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Superhero Thoughts in Unordered List Form
R. Alex Whitlock
- The Maxx was never released to DVD. Does anyone know why? It was popular enough, I'd think. There must be some copyright issues? I wanted to get it on Netflix, but couldn't. I may have to buy it.
- Speaking of Netflix, I've got the new Batman cartoon on queue. I don't think it's at all possible to measure up to the outstanding 90's cartoon and its successors. I've never understood how DC could get television so right (Batman: The Animated Series, Lois & Clark, The Flash) and screw up their movie properties so royally until recently. Other than Ninjajoker, the visuals of the new cartoon look pretty cool, though. Prior to this, there was another animated movie I missed: Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. I doubt it can be as good as Mask of the Phantasm, but it couldn't be worse than Sub Zero if it tried. Or unless it included Panzer-level bad CGI.
- I'm kinda disappointed that they're not rebooting Superman entirely when Superman Returns. Not that I think all of the first set need to be redone, but it opens up a lot more possibilities for charting a new direction. Batman Begins may have "undone" Batman 1989, but I think it had to in order to have room to breathe for an entire franchise.
- Then again, I still have not actually seen the original Superman movie. I am still baffled by this.
- Somewhere along the way it seems that they made a fourth Crow movie. It looks better than the dereadful second one was. Not sure it could measure up to the first. Never saw the third. For those of you that never saw it, though, the TV series was not bad at all. It's a bit hard to get around the fact that they all necessarily have the same plot, though.
- Anyone actually seen the Fantastic Four movie? I've heard nothing but negative things about it and I'm not even an FFan, but there's something oddly attractive about the cheesiness of it. "Come on, Susan, let's not fight." "No. Let's!"... that supremely bad fight dialogue could be interesting. They made one not long ago. The fact that I was unaware of this until today suggests that I may not have missed much. Besides, it doesn't have The Commish in it.
- DC actually has a knock-off of the Fantastic Four called Challengers of the Unknown. A miniseries was written several years back that would make a pretty good movie. It even had a song in it for the soundtrack! The writer of that series, Jeph Loeb, came from film. He wrote Teen Wolf and Teen Wolf Too, but we shan't hold that against him.
- And the more that people seem to heap on The Hulk, the more interesting it sounds to me. Sounds more up my alley than the big green guy usually is.
- I saw that they are making another Captain America movie. The last one, made in 1991, was dreadful. Though I have to say that I thought Matt Salinger made a good Cap. In fact, his demeanor defines who the otherwise bland character should be. If Superman is The Last Son of Krypton, Cap would have to be The Last Son of The Forties. A symbol of a country he doesn't entirely understand. I don't know if that's what Salinger was going for. His bewilderment may have had more to do with trying to figure out what to do with the otherwise awful script.
- Oversaturation seems inevitable. Silver Surfer? Aquaman? Black Panther? Some of these characters shouldn't even exist at all, much less be brought to the Silver Screen.
- They still totally need to do a Blue and Gold movie, though. It'd be awesome.
- Here's a bunch of gay guys dressed up as superheroes.
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Observations
I saw F4 the Saturday afetr it came. I'm a Marvel fan, as you know, but was never a F4 fan. Not that I didn't like them, I just wasn't interested.
Well, in short, I liked the movie. I'm sure I'll get piled on by "purists" for saying this, but it was a fun movie, if light on plot. I thought they got the characters MOSTLY right (Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm were dead on). It entertained me and Tammy (who didn't know a sinlge thing about the F4 going into it).
Again, I'll get piled on for this, but since you know my love for the X-Men, I think you'll understand. I actually think this movie (in form) was much like X-Men 1. X1 was not the greatest superhero movie ever, but it laid the foundation perfectly for X2, which is definitely one of the tops. While lighter on plot than X1, F4 gives us a springboard into what could be very good sequels.
F4 wasn't about origin/hero/villain/problem/resolution, it is ALL about orign. That's why it's light on plot, but a great set up for future movies.
Roger Ebert, who didn't like the movie, actually says much of the same. Too many origins and whatnot.
I've seen several people pile on Johnny Storm, which I thought was odd because he seemed like one of the better characters. In a movie like Fantastic Four, shouldn't *somebody* be having a lot of fun out there?
Dunno if I'm going to be able to take the dialogue, though.
#1 - on DC TV shows... Batman TAS is the only one that really comes to mind (well that and Smallville).
Lois & Clark and The Flash, regrettably, both trailed off and got quite bad after their first season.
#2 - uhm... yeah.
I agree that L&C and Flash did go downhill as time progressed, but that's par the course for the genre. And I am grading on a curve. Live-action TV shows are frequently hobbled. Even decent shows like later L&C and Flash are hard to come by. MANTIS ran in to the same fate. The Crow tv show probably would have, too. Smallville gets by the same way that My Secret Identity did, by not being very superheroey.
But the wealth of stuff extends beyond the examples I gave. The Superman animated series was solid, as was Batman Beyond. Most of Marvel's 90's cartoons haven't stood the test of time. X-Men seemed kinda cool, but it's almost laughable to look back at in a way that the others are not (or don't seem to be). The Spiderman series is sorta an exception - on par with animated Superman, maybe - but Marvel's Sunday lineup stacks up inferiorly to SWAT Kats.
DC's cartoons have positively influenced Marvel's TV output the same way that Marvel has improved DC's movie output. Amazing what a kick-in-the-pants will do!
But anyway, my main point is that while DC was producing decent-to-good TV shows, it was floundering big-time in the movies.
"Then again, I still have not actually seen the original Superman movie."
My first thought was whether you meant the Fleisher cartoons (which I picked up on a DVD for $1 at a store a while ago) or the <a href="
http://www.imdb.com/title/t...">1948</a> version, or one of the later Kirk Alyn serials, such as 1950's <a href="
http://www.imdb.com/title/t...">Atom Man vs. Superman</a>, or any of a number of possibilities.
It never, in the moment it took to get to the rest of your sentence, occurred to me that anyone could ever refer to the 1978 version, possibly the twentieth or so ever done, counting the tv program as only one thing, as "the original." I'm still baffled at this.
But you should see it, anyway. I wasn't thrilled with the goofy bits, and how Clark and Lois were played strictly for kiddie laughs, but it's still notable in the filmic history of Supes.
By odd coincidence, my most recent blog post, a little while ago, was about Superman.
I'm not interested enough to check, but I seem to recall that the Challs of the Unknown came <i>before</i> FF, and were one of the prime inspirations for the FF; basically, give the Challs super-powers. Perhaps I misremember.
The other FF movie was never released in any fashion; the makers of this one bought the rights before it came out to prevent the release; some accounts say it was made solely to hang on to the rights, or something, but I've not looked into details.
Jeph Loeb has been one of the major hands behind <i>Smallville</i>, as you probably know.
I thought that Ang Lee's <i>Hulk</i> was, while flawed, fairly good, myself, though I appear to be in the minority. I was simply happy to see an actual real Hulk, who can, you know, toss tanks miles, and hold up mountain ranges; not like that horrible, awful, utterly unwatchable tv series, in which we were supposed to be impressed he could lift a heavy table.
I can't say I'm excited to go see Nicholas Cage as <i>Ghost Rider</i>. I've still not worked up interest in <i>Blade</i>. <i>Iron Man</i>, maybe, though. All the Cap America films have so far been awful, but it certainly <i>could</i> be done right.
I have some hopes for the <i>Flash</i> movie; I thought the tv series was not too bad.
Aw, fuck, you want a lot of hoops jumped through to post a simple comment. And you're going to strip out all my HTML? Fuck this.
"Then again, I still have not actually seen the original Superman movie."
My first thought was whether you meant the Fleisher cartoons (which I picked up on a DVD for $1 at a store a while ago) or the <a href="
http://www.imdb.com/title/t...">1948</a> version, or one of the later Kirk Alyn serials, such as 1950's <a href="
http://www.imdb.com/title/t...">Atom Man vs. Superman</a>, or any of a number of possibilities.
It never, in the moment it took to get to the rest of your sentence, occurred to me that anyone could ever refer to the 1978 version, possibly the twentieth or so ever done, counting the tv program as only one thing, as "the original." I'm still baffled at this.
But you should see it, anyway. I wasn't thrilled with the goofy bits, and how Clark and Lois were played strictly for kiddie laughs, but it's still notable in the filmic history of Supes.
By odd coincidence, my most recent blog post, a little while ago, was about Superman.
I'm not interested enough to check, but I seem to recall that the Challs of the Unknown came <i>before</i> FF, and were one of the prime inspirations for the FF; basically, give the Challs super-powers. Perhaps I misremember.
The other FF movie was never released in any fashion; the makers of this one bought the rights before it came out to prevent the release; some accounts say it was made solely to hang on to the rights, or something, but I've not looked into details.
Jeph Loeb has been one of the major hands behind <i>Smallville</i>, as you probably know.
I thought that Ang Lee's <i>Hulk</i> was, while flawed, fairly good, myself, though I appear to be in the minority. I was simply happy to see an actual real Hulk, who can, you know, toss tanks miles, and hold up mountain ranges; not like that horrible, awful, utterly unwatchable tv series, in which we were supposed to be impressed he could lift a heavy table.
I can't say I'm excited to go see Nicholas Cage as <i>Ghost Rider</i>. I've still not worked up interest in <i>Blade</i>. <i>Iron Man</i>, maybe, though. All the Cap America films have so far been awful, but it certainly <i>could</i> be done right.
I have some hopes for the <i>Flash</i> movie; I thought the tv series was not too bad.
Aw, you want me to jump through an awful lot of hoops to post a simple passing comment. And you're going to strip out all my HTML. Fuck this. Okay, you don't get the links and formatting I used. Whatever. Enjoy the lack of links I spent time looking up and adding.
No need to be rude, Gary.
The hyperlinks are there, just shortened. And I wouldn't require the registration if it wasn't unfortunately necessary. The comment spam got completely out of control and this has proven to be the only effective way to stop it. As a CMS, Nucleus has its limitations, but so do most packages. I appreciate you taking the time, though. The fact that I have as many registrants as I do keeps me going on this endeavor.
My wording on the Superman thing was sloppy. I was referring to the Superman movies in the "universe" that the newest takes place in, thus making it the first or original that sense.
You're probably right about Challengers versus Fantastic Four. Your knowledge of this domain apparently surpasses mine.
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