Why The MCU Will Always Be Better Than The DCCU! - #Movie #ComicBook #Blog

A great universe... So why is DC trying to fuck up the TV and movie series?

Ok, so we all know about the brilliance of the, 'MCU'... I mean it is awesome! Watching, 'The Avengers'... Or even, 'Agent Carter'... And I don't know if you have noticed yet, but it seems like DC is trying to follow suite... A good time to do so with the MCU about to make some massive changes... But the way they are doing it... I mean come on! 

Now let me explain... So the movies that are being done by DC, are fantastic! The TV shows they are doing are even better, but when you consider the whole, 'DCU' they both suck! 

What I mean by this is the abusive way that the morons at DC are seriously fucking up the characters!

Now here is what I mean by this: 

1. Ok... So I am certain that if you are a, 'Flash' fan, that Grant Gustin ('The Flash' on the CW show,) is absolutely brilliant as the Speedster! But for some dumb ass reason, the casting executives at DC decided to cast some one else as the Speedster for the upcoming, 'The Justice League' movie!

Grant Gustin is, 'The Flash'... So why is DC trying to fuck that up?

2. With that said, with out Grant Gustin as, 'The Flash'... And don't get me wrong, They are going to have some one else in the role... But in this case from what I have heard, they are having Stephen Amell in his role as, 'Green Arrow' in the new Justice League movie 

Ok, so for some reason it looks like, 'Stephen Amell' is going to be in the new justice league movie, but not, 'The Flash'... Trust me... That doesn't make sense!

3. And now we go in to the various TV series... Both Batman and Superman are mentioned in all of the TV series... And we are going to take this bit by bit... Let's start off with: Supergirl. 

Supergirl is an amazing series, but it does almost seem like this show is the crux of where they are trying to fuck the DCU up!

Now Supergirl is an absolutely brilliant show... The problem is, is that where as it is true that  Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel) has never shown up for a guest spot in the series... But Henry Cavill's out line can definitely be seen a couple of times... But how can that be? I mean Grant Gustin is supposed to be guest starring on Supergirl soon... And he is being replaced by another actor for the movies... And then there is Jon Jonzz... A character who's actor in the TV series supposedly being replaced for, 'The Justice League'! 

4. And then there are the crossovers between, 'Arrow' and, 'The Flash'... Without Grant Gustin in the upcoming movies... Then the crossovers become ridiculous! 

This guy is supposedly going to be looking very different in the big screen!

Ultimately, the reason why the MCU will always be better then the DCU is the convoluted nature of how DC seems to be almost trying to fuck up their franchises! And the MCU's continuity is absolutely awesome!

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) - Movie Review

Official Score = 4 Devils

So far I have to say that I am pretty impressed with what Marvel has been doing in it's continuous creation of mega-box office smash hits from the comics that helped bring Marvel in to the world of popularity!

Let's take, The Avengers (2012), besides the fact that this movie is the culmination of a lot of the truly fantastic Marvel Super Hero franchises that have come out in the new millennium, (including: Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor & Captain America,) this movie has helped catapult these stars and their respective independent movie series in to the stratosphere!

And you know what? Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) is another ultra successful notch in Marvel's prolific collection of mega hits!

The movie poster for: Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014).

Written by: Nicole Perlman (Thor), James Gunn (Dawn Of The Dead) & Directed by: James Gunn. Starring: Chris Pratt (Jurassic World), Zoe Saldana (Star Trek), Dave Bautista (Riddick), Vin Diesel (The Last Witch Hunter), Bradley Cooper (American Sniper), Michael Rooker (Slither), Karen Gillan (Doctor Who), Glenn Close (Mars Attacks!).

"Well he don't know talkin' good like me and you, so his vocabulistics is limited to "I" and "am" and "Groot," exclusively in that order."

- Rocket Raccoon (A quote from: Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014))

Now this awesome tale, tells the story of how an intergalactic thief, (and the only human traveling in outer space), Peter Quill (Chris Pratt steals a rare precious orb for a privateer who intends to sell it... The only thing is that, 'Ronan: The Accuser' (Lee Pace), who also happens to be working for a secret benefactor, (who has a dark desire to acquire it,) also is trying to get it as well!

During this time, Peter ends up being imprisoned with, 'Rocket Raccoon' (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), (Both of whom had helped get Peter arrested on Nova Prime,) Gamora (Zoe Saldana) & Drax: The Destroyer (Dave Bautista)...  Initially they escape with the intention of selling the orb.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy... Their first mission... Escape from prison!

But when they find out what the orb is, and with the impending danger to the Nova Empire, they make themselves 'The Guardians Of The Galaxy', and decide to deliver the orb to the heart of the Nova Empire, and stop Ronan: The Accuser before he can deliver it to his master!

Now I will be honest and say that when I first heard of this movie I had not held out much hope for it... Don't get me wrong, I knew it would be good, I just didn't know how good! I mean everything about this movie was so well done, that I can totally see why this became one of the highest grossing movies of 2014!

Hellboy (2004) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignright" width="353"] Official Score = 2 Devils[/caption]

Over the years there have been a ton of movies that have been based on the comics... A couple of the more famous ones of course being, 'Superman', 'Batman' & 'The Avengers'.... But in the early part of the new millennium it seemed like the studios had decided to go in a different direction with their super hero movies...

The truth is, is I don't think that this was particularly successful, but it was still fun to see the difference between the more well known super heroes, and the lesser known... A good example of this (A fun movie but nothing to particularly jump out at you, and that is, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003))...

The truth is, is that movie had an amazing cast (including: Sean Connery), who did a great job, it also had a fun story, but what it lacked was the seriousness that I believe makes some of the more well known super hero movies so great!

Another one that is an alternative to the more classic Super Hero movie, is the movie, Hellboy (2004)!

[caption id="attachment_2396" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Ron Perlman as, 'Hellboy'![/caption]

Written & Directed by: Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim). Starring: Ron Perlman (Drive), John Hurt (Alien), Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions), Rupert Evans (Agora), Karl Roden (RockNRolla), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), Doug Jones (Adaption), Brian Steele (Predators), Ladislav Beran (Blade 2), Biddy Hodson (Wilde) & Corey Johnson (Saving Private Ryan).

This movie tells the story of how near the end of World War 2, A group of Nazi Scientists and mystique's, decide to bring in to the world a demon that they hope will turn the tide of war in their favor... The problem is, is that when the monster is released, just about all of the Nazi's on the island are taken out by the Americans!

Well this monster as it turns out is a baby demon whom the Scientist/Mystique on the project by the name of Dr. Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt) decides to take home with him and raise as if he is his own, and calls him, 'Hellboy' (Ron Perlman).

Well ultimately this is not all, you see, in the present, the Professor has set up a special unit with in the American Government that is responsible for the more (paranormal) elements, and this unit, (along with Hellboy), are going to have to fight a plot that had been slowed that night on the Island during World War 2... Because if they can't, well it will literally be the end of the world!

[caption id="attachment_2398" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Hellboy with his team![/caption]

Now the plus points:

1. All the cast did good for their roles.
2. As always their was some fun special effects.

As for the minus points, the main problem that I had with this movie is that the way it was written was actually a pretty solid story, but the way it was filmed was not very serious (so much so that Jeffrey Tambor's comic relief was more of a distraction, then a welcome addition!)

And the other thing that I have to say about this movie is that even though I do like Selma Blair, I just couldn't see her as a love interest in this movie! I mean don't get me wrong, she did a good job in this role, I just don't think her role was written quite right!

In the end, this movie was a fun one, and is well worth a watch, but if you are looking for something truly epic, then this one is probably not the one for you!

http://youtu.be/OcEAOu80xSE

Early 90s Cartoon Superheroes

Now we all know who people like, ‘Superman’, ‘Batman’, or organizations… (yeah I said it, organizations…) like, ‘The X-Men’, ‘The Avengers’.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="840"] Batman as he is about to kick ass in Batman: The Animated Series, a cartoon that was on TV in the early to mid 90s[/caption]

I mean immediately what comes to the minds of most people in the new millennium would be stuff like, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (The Latest Batman movie), or Bryan Singer’s time working on the X-Men series, or hell, even watching the mega-box office smash hit that came out a few months ago in, ‘The Avengers’…

But for most of us who were kids in the 90s, we were not quite so lucky to have these historically epic smash hit Super Hero movies to enjoy… As a matter of fact, during that time , outside of the Batman movies on the big screen, ‘Louis & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,’ or, ‘Buffy: The Vampire Slayer’, there honestly wasn’t to many live action super hero (or super hero styled) movie or TV shows that we could enjoy!

So what did we have… We had cartoons of course, there was such truly classic super hero cartoons as, ‘X-Men’, ‘Spider Man’, ‘Batman’ and in the older term s, the old Superman movies…

You might think that because I am making this sound like the rant of an old man that, ‘we were happy to get what we could back then’… Well believe it or not, this is quite the contrary… As a matter of fact I have to say that those old cartoons were great! In some ways you could almost say that they were better than the movies!

It’s more true then you know, (and in almost every case the 90s Batman cartoon was drastically better then George Clooney’s Batman!) But either way hear me out…

What I mean by this is that, most Super Hero movies or TV series, rather they be on the big screen or the small screen, rather they are animated or live action tend to derive from their comic book predecessors, especially the ones that I have mentioned above have come from either the DC or Marvel Universes! (Of course that doesn’t go for all Superheroes on either on the big screen or the small screen but, those are for another blog…)

With the above mentioned in mind, if you are a fan of comics like I am, then you will understand why these old school cartoons about these classic super heroes are so great! What I mean by this (and the live action films do a pretty solid job of this, and some of the cartoons of today do them just,) but one of the things that the animators did on these early 90s super hero TV series did that I actually kind of thought was pretty excellent was that they drew their, ‘X-Men’, or their, ‘Superman’ in such a way so that rather they know it or not was actually an homage to the comics from where they came from!

So if you’re as much of fan of comic books as I am, it was a real treat because you got to actually kind of see these amazing, larger than life heroes come to life in some cases in the adventures that made them so popular in the comic book series!

Another thing that was kind of a real treat I believe for kids in regard to these old super hero cartoons (I know it worked for me in this fashion because in some cases I was still a child when some of these cartoons were released,) that it could start to give children their first taste, regardless of the fact that it is pretty fictionalized, that there is more out there then just there house, school, or even city, state, country or planet… I would even go so far as to say that it could give kids there first, (albeit fictionalized) taste of the importance of Science, or Science Fiction and could end up leading children in to space/space related industry or some form of Law Enforcement careers!

Now listen, I know I am putting an awful lot of importance on these old cartoons, what I said may or may not be true for your kid (I just know that it was for me when I was a kid), in the end though, these old cartoons are just a lot of fun, and can be in some ways educational for those of you out there who have kids!

http://youtu.be/HsQ5EBskkFg

http://youtu.be/KZw64rBswqc

The Avengers (2012) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_415" align="alignright" width="300"] Official Score = 4 Devils[/caption]

Remember when you were a kid, the joy of collecting and trading comic books and (well if you were a kid in the 90s) trading comic book cards? I do, I used to love all that stuff!

Now I always loved comics and comic book cards that DC produced, but my favorite always had to be.... You guessed it! MARVEL!

Rather it be reading the gritty adventures of, 'Cable', or reading about the, 'X-Men' battling the latest threat to the world, or for that matter any of the other super hero's or super hero teams that fought the forces of darkness!

So it delighted me to discover a lot of my favorite costumed heroes from the Marvel Universe were being turned in to movies! Including, the X-Men series, the Spider-Man series, the Iron Man series, to name a few...

And of course the most recent Super Hero movie was great as well, The Avengers!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The Avengers as they are about to assemble![/caption]

Written by: Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), and Zack Penn (The Incredible Hulk) and Directed by: Joss Whedon. Starring: Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac), Chris Hemsworth (The Cabin In The Woods), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four), Scarlett Johansson (Eight Legged Freaks), Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island), Tom Hiddleston (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Dahmer), Samuel L. Jackson (Deep Blue Sea), and Colbie Smulders (Andromeda).

The Avengers tells the story of how, after Loki's (Hiddleston) defeat on Asgard in the movie, Thor (2011), by his brother Thor (Hemsworth). Loki retreats to the vastness of space. During this time he comes across a race that has offered to fight for Loki, when Loki decides to take over the Earth!

So after stealing an item called, 'The Tesseract' (an item that can draw power from space), from a S.H.I.E.L.D. run research facility, and taking over the free will of a Doctor, and an Agent by the name of, 'Clint Barton' (Renner), Loki takes off with his new soldiers in an effort to create a portal from Earth to the planet where his army is currently waiting on!

With the world now threatened by Loki and his minions, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Jackson) calls on: Iron Man (Downey Jr.), The Black Widow (Johansson), The Hulk (Ruffalo), Captain America (Evans), (and later Thor and Hawkeye join as well), to combat the threat posed by Loki, and save the Human Race as, 'The Avengers'!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="460"] 'The Avengers' assembled going to war![/caption]

Now as an interesting side note, this movie is the culmination of past super hero movies such as, Thor (2011), the Iron Man series and, The Incredible Hulk series as well!

In my opinion, with this movie being the perfect blending of, 'Science Ficition' and, 'Action' this movie may actually be the best Super Hero movie to come out since the first X-Men movie (A personal fav of mine).

Now before I get in to why I think this movie is so awesome, I should probably tell you a little bit of history and how The Avengers came to life...

The Avengers came in to being through the creative inspiration of comic book legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and had their debut in September of 1963... Since then, 'The Avengers' and the team members that make up, 'The Avengers' has become an international sensation amongst the legions of , 'Avengers' comic book fans, 'Avengers' movie aficionados and even , 'Avengers', video game fans around the world! And being a fan of, 'The Avengers' in all 3 of those categories, it kind of goes without saying that I would be a fan of this movie as well!

But besides that, the truth is, is that carry overs from their original movies, 'i,e. Tom Hiddleston as (Loki), or Robert Downey Jr. as, (Iron Man)' continue to do an amazing job portraying the characters they portrayed in the other movies... So much so that it was great to see Robert Downey Jr. reprise his role as, 'Iron Man', Chis Hemworth reprise his role as, 'Thor' as they both match pretty closely to what I would have thought the characters from the comics would have looked like in real life!

http://youtu.be/1hPpG4s3-O4

Men In Black 2 (2002) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignright" width="353"] Official Score = 2 Devils[/caption]

When I was a kid, one of the things that I really liked to do was to go to the movie theaters on the weekends. As a matter of fact, a lot of the movies that were released from the mid to late 90s that I saw, I saw them at the theaters!

And one of these movies that I happen to watch at the theater during one of these weekend excursions was the movie, Men In Black (1997)! Now I happen to really enjoy this movie and was glad when I discovered, Men in Black 2 (2002):

Written by Robert Gordon (Galaxy Quest), Barry Fanaro (Kingpin) and Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (RV). Starring: Will Smith (Independence Day), Tommy Lee Jones (The Sunset Limited), Rip Torn (Eulogy), Lara Flynn Boyle (Wayne's World), Rosario Dawson (Sin City), and Tony Shalhoub (Monk).

Men In Black 2, is the continuing story of Agent Jay (Smith), and Agent Kay (Jones), and the, Men In Black Organization! During this time, Agent Kay is working for a small town postal department and is living his old life as Kevin Brown! And Agent Jay is going through new partners as fast as humanly possible!

[caption id="attachment_465" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Agent J. (Will Smith) as he re-introduces Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) to the wide world of, 'Men In Black!'[/caption]

Now during this time a Kylothian Space Craft is carrying an Alien by the name of, Serleena (Boyle), who lands on earth to search for the, 'Light Of Zartha'. As Agent Jay begins his investigation in to the Kylothian ship and Serleena, Agent Jay comes to realize that the only way that Jay is going to solve this case is that he is going to have to bring Kay back in to the fold (despite the fact that Kay's memories of the men in black have been zapped!)

So as Jay figures out how to give Kay his memories back (so that the two can find the, 'Light Of Zartha'), and with Serleena having crippled MIB headquarters, it will be up to Jay... (and hopefully Kay) to save the world from the menace that is Serleena!

[caption id="attachment_467" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Agents J, and K are back to kick some major ass![/caption]

In my opinion this movie is not as good as the first one, it was definitely missing that love interest between Jay and Laurel (Played by: Linda Fiorentino) from the first Men In Black movie, and the some times comic nature of the communication between the Aliens and Men In Black was little over the top.

That was on the negative side, on the plus side, all the actors did do a fun job with what they had to work with, the special effects and camera work were a lot of fun, and Barry Sonnenfeld continued to bring a fun Men In Black movie to the big screen that will make it so that when you come out of that movie, you will not be disappointed but kind of pleased for having seen it!

http://youtu.be/pCRFJFLfBVc

Ultimate Avengers (2006) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_330" align="alignright" width="220"] Official Score = 2 1/2 Devils[/caption]

Marvel has been hitting it big in the new millenium, what with having released movies that for the most part almost all of them were summber block busters! Such movies as the X-Men series, the Spider-Man series,the Iron Man series, and now with the success of the big screen box office smash hit, The Avengers (2012)! And speaking of the Avengers, before the recently released movie came out... As a matter of fact, before most of the sub-series for the characters from this team was released, there was great animated movie series version of, 'The Avengers', (which I also belive may have eventual spawned a cartoon series on TV) called, Ultimate Avengers (2006)! Written by: Greg Johnston (Planet Hulk) and Directed by: Curt Geda (Batman: The Mystery Of The Batwoman), Steven E. Gordon (Terminator: Salvation) & Bob Richardson (Daredevil Vs. Spider Man). Starring: Justin Gross (Ninja Gaiden), Grey DeLisle (Bolt), Michael Massee (Millenium), Oliviia d'Abo (Point Of No Return), Marc Worden (Sky Blue), Nolan North (TMNT), Andre Ware (The Cost Of Heaven), David Boat (The Super Hero Squad Show) and Fred Tatasciore (Team America: World Police).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="290"] Captain America & Black Widow as they are trying to recruit Iron Man for the, 'Avengers'![/caption]

The first thing that I thought that I should mention that I thought that you guys would find pretty interesting is the fact that this Avengers Team is very different then the one that you saw in the live action movie! What I mean by that is that in the live action movie that came out just a few months ago, that, 'Avengers' team consisted of, Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and the members of S.h.i.e.l.d. that they work with... In the, 'Ultimate Avengers', the team consists of Captain America (Gross), The Wasp (DeLisle), Bruce Banner (Not the Hulk, and he is voiced by Michael Massee), Black Widow (d'Abo), Iron Man (Worden), Giant Man (North) as well as the S.H.I.E.L.D. Crew that work with them! As for the story, this movie (which I was really quite impressed with the animation for), tells the story of how near the end of World War 2, Captain America and his United States Soldier, are about to win the war when Nazi Germany gets some help by an Alien race that has given the Nazis the technology for the Atom Bomb! Now of course this can't work for Captain America, and takes out the nuclear weapon while it is in mid air, the only problem is that after he takes out the bomb, and with the U.S. Millitary giving him up as being killed in action, Captain America falls in the the Atlantic and freezes in to a glacier (where he is able to stay alive by being kept in suspended animation! 60 years later, the U.S. Government and the people who work at S.H.I.E.L.D. are fighting a super secret war against the Aliens that have stayed on Earth... When they find Captain America and thaw him out, General Nick Fury (Ware), is ordered to iniiate the, 'Avengers' program and bring together the above mentioned heros to fight against the alien invasion and stop this secret war before it comes out in the opening!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="448"] Nick Fury, Black Widow & Captain America as they are prepping to kick some major ass![/caption]

Now like I mentioned above, the animation in this movie really was cool, the reason for that is the fact that I always enjoy watching the comic book characters (literally) come to life in the style that they were drawn in the comic books... (With the exception of Thor, and to a degree Iron Man... But still the animation was great!) Also I have to admit that story was a lot of fun! The last thing that I thought that I would mention is that this movie would in the end produce a sequel, as well as I believe a really awesome cartoon series!

http://youtu.be/R_Tgw6f61Vg

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_390" align="alignright" width="178"] Official Score = 1 Devil[/caption]

A few years ago when I first saw Iron Man (2008), I heard of a rumor that the plan for Iron Man, was to have him have his own individual movie series, but then to eventually create a sort of compilation movie, which would include, Thor, The Incredible Hulk & Captain America & the rest of The Avengers crew as well!

Now at the time I figured that the rumor would mean that there was going to be a whole slew of new superhero movies that would be coming out, including movies for, 'Thor', 'Captain America', and the rest of the, 'Avengers' crew from the epic comic book series from the epic Marvel Comic book series...

At the time though I didn't quite believe it, what with the fact that there were at the time only two, 'Incredible Hulk', movies and one, 'Iron Man' movie...

Boy was I wrong! I mean since then there has been another, 'Iron Man' movie, and, 'Thor' came out in 2011!

The only one that was really left was, 'Captain America', and low and behold... Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) was pretty much the last cog in the machine to be put in to place before the studios would start making, The Avengers!

Written by: Christopher Markus (You Kill Me), Stephen McFeely (The Life And Dead Of Peter Sellers) & Directed by: Joe Johnston (The Wolfman). Starring: Chris Evans (The Avengers), Hayley Atwell (The Return Of Captain Nemo), Sebastian Stan (Black Swan), Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black), Hugo Weaving (The Matrix), Dominic Cooper (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), and Toby Jones (The Mist).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Captain America (Chris Evans) as he has gone to war![/caption]

Captain America: The First Avenger, tells the story of a very patriotic young man by the name of, 'Steve Rogers' (Evans), who during World War 2, tries at every chance that he can to join the Army, but usually ends up failing for medical reasons!

That is until one night, when while on a double date with his best friend Bucky Buchanan (Stan), and his girl, Rogers decides to split away from the pack and try his hand again at signing up for the Army... This time he actually makes it in!

You see, there is a German scientist that is working with a special research unit of the United States Army and billionaire, Howard Stark (Cooper), in an effort to create a genetic super soldier!

Well the good news is, that the experiment is a success and actually makes young, scrawney Captain Steve Rogers in to a large power house super soldier!

The only problem is that during the experiment, Doctor Abraham Erskine (Played by: Stanley Tucci), the person who is the project director ends up being shot by a Nazi spy that had infiltrated the ranks of the guests that had been invited to watch the experiment!

Now instead of doing it right and sending Captain Rogers in to the war to kick some ass, the government decides to send him on a USO tour as, 'Captain America' to promote American values and the positive side of going to war against Nazi Germany...

That is until one day while entertaining the troops in Italy, Rogers learns that his friend Bucky had been taken prisoner by the forces of, 'Hydra' (An organization which is controlled by a Nazi by the name of Johann Schmidt 'A.K.A The Red Skull' (Weaving).

After Captain Rogers rescues these soldiers from the forces of Hydra, the permanently christened, 'Captain America', is given his own crew, and is sent behind enemy lines to destroy, 'Hydra'!

Now the truth is, is I have to admit that this movie was pretty disappointing to me, some of the story was unbelievable beyond the point of my tolerance, (to the point where I am pretty convinced that the ending was created in an effort to throw Captain America in to, 'Present Day' New York.)

Also I have always enjoyed a good World War 2 war movie, but this one was just bland!

http://youtu.be/-J3HfllvXWE