Did Marvel learn its lesson?

By now, you have probably seen the trailer for Captain America:Civil War.  I would imagine most Blerds and Bleeks have seen it since it has over 100 million views on yotube.  I know I have watched it probably 5 times and it made me quite hyped for the movie.  I even recorded a trailer review which you can find here:

Civil War Trailer Review

However, when my hype died down and I went into my quiet place, I began to feel uneasy because of the mess that was Avengers Age of Ultron.  That movie, although cool in certain parts, was an overall disaster.  Too many heroes, with a plot that was all over the place, and seemed to be made with the overall intention of selling toys. The constant trailers and product placement ads for soda, cars,  and merchandise, made the movie seem secondary to making money OFF the movie.  The trouble and friction between Marvel and director, Joss Whedon, are well documented, as it seems Marvel got overly involved in the production and crushed the directors overall Vision( see what I did there) for the franchise.  The movie suffered for this and it eroded much of the goodwill Marvel had with fanboys after the original Avengers.

Now they get a second chance with Civil War, but you can see some troubling similarities.  There are a ton of heroes in this movie!  I mean between Team Cap and Team Iron Man, you have 10 heroes. That does not factor in villains( at least two with Crossbones and Zemo) and other ancillary characters such as SHIELD, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Thunderbolt Ross, etc! Possibly because the movie is still a few months away, we have not seen all the product placement surrounding that  AoU. Are we going to see Captain America plastered on cereal boxes and soda cans and driving an Audi or Chevy? I don't know?  But maybe Marvel learned its lesson. Maybe?  Could it be possible that they saw all the clapback from fans about AoU and kept their grubby little hands off Civil War?  Is it possible that they trust the Russo Brothers and writers of the this movie to allow them to tell their story without getting involved in every single detail?  You see fanboys, although annoying at times, are smart.  We know when we are being given shit to eat- even tho you tell us its Caviar.  AoU was shit!  Marvel tried to dress it up as Caviar and give us "moments" in the movie that would make us excited, but overall the movie was shit.  And the stink of that shit has hung with us for the last year!  Its why there is a bit more trepidation for Civil War!  And you really have to wonder if Marvel feels that, too.

Now don't get me wrong, its not like I am not going to see Civil War. I will be there opening Saturday with my family after Free Comic Book Day just like I was last year.  I will still be hyped and ready to go with popcorn and candy that I snuck into the movie!  But, if I start to see Captain America Dr. Pepper ads,  Black Panther Shampoo, Iron Man Chef Boy Ardee Ravioli, and Civil War Cereal before the movie opens, I will know that Marvel doesn't give a shit anymore and this movie, much like AoU, will just be a vehicle to make more money and the movie is an afterthought.  That's a real shame, too because the Civil War has the potential to be the best comic book movie Marvel has made.  I truly hope they don't fuck it up!

The Producer

Is it worth a Redbox: Get Hard

In our continuing series of looking at movies to see if they are worth your $1.50 at Redbox, we review the movie, Get Hard starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart.  Now I am not the biggest fan of either of these comedians.  I think Will Ferrel is essentially a one trick magician who keeps fooling people with the exact same trick over and over and people keep falling for it.  Sometimes it works for me- I am a huge fan of Elf, Talladega Nights, and Step-Brothers.  But most of the other stuff that he stars in, I skip entirely and never quite understand why people are on his jock so hard.

Kevin Hart- I think he is a funny stand up comedian, but he is not worthy of the crown that has been bestowed upon him as Funniest Black Man on the Planet.  That is a crown that has been worn by Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle.... Nothing Kevin Hart has done or will do will ever meet those comedians high expectations.  He is really just the "best" of a bunch of mediocre comedians out there now.  And his movies tend to fall flat to me.  But that's just me!

So putting these two cats together and making a movie was not high on my list of movies to see. BUT I actually enjoyed the hell out of this movie.  Look, its really Will Ferrel doing Will Ferrell things and Kevin Hart being Kevin Hart, but its actually funny and works for the most part.  The premise is simple:  Will Ferrell's character is framed for insider trading by his soon to be father in law and is sentenced to prison.  He hires Kevin Hart to get him "ready" for prison because he assumed that Kevin Hart had been in prison before because he is Black. Many tired racial tropes are presented, but overall, the movie is very funny!  I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would!

So is it worth a Redbox- YES! Definitely a good Redbox rental if you are looking to turn your brain off and get a good laugh!

Why is your masculinity so fragile?

Michael B Jordan Photo Controversy


No matter how hard I try, I always find myself in the comments sections even tho I tell myself not to read it because I know people are going to say the dumbest shit; especially if it relates to race or sexuality.  These topics bring out the worst of the worst in people and makes me lose my faith in humanity after I finish reading.

When I woke up this morning to the article referencing the picture above with Michael B Jordan and the director of Fruitvale Station, Creed( and Black Panther), Ryan Coogler, I could not imagine what "controversy" the picture could be raising.  I had seen the picture Sunday and assumed it was in response to #oscarsSOwhite.  So I read the article and sadly the comments section was brought into the full view and became unavoidable because the comments were the story.  Apparently, many Black viewers of the picture, took offense to it and allowed their fragile version masculinity to be shattered into pieces. This is the second time in the past couple of months where fragile, Black masculinity has been enraged.  The first being the Kanye/Amber Finger in the butt controversy.  And now this. These two incidents speak so much to the fragility of masculinity often seen in the Black community.  Often times Black men showing any sign of love towards another man besides some dap, a back slap,  or a bro hug is looked at as "gay" and this freaks out( some) black men, but also( some) black women. Look at some of the comments.

First off, to get it off the table- lets say they were gay!  Why do you fuckin' care?  That is their business, their life, and has nothing to do with you! Why you would be pressed or concerned about their love life is beyond me.  How would them being gay affect your ability to enjoy their art as an actor and director?  So you would enjoy Creed or Fruitvale less if you found out they were lovers? What they put on screen is art! Its  not real and peoples inability to separate the two leads people to say dumb shit!

Secondly, now that is off the table, we can look into the deeper psychological issues associated with Black men and masculinity.   The suggestion that Vanity Fair is looking to effeminate Black men is ludicrous. I mean its really stupid to think this.  Look, its not like Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler just signed up for a photo shoot with no ability to look, check, and approve what pictures make it into Vanity Fair. They pay good money to their publicist and  managers to make sure they are presented in a manner that is satisfactory to them.  And this idea that two Black men hugging is somehow "gay" or a sign of weakness comes from insecurity in ones self. As a much as we preach that all Black people do not think alike, when an image or picture goes against the grain of our version of masculinity, we recoil at the image and expect others to all think the way we do and will buck up to defend their caveman way of thinking.

Lastly, if you see anything sexual in this picture, that says more about you than it does the picture.  If anyone took an undergraduate psychology class, they speak of projecting.... this idea that people will place their own issues and concerns onto other people as a way to not have to deal with the issue. If you see gay sexual issues in this picture, that is on you and speaks loudly as to why this photo bothers you!  You are projecting your own sexuality onto these two men! When I saw that picture, I saw two black men, who have made 2 movies together and who are probably very close, having a moment together. Period.  I am not sure how you can see anything other than that! We all have friends that we allow to do or say things to us that we would not let any rando person do because we are trust that person. That does not make you weak or gay.  That makes us friends!

This really bothered me today.  And as I read through the comments, most people agreed with me.  Its really just those outliers who view anything outside their version of what a "real man" is that pollute the commentary space in times like these.  My mantra everyday is "Have a good day and stay out of the comments sections".  I really wish I had followed my own advice today!

The Producer

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Where Oh Where is Our Nina Simone? (The Biopic starring Zoe Saldana)

Nina Simone is an artist with a legacy that is rich with the nuances that existed when she came to fame.  Her distinctive look and sound are very much a part of who she was and what she stood for during those very turbulent times in the 60’s.  She is also very much known for her activism.  I am a fan of her music and her sound is rich with the soulful layering of her life experiences.  You can tell by listening to her music, that there is a lot of substance and context behind her lyrics.  With all this being said, when I saw the trailer for the upcoming biopic, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  First of all, Zoe Saldana is cast as Nina Simone.  Granted, Zoe Saldana is a pretty decent actress, however, she definitely is not the actress that I would immediately have thought of to represent such an iconic artist like Nina Simone. 

However, when I saw the recently release trailer, in which it appears that Zoe is wearing darker make-up (black face) in order to match Nina’s complexion, I was dumbfounded.  There are so many things wrong with this representation.  In hindsight, Zoe Saldana, should not have been selected for this role.  Not only does she not look anything like Nina, but having her parade around in what is essentially black face is disrespectful to who Nina was and what she represented.  As I pointed out, Nina’s look was very much a part of her legacy, the beauty of her natural features and hair, during a time when that was frowned upon because they didn’t think she could appeal to a diverse audience.   This caused much anguish in her creative process and also caused her to leave the United States and move to Europe, where she felt they would be more accepting of her look, due to racism that exists in the United States.  

There are many actresses that I can think of that could have embodied what Ms. Simone stood for and would not have had to resort to wearing darker make-up to do it.  These actresses, I believe, have a closer physicality to Nina Simone.  So why weren’t any of these actresses chosen?  Some that come to mind are:

Viola Davis (How To Get Away With Murder)

Lupita N’ygo (12 Years A Slave, Star Wars)

Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead)

India Arie (singer)

Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black)

Lorraine Toussaint (Orange is the New Black, Rosewood)

Alfre Woodard

Audre McDonald (singer/actress)

Lauren Hill (singer/actress)

Rutina Wesley (True Blood)

Jill Scott (singer/actress) 

 

                                                                     

 

I believe that the artist from this list would have been able to knock this role out of the park, if given the opportunity.  The legacy of Nina Simone is important and should be portrayed to the best of one’s ability to accurately embody her essence.  I just don’t feel as if that was represented in the trailer.  When I saw the horrible make-up job, I was already turned off from this project and felt that it was disrespectful to her legacy.  This story is too captivating and important not to be seen because of some cheap, shoddy production. 

  

The casting to me is all wrong.  Perhaps it was due to name recognition.  This is when artistic integrity comes into play.  Once they approached Zoe about putting on darker make-up and a prosthetic nose, perhaps she should have stepped away from this project and thought that maybe she was not the best actress to portray Nina.  I have to think that she had some trepidation about tackling such an iconic figure and being able to do her justice and do it correctly.  She had to have known this was not going to fly.  This goes against the things that Nina Simone embodied and represented.  I don’t know how Zoe Saldana didn’t see or think about that when signing onto this project.

 

 

I have already been turned off by how Nina Simone is represented in this piece.  I know others have as well, which tells me that quite a few people will not be viewing it.  This is a shame because her story needs to be told, in the right way, not with this cheap, half-assed attempt.

I do like Zoe Saldana as an actress, however, I do believe that perhaps she should have stepped away from this project because of her artistic integrity.

There is a documentary available on netflix called "What Happened, Miss Simone?", that I will check out instead of this project.

 

The Female Perspective

 

Gambit still not in Production

Gambit moved, 2 new Fox release dates

Not that it was lost in the news that Fox announced two new movie dates for October  2017 and January 2018, was the fact that Gambit was moved off its October 2016 date and that the film is not yet in production.  The Gambit movie, set to star with Channing Tatum as Gambit, has been troubled from the beginning. There have been script rewrites, 2 directors have dropped out, and there is a sense of general uneasiness my many fanboys and fangirls about Tatum's ability to play our favorite Cajun mutant. Top that off with an alleged 125 million dollar budget and the overwhelming success of Deadpool this winter, it seems the Gambit movie is again in development hell.  Both new dates would work for the Gambit movie and my thought would be October 2017 to give the movie a less stressed production schedule.

We at @brothascomics( well at least 4/5th of us) have been on the record for many months now that we are not sure that the movie should even be made. We feel that the character is a bit 2 dimensional and he may not translate onto the big screen well.  If nothing else, introduce the character into an established Xmen movie before spinning him off into a solo movie.  Its a huge risk on Fox's part- to me even bigger than Deadpool- because most peoples impressions of Gambit are based on the 1992 Xmen cartoon!  And even tho that character was quite fun, its a marked difference from the comic version and you would assume a total 180 degree change from the movie version.

So where does Gambit go from here?  This seems like a passion project for Channing Tatum.  I do not think the movie gets made at all if he drops out of it.  Very similar to Ryan Reynolds with Deadpool, Tatum seems committed to making this movie happen- even with all the roadblocks and challenges the movie has already seen.  Besides the super rushed schedule it would have been under, these are my thoughts as to why the date was moved.

1. More script issues.  They have decided to tell an origin story and those can be tricky AND Gambit's origin is kinda kooky.  It seems the original script was gonna deal with the Thieves and Assassins Guild and his relationship with Bella Donna. Maybe Fox sees that as too similar to Deadpool and Vanessa.  Do they stick with that or go in another direction?  Possibly new director Doug Liman has a vision for the character that differs from previous script writers and they are taking their time to get it fixed so they are not writing script while they film which almost always turns out bad.

2. Budget. Deadpool just proved you can get bank for your buck at under $100 million production budget.  Gambit was projected at $125 million.  Do they go back and scale it back to a more reasonable budget? I wasn't sure this movie needed that big of a budget to begin with- especially if you're doing Thieves Guild stuff and without a major villain( at least yet to be revealed).

3, R Rating. Script rewrite also make take the movie in a different direction.  Gambit, in New Orleans... Mardi Gras scenes... could make for some sex,  nudity, and language changes for a character that actually could support those type of shenanigans. Plus #FoxgonnaFox and since Deadpool was R and was successful, they may attempt to copy that!

All in all, I am still skeptical this movie gets made. I  have already resolved myself to the fact that its going to be Channing Tatum. Who knows, he may surprise us all and pull it off. I think the bigger worry is if there is enough built in interest in the character to support this solo effort and what its actually going to look like when it makes it on screen.  What I do know is the problems surrounding this movie are real and if they move forward without fixing them, we could have another Green Lantern on our hands and nobody wants to relive that shit!

The Producer

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Brothascomics: Week in Review

We had a great week last week in terms of content and I wanted to let people find one place where they could catch up and post some information about what is upcoming.  Remember all podcast can be listened to on Soundcloud or on ITunes

Brothascomics on Soundcloud
Brothascomics on ITunes

Counselor Interview

We interviewed the creator and stars of the web series Counselor.  We had a chance to talk to writer/director Harold Jackson III and stars Chad Eric Smith and Curtiss Cook.  We talked about the series, and how it came about, and the writing, acting, and directing process.  Its probably one of our best interviews and each of these dudes talent shines.  Its also a very funny interview so you should listen to that podcast and be sure to watch the webseries on line.

Counselor Podcast


Counselor Webseries

Also @brothascomics podcast this past week talked about our favorite Black Sitcoms of all time( No Cosby)! We run down our top five and discuss is Chappelle Show is a sitcom.  Grab a drink and take a listen to podcast 26.

Podcast 26: Black Sitcoms



We also continued our review of OG Secret Wars( 1984) with issues 9-10.  Join The Producer, Sandman, and Brother Beavis as we review the book and continue to run down Cuckold Colossus and the terrible handling of James Rhodes as Iron Man.

OG Secret Wars Podcast pt 5

Lastly, if you are a Bengals fan, we also jumped back in with the Who Dey over 40 Podcast.  Big Hutch, The Producer, and Sandman talk upcoming free agency and the draft.  We also talk the lingering hangover from that Stealers loss.


Upcoming this week, we will have OG Podcast 6 as we conclude the series.  Brothascomics will  have Podcast 26 as we get ready for Batman V Superman! We are back on the #Xmen92 livetweet Saturday morning at 10:00 AM and we also will have the #BSG78 livetweet on Sunday at 6:00 PM!

Lost of information and content for you to join in on.  Be sure to follow us on Twitter and on
Facebook.

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The Producer