The comic book movie explosion continues as Warner Brothers releases the first photos from “Batman Begins” at the official movie website. First up, the Batmobile. Resembling a military inspired tank more than a car (which is fitting since the script has WayneTech creating a military prototype which Batman uses), it looks intimidating and totally incredible. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to glimpse the logo that I’ve heard a lot about, and I love it! It both pays homage to the original Bill Finger/Bob Kane design, and yet looks modern enough that I can see someone coming up with it today.This year’s comic book movie explosion launches on Friday with Hellboy, which will be followed in two weeks by The Punisher, then Spider-Man 2 (which has been bumped forward to June 30th), and Catwoman (which could be the all time worst comic book movie ever) on July 23rd, Blade Trinity on August 13th, and Man-Thing in October. With all but Catwoman looking pretty decent, this could be a really good summer to be a comic book movie fan.
I love how the summer movie season seems to be starting earlier every year, the unfortunate part is that the first three months of the year are now starting to really suck in terms of quality films. The fall has always been the time that studios try to put out “alternative fare”, which is usually my favourite movie time, and Christmas is where they position their prime Academy Awards contenders and their “winter tentpoles”, but January, February and March are just void of anything of quality.
A quick look at Greg’s Previews “Browse by Date” function shows that January’s only decent release was The Butterfly Effect, February saw The Passion of the Christ (which I still haven’t managed to steel myself enough to go see), while March has seen a few decent releases in Starsky and Hutch (hilarious), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jersey Girl, and the Ladykillers.
Okay, so March is actually shaping up to be decent.