A CONFLUENCE OF COMIC-BOOK MOVIES: DC vs. MARVEL
By Jerry Saravia
So at the San Diego 2013 Comic-Con, more news broke about the plethora of future comic-book movies (in addition to TV's "Breaking Bad" - what does that have to do with a comic-book convention? - and more sci-fi movies than one can count, such as 'Ender's Game" with Harrison Ford). A new "Amazing Spider-Man" movie with villains Electro and the Rhino have emerged fighting against our favorite web-slinger (Electro being among my favorite of Spidey's foes) in a new, startling teaser with a blue-hued Electro (Jamie Foxx) strapped to some gurney with dozens of electrical wires attached to him (Incidentally, Rhino will be played by Paul Giamatti). "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" has emerged as the sequel to the "First Avenger" (among my favorite of the current crop of Marvel films). Expect a new "X-Men" flick from director Bryan Singer called "Days of Future Past" with a young Magneto confronting his future older self (Ian McKellen). |
| Jamie Foxx as Electro |
And that is just Marvel - lest us not forget the surprising union of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel in the Zack Snyder-directed sequel, "Batman vs. Superman." At Comic-Con, Zack Snyder made the announcement by having introduced it with a line of dialogue by actor Harry Lennix (who played General Swanwick) and a logo on the screen, namely the S sign and the Bat signal merged as one which made the audience go bananas. The Batman vs. Superman flick interests me because it was an on/off again project for many years, and who wouldn't want to see these two DC titans share the screen (no doubt a team-up that is in direct, obvious competition with "The Avengers" - DC and Marvel battling for mega box-office dollars). Also, it will be interesting to see who plays the Dark Knight since Christian Bale swore off donning the suit after three terrific Batman flicks. And will Christopher Nolan still be producing after he also swore off making any more Batman flicks, despite his prodigious involvement in "Man of Steel" (a review of that is coming soon)? As for the competing rival Marvel, the first "Amazing Spider-Man" flick was cumbersome and mediocre and completely unnecessary so I have little interest in seeing a sequel, at least in theaters (wait for DVD is a definitive despite my love for the web-slinger and Electro).
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| Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men: Days of Future Past
My issue with comic-book movies is that there are too many glutting our cinemas, virtually on the heels of one that is released comes another ("Iron Man 3" this past May, "Man of Steel" in late June, a new "Wolverine" flick in July of 2013, followed by November's new "Thor" sequel). Don't get me wrong: I enjoy most of the comic-book films out there but seeing every one of them in a theater might prove to be much of a good thing.
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Even new comic-book-type films like the very entertaining "Pacific Rim" by Guillermo Del Toro (the sci-fi monster flick is an homage to the kaiju flicks from the Far East rather an actual comic-book per se) bears little distinction visually from say "Thor: The Dark World." (The preview I saw for it was in 3-D and looked reasonable but nothing earth-shattering or new from what we have seen this Norse god do). I do not know how many more of these movies I can take in such a short amount of time - how many Thors can we handle after already seeing this stubborn Norse god wield a hammer in the first "Thor" and "The Avengers" in the last two years? Same with "Captain America 2" - couldn't they have just eradicated a stand-alone sequel in favor of seeing him suit up with his armored shield in the hotly anticipated "Avengers 2: Age of Ultron" in 2015? I am sure some of these filmmakers and writers will find new ways to keep our interest from waning but the surprise element might disappear. Beware because if the writing and direction are not up to par beyond wowing us with dozens of special-effects and techno-super-duper explosions, these movies will become interchangeable rather than distinct.
