Batson's Blog

Wow! Wow!! On so many levels. Unlike some Star Wars movies, unlike The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings , Avengers: Endgame is not disappointing in any way. There are maybe two very minor things I could pick at, but that's it. Maybe two minor things in an entire 3 hour movie. Without giving spoilers, the most important thing I'd say is that nobody will be disappointed in this movie. You can't be disappointed if you liked any of the other Marvel movies ... at all. Some characters got more screen time than others, so fans of one particular character may not be happy about that, but the movie made sense for every character that so there's just no legitimate complaining about it. That's probably the most impressive thing about the movie: the writing. Sure, visuals were great (though I think I was more impressed by Aquaman in that aspect). Sure, the fight scenes (one in particular) was amazing. Yeah, the music was spot on --- taking you on a rollercoaste...

What an action-packed movie this was, huh?! Marvel and Disney have been working toward this for years and it really did come of as massive team-up movie. I really liked how they kept the feel of the individual characters while telling the overall story of Thanos and his quest for the Infinity Gauntlet. The story was pretty straightforward though they really made Thanos out to be a more dynamic character than just a power-hungry villain. The backstory of Titan made him almost human — just misunderstood. Still a bad dude but you could see where he was coming from and where he went wrong. Oh, and let's talk about his costuming.  I was very skeptical when I saw the trailer and he didn't have his battle gear on or his helmet.  He does adorn that at certain parts of the movie and I got used to seeing the movie version very quickly. It was a quick adjustment if you're used to the traditional comic book version, so good on Marvel for making that decision on the c...

I went to see Captain America: Civil War on opening day and, I have to say, it was great! Yet another good outing for Marvel here. Let's get this out of the way right away: stay until the end -- the very end. There are mid and post-credit scenes. Also, no spoilers here, so don't worry. There were only a couple of minor nitpicks, but, outside of that, I’m not complaining. So I'm not even going to mention those.  They were very minor. I didn’t really know what to expect --- other than the fact that Cap’ does battle with Iron Man, which the previews indicated.  I’m well aware that there’s a popular graphic novel with the Civil War concept, but, growing up, I never bought that many comic books – not the newer ones anyway.  I wasn’t familiar with much of the Civil War story arc.  I did briefly Wikipedia the comic book version of Civil War about a year ago, but I didn’t want to spoil the movie, so I didn’t read too much about it. I’ve seen all of Marv...

I blogged about Ben Affleck being Batman the other day and why I think it could work. One of the reasons I mentioned was his performance in Daredevil. While some critics and viewers didn’t like the movie, I thought it was decent, if not borderline good. So Batman and Daredevil will both be on Ben Affleck’s list of super hero portrayals. Not too shabby. He’s actually not alone in playing more than one super hero. Affleck joins a short list of actors who have played more than one hero or villain in the Marvel and D.C. universes.

If you look at Wikipedia's page for June 16th , you'll see a slew of historic events. Perhaps more exciting than anything listed on the Wikipedia page is the fact that June 16th is also Captain Picard Day. Captain Picard Day is celebrated on June 16th because it is the equivalent date to Stardate 47457.1, mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode entitled The Pegasus. In that episode, Captain Picard Day is an occasion for the Enterprise to host schoolchildren and show them what Starfleet is like. Read more at http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/06/16/captain-picard-day/#X2HFaaImDHTg3UPx.99 Here's a list of other great captains: Captain Planet Who else can save the planet from pollution-loving bad guys and be a good role model -- all while rocking green hair? That's greatness all by itself. Add in his super powers and his always cool attitude, and you have a great captain indeed. Captain Hook He loses battles to a flying teenager in tights who...

Can we talk Iron Man 3 ? I was told by a friend of mine on Twitter that Iron Man 3 stopped being cool on Sunday. True, I was not one of the many people who saw it opening weekend, but better late than never right? The third installment in the Iron Man series (and the sequel to The Avengers ) was definitely very cool! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had high hopes after the first two Iron Man movies, Thor , Captain America and The Avengers . Marvel has been on a role the past few years, so I was hoping they’d deliver a kick-ass movie in order to keep that momentum going. Based on the one trailer I saw for Iron Man 3, it seemed that Tony Stark faced a threat like never before. The preview I saw showed some of the Iron Man suits getting blown up. Iron Man 3 almost immediately started with that very same image. It wasn’t all explosions though. In fact, perhaps more than in the previous Iron Man appearances, this movie had a back-story, characters with different al...

I already talked about the best portrayals of super heroes and villains on the big screen. Today, let’s take a look at some of the portrayals that didn’t make either of those lists. These heroes and villains weren’t bad, but they could have been better. 10. Sienna Miller as The Baroness ( G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra , 2009) This one almost worked really well. Visually, Miller's transformation into The Baroness was pretty much impeccable. The look was updated enough to not avoid being too cartoonish in the movie, but The Baroness' trademark features were still present -- the glasses, the catsuit, and the dark hair. There didn't seem to be any attempt at The Baroness' accent though. I was disappointed in that. It didn't have to be perfect, but at least some kind of accent would have been appreciated. The producers, looking for a love story, I suppose, also provided us with a romantic history between The Baroness and Duke. 9. Hugo Weaving as The Red S...

DC vs. Marvel. The Green Lantern and C aptain America: The First Avenger . I haven’t seen a superhero movie that I haven’t liked so I figured The Green Lantern and Captain America were two good choices. ( Warning! Superhero geek mark-out mode here) Batman will always be the best, but I remember wanting a shield like Captain America when I was five-years-old. I started off with The Green Lantern . As big a fan of the comic book heroes as I am, the Green Lantern is one back-story I wasn’t familiar with. I knew he had the ring and it had some sort of power, but, beyond that, I didn’t have a clue what to expect. Unfortunately it fell a little short of what I would’ve liked. It was a little more corny than epic, a little more predictable than exciting and, with the heavy use of computer animation, a little more video game than movie. It felt a little bit like they were going through the motions with this one. Ryan Reynolds was a good choice for the part, but it seems he wa...