While May ushered in the summer season, things really got out of control in June and July with the release of two more Marvel movies, one from DC, the third Transformers, a direct to video movie tie in and a new live action series.
X-Men: First Class
After X2, the X-Men franchise had been on the downward slide until X-Men: First Class attempted to reinvigorate the franchise. Even though some of the most popular mutants could not fit into the movie while maintaining series continuity, First Class still delivered an excellent story by adding depth to the characters of Magneto and Xavier. Perhaps due to ill will against previous X-Men films or because of the absence of Wolverine, the film failed to crack $150 million in the US. Still, good reviews and home video sales may be enough to ensure X-Men's second class get their deserved screen time in a sequel.
And just like that, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is on the board. After Independence Day, the domestic total sits at $181 million, already ahead of the Mighty Thor. The Trany's worldwide total still lags the thunder god's for the time being sitting at a pretty $391 million with lots of gas yet in the tank. Perhaps I should remove Transformers from this superhero race, since its going to rally skew the comparison of the other heroes.
I am having a hard time spinning Green Lantern's performance which has really tanked. At least it passed the $100 million mark and at least it passed The Green Hornet. Not a huge accomplishment granted, but at this point you have to take the small victories. I am not sure what is going on with the worldwide market, but hopefully some progress is made on that front to lessen the disaster.
The X-Men and Thor both continue to plod forward hoping to catch a few extra bucks before the First Avenger arrives in 2 more weeks.
Its May! The summer movie season in upon us beginning this Friday May 6th with the opening of Thor. X-Men: First Class opens in a month on June 3rd followed in just two more weeks by Green Lantern on June 17th. Although the Transformers aren't strictly superheroes, I have included them here. Transformers: Dark of the Moon opens in less than two months on July 1st. Captain America will close out the season on July 22nd.
Its time to lock in my predictions for the domestic box office earnings of these films which I will be updating throughout the summer.
Thor - $240
Not as accessible as Iron Man, but pretty much two full weeks without major competition should pay big dividends. With nearly $100 million in the bank already from the International market, Thor looks to do just fine.
X-Men: First Class - $175
I am thinking audiences may be X-Mened out. This movie does look pretty good, but with an all new cast and no Wolverine, people may be confused.
Green Lantern - $275
This is the one I am really pulling for. Assuming this movie is good, a sequel has potential to be even more incredible. So, my outlook is hopeful and biased. Unfortunately, GL is parked in the middle of the most summer competition and so it better make its green quickly.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - $350
Surely the quality of Transformers 2 will have an impact, but the trailer for this is pretty ridiculous, in a good way. The 4th of July has also been friendly to the disguised robots and will probably be again.
Captain America: The First Avenger - $165
I love the guy, I really do, but of the five movies listed here, this one gets me the least excited. Partly, that's because I really don't have much to go on at this point. By the end of July, geeks are going to be broke so Captain America will have to settle for sloppy seconds.
To recap, even if my dollars are off, I expect the final order to be: Transformers for the win Green Lantern to place Thor to show X-Men to survive Captain America to lick his wounds
Say what you want about Michael Bay, he knows how to mess $#!+ up as proven by this trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This does look to be stuffed with 'splosions. One thing I don't get is how that dork keeps getting girlfriends.
The less said about Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, the better. The movie was not good, but it was also really incoherent, which makes me sympathize a little bit with excuses that the movie was hit hard by the writers strike at the time... The argument would hold more water if the first Transformers was good. Don't get me wrong, it was a highly entertaining movie, but cinema, not so much. Anyways, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is nearly upon us and these images promise more sword toting robots and giant flying bug bots. So, it might be another good diversion to finish of the trilogy. What I am most excited about is what I don't see, the twins.
Thor, Captain America, and the Transformers all spent a fair chunk of change on Superbowl ads yesterday. To help them get their money's worth, watch em now! The Thor trailer was good, but it seemed mostly a rehash. I am not sure what Transformers 3 is about, but looks like more fighting robots. The real highlight was the ad for Captain America including our first glimpse at Red Skull who looks sufficiently creepy. Enjoy.
2011 will kick off to a quick start on January 9th with the hour long superhero drama The Cape on NBC. Ol wikipedia describes the series as:
"The series, set in the fictional metropolis of Palm City, follows an innocent cop who has been framed for a crime he did not commit and then left for dead after he is caught. He is eventually saved by a circus ringleader who prepares him with special abilities to defend himself against his foes. Separated from his wife and son, he tries to clear his name while protecting them from being killed in the event that he should be reported alive. He takes the law into his own hands by taking the guise of his son's favorite comic book hero, The Cape, after he is given a special suit that has unique capabilities. Vowing to get rid of the corruption that has taken over both the city and the police force, he goes after the person responsible for setting him up and causing his "demise"."
Color me skeptical. The title is lame and the promo looks a bit Heroes season 4 meets The Greatest American Hero, but who knows. "Suit Up!"
The Green Hornet
Just 5 days later on January 14th, the first superhero movie of the year arrives in theaters, The Green Hornet. Oh, and its in 3D of course. I don't know about this one either. It looks like a decent B grade superhero movie like a Rocketeer, but the January release scares me. January is not friendly to movies as its known as the dumping ground of crappy films. The Hornet may get stung and is surely going to struggle to earn back its $90 million budget. I am guessing it tops out at around $75 mil.
All Star Superman
On to February and one of my more anticipated entries this year with the release of the animated movie All Star Superman. I am sure that many of the good moments from the graphic novels won't make this 70 some minute movie, but hopefully most of the great moments will. This is a quintessential Superman story and if the movie lives up to the hype it will be a classic.
Thor: Tales of Asgard
On the other hand, the Thor: Tales of Asgard movie from Marvel may or may not arrive in February after a delay of more than a year. As far as I understand, the movie is complete, but just waiting to capitalize on the release of the Thor movie in May. The Marvel movies just haven't been quite as good as those from DC and this "teen Thor" doesn't really excite me. I mean, doesn't Thor have a hammer. That's like the one thing people know about him. This is the last announced animated movie from Marvel so depending on its performance there may not be any more for a while.
Thor
March and April will be the quiet before the summer storm ushered in by Thor on May 6th. I have to be honest, as big of a fan of Green Lantern as I am, the marketing for Thor thus far has been far superior. This just looks like an awesome movie. Thor is less mainstream than even Iron Man, but who knows, maybe Marvel will score another mega-hit here. I think it has the potential, though I expect something more in the modest $200 million range which is nothing to sneeze at since neither Hulk movie was able to reach that milestone.
Oh and psst... Hawkeye is rumored to appear in a post credits sequence ala Mjolnir and Nick Fury.
X-Men: First Class
On June 3, less than a month after Thor, Fox will release another Marvel film with X-Men: First Class a pseudo prequel to the X-Men trilogy and even less related to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Its odd that we still know so little about this movie. We know it focuses on young Magneto and Charles Xavier and a bunch of X-Men that haven't been on screen yet. It also seems unlikely that continuity can be maintained with the other movies, but really who cares? A trailer should be coming soon, but in the mean time all we have are some images of Emma Frost with a fuzzy Bondesque hat. This movie will make back its $120 million budget, but will not reach the $200 million mark landing in Wolverine territory and paving the way for even more X sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and faux reboots.
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Days after the X-Men return, DC will premier its second animated film of the year on June 7th with the anthology Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. I don't know if "Knight" is code for anthology since the last such movie Batman: Gotham Knight aka Batmanime has a similar multi-story structure. This movie will include six segments featuring various rings possibly including Rori Dag, the first Green Lantern, Mogo, Abin Sur, Kilowog, Sinestro, and Hal Jordan. We should know a lot more about this when All Star Superman arrives.
Green Lantern
Just 10 days later, on the 17th of June, the long awaited Green Lantern movie hits theaters. Hopefully this movie lives up to its epic potential giving this generation a new Space Opera. Can you tell I'm excited? The first trailer makes it seem that a few kinks still need to be worked out with the animated suits and hopefully the trailer is also playing up the humor. Depending on how good this is, I see $250 million plus potential paving the way for the planned trilogy and a slew of additional DC movies.
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
Albert Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over an expecting a different result. Well, I must be crazy because I have hope for this movie. Arriving on July 1, just in time to cash in on another July 4 weekend, Transformers 3 may prove to be a Teflon coated movie. With its awkward title and all I suspect people will try and forget Transformers 2 with its racist twins, robot heaven, and nonsensical plot and make this entry another gargantuan hit. I mean, people just can't get enough of giant robots killing each other, and where the heck is Voltron? I do expect some drop-off from part 2, but $350 million is not out of the question.
Captain America: The First Avenger
By July 22, superhero fatigue will have to have set in giving the Cap an uphill battle for winning fans. One thing going for this movie is that it is set during WWII times, giving it a unique aesthetic. From the images released so far, it looks as though they have found a balance between keeping true to the spirit of the comics without going too cheesy... that's quite a trick for this character. Expect Captain America to fall short of Thor's earnings but to muster around $150 million.
Alphas
From the mind of the writer of X3 and Elektra, the SyFy network has also imagined up the superhero series Alphas, set to debut in the summer of 2011. The series is described as, "Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens whose brain anomalies imbue them with extraordinary mental and physical abilities. Taking the law into their own hands, the unlikely team, led by Dr. Lee Rosen, investigates cases that suggest other Alpha activity to uncover what the CIA, FBI and Pentagon have not been able, or willing, to solve. These gifted individuals must balance their quirky personalities and disparate backgrounds with their not always visible powers as they work to solve crimes, stop the ticking time bomb and catch the enemy." I'm cautiously nervous for this one.
Batman: Year One
Fall 2011 is still a ways away, but we do know there will be a highly anticipated third DC animated film in the September time frame, an adaptation of Batman: Year One. Although not a well known as The Dark Knight Returns, in my opinion, this is the superior story. A faithful adaptation will be a big hit.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
Like 2010's Young Justice premier event, expect the Green Lantern animated series to make a showing in late 2011 with some sort of double episode movie event. This series will introduce viewers to many of the lesser know members of the GL Corps along with their enraged counterparts of the Red Lantern Corps. All I can say is, its about time GL got his own series.
The Toxic Avenger 5: The Toxic Twins
Another entry hardly worth mentioning is the upcoming Toxic Avenger direct to video fourth sequel. That mention is more than it probably deserves and I don't even know why I am aware of this. It will probably make like $50.
Fall TV series
As we delve into speculatory territory, there are rumors of a few upcoming superhero television series debuting in the fall. DC has threatened a Raven series to replace the outgoing Smallville featuring the Teen Titans character. I don't mind Raven and even think a Teen Titans / Raven series has potential, I just don't want to see a Twilightesque Raven but knowing the CW that may be just what we get.
Marvel on the other hand has three projects in the mix. Giving up on big-screen Hulk, they may be casting the 4th Hulk in the last decade for a TV spinoff / reboot. Also in the works are takes on Jessica Jones AKA Jewel AKA Knightress AKA that supereheroine from the Alias comic of no relation to the TV series other than oddly existing at the same time. Lastly, Cloak and Dagger may also be getting a treatment, though likely not until 2012 or beyond.
So, in a nutshell, 2011 is going to be a busy year for superheroes. Sadly, I just don't know if there is a rich enough audience for all of these properties to thrive. And just think, on top of all this we almost also got Spider-Man 4 vs the Vultress. But alas, we will have to make due with a mere 3 Marvel branded Summer blockbusters, 3 Green Lantern projects, and a smattering of other nuggets to carry us over until 2012 brings out the big screen big guns (Batman, Spider-Man, "The" Wolverine, and possibly Superman).
Transformers was pretty enjoyable despite some over-the-topness and a shortage of bots. Transformers 2 was a "car-wreck" with too many bots and way too much racist jar-jar twins. Maybe Transformers 3 will be just right. I'm sure it won't be actually, but this trailer makes me want to believe.
Continuing from Part 1, the mid part of 2009 ushered in the year's most mediocre efforts.
Super Capers
In March, the Superhero parody Super Capers made is video debut.
Currently standing at a 3.8 on imdb.com, its safe to say it didn't make much of a splash.
Watchmen
On the opposite end of the spectrum, March also delivered one of the most serious superhero films of all time adapting the acclaimed Watchmen graphic novel. The movie received a decent reception, but I don't think it would be any easier to please everyone with Bible: The Movie than it was with Watchmen. The movie topped out at $107 million and just may have convinced studios that in spite of the Dark Knights huge success, darker is not necessarily the way to go with this genre.
Iron Man: Armored Adventures
To be fair, I haven't really given the series a shot, but there were a lot of things that turned me off to April's new Iron Man animated series. The series features CGI similar to that used in the off-putting MTV Spider-Man series of a few years back. Also, Armored Adventures went the teen route of X-Men Evo and Batman Beyond- which to me, doesn't make a lot of sense with this particular character. Why not a teen Wolverine? or a teen Hulk?
Nevertheless, I have heard the series is pretty enjoyable and offers some decent portrayals of the underexposed Iron Man rogue's gallery.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
On April Fool's Day the world wide web got its first glimpse of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine rough cut and was not impressed. The final version of the film released in May wasn't as different as some had promised, but in spite of mediocre reviews the movie went on to make $180 million by fleshing out the flashback sequences from the first 3 X-Movies and throwing in fan favorite mutants that hadn't yet gotten their 5 minutes of screen time. The movie ended with promises of not one, but 3 possible sequels / X-Men Prequels (Wolverine 2, Deadpool, X-Men: First Class). Which will they tackle first?
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
In June, The Fallen failed to get his revenge in the Transformers sequel. If you think there was a grammatical error in the previous statement you must not have seen the movie. The Fallen is actually an individual rather than a group and therefore receives the singular possessive pronoun "his." You may also be wondering which of the characters in the movie are the superheroes. Well, that's a good question. I guess it would be the Autobots who are sentient life forms with shape shifting abilities. Besides, Transformers used to be a Marvel comic book, so the franchise is more or less part of the superhero genre.
You wouldn't think that writers would matter so much to a movie like this, but that writers strike a couple years back really seemed to take its toll because there are any number of movie elements that just didn't add up. Of course, thanks to plenty of "sick effects" the movie still made a killing earning even more than the first and topping $400 million to become the years biggest movie. You know what that means? Transformers 3 is gonna be even more SICK! or is it SICKER?
Hero: Sam Witwicky and his merry troop of Autobots.
Villains: The Fallen, Megatron, and more.
Diabolical Schemes: The Fallen revived Megatron to destroy Optimus Prime (because as we all know only a Prime can kill The Fallen) then they were going to use the Matrix of Leadership to start-up a Sun devouring machine to make more energon.
Coolest Moment(s): The Decepticon jaguar Ravage was pretty cool. There was a nice forest fight between Prime and some baddies, and Prime merging with Jetfire was made me want to buy the toy. Pretty much, Prime is the best part of this movie.
Worst Moment(s): Oh so many. Wrecking "balls," thong shot, racist Mudflap and Skids, nonsensical plot (even compared to the first movie), stoned mom, the revival of dead Sam... Also, there are far too many questionable happenings for a movie clearly marketed toward my 2 year old son.
Comic Book Logic: If there were a robot heaven why would Sam go there? and how going there revitalize Sam magic Pixie dust? Also, if Decepticons can look like people, why dont they just go under cover? Why would Makaela ever like Sam? If Transformers can warp across the planet, why don't they do that more often? And why can't they fix Bumblebee's voice?
Review in 50 Words or Less: There are plenty of "splosions" but if you even attempt to understand the plot you will get very angry very fast. This movie also gives new and lame Transformers screen time in favor of the ones I actually liked in the last movie. Even Megatron is demoted to wuss.
