2014 (Nerdy) Movies of Note

I have been severely disappointed with recent movie releases. I don't believe I've actually bothered to go to the theater in 2014 yet, and that is one of my favorite dates with The Wife. Well, this is all about to be rectified, starting two weeks from tomorrow... for me, anyway (the Veronica Mars movie coming out last week was probably a big deal, but I've never seen the show).

April 4th: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The adds have looked amazing and I've been especially antsy for the next Marvel movie due to all their teasing of things to come. That's it in April for me, unfortunately. May, however, slaps the cinema into shape.

May 2nd: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
I'm actually not excited by this movie, beyond that it is Spider-Man. I'm getting a "Spider-Man 3" vibe with the excessive amount of villains that, really, look terrible (I hate what they've done with Jamie Foxx, and the Electro origin story, if it truly deals with electric eels, is embarrassing). I'll see it, but I'm full of anti-hype at the moment.

May 16th: Godzilla

Most anticipated of the year, for me.

This. Looks. Incredible. They're actually using a strong cast of actors and the ads have been causing goose-bumps. Woof. Even the Japanese films had terrible acting, I'm not sure I can imagine a Godzilla with a strong cast and good writing. Of course, it remains to be seen just how well they've written an American kaiju film, but I've got a lot of hope for this one (and suspect I'll need to rope friends in to see this one, The Wife doesn't enjoy Godzilla that much...).

May 23rd: X-Men: Days of Future Past
I'm on a edge for this film. I love dystopian future settings, I really enjoyed the short comic run, and some of the promo materials look pretty damn good. That being said, they're NOT following the comic line for more than general setting, I'm not sure how the sentinels will actually come off in the film, and we've seen X-Men films flop hard when they try to do too much. I'm looking forward to this one, but fully plan on annoying everyone by complaining, loudly, about all the plot holes I see (thinking of you, X-Men: First Class).

June 6th: Edge of Tomorrow
Ok, I'm not too sure about this one. It looks somewhat interesting, but so did Oblivion. I suppose I appreciate Cruise is doing a lot of sci-fi films that are relatively unknown titles, I'm just not sure if I'll motivate myself to see it.

June 27th: Transformers 4: Age of Extinction
Ehhhh. I'll probably see it, as reluctant as I am. I mean, I saw that last three in theaters...

July 11th: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
I liked Rise, that's enough for me. Even if I find the movie titles excessively long.

August 1st: Guardians of the Galaxy
The recent ad for this made it look pretty damn awesome. I'm hoping it stays fairly light-hearted -- Marvel could use a funnier hero film.

Looks great, hoping comics being unknowns won't hurt it...

September 19th: The Maze Runner
Never read the book, but the premise sounds interesting. Oh, and the month of September has nothing else interesting for me...

October  17th: Dracula Untold
Another premise only, these two months look to be a movie dry spell...

Nothing in November, other than annoyance at another YA novel-turned-film being split into two films...

December 17th: The Hobbit: There and Back Again
I'm sure I'll complain about this being cut into three films some more, but I did enjoy the first part...

And, you know, sometime in 2015 we get The Avengers: Age of Ultron... I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of collected set they'll have for the Marvel Phase 2 movies -- I really enjoy my SHIELD briefcase for the Phase I Blu Rays...

Extra! Extra! Alternate Dimensions Edition

That's right folks, for this weeks rendition of Extra! Extra!, we're taking a look at some alternate dimensions of popular comics that you should look into.

Some of these universes may have come up in previous posts, but I'll make sure that the chosen books are different!

Note: Marvel's "Main" Universe is designated 616, while DC's is designated Earth-0 (I think -- this could be wrong because the New 52 actually merged several of their universes together to make their current main universe).

Ultimate X-Men (Ultimate Universe) The Ultimate Universe was originally an updated retelling of popular Marvel titles, with liberal changes here and there -- I would say that no character remained completely unchanged. It has since gone on to look MUCH different than the 616 universe -- many characters have been killed or permanently changed, and many team rosters have been edited. The X-Men start out when Sentinels are being released on unsuspecting mutants and Charles Xavier (Professor X) recruits a team of mutants to combat them. These original cast includes Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Storm, Iceman, Beast, Colossus, and Wolverine. One example of a dramatic character change: Wolverine initially joins the group because he was hired to assassinate Xavier. I'm not too far into the X-Men series, but what I have read has been very interesting, and I'm looking forward to eventually catching up. I've also read: The Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Team-Up
Iron Man Noir (Noir Universe) The Noire Universe is another set of retellings, this time with elements taking from Noir films and stories and are set in the mid-1900s. Iron Man follows Tony Stark, an adventurer who has his journeys chronicled for a magazine targeted towards men, allowing them to escape into fantasy during troubled times -- this being during the events of WWII. Tony is actually going on these quests in the hope of finding a way to cure or permanently power his mechanical heart (we never learn how he got it). He finds much, much more as he is hounded by Baron Zemo and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker during his quests. I've also read: Spider-Man Noir I want to read: X-Men Noir
Superman: Red Son (Elseworlds Universe) Elseworlds was the format DC used for telling alternative stories without adding on universes to actually worry about. Since then, several worlds introduced in Elseworlds have made their way into the DC Multiverse. Red Son follows an alternate timeline in which Superman fell to Earth and landed in the Soviet Union instead of the US. Superman becomes the Soviet Union's new greatest weapon. Instead of a Nuclear Arms race, this creates a super-being arms race. Alternate versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, Bizarro and political figures of the time abound. I have yet to actually read this, but I'm looking forward to picking it up in the near future. I think it will be very interesting to see a Superman with core values very different from the one we know today.
Wolverine: Days of Future Past (811 Universe) The 811 Universe pops up in a few different titles, those these are generally related to the X-Men in some way. The biggest different with this univserse is that mutants are hunted down and incarcerated in internment camps. The Wolverine tie in is actually a prequel to the main story line that occurs in Uncanny X-Men. It explains why Wolverine is in Canada and Magneto is in a wheelchair. I am currently working up my collection of Days of Future Past issues, so I have not read the series myself. The original Uncanny X-Men run (I think it was two issues) is considered a classic X-Men story line, and I am looking forward to collecting them in the future.
The Exiles (Many Universes) For this one, I'm cheating a little bit. The Exiles are a group of heroes from disparate dimensions (one of the main characters, Blink, is actually from the Age of Apocalypse dimension)that have come together for their different reasons. Their job is to correct errors that occur in other dimensions that would create more or worse divergent timelines. Its an interesting concept that has potentially infinite possibilities. This is another series I am not read up on, though I was especially interested when I found out that a version of Spider-Man 2099 eventually makes his way onto (and off of) the roster. I've started collecting them and will do some more posts on the series when I find especially interesting runs.

Along with collecting Exiles, I'm also looking to start collecting issues of Uncanny X-Force and finishing off my (currently small) collection of Spider-Man 2099. When I find particularly interesting runs of these series, I will rotate them into the Monday "Extra! Extra!" posts. Hopefully this will add some new flavor to the standard suggested reading format.

If there's anything else you'd like to see me take a look at, please leave a comment below!

For now, I have no clue what next week will bring!