David Startup

Absolutely have to agree with the scene from Before Midnight coming first – an incredibly true, captivating and heartbreaking scene of emotion; it may be the only time I’ve ever watched a film in the cinema when I was literally on the edge of my seat. Forget the year, it’s probably one of my favourite scenes of all time too!

It easy to look at it with cynical eyes – it is a movie about a brand – but if it’s anything as fun as the video games, which are more or less the only games that I ever actually play, then it should be a hell of a lot of fun. I just hope that the filmmakers make the most of this and include the brand tie-ins available to them – the trailer shows Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, which means we have our Justice League movie already, but imagine if they threw in some of the Marvel superheroes too, perhaps even the faces from the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars Lego brands and more? If handled well this could be an amazingly cool film (although I’m just happy to see Batman and Superman in there – the banter between those two characters in the second Lego Batman video game was brilliant!)

Boy was I wrong… Having seen the film I was very disappointed, just as this article predicted – it was the usual Snyder all over again! It had some fantastic moments to it, but they were all overshadowed by a pretty poor screenplay and copious mind-numbing CGI destruction. Nothing like the film it could and should have been. (If you anyone is interested, here is my full review on the film: www.beyondinfinityfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/review-man-of-steel.html )

Pixar are still churning out original films, do not threat! We may have only had one original idea in the last 4 films (and at least 2 of these franchise follow-ups are of high Pixar quality anyway), but of the next four confirmed Pixar films there is only 1 sequel (Finding Dory) amongst 3 completely original ideas between 2014 and 2016 (Pixar will finally release 2 films in one year in 2015). The studio also has three more films lined up for release between 2017 and 2018 (2 a year again for 2017) and I think the likelihood is that these will be orignial films too (although as the article mentions The Incredibles 2 could well be on the cards here).

Naturally the sequel announcements get more attention, but whilst everyone worries about Pixar becoming an unoriginal franchise machine, the truth is far from that.

I really enjoyed both of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films, but I’ve never ventured into watching any of the TV series – perhaps, and especially after this article, the time is nigh…

Great article Brett! What I love about the marketing campaign for Man of Steel is that they have released so many full-length and short (TV) trailers, yet I am still none the wiser as to what film’s narrative actually is – where a lot of marketing packages/trailers for films these days tell you too much of the plot, these have been very cleverly done.

On the Snyder front, I too felt very concerned when this was announced – he often does wonders with the visuals but leaves the spectator feeling robbed in the story/character/emotion department. However with David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan on script writing duties, fresh out of the incredible Dark Knight Trilogy, it looks like a match made in heaven – great writing with great visuals, win-win! If Justice League every sees the light of day, this could be the winning formula the film will need…