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The Past Week: Deadpool 2, Godzilla: Monster Planet, Justice League
In what is unlikely to come as a surprise to anyone, the past week was dominated by news relating to superhero movies. In case you haven’t noticed, this column has generally tried to shy away from such stories (barring certain past exceptions) due to the fact that comic and superhero properties are so oversaturated in online media, but two particular items this week really stood out to me and thus warrant discussion. Additionally, more information has been released for a production covered in last week’s column, so we will discuss that as well.
Michael Shannon Is The Frontrunner To Play Cable In Deadpool 2
If you’re an avid Tweeter (or perhaps an avid Twitter lurker), then chances are you saw Michael Shannon‘s name trending on the social networking site during the week. The reason for this was that the two-time Academy Award-nominee was reported to be the top contender to portray the time-traveling mutant Cable in Deadpool 2, meaning that he has a good chance of acting alongside Ryan Reynolds in the highly-anticipated superhero sequel.
My interest in this development comes from a slightly different place than most who are following this story, however. Although I have heard great things about Deadpool, I have yet to actually see it myself, and my knowledge of Cable is pretty much limited to the animated X-Men series from the 1990’s. What really grabbed my attention was the fact that it is Shannon who is being considered for the role. Having been wowed by his performance in last year’s Frank & Lola, I am pretty much willing to watch anything with him in it and will definitely be turning out for Deadpool 2 if Shannon does end up being cast as Cable after all (though, I will be sure to catch the first movie on DVD beforehand, of course).
Name And Synopsis Published For Godzilla: Monster Planet
I don’t like to talk about the same projects over and over, but sometimes news regarding a particular production happens so quickly that it behooves me to overlook this self-imposed injunction. The proposed anime Godzilla film from Polygon Pictures and The Toho Company, is one such example, with me noting in last week’s column that the property had been acquired by Netflix for distribution outside Japan. But two big developments this past week have forced me to revisit the planned project already.
Namely (and yes, pun definitely intended), that the name of the film has been officially announced, giving us an inkling of an idea as to what expect: Godzilla: Monster Planet. What’s more revealing though, is the synopsis also released by Polygon, explaining not only the setting but the title of the movie. After the sudden appearance of kaiju, or giant monsters, around the world in the near future, mankind was forced to flee to space and leave the planet behind, allowing Godzilla and his terrible ilk to reign over the Earth. The plot sounds out there even for a Japanese monster movie, but being the Godzilla fan that I am, I can’t help but look forward to it.
First Full Justice League Trailer Released
But as was bound to happen, almost everything that happened this week was overshadowed by the release of the first trailer for Justice League yesterday morning. Again, this is the sort of thing I try to stay away from since it seems like everybody talks about it, but I feel that this is one instance where I should chime in.
Granted, I haven’t seen Man of Steel or Batman v Superman, so I can’t really tell how well the trailer seems to tie into the universe of those films. As far as I could tell, however, it didn’t really seem to require a great deal of knowledge of either film to understand what was going on, which is certainly not a bad thing. All the characters seem cool (and not in a “WOW, RADICAL” way), there is enough humor to counter the much-maligned DC gloominess, and although the action is a bit hard to follow at times, it doesn’t completely overwhelm the promo. In fact, I wouldn’t even hold the achingly obvious instrumental cover of “Come Together” against it, which, believe me, says a lot.