Category Archives: Marvel comics movies

‘Ant-Man’ trailer: Big things, small packages

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A while back in this space I talked about why Ant-Man – oddball character, oddball history, possibly oddball movie – matters to the Marvel Comics universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I think this summer’s “Ant-Man” movie, while lower on the expectations scale than “Age of Ultron,” could play a crucial role.

We know that Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, passes the mantle to Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), the new Ant-Man.

Based on rumors circulating, we’re going to guess that the movie will bridge some of the gaps in the history of the Marvel universe we haven’t seen on the big screen yet.

The first “Ant-Man” trailer underwhelmed some people.

The new one, released today, was really good, I thought. And yes, there’s a lot of “Iron Man” lurking in the plotline of the new movie.

But that’s okay, because “Iron Man” was good enough to kickstart the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Here’s the trailer. Enjoy.

Avengers: “Look on my works …”

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I’ve always loved this page, the end of “Avengers” 57, from October 1968.

Along with “Fantastic Four,” “Avengers” was my favorite Marvel comic. I constantly found myself amazed at the ingenuity, the artistry and yes, the poetry.

Although Ultron was to return to plague the Avengers many times over the decades – and does so again in a couple of weeks in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” – this final page from the Roy Thomas-written comic, using Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias,” to show the mundane outcome of a mighty batlle, left me awed.

Still does.

‘Arrow,’ ‘Flash’ and world-building

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I’ve noted here before that the geeks have inherited the earth. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, we prized Famous Monsters and Marvel Comics but were looked down upon by adults for our reading materials; were happy with those lame Marvel superheroes TV cartoons that were very limited animation versions of classic comic books; and thrilled at the random superhero who made his way to TV or movies, even though most of the time the live-action versions weren’t very good.

Now, in any given week, I can watch “Agent Carter” – really good limited series that finished its run a few weeks ago; hope it comes back – “Agents of SHIELD,” a show that’s found its way, and most particularly “Arrow” and “The Flash,” two CW series from the same producers who have taken two characters who might have peaked in the Silver Age and made them intriguing and fun.

Through “Arrow’s” three seasons and “Flash’s” half-completed first season, they’ve introduced so many great comic-book characters – Ray Palmer/Atom, Black Canary – two of them! – and so many bad guys, including Ra’s al Ghul and Gorilla Grodd. Grodd, for Grodd’s sake!

“Arrow” has always done well when its made its Green Arrow character a substitute for Batman –  in the comics, the character originally was a Batman copy. Arrow in “Arrow” has just been asked to succeed Ra’s as the leader of the League of Assassins. It’s an offer that Ra’s made to Batman and it only heightened their conflict over the decades.

Meanwhile, “Flash” has just introduced Grodd. Yes, a telepathic, hyper-intelligent gorilla from a race of telepathic, hyper-intelligent gorillas. “Flash” is much more fanciful than “Arrow” anyway, but the introduction of Grodd takes the series even more into the realm of comic-book sci-fi than it already was.

And, in the process of all this, “Arrow” and “Flash” began building the world in which these shows live.

There’s a lot that’s been said about universe-building in Marvel’s movie and TV universes, but Warner Bros/DC is doing this on TV about as well as it can be done, not just with “Flash” and “Arrow” but with their next plans.

CBS – CW’s sister network – will air a “Supergirl” series this fall and we’ve been told it will share a universe with “Arrow” and “The Flash.” I guess we’ll see if that means cross-network cross-overs. It’s rare but it’s happened before.

Potentially more exciting are CW’s apparent plans to spin off some characters introduced on “The Flash” and “Arrow” into their own series. Plans to have Atom and Firestorm and at least some version of Canary and other characters sharing a weekly series not only sounds like a small-screen “Justice League” or “Brave and the Bold,” but is so damn fun.

We’ll see how all this plays out, of course. The CW shows are doing well but “Supergirl” could tank. Will Superman be the 800-pound gorilla (sorry Grodd) absent from the room, like Iron Man was when “Agents of SHIELD” debuted?

Can too many heroes – or superhero shows – spoil the soup?

Fantastic Four trailer … Hmmm

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So the teaser trailer for Josh Trank’s “Fantastic Four” movie came out a few days ago and I’m not yet sure how I’m going to feel about the movie.

“Fantastic Four” was one of my favorite comics – along with “Avengers” – when I was a kid and I’ve so wanted a good movie version. And there’s been a few good points about each of the live-action “FFs” so far, believe it or not. The Doctor Doom character looked right in the low-budget, never-released Roger Cornman-produced movie from two decades ago. And the Human Torch (in the person of future Captain America Chris Evans) was perfect in the two 20th Century Fox movies from a few years ago.

But I long for a faithful (even if just in spirit) movie version of the comics, and I’m worried that Josh Trank’s version, due out Aug. 7 won’t be it.

The trailer looks like the movie put its money on the screen, but it’s so dark. I want the light-hearted but simultaneously urgent “FF,” with a real sense of adventure. The FF are scientists and adventurers, after all. They explore space and other dimensions and confront bizarre threats and do it with a wisecracking and sometimes caustic but heartfelt family dynamic.

Trank’s movie, based on the trailer, looks to follow the younger FF from the “Ultimates” line and, at least, has the look of the Thing right. Ben Grimm I’m not so sure.

We’ll see when the movie opens. In the meantime, here’s the teaser trailer.

Welcome to the low-rent universe

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It’s news to no one that shared universes are the big thing in movies right now

Marvel began building its shared cinematic universe in 2008 with “Iron Man” and has announced plans to continue it through at least 2020. Not to mention Marvel’s TV entries in that shared universe, like “Agents of SHIELD,” “Agent Carter” and “Daredevil,” the latter debuting on Netflix in April as the first in a series of “street-level” hero shows that will culminate in a “Defenders” series.

Of course, DC/Warner Bros. are trying to get their superhero universe going; Sony wants a “Spider-Man” universe but I’ll believe it when I see it.

And Universal has announced a shared universe of remakes of its 1930s and 1940s monster films featuring Frankenstein, Dracula and other creatures. I’m still pondering that one for another entry here.

So the other day, a movie company that I’ve never heard of, Cinedigm, announced plans to create, of all things, a shared movie universe. But using what classic cinematic tales?

The 1950s and 1960s exploitation movies of American International Pictures.

Specifically, 10 films: “Girls in Prison,” “Viking Women and The Sea Serpent,” “The Brain Eaters,” “She-Creature,” “Teenage Caveman,” “Reform School Girl,” “The Undead,” “War of the Colossal Beast,” “The Cool and the Crazy” and “The Day the World Ended.”

Strangely enough, I like this idea.

Marvel has this kind of thing perfected, down to an art and a science. I’m not sure DC’s superheroes will ever really come together on the big screen because of, I believe, a wrong-headed approach that seems more like Warner Bros. is ashamed of comic books.

But the AIP films, some of which were originally directed by low-budget auteur Roger Corman?

That’s genius.

Not because the company says it intends to shoot all 10 movies back-to-back from recently-completed scripts. Not because remaking these old AIP classics for cable TV a while back worked so well.

Because these dimly-remembered movies are perfect fodder for the remake machine.

Somebody once said that if you were going to remake a movie, don’t remake a classic. How could a remake of “Psycho” possibly work? (It didn’t.)

But with the AIP flicks, most people won’t be comparing them and, unless the remakes are horrible, they won’t be comparing them unfavorably.

And the idea of a universe shared by the monstrous, mutated “Colossal Beast” and the juvenile delinquents of “The Cool and the Crazy?” How can that possibly work?

The producers say the movies will share “a recurring cast of antiheroes, monsters and bad girls.” I can’t say that’s a bad idea and I base that on what Marvel has done with its movies.

Really, consider how improbable it might have looked, 10 years ago, to propose a shared universe that would include a bone-crunching political thriller, a good-natured space opera, a Nordic fantasy world and a rampaging monster movie. Yet “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the “Thor” movies and the Hulk’s appearances all worked.

Who’s to say those juvenile delinquents won’t end up fighting alien invaders to big box-office returns?

Stranger things have happened.

New ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ trailer

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I know there’s a new “Star Wars” movie coming out in December, but I’m still looking forward to May and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” more than any other movie this year.

The new trailer came out tonight.

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And this Joss Whedon sequel is, obviously, the “Empire Strikes Back” of this series.

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Dark, I tells ya.

Here’s the trailer.