4 DAYS AWAY.

I am SO DAMN EXCITED for this Friday, for a variety of reasons.

The Avengers, and My Recent Superhero Obsession

I haven't really posted about it on here, aside from a few movie reviews, but over the past year or so, I've really, truly been bitten by the superhero bug. I'd seen pretty much all of the previous superhero/comic book movies (Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, etc), and enjoyed them all pretty much, but not really to the point where I wanted to go into that world more.

Then came Thor.

It's not like Thor was the be-all and end-all of comic book superhero movies. While it was a great time and a very strong movie in my book, I wouldn't even put it top five of recent movies in the genre. I think what really grabbed me was how everything was completely wound together that all these Marvel movies were all interconnected, yet stand-alone at the same time. For some reason, that was awesome to me. I hadn't seen Hulk yet, so this was really the first time I'd seen this whole scheme in action. I wanted to read more into this whole Marvel world, but didn't quite take the leap yet.

Then came X-Men: First Class.

This one... this one really pulled me in. There were no Avengers tie-ins here, but after completely falling for this movie (I WOULD put this one in my top 5), I did a little comic book research and found the X-Men and Avengers were linked from the very beginning... Spider-Man too?!? Oh man. I was hooked.

I'm not really sure why exactly I love all this superhero stuff. Regular readers of this blog know of my love for escapism, and I'm sure that's a part of it... it's something new and fresh in my life, which is most certainly welcomed. But is that all of it? Who knows, I don't feel like delving into the why here. All I know is I love it so.

The Summer Movie Season

Beyond The Avengers, there is a legit plethora of movies coming out this summer that I am jazzed about. Yes, jazzed. In fact, starting this Friday, May 4, there is a new movie every single week through August 3 that I want to see, for assorted reasons.

May 4 The Avengers
May 11 Dark Shadows*
May 18 Battleship & The Dictator
May 25 Men in Black 3
June 1 Snow White and the Huntsman
June 8 Prometheus
June 15 Rock of Ages
June 22 Brave & Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
June 29 Magic Mike*
July 3 The Amazing Spider-Man
July 13 Ted
July 20 The Dark Knight Rises
August 3 Total Recall & The Bourne Legacy 

Sure, some of those movies are included in that list to merely "keep the streak alive" (the ones marked with asterisks), but all the movies on the list do interest me for one reason or another. Interesting cast, interesting premise, absurdity, favorite genres, bizarre pairings of talents (once again, Magic Mike gets it's own category), etc. This is shaping up to be a most exciting summer.

Now, as excited as I am about these movies, I am met with some trepidation. You see, I'm the OCD type that likes to be exposed to the original material first, if possible. The Avengers is preceeded by five movies, for example. Must re-watch those first. I really don't care to watch the Dark Shadows television series... but there are two prior Men in Black movies, four Alien movies, three Spider-Man movies, two Nolan Batman movies, the original Total Recall and three Bourne films to watch. There are also novels involved, but I certainly won't have time for those. Good thing I have Netflix and too much spare time!

If this were an instant message or something, a winking emoticon would follow that last sentence.

But seriously, if I actually see all the movies on the list and the movies leading up to them, that's thirty five movies between now and the weekend of August 3. That sounds silly and amazing. Absurd and exciting. Simultaneously. I hope to do it. I may keep a tracker. Probably on Twitter. Yes, definitely on Twitter. In fact, I'll generate a hash tag and embed it on the blog.

I will start right now.