Tuesday, June 24, 2008

LOOK, UP IN THE SKY. IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S…A SUPERHERO SUMMER

Well, summer time is here, and when we think of movies, we think of action movies, old franchises, TV adaptation, and superhero movies. Now, people are getting sick of superheroes and I am to, but superheroes are part of summer in my mind because they have been part of summer movies. This has come to my attention since I read this article by Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20203168,00.html
Now here is why superhero movies have a special place in my heart, in order of release.

X-MEN: My first superhero movie that I saw was in the year 2000. I remember opening day, me, my cousin Phill, and my grandpa went to see this because Phill was a big X-Men fan, having watched the cartoon and I had grown to like them seeing the cover they had on Empire Magazine of the X-Men and the Brotherhood. Phill was so excited to see this that he didn’t even want to miss the previews; we got there an hour early because the theater was packed on opening morning. While waiting, he explained the story of the X-Men to me and my grandpa and even showed us the characters from the Empire Magazine covers. The theater was filled and when the lights went out and the film began, I was thrown into the world of the X-Men and the marvel universe. After that I played the X-men games with him and watched the cartoon with him. I was hooked.

SPIDER-MAN: One of the few family gatherings we had, only The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, X2, and Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is where my whole family went to a movie all together. My aunt was a big Spider-Man fan and ordered tickets weeks in advance and I even skipped out on a school play to see Spider-Man. My aunt had showed us the Spider-Man animated cartoon and we were given Spider-Man toys and saw Spider-Man everywhere we went. Then, we filled up a whole row and got I got to see Spider-Man for the first time in 2002 and then, I and my cousins bought the video game. Although now, I really don’t like Spider-Man but it has a special place in my heart.

X2: X-MEN UNITED: After the first X-Men, I had bought X-Men toys (Toad was my favorite) and I had started watching the new cartoon, X-Men Evolution which showed me all of the X-Men and my favorite was Nightcrawler. When I heard the Nightcrawler was going to be in the sequel, I shit myself. Me and my whole family went on opening night May 2, 2003. When the film started, at the time had the best opening to a movie ever where Nightcrawler attacks the Whitehouse. I was confused, because Nightcrawler was a hero in the TV show, but it was an action packed superhero film with a dark subject and became one of my favorite movies of 2003.

HULK: This is my favorite superhero and one of my favorite movies now, but when it came out, I hated the Hulk, seeing him as the most stupid heroes. Me, my dad, and my cousin Anthony went to the Hulk on opening weekend; I secretly liked the movie but had to say I hated it because at the time I was to cool for the Hulk. Now, I love the Hulk and that is one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen.

HELLBOY: Now, I wanted to see this in theaters but never got around to it. Then, I bought it on DVD and was going to watch it the next morning. My cousin Phill was living with us at the time and was not very interested in the movie, but used it to test out his home theater system and really liked it. Then, me and him watched it and it was one of those movies that doesn’t look at a superhero movie but it was just so fun to look at and would show you that this guy would make a movie like Pans Labyrinth.

SPIDER-MAN 2: This movie came out the day after my birthday and I parted late that night and my aunt woke me and my cousin Phill up at eight and we arrived at the theater at 8:30 and it didn’t even open tell 9. Then, we sat in the theater for an hour waiting for one, okay movie. Then, after the movie, me, Phill, and my other cousins were all guessing what the villain for the next one would be. I thought it would be Venom, my cousin Ragnar thought it would be Hobgoblin and my cousin Phill thought it would be both (we thought that was stupid, because Spider-man only fought one villain per movie). But, next year we were proven wrong. Also, 2004 was a good summer for me because a lot of movies came out that year (a lot of them weren’t great, but I have fond memories of them) like Van Helsing, Kill Bill 2, Hellboy, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Troy, Around the World in 80 Days, The Terminal, I, Robot, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Alien VS Predator. A good summer in my mind.

BLADE TRINITY: Not a summer movie, but still a superhero film. I remembering not expecting much from Blade but I came out laughing and bought the first two and now love Blade.

FANTASTIC 4: This was one of the few movies I expected I’d like. I saw this with my mom the day after it came out because everyone else was doing something else. I laughed and became a Fantastic 4 fan. I enjoyed it at the time and it just stuck out to me that not all superheroes need to be serious. I also remembering thinking it felt very real, I don’t know why. It just did. Also, like with 2004, 2005 was a good summer and I don’t see why people didn’t like it. You had Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lords of Dogtown, Wedding Crashers, Sky High, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Brothers Grim, March of the Penguins, and Kingdom of Heaven.

BATMAN BEGINS: Now I did not see this movie the week it came out. I didn’t even see it the month it came out. I saw it three months after it came out, some time in September. I said, because Phill was a big Batman fan and I said I would go see it with him and he didn’t get around to it. So, one day, we caught a double feature of War of the Worlds and Batman Begins. Now, I had just seen all of the Batman films, shown threw Phill, and I’ll talk about them later but I remember, it was a small theater, little screen, only me, him, and four other people where in the theater. I was blown away on how the film looked and how it looked like Blade Runner, Batman, Hulk, and The Machinist rolled into one film. Then, I remember at the end of the film, when Commissioner Gordon is talking to Batman about a robber with a taste for the theatrics. Phill grabbed me and when he said, leaves a calling card. Phill held his breath and when they showed the Joker card. Phill shouted YEAH!!! (Now, I’m just as excited about it as he is). Also, we talked about who should play the Joker (Heath Ledger was nowhere on the list). Phill said the only person to play the Joker, because he loves the joker, he is skinny like the Joker (I’m not kidding, he really is) and could do the role very dark.

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND: Now, when I heard about this, I was more excited for this then for Superman Returns (now I love Superman) and I was upset that he left for Superman and I thought X3 would be the best thing. I went with my grandpa and I thought it was a good action film but it lacked the story of the first two. I was upset that Nightcrawler and Gambit weren’t in it and that Colossus, Shadow Cat, Leach, and Angel (who was one of their biggest marketing campaigns) were barley in the film. They just kept showing Storm and Wolverine. Also, even though the film had a cool action climax, it seemed rushed and could have been better. Also, 2006 was the strangest in my mind, there wasn’t much. There was this, Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, the Da Vinci Code, Mission Impossible III, the Break Up, Cars, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and Little Miss Sunshine.

SUPERMAN RETURNS: I was not a big superman fan and just thought this would be another superhero movie. I saw it the day before my birthday and it blew my mind. It became my favorite movie of 2006 and I saw it six times. It just brought something new to Superman and had great action sequences, perfect casting, and one of the best opening sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie. The score was so powerful and it just blew my mind. Then, after that I watched the first two Superman movies and I am now a big Superman fan and can’t wait for a sequel. YEAH!!! SUPERMAN FOREVER!!!

GHOST RIDER: Know, this didn’t come out in summer and I just wanted to say it sucked. I should have known with Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil). Who at Marvel thought, this guy screw up one of our superheroes, lets let him screw up another hero.

TMNT: I saw this movie because Phill showed me the teaser after Comic-Con and it looked awesome. It looked like Batman Begins for the turtles. Now, I never liked the turtles, I thought they were just a little kids heroes with surfer accents. But I went in and I enjoyed it. It was fun and not as bad as I thought it could have been. Also, it made me want to watch one of the most successful Independent Movies of all time, the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

SPIDER-MAN 3: The best Spider-man movie in the franchise (that’s not saying much) but I really liked this movie because it was fun, cool action, a felt more for all the characters then in the first two, it was funny, and the villains had something more to them to make them 3 dimensional. Green Goblin really had no plan; Doc Ock was going to destroy a city with him in it. Venom just wants to kill Peter, Harry just wants to kill Peter and avenge his father, and Sandman wants to get money to cure his daughter. I saw this film with my mom on opening morning and went to a ten o’clock showing. It just was so cool to me and they did everything right with this movie. Now this was the best summer in movie history with this, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Knocked Up, Ocean’s 13, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Ratatouille, Transformers, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Simpsons Movie, 28 Weeks Later, Superbad, Stardust, Live Free or Die Hard, and Sicko.

FANTASTIC 4: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER: This movie has a special place in my heart. Going to see this movie was the first things I ever did after I got out of the hospital, having spent two and a half weeks there. I had to set in my hospital bed watching previews for it on TV the week it came out and then, my cousins bought me a little poster of the movie that hung in my hospital room for the whole time. My whole family got to see it and I said, the first two things I want to do where get some Chinese food, and see this movie. It was like getting out of prison and being the first thing I did. This could have been Batman and Robin and I would have loved it. This was a good sequel, it was funny, had some cool visuals, action scenes were what they wanted, and they made Galactus look cool.

TRANSFORMERS: This was one of the most anticipated movies last year and I count these robots as superheroes because they are heroes, they are unordinary, and they have saved us. Now, I was very disappointed with Transformers. The trailers were awesome, I shit myself in excitement when I saw Optimus Prime. My problem with this movie can be summed into two words…Michael Bay. In a perfect world, it would be a James Cameron film. Now, this movie was riddled with problems. They used headshots in fights, wide shots in conversations, they jumbled together too much, they didn’t show enough action, and they decided to go more for humor then action. I paid to see Optimus Prime fight Megatron, not see Bumblebee get Shia LaBeouf some action. The Optimus vs Megatron fight lasted two minutes and Optimus Prime went down like a bitch. Two punches and he is down. Optimus wouldn’t take that shit from Megatron. He would pull out his laser gun, shot him a few time. Punch and kick him, then stab him in the face and have more trash talking. It seemed to rush and they also didn’t show the Decepticons at all, just at the end. Now me, my cousin Phill, my aunt and her kids all went to see this the day before it officially came out and I felt like I wasted my money because I wanted Transformers, not Michael Bay humor feast with robots. I hope he doesn’t screw up the sequel.

IRON MAN: 2008 began the summer movie season of with a bang. With Marvel’s next superhero, Iron Man. I wanted to see this movie so bad because of the cast of Robert Downey Jr. (looks like Tony Stark and is funny, as seen in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Zodiac), Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard, and Jeff Bridges (The Dude in The Big Lebowski) and directed by Jon Favreau (director of Made, Elf, Zatura and writer of Swingers). All those combined and it sounds like a good film. I did not see this on opening day or the day before it came out because, I didn’t have a ride on Thursday, Doctor Who was on Friday, and I went to a school dance on Saturday. I went on Sunday morning and it had a very fun look to it and Robert Downey Jr. was great. It will be known as the next Spider-Man or Batman and a sequel is scheduled for April 30TH, 2010.

SPEED RACER: Just wanted to say, FAN FUCKING TASTIC. It will blow your mind with the great visual and fun story. Don’t expect great dialog, just expect a fun film that will blow your fucking mind with visuals (seizure is expected). It looks like a five year old on acid or if you blew up a crayola crayon box. PLEASE GO SEE IT

THE INCREDIBLE HULK: Now let me just say, I went into this movie not wanting to like it, mainly because I loved the first one so much and when I heard they where rebooting it, I was pissed off and was turning a little green myself from anger and disgust. But when I went to go see this on June 14TH, the day after it had came out. I was way to busy doing other stuff on Friday the 13TH, like staying away from Black cats, not getting near a mirror, and pouring so much salt over my shoulder. But on Friday the 14TH, I went to the movies with some friends and I was blown away on how fun it was. It was a fun action packed ride and all of my hatred of Edward Norton went away and I had such a fun time. The final action scene was the Hulk VS the Abomination (Tim Roth). With his love interest (Liv Tyler) who I don’t really like and wish she would transform into Jennifer Connolly and William Hurt who replaced Sam Elliot (why?) as General Ross, a general who wants the Hulks power as a weapon. This film did lack the character development, acting, unique editing, and good back story. This is just an action packed film with big explosion, lot of running, and weapons of mass destruction. The film ends with Bruce controlling the Hulk and Tony Stark asking Ross if he wants him to help his form a team. When I saw this I shit myself, the fact the Avengers are coming to the big screen and that Robert Downey Jr. was even in this was awesome. But all in all, this was a fun film and deserves to be watched.

So, Superheroes have been apart of my super for as long as I can remember and I hope they are here to stay because what would we do without them, come up with original ideas…not in this life. But the superheroes are here to protect us from the dark realm of the real world and take us to a world where we can leap tall buildings in a single bound, surf threw space, and where tight costumes. Now that’s all I’ve seen but I will write a review on Hancock, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, and The Dark Knight. I’m the Movie Phoenix, I write about nonsense because I want to.

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