And Becca is doing a query/first page workshop to benefit those hit by the storm. Basically, all you have to do is donate and then forward your receipt to her, and you get to have either your query or your first 250 words critiqued. Excellent, yes?
ON TO THE MOVIE TRAILERS.
So within the past week, we’ve had a couple of awesome new trailers hit for a couple of the movies coming out this summer: Pacific Rim last Thursday, and the newest trailer for Man of Steel yesterday.
Yes, apparently this week is ALL THE NEW SUPERHERO MOVIE TRAILERS WEEK, which, given how much I love superhero movies, I am totally okay with.
Today, it’s Thor: The Dark World, which comes out later this year. Thor is not a Marvel character I’d ever paid much attention and wasn’t expecting much from…up until the movie actually came out. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. Not my favorite of the pre-Avengers Marvel movies (that would be Iron Man), but still really, really good overall.
And to say I was a little stoked upon hearing Christopher Eccleston would be playing the villain in the sequel is the understatement of the year. We don’t get to see much of him in this trailer, but what we do see is pretty excellent.
Plus, Thor partnering with Loki? Be still my heart…
Thor: The Dark World
How do you feel about Thor (movie/god/comic book character)? Looking forward to The Dark World?
We interrupt your regularly scheduled A to Z post because “S” is also for…Superman! The new Man of Steel trailer debuted last week and oh. My. God. Behold:
I’m insanely excited for a Superman movie now. Good show, DC.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled A to Z post and the Marvel universe!
Considering that I loved the first two Spider-Man movies, you’d think I’d be over the moon for Spider-Man 3 no matter what. A superhero movie, third in a trilogy that was getting exponentially better, two new villains including one fan favorite…it had to be good, right?
All I can say is that if this is an indication of how the movies are going to play out this summer, it’s going to be a long, long, long three months.
In Spider-Man 3, things are going just rosy for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), which is quite a change. He’s doing well in school, everybody loves Spider-Man, and he and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) are happily an item. Granted, there’s still that little issue with Harry (James Franco) wanting to kill him because he believes Spider-Man killed his father, but that’s just peanuts, right?
Things are going so stinking well that you almost can’t wait for something bad to happen. It does, in a number of ways: Harry, now the New Goblin (instead of Hobgoblin), attacks Peter; the convict who really shot Uncle Ben, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), escapes from prison and gets turned into Sandman thanks to a particle physics test facility; and new photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) shows up to challenge Peter’s position as the sole Spider-Man photographer for the Daily Bugle.
To top it all off, a weird black goo from outer space has followed Peter home, and attaches itself to his Spidey suit. The alien symbiote amplifies his Spider-Man powers, but has the unfortunate side effect of amplifying Peter’s aggressive tendencies as well, giving him a thirst for revenge and making him more of a jerk. It has the equally unfortunate side effect of making him wear eyeliner and comb his hair so that he looks like the fifth member of Fall Out Boy.
Apparently instead of making somebody more powerful, bonding with an alien symbiote just makes them emo. I half-expected a scene that showed Peter updating his LiveJournal with a whiny blog about how nobody understands him and how it’s just so damn hard being a superhero.
That’s bad enough, but what’s worse is that it gets to the point where you’re rooting more for Sandman or the Goblin as opposed to Spider-Man. It’s frustrating to be forced to watch a character you hate and be told that you ought to be rooting for him.
The whole thing about the movie is that sometimes the greatest villain come from within, which is a great theme that has been done excellently before. I don’t know if it was the script or Maguire or both (I’m leaning toward both), but it just didn’t work the way it should’ve. You should be genuinely worried about Peter succumbing to the dark side of his nature. Instead, you just want to backhand him and tell him to man up. It’s not cool; it’s annoying.
It also doesn’t help that the movie is too long. That’s it. It’s just too damn long, and since you spend the bulk of the two-and-a-half hour runtime wanting to wrap your fingers around Peter’s throat, it feels like forever.
Not all is bad, though. The supporting characters shine, especially Auny May and J. Jonah Jameson. (J.K. Simmons alone is probably reason enough to watch the movie, at least once.) They made a pretty big deal that Bryce Dallas Howard was playing Gwen Stacy, and though she does a fine job, she’s not in that much.
The villains are also done well, especially Sandman. His back story is fleshed out just enough to make him a sympathetic villain. He’s not a calculating genius like Doc Ock, but a big, brawny guy who’s going about trying to save his daughter the only way he knows how: steal the money for her medicine.
It’s most unfortunate that Venom, probably the most anticipated villain of this movie, has only minimal screentime. Grace plays Eddie Brock as a smarmy jerk who pretty much gets what he deserves, but it would’ve been cool to see him as Venom more.
I guess the ultimate thing about Spider-Man 3 is that it’s disappointing. It wasn’t terrible, but there are so many “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve’s” involved. It could’ve been tighter; it could’ve been cooler; it could’ve been better. It’s a hard thing to see a weak link in an otherwise solid series. They had the opportunity to blow us out of the water, and it just didn’t happen.
Here’s hoping the rest of the summer movies do more than just meet expectations.
From 2003 up until 2007, I was lucky enough to have “movie reviewer” as my job description. As such, I’ve built up a *lot* of reviews for just about every movie that came out during those years, as well as reviews of classic movies. This is one of the reviews I originally wrote during that time.
Why yes, I’ve seen The Hobbit. Why yes, you’re going to get a review. Why yes, it will be as soon as work stops looking like this.
But until then, some other news, shall we?
My friend and NaNo ML partner-in-crime, Rebekah, has entered the NaNo Virtuosos contest put on by Curiosity Quills with the novel she wrote for NaNo this year, Catalyst. (I begged her to use that title. I’m not ashamed to admit it.)
So go to the site, read her first three pages (featuring a character for whom “creepy” is too mild an adjective), and then vote!
Also, in honor of her 300th blog post, Rebekah is giving away some pretty cool prizes. Drop by her blog to enter for a chance to win some pretty delicious homemade goods or a feature on her blog!
I might possibly have been singing Oogie Boogie’s Song to her. Just maybe.
She is about 20 different kinds of adorable. Also, I am going to spoil the everloving hell out of her.
And finally, we got a chance to see the trailer for Pacific Rim in front of The Hobbit. To say it looked “good” is an understatement. I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing how Guillermo del Toro handles a movie that is basically giant robots vs. giant monsters.
Oh yes. It’s a good week for movie fans, as some of the biggest films of next summer are putting out their teasers and trailers and getting us all SORTS of excited for 2013.
Man of Steel
Superman has never been one of my favorite superheroes, and while I enjoyed Superman Returns, it certainly didn’t outrank Batman Begins or X2 as my favorite superhero movies (at the time).
However, Man of Steel has several things going for it:
1) Christopher Nolan is producing, and Christopher Nolan did such a mind-blowingly awesome job with Batman that I will trust him to turn out a good movie with just about any superhero property. Yes, that includes Aquaman. He’d find a way to make it work.
2) Zack Snyder is directing. He’s a little bit more hit-or-miss, but I loved 300 and liked Watchmen. Teamed with Nolan as a producer, I think he’s got a style that will make this work.
3) David Goyer is writing. He wrote the three Nolan Batman films. Enough said.
With that kind of crew behind it, I find myself really, really looking forward to Man of Steel. And with a trailer like this, well…yeah, next summer will be good for superhero movies.
Star Trek Into Darkness
The full teaser for this will be coming out on December 17, but this “announcement teaser,” as it’s called, is pretty freaking fantastic. Benedict Cumberbatch has a great voice, and knowing he’s going to be the villain in this movie? So very many kinds of awesome.
The 2009 Star Trek movie was excellent, and I can’t wait to see more from the sequel. Yes, squeaky fangirl noises abounded when I watched this the first time.
What movies are you guys most looking forward to next summer?
Considering that I loved the first two Spider-Man movies, you’d think I’d be over the moon for Spider-Man 3 no matter what. A superhero movie, third in a trilogy that was getting exponentially better, two new villains including one fan favorite…it had to be good, right? 
