Pacific Rim

While this movie looks like a 16-year-old boy's dream come true (and it really is) this movie is a love letter to action summer blockbusters the way they once were.

I enjoyed many of the summer blockbusters the last few years (The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Avengers), but these are superhero movie, and thanks to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, they are all brooding and serious. Man of Steel didn't quite get the formula right, even though it did have Nolan as a producer.

The best way to describe this film is that it is a better Independence Day; the films aren't similar (minus the whole saving humanity from aliens thing) in style, but they both feature the heavy pomp and candid attitude that made '80s summer blockbusters so damn entertaining. Pacific Rim is a turn-off-you-brain-and-enjoy kind of movie, but it isn't crude or stupid (think Transformers). On a technical level the film will be a satisfying treat, and had there been time to develop more story and characterization, the film could have been deep and insightful, too.

Guillermo Del Toro loves film, and it's obvious in the work he put in to make this film appeal to everyone while also satisfying his own desires in a film industry that critically lacks any semblance of originality. Pacific Rim is a love letter and pure comic book movie that strikes as hard as a Jaeger's fist.

Joss Whedon and The Marvel Bunch

I thought that Whedon would perhaps hang up the cape and tights, so to speak, after his riveting box office and critic success with "The Avengers" for something more up his alley in the world of television, but it's been revealed by Disney's Chairman, Bog Iger, that the Buffy and Firefly progenitor will be back to write and direct "The Avengers 2." This is fantastic news because that may mean this decade's slew of comic book superhero movies may become successful and respected trilogies (if not more) like "The Dark Knight" series of movies by Christopher Nolan. (I, for one, have complete faith in "The Amazing Spider-man" if Marc Webb continues to direct them.)

In addition, Whedon is also slated to create a "Marvel-based" TV series for ABC. Now this one would be incredible; it's television, so it's perfect for this man, but also because this medium could use a boost. Movies as of late have been impressing me, especially those with a fantasy or science fiction spin (my favorites), but TV is still overrun by reality television silliness, something even ABC cannot be absolved of (I'm looking at you mind-numbing Bachelor series). With Whedon on the job, I can potentially see a real, quality superhero series on network television, unlike NBC's disastrous "The Cape."

You all may remember Disney lost a ton of money earlier in the year with their gaffe "John Carter," so I can only hope that the behemoth company will allow Whedon--and every other person involved on the series--to do with it what they will. I trust creative minds because creativity tends to produce quality. Disney couldn't possibly be remiss with this project and allow their TV tropes to infect it. "The Avengers" made them $1.5 billion, so it would be terribly, regrettably stupid to allow any producer to "try" and facilitate in this television show's production. And if it doesn't hold up in the ratings as well as predictions will have it, simply wait. As FOX learned time and again with Whedon: his shows are like precious stones that need to be nurtured till they've turned to diamonds. I've got thousands upon millions of "Firefly" and "Dollhouse" fans who wouldn't disagree.

Only time will tell what will come of all this.