From “Iron Man” to “Captain Marvel,” I rank the Marvel Cinematic Universe films from worst to best.
Read moreKevin Feige: ‘It Will Be a Very Long Time’ Until X-Men Join the MCU
‘Avengers: Endgame' and the Dangers of Expectations
It’s rather debatable if any of these MCU movies will age well. Yes, they are landmark moments of cinema, solely for the way Marvel Head Kevin Feige managed to set-up all 20 of these movies in a single well-connected and continuum-like universe.
Read moreTerry Gilliam: Superhero Films Are “Boring” But ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ “Made Me Smile”
The shocking admission comes after the filmmaker has continuously bashed Marvel and DC movies.
Read moreJames Gunn Rehired as “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Director
James Gunn had been fired, in July of 2018, by Disney and Marvel after old, offensive tweets from the filmmaker resurfaced on Twitter. However, in a remarkable turn of events, Disney has decided to reinstate Gunn as the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Variety is reporting that the sudden rehiring of Gunn happened “after a series of meetings with Walt Disney Pictures honcho Alan Horn.”
Read more‘Avengers: Endgame’ Official Trailer: This Is The End, My Beautiful Friend.
I badly need to rewatch “Infinity War.” I was underwhelmed by my initial watch, maybe expectations were, for some reason, too high but it has quickly become one of the most popular MCU entries ever for comic book movie fans. At the very least, I should respect the overall consensus, its 8.5 IMDB user rating just seems a tad too ridiculous, and give it another shot before I embark into watching the Anthony and Joe Russo’s “Avengers: Endgame,” which is easily the most highly anticipated MCU entry in the decade-long franchise’s history.
Read moreHow Nerd Culture Destroyed American Cinema
“Captain Marvel” has so far made, since Wednesday, close to $155M domestically, not to mention $455M worldwide. This is yet another spring success for Marvel, as practically at the same time last year, “Black Panther” was nearing record-breaking domestic box office receipts.
Read moreKevin Feige Claims That James Gunn's MCU Role Was ‘Blown Out of Proportion'
James Gunn's role in the MCU has been overblown by fans, according to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. There’s no discounting the fact that Gunn infused the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies with his unique style and managed to create a sort of “Star Wars” inspired enterprise for the 21st century. With the Guardians success, the MCU quickly adopted Gunn’s brand of humor and action into their other movies as a result.
Read moreDirector Lucrecia Martel Was Approached by Marvel For ‘Black Widow’; Says It's “Really Hard to Watch a Marvel Film" and “Painful to the Ears"
Lucrecia Martel's “Zama” has been crowned the best film of 2018 by over 100+ critics as part of the annual Film Comment Critics poll. The film is a peculiar oddity, a tackling of Spanish history with deliberate inaccuracies. It’s an adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 classic novel but with layers of splattered fiction woven into its story. It's a an achievement of epic proportions for the filmmaker, but don't expect her to go the major studio route anytime soon, especially where Marvel is concerned.
Read more‘Avengers: Endgame’ URL Being Held Hostage; Owner Wants Premiere Tickets, Threatens to Redirect it to DC Page
The trailer for “Avengers: Endgame” was released yesterday, but don't go to www.AvengersEndgame.com because it'll automatically re-route you to 20th Century Fox’s “Deadpool” movie page.
Read moreNetflix Cancels Its Most Popular Marvel Shows (‘Daredevil' and ‘Luke Cage') As it Gears up for Streaming War Against Disney+
Marvel’s recent run on Netflix had an impressive array of popular shows like “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “Iron Fist,” “The Defenders,” and “The Punisher.” Had is the key word, as Netflix has already cancelled 4 of those 6 shows, and will probably ax the remaining two (“Jessica Jones” and “The Punisher”) in the coming months. There is no doubt in everybody's mind why Netflix would go through cancelling some of their most popular Marvel shows and that reason is quite simple: Disney+.
The upcoming Disney streaming service is bound to become an arch nemesis for Netflix. The cancellation of “Daredevil,” Netflix’s most popular Marvel show, will no doubt have fans raging, but chances are that the series will come back on Disney+ in 2019, a streaming site that is set to have all the Marvel, Lucasfilm, Disney and 20th Century Fox films (when that merger eventually happens.)
In news that had rocked the industry to its core, Disney announced late last year that it would, eventually, be pulling its movies from Netflix and start a new streaming service solely composed of the Disney content — past, present, and future — which actually is pretty gigantic and could easily fill any streaming service. Netflix decided that instead of Disney pulling the shows and embarrassing them, it is all about power after all with these billion-dollar companies, it would just cancel the shows.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has stated that Disney+ would be would feature "new, original shows and movies, including original Marvel and Star Wars series" and the entire Disney back-catalog, which is a huge selling point for audiences.
Forget about Amazon Prime, Netflix has finally found its match, a true competitor to dethrone their crown. If there wasn't a legitimate streaming war, or anyone seriously contending for Netflix' crown, that is a thing of the past now because a battle between the mouse house and Netflix is inevitable. Let's get ready to rumble.
End Notes:
The 20th Century Fox back catalog, which Disney+ would receive once the deal is done includes TV shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, 24, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Modern Family, This Is Us, The X-Files, Scandal, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Prison Break, American Dad, Glee, Empire, The Americans and much much more.
On the movie side of things, Disney would acquire franchises such as the X-Menmovies, Fantastic Four movies, Star Wars (the rights to the original and prequel trilogies),Deadpool series, Avatar series, Planet of the Apes series, Night at the Museum films, and the Home Alone films.
Why I don't like *most* Superhero movies
I haven't re-watched "Black Panther" lately, but it's not even the best Marvel movie of the year. I'm writing this in complete shock having just heard the news that Arthouse Convergence is getting involved in pushing 'Panther' for Oscars? Am I dreaming this? A $700 million Disney movie having to turn to arthouses for support.
Read moreStan Lee Dies at 95
Stan Lee has died at age 95, according to THR.
Lee was the legendary writer who got his start in the comic book industry with Jack Kirby. They would end up creating the superheroes that now dominate American moviemaking and, really, just pop culture in general. Lee is responsible for co-creating Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor, Black Panther, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and many, many more.
Read moreRyan Coogler to Write and Direct 'Black Panther' Sequel
THR is reporting that Ryan Coogler will write and direct a sequel to this year's uber-successful "Black Panther."
Coogler is set to make mega bucks for "Black Panther 2." Good for him. Such a great timeline for him. His career got started with the little indie "Fruitvale Station," which I thought wasn't all that impressive, despite the important political context and friendly reviews. What really turned heads, including mine, was the way he shot those boxing scenes in "Creed 2," Wowza! That really led me to believe this guy had something special, but then he had to go and waste those talents on the most mass-marketed, safe entertainment imaginable over at Marvel. Oh, well. Money talks, but I do hope Coogler eventually goes back into making original statements post-Panther. Which is not to say "Black Panther 2" will disappoint by any means, although I had a generally mixed reaction with the original, but, man, Marvel and Disney are really stealing all these young up and coming talents for the most mainstream fare imaginable.
Michael B. Jordan is also set to star in the 'Panther' sequel. And so, you might ask, if Jordan's character died in the first one, how is he going to star in this movie as well? My answer is rather simple: this is Marvel, nobody ever really dies forever.
Marvel/Disney Tackle Gender Wage Gap: Scarlett Johansson Lands $15M Payday for 'Black Widow'
For years I have been clamoring for a "Black Widow movie." The cinematic potential of the character, as portrayed by Scarlett Johannsen in the 'Avengers' flicks, is endless. After all, what could be more cinematic than a spy movie?
Marvel Studios is finally going to be making a stand-alone “Black Widow” movie with Johansson and directed by Cate Shortland. This has us all very excited and today's news was just icing on the cake as its been reported that Johannson will be making just as much as her counterparts in the MCU.
Read moreDespite Bad Reviews 'Venom' Has Bite At Box-Office, $80M Opening Weekend; 'A Star Is Born' Opens With Impressive $41M
"Despite a rocky road to release the strange off-brand start to the Sony Marvel Spider-man Without Spider-Man Cinematic Universe know as Venom opened to an incredible $80M at #1. That smashes the previous October opening record holder Gravity which set the bar at $55.7M in 2013. It's weird to think a superhero/villain film could ever be considered an underdog story (especially this year) but Venom might have been it. Fans of the film were first put on edge when Sony finally decided that the film would get a PG-13 rating which angered star of the film Tom Hardy who's been vocal about the cuts from the R-rated version. Then there was the awful critics reviews who trashed the film as one of the worst of the year. So while the film opened to $10M on Thursday there was nothing there that guaranteed an ending like this with a potential massive drop-off by Sunday. But the monster just kept growing and now it's become yet another huge success for the superhero genre."
1. Venom — Sony — $80,030,000
2. A Star is Born —Warner Bros. — $41,250,000
3. Smallfoot —Warner Bros.— $14,900,000
4. Night School — Uni. — $12,275,000
5. The House With A Clock In Its Walls — Uni. — $7,295,000
6. A Simple Favor — Lionsgate — $3,435,000
7. The Nun— Warner Bros. — $2,610,000
8. Hell Fest — LGF — $2,075,000 ($8,864,476)
9. Crazy Rich Asians — WB — $2,060,000
10. The Predator — Fox — $900,000
[Source]
Venom PG-13 backlash: Tom Hardy says 'My favourite 40 minutes of Venom were cut from the film'
I will be watching Ruben Fleischer's "Venom" on Wednesday, but that PG-13 rating hangs over it like inescapable roadkill. There's no doubt in my mind that the film deserved an R, an adaptation of Venom should not be rated PG-13. It does immense disservice to the comic book and its fans. The reason for this rating, as reported by Variety, was about the possible box-office damage that could come with an R-rated comic book flick. Sony did not go the “Logan” and “Deadpool” route here. They are playing it safe, folks. Fuck 'em.
Read more'The Rider' Director Chloe Zhao to Direct Marvel Studios' 'The Eternals'
Variety is reporting that director Chloe Zhao has been hired to helm the big screen adaptation of Jack Kirby’s “The Eternals” for Marvel. Count me as a tad disappointed by this decision, Zhao directed one of the year's very best films “The Rider,” merging a groundbreaking blend of fiction and non-fiction into her story of a horse rider torn by injury, but signing on to a Marvel movie as a follow-up is not something I anticipated this talented artist to follow-up that triumph with.
The Playlist has this update on the project:
‘Captain Marvel’ Trailer: Brie Larson Storms Through as Groundbreaking Female Superhero
The 1990s-set Marvel film serves as Marvel movie’s their first prequel. It also is their first superhero movie with a female lead. If you're going to do that, might as well hire Oscar-winner.
Brie Larson is set to play Carol Danvers, a pilot with superpowers. Here's my problem with this latest Marvel extravaganza: this is about some kind of galactic war between two alien races. Ugh.
Read moreRuffalo On James Cameron's “Marvel Fatigue" Comment: “Sour Grapes. He's Just Jealous"
If you didn't hear, James Cameron has had enough in regards to Marvel movies. That's at least what he told reporters earlier on Friday:
“I’m hoping we’ll start getting ‘Avenger’ fatigue here pretty soon,” Cameron said. “Not that I don’t love the movies. It’s just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!” [Link]
Mark Ruffalo responded last night when asked about the "Avengers fatigue"comment at an "Infinity War"junket, he states "Sour grapes. He's just jealous."
Not sure if I would say Cameron is jealous, especially since he's responsible for two of the highest grossing movies of all-time and for also being one of the most influential filmmakers of his generation. So, no Mark, I think James Cameron is really just tired of watching Marvel movies.