Batson's Blog

Everyone is talking about the Disney (Marvel) / Sony feud right now. It's a complicated situation, especially since we don't really know what the tone of all the discussions is like. There are some conflicting reports. Based on what I've seen, Sony and Disney made a deal. Spider-Man was successful in the MCU, so Disney wanted to renegotiate so that they had better terms in the deal. I don't blame Sony for saying 'Hold up' because legally they've been doing everything right. But the MCU is where all the action is, so of course fans want Spider-Man there. That being said, I think now may be the best time for Spidey to go solo with Sony. Both of Spider-Man's movies so far benefitted from having Nick Fury, Happy Hogan and Iron Man (or at least references to him in the second movie). Spider-Man got a huge rub from Fury and Iron Man. It's time to take that and move on and do his own thing. The crowded, crossover-filled MCU: It's ...

I remember everyone groaning when it was announced that Sony was making a Venom movie. Then they saw the trailer and got excited. I was kind of in the ‘meh’ camp until I heard Tom Hardy was on board to play Eddie Brock. He did such a great job as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises that I figured he’d be a great hero/anti-hero in Venom. And he did! His portrayal of Eddie Brock was very interesting. Always likable but definitely a character with flaws. He was someone you were rooting for even when he was messing up. The symbiote storyline isn’t one that’s been told in this way before. Sure, Venom was in Spider-Man 3 but it doesn’t even compare to this version, honestly. This one was much better. It was done in a more comedic way. The only negative I have is that the comedy almost made the movie a little too cartoonish. Just a little. It felt like Venom could’ve been a little more diabolical. His lines were delivered in a way that seemed like they were supposed to be pun...

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...

With 2017 all wrapped up, let's take a look back at the best movies of the year. 14. The Mummy The worst new movie I saw in 2017 was Tom Cruise's unneeded remake of The Mummy . Sure, The Mummy franchise had probably run it's course, but nobody asked for a remake -- especially one that wasn't as good as the first set of films. The movie was predictable in a lot of spots and sloppy in other spots. Russell Crowe played his part well. Tom Cruise's bank-ability as an actor just isn't there in 2017. He's not a leading man, so quit trying to cast him as one. This version of The Mummy wasn't worth the watch and certainly can't begin to compare to Brendan Fraser's The Mummy and The Mummy Returns . 13. Power Rangers What hurt this movie was the fact that the writers seemed to actively avoid doing a remake of the 1990's storyline. They had a backstory with Zordon and Rita Repulsa formerly being Rangers themselves. The whole...

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...

Iron Man isn't the only super hero returning to the big screen in the next several years. You'll be seeing a lot of Spidey too. "Sony's film studio announced Monday it has OK'ed the third and fourth editions of the webbed franchise, and that they will hit theaters on June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018," USA Today reports . Andrew Garfield is already resuming his role as Spider-Man. He's in New York filming the sequel to last year's The Amazing Spider-Man . It's set for a May 2014 release date -- the same month that X-Men: Days of Future Past is set for. Related Content: • Iron Man 3 - reviewed. • More Iron Man to come • The Amazing Spider-Man - reviewed.

As if he doesn’t have enough advanced weaponry, Tony Stark created a lot of new weapons for his arsenal – thanks to the high level of stress that kept him up for nights on end. The coolest of them was probably the sensors he installed into his arms and legs. When he put his arms out, it triggered the Iron Man suit parts, which came flying across great distances and assembled together on Tony Stark’s body. He also rigged up a way to make the Iron Man suit maneuver without a body being inside of it. All Tony had to do was wear his headpiece and he could control the suit from a different location. Iron Man may be the king of super-cool technology, but there are a few other super heroes who have a pretty wide arsenal of weapons, machines and gadgets:

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...