the m0vie blog

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Darren

Released in a Deluxe Edition hardback format to compliment Neil Gaiman’s farewell to the Caped Crusader, this collection of Alan Moore Superman stories is a pretty cool purchase, and one significantly better than the Batman equivalent it is published alongside. A fond goodbye to the Silver Age of Superman (and comics as a whole), it reads fantastically well in retrospect as a goodbye in many ways to the innocence of the earlier superhero four-colour tales. The fact that it’s accompanied by arguably an even better Superman story is just icing on the cake.

"I can't stand to fly..."

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, batman, clark kent, classics, comic books, dave gibbins, dc comics, for the man who has everything, Legion of Super-Heroes, neil gaiman, Perry White, review, superman, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, watchmen, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? | 3 Comments »

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Darren

I guess… I guess I always knew that this was how it was going to end. That we didn’t have him forever. That one day someone would say, ‘Hey, Jim. Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?’ I’d tell them. ‘Pretty much what you’d expect. He’s dead.’

I just didn’t think it would be today.

– Commissioner James Gordon

I actually quite enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, even if I wasn’t overly in love with it. The prospect of doing a final, definitive Batman story – one not anchored in a particular event, but designed to encapsulate the history of the Dark Knight – must be daunting. Even Alan Moore’s sensational Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? served as a fond farewell to one particular iteration of the Man of Steel. Gaiman’s “last ever” Batman story is a tad more ambitious, bidding goodbye to alliterations of the character. I’m not entirely convinced that it succeeds, although it makes a more than valiant effort.

Clowning around!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, andy kubert, batman, batman r.i.p., batman rip, comic books, Comics, dc comics, grant morrison, joker, Martha Wayne, neil gaiman, review, riddler, superman, the riddler, whatever happened to the caped crusader | 8 Comments »

Grant Morrison’s Run on Batman – Batman & Son, The Black Glove & Batman RIP (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Darren

I want to love Grant Morrison’s run on Batman. I really do. And I quite possibly would if I didn’t feel like I wasn’t particularly welcome at this massive gala birthday bash. I’ve decided to review all of Morrison’s run on Batman – collected in the hardback editions of Batman & Son, The Black Glove, two chapters of The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul and Batman R.I.P. – as one, because it is all one story. In fact, I’m sure it’ll turn out to be the opening salvo of a gigantic story that Morrison is weaving where it all ties together, but it might be so massive it’s impossible to review all at once. So, how do I feel after the first act?

Who says parenting isn't tough?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, batman, batman & son, batman and son, batman r.i.p., batman rip, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batmen of All Nations, bruce wayne, comic books, Comics, damian wayne, dark knight, dc comics, grant morrison, Grantmorrison, joker, morrison, retrospective, review, the black glove | 4 Comments »

July in Review

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Darren

Oh what a month its been.

It was the month of Comic Con – where nothing too surprising happened, but we did get excited about Tron: Legacy despite the length of time since the original. It also saw Marvel cement the details on The Avengers and Captain America movies.

The BBC broadcast Torchwood: Children of Earth – and it was good. Still, a minority of fans were seriously uncool, forcing one of the writers out of cyberspace. I think the miniseries might have been about the recession. Also, the new Doctor (Matt Smith) started filming and got us thinking about Stephen Moffat’s first season.

It was a year since the release of The Dark Knight and the 70th birthday of the character of Batman, so we took a week to celebrate various aspects of the character.

We also looked at great ways of advertising classic movies.

Filed under: Months in Review | Leave a comment »

Mon Capitan – Captain America and International Audiences

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Darren

With The Avengers universe building up – Marvel’s plan to introduce a bunch of comic book characters through solo films and tie them together into one big team-up movie -, there is one of the prequels (if we can call them that – they aren’t really prequels or sequels and some aren’t even origins) that I am really interested in. It isn’t Favreau and Downey’s Iron Man 2, nor is it Branagh’s Thor. I am most interested in how the Captain America movie comes about – particularly at the moment. This has nothing to do with the charmingly awful version we saw about twenty years ago. This is more to do with how the most blatantly American superhero will do overseas.

America, F%!& Yeah!

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: america, americana, avengers, barrack obama, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, Comics, films, indiana jones, iron man 2, marvel, Movies, obama, politics, popular culture, the avengers, thor, world war 2 | Leave a comment »

Getting Animated – The Revival of Old-Fashioned Animation?

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Darren

We live in the era of 3D and CGI. I remember back in they day there were worries and complaints by all the unions in Hollywood that the advent of perfect CGI would mean the end of actors in Hollywood – why pay Jim Carrey $20m a film when you can create a character for a fraction of that? Needless to say it hasn’t happened yet and I doubt it will. Hollywood and movies have always been the land of personalities. Get rid of those personalities and you have very little. It isn’t the antics of directors and writers that fuel the tabloid industry. So it’s logical that the part of the industry that has been most threatened by the marching on of science is the one where there is already minimal personality. I speak of course of the death of 2D animation. Although I hope I’m being premature – there have been two stories in the past 24 hours that indicated that old-fashioned non-live action films may not be quite dead.

$Just a fraction less sophisticated than the animation Wes Anderson employs...$

Just a fraction less sophisticated than the animation Wes Anderson employs...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2D, 3d, animation, cartoons, cgi, conventional animation, disney, films, illustrated, Movies, pixar, rapunzel, the fantastic mister fox, the fantastic mr. fox, the frog princess, the princess and the frog, traditional animation, wes anderson | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Once

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Darren

Maybe Once is that mythical “good Irish movie” that comes along roughly once every five years or so, or maybe I’m being a little soft on it, but I really enjoyed it when I caught it last night. It does have some rather glaring flaws, but it seems to work well despite them.

Tally ho(wth)...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, glen hanstead, irish cinema, irish movie, john carney, Markéta Irglová, Movie, music, non-review review, once, review, the frames | 2 Comments »

It’s a funny world – Comic Con ’09 in retrospect…

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Darren

It seems to have been a fairly average year at Comic Con – no big surprises (pleasant or otherwise), just solid confirmation of what us movie watchers had suspected all along. Contrary to what some suggested, apparently the Twilight fangirls didn’t ruin the experience for everyone. In fact, there were a whole host of fascinating insights on a whole slate of geek-interest projects. I don’t think anyone seems to have left particularly disappointed.

Fun with glow sticks...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, 3d, alice in wonderland, avatar, comic con, comiic con 09, disney, doctor who, fangirls, hot tub time machine, iron man 2, james cameron, johnny depp, sdcc, the hobbit, tim burton, titanic, tr0n, tr0n: legacy, tron, tron: legacy, twilight, twilight: new moon, twitter, zombieland | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Kung-Fu Panda

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Darren

There’s nothing like a nice relaxing movie that you can cuddle up on the couch and just enjoy. Another testament to what was a fantastic summer last year, Kung Fu Panda may not have been the best animated film of the year – that honour goes to Wall-E – but it was still a fun, enjoyable and lively romp which should leave you smiling for most of the runtime.

Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: angelina jolie, animated, animation, cgi, dreamworks, dustin hoffman, films, ian mcshane, jack black, kung-fu, kung-fu panda, Movies, non-review review, panda, po, review | 1 Comment »

Blessed are the Geek, For They Shall Inherit the Earth…

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Darren

It’s a good time to be a nerd. When exactly did it happen? How did Star Trek become cool again? When did nearly half of all blockbusters find their roots in the oft-mocked comic book artform? When did Comic Con become a major event in the Hollywood calendar? When did it become truly hip to be square?