Batson's Blog

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I just got done watching and reviewing Aquaman and Bumblebee. Both were added to the list of new movies I saw this year. That list is compiled and ranked (worst to best) below. It was an interesting year. There weren't that many superhero movies --- typically a main focus of my blogs --- and certainly there weren't that many good superhero movies. The Christmas Chronicles Worst movie of the year, by far.  If Netflix hopes to compete with the major movie studios, they need to step up their game.  This was no Christmas classic. I thought Kurt Russell would've been a good Santa Claus, but the character was too out there.  The sheer stupidity of the other people in the movie (who saw flying reindeer and still didn't believe that Kurt Russell was Santa) was too much to overlook. The musical number in the jail cell?  A hot steaming mess.  Maybe not even a hot mess.  Just a hot pile of dog crap. The elves that...

Melissa McCarthy was on fire for a while — several years. Has her time subsided or is it unrealistic to expect someone to stay on top of a particular field for so long? Especially a field that can be as fickle and wishy-washy as show business? Those were the thoughts going through my head as I watched this movie. Probably not a good sign when you’re watching a movie and not actually paying attention to it. The movie started off normal enough. It almost seemed understated compared to some of McCarthy’s other films. I thought it could end up being a family comedy at first. But that soon changed ... somewhat. The problem with this movie is that it straddled the line between family-friendly comedy and ‘outrageous’ comedy. McCarthy is great at playing those potty-mouthed characters. But she’s kind of a one trick pony in that sense. I get the impression she’d like to break out of that mold a bit. McCarthy’s acting was fine in this movie — good, in fact — but her character flopp...

I didn’t intend on watching this but it was the best option of the flight I was recently on. So, Rampage it was. Sometimes it’s best to go into a movie with no (or minimal) expectations because it surprises you. I’ll admit that the movie didn’t start the way I thought it would. Granted I didn’t watch every trailer so maybe the setup of the movie was previewed in one of those. The Rock is a zookeeper (or zoologist?).  He has a special bond with one gorilla in particular.  A space crash, one mad scientist and a full-on mutation later, Davis Okoye (The Rock) is now teaming up with an attractive genetic engineer, Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris). Davis' relationship with George was a bit corny. Or a lot corny. I don’t know exactly what it’s like dealing with apes, but I find it very hard to believe that they can understand dialogue the way The Rock’s character was delivering it. A basic understanding? Sure. But understanding sarcasm (enough to flip a human off)? I ...

Just when you thought the Transformers franchise had jumped the shark and was dead, they go and make one of the best Transformers movies there was. I liked Transformers . Transformers 2 was a little long. Transformers 3 seemed to follow too many superhero movie stereotypes. Age of Extinction had the awesome dinobots and they did a good enough job with Mark Wahlberg's character, but it didn't have the same magic as the first movie. The Last Knight was interesting, but wasn't amazing . Rather than go forward, they went the prequel route with an origin story for Bumblebee . How did the Transformers end up on Earth and how did Bumblebee lose his voice? It's all explained in Bumblebee .  It makes sense that Bumblebee is the main focus since he's been, arguably, the biggest focus in the Transformers franchise so far. Optimus Prime is the Transformers' leader, but Bumblebee is the connection to the humans in the last five movies. Bumblebee follows t...

I was really hoping DC's Aquaman would be good. Apparently it did $100 million in China already and is expected to make that much opening weekend in the U.S. There's even talk of a sequel. That's great news! Some people are DC and some are Marvel. I'm both. Some are Star Wars and some are Star Trek. Again, I'm both. I want DC and Marvel to do great because that means more movies that are made that I get to watch, enjoy and own. More good news for you: Aquaman isn't just doing well financially. It is actually a good movie! I went into the theater hoping for the best and walked out very pleased with what I got. Summarizing it, Aquaman was a great mix. It was Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings starring an underwater Thor with Avatar visuals. Oh, it also had a great soundtrack. It could've very easily been one gigantic hot mess. Yet, it wasn't. Aquaman captured a lot of the great elements from those previously mentioned movies. The...

I'm not one to predict financial results at the box office. I've never really tried that before. However, what I am usually good at is predicting what's going to bomb and what's not going to bomb. I sit in the theater and see the trailers and go, 'That's going to be awful!' That's what happened with Baywatch , Jupiter Ascending , Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , Ghost in the Shell , the latest version of The Mummy and various others. I sat there thinking, 'How could anyone think these were good ideas?!' This is the first time I've voiced my opinions in a published format. Here goes nothing. Here are my predictions for some of December's movies: Aquaman Prediction: Hit Like I've already told some of my family members, this is an underwater Thor. This is going to be good for D.C. While they've has a few issues with some of their other movies, they got this one right the moment they cast Jason Mo...

There was a recent article on Deadline that mentioned the wave of female superheroes that aren't only appearing in upcoming movies, but getting lead booking. It talks about Harley Quinn , Black Widow , Capt. Marvel and, of course, Wonder Woman . It's an interesting read. My question, which the article also asked, is: will the supply exceed the demand. One woman they spoke to said she didn't think so.  She was a biased source because she's currently involved in a female superhero project herself. My answer is: it depends.  It all depends on how Hollywood handles it. There's a misconception that the comic book genre is a boys club.  Supergirl , Elektra and Catwoman all got solo movies.  Supergirl came out in the 1980s. True, the reception to those movies was poor. The poor reviews and box office for  Supergirl ,  Elektra  and  Catwoman  were well-deserved.  Those were three of the worst superhero movies of all time. ...