Comic Book Films & TV

[Colly]

Fight Club.

[TKz]

[Sousa]

Saw Days of Future Past today. Pretty good, not sure where it being on par with Avengers or Cap 2 is coming from beyond people who really love the X-Men franchise. Very surprised at how much I enjoyed Quicksilver.

I think the expectations were pretty low after a run of mediocre-at-best movies, and it definitely exceeded them--especially the first half. The second half had some good set pieces but I thought it was generally pretty dull. By the time we got to Magneto's now-required "this is how powerful Magneto is" bit I was about ready to leave.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Saw Days of Future Past today. Pretty good, not sure where it being on par with Avengers or Cap 2 is coming from beyond people who really love the X-Men franchise. Very surprised at how much I enjoyed Quicksilver.

I think the expectations were pretty low after a run of mediocre-at-best movies, and it definitely exceeded them--especially the first half. The second half had some good set pieces but I thought it was generally pretty dull. By the time we got to Magneto's now-required "this is how powerful Magneto is" bit I was about ready to leave.

Out of curiosity, what do you consider mediocre-at-best movies? Weren't the two X-Men movies that preceded DOFP First Class (which was, in my honest opinion, the best X-Men movie right along with X2) and The Wolverine (which to me is on par with DOFP)? Sure, the two that preceded those were X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine, I believe, but I think the run of mediocre X-Men movies began and ended with those two. Not saying DOFP was brilliant, because as I have stated before, while it was good, it wasn't great and are better X-Men movies, but I think saying it was preceded by a mediocre run is a bit unfair.

[Gabriel]

X-Men was okay.

X2 was very good.

The Last Stand was awful.

Origins: Wolverine was a mindlessly fun clusterfuck.

First Class was very good, on par and maybe slightly better than X2.

The Wolverine was less fun than Origins, but better put together... and completely forgettable.

I haven't seen DOFP yet, but from all indications, it fails to live up to First Class, but is better than anything involving the original cast. If that's the case, then yes, DOFP continues the tradition of mediocrity in the X-Men film universe.

I honestly believe that if the day comes that Marvel gets the franchise back, that it won't take long for these movies to be forgotten, aside from individual standout performances.

[TKz]

I mean it's all opinion, but I'd definitely put DofP above First Class, just not above X2.

[GoGo Yubari]

I watched First Class last weekend and thought it was just alright. Well-cast except for January Jones, which was such a disastrous miscalculation that I bet they wouldn't have abruptly gone "oh btw Emma's dead" for in this one had they actually cast someone who could have played Emma Frost instead of just looking like her. They played with the time period alright but did it way better in Days of Future Past where all the IT WAS THE SEVENTIES stuff was actually fun (especially Quicksilver, whose costume I thought was absolute garbage until the movie made it clear that no, this is what a teenager in the '70s would think makes a cool outfit). The plot wasn't really amazing or compelling and it mostly just felt like groundwork for future movies. It was the Captain America: The First Avenger of the X-Men movies.

[livid]

I think First Class is the pinnacle of the series but I may or may not be blinded by Matthew Vaughn fanboy love.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

First Class was wonderful, but I really liked Days of Future Past too. I tend to love most superhero films.

[Benjamin]

This is just my individual opinion, but for me, mediocre is the perfect word to describe the X-Men movies run. The first trilogy was a run of good patches with bad patches, I liked the first Wolverine movie for being the silly action film it was, First Class was pretty good, second Wolverine movie was silly action film as well, and DoFP was just mediocre for me. I agree with Sousa, by the time we got Magneto and the train bit, I was ready to go home, thinking we were like 5 minutes away from the end, it felt that long.

[DMN in the House]

I know it's From Yesterday, but to get it in, if Jared Leto doesn't play Dr. Strange, then This Is War.

Also, I liked The Wolverine... except for the bone claws, but that's because I hate the idea of bone claws on principle. If I remember, doesn't the Japanese girl he falls for turn into that villain with the long adamantium nail/claw things? I forget her name, I think she's the mother of Logan's child, but then again, I don't remember my convoluted 90s X-Men continuity that well.

[tristy]

I thought the rumors for Dr. Strange was Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch. I haven't heard/seen the Jared Leto talk.

[GoGo Yubari]

I've never heard anything serious re: Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange and hope to keep it that way.

[Maxx]

Littlefinger or GTFO!

[EWB's Best Poster.]

I know it's From Yesterday, but to get it in, if Jared Leto doesn't play Dr. Strange, then This Is War.

Also, I liked The Wolverine... except for the bone claws, but that's because I hate the idea of bone claws on principle. If I remember, doesn't the Japanese girl he falls for turn into that villain with the long adamantium nail/claw things? I forget her name, I think she's the mother of Logan's child, but then again, I don't remember my convoluted 90s X-Men continuity that well.

The woman he falls for does not become lady deathstrike, whom is in the second xmen movie.

[TKz]

I've never heard anything serious re: Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange and hope to keep it that way.

Seems like it's the second run of rumors floating around. Overall I kind of like the idea of Leto better than either. Cumberbatch is too recognizable at this point, getting hard to separate him from Sherlock. Not sure about Hardy, he's got the acting skills, but he's probably got too much on his plate. If Mad Max doesn't suck, he's got a pretty decent franchise for himself already.

[Avenged Probably]

I know it's From Yesterday, but to get it in, if Jared Leto doesn't play Dr. Strange, then This Is War.

Also, I liked The Wolverine... except for the bone claws, but that's because I hate the idea of bone claws on principle. If I remember, doesn't the Japanese girl he falls for turn into that villain with the long adamantium nail/claw things? I forget her name, I think she's the mother of Logan's child, but then again, I don't remember my convoluted 90s X-Men continuity that well.

IIRC Lady Deathstrike is Yuriko, her connection was that her Father created the Adamantium bonding process. Her Father had been 'dishonored' for whatever reason and believed Wolverine had stole his life's work. Although I think as well as being a scientist he was also some kind of crime lord.

Mariko, the one who he falls in love with in the film is the Daughter of Shingen, also a crime lord in the comics. So I guess that might be where you're getting confused. Not to mention Mariko/Yuriko sound similar, there's Yukio too.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Also, Wolverine was forced to kill Mariko to spare her suffering because she had been poisoned, IIRC. Not really that relevant, just wanted to throw that out there.

[Benjamin]

I'm not sure which one she was, but the one Wolverine did get to sleep with was smoking hot and I wished we had more of her instead of whiny "Jean!" scenes every goddamn X-Men movie. Thankfully it looks like that won't happen ever again.

[Toe]

I never understood that, really.

If he didn't want other people to do things with his works, why did he ever sell the rights? Or is it just a case of him walking away from projects after they're done and the publishers owning the rights?

Either way, he's a great example for today's artists in all media to make sure that they are in control of their properties.

In the majority of cases, he didn't sell the rights, because he barely owned them; it's more to do with the vast majority of mainstream comic book publisher contracts being geared towards the publisher retaining copyright, not the creator.

He did sell the rights to League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though. And look how that turned out.

I know this is from over a year ago but....

Alan Moore, when he did Watchmen, signed a deal where he would get all the rights to it once it went out of print. At the time, pretty much every graphic novel went out of print after a year or two. This was considered a sweet deal for Moore.

However, Watchmen has been in print since it was released, meaning DC maintains the rights. That's why they did the movie and they were able to do the Before Watchmen comics.