5 Best Original SuperHero Movies

 

Last week was the 30th anniversary of Damon Wayans superhero comedy BlankMan. Acknowledging the film's anniversary, got me thinking about superhero movies not based on comic books. Depend on who you ask BlankMan is one of the best original superhero movies ever created, while good I wouldn't quite go there. Here's my 5 best original superhero movies.

5. Big Hero 6

For the life of me, I don't understand why Big Hero 6 is not more popular. Released in 2014, the film follows a young teenager Hiro who is essentially a child prodigy and his robot Baymax. Along with his friends they become a group of superheroes protecting the city of San Fransokyo. The story is more so about how they got to the point of being superheroes. Covering the friendship between Hiro and Baymax, as well as Hiro's relationship with his older brother Tadashi. The film also covers grief, betrayal, and self-doubt strong subject matter for Disney films. 

4. Incredibles

The older I get, the more relatable The Incredibles becomes. The basic premise of the film is former superhero Mr. Incredible (civilian name Bob Parr) is a middle-aged man supporting his wife and three kids. He's experiencing a bit of a middle life crisis in the mundane day to day life and yearns to get back in the thick of things. He get's his wish when a new supervillain wrecks havoc on the town, along with his old sidekick Fro-zone and his family they save the day. As 40 come's knocking I totally can relate to that. 

3. Darkman

Before Sam Raimi directed the Spider-Man trilogy of films starring Toby Maguire in the 2000's, he directed an off-beat original superhero movie called Darkman. Starring Liam Neeson in the original and Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep in The Mummy films) in the two direct to cable sequels. The main character is Peyton Westlake a scientist who is working on synthetic skin for burn victims, after he himself becomes a burn victim due to criminals attacking him. He uses his synthetic skin and new found strength to exact revenge.

The film is very grounded in reality, while also paying homage to the noir genre of film. It's very underrated, and was the catalyst for Raimi eventually directing Spider-Man.

2. Meteor Man

If you know me, you know I love Robert Townsend's 1993 film Meteor Man. The film follows Townsend's Jefferson Reed a Washington D.C. school teacher who is struck by a meteor fragment and gains new powers. He uses these newfound powers to save the neighborhood from the campy drug dealers The Golden Lords led by Simon, complete with all members sporting gold hair and gold accented throughout their attire. 

The movie featured a who's who of Black talent in Hollywood at the time, is funny and a tad bit inspiring. The movie never take's itself too serious and set's out to feel like a live comic book when comic book films weren't  necessarily popular. It's a shame the movie isn't more revered as it truly is special.

1. Hancock

Hancock for all intents and purposes should have been a franchise, with at least a trilogy of films. The 2008 film stars Will Smith as an alcoholic bum superhero, who causes massive damage whenever he feel's like saving the day. He has a love/hate relationship with the general public and officials of L.A. He saves Jason Bateman's advertising executive character Ray Embrey who help's him rehabilitate his image. Hancock soon learn's more about himself thanks to Ray's mysterious wife Mary, while saving the city from a criminal out for revenge.

Besides the interesting take of a disgruntled superhero that doesnt want to be one, the film has quality jokes, good special effects and decent fight scenes. The backstory between Hancock and Mary and their past deserved to be covered more in sequels. I was really intrigued by that backstory and it made the film have it's own mythology much like a comic book.

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Great TV Show You Never Heard Of: M.A.N.T.I.S.

 

Today is the 30th anniversary of M.A.N.T.I.S. a superhero drama that debuted on Fox network August 26th, 1994, and chances are you've probably never heard of it. M.A.N.T.I.S. starred Carl Lumby (Isaiah Bradley in Falcon and Winter Soldier) as Dr. Miles Hawkins. A billionaire advocate for the community, who is paralyzed in a incident involving the police. After losing a lawsuit against the police department, and uncovering a conspiracy against the Black community. Mile's set's out to fight the injustices and use his wealth to help him. He use's an exoskeleton suit he developed that allows him to walk while wearing it and set's out on his mission to fight crime. Finding along the way the mastermind of crime in the city is a former associate Solomon Box, the recurring villain of the series.

During it's first season M.A.N.T.I.S. spoke about several issues that affected the Black community. Using action and science-fiction to educate and entertain, which at that time was still a rarity especially on network television. Miles had several tools at his disposal to aid in his crime fighting efforts and his wealth and brains rivaled that of comic icons like Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. The show was retooled in the second season to be a bit more wacky and that led to his ultimate cancellation.

Despite only lasting two seasons the show was ahead of it's time. Dr. Miles Hawkins was Black and disabled, a rare portrayal on network television at that time. Mentioned earlier in the blog many of his missions were done to aid the Black community from the abuse of authority in the police department and corporations...sound a bit familiar? 

Even though Black Lighting was a comic book first, if you were to watch M.A.N.T.I.S. you would notice so many similarities between both TV series. The show was truly ahead of it's time and it's not only a shame that it did not last longer, but that it's legacy has been forgotten to the passage of time. 

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Where Cable Went Wrong And Continues To Go Wrong

 

Recent entertainment headlines have highlighted, just how bad things are for traditional and cable TV. First Warner Bros. Discovery realized they were in shits creek with no paddle, when the NBA awarded a TV package to prime video over them. Then WBD and Paramount released figures and shared they were $9 billion and $11 billion respectively, in writes off due to their portfolios of cable networks no longer cutting it.

On the surface it may seem like streaming is leaving cable in the dust. While they maybe true...not so fast. The streaming wars that kicked off in the mid 2010's are losing steam, due to overstaturation and price increases with the content not meeting the price. Disney recently announced price hikes for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Pissed maybe an understatement for most people when they heard the news.

 While they keep raising prices. Companies have started to reevaluate can their individual platforms survive on their own or do they need to partner up? Many of these same companies are losing sleep over declining cable revenue which was their bread and butter at one time.

Both streaming and cables decline point to a lack of innovation in the media conglomerate world, namely a lack of rethinking cable television. Now cable TV and streaming operate in two ecosystems, streaming is mostly subscriber and ad based. Cable networks rely on ads and "subscriber fees" they charge cable carriers to broadcast their network. 

When Netflix took off and people were cutting the cord in droves. Cable networks and cable companies most owned by conglomerates were too slow and neglectful to adapt. They operated and continue to operate in this more is better mantra that was the ideals of the 90s and 2000s eras of excess.

500 plus channels of mainly niche programming, when people only watch 10 if that and don't have time for much else. Cable networks also got lazy and started rotating "marathons" of the same show. USA network and MTV are notorious for that. Instead of streamlining networks, they kept the status quo while still charging insane monthly premiums. They also pushed a lot of content to streaming, even hard to find content.

Besides today's viewership mostly on the web. People just do not want to switch between 40 channels, and not being able to find one thing that interests them. It's annoying enough on streaming apps.

In order for cable to truly survive, they not only need to reinvent cable. They need to minimize the saturation of cable channels and improve the cable experience and price for consumers. Cable TV is now in survival mode and if they want to keep eating, they have to get their ass up and go to work.

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MY Top 10 Disney Channel Movies

 

The other night my wife and I sat down with our daughter for a movie night, looking through Disney + and some of the favorites we grew up on. We started talking about the best Disney Channel original movies, back in the 90's and 2000's the Disney Channel dropped some gems of movies. Sure they are low budget and cheesy, but many of them still are very good today. I decided to share my list of the top ten Disney Channel Movies 

10. Zenon Girl of The 21st Century

I'll admit I did not watch Zenon Girl of the 21st Century until recently, when it debuted in 1999 I was 13 years old and didn't have time to watch a movie for girls. However, looking at it now it is a very quirky and good movie. It follows Zenon played by Kirsten Storms, and her best friend Nebula played by Raven-Symone. They live on a space station in the year 2049 (geez only 25 years from now), anyway after some mischief Zenon is sent to Earth as punishment. Having a hard time fitting in, she soon learns of a plot to upload the space station with a virus and crash it to collect the insurance money. Using her wit she set's out to save the day.

9. Brink

Brink! is a late 90's movie that capitalized on the extreme sports movement of the 90's. Namely skateboarding, rollerblading, and wild bike tricks. Main character Brink (Erik Von Detten) leads a group of roller bladers dubbed The Soul Skaters, they reject corporate sponsorship in favor of having fun and are enemies with corporate backed group Team X-Bladz led by Val (Sam Horrigan aka Spike from Little Giants). When Brink learns his family has some financial troubles, he has to go against his morals for his family, even if it means losing his friends. 

8. Smart House

Smart House was ahead of it's time, which considering it was a kid themed film is an amazing feat. A young boy named Ben (Ryan Merriman), still grieving his mothers passing enters into a contest to win a smart home. When he win's he alongside his father and sister move into the smart house, ran by virtual assistant PAT who is very territorial, they adjust to life being simpler. Until Ben decides to program PAT to have the characteristics of a traditional 1950's mom, and PAT (Katey Segal) becomes overbearing eventually aiming to take over the house and family completely. 

7. Phantom Of The Megaplex

Based on the traditional Phantom Of The Opera story, the film follows teenage movie theater assistant manager Pete (Taylor Handley). Taylor is spending the summer getting the theater together for the premiere of a big Hollywood production to be held at the theater. Suddenly random occurrences happen at the theater, broken equipment, mishaps during showings and everything in between. Pete, his younger siblings, and friends work to determine if this all by coincide, or the rumored Phantom a haunted ghost of the building is behind these efforts.  

6. Up Up And Away

Up, Up, and Away is a 2000 superhero film, but superhero's really took off and what it makes it even more special is it features a family of Black superheroes. Robert Townsend starred and directed this film, he leads the family of superheroes who's teenage son has yet to acquire his powers. He soon starts to develop them as a group of eco-criminals descend upon town using CD disc to brainwash residents into performing criminal task on their behalf. The film has an important underlying message about things will come to you, when the time is right. 

5.Don't look under The Bed

To be honest this is one scary ass movie, the fact that is made for kids can be more terrifying. Teenage Frances (Erin Chambers)  has been noticing some strange Eerie, Indiana type stuff going on in her town. She soon encounters a young man named Larry Houdini, who only she and other children can see who starts putting her on to what is going on. He lets her know The Boogeyman is framing her and coming after her. The Boogeyman in this film is scary as hell, and the film is simply scary as hell. Just watch it.

4. Let It Shine

Let It Shine debuted in 2012 which means I was well into my 20's when it premiered. However, my younger cousins would watch it all the time, I had no choice but to sit down and watch it. And damn it honestly is a good movie, starring Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris, Abbott Elementary), CoCo Jones, Courtney B. Vance, and Trevor Jackson (Grown-ish). Tyler stars as Cyrus also known as Truth who raps under a low profile because his father who is a preacher doesnt approve. Meanwhile childhood friend and now music sensation Roxie (Coco Jones) mistakes Kris (Trevor Jackson) as Truth. They must keep the rust going, while Cyrus battles revealing the truth to Roxie and his dad. 

The movie has some bangers for songs by the way.

3. Jett Jackson: The Movie

                                 

The Famous Jett Jackson was my TV show especially because it focused on a young boy who was a TV star filming in his hometown. Since I've always been infatuated with the filmmaking process the show just resonated with me. A couple years after it's premiere, Disney released a movie with the plot being Jett Jackson get's sucked into the world of his TV series SilverStone and Silverstone take's Jett's place in the real world. A typical switch-o-roo where both learn to appreciate what they have, but man what a fun ride in the process.

2. Halloweentown

Halloweentown is still revered 26 years later which is a testament to how good of a film it is. I'll admit I was very late to the Halloweentown party, but I still appreciate it for the classic it is. Marnie, and her two siblings Dylan and Sophie look forward to Halloween every year, while their mom not so much. Upon a visit from their grandmother Gwen, they soon learn about a place called Halloweentown and that they come from a line of witches and warlocks. Soon they are transported to Halloweentown and must save the town and their family from Kabblar. 

It's a must watch every spooky season, so if you were late to the party like me get on board. 

1.Johnny Tsunami

If you ask most 90's kids Johnny Tsunami is the apex of Disney channel movies. In fact you may side eye a 90's kid if they admit they have never seen it. The film follows young Hawaiian surfer Johnny Kapulaha, he has already mastered the waves at the young age of 13. However, he must master a new skill when his father's job send's them to Vermont. He take's on snowboarding, as well as culture and wealth clashes alongside his new friend Sam (Lee Thompson Young), and his crush Emily (Kristen Storm).  The film is one cool movie that still holds up today. 

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