Spreading Some Joker Venom
It has been an eventful week for news, hasn’t it? And wanted to just share some quick thoughts on headlines and videos that have caught my attention.
Trailer Talk
Venom – A teaser trailer that doesn’t really tease what people want to share nor meaty enough to be much of a trailer. I don’t hate it, but I do think it would have benefited by being half the length if it wasn’t going to show, you know Venom. I honestly don’t mind that Venom isn’t in the trailer, I mean we have months of marketing to go, but they don’t even tease an interaction between Hardy’s Brock and the symbiote.
Deadpool 2 – If the first movie taught us anything is that the Deadpool marketing folks know what they are doing, and that continues with the movie’s second trailer which introduces us to Deadpool’s BFF, Cable. The trailer has the humor, the action and the meta we’ve come to expect from Deadpool.
Jessica Jones – The Defenders’ muscle returns for what seems like a more cerebral and personal season as she tries to discover the root of her problems while dealing with a murder in town. The trailer doesn’t do much for me as it doesn’t do anything to alleviate the fears of the MCU Netflix formula. And I know that’s difficult to judge from a 2-minute trailer but it seems to have one major focus and a few smaller subplots, we shall see.
Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years – Not really a “trailer” as it’s not advertising anything, but it is a special moment to see a celebration of 10 years and 17 movies!
Overwatch: Lunar New Year 2018 – Overwatch is the game that keeps on keeping, and always a fan of seeing the new costumes and content they are offering for their seasonal events. And like always these costumes deliver. Oh so many that I wanna get.
Headlines Hero
Joaquin Phoenix to Become the Man Who Laughs – Coming from Variety, it seems that Joaquin Phoenix is up for the role of The Joker in the standalone (Leto will continue to hold the role in the DCEU) Joker film from the Hangover’s director, Todd Phillips. When we first heard of this movie it was envisioned as a Joker origin film, but I am curious if that still remains, Phoenix isn’t necessarily what I’d call a spring chicken.
As for my thoughts on the movie, I am not quite sure about it. The Joker is one of those characters who exists in the service of others. He needs Batman, he needs Harley, he needs Lex, he needs someone else to play off his crazy. No matter the time in his life, a standalone Joker movie seems like an odd decision.
Bayhem comes to the DC Universe – According to The Wrap, Michael Bay is in talks to direct a live-action Lobo movie. If you’ve been following DC Comics movies for some time, you know that Lobo is one of those properties that always seems to be on the crux of development. The idea of a Michael Bay Lobo movie doesn’t do much for me. It seems like a good fit for character and director, and even though he has done 5 Transformers’ films, we haven’t really seen Bay handle space too much so would be intriguing in that regard.
The problem comes when you think of the overall state-of-affairs with the DC Comics movies. DC is still having troubles getting their core characters into a position where they can reliably get audiences to embrace them so it is strange that they are already venturing out to more obscure properties. It’s like trying to set-up 10 spinning plates when you can’t even get the sticks to stand up straight.
My Nintendo Brings Home The Gold – Nintendo announced today starting in early March that consumers will be able to use Gold Coins accumulated via My Nintendo to purchase software on the Nintendo Switch. Each digital game you purchase will net you 5% of the purchase price (after discounts and vouchers) and physical games will grant you 1%. It’s not a ton, but every little bit helps and goes a bit towards making My Nintendo something feasible though still a far cry from the heights of Club Nintendo and the Digital Deluxe Promotion.
Netflix Goes Blockbuster Shopping – After the stealth launch of The Cloverfield Paradox, it seems like Netflix has gotten a little taste for picking up theatrical films that may be floundering or can’t find the right place by their original distributor. The latest is the sci-fi thriller, Extinction, with Michael Pena. The movie seems interesting enough, but I would advise Netflix to be more selective in the future. Already getting a rep for some of their original movies, they don’t wanna turn into nothing more than a streaming SyFy network.
The One True Franchise of the North – Disney announced that they are setting up a new trilogy of “Star Wars” films from the creator’s behind HBO’s hit series, Game of Thrones. While not much details were given, the announcement landed with a thud. Partially because in just about 3-years, Disney has managed to turn Star Wars from an event film to just another film series. We have Solo set to release in just 3 months, Episode IX next December, and now 2 separate trilogies in the universe. That’s not to say that these movies won’t be good or anything, but they don’t necessarily feel special.
