1. Marvel's Civil War: I've been waiting for this story to come to the big screen for a while now, if for no other reason than to finally get to see a lot of my favorite characters, and Marvel's been pretty good at handling superhero films with the exception of having Ultron be created by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron, instead of Hank Pym in Ant-Man, and maybe a couple of actor switches that made no sense like Terrence Howard all of a sudden becoming Don Cheadle (Lt. James "Rhodey" Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine/Iron Patriot) or Edward Norton turning into Mark Ruffalo (Dr. Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk). As far as the movies themselves go, Marvel's done a better job than most studios at handling comic book source material and condensing them into entertaining movie experiences, so I have faith that they'll pull this one off well, too. My main question here is: Why even bring Hank Pym into the picture now, though, if you're telling us he's no longer the one who created Ultron? For those who never read the Civil War comic books, here's a 12-foot-tall spoiler: another one of Hank Pym's superhero identities, Giant-Man, dies near the end of it. Assuming that story remains the same, you're basically bringing him in to do what exactly? To create a special size-shifting serum (known as the Pym Particles) and then die?! Or, will his role be more of a love story, since he's the romantic partner of Wasp? If either one of these is the route they choose to take him, something tells me that Marvel's film version of Ant-/Giant-Man won't be impressing me too much. Plus, we already have one beloved serum-produced superhero in Capt. America, so won't Hank Pym kind of be stepping on his toes here? That brings me to another fun part of the Civil War storyline, watching Capt. America's relationship with our government go to heck. If not for them, he'd be nothing more than some gritty, scrawny kid from Brooklyn, but because of them, he's essentially an unbeatable government-sponsored 'roider. As Tony Stark reminded him in The Avengers: "Everything special about you, Rogers, can be found in a bottle!" The government is the whole reason Cap is special, and yet, in this film -- at least, if it sticks to the plot in the comics -- he's on the wrong side of the law due to his views against the Superhuman Registration Act and he's essentially hiding from them, until the end when he turns himself in. I'm not big on Marvel introducing Hank the way they are, but I am looking forward to seeing what they do with his character now that he's essentially a blank canvas for them, and I'm totally looking forward to the dissolution of Cap's goody-goody relationship with the government, so I believe this movie will totally kick butt. What more is there to say, other than "let's get this party started," right?!
2. Iron Man 4: No, no, no, no, no! Oh, and did I already say... no?! I love Iron Man as much as anybody. I mean, come on, how many genius billionaire philanthropist playboys do you know that can physically save the world, while simultaneously throwing out great one-liners with ease? There ain't a challenge Tony Stark can't tackle, whether it's discovering a new element to replace his palladium dependency, telling his government to keep their hands off his Iron Man suits in Court, romancing Pepper Potts by essentially sleeping with every other girl in the city and ignoring her, or actually taking down villains such as Obadiah Stane, Whiplash, Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom, M.O.D.O.K., Titanium Man, Madame Masque, etc. However, as much as I love Howard Stark's son, I also think three movies is more than enough for any one superhero. Any more than that and people are going to grow disenfranchised with him. Leave it at three, Marvel -- you've done a good job with him. Please don't milk his name for every last dollar you can pull from it. As a fan, I'd like to see him sign-off of the solo movies with dignity.
3. Green Lantern Reboot: Well, the first one sucked for many CGI-related reasons, so I wouldn't be opposed to rebooting this franchise and trying again. However, since there's an entire Green Lantern Corps to choose from and since Ryan Reynolds already portrayed the fan-favorite Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and he's since moved on to the role of Deadpool in yet another comic book franchise, I think we'd need to move forward with someone other than Hal Jordan. I ain't a fan of switching the actors that were first cast in superhero roles, mid-franchise. That said, Alan Scott might be a cool pick for the reboot, since he was actually the first GL in the comic books and had a really neat origins story, but things were way different back in his day. He was never actually in the Green Lantern Corps, just channeled that same green energy using the magical Starheart, so maybe call it something like Green Lantern: The Prelude and just kind of set it up for the intergalactic police officers with power rings that proceeded him. Then, each movie thereafter can be a new incantation of the actual Green Lanterns. This could be a fun little project for Hollywood script writers, and frankly, it's one that just might work now that they know what NOT to do courtesy of that first movie!
4. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice: I was really looking forward to this movie once upon a time, but now, not so much. And no, it has nothing to do with Ben Affleck being cast as Batman. I actually think he might do a good job with it, despite his awful work in Daredevil. In reality, it'll always be easier to pull off a bad-ass caped crusader than a blind lawyer who fights crime. It has to do 100% with the fact that I've now seen the preview and it looks very bland. Plus, there's also what the author of the aforementioned write-up wrote -- all the rumors surrounding this movie have made it seem stacked with characters, way too many for this thing to work out anywhere near right. DC waited too long to get into the superhero movie genre, and now they're playing catch-up, and that fact couldn't be more obvious even to the most casual of comic book fans. I can already tell that this movie's going to be overkill, but I really hope I'm wrong.
5. Shazam: Are you kidding me?! This obscure comic book actually got picked-up for a movie? I'm telling you right now that it would never work as one. It's a campy comic book at best, and now it's going to be the lamest superhero movie since 1986's Howard the Duck, which I ain't even sure you can really call a superhero movie since it was set in the real world (despite his comic book origins). AND, to make matters worse, they're casting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson -- easily the worst actor of our generation(!) -- as Black Adam? All I'm going to say about this is that even less people that care to watch Ant-Man will care to watch this film, and that's saying a lot. This movie might just be the death of the superhero genre, if it ever truly comes to fruition. Please don't. 'Nuff said!
6. Deadpool: I've always loved the evil ninja assassin that is Deadpool! His snarky, twisted sense of humor, mixed with his top-notch, bad-ass skill set seem made for a really good comic book movie. Yet, we've not seen a really great representation of this anywhere in cinematic history. Enter Ryan Reynolds. Sure, Green Lantern stunk, but that had very little, if anything, to do with him. He was actually the only thing that made that movie even remotely watchable. He essentially turned chicken $#!+ into chicken salad with that vehicle. You can tell the dude read and liked comics growing up. Here's hoping his second chance at being in the superhero cinematic universe comes with a much better script and a far less dependence on computer-generated imagery.
7. Spider-Man Reboot Reboot: I know I don't speak for everyone when I say this, but frankly, I'm tired of nerdy Peter Parker with his radioactivity-induced powers in that lame suit doing nothing but shooting webs at evil masterminds, and somehow always finding a way to overcome them. He's fine in spurts, but not as a leading character. Now if we absolutely must have Spider-Man movies in this world, I think they've already done a damn decent job with the ones that have been released in the past. So what's the point, really? For my sake, please no more!
8. Fantastic Four/X-Men: Much like Spider-Man, the X-Men franchise has been run into the ground already. I mean, did we really need eight flippin' movies to tell the story of one group of mutants? Wouldn't three movies have more than sufficed? Plus, the 20,000 continuity errors make that franchise too hard to stomach and beyond fixable at this point. I have always been, am still now & will forever be the biggest Wolverine fan on this planet, but I'm sorry, I really, really, really don't care to see him in any more movies. Hugh Jackman should be allowed to try his hand at other projects at some point in his career, and frankly, I think my boy Logan needs a rest. Fantastic Four -- I just don't care to see anymore either, now that they've gone and messed it up with this new one. The first two were fine and dandy, but now with this third film you want to travel back in time and even change one of those characters' skin colors unnecessarily? Where in the comic books was the Human Torch ever a black dude? Making him so now is just crazy, almost as much as when Thor was turned into a frog or when Robin was portrayed by a woman. I have nothing against women, blacks or frogs -- I'm friendly with all three groups (well, no, not really, I'm not a big fan of real-life frogs, they kind of give me the willies, but I digress, as that's neither here nor there) -- but I really just don't like when they change characters so drastically like that. Black Panther's black and that character's top notch. Wonder Woman, Batgirl & She-Hulk are all really cool women characters that I've always enjoyed. And lastly, Kermit from the Muppets will forever be my boy/frog! However, Johnny Storm has always been a white dude, even within the confines of this franchise, and sorry, but making him anything other than that now seems ridiculous. This is almost as silly as when John Wayne played Genghis Khan (The Conqueror), Mickey Rooney played Mr. Yunioshi (Breakfast at Tiffany's) or when Emma Stone played Allison Ng (the upcoming Aloha film). So frankly, I'm through with both franchises now... and though I can't speak for everyone, my desire to see some type of mash-up movie lies at about 0.5% now (and the only reason that even requires a decimal is because of my innate nature to want to see most every comic book-related anything that's out there).
9. Spider-Man/Avengers: The Avengers franchise has thus far been pretty awesome, and the first couple of Spider-Man films were also pretty good. I always assumed Marvel was going to unite these two at some point, but if they haven't by now, I'm starting to think they might never do so. And frankly, since I'm not the biggest of Spidey fans, I wouldn't be opposed to that idea. Why do something just to do it, if it ain't necessary? However, considering Spider-Man's fame, I'm pretty sure that Marvel will want to cash in on this possibility at some point, despite the fact that it really makes very little sense anymore, so here's what I'm predicting: Peter Parker will make a small cameo in the Civil War film and that'll be the last we see of Spidey within The Avengers franchise. That'd be alright with me. A little Spidey's always fun, I just don't much care for him en masse!
10. X-Men Origins: Magneto: Magneto, the master of magnetism, former friend of Professor X turned enemy over a philosophical rift, now again an ally as a member of Cyclops' mutant revolution. I really love the character and appreciate that he's been sampled within four different X-Men movies already, as he definitely lends himself to that specific brand, but does he really need his own movie? Does the world really need a ninth X-Men film? There's a saying about sticking a fork in it when it's done, and I think it definitely applies here. I'm drawing a line in the sand: no more X-Men movies. None. Ni uno mas. We're done.
