Sony Refuses To Learn From Their Recent Mistakes, Greenlights Solo Venom Movie

There was a time, dear reader, when the concept of a live-action Spider-Man movie was an enthralling one to prospective moviegoers. After two decades of trying to get a live-action film off the ground, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man busted box office records in 2002, gained critical acclaim and spawned a sequel that is still considered to be one of the superhero movies of all-time. Then the flawed Spider-Man 3 arrived, followed up the dark era where the two Amazing Spider-Man films arrived. These new features, created solely so Sony/Columbia could cling to the film rights to the character, got worse as they went along, and the cinematic shared universe (complete with Sinister Six, Venom and Aunt May spin-offs) it was supposed to spawn sounded like a nightmare waiting to happen.

"A Good Actor Is A Terrible Thing To Waste": 6 Perfectly Cast Actors Wasted In Subpar Superhero Movies

Ryan Reynolds may not have been all that memorable in the 2009 movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but this past weekend's box office juggernaut Deadpool proves that was no fault of his. Nope, sometimes really talented actors get stuck in garbage movies, and today, I'll be examining six actors perfectly cast for notable comic book characters in movies that ended up being....well, let's just say less than perfect.

First up, an actor from another failed Ryan Reynolds superhero movie...

Brace Yourself Humanity, Transformers Is Becoming A Cinematic Universe

I've said it before, but it always bears repeating: cinematic universe aren't inherently bad, they just can be in the hands of poor storytelling, just like any other aspect of cinema. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is how to do this tactic right, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which shoehorned in countless characters in an effort to establish potential spin-offs) is obviously how to do it wrong. Call me crazy, but I have a hunch the newly announced Transformers cinematic universe might not be a recipe for artistic brilliance.

A Look At The Various Superhero Movie Universes

There's about four superhero cinematic universes running around right now, each with varying degrees of success and potential. Since two of them unleashed trailers of their newest features onto the world in the past month, I thought it was time to look at each of these four superhero universes and analyze how well they're doing currently and what ventures they have planned for film and television in the future.

The Amazing Spider-Man Films Are A Collision Of Promise And Tragedy

 Five years ago this month, Sony announced Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy would be rebooted. enraging fans of that trilogy around the globe. My reaction at the time was disappointment, but also open-mindedness; Spider-Man 3 was flawed (though quite a bit better than people give it credit for) and the bits and pieces that had come out about Raimi's purported Spider-Man 4 sounded iffy (though John Malkovich as The Vulture sounded awesome). So I kept a close track as a director (Marc Webb) and actors were hired for this new series of films focusing on the web-slinger dubbed The Amazing Spider-Man.

New Female Centered Potential Spider-Man Movie From Sony Sounds Like It Could Be....Good????

MASSIVE THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 SPOILERS FOLLOW

A ton of things have been wasted in the Amazing Spider-Man films (primarily in the second one, though the first one wasted opportunities to lend gravitas to The Lizard), but Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy may be the biggest waste. She and Andrew Garfield had good chemistry, but those romantic scenes in the second one, while sporadically engaging, were bogged down by plodding repetition.

Editorial: The Non-Marvel Shared Universe Movies Need To Stop

(Or: What Hath The Avengers Wrought)

After Marvel's extremely risk plan for combining stand-alone movies into one massive feature film called The Avengers paid off big time, studios began to scramble to join in on the newest cinematic craze; shared universes. The first franchise not from Marvel Studios to test this out was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which took it's 2012 Andrew Garfield reboot and tired to stretch it to include hints at future spin-offs and sequels. The film was a calamity quality-wise and disappointing financially, which you'd think studios would take as a sign that not all movies need a shared universe.

Nope.

Good News! A Female Superhero Movie Is Coming! Bad News! That Female Superhero Movie Is Coming From The Studio That Ruined Spider-Man

You cannot imagine my excitement when I began to read the headline that proclaimed a female superhero movie was on the way. FINALLY I thought. Bizarre prejudices can be put aside and we can finally get quality movies starring well developed female characters. Then I read further and realized...crap. It's from Avi Arad and Sony. Y'know, the guys who made The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the movie that makes Spider-Man 3 (a deeply flawed, but actually kind of underrated film) look like a masterpiece.

Editorial: Why The Inevitable End of Home Video Is Good For Fans of Home Video

SO HIDEOUS

For years now, people have been calling out home video as something that's on its last leg, just gasping its last breath before being replaced by Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and the like. Unlike other similar declarations, that actually does seem reasonable, considering how much home videos sale have dipped in recent years. And interestingly, studios seem to have also gotten the memo things are gloomy for the home video department, because their upcoming home video releases for their numerous summer blockbusters are...unique, let's say.

More Jack Sparrow, Sinister Six And Spider-Man Adventures Have Release Dates

Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides made over $1 billion dollars worldwide, easily making it a profitable venture, while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 crossed $700 million back in May. Normally, that would make those two smash hits, the kind of movies every studio in town would want. But there was a problem; both hit domestic box office and critical lows for their respective franchises.

Editorial: What Do You Do With A Problem Like Spider-Man?

Hey guys, remember that Spider-Man movie that came out a few years back? The one with the corny dialogue, the performance from Jamie Foxx that was god-awful? The one that made me yearn for the days of emo-Peter? Yeah, that thing happened. What year did that come out? 2012, right? Wait....this year??? TWO MONTHS AGO??? Huh. I forgot all about it. And I'm sure many moviegoers have too.