Superheroes have always been cool. Always, without a doubt. That's why today I wanted to talk about superhero movies you can watch this summer!
The first superhero movie I remember thinking was so rad was Marvel's "Captain America: The First Avenger." I mean, I probably thought at least one was rad before then, but do I remember it? Nope.
My favorite superhero movie of all time is… uh… well, Marvel again, but "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2." You probably have seen evidence of that around ENMU's Portales campus. For a good long while, I wore my red jacket designed to imitate Star Lord's, and everyone called me… well, Star Lord. Basically, I love Star Lord. Guardians Volume 2. My favorite superhero movie.
The coolest visual one I've seen was Marvel's—
Yeah, okay. We get it. Marvel has a monopoly on superhero films. If you haven't watched a Marvel movie at this point, it's because you don't want to watch it and that's totally fine. We're not here to judge, only to rate.
So for this blog's purpose, we're not going to talk about Marvel movies in the same cinematic universe. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but Marvel has a crazy oversaturated market on the genre. I'd rather talk about my other favorite films.
So to summarize, no Marvel if it's in that whole "Avengers" timeline. They've been producing about two films every year since 2007 so you probably already know everything that you should about Marvel. Especially now that "Avengers: Endgame" has been released. What a crazy awesome movie.
Whatever, I've been talking too much. Let's get into it!
"The Incredibles" (Brad Bird; 2004). This movie was one of my favorites growing up and still is. Featuring the wonderful voice talents of Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson and Samuel L. Jackson, this Disney-Pixar hunk of beauty was compared to the likes of "Watchmen" and "The Avengers" comics. That's pretty significant for an animated movie that literally invented a new form of computer animation to reach the ambition of director Brad Bird.
When this movie ended, I remember I thought there was a sequel despite the best efforts of my family to tell me otherwise. I was too young to understand the concept of cliffhangers, you see; so thank you "Incredibles" for exposing me to that. "The Incredibles" is what trained me for that year-long gap between "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." Train 'em young, folks.
When the sequel was finally released in 2018, my siblings and I went crazy, and that's how three legal adults accompanied our high school-aged sister into a theater filled with moms with their four-year-olds. It was worth all the kids crying during all the villain scenes. Screenslaver is apparently much scarier than I personally thought she was.
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman; 2018). Okay, you've probably already seen it, but you know what, I love this movie beyond words. Besides the fact that the animation is stylized to appear like it's an actual Spider-Man comic, the story being just so wonderful, the music fitting in so well to the story's plot and the VOICE ACTING. WOW.
Everything fits so well for Sony's glorious first installment (they aren't making another one as far as I know, BUT I WANT THEM TO) in the story of Miles Morales. Man, I love this film. Also, John Mulaney voices Spider-Ham, and John Mulaney is my all-time favorite comedian of all time ever.
You can watch his three comedy specials on Netflix, or listen to him voice the character Andrew on Netflix's "Big Mouth." He's wonderful. Whose man? Mine, I hope. HAHAH JUST KIDDING HE'S MARRIED. Not that…. Not that I'm bothered by that or anything.
"Wonder Woman" (Patty Jenkins; 2017). I'm not a big fan of the whole Marvel-esque shared universe DC is trying to recreate. After all, they had Pitbull turn "Africa" by Toto into a rap song, which is unforgivable. Cue Marlon Brando ("Look how they massacred my boy…").
That being said, "Wonder Woman" is so freaking cool. It's the Captain America of DC, what with the whole World War I setting. Normally I'd mean that as an insult, but it oddly works.
Plus, DC got to the last Chris before Marvel could! Props. Finally, Gal Gadot is gorgeous and wonderful and MAN. What a woman. What an actress. She fits so well for the whole Diana Prince schtick perfectly. Plus, she served two years in the Israeli military as a combat instructor, which is how she started to get casted for films, so she's a grade-A certified—I mean, I can't say it, but you get the idea.
What a FILM. Go watch it! My favorite part is when you finally realize who Ares is, specifically because every time I watch the film I half expect a full moon to emerge and for Ares to turn into a werewolf. Thanks, Harry Potter—you've created characters that are so iconic, I can't imagine the actors as anything other than Harry Potter characters.
"V for Vendetta" (James McTeigue; 2005). Perhaps the most thematic film on our list today, "V for Vendetta" is also a DC property which I didn't realize until after I watched it. Or I guess when I saw the title sequence. The point is, I didn't realize it was a DC thing. You can watch it on Netflix with a subscription.
It's a cool movie that takes place in like this… possibly post-apocalyptic (??) dystopian society. I'll have to take a second viewing to verify the post-apocalypse thing. It's definitely dystopian—V is a man dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask who runs around future Britain destabilizing a fascist new-world government. The film stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving, who were also both in Phase One Marvel films ("Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger," respectively). If you don't know who those people are, Portman played Padme in the worst "Star Wars" films, and Weaving was Red Skull in Star Wars as well as the elf lord Elrong in "Lord of the Rings."
Anyway, it's a really awesome action film that you gotta watch now. It's really good.
No, stop what you're doing and watch it. Seriously. They teach the source comic in high schools and colleges, straight up. It's highly thematic and symbolic.
"Logan" (James Mangold; 2017). Ladies, if your man isn't Hugh Jackman, reconsider and find yourself Hugh Jackman. Or don't. Because he's married and that's creepy.
Regardless, this film marked Hugh Jackman's last performance as the X-Men character Wolverine. No fears, the character isn't gone for good, thanks to Disney's buyout of 20th Century Fox. But that's not what I'm talking about right now.
It's a bleak and depressing film that takes place in an alternate future where mutants are dying out. It made me CRY unlike any other movie I've seen. God, it's just so good. Words can't do it justice so just go watch it. Drop everything and find it.
"The Lego Batman Movie" (Chris McKay; 2017). I get that not everyone was a big fan of "The Lego Movie," but I think this one was much better and much funnier, too. Chris Pratt is a glorious comedian, but Will Arnett brings this life to Batman that I never expected I'd like.
The animation is pretty awesome too, and overall it's just a really funny movie. It's got a lot of really famous actors, and it's kind of remarkable they were able to get so many A-list actors to participate.
"The Lego Batman Movie" is just so funny. That's it. It's one of those films that I like to play in the background that I can listen to without paying too much attention to it. Would I watch it religiously the way I watched "Endgame?" Of course not. Would I watch it as frequently as I would watch "Endgame" if I owned both films? Also probably not, but I'd still wear out the DVD.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are a lot of good superhero movies that exist if you know where to look.
And if you see a guy walking around in a red Star Lord jacket, I'm going to take a big chance and say that it's probably me. I'm giving you more information than you need to know so that you realize how much I LOVE the character. I am basically Star Lord. I own the Walkman and cassettes from the film and everything.
I'd say don't judge me, but I'm typically too excited that I'm wearing a Star Lord jacket to notice judgment, so… live your lives and let's geek out. I always have more thoughts on superhero things.
