WTF? Friday...1/31/2014: Muppets, meet Expendables...

Terry Crews is awesome.

He was an NFL player for years, but I didn't know that 'cause he never played for the Giants or the Pats.

But I did learn of him thanks to The Expendables and The Expendables 2.

Then I caught him on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and if you're not watching that show you should.

Now there's this Super Bowl commercial for Muppets Most Wanted.

And it is glorious.

Best part? Crews dancing with Sweetums.

I think every Super Bowl commercial from now on should have a current or former NFL player in it, 

even if they're just standing around holding a sign.

I don't care if the ad's for a movie, car or candy bar.

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

Get on the ball with this!

It would make the awesomeness of the Super Bowl...awesomer!

So, about Marvel sequels...

As we look ahead to April's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and back at November's Thor: The Dark World, I thought I'd take a moment to pause and see where we are.

Marvel Studios has kicked some major Hollywood ass. As of right now, they've got eight films under their belt. All of which made money.

Obviously, the biggest financial success was The Avengers, but surprisingly, it's The Incredible Hulk that made the least.

Putting money talk aside, each film had a varying degree of success in terms of popularity. Thor: The Dark World had a luke-warm response - some loved it, some didn't - but made more worldwide that Iron Man 2, which was again loved by some and panned by others saying essentially that "there's too many characters".

I love every single film, but that in part is due to my being an old-school "Marvel Zombie".

Now, none of this is new information, and everything I've just mentioned's been talked about elsewhere.

So why bring this up?

Because there's talk about getting Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Captain America:TWS, to sign on for Captain America 3. It seems Cap 2 is just that good.

Yet there's been no talks at all about a third Thor film.

I'll be honest - back in my comic collecting days, I read a lot more Captain America and Iron Man issues than I did Thor. Not because I didn't like the character or the writing or the art, it's just that Thor wasn't my cup of tea. So I can understand why moviegoers might feel that way about the films.

So do we need a third Thor film? I'm not sure. Iron Man needed to be a trilogy because we had Iron Man 2 and not Iron Man: War Machine (although that would have been an awesome name!).

Now that Marvel Studios has moved past the numbering game and is giving each film a James Bond-type title, we can forget this "trilogy obsession" and simply have movies that move the MMU forward.

Which, lest we forget, Thor:TDW did...with the introduction of the second so-called "Infinity Stone".

So, if we get a film sometime after Avengers: The Age of Ultron set in deep space called...I dunno...

...Thor: Beta Ray Bill...I'd be fine with it.

In Marvel Studios I Trust

Here's X-Men:DoFP Cover #2

This cover bothers me.

* First thing's the scale. After seeing the SNTL2 with the worker in front of it, you get the idea that the robot is big. This image has nothing for perspective except the building in the background. Yes, there is a building there, and jeeps and helicopters, but they're so far away they don't help the cause, making this guy - to me at least - look almost as big as the Sentinel.

* Then there's the image of the character. Who is this guy? Oh, it's Havok. Good thing they put his name on there. I see where they were going with the lights over his shoulders, and once I knew who he was I got it, but there isn't enough of that visual effect to make it clear. All they needed to do was make them brighter and add some additional "swirls" below his chest.

* Finally, there's the clothes. Indiana Jones Jr. does not appear in this film. I wouldn't expect the classic black leotard and funky headpiece from the comics or the yellow and blue suit from the film, but something that would cry a little more "havok" and less "shame".

Have you seen the first Empire X-Men: DoFP cover?

Apparently, Fox is trying to out-Marvel Marvel by promoting this as "The Biggest Ever Superhero Movie."

One way they're doing it is by having Empire Magazine publish 25 different covers.

Gee, and X-Men event with multiple covers...

...haven't heard that one in a while.

Anyway, here's the first cover:

featuring a Sentinel.

If you look close, you'll see this particular model is the SNTL2.

So help me if there winds up being 42 models in this film!

It does look kinda cool though, but is the guy there just for scale purposes,

or is the joke that the SNTL's need constant upkeep?

Monday Movie Roundup...1/27/2014

Just a quick rundown of numbers and some opinions to follow this week.

American Hustle, the closest we'll ever get to a Marvel/DC team-up, made another $7.1 million over the weekend.

This brings the worldwide total to $162.4 million, well over the $40 million budget.

The Hobbit: TDoS and The Hunger Games:CF rolled along,

earning roughly another $2.2 million and $1.6 million respectively.

The Legend of Hercules, however, is hurtin'.

It made $1.2 million over the weekend, bringing its worldwide total to just over $18.7 million.

The budget, however, was $70 million.

While I don't wish anyone connected to this film to fail, my hope is that Lionsgate gives up the rights to ol' Herc.

So we can get Thor vs. Hercules.

Anyways...

The Invisible Woman and 47 Ronin made $278,000 and $246,000 respectively this past weekend.

You read that right - Woman made more than Ronin.

The non-canon Fantastic Four film has made all of $602,000 to date.

Keanu's latest is up to $121.7 million.

And that's all I'm saying about that.

But the big head-scratcher for me?

I, Frankenstein.

I'm a huge fan of the Universal films. Classics all.

You could even say those films were the great-grandfather of the MMU.

No, listen...

Back in the 40's there were many films that had sequels, like The Thin Man...

...and Frankenstein and Dracula had their sequels too.

Then came this:

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was the first sequel to Lon Chaney Jr's The Wolf Man,

but was also the fifth sequel to the Frankenstein franchise that started with Boris Karloff.

Thereby setting both monster franchises in the same universe!

Released in 1943, this predates the Bond franchise (which Kevin Feige has referred to as "inspirational") by 19 years.

So why is I, Frankenstein bugging me?

Because I just don't get the premise.

If someone came up with a story continuing the saga from Karloff's days, I'd get in line to see it.

Heck, if someone dropped the Monster into the Underworld films, I'd see it.

But watching the trailer, it looks like the Monster is some sort of deciding factor in an age-old battle between good and evil,

kicking ass while fighting fire-breathing fallen angels or something.

Uhh, yeah...I don't get it.

I'd like to think the initial pitch of this film sounded good, but got lost somewhere in the rewrites.

Financially, I, Frankenstein made just under $8.3 million for its opening weekend, which ain't bad.

But it has a long way to go to reach its $65 million budget.

Have a good day everybody!

How about a book review? That's right...I read books too!

Well, I'm not sure this qualifies as a "book"...

The Art of Iron Man 3 is the first "The Art of..." Marvel book I've committed to owning, in part because the collector in me felt the need to have it in my hot little hands in order to "complete the set" (along with the film and the music). Another reason is because I was a fan of the comics during the Armor Wars years and loved seeing so many armors in the film.

Not to get too much into things, because this is about the book and not the movie, but I hated the fact that there were 35 armors made between The Avengers and this film...and we only get to see glimpses of some of them before they're all destroyed. Balls!

Plus, I could never get my head around the toy industry milking comic characters for all they're worth. Transformers can get different paint jobs. There'll always be more Joes. But why would Batman ever need a "Deep Jungle" neon-green Batsuit? Sure, Cap uses a motorcycle and Spidey had the Spidermobile, but would Hulk ever need a Hummer? Would War Machine ever need a tank? Ridiculous...

But getting back to Iron Man, of course Tony would make an armor specifically for deep sea diving or space exploration. Stealth Armor? That's a given. Iron Man is one of the few characters in comics where having various outfits and stuff makes sense. Never mind the whole "Tony can't stop making suits because he's kinda bat-s#!t crazy right now" thing.

Another reason I got this book? Because back in December, I got this:

 I know, pretty sick right? Then I saw the back...

That's right. 13 images...of different armors...from the film...by the art department of the film.

The only thing that would have made me even happier is tech specs for each of them.

I know that when geeks/dorks/nerds speak loudly enough, things get made, so it's only a matter of time before we see Tony Stark's blueprints for each and every suit from the films. I'll put that on my wish list now.

So anyway, back to the book...which I desperately wanted since the calendar. Sadly, no technical specs, but the artwork is amazing. The works by Ryan Meinerding, Rodney Fuentebella, Andrew Leung, Josh Nizzi, Phil Saunders and Andy Park are all stellar. Each artist's work is credited, but I have a hard time telling who did which. While that's an issue for artists wanting their own unique visual style, it really says a lot that all six of these guys can make their work so similar for a single film project.

Now for the bad news...'cause you knew this was coming...

The Mandarin, or more specifically his rings, are featured in the book by artist Andrea Dopaso...but only eight of them. Not only that, if you're looking for an explanation as to what the writing on each of them means, you'll have to look elsewhere. (And I've tried. It doesn't exist.)

One other thing - I bought my copy new, still wrapped, but when I got it home I found that it's missing about 12 pages. They weren't ripped out or torn away, just omitted. A publishing error. Fortunately, when I leafed through another copy at another store I saw the missing pages: story ideas for gags each armor would do during the final battle (which never made it to the final cut), so I can live without them. But still!

All in all, a fine book worthy of my hard earned cash. 'Course now, I have to save up even more of my hard earned cash for the other books on the other films...f**king Marvel!

I'd like to thank Joss Whedon...

...for reading my blog...

twice!

WTF? Friday...1/24/2014...So, about Ant-Man...

I still can't believe Marvel's going this route.

Michael Douglas, 

is playing Henry Pym?

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

I'm not sure how to feel about this, but I will say that if they go through with it,

anything's possible.

In Marvel Studios I Trust

First Impressions - AoS: 'Seeds'

This is by no means a deeply intense dissection of the episode.

That will happen over the summer after my purchase of the Blu-ray.

I've put my quick comments and notes after seeing the episode only once after the jump.

You've been warned...

About this date change for the Man of Steel sequel...

The consensus supports this decision by Warner Brothers, because it shows that the studio cares about the product.

I agree...but I've got a gripe.

No, not that one,

not that one either.
My gripe is with DC/WB's film schedule.

Between now and when this film comes out, Marvel will have released at least eight.
Four of them coming from Marvel Studios and the rest from FOX and Sony.
I'm all for quality over quantity,  but what Warner Bro's needs to do is get more stuff in the hopper.

Arrow is a good show, and they're working towards at least one spin-off.
That's wonderful.
But that's all they've got aside from animation...which I don't count because that's its own thing.
There's been rumors for a while of other stuff going on,

but rumors don't make product...or money.
I'm just saying that we need more movies from the house of DC/WB.

No no...I said movies.