by generalsjoes | Jun 2, 2010 | Comics and Cartoons, Film, Marvel Media
It amazes me that it really took this long for someone to dream up a real life, full fledged “film franchise” based on existing characters and an existing universe. Throughout the years there have been television series, films, cartoons, and a wealth of media for comic characters, but never once has someone really tried to weave it all together.
Well, Marvel Films, buoyed by the success of their Spider-Man and X-Men franchises finally bit the bullet, created their own movie company, and decided to finally tell a tale that crosses between films and creates a whole new universe in Hollywood. And so far, I’ve been loving it.
The Incredible Hulk was really the film that kicked it all off, featuring a cameo by Robert Downy, Jr as the enigmatic Tony Stark. This, of course, spiraled into the Iron Man film, with another nice little cameo of Nick Fury. Then, as we all know at this point, that catapulted into Iron Man 2 where the whole Avengers Initiative really started to evolve, and we got a peek at Thor’s hammer as we ramp up for Thor in 2011. Of course, Cap’s trusty shield made it’s own appearance as well.
I’ll be honest…I was pretty worried about how “The First Avenger” would be treated in Hollywood. The Hulk is a big green monster… Iron Man is a guy in a high tech suit of battle armored plate. Those things can transcend comic pages and make a nice impact in the “real world” look. Well, Captain America really doesn’t. On the comic page you can see a guy in blue spandex, and it doesn’t look all that out of place. But making that work in Hollywood? Yeah, I was having a hard time seeing how they would work it in. After all, in the 70’s we saw them give it their best shot, and that really wasn’t all that pretty.
Well, thanks to JoBlo and Aint it Cool News, we have some artwork of what promises to be the actual costume that the film version of Captain America will wear. And Good Lord is it awesome. It certainly seems to use the Ultimates uniform as a base (which is no surprise, considering how much the Hollywood Marvel universe seems to at least sort of follow the Ultimate logic) but it looks like it will translate nearly perfectly on a three dimensional real world plane. Yet, it also manages to pay perfect homage to the actual uniform appearance in the comics as well. They really seem to have captured the best of both worlds.
During my formative years collecting comics, Captain America was one of my favorite heroes. I had nearly an entire run of his books from the 60’s through to the early 90’s before I moved away from comics, and I still have a place in my heart for Steve Rogers. I was thrilled to see that Marvel Films is trying to hard to keep these characters grounded in reality, yet still pull so much influence from the printed page. Awesome stuff.
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by generalsjoes | May 20, 2010 | Film, Television
My TV watching schedule is pretty sideways. I’m far from a television junkie, and in fact the reality TV infested fare of American TV these days actually depresses me. I’ve never had any desire to watch other people become pop stars or good dancers, and have enough going on in my own life to give a crap about other fake reality TV “stars” and their drama.
Typically I’m a fan of 60 minute drama or adventure shows, and in the past few years it seems like a transition has been made from the 30 minute sitcom to the more intense drama or suspense show (probably thanks mostly to shows like Lost). Well, suffice it to say, when new shows are announced, I’m rarely impressed…but that’s changed a bit this year.
I don’t watch much on NBC at all, but they’re actually putting out 3 shows that look at least somewhat entertaining.
Click the “Read the rest of this entry” link below to check out the new shows I’m looking forward to this fall.
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by generalsjoes | May 14, 2010 | Film, G.I. Joe, Other Toys
Most folks who are thirty-something Joefans probably watched the A-Team back in the day…and while Galoob put out some horrible o-ring style A-Team figures way back when, BA, Hannibal, et al didn’t really get the action figure love they deserved.
Well, with the new movie coming out this summer, Jazwares picked up the license and is doing a very cool looking line of 4″ figures based on the film! Granted, these guys won’t look exactly like their 80’s counterparts, but it’s close enough. Of course, you could just forget about the figures and rejoice about the fact that THERE’S A *@#$@%! JOE SCALE A-TEAM VAN COMING OUT!
Seriously, pretty cool looking toys. Decent articulation, and the van absolutely ROCKS. Credit to the MTV Movie Blog.
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by generalsjoes | Mar 1, 2010 | Comics and Cartoons, Film, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, Marvel Comics Toys, Marvel Media, Other Toys
Okay, I’m a fringe Marvel Universe fan at best. The last time I read comics on a regular basis was the 90’s and while I survived Rob Liefield’s path of destruction through the medium as we know it, I did sorta lose track during the Spider-Man clone fiasco, and haven’t really looked back. Sure, I poked my head in on the Ultimate universe, the death of Captain America, and am sort of checking out Siege here and there, but that’s really about it.
Thankfully, for those unusual folks like me, there are the movies and the cartoons to keep me engaged. While most toy geeks lament the fact that the movies and animated series aren’t faithful to the comic roots, those funky nerds like me who don’t really care about the stories and care more about the core characters are able to be kept in the loop without having to worry about the past four pesky decades of continuity. The first Iron Man movie, to me, was the best in class for this recent outcropping of comics flicks (yes, I even rate it above The Dark Knight, heresy on the internetz, I know), and the sequel looks like it will be more of the same.
Even better, the toys for the sequel look to match the quality of Paramount’s tour de force as well. I’m sure the initial toys were probably just dandy as well, but they were six inches tall, which doesn’t fit into my current collection philosophy, which is the smaller the better because I have no space to store crap. Amazingly enough, Hasbro looks to have taken the detail from the six inch figures and squished them down into a 3 3/4″ scale…these figures are smaller, but damn do they look freaking amazing.
PopEater.com has revealed a nice batch of these figures, accurate to the film, and while most of them look totally bad ass, the one I’m really focusing my love on is Samuel “Nick Fury” Jackson in some 3 3/4″ glory. Sure, we’ve all got enough Mace Windu’s to choke a stable of horses, but this Jackson actually uses some G.I. Joe parts! And he has a bad ass trench coat.
It’s pretty much the best 3 3/4″ figure ever made…
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I know this is barely G.I. Joe related, but news is a bit slow these days…gotta take some toy joy where I can get it.
by generalsjoes | Jan 17, 2010 | Film, G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe: The Movie
As news of the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra sequel leaked out of Hollywood, I began thinking a bit about exactly how The Rise of Cobra impacted the G.I. Joe brand and where do we go from here… sure, there is a strong collection of the fandom (myself included) who really enjoyed the first film, but I don’t think you’ll find many people who thought it really evolved the franchise in a good way. The best many folks can say is “it didn’t suck, and it was mindless fun”. Personally, when it comes to summer popcorn, I don’t need anything more than that, but considering how defined I was by Larry Hama’s work on G.I. Joe back in the day, I started thinking that maybe “mindless fun” shouldn’t be a barometer.
Then I saw this thread on HissTank.com, and it got me thinking even more about the sequel and how the brand can evolve from The Rise of Cobra, and how it can maybe save itself, so to speak. Personally, I don’t feel like it has to save itself, but many fans have already written it off, and with Paramount enlisting the aid of a pair of writers that have zero connection to the original film, I can imagine a scenario where they try and “rebuild” the film, so to speak. In my mind, there are a few ways they can improve on the mythos without just white-washing it and starting over. Click the “Read the Rest of this Entry” link below to read my thoughts, if you are so inclined.
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by generalsjoes | Jun 28, 2009 | Film, Transformers
I know folks come here for G.I. Joe news and perspective, but as regular visitors know, I delve into other things from time to time. Considering that last night I devoted 5 hours of my life to drive down to the nearest IMax theater and spend 2.5 hours with Michael Bay’s most recent Transformers film, I figured maybe it was worth a few more minutes of time to talk about it, since I’m sure many of my regular readers have an interest in this property as well.
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It amazes me that it really took this long for someone to dream up a real life, full fledged “film franchise” based on existing characters and an existing universe. Throughout the years there have been television series, films, cartoons, and a wealth of media for comic characters, but never once has someone really tried to weave it all together.