(via Comic Vine)
The election is finally over, but as this post was written before it ended, I still don’t know what happened. Depending on the results and our own personal stances, the ability to launch ourselves into an alternate reality might be really appealing right about now. Then there are movies like Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which exist to remind all of us that the dystopias in other worlds are somehow even worse than the one we already live in.
The Justice League trailer looks pretty sweet: we get to see Wonder Woman and Batman try to work together to build a team, we get to see Flash in all his hilarious glory, and we get some memorable scenes with Aquaman and Batman. Yep, the new Justice League trailer seems to be depicting a movie I would love to watch, but I have been burned before.
When people ask me “If you were a superhero, what superpower would you have?”, I have always answered that I would have magical powers. Usually after this response people claim I’ve cheated, but there are tons of magical superheroes, from Zatanna to Dr. Strange. Not only do these characters have an array of powers that make them extremely formidable, but they are also something of a mystery to their more science-minded brethren. The recent plethora of comic book movies have attempted to mostly eliminate the more magical elements of various comic books universes—I suppose to keep things more realistic. However, magic has always added an element of mystery to the comic book universe.
Other than my father (who raised me on a steady diet of superheroes), I can probably credit my geek status to the shows that got me hooked on superheroes in the first place. Luckily for me, a number of superhero animated shows aired in the 80s and 90s, and two of my favorites were Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. I adored seeing the heroes team up, but the the reason I liked watching them was these TV shows were the first place that I watched Wonder Woman kicking ass.
Naturally, then, when I saw that both series were on Netflix, I was extremely excited to rewatch them. And while much of the show is just as funny and interesting as I remember it, there was one thing that really struck me as an adult: Wonder Woman was not written very well. Not to say that her character wasn’t well-developed or complex, but as an adult, I noticed Wonder Woman upholding really problematic and sexist ideals about women almost any time she commented on gender. I was weirdly shocked to find myself watching a Wonder Woman who was written from what seemed to be a patriarchal point of view. Wonder Woman seems to more often identify with the men of our world and only critiques women.
Oh, this makes me happy.
Justice League: War is scheduled for a direct-to-video release on February 4th, and I am eagerly counting down the days until I can own it for myself.
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of DC Comics. I have about four or five DC characters that I actually care about, outside of those directly related to Batman, because Batman is freaking awesome. Those few characters do have a special place in my heart though, and one of them is Wonder Woman, who never really gets her due, especially in film.
So, imagine my joy when I found out that there were some animated shorts devoted to Wonder Woman, hopefully as a hint that there would be more Wonder Woman action on the Western Front. They could best be summarized by saying that they, in three parts, portray the rescue of Steve Trevor by Wonder Woman, who is at all times behaving like a stone cold G. She surfs, races, and straight-up trucks her opponents, all without missing a beat or messing up her hair. If you’re wondering what kind of Wonder Woman film I’d like to see, you can stop wondering. The 70s style, the invisible pony car, Giganta in Chucks, need I go on? Go ahead and check them out:
These are a part of DC Nation, which does shows and shorts specifically for young audiences based on DC Comics. Here’s hoping that there’s more Wonder Woman swag to come!
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via The Mary Sue
As you may have noticed, Warner Bros and DC Comics have announced their new lineup of movies. They announced that there would be a Superman/Batman movie, a Flash movie, and finally the long-expected Justice League movie.
Well, that’s interesting, right? I mean the Justice League movie has been greatly anticipated. We already had an, admittedly terrible, Green Lantern movie. The recent Superman movie was excellent. And the next two will take care of Batman and the Flash. So this is great! We are well on our way to a Justice League movie. That’s just awesome. But you know, it feels like something might be missing. Something big, yeah—something important. What could it be?
Oh yeah, Wonder Woman!
It’s been a busy weekend for lovers of DC and Marvel properties. If you were one of the bastards lucky enough to be physically present at San Diego Comic Con, or just one of us sad bastards following along on Twitter, Tumblr, and official livestreams at home, you know some big movie news dropped over the course of the weekend. Here’s the run-down.
So I just got back from the midnight showing. And it was in 3D too! How awesome is that? Of course, anyone who has been following me will know immediately how I feel about this gimmick and the headache I’m currently experiencing from it. Unfortunately, the 2D showing had sold out by the time I realized tickets were available. Sigh…
So obviously this movie and I are not off to a good start; however, as of late I seem to have a habit of attracting things from the entertainment industry that I loathe in the beginning and love by the end. Just to be clear, what I liked about this movie after the first act was not the 3D. It did not grow on me, and I dare to say it probably never will. I only liked it in the scenes where it conveniently goes away.
So let’s talk about The Avengers! Oh, and, uh, possible spoiler warning.
The Avengers is directed by Joss Whedon, who had received some criticism before the release about whether or not he was capable of working with physically strong male characters well, since he specializes in physically and emotionally strong female characters; however, I would argue that emotional strength is more important than physical in terms of character development, and he has worked with a lot of male characters in the past: Giles, Mal, Angel, to name a few, the last of which being very physically strong. So right away, this was an argument that I brushed aside, and I’m damn glad I did.
He successfully created the means of getting Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America from their single movies into one action-packed film together. This is the movie Marvel’s been building up to for a while now and I personally think it paid off in a way that only Joss Whedon’s sense of humor can. For such a serious movie with so much violence, it had a lot of humor, and none of it seemed misplaced. Tony Stark was as snarky as ever, Steve Rogers didn’t get pop culture references, etc., etc.
So our story begins with Loki and some evil alien overlord plotting together. And from there chaos ensues on Earth. Nick Fury reacts by beginning to assemble everyone onto the Helicarrier, which I’m not going to lie, looked awesome but did little more than that. Well, not entirely true. Half of it got blown up after all.
Although I love Loki, as he is my all-time favorite comic character, I was a little worried that his being the main villain would make his and Thor’s stories outshine the others. The reunion between the two brothers and all their interactions were superb. Tom Hiddleston is an amazing actor. Everything he does with that role, from his cheeky little grins to his cool demeanor are the perfect embodiment of Loki’s character.
While in the comics, which have been going on since the ‘sixties, we don’t see much of their sibling relationship anymore due to the length of the series, with the exception of the newer comics that focused entirely on it until Thor’s probably temporary death. We see a lot more of it here. Despite all the bad things Loki is doing, we never forget that they’re brothers and that Thor misses him.
In a way, the two do overshadow the other actors, but not by much. They all had really great chemistry together. There were some things that I’m not too sure about, however. For instance, when did Tony Stark and Pepper Potts become a couple? I know they had building tension, but I can’t remember whether or not they actually got together in Iron Man 2—of course, this is my cue to go rewatch that movie because I obviously missed something. For another thing, the reveal of Natasha’s past as the Black Widow and how she fell in with Shield didn’t make much sense to me. It was very vague. The conversation she and Loki had about it probably would have made more sense had I followed her in the comics more, but as it is, it’s like two people talking about something they expected the audience to know as well.
My other big concern was that there was no explanation for why the Hulk stopped trying to murder the Avengers. The first time he appears, he tries to kill Natasha, falls from the sky while raging, then shows up at the final fight and is BFFs with everyone. Convenient?
As for Captain America, I know that Steve Rogers reactions to waking up in our time are probably being saved for his next movie, but I still expected more out of it. Yes, his inability to understand cultural references were hilarious and showed how out of place he is, but I didn’t feel as though it was enough.
I did have some other fears going into this movie.
Both the Iron Man movies were much more science based, if still implausible, than both the Captain America and Thor movies. I see the same problem with bringing him in together with them as I do when I think of the possibility of a Justice League movie and Christopher Nolan’s Batman; however, whereas something like Poison Ivy strikes me as damn near impossible in the newer Batman-verse, The Avengers and the want to make the movie have been going on for quite a while, so when watching the Iron Man movies, I wouldn’t say that I wouldn’t be willing to accept that he lives in a world with magic, just that it’s not something that easily comes to mind.
Needless to say, I think they did a great job. I’m a little sad that neither Hank Pym nor Janet van Dyne appear. Without Janet or any other female Avenger, Natasha becomes the standard one female member. Yeah, Maria Hill is in this movie, but she’s not an Avenger. And of course, Nick Fury is our token black guy, since Idris Elba apparently didn’t find a way to shoehorn himself into this film. It would have been a much better choice for him than Ghost Rider, at least.
I don’t want to talk about the movie too much more. This is definitely something I recommend. It’s just fun all the way around. Go check it out and get back to me on what you think. Agree, disagree, I’m all ears. I know I’ll be watching it a second time in the near future.
Lady Geek Girl: So yeah, the Green Lantern movie was… okay.
MadameAce: It was terrible.
Lady Geek Girl: Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.
MadameAce: Not that bad? It sucked. Yeah. That pretty much sums up how I feel about this movie, and I think that accurately sums up how a lot of people feel about this movie. By no means is Green Lantern the worst thing I have ever seen. I mean, very few movies are ever going to dig a deeper hole than Eragon did.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 