I gave up on this site a few weeks ago from reading all of the ignorant, sad, and botomline silly commments from many users complaining about a few set pieces from a few upcoming movies. It's pathetic really to judge a movie by seeing a couple on set pictures and videos filmed from camera phones. Really. Judge the movie by the trailer, but the way the filmakers describe how they're making the movie. Not from the leaked set pics. It makes me judge some people's intelligence on this site. So I took a month break. But with a month passed and a lot of news being stuffed into this site like a thanksgiving turkey, This is MY thoughts on the 'Big 5'.
*THE STUDS*
1. The Dark Knight Rises
When I first saw the trailer before Harry Potter's epic finale, I got the chills. The trailer was edited to perfection, and one couldn't ask for more; its clear that the suspense and mystery (pun intended) rises. Now I haven't seen this many people complain on a site about a specific topic since the 2008 presidential election. But seriously, I've only seen fanboys complain about the many set pictures and videos leaked from Pittsburgh. Many mainstream people are getting more and more hyped by the site of it. The 'Batwing' or 'Hoverbat' looks epic and fantastic. The design is really interesting and it only wants you to wonder the whole origin behind it when Foxx explains it to Bruce. Catwoman's Suit looks alright to me. But it looks more of a prototype rather than the actual costume. The only hate is really coming off of this site. Many users are die hard comic fans that really want their movies to stick true to the comics. Not every CBM is gonna do that, people. Nolan has given us a dark, more realistic twist on the Dark Knight Detective and its soared the hero's popularity to the number 1 spot in the world.
Now I will say this, Nolan isn't the greatest director ever. No not even. In my opinion Steven Spielberg is at the top, but one could list Nolan as being the greatest in the past 5 years. No other director has really made better movies in the past five years than Nolan. The guy knows how to make a movie; its no doubt. But to go as far as saying hes the best of all time? Psssh. Think it through people.
But from what I've seen and by the trailer, and the set pieces, The Dark Knight Rises is looking like the movie event of summer 2012. It is extremely hard not seeing this movie with a 150 million + opening weekend. Now with this 'third movie curse'? I call bullshit on that. Some Marvel fanboys are calling this 'Spider-man 3 Nolan style'. HA!
By the time Spidey 3 turned around the corner, the filmakers hated their jobs. But the studio offered them boat loads of cash and thus they gave us a steaming pile of shit. With The Dark Knight Rises, these people are more dedicated to their line of work. Nolan wanted to do 3 Batman movies, much like Lucas wanted to do 3 star wars movies 30 years ago. And Nolan's track record is quite impressive,and he wouldn't risk his reputation with the the conclusion to his trilogy. I've even seen comments stating that TDKR would come up and be the X3. That's goin to far. First off, X3 had a different director, a different style and different pace compared to its predecessors. That's why it sucked.
Bottom line: TDKR will either be just as good, if not better than TDK.
2. The Avengers
My anticipation level is extremely high for this movie. Marvel Studios granted us the memorable and modern classic Iron Man, the pretty good but not great Incredible Hulk, The lackluster Iron Man 2, an Amazing Thor, and a solid Captain America. The trailer at the end of Cap's credits was a sheer adrenaline rush for me. It really was. Thor's new look is freaking fantastic, but I wished they would have shown more Hulk :(
My only fear I have with this movie is that it might take the 'X-men route'. Now I know some of you are confused with that term, so let me explain. The 'X-men Route' means that the filmmakers will center the movie on ONE character, and make the others morely co-stars. That's the vibe I somewhat got from the mini-teaser. There was more Iron Man and Thor than Cap and Hulk. Well, all we saw of Hulk was bruce Banner taking off his glasses :/. The X-men trilogy really wasn't the X-men we knew from the comics. It was more like 'Wolverine and the gang'. If The Avengers is to take this route, their 'wolverine' would most likely be Iron Man. And if Stark is leading this team, that would be disappointing. It should be Cappy. If this is to happen, I'll be let down, but I'll still be pumped nonetheless. Come on. Its Marvel's 'Justice League'. Its gotta be good. If I had to rank the Marvel Studio's works it would be this:
Iron Man
Thor
Captain America
The Incredible Hulk
...
Iron Man 2
...hopefully the Avengers is at the top of this list.
Bottom Line: The Avengers, if it doesn't take the 'X-men route', will be Marvel Studio's best to date. But if it does take the X-men route, It would ahve the potential to be a fantastic summer popcorn flick.
3. The Hobbit (Part 1)
Personally, I'm more pumped for this over the Avengers. However, since there is little news on this movie, I have to put it at third place. Peter Jackson is another man who knows how to make a movie. He worked wonders with Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Now the Hobbit (Part 1) is upcoming. I get the shivers just by thinking about it. The movies proved extremely faithful to their source material, and their extended cuts practically crammed everything from their source material into four hours. Anyway, the team behind The Hobbit looks more dedicated than they did when they worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy a decade ago. Peter Jackson knows what he's doing, and he would never dismantle one of the most iconic books in the past century. I'm not too worried about a failure or disappointment. I'm concerned about a trailer release date :)
Bottom Line: with Peter Jackson and his team behind it, The Hobbit has a promising future.
*THE DUDS*
1. Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance.
Now Apparently the trailer is to debut this week. Trailer or not, I could really give a damn. This is gonna be the flop of the year, folks. Its hard to imagine this movie making as much money as its predecessor did. Nicholas Cage's career went down the drain and into the garbage disposal a long time ago and now nobody wants to see his face on screen. The first movie was exactly a garbage disposal. Bad acting, a poor plot and flat visuals really made it a weak addition to cinema history. Its sequel has the opportunity to be marginally better, but overall a mainstream audience could give a crap. I predict a 10 million final domestic gross. If not, less. News for this movie has been near dead as its premise and for those who are really anticipating this movie, wait for it to come out on Itunes when its listed as 99 cent rental of the week.
Bottom Line:
I think Picard speaks for most of us :)
2. Last, but not least...the Medicor-oops I mean-Amazing Spider-man
Oh boy. here it is. The Amazing Spider-man. The news and details of this movie have been very underwhelming. I was giving this movie a chance before I saw the trailer. To me it reminds me of mirror's image. It really does, and I'm glad to know I'm not alone. It seems like Spidey is on a collision course for being the 'Twilight of CBMs'. Sam Rami's Spider-man and Spider-man 2 were fantastic and memorable CBMs, ones that will be cherished for years to come. The thing is, however, that if you were to read comments that say 'Oh Rami's spider-man were shit', most of the people that are saying that still have the bad taste in their mouth left by Spider-man 3. Yeah sure the third installment sucked, but that doesn't mean you can hate on the first two films that were ultimately great. It is way, way too early for a reboot and the fact that it has a 70% like on youtube is underwhelming as well. Green Lantern did disappoint many fans but the first trailer received a 96% like from the people. Many mainstream fans really want Tobey back and are scratching their head towards Garfield. Andrew is a good actor. There is no doubt about that. But as we've learned from the past, any good actor can be dragged into a trash of a movie.
The Amazing Spider-man is heading in the wrong direction. Sad to see this really, since Spidey is one of my favorite superheroes. If this movie is to fail, then many people wouldn't be surprised.
Bottom Line: It can huff and puff all it wants, but the Amazing Spider-man won't blow Rami's house down.
BOTTOM LINE OF IT ALL:
The Dark Knight Rises-Nolan's batman goes out with a bang, and much more
The Avengers-will make the Dark Knight sweat box office wise, but not in popularity. However it will be a fantastic CBM and hopefully bring on some promising sequels
The Hobbit-Jackson's magic will work again and it'll find a spot in the Oscars once again.
Ghost Rider 2-DVD Rental.
The Amazing Spider-man-Huge potential to disappoint, but it might sneak out and be as solid movie.
That's how I feel.
Thoughts, comments?
Let me know.