Nerd Talk

When Earth's Mightiest Heroes collide: Justice League and Avengers sequel amongmany superhero projects planned

DC Comics' Justice League.
Marvel Comics' The Avengers.
The Avengers v. The Justice League.

A number of big news items dropped recenctly regarding the futures of our favorite flying, punching and kicking friends on the big screen. The two major comic book houses, DC and Marvel, announced they are making strides to assemble their flagship superhero teams into the biggest and most lucrative franchises in all of Metropolis.

Marvel already has a huge lead in the race with the success of this summer's Joss Whedon masterpiece, The Avengers, and the slew of projects announced at San Diego ComicCon last month, including sequels to Captain America, Iron Man and Thor and new offerings featuring Ant-Man and The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Of course, Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to the Dark Knight trilogy showed DC is not backing down from the challenge, and the preview for the grittier, Nolan-ized reinterpretation of Superman will undoubtedly put the Man of Steel back in contention as America's favorite superhero.

But, alas, true believers, there's so much more!

Disney has announced that it has signed Whedon to write and direct the much-anticipated Avengers sequel as well as to develop a scripted, live-action television series featuring Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I doubt anyone will ever question Whedon's capabilities as a filmmaker of superhero blockbusters, but you can bet the farm that everyone is shaking in their Spandex over the idea of a weekly serialized superhero show. Will it get bogged down with the melodrama of Heroes or the CGI hokey-ness of some of the Sci-Fi Channel's offerings?

Thankfully, Whedon started in TV and made one of the most impossible show concepts into arguably the best cult TV series of all time. So we'll keep a cautiously optimistic eye out for this one.

Over in the DC Universe, the question was finally answered regarding how they plan to respond to Marvel's Avengers gauntlet. And the answer is: gather their own major players, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash, in their own Justice League film. (Sorry, Aquaman, everyone realized that talking to fish just isn't cool...)

We've already swallowed the Batman flavored Kool-Aid entirely and will likely do the same with the Superman variety. And while it wasn't the best example of its genre, Green Lantern wasn't half bad. Now Warner Bros. (the distribution arm for DC the same way Disney does it for Marvel) greenlighted studio films for both Wonder Woman and The Flash.

As the only prominent superheroine in the batch, Wonder Woman has been in negotiations as both a film and a television series for years now, with directors, writers and stars cycling through like revolving doors. Finally, Green Lantern scribe Michael Goldenberg has been attached to this latest project, and the populist boost from The Avengers' skyrocket is finally going to mean that Princess Diana's lasso of truth will finally make it to the big screen.

The first director Warner Bros. asked to helm the slated 2013 Justice League film is multi-faceted movie expert Ben Affleck. After showing his knack for gritty street drama in The Town, Affleck seems like a risky first choice for this potential blockbuster.

Sure, he understands conflicted characters and is a major comic book fan, but he's also incredibly Boston-centric and has it written into his contract that he only directs if he can act in the film. And we all saw what happened to Daredevil.

If he accepts, will this mean that Affleck be playing The Flash in the upcoming solo movie as well? Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, also of the Green Lantern writing team, are attached to this project that is being directed by Greg Berlanti, so it should turn out at least middling to better.

It's tough to imagine The Flash going as dark as Batman, so the question then proposed is whether or not The Justice League as a whole will go the route of Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, or if he will be brought once more out of the shadows. Is America ready to see the caped crusader jumping around with all these spandex tights types?

Any way you read it, Marvel is definitely capitalizing on their current momentum and catapulting into an impressive lead over their competition. Longtime rival DC has a lot of catching up to do if they're going to make their lasting mark on Hollywood.

It will be an amazing (astonishing? incredible? uncanny?) race to watch the two teams battle it out for supremacy at the box office. But what will possibly be left over in the aftermath?

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Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

movies girl scout cookie film