Author Topic: Superhero Movies  (Read 3409 times)

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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #135 on: September 14, 2021, 12:42:10 pm »


That's actually getting kind of hard to do.

Many of the best super-hero movies are from Marvel. Others are from Fox. But Disney has bought both of those, and many of the titles have been pulled from Netflix and Prime, to be shown only on Disney+.

Ah balls.


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Many Super Hero movies have tie-ins to other super hero films, which can make it confusing for anyone who simply want to "jump in".

Double balls.

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If you really want to give comic book movies another try, I might recommend "Iron Man". It was one of the first movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (so you wouldn't have had to have seen others in the franchise). And, it had many elements that I like about the genre... decent special effects/action, mix of humor and drama.

I saw the first one and big meh.

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I almost forgot... once set of decent super hero moves that is available on Netflix is the Batman trilogy series by Christopher Nolan (with Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman). They are a lot more serious than (for example) the Marvel movies... the director took a lot more grounded approach to them. (He's still a vigilante dressed in a bat costume and has fantastic gadgets, but there's no 'super hero flying', very little humor, etc.) The first 2 movies were good... Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight (the Dark Night has over 90% critical acclaim on Rotten Tomatoes, and won multiple Oscars.) The third movie (Dark Knight Rises) was, in my opinion, much less good.

Oh yeah - I think I DID see that !  :O and it was good too...
 
What about The Joker - is that in that series ?

Offline Queefer Sutherland

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #136 on: September 14, 2021, 02:08:15 pm »
Superhero flicks are hit and miss and usually meh.  Some standouts are the first Guardians of the Galaxy, Logan, Deadpool 1, Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity War  and Endgame.  Civil War, Winter Solider, the the first Thor movie were also good.

The others were meh or crappy.  They've made so many movies they're now scraping the bottom of the barrel making films of crappy characters like Shangi-Chi, Black Widow etc.  I don't want to watch Marvel movies anymore, unless they make a good X-men movie.  I look forward to the new Batman if it's any good.

The worst thing about these movies is that they take up all the blockbuster real estate at the box office.  In the 2000's you had some superhero movies but also Lord of the Rings movies, Harry Potter films, Star Wars prequels etc.  Now its just Marvel/Star Wars Disney crap.

The most impressive thing is that they took all 20-something films and made an intertwining story with all of them that culminated in Avengers Infinity War and Endgame.  That's the most ambitious film project in cinematic history by far.
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Offline segnosaur

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #137 on: September 14, 2021, 03:23:22 pm »
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If you really want to give comic book movies another try, I might recommend "Iron Man". It was one of the first movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (so you wouldn't have had to have seen others in the franchise). And, it had many elements that I like about the genre... decent special effects/action, mix of humor and drama.
I saw the first one and big meh.
Well, if you didn't like the first Iron Man, you probably won't get much out of the rest of the Marvel movies. (Not that they're "All the Same", since many of them do cross different genre boundaries, but its kind of the "standard" for their particular brand.)

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I almost forgot... once set of decent super hero moves that is available on Netflix is the Batman trilogy series by Christopher Nolan (with Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman).
Oh yeah - I think I DID see that !  :O and it was good too...
So super hero movies aren't a TOTAL write-off for you.
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What about The Joker - is that in that series ?
No, its not part of any series. It is a completely stand-alone movie that has nothing to do with either the 3 Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan Batman movies, nor the later Zac Snyder movies (Batman v. Superman/Justice League). You can see it without having seen any other movies. (You might actually like it too... no appearance by Batman, nobody else in tights. More of a psychological study on someone trying to cope with mental illness and the stresses of being disadvantaged.) And it is on Netflix. (To nitpick: It was actually just called "Joker" instead of "The Joker".)

Personally, I thought it was... OK. Acting was good. No real humor in it (but I wasn't expecting any). But I did think the plot was a little weak.

That is one of the differences between the 2 brands... Marvel has gone great lengths to develop a cohesive set of films that all fit together in the same "universe", with different movies fitting into the whole big grand scheme of things. In my opinion, its quite impressive to accomplish that across over a dozen movies.

On the other hand DC has done things... differently. They made the 3 Nolan batman movies, then the Zac Snyder movies (that had nothing to do with the Nolan movies). Now they're making more movies that are follow-ups/sequels to the Justice League, but they are also coming out with a Batman movie that has nothing to do with any of the recent movies. Then there were the 2 "Suicide Squad" movies, the first was related to the Snyder movies, the second was sort of a sequel but not really a sequel, since it had a couple of the same characters but they made no reference to the first one.

I find the differences in approaches between the 2 companies rather interesting to examine.

Offline segnosaur

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #138 on: September 14, 2021, 03:44:50 pm »
Superhero flicks are hit and miss and usually meh.  Some standouts are the first Guardians of the Galaxy, Logan, Deadpool 1, Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity War  and Endgame.  Civil War, Winter Solider, the the first Thor movie were also good.

The others were meh or crappy.  They've made so many movies they're now scraping the bottom of the barrel making films of crappy characters like Shangi-Chi, Black Widow etc.
I thought they were scraping the bottom of the barrel with Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man (neither of whom were well-known properties), but they somehow managed to pull it off and make movies that were somewhat enjoyable/successful.
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The worst thing about these movies is that they take up all the blockbuster real estate at the box office.  In the 2000's you had some superhero movies but also Lord of the Rings movies, Harry Potter films, Star Wars prequels etc.  Now its just Marvel/Star Wars Disney crap.
Well, even after Marvel started to release their movies (back in 2009), you still had Avatar, Jurassic World, Fast and Furious films, Transformers movies, James Bond movies, the Hobbit films, and various animated movies from Pixar and Disney, all of which rival many of the Marvel and DC movies. So there appears to be plenty of "blockbuster real estate" that hasn't been taken up by super hero films.

(If people remember the super hero movies more, its perhaps because at least some of them were pretty well done, and Marvel has kept up the quality, whereas things like the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Transformers, etc. have descended into junk.)
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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #139 on: September 14, 2021, 05:52:27 pm »
News flash! People here saying I have to watch Infiniti war?! Or I can't watch and game?! There all try to help me out

Offline Queefer Sutherland

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #140 on: September 14, 2021, 08:06:25 pm »
News flash! People here saying I have to watch Infiniti war?! Or I can't watch and game?! There all try to help me out

It's a 2-part story.  Infinity War continues with End Game.  They're both good movies, I actually liked Infinity War better.
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Offline segnosaur

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #141 on: September 14, 2021, 09:49:40 pm »
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News flash! People here saying I have to watch Infiniti war?! Or I can't watch and game?! There all try to help me out
It's a 2-part story.  Infinity War continues with End Game.
Yup, its kind of like watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, without seeing part 1 first.

Of course, even if you watch Infinity War first, you might still be a bit confused regarding some of the other characters and events referenced from previous movies. (Although if you were a regular comic book reader when young, you might recognize enough of the plot points and characters from there that you wouldn't be totally lost.)
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They're both good movies, I actually liked Infinity War better.
I have to agree... Stronger dramatic moments, more classic one-liners in Infinity War. I am happy with both of them though.

Offline kimmy

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #142 on: September 15, 2021, 12:33:50 am »
News flash! People here saying I have to watch Infiniti war?! Or I can't watch and game?! There all try to help me out

okay bubba so first off, it's "Infinity War", not "Infiniti War".  This isn't a Nissan product.

So also, the Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame movies were, genuinely, pretty amazing because, as Poonlight and Segnosaur said, they're the culmination of a story that has been built through at least a dozen previous movies. Love or hate the result, I don't think anything similar has even been attempted before. Infinity War and Endgame provided, I think, a really satisfying conclusion to a family of films that while more or less able to stand on their own,  were also loosely interconnected to a greater whole. 

I think that what's really compelling about "Endgame" is that it provides fulfilling completions to stories of characters that you've become emotionally connected with in previous films. If you've seen the previous Captain America films, seeing Steve Rogers finish his story in the arms of Peggy Carter might make your eyes tear up. If you don't know who Peggy Carter is, then not so much. If you've seen the previous Marvel movies, you can appreciate that seeing Tony Stark travel to the past and meet his father as a young man is an enchanting moment.  If you haven't, then maybe not so much.  There are some truly wonderful things that happen in these films, but if you aren't already immersed in the lore, you wouldn't fully appreciate it.  As Segnosaur said, there's a lot of buy-in to fully appreciate what they've done in these movies.  But for me, watching these movies along the way wasn't a chore, wasn't homework to appreciate a bigger payoff down the road. These movies were great fun in their own right, regardless of being part of a bigger payoff down the road.

One scene in Endgame has Steve Rogers telling Natasha that he'd seen dolphins jumping in the harbour that day.  Less pollution and less human traffic was a real plus of the post-Infinity War world, apparently, because the dolphins were bouncing back.  Natasha told him that she'd beat him with her sandwich if he kept trying to boost her spirits with **** like that.

That was pre-Covid. Last year I read an article stating that dolphins had been seen in Vienna's harbour for the first time in decades, thanks to reduced pollution and human traffic due to Covid. It immediately made me think of that scene in Endgame.


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Offline kimmy

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #143 on: September 15, 2021, 12:44:20 am »
I hate that this genre is dominant.

A friend who is in his mid 40s likes 'em and recommended Deadpool.

No go.

Am I lost?  Does anyone over fifty like these?

I'll tell you in a couple of decades bubba  :P

I liked Deadpool, but Deadpool is fourth-wall breaking, self-referential, genre-skewering silliness.  I feel like to really enjoy Deadpool you have to like the genre enough to laugh along at the genre tropes they're making fun of.  I picture MH watching Deadpool pointing at the screen and shouting "I KNOW, RIGHT?!" and "THIS, but UNIRONICALLY!"

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Offline kimmy

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #144 on: September 15, 2021, 12:59:43 am »
I thought they were scraping the bottom of the barrel with Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man (neither of whom were well-known properties), but they somehow managed to pull it off and make movies that were somewhat enjoyable/successful.

I think that what made Guardians really special is that it was so completely outside the box. It's directed by James Gunn, who also directed The Suicide Squad movie that I was raving about yesterday. The movies have a lot in common. I think they're the two best-reviewed "superhero" movies since Christopher Nolan's Batman movies way back when. I thought Guardians was a risky idea at the time, but it was an amazing success and it kind of laid the groundwork for the Infinity War movies. The Marvel nameplate got people in the seats, but a genuinely endearing group of characters is what made the movie so beloved.

Well, even after Marvel started to release their movies (back in 2009), you still had Avatar, Jurassic World, Fast and Furious films, Transformers movies, James Bond movies, the Hobbit films, and various animated movies from Pixar and Disney, all of which rival many of the Marvel and DC movies. So there appears to be plenty of "blockbuster real estate" that hasn't been taken up by super hero films.

(If people remember the super hero movies more, its perhaps because at least some of them were pretty well done, and Marvel has kept up the quality, whereas things like the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Transformers, etc. have descended into junk.)

I think that even pre-covid, movie economics had changed to favor blockbusters rather than modest-budget movies. Post-covid, almost all of the major theatrical releases have been Disney. I think that right now there's a lot of anxiety about theatrical releases, and a belief that only blockbuster type movies will get people out to theatres at all. On the bright side, Netflix and Amazon Prime are giving venues to movies that might have never seen a theatrical release even before covid.

 -k
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Offline segnosaur

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #145 on: September 15, 2021, 01:40:40 pm »
I think that even pre-covid, movie economics had changed to favor blockbusters rather than modest-budget movies. Post-covid, almost all of the major theatrical releases have been Disney. I think that right now there's a lot of anxiety about theatrical releases, and a belief that only blockbuster type movies will get people out to theatres at all. On the bright side, Netflix and Amazon Prime are giving venues to movies that might have never seen a theatrical release even before covid.
For all the complaints about Super Hero movies "killing" the movie industry, there were more than twice as many movies released in 2019 (pre covid, 792) as there were in 2000 (371).

See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/187122/movie-releases-in-north-america-since-2001/

The industry is changing in a lot of ways... the budgets for blockbusters seems to be increasing, but improved technology makes it easier to produce low-budget movies. Streaming and better televisions in the home are diverting people from the theater, but its giving new life to movies that might otherwise not find an audience.
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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #146 on: September 15, 2021, 02:18:35 pm »
Streaming and better televisions in the home are diverting people from the theater, but its giving new life to movies that might otherwise not find an audience.

I get it.  But I want my cake and my pie.

I love the galaxies of quality stuff out there.  But the big screens never have anything good - one or two choices only.

Cake.

Pie.

NOW.

Offline Dia

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #147 on: September 25, 2021, 10:09:29 am »
Not a movie….   But anyone watch “The Boys”?

It takes the superhero movie and flips it on its head.  The “heroes” are egotistical psychopaths that get away with murder with good marketing from a company that created them and tries to manage their image. 

The heroes are the normal people who are trying to expose them for what they really are. 

It’s on Amazon Prime.

I thought it was excellent.






Yeah, that's a good series, and seems more real to life if superheroes actually existed.   Superheroes who aren't intrinsically altruistic, but messily human and have unusual powers being exploited by a corporation is a good take.  Looking forward to it's return.
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Offline Dia

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #148 on: September 25, 2021, 10:27:07 am »
I hate that this genre is dominant.

A friend who is in his mid 40s likes 'em and recommended Deadpool.

No go.

Am I lost?  Does anyone over fifty like these?

In our 60s here.  I scoffed at them for a long time, but then watched Dr Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy, and was hooked.  My partner still has to tell me who a lot of the characters are and how they're related because he read the comics.

Most shows with super villains leave me wondering why they just randomly want to destroy humans, but the Infinity War/Endgame movies gave a reason.  Thanos was convinced his evil was for the greater good, and plenty of people might even agree with him, in theory.  I liked knowing his motivation wasn't simply that he hated humankind for some obscure reason or no reason at all.
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Offline segnosaur

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Re: Superhero Movies
« Reply #149 on: September 27, 2021, 07:31:16 pm »
Most shows with super villains leave me wondering why they just randomly want to destroy humans, but the Infinity War/Endgame movies gave a reason.
Apparently, in the comics, Thanos wants to wipe out half of all life because he has a romantic crush on "Death" and wants to impress her.
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Thanos was convinced his evil was for the greater good, and plenty of people might even agree with him, in theory.  I liked knowing his motivation wasn't simply that he hated humankind for some obscure reason or no reason at all.
Some people think the best movie villains are ones you can look at and actually agree with their point (at least on some level).

Black Panther was similar.... the main antagonist was one who thought Wakanda should be doing more to help the disadvantaged. (Which he sort of had a point.)