Boy, I have not posted on here in a while!
I kept meaning to and have a lot of things I wanted to talk about in the world of movies. Just that I am embroiled in a court case that has lasted 3 years, the firm is paying for and in the hands of the Supreme Court currently. Though not for much longer.
Oh and I am only involved ... kind of ... indirectly, lol.
I have no doubts whatsoever that by October this year, 2015, most of you ... well most of you that are British may have figured out what this is all about and not from me either.
As for my visitors from overseas, I have 12 blogs and some attract many, many more people, they may have figured this one out late on in the year or early next year.
However I have something I simply could not resist speaking about.
No it is no the absolutely fantastic (Pardon the pun, it was't one lol) Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice trailers that has me dribbling like an idiot. Nor is it the Suicide Squad trailer that I was not interested in until I saw it.
Nor is it the upcoming Doctor Strange movie nor my concerns about the Civil War Captain America movie that both looks and sounds like a very much watered down version of the real thing.
Nor have I come on here to point out to idiots that X-Men Days Of Future Past is actually terrible...what? You disagree? Well ...
I am old enough to tell you that I was buying these comics as they were being published. X-Men were the most popular title in the Marvel Universe and yes ... more popular than the Avengers. In fact this story line was already written and had other fantastic story lines too, like Alpha Flight, the Starjammers (memory might not be too good here), the Hellfire Club, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Morlocks (think the names right? Mutants underground wwith Caliban) and others.
None of these have been done justice and I am getting fed up with first off the effing liberties they are taking with the stories and characters along with the usual movie studio bollocks of 'let's take more profit from the sequels by not bothering with the costumes' eh, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye which is why I have yet to see Avengers Age of Ultron!
Go on then. Name one cool outfit they have introduced since Iron Man and Thor? Nope, Captain America's does not look like the comic book versions.
Anyhoo...
Blue and hairy version of Beast was only ever an Avengers character and not involved in Days Of Future Past. Other than the sections in the future and only with one or two characters there was no Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pride, Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm and Wolverine. Oh OK then ... a Wolverine with adamantium! Lol, hmm have I missed anyone out there I wonder?
The X-Men of that popular era had 7 people in the team. SEVEN. Excluding Professor Xavier. How many did DoFP have in the present day? One. Without his claws!
Oh and I finally see a Colossus that looks like Colossus and in a bloody Deadpool trailer!
Other than the morons that liked it because of a storyline they did not even write one guy and fan of the X-Men once posted "After days Of Future Past that franchise is DEAD to me, wake me up when Marvel gets the rights back!"
Guess what? I am not here to talk about that either!
Myself and a friend of mine did not like what we were hearing about the casting for the reboot of Fantastic Four. In fact if I am honest we both wanted it to bomb in a big way so that hopefully the Marvel properties that Fox own would go back to Marvel, given back or some deal like what Sony are doing with Spider-Man can take place.
Why?
Well because of Civil War for one. Pretty sure it has he Fantastic Four and X-Men involved in the comics?
Oh and because of the other rights too! Because it is not just the Fantastic Four but an alien race they could not use in Guardians Of The Galaxy, Galactus and my one favourite the Silver Surfer, which Fox also raped and raped again.
Oddly before Marvel, or some idiots at Disney once again being idiots, started skimping on the outfits and playing loose with characters that have lived for years by starting to kill them Marvel showed how to do an X-Men movie with The Avengers.
Fox have their last chance in production right now! X-Men Apocalypse and the previous one was so bad that I swore I would not watch it at the cinema nor buy it on Blu-Ray, as I had done the latter with DoFP.
So imagine my shock when I see that the film with three white and one black actor in Fantastic Four started getting really bad reviews. Really bad reviews! I HATE race changing characters, do a movie with a black hero for feck sake it looks like a token gesture and bad. Make my final point on this at the bottom.
This was so bad ... no catastrophic that everywhere I looked and heard and read I simply could not believe what I was ... well discovering!
In fact this was soo bad that when someone had something good to say about the Fantastic Four I wondered of they were completely mad or perhaps, from what I read, not very intelligent and missed all the flaws. Of which there were a lot. In fact reading on down the hundreds and hundreds of comments I went through other people that saw the movie accuse those saying it was good or OK as belonging to Fox. Or someone in the myriad of names that are involved in a movie like this. Come on? You must have noticed at the end of these movies just how frigging long the credits are? So long they often have two or three tracks play throughout the rolling. There would also be a long list of Fox staff not involved in the movie and so not in the credits.
The list of things the geeks and nerds hated was out of this world. I had not seen anything like it and oddly they stated it was even worse than the previous Fantastic Four films and Green Lantern. Yeah ... well i never thought the Fantastic Four films were that bad really. Felt a fight light and they could have done better with the Silver Surfer and no his power does not come from his fucking board you idiots. Yes, yes OK I totally agree about the Galactus ... umm ... appearing? Or at least I think he did and yes it felt a fight scene that included the Surfer light too.
They were not terrible ... just could have been a lot better.
Now here is the odd part ... most of the reviews I read of both critics and movie goers stated that the latest one was worse than those three films, oh yeah and I liked Green Lantern but was a fight light and had Galactinitus Disease!
Yet there were some that was saying the latest FF film was better than these?!
Wait? Yes, I have NOT seen the latest FF! But it does not take a genius to know it is bad! Dr Doom looks utter shite, turns up in the last 15 minutes and quickly gets killed?! The action scenes from the clips were cut from the film?! The last fight is the only fight in the film?
I do not even have to talk about the disjointed sections, the things not explained at all or main characters missing for large portions of the film without explanation. No I do not have to worry about that. Or that they were too young for the parts, I knew this one already. Or how Susan Storm was not present when they got their powers. In a totally different way to the story I know, or knew, too!
One surprising one was the fact that there were only four locations in the film. Inside the laboratory is where something like 60% or more of the film takes place?! What?! The short bit in the Negative Zone, or whatever name they changed it to.
Oh and the other common statement was that they were not the Fantastic Four in name, or names even, either?!
Want to know what is funny? I do not even like the Fantastic Four, or at least I did not as a kid but my brother was mad about them and I cannot wait for him to see it and ask him what he thought! However the franchise would appeal to me these days because not only am I technically a scientist, BSc Applied Computing and expert in animals, astronomy and other sciencey things, but I love the films and TV series that portray a brilliant and high intellectual, mad, Doctor like scientists. Well Like Doctor Who, lol. So Reed Richards for me these days is interesting.
Then I was reading with shock and awe on my face as I was finding out for the first time about the tweet from the director, Josh Trank, and the shenanigans that went on with him both on and off the set.
Then there was the rumours, which have enough sources for me to totally believe it is what happened, that Fox became involved and basically did the end of the film. Trank was fired from Star Wars 8 director duties and the actors were called back in to re-shoot, it showed and even talk about a wig being worn by Kate Mara?!
Umm ... I just going through my mind here and trying to remember of Fox have made movies and TV series before? They have ... haven't they?
I thought it was just about bringing famous and popular comic book characters and story lines to the big screen they were and are clearly amateurish in? Sounds like a bunch of morons making their first ever movie to me?!
My word, this movie is actually historical for all the wrong reasons.
I am now scared the film will make a profit because people will want to see exactly if it is as bad as everyone says?! I have even thought about seeing it! I wont though. Just saying, lol.
In fact this occurred to the bad reviewers and one or two pleaded at the end of their YouTube review of the film not to go and pay for it out of curiosity as it might get a sequel, one stating "please don't! I really do not want to have to sit through something like that again!"
Now everyone is screaming for the rights to go back to Marvel. It matters not for a Fantastic Four movie because ... you cannot get them into Civil War as it is too late, or Civil War was done too early ... for me. You wont get a Fantastic Four movie now by Marvel until like 2020 at the earliest if at all. So plenty of time.
But the Silver Surfer?! Yeah...one of the coolest heroes for me in Marvel along with the X-Men, Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch (see why I am pissed with Age Of Ultron? Lol).
I actually liked, outside of Electro, Amazing Spider-Man 2 ... which others did not obviously and was a shame for me because ... as a Spider-Man fan I was drooling over the fact that they were heading for the Black Cat and Sinister Six story lines. Outside of Green Goblin, Hob Goblin (don't ... just don't unless you go all the way!) and perhaps Kraven, Venom and Carnage this was the one of the best parts of the Spider-Man series of comics for me.
I have to live with knowing I wont be seeing Spidey and Black Cat and their battles together for a very long time yet! Boo-hoo, lol.
Now the rumour mill is stating, or correctly questioning if Fox Studios hates Marvel and only makes crap movies so Marvel do not get the right back. This sounds ludicrous ...
Except that after the last 3 films ... not giving them back or doing what Sony did with a partnership with Marvel over Spider-Man ... well it will look like they called that one correctly.
I was filled in on the Civil War story by my comic book loving friend, I missed it myself and wont go and buy the graphic novel purely because, and it was not long before the film in production sounded like a watered down version. Also missing other major characters too!
The one thing that is positive for Marvel right now, as I am sure they have caught the blinkeritis bug too now, is DC Comics. Because the Marvel films were starting to look like they were cutting corners on things, like something resembling the proper costumes! Of course this looks to us like a way to increase profits when us comic book fans already know that this only ever backfires.
Starts to look crap or different and you start losing the fans and so take less money.
Fifty plus years of movie making and they have not figured that one out yet. People always say that sequels are never as good as the first and this is why. There is no logical reason why the follow up is worse than the original. Marvel and DC have been going for ... umm how long now?! Lol. The classic stories have popped up throughout this bloody long time-line.
So what other reason could it be? Perhaps that humungous salaries that idiot actors start demanding? I think they see the money the first one takes, think too highly of themselves and that the movie is all about them personally and want a larger slice of the pie. Of course everyone naturally thinks the sequels take less, except the actors who keep upping their demands and you have a recipe for disaster.
This is a self-fulfilling prophecy that has lasted an eon in the movie industry who have failed to realise it only affects them. Well all except for one franchise that kept getting better, mostly, and had errr many books, twelve maybe, to work on and just kept on going ...
JAMES BOND!
Yet the rest of the movie industry seems to have totally overlooked the recipe that the Bond movies follow. Make the next one bigger and better and you take more money. When the books ran out they carried on writing more stories.
In the world of both DC and Marvel you have comics that came out every month for up to 76 years!
So how is DC the best thing that could have happened to Marvel? Oh all because of a little trailer that has sent the Internet aflame, including me, regarding Batman and Superman.
Oh I was a big fan of the Justice League and Superman. Second only to the X-Men when I was a kid and always wanted a Batman and Superman movie along with the Justice League of course. If I am honest and when I first read about it ... umm a bloody long time ago in fact, cue shot of Batman V Superman poster in that awful I Am Legend, and I was immediately genuinely worried it would be crap.
Now I will be honest once again and state that as soon as I finished watching the Batman V Superman Comic Con, San Diego, trailer I was ... stunned. Speechless. I immediately predicted that not only was this going to be good ... but it was going to actually take more money than any comic book movie has.
I am going to be honest again. Despite my love for some of the DC characters in all honesty a Batman and Superman movie should not take as much as an X-Men movie. Avengers maybe, but not X-Men. X-Men was the most popular comic. the end. In fact I can remember missing some issues and they sold out and was impossible to get hold of copies! Me and five other comic book loving friends often rifled through the past issues sections of several comic book stores in the West End, London. Forbidden Planet, when it was in Denmark Street, and several others nearby to no avail.
The only comic book series I remember this happening with was the X-Men. Fro the start of the NEW X-Men, ninety something, right up into the 140 plus numbers you had to be quick, lol. Leave it a couple of months and you were buggered.
I have not seen that reflecting in the takings of the X-Men films.
Had an X-Men film stuck to the story and characters and created in the way, or format, that The Avengers was created and you would have something very, very special.
But here in comes the other problem and one that I hate reading about as soon as I see those two fucking words 'Artistic differences'! Sorry ... but the artistry is already done ... you morons!
No this is the bit where I always say to people that another way of ruining a comic book franchise is the Directors. They choose ones that have done popular movies, especially involving action, and it all goes down hill from there. because they get soo much money and so much acclaim it goes to their heads and they think they are so good that they can chop a proven formula to bits, tack it back together, kill off loved characters and people will still love it and it will take bucket loads.
I am so glad they made the Avengers and not because I loved Thor and not because I now like Iron Man because he can make a brilliant movie, see hat I did there, but because it showed that the X-Men films were not as good as people think. Well ... most of them.
The other problem that enrages me is actors going for super hero roles that have their faces covered mostly or entirely by a mask. They want to be on-screen most of the time, umm it is about a super hero folks, and even when suited up they want the mask off as much as they can!
Sometimes this can be ridiculously obvious to the point it is lame, stupid and renders the story making no sense at all, a la Amazing Spider-Man. Other times it is just blatantly obvious like Iron Man 2 ... umm possibly the third but was so bad I cannot remember any part of the film, lol.
Choose a super hero without a mask you bloody lame and insecure egotistical ducks! Don't ask, first thing that popped into my head that was not rude or a profanity, lol.
Oh yeah and despite the three plus race changes I am still waiting for one to be turned into a Chinese guy, a Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Indian, Spanish, Mexican, Russian, Turkish, Greek, Arab or Aborigine! Hmm have I missed any races out? LMAO!
I have been trying to work out of Fox are trying hard to not look racist or whether nor not only one race complains about things? I would not know to ether of these but I find it bizarre to change a hero from one race to another or from one gendre to another.
A woman as Doctor Who would be sacrilege, but if Doctor Donna got her own series and Tardis I would bloody well watch that!
I do not like things that are forcibly changed to appease some group or other when it is something that has been a certain way for fifty or sixty years. You cannot appease everyone! Do not believe me?
Right ... can all the Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Spanish, Irish, Scandinavian, Peruvian, Taiwanese, Indian, Mauritian, Haitian, Argentine and actors and actresses of any other race place start sending letters campaigning the use of your races in Marvel and DC roles to the following addresses please ....
Oh ... lol, I do not have them. Well I am sure you can find the addresses of the headquarters of these studios on the Internet.
Or just send them to your local or national newspapers, lol.
You see on my other blogs I believe in being fair too! And fair is fair, not some token gestures to avoid complaints ... or as the case may be to stifle complaints.
Toss into this mix the simple and long since obvious, or should have been, fact that if you mess with a long established and highly popular formula you are going to end up with goo. Sometimes very smelly goo too!
Now to cap that little part off nicely ... err they do spend a lot of money on these to get fans to go in droves to see them and therefore make money?
As Stan Lee once said ...''nuff said'.
