Comic Book Films & TV

[Lint]

13 hours ago, Tyrone said:

The standalone Venom movie will feature Carnage as the villain 

I'm so in.

Ehh not yet.  Carnage is a serial killing psychopath.  That movie is going to need an R to do the character right

[MalaCloudy Black]

Reviews for Spider-Man: Homecoming won't start coming out until next week, but the social media embargo's been lifted for those who have seen it. 

 

[=BK=]

This is more a general thought more than a comment on the Spidey actor...

 

Man I've never heard a Spider-Man voice that sits with me as the perfect Spider-Man voice. None of the movies or cartoons.

 

[Benjamin]

I've never listened to the reviews when it comes to summer blockbusters. There is no one that knows popcorn fun less than film critics.

[JasonM]

Well, not as ridiculous as Benjamin. But I feel that Popcorn cinema can't really be quantified in the classic way of grading other types of films. It's about visceral excitement and generally having 2 or so hours of excitement, a few laughs, a few tears, but ultimately excitement. It's not weird that such films often grade lower, because by design they lack the super deep story telling element of a drama flick.

So yeah, I feel I can trust movie goers themselves more in terms of grading summer blockbusters, as opposed to going by people meticulously scaling one film against every film ever made. I don't expect Spiderman: Homecoming to be Shawshank Redemption or the Shawshank Redemption of superhero flicks, I wouldn't even want it to be that, I want it to simply be a great film that gets me 2 hours of enjoyment and bantering with my mates about what the coolest scene was, and what reference everyone picked up.

There's some good reviewers out there still, that focus on grading films for what they are. And they do a good job of telling a reader about how good it is for what it is, if it's drama then it's graded like drama, if it's comedy it's graded as comedy, and a superhero flick is weighed against other popcorn flicks. I've found AVClub to be the most consistent and least 'high-strung', in that regard.

[=BK=]

I find the way some people look at movies to be ridiculous. Watch movie. Is movie entertaining? If yes, good movie. If no, bad movie. Everything else is useless complication. 

[apsham]

In the same way, I don't see why people take reviewers doing so as a personal affront. Unless the reviewer is snobbish about everything, I really don't take issue with it.

[Gabriel]

22 hours ago, Apsham said:

In the same way, I don't see why people take reviewers doing so as a personal affront. Unless the reviewer is snobbish about everything, I really don't take issue with it.

I think people need to realize that something being a bad movie doesn't necessarily mean it isn't entertaining. As a horror fan, I learned that at a very young age. Some of my favorite movies to watch are complete trash. Conversely, movies that are well made aren't necessarily entertaining. I recognize that the Academy Awards are all about excellence in filmmaking, acting and more... but I could not care any less about the movies that get that recognition, because I don't feel like I get the entertainment out of them that I feel like I need to get, with the limited time that I have as an adult.

Ideally, for me, a movie is both good and entertaining... but they don't always go hand in hand.

In regards to comic book movies and reviewers being harsh about them? It all comes down to what that specific reviewer wants to see. I've seen critics give five stars to movies that were coma-inducingly boring, just because the set pieces and direction are top notch. I've also seen the reverse. I feel like this comes down on the reader and that the readers themselves are responsible for forming their own opinion, based off of what they've read and knowing how the critic thinks.

Besides, art is subjective. Not everyone is going to love the same stuff.

[MalaCloudy Black]

 

[JasonM]

Of course Iwan Rheon would be cast to be the bad guy again. Of course, that's not meant negatively, i'm sure he'll be a great evil scumbag.

[Josh]

I don't see the appeal in that. Should I?

[Benji]

I'm hyped, but the Inhumans are one of my faves and probably closest I'll ever get to something like what I'd hope a Namor film/TV show would be (my favourite character), so I am biased.

Also, super hype for Lockjaw.

[apsham]

I am so fucking hyped for Inhumans and so sad to know that it's going to likely bomb. It's an unknown property to most and while Black Bolt is probably one of my favorite comic characters ever I don't think it'll transfer to screen all that well or at least as well as Guardians did... the Guardians had a lot of gimmicks to catch people who didn't know about them initially up.

Edit: Partial relief - I thought it was still a movie and not a TV series. Lower ceiling then, and more for me.

[JasonM]

The problem I see with Black Bolt is just the sheer insanity of making a mute into your star attraction. Sure, it's all explained pretty neatly that he kills anything in sight when he opens his mouth, but it is still bound for some extremely stilted acting to make it all work. Many comics starring Black Bolt find it hard to make it work properly a lot of times, I doubt a TV Series (which kinda is all about the spoken word) will make it look good either. And with the director being who he is, it doesn't fill me with confidence that they might surprise in that regard.

Guardians made it work with Groot, because Groot isn't a star attraction. He's the fifth guy of the rag tag group of misfits, and so he doesn't need deep conversation to be entertaining. He's just a talking tree that can only say three things in an exact order, the other characters talking around that makes it all the more entertaining as they either are fully capable of understanding the guy, or are making up their own answers as they go.

The trailer also didn't look good at all. Like people have mentioned all over, having only Maximus talk throughout a 2 minute trailer is ludicrous and makes it seem like the trailer people were afraid of splicing in other people because they would bring the quality down. (It could be construed as that.)

And as has been mentioned, it's all so bland and somewhat cheaply designed. Like it's from the CW or SyFy rather than a touted ABC production. Medusa looked quite terrible, honestly, and the hair was utterly stupid looking. And I understand the impossibility to make hair as luscious as it is in the comics, but man they could've done much better with that. Maybe keep the hair ordinary long rather than rapunzel long, make it volumous, and CGI the shit out of it when she starts using her powers to choke bitches.

I didn't mind them race bending Gorgon and Karnak, and Gorgon looks pretty decent. But Karnak, wooow did they get that one wrong. He doesn't look like Karnak, he doesn't come across as intimidating, and the facial tattoos on an Asian man is borderline offensive, if the entire character didn't look offensive from the start.

They could've done so much to impress people, but they've failed to do that. And it will hurt this series greatly, since the ones they need to win over are the ones watching those trailers in the first place, since the fans are gonna give it a try regardless of it looking good.

I genuinely hope they can bring out a much improved second trailer to regain some thunder, because else they might compete with Thor 2 to become the worst thing in the MCU.

[The Lusophone]

Medusa's hair is nowhere near big enough.

[I Don't Mind]

I think where they went wrong with Black Bolt is 1) not getting an actor emotive enough in his facial expressions, and 2) not directing around him as though he was a dog. In TV and film we've mastered the art of making a non-speaking animal act in such a way to evoke some sort of emotion from us. This dude looks like he's just a robot and we're waiting for him to talk. Hearing him talk should be like hearing a fucking dog talk, it means something big!

And speaking of dogs, stoked to see Lockjaw, who they did understand how to direct around

Edited June 30, 2017 by I Don't Mind

[JasonM]

11 hours ago, Mad Jack said:

Medusa's hair is nowhere near big enough.

I honestly don't feel that they need Medusa's character to have ludicrously long hair to get her powers across. They would've been better off shortening the hair significantly, keep it longer than average, but let it actually have some volume and texture to it rather than a woman wearing a ginger mop on her head.

With Marvel having no issues adapting things from Comics to MCU, it's weird to me that they apparently drew the line in the most arbitrary places. As if fans won't buy a Medusa with hair that can't clean a floor wherever she walks.

Like I said, giving her ordinary long hair and then adapting the powers to allow Medusa to grow her hair out whenever needed through CGI would make it look better. Much better, because anything is better than how she looked in the trailer.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Jasonmufc

[Benjamin]

I'm really sad at how awful that trailer looks  

[JasonM]

1 minute ago, Benjamin said:

I'm really sad at how awful that trailer looks  

There there, we can always hope that they do a reverse Suicide Squad where the trailer is shit and the series will be amazing. Right?!

[Benjamin]

I mean, at least Lockjaw looks like he'll be fun, right?

And who knows, it might end up like AoS and have the first half of season 1 be tripe while they work out the kinks of what they want the show to be.