What makes Deadpool a very, very special member of the Marvel Universe is that he rides that Bugs Bunny plane of existence where he has a direct, ongoing conversation with us, the audience, as he partakes in the same superhero escapades of his spandex-clad counterparts. For fans, the prospect of him hitting the big screen was an exciting one—a Deadpool movie, done well, has the potential to undress superhero movies in a spectacular, hilarious way. After years bubbling up to the surface of the cesspool of weirdo movie projects no one wants to finance, Deadpool is finally here, and it does (hooray!) walk through many of the creative doors a fourth-wall-breaking character like “The Merc With A Mouth” kicks down. What’s a disappointment is how surprisingly tame the comedy feels and how conventional the movie feels as a whole, but if it’s simple, off-the-wall entertainment you’re after, you’re going to leave the theater mighty happy.

The movie’s self-awareness is may be the biggest hook for those of us with previous knowledge of the titular character (played by a fiery Ryan Reynolds), but for mass audiences, its clear appeal is its free pass to show us hard-R, bloody, vulgar stuff you almost never see in superhero movies. Kick-Ass constitutes the “almost,” but Deadpool hits the anti-superhero-movie thing on the head much, much harder. The tone is firmly set in the funny opening credits sequence which, instead of sprawling filmmaker Tim Miller‘s name across the screen, cites the director as “Some Hack” and the writers as “The Real Heroes Here.” The jokes, which mostly take aim at studio-movie clichés, are well thought-out a lot of fun, though they never feel as smart or ahead of the fanboy curve as I’d hoped. Most of the laughs come from a place of recognition, like pointing out how shameless Marvel’s Stan Lee cameos have become or referencing the colossal blunder that was The Green Lantern (which also starred, as you probably know, Mr. Reynolds). The best gags are the ones that come out of left field, like when Deadpool slyly hints that the main reason the movie got financed was due to the support of Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman.

Reynolds (who’s been vocal about his desire to reprise the Deadpool character after the missed opportunity that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine) doesn’t shut his yap for virtually the entire movie, a difficult task for even the most seasoned onscreen comedians (Jim Carrey and the late Robin Williams took on many a gabby, cartoonish role in their respective careers, and even they had their fair share of missteps). That the Canadian heartthrob sails through the material so comfortably is super (pardon the pun) impressive, especially considering how much harder it is for uber-handsome leading men to get us to laugh at and/or with them (Cary Grant was one of the few actors who could be “the fool” and make us feel sorry for him despite his immaculately chiseled chin). Now, is Reynolds as funny and brilliant as the three legends I just name-dropped? That’s a big NO. But most actors of his generation and ilk would crash and burn in this kind of role, and he keeps his composure uncommonly well.

After the movie’s first scene, a quippy, brain-splattering freeway shootout in which Deadpool’s badassery and loudmouth personality are established, we flash back to learn about the life of Wade Wilson, a mercenary with a barkeep best friend called Weasel (T.J. Wilson) and a kindhearted, prostitute lover, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Setting Wade on his path to becoming the one-and-only Deadpool is the news that he has late-stage, terminal cancer. When a shady figure offers him a cure in the form of experimental therapy (which, as chance would have it, affords the patient super powers), he reluctantly seizes the opportunity. Bad move; the organization administering the treatment turns out to be totally evil. Wade’s cured alright (he even acquires super-healing powers), but he’s left covered from head to toe in Freddie Kruger-esque burns. In a word (his word), he’s “un-fuckable.” The dejected Wade can’t bring himself to return to Vanessa with his disgusting-ass face, so he instead sets out on a revenge mission in search of Ajax (Ed Skrein), the mad scientist who screwed him over in the first place.

Deadpool starts in a good place but eventually starts to skip to the same beat as all the superhero movies it pokes fun at, pitting our antihero against a sadistic bad guy in a CGI-heavy final battle, the fate of his love hanging in the balance. Some mutant sidekicks join the fray in the form of the Russian, steel-bodied Colossus (Stefan Kapacic) and the explosive Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). These two are mostly used to emphasize how much edgier Deadpool is than your everyday X-Man, though it’s pretty clear that, deep down, he sits comfortably on the good-guy side of the larger spectrum—what’s more heroic than risking life and limb for your lover? Take away his potty mouth and murdering addiction (he only kills bad guys, after all), and he’s just like the rest of Professor Xavier’s gifted students. That’s the movie’s biggest issue: bells and whistles aside, it feels like just another superhero story. The irony stings. Still, it’s entertaining throughout and the laughs are well-earned and rival those found in the excellent Guardians of the Galaxy . That’s a win deserving of a lifetime supply of yummy chimichangas.

We’re back with another packed show as we welcome filmmaker Evgeny Afineefsky to talk about his documentary Winter On Fire. Bernard and Zach go over the standouts of the still-rolling 53rd New York Film Festival as well as talk about this past summer’s disappointing string of summer blockbusters. The boys also discuss actors whose movies they’ll watch no matter what and share their Indie Picks of the Week.

Topics

• Indie Picks of the Week (2:13)
• NYFF (6:46)
• Summer Blockbuster Rage (27:36)
• Actors We Follow (43:53)
• Evgeny Afineefsky (55:02)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

Carol NYFF Review
Microbe & Gasoline NYFF Review
The Walk Review

Josh Trank‘s Fantastic Four is a diabolical assault on everything great about one of Marvel’s most popular and beloved superteams. It takes itself too seriously, it’s colorless visually and emotionally, and it dupes us by promising something “Fantastic” and instead delivering a lifeless black hole of an experience that’ll ruin your day. There’s no fun to be had here.

Strangely enough, the absence of fun was sort of an artistic choice by Trank, who landed the Marvel gig off of the success of his 2012 superpower drama Chronicle. That movie focused on the real-world implications of superpowers, showing one troubled teen’s pent-up rage manifesting itself as a city-leveling act of revenge against the world. Trank’s approach with Fantastic Four is to similarly ground the source material in the real world, pondering what would actually come of Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch and The Thing if they existed on earth today.

In trying to strip away the comic book cheese in favor of a science/body-horror take on the characters, Trank actually saps every drop of life out of the source material in an act of selfish franchise perversion and disfiguration that’s actually somehow worse than the Adam Sandler monstrosity that is Pixels, which is still terrorizing audiences across the country with its blatant prostitution of retro gaming. At least Pixels tried to entertain you; Fantastic Four makes you feel like crying in a corner.

The movie’s story is based on an arc from the Ultimate Fantastic Four series of comics. It’s a revised origin story that sees Reed Richards (Miles Teller), a brilliant inventor, scientist, and engineer, team with siblings Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan, who acted for Trank in Chronicle), and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell), Reed’s anti-establishment intellectual rival, to build an inter-dimensional teleporter. The first two-thirds of the movie creep along as we watch them build the damn thing, going through the motions of clichéd team dynamics (love triangle, sibling rivalry) as we wait for something, anything, to excite us.

Be forewarned: this is a crappy body horror movie, not a superhero movie. Following a rogue mission to “Planet Zero” by the boys and Reed’s old friend, Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), the kids do acquire powers: Reed gets stretchy; Johnny turns into a fireball; Sue turns invisible; Ben turns into an ugly rock Thing. Victor gets left behind on Planet Zero, and he turns into Doctor Doom.

You’d think the movie would finally, mercifully kick into high gear at this point and at least give us some action, but no. Instead, we watch the kids blow up rocks and storage crates at an industrial (bland-looking) secret base so that the government can observe their freakish abilities. They’re miserable lab rats running in circles, and watching them agonize and writhe in pain as their bodies betray them is a pointless play for existential drama that falls flat on its face. Hellbent on revenge, Victor plans to sap the earth’s resources and shape Planet Zero to his liking as its all-powerful dictator (and sole inhabitant). Yadda yadda.

The plot isn’t worth talking about any further. It stinks, and most of the storylines vanish into thin air inexplicably. What’s worthy of note is that Trank’s intentions were good. He was trying to make the anti-superhero movie by sprinting to the opposite side of the spectrum of Fox’s failed 2005 Fantastic Four movie adaptation, which was goofy as all hell. He ran too far, however, and the risk, unfortunately, didn’t pay off. In fact, it blew up in his face, and in turn, all of our faces as well.

Maybe the most intolerable thing about this movie is its look. It’s like watching someone smear gray and blue paint over a black canvas for 100 minutes. This movie feels like that time of year when fall fades into winter and all the rain and overcast mush just makes you feel like frowning and napping all day. The visual effects are ugly, the cinematography is pedestrian, and the movie’s two (yes, two) action scenes are so poorly staged and nonsensical and unsatisfying it’ll give you blue balls.

The obvious beacon of hope for this dreary piece of work is the young cast, most of whom have proven they have enough charisma to carry a movie on their own. The material proves to be unsalvageable, however, as proven leading-men Teller and Jordan are forced to navigate their way through dialog that’s so unconvincing and artificial it hurts. The worst scene comes last, as the four friends stands around their new government-funded research facility, trying to figure out what to name the team. Admiring the new digs, Ben says with a smile, “It’s fantastic.” Reed’s eyes widen. “Say that again…” Ben obliges: “It’s fantastic.” Seriously, guys? Seriously?

Mental real estate is growing scarce as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand, introducing dozens of new characters (both super-powered and not) every year for fans to get acquainted with. Mere months after the jam-packed, super-sized Avengers: Age of Ultron hit theaters, we’re visited by the Ant-Man, a funny little fellow whose brothers in arms aren’t Asgardian gods or raging green monsters, but tiny critters skittering about, virtually invisible to the naked eye. Where does a mini-hero like Ant-Man fit into the pantheon of larger-than-life superheroes? Will anyone even notice?

Probably not. Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man is a respectably entertaining cog in the MCU machine, but it does little to set itself apart from its beefier big brothers. It’s got things other Marvel movies don’t: it’s a heist movie; Ant-Man’s the first superhero father (Hawkeye’s a secret agent!); the action is small-scale (and very easy to follow). But Reed ain’t foolin’ nobody. This is as formulaic a movie as Marvel’s ever produced. Its third act is a lot of fun, but everything beyond that feels safe, as if the movie is afraid to dive into the loony ideas it dips its toes into (James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy dove straight into the deep end, positioning it as the cooler, edgier alternative to the Avengers). If only all superhero movies could be as courageous as their mighty protags.

Michael Douglas anchors the film as Hank Pym, a scientist who in the ’70s invented a super suit that grants its wearer the ability to shrink down to bug size while retaining the strength of a 200-pound man, essentially making him (or her) the stealthiest, most dangerous super soldier the world’s ever seen. Fearing the chaos that would ensue should the technology fall into the wrong hands, Hank hides his invention away to never be found again. Fast-forward to present-day, and it’s found, again, by his former protégé, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), who’s taken over PymTech and plans to unleash an army of shrinking suits on the world.

Unwilling to let his ass-kicking daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly) don his old suit, he employs talented thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) to infiltrate Cross’ labs and steal back the dangerous tech and end this mess. Scott’s just been released from prison and has vowed to give up his former life of crime, but Hank promises to help him reunite with his young daughter (Abby Ryder Forston), who lives with Scott’s ex-wife, Maggie (Judy Greer, underutilized again) and her husband (Bobby Cannavale). Unable to secure a clean job due to his dirty record, Scott agrees to take on the proverbial “one last job.”

Formulaic. Formulaic. You can smell the tropes from a mile away. Just as the plot gets set in motion, the film screeches to a halt as we watch Scott learn to use the Ant-Man suit and speak to ants with his mind (it’s a protracted training montage). Running parallel is a story of father-daughter resentment, which comes to a head in a terrifically acted scene between Lilly and Douglas that nonetheless makes you feel absolutely lousy in an otherwise largely comedic affair.

Rudd always seems to know how to make a scene funny, but seldom do I find his smartass-ness downright hilarious. He’s a comedian of modest talents, though he’s well-rounded and handsome enough to make him a viable leading man. He gets a passing grade. His greatest strength as an actor is that he’s pretty hard not to like, which in the case of a movie like Ant-Man comes in handy: we genuinely want to see him reunited with his daughter. (Just for the record, Ryder Forston is insanely adorable; she’s missing her two front teeth, so none of us stand a chance.)

The surprise standouts of the cast are Tip “T.I.” Harris and Michael Peña, who play Scott’s bumbling burglar buddies. Peña’s comedic delivery is off-the-charts good, and he actually sort of makes Rudd look bad; Rudd’s jokes get mild chuckles while Peña’s makes the audience explode with laughter. Stoll has a great look, his powerful frame and villainously bald head making him more physically imposing than your typical mad scientist. If you blink, you’ll miss his best moment: somberly, like an abandoned child, he asks his former mentor why he pushed him away. Hank replies, “Because I saw too much of myself.” The movie’s pervading theme is one of the passing of generations, which stimulates little thought and doesn’t lend the movie much richness. It does, at least, give the story a solid foundation.

Thankfully, the movie gets really darned good once the big heist gets underway. After an hour or so of mediocrity, things really click into place; the action becomes more playful and inventive, and the actors start to let loose (especially Peña’s character, who sucks so bad at going undercover he just starts clocking security guards left and right and talking smack over their unconscious bodies). The final battle takes place in a little girl’s bedroom, and the ensuing visual gags are wildly entertaining and super funny. Ant-Man‘s micro-comedy isn’t as funny as the stuff Pixar did with the Toy Story franchise, but it comes close, which is a major compliment.

If Ant-Man‘s finale wasn’t so great, I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest you skip the movie entirely. References to other movies in the MCU (a certain winged Avenger makes a guest appearance) are cute and fun, though your enjoyment of that stuff depends on your geekiness level. Edgar Wright had an infamous falling-out with Marvel Studios partway through production and was replaced by Reed, and I wonder if the balls Ant-Man seems to be lacking went away along with the Shaun of the Dead mastermind.

Three years ago, Joss Whedon was given an awesome set of toys to play with: a bounding, hulking man-beast; a crimson-haired femme fatale; a hammer-wielding Norse god; a deadly archer super-spy; a ballistic man made of iron; a patriotic super soldier; Samuel L. Jackson with an eyepatch. He had a big sandbox to play in, too; 2012’s The Avengers ran a whopping 2 hours and 20 minutes, giving him plenty of room to smash his new toys together, give them quippy things to say and conjure up some villains (alien invaders and a smirking, meddling trickster) for them to save the world from. It was big, it was loud, it was a hell of a lot of fun, and all us kids standing around the sandbox showered him with applause once the dust settled and the show was over. Then, he called it a day, putting his action figures away until his next grand production of geek theater.

That brings us to The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon‘s hotly anticipated encore performance. The super-sequel has got everything you’d expect: insane action scenes, clever one-liners, high-stakes drama and geeky easter eggs galore. It’s exciting to have Whedon return to the MCU playground, but there’s a problem: he’s got about twice as many toys as he did last time. Suddenly, the sandbox seems a bit crowded. With four major storylines going on simultaneously and a staggering number of superheroes and villains to keep track of, Marvel Studios’ latest summer blockbuster feels stretched too thin.

On the other hand, it never feels jumbled or messy; Whedon is a seasoned storyteller, and he somehow manages to make this tightly packed mega movie feel pretty well-organized, streamlined and easy to follow. He never loses command of his band of heroes, but what he’s lacking is prioritization. Each of the nine (!) primary characters is given a rich backstory and emotional arc to explore, which sounds cool until you realize that, due to time constraints, they have a mere handful of scenes to get the job done. As a result, the storylines feel abbreviated across the board.

It’s unfortunate, because there’s some really interesting stuff going on here that could have used more time. Robert Downey Jr.‘s Tony Stark sets up the main conflict early on, strutting unknowingly into a world of tech trouble when he and The Hulk himself, Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), inadvertently birth Ultron (the villain of the film’s subtitle, voiced by James Spader), a sentient A.I. designed to protect the world, but who instead decides to purge it of the “poison” that is humankind. What hath Stark wrought? A.I. panic is fascinating, relevant subject matter that Whedon unfortunately has precious little time to explore (look to Alex Garland’s recent Ex Machina for deeper insight).

Where Whedon excels is at building his characters in quick strokes with tasty details that stick to the back of your brain like bits of candy. It’s amusing, for example, when you realize that Ultron has somehow inherited Stark’s glib, quick-fire sense of humor: When a group of scientists run away from him screaming after he brutally murders several of their colleagues, he sarcastically pleads, “Wait! Guys?!” as if he’d made an innocuous party foul. The tyrannical robot is clearly his father’s son, and yet throws a fit at the slightest notion that he’s anything like his genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist daddy. Whedon’s always been great at giving his villains a human dimension (Buffy fans holler), and Ultron is no exception.

Iron Man’s robo-baby issues aside, the relationships between he and the rest of the Avengers are deepened and expanded. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Dr. Banner explore further the flirtation teased in the first film, providing an unexpected taste of romance. Captain America (Chris Evans) takes issue with Stark’s reckless exploitation of technology (setting the foundation for the impending Civil War), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) does some extraneous soul-searching that’s mostly there to set up his next solo movie. Franchise newcomers Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson join the fray as Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, a pair of “enhanced” twins who carry a deep-seated vendetta against Tony Stark.

Surprisingly, the film’s most poignant presence is that of Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye, who’s been significantly upgraded from his second-tier role in the first movie. We get to see a bit of his refreshingly ordinary home life; his wife is played by Linda Cardellini, who gives a terrific, grounded performance that comes completely out of left field. Through Hawkeye, who’s essentially a man amongst gods, Whedon defines both the story’s stakes and what being an Avenger truly means.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the thing most ticket-buyers will be paying to see: the action. The sweet, sweet, fist-pumping, “I can’t believe I’m seeing this” action. The movie opens with a snowy raid on a Hydra fortress in the fictitious Eastern European country of Sokovia. There’s a slo-mo shot (featured prominently in the trailers) of all six heroes charging through hoards of Hydra henchman phalanx-style, each Avenger locked in the most badass action pose you’ve ever seen. It’s ridiculously cool. On the other end of the film, we see Iron Man, Thor, and their new buddy, a monk-like floating android called Vision (Paul Bettany), attacking Ultron with laser beams and lightning bolts in unison. Again, ridiculously cool!

Moments like these are so slathered in comic-book awesomesauce my inner geek spontaneously combusted with excitement. Yes, the action can be a bit hollow and flashy, like watching the Harlem Globetrotters light up the court. But you know what? I love the freaking Harlem Globetrotters! (Especially when they were on Gilligan’s Island!) If I’m being honest, I could watch Iron Man pile-drive The Hulk through a skyscraper over and over without a word of complaint.

Avengers: Age of Ultron has no obligation to be the be-all-end-all epic most people want it to be. In reality, it’s nothing more than the action-packed culmination of three years-worth of superhero solo movies, and that’s fine by me. I did have problems with how evenly the narrative focus was spread across the main characters (I’d have much preferred Thor’s lame side story be cut in favor of more “Hawkeye at home” time), and I do feel like the existential quandary embodied by Ultron could have been fleshed out more.

But then I think about a fantastic party scene early in the movie in which the gang make a fun wager to see who can lift Thor’s precious Asgardian hammer, Mjolnir. Cap gives it a wiggle; a look of panic flashes across Thor’s face. The friends exchange Whedon-esque banter, sip some bubbly, talk a little trash and share some laughs as they use their incredible powers for cheap entertainment. It’s lighthearted, juvenile fun. Can’t be mad at that.

It’s hard to imagine now, but when Marvel Studios began erecting what we now know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2008, the mighty heroes that make up our beloved Avengers—Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow–were generally regarded as B-list superheroes. Most people at the time were somewhat familiar with the characters, but very few in the general public obsessed over them like they did Wolverine, the X-Men, or DC Comics icons Batman and Superman.

Since then, Marvel has racked up an impressive catalogue of good-to-excellent superhero movies, building a thriving ecosystem and even managing to make D-list outcasts The Guardians of the Galaxy a worldwide phenomenon. But for comic book fans like myself, there has always been that one hangup that’s been needling at us since the MCU’s inception: Where’s Spider-Man?! It hurt my heart a little to watch the Avengers kick ass all over New York City without the web-head swinging around, making snarky remarks, and helping them knock out some baddies.

Now that our childhood dreams are coming true and Spider-Man is confirmed to be joining the MCU, there are a few questions on my mind as to how this will affect Marvel’s future plans, which had up until now been thoroughly mapped out through 2019. Peter Parker’s entry into the fold is going to shake things up big-time, so join me as I speculate what the Spidey-fied future of the MCU holds in store.

[Note: The most obvious question on some people’s minds is, “Who will they cast as Peter Parker?” While it’s an interesting question, I don’t feel particularly inclined to speculate since at this point we know so little and it’s so early on in the process. Maybe in a future piece. For now…]

Will Joss Whedon Stick Around?

Joss Whedon has been the mastermind behind the MCU since his debut directing 2012’s The Avengers, and since then he’s been a consultant on virtually every Marvel Studios production, helped create Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and taken on this summer’s gargantuan Avengers: Age of Ultron. He said recently that he “couldn’t imagine doing this again”, revealing that he has no intention of directing any more Avengers movies.

But Mr. Whedon is a comic book fan at heart, and like every other comic book fan on earth, he’s got to know how unbelievably perfect a candidate he would be to helm a Spider-Man movie, or at least write one. The prospect of him bringing Peter Parker to life with his witty, subversive writing style is the stuff dreams are made of, and if you’re a Buffy fan (or a Runaways fan–woot!), you know that he was born to make this movie. Teen angst, simultaneous wisecracking and skull-cracking, devastating deaths in the family–he’s been doing this shit for years. With hope, Joss will see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deliver us the definitive Spider-Man experience.

How Big a Role Will Peter Parker Play in Civil War?

In Civil War, Marvel’s year-long mega-event that sold zillions of comics in 2006-2007, the super-powered population is split in two following the government passing the Superhero Registration Act, which forces individuals with extraordinary abilities to register and act under government regulation, and reveal their secret identities. Tony Stark leads the superheroes in support of the act, Steve Rogers leads those who refuse to register, and a cataclysmic war erupts across the nation with heroes fighting heroes and villains running amok like never before. Guess who’s right smack-dab in the middle of the conflict? Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, of course!

The third installment of the Captain America movie series, Captain America: Civil War, will focus on the popular storyline, and it was confirmed this morning that, now that Spider-Man is a member of the MCU family, the character will make his debut in the Joe Russo-helmed film. In the comics, he’s the face at the center of the debate over the Registration Act, and of the most pivotal moment of the entire storyline revolves around him, so it would be great to see him make a huge impact in the script. (Recreating the aforementioned pivotal moment in the film would be tricky, though, for reasons I won’t spoil here.) I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s not a shoehorned, throwaway cameo, which would hurt my soul. If the fine folks at Marvel can find a way to work him into the movie in a major way, it would serve them well.

How Will The Netflix Series Be Affected?

Marvel and Netflix are gearing up to unleash five binge-watchable shows on the streaming service, the first of which being the 10-episode Daredevil series (starring Charlie Cox as the blind crimefighter) launching on April 10, with the others–AKA Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and The Defenders–rolling out over the next couple of years. Like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, the five series exist within the MCU, though their stories will be mostly contained to the harsher corners of New York City.

With Peter Parker now fighting crime on the same streets as the Defenders, will he make an appearance on any of their shows? Daredevil and Spider-Man are frequent partners in the comics and share a common enemy in Wilson Fisk, a.k.a The Kingpin, who’s being played by the great Vincent D’Onofrio. (I wouldn’t rule out D’Onofrio making an appearance in the upcoming Spidey movie, by the way.) I know for a fact that I would lose my mind if I saw Peter Parker and Matt Murdock cleaning up thugs the NYC streets together, and now that it’s in the realm of possibility, I’m holding out hope for the crossover of my dreams.

Will J.K. Simmons Reprise His Role As J. Jonah Jameson?

Everybody knows that J.K. Simmons‘ turn as J. Jonah Jameson–the huffing, puffing, hard-ass editor-in-chief at the Daily Bugle and obsessive hater of Spider-Man–in Sam Raimi‘s original Spider-Man trilogy was one of the best things about those movies. He was so funny and so perfectly over-the-top that he made a bigger impression than characters that got triple his screen time. I left Whiplash craving more of Simmons screaming and fuming until his veins popped, and him returning as Peter Parker’s crotchety boss for the franchise reboot might be just the thing I need.

In a recent interview on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show (credit to /Film for the scoop), he was asked by the legendary host if another Spider-Man movie was in the cards. His reply was cautiously optimistic: “I just heard that we…that’s a possibility.” When asked if he’d be interested in returning to the role, Simmons replied with an enthusiastic, “Absolutely.” Seems like a no-brainer.

Will the Release Date Shifts Affect Storylines?

The first MCU Spider-Man movie is slated for a July 28, 2017 release. Consequently, every movie after it has been moved one slot back on the release calendar. For example, Thor: Ragnarok, which was bumped off its July 28, 2017 release date by Spider-Man, will now release on November 3, 2017. What’s notable are the shifts to the movies releasing adjacent to Avengers: Infinity War, the two-part event slated for release May 4, 2018, and May 3, 2019.

Black Panther was originally coming out before Infinity War: Part 1, but is now scheduled to release after it. This either means that the events of Black Panther have no bearing on the events of Infinity War, or that the story will have to be tweaked to fit in with the grander MCU arc. It’s all very confusing, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. I predict a sweep of raging migraines striking the masterminds at Marvel Studios any second now…

After months of rumors and speculation, Marvel and Sony have finally come to an agreement on the Spider-Man franchise, which means that the friendly neighborhood web-head will be swinging his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the sound of millions of rabid fans freaking the hell out. Negotiations have purportedly been going on for several weeks (probably much longer than that), but former Sony president Amy Pascal stepping down just recently seems to have expedited the process.

Marvel announced the partnership tonight in a press release, which you can read below. There’s no mention of director Marc Webb or star Andrew Garfield in the release, and all signs point to this being a reboot of sorts, though all projects pertaining to the popular NYC-based superhero are in the earliest stages of development.

Check out the full release:

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man.

Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.

Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films.

The new relationship follows a decade of speculation among fans about whether Spider-Man – who has always been an integral and important part of the larger Marvel Universe in the comic books – could become part of the Marvel Universe on the big screen. Spider-Man has more than 50 years of history in Marvel’s world, and with this deal, fans will be able to experience Spider-Man taking his rightful place among other Super Heroes in the MCU.

“I am thrilled to team with my friends at Sony Pictures along with Amy Pascal to produce the next Spider-Man movie,” said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “Amy has been deeply involved in the realization on film of one of the world’s most beloved characters. Marvel’s involvement will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years.”

Spider-Man, embraced all over the world, is the most successful franchise in the history of Sony Pictures, with the five films having taken in more than $4 billion worldwide.

Most people–hell, most comic book readers–have little to no knowledge of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team of misfit, cosmic Marvel superheroes introduced in print in 1969. James Gunn, the director of Marvel Studios’ film adaptation of the D-list franchise, has a similar level of notoriety, with his work (Slither, Super) mostly only familiar to indie and indie-horror geeks. Why would Marvel take such a risk, dumping millions of dollars into producing a movie with minimal name recognition?

Well, let’s look at it from this angle: What if all of the scumbag bounty hunters, smugglers, and monstrous brutes from Star Wars got their own movie? What if you infused it with the attitudinal, irreverent humor from the first Iron Man movie, cranked up to 11? And what if you slapped on a bitchin’ ’70s soundtrack on top of it all, just for the hell of it? That’s Gunn’s film in a nutshell, and it’s totally awesome, off-the-wall, sci-fi fun. Marvel knew they had a gem on their hands, and with Guardians of the Galaxy they’ve unleashed on us a hell of a good time at the movies. And a talking tree. And a talking raccoon. And Chris Pratt’s abs.

Pratt plays Peter Quill, an earthling abducted as a child in the ’80s who now thieves, gets laid, and causes a general ruckus across the galaxy in his spaceship, the Milano (named after Gunn’s childhood crush, Alyssa Milano). We meet Quill (or Star-Lord, a self-appointed moniker he desperately hopes will catch on) in treasure-hunter mode, looking to loot a mysterious sphere from a tomb on a seemingly deserted, dusty alien planet. He navigates the rocky terrain with some clumsy of rocket shoes, a bug-like space mask, and his trusty Walkman, which cues Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love”, the first of the film’s many retro-tastic tunes only Gunn has the cajones to blanket a multi-million dollar movie in. In an homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Quill steals the sphere, eludes laser-toting baddies, hops back into the Milano, where he’s startled by a drowsy one-night-stand he forgot spent the night. Whoops.

Quill bands together with all manner of galactic riffraff to protect the sphere from warmonger Ronan the Accuser, the film’s dark, creepy big-bad played by an imposing Lee Pace who has evil intentions of using the thing to destroy the planet Xandar. Quill’s band of outcasts are Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the green-skinned, badass daughter of Thanos, the biggest villain in the galaxy; Drax the Destroyer (hulking WWE alumni Dave Bautista), who’s hellbent on avenging the death of his family at the hands of Ronan; Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a genetically engineered talking Raccoon with a heavy-artillery fetish and a Joe Pesci temper, and his amiable tree-creature BFF, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).

Pratt is the absolute right man for the job, with the film’s subversive, witty material playing precisely to his strengths. Fans of his work in Parks and Recreation are guaranteed Guardians ticket-buyers, and they won’t be disappointed. Diesel and Cooper (with great help from the talented visual effects team) make Rocket and Groot an irresistibly lovable on-screen duo, and almost steal the show altogether. Bautista surprisingly hangs right in there with his more experienced cast mates, drawing just as many laughs with Drax’s lack of capacity for sarcasm and metaphor. Saldana often gets lost in the noise, as the other Guardians’ unique, colorful personalities make the more conventionally sketched Gomora feel a little stale.

Guardians is refreshingly detached from Marvel’s flood of Avengers movies (though it does technically exist in the same universe), offering up an edgier, funnier brand of superhero action. The film feels even more like Star Wars than J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot did, delivering big-time adventure while being thoughtful enough to highlight the well-written core-character relationships above all else. The action is sufficiently epic and more brutal than any Marvel movie before, with even the good-natured Groot doling out heaping helpings of bone-crushing violence. (A scene in which the gentle giant pulverizes a group of hapless grunts mirrors Hulk smashing up Loki in Avengers, but gets an even bigger laugh.)

Gunn does a great job of preserving his wacky indie sensibilities and incorporating them seamlessly into a giant, crowd-pleasing blockbuster film, a feat that takes more finesse than his Troma-boy resume may lead you to believe he’s capable of. While it isn’t as out-there as Slither or Super, Guardians feels like a Gunn film through and through.

The film hits a few tonal stumbles along the way, with the heavier dramatic scenes between the core characters feeling slightly out of place. (A tortured existential outburst by Rocket feels the most awkward, though it’s effectively acted by Cooper and the animators.) The myriad supporting characters–Glenn Close as the leader of Nova Corps, Xandar’s police force; John C. Reilly as a Nova Corps officer; Benicio Del Toro, in a brief appearance as the Liberace-like Collector–are good fun, though they’re too great in number for any to make a lasting impression. Michael Rooker’s Yondu, Quill’s venomous abductor and adopted father figure, sticks out amongst the supporters with his wicked volitility.

Visually, Gunn and DP Ben Davis use every color of the rainbow to give Guardians a distinctive sci-fi look, with each detailed environment looking more imaginative than the last. This is an oddball movie that’s as funny as Galaxy Quest and as thrilling as any Marvel movie that’s come before, and it’s cause for excitement for the futures of both Marvel Studios and Gunn’s career.

Guardians of the Galaxy trailer

So Way Too Indie is about to become Way Too Geeky for a few days next week as we cover the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego.

While we both decry and yet embrace the infiltration of Hollywood at a convention created for devoted comic fans, we revel in the chance to get our movie news AND pop-culture fix all at the same time. I, Ananda, have painstakingly gone through the schedule of events (and OMG there are a lot) to find all those movie-related panels to (try to) attend so that WTI readers get all the juicy pop-culturey news they deserve.

Here are the Top 10 things Way Too Indie can’t wait to see and hear about at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con:

10 – Sony Pictures Panel

(Thursday, 12:30, Indigo Ballroom)

Feeding into our nostalgia is a first look at Goosebumps starring Jack Black and directed by Rob Letterman. Jack and Rob will both be on hand to talk about the film and discuss Black’s turn as the legendary author himself, R.L. Stine. The film is slated for August 7, 2015. Director Chris Columbus will also attend, showing audiences a sneak peek at upcoming Adam Sandler film Pixels also set to début next year.

9 – Radius-TWC Previews Horns and Everly

(Friday, 3pm, Hall H)

Daniel Radcliffe will be on-hand along with co-star Juno Temple to chat about Horns and début the film’s movie trailer. Directed by Alexandre Aja and based on Joe Hill’s dark novel, the film already looks like Radcliffe is tapping into the Voldemort spectrum of evil for his tortured protagonist. Additionally, Salma Hayek will introduce footage from Everly where she plays a woman protecting her family from assassins sent by her ex, a mob boss. We’ve also been promised other news on upcoming Radius titles.

8 – 20th Century Fox Presentation

(Friday, 4:20, Hall H)

While there is no formal description of what Fox will be covering they did release to press that talent will be on hand for The Maze Runner, Book of Life, Hitman: Agent 47, Let’s Be Cops, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. So we can expect to hear about all of those, but not a peep about next June’s new Fantastic Four reboot. Maybe because they know die-hard comic audiences at this convention are not entirely thrilled with director Josh Trank’s casting choices and avant-garde vision for the film, namely his suggestion that his cast not bother even reading the comics. At any rate YA fav The Maze Runner should draw a crowd, and Channing Tatum, a voice in Book of Life, will likely cause swooning. Personally Colin Firth, from Kingsman: The Secret Service, is the more likely candidate to cause this girl to swoon.

7 – Warner Bros. Pictures Panel

(Saturday, 10am, Hall H)

Saturday starts off with a bang, getting one of the most anticipated panels out of the way first thing. Always big presenters at the convention, Warner Bros. will provide a look at three major upcoming films: Jupiter Ascending, Mad Max: Fury Road (we’d better see Tom Hardy), and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. After its pushed back release date the latest Wachowski sibling film is what we most want to hear about, though the Mad Max reboot may also be worth a look. However, The Hobbit exhausted us two years ago. Yawn.

6 – The Giver

(Thursday, 1:30, Hall H)

A novel with a huge fan base, especially those of us forced to read Lois Lowry’s The Giver in school as children, the film adaptation has generated huge amounts of buzz. With a fantastic cast (oh, please show up Meryl Streep) we can’t wait to see exclusive footage from the film which premieres in August. The trailer has already shown it looks pretty fantastic.

5 – Paramount Panel

(Thursday, 3pm, Hall H)

No news on what they will discuss but we’re hoping there is something on Interstellar, Chris Nolan’s new film to be released in November. Also likely are plugs for Hercules (which comes out the very next day) and the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We hope they know their audience and don’t bother with Hot Tub Time Machine 2. And if we’re really lucky there might be some small clues about next summer’s Terminator: Genesis.

4 – Goonies Never Say Die

(Thursday, 6pm, Indigo Ballroom)

Goonies cast members will be on hand to discuss the newly announced Goonies sequel. Surprise guests are guaranteed and plenty of discussion on how this cult-favorite film has stood the test of time. The child in us is literally jumping up and down in anticipation.

3 – The Musk of Tusk – An Evening with Kevin Smith

(Friday, 6:35pm, Hall H)

We’ll definitely be getting a trailer for Kevin Smith’s new monster horror film Tusk, his first film in three years. It was announced yesterday the film will be released September 19. Also guaranteed is hilarious discussion as anyone who listens to Smith’s SModcast podcast already knows. Speaking of the podcast, Tusk was first envisioned in an episode of the show and follows a journalist who encounters a worldwide adventurer and becomes the plaything of a deranged killer. The film stars Justin Long, Michael Parks, Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment and we know Rodriguez and Osment will be at the panel.

2 – Legendary Pictures Panel

(Saturday, 12:25pm, Hall H)

Guaranteed are a look at Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming horror gothic-romance Crimson Peak as well as a look at new found-footage horror-thriller As Above/So Below. The latter is already rather uninspiring after releasing a ho-hum trailer but we wouldn’t mind if Guillermo del Toro took up all the time. Crimson Peak sounds quite promising, with del Toro saying his intentions were to make a film in the vein of the horror greats, The Exorcist, The Shining, and The Omen. A classic ghost story sounds like exactly what we need in the sea of found-footage out there in Horror-land. And if he wanted to go on to talk about Pacific Rim 2, we’d be more than happy to hear all about it! No clue if there will be enough info yet to discuss Godzilla 2, we completely understand director Gareth Edwards might be a little overwhelmed with that little Star Wars spinoff film he’s prepping for.

1 – Marvel Studios Panel

(Saturday, 5:30pm, Hall H)

Always the benchmark of Comic-Con we expect plenty from Marvel’s presentation. For starters they are likely to give us some special guest appearances and footage from Guardians of the Galaxy as a last push before it’s August 1 release. Also pretty much guaranteed is info on Avengers: Age of Ultron including some cast members and hopefully a sneak peek or two at footage. Marvel’s had a busy week with announcements about their universe, especially major changes for The Avengers as Thor is now a woman, Captain America is getting a comic reboot in “The All-New Captain America” where the Falcon takes over as the Captain, and then Iron Man gets back to his darker Tony Stark roots in “Superior Iron Man”. No clue how this will effect the film franchise, but I’m sure we can expect a reboot in a few years depending on how audiences take to the new personalities/sexes/identities. Otherwise, announcements around Ant Man, due for a release next summer, are also likely despite Edgar Wright’s abandonment of the project. Peyton Reed (who is also signed on to direct the screen version of comic book The Fifth Beatle) is now set to direct and the film just might have a chance of keeping up its momentum.

Notable Absences

Where the heck is Disney, Lucasfilm, and Lionsgate? Apparently Lionsgate thinks The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 doesn’t need the added publicity, because they are blowing off Comic-Con this year. They are probably right. Obviously Lucasfilm doesn’t think it has enough to talk about yet in regards to Star Wars Episode VII. And apparently Disney didn’t feel like coming out to promote their first Disney-Marvel animated collaboration Big Hero 6 (which just debuted a trailer). Also no George Clooney to chat about Tomorrowland, the film based on the area of Disney’s theme park, and no Pixar which means nothing on Inside Out. Maybe Disney is skipping out in an attempt to push people to D23, their exclusive Disney convention?

At any rate, be sure to stay tuned to Way Too Indie for up to the minute coverage throughout Comic-Con as we battle the lines and cosplayers to get all the juicy tidbits.

The first trailer for Disney and Marvel‘s first animated collaboration, Big Hero 6, reveals an adorable representation of the comic series’ synthetic robot, Baymax. The trailer, which is really more of a clip, shows boy genius Hiro going to the San Fransokyo (a mythical San Francisco-Tokyo mash-up city) police department to report an attack from a kabuki-masked man with microbots. No sign in this initial trailer of the rest of the Big Hero 6 team, but already we can tell Disney has put its funny, family-friendly mark on this Japanese-style comic book series.

Disney fans will especially freak over a Frozen easter egg in the trailer. The film comes out in theaters November 7 in the U.S.