EDITORIAL: Who Should Be The (Muscle) Villain(s) in Zack Snyder's "Batman vs.Superman"?

Must be hell to be the producers of this movie as of now. With one weird casting choice after another, causing havoc among fans, receiving criticism every hour, every minute. There's also that pushed back date release, which we (us fans) hope it's for the best, but let's be honest, from that official statement, it's not going well for Zack Snyder's Untitled Man of Steel Sequel. 

Just some days ago, actor Jesse Eisenberg was announced to play Lex Luthor for the film. Say whatever you want to say about that casting, whether be good or bad, we know it's weird. But atleast we now have a villain for the movie. But knowing Lex and what seems to be reports about how he will be portrayed, we all know he's going to be that type of villain who acts behind the scenes. He may have the resources to put on an armor that could withstand anything Superman and Batman (and probably Wonder Woman as well) can throw at him, but he's not dumb enough to throw the first punch.

Imagine Lex Luthor as Darth Sidious. Darth Sidious has Darth Vader doing all his $#@% for him. So who will be Lex Luthor's Darth Vader? who will be that guy (or girl) who will throw the first punch? Here's my TOP 5 Pick of who I think should be the muscle villain for the Untitled Man of Steel Sequel. 

5. Intergang

Picking off at number 5 is probably the biggest crime organization in Metropolis, Intergang. Intergang was run by various crime lord and is armed with intergalactic weaponry and technology that has been proven to be very dangerous and sometimes lethal to the Man of Steel himself, supplied by a group of intergalactic bad guy (or guy) with an intermediary. If the rumors are true that this film will be tied in to the upcoming Justice League film if there ever will be one, then it only makes sense to have the Intergang as villains for the film. Because if true, we all know who's going to be the villain in Justice League, honestly, we all know who. 

4. Poison Ivy

Portrayed as DC's most prominent eco-terrorist, her seductive name and appearance is the very meaning of "toxic" for the Dark Knight. But there's also a reason she's the only Bat-villain on my list. Back in the Batman storyline Hush, Poison Ivy was responsible for the hypnotizing Superman, causing him to run some errands against Batman. It comes complete with this popular panel taken from the graphic novel, that is the weapon of every Batman fans against Superman fans, until Superman fans points out Batman's thoughts on the very same panel of why he can't win against Superman, but Batman fans are too blinded to even notice them. 

Also, Poison Ivy was forced to worked with Lex Luthor way back during the first episode of the fifth season of The Batman, which features the first meeting of both Superman and Batman from that universe. On that story arc, Luthor uses Ivy's mind-controlling spoers, lacing them with Kryptonite and uses it on Superman. so he could use Superman for his dirty schemes (that is for world domination and killing Batman and Robin specifically).

If Snyder wanted, he can use those tropes for the film, or he can come up with something original. Besides isn't it about time someone make up for this atrocity?

3. Bizarro

Whether he be Lex Luthor's failed experiment or Emperor Joker's pet, Bizarro has always been the imperfect clone of Superman. Throughout many storylines he was featured, Bizarro has always been portrayed as a misunderstood creature. He envy's Superman status as a hero, wanting to be the hero himself, doing his best to help others, only to do the opposite of his intentions. He's still a being with feelings, he only wants to be the hero, but the only place he will ever have in this world is a villain's, and that is just sad.

My only problem about this choice is that we already had an already aggressive character who went against Superman with the same set of powers; General Zod. The only real difference they have is that Zod isn't dumb and disfigured like Bizarro.

If they still want to go down this path, I personally suggest going with H'El. He's generally supposed to be Bizarro's counterpart in the New 52, only eding up to be an original character. Not only he has the same set of powers as Superman, he also has additional firepowers of his own that he acquired during his exploration on space. But this seems like an easy, obvious choice. And this movie, so far, has stayed away from those easy and obvious choices, don't they.

2. Metallo 

This seems like a no-brainer. Why? what's more evil than a robot with a chunk of Kryptonite, that one space rock that could kill Superman, as a heart? 

Whether be an ex-con, ex-military, or a journalist, John Corben always have this obsession for attention, especially to his crush Lois Lane. This maybe an easy pic but he is a formidable foe for Superman and even Batman himself. Check out the video below and you'll see what I'm talking about.

But like I said, Metallo is an obvious choice, which is why I have another character in mind to take the number 1 spot.

1. Parasite

Parasite is an enemy of Superman who feeds on energy by hungrily adsorbing it into his body, draining all living creatures into husks at his touch because of the massive danger he represents to anyone he comes into contact with, he spends most of his time imprisoned in Stryker's Island Penitentiary. 

The name was assumed by many individuals. The most well known among them is Rudy Jones. At the famous TV series Superman: The Animated Series, he was portrayed as a janitor at S.T.A.R. Labs who was trying to steal chemicals along with some crooks. After an accident, the very same chemicals transforms him into the Parasite. He then blames his fellow criminals for the accident and uses his new found powers against them, only his plans to be thwarted by Superman. All of this because he couldn't accept his fate. 

Individually, the men who assumed the name doesn't have much character development on them, but combined as one character can be very fundamental and unique for the film. He doesn't really want to be the villain, he only wanted justice and revenge for his fate, but in the end, he didn't really had any choice at all.

This is an opportunity for Zack Snyder and the crew. take a Superman villain that has very little substance on him and enhance them on the big screen. Not only this will give the character some major exposure, but also to other lesser-known Superman villains as well. If done right, he could be a really cool villain for both Superman and Batman. I recommend reading Superman: Earth One Volume 2 for inspiration. 

Interesting enough, Rudy Jones' transformation was plotted by Darkseid himself. So if they really, really, REALLY want Darkseid to be the villain for Justice League, then Parasite can be a great tool for a tie-in. Have him a "weapon" from Luthor to the Intergang, or whatever, don't waste this opportunity Snyder.

SPECIAL MENTION: Wonder Woman

Everybody seems to be worried about the fact pretty-but-skinny model/actress Gal Gadot has been casted as Wonder Woman. With her track record everybody has rights to be worried, but let's give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it's not her casting we should be worried, it's about Wonder Woman's role in the film itself we should be worried.

She could be a villain for many reasons. One, Wonder Woman will be Lex Luthor(and possibly Bruce Wayne)'s corporate-sponsored-superhero and a political envoy. In which, instead of having a failed experiment like Bizarro, or a superhero made from scratch like Hope from Lex Luthor: Man of Steel (which also happens to have Bruce Wayne/Batman in it, and it has a mini Batman vs. Superman scene in it), instead we'll have an Amazon princess who was brought to the Man's world and Lex Luthor will promote her as the "ideal" superhero. She will eventually get tricked to believe that Superman (and Batman) is the enemy. Or she could be mind-controlled as well via Poison Ivy's mind-control spores, instead of using it to Superman, Luthor uses it to Wonder Woman.

Take note that whatever I have mentioned above is just a personal opinion and a hunch of mine. None of this is official. 

"RoboCop (2014)" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years - and it's meant billions for OmniCorp's bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) - a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit - is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.

The Review

What's up with Hollywood and remakes? I mean sure they go for the dead franchises (most of the time) and reinterpret them for the modern and contemporary audience. RoboCop was a classic way back 1987, but the sequels, the comics, the animated series that came after, let's just say every fan, everyone and everybody wanted to forget those existed. So why a remake? did anyone asked for it? how good was this remake?

Like my review of the original movie, let us first talk about the hero himself, RoboCop. Believe it or not, there's not much difference between with Alex Murphy. He feels very familiar to those who knew him way back, which is a good thing. He's badass, a very relatable family-guy. The only difference is that we get to see more of his human elements throughout the movie. It's a very good aspect for Alex Murphy, but maybe a problem for RoboCop. Way back at the classic film, almost every human aspect of RoboCop was stripped away from him entirely, with showing very little emotions at very little given time. This movie's RoboCop however is the opposite of that. He's still a man, fighting for his humanity all throughout the film under some circumstances. He's a Robo-Man-Cop, having an identity crisis of his own of who's in control; the part man or the part machine? Despite of this re-imagining, actor Joel Kinnaman still brings a spectacular performance as both characters. 

The action sequences is top-notch and very entertaining. The story, despite having similar themes to the original, is very different. First there is the PG-13 rating which makes this movie friendlier than the original, and yes you can have your 8 year old kids see this movie in the theaters. With that being said, the rating did however limited the movie's potential for grit. The themes of corruption, social displacement, authoritarianism and the biased media is still there but was never given any chance to be fully prominent making this universe seem less dystopian. The exploration of the human element in this movie is that aspect of the story that did stand out, making you like and care about the characters that you should like and care about, and hate the characters that you should hate. Though maybe it's not enough make-up for the constant lacking of this film, and talk about that anti-climatic ending.

Thankfully, the special effects and the production design isn't as problematic as everyone thought it would be. A few nods to the original franchise can bring a smile to a few faces. The cast did the best they could for this flick. 

Final Verdict

Overall, there's not really much about this film. Sure it's lightyears better than RoboCop 2 and beyond but it's still an enjoyable popcorn-flick.The movie has enough to get you invested with some of the characters, the story did it's best and did well for trying to be different and new.  When you're gonna do a remake, atleast do it like RoboCop. Don't just remake the whole thing, re-interpret it in ways that is fresh and new to the audience. Hoped it had a little more effort to it, but there is always room for improvement, hopefully when a sequel gets made. 

"The LEGO Movie" MOVIE REVIEW

Synopsis

The LEGO (R) Movie" is the first-ever, full-length theatrical LEGO (R) adventure. The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet (Chris Pratt) an ordinary, rules- following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.

The Review

Wise men has foretold, and by wise men, I mean the internet, that a movie about a toy product who has brought major improvements on children's imagination and has brought severe pain to those adults who didn't mean to step on one. It's easy to see by the trailers you can call this a promotional stunt or as good ol' Macklemore said it "getting tricked by business." But by being familiar to the product itself, is actually fundamental for the viewers to fully appreciate this one of a kind experience. 

The movie revolves around Emmet, who is pretty much one of those super generic LEGO minifigures, with all of his generic-ness he's actually a lovable and funny character. Not only that, but you are fully invested with the adventures he has to live through and it's fun seeing him go with it. But what are adventures without great companions, Wyldstyle's fun, may start off as your generic-ass-kicking female character like Jessica Biel's Melina from Total Recall, but you'd be surprise how there's so much more to her character as the movie progresses. We also have Batman, probably the most recognizable of the bunch, who's dark and broody for the sake of being dark and broody, with that being said you really liked how he was portrayed in this movie. Vitruvius, Spaceman Benny, Craggy, Bad Cop/Good Cop and Uni-Kitty, there's no way you'd not like them at all. The voice acting also adds up to characters as well. You won't know the cast is star-studded and you'd probably wouldn't care when you're invested at these characters and how perfectly they were portrayed. Who knew Jonah Hill was Green Lantern and Channing Tatum was Superman? who knew?

The effects in this movie may not be at the caliber of those of Disney's, but are done right. It's all 3D but are done in a manner that it would look like stop-motion animation. It's pretty hard to get by it at first, you'd have to sit back for a couple of minutes so your eyes can adjust but once they do sink in it's all pretty good. The story as well is great, who knew a movie like these would even have a story? It's made for kids but you wouldn't think of that. It's funny on many parts, it has those moments that hits you right into your very soul. The story also plays on the fact that is has very generic tropes and makes fun of those tropes. Plus the endless pop culture references that would respective geeks and fans giggle with every smile reaching their ears. But with so much in this movie, you can't help the feeling that it's dragging in time. Most are worth the time, a few can just be simply removed and no one would noticed. 

Final Verdict

This movie, I find, has that Wreck-It-Ralph pop-culture reference type trope and has that The Matrix chosen one storyline. Generally, the story is nothing new, how it was executed was the one that convinced me (and probably you) that this is the first great movie of 2014. It's fun, heartening, it has a great message that everyone can be creative in so many ways possible, thanks to LEGO. Everything about this movie is truly awesome. 

"RoboCop (1987)" LATE MOVIE REVIEW

The Review

As a kid, RoboCop was one of those movies my parents forbid for me to see till I was at my mid-teens. This movie has almost everything, the grit, the violence, the universal theme, and it's an 80's sci-fi film, which happens to be a really good one.

The one aspect who deserves the biggest share of the cake-of-praise is none other than RoboCop himself, played by Peter Weller. Before he was the RoboCop, he was the very likable and badass Officer Alex Murphy. He maybe seem average to some, he doesn't have that Han Solo charisma and looks, which makes his character more believable. He just happens to be really good at what he does, regardless of his appearance. Until he was gunned down, has a chunk of his head exploded, has his limbs removed and most of his body tissue replaced with robotic prosthetic and an on-board computer for a brain. Giving us the spectacular, action-packed, ass-kicking, living-action figure, Daft Punk's inspiration, Kristen Stewart's robo-grand dad, RoboCop. This gun slinging mechanical officer goes full brawn against every villain in the movie, complete with slow-robot movements and cheesy 80's one liners. Peter Weller has perfectly portrayed this two characters, making them completely different from one another. One is a fun character, the other is completely emotionless, lifeless, just like a robot. My only real gripe about this character is that they never really got the chance to explore more of Alex's human side. Flashbacks is the closest we can get to see his life as a father to a happy son and husband to a loving wife, that once was all his. 

Now it's hard to look beyond the story without being distracted with all of the over-the-top violence, the vulgarity, drugs, and a few sexual references. But it's themes of corruption, social displacement, authoritarianism and the heavy usage of the media (even going as far as featuring fictional TV commercials) makes these universe a plausible dystopian future for us as well. Of course, this movie has villains and other characters you'd expect from an 80's R-rated movie. With a small budget, they have also made some pretty special effects and flawless production designs of that time. Sure they look cheesy now but they are impressive.

Final Verdict

Just because this is the first part of a franchise that sells comics and toys, doesn't mean you should let 8 year-old kids see this movie. If you're the type of person who likes peace and prosperity, the fast-paced action and the in-your-face violence might pull you out of the movie altogether. But that is an integral part of the experience. To love this movie is to love the graphic violence. Plus, it has a pretty solid story backing it up. The action is front and center, and you might have to see the movie twice to fully understand the story. But this is one of those movies that grows into you the more you see it. RoboCop definitely earned its place as a classic.

And NO, I am not going to review the sequels, let's just pretend they never happened.