Movie news which blew my mind from San Diego Comic Con 2013..!

It's fair to say that I'm a pretty unapologetic fan of comic book adaptations; they're a consistent source of solid entertainment, drawing (as they do) from many great and classic characters, story-lines, and they allow for some memorable and spectacular action beats for the big screen.  So, naturally, when there's a big event like the San Diego Comic Con, where studios promote their current in-development comic book adaptations/properties, I follow the emerging news, announcements and unveilings with great interest.

This year, I've got to admit, SDCC pretty damn near blew my mind - in one day there were at least 3 presentations which had some pretty significant surprises.  Here are some of the happenings which almost gave me a heart attack as I followed the reports via the internet, mixed in with some purely idle speculation and wish-listing for good measure..!

1) Hugh Jackman concludes 'The Wolverine' panel with a presentation of the ENTIRE cast of 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

By now, we've already seen 'The Wolverine', the fair to middling attempt to make up for 'X-Men: Last Stand' and (to a greater degree) 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (I still shudder at the very mention of the name... :-s ); by far the most interesting scene was the mid-credits 'tease' for the next X-Men movie, which will be based on possibly the single-most celebrated storyline from that comic's run.  Set in an alternative, dystopian timeline, almost all American mutants and superheroes have been hunted down and destroyed by 'Sentinels', anti-mutant hunting robots.  Because these robots are becoming increasingly powerful and a threat to global peace, Russia is on the verge of retaliating with their nuclear arsenal (it was written in the early 1980's...), thus ending the world by Nuclear War.  To avert this, the surviving X-Men send Kitty Pride back in time to warn their younger versions of the impending threat, so they might avert it.

Well, the movie version has amended that slightly so that it's Wolverine's consciousness who is sent back to his younger self, also the scene at the end of 'The Wolverine' pretty much confirms they're sticking to the continuity which includes 'Last Stand' (which is a waste, if you ask me - given as this film involves alternate time-lines, surely they could've ignored it altogether and pretended it had simply never been made? :-P ).  But there's the potential for this film - which will bring back most of the original trilogy's cast as well as most of 'First Class' - to be the high-point of the franchise.  Seeing the cast altogether at SDCC highlights that this is a HUGELY ambitious ensemble piece; if 'The Avengers' seemed groundbreaking and risky, then this one even more-so (how many Oscar and other award-winning and nominated actors and actresses are there in that line-up?  More than I can count!!!).  Also, their panel Q&A session sounded a ton of fun, my favourite moment being when Sir Ian McKellen brings up the recent legalisation of Gay marriage in the US as an excuse to make a pass at Michael Fassbender...

Hopes are high for 'X-Men: Days of Future Past', and while I think they're missing an opportunity to erase previous weak-points in the franchise (by pretending they didn't happen in the new time-line!), given the cast and the return of original director Bryan Singer, and that this is one of the best stories, this should be a really entertaining and memorable comic-book movie.

2) Marvel's Panel - footage from Captain America & Thor sequels, unveiling the 'Guardians of the Galaxy', and 'Avengers 2' gets a title...

I think it's pretty obvious that every other movie studio which has the rights to comic-book franchises are looking at Marvel Studios and either withering inside with envy (*cough* Warner Bros *cough*), or slapping their heads against the wall, saying 'why didn't we think of that?!?!'  I am, of course, referring to Marvel Studio's immensely successful method of building a 'combined mythos' (which often gets called the 'Marvel Cineverse') which brought us not only effective and successful adaptations of characters that could have easily failed (Thor and Captain America), but also the 143-minute nerdgasm :-p which is 'The Avengers' (ok, 'Avengers Assemble', because I live in the UK...).

Well, the massive success, critically and financially, of Iron Man 3 (which I enjoyed the heck out of) shows they're not going to rest on their laurels but intend to build upon this success.  Reaction to the footage of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (not yet available, dang it!) and Thor: The Dark World (much of which made it in to the most recent trailer) had highly positive reactions (in Thor's case, it probably helped that Tom Hiddleston turned up AS Loki to introduce the footage!), and seems to reinforce that there is more to these characters than simply an origin story, and as part of The Avengers.  But the world-building, and setting things in motion for Avengers 2, doesn't just end with these characters - Marvel are about to take their biggest gamble to date, with 'Guardians of the Galaxy'.

If adapting a less well-known title seems like a risk, remember that prior to 'Iron Man' some people felt that character was too niche to break-out; admittedly though, Iron Man is still more of a house-hold name than the likes of Star-lord or Grax the Destroyer.  But part of Marvel's success so far has been to treat each of their films as an example of a different genre; 'Captain America' was pulp inspired WWII action, 'Iron Man 3' aimed at evoking Tom Clancy espionage related action-thrillers, then 'Guardians...' will be Marvel's first step in to Space-opera on a grand scale.

To be honest, I know very little about this film, but I am completely sold on the concept - a team that includes a Human, two deadly alien assassins, an alien that is basically a walking, talking tree(!), and the piece de resistance: a genetically and cybernetically altered, machine gun toting Raccoon   Now, if that doesn't sound like a ton of fun to you, then I really think you need to see someone for some medication about your negativity and all-round depressive attitude... :-p

Trust me, this Raccoon is going to kick everyone's backside next year...

Marvel have entrusted this to James Gunn, who directed the so-much-fun-it's-surprising-it's-not-illegal 'Slither', and the funny and irreverent 'Super'.  While their Directing choices have thus far paid off handsomely, this is the first big-budget movie that Gunn's had to shoulder -  further underlining the risk being taken by Marvel Studios.  However, at least they ARE taking risks - more than can be said for a lot of other big studios!

Finally, if it seemed that the biggest shock of the day was going to be Karen 'Amy Pond off of Doctor Who' Gillan having shaved her head for her role as a villain in 'Guardians...' - out jumps Joss Whedon to announce the title of the Avenger's sequel: 'Age of Ultron'.

I was immensely excited by this title, as Ultron (a genocidal AI residing in an indestructible robot body) is one of the toughest villains The Avengers have faced in their comic runs; in fact a recent comics story line has Ultron defeating every super-hero and ruling the Earth, which has been turned in to a wasteland as a result of the fruitless battles to defeat him.  Whedon said that with the Avengers' sequel, he didn't want to make the scope bigger, but smaller - focusing on this one, powerful villain certainly fulfills that.  He also promised that he's going to do 'very bad things' to The Avengers this time round - if Ultron is as powerful and bad as he is in the comics, then no doubt Whedon will deliver on that.  Whilst there are very little details about the film, just this title has left me very excited about the potential for it - it's not going to be easy at all to follow up 'Avengers Assemble', but I think this could be as good in a different way.

As exciting as this news was, it wasn't the announcement that really sent the convention, and the entire internet, in to a frenzy that weekend...

3) Batman and Superman will BOTH be in 'Man of Steel 2'

As I suggested above, Warner Bros have eyed the success of 'Avengers Assemble' with no small amount of envy, and seeing as they have the rights to the entirety of DC Comic's characters, it's hardly surprising they want to set up the rival Super-team franchise, Justice League.  However, both Man of Steel (and to a far greater extent) Nolan's recent 'Dark Knight' Trilogy have both been 'grounded' and 'realistic' portrayals of these two characters - given that Justice League's line up contains a plethora of brightly attired and more classically styled (read: cheesy by today's standards) characters (including Green Lantern, the Flash and Wonder Woman), it seems very difficult to imagine how these would meld.

But WB are having a go at world-building, Marvel style (did anyone spot the 'Lexcorp' and 'Wayne Enterprises' logos in 'Man of Steel'? ;-) ), and if they want to build up to Justice League in a manner which will enable familiarity of new or less known characters, as well as keeping the 'grounded' ethos of previous films, then introducing 'The World's Greatest Detective' in to the new Superman franchise is hardly a surprising move.

Director Zack Snyder set up the announcement by having actor Harry Lennix reading some dialogue from what is largely regarded as THE definitive Batman Graphic Novel, 'The Dark Knight Returns', stating that they were looking at this for inspiration for the sequel.  Now, it's easy at this stage to get a false impression of what 'Man of Steel 2'/'Superman vs. Batman' (or whatever it ends up being called!) from this - basically, 'The Dark Knight Returns' is a Batman story in which Superman appears for a handful of scenes.  However, it does conclude with an epic scrap between Batman and Supes (if you're interested in how that works out, we'll call it a draw - Superman is in a weakened state from taking the brunt of a nuclear explosion and a Kryptonite-tipped arrow, and Batman is wearing an exo-suit - the scrap ends when Batman apparently has a heart attack).  So the most significant thing taken from this announcement, and the reference to this seminal work, is that at some point in this movie Superman and Batman will clash - though it's likely they'll end up working together to overcome a greater threat.

Since the announcement speculation ran rampant about who would be cast as Gotham's Dark Knight - at one point the outlandish story was that WB were going to offer Christian Bale $50 million to reprise the role! 8-O .  Despite the likes of Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling being rumoured, the internet almost imploded in a storm of whining and trolling when it was announced Ben Affleck had been cast.  Now, all I'll say on the matter is that I honestly can't understand why they'd want to offer the role to a successful, critically-acclaimed and award-winning Actor & Director; and it seems COMPLETELY obvious that everyone should judge his suitability on films that he made over 10 years ago, instead of recent acclaimed and award-winning performances :-p [/sarcasm]

That aside, people seem to be forgetting a significant point here - this is a Man of Steel sequel, so Batman's involvement I think will most likely be an extended cameo of sorts.  Either way, the pairing of these characters, regardless of what the final verdict on Affleck's performance will be, is pretty much guaranteed to make WB a huge sum of money, possibly even taking more than their previous highest earning film 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2' (which is currently the 4th highest earning movie of all-time internationally with over $1.3 Billion in box office takings).

Yet whilst this is a pairing which has excited comic book and movie fans, there's a Super-hero team-up which is the one I really want to see - but it seems it would take a miracle for it to happen at this stage...

4) Could Spider-man & Wolverine ever join The Avengers on the big screen?

As incredible as it is to be living in an era which finally brings us The Avengers, and Superman & Batman together on screen, there is a massive, nerdy part of me which absolutely longs to see Wolverine and Spider-man as part of the line-up of a future Avengers movie.  The reason for this is simple - outside of The Avengers, Spidey and Wolverine are without doubt THE most iconic of Marvel's characters.  In the comics, these two have seen plenty of action together - whether as part of Avengers line-ups, cameo appearances in each other's titles - and they've even had to go toe-to-toe on occasion.

I can dream...

Sadly, given that Sony Pictures own the Spidey rights, and Fox own Wolverine (and the rest of the X-Men characters), it seems a far off pipe-dream that this would ever happen, if at all.  However, my hopes were raised when in a recent interview Hugh Jackman basically stated he'd be happy and willing for Wolverine to appear with The Avengers.  This had me smiling - there have been some great moments in the comics between Wolverine and various members of The Avengers (he and Hulk have a belter of a scrap at one point!).  Yet this comment was just a brief one in the midst of many the actor gave in the lead-up to the release of 'The Wolverine', and nothing has been said since.

And yet, it's an idea which doesn't seem to want to go away just yet. At Comic Con, during the panel for 'The Amazing Spiderman 2', lead actor Andrew Garfield was asked which Spider-man story-line he'd like to see on film.  His answer, which almost give my nerdy-heart a seizure, was the following:

“I'd like to see him with The Avengers, but I'm not allowed to say that!”

It's fair to say the crowd at Comic Con reacted wildly to this statement - and it did little to quell my hopes and desires that eventually, one day, my dream Super-hero line-up may actually happen on the big screen...  Because if the actors portraying the characters are up for it - and also clearly acknowledge there is a pretty significant fan desire for this - then maybe, somehow, the three studios involved could work out a way of making this happen..?

Are you reading, Marvel, Fox and Sony?

PLEASE:

MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!

In the meantime, I'll just have to take consolation in the fact that there are other ways to see these characters team up on screen...

God Bless Lego. X-D

Movie Review: 'The Conjuring' - Thrills, chills, and creepy dolls...

Warning - there will be mild SPOILERS!!! below, so be careful if you've not yet seen this film...

The two main problems with horror films are that, firstly, 'your mileage may vary', as they say: basically, what one person finds frightening may make another roll their eyes or simply laugh.  Secondly, there are so many cliches associated with the genre that a horror film can end up simply being a jumble bag of them - each cliche decreasingly scary as it is wheeled out again and again.

Going in to 'The Conjuring', I was very wary of these facts, indeed I actually was expecting a tick box checklist of Horror Movie cliches.

Family moves in to slightly run-down, creepy looking house in isolated location?  Check.

Someone investigates a noise at night ends up going in to a dark, creepy basement without lights, on their own?  Check.

People being dragged off beds by invisible forces?  Check (sorta...).

However, I must say I was surprised not only how good 'The Conjuring' was, but by how much it succeeded in giving me chills, giving me at least one good jump scare, and above all, how enjoyable it was.

The set-up is familiar, and yes the way some of the scares are set up are also familiar, at times.  But director James Wan (half of the pair which brought us the very first - and by far the best - 'Saw') expertly milks these situations for all they are worth, getting every ounce of tension and fear from them.  While the performances aren't exactly outstanding, they are solid and do the job of selling the fear and tension of the situation.

Whereas some horror wants to disturb you, or sicken you to your core with horrific imagery, I'd say that this film is more like a great amusement park ride - it'll give you thrills and chills at all the right places.  That's not meant to trivialise or denigrate the efforts of the cast and film makers - in fact, I'd go so far as to say that it does such a good job that any haunted house/possession-based movie that follows it is really going to have to work hard to even match it.  This film stamps its authority over this particular sub-genre with panache; when we discover that this particular 'haunting' is not simply confined to one house, but covers many houses over several acres of land, which it turns out were cursed by a witch, it's as though this film is laying down a challenge to other movies of the sub-genre:

"So, you're a Haunted House movie are you?  Well, F*ck You, I'm a SEVERAL HAUNTED ZIP-CODES movie!!!"

There's also a neat subversion of the found-footage genre at one point - quite timely given the recent domination of the genre by this type of film.

It's not entirely perfect - a couple of the characters are pretty thinly set out, and suggestions of an attraction between one of the investigating team and the oldest of the family's daughters don't really go anywhere.

Ultimately though, this is a horror film which is a thrilling, fun experience - and after the domination of torture porn posing as horror, and rote found-footage movies, this is most welcome.  If it doesn't quite leave you with ptsd, you'll be guaranteed goosebumps aplenty - and maybe even a solid jump scare or two (there was one that got me, nearly pulling my wife's arm out of her socket in the process!)

And if nothing else, this film proves definitively that dolls are really freakin' creepy, and should not be owned by anyone.  If you don't believe me, just go talk to Isabelle...