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Eleven for Eleven: My Ten Most Anticipated Movies of 2011

What with listing my top ten films of the past year and all that, I thought that I’d take the opportunity to look forward rather than backwards. So here are my eleven most anticipated movies coming out in the next year or so. I picked eleven, because I’m not 100% certain about the release date of one. As ever, these are for Irish and British cinemas, so four of these will be arriving in our theatres within the next three weeks. Which, I suppose is something to look forward to. Anyway, without any further adieu, here are my eleven most anticipated films of the year ahead.

Coming soon...

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A Sight for Thor Eyes: Thoughts on the Set Design of Thor…

The first on-set photographs of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor have arrived on-line. And a lot of people are, understandably, turned off. I’ll be honest, I can see where they’re coming from: it’s camp and kitsch in a way that would allow it to serve as a backdrop for an Abba music video – and that ain’t the demographic we’re going for here. Anthony Hopkins looks like he has fashioned his eyepatch out of Ferraro Roche wrappers. However I, ever the contrarian in small and insignificant ways, love it. Let’s call it the Donner factor. Because that’s much more sophisticated than “the Superman factor”.

I think that style is quite super...

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Thor and Captain America Costumes Leaked On-Line…

I actually think these are both pretty cool and as reasonably faithful as a big screen live-action adaptation could be, but the costumes for Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger have been leaked on-line. Click below for bigger images.

Source for Thor Concept Art: Cinema Blend

Source for Captain America Concept Art: Fused Film

I am actually quite happy with both, I think they are pragmatic adaptations of costumes which – while iconic – simply wouldn’t work in real life or on the big screen. It does seem though, in banishing the wings from the helmets of each hero (and Thor’s helmet altogether) that Marvel has a vendetta against feathers.

I am a little surprised that Thor hasn’t been “Ultimised” at all. The Marvel movies have shown a trend so far of trying to move iconic heroes more towards reality (or at least in the general direction) and I had kinda expected that Thor’s whole “Viking armour” schtick might be a bit much for mainstream movie-goers. I was kinda expecting something a bit more stripped-down, similar to the look Bryan Hitch gave him in the modernised retelling of the origin of the Avengers, The Ultimates, much in the same way that the movies have presented the Samuel L. Jackson version of Nick Fury, rather than the mainstream spandex-wearing version of the super spy – most memorably brought to life as David Hasselhoff, for those with a fondness for terrible movies.

Its hammer time...

Still, I’m just surprised. I’m certainly not disappointed. If Kenneth Branagh thinks he can pull this off, then, well… I trust Kenneth Branagh. Certainly more than I trust Joe Johnson.

Though the look above has kept the black “power” waistcoat (complete with bubbles), it’s more clearly influenced by the classic conception of the character, complete with chainmail armour and red cape. For those interested in nerdy nuggets of trivia, it’s the waistcoat which was the source of his power in The Ultimates, leading various skeptical characters to suggest that he wasn’t a god of thunder, just a nut job who had stolen some secret technology. This allowed the writer Mark Millar to explore the character’s divinity rather than simply throwing him into the mix with the other more technologically-driven heroes and skirting over the whole “a god walks amongst you” bit.

I’m now kinda curious about how Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull will look in Captain America. A red Skull is probably as least as difficult as that iconic red, white & blue uniform to adapt to screen.

Man of Iron, Feet of Clay: Nothing Succeeds Like Success…

A little while ago, I mumbled something about how ‘failure’ didn’t really mean much, despite how often the term was thrown around in discussions about films like Watchmen and Kick-Ass. They generally made their money back, received cult attention and didn’t enter the history books as massive wastes of time or energy – which I figured was kinda fair given that neither example was a box office bomb in the style of, say, Motherhood, Uma Thurman’s last film (opening weekend of £88 at the UK box office – I’m not kidding and I didn’t omit an ‘m’). Still, it looks like success isn’t a particularly better deal, given what is circulating on the web regarding Iron Man 2 and its opening weekend – just shy of $130m, I believe. When is success not success?

There may be blood in the water... but Ivan isn't the only shark circling...

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Should Marvel Look at Merging Some of Its Smaller Projects?

There’s been a lot of buzz generated about the new “shared universe” that Marvel is generating on-screen in the run up to The Avengers, being released in 2012. It has generated fantastic buzz and discussion given there are only really two scenes that have been screened suggesting how the the format might work: the presence of Samuel L. Jackson at the end of Iron Man, welcoming Tony Stark into a wider “universe” and the one-scene appearance of Robert Downey Jnr. at the end of The Incredible Hulk. Undoubtedly next year’s Iron Man 2 will feature even more treats (as will Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger), but it’s interesting to see the fuss that two tiny scenes have generated. I really do think that Marvel are on to box office gold here, and I also think it’s an interesting (and honest) attempt to transfer the medium of comics to film. However, these are all playing into one giant box office buster. Might it be worth taking the same concept and applying it to some of Marvel’s smaller screen franchises?

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Fighting over top billing...

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Thor And Internal Consistency…

I am growing more and more excited about Thor as every little snippet of rumour leaks out about casting. Which is odd, because Thor is one of the movies coming out on the road to The Avengers which I really don’t care that much about. It’s a superhero movie about a guy with a really big hammer – I don’t want to see that version of Thor. On the other hand, my interest was piqued from the moment that Kenneth Branagh was announced as director. Kenneth Branagh’s Thor I am interested in seeing. Particularly if it stars Robert deNiro and Jude Law. Still, my inner nerd remains skeptical about positioning a film based on myths and magic so firmly as a cornerstone of the on-screen Marvel universe.

What's the point of being the God of Thunder if you can't use it to dramatic effect every now and again?

What's the point of being the God of Thunder if you can't use it to dramatic effect every now and again?

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The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch Omnibus (Review/Retrospective)

The Ultimates got me into comics. I’d read a couple beforehand, of course, and picked up a stray issue in the nineties, but it was The Ultimates that convinced me that superhero comic books could be something bold and innovative and clever, rather than generic and plain. Looking back, I think that The Ultimates stands as one of Marvel’s crowning accomplishments of the last decade, with only New X-Men and Daredevil ever really coming close. A lot of people argue that it’s the cynical world view that sets Mark Millar’s origin story apart, and gives it a broad appeal, but I’d disagree.

I think that Millar’s story doesn’t work because it dismantles the conventional superhero narrative through glib nihilism and cool apathy, but rather because it vindicates that ideal by passing it through a crucible. In many ways, The Ultimates is perhaps the most optimistic superhero story I’ve ever read, if only because the idealism is truly earned.

Holding out for some heroes…

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Mon Capitan – Captain America and International Audiences

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!

America, F%!& Yeah!

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The Incredible Avengers…

The Avengers has gone form being the movie project I was most skeptical about to one of my most anticipated movies of the comic years. Indeed, the summer of 2011 is looking to be one for the books with a whole rake of massive cult and comic book films coming out – Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern and, should Gary Oldman be believed, Batman 3. However, the culmination of Marvel’s planning within the cinematic world will be the release of The Avengers in 2012. I’ve never been much of a Marvel fan, but I will concede that they have pulled off an amazing movie-making feat. They have created a fully-integrated film universe from a variety of disparate sources building to to a clear target.

Avengers Assemble...

Avengers Assemble...

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Leonardo DiCaprio Planning to Make a Splash as Aquaman?

Well, it’s been a busy week for Leonardo DiCaprio. First his production company snaps up the rights to make a Twilight Zone movie. And now the word on the street suggests that his company, Appian Way, has picked up the rights to develop an Aquaman movie with Warner Brothers. Though that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, it does indicate that DiCaprio may be interested in taking up the mantle of the character. Even if he isn’t, it does mean that an Aquaman movie is coming closer to happening.

aquaman

Somehow I doubt it's smooth sailing ahead...

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