Comic Book Movies: Expectations vs. Reality

Since this is the year of superhero and comic book based movies, it’s only fair that we’ve been talking about them quite a bit. I was going to take a break from doing so after Civil War‘s awesomeness, but I’ve barely had a chance to because another is on the horizon: X-Men Apocalypse.

As I talked about in my post at the beginning of the year, this is one of the movies I’m most looking forward to. I’m a little hesitant now because of some of the movies I’ve seen so far this year. Deadpool was awesome, but I wasn’t sure what to expect with it, so I was happy. Batman vs. Superman was the essence of mediocrity. And Captain America: Civil War blew my expectations out of the water and pleasantly surprised me with how fantastic it was.

Unfortunately for me while watching a trailer for Apocalypse today, I saw that the reviews coming in from people who have seen it have been very mediocre, to say the least. Currently on Rotten Tomatoes it’s at a middle of the road 50%. As far as action movies go, it could be far worse. What I’ve noticed is that the less than thrilled responses tend to come from the fact that people have very different expectations for comic book movies, and a lot  of different factors go into those expectations.

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Forever better than the Oscars… the MTV Movie Awards

I mean, I didn’t even watch them, just saw that they had happened because my social media started popping up with movie trailers that aired during it. But especially after such a disappointing and controversial Oscars this year, I had to run off and see what had won!

Link to that here.

Very nice! Deadpool, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max Fury Road… there’s some good stuff there. Nicely done, MTV Movie Awards. To be fair, Deadpool would be an option for next year’s Oscars, so we’ll see how that goes…

But the categories, the movies, the everything, better. Maybe it’s time to replace the one with the other…

Sorry there’s not more to this post than that, but! Have a few trailers after the jump!

Trailer Watch – Ender’s Game

Found on http://www.nerdist.com/2013/05/a-trailer-for-enders-game/

So, there have been a few different trailers out now for Ender’s Game, and with each successive one, I cringe a little bit more.

This is a movie that has already gone through years of development hell. It’s finally making it to the big screen. And it’s going through the controversy surrounding the Orson Scott Card, which I’ve talked about a bit before. And it even suffers – hopefully in a good way? – from a cast full of Oscar winners and nominees.

But as time goes on, I really wonder what is going on with this movie. Or with the marketing department. Or someone. Because some part of this – and I don’t know what yet – is not meeting my expectations. So I am going to include a few different trailers, and talk a bit about the book, and so all kinds of spoilers to come – and honestly, I’m not sure if the trailers are worth watching. I really don’t know.

Joss Whedon and the Golden Age

Alright, so I have to say: I think we are entering into a Golden Age of creativity in our world today. A world where we are running into new technologies, new ways of doing entertainment, new ways of approaching storytelling. A world where there is so much quantity, but we still value the quality so much.

I submit to you that this, the world we are moving into, the Day and Age, the Zeitgeist – for the geeks, the barometer of this has to be the success of Joss Whedon.

The shirt is from pvponline.com, but it’s all over the Internet by now…

A man who, constantly, has been shut down by the establishment. And who, when given the chance, creates the most beloved pieces of geekdom being produced today, outside of perhaps Doctor Who. Perhaps.

So join me for a few moments to consider where Joss Whedon has been, and where he has gotten to now, director of one of the highest grossing movies ever made.