Five Worst Kept Movie Secrets Ever

Spoilers are a common thing these days but even with that creators do still try to keep things a surprise. Some do it well, for instance when Independence Day came people didn't know who was in it or what it was about-they just wanted to know how the White House gets blown up! However very often the secret can't be kept and becomes public knowledge. Most recently they did everything they could to keep the fact that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in the new Spider-Man movie but most had figured it out. 

Here are five more times when something that was supposed to be a big surprise was known to fans long before they saw the movie. 

Star Trek Generations

This in the days when the internet was still kinda new so spoilers weren't rampant like they are these days. And yet, the fact that Kirk was going to die was the worst secret ever. Everyone knew that was going to happen. Trek is usually better at keeping there secrets. Even worst was Into Darkness, they tried desperate to keep the identity of the villain secret but who didn't know it would Kahn?

A Look at DC Comics "Millennium" Event

It really makes me feel old that this came out almost 35 ago. I thought it came out in 1987 but I guess it was technically early 1988, but whatever. I loved this event and still do---even though it's one of DC's lamest events. So you may wonder, if it's not that good why do I love it? I'm so glad you asked.

This event had a pretty big build up since the hook was that every on going comic was going to reveal that a supporting cast member was, in fact, a Manhunter in disguise. I'll come back to that, but first let me explain the story.

Manhunters preceded the Green Lantern Corps but were banished after betraying the Gaurdians of the Universe. They hid until some event which would make them act again and employed sleeper agents on Earth to watch the Heroes and learn all about them. So what was that finally caused them to act? Long story short, A guardian and a Zamoran show up on Earth announcing they are selecting ten people on Earth to advance the human race. The heroes have to protect these ten while they are prepared for this, at the same as sleeper agents attack to distract them. The sleeper agents could be anyone including those closest and most trusted by the heroes. And yeah, that's the story. As the Gaurdians train these ten people the rest of the heroes are either protecting them or fighting the Manhunter agents.

Five Deleted Scenes That Shouldn't Have Been

Whenever I see deleted scenes from a movie, I usually get the reason. Either the scene is redundant, or drags the movie down, or was so stupid you wonder why they ever thought it would work. However, once in a while you see deleted scenes and wonder, why weren't these scenes in the damn movie? Not only were they cool scenes, but they explain away plot holes from the theatrical release! I know sometimes it's simply a matter of running time, a problem movies these days stopped caring about apparently, but why cut something that literally hurts the movie? I mean in Lord of the Rings they cut seeing Saroman get killed, and people complained that they never saw what happened to him! Just leave it in! Yes it was restored later.  In Superman Returns one of the big complaints was that we have no idea what happened to Superman after he left Earth. There's a whole five minutes scene that explains it (at least a little)!  Screw that put two lines of text on the screen that's enough. Or how about Titanic when we see David Warner all bloodied and beat up with no reason why...yup that's explained in a deleted scene. 

Anyway here are five deleted scenes that never should have been, in my opinion. And I'm not saying deleted the scenes ruined the movie just there was no reason for them not to be there. 

Star Trek II

These scenes have been restored in various versions, so this is probably not the best example. But I will never understand why the cut the line that explains that the young cadet is Scotty's nephew. It makes that scene of Scotty carrying him t the Bridge that much more dramatic. By the way a lot of people wonder why he did that, and I think he was just in shock.

Five Non-PSA Comics About Real Life Issues

The other day I went over PSA comics. which are usually sponsored by a company for the express intent of educating on something. However, it doesn't have to be a corporate sponsored PSA to get a relevant story. There are plenty of issues of normal comics out there where the hero stopped fighting aliens or evil villains to tackles a real-world problem. 

Here are five examples:

SUPERMAN #72

While this is clearly a filler issue, as the death of Superman arc was looming, that doesn't take away from the message of the story. Superman discovers a woman is the subject of domestic violence. But he's powerless tro do a thing about it, even when the victim ends up killed! 

Five Silly Promotional DC Comics

 I talked about PSA comics the other day but there is another genre I should mention. When the comic is a straight up ad comic. At least PSA's have their hearts in the right place, trying to educate and inform. When the comic is using a hero or heroes for a straight up, blatant advertisement things get silly. Especially when the hero has to play the fool in order to make the product look superior. Marvel has a load of these promoting everything from the NFL to Hitachi Data Systems (I don't get that either). But DC has done its fair share of shilling to and are five examples. 

Superman Meets the Quick Bunny

You know, at least with the Kool-Aid Man Marvel was smart enough to give the character its own world to inhabit. They didn't try to force him to work with Captain America or something (nah they saved that for there orange juice psa). Here, Superman meets the Quick Bunny and the entire "Quick" Club. The story is just silly and it's funny to see Superman maintain his dignity as he is being upstaged by four kids and an anthropomorphic rabbit.

Five Misguided PSA Comic's

I talked about PSA's the other day but there are other kinds besides those aimed at children on Saturday morning. PSA's can be seen for adults also, movie theatres often run psa's before movies, and the radio can be chalk full of public service announcements. Yet another area that always interested me is comic books. This is when an entire comic is trying to raise awareness for a good cause, and advertising at the same time.

 

I guess it makes sense, kids are likely to pick up any issue that has their favorite character on it even if it is a deliberate advertisement. And yes, a PSA is still an advertisement even if the goal is more sincere. Though some PSA's are less subtle than others. It's actually quite a genre, but once in awhile the comic misses the mark. There will be a goofy element, or just a lame story, which takes the well meaning PSA and turns into a joke because of how silly it is. Here are some examples:

Heroes Against Hunger

In the 80's one of the biggest problems was the famine in Africa, and there were lots of efforts to assist with that. From "We are the World" to this PSA comic in which everyone at DC had a handle in. The problem with the issue is that they created a generic super villain to fight, called "The Master" or some nonsense, which I think was a mistake. It's fine to have a bad guy like a gangster or something realistic but when it's a sci fi based villain like here or aliens as in other PSA's you're diminishing the problem. Then Lex tries to fix the problem with science but is told the situation is to messed up for that. 

Five More PSA's From When I Was Growing Up

 It was almost ten years ago that I did a look at my favorite PSA's growing up. About five years later, I went over the more memorable PSA characters that have been famous in pop culture. But the 80's gave us a lot of PSA's, and some of them are remembered more than others. We loved the PSA's because they were so silly and goofy. 

Here are five more PSA's that I never quite got out of my head.

Bugs Bunny for Kitchen Safety

This is a pretty straightforward one regarding staying safe in your kitchen. Not much to really say about it, though as an adult I realize Mel Blanc did all the characters not just Bugs. 

Five Sitcoms You'd swear are Spin-Off's but AREN'T

Spin-off's are a dime a dozen in TV. Whether it be taking an established character and putting them in their own show, or creating a character in an episode to sort of backdoor pilot a new show. Sometimes however a sitcom will be created that clearly shares a universe with another hit show, even created by the same talents, but IS NOT officially a spin-off. This goes all the way back to the Beverly Hillbillies/Green Acres/Petticoat Junction shared universe. 

 In order to be a spin-off at least one character has to be introduced in the first series. But once in awhile creators skip that with the new show and establish later on that the two series do in fact share a universe. 

One I mentioned the other day was Wings, the show about an airport in Nantucket. 

The NBC show was created by many of the same people who made Cheers, and there were several appearances by characters from that show. But it was not a spin-off in the literal sense even though it easily could have been. Heck they did it with the Tortelli's! Here are five more examples of what I mean:

King of Queens

This comes so close to being a spin-off but is not. Kevin James did appear on Raymond first, but his character was not Doug Heffernan. Heffernan first appeared on King of Queens which is clearly a spiritual spin-off in many ways. And the entire cast of Raymond appeared on Queens. The oddest part is when Kevin James appeared as Doug Heffernan on Raymond after Queens had been on awhile. What ever happened to that character James played beforehand?