Batson's Blog

At the end of 2012 I blogged about the 6 movies I was most excited to see in 2013. G.I Joe: Retaliation , Man of Steel , The Wolverine , Thor , Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness all made the cut. I saw all of those movies several times this year -- G.I. Joe once in the theatre and twice on DVD, Star Trek in the theatre three times and once on DVD, Iron Man in the theatre twice, The Wolverine in the theatre twice and Thor in the theatre twice. After carefully going over all of the evidence, I have to say that Star Trek kicked the ass of all others. It was definitely the best of the bunch. Thor 2 comes in next -- being almost as good. Jane slapping Thor wasn't needed, despite the fact that Natalie Portman said it was satisfying . She told E! Online: "I found it very satisfying. I think it’s behalf of all my girlfriends who had guys that didn’t call them back or disappeared or just fell off the face of the earth." Man of Steel came in next. Alth...

On Tuesday, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will premiere on ABC. I sat through three previews for the show when I went to see Iron Man 3 at the cheap theatre a few weeks ago. It looks like it could be a good TV show. At first I had doubts, but it looks like they are going to keep the show in line with the universe Marvel has so masterfully set up with the first two Iron Man movies and The Avengers . Instead of focusing on billionaire's with suits made of iron, giant green genetic freaks, or Gods from another dimension, the show is going to focus on a team of mortals -- doing whatever they can to fight the threats that haunt the U.S. and the world. What exactly is S.H.I.E.L.D. though? It's a fictional espionage team that's been highlighted in multiple Marvel comics, TV shows and movies.

I reviewed Iron Man 3 yesterday, but one thing I didn’t mention was the fact that the previews leading up to the actual movie were almost as entertaining as the movie itself. It was basically 10 minutes of fast-paced action movie previews. Star Trek: Into Darkness Watch the trailer I was anxious to see Star Trek before I saw the preview, but even moreso now that I have. It looks like Captain Kirk is really going to have his hands full with this new villain. Like with other trilogies and multi-film movies, there’s usually a darker movie – one where the super hero faces very threatening foes and not everyone makes it out of the film alive. The Dark Knight was that movie in the Dark Knight trilogy. Iron Man 3 was that movie in the Iron Man series. Spider-Man 3 was that movie in the Spidey movies starring Tobey Maguire. Into Darkness looks to be aptly named, as there are shots of crew members jumping off large buildings, falling towards the ground below. It will be inte...

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...

With the premiere of the third Iron Man just a few days away, there are several questions to be answered: who is the main villain? How will Iron Man survive what appears to be (based on the previews anyway) his greatest threat yet? Will there be an Iron Man 4? Just as important, though, is this question: what will Stan Lee’s cameo be? He’s made an appearance in almost every Marvel movie in the past decade. It’s become a tradition. Even his least memorable cameos have been very fun to watch. To prepare you for Iron Man 3 , here’s the top 15 Stan Lee cameos: 15. Stan Lee as an eyewitness to the Avengers saving New York City Stan Lee’s last cameo, in The Avengers , was fun, but not particularly clever or overly memorable. He made a minor appearance towards the end of the movie as a witness to the scene in New York. To be fair, The Avengers was such an action-packed movie that finding a cameo for Lee was probably a fairly difficult task. 14. Stan Lee as a heroic bystan...

Well now that we know the world isn’t going to end (whew!), we can focus on next year. As the new year approaches, it’s natural to wonder what the next 365 days has in store. You could choose to focus on which new year’s resolutions to make. Or maybe pat yourself on the back for successfully accomplishing items on this year’s list. There are other important things to think about though – like which 2013 movie is going to be the most awesome. I’m strictly talking super hero movies here. There’s quite an impressive list that’s scheduled for release in the next 12 months. Here are the standouts in my mind: 6. Thor: The Dark World (Nov. 8) Chris Hemsworth reprises his role as the God of Thunder next November. After Thor’s decent original outing at the boxoffice and 2012’s super-successful Avengers, I don’t think the Marvel executives have too much to worry about with this one. It’s pretty much a guarantee that it will do well. Tom Hiddleston is returning as “Loki” and P...