Category: Marvel

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Someone At Marvel TV Needs To Watch DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow!

For the most part Marvel’s Netflix shows have been pretty great.  Yes there have been some downer moments, but most of the time Netflix/Marvel has delivered a quality product.  However, the fight scenes on the shows have started go down hill, and nowhere was this more apparent than The Defenders.  This should have been the show where they pulled out all the stops, but instead it was generally just four people fighting in the dark next to each other.  There were a few decent one on one fights, but the group together was pretty meh, and getting the gang together was the whole point of this show.

Now on the other hand DC’s Legends of Tomorrow can sometimes have some pretty meh storylines, but holy heck, a few times a season the fight scenes are just crazy awesome.  Granted on Legends of Tomorrow there are a lot of heroes with different fighting styles and powers, while The Defenders mostly just kick stuff, but still, they could have found a way to feature them all in a better light (or just in the light).

Look, I believe in the writing team behind the Marvel Netflix shows, but they need to find a new fight coordinator, or at least one that watches some of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.  I just want the action in the shows to be as good as the story telling.

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We Are Getting À La Carte TV. Proving You Should Be Careful What You Wish For…

Disney announced that after its two year deal with Netflix is done it will pull all of its movies and shows off of the popular streaming service.  This is so it can launch its own online streaming network.  There has been no word yet on how this will affect the current Marvel/Netflix co-produced TV shows.  Though I am guessing due to their success they will continue to stay on Netflix and continue to be made by the same team.

The real news is that there will soon be yet another streaming TV service.  It will be joining the likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, CBS All Access, CW Seed, and the soon to be launching yet to be titled DC/Warner Brothers online network.  Plus who knows how many others are in the works.  Netflix opened Pandora’s TV box, and now every TV Service provider who’s ratings have taken a hit due to streaming media want a piece of the action.  This would be fine if the channels were going to be cheap, but it looks like they will start around $5.99 a month a piece and then go up from there.  Heck HBO Now is $15 a month.  You thought à la carte programing was going to save you money.  Well guess what, it won’t.

People are going to have to think long and hard about what services they are going to watch and need, and if these services keep dividing up their content and charging a lot for it, it may force people back to cable to ‘save’ money.  For some reason when people said they wanted to be able to pick and choose their channels they assumed that they could still just pay the $1 to $2 a channel like they are now.  That of course is not the case.

The à la carte future everyone said they wanted is almost here, and it is going to cost us all a fortune.  Not to mention the services we using now are going to continue to have less content as shows and movies are added to their IP owners’ own services.  Somehow the future is always less cool than we hoped it would be.

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Freeform Is Finally Getting A Show I Am Interested In, The New Warriors!

There are so many comic book TV shows out there now.  Though for a while it seemed that DC was destined to own broadcast TV while Marvel would just keep trucking along on Netflix (with the exception of Agents of SHEILD).  Not so!  Marvel is adding two new shows this year, Inhumans and their first comedy The New Warriors.

The internet is going nuts for The New Warriors because it will have Twitter favorite Squirrel Girl played by the AT&T Girl (Milana Vayntrub).

I guess she was in This Is Us too, but who watches that show.  Anyway, I have been hoping for a good superhero comedy, so I hope Freeform can pull it off.  Though if the internet has taught me anything, The Amazing Squirrel Girl can do whatever she sets her mind to (she beat Thanos once)!

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Spider-Man Comes Home!

We finally got our first Marvel Studios co-produced Spider-Man movie, and it was worth the wait.  Spider-Man: Homecoming is the best Spider-Man movie to date.  Just narrowly beating out Spider-Man 2.  My only complaint is that I feel they played the movie a bit safe.  The Marvel movie formula works, but I wish they would try and shake it up a bit.

Spider-Man: Homecoming starts out with a quick recap of the events of Captain America: Civil War from Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) perspective.  He then waits to hear from Tony Stark about his next mission while becoming the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man we have all come to know and love.  Along the way he gets in a fight with some guys with super weapons.  To protect his city he is going to have to track down and take out the maker of these very dangerous weapons.

Did you see something I didn’t mention in the plot above?  That’s right Peter never gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and there isn’t yet another Green Goblin.  Spider-Man: Homecoming is not an origin film in the classical sense.  Peter is still new to his powers, and not far along in his superhero career, but those looking forward to Uncle Been dying while saying something about power and responsibility will be disappointed.  It is very refreshing.

Tom Holland is the best Peter Parker we have had on screen.  Which is saying something.  Both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were pretty good Spider-Men.  Even if their movies weren’t.  All of the backup cast was great as well, and obviously Michael Keaton is going to be good no mater what movie he is in, so it is no surprise that he is fantastic as the blue-collar villain Vulture.  His performance keeps the character from becoming a one-note throw away villain.

Honestly, like I said above my only complaint is that Spider-Man: Homecoming can be a little too Marvel-y.  It fits in very well with the other Marvel movies, but that is because it is very much like the other Marvel movies.  It is a weak complaint I know, but after sixteen movies it would be nice to see something fresh and new from the studio.

For everyone that was excided to hear that Marvel Studios would be taking the reins for at least the next few Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the movie they hoped it would be.  It is funny and charming, and it brings in a lot of Marvel cameos and Easter-eggs to find and enjoy.  Just don’t expect something new and different.  It is like buying a Snickers at the grocery store, very good, but you know what you are getting.

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Shmee Knows The Secret To Making A Shared Cinematic Universe!

We live in a post Marvel Studios world were everyone wants to build a shared universe.  So far only Marvel is really succeeding, but everyone else is trying.  Though the Warner Brothers MonsterVerse is starting to pick up, and after Wonder Woman’s astonishing success there is hope for the DCEU.  Meanwhile Universal’s Dark Universe is dying for the second time.  So to all you movie executives out there that want to make that sweet, sweet shared universe cash, I will tell you how to do it: MAKE GOOD MOVIES.

Why is the MonsterVerse taking off?  Godzilla and Skull Island turned out to be pretty good.  Marvel movies? For the most part, good.  The struggling DCEU? For the most part, not good.  Then Wonder Woman came along and was awesome, so now people are excited to see her again in Justice League.  Know who we don’t want to see again? A kind of evil and bland Tom Cruise, who is not the Mummy, but more of a reincarnated evil god who killed the Mummy, and thus the Dark Universe no longer has an iconic character.  Instead it has a jerky god-ish Tom Cruise.

There you have it.  Focus on making good films, and for the most part people will watch them.  Especially if you have that major movie studio marketing power.  Do no make movies that are advertisements for future movies.  If you want to included a few Easter Eggs that is fine, but focus on the story at hand, not the story three movies from now.  Believe it or not we don’t care that much if it doesn’t hang together that well.  It will just give us something to talk about later.  So get out there and make those cool flicks!