Batson's Blog

There's a non-spoiler section here and a spoiler section. There's no way to properly review this movie without the spoilers. First -- the NON-spoiler section : I was eagerly anticipating this movie. I re-watched The Force Awakens to get prepped for it. I was even more excited after watching that just the other night. What is going to happen with Luke Skywalker ? Who are Rey's parents? What is going to happen to Princess Leia (now that Carrie Fisher passed away)? Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? All questions that I was hoping to get answered. I got some of those answers (I think). Still, there was a lot left unanswered. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that's because the writers are building to answers in the final installment of this latest trilogy or if it's because of absolutely awful writing in this movie. The best scenes of the movie absolutely involved Luke Skywalker. You won't be disappointed in anything involving Luke. The rest of it...

Alright, I figured I'd better finish my series of blogs on potential casting choices for the upcoming He-Man movie before the movie is actually out! So, jumping back onto the saddle, let's talk Skeletor. He's one of the most important choices in this movie. Maybe even more important than He-Man. Christian Bale was a good Batman. Almost everyone can agree on that. But I've never met anyone who doesn't think Heath Ledger was an amazing Joker. That's the way I see it with Skeletor. He's He-Man's arch-rival. He's the villainous part of the story. Every good story needs a good villain and, in this one, Skeletor is it. If the movie's decision-makers choose wisely, it could take the movie up another notch. Who to choose? Here are a few people I've come up with: Daniel Radcliffe I'm not sure what age range the rest of the cast is, but there's always a benefit to going young in movies where there's a potential to...

I went into Justice League the way I got into all movies that I want to see: without watching the trailers. I tried to avoid as many clips or previews or interviews or spoilers or reviews as possible. And I wasn't disappointed. One of my co-workers did mention to me that Joss Whedon apparently retweeted a review by Variety, which said that the villain in this movie was one of the worst villains of all time. I don't know if that's the case because I never actually took the time to find that tweet. I did see a few months back that Diane Lane, who plays Martha Kent, mentioned on an episode of Watch What Happens Live that she didn't think Justice League would be as good as The Avengers .  She released a statement later, explaining that she was saying that she couldn't reveal spoilers and that she hadn't seen The Avengers . So, there was that.  Outside of that little bit of information, I didn't know what to expect from the movie, but I was wanting ...

This was ... a Transformers movie. Simply put: it's what you'd expect out of a Transformers movie. It's number five in their ongoing series of movies and was, once again, directed by Michael Bay, so if you've seen any of the other movies, you probably know what to expect with this one. A lot of people have mixed opinions on the Transformers movies and Michael Bay's big 'boom/bang' style. I don't mind it.  The movies don't measure up to the ensemble Marvel movies (like Captain America 3 or The Avengers movies), but they are entertaining and tell a decent story. If it weren't for the length (that almost makes your butt numb from sitting for so long ... 3 hours including the previews), I wouldn't have much negative to say about it. This movie included more of what fans of the previous 4 movies liked, plus some new elements. This is the only movie I can remember that had one Transformer assisting in the age of King Arthur and a...

I realized that I wrote this back in March, but never published it.  So, two reviews in two days: Well, Wolverine finally got a great stand-alone movie! I was worried, after seeing the first trailer for Logan , that the movie would be a slower pace than some of the other X-Men movies.  With the 'R' rating, it seemed to possibly bring a darker theme and slower pace than the last couple of X-Men movies, which featured comedic, slow motion Quicksilver montages. While Logan was darker and did have a slower pace, I think it was, by far, the best story to come out of the X-Men franchise. I t had the storytelling that you'd find from one of the first Marvel movies -- where everyone had a role and every scene had a purpose. There were some new characters (a couple of them being mutants) in this movie.  None of them were ones I'd recognized from the animated X-Men series from the '90s or from comics I'd read.  One of them was Caliban, played by the ent...

So it finally happened. Wonder Woman made it to the big screen in her very own movie. If you haven't seen it, I'll leave most of this blog spoiler-free (spoilers at the very bottom). I had high hopes for this movie for more than one reason. DC needs a boost in their superheroes movie plan. Marvel obviously got a big head start with their Cinematic Universe, but DC Comics has been trying to get on track. While I was a fan of Man of Steel , I really liked the extended cut of Batman v. Superman , and I liked  Suicide Squad , they all had mixed reviews. None were as well-received as some of the Avenger movies or Captain America 3 (which was basically another Avengers movie) though. If Wonder Woman does well, then DC does well, which means Justice League may do well. That means Aquaman may do well. And the Batman movie. And the Batgirl movie. And Cyborg. And Flash. As a comic book fan, I'm a fan of that. Meanwhile, with DC going all-out on their fe...

Something that's been happening in recent years is casting black actors in the roles of comic book characters who were typically white. Of course, it's something that goes back to timing and culture and society. When comic books were published several decades ago, it was during a time when race was still a very sensitive subject. Race may be a sensitive topic these days too, but in the 1940's and 1950's, black people still didn't have the rights they do today. I wasn't alive at the time, but I'd imagine it was even more tense than in today's current climate. It creates an interesting dilemma for Marvel and DC movie and TV-makers.  Do they change the race of beloved characters? Do they create new superheroes who are black (and Asian and LGBT, etc, etc?) to satisfy their diverse readers?  Do they elevate their lesser-known black characters to more prominent roles (like Luke Cage and Black Panther)?  Or do they stick to the original portrayal...