Comic Book Movies Thread

[Torgo]

New Mutants receives it's fortieth new release date in August.

[Torgo]

Snyder cut of Justice League is happening:

www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1135807-warner-bros-unveils-justice-league-snyder-cut

It probably won't make the movie good (most Snyder movies aren't), but maybe it will feel like an actual movie now.

[Mod City]

May 20, 2020 14:07:54 GMT -5 Torgo said:

Snyder cut of Justice League is happening:

www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1135807-warner-bros-unveils-justice-league-snyder-cut

It probably won't make the movie good (most Snyder movies aren't), but maybe it will feel like an actual movie now.

I can't believe it will justify the obnoxious social media movement to get this thing released, but I really like the director's cut of Watchmen, so I'll check it out. Gotta get HBO though. Haven't had it in over 20 years. Ugh. Maybe later.

[Torgo]

May 20, 2020 18:52:01 GMT -5 Mod City said:

May 20, 2020 14:07:54 GMT -5 Torgo said:

Snyder cut of Justice League is happening:

www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1135807-warner-bros-unveils-justice-league-snyder-cut

It probably won't make the movie good (most Snyder movies aren't), but maybe it will feel like an actual movie now.

I can't believe it will justify the obnoxious social media movement to get this thing released, but I really like the director's cut of Watchmen, so I'll check it out. Gotta get HBO though. Haven't had it in over 20 years. Ugh. Maybe later.

Technically it will be on HBOMax, which is WB's Disney+ style streaming service, so you won't have to subscribe to HBO, so that's a plus.

As for the movement, Snyder fans are just obnoxious in the first place. Every criticism against BVS is just brushed off as the viewer "not getting it" and "stick to kiddie movies." The honest to god truth is most of the criticism of that movie comes from the fact that the people criticizing it are paying attention to it and have legitimate questions about it (like what the hell is Lex Luthor even trying to accomplish anyway?). I like aspects of it, and see virtues in Snyder's approach to the characters, but the movie is a failure as a story.

Seriously, there is no excuse for this garbage.



I paid no attention to the Snyder Cut movement because I knew it would be equally insufferable.

That being said, the way I see it is that BVS was Snyder's fault, Justice League was WB's fault. I don't believe Snyder's going to magically make a great movie out of what he had, but I'm interested in seeing it because at least with his version there would be some sort of vision behind it.

At any rate, now we can forget this nonsense and finally bug WB to #ReleaseTheMustacheCut.

[TV's Cowboy]

May 20, 2020 19:27:25 GMT -5 Torgo said:

May 20, 2020 18:52:01 GMT -5 Mod City said:

I can't believe it will justify the obnoxious social media movement to get this thing released, but I really like the director's cut of Watchmen, so I'll check it out. Gotta get HBO though. Haven't had it in over 20 years. Ugh. Maybe later.

Technically it will be on HBOMax, which is WB's Disney+ style streaming service, so you won't have to subscribe to HBO, so that's a plus.

As for the movement, Snyder fans are just obnoxious in the first place. Every criticism against BVS is just brushed off as the viewer "not getting it" and "stick to kiddie movies."

You're not wrong. I just told this to someone else but regardless of how good or bad this cut will be you're already going to get those guys claiming it's better than "all those quipy Marvel movies from Disney"

[Mighty Jack]

I'd be curious to see it though.

The directors cut of BVS was better - not that it became brilliant, but it made more sense. The story flows better, narrative gaps are filled in. Lois as reporter is a stronger presence; Superman becomes a more sympathetic figure, Clark a more pro-active one. Bruce’s motivation is given greater weight (he sees children on a field trip put into danger). Lex’s machinations and frame-ups are fleshed out. Saying that - the Martha/Martha stuff is still hilarious and Eisenberg is wretched. So, it's not all sunshine and roses.

I won't get HBO Max specifically to see the Snyder cut of JL, but maybe if it pops up elsewhere someday, I'd check it out.

[Torgo]

I do agree the Ultimate Cut of BVS is the better version, though when it came out on disc I had friends ask which version I'd recommend and I'd say "The Ultimate is better...but strap in, because it's three hours long." Every time I'd always get "Ugh."

That movie is frustrating as hell, because I get so much of what it's trying to be, it just does it wrong. I get the "MarTHAAAAAAAAaaaa!" scene, it's just botched and hilarious. I get Lex being Mark Zuckerburg, but he comes off as a non-motivated lunatic. I get the polarizing media portrayal of Superman, but it doesn't really have resolution.

But I still think it's a better movie than Justice League because...at least BVS is something. Justice League isn't really anything.

[TV's Cowboy]

For me the theatrical cut of BvS was all I could handle. I can't imagine watching that for three hours so I guess I'd be in the "ugh" section.

[Mighty Jack]

I've sat through Shoah (9 hrs 26 mins), Sátántangó (7 hr, 19 min), La Roue (6 hr, 53 min), The Best of Youth (6 hr, 6 min) and a bunch at the 5+ hour point. No 3-hour flick, even if it is BVS, can best me.

Though, I might have gone a little mad, as this video, taken of me celebrating at the end, can attest...

[Torgo]

But can you sit through all ten hours of this?

[Torgo]

So a lot of comic related stuff has happened in the last week.  The big elephant in the room is that the King of Wakanda has passed, and I've been utterly shocked to the core by this news.  This is different than Adam West or Stan Lee passing after living a full life.  This feels like being one of those kids who was left confused by George Reeves' suicide in 1959.  This is like losing Christopher Reeve days after the release of Superman II.  We just watched him play a character that is essentially a modern day version of a Greek demigod, and, in an instant, he is gone.

But he never will be in our hearts.  Long live the King.

Okay, onto much nerdier stuff:  DC FanDome was a thing.  I was hoping for more surprise announcements (closest thing to a surprise was that they're tossing the ball around on a Static Shock movie), like Green Lantern Corps news or surprise Swamp Thing renewal or Zatanna movie or whatever.  Not much of that.  If anything we got what was expected.  My favorite stuff was James Gunn's Suicide Squad, which looks great.  We got a lot of info on the Snyder Cut, which looks and sounds exactly as self indulgent as I thought it would (the flapjackser is going to be four hours long FFS).  The Flash definitely has my interest.  I'm of the opinion that he needs a traditional hero movie before we play with time, parallel universes, and Flashpoint, but I'm intrigued by the direction the movie is going in.  And we also had the Rock patting himself on the back and reminding us that he's Black Adam.  Good for you, dude.  I'm more excited to see Hawkman though.

The one everyone was talking about was The Batman, which I was like...yeah, I guess.  There are a few things holding me back on this movie.  One is that I've liked exactly one Matt Reeves movie in my entire life (War for the Planet of the Apes, and no I didn't care for Dawn).  Another is that I look at a trailer for a new Batman movie and it's approach is "dark 'n' gritty and REAL, following early Batman" and I'm like...I've seen that.  Those were the Nolan Batman movies.  I have problems with Batman v Superman and Justice League, but I was excited for a movie series about an experienced Batman living in a larger than life world where he's holding his own next to those who are essentially gods.  Reverting it to this and I'm really just not interested.  It looks fine at being what it is, but I need something else with this franchise, and this trailer ain't it.

And last, and inarguably least (though this probably would have been the big note during any other month), The New Mutants, probably the most kicked around comic book movie in recent memory, came out this weekend.  Most people didn't care, because the only thing they'd risk breaking social distancing for is Tenet (which I have seen and it's good, but not worth rushing out to see).  You'll see a lot of clickbait headlines saying "New Mutants flops with 7 million opening," but guess what?  Highest opening weekend since March.  Suck on that, bitch.

Is the movie worth waiting two-and-a-half years for?  Is it worth beating up because of it's hilariously constant delays?  The movie is...fine...ish.  I get it.  It's not special nor done well, but it's a better last gasp of Fox's X-Men/Marvel franchises than Dark Phoenix was.  Hell, I'd say it's a right shade better than X-Men:  Apocalypse too. I also can't help but feel a lot of the bad reviews being written and calling it "the worst X-movie" are doing it because picking on this movie is the "in" trend right now.

There's an idea here.  In many ways it's the same idea that was being developed by Josh Trank in his Fantastic Four movie, in exploring the body horror behind physical transformation of super powers.  One of...many...reasons Trank's film failed was because Fantastic Four wasn't the right license to explore this idea, which contributed to that particular film winding up being cluttered up nonsense.  Exploring the idea in the world of the X-Men though, that seems like an idea that's worth a go.  There's a scene in New Mutants where Sunspot talks about being unable to control his mutant powers while trying to be intimate with his girlfriend, which resulted in her being roasted alive, which echoes of Rogue's power development scene at the beginning of the first X-Men movie all those years ago.  There is a story to be explored here, the idea of being something dangerous without knowing it.  And a story about wielding you power to your advantage could be a powerful one.

This particular movie needs a different team to develop it, however.  I loved Josh Boone's The Fault in Our Stars, but he clearly isn't a horror director.  His filmmaking techniques are very base and cliched, without any actual tension.  He uses flash edits, loud noises, and dim lighting, and not much else.  For a while it felt like the entire facility this film takes place at didn't even have a lightbulb, then there was a swimming scene where someone turned the lights off and I was like "Wait...the lights are on?" then when he turns them off...there really isn't that much of a difference.  The movie's style is just an epic fail.

But I mostly liked the cast, and if the flick has any charisma it's because of them.  The romance between Maisie Williams and Blu Hunt is cute and fun, and Anya-Taylor Joy is always fun to watch. Though my problem with Joy's character of Magik is that while her power set comes straight from the comics, it's very out of place in this movie, and it's not really given enough exposition for us to be comfortable with her pulling swords and dragons and portals out of her ass while the other mutants just get very hot or really fuzzy. Also, she talks to a hand puppet throughout the entire movie, which offsets the movie's tone.

The success of New Mutants doesn't really matter anymore. We were never getting a sequel to this movie, even if it came out in 2018 like it was supposed to, because the Fox buyout was just around the corner and all not-filmed X-Men movies were cancelled (goodbye Gambit movie). The one thing I asked myself in seeing this almost mythical, unseen film all these years later is would it have made a good franchise? I would have been intrigued to see another film, if only to see more of this universe's Essex Corporation and Mister Sinister, but I'm not too bothered by it being a one-off. It's not good enough to shed a tear for, but it's not bad enough to laugh at its failure. It's something that exists.

X-Men Final Ranking:
1.  Logan
2.  X-Men
3.  Deadpool
4.  X-Men:  First Class
5.  X-Men:  Days of Future Past
6.  Deadpool 2
7.  X-Men Origins:  Wolverine
8.  X-Men:  The Last Stand
9.  The Wolverine
10.  X2
11.  The New Mutants
12.  Dark Phoenix
13.  X-Men:  Apocalypse

20th Century Fox Marvel Movie Final Ranking:
1.  Logan
2.  Daredevil
3.  X-Men
4.  Deadpool
5.  X-Men:  First Class
6.  X-Men:  Days of Future Past
7.  Deadpool 2
8.  X-Men Origins:  Wolverine
9.  X-Men:  The Last Stand
10.  The Wolverine
11.  X2
12.  Fantastic Four (2005)
13.  The New Mutants
14.  Fantastic Four:  Rise of the Silver Surfer
15.  Dark Phoenix
16.  X-Men:  Apocalypse
17.  Elektra
18.  Fantastic Four (2015)

2020 Comic Book Movie Ranking:
1. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
2. The New Mutants
3. Bloodshot
(Haven't seen The Old Guard, Netflix can piss off)

[Mighty Jack]

Finally saw New Mutants, and I pretty much fall in line with Torgo's way of seeing it. It's not bad, but it's not great - I feel it's a missed opportunity and needed a stronger directorial hand who could do horror and psychology... I guess one could argue that he's good with teenager tales, if you liked The Fault in Our Stars.

And it's too bad that it will lead nowhere, never lead us to Mr. Sinister. After rewatching D.P. it has dropped in my rankings, and yeah, New Mutants is probably better as a whole than Apocalypse (though nothing here matches, or packs the punch of Fassbinder's scenes with his family, and the loss of them).

Y'all probably already know this, but Magik's mutant power is teleportation, but she got involved with all that supernatural stuff (kidnapped by a demon as a child, later trained by Dr. Strange (in a retcon, I think) so she's a mix of mutant and sorcerer, which would fit with the horror aspects, except she's not really tied into the story in that way, it's Dani who drives the movie. Anyway, I liked the cast, and I like seeing Magik and the soul sword... but seriously, a hand puppet? That was beyond dumb (and besides, Lockheed's Kitty's pet)

My X-Rankings (though I keep waffling on whether Apocalypse or Dark Phoenix is the worst of the theatrical features - Apoc had some sweet scenes among the bloat -Fassbinder's stuff, which I mentioned, Quicksilver doing his bit, Phoenix letting loose at the end. And I need to watch the Last Stand, as I'm going back and forth on that and New Mutants in the rankings)

letterboxd.com/captainquint/list/my-x-men-x-rankings/

[Torgo]

Because streaming is exceptionally stupid, I got to watch Wonder Woman 1984 (stylized as simply WW84 in the film) on my phone today. Yay for modern technology?

Small thoughts, it's good but not as good as the first one. In fact I'm going to be bold and say that Birds of Prey is still the best comic book movie of the year. Again, I haven't seen The Old Guard, but between Bloodshot and New Mutants, this year is a pretty paltry contest.

It's hard to complain too hard about WW84 because it maintains a constantly joyous atmosphere from top to bottom and it's always a pleasurable to watch. I'd attribute some of that to the colorful cinematography, which ditches DC's trashy monochrome faded look for something vibrant. The tone is often similar, keeping things light and airy, more than any DC film save for Shazam. And the strong chemistry and bond between Gal Gadot and Chris Pine keeps the movie afloat. Their last scene together in the film is the best of the entire movie.

That being said, I find my opinion of the film lies in being very similar to the MCU Spider-Man films. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with them, and they're functional. It's just, you know, plain-tasting when a better product featuring this character already exists. The storyline is engaging, but seems to start and slow down in spurts. Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig are both great in places as the film's villains, but in others they don't feel like they're given stronger character traits (Wiig in general is just an archetype we see in a lot of these movies, from Jim Carrey in Batman Forever to Guy Pierce in Iron Man 3 to Jamie Foxx in Amazing Spider-Man 2). It all adds up to a movie that's functional, but not too memorable.

It's worth a watch, but one wonders what a stronger script could have accomplished. But I'm glad I got to watch it before the end of the year, unlike that pesky elusive Black Widow movie.

DC I Renounce My Wish Universe Ranking:
1. Wonder Woman
2. Shazam!
3. Man of Steel
4. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
5. Aquaman
6. WW84
7. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
8. Justice League
9. Suicide Squad

[Mighty Jack]

Dec 25, 2020 21:33:00 GMT -5 Torgo said:

In fact I'm going to be bold and say that Birds of Prey is still the best comic book movie of the year.

Bold isn't the word I'd use... maybe bananas? But in 2020 bananas is the norm. My personal bananas opinion puts New Mutants at the top, but that's against a weak field, none of them have been all that wonderful. I saw WW84 on a big screen TV and found it disappointingly dull. There are ideas there, but it never becomes as moving, empowering, or wise as the first. There isn't any "no man's land" moment, no matter how much it tries - no lump in my throat at sacrifices made, as happened with the first. Ah well, at least the Chinese food I ordered was good.

So for those on the season...

#1. New Mutants (3 out of 5-stars)
#2. WW84 (2.5)
#3. BOP (2-stars)

actually, the best comic booky thing I saw this year came from TV (Stargirl) and a miniseries (Watchmen, which was released in 2019, but I saw the discs in 2020)

[Torgo]

I do like a good banana.