically be his fault?

I smoke to dull the pain of all of my failures.

“I’m worried I didn’t see it, because I wasn’t looking.” This hints that he may start his plan of bugging and watching everyone. Locking up anyone he deems suspicious or dangerous seems like the logical end to his current thinking. Which kind of takes away people’s lives and free will.

How about collateral damage?

So many people died in that fight with Zod. You saved the world, great, but there were times where you literally threw him through buildings which subsequently fell, killing and endangering even MORE people. It was great to see the ramifications of his actions there as well. Far too often it’s seen as “The good guy saved the day, the end.” But in this world of hardcore politicians, policies, and ever-changing structures, like they say in the movie “every action is political.” It’s never over. As Friedrich Nietzsche poses in the book Beyond good and evil, nobody is all good, or all evil. So, if Superman does even one thing bad, with his powers…what is that bad thing and how many people does that wipe out?

One of my favorite lines is “You aren’t brave, Men are brave.” It’s said in the midst of the big fight, but it’s poignant and necessary in the argument of who is better, Batman or Superman. Again, Supes has little to no risk associated with his “acts of heroism.” So for instance, when Bruce Wayne ran and saved that little girl from the collapsing rubble, he could’ve died.
That was heroic. That was brave. He put his life on the line.
For superman to do that? It’s laughable to call that heroic. I mean, it’s nice but, it’s clearly not the same thing. Another juxtaposition that, while isn’t back to back, is there in the film.

Superman does literally nothing to achieve his powers. He wakes up and he’s a chiseled, super strong, sonic boom flying, son of a krypton. In the film they show how hard Batman pushes himself in the gym BIG UPS to Ben Affleck properly conditioning himself to do that scene. Phenomenal work man.
And therein lies the true, huge difference.
Batman has mentally and physically pushed himself to the limit in order to become a person who CAN be a hero, Superman just has to get out of bed and passes judgement.

As Doctor Ian Malcolm once said-
“I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here, it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it.”
In the context of Superman it’s, you didn’t earn the power for yourself, so where’s your sense of responsibility? Clark Kent wields his power as if the only thing he can do wrong is NOT catch someone. In this film Batman sees this danger and goes to take care of it.
Because in this world, Superman, is a God. And what kind of God gives his people free will knowing they will suffer countless atrocities for it? The kind that wears a lab coat or a sweater and takes notes while silently judging you sure… But definitely not the kind that wears a cape and desires your love and acceptance.

A good point that Superman does bring up (as Clark Kent) is the fact that Batman has been hitting underprivileged areas hard, and because of this he believes the Daily Planet isn’t covering his attacks. Especially the act of branding that he’s been doing that is essentially a death sentence for prisoners. Batman’s “in the dark” methods stray greatly from Superman’s more “boyscout” style. However in this movie, both heroes are a bit more grim, and more willing to hurt people so, each character calling out the moral failings of the other are a bit muddy.

Overall

There are many reasons to hate this movie, but I’m already past 2000 words so I figured, I’d just talk about it in general. There are characterization issues mostly, and they just stopped the entire movie for an email attachment to tease Justice League, which could’ve been handled far better. Dream sequences all over the place with no real transitioning. A couple of the redundant plot holes like why would you let the bad guy press a button when you have super speed…
But overall though, the movie was fun and intelligent. They may have overextended themselves, but the message is still there. In the next films they won’t be trying to do so much outside of the main feature. So it should be a bit more put together. I’m look forward to seeing what comes next from DC.

Thanks for reading!

Why Diversity in films Matters for everyone. AKA BOYCOTTEXODUS

Before I get into why it matters for EVERYONE (especially you money makers) I’d like to start with a tweet.

I know I’ve briefly touched on diversity in films in the past but this development has me diving back into the subject.

So a few days ago Rupert Murdoch decided to tweet something. I assume when his old wrinkly thumbs were moving across his blackberry screen he was clear-headed and not at all inebriated. But the tweet he sent out was ridiculous nonetheless. A tweet claiming that all the Egyptians he knew were white so whats the big deal about having an all white cast……for a movie filmed….. in Africa. While I don’t doubt uncle money bags only knows white people in Egypt. Your tiny little club of people you know in Egypt clearly doesn’t represent the entire country. And oh I’m sorry it’s not an all white cast, How silly of me. Here let’s see the cast.

So…the main characters, the kings and queens. Those can be white, but for the slaves and assassins, now we have to be realistic. If all of the Egyptians Murdoch knows are white, why isn’t he complaining that the servants aren’t white as well? Blatant racism and whitewashing is why this film has been facing a boycott since its inception. #Boycottexodus is a pretty huge movement as minorities are tired of getting the old “heave-ho” whenever big productions feel like it. Which leads us to some very interesting statistics about diversity in film. Here are a few stats about Race and Hollywood based on a study done at UCLA.

The lack of minority representation has always been known, but sometimes it’s good to actually see it. It’s actually sickening.  But here’s the GOOD news. Because of things like boycotts and people in general just being tired of this mess. There seems to be an upswing in people going to see films and tv shows with higher minority representation. This comes through in data obtained by

Movies with higher minority representation(21-30%) posted $160.1 million in global box office receipts in 2011. Films with lower Minority involvement(less than 10%) made just $68.5 million. That’s 91.6 million dollars MORE just for doing something you should be doing ANYWAY. I mean asinine, archaic Hollywood casting practices aside, the data is very clear. By being bigoted you are losing money Hollywood. Here’s the full report. See that’s why it matters for everyone, everyone makes more money, A LOT more money in the end. So do the right thing. Diversify your talent, your creators, your directors, hell diversify the agents at the agencies that represent these people. Watch your profits (which have been steadily dropping) soar.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Sincerely,

 

Brian Bell

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler Free Review Presents: This Is The End

I just “binge watched” every DVD I could get my hands on. So here we go with the spoiler free reviews! Feel free to leave your own comments below!

Plot

Jay Baruchel flies to LA to hang out with his buddy Seth Rogan. After an afternoon of fun with just the two of them, Seth suggests they go over to James Franco’s house for his house-warming party. Jay reluctantly agrees and while they are there all hell breaks loose, literally. Now the remaining party members must figure out what is going on and try to survive.

EXECUTION

The movie is unique in that everybody in it plays fictionalized versions of themselves. I’m not sure how they got so many celebrities to do cameos (Kevin Hart, Rhianna, Michael Cera, that guy from How I met your mother) but they were all pretty funny. The movie just gets funnier as time goes by, albeit quite dark. The way it’s presented however I doubt most would realize how dark it really is. The direction, acting, and comedic timing of this film were really on point.

Music

Backstreet’s back ALRIGHT! There are several popular songs used throughout the film including that backstreet boys hit, gangnam style, Spirit in the sky, and more. Also Henry Jackman created a great moody score for the film. The music is placed well and really adds to the overall mood of the film.

CAST

Directed by

Seth Rogen
Evan Goldberg
Produced by
Seth Rogen
Evan Goldberg
James Weaver

Screenplay by

Seth Rogen
Evan Goldberg
Story by
Seth Rogen
Evan Goldberg

Starring

Seth Rogen
Jay Baruchel
James Franco
Jonah Hill
Danny McBride
Craig Robinson
Michael Cera
Emma Watson

RATING

Five stars! Definitely do not pass this one up on your next trip to the…Blockbuster?

Lord I’m old…PurpleBox?

Well however you get your DVDs definitely pick this one up! It’s funny, well-directed, and best of all, completely different from the legions of terrible films that come out every day.

Well thanks for reading! Hope this helps!

Sincerely

Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries

Spoiler Free Review Presents: Captain Phillips

Plot

Captain Phillips, played by Tom Hanks, boards a ship to take food and water to Mombasa. The trip will take them around Somalia. Wary of heightened pirate activity in the area, Captain Phillips is putting his crew through test emergency drills to help them prepare when the attack happens. The rest of the movie basically centers around the Captain attempting to save his crew and cargo with little, to no regard for his own safety.

EXECUTION

The beginning established the characters on both sides. I really respected the fact that they at least tried to show how poverty-stricken Somalia really is. It gave the pirates a more realistic feel. However after that opening sequence we don’t get much of that and it frequently delves into the “corny” realm. The acting and direction were superb, it’s just the lines were a tad banal.

Music

A few popular tunes here and there such as Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.” Mostly silence or a nice film score composed by Henry Jackman(Kick-ass,Xmen first class,This is the end). While the music did help create a nice suspenseful mood, it wasn’t intrusive.

Cast

Directed by

Paul Greengrass

Produced by

Michael De Luca
Dana Brunetti
Scott Rudin
Kevin Spacey
Written by Billy Ray

Starring

Tom Hanks
Barkhad Abdi
Music by Henry Jackman

Cinematography Barry Ackroyd

Editing by Christopher Rouse

Rating

While the acting and direction were great, the movie is undeniably boring and a little corny. Tom Hanks’ performance was great but it was like watching CNN for 2 hours, yes it’s entertaining, but it gets real old, real quick. All in all I’d say catch this on DVD but there are other movies out there that I wish I’d spent my money on.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries

Ben Affleck Is Batman: How it sent me through those 5 stages.

I decided to wait on writing this until I was through experiencing what I knew was going to happen. I didn’t want to behave rashly, or put anything out onto the wide web I couldn’t take back.  Let’s take a journey, a journey that began with an amazing announcement at comic-con, and ended…with Ben Affleck.

1st step – Denial

This is where it all began for me. I follow IGN on Facebook and I thought it was some kind of joke. In fact when I posted it in another group that I belong to, they too laughed. “Oh IGN is TROLLING HARD today,” “That’s not funny IGN,” they said “we all know that’s not true.” “Confirmed? What do they mean confirmed? His name wasn’t even mentioned!” Indeed the Nile t’was not just a river in Egypt that fateful ‘eve. We were knee-deep in denial, for IGN does not troll good people, they are not the Onion. People began wildly throwing out accusations of IGN being hacked until eventually we saw it on other sites. With dawning comprehension the horror of the situation hit us as hard as a vegetable Bane.

He still hit pretty hard.

Stage 2 – Anger

The internet EXPLODED! Angry fan-boys doused themselves in gasoline and set themselves on fire outside of Warner Brothers’ headquarters.

World peace? Uhh no, didn’t you hear about Bat-fleck???

Memes abound! Didn’t you see Daredevil? He doesn’t have the charisma, he doesn’t have the attitude, he won’t take it seriously! Does he even lift?? This is a slap in the face to all nerd kind, how DARE you WB how DARE YOU? How about you just stick to animated movies and leave the real superhero stuff to Disney? You SUCK!

Step 3- Bargaining

Maybe they offered the role to someone else first? Maybe they turned it down? If we protest, sign petitions? Maybe they just need to hear our voices? Yeah…Yeah…that’s it, hey look White House! Make this travesty illegal! That’ll show ’em! They’ll change it for sure now. Xbox retracted it right? Same thing can happen here! Nothing…let’s pray on it! No? nothing? What? Seriously?

You guys? I don’t think he’s changing his mind…

Step 4 Depression

Every morning waking up to the nightmare that is BAT-FLEK sent several people into a depression, self abusive spiral. Nobody wore Batman paraphernalia out on the streets, for shame!  Every night I had terrible dreams of bat-nipples, bad puns, and chubby non-caring batmen.

Step 5 Acceptance

Maybe…maybe he’s learned from his stint as the Daredevil. I mean I know he said he’d never play a superhero again. He felt it degraded him as an actor…But maybe that just means the role is something he feels he can really throw himself into? Yeah that’s gotta be it. I mean Wolverine said he’d be good so that’s got to count for something right? Right?

Sigh…let us pray the nerd’s prayer.

Oh Bob Kane and possibly Bill Finger, depending on who you’re talking to, please let this Batman casting not be the worst thing since Joel…Please allow us the strength to carry on in these hard and unknowing times, if you could please stop turning over in your graves for half a second, we would like to apologize for WB for they know not what they do. I pray that you somehow make this work. In Wayne’s name…Abat.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Wiseguy Industries-Brian Bell

The Spoiler Free Review Presents: The Conjuring

Recently I was able to take some time and go to the movies all the way out in Jersey. Its been a long time since I was actually scared in a movie theater and I’d heard good things so I figured what the Hay, lets check it out.

Plot

The year is 1970 something as they are wearing bell bottoms and saying things like “groovy” and “far-out”. The place is a farmhouse in Rhode Island. A family moves into the farmhouse and almost immediately begins experiencing paranormal activities. After a while they call on the famous Demonologist Ed Warren and his clairvoyant wife Lorraine to help cleanse their house.

Execution

All in all this movie was pretty well executed. Its different from today’s horror films in that the gore isn’t the main focus(I actually put overly gory horror films in their own category: Gore Fest). The scares are actually legitimate and well thought out. Even when you know somethings coming you’ll still jump because of how they present it to you. Having grown up reading just about everything Stephen King could crank out I don’t scare easily these days, but even I jumped a few times.

Music

The use of music in this film was pretty effective. I loved the use of  the song Time of Season. It didn’t fit, but it did…its just one of those great choices that are made in films from time to time.

Rating

Four stars! It was a solid storyline, great acting, great direction, and interesting characters. The atmosphere was creepy and the ending was pretty cool too. The only thing keeping this from a 5 star rating is that I wanted to be scared MORE. Less “Gotcha” scares and more legitimately freaked out scares. Overall though I’d say go see this movie in theaters!

If you’ve seen this movie and you have anything to add feel free to comment below!

I know its been more time between posts but hey I’ve been writing a screenplay! I’ll be uploading the logline and the first 15 or 20 pages (yes its WGA registered) tomorrow if anyone wants to take a peek. It’s a sci-fi/action called Kingdom, Come. I hope you’ll check it out and leave feedback!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industires

The Direction of DC and hollywood aka the Goyer/Nolan effect

If you’ve been living under the largest rock in the world for the past 20 years, or with one of those tribes that don’t allow other humans to get close enough to give them cable television.

We don’t care how many channels you have! There’s still nothing good on!

Then you know that comic book movies have really exploded, there are several of them that come out every year. Whether they are based on a comic book or a graphic novel or a combination of both (Dark knight rises), the comic book genre and Hollywood are now inextricably linked. Which is very interesting as the comic book movies made in the 80s and 90s sucked, I mean completely sucked. For evidence I give you the 90s captain america, dr strange, the punisher, Justice League, Nick Fury: Agent of shield and the little known and never released but somehow on youtube 90s Fantastic Four.

However in 1998 they decided to give David S Goyer another shot at this comic book live action gig(he wrote Nick Fury: agent of shield), and he penned the script for Blade. Blade starred Wesley Snipes at the height of his marketability and fame and did so well that it completely kicked off a new wave of movies. The dark comic book movie brought to the screen. It was the perfect set up for it actually, vampires, action, those things really transcend comics and can reach over to the regular movie goers. With Goyer’s amazing script this movie became the blueprint for all future comic book movies to follow including X-men, Iron man, superman returns etc. It also ushered in an age of acceptance and respect for comic book movies.

Mr. Goyer went on to write the rest of the Blade trilogy and then famously penned the script for Batman Begins. Teaming up with Christopher Nolan they completely reinvented the origin story and gritty reboot. This movie is beloved by casual movie goers and hardcore batman fans alike. There may be someone who doesn’t like it, but I haven’t found him.

WHERE IS HE???

This lead to the Dark Knight which IS the greatest Batman film of all time and I will not hear a WORD against it. Just the opening scene alone was enough to make me pass out from geek overload. THAT is how you introduce a villain. It also led to the best comic book video game ever created with the Arkham series. You may begin to see a pattern and that is what I am discussing today.

You see talent is hard to come across in Hollywood, not to say that there is a LACK of it there, but I’m saying its hard to come across, I’ll explain. It’s not an agent’s/producer’s job to find NEW talent, it’s his job to make the company money. So new people aren’t really what they are looking for, they are looking for a track record of making money. Much like how job searching today goes, you look and see they want someone with 3 years experience for a job but you can never get the job because…well you can’t get hired without three years of experience. It’s a whirlwind of aggravation to be sure and Hollywood you can see the result right there on the screen. The same people are making everything, the same people are acting in everything, they have their stable of actors and writers and now everything looks the same. Nobody new is getting in which means everything’s a remake or at the least a cheap rip-off of something that someone who is actually creative made in the first place. So they found a creative person in Goyer, he somehow slipped through the cracks and now he’s their go to guy for every single superhero, video game movie, as is Nolan. This is what I call the Goyer/Nolan effect, when you create something good in Hollywood they will leach your brain until they get every penny it can produce.

C’mon I know you’ve got something for Dr strange in there…

So now that the audiences have shown they want superheroes and they want dark. Hollywood says they want Goyer/Nolan! (nothing wrong with that they are very talented). Now everything looks dark, now everything is just a little different, and now we see the problem, they start trying to do things like them without them. Now the movies are FLOODED with dark, dingy, wannabe movies like Green lantern that just don’t work because that’s not really the character. This is pushing more and more people to independent films and outlets. The film festivals have been exploding lately, as have other outlets that promote indie films such as Netflix. Apparently the big movie studios are going to keep throwing more money into remakes and being safe until the movie going populace wises up and stops going to them. When that happens I believe what Spielberg said is true. They won’t try to make better movies, they’ll just up the prices and keep the movies they do make in theaters for a year.

That’s fine with me, gives me more chances for my films to be seen by greater audiences. However the Goyer/Nolan effect is taking great effect on DC. DC has long been known for their unwillingness to flinch when it comes to certain things about their characters. They even released a Mortal Kombat game with no real fatalities.

All he did was drill him into the ground? But where was the BLOOOD

Now clearly they are willing to change origin stories and things about the characters they never would have before. Which could lead to a better DC but they walk a thin line of treading into Marvel territory. DC and Marvel have always been two different entities when it comes to characters. DC has had the more “SUPERhero” the over powered, high morals, and huge stars. Marvel has always been darker and more real. Both takes on the superhero have their merits but fans of DC and Marvel love them for these differences. DC is getting darker but I believe that they will be able to pull it off because they have gotten Guillarmo Del Torro to write and direct a film starring the lesser known but darker DC characters.

All in all the next few years in Hollywood should be interesting, but as much as I love comics…can I please get something a little different?

Man of Steel Spoiler Free Review!

So today I got up early and went uptown to see the new superman movie “Man of Steel.” Now a little history has to be said first when it comes to this review. I am not the biggest superman fan, I feel he’s overpowered to the point of ridiculousness and I know how hard it is to make a movie with a character like that. That being said DC has done a  great job humanizing him through his character and his relationship with the most human of all the superheroes, Batman.

That being said with all the hype surrounding this movie and the fact that Snyder and Nolan helmed it made me pretty excited to see where they would go with it. I wondered how much they’d pull from the dark knight trilogy. The answer obviously was quite a bit. From the official name “Man of Steel” to the darker tone of the entire movie, we are treated to a superman tale that was never before told.

The movie begins on Krypton that is falling apart. (That’s not a spoiler you can see that from the trailers!) Russel Crowe plays Jor-El father of Kal-El (superman) and he plays him quite well. The Krypton they show is not the one you grew up with with golden cities and bright skies. This Krypton is dangerous, the type of place that would have people with a tougher physique such as Superman. They introduced the social climate and political structure of Krypton more than I had ever seen before and the action sequences right from the beginning are intense and quite on point.

They went sci-fi with this movie. In fact the entire movie, not just on Krypton but on Earth as well, I felt was a sci-fi flick. Aliens invading searching for another alien, sometimes I felt I wasn’t even watching Superman which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. On one hand superman fans love their boy scout on the other where we come in at in this movie he’s not quite there yet.

The fight scenes in this movie are a little over the top, which kinda works the first time  you see it until you think about what’s actually going on. Without giving too much away I’ll just say think of the animated series fights and you’ll get the idea.

The only gripe I had was with the cutting back and forth between ages, it was done a little choppily and left me feeling out of sorts in some places.

Overall this was a fun movie and the best they could have done with a Superman movie. There were great glimpses of Krypton, great performances, huge shocks, and great direction. The fight scenes were huge and over the top and the villain was well written. The rumor is that they’ll be putting out another movie in 2014 which is shockingly fast. Jasmyne suggested a Lex Luthor/Brainiac crossover which I completely agree with.

 

This gets 4.5 out of 5 stars great movie only thing holding it back was the telling of the story in the beginning. Its a summer blockbuster, sci fi, action movie to the core and It’s a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend going to see it.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries

5 Movie adaptations that need to be made so we can all die happy

Well the year is now 2013, movies are being made and remade almost literally to death. Fast Furious 6 is coming out, Die Hard came out again, and they are filming the fifth Spiderman movie. Yes we are truly living in the time of the remakes, when producers have become so terrified of the idea of making something original, that they’ve become content to shove last decades crap down our throats. So with all of the movies being made that SHOULDN’T be (yes you Total Recall) lets look at some movies that SHOULD get their first shot at the big screen.

Starting with…

#5 Black Panther

He is the Black Panther, king of a technologically advanced, hidden empire in Africa. One of the most popular black comic book heroes of all time he boasts a P.H.D from Oxford and the ability to lift over 700 pounds. This is a movie that’s been teased for FOREVER. We’ve gotten looks at who could play him, sets they could use, locations they’ve picked. It seems every year there’s some news about it and it never really comes through. I’ve almost given up on it. However the man himself Stan Lee whenever asked what comic book hero he’d like to see made into a movie ALWAYS says the Black Panther and also can not understand why it hasn’t been done.

I agree with him, I mean any chance to create an entire new place should be jumped on by any company if for no other reason than licensing and toy profits. A quick search for Black Panther movie on the internet will show tons of fans willing to support it no matter who makes it(well except for Tyler Perry). Marvel, Disney if you’re out there and you ever come across this blog hear our plea! Please make this movie a reality, it would be nothing short of epic.

#4 Gears of War

Just look at that picture and tell me you wouldn’t want to see Marcus and Delta squad running around on screen Lancering up some grubs! You can’t! Boasting one of the most innovative forms of gameplay Gears of War burst onto the scene November of 2005 to great acclaim. Everything about this game was new right down to the concept and that’s where the movie comes in.

Set 14 years after E day, the day when the locust horde declared war on humans and began killing them. Gears of War is the story of Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Damon Baird, and Augustus “Cole Train” Cole as members of the COG. The military composed of all the governments on the planet. The story has many twists and turns, from emotional to political. There’s plenty of things to build off of and pull from to make an amazing action movie. The only thing to worry about is casting, as long as hollywood goes for quality over box office drawing names…who am I kidding? Lets just cross our fingers and hope they actually get this one off the cutting room floor, unlike the next one…

#3 Halo

This is another Xbox title…wait am I biased? Maybe I should throw kingdom hearts in here? Just kidding I’m an objective blogger and proud of it! You see Halo is another blockbuster action game. Starring a Spartan with great armor and killer reflexes it was the beginning of a new wave of First person shooters. It completely changed the game and in doing so garnered an entire fan base that will buy basically anything with the spartan logo on it.

The plot is this, the covenant a group of fiercely religious aliens are spreading throughout the world leaving destruction in their path. Earth and the covenant have been battling for years and the covenant has managed to destroy all but one Spartan. That spartan is the Master Chief and he basically wages a one man war against the covenant with temporary team ups with the rest of the marines from time to time.

This is another blockbuster action film that just needs the right push behind it. See Peter Jackson was supposed to make this movie before district nine, but after some arguments dropped out. Now they are bringing it back as a television show click the link for more info on that. I hope that this won’t stop them from making an actual movie.

#2 Luke Cage

Another extremely popular comic book superhero, Luke Cage is a hero for hire and sometimes antihero. He was sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. A former friend turned drug dealer planted enough heroin in his apartment to be considered a dealer. This is all because he believes Luke stole his girlfriend. Luke Cage is convicted of the crime and in exchange for parole he underwent different experiments and tests. When a corrupt guard tries to kill Cage by messing with the equipment, his growth accelerates faster than expected and as a result he became super strong and bullet proof. He escapes the prison and goes back to his home in New York and opens a hero for hire business.

This is another movie that has been teased countless times, many actors have grown old while being mentioned for this role. However my favorite still remains Michael Jai White, the man is an amazing martial artist and could definitely bring the grit of the Luke Cage series effectively and believable to the big screen.

I could see this movie being our generations “Maltese Falcon.” With a dynamic character such as Luke Cage you never know what he truly wants. He says he’s in it for the money but he’ll change his mind if the reasoning’s right. Done properly this would be an amazing movie, would love to see it done maybe film noir to give it a great feel and really stand out.

#1 Batman Beyond

Seriously…please? Why hasn’t this been done? I can only assume that they are scared at the actual creativity, time, and effort it would take into actually making this. Terry has become the only other Batman that mainstream audiences really know and embrace as Batman. That’s not easy as even Bruce Wayne only called him Batman once and even then it was under duress.

Terry fought long and hard to be considered a true Batman and he not only succeeded in becoming a great Batman, he became his OWN Batman. One with his own villains, way of operating, and process that truly separated him from Bruce and endeared him to a generation. His attitude as well has his reasoning is totally different from Bruce’s, the writers embraced this fact and were able to recreate a beloved hero in Terry Mcguinness. Nowhere is this difference in character as prevalent as in the last fight with the Joker in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Here he utilizes the difference in character to drive Joker even more nutty and win the fight. Check out the opening sequence for the show and you’ll see just how cool a live action film would look in about five seconds.

This movie would have blade runner style visuals and several different bad guys to choose from. A large new age Gotham, gritty, but advanced. An elderly Bruce Wayne still trying to protect his city any way he knows how. Telling the story of Terry would take a little doing, but the first movie would be great and hopefully by the second we would be able to believe that he is truly a capable batman. Just off visuals alone this should be made into a movie, I mean that intro is amazing to this day. The new take on Gotham after the Nolan trilogy would be a great follow-up to everything that happened in the Dark Knight trilogy. I really hope that this can be made however this is one of the only one’s on this list that I’ve heard nothing solid about. With the Batman series being rebooted to Segway easier into a Justice League movie, my hope for this fan favorite is waning.

Honorable mention-Static Shock

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t include the only guy who shares the title of my favorite DC hero besides Batman. Static shock came out in 1993 through Milestone Comics. He is the Brainchild of the late great Dwayne McDuffie and as such is an amazingly deep character. Static is a young man who was exposed to chemicals that killed many peoplein an event called the big bang. More people died than survived, but those that did were granted super powers. His power if you didn’t know is Electric generation and manipulation. He’s also extremely intelligent and curious which allows him to use his powers in ways that other electricity wielders never thought of. Most of his recurring villains are the other people who were in the big bang who are called Bang babies which actually gives the rare opportunity to say whoever you wanted was there and make up new villains all the time.

For a film this already has an audience, in 2000 it was made into a successful kids television series. It ran for four years, won a daytime Emmy and put Static on the map causing him to be included on the popular Justice League Unlimited show. It is revealed that he eventually becomes the most powerful superhero in the DC universe. Now just to jump into a feature length live action film might be a little iffy for now, but a DC animated feature would be great to see especially with Phil Lamaar voicing him again. After that I’d love to see a live action movie. Actually Static is so popular that people have started making fan films using his character. So Hollywood take notice!

Well that’s the list! If you have any ideas you feel were left off or just want to discuss the list, feel free to comment below! Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries

Spielberg and Halo, sounds promising but will it work?

Long ago when I t’was but a child, a game emerged from the darkness that changed First person shooters forever. That game was Halo, and almost as long as its been out, there have been rumors about its first foray onto the big screen. First Peter Jackson signed on then off again, no wait on again! Then back off and the project labored in development hell and fans around the world screamed and shook their fists at the moon, or maybe that was just me.

Anyway video games to movies usually end one of two ways, terrible for the fans or terrible in general. Resident Evil is a good example, I challenge you to show me at this point, any connection to the game’s plot at all. I won’t wait because it’s not there. They completely overhauled it into an apocalyptic zombie fest which isn’t bad but it definitely isn’t a reflection on the survival horror game I came to love that had you constantly searching for ammo.

Street fighter legend of Chun-Li made me literally hate Chun-Li, I honestly haven’t played as her on Street fighter since then. It was such a bad movie (as was the first street fighter) that it may have negatively impacted sales of the video game.

What usually happens is the production companies see the video game industry as a comical thing. They don’t respect the genre and see it as a cheap way to make money, so they go cheap on it. They don’t get the best producers, they get the writers that have never proven themselves in an action genre. I.E The writers for the Tekken movie had people that only wrote dramatic films which led to over developed characters, not enough action, and a storyline that never quite got fulfilled.

However with all of these things in mind Microsoft would not allow that to happen to the child it stole from Apple(c’mon people look its right here). They have now enlisted Steven Spielberg to Executive Produce a Halo television series for Xbox Live gold members.

Now here’s the problem…A TELEVISION SERIES. Halo is far to epic in reach and scope to be confined to the small screen. Honestly I don’t know if I want to see the Master Chief every week anyway. He lacks the character to be seen repeatedly in this sense. In fact the most interesting dynamic in the entire game is his relationship with Cortana, the computer that is far more human than he is.

“For me, the ‘Halo’ universe is an amazing opportunity to be at the intersection where technology and storytelling meet,” Spielberg said.

I just don’t know on the one hand it’s Spielberg, coming off of Lincoln I’m sure he’s just itching for some sci-fi epic goodness. On the other hand a television series with characters that are basically reasons for the Master Chief to blow things up in awesome ways just seems, unreasonable. Now I know as a quasi-nerd I should go by the “in Spielberg we trust” rule but for me its doubly rough to take the fact that a feature length live action film probably won’t be made, and also that Halo will be basically an experimental project for the Xbox1’s crossover capabilities and appeal.

Hopefully it will be as awesome as it’s potential but that will be seen in the months to come. Until then I’ll keep holding out for a Gears of War movie. Maybe they’ll wait a year or so and I’ll be able to direct that. You never know!

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries