User blog:LoveWaffle/2014 Preview

As big as 2013 was for superhero movies, 2014 may just be even bigger. There's just as many superhero and comic book movies coming out this year than last, if not more. With so many coming out year-after-year, there's going to be a major shift that happens soon – either the genre will diversify itself so that the movies do not become stale, or the problems of over-saturation will set in. I'm not entirely certain which is more likely, but the 2014 releases are a pretty diverse bunch.

I, Frankenstein
Release Date: January 24 Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski Studio: Lionsgate

The first one out this year is I, Frankenstein, based on a graphic novel by Kevin Grevioux and a Dark Horse property. I can't blame anyone for not knowing this, since none of the promotional material for this movie makes any mention of that, which is increasingly rare for any movie based on a comic book. But to be honest, this one looks pretty terrible, because of emphasizing its relationship to the graphic novel it's based on, the promotional material for the movie tries to make it look like another Underworld movie (being produced by the same people who make those movies doesn't help matters). Those movies are all pretty terrible, and all other movies that go for a similar style aren't maybe even worse. Furthermore, with the exception of the Hellboy movies, all of the movies that mix comic book sensibilities with the supernatural have all done terribly as well (i.e. Priest, Constantine, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night). What should worry us all the most is when this thing releases. It was supposed to come out late last August, but was moved to January 2014 only a few months before it was supposed to come out. It went from one of the year's dumping grounds for bad movies to the worst dumping ground. If the studio doesn't have any faith in it, why should we?

Outlook: Negative

RoboCop
Release Date: February 12 Starring: Joel Kinnaman Generic McWhiteguy, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton Studio: MGM

Is RoboCop a superhero? All the right elements are there - he's got his superhuman abilities, separate identities, iconic appearance, fights criminals and other sorts of bad guys, and there's a good deal of focus on his origin story. So, in a way, he is, even if he's not the first person who comes to mind when you think of one. And this reboot would do well to recognize its lead as a superhero and take advantage of that. Paul Verhoeven's original creation was a tongue-and-cheek parody of the late-80's action hero, so it would make sense that a modern-day RoboCop would be a tongue-and-cheek parody of a superhero, the modern equivalent of a late-80's action hero. Unfortunately, this reboot seems to lack the satirical nature of the original, instead being a more straightforward story that does, to its credit, include some political commentary. But that means this RoboCop may just be another cut-and-paste superhero, devoid of any identifiable features or personality quirks. Also, it comes out in February, which in the same dumping ground as January. But maybe a strong cast (aside from lead Generic McWhiteguy) can make this one be more than a generic sci-fi/superhero story.

Outlook: Negative/Skeptical

300: Rise of an Empire
Release Date: March 7 Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro Studio: Warner Bros.

This prequel to 2007's 300 arrives about 5 years too late. Maybe this one isn't a superhero movie per se, but it still has involvement from Frank Miller, who wrote a prequel comic (that went unpublished) specifically for this movie. Unfortunately for him, Frank Miller isn't why the first was a success. That credit would go to director Zack Snyder and star Gerard Butler, whose respective unique visual style and over-the-top acting made the original such a phenomenon when it came out. Neither of them came back for the sequel, although Snyder is still attached as a producer. Replacing Snyder as director is Noam Murro, who has only directed one other film prior and it's nothing like this one, but this movie is using three leads to fill the whole Butler leaves. In his place are Sullivan Stapleton as Themistocles, Eva Green as Artemisia, and Rodrigo Santoro returning as Xerxes. It's unlikely these people will be able to recreate the camp of the original, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one remembers this movie even exists a few months after it comes out.

Outlook: Negative

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Release Date: April 4 Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan Studio: Marvel Studios The first of two MCU films this year comes out at a weird time. Early April is well outside the summer release window that most superhero movies call home, so it could be that Disney is maybe using this movie to test the waters to see if this genre can be viable outside that four-month period when most of them are released. Or maybe they're trying to connect the summer window to the mid-March/Spring Break window, which could revolutionize how we watch movies. If there's one word I could use to describe how this movie is shaping up, it would be "important." This is the movie to look to if you want to see a brighter future for the superhero movie genre. Most importantly, Robert Redford. Despite the advances this genre has made in the past decade with critics and, to a lesser extent, the major awards, comic book movies are still seen by the Hollywood heavyweights as a dumber, lesser genre of film, something they don't want to be associated with. That's why we get Zack Snyder and Michael Bay making superhero movies and not Steven Spielberg or even a James Cameron. That's what makes Redford so important. He's one of the most well-respected names in the moviemaking business, his name carries the weight that could get the Hollywood elites' attention. It's like getting Tom Hanks to play Lex Luthor, and the casting of Michael Douglas as Hank Pym may signal this is already starting to change. If this movie works, it may very well be a tipping point in the entire superhero / comic book movie genre.

Outlook: Positive

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Release Date: May 2 Starring: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan Studio: Columbia I have a feeling this one's going to be rough. Besides the fact that there's three major villains in this, which is usually a warning sign, this movie may suffer from a very late-in-the-game decision to transform this rebooted Spider-Man franchise into an expanded universe in the style of the MCU (although, since Sony doesn't have the rights to any other heroes, this can't expand all that far). This means cutting Shailene Woodley's Mary Jane Watson from the film, who I'll remind you was the first new character and third character overall after Garfield's Spider-Man and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy to be confirmed for the movie. It also means taking attention away from the conflict with Electro and putting emphasis on a grander conflict with Oscorp. That transformation can be one that really works, but it'll work in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 or the Venom movie. TASM2, however, will have to bear the growing pains of that transformation, as earlier material clashes with later stuff. What makes this even worse is that this is Spider-Man we're talking about. The 2002 movie was the one that really kicked off the comic book movie craze of the past decade; it was the movie that everyone wanted to be. And now it's just an imitator. That can't be anything good.

Also, it's being written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Michael Bay's protégés in the CGI-spectacle-over-good-storytelling department. That alone should have people worried.

Outlook: Negative

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Release Date: May 23 Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender Studio: 20th Century Fox It appears the importance of the "Future" part of the cast has been greatly exaggerated. About a month ago, Bryan Singer revealed Anna Paquin's one scene had been cut from the movie. If Rogue was only in one scene, then Iceman and Kitty Pryde can't be that more important, either. And we knew Storm's role was going to be very small from the get-go due to Halle Berry's pregnancy. And Colossus wasn't even that important in the original movies. It looks like the film will only be in the future for a short while before Hugh Jackman's consciousness is sent back in time to the 70's, where he, the cast reassembled from First Class (aside from Lucas Till's Havok, who has been shipped off to 'Nam), and Peter Dinklage will hold down the majority of the action. That's a shame for anyone who was looking forward to seeing the old cast in action again (like for an X-Men 4 or something), but the cast from First Class is still really good. And it's the first X-Men movie since X2 to Bryan Singer in the director's chair.

Outlook: Positive

Guardians of the Galaxy
Release Date: August 1 Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper Studio: Marvel Studios This one's a bit tough to get a read on. We're only just now starting to get a good look at the movie, and it looks pretty good. There's a strong cast behind this, and director James Gunn might be a good suit for it. For one, he's a serious comic book nerd, as in the kind who would annually list his 100 sexiest women in comics. So he knows the source material. Furthermore, going by one of his previous films Slither, he has a good sensibility for marrying CGI with practical effects. Hopefully that's carried over here. If there's anything that might hold this back, though, is that it has a lot to do in one movie. Not only does it have to introduce the Guardians and Nova Corps, but it's going to be the movie where we get to know the Chitauri as more than just the weirdly bio-mechanical mooks they were in The Avengers. That's a lot of mythology for one movie, and 2011's Green Lantern collapsed under that same kind of pressure. I hope it won't go down that road, but it might.

Outlook: Positive

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Release Date: August 8 Starring: Megan Fox, William Fichtner, Alan Ritchson Studio: Paramount

Bahahahaha...Well, at least it improved from what we were originally supposed to have. In case you all forgot, this is the movie that was just going to be called Ninja Turtles, make the Turtles aliens, and the Shredder would be a US Army colonel who also happens to be an alien. The reaction to that was so overwhelmingly negative this movie had to go back to the drawing board. They did fix some; the title of the movie is appropriate now and the Turtles are mutants again. On the other hand, there's still of a lot wrong with this: the Shredder is still a White Guy, Megan Fox is April, Mickey from Seinfeld is Splinter, a bunch of frat bros are the Turtles, it still being overseen by dude/bro producer Michael Bay, and it's being directed by Jonathan Liebsman, the guy who brought us such gems as Wrath of the Titans and Battle: Los Angeles. This movie has the perfect combination of the wrong people working on it, and it may be the worst-cast superhero ever made. Just watch the really good new series on Nick instead.

Outlook: Negative

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Release Date: August 22 Starring: Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jessica Alba Studio: Dimension Films

Big year for Dark Horse, huh? There wasn't a single movie based on their properties released between 2008-2012, and 2014 gets three of them. Like 300: Rise of an Empire, though, it also maybe arrives several years too late. And the original Sin City never reached the memetic status the original 300 did. This movie has been in production for almost a decade, featured many cast changes, and no one is doing all that much to promote it. It seems like the only reason this is coming out is to recoup some of the costs sunk into it. But that doesn't necessarily mean it will turn out badly. Like RoboCop, there's a lot of good people working on this, and may be able to uplift the movie. Or they'll just sleep their way through it for a paycheck. Heck, the reason it kept getting pushed back is because director Robert Rodriguez wanted the schedule the film's development around Angelina Jolie's schedule so she could play Ava Lord, and did so for years until about a year ago when he announced someone else had been cast in that role. Even the director is a little bit disappointed in this. But I really like the original film, so I still have some hope for this long-overdue sequel.

Outlook: Negative/Skeptical

Big Hero 6
Release Date: November 7 Starring: TBA Studio: Walt Disney Animation If The Winter Soldier is important for its potential to get the attention of the Hollywood Elite, Big Hero 6 is important for courting another crowd – little kids. As of now, superhero movies are still mostly promoted to that 18-34 demographic that really, everyone wants. Everyone but family movies that is, who make their movies for young parents to plop their kids down in front of something colorful for two hours. This means Big Hero 6 will be a very different kind of superhero movie, one that may not fall into the same trappings as the rest. If this genre does start to fray a bit under the pressure of oversaturation, then this is a new avenue that could be explored. It worked for The Incredibles, so why can't it work again. I wish I could say more about this, but we know very little about it. But Disney Animation's current track record is really good with movies like Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, so there's good reason to think this movie will be of the same quality.

Outlook: Positive

A Notable Absence
Of the superhero and comic book movies coming out this year, I've talked about five from Marvel properties, three from Dark Horse properties, one reboot of an 80s sci-fi movie, and the TMNT license has changed hands so many times it doesn't really matter anymore. But nothing from DC. I know they get a bad rap for not putting out that many superhero movies, but there's a very simple explanation for this – Warner Bros. have their hands in more things than just DC Comics. Marvel Studios can release multiple Marvel films in one year because Marvel comics properties are all they have, and they licensed many of their properties out to other companies to make those movies. DC, on the other hand, only has Warner Bros., and there's been one movie based on DC Comics released each year since 2004, only having missed 2007 in the past. With so many superhero movies coming out this year and with DC really trying to throw their hat in the ring to compete with the Marvel stuff, it seems odd there wouldn't be a DC movie out this year. Heck, there isn't even something from their imprints coming out this year. My guess is that Warner Bros. planned to release the sequel to Green Lantern this year, but when it became apparent that wasn't going to happen someone should have started putting together a Plan B. They should have been able to put something together in the almost three years since the first Green Lantern tanked. At least they still have their three straight-to-DVD DCUOAM features, but that hardly makes up for it.

And here's where DC's absence might make a real difference. With the polarizing responses to The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel and missing out on 2014 entirely, this may be the year where DC and Warner Bros. are officially left behind. Everyone has their wheels moving except for them. On the other hand, if the market does become oversaturated with these kinds of movies, DC is in a prime position. They can sit back and watch everyone else go down in flames. When the dust settles, they can put out their stuff without any competition. And since they haven't put too many of their major characters on the screen, they won't be held back in an endless cycle of reboots. Maybe in 10, 20 years we'll talk about DC movies the same way we talk about Marvel movies today, and malign Marvel movies the same way we malign DC movies today.

But probably not, since we know they'll be back next year to cram that pseudo-Justice League movie and backdoor-Batman reboot dressed up like a Man of Steel sequel down all our throats.

2013 in Review >>