Brain Dead and Loving it!

Time has come for me to weigh in on the polemic that has taken over the Facebook feeds of film aficionados and Marvel movies fans for the last few weeks. I myself have enjoyed the MCU films tremendously, and also happen to consider Martin Scorsese a National Treasure, having seen most of his films, and counting some of them among my all-time favorite movies of all time. The man who is considered by many as one of the best living director, and a film scholar by excellence, stated the following words to Empire about Marvel movies: “I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being,” What followed was a rash of uninspired interviewers asking that same query to other legendary film-makers, some as far removed...

There can be only so many of those franchise spanning sprawling epic kind of films. Not that the Russo brothers don't know how to pull it off; the directing team have already proven their astounding capacity to handle a veritable menagerie of super-beings thrown in into a tapestry of increasingly complex plot-lines since they directed CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER back in 2014. While this film presented a fascinating spy drama plot delving into a vast conspiracy shaking the foundations of S.H.I.E.L.D. all the while exploring Captain America's survivor's guilt, the following 2 films, 2016's CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, and last year's AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, steered clear of character developments to focus on bringing bigger and bigger spectacles putting a growing number of heroes in jeopardy. With CIVIL WAR, INFINITY WAR and now AVENGERS ENDGAME, Anthony and Joe Russo have successfully upped the ante and they have, beyond all expectations, managed...

Let me get this out in the ether right away: I don't like Venom as a character. I feel it's no more than a pale variation on a popular hero, seasoned with a ''bad-ass'' attitude meant to please mainly a sensation-hungry juvenile audience who has their own skewed views of what is supposed to be ''cool". There. I said it. Now this old man who likes comics will step down from his soapbox and take a few deep breaths. The journey to the VENOM movie is a convoluted  one, and it started with the suggestion of a 22 year old comic book fan named Randy Schueller .  He had written way back in the early eighties to Marvel Comics Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter about a story idea where SPIDER-MAN would acquire a new, black costume. He then received that letter: Schueller submitted some story lines, but nothing ever came out of it. But he did see his costume idea make its first appearance about a year later on the cover of SPIDER-MAN # 252. How ...