Avengers: Infinity War is Coming!!!

Get hyped because the Avengers are coming to town! Although made pretty clear in their latest trailer, Avengers: Infinity War is coming a little bit early. Premiering April 27 and it's already tracking to be the best selling MCU movie of all time.

I am beyond excited for this film to drop. It feels like this is the movie every fan has been waiting for. A sort of semi conclusion to the old MCU and an opening to the new universe. The event that brings everyone together to fend off the "spiritual journey" of Thanos. 

However, this film is actually quite a bit different than the comic book, The Infinity Wars. 

The Comic

The Infinity Wars comic book is a six-part series made back in 1992 about Adam Warlock and what happens after he is deemed "unworthy" of using and controlling the Infinity Gauntlet. It's a complicated story, but I will try to simplify it.

Magus, the evil incarnation of Adam, was created from the use of the gauntlet and now Magus wants revenge against Adam. Probably blames Adam for keeping him locked up emotionally. For Magus to defeat Adam, he needs help. Magus sets out on a universal conquest to find 5 cosmic cubes in order to create an army of evil superhero doppelgangers and conquer the universe.

Pretty crazy right! I'd say more, but I don't want to ruin it. The story has a fair share of twists and turns. The film is different.

The Film

I stumbled upon a "logline" for the film in an article by Anthony Breznican at Entertainment Weekly: 

"It's the story of a humble rock collector, traveling from afar to fulfill his lifelong dream, only to run afoul of mask-wearing troublemakers."

Pure gold! Humble rock collector gets me every time I read it. He's right though. It's a story about Thanos and his unquenchable thirst for domination and power, which can be achieved through the collection of the infinity stones. 

The Difference

The big difference between the comic book series and the movie are pretty apparent. Thanos in the film is a combination of comic book Thanos and comic book Magus. In the comic, Adam Warlock is an important character. In the film, we are hinted at creation of Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. From my understanding, the Adam Warlock in MCU movie series will more likely follow the Earth X series with Kismet. Although, I don't know if we'll see a Mar-Vell reincarnation. 

There are quite a few more differences, but I feel those would be moving in on spoiler territory, so I won't mention them. You're welcome!

Anyways, I'm excited to see this story unfold on the big screen and bring some closure to lingering questions in the collective series of Marvel films. We'll also get more questions, but that is a discussion for after the film's release. 

Next week, I hope to blog a bit about the Ready Player One movie coming out on March 29th. If not, it means I'm too busy living in a virtual world controlled by Grandmaster and ants with oversized spectacles. Sounds like an Ant-Man meets Guardians of the Galaxy movie that I would totally watch!

- J.J.

Disney BOUGHT Fox - What It Means For Comic Book Movies

As of today, Disney has officially bought Fox Studios for over 50 billion dollars. Well, $52.4 billion in assets, assuming $13.7 billion in debt, but that's what mergers are for. You get the good with the bad. 

Anyways, many people are freaking out (again both good and bad) about the future of MCU, X-Men, and other titles from Fox. There is quite a bit that will be happening. 

The Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe 

With Disney buying Fox, they acquire many comic book properties, most notability the X-Men franchise. Of all the franchises Fox owns, this particular franchise has been quite successful over the decades it has been around. The acquisition of the franchise will shift the initial direction of the overall franchise, probably in the form of a franchise reboot, that may (or may not) be combined with the new generation of Marvel heroes like Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spiderman, and Captain Marvel. 

Either way, X-Men is a franchise that could be easily transitioned alongside other Marvel story lines, creating a consistent Marvel brand. The same could also be said of the Fantastic Four franchise as well!

The Marvel universe will also have the option to explore these newly acquired franchises in the streaming world along with Star Wars. For fans of the Marvel, this is a huge win in some respects, bringing more stories with less limitations in terms of character options and story directions. 

The Dark Side of Disney-Fox Merger

The biggest danger with the merger of Disney and Fox, which if Twitter is any indication, has a lot of drawbacks. The biggest argument I see thrown around by creator's of movies and TV shows is the fear of losing original, creative storytelling. Companies like Netflix and Hulu offer a wide variety of content that isn't dependent on financial success in the same way Disney, Fox, or other movie companies are. Most large movie companies are publicly traded and rely on good box office revenue, DVD/digital sales, merchandise, etc. to keep the wheels going. Netflix and Hulu, although similar, rely on subscriptions and DVD rentals and are willing to amass more debt to deliver quality content. It's not that other companies aren't, but investors have more expectations with larger companies. Plus, Disney is more than just movies.

However, with this move, Disney will be taking up nearly 40% of the film market with their properties, which could lead to further saturation of the market, or worse,  less creative stories. The need to push out as many movies as possible with the new franchises could lead to cutting corners creatively, only focused on delivering the next adventure with Silver Surfer. 

This also leads to the next point...rating system. 

Disney is known universally and family friendly, two words Deadpool knows very little about. Movies like Deadpool and Logan may also be avoided entirely in the future. It looks unlikely that Deadpool would be messed with this late in the game with principal photography pretty much finished and post production under way, but stranger things have happened. The consensus is Disney would not mess with anything currently underway, but future stories with more mature subject matter will definitely be under scrutiny. 

There is probably a lot more to cover when it comes to the positives and negatives of Disney's merger, but for now, it really is a matter of waiting to see what will happen. My hope is it's all for the best of storytelling and the audience. 

Let me know your thoughts on the Disney-Fox merger. Is it a good idea? Bad idea? You have no idea and just want to be heard...err...read? Is that a thing? I don't know, but if you do, let me know in the comments! 

P.S. STAR WARS IS COMING TODAY/TOMORROW!!! 

-J.J.