Batson's Blog

I’d been meaning to post this review a while ago. I saw The Wolverine two and half weeks ago already, but didn’t get around to writing this review. I guess that may be an indication as to whether the movie was good or not, huh? It wasn’t bad actually. It didn’t live up to my expectations though. Considering it was filmed and set in Japan, there wasn’t an epic sword-fight at any point in the movie. There were some impressive battles between characters with martial arts training, but nothing that really stood out as ‘Holy crap! Did you just see that?!’

Tomorrow is the big day. I'm not going to be seeing it until next week, but The Wolverine opens in theatres, nation-wide Friday. Hugh Jackman has said, while promoting the movie, that it's not so much 'Wolverine 2' but a fresh movie, taking place after the original X-Men trilogy. That's probably a good idea since X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn't make a lot of impact at the box office. Jackman's previous work in the X-Men franchise had me sold already, so I'd go see it even if it wasn't stellar, but I have hopes that it will be. Thanks to Jackman, we know this won't be a Wolverine - Part 2, so what exactly can we expect? Here are 6 things I'm pretty confident we can count on: 6. an awesome Silver Samurai If the still photos and the previews are any indication, Silver Samurai will be an epic villain, more intimidating than in the comics and formidable than in the animated series . He almost looks like a larger, robotic version...

The Wolverine , which is sure to be yet another awesome super hero movie, will be released in theatres July 26. It's interesting to note that, counting his cameo in X-Men: First Class , this will be the sixth time that Hugh Jackman appears on the big screen as Wolverine. To put that into perspective, Christian Bale suited up to play Batman just three times, Tobey Maguire appeared in three Spider-Man movies, Christopher Reeve played Superman in four movies, and Sean Connery played James Bond in six movies. Roger Moore beats them all out, starring in seven James Bond movies. I don't know if those lists are impressive or just an example of Hollywood's habit of finding a formula and sticking with it. There are literally dozens of characters to choose from in D.C. and Marvel's libraries, yet there's always a focus on the same core group of super heroes. When an actor or director gets bored and calls it quits, they just do a reboot with a new actor in the role ...

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...

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...