Marvel Movies

I was originally going to make this as a post to try to rank the non-Avengers Marvel movies, but there is so much more to talk about than that. So first to start things out, this post is about all of the different Marvel segments, Marvel Studios owns the rights to all of the movies that have gone into the Avengers as well as many other peripheral and smaller characters, 20th Century Fox owns the rights to X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and Columbia Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man.

So as it is my understanding, deals were signed with these other production companies before Marvel started producing its own movies, and the terms of the agreement allowed these companies the right to the characters as long as they kept using those rights. Imagine what could happen if Marvel owned the rights to all of these characters. Imagine who could pop up in what movie? There are so many possibilities that are currently unable to happen.

Now I would assume that these agreements were made well before Marvel started producing its own movies, but even if there was an inkling that they might one day produce their own movies, why would you sign an indefinite contract giving up the movie rights for some of the biggest characters?

Now I can't really complain with what has been done with the X-Men movies, I have enjoyed them all so far. The Spider-Man movies are another story, the first 2 made this whole superhero boom possible, without them we would not have had a chance for The Avengers or all of the movies leading up to it. The issue is the 3rd movie along with The Amazing Spider-Man series. The 3rd movie just had way too much going on, now the stories I have read involve it being the work of too many re-writes and a director who had already done what he had wanted to do in the first 2 films, but was obligated to make the 3rd, also possibly he might have not been in charge of the editing as well. But the new series, I could not have cared less about the first movie, and doubt I will waste time seeing the 2nd movie even on HBO, it just doesn't seem interesting. For the record, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 got 10% less on Rotten Tomatoes than Spider-Man 3.

Now the issue isn't that they are making bad Spider-Man movies, but the fact that they are going to run the character into the ground. They have 3rd and 4th movies scheduled from 2016 and 2018 already, even though this movie was so poorly rated. Give Spidey a break!

Why don't they just sell it back to Marvel for a percent of the proceeds of all future movies made with Spider-Man in them, it just pains me to see this character being ruined for future movies. As long as these movies make money, the studios will keep making them, and my dream of Spider-Man being in the Avengers can no come to fruition. I would also lots to see a Spider-Man and Deadpool movie, also just a Deadpool movie, and so many combinations of these characters teaming up, and even possible secretly popping up in other movies.

On top of the Avengers movies Marvel has been producing TV series, the animated shows actually have the characters teaming up and popping up outside of their normal domain, because Marvel has the right to all of the characters in animated form. I would also love to see an X-Men show like one of the shows being produced for Netflix, take a few of the lesser known X-Men and make a show out of their activities, something online those lines.

This doesn't really need to be mentioned, but The Fantastic Four was just brutal, and it might get messed up once again when they reboot starts up soon. I just think that Marvel could do a much better job than Fox has with it.

The reason that I like Marvel Studios rather than these other Studios is that they have been very methodical about what they have been doing. They choose good writers, as well as good actors to fill the roles, which is also what was so successful about the first 2 Spider-Man movies. The actors don't just have to be good at acting, but a fit for the role.

I guess the real takeaway from all of this ranting is that I wish this was a perfect world, and I wish it wasn't driven by money! I wish we could have some crazy crossovers or even like a Marvel vs DC style movie, but that will, in all likelihood, never happen. I wish this was a world that was ruled by what would make the best and most interesting movies, but what rules the movie industry is only money.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

I must say that I didn't know what to expect from this movie going in. I really enjoyed all of the X-Men movies that have come out, even the much maligned X-Men: The Last Stand. I think X-Men was my favorite cartoon growing up, so there have always been some expectations for the movies, more so than for other comic book movies.

Not to belittle the movie itself, but the most amazing feat in the movie is to get this amazing cast together, now there are a few different groups of characters, but there are so many awesome actors in this movie, and it was nice that they stuck with actors from the original series, and also have brought in some new ones as well.

This is not my favorite X-Men movie, in fact it might be 4th out of the 5 that have been made, but it was still a fun and enjoyable movie. There was not as much action as I would have liked in this movie, but I was still quite interested. I think they tried for a little bit of a different feel than other X-Men movies, and if that was the intent then it worked. They don't introduce that many new characters, but there are a few of them. I honestly would have liked to see Quicksilver a little more, he was the comic relief early in the film. I guess I had missed that Quicksilver had been in the credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier? He was portrayed by a different actor, but that is something I would like to look at again, he will be portrayed by the same guy who played Kick-Ass in the Kick-Ass movies, so that should be interesting.

It really seems like they tried hard to show Mystique as Jennifer Lawrence a lot, when the character would have likely been in normal blue state, but I guess if you have Jennifer Lawrence in a movie you are going to show her being Jennifer Lawrence. I could really mention all of the different cast members and say that they all did a good job, which they did, but come on is there more perfect casting than Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? Even in the terribly written Origins movie he still was great as Wolverine. I am glad that they were able to work in more Beast action, in the other movies the character has been in, he hasn't been all that involved. In this movie he is part of the movie for the majority of it, he was my favorite character growing up.

I do feel like a little something was missing from this, maybe it was just some extra fighting, but when the mutants are all on the same side, for the most part, the fighting is kept to a minimum. If they mutants were to fight the humans too much it would just lead to dead humans in all likelihood. I also was happy that they actually had sentinels in this movie, I remember sentinels as much as any other things from the cartoon growing up, and the way this movie ended they could easily pop up in the future in similar ways to that of the cartoon as well.

It is really hard to try to describe this movie, and try to relate it to other things. This is a bit of a spoiler, but what this movie did is that it can actually be watched in the same cycle as the first set of X-men movies, but then its also possible that this series can get back into the events as the first series, yet both happened? It rebooted the whole thing, while also validating what had already happened in the other movies. So they could actually make X-Men movies in the past which would be following up this story line, while also making X-Men movies in today's present times, and they could all be in the same time stream. I know I am making this more complicated than it needs to be.

I have a bit of a rant to on for Marvel movies in general. I am going to create that as its own post in the next few days.

I think all of the movies that I have seen this year have been good, and borderline ownable. Its really hard to rank this, I have to put it just ever so slightly ahead of the Lego Movie this year, but that is really a toss up for me.

2014 movie rankings:
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past

3. The Lego Movie

Ranking the Movies I Saw This Year

This is my ranking list of the new movies that I saw this year, as well as a few that I did not get a chance to see yet. I really did not see that many movies this year looking over the list, but I thought I would include all of them. Quite a bit of debate went into writing this, I kept changing the order of the movies until I decided it was good enough.

11. Cowboys and Aliens: This was by far the worst movie I saw this year. I thought it was a creative idea with a really cool cast, but the execution was not there at all. There were definitely parts that I enjoyed, but others that really didn't work at all. It definitely fell far below the other movies that I saw this year, probably around the 4.0 out of 10.

10. Thor: This is my least favorite of the new generation of Marvel movies. It does not help the movie's case that I saw it in 3D and the 3D did not really do anything for me. I don't think it was needed at all, maybe my eyes just don't handle 3D well, but that is beside the point. This movie was of a character that just was not all that interesting, I was a bit underwhelmed by it. Probably about 6 out of 10.

9. Captain America: The First Avenger: I really liked the style of this movie, and it did a good job of setting up the last movie before The Avengers. Chris Evans did a great job of being Captain America, there was just a bit lacking in the story itself, it was good, but not great, 7 out of 10.

8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: I will admit I have only seen the original Planet of the Apes movie, so I cannot claim to be the biggest fan of the series, I would watch the others if given the opportunity. I thought the movie was pretty good, really thought Andy Serkis did an amazing job with the motion capture acting as he has been known to do.  I would give it about a 7.5 out of 10.

7.X-Men First Class: I think this movie really approached the X-Men in a much different light than the first series had. Of course this was looking back at the origins, where the other movies did not get into that. This is a somewhat more dramatic and darker look at the X-Men, I look forward to a potential sequel. 7.9 out of 10.

6. Super 8: This movie was really just an ode from JJ Abrams to Steven Spielberg, I would get self conscious if the person I would making a tribute to, was actually producing the movie, but I thought it was well executed. The kids do a great job with their roles in the movie, and Kyle Chandler does a good job in his role. The movie is a different look at its style and genre. 8.5 out of 10.

5. The Muppets: This movie was just amazing!!! I realize it is hard for a Muppet movie to have that much of a cohesive plot, but the movie was just all around enjoyable. I can't claim to be the biggest fan of the Muppets, but there are some Muppet movies that I really like. I really liked the writing, the songs, the emotions, the performances, and just about everything. The only reason it is not higher is that it is a Muppet movie, it is just hard to take is seriously against other good movies, but don't let that count against the movie overall. 8.8 out of 10.

4. Bridesmaids: I really liked this movie, when I saw it in the theater and also the times I have seen it since. I think some of the performances have the chance to really be breakouts for the actors, both Kristen Wiig, and Melissa Mccarthy gained a lot of awareness for what they did in the movie. I thought the jokes and the story were great, I guess there were some gross-out moments, but I didn't really mind them personally. I thought it was a heartwarming journey that was quite unique in recent years. 9 out of 10

3. Attack The Block: I think this was a good all around movie. There was comedy, there was horror, there were interesting characters, there was British slang, what's not to like? It is not gory horror, but more of a thriller horror movie. I liked the creativity of the movie, and how it is different from other horror movies. It was a shame that the movie didn't get wider distribution in the US. 9.2 out of 10.

2. Moneyball: I am a huge fan of the book, and find the subject matter very interesting, and to be honest the movie really did not get into the most interesting things in the book. Looking at the movie as an independent piece from the book, as I need to do in this case, was very entertaining. It is a lighthearted look at an improbably season with a franchise that had to find new ways of evaluating talent, and there is a happy ending, the Twins win! 9.5 out of 10

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: I would just like to refer to this movie as HP 7.2, much shorter and I think the message still gets across. The weird thing about this movie, is that I actually liked part 1 better, but they were released in different years, so I did not have to truly compare the 2 on here. I think the intensity of this movie is great, for the climax of such a long lasting series I would have expected nothing else. It really was a great way to wrap up a series that has been around for a large portion of my life! I think movie was able to wrap up the series very well. I think the performances by the now grown up actors were great. I think this is a movie that will live on in my collection for years ( I got all 8 harry potter movies on Blu-Ray for $59 bucks total). I would give it a full 10 out of 10 because it was the best movie I saw this year.

I should note that I had finished writing this before I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which I really enjoyed a lot.

I did not get around to seeing every movie that I wanted to this year, in fact there are some fairly recently released movies that I would really like to see. Here is a list of the movies from 2011 I would like to see:
50/50--I like the main actors, and it seems like it could be a very touching story.
Warrior--Heard great things about Tom Hardy's performance.
Horrible Bosses--Heard the movie was just completely hilarious.
Crazy. Stupid. Love.--Love the cast, didn't really have a date when it came out, though.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy--Getting great reviews, on a great topic.
Young Adult--Love the director, the writer, and Patton Oswalt.
Midnight in Paris--Seems like it is the first good Woody Allen movie in too long.
Tucker ad Dale Vs. Evil--A great twist on the horror genre, sitting at 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I wanted to do this last year, but never really had the follow through to finish it, I hope to make this a tradition, I might even remember to keep movies ranked as the year goes on, we will see how committed I get.

X-Men First Class

With this post, I am going to start putting movie reviews into their own posts, no one wants to read through all of my other writing just to see what I thought of a movie.

My Review of X-men: First Class: I really, really, really liked this movie. It really built a great back story to the X-Men. A little bit of it had been previously shown in movies, but this really builds the story up. The performances by Michael Fassbender and James Mcavoy. I also enjoyed Jennifer Lawrence but that might be because she was either wearing a short skirt, or wearing little more than blue paint.

This movie is darker than the previous X-men movies, and really shows the anger and rage, and instability behind the character of Magneto. It also shows the compassion that Charles Xavier tries to instill in all of the fellow mutants. I like that they didn't use all of the same old characters that had been used. They introduced some characters that I was previously unaware of. They did make reference to some of the better known characters if you pay close attention to the movie. This movie has a lot of drama, as well as relationship building to it, as well as teenagers searching for their true identity, which I think we can all relate to.

I think most people who wanted to see this movie, have done so, or have plans to do so. If you are still on the fence, I say go see it. It was not quite what I had expected, but it was very enjoyable, and it passed my expectations.

I also enjoyed hearing Kevin Bacon speak German in this movie. I usually enjoy getting to listen to some German in just about anything at all.

The Fallacy of Online Dating

This is just something that I have been thinking about today. I need to make a better effort of writing things when they are fresh in my mind rather than waiting until the thought is completely wasted.

I don't think that online dating is a bad thing, but I think it cacn be used in a bad way. Some guys and girls use it purely as a way of finding new people to have sex with, now there are sites that are more targeted towards this, but I have noticed both guy and girls on sites who have used them for this. I find that degrading.

I think that when used properly dating sites open up the options of people you could meet to people you would have never run into. I think these sites are great for finding things about people that you like, and also things that you don't like. I can honestly say that I have met lots of fun people through these sites. I know being a person that does not drink, and also does not enjoy the bar scene, this is a great new way to meet people, but it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Some people avoid telling the whole truth, or flat out lie on their profiles. I personally choose to be completely 100% dorky me, after all I don't know how to be anyone else.

I have met some people who assume that just because you have a high number of things in common that you will magically fall in love like the commercials want it to seem, but I would imagine that some of the people in those commercials, while they are very happy now, had to go on several dates with other people before meeting the one. Its not a "tool" to be used and then assume that the first person you go out with will automatically be the one. It takes chemistry, and sometimes people can have a ton in common and lots of things they should be able to talk about, but just don't have the chemistry. Sometimes chemistry can take a little while to work out, other times you will realize that its not going to work out. Sometimes you find out the person who seemed cool online has turned out to be a complete jackass.

It can be very easy to draw yourself into delusions either on the positive or the negative end. When no one is writing to you, or replying to the messages, its very easy to get down about it. Its also very possible to get over confident when you might have multiple people you are messaging at once.

I think the one problem I have with online dating is that its not natural. Youre not meeting someone through a natural means within your life. You are introducing them inorganically, and as doing so it can be hard to establish what normal behavior for the "relationship" should be. Its not like people sit down and discuss this    (Oh how I wish people would, it would have made lots of things much easier on me!). Its just one of those things that you have to try and see how much talking on the phone the other person likes, or how much texting, how much time together etc. I think it works best if both people are honest about what they like and don't like when things happen, I am most likely in the minority about this. I have found that I am too open and honest in most cases, some people aren't able to handle it when you're that open about what is going on I guess.

I have actually thought about writing a book, Dating For Geeks, which I think would be a great topic to cover for some other people like myself out there. Of course I have enver written anything more than a blog, I just think that this topic would be a good one to cover. For all I know there are already tons of books out there on the topic, but it seems like a very interesting idea.

I have been enjoying my self imposed hiatus from dating, although lately I have been extra flirty, and I can't decide if its just me being me, or if its me actually liking something, or even if its me overthinking stuff as I always do. I dont know.

Sometimes I am great at talking to girls, while other times I am more shy and reserved. It all really depends on my mood, but lately I have definitely been in a good mood regularly, so I have been very flirty with the ladies, and wow that sounded very creepy. I guess I have talked about how flirty I have been twice. I am still just trying to figure out why! Oh well, its really not that big of a deal though.

I just got a bit emotional when I noticed that my post on my friend who died, had been viewed nearly 3 times as many times as any of the other posts. I am still thinking about Dave on a day to day basis, I would still like for more people to write about him, but I think I got all of the commenters that I am going to get for that post.

I just got home from watching Thor, and over all it was pretty good. I would say about 7/10 which for a movie is a pretty good rating from me. I enjoyed it. There was a lot of good action. The characters were well developed through the movie. There were even a few laughs(more for me than there were for other people, because I laugh too much, and at weird times).

I didn't think the 3D element of the movie really added much at all. I haven't really ever been much of a fan of 3D. I don't think my eyes adjust well to it at all. I have to keep adjusting the silly glasses to get the correct 3D to actually work for my eyes. Really not worth it for most of the movies that are in 3D in my opinion, I hope the fad goes away again, although this time its partially about being able to charge extra for it. I just don't think in most cases all that much if anything was added by showing it in 3D. I do like that many movies are also being offered in 2D, but I thought Thor might have had some good 3D parts to it, I didn't really notice any of them if they existed.

There were some great shots in the movie, both of real environments, and of CGI environments. The movie has a lot of CGI, but most people going to see it probably are expecting that. My only other complaint about the movie is that it was just too bright. I kind off wish the 3D glasses would have been sunglasses for some of the scenes, so be warned about that.

I would like to give my ranking of recent Marvel movies that have been released:
Iron Man
The Incredible Hulk
Thor
Iron Man 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I liked all of the movies here other than Wolverine. I don't know what it was about Wolverine, but the movie just didnt click with me, even though I was very excited to see it. I have even watched it a few more times to see if I can enjoy it more, but to no avail. I don't hate it or anything like that, just didn't really like it either.

I have actually been thinking about the older Marvel movies, kind of the first generation, and here are my rankings for those while we are at it:
Spiderman 2
Spiderman
Xmen 2
Xmen
Xmen: The Last Stand
Spiderman 3
Fantastic 4
Hulk

That took some time to think about. I think I am satisfied with those rankings though. I will usually watch any of the top 5 if I see them playing on tv while channel surfing. I didn't have a chance to see the second Fantastic Four movie, not that I really wanted to all that much. I guess I could include Daredevil and Elektra, but meh, didn't really care for either of those, also have never seen either of them all the way through in one sitting. I have never seen Ghostrider or either of the Punisher movies. I have surprisingly never seen any of the movies in the Blade trilogy. I would like to at some point, but im not exactly dying to see them either. If they were all on Netflix, I would definitely watch them, I will leave it at that.

I really think that overall, for the most part, the movies coming from Marvel materials have been well done any enjoyable. There have been a few exceptions, but I have gotten quite a bit of enjoyment from these movies, and I look forward to the future releases.

Anyone else think Nathan Fillion would be awesome as Ant-Man/Hank Pym?
Does it seem like I have a man crush on Nathan Fillion?
So what if I do?

Well thats all I have for now, thanks for reading.