Happy Friday the 13th. If you’re the superstitious kind, you might want to avoid this list entirely, as I list thirteen random facts about “Friday the 13th.” Perhaps you might learn something new about your friendly neighborhood movie critic.
You might also be surprised to see how much of an influence “Friday the 13th” and Jason Voorhees has had on my life.
Man, what the hell happened?
It seemed like such a good idea at the time. The Syfy Channel or The Sci Fi Channel has had a good track record for television series that excelled in epic space adventures with hit shows like “Stargate” and “Farscape.” Plus, they engineered one of the most critically acclaimed award winning reboots of all time, “BSG: Battlestar Galactica” which ended up being an important touchstone for science fiction in the twenty first century.
So what in the heck happened with “Flash Gordon”? Syfy and their executives not only seem to miss the point with these characters of the pulp era, but completely seek out to alter their personas rather than re-invent them.
The comic book movie has never been bigger in the age of modern cinema, and as a commodity, it’s still a very valuable asset for many studios who once considered the notion of basing a tent pole movie around a superhero laughable. For a long time comic book movies were C grade Television fodder like “Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD” and “Generation X,” and now they’re raking in humongous profits at the box office, have helped fuel media empires, saved comic book companies like Marvel, and have attracted humongous movie stars to portray iconic characters. As such with comic book movies still being doled out in as fast a pace as studios can dole them out, here are ten of my Top Ten Comic Book Movies of All Time. So far. I expect this list to be different in ten years.
With over forty independent artists on board, “Satan’s 3 Ring Circus of Hell” is a mixed bag horror anthology graphic novel that tells varying short form horror and fantasy stories that literally have no limit to their obscene and gruesome storytelling. Robert S. Rhine also uses the graphic novel as a forum to tell his short story that won Best Dark Fiction at World Horror Con. There are some sick and demented one page comics, as well as deep and complex fantasy storytelling. And what graphic horror novel would be complete without a Lovecraft short comic about the great Cthulhu?
It’s all come to this, people! Come May 4th Marvel Entertainment will put together the ultimate in team movies, when action heroes from all of Marvel’s latest movies come together to take on the evil Loki and his army to defend Earth and Avenge humanity. Hopes are high for the big screen debut of comic books’ most popular super team, and we’re expecting one hell of a fun cinematic ride. On the road to the Avengers film, we got to thinking about our favorite super teams, and we compiled a list of ten super teams we’d kill to be apart of, if we were ever alive in their realities. This is of course a list for the fan boys, but these are ten super teams and organizations from comics, TV, and pop culture that we’d love to sign up for. We’d gladly abandon our humdrum lives for a shot at membership with these fine elite teams who help protect interests of all kinds. Top Ten list, assemble!
From the best and worst from the Superman mythos, I mull over all of The Man of Steel’s cinematic offerings including his DC Universe Animated films, and beyond. Superman has the distinction of being one of the very first superhero movies that became a blockbuster showing critics and skeptics alike that a superhero movie can depict the lore of its character with an adult tone and dramatic tension. With a fine director like Richard Donner at the helm, and a cast like Marlon Brandon, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and Christopher Reeve, “Superman: The Movie” was the start of something big, and also showed what could happen when a studio lost sight of its goals for franchise success. Beyond the live action films there were also the mixed animated efforts that were hit or miss for most fans, but still gave us the man of steel in all of his glory. With “All Star Superman” on the way, we hope for big things and yet another fantastic depiction of the Last Son of Krypton.
In anticipation of the much anticipated animated adaptation of “All Star Superman” in stores this year, and the upcoming Zack Snyder/Christopher Nolan re-boot of the Bryan Singer re-boot “Superman Returns,” we have taken the time to voice our love for the character Superman and ponder on his more unique and endearing aspects that will surely be ignored in favor of the man of steel lifting tanks and destroying buildings with one force of breath. We hope Zack Snyder can invoke much of what made “Watchmen” so excellent and stow what made “300” so absolutely vapid and dunderheaded. Or at least find a balance. With that we continue to our “Superman Tribute.”
There was a journalist over five years ago who wrote an article about Superman who mocked the Man of Steel openly, and oh so sternly explained that among Superman’s fans, you’d be hard pressed to find any who would openly admit to being a fan of Superman in public. Oh how wrong he was and how wrong he continues to be. I’ll admit as a fan of Superman, that he is not the most popular hero in modern pop culture. In a world of cynicism, violence, and dread, the more enduring characters are all the darker ones with demons and shades of turmoil, all donning Bat costumes, garnering giant white skulls on their chests, or waving around claws from their knuckles.