This blog tracks the epic of kick-starting a whole writing career, with spies and thrillers, now saints and vampires. I cover the creative process, stuff that blows up, history, philosophy, and theology. If you like any or all of the above, you'll like this one. We talk about comic books, movies, music, and writing. Usually, all at the same time.
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Just when I was wondering what I would post about today, they came out with a new Marvel Trailer.
This is literally the first trailer, and surprisingly, it looks good. Someone should tell it to the people who made the first Captain Marvel trailer. Me? Cynical? Naw.
Anyway, this looks like fun. More importantly, it looks like Sony is treating Peter Parker's friends as disposable as they should be. Tranquilizing Ned is a good start. Though I still refuse to credit ... that as MJ. Though at least someone taught Miss Resting Bitch Face how to smile. Though I'd still like to hit her with a 2x4. As I understand it, tormenting someone you have a crush on is something that happens in grammar school, not high school.
Let's break this down a bit.
Opening: Aunt May seems to have gotten used to her nephew being a superhero. She's gotten even more used to Tony Stark's Happy Hogan. I guess it's good to be a producer.
:30 -- Peter Parker's European vacation. I'm not sure how you work that into bringing along a collection of high schoolers on a vacation that's worth tens of thousands of dollars.... unless of course it's a Tony Stark endowment. Given what happens next, it wouldn't surprise me.
1:12 -- Sam muthaf***ing Jackson as Nick muthaf***ing Fury. Yee haw. Given everything that has happened to Tony Stark, it's good to retire him from this franchise. Also, Peter Parker needs adult supervision, and Tony doesn't really qualify.
1:24 -- And Fury is already stealing this movie. Please, let Ned swallow his tongue. He's annoying as hell.
1:29 -- whoever is doing the music for this trailer is turning the classic 60s Spider Man theme into something that almost sounds epic. Who knew? Props to this fellow.
1:36 -- Spider Man becomes London Has Fallen. I approve.
1:38 -- the bad guys for this film are "elementals." Sorry, all I can think is "So, someone re-purposed Sandman and Hydroman?"
1:53 -- The Spiderman Noir suit? Interesting choice. Though considering how dark the back story on that costume design is, I'm not expecting they'll call it that.
2:03 -- Mysterio? Why's he in this film? As a ... hero? Considering the background on Mysterio, I'm going to wonder if he's the bad guy, and all of the other villains are simply one mass illusion on his part. It would explain why a character whose biggest abilities were splashy special effects is fighting elemental Kaiju.
2:25 -- oh, look, they've decided to make the character called Flash Thompson a fan of Spider Man and a dick to Peter Parker. Now if they just made him a six-foot blond athlete dickhead instead of a preppy Indian midget, they might come close to recognizable to readers of the comic books.
Until the reviews for Far From Home comes out, (proving it's safe to watch) here, have some action packed novels that aren't made for the PC crowd.
No, I'm still cynical about this. Most of the dialogue in the trailer is exposition. And I'm not entirely certain that I want to spend the entire film with her doing Jason Bourne memory loss when the trailers have pretty much explained a good chunk of it.
.... I also like how they opened the trailer with explaining "punching little old lady in the face."
It's okay. I've seen worse. And it's obvious they churned this one out after polishing some of the effects.
However, if you want some solid heroics, life or death threats, and kicking ass and taking names, there's Hell Spawn. And remember, Death Cult is coming. Pre-order you copy now.
0:04: Holy Hell, Watson is back! John Watson is back! Sorry, I mean Martin Freeman. Damn. It's been so long since Captain America: Civil War that I forgot that Freeman was in this franchise. He's playing some sort of state department bureaucrat, who's been a thorn in the side of the Avengers a few times over the years. We see him here interviewing Andy Serkis, Mister Klaue (Claw) from Age of Ultron. Serkis' character is a Black Panther villain, but in this case, he's no where near his final villain form that we see in the comics. I doubt they'll use him as that in the films, but we'll see.
0:14: Some nice CGI as Freeman begins to explain that Wakanda is a 3rd world country. Which, to everyone's knowledge, is BS. The audience knows from the Comics, and the post-credits Civil War scene, that Wakanda is a highly advanced country. I guess they've decided that it's a secret only known to the super hero community.
0:23: And here's where we explain that the 3rd world country bit is a front, and we see some of the high tech stuff kicking around. Please don't say aliens. Please don't say aliens....
0:27: Ooh, shiny.
0:30: And here's the high tech shuttles
0:35: Gee. Hunters in a dark jungle. I'm getting a Jurassic Park vibe. Anyone else?
0:47: Damn, that costume looks snazzy. From here, we see what comic readers should expect from Black Panther: he's an awesome martial artist, and his costume is bullet proof.
1:02: I think Serkis has lost his mind. Again.
1:05: Remember when I said they were advanced? Yup. They're advanced. Now I really am starting to wonder about aliens. As I said earlier in the week, they could make this another infinity gem storyline, if only so Wakanda can have power.
1:07: Interesting facial markings. I understand these are usually tribal.
1:10: Andy Serkis may have a staring role in this one! There's a break out.
1:12: I wonder if this is Black Panther's sister.
1:17: One, NO. NO HIP HOP. T'Challa is as far from Black America as you can get without going to another planet. Hell, I'd even look up Afro-Celt and play some of that! Yes, Afro Celt, it's a thing. Two? Andy Serkis might be a villain here. He was a weapons dealer in Age of Ultron, it looks like he's keeping up his business here. So it should be T'Challa versus the techno thieves.
1:18: The UN? really?
1:18-1:32. Micellanous images. I'm getting the impression we might have some political gaming here along the way. Game of Thrones, Wakanda edition? Serkis may just be a lacky, or a subplot.
1:32 T'Challa stopping an SUV with his body. Okay, that's cool. Nice imagery. Nice slow motion.
Okay, I'll confess, this generally looks good. Marvel, this is your movie to screw up. Make it about their native culture, and their city, and a lot of action, and we'll be good. This is your chance to world build. Build it. If you make it about racial politics, you'll have problems.
I've finished watching Daredevil. It is still awesome. Vincent D'Onofrio, when he's sane, can do whatever acting gig he wants. His Wilson Fisk was sympathetic and terrifying. Carlie Cox was suave and funny as Matt Murdock. And Foggy Nelson nearly stole the series -- which is a toss-up between Foggy and Murdock's priest for who stole the most screen time.
And even though they didn't have the standard "after the credits" tag, they had one mid-season tag (the episode called simply "Stick"), hinting at a grander story arc here, probably involving the magical/ninja/Yakuza known as the Hand. It will be interesting to see what else pops up over the next three series Marvel has planned.
For the record, the best exchange? "You took Spanish in college just to get near that Greek Chick. Whatever happened with her anyway?" "Oh, it didn't go well."
I see this being very interesting in the long run. Though if there's another Daredevil series, they may or may not do Elektra, assuming that the Jennifer Garner role didn't blow it.
Did anything else happen this week?
Oh yeah, CUE THE MUSIC. Star Wars has returned!
The force is strong with this family. It looks very badass, from the crashed Star Destroyer in the desert to the tense (but not over the top) action and special effects. The X-Wings look like standard dogfighting photography. And, if I'm reading their implications right, they're going to follow up on Leia as having the force.
The graphics look great. The production values and costumes look great. And is anyone else going to complain about grizzled Han Solo?
Then we have: Even MORE Star Wars. For the record, this is a video game. Ignoring the people (who move a little awkwardly), I have problems telling this apart from live action.
Sorry about this everyone, but I'm taking a break. It wasn't planned. I hadn't expected to wimp out and stop posting, it just happened. I even went out and scoured Youtube for something to post for a music blog, and nothing new looked interesting.
So, that said, I'm going to repost a trailer, and hope no one notices.
