The first trailer for Captain America: Winter Soldier came out today!

I guess I have to go see it. How about you?

Superman and the Man of Steel

There's a recent film about Superman that's embarrassed to use the name. They're embarrassed, perhaps, because they want to make this new iteration of Superman "realistic" or "naturalistic" and let's be honest, in the 21st century the name "Superman" seems a little silly.

Maybe that's because two kids in their twenties invented him in the 1930's. For them, Superman represented the pinnacle of human possibility. He couldn't fly, but he could just jump over buildings. He didn't have heat ray vision, but he could outrun a train. And at first, he didn't fight space monsters and giant super-intelligent apes or robots or other Kryptonians. He protected the oppressed. He fought against real-world injustice: fat cats like Lex Luthor who took advantage of common citizens, or Borden Mosley (a corrupt financier) or Calvin Denby (a crook and sort of home-grown terrorist). He wasn't an ordinary man, he was the super man: the best human being possible.

Superman didn't kill people -- even the worst villains. He brought them to justice.

Frankly, there is a large dose of wish fulfillment involved in his stories. "What if I had the power to stop evil? What if I could make sure that no one ever died... not in an accident, not from a criminal, because I had the power to stop it?" And of course, Superman is rewarded for his goodness. He always gets the girl, even when he humbly tries not to be rewarded for just doing what he would do anyway.

First kiss!

Here's where the philosophical underpinnings of Man of Steel bothered and disappointed me. Superman should be the best possible human being, but in this movie he wasn't. Superman should always be able to find a way out: the higher ground, the best solution. But the Man of Steel couldn't. Because he is, after all, only a man, not a role model.

What's wrong with being a role model?

In the movie (vague, general spoilers in this paragraph only), he can't stop the villains from roughing up his mother. He lets entire skyscrapers full of people collapse, in a creepy 9-11 type catastrophic event caused by a fistfight with another Kryptonian. And eventually he uses his great power to pass judgment on the evil doers. Not to bring them to justice, not to give them due process, not to incarcerate or prevent them from doing evil. Superman abuses his power. He takes a moral path that doesn't reflect the best possibilities of humanity: it doesn't suggest hope, or forgiveness, or redemption or even justice. It represents vigilantism and pragmatism. It's Superman shrugging and saying, "I guess this is the best any of us can hope for."

That's why, although I enjoyed the movie, I walked out knowing it was not a movie about Superman. It was a movie about someone else, dressed up as Superman to make sure the movie made a profit. The "real" Superman -- the one who sets the world an example, the one we should aspire to be -- doesn't let entire buildings full of people die because he's in a fistfight. He's the sort of man who makes sure that kittens get rescued from trees. He stops purse thieves. He shows up at hospitals to talk to sick kids.

The fact is, the filmmakers wanted to make a "realistic" Superman, which they took to mean a world with no clear cut solutions, no easy way out. They made it gray and edgy and violent. That's fine. There are large parts of our world like that. But in the grey of this real world, the blue and red and yellow of Superman's costume should shine out that much brighter. He should use his power for good, to make the world a better place. Because even in this "real world" there are people who are working hard to bring peace and hope and light into the darkness. Superman should not only be one of those people, he should be a shining example of that fight, someone to look up to, someone to emulate.

If my kids grew up to make the moral choices of the "Man of Steel" version of Superman, I would be disappointed. That's a shame. He should be better than that. There's no such thing as a no-win situation for Superman, because Superman believes "there's always a way." I don't care if he has to break the laws of physics and zip around the earth until it goes backwards and turns time around, Superman always wins, always protects, always provides hope, always does the right thing.

I still love Superman. I'm used to people not understanding him, or not believing he could exist. Unfortunately, that's what happened in this movie... someone said, "There's no such thing as a person with that strong of a moral code." There's no such thing as Superman, in other words. You can believe in science fiction and life on other worlds and that a man can fly, but not that human beings have a chance of becoming something better than what we are, that the "pinnacle of humanity" might make better moral choices than we are right now.

But I do believe. We can do better, become better. I believe that, at least in part, because growing up someone introduced me to a guy in blue tights and a red cape who told me I should believe that. There's always a way. We can fight for truth, because truth matters. We can fight for justice, because the right thing to do with our power is to protect those who have less power than us. We can, without embarrassment, fight for the American way, if what we mean by that is that all human beings have been endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

At least, that's what Superman taught me. And, if these are my choices, then I prefer the "real" Superman to the "realistic" one.

New MAN OF STEEL trailer is live. NEAT!

AHHHHH! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much!

But this trailer looks pretty great.



What do you think? Who's in?

Life of Magnum Pi

My friend Shelby Abbott and I were talking about his mustache the other day and I told him about this idea for a funny short film I had called, "LIFE OF MAGNUM PI." He tweeted it out and Brady Green made this amazing poster for it.

Coming to a theatre near you. Hollywood, our operators are standing by for your phone call offering millions of dollars. I am willing to go as low as two million dollars.

Dora the Explorer Live Action Movie

My three-year-old (M) and I were both home sick yesterday with an awful, cringe-inducing head cold. I    felt like someone had nailed me onto the couch, and she could barely lift her head off the floor in front of the television. Which means, of course, that I let her watch television for a decent part of the day.

Yesterday was a "Dora the Explorer" day. It made me think about all the cartoons I watched as a kid, like "He-Man" and "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers" and how eventually I grew up and then Hollywood tried to help me recapture my youth by making live action movies loosely based on my childhood cartoons.

These movies are not always particularly faithful to the source material. It made me wonder... what would a live action DORA THE EXPLORER MOVIE look like?

Now I know:

Scott Pilgrim/The Matrix mash up

I love Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I think it was a hilarious, fun, entertaining movie. It can even help redeem the Matrix trilogy!

The Dark Knight Rises (as portrayed by hot dogs)

Here's a complete re-shot of The Dark Knight Rises trailer, except all the people have been replaced with hot dogs.



I can't wait to see the feature length event this summer.

How the Avengers Should Have Ended

Hey, since we talked about Spider-Man this morning, why not make it a SUPERHERO MOVIE day here at BHR?

Here's a very funny look at what SHOULD have happened at the end of The Avengers. If you haven't already seen the movie there are some spoilers here.

What if Wes Anderson wrote and directed the new Spider-Man movie?

Then I guess I would go see it. Try to deny that this is awesome:

Spider-Man's blog

You guys. Peter Parker has a blog, which, frankly, wouldn't be all that interesting if we didn't already know that he's the spectacular Spider-Man.

But check out this hidden page on the blog.

This is, of course, viral marketing for the upcoming Spider-Man movie. I trust you just caught the virus.

New Avengers Trailer....

FINE FINE FINE! I will go see the new Avengers movie when it comes out. Stop harassing me. SPOILER: Captain America is crushed to goo when Thor uses his hammer to crush him. I'm sorry, but there's no way his shield is going to help him there.

Oscar parody posters

Okay, these made me laugh.

It's funny because it's true. 

It's funny because George Clooney thinks it's really, really so obviously true.

It's funny because: "Even if it's just, like, best make up." Ha!

It's funny because... "fetlocks"... ha ha ha! Horses have dumb names for everything!

These are by far my favorites from the posters. If you're offended by language, references to disturbing things in some of the movies or spoilers, proceed with caution (Rated R), but there's a whole bunch of them here.

Chronicle is here

This is a preview for a movie called Chronicle, about some teenage boys who make a strange discovery, which leads to them receiving spectacular super powers. I haven't decided whether to see the movie yet (it looks pretty dark), but let's be honest... this is exactly what would happen if 15 year old kids got super powers.

The new Avengers trailer

Because I worked at a comic book store I am contractually obligated to share this trailer for the Avengers movie here: Of course, since all you non-nerds out there were watching the Super Bowl today, you've already seen it. I didn't, because I was busy organizing my comic books alphabetically by the person who colored it.

Moonrise Kingdom is coming soon!

I always enjoy Wes Anderson films. They're quirky and deep and painfully funny. So I'm pretty pleased that there's a new one coming out, which from the looks of the trailer will be pretty much everything you would generally expect from Wes Anderson. Should be fun!

 

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Last week Krista and I took the kids to see this movie:



To be honest neither of us were particularly excited to see it, but the kids had the day off school so we took them out that night since they didn't have to get up early the next day. The movie had ratbirds, a talking monkey, a police officer with a pretty major role played by Mr. T and... Bruce Campbell. Crazy. But it was actually a really good movie. I enjoyed it a lot and walked away amazed by how much you can get away with. Once you get the audience to accept the basic premise that a wacky scientist can turn water into food, well, you can get them to accept pretty much anything that comes after that. Yay for pseudo-science! Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie it's worth your time. I was laughing harder than the kids sometimes.

And, in the world of previews, where kids always ask "Dad, can we go see that movie?" I was forced to say NO WAY to Disney's Princess and the Frog. It's too bad because it's nice to see Disney doing some hand drawn animation again, but I just don't want my kids watching a movie where voodoo plays such a big role. Also the trailer simply wasn't funny. Too bad, Disney.

But that's okay, I told them we could go see this instead:

You know you want to see this

This is the first official picture from next summer's A-Team movie. It looks awesome, right?  Yes, it does.  And do you notice who is playing Hannibal?  It's Liam Neeson.  Nice!  I love it when a plan comes together.

via SlashFilm

17 Again

Krista and I went on a date tonight. We went out to dinner and then went to see this movie:



The story is basically "Big" in reverse... a grown up wishes he was small and he becomes a high schooler and has adventures and of course it's a love story and a family story (Etc, etc) but mostly it's about Zac Efron working as a sort of magnet for the money of every young woman who walks near a movie theater. The movie was enjoyable, overall. Genuinely funny in places. I have to admit I felt awkward when I told the movie ticket guy which movie I wanted tickets to see. And I felt awkward again when the thirty or so people in line ahead of us were walking into the same theater and they were all aged 13-17 (female).

But we had a good time.

And since I'm sure anyone who stumbles on this blog post may well be coming from the intended audience I will now include some reviews snagged from YouTube from some young ladies who have posted their thoughts:

"omg. i watched it tonight, and i LOVED it. i am soooooo buying it when it comes out on DVD!!! ahhh, i'm so excited. the scene when he comes out of the car, with his aviator shades on....TOTALLY HOT. i almost hyperventilated in the theater...not gonna lie. geesh. and the movie made me cry in one part...watch it, and you'll know what i'm talking about."

Also:

"omj omj this movie is awsome i saw it today its soo funny my fave part is when zacs dancing with the mom and alex walks in and is like do you always dance with your friends mom? no no no! its soo funny!! this movie rocks <3"

But the point is that I had a good time hanging out with my wife. Yay for dates with my wife!

Where the Wild Things Are: The Movie

My friend Roland sent along the trailer for the upcoming "Where the Wild Things Are" movie with the one-word review of "No." After watching the trailer I have to say that any hopes that this movie might be great are sufficiently quashed. I don't want to see a sweet, loveable Max having adventures with the kind monsters of an imaginary island. I want to see the uncontrollable, wild, enraged Max taming the frightening monsters across the sea. Dave Eggers is listed as one of the screenwriters, so that gives me some hope, at least, and Maurice Sendak is one of the producers. Judge for yourself:



Roland suggests that we consider this alternative with the equally terse review "Yes."



At least Big Man Japan knows how to deal with monsters.

Chariots of Fire sequel green lighted

Producer Ken Wales, producer of the "Amazing Grace" movie recently announced that the financing for a "Chariots of Fire" sequel has come together.

Here's a video clip of the announcement. I like his definition of "entertainment"... "To inform with delight."


This morning I was helping A with her awanas homework and she had to look up information on Eric Liddell and as I read about his ministry in China and his service in the internment camp I got all choked up. As people describe his unifying force in the camp and then his ultimate death from a brain tumor, they say that his final words were, "It's complete surrender." Beautiful.

Anyway, I remember for a long time that EVERY SINGLE CHRISTIAN talk had a clip of "Chariots of Fire" in it. So this ought to give another movie to use.

In the meantime, Mr. Wales, if you're looking for a writer I am available.