Category Archives: action

‘Guardians’’ Box Office Is Out Of This World!

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Marvel Studios’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 has–so far–earned over $425 million worldwide!  The likelihood is high that the it will surpass half a billion by this week, and will more than likely finish its theatrical run over a billion dollars.

It’s worth mentioning that the first movie at the end of its run earned a bit over $773 million, though the sequel is outperforming it handily both domestically and abroad.

Though with Alien: Covenant coming out in 10 days the xenomorphs are looking to to take a bite out Guardians’ box office aspirations, which truth be told is unlikely because Alien: Covenant is R-rated, while Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 is PG-13, which means that not only are each geared to a different audience age-wise, but also viewer-wise.

Alien: Covenant will likely skew male, while Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 will not only draw males, but a greater percentage of women, and children (the latter of which should not be watching the Alien movie at all).

Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2

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I caught James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 last Saturday and what I found so impressive overall was the way Gunn managed so many stories and plot threats in a way that was not only cohesive, but made sense.

Because–and trust me on this–there are so many ways Guardians  could have easily collapsed under it’s own weight.

But it never does.

What’s almost equally impressive is the way everyone gets their own arc, without the movie feeling bloated or over-stuffed.

And Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 is so gorgeous, as if it’s not only not afraid to admit that the worlds depicted first appeared in comic books, but is proud of it.

And there’s not a cynical bone in the movie’s body, which is why when you see Baby Groot and Rocket you just go with it.

Because you know–on a level conscious or not–that Gunn believes in these characters as much, if not more, than you do.

The Defenders – Teaser Trailers 1 & 2

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With the airing on Marvel’s Iron Fist the last member of Marvel’s The Defenders has been introduced to audiences (the others being Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage), and I can’t wait to see them united.

Mainly because there’s so many opportunities for drama and chaos with so many volatile individual sharing the same space.

This is the opposite of my feelings about the Justice League, which I will see though not with any sort of passion.

Spider-Man: Homecoming – Trailer 2

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Before I begin I should mention that I intend to stop posting teaser trailers (unaccompanied by a full trailer) because the former tends to give so little in the way of information that’s it’s almost pointless.

This way at you get the teaser AND the full trailer at the same time, which as far as I am concerned makes more sense and gives the reader more bang for the buck.

So on to the review.  The first thing I should mention is that I hate the blazer Spidey wears on the Spider-Man: Homecoming poster.  It mildly irritates me and feels too Hardy Potter-ish (in terms of tone).

In any case, the second trailer for dropped yesterday, and it did what I thought was unlikely, which was to re-ignite my interest in the third reboot of the property.

With Spider-Man: Homecoming Marvel Studios has managed to do what none of the other movies had done prior, which is to take Peter Parker back to high school, though the casting of an actor that makes that a visually viable move (and that’s not a knock against either Toby Maguire or Andrew Gairfield more than an acknowledgement that both actors were too old–and what’s worse, looked it–to play high school students).

And while Tom Holland–despite being in his mid-twenties–looks six of eight years younger, making it a perfect fit for him.

Then there’s dollops of the sense of wonder that often accompanies a young person as they discover the world around them in new and fascinating ways.

And I am reasonably sure Spider-Man: Homecoming will be a bright spot for a studio–Sony Pictures–that could use a few.

Justice League – Teaser Trailer – Aquaman Edition

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This morning a teaser trailer Zach Snyder’s Batman v Superman was released, and…meh.

After all, it’s a teaser trailer, which is little more than a few carefully chosen shots from the upcoming movie seemingly designed to drum up interest.

It seems that Warner Bros/ DC Entertainment are taking a somewhat novel approach (‘novel’ in the sense of being unexpected, as opposed to being new or unique) in that they seem to be releasing teaser trailers composed of content focusing on individual members of the team. 

Having only seen Aquaman’s teaser I wish they’d go back to a more tradional format because it does them no favors. 

It’s too brief–after all, it’s a teaser trailer–to really make any sort of impression, and I expect the others to do the same. 

At this point Justice League is Zach Snyder’s last chance to get it right.  He whiffed Man of Steel and screwed the pooch on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.  Then again, when you take it upon yourself to ‘reinterpret’ characters no one asked you to in the first place, you’ve got to expect–that’s not entirely fair.  As much as Snyder doesn’t get these characters, which I find easier to accept than he does understand them, and proceeded as he did to spite fans, I am comfortable saying that Warner Bros executives seem too stupid to pick up a comic–so it’s not surprising that there’s more than a little blowback from both critics and the general public.

There’s one shot of the entire team toward the end, and I have seen better likenesses of living, breathing people in the window of Madame Tassaud’s

In other words, it underwhems.

Iron Fist Revealed!

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I understand that Marvel Television in its ‘street-level’ heroes tends to seek a more grounded, realistic esthetic than those typically employed by Marvel Studios.

That probably has a lot to do with why of all the Defenders only one, Daredevil, has a costume (which is more in the vein of tactical armor than a costume, per se).

Jessica Jones and Luke Cage wear civilian clothes, as does Iron Fist (at least in the first season of his series).

And for awhile I thought that the latter in his civvies that might be a good decision, till I saw this image from the series.

 That’s Johnny Yang as an ‘Iron Fist’–which is less an individual than an honorific, though only one seems to exist in any given period of time–and he looks pretty awesome.

The way they muted the colors and gave the costume a very real-world feel works really well, and I would have been glad to see it in more detail.  It was technically in the series, though the footage of it was so (deliberately) blurry you couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Maybe they kept it under wraps because Danny Rand (Finn Jones) in–hopefully The Defenders–tries to capture some of his lost history, and dons the costume as a result.

 

Alien: Covenant – Meet Walter – Trailer

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This is a fascinating trailer (and probably more interesting than any trailer has any right to be), so let’s start at the beginning.

First off, take a gander at this.  Why are they wearing these masks?  It certainly isn’t for reasons of protecting against the introduction of bacteria because they have so many large holes that they would defeat the purpose.

Though they do look especially cool.


And I think I might know a potential source that inspired them.  The ‘androids’ below are from an episode from Year Two of  Space:: 1999, One Moment of Humanity. 



Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.
Then there’s this which implies in the future AMD is not only doing WAY better than they currently are, but they may have even surpassed Intel, which is interesting for all sorts of reasons.

There there’s this, the logo of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.


Which remarkably similar to this…


Known as the Winged Sun, this iconic symbol from ancient Egypt is associated with divinity, royally and power and a fitting symbol for what is likely the most powerful corporation in the Alien universe.

And last but not least, there’s this…


From the trailer this looks like Walter (Michael Fassbender) is hanging with other synthetic people, but why are they all so…white?  It seems a rather odd omission when when you take into account that Ridley Scott himself has been accused of whitewashing (Exodus: Gods and Kings) and it would have certainly simple for him to include at least one person of color.