Another San Diego Comic-Con, another domination of upcoming Hollywood films. There were some brief teasers from Godzilla and World of Warcraft, supplemented by cast and/or director enthusiasm. There was the Ender's Game panel, where the guests tried to spin the expected backlash against Orson Scott Card's homophobia but were meet with annoying losers who pestered the always grumpy Harrison Ford with Han Solo and Indiana Jones questions. Tom Cruise and Sandra Bullock made surprise appearances for their sci-fi films. Also, there were some comic book news. But why pay attention to that when we have Seventh Son and Divergent to promote, even though one or both will surely bomb at the box office.
Of course the main news came from the film studios of Marvel and DC Comics. DC may have stolen the thunder but it looks like a bad storm coming ahead.
After expunging greatness to this year's Thor: The Dark World, with a campy opening by Tom Hiddleston in his Loki attire, and next year's Captain America sequel and Guardians of the Galaxy, the other shoe dropped with the subtitle reveal of The Avengers 2 at the end. Dubbed "Age of Ultron", referring to the killer robot devised by the still non-presented "Ant-Man" Hank Pym, it had news sites scrambling once again to inform the general populace of the next villain. Pre- and during the Comic-Con festivities, actor Vin Diesel has been teasing of possibly being the man behind the Ant mask but some have speculated that he will voice Ultron instead, balancing out all of the good robot karma he had for playing as the titled character in The Iron Giant.
Outside the Disney household but still raiding the cookie jar was Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. They had the cast talk and showed some footage of Jaime Foxx's Electro in action. All well in good but the film still looks to be ho-hum, except for Foxx's laughable electric head.
Unintentionally or not, the major reveal of DC Comics film line was spoiled by the likes of Variety and Deadline: 2015 will feature the Man of Steel sequel but it will feature Batman in it as well, as evident by a horrible logo. Since Man earned so much money, despite being a travesty of a film and of the character, the main three crew members (Zach Snyder, David Goyer, Henry Cavill) will return. Oh what joy. No one has been picked to play Batman yet and Christian Bale absolutely does not wish to return to the role for now. The film has been hinted at somehow being an adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns, despite the milestone comic being nearly thirty years old, out of date with its politics and social environment, and the fact that DC Comics just did a two-part animated version of the tale. Oh, and the fact that it is a Superman sequel, not another Nolan Batman. 2016 will have a major big-screen attempt for The Flash character and 2017 is to be the year for the long-gestated Justice League film.
As evident by the short time-table, DC really wants to win the superhero movie battle with a two-film set up to its tentpole. Man of Steel wasn't the Iron Man for their new film venture, nor did it have any foreshadowing to entice viewers. As much as I love The Flash, especially the live-action and animated television versions, I feel that his film might be another Green Lantern on the company's hands. However, the big, big elephant in the room is the lack of Wonder Woman. I know that Marvel hasn't attempted to do a female led blockbuster yet or even in the planning stages but it's extremely ridiculous that the icon of female superheroes, one of DC's Trinity, still doesn't have a green-lit production. Is she really going to be introduced in Justice League, possibly even with either with a John Stewart version of Green Lantern or Cyborg? Do we need another super white boy movie?
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