superhero Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Movie SmackdownÂ®

Spider-Man Gets New Threads

July 14, 2011 Movie Smackdown 5

Now that re-boots are planned while the last re-boot is finishing its run, it’s back to the beginning for Spider-Man in the new imagining. Because this version known as The Amazing Spider-Man is set in high school, it’s out with old-man Tobey Maguire and in with new-guy Andrew Garfield. Although to be honest, Garfield is like only seven years younger than Maguire and would probably last about five minutes in a real high school before somebody outed him as an undercover cop or something.

But this is Hollywood, so never mind. Along with the new actor, Spidey is getting a new costume. And the new costume is getting its coming out party in this week’s Entertainment Weekly with a cover splash (seen here) and a collection of other photos showing off the new look.

We first got a look at the suit six months ago, so in the carefully orchestrated run up to release, it’s time to throw some more fuel on the fire. It’s all timed for fan boys and girls in anticipation of next week’s trailer premiere and San Diego Comic-Con panel. That trailer is rumored to be first scene by the public in advance of the July 22nd release of Captain America: The First Avenger. […]

Green Lantern (2011) -vs- Iron Man (2008)

June 17, 2011 The FilmGuru 7

Imagine willpower given form by technology from beyond our world. Or willpower shaping technology made in the U.S.A. We’re starting a battle of wills between two fighters: one a hotshot test pilot turned intergalactic cop, the other a hotshot playboy industrialist turned superhero.

In the DC Comics universe, Green Lantern is one of the heavy hitters. He’s a man without fear, who uses an alien ring that transforms thought into reality by sheer force of will. So it only seems fitting that we pit him against Iron Man, the Marvel Comics version of Steve Jobs combined with Donald Trump. Iron Man is one man’s technology and ingenuity given form in the ultimate expression of man as machine. […]

Thor -vs- Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Thor (2011) -vs- Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980 | 2006)

May 4, 2011 Rodney Twelftree 9

Down here in Australia, we actually got Thor in our theaters a full two weeks before the God of Thunder finally visited the United States. Along with our Aussie pride that the title character is played by local lad Chris Hemsworth, that still doesnâ€™t quite equal what our American friends may be feeling over the success of Seal Team Six, but we take our thrills where we find them.

Comic book heroes coming to blows is a concept as old as the medium itself, but this Smackdown pits entire universes against each other. Thor versus Superman. Marvel versus DC. Yes!

The extraterrestrial Superman is the most recognizable comic book character ever created and Thor, the mythically awesome Stan Lee-created Asgardian God who comes to Earth, are the powerhouse figures of their respective comic book universes. DC Comics has published Superman since 1939, while Thor has been around since Marvel introduced him in 1962. Both have incredible powers. Superman derives his incredible strength and abilities from his proximity to Earthâ€™s yellow sun, while Thorâ€™s powers come from his family lineage as a Norse God (who may be an extraterrestrial himself) â€” the God of Thunder, to be exact. […]

Lois & Clark: The (Old) New Adventures of Superman

May 3, 2011 Bryce Zabel 3

I have so many great memories about the Man-of-Steel, it’s hard to know where to start. Like… being a six year old buying a Superman comic from a magazine rack in a drug store… Running home to watch George Reeves in a syndicated re-run of the first TV series… Standing in line for hours to watch Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve.

Nothing compares, though, with working on that first season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. It ranks as one of the greatest creative satisfactions Iâ€™ve had in the series TV business.

I had first worked with Deborah Joy LeVine (she received the WGA â€œDeveloped Byâ€ credit) on an ABC law series called Equal Justice. A gifted writer, she had written an exceptional pilot that ABC had picked up and, at the same time, ordered a half-dozen back-up scripts. So before film was even being shot, Deborah Joy, her brother Dan and I were throwing â€œsuperâ€ ideas around every day in a little trailer on the Warner Brothers lot. […]

Kick-Ass (2010) -vs- Mystery Men (1999)

April 21, 2010 Sherry Coben 8

â€œKick-Assâ€ features winning and well-drawn characters engrossed in a complicated narrative full of revenge schemes, garden-variety venality, and grandiose dreams. The suspense gets punctuated with bursts of shocking violence and world-class movie-action, and somehow the high school domestic story somehow remains center stage. Kick-Ass keeps his high-school-nobody day job, and his friends, colleagues, and even his burgeoning romance all ring blissfully true. Itâ€™s a subtle mix set in a not-altogether convincing metropolis.
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Ten Years of Super Moments

January 7, 2010 Beau DeMayo 3

There’s a theory that a movie, in order to succeed, only needs a handful of scenes or moments that really, really work. In other words, the macro is made from the micro. With the decade wrapped and a new one underway, I succumb to list-itis, and offer up ten major moments in films from the last ten years.
These are moments in film that just blew me away, that left me out of my body, totally immersed in the film’s emotion. This happens so little in film for me, that when it actually occurs, I’m left speechless (which is why, I guess, I’m compelled to write about them).
These are the moments I leave the theater thinking about, against which I compare my own life’s events. These moments in time are what movies are all about, and #10 on the list comes from one of my favorite films, “Superman Returns.”
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Hellboy II (2008) -vs- Hancock (2008)

July 11, 2008 Mark Sanchez 0

It really is the height of narcissism. Give a guy powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men and he can still manage to cop a bad attitude. And while neither Hulk nor Iron Man can really be accused of harboring sunny dispositions, the leading men of ‘tude in the summer of 2008 were a couple of anti-heroes on the extreme grouchy side: Hellboy and Hancock.

Which one of these charm school drop-outs made bad look good? That’s the Smack and, believe me, this battle is not for the thin-skinned. […]

Superman Returns (2006) -vs- Batman Begins (2005)

May 8, 2007 Beau DeMayo 6

The 70s-80s Christopher Reeve Superman and the 80s-90s Michael Keaton-Val Kilmer-George Clooney Batman were many things, but one of them was not realistic. They were comic book films made by studios that thought superheroes were still best when served up just a little bit silly. This was ironic because the actual comic book adventures of these two heroes were getting grittier every year and the problems and conflicts more and more adult. Still, we had to get to the 00s of the 21st Century to see studios wise up to the idea that audiences wanted more — they didn’t want to escape so much as they wanted to immerse. Batman Begins kick-started an entire new look at the franchise that was wildly successful followed by Superman Returns the next year with a more mixed critical response. Now Batman is nearing the end of its proposed trilogy and Superman is getting a re-re-boot. That’s a story for later; right now, let’s look at these two monster-sized franchises and see which new beginning did the best job.
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