Welcome to my semi-annual blog round-up discussion thing for all the upcoming superhero movies in the coming year!

I haven’t done one of these in the past couple of years, mostly because these round-ups are pretty much all about hype, and, these days, I try to avoid hype as much as possible.

For instance, as some of you may remember, I tried to go into the last Batman movie without seeing a single thing about the movie beforehand.

The main reason for this is because I know I’m in the target demographic for these movies, and I know that I’ll inevitably see almost all of them, whether I want to or not (I see lots of movies), so I may as well let myself be as surprised as I can be, right?

This past year of superhero movies proved a couple of things:

    1. After nearly a decade of these things bombarding movie-going audiences, there’s still no let-up in sight.

    2. More and more, you can tell the difference between a good superhero movie and a bad superhero movie based solely on what studio is making it. Marvel Studios? Good. Any Other Studio on the Planet? Terrible.

We don’t need to spend too much time living in the past, but it’s simple science.

Good movies from last year: Iron Man 3, Thor 2.

God-awful, rotten movies from last year: Man of Steel, The Wolverine, Kick-Ass 2.

Let’s see if this pattern holds through 2014.

captain america 2The first big superhero movie of the year comes in a mere two weeks, on 4 April, when Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits theatres across the world.

If you want, you can already go online and watch this movie in its entirety, so long as you have a lot of patience and a decent imagination.

As of posting, there are now three trailers, over ten :30 spots, six clips, multiple reviews, and the directors – – Joe and Anthony Russo – – recently held a Q&A discussing post-credit scenes and the ending.

I just wonder who they’re trying to sell on this, at this point.

If you don’t know what to expect from a Captain America movie by now, I’m not sure what to think of you, as a person. (more…)