#(yes that does happen to be my biggest problem with the shazam movie)
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Jack decides he needs a bit of time away from family to mourn the loss of his one sided friendship with Vlad and Vlad's death. So he takes a trip to Gotham. On this trip, he runs into Damian and Tim, who are convinced he's Captain Marvel in disguise.
Meanwhile, Jason's also run into Jack as he's coming into his ghost powers. Jason starts freaking out because someone just saw him when his new powers started glitching. Panicking only worsens the situation as now he can't figure out how to get his foot un-caught in the cement.
Jack, despite not knowing if this kid is a halfa or not, decides to give him advice based on how Danny told him his powers work. It works.
Now, Jason has a sort-of mentor that he didn't ask for but definitely needs, and Jack has something to do while he sorts out his feelings on the whole Vlad-was-never-his-friend thing.
Eventually, Damian and Tim catch them while Jack is trying to explain how Jason might have a second form. While Jack explains, Jason just transforms. His ghost form isn't what either expected. Jack was expecting something similar to Danny's or Vlad's. Not a winged little kid with a mask.
To be honest, this just solidifies that this guy is Captain Marvel for Damian and Tim. Obviously he decided to teach Jason magic.
#dp x dc#dc x dp#dcxdp#dpxdc#jason got wings#because of how he was in heaven before he came back to life#i'm thinking he's more red palleted than color swapped#his eyes hair and wings are red#and his outfit is a mix between his robin uniform and his school uniform#khakis tie cape pixie boots mask#all in navy blue and red#the cape is blue on the outside and red on the inside#i'm not sure about the shirt#his transformation rings probably look more fire-y than the others'#i subscribe to the idea that he'd have a fire core#(also i think tim and damian thinking jack is captain marvel is hilarious and should def be used more)#(also also the version of captain marvel i'm thinking of is any EXCEPT for the movie version where he's a fricken twink)#(yes that does happen to be my biggest problem with the shazam movie)#(they should have found someone that looks more like how the ancient greeks thought their gods looked)#(or at least like how he does in the comics)#(sorry for the rant i have strong feelings about this)
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Michael in the Mainstream: Shazam!
The DCEU is really the embodiment of the spirit of the origins of the modern superhero movie craze. Much like the man who helped kick it off in 2008 – one Robert Downey Jr. - The DCEU had a dark, checkered past, with a lot of horrible issues that made audiences balk at their films. Man of Steel was just another so-so Superman film, Batman v Superman was a bloated, bizarre crossover film made before anything about the world was really established, and Suicide Squad was just a complete and utter hot mess. Then came Wonder Woman, a breath of fresh air in the current superhero landscape and the DCEU at large… and then came Justice League, a tonally confused mess that managed to be entertaining in spite of itself. After that was the infinitely entertaining cheesy fantasy action of Aquaman, putting the franchise back in everyone’s good graces just in time for a silly little movie about a little boy who transforms into a grown man to come on the scene… Shazam!
Shazam! is, without a doubt in my mind, the Iron Man to the RDJ of the DCEU. While there were great ones before, with Wonder Woman and Aquaman being absolutely fantastic and enjoyable, this was the first film to pull of what those two movies did without the big problems that bogged down those two movies. There’s no inane plot twist villain followed by a goofy fight, and quite mercifully there is no acting as atrocious as Amber Heard’s performance. The movie has problems, yes, but it does almost everything solidly enough that I can overlook the issues.
I think what really makes the film special is just how earnest and unashamed of itself that it is. It’s goofy, it’s bright, it doesn’t sugarcoat what a teenage boy granted the power to turn into a grown man would do… it’s just so playful, silly, and charming. And if there’s one thing I never imagined I’d say, it’s that a teenager turning into Zachary Levi to sneak into a strip club would be “charming.” This movie really loves throwing curveballs.
And nowhere is that more apparent than in the concept itself. Shazam, or Captain Marvel, or perhaps even Captain Sparklefingers is not the first hero you’d expect DC to make a movie out of, especially since on paper he seems pretty similar to Superman, power-wise at least. They’ve already established Superman as a big force in this world, so why would they go with the weird concept of a kid getting powers from an old wizard to turn into a knockoff Superman? But if there’s anything comic book movies have proven lately, it’s that weird, off-the-wall concepts like this can work, and they just dive into all this whole hog. There’s no sugarcoating things or explaining the magic away as alien tech like early MCU movies did; no, this is magic, there’s a wizard, there are demons, this is all happening. Magical elements have obviously been in the DCEU before – Enchantress, the Greek Gods, and to some extent Atlantis have all been shown – but this is our first time seeing a wizard who wouldn’t look out of place in an 80s fantasy film and actual, evil demons that personify the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s just so great that we’ve come so far with superhero movies where we can have a magically-empowered child punch demons in the face.
And speaking of the child, Billy Batson is such a wonderful character. He starts the movie as a bitter loner with abandonment issues and a dislike of authority due to his mother going missing for much of his life, with a good heart underneath it all; as the movie goes on, of course he learns his lesson and comes to accept his new family as his real one and all that delightfully feel-good mushy stuff. And much like fellow superpowered youngster Miles Morales from last year’s biggest non-MCU superhero film, Billy feels real, his struggles feel real, and his growth as a character feels real. He honestly feels like a more accurate take on Superman than any previous Superman movie (except Hercules and The Iron Giant, anyway). Obviously credit must be given to Zachary Levi as Shazam, who does a really good job of being both badass and extremely childish when the scene calls for it, but I think props must be given to Asher Angel as well, not only because he is just as capable of carrying the movie as Levi is due to his fantastic dramatic moments and solid humor, but because he has an absolutely fantastic name.
Of course, a superhero movie is usually only as good as its villain, and thankfully this film has an extremely solid villain in the form of Dr. Sivana, a classic villain of Shazam who has been given quite a makeover for this film. Played by the inimitable Mark Strong of modern classics such as Kingsman, Sivana is an utter bastard as well as a tragic figure; we open the movie seeing him abused by his family, only to be called by Shazam the wizard and then cruelly rejected because his heart just wasn’t pure enough for the wizard’s high standards. What follows is a terrible accident that surely opened up the door for decades of belittlement and abuse at the hands of his father and brother, to the point where you honestly understand where he’s coming from to a certain degree… though probably not to the degree where you find it okay he wants to murder a child.
The Sins on the other hand… well, let me put it this way: they gave me flashbacks of the elemental demons that worked for Blackheart in Ghost Rider, and if that doesn’t make sense to you, I cannot stress enough you do not ever want to be compared to those guys. The Sins lack personality, character, and even creative designs; I could hardly tell which Sin was supposed to be which in quite a few cases. It’s honestly kind of sad they had more personality as statues then they did after hitching a ride in Sivana’s body, but to their credit they at least function more like a plot device and minions than as actual characters, serving as essentially either boss battles for Shazam to knock around or as a power boost for Sivana himself. It is a shame they aren’t more interesting, but it’s also not a big loss, as the movie focuses far more on the comedy and drama around Billy than the actual superheroics, which is weirdly a good thing.
Billy’s extended foster family are all great in their own right, though I will say that at the moment they do seem a bit one-note, aside from Freddy anyway. Mary, Eugene, and Pedro are all interesting and enjoyable in their own right, but the movie kind of shunts them and their characters aside to focus more on Billy, Freddy, and to a lesser extent Darla. To the movie’s eternal credit though, it puts a lot of focus on them in the third act, and they get to do something pretty surprising and awesome in the climax that I won’t spoil.
However, I must spoil the mid-credits scene, because that is the moment when I knew that this movie is not just the Iron Man of the DCEU, but the Guardians of the Galaxy as well. You see, a character who those steeped in the lore of Captain Marvel/Shazam will easily recognize appears, one Mr. Mind. Now, with a name like that, if you are unaware of the character as I was when I first had his existence spoiled, you might think this might just be some mad scientist, or some evil doctor, or something akin to Mr. Sinister where it’s a superpowered evil man… but Mr. Mind is something far better.
He is a caterpillar. An evil alien caterpillar from Venus. And he talks with a little voice box in a creepy radio voice.
Mr. Mind’s appearance is a sign to me that the DCEU is going down the right path. This is the sort of ballsy move sticking Howard the Duck at the end of Guardians was, in a franchise that has a lot more to lose considering its checkered track record. The fact that they are willing to, this early into their run, give us an evil universe-conquering worm shows me that now the DCEU is fully willing to embrace the inherent silliness and fun of the comics they are adapting. I’m fully expecting Tawky Tawny to show up in the next film at this rate (and with all the tiger symbolism in this one, he just might).
Fun, charming, funny, emotional, and dramatic… I figured it would be good, but the fact that this film is this good is just a shock. I’m so happy that DCEU isn’t backtracking on its desire to truly embrace what fans love about comics and take risks with what they show us, and the fact it’s doing it a lot quicker than Marvel did gives me a lot of hope we’ll be seeing even weirder stuff in the future (fingers crossed for Mr. Mxyzptlk!). I think DCEU fans and Marvel fans alike can come together and appreciate this one, because it’s just an absolute joy to watch regardless of which comic book company you slavishly worship over the other. More than anything else, though, it must be said:
This is DEFINITELY the best Captain Marvel movie of 2019.
#Michael in the Mainstream#Review#Movie review#DCEU#Shazam#Shazam!#Zachary Levi#Captain Marvel#before anyone says anything I think the MCU Captain Marvel is alright#but how could I not love this more?#It's Big starring Tom Hanks... BUT WITH SUPERHEROES!#And also Mr. Mind#Fuck Darkseid#Mr. Mind for life baby!
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Captain Marvel Review
This...this is awkward. *Ahem* How does one put this gently? The Captain Marvel movie, kind of sucks. Like “oh my gosh this is bad” sucks. That sentiment comes from an objective viewpoint; well as objective a viewpoint one can have after watching whatever Marvel’s, Captain Marvel was.
I paid little attention to the calls for the film to be boycotted or whatever controversy surrounded the lead of the film, Brie Larson. All I wanted was a good film as Marvel is accustomed to delivering. Sadly, I was let down. Why you ask?
.Carol: A tale of Two Leads - One of the biggest problems for me is not the character of Captain Marvel but what Marvel is trying to do with her. It is in some way similar to what happened with Iron Man in his first live action film.
Robert Downy Jr took a C to B list character at best and gave a performance that shot him into the upper echelons of comics. However that was more of an unintentional thing. There was no one saying how great Tony Stark was. We saw this with his ingenuity throughout the film but more than that we saw it by how vulnerable he was by being captured, and left for dead more than once, thus having to learn or rely on others. Why? Because Tony is a genius and he is genius enough to know he needed others to help him in his plight. Yes he has an ego but that falls away when he knows his or others’ lives depend on it. He makes mistakes and comes out of the other side stronger for it. That’s relatable.
In Captain Marvel from the first exchange of dialogue in the movie, we are told how strong Carol is though she is “emotional” (Something we see little of). We have constant scenarios of the character being lauded by others for how brilliant she is, whether as a pilot, warrior or hero. There is no fall for her beyond brief moments of being captured...twice. In each scenario she manages to get away with ease and gain little from either. Yes she “falls” in the movie during montages as Marvel tries to hamfist the idea of rising up into the plot line but Steve Rogers did that already and without needing to hammer it home that this was a Psuedo-motivational moment.
Again let’s look at Tony. In his workshop Tony goes through countless tests to get his suit to fly or do what he wishes and we see him fail before he succeeds. But Tony does not give up! He keeps going till he gets it done and even then, he keeps upgrading his suits for any possible situation because he knows he is not invincible. Anything is possible and he needs to be prepared. Whether this is caution or his need for control it shows us Tony’s mindset which almost seems neurotic at its worst.
Carol...falls from space, closes her eyes and decides to fly. That is a scene meant to be empowering but I instead just groaned. Marvel seems to want us to buy into Carol being the cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I think it can be argued while not nearly as strong as Carol, Black Widow deserves that spot.
(This picture has more charisma than the cast)
.The Attitude - Carol is cocky. Not quite Tony Stark or Namor cocky but she has an ego of sorts. She is a woman who knows she is powerful, knows she has the means to take control and is not afraid of doing so. However she has an attitude of no nonsense but also of being able to empathize with others, such as when Scarlet Witch returned to her senses after the House of M storyline. Carol in her Ms.Marvel guise along with Spider-Woman come to her aid before taking Wanda to the Avengers’ Mansion and in those few pages we see a range of emotions. Joy at seeing her friend. The jubilant yet skilled approach Carol takes to fighting the threats facing them. The pain on her face when Vision turns Wanda, his wife at the time, away.
Those are organic expressions and it hurts to say those pages carry more emotion in them than Brie’s portrayal. It is wooden and has no real character behind it. Yes she is soldier but so is Captain America, Bucky, Falcon and Black Widow. Yes she has amnesia, so did Bucky and in Civil War he still showed the emotion of someone who felt like they could not even trust themselves, worry, fear, wariness of all around him besides Steve. Brie really only has one emotion throughout. Stoic. Stoic in happiness, sadness and anger.
She does stoic well but nothing else. For example, upon realizing all she knows is false, Carol in the movie has no moment of breaking down that others face. T’challa upon seeing his father’s transgression confronts him and completely changes his mindset about aiding the outside. Charlize Theron as Furiosa in Mad Max - Fury Road upon realizing what she was fighting for all along no longer exists, this bastion of strength walks into the desert, takes off her prosthetic arm and screams into the distance. Carol has none of that besides saying, “I don’t know who I am!!!” which is quickly countered by her friend saying, “You are Carol Danvers....”. And...that’s it. She has a moment at the end where she echoes this and ordeal over. Yup.
.Missed Opportunities - Yon Rogg, Korath, Ronan, Agent Coulson, Mar-Vell and even the Skrulls feel like they were wasted in this movie. Some are glorified cameos and that sucks. Korath especially feels like he could have had backstory to show how he became what he was in Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh and Mar-Vell...what did they do to Mar-Vell!?!? Moving on!
Nick Fury feels like he got some of the worst of it all. Many wanted to see how he got those Scars but the pay off is so bad you wish it was instead a moment better left to our imagination. While it is fun seeing a younger Nick Fury at work with a different attitude to his older self, there seems like he deserved a subplot that paid off the speculation of him losing his eye.
Skrulls + He trusted someone he should not have + Lost an eye = Easy Subplot. Imagine going through a movie with Nick having faith in a character only to see that is not who he thought it was and pays a huge price before painfully having to take that person out? That would have explained the Nick Fury who we know so well.
(Annnnnnnd...lack of common sense starts now)
.Plot Twists - NO! That’s all I will say! NO! I understand trying to subvert expectations but there are some things in the Marvel Universe that should stay as such. This is not like changing, M’Baku to a anti-hero/hero or the Mandarin into an Actor (Who was not even the real Mandarin). This is like taking the Red Skull and making him a hero. It just does not work. That is all I will say to avoid spoilers.
.What Genre am I? - You know something? Winter Soldier is a Spy Thriller movie. Ant Man, a crime comedy. Thor-Raganarok a Sci-Fi Comedy. None of them are really the same despite being hero flicks. Each has its identity. Each understands what it wants to do. Captain Marvel does not.
It shifts from bad action movie, to bad drama to bad comedy. It is jack of nothing and the ace of nothing. Captain America understood it was a period piece and played up the aspects of this. It was essential but Captain Marvel only has this is spots before the film does away with them.
It is no rite of passage tale like Homecoming was or even Shazam. In those films the heroes fall due to their own errors and must dig themselves out of it, in one case literally. Captain Marvel has none of that. Brie is powerful at the start and becomes more powerful at the end. It has the spy of spies in the MCU, Nick Fury but fails to use him nearly enough.
A depowered Carol, (Thanks to a power cancelling chip on her neck) on the run with Fury trying to understand her past sounds like an amazing prospect, making me want to see her regain her powers after gaining better understanding of how to utilize them. But nope, she whoops ass and will make sure you know. Even if you don’t want to.
(I’m the badass female of the MCU...after Black Widow, Okoye, Shuri, Peggy Carter, Valkyrie, Gamora, Frigga, Pepper Pots, Aunt May, *Aunt May Into the Spider-Verse* Nebula, Sif, Sharon Carter, Nakia, The Ancient One...yeah after all of them!)
Rating: 1 out 5
.Boring Screen Play and action
.Bland Lead
.Misguided attempt at a powerful female lead (Wonder Woman & Furiosa did it far better even if they were flawed as well)
.Convoluted plot
.Goose is awesome and so is Nick Fury.
#captain marvel#captain america#brie larson#Steve Rogers#bucky barnes#bucky#marvel#Marvel Comics#Marvel Civil War#live action#Film Review#review#mavel cinematic universe#samuel l jackson#mad max#furiosa#wonderwoman#Wonder Woman#DC comics#dc
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How Luca Became the First Pixar Movie Made at Home
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Luca is the name of the next animated feature film from Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios, directed and conceived by animator and artist Enrico Casarosa. Working at Pixar since 2002 as a story artist in films like Cars, Up, Coco, and Ratatouille, Casarosa directed the 2012 short La Luna before making his feature directorial debut this year with Luca—an original fantasy based partially on Casarosa’s boyhood in Genoa, Italy.
Telling the tale of two teenage sea monsters named Luca and Alberto (voiced respectively by Jacob Tremblay from Good Boys and Room, and Jack Dylan Grazer of It and Shazam! fame) who spend a summer disguised as humans and enjoying life on land in an Italian seaside village, Luca represents two major firsts for Pixar: It is the first feature in the studio’s decades-long history to take place specifically in Italy and it is, for all intents and purposes, the first Pixar film to be made almost completely at home.
While the research, development, and production of the average Pixar film takes anywhere from four to seven years, the bulk of the animation and actual production, including voice work, happens during the last year before it is readied for release. With Luca set to arrive in 2021, this meant that Casarosa, producer Andrea Warren, and their extensive team of animators, artists and visual effects craftspeople would spend the majority of 2020 working on the film.
And that was the plan—until the pandemic hit and completely changed the way that the filmmakers would go about making their movie.
“I always joke that when we left our offices with our computers and papers in hand, I had a plant on my desk and I was like, ‘Should I take it?’” says Warren when Den of Geek speaks with her and Casarosa via Zoom. “[I had] zero idea of what the road ahead was going to be like. I think very quickly it was all about lifting barriers. Like, can we animate from home? Can we meet? Can we record actors? Slowly we answered ‘yes’ to all of those things. We realized we would actually get to continue making the film.”
With the Pixar campus in Emeryville, California effectively shut down by the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the Luca team found themselves all trying to get their bearings and continue their work while isolating at home during the pandemic’s peak months.
“I think that one of the hardest things for sure was just communication,” says Warren. “I think we learned very quickly how much we got done walking down the halls in between meetings, running into people at lunch�� there are all these things that kept so much of the communication and momentum of the project going. Trying to do that from home is a heavier lift, as is staying connected even as everybody’s lives sort of collapsed into one pile of parenting and kids and school.”
Warren adds that other non-work struggles—such as the initial difficulty of doing once simple things like buying groceries, or evading the threat of California’s annual wildfires—added to the tests heaped upon the filmmakers.
“There were just so many phases of this that were challenging,” she explains. “I think the biggest challenge was to keep the team connected and clear, on the same path and on the same mission. But there were some interesting advantages that we learned too. It certainly makes you rethink everything. More people could attend certain things because you could just Zoom in. We worked with a writer in New Zealand for a little while that we would’ve probably never worked with because we thought, well, you can’t go anywhere, anyway.”
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Casarosa notes that even when it came down to recording the voices for the film, some of those sessions took place as far away as Italy itself—a sharp difference from the usual Pixar method of recording everything at the studio’s facilities. Casarosa adds that overall, making the movie this way was less about any new advances in the technology but finding new ways to use the existing resources in a new environment.
“There are a few tools that we have to go and tweak and enable the control,” the director says. “But it’s a little bit more about how we use them. For the style of our animation, for example, we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We just had to add a few possibilities and options and abilities, but I think it was really more like challenging ourselves to find different timings and vibes and energy.”
Citing a specific example, Casarosa continues, “We really had to learn how to record people from their homes. We thought that would be a problem. We thought that would be a huge loss in quality, but actually there’s enough technology that can clean it up. So that did not turn out to be a huge problem. But there were amusing things, like spending an hour with Maya Rudolph trying to figure out her iPad and not acting, but actually doing our own IT remotely.”
He adds, “But we realized—and it’s kind of amazing—that with an iPad and a microphone, and a little bit of work, you can do what we do at a state-of-the-art place like Pixar. That was really quite a journey, even if it was a little bit slower. Sometimes it felt like we were racing against the clock to be able to finish the movie… but now we know we can do this.”
Although it is a fable about friendship, told from the perspective of sea creatures who can shapeshift into human form while on dry land, much of Luca is immersed deeply in the natural beauty of the Italian Riviera and the rich culture and longstanding history of the small, sun-washed towns that nestle upon its shores and the hills. It’s somehow appropriate then that a film made under conditions of isolation, separation, and stress aims to transport viewers to an almost mythical yet still real slice of Italy.
“Even just the setting, we’re hoping, is wonderful,” says Warren when asked about releasing the movie into a world that’s tentatively emerging again. “That beautiful sense of getting to go somewhere that we all have been missing so much. We hope that it feels like being transported to this beautiful place that you would love to visit for real, but that you can visit through Luca. I think that’s one piece of it, that we’re hoping just to transport people out of our homes to feel like we went somewhere.”
Luca premieres exclusively on Disney+ on June 18.
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It's the first post for the month of June, and it's a Random-News-Digest!
Thanks to my internet, the previous one was 3 weeks ago though. That means, it's catching up time... and there's a lot of it. Here goes nothing...
Disney Live Action
Another live action reimagining has potentially been added to the list of upcoming releases. Director Sam Mendes, who did James Bond's "Skyfall" and "Spectre", apparently entered early talks to work on "Pinocchio"! Mendes was previously attached to adapt "James and the Giant Peach". But according to Variety, that project is officially not happening, so the chances of Mendes moving on to "Pinocchio" is really high. With Guy Ritchie's "Aladdin" about to start production real soon, possibly followed by Niki Caro's "Mulan" as well as Jon Favreau's "The Lion King", Disney Pictures is currently sitting on a remake comfort-zone. No official casting news have been announced for neither of those projects those, but as we get closer and closer to Disney D23, I suspect things are going to come to light pretty soon. Let's just hope these movies will be as good and successful as what we've gotten so far...
Saint Seiya
Well, this news was truly a surprising one! According to Eiga.com (via Anime News Network), TOEI Animation and Chinese distribution company called A Really Good Film Company (that's the real name) are co-producing a live action movie based on the franchise. Tomek Baginski, a Polish director will be directing the movie. Jeffrey Chan, Yoshi Ikezawa, Joseph Chou will produce, while original manga writer Masami Kurumada, Kozo Morishita, Tim Kwok, and Miguel Faura are serving as executive producers.
Truth be told, I had mixed reaction about this, and that sentiment has remained the same until now. I've always thought that the "Saint Seiya" franchise is PERFECT for Hollywood adaptations, considering most of the characters, especially the Gold Saints... are practically Greek guys with a story that takes place in a Greecian setting as well. The cloths, especially the Gold Saints ones, would easily look amazing as real life armors. Heck, TOEI recently held an exhibition where they showcased the Gold Cloths in 1:1 scale, and that idea worked! So this sounded like a great news already. On the other hand, at the same time, I'm not sure whether they will pull it off. Particularly with the failure that was "Ghost in the Shell" back in March. Not to mention, a Chinese company, instead of a Japanese, or at least Hollywood is working on it. Not trying to be racist, but I don't have a lot of faith in Chinese companies.
My biggest concern is that they might go the "Dragon Ball Evolution" and "Ghost in the Shell" mishap, by altering the core Bronze Saints to be white teenagers instead of Japanese. That would instantly become a huge WTH for me. IMHO, at least the cast for Seiya, Shun, and Ikki should be Japanese. If they need exception, both Hyouga and Shiryu can easily be one. The former can be reimagined as European, since the character is partially Russian anyway (hence the blonde hair), while the latter, can naturally be rewritten as Chinese (still needs to be Asian though). A lesser concern, is the fact that the series never really took off in the US, as much as it was hugely popular in South American region. Once again, if "Ghost in the Shell" couldn't sell well, I honestly doubt the same would happen to "Saint Seiya". So it's already a big question mark. But let's keep an open mind, and well... we'll see.
Charlie's Angels
I didn't realize that the last "Charlie's Angels" movie was released back in 2003! That's more than a decade, and precisely 14 years ago. Which means, the movie (not TV) franchise has entered the right age for reboot, remake, reimagining, or the likes. It's Hollywood folks, so what do you expect? And I'll be damned, because that IS the case. Elizabeth Banks is set to direct a reboot movie for the franchise, and it will arrive on June 7th, 2019. That's legit release date, so yeah, it IS happening. There aren't any detailed information about it yet, but I think we can expect to hear one by summer. Now I can't tell if this is a good or bad news, but I'm always game to see tough and powerful women kick some bums on screen. Who knows, perhaps we might get Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and other Oscar winners as the lead characters. THAT would be wake af!
Hellboy
Not unlike "Charlie's Angels", the same is happening to "Hellboy" franchise as well. While fans have been asking director Guillermo del Toro and/or actor Ron Perlman for a third movie... to relatively zero success, Millennium instead has decided to go on another route: REBOOT. Yes, in a report released precisely a day after my previous R-N-D went up (meaning, it's close to a month ago XD), the studio has gone into negotiations with producer Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin for an R-rated relaunch of the franchise. The working title is "Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen", and Neil Marshall is set to direct from a script by Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden, and Mike Mignola. That last one is the creator of "Hellboy" himself, and he was the one who first broke the news. Marshall would then develop a new script with Aron Coleite.
I'm never a fan of the first two movies, so I can't really say anything good about this. I don't know how I feel, to be frank! LOL. Yet the news somehow got better, when I read the name of the actor who was in talks for the titular role. David Harbour! Yes, that Sheriff of the hit Netflix series "Stranger Things", who was considered to play Cable. I don't know about you, but Harbour sounds like the younger more charming-looking version of Perlman, so this news made me perked up! Okay, that was honestly hyperbole. I'm still unsure about this franchise, but I can safely say that I will at least give it a try... just because Harbour is starring. Ahahaha! But you know what? Perhaps rebooting might indeed be the right decision. There's definitely potentials to be HUGE. It can start fresh without the burden of continuity. And also... attracts new audience who was previously unaware or couldn't care less of the title, right? Like yours truly... *grins*.
DC Films
While it's unclear when we will ever see Dwayne Johnson finally fulfilling his dream to play supervillain "Black Adam", the actor has gone on record to propose an actor to play the protagonist counterpart of his character. And that actor is... Armie Hammer. Okay, HUH? I liked Hammer, so it COULD work. But is he the right man for Shazam? Nope, I really don't think so. Perhaps an Oliver Queen or Hal Jordan, but definitely not as a jacked-up Billy Batson. By the way, Johnson's "Baywatch" recently failed to even make a dent in the box office. Does this mean his popularity is fading? How will this affect his DC movies then? Hmmm...
Fresh from angsty "Power Rangers", and into the murky waters of "Aquaman"! Young chinese actor Ludi Lin, has joined the cast to play Murk. A character who is supposed to be Jason Momoa's Arthur Curry's trusted ally. How on Earth does a Hawaiian and Chinese became Atlantean is beyond me, but this was clearly a nice act to push diversity. Director James Wan also proudly showcased a really WET Amber Heard's Mera via his Twitter. I was still indifferent about it, and still won't be seeing the movie, but looks like many liked it. So that's... good, right? "Aquaman" is set to arrive on December 21st, 2018.
If there's a title that's been going on and off in a seemingly concerning state, it's none other than "The Flash". But perhaps, things are slowly running towards a better track. Why? Assuming that Entertainment Weekly report could be hold accountable, then Robert Zemeckis is indeed in talks to take over the movie after Rick Famuyiwa walked out. And guess the other name being on the contender list? The helmer of "Kingsman" himself, Matthew Vaughn! Not just him, both Sam Raimi and Marc Webb apparently were frontrunners as well, but have since passed. Oddly, the news arrived alongside a rumor of actor Billy Crudup walking out of the movie. One that has been debunked, considering he would be showing up in "The Justice League".
Speaking of the League, it became one of the most talked about news last month. Why? Because shockingly, director Zack Snyder alongside wife and producer Deborah had officially stepped down from the movie's post production and reshoots. He's taking some time off to deal with personal family loss/tragedy (my condolences to the Snyders). This has prompted mixed reactions from movie fans, particularly DC ones with their... insensitive and disturbing remarks regarding the situation. And here I thought they couldn't have gone that low!!! *sigh* The irony here was that Snyder has handed over the finishing duty to... *drumroll* the one and only... Joss Whedon! This was definitely an intriguing twist, because now Whedon would be famous for being involved in both Marvel and DC's ensemble movie. Of course, Warner Bros assured the audience, that Whedon's NOT taking over it completely, and just doing a favor to finish up the work. They said that the movie is still very much Snyder's work. Which was an ODD move, considering the negative impression Snyder has left with his first two DC movies. So... if you were among those who was worried that the movie is going to be as bad as his "Man of Steel" or "Batman v. Superman"? Well... don't jump out of that bandwagon just yet. At least, I think you should stick with the same concern until it has been proven otherwise. Remember, it's still a Snyder's and not Whedon's movie, and it opens on November 17th, 2017.
Another problem is running on the other League. This time, the "Justice League Dark" train. Remember how tall and mighty Doug Liman sounded when WB signed him to take over the project from Guillermo del Toro? Well, it seemed Liman might have just swallowed his own pride, because he's no longer attached to the movie. Liman moved on to work on a Lionsgate's project, so WB is currently on the hunt for his replacement. Back then, I would've instantly commented on this turnout. But now? Things like this has happened over and over again that I'm not even surprised when I read it. After all, it's just another setback to the universe, right? Nothing new here. LOL.
All these behind the scene problems that came in one after another, made you lose faith in WB and their DC Films, huh? Well, hold on to your horses, because I'm saving the best for last. And it's a GOOD news this time! Reviews embargo for Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" has been lifted, and it has received positive reactions! Critics are easily calling it the best DCEU movie so far. Which means, basically better than "Man of Steel", "Batman v. Superman", and "Suicide Squad"... which admittedly weren't even a high bar it needed to top to begin with. LOL. When the first score was accumulated, it resulted a heaping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes! Which ironically begs the question: where has all those DC fans who claimed that RT is ruining DC movies run off to? Surprise suprise, they are out and about protesting and complaining about the Women Only Screening for the movie. SERIOUSLY?!
General comparison to "Captain America: The First Avengers" and "Thor" didn't surprise me, because the trailers have already given the exact vibe. But it's pleasant to know that eventhough those trailers didn't work at all for me, they didn't really capture the spirit and wonder of the movie itself. Which is nice, because in my opinion, it's much better when the trailers are bad but the movie is good, and not the other way around. And when I said the 'other way around', I was obviously referring to those previous 3 DC Films. They all had trailers that many folks claimed to be 'great' or 'amazing', when their actual movies failed to even generate the same response. So if the opposite is happening to "Wonder Woman", it's ironically GOOD, right? The big question now, will "The Justice League" catch on to deliver the same success, finally giving WB a good streak, or will it fumbles into its previous mishaps all over again? Somehow I have a feeling it will be the latter. Oh well, at the very least, the movie will have a good Wonder Woman (step aside, grumpy Superman or violent Batman!). Here's hoping "Wonder Woman" will inspire audience to see more of her, and help give a boost to "The Justice League".
One more thing. I also sincerely hope the positive critical response to "Wonder Woman" is a sign that WB would finally be stepping back on its destructive mentality. All these time, rather than doing their best to deliver a great movie for fans, WB has been focused on one thing: competing with Marvel Studios and trying to top it if not take it down. Which is a SILLY notion on its own, because Marvel Studios already had a long headstart, so no matter what attempts WB tries to be 'different', DC Films will ALWAYS be compared to Marvel Studios' releases no matter what. Ironically, the one and only possible way they could really bring down Marvel Studios from 'the competition', is by damaging the future prospect of superhero genre. Unlike WB and their other variety of franchises, Marvel Studios relies heavily on adaptation to their comic book characters. So by producing bad superhero movies, WB might have unknowingly (or have they? hmmm) been planting the seed of destruction to the genre, which could also lead towards the downfall of Marvel Studios. This helps explain why Marvel Studios have generally refused to say bad things about DC Films, and instead continuously wishing them to do great. They know what's at stake here, and how the genre's longetivity is so much more important than a pointless childish rivalry. A rivalry that WB and its directors, producers, and actors has been flaming over and over again. I sincerely hope, that with Geoff Johns (who used to write for Marvel Comics) finally in full charge, WB and DC Film will turn over a new leaf and proceed with a positive and hopeful heart. One that does not require them to continue being the jerk of the industry...
Dark Universe
Nooo, this isn't about WB's supposed "Justice League Dark" movie. It's a category previously known as... "Universal Monsters". Yes, as if the news of Doug Liman leaving the movie wasn't enough, Universal Studios officially snatched the title of that exact upcoming DC Film movie. Now there's no way WB will be able to use the title again, unless the law sits in in their favor. Don't believe me? Universal has even released a trailer for it. \ So yeah, it IS officially a done deal, no more beating around the bushes. Tom Cruise-starring "The Mummy" will INDEED be the first of its kinds.
Apparently, their Shared Universe's interconnective tissue would be a mysterious multi-national organization called Prodigium, the one possibly led by Russell Crowe's Dr. Jekyll. Who, as the original tale suggests, WILL indeed turn into Mr. Hyde. Oooohhh... juicy! I mean, this might sound really strange, but seeing Crowe turns dark and monstrous somehow makes me all... giddy. Yeah folks, while everyone is busy oggling Cruise and his endless foray of dangerous self-performed stunts, it's Crowe's inclusion that would be my primary reason to see this movie. And I'm not kidding, this might also sound weird, but he was one of the reason I enjoyed "Les Miserables" too *grins*. Of course, if you're still not convinced about seeing this movie on June 9th, you can check out the third and final trailer, just to be sure of your... uh, life choices. LOL.
What directly comes next after "The Mummy", is the "The Bride of Frankenstein"! Bill Condon has been tapped to work on this movie, based on the script by David Koepp. It has even been set for February 14th, 2019 release, which is Valentine's Day, so things will perhaps be more... romantic. I'm personally curious to know why they don't have another project for 2018, but perhaps unlike WB that seems to rush things, Universal wants to take this slowly? Anyway, knowing the title, it's clear that they will be skipping Frankenstein's origin story. The casting hasn't been made official until now, but Javier Bardem has stated his enthusiasm for the role, so highly likely the role is his to play with. As for who will be playing the titular Bride, names like Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek, and Nicole Kidman have been thrown around for a while now, with Angeline Jolie being the most favored of all. Let's just wait and see who gets it then...
Of course, things are currently riding on the success of "The Mummy". If it does manage to achieve one, at least in the minimum amount of expectation, then we can count on seeing Johnny Depp as Invicible Man, Dwayne Johnson as Wolfman, and so on. If NOT, then I honestly don't know what would happen. Marvel Studios kept on moving despite the response to "Iron Man 2", and now its Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the first and most successful of its kind. WB was persistent enough with their DC Films, that eventhough their first three movies was poorly received critically (among plenty other production issues), they have continued limping their way to produce their first good movie in "Wonder Woman". Will Universe follow suit, for better or worse, inspite of general audience's possible fatigue concerning this forced Cinematic Universe approach? As always, we'll see...
SONY Marvel Universe
Many people ridiculed SONY Pictures when they announced the solo "Venom" movie. Movie writers and journalists didn't quite buy it, until a more concrete news arise. Some fans even questioned how a Spider-Man spin-off would work, in a non-MCU universe WITHOUT Spider-Man. But then SONY dropped a bombshell, by officially announcing a lead actor and director for the project. And they were NOT messing around. Tom Hardy, that great often-under-appreciated Oscar nominee, whose performance as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" became the joke of many DC fans, has signed on to play Eddie Brock. And that's because he's a fan of the character! WOW. Ruben Fleischer, is set to direct the movie, based on the script by Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. So it's happening folks, it IS happening.
The same goes to the Silver Sable and Black Cat movie. The project that has been officially titled as "Silver and Black", is closing in on a director. When the news hit last week, Gina Prince-Bythewood was in negotiations to helm the movie. I can't really tell if she's a great director or not, but apparently her work "Beyond the Lights" was highly-appreciated. Chris Yost, who worked on the upcoming Thor movie, is writing the script with Lisa Joy. And Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal are producing. So this one IS happening too!
My reaction to these news? I LOVE Hardy, especially his performance in "Warriors" and "Inception". And seeing him headline a movie is always a joy, even if the movie itself might not be good at times. But great gawd, he would've made a great Kraven the Hunter instead of Eddie Brock!!! >:(... And yes, I might have jinxed it when I said that, because apparently there's a rumor flying around social media now, that "Silver and Black" will be using Kraven as the antagonist. Ouch! Is SONY trying to use up the Spider-Man characters, so that Marvel Studios can't use them as antagonists to Tom Holland's Peter Parker? I hope that's not the case, because I could be really angry about it. Moreso, I still don't see how "Venom" nor the pairing of "Silver and Black" makes for a good idea, especially since neither of them would be bouncing off against a Spider-Man. But let's take a deep breath, and just think positive about it, okay...
Uncharted
Speaking of Tom Holland, here's a pleasant little surprise that would make everyone, especially his and video game fans turn heads. The rising British actor has been cast, as young Nathan Drake for the "Uncharted" movie adaptation! Apparently, the Shawn Levy movie will play around Drake's younger days, as opposed to his mature adventures that have been depicted in the four games so far. It was said that SONY head Tom Rothman was impressed by Holland's performance in the upcoming Spider-Man movie, that he pushed for him to be the star of another franchise. The problem with this development, Joe Carnahan's script can no longer be used, possibly postponed until the movie requires an adult Drake. Levy is still onboard, but a new scriptwriter is being sought to work on a new version.
There was a flashback sequence in "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" that showed Drake meeting his mentor Sullivan for the first time. That's likely the foundation of what this movie's going to be about. In a way, we can safely say that SONY is expecting Holland to grow into a charming athletic adventurer like Drake in future movies. Especially because movies like these usually takes at least two years to develop, and the now 20 years old Holland, would be almost 30 by the time he's working on a probable-third movie. You know what? I can totally buy that! And I'm certainly not alone in thinking this way.
And as for Holland's idea on Chris Pratt or Jake Gyllenhall playing a younger Sullivan/Sully? I'm a fan of both actors, so his statement definitely puts a really wide grin on my face. Not sure if they would be a good fit for the role (try picturing THIS IMAGE, but with Holland and any of those actors)... but yeaah, I'm totally down with that!
Marvel Studios
Yes, still talking about Holland. Because he's on THREE effing categories this time! What a year for this hunky young fella, eh? His Marvel Studios movie, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is only a month away from arriving in the theatres, and the hype on social media is growing bigger and bigger. The third and so called final (lengthy, I presume?) trailer was released last week, and it showcased some extra scenes while rehashing the ones from previous two trailers. Considering the 2nd trailer has pretty much spoiled beat by beat of the actual movie, this final trailer didn't even bothered to do the same all over again. Who knows what the TV spots and clips will reveal though, because this feels like SONY's marketing, hence why it didn't feel like Marvel Studios' doing.
The good news is, the movie is tracking to a $135 million domestic opening number. Yes, that's a relatively lower number than Marvel Studios previous Summer releases, but it's still the highest number for any Spider-Man movies since 2002. A number that has consistently been declining, by the way, with the exception of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" in 2014. So despite the number feeling rather low, especially for a movie that has Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, this is still something good on its own.
Meanwhile, now that "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" is out for almost a whole month, director James Gunn is already hard at work on the next installment, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3". While the second movie made it clear that Chris Pratt's Peter Quill is the only Earthling member of the team, Gunn had openly revealed on social media, that such restriction will no longer apply in the third. In my opinion, Gunn specifically made the rule, likely to ensure Quill being the only representative of the planet, especially when we put into account Ego's 'celestial visit' to various planets. Since "Vol. 3" is set to take place after "Avengers: Infinity War" and Avengers 4, the Guardians would have been exposed to Earth, thus including more Earth-bound heroes like Nova or others should make more sense. Hey, even Brie Larson's Captain Marvel can be among their cosmic ranks too.
X-Men Universe
Josh Boone's "X-Men: The New Mutants" had scored, or rather confirmed its first two cast members. As previously rumored before, rising stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams have officially come onboard to play Russian mutant Magik and Scottish mutant Wolfsbane respectively. Both names have been associated with this movie since last year, so it's nice that we've finally gotten the confirmation some of us needed. Apparently though, the 'Natt Wolff is being approached to play Cannonball' part didn't pan out, as a surprising name has entered talks to portray the character instead. What a strange things indeed... ;D
Hold on, make that four actors, if we count Marvel TV's MVP Rosario Dawson. Yes, apparently Dawson has been approached to play Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a doctor that would serve as some sort of mentor figure for the younger cast. The character has the ability to generate force field, so she's definitely a mutant as well. Assuming Dawson agreed to take the role, this would be her second Marvel role, and also a step up from a rogue nurse Claire Temple into a full blown doctor. Someone just got medically promoted! LOL.
It's seriously unclear when or how the timeline of this movie will fit in the... ugh, already messy and confusing larger X-Men universe. What we can really be certain of however, is the genre the movie will dive into. And FOX isn't playing around, because based on Boone's statement to Entertainment Weekly, "We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe. There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.". Okay, now this was both intriguing and concerning at the same time. The idea of having a younger cast, somehow meant that the movie will be a young adult version of the genre. And that's good. But no costume, and also horror bit? Even "Doctor Strange" didn't fully go that direction, because it might not score the PG-13 rating. Does this mean, "New Mutants" (yes, I'm still not used to adding the X-Men part in front of it) will also be R-rated, much like FOX recent movies? It COULD... be a good idea, but at the same time, it's a risky one that might not work either. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Boone means when the first trailer hits. "New Mutants" is set to be released on April 13th, 2018. Production is expected to begin pretty soon in July... so I'm sure we'll hear more about it and more ethnically-appropriate casting through San Diego Comic Con.
Meanwhile, the tentatively titled "Deadpool 2" has welcomed a new cast member. Jack Kesy, who I just realized portrayed that rocker whose genital creepily fell off in "The Strain" (not kidding, it's a disturbing scene), has been cast to play a major villain in the movie. Deadline said, that their sources pinpointed the character as... Black Tom. Nope, I did NOT know that character, and the day I read the news, was even the first time I have even heard of it. After Ed Skrein's Ajax was universally acknowledged as one of the weakest element of the first movie, one would think that FOX would amp up the antagonist department, right? Looks like that's not the case. But let's give this sequel the benefit of doubt. Ryan Reynolds is returning as Wade Wilson, alongside Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapacic as Colossus, and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. And just like Dawson, Josh Brolin will be portraying his second Marvel role, this time as the time travelling Cable. Directed by David Leitch, "Deadpool 2" will hit the theatres on June 1st, 2018.
Let's move on to the TV side now! And let's start with the good news first. FXX, a younger-skewing part of FX Network with focus on animation, has ordered a 10-episode series of Marvel's "Deadpool" (tentative title, by the way)! And guess who will be working as showrunner for this show? "Atlanta" very own Donald Glover, and brother Stephen Glover. Well, color me intrigued! This Deadpool series will serve as Marvel TV's second collaboration with the network, after the critically acclaimed "Legion" that aired earlier this year and has received a renewal. ABC Signature Studios is producing the show. And yes, joining Dawson and Brolin's party, this would be Glover's second major Marvel involvement following his inclusion in "Homecoming" (noticed that he showed up in that latest trailer too?). Hmmm... is it just me or FOX continues snatching actors from Marvel? Anyways, would Glover be voicing the lead character too? That would be awesome.
Now, comes the bad... or politely speaking, not that-good of a news. And it's about that new X-Men TV show, "The Gifted". I know I haven't been talking about this for a while now, because frankly... I couldn't care less. But I'm going to report it anyway now, because it's happening. Well, mainly because an official teaser has been released to celebrate the full season order. So yeah, FOX wanted their Marvel properties to play in the TV poolside as well, so they called out Bryan Singer and writer Matt Nix to... ugh, create this show. And it's generally about, "a family who discovers their kid is a mutant and must go on the run, shacking up with a bunch of other mutants to survive.". What's the point? I guess it's not enough to have "Legion" that, despite being really good, feels weirdly out of place from the X-Men movie universe, now they just need to insert another one to make things more... confusing.
To be honest, what I saw in that trailer didn't inspire confidence. At all. Which was odd, because I thought the teaser was quite intriguing. There's this weird... 'been there done that' vibe running throughout the trailer, and it certainly didn't give me the urge to check it out once it was over. It played a bit like "Heroes" I guess, but not the early seasons when it was good. Nope, it's the latter ones which people couldn't care less. But of course, don't ever judge a book by its cover, because this COULD be good. It has Amy Acker, Stephen Moyer, Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Coby, Blair Redford, Percy Hynes White, Emma Dumont, John Proudstar, and Natalie Alyn Lind as its cast. While I'm only familiar with THREE of them, the rest of these actors could end up becoming as huge as those.. ugh three. So yeah, if you're an X-Men fan, you might want to hang on to your seat until this show arrives on FOX Network. Sooner or later. Good... luck, then?
Marvel TV
Since we've talked about Marvel TV's affair with FOX, let's talk about their own shows now.
Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." has been officially renewed for Season 5. YAY for that! I personally thought the finale for Season 4 was rather... disappointing and underwhelming. Also, that post credit scene was confusing, and was revealed to NOT have anything to do with S.W.O.R.D. because turns out, Marvel doesn't own the copyright. Ain't that a deal-breaker! But obviously, a show renewal means a win for some of its fans, so... good for them. There's a catch though, because unlike previous season, the 5th season will NOT arrive in Fall 2017. Nope, NOT kidding, because apparently, AoS will not start until ABC has finished airing all 8 episodes of Marvel's "The Inhumans". This is a strange reveal, because I've always thought 2017 would be the year that ABC is having two running Marvel shows at the same time. Looks like I've expected too much.
But the report gets even... weirder. "The Inhumans" is officially set to air on... Friday 09:00 PM, following "Once Upon a Time". This news stirred up some concerns on its own, because according to many, Friday night is considered to be graveyard for TV shows. Heck, many people in the US aren't even home during that time! Most tend to go out, and have dates, parties, watch movies and whatevers. Is ABC trying to ruin the show before it even starts? Sure, ABC Chief Channing Dungey has told the press that the network is trying out a new strategy. But it also didn't stop folks on the internet to connect the show to a recent rumor that... didn't sound reassuring. With this odd airing schedule, the trepid response to the show's first look, as well as showrunner Scott Buck's bad track record thanks to "Iron Fist", I think it's not wrong for fans to start feeling... worried.
The good side that we can take from this, is that when the 5th Season of AoS begins airing on January 2018, the 22-episodes will likely run without any season breaks. There isn't any official statement about this, but VFX supervisor Mark Kolpak had hinted so in a social media response. Personally speaking, it's still uncertain if I'll be seeing this new season or not. Knowing my tendency to lose interest when a show starts to get overly long, highly likely I'm going to drop it, to then return sometime after it ends to bingewatch it. But it's not a fixed plan just yet. After all, I WAS planning to do that with Season 4, but then the Ghost Rider arc pulled me back in, and the rest was history. And of course, if the 5th Season is announced to be the FINAL season, that totally changes my plan. I would totally tune out in real time for one last ride, even if sometimes I have to *cough-Glee-cough* drag myself to do so. In the end, it all depends on what strategy the showrunners will apply to the show when it returns on January. It's still 7 months away, so plenty of time for me to have the AoS hiatus I badly needed. Assuming "The Inhumans" doesn't suck up all of my joy and leave me with pure disgust towards Marvel TV, of course... LOL *sigh*
Last but not least, the new season for "Avengers Assemble", officially subtitled as Marvel's Avengers: Secret Wars", is set to have a one hour premiere later on June 17th. This season will pick up directly after that bittersweet ending of Season 3, that left Tony Stark in a... digital state. To be honest, there's an annoying pattern to Marvel Animation's shows in the past few years, in that it started out strong and good... to then suffer a gradual decline in quality. That 3rd season, the one subtitled "Ultron Revolution", was just another good example of this. So while the prospect of having an entirely new roster led by Black Panther for "Secret Wars" sounds intriguing, I can't really say for sure if I'm going to stick around to the finale.
To help introduce these new roster, DisneyXD will be releasing a number of shorts via the digital platforms such as DisneyXD App. There will be six shorts released that feature Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Vision. Characters who have mostly (with the exception of Wasp) debuted on Season 3. These shorts will be available on a daily basis from June 2nd to June 7th. They will be essential to prepare audience for the 2-parters "Avengers No More", on June 17th as I've said before. I might be mistaken, but it seems the voice cast will have several updates as well, since I'm not seeing Adrian Pasdar's name on it. Nevertheless, fans of the animated series should definitely mark their dates to catch this new season. Who knows, perhaps the roster change will be effective to make it... better than the first three seasons.
Netflix
I didn't pay attention because I had to spend less time on Twitter now, but it seemed Marvel's "The Defenders" had a playful time with their social media marketing. Marvel officially released motion posters for the character, and apparently they were delightfully filled with easter eggs. There's Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock and Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones hanging out on Rand Tower, Mike Colter's Luke Cage in Fogwell's gym, and Finn Jones' Danny Rand meditating in front of Alias Investigations, and so on. Fun stuffs indeed, at least by the sound of it, because I haven't personally observed them in details. LOL.
Cox talked to Empire Online, and revealed that despite the tonal difference to all series, "The Defenders" will have a tone of its own. One that is kept "grounded, but at the same time it lives in a slightly mythical world". Colter added that the four lead characters will be reluctant to work with each other at first. He also accidentally revealed on a separate interview, that Wai Ching Ho's enigmatic character Madame Gao is set to appear on the mini series. This wasn't particularly shocking, I should say, because technically Gao IS a member of The Hand, so of course she'll be involved somehow. Perhaps, alongside Ramon Rodriguez' Bakuto, who disappeared after his fight with Jessica Henwick's Colleen Wing in Danny's series? Speaking of Danny, Jones said that his character will be maturing and be more responsible in the mini series. So perhaps, turning into someone more... likeable than the one we saw in his solo series. I sure hope that's the case. Marvel's "The Defenders" arrives on August 18th.
Netflix has debuted the first teaser for their animated "Castlevania" series as well. The series itself will premiere on July 7th, and this first season will consist of 4 episodes. Running time for each will be 30 minutes, so it's going to be a really short show. While this is a fantastic idea, considering the game franchise hasn't had any adaptation until now (as far as I know of), this teaser was... vague at best. It honestly didn't make me curious or intrigued to check it out, and I'm not sure that's the purpose. Of course, just like any other Netflix shows, we could expect a full length trailer in the coming weeks. Perhaps, by then it would look meaningful enough for me to judge.
DC Television
Likely inspired by the reception to Marvel's "Luke Cage", DC TV has followed suit by introducing their own black superhero in "Black Lightning". The series, which has been ordered as full season, is set to debut on the CW Network. But unlike the already running "Arrow", "The Flash", and "Super Girl", this one will not be set in the same universe. For now. You can check out the first look trailer on the network's official channel.
Much like the other CW shows, I can't really say if this trailer... appealed enough for my taste. I just... didn't dig it for some reason. The concept of a retired hero is nice, but the whole thing played out exactly like those other CW shows. So already a huge pass for me. But I can easily imagine how some folks, especially African-American audience would be ecstatic to see it. Heck, if Marvel fans could show so much love for a "Luke Cage" series that honestly got more and more draggy as it went by, I certainly hope the DC counterpart would at least do the same with this. There one for everyone, right?
Warner Bros Animation
"Heelloooo, Nurse!!!!". Not content on just delivering CW superhero shows, through their animation division, WB is planning to revive a loveable classic, which is "Animaniacs". Yes folks, the trio of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot will be returning to the small screen... and likely alongside other characters like Pinky and the Brain. According to IndieWire, Steven Spielberg is involved in it, so that's a reassuring fact. After all, it was the iconic director himself who managed to bring the series to its spectacular popularity back then. For the time being, the project is still in early stage of development, and it doesn't have a home yet. But the original series is having great viewership on Netflix, so the streaming media would easily become one of its possible home. Here's hoping we'll hear more about this in the near future!
LEGO Games
LEGO announced their latest action adventure video game title late last month. This time, it's another of their Marvel tie-in games, "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2". Their previous collaboration, the MCU-inspired "LEGO Marvel's The Avengers" did not reach the same heights of the first "LEGO Marvel Super Heroes". So I hope this new one, that seems to focus on themes from recent and upcoming movies like "Doctor Strange", "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Thor: Ragnarok", "Black Panther", and "Captain Marvel", will be able to make up for that strange nitpick-ish disappointment. You can check out the official full-length trailer on Marvel's official Youtube channel. Didn't show much of the plot though. Hmmm....
Street Fighter
Third character for "Street Fighter V" Season 2's DLC has been revealed early last month. CAPCOM promised a completely new character, but once again, similar to Helen/Kolin, this one's technically NOT really new. Ed, has been around since "Street Fighter IV", and before officially becoming a playable character in this game, he's been heavily involved in Season 1's DLCs' (Balrog and also Urien) story modes, as well as appearing in some others. Balrog has been serving as his caretaker, and that explains why his fighting skill leans towards boxing.
I'm never fond of boxing fighters, so Ed's already a huge NO for me. What was more disappointing about his reveal though, is the fact that he's being set up to be the new M. Bison. Complete with that ugly M. Bison-inspired costume! Turns out, ghost of the now-death Shadaloo's boss tried to possess his body, hinting that the evil organization is still lurking about, despite the conclusive ending to "A Shadow Falls". This is something along the line of how "Final Fantasy XIII-2" ruined the perfect ending of its first game! Anyway, some fans have been able to test him out during the game's beta test on May 11th. It's still unclear when he will be available for purchase, but it's safe to assume that will take place this month. You can check out his official reveal trailer on CAPCOM's official Youtube channel.
Dynasty Warriors
Early last month, Kadokawa's Weekly Famitsu magazine revealed that the 9th iteration of the franchise, "Shin Sangoku Musou 8" will be released on Playstation 4. This wasn't surprising, since KOEI Tecmo has been moving away and away from Microsoft and their Xbox family since the 8th game. Despite that, there are hints that the North American and European region will get additional release in other platforms as well. Switch, perhaps?
First announced back in December 2016, the new game will have an open-world environment, placing the continent of China into a single, vast map to explore. There will be key cities and also landmarks in the game. This change enables various mechanics that were unaccessible in previous titles, like real-time climate and its influence to battle, stealth infilitration, long distance attack, as well as variety of other methods like "State Combo", "Flow Attacks", "Trigger Attack", and "Interactive Actions". The story mode will be massively affected by them as well, as everything will take place according to its respective period, and more faithful to the actual history. According to producer Akihiro Suzuki and director Jun Miyauchi, development is currently at 40%, and that their team is currently adding more and more features to increase the game's playability value. With that said, the game still has no official release date at the time being.
Continuing the franchise's tradition, several new characters will be introduced to join the existing 83 officers from the latest title, "Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires". Zhou Cang, wielding the Daisatsutou, will be added to the Shu faction, while Cheng Pu, wielding a dual spear, will join the Wu faction. There might be more for other factions, but so far, these two are the only ones announced. Details for these characters as well as regarding the game in general, can be found on the official English and Japanese websites.
The King of Fighters
Fans who haven't been able to play the game on Playstation 4, will soon have a chance to play it on PC. "The King of Fighters XIV Steam Edition" of the game, has been announced to be released in the near future. SNK Corp has been accepting pre-order starting in May. Regular edition will come with a bonus of DLC costumes for Kyo Kusanagi, and Geese Howard. A Deluxe Pack, which is a MUCH better offer but with understandably higher price, will come equipped with Digital Art Book, Digital Soundtrack, 10 DLC costumes, and all 4 DLC characters announced so far. That's basically everything that SNK Corp has released in one pack! A 20% discount, which is an extra-generous bargain for both sets, is set to run until June 15th, 2017 10:AM PDT. So hurry up and pre-order your copy! I know I would if I had a compatible resource to play it, as well as reliable financial condition... *sigh*
Assassin's Creed
E3 is taking place this month, and Ubisoft has been rumored to be announcing the new title for their "Assassin's Creed" franchise. Nothing official has been revealed to far, but the company has indeed teased that this new entry will be released before the end of their current fiscal year. That means, we can expect it to arrive before March 31st, 2018. Will it be the Egyptian-themed "Assassin's Creed: Origins" as previously speculated? We'll have to wait and see...
Sonic the Hedgehog
When it was announced that there would be a 3rd character for "Sonic Forces", it made me quite... anxious. Remember how the teaser showed a cat-like character? Yep, I was genuinely worried that SEGA would be shoving, shoehorning a completely new character that might ruin the whole "Sonic Generations" combo of Classic and Modern Sonic. I mean, what's the purpose, right? Well, guess what? Turns out the third character is indeed a NEW character, but NOT exactly new. Huh? Because it's still Sonic. CUSTOM SONIC. LOL.
Seriously, this is NICE! And also somewhat brilliant too. I'm sure many Sonic fans have been itching to see how Sonic the Hedgehog would've looked if he's actually a wolf instead. Or if he's not Blue, but Red-colored... Okay, perhaps I'm the only one intrigued by those idea, but the point is, each fans can have their own version of Sonic through this game! This customizable Sonic or 'Hero Character' can be equipped with a variety of powerful unique gadgets called Wispons. The visual look can also be modified by choosing between 'hundreds' of options. So those who have been dreaming to have a nerdy Sonic as their playable character, well, this one's for you! Also, as I said before, players can choose a different base animal apart from Hedgehog, and all 7 types come with their own unique abilities. SEGA and the Sonic Team has provided a reveal trailer, and also quick gameplay trailer for this new Sonic. Looks like he'll be able to play through either Classic or Modern style stages too. Pretty cool, right?!
Meanwhile, "Sonic Mania" has officially received a release date. The 2D Classic Sonic game will be launched on August 15th, 2017, for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. A special pre-order trailer has been released to deliver this announcement. Go ahead and check it out, because it looks... 2D-nostalgic fun! :D
Zero Escape
Just like "Sonic Mania", the PS4 port of "Zero Time Dilemma" will also be released in August. Namely, two days later on August 17th, 2017. That's only for the Japanese version though, and it will be available at the price of 3,800 yen. The English version has yet to receive official release date, but has been planned for a Fall release. This new PS4 version will have refined graphics, and Famitsu has published a comparison sample with the PC version.
Professor Layton
Early last month (yes, don't ask), details for the first arc of "Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy" has been revealed by LEVEL-5. Episode 01, entitled "Clockwork Sweets" will have Katrielle investigating the stolen hand of London's famous Big Ben's clock. The incident needs to be taken care of before the arrival of Ambassador Melarco the day after. So to fulfill the request of Scotland Yard's inspector Aspoiro, Katrielle and her assistant Haro needs to race through time to retrieve back the hand, before press conference with Melarco begins. Marc and Reggie Yanchatta, 27 years old twins will be involved in this case. Older brother Marc works as the mechanic on Big Ben, while Reggie is a confectioner.
Two of the "Seven Millionaires of London" from the title, have also been introduced. The first one is Ridley Fremens, who is the female mayor of London. And the second one is Clerk Gospec, a 65 years old multi-milionaire who has taken interest in Katrielle to investigate an incident in his theater. The report is currently unclear, but it seems Fremes will also be involved in the Big Ben case, while the Gospec's request will play out as one of Katrielle's next mission. To be honest, this feels more like a mystery visual novel than the previous "Professor Layton" titles. For some reason, I'm even reminded of that App Game "Layton Brothers", which I only managed to play up to the 3rd case (I need to purchase the next cases afterwards, and I had to pass on that LOL).
"Puzzles" are the signature of the franchise, so of course Katrielle will be dealing with them. The same goes for the other basic flow, like examining areas to discover "Insight Coins", and also tracking down "Collectibles". Another Layton standard feature, a mini game called "The Ideal Dinner" is also available. This time players need to provide clients with ideal dinner course of hors d’oeuvres, soup, a main course, and desserts. The game will be released worlwide on July 20th, 2017, for Nintendo 3DS (for Japan region, western version will come later in Fall), iOS and Android. That means, we might be getting additional information about other characters in the near future. Perhaps, during this month's E3?
Square Enix
The last category of this R-N-D, is a rundown of future plans by Square Enix. The company held a financial briefings for the fiscal year that ended in March 31st, 2017, and president and CEO Yousuke Matsuda revealed that some highly-anticipated title will be launched within the next three years. These projects include "Final Fantasy VII Remake", "Kingdom Hearts III", and also an unnamed Marvel IP License. This means that we can expect those to arrive starting next year. Will they be announcing more details for these projects during E3 though? We'll see...
#Random-News-Digest#random thoughts#news#movie#Disney#saint seiya#dc#Wonder Woman#hellboy#universal monsters#dark universe#venom#uncharted#Marvel Studios#Spider-Man: Homecoming#new mutants#deadpool#TV show#Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.#The Inhumans#netflix#defenders#castlevania#game#sonic the hedgehog#street fighter v#kof xiv#lego marvel super heroes#dynasty warriors 9#professor layton
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Game 109: Batman Returns (1992) – Introduction
Written by Joe Pranevich
I grew up loving comic books. My parents wouldn’t let me buy them, but I still had a tiny little suitcase of issues that I had managed to snag at flea markets with my own money. Looking back on it now, it’s adorable just how much I loved the idea of comics even as I barely owned any and didn’t even understand the difference between Marvel and DC. My big break came in high school when I bought boxes and boxes of them off of one of my mother’s boyfriends, no doubt getting a huge discount as he both tried to look mature enough to date my mother while also trying to be nice to me. Contained within the boxes– most of which still sit in my basement twenty-five years later– were a treasure trove of 70s and 80s heroes, especially Doctor Strange and a nearly-complete run of the original Defenders. Even more important than the books were the times that he and I spent together; I grilled him for hours about the histories of major characters and he was always kind enough to humor me. He even took me to my first comic book store. I kept in touch with him long after he and my mother split up. He was an adult geek, the first I had ever known, and that was amazing.
One of the characters that he helped me to love was Batman. I remember how shocked I was to learn that the Robin I knew from TV reruns wasn’t even Robin anymore and that there had been two more since then. In large part because of his collection, I was more a Marvel kid than a DC one, but Batman and his rotating team of whiz-kids was someone I could get into. Bruce Timm and his series sealed the deal and I’ve been a Bat-fan ever sense. Twenty-five years later, I am excited to look at Subway Software & Spirit of Discovery’s Batman Returns (1992), the first ever adventure game featuring the Dark Knight. As this is also the 80th anniversary of the character, I can’t imagine a more fitting time to delve into the history of Batman and Batman-related games, before plunging into our topic at hand. It’s a huge story, but I’ll be brief.
Sixty-four pages of action, only seven of which featured Batman.
You don’t need to be told that Batman is one of the most popular comic book characters in the world, one of the “trinity” of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman that underlies the DC comics universe. Batman (or the “Bat-Man” as he was initially called) was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger for the #27 (May 1939) issue of Detective Comics, an anthology magazine featuring mystery stories solved by recurring and non-recurring detective characters. (DC’s name came from this comic, although the reason has more to do with business spin-offs and acquisitions than it does a desire to place Batman above his Action Comics counterpart, Superman.) Kane and Finger borrowed generously from their pulp predecessors when designing Batman, drawing inspiration from the Shadow, Zorro, the Lone Ranger, and other crime fighters of the period. Like them, Batman had a secret identity: Bruce Wayne, a socialite and millionaire driven to protect the weak. It is difficult for us today to know what the industry practices and expectations were around plagiarism in the 1930s, but it is unfortunate in retrospect that Batman’s debut story is essentially an uncredited seven-page retelling of “The Partners of Peril”, a short story by Theodore Tinsley featuring “The Shadow” from three years earlier. It’s an ignoble start to an amazing character, but new stories would quickly be written that set Batman apart from other pulp heroes of the era.
Batman from his initial appearance in May 1939.
Robin first appeared in April 1940.
The biggest change to the status quo came a year after publication, in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940): the introduction of Robin, his youthful side-kick. This “dynamic duo” would remain central to the character in almost all incarnations to the present day, barring a few swaps of who exactly was wearing the cowl and domino masks. In subsequent years, more characters were added to the family including Ace the Bat-Hound (in 1955), Batwoman (1956), Batgirl (1961), and many others. Just diagraming all of the Robins and their alternate identities would take all day; we’re on our fifth or sixth now depending on how you count. We even have a Bat-Cow, introduced in 2009!
We’re getting ahead of ourselves. The backdrop for Batman’s introduction is what is today referred to as the “golden age” of comics. From 1938 to the end of the 1940s, superhero comics thrived. This period saw tremendous innovation in the types of stories that could be told as well as the types of characters they could feature. Many of the most popular DC characters today got their start during this golden age, including Superman, Shazam, Green Lantern, Flash, and the Green Arrow. (In contrast, nearly all of the popular Marvel characters originate in the 1960s “silver age”. Of the gigantic cast of Avengers: Endgame, only Captain America and Bucky were created as early.) After World War II, superhero sales declined and one-by-one comics were shuttered or repurposed for Westerns or war stories. Only Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman managed to (barely) hold onto their titles during the lean times.
Depending on whether you are a Marvel or DC fan, the start of the rebirth came either with the publication of DC’s Showcase #4 (introducing Barry Allen as the Flash) in October 1956 or Marvel’s Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961. For DC, this period saw a gradual relaunch of many golden age titles with new science fiction spins, such as Green Lantern’s ring being powered by extra-terrestrial science rather than magic. Batman and Superman were largely unaffected by this change except that many of their previous adventures were retconned as happening in a different universe, called “Earth-2”. At Marvel, the silver age meant a deconstruction of the super-hero formula with more focus placed on the social lives and problems of their heroes, made most famous by Spider-man and his inability to juggle his great responsibility with his social life. Bruce Wayne never had those kinds of problems!
Cliffhangers were more to Batman’s taste.
Although Batman had starred in two movie serials (in 1943 and 1949), his real pop-culture moment came in 1966 with the launch of a Batman series on ABC. This series starred Adam West (as Batman) and Burt Ward (as Robin) and featured a campy, humorous take on the characters. Despite its camp, it was true to the source material with fantastic depictions of key Batman antagonists such as the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler. (Frank Gorshin will always be “my” Riddler.) The series was successful enough that it spawned a theatrical film (shot after the first season), plus two more seasons for a total of 120 episodes. For better or worse, this depiction of the character was lodged in the public imagination for decades. This Batman was right at home joking with Ed McMahon, living it up with his “Super Friends”, and solving mysteries with the Scooby-Doo gang.
Yes, this happened. More than once.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, Batman comics began to focus on the darker aspects of the Bat-mythos. This was also a period where status quo-defying events became surprisingly commonplace, as if to underscore the break between the “now” and what came before. The original Robin, Dick Grayson, quit in 1984. The new Robin, Jason Todd, was killed by the Joker (and a reader poll) in 1988. Batgirl was shot in the back and paralyzed. This darker turn on the character was epitomized in 1986 by the amazing The Dark Knight Returns miniseries by Frank Miller, depicting an older and worn down Batman who faces off against an authoritarian Superman in a Reaganesque hellscape. A few brief words are insufficient to describe this book and its impact, but the world was ready for a serious Batman again. Enter Tim Burton and his 1989 Batman film.
You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Featuring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson at Batman and the Joker respectively, the film brought a mature Batman to the public consciousness for the first time. It was far from perfect, but it brought to the fore aspects that I consider essential: Gotham City’s 1930s/Art Deco aesthetic, the Danny Elfman score, and Batman as a detective first and a fighter second. He was no ninja; Keaton could barely move in the Batsuit! Nicholson’s Joker is fun (and receives top billing over the hero), but his scheme doesn’t make a ton of sense and his death at the end (spoiler!) robs the nascent series of the potential for an ongoing antagonist. Plot threads started in this film, such as Billy Dee Williams’s pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent character, were abandoned before the sequel. Nonetheless, the movie was one of the cultural events of 1989, bringing comics and cinema fans their first look at what a “serious” Batman could be. It was exciting! With a massive box office haul, a sequel was inevitable. Burton and Keaton would be on board again, but the series needed new villains: Penguin and Catwoman.
Keaton got top billing this time!
For all that the first film was Tim Burton doing a Batman movie, the second is Batman occasionally appearing in a Tim Burton film. Everything feels dialed-up to eleven, with less of the gangland realism that pervaded the first film, replaced with a surreal dreamland. Batman barely appears, giving Burton more time to focus on Selina Kyle’s transformation into Catwoman, and the delicate dance that the Penguide does between eliciting sympathy and demonstrating animalistic cruelty. It’s only when you get to mind-controlled penguins wielding rocket launchers that you realize how completely bananas everything became when you weren’t looking. Adam West would have been right at home against that sort of threat! In the end, Batman saves the city, Catwoman survives to purr another day, and we will never see what kind of third movie Burton would have brought us. I’m okay with that.
Incidentally, the only character that does not “Return” in this movie is Batman. Penguin returns from being abandoned to the sewers. Catwoman returns from the dead for vengeance against the man who killed her. Batman spent the time between films fighting crime and brooding over the loss of his girlfriend.
Batman’s first game.
Batman in Video Games
The history of Batman video games starts in 1986 with a pair of games from Ocean Software, a UK firm that specialized in licensed games, usually action-platformers. These two games, Batman (1986) and Batman: The Caped Crusader (1988) were each experimental in their own ways. The 1986 Batman game is almost an adventure and features the protagonist exploring a house and battling foes in an isometric perspective. The second became the template for most of the side-scrolling beat-em-up style of Batman games to come, although it at least used unique framing to resemble comic book art.
The 1989 movie saw an explosion of game tie-ins to the film. Ocean Software wrote a third one, but Sunsoft alone released five different but similar games, plus there was an arcade exclusive, and even a Pac-Man clone. This pattern of allowing many developers to all produce different games for the same tie-in “event” was common during this period and we’ve seen it before with Hook, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, and others. As a man who sees games as art, I find these practices distasteful. Every one of those games deserves individual recognition or scorn, but since much of the point was to drum up excitement and sales for the films they represented, the common branding makes sense. In 1991, Sunsoft produced a sequel to their movie tie-ins, Batman: Return of the Joker. None of these games highlighted the “detective” portion of the World’s Greatest Detective, a gap that we’ll get to shortly.
I had Batman Returns for the NES when I was a kid.
And that leads us to the 1992 sequel, Batman Returns. Eight separate games were commissioned by Konami for the occasion, nearly all picked up by separate development firms. None of them offer much originality or plot: Batman travels through a level, beats up bad guys, throws Batarangs, eventually defeats a boss, then repeat. Having not played any of them recently, I can’t say whether any of them rose above their limited mechanics, but I’m going to guess not. You already know because you are reading this post that the one “different” game in the set was the adventure game that we will be covering in the next few posts.
Developing Batman Returns
The development of Batman Returns was an emotional rollercoaster for Bill Kunkel, one that he described in a pair of columns in the “Kunkel Report” for Digital Press. (If you haven’t read my introduction to him and his work, I recommend you jump over to do so now.) In many ways, this was the perfect project for his background: he had written comic books, tackled a Superman game, plus he had four good adventures under his belt. When news broke that Konami was shopping out developers for games based on the Batman sequel, Kunkel played his contacts and discovered that the gig for the DOS version of the game had been given to a development house that he had connections to, Park Place. He pitched himself and his firm to design the game, a pitch that he landed based on his excellent resume for the job. Bill sums up his elation best:
And now I was getting my shot at Batman! At THE Batman! The rest of the process was a marvelous blur, full of contract signings, fat checks, and even a trip to the Hollywood studio where the film was being made. It was during my visit to the vast soundstage that I got to walk across the wintry rooftops of Tim Burton’s ultra-noir Gotham City. Of course, this being Hollywood, the rooftops were constructed about a foot-and-a-half off the ground, but still, it just… looked… great! […] My long-time prayer was being answered – I was going to design the greatest Batman game the world had ever seen! We would take an entirely different approach, let the player become the Caped Crusader as never before!
Kunkel’s trip to the sets to see the movie being made was followed by being given a copy of the script. That is when, he claims, his love for this project ceased. He called the script a “disgrace” and claims that he “wept openly” by the end, seeing his vision of his childhood hero shattered. I’m not sure that I buy that hyperbole as the Batman comics of his youth were not Shakespeare either, although he likely was reading an earlier draft of the screenplay than what made it to the screen. (Several working drafts have been leaked over the years, but I could not identify which of them Kunkel would have seen.)
Now that he was designing a game that he wasn’t thrilled about, the stress started to affect his health. Worse, the developers, Park Place (and their “Spirit of Discovery” imprint) were having financial trouble. The final nail in the coffin, in his view, was that Warner Brothers started making design requests, locking the plot of the game into the narrow confines of the movie and away from the celebration of Batman that Kunkel hoped for. And yet, Kunkel completed his design, Park Place completed their game, and the movie did well enough to land three sequels (two Batman films and a Catwoman). So angered by the process, Kunkel never even played the game that he had designed. This is, as far as I can tell, the last game his “Subway Software” ever worked on. Was it the stress of producing what he felt was a “bad” game that turned him away from the industry? Was it the promise of a new life for his Electronic Games magazine? Both? I have no idea. I’ll briefly recap the rest of Kunkel’s projects when we get to the final rating.
Despite everything he wrote, I’m still looking forward to this game. Even if it wasn’t what he imagined, the best art shines through adversity. Will his vision shine through? Or am I about to wade through several weeks of Batman-themed garbage?
My copy of the manual is black, but otherwise similar to the above.
The Manual
Before we can play the game, there is one final detail to cover: the manual. I was unable to locate any copies online and eventually resorted to buying the game from a second-hand store for more than I care to admit. I am glad I bought it because the game appears complicated. I’ll go over it briefly now and explain it better as I understand the mechanics. The key point to the interface (as explained by the manual) is that we do not control Batman directly. If he gets into a fight, we can provide recommendations, but he’ll fight the criminal on his own. All we have is a single mouse cursor and single mouse button to direct Batman where to go and what to do.
It may be easiest to explain the rest as bullet points:
The goal is to prevent Penguin from becoming mayor or destroying the city. This is done over nine timed nights where Batman can operate from 6 PM to 6 AM.
Batman’s base is the Batcave where he can swap suits that are damaged and select what to put in his utility belt. There’s also a computer that we can use to analyze evidence, watch the news, and search a database of Gotham citizens.
The utility belt is the closest we get to an icon interface for this game. We can select what tools go in our belt before we leave the Batcave. Tools include multiple types of Batarangs, grappling guns, and even a portable document scanner. As a fan of the 1960s series, I am saddened by the lack of Bat-shark repellent.
There are also two sets of interfaces while Batman is out and about: a “searching” interface that allows him to look for clues, and a “combat” interface where Batman fights his enemies. Batman does all the fighting himself, but we can specify how hard we want him to battle (“Easy”, “Normal” or “Fierce”). Both modes let us use items from his utility belt.
That all sounds pretty reasonable, but we’ll see how it all works out in practice soon.
The Bat-signal goes out!
And it is time to play the game!
Don’t forget that this is an introductory post and so you can bet on the score. My only help is that Borrowed Time, Kunkel’s first game, scored a respectable 38. That was six years ago, plus you read Kunkel’s feelings on the game above. Do you want to gamble that it sucks? Or maybe he was too harsh? I’m looking forward to your guesses and to find out for myself.
This week, I want to shout out to Keith Decando and his “4-Color to 35-Milimeter” series over on Tor.com. He has a great write-up on the first two Batman movies in his rewatch, but his column is one that I look forward to reading every Friday.
Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 20 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.
source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-109-batman-returns-1992-introduction/
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