The Most Talked About Movie Of The Year 2016

 

Movies
Movies

In November Doctor Strange will premier on the big screen. This is a change of pace for Marvel Studios by showing us the mystic realm of the Marvel Universe. Doctor Stephen Strange is Earth’s Sorcerer 

What a great American pastime it is to go to the movies and enjoy a bag of popcorn while watching a good movie. What a great way to spend 2 hours away from all your problems. Movies inspire and entertain people around the world. In 2012 worldwide movie goers spent $62.4 Billion on movies, and 41% of that money was spent in North America. In spite of Netflix and bigger and better television, people still flock to their favorite movie on the big screen when it comes out.

The action movie superhero genre is a huge part of the success of movies to draw people to the cinema. Comic book heroes are entertaining at the movies both those who read comics and those who do not read comics. Spider-Man, Batman, Hulk, Superman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, X-Men, Flash, and others are well know because of the cinematic universes created by the studios and the networks on TV with hit programs like The Flash and Agents of Shield. There are seven so called superhero movies in 2016 that will compete for your entertainment dollar.

Deadpool
Deadpool

The first movie to answer the call to entertainment was Deadpool. Produced by Fox and directed by Tim Miller. The starring role was played by Ryan Reynolds as Wade Winston Wilson who becomes Deadpool. Reynolds was instrumental in convincing Fox to produce an R rated superhero movie and it worked. The movie became the highest Fox produced superhero movie yet, premiering in February 2016 to positive reviews and box office success. $362,973,734 it made in the USA with $763,422,332 worldwide. It performed beyond expectations and was the most talked about movie of the year at that point.

Batman v Superman
Batman v Superman

The next movie to premier in March of 2016 was the much anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It was the second movie of the DC cinematic universe after Man of Steel in 2013. It was produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Zack Snyder starring the returning cast of Man of Steel and Ben Affleck played Batman with Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Jesse Eisenberg played Lex Luthor and Jeremy Irons played Alfred Pennyworth. It was a high budget film that Warner Bros. expected to give Avenger type numbers, that is over a billion dollars. While it was respectable at the box office making $329,619,773 in the USA and $871,919,773 worldwide it was disappointing to those that predicted it would make over a billion. The critical reviews of the movie were devastating with 27% rating at Rotton Tomatoes. The language used in the critics reviews painted the movie as the a bloated, overstuffed, waste of time.

Civil War
Civil War

The next movie to premier in March of 2016 was the much anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It was the second movie of the DC cinematic universe after Man of Steel in 2013. It was produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Zack Snyder starring the returning cast of Man of Steel and Ben Affleck played Batman with Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Jesse Eisenberg played Lex Luthor and Jeremy Irons played Alfred Pennyworth. It was a high budget film that Warner Bros. expected to give Avenger type numbers, that is over a billion dollars. While it was respectable at the box office making $329,619,773 in the USA and $871,919,773 worldwide it was disappointing to those that predicted it would make over a billion. The critical reviews of the movie were devastating with 27% rating at Rotton Tomatoes. The language used in the critics reviews painted the movie as the a bloated, overstuffed, waste of time.

X-Men Apocalypse (Fox)
X-Men Apocalypse (Fox)

On May 27th X-Men: Apocalypse premiered with the third edition of the X-Men “First Class” trilogy directed by Bryan Singer and produced by 20th Century Fox. Oscar Isaac stars as Apocalypse. And the rest of the crew that played in X-Men Days of Future Past are returning, plus Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers / Cyclops, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler, Ben Hardy as Angel, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Lana Condor as Jubilee, and Olivia Munn as Psylocke. There are a lot of characters in this movie which seems to be under performing at the box office right now with less than 300 million dollars worldwide. Fox after nine days and has a lot of ground to cover to catch Deadpool released by them earlier this year.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

June the 3rd gave us Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Director was Dave Green and producer Michael Bay of the Transformers Franchise. Paramount Pictures is the studio that produced the movie. A sequel to 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the film stars Megan Fox, and Stephen Amell. The movie is based on the comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. TMNT 2 movie is looking to the cartoon for inspiration, bringing in characters like Casey Jones (played by Arrow star Stephen Amell). The movie in 2014 made $191,204,754 in the USA and $493,333,584 worldwide. The second movie should do as well or a little better than the first movie. Unfortunately the movie may suffer from the fact that three superhero movies came out in 30 days.

Suicide Squad
Suicide Squad

The next movie featuring superheros will be the Suicide Squad in August. The Suicide Squad is a team of former mercenaries and super-villains, currently running black ops missions for an arm of the US Government in the DC Universe. If they disobey, well…things don’t go well for them. David Ayer the director described this one as “The Dirty Dozen with superheroes.” The movie will be the third attempt of Warner Bros. to create a shared universe with the DC Comic characters. With Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jared Leto as the Joker, Cara Delevingne as the Enchantress, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as killer Croc, Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, Adam Beach as Slipknot and Ben Affleck as Batman, it all depends on the script and the chemistry between these actors if the movie will be successful.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange

In November Doctor Strange will premier on the big screen. This is a change of pace for Marvel Studios by showing us the mystic realm of the Marvel Universe. Doctor Stephen Strange is Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, and the defender of the world against mystical threats. Benedict Cumberbatch is Doctor Strange. Chiwetel Ejiofor is Baron Mordo and Tilda Swinton will be Strange’s mentor The Ancient One. This one may be the sleeper success story of 2016 if well received by the audience. Scott Derrickson is directing from a script by Jon Spaihts. We will see if the Marvel magic of successful movies will continue with Doctor Strange.

There is one of these movies that stands out above all the others that I wanted to bring to your attention. One movie of all the rest at this point is the most talked about movie of the year. On the internet, on Twitter, on message boards, around the water cooler at work, in family discussions, and between fanboys and movie goers, people can’t seem to stop talking about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It began when the early critic negative reviews came back before the movie accually came out and continued when people saw the movie and lines started forming in the social media on those who enjoyed the movie and hated the movie.

Yes, I said hated the movie. This fictional American superhero film based on the DC Comics has drummed up more emotion and anger than any movie I can remember. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes out of 212,195 votes 66% liked the movie with an average 3.6 rating out of 5. The 33% of negative opinions about the movie are very vocal and stand out on most media outlets. The articles still come out comparing BvS to Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and people flock to the comment section to make a remark for or against the opinions. One side for the movie inflames the other side to respond so the talk continues. It has been over 70 days since the movie premiered and people are still talking about it.

Now the release of what Warner Bros. is calling the Ultimate Edition Extended version of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is coming out with about 30 more minutes of film not seen in the theatrical release. It will make the movie over 3 hours long. Dealers and electronic outlets expect to do well in sales. You can bet that the discussion and articles will bring more attention to the movie and the opinions will be flying again.

In August when Suicide Squad comes out the rhetoric will start again. People will wonder after the disappointment of Batman v Superman if the new DC Comic movie will restore their hope that Warner Bros. can make a good superhero film. Ben Affleck, who played Batman in the new film and directed the Oscar-winning film “Argo,” was recently revealed as an executive producer for “Justice League.” Warner Bros. has named Executive Vice President of Development and Production Jon Berg and DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns to lead DC Films, a recently designated brand for company’s movie business, they will be playing the roll of producers of DC property in the future.

Johns and Afflick are involved in a script for the new solo Batman movie which will be filmed in the near future. The controversy over Batman v Superman will affect the future of the Cinematic DC Universe to truly compete with Marvel Studios and the quality of films clearly needs to improve according to Warner Bros. execs. Batman v Superman has been the most scrutinized movie of recent times and will be talked about for years. Everyone who has seen it has an opinion when it comes to Batman v Superman.

In November Marvel will have the last laugh in 2016 with the premier of Doctor Strange. It will generate more talk of Marvel vs DC and movies like Captain America: Civil War vs Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. People will be talking again and sharing their thoughts about movies and superheros which I guess is not a bad thing. Anyone ready for a Star Wars movie? I think there may be one in December. See you at the movies. 🙂 Walt

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