SUPERHERO MOVIES, PAST AND PRESENT

 

1997 was abad year for comic superhero movies, what I think is the worst movie of thegenre came up, Batman & Robin was a terrible experience, it was goofy,tasteless and had cero respect for the source material that inspire it, andBatman "cried!". After that terrible experience in the theater I almost lost hopeon the genre, specially watching the previous efforts of the 80s and 90s, therewas charm In watching these superhero movies as a kid, but now being in my 20s Icouldn’t resist much of the kids’ stuff that the genre was target at. Then cameSpawn the same year, not a particularly good movie, but at least dark andentertainment, and handled topics that were outside the realm of superheromovies, and antihero from hell, the next year came Blade and reinforced thedark vision of the antihero genre and to boot was a good movie!. There werestill something missing from the genre, there was better cinematohraphy, betterstories, but the characters were still one-dimensional, just a prototype ofantiheroes or superheroes, nothing made them tick or what were they fightingfor? At least in the big screen interpretations of the superheroes, theinformation and background was there in the comic pages but nowhere to be seenin the celluloid.

Then, it happened, a combination of cinematic excellence in apopcorn package that changed what superhero movies could achieve, X-men in 2000was a great movie, with great characters(at least most of them, some likeCyclops were still left out). Even a movie like Unbreakable of the same year, wasall characters and cero action, gave us a look about what the mythology of thesuperheroes comics bring with them and we could hope to see in future movies. In2002 came Blade 2, X2: X-men United, Hulk and Daredevil (the first two greatmovies, the last two bad ones), that tried to excel on the exposition andbackground of the heroes, trying to give these god like beings more dimensions,and improving the genre considerably, while still kicking ass.

Of coursethe genre still suffers of bad writing, directing and acting. But for eachElektra and Fantastic Four (2005) there is at least a Batman Begins (2005) thatreminds us how great the genre can be. Being that the film industry isobviously driven by mass production and the big next thing is not surprise thatthere are so many bad movies, but at least through the cracks there are stillgreat movies to be seen. Specially in the last couple of years we have seenvery good interpretation of the genre, special by the push of Marvel comics,not only giving us better character development but also the creation of acommon universe where all the superheroes live in and will culminate in theevent movie that could be Avengers that will premiered on April 27^thin the United States and Colombia and a lot of other countries.

I will giveyou next a list of my recommended superhero movies, must – not see and what thehell happened? List of movies.

My personalbest superhero movies:

BatmanBegins and The Dark Knight – Directed by Christopher Nolan – best examples ofthe genre in my mind.

Superman 1 and2 by Richard Donner – these are movies that showed us the possibilities of thegenre, and that good actors can be part of the genre.

Batman (1989)by Tim Burton - still has a place in my heart, the esthetic is incredible, evenif the characters are a little thin.

X-men andX2: X-men United by Bryan Singer - not much to say about how great this moviesare. Also the presence of incredible actors (Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen) thatgive a quality that is hard to describe. Without them the movies would not besame. The third one couldn’t be saved by the same cast, a shame of bad scriptand director.

X-men:First Class by Mathew Vaughn – great actors again and very good direction of adescent script. Very well put together. This is what I hope will happened in theAvengers Movie.

Blade 2 by GuillermoDel Toro – well executed all around.

RED by RobertSchwentke – great cast and action scenes, not really super powered heroes, butexceptional people based on a great and short graphic novel.

The Rocketeerby Joe Johnson – for a 13 year old kid it was the best movie ever, so shut up.

Spider Man1 and 2 by Sam Raimi – these ones are very popular among critics, but to be honest I found them good but not really greatmovies, I felt the exposition got a little carried away with all characters andsome jumps in time were too distracting.

Other Good Moviesof the Genre: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America: First Avenger, Scott Pilgrim Vsthe World and Darkman.

What Happenedwith this movie?

Watchmen byZack Snyder – I enjoyed it but could not help to think how bad would feel forsome who had not read the graphic novel.

Hellboy andHellboy 2 by Guillermo Del Toro – I like these movies, but there is definitelysomething missing to make me watch them again. I think it might have to do withthe supporting characters and the love interest.

GreenLantern by Martin Campbell – what the hell happened in did!!

Hancock byPeter Berg – this movie feels like there is something great in the background,but cannot feel that the studio forced some changes that greatly damaged themovie, the same as the Green Lantern Movie and the League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen.



Do notwatch!!!

TransformerTrilogy by Michael Bay – hate these movies, I know they are not technicallysuperheroes, but still hate them.

Iron Man 2by Jon Favreu and Spider Man 3 by Sam Raimi – what a mess of movies, not real goalin mind besides selling more toys.

Ghost Rider1 and 2, Elektra, Punisher: War zone, Catwoman and lots more.



 

The Hunger Games Official Trailer [1080p HD] - All Hunger Games Trailers...

“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work.

All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction.

Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”

― Chuck Close

Hunger Games Movie and Book Review

I Have read in the last year the trilogy of books of the Hunger Games, and founding them quite entertaining, the story and the storytelling elements give a description of a violent and difficult world, narrated and told in first person perspective by the protagonist, Katnis Evergreen, she narrates in a very focused way, not only letting you know what she thinks, but also only what she sees, so there is no opportunity for jumping ahead and it gives a sense of isolation that not everyone enjoys in this kind of reading. I would recommend it to most people, if they like the style of narration and doesn’t mind that the story is basically science fiction with some light romance elements that do not distract from the central motive of the story that I will describe at continuation.

As an admirer of good first person stories, as is this book, I found it hard to reconcile how they would handle the adaptation of such a personal story in the big screen. I was quite happy with the end result, the movie has a good pace, at first giving us enough glimpses of the world from the perspective of Katniss and then when it launches us in a bloodbath (obscured by the MPRS rating of PG-13), it give us enough information of the world and the confrontation of the kids of between ages of 12 and 18, who are the yearly tributes of the titular event to entertain the people of the Capitol (think American Idol where the duels are with swords, lances, arrows and knives in a large forest). The Hunger Games were put in place by the totalitarian government of the Capitol to remind the population of 12 districts that they should not try to revolt, or they will take what's is more dear to them, and in the process, giving them hope as the President Snow, explains it to the gamekeeper (producer of the show) in a key scene not in the book.

In the end, the movie is entertaining enough to be enjoyed by someone who has not read the book, and who have read will enjoy seen it come to life in such a well acted and produced action event. I think the ending is the weakest part of the movie, not giving the audience enough resolution to the story and also not giving us a glimpse of what the real danger is of the actions that Katniss performed during the movie, or at least something that resembles a bitter suit ending would have give it much more strength in final minutes

EAT ALL CULTURE

When people ask me if I like to read, I respond yes, I like it a lot.
When people ask me if I like movies, I respond that I love them.
When people ask me if I like video games, of course I do, I play a lot of them.
When People if I like to go to arts and museums, I said I do enjoy it.
When people ask how when do I have time to do all that stuff, I respond that I don´t know, but I do wish I have more time for all of it.


In the end I'm a culture consumist, I try to read a lot, watch lots of movies, play video games, visit countries and go to their museums, I want to know it all, to experience as much as I can while I'm alive, learn what works in culture and makes an art representation a pop, underground or cult hit. I want to keep learning about the whole wide world and what makes it change and evolve.


The Internet gave us a tool for infinite learning opportunities, and I now want to use the Internet as a tool for sharing my vision of the world and the experiences i have consuming all I can while I can.