Giving X-Men In The MCU more thought…

Giving X-Men In The MCU more thought…

The X-Men has so many ties to the Marvel larger world its hard to contemplate how their introduction into the franchise could happen. That being said i feel there is alot of elements that i missed out on so i wanted to break them down and show how many connections there are which could really upgrade the MCU universe. So what i am going to do is discuss my views on the MCU possible introductions and set ups of certain properties that fall within the Marvel comics world but also reasons and means of which they could be included into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I will do this in blocks of subjects.

The Illuminati

Now the Illuminati was originally made up of 6 members, created by Brian Mcihael Bendis who wrote the initial intro of the characters in the Marvel Comics. The 6 members he had in his Illuminati in his words was to represent a certain something that is very special to the Marvel Universe. The Members are

Tony Stark/Iron Man
Namor
Read Richards/Mr Fantastic
Black Bolt
Dr.Stephen Strange
Professor X

Im gonna over simplify the special elements of each into 1 word.

Iron Man = Human
Namor = Antihero
Mr.Fantastic = Science
Black Bolt = History
Dr.Strange = Magic
Professor X = Mutant

Now in my previous blog post i kind of broke down why i thought the likes of Namor, Black Bolt, and Dr.Strange wouldnt be part of this line up in the MCU. It mostly comes down to my view that to introduce the Illuminati into the MCU you would need to have history with the characters. Meaning the members would exist prior to events of endgame. Even as far back as Iron Man 2, even further back probably years before Iron Man 1. To include these characters prior to Iron Man 1 would then make you suggest, well where have they been for 23 odd movies. So the rumour is Namor is going to be introduced in Black Panther 2, Black Bolt appeared in the tv series which are defunct Marvel characters so probably wont be seen again for a long time and not considered canon in the MCU timeline. and then when we look at Dr.Strange the problem would be that He appeared and spoke with Tony Stark in Infinity War and dies and returns during Endgame for stark to die. So chances of him being an original member very slim. same for all three. In order for the illuminati to exist it would have to be predicated on representing the same factors albiet maybe variations of and on Iron Man setting it up.

So giving it alot of thought, and the time scale of which the characters could exist, this is my list of Illuminati members.

Tony Stark/Iron Man = Human = Founder
Bruce Banner/Hulk = Antihero
Reed Richards/Mr.Fantastic = Science
Dane Whitman/Black Knight = History
Dr.Eric Selvic = Space/Magic
Professor X = Mutant

Now my reasoning behind this line up is as follows. Tony Stark didnt trust the government with his tech but ultimately sided with them over the accords. He also never really trusted shield, and military he probably wouldnt trust them too, even though his best friend Jim Rhodes/War Machine is military and also Stark Enterprise made weapons originally. So i figure The Illuminati would be a creation seperate from any guided view points. And with the members i suggest above it would make sense these people would be his ideal picks so lets break that down.

Tony Stark and Bruce Banner has great chemistry, this is probably because they are both super smart but have trust issues. Remember Banner wanted to stay hidden didnt want to be found and Shield has taken procautions against Hulk. So you could imagine that Tony and Bruce shares the same distrust. But what makes them different is that Tony was the Human hero aspect, where as Banner didnt want to call upon the hulk making him somewhat the Anti-Hero. so that fits the place in the illuminati lineup perfectly.

Dr.Eric Selvic is an interesting aspect. as i was trying to figure out how Magic would be an element, its simply that it didnt exist enough to have a specialist Tony would of known about. The biggest character to fill it would of been Dr.Strange but Dr.Strange didnt exist and their is no indication that Stark knew or communicated with The Ancient One or Bleaker street. So whats the nearest Stark has to Magic, unexplianable science and space. So this draws me to the world of Thor, but the problem with Thors world is that there is a strict line between the two. Either Thor is on earth or hes not, so hes unreliable. and there is no mix asgaurdian transfers either. Which then brings me to who studied Thor, with Janes reseach but we know that Darcy was involved with Wandavision, and Jane is set to be in the next Thor movie as a Thor herself. That left me with Eric Selvic, now out of all of them, he was possessed by an asgaurdian, he knows the fables and mythology and has been studying that science. I figure after what happened in the first avengers movie hes pretty much free from working with the likes of Shield. which makes it perfect for Tony to pick him up as his Space/Magic expert.

Now Dr.Reed Richards and Professor X are speculation but depending on how they are introduced would also make sense. infact in my previous post its predicated on The Illuminati creating the X-Men. and if you read my Fantastic Four intro to MCU then well i explained how they could of existed during the whole time.

Which then leads me to Dane Whitman who is going to act as the Historian, my view is that with Whitmans involvement with the Eternals that Dane and Stark may have known about each other before, its hard to tell what Danes involvement is prior to seeing The Eternals but despite being the superhero Black Knight he has his own history. So my thoughts are Dane probably existed in Starks radar for having historical knowledge prior to whatever we find out in Eternals. And lets say Dane has been researching the eternals for a long long time then it would make sense that Stark probably knew about his research and looking to form his own superpowered team would be looking for anything like this as a red flag for his consideration. but again until we see the Eternals movie and we get to know exactly what Dane Whitman is all about its hard to say.

so that is my views on who the Illuminati would be if they show up in the MCU.

Given that Stark is now dead, i feel that his death paves the way for Phase 4 set ups and also the future. woven throughout the whole phase 4 connective stories.

With Starks death you have essentially an Illuminati member missing, who leads it, and who takes over the Human aspect role. I dont have an answer for that mostly because i feel the members of the illuminati if revealed in the MCU will either be a one off event and set up other things and members wont necessarily be replaced but evolve into something else. Like through Professor X’s envolvement and Starks untrusting nature of government powers owning superheros you could say that is a foundation builiding block for the creation of the X-Men.

Next Subject: How do you connect the villians that hasnt appeared yet in the mcu?

Bolivar Trask the creator of the Sentinal programe i see as a reverse Tony Stark. hell even his last name is a rearrngement of stark. with Tony gone there will be alot of contenders to replace him and when you think about it, starks vision of a suit of armour around the world could be the jumping point of the sentinal program.

Magneto – his children are already in the MCU as Quicksilver albiet dead and Scarlet Witch who will play a prominant part in Phase 4. They kind of explained their intro in WandaVision including their parents but as we know parent reveal has been a presence in the MCU before, remember Red Skull revealing information about Black Widow and Clint Barton. I figure those parents you believe to be Scarlet Witches and Quicksilvers were adoptive parents and Magneto to appear in some form in the future maybe sooner than we realise. So the question would be where is he, where has been, what happened to him and so forth. Given that he is considered a bit of an extremist its more likely he got himself locked up. I think back to one of the better scenes i saw in X-Men Apocalypse – not saying thats a good film, but there is a few scenes in it which do stand out pretty good, that is the one where Michael Fassbender as Magneto has a normal life rasing a child and they find out hes a mutant his family get killed. That scene in X-Men Apocalpyse was probably one of the few great Dramatic episodes that they should borrow to Magnetos origin into the MCU. I figure that Something happened and Mangetos family was captured, Magneto ends up captured and imprisoned but his children went into adoption. But because the children was really young they dont remember him or their mother. And we could then also explain that the Blip maybe the cause that freed him and hes been on a journey to find out whats been happening ever since.

Apocalypse – Hes a character the MCU should avoid using a a villian but not at least have him cameo. He is part of the fabric of history so i figure that with the inclusion of Kang The Conquer being a presence now in the MCU there should be at least a cameo or guideline their to explain what Apocalypse was maybe with a historical event. Like we see Apocalpyse as the first mutant on earth that Kang mentored. but this all takes place in Egypt and we never find out what happens to Apocalpyse but you get the sense hes in hybernation. Maybe a seed for something they could revist many years later. Just like how Thanos was teased in parts throughout the MCU phases 1-3.

Mr.Sinister – a great villian that hasnt been given the best screen treatment. His views are really unique as he isnt a mutant but a mutate. he was obessed with mutants and how it could elevate him to a power beyond the normal. It also brings in the ethical treatements of mutants and so forth. With the world in the MCU way it is right now, this does bring in a whole ethical behaviour perspective that would be great. But where would he sit in the MCU? I think what you are going to find out is that the world has been creating their own Avengers and more prominatly they will start to appear, with the likes of the UK’s Excalibur hinted at with Dane Whitmans introduction, then you also have the Red Gaurdian from Black Widow movie, not doubt Alpha Flight the canadian superhero team would make an appearance some day. Which brings me back to Mr.Sinister, i figure different countries different rules on ethics Mr.Sinister would probably be somewhere in the fold of creating mutants or mutates for this world. He could be anywhere from working in Weapon X programe, to working in the facility that captures mutants in the Sentinal Programe… there is alot of ways he could be introduced and build upon.

Moleman – it is my oppinion that he should be the first villian the fantastic four should encounter – i believe that Dr.Doom is always used as the big bad but he is a very complex charactr. I figure he needs a build up before the fantastic four goes toe to toe with. Which is why he should be nothing more than a cameo maybe a large cameo in the Fantastic Four movie. But the reason i say the main villain of the first Fantastic Four movie should be Moleman is because when you read into the origins of the character, he has alot of ties with Deviants. and as we know that the MCU is going down the Deviants/Eternals extra with the Eternals movie it would make sense that Deviants are going to be a part of the story that leads to mutants. As fantastic four is to appear before X-Men it would make Moleman a brilliant oppertunity to explore some of the biggest connections to the mutant world. Plus it grounds Fantastic Four to an earth based conflict which you could isolate away from the rest of the world. meaning Fantastic Four could of happened before the blip around the blip and just after it.

There are so many villains to cover and so many options im not going to go into them all but to give you some idea just going to briefly summarise some factors – Time Travels a things – Cable/Bishop? Alternate realities too with the Multiverse. Which makes time displacement a thing. Space is getting bigger so does that mean earth will play a more prominate role – secret invasion is going to be a story, a skrull kree war will occure at some point. And what is going to happen with the Hulk now Tony is gone and hes basically damaged with one good arm. does he get that fixed?

im going to leave the blog there because i want to pick up on more stuff later one and ill post that into another post maybe a part 2 to this.

How To Introduce The X-Men Into The MCU

The problem i have with trying to configure how the X-Men could be introduced into the MCU given what we know has and will happen. We know they are not scheduled to appear for some time and that the movie is being titled The Mutants. I have my views on that but i want to focus on how i feel they can be introduced.

Now with my Fantastic Four analysis in the previous post i identified that the Deviants that the character of Moleman sort of controls would make him a great villian to go against the fantastic four in the first movie appearance. Because it fits perfectly into the narrative of the Eternals and Deviants inclusion into the world. But with the X-Men despite having several characters appearing previously like Scarlett Witch. The path of introduing The X-Men is a little harder. So i am going to point out several factors that was missing in the Fox run of movies that i think should be a factor going forward and then how i percieve they should be included in the future mcu film series.

The Fox movies in my oppinion sit somewhere between underwelmed and overkill and i think the reason for that imbalance was the scale of which Bryan Singer and Simon Kingberg couldnt quite agree on. What we wanted was something in the middle however what we got was a drama centric storyline of idology in a very limited narrow perspective.

What i mean by this is that the X-Men franchise in the comics explores the ethics and idology in multiple forms. In the X-Men films they only explored 4. These was The Views of feared humans, the views of charles xavier where humans and mutants can live together, the views of Magneto with mutants being supieror and finally the views of the younger x-men who are looking for guidance. Which are great view points to visit but the truth of the world is vastly bigger and thus i feel the Fox era of X-Men films had only this narrow view point.

Now you cant include everything into 1 film but you need to build a reality where multiple choice is present. The best way to do this is the 616 method, what i mean by the 616 method is, imagine your the 1 in the middle to the left is 6 options and to the right is 6 options what seperates these are the main cause, Mutants and Humans. Lets look at each of the 6 viewpoints each have.

Humans

1. Curiosity – This is like the polar opposite of fear and intolerance, usually surrouned by science but can have both a positive and negative impact. For example Moria McTaggart helps mutants to understand mutant abilities, where as Nathaniel Essex aka Mr Sinister who isnt a mutant but caused himself to mutate. used science for his own gain for curiosity.
2. Fear – we are familiar with this concept as it was used in the fox movies with the likes of senator kelly and stryker, trask and sentinals
3. Peace/Love – co-existance between the two species. teaching tolerance towards indifference. These are usually human characters that support the mutants against adversity. in the x-men comics its kind of rare to see. but their are characters that exist that wants a happy co-existance.
4. Political – This is where mutants are seen as a property or an asset for human use. Usually in wars. anything from Weapon-X programe to alpha flight, even the avengers to some degree is to help save the humans from threats.
5. misunderstanding – this isnt the same as fear, this is more down to smaller communities being taught incorrectly – think what if a mutant was used for the purpose of entertainment because the humans dont view mutants as sentient beings because they are not human. Mojo for example despite being an alien uses mutants for entertainment. Now although mojo is from another planet, this idology does exist in the earth bound world of the x-men too. With the likes of Arcade a character that literally messed with the x-men for fun.
6. Supporters – different from co-exisiting peace/love – as a supporter could be for personal gain or just a huge fan. look at Doctor Doom for example he supports the use of certain characters for his own personal gain.

So thats the human view points then you look at the mutants.

Mutants

1. Co-Existance – This is the otherside of the peace/love views the humans has but had by mutants. The difference is the cause being more important to mutants because of living in a human world. This is where we get Professor Charles Xaviers standpoint.
2. Superiority – This is where mutants are considered superior race and humans should bow towards them – this is Magnetos view point.
3. Tyranical Rulership – I tried to figure if Apocalypse wanted to rule all the mutants. all the humansn or just everything on the planet. in any of these aspects its a desire to rule because your ability is hardly ever unmatched.
4. Fear – some mutants just dont want to be mutants or will go to great lengths of change to become human – look at rogue in the x-men films. her power wasnt overly great to her and thus wanting to change s a heavy subject.
5. Primal – This is an interesting one. what happens when a mutant ability makes you tap into more primal instincts – humans are all set at a certain point but because mutation is a spectrum although it can go forwards it can also go backwards. If we look at the likes of Wolverine and Sabretooth for example. They have that rage that primal instinct to fight, humans have that too but humans are logical, try telling a tiger not to eat a human wouldnt understand you it would go on primal desire to feed and hunt. so you have mutants that have this active as part of their mutation.
6. For Profit – for this it kind of jump a little bit into no.2 on the list but instead of fighting for supermancy over dominant species – it is simply a financial gain advantage. They like the world and everything it has to offer and if their mutant ability provides an easy access to this life then they would use it. Thats alot like views of the hellfire club with Emma Frost or even a mercenary group of mutants that work for hire like The Maurders for example.

so now that we have explored the 12 view points hopefully you will see how under developed the Fox X-Men movie really was. Limited view points to a vastly big universe. But the thing is you could include all of this into a single movie if you know how to configure it into the proper story narrative.

This brings me to the X-Men into the MCU universe.

before i get their and tell you how i would write them into this. i want to shift focus on Tony Stark.

Out of all the Avengers he is the keystone to how it works, without Ironman we wouldnt of had any of this, But now he is gone you would think his involvement is over, no… if you look at what they have released post endgame it has been void filling. all pointing to Stark. 1. Spiderman Far From Home – the whole story was about replacing tony stark, from the perspective of Spiderman and Mysterio. 2. WandaVision – Wanda fell in love with a machine that tony stark helped build gave it his Jarvis. 3. Falcon winter soldier – This one is harder to spot because its very much a Captain America void but this is where War Machine keeping the dream alive comes in to Starks involvement. although only a cameo it shows how Ironman trusted his friend to oversee things in his passing. and finally Loki – how can loki have an Ironman connection – Well Loki is truely its unique glorius purpose. apart from the old stark building being bought by qong (mr gryphon) aka Kang The conquerer – Kang in and of himself is in my oppinion more connected with stark than you realise. But this is because i feel that Stark and Reed will have a connection in the film.

This brings me to The Illuminati. In one of the pervious films stark showed the icon on his phone had a illuminati logo – which could and should be revisited. The Illuminati is key to how i feel the x-men should be brought into the marvel cinematic universe and ill explain why. The members of the illumanti in the comics core members which involved Ironman also had if memory serves me – Black Panther, Namor, Mr Fantastic, Dr.Strange, Blackbolt and Professor X. Now i was trying to figure if you was to introduce the Illuminati under the premise that Stark knew about them before endgame. Who would they be and why?

I figured the purpose of the Illuminati in the MCU would be because Tony Stark doesnt trust the government or shield and with good reason considering the events of what has happened in all the films. So if he doesnt trust the people he works with or for who would he trust. This then creates the notion of the Illuminati. i came up with a solution to identify the members, which would be that they would need to be people Tony Stark trusts but not necessarily in plain sight. Smart individuals that have been in the MCU but not seen on screen or even named. Infact i would even go to say that the Illumianti was probably present after the thanos snap.

Im discounting Blackbolt, Namor, Blackpanther and Dr.Strange from the pre-existing list mostly because these big name characters either didnt exist before or only existed briefly within the small context of time between infinity war and endgame. Like Dr.Strange hasnt met Tony until the begining of Infinity War so that discounts Dr.Strange.

This leaves us with Mr.Fantastic and Professor X.

Reason for not incuding characters like Namor is thats a whole big story waiting to be told and having him an illumanit member pre-infinity war then you would question where was he during the battle. so yeah its gotta be characters that work in the background.

But this about X-Men so i will shelve Mr.Fantastic for now and focus on Professor X

Tony Stark – Avenger, part of the avengers team – closely monitored and governed by the government and shield to which he doesnt trust. Under that premise wouldnt Tony want his own team, one he can trust, one he can count on as a backup. Their for The Illuminati and Professor X’s job would of been that. and further more that team is the X-Men. With Tony gone the power probably would revert back to Professor X.

Get this, The avengers currently are kind of shattered, we have a new captain ameria but we dont seem to have a team. but they are making a Thunderbolts inspired team with US Agent and now what lookes like Black Widows sister, possibly white vision who knows yet.

As they follow alot of the big story archs in marvel comics one of the biggest is the avengers vs the x-men of recent years. And although i dont think we will get this i do think we will get the x-mens introduction into stopping the Thunderbolts.

Cool right.

X-Men are the creation of The Illuminati mostly Tony Stark and Professor X as a fail safe. But in the wake of starks death the x-men become something much bigger.

So now that i have given you this, what if i blew your mind and said what if the x-men were already in the MCU. This is a theory, based on looking at cameos of actors/actresses. for this i talk about the Community tv series core cast cameos in the MCU

so given that, this is my thoughts on the casting of the X-Men

Cast
Danny Pudi – Nightcrawler – in the MCU Danny Pudi appeared in the avengers triskillon and is the guy that opens the door to Captain America to let him in. But lets go back a second, Sheild was overrun by Hydra a German group. Nightcrawler is a german in marvel comics, Nightcrawler other than his teleportation ability had technology given to him so that he could look human. Looking at Danny Pudi he doesnt have a Nightcrawler feel to him. Plus having him being used by Hydra given he was german (The character) that would bring him to this world hidden right in front of us. So he would be my pick to introduce him, as Danny Pudi’s character doesnt seem to be hurt of beat up by the end of the movie maybe they discovered he helped infiltrate the shield building so Stark and professor X recruits him into the X-Men.

Yvette Nicole Brown – Storms mother – in the MCU she appeared in the 70’s as a Sheild worker. now Storms appearance in the comics was around the 70’s, but i feel that Yvette would be a little too old to play Storm in the timeline now especially if she was in the 70’s she would be an old woman in the present marvel timeline. So making her Storms mother would work really well and could give a new energy to the storm character as she has always been protrayed as the orphen in egypt. I say lets skip past that and have her part of a family unit especially one that is closely connected to shield. Remember Yvette’s character has seen tony stark in the past and probably recognises him in the future as the guy that went back in time but not knowing that is what it was. so She knows and would of probably had close ties to Tony or even howard stark. Infact i think it would be cool that Storm and her ability is the reason Stark was able to build the arc reactor. Now that would be an idea.

Ken Jeong – Morph – I think this actor is amazing, comedic presence means you can have alot of fun with this character. I feel he could play Morph – an obscure x-men character but think about this, Morph played a big art in the x-men animated series, he was the first mutant lost by the team. in the comics he found out he was dying but use his shape shifting abilities to take a bullet for prefessor X. however when you look at the character of Morph in the comic book series The Exiles – he has a more comedic feel – and also the Exiles travel alternate realities through the nexus so again has alot of connectio to the marvel universe currently.

Jim Rash – Professor X – you cant replace Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy was your best you could of done so why not take a different approach to Charles Xavier – Jim appears in Captain America Civil War as the M.I.T Liason asking stark for donations. Given M.I.T is a teaching environment working with stark for donations. He is Charles Xavier. This small cameo maybe one of the biggest ways you could introduce the creation of the illuminati and The X-MEN. But let me point something else out, very soon after that scene Jim Rash appears in Tony meets that woman that shows a picture of her son who died because of the avengers. This spurs on the whole Cival War movie. but as i said Tony doesnt trust government or shield so its at this point he has to put his ironman as the face of the government which he is against. so it would make sense that at that moment he would need another team. Even walking back to the M.I.T Liason whom could be Professor X and takes more of an interest. Thus the Illuminati formaton and the x-men.

Now there are more Community connections hell Brie Larson was Danny Pudi’s girlfriend in community and she went on to be Captain Marvel. but its not realtive to the formation of the x-men so im just going to skip right towards who i think should make up the rest of the cast.

Recap

i already have Professor X, Nightcrawler, the mother of storm and Morph. for the rest of the x-men you would only just have to go back to community to see it.

Jeff Winger aka Joel McHale the lead role of community could be your wolverine.
Gillian Jacobs could be your Jean Grey
Alison Brie could be your Rogue.

i have two more characters i think should be in the mix, Gambit and Cyclops for that i would cast James Franco and his brother Dave Franco

Not that Gambit and Cyclops is realted, been a long time since ive ready the comics and i swear i read somewhere that Gambit was a secret summers brother but ultimately Dave Franco is the realife partner of Alison Brief so having him as Gambit and her as rogue would have great chemistry.

Finally now you know all the elements in play i will give you my X-Men plot including the villians and story.

Plot.
Tony Stark forms the Illuminati to form a support team of heros to act as a back up – with the help of Professor X – the X-Men are formed, consisting of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler and Morph. As the Thunderbolts take over control in an oppessive manor and the avengers are lacking numbers the X-Men step in to take down the corrupt thunderbolts. Their first mission to a compound for the Thunderbolts ultimate weapon “The Sentinals” however Professor X is seemingly killed in the processes and the X-Men are on the run. unable to communicate with each other.

Jean Grey, Cyclops, storm and Wolverine who manage to stick together are rescued by Magneto an old friend of Professor X, Magneto explains that he has been forming his own resistance group “The Brotherhood” to fight against the sentinal programe. However all of his followers that have gone on missions to the facility as been captured. Jean learns that Nightcrawler, Gambit, Rogue are captured their and agree to team up with magneto to rescue the mutants. Whilst their they fight against the smaller Nimrod sentinals controlled by Bastion, Trask right hand man. However Bastion betrays trask in building mastermold. – The X-Men with Magneto rescue the captured mutants and reuinites for a common cause.

Mastermold proves to powerful and thus the team are rescued by Xavier who appears to be alive and using some kind of onslaught inspired psychic armour. He was able to survive because Morph pretended to be Xavier which xavier manipulated him in doing so. seeing this revelation Magneto realises how powerful a threat his fried professor x can become and thus differs in views. the mutants are split devided by Professor X and Magnetos views

The film is relatively a short outing. but the reason for this is because we dont know how the MCU will include the universe so all ive done is provided a short narrative story that could introduce alot of x-men characters and begin a new much bigger MCU universe.

the sequels will be much bigger in terms of story and avoids putting too much on an x-men origin with a new origin but one that is a key to everything and not just the x-men.

How TO Make A Fantastic Four Movie.

Now that Disney has aquired the rights to everything Fox had in its catelogue you are left with the hopes that the Fantastic Four as with all the other Fox transfered titles into the MCU will be great additions. However their is already signs of poor judgement based on news reports on the likes of casting to solo projects of Doctor Doom. But before i delve into other Marvel/Fox projects i just want to focus on The Fantastic Four.

Firstly the reason why all 4 movies failed. yep there has actually been 4.

The first attempt was simply a means to keep the rights and having been able to watch it in some form over the years, apart from being overly cheesy it had its moments. But by far not cinema standard. Then we get to the duo of Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four Rise Of The Silver Surfer. These two movies was the best of what they achieved despite being heavily flawed. Then we get to Fan4stic movie which completly missed the mark.

All attempts so far have failed because of very crucial issues. The biggest of them was the studio just doesnt know what to do with this franchise. They dont know the audiance, they dont know the mythos that well, they dont know the right approach.

The thing is the formula to get Fantastic Four to work is realtively simple. Growing up with Marvel comics i never really enjoyed that much the Fantastic Four however i would occasionally read a few. But the main reason i didnt particularly enjoy the franchise was because i felt it was the soft marvel approach.

And what i mean by that is that if you look at all the marvel properties, and the range of the audiance. you have to have an appeal into this world for all ages. when you look at the likes of Punisher and put him besides Spiderman, well punisher is a brutal gritty storytelling which is mostly for adults, where as spiderman appeals to the younger generation. So if Punisher is in spiderman for example Punisher gets toned down. and in the unlikely scenario of Spiderman turning up in a Punisher movie, it would need to be more brutal. it is that scale of where all marvel properties exist. either for adults or for kids or somewhere inbetween. and the inbetween is pretty much The Avengers.

Fantastic Four is in the Soft Marvel category. It sits with the likes of spiderman for kids. But Fox studios run on films couldnt see that and saw, lets go off the success of the x-men and try to recreat that with the fantstic four and other marvel properties. Which lead to the scale being tipped in the wrong imbalance.

Now interestingly in the likes of spiderman you can introduce him into the MCU which they did because they can hype up the level of story telling and then have him return to his base world franchise with ease.

Think about it like this.

Cival War – Spiderman turns up – shock value and gets beaten up – Mid marvel
Spiderman Homecoming – return to home setting, light comedic story telling – Soft marvel
Avengers Infinity War and End game – He dies and comes back to life – Mid to hard marvel story
Spiderman Far From Home – crazy ex-stark employee but ultimately a love story between peter parker and MJ – Soft Marvel

Fantastic Four needs to bounce in the same manor.

I dont want to pit Fantastic Four against the Incredibles which people percieve as the best way to produce the fantastic four. I would disagree. for start the fantastic four is not a family which is often how people discribe the fantastic four. Yes to some degree there is partnerships and family members but they are not your standard family unit where as the Incredibles was. Thats why the incredibles ultimately worked but wouldnt work for Fantastic Four.

Who are the fantastic four? well scientists and soldiers that form a close friendship. It is also based on the 4 factors of relationships. Reed romatice interest with Sus, Sus’s sibling connection to Johnny, Johnnys rivavlry to Ben and ben’s friendship with Reed. which is what fox had gotten right about the movies they made.

So how do we make a fantastic four movie that fits in between the balance that can be hyped up towards harder hitting stories but keep a softer marvel approach in its own adventures.

to be honest its realtively simple.

Fantastic Four is all about the villains and relationships. But the biggest problem they have had is showing their cards too early.

Dr.Doom is a brilliant character and thus ultimately the biggest villain paired with the fantastic four. just like how Magneto and X-men are paired. But the thing is Dr.Doom previously has shown his cards way to early in all the previous films then your left with “where do we go from here”

for this i would like to highlight Magneto in the x-men franchise. there was so much developement of magneto over the course of the x-men films by the end he is not necessarily a villian but someone whose views just differ. which can cause very problematic scenarios. And thats what makes Magneto so compelling and also what makes X-Men so compelling not just with Magneto but the view points of many characters they have.

So when we look at Fantastic Four you want Doom to have a gravity of continuation about him. but were not in the Fox era or the x-men era i should say that you could replicate Magneto in the form of Dr.Doom. and nor should you.

instead. You want to cerment Doom’s presence to have a lasting effect. you will want to see more of him. and less is more.

If we look at the character of Kang and his appearance in the MCU wether he was going to be introduced in such a way before covid caused the messing of the rubik cube of marvel movies it has been a great introducation to the character. and thats kind of how you need to introduce Dr.Doom.

Bare in mind that they want to make a solo Doom movie. how can you do that if he is ever loud presence in the fantastic four movies. Well less is more.

So my thoughts would be to change the narrative and have the first outing of the fantastic four being very minimal doom. like a couple of cameos maybe an extended small role.

If i was to lay it out, Dooms full presence in the fantastic four movie shoud be at the climax of a third film. as most films aim for the trilogy of story telling.

So who would be the villians of an MCU Fantastic Four movies.

To answer this first i would have to identify who i think should play the characters. I think the Fantastic Four needs to be older characters – mostly because we may have to go back in time to explain their presence during the chaotic events that started with Iron Man 1.

Which then places Reed Richards around the same age of Tony Stark. once we see that we realise Fantastic four needs to be an older group of people.

For that fancasting i believe has been very spot on with the role of Reed Richards in the form of John Krasinski
as for the rest well here is my pics

My Cast Ideas for Fantastic Four
Mr Fantastic – John Krasinski
Invisable Woman – Nathalie Emmanuel
The Human Torch – John Boyega
The Thing – Terry Crews

Dr.Harvey Rupert Elder/Moleman – Oswalt patton
Dr.Maria Storm – Played By Vanessa Williams
Dr.Victor Von Doom – George Clooney

As you can see i have included three characters in addition to the fantastic four, I think George Clooney would make a brilliant choice to play Victor Von Doom. mostly because i feel if he is the ruler of his own country how could a young actor portray that depth you just wouldnt believe hes had the time to become this sinsister ruler. So casting an older Dr.Doom to me makes alot of sense. and i think George Clooney would give it that star power to which you would want to see a solo film based on Doom. But as i said he is a smaller role in the first Fantastic Four film this is to lead to a much bigger presence as the trilogy unfolds.

I liked the idea of including Dr.Franklin Storm in the Fan4stic movie despite the film being pretty bad. I thought he was one of the more intriguing elements. But he was too much of a good guy in the film. I feel that there should be an element of tension much greater than what we had in that film. And i think instead of having a protective father figure, why not a power hungry mother, that does have a heart but its very encased behind her ego. That drew me to Vanessa Williams which i thought would be perfect for the role. Mostly because its very similar to the role she played in Ugly Betty. a very driven and powerful woman but sometimes her plans can be destructive. And that is how the fantastic four origin can fit into this narrative.

Finally Moleman – strange character but i feel he is the villian required for the first fantastic four movie.

Firstly there is the whole deviant connection which marvel has gone in that way with the eternals so there is alot of connection there. Plus he has always felt like a pawn to a bigger plan. Which makes him perfect to be introduced as the first villian. The first step towards the fantastic four trilogy. and Patton Oswalt has more than proven himself to be a great marvel property with his knowledge of the mythos of marvel he would just make a perfect fit.

How would 4 super powered individuals fight someone like moleman. he isnt powerful enough. Well thats where the deviants come in. see you have a whole army at his disposle and his mind is the most powerful thing. There for its like looking at the riddler and batman riddler isnt really afighter hes a thinker. and thinkers have henchmen to do the fighting. but to defeat the thinker you need to out think them.

Thats my thoughts on casting. Heres how i would make a Fantastic Four movie.

The Plot.

The movie begins in 2009, Reed (Krasinski) worked for Stark Industry working on rockets. Reed is unhappy because his work is being used towards military applications. However when Tony gets kidnapped and returns disolving his arms segment of stark enterprise Reed is essentially dismissed. Now unemployeed his friend Ben (Terry Crews) manages to get him a job at Ben’s work place a space exploration company to which Ben will become one of the new commericial astronaughts. Reed meets with Dr.Maria Storm director of the Baxter Building of which Ben works. Maria sees potential with Reed and puts him to work in Dr.Harvey Rupert Elder sector of experimental travel.

Jump to 2012 – Reed and Elder’s experimental transport is tested on a remote island “Krakoa” this accidently results in the supposed death of Elder.

Dr.Doom meets with Dr.Maria Storm to explain he will cut funding to the Baxter building if they dont recieve results. Dr.Maria Storm then brings in her daughter to work with Reed and the two begin a bit of a romatic interest in each other. Meanwhile Maria’s son Johnny is being prepped to be an astronaught with Ben .

After a breakthrough the four meet up to celebrate the breakthrough but also their new found friendship. Jokely calling them the fantastic four.

but the Loki invasion occurs destroying the baxter building and all their research in the processes.

After the event Doom has removed all funding. Ending all fours careers including the storms mother Dr.Maria Storm’s role as director. She blames the four which ultimately splits them all up.

jump to 2018 proir to Thanos Snap.

Reed has given up on his career to work for a small tech repair company. He is greated by Dr.Maria Storm who requires Reeds help. Sue has gone missing and they are unable to locate her. Sue continued working on their project after Reed left but during a test run back at Krakoa he sent missing. As Reed is the only person who knows the work she requires his help to find Sue

teaming up once again with Ben and Johnny they head to krakoa where they are attacked by Deviants. Overwelmed they are brought to a cavern where upon they are reunited with Sue and Dr.Harvey Rupert Elder who did not die years earlier. He discovered the Deviants living beneath Krakoa and that the original experient gave him the ability to control their minds. But his power is weak and needs sue to help with their research to create a more powerful device. but with Reed they are able to do so much more. The two are forced to fix and activate the device the result causes a radiation to fill across the cave, Elder gets his power and begins his decent towards mainland to send the deviants to destroy his competators.

Reed awakes from the blast to find he has become elastic as the others has been transformed also.

They fight their way out of the caves to stop Elder by working together as the fantastic four.

Because of this Dr.Maria Storm is given a new work place being the old Avengers tower now owned by Mr.Gyphon of Qong Enterprise. Reed figures that in order to reverse the effects of the blast returning them back to normal they would need to be in space for a solar flare. Using the new tech they have inherited from stark and the new employeer Mr.Grphon there adventure into space is cut short with the Thanos Snap, where all four disappear

end of first movie.

The Chemistry Of The MCU

Firstly it’s not something I usually comment on but I feel it is a big part of the success of the MCU and how it works so I thought it is important to address it.

One of the things that isn’t talked about is Superhero/Supervillian chemistry in films. “Wait what it’s talked about a lot, what rock have you been living under” yes this is true it is talked about a lot but only through the lens of how these relationships work well in movies but then they compare it to other films with great chemistry that are not superhero films. What I’m actually looking at is there is a unique protagonist relationship of chemistry that only works in superhero movies and only works in this genre. It’s unique.

The reason it’s unique is because you can’t compare it to any other genre that yields strong chemistry mostly in a realistic environment, superhero films live in an unrealistic universe that defies logic but tries to assimilate itself into the realities of “this is normal” there for the chemistry between characters are sharing strong bonds over a fictional unrealistic scenario that connects the two. How on earth or space does an actor/actress draw from experience when there is no relatable experience like what they are going through. Sure there are close substitutes you can take from real life and it’s by that of which most “chemistry” in these films are viewed.

Historically most chemistry in superhero movies failed. This is because it’s hard to draw bonds in a fictional reality. That’s why the MCU has mastered this technic and keeps you engaged and watching these developments. But I can still be critical on it. Even the MCU is flawed in parts but it’s outweighed or manages to fix those relationships much later on.

For example the chemistry between Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr’s – Spider-Man and Iron-Man mentorship. It is a great example of chemistry done right. But Ironman himself is also a victim of failed chemistry to.

Looking back at Ironman 1 – You have the relationship with Obadiah Stain, James Rhodes, Pepper Pots, Yansin, Jarvis and Happy Hogan. Out of all these relationships the only one bit of genuin chemistry was in Robert Downey Jr’s Ironman with Jon Favera’s Happy Hogan. Everyone else was just playing there part in the role they was given. But despite the failed chemistry it also kind of worked. The isolated Tony Stark is only thinking of himself, and thus is the start of his journey as Iron Man. In fact the brief moments of happy hogan relates mostly to friendship more so than Tony Starks friendship with James Rhodes. Not a problem with the actor as I thought he played the role well. Just a shame they didn’t keep the actor.

Over the series of Iron Man films and of course the presence of Ironman in avengers and other marvel films is where the chemistry with other characters like Pepper Pots and of course Spider-Man occurs. So even though the chemistry wasn’t originally there, marvel fixed it.

Now as we know when chemistry doesn’t work the actor gets replace but with the exception of Jim Rhodes who the original actor did get replaced. None of the other characters did. Hogans relationship with stark grew and keeps growing beyond Ironman death. You see this in Spider-Man Far From Home. He has truely become Peter Parkers guardian. Because Tony may have asked him to, maybe because the chemistry with Jon Favera and Robert Downey Jr now includes Tom Holland.

The best way to look at this is via Faveras cooking show where he invites Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr of which they talk about how Holland was cast. However it doesn’t always work out so quickly looking at Pepper Pots and Tony Stark. The entire films revolve around there relationships of getting together and growing respect for each other but they felt further apart than together – this is probably a studio decision to focus more on Ironman adventures rather than his relationships. But with pepper and starks chemistry didn’t come until Avengers Endgame. The scenes of a troubled Tony trying to solve timetravel and pepper seeing Tony and acknowledging Tony for who he is was probably the best moment the two actor/actress shared since the beginning. Again it took a while but they got there. They fixed it. But you look before that. Pepper is very independent. I hope to see more of Pepper Potts because I feel there is more to her story.

Then we get to WandaVision – absolutely love the show but the biggest problem I had with it was “where did there relationship come from” it felt so alien even in the marvel films. You have him created them after that he expresses a strange interest in her. I believe the reason is that between the mind Stone and wanda’s reality alternating powers there was a connection that excited them both. But it’s never fully explored “maybe a season two of WandaVision storyline” and this is my point. The chemistry between Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany is amazing is Wondervision. I was hooked to that show. Because of great chemistry.

So now that we have talked about marvels success let’s talk how it doesn’t work in other movies. I want to split this into two categories – other Marvel non-MCU universes like Fox’s x-men or daredevil then the second categoric is Dc comics/ independent comic book stores made into films like The Mask, Spawn, Dredd etc.

Fox’s x-men gave us our first true look at a superhero team up and I consider it a precursor to how MCU is successful. But the problem with the X-Men films was that it didn’t acknowledge chemistry. And only acknowledge our chemistry with the character on screen.

In the first film there was chemistry between Wolverine and Rogue – she found a protector and he found someone to care for. To fight for a good reason. Where not talking about a love story of lust. But one of two lone wolfs finding a partnership. Like a bromance or an adoptive family much like The A-Team. But fox didn’t explore this so it’s isolated to the first film and barely mentioned in later instalments. In fact they cut a Rogue rescue scene in a future film. Fox cared more about your relationship with the character – this is why the most popular was followed. The x-men franchise had you hooked on the life of Wolverine. Second to that was Charles Xavier and Magnetos relationship which is another chemistry that worked but again lacked to cover. But I’ll come back to that. The x-men franchise failed and got worse because those in power was looking for the next bigger and best story they knew the fans wanted certain things but they was misinformed even in that. So what we got was a disconnected future. Looking at Apocalpyse and Dark Phoenix they failed because in Apocalpyse the story basically says that the original films didn’t really exist because timetravel in the Earlier instalment got rid of it. Then dark Phoenix was supposed to be an apology to the dark phoenix we got in x-men 3. Nobody asked for that.

So it’s lack of chemistry especially in the later years was the downfall of its franchise. It birthed the era of superhero teams. Without them you wouldn’t have the MCU but it’s also a tale of if you fail to miss chemistry it will destroy your franchise.

Moving on to non marvel products. I have already got a post on how DC works better as single films rather than its own MCU. There is also examples of bad chemistry but I don’t want to cover this as I feel I would just be covering old ground. Instead I want to look at The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It was a failure much to how DC failed. See you have a group of historic characters “historic in a fictional sense” like Jeckle and Hyde, Nemo and Dorian grey. The film just didn’t no how to connect any of them, there was no chemistry because the characters are far too different. See someone who is a vampire has no shared experience to someone going through a Jeckle and Hyde moment. Vampires enjoy their transformation it’s more of an addiction where as Hyde was basically the Incredible Hulk the first Incredible Hulk really Jeckle had no control over Hyde and was scared what Hyde would do. Again no connection no relationship no chemistry. It’s because of this film Alan Moore the creator of the comic books didn’t like movie adaptions. In fact when you read the comics there is greater focus on chemistry between them all and all of that was left out of the film. But they did get it right with Watchmen. Watchmen is an example of great chemistry that went nowhere. At a time when they got it right they got it right to a franchise that birthed a solo film. So we never expected to see these characters again. There would be no sequel. In fact the future television show they made felt hollow because it’s not the original cast.

Superhero chemistry is far more complex to achieve as I have shown above. It’s hard to master, requires a lot more elements than just two characters working well together.

But then not only has the MCU done this well not only can they do it they can also fix it. This is a model that other films should adopt. This way we would get a far greater relatable movie than something that gets overhyped and becomes a flop.

There is no Zac Snyder cut of a marvel films and I mean that figuratively as zac Snyder never did a marvel film at least I don’t think he did. But there has not been a much better directors cut. Proof that MCU is doing it right and DC is failing.

My advice to DC abandon your JLA universe and just focus on the one good franchise you have Batman. And maybe Wonderwoman

The Problem With The Future

Lockdown, lockdown, release on delay. Please help my film make money I pray.

Is film dead? Of course not, but how we make it is. See the problem with the industry is that it acknowledges the existence of the future of online streaming but they are trying to push their square business model into a pyramid hole of online content and hoping as it doesn’t fit that one day it will.

See the viewers are really in control, I miss blockbusters the art of going to a place to pick out a movie was based on which poster or movie trailer you saw that enticed you in. Or the random blurb written on the back of a well artistic box that makes you rent it. Then you have cinema where we had no choice but to watch what they say is on. They had control in those days but when online streaming happened they got rid of the rental and pushed more on Cinema. Then Boooom Covid-19.

The streaming services victorious battle much like the Betamax and VHS war and also the Sony Blu-ray HD disc war – online rules supreme. But they don’t have the control anymore, we do. We don’t have to watch what we don’t want to see. We can be critical we can be decisive and we can tailor make our lives. WELCOME TO TGE FUTURE. And that is what Hollywood and all studios don’t seem to understand. Because with the likes of YouTube and other online uploading social media outlets we create the content. Not them. Sure they have tried to get involved but there bubble has shrunk. They have become extinct and the only people who don’t seem to know it is them.

It’s sad news for us because the era of wanting to make a Hollywood film one day is a dream we inspire to. But that barrier is gone now. We are free, we can do it ourselves and we can get famous without them. However that last part relies on you doing or creating something that will be found and makes you famous. It’s still not an instant success thing. But that’s my point. That is the future of media. Self created content. That we control.

Now although studios don’t seem to know this, doesn’t mean the actors/actresses don’t know this. In fact they are very clued in on this future. If I was to list a few names let’s look at them. Kevin Smith famed for clerks mallrats and other films a cult iconic film maker was unaware he was able to do his own online thing and boom there it is. And he is thriving on YouTube. But then we look at the other spectrum John Krasinski of The Office and Jack Ryan fame. Started good news something I forget it’s name but I watched a few and through video call was able to create pretty much what something like Saturday night live did. The era of studio and high costs are gone. Media is liberating

So if it’s free to make how do they make money. Well that’s a good question but that’s where sponsorship comes in. The production can be small cost for a larger payout by sponsorship. That’s where the future of the business is. And there are good examples of where these productions grow from that. YouTube channels like Good Mythical Morning and Modern Rogue are setting the way forward for shows with the power softly in the hands of its creators. And not investments of big budget films.

The online world is only still beginning – we need to have a new vision and all us old dogs. Those that yearn for times gone by should yearn for times yet to come.

Enjoy the future. And to quote Captain Planet – The Power Is Yours

The Future Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

How much life does the MCU have left on the big screen? This powerful machine that was created between Marvel and Disney has been a staple of the 10’s and now we are in the 20’s (Albeit a bit of a rough start) the question is, when will this fade end? how will it end? what is there ultimate endgame.

Not that i would want it to end, i have enjoyed this journey through so many films they have achieved something amazing in such a short period of time. Its masterful and something that is ingrained into history of film making.

Now the interesting thing about the MCU is that it breaks alot of rules. All models that exist successful or unsuccessful franchises have nothing to compaire to the MCU. Franchise either die or die then reboot and at a stretch die-rebirth many years later. But MCU doesnt fit into this, the core source has been going since the 60’s and still going strong. The films have an infinity of storylines and material to keep this fresh for many many decades. Yes i said decades.

But it is unlikely that we will see this, trends occure because of th people keeping focus and well the MCU achieved an impossible with Infinity War and Endgame. They created the ultimate end to something but it wasnt the end. Now we enter into Phase Four which we can only speculate where this is going. Now 2020 could be damaging towards the interest but in a time when people needs focus they are looking at this more than every. The expectations are high for the next chapter in this fable.

So when does all this end? if there is anything to look towards, i would say the MCU is its only model and they already gave us the three phase approach, so what we can expect from Phase Four is set up for Phase Five and Phase Six which we know this is where they are heading.

The question is, by time they get to Phase Six will they continue the franchise? will there be interest and what would it look like? I find it very unlikely that when we get to Phase Six ending that we will see a Phase Seven. This is mostly because of two things, the people that are making the films probably at this point would of worked on the franchise for over 20 years so new blood would be promoted and with that comes unease. Secondly by time they get to the end of Phase Six, what franchise would be left to follow. All the big hitters would of had their story told, we would be introduced to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, probably Namor – what comes next?

You could look at something revolutionary like some of the lesser known characters of modern era being promoted up to the big leagues, but this is happening now with the likes of Ms Marvel. So really there is no vision of what a Phase Seven could look like.

In theory, Phase Six is the perfect time to end it. It gives the oppertunity to end this shared universe and they could then focus on smaller groups of stories splintered off not worrying about having to co-exist for a shared overal story arch. Plus by 2030 roughly when this phase will end its the right age for actors like Robert Downey Jr to reprise his role as Iron Man to have one last tip of the hat.

Ok seems bleak but it feels right to end it at Phase Six, i would love to see this go on and on until we reach Phase one hundred. but it wouldnt be benificial and like what Harvey Dent said in The Dark Knight you ether die a hero or live long enough to become a villain and if this franchise continues it will become hated. So really the best business plan they could have is to make the ending of Phase Six thee end of this.

So where would you go in a post Phase Six era?

Singular franchise stories, meaning no more shared universe. Continue with characters that can provide a series of epic films.

Good example of this is Fox’s X-Men – wither you like them or not they have had a successful run outside of this MCU and infact because of this is probably how we ended up with the MCU in the first place.

as we know The X-Men are being introduced, so are Fantastic Four, they would only have a chance to breath in phase six before the lights go out. But this is Marvels future.

After Phase Six. The X-Men could continue the frachise on away from the likes of Avengers. they have alot of stories and shifting the focus from Avengers to X-Men makes sense.

Professor X is going to be a big part of this new world unlike the fox’s x-men world Professor X is the MCU is going to be a focal point of rights, of protection, of debate. Between him and MrFantastic and the Avengers whoever will be the voice of the Avengers going forward you needd to stand out. The X-Men can continue what the Avengers started and played through during the Phase one to three. But all the big hitters will be gone, and replaced.

So you will need something powerful to carry it and that is The X-Men Franchise under Disney. And moving away from a shared universe is not exactly what i mean – when it comes to the big story its focus should be on the x-men world but doesnt mean characters from all over the franchise could appear. Its just the focus shifting.

This is where i see the future of the MCU, it will still be the MCU but it will be more heavily focused on the x-men, and any story marvel releases outside of it would still fit into this world but would be more individual stories.

There is a future out there but it might not be the future you invision.

If Iron Man Movies was retold as if it was Batman

So as per my previous post. This is what a Batman film would be like it it used Ironman as a bases for a rebooted story FYI this is not a “they should make this film” this is just to show that if you totally rebooted Batman’s origin and updated what Batman is for the new age how someone like Batman could have an amazing Film Franchise

I titled this Batman: The Awakening.

Plot.

Bruce Wayne who has inherited the science tech contractor Wayne Enterprise from his father Thomas Wayne, is at a tech expo in Japan with his friend and body guard soon to join the Gotham Police Department Jim Gordon to demonstrate the new “Enhanced Tactical Suit” . After the demonstration, the convoy is ambushed and Bruce is kidnapped by The League Of Shadows, captured and imprisoned at the Leagues base “The Lazarus Pit” Dr.Crane, a fellow captive doctor, helps Bruce to concurs his fears and agrees to help him escape, The Leagues leader Raz Al Ghul offers Bruce freedom in exchange for building the tactical suitsfor the group, but he and Crane know that Raz will not keep his word.

Bruce and Crane secretly build a new type of tactical suit to aid in their escape. Although they keep the suit hidden almost to completion, the The League discover their hostages’ intentions and attack the workshop. Crane sacrifices himself to divert them while the suit fully charges. The armored Bruce battles his way out of the cave to find crane has been taken away to be killed, then burns the The Lazarus Pit in anger and flies away, crashing in the desert and destroying the suit. After being rescued by Jim Gordon, Bruce returns to Gotham and announces that his company will cease manufacturing tech for the government. Dr.Victor Fries his father’s old partner and the company’s manager, advises Bruce that this may ruin Wayne Enterprise and his father’s legacy. In his home workshop, Bruce builds a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armor suit as well as building a base of operations “The Batcave”. Though Fries requests details, a suspicious Bruce decides to keep his work to himself.

At a charity event held by Wayne Enterprise reporter Vikki Vale informs Bruce that his company’s tactical suits were recently delivered to the The League Of Shadows and are being used to attack Around the world, Bruce dons his new armor “Bat Suit” and travels to a small town where he tracks down some league members, where he saves the villagers. While flying home, Bruce is chased by two gotham police vehicles He reveals his secret identity to Jim Gordon over the phone in an attempt to end the pursuit. Meanwhile, the The League Of Shadows gather the pieces of Bruces prototype Bat suit and meet with Fries who has been trafficking the suits to criminals worldwide and has staged a coup to replace Bruce as Wayne Enterprises’ CEO by hiring the The League Of Shadows to kill him. In doing so Fries would be able to fund his research into cryogenics which Bruce’s father deemed a lost cause. He subdues Raz Al Ghul and has the rest of the group killed. Fries has a massive new suit reversed engineered using his cryogenic tech from the wreckage of the proto Bat Suit. Seeking to track his company’s illegal shipments, Bruce sends Rachel his personal assistant to hack into its database. She discovers that Fries hired the The League to kill Bruce, but the group reneged when they realized they had a direct route to Bruces weapons. Rachel meets with Agent Jon Johnson of J.U.S.T.I.C.E an meta human agency to inform him of Fries activities.

Fries scientists cannot duplicate Bruce’s exact suit programs so Fries ambushes Bruce at Wayne manor and takes the one from his suit. Bruce manages to get to his original programme now called “Alfred” to replace it. Rachel and several Justice agents attempt to arrest Fries, but he dons his “Mr Freeze” suit and attacks them. Bruce now as Batman fights Mr Freeze but is outmatched without his new Programme to run his suit at full capacity. The fight carries Batman and Mr Freeze to the top of the Wayne Enterprise building, and Bruce instructs Rachel to overload the power grid powering the building. This unleashes a massive electrical surge that causes Victor Fries and his Mr Freeze Suit to malfunction to fall into the near by lake the cryogenic cooler explodes freezing Victor effectively killing him.. The next day, at a press conference, Bruce defies suggestions from Justice Department and publicly admits to being “Batman.”

In a post credit scene Aquaman visits Bruce at home, telling him tha Batman is not “the only hero in the world”, and explaining that he wants to discuss the Justice League

The Problem With Batman On Film

The Problem With Batman On Film

Every now and then i look at a franchise especially ones that have failed at reboots and compaire them to successful reboots. Now that statement “Successful Reboots” seems like an almost Oxymoron given the history surrounding the notion of Rebooting a franchise. 

When you have an iconic character and multiple directors get a change to give their version of that character there is usually an angle, a clever look into a different side to something we thought we already knew. But once all those Angles have been exhausted there is simply nothing else to say about the character without it becoming just a cash cow.

For example… The character of Superman struggles to have a decent reboot because their is no way to really tell his story without covering old grounds. Hes an alien who looks like a human but has abilities that makes him like a super human… a superman. In my personal opinion everything you ever needed to be said about Superman stems from the Christopher Reeves run at portraying the character on film, that being said their was two notable exceptions which i refer to the “Louise and Clark tv series and the Smallvile tv series” because this pretty much covers superman at every angle and tv shows do play an important part in this on screen character.

This is why The Hulk has never been able to have a solo successful franchise movie, its been done, the only good use you have for the character is for him to appear in other franchises which they did in Avengers and other marvel property. Look at The Hulk film and The Incredible Hulk films they added nothing to the character as we seen it all from the made for tv movies that was made… or was it a tv show.

Anyway Batman! The problem we are now facing with Batman is that we have seen him at nearly every angle, We saw the introduction of a classic hero “The Tim Burton/and the other director” 4 film bonanza – we saw the sculted origin story of christopher nolans saga, we saw a terrible Justice League variant – Not Ben Afflecks fault more to do with the problem of putting a dark hero mixed into a ligh heros story. I’ll explain that later. We have gotham basically populating Gotham with its ethos. Whats left…? 

I saw the trailer to the Patterson Batman – to me, he looks fine as batman but as Bruce Wayne it doesnt feel right. I know why it doesnt feel right. The movie has fallen into the “DC Trying to do something like Marvel but this ultra-realistic connected universe is falling apart” scenario just doesnt work. 

But then i thought to myself, Well how do you make Batman interesting when everything has been done about him.

Simple, change his origin, change when its set, change the old style of what batman means and look at the world today and say to yourself how would Batman exist in a world today if it happened.

Its an interesting concept, you know who did it first? Marvel with Iron Man? the film was no surprise gonna be a hit not just because of its casting but also because they new had to put Ironman into the modern world. You could totally buy a Tony Stark doing what he did because it felt real. 

So what i did was, i looked at Wikipedia and took the plot of Iron Man and with a few creative tweeks changed the characters to Batman characters and ended up with a batman film that not only works, its completly different but very relivant.

Im not going to post the whole plot but i will try and give you the summary.

Bruce Wayne inherits his father business after his death, he is kidnapped by the league of shadows but escapes building a “Prototype Batman suit” Upon returning to Gotham he finds that his business partner working on Wayne technology “Dr.Victor Fries” tried to take control of the company so he could fund his research by the kidnapping of bruce wayne. However this war between business rivials leads to Victor going after Bruce and thus trying to steal his Batman suit design. Victor builds his “Mr.Freeze” suit that he could then sell to further his business venture into cryogenics. Bruce adopts the mantel of Batman and stops him.

Its basically the plot of Iron Man 1 but look at how cool Batman would be if we changed the narrative of how batman works. A modern Batman, a playboy millionare company owner who uses his wealth to undo wrong doings in his own company. Plus it gives Mr.Freeze a chance to come to the big screen in a way that you could actually think… “Well this isnt a giant silver tinsel christmas tree running around”

Further more, iron man 2 and 3 gives a even more exiciting way to introduce currently known characters in a very different light. The Joker as being an ex-Wayne enterprise employee. The Riddler being rejected years ago for help with his project only for it to come back and in the 3rd movie to create chaos. 

My point being is that Batman needs to shed its old and step into the new. Were not asking for Batman of the future/Batman Beyond – which they should make. But we need something that hasnt already been done. gotham is no longer gothic, technology is king in this current times so use it. Use the problems of this world to voice how batman would stand within it. and maybe just maybe if DC just saw the formula for success like Marvel did then we would of had a better Justice League creation.

If you want me to write out my full plot for a rebooted Batman film based on alot more complexities let me know in the comments and i will make it my next post.

So… it’s been a while

Yep, it has been quite a few years.. minus 2020 but nobody is counting this year. As time progresses and nobody seems to know what day of the week it is. Hence the Jim Carrey mood chart to remind you how you used to feel on certain days of the week.

Where do I begin. So I have a million thoughts to share with you all so expect more blogs. Once I can be bothered to write them. But wow 2017 to now a lot has happened.

So basically when I started Planet Nerdy it was a way to express my thoughts on how wrong the world is and here is how to fix it. These days nobody would listen anyway. But over the past three-four years I have had some challenging and tough times presented to me. Almost one after another. But maybe 2020 is a bizarre gift. A change to change all changes with handsanitizrrs at the ready.

If we ever go back to normal them f n ell there is a lot of backlog to watch. So to give you and idea of what my next post is gonna be about. Well let me give you the title.

Batman movie franchise. Do we really need another Batman movie and does anyone actually buy Patterson as Bruce Wayne? It doesn’t feel right and guess what . Here’s how to fix it.

I have returned

Prepare for more blogging. Coming soon