#stop talking like someone who thinks Marvel movies are modern masterpieces

[citizen-zero]

It’s amazing how even after doing any amount of Googling they still manage to come up with a take that completely misses the themes of the story, yet somehow also manages to encapsulate the themes perfectly.

goodreads reviewers aren't human

[cravingmarvel]

Once Upon A Time: Part One - The Invitation

Sebastian Stan Au

Sebastian Stan x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 1231

Summary: When Laura Blake receives a letter from her old friend Sofie Stan in New York, she doesn’t think much of it. Until the contents reveal that Sofie would like her son Sebastian Stan to marry Laura’s oldest daughter Hannah. Laura and Hannah couldn’t be more happy about the offer and decide to take you with them to New York, without mentioning a word about the engagement.On a stroll around Manhattan, you accidentally meet Sebastian and, without a doubt, accidentally fall for him too. 

But, can Sebastian go against his mother’s wishes? And what about Hannah, who has already fallen for the wealthy bachelor?

A/N: Here we go again! This is a story I’ve wanted to write for a long long time now, but I didn’t know how I should write it. Basically, this story is heavily based on the german classic Sissi! I’ve loved the movies since I can remember, but ever since discovering marvel, I imagined that story just a little bit more modern and of course with Sebastian! Some of you might not know the masterpiece that is the sissi trilogy so I wanted to bring the story to you, wrapped up in a modern AU! I hope you enjoy this story just as much as I love the movie! 

Enough said! Enjoy!!

Tagging my loves once again:  @starksparker​ @arawynn​ @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan​ @moonbeambucky​ @sgtjbuccky​ @jaamesbbarnes​ @buckybarneshairpullingkink​ @buckyforbreakfast​ @v-2bucky​ @buckisthatyou​ @hearttoearth​ @denisgurianov34​ @samingtonwilson​

Laura and Ben sat down at the table where an arrangement of different types of food were neatly laid out for breakfast, the two of them each taking something they desired this morning. As usual, Bed couldn’t help but to eat with his hands which set Laura off on a ramble about why he shouldn’t. “Why did I even get cutlery if no one except Hannah and I use it? You know Y/n has always been like you, but I want her to still be well mannered!” She sighted as Ben started to laugh. “Oh dear, you know that Y/n will always be a little bit freer spirited than you would like her to be, but that’s just how she is.” Laura couldn’t argue with that. Even though Y/n wasn’t as much of the lady that Hannah was, she could never stand in her way.

“Where are the two anyway?” Ben spoke, food still in his mouth. “Y/n is out with the dog and Hannah is studying in her room for her French exam.” Laura looked at Ben a little disgusted by the food around his mouth, but still smiling shaking her head. All though he wasn’t the most gentleman- like, he was still the love of her life and carried her on his hands wherever she wanted to go without question.

As barking erupted from outside the house, both running out, Y/n could be seen running alongside the dog. Laura, afraid that she might fall and ruin her new pants, partly hid behind her husband. “MAKE HIM JUMP OVER THE FENCE” Ben shouted while Laura hit his arm. “No!” But Y/n did what her dad told her and instructed for the dog to jump the fence. Both of them laughing and congratulating the dog on his jump, Laura went inside holding a hand on her forehead.

“He was so well behaved today, dad.” She told him as she removed the leash from the dog. “How about we go into the city today to get new Records?” Y/n couldn’t hold her excitement and hugged her dad.

Laura stood in the living room a letter in her hands. She opened it and read it while pacing around the room, coming to a stop suddenly. “HANNAH, COME HERE.” Laura shouted and immediately heard footsteps. Hannah entered the room a little concerned, but that was washed away as soon as she saw her mother smiling brightly from ear to ear. Hannah, the oldest of Laura and Bens two daughters, looked just like her mother. Long chestnut hair, blue crystal-like eyes and her posture graceful like her mothers.

“Hannah, I have just received a letter from an old friend in New York.” She held the letter close to her heart. “We’ve been invited to her son’s birthday, Sebastian.” Hannah couldn’t quite understand her mother’s excitement but was distracted by Y/n yelling from outside. “Mom!” Laura went over to the window, opened it and saw her youngest daughter standing outside smiling brightly. “What is it?”

“Dad and I are going into the city to buy new records and I wanted to ask if Hannah wanted to come with us?” Laura sighted. “No, she can’t right now, but have fun.” A little disappointed, Y/n turned and walked to the car.

Bringing her attention back to Hannah, she smiled with tears in her eyes. “My dear, Sofie, my friend has asked me, if you would be willing to get engaged with her son, Sebastian.” Hannah, visibly shocked, was unsure. “But when we last saw each other, he didn’t pay me much attention.” Laura took her daughters hand and guided her to the couch. “Yes, but you were only children back then. And the Stans are the wealthiest families in New York. Sebastian is one of the most desired bachelors in Manhattan and there is a reason why Sofie wants you to be the one to marry her only son. Oh, how lucky you are. But don’t mention anything to your father. It’s all a secret as of now.”

Hannah nodded. “But isn’t it a little suspicious if only us two are going to New York?” Laura thought for a while. “Yes, you’re right. Listen, let’s take Y/n with us too so that it seems like any other travel. Ben doesn’t like Sofie anyway, so we don’t have to worry about him.”

Sofie entered the library of the house, seeing Sebastian sitting on one of the reading chairs, immersed into another world. “Sebastian? I would like to talk to you.” Gracefully, Sofie sat opposite her son who has grown into a charming young man over the past few years. “You know that in our circle, marrying the right person is not just about choosing one you like. It could make or break our reputation, right?” Sebastian, now more focused about what his mom had to say, than the book, sat up straight and nodded his head. “And I don’t want you to make the wrong decision, one which you might regret later on.”

“Mom, I know that, but I don’t think getting married is one of the things I want to do right now.” He knitted his eyebrows together, unsure of where this conversation is going. “Maybe, but you’re at the right age, Sebastian and a lot of woman have expressed their interest, but you haven’t made a move. So, I took it upon myself to find someone suitable for you instead.” Sofie smiled brightly knowing that her decision was the finest she could have made. “But mom, don’t you think I should have a say in who I marry or not?”

“Well yes, but trust me, the woman I have chosen is everything you could ask for.” Sebastian still unconvinced that this was right for him questioned his mother even further. “The only problem is, is that I don’t know her.”

“But you do! You met her years ago in Italy. It’s my old friend’s daughter Hannah.” He thought for a while and a few memories came flooding back, just none of Hannah, only her father Ben. “You mean Ben’s daughter?” A smile crept its way across his face at the memory. “Yes, that’s the only downside of it.”

But it wasn’t for him though. He really liked Ben and thought fondly of him.

All the Blake family sat in the living room, each to their own occupation. “We’ve been invited to Sebastian’s birthday.” Laura said to her husband, who in turn scrunched his nose. “He’s the son of Sofie, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is.” She smiled at Hannah who lifted her head as Sebastian’s name came up. “Don’t worry you don’t have to come. But Y/n, you’re coming with us.” Y/n peeled her eyes away from the television and looked at her mother. “I’m going to New York?” Her eyes sparkled at the thought of her favourite city which she hasn’t been to in a long time. “Is Chris going to be there too?”

“Of course, he wouldn’t wan to miss his best friend’s birthday! Do you still have the necklace he gave you in Italy?” Y/n thought for a while. “Oh, I’ll have to look for it.” Hannah and Laura shook their heads at Y/n’s ways of losing things. “When are we leaving, mom?”

“Tomorrow morning. So, you better find it tonight.” Y/n wasted no time and got up to pack her things, including the necklace.

[televisor-reviews]

Top 10 WORST Movies Of 2018!

As everyone is talking about their favorite and least favorite films of last year, I’d much rather take a look at what came out two years ago! This is what I do every New Year, get used to it. And keep in mind that I haven’t seen every film from 2018, so as bad as I’m sure Sherlock Gnomes and Pacific Rim: Uprising are, I haven’t gotten around to them. If you’d like a list of every film I have seen, I have them listed on my Letterboxd: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1HnDnQ4ibO82ryM9lOCGgw1FZhVLdC4SZ

#10. Fifty Shades Freed On my 2015 list, I didn’t even bother putting Fifty Shades Of Grey on it because I thought it was absolutely hilarious! On my 2017 list, I placed Fifty Shades Darker at the very top for its lack of even the basics of what makes a decent flick, notably there being no real plot. So I guess I’m meeting this franchise in the middle by putting Fifty Shades Freed at the tenth spot for just how batshit this movie is. Shit kinda just happens randomly with little to no reason while also not being funny in the slightest. In fact, large segments of the film is kinda boring, particularly the sex scenes in which there are so many that by the 20th time, you’d just get used to it like a jump scare in Winchester. Really, the biggest reason this is only at #10 is because Fifty Shades Freed has Freed us all from this series, assuming that a film adaptation of Grey isn’t made. And that’s the greatest compliment I’ve ever given to one of these movies. #9. A Wrinkle In Time I once heard someone justify Disney’s live action remakes by saying they help fund their more unique film escapades like Nutcracker And The Four Realms (which barely didn’t make the list). The problem with that is that I don’t want those ether! And considering how Solo and The Rise Of Skywalker turned out, maybe Disney’s live action department should just stick with Marvel movies. Honestly, I don’t completely remember why I left the theater after seeing A Wrinkle In Time so angry, like legitimately pissed off. I remember the girl who looks like one of the Mean Girls being treated like a member of the Losers Club, how terrible the child acting was, how even worse the adult acting was, how annoying everybody who wasn’t Chris Pine was, and how that little kid was named Charles Wallace because the characters said it at least a million times! Considering how angry I am just writing about it, I’m guessing it was a combination of all of those elements being wrapped up with a pretentious bow. Honestly, A Wrinkle In Time was a humongous waste of my time. #8. Show Dogs It’s a bad sign when the movie starring Bojack Horseman yelling at Ludacris dog is only at #8 on my list. The big reason for that is because this is so terrible that I had to break down laughing at times. Not because Show Dogs is genuinely or ironically funny, it’s just so batshit insane that I had to laugh. Almost like a defense reflex: like if I wasn’t laughing, I’d end up jumping off the roof. The plot is crazy, the acting is crazy, the whole fucking idea is crazy! I’d like you to stop and imagine Will Arnett with the straightest face possible yelling at a dog voiced by Ludacris that nobody can actually hear in the middle of a very serious police station about the dog fucking up an undercover job and somehow not laughing your ass off. That is what it was like watching Show Dogs. You’re welcome. #7. Slender Man I think people really downgrade how good horror has been lately. I know that in a world of Insidious: The Last Key and Truth Or Dare, it’s easy to be pessimistic. And I think people also dismiss the greatness the internet has had on modern pop culture. Considering how bad things like Daphne And Velma and Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle are, I kinda get it. In reality, these tend to be the outliers among a lot of greatness, but after seeing Slender Man, I’m starting to think similarly. I was one of the only people who was actually excited about this movie because I’m young enough to remember a time when Slender Man: The Eight Pages was the scariest thing in the world and after seeing how well Hollywood treated the character in Beware The Slender Man, I was really hopeful. Little did I know that Madhouse Entertainment had one of the least interesting and least scary horror movies I’ve ever seen with boring characters, a monster that’s barely in the movie, and a script that’s closer to Rings than it is to its source material. I really hope this’ll go the way of Ouija and Annabelle and end up having a really good followup or else Slender Man will be a huge blot on the legitimacy of the internet. #6. Snake Outta Compton I’m gonna be straight with y’all, I have been doing a pretty bad job at keeping up with horror B-movies lately. I mean, I did watch The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time and Leprechaun Returns but those were mostly just mediocre, even within the context of the rest of their franchises. So when I saw the title Snake Outta Compton, I knew I had to watch it expecting something really stupid and funny as all hell. Instead I got a boring and uninteresting barely even an attempt at cinema. I really hated this film, it’s just such a boringly dull film where little to nothing ever happens and I hated every dumb second of it. The terrible rapping, the awful effects, the horrendous acting, everything in snake Outta Compton sucks and I hate it. #5. Norm Of The North: Keys To The Kingdom Remember that god awful polar bear movie starring Rob Schneider from a few years ago… yeah, they made four of those. Normal people would say the first Norm Of The North was the absolute bottom of the barrel, I say “No!… It’s Norm Of The North: Keys To The Kingdom,” and even more suicidal people would probably say it’s Norm Of The North: King Sized Adventure. If you thought the animation in the original was bad, you’ve seen nothing! This is so bad that I’m not even sure it should be considered animation! This is so bad that it makes Duck Duck Goose look like The Grinch! This is so bad that they couldn’t even get Rob Schneider back! The plot, it’s like this is one of those straight to DVD Disney sequels that were made up of episodes of conceled TV shows except why would anyone try to make Norm Of the FUCKING North into a TV show! But apparently it made money considering how (and I’ll repeat this again) there are four of these! Maybe the immense failure of Arctic Dogs will stop Entertainment Studios from making any more. #4. The Thinning: New World Order Speaking of sequels that’ll make the originals look like masterpieces, we’ve got Logan Paul’s magnum opus, coming straight outta that Japanese suicide forest. A film that tells you that a country made up of the smartest 95% of citizens are stupid enough to not catch on to the pretty obvious government plan going on in this universe. Even more so, apparently presidents to be are allowed to just make major laws that’ll arrest about 50% of the population before being sworn in as president. But even more so, I’m to believe that Logan Paul of all people is smart enough to escape these poorly conceived concentration camps. This is a key example of suspension of disbelief gone too far. I don’t believe for a second that this world actually could exist. And I want everyone reading this to remember The Thinning: New World Order after seeing what I put at number one that even liberals can make terrible movies too! #3. The 15:17 To Paris No shit, this is easily the worst movie I’ve ever seen in theaters. No joke, no sarcasm, the Clint Eastwood trainwreck that is The 15:17 To Paris is by far one of the worst movies of the decade… and it’s only at #3 on my bottom 10 of the year. Let me explain. Where the absolute bottom of the barrels of the year are total slogs that I wouldn’t be able to stand watching again, this is actually really fun to watch. Immediately after seeing it in theaters, I wanted to see it again just to make sure it wasn’t a fever dream. In every conversation I have, I recommend this movie because it has to be seen to be believed. Of all the films on this list, this is the only one I’d actually recommend to people. No other film has the balls to portray three normies with ADD talking as boringly as possible taking selfies in Venice for 30 minutes for no goddamn reason. In no other movie will you see a bunch of comedians try and do serious roles that they had no right being casted in. When I went back to school and brought this up with my film nerd friends, every one of them had a different story of watching this. My god, please watch The 15:17 To Paris so that we can convince Clint Eastwood into making The 15:18 To Paris. #2. Gotti Let me tell ya, Gotti is one of the wurst felms ya’ll evar see! Who in da hell convinced John Travolta that he culd do serious roles! But in all seriousness, this movie sucks. I’m not super familiar with the story of John Gotti, and by that I mean I’ve never even heard the name before seeing this film. And I’m pretty sure that to even get what’s going on in this, you’d have to see a 3 hour documentary on the guy beforehand or else you’d be incredibly confused the entire time because I know I was! Don’t even ask me what happens in Gotti because I have no clue. It goes all over the place with different characters doing different things at different points in time and eventually, I stopped paying attention! I do remember that there were about 20 characters named “John,” John Gotti only kills one guy though I’m pretty sure that as a mob boss he’d kill more, and I have no idea how this mafia makes money. Oh, and this convicted feline is apparently also Jesus Christ. I’ll tells yas, ya can live 100 yeers an neva see a moovy as bad as Gotti. Before we get to #1, let’s do some runners up!

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom I wanted so bad to put this on the list because as a pretty big Jurassic Park fan, I can fairly say that Fallen Kingdom is easily the worst film in the franchise. If only because of that dumb ass twist at the end with that kid I kinda forgot even existed. Or just for those annoying ass comedic reliefs that are consistently useless. Or just because on a base filmmaking level, this movie sucks. Hurricane Bianca: From Russia With Hate Listen, I’m openly and proudly bisexual, so I get how important it is to get good representation out there in the film industry. And I also get why a lot of the Ru Paul: Drag Race fandom has latched onto this series. But Jesus Christ guys, drag queens can do better and they deserve better. From Russia With Hate is definitely a step in the right direction with it being way more interesting and fun than the first Hurricane Bianca… but come on guys! These aren’t good movies! Just watch more Drag Race, it’s much better. The Happytime Murders Disney, please let Muppets Now be good! The puppetry artform deserves better than this garbage! The Happytime Murders is a movie in which half the jokes is that a puppet is jizzing a lot. Honestly, my biggest beef with this film is that it doesn’t even get to the heart of what people love about the Jim Henson style of puppetry, notably the fun. Look at most of the cast, they are very humanoid compared to Kermit The Frog or Fozzy Bear. This movie is, first and foremost, not fun. Bob Lazar: Area 51 And Flying Saucers This is my nomination for worst documentary of the year. It’s just annoying to me that this guy can get away with lying to so many people without any repercussions. In fact, he gets this whole documentary that’s basically sucking his dick the entire time! I went in expecting something along the lines of Behind The Curve, a doc that takes an even stance at looking at its crazy subject matter but in a respectful way. In reality, Area 51 And Flying Saucers isn’t even in the slightest being totally on Bob Lazar’s side without questioning his all knowing wisdom for a second and is n’t respectful in the slightest for the intelligence of its viewers! Fuck this doc! A Simple Favor This is my nomination for best worst movie of the year. A Simple Favor is a crazy film with a cast and crew taking it weirdly seriously for a comedy, all with super monotone voices. None of the actual jokes are genuinely funny but lots of them are ironically hilarious. Granted I was very high while watching this, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s the best state of mind to be in while watching it! And did I mention how nobody acts during this but rather just say their lines monotonely! Loved it! God’s Not Dead: A Light In Darkness This was the year Christian propaganda got boring. I was so excited when I went to see I Can Only Imagine in theaters as my first theatrical Christian film experience only to be totally disappointed when it turned out to be pretty dull. Even more so when, later on in the year, the newest installment in the world famous God’s Not Dead franchise, the same one that first brought upon this new age of Christian based filmmaking that’s brought me so much joy before, turned out to be similarly dull. There was a split moment when a character states, “Jesus Christ was the original social justice warrior,” when I was brought back to life with its own stupidity, but it turned out to be fleeting. Not outrageous enough to be put on the list, but too outrageous to be any good. So this is how God’s Not Dead ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper. The Meg And speaking of boring, The Meg has to be the most boring shark movie ever made. A film that feels like it lasts for days and in which no real stakes feel like are in play. This has got to be the most boring and dull and uninteresting and BORING movie of the year! And considering how boring of a year it was for film, that’s saying a goddamn lot! Mary Poppins Returns I feel like I went through an arc of my own while watching this. I went from, “this isn’t bad,” to, “okay, this is a little too much like the original,” to, “why the fuck am I watching this?” Mary Poppins Returns feels like one of the Disney live action remakes because it’s basically just a shittier version of the original with absolutely no good reason to exist let alone to watch, especially compared to said original. And the climax makes absolutely no sense with the logic of the film universe; she can literally fly! And by god, does this feel like anything but Mary Poppins. Blockers Listen, I get that this film is sex positive and that’s a really great thing and all the actors are really trying their best. But it is all in vain for this film with a really unfunny script and that’s kinda important for a comedy. Sometimes Blockers can get a chuckle out of me because of how over the top it can get at times but those are just outliers in a mostly mediocre movie that got built up too much because of how much positivity is in this. Proud Mary Proud Mary is the perfect example of a film in which just because someone can do it well, doesn’t mean everyone can. Ever since Quentin Tarantino has been making movies like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, throw back action films have been really cool to see. Then, all of a sudden, the director of London Has Fallen had to come around and remind everyone that they can’t all be winners. Mostly dull dialogue between characters I don’t care about waiting for the action that isn’t even all that good. I was really hopeful that Proud Mary would be fun, but it’s anything but. #1. The Trump Prophecy Listen, I get that when I say that a movie literally titled The Trump Prophecy is the worst film of the year, it comes off as if I’m making a big political statement but believe me, I am not. Politically, admittedly, I am pretty liberal but I’m not really a political dude. But I do know terrible filmmaking when I see it, and believe it or not, a film about a crazy firefighter who gets a vision in his sleep from a god orb that Donald Trump must be president might not be very good. In fact, fuck this cynical, piece of shit, taking advantage of conservatives, monotonely acted, with no love or passion put into it, goddamn movie! As much as I didn’t like any of the movies I’ve mentioned on this list, it’s clear someone, anyone, was passionate about making them. But considering how clearly the director never asked any of his actors to do a second take, no love is clearly put into this. How cynical, how shameless. As someone who does genuinely love the art of filmmaking and would adore the opportunity to make a relatively big budget movie myself, the fact that something as lifeless as The Trump Prophecy gets to be put into any theaters really pisses me off. Say what you want about The 15:17 To Paris, at least it had its heart in the right place. Say what you want about Gotti, at least John Travolta was obviously passionate about the project. This has nothing and is easily the most hatable film I’ve seen in years!

[madamrogersstorytelling]

Day 5: Three favourite movies/series

This is quite easy, actually. For change. After suffering for two days with extremely hard topics, I’m very happy about this. I had my answers ready already. 

I haven’t seen all his works yet. I’m kinda new to his filmography anyway, but I’m going to watch everything (I tend to do that with all my favorite actors). So this list may change some time later, but let’s not care about that yet, let’s focus on his works I actually have seen. 

1. Jackie & Ryan (2014)

Directed by Ami Canaan Mann

Starring Katherine Heigl, Ben Barnes, Clea DuVall, Emily Alyn Lind

“A modern day train hopper fighting to become a successful musician, and a single mom battling to maintain custody of her daughter, defy their circumstances by coming together in a relationship that may change each others lives forever.” 

I’ve said it a few times now, but Ryan has a special place in my heart. I said in my post ‘Madamrogers Storytelling’ that I had this one moment I realized many things; that moment was after seeing this movie. It was a little over a month ago. 

Ryan made me realize that if there is a thing I want to do, something I want to accomplish, something I hold dear... I should not get stuck. I have to go towards it, no matter what. I think I somehow can identify with Ryan; I don’t write songs or play music, I write stories. There is still the same agony, the same will to succeed and being able to do what you love. And I’d love to have that same kind of courage as Ryan has, that same way of approaching life. 

There are two moments that make me cry. They always make me cry; I’ve watched the movie like five times now and those moments still make me cry. They’re both because of Ryan’s words. In the first one he says to Jackie: “He is not going to take Lia from you. Because you won’t let him.” He sounds so sure, so strong and reassuring that I take it. Something happens inside me. The other moment is when Ryan says: “I always ask myself where am I gonna go next, how am I gonna get there.” I’ve taken that. I ask myself that quite often now. And it helps. I can tell you, it truly helps.

I love Ben in this film. Ryan is so kind, a bit shy, helpful, strong and inspiring character, and Ben’s way of portraying him goes right into my heart. I realized his talent during this film. He tells so much without even saying a single word. I can feel all the emotions he’s showing. And don’t even get me started with his singing voice! I’ve always loved men who sing and play an instrument, especially a guitar. There is something about the way a guitar changes a person; they may be this nice person without it, but when they take a guitar, they change completely. They become deeper, more tender, there is something extremely beautiful in them, more than before. I love all the songs in this film, but Southbound. I fell in love with it during the first note and never stopped falling.

I cannot say that I’m a friend of romantic movies. Especially romcoms make me feel quite bad because they often show love and life so wrongly, like both of them were full of roses and laughter all the time. I’m a bit cynical, to be honest. The reason may be that I’ve never actually been in love. I like honest, meaningful movies that have no fear of showing life and love the way they really are. I have nothing against romance in movies, don’t get me wrong. I just want it to be realistic. And in Jackie & Ryan, this ugly and cruel side of life is shown. Not exactly so clearly, but it’s still there under all those layers. You can see it. I like it how friendly and kind this movie is at the same time as it’s honest and shows you that if something bad happens, often something good comes after it. It’s like when winter dies and spring begins. People’s choices matter. This movie is not just a romantic movie. This is, like Ben said in an interview, a movie about people. I’ve seen that people don’t like it because nothing happens in it. In my opinion, quite a lot happens. This is one of my Go To movies and I’m happy that I found it. It always makes me feel better. I believe in myself. Would probably need someone like Ryan in my life, someone so inspiring and someone who isn’t afraid of telling me the truth. But, for now, this movie’s Ryan will do.

2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Directed by Michael Apted

Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter

“Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world.”

I’m actually glad that I watched Narnia films as an adult. I knew what Narnia was as a child, I probably got to know it around the same time as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings but never really watched the movies or read the books. I remember getting this book with a movie cover from a book club. I forced my mom to let me keep it, and gladly I succeeded because I found the book a few weeks ago and it made me so happy. There were happy tears involved. That was the moment I remembered I had wanted to see the film. I also remembered looking at Caspian when I was just a girl and thinking ‘there is something in that one’. Never saw the film, sadly. 

But a while ago I sat down and watched these movies (with my mom, actually) and I just fell in love. Especially with this third one. Why am I glad that I watched these films as an adult and not as a child? Mostly because nostalgia hurts me instead of actually making me happy. I remember how much better life was back then. (It hurts to look at Ron Weasley sometimes... He was my first fictional crush.) And because now I have a place I can go, the place I got to know as the person I am now. I have Hogwarts, Middle-earth and all the other worlds I’m not letting go of, but this feeling that there is a place for me. It’s funny, really. The ending song of this movie is just so beautiful. There is a place for us. This movie reminds me of that; there is a place for me. I just haven’t found it yet. 

I also love Caspian’s character. I find similarities with myself. Funny enough, my mom even calls me Caspian sometimes (that’s because I have similar hair as he had in Prince Caspian, but mom said once that we’re quite similar in a way). He seems like someone who could make you feel better in mere seconds. The way he speaks, the way he is, and also his hugs must be the best ones in all Narnia. I could go for one of those right now. He is exactly like a person I’d respect. And I respect him, even when he’s just fictional. But he’s a King anyway. And Ben as Caspian, so beautiful. I could say the same things as I did when talking about Ryan, but he has so many emotions in his eyes and body. The way he holds his hand could tell more than a sentence. 

We’ve had this common joke “let’s go to Narnia” with my mom long before we even saw the films. But now, after watching them, the joke is even more common. It’s not even a joke anymore. And I know that till the end of my days, these movies and Caspian will remind me of my mom. 

3. The Punisher (2017)

Marvel

Created by Steve Lightfoot

Starring Jon Bernthal, Amber Rose Revah, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Barnes

“After the murder of his family, Marine veteran Frank Castle became a vigilante known as "The Punisher" with only one goal in mind, to avenge them.”

I suck at watching Marvel’s tv series. I’ve seen almost all the movies of MCU and the new X-Men films and Deadpool, but these tv series I’ve pretty much neglected. I tried to watch Daredevil back in the day but didn’t continue. Then, through my dear friend @accio-rogers, I found out about this show and that Ben Barnes is starring in it as a man called Billy Russo (I had no idea who Billy even was). I went to check the series from IMDb and saw that the main role was played by Jon Bernthal, who I had seen before in The Walking Dead. This started to feel like a safe choice, and during the same day I started to watch it. I was also having an awful summer flu back then, so what else could I have done than watch Netflix? Nothing. Didn’t have energy for anything else. 

Turned out that this choice affected on me more than I could’ve expected. 

This was the series which made me fall in love with Ben Barnes.

I probably have said this before, but instead of hating him, I love Billy Russo. I find him interesting. He is psychological, he has an interesting backstory. And I’ve always been interested in psychology, so I love this kind of characters. I don’t love everything he does or all his choices, no. No, no. I think he really is a bad man, but in this very interesting, captivating way. I’m unable to hate him. I understand why people hate him or refuse to write soft and sweet things about him. But still, in my deepest thoughts, hopes and fantasies (that came out wrong) - and probably headcanons - I can see that Billy really has a softer side. He is a psychopath, but maybe there is a side of him that is a bit softer? Maybe all of this is just his way of protecting himself? We know he had a tragic childhood. There must be tons and tons of armor on him, he has made stone walls around himself. Maybe there is someone else under those. No one, not even him anymore, can break those walls and armors. I’m more than willing to accept the fact that he is just a psychopath, as well. It makes him interesting. 

There is something about Ben playing the bad guy. He is so bad, but you cannot hate him. Billy is the perfect example. He is almost like a perfect villain. And the way Ben portrays him is magnificent: so much emotions in a blink of an eye. He’s phenomenal, a masterpiece. Billy Russo is my favorite antagonist of all time; he has this certain energy that makes him a bit frightening but likeable at the same time. He is well written. Full of layers and psychology. I cannot wait to see where Billy’s (or should we call him Jigsaw now?) story goes in season 2.

_________

If I could’ve list four, Westworld would’ve been the fourth. I spent quite some time finding out do I actually love or hate Logan; decided eventually that I love him, that hottie-naughty cowboy. And I’m only in season 1! Yikes. 

Happy Ben Barnes week!

@benbarnesweek

[eugene-my-love]

@mostlydaydreaming. we were limited to the number of pages we could write. i could have gone on for so much longer

This is my argument paper from writing 2 I took in the spring. Enjoy!!

Singin’ in the Rain:

Putting Smiles on Faces for More than 60 Years

Kandace Feorene

“I like old movies too! My favorite oldie is Pulp Fiction/Forrest Gump.” These are the words every classic film lover despises. My blood boils every time I hear similar phrases. The bubbling is new, yes, I will admit that, but it is genuine. I got into classic movies in July of last year, and I hope I never see the light at the end of this sometimes black and white, sometimes silent tunnel. Movies have been around for over 100 years, and the golden age of them is just that, golden! It started when the talkies were introduced in 1927, and there was no stopping them from there. That is of course until television came along and put an end to it slowly but surely (but let’s not open up that wound). Yes, films still have a significant role in today’s world, but the 30s, 40s, and early 50s were special to the industry. The studio system was roaring as though it would never end. Great characters who deliver beautiful words were the focus in the movies. Good stories were prominent because they couldn’t blow up buildings. The movie musical was big and beautiful being filmed on huge studio lots. There were many made in the golden era of Hollywood, but the best musical and movie ever made is Singin’ in the Rain.

If you’ve never seen it, get a hold of it as soon as possible and watch it. Make sure there are no distractions around. Tell people around you to be quiet. This masterpiece demands your undivided attention. Also, if you haven’t seen it, the title is referencing the title number. I would agree that not all old movies are accessible to most audiences. Some are slow and boring, as are some today. But Singin’ in the Rain is the best example of how people can enjoy movies that are over 60 years old. It is a classic in the true sense of the word.

Singin’ in the Rain was released in 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is number one on the American Film Institute’s (AFI’s) list of Greatest Movie Musicals of all Time (American Film Institute, 2006) and number five on their list of 100 Greatest American Films of All Time (American Film Institute, 2007). It was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989 (its first year) for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” (Library of Congress). Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, with supporting cast members Jean Hagen, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as the screeching star, and Millard Mitchell, the plot is simple: “talkies” are introduced into Hollywood, and a fictional silent film production company (Monumental Pictures) must convert. Their problem is Lina Lamont, a gorgeous star whose voice rivals nails on a chalkboard. Laughs ensue as producer R. F. Simpson tries to hold on to Lina’s star status through filming her first talking picture, The Dueling Cavalier. Monumental Pictures replaces Lina’s voice with Kathy’s. Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds was 19 while filming Kathy Selden’s journey from, in the words of Don Lockwood, “humble player” to star. Life imitated art after the picture was released, because Singin’ was Reynold’s breakout role.

Classics are hard to define, but easy to recognize. Singin’ in the Rain is, obviously, also the best classic movie ever made. The title number is often regarded as the most recognized dance sequence in all of film. Audiences appreciate it even more when they learn that Kelly had a fever of 103 while filming it (Ward Kelly, 2016). The script is unlike most musicals. The lines are witty and smart. One of my favorites is when a member of the publicity department says “Lina, you’re a beautiful woman—audiences think you’ve got the voice to match. The studio’s got to keep their stars from looking ridiculous at any cost.” O’Connor’s character responds with “No one’s got that much money” (Comden and Green). There is a story, and it interests the audience. Most musicals just have some scenes in between numbers that distract from the singing and dancing, but the scenes and numbers combine beautifully to create the perfect film that never skips a beat. The story is also educational. Writers Betty “Comden and her long-time writing partner, Adolf Green, interviewed washed-up silent film actors, read old magazines and viewed archival films during their writing process” (Laffel, 1992). So, the comical situations throughout the movie are true on top of hilarious. Jean Hagen’s comedic timing is gold. Similarly, Donald O’Connor’s, who won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, humor is never distracting from the story. His iconic Make ‘Em laugh number makes audiences of all ages light up. The 17-minute Broadway Melody number is a sight to behold. The colors are bright and exciting. The sets provide for lavish sequences. Each dance number, choreographed and staged by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, is special in its own right and doesn’t let you take your eyes off the screen. “Each draws from a different technical and aesthetic base: the traditions of lyrical ballet, modern dance, theatrical dancing, exaggeratedly hackneyed tap, familiar social dances, Euro-western folk steps, and a light feathery tap style form an elaborate grammar, the breadth and mastery of which was unique to dance” (La Pointe-Crump, 2004, 66). Kelly and O’Connor’s tap sequence Moses Supposes is very often regarded as the best tap number on film. Singin’ created a star out of Reynolds. She had no previous dancing experience, so Kelly had to teach her from scratch. She was a gymnast, so she knew a little bit about physically working hard, but dance is a whole other ballgame when it comes to technique. Future EGOT recipient Rita Moreno was also a player in the film’s success playing the “Zip Girl of the screen” Zelda Zanders (Comden & Green). Its influence is startling. Let’s take me, a pessimist. I want to sing in the rain now. A self-proclaimed pessimist is happy when it rains because I can play the song and sing along to the greatest classic film ever made.

I am not the only one in the world who has been impacted significantly by this glorious movie. I have met others online who share my thoughts. We talk occasionally, and they were nice enough to give me quotes on their thoughts on the film. Sherrie (2018) perfectly summarizes why people should watch it:

“I think it is the perfect introduction to movie musicals. It’s the first time I really appreciated all the time and skill that went into them. Most modern type musicals are mostly sung (and many auto-tuned) with maybe a few simple dance steps put in. Singin’ in the Rain is just a showcase of “triple threat” performers tied together by a brilliantly written script managing to combine heart and humor without being dated. The supporting characters are solid and memorable. The musical numbers are so well put together sometimes I’ll just watch them back to back and marvel at how all these came from the same movie. This coming from someone who, with a few exceptions, didn’t even like most old movie musicals.”

Sherrie mentions the most amazing feat of this film: the fact that there are so many iconic numbers. Almost all of them are extremely recognizable to people. The title number is the obvious one. It is the most recognizable dance number in all of film, and for good reason. Kelly exudes joy and love, and even though the steps are some of the easiest for a skilled dancer, he makes each special with a different splash in a puddle or shrug of his shoulders. My other friend Lena (2018) explains a concept that is talked about a lot with Singin’:

 “It’s special to me because it was my first introduction to Old Hollywood movies. My family is full of movie buffs, and Old Hollywood movies are a staple for references we all make. When I was ten, my mom told me she thought I was old enough to appreciate it. I don’t think I’d ever laughed so hard at a movie up until that point! The colors, the music, the humor, the romance, it all got to me! Its quality and story still hold up to this day! And it stuck because Old Hollywood is a huge part of my life now, and it’s all because of Singin’ in the Rain!”

If you were to ask people what their first Old Hollywood movie was, a good amount would say Singin’ in the Rain. I showed the film to my best friend a couple of months ago (it was her first Old Hollywood film too) even though she insisted on not watching it. When it was over, she just stared at the screen and apologized to me for saying she did not want to try it. It really is the perfect combination of most genres. There is humor, romance, drama, singing, dancing, and even a little bit of action! If you want to start watching classic films, there is no better movie to introduce you to them while meeting your needs of different movie genres.

The film earns the title of best picture ever made for not just what you see on film, but for the dedication that went on behind the camera as well. The film was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and the witty screenplay was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who were legends in their field. Singin’ was Kelly’s second directing venture. He and Donen directed On the Town in 1949, which was a huge success. MGM was happy to see the two team up again since On the Town resulted in a healthy profit. Kelly was involved in practically every aspect of filming. Rita Moreno (2013) remembers filming, "I visited the set every single day. I did maybe, oh, a week and a half's worth of work on that show. But I visited all the sets every single day.” She only had a few scenes, so she could spend her time observing a legend creating his masterpiece. Kelly even had input in the wardrobe. For the iconic Broadway Melody sequence, he cheated the despised Hays Code, which was the code movies had to follow so films were family friendly. He told the wardrobe department to put slits in Cyd Charisse’s bright green flapper dress because a dancer’s lines should be seen (Ward Kelly, 2016). The slits disobeyed the Hayes Code’s rules on how short a dress can be, but since the material met the requirements, the censors couldn’t touch it. It is worth noting that Charisse had given birth just a few months before shooting her scenes. Kelly’s directing style was unique. He wanted the camera to dance along with the dancers, so the audience didn’t miss a single move. This is evident in Kelly’s part in Broadway Melody before he dances with Charisse. As an audience member, you feel as though you are dancing with him. Kelly’s service in the photographic unit in the Navy gave him the opportunity to explore the filmmaking process. Before the Navy, he was mostly interested in choreography, but after leaving the service, his interests in the movie making process as a whole grew. The Broadway Melody sequence is 14 minutes long. The studio had no problem with the number, since Kelly’s An American in Paris won best picture the year before. An American in Paris had a 17-minute-long ballet sequence, also directed by Kelly, that is also spectacular and should be watched by everyone. Kelly wanted Donald O’Connor for the part of Cosmo Brown. Rita Moreno (2014) said she once told Kelly, “I hope finally people will recognize what a great talent this man is, and he said that’s precisely why I had him in the film.” For his solo number, the film was lost so he had to do the whole energetic sequence again. Since he smoked many packs a day, he had to rest for a few days because the tricks took so much out of him.

This film has brought so much happiness into my life, and I know it will do so for others. If you are sad, the song, dances, and jokes will bring out of your slump. If you are happy, it will enhance your mood. Adolph Green once said, "You know what's wonderful. To be somewhere strange in a foreign country where no one knows you and to be introduced as the people who wrote Singin' in the Rain and to watch the people smile. It's a favorite film the world over. There and here people are always telling us that the family sits together to watch it” (as cited in Laffel, 1992). This quote was from the 90s, but it is due to this day. The dialogue, performances, music, and moves make Singin’ in the Rain the greatest motion picture of all time.

[aion-rsa]

Terminator 2 and Why the Summer of 1991 Was a Great Time for Movies

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

For more than a minute there, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s metallic exoskeleton appeared unstoppable. With a glowing red-eye that became the stuff of nightmares and then action figures (we’re serious), the T-800 entered the ‘90s like a wrecking ball. No matter what they threw at him, and no matter what obstacles got in his way, the cyborg did not pause, it did not rest, and it seemed to be everywhere.

Ironically, this also applied to more than just the Terminator’s onscreen antics. In the summer of 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was an indestructible money-sucking machine that conquered the box office four weekends in a row in July, and then miraculously hung on to its boffo target long enough to also become the number one movie in America for a weekend in September.

It was an R-rated entertainment that was technically a sequel, yet also a standalone science fiction thriller that captured the imagination of adults as readily as teenagers. In other words, you could say they don’t make them quite like that anymore. And when looking back 30 years on to the era that birthed director James Cameron’s action masterpiece, I cannot help but somewhat envy the year’s wider definition of “summer movie entertainment” (or “content” in the modern parlance).

To be sure, Terminator 2 was king for a reason. Seven years after the release of the original sci-fi thriller, which made Cameron a go-to genre director, T2 hit audiences like a ton of bricks, with many to this day considering it superior to its predecessor. Here was a movie which pivoted away from Linda Hamilton’s scared survivor in The Terminator and ran toward her embodying a shotgun-wielding matriarch who became an instant feminist icon. The movie was also a sincere spectacle for an audience unaccustomed to computer imagery; Cameron blended groundbreaking CGI with in-camera stunts in a way that is still nifty three decades on.

In retrospect, T2 was both a harbinger for things to come—a sequel borne out of a brand name and nascent special effects—as well as a monument to an impulse that has gone largely extinct in Hollywood: to push the envelope in unexpected directions.

Terminator 2 might’ve been the unrivaled box office champ in summer ‘91, earning $204 million, but the same summer also saw the releases of Thelma & Louise, City Slickers, Boyz n the Hood, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, What About Bob?, Jungle Fever, Point Break, Backdraft, and The Rocketeer. Each multiplex was a rich ecosystem of competing genres, niches, and audience interests. And with the exception of The Rocketeer, every single one of those aforementioned films was a major box office hit, with nearly all of them going on to have legacies ranging from the profound to the cult.

For instance, consider Thelma & Louise, the R-rated buddy film about two women (Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon) who go on a road trip-turned-crime spree. It opened in fourth place that Memorial Day weekend, grossing less than Hudson Hawk in the same frame. The picture never topped the box office charts once, but it was able to do steady business the entire summer, nearly tripling its $16.5 million budget. On those meager week-to-week numbers, it even found a large enough audience to enter the zeitgeist and become a significant cinematic touchstone for a generation of audiences who embraced a fable where women kill an abuser and refuse to bend to society’s demands. It also made Brad Pitt an instant movie star, despite being in a third billed part.

Thelma & Louise was able to carve that legacy despite being dwarfed by the likes of T2 throughout the summer, and before Arnold there was City Slickers, which is itself one of Billy Crystal’s best comedies—this one about middle-aged New Yorkers playing cowboys. City Slickers, in turn, became an Oscar-winning crowd-pleaser despite spending most of its release in the shadow of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which was the second biggest blockbuster of the year. And for all its faults, the Kevin Costner Robin Hood is still fondly remembered as a grand adventure by millennials of a certain age range, despite it never setting up a sequel, prequel, or expanded universe. It even had an unusually dark soul for a blockbuster romp meant for the whole family.

These are just a handful of examples of what was then considered box office material. Perhaps most striking though is John Singleton’s groundbreaking Boyz n the Hood, which became a surprise hit when it opened in second place among original releases on July 12 (behind Terminator 2). It went on to be one of the 20 highest grossing movies of the year. Today, its bittersweet subject matter about young Black men growing up in South Central would instantly consign the film to streaming or being placed in an arthouse box, which would mean it’d need to premiere at Sundance or several other high-profile film festivals in order to secure distribution and an awards campaign that could draw speciality audiences’ attention. In the ‘90s, Columbia Pictures bought Singleton’s script while he was still in school.

When looking at this three decades later, it would be too easy to fall into golden age thinking or pretend things were strictly better “back then.” Nostalgia is a dangerous delusion, especially for an era you weren’t really there for (I was technically around in ’91, but too young to see The Rocketeer, much less Terminator 2). And yet, when studying recent anniversaries from that era, I’m struck by the variety of stories being told. There’s a genuine sense of diversity, in the classical sense, with numerous audiences, age ranges, and even genres being serviced. Yes, there are the big action spectacles, but there are also adult-skewing thrillers, small budgeted Black dramas selling a significant amount of tickets, and even the long-lost romantic comedy.

Of course nowadays, the industry and (more crucially) audiences are striving to see a greater sense of inclusivity and ethnic diversity be embraced by talent in front of and behind the camera. The success of Singleton’s Boyz is remarkable, and in the same summer as one of Spike Lee’s best films, Jungle Fever, no less. Kathryn Bigelow, meanwhile, showed up her then-newly ex-husband James Cameron by helming one of the brawniest action movies ever made, Point Break. However, almost every other box office draw and mainstream Hollywood release in ’91 was directed by a white man, and starred nearly all-white faces.

In many ways, the opportunities for who gets to tell what stories have and are continuing to dramatically improve. But when it comes to what kind of stories the culture at large wants to see, the options appear to be shrinking by the day. There is a greater diversity of voices in front of and behind the cameras, particularly in the niche-focused market of streaming where films come and vanish into the aether every week. But unless your picture stars someone wearing a cape, or features the word “Fast” and/or “Jurassic” in the title, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get audiences to show up—which in turn limits our options every summer as studios seek safer bets that open big and earn most of their mint in the first weekend.

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In a recent Indie Film Hustle podcast, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves director Kevin Reynolds talked about how the attitude of the industry has changed, then and now.

“In the ‘90s, the studios were healthy, we were still shooting on film,” Reynolds said. “People saw it as a golden time, anything was possible. There’s a lot of fear now. There’s a lot of fear because things are not as lucrative as they once were. Sadly, I think theatrical cinema is dying. You can pretend that it’s not, God bless Chris Nolan and his adherence to film as a medium, real film. But it’s going away, the digital age is here.”

And the way corporate-owned companies that are merging into ever greater oligarchal behemoths have reacted to that is to rely increasingly on preexisting material, previously established brands, and familiar content until that’s all there is.

Ignoring the two most recent summers, which have been impacted by the pandemic, the last “normal” summer at the box office was 2019. In that season, nine of the top 10 highest grossing pictures were sequels, spinoffs, remakes, or video game adaptations, including Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Hobbs And Shaw, and Detective Pikachu. Several were actually remakes of ‘90s movies—The Lion King and Aladdin—and the one original film to just barely crack the top 10 only got a Hollywood budget and eight-figure marketing campaign because of the legacy of its middle-aged director: Quentin Tarantino.

When you widen the prism for the whole year of 2019, the only other film among the year’s top 20 highest earners that isn’t a sequel, Marvel movie, or remake is Jordan Peele’s Us.

The conventional wisdom is that nothing but franchises will make money now, and whether true or not that fear makes the chance for something as diverse as the summer of 1991 ever coming to mainstream multiplexes again remote.

Considering all of that on Terminator 2’s 30th anniversary is ironic since that movie itself is a sequel, and one which Hollywood returns to time and again, hoping to draw yet more blood from the stone. However, Cameron tellingly knew when to stop. He made a sequel that stunned the industry and finished his story, then walked away, spending the rest of the decade preparing more original projects that linger in the culture decades later: True Lies and a little movie called Titanic. Between film and television, the industry has meanwhile produced five different versions of “Terminator 3,” with none of them having a residual impact after opening weekend or season 1.

But then that’s also the danger of only looking to the past: You never see the risk of diminishing returns in old things, especially while in the absence of anything new.

The post Terminator 2 and Why the Summer of 1991 Was a Great Time for Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3jH3jN0

[leepace71]

Lee Pace Talks Revolt, Broadway, And Halt And Catch Fire

Lee Pace isn’t your average talented actor. Not because he’s been both elven royalty and a Marvel bad guy, but I guess those things count in his favor. And no, not just because of those expressive eyebrows, either. Lee is someone who takes you with him when diving into a character; who points out notable visuals and insightful stories along the journey. 

I first really remember seeing him in Tarsem Singh‘s visual masterpiece The Fall, enchanted and immediately curious to see more of his work. Maybe you saw him heading Bryan Fuller‘s short-lived but fantastic TV show Pushing Daisies, or in Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit trilogy as King Thranduil. And who could forget Ronan the Accuser from James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy? Seriously — Pace has done a bit of everything. 

I was lucky enough to get to talk to him about Revolt, a sci-fi film from director Joe Miale — even though I probably could have spent all of my allotted time gushing about my favorite television character of the past five years: Joe MacMillan from AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire.

(We started our chat talking about the weather, and how my city was cold and rainy.)

Lee: It’s this weird sort of cloudy, overcast. This bizarre light out. I keep looking out at it, and thinking it’s like I’m in a cloud or something.  It’s not quite misty, it’s not quite sunshiny, but like everything is light right now. It’s just — it makes me laugh, California. (laughs) It’s very LA.

I always think that everything is so nice here. I’m from New York, I’ve lived there since I was 17, I grew up in other places, but it’s just the opposite. And every time I come out here — I mean, it’s beautiful in New York; I love it there, in Upstate — there’s just something about California that’s so nice. Almost like, you feel guilty that it’s so nice here. The weather is so pleasant, the most beautiful plants and trees grow here, everyone is so relaxed here, and (laughs) you’re just like, “What is with this place?” It’s too nice. Sorry, sorry, here I am going on and on about California.

Me: That’s fine; you could go on and on for 20 minutes and I would be happy as a clam. How is Angels in America going?

Lee: I’ve just started work on it, and I feel, well, so privileged to be a part of this. I have to play catch-up, because everyone else was a part of this show in London, so I’ve got the play with me everywhere I go. (Hesitates just barely before continuing) I can’t get it out of my head. I just had this incredible week of rehearsals with Nathan Lane last week, and I just went home every evening pinching myself because he’s just so incredible. It’s such a privilege to be doing this with him, and I’ll meet the other actors soon. I’m just so excited about the whole thing. This play is just as good as they come. 

Talk to me about Revolt. What was that like? Big difference from Angels, right?

Lee: We shot it a while ago, then we reshot the ending of it, the last third. It’s gone through quite an evolution.  I love Africa; there was a movie I did years ago called The Fall (cue me trying to hold it together because I love that movie) and we shot in South Africa and in Cape Town. One of the things that really drew me to this was the opportunity to shoot again in South Africa.

This time it was in Johannesburg, which is very very different than Cape Town. A real proper adventure, shooting that movie. We were in some pretty wild places there, even without the robots. Because they were all CGI (laughs), we didn’t have those scene partners. But director Joe Maelie did a really awesome job of creating that in a cool way.

Me: It was a different take on a sci-fi invasion movie, which was refreshing.

Lee: I think sci-fi — especially these days — provides sort of a grotesque, so we can understand modern life. You can create this scenario where it’s the end of the world, and it’s totally upon us, it doesn’t just feel that way (laughs). And you can place evil in the hands of these mysterious aliens who are trying to bring about the end of humanity. I think it sort of makes this Greek cathartic sense of emotion. There’s that quest for survival, and it’s most potent in context when the stakes are very high. And they are here, because this character, he doesn’t know who he is or what he’s doing here, and he’s piece by piece putting together this horrific reality.

Me: One of the things I’ve been waiting for years now to get to talk to you about is AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, which just ended this year. On a personal level, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a reaction to a television character in all the years I’ve been consuming the medium as I have to Joe MacMillan.

Lee: (Amused) Oh, really? Wow.

Me: There are times where I absolutely hate him, and times where I’ve absolutely loved him. Sometimes I’ve screamed at the television at him because of something he’s done, and then I’m reduced to tears because of how beautifully you’ve played a scene. I just really wanted to thank you for all the work you did on that show. There hasn’t been and probably won’t be another character like him, and no one could have played him the way you did. (You can read this interview on Collider with Lee from back in August — it’s glorious.)

Lee: You don’t know how much that means to me. I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate that, because I feel the exact same about the character. There have been times when I would read the scripts and have that feeling of, “Why, why are they doing this to him?” (laughs) and, “This is an unfair world!” and the gods hate him. But then the writers would treat him with this uncalled for tenderness. (Here he starts and stops to speak a few times; I’m completely convinced he does indeed love Joe.) I just, I appreciate it. It’s sort of a long way of saying thank you very much for watching it; not many people saw it, really. Not that that matters, but I put a lot of myself out there with that character in some weird way and I felt very connected to him. I wanted him to succeed, I wanted him to — I don’t know — wanted him to get what he was after. I felt very invested in him, and that it was some riddle about human life that his quest of trying to solve it might help me understand it a little better. I don’t know what conclusions I’ve come to (laughs), but that’s my big conclusion.

That’s really one of the points of the show: there is no finish line, you just keep playing. That’s really as good as it gets. With what happened with Gordon — not everyone is so lucky. I really couldn’t be more proud of that show, it’s one of the things that i’ve been involved with that I’m the most proud of; the most connected to.

Me: I guess I’m glad to be one of the few who watched it then, because boyhowdy did it impact me. The ending of the series, that final sequence after such a journey, and seeing everything Joe had gone through. Hopefully it’ll go down as something really special, because so few characters have an ending like this. Beautiful and unexpected and wonderful.

Lee: Him teaching? And perfect in a way. I thought the same when I read it, but I didn’t really understand why that ending at first. But the more I sat with it, the more I [realized] it was the only place for him. It makes such sense to me that its time for him to just do what he does, and to connect with that younger generation. It made a ton of sense to me.

Me: Have you watched the final episode yet, or are you someone who doesn’t like to watch things you’ve done?

Lee: I’ve watched half of the last season, but I just shot a movie in Puerto Rico, and we were right after the hurricane.

Me: Oh, wow.

Lee: I know, right?  So I haven’t been able to sit down and watch the last five yet, but I need to. And also that whole thing that happens with Gordon was just so sad. Maybe I’m a little afraid of watching it all, because… yeah, it affected me. Working with Scoot for all that time, and that’s just one of those unendurable sad things that happen in life. You don’t see it coming really in any sense at all, and there’s nothing to come of it really other than it being unendurably sad; irrevocable. I have such respect for The Chrises, the writers on the show, because they give the moments like that the value that they require in the space of the story. It’s a big gesture to make.

When it happened, all the characters responded to it with this real sense of emotional intelligence. I think with that show, I’ll continue to look back on it as something I was very lucky to be a part of.

Me: What was it like filming  Driven in Puerto Rico? You said it was after the hurricane?

Lee: We did a few days before the hurricane, well, between the hurricanes. Because Irma went through first, and caused no small amount of damage, but then Maria hit. And it was so devastating, I can’t even tell you, being there. It was unbelievable, the destruction was — it really took me by surprise.

But it was important to us to finish what we started. There was a very hard-working crew, many of them very badly affected by everything. They were really eager to keep at work on our film.  It was tough working conditions because of it — so much of the island didn’t have power — but there was a real bonding thing that happened around that. Just getting back to work and working hard on something, working together as a team, which we all became on that movie despite everything. So much of that, working through it, aligns with certain themes in the movie. It’ll be on the screen, in a way.

This movie is going to be cool, the story of John Delorean, it’s a very interesting one. We actually had a really great time filming it, I got to work with my good friend Judy Greer again, and Jason Sudeikis, who’s so intelligent, and we had a great time.

Me: I know you’ve got to get back to it, but thank you so so much for your time today.

Lee: Oh, thank you — come see Angels! Come see both parts! Make a day of it, if you can do it — I hear that’s the way to experience it.  It’s a full proper day of theater, to go on this journey from beginning to end in a day, is really the way to do it. Well, that’s what Nathan said, anyway, so.

Me: Oh man, and if HE said that, who’s to argue?

Lee: I know, right? Cool. Thank you.

x

[writingguide003-blog]

Critics assemble: our writers pick their favorite superhero films

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/critics-assemble-our-writers-pick-their-favorite-superhero-films/

Critics assemble: our writers pick their favorite superhero films

Batman v Superman v Captain America v all of the X-Men. Which cape-wearing, civilian-saving adventures are worth cheering?

Given the repetitive influx of superhero films in recent years, youd be forgiven for wanting very little to do with anything involving a cape, a mask and a post-credits teaser for a long time. But wait, the R-rated Wolverine sequel Logan hits cinemas this week and critics agree that its worth getting over yourself for.

Many are saying it will join the ranks of the all-time greats but what else should be on this list? Here are seven of the best from Guardian writers.

The Incredibles

Photograph: HO/Reuters

Was 2004 the superheroes annus mirabilis? That was when Marvel Studios initiated its ambitious plan to self-finance its movies, buy back the rights to characters such as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, and begin the 21st-century wave of superhero films, hugely popular with the public, but often patronised and dismissed the way westerns used to be.

But something else happened in 2004: the release of Pixars glorious animated superhero homage The Incredibles. Thats a film which doesnt fit easily into the superhero fanbase-constituency, and is part of neither the Marvel nor DC tribe (unless you count the fact that Pixar, like Marvel, is part of Disney). And Im conscious that in calling it a homage I may even now be denying it full superhero-film status. But a brilliant superhero film is what it is riffing on the X-Men and Fantastic Four with superb characters, a great supervillain, a terrific story and a sharp satiric theme on the subject of excellence, and the nature of risk, jeopardy and the state.

Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T Nelson) is a lantern-jawed, barrel-chested superhero who plies his trade in the 1940s, the superheroes postwar first-generation comic book heyday. He is fighting alongside his fiancee, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). When a member of the public sues him for preventing his suicide, it triggers a legal nightmare forcing the government to outlaw superheroism and to relocate supers to other cities with new identities and bland normality. Twenty years later, he and Elastigirl have suburban lives and he works in insurance a nightmarish perversion of his former calling. They have two kids whose superpowers they have to conceal at school. But then a new villain emerges with a secret connection to the Incredibles past, forcing them to reclaim their vocation and their destiny.

It is rightly celebrated for the superhero costumire, Edna Mode, voiced by the director and writer, Brad Bird, who thinks that capes are a bad idea and is passionately committed to her contemporary vision: I never look back, darling; it distracts from the now. There is a wonderful passage on the phenomenon of supervillains monologuing huge third-act set-piece speeches in which the villains talk about themselves and their awful vision.

Actually, in 2017, the non-talky streamlined all-action superhero film is pretty much against both capes and monologuing and also against Edna Modes injunction against looking back. Superhero films love origin myths, elaborate retro sequences from the past and all-around ancestor worship.

But as it happens, and incredible as it may sound, The Incredibles has a brilliant action sequence, as exciting as anything in any live-action superhero film or action film. Elastigirl and the two kids are flying in their plane to an island from which the errant Mr Incredible has sent a distress signal. Then she is attacked by rockets. The subsequent chase scene and midair explosion are absolutely nail-biting.

It is witty, smart, visually ravishing, and its generic insights are celebratory, not derisive. What a great superhero film. PB

Batman

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

I have to be honest: I am not the worlds biggest superhero movie fan. Put another way, when they took off in the late 80s, I thought they were a fad that would blow over in a few years; more fool me. In fact, the elevation to ever-prolonging ubiquity is one of the great mysteries of contemporary cinema: how this genre, that for years was considered only good for doltish teens, and treated with equivalent lack of respect, has steadily evolved into the mainstay of the global film industry. Be that as it may, I prefer the funny, candy-coloured type of superhero movie (Spider-Man, Thor, Deadpool) rather than the furrowed-brow earnestathons (Batman Begins, Captain America, Man of Steel) Ive never seen a superhero movie weighty or nuanced enough to justify the heavy-duty treatment.

But as films as opposed to moving comic-books superhero movies tend to fall down pretty hard. There are great sequences, brilliant set pieces, very nice shots but they rarely hold together, still less allowing actual narrative subtlety to intrude on the scene-shifting. The first and still, by my reckoning, only time that a superhero movie seemed way ahead of everything else was the first Tim Burton Batman, from 1989. A tour de force of design, cinematography, and cinematic texture, it was light years ahead of (the nevertheless highly enjoyable) Superman films that had blazed the superhero trail in the 1970s and 80s. Burtons brilliance was to make everything else look redundant and in many ways, nothing has changed since. AP

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Photograph: Moviestore/Rex

Heres a conspiracy theory: someone at the Academy purposefully shuffled those envelopes to detract from the much bigger scandal earlier in the evening: the snubbing of Garry Shandling in this years Oscars In Memoriam montage. I hope my choice of the Marvel movie in which he cameos as a sinister Hydra disciple will go some way to righting this wrong.

Shandlings 15-second appearance in this sequel to the first film featuring the weed who becomes the most fantastic hunk is one of my chief reasons for picking it; the other is its literally the only superhero movie I can ever really remember enjoying.

This is obviously a personal deficit, but perhaps it is, actually, a better superhero movie than most? There are terrific action sequences, for a start: that initial heist, fuelled with sexual tension between the Cap and the Black Widow, plus the most wonderful punch-up in a lift. Plus, vegetables to accompany all that meat and beef: a properly thought-provoking investigation of the morals of surveillance and the ethics of vigilantism in a democratically accountable society.

But perhaps what really clinched it for me as an Avengers movie I could get along with was the relative dearth of Robert Downey Jr. The more you can minimise this man, the more I shall like any movie. CS

Thor: The Dark World

Photograph: Allstar/Marvel Studios/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Many are hailing Logan for stretching the boundaries of what a superhero movie can be. Its dramatic, fervid, and realistic in its violence. But lets not do away with whats core to comics culture: deep, dank nerdery that ought not be allowed to see daylight.

I love comic books rich in lore and steeped in mythos, swirling in and out of realms with names impossible to spell. Thor: The Dark World stuffs two handfuls of delicious dorkiness into its maw, one rich in fantasy, the other in science fiction. Is the Asgardian bio-bed a quantum field generator or a Soul Forge? The answer, of course, is that it is both.

Thor: The Dark World has portals and Kronan Rock Men and invisible spaceships and a ray that can curl you up into a singularity and zap you into another dimension. A liquid totem called the Aether is almost in Malekith the Dark Elfs nefarious grasp, just in time for the quinquennial cosmic event known as the Convergence. Oh, God, I need to stop typing and grab my asthma inhaler, this sort of talk gets me all worked up.

In the middle of all this, theres the bickering romance between the sharp and sweet doctor played by Natalie Portman and her hunky blonde blue-eyed spaceman, Thor. When they reunite during a battle, the first thing she does is yell at him for never calling. When they visit Thors realm, Dr Foster quickly bonds with Thors mother. They may as well be eating intergalactic coffee cake. And there are still some who say mixed marriages cant work?!?

Thor: The Dark World is a rush of Absolute Comics mainlined direct to my amygdala, with a profound purity that few other modern superhero movies allow themselves. It is Worthy. JH

The Dark Knight

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros

While Batman Begins was a refreshingly coherent, mature and dark-hued film about the Caped Crusader (a relief after the eye-punishing gaudy excess of Batman & Robin), it was far from a masterpiece.

There was a major villain problem (a somewhat gimmicky last act switcheroo that didnt quite have the required impact) and a major Katie Holmes problem (needs no explanation) and as a result, it was a promising franchise-restarter but not the home run we might have hoped for. Three years later, Christopher Nolan returned, lessons learned and homework done, with a sequel that rose far above its generic peers and, despite the creation of the hero-packed DC and Marvel universes since, it easily remains unsurpassed.

The Dark Knight moves like a fiendish thriller, one that confidently pushes the boundaries of the superhero genre in a way that comic book fans may be familiar with but which for cinema-goers such as myself was a revelation. Its a breathtakingly brutal film, packed with staggering PG-13 violence and a bleak worldview thats unrelenting, grounding fantastical characters and situations in a world that, for once, is depressingly easy to relate to.

That villain problem? Easily fixed. The casting of Heath Ledger in the role of the Joker might have been initially unpopular with fans, who couldnt envision his leading man looks buried under cartoonish makeup, but his performance was dynamite, an Oscar-winning fireball of anger and anarchy. That Katie Holmes problem? Replaced. Maggie Gyllenhaal added depth and a genuine emotional connection which led to the shocking finale carrying even greater weight. Its one of the rare examples of a superhero film where each devastating act of violence or aggression has a lasting impact. In Nolans Gotham City, life and death both mean something.

It might be to blame for the dreary drudgery thats bogged down many ensuing superhero adventures but it remains a ruthlessly entertaining example of just how daring and necessary the genre can be. BL

Watchmen

Photograph: Clay Enos/Photo by Clay Enos

It may be difficult to credit given Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice recently picked up a gaggle of Razzies, but Zack Snyder was once seen as the coming man of comic book movies. His 2009 adaptation of Alan Moores sprawling graphic novel about an alternative 1980s in which Nixon remains in power and superheroes are real remains a high point of the film-makers career and proof that given a decent script, he is capable of producing eye-popping cinema beyond that of most his contemporaries.

The bravura opening montage, set to the strains of Bob Dylans The Times They Are A Changin, is unequalled in comic book movies. The casting is impeccable: Jackie Earl Haley has never been better than as the hardboiled, morally immovable vigilante Rorschach, a gurning, spitting man out of time whose psychological torment is written on his face whether wearing that famous mask or not. Patrick Wilson is wonderfully understated as the taciturn Nite Owl, a superhero who looks like an accountant with middle-aged spread, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan is perfect as the leering, sneering, cigar-smoking alpha male scumbag the Comedian, a role which surely won him the part of the villain Negan in The Walking Dead.

Naysayers argue that Watchmen is too close to its source material, bar a sensibly altered denouement. But Moores story is so epic in scale and splendid in its unexpectedly detailed rendering of the inner psyches of costumed crimefighters that Snyder was really only required to add visual flare. If there is a Citizen Kane of superhero movies, this is indisputably it. BC

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Photograph: Allstar/20th Century Fox

The best thing about this time traveling entry into the vast annals of X-Men history is the absolute disregard Bryan Singer had for newcomers. If you hadnt been paying attention to his line of mutant entertainment over the last decade or so, youd feel a bit like Kyle Reese being spat out into 1984 with no clothes and no idea what was happening. That slightly manic pace, which feels like its borrowed from a daytime soap opera, plus the period costume and references to Vietnam, Nixon and the height of 70s cold war paranoia made this a strangely daring superhero film.

Instead of something that tried to set out the basic idea of what the X-Men were and what they were all about a concept most grandmothers could probably grasp by now this just got straight into the internal machinations of a group that makes the EU look harmonious. Of course, the old themes of good and evil doing battle, and overcoming personal demons (in this case addiction for Professor X) are there, but it was delivered in a knowingly strange way. You could even argue the hectic feel and funny but slightly smug lines set the stage for the least superhero-y superhero of them all, Deadpool. Singer knew fans were au fait with the concept of time travel, and would love to see Magneto and Professor X as their younger selves, so he threw it all into a blender and Days of Future Past came out like a perfectly mixed bit of superhero bechamel. LB

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

[furederiko]

A Random-News-Digest to cap off September! Yes, the last one for the last day of the month...

Akira

A few days ago, the anime community was sent into a polarizing frenzy, when a live action Hollywood remake for Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece "Kimi no Na wa." was announced. Following "Ghost in the Shell", and "Death Note", it's a vindicative sign that Hollywood is actively turning towards Japanese titles to make their own versions. One that would usually come in one package with whitewashing controversy.

I'm not here to talk about "Your name." though, but about Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira". Because yes, "Akira" is also one of that classic anime title that Hollywood has been itching to adapt... for soooo many years. Guess what, the title has resurfaced into the spotlight once again. After several directors have come in to develop this project, and then walked out to do other things instead, now Warner Bros is said to be in talks with the one and only... Taika Waititi. The upcoming Thor sequel has certainly put Waititi's name into every studio's attention, so it's not even surprising that WB is trying to hire him as well. After all, WB has been actively snatching Marvel Studios' directors and actors, right?

Of course, Waititi is still 'in talks', so things can always go sideway. He already has a project with Fox Searchlight that's about to enter production early next year, as well as that stop-motion animated movie about Michael Jackson's chimpanzee. If WB really wants to rush this movie into creation, I doubt Waititi will be the man to do the job. I personally would have preferred to see Hollywood simply forgeting about "Akira" all together, but that's just me and my selfish desire of not wanting another anime gets 'ruined' by American hands. Hold on, Waititi is not from US, eh! Oh well...

Tomb Raider

Having been an avid fan of this game franchise, of course I'm curious about its movie adaptations. The Angelina Jolie movies were... likeable (oh, how I was still sooo innocent when the first one came out), but they've also failed in capturing the charm of the series. Will a new version with recently crowned Oscar Winner Alicia Vikander work better?

Go ahead and check out the first official trailer (as well as its... odd accompaniment poster, both released 10 days ago LOL) to get your answer. My spontaneous response? "HUH?". Which was then followed by a frown and a "Meh...". Look, I know this one is more inspired by the 2013 game reboot, yet somehow... I don't think it gets it either. In the end, it feels like it's circling back into an Angeline Jolie's version redux. Particularly through Walton Goggins' character, who just had to be there as the evil super-villain stereotype. Had the movie followed the 2013 game's storyline more... faithfully, perhaps I would've seen it in a better light.

Much like "Assassin's Creed" that couldn't flesh out the game premise into a movie event, I seriously doubt this will do better. The video game adaptation curse is still looming large, and is already clouding this movie. But that's just me. Probably it'll work better for you? Roar Uthaug's "Tomb Raider" arrives on March 16th, 2018. So please stop expecting WB to release "The Flash" on that date...

Charlie's Angels

I did NOT see this coming. According to Deadline, Kristen Stewart is said to be one of two actresses being eyed for the "Charlie's Angels" reboot movie. The other one? Lupita Nyong'o. Before you complaint about Stewart, do remember that she's no longer the expressionless actress we saw in the "Twilight" series. She has made a better name of herself through the indie root lately. And Nyong'o is obviously that famous Oscar Winner, who's been involved with the "Star Wars" franchise and soon to hit the action genre with her upcoming Marvel Studios movie.

The fact that these two names are even attracted to the Elizabeth Banks' project is what intrigued me. I actually enjoyed those two Angels movies in the 90s, when everyone else was crying foul. It was campy and over-the-top, but it was fun and well... sexy. LOL. Hearing Stewart and Nyong'o names totally took this reboot to another level. I mean, could we be seeing a... darker and grittier (as much as I despised on using that word) version of the 70s TV show? I'd be down for that. Perhaps they can add more color with... I don't know, Asian actress Pom Klementieff, Elodie Yung, or Claudia Kim to the fray? I hope we'll be hearing more about the casting real soon, because this movie has officially gotten my attention. "Charlie's Angels" will arrive on June 7th, 2019.

Disney Animation

Disney Pixar released the latest trailer for "COCO" and accompanying poster around two weeks ago. The company also released short previews for three songs from the movie: "Remember Me", "Un Poco Loco", and "The World Es Mi Familia". Admittedly, due to my internet fiasco last week, I haven't been able to check out any of these clips. "Coco" arrives just in time for Thanksgiving, so I'm sure by then I would have seen these trailers. LOL. Of course, if you don't want any part of the movie to be spoiled in advance, then you might want to refrain from these new footages and just wait for the movie to arrive. It's your choice!

Star Wars

Despite various reports suggesting/speculating that Rian Johnson would take over Colin Trevorrow's directorial seat for "Star Wars: Episode IX", Lucasfilm hired a far more reasonable and 'safer' choice instead. Yep, I'm sure you have heard by now that J. J. Abrams is back for his second "Star Wars" movie. He's set to write, and direct the third and final movie in the modern era's trilogy. Sure, Abrams doesn't have a great reputation in dealing with sequels, but he's also responsible for the success of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Problem is, the official announcement also revealed that Chris Terrio has also been hired to write. In case the name doesn't right a bell, that's the guy who wrote Academy Award's Best Picture Winner "Argo". That's good, right? Hold on... he's also the writer to WB's infamous "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice", and the early draft of "Justice League" back when it had those unpleasant behind the scene reports. YIKES!!!

Speaking of WB, it's also another game of chicken with that company. This much-anticipated movie has been delayed to December 20th, 2019, meaning it will open just a week after WB's recently announced "Wonder Woman 2". Oh NO!!! After re-hiring the director with an exceptionally huge raise, I have a feeling WB will be forced to move their sequel away to ensure a big box office turnout. Because seriously, confronting the final entry of a "Star Wars" trilogy, one with a female lead protagonist as well, would be nothing short of a massive risk.

Hellboy

Two first looks of David Harbour's version of Hellboy has been released via the movie's official Twitter account, and also the actor's very own social media. And well... it looks, Hellboy-ish enough, I guess? I'm curious though, since this reboot will apply more conventional prothetics instead of CG, does that mean, we're looking at Harbour's very own physique here? I could've sworn his beer-belly he did NOT look like that in "Stranger Things". LOL.

The bigger news of this movie however, was the song of praises to Daniel Dae Kim taking on the whitewashed role that was supposed to go to Ed Skrein. Kim even took a photo with Skrein to make this announcement credible. Ain't this the way it should've been, casting a Korean-American actor for a Japanese-American charact... wait, hold on? Seriously?! Feel free to call me a naysayer, but while I'm grateful for Kim, didn't this simply mean that Hollywood still do NOT have a clue about the whole whitewashing issue? It's a nice gesture and all to cast an Asian actor for an Asian character. But I beg to question... why not hire someone who is not just Asian, but also ethnically approriate? Do we even have a shortage of Japanese-American actor they could hire? Names like Brian Tee (who is both Japanese and Korean), Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada, Paul Nakauchi (who recently appeared in Netflix's "Death Note"), and even Masi Oka (who is Kim's very own fellow cast member in "Hawai Five-O" TV Series)... all easily come to mind.

I can't help but wonder now, is Hollywood still thinking that all Asians look the same? That's STILL a problem, if you ask me. Oh well, let's just scoff this off by saying that... "It's progress". Just for the record, I don't have ANY beef with Kim, and sincerely think that he deserves a big role in the movies. But seriously though, this situation COULD have been solved in a much better way...

DC Films

WB has recruited another writer to work on "Wonder Woman 2". Dave Callaham was brought on board by director Patty Jenkins, to work on the script with DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. His portofolio includes the 2014 "Godzilla", "The Expendables", and also Universal's "The Wolfman" (assuming the Dark Universe project is still on-the-go despite the result of "The Mummy"). Details about the script is still kept under wraps, but it is expected to take place several decades from the first movie. Jenkins has already teased a Cold War setting for the sequel, along with the debut of Gal Gadot's Diana Prince's invisible jet. As I've stated above, it's currently unclear whether WB will keep this movie on the December 2019 schedule or not. If past moves by the studio is any indication (like how WB sped up BvS' release to avoid the third "Captain America" movie), then highly likely we could be seeing a shift of release date sooner or later. How the sequel will change James Cameron's very-public (and annoying, albeit logical, I should add) criticism about the first movie, is a different challenge on its own.

On a side note, DC Entertainment's President Diane Nelson has confirmed that there WILL INDEED be movies outside of DCEU continuity. It seems the initial plan is changing at WB, as Nelson is now singing a somewhat different tune. "Our intention, certainly, moving forward is using the continuity to help make sure nothing is diverging in a way that doesn’t make sense, but there’s no insistence upon an overall story line or interconnectivity in that universe", she stated. I certainly smell 'Plan B' here, in that if ever the DCEU (which already refers to DC Films and the various TV series, right?) gets out of control again, they could use "The Flash: Flashpoint" to basically erase it and create a whole new one. You know, "New-52" and/or "Rebirth"-style. Movies like "The Joker" origin movie, and probably "Justice League: Dark" and "Shazam" will definitely exist in their very own 'LABEL', which will be named and announced in the near future. Will this approach be better or worse for WB and DC? As I said before, this is basically another one of WB's attempt to copy Marvel (that already had multiple Universes on their own, see the next FIVE categories for direct proof), but for now, let's not judge anything too soon and see how this pans out...

X-Men Universe

Wow, it seems FOX has been infected by the braggish fever of WB. Thanks to a recent success with "Logan", the studio can now talk BIG about their next project. Someone's clearly forgetting how the studio ALMOST dropped "Deadpool", had Ryan Reynolds wasn't persistent enough to create it in R-rated format. Not just that, had the studio forced that movie to be toned down to PG-13, it wouldn't have inspired James Mangold to make "Logan" the way it is now. Thus we would only be getting another round of "The Wolverine".

Anyways, FOX Chief Stacey Snider had a really interesting comment to Dark Horizons regarding Josh Boone's "The New Mutants". She stated, "When you look at films like Deadpool or Logan or the upcoming New Mutants, you’ll see they have their own personality. Great effort has been put into making sure they’re differentiated". A peculiar statement, because one, is she trying to throw a shade towards Marvel Studios? And two, is FOX forgetting about the ultra-mediocre "X-Men: Apocalypse" ALREADY?

She then continued with a more 'shocking' remarks, "New Mutants is about these teenagers who are just coming into their powers. It’s like watching mutants go through adolescence and they have no impulse control, so they’re dangerous. The only solution is to put them in a Breakfast Club detention/Cuckoo’s Nest institutional setting. It protects the people on the outside, but it’s strange and combustible inside. The genre is like a haunted-house movie with a bunch of hormonal teenagers. We haven’t seen it as a superhero movie whose genre is more like The Shining than ‘we’re teenagers let’s save the world". Yikes!!! Okay, not only the recent Spider-Man movie was ALREADY a "Breakfast Club"-inspired movie (so... differentiated how?), comparing the movie to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" is a really ballsy and gutsy if not downright over-confident move. I personally shook my head upon reading this news, because the studio is setting the bar VERY high eventhough the movie is still in production. Meaning none of the bigwigs have even seen a finished product! One thing for sure, I'm going to bookmark her comment and actually judge the movie against it when it arrives. Can it actually hold up? I doubt, but we'll see...

SONY Marvel Universe

Another studio, another Marvel movie. This one's VERY interesting though, because no matter how confused people has been about Ruben Fleischer's "Venom", the fact that it's attracting big names to the project, might suggest something big. We know that Oscar Nominee Tom Hardy is onboard to play Eddie Brock, but care to guess who else is being eyed and/or in talks? The super talented Riz Ahmed who might (offensively tbh) and might not become the serial killer Carnage, and another Oscar Nominee in... Michelle Williams. Yes, Williams is currently in talks to play the female-lead and potential love interest to Hardy's Brock. It's still unclear if she will take the job or not, but if it ends up becoming real, then it gives me another good reason to actually check it out when it arrives on October 5th, 2018.

Marvel Studios

Let's start with the upcoming "Thor: Ragnarok"! As the release date of November 3rd, 2017 is rapidly approaching (with some international markets set to open in just a few weeks from now), marketing is also ramping up. We got a special Behind the Scene featurette, neat-looking IMAX poster, and also a Chinese one that came alongside an exclusive Chinese trailer containing new footages. Marvel Studios Visual Development Supervisor Andy Park also debuted the cover for "Art of Thor: Ragnarok" online, to encourage fans to pre-order their copy. This artbook will no doubt contains visual spoilers (like that particular creature from Muspelheim), so do consider that before you purchase one.

The movie also hit a somewhat negative hurdle recently. The issue however, wasn't caused by Marvel Studios, but surprisingly by the Writers Guild of America. Turns out, writer Stephany Folsom's name has been denied by the WGA to be attached to the film, eventhough Marvel Studios already gave her a "Story by" credit. A curious case to be honest, because it's usually the studio who refused to give a writer credit, not the other way around. Folsom openly expressed her dissatisfaction to the Guild that was supposed to be the one protecting her rights. On the other hand, does this mean Folsom's work was so minimum, that WGA thought it's unnecessary to add her name? Let's just hope this won't affect the movie's reception.

***The following could be considered spoilers for movies releasing in 2018 and 2019. If you're avoiding one, please skip the next paragraphs and jump over to the next category instead***

From the set of "Ant-Man and the Wasp", we got a new look for Evangeline Lilly's Wasp, Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch, as well as Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost. Burch looks pretty much like a normal human being, while Ghost has the signature white-suit design as can be seen in the comics.

Meanwhile, more and more cast members are confirmed for the UNTITLED "Avengers 4", which as I've said before, somehow serves as massive spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War". Paul Bettany was pretty much confirmed to be in the movie thanks to a photo of him as Vision, while Mark Ruffalo was spotted alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. Sebastian Stan and Don Cheadle have also been confirmed through interviews with several outlets. Aside from possibly hinting the possible plot of the movie, Atlanta Filming also spotted two actors on set with Johansson. The first was Captain America's Chris Evans, and the second one was... surprise, surprise... "Captain Marvel"'s Brie Larson. I know it has been common sense among fans, that from the time she was cast, she would take part in this movie. But it's always good to know that it's now confirmed.

The movie also has other intriguing parts of production that might hint further at the storyline. A recent casting call notice for extras, revealed that there will be a 1960s setting in the movie. This was inline with a photo by actress Hayley Atwell, who's dressed up as Peggy Carter with a mo-cap makeup on her face. Bearing in mind her quick cameo in the intro of "Ant-Man", could we be seeing a particular flashback to Peggy and John Slattery's Howard Stark in their early years at S.H.I.E.L.D.? A new actor has also been confirmed to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada, has joined the movie in an unknown role. This was strongly coincidental to that Japanese-esque setting we've seen before, so clearly the two facts are probably related somehow.

As for "Infinity War", actor Benedict Cumberbatch teased to Digital Spy that the movie will be huge, considering it's a massive storyline of ten years in the making, involving various sides of the MCU. He's also excited for the project to finally be seen by the world. Now about that, a recent rumor claimed that the D23 and San Diego Comic Con' trailer would be officially released on September 29th, along with the premiere of "Inhumans". It's a little unlikely, considering the growing gap between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV. Moreso, it's more possible that Marvel Studios will release this alongside "Thor: Ragnarok" sometime around October. That will certainly boost attention to the third "Thor" movie. Let's just wait and see.

"Captain Marvel" won't start filming until early next year, but pre-production has already begun. Andy Nicholson has joined the movie as its production designer. Nicholson was involved in "Captain America: The First Avenger" which, similar to this movie, took place in an 'earlier' era. Considering he also earned an Oscar nomination for "Gravity", his inclusion only signaled/confirmed a more interstellar aspect of the story. Here's hoping Nicholson will imbue his Academy Award charm to this movie as well!

Last but not least, That Hashtag Show reported that Marvel Studios is developing a movie for "Power Pack" as part of their next 'Phase'. Jonathan Schwartz is said to be overseeing the project, like he has done with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". To be honest, this source isn't particularly credible for this type of news, as their scoops VERY rarely panned out. Still, this is a somewhat plausible thing, considering "Runaways" (that have had a script since the early Phases), have since been converted into a TV series at Hulu. I won't be surprised if the Power siblings became one of the contenders to replace that now-obsolete project. Of course, do take this news with a HUUUGE grain of salt for now. It's best to just wait for an official announcement before getting too excited over something unconfirmed. Am I right?

Marvel TV

When this post goes up, Marvel's "Inhumans" should have debuted ON TV. If you're still unconvinced to see this mini-series, then perhaps the recent trailer would be able to sway you to the dark-si... er, I mean, to see and follow it. Showrunner Scott Buck Almighty apparently has envisioned this show to be at least 3 SEASONS, so you might want to put that into considerations before making one of the biggest life choices in your life. The general consensus however (including a pessimistic-sounding James Gunn), thinks that it won't even get a 2nd season. Then again, his "Iron Fist" somehow miraculously gets one, while a critically-received Marvel's "Agent Carter" did NOT. And don't forget about Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." that apparently was ALMOST cancelled by ABC, had Disney not interfe... er, I mean stepped in as savior and paved way for the upcoming Season 5. Nothing is really certain anymore when it comes to Marvel TV, huh?

There's good on the other side though. To be precise, the Hulu side. Marvel's "Runaways" has only been getting positive responses until now, and comics creator Brian K. Vaughn has added even more excitement with his recent statement. During a book signing in New York, Vaughn revealed that not only Old Lace the Deinonychus is part of the show, showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage actually did her justice. Of course, him being an official consultant to the series can mean two things: one, his words is NOT objective; and two, the show will indeed be as faithful as possible to the source materials... which he wrote. Duh? Then again, the official images that debuted via Entertainment Weekly earlier this week, already felt and looked LEAGUES BETTER than "Inhumans". So I'm inclined to believe the good buzz might be true after all...

Netflix

Marvel's "The Defenders" burnt me out sooo bad, that I've pretty much lost any interest to see more Marvel Netflix series. Not just me though, because as it turns out, the crossover mini-series is also the lowest rating and/or least viewed of the entire Netflix Universe so far. GREAT GOODNESS!!! Regardless of the reason behind this result, a clear fatigue for a cookie-cutter Marvel TV show can easily be felt.

That's where Jon Bernthal's Marvel's "The Punisher" turned the table and broke the wall instead. Literally. The brutal and violent Rambo-esque official teaser, which was followed by a full trailer later on, seemed to be changing people's negative perception about the Netflix Universe. But is it a good indication that the series itself will be as good? Not really. If there's one positive thing I could openly praise about all Marvel Netflix series, is that they all have GREAT trailers. However, a great trailer doesn't immediately assure a great show, as proven by Marvel's "Luke Cage", Marvel's "Iron Fist", and Marvel's "The Defenders".

I admit, this was indeed a good trailer for Frank Castle's solo story. But did I like it as much as every other people? NOPE. I think it looked okay, and well... I'm still giving this show a pass. I have an odd tinkling feeling that it's going to end up as another carbon-copy of the previous shows. That it will also be a few episodes too long... but with amped-up violence to compensate. Of course, don't let this get you down, because what might not work for me, could very well be your treasure. One thing for sure, the series will be arriving pretty soon (if not November, probably earlier). So we'll definitely be reading the first reactions to it in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the 4th season of "Voltron Legendary Defenders" is set for October 13th debut. You can even already watch the official trailer, that teases more action for both Prince Lotor and Princess Allura. It's unclear how many episodes we'll be getting though. If I had to guess, we'll probably get around 6 to 7, just like what happened to Season 3. After all, there's a possibility that both Seasons were initially intended to be one.

DC Television

I actually don't know where to put this, but since "Watchmen" is part of DC's property, I'll put it here instead. Forget about that Zack Snyder movie! Damon Lindelof is set to produce a new TV series adaptation for HBO. The network has ordered a pilot script from him (who announced it himself), so things are definitely moving forward. I'm personally not looking forward to this, as much as I disliked the Snyder's movie. But I can already sense the divide between the avid fans who are rejoicing, and the other side who thinks this is a bad idea. I have no right to give an opinion here, so let's just see how this pans out, okay!

Super Sentai

Trademark for the 2018 Super Sentai series has been registered on September 25th, and suffice to say, it brought its own twist to the fanbase. Contrary to previous rumor about fairy-tale time traveler, TOEI submitted not one, but TWO titles at the same time: "Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger", and "Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger". Nope, this wasn't April's Fool prank or a baseless rumor, because these copyrights are REAL.

There aren't any details about the two titles yet, so many fans and Tokusatsu enthusiasts have been talking and speculating about what this means. Does this mean, we will have two separate shows on the same year, perhaps separated as 25 episodes each? Could it be, one of them is the full yearly show, while the other one is a Web-Series or some sort, much like how "Kamen Rider Amazons" worked for Amazon Japan? There's also another possibility, in that both of them are part of one show. Which makes super sense, because the obvious titles alone pretty much work to 'rival' each other: Police Taskforce and Phantom Thief Squad. Get it? It's the game of cat and mouse between cops and thieves. Something like what would happen if "Persona 4" and "Persona 5" has a crossover.

Recent rumor claimed, that the two teams will indeed be regarded as the 42nd Sentai teams. Patoranger is rumored to consist of Red, Black, and White members, while Lupinranger will be Gold, Silver, and Bronze. They will start out as separate shows that will supposedly air alternately week after week, but when both shows reach episode 20, they will eventually become one solidified story. Not only that, one Lupinranger member is said to be a Patoranger spy (with Red being the most possible candidate), thus serving as the catalyst to combine both teams into one. This means the two shows will exist/intersect in the same world, so crossovers between both titles should be expected to happen more often than later on the 4th quarter.

Again, this idea makes good sense, that it's not even a surprise for me. TOEI has been doing the Versus Movies on a yearly basis ever since "Chouriki Sentai Ohranger vs Ninja Sentai Kakuranger", so this would only be their way to turn that concept into a full-blown series. This year's "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" has even implemented this twist, by breaking its 12-members team into two units in its latest parallel arcs. Besides, don't forget one thing! TOEI seems to show high interest with what's happening in US entertainment business. And what's the current rage in Hollywood? Cinematic Universe, like the one famously built by Marvel Studios. Think of it this way, Patoranger and Lupinranger would be their own separate thing, similar to the Marvel Netflix series, or the CW "Arrow"-verse shows. But somewhere along the line, they team up into one crossover, as proven by Marvel's "The Defenders". It's highly likely, TOEI is intent on trying out this route as well, which could be a good or bad thing. Ignoring the fact that "Kaizoku Sentai Go-kaiger" have already, and very successfully I might add, served as a giant crossover show on its own.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of a Police-themed Sentai series. But this report definitely intrigued me to the core. If it is indeed valid, then I would totally check it out. It's an arguably brave and risky albeit not entirely new (remember the Versus Movies!) concept, so I'm dying to see if TOEI can pull it off. I think if TOEI is able to give both shows their own different tone, it would be even much better. I'm sure we'll be hearing more information about these shows pretty soon, so let's just wait and see...

ARIKA

It's a little baffling to think that ARIKA still hasn't made up their mind about their "Mysterious Fighting" game. Why? Because they showed up in Tokyo Game Show 2017, and actually released a new trailer for the event. Hmmmmm. Not long after, the company also expanded the game's roster with a returning fighter, in Doctrine Dark. At this point, I'm pretty sure EVERY original character from "Street Fighter EX" would be included... so why not just call the game, "EX Fighters" or some sort? *sigh*

Pocket Monsters

The Pokemon Company released a new trailer for "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon" last week, and well... it offered some of its new content. Aside from confirming that the cover Pokemon is none other than 'Ultra Beast' Necrozma in his Dusk Mane/Dusk Wings forms (it's unclear how it will possess the powers to resemble Solgaleo or Lunala), several mini games like "Mantine Surf" and "Alola Photo Club" have been added to the game. Characters like Hau, Lillie, and the Trial Captains are confirmed to be returning. In the case of the last, some will even be bringing new Island Challenges. You can read the details on Gematsu. Both games will be launched worldwide on November 17th, 2017.

Dynasty Warriors

KOEI Tecmo was present at the Tokyo Game Show 2017, and of course they delivered a new trailer for "Dynasty Warriors 9" while confirming that it will be released in early 2018. So far, this new iteration has been creating conflicting reactions from the franchise's fanbase. Many, including yours truly, is feeling rather mixed about the game in general. Mainly due to the redesign and additional changes (weapons, costumes) given to the returning characters. While it's commendable that the game is trying to be more realistic and historically accurate, unfortunately, it comes at the expense of some of the title's bizarre but fun elements. On the bright side, the open world concept is still an intriguing aspect that I would totally love to try out. Even if to see whether KOEI Tecmo can pull it off or not. LOL.

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Critics assemble: our writers pick their favorite superhero films

Batman v Superman v Captain America v all of the X-Men. Which cape-wearing, civilian-saving adventures are worth cheering?

Given the repetitive influx of superhero films in recent years, youd be forgiven for wanting very little to do with anything involving a cape, a mask and a post-credits teaser for a long time. But wait, the R-rated Wolverine sequel Logan hits cinemas this week and critics agree that its worth getting over yourself for.

Many are saying it will join the ranks of the all-time greats but what else should be on this list? Here are seven of the best from Guardian writers.

The Incredibles

Photograph: HO/Reuters

Was 2004 the superheroes annus mirabilis? That was when Marvel Studios initiated its ambitious plan to self-finance its movies, buy back the rights to characters such as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, and begin the 21st-century wave of superhero films, hugely popular with the public, but often patronised and dismissed the way westerns used to be.

But something else happened in 2004: the release of Pixars glorious animated superhero homage The Incredibles. Thats a film which doesnt fit easily into the superhero fanbase-constituency, and is part of neither the Marvel nor DC tribe (unless you count the fact that Pixar, like Marvel, is part of Disney). And Im conscious that in calling it a homage I may even now be denying it full superhero-film status. But a brilliant superhero film is what it is riffing on the X-Men and Fantastic Four with superb characters, a great supervillain, a terrific story and a sharp satiric theme on the subject of excellence, and the nature of risk, jeopardy and the state.

Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T Nelson) is a lantern-jawed, barrel-chested superhero who plies his trade in the 1940s, the superheroes postwar first-generation comic book heyday. He is fighting alongside his fiancee, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). When a member of the public sues him for preventing his suicide, it triggers a legal nightmare forcing the government to outlaw superheroism and to relocate supers to other cities with new identities and bland normality. Twenty years later, he and Elastigirl have suburban lives and he works in insurance a nightmarish perversion of his former calling. They have two kids whose superpowers they have to conceal at school. But then a new villain emerges with a secret connection to the Incredibles past, forcing them to reclaim their vocation and their destiny.

It is rightly celebrated for the superhero costumire, Edna Mode, voiced by the director and writer, Brad Bird, who thinks that capes are a bad idea and is passionately committed to her contemporary vision: I never look back, darling; it distracts from the now. There is a wonderful passage on the phenomenon of supervillains monologuing huge third-act set-piece speeches in which the villains talk about themselves and their awful vision.

Actually, in 2017, the non-talky streamlined all-action superhero film is pretty much against both capes and monologuing and also against Edna Modes injunction against looking back. Superhero films love origin myths, elaborate retro sequences from the past and all-around ancestor worship.

But as it happens, and incredible as it may sound, The Incredibles has a brilliant action sequence, as exciting as anything in any live-action superhero film or action film. Elastigirl and the two kids are flying in their plane to an island from which the errant Mr Incredible has sent a distress signal. Then she is attacked by rockets. The subsequent chase scene and midair explosion are absolutely nail-biting.

It is witty, smart, visually ravishing, and its generic insights are celebratory, not derisive. What a great superhero film. PB

Batman

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

I have to be honest: I am not the worlds biggest superhero movie fan. Put another way, when they took off in the late 80s, I thought they were a fad that would blow over in a few years; more fool me. In fact, the elevation to ever-prolonging ubiquity is one of the great mysteries of contemporary cinema: how this genre, that for years was considered only good for doltish teens, and treated with equivalent lack of respect, has steadily evolved into the mainstay of the global film industry. Be that as it may, I prefer the funny, candy-coloured type of superhero movie (Spider-Man, Thor, Deadpool) rather than the furrowed-brow earnestathons (Batman Begins, Captain America, Man of Steel) Ive never seen a superhero movie weighty or nuanced enough to justify the heavy-duty treatment.

But as films as opposed to moving comic-books superhero movies tend to fall down pretty hard. There are great sequences, brilliant set pieces, very nice shots but they rarely hold together, still less allowing actual narrative subtlety to intrude on the scene-shifting. The first and still, by my reckoning, only time that a superhero movie seemed way ahead of everything else was the first Tim Burton Batman, from 1989. A tour de force of design, cinematography, and cinematic texture, it was light years ahead of (the nevertheless highly enjoyable) Superman films that had blazed the superhero trail in the 1970s and 80s. Burtons brilliance was to make everything else look redundant and in many ways, nothing has changed since. AP

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Photograph: Moviestore/Rex

Heres a conspiracy theory: someone at the Academy purposefully shuffled those envelopes to detract from the much bigger scandal earlier in the evening: the snubbing of Garry Shandling in this years Oscars In Memoriam montage. I hope my choice of the Marvel movie in which he cameos as a sinister Hydra disciple will go some way to righting this wrong.

Shandlings 15-second appearance in this sequel to the first film featuring the weed who becomes the most fantastic hunk is one of my chief reasons for picking it; the other is its literally the only superhero movie I can ever really remember enjoying.

This is obviously a personal deficit, but perhaps it is, actually, a better superhero movie than most? There are terrific action sequences, for a start: that initial heist, fuelled with sexual tension between the Cap and the Black Widow, plus the most wonderful punch-up in a lift. Plus, vegetables to accompany all that meat and beef: a properly thought-provoking investigation of the morals of surveillance and the ethics of vigilantism in a democratically accountable society.

But perhaps what really clinched it for me as an Avengers movie I could get along with was the relative dearth of Robert Downey Jr. The more you can minimise this man, the more I shall like any movie. CS

Thor: The Dark World

Photograph: Allstar/Marvel Studios/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Many are hailing Logan for stretching the boundaries of what a superhero movie can be. Its dramatic, fervid, and realistic in its violence. But lets not do away with whats core to comics culture: deep, dank nerdery that ought not be allowed to see daylight.

I love comic books rich in lore and steeped in mythos, swirling in and out of realms with names impossible to spell. Thor: The Dark World stuffs two handfuls of delicious dorkiness into its maw, one rich in fantasy, the other in science fiction. Is the Asgardian bio-bed a quantum field generator or a Soul Forge? The answer, of course, is that it is both.

Thor: The Dark World has portals and Kronan Rock Men and invisible spaceships and a ray that can curl you up into a singularity and zap you into another dimension. A liquid totem called the Aether is almost in Malekith the Dark Elfs nefarious grasp, just in time for the quinquennial cosmic event known as the Convergence. Oh, God, I need to stop typing and grab my asthma inhaler, this sort of talk gets me all worked up.

In the middle of all this, theres the bickering romance between the sharp and sweet doctor played by Natalie Portman and her hunky blonde blue-eyed spaceman, Thor. When they reunite during a battle, the first thing she does is yell at him for never calling. When they visit Thors realm, Dr Foster quickly bonds with Thors mother. They may as well be eating intergalactic coffee cake. And there are still some who say mixed marriages cant work?!?

Thor: The Dark World is a rush of Absolute Comics mainlined direct to my amygdala, with a profound purity that few other modern superhero movies allow themselves. It is Worthy. JH

The Dark Knight

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros

While Batman Begins was a refreshingly coherent, mature and dark-hued film about the Caped Crusader (a relief after the eye-punishing gaudy excess of Batman & Robin), it was far from a masterpiece.

There was a major villain problem (a somewhat gimmicky last act switcheroo that didnt quite have the required impact) and a major Katie Holmes problem (needs no explanation) and as a result, it was a promising franchise-restarter but not the home run we might have hoped for. Three years later, Christopher Nolan returned, lessons learned and homework done, with a sequel that rose far above its generic peers and, despite the creation of the hero-packed DC and Marvel universes since, it easily remains unsurpassed.

The Dark Knight moves like a fiendish thriller, one that confidently pushes the boundaries of the superhero genre in a way that comic book fans may be familiar with but which for cinema-goers such as myself was a revelation. Its a breathtakingly brutal film, packed with staggering PG-13 violence and a bleak worldview thats unrelenting, grounding fantastical characters and situations in a world that, for once, is depressingly easy to relate to.

That villain problem? Easily fixed. The casting of Heath Ledger in the role of the Joker might have been initially unpopular with fans, who couldnt envision his leading man looks buried under cartoonish makeup, but his performance was dynamite, an Oscar-winning fireball of anger and anarchy. That Katie Holmes problem? Replaced. Maggie Gyllenhaal added depth and a genuine emotional connection which led to the shocking finale carrying even greater weight. Its one of the rare examples of a superhero film where each devastating act of violence or aggression has a lasting impact. In Nolans Gotham City, life and death both mean something.

It might be to blame for the dreary drudgery thats bogged down many ensuing superhero adventures but it remains a ruthlessly entertaining example of just how daring and necessary the genre can be. BL

Watchmen

Photograph: Clay Enos/Photo by Clay Enos

It may be difficult to credit given Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice recently picked up a gaggle of Razzies, but Zack Snyder was once seen as the coming man of comic book movies. His 2009 adaptation of Alan Moores sprawling graphic novel about an alternative 1980s in which Nixon remains in power and superheroes are real remains a high point of the film-makers career and proof that given a decent script, he is capable of producing eye-popping cinema beyond that of most his contemporaries.

The bravura opening montage, set to the strains of Bob Dylans The Times They Are A Changin, is unequalled in comic book movies. The casting is impeccable: Jackie Earl Haley has never been better than as the hardboiled, morally immovable vigilante Rorschach, a gurning, spitting man out of time whose psychological torment is written on his face whether wearing that famous mask or not. Patrick Wilson is wonderfully understated as the taciturn Nite Owl, a superhero who looks like an accountant with middle-aged spread, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan is perfect as the leering, sneering, cigar-smoking alpha male scumbag the Comedian, a role which surely won him the part of the villain Negan in The Walking Dead.

Naysayers argue that Watchmen is too close to its source material, bar a sensibly altered denouement. But Moores story is so epic in scale and splendid in its unexpectedly detailed rendering of the inner psyches of costumed crimefighters that Snyder was really only required to add visual flare. If there is a Citizen Kane of superhero movies, this is indisputably it. BC

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Photograph: Allstar/20th Century Fox

The best thing about this time traveling entry into the vast annals of X-Men history is the absolute disregard Bryan Singer had for newcomers. If you hadnt been paying attention to his line of mutant entertainment over the last decade or so, youd feel a bit like Kyle Reese being spat out into 1984 with no clothes and no idea what was happening. That slightly manic pace, which feels like its borrowed from a daytime soap opera, plus the period costume and references to Vietnam, Nixon and the height of 70s cold war paranoia made this a strangely daring superhero film.

Instead of something that tried to set out the basic idea of what the X-Men were and what they were all about a concept most grandmothers could probably grasp by now this just got straight into the internal machinations of a group that makes the EU look harmonious. Of course, the old themes of good and evil doing battle, and overcoming personal demons (in this case addiction for Professor X) are there, but it was delivered in a knowingly strange way. You could even argue the hectic feel and funny but slightly smug lines set the stage for the least superhero-y superhero of them all, Deadpool. Singer knew fans were au fait with the concept of time travel, and would love to see Magneto and Professor X as their younger selves, so he threw it all into a blender and Days of Future Past came out like a perfectly mixed bit of superhero bechamel. LB

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