The Adventures of Captain Otter

Well.  This is a bit of a surprise.  As you can guess by the title of today’s post, Disney has bought Marvel for no less than $4 billion.  I mean, seriously, who saw this coming?  Marvel has been independent since it’s creation 50 years or so ago.  Before we go into the pro’s and con’s of this deal, I just want to say that I love Disney.  I know the words to probably every song in the Lion King, and Disney World is undeniably the most magical place on Earth.  But what will happen to my beloved comics?  Let’s try and figure out what we can expect in the near future.

The GoodStability.  At the end of the 90’s or so, Marvel was doing really badly.  They were even on the verge of bankruptcy, or so the legend goes.  A bad editor in chief can lead the House of Ideas to ruin in the right circumstances.  By teaming up with Disney, this won’t happen.  Disney won’t be going out of business anytime soon, and even if Marvel takes some tough hits they can rely on the fact that they’re still part of an entertainment juggernaut.  And you can’t stop the juggernaut.Exposure.  Disney has alot more money than Marvel.  Money that can be used on advertising or to develop new ways of bringing comics to life.  They also have enormous parks with untold numbers of children walking around.  You see what I’m getting at.  If you start sticking Marvel toys in Disney World, then you get kids interested in the characters.  Getting more people into comics is always a good thing.  Funny thing is that the Universal park has an entire Marvel section.  I wonder what will happen if Disney decides they want a Marvel park of their own…Animation domination.  One of the things Disney is looking into is Marvel’s animated projects.  Disney is the undisputed master of all things animated.  Whether we look at the old school classic, or the things being done with Pixar, you can’t argue with results.  Bringing these two together and having them bounce some ideas of each other could create some fun projects.   The BadThe creative process.  Right now, Marvel has freedom to do what it wants.  They know their characters better than anyone, and I think that right now they have a pretty good handle on things.  The last thing we want is someone who doesn’t know anything about these characters to start making decisions.  Do I think this will happen?  No, not really.  I think that Disney is interested having a part of the movies and TV shows than changing the comics.  I expect the comics to stay the same for the most part, but I’m still worried about what could happen.

The movies.  I think the big reason this deal is happening is because of the success of Marvel’s movies.  After Marvel starting their own studio, stock prices soared.  This success is looking to continue with projects like the Avengers and Iron Man 2.  My biggest worry is that Disney starts getting too involved in the movie process.  Marvel has made nothing but great decisions so far, and anything that could jeopardize that makes me nervous.  Then again, if Disney has Marvel’s back, it might be easier for them to get bigger budgets for their movies.  Best case scenario, the movies get stronger casts and more publicity.  Worst case scenario, the wrong people get casted or Disney interferes too much.

 This is just a basic list the pros and cons.  This is a big opportunity for Marvel, and we could see some exciting things happen.  I’m optimistic about this, and I think some big things might happen.  Will it work out?  There’s only one way to find out…

So far, the only real candidate to direct the Avengers has been Jon Favreau.  The actor/director had enormous success with Iron Man, and is pretty much spearheading Marvel’s film initiatives.  That, and the movie is so far away I don’t think Marvel has put too much effort into finding a director.  Well, we have our first new contender who wants to lead the team to the big screen.  Matthew Vaughn, known for frequently working alongside Guy Ritchie, expressed his desire to direct to superhero epic.  The director isn’t new to the comic book scene either.  Vaughn described how he was desperate to make an Iron Man movie 8 years ago, and saw the potential the franchise had.  Either this guy is jumping on the Iron Man bandwagon (which is reasonable, to be fair), or is an honest to god visionary.  He also came pretty close to directing X-men 3, before being replaced two weeks before filming started.  He was briefly considered to direct Thor as well, so it’s safe to say that sooner or later the guy is probably going to make a full movie about one of these characters.

Vaughn also finished filming his adaptation of the comic-book Kick-Ass, which is due in theaters next year.  The funny thing is, I think the movie is going to be out before the comic book is finished.  It feels like fans have been waiting for issue 7 to come out for at least 6 months.  A trailer of the movie appeared at Comic-con, and most people who saw it say nothing but good things.  The gritty style of Kick-Ass matches up well with Vaughn’s experiences with movies like Layer Cake or Snatch, and the movie is so down-right brutal it’s going to get an R-rating.  Everything about the movie sounds incredibly strange, but if the trailer looks good then I’ll probably wind up seeing it anyway.

The director also commented that he would love to be part of the new Superman reboot and truly reinvent the hero.  Rumors seem to suggest that other directors are already being considered, but I can see this guy putting an interesting spin on the character.  And who knows?  If Kick-Ass proves to be a success, then we might see this guy direct some big name heroes.

Oh, and one more thing.  Remember how I said that the Megan Fox as Catwoman rumor is shenanigans?  Warners said today that no casting announcements had been made, and that the rumor was pretty much bogus.  Captain Otter: 1.  The rest of the media: 0.

Last week I headed back up to college, and was looking forward to it.  Not the whole “doing schoolwork” thing, but all the other parts.  A week in, I realized there is a serious problem.  I’m suffering from what I refer to as “comic withdrawal”.  See, I don’t have the space to bring up my ever growing horde of comic books.  Even worse, I don’t have easy access to new comics.  So I don’t know what happened in this week’s exciting issue of the Amazing Spiderman.  Did the Chameleon really dump Peter Parker in a vat of acid?  Is Spidey suffering a horrible, painful demise?????  The suspense is quite literally killing me.

The bad part is that I go on the internet more often to compensate for the absence of comicy goodness.  I wind up going on forums and comic related websites more often, which takes up even more time and distracts me from studying.  I should be reading about Organic Chemistry and Biology.  Instead I’m at my computer, writing about how I can’t bring myself to do those readings.  And to make matters even worse, I can’t stop thinking about Batman: Arkham Asylum.  That game looks to beautiful for words, and you can’t call yourself a Batman fan and not pick up the collector’s edition.  This is the same  collector’s edition which my friend gonzo at X-ray Vision tells us is a downright disappointment, but that’s not going to stop me. 

On the bright side, I did go to my school’s bookstore and picked up my first Daredevil trade.  This should be enough to drive off my insanity for a good week or two.  I hope…

I remember last summer when rumors about Batman 3 were just flying around.  It’s kind of disheartening to realize that those meant nothing at all, but I’m still coming back for more.  Today we have a new rumor, and I’m pretty confident that this is completely bogus.  A British tabloid is telling us that Megan Fox will be playing Catwoman in Batman 3.

Shenanigans.  That’s right, you heard me.  Shenanigans.  This rumor is only slightly more believable than the news that Eddie Murphy would be playing the Riddler.  This just doesn’t make sense.  First of all, the script isn’t even close to done.  I’m almost certain they havn’t started working on it, and are hopefully putting together the ideas right now.  The studio isn’t going to cast one of the main characters at this stage, when the entire plot is uncertain.  Even if they were in a position to start casting, I still don’t believe the rumor.  If you look at the kind of talent Nolan recruits, Megan Fox just doesn’t fit in.  I’m not saying she’s a bad actress, it’s just that I’ve never seen her in a movie where acting was actually required.  She just doesn’t fit in, and also seems a bit young for Catwoman.  She’s only 23, and I always saw the character as someone a bit more mature in a villainous way.

All this talk about Batman villains just reminds me more of Arkham Asylum.  The video game came out yesterday and I CANT PLAY IT.  I’m up at college right now and am going to have to wait till October before I starting mauling any villain who crosses my path.  I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the article, but I’ve been waiting for this game ever since I heard about it last year.  And I want my Batarang!

I guess Green Lantern just can’t escape Blackest Night.  Even in our world, the forces of darkness are acting against him.  There is a distinct possibility that the camera for the Green Lantern movie will see only…black.  Wow, that comparison sounded alot better in my head.  So what’s really going on?  It had been announced that the Green Lantern movie would be shooting in Australia this January and released in 2011.  The problem?  Seeing as the economy is kind of a mess right now, the value of the Austrialian dollar has changed.  Long story short, costs to make the movie will skyrocket and put a damper on production.

This could potentially have an easy fix.  Shoot the movie somewhere else.  Maybe a country where costs arn’t going to be insanely high.  This could happen, and we could see the movie shot in a new location.  Doesn’t matter to me, as long as the movie is good.  The problem might be that they’ve already started working on sets, and might not be able to change location.  Even though shooting is a few months away, work on this stuff starts way in advance.  This means they could be stuck with huge costs and might be forced to scrap the work they’ve already done.  There might be potential delays, and at the very least studio costs are going to rise.  If nothing changes and no solution is reached, Warners will have to pay between $15 and 20 million. 

Somehow I feel responsible for all this.  I think a part of me wants this movie to fail, so that way Ryan Reynolds will only play one comic book hero.  When he announced that he was playing the character, I know that Deadpool must have felt betrayed.  Why did DC have to ruin all that?  Now I feel guilty about all this.  Don’t worry readers, I’ll find a way to make this right.  Somehow…..

Back when Scarlett Johansson was announced to play the Black Widow, I was kind of upset.  Their original choice had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, so Scarlett was kind of the “runner up”.  I was happy to have Emily Blunt in the role.  It was a clever casting choice and I still think she could have nailed it.  But every time I look at this photo, I know that all is well.

If you’re anything like me, then you’ll want to see this character in action as soon as possible.  We know she’s set to appear in Iron Man 2, and we know she has at least some role in the Avengers.  Even if she is in the movie, I’m pretty confident that the story will try to focus on Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man as much as possible.  That being said, it looks like she might get a fairly strong role.  The big guy at Marvel, Kevin Feige, talked about how she’ll be key character in the movie and will be in more than just a few scenes.  I don’t know if she’ll be a full blown member or if she’ll just be a SHIELD agent that gives info, but she’s a welcome addition to the team.  We also learned that the Johannson is signed on for another movie.  It’s some kind of a solo movie, or at the very least one that’s not related to the Avengers.  A Black Widow movie might be alright, and would be very espionage heavy.  I would rather see a movie devoted to SHIELD, with the Johansson as one of the big stars.  The three characters that come to mind are her, Nick Fury, and Hawkeye.  I know Hawkeye isn’t an agent of SHIELD, but this is the best way to give him a movie.  His comic book origins as an ex-criminal arn’t the best, and seeing him as a highly trained special ops agent is pretty cool.  All of his skills and his personality will be intact, and this isn’t the first time he’s been imagined this way.  In the Ultimates (which is a big piece of inspiration), Hawkeye was a special agent who’s partner was the Black Widow.  And if you’ve read this story, you would know that Ultimate Hawkeye is one of the coolest characters in comics.  When the bad guys took away his weapons, he started using his own fingernails as projectiles.  Pretty gruesome, I know, but hardcore nonetheless.

Of course, there is a slight possibilt we might see Hawkeye in Iron Man 2.  There had been a much older rumor that we would see both him and the Black Widow get cameos, which would build in to the Avengers.  I’m skeptical about this one.  The Black Widow’s role is much more than a cameo, and I can’t imagine us not hearing about the casting of such an important character.  Other cameos we might see are Bruce Banner and Thor.  This has been thrown out there from time to time, and could happen I guess.  The Bruce Banner one was brought up last year when Robert Downey Jr. appeared in the Incredible Hulk and is entirely believable.  The Thor rumor is also a possibility, and would be a perfect way to get people excited to see the character in his own movie.  Imagine the movie ending with everyone seeing this huge armored warrior-god.  The shock factor alone would get people excited.  I’m not sure if this will happen though, since they havn’t even started filming Thor’s movie yet.  I don’t know if Chris Hemsworth has gotten ready for the part yet, or if the costume is fully designed.  I think they would have to shoot this scene pretty soon, but I’m not exactly an expert on movie making.  For all I know, they could shoot this thing in December and it would be fine.

Yesterday I talked about how the idea of Spiderman being in 3 more movies just won’t work.  Just to see if the older movies stood the test of time (since 5 years is just so long), I watched Spiderman 2 for the first time in a while.  I remembered liking this movie, but then again that was a while ago.  Looking back, it’s still one of the best comic book movies so far.  Doc Ock is a great villain, and they drove home the central idea of Spiderman trying to live a double life. 

So what worked in the movie?  I still think Alfred Molina is a great Doc Ock.  He wasn’t as perfect or irreplaceable as the Heath Ledger’s Joker, and they did change around his origins to make him a bit more sympathetic.  Still, you cared about the character.  Between Molina’s charm and a solid script, he came off as a well rounded villain.  You knew he was bad, and he did come close to killing thousands and thousands of people.  You also see his noble pursuit of science taken to a bizzare extreme, and when he finally redeems himself, everything comes full circle.  The script was also filled with plenty of downright touching moments.  Aunt May’s speech about how all of us need a hero, all of the stuff at the end between Peter and MJ, all of it was powerful stuff.  And Spidey stopping the train?  Come on, you have to admit that was awesome.  If you havn’t seen the movie in a while, I suggest going back and checking out these scenes.  If Iron Man was missing anything, it was the occasional touching moment the likes of which Spiderman 2 thrives on.  Even the campy stuff when Peter gives up his power while the “raindrops keep falling on my head” song was playing in the background was charming, and fit Peter Parker well.

So Spiderman 2 was great.  And like I do in all my reviews, I start talking about the stuff I didn’t like.  There’s a reason Spiderman is one of the most popular characters of all time.  One of the better parts of the character is his sense of humor.  No matter how hard you try and bring down Peter Parker, he keeps on going.  His humor is a part of that.  Sure, in the hands of a bad writer this comes off as annoying and childish.  Just the same, with a good writer, it gives the character a lighter feel, even when things get heavy.  All of the movies missed this.  Part of this is the script.  Spidey isn’t given too many funny lines or comebacks.  It’s possible they thought that his wit undermined a view of Spidey as a more stoic figure.  They’ve done stranger things.  The big part, though, is Tobey Maguire.  The guy always looks so sad, like someone shot his puppy.  I don’t think he’s a bad actor, I just think he was the wrong guy for the part.  The few comebacks and jokes he does make don’t actually sound like jokes.  Seriously!  Pay attention to the lines which are supposed to be jokes.  Also pay attention to the fact that you arn’t laughing while he’s saying them.  The movie can be funny, but Tobey Maguire isn’t.  He comes off as kind of forgetable compared to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark.  The reason Iron Man rocked was mostly because of how cool Stark was, and this summer’s Wolverine movie was saved by Hugh Jackman’s charisma.  If the Spiderman movies had an actor with that kind of personality and driving force, then the second movie would be close to perfect.

Generally speaking, most of the superhero movies tend to come in trilogies.  There might be spin-offs, like in the X-men movies, but if a superhero gets a successful first movie then chances are they go for two more.  This makes sense.  The first movie introduces the character and his problems, the second usually tells a great story, and the third tries to wrap things up.  The only problem is we haven’t seen a movie trilogy end on a good note.  Xmen 3 wasn’t anywhere near as good as X2, and Spiderman 3 still goes down as a big disappointment.  I think so at least.  I mean, an emo Peter Parker dancing?  I actually left the theater to take a break.  And don’t get me started on having Venom in the movie for a total of five minutes.  Again, it’s not even that the movie was abysmal; it’s that the second was just so much better.  Still, Spidey isn’t done, and it’s already confirmed that Spiderman 4 is coming out in 2011. 

But wait, there’s more!

The writer for Spiderman 4 is also signed on to do a fifth AND sixth installment.  Now, I don’t know exactly what has been going on with the writers so far, and they’ve been switched on and off more than once.  That alone isn’t the best sign.  Anyway, I’m not even going to bother worrying about that.  I am going to start worrying about everything else with the movie.  The first (and biggest) question is the choice of villain.  A good villain isn’t just someone who’s cool, but one who can also be part of a good story.  Spiderman has a great rogues gallery, and the three that stand out as his biggest foes are the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Venom.  They’re all used up, so now the movie has to start using some of the slightly lesser villains.  The ones that come to mind are the Lizard, Electro, and Kraven.  Carnage just won’t fly (swing?), and is way too dark for a Spiderman movie.  The Lizard has already been set up, but can’t work by himself.  The Lizard can’t work alone because he’s…. a lizard.  His motives are pretty simple and he can’t exactly concoct a good scheme.  Kraven would work great alongside the character, since the Russian hunter has manipulated the scaly alter-ego of Dr. Connors before.  So that’s one movie.  Electro, with a proper costume design, could work.  I don’t know what the story would be, but it has a chance.  Most of Spidey’s other villains are common criminals that won’t work on stage for two hours.  I’m sure they can do some cool things with Mysterio with all his illusions, but I doubt the guy could really survive more than one punch from Spidey.  Same for the Vulture.  They could start working for a movie with the Sinister 6, which could make things interesting I guess.  Then again, Spiderman 3 struggled with 3 villains.  Do you really want them to try and handle 6?  Or even worse, see them try to use this guy in the movie?

Sadly, this isn’t the least of Spidey’s problems.  In the comics, Peter Parker goes years as a high school and college student.  The magic of comic books is that you can always make the character look young.  This gets tricky when your actor starts turning 40.  By the time we get to Spiderman 6, Tobey Maguire is going to start looking old.  For the most part, I’m not sure how many more stories this franchise has left.  I don’t know how many more times Peter and Mary Jane can break up and get back together, and if think there is only so much more they can do with the pair.  And if they even consider giving Spiderman a kid I won’t even see the movie.  I guess the biggest problem is that I’m not excited about more Spiderman.  I think they can make Spiderman 4 a solid conclusion to the franchise, and let that end it.  If they make a 5th and 6th movie, it will just feel like they’re milking the character.  Even if this writer is on board for two more scripts, I’ll be shocked if they actually go through with it.

So with Spiderman in such a weird position, it’s time to look to better news.  Speaking of trilogies, it looks like Christopher Nolan might be on board for Batman 3!  Rumor has it that he’s leaving development on a movie called The Prisoner to work on the (hopefully) final Batman installment.  If this comes out in 2012, then this will be the third character that makes it to 3 movies.  I think Bats has it in him to stop the three-quel curse, and I have a feeling that Warners is going to be smart enough to let him take his time and not pressure him with ideas.  Studio pressure hurt X3 and Spidey 3 alot, and I don’t think we’ll see any of that.  Even if this is Batman’s last solo adventure, I do expect to see him in the Justice League.  This would be an entirely different Batman that’s more in line with the rest of the league.  Although it’s not confirmed, the idea of Nolan finishing up a Batman trilogy is something fans need to see.

In case you havn’t noticed, I’m obsessed with all things related to the Avengers.  Comics, movies, shows, everything.  While looking at all these rumors, I’ve been putting some thought into who the team should fight in 2012 movie.  I’ve had some ideas, so I just thought about throwing them out in a quick list.  Here goes.

Ultron

-He’s an evil robot with a nasty case of the Oedipus Complex.  Built by Hank Pym, Ultron has a personal connection to the team.  He has a long list of dastardly deeds, including his decision to conquer space for no better reason than “he felt like it”.  He came pretty close to winning too.  You have to love him, and he’s one of the best Avengers villains of all time.  He was my original choice for villain, but is starting to fall off the list.  To do Ultron right, you have to include Hank Pym.  Pym would also need a good reason for building the robot, and I think they would waste too much time setting this up.  Pym could build him as a way of stopping the Hulk, but that would still waste too much time.  The Avengers need a foe they can fight throughout the movie, not some final boss type showdown.  When a villain is introduced half way through the movie, it doesn’t feel as epic.  Ultron might make a great choice if there will be an Avengers 2, but that’s so far down the road it doesn’t matter.

The Skrulls

-After Secret Invasion, some comic book readers will cringe when they hear this one.  Still, if you read the Ultimates you would know that they were the first big enemy they faced (or an alien similar to them).  Since most of the script is based off Millar’s big run, they could stick with the same villain.  An army of skrulls would make for a great couple of fight scenes, and there are enough of them so we can see more than one fight.  Then again, an alien invasion might be a bit too much.  Once aliens get involved like this, the conflict doesn’t feel real anymore.  That’s as real as a movie starring a super soldier, green monster and god of thunder can be in the first place.  Hey, at least those three don’t have pointy ears.

Loki

-In one way or another, Loki will be in this movie.  He was the first foe the Avengers had to face, and even a big enemy in the Ultimates.  He just can’t let his brother have any fun.  Loki won’t be the only enemy, since he just doesn’t work like that.  He lets other people do the work for him.  Also, did we forget that Loki is the God of Awesome?  No, we didn’t, and that’s why he has to be in this movie.  

HYDRA

-My best guess for the enemy.  They work on so many levels.  First off, they have a big organization, so you can fit in alot of fights.  Also, HYDRA will be a part of Captain America’s movie.  Having Cap face off against the same forces he did from WWII?  That just works for me.  Cap would get a refound sense of purpose after being out of action and stuck in a big block of ice.  It also makes the franchise feel more cohesive, like there is some overarching plot.  You can even fit in the Masters of Evil.  Having an actual team called the “Masters of Evil” is way over the top.  The name lacks imagination, and is too cheesy to be menacing (like the Ultimates).  Having them as part of HYDRA makes sense.  HYDRA needs some heavy hitters to stand up against the heroes, so the Masters could be somewhere between an elite strike force and a ruling cabal.  The relationship is going to be the same as the Avengers/SHIELD relationship i the movie.  This way, you can fit in some stronger villains.  And since we might see more of the Abomination, he could be one of their recruits.  I’m not sure where they should go from there, but I see them as the best enemy.

Okay, District 9 isn’t related to comics.  But it’s sci fi, and there just arn’t too many comic book movies this summer.  Still, I’m going to related this to comics.  Just trust me on this one.  District 9 is Neil Blomkamp’s first big screen outing, and it’s sure not to be his last.  I didn’t even hear about this movie until a month or two ago, and it’s looking to be a sleeper hit.  All I knew was that there were aliens in South Africa, and they couldn’t go home.  I had no idea where they would go from there, and that mystery just made me that more excited to see the movie.

Let’s start out with the good parts.  The highlight of the movie is undeniably the alien designs.  There’s nothing unique or new here actually.  We’ve all seen motherships, and we’ve all seen alien weapons that cause crazy damage.  These are classic sci-fi staples.  What Blomkamp does do is take these old school elements and makes them feel real.  I can’t emphasize how big of an achievement this is.  We know that a mothership is some kind of big floating disc, but the ship in District 9 feels like something that could be built.  And it’s almost worth going to see the movie just to see the guns.  This is where the movie excels: taking the ordinary and making it feel real.  Even the basic premise is an extension of this concept.  We’ve seen aliens crash land on our planet before.  Again, this isn’t a new concept.  But we’ve never see such a realistic portrayal of how this would actually happen in reality and how governments would respond to the issue.  This sense of realism is boosted by the cinematography as well.  Much of the movie is in “documentary” form, with plenty of interviews to fill the viewer in on what’s going on.

So, the graphics and designs are great.  The premise is great.  Even the acting was great.  What could possibly be wrong with this movie?  The plot.  Despite all of this movie’s achievements, the plot brings it down.  It’s not that the plot is bad, it’s just incredibly predictable.  If I tell you the first 20 minutes or so of what happens, I can guarantee that you will able to figure out the rest of the movie.  With such an original set up and premise, I was hoping for something a bit more.  I don’t want to give away too much, but (SPOILER), the plot feels way too much like Blood Diamond’s.  Also, I’m getting a bit frustrated at how in almost every movie, corporations are downright evil.  I can’t think of a movie where a big company is even neutral, let alone good.  Having them as villains is starting to get old, and when you can predict that they’re going to be the bad guys before the movie even starts, you have a serious problem.  If I tell you that there’s a big corporation in the movie, do you have any doubts that they’re going to be evil?  In fact, the plot becomes so predictable, I stopped caring about the characters.  Sure, the protagonist is a well rounded character, but by the end of the movie I felt like he was just going through the motions.District 9 is a very good movie, but that’s it.  If someone had taken this premise and done something different, it could have been a science fiction legend.  Did the apartheid and racial messages work?  Yes, but even a good theme can’t salvage a predictable plot.  People will hold it in high regard because it’s original and different, and they’re not wrong.  For me though, the movie just lacked heart.  This is one of the reasons I love comic book movies (see?  I told you I would relate this to comics).  In comic book movies, we know who the characters will be and we know the hero will win in the end.  Chances are some of us will know what specific story the movie is based on.  Even then, good comic book movies are still amazing.  The characters are interesting and you actually care about them.  The stories are time tested and compelling (hopefully).  This is what District 9 lacked.  It had all the potential to be a great movie, and it was “original” and “different”.  But without characters you care about and interesting plot developments, it’s just alright.