Special Movie Moments Could Be In The Making

You have to love an event that brings together the most hideous personalities with the most vibrant females under one roof. Mix in a little (ok, a lot) of debate about comics, marketing managers running around rampant, and all the concession food you can eat and it pretty much describes any major comic book convention. Me? I stayed home this year. I usually try to attend the Chicago Con (since I live in the Midwest), and San Diego was just too far of a trip for the pocketbook this year.

However, be that as it may, I did manage to follow a lot of the action online. I had friends send me pictures and video of their experiences, so at least I wasn’t totally out of the loop. And, being the movie hound that I am, I had to check out the news and notes of what film trailers were shown and who is making what movie in the next few years.

There were two that really stood out for me. One was a sequel to Tron. The other was a sequel to The Dark Knight. Both gave me goose bumps, albeit for completely different reasons. Let’s break these down shall we?

The Good: Gary Oldman revealed at the Con that a sequel to The Dark Knight will begin filming next year. Ok, I’m going to allow my inner comic book child geek to take over for a minute. (I LOVE ME SOME BATMAN. GIVE ME MORE BATMAN!!)

It’s exciting. I realize as a whole the Batman movies have been about 50-50. There was George Clooney feeling his way around, there were dreadful characters such as Mr. Freeze, and who in the world could ever forget the cod pieces? Well, at least gay guy friends of mine sure noticed. Sheesh. Still, it doesn’t take away from the excitement of the current direction the Batman series has taken. True, there won’t be a Heath Ledger to add an amazing performance to a timeless villain. True, there may or may not be a repeat of characters from the past. However, it is a perfect opportunity for the Batman movie series to finally eclipse both Spiderman and Superman for supremacy of the all-time comic book movie films. Until X-Men make two more kickass movies, then it will be second again.

The Bad: I’m not a huge fan of Tron. In fact, the rare, few people I know who are a fan of Tron are fans for reasons movie makers wouldn’t expect. Still, the idea of another Tron film is somewhat intriguing. I will never forget the neon suits, the death by Frisbee scenes, and the AWESOME video game that came from the first movie. My thumbs are still recovering.

One thing I’m not sold on right away is the name of the film. It was reported at the Comic Con that the film would be named Tron Legacy. Really? When I was in journalism the taboo was to call something the first annual. There has to be two of something before it is an annual. I’m curious of the ruling on a legacy. Don’t we have to have at least three to have a legacy? Semantic and definition hounds please discuss and comment.

I suppose Tron would be exciting for some people. Hell, it might even be good. I’ll wait and see.

The Ugly: Another jolt of excitement shot through me at the idea of another Iron Man movie. In fact, they have announced at least two more films in this genre. Look out for Tony Stark, Ladies.

The first one was electric. I was very impressed with the direction and Robert Downey Jr.’s performance as Tony Stark. My worry is that this film will need to do more clean up then actual movie making.

You’ve probably heard by now that Don Cheadle is in and Terrance Howard is out, which came as quite a shock to Howard. You may have also heard rumblings from Downey about how bad he thought The Dark Knight movie was and didn’t understand all the hype about Ledger and other aspects of the movie. I’m concerned that they are more worried about making a better movie than Batman instead of focusing on making another great Iron Man movie. Hopefully somebody will step in and keep all the children in the sandbox playing together.

On a positive note, they also showed the early depictions of War Machine. I had to change my shorts. It looks freaking great!!

A couple more quick items was the word that Halo likely will not see the light of day as a movie and the audience seemed to enjoy the short viewing of District 9, the new Peter Jackson film. The thing I love about trailers is they are an art form like no other. They do a good job filling seats. Now if we can get back to this whole Tron debate. Ugh.