A Brief Drive Through Marvel's Road To The Avengers

Since, at the latest, 2008 Marvel has been laying the foundation for the largest, most epic, and most ambitious project ever undertaken by a major movie studio. In 2008 Kevin Feige and Jon Favreau broke ground with Iron Man. However, it wasn't until after the credits rolled that Marvel Studios decided to reveal what they had planned.

The screen goes black. Fade in to find Tony Stark coming back from the press conference where he revealed to the world that he was, indeed, Iron Man. J.A.R.V.I.S. begins to welcome him as he malfunctions. We hear a familiar voice, "I am Iron Man." The camera cuts to Samuel L. Jackson casually standing in Stark's living room, looking out the window. He turns. "I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."

From that point in 2008, Marvel Studios has been working towards the ultimate crossover film. For the first time ever, a studio was willing to truly bring the pages of the comic books to the screen in The Avengers.

Crossovers in comic books are no rare thing. The X-Men constantly team up with The Avengers, Spider-Man hangs out with the Fantastic Four just as often as he does with Mary Jane (R.I.P. Gwen Stacey). However, because of the studio system and the massive undertaking a project like that would be, crossovers on film are a very rare thing. Marvel was breaking new ground by telling its fans they were ready to do just that.

The Road to The Avengers has had its fair share of bumps. But, for all that, Marvel has finally accomplished their goal. They have done the seemingly impossible.

However, I'm not here to discuss the merits of The Avengers. I'm not here to review the film (the fanboy in me simply won't allow it). I am here to, now that the movie has been released globally, discuss what it took to get to this point and how all of the films fit into the larger vision of Marvel Studios' Universe.

It was evident from the start that Marvel had intended to create another separate universe, similar to their comic books, on film. After seeing their properties (Spiderman and X-Men) get turned into billion dollar franchises, how could they not?

The hardest part for Marvel in creating a cohesive universe was to get five different directors and probably countless screenwriters to share their vision. And that fact shows.

In fact, The Avengers scraps plenty of the roadwork Marvel had laid out. The conclusion of Thor is undone from the moment the film starts and by a single line of dialog. The Incredible Hulk is all but forgotten. The only film that really melds nicely with The Avengers is Captain America.

While every film from Iron Man to Captain America does, in its own way, offer a little something here or there to the final product, The Avengers largely stands alone.

That isn't a slight on the hard work Marvel and company put into building this road, its just what happens when you have several different creative people taking on individual projects. Each film wants to tell its own story and, aside from Iron Man 2 and Thor, the directors opt to flex their own creative muscles, leaving The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. subplots on the back burner.

Regardless, Marvel has done an unprecedented thing and has built something for every studio to stand in awe. Marvel's Road to The Avengers may be coming to an end, but the story is far from over.

Battle Royale and The Hunger Games: An Essay On How They Compare and Their Place In Society

The Hunger Games has become an unmitigated phenomenon. The book selling over 26 million copies worldwide and the movie making well over $300 million domestically (leading in all four weeks the film has been in theaters), The Hunger Games is a train that shows absolutely no signs of slowing down, nor a will to stop at the station.

For the few uninformed The Hunger Games takes place in a fictional land where, as recompense for uprising against the Orwellian government, twelve districts must take part in a lottery where two children, one female, one male, between the ages of 12 and 18, are chosen to take part in a televised tournament. The rules of the games are simple, the kids must fight to the death until only one is left.

Seems pretty grim for a movie based on a novel targeted to teenagers.

The book, and, consequently, the film, shares many parallels with Orwell's 1984, authoritarian government imposing their will on the lower class all for the sake of control and rebellion being chief among them. But the film also plays as a comment to our society's fascination of reality television and exactly how far we're willing to let this go before we say, "This is just too much".

The sad fact is, I can see a lot of our culture in how the citizens of Panem seem to treat The Games. While I don't believe our society will ever dip so low as to let teenagers fight to the death for our entertainment, Jersey Shore has been on the air for five seasons.

The point is, The Hunger Games has been treated, it seems, critically, as our generations 1984, a work that very accurately held a mirror up to society and told the world where they were headed, for the most part.

However, for all the praise The Hunger Games is getting, American audiences seem largely ignorant to the work that clearly inspired it. A work written almost ten years before Suzanne Collins signed her three book deal with Scholastic. Published in 1999 and adapted into a film less than a year later, Battle Royale is the definitive piece of social commentary for our generation.

The similarities between The Hunger Games and Battle Royale are both fair and unfair, deep and largely superficial.

For the uninitiated, the plot for Battle Royale is going to sound incredibly similar to that of The Hunger Games. In an alternate-timeline Japan, a class of ninth graders are randomly chosen to take part in a battle to the death where only one can survive. The purpose of this competition is to insight fear in the growing and increasingly rebellious population so as the prospect of an organized coup of the totalitarian regime become next to impossible.

Sound familiar?

I'm not here to say that Suzanne Collins plagiarized her idea. I'm not writing this to bash The Hunger Games. For what it's worth, I feel The Hunger Games is one of the best science fiction movies released recently and do hold the film in fairly high regard. I am here, however, to say that Battle Royale, for all their similarities, does an infinitely better job than The Hunger Games at almost everything it tries to do.

A Real World Versus A Fake One

Battle Royale, as opposed to The Hunger Games, takes place in the real world. The Hunger Games weakens its own cause by taking place in a fictional world, slightly disconnecting the audience to that world's issues. Battle Royale takes place in Japan. And though that little detail may be more prevalent to Japanese audiences, the fact that, for those of us that are geographically inclined, can identify the land and its problems, we can better relate to its society and, by extension, its characters.

Killing Friends As Opposed To Killing Strangers

The Hunger Games further weakens its message by pitting twelve relative strangers against each other. The fact is, though it is slightly sociopathic, the thought of killing someone I don't know weighs far less heavier on my mind than the thought of killing someone I know and am possibly friends with. The "kill or be killed" mantra of The Hunger Games is far less of a psychological concern. Battle Royale, on the other hand, dares to ask the audience the question, "If faced with a choice, what would you do?" The students of the Battle Royale are faced with the same decision as the Tributes in The Hunger Games, but with the added weight that they happen to also know these people they're supposed to kill.

What would you do if you were standing face to face with your best friend and one of you had to die? Suicide is an option. Trying to work together to find a way of the battleground alive is another. Or you could just brutally beat one another until one of you dies. The options are very limited and Battle Royale doesn't shy away from any of them. We see these children make suicide pacts, jump off cliffs, hang themselves. We see two young girls pleading that everyone band together to find a way out, only to get repeatedly shot in the back by a student who doesn't share their sentiment. We see kids killing kids out of self defense and just out of sheer hatred.

The thought of friend killing friend just weighs heavier than the thought of strangers killing strangers.

Making The Audience Believe In Love

The Hunger Games has often been compared to Twilight, fans of the novel even going so far as to set up Team Peeta and Team Gale camps (I, personally, am in Team Josh Hutcherson). However, The Hunger Games lacks one thing in its delivery of the romantic storyline, authenticity. Yes, the romance was thrust onto Katniss for the sake of The Games, but her commitment to Peeta throughout the film, despite him being a petty, aloof douchebag, just never felt authentic. The romantic interest between the two lead characters in Battle Royale, on the other hand, is very apparent and sincere from the beginning. Shuya and Noriko almost never leave each other's side and when they do get separated, they are all the other can think about. "Is she safe?" "Is he alive?" It's real and it's emotional.

Though, when it really comes down to it, both Battle Royale and The Hunger Games do equally fantastic jobs at commenting on society. We have become largely numb to violence (how else do you explain giddy teens lined up at midnight to see a movie about kids killing kids?) and both films really do bring that to light, though in very different ways. The Hunger Games is more a satire on how we consume media, where Battle Royale shows us what the world has become or, rather, is becoming. Though I feel Battle Royale is the superior film, both deserve all of our attention. Like 1984, these movies might one day feel all too real.

Review: John Carter (of Mars)

I've often been told that I watch movies differently than most. I'd like to think that not to be true. We all view and appreciate art in many different ways. Some break the work, whether it's written or visual, down into pieces, others prefer to look at the work as a whole. For a film like John Carter (of Mars), you really need to look at the sum of its parts in order to genuinely enjoy it.

The visuals in this film are nothing to take lightly.

The film, directed by Andrew Stanton (of Finding Nemo and WALL-E fame), follows the exploits of John Carter, a civil war veteran, and his quest to find a cave of gold. After a run in with a mysterious, other worldly man, Carter finds himself on Mars, caught in the middle of a civil war that threatens the planet.

This is the plot, in a nutshell.

The film starts at a slow burn, taking time to set up Carter as he is on Earth. And though it may seem as if the plot is meandering at times, nearly everything gets paid off and, in the end, it makes Carter's growth as a character feel much more satisfying. That's not to say the film suffers from immense pacing issues. Scenes of exposition run rampant and definitely disrupts the flow of the story.

The dialog of the film is another major issue that may turn audiences off. In short, the dialog ranges from barely passable to full on atrocious. Oddly enough, however, I still found the performances to be largely passable despite such shoddy dialog.

However, as I said, this is a film that needs to be broken down to fully enjoy.

The world of Mars that Andrew Stanton has crafted is nothing short of marvelous. With absolutely stunning visuals and incredible set pieces, this film is a joy to look at. Everything from the effects department was clearly done with care. With a background in animation, Stanton really seems to have his bearings when directing the most CG heavy scenes.

Enough can't be said about this little guy.

The action John Carter (of Mars) is another facet of the film that certainly does not disappoint. My jaw practically hit the floor with every carefully crafted action sequence. The action never once feels stale or boring and always manages to find a way to impress.

Overall, do not go into this film expecting to be swept away by an epic storyline or groundbreaking performances. Rather, expect to be dazzled by stunning action surrounded by a vivid, and wholly thought out world. If nothing else about John Carter (of Mars) impresses, just sit back and marvel at the sheer beauty of it.

Rating: 3/5


As a side note: I think it was a huge mistake on Disney's part to drop "of Mars" from the title. Though films that mention Mars in their title are, historically, more than terrible, it would have, at the very least, given audiences an idea of what the film was about. As a friend of mine so eloquently put, "John Carter. Some dude you played T-ball with or a Disney action movie?"

It's Been Too Long

I will say that, up until this point, I've handled this blog pretty poorly.

With work and everything that happens on the internet, I just haven't had the time to deal with a blog as well.

That'll all be changing here shortly.

At the end of the month I'm quitting social networking to focus on the things that will invariably change my life.

Social networking is just a huge time suck that I'm not willing to participate in anymore.

I'm hitting the reset button on my internet persona.

I made a commitment to this blog. This blog will be the launching point of what I hope to be an illustrious career.

I want to change live and make people seriously rethink the way they approach film (and even television). I want to change lives and give artists complete control over how they create and distribute their work.

That is my goal. In the meantime, I'll be updating this blog around two to three times a week with all manner of content related to film and pop culture.

Stay tuned, folks. Things are going to get pretty wild.

Away We Go

I know I probably was being slightly hyperbolic when I wrote the first post of this blog.

I was.

The thing is, I'm really excited about we have planned.

Me and several friends of mine are starting a video podcast dealing with movies and pop culture. Unlike most film based podcasts, we'll be offering commentary on classics and oldies as well as new releases and their impact on pop culture. I hope to get everything, and everyone, together around the beginning of next year.

Until then I, and hopefully my other contributors, will be posting here on a slightly regular basis. I hope to make it a weekly gig, but since we all have other lives and obligations, so we'll see what kind of schedule we can keep to as the time gets closer.

With the limitations of Blogger, and my technical savvy, this blog will be limited in terms of scope, but we hope to do some incredible and unique things with what we have available.

There's A Change Coming

If you try to browse around this blog, you'll find that a lot is missing.


Every post that has been written by me has been archived and deleted from this blog.


We're starting fresh.


I'm currently talking to a couple of different people and we're getting ready for something huge. I don't want to divulge too much right now, but, hopefully, by the end of the year we're going to get something together and it's going to be awesome.


This blog is back but it is forever changed and I can't wait to let you in on what we have cooking up. I'll be updating this blog with more posts to let anyone and everyone in on the progress.