I finally got around to watching Avengers - which is comical (Whee, pun) considering I devour about 30-40 comics every new comics Wednesday. Yet it takes a year to get to one of the biggest events ever for the medium, and I'm a whedon fanboi to boot. I was leery -the Avengers dynamic, with that team, those *characters* (Meaning RDJr's playboy Stark)...
Captain America is a joke character in comparison to the Marvel U, superheroes in general, or even as a standalone concept. A jangoistic holdover from WW2, literally, whose sole aim was inspiring moral and patriotism. Super Soldier serum? Gimme a break. Cap's everyman appeal was great at the time, puny weakling soldiers become unstoppable heroes aided our drafted and out of place GIs by giving them a hero like themselves.
Now? Even the comics struggle to have the character make any sense or offer any decent stories (And they fail. Utterly. Show me one decent superhero Cap story this past... decade? Two? Ooh, Ultimates! Cap is the goddamn President of the US. For realz. Marvel 616? Ooh, Cap is the head of Shield! Ooh, Cap is lost for ten years in an alternate dimension raising the son of some dude who has a CRTV set for a chest/head. For realz. That is the current storyline in the comics today.)
Add in Widow? And Hawkeye? Two utter losers, who might make an awesome Dark Knight esque film, but... Mix in the goddamn Hulk, a literal goddamn God, and Iron Man being a technologically enhanced near God himself? The flick was, for those familiar with the franchise, destined to fail and suck. Only it didn't. I have no idea how, but Whedon somehow pulled off a miracle. Using the characters strengths, ignoring their weaknesses while making it completely reasonable to do so plot-wise... Genius.
Still haven't watched Amazing Spider-Man, nor sure I will anytime soon. Reboot, too soon. Hell, still haven't watched Daredevil, Elektra, either FF movie, the Wolverine standalone, Green Lantern, either Ghost Rider... Prolly less I've seen than those I have.
Silver Linings Playbook, caught that yesterday. Good flick, but I was hoping for more. The Indy/awards buzz, I was expecting a less formulaic ending/progression. Deeply flawed characters with not just issues, but entire freaking subscriptions? Life sucks, then you die, blah blah without getting into major spoilers.
I prolly posted this a few months back, but I'm still blown away by Cabin In The Woods. Now there, there's a motherf**** ending. Whedon is God, clearly. He's got a Midas touch for fiction unlike any creator that I can think of. Ever. Damn, Buffy. Angel. Firefly. Dollhouse. Cabin. Avengers. Can he do wrong? Genius.
Prometheus is equally one of the best of the past decade, just rewatched it again. The whole Jesus Christ was an alien, who we killed and earned annihilation because of our crime? Damn. Just damn. The Christmas sprinkles in the story, the faith/atheist dynamic. Such a beautiful and intricately desigined plot. In this vein, I've gotten back on an Event Horizon kick. Watched it several times this year again. Awesome movie. Just awesome. No creepy aliens, just sheer terror. Humans driven to kill themselves. Weir is a complex character, and not utterly unbelievable or bad. Just a man, flawed, but a man. Wormhole leading to Hell dimension, complete chaos? Such an amazing movie, one probably enhanced by the fact it was the very first movie my parents let me see by myself in the theatres (No G-rated crap first. Event Horizon was the absolute first time I sat alone in a theater, at the age of 12. Good parenting FTW!)
I had high hopes for Beautiful Creatures based on the trailers and nothing else. Bought it last week, haven't finished it. There was *so* much there without bringing in the damned tween Twilight BS lovey dovey BS. I cringe seeing the ad 'I'm still here, what does that tell you?' Give me a break. This concept of demigods, beings who have the capacity for light or darkness, whose decision on which they become is involuntary? If anyone watched Carnivale (And if you haven't, you should. Amazing.) this could have been a theatrical Carnivale. Instead it was a Twiblowhard ripoff.
Looking forward to? Star Trek, but of course. This Is The End. World War Z. Elysium. Europa Report could be epic
#1 with a bullet? Riddick. About damn time. That franchise is epic. Most thought the sequel tried too hard, did too much, compared with the minimalist Pitch Black. And true enough, extremely bipolar franchise. I'm reluctant only because Riddick sounds like a return to Pitch Black instead of a followup to Chronicles. Say what you will about Chronicles, I still am blown away by the premise there. Everything. But that religion? I mean come on - the Necromancers were genius. In our universe, where life has one constant - death. Thus life is the aberration, and death the natural state of things in this world? It's mind blowing because you could totally see some nutjob cult coming to that conclusion on their own, and the sci-fi and mysticism dynamic of the film worked perfectly with a revolutionary concept. Hopefully that doesn't get dropped entirely from Riddick.
I do have a concept I wish somebody would use one day because it'd make a kickass movie I'd like to see - incorporating silent film and CG. I don't think you could have the entirety be silent and set in the 20s though... But CG is so damn lifelike now, allowing nearly anything to seem real. You take a silent film, silver nitrate deterioration effects and all, the inconsistent and quick frame rate, everything. Then throw in CG as though it were real? Like a horror flick with impossible visuals? Intersperse with modern era plot - maybe a Ring-esque movie, where a decades old film unleashes ancient evil (See silver nitrate film. Silver nitrate as in silver, a supernatural favorite weakness, which trapped the whatever.) I could even see utilizing London After Midnight - hype it Blair Witch style, found after all these decades. Purely silent, no modernity, just London After Midnight remade, full of CG unbelievable horrors that explain why people went nuts watching it and why it was lost.
