My thoughts on Avengers 3...

There's growing speculation (as well as rumor) that Avengers 3: Death, Taxes and Thanos (or whatever they'll call it) will have a brand new line-up...and that's freaking people out.

(sigh)

After listening to Chris Evans' comments during SDCC 2014, it sounds like as of right now (as I write this) Cap's biggest problem isn't dealing with living in "the future", it's finding his place in that future. 

It's not with the Army...

It's not with S.H.I.E.L.D....

So where could it possibly belong?

Marvel Studios has been pretty clear that the Avengers in the comics have a revolving line-up. It stands to follow that the Avengers in the MMU will also have a revolving line-up. This makes sense, and I'm perfectly fine with it.

However...

1) They're going up against freakin' Thanos. They're gonna need every hero they can get.

2) We already know RDJ's gonna be in Avengers 3 (and will most likely be his final appearance), so yeah Iron Man, but change is coming.

3) There's the AoS series - which has finally gotten off it's a$$ and will actually start featuring known Marvel characters - meaning we won't have to wait for features to get origin stories and/or more people populating the MMU.

4) Same goes for the upcoming Netflix series-es. 

So Cap will most likely live at Avengers Tower, 

and be in charge of calling whomever he can to "Assemble",

and he'll have quite the list to choose from...which is awesome.

so THAT'S what caffeine does to me!

I just saw this vid about how coffee affects the brain:

and while informative, it won't make me stop...

WTF? Friday...The King Joffrey Edition...8/29/2014

Wait a minute...you're telling me that guy:

 Jack Gleeson,

who played this guy:

King Joffrey,

also played that other guy?

The Kid in Batman Begins

W...T...F...?

I could have sworn that King looked mighty familiar...

The Date Rape Drug Derection nail polish...

Having a wife and daughter, I mentioned this new creation to both of them when I first read about it. I thought a nail polish that changed color when exposed to date rape drugs in drinks (the point being that one dips their finger in the drink prior to consuming it) was cool and all kinds of awesome. Both women agreed with me.
But there's been some backlash about how products like this are made for, and are the sole responsibility of, potential victims - and not at all helpful from stopping predators in the first place...which is a valid point.
There's nothing more I can really say on the subject as a man.
But as a father...

Adorkette is aware of this product, and others like it, but there's no telling what new things are being (or will be) developed in the future - in terms of both measures, and countermeasures. 

It's like teaching her how to ride a bike. I can give as much instruction as possible, buy the latest and greatest helmet, elbow and knee pads, explain the rules about sharing the street, etc. But when it comes down to it, she'll be on the bike by herself and all I can do is step back, keep a close eye, and hope like crazy nothing bad happens. 

And it sucks.

The music of the Mark I

I mentioned a while ago that I've started creating soundtracks playlists for Marvel Studios' characters.

Well, I'm all the way up to the Mark I.

It's only four songs...

...yeah but see the Mark I doesn't last all that long in the film. Like maybe eight minutes.

Anyways, here they are:
1) Iron Man by Black Sabbath (which is gonna be the opener for all the suits - deal with it)
2) Mark I (from the Iron Man sdtk)
Predictable I know, but then I got creative...
3) If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback

No, it makes sense. It tells of Tony's level of desperation..and the impact of Yinsen's death. 

Whatever.

and of course...
4) Fireman (from Iron Man).

I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure these songs play longer than the Mark I was on screen.

So - Alfred Molina...

...wants to be Doc Ock again.

As much as I love this idea, it will never happen. Sony won't make any good decision that would muck up their already mucked-up Spidey-verse. 

(sigh...)

Monday Movie Roundup...8/25/2014

Hello everybody!

We'll start with the bad(-ish) news...

Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For made only $6.5 million over the weekend.

I'm gonna chalk that up to "Well, my kids are going back to school this week and we have to go shopping..." Not that parents would take their kids to see this film, but I know for a fact that some parents did in fact take their kids to see The Purge: Anarchy over the summer.

Yeah, I don't understand it either. But now for some good news:

Guardians of the Galaxy took in another $17.6 million in the States over the weekend.

This puts it at $489.5 million worldwide, and in 7th place of "all-time Marvel Studios films worldwide". It passed Thor ($449.3), and is approaching Iron Man ($585.2).

Isn't it great that Marvel Studios has enough movies under their belt that they now compete against each other for most money made? 

Why yes. Yes it is.

Speaking of Marvel Movies,

I've been looking forward to Ant-Man for years. More-so that GotG. When news came out of Wright's departure from the project, I was worried. When I heard of other "issues" about the production, I got scared. When I heard Paul Rudd was cast as Scott Lang, my head started to hurt...

Then this past weekend, I saw this image, taken at this year's SDCC:

and I felt better. 

In Marvel Studios I Trust

Well, it finally happened...

Holiday. Shopping. Done.

Have you heard of this artist?

His name is Mike Mitchell.

And no, your eyes are not deceiving you...this is a gif image.

He's on twitter, instagram, has a blog, and a bunch of other stuff. Check him out!

WTF Friday...8/22/2014

So, Carl Creel will make an appearance on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. -

more commonly known as Absorbing Man.

He's being played by Brian Patrick Wade,

whom I don't know from anywhere, but I guess was in Teen Wolf the series.

Part of me wants to go of on how the first two-thirds of the first season of AoS was just one long set up, but that's a rant for another day.

I am glad that there's (finally) an established tone for the show, but now I'm wondering how they'll introduce characters such as Creel. 

He could be:

a) an escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. prisoner. In this case, he'll most likely have his absorbing power already and his backstory will be explained through Coulson and/or Skye.

b) an escaped prisoner from Seagate Prison (during Trevor Slattery's "breakout" in All Hail the King). Which means he may not have his power yet, and get mixed up with Asgardian magic throughout the season.

c) just a guy named Rocky Davis who (wait for it...) gets recruited into HYDRA's centipede/extremis/GH 325 program and develops his power without any Asgardian connection whatsoever. BUT -  it takes longer for his power to manifest than expected. Davis does "something bad", gets caught by Coulson's team and is put in the Cage on the Bus...which is when his absorbing ability kicks in. Coulson's team realizes "Rocky Davis" is an alias for Carl Creel - and May has to work a battle-damaged Bus to The Cube (which we then see for the first time). Either that, or Michael Douglas' Hank Pym shows up to introduce The Big House...where Creel is then placed.

W...T...F...?

Since we're hearing about this in August, chances are the episode they're filming won't air until Late-October/Early-November. And as far as I know, this is the first established character shown being filmed. Yeah, there have been casting announcements (*cough* Mockingbird *cough*), but my gut tells me we won't see Palicki at all until spring - after Agent Carter airs - and we won't see Palicki in costume until the season-ender...leading into Avengers: Age of Ultron.

(Sigh...)

What bothers me most isn't the understandable level of predictability of the show, or the MMU in general. I grew up reading Marvel comics and know how they integrate their characters.

It's the waiting...

I had to sit through six months of "ho-hum" before AoS got good, only to have HYDRA ruin everything. 

Then I had to wait three more months for the next movie to come out, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the series, or the established MMU.

Now I have to wait roughly two more months until AoS is back.

I guess Marvel Studios anticipated this, because they moved Daredevil to May 2015 - so we'll have something to look forward to after Avengers: Age of Ultron that can tide us over the summer. 

Could the other Netflix shows be scheduled for the following summers? Anything's possible.

Just get on with it already!

So I finally saw Django Unchained...

Holy Hell what a movie!

Tarantino made a Spaghetti Western as only Tarantino could. I was half expecting Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef to show up. But one cameo that I didn't catch until the credits?

Tom Wopat!

That's right - Luke Duke himself was the Marshall who owed the bounty hunter $500. And speaking of the bounty hunter, his name was Dr. King Schultz. As in Dr. King Schultz. I didn't catch that until late in the film.

Stop it.

Then there was the gang. The gang that had the dogs. One of them was a woman. I knew that when I realized her face was hidden under a bandanna. The second time we see her (close to the end of the film), she's the one looking through the 1800's equivalent of a view-master. At first, I thought it was Uma Thurman. Turns out it was Zoe Bell, who was the stunt-person for Uma in Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2.

Then there's Michael Parks.

Maybe you recognize him from Kill Bill?

And Kill Bill 2, and Death Proof, and Planet Terror...

I really like this movie. The Kill Bill's are still my favorites, and no - I haven't seen Inglourious Basterds yet...I'm too scared - but while I'm not a big Tarantino fan, I admire his fascination and fan-based reverence of cinema. 

Well THIS wasn't too big a surprise...

Mockingbird has been cast for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

But what was surprising to me was the who:

Adrianne Palicki.

I haven't seen any of her work, including the WW pilot, but I haven't seen Marvel Studios make a casting mistake yet. 

Speaking of casting...

John Slattery will appear in Ant-Man...as Howard Stark.

So at least part of it takes place in the (not too distant) past. That's cool. I guess Hank and Howard either knew each other or worked together. Which makes sense if Pym spent any time with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Here's what we know:

1) Agent Carter comes out in January.

2) Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out in May.

3) Daredevil comes out on Netflix...in May.

4) Ant-Man comes out in July.

Since AoS interacts with the films, lets make some predictions:

1) Mockingbird will appear in A:AoU, meet Hawkeye and possibly (at least verbally) fight Black Widow over him.

2) Dominic Cooper's Stark will say and/or do stuff that will be brought up/referenced by Slattery's Stark. Either that...

2a) ...or Anton Vanko will make an appearance.

3) It will be in the aftermath of A:AoU that other heroes (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and...Dr. Strange?) start coming out of the woodwork. As if an alien invasion in Manhattan wasn't enough.

4) We'll see some documentation or mention/reference of Matthew Murdock's childhood accident in AoS...because hoping for an appearance by Cox would be asking too much. Either that...

4a) ...or Coulson will mention to Skye to keep an eye on "a new crime lord building a power base in New York". Because an appearance by D'Onofrio would be asking too much.

5) Coulson et. al. will learn about an artifact that was kept under wraps by the SSR (most likely Zodiac) which will be the plot arc of the Agent Carter series.

6) At some point, Slattery's Stark will be shown making the recording seen in the Iron Man 2 easter egg.

But SO HELP ME...

...if they cast Caine as Cooper's Stark's Jarvis, I'm just going to lose my s#!t.

Parents...

Being a parent and having parents are two separate things. You try not to do things to your child that which was done to you as a child.
I bring this up because my parents are planning a visit. They want to see their granddaughter and tour the city where she's going to high school.
That's fine, but it isn't like they haven't sen her in years - we visited them this past April - but they "want to come up".

Note To Self: Don't do this to Adorkette.

Monday Movie Roundup...8/18/2014

Hello one and all!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stayed at #1 this weekend, with $28.5 million additional Domestic Dollars.

It's at $185.3 million worldwide, putting it second of all TMNT films...

 ...a mere $16.7 million behind 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

As for Guardians of the Galaxy, it's in 8th place of all Marvel Studio films with $419 million worldwide.

This is $48.4 million more than Captain America, and roughly $30 million behind Thor.

Will it beat Thor? I'm thinking yes.

One other thing:

Expendables 3 came out this weekend, and of all the names I expected to see,

this one threw me for a loop.

I mean granted - Grammer is notably taller than both Stallone and Schwarzenegger,

but Frasier? in the same film as Rambo and Conan?

WTF?

Have a good week everyone!

I have a MMU problem...

To those unfamiliar with my blog, MMU stands for Marvel Movie Universe - my name for the MCU.

My wife and I were out and about yesterday with Adorkette getting school related stuff and I was killing time in another aisle when I saw this:

the Black Widow Strikes trade that includes her first appearance in Tales of Suspense #52.

It was roughly $4, so I put it in the cart.

Then the ladies told me they were going to be a while with the trying-on-of-clothes-thing, and let me take the car to another store.

Which was a mistake, 'cause then I saw this:

the GotG trade for $9.

But that wasn't the big one...

this was the big one.

I had not heard of this book's existence, and there was nothing about it on the back. Just an image of the HYDRA symbol emerging from under the S.H.I.E.L.D. image. It was less than $40, so I bought it.

In less than twenty minutes, I spent roughly 50 bucks.

I'm glad I got the prelude trades, especially for less than cover price, but the AoS was a splurge. A big one.

I mean yeah - it has the slipcover case, and fits in line with the Art of... Marvel movie books. And it has pages dedicated to every episode. Which I couldn't delve into because I was exhausted from the shopping spree.  

But still...the impulse.

I'm a dork...with (boxes of) issues...but I cope.