Just forget the words and sing along

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

I'm sure we all remember that one of the big complaints about Hulk was that we didn't actually get to see the Hulk until 45 minutes into the film. Well, you know what? Today, I was watching bits and pieces of Superman, considered to be the greatest comic book adaptation to date, and in that film, we don't get to see Superman until 50 minutes into it! So, I ask you, what makes Superman the greatest and Hulk only so-so? Well, lots of things but I won't get into them here.

That's what's going to make the new Batman film so interesting. Apparently, we're not going to see Batman until about 45 minutes into the film. See, a grand part of the Batman-mythos is this "world tour" that young Bruce Wayne went on to train to become Batman. The first 45 minutes or so will be Bruce Wayne on this world tour. A high point of the world tour will be Wayne's apprenticeship under Henri Ducard, a French billionaire who ultimately turns out to be an agent of the evil Ra's Al Guhl. Henri Ducard is being played by Liam Neeson. I remember reading a description of the Ducard/Wayne scenes in the film. The reviewer said, "Yes, you read that right. There's a sword fight between Batman and Qui-Gon Jinn."

But let's go back to Hulk. I'm really interested to see if Hulk 2 ever gets made. Marvel still wants to go ahead with it. Valhalla Productions (the folks who really own the movie rights) wants to go ahead with it. But, Universal doesn't want to go ahead with it, what with it having been one of the box office disappointments of 2003 and all. Marvel still wants it for the summer of 2006.

Speaking of Marvel comics movies, here's an interesting bit about Fantastic Four. Seems that, in order to make it more appealing to a younger demographic, the film is going to based largely on the new Ultimate Fantastic Four comic rather than the classic Fantastic Four comics. FF purists are already quaking in their boots. They start filming in August for a July 2005 release.

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