The Big Tease

[Altorin]

People tend to forget that Batman Begins wasn't a huge hit for Warner Bros. at first,

Batman Begins:
Domestic Gross: $ 205,343,774
Foreign Gross: $ 167,366,241
Total Worldwide: $ 372,710,015

Bob, for the second time, I say: you either need to stop pushing this "Batman Begins wasn't a big hit" bullshit, or explain what obscure voodoo you're using to redefine the term "hit".

I think what he means is it wasn't a pop culture paradigm shifting movie the way Dark Knight was, but a lot of that can be contributed entirely to Heath Ledger, both because he played an amazingly compelling joker, to the fact of his death just before it launched. Dark Knight sort of hit the mainstream like a huge tidal force

 

[MovieBob]

People tend to forget that Batman Begins wasn't a huge hit for Warner Bros. at first,

Batman Begins:
Domestic Gross: $ 205,343,774
Foreign Gross: $ 167,366,241
Total Worldwide: $ 372,710,015

Bob, for the second time, I say: you either need to stop pushing this "Batman Begins wasn't a big hit" bullshit, or explain what obscure voodoo you're using to redefine the term "hit".

It was a hit, it wasn't a HUGE hit. It especially didn't do what Warner Bros. wanted it to do; i.e. being an all-encompassing smash like the Tim Burton one had been in 1989. You also have to remember that the "big story" of that year was that the whole movie season was in a "slump" where for the first time in awhile average grosses week-to-week were lower than comparable weeks the previous year, and "Begins" was widely-touted as the blockbuster that would break that streak... it didn't. In fact, the streak wasn't broken until "Fantastic Four" months later.

 

[chinlamp]

I've been wondering why Edward Norton isn't still the Hulk in this. Can anyone tell me why?

 

[SandroTheMaster]

Wait, there was supposed to be an Avengers preview at the end of Captain America? NOW I feel ripped-off. I waited till the end and just thought they had put the after-credits before the credits this time (let's face it, when Rogers woke up it did look an awful lot like an after-credits scene).

 

[sewingrose]

I'm looking forward to Dark Knight Rises and Avengers, and the trailers did exactly what they were supposed to do for me: Get my little fangirl heart excited and pumping.
Spider-man is actually a tough sell for me, mainly because I never found him interesting, and the trailer did not inspire me into anything beyond tepid acknowledgement.
(I never could understand my distaste for Spidey, because I like him when he's in the Avengers titles, I really dig his supporting case, and Spider-Gil if fun, but he both in the comics and movies always bores me to tears.)
When they release their full trailers (along with Nolan's Superman Reboot), I'd be interested to read a more thorough piece on them. After poking through the archives of your blogspot, I see a lot of analysis on things here and there and a lot of geek theorizing, but a fair bit extremely outdated. If (and probably when) you do more on the upcoming movies, a bit more of that with what we know now would be fun.

 

[Fiskmasen]

I dunno Bob; in my book Tool fits for anything.

 

[WolfThomas]

Holy crap, sleeveless Thor looks better than I expected. Very much the classical look (minus helmet which would be silly) perfect.

I've been wondering why Edward Norton isn't still the Hulk in this. Can anyone tell me why?

The story going around is apparently he's can be quite difficult to work with, not sure what exactly that means but it was enough that Marvel doesn't want to work with him again.

 

[Slaanax]

The Camera angels on Spiderman started making me feel sick, it's like watching someone else play a video game it can be somewhat disorienting.

 

[Deathfyre]

I thought Proto-Goblin was one of the villains for the new spider-man, and that'swhy the oscorp branding shows up. Proto-Goblin was even listed on the imdb. As the second cast member even, which makes it seem like he'll be a more major villain than the lizard

 

[Deathfyre]

I've been wondering why Edward Norton isn't still the Hulk in this. Can anyone tell me why?

I don't think he wanted to do the movie, or one of the producers didn't want him, one of the two

 

[MovieBob]

I've been wondering why Edward Norton isn't still the Hulk in this. Can anyone tell me why?

Officially? "Creative differences and scheduling conflicts."

UN-Officially? Edward Norton, in spite of supposedly being a decent guy and a fine actor, has a reputation for being damn near impossible to work with for most productions - he's known to have a temper, to not take direction well, to insist on rewriting portions of the script (which happened on "Hulk") and otherwise involve himself with the production side whether he he's been hired to do so or not. Even at the time of his casting, it was a running industry joke that Marvel had to be nuts trying to lock him into a franchise model where stuff HAS to happen as-written and on-schedule.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Interest in spider man has indeed evaporated. In fact, getting a bit tired of super hero films and super heroes. Captain America provided a bit of entertainment, but fell down pretty heavy later on, see redlettermedia. I'm also quite tired of American super soldiers or American super men. There are some non-Americans (Thor), but it's all just getting so bland now, so predictable, the goose has been locked away and starved.

Also ads in the captcha? What a horrrible and time wasting idea. Too much advertising around here now.

 

[Urh]

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought "Mirror's Edge" upon seeing that particular section of the Spider-man trailer. Hopefully it'll turn out to be footage that was shot specifically for the trailer...

 

[teebeeohh]

so, does the spider-man trailer mean the tie-in game will be a cheap mirror edge knock-off.

 

[Cekil1]

Why does no one seem to remember that Spider-Man IS kind of a "Whiny kid with Spider powers"? Sure, it's not the main drive of his story and it takes a backseat in later issues, but it's pretty relevant to his character as a whole. I mean honestly, how many issues can you really read without him doing his "I got my Uncle killed so, I'll recite his mantra a million times" shtick?

By the way, Bob, if you really need Batman to wear the old Blue & Grey so badly you can always read the older issues. I thought it was intelligent to have something that actually looks and feels like armor instead of cloth. He's NOT Superman my friend.

 

[Mister Linton]

Providing a better explaination than "radioactive spider randomly bites Peter" and tying that explaination to the main antagonist is bad huh?

Why exactly should Nolan ruin his continuity with stupid magic shit?

 

[Uriel_51]

Before reading further, I must simply say Anne Hathaway is, imho, one of the most beautiful women alive. I CANNOT wait to see her as Catwoman.

Ok, reading continues.

 

[Belzera]

The only Marvel movie villian we've seen so far still alive is Loki?

Captain America spoiler. following.

Spoiler

The Red Skull isn't dead, at least not from what I saw, he just seemed to be transported off world by the tesseract/cube/macguffin like if he had used the Bifrost gate. But that could just be me.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

For the most part I agree with you on Spider-Man. I don't like this new tone and I really don't like how this movie is only being made because Raimi wouldn't do Spider-Man 4. But there are a couple of things you said that are bugging me a bit. I mean what's wrong with Peter being mopey and sulky? That was one of his defining characteristics all throughout the sixties. However, this portrayal still doesn't seem very nerdy, so we can agree there. (Though I'm not saying that mopey and sulky should be the only trait he has, as that would suck) And while the comics never delved into it too heavily, Gwen Stacey IS a scientist. She gets into Empire State University on the exact same scholarship as Peter (Aka the "Incredibly freakishly smart at Science" scholarship) and is shown to be able to handle herself fine in Chemistry class. And then[b/] there's the more recent Spectacular Spider-Man version which is essentially Peter with blonde hair and breasts.

Regardless of those things, I share your dislike. I'm happy to hear Spidey will be snarkier than his last movie incarnation, but at the moment it looks like that's about all it has going for it. Still, I'll reserve final judgement until I see the full movie.

 

[Butterjaw]

The only Marvel movie villian we've seen so far still alive is Loki?

Captain America spoiler. following.

Spoiler

The Red Skull isn't dead, at least not from what I saw, he just seemed to be transported off world by the tesseract/cube/macguffin like if he had used the Bifrost gate. But that could just be me.

I think Bob meant the only villain left alive that would require The Avengers to take him down. Red Skull got spanked by the Captain.

Though saying that, Thor was a match for Loki... Why do we need this team again?