Ranking the Marvel Universe

It's been a while since I posted, and since I've missed out on reviewing the last couple of entries into the Marvel Universe, I figured I'd do what everyone else is doing and rank the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, based on the incredibly objective scale that is my own personal preferences.

Review: The villains of Iron Man 3 and Star Trek 2

Time for a couple of quick movie reviews. Two big May sequels: Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness (aka JJ Abrams' Star Trek II). Both films are continuations of successful franchises, both heavily advertised their villains, both use insane amounts of CGI, and both have a fairly controversial twist, which means that most of everything I want to say is incredibly spoiler heavy. On the spoiler-free side, both films strike a fine balance action and humor, and well neither is perfect (and both make questionable decisions) both are excellent summer movies. Okay, spoilers now.

My favorite movies and comics of 2012

Time to look at my favorite things from 2012, a follow up to last year. It was an eventful year. We had a presidential election. The world failed to end. The economy did bad stuff. You know, the usual. World and political stuff isn't what this blog's about though. This was the year of Call Me Maybe and 50 Shades of Gray. More importantly to me, it was the year that The Avengers, The Hobbit, and The Dark Knight Rises all hit the silver screen. Creatively, I was on stage a few times, and even on camera. I've started a new novel (YA fantasy) and I'm working on a comic (superheroes). I'll post updates on both here in the future. Anyway on to the things I loved about 2012.

Review: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

The first 2013 release I've seen (meaning it gets the #1 spot for a few days) is Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. It stars Hawkeye, a Bond girl, and Jean Grey and straddles the line between bad and dumb fun pretty closely, but I found myself laughing often enough to enjoy it. It has a grownup Hansel and Gretel who make a career out of killing witches. The best detail is Jeremy Renner's Hansel having diabetes thanks to too much candy as a kid. Like Prince of Persia, the plot totally demands a close up of Gemma Arteron's cleavage (there's a 3D pun there somewhere, but I am better than that). It's a B movie, but at least it isn't pretentious. They did show most of the really cool stuff in the trailer. It ranks #1. If you aren't into the limited-release-awards-bait movies this is a decent alternative.

The Long Expected Hobbit

Martin Freeman is a perfect Bilbo Baggins

It has finally come. The long-awaited prequel to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy has made it through years of development and hit theaters in a brand new 48 frames-per-second 3D format. The original films rank among my favorite of all time, and I grew up with an audiobook of The Hobbit, so this is a story and world I'm familiar with. I'm not alone in this, so the film is landing with tremendous expectations. Added to that, this time around Jackson and company have decided to split a short novel into three long films. After the jump, I'll take a look at how this has worked our.

Richard Armitage is Thorin Okanshield

First, I should take a minute to talk about the high frame rate (HFR). HFR is weird. It's as jarring as the introduction of 3D, and in a film like The Hobbit, it's hard to say either technology adds anything. I will say HFR compliments 3D. Action in 3D tends to be jerky, and HFR smooths that out. Unfortunately, it speeds everything else up, so action looks great and people look weird until you get used to it. Of the people I saw the film with, one didn't even notice the difference, and most of the others said they got used to HFR after 15 or so minutes. I took over an hour before I was completely adjusted. I get the feeling that after seeing a few HFR movies, it's not going to be an issue, but I don't think The Hobbit was the best place to introduce the format. The film itself has a few issues and doesn't need the complaints HFR is going to generate. I mean, here I want to write a review of the movie and get sidetracked by the frame rate.

Now, on to the actual movie. Below there be spoilers.

My Favorite Moments from The Avengers

In celebration of The Avengers release on DVD and Blu-Ray, here's a blog about the movie that set the opening weekend domestic record. Joss Whedon and Marvel have turned in one of the best comic book movies ever, and I suspect that whether you pick it over or after Spider-man 2 or The Dark Knight depends more on your preference for the heroes involved. Personally, I can only say The Avengers was the greatest movie I have seen in years. Whedon crafted a script filled with humor and the all-important "F*** Yeah" moments that superhero movies thrive on. More importantly, the film lets every character shine, and that, more than anything, is what makes The Avengers work. This is a movie about a team, and not any one character. After the jump, I'll take a spoiler-filled look at my favorite scenes from my #1 movie this year.

Spoilers follow, but it's out DVD so you should have seen it by now.

Comic Review: Captain Marvel #1

Wednesday saw the release of issue #1 of Marvel's new Captain Marvel series, which sees former Ms. Marvel Carol Danvers take over the Captain Marvel name (like my previous post about the Ultimates, I'm aware of just how many times I'm using the word 'Marvel'). Technically, the new and improved Carol premiered last week in Avenging Spider-man #9, but this is the first issue that Carol gets all to herself (though Captain America and Spider-man do put in guest appearances). Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick has created a much more confident, self-assured version of Carol than appeared in the character's previous Ms. Marvel series. Now, neither Marvel or DeConnick would ever admit that this new book was in any way an answer to the problems DC faced with female characters in their New 52 line. Still, this new version of Carol Danvers--without "Ms." in the title and a uniform that shows less skin--is obviously designed as a hero rather than another sexy comic book woman. And I think that's great, because more so than ever, it looks like the new Captain Marvel is going to be one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Cabin In The Woods is awesome

Last weekend, I had the good sense to check out Cabin In The Woods, the new horror movie from Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard and the legendary Joss Whedon. Cabin was one the films plunged into limbo by the financial crisis at MGM, that has now managed to reach multiplexes. The trailers promised it would be more than your run-of-the-mill slasher pic, and for once, they didn't lie.

Cabin neatly lines up every horror archetype. The slutty girl, the jock (played by the Norse God of Thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth), the funny guy (Dollhouse's Fran Kranz) the nerd, and the good girl. Throw these characters into a creepy cabin in the middle of titular woods, and you have every horror movie ever. And that's the point. Over the 95 minute run time, Goddard and Whedon effectively skewer and affirm every trope of the horror genre, with enough twists, turns, and screams to keep you on the edge of your seat. I can't say much without giving anything away, even the trailers spoil several key beats of the film if you pay close attention to them.

Overall, it's my top film of the year, beating out The Hunger Games, although I doubt it'll hold the spot for long with The Avengers less than two weeks away.

The Phantom Menace

I went to see the 3D re-release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace last week. I don't personally hate the film with the vehemence that some fans do, and I don't think it's the worst film in the Star Wars series. However, as I sat through the film, I couldn't help think it would be seriously improved by a little cutting (midichlorians), and few story changes. Well, here's a video which lays out roadmap for the film that might have been (thanks to io9 for the heads up). Anyway, in regards to the 3D Phantom Menace, it was about what I expected. The parts that were good (the Podrace, Darth Maul) looked good, and the things that weren't didn't get better. 

Flashback: Star Trek (2009)

Time to add another entry to my flashback series, and I'm going with J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot of Star Trek I've seen every episode of The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, every movie and decent amount of the Original Series (though I haven't actually sat down and watched every episode, yet), but even though it's blasphemous to die-hard fans, the newest film is my personal favorite. The biggest reason for that is the amount of storytelling that takes place in this film. True, it lacks much of the socio-political and cultural commentary that made Star Trek what it is, but unlike the other series that had years to develop their characters and find a mix that worked (goodbye Tasha Yar, hello Seven of Nine), the new film had two hours and 122 pages to do the same amount of work. True, it had some audience recognition on its side, but a quick look at the box office numbers will show just how far this film outstripped the previous entries in the franchise. There're good reasons for that, and I'll take a look at them after the break.

Another movie roundup

It looks like I have another bunch of unexplained films on my 2011 ranking list, and since one of those films was really good, while another was quite a disappointment, I feel like explaining why I've ranked them the way I did.

Also, certain films have undergone a considerable shift from their original rankings, and deserve to have their fall pointed out in excruciating detail. Click ahead for more.

A reading recap for August

So, in the joy of getting out of school, I limited my reading strictly to comic books for June and July (okay, that wasn't actually the reason, but let's go with it anyway). I was kicked back into gear around the start of August, and that helped lead to this post. Now I still fully intend to read 1984, but my local library isn't cooperating, so I'm going to start with Dune instead. I'm currently a few chapters in, and I'll have a post about my impressions soon. In the meantime, here's what I read over the course of August.

Review: Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #1

I don't buy many new comics. I generally wait for the collected editions so I can read through four-to-six issues without advertisements or a long wait between issues, but a new limited series about one the best characters in Marvel's Ultimate Universe was too intriguing for me to pass up, and I tracked down Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #1 at my closest comic store. The Ultimate version of Hawkeye, unlike Marvel's mainstream version of the character, has a lot more in common with Bullseye and the Punisher, he also happens to be Ultimate Nick Fury's right-hand man on the Avengers and Ultimates, the Ultimates being the Ultimate Universe version of the Avengers, with the Ultimate Avengers being the equivalent to the Secret Avengers in the mainstream continuity. So far, I've used the word Ultimate nine times in this post, and if you understood the previous sentance, you win nerd points.

Spoilers to follow.

I need to read more

The lack of reading updates on this blog is due to the fact that I haven't read any books worth mentioning (read: anything that wasn't a comic book) in the last couple of months. Yesterday, NPR released the results of survey of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy books of all time, and I realized that as an author, there's a lot of books I need to catch up on. My rough count is that I've read about a third of the list, counting a series like Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth, which I've only read a part of (but also The Wheel of Time which I've read completely). Now some of the omissions are so legitimately embarrassing that I wouldn't mention it if it didn't present such an opportunity.

"Captain America" is summer's superhero

Captain America was my most anticipated film of this year, and I was seriously worried that it would fail to meet my expectations. However, after seeing the film, I think I have to say that this is the most satisfied I have been with a film since The Two Towers, and this movie was everything I hoped it would be.

Much of my excitement sprang from trailers that showed the film would be a combination of war film and superhero movie. Fortunately, director Joe Johnson pulled this off perfectly, incorporating classic war film elements (a mission behind enemy lines, a squad of elite commandos) with the superhero origin story in a way that felt natural.

So happily, this passes X-Men: First Class and Thor to become my #1 movie of the year and I can only say that if you are a fan of any of these movies, than don't forget to stay through the credits, because that's something you won't want to miss.

Harry Potter goes out with a bang

I went to a midnight showing of the final Harry Potter film. It was last-minute decision, but I felt like I was missing out on something important, and it turns out a lot of people felt the same. It's been almost ten years since the release of the first film, I've seen everyone on the opening weekend and picked up the last two books at midnight, so I won't pretend I'm objective.

However, I was disappointed at the pacing of the previous film, and since I'd loved the conclusion to the books, I was concerned as to how it would play out on film. I wasn't thrilled with the way director David Yates directed the action in Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince, with his style leaning toward the frenetic, confusing style that adds realism to The Bourne Identity but made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen a jumbled mess.

However, I wasn't disappointed as the film started with action and never let up. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of the characters, and there's no way Part II can stand alone as a piece of story-telling. So this is possibly the best Harry Potter film, but if you aren't serious Harry Potter fan, you're going to be left scratching your head. Heck, even I was confused a few times, and it'd only been six months since I'd seen the previous film. That's one of the reasons that makes this my #3 film of the year. There were some great parts, and few disappointing ones that I'll mention ahead, but they are spoilers, so you've been warned.

New "Transformers" gets enough right

A quick disclaimer, I really liked the first Transformers despite its obvious flaws, and even though Revenge of the Fallen was a major disappointment, I was still looking forward to seeing the third film, Dark of the Moon. Well, I've seen it now, and I was not disappointed. Even after lowering my expectations considerably, I still found this comparable to the first film. From what I've seen around the internet, people seem fairly split over this film, and I've found that I agree with the points other reviewers are making, even if I don't agree with their final assessment. There are things is this movie that work, some things that almost work, and some things that don't. As far as I can tell, the reaction the film depends on whether or not you find the good outweighs the bad. For me it does, and Dark of the Moon comes in as my #4 for the year.

I'll break down the pros and cons after the break, and there will be spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

Newest X-Men is "First Class"

It wouldn't be accurate for me to say X-Men: First Class came out of the blue. I've been a fan of the X-Men franchise and liked The Last Stand and Wolverine far more than either film deserved. So while I was expecting I'd like First Class, my hopes weren't remotely high until the first trailer catapulted up my list of anticipated films.

However, after seeing it yesterday, I have to say that First Class not only comes in far ahead of Wolverine and The Last Stand and honestly I think it's the best stand-alone film of the series (X2 depends on set-up from the the first film). Recasting Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender pays off for this prequel/reboot (FOX execs are saying "reinvention" so they don't have to commit to anything). Both actors have big shoes (or wheels) to fill, and turn brilliant performances and really owning the characters, as does Jennifer Lawrence, stepping into... well, nothing actually... to replace Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.

Anyway, X-Men: First Class is the first film this year to actually beat my expectations. I didn't think I'd like it more than Thor (and hindsight could change my mind), but right now, First Class is my first for the year. Of course, it's not a totally perfect movie, and a few spoilers will follow.

Panda 2 the power of awesome

My favorite thing about the summer movie season--at least until I run out of cash--is that there's a new movie I want to see released every weekend. This means I don't have to spend time thinking of interesting or unique ideas for blog posts. Yesterday, Kung Fu Panda 2 beat out Hangover II for my ticket money, and even though I'll probably catch Hangover soon, I'm happy with the decision. Though did you really expect less? Have you read the title of this blog? How could I not like a movie about awesomeness? The first Kung Fun Panda (which I only saw for the first time a little over a year ago) featured Jack Black as Po the Panda, with a supporting voice cast that featured Angelina Jolie (in what I believe is her best role), Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, and others. That cast is back for the sequel and picks up Gary Oldman and Danny McBride to play the new villains.

Anyway, Kung Fu Panda 2 follows solidly in the footsteps of its predecessor. It's not particularly innovative and there's no plot twists you won't see coming, but the filmmakers remember what the movie is supposed to be, which is just solid fun.

A quick movie roundup

Looking at my 2011 film rankings, I noticed there's quite a few films I've seen but haven't commented upon.

So here's a summery of everything else I've seen this year. Some of these are already out on DVD, a couple might even still be in theaters. It's all after the break.