August 2023 – Adam's Blog

Five Reasons You Should Go and See Blue Beetle In Theaters

August 23, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

Blue Beetle is the newest film from DC and Warner Bros along with the last remaining of the current DC Extended Universe. Unfortunately, just like with most of the recent films to come out of DC’s library, this is currently projected to be another film that will bomb at the box office! While there are certain circumstances that might occur to this such as the recent hurricanes going on in the West Coast of America, it doesn’t look it’s going to make it’s money back at all! So much so that it makes one wonder whether James Gunn and company might reconsider putting the Blue Beetle himself into his DC Universe! Whether that’s because of the lackluster marketing for the film or the quality of other DC movies is anyone’s guess but this is certainly NOT good for anyone at DC or Warner Brothers!

All of this is a real shame because Blue Beetle itself is actually a pretty darn good movie overall! It may not be the best superhero movie ever made nor even the best one that has come out this year but it’s still a fun and refreshing comic book movie that has plenty of action, humor, and heart at it’s center for anyone to enjoy. If that is not enough to convince you to go see it, then I have five other reasons for you to check this one out in theaters! In a summer that has been filled with financial flop after financial flop, the last thing we need is another movie to fall right into that criteria!

Because of that, instead of doing a typical review for Blue Beetle, I’m gonna provide you with five reasons why I believe the movie itself is worth your time and money! I promise there are no spoilers to be found here and only five main selling points to get you to check out the picture!

1.) It’s a standalone story!

As fun as it is to constantly have superhero films that have crossovers with all of your favorite characters, we have gotten to the point where it has become too oversaturated for those kinds of films, to the point where it no longer feels as special as it once was. It becomes even worse when adding the extra bit of fan service does a disservice to the narrative it’s based on, makes the material not be able to stand well as it’s own thing, and makes the whole thing become worse as a result!

Blue Beetle is able to avoid all of that by going back to basics with a story that feels rather self-contained and stand perfectly on it’s own two feet! There’s no forced cameos or tie-ins, no tricks to try to get you into the next wave of DC movies, and it doesn’t even bother trying to tell you what universe this film is suppose to be in. It’s #1 objective is to craft a film about it’s new Latino protagonist Jamie Reyes (played wonderfully by Xolo Mariduena btw) who just gradated out of college and looking towards the next steps of his life with his family and new life as a superhero. Sure, there are some funny references here and there of well-known DC superheroes but that’s not the point of the movie nor should it be!

It’s a great reminder as to why we gravatas towards the best superheroes in the first place and why the best origins stories are as good as they are! Like with the best of them, Blue Beetle knows to that it’s story and characters come first and universe building comes second! Some of the past DC films and even Marvel films have lost sight of that but this one certainly doesn’t and it’s all the better for it!

2.) It’s all about family!

If there’s one element that stands out as being the centerpiece of the entire film, it’s the dynamics of the Reyes family. There is very strong bond between them all and you could feel the love and support they all have for one another in every single moment that they are on screen together. It touches upon some simplistic but very topical subject matter of immigrant families, and class differences that are a good drive for the story.

The entire cast of the family fit their roles like gloves, have great chemistry with one another, and even get their own individual moments to shine. Belissa Escobedo makes for a very likeable screen presence as Jaime’s young sister, Elpidia Carrillo fits comfortably as Jaime’s mother Damian Alcazar makes for the perfect father for Jaime and has some of the film’s most emotional moments, George Lopez is funny and sometimes badass as Jaimie’s crazy uncle named Rudy, and Adriana Barraza makes for perhaps the most badass Nana that has ever existed in the history of cinema!

If you were someone that really enjoyed the family dynamics in superhero films such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Shazam!, then you will found plenty to enjoy in this movie whenever the whole family is on screen together! If Dominic Toretto were a real person, then Blue Beetle would certainly be his favorite film of 2023! The power of family, baby!

3.) The action and VFX work is strong!

What also is a refreshing change of pace from other recent superhero films is how much detail has gone into the actions scenes and the VFX work! Despite only having a budget of just over 100 million dollars, Blue Beetle is able to provide more entertaining action and more impressive visuals than the likes of Black Adam, The Flash, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, all of which cost as least twice as much as this movie.

While not entirely an action or visual effects heavy picture, it’s able to provide enough of those when it counts the most. The fight scenes feel coherent and well put together, the Blue Beetle looks absolutely cool whenever he appears on screen, and those that were perfectly fond of the final hero vs villain showdown of say The Incredible Hulk is likely gonna have a big smile on your face during the climax of the picture! Not to mention, the opening sequence along has probably the most impressive visuals in a live-action comic book film released this year!

I’m not gonna act just like this is the best action and special effects that I’ve ever seen for a film but they worked perfectly for the movie and the budget that it was given. The action is just so much fun when it appears and will likely be on your mine even hours after the credits have rolled! It also helps to have a VFX team that was treated properly and not needlessly overworked! Take notes, Hollywood!

4.) The Latino representation is off the charts!

I know there are certain folks out there that are sick to death of the talk of representation in film and that being the main selling point for a movie but it’s done for a reason. Not just to give representation to a culture that doesn’t get as much as they should but it allows for anyone outside of that culture to gain a new inside as to how people of a certain culture or race live their lives differently from others.

Throughout the film, you gained a great inside into Latin American Culture and how they live differently compare to traditional American Culture. You also get plenty of scenes with the family talking to each other in Spanish with subtitles for anyone else to pick upon along with fun little jabs at each other and everyone else that is all played for laughs and not meant to be taken seriously. The film certainly doesn’t live and die based strictly on it’s cultural representation but it’s does feel like an added bonus to the picture and helps make it feel fresher than your average comic book flick.

If you are someone that is a part of Latin American Culture, then you will likely be greatly satisfied with what Blue Beetle has to offer, especially if the response I’ve been seeing from those folks on Twitter is any indication. Even if you are not someone that is a part of that culture, you will likely find yourself intrigue to see a totally different viewpoint and make even get you interested to learn more about Latin Americans. While there has certainly been Latin characters portrayed in superhero films recently, it’s certainly nice to have a Latin superhero appear front and center!

5.) It’s the best DC film in 2023!

I enjoy Shazam!: Fury of the Gods more than most people, despite it being an obvious step down from the first film, and found The Flash to be an ugly and unfocused CGI mess with the only saving graces being Michael Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl. However, Blue Beetle is easily the best film that DC has released this year and even their very best one since The Batman. While lower expectations may have played a factor in that, it feels like the only film released this year to do the job it sets out to do exceptionally well.

There’s no universe baggage or sequel setup to weight the whole thing down, there’s no painfully distracting reshoots and CGI of certain characters that will take you out of the movie, and there’s no drama with any cast member making unpleasant remarks and/or doing terrible things of the camera to distract you from the picture. All we have here is a very well made and enjoyable new superhero origin tale about a cool new superhero with everyone from the cast and crew doing their jobs as well as they possibly could have.

I don’t know exactly where I would rank Blue Beetle among the other DC Extended Universe films but I can definitely see plenty of folks ranking this among the absolute best in the franchise. I imagine it’s the kind of superhero film that folks have been craving for DC for years, with them introducing a new DC character that’s not Batman or Superman while working perfectly as it’s own thing! While the jury is still out on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (whenever that actually comes out), I don’t think it would be a controversial opinion to claim that this is easily the best live-action film from DC released this year!

In Conclusion

Blue Beetle is not a perfect film by any means. There are times to where it feels too conventional among other superhero origins stories, especially ones from the MCU, it reuses certain tropes you’ve seen before, and Victoria Kord herself is a fairly bland antagonist. However, it’s easy to overlook all of that when watching because of how much heart and passion is clearly on screen from everyone invovled with the picture!

I know this piece will likely not do much to prevent this film from underperforming in theaters, especially with the announcement of this coming to digital streaming next month (Screw you, movie studios!) but I can still try. If there is anyone out there that was on the fence of seeing Blue Beetle and you haven’t already, I sure hope I was able to persuade you to see this on the big screen while you still have the chance!

If I were to give it a rating:

Now, please go out and see Blue Beetle in theaters if you have the time and money to do so!

Charles Martinet Is Retiring as Mario And He Will Never Be Forgotten

August 21, 2023October 14, 2023 Adam1 Comment

It was just announced today that Charles Martinet, the man behind the voice of Mario since he started speaking, will be retiring after over three decades of voicing the iconic character. He had also done the voice for other notable characters in the Mario franchise such as Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and their baby equivalents. It’s unknown yet who will be taking over the role but whoever it is will make their debut voicing Mario in the upcoming game Super Mario Wonder, set to release on October 20th. While Martinet will still remain at Nintendo as a special ambassador, his time as the Italian plumber and a few others have come to an end. His last notable roles in the Mario franchise came from last year’s releases of Mario Strikers: Battle League and Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope along with The Super Mario Bros. Movie where he did some cameo roles and voiced Mario and Luigi’s father.

To say that whoever will replace him will have big shoes to fill would be an understatement. You are replacing a legend who had helped bring so much life and energy to what was originally a very muted character. Sure, there were a handful of notable actors that voiced the character in other entertainment mediums such as the 90s show, 90s live-action movie, and of course, the animated movie from this year but it’s never really happen in the form of medium that the character is most well known for, the video games. Whether you like it or not, things are about to change for the better or worse.

Admittedly, Mario as a character isn’t well known for his award-winning voice acting. In the games themselves, he never really talks in long or coherent sentences to give Martinet an “Oscar” moment and only speaks ups every once in a while to utter the same phrase that the player is thinking about at that very moment. However, it’s that voice alone that brings the life and energy to that character that has helped defined him over the past 30+ years. It’s the voice that exists to give you a glimpse at what that character would sound like in real life and have anyone imagine how it would sound if the character was more talkative. It may not be a whole lot but it’s definitely enough. Just hearing Charles Martinet say “Yahoo!” as Mario sounds right every single time!

That’s not to say having a different voice actor for Mario will make those iconic lines sound wrong but it won’t sound right the way it used to be. No matter how good of a job the next person up might end up doing, he will be compared unfairly to Charles Martinet. Whether he will try hard to sound exactly like Martinet’s Mario or do his own spin on it, he will never be Charles Martinet and there is no denying that. Just ask Chris Pratt!

In the best case scenario, this will be the equivalent of when Troy Baker took over the role as Joker from Mark Hamill or when Tara Strong took over the role as Harley Quinn from Arleen Sorkin. While they do resemble their previous voice actors to an extent and can never fully captured the spark they provided, they are still worth successors in their own right. That’s because they are able to provide enough of their own take on the characters they are voicing that makes their version stand out greatly in their own rights and pays respects to the characters they are voicing along with the actors they are succeeding. If this is a similar case scenario for Mario, then I think this will work out just fine and the next person up should have nothing much to worry about.

While Nintendo hasn’t announced yet who will be the voice of Mario in Super Mario Wonder and beyond, there have been some voiced clips released with the gameplay that has been shown so far of the game. If what we have heard so far is any indication, then I think we are in good hands. I certainly am curious though if the new voice actor for Mario will also be voicing multiple characters as well, most notably the ones that Martinet voiced such as Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. Even so, I’ve liked what we’ve heard of Mario’s new voice so far. If you want to be your own judge, here’s a link to the gameplay footage shown thus far and form your own opinion.

While Charles Martinet no longer voicing Mario is certainly a shock, it is something that was gonna have to be done at some point. As the good old saying goes, all goods things must come to an end. Regardless, no matter how Mario sounds from hear on out, Charles Martinet will always be known as the main voice behind the famous Italian Plumber for generations. While he will certainly be missed as the voice of Mario, he will certainly never be forgotten.

Thanks for everything, Charles Martinet! And whoever had the balls to follow in his footsteps, I wish you the best of luck!

Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released on October 20th!

VFX Artists and Animators Deserve To Go On Strike

August 17, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

Does anyone remember that one episode of Spongebob Squarepants titled, “Fear of a Krabby Patty”? What happened in that episode is that Mr. Krabs decides to open the Krusty Krab for 24 hours after his arch rival Plankton threatened to open his restaurant, the Chum Bucket, for 23 hours! Because of that along with Plankton secretly ordering 10,000 Krabby Patties, Spongebob and Squidward are overworked to hell and their minds start cracking like an egg from exhaustion! Because of this, Spongebob suffers from cases of insomnia, hallucinations, and so-called “Krabby Patty phobia”, which leads to him needing to see a psychiatrist. The most famous moment of that episode was the montage where Mr. Krabs is keeping track of how many days it’s been since the Krusty Krab is opening while Spongebob is slowly starting to lose his mind and be exhausted from constantly doing his jobs for several weeks with no breaks whatsoever.

That episode managed to be quite ahead of it’s time and honestly overlooked. Not only because it was the first episode to come out of Spongebob Squarepants after the very first movie came out (A.K.A. the start of the so-called “bad” era of Spongebob), but the morals of that episodes are ones that still range true to this day. The morals being that bosses needlessly overworking their employees is wrong and quality should come first over quantity. And if the reported awful experiences that VFX artists have had at Marvel Studios along with the animators behind Across the Spider-Verse is any indication, it looks as though the folks involved in either of those teams have suffered from their own Krabby Patty phobia. Overworked to exhaustion so much that they never want to even take a glance at a digital effect or piece of animation ever again!

If you have been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years, you would know that Marvel has had a HUGE CGI and VFX problem for a long time now! It got to the point where somehow the works from their previous films from the very beginning have better and more polished effects than the later films despite the increased budgets over time and more advanced technology. While most people will point that problem to many of the Phase Four installments and onwards with infamously awful CGI/VFX work in the likes of Black Widow, Thor: Love and Thunder, She-Hulk, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this has been a problem going on for almost a full decade now!

My first notice of the iffy at best special effects work came at the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the Avengers are fighting alongside each other in a sequence that looks so cartoony, over-the-top, and unrealistic that it COMPLETELY took me out of the movie along with others when I first saw it. While the effects did get better throughout that film, the results of some of the effects there were just baffling, especially with so much money being spent on that movie. Unfortuantely, it didn’t stop there!

There were plenty of other instances that I noticed that for the rest of Phase Two and Three of said poor VFX work. There was the airport fight scene in Captain America: Civil War where the CGI was painfully obvious, especially with Spider-Man, the big blue blob sequence that took place at the climax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and of course, the INCREDIBLY poor special effect work in Black Panther! It’s so bizarre how the more this series got popular and the more money spent on it, the worse the special effects actually got!

Whenever the effects in anything looks bad, people always like to point their fingers to CGI being the main problem or even throwing shades at the people who worked on it. However, it’s very clear at this point that neither one of those are to blame for it! The VFX artists are clearly trying their heart out to make it work and make the effects look as convincing as possible! The problems mostly ranges from the studios releasing as many projects as they can with not as much time as before, having very little patience with their workers, annihilating those that won’t put up with their crap, and as a result, the VFX teams become smaller and more overworked the longer the production goes on. If you don’t believe me, just ask the people that worked on WandaVision!

I will leave a link at the end of this piece of the interview with the VFX artists themselves so you can read more into it but needlessly to say, the experience of working on WandaVision was absolute hell for those that worked on it that were a part of the VFX team! From working constant 18-hours shifts to not having any days offs until the show was near completion to being unable to see their families due to work conditions to not even getting any bonuses or raises for working overtime, it had to been an absolutely MISERABLE experience to anyone who had to work on that show!

Just imagine being a part of that team during the making of WandaVision! Can you honestly really blame the VFX artists for any bad effects that might have been on the show? At some point, when working so much and having very little rest during that, you have to stop giving a crap and likely just want to finish it as fast as you can so it can all be over, getting a chance to have a full eight hour long sleep for once! I understand it’s a big show that MILLIONS of people around the world are gonna watch which always results in long work shifts but being overworked to that extend is just not acceptable!

You can also say the same thing for just about every show or movie that Marvel Studios has released in the past two years! Regardless of what you think about the overall quality of them, I think everyone will agree that releasing over 20 products in the span of just two years is quite absurd! Compare that to when the studios were just releasing a couple of films a year. That led to more time being spend on polishing the scripts, effects, and productions so it can make for better, quality pictures. You know the term, less is more! Less is more is certainly what can NOT be said about Marvel for the past two years!

While that likely has to do with Disney demanding so much Marvel content at once for Disney Plus and theaters, especially during Bob Chapek’s brief time as CEO, at some point, the pressure is going to get to the people working on these things eventually. At some point, they are simply gonna stop caring about the quality of it and just focus on getting it done as fast as possible so they can see their families sooner rather than later. There’s only so much the human body can take before it has had enough and your brain completely goes into “I don’t give a F!” mode! To put it all simply, the treatment that VFX artists have been getting at Marvel Studios is quite frankly cruel!

Thankfully, the Marvel VFX workers seem to think the exact same thing! Earlier this week, it’s been reported that the VFX artists will indeed go on strike and set up a vote to create a new, national VFX union. A union that will likely create a better work environment for the team with plenty of fresh, young blood, flexible work scheduling, and plenty of rewards and bonuses for those that chose to work overtime! If successful, this would be the first group to certify union participation amid a wider call for unionization in the VFX community. The election date for it is August 21st and will last until September 11th.

I don’t know how that will played out but something like that NEEDED to happen badly. Not just for the sake of the quality of the VFX for future Marvel projects but also for the sake of the well-beings that take so much time out of their day to do that work for all of us to watch in the comforts of our own homes. However, VFX artists are not the only ones that desperately need a strike to voice their displeasure with their working conditions, that should go to animators as well.

As much as we would all love to turn a blind side of any potential behind the scenes drama to any one of our favorites movies, they are always worth bringing up when they happen to make sure you know of the unstable working conditions that the people involve in these movies are going through for several months and possibly even years while they are making it. In this case, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is still one of my favorites films of 2023, I can’t deny the reports of the absolute hell that animators and artists went through when it came to making the film as masterful as it is. It hurts to admit but it’s just the truth, to paraphrase a very wise someone from the same said film!

Just like with the article involving the VFX artists, I will also provide one involving the making of Across the Spider-Verse that goes more in-depth to everything the animators of that film went through but once again, it was NOT a pleasant experience whatsoever. This interview that came out in June referred to four animators on Across the Spider-Verse that left the project due to it not being a pleasant experience and they were far from the only ones.

The working conditions for Across the Spider-Verse were very difficult for everyone involved, from numerous revisions to full 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, for over a year. This had to do with producer/co-writer, Phil Lord, constantly re-writing the script and overseeing production, forcing animators to constantly re-work certain scenes until he 100% approves of it. This led to hundreds of hours of hard work with the animation being thrown in the trash because it wasn’t what Lord wanted and hundreds of extra hours of work to make it the way he wanted. This stressful workload was so overwhelming to many animators and artists that over 100 of them left the project halfway through.

The four went on to say that there was no way that the next film, Beyond the Spider-Verse was gonna makes it’s March 2024 release date (which they were correct), as both movies were not made at the same time and they “barley crossed the finished line” when it came time for the second movie to premiere. While the highers ups from Sony such as Amy Pascal and Michelle Grady attempted to downplay on those work conditions that these four animators addressed, there is no denying that grueling hours and workload demands were a major factor on getting Across the Spider-Verse into shape before release. While this is far from the first instance where a genuinely great film was a complete nightmare to work on for the people involved, it is quite said to see animators get such harsh treatment like this.

What makes it worse is the reports of there being completely different versions of Across the Spider-Verse that were released in theaters and also through digital last week! While the versions aren’t so different that it affects the plot or viewing experience, certain changes and details that were removed have been noted from people that have watched the film multiple times! Could that have to do with the film “barely crossing the finished line” like the animators mentioned and not taking one last glance at the picture before releasing it everywhere worldwide? I can’t say exactly but the fact that the people involved didn’t bother making one more edit before publication before release and only did it after release says a lot!

There is hope that Beyond the Spider-Verse might not get the same story when it comes to the overworking hours for the animators. The film has been delayed from it’s initial March 2024 release date and even taken off the release schedule until further notice. While a large part of that has to do with the current strike that’s currently taking place with the writers and actors, that does at least mean that there will be more time for those involve to publish the film and help make it the best possible version of itself. And even producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller claimed that the film will only come out “when it’s ready”!

Even if I can take their word for it, that does not change the fact that the animators went through a lot when making Across the Spider-Verse and received very little reward for it in return. While there has been a strike in place for VFX artists in regards to Marvel Studios, animators and artists are more in their right to go on strike. Their contract with the SAG-AFTRA is set to expire sometime next year. When that happens, I would not be surprised to see them go on strike! Or if the studios want to avoid another situation like the one happening now with their writers and actors, they should leave by example like what Seth Rogen did to the animation crew of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Yes, you read that correctly! In a recent interview, it was confirmed by TMNT director Jeff Rowe that him along with producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made sure the staff could work on the animated movie while continuing to maintain a good work-life balance. It was something that the three of them took to heart and made their top priority every day when working on the picture. Come on studios, if Seth Rogen of all people can take good care of his crew, then you can too! I’ll also leave a link for that interview as well but yeah!

Keep in mind, I’m not trying to get you to change your mind on what you think of the new Marvel stuff and Across the Spider-Verse! It’s perfectly okay to still enjoy them if you do. Even I will admit I still enjoy most of them! I don’t necessarily think folks who worked on these things are coming out to get you to hate the things they worked on but more to understand their perspective on what they’ve been going through when making these things as a result and hopes it will lead to more stress-free productions for the immediate future.

In conclusion, VFX artists and animators deserve to join alongside the writers and actors right now and take a stand to the toxic work environment they are forced to work with every day. While the VFX crew from Marvel Studios are doing that right now and the animators may have to wait another year to do so, they have fully earned the right to do that!

What’s going on with film and television production in Hollywood right now is unacceptable and it’s time for changes! Changes such has treating the people that make you who you are with some damn respect! First the writers and actors, now the VFX artist and animators! And I promise you, A.I. won’t bail you out of this one!

Links to Articles:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/marvel-vfx-workers-move-toward-unionization-vote-1235567010/

https://collider.com/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-animators-working-conditions/

https://decider.com/2023/08/07/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mutant-mayhem-director-treating-animators-ethically-seth-rogen/

Why Spider-Man: Lotus Is The Worst Kind Of Fan Film

August 14, 2023August 14, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

The new Spider-Man fan film, Spider-Man: Lotus, has finally been available to watch for free on YouTube. This has been a fan film that has been years in the making with a lot of discourse surrounding it. While some were excited to see a low budget Spider-Man project that aimed to put more emphasis on the human drama surrounding Peter Parker and him grieving over losing his loved ones, it has been overshadowed by the ENORMOUS amount of controversy surrounding the making of the picture along with the history surrounding the cast and crew attached to it.

I’ll admit that I’m someone who mostly stayed out of the discourse surrounding Spider-Man: Lotus while it was in production because I just wasn’t interested in it. However, after reading up on it in the past week, it makes me certainly wish I knew about all of that sooner. Even if I was someone that ending up really enjoying Spider-Man: Lotus (which I do not whatsoever), it was undoubtedly things that HAD to be brought to the forefront regardless of the film’s overall quality. Because of that, I want to discuss all of the drama behind the director, the actors, the making of this fan film, and how the overall film actually is. It’s important to address all of this and see why fan films like Spider-Man: Lotus are a perfect showcase of the dangers of letting fans become the filmmakers.

And I know there will be some folks out there that claim that people need to separate the artist from the art and judge the film as it’s own thing. However, when it comes to the circumstances with how this film was made and how the main people involved with it are quite frankly not good people, I just can’t look the other way this time. Even so, I promise I will talk about the film’s quality overall and why I don’t think it works whatsoever on it’s own merits. But, first, we have to discuss the controversy involving certain people attached to this well-funded project.

Warden Wayne

The first bit of controversy came off of the lead actor and co-write of Spider-Man: Lotus, Warden Wayne, after there were comments that made by him that surfaced on the internet that came across as incredibly racist. This came from Twitter user @Thnnder, who shared a handful of those bluntly racist comments that were made by Wayne through social media. I’m not gonna show them directly but it mostly came across as him using the N word over and over and over again in plain sight on Instagram.

Those image surfaced on the internet in June 2022 and it wasn’t long until Warden Wayne admitted to making those racist comments. He put the blame on his sheltered lifestyle and being part of a conservative household where racial slurs were “pushed” onto him. Wayne did take to Twitter (Btw, YES, I’m gonna keep calling it Twitter and not X! Take that, Musk!) to explain his actions but claimed in the end that he was willing to take responsibilities for those offensive comments and grow to become a better person. So, the fact that the lead actor already had a bad history behind him is not an encouraging sign at all for this film! First domino to fall!

And here is Wayne’s full response to the racist allegations, which he admitted was true!

I’ve been wanting to come forward about this for a long time. Please read. pic.twitter.com/kz42egpAs5
— Warden Wayne (@mrwardenwayne) June 19, 2022

However, Wayne’s past would unfortunately not be the only dark cloud that would hang over production of this fan film. The next one had to do with the main man behind the entire film himself, director/co-writer, Gavin J. Konop.

Gavin J. Konop

Konop had already been a controversial figure among the Spidey fanbase given his well-known contempt towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Spider-Man and it’s director Jon Watts. Despite Jon Watts showing his support towards this project, Konop has actively gone out of his way on multiple occasions to insult the MCU’s spin on Spider-Man at every turn. It is believed that a big reason for this project’s very existence has to do in a response to Konop’s dislike towards Jon Watts’s take on the character, most notably his extremely negative reaction to Spider-Man: Far From Home, and as a means to “stick it” to him with the mindset that he seemingly knows the material better than Watts does. Konop did backtrack on that, claiming he has enormous respect towards Watts and was over the moon when he got a DM from him after the initial trailer for Lotus came out, despite not being a fan of his iteration of Spider-Man. However, there has been plenty of comments from Konop through social media about Watts and the quality of Spider-Man pictures made from the Sony and Marvel Studios partnership that give the indication of the smug, ego-filled mindset that was the cause for this project’s existence.

There was also the other notable controversy that surfaced the internet by Twitter user @BerkmanBoom, with screenshots of remarks that came across as racist, sexist, and homophobic along with specific recordings that leaked which were quite disgusting. Even though the original posts of those had been deleted, screenshots and recordings of it were already made and went into the public eye all throughout the internet. Again, I don’t want to share them but it was confirmed by Konop himself that at least some of them were in fact real. He claims that a big reason for those remarks had to do with that kind of vocabulary being allowed in middle school and high school along with refusing to grow into more maturity.

Berkmanboom however claimed that Konop was lying about his reasons. In a now-deleted post, he mentioned that “He was even going to help me make my own Spider-Man fan film. He was going to write and edit the whole project. He eventually started to get more followers and changed his platform to Gjkcentral and started to drop me. I had other friends, but no one who I felt understood me like Gavin.” He was afraid to come out at first due to potential backlash from Konop’s fans but felt compelled to after prior allegations of Konop using racist language came out. That eventually would lead to another anonymous source on Twitter to share a screen recording where Konop using another racial slur.

Konop did make a video where he tried to address all of this controversy surrounding him and the making of his film. Despite the apology, it didn’t come across as earnest to most of his fans, with most who contributed to crowdfunding Spider-Man: Lotus demanding refunds and no longer showing support to the project. So, not only is the main lead of this fan film had not so good history surrounding him but now the director as well. There goes another domino!

Here’s that video btw!

John Salandria

As if things couldn’t get any worse with the racist allegations, it was later revealed that the actor for Green Goblin had also been exposed for similar behavior. Derrick Woods, writer and director of a similar crowdfunded Spider-Man film that has yet to come out, released screenshots of what appeared to be a conversation between Wayne and Goblin actor, John Salandria. I also won’t show the screenshot but it basically came across as Saldandria using the same racist vocabulary that Wayne did and even go as far as to defend Konop for his behavior as well. There’s goes the third domino!

With now THREE of the biggest crew members off the project being exposed for their offensive remarks, there was just no getting around to how much of a nightmare this whole picture has become. You HAD to pay attention to it and can no longer use the whole “separating the artist from the art” approach when it came to Spider-Man: Lotus. And if you don’t want to take my word for it, the VFX team of the project would seem to agree with you.

The VFX Team

After all the controversy surfaced online surrounding Wayne, Konop, and Salandria, the entire visual effects team for the project stepped down as they felt there was no saving it. Main artist Max Aurnhammer made a video where he addressed the controversy and his decision along with others with leaving the project. He claimed that while some of the DMs were fake, most of the remarks made were very real, leaving himself and the entire VFX team shocked and disappointed. Although he regretted leaving the film and even claimed that the team didn’t feel “mistreated” by Konop, he felt it was the right decision to leave as the film “no longer aligned with what Spider-Man represents as a character.” One more domino to fall and now the ENTIRE stack has completely COLLAPSED!

Here’s that video with Aurnhammer, where he also showed off some of the team’s work on Lotus!

Suffice to say, the production for Spider-Man: Lotus was a complete and utter disaster. From the allegations to the VFX team leaving to the sense of cynicism being the main sole reason for this project’s existence, this did not have any good press attached to it upon release. You could not ignore any of these even if you wanted to.

But, let’s just assume none of those remarks happened and this fan film was ran by good, heart felt people that just want to express their love and passion towards the character of Spider-Man and possibly take a step forward with their filmmaking career. Even if you want to look at it through those merits, I can promise you that Spider-Man: Lotus is still pretty awful and does not do a service to the character of Peter Parker whatsoever. While I won’t do a full depth review on it, here’s my thoughts.

Spider-Man: Lotus comes across as a film made by a fan with a very ill-conceived vision of what the character of Spider-Man stands for. It attempts to dive into the inner turmoil of Peter Parker and how he responds to losing those he cares about because of his duty as Spider-Man, in this case him losing Gwen Stacy in the bridge battle against the Green Goblin. Unfortunately, the film fails to deliver a compelling narrative or a reason to get behind this version of Spider-Man, with Konop mistaking dourness and pro-faced seriousness for depth and nuance.

What kills the whole picture is that Peter Parker is profoundly unlikable here, constantly lashing out as his friends and pushing them away in the hopes that will somehow ease the pain. He’s probably more angrier here than the character ever has been in any version of him with the symbiote, making for probably the most despicable version of this character on film in any form. Konop just seems to think that having Peter being moopy and depressed over his dead girlfriend is enough of a reason to care about him and make the audience want him to overcome his trauma. While that might be enough with a runtime of 30 to 45 minutes top, it simply DOES NOT work for two hours!

Things take a turn for the worse halfway through when the plot FINALLY gets underway with Peter as Spider-Man paying a visit to a terminally ill child, requesting to meet his #1 hero in person before he dies. It starts off cute until Peter gets reminded of Gwen’s death. It’s then that Peter goes from comforting a child with terminal cancer to literally TRAUMA DUMPING on the child before his death. No joke! The last memory our hero wants to give to a young kid who always looked up to him before he dies is nothing but pure bitterness and trauma! THAT IS NOT SPIDER-MAN! Even if Peter does get talked back into it and is able to comfort the kid in the end, the fact that he even chose to do that at all is simply unforgivable!

It also doesn’t help that the pacing is slower than a sloth with a broken leg and the storytelling here is basically non-existent. About every scene is way too long, with just the same repetitive scenes of characters talking about how sad they are set to loop with the same constant score playing and the same pretentious imagery throughout. There’s just no forward momentum of any kind here and the transition from scene to scene is so awkward that it at times comes across as an extended clip show than an actual film.

There are a handful of elements that do work well here such as the spot-on CGI, the comic book accurate suit, and the generally okay performances from the cast, but as a whole, Spider-Man: Lotus feels less like a love letter to Spider-Man and more of a neglect for him. Konop’s prideful and arrogant mindset is on full display here, more concerning of making his fan film so bleak, dour, and “totally not for kids” that he forgot to actually provide compelling characters and an engaging narrative to his picture. There’s a reason why people like Jon Watts are the ones in charge of making these Spider-Man movies in Hollywood and people like Gavin J. Konop are not.

If you were to compare Lotus with the other Spider-Man films made, then I would say this is easily worst than all of them, even more so than The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2. For as bad as those films are, there is at the very least some sort of pacing and sense of rhythm throughout and there’s enough going on in the actual movies to justify it being over two hours long. And yes, all three of Jon Watts films are far superior to whatever Lotus is. I have my issues with Homecoming and Far From Home but those at least function well as actual films and doesn’t seem like it’s going out of it’s own way pretending to be something that it’s actually not.

And if you think that it’s unfair to compare a low-budget fan film to high-budget films made in Hollywood, well you can blame Konop and the crew on that, who have made various comments and going as far to claim that this film would do Spider-Man far more justice than Marc Webb and Jon Watts ever did. Or the other toxic fanboys of other franchises that actually believe they know the series they claim to be a fan of better than the actual creators and makers of it. If you’re gonna talk the talk, then you better walk the walk or else you will get this as a result.

There is a lot you can say about Spider-Man: Lotus from what transpired both on and off camera but I think most people would agree that this is NOT what fan films should consist off. They shouldn’t be projects that are made for the sole purpose of showing certain folks “how it’s done”, they should be projects that are made to show the love, support, and passion they have for the character and franchise. While I’m sure some of that passion was shown by some of the innocent folks attached to this project, it’s overall sense of cynicism is felt throughout the entire 120 minute length with no attempt of deviating from it whatsoever.

If you take way the controversy involving the cast and crew, Spider-Man: Lotus would still serve as an example of everything that can go wrong with fan films. If you don’t take away that, then Spider-Man: Lotus serves as an example of everything that can go wrong with anything, with the extra controversy serving as a simple cherry on top of this s*itpiled sundae.

To quote Spidey himself in The Spectacular Spider-Man, “I can’t ever look the other way again!” And I believe everyone else would think the same thing in regards to Spider-Man: Lotus.

Here’s links to several different sites that go into the controversy surrounding this nightmare:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/spider-man-lotus-fan-film-172150657.html

https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/spider-man-lotus-controversy-explained-2241217/

https://www.indy100.com/showbiz/spider-man-lotus-controversy-2663523534

https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2390578-spider-man-lotus

What Hollywood Can Learn From Elemental’s Comeback

August 9, 2023August 26, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

Last June saw the release of Pixar’s newest film, Elemental. This was coming off of recent box office duds from Disney and/or Pixar that made it’s way to the big screen post-covid such as Lightyear and Strange World. With how badly those notable movies failed at the box office along with the lackluster to practically non-existence marketing campaign for this newest feature, Elemental was once again expected to make very little noise once it arrived in theaters.

With yet another Disney flick expected to be an absolute bomb, this has to bring questions to the table of how the company would handle features films going forward? Should they stop releasing these in theaters and just release them on Disney Plus? Should they release less films with lesser budgets? Should they greenlight more sequels from their more well-known franchises instead of releasing more original films? Those are the kind of questions I imagine Disney and others were asking themselves before the release of Elemental.

Elemental came out worldwide on June 16th alongside The Flash, putting itself head to head with another familiar brand that exact same weekend. Everyone was expecting an all-time low first week at the box office for Pixar and it most certainly delivered. The film went on to make just under 30 million worldwide in it’s opening weekend, finishing second behind The Flash and was only slightly under the original Toy Story from 1995 as the second lowest three-day opening weekend for a Pixar film, which if you don’t count inflation, then it would in fact be the lowest opening weekend . For a movie that was expected to be DOA, it was able to meet those expectations perfectly in it’s first three days.

There were plenty of folks that had their theories as to why Disney and Pixar movies continue to flop big time in theaters since the 2020s rolled around. Some said it’s because the mainstream audience was too accustomed to waiting for these films to come on Disney Plus rather than actual theaters as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, some have claimed in this case it had to do with the early negative reviews for Elemental that came out of Cannes when Disney premiered it as a part of that film festival along with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (That’s a story for another day!), some thought it had to do with competition with the likes of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and of course, there are some that thought it had to do with something something wokeness and something something brokenness. Regardless, Elemental had about as bad of an opening weekend as one could imagine.

Just like with a number of films that have come out in 2023 with underwhelming opening weekend results at the box office, Disney was probably thinking of just pulling Elemental from theaters ASAP and have it be available for digital release in about two to three weeks with a Disney Plus release slated for the next month. Shockingly enough, none of that actually happened. Instead, Disney and Pixar chose to keep it in theaters for an extended period of time and see if it can gain any short of legs. It’s a bold move but a move that not many studios have tried in 2023 after their films failed to make noise in it’s opening weekend. Disney and Pixar stuck to their guns with Elemental and believe it or not, they have been rewarded for that decision.

In it’s second weekend, Elemental yet again finished second at the box office but made a reasonable $18.4 million at just a 38% drop, which gave encouraging signs of possible strong legs. Even with projections of a solid turn around after it’s very poor opening weekend, many media outlets claimed it would be largely difficult for the film to gain enough of a profit to counter with the film’s $200 million budget, specifically from a domestic’s point of view. However, come this week, things have took the turn for the better.

At the time of writing, Elemental has made a total of $425.2 million worldwide, currently becoming a sleeper hit and easily Disney and Pixar’s most successful film in the post-covid era. The film particularly is doing well internationally, most notably in South Korea, which became the film’s third largest market. This was likely attributed to director Peter Sohn’s background of Korean culture and including elements to the story that have resonated with Korean audiences. And if Pixar’s President Jim Morris’s recent comments on the film’s remarkable comeback at the box office is any indication, Elemental will in fact make a profit for Disney, helping put the finishing touches on what has been quite an underdog story for a little film that could.

The remarkable turn around from Elemental has been quite a surprise for everyone in the movie and entertainment industry. A film that looked to be finished before it even began it’s theatrical window was able to overcome near impossible odds to at least make a steady profit despite it’s dire circumstances. There seems to have been a decent word of mouth on the film itself and I imagine that will continue once the film hits home on Disney Plus in the coming weeks or month. Not only is this film’s success a miracle in of itself, it should lead by example for studios whenever they release their own films.

It’s no secret that most studios in Hollywood nowadays tend to have very little patience with how their films perform at the box office. They constantly set themselves up for disappointment thanks to handing out ridiculously expensive budgets and clouded themselves in a very stubborn mindset that their film will make it’s money back just mere weeks after it’s released in theaters based off the name of their IP or brand alone. Even after what has gone on since 2020 involving cinema, you still have Hollywood thinking they are still in 2019, where every big movie they put out will make an easy billion at the bank just because inflation and the past success of their previously beloved properties says it will. They still believe a billion dollar grossing movie in 2023 is the norm and not the exception, which could not be any further from the truth. Because studios still haven’t figured that out by now, this has lead to early digital releases for their films in the hopes of making quick money in a flash (no pun intended) before it hits home media and/or streaming services. However, with Elemental, Disney and Pixar seems to say otherwise.

Which is why the success of Elemental should not be as surprising as it is because that was basically how films were at the box office back in the day. Sure, there was always a handful that scored big in it’s opening weekend and went on to become a grand success but most of the time, for films like these, it took a decent amount of patience from the studios after it’s initial release to allow the worth of mouth to spread which could lead to stronger legs for the films than initially anticipated. They didn’t panic when their latest film didn’t make Avengers: Endgame amount of dollars in it’s first three days, they just let things play out and were eventually rewarded for it. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mission Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1 facing a similar outcome despite it’s initial underperforming box office numbers. If Paramount can just let things play out for the next month or two, I guarantee it will receive similar legs as Elemental and then the folks behind the action packed picture can celebrate for the glorious motion picture they put together.

That’s not to say that Disney and Pixar did everything right in regards to Elemental. The $200 million budget is still a ridiculous high one, especially when compared to recent animated films such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, The Super Mario Bros Movie, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, all films that cost much less and had much more impressive animation. And as for the quality of the picture itself, Elemental is a good movie overall but far from Pixar’s best and not a film I see myself rewatching compared to their very best. Also, Disney will likely never want to release a film early for Cannes Film Festival ever again unless they are 99.9% sure that the film will get a GLOWING response from the critics there! However if they and every other major studio in Hollywood can learn the right lesson here, that could lead to better results for themselves and the general moviegoing audience.

To all studios out there, the next time you release a big picture and it doesn’t set the world on fire on it’s opening weekend, give it some time. Let worth of mouth grow on the film, see how it’s projected to do in the coming weeks, and create REALISTIC expectations for yourselves as to how your feature film will fair in theaters. Don’t pull a Shazam!: Fury of the Gods or Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken and pull your films from theaters at the first sign of trouble. Show some faith in your feature film and you might find yourself surprised and even rewarded for it.

Congratulations to Elemental for it’s success and comeback at the box office! Hopefully, more films in the future will follow in your footsteps!

Other comments:

Also, to all studios out there, PAY YOUR DAMN WRITERS AND ACTORS AND END THIS STRIKE ALREADY! A.I. IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE THE ANSWER!

Sources:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt15789038/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-flash-box-office-elemental-iced-1235518215/

https://deadline.com/2023/06/box-office-the-flash-no-hard-feelings-jennifer-lawrence-1235422274/

http://koreabizwire.com/pixars-elemental-enjoys-popularity-in-s-korea-despite-struggles-in-the-u-s/252777

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/pixar-elemental-box-office-rebound-1235691248/amp/

How The 2010s St. Louis Cardinals Could Have Been A Dynasty (2/2)

August 7, 2023October 14, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

2014

Despite the success of the 2013 team, there were still holes on the roster that needed to be filled heading into the 2014 season. Shortly into the offseason, postseason legend David Freese was traded to the Angels with relief pitcher Fernando Salas in exchange for outfielders Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk. This was a move done to tightened up the outfield defense and leave room for top prospect Kolten Wong to take over for second base while Matt Carpenter would move back to his more comfortable position at third base. A few days later, they signed Jhonny Peralta to a four-year, 53 million dollar deal to take over for shortstop as Pete Kozma was no longer the answer. Although losing Carlos Beltran in free agency was a shame, they still had Allen Craig to take over for right field while Matt Adams would become the everyday first baseman. They also had top prospect Oscar Taveras in the system who management believed would be ready for the big leagues sometime in 2014. Throw in some short term contacts with Mark Ellis to help platoon with the rookie Wong along with Pat Neshek to add depth to the bullpen and the Cards had a complete team ready to go for 2014.

While the 2014 campaign was once again a success with St. Louis winning 90 games and the Central Division for the second straight year, they definitely had more setbacks from the prior year. The offense regressed quite a bit from 2013 with a rough first month from Jhonny Peralta, Allen Craig being a shell of his former clutch self, and rookies Kolten Wong and Oscar Taveras failing to impress with their bats, resulting with frequent benching along with demotions to the minors. However, a July trade was made that sent Allen Craig and Joe Kelly to the Red Sox for veteran pitcher John Lackey, which helped add more stability to the rotation and clear a path for rookie outfielders Taveras and Grichuk to get more consistent playing time. Despite being forced to play catch up all year, the Cards secured the division after a very strong September and set themselves up to face the Dodgers in the playoffs for the second straight season.

In Game 1 of the NLDS, the Cardinals once again had to face off against Clayton Kershaw, who was not only the Cy Young Award winner of that year but also the MVP as well. Things didn’t go so well to start as the Dodgers would tack on six runs off of an unusually shaky Adam Wainwright and led 6-2 late. Kershaw was dominated for the first six innings with his only blemish being two solo home runs prior. However, by the top of the seventh, the Cards were able to figure out Kershaw and rallied to score eight runs that inning, which would eventually lead to a 10-9 victory for game one. While the Dodgers took game two, the Cardinals would take game three at home thanks to a strong start from John Lackey and a late clutch home run from rookie Kolten Wong to give them a 2-1 series advantage. With their season on the line, the Dodgers sent Kershaw for Game 4 on short rest. Once again, he was great for six innings and once again, the Cardinals would get to him in the seventh inning, where they rallied to score three runs, off of a three-run bomb from Matt Adams. The Cardinals were able to secure a 3-2 victory, ending the Dodgers’ season for a second straight year and would head off to the NLCS for the 4th straight year.

Once again, they would face-off against the Giants. The series started off with a split in St. Louis, with Madison Bumgarner’s dominating performance leading the Giants to win Game 1 and a back-and-forth contest concluding with a walk-off homer from Kolten Wong that lead the Cardinals to win Game 2. For the next three games, while every one of those games were as tight as it could’ve been and left plenty room for both sides to achieving victory, it was the Giants that ultimately ended up with the larger benefits. San Francisco took Game 3 on a walk-off wild throw, took Game 4 after trailing earlier in the game, and then concluded the series in Game 5 with a walk-off homer from unlikely hero Travis Ishikawa to send the Giants to the World Series. It’s also worth nothing that the bottom of that 9th inning was when manager Mike Matheny made the bizarre decision to bring in previous NLCS MVP Michael Wacha, who had been dealing with injuries all year and hadn’t pitched in a game for three weeks, to keep the Cardinals season alive when just one mistake would end their season. Once again, the Giants would eliminate the Cardinals in the playoffs and once again went on to win the World Series in a seven-game thriller against the Kansas City Royals, their third title won in five years. While that lost certainly stung for St. Louis, that would unfortunately not be their biggest loss that October.

About one week after the Cardinals were knocked out of the playoffs, top prospect Oscar Taveras, who was also a hero in Game Two with his pinch hit home run to tie that ballgame, died in a car accident along with his girlfriend in his home country. A top prospect that was the highest rated in the Cardinal system since Albert Pujols and was thought to be the next great superstar in the making had unexpectedly passed away at just 22 years of age. A heartbreaking end for what was seeming like a promising uplifting future for the young man. As we are approaching the ten-year anniversary of that horrible passing, I sure hope Oscar is resting well up in heaven as we all speak.

2015

The offseason had a big stormy rain cloud above the team in the wake of Taveras’s passing. To fill that hole in the right field for the time being, the Cardinals made a stunning trade with the Braves where they acquired Jason Heyward and relief pitcher Jordan Walden in exchange for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins. They would also sign first baseman Mark Reynolds to platoon with Matt Adams, who struggled big time against left-handed pitching. While the Cardinals still had that solid core that helped them reached the playoffs the past four years, they were getting older and would end up showing their age sooner or later.

Surprisingly enough, the Cardinals had their most successful season of the past five years with 100 wins in the regular season, the most in baseball that year and the first 100-win team since the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies. They won their division for a third straight year, beating out the equally fighting Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite dealing with injuries all year with big players such as Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, and Matt Adams, the depth in the farm system was still strong enough to overcome this kind of adversity, with the likes of Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty stepping up for the later two mentioned.

The offense as a whole was nothing to write home about and having little to no pop with the exception of the now power hitting Matt Carpenter but it got the job done enough. However, the main reason for the success of the 2015 team was in large part due to the pitching. It finished the season with a stunning 2.94 ERA with a dominant rotation and bullpen from top to bottom. Even with the absence of Wainwright, John Lackey was able to slight into the role easily as that year’s ace with the likes of Lance Lynn, Michael Wacha, and Carlos Martinez assisting him nicely. The bullpen also was aided greatly by the ridiculous one-two punch that was Kevin Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal. While the overall regular season record might’ve been a tad misleading and there were plenty of injuries with past players, there was still enough guys here that could make for at least one last deep postseason run with this core.

They have to go up against their longtime rival, the Chicago Cubs, in the division series, the first ever time these two teams would ever face off in the playoffs. The Cubs were coming into the series red hot, winning their last seven games of the regular season and the wild card game against the Pirates. The Cardinals were able to take game one thanks to a stellar performance from John Lackey and homers from key rookies Tommy Pham and Stephen Piscotty. Despite the Cards taking an early lead in game two, the Cubs took control of that game and eventually the whole series in the top of the second inning following a parade of blunders from the Cardinals defense which opened the door for five unanswered runs. Once the series went to Chicago, the electric Cards pitching staff that had carried the team all season long got absolutely OBLITERATED, giving up nine home runs and 14 runs total. Despite the best efforts from Stephen Piscotty and Jason Heyward, the Cardinals surrendered the NLDS to their divisional rivals, basically putting an end to this core of players and the impressive playoff runs they pulled off.

Aftermath

Despite the winning seasons and multiple playoff appearances since this five-year window, the Cardinals really haven’t come close to another World Series title since then. It’s constantly been resulted in either missing the wild card spot in the last week or just making the playoffs on the skin of their teeth only to get knocked out in the first round. The one exception to this was in 2019 where the bested the Braves in the NLDS, including the historic 10-run first inning in Game 5, only to roll over and die to the Nationals in the NLCS in a four-game sweep. Since getting eliminated by the Cubs in 2015, the Cardinals have played in 15 playoff games and lost 11 of them, including losing nine of their last ten. And with how bad 2023 has been, who knows if they will get another shot at the playoffs anytime soon?

As we get further and further away from that era of Cardinals baseball, I can’t help but look back and just constantly thinking of what if? What if they didn’t blow that 3-1 series lead to the Giants in 2012? What if they didn’t pitch to Big Papi at all in the 2013 World Series? What if Matheny didn’t got to Wacha in 2014? What if the key players managed to stay healthy in 2015 and the pitching didn’t regressed hard? As fun as that era was, I can’t help but think of how much more fondly we would be looking at that group and even this dour season if the Cardinals had just one or two more rings during that window they had? If only the could be the ones to win multiple championships instead of the Giants. It’s then they could have been seen as the best dynasty in baseball since the 90s Yankees and even more so than the Astros right now.

Regardless, I will always have fond memories of those early 2010s Cardinal teams. It was during my time in high school and always gave me something to look forward to, even during the troubled times in those four years. I just can’t help but think of how more remembered that group would have been by fans and especially the rest of the baseball world had they just got the job done one or two more times. Maybe then this awful 2023 campaign and the disappointing early playoff exits of prior years would at least be a bit more bearable. If anything, Cardinals fans would then have at least three or four World Series titles won in this century to reminiscence upon instead of two satisfying but fluky ones. As I’ve been saying throughout this entire piece, if only.

How The 2010s St. Louis Cardinals Could Have Been A Dynasty (1/2)

August 7, 2023October 14, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

The St. Louis Cardinals have been nothing short of a disaster in 2023. For the better part of the entire season, they have massively underperformed their modest expectations headed into the season and what they have been doing for the majority of the 21st century. With less than two months left to go for the regular season and with them being way out of a playoff spot, the Redbirds are set to finish 2023 with their single worst record in several years and possibly even several decades. Instead of them chasing for a postseason appearance like they’ve been doing for just about every year since 2000, they now find themselves chasing a first round draft pick for 2024.

While most knew that the Cardinals were far from a perfect team heading into this season, they were at least expected to be the best team in an otherwise incredibly flawed NL Central division. That has not been the case whatsoever. The faults of the 2023 team can be contributed to just about everybody from top to bottom. The pitching has been absolutely dreadful, the gold glove-caliber defense of prior years have SEVERLY regressed, the hitting has been the definition of feast and famine, there seems to be no leadership or accountability from the veterans of the roster, and the prior inexperience management has completely shown their inexperience in an INCREDIBLY embarrassing matter, right down to stirring controversy in the clubhouse by public calling out their own players just for the sake of shifting the blame of the team’s poor play.

This disappointing season for St. Louis has certainly been a shock to everybody but if you’ve been following this team for the past few years, it honestly felt like this is something that was years in the making. The big flaws that have been on display for the Cardinals this year have been key flaws of most recent years such as the pitch-to-contact pitching staff, heavy reliance on defense, hot or cold offense, and management who have never coached professionally, making baffling decisions night in and night out. And that’s not even going into the big free agents signings that have not fare well whatsoever (Steven Matz, Wilson Contreras) and trading away young talent that seems to improve the moment they are forced out of St. Louis (Adolis Garcia, Randy Arozarena). It has been a non-stop parade of bad decisions and an absolute masterpiece of missteps.

All of these matters and more can be contributed to the front office of the St. Louis Cardinals, most notably President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and General Manger Mike Girsch. This has been a group that has constantly tried to turn a blind eye to this team’s faults over the years in the hopes that being in a bad division on a yearly basis with enough games to beat up on weak divisional opponents will be enough to keep the team stable and contend for a playoff spot. While that approach might’ve work for the past few years, it’s something that would eventually backfire as the other teams were due to get better eventually. With new rule changes and a more balanced schedule, this team and front office have been exposed butt ass naked throughout the entire 2023 season for everyone else in baseball to witness.

While many Cardinals fans, including myself, are thinking of what possible bleak future for this team lies ahead, I can’t help but constantly go back to a time in recent memory when the team was actually good. I don’t mean good in the sense that they make it over .500 and somehow is able to sneak into a wild card spot at the last second only to get bounced out rather easily in the first round. I’m talking about the era of the Cardinals where they felt like one of the best teams in all of baseball. An era where this team had heart, fight, grit, will, and a refusal to quit. An era where no one wanted to face this team come October because they know St. Louis will give everything they had at them. An era which this team always managed to make the impossible actually possible. While there are other notable eras of Cardinal baseball that fans may refer to such as the teams from 2000 to 2002 or 2004 to 2006, I’m gonna go by the squads from 2011-2015, which to this day was my favorite era of Cardinals baseball in my lifetime.

When talking about MLB teams with a enormous amount of success in the 2010s, the one team that everyone remembers from that era is the dynasty that was the San Francisco Giants, a team that was able to win three World Series titles in the span of just five years. Winning it all in the even early years of that decade in 2010, 2012, and 2014, the Giants were just winners during that time with having a handful of key core contributors to those three championships won. While not quite as successful in the early 2010s, the St. Louis Cardinals could have achieved that amount of success if things could have just gone their way.

To dive deep into this championship window, we need to go over season by season and see just how close St. Louis became to becoming that dynasty that the Giants became the further away we get away from that era.

2011

2011 was the last year that the Cardinals won it all, besting the Texas Rangers in seven games in what is still one of the greatest World Series match-ups of all time. While everyone remembers that World Series in the improbably away that the Cards achieve victory with two of the biggest hits of all time coming from David Freese, many people tend to forget the bizarre path that St. Louis took to even get into the playoffs that year.

With one month ago left to go in the regular season, the Cardinals found themselves over 10.5 games out of a potential playoff spot with the Brewers leading the division by a wide margin and the Braves leading the wild card sport by a country mile. The team’s uneven play of the year could be largely contributed to a very messy bullpen for the first half of the season along with notable key injuries to players such as Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Adam Wainwright, who would miss that entire year due to Tommy John surgery.

In order to make the postseason, the Cardinals had to get incredibly hot and play their best stretch of baseball of that season while either the Brewers and Braves would have to get incredibly cold and play their worst stretch of baseball of that season. Despite near impossible odds, that’s exactly what happened. The Cardinals were able to secure the wild card spot from the Braves on the last day of regular season, overcoming a 10.5 game deficient by finishing the regular season going 23-9 in the last 32 games. What is often seen as one of the worst collapses in baseball history with the Braves that September was also one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history with the Cardinals that September.

It’s then that St. Louis was able to ride that hot edge they gained in the last month of the season to secure their 11th World Series title in franchise history and the second in the last six years. They bested the World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies, concluding in a phenomenal pitching duel between the late great Roy Halladay (May he remain resting in peace!) and Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. They knocked out their divisional rivals in the Milwaukee Brewers, thanks to a stellar offense that series led by NLCS MVP David Freese and strong work from the bullpen, most notably from arms added at the trade deadline such as Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel. And of course, there were able to defeat the Texas Rangers to win the World Series in what was a very back-and-forth playoff series, most notably from a shocking Game 6 victory which saw big, timely hits from the likes of Lance Berkman and of course, David Freese after the Cards were down to their final strike not once but twice. As much has been made about the heroics of David Freese that series and the entire 2011 playoff run he had, there were also other key contributors that deserve notice.

There was of course that stellar performance that the great Albert Pujols put together in Game 3 where he went 5 for 6 with three home runs in that explosive 16-7 victory. There was Lance Berkman, who hit .423 that series with a .515 OBP, .577 SLG, and 1.093 OPS, along with being responsible for the game-tying run in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6 that kept the series going. There was Yadier Molina, who hit .333 that series and drove in nine runs, along with throwing out Texas’s lead off man Ian Kinsler in Games 1 and 7, which help set the tone in Game 1 and kept the Rangers from scoring more runs in the first inning in Game 7. There was Chris Carpenter, the 36-year old ace of the pitching staff who pitched every last inch of energy he had left by going over 270 total innings that year and giving three great starts that series, securing victories in Game 1 and 7. And there was also Allen Craig, the man that found himself in the middle of everything that series. He drove in the game-winning run in Game 1, drove in the go-ahead run (at the time) in Game 2, got the Cards 16-run performance in Game 3 going by scoring the first run of the game with a home run, he help the Cards get back in it in Game 6 with a solo shot when they were down to their last five outs and trailing by two runs late, and drove in the go-ahead run in Game 7 with a blast, along with taking a home run away from Rangers in the sixth inning and securing the last out of the World Series that secured victory for the Redbirds.

Needless to say, this was a squad that was just full of winners. This was a team that was able to overcoming so much adversity even when nearly all possible odds were against them the whole way through. What’s most impressive was that this was a roster that was mostly full of home grown talent that was still young and eager to win along with a handful of notable veteran leaders to help lead the pack. Even if it didn’t seem like it at the time, this core group of players did unlock the potential start of the dynasty with their stellar performances throughout the 2011 season.

2012

Despite heading to the season with a good portion of the 2011 squad still in tact, St. Louis did have some very notable losses for 2012. Just two days after the championship parade, Tony La Russa, arguably the most successful manger in the team’s history, announced his retirement after 16 seasons with the ballclub. Joining alongside him was longtime pitching coach Dave Duncan, who was also with the team for that same amount of team. Jeff Luhnow, the top-tier scout, largely responsible for drafting the 2011 team, left for Houston, which he would eventually be responsible for building the current dynasty in the making that is the Astros. And, of course, the big one, Albert Pujols, arguably the greatest right handed batter in baseball history and the man that has been the face of the franchise for over the past decade, left in free agency and would sign a 10-year, 254 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Angels. Those notable subtractions certainly lowered the Cardinals expectations of being able to repeat as defending champions for 2012 but they did fill whatever holes they could about as good as they could have.

Brought into replace Tony La Russa and inheriting the championship-caliber squad was Mike Matheny, a longtime catcher and former Cardinal player who, despite having no prior experience as a big lead manger beforehand with only the notable contribution with coaching little league, was noted for having strong leadership skills and believed he would be a great fit with developing younger players due to his experience with coaching young kids. And filling in for Dave Duncan would be prior bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist.

When it comes to the roster itself, management was able to spend some of that money they saved up for a possible extension for Tio in a very wise way. Two weeks after Pujols became a LA Angel, the Cardinals signed veteran and playoff star Carlos Beltran to a two-year deal, a move that was basically seen as a response to Albert’s departure but one that was affordable and provide some more pop to the lineup to fill in a massive hole. There was also the team-friendly extension that St. Louis provided with catcher Yadier Molina, where the future Cardinal hall of famer agreed to a five-year extension that was worth 75 million dollars. There wasn’t much moves made aside from the ones I mentioned but the team’s overall core of contributors remained in tact and made it set for a potential second successful playoff run in a row.

Much like 2011, the 2012 season was quite uneven for a good chunk of it. Despite having a very strong April, the Cardinals found themselves regressing with back-to-back losing months in May and June, hovering around the .500 mark. Once again, injuries took a hit with key players such as Chris Carpenter and Lance Berkman being out for the majority of the year and a bullpen that was very shaky to start off the year. The Cardinals would eventually find their strive with a more consistent second half of the season which despite not being able to take the NL Central crown from the Reds, was good enough to secure the newly added second wild card spot to secure their second straight playoff appearance.

The offense was top notch from top to bottom and would be the main thing that carried the Cardinals throughout the whole season. While they could certainly be streaky, there were plenty of notable bats that deserve a mention. Despite the departure of Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman being down with injuries for the majority of the season, the free agent signing of Carlos Beltran along with the RBI machine Allen Craig was able to help pick up the slack and make their lack of presence feeling unnoticed. Matt Holliday and David Freese were able to stay much healthier this time around and provided great insurance to the lineup, with Holliday fitting comfortably in his new role of being the permanent #3 hitter and Freese following his impressive playoff performance with his first career All-star game. Rookie Matt Carpenter made for a perfect utility/pinch hitter, Jon Jay’s impressive batting average and on base percentage was more than enough to make up for his lacking throwing arm, and MVP candidate Yadier Molina for what was his finest offensive season yet, proving he was more than just a very good defensive catcher. And even with veteran shortstop Rafael Furcal being down by the end of August, the young Pete Kozma was able to fill that role perfectly for the last month, even with his notable lack of success in the minors.

While the pitching staff wasn’t quite as strong as the hitting, it still mostly got the job done once it all came together. Even with the lack of Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse was able to fill in the role as the ace of the rotation nicely, providing the best season of his career with 16 wins and a 2.85 ERA. Adam Wainwright, coming fresh off of Tommy John surgery, overcame a shaky first half of the season with a very strong second half, more resembling his prior self from 2009 and 2010 heading into October. All-Star Lance Lynn became a reliable addition, whether that was as a starer or as reliever, with the team leading 18 victories to show for it. The bullpen was messy at the beginning but became more reliable down the stretch with the mix of key members from the prior season’s playoff run such as Jason Motte and Mitchell Boggs, some fresh young blood in Trevor Rosenthal and Joe Kelly, and the addition from the deadline that was Edward Mujica.

Just like with last year’s team, it wasn’t necessarily a juggernaut or a guaranteed championship caliber team on paper, it was a team that could be largely affective and come up in big situations, if given the chance to do that. It had a roster of players that were still young with plenty of years in their prime left along with plenty of proven veterans and leaders that could help guide the team to another title. While they weren’t as successful as the year prior, they certainly did make for another deep playoff run.

The Cardinals play in the very first wild card game at Turner Field against the Atlanta Braves, who did not have an epic September collapse this time around. Thanks to a combination of poor and shockingly out-of-character defensive plays from Atlanta, a lack of clutch hitting from their bats, and of course, the infamous infield fly rule that took place in the bottom of the 8th inning that basically killed all the momentum the Braves might’ve had left, the Cardinals took the wild card game by a score of 6-3, ended the career of the mighty Chipper Jones and once again set themselves up for a date against the best team in baseball that year in the Washington Nationals.

The Washington Nationals had been a young team in a rebuild for some time and were making their first full playoff appearance as the Washington Nationals. It did have one odd circumstance where the team decided to shut down young phenomenon Stephen Strasburg for that series for the means of “protecting” him for the foreseeable future. The series lasted five games with yet another memorable Game 5. Down 6-0 early after the Nats hitters beat up on Adam Wainwright, the Cards were able to come all the way back to win the game 9-7, with the big blow being a miraculously four run top of the 9th inning with clutch hits from unlikely heroes such as Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma. Once again the Cardinals found themselves in an elimination game where they were down to their last strike not once but twice and they once again were able to overcome immense pressure to tie it up and win the game. For the second straight year, the Cardinals knocked out a World Series favorite in the very first round and now had to get through the San Francisco Giants to make it back to the World Series.

Much like the Cards, the Giants were just coming fresh off a stellar comeback against their NLDS opponent in the Cincinnati Reds. After losing the first two games at home, the Giants were able to claw back and win three straight in a row on the road at Cincinnati, something which hadn’t been done with the Reds all year, to force their way to the National League Championship Series. The Cardinals were able to take control for the first five games where they lead the series three games to one and were just one win away from returning to the World Series for a second straight year, having a chance to become the first ball team to repeat as champions since the great Yankee dynasty from the late 1990s. With the amount of comebacks and the ways they’ve won in the playoffs up to this point, this just had to seem like this was St. Louis’s year again, right?! Well, not quite!

Similar to what they did against the Reds in the NLDS, the Giants were able to flip the script dramatically against their opponent for the last three games of the series. Thanks to stellar starting pitching from the likes of journeyman Barry Zito, Ryan Vogelsong, and ace Matt Cain along with poor defensive play from St. Louis, the Giants overcame a 3-1 series deficit by taking Games 5, 6, and 7, outscoring the Cardinals 20-1 in that span and returning to the World Series. The Giants would then go onto to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers and win it all in a sweep, claiming their second championship in the last three years.

As much could be said about this infamous choke job, what I make of that is just that the Cardinals basically ran out in miracles. They had plenty of them that got them through the postseason last year and had some to get through the first two rounds of this own but it simply wasn’t enough this time. They had control of their own destiny in this series and let it slip away by responding poorly to any adversity they had to face in games 5-7. Even with the tough pill that was to swallow to end the season, the 2012 Cardinals did a damn fine job overall defending their title with a still very promising future ahead of them with this core.

2013

While not much was done in the offseason other than handing out team friendly extensions to Adam Wainwright and Allen Craig along with signing the worthless Ty Wigginton, the Cardinals had a very deep farm system with big pieces for just about any position. So any potential injury that St. Louis might have to deal with can easily be patched this time around. And it would be that depth that would carry the Cards immensely throughout the entire 2013 campaign.

When it came to the pitching side, the Cardinals had to navigate around the lost of key players such as Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Jaime Garcia. In response to that, the Cardinals responded heavily with their farm system and exceeded greatly. Young arms such as Shelby Miller, Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez, Trevor Rosenthal, Kevin Siegrist, Seth Maness, and Michael Wacha, the player the Cards got as a compensation pick after Albert Pujols’s departure, were able to step into their big league roles wonderfully and help keep the Cardinals competitive throughout the whole season. The leader of that staff was no other than Adam Wainwright, who was fully healthy this time around who led the team with 19 wins and a 2.94 ERA in over 240 innings pitched. Even with losses to key players, the pitching depth had never been better and ended up being one of the biggest strengths of the team.

While the offense wasn’t as home-run heavy as years prior, it was still incredibly explosive with plenty of guys contributing big time. The biggest achievement from this group is how they were historically good with hitting with runners in scoring position, hitting over .330, the highest BA with RISP in over 50 years. It had a lineup that consists of the perfect 1-2-3 combo with Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran, and Matt Holliday, the perfect clean-up guy with RBI machine Allen Craig, and the perfect fifth hole hitter in Yadier Molina. There was also Matt Adams who provided plenty of pop whenever he got playing time and filled in the first base role nicely once Craig got injured in September. Even when including down offensive years from guys such as Jon Jay, Pete Kozma, and David Freese, this lineup could score runs when it matters the most.

The entire season was a three horse race in the NL Central between the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates. The Cards were able to take the division crown by winning 97 games and positioned themselves for another deep playoff run. With the way the team was structured and put together, this was far in a way the best Cardinal team since 2004, the juggernaut that won 105 games and won the team’s first pennant in 17 years. Even with notable losses such as Chris Carpenter, Jason Motte, and Allen Craig, there was plenty of depth in the pitching and hitting front that can carry this team to another World Series championship.

The Cardinals were up against the wild-card winning and divisional rival Pirates. They didn’t make things easy on themselves as the Pirates were able to rebound from a Game 1 blowup to win the next two games. Despite being down in the series 2-1, the Cards were able to come back to win the very next two games to head to the NLCS for the third straight year, thanks to clutch homers from the likes of Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Matt Adams along with stellar pitching performances from rookie Michael Wacha and ace Adam Wainwright. The Cards were not set to advance to their third straight NLCS.

They faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. While the offense struggled throughout that series until it’s exploded with runs in Game 6, the pitching staff was able to keep the Dodgers bats at bay, most notably Michael Wacha who outdueled Clayton Kershaw twice, providing victories in Games 2 and 6, and went on to win the NLCS MVP, the first ever rookie to achieve that matter. The Cardinals made it back to the World Series for the second time in three years and set themselves up for a rematch of the 2004 World Series with the Boston Red Sox.

Unlike the 2004 World Series, the Cards actually competed this time around against the Red Sox. After a wild ending to Game 3 with the infamous obstruction call at home plate which basically reopened Allen Craig’s foot injury, the Cardinals took a 2-1 series lead with just two victories away from claiming their 12th World Series title. Unfortunately for St. Louis, Boston fought back from that devasting loss quite hard. After a handful of clutch hits from the likes of Johnny Gomes, David Ross, and Shave Victorino along with running into the buzzsaws that was ace Jon Lester and ESPECIALLY David Ortiz, who hit a RIDICLOULOUS .688 with a WHOPPING .790 OBP, 1.188 SLG, and 1.948 OPS that series, the Red Sox came back to win Game 4, 5, and 6, winning their third World Series in ten years. For the second time in the 21st century, the Red Sox broke the Cardinals’ heart in the World Series and took the title away from them. An unfortunate end to what was undeniably a great season overall.

Ranking The Billion Dollar Club Movies

August 6, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

(Update: August 6th, 2023)

Barbie has been out in theaters for almost a month now and it has (unsurprisingly) crossed the billion dollar mark. With that, there are now a total of 54 movies to have made at least a billion dollar the box office. Regardless if inflation or re-releases also help with that (which they both did), a movie has made a total of over seven bills at least 54 times throughout cinema history. Because of that, I decided to go ahead and do a ranking of every single one of these since I’ve actually seen all of these movies at least one time.

This will make for a rather complicated list, even more so than other lists I make on here. This will be a fine mix between what I believe is the best movie from an objective standpoint, what I believe is the best from a subjective standpoint, and the impact each one has had on pop culture for better and worse. I’ve thought about this for quite awhile now so it’s time for me to rank them.

If you disagree with this list, then by all means disagree but please don’t be a jerk about it. We have enough of those on the internet. I really don’t take much pride in these lists and rankings other than to have some fun. Opinions change everyday and this ranking is just how I feel at the exact moment that I’m publishing this list.

Also, since it’s going to be 53 movies, I’m not gonna go into detail on any one of those and just show the number I have ranked for each movie. I’ll just say which movie is ranked where and show off a trailer for it because why not? I might even update the list once another movie comes around that makes a billion dollars and see how much of my opinion on this list has changed since then.

Let’s not waste anymore time and get right down to it.

54.) Transformers: Age Of Extinction

53.) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

52.) Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

51.) The Lion King (2019)

50.) Minions

49.) Alice In Wonderland (2010)

48.) Despicable Me 3

47.) Jurassic World: Dominion

46.) Beauty And The Beast (2017)

45.) Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

44.) Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

43.) Aladdin (2019)

42.) The Fate Of The Furious

41.) Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

40.) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

39.) Jurassic World

38.) Captain Marvel

37.) Frozen II

36.) Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

35.) Avengers: Age Of Ultron

34.) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

33.) Incredibles 2

32.) Spider-Man: Far From Home

31.) Joker

30.) Avatar: The Way Of Water

29.) Avatar

28.) Finding Dory

27.) The Super Mario Bros Movie

26.) Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone

25.) Furious 7

24.) Aquaman

23.) Frozen

22.) Iron Man 3

21.) Star Wars: The Force Awakens

20.) Toy Story 4

19.) Avengers: Infinity War

18.) Captain America: Civil War

17.) Spider-Man: No Way Home

16.) Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows: Part II

15.) Barbie

14.) Zootopia

13.) Star Wars: The Last Jedi

12.) Skyfall

11.) The Dark Knight Rises

10.) Titanic

9.) The Avengers

8.) Black Panther

7.) Top Gun: Maverick

6.) The Lion King

5.) Avengers: Endgame

4.) Toy Story 3

3.) The Dark Knight

2.) Jurassic Park

1.) The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King

Ranking The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Franchise

August 3, 2023September 2, 2023 AdamLeave a comment

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has finally hit theaters. Because of that, it’s time to look back at all ten TMNT movies that have been released to date and rank them from worst to best.

When it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, I would view myself as more of a casual fan than a hardcore one. I know the basic origins of the characters along with the tropes that the series have grown accustom to but I’ve never been someone that lives or breathes ninja turtles. My earliest memories of it come from some of the earlier cartoons and movies along with the 2007 animated film that I watched for the first time at my cousin’s house. While they have always been relevant to me, I’m certainly far from the biggest die hard fan of it.

I bring this up so that anyone that reads this ranking know that I’m coming through all movies in this franchise through fresh set of eyes with no nostalgic glasses attached to them. I’m just going by which ones I enjoyed watching the most and the ones I dreaded watching the most. I’m also not an expert on the TMNT fanbase as a whole so I’m not quite sure how exactly each movie has been received in the eyes of fans, except for maybe the original. Because of that, there’s a good chance your rankings are not gonna match mine.

Let’s not waste anymore and lets get right down to it!

10.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Anyone remember when Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? While he might have technically not been the director of this monstrosity, his fingers prints are certainly all over it. These fun and goofy turtles don’t mesh well in a world whatsoever that’s tries it’s damndest to be bleak and grim. The title characters themselves are hideous to look at, the script is poorly written and somehow manages to come across as an even worse version of The Amazing Spider-Man, there’s way too much focus on April O’Neil herself, and just about every single change made to the traditional established lore feels like a complete spit in the face to the turtles themselves. There’s a couple of fun moments here and there (most notably the elevator scene) and (surprisingly) Megan Fox is not that bad as April O’Neil but this was an absolute turd that should have stayed firmly in it’s shell. At least the turtles themselves weren’t actually aliens like they were suppose to be! No, really!

9.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

The infamous part three of the live-action TMNT movies was most certainly the one that jumped the shark big time for the series in live-action. There’s and attempt to add a time travel spin to the mix with an emphasis on a bizarre setting with Japan along with giving the ninja turtles themselves their own separate arcs. Unfortunately, none of it comes together because of how unfunny and boring the whole experience is. The direction is lifeless, the comedy is unbearable, the animatronics are hilariously awful, and nothing interesting is ever done with it’s emphasis on time travel or the turtles themselves in Japan. It was by this point that you can tell everyone involved with these movies have grown tired of the turtles themselves. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was certainly the moment that the series would (no pun intended) become a shell of it’s former self.

8.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Out of the Shadows was a major improvement over the ill-fated 2014 reboot in just about every way. The turtles themselves were in the forefront, April was pushed more to the wayside but is still her usual resourceful self, it’s much more colorful, and the lighter tone feels much more appropriate for a TMNT movie. Just a shame that it’s mostly the newer elements added that basically bring the whole movie down. Stephen Amell is horribly miscast as Casey Jones (And that’s not just because of his recent comments involving the strike!), Krane is completely wasted and useless, and Bebop and Rocksteady are absolutely UNBEARABLE whenever they appear on screen. While better overall than it’s predecessor, Out of the Shadows proves that this iteration of the ninja turtles was never good enough to be considered worthwhile.

7.) Turtles Forever

What was basically Spider-Man: No Way Home before Spider-Man: No Way Home was even a thing, Turtles Forever sees the turtle of the original animated series team up with the turtles of the 4Kids animated series. Seeing both incarnations of the ninja turtles together was fun to to see, Shredder was among his most threatening out of any of the TMNT movies, and it’s interesting to see how the concept of the multiverse basically started in film here WAY before it would have a big impact on other comic book movie franchises. It’s a shame they couldn’t get the voice actors from the original 1987 series and I don’t know if this will appeal to those outside of TMNT fans. However, for those that were big fans of both cartoon series, I can’t imagine how they wouldn’t be able to get any enjoyment out of this.

6.) Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

The film adaption of the most recent TMNT series on Nickelodeon is able to successfully translate this version of the ninjas turtles properly to a movie, and is even able to improve on the show’s shortcomings as well. The 2D animation is a refreshing change of pace to all the moderately 3D animation we get nowadays. You also got the ninja turtles that are still as fun and goofy as ever and action scenes that are a blast to sit through. Most of the supporting cast don’t get much to do here and as awesome as Ben Schwartz is as Leonardo, his vocal performance mostly blends with his ones for Dewey and Sonic the Hedgehog. While the show it’s based on is quite polarizing, I do think Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is worth a watch for TMNT fans or even for those that are looking for a fun watch.

5.) Batman vs the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Who would’ve ever guess that we would ever see a Batman and TMNT crossover on film? Who would’ve also guess that it’s in the top five of the best TMNT films ever made? There’s not much to describe with Batman vs the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles other than it’s title and premise itself. What you see is basically what you get! If the idea of a Batman and TMNT crossover sounds awesome to you, then you will likely find it awesome. If not, then well…….you’re just no fun!

4.) TMNT (2007)

The first ever CGI-animated TMNT flick was able to do a “serious” Ninja Turtles movie much better than the the 2014 live-action film could ever do. If anything, it certainly has a more more balanced tone along with a style and art direction that feels greatly appropriate for TMNT. Despite the film receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews back in 2007, time has been very kind to this one and there’s plenty to enjoy here. Throw in an all-star celebrity voice cast who are all great in their roles, plenty of easter eggs/references for hardcore and causal fans, engaging internal conflicts for the turtles themselves (especially with the fight between Raphel and Leo) and a thoroughly faithful adaption of the material, TMNT (2007) acts as not just one of the best TMNT movies ever made but an absurdly overlook gem of an animated film that deserves more recognition.

3.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

The sequel to the beloved original does what just about any good sequel does, it dives deeper into the characters themselves, their origins, and their reasons for doing what they do. However, instead of going darker, it goes much more goofier as it dials up the wackiness and silliness up to 11, right down to the Vanilla Ice “Go Ninja Go!” sequence (which absolutely RULES btw, don’t @ me!). Secret of the Ooze is a film that basically allows it’s audience to laugh along the way with it’s characters as we go on the adventure with them this time around while getting to learn more about them. The characters are still engaging, the action is still great, the suits and effects still hold up incredibly well, and it’s just a ton of fun throughout. Some might find it too silly for it’s own good, but for what it’s worth, this is still a worthwhile sequel that acts as a worthy companion to the original, even if it doesn’t surpass it.

2.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The original 1990 film still remains a classic in the eyes of just about every Ninja Turtles fan out there. This is able hold up very well even over three decades later because of how much love and respect it pays to the source material that it’s based on. It’s able to perfectly blend a dark and gritty tone of the comics with the more campy and light hearted nature of the 80’s cartoon without having either one completely overtake the other. The characterization of the likes of April O’Neil, Casey Jones, and the ninja turtles themselves are incredibly well realized, making them easily the best version of all the live-action films to date. Even if there are some elements that are now quite dated, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) makes for easily the definite live-action TMNT movie thus far with well-done action scenes, solid performances, quotable lines, a rocking soundtrack, and themes surrounding family and heroism that still resonate to this very day. While it’s no longer quite my favorite TMNT movie now, I wouldn’t fault anyone who would still have it as their very favorite because it’s still that damn good.

1.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Of all the films that have we have gotten to date involving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem is probably the one to get the most things right. The animation is top notch, the characters are all well-utilized and bounce off each other perfectly, the story feels fresh but yet faithful to the turtles lore, the score is absolutely killer, the action is a lot of fun, and it’s able to exist in it’s own sandbox as being the kind of film that can stand proudly on it’s own along with the best of what the Ninja Turtles have offered throughout their entire history. While I won’t go as far to say that it’s a perfect film (especially with it’s likely dated pop culture references), it’s certainly a perfect TMNT film and one that will likely be the one to get a new generation into this successful running franchise. A sequel has just been announced is in the works along with a brand new 2D series. If they manage to be as enjoyable if not more so than Mutant Mayhem, than this new generation of TMNT fans will have plenty to be spoiled by.

Month: August 2023

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