Tagged: X-Men
Universal Dork Weighs in on “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”!
Alright so there are a bout a billion reviews up online everywhere about the Amazing Spider-man 2, so I’m not going to spend a whole lot of energy here on this one. The movie really doesn’t need another review or any more hype at this point, but what the hell it’s my blog and I shelled out a Fandango gift card on it! Ok, so first let me state that my expectations weren’t very high for this one as I wasn’t a real big fan of the first flick. As I always do though, I try my best to go into a movie with an open mind. Besides this is Spidey we’re talking here, a guy I’ve loved dearly since being a lil’ whipper snapper!
I’m thinking now, that maybe if I’d seen this one as a little kid maybe my mind would have been blown. The Amazing Spider-man 2 is a huge ass movie. Two hundred million dollar budget. It’s close to two and a half hours long. It’s loud, flashy and jam packed with intertwining story lines. That’s my first problem with it, there’s too much going on. There’s too many subplots. The movie goes on a few too many tangents and then decides to go on a few more after that. Sony is clearly trying set up more movies (ala The Avengers syndrome) from this one and honestly it didn’t have a smooth flow to what should have been a nice tight knit compelling story.
Which leads me to my second problem, the writing. Spider-man 2 suffers from some seriously terd-tastic writing. Everything from Peter Parker’s stale on again off again relationship, to Paul Giamatti’s corny ass Rhino, to the awful Jamie Foxx Electro to Harry Osborn’s overnight meltdown. They’ve really managed to create some paper thin excuses for people to turn into supervillains these days. Foxx did his best with what he was given, but his dialogue was painful to watch and his reasoning for going evil was just plain uninspired. There was nothing believable about his character, I felt absolutely nothing for him nor cared of his motivations. His entire existence in the movie was rather idiotic to say the least.
Then we have The new Green Goblin, played by Dane Dehaan. He did quite a fine job in the role and clearly he’s got the acting chops. However his character’s motivations were also pretty flimsy. His all too quick transformation from good guy into an evil raving lunatic was a bit ridiculous. The prison scene where he recruits Electro to help him break into Oscorp was one of the worst team up moments I’ve ever seen on screen or in the comics. “You need ME? You need ME?!” Also I might note that once again I wasn’t a fan of the Goblin’s look onscreen. Sorry I just can’t get behind that robotic body armor schtick. It just well…sucks!
Lastly the action scenes, which there actually really weren’t that many of, were decently executed, but really took me out of the movie. It’s like watching a live action movie suddenly turn into Toy Story 2. The CGI in this flick was great, if the whole movie had been done that way (which they maybe should consider doing) and the last final Electro battle looked straight out of an Xbox game with not a real human actor in sight for at least over five minutes. No thank you. If I wanna watch a video game I’ll go play one at home.
On a good note I have grown to kinda like Garfield as Spidey. He’s a good actor and really did put his heart and soul into what he was given to work with. He’s a more convincing Spider-man, who’s really grown into the part. If someone could get a good script for a Spider-man film it’d be golden with him as Peter Parker. However what we get once again is an even more bloated, glittery, mindless mess of a summer blockbuster. That’s not to say I hated it, but I wouldn’t want to see it again. I like seeing images of Spider-man on a screen in front of me, but at best that’s about as far as this movie appeals to me. Oh yeah and what the fuck was that lame ass mid credit X-men advertisement?! The movie was called “The Amazing Spider-man 2” not “X-men: Days of Future Past” last time I checked….that was a low blow. Don’t do that again. Can we just hurry up on that Avengers sequel already?!!
Wolverine: Set to Kick the Bucket This Summer! I Say It’s About Time!
So news has dropped that Marvel plans to “kill off” Wolverine this summer in the upcoming “3 Months to Die” starting with Wolverine #8. I’m sure no one will shed a tear as well all know Wolverine won’t be gone for long and that this type of shit goes down every ten years or so to boost sales. This however is something I think that Marvel needs to do desperately. Marvel has gone Wolverine crazy over the years, putting him in almost every comic book imaginable.
He even joined the Avengers, a move that today still doesn’t fly with me. Wolverine will NEVER feel like an Avenger to me. I never would’ve imagined that anyone could make Logan a boring character, but it happened. They’ve been beating a dead horse with him for far too long now. I’m actually pretty tired of seeing him in comic books, I’m totally burnt out. He seems to show up everywhere. If you would tell me that Wolverine actually has fifteen identical twin brothers at this point I’d totally buy it. I’m really actually glad he’s not able to show up as a team member in the Avengers movies…
He’s no longer mysterious. In fact he’s so far from mysterious these days that there’s really not much interesting to do with him other than kill off the lil’ runt! Wow, can you imagine a Marvel universe without Wolverine?! It sounds kinda….exciting! I can’t imagine it really, and that’s why it needs to happen.
“If the title sounds ominous, it’s for a good reason,” says Editor in Chief Axel Alonso. “What will be waiting for readers in September, when ‘3 Months to Die’ is over? Let’s just say, it’s going to be the buzz of the comics world.”
I’m sure Marvel realizes that they really haven’t crafted an exciting Wolverine story in decades. So yeah count me in, I wanna see Wolvie go down and stay down for a long time. I’m really curious who’s going to do him in (I hope it’s not Sabretooth-I’m still sick of that guy too). I wanna miss the guy. I want it to feel special again when he shows up in another title as a guest star. He used to be one of my favorite characters of all time, we all need a break sometimes from the people we love. I’m for the first time in forever excited to read Wolverine!
Bryan Singer’s X-Men: In Need of a Serious Makeover!
Somebody call the Oprah-cuz we need to get these Bryan Singer Mutants in for an Extreme Makeover! Now I’m sure that I’m going to enjoy Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. I’m fully confident that it’s going to be maybe one of the best superhero flicks we’ve yet to see. I have good faith in Singer’s ability to bring some magic to the franchise he started. A reunion of sorts is almost always very exciting!
One thing though I’ve been noticing with all of these recently released photo stills from the upcoming movie is that their costumes are really starting to look…well….stupid. Frumpy maybe is the word? I’ve never been a huge fan of the whole slick cool guy black leather X-Men movie look but I’ve tolerated it. I will even say it worked for a while. However some of these costumes just look plain sad.
Maybe it’s just me? These costumes just don’t make the cut! At this point I’d really love to see a more classic look attempted. What would be the harm? It is a fictional comic book based movie. So why can’t we get a little more of the comic book in the look? I mean the costume’s colors could be way toned down. It doesn’t have to look all early 90’s Jim Lee or anything. I mean really this is the BEST they could come up with for Quicksilver? This is some wretched bullshit. He looks like a total tool. Somebody slap this guy now!
If this is the type of shit that we’re getting at this point in time I don’t see what the harm would be to try and give the X-Men their actual comic book costumes! It surely couldn’t get any worse than this! This is where The Avengers and the Marvel movies have gotten it right, The Avengers actually look like The Avengers! It worked! So why the hell can’t Fox get this shit dialed in? I think it’s time that we see the X-Men the way they were meant to be. At this point what’s there to lose? One of the main reasons I love comic books super heroes is because of their costumes.
I honestly can picture something like this being done today tastefully. So get with it Hollywood because your X-Men are in need of a serious makeover….
Knights of Badassdom: The Most Bad ASS Movie of 2014?!
I finally saw Knights of Badassdom last night, a movie that I’ve been waiting to be released for years. It first started filming iway back in 2010. So the question remains, was it worth the long, long wait? You Betcha!! I’ll go ahead right now and say that this flick will easily be taking ranks in my top ten list in 2014. It’s really too bad that this one is getting such a limited release theatrically, because it’s better than half the comedies that are coming out these days and it works incredibly well as a horror movie too. When I first checked it out I wasn’t aware of how much the movie truly dabbled in the horror, genre I thought it was pretty much a straight up comedy, so I was pleasantly surprised when the heads started rolling. Luckily I was able to catch it here in Portland, Oregon in the theater. I tried to see twice over the weekend but both times it was sold out. Finally we bough our tickets online! I was determined!
First though let me say the movie has a great cast, Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau and Steve Zahn who I always love, serve up nonstop laughs from beginning to end. Dinklage has got to be the movie’s main draw and without him I really wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie nearly as much as I did. I almost wonder if they’ve been waiting to release the movie because of how popular Dinklage has gotten in last few years with Game of Thrones and his upcoming role as the main bad guy in X-men: Days of Future Past?
The plot is ridiculously simple, metal head Joe, True blood’s Ryan Kwanten is dumped by his girlfriend and to cheer him up his friends get him ridiculously wasted and bring him along to their weekend LARPing outing. Joe’s a bit resistant until he notices his guild has the incredibly cute Gwen (Summer Glau) playing as well. To get the games started the Wizard of the group played By Steve Zahn chants a spell from a strange mystic book he found on Ebay and somehow awakens a succubus that greatly resembles Joe’s ex. She doesn’t show up til later though and in between we get a full on play by play from Dinklage of how to kick ass in the game of Live Action Role Playing that’s one of the movie’s finest moments as he continues throughout to steal the show.
The fun really begins once the succubus emerges from the shadows of the forest. Suddenly the movie starts feeling more like The Army of Darkness than a straight forward comedy. Something that I really enjoyed was all of the old school special effects. The movie features a little bit of well placed CG but by the end of the movie you’ll be cheering in your seat as the evil succubus becomes seriously a little less than human!
The movie is all out fun, the perfect Saturday night popcorn flick and it also delivers one hell of an ending that’s more than worth waiting for. It’s jam packed with, laughs, action, monsters, heavy metal and plenty of surprises! This one was directed by Joel Lynch who also did the awesome Wrong Turn 2: Dead End. If you see this playing near you check it out, it’s got a limited theatrical run before it’s released on Feb. 11th via VOD. I also hear this version may have been heavily edited so that’s just a little more incentive to check out the DVD when it drops!
Origin II: Is Wolverine’s Past Worth Telling Anymore?
Well I just finished reading issue number 2 of Origin II, which continues the legendary unknown history of Marvel’s most valuable asset, Wolverine. Continuing the story of James Logan Howlett from the popular Origin series from 2001, Origin II just doesn’t feel like anything particularly special to me. Hell we could have skipped all the hype and just put this story into one of the regular Wolverine books out there today and it would have felt thus far like pretty typical Wolverine fare.
It’s common knowledge that Wolverine is in far too many comics these days. Honestly I’ve been pretty burnt out on the overuse of the character for quite some time now. I really kinda miss the old days where there was The Uncanny X-men and one solo Wolverine comic. Plain and simple. However as we all know everything these days is about making a buck, and not really putting out quality stories. So we get so much Wolverine crammed down our throats that it begins to make us nauseous.
Well the “long awaited” Origin II tells us more of our favorite berserker’s secretive past in the 19th century. It started out with issue #1 where Wolverine is living with the wolves, because we all know he doesn’t fit in the world of man. So naturally he decides that hanging out in a wolf pack is clearly the answer to all of his problems. As we all know tragedy always follows Logan, and a huge polar bear wandering far from his normal habitat slaughters all of Wolvies “wolf” friends.
So of course he gets his revenge on the polar bear and fights it to the death. He wins, kills said polar bear which takes us to issue #2. Here the story unfolds even more, as we find out that the polar bear was actually owned by a young Dr. Essex (a young Mister Sinister), who at first I thought was Doctor Strange, is determined to capture the killer of his beast. So naturally we get the man for the job, a younger Sabretooth (duh, of course this is a Wolverine comic) to help track down the beast responsible. Hence Wolverine is captured and ends up in a circus freak show. Yeah the misunderstood man beast of course is back in full effect. I guess it’s cool that we get a a pre Mister Sinister meeting Wolverine for the first time?
Now maybe this story is on it’s way to big, big things? I may have to eat my words. It seems everyone has to put their two cents worth into Logans “mysterious” past these days, I mean let’s not forget about the whole “Romulus” mess that was created. It really feels like people just make all this stuff up as they go. It all feels a little too hokey, predictable and issue #2 features some rather sloppy, rushed looking artwork from Adam Kubert. maybe he put all of his effort into the first issue?
I’m really paying close attention to books lately that deliver on all levels these days with strong inspired ideas and artwork. They’re out there, but at 4 bucks a pop finding them can be tricky and costly. It seems that the panels are getting bigger every month too, so you’re getting far far less real content for your money these days. A comic book these days takes less than ten minutes to read. So what to do with the heroes you love? Where do you turn? Has Wolverine’s charm and appeal run it’s course? Is his secret history really all that alluring anymore? Hell does anyone really care? I’m really not sure I’ll be shelling out 4 bones for Origin II #3 next month, I think I might try something new instead…
Universal Dork’s Rad New Comic Book Picks!
It’s tough sometimes finding cool new comic books to check out! Sometimes (more often lately it seems) the two big cheezes, Marvel & DC just don’t float my boat! It’s a shame because I’m a superhero guy at heart and not getting that fix can certainly be depressing. So these days with somewhat limited resources I’ve been picking up a few cool new and ongoing titles that thus far seem real promising! So here’s a few that I’ve been diggin’ lately:
Manifest Destiny (Image/Skybound): The third issue of this series just dropped this week and so far it’s a ton of fun! It’s a period piece retelling the expedition of Lewis & Clark with a even more adventure and yeah some creepy run ins with native monsters! They inject some great horror into this historical journey and have created some memorable characters to boot. The artwork too is pretty damn impressive as well and thus far I’m fully on board, I think this could quite possibly fill the void in my life that The Walking Dead has left with it’s recent more & more tired storytelling. Check it out!
Curse (Boom! Studios): Just picked up the first issue of this cool (so far) horror comic! It’s being called a werewolf story, but I’m still guessing it could be based on the Wendigo mythology. We’ll see I guess. Either way it’s got some fantastic gritty artwork and an intriguing story about a down on his luck single father who decides to try to collect reward money by hunting down a killer in the woods to pay for his dying sons doctor bills. What he encounters is even more than he originally bargained for! So far this four issue limited series looks totally promising!
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth (Dark Horse): This comic book is probably my favorite these days and has really compelled me to go back and collect all the trades to read from start to finish. The recent story line is as always jam packed with monsters and as always incredibly unique art. Issue #115 find the BPRD teaming up with Russian Special Science Services (the Russian version of BPRD) as they travel on foot through a desolated Manhattan landscape looking for survivors of a recent Monster attack on the city and the cause of it all. This current arc is awesome and we’ve now finally got Liz Sherman back ready to kick monster ass with her recently renewed fire power! I only hope that Abe Sapien makes his way back to the team! If you don’t read this series you’re missing out!
Guerrillas (Oni Press): This series isn’t new, but it’s new to me and I love it so far! Written and fantastically drawn by Brahm Revel this kick ass little adventure set in the Vietnam War follows Private John Francis Clayton on his first tour of duty. Unsure of himself and deathly afraid of combat finds himself alone in the jungles after his platoon is slaughtered by the enemy. It’s not long though until he runs into a strange platoon of chain smoking chimps armed for combat dressed in full on army fatigues. Sounds almost like a comedy? Not chance this one is played out serious and the story becomes more intriguing with every turn of the page. Thus far there’s two trades out and they’re a hell of a lot of fun. Right now Mr. Revel is working on Marvel Knights: X-men which so far is great. However he told me himself that we can expect the next chapter of Guerrillas to unfold in 2014! So check it out before the third act hits!
New “Marvel Knights” Comics Show True Potential!
Thus far with my limited budget I’ve decided to take a few chances on a couple of the new “Marvel Knights” limited series and I’m so far pretty damn impressed! I’ve been pretty bored with most of the super hero titles I’ve tried to keep up with and honestly have dropped almost all of them. I’ve first got to clarify I don’t get any promo or advance copies here to review, I’d LOVE to do reviews every week of all the new titles. I’m sure I’d find many that would blow my mind. I love all styles of comic books but I’d be liar if I said that I wasn’t first and foremost a superhero fanatic. I’ve tried many titles out there and it feels like perhaps we’re at another stale point in comics at least from the big two publishers. It seems to go in waves, but perhaps the whole super hero thing is a tad overblown these days with the huge shiny Hollywood blockbusters. It’s been reported that Marvel Knights this time around was launched to give some writers and artist with a more independent background a shot at giving some of the more popular heroes a slightly different feel.
Well recently I shelled out some cash for a couple of the new Marvel Knights titles which are right now just mini series. Last month I was pleasantly surprised to read Marvel Knights: X-men by Brahm Revel, who also was the writer artist of “Guerillas” which is now on my radar for must read comics. This X-men story was so impressive to me because of how well it’s smaller scale plot line played out(so far at least) in issue #1. Wolverine, Rogue and Kitty head out on a road trip together to a tiny backwoods town to investigate some child mutants that they believe may be in danger of being murdered. It reminded me of older X tales with a more personal storyline rather than some part of whatever big yearly extravaganza Marvel has planned to try and sell millions of books. It had me pumped to see where it will go next and Revel’s artwork as well was truly impressive with a darker, grittier feel to it. Reminding me that some of the best comic book stories don’t need to involve saving the world every day.
Yesterday I thought I’d give Marvel Knights: Hulk a shot as well, as I have been craving my Hulk fix for quite some time now. I’ve tried over and over to get into Indestructible Hulk but something about it just doesn’t click with me. I was pleased to find that this Marvel Knights Hulk was quite intriguing as well! Basically following Banner as he wakes face first in a river with no memory in Paris and is taken in by a local woman who tries to help him put the pieces back together of how he got there.
It doesn’t take long before things get crazy as some secret organization is hunting him down with giant Hulk like monsters. Like the X-men the story starts out small but it seems like this one is going to get pretty out of control. The art while not as impressive as the X-Men is solid but the story is thus far top notch and filled with mystery. I may have to check out more of these Marvel Knights books if they are of the same caliber. I think there is also a Spider-man MK book too. It’s nice at least to have a few superhero books to look forward to!
Hubba Hubba: Remembering the Marvel Swimsuit Specials!
Am I the only one that remembers those Marvel Comics Swimsuit issues?! Yeah, these were as weird as they sounded it was basically Marvel’s version of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issues except with all your favorite characters posing for sexy shots! These were put out by Marvel Annually from 1990 to 1995 and often had funny articles and fake advertisements. It was a strange idea but I’m gonna be honest there were quite a few characters I was kinda pumped to see posing 😉 These are definitely worth hunting down, they’re super funny and ultimately amusing. Anyway here’s a some pictures from those very issues as we look back to those Superhero bikini days!! Yeeeeeah!!
What Would Wolverine’s Costume Really Look Like on the Big Screen?!
We’ve all been teased with the alternate ending of The Wolverine movie soon to be released on the unleashed extended cut of the movie which shows Hugh Jackman opening a briefcase containing his “classic” yellow costume. However it seems people in Hollywood still doubt that they could make his comic book costume look good on the big screen.
I however disagree, I say bring it on and this little episode of Super Power Beat Down(which I just first saw now) looks pretty damn cool as we see Wolverine in his yellow costume take on the Predator! Skip to the 4 minute mark in the video if you wanna skip over the the “geek” questioning on the issue of who would win between Wolverine and The Predator. It’s obvious to me Wolverine would destroy the Predator-I mean Danny Glover, Arnold and Adrien Brody did it!
Comic Book Cover of the Week! Bill Sienkiewicz & The New Mutants!
Here’s on of my fave covers from the 1980’s era New Mutants. Issue number 19 from 1984 always stuck in my head clearly because of the incredible skills of Mr. Bill Sienkiewicz! Seriously, this guy’s artwork is some of the most unforgettable in comic book history. The comic master of the abstract, you always know you’re getting something special when his name’s attached. Back in the mid 1980’s he did some incredible artwork for The New Mutants, most of which was very dark, jagged and gritty. It further set the tone of the mutant based books in the 80’s as just that. Something a little more hard edged than the regular superhero books. This is one of my faves from that era of the New Mutants but believe me all of his cover artwork for the title is breathtaking. He’s a true comic book legend in every way….
Universal Dork 