Replacing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Recently it was announced that after Wolverine 3, Hugh Jackman will retire from playing the mutant Wolverine after playing him for over 15 years now. Welcome back to VGBM and today we are going to look at some of the possible replacements for the Wolverine role and how it will all fit for the future of the X-Men franchises.

1 - Manu Bennett

First on our list is Manu Bennett an Australian –New Zealand actor. Although his career started all the way back in 1993, he really achieved mainstream success with his portrayal of the Gallic warrior Crixus in Starz’ Spartacus series and Slade Wilson in CW’s Arrow. With these roles we can assume that the physical strain of a Wolverine role will be no trouble for the actor. He also has the build and can mask his Australian accent as he’s shown in 2006’s “The Marine” opposite Jon Cena. The only problem for me , I think, is his age ; at 45 we can hardly imagine him playing this role for over 5 to 10 years and with all that Hugh Jackman did since 2000 ‘s X-Men , this is a big step in competition for this actor.

Manu Bennett as Crixus in Spartacus Series

2 - Jensen Akles

Next is Jensen Akles, and already I find him a great fit for the role. As a science fiction and fantasy fan, I don’t think there’s been a show he starred in that he hasn’t automatically become a fan favorite in, may it be the genetically enhanced Alec in Dark Angel, Jason Teague in Smallville or most notably Dean Winchester in Supernatural. I admire the way that he can both play the tough guy and the protector at the same time something that Wolverine demonstrated around some other characters like Jubilee, Shadowcat. Like Wolverine, Jensen Akles characters always display that X-factor that distinguishes from any other characters. But unfortunately from my point of view Jensen Akles has too much of a excuse the term “Babyface” to play Wolverine and he will need to put a decent amount of muscle mass and facial hair to play the role but other than that he’s a decent choice.

As Dane Winchester in Supernatural 

3 - Tom Hardy

Next is for me the most obvious choice to play Wolverine, the English Actor Tom Hardy, and when you think about it in front of Tom Hardy everybody else is playing keep up. As an actor there’s nothing Tom Hardy cannot do, may it be drama or action. And with all that Hugh Jackman brought to the Wolverine role, Tom Hardy feels like the perfect choice. His performances in movies like Bronson, Warrior and the Dark Knight Rises show that not only he will sacrifice his body but bring a new dimension to a character we already know and love. But unfortunately with the war between DC and Marvel, and his recent casting in the Suicide Squad movie, will also derail his chance to play the mutant.

As Tomy Riordan in Warrior

4- Nobody

X-Men first class

Here is something that I know a lot of people may disagree on, an X-Men movie without Wolverine; well to me it can be option. We have to admit but logically anybody that will replace Hugh Jackman as Wolverine has pretty big shoes to fill. Successfully playing a fan favorite character for 15 years now is not easy. Especially when you look at it the X-men movie followed the same universe for the same amount of time. There were some failures like X-men 3 but they redeemed themselves with the newer version of old characters with Patrick Steward and Ian Mckellen giving way to James Mcavoy and Michael Fassenbender as Professor X and Magneto. But with Wolverine being Immortal and playing an integral part in all of their timeline should they change the actor or maybe should they give another fan favorite mutant a spot in the live action limelight. With fan favorite Gambit soon to make his live action appearance and the story focusing on the original team that Professor X started with Jean, Cyclops and Storm I think it’s time for non comic fans to focus on other heroes in the X-Men roster.

Channing Tatum is choosen to play Gambit

Being a big Wolverine fan and seeing how Hugh Jackman honorably portrayed him, it is sad to hear him stepping down from the role. Although I always like to see Wolverine, I think if they want to replace the actor they should think about rebooting the series in the Marvel Cinematic universe, for which I hope they can land Tom Hardy, but if they choose to continue with the current X-men movie Universe, I think it’s better to give Wolverine a break and let someone else do the heavy lifting.

Thanks again for reading

Please leave a comment below. 

Top 3 franchises to transition to TV

 Although we would always see our favorite franchises to go to the big screen, we must admit some would be better suited for TV. Welcome back to VGBM and today we will be looking at some franchises that I thought can make for great TV series, my choice will be based on storyline and adaptability for the small screen, and we will be looking at one franchise from anime, books and comics.
1 - Cowboy Bebop (anime)

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy bebop is a 1998 Japanese anime developed by Sunrise that followed a group of bounty hunters in their spaceship called the bebop. Set in the year 2071 where most of humans have colonized the different planets of the Milky Way, it explores the different past of each character and how they live together in the ship. I really liked the diversity of the different characters and the fact like in real life that the different characters don’t really get along in the ship. The reason why I think it’s a good idea for a live action TV series is that the world although it’s vibrant and colorful but you style have that old-school Noir vibe, especially with the themes of existentialism and loneliness. And it all work perfectly well with the jazz inspired soundtrack by Yoko Kanno. Not only that but the characters are so deep with their past always becoming a part of their story-line may it be for Spike the former mafia enforcer, Jet the ex-cop and Faye the con-artist. Everyone has a great story in which they were greatly developed in the 26 episodes but still as a fan I wanted a bit more. For me and for a lot this was one of the best anime series of all time and I wish that a live action series adaptation will do it Justice.

The crew of the Bebop : Faye, Spike, Jet, Ed and their dog Ein.

2 - Anne Rice The Vampire Chronicles (books)

The Vampire Chronicles collection

Although I must admit that there are plenty of shows in which we have vampires ,I must admit that there was not a show that truly explored the vampire lore may it be Joss Whedon’s Buffy the vampire slayer and it’s spinoff Angel, the CW’s Vampire Diaries, HBO’s True Blood and more recently FX’s “The Strain” . I’m not saying that these shows are bad (Although I was disappointed with True Blood’s final season and the pacing in the Strain is super slow) but with all the different vampire characters they never really developed the vampire mythology, and with one recent movie series you kinda forget that Vampires are actually cool and blood thirsty killers and that they DO NOT SHINE IN SUNLIGHT (I’m looking at you Twilight Saga). Now with the vampire chronicles what is interesting with the book series is that some books have different narrator may it be Louis Pointe du Lac, the series protagonist Lestat de Lioncourt or the vampire Vittorio. They explore the lives of different vampires and how they live throughout the ages may it be Ancient Rome, the 18^th century or the present day. And with each narrator comes a different point of view and has a fan of the series I must admit the idea is very appealing. Not only that it’s how they explain the transformation from human to vampire and how each vampire powers evolve with time and how one’s mentality change when becoming a vampire.

Brad Pitt as Louis Pointe-du-Lac in the 1988 Interview with a Vampire movie.

3 - Daughters of the Dragon (comics)

Daughters of the Dragon.

In comics especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), there are plenty of different characters there maybe transition to TV, so why in this case I took a story about 2 female bounty hunters of the marvel universe. The answer is quite simple, when it comes to comic book media going live action its better in my case to target a wide audience which in some case do not necessary read comics. In the case of Misty Knight and Colleen Wing there’s not much back story or subplot to tire the average TV viewer and there can be enough cameo presence and Easter eggs for any hardcore reader to enjoy. The story focus on these 2 leads catching B-List super-villains bailing on parole and occasionally helping the main heroes like Captain America and Iron Man in certain cases. So in the MCU you can expect team-up with characters from Agents of Shield, Daredevil and even the future Spider-Man. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the focus of the franchise that’s basically a fun action packed series which I find that would transition greatly in TV.

Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Iron Fist and Luke Cage.

As fan in this era , we see many of our beloved franchise going live action although there were many failures but some came out really well , like Smallville, The Flash , Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil, and we hope to see many more of fan favorite franchise to go live action.

Thanks again for reading, see you soon.

Stock characters in fiction (part 1)

Hello everybody, today we will talk about stereotypes (stock characters) in use in various media.

In order to make people being able to understand quickly the characters in fiction, creators have used what they call stock characters (stereotypes). Those characters have some specific traits that distinguish them one from another. The development of the psyche of those characters is not very vast, but it helps to comprehend basically the motivation and the goals of those characters. We will introduce some stereotypes that are must used in fiction and work. We will also present one example in movies, books and video games if possible. Some stock characters are more suited to one type of media.

The action hero

This one is very specific tho movies. Typically, he's a OMAC (One Man Army Corps). This character (very often potraited as a muscular male) can overcome any number of enemies with the less physical damage possible. He can fall from a three story high building and just get up and continue his action. Some actors have made a trademark to play those types of characters like Stallone (Rambo), Schwarzenegger (Commando) and Statham (The transporter). Sometimes, there's a small shift in the archetype (muscular male) like John McClain in the Die Hard franchise has an average Joe physic.

John Rambo in First Blood

Jason Statham in The Transporter

John McClain in Die Hard

We can also encounter, this type of character in video games. They are often main protagonist in first person shooter. One of their famous representative is the hero of Duke Nukem series.

Duke Nukem

The wise old man

He is usually a old man with a lot of wisdom and who is presented as a mentor for a youngster during his quest or his initiation. Sometimes, he is only mentoring the youngster. Other time, he takes part in the action to help his disciple. In movies, some famous wise old men are Mister Miyagi (Karate Kid) and Yoda (Star Wars franchise). In books, we had Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings books series and also Kamé Sennin (Dragon Balls series).

Yoda from the Star Wars franchise

Mister Miyagi from Karate Kid

Gandhalf from the Lord Of  the Rings book series

Kamé Sennin from Dragon Ball

The Damsel in distress

The damsel in distress is often described as a young beautiful woman who is waiting to be saved by a hero or a prince charming. In the majority of medias, such helpless and unable to free herself from her captors. She is in need to be saved. Most of the time they have extremely exaggerated features (extreme beauty, a little dumb, physically weak). The fist incarnation of Princess Peach of the Mario Brothers Series is a perfect example of damsel in distress (she is needed to be saved on each and every level). In movies, April O'Neil from the first screen adaptation is an example of Damsel in distress.

Princess Peach from Mario Brothers game series

An helpless April O'Neill surrounded by three of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

There's a lot more stock characters to introduce to you, but for now we'll keep it short with those three types. We will present mre in future posts. Enjoy the reading and see you soon.

Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Cinematic Universe

Over the past few years, we have seen an explosion of comic book universes coming to the big and small screens. It has been a treat for fans and newcomers alike given how few opportunities where created in the previous century, a few superman movies, some old batman and wonder woman series etc. Now, the two main comic contenders in the public eye stand face to face, readying an avalanche on content to build upon what has already been done in the first 14 years of the 21st century. Welcome to VGBM as we take a look back at how far we've come and open the debate on Marvel's and DC's cinematic universes.

Our focus will naturally be on the live action versions since they are what most can identify with. Apart from the rather popular original Superman movies with Christopher Reeves and the first two Batman movies with Michael Keaton, in the beginning DC based movies lacked continuity. The British made Supergirl film from 1984 was loosely related to the Superman films, especially with the appearance of Jimmy Olsen. But it was the only that hinted to a shared universe at that time. My main remark is that with all that was happening at the time, it made little sense that Kal-El remained completely uninvolved.

Supergirl

There is no way to approach this subject without mentioning Smallville. This is the show that "showed" DC the potential within their own stories to truly branch out into a new medium with a continuous storyline inspired to varied degrees by the books. At 218 total episodes it has the feat of being THE longest running comic book based television series in existence as far as today. Unless I am mistaken. Smallville also tried to dabble with the idea of the Justice League and the Justice Society during the course of the story. During the ten seasons of the show, Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, became one of the most important and constant ally of Clark. His popularity with the audience made him even more an evident candidate for his own spin-off. Personally, him and their version of the Flash, were my favorite secondary characters.

Smallville

Just like the Batman movie reboot brought more viewers and fans by being more grounded in reality, so it seemed the decision was taken to bring on a new similar take on Oliver Queen. All this to point out that on the small screen DC related shows seem to rule. I like the fact that they are linking them like they are with Flash, future Atom, Arrow.

Flash and Arrow

Atom

On the other hand, Marvel understood early enough the importance of a single coherent universe within which their characters evolve. I'm rather sure they have kicked themselves several times for having given away the X-Men and Spider-man franchises. Mutants have been part of the Avengers for quite some time. Our very popular Wolverine being a pretty big part of many Avenger stories. The big screen has the possibility of engaging a larger audience worldwide, which is why their Cinematic Universe took so well. Making Agents of Shield a continuity of one of their main movies was a master stroke. It doesn't ensure absolutely that people will watch the show, it means though that those who are paying attention will try to catch up with what's going on. The fall mid-season finale of Agents of shield (AoS)? Awesome! You may not have watched it, but when a certain movie comes out you'll hear your friends saying "Holy crap! They actually hinted this in that show", and it's at that point you'll go back and binge watch what you missed out on.

Agents of SHIELD

Anyone who reads the comics can also see how Spidey returning to the fold is a big move. We had the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and……

…………………………………………...... Spoiler Alert................................………………….

a very prominent figure in classic Spidey life has become a Guardian him/herself, as of issue 14 of volume 3! Do you see where this is going? Instead of banking hard with big long series, I think they will keep creating shows in support(underlined) to their movies, much like Agent Carter fleshes out what happens after the end of First Avenger or how AoS fits in between MCU movies, all the while including cameos or appearances from big contenders like Nick Fury himself! DC is attempting to catch up with consolidating its universe with the Man of Steel Superman rebooted, followed soon with Dawn of Justice. Will they succeed? Yes and no. There are fans for each kind of story, and fans of both universes. Competition means better offerings for us, the audience. Each company will try to win us over and in the end we are the true winners!

Release timetable for the next super heroes movies (Marvel and DC)

Dates shown are prone to change, since Marvel has now secured the presence of Spider-Man in their MCU. Hit up the comments and let us know what you think about this clash of Titans.

Spider-Man to MCU

Last week it was announce that Sony, holders to the Spider-Man movie rights and Marvel Studios who are responsible for the Marvel Cinematic Universe have made a deal to introduce everyone’s favorite wall crawler to the MCU where he will be joining the likes of Iron-Man , Captain America and other Marvel Superheroes of that universe . Welcome to VGBM and we will be analyzing the introduction of Spider-Man in the MCU.

What does it mean for the Spider-Man Franchise?

Although I am a big fan of Andrew Garfield, it is confirmed that he is out as Spider-Man and that the next Spider-man movie will be a reboot. 

Andrew Garfield is out

Let’s be honest here since the Sam Raimi Spider-Man 2 there have not really been a really successful Spider-Man movie. I must admit personally I did not like Spider-Man 3 ( Specially for Emo Peter-Parker) , the first Amazing Spider-man was fairly good but wasn't that satisfied with the sequel ( Let’s just say I had mixed feelings about that movie). Now with Marvel Pictures acting as a partner and consultant for the next reboot, and with their recent success in practically all of their movies we can expect a satisfying and hopefully successful Spider-Man Movie for this generation and not to mention cameo’s from all the other MCU characters.

What does it mean for Marvel?

Spidey's role in Civil War Movie

For Marvel, with this announcement it means Marvel Studios can introduce in the MCU the poster boy for their Comics, let’s be honest you don’t need to read comics to know Spider-man. So it’s nice that Marvel Studio can finally introduce him in their universe. Let’s not forget the important role he played in the Civil War comic story arc so it will be good for him to make an appearance in Captain America 3 which is based on that comic. And on top of that we can also can expect a Marvel Knights movie with Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Panther and Black Widow or a possible Avengers. But apart from them the power of a Spider-Man cameo will raise the bar in any of the Marvel properties would it be Agents of Shield, Daredevil or any other properties and the use of some well-known Spidey related characters like Norman Osborn, Venom, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), J. Jonah Jameson or the entire Sinister Six gang will also help the MCU.

Spider-Man and Daredevil : Marvel Knights

With that said let’s go to the bad news now, with that partnership in mind means Marvel Studios will not compete with Sony pictures for movie release. Let me explain with the next Spider-Man reboot scheduled to be released at the same time of Thor Ragnarok this means that Thor and all other MCU phase 3 movies are pushed back to 6 months.

Phase 3 original release dates

With this deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures the possibilities are limitless, the fact that our beloved Spider-Man will join the MCU is a great news for the fans and from a financial point of view it will benefit both players. We still don’t know if we will have a new version of Peter Parker or we will be treated by the new Miles Morales Spider-Man from the Ultimate Universe, but any version that comes will be a welcome addition to the MCU.

Peter Parker and Miles Morales

Thanks again for reading and until next time. Feel free to leave a comment or to show your appreciation by sharing this blog with your friends.

Top 3 franchises that will be difficult to go live action (Shiro)

Some franchises, for some reason, will be very difficult to go live action. Welcome back to VGBM , and today were going to look at a few franchises in different medias , may it be gaming , books or anime in which for some reason or the other it will be difficult to make the live action transition. Back in august my friend paskr18 did a post on the different reasons why the transition will be hard so I’m going to present some franchise in my opinion that we will most likely not see in the movies anytime soon.

1. Duke Nukem series (game)

Duke Nukem 3D

Back in the 1990’s one of the most influential gaming franchises was the Duke Nukem series. It was an action game in which the plot consisted of killing invading aliens. One of the first great FPS with full 3D environment with Duke Nukem 3D back in 1996. Now why would a fairly simple plot not work, well honestly although the game was fun, but the main character for lack of a better word is a douche. Duke is a confident, aggressive, and frequently politically incorrect muscle man, who, although not superhuman, nonetheless manages to achieve incredible physical feats of violence and conquest through sheer machismo and expertise with automatic firearms. Seriously who say things like :” it’s time to kick-ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubblegum” or “I'll rip your head off and shit down your neck” which he actually does . But although all his faults, Duke Nukem is just a mixture of the typical hero stereotypes from the 80’s and the 90’s which is not so acceptable in this day and age. Unless they revise the main protagonist personality I find the transition to live action very difficult.

2. Wanted (Comic books)

Wesley and Fox

Although a movie based on this comic as already been made, anyone who actually read the book will tell you that story wise the movie has really dropped the ball in this case. The story focused on main protagonist Wesley who discovered that his father who abandoned him as a child was a super-villain called The Killer after who’s death inherited his ability, his wealth and his position in the guild of super-villains called the Fraternity that eradicated all of the world’s superhero’s, imagine that most of the heroes dead in the flashback sequence of the comic. What does really seem disturbing is how Wesley goes from a cubicle push-over that was abused by nearly everybody to a complete killer that enjoys random acts of violence. Not to mention the many plots and sub-plots of the story but having a main protagonist going on a shooting rampage for the fun of it would be a little off which they tried to ignore when they made the movie but I admit it was that transformation that made the book so enjoyable.

From push-over to stone cold killer

Crazy killer

3. Hellsing (Anime)

Alucard

Finally we have the anime of this list. With a huge cult following which includes myself by Kouta Hirano. For those not familiar the franchise , it consist of the fight of an organization called Hellsing that protects Great Britain from any supernatural treat and their main weapon is a reformed vampire Alucard. I have to note how dark this story is for which I feel the transition to live action will be difficult although there is a presence of mild humor , but what is unsettling is how close to being evil that main protagonists Alucard and Sir Integra really are. They even portray represent and of the Vatican as monsters. Some may say that the first version of the story was acceptable in terms of good guys being good but we have to agree that it mostly concentrated on one of the 3 main characters and even then there were signs of Alucard going blood crazy. In the end, I admit that this is one of my favorite anime of all time I just see it nearly impossible going live action.

Alexander Anderson, representative of Vatican

Sir Integra and Victoria, main secondary protagonists

Hope you have a great reading. See you soon.

Codex Alera

Codex Alera, of all the book series out there, is one of my top five favorites. It is a very basic romance novel at the outset. For those unversed in literature, no, a romance novel is not about love stories necessarily. There is the genre fiction called Romance based on stories of love and lust and there is the literary fiction Romance which is a long prose narrative with a certain story structure and language. A classic example is The Lord of the Rings. Nowadays, it is easier to just say novel, less confusion for the layman.

As such, Codex Alera is a story about an unlikely and reluctant hero, his journey to accept who he is, his rise to power and the stories related to the realization of his destiny. Most such novels can be so resumed, even Tolkien s novels. There are many complexities within and how the author handles and delivers to us the main protagonist's story is important. But structurally they are undeniably very much the same.

The funny thing I learned along the years is that such a good series was born from a bet! In an interview, author Jim Butcher admitted that he was challenged by another person to try if he could and dared make a good story out of two bad ideas : The Ninth Roman Legion also known as the Lost Legion and......... Pokémon!!! (Suvudu, 2012).

I’m keeping this as spoiler-free as I can. The Pokémon idea is generally there, there isn’t really much “catching” actually. The way the world functions is closer to what was introduced in the Final Fantasy series, each person can basically “summon” one or more spirits to aid them in their tasks. For many it’s much more a cooperation, since there isn’t really a summoning, some spirits are just there with them all the time. This system is based on elements, lightning, earth, air, fire and so on, it determines a person’s proficiencies, powers and place in society. For example, anyone with affinity for metal will most probably be a soldier, affinity to earth may be a builder or farmer.

Needless to say, it is a society having evolved around the power conferred by the communion with these elemental beings. High officials have high power, and quite surely, in the beginning of the Legion’s journey in this new world it was encouraged that strong people mated to increase a family or faction’s political and military power.

The story mainly follows the character Tavi, a completely powerless youngster in world where everyone actually else has one. It gives this main character a particular perspective on life. Having had to always rely on his wits and simple humanity, we find him very adept at getting out of certain situations in ways very logical to us but seeming so amazing to his peers. The fact is that the world we live in has become a myth to the people of Alera. The great knowledge of engineering that the Roman had acquired at the time of the disappearance of the Legion is lost, believed useless for those that have been found and everyone relies on the spirits even for something as simple (relatively) as building a fence!

The series contains six books, following Tavi and the others important characters in chronological order. Some of these characters are pivotal to the story, yet they are introduced late in the chronology, or sometimes they are barely mentioned in one early book, to be fully fleshed out and truly part of the narrative many books later.

Book series covers

This is as far as I’ll go to avoid spoiling the story for those who may be interested in reading the books. I strongly encourage any fantasy aficionado to have a look. I’ve personally read them quite a few times and it never got stale. I do recommend at least two readings, there are some plot points and some early character references that only make sense once you’ve been through the entire journey in Alera….and beyond!

Cheers!