It’s not really news at this point, but this is going to be one packed summer of superhero films. For today, I’d like to discuss the summer line-up.
Thor – May 6
I’m exceptionally excited for this film more than any other superhero film this summer. Given that Kenneth Branaugh is directing the film, there is at least some hope that the movie will be elevated above the standard superhero fare. I’m particularly interested with how the film will balance the worlds of Asgard and Midgard. If anything, it will be unlike any other superhero film we’ve ever seen.
Also, I want to do well just to prove some racists wrong (you know what I mean).
X-Men: First Class – June 3
This is really the anomaly of the summer when compared to all of the other films coming out. Both Thor and Captain America were fortunate enough to have their trailers shown during the Superbowl, while X-Men: First Class has barely been acknowledged as even existing. Yeah, a few early pics were released a month or two ago, but that was met with some controversy from Matthew Vaughn as he hadn’t approved the production stills.
Honestly, I’m really not all that thrilled with this movie. Look over the cast list and find one person (outside of Kevin Bacon, I suppose) that pops as an exciting name. Furthermore, the X-men team itself is less than exciting (though, I do admit to being a bit thrilled by the idea of saying Havok on screen). Lastly, as much as Vaughn is excited for the film to be set in the 60′s, it just doesn’t do anything for me. I mean, its kind of cool, I suppose because it is different, but outside of a novelty, I’m just not that impressed.
At least it finally has a trailer, at least.
Green Lantern – June 17
Ryan Reynolds was born to play superheroes. With a chiseled body, great hair, square jaw, and sharp wit, Reynolds could portray nearly any hero in the DCU and I’m be happy. I always saw him more as the Flash, but now that he is Green Lantern, I couldn’t be more excited.
I’m obviously completely biased towards this film, and I already know that I am going to love it before it has come out, but I don’t care. I will complain about Blake Lively, however. She is absolutely horrendous and also eleven years younger than Reynolds. Her casting in this film sounded like a terrible decision at the time it was announced, but it wasn’t until I saw her brief acting in the Entertainment Tonight clips that I realized just how abysmal that she really is.
Still, Mark Strong as Sinestro might be the most perfect casting since . . . well . . . Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - July 1
I went into the first live action Transformers film thinking, “All I want is giant robot action and explosions.” And instead, I got a movie with lots of fart jokes and very few robots.
Going into the second film, I thought, “well, surely it can’t be worse than the first film” and while there were more giant robots, it soon became apparent that none of them were particularly interesting looking and it lead to confusion on my part.
As one robot was killed, Sam seemed upset because she thought it was an Autobot. I wasn’t upset because I thought it was a Decepticon. Honestly, there was no way to tell, so it didn’t matter.
Top it all off with no fewer than 20 plot holes in the film and it was a movie that I’d rather forget.
There’s nothing about this new Transformers movie that could even remotely make me excited to see it. I have no faith in this film and I can almost guarantee that it will be absolute crap.
Still . . . I’ll go see it.
Captain America: the First Avenger – July 17
I’m unsure about this film. Chris Evans can really be hit or miss for me. He’s a competent actor, but I just find him annoying sometimes. He certainly looks the part of Cap, so there’s at least that. There are other actors that I would prefer for the role (Channing Tatum, Matt Damon, and John Cena being my top 3 choices), but I feel as if Evans could pull it off.
Even the trailer during the Superbowl can’t really persuade me one way or another. I mean, it looks good, but I dunno. It could go either way.
So, what about you? What movies are you excited about? Any that I forgot to mention that you would like to bring up? Post in the comments, and lets keep this conversation going.
I’m actually excited for all of them. Well i look forward to ll of them. Thor obviously looks amazing, Green Lantern looks super fun, Cap, while i hate the character in the comics, looks great and well made, plus i love Chris Evans, but mostly for being human torch and his part in the Losers.
Sadly the trailer has done little to assuage my fears of the entirety of the film taking place in the past. Because i don’t want the avengers film to have a majority dealing with him getting used to the strange new world around him, because that’s boring, as proven by Ultimate Avengers.
I loved both Transformers films, though i won’t deny the second had some minor annoyances, the action more than made up for it, especially the forest fight.
X-Men however is the odd ball. I love Matthew Vaughn as Kick-Ass and Stardust were both great films, and i’ve yet to see layer cake, though i hear nothing but praise.
It has Michael Fassbender who was great in Hex and Inglorious Basterds, January Jones looks great (though i would have rather had Alice eve for blatant reasons). I love Kevin Bacon, and the trailer was interesting enough.
My only problem is I have no idea what the plot is supposed to be, other than it involves the hellfire club, Nightcrawlers comic book dad, and the cold war somehow. Still its pretty and i love period pieces.
Maybe its just that the art of making trailers has come so far, but these all look worthy and exciting at this point. I’m sure some stupidity will creep into some of them come storytelling time (Transformers, no doubt) but I’ll still put mustard on that shit and eat it right up. ROTF was about as stupid as they come, but I still saw it twice.
Thor might be the one I’m most interested in to date, but from this crop of trailers, X-Men might be pulling into the lead. Maybe because I don’t know quite what to expect, and I enjoy James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence.
The CGI look of the Green Lantern suit turns me off a little, but I thought the same about Avatar until I saw it, and was won over by immersion. Sometimes it’s just like comic art, and only really starts to jive when you see it all in context and get used to how it works with the story.
In the spirit of the customer service mantra that says “A happy customer will tell two people, but an upset customer will tell 10.”, I’ll just critique the ones I’m worried about. I think that Green Lantern will be fine. Also, despite the fact I think it’s downright retarded that Ryan Reynolds and Chris Evans have played collectively a total of 5 different superheroes…I think Captain America’s going to be good. It has to be. There’s a shit-ton of money pumped into “The Avengers” and Cap’s got to lead them. I imagine the scrutiny factor on that movie’s production was high.
Thor: I think that KB’s direction will be good. I’m not so much a Portman fan, but that’s personal preference. The thing I worry about is that the movie will have to curb the “god” factor for sensitive American audiences and that (like most superhero movies) certain long time character development in the comics will be ignored to make the movie version his own creature(which is sometimes good, sometimes not). Also, Asgard seems a little like a Jay and Silent Bob vs. Cocknocker set, so I hope the grandiose sense of it doesn’t distract from the movie. I’m gonna pay to see this one.
Xmen: Someone needs to take the rights to the Xmen away from Fox. They made Ryan Reynolds Deadpool and took away his mouth in a modern movie where Wolverine rescued Havok and Emma Frost from a facility. Fox is now making a movie that takes place in the -past- where slightly older versions of Emma/Havok are a part of the first X-men team. Fox has zero disregard for anything Marvel has actually done with the characters. I don’t think that they really care about the characters or have any esteem for the genre. I think it’s just an ATM for them. I’m not going to see this one. I like my comic books more.
Transformers: Since Megan Fox was hard to work with, Michael Bay replaced her with Rosie Hungtington-Whitely…a lingerie model with no acting experience. Skids and Wheelie, the racist joke/stupid ghetto children SMART car autobots are back. I have zero hope that there’s really any integrity in this one after the last one, and it’s just looking worse. I might take the kid to see it, but I don’t really want to otherwise.
I think that the only two that are going to be absolute crap are X-men and Transformers.
fox and Sony are not letting go of rights of those franchise’s no matter what. They are cash cows, and they get to keep the rights as long as they keep making films.
You may hate it, but that is how it is.