MY SON IS A PROPHET...

My son, Jonah, has always loved super heroes. He's never been a "train kid" or "sports kid." Ever since he was old enough to know the difference, he's been fascinated with the supernatural. Heroes, Star Wars, aliens, robots...the kid digs.

When he was really small, he got a lot of hero stuff for Christmas. In fact, Marvel used to make these kid-friendly hero action figures...little squatty versions of Captain America and Hulk and Wolverine...all smiles and age appropriate. He dug the Spider-Man movies because the commercials played constantly. Pretty normal hero fan stuff. Until we rented an animated Avenger's movie.

The movie was filled with heroes we had never heard of. Jonah enjoyed the movie, but he was most fascinated with a hero called IRON MAN. Suddenly, our four-year old could think of nothing else but Tony Stark's titanium alloy hero creation. The problem was that no one else seemed to know who Iron Man was. You couldn't find toys or movies or pajamas or anything with this little red man on it. But strangely, as Jonah turned five, we began to see more Iron Man toys. Why? Because Marvel knew something that we didn't.

When Jonah heard that there was an actual Iron Man movie being made, he lost his mind. It was a dream come true, and trust me, now we have the Iron Man pajamas. (They even light up.)

I found a strange pride in it...like my son had some sort of unique sense of what was cool long before the other kids did. (I'm kinda' messed up.) But we didn't dwell on it.

Chapter 2....

When we moved to Tyler, Jonah discovered a video game at a friend's house. The game was Marvel Ultimate Alliance. It had all the guys Jonah liked. But he didn't come home talking about Hulk or Iron Man. Suddenly, he was all about Deadpool. I'd never heard of Deadpool. I researched it a little, found out that Deadpool was one of the more creative, if lesser known, Marvel characters, and didn't think much of it.

And then, I see this...



Did you see the guy with the two swords? Red shirt? Flying around like a crazy man? Yep, you guessed it.

DEADPOOL.

Somehow, Jonah has picked another winner. And now, I'm reading rumors of a Deadpool movie in the works. Can it be? Does my son have some sort of sixth sense for marketable hero blockbusters?

Man, I hope so. Somebody get me Jerry Bruckheimer.

Why This Movie Is Awesome...

I have a strange history with Superman Returns.

Early on, when I found out the film was in the works, I got really excited about it.

I was born in 1976. That places me squarely in the "child-of-the-80's" crowd. Which means Superman was the baddest cat I had ever seen.

There are lots of us out there - kids who grew up watching Christopher Reeve as the Man Of Steel.

When this new version came out, I didn't get to the theater in time, which was frustrating. However, once it came out on DVD, I couldn't wait to rent it.

And then I didn't watch it.

I'm not sure what happened - I think Kristen and I started watching it and then I had to a meeting at church or something (story of my life.) Unable to really dig into the Bryan Singer's new addition to the Superman mythology, I wasn't able to really decide how I felt about it.

Thankfully, it showed up on HBO or something last week and I recorded that dude! And I think I can safely say that I love this film. It's not perfect by any means, but here's why I think it's great.
1. BRANDON ROUTH
This kid pulled off Clark Kent flawlessly. I guess it could be said that Reeve did it flawlessly and this kid just copied that, but I'm still impressed. I think he mastered both characters masterfully. From vocals to the physicality to the smallest of facial expressions, Routh did a great job in this movie.
2. COMIC CONSISTENCY
I think the recent Batman franchise has done two things for hero movies...first off, it dialed down the silliness of comic book films, adding a more realistic texture to the films. For movies like Batman, that's a great thing. It's added a whole new dimension to that character. But, unfortunately, it's made us suspect of films that stay true to their comic book beginnings. "Superman Returns" does stay true. Every one of the original Superman films was silly - Lex Luthor wore silly clothes; Clark Kent looked exactly like Superman; the one-liners weren't all that funny. But we loved it. And Singer's film stayed true to those qualities. I just hate that so many cynics couldn't see or respect that.
3. SOUNDTRACK
I think one of the smartest things about this movie is its soundtrack. I love that the original scores were recorded with orchestra, and not modernized, looped up and made trendy. (I'm looking at you, Michael Bay...) I mean, come on...is there any cooler music than Superman? And don't say Star Wars. 'Cause it's the same song.

4. SKILLFUL ENDING
The old Superman movies had great endings. They were great because even though you could theorize that a sequel would come, but you were never sure. Superman Returns did that, too. They left lots of room for additional films, but didn't write themselves into a corner, thereby forcing themselves to make one.

News From Comic-Con...

Two exciting things from Comic Con, thanks to Risky Biz Blog.

#1.
The first full day of Comic-con featured the usual: screaming fans, studio pushes and...Tron?

Pretty much right after Disney unveiled its "Escape to Witch Mountain" sequel, the studio slipped in some footage of a potential reboot of the 80's fx title (only this time it's called Tr2n).

After the Witch footage, the Disney castle logo came up and soon enough, a race on those light cycles was under way.

Essentially, it was a redone version of a well-known sequence from the 1982 pic. The scene, from director Joseph Kosinski, is actually test footage to see how feasible a remake. The topper was the reveal of one of the drivers: none other than Jeff Bridges, who could be to be reprising his role from the original.

The footage blew many away. "That was a sweet surprise, said one industry exec. "It's not very often that you get to see something that you don't know about."

#2.
Comic-Con had its first taste of pandemonium...when Hugh Jackman showed up at the tail end of Fox's presentation.

While there were whispers that some kind of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" aspect would make an appearance, to the majority of the 6,500-person hall it was still a surprise, and they went berserk.

"I know what you're thinking," Jackman said. "This guy is way too tall to play Wolverine." a reference to fan reaction almost a decade ago when it was announced he would be playing the diminutive X-Men character.

Jackman said he wanted to be here "because without you guys I wouldn't have a career." and then he did something actors, and Hollywood types in general, don't do very often: He thanked a comic creator.

Jackman singled out "Wolverine" co-creator Len Wein, who stood up to cheers, and then waded into the crowd to shake the writer's hands. "From that hand came the character that gave me my career," he said.

Then he showed a made-for-Comic-Con trailer that killed. The crowd went wild when characters like Gambit and Deadpool were seen for a split second.

Jackman's appearance was brief but had Fox's desired effect: to win over skeptics and satiate fans.

"I am no longer suspect or angry about the movie," said one girl.

_____________________

The Tron thing doesn't do much for me, but I've been excited about an "Origins" film for Wolverine ever since the comic book series started making waves.

Anybody else interested in this besides Ross King and me?

Source: Jeffrey Overstreet