Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe

Getting the 30 Disk Universal Monsters Collection + Young Frankenstein for my B-Day and Christmas (they're 5 days a part).

edited 15th Dec '16 10:00:35 PM by WorldTurtle2

I've been watching all the Universal horror series lately. You get a lot of good movies and some not so good. Especially the ones after World War II started...but those have their merits.

I checked out when suspicions were confirmed that the new films would be action/horror. Which, depending on the balance, isn't something I think is an outright lousy idea, but they seem to be skewing more towards the former than the latter for my liking.

Fun idea: Abbott and Costello expies - like as the Coulson equivalents or something.

Seriously, if the big crossover movie was a send-up to Abbott and Costello Meet The Wolfman (which is basically a big crossover Universal Horror movie on its own right), I'd be so happy.

edited 17th Dec '16 9:21:09 PM by KnownUnknown

IMAX took it down now, but it took six days before anyone noticed they uploaded the new Mummy's trailer with a third of the audio missing.

Finished Dracula. It was very tame compared to modern horror, but they knew how to make up for it. Mainly through the actors facial expressions from Dracula's stares (though I think Mina's creepy stare at John when she demanded he take Helsing's cross was even more unnerving then Dracula's) to Renfield's mad grins and laugh. Stuff I felt done well was:

There is without a doubt an undeniable charm to Bela Lugosi's Dracula. How he speaks with such polite refinement, but is nonetheless a literal bloodthirsty monster at the same time.

Renfield's death and his final pleas was simply tragic.

The Van Helsing vs. Dracula moments.

Nothing Is Scarier, but not when the scenes cut away as Dracula is about to feed. No, I want to know WTF did Renfield do to that fainted maid?

Dracula, Van Helsing, and Renfield were the best parts of the movie.

edited 26th Dec '16 11:36:16 PM by WorldTurtle2

Something I've been thinking about the reboot is if they'll add any new monsters to the lineup or at least throw in some secondary monsters for the classic lineup to fight. For example: Headless Horseman (from Sleepy Hollow), Wicked Witch, and the Minotaur just to name a few.

Maybe a Big Red Devil (who may or may not be Satan) to create an Enemy Mine between the Monsters and humans.

edited 5th Jan '17 12:29:58 AM by WorldTurtle2

This is the place to discuss the new Mummy movie, right? Because they just uploaded another trailer for it:

Not gonna lie, I kinda want to see it, but at the same time I'm debating over whether it'll be any good or not. It at least looks like it'll be taking a bit more horror elements over the swashbuckling Brendan Fraser trilogy. Everybody is trying to ape the cinematic universe idea now, but it makes sense for Universal to do it with their monsters. They arguably were the originators behind the idea. At the same time, I'm curious as to how they're gonna do it and what this'll lead up to, and I hope to god they don't blow it again like they did with Dracula Untold.

I had the opposite reaction. That... doesn't look good at all.

It's definitely not a horror movie, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The Fraser Mummy movies were horror themed but more pulp action/comedy as well, though the first less so than the others. But this just look so... generic. Immaculately handsome but bland soldiers shooting monsters. Immaculately beautiful but bland scientist getting saved by the hero. Action setpieces with explosions and guys shooting guns at things that cause more explosions.

It looks a lot like Suicide Squad, actually. Or like how the X-Men movies treated Apocalypse.

Not to mention the "Middle Eastern Boogeyman" trope is in full affect with the cast finding the tomb when fighting what appear to be terrorists and the lack of a single actual Egyptian character in sight. It was always going to be a problem with the subject matter, but damn - I didn't expect the filmmakers to embrace it.

Hmm, you have a point. Maybe my expectations were lowered or something, I don't know. Like, it doesn't look bad but it looks kind of...eh? There's not much else to say but "eh". Not many strong feelings. Tom Cruise is alright, he'll probably end up running a lot in it like usual. The actress who plays the Mummy is Gazelle from Kingsmen, she's good. At the same time, you're right about the whole "Middle Eastern boogieman" thing, and I feel stupid for not noticing this earlier.

Ultimately, I'm not big into Universal Horror and my main reason for wanting to see this boils down to "Can Universal actually make a good cinematic universe?". The Monsterverse with Godzilla and Kong is shaping up to be good, and there's probably a bunch of other cinematic universes that are coming up soon. For me personally, the best thing about when people Follow the Leader is when they make something to follow said leader, but they do it right, and I hope that Universal is able to do it right.

.. You know what, the mummy should be the heroine of this. Sofia Boutella chrushes Cruise in the raw charisma stakes, and.. her character has a far more interesting set of challenges.

She's Evil-inna-Can, but.. ethical standards have changed a lot while she was buried, the world has changed a lot. Just once, I want the ancient witch queen to wake up, take a look around and formulate a plan more constructive than "kill the world"..

It happens.

I like what I'm seeing so far. It's definitely more horror than adventure oriented, but the idea of resurrecting classical monsters for modern times is pretty intriguing. I like how Ahmanet appears to be a walking force of nature rather than just some creepy lady that should stand no chance against present day firepower. Serves as a nice nod to the Imhotep films, too.

edited 3rd Apr '17 1:51:57 PM by indiana404

Well, I mean, at this point who wouldn't cheer on the person going up against Tom Cruise?

Bump

So by the looks of it, the linking thing with this universe is, much like with the early MCU and the Monsterverse (and I think whatever the hell that upcoming Hanna-Barbera universe is gonna be), a secret agency. Anyone else getting kinda tired of that? It's like everyone is trying to copy SHIELD for their cinematic universes now.

Well, when it comes to classic horror, a secret society that studies monsters is kinda expected.

I do wish that they get Ygor (as in the Bela Lugosi character and not The Igor) for the future. James Rolfe was right in that he could easily be the ringleader of all the Universal Monsters. Either him or the doctor that Boris Karloff played in House of Frankenstein.

edited 18th May '17 10:25:01 PM by Shadao

A secret society that studies monsters is fine, but it's still a pattern I've noticed that is kind of rubbing me the wrong way. I'll wait and see how the film presents it, however. And yes, they should definitely bring in Ygor. Don't know how they'd do it but they should do it.

I see they are following my advice. Good, good. (Yes, I wrote that three years ago. Damn, studios are kind of predictable.)

edited 18th May '17 9:59:32 PM by alliterator

Damn, nice article there. I gotta look at the more obscure Universal Horror movies, come to think of it. So, what other movies are they working to incorporate? I remember hearing of a Van Helsing reboot and something involving Johnny Depp.

According to wikipedia, Javier Bardem is playing Frankenstein's monster and Johnny Depp is playing the Invisible Man.

Huh. That's not bad casting.

Javier Bardem as Frankenstein sounds pretty good. I'm kinda sick of Johnny Depp, though, especially since he ruined Gellert Grindelwald (although it may be fitting that "Wizard Hitler" turned out to look like richard spencer, but somehow even more ridiculous).

I'm still not sold on this universe, though, since the Mummy trailer looks so damn bad. Maybe I'll get on board when they (re)make Creature from the Black Lagoon.

There are also rumors that Dwayne Johnson will be the Wolfman & Scarlett Johansson will be Kay from Creature from the Black Lagoon. It'll never happen, but I'd like to see them incorporate The Island of Dr. Moreau into this universe.

Wasn't that made by a different company or something?

The Island of Dr. Moreau? The original film was made by Paramount, but Universal (who currently owns Paramount's pre-1950s film library) released it on VHS in the 1990s & billed it as a Universal horror film. I'm sure the story is in the public domain anyway.

edited 19th May '17 10:59:29 AM by Spinosegnosaurus77

Ah, gotcha. I'd read the original novel a few years back and did an entire assignment on it for high school. I'd personally prefer a take, if they do one for the cinematic universe, that skews closer to the book. It'd be fairly nightmarish, but it'd be fun to see.

Universal Pictures officially names this universe "Dark Universe".