Author: Eric Diaz

Kristen Stewart Fired From Snow White Sequel, The Ultimate Case of Hollywood “Slut Shaming”

by Eric Diaz

So Kristen Stewart has been fired from being in the sequel to this Summer’s suprise hit Snow White and the Huntstman. You read that correctly; Snow White 2 won’t have Snow White actually in it.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, the sequel is now going to be reconceived as a spinoff movie only starring Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman character. Right now it is still unclear whether director Rupert Sanders will return, though one source with ties to the production tells the Hollywood Reporter that he will. Screenwriter David Koepp however will not be coming back though for sure.

I actively did not like Snow White and the Huntsman, even though I really wanted to. Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen was amazing, as were the visuals. But Kristen Stewart was beyond miscast in this movie, and just dragged the whole thing down with her acting style of constant non expression. But It wasn’t just her fault, as Rupert Sander’s direction also sucked. But as much as I can’t stand Kristen Stewart as an actress, if she is being fired and Rupert Sanders is hired back, as the article suggests, this will be one of the biggest examples of “slut shaming” in recent Hollywood history.

There is no doubt that at least part of the reason that Snow White was a box office success was due to Stewart’s enormous fan base due to Twilight. Now that she has had an affair and cheated on her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson with her Snow White director Sanders, and is considered a horrible harpy by the Twilight fans because of it, she is getting fired from a franchise she starred in and helped make successful, at least financially. And the person she cheated with is getting to probably keep his job.  She’s a 22 year old girl mind you, and he was a 41 year old married man. As I said, I am no Kristen Stewart fan at all, but if she gets punished for her infidelity and her older, married partner in said infidelity essentially gets promoted, Universal is going to look horrible.

Celebrating 25 Years of “The Lost Boys”

by Eric Diaz

When The Lost Boys came out, twenty five years ago this past week, it wasn’t even #1 at the box office. It came in at #2, behind The Living Daylights, the 007 movie starring Timothy Dalton that almost no one really likes anymore. In fact, The Lost Boys never reached the top of the box office heap in its entire theatrical run. And yet the pop culture legacy of The Lost Boys is ultimately much greater than most movies that came out that year, proving that in the long run, it doesn’t always matter who comes out as number one in that first weekend.

For all two of you reading this who don’t already know (or more likely, were too young to remember) The Lost Boys is director Joel Schumacher’s 1987 movie about two teenagers and their single mom (Dianne Weist) who move to the California seaside town of Santa Carla (a barely disguised Santa Cruz) only to find the town the secret nesting ground of teenage vampires who look like they all belong on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. In order to defeat them, Sam (Corey Haim) and Michael (Jason Patrick) team up with local teenage vampire hunters Edgar and Allan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander, although they would prefer you just call them the Frog Brothers.) As a horror movie, The Lost Boys isn’t particularly scary, and it isn’t even the best vampire movie to come out that Summer (that award goes to Near Dark, which coincidentally starred Jason Patrick’s younger brother Joshua John Miller) but it is funny, charming, and always entertaining, and there is an undeniable appeal about the entire movie that makes it perfect watching on a Saturday afternoon year in and year out.

The Lost Boys wasn’t a major blockbuster when it came out, even by 1987 standards (it made $32 million back in the day, which is around $63 million in today’s dollars. Decent for an R rated horror flick, but nothing to write home about) And yet its shelf life extended far beyond its relatively brief theatrical run that summer. As soon as it hit cable and home video, that’s when the movie really took off. The Lost Boys went on to be one of Warner Brothers top selling movies of all time, far outgrossing whatever it made in the theaters as a home video perennial. And the movie was on constant rotation on HBO and Showtime for what seemed like years. All these factors went on to make The Lost Boys something of a mini-classic, as well as a total time capsule of its era of 80’s cheese. Death by stereo anyone?

“Sleep all day. Party all night. Never Grow Old.Never Die. It’s Fun to be a Vampire”. Best movie poster tag line ever?

The Lost Boys has a special significance for me as a budding horror geek, because it was the first horror movie that I ever saw in the actual theater. In the summer of ’87 I was thirteen years old, and had already seen a good amount of horror movies on cable television when my parents weren’t around, not to mention at various friend’s slumber parties. But buying a ticket for a PG movie and sneaking into an R rated one was a right of passage, and Lost Boys was my first (I believe the movie I bought a ticket for was Innerspace, for what it’s worth) I had already become a vampire aficionado thanks to constant re runs of Fright Night on HBO, but Lost Boys sealed the deal. I was a vampire fan for life from there on out.

The Secret Origin of the Lost Boys

The first screenplay for Lost Boys was written by screenwriters Janice Fischer and James Jeremias, and featured “a bunch of Goonies-type 5th-6th grade kid vampires”, with the Edgar and Allan Frog characters as “chubby 8-year-old cub scouts.” The character of Star, ultimately played by Jamie Gertz, appeared as a boy instead of as an older female love interest. The original concept centered around the idea of Peter Pan and his tribe of lost boys as vampires. The vampire connection was mostly based on the idea that Peter Pan could fly, made visits to the Darling family only at night, and never grew old, so they must in fact be creatures of the night. In one of the early scripts, Kiefer Sutherland’s character of David was originally named Peter, and other characters also had names from J.M. Berrie’s story. The Peter Pan connection was ultimately far less explicit in the final product, despite the title of the movie remaining. Goonies director Richard Donner was set to direct, (which probably explains all the similarities to Goonies in that first script) but due to his commitment to making Lethal Weapon around the same time, the project was turned over to director Joel Schumacher.  Schumacher had the smart idea to turn the the little kids into teenagers, among other things. While Schumacher’s style was glossy Hollywood 80’s to a T, but that same style that was so wrong years later for the  Batman franchise was exactly what Lost Boys needed to be memorable.

The Legacy of Lost Boys

Without a doubt, the legacy of Lost Boys continues to this day. By the time the 90’s rolled around, the ultimate success of the modestly budgeted teen vampire flick gave way to bigger budget  A- list vampire movies like Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire. The mix of comedy and vampires also led to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s From Dusk Till Dawn. The movie might be the first time that a mainstream Hollywood movie really pushed the notion of the vampires as the sexy, desirable ones and not just as the villains; in other words, you can find the DNA of Lost Boys even in Twilight , but let’s try not to hold it against the movie. I mean, they couldn’t have known. But perhaps the biggest influence of the movie would ultimately be exhibited by a ditzy blonde cheerleader with a wooden stake named Buffy Summers.

The Buffy Connection

Of all things pop culture influenced by The Lost Boys, there probably is none greater than Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although it has never been made explicit by Joss Whedon or anyone else involved with the show, the influence of Lost Boys on Buffy has got to be pretty significant. Both stories are set in small California towns that have reputations of being “the murder capital of the world” and a secret haven for the undead; The Frog brothers, a couple of teenage vampire hunters who seem to be the only people in town who know the truth about Santa Carla, are also a proto-version of Buffy and her Scooby Gang, also the only people who know the demonic truth about their hometown of Sunnydale. The teenage vampires’ lair in Lost Boys is an old hotel that got swallowed up into the ground by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In the first season of Buffy, the Master Vampire’s lair is in a church similarly buried in the ground by the very same quake. Then there’s Kiefer Sutherland’s character of David, a bleach blonde, motorcycle riding, trench coat wearing  bad boy type of vamp who had to be at least the physical model for the character of Spike on Buffy, if nothing else.

Kiefer Sutherland’s David and James Marsters’ Spike are clearly products of the same vamp gene pool.

The Two Coreys

Of course in the eyes of many, the most significant contribution to pop culture from the movie many would say is the first teaming up of those two giants of cinema, the two Coreys, Feldman and Haim. After their time together in Lost Boys came a series of movies starring the two together like License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, and a bunch of others you’ve probably never heard of. And then came bouts with drug addiction  (and eventually reality television) for both of them. Feldman would kick his habit, but Haim ultimately succumbed to his. But in the minds of a million Gen X-er’s, the two teen idols became synonomous with one another for forever, and it all started with The Lost Boys.

The Lost Girls: The Sequel That Never Was

Warner Brothers tried to develop a sequel to The Lost Boys almost right off the bat, but for whatever reason could never get all the right pieces together. A script was written by Jeffrey Boam, who is one of the credited writers on the original, that centered on Corey Haim’s character of Sam. Taking place not long after the original film, Sam Emerson is still in Santa Carla and in summer school. His brother is away at college presumably now, and his mother is on vacation (as a way not to pay Jason Patrick and Dianne Weist no doubt and keep the budget down) he is left to live with his Grandpa and all his eccentricness. Eventually a new vampiric threat would entangle Santa Carla, female this time, and Sam and the Frog Brothers would band together to take care of it. SPOILER for a movie that never was–the new head vampire would have turned out to be Kiefer Sutherland’s David character, who apparently didn’t die at the end of the original. For some reason this movie never happened, and I have to wonder if Kiefer Sutherland just plain refused to come back.

Warner Brothers would ultimately produce two extremely cheesy and cheap straight to DVD sequels in the last few years, Lost Boys: The Tribe and Lost Boys: The Thirst. Both were awful, but ultimately I’d rather they make these quick and cheap straight to video sequels than make a remake with whatever hot CW actor they can find in the lead. At least the sequels were so under the radar as to not tarnish the legacy of the original film. Still, I expect an announcement any minute now about the original movie being remade. Frankly, with Twilight mania, I’m shocked it hasn’t already.

The Lost Boys isn’t on the level of being regarded as one of best horror films ever made, or even one of the best vampire films ever made for that matter. But it has such an undeniable charm that has made it a fan favorite for twenty five years now. I know I will keep pulling it out to watch every year or so, and when this movie turns 50 and no one left on Earth remembers it but me, I’ll still be watching it and laughing at the same cheesy jokes that I laughed at when I was thirteen and actually thought they were funny. *ahem* Once again, death by stereo anyone?

Artist Tony Moore Sues For Co-Authorship Of “The Walking Dead”

by Eric Diaz

Only a few months after suing longtime collaborator Robert Kirkman over the proceeds to The Walking Dead, artist Tony Moore is asking a federal court to declare him co-author of the lucrative horror franchise along with several other comic-book properties, according to website CBR. In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Moore is seeking a judgement that he is joint author of  The Walking Dead, as well as Battle Pope, Brit and two potential comics series, Dead Planet and My Name Is Abraham.

The plaintiff, artist Tony Moore.

Moore, who started  The Walking Dead with Robert Kirkman back in 2003 and drew the first six issues, filed his lawsuit in February, saying that Kirkman  fraudulently induced him to sign over his copyright interests in the comic back in 2005 so that Kirkman would be able to complete “a large deal” for what would eventually become The Walking Dead television series. In exchange, Moore was granted 60 percent of  comic publishing net proceeds and 20 percent of  motion picture net proceeds for The Walking Dead and Brit, and 50 percent of “motion picture net proceeds” from Battle Pope. However, Moore alleges that he “has not received the proper amount of royalties owed to him,” and has never been permitted access to financial records. Robert Kirkman has already responded back, saying that the whole lawsuit is “ridiculous”. Moore fired back with “Kirkman is a proud liar and fraudster who freely admits that he has no qualms about misrepresenting material facts in order to consummate business transactions, and it is precisely that illicit conduct which led to the present lawsuit” Ouch. (girls, you both pretty.) Moore is asking for a jury trial for this case, so expect to hear  a lot more about it in the months to come.

 

My Top Five Choices For A Joss Whedon Marvel Television Series

by Eric Diaz

So aside from the uber awesome geektastic news that Joss Whedon is returning for Avengers 2, Disney also released the news that Whedon would be helping to develop a live action television series for Disney/ABC set in the Marvel Studios Movie-verse. Considering Whedon’s fairly awesome track record with producing quality genre shows, this is just about as good of news as the Avengers 2 announcement, at least to this geek. While Whedon would probably be too busy to be day to day on a new series, and do much apart from help develop it and (maybe) direct the pilot, no doubt his stamp would be felt on the show due to the writing staff he would bring in, as well as other considerations.

So that begs the question….just what Marvel characters would be ripe for exploitation on the small screen? You can forget about any of the Marvel A-listers, and even some of the B-listers like Iron Fist and Black Panther who have potential movies in development. The following are characters/concepts that are not only very unlikely to ever get their own movies, but are right within Joss Whedon’s wheelhouse as a writer and producer.

#5. Avengers Academy

No one does ensemble shows quite like Joss Whedon, and no one does shows about teenagers and younger people with special abilities taking on adult responsibilities better than Whedon either. Now that the Avengers has been established, how about a series where future wanna be heroes can train to be big time Avengers one day? The show can just use the title of the current comic as simply a jumping off point, and the characters from the current comics aren’t neccessarily needed. If he wanted, Joss can just do teenage or early twentysomething versions of some of his favorite B- list Marvel heroes, the kind that you know would never make it into a proper Avengers movie. Maybe take some Avengers no one cares about (I’m lookin at you, Sersi and Quasar) and just run with ’em. The one drawback to this concept is that Disney/Marvel might not want to oversaturate the name/concept of Avengers and make it seem less special by using it in a weekly televsion show. But if anyone can make it happen, it would be Joss Whedon.

#4. S.H.I.E.L.D

I would say that S.H.I.E.L.D is the obvious choice for an ongoing live action television series set in the Marvel movie universe, due to the fact that the covert agency played a part in all the films since the first Iron Man. In fact, it may be a little too obvious, which is why it is closer to the bottom of this list. But still….a S.H.I.E.L.D series would be like a lot like Alias or Mission Impossible, but set in a world where there are super heroes and villains in it, as well as magic and aliens as well. The most recent comic book version of S.H.I.E.L.D has the entire concept of the organization going back hundreds of years to the time of Leonardo da Vinci, and that might make for an interesting series that could span several seasons if done right.

#3. Spider-Woman

There is almost no one out there, especially no one with a Y chromosome anyway, that can write realistic and nuanced female action heroes quite like Joss Whedon. Obviously Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most famous example, but also Black Widow in the Avengers would have just been “the hot chick” in the group under someone else’s direction, but under Whedon’s auspices she was maybe the most interesting and nuanced character on the team.

Which is why I think that Spider-Woman could be the perfect choice for a Whedon helmed series. As a character, Jessica Drew is damaged and with a strange past that she can’t make heads or tails of (think Dollhouse, only better) and she has a unique origin story to boot. On top of all that, the character has serious ties to S.H.I.E.L.D and Nick Fury (sweeps week cameo from Sam Jackson!) Because Jessica Drew isn’t as famous as other Marvel heroes, her supporting cast and roster of villains are more of an open book for Whedon to play without pissing off a huge fanbase of angry geeks. Lastly, she has a visually striking costume and overall look, and it’s time that television gave us a super hero who wore a costume and made it work, and didn’t shy away from that aspect like Smallville did for ten years.

#2. Damage Control

Originally created by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie as kind of as a sitcom set in the Marvel Universe, Damage Control is the company that cleans up the massive city wide damage done whenever super heroes battle super villains. I mean, somebody has gotta clean that shit up, right? First appearing in a series of mini series in the late 80’s and early 90’s, the characters kept popping back up in the Marvel Universe over the years, usually during some big event like Civil War that has a lot of collateral damage done to poor old Manhattan. The company has ties to both Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D, which makes them fit in perfectly in the Marvel Movie verse. The lighter, jokier tone would fit in perfect with Joss Whedon’s sensibilities as well, and the fact that not many people are familiar with the comic means they have all but a blank slate to use; they can use the name and concept but create all new characters. This one is a bit of a no brainer.

#1.She-Hulk

Ok, I’d say it is pretty well established among geekdom how good Whedon is with strong female characters. Well, Marvel has one of the strongest female heroes out there already with Jennifer Walters, otherwise known as the Sensational She Hulk. For the last few decades, Bruce Banner’s less angry cousin the She-Hulk has been played as a quippy, off the cuff character by creators from John Byrne to Peter David and most recently Dan Slott. Jennifer Walters in the comics is a gamma powered lawyer who deals in court cases that deal strictly with super heroes and super villains and other strange phenomenon. Whedon kind of already has experience with the idea of lawyers who only handle otherworldly cases on his show Angel, which frequently featured the demonic law firm of Wolfram & Hart. Plus, She-Hulk by her very nature ties into the Hulk, who already stole the show in the Avengers movie and is a much beloved character. I know that Marvel Studios and Guillermo del Toro are planning an Incredible Hulk tv reboot, but I think this is an even better idea. Not to mention, getting a tall built actress and painting her green is a lot easier and cheaper than a CGI monster week in and week out.

How DC Comics Can Save The Teen Titans Franchise

by Eric Diaz

As an Old School DC Comics fanboy, I will admit that the whole “New 52” reboot was a hard sell for me. However, this isn’t going to be one of those articles where I slam DC’s New 52 initiative wholesale; obviously the initiative has worked, at least in terms of sales. And some of the books are downright great; the Batman family of titles are strong and cohesive, and Scott Snyder’s Batman is already one of the best runs on that book ever. Geoff Johns continues to kick ass on Green Lantern and his Aquaman is one of the best comics they have. Then there is Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, the list goes on. Having said that, I think almost a year into this New 52 though, we can now officially count the reboot version of the Teen Titans at the very least as a disappointment. The title is selling decently enough, certainly well enough to get a spin-off in the form of Ravagers, but the book gets tons of online hate from fans and the Ravagers spin off is already tanking two issues in. Scott Lobdell’s writing and (especially) Brett Booth’s art makes the whole thing look like it was an Image or Wildstorm title circa 1996. Teen Titans is a cornerstone DC title that deserves better than it is getting.

According to DC Comics Editor In Chief Dan Didio, one of the main goals of the New 52 was to return the more classic incarnations of these characters to the forefront. In other words, they want whoever is wearing the costumes in the comics to be the characters most widely recognized by the mainstream non comic book reading audience. This is why Barbara Gordon is Batgirl instead of Stephanie Brown, why Barry Allen is the Flash in place of Wally West, and for similar reasons why Clark Kent and Lois Lane aren’t married, as to most average Joe Six Packs, Clark, Lois, and Superman are still in a love triangle.

Based on this logic, it is strange that the Teen Titans books are such a hot mess right now. For a company that is all about “corporate synergy” between itself and parent company Warner Brothers, there hasn’t been much in regards to this book.  If you were to ask a kid on the street, or even a casual comic book fan, who made up the membership of the Teen Titans, chances are they would tell you the characters who made up the highly successful animated version: Robin (the Dick Grayson version) Cyborg, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy. Those of course, are the same characters who made up the bulk of the team in the 1980’s New Teen Titans series, which for most of that decade was DC’s #1 selling title and helped keep the company afloat. If there is an “iconic” Teen Titans team, then those characters are it.

The two most successful versions of the Teen Titans have featured these characters; if there is an “iconic” version of the team, these guys are it.

Meanwhile, Young Justice on Cartoon Network currently features Robin (Tim Drake) Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, Kid Flash Bart Allen and Superboy as the core group. But these are the characters who in the current comics go by the name Teen Titans, not Young Justice. Someone dropped the ball. It also doesn’t help that Teen Titans Go premieres next year on Cartoon Network, once again with the classic line-up. It all feels like DC’s right hand doesn’t know what their left hand is doing.

The current cast of Young Justice has more in common with the comic book cast of Teen Titans. So much for corporate synergy.

So here is how you fix this DC; cancel both the current Teen Titans and Ravagers comics, Ravagers being that cheesy 90’s style spin off series that no one seems to like. It has been established that in the New 52 DC Universe, this current team is the first group of teenagers to go by the name Teen Titans in the five year old new DC universe. So reconfigure the current version of the group currently going by the name Teen Titans into a new version of Young Justice instead. There has not been an in continuity Young Justice team in almost a decade at DC, and with an animated series on the air, now would be the time to do it. Have the current members of the Titans now training under the auspices of the Justice League, and doing secret missions for them much like in the animated series.

The starts of Ravagers, the Teen Titans spin off no one asked for. Hey Ravagers…1990’s Wildstorm called, and they want their look back.

Meanwhile, re-launch Teen Titans with the characters most people associate with that team. DC has stated that being Batman’s sidekick is more like an internship now, as a way to explain away how there have been four different Robins in a five year old DCU. Which means that Dick Grayson as Nightwing could still be as young as 19 for all we know. Get that weird blow up sex doll version of Starfire out of Red Hood and the Outlaws and put her back on the Titans, and correct any weird personality changes done to her along the way. Bring in Beast Boy, Raven, and have Cyborg as their “older” mentor figure (I say older as he is only 21 at best in the Justice League title) This line up of characters is what both younger and older fans recognize as the Teen Titans most, so DC should capitalize on this fact. I’d also throw in Donna Troy, as she’s a beloved Titans character and missing from the reboot, to much fanboy unhappiness. While I hate that the new DCU has erased the now classic New Teen Titans series from continuity, at least it has freed them up to all meet again for the first time, and introduce a new generation of readers to that iconic team.

Maybe the version of Starfire shown in Red Hood and the Outlaws is like, an evil clone or something.

As for who is going to be the creative teams, well…there are a ton of talented people to choose from, it isn’t a short list. But I don’t think writer Scott Lobdell’s sensibities have really worked for most of his Titans run so far, and certainly not for Starfire over in Red Hood and the Outlaws. I’d get someone like James Robinson, who is doing a great job on Earth-2 right now. Robinson wrote the previous versions of Dick Grayson and Donna Troy in the last incarnation of JLA before the New 52 reboot, and has stated that he’d love to work on Donna again in some capacity. Well, this would be the perfect chance. There are lots of great artists working at DC right now who would be perfect, but of course my #1 vote would go to Phil Jimenez who is currently working on Fables spin off Fairest for Vertigo. Whoever they get, it’ll be better than what they’ve got going on right now.

So there you have it DC, my free advice on how to fix on of your most valuable properties before it eventually gets cancelled due to fan apathy. Teen Titans was once one of your cornerstone books DC, you can make it great again.

Mickey Rourke Is Officially Back As Marv In “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For”

by Eric Diaz

Mickey Rourke is officially returning as fan favorite character Marv in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. Although poor Marv died in the electric chair in the original Sin City, A Dame To Kill For takes place before those events. Also according to the same article at Deadline, Rourke is is in talks to join Gerard Butler in the Albert Hughes directed Motor City for Joel Silver’s Dark Castle. which centers on a man who is double crossed and seeks revenge on the guy who put him behind bars and took his woman. Motor City will be distributed by Warner Bros.

UPDATE: Marvel Studios Getting Galactus/Silver Surfer From Fox In Exchange For Daredevil Rights?

by Eric Diaz

Things are about to get interesting when it comes to the Marvel/Twentieth Century Fox deal. Fox had until October 10th of this year to start work on a reboot of Daredevil, or the rights would revert back to Marvel Studios. But their director of choice David Slade didn’t pan out, and there was no way production on Daredevil could have begun by the October end date.

But according to Variety, Marvel Studios is willing to give Fox and extension on the Daredevil property, if Fox relenquishes rights to two characters from the Fantastic Four universe: Galactus and the Silver Surfer. (ain’t nothin’ free folks) Fox would really like to keep the Daredevil franchise, as they are  in discussions with Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The Grey) to direct what is said to be a  “Frank Miller-esque, hardcore 70s thriller” take on Daredevil. Carnahan has yet to receive an official offer, though multiple sources are telling Variety that he is the choice.

Fox is said to want a grittier, less family friendly take on Daredevil, something Disney would be less likely to do. Maybe this will all work out for the best?

If Marvel/Disney gets the rights to Galactus/Silver Surfer back, not only does that mean we’d get a proper version of the world devourer on screen (and not a stupid giant cloud like in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) but it would likely be in an Avengers sequel. And how awesome would that be?? And the addition of the Silver Surfer to the Marvel Studios cast means we could one day see a proper version of The Defenders on screen as well. This could all be good news.

If the Silver Surfer ends up back at Marvel Studios, that means all the main Defenders characters will be free to use if they ever want to do that franchise.

UPDATE: 

So, maybe there wasn’t as much to this story as we thought. According to Deadline, Reports that Fox and Marvel Studios are going to do some trading with its Fantastic Four franchise to keep Daredevil in the fold were being adamantly denied by Fox studio insiders. With Fantastic Four being rebooted with Josh Trank as director, the article states that Fox insiders think it would be crazy to let two major FF characters go to Disney, especially when the studio is said to be very lukewarm about rebooting Daredevil.  Although Joe Carnahan has come to the studio with a take, it sounds like Fox is ready to let it revert to Disney-owned Marvel, unless Disney is interested in co-financing. That is what the current talks are really about, insiders said told Deadline. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this story.

25 Years Of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’: Looking Back At Season One

by Eric Diaz

Star Trek: The Next Generation turns twenty five years old this year, and to celebrate Paramount Pictures and CBS home video have just released the entire first season on Blu ray with a new meticulous high def transfer, made from the original camera negatives. The restoration job that was done for TNG’s first season is the new industry standard  for restoring vintage shows for high definition. But before I get to reviewing the Blu rays themselves, a little history on the series itself, both my own relationship with the show, and the series’ place in television history.

TNG n’ Me

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered right after I turned thirteen, and went off the air just about the time I turned twenty, so I spent my entire formative teenage years with this series. In 1987, there wasn’t a lot of options for a geek in terms of television shows, aside occasional short lived shows like V, and re-runs of the original Star Trek or the Twilight Zone. So when TNG premiered, a generation of geeks like me welcomed it with open arms, even if some of us weren’t really Trek fans before that. During that first season I never missed an episode, and my love of the new series made me a hard core fan of the original show in return. Before that, the old show had come across as too cheesy for me, being a Star Wars generation kid who couldn’t see past older, bad effects and just embrace the storytelling. The Next Generation is what really made me a huge fan of all things Trek.

Ever since the show ended its run, TNG has remained in my heart, even above arguably superior shows like spin off series Deep Space Nine, and more sophisticated modern sci fi shows like Battlestar Galactica. I’ve had all the episodes on VHS, taped from off the air, and then the DVD sets that came out around a decade or so back. I’d watch and re-watch my favorite old episodes late at night, kind of like warm milk or a comfortable blanket to help me fall asleep. But among those old favorites were almost no episodes from the show’s troubled first season. This new Blu-ray set afforded me the chance to re-watch some of those episodes for the first time in more than a decade…. and it wasn’t always pretty. But before I review the new Blu-ray set itself (that’s next week) a little overview of season one itself is in order first. So here is how Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first season came to be, and all the bumps and bruises along the way.

How The Enterprise-D Came To Be

While TNG debuted in 1987, this wasn’t the first time that Star Trek almost came back to television. An attempt was made a decade earlier in 1977, when Paramount decided to launch what would have then been a fourth television network. Star Trek Phase II would have reunited almost the entire original series cast, with the notable exception of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, who was going through an anti Trek phase at the time (he wrote a book called “I Am Not Spock” around this time. Several decades later, he would write “I Am Spock.” That had to be some therapy bill.) The basic premise of the show would remain the same as the original incarnation, but Captain Kirk was now the older seasoned captain, and his new first officer Will Decker was  the ambitious young buck who wanted his own command one day. Another new crew member would be Ilia, an exotic alien woman with whom Decker had a previous relationship with. Filling in the Spock role would be a full blooded Vulcan named Xon, who instead of supressing his humanity wanted to learn to be human. If this all sounds a lot like TNG characters Riker, Troi and Data, it just goes to show that Roddenberry never threw out an idea he thought was good, even some over a decade old.

Actor David Gautreaux in his screen test for the Vulcan Xon, kind of the proto-version of Data.

Plans for Phase II were scrapped when Paramount decided not to pursue a fourth network. However, since sets were already built, and a little movie called Star Wars had just come out, the pilot episode script was reworked into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Although The Motion Picture was a commercial success upon release in 1979, it was a critical flop and most fans hated it for not capturing the adventurous, fun spirit of the now classic original series. In many ways, the disappointment was akin to what Star Wars fans felt upon the release of The Phantom Menace some twenty years later, where the movie was pretty much hated, but fans kept going back hoping maybe this time, the movie might be good, making the movie a box office hit.

Eventually under the auspices of new movie series producer Harve Bennett, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was both a critical and commercial hit, and both parts III and IV continued Trek as a hugely profitable and popular franchise. During all that time, Roddenberry was all but shut out of Trek at the time it was finally really making money for the studio. The Motion Picture was seen as Roddenberry’s baby, so his approach was not wanted for the subsequent movies, although he was paid as a consultant (even if all his consulting was ignored) Despite all this, when Paramount decided to give Trek another go on television, they went to the man who started it all, if only to keep cred with the massive fan base. In  October 1986, Star Trek: The Next Generation was officially announced by Paramount as big budget syndicated series.

One of the early cast photos of the Next Generation crew. Notably missing is Worf, who was a last minute addition and was initially only meant as a recurring role only.

Growing Pains

To say that the first season of TNG was a rough one is kind of putting it mildly. When TNG went into production, Gene Roddenberry was at the helm of a major Trek project for the first time since 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and he brought as much of the “old gang” from the original classic series as he could. He brought on producer Robert Justman from the classic show, as well as former series writers DC Fontana and David Gerrold. William Ware Theiss was another 60’s show alum that was brought on as costume designer. But sometimes getting the old gang back together doesn’t work out as planned, and that is more or less what happened with the first season of TNG.  It often felt like a show that was out of date, all while looking state of the art. William Theiss’ costumes had a 60’s/70’s look to them, and that didn’t help with making the show feel fresh. But the costumes were the least of their problems, especially with some of those early scripts.

When it came to the writing, most of the first few episodes of year one suffer from being re-hashes of much better original series episodes. The second episode aired, The Naked Now, is a much worse version of the classic series’ The Naked Time, except with the principal cast all doing a terrible job drunk acting (well, “space drunk”) and a teenage Wesley Crusher taking over the Enterprise. Then right after came Code of Honor, a staggeringly racially insensetive episode where the leader of a planet full of “space Africans” kidnap security chief Tasha Yar and force her into combat similar to that of the classic episode “Amok Time“, only way lamer and far more offensive. Equally racist was Justice, and episode that would have been decent, if not for the extremely cheesy planet populated only by half naked people who only like to jog, do yoga, and have sex. The reason it was so racist was because this planet, described by several characters as “Eden like” was only populated by caucasian blonde people. So “Eden” is an Aryan Nation propaganda world? Really?? How either this or the “Space Africans” made it to filming showed how out of touch everyone behind the scenes of this show was at first. It would have all been just as bad in the 60’s, but by the 80’s it was  just unforgivable.

One of the worst episodes of the series was “Justice,” and episode which forced poor actors to wear costumes like this one.

And while TNG changed the opening lines to “where no ONE has gone before” from “where no man has gone before,’ the first season of the series was filled with some pretty blatant sexism. Despite having three female crew members in important positions, including security chief, it seemed that in season one the female characters were very poorly used. Dr Beverly Crusher is seen almost only as dutiful single mother, or  worse, as jealous of any woman that comes into Captain Picard’s life….or even any officer that cuts into her alone time with Jean Luc.

The only episode that centers around Deanna Troi deals with her betrothal and wedding, as of course, women only care about marriage and babies. There’s even a scene in that episode, while having an official meeting with her commanding officers, she refers to Number One as Commander Riker and not by his first name Will, and Riker says “isn’t that a little formal?” Umm, no it isn’t a little formal for your subordinate to call you Commander during on duty hours, whether you used to date or not. In another early episode called Hide and Q,  Tasha Yar actually flirts with Captain Picard and says “oh Captain….oh, if you weren’t a captain.” Sometimes all this sexist behavior in season one made me think I was watching Mad Men. It is no wonder that Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar, asked to be let go from the series before the end of year one, based on the kind of scripts she was getting at the time. Gates McFadden, who played Dr.Crusher, would soon follow suit.

Most of the problems that first year lie at the feet of Gene Roddenberry primarily. In the years following the end of the original series, and its subsequent transition into a pop culture icon, Roddennbery was labeld “the Great Bird of the Galaxy” by fans for his vision of a future in which all races get along and humanity has no conflict with one another. (even though the original series was filled with such conflicts, but whatever. He’s not the first person to believe their own hype.) No conflict was the Roddenberry edict; and many scripts for the first thirteen episodes or so were heavily re-written by Roddennberry to fit his drama free version of the future. This pissed off writers DC Fontana and David Gerrold,who quickly left the series.  Due to his declining health, after the first round of thirteen episodes, Roddenberry’s  took a much less active role in the series, and the show got much,much better.The truth is, the less Roddenberry had to do with anything Trek related after the original series, the better it got.

What They Did Get Right 

Now that I’ve detailed all the ways that Gene Roddenberry’s interference f-ed up TNG in the early days, I can’t not talk about what Roddenberry got right from the get go. First off, the casting on TNG is impeccable. Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard and Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data simply owned those roles from the first moments they set foot onscreen, and they make even the most terrible first season episodes watchable today. The same goes for Michael Dorn as Worf, even if he barely got a chance to shine in season one.

Other actors were not so fortunate; Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker is so stiff and cheesy in the first season as to be annoying (in year two he’d grow a beard and become a jazz afficiando and loosen up considerably)  Geordi LaForge had very little to do except pilot the ship and deliver exposition, and the character who sadly got the brunt of the worst stories was Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, the fifteen year old genius who seemed to exist simply to make the supposedly capable adult officers all look stupid. All of these characters would do much better as the series went on, showing how tight the casting was in the first place; it wasn’t ever the actors that were bad, it was how they were being handled. The following seasons proved just how crucial those initial casting decisions were to the show’s success in later seasons.

Then there is the entire look and design of the series, which still look great all these years later. Andrew Probert’s designs for the Enterprise-D still look amazing, especially in HD. Make up guru Michael Westmore also did an amazing job of creating new alien races week in and week out, and making all look different from each other as best as possible, and all of those were early choices made for season one.

Despite all the bad episodes that opened the series, there are still several episodes in season one that are absolute gems. Where No One Has Gone Before is an early episode where the Enterprise encounters an alien who can make the ship travel at velocities that take them to a place in the universe where thought becomes reality. The Big Goodbye is one of the first holodeck centric episodes, and still one of the most fun, were the crew get lost in a 1940’s detective noir world. This episode won a well deserved Peabody Award that year. Symbiosis is pure Trek, and deals with the topic of drug addiction and the Prime Directive in a very allegorical way that Trek was always so good at. Other episodes that have their charms include Heart of Glory the first TNG Klingon centric episode, Coming of Age, Conspiracy, and The Neutral Zone.  Most of these episodes came during the latter half of the first year, and was a sign of better things to come. Season two improved considerably, and by season three TNG was a well oiled machine producing classic episodes on nearly a weekly basis.

If viewers of the time weren’t so starved for genre fare on television, and if the Star Trek name didn’t carry so much weight, TNG would have surely been canned by the end of the first season almost without a doubt.  But I know fans like me are thrilled that the show got a chance  to grow (something afforded few shows these days) as it ended up being one one of the greatrst science fiction series of all time. It just took a little while to get there.

Next Week: An in depth review of the TNG Blu ray season one set.

 

Lady Gaga Joins The Cast Of “Machete Kills”

by Eric Diaz

Looks like Robert Rodriguez’ Machete sequel Machete Kills is about to get a heavy dose of fabulousness, as Lady Gaga herself joins the cast, in what will be her first real acting gig in a major movie. Rodriguez revealed that Gaga will be playing a character called La Chameleón (do I really have to translate that?) and even released a teaser image to go along with the announcement.  In a tweet, Rodriguez had this to say:

“I just finished working with @LadyGaga on @MacheteKills, she kicked SO MUCH ASS! Holy Smokes. Blown away!”

Here’s the character poster for Gaga’s femme fatale:

After The Dark Knight Rises, What’s Next For Batman?

by Eric Diaz

So Christopher Nolan has finished his Batman saga with this past weekend’s release of  The Dark Knight Rises, accomplishing what is arguably the best and most satisfying super hero movie trilogy ever. Whatever one might think of TDKR, there can be little argument that it is by far a more fitting capper to the Batman saga that X-Men: The Last Stand or Spider-Man 3 were for those respective series. Nolan’s Batman went out with his dignity intact, and leaving audiences everywhere still hungry for more Batman adventures.

So the question is, what now? Batman is easily Warner Brother’s most valuable film property, and they aren’t going to just let it sit there forever when there is money waiting to be made. On the same token, Christopher Nolan’s trilogy has been so well received both commercially and critically that just jumping into a reboot now or anytime soon would make the somewhat lukewarm reception to The Amazing Spider-Man look like nothing in comparison. So my first instinct would be to not reboot it for the big screen at all, but for the small screen instead.

Option #1- Batman on Cable Television

After Nolan’s trilogy, I truly feel sorry for any filmmaker attempting to bring the Batman to life on the big screen and hope to compete with what he has accomplished. Which is why, If I were Warner Brothers, right now I’d be looking at other mediums to set my Gotham stories in. I really feel that now (or relatively soon) is the time for Batman to return to television screens. But not as a low budget CW Smallville type deal, but as a sophisticated adult skewing show on cable, preferably HBO (DC Comics owners Time/Warner also own HBO. Convenient.) Get a show runner with some clout and some geek cred, and this could rival shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood in popularity if done right. I wouldn’t even have to have Batman in the title of the show, I would simply call it Gotham.

There are a lot of reasons why to me, this is the ideal plan; first off, any movie reboot going forward right now (or within the next several years) is going to have the shadow of Nolan, Bale, and especially Heath Ledger’s Joker hanging over them. But television is another medium, and the comparisons won’t be as brutal, nor will the scrutiny be as high on any actors taking over these roles for TV. And with a show that potentially lasts years, you can really explore some of the best storyline is the Bat’s history. Can you imagine The Long Halloween spread out over a season? Or Hush? Or the recent Court of Owls saga? Television can tell these stories in ways that movies can’t.

Cable television also opens up so many doors for long form storytelling in ways the movies couldn’t especially in regards to Batman’s amazing cast of supporting players, almost all of whom were kept absent from the movie trilogy. Nolan and company were wise to keep the focus on Bruce Wayne and his journey in the Dark Knight trilogy, and keep the sidekicks out. But Batman has absoulutely the best cast of supporting heroes in the entire pantheon of super hero comics, bar none. Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin (be it Dick,Tim, Damian or even Jason) and now Batwoman are all great characters, great enough to have their own ongoing monthly comics. It is time they got their due.

An ensemble show set in Batman’s Gotham could have years and years of storytelling potential. Bruce Wayne’s adoption of Dick Grayson, his subsequent training as Robin, his transformation into adult hero Nightwing, Jason Todd’s recruitment as Dick’s replacement, and his death at the hands of the Joker (and subsequent revival) Tim Drake’s emergence as Robin and maybe even Damian Wayne, assuming the show gets that far, are all ripe for exploitation on television. Then there are the women; Barbara Gordon is easily one of the best female heroes in comics. Her character journey is something that would be fascinating to watch over several seasons, from brilliant police commisioner’s daughter to Batgirl to her crippling at the hands of the Joker and transformation into Oracle, all could make for riveting television if handled correctly by the right showrunner. And Batwoman may be a more recent addition to the Bat family, but Kate Kane has become a fascinating and integral part of the Gotham world. Shows on HBO thrive on amazing ensemble casts, and Batman’s world comes with an awesome built in ensemble, and none of them have had their chance to shine in live action yet.

And then of course, there are the villains. There are still a ton of Batman villains who have never been properly brought to life in live action, characters like Harley Quinn, Hugo Strange, and the Black Mask. And there are even others that are the more sci-fi/magic based characters like Croc, Mr.Freeze and Man Bat, who I would do simply to differentiate myself from the hard core “real world” aesthetic of Nolan’s films. I wouldn’t stray too far into territory that was too comic booky (so no JLA guest stars) but maybe a tone similar to the Arkham Asylum/Arkham City games…a little grittier than the animated shows and the comics, but still far more fantastical than the Nolan films.

The designs for the video games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are the perfect template for a television reboot of Batman, a happy medium between the Nolan films and the comic books.

Option #2- Batman Beyond: The Movie

All right, so say Warner Brothers doesn’t want Batman on television, and just wants to keep the movie franchise going and those box office dollars rolling in. The smart thing to do in this instance is wait a decade (or more) and start from scratch again after a good long time. But if they are going to insist on doing a movie in the next few years come Hell or high water, my suggestion is “look to the future”…and do Batman Beyond as a live action movie.

Batman Beyond works as a continuation of the Nolan-verse AND serves as an effective reboot as well in pretty much every way. SPOILERS for The Dark Knight Rises from here on out; if you have not seen it yet you have been warned. Imagine a Bladerunner-esque Gotham City, some 40-50 years after The Dark Knight Rises. Bruce Wayne, having faked his death in TDKR, is now an old man of almost 90, who has changed his identity and become the caretaker and sole inhabitant of the now state owned Wayne Manor. He lives alone there, under an assumed name, waiting to die in the house he grew up in….when a teenager named Terry McGinnis stumbles onto the Batcave after his father’s murder at the hands of the Jokerz biker gang. (which is all essentially the pilot of the Batman Beyond show) Young Terry uses a new high tech Batman suit with crotchety old man Wayne as his mentor, which can be either Christian Bale in old age make up, or just an actual old actor. I honestly couldn’t help but think of “Old Man Wayne” from Batman Beyond when I saw Christian Bale using the cane in TDKR, so I wouldn’t mind if it were him. I can almost hear the pitch meeting now; “It’s Batman meets Spider-Man meets Iron Man!” There might not be an easier sell than Batman Beyond to a studio exec than this.

Some 3D rendering from an artist named Ritorian, giving a good idea what a live action Batman Beyond might look like.

If Warner Brothers are going to insist on a Batman movie continuation this soon after Nolan’s trilogy, this would be the ideal way to go. If you get the right director with vision, this could be a really cool and visually interesting way to continue the Batman franchise in the next few years and still be so very different as to not be instantly compared to the Nolan movies. Also, if they do this….they should really get Daft Punk to do the score. Seriously, listen to the TRON:Legacy score and imagine it as the score for a live action Batman Beyond movie instead. It totally fits.

Option #3- Batman in the Justice League 

We all know that if Man of Steel succeeds, Warner Brothers is looking to make that “Phase One” of their eventual climb to a Justice League movie, which reports say they want out as soon as 2015. If the JLA movie happens, there is pretty much no way that Batman won’t be a part of it. Also, there is equally no way that this version of Batman will be the same one as Christopher Nolan’s Batman, who clearly lived in a world without aliens or magic or any of that stuff. Any Batman that they use in a JLA movie would be an effective reboot of the character, but one that won’t be under as much scrutiny or scorn from the fanboys and the press than if Warner Brothers did “Batman Begins…Again!” in 2015.

Batman would be front and center of any potential Justice League movie to come along in the next few years.

Maybe having Batman in the Justice League is a good way of having your cake and eating it too; you keep the character of Batman on the big screen, keep selling Bat-merch to kids and geeks alike, and it won’t be as insulting as rebooting Batman’s own franchise so soon after Nolan’s films. Also, a JL Batman wouldn’t neccesarily conflict with a TV Batman if that were to actually happen; no noubt the characterizations and visual look given to Batman would be different enough as to not conflict with one another. Remember, Superman Returns was released in the heyday of Smallville’s run on tv. No one’s head exploded at the idea of two different versions of the same character in two different mediums. The moviegoers who are smart enough can figure out that it is two separate continuities, and the moviegoers who are dumb don’t care about stuff like continuity, the just wanna see explosions and people in costumes hit each other.

So there you have it…my ideas for what should happen next for the Dark Knight Detective on the big (and small) screen.  I see this article as an open letter to Warner Brothers, so please feel free to steal my ideas boys, I don’t mind. Just whatever you do, don’t undo all the good will the franchise has earned under Christopher Nolan. And don’t think of calling in anyone with the last name Schumacher.

A Batman For All Seasons: How The Batman Movies & Comics Have Reflected Each Other Over The Years

by Eric Diaz

On this, the day of the release of The Dark Knight Rises, the final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman film trilogy, let’s take a unique look back at all seven films in the Batman saga, and how each one reflects a decade in the comic book life of the Caped Crusader they are based on. For reasons that remain a mystery, It seems the Dark Knight’s growth as a character is always the same, regardless of the medium he is portrayed in.

For reasons that had to be a major coincidence, each of the seven Batman films released since 1989 has ended up reflecting a particular decade in the life of the comic book version of the character. There is almost no chance this could have been planned in any way; over the past twenty five years since these movies have started production, a host of different writers, directors and studio heads have been in charge as each Batman film was being made. Even Michael Uslan, producer of every Batman movie since ’89 (and the only consistent thing between all the films) has pointed out in interviews how this ended up being the case, although it was not his or anyone behind the scene’s intention, just strange happenstance.  It just so happened that Batman’s “phases” in the movie world (for lack of a better term) matched up almost perfectly with his phases in the comics, although with some some notable cracks in my theory, which I will happily point out. So let’s begin the Bat history lesson, shall we?

Batman (1989) = The Batman of Detective Comics in 1939

Tim Burton’s original 1989 Batman movie came out on the 50th anniversary of the character, and in so many ways reflects that original Batman (or should I say The Bat-Man?) of 1939 more than any other media incarnation to date. Burton’s Bruce Wayne doesn’t hide the fact that’s he’s Batman very well in this movie, constantly becoming distracted or losing his cool in public, and the Bruce of those very early comics didn’t really either. In those earliest Batman stories, Bruce also had a serious relationship, a now forgotten girlfriend named Julie Madison. Much of those early Batman stories delt with Bruce trying to maintain a relationship with the lovely (and relatively normal and dull) socialite Julie, just as Burton’s movie had the love story of Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale at it’s center. By 1941 or so, Julie was a footnote in Batman lore, just as Vicki would be by the next movie in the series. Good riddance, as both characters were as interesting as dry toast. The Art Deco look of Burton’s first film is also very 30’s inspired, another nod to the comic book character’s first year out.

Most importantly, the Batman of ’39 had very little problem using lethal force, and even carried a gun. While Burton’s Batman is never seen packing heat, he does have guns on the Batmobile and lets a whole bunch of the Joker’s henchmen die, and pretty much flat out kills the Joker himself,  something the comic book character would never have done from say, 1940 onwards.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks

Batman might be wearing all black in Burton’s movie, more closely resembling the darker color palette of his original look form the comics, but he’s still got the little yellow oval around the Bat symbol on his costume, something that didn’t appear in the comics until the mid 60’s. Also the character of Vicki Vale was predominantly a 1950’s character, created in an attempt to give Batman a Lois Lane type girlfriend, and wasn’t around at all in the 30’s.  It should be pointed out though, Vicki bore very little resemblance to her comic book counterpart aside from the name and being a photographer. And if I’m gonna nit-pick here, then neither the Joker nor the Batmobile were around until at least a year later in the comics either.

Batman Returns (1992) = Batman Comics of the 1940’s

Tim Burton’s Batman Returns got both darker and sillier all at the same time. Truth is, the 1940’s Batman comics were also darker and siller than the “year one” Batman that appeared in Detective Comics in 1939. More and more grotesque and outrageous villains were introduced, like The Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Scarecrow and the Riddler, often teaming up together to bring down the Bat. (the first Joker/Penguin team up happened in the 40’s, starting a Batman tradition, one reflected in Batman Returns) Catwoman’s original origin story had her being a stewardess who falls out of an airplane, loses her memory and becomes a “bad girl”; the movie version of Selina Kyle is a secretary who falls out a building and wakes up in a similar state. Still, all silliness aside, there was still an air of gothic, almost classic Universal horror movie weirdness to those Batman stories of the 40’s, something that would totally be gone by the early in the  next decade.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks

By far, the biggest component to Batman’s success in the 40’s was the addition of his sidekick Robin to the books, and Batman Returns had no Robin character to speak of (although it was almost Marlon Wayans. Yes, I’m serious) Other than this one rather big omission, Batman Returns plays very much like a Batman comic from the 40’s, somehow both dark and kid friendly at the same time, which has long been Tim Burton’s gift as a filmmaker.

Batman Forever (1995) = Batman Comics of the 1950’s

Even though Batman Returns was a hit, it made a lot less money than Burton’s first Batman movie, and parents groups at the time freaked out at the darkness and sexuality in what was supposed to be a “family movie.” Parents even protested the addition of Batman Returns toys in McDonalds happy meals meant for children. This made parent company Warner Brothers freak out big time, and Tim Burton was let go from his gig at the helm of the Batman series. They hired Joel Schumacher to direct Batman Forever, and he brought a day glo neon color palette to the proceedings that was as garish and un-Batman as anything found in the very worst issues of the 1950’s. The mandate from Warner Brothers was that the Batman series become lighter, more colorful and family friendly.

This totally reflects the attitudes parents had towards the comic books back in the 1950’s, due to the paranoia instilled by the anti comic book rantings of Dr. Frederic Wertham in his book Seduction of the Innocent. As a reaction to freaked out parents, DC was forced to lighten the mood significantly to their Batman comics, or cancel them outright. Everything became more colorful, and Batman lost almost all of his cool villains and saw them replaced by aliens and mad scientists with death rays with names like Dr. Double X. Any cool edginess Batman had once had was thrown out the window. Ironically, one of the chief complaints made by Frederic Wertham is his book was that Batman and Robin were a gay lover’s fantasy come to life, two men living in a fabulous mansion together in sin with no women to be found. By casting 25 year old Chris O’ Donnell as Robin, and having him shack up with a Batman who was only ten years his senior (and looked even younger) in the form of Val Kilmer, the entire Batman and Robin relationship took a far less father/son vibe and just became all the more gayer, 50’s paranoia inadvertently brought to big screen reality. And nipples on the Bat suit? Probably didn’t help.

Also, Nicole Kidman’s character of Chase Meridian looks and acts far more like Batman’s 1950’s love interest Vicki Vale, who in the comics was a sexy red head who was obsessed with uncovering Batman’s secret identity, much like Kidman’s character was in the movie. Kim Basinger’s Vicki was really just Vicki in name only, and was far more like the generic women Bruce Wayne dated in the early comics.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks

Even though Jim Carrey’s Riddler is behaving more like one of the mad scientist characters in any given 1950’s comic book, what with his mind controlling device (or whatever the fuck that was) the actual character of the Riddler never appeared once in any 1950’s Batman comic. Similarly, Two-Face only appeared in one Batman comic of the early 50’s before being banished along with the rest of the Batman rogues for being “too scary” for children. Other than this though, Batman Forever is just about as bad and overly “kiddy” as any issue of Batman or Detective from the 1950’s. It really is that hard to sit through.

Batman & Robin (1997) = Batman of the 60’s, (And The Television Series)

Somehow, despite no one I know actually liking the movie, Batman Forever made more money than Batman Returns, although only slightly. This must have made Warners confident in the decision to go even more lighter and sillier in tone than the previous movie for Batman & Robin. Whether it was intentional or not, the tone of the movie was direct reflection on that of the comics of the 1960’s, and more specifically, the campy tone of the Batman television show. Both Arnold and Uma Thurman’s turns as Mr.Freeze and Poison Ivy were so arch and over the top as to make it seem like they were on the set of the old tv show. Even the addition of Batgirl (even if she wasn’t the Barbara Gordon character from the comics or television series) felt like they were trying to evoke the old show.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks

There is one key difference that keeps the original Batman show and Batman & Robin from being the exact same hot mess; the original show was deliberately campy and tongue in cheek, an outright parody, and a brilliant one at that. But Batman and Robin wanted to lift the aesthetics and tone of the old classic show and remain an actual action/adventure movie with real peril and stakes that the audience could invest in. They failed miserably, as you simply can’t have it both ways, and audiences reacted. Batman & Robin flopped, burying the series for eight long years. And when Warner Brothers decided to resurrect the franchise, they took a cue from DC comics in the wake of the cancellation of the old tv show: Back to Basics.

Batman Begins (2005) = Batman comics of the 1970’s

After the television series was cancelled, sales on the Batman comics dropped like a stone. The campy approach worked for awhile on the books while the show was on the air, and sales soared for a bit, but by 1970 the tone of the show had done what seemed like irreparable damage to the character of Batman. So writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams decided to take drastic measures, and do a total 180 on the comic book character and return him to his darker, 1939 roots. Robin was sent off to college and became an infrequent guest star, and Batman became more of a globe trotting James Bond like character. And those early 70’s comics added one major new villain to the Batman rogues gallery in the form of immortal mastermind Ra’s al Ghul.

Much like the comic series, the Batman movie series was left in dire straits after Batman & Robin tanked. Warner Brothers decided to reboot the franchise and go back to basics, and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was as much a reaction to the colorful excess of Batman & Robin as the stories of O’Neill and Adams were a reaction to the television series. Chris Nolan even used 70’s creation Ra’s al Ghul as his main villain, and Begins had a lot of the globe trotting aspect that was key to Batman’s 1970’s adventures. And once again, Robin was given the boot.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks

While Batman Begins uses a lot of the tropes and characters from the 1970’s run of Batman comics, Christopher Nolan was just as heavily inspired by Frank Miller’s 1980’s classic Batman: Year One, if not more so. Also, the opening sequence, with a young Bruce Wayne falling into the cave and being scared by the bats was lifted from a sequence from 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns. In fact, the Nolan Trilogy really lifts from almost every era of Batman since 1970 or so, just some movies have more overt influences than others.

The Dark Knight (2008) = 1980’s Batman

Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke is seen as the definitive Joker tale; It’s a story that’s really all about how the Joker sees the world, and he presents his origin for the first time in these pages. Although, as he says in the story, he’s not sure if his memories are correct, and if he’s going to have a past of any sort, he would prefer it to be “multiple choice”. This is much like Heath Ledger’s Joker gives various different versions of his own origin in the movie. The Killing Joke version of Joker also spends the story trying to drive a good man insane, in this case James Gordon, by crippling and raping his daughter and making him witness it, trying to prove that all a good man needs to lose his mind is “one bad day”. He doesn’t break Gordon in The Dark Knight, but he does do it to Harvey Dent, and unlike The Killing Joke with Gordon, in the movie version he succeeds.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Cracks

With Dark Knight, things start to get trickier comparing it to any one decade of Batman comics, and I can readily admit this. TDK is very similar to some 80’s classics like Killing Joke, but also owes just as much a debt to stories from the 70’s, and even the 90’s and 2000’s. I couldn’t help but think, as Batman was gliding over Hong Kong, of those old globetrotting Denny O’Neill/Neal Adams stories of the 70’s. Also in the 70’s, Bruce Wayne was living away from Wayne Manor for the very first time, in a swanky playboy’s penthouse, which is also reflected in the movie as well.

Another huge influence on TDK is 90’s classic The Long Halloween. The “A Plot” in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s 1997 graphic novel is about the serial killer Holiday, who kills someone once a month on that month’s most prominant Holiday. But the “B Plot” is about how the the freaks begin to take over from the Mafia in Gotham, a theme thut runs heavy in the Dark Knight. The other major element in The Long Halloween is how the trinity of Lt. Gordon, Batman and Harvey Dent form to try to save Gotham, and the eventual transformation of Dent into Two Face. I’d say this one might have been a more prominent influence on The Dark Knight than maybe even The Killing Joke does.

Even aspects of comics as recent as 2005’s The OMAC Project were reflected in TDK; a very recent addition to the Batman mythos is Batman’s creation of OMAC, and orbiting satellite system created to watch and observe *cough*spy*cough* on every metahuman on the planet. Although not quite as Sci -fi as what was used in the movie, he creates a similar invasive monitoring system on the people of Gotham in the Dark Knight, much to the disgust of Wayne CEO Lucius Fox. In many ways, the succesful combination of so many elements from over thirty years of Batman comics helps makes The Dark Knight the ultimate Batman movie.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) = The 90’s Comics

Ok, so I haven’t seen TDKR yet, but lets just say I know enough, based on trailers and reviews, to know that the 90’s comic books were a huge influence on this particular Batman story. First off, the inclusion of Bane as the main antagonist speaks volumes, as Bane wasn’t created until 1993. In fact, Bane is one of the only Batman villains to reach iconic status that was created during this decade, mostly due to his breaking Batman’s back in 1993’s Knightfall saga, a storyline sure to be referred to in TDKR. Another 90’s story seemingly reflected (at least based on the trailers) is No Man’s Land, a story from the late 90’s where all the bridges to Gotham are destroyed, and the city becomes cut off from the rest of the United States and ultimately run by criminals.

Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks

The main premise of The Dark Knight Rises has Bruce Wayne living in seclusion for the eight years after retiring Batman and taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s murder. This reflects were we find Bruce Wayne in the start of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, where he has been living in seclusion for ten years after retiring the Batman persona. Also, Anne Hathaway’s version of Selina Kyle seems very influenced by Miller’s take on the character in Batman: Year One. Even Holly, Selina’s sidekick from Year One, makes an appearance in the TDKR , played by Juno Temple. I should also note that Catwoman’s look in the movie seems very inspired by Julie Newmar in the 60’s television show, maybe the only place in Nolan’s entire trilogy that acknowledges the campy old show. It is a reference I doubt any fanboy will mind though.

So what’s next for the Batman movies? Start at 1939 all over again for a reboot? Go to the future for Batman Beyond maybe? It’ll be interesting to see where the future takes us for Batman in cinema, but one thing is for sure, he’ll be on the big screen again in some form or another. It is only a matter of time.

SDCC Panel Round Up Part 2: Green Arrow, Joss Whedon, Breaking Bad, He-Man & More

by Eric Diaz

Being a veteran of twelve consecutive Comic Cons now, I know the drill when it comes to the big rooms, those being Hall H and Ballroom 20. The two panels I wanted to see the most that Friday were Joss Whedon and Breaking Bad, both which were back to back in Ballroom 20. So like a well trained Comic Con geek, I got in line for that room a good two and half hours early.Turns out, I didn’t need to. I walked in Ballroom 20 literally two hours early and sat through two panels I had no intention of sitting through, but were ultimately worth watching. The first being the CW’s presentation of the pilot for Green Arrow.

Green Arrow, Pilot Presentation 

So even though I’m a hard core DC Comics freak, I gotta admit I’ve never really followed Green Arrow much, although I know enough of him through reading years and years of Justice League comics. So while I’m no Oliver Queen expert, I’ll say that I know more than the average bear. And while I gotta admit I wasn’t blown away by anything in the Arrow pilot that I saw, I didn’t really hate it either. I guess I saw enough to warrant setting my DVR for at least the first handful of episodes come Fall, and then we’ll see if I give up entirely or not, like I did with Smallville.

The pilot is your basic origin story, where we see spoiled rich Oliver Queen end up on a mysterious island for five years after a ship wreck, during which time he learns to be a bad ass archer, not to mention also learns humility. It all seems only marginally better than other CW shows, but unlike say, the un aired Wonder Woman pilot, this feels like Green Arrow more or less done right. So while there is lots of room for improvement, It can improve. I have to say though, obvious uber hotness aside, I was less than impressed with our new Green Arrow Stephen Amell. He just kind of had than bland delivery that left me cold; it seemed to me the guy was cast for his face and his abs and that’s about it. Apparently, he was the first person to audition for the producers, and when they saw him, they just said “we have our guy” Uh, yeah, I really think they needed to audition more people. Just sayin’.

Also on the panel was Katie Cassidy, formerly of Supernatural and Melrose Place 2.0, who plays Laurel Lance. Now, comics fans like me know that in the comics, Green Arrow’s girlfriend is none other than Black Canary, AKA Dinah Laurel Lance. Was the omission of her first name supposed to make us think they cast Katie Cassidy to be anyone other than Black Canary in the future? Really guys? I actually liked her in the pilot, and think she’d make for a decent Black Canary, just not sure it would be in this particular project. The producers teased that other DC characters would be appearing (we already know that Deathstroke will, at some point) but they wouldn’t say who. Like I said, I’ll DVR this show for a bit, but it’ll have to be better than what I saw here for me to keep doing so long term.

Entertainment Weekly Presents Women Who Kick Ass

As a geek and a feminist, this is a panel I’m glad I attended, even if I only ended up there due to wanting to make sure I had a seat for the next two panels in Ballroom 20. Entertainment Weekly brought together some of geekdom’s current reigning women in genre television and movies, and it was quite an assemblage. The  panel featured Kristin Kreuk (Beauty and the Beast, Smallville), Nikki Reed (Twilight), Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), Anna Torv (Fringe), Kristin Bauer van Straten (True Blood), and surprise guest, Xena herself Lucy Lawless.

True Blood’s Pam, Kristin Bauer van Straten (possibly the series’ best character, or at least the most fun)  came out in her wrecked canary yellow Wal Mart sweat suit (fans of the show will get this little in-joke) to much applause.The Walking Dead’s Sarah Wayne Callies was asked about her future on the show, considering that (SPOILERS) in the comic book version of Walking Dead, her character Lori meets a grisly fate. She answered “You don’t walk into this show thinking ’25 years and a pension!’ Someone then asked what is the most important issue concerning women today, which frankly left most of the panel like they were put on the spot, realizing no matter what they said, they’d change their minds about it later. Lucy Lawless stole the show though, as she retold the story of how she was arrested in February after she and other activists protested aboard an oil-drilling ship in New Zealand, and she then told the audience that she’s not sure what will happen to her during sentencing on Sept. 12, but admitted, “I am guilty — of trying to save the environment!”  Warrior Princess indeeed.

Fringe’s Anna Torv and True Blood’s Kristin Bauer van Straten at the Women Who Kick Ass panel.

Dark Horse Presents: Joss Whedon

Now this is the panel I was actually waiting for while sitting through the other two. I’ve been a hardcore Whedonite for well over a decade, since Buffy and Angel were fighting their weekly battles on the WB Network (RIP) And, of course, I also loved Firefly/Serenity. But add to that Joss Whedon’s run on Astonoshing X-Men, Fray, Dr.Horrible’s Sing- A- Along Blog and even to a ceratin extent Dollhouse, just based on all that alone I’d worship forever at the geek altar of one Joss Whedon. There is simply no one else out there in the pop culture landscape who knows how to combine pathos with sly wit, drama with real stakes and off the cuff humor like Whedon. Others try, and most fail.

And 2012 alone has been a banner year for Joss. Let’s be honest, he’ll probably never have another one like it, between the critical success of Cabin in the Woods and the enormous global success of Avengers. He also just finished filming a low budget version of Much Ado About Nothing, fulfilling one of his dream projects. In short, It is good to be Joss Whedon right now. As a fanboy going back now almost (gulp) fifteen years, it has made me thrilled to see him finally achieve mainstream success.

Before Joss took to the stage, Dark Horse editor Scott Allie took to the podium to promote Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9, which Joss Whedon is the executive producer and occasional writer of, and also the Angel and Faith series which falls under the Buffy Season 9 banner. To the happiness of much of the crowd in Ballroom 20, Allie announced the return of Firefly to comics, in the first official continuation for those characters since Serenity came out in 2005. Joss Whedon will be co-writing this one with his brother Zed Whedon.

Joss Whedon holds court at Ballroom 20, wearing a Much Ado About Nothing shirt.

Then the man himself came out to thunderous applause, and deadpanned “Well it’s been an interesting year” He mentioned that he had just finished post production on Much Ado, and for the first time, had also written the score for it. “It’s a very important project to me and I can’t wait to show it to you, though I’m not sure yet how that’s going to be. If no studio picks it up, check iTunes!” I’m pretty sure he was only half joking there. He then announced his next project, which was greeted with pretty thunderous applause, the long awaited Dr. Horrible 2. After the cheering died down for this one, he talked about how he’s been working on it for about two years, and already has “a bunch of songs…we know exactly where we’re going, I can’t wait to tell you more about it.“The last major announcement at the panel was about his upcoming web series Wastelanders, with comic book writer Warren Ellis “I’m also going directly from Comic-Con to London to talk to Warren Ellis about Wastelanders; I’m very excited about what we’re doing and the way we’re distributing it ourself because it means we can put it out our way… and in order” (this being a jab at Fox and how they aired both Firefly and Dollhouse out of their correct order)

During the Q&A, he answered questions in his usual off the cuff witty style, some of them actually good questions, like now with the success of Avengers behind him, what old projects would he return to? (answer: “I’m not actually a big “go-back” guy. Even if it’s unrealized, It’s happened, that relationship has run its course. I kind of tend to look forward. So I think the next thing I create will be something I haven’t created yet. I have some ideas, I have some thoughts” This got lots of applause “I got applause for being able to think. This is the best crowd ever. Watch, I can also walk!” Even more applause. Oh, fanboys.

Lots of silly questions were then asked by fans, some even about the Zombie Apocalypse and what not, but a fan finally asked “What has stood out to you the most personally that you’ve worked on? to which Joss responded “Hopefully something I haven’t written yet! But I think “The Body” is the best episode of television I ever wrote” (Writer’s aside: I concur. Buffy episode The Body is the best thing he’s ever written.) Of course, at any panel Joss does, someone asks him about his love for strong female protaganists, and if they’re still perceived differently in the entertainment industry. The answer was something of a femenist mini-rant from Whedon; “When Buffy had been on for three years, we started pitching the animated series that never went anywhere and literally got “well she has to have a male counterpart who’s just as cool as her or we won’t do it” (They never did do it) “Until recently the industry said that about movies too, but then you get The Hunger Games. The industry will never change it’s mind until the public makes them.

When asked if he ever wanted to make a Broadway musical, after the success of the Buffy musical episode and Dr.Horrible’s Sing A Long Blog, Whedon answered “Here’s the thing… of COURSE I do. But I have too many plans….The question is do I have the time to commit to one of the largest and most difficult projects I could ever encounter.The last question of the panel came from long time Geekscapist Ashton Lauren, who asked “You’ve given so many geek moments, what was YOUR biggest geek moment?” To which Whedon answered “My biggest geek moment? Um… My life is one endless geek moment!” Amen to that sir.

AMC’s Breaking Bad

I’m a bit late to the Breaking Bad party, I have to admit (like four years late) But after hearing rave review after rave review for the series, I finally gave in and watched the entire show over the course of the past month or so. And OH EM GEE, is this show amazing. So a special thank you to every single human who’s been telling me I need to be watching this show for the past several years, because you were so right. For those reading this who are as uninitiated as I was, Breaking Bad is writer/producer Vince Gilligan’s show about a suburban high school chemistry teacher from Albuquerque New Mexico who, upon finding he has terminal cancer and no money to leave for his family, hooks up with a burn out former student of his and begins cooking crystal meth. Telling you anything else would ruin what is an amazing roller coaster ride over four seasons of television. So Netflix this puppy already, then come back and read this, because SPOILERS for the series abound in this report.

Aaron Paul, Bryan Cranston and “baby Holly” make their Comic Con entrance.

This was Breaking Bad’s first appearance at Comic Con, and Ballroom 20 was packed with howling fans who probably were wondering what took them so long to get here (I mean, if Glee is at SDCC, where has Breaking Bad been?) Almost the entire main cast showed up, including Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, R. J. Mitte, Jonathan Banks and finally showing up on stage in their meth cook Hazmat suits (along with a baby doll in a Hazmat suit) Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. That alone was worth waiting for this panel. When asked about the upcoming fifth and final season, Gilligan mentioned that it was hard proceeding without the character of Gus Fring, and how hard it was for the writers to let go of a character as great as he was, but Gilligan has rebounded: “In season five, we’ve got a new king. King Heisenberg.” This, as one can imagine, got a lot of reaction from the crowd.

When someone asked about breaking the stories in the writers room, Gilligan responded that “is a very organic, living process to come up with these stories.” He then gave the example of how Jesse was supposed to die at the end of season one, but that obviously changed. (I can’t imagine the show without Jesse Pinkman) The role of Hitman Mike also expanded well beyond what Gilligan planned before casting Banks, as he was only cast because Bob Odenkirk, who plays Saul Goodman, was not available for that episode and they needed someone to fill his role of clean up guy after a crime. They loved the actor so much, Hitman Mike is now a permanent fixture on the show.

Other bullet points for season five brought up during the panel; expect to hear a lot more German than Spanish this season (remember, drug kingpin Gus Fring was bankrolled by some mysterious Germans) and that the teaser at the start of season five, episode one is their most revealing teaser yet. When asked what his season was really all about, Gilligan answered “winning, what it means to stay on top.” Gilligan then spoke of Alexander the Great, and how once Alexander conquered the known world, he wept.  Cranston asks if the series will simply end on him crying. I’ll wager “probably not.”

Toy Masters and the 25th Anniversary of Masters of the Universe

After four consecutive panels, I wasn’t sure if I was up for one more…but a documentary on thirty years of Masters of the Universe was too tempting to pass up for me. When I was a little kid, between the ages of seven and twelve, I lived and breathed He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I had every toy (and I mean every toy) and my for awhile there my sheets, pillows, and curtains were all He-Man centric. My bedroom was Eternia itself. So, even though as an adult I realize there really was nothing more to He-Man that Mattel’s efforts to sell me shit, I have a soft spot in my heart for the franchise that gave us so many beloved characters like Buzz-Off (he’s a bee, get it?) and Stinkor (he smells. Brilliant!) He-Man is forever in my DNA, as mostly stupid as it all is.

The upcoming documentary Toy Masters chronicles how this weird mish-mash of Conan the Barbarian with Star Wars became one of the biggest selling action figure lines of all time, leading into a hugely successful cartoon show, spin off series (She-Ra, Princess of Power) live action stage show (The Power Tour) and finally, at the tail end of the whole phenomena, a live action movie. A trailer for the documentary was presented at the panel, and it is clear that at the heart of this movie is the ongoing King of Kong style battle between two old guys and former Mattel employees, Mark Taylor and Roger Sweet, both who claim to have created He-Man. One calls the other’s claim at creating the franchise “unadulterated, absolute barbarian fiction” -hence, the movie’s tagline.

The panel, once again moderated by Free Enterprise’s Robert Meyer Burnett, featured people like Roger Lay, Jr. (director/producer) a He-Man kid like me growing up, Gary Goddard (director of the 1987 film) and Jack and Leslie Wadsworth (live-action He Man and She Ra from the Masters of the Universe: Power Tour), Jack and Leslie, two body buiders/stunt people who met at the Universal Studios Conan/Red Sonja show in the early 80’s and got married, were He-Man and She-Ra for the nation wide Power Tour (I never got to go this; this panel brought back memories of being an angry 11 year old)  Both happily married still, they seem happy about their time in Eternia, and even kept their prop swords, which they brought to the panel (awww) The Power Tour still apparently has the house record for the most consecutive sold out shows at Radio City Music Hall, nineteen performances. Crazy. But that’s how big He-Man was for about five years or so.

Most fascinating were the stories of making the 1987 live action He-Man movie, which is celebrating its 25th Anniversarry this year. Director Gary Goddard was on hand, and he talked about how both Cannon Films and Mattel desperatley needed this movie to be a hit; Cannon had sunk every last dime the company had on the movie, and were on the verge of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, in 1987 the toy sales for the line plummeted, and Mattel needed the movie to be a hit to justify continuing the line (the fact that the cartoon had ended making new episodes didn’t seem to occur to anyone for the toy line’s decline baffled me) Gary Goddard, a highly successful creator of theme park attractions going back to EPCOT and as recently as Spider-Man at Universal Florida, was brought in to direct what would be his only big screen feature film. What he ended up with was a movie with the largest Hollywood sound stage in forty years (Castle Greyskull) and then the rest shot in downtown Whittier, CA. on the cheap. According to Goddard, eveyone in Hollywood wanted to see the massive Greyskull set, including Michael Jackson, who asked if he could walk on the Grayskull throne room.

The movie ended up being a giant clusterfuck, Cannon folded and Mattel cancelled the line all together. Twenty five years later though, the Masters brand still strikes a chord in Generation X kids like me, and judging from how well the retro style Masters of the Universe Classics line is selling for Mattel to twenty and thirty somethings, I fully expect to see the line come back one day for real. In the meantime, Toy Masters is making its premiere at the Montreal Film Fest next month, and I can only hope real distribution comes soon, as this panel made me dying to see the final product even more.

Ok, come back tomorrow for my final panel report from SDCC 2012. All I can say is, next time, it’ll be shorter.

SDCC Panel Roundup: Star Trek: The Next Generation, DC All Access, & Batman’s Biggest Secret

by Eric Diaz

Some people love coming to the San Diego Comic Con for the cosplay, the shopping, and just the sideshow carnival aspect of it all. While I love all of those things too, I’m really a panel whore here. I love getting to sit and hear behind the scenes stuff on comics and movies and television shows more than anything else at the con. So here’s my run down on all the best panels, or at least the best panels I actually made it into, starting with Thursday, Day One.

Before and After: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Journey into High Definition

The first panel I hit on Day One was Before and After: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Journey into High Definition. I am a pretty big Trek geek here, but I am the biggest Trek geek mostly for Star Trek: The Next Generation, or just TNG from now on for brevity’s sake. TNG premiered right when I turned thirteen years old, and went off the air right when I was about to turn twenty, so my entire formative teenage years were spent with Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D. While the original series got a brilliant high definition upgrade a few years back, the common thinking was that TNG would never receive a similar upgrade. The reason being for this is that like most shows from the 80’s and 90’s, TNG was shot on 35mm film, but was edited on low grade video tape. That is why when you watch TNG on DVD or Netflix, it kind of looks like ass today. It just doesn’t hold up at all to modern standards.

Well, that is all about to change. CBS Home Video has done an unprecedented (and very costly and expensive) thing here, and is re-editing all seven seasons from the original camera negatives, and recompositing the effects using all the original elements they can find. CGI is being used only very sparingly, and only when an original element is lost. As shown at this before and after presentation, the results are jaw dropping. Watching some of the before and after videos shown at the panel really made you realize the time and care that the production design team put in when creating the original sets and costumes back in the day, as they bothered to put in small details that no one could ever have noticed when this was all in crappy standard definition.

Spearheading this whole restoration are Mike and Denise Okuda, who have been involved with the Star Trek franchise since TNG premiered twenty five years ago (all the digital displays on TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise are referred to as “Okudagrams”) As they were there from the beginning, no one is better suited for this task that the Okudas, and from what they showed, what they’ve done is nothing short of amazing. The restoration project’s film transfer technician, Wade Felker, went through endless cans of film negative to make sure that what was re-assembled matched what was aired over two decades ago. The episodes are all finished at a resolution of 1080i now. And no, the framing for this project is still old school 4×3, not 16×9. So get used to those black bars on the sides kids, because that is how the show was shot, and the intent here is to preserve that look.

Aside from the upgrade, the series is getting a host of all new special features, including a cast reunion moderated by Free Enterprise director Robert Meyer Burnett (who moderated the panel as well) He’s gone out of his way to get new interviews with all the key players, and judging from what was shown, this was more candid and fun than most of the fluffy EPK stuff found on the old DVD sets from around a decade or so back. Burnett even got an interview with the man who turned down the role of Jean Luc Picard. Possibly the most fun is the discovery of the original camera tests for the wardrobe etc, like the one for Geordi LaForge below. Someone let their Soul Glo for sure.

Original costume test for the character of Geordi La Forge. Thank God they went another route and got rid of the “Soul Glo” hair and Prince mustache.

Star Trek: The Next Generation arrives on Blu Ray on July 24th, and this panel served to whet my appetite even more. Job well done.

DC Entertainment-All Access: DC NOW!

The next panel was DC Entertainment-All Access: DC NOW! While the panel hosted several creators from DC’s New 52 initiative, the clear stars of the show were DC CCO Geoff Johns and Batman and Swamp Thing writer Scott Snyder. Both of them talked very passionately about their forthcoming books, and they were clearly the fan favorites judging from the applause they received. Geoff Johns has three of the best selling DC books right now (Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman, believe it nor not) and he spoke briefly about what’s coming up for each title. With Justice League, Johns says says there are a lot of surprises coming up in issue #12, which features Aquaman calling the rest of the lineup out and telling them they have to behave a lot more like a team, and less like a group of loosely affiliated individuals. In year two the JL will be getting several new members, including Shazam, who until now has been featured only in back up stories in the main JL title. Johns is also re-introducing classic Wonder Woman villain the Cheetah in issue #13, which will lead into next summer’s Trinity War event.

DC’s untouchable two, Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder.

The topic then shifted to Green Lantern. Johns says that Earth’s as yet unnamed new Green Lantern carries a gun because he’s skeptical about the concept of rings running only on energy, and that the new “Third Army” is created by the Guardians of the Universe to eradicate free will in the cosmos. In the mind of Geoff Johns, the robotic Manhunters were the Gaurdians’s first attempt at a universal peace keeping force, but their lack of emotion was their downfall. So then they made the Green Lantern Corps, only to eventually find that emotion was as much a liability as a strength. So now they are making a third army, one to eradicate all free will, which they now see as the source of all suffering. In other words, the Gaurdians are now officially villains. Aquaman #0 was briefly talked about as well, and it will flashback to Arthur Curry’s first meeting with his Atlantean people.

Batman writer Scott Snyder was up next, and talked in depth about his upcoming arc Death of the Family, which he calls his definitive Joker story, his version of Arkham Asylum or Killing Joke. Snyder’s run on Batman has been the character’s most well received storyline in years, especially his just wrapped Court of Owls saga. As for the Joke, he was last seen briefly in last year’s Detective Comics #1, getting his face willingly sliced off, and then pretty much vanished. Now he’s coming back with a vengeance. As Snyder put it “Joker sees Batman as the King (of Gotham) and he has all these Knights/Squires. But Joker sees himself as the court jester to the King, it is his job to amuse him and inspire him. And he’s been ignored for a year and he’s not happy.”

This time, the Joker is coming for the whole Bat family, and not just for Bruce Wayne. Says Snyder “He came after Batgirl in The Killing Joke, but he was really going after Commissioner Gordon. So when Batgirl realizes that here, too, it’s almost like the Joker is staring at her saying -I’m coming after you this time. I’ll kill everyone and burn down everything in your life to do what I did to your father, but to you. So in that way, he’s saying that to every member of the Bat-family. To Nightwing and everyone, saying – You’ve never faced me before. I’ve never actually targeted you. I’ve only used you as pawns to get at Batman. So welcome to your worst nightmare.” Death of the Family will run through Batman #13-17, and have sort of crossovers (similar to the recent Night of the Owls) in Nightwing, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Teen Titans (for Tim Drake) Suicide Squad (for Harley Quinn) and the Jason Todd starring Red Hood and the Outlaws.

It wasn’t all Gotham talk from Snyder at this panel though, as Snyder thanks the fans for reading his Swamp Thing and Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man, which he called a labor of love for both writers. Both Swamp Thing and Animal Man have been the two biggest surprise hits of the new 52, and having been receiving great reviews all across the board. Snyder even briefly talked about his work on Vertigo’s American Vampire series. He talked about American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares, saying that it explores the history of vampire races in the American Vampire world

After the one two punch of two of DC’s biggest names came poor Rob Liefield, who not only is (arguably) the most hated creator in modern  comics, but had the tough act to follow both Johns and Snyder on a panel, who are the comic book equivalent of rock stars. He talked a bit about his three (yes three) DC books, Hawkman, Deathstroke and Grifter. I don’t remember any of it, because it all sounded so yawn inducing. Some guy sitting next to me at the panel said “wouldn’t it be funny if someone just ran up and punched him right now?” To which I agreed…yes, it would be funny. I’ve often wondered just what Liefield has on certain editors at DC and Marvel. Did he do a lot of blow and God knows what else with them in the 90’s, and he’s got it all recorded? How does this man keep getting books? We may never know.

Only slightly less hated in the comics world is writer Scott Lobdell, who DC has given the task of taking over Superman. Lobdell’s writing style is often like the worst part of the 90’s, so I don’t know why DC would entrust their flagship character to him. Although I will admit, unlike Liefield, Lobdell has his moments. He’s not all bad. Unlike Batman, Superman has not found much success in the new 52 (with the exception of Grant Morrisson’s Action Comics) Lobdell will take over the book with issue #13, where he said that readers will see “a lot of Superman and a lot of Clark at the same time. What we’re really going to examine is what it means to be the most powerful person on the whole planet, and yet you can’t actually ever behave in a way that you are that person. You’re hiding out among humanity.” He seemed enthusiastic, so I’m hoping for the best here, because Superman deserves the best.

Also on the panel were Jimmy Palmiotti and wife Amanda Conner, each talking about their respective DC books. Amanda’s art from Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre was shown, and so was art from Palmiotti’s All Star Western. Usually Western books die on the vine, but the connections to 19th century Gotham City have made this one something of an unofficial Batman book and a minor success. And finally. Flash writer Brian Buccellato says Flash #0 will explore who Barry Allen’s origin in the new 52, and how it differs from what we knew before. And according to Buccellato, “there is no Wally in this run at all, I’m sorry.” The crowd booed. Way to end on a down note there DC!

Batman’s Biggest Secret: The Bill Finger Story

Sometimes the best panels at SDCC aren’t the ones that get all the attention, they’re the ones that are in some smaller room at the ass end of the convention center, and you don’t ever have to wait in line to get in. Such was the case with the panel for Batman’s Biggest Secret: The Bill Finger Story. Now I imagine most of you reading this are well aware that Batman was created by artist Bob Kane, because it says so on every comic about Batman, as well as every television series and movie for seventy years. But it also has been known now for many years that Batman also had a co-creator, a man named Bill Finger. Based on five years of research for his new book Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, writer Marc Tyler Nobleman layed it all out for those attending this panel. He started by showing two pictures of Bill Finger, and said they were the only two pictures ever published of the man before his death in 1974. They were, in fact, the only two pics of the man I had ever seen, and I’m pretty well schooled in my comic book history.

The cover for Bill The Boy Wonder, which is illustrated by Batman Adventures artist Ty Templeton. Next to it is one of the very few pics of Bill Finger to ever make it in print before his death.

Bob Kane came up with the name Bat-Man to be sure, and the idea that he had no powers also came from him. But it was struggling writer Bill Finger who came up with the most of the elements that make Batman BATMAN. According to an old interview with Finger “Bob Kane had an idea for a character called ‘Batman’, and he’d like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane’s, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of … reddish tights, I believe, with boots … no gloves, no gauntlets … with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign … BATMAN.”

But it was Finger who gave Kane the idea of turning the stiff wings into a scalloped cape instead, who suggest the gray/black instead of red, and who changed the domino mask into a cowl. He even named the character Bruce Wayne, and gave him his brutal origin, named Gotham City, created (or at the very least co-created) the Batcave and Batmobile, not to mention characters like the Joker (co-created with Jerry Robinson) Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Two-Face. Even Kane admitted in his own autobiography “Batman and Me” that it was Bill Finger who turned Batman into more than just a vigilante, but also a detective in the Sherlock Holmes mold. And yet, mostly due to Kane’s father being a lawyer, Kane receieved sole credit as Batman’s creator, and Finger got nothing.

One of the only photos of Bill Finger known to circulate for decades, as well as a picture of what Bob Kane’s Bat-Man looked without input from Finger.

As Nobleman pointed out in this panel, DC Comics was not the main villain in this story, nor was it entirely Bob Kane either. In many ways, Bill Finger himself was the villain in his own story, as he never fought DC for credit as co-creator of Batman in his lifetime. No one knows why, although it is simply possible he didn’t want to lose his job as a writer. The first time any one publicly brought up the notion that someone other than Kane helped create Batman was in a fan newsletter in the 1960’s during the tv show’s heyday. Kane responded with “early sketches” of a Batman character from 1934, five years before Batman’s debut, to prove his point. Unfortunately, the sketches had Batman with a cape and cowl, which are things that Finger was publicly said to have contributed to the character and Kane even admitted to. Those pictures provided by Kane that were dated in very large letters as 1934 were in fact forgeries. This would not be the only time Bob Kane would do something like this; from the 40’s through the 60’s, Bob Kane has ghost artists on his Batman stories, and in fact when he started to sell paintings of Batman and related characters as “fine art,” even those were made by other artists. So Kane was hardly ever above lying through his teeth to keep his only claim to fame in life all his.

Bob Kane’s grave has no less than nine words to describe how awesome he was, and how he and Bruce Wayne were really one. Feel free to roll your eyes.

Finger died in anonymity of a heart attack in 1974 at the age of 59, found days later on his couch by a friend. His ashes were spread on a beach by his only son, in the shape of the Bat symbol (you could hear the audience in that room choke up at that point) When his son, who was gay, died of AIDS in 1990, it was thought that he was the end of the family line…but he was’t. Nobleman found that Finger’s son had a daughter, one he discovered on (of all places) MySpace. He knew he had the right person when he saw she had a dog named Bruce Wayne. He has convinced the daughter to fight not for money…but for her grandfather’s rightful place as the credited co-creator of Batman. And so the panel ended on that hopeful note that mabye one day soon the man will finally get his due after all.

And thus ends SDCC Day One…come back tomorrow for Day Two, where I’ll talk the Green Arrow pilot, Joss Whedon and a little bit of Breaking Bad.

15 Years of “Boogie Nights” – One Fan’s Appreciation

by Eric Diaz

Two movies came out this past week, both to great financial success that few saw coming. Both the male stripper movie Magic Mike and raunchy comedy Ted exceeded expectations, and yet as different as both of these films are, it struck me that neither movie would exist in their present form if it wasn’t for a certain film that came out fifteen years ago this October named Boogie Nights. Magic Mike cribs almost its entire plot structure (as well as certain scenes outright) from Boogie Nights, and because of the success all those years ago of this movie, Mark Whalberg went from being a pop culture punchline much like Vanilla Ice to a respected and bankable actor and eventual Oscar nominee. And all because of one low budget flick about making porn in the swinging 70’s San Fernando Valley.

Boogie Nights was like lightning in a bottle, with all the right elements coming together in just the perfect way, from script to cast to score. Written and directed by a then 25 year old Paul Thomas Anderson, the film was based on his own short film he made at the age of 17 called The Dirk Diggler Story, a mockumentary about the rise and fall of a John Holmes-esque porn star in the 1970’s and 80’s. Always having had an obsession with the films of the 1970’s 16mm porno heyday, Anderson used the short film he made as a teenager as the basis for Boogie Nights. The core of the story was still the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, but the cast extended to several other characters in the X rated movie business as well, and became an ensemble piece. It also became, at least in my humble opinion, one of the greatest movies of the 1990’s.

Boogie Nights attempts and succeeds at both being an intimate character piece as well as a snapshot of a certain time in America. In the early to late 70’s, before the age of home video, X-rated movies were shown in real movie theaters, not just porn theaters, and it wasn’t just horny single guys who went to see them. For a brief time in this country, it was trendy for couple to go see the newly legal pornography on the big screen together on date night. Movies like Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door were among the highest grossing movies of their respective years of release; not just highest grossing X rated movies mind you, but highest grossing movies period. Amidst all the character drama, Boogie Nights chronicles the end of this era of porn as quasi legitimate film, before it became disposable VHS product with low production value for mass consumption in the 1980’s, which of course led to the “everyone’s a porn star as long as they have a computer” world we live in today.

It isn’t to say Boogie Nights wasn’t appreciated in it’s day, because it certainly was. Boogie was nominated for multiple Oscars, (for Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore most notably) and made a decent return on its  $15 million dollar budget. $43 million may not seem like a lot of money by today’s standards, but fifteen years ago for a nearly three hour R rated epic about the porn industry in the San Fernando Valley to make that much was a pretty big surprise to almost everyone. And yet it feels that unlike movies like Pulp Fiction, Heat, The Usual Suspects and other ensemble movies from the 90’s, Boogie Nights doesn’t quite get the recognition it deserves today (although not too long ago, Empire Magazine readers voted it #152 on their 500 greatest movies of all time list, so someone out there other than myself feels as strongly as I do) So in honor of the film’s 15th Anniversary, here are just a few reasons why I think Boogie Nights is one of the best and most influental films of the past couple of decades, and why if you haven’t seen it already you should do yourself a favor and Netflix this sucker today.

The Cast

I first saw Boogie Nights when it was released theatrically back 1997, and I remember being completely blown away by it. I remember that I  just sat their in my seat dumbstruck, way past the credits rolling, realizing I’d just witnessed a movie I felt was surely destined to be a classic. I’d barely seen any of the cast before in any movie that I could recall (with a few exceptions, most obviously Burt Reynolds and William H. Macy) but I knew that if there was any justice in this world, every single actor in this movie would go on to greater stardom and success.

Turns out they just about all did; the careers of almost the entire principal cast was pretty much made by Boogie Nights. Prior to Boogie, almost everyone had steadily worked in movies before, but with most of the cast, you can view their careers today as Pre-Boogie Nights and Post-Boogie Nights. Of course, no other member of the cast was effected more than one Mark Whalberg.  It turned him from a has-been pop star and late night talk show punchline into a serious actor to contend with. Prior to this movie, Whalberg was best known as one hit wonder Marky Mark, and as a Calvin Klein underwear model. He attempts at acting ranged from the bad (Renaissance Man) to the decent (Basketball Diaries) to the absolutely ridiculous, most notably 1996’s Fear, a kind of Fatal Attraction for the 90’s MTV generation, remembered today mostly for a scene where Whalberg finger bangs a young Reese Witherspoon on a rollercoaster to the song Wild Horses. Seriously, that happened once.

Boogie Nights easily had one of the best ensemble casts of the past twenty or so years.

Originally meant to star a young Leonardo Dicaprio in the lead, when filming for Titanic interfered with Boogie, he suggested his buddy and Basketball Diaries co-star Mark Whalberg as his replacement. Titanic ended up making Dicaprio a superstar, and Boogie Nights gave Whalberg legitimacy as an actor, so I’d say it all worked out for the best. Although Whalberg didn’t get an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Dirk Diggler, he was instantly hailed by every movie critic just about everywhere, and no one joked about “Marky Mark trying to act” ever again. Well, if they did, they weren’t taken seriously anymore. The former street thug turned rapper turned underwear model proved to the world he had serious acting chops.

Julianne Moore was another actress who had worked steadily in Hollywood for years, but it was her Oscar Nominated portrayal as porn star Amber Waves that really set her career on fire. Much like Whalberg, you can look at her career now simply as pre and post Boogie Nights. The same applies for Don Cheadle, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Thomas Jane, Heather Graham, and John C. Reilly; Even bit players like Broadway actress Joanna Gleason, who has little more than a cameo as Mark Whalberg’s crazy mother, and Alfred Molina, as speedo wearing drug dealer Rahad Jackson, shine in their all too brief moments in the movie.  If one were to make a movie with this cast today, the budget would be pretty enormous. But back in ’97, no one knew who almost any of these actors were, except for some hardcore fans of indie films. I don’t think it is overstating it to say that all these actors owe a tremendous debt to Paul Thomas Anderson and to Boogie Nights. 

Of course, not everyone’s career fared so well post Boogie; seen as a casting coup for the film of course was getting 70’s icon Burt Reynolds, who played porno patriarch Jack Horner. Reynolds’ career had hit the skids by the 80’s, and Boogie was seen as his big comeback. When Reynolds first saw a rough cut of Boogie Nights, he hated it so much he fired his agent. However, after it received rave reviews from the critics (not to mention both Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for him) he was persuaded to go on a radio promotion tour by director Paul Thomas Anderson. Apparently, PTA hogged the spotlight so much in interviews that about a week into the tour, Burt punched him in the face and quit doing any press for the movie. Burt had been slated to play the part of sex guru Frank TJ Mackey in PTA’s follow up film Magnolia, and instead the part went to Tom Cruise, for which he ultimately received an Oscar nomination. While the rest of the cast’s careers soared after the release of the film, Reynolds seemingly squandered his comeback mojo with another string of bad movie choices that returned him to obscurity. Maybe firing his agent wasn’t such a good idea. Still, his performance in the film arguably remains his best performance in anything to date.

The Soundtrack

While a lot of other movies about the same era simply used whatever songs were on the Hot 100 radio charts at that particular moment in time (movies like Summer of Sam and 54 both spring to mind) Boogie Nights wisely understood that in real life, people listen to music from all eras, not just stuff that’s recent and on Top 40 radio. While the soundtrack to Boogie has plenty of the disco hits from the era that you would expect to hear, it also has just as many songs from earlier times. And every song on the soundtrack, from the Beach Boys’ classic God Only Knows to lesser known songs like Do Your Thing and Magnet and Steel, accompanies every scene they are used in to perfection. And there has never been a better use of cheesy 80’s power ballad Sister Christian in anything, ever. (Sorry Rock of Ages) Geeks everywhere also owe a special debt to the film for reviving interest in the wonderfully cheestastic The Touch by Stan Bush from the original animated Transformers movie, used to hilarious effect in Boogie Nights by wanna be rock star Dirk Diggler.

The Refreshing Lack of Moralizing About Sex

While the film certainly portrays the excesses of the era, especially when it comes to drugs, and correctly points out the that most people who make their living in pornography often have certain issues in their past that lead them to choosing sex as their profession (especially back then, a lot less so today, when everyone’s a porn star) it never condems the pornography itself as being bad or wrong or sinful in any way. No one is “saved” from porn at the end of Boogie Nights, if anything it shows how for some people, porn is what saved them. Because really….what else was Dirk Diggler going to do for a living? For a Hollywood movie to be so non judgementel about sex is still almost unheard of.

It Introduced The World To PT Anderson

Although the little seen movie Hard Eight was director Paul Thomas Anderson’s first film ever released, it was Boogie Nights that really put him on the map with both critics and audiences. The fact that someone so young at the time could make something this brilliant was only a sign of greater things to come. At least two of his next three following movies are outright masterpieces (Magnolia and There Will Be Blood) and his upcoming thinly veiled expose on the world of Scientology The Master is one of my most anticipated films of 2012. Without the success of Boogie Nights, it is quite possible none of these would have ever happened, and as lovers of film we’d all be worse off for it. PT Anderson is simply one of those “once in every generation” type of talents.

PT Anderson on the set of Boogie Nights in 1996.

So there you have it– if you haven’t seen Boogie Nights in years, or if you haven’t seen it ever, then again, do yourself a favor and rent it. More likely than not you’ll be glad you did. And if you were thinking of paying real money to see Magic Mike, I heartily recommend saving your money and watching Boogie Nights instead. You’ll thank me for it later.

 

Geekscape Reviews “Magic Mike”

by Eric Diaz

It is going to be difficult to seperate my review of Magic Mike-the movie, versus Magic Mike- the midnight movie going experience. Because the movie itself was…well, it was fine, occasionally better than fine, but a Hell of lot better when it was made fifteen years ago and called Boogie Nights. On the other hand, Magic Mike the moviegoing experience was a very interesting window into the psyche of the average American female moviegoer. And that was the more fascinating venture to be sure.

Let me review the experience first; the 12AM screening of the movie I went to was something like 95% women, with a 5% smattering of gay men like myself for good measure. These women and girls, many who got dressed up for the occasion (there were many bare shoulders and big shoes to be found in my theater, and even one or two pairs of felt cat ears) were screeching and hollering at loud volumes well before the movie started. Now, I’ve been to my fair share of male geek- centric midnight shows in my days– Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, you name it–and I’ve never heard as loud a scream from an audience as when we first see Channing Tatum’s naked ass within the first five minutes of this movie. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is quite a fine ass…but I doubt there was ever that loud of a cheer even when the Death Star got destroyed back in 1977. The women were pretty much orgasming in their seats…. it was nuts. I’ve never really wanted to be a woman before (as much as I love and relate to women on multiple levels, I’m rather fond of my penis thank you.) but I’ll admit if I could get that damn hot and bothered like that from just seeing some hot guy’s ass on a movie screen for a few seconds, well….It almost made me wish I had one of those other things down there instead, especially if that’s all it takes.

Matthew McConaughey easily steals the show as club owner Dallas.

As for the movie itself, well…we’ve seen this A Star is Born story a million times before, sometimes done better, often done worse. Director Steven Soderbergh doesn’t bring anything new to the table here I’m sorry to say, but he doesn’t make a terrible movie either.  The movie centers around Adam, played by British actor Alex Pettyfer. He’s  all of 19 and just moved to Tampa Florida to live on his sister’s couch. While on a roofing job he finds on craigslist, he meets Channing Tatum’s “Magic” Mike Martingano, who sees potential in Adam and before too long, takes him under his wing into the world of male stripping. Adam fills in one night at Xquisite, the strip joint owned by a former stripper named Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) where Mike works. Dallas is by far the best thing in this movie; McConaughey goes totally over the top with his character, and every moment with him on screen is a blast. Dallas is vain and ridiculous, and just that much fun to watch. He’s kind of like the father figure to all his strippers, and I wish the movie gave us more of him. Adam is quickly given the new nickname “the Kid,” and just like that he’s off and running in the world of male stripping.

Among the rest of the group of strippers are Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganeillo from True Blood) Ken (Matt Bomer from White Collar) Tito (Adam Rodriguez from CSI Miami) and Tarzan (wrestler Kevin Nash) who frankly, is too ugly too even be in the same room  as the rest of the guys I just mentioned; I don’t care how hot your body is if you look like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. In any case, my first big complaint here is that all of these guys are pretty much wasted in this movie. I suppose if you go to see them just get naked, you’ll be satisfied, but that’s all they do; none of these guys are given any characterization or personality quirks really at all. They are just visual props, which is fine I guess…it just seems odd to get so many established actors to do what you could have paid a bunch of real male strippers to do, and probably for a lot less money. Also among the ensemble cast are comedian Gabriel Iglesias as the club’s DJ, and Olivia Munn as Mike’s bisexual booty call buddy, a grad student named Joanne. Joanne is actually one of the more interesting characters in the movie, or at least one of the more well rounded. Sadly, she’s barely in the movie for more than a cameo. Credit where credit is due, Soderbergh made me actually like Olivia Munn, one of those faux celebrities that I usually can’t stand. Not an easy task, so props to you sir.

For a movie about male strippers, you’d think we’d get at least some full frontal male nudity, if only for a moment. All we get is a blurry shot of Joe Manganellio’s penis in one of those penis enlarger pumps, and it probably isn’t even a real penis. I call shenanigans.

So young Adam and “Magic” Mike conveniently become instant BFF’s (something Adam even makes kind of a joke about in the movie) and Adam’s sister Paige (Cody Horn) is none too happy with his new career choice. In fact, Paige is seemingly never happy about anything…she spends almost the entire movie with a perpetual pout on her face, with this look of “I Hate Fun” tattooed on her forehead. She has a playful flirty vibe with Mike, her brother’s new mentor, but by the end of the movie we are supposed to think it was some great love affair waiting to happen, and I just never bought into that. I was never rooting for them to get together much because she seems like she had a stick up her ass the whole time, and Tatum just isn’t very compelling as an actor when he’s not naked and dancing up a storm. Which, to be fair, he does very, very well. That white boy can move. But as an actor, he seems to have no range.

And there lies this movie’s biggest problem, and that is that neither of the leads, either Channing Tatum or Alex Pettyfer’s characters, are particularly interesting characters at all.  They’re both just typical white “bro dude” types, the kind that would be in some douchey frat had they gone to college. They’re both lucky they’re so good looking, because they have the personalities of dry toast. The only thing remotely interesting about Mike’s character is that he makes custom furniture. And that’s it. That’s what passes for giving him layers. See, he doesn’t just strip and hook up with ho’s and drink beer, he makes tables! And poor Adam doesn’t even have that going for him. They seem like overall nice guys, but really just the kind of guys that are pretty much good for one thing. Maybe that’s why I liked Olivia Munn’s character in this movie, as she seems to be the only one who understands this fact in the movie and points it out. The movie clearly wants us to think she’s a bitch for seeing things that way, but from where I sat she sees it like it is.

When it comes to this movie, for me it is hard not to think of Boogie Nights when watching it and constantly compare the two, because Magic Mike lifts almost the entire structure off of PT Anderson’s now classic 1997 film. For example,  just like in Boogie Nights, the character of Adam is a teenager picked from obscurity and brought into a life of instant money and sex and drugs, and is given a new identity as “the Kid.” This is just like Mark Whalberg’s character in Boogie Nights, Eddie, who becomes porn star Dirk Diggler. The Kid and Magic Mike both get too big for their britches, and have a confrontation with their mentor figure, both while high as kites, another scene almost identical to the one in Boogie Nghts where Mark Whalberg has a drugged out falling out with mentor figure Burt Reynolds. There is even a scene towards the end where Mike has an epiphany about his life of excess, and Soderbergh has the camera fix on his face, frozen in contemplation for almost a good minute, almost exactly like the scene in Boogie Nights where Mark Whalberg’s character does the exact same thing. Except in that movie, that scene also had Alfred Molina in a speedo with an Asian rent boy lighting fire crackers in his living room with Sister Christian playing in the background and was way, WAY more memorable.

And where Boogie Nights takes place over several years, Magic Mike takes place over one summer. In June, our young newbie Adam can’t dance at all, but by July he’s doing complicated choreography and experimenting with drugs, and by August he’s a full on junkie and a drug dealer to boot. That seemed rather forced and silly to me. Another thing that Boogie Nights does a million times better is giving all the minor characters things to do. Much like the “family” of porn stars in Boogie Nights, Magic Mike has a similar “family” of male strippers, only they’re not given anything to do. I guess it’s just enough for the target audience that they’re there and they’re naked. I hate to constantly compare this movie to PT Anderson’s breakthrough film from the 90’s, but it just lifts so much of the structure and even the basic story itself that I just can’t help but compare the two at every turn, and in comparison to Boogie Nights, Magic Mike doesn’t even come close.

Still, Magic Mike has its moments, and gets by on a certain kind of effortless charm. Steven Soderbergh shot the movie in almost a documentary style, and the script and performances feel naturalistic and real, with the exception of Matthew McConaughey’s character, who provides some much needed crazy personality to the proceedings. While most movies about women in similar professions, from Coyote Ugly to Striptease to the infamous Showgirls always make ridiculous caricatures of the people who choose this kind of lifestyle, Magic Mike at least treats them like real human beings. They’re just not particularly interesting human beings is the problem.

Supposedly, this movie is based on Channing Tatum’s real life as a teenage stripper , although from what I hear that was far more interesting (and not so exclusively hetero. Google that shit.) as this movie portrays. Originally, Drive and Bronson director Nicolas Winding Refn was slated to direct, and I can’t help think we would have gotten something edgier and more interesting than what we ended up with if he had, but also probably a lot less commercial. As it stands now, Magic Mike is only edgy if you’ve never seen a naked man before, which judging from the audience reaction is clearly a lot of people.  Luckily, the naked men in this movie are mostly really hot, so if that sounds like fun for you, by all means check out Magic Mike. And if you can, see it with an audience of horny women, and you’ll probably think the movie is much better than it actually is.

Geekscape Reviews Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

by Eric Diaz

The minute I first saw the trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I thought “this is either going to be the best movie ever made, or the worst.” Well, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter isn’t really quite either… and kind of both. But despite my better judgement, I enjoyed the hell outta this over the top cheese fest of a movie. Based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name, ALVH is just ridiculous, schlocky fun from start to finish. The movie’s tone is painfully serious, which in a way made it all the more campy  fun for me, if that makes any sense. The filmmakers, in going out of their way to play everything so seriously, it just made it all sillier. For me though, this was a good thing.

The movie starts in 1818, when Abe Lincoln is nine years old. His father is working off a debt (we never find out for what) to a cruel slave owner named William Barts,who is beating Abe’s best friend Will Johnson, an African American boy about Abe’s age. The real William Johnson was a free person of color, as they were then called, but the movie suggests that he was a slave that belonged to William Barts. The Lincoln family (minus Abe’s sister Sarah, who seemingly doesn’t exist in this movie) stand up to Barts and defend Will Johnson, and in retaliation Barts kills Nancy Lincoln, Abe’s mother. Abe vows vengeance, and cut to several years later, and our now adult Abe (Benjamin Walker) is ready to do just that. Except Abe doesn’t know that Barts is really a vampire, and has his ass handed to him when he tries to exact his sweet revenge.

Abe is saved by a man named Henry Sturges, played by the always charming Dominic Cooper (Howard Stark in Captain America) a professional vampire hunter. Sturges agrees to train Abe to be a proficient vampire killer, and gives him the low down on vampire history. See, vamps have been coming to America for centuries it seems, and the slave trade has given them an endless supply of disposable humans to use and then feed on. Its actually kind of clever. These vampires have overcome their aversion to sunlight, can turn invisible, and have a serious aversion to silver. There are also some other twists to vampire lore (some which come from actual bits of folklore Hollywood usually ignores) but none are as insulting as sparkling in the sun or anything like that. There are a few other twists and turns that I won’t give away, but none that will surprise anyone who has seen a movie before.

And so begins what amounts to as the main plot of the movie, which follows Abraham Lincoln from young adulthood to President, all the while killing as many vamps as he can on the side. But at least he does so in fun, creatively bloody ways (it should be noted that vampire blood in this movie is black, not red, probably so as much can be spilled as possible while avoiding the dreaded NC-17 rating. A creative solution I’d say) Abe also woos and marries Mary Todd (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in a pretty boring romantic subplot that clearly also bored the director, who only spends as much time on that aspect as he has to, then gets along to some more slo-mo acrobatics and more killing. I’m ok with this. It turns out that vampires are backing the South due to their stance on slavery (remember, endless food supply) The vampire leader is named Adam (Rufus Sewell) and it is implied that he’s not only the oldest bloodsucker in America, but the first vampire period. Sewell does a good enough job, but he’s never quite as bad ass I want him to be. But like a lot of things in this movie, he’s good enough.

Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has only made one other English language film before this one, 2008’s Wanted. Like Wanted, ALVH has tons of slow-mo action scenes, and it is again clear that action, action and more action is all he really cares about. Again, this is not a complaint. Some of the action is spectacular, and some is just exhausting. A lot of the movie is dumb, but fun dumb. Unlike some other movies this summer that are equally dumb, this one doesn’t pretend to be about anything grander. Tim Burton’s a producer on this movie, but I think it is in name only; none of this movie has the Burton feel to it (probably for the best) Having seen not only Wanted, but Bekmambetov’s Russian movies Night Watch and Day Watch, this movie is clearly all him from start to finish.

So much of this movie makes no sense at all– for instance, Abe learns how to be this amazing  killing machine in one quick 80’s style montage scene (I was half expecting some hair metal power chords to kick in)  Abe has no powers to speak of–he’s not super strong like Buffy or half vampire like Blade, so he shouldn’t be able to do or survive half the shit this movie puts him through. Every action scene bends the laws of logic and sometimes even physics. And yet…the ridiculousness of it all just makes the whole thing more enjoyable to me. It just seems everyone involved just wanted to make a B movie with an actual budget, and they succeeded at this. ALVH is almost never boring and always fun, and I just can’t help but think that all the badness was intentional. Benjamin Walker plays Abraham Lincoln with such a straight face, that it actually ends up makes everything more campy….and I kinda dug that. Winking at the camera constantly would have been too easy, doing it this way just made me chuckle more. I should note, there are a few nods to previous vampire films here as well…the vampire’s look when in “kill mode” is to have this giant elongated jaw, kind of like the original Fright Night, and main vampire baddie Adam’s lair is the same plantation where Louis and Lestat lived in Interview with the Vampire (Oak Alley in Louisiana) And the way that vampires avoid sunlight is a lift from the original Blade. None of these tidbits will win most people over, but they put enough of a smile on my face for me to give this flick a few extra brownie points.

Despite the oodles of dumb in this flick, I had a blast watching it. This is the kind of movie where you’re either gonna be on board with it from the get go, or you’re just not. I imagine a lot of people reading this will fall under the “not” category. Right now as I write this review, the Rotten Tomatoes score stands at 32%. But I find so many of these reviews somewhat baffling…one major newspaper says “Oh, what it could have been. The film dances around solid themes: racism, nationhood, the embodiment of evil vs. the spirit of good.” Another even bigger paper’s review says “In general, the movie’s attitude toward recorded history is that of a pimp toward a hooker.” Does anyone really want “solid themes” and a reverent attitude towards history in a movie called Abraham Licoln, Vampire Hunter? I sure as Hell didn’t, I just wanted overly bloody cheestastic fun. Sure, occasionally a silly title holds content with suprisingly more depth (Buffy the Vampire Slayer anyone?) but sometimes it’s okay to just get exactly what you’re expecting, and just enjoy it for what it is. And I did. And if you go in with the right mind set, you might too.

How The 1960’s Batman Television Series Helped Save Batman

by Eric Diaz

If you’re a Batman fan of a certain age, say mid twenties to younger, chances are you pretty much hate the original Batman television series from the 1960’s starring Adam West and Burt Ward, or at least resent the show’s long lasting impact over the character of Batman. But I’m here to tell you why you shouldn’t hate it, and why in fact you should love it, if for no other reason than this: the original Batman show not only helpled save Batman in the comic book world, but it turned him into a global superstar. Aside from that alone being reason enough, there are lots of other long term contributions to the Bat-verse that came from the television series.

Of course, I’m not saying comic book fans haven’t had a lot of reason to resent the 60’s Batman television series over the years. Premiering just a few years after Stan Lee and Marvel Comics began to take comic books to the next level in terms of mature storytelling, the Batman show essentially reinforced the notion that comics were inherently silly and for five year old boys alone. The show was so hugely popular and influential, that its influence still echoes on today; almost any mainstream article in the media about comic books or comic book movies has a reference to the POW! BAM! ZAP! Sound effects of the show, some 45 years after it premiered. As a comic book fan, that annoys the hell outta me, and I look forward to the day when that lazy kind of writing finally stops. We live in a world where Watchmen is considered one of the greatest novels of the past three decades, and where Heath Ledger won an Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker, and still the show’s influence (and notions of comic books being nothing more than “kid’s stuff”) lingers on. I can see how that bugs.

But the truth is, original Batman series was always meant to be a straight up spoof of the comics, and nothing more or less than that. And it turned out to be a brilliant send up at that. In contrast, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered one of the pinnacle achievements in horror fiction, but no one hates on Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein for brilliantly spoofing it.The old Batman show never gets off that easy, because in the case of Batman, the spoof became more well known than the source material. While that can be annoying for fans of the character, all it really means is that the producers, writers and actors just did a really good job. And while the character of Batman was hurt in a lot of ways by the television show,  in the long run he benefited in just as many ways as well.

The Television Series Made Batman An Icon

Batman was an instant success when debuting in comics in 1939, this is true. But for decades, he played definite second fiddle to Superman in terms of global awareness outside of comics. While Superman debuted only a year prior to Batman in 1938, within a year Clark Kent was a global icon, and within two years he had a radio show, a series of highly expensive cartoon shorts, and a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Superman mania was something akin to Harry Potter or Twilight mania today, only bigger. Batman, on the other hand, was merely a very succesful comic book series. If you were a nine year old in 1944, chances are your mother knew who Superman was; less likely she knew who Batman was.

The debut of the Batman television show changed all that forever. Debuting in January 1966, Batman was a pop culture sensation that rivaled Beatlemania at the time. Batman aired twice a week on ABC, and the success was so enormous that a movie was shot and rushed into theaters for the summer of ’66. And then, there was the merch; the success of the show caused an avalanche of Batman related products of all sorts, shapes and sizes, rivaled only by Star Wars a decade later. By the time the show had finally burned itself out in 1968, there wasn’t a person in America who didn’t know what and who Batman and Robin were. It might have taken him twenty five years, but because of the television series Batman was finally on equal footing with Superman in recognizabilty. And he has the silly, campy show to thank for it.

The popularity of the show caused an explosion of Batman merchandise, one that lasted long past the show’s network run was over.

Editor’s note: Both of the above pictures are taken from comedian Ralph Garman’s 60s Batman memorabilia collection. Yeah. Both of them.

There are those who say the Batman television series saved the actual comic books themselves from cancellation. Batman co-creator Bob Kane even was quoted as saying that before the show debuted, DC Comics was considering cancelling Batman outright. Now this I find highly unlikely; from 1960-1965, Batman was  consistently in the top ten comic books sold in the country. While he was selling half of what Superman sold, and no where near what he sold in the 40’s, it seems highly doubtful that DC ever seriously considered trashing their second most well known character. But without a doubt, the the surge of sales caused by the success of the television show made sure that not only would Batman never be cancelled, but that Batman would always keep a prominent presence at DC Comics.

The Show Returned The Original Classic Villains To Prominence

The 1954 publication of anti comics screed Seduction of the Innocent nearly brought down the comic book industry in one giant swoop of 50’s White People Paranoia, and although DC Comics survived (many other smaller publishers did not) they did not survive unscathed. No character was more affected by this book at DC than Batman. Within a year, gone were the great, creepy villains of Batman’s 1940’s heyday; Catwoman was deemed “too sexual” for a children’s book, Two Face too scary for kids, and villains like The Penguin, Riddler and Scarecrow vanished, replaced by kooky looking aliens and mad scientists. The Joker remained as Batman’s #1 nemesis, but instead of the murderous, insane gangster clown, he was transformed into a harmless, lame prankster.

Although the televison series mocked the ultra cheesy, day glow color palette tone of the then current comics of the time, the producers wisely chose to go back to the comic book’s glory days of the 40’s for their villain roster. Around the time of the show’s debut, The Riddler was brought back for the first time since 1948 and became Batman’s (arguably) second biggest nemesis  due to his brilliant portrayal by actor Frank Gorshin. Catwoman was brought back from her twelve year exile for being too sexy (the ultimate example of “slut shaming” in comics) and other old villains like Mr. Freeze were resurrected and given new life. The televison show cemented the notion of these bad guys (particulary the “big four” of Joker, Riddler, Catwoman and Penguin) as the “A List” of Bat rogues, a concept that would carry over into the comics and stay that way from then on. Even characters that never made it onto the series were created in an attempt to get on television; Poison Ivy was created in the comics to be a sexy villainess in the Catwoman mold for the show, but the show was canned before she could ever appear.

Just for returning Catwoman from her 12 years long exile alone, fans should love the original television series.

Ever since the show made the villains as iconic as Batman, the comics themselves have never looked back. By the early 70’s, Batman returned to his grim late 1930’s roots, but the classic villains remained and have stayed around ever since. Because of the 60’s show, it is now impossible to imagine a DC Universe without them.

The TV Show Gave Us Barbara Gordon, Batgirl

Batgirl was another addition to the Batman mythology created for the television series…well, sort of. Batman artist Carmine Infantino had debated creating a new Batgirl for the comics, but wasn’t sure if his bosses would go for it, as no one at DC Editorial was too fond of the lame Batwoman character, a relic of the 1950’s. While visiting the DC Comics offices in 1966, the television series producers saw a sketch of Carmine Infantino’s take on Batgirl on his desk.  Looking for a new female character to add to the show, the producers of the show encouraged DC to go through with making this new Batgirl, pretty much just so they could use her on the television series. Although technically debuting a several months prior to her small screen arrival,  if not for the Batman show, the Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl might have just stayed a sketch on Infantino’s desk. Although Yvonne Craig’s Batgirl only appeared in the final season of Batman, because of her popularity she has remained a staple of DC Comics ever since.

The Fetishization of the Batmobile

Batman has had a Batmobile since the early 1940’s, the show certainly didn’t invent it. But George Barris’ customized 1957 Ford Futura was so iconic and central to the show, that from then on the Batmobile in the comics has become equally fetishized and made important. From the early 40’s to the early 60’s, the design of the Batmobile barely changed at all, and really wasn’t much more than “Batman’s car.” It got him from cave to crime scene, but that’s about it. But after the debut of the tv series, and the focus on the car the show had, the Batmobile in the comics has become a character unto itself, constantly changing and evolving to keep up with the times. The Batmobile has become as much a part of Batman as his utility belt or his Batarangs. And the rocket engine was definitely a creation of the old show, now carried over into most media takes on the Batmobile, from the Tim Burton movie to the Bruce Timm animated series.

The Show’s Legacy

Sine the 1989 debut of Tim Burton’s Batman movie, the campy image of Batman has lessened significantly in the popular culture. The Joel Schumacher movies of the mid 90’s tried to emulate the 60’s television series and failed miserably. You can’t be campy and be taken seriously as a narrative at the same time; the producers of the 60’s show understood this fact pretty well.

Not long ago, Batman character owners Warner Brothers finally settled a decades long dispute with Twentieth Century Fox (creators of the show) and now have the license to merchandise the hell out of the old Batman show and its characters. So coming soon, expect a second tide of 60’s Bat merchandise, with Adam West t shirts, Julie Newmar/Catwoman posters, Yvonne Craig/Batgirl Halloween costumes and who knows what else (hopefully the series itself finally comes out on DVD) With Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy finally cementing Batman as a dark and serious character to even Joe Six Pack in Boise Idaho, maybe it is time for fandom to finally embrace the old Batman show for what it was, and realize how truly significant a part of the Batman legacy it really is.

Coming Soon: The second in a series of three Batman articles from yours truly, leading up to the July debut of The Dark Knight Rises. 

Justice League XXX 3D To Feature Gay Green Lantern Scene

by Eric Diaz

For years now I’ve been seeing announcements for super hero porn parodies ranging from Avengers XXX to Superman XXX to you name it. Of course, they’re all straight porn, so while I don’t judge, as a gay guy, I also kind of don’t care. It seemed like there would never be gay porn super heroes for the likes of me.

Well, according to Bleedingcool.com, this is about to change. Rob Black, director of the recently announced Birds Of Prey XXX, appears to be making baby steps towards just that. Said to be inspired by recent mainstream headlines about Alan Scott being the first gay Green Lantern, Black will feature a gay G.L. in the upcoming Justice League XXX 3D production, played by gay porn star Adam Killian. I have strong suspicion he will be in the Hal Jordan persona and not the Alan Scott one…just call it a hunch. The best part is he is planning a scene with Green Lantern and Nightwing together. Kind of an odd choice (shouldn’t it be Green Lantern’s BFF Flash?) but I’ve always had a thing for Nightwing so I’m OK with this. I usually have zero use for studio porn, but if they start making more gay super hero ones I’ll have to change my tune.

NOT future gay Green Lantern Adam Killian, but I kinda wish it was.

Apparently is this is received well, more will come. It seems strange to me that a gay scene is being shoe horned into a straight porn, but I’ll bet real money that half the guys who buy this and who tell people they’re gonna skip past that scene are gonna watch it very first thing. You know who you are.

Geekscape Comics Reviews: “Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1”

by Eric Diaz

Despite my love of female super heroes, the main super heroine character of Alan Moore’s classic Watchmen, the Silk Spectre, was always the least interesting character to me in that whole series. She is mostly defined by her relationships to lead male characters Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl, as well as to her own mother, the original Silk Spectre. Aside from how she views herself in relation to these other people, we don’t know much more about Laurie Jupiter other than that in the context of the original story. Sadly, she also often comes across as a bit of a whiney harpy at times, and although she was realistic, she wasn’t usually endearing. So I will say this for Darwyn Cooke’s first issue of Before Watchmen: Silk  Spectre; he actually made me actually like Laurie Jupiter for the first time, and he and artist Amanda Conner gave us an overall fun and breezy first issue.

But there also lies the problem with this comic so far; this is part of Watchmen…should it even be breezy and light and fun? More or less enjoyable as it was, Silk Spectre took me all of maybe six minutes to read. With Watchmen, it took six minutes just to digest just a few pages.

The story here is set in 1966, and teenage Laurie Jupiter is being trained by her mother, the original heroine called the Silk Spectre from the forties, to take her place as  her successor. While this is something of a classic comic book trope (and highly reminiscent of Black Canary from the actual DC Universe, on whom Silk Spectre was more or less based on) it never really made sense in the word of Watchmen. To me, the central conceit of Watchmen was always “what if super heroes existed in the real world?” In the real world, people putting on costumes and fighting hoodlums in the streets would either be insane (Rorschach) total sociopaths (the Comedian, and I guess Ozymandias) or be struggling with some serious sexual issues (Nite Owl) Of all these various costumed vigilantes in the original story, the original Silk Spectre seemed among the most sane, more or less, although an attention seeker of the highest order.

So the idea that any sane mother would dress her non super powered teenage daughter up in fishnets and heels, then send her out in the streets to fight crime and probably get killed brutally was maybe the most “comic booky” and unbelievable thing in the original story. In the more whimsical worlds of Marvel and DC you give things like this a pass, but Watchmen was meant to reflect our brutal ugly world, one wear a pair of glasses could never hide anyone’s secret identity. But the whole concept of the mother making her daughter follow in her footsteps was so tangential to the main story of the original series, you just didn’t notice it or give it much thought at how crazy it was. But the first issue of Silk Spectre is ALL about this notion, so it ends up feeling more like a traditional super hero story found in any comic, and not one set in the grittier more realistic world of Watchmen.

In this first issue, Laurie spends her days and nights busting her ass to be a teenage hero and please her mother, to the point where she has no life of her own to speak of. While training one day after school, she meets a handsome, popular boy named Greg, who isn’t threatened by Laurie’s kick ass-ness at all, and in fact seems to be kinda turned on by it. This pisses off the local “Mean Girl” at school, a snotty, prissy bitch named Betty Kensington, who looks like Betty Draper from Mad Men and acts just like Cordelia Chase from Buffy. This new boy also annoys Laurie’s mom, who doesn’t want her daughter distracted by boys, and just wants her to train to be a super hero. And I guess this is my biggest problem with this story…we don’t really know why Sally Jupiter wants her daughter to be crime fighter so badly, as she retired from the costumed hero life early and saw it as a stepping stone to greater fame as an “actress/model.” The motivations for putting her daughter’s life at risk are never really explored. All we get out of her is that the she says the world is filled with killers and rapists, a rather clumsy way of referencing Sally Jupiter’s brutal rape attempt in the original Watchmen book.

After throwing a teenage “I don’t want your life!” tantrum, Laurie runs away from home with her new guy who professes his love for her. He’s dodging the draft (remember, this is the Vietnam era) and Laurie is looking to piss off her mom. So as the issue ends, they are off to San Francisco, in a hippy bus of all things. Of course, readers of the original series know that by at least the end of the sixties, Laurie is committed to the Silk Spectre persona and hooking up with Dr.Manhattan, so I guess the point of this series is just what happens between her and new boyfriend Greg in San Francisco that leads to Laurie making such a huge about face on living the costumed hero life. And while this first issue was by no means bad, I still don’t know if this is a story that was begging to be told.

I will say that the art by Amanda Conner is top notch here, but her overly bubbly and cartoony style feels out of place in the Watchmen universe. There are several cut aways to goofy, cutesy thought bubbles that Laurie has at various stages to describe her feelings, and the whole thing feels kind of off in the greater context of Watchmen. (although some are very funny) Also, the story is very PG-13 rated so far….heck, maybe just PG rated even. Aside from one lewd gesture made by Mean Girl Betty in one panel, this could be any DCU book about the exploits of a teen super hero and her overbearing mom. Hell, it could almost be a super hero book set in the Archie universe. Again, that doesn’t make it a bad comic, it just makes it feel like not a part of Watchmen. And while one might say this book shouldn’t be just like Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ original classic, it has to still feel like it is a part of that world….and so far, this doesn’t.

This whole Before Watchmen business is giving me bad memories of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. By the time Lucas and Spielberg got around to making the fourth Indy movie, twenty years had passed since The Last Crusade, and whole Indiana Jones trilogy had become this revered part of American cinema. Unless they had a really, really good to reason to go back to the well, they should have left well enough alone.  Crystal Skull turned out to not be a good enough reason to taint our memories of Indy, and so far it turns out that Before Watchmen isn’t much different. (and even then you could argue it was the original creators who chose to return to their creation in Indy’s case, not an argument one can make about Before Watchmen)  The original Watchmen has become THE seminal work of comic book super hero fiction. Any follow up with Watchmen in the title needed to be great, not just “good enough”, and so far Silk Spectre just seems good enough.

Why “Days of Future Past” Is A Brilliant Idea For An X-Men Sequel

by Eric Diaz

Yesterday it was revealed that Twentieth Century Fox had registered the name Days of Future Past with the MPAA. While this might turn out to be nothing, I’d say it is pretty significant clue as to what the future holds for an X-Men First Class sequel, now scheduled to come out in Summer 2014. The idea of using Days as a template is a minor stroke of genius on the part of director Matthew Vaughn, and if Days in indeed the inspiration for the new movie, here are some reasons why it is a brilliant move.

The Original Story Is A Classic

The original Days of Future Past story was a two parter that ran in 1980, and closed out Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s legendary run on Uncanny X-Men. Along with The Dark Phoenix Saga, it is considered one of the greatest X-Men stories ever told, and one that has been revisited many a time. The original story deals with a dystopian future, one in which mutants are incarcerated in concentration camps and the city of New York is patrolled by mutant hunting Sentinel robots. An older Kitty Pryde transfers her mind into the younger, present-day Kitty Pryde, who brings the X-Men to prevent a fatal moment in history (in this instance, a political assassination) which triggers anti-mutant hysteria. The story constantly  switches between the past and the present.

One can imagine that if DOFP is used, then certain story elements would be radically altered. A character from the “future” X-Men team would need to have a physical presence in the past as well for the whole mind switch thing to work, and since the “present” scenes are presumably still in the 1960’s era (and since there is no Kitty Pryde character among the First Class kids) my money is on Mystique. With Jennifer Lawrence’s star ascending thanks to the Hunger Games, Fox will no doubt want to expand her role in a sequel. Mystique could be a member of the future X-Men, who (like the original comic) include mutants that are former enemies like Magneto among them, banded together for survival.

Days of Future Past Is A First Class Sequel AND an X4

Fox has been mulling an X4 ever since the end of Last Stand. Sure, most fans hate X3, but it made a gajillion dollars. The only reason that Fox didn’t do another one right away was because everyone’s salary would have had to double to come back, and they didn’t think it was worth it with that many principle players. But the “Future” segments of DOFP could serve as an unofficial X4, although it is likely that only Wolverine (and maybe one other member of the original cast) would still be around.  X3 killed off Cyclops, Jean and Charles Xavier (sorta) and a subsequent mutant Holocaust could get rid of the other dead weight, *cough*HalleBerry*cough*  leaving an older grizzled Wolverine and an “X-Men” team of survivors. This would be a good time to flesh out characters like Colossus and maybe even Angel, characters who just stood around in the last movie with little to no characterization. And unlike Wolverine, no one will care if those other parts are re-cast.

And let’s not pretend the leader of the future team and main returning X-Man will be anyone but Hugh Jackman as Logan; let’s face it, whether you are sick of him or not, Hugh Jackman is THE face of the X-Men franchise.  His presence alone would guarantee more asses in seats. And unlike so many other members of the original X-Men cast, he sems to genuinely love playing Wolverine, and seems happy to continue doing so for as long as he’s able. The idea of an X-Men sequel with rising stars Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender sharing top billing with Hugh Jackman must have Fox salivating right now.

It Ups The Stakes In A Post Avengers World

As far as super hero movies, especially super hero team movies are concerned, the success of Avengers just changed everything. Long gone are the days when a handful of X-Men can have a fight in the gift shop of the Statue of Liberty and people were satisfied with that.  But a dystopian future, where giant robots roam Manhattan fighting mutants? That’s thinking big, and thinking big is what the X-Men franchise will have to do from now on if it wants to compete.

It Frees Future New Films From Bad Continuity

Despite what many fans might think, First Class was not a total reboot; the opening scenes of both the original  X-Men and First Class in the German death camps are identical, not to mention just having Hugh Jackman cameo as Wolverine is letting you know this is the same universe, some minor continuity errors aside. The biggest problem is that the end of First Class contradicts the beginning of X3, where an older Charles Xavier and Magneto are still allies as late as the 1980’s, and Charles is still walking.

In the original DOFP story, the future Kitty Pryde prevents the assassination attempt that was supposed to result in her oppressive future. But upon returning to her own time, she finds it exactly the same, as she discovers you can’t change the past, only create a new, alternate timeline.

If the movie keeps this ending, it serves two purposes. One, it’s a bittersweet ending, because while Kitty (or whoever replaces Kitty in this movie) can’t save her own world, she creates a new world where the atrocities she experienced may not happen.  Second, it frees any remaining First Class sequels from the shackles of continuity; They would now be free to introduce Cyclops without worrying about him going out like a red shirt, or even redo the whole Dark Phoenix saga correctly. Storm could be introduced and not be Halle Berry. It opens up the X-Men universe again without negating the previous movies, and also not worrying about how this matches up with that. This is the same solution JJ Abrams came up with for his Star Trek reboot, and it worked there, it can work just as well in the X-Men world.

Sentinels, Sentinels, Sentinels

Along with Magneto and Dark Phoenix, the Sentinels are among the most iconic adversaries the X-Men ever faced. And yet, they’ve never made it into a movie (no, the cameo in X3 does not count) DOFP creates a perfect opportunity to introduce various types of  Sentinels. Because who the hell doesn’t wanna see the X-Men fight giant robots?

Of course, in the next few days and months, it could be revealed that DOFP isn’t really the basis for the new movie at all, and I’ll feel really silly here.

“Justice League” & “Wonder Woman” Movies Get New Screenwriters Attached

by Eric Diaz

So, the announcement we all knew was coming once Avengers made a billion plus dollars has finally arrived; Warner Brothers has announced that a screenwriter has been hired for a Justice League live action movie, and his name is…. (drumroll)  Will Beall.

Will who? Exactly.

Remember that moment two years ago when Joss Whedon was announced as the writer/director of Avengers, and fandom breathed a collective sigh of relief? Yeah, this is kind of the opposite. Well, maybe not the opposite (that news would be “they’ve hired Brett Ratner”) but certainly not the kind of announcement that would get anyone excited. Will Beall is, according to Variety who broke the story, a “hot” writer, who is attached to Lethal Weapon 5, the remake of Logan’s Run, and the upcoming movie Gangster Squad. Oh, and he’s written a bunch of episodes of Castle. Not a single one of these things is enough to get me, or probably anyone out there, very excited. I find it hard to believe Warners couldn’t find a single creative voice with some geek cred to get for a JLA movie. I can’t help but feel they are cheaping out on what is the most anticipated super hero movie ever after Avengers….the super hero team that inspired ALL super hero teams. Did you learn nothing from Green Lantern Warners?

Also buried in this news story is that Wonder Woman also is picking up steam (no doubt due to the success of Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman) Warners has hired screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, who wrote and directed the 90’s Christian Slater chick flick Bed of Roses for this one. Color me uninspired…. again.

Note to Warner Brothers: You actually OWN a script for a Wonder Woman movie that Joss Whedon wrote; you’ll never get him to direct it now, but you can get someone else to  direct his script and still advertise the movie as “from the man who brought you Avengers.” This isn’t rocket science people. Of course, both movies could turn out great, but with Warner Brothers track record with their DC Comics properties, I’ll be surprised if they ever turn out, period.

“The Exorcist” Being Remade, But For Television

by Eric Diaz

In the world of horror movies, there is William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and then there is everything else. Possibly the most disturbing horror film ever made, it still stands as the only movie of its kind to break out of the usual horror movie niche and become a genuine blockbuster. (adjusted for 2012 dollars, would have made $875 million domestically today) Even a horror buff like me can’t watch it in a dark room alone.  I know there are certain people out there that the movie doesn’t scare, but I usually find them to be the kind of people who don’t understand the difference between being “startled” and being “frightened.” The Exorcist get under your skin and stays there forever; it truly frightens.

So in the creatively bankrupt past decade in Hollywood (for horror films anyway) the one classic film that has remained untouched has remained The Exorcist. Until now. But it looks like it won’t be coming back to the big screen, but to television instead. According to the Vulture,  Sean Durkin, director of the indie movie Martha Marcy May Marlene, is developing The Exorcist into a ten-episode TV series with Roy Lee, the executive producer of The Ring. It seems Durkin’s version of The Exorcist follows the events leading up to a demonic possession and especially the after-effects of how the MacNeil family copes with it.

Since this is only being shopped as a ten episode series, it should be obvious this will end up on cable and not a network. While I usually loathe remakes, especially horror remakes, I see this is as less a shitty cash in from a studio who happens to own a property, and rather a new interpretation of a classic novel in a different medium. Not only can the original film never be topped as another film, no studio would dare make a mainstream film as scandalous and blasphemous as the original again, especially in our current cultural climate. This isn’t the free wheeling, experimental 70’s anymore; the MPAA has become considerably more conservative than they were forty years ago. There is no way that the classic movie would get anything but an NC-17 these days. Meanwhile, most HBO fare is much racier than your average Hollywood movie….the average episode of True Blood would get an NC-17 from the MPAA if it was a movie. Cable has become the new home of “racy” material, in the way movie theaters were in the past.

The Exorcist is currently being shopped around to various networks, and is said to have a lot of interested parties chomping at the bit. I’d guess we might have this new version premiere next year, the 40th Anniversary of the original film.

Which Classic DC Character Will Turn Out To Be Gay This June?

by Eric Diaz

At this past weekend’s Kapow Comic Convention in the UK, DC Editor-In-Chief Dan Didio dropped a pretty big bombshell; a fan asked the question asked at the DC Nation panel about Dan DiDio’s interview with prominent gay magazine The Advocate, specifically over the decision not to change any character’s sexual orientation when restarting the DCU. In the interview, Didio said that they would introduce new LGBT characters instead of switching someone’s orientation, but the fan asked why DC would switch race, size, age, every kind of other feature, but not sexual orientation. Not the company policy  anymore, according to Didio; in fact they are about to reintroduce a previously existing DC character who was previously straight and now will be “one of our most prominent gay characters.”

In fact, since the story broke, DC’s Senior VP Publicity Courtney Simmons has clarified even further: “One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June” Well, now we know he is considered “iconic” and that it is a He and not a She. So who will it be? DC has no shortage of candidates, but as a longtime DC fanboy (and a gay one at that) here are my top ten guesses for who is coming out of the phone booth closet come June:

#10. Vibe

The first Latino member of the Justice League, and also the first member of the Justice League to die in the line of duty. Earthquake powered Paco Ramone was pretty much a racial caricature, breakdancing and speaking in a badly written spanish accent (things like saying “chu” instead of “you” and so forth. It was pretty shameless.)  He was promptly killed off way back in 1986, a mere two years after he was introduced. But now he’s being brought back in the new 52, minus the racism and breakdancing (one would assume) While he seems like a likely candidate, DC has said that that the character would be “iconic”, and just being a Leaguer didn’t help Paco make icon status. So he’s at the very bottom of the list for that reason.

The Detroit version of the JLA was like a weird snapshot of 1984 pop culture; you got the All American bionic athlete (how very '84 Olympic Fever), a Madonna/Cyndi Lauper clone, Tina Turner with powers, and a latino breaker dancer named Vibe. How could this NOT be dated within a couple of years??

#9. Wally West/The Flash

I admit, this one is a long shot, which is why it is way down the list at number nine. And if it turned out to be true I can only imagine how pissed off some longtime fans would be. Wally has been missing in action for over a year now, one of the most iconic DC characters to be MIA since the whole “New 52” reboot. But even my gay ass would be annoyed at bringing back the ultimate hetero family man of the DCU and making him gay for the sake of sales. But since we know that Dan Didio and the guys in charge at DC are hardly above stunts like this to make headlines, anything is possible.

#8. Jimmy Olsen

Making Superman’s best pal a gay guy would make TONS of mainstream headlines, and we know how much DC loves that. But I have a hard time seeing DC giving the ok to this, as every version of this character since 1940 has been heterosexual, especially in other media like movies and television were the majority of the world knows him from the most. Still, something could be made out of the fact that he’s always getting himself into trouble so that a muscular god like male alien in mutli colored spandex can come save him.

#7. Alfred Pennyworth

For decades there have been jokes about how the all male Wayne household is super gay, including Bruce Wayne’s trusty butler Afred. And let’s face it, most upper crust British types come across as gay to most Americans. And DC would probably want to avoid making the de-facto patriarch of the Wayne Household a gay man. But if they did go ahead and make Alfred gay, I doubt many people would drop their jaws in shock about it.

#6. Shazam!/Billy Batson

DC has been making a lot of noise about re-introducing the new Captain Marvel Shazam to their newly rebooted universe in the pages of Justice League. This time, young Billy Batson is a darker, tougher version of his old self (we know he’s tougher…he wears a hoodie now!) DC has been trying to make this character click with modern audiences and failing for decades, as many see him as merely a Superman clone and not much else. But by possibly making Billy Batson a bullied gay teenager who “with one magic word” becomes the ultimate in male power fantasy, well…people might quickly stop making the Superman comparison and Shazam will have finally found his modern “hook.”

#5. Green Lantern/Kyle Rayner

Just having the title of Green Lantern makes Kyle Rayner “iconic” I suppose, so he makes the list. The current DCU main Earth currently has four Green Lanterns, and making one of them gay would help to make him a bit more distinct from the others. Besides, he’s an artist living in Greenwich Village with a bad dating history with women. Screams “closet case” to me.

#4. The Atom/ Ryan Choi

Ryan Choi replaced Ray Palmer as shrinking hero The Atom in the previous continuity, before being killed off like a red shirt on Star Trek. Considering how few Asian super heroes there are in comics, readers made a lot of noise about how poorly DC treated one of their few Asian heroes. So no surprise, Ryan Choi is back alive and kicking as the new Atom once more in the new DCU. But seeing as this character is relatively new, DC knows there is a lot less of a chance of fans making a stink if his sexuality is suddenly switched. But then again…if no one cares, then why bother?

#3. Red Robin/ Tim Drake

There have been jokes for decades about Robin being gay, but most of those jokes have been about original Robin Dick Grayson. Well, clearly those people making those jokes aren’t comic book readers, because if they were they’d know that Dick Grayson is a bit of a pussy hound, with hot superhero chicks like Starfire and Batgirl all on his booty call list.

However, the third Wayne ward to wear the mantle of Robin, Tim Drake (currently going by Red Robin) has had a different history with women. Oh, he’s dated, but most of his relationships with girls seem to go nowhere, and where Dick Grayson was getting’ it on with various women when he was a teen hero, Tim Drake seemed more focused on other things. In the pre-Flashpoint DCU, his biggest obsessive relationship was seemingly with Conner Kent/Superboy, which many fans found to be very telling. Having one of Batman’s teen sidekicks would certainly make a lot of noise in the media, but it also might be a shade to close to the old Seduction of the Innocent “Batman and Robin are gay lovers” hysteria from the 50’s that nearly killed the Batman titles.

#2. Hawkman

I admit, I’m not reading the new Hawkman series (is anyone?) so I don’t know if it has been revealed what his sexuality is yet or not. But really, just look at that leather daddy outfit…the harness, the hairy chest, the muscles…I dunno, maybe the answer was in plain sight all along. Add to that this his former love Hawkwoman is now on another Earth, and well…you do the math.

#1. Green Lantern/ Alan Scott

The new Earth-2 is very different one than the original so far, with the future members of the Justice Society of America being modern day heroes with no ties to World War II. In the recently released issue #1 of Earth-2, it was revealed that the Flash Jay Garrick was in a long term relationship in college with someone named Joan, so that seemingly crosses him off the potential gay list.

But what about Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern? Would DC have the balls to make one of their original icons a gay man? It should be noted that in the old pre-Flashpoint continuity, Alan Scott’s son Obsidian was gay, and he seemingly no longer exists, so maybe by making his former dad gay they are hoping to balance that out. In any event, Marvel got a lot of headlines and sales by making Spider-Man (or a Spider-Man) “Blatino.” While GL isn’t on the level of Spidey, it still says a lot if the first hero to hold the title of Green Lantern at DC was suddenly a gay man.

One strike against Alan Scott being a gay man...red, green, yellow AND purple? Every gay man I know would know better than that.

 

“Green Lantern: Rise of the Red Lanterns” Comes To DVD This August

by Eric Diaz

If you’re one of the many disappointed by Warner Brother’s live action Green Lantern film last year, take comfort; Warner Brothers always finds a way to kick some ass in the animation department, and make up for any live action misfires. Bruce Timm, producer of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Superman and Justice League cartoons gives us everything you wanted out of the Green Lantern movie–aliens, outer space battles, other Lantern Corps–and delivers it in spades in the new Green Lantern: The Animated Series. And now the first half of season one is arriving on DVD this August. Here is the full press release from Warner Brothers Home Video:

WARNER HOME VIDEO POWERS UP GREEN LANTERN: THE ANIMATED SERIES —RISE OF THE RED LANTERNS (SEASON 1 PART 1) 

WITH DVD RELEASE ON AUGUST 28, 2012

Hal Jordan Faces His Ultimate Threat in New Two-Disc DVD Set

Green Lantern: The Animated Series – Rise of the Red Lanterns

(Season 1 Part 1) Includes First 13 Episodes of the Popular Cartoon Network CG-Animated Action Series

BURBANK, CA, (May 15, 2012) – Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps embark on their latest intergalactic missions as Warner Home Video (WHV) releases Green Lantern: The Animated Series — Rise of the Red Lanterns (Season 1 Part 1) on DVD. Based on the adventures of the popular DC Comics super hero, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, currently part of Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block (Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET/PT), is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and animation legend Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series; DC Universe Animated Original Movies). The two-disc DVD set featuring the first 13 episodes of the CG-animated action series will be available on August 28, 2012 for $19.97 SRP.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series — Rise of the Red Lanterns (Season 1 Part 1) follows Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps on a treacherous journey through deep space. As Earth’s Green Lantern, Hal must face down an invasion from the villainous Red Lantern Corps, who will stop at nothing to destroy and silence the Green Lantern Corps forever. Joined by his former drill sergeant Kilowog, and several all-new heroes, Hal brings the cosmic battle against the forces of evil to the far reaches of the galaxy. Equipped with a new squad and new spacecraft, The Inceptor, Hal and the team set out to protect the universe — and the Green Lantern Corps itself!

“Green Lantern: The Animated Series has really taken us into a realm we hadn’t explored before:  our first completely CG-animated series,” enthuses Sam Register, Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs, at Warner Bros. Animation. “Like Teen Titans and Batman: The Animated Series, it’s an incredible, groundbreaking action series, combining the legendary instincts of Emmy®-winning executive producer Bruce Timm and the incredible artistry of WBA’s CG animators. It’s a beautifully rendered, epic space adventure with a scale that’s simply breathtaking.”

“With the release of the live-action movie last summer and the wildly popular Cartoon Network series, Green Lantern mania is at an all-time high,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Vice President of Family and Animation Marketing and Partner Brands. “Warner Bros. Animation is known for creating outstanding animated series, and we are thrilled to be able to bring these new super hero adventures to DVD.”

Executive produced by Sam Register (Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Ben 10), and Bruce Timm, Green Lantern: The Animated Series is produced by Giancarlo Volpe (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Jim Krieg (Ben 10: Alien Swarm). Based upon the popular DC Comics character, the series features the voice talents of Josh Keaton as Hal Jordan, Jason Spisak as Razer, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kilowog and Grey DeLisle as Aya. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Green Lantern: The Animated Series airs Saturdays at 10 a.m. (ET/PT) as part of Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series — Rise of the Red Lanterns (Season 1 Part 1) includes the following episodes:

 1. Beware My Power…Green Lantern’s Light (Part One)

 2. Beware My Power…Green Lantern’s Light (Part Two)

 3. Razer’s Edge

 4. Into the Abyss

 5. Heir Apparent

 6. Lost Planet

 7. Reckoning

 8. Fear Itself

 9. …In Love and War

 10. Regime Change

 11. Flight Club

 12. Invasion

 13. Homecoming

The DVD also includes a four-page preview of the Green Lantern: The Animated Series comic book.

 

The Geekscape Review – Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows”

by Eric Diaz

Dark Shadows is a really weird movie to review. Actually, it is just a really weird movie, period, and for the most part I ended up liking it for that very reason. About 75% of the movie plays more or less like a fairly amusing spoof of the original 1960´s daytime soap opera of the same name, before entering its third act and demanding to be taken seriously as a movie. It is one of the weirdest and most abrupt tonal shifts in a modern mainstream Summer tentpole movie I can remember, and while this is kind of a fatal flaw storytelling wise, it is really hard to hate on a movie that is so strangely endearing up until that point.

For those of you unaware, Dark Shadows was originally a daytime television series which ran from 1966-1971. Initially a gothic soap opera without any supernatural elements, the show was tanking in the ratings, so the producers decided to bring in a vampire character to spice the show up. Actor Jonathan Frid joined the show in 1967 as Barnabas Collins, a 200 year old vampire who oversaw his descendants in the wealthy Collins family. The addition of Barnabas turned the ratings of the show around, and Dark Shadows became a pop culture phenomenon. The show was pretty much a convoluted, campy mess, with actors flubbing lines and the cheap sets sometimes coming apart on live television (forever preserved in syndication) but none of these things stopped the show from being a genuine phenomenon.

The show covered everything; alongside vampires there were witches, werewolves, zombies, time travel and parallel realities. No supernatural stone was left unturned in the show’s five year life span. And while storylines barely made any sense sometimes, that didn’t stop the show from developing a fiercely devoted following of teenagers and kids who ran home from school in time to catch the show. It should be noted that camptastic soap or not, Dark Shadows is the first significant sympathetic portrayal of a vampire in popular culture. Without Barnabas, we wouldn’t have had Anne Rice’s Lestat, Joss Whedon’s Angel, or any of the current crop of lovable sexy vampires that permeate our culture at the moment. In fact, the CW’s Vampire Diaries is pretty much a direct descendant of Dark Shadows, equally convoluted  in terms of storylines, and equally lacking a sense of humor about itself.

One of the kids who grew up obsessed with the series was Johnny Depp, who idolized and imitated Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas as a young child. He eventually secured the rights to the series and got his BFF Tim Burton (who was also a big fan growing up) to direct this big screen remake. What results is a movie that is kind of a hot mess, but one that is almost consistently enjoyable as well. The best way I can describe it is this: This is the kind of movie you know isn’t great (or even really good in any objective sense) but every time it shows up on tv in the future, you likely won’t change the channel and keep watching anyway.

The movie begins with a flashback that shows how Barnabas Collins arrived in America as a young boy from 18th century England, and with his family establishes the town of Colinsport Maine. After spurning the affections of family servant Angelique (a delightfully over the top Eva Green) who it turns out is a powerful witch, she kills Barnabas’ one true love Josette by hypnotizing her to throw herself off a cliff to the ocean below, and in turn curses Barnabas and makes him a vampire. As if being a vampire wasn’t bad enough, she chains him in a coffin and buries him for two centuries. This whole five minute prologue sequence reminds me a lot of one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola’s lavish and overwrought 1992 adaptation. Both movies have the lead character lose their beloved who throws herself off a high precipice to her doom in the prologue, and then then both characters become vampires in unconventional ways. In both movies, the vampire’s long lost loves turn up hundreds of years later, reincarnated and ready to be wooed all over again.

But that’s pretty much where the similarities to Coppola’s Dracula end. As soon as that whole opening sequence is done, the movie just desends into pure camp territory, and that’s actually a good thing. Johnny Depp’s Barnabas wakes up in 1972, and the movie has a ton of fun playing up the whole Rip Van Winkle aspect. Some gags land better than others, but Depp is clearly having a ball in every scene he’s in, and you can tell this whole project is a labor of love for him. He’s having such a blast playing Barnabas it is hard not to have a blast along with him. In fact, most of the cast is having a blast camping it up here too, especially the still gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer as Collins matriarch Elizabeth Collins, and Chloe Moretz (former Hit Girl from Kick-Ass and future Carrie White) as her surly 15 year old daughter Carolyn. Rounding out the cast are Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, the Collins’ drunkard of a  groundskeeper (think Renfield from Dracula) Johnny Lee Miller as Elizabeth’s loser brother Roger, Gulliver McGrath as Roger’s son David, and the obligitory (yet awesome) Helena Bonham Carter as boozy chainsmoking live in shrink Dr. Julia Hoffman.

Arriving just prior to Barnabas’ awakening is Bella Heathcoate as young David Collin’s new nanny Victoria Winters. Heathcoate is problem number one in this movie; unlike seemingly everyone else in the movie, Bella Heathcoate has no idea what movie she’s in, and plays everything straight. Whenever she is onscreen the fun grinds to a halt, and it is no wonder her scenes are so limited. Unfortunately, because her character ends up with so little screen time, her love affair with Barnabas feels forced and uninspired.

Tim Burton continues to pursue an obsession with women who like like the ones in Margaret Keane paintings.

There isn’t much of a plot to Dark Shadows, but what passes for one is Barnabas trying to get the family business prosperous again, and in the meantime destroy his old rival Angelique’s competing business, and her with it. (really, that’s it, that’s the whole plot) But most of the running time is really devoted to Barnabas’ antics adjusting to life in the 70’s. All of these moments (of which there are plenty) makes me wonder just who the target demographic for this movie is; certainly Johnny Depp’s younger Jack Sparrow/Alice in Wonderland fans aren’t going to get much of the jokes that rely on nostalgia on how ridiculous the 70’s were, much less get that most of the movie is a spoof on a show they’ve never even heard of, much less seen. Having seen the movie, it is kind of shocking that Warner Brothers gave this thing the greenlight. But I guess that is the power of Burton and Depp; none can resist them.

At nearly two hours, I’d say for over 90 minutes of that running time the tone of the movie is pretty delighfully campy and frivolous, but it is after that where the problems come in. Once we get to the last act, the movie suddenly wants the audience to start taking this story very seriously, where as before there weren’t really any stakes; the whole thing played like a lark. Without giving too much away, the kitchen sink is thrown in, and the ending almost derails the whole movie for me. But there is just enough fun to be had here to at least recommend this as a matinee, especially if you’re a Burton fan who feels slighted by his more recent output.

There’s a lot of hate these days for Tim Burton, especially online, and it is easy to understand why. In the last decade, Burton hasn’t made a single movie based on an original idea, instead just “re-imagining” old properties. Even his two most well regarded project of the past dozen or so years (Big Fish and Sweeney Todd) are based on pre-existing material. Dark Shadows isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about Burton, but at least this time both Burton and Depp seem to be having more fun together than in Alice in Wonderland, or even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dark Shadows is the eighth big screen pairing of Burton and Depp, and even though I enjoyed a lot of it, I still think these two need a long break from each other. (say, maybe a decade) But if  we all get what we wish for, and Dark Shadows turns out to be their swan song as a team, there could be worse ways to go out than this.

Post Avengers- 12 Easy Steps To An Awesome Justice League Movie

by Eric Diaz

So  The Avengers movie has finally come out, and knocked the socks off pretty much everyone out there, comics fanboy or not. In many ways it has proved to be the ultimate comic book movie, finally realizing in live action what fans have been only reading about and dreaming about for decades. It has raised the bar on what comic book super hero movies are capable of doing.

But without DC Comics’ Justice League, in a way there wouldn’t even BE an Avengers. As legend has it, the first few issues of Justice League of America were selling so well back in 1960, that DC publisher Jack Liebowitz was bragging about to them to rival comics publisher Martin Goodman of Timely Comics one day on the golf course. This caused him to ask his editor in chief Stan Lee to create his own super team to rival the League, and thus the Fantastic Four was born, the first official Marvel Comic. This of course led to the Marvel Universe and ultimately, the Avengers. But none of it would have happened if there had been no Justice League in the first place. In fact, if you see the JLA as merely an extension/re-branding of the original Justice Society of America concept, then they are even more significant as the world’s first super team.

And yet while the past decade of cinema could almost be called “The Marvel Decade,” DC Comics’ parent company Warner Brothers have done next to nothing with their collection of DC heroes to compete with Marvel’s, with the notable exception of Batman. They keep making attempts and then canceling them at the last minute; the last ten years is filled with announcements for movies like David Goyer’s Flash, Joss Whedon’s version of Wonder Woman (all the more heartbreaking after having seen his Avengers) and George Miller’s Justice Leauge. When they finally got around to bringing us a classic DC hero to life, the studio micro managed it till it became a shell of what it should have been. And yes, I’m referring to last year’s Green Lantern.

The thing is,Warner Brothers kind of have to make a Justice League flick at this point. With the incredible critical and financial success of the Avengers, they’d look like utter idiots not to. It isn’t even about the movie itself at this point really; if Warners wants to continue to sell Wonder Woman T-shirts at Urban Outfitters and Flash underwear at Target, then those characters need to be culturally relevant, and that’s not going to happen via comic books, as much as I wish they would. Without big screen exposure, these characters will be seen as only Cartoon Network fodder at best, or relics of a bygone era at worst. And I think Warners knows that they have way too much $$ invested in the future of these characters as licensed properties to let that happen.

In other words, to use vulgar slang, it is time for Warner Brothers to shit or get off the pot.

So from a lifelong DC fanatic, here is a guideline if you will, an open letter for the suits at Warner Brothers who have no idea what they’re doing with the wonderful DC Comics heroic legacy that they own. Here’s your guide to not just a competent, but an awesome Justice League movie, and all in just twelve easy steps.

Step #1:  Don’t Try And Use The Marvel Studios Strategy

We all know, despite whatever the official line from Warner Brothers might have been in the press, that if Green Lantern had been last summer’s Iron Man then they would have been instantly announced a sequel, as well as a Flash movie, etc. leading up to a Justice League team up flick.  With Green Lantern making only $219 worldwide on a supposed $200 million dollar budget, barely eeking out a profit and getting mediocre to downright shitty reviews, I’d say those plans were dashed pretty fast. With the box office disappointment of Green Lantern,  the best  way to do a Justice League film at this point is to simply bite the bullet and just do it. Have a JL movie be the actual launching point to eventual solo films for certain characters, instead of trying to replicate the Marvel Studios method of doing all the solo movies and then building up to one big team up movie. In an ideal world, this would be the proper way to do it, but simply put, Marvel roundly beat them to it.

Also, it is safe to say that audiences are sick of super hero origin stories at this point in the game.  If Green Lantern had hit big, then they could have maybe tried to replicate the Marvel Studios method to some degree of success, but now it will look like a cheaper knock off.  However, if Warners decides to come out of the gate swinging, with a super hero movie that dwarves the scope of every other super hero movie that came before it with a Justice League movie…it could revitalize the entire genre. Or be the genre’s awesome swan song.

Obviously, the one instance where any kind of lead up to JL movie makes sense is the upcoming Man of Steel Superman reboot. The movie is already shot and is hitting theaters next year, and they might as well make Henry Cavill’s version of Superman the one the JL movie uses. It can only help both franchises to be tied in together. But forget about making Flash and Aquaman as lead ins to a JL movie, ‘cause that ship has sailed.

#2.  Hire Brad Bird To Direct, and JJ Abrams To Produce

Getting someone as qualified as Joss Whedon to helm a JLA movie is going to be really, really difficult. Whedon came in with both the comic book fanboy pedigree and just regular ass pedigree pedigree. Where are you going to find that again?

Well, how about Brad Bird? Bird’s The Incredibles was easily one of the best super hero films of, well….ever. After that film came out, many people were hoping Bird might direct a live action Fantastic Four film, but that super team is a bit too similar to the Incredibles in style and tone-the Justice League would be an ideal step up. Aside from his work on The Incredibles, Bird  made the transition smoothly into live action with last year’s amazing Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, easily one of (if not the best) action films last year. So you know he’ll deliver on the much needed big action setpieces. So for my money, Brad Bird is your man.

And to produce this movie, I’d get Bird’s collaborator on MI4, JJ Abrams. Yes, I know he’s a busy man, but he’s always been able to juggle mutlitple projects at once. Besides, the best recent example of the “let’s round up a bunch of misfits together and form a team” movies has got to be JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot. In many ways Star Trek 2009 should be the template for a Justice League film, at least in structure. Abrams also has a knack for ensemble casts as evidenced by shows he produced like Lost and Alias. He and Brad Bird made magic together last year with MI4, let em do it again.

My JL Movie Dream Team: Brad Bird & JJ Abrams

The only thing Brad Bird doesn’t have is Whedon’s intimate knowledge of comic book history, never really having read comics growing up. But that’s where the next step comes in:

#3. Get A Really Talented Fanboy Screenwriter

First off, get a screenwriter or screenwriters who are comic book fanboys, at least somewhat. People who love and have a knowledge of these characters beyond just their value as copyrights to be exploited.  They don’t need to be massive comic book geeks with a closet full of longboxes, but they should have a working knowledge and love for the DCU. (and no, not Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, they can’t write everything geek related) But someone who is well versed in what makes these characters tick and can also crank out a great script, with real drama between the characters and action and humor to match. It is gonna be difficult to find someone to pull off what Joss Whedon just did with Avengers, but it can’t be impossible. (Say, how about Damon Lindelof? Just puttin’ it out there) And whoever Warners finds, make sure they give Joss Whedon a call and take him out to lunch and pick his brain.

#4. Cast The Movie Impeccably

One of the reasons that The Avengers works so well is that everyone was cast to perfection, from Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man down to Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. Another recent example of a perfectly cast ensemble of iconic characters was JJ Abrams’ previously mentioned Star Trek reboot.  Even when the actors didn’t really look like the character they were portraying (Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov for example) they totally captured the spirit of that character.  So please Warners, don’t Halle Berry/Storm or Jessica Alba/Invisible Woman us here. Don’t cast the male leads with guys from the CW, and don’t cast the women based on whoever is hot in the pages of Maxim right now. Everyone needs to be perfect. They don’t need to be big stars, they just need to fit their roles to a T.

#5. Make Darkseid The Villain

For the ultimate DC Universe movie, get the ultimate DC Universe villain: Darkseid. While Loki was a god, Darkseid is THE God…the God of Evil itself. It doesn’t get bigger or badder than that.  Much like Marvel’s The Ultimates was kind of the petri dish for an eventual Avengers movie, it is pretty clear that much of DC’s New 52 reboot in the comics is a similar testing ground for an eventual JLA movie.  Why else make Darkseid the League’s first villain and the reason the team formed? Believe me, at some point when Geoff Johns was writing it, he was thinking about an eventual JL movie.

Although there was a lot to be desired in Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s opening story arc in the new Justice League reboot, the basic premise of the team forming to defeat an invasion from Darkseid and his Parademon minions is a good one. Darkseid  in that story was handled pretty poorly, as he barely spoke and was more like Superman villain Doomsday, so the filmmakers should look to classic Jack Kirby New Gods stories for proper inspiration, or his excellent portrayal in the Bruce Timm’s Superman and Justice League Unlimited animated series.  A live action version of Darkseid should be this generation’s Darth Vader and the Emperor combined. This would also be a great opportunity to bring the classic look of Jack Kirby’s legendary art and design aesthetic  to life, something Marvel failed to do completely with their Fantastic Four movies and only gave a nod to in Thor.

#6. Forget Martian Manhunter, Use Cyborg Instead

-I almost hate to say this, but J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter is maybe just one element too many for a live action JLA movie.  I know, I know…he’s an original founding member of the team, and many say he’s the heart and soul of the League.  And yes, he kind of is. But having said that, there were several years where J’onn wasn’t a member of the team (he left in 1969 and didn’t return till fifteen years later in 1984) and they managed to do OK without him.  But the problem with using J’onn is that so much of who and what he is is already represented on the League by Superman. Superman is the lone survivor of a dead planet who is super strong, flies, has heat vision etc.  Plus, J’onn has the powers of Professor X and Mystique from the X-Men as well…he would kind of dwarf Superman in a movie that should serve to show how Kal-El is the ultimate super hero among super heroes.  I’m all for J’onn showing up in a sequel, but I think he should be benched for movie #1.

As for using Cyborg as a replacement for J’onn? I totally understand DC’s logic in having him replace the Martian on the team in the recently rebooted Justice League comic series. And why add Cyborg to the team? Maybe because when Warner Brothers finally does get around to making a JL flick, there is no way they can get away with making them the “all white people squad,” as that sends a pretty horrible message. And Cyborg/Victor Stone is easily one of the best African American heroes that DC has. If they introduce the concept of Cyborg as a leaguer in the comics first before the movies, and get all fanboys used to the idea, the cries of political correctness will be less due to the fact that it happened in the comics first. Believe me, a potential future JL movie was in the back of Geoff Johns’ head when he made this decision.

#7. Let JL Be Your Batman Reboot

-Warner Brothers has made some noise about rebooting the Batman franchise after Christopher Nolan wraps up his trilogy this summer with The Dark Knight Rises. While it is inevitable that there will be a new Batman film at some point in the future, the Nolan films have so far been so well received on every level that pulling a Spider-Man and rebooting the Bat-verse so soon seems dumb. Especially after creating something so iconic, it would seem like asking for trouble and inevitable comparisons. But including Batman in the League would insure his presence on the big screen in a very different kind of film series, while letting his own franchise get a much needed rest for awhile. Everyone wins.

#8. Use A JL Movie to Redeem Green Lantern

–Despite my trash talking Green Lantern at the top of this article, I don’t think it was nearly as awful as many think…just painfully mediocre. But I liked Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, and think the Green Lantern mythology was pretty darn faithful to the comics (too bad there wasn’t more of it) I’m all for using this version of Green Lantern in a JL movie, even if Reynolds doesn’t come back and is replaced by another actor (we can call it “pulling a Ruffalo on us”) If he proves to be the scene stealer in a JL movie that Hulk was in Avengers, we might see a Green Lantern continuation of some sort spinning out of a JL movie yet.

#9.  Focus Primarily On The Trinity

-While all seven members of the JLA should have ample screen time, you have to focus on the DC “Holy Trinity” of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Because let’s face it, that’s who everyone wants to see interact the most. The dynamic of the three of them, and how they’re each alike and yet very different from one another, has been the basis for some excellent comic book stories over the years.

And as inspiration, I say look to the Galaxy far, far away. While riffing on the template of the original Star Wars seems a bit like the easy way to go, (just ask JJ Abrams, whose Star Trek is essentially a remake of A New Hope) the Luke/Leia/Han dynamic is very much the dynamic of DC’s Trinity; the idealistic farmboy, the feisty princess who can more than take care of herself thank you, and the dickish but charming rogue with a sidekick. And just like Luke and Leia have a sibling relationship, Superman and Wonder Woman are more like brother and sister as well. All her real chemistry is with bad boy Bruce. Really, this is all just writing itself now guys….

#10. ….But Don’t Forget the Other Guys.

-Yes, I just said focus on the “Big Three.” But you can’t just have Green Lantern, Flash and the others just standing there glaring. They need to be able to contribute and have a reason for being there. Look, I never said this would be easy ok??

#11. Focus Not Just On the Similarities to Avengers, But Also The Differences

-Obviously, the League is really, really similar to the Avengers in a lot of ways. But where the Avengers are more like a sports team, the JL are more like a pantheon of Gods. (yes, even Batman in a way. Hades anyone?) The Avengers are at the disposal of the government, or S.H.I.E.L.D, or whatever, but the League is above humanity in a way, either up in space on a satellite or on the friggin’ moon. Yes, there have been incarnations of the team that were based on Earth and worked for the U.N, but you know they are gonna go with the most classic version of the JL here if it gets made, and that’s not the Justice League International.  So sorry, JLI fans. You can bet Hollywood is gonna go with the most classic incarnation of the team, more or less.

“The Justice League is like the pantheon of Greek gods. Hermes made more sense to me as the Flash. Wonder Woman means so much more to me than Hera or Aphrodite. I could make a much quicker connection with the archetype of Zeus in the form of Superman. Aquaman is Poseidon, of course. Batman is Hades, the god of the underworld" -Grant Morrison

The potential fear and adoration the world would have at such a combination of powerful beings together is similar to the love/terror the ancient Greeks had towards their own Gods.  It would be an angle that would be interesting to play up, and one that’s different from The Avengers.  Of course, Avengers did a ton of things right they should just outright copy, but they need to remember how the JL is different from the A- team too.

The Avengers and the League have a lot of similarities, but they need to remember how they're different too.

#12. Go Big…And Don’t Hold Back For Part 2

-One of the best things about the Green Lantern movie was Mark Strong as Sinestro. But instead of giving us any Hal Vs. Sinestro in the movie, they held back for sequel. A sequel that might never come now, squandering such perfect casting. Even if you want a sequel, you can’t be shortchanging the movie that you’re actually doing for  “just in case.” Christopher Nolan could have saved Two Face for a sequel, but at the time of filming  he didn’t even know there would even be one, so he decided to go for broke and use Joker AND Two Face, and we’re all better for it. George Lucas once had this problem with the original Star Wars, as the Death Star wasn’t going to be the big finale till the end of the entire trilogy. Then he realized that there might not ever be another Star Wars movie, and put the Death Star finale at the end of A New Hope, because he knew he needed a big ending.  A lot of folks reading this might think using Darkseid right off the bat is too soon, but I saw worry about part two later…make the best JL movie you can and don’t save anything for later. Worry about later if and when you get there.

So there it is….everything you need to know to get the Justice League the big screen glory they deserve. It is either that, or the only live action League will be this one:

Let’s not let that happen.

“The Avengers” – Eric Diaz’s Geekscape Review

by Eric Diaz

As a little kid growing up in the 80’s, I remember imagining the super heroes I so dearly loved from comics books and Saturday morning television coming to life on the big screen in full live action glory. I’d play with my Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars action figures on the playground at recess and dream up how maybe one day, there might be a Captain America movie, then maybe a kick ass Thor movie, and then everyone would meet up together in one big giant omigod awesome Avengers movie…wouldn’t that be like, totally radical?!?  Then I got older, and middle school and high school hit, and I realized that those fantasies were just playground pipe dreams. There was simply no way this would ever happen. Hollywood was just to lame to ever allow it happen. Hollywood’s idea of a comic book movie was Dick Tracy and Howard the Duck. Well, It took some twenty five years from those playground outings, but The Avengers movie has finally happened. And oh boy, did they ever happen. They happened hard.

Let’s just get the important stuff out the way here; The Avengers is freakin’ awesome. It is everything you could want out of both a Summer blockbuster and a super hero movie.  Marvel Studios’ grand experiment of building an interconnected Marvel “movie-verse” in much the same way as the Marvel comic book universe was built, which began four years ago in Iron Man and culminating with this movie, has payed off in spades. And they really saved the best for last. (well, not “last”– just the end of phase one I guess) Incredible kudos have to go to Marvel Studios for having the vision to pull this one off. They gambled big and the pay off was just as big. If any one of the solo movies for the main cast of Avengers has failed spectacularly, this movie wouldn’t have really worked. Remember, production on The Avengers started before either Thor or Captain America was even released; either of those movies could have tanked. This kind of gutsy, confident move from a studio hasn’t been seen since New Line Cinema greenlit The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And Marvel cast these films perfectly. From Robert Downey to Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans, I know I can’t imagine anyone else playing these parts now.

But good studio choices aside, so much of what makes Avengers work like gangbusters falls squarely on writer/director Joss Whedon’s shoulders. Everything about character, team dynamics, and blending together action and drama and comedy that he learned while working on television series like Buffy, Angel and Firefly is applied to Avengers with the polish of a seasoned film veteran. You’d never know the man had only directed one feature film before when watching this one. In fact, I kind of shudder to think what this movie might have been like under almost anyone but Joss Whedon’s hand; while there are plenty of fanboys out there with an intimate knowledge of super hero comics, there aren’t that many talented writer/directors out there who also happen to be big fanboys. But lucky for us, Joss Whedon is the whole package, which is why he was the ideal man for the job. Aside from just being able to create the structure of this thing and keep it from being unweildy, and getting amazing performances from his ensemble, Whedon knew just what aspects to draw on from the comics, and just what to ignore.

Whedon knew that while some superficial aspects of Mark Millar’s The Ultimates made more sense for the big screen, he couldn’t make the characters as unlikable as they were presented in that book, and chose their original classic Marvel Universe personalities instead.

And not to knock the various Marvel solo films, but under Whedon’s hand almost all the main members come off better here than in their own previous solo movies. Captain America is the ultimate military leader here, something we only glimpsed towards the second half of his own movie. Thor is the fully powered God of Thunder from the moment he steps into frame in this one, a bigger bad ass than he was in the entirety of his own film, where he spent so much of the running time de-powered. And Black Widow is far, far more interesting and developed under Whedon. Her introduction scene alone in this movie is better than her whole role in Iron Man 2. I should have known uber feminist Joss Whedon would not have let her merely be just “the chick” on the team. Even Robert Downey Jr. is better here as Tony Stark than he was in much of the second Iron Man movie. And Mark Ruffalo’s take on the Hulk might be the best thing in the whole movie, period. And I’ve never been a particularly big Hulk fan, so that’s saying something coming from me.

Every single character in the Avengers has their moment to shine (or several.) This isn’t like X-Men The Last Stand, where characters like Angel and Colossus are introduced just to stand around and do nothing. Every single member of the Avengers has something to do here, has something to contribute to the team, not just in action scenes but in dialogue scenes as well.  And unlike so many so called “popcorn” movies, some of the best parts of Avengers is just dialogue and performances. I can’t stress enough how different that makes this movie from the current crop of summer action blockbusters, most notoriously the Transformers franchise.

As for that the movie is actually about, well…the plot of this movie isn’t complicated; if you’ve seen the trailers (and since you’re reading Geekscape, chances are you’ve seen it like a dozen times already) then you pretty much know the plot: Loki is evil, wants to use the Tessaract (also known as the Cosmic Cube ) and subjugate the Earth with his Alien army. Super Heroes are gathered to stop him. There’s your plot. There are no Dark Knight style “plans within plans” like with the Joker. This movie isn’t trying to say anything about society at large. Avengers is a classic straightforward Summer popcorn movie. But this movie reminds us that straightforward can be great too; it’s not like the plots to Raiders of the Lost Ark or Jaws were particularly complex, they were just incredibly well executed and had great acting, characters and action set pieces, all things this movie has in great abundance. To tell you anymore, about specific story and character beats would just ruin the movie for you, and I don’t wanna do that. Just trust me when I say they’re great. Especially the last act. And unlike so many movies where the trailer gave everything away…let’s just say that’s not this movie.

Much of the basic plot comes straight out of Avengers #1 back in 1963

If there are any minor quibbles I have with The Avengers, they’re just that—quibbles. I wish that Alan Silvestri’s score was a lot better. I so wish it contained a memorable theme like Indiana Jones or Superman or even Tim Burton’s Batman. Like most of the Marvel Studios film scores, it merely gets the job done. I also wish Hawkeye was more developed as a character, something the plot mechanations kept him from really being for most of the movie. And finally, I guess I sort of wish that Avengers could have stood on its own more as a film, without needing to have seen the solo films for Iron Man, Thor and Captain America first. I’d be outright lying if I said that this movie wouldn’t be confusing for newbies without having done their homework first. But that’s not really a knock on the film; even The Empire Stikes Back doesn’t make sense without having seen Star Wars first, and that doesn’t keep Empire from being brilliant. Oh, and not once does anyone shout out “Avengers, Assemble!” I mean, how could they forget to do that? But when that’s almost your worst complaint, I think the movie is doing pretty ok.

For comic book fans, The Avengers is literally a dream come true. For non comic book fans, who remember when summer action blockbusters were good and not just big and loud and stupid, it is just as much a dream come true in its own way. The Avengers has raised the bar for comic book super hero movies for all time—I’m not sure that introducing a movie with this just one super hero fighting just one super villain is going to be enough anymore after this movie comes out, I can’t help but feel something like that will seem like slim pickings from now on.

I recently found an old issue of the now defunct Wizard magazine from 2005 in one of my comic book longboxes; in it there was an article called “55 Comic Book Movie Things We Can’t Wait To See.”  Interestingly, #5 on that list was a Joss Whedon directed super hero movie, and entry #34 was seeing an Avengers movie come to life. On the notion of a potential Avengers movie, the article stated  “Marvel zombies will know that moment has arrived, when Captain America , Thor and Iron Man stand tall on the silver screen, rallied to battle—we’re getting superpowered chills just thinking about it.”  Well, seven years later, I know I got superpowered chills seeing it, and unless you just plain hate fun, chances are so will you.

Sam Raimi To Produce Remake Of “Poltergeist” For MGM

by Eric Diaz

MGM has hired Evil Dead and Spider-Man trilogy helmer Sam Raimi to produce the remake of the classic Steven Spielberg/Tobe Hooper 80’s horror film Poltergeist according to the Hollywood Reporter, along with producing partners Nathan Kahane, Roy Lee, and Robert Tapert. Raimi won’t direct for certain, as he is knee deep in post production for Oz, the Great and Powerful for Disney,but will be the deciding hand on who takes the reins. This news comes quickly on the heels of MGM announcing Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore as the leads in the remake of Carrie.

Ya know, I used to get pissed off every time one of my favorite horror films from the 70’s and 80’s got remade. Over the past decade I’ve seen Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Amityville, you name it, all get remade in shitty overly glossy studio films that frighten no one except a whole generation of kids who don’t know the difference between being startled and being genuinely frightened.  And just a few years later, no one is talking about the remakes. They came and went, and the classic films remain. It is the classic films that get marathons on AMC and the like in October, while the new versions end up in the discount bin at Wal Mart. So go ahead MGM, remake Poltergeist, remake Carrie. They’ll either turn out interesting or future landfill fodder that no one talks about.

This scene scarred a generation of moviegoers...can Raimi's remake do the same?

Twentieth Century Fox Teases Fans At Cinemacon 2012

by Eric Diaz

For years, Twentieth Century Fox has been the studio fanboys love to hate; from slowly killing the Alien franchise with bad sequel after bad sequel, to their treatment of their Marvel properties, let’s just say that Fox chairman Tom Rothman has a bad reputation with the geek crowd. But last summer that started to change, when both X-Men First Class and Rise of the Planet of the Apes actually ended up being….really good. And now Prometheus looks to be a legitimate sci fi movie and not just another cheap cash in like AVP. Has Rothman seen the light? In any event, people are excited about Fox genre fare for the first time in a long time. At this year’s Cinemacon in Las Vegas, several websites got the chance to quiz Rothman on several genre movies, and here are some of the tidbits that they got:

According to MTV News, who spoke to Rothman, the sequel to X-Men: First Class will begin shooting early next year; “We’re going to start shooting January 2013 for a release date of either Christmas 2013, or Summer 2014, The script is in development now. Matt, Simon Kinberg and Jane Goldman are working on it now.” In other mutant news, The Wolverine is still set in Japan and based on the famous Chris Claremont/Frank Miller mini series from the 80’s. Studio work is going to be done in Australia, but location shooting is going to be in Japan. Rothman admits to the mistakes on the last Wolverine movie, and indicates that they’re “listening to the fans” this time.  “I can just tell you on behalf of (Hugh Jackman) his goal is to make the ultimate, bad ass, berserker rage Wolverine” Also, it looks like the rumors of Chronicle director Josh Trank taking on the Fantastic Four reboot are true, as he has been brought in to develop the new FF movie: And speaking of Chronicle, that might be getting a sequel too, although Rothman said they “won’t just make a sequel to make one; the story needs to be there, one that maintains the honesty and integrity of the original.” 

In terms of the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rothman said (in speaking with Collider) “That’s very much on the tracks.  We’re developing a script.  Rupert Wyatt, who directed the first one, will direct the second one.  We’re pushing forward aggressively, so the script’s being written now… but the goal for us would be summer of 2014, if that’s possible.

And finally, for those excited about the fifth Die Hard movie, A Good Day to Die Hard, here’s what Rothman  had to say about this one: “John McClane, the ultimate American hero, goes to Russia.  So talk about a fish out of water, he’s completely out of water….It’s really a father-son story, which is that John McClane’s been a great cop his whole life but he’s been a pretty lousy father.  He has a grown son who he’s not really been in much touch with, and McClane thinks the son’s a fuck up—that’s a technical term. So he goes to Russia, he thinks, to bail his son out of jail, and it turns out the son’s not a fuck up, he’s the antithesis of that.  In fact, the apple has not fallen far from the tree, the apple has not fallen from the tree, which is that the son is a badder ass John McClane than John McClane.” Sounds to me like they are setting up Willis free Die Hard 6 with Jr. McClane.

Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book” Winds Up At Disney

by Eric Diaz

Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel The Graveyard Book has been in some form of development since the book came out in 2008. The Graveyard Book is a riff on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, but instead of being raised by animals, in this instance the infant boy (here named Nobody) whose parents are murdered is raised in a cemetery by the ghosts and vampire who reside there. Back in 2010, director Neil Jordan, himself no stranger to gothic fiction as the director of Interview with the Vampire and The Company of Wolves, came on board to direct, but the deal fell through and has been in limbo ever since.

So here comes Disney to the rescue. According to Deadline, the Mouse beat out several suitors for the rights to the novel for a six figure deal. What isn’t clear is whether or not Neil Jordan is still in the mix. All that is known is that Disney production chief Sean Bailey is making this a priority for the studio. Anyone else see a stop motion adaptation like the one we got for Gaiman’s Coraline for this story too?