OUTLAND (1981) - almost in the ALIEN universe

OUTLAND
(1981, UK)

After Zardoz and Meteor, Sean Connery made a good sci-fi film...

The year before sci-fi cinema started ripping off either Blade Runner or Mad Max 2, Alien was the strongest influence on outer space action for older audiences. Humanoids From The Deep, Alien Contamination, Galaxy of Terror, Titan Find all tried to cash in before the official Alien sequel in 1986. In the meantime, Outland (1981) duplicated so many elements from Alien that it could easily be mistaken for a spin-off. It was also serious sci-fi from the Alan Ladd company just before they produced Blade Runner.

Outland looks and sounds like Alien. But it's less of a cash-in than a concerted attempt to fit in with the Alien universe of the fairly near future, and matches the high production values. Extensive large-scale modelwork represents the mine and gigantic spacecraft. Functional, claustrophobic interior sets with huge chunky airlock doors add to the realism. Plus an unsettling soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith.


A gigantic titanium mine on Io, a moon of Jupiter. O'Niel (Sean Connery) is the new sheriff in town, each tour of duty lasts a year. Two deaths coincide with his arrival and catch his interest. All witnesses say the miners killed themselves, so the mine supervisor (Peter Boyle) isn't happy when O'Niel decides to investigate further. He's only just arrived and has no friends or allies. If he causes any trouble, he'll have even fewer...

I'd recommend Outland to anyone who's overdosed on Alien sequels but still wants more. Like Alien and Aliens, this was shot in Britain, all filmed on studio soundstages. There's a mostly British and American cast, with a feisty female character to remind us of Ripley. Maybe it is Ripley, or her daughter.

When I first saw this on release, I was hoping that there would be a monster somewhere in the mining complex. The trailer and publicity had teased some mysterious, messy death scenes with exploding heads. So, I was hoping for an alien cause...

Outland is a good thriller with solid characters and a great cast, but not solid sci-fi. The confined sets are convincing, but even a slim knowledge of science could spoil it for you. As always, there's no attempt to portray the (one-sixth) gravity until the characters are in a depressurised zone. And who in their right mind uses shotguns in outer space?


Peter Hyams directed this between Capricorn One and the 2001: A Space Odyssey sequel 2010. It's far and away better than his more recent sci-fi offerings like Timecop and, gulp, A Sound of Thunder...

Sean Connery had missed out on a trip into space as James Bond in You Only Live Twice, and this is the only other time you'll see him in a spacesuit. He's excellent here, and the script, dialogue and supporting cast keeps it all dramatically strong. He shares the best scenes with a wry Frances Sternhagen (Communion, Misery), playing an incurably cynical, overworked doctor. I thought she looked old in this, so I was surprised to see her again in The Mist 26 years later.

Always a treat to see the late Peter Boyle (Taxi Driver, Young Frankenstein). Hard to understand why his film work dwindled after the seventies. James Sikking (Star Trek III) was also underused in movies. Here he plays O'Niel's right-hand man in the police force. The actor's greatest role remains Howard Hunter, trigger-happy commander of the armed response team, in ground-breaking TV cop show Hill Street Blues.

So far, any DVD releases keep on repeating the same faults. Outland desperately needs remastering. There's weaving picture movement and film dirt. The 1997 DVD is anamorphic widescreen but doesn't look much sharper than the laserdisc.

Here's an original trailer, cropped from 2.35 to 16:9, and it's far murkier than the DVD...

IT'S ALIVE! (1974) - Larry Cohen's monstrous baby

IT'S ALIVE
(1974, USA)

Kill, baby, kill, kill!

Hollywood movies usually have an A-list cast, beautiful cinematography, superb production design and state-of-the-art special effects. It's Alive has none of these. But director Larry Cohen still provides a unique horror concept and a script rich in ideas. It still keeps me interested right to the bloody finish where many mainstream movies fail to. Anyway, why bother with production values when you can make it cheap, make a profit and spawn a couple of sequels?

The first of the three is easily the best - don't feel compelled to watch the sequels...

A newly born baby slaughters five doctors and nurses in the delivery room, before escaping into the night. As the parents struggle to cope with why they've given birth to a monster, the police try to track 'it' down. The newborn craves milk, toys, and its parents. If anything gets in its way, it has teeth and huge claws...

Unlike traditional monster movies where our heroes are isolated or trapped (at sea, in space, in a remote mansion), this attempts a realistic portrayal of a menace in a modern city, including nosy media, tired cops, and the politics of putting down killer babies. Cohen, who also wrote this, depicts the media as especially insensitive, intruding on the family during their crisis. The use of gentle irony and satire is similar to his later films The Stuff and Q - The Winged Serpent.

Presumably It's Alive was inspired by Rosemary's Baby and a desire to see what happened next. The poster even repeats the image of the pram (though there isn't one in the films). But rather than link this mutant baby to religion, Cohen switches the probable cause of abnormal size and psychosis to manmade - suggesting food additives, pollution, and radiation.

The opening images are simple but disorientating - a growing multitude of flashlights in the night. But even for the 1970s, the low production values are very basic - stark lighting, sometimes scenes are underlit, with bizarrely wide camera compositions and very shaky tracking shots.


While it looks cheap, most of the acting manages to convince that this is all happening to a real couple of people. The late John P. Ryan (Runaway Train, Death Wish 4), as Frank Davis, holds most of the film together, with a transition from happy prospective parent to a reluctant hunter. Some of the supporting actors are on the clumsy side of naturalistic, but the key roles are solid, with Frank's wife (Sharon Farrell) particularly well played.

The film is also blessed with one of the last soundtracks to be composed by Hitchcock favourite Bernard Herrmann.


While the drama is consistent, it's less successful as a seventies monster movie, and especially lacking now. While Jaws succeeded in gradually revealing the monster, It's Alive barely ever shows us the goods, despite the excellent photos of the creature that were published. While the larger-than-lifesize model may have looked good, it couldn't move convincingly. Some quick cuts look like someone waving a plastic monster baby around. There were stories of the young make-up artist Rick Baker dressing up his (then) girlfriend as the creature and tricking the scale down, but again, these shots are so brief, most of his hard work isn't in the film. It's a classic design, but it's not showcased onscreen.

All the films under-deliver in showing us the title character. It's hard to even get a sense of its size. The horror content relies on the repetitive throat wounds, without showing the actual attacks.

Cohen's cheeky script for Maniac Cop, gave us the ultimate in police brutality and a inarguable reason for the public not to trust the police (any of them could be the maniac killer!). It's Alive also plays devil's advocate with a hard decision to make - surely a baby should be terminated if it's going to kill the moment it's born...

If the baby was seen more, like in all the classic monster movies, this would be better known. As it stands, it's a rewarding cynical horror with real people and some substance.

At the time, with very little competition, this was a sufficiently powerful monster movie and audiences wanted more...


It's Alive 2: It Lives Again (1978) kicks in soon after the first, with another couple about to have a monster baby (an echo of the events of Village of the Damned). The young couple, played by Kathleen Lloyd (hot off The Car) and Frederic Forrest (Coppola's The Conversation) are lucky to get advice of Frank Davis (John P. Ryan again).

Coincidentally Ryan, Lloyd and Forrest had just appeared together with Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando in a western The Missouri Breaks. Demonstrating how good Larry Cohen was assembling his casts.

After an unlikely escape from a heavily-guarded hospital, there's an even nuttier storyline - a group of idealists trying to protect this 'new line of evolution', with unsurprising results. While there are plenty of fresh situations, the carnage is slow to kick in, with very few glimpses of now three monster babies. The camerawork is often so poor as to be mystifying. The drama is uneven and often implausible, but it's closer in tone to the original than...

It's Alive 3: Island of the Alive (1987), Cohen released the monsters again, with a project perfect for the lucrative VHS market. While the world had changed considerably, Cohen's increased special effects budget didn't deliver anything more realistic, and the next generation of child mutations mostly keep to the shadows, even when battling very-eighties post-punk troublemakers. Michael Moriarty bounces between over-acting and going for laughs. Karen Black and Gerrit Graham act their socks off in a project that's gotten silly.

It's Alive is still around on DVD (don't get it confused with Larry Buchanan's 1969 It's Alive!), the two sequels are available together on DVD, and there's also a set of all three (above). It would make more sense to keep the first two films as a pair, and leave the third for fans of the 80s...


OK. Now should I face the 2008 remake?


An original trailer for It's Alive (1974) is here, from YouTube...

Hunter Prey

Every once in a while I see a movie and think, wow that was a good movie and I feel that more people should know about it. Recently I saw a movie I think describes that, it is called Hunter Prey. I was at my friend Dennis' house (check his awesome blog) and he said this movie is sort an homage to 70's sci-fi, but what sold me is that it was directed by Sandy Collora, the director who put together Batman: Dead End some years back. If you have yet to see the video please watch it here before you go on with reading the rest of this blog:



According to imdb.com, the video was made in 2003 which dates it two years before Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins was released. When I first saw it I thought, wow this is a well made short and I wished that the Batman movies would be more like this short. Not meaning have Aliens and Predators (which would be cool) but to have the costumes and fighting come off as gritty and realistic. Batman: Dead End also lived out a fantasy for many of us who always wanted to see Batman face off against the Predators, as he had done in many comics before hand.

The Joker was also dead on, the late Andrew Koeing (Boner from Growing Pains) played The Joker with an insanity that I loved, he was playing more of the Joker from the actual comic books. His acting was spot on, sadly Koeing committed suicide some years later. I believe if Batman: Dead End was released today, it would spread much faster then in 2003. It would be all over Facebook and Twitter where in 2003 we had to call up a friend or email them the link somehow, and without You Tube to help us.

I will always wonder how Collora got such good costumes on what had to be a limited budget. The Aliens actually looked and moved like the creatures from Alien and Predator films. The ending of Batman: Dead End leaves you wondering if they were hoping for a sequel. Alas we will never know, it has been 7 years since the short came out, but Collora has once again made another small budget quality movie.

As I was saying, I watched Hunter Prey and and the first thoughts were that they were definitaley referencing Star Wars. Growing up with iconic heroes from Star Wars I could understand why Collora would want to emulate the badassery of Boba Fett. Hunter Prey opens with three men dressed in what appears to be a mix of Boba Fett and Clone Trooper costumes stranded in a dessert looking for someone. I won't go into super detail on the plot because it has a few twists. I just wanted to write about how I was impressed with the movie on almost all it had to offer. It is a good homage to those space movies of the 70's and 80's. It reminds me of such movies as Enemy Mine and Star Wars.



Collora uses actual costumes and make-up, what I like and can respect is when a filmmaker can use special effects when needed, not just to show off. Collora is a master and getting amazing looking costumes. The movie is filmed all in a dessert and you know it must have been exhausting to have actors walking around in a huge suits, but that is what low budget films have to accomplish sometimes. When used, which is sparingly, the special effects are well done and move the story along.

Overall Hunter Prey was a surprisingly well done movie. It looks beautiful and you can tell that they really tried to get every penny out of the reported $425,000 budget they had to play with. We could only imagine what Collora would do with a few million. I say give this man some money and let him do his own thing. And if you have the time add this movie to your netflix or ask the local rental place if they have it.

Walk Out

I wanted to admit something that most people cannot, I have never walked out of a movie that I paid for. Sure I have done some theater hopping in my life and walked out of a movie because I had to make it time for another one. Or there has been a time when I was wasting time between movies and would just randomly sneak into a movie to pass the time. But never have I paid for a movie, sat down, decided it was unwatchable and left. I give credit to my dad who took us to many bad movies throughout the years, and he never walked out. He had a different way to deal with movies that had no interest to him, he would start to sleep. I will admit that this has happened to me, in fact the #1 movie I would have walked out I feel asleep during. Here are some movies that looking back on, I might have walked out on.




1) Battlefield Earth (2000) -- This is by far one of the most unwatchable movie I felt I have seen, and I would have walked out if it was not for me falling asleep. As far as I can remember this is the first movie I feel asleep during and felt like it was okay. I would have most likely walked out of the movie even though I was seeing it my dad. I do not recall talking much about the movie afterwords, we probably switched to another movie after to make for this piece of shit.



2) Bewitched (2005) -- This was more on the audience then the movie, but the movie was pretty terrible as well. I believe I took a date (an ex girlfriend of mine). The movie had promise, Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman seemed like a good comedy duo. The reason I wanted to walk out was because a member of the audience fell asleep and started to snore so loud that people started to laugh at him, including his family that was with him. Yes the logical response would have been to nudge and wake him up but they did no such thing. To add to all of this the theater was quite small and I could not hear the dialogue when this moron would snore. I was restored to actually yelling at the family, probably something mean. It was the first and only time I have done that. Eventually the guy woke up but by then I was pretty pissed off and unable to enjoy the movie anymore. From what I can recall the movie was pretty bad so it just lead to an overall terrible movie experience.


3) Spy Kids 3-D (2003) -- I went to see this with one of my best friends and his girlfriend at the time. On the way there they started to bicker a little and I could tell I was in for a long night. When we sat down I do not think anyone talked at all, ah a lover quarrel! Between that the movie I felt I would have walked out, but I usually will not walk out on a movie if others are around. I think I spent most of the movie making jokes in my head about it. To give the movie some credit I had never seen the first two Spy Kids but I still think that would not help out much.


4) Wing Commander (1999) -- A movie based off a hit video game, who would have thought this Matthew Lillard and Freddie Prize Jr. movie would be bad? I mean the director actually directed the video games, isn't a movie just the same thing? Um No! I can tell you why I went to see this movie and it was really for one reason, it was the only way (pre-internet) you could get a glimpse at the Star Wars Episode I trailer. "Sad to say, the only thing good about "Wing Commander", the latest 'movie based on a video game', is the impressive trailer for the upcoming "Star Wars" prequel, "The Phantom Menace". After that, you might as well leave, because it all goes downhill from that point on." -- Fronter.online. The movie was garbage, I should have walked out right after the trailer or snuck into another movie right after. But Episode I would be better, right?


5) Aeon Flux (2005) -- I was looking forward to this movie based off the kick ass MTV 5 minute segments. If SNL showed us anything with their movies base of skits anyone can go from a 3-5 minute segment and make it into a successful 90 minute movie...right? Exactly, this is no Pat The Movie but it ranks up close. I just hated this movie for some reason. I am sure it is not the worst movie I have seen but I guess I was just in a mood to see something better that day but I can still recall how bad I thought this movie was. I was bored to death during the movie. I am sure the only reason I didn't walk out was because I was with my dad, who probably was smart and feel asleep. Maybe one day I will give this movie another try.

They've released THE SATAN BUG (1965) in the US!

THE SATAN BUG
(1965, USA)

A different kind of bug hunt...

(An update of my review from 2007)

Before Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, before Outbreak, The Satan Bug was a gripping 'viral' thriller, based on Alistair Maclean’s best-selling novel. Through the 1960s and 70s, Maclean's books inspired a string of hit movies. The author's name on a poster promised adventure and man-centric thrills.

A list of his novels (with their original publishing dates) which were all turned into movies:

1957 The Guns of Navarone
1961 Fear is the Key
1962 The Golden Rendezvous
1962 The Satan Bug
1963 Ice Station Zebra
1966 When Eight Bells Toll
1967 Where Eagles Dare
1968 Force 10 From Navarone
1969 Puppet on a Chain
1970 Caravan to Vaccarès
1971 Bear Island
1974 Breakheart Pass

As you can see, his stories ranged from World War II heroics, through cold war thrillers, to high-tech terrorism. Which brings us back to The Satan Bug, which Maclean wrote under a pen-name and isn’t actually credited in the film.


This is a well-made, tight detective thriller with a slight sci-fi edge (that is if the science of such a bio-weapon is still fictional). The 'Satan Bug' is a virus engineered by the government to kill all living things, a sword of Damacles in a top secret lab in the Nevada desert. Then the bug goes missing, along with another less deadly virus.

So the story starts with a typical ‘locked room’ murder mystery – a well-guarded bunker with a huge combination locked laboratory. How did the thieves get in, let alone escape?

Top security agent, played by George Maharis (Route 66, The Sword and the Sorcerer) is brought in to find out how the virus was stolen, and where it is now. Then an incident in Miami, hundreds of people die mysteriously and suddenly…

The story depends on the audience paying attention, keeping track of a dozen different suspects, all men in suits. Dialogue drives much of the complex plot with many crucial events, even the opening murders, all happening off-screen. The early detective work has the benefit of the spectacular scenery of the desert mountains, and the action eventually takes off. But with a premise like this, it's suspenseful throughout.

The film is helped enormously by an outstanding early score from Jerry Goldsmith, his first sci-fi soundtrack, using unusual percussion and electronic sounds. The opening title theme is very striking and suitably downbeat.

The director, John Sturges, was the man behind Christmas TV hardy perennials The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, as well as many other well-known thrillers. He does well to keep the tension persistent and the settings familiar.

The cast also make this a pleasurable watch, with the late Anne Francis as intelligent eye candy – good to see her in something besides Forbidden Planet. An elderly Dana Andrews (Night of the Demon, Zero Hour, Crack In The World) coordinates the search for the virus, and Richard Basehart (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) plays the head of the scientific team (below).

Notable bit parts include a young Ed Asner (Lou Grant), with hair, and James ‘Scotty’ Doohan without any dialogue, but stealing one great scene, worthy of his red shirt…

There are also a couple of great-looking helicopters in the film, a regular feature in Alistair Maclean films, just because they were standard issue in thrillers at the time - visual shorthand for ‘high-tech’ and ‘big budget’.

The US VHS release was severely ‘panned & scanned’ down to a tight 1.33 full frame. The first widescreen release was the Fox Laserdisc.

In 2007, I was pleased to find the film on DVD in Denmark and Norway, in 2.35 anamorphic widescreen. However, the picture didn't look much better than an (analogue) laserdisc.

There was visible patterning, with hard diagonals turned into a series of steps (see the edge of the desk, above). It’s only distracting on certain scenes, but there’s also slightly muffled audio - not something I'd expect on a digital release.

So I was looking forward to this new MGM Limited Edition Collection version, even though it was an official DVD-R. I foolishly assumed that MGM (like many of the recent Warner Bros Archive releases) was going to remaster the film, curing the visual and audio faults of the Scandinavian DVD. Many websites selling this new version (it's only available online) failed to warn that this has been 'made from the best source available' - a caption which greets you only once you play the disc. A pre-emptive apology that means it doesn't look as good as it should. The exception is Amazon.com which outlines the problems prominently on the product page. I wish I'd visited them before double-dipping for the same sub-standard transfer. '...best source available'? Please don't tell me that MGM have lost the negative...

My mistake, perhaps, and at least this is a chance for the US to see a great sixties thriller in widescreen, on DVD for the first time.

Jerry Goldsmith’s scary paranoid soundtrack debuted on CD a few years ago, one of my favourite of his works. Several cues only exist today mixed in with sound effects from the film, but there’s also half an hour of just the music. Seems that I'll never get to hear the creepy synthesizers of the robbery sequence without those pneumatic sliding doors...

Lastly, there's an original trailer on YouTube.

ASTRO BOY (2009) - looking good, but...

ASTRO BOY
(2009, Hong Kong/USA/Japan co-production)

If only the script had been as good as the animation...

This beloved Japanese manga character became popular in the US when it was one of the first anime series shown on TV, back in the 1960s. Two further series were made in 1980 and 2003 and released in English language versions, but this high-budget feature film attempted to push the character as franchise material, though no sequel is happening. While it was a hit in China, it wasn't in the US... or even Japan.

The origin story of Astro hasn't been changed too drastically, retaining the tragic death of Professor Tenma's son, and the scientist's attempt to create a robot to replace him. But not just any robot. Tenma packs the it with enough 'defence systems' to remain safe from any foreseeable harm. But when Astro is activated and begins to realise his potential, the government want to use him as a weapon, or destroy him for being a potential threat.

During the power struggle over Astro's future, he escapes and runs away to live down below on the Earth's surface. Not in the beautiful floating city where robots do all the dirty work, but the trash-covered remnants of the Earth's surface...

This is a familiar premise, but clumsily outlined with a wordy, patronising prologue, rather than the elegant introduction of Pixar's recent Wall-E.


The futuristic city where Astro Boy lives was always re-imagined for each new anime series. Here the intricate pastel architecture, the designs of the giant robots and police pursuit vehicles are startling at times. The character animation and motion is dynamic and very high quality, as are the blistering action scenes.

The emotional dilemmas that Astro has to face as he finds a new place in the world are also quite tough for a children's film. The relationship with his father is far from the usual depiction of a single parent, and realistically, touchingly performed by Nicolas Cage. Cora (Kristen Bell), the tough girl he befriends, is rather a stock character, reminding me of Penny Robinson from the Lost In Space remake of 1998, though she's likeable enough.

Bill Nighy doesn't cope with voiceover acting at all well, but thankfully his character isn't in there for long. Donald Sutherland is also put in the shade by Nicolas Cage's vocal performance, as a one-note villain who tells us what he wants near the start and keeps on repeating his dastardly schemes if we'd forgotten.

The main drawback with the film were the secondary 'good' mechanical characters. The robot society in Astro Boy are the crux of the manga - future humanity's relationship with sentient robots. Many of Tezuma's original stories dealt with stories of an integrated automated workforce seriously enough to rival and predate subplots in Spielberg's A.I. (2004). This new Astro Boy includes an arena where robots fight each other to destruction, taken from the stories, echoed in A.I..

Apart from the snazzy-looking 'evil' ones, the robots aren't dealt with seriously at all, but as comedy relief. One dimensional characters with poorly underwritten gags that reduce many scenes to the level of tiny tot TV. Bizarrely, these comedy reliefs are part of a robot liberation front, a non-important subplot trading on jokes about powerless grass roots political groups. It's the wrong era for satire like this and feeble humour. Without them, this would be a much stronger film for all ages.

This new Astro Boy movie is available in the UK and US on DVD and blu-ray.

My New Favorite

I recently decided to change my favorite super-hero from Spider-Man to Batman. I felt that it was time for the change because Batman is more dark and adult. I think Spider-Man is geared towards more of the teen to twenties crowd (so two years ago for me). Here are some things that weighed on my mind while making the change (and some that didn't).

Villains:

Spider-Man has some great villains, including his biggest rival the Green Goblin. You also have Lizard, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Sandman, Rhino, Venom, and the Vulture. In my mind he has some of the best villains in the entire Marvel universe. But a lot of the bad guys seem to have been easily defeated. Electro does not strike fear into me and to be honest the Green Goblin just threw pumpkin bombs.


Batman of course has one of the best villains ever made in Joker. A personal favorite because he never took what he did too serious even if it was paralyzing Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Batman and most of his villains also have a deep rooted past. He has a long love interest in Catwoman and he was was friends with Harvey Dent before he turned into Two Face. You also have Doctor Freeze, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, The Penguin, Ra's Al Ghul, The Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and Clayface.

Edge: Batman


Costume:

Spidey has the classic red and blue costume, with those two big white eyes. You know for sure it is Spider-Man when you see the costume. It is one of the best superhero costumes of all time. He also has those cool webs always around him, which look badass.


Batman is equally as classic and well known. You have the darker colors (best in sneaking around Gotham) but the classic bat emblem with the yellow back, to let the bad guys know that yep, this is batman and you are screwed. The cape and cowl are just as iconic.

Edge: Spider-Man (very very close)

Supporting Characters:


Batman has his loyal butler Alfred to help him get through the day. He has had three Robin's assist him over the years. One is now Nightwing, one was killed by the Joker but has recently been resurrected as a villain, and the latest has sort of gone off on his own. Batman also have Commissioner Gordon and his daughter (and former Batgirl now turned helper Oracle) Barbra Gordon.



Spidey has his wife and love Mary Jane, who is hot! He also has (or until recently) had Aunt May as his rock. He has had his own tragedy in the loss of Gwen Stacy. His best friend Harry Osborne's dad Norman was also the Green Goblin.

Edge: Push


Movies:

The Spiderman movies were lead by director Sam Raimi, who made the movies fun and did not forget the roots of the comics. Tobey Mcguire was an excellent choice to play Peter Parker. The first movie sort of paved the way this comic book movie film revival. The first Spiderman movie does not hold up as well as, repeat viewings I have had made me ponder why I thought it so good in the first place. The second and far superior movie Spiderman 2, was much better. Spiderman gets a great villain in Doctor Octopus played by Alfred Molina (who gives the villain heart). They have some very memorable sequences and the action is stepped up over the first film, it is often on top lists of comic book movies and deserves to be. Spiderman 3 was problematic from the start. It seemed that Raimi was forced to use the Venom character without wanting too. Venom and Sandman were both villains and they also decided to give Harry Osborne his own costume and also Peter would have a new love interest. If it seems like a lot for one movie, it was. The movie was a commerical success but most fanboys have not forgotten the bitter taste from Spiderman 3, it could have been something special if they just used one villain instead of 3! They are currently filming a Spiderman reebot movie.


Batman has also had his share of movies. Batman and Batman Returns were both directed by Tim Burton and show the darker side of Batman. The Joker is played by Jack Nicholson and Batman was played by Michael Keaton of all people. The Burton films strayed towards the darker edgier side of Batman and both worked very well. I felt Batman Returns was underrated, and they handled having two villains very well (Catwoman and The Penguin). The third film Batman Forever showcased a new director (Joel Schumacher) and a new Batman (Val Kilmer). They sort of threw a lot at the audience, besides having two villains in The Riddler and Two Face they threw in Robin and giving Bruce Wayned a love interest (Nicole Kidman). The movie was pretty fun and enertaining at the time. It does not hold up as well and you can see how it would all go bad in the follow up film Batman and Robin. This time the movie went for all camp and not substance, what resulted was the worst Batman ever imagined. Doctor Freeze was played as a huge joke with one liner for everything by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman phoned her performance as Poison Ivy (although she did have some good sex appeal. George Clooney took of the role of Batman but with little dialogue to work with could do nothing. We are also introduced to Batgirl played by Alicia Silverstone, I think it would be one of the last big roles in her career and with good reason. Batman and Robin became the joke of what a comic book should never be.


With no where left to go the Batman movie was also rebooted. In 2005 Christopher Nolan was up the task and released Batman Begins, starting over with a real world take on Batman (Christian Bale). The film was a huge critical and commercial success. I thought the movie was very well done and I enjoy it but it also does not hold up as well as I was hoping, but still a quality piece of film making. Three years later Nolan thrilled audiences and this blogger with what I consider my favorite comic book movie of all time, The Dark Knight. Once again the Joker is the main villain, played by Heath Ledger (who we all know passed away before the movie was finished) who gives a masterful performance, in fact he would win an Oscar for it. It is hard to explain why I love this movie but I just do, its such a fresh take on characters that have been around for so long. I just love the Joker vs. Batman, Bale stepped it up on this one. You can really feel the tension and the movie is just draw droopingly beautiful and tragic.

Edge: Batman


Powers:

Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider that granted him all the powers of a spider, he can stick to walls and is agile and has double the strength of a normal human. He also posses a spider sense of when trouble is going to happen that warns him (by far the coolest and most useful power). In the movies he has the ability to spin webs from his wrists but in the comics he created his own web shooters. Peter Parker is also a brilliant scientist although they rarely use this aspect of him anymore.


Batman is a genius and a masterful detective and in the top physical shape of a human. He is also handsome, but that is hard to tell with the mask on.

Edge: Spider-Man


Gadgets:

Spiderman created his own web shooters, which is pretty cool and shows off his nerdy scientific side. The webs are a pretty remarkable seeings as they can take Peter Parkers weight and let him swing around on them. They have also been used to lift very heavy objects as well as a useful tool for tying up bad guys.

Batman unlike Spiderman has a ton of money so he can afford to have the best gadgets. He has the Batmobile which is iconic and always badass. He also has the bat-plane and the utility belt which always has some useful tools to take down bad guys or be used for detective work. Since he has no actual powers, Batman must rely more on his gadgets to get by.


Edge: Batman


The list could go on and on but both heroes are great in their own ways, I am still giving the edge to my new hero Batman who holds a slight 3-2 advantage over Spidey.