Yeah, see it in IMAX.
Tag: guardians of the galaxy
Summer movie preview
First up this year, as it has been every year since 2007, is a movie based on a character from Marvel Entertainment; this time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on May 2. Totally skipping the notion that every super-hero movie sequel should feature just TWO villains, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) throwing down with Electro (Jamie Foxx), Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti).
Three villains!? Do you think Spider-Man might, gulp!, lose this time!?
On May 16 Godzilla returns to US theaters after an absence of 16 years. Like virtually every other Godzilla movie ever made, Godzilla is set to stomp unsuspecting cities, this time here in the US. Godzilla does have a few things going for it; the movie’s being directed by Gareth Edwards who also directed the underrated Monsters (2010) and stars a post-Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston.
I can only hope that Godzilla finally settles the debate on the true fate of Dr. Niko Tatopoulos from the ’98 Godzilla.
X-Men: Days of Future Past, really X-Men Part 5, “bamfs” into theaters May 23. Days of Future Past mingles characters from both the newer prequel X-Men: First Class film and the original X-Men trilogy of films from ’00-’06. This time, Professor X and Magneto (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen) send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) from their time to their younger counterparts (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) in the past to head off doomsday in their timeline.
X-Men:Days of Future Past is a great comic story and this movie does look interesting if a bit character-heavy with a dozen + super-hero characters currently listed for the film in IMDB.
Edge of Tomorrow, out June 6, wins the award for best original movie title All You Need is Kill turned into something that sounds like more like a soap opera that sci-fi epic. Tomorrow features a futuristic battle-armored soldier, Tom Cruise, who’s sent to fight an invading alien army bent on world domination. In his first battle Cruise is killed almost immediately by the aliens but inexplicably wakes up to relive that battle over and over again. Think Groundhog Day but with heavy artillery and power-armor.
The “didn’t they promise us there’d be no more of these movies after the last one — they lied!” movie Transformers 4: The Age of Extinction stumbles into theaters June 27. This Transformers movie sets itself apart from every other Transformers movie in that it has dinosaur Transformers, the Dinobots. Which sure screams “let’s figure out what we can sell the most toys of THEN come up with a movie” to me.
One sequel I’m genuinely interested in this summer is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, or really Rise of the Planet of the Apes Part 2, or maybe really Planet of the Apes Part 8 on July 11. Taking place nearly a decade after the events of Rise, in Dawn most of mankind has been wiped out by the virus released in that film allowing the smart apes lead by Caesar to rise (get it?) to the dominant species on the planet. My worries here are that both the writers and director of the spectacular Dawn were oddly enough dumped from Rise. This doesn’t mean that Rise won’t be good, I’m just concerned that it won’t be as interesting or thought provoking as the first.
Guardians of the Galaxy continues the Merry Marvel Marching Movie Machine in theaters August 1. Sort of X-Men meets Star Wars, Guardians follows a human (Chris Pratt) in the far off reaches of deep space who teams up with characters like a living tree and a raccoon (no joke) to battle the evils of the universe. Back in the ’90s Guardians was one of my favorite comic books and after seeing the trailer for this one I’m actually kind’a excited about the big screen Guardians.
On August 8 a fourth live-action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles chops it’s way into theaters. Supposedly this version alters the history of the turtles a bit with an alien invasion being the cause of the genesis of said mutant ninja turtles. ALIEN INVASION!? Totally unrealistic when compared with the original explanation of turtles being exposed to radiation that turns them into kick punching crime fighters. Everyone knows radiation works wonders, just ask Daredevil.
Guardians of the Galaxy & Godzilla posters
Stuff I’m looking forward to, September ’13 edition
Parker: Slayground (Dec)
Darwyn Cooke’s masterful and multi award-winning series of Parker graphic novels continues with Slayground! Parker, whose getaway car crashes after a heist, manages to elude capture with his loot by breaking into an amusement park that is closed for the winter. But his presence does not go unnoticed – a pair of cops observed the job and its aftermath. But rather than pursue their suspect… they decide to go into business for themselves, with the help of some “business associates.” From then on it’s a game of cat and mouse, one played out through closed rides of the abandoned carnival… a game that slowly starts to favor the mouse. Includes the Eisner award-winning short story “The 7th,” previously only available in the Martini edition!
Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino Volume 1 (Jan, ’14)
Thrill to the exploits of the greatest heroes of the 31st century, the original Guardians of the Galaxy! Join telekinetic Vance Astro, alien archer Yondu, flame-haired Mercurian Nikki, superstrong Jovian Charlie-27, crystalline Plutonian Martinex, the mysterious Starhawk and his wife Aleta as they undertake a quest to find the long-lost shield of Captain America – a mission that pits them against Iron Man’s twisted legacy, the marauding alien cyborgs called the Stark, as well as the intergalactic thieves known as Force!
Star Wars Art: Concept (Oct)
From Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston to Doug Chiang, Ryan Church, Iain McCaig, Erik Tiemens, and the next generation of animation and video-game artists, Star Wars Art: Concept collects, for the first time ever, the very best Star Wars conceptual artwork. As curated by George Lucas, the artwork that helped bring the Star Wars Saga to life is revealed in all its glory, featuring pre-production drawings and paintings from the Original Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy, the TV shows, and the video games, including an exclusive preview of artwork from the highly anticipated 1313.
Showcase Presents: Strange Adventures Vol. 2 (Dec)
These 1950s science fiction tales from STRANGE ADVENTURES #74-93 star weird alien creatures and intrepid space explorers. Stories include “The Metal Spy from Space,” “The Secret of the Man-Ape,” “The Hungry Meteorite,” “The Day Science Ran Wild,” and many more.
Marvel Movie Madness Starring Iron Man
Marvel Entertainment is a studio accustomed to making hit movies. Last summer they released The Avengers that raked in $1.5 billion in ticket sales, the year before that Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor $359 million, the summer before that Iron Man 2 $312 million… And this summer brings Marvel’s Iron Man 3.
in Iron Man 3
Starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, so far the previous two Iron Man films have found Stark developing the Iron Man technology then doing his best to make sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. This third installment features Stark doing battle with the evil Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), Iron Man’s fiercest foe yet who will stop at nothing to destroy Stark and Iron Man along with him.
Directed and co-written by Shane Black, writer/director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and writer of The Monster Squad, Iron Man 3 is the seventh film in this ultra-successful series of Marvel universe movies.
Honestly, I have no doubt that Iron Man 3 will only add to Marvel’s success and that the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier out in 2014 and Thor: The Dark World out this winter won’t top the first ones in that series as well or that The Avengers 2 won’t smash the records that were originally set by the first The Avengers.
I think Marvel’s real problem moving forward is that they’ve run out of new top tier characters like Iron Man, Captain America or Thor to build film franchises around.
What many might not know is that Marvel doesn’t own the film rights to The Fantastic Four, X-Men or Spider-Man – other movie studios do. So don’t expect to see Reed Richards helping Tony Stark or Wolverine battling Sentinels along with the Incredible Hulk anytime soon. And what the lack of new top tier characters means for Marvel is that they’re going to start building new film franchises around secondary teams and characters that the general public has probably never heard of.
Out next year is a movie based on the cosmic book Guardians of the Galaxy. What, you’ve never heard of the Guardians before? They’re a team of space-based superheroes including Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, the living tree Groot and the aptly named Rocket Raccoon.
In addition to the Guardians, there’s also an Ant Man movie in the works. Ant Man was an original Avenger who has the power to grow very big or very small and has the ability to control ants with his mind too.
And the literal billion dollar question with teams like the Guardians or characters like Ant Man is if the characters seem outwardly goofy like “living tree” or “controls ants with his mind” and if they don’t star people most are already familiar with, namely Robert Downy Jr., will anyone other than the comic book geeks go see it?
Part of me thinks that with the success of The Avengers the movie going public will at least try any upcoming Marvel movie, especially how Marvel does such a good job of tying their films together. Iron Man tied to The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk tied to Iron Man 2, Iron Man 2 tied to Captain America, Captain America tied to The Avengers. And The Avengers introduced a whole plethora of cosmic characters to the Marvel movie universe that would logically include the Guardians too. And Ant Man is already a Avenger so there’s a familiarity there already with him. So, as long as Marvel keeps doing what they’re doing they should be fine.
But another part of me worries about the future of the Marvel movies. The Iron Man and The Avengers movies were a hits at the box office and the first Captain America, Thor and The Incredible Hulk movies were successful too, but only just. It seems that if any of the upcoming sequels like Iron Man 3 or second Captain America or Thor movies stumble at the box office or if movies like The Guardians of the Galaxy fail to connect with an audience Thanos might be the least of the Marvel movie universe’s worries.