Hello, true believers! Do you, like me, enjoy fantasy football, but have trouble getting into it because you're simply not that into football? I have solution: SummerMovieLeague.com! This website allows you to choose movies between May 25 and the Tuesday after Labor Day and guess which ones will gross the highest. Whoever grossest the highest at the end wins. You can also put the movies in order based on which will make the most, and you gain a bonus if you're right. Here's a tip: the films that gross the most are consistently animated and superhero movies (the latter more than the former, if you need to compare), with sci-fi coming closely behind. You should also trust that remakes of classic films (like Total Recall, as you'll see in my list) will do pretty well. It's important not to necessarily judge a movie by how good it is or looks, but by how well it will do. A good example of this was Cowboys and Aliens from last Summer: despite positive reviews, the movie didn't connect with Average Joe, or more importantly in this case, Joe, Josephine, Joe Jr., and Joy, the Average Family. In case you need some help with your list, here's mine:
1. The Dark Knight Rises-This one shouldn't be a surprise. Nolan's Batman movies have only done extremely well, and I'll elaborate on why I picked this above The Amazing Spider-Man next.
2. The Amazing Spider-Man- The brand alone should give this movie plenty of money, and superhero movies are always the big money makers. What puts this below The Dark Knight Rises? The public at large, unlike comic book fans, doesn't understand reboots-that is, at least concerning the Spider-Man movies, whose latest entrance into the franchise was nearly five years ago and fresh in people's minds. This contrasts with movies in the Superman or Batman series, whose latest films, at the time of their reboot, were separated by around 1-2 decades. In the case of the upcoming The Man of Steel, the latest Superman film, Superman Returns, was somewhat unremarkable. Too much confusion is generated from the material and altered portions of this movie that it'll fall below The Dark Knight Rises. The extra cost for 3D movies will make this movie perform even better, so luckily, the site still gives you a bonus if you're one off in the list.
3. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted - As I previously said, animated/kids' films always do very well, and this is the third entry into an already successful series. Is it just me, or has this series jumped the shark with this one?
4. Ice Age: Continental Drift - And speaking of jumping the shark...it's the fourth Ice Age. This movie was only beaten out by Madagascar 3 because the Madagascar series has more exposure with kids, between the more recent films and the cartoon on Nickelodeon.
5. Madea's Witness Protection - Say what you will about Tyler Perry's Madea films, but they make money. Oh, you doubt me? This is the seventh film in the Madea series. Seven. It beat out Star Wars! I wouldn't be surprised if the series gets more movies than Friday the Thirteenth, Nightmare on Elm's Street, or Halloween.
6. Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - Hopefully, most young readers of the Diary of A Wimpy Kid book series. However, I don't have a great amount of faith in these young readers, and based on the success of the previous films (and once again, a third film in a series), I can see this movie doing quite well.
7. The Expendables 2 - If there's two things Americans like in movies, it's these: Sequels and mindless explosions and violence. The Expendables and its sequel are old fashinoned action films, and they feature casts that audiences gravitate towards: Statham, Rourke, Stallone, Crews, Schwarzenagger, and-yes, you're about to read right-Chuck Norris. Chuck. Fracking. Norris.
8. Brave - While this is a darker movie than others by the studio, Brave is a Disney-Pixar movie. That alone is a money maker, but it also is a lot about woman-power and freedom, which are draws for a movie audience.
9. Total Recall - Like I said, remakes make money, and sci-fi thrillers like this are bound to make money. The reason it's so high up in the list is that, though a good movie, Total Recall is not exactly fresh in people's minds.
10. Prometheus - I really hope this movie does well, and better than 10th best in the Summer. It's a sci-fi thriller, so it'll make good money, and it looks incredible, so it'll get good money from people in the geek community. However, it seems strange and scary to the public at large, who don't know it's sorta-kinda a prequel to Director Ridley Scott's Alien. Ridley Scott isn't exactly a household name in non-geek homes, so putting that in the trailer, in my opinion, can't draw enough people to bring this movie higher on the list.
To make your own list, you can go to SummerMovieLeague.com.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Reasons to Buy Avengers vs. X-Men #1
As many may know, Tuesday night, Avengers vs. X-Men, or AvX, hit many store shelves in an early release event. I attended one of these events, and found it was well worth the money I paid. First, probably as a part of the promotion, the comic was 25% off of its $3.99 price, and with tax, it was just $3.25. Granted, this is slightly more than other of Marvel's comics not in the Avengers line (excluding Avengers Academy), but it included a large amount of additional content that made it quite worth it. In an effort to encourage the purchase of print comics, Marvel included a code in the back of the book that could be redeemed on Marvel.com to get AvX #1 for free digitally. In addition, it included the first of Marvel's Unlimited comics, comics made to be viewed exclusively in digital form. This purchased separately from AvX #1 is an additional 99 cents. Essentially, I paid just $3.25 for content and other materials that have a value upwards of $5. To top all of that off, the comic itself is good! I'll review the content itself tomorrow when I finally am able to read this week's comics, but needless to say, it is a quite good one.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Image of the Week: March 3, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Review of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
I walked into this movie expecting it to be horrible. I'd read the reviews, which were, putting it nicely, negative. On top of that, I had seen Ghost Rider, a film that is perhaps the last entry of Marvel's early 2000s period when, after the success of Spider-Man, the company commissioned new films to be made chronicling their darker heroes. It worked with movies like Blade-not so much Ghost Rider.
In terms of what I was expecting, this film surprised me greatly. Don't get me wrong-it was a truly terrible film. However, it was only terrible in the sense that it was supposed to be a dark, serious film. Instead, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance accepts how horrible it is and uses that. This film does not take itself seriousley in the least. It is almost parodying itself, and I found it's type of humor to be akin to what is found in Saints Row: The Third. It is completely over the top, though it plays this for laughs rather than any wow-factor. The writers of the film realize that Nicholas Cage cannot possibly appear serious, so they go out of their way to portray him that way. When Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider's alter ego and Cage's role) interrogated a man brutally and threateningly, my brother and I burst out laughing at how ridiculous he seemed. It seems that Cage even plays this to his advantage. If it was a comedy, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance would be almost a little bit good.
However, a large part of what makes this film so bad is that it was not at all portrayed this way. It was portrayed as a serious superhero film close to the tier of Iron Man or Thor. Every fan within the comic book community knew it wouldn't be that, but they at least expected the film to appear like its creators had taken time to craft the story or at least provided good action. The one point in the movie where I actually predicted what would happen (though not exactly how), right before the climactic battle, could have been a scene that met either of those films, but fell short.
The action does not make for an especially good break from the "humor," as most of the interesting and cool tricks feel done and bland. The CGI is nominal at best. The comic book backstory, other than the names of three characters, is totally ignored. The story itself took a step back to the midpoint of the first Ghost Rider, as Blaze now believes he is a Hulk-like monster that cannot be controlled.
The key to appreciating this film is to turn the brain off and enjoy the lunacy of it as much as possible. Even then, however, it is still a relatively bad film. If both the director and the writers had spent more time balancing the hillarious lunacy of the film and its potential for great action or how scenes progress, the film would have been a mediocre one, and a step up from Ghost Rider. Taken seriously, the film is worse than the original. Embracing the over the top nature of the film, however, will make it much more, but still just barely, palatable.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Comics of January 4, 2012
Welcome to my first post of 2012, ever faithful readers! There were some pretty great comics this week; check them out!
Annihilators: Earthfall #4
It's the final issue of this series, and I have to say...thank goodness. I loved all of Abnett and Lanning's work up until Annihilators. At that point, it became lackluster, boring, and repetitive. The art is horrendous. In the last Annihilators series, Tan Eng Huat's art was sub-par in this series. In this series, however, everything looks wrong. In a previous issue Captain America looked like he had the bone structure of a stereotypical African American character. In this one, Huat pulled a Liefield and gave Iron Man square breasts. Ms. Marvel has gigantic hips. Quasar's quantum bands are gigantic. Also, why does Valkyrie looked scared when she's about to kill a kid version of the Magus. Like Annihilators, the whole series feels like it has no significance, even though it takes place on Earth. That seems to be what happens when you get six super powerhouses on one team. Furthermore, what kind of roster is this for the Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Valkyrie, Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Thing, Ms. Marvel, and Red Hulk. What the hell? This is another thing that annoyed me about this series--how they just threw eight random Avengers together, only four of whom are even on the same team! I mean, seriously DnA! If you're going to use the Avengers, choose regular, New, or Secret. ONE TEAM, please!
Defenders #2
This book, on the other hand, is what I'm talking about! While it feels a little shorter than last issue, Defenders #2, like the previous issue, is fantastic. The art is good, even though I'm not a huge Dodson fan. I can already see events from Point One starting to play out. These new Avalonians (?) are characterized well, and have a good reason for wanting to mess up the universe. Iron Fist and Namor, though they don't interact with each other much, are hilarious in their own way.
Avengers Annual #1
Where New Avengers Annual #1 had almost entirely action, Avengers Annual #1 has meaning. There's not a ton of action, but Bendis and Dell'Otto certainly make up for it with a fantastic story and art. We really get into Simon Williams' head. This isn't just a phase-Wonder Man really is insane, in that scary kind of way that almost makes sense. Dell'Otto's art, as I said, is just phenominal. One of my favorite moments was Beast's horror upon seeing what Wonder Man had become.
Avengers Academy #24
As usual, this series is great. The quality of the art has gradually gone down since June 2010, but it's still great. Mike McKone was easily the greatest artist, and my favorites go in order along with the order of the artists, though it certainly dosen't reduce the quality of this great comic. I'm happy to learn more about White Tiger, and I definitley found a little bit of myself in Butterball. I'm happy nobody's died so far (besides Jocasta, that is).
Annihilators: Earthfall #4
It's the final issue of this series, and I have to say...thank goodness. I loved all of Abnett and Lanning's work up until Annihilators. At that point, it became lackluster, boring, and repetitive. The art is horrendous. In the last Annihilators series, Tan Eng Huat's art was sub-par in this series. In this series, however, everything looks wrong. In a previous issue Captain America looked like he had the bone structure of a stereotypical African American character. In this one, Huat pulled a Liefield and gave Iron Man square breasts. Ms. Marvel has gigantic hips. Quasar's quantum bands are gigantic. Also, why does Valkyrie looked scared when she's about to kill a kid version of the Magus. Like Annihilators, the whole series feels like it has no significance, even though it takes place on Earth. That seems to be what happens when you get six super powerhouses on one team. Furthermore, what kind of roster is this for the Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Valkyrie, Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Thing, Ms. Marvel, and Red Hulk. What the hell? This is another thing that annoyed me about this series--how they just threw eight random Avengers together, only four of whom are even on the same team! I mean, seriously DnA! If you're going to use the Avengers, choose regular, New, or Secret. ONE TEAM, please!
Defenders #2
This book, on the other hand, is what I'm talking about! While it feels a little shorter than last issue, Defenders #2, like the previous issue, is fantastic. The art is good, even though I'm not a huge Dodson fan. I can already see events from Point One starting to play out. These new Avalonians (?) are characterized well, and have a good reason for wanting to mess up the universe. Iron Fist and Namor, though they don't interact with each other much, are hilarious in their own way.
Avengers Annual #1
Where New Avengers Annual #1 had almost entirely action, Avengers Annual #1 has meaning. There's not a ton of action, but Bendis and Dell'Otto certainly make up for it with a fantastic story and art. We really get into Simon Williams' head. This isn't just a phase-Wonder Man really is insane, in that scary kind of way that almost makes sense. Dell'Otto's art, as I said, is just phenominal. One of my favorite moments was Beast's horror upon seeing what Wonder Man had become.
Avengers Academy #24
As usual, this series is great. The quality of the art has gradually gone down since June 2010, but it's still great. Mike McKone was easily the greatest artist, and my favorites go in order along with the order of the artists, though it certainly dosen't reduce the quality of this great comic. I'm happy to learn more about White Tiger, and I definitley found a little bit of myself in Butterball. I'm happy nobody's died so far (besides Jocasta, that is).
Friday, December 30, 2011
Comic Books of December 21, 2011
Warning! Spoilers follow!
Avengers #20
This issue feels like sudden buildup to something major that I feel like I'm missing. Of course, I haven't been reading the Avengers/H.A.M.M.E.R. War storyline is Osborn and New Avengers, so I just feel a little rushed into this story. Parts of this issue read like classic comics-and not in the best way. Oh well. At least there isn't any wonky Bendis dialogue or anything.
Green Lantern #4
This is the kind of comic that ends too soon. It's short and sweet-Johns writes a great story, like always, and Doug Mahnke's pencils are phenomenal. The cliffhanger is decent (though not as good as last issue), but the entire thing feels like it could've been done in the opening ten pages of the book. I'm not sure I understand how Hal was un-disintegrated.
Justice League #4
Johns is being Johns here, doing something few others can do: make Aquaman a badass. When Hal starts mocking Aquaman, you almost know what's going to happen. Now, we've got the entire team together. I'm just wondering how they'll come together as a real team and understand what the heck is going on in one issue-but I'm sure Johns'll manage it.
Avengers Academy #23
God, I love Avengers Academy. X-23 was a bit of a tease, as her presence is a bit of an add-on in this issue. There are great plot developments-Striker is--well, if you really want to know, look around in some older "Axle In Charge"s on CBR. I absolutely cannot wait to see more developments-both with the future Academy members and with the present day ones.
Avengers #20
This issue feels like sudden buildup to something major that I feel like I'm missing. Of course, I haven't been reading the Avengers/H.A.M.M.E.R. War storyline is Osborn and New Avengers, so I just feel a little rushed into this story. Parts of this issue read like classic comics-and not in the best way. Oh well. At least there isn't any wonky Bendis dialogue or anything.
Green Lantern #4
This is the kind of comic that ends too soon. It's short and sweet-Johns writes a great story, like always, and Doug Mahnke's pencils are phenomenal. The cliffhanger is decent (though not as good as last issue), but the entire thing feels like it could've been done in the opening ten pages of the book. I'm not sure I understand how Hal was un-disintegrated.
Justice League #4
Johns is being Johns here, doing something few others can do: make Aquaman a badass. When Hal starts mocking Aquaman, you almost know what's going to happen. Now, we've got the entire team together. I'm just wondering how they'll come together as a real team and understand what the heck is going on in one issue-but I'm sure Johns'll manage it.
Avengers Academy #23
God, I love Avengers Academy. X-23 was a bit of a tease, as her presence is a bit of an add-on in this issue. There are great plot developments-Striker is--well, if you really want to know, look around in some older "Axle In Charge"s on CBR. I absolutely cannot wait to see more developments-both with the future Academy members and with the present day ones.
Monday, December 19, 2011
New Posts Coming Soon!
Hey guys!
Sorry for my huge abcense, It's just been really hard to find the time to update this blog. Anyway, I've announced a new post coming soon! This Thursday, there'll be a new Comic Book Store Trip post. Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Unfortunatley for me, the day I unlocked Early Access for SWTOR, I learned that my computer didn't have an advanced enough graphics card to play it. But, when I DO upgrade my computer (hopefully by next week) I'll be sure to share my opinions with you. I may post some videos to YouTube as well. I was planning to play as a Jedi Knight first and then a Sith Warrior, but is there any class you guys'd like to see?
Let me know in the comments below.
Sorry for my huge abcense, It's just been really hard to find the time to update this blog. Anyway, I've announced a new post coming soon! This Thursday, there'll be a new Comic Book Store Trip post. Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Unfortunatley for me, the day I unlocked Early Access for SWTOR, I learned that my computer didn't have an advanced enough graphics card to play it. But, when I DO upgrade my computer (hopefully by next week) I'll be sure to share my opinions with you. I may post some videos to YouTube as well. I was planning to play as a Jedi Knight first and then a Sith Warrior, but is there any class you guys'd like to see?
Let me know in the comments below.
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