Tag Archives: Avengers

The Marvel Universe, Phase 3, and Hulk

There are some really exciting rumors floating around the Marvel camp in regards to what’s going to be happening with Hulk and with Phase 3.

What we already know:

Kevin Feige has already stated that Ant-Man and Doctor Strange are part of Phase 3.  Ant-Man already has a film ready to come out after the Thanos/Cosmic heavy Phase 2 ends.  Strange I think will be a cool character to flesh out as well.  Whether or not he can hold up his own movie or not is another story.
What we are speculating:

The folks over at Latino-Review, who often nail their super early Marvel movie rumors, came out yesterday with a story that not only will the Hulk be getting his own film AGAIN in Phase 3, but he will be the lynchpin of the whole series of films!  The rumor is that because of Hulk’s extremely violent and dangerous actions (which I’m assuming will take place in Avengers 2), The Illuminati (group of marvel heroes) decide that the safest bet is to send Hulk into space, which will lead to the Phase 3 Hulk film based on Planet Hulk.  Planet Hulk is just about the only interesting thing you could do with him at this point, so if he were to get a movie, this version of Hulk I think would really lend himself to a film like this.  Hulk needs to fight things that are bigger and scarier than him, so him on a planet full of monsters sounds perfect.  Also we know that the long in development Hulk TV series has for the most part been shelved.  It is my thinking that if the Hulk wasn’t so wildly popular in Avengers, they’d continue with it, but now that people like Hulk so much, they have to give us what we want.

The best part of this in my opinion is that Avengers 3 would largely co-op the World War Hulk storyline, which was also huge and widely popular.

I really hope this happens.  I think it would be an awesome followup to Phase 2.  I’m sure they wont call the Illuminati, the Illuminati, and I’m sure they’ll be different characters plugged in, but I think this has the potential to be a gigantic success.  We know Marvel really plans ahead, so it would totally make sense that they are already working on the Phase 3 stuff.  Phase 2, outside of Guardians of the Galaxy, doesn’t really have any real risks associated with it.  But I think if that works, then we’ve been more exposed to other planets and the masses would accept a Hulk/Gladiator type movie.   Also when you consider there is a Hulk cartoon coming out this fall that has a lot of the Planet Hulk monsters on it, I bet that’s Marvels way of getting the kids used to the idea of the other monsters Hulk fights/allies with.

The only thing I’m thinking is that their World War Hulk storyline might have a little more black and white added to it, in that they might make a villain have more to do with all of it instead of just having Hulk fight all of these good guys.  I’ll leave that to the writers though.

Anyway, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and an increased Hulk presence, Marvel will have given me everything I want for a massive Avengers 3.  Except for Black Panther.

 

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Predictions for 2013

Warm Bodies will be better than World War Z

With all the reshoots that have happened with World War Z and the fact that they brought on Damon Lindelof to help write a new ending (*shudder*) this isn’t that bold of a prediction. That said, if someone had told me a few years ago that they were making an adaptation of a zombie book that I really liked, and it would be the first epic scoped big budget blockbuster zombie movie, but that I was more excited about a movie that is basically Twilight with zombies I wouldn’t have believed them. I do really like the imagery of the World War Z trailer but I can’t shake the feeling that it will just be a straight ahead hero’s story starring Brad Pitt that happens to feature zombies. Hopefully both films will be good, but If I had to place my bets, Warm Bodies will be significantly better than WWZ.

Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be divisive.

I was a bit surprised with how divisive An Unexpected Journey was. I knew it wasn’t going to get the same glowing reviews the LOTR films got because it isn’t the underdog that those films were. Critics complained the Peter Jackson was repeating himself (which is why he was so reluctant initially to do the Hobbit), complained about length (ironic considering the number of films that that were also 2 hours and 45 minutes: Les Mis, Zero Dark Thirty, Django etc), and that it had been split into three films. Yet viewers generally embraced the film judging from the box office. I predict that The Desolation of Smaug will be even more divisive than the first. I suspect that the middle chapter will have a lot more added material than the first, and critics will continue their complaining about PJ being indulgent, I mean if they had a problem with Azog the Defiler not being in the book, how will they feel about Evangeline Lilly’s character who wasn’t even created by Tolkien? Yet even the most negative reviews will point out how great the scene is will Bilbo talking in riddles to Smaug (just as they said about the Gollum and Bilbo in the first) and they will say it is because Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch have chemistry from Sherlock.

After having a conversation with Pete, here is my hope/prediction about the structure of the next two films:

Desolation of Smaug – Starts with a flashback of Gandalf getting the key and map from Thorin’s father to put the focus on the Necromancer and Dol Guldur. The story from the book will continue without too many changes except that when Gandalf is gone we see him investigating Dol Guldur. The Smaug/Bilbo scene will take place towards the end of the film, similarly to the Riddles in the Dark in the first one. The movie will end with the Battle of Dol Guldur, and at the very end to set up the next one Gandalf will say something about how the dragon still lives, and might even bring up the concept of greed.

There and Back Again: This one will be insanely action packed. There will be a big battle scene with Smaug, and then the Battle of the Five Armies will rival anything in the LOTR trilogy.

High Frame Rate

I predict that at least one major movie will announce that it will be shot in High Frame Rate (my guess is the next X-Men film). No matter what your thoughts are on HFR you should really read this article on Collider . It does a great job of explaining where the negative reactions were coming from. While I personally didn’t enjoy it and it actually dampened my enjoyment while watching The Hobbit, it is easy to see the benefits. There is an overhead shot in Django of people walking on a road and then a huge location title that fills the entire screen moves from right to left across the length of it. I noticed the “strobing” effect so much that it actually hurt my eyes. I really wished The Hobbit wasn’t the first HFR movie, but rather a documentary film like Baraka or Koyaanisqatsi, or a an animated movie. 24 fps is an artifact from another time and there is no reason to think that it can’t be improved upon, and with directors like Cronenberg singing its praises it is not to hard to imagine some other upcoming film project deciding to shot in HFR (not including the next two Hobbit movies or the next two Avatars which will be released in HFR).

Marvel Phase 2 movie reviews will all refer to the Avengers

That’s not much of a prediction, Avengers was one of the biggest movies ever, and this will be the first time since then that we will see the same characters. But specifically I predict that most reviews will say how Iron Man and Thor should have just called in his Avengers friends to help them defeat the villain. It will be just like the Eagles in The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (why didn’t they just fly them to Mount Doom/The Lonely Mountain), where no matter what the reasons why that wouldn’t/shouldn’t happen (They are a sentient race and not transportation, The Eagles would be corrupted by the ring, then there wouldn’t be a movie… etc ), critics will feel clever when they say it.

Disney will announce another Star Wars film that isn’t Episode VII, VIII, or IX

This is the most unlikely out of all my predictions but there was talk of Disney doing a Star Wars movie every year or two, and with talk of Lawrence Kasdan working on a Star Wars project that isn’t Episode VIII or IX, it is possible. The film will be scheduled for a 2016 but more likely 2017 release, and they will use words like “dark” and “gritty” to describe it (maybe it will be a bounty hunter movie that people seem to think would be a good idea)

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S.H.I.E.L.D. brings the Marvel Universe to TV

I have wanted to write about TV at about 1031 different times this year so far.  With Breaking Bad being as good as it’s been, I need a place to write about that, but I dont.  This is the MOVIE MOVIE podcast.  Not Tv Tv.  Anyway, the powers that be at ABC have greenlit a pilot based on S.H.I.E.L.D.

This is the right way to go.  Because they are a giant,shadowy organization, the stories can happen all over the place and they can have other smaller characters from the Marvel U make appearances.  The best news about all of this is that Joss Whedon will be writing the show, along with his brother Jed and possibly directing the pilot.  Because we’ve already seen his vision of SHIELD in Avengers, it already feels like this project is closer to Buffy/Angel, than it is to Dollhouse.  My only question is what do they do with Nick Fury and Maria Hill?  Sam Jackson is too big for tv, Cobie Smulders is still finding out about how he met his mother, and Phil Coulson is dead.

I’m curious, but totally faithful.

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Daredevil Moving Back to Marvel/Disney

Daredevil is officially going to be shifting from 20th Century Fox, where the Ben Affleck film and Elektra spinoff was made, to Disney.  It appears as though the character extension that Peter wrote about a few weeks ago, was firmly rejected by Disney, the minute 20th Century Fox was unwillingly to trade the rights of Silver Surfer and Galactus to Disney for an extension past October 10th on Daredevil.  This is 90% great, and 10% kinda shitty.

90% Great:  Marvel knows it characters, so I am confident that they will be able to make a better Daredevil film than any outside company ever could.

10% Kinda Shitty: Marvel probably has NO room for a Daredevil reboot on their docket.  They are so preoccupied with Avenger-centric films and characters and the cosmic stuff, that a gritty character like Daredevil (who often does not overlap into Avenger-land) really does not have a place in that world cinematically.  Also, it kinda sounded like Joe Carnahan’s take on Daredevil as more of a pulpy and dark 70’s styled film would be really cool.

Silver Lining: Daredevil would be perfect for a frickin TV show.  So far, the only characters that Marvel licensed out that have come back are Punisher, Blade and Daredevil.  They all live in NYC, have mostly darker stories, and have crossed paths numerous times.  Take characters like them and put them on TV in a world that acknowledges the cinematic universe and exists within it, but deals with the seedier side of the universe.  They all work as procedurals with overarching plotlines and I think it’d be cool for them to have shows that occasionally overlap like Doctor Who and Torchwood etc.  Only issue is Disney doesn’t really have a brand to release darker content anymore, nor a network to do it.  None of those would make sense on ABC which is family and femme-centric.  Disney needs to just make a branded network similar to Disney XD, but for adult males or something.

I hope Marvel does SOMETHING with Daredevil, cause he’s too cool to have nothing come out other than that shitburger movie.

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Avengers 2 is Happening the Way it Should

Joss Whedon has been signed on to write and direct Avengers 2.  We can now all breathe a bit easier.  Not only will he be shepherding the Avenger franchise, but he’s also being brought along to help flesh out the Marvel TV Universe.  They haven’t done anything with the TV verse yet, so taking Whedon’s already stellar TV past and connections, he will be a lot better at helping bring that world along well.

I am pleased.

I would love it if Marvel took some of their darker characters and retrofitted them for TV, like Punisher and Daredevil (especially with his rights likely reverting back to Disney).

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Whedon To Avenge Again!

Big important people at Disney have announced that Joss Whedon is coming back. He will be writing and directing the next Avengers film (which will probably have a subtitle taking cues from the non-Iron Man phase 2 films).
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Fox and Marvel Talk Trades (Updated)

We talked a few months ago about David Slade’s involvement in the ‘Daredevil’ reboot. Well he’s gone. Fox is now talking to Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team) to take over it and do a “Frank Miller-esque, 70s Thriller.

The time is running out for Fox to make a film before the rights revert back to Marvel. They have approached Marvel about an extension and Marvel has proved again that they are smarter than everyone.

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Comic Con: Marvel Phase 2 Round Up

This was a long and exciting weekend with all the news coming from Comic-Con. There are a few things we want to share with you in case you missed it. Let’s start off with all the Marvel Movie News.
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Marvel Studios is Brilliant

We’ve been talking a whole lot about Black Panther recently, but it seems Marvel has pulled a bit of a switcher-oo on us. The BP may still be happening but coming in 2014 is a film adaptation of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ This is an absolutely brilliant move. Why?

Because you can’t name a single member of the team.
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