Caddickisms

It looks like we’re headed into another year of big movies. I’m getting all fan-boy giddy just thinking about what’s coming.

On the heels of Avatar, though, it seems like every big movie is being filmed in 3-D. While I’m okay with that, it means two things: feeling a little weird wearing those glasses, and higher ticket prices. Just going to a 2-D movie is more than I want to pay for movies these days. The only 3-D movie I’ve seen since my college days (trust me, it’s been a while) is Avatar. In that case, I think the 3-D was used utterly perfectly – not for shock, but for immersion in a beautifully realized world. Can all these upcoming movies really get it right, too?

Let’s get to the list. At the end you get the chance to vote… if you could only see ONE of these films this year, which would it be? And I’ll tell you my answer.

I’m already annoyed about missing The Book of Eli. Looks like a really good film and I’ve heard nothing but great reviews from friends.

Alice in Wonderland – in 3-D. This one looks like some great eye-candy, but I can’t get excited enough to worry about seeing it. I’ll be disappointed not to get the 3-D experience, but this one’s a rental.

Clash of the Titans. Again, some great eye-candy (that phrase probably applies to most movies in this list). I haven’t been able to decide yet, though, if I think this is worth seeing in the theater. It’s got some good will because of the original film, but with so much vying for my dollar this year, this one might be a casualty of having seen the story before, regardless of how good the effects are.

The Losers. Holy cow, I didn’t even know they were making this movie until 2 minutes ago. The comic was awesome! I was so psyched to see this movie until I saw the trailer. I still want to see it, but I’m worried now that they may have added too much comedy. Gotta learn more.

Iron Man 2. Oh yeah. I will be seeing this one. The first movie was excellent. The trailer looks great. It’s simply on the absolutely-must-see list.

Robin Hood. Russel Crowe as Sherwood’s hero? I’m okay with that. Looks like it’ll be a gritty Hood. This is one of those, though, that I really want to see, but may not make the cut for the theater. We’ll have to see how things are going when it’s released.

Shrek Forever After. No. Sorry. I’d love to see it, but it’ll be on DVD.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Can’t say I’m a huge Jake Gyllenhaal fan, but this trailer sold me hook, line, and sinker on this movie. I will be seeing this in the theater, and I’m pretty excited about it.

Sex and the City 2. Seriously? Why?

The Karate Kid. Loved the original. This could be good. I like Jackie Chan. Still… not sure.

The A-Team. “I love it when a plan comes together.” Nostalgia wins on this one. I’ll likely be seeing this film in the theater.

Toy Story 3. This is a tough one. I want to see it, but I want to see it with my kids, who may not be ready for it. The only Pixar movie they’ve been able to get through without being scared is Wall-E. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Knight and Day. Yeah, I know Tom Cruise is in it. I still want to see it. It looks really good. Funny too.

The Last Airbender. There’s a really good chance I’m seeing this in the theater. I like the teaser trailer better than the full trailer, though. I hope the teaser captures the feel a little better.

The Sorceror’s Apprentice. I don’t think Nicholas Cage is the right choice for this film. Still, I will go see it if at all possible. Just the car flipping through the mirror is enough to make me want to see this.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. Yes. There’s little doubt I will see this one in the theater. It better be worth the effort, too. I’ve seen all but Half-Blood Prince on DVD, and was a little disappointed in that one.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Again, an absolute definite, unless the trailer is completely disappointing. I love this series, and the first two movies do nothing to detract from that feeling.

Smurfs, Yogi Bear, and The Green Hornet. All three of these are scheduled for release on the same day. All are at least intriguing to me. I’d like to learn more about them and look forward to the trailers. But they will all be beaten to a bloody pulp and ground into dust by the other film scheduled for release on the same day. And that would be…

Tron: Legacy. This is the film I’ve been looking forward to for 25 years. To say that it’s definite that I will be seeing this in the theater, in 3-D, would be an incredible understatement. I will likely see it more than once.

So… which one is my number one absolute must see will not miss it event movie for 2010? Come on. If you don’t know the answer you didn’t read what I said above. Don’t expect me to give you answers if you’re not willing to put the effort in…

I realize, however, that some of you may feel differently. This is a year with some pretty big hitters, and you may have other priorities. You’re certainly entitled to be wrong. I accept that. So which one is at the top of your heap?

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I took a few out of the running, but feel free to choose “Other,” and then add your vote in the comments below. And tell me why you voted for your film. What about it makes it the top of your heap? Was it a difficult call between a couple of them?

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First of all, I have to say how shocked I am that I’m mentioning this before Lee. Somebody must have him locked in a very nasty dungeon. Good luck with the escape, Lee!

On to the topic at hand…

Iron Man and War Machine

The Iron Man 2 trailer has been released, and it looks excellent.

Tony Stark, Pepper Pots, and Rhodey (now played by Don Cheadle) are back to save the world from Whiplash, a Russian with an axe to grind against Tony.

Rhodey, as is apparent from the screen shots, takes on the mantle of War Machine to fight along side Tony as Iron Man.

Whiplash is apparently no moron. I’ve never read a comic with that character, but he’s apparently smart enough to whip up (see what I did there?) one of those power devices to add some special effects to his whips… and a bunch more of them to power his band of merry killer-bots.

Iron Man and War Machine vs. the bad guys

War Machine’s auto-aiming gun is pretty cool, too.

I hope they include some real character growth here. One of the dangers of a sequel is just throwing the characters into an action bonanza and forgetting that the characters, not the action, are the more important piece of the movie. I’m not saying that’s what they’re doing, here – it looks like Tony’s still got a lot of cocky to lose, based on the beginning of the trailer.

Also, I love that Gary Shandling is getting work, and it’s against type. And of course, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury makes a quick appearance.

Can’t wait! Bring it on!

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This is just too perfect. I actually laughed out loud at a couple.

Super-Social Networking: Superhero Facebook Status Updates

My favorites are by far Spider-Man’s and Green Lantern’s.

They need one for The Tick, though… SPOOOOOOOOOON!

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Well, this week was the one to launch three shows I’ll be following this year (Heroes, FlashForward, and Smallville) and close out the opening season for a summer series I watched (Warehouse 13). How’d they do? Read on.

Let’s start with the end. The finale to Warehouse 13 on Tuesday was really good. [SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH TO AVOID SPOILERS.] They still managed to keep the light tone of the show intact while also introducing some more serious elements. I like how they’re setting up MacPherson to possibly be a better agent (if not a better person) than Artie. Is Artie going to show up next season? I haven’t read one way or the other, but yeah, I think so. They seeded the entire show with hints to how he’ll survive. Decent misdirection, though, at the end. I wish I was more emotionally invested in Pete and Myka, but despite being the stars, they’re the ones I’m least interested in. All of the secondary characters intrigue me more. Artie and Mrs. Frederic, of course, are the best. I predict the cliffhanger threads will all be tied up by the end of the premiere next year. It’d be nice if they’d drag one or two out a bit, but I don’t think that will happen. In all, I think it was a good end to a fun season. I’m looking forward to season 2.

Okay, moving on to the premieres.

Heroes. At the end of the episode I was left with one question: would I have liked this episode more if they hadn’t had to recover from the sour taste left over from last year? It’s hard to say. There was certainly nothing in the episode that made me sit up and go “whoa!” The closest I got was some curiosity about the carnival group. In all, pretty disappointing, but it did set up some stuff that might get interesting, if they move things along. I do like that the characters are mostly trying to go back to their lives, which sets up some dramatic potential, but if I’m being honest, I think the show went so far off track last year that sticking to continuity at this point is a huge weight around its neck and it just feels forced. The Nathan/Sylar “body sharing” thing is killing me, for instance. I’ll stick with it, but with the news that ratings for the premiere were horrible, I won’t be too shocked if it’s cancelled mid-season. If they do that, hopefully they’ll at least give them enough warning to put some kind of end-cap on the story. Still, I hope it improves.

FlashForward. This is the one I was really looking forward to seeing. I think it will be a great story by the end of the season, and will watch the whole thing. At this point, though, it hasn’t grabbed me the way I thought it would. Maybe it’s because I knew too many of the twists ahead of time. I hope so. One thing I was disappointed in was that we only saw glimpses of the future as if it was a dream, and we didn’t see 2 min 17 seconds worth. I really expected that it would be like we were suddenly transported 6 months into the future and then suddenly yanked back to the present two minutes later. Instead we got maybe a minute of blurry, filtered camera tricks with lots of quick cuts screaming out at us “this is a vision!” Not as effective or engrossing, in my opinion as “actually being there.” The guy walking around at the end, though… that was cool, if over-explained. I hope they don’t spend the entire series explaining the plot to the “stupid viewer.” Other than that, though, I’m in.

Smallville. Despite a few clunky elements and a less than stellar “last time” recap, this looks like it’s going in the right direction. Finally! This season Clark is finally going to leave “Dawson’s Creek” and get down to some seriousness. To be fair, they started this trend last year, but while the overall arc was good, I wasn’t satisfied with the Doomsday finale. On the plus side, because of the events of the finale, this year Clark is eschewing his human upbringing (or trying to) and leaning on his Kryptonian heritage. It’s gonna be a bit darker this year, it appears, and that’s exactly where it needs to go. If they can elevate the Zod plot and maneuver it into a worthwhile finale, it’ll be a great season. Here’s a quick review of last season….

And a preview for this season…

If rumors are to be believed, we’ll see Metallo (that’s actually definite – he’s in the trailer), the Wonder Twins, and Green Arrow’s sidekick, “Speedy” this season. Hopefully that turns out better than it sounds…

Next week, Stargate: Universe and Star Wars: Clone Wars.

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Other heroes may be dark, brooding and intelligent, or invincible super-nice guys, but no one is as fun to watch as Spider-Man. More than most other super-heroes, he seems like a regular (if really intelligent) guy who is trying to juggle two lives without losing his sense of humor. I can relate to him better than any other super-hero I can think of at the moment.

That relatability has a lot to do with the longevity of the character, and his commercial success. There are multiple Spider-Man comic book lines, and there have been multiple TV shows – not all of them cartoons. And then, of course, there are the Sam Raimi/Tobey McGuire movies (more on the movies in a bit).

One of the cartoons was back in the 1990’s. For the most part, it’s regarded by fans as one of the worst versions of Spider-Man. I’ll admit, it has a few problems, but I really like the series. It was my introduction to some of the more interesting villains (Venom and Carnage, for example), and it had what other Spider-Man stories before it didn’t: a story arc. Stories frequently had an impact on future episodes. That’s always a selling point for me.

Marvel has begun releasing the episodes of that cartoon for free, so head over there if you want to see more. They seem to be releasing one per week. Here is the first episode, “Night of the Lizard,” where Peter Parker’s professor, Doctor Conners, becomes The Lizard.

Fun stuff. I’m also hearing good stuff about the current Spectacular Spider-Man series. I’ll have to check that one out.

I promised some more on the Spider-Man movies. Here’s the latest I’ve heard: there will be a Spider-Man 4, starring Tobey and Kirsten, and directed by Raimi. That’s not new news. But there will also be a Spider-Man 5 and 6, and the studio is going ahead with them even if the “big three” don’t return to the franchise. According to Slice of Sci-Fi:

The first step in the process is hiring a writer for the fifth and sixth installments.   For that, Sony and Marvel Studios have chosen James Vanderbilt.  If the name is familar to those of you who follow news of “Spider-Man,” you may recall that Vanderbilt penned the first draft of the next installment and produced a two-picture story outline that impressed Sony executives earlier in the pre-production process.  Reports in Variety indicate that the new deal goes back to the original script Vanderbilt wrote, which is for a two-picture story arc for the famous web crawler.

And the trade paper reports that if Raimi, McGuire and Dundst leave the franchise after “Spidey 4,” that the new scripts could serve as a reboot for the franchise.

This worries me for two reasons:

1. With new stars would come either a new tone or a copying of the current actors. The first would be annoying (but I grant it could work), and the second would be horrible.
2. With a new director the whole style of the movie could be drastically altered. Yeah, Spider-Man 3 was a weak entry, but I still think Sam Raimi has that world nailed, and if they get someone else, it would have to be someone who loves that world just as much, not someone in it for a paycheck.

So… looking forward to the 4th installment in 2011, and waiting cautiously to see how things play out beyond that.

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Green Lantern – First Flight

With characters that have as huge of an existing storyline as Green Lantern, it’d be easy for a movie like Green Lantern: First Flight to get lost in trying to add in all the cool stuff and cameos that could be covered. That isn’t the case here. This is a lean movie. At 70 minutes, you could actually argue that it’s too lean. But I still liked it.

Everything I know about Green Lantern and Hal Jordan in particular could fit on a half-sheet of paper. I’m no expert. I know the broad strokes. I’ve always loved the character and concept of Green Lantern, though. Intergalactic cops with the ability to temporarily create tangible objects by sheer will (thanks to their rings). Pretty cool stuff. Most of what I know I’ve gleaned from Justice League cartoons and comics, and a few crossover events.

Not being an expert, I have no ideas what true Lantern fans will think of this movie, but I loved it. Was it perfect? No. But I had a good time watching it and it was true enough to the backstory I knew to satisfy me.

The things I didn’t like were mostly just a lack of character definition. I don’t think enough time was spent defining Hal before he got the ring (which he does before the opening credits, as we’ve seen). It would have been nice to see him exhibiting some ingenuity and willingness to accept new ideas before throwing him into a situation filled with aliens and conspiracies. That was probably the biggest flaw with this movie, as far as I was concerned. They just jumped in a little too quick, and had him completely comfortable almost immediately. Five or ten more minutes at the beginning setting him up (in a way that played in to the story later, preferably) would have been well spent.

Aside from that, though, it was a fun ride. There wasn’t a whole lot of subtlety on display here. It’s pretty much a straight line plot, and you gotta roll with it. The final battle is really great. I especially liked the simple shots where the Guardians and other Lanterns are watching the mano-a-mano battle unfold in the sky. That gave the battle a bigger perspective, to me.

It should be said that I wasn’t expecting much from this movie aside from a fun ride. And that’s what I got. My expectations for the live action film will be much higher. It will need that character development and tighter writing to be successful. Compared to the other DC Comics animated movies I’ve seen, though, this is on par with most. Well worth a rental and an hour or so of your time. I’d even be interested in a sequel.

As for the DVD Extras… there was absolutely nothing about behind the scenes on this movie. There weren’t even Scene Selections available, which was pretty annoying. There were some behind the scenes featurettes on other DC movies/events, though. The Wonder Woman movie was plugged, and looks pretty good. But the one I’m really interested to see is Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. That one just looks like a good picture – plus they got the original actors back from the animated series (Tim Daly as Superman, Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Clancy Brown as Luthor). It really looks good. Looking forward to that one in a few months.

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(Holy cow, was today Tuesday?! What happened to last week?)

The new animated Green Lantern movie, First Flight was released last week. Here are the first four minutes of the film…

I’m looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

Not as much as I’m looking forward to the live action movie, though. But my excitement is a little tempered by news of who landed the role of Hal Jordan: Ryan Reynolds. I like Ryan Reynolds in some roles. I think he could make a good Flash, for example (and in fact he was slated to play that role previously), but I don’t see him as Jordan. I think I see him as too comedic for the part.

Maybe I’m just still stuck on the idea of Nathan Fillion as Hal. I hope Reynolds pulls it off.

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Okay, that may be overstating it slightly, but comic book properties are getting a lot more attention in the last few years. The encouraging thing is that they are usually not being given a campy treatment, but rather are presented in a manner more consistent with the source material.

Mostly this is evident in the movies – Iron Man, Spider-man, Watchmen, X-men, The Spirit, Green Lantern, Superman, and many, many more examples have been trotted out in recent years, many of them very successfully. There have been others that are sourced from graphic novels but aren’t super-heroes. Usually those go out without most people realizing they are watching an adaptation.

I’m sure it’s happened before, but now TV is getting into the act. In the fall, Fox will be airing the show Human Target, which is based on a graphic novel. I don’t know anything about the graphic novel itself, but this trailer makes me want to see the show.

That really looks like a good show, to me (and it’s got Six in the premier, so it’s got that goin’ for it). I’d love to see some other non-super-hero graphic novels come to TV. The Losers, or 100 Bullets, for instance, would make exciting episodic TV. They’ve got great arc stories behind them, but could be mostly broken down into individual episodes, with a bit of embellishment here and there. (In fact, they would both need to be toned down for TV.) To do either of those as movies would likely do harm to the overall story as it have to be compacted too much.

What graphic novels would you like to see translated to live action? Do you think it would be better served as a TV show or a movie?

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I’ve posted before about the Green Lantern movie(s) in the works. No cast has been announced, no real information has come to my attention at all about the live action movie, other than it’s still on the books. However, some fan put together a pretty good trailer for what he’d like to see, using Nathan Fillion as the lead character, Hal Jordan. And you know what… it looks pretty good:

First of all, this took a lot of work to put together, so kudos to the guy that created it. I’m not usually a fan of fan-made trailers for movies, but this one is pretty nice.

Obviously it’s really a collection of clips from various sources, including movies (Superman Returns, the Matrix trilogy, Serenity, Star Trek, etc), TV shows (most notably, Justice League), and video games. But most have been modified with new graphics and lighting effects that fit the Green Lantern look, and it really looks good (usually). You have to forgive the differences in look between the video game clips and the others, but it comes off surprisingly well integrated, in my opinion.

The other thing this trailer does for me is begin to allay my fears that the effects in the actual upcoming movie might look stupid. That still could happen, obviously, but if somebody could make the effects in this trailer themselves, even building on others’ work, the professionals getting paid to put something top-notch out should be able to blow us away.

Another surprise in this for me is that I think Nathan Fillion could actually take the role of Hal Jordan and do it justice. He didn’t occur to me as a possible actor for this role, but in thinking about it, I kind of hope he gets it.

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It's funnier when you hear the song.

Aquaman.

Of all the Justice League characters, he is perhaps the most ignored. The most ridiculed.

To be fair, he talks to fish. Some ridicule is to be expected. And really, put him up against Batman and Superman and something seems to be … lacking.

This is my new favorite superhero-related song (or see the YouTube version):

Aquamans Lament – Mark Aaron James

I never really read any Aquaman comics. All I know of him is from TV, and a smattering of guest appearances in other comics.

My first exposure to him was in the ’70s in the Superfriends cartoon. It was hard to take him seriously… but then that could be said of most characters as portrayed in that cartoon. (I only need one word to demonstrate that: Gleek. If you’ve seen the show and that doesn’t conjure up images of cheesiness in your mind, there’s something wrong with your cheese-detector.)

The most recent TV appearances have been on Smallville, and then in the aborted Aquaman TV show, Mercy Reef [my review]. They started to build a decent character there. I’m actually a little disappointed Mercy Reef didn’t get aired. It coulda been good.

But in between Superfriends and Smallville, there was Justice League (and JL Unlimited [my review]). This is from his first appearance on the show. It shows where he’ll go.

That scene gave me a new respect for Aquaman. The Aquaman in that show was hard-core. He was in a perpetual state of “keep out of my business or I’ll gut you.” But in a nice way… sort of.

Aquaman (Alex Ross version)

Still… there’s something a little fishy about him. (sorry)

Show some love for Aquaman in the comments!

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