Archive for the ‘comic book movies’ Category
Autobots, bonecrusher, cyclonus, Decepticons, devastator, optimus prime, Revenge of the fallen, scourge, starscream, Transformers
In comic book movies, random rant on June 24, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Let’s face it, the Decepticons had way cooler names than the do goody Autobots. I mean, the name Decepticons is great in itself. So to coincide with the release of Revenge Of The Fallen (which I will see and probably not enjoy just like the first movie), here is my Top 5 list of Transformers baddies’ names. I never watched any Transformers cartoons past the 1986 movie so I only included characters that I actually know. [Note: All art taken from deviantart, click on preview for the full version: all credit goes to original artist.]
5. Bonecrusher
- wikipedia entry – Mean name, and a Constructicon to boot. He also gave Optimus a run for his money in the 2007 film albeit in the end, his head got skewered by Prime’s sword(!)
4. Scrourge
- wikipedia entry – Evil sounding name, nuff said.
3. Cyclonus
- wikipedia entry – I love hearing Orson “Unicron” Welles say his name when he was being ‘transformed’ from either Skywarp or Bombshell.
2. Starscream
- wikipedia entry – Love him or hate him, Starscream was a great name and an even more interesting character.
1. Devastator
- wikipedia entry – Most awesome name ever. Practically the only Decepticon the Autobots ran away from. I sure hope he’s meaner than he looks in the new movie. Click here to see what he OUGHT TO really look like in the movies.
Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, watchmen, Zach Snyder
In comic book movies, random rant on March 8, 2009 at 8:38 am
OK I just saw Watchmen last night. Hmmmm. Well, there are some things that just don’t translate well to the big screen and Watchmen, I have to say, is one of them. It’s a shame as it was a really good read originally. I do have an opinion though as to why the movie didn’t do it for me. Watchmen, the graphic novel, is quite heavy in exposition and back stories, see? The movie pretty much translated the book in sequential order. The film makers did not condense that many parts (the movie runs for almost 3 hours!) and it really bogged down the pace of the film. I watched it with my female cousin who does not read comic books but loved the X-Men and Batman movies and she thought Watchmen was a very boring movie.
I think what makes the comic book ‘better’ is that with comics or any printed literature for that matter, if you sort of miss a bit of the plot, all you have to do is turn back a few pages and re-read. While watching the movie, I was always thinking, “Man, if I hadn’t read the book I’d be totally lost right now.”
So yes, the Watchmen movie is not great and is just ok. In fact I would say it’s a disappointment. It’s stylish, violent, with some very good performances but do yourself a favour and read the book instead 
.
Batman, Chris Benoit, deviantart, wolverine
In comic book movies, random rant on October 14, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Before Hugh Jackman made us all believe that a 6-foot tall Australian can indeed play The Wolverine in the X-Men movies, I was adamant (pun?) that professional wrestler Chris Benoit should have been cast in the role. The physical resemblance was uncanny (pun again?). Both were short, ripped, and frankly kind of ugly. Both hailed from Canada and had the distinct ability to go into ‘berserker’ mode. And of course, Benoit coincidentally had the professional nickname The Canadian Wolverine. Obviously physical resemblance would’ve gone only so far and it really was Hugh Jackman’s performance that won us over. In any case, I don’t know why I never thought of doing this before, but here is a quick photo-manip of Chris Benoit in the updated traditional Wolverine getup.
Oh and here’s a really old piece I did way back in 2004 when I first heard that Christian Bale was going to play Batman in the new movies. Cowl design obviously from the Batman 1989 film.
Coincidentally, I used to do a lot of digital art and most of my work can still be found on my Deviantart page. There’s a number of Batman-inspired stuff there.
Batman, Black & White, Kotobukiya, Mike Mignola, The Dark Knight
In comic book movies, random rant on October 11, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Kotobukiya recently announced this limited edition 11″ ArtFX statue based on The Dark Knight. It looks sweeeet. I’m glad there haven’t been any TDK action figures released (as far as I know) from the likes of Kenner and Hasbro that totally ruin the Batman image.
The SRP varies and I’ve seen some sites pre-ordering this item for as low as US$109.99
On a side note here’s another Batman statue I would love to have…
abe sapien, barb wire, clown, flash gordon, g.i. joe, hancock, hellboy, judge dredd, liz sherman, ming the merciless, red sonja, spawn, tank girl, the crow, the shadow, v for vendetta
In comic book movies on October 5, 2008 at 12:12 pm
aaron eckhart, arnold schwarzenegger, bane, burgess meredith, catwoman, cesar romero, cillian murphy, danny devito, frank gorshin, gene hackman, halle berry, harvey dent, heath ledger, jack nicholson, jim carey, joker, julie newmar, kevin spacey, lex luthor, michelle pfeiffer, mr. freeze, penguin, poison ivy, riddler, scarecrow, tommy lee jones, two-face, uma thurman
In comic book movies on October 4, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I’ve racked my brain and tried to think of all the significant DC Villains that have appeared on screen but the only ones I came up with are Lex Luthor and the Batman Rogues gallery. I thought that was really strange. Is Batman really the only one with interesting movie villains? Anyway here is the roundup of DC villains as promised.
Part 1: Marvel Heroes | Part 2: Marvel Teams | Part 3: Marvel Villains | Part 4: DC Heroes | Part 5: DC Teams | Part 6: DC Villains | Part 7: Miscellaneous
THE JOKER
Portrayed by: Cesar Romero [Batman TV Series, Batman The Movie (1966)]; Jack Nicholson [Batman (1989)]; Andrew Koenig [Batman Dead End (2003)]; Heath Ledger [The Dark Knight (2008)]
There’s no question about it, Heath Ledger breathed new life into this character with his portrayal in The Dark Knight. I happen to think that Jack Nicholson’s Joker was beautifully faithful to the comics at the time. It was the Joker I knew as that was the time I was collecting every single Batman title that came out. To be fair Cesar Romero played the Joker just like his 60’s campy counterpart. Walter Koenig and the Batman Dead End film makers on the other hand decided to make the Joker more akin to the Arkham Asylum version which wasn’t a bad idea, but I just didn’t like Koenig’s over the top acting.
Read the rest of this entry »
alan quartermain, captain nemo, dorian gray, dr. jekyll, dr. manhattan, fire, green lantern, ice, invisible man, league of extraordinary gentlemen, martian manhunter, mina harker, mr. hyde, nite owl, ozymandias, rorschach, silk spectre, the atom, the comedian, the flash, tom sawyer, watchmen
In comic book movies on October 1, 2008 at 12:19 pm
DC never really had superhero groups like Marvel’s X-Men, Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, etc. Rather than create all-new characters for a new team, DC usually opted to take established solo heroes and have them form a groups like the original Justice Society of America. Anyway for this part of the feature we will check out Watchmen, Justice League of America, and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Part 1: Marvel Heroes | Part 2: Marvel Teams | Part 3: Marvel Villains | Part 4: DC Heroes | Part 5: DC Teams | Part 6: DC Villains | Part 7: Miscellaneous
WATCHMEN: DR MANHATTAN
Portrayed by: Billy Crudup [Watchmen (2009)]
With what I’d imagine is a mostly CG-character, I think the film makers would’ve found it pretty hard to get the film counterpart wrong. I mean he’s just blue, bald, and naked. They could have hired anyone from the Blue Man Group really.
Read the rest of this entry »
Batman, superman, robin, batgirl, constantine, wonder woman, the flash, supergirl, steel, the spirit, swamp thing, black canary, captain marvel, huntress, green arrow, aquaman
In comic book movies on September 30, 2008 at 4:08 pm
bullseye, callisto, dr. doom, ian mckellen, juggernaut, kingpin, lady deathstrike, magneto, marvel comics, mystique, pyro, rebecca romjin, red skull, sabretooth, toad, vinnie jones
In comic book movies on September 25, 2008 at 5:48 pm
alan cumming, angel, anna paquin, archangel, beast, charles xavier, colossus, cyclops, famke janssen, fantastic four, human torch, iceman, invisible woman, james marsden, jean grey, jessica alba, kelsey grammer, kitty pryde, marvel comics, mr. fantastic, nightcrawler, patrick stewart, phoenix, professor x, psyclocke, rogue, scott summers, shadowcat, storm, the thing, x-men
In comic book movies on September 25, 2008 at 5:48 pm
ben affleck, blade, captain america, daredevil, ed norton, elektra, ghost rider, hugh jackman, hulk, iron man, jennifer garner, nicholas cage, peter parker, punisher, robert downey jr., silver surfer, spider-man, tobey maguire, tony stark, wesley snipes, wolverine
In comic book movies on September 25, 2008 at 5:48 pm
What started out as a quick & dirty blog idea on doing a side-by side look at how comic book heroes have been visually translated on screen has now blown out to me going nuts trying to do a comparison for virtually every major comic book hero/villain that’s made an appearance on screen!
So I thought I’d start with the solo heroes from Marvel, then the teams, and move on to the villains. I’ll do Marvel first then DC then the rest.
Part 1: Marvel Heroes | Part 2: Marvel Teams | Part 3: Marvel Villains | Part 4: DC Heroes | Part 5: DC Teams | Part 6: DC Villains | Part 7: Miscellaneous
CAPTAIN AMERICA
Portrayed by: Reb Brown [TV] (1979); Matt Salinger [Captain America] (1991)
I recently found out that the 1991 Captain America movie wasn’t the first time Cap appeared live on screen. He starred in a movie serial released in 1944 but the Steve Rogers character was replaced with a guy named Grant Gardner and his trademark shield was nowhere to be found being replaced instead with a pistol. How American!
The next live action Cap features were several TV movies where we see him wearing a motorcycle helmet instead of the winged mask. Read the rest of this entry »
Bat Costume, Bat Cowl, Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman Begins, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, Batsuit, Bob Ringwood, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Dead End, George Clooney, Michael Keaton, The Dark Knight, Val Kilmer
In comic book movies on September 14, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I’m a Batman geek…and proud to say it (which coincidentally contradicts this blog site’s name). Batman will always be cool to me because of the mystery, darkness, and psychosis inherently involved with the character. Almost everyone loves Batman but at the same time almost everyone has their own take on him. As far as I know, he has had the most number of Elseworlds titles released giving testament to his story being quite open to interpretation. Which leads us to the blog topic of the evolution of the batsuit. Again everyone has their own pick of the greatest movie batsuit created and once again this is due to every fan having their own distinct opinion on what makes, not just the batsuit the batsuit, but what makes the Batman himself.
Batman (1989) [Michael Keaton]
designer: Bob Ringwood
Man, how I feel for Michael Keaton! The original foam-rubber costume he had to wear for this movie weighed a ton and was hardly breathable. It was so hot in fact that during shooting breaks, the crew would put air hoses into the suit to cool him down while he sat for a breather. Read the rest of this entry »
