Action

Batman: The Court of Owls

Posted on by spencerwills

“The Court of Owls watches, watches all the time. Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They see you at your hearth and they see you in your bed. Speak not a whisper word about them or they’ll send the Talon for your head!”

The Intro

Over Facebook yesterday I said that I would be writing a blog post about a comic book that I think needs to be brought to the big screen, and I though pretty hard about which story would look best on that screen. The first thing that came to my mind was which character to consider, and of course I thought of my favourite: Batman. Once I knew that Batman is my feature character, I looked over all my Batman comics and really thought which storyline would make a great movie. I looked over every storyline from “Batman: The killing Joke” to “Batman: Earth One”, but I always found myself turning back to one story line, “Batman: The Court of Owls”. It’s probably my favourite Batman storyline, which is probably the reason I picked it, however that doesn’t change the fact that it would make an amazing movie, and here my reasons why.

The Story

Batman the court

As I have already stated that this is my favourite Batman storyline, that is because it’s full of action and mythology. It’s all about Batman’s struggle to keep his city and his battle coming to the conclusion that he doesn’t own the city. This story has more to offer than good fight scenes, but a great plot line with depth, dialogue, and character development. This is also a story that provides aspects to Batman’s character that haven’t been really dealt with in past. We get the chance to see the side of Batman that actually shows that he is the world’s greatest detective.

Characters

bat-family

The supporting characters are probably the best part of this book. It has such a wide range of characters including the GCPD Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock. It is interesting to see how Batman interacts with these characters even though we’ve seen it before. Some of the even more compelling characters are the people in the Bat-Family including Alfred, Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing. Especially the dynamic relationship and backstory we get between Batman and Nightwing. It is particularly interesting to see that they don’t always agree on everything, and that it’s not just Nightwing always following Batman’s commands. This relationship creates great dialogue, interesting story and character development. This is something that was missing from the previous Batman films. They were scared to give Batman a partner because the Schumacher films stunk, but just because something didn’t work before does not mean it can’t work now. I really believe giving Batman a partner that he fully trusts would create interesting dialogue and story on screen.

 The Villain 

Talon1

The court of owls and the Talon are truly frightening villains with some of the best assassins the DC world has to offer. They even give The League of Assassins a run for their money. They’re a villain that strikes fear into Batman, and they our a group that has plan that makes the characters realize that the stakes are high. A villain where the audience feel the threat and will actually fear that Batman might not make it out of this one alive. Where we feel Batman’s fear,anger and his dread. These all the reasons why the court of owls and the Talon adversary for Batman that will translate well on screen.

Conclusion

These are my thoughts on why I believe the court of Owls would make an amazing live action movie did you agree with me? what comic book would you like to see turned into a live action movie? leave your comments below.

All picture rights belong to DC comics.

Did Christian Bale have to leave as Batman?

Posted on by spencerwills

The Intro

Batman is such a popular character and the viewers are very opinionated on who should play batman. When the Dark Knight Trilogy ended there were all sorts of rumours about Christian Bale returning to his iconic role for Batman v Superman. And for the large part the fans would have been very happy however in this post I will be talking about how it was good and beneficial that Christian Bale didn’t return and that Ben Affleck is our new batman is a necessary change.

Batman-V-Batman

The worlds

The first reason is the worlds they live in. The world that Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale created was a world grounded in reality, not in a world that aliens came and almost destroyed out planet. In Nolan’s Bat-verse aliens with super powers simply do not exist and will never be able to. And now we have what I will call the Snyder-Verse which has a small sense of realism but isn’t grounded in it it has room for Khryptonians, Amazons, Atlantans, and Meta-Humans. I believe that the world Zach Snyder is creating is a world that Christian Bale would not fit in or work in the world Snyder has made.

 Superman

The boy scout. He is the main reason I believe it was beneficial for a new Batman to come into this new world.In the next instalment of the DC cinematic universe we know that Batman and superman will be at odds with each other.When we look at Christian Bale’s Batman who didn’t even have the skill set to properly beat Bane then how could he have the skill set or even prepare himself to beat Superman. Superman in Man Of Steel presented enormous amount of power between his strength, super speed and flight he is a force to reckon with. and for these exact reason we needed a new Batman. We needed a Batman who is a prestige fighter(who could destroy Christian Bales Batman), expert strategist, and worlds Best Detective these are things that Ben Affleck’s Batman need to bring to the table to be believable as a threat to superman in this world.

Conclusion

These are my thoughts to why Bale had to leave and why Ben Affleck had to come in as the character. what did you think of my thought? do you agree? let me know in the comments.

All picture rights belong to DC and Warner Brothers Studios.

Avengers Age Of Ultron Review

Posted on by spencerwills

Spoiler-Free

I went to go see the Avengers Age of Ultron on Thursday night in the IMAX Theatre here in Edmonton. I have spent the last two days trying to come up with a way to do a spoiler-free review and it’s been a little difficult. So this is my attempt at doing a review of this movie without spoilers of any kind. This review will not go into detail on what happened in the movie and will go into my initial thoughts of the film.

avengers

That Marvel Feeling

I know that sounds very vague but this movie left me having that same feeling I do leaving almost every Marvel movie, with a few exceptions (IronMan 2…). This movie did a great job of having those dark moments and then throwing in that touch of humour that actually made me clap at some points. It had the elements that made you say this was one of the best Marvel movies, one of the best super hero movies, and just overall great movie, and that the same feeling I almost always get when leaving a Marvel movie. And that makes it totally worth the 18 bucks.

Joss Freaking Whedon

The guy behind it all, Joss Whedon. You cannot talk about an Avengers movie and not talk about how amazing of a director and writer this guy is. He was able to create an enthralling story that had levels of depth, there were main plots and sub-plots that got the viewer excited. That was able to create more depth to the characters you knew and did not know. He is Joss Whedon and I can’t express how sad I am that this is his last Marvel film. I only hope that what ever he decides to do will be as exciting and amazing as all of his work has been on these Marvel products that we love so much. Thank you Mr.Whedon.

Ultron

ultronUltron a brilliant villain to have in this film and an even more brilliant actor James Spader, although not my first choice, he was the best choice to play the Artificial intelligence that is Ultron. He was evil, very evil, but at the same time you could somewhat understand why he was doing what he was doing. He had reason and cause for his actions, as insane or disastrous as they were, you could all understand the reasoning to his madness. One of the best things about the character of Ultron is that he is believable as a major threat for the Avengers.

Vision

Vision

This Character was easily my favourite character in this film for many reasons, half of them I can’t tell you without giving spoilers away. Nevertheless, this character was funny but had plenty of depth. This character was well played by Paul Bettany, he played this character in a way that gets the viewer excited to see him again, and just as excited that he is in this movie in the first place. The Marvel team did an amazing job of creating a Vision that was close to the comic book incarnations which was a huge highlight of the film

Final Thoughts 

I could keep talking but I don’t want to bore you, and I give this movie a big thumbs up. Have you seen the new Avengers film? If so, what did you think? Do you agree with my thoughts? Let me know in the comment section!

All pictures are products of Marvel Studios.

Jared Leto’s Joker: The Good, The bad, And the Psychopathic

Posted on by spencerwills

Mr. J   Jared Leto’s Joker  is a Joker most fans are not happy about. This Picture went online Friday through David Ayer’s Twitter for the Joker’s 75th birthday. Now I’m going to talk about how I believe this picture Resembles some of the comic book incarnations of the Joker(as the comics allow different interpretations of the joker) and what my initial reaction to this photo is. weather or not i enjoy this interpretation of the character or not

Comic Book Resemblance 

joker 2 This photo comes from Grant Morrison’s run on batman specifically from Batman RIP( which I recommend) it’s a great story where Joker plays a great part in. When I saw Jared’s Leto’s Joker, Grant’s incarnation of the Joker is one the first ones the popped into my head. This Joker may not have the tattoos that Leto has but they defiantly share some similarities. mostly with the hair and body frame.

Joker 3This photo which comes from Alan Moore’s book The Killing Joke(WHICH YOU NEED TO READ THIS!) which seems to be a direct inspiration for this photo. mainly with the possession of his hands in his hair and the craziness of his eyes. This incarnation of the Joker is probably the must popular incarnation, so we can only hope that this picture isn’t the only inspiration Leto and Ayer take from this comic.

Joker 4 Finally the Joker from Scott Snyder’s Batman run (which is my favourite incarnation of the Joker and Batman). this is again a similarity with Joker’s hairstyle’s and unnerving eyes. This run is probably the scariest and must unsettling version of the Joker which bring him to whole new level of crazy. Hopefully they bring that to screen and maybe Leto will be able to pull off that killer smile.

There is one thing that all three of these different incarnations of the Joker bring to the pages of comics. They are some of the most terrifying psychopathic jokers to hit Comics. And I believe that David Ayer has done his fair share of homework with this project( which you can see if you check out his twitter here) so if they are pulling from these comics then hopefully we will see a Joker we have never seen on-screen the psychopathic serial killer Joker(don’t get me wrong Heaths interpretation of the joker was magic but it wasn’t full on crazy which is something I will love to see) and if we get this we get a new different Joker because Joker is a Character that we don’t want to see the same thing again.

Initial Reaction

My first initial reaction to Jared’s Leto’s Joker is in the minority but I loved it and still do. I actually dig the Tattoos it made me think that yeah this guy is insane just by the haha’s and the smile tattoo it just screams Joker to me might not be what were use to but that doesn’t mean it wont be a Joker that we can love. remember its just a picture.

one the things that made me really happy about this picture is no face paint. YES bleached skin just like the comics I want a joker that fell into a vat of acid that made his skin white not face paint.

well those are my thoughts. Did you agree or disagree with me? are there other comics that you think they will pull from for Jared leto’s Joker? And what were you initial reaction to his Joker excited or worried? let me know in the comments.

All picture rights belong to DC Comics and Warner Brother studios.

Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice Trailer Reveiw

Posted on by spencerwills

This is apparently the week of the most anticipated movie trailers. First we get Ant-Man (that no one gave a rip about) then Star Wars Force Awakens (EEEEK) and then the mother of all that is good Zack Snyder released the trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and when i saw it i screamed like a little fan girl. So if you haven’t seen it, watch it right now, especially before you read on.

Spoilers ahead

This trailer starts with what seems like a bunch of media reporters or politicians arguing about Superman. They are discussing whether or not Superman is good for this planet or if he’s just to powerful.Then we get someone voicing their opinion who isn’t a politician or reporter. “We know better, don’t we. Devils don’t come from hell beneath us, they come from the sky”. If you listen closely you can tell this is Jesse Eisenberg‘s character, Lex Luthor, talking. From this line we can gather that Lex Luthor will be trying to put the world against Superman. He might even be able to influence Batman. 

Next we hear chanting “Go home! Go home! Go home!” Following is a shot of a statue of Superman with “false god” scrawled in spray paint across his symbol (which is a symbol of hope, duh!). This tells us that a large majority of the world is against Superman. It sounds like they are not happy with the destruction of Metropolis caused by Zod and Superman.

The next part of the trailer we get some dialogue from Alfred (can i just say how perfect Jeremy Irons is for that role… Seriously pure perfection). “Thats how it starts the fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men cruel”. Now this set of words are intriguing. Who’s he talking about? I believe there is three options here. Many would think he could be talking to Batman about Superman or Lex Luthor. However, i believe he’s actually talking about Batman. In my opinion he is referring to a time when Bruce was a good person, but when he felt helpless in an alley, unable to save his parents, he turned cruel.

But a above all the best part of this trailer is Batman’s line to Superman: “Tell me do you bleed? You will!” (shivers, serious shivers).

Overall i give this trailer 4/5 starts for pure joy and excitement and for not showing us too much.

This trailer did not receive 5/5 because although i did love it. It wasn’t perfect, it did not make we want to throw my money at screen yelling give it to me know!!

What did you think about the trailer? Do you agree with my thoughts that i observed from trailer? How excited are you for Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice?