Batson's Blog

Boy, who could have ever predicted what 2020 would bring, huh?  It was supposed to be the year of the female superhero, with Harley Quinn, Black Widow and Wonder Woman dominating the screen.  That didn't quite happen, but the Harley Quinn movie did end up being one of the top grossing movies of the year.  That probably wouldn't have happened without COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, there were some good movies released in 2020.  A lot of the movies you'd expect to see in theaters were released on HBO Max, Disney+ or one of the other dozen streaming services that exist these days.  I saw one of the movies pre-pandemic and most of them after the pandemic while in the movie theater, in the past 2 months.  So let's take a look at this years relatively small list (be warned, SPOILERS are below ...)     The Kid Detective I saw this trailer and thought, 'Huh, I'd watch that.' It's not one I probably would've ever gone to see in the theater typically, bu...

There was a recent article on Deadline that mentioned the wave of female superheroes that aren't only appearing in upcoming movies, but getting lead booking. It talks about Harley Quinn , Black Widow , Capt. Marvel and, of course, Wonder Woman . It's an interesting read. My question, which the article also asked, is: will the supply exceed the demand. One woman they spoke to said she didn't think so.  She was a biased source because she's currently involved in a female superhero project herself. My answer is: it depends.  It all depends on how Hollywood handles it. There's a misconception that the comic book genre is a boys club.  Supergirl , Elektra and Catwoman all got solo movies.  Supergirl came out in the 1980s. True, the reception to those movies was poor. The poor reviews and box office for  Supergirl ,  Elektra  and  Catwoman  were well-deserved.  Those were three of the worst superhero movies of all time. ...

Looking at some of my previous blogs here, I found one from July 2013: 7 Super Heroes Who Deserve Their Own Movie. Well, the good news for superhero fans -- or at least me! -- is that several of the people on my list ended up getting their own movies. Ms. Marvel / Capt. Marvel will be in theaters in 2019. Marvel is surely hoping to attract more of a female demographic with this one and capitalize (or compete) with the success of Wonder Woman. I don't think that'll happen, though. I think Capt. Marvel will be successful enough (it is a Marvel movie, after all), but I don't see it breaking any records.  I could be way off, but the character (especially with the name change from Ms. Marvel to Capt. Marvel) just doesn't have the same fan base as Wonder Woman. Granted, Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy were obscure in terms of mainstream coverage, so Brie Larson and Marvel could definitely make this work.  It's definitely on them to make it successful,...

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 ...

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...

With 2016 behind us, let's look ahead to what movies 2017 has in store for us, shall we? 2016 was an odd year. I was really looking forward to Star Trek: Beyond and X-Men: Apocalypse . Those two (along with Batman v. Superman and Civil War ) were the movies I was looking most forward to watching. However, Star Trek and X-Men were kind of letdowns. Meanwhile, I wasn't even planning to watch Rogue One and I ended up going to see it twice. Here are the movies I'm looking most forward to in 2017, so we'll see if they end up living up to my expectations. Beauty and the Beast - March 17, 2017 Disney is apparently doing a series of live action movies to go along with their fairy tales. Instead of making new characters and stories, they're going the live action route. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Maleficent was a good movie. I never watched 2016's Cinderella . The cast certainly has me excited. Emma Watson as Belle, Luke Evans as Gasto...

Boy, I go on vacation for a week and D.C. comes out with some hefty news: there's finally a Wonder Woman . I remember way back to the early 2000's when Chyna, Lucy Lawless and Sandra Bullock were contenders for a potential Wonder Woman movie. 13 years later, Wonder Woman is coming to the big screen. Gal Gadot has been cast to play Wonder Woman in the Batman vs. Superman / Man of Steel 2 movie that is scheduled for a July 2015 release. First off, I had no idea Wonder Woman was going to be included in that movie. Second, before looking at her IMDB page , I had no idea who Gal Gadot was. She seems like a good choice though. She's been in a couple of Fast and the Furious movies, so she probably won't have much difficulty making an action movie. She looks the part well enough, though I think Jaimie Alexander (of Thor fame) would probably have been a better choice. Nonetheless, it's awesome that D.C. is finally making some headway. D.C. has been left i...

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 ...

With all the super hero films that have been made in recent years, there’s one film that I feel movie makers are missing the boat on: Wonder Woman. There have been talks about making a Wonder Woman film since the early 2000’s when Sandra Bullock, Lucy Lawless, and former WWE wrestler Chyna were considered strong candidates for the role . In this – the era of the super hero film – a Wonder Woman script is apparently being worked on. It's the same story with the rumored Justice League movie. That puts a movie theater release at least two years out, so we’ll see if it actually happens. Let's say a script got approved and production dates were set. Who would be the raven-haired beauty to cast? Chyna probably wouldn't have given the best acting performance in the world, but in 2000 she did look the part. She, of course, had the athleticism. I don't know that it would have been anything more than a B-movie if Chyna was cast in the lead role, so it's probably ...