Trailer Park 10/31/2013

It's Halloween!  So, while you snack on all of your goodies or recover from a party, check out these trailers.

The first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past came out this week.  I have never read this story in the comic books, so I don't know much about it.  I think the trailer looks interesting and there are lots of mutants that look familiar, so comic book geeks are definitely going to be excited about seeing favorite characters they may recognize.  From a general movie-goer point of view, the trailer seems a little confusing.  This is just a teaser trailer, so I'm sure further trailers will detail more of the movie.  It is exciting to see all of the old X-Men cast back alongside the new X-Men: First Class cast.  I look forward to seeing more about this movie.

I saw the trailer for Pompeii last night while watching Carrie.  I don't have high hopes for the movie, but the idea interests me.  Based on the trailer, it more looks like a Showtime television show than a feature length movie.

I cannot wait to see The Wolf of Wall Street.  The second trailer looks as great as the first...if not better.  I can sense multiple awards and nominations for this movie.

Movie Boycotts

Occassionally, you'll hear about a boycott of a movie for one reason or another.  The latest boycott is for a movie that is being released this week, Ender's Game.  It is a sci-fi story that is like Starship Troopers meets Hunger Games and Harry Potter.  Sounds good, right? 

The story comes from a book by Orson Scott Card written in 1985.  Since Card wrote the books, he has expressed his own views on politics, homosexuality and other issues and caused a good amount of controversy.  He recently was taken off a Superman comic book project due to the amount of backlash received from Superman fans and comic book store owners.  The boycott of the Ender's Game movie is also due to his views on these issues.

It is worth noting that Card is a member of the LDS Church and that most of his views are likely based on his religious upbringing.  I will also note that I do not agree with Card on any of his views.

While DC Comics eventually caved to public pressure I will agree with DC Comics' original statement regarding Card:

As content creators we steadfastly support freedom of expression, however the personal views of individuals associated with DC Comics are just that — personal views — and not those of the company itself.

Fiction has always been about freedom of expression.  I have never agreed with the boycotting of books or movies due to their content or even the artists involved with those projects.  If I don't agree with the content and views within, I will likely not enjoy the movie; however, I will likely challenge myself and my personal views.

That being said, I have read Ender's Game.  The book was great.  I read the book prior to hearing about Orson Scott Card's personal views.  His views are not revealed in the book.  In fact, there are emotionally intimate relationships between Ender and his schoolmates.  I wonder if any of the boycotters have read the book.

Tom Cruise is a great actor.  I disagree with a lot of his views over the past several years.  Have I stopped viewing his movies because of this?  No.  Like I said, he is a great actor and I am able to separate his personal views from his work.

By supporting a movie, you may be financially supporting that person's views.  This is true, but how many things do you purchase in a day?  It would become exhausting to research the personal views of everything that you support.  Does every actor in a movie have your same views?  Do the writers?  Do the producers?  What about the editors?  All performers from the soundtrack?  Key grip?  Stunt men and women?  They receive money from their job the same as you do.  They can spend this money to support whatever programs they deem important to them, whether you agree with them or not.

Ultimately, the choice is yours to see a movie or not.  Let's face it, we all set priorities with movies and the personal views of actors, directors, writers or even the original work's creator may affect that priority.  Thor: The Dark World comes out the week after Ender's Game.  If given the choice, I would rather see Thor.  I want to see Ender's Game, but I'll be out of town this weekend and I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to see it.  If it doesn't last long in theatres, there is a likelihood that I will not be supporting it's box office numbers.  That's just the choice I'm making and it is not based on any reasons other than priorities and time.

Captain Phillips

I've heard a lot of great things about Captain Phillips and I had to see it for myself.  You would have a hard time going wrong by seeing a Tom Hanks movie anyways.  He's an amazing actor and this movie gives him a lot of room to show his talent.

If you don't know much about the true story upon which this movie is based, that's fine.  Honestly, I didn't know much about this story beforehand.  Outside of the movie being about Somali pirates, I had very little knowledge of the story.  Did all of the crew survive?  Did they catch the pirates?  I had no clue.

Every minute of this movie had me guessing what was going to happen next.  It was like living the situation in real time.  If you're looking for action though, this movie isn't for you.  This is more about the drama of the moments.

One thing that I found odd is that you don't necessarily feel bad for the pirates, but the movie does a good job of humanizing them.  You can see their pain and their struggle in the situation.  Their acting made me very surprised that this was their first movie (first acting job for all per IMDB).

Tom Hanks' performance is the one that took the cake.  The last ten minutes of the movie deserve a best actor nomination for Tom Hanks.  I won't spoil the movie for you, but the entire movie is worth it for those last ten minutes.

The movie won't win a Best Picture award, nor will it likely deserve it.  However, this is a must-see movie.  You will probably be okay waiting until video for this one, but it's definitely worth seeing.

+ Tom Hanks acting
+ Suspense
+ Unknown actors performing well

Overall score: 90

Trailer Park 10/24/2013

It's time for a round-up of some of the movies I'm looking forward to based on trailers I've seen.

First of all, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is coming out next Spring.  The trailer just hit earlier today and I have to say it looks AWESOME!  I love a good comic book movie.  Iron Man 3 was good, but nowhere near Avengers.  I'm looking forward to Thor: The Dark World in a few weeks, but the trailer for the next Captain America movie gives me some goosebumps.  It gives you just enough to give the basic direction of where they are taking the movie, but not enough to spoil it.  The action in it looks amazing.

Next, another trailer for Anchorman 2 came out this week.  The first trailer made me think that this would be a great sequel.  The second trailer keeps me thinking that.  It gives us a few more plot points than the first trailer and a few funny moments including Brick with a green screen.  Love it!  My biggest fear is that all of the funny parts are going to be in the trailers.  "Say whaaaat?"

Lastly, the trailers for That Awkward Moment took me by surprise.  Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan combine for what looks like a great "guy" movie that the girls may enjoy as well.  It looks like it has some of that Old School and Wedding Crashers type of humor, but it might hide some "chick flick" tendencies under it all.  I heard this movie mentioned last week, but the trailer sold me.  This might have to be a date night movie with the wife.  Here's a couple of different versions for you.
The Safer-for-Work Version:

Red Band (NSFW):

DC Universe Movies vs. TV

If you haven't heard, Fox has picked up a new show based on the Gotham City police department. The show will likely take place in a Gotham pre-Batman.  This show joins a growing list of television properties of DC Comics characters on the small-screen.  Last week, Constantine was announced as a developing project for NBC.  You may remember John Constantine from the Keanu Reeves movie.  Arrow is a wonderful show on the CW.  While it doesn't hit the viewership levels of shows on the major networks, it is still widely popular.  This year, they are introducing new characters to the show including Barry Allen, a.k.a. Flash.  The hope is for a Flash spin-off series.  That's currently four small-screen shows possible in the next year.  I could probably talk about all of these shows in length in a blog of it's own, but this is movie talk, not television talk.

What does this growth of small-screen franchises mean for the big-screen franchises?  Will we see the Green Arrow and Flash of Arrow in a Justice League movie?  Will the Gotham City police show tie into the Batman of Man of Steel 2?

We're starting to see the crossover potential of the comic book movies as Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted last week, taking key elements of Avengers and Iron Man 3.  Will Marvel's crossover test be successful?  Or will it ultimately muddy the waters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

I've already shared my thoughts that the Marvel Cinematic Universe waters may be a little muddy.  Honestly, I'm not fully on board for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  The show is decent, but so far I haven't seen consistency to the S.H.I.E.L.D. that we've seen in the movies.  It bothers me a little bit that the characters are supposed to be on the same level as Black Widow or Hawkeye, yet so far we haven't seen those characters on the same level as them (although the second episode improved a lot over the pilot).  It makes it hard to see S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Avengers movie and believe the organization is the same.  Either it's going to make the show fail or begin a collapse in the movies.  I hope I'm wrong, but that's just my thoughts on a shared universe there.

This brings me to the DC Cinematic Universe and television.  Will we see Stephen Amell playing Green Arrow in a Justice League movie?  Will we see the Barry Allen from television as Flash in a Justice League movie?  Is the back story from the Gotham City Police Department show going to lead into the next Batman movie?  I HOPE NOT.  These shows do, however, pave the way for these characters to gain a bigger following.  This increases the chances for each character to have successful films and a Justice League movie to be more successful.  Let's look at a possible timeline (not including all TV shows):

2012 - Arrow television premiere (Green Arrow - less popular character introduced)
2013 - Man of Steel released in theatres (Superman rebooted)
2014 - The Flash, after being introduced in Arrow, stars in his own show (introducing another character outside the big three)
2015 - Man of Steel 2 (Batman introduced to the DC Cinematic universe)

If we have a Justice League movie in 2016 or 2017, you don't have to waste time introducing a back story for Flash (because of the TV show), Green Lantern (because of the Ryan Reynolds movie...even as failed as that was), or Green Arrow (if he's included).  This means that the only back story that you have to build is one for Wonder Woman.  The other characters may have different back stories than their other incarnations in television or movies, but you don't have to re-hash that in a movie.

Television is a great way to establish a fan base for the characters outside of the comics.  You don't have to spend a couple of years of development and marketing for a movie that may or may not succeed.  If a television show is cancelled, it's not a big deal.  If a movie does badly, you've lost millions of dollars and it could take years to re-establish that character.  We may get the characters we love on the big screen much sooner than expected.

In theory, a shared universe between television and movies is a great idea.  It will be interesting to see if Marvel can succeed with it.  I hope that someday we have television shows that flow into the movies seamlessly.  For now, let's just view the DC Universe properties (outside the movies) as all separate entities on Infinite Earth's.