Marval Films.

[Torgo]

Forrest's rants on Hulk and the fact I just watched Blade again tonight got me into a Marval mood. So I'm posting this topic to discuss movies based on Marval comics.

Back in the day, DC was ruling the theaters with the Superman series and Batman series. What did Marvel fans get? Howard the Duck and the Punisher staring Dolph Lundgren. But DC slipped up when they released the craptacular Superman IV and Batman Returns. They almost redeamed themselves with Batman Forever, but flushed it down the toidie again in 1997 with Batman & Robin and Steel (although I admit, I liked them both better than the vile Batman Returns). However 1997 did give me Men In Black which I consider one of the best comic films ever.

But Marval finaly got into the game when Blade was a surprise success. Then X-Men became a phenomenon and proved Avi Arad knew exactly what he was doing. So how does everyone feel Marval is doing so far?

For me:

Blade ** 1/2 out of ****

I admit, the plotholes are large enough to fit Santa Claus through, but I'm a sucker for some good action. Blade has always appealed to me as a good concept too. It was just executed a little melodramaticly. Stephen Norington proves in this film and this years League of Extrodinary Gentlemen that he's good with visuals and not acting.

X-Men **** out of ****

Great cast. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman all nailed the roles. I don't know which one I liked most. And of course, Ray Park rules! The rest of the cast is great, but if they replace any of the above in the sequels, I personally will be boycotting it. Great script too. Plus a nude Rebecca Romaign-Stamos in body paint, how could you not love it?

Blade II *** out of ****

A sequel that surpasses the original in terms of story. It reminds me of one of my favorite Schwarzenegger flicks, Predator. But the action is a little too CGI reliant for my tastes.

Spider-Man **** out of ****

Perfect cast, perfect script, perfect movie. One of the few complaints I have is Danny Elfman's score. How recycled can you get? He just seemed to rip off his score from Batman and Men In Black.

Daredevil **** out of ****

I know I'm in the minority that liked this movie, but this was a near perfect superhero movie. Had it been uncut, with less CGI and wirework, It might have surpassed Spider-Man. Ben Affleck (whom I feel is a very underrated actor) does fantastic as Matt Mudock, Garner was pretty good as Electra, Colin Ferral was nuts as Bullseye, and MCD was perfect as Fisk. The crazyest thing about this is I'm not even a Daredevil fan. My list of favorite comic heroes goes Spider-Man, Blade, Batman, The Tick, and The Hulk. This movie was a plesant surprise.

X2 *** 1/2 out of ****

That's all I'm going to call it. I refuse to add X-Men United. It's a lame-ass Mighty Ducks wannabe title and I refuse to accept the fact that they even called it that in advertising or otherwise. The movies not bad. I liked the original better. Patrick, Ian, and Hugh once again are all terrific and Collosus' cameo was badass. But the Dark Cerbro scenes went on too long with that annoying little girl.

Hulk ** 1/2 out of ****

Hulk tries to be two things at once. Art film and comic film. I was feeling the grove for a while until Absorbing Dad came into the picture. I almost shouted out "OK movie! You're being retarded! Stop it!" The only thing that saves this movie from two stars is the desert sequence which IMO shows what this movie should of and could have been. However if you think Elfman's Spider-Man score was bad, you should listen to this. :shudder: I applaud him for trying to be original but how many damn times do we have to hear "DUM-dum-dum-dum-dum." I hope this movies domestic failure wakes Arad up.
Overall ranking so far:

1. Spider-Man
2. Daredevil
3. X-Men
4. X2
5. Blade II
6. Blade
7. Hulk

Upcoming movies and anticapation rating:

The Punisher *** out of ****

So the Dolph Lundgren one sucked ass. Big deal. It's time to start from scratch. I've liked what I've seen so far. Lets hope Travolta doesn't pull another Battlefield Earth on us.

Spider-Man 2 **** out of ****

Loved the original and love the fact that so many are returning in the cast. I would have been happier with David Keopp writing again, but I guess Sam Raimi knows what's best for the movie.

Blade: Trinity *** 1/2 out of ****

I know what you're thinking. If my ratings for 1 and 2 were ** 1/2 and ***, why is my anticapation rating so high? I've read the premise and it sounds bad ass. I'm interested in seeing what Goyer has up his sleeve.

Man-Thing *** out of ****

I've read some of the old comics a long time ago. I don't remember if they were good or not but Arad talks about this one with enthusiasm. It'll be interesting to see what happens with it.

[Unsavory]

Most of these I haven't seen, but I did see the first Blade movie and thought it totally sucked. Instead of being cool, it tried to be cool. Everything seemed forced.

Spider Man was pretty good. Much better than I expected from the previews which made it look like garbage. The actual movie was well paced and fairly thoughtful with a decent supply of action. I do however think that the Green Goblin was a little on the silly side.

I'd like to see a movie with Venom and Carnage as characters, but I don't suppose that's planned for the near future.

[mightyjack]

I love what Marvel has been doing.

Spiderman and X-Men 2 are flawless to me. I love every bit of them. Action, story, character. Perfect.

Dardevil I feel is flawed but very good. I know it was cut to shreds and I hope a directors version makes it's way out there. The scenes with Elektra in the rain are both poignant and beautiful.

Hulk, I think is one of the most intellegent and emotionally evocative super hero films ever made. The use of symbolism (water as birth/creation/life is previlant. The mushroom cloud images, as when the father absorbes the sons power) and the juxtaposition of images and character types makes Hulk a movie that entertained as well as challenged me.
Nolte's scene with Connely where he speaks of his wifes death is simply one of the best scripted and acted scenes in Marvel movie history and I can't disagree more with you on Elfman's score. It is some of the most mature and haunting work he's ever done.


Blade is just a popcorn movie -not that that's a bad thing- mindless entertainment is fun. Good for a few hours of escapism but nothing that leaves a lasting impression.

X-Men, good, solid but flawed. I enjoyed myself and own the movie but the sequel surpasses this one.

I see Elektra and Fantastic Four are both on the docket and Iron Man is being scripted. Looking forward to all of them but would really dig a Silver Surfer movie.

[Torgo]

Unsavory said:

Spider Man was pretty good. Much better than I expected from the previews which made it look like garbage. The actual movie was well paced and fairly thoughtful with a decent supply of action. I do however think that the Green Goblin was a little on the silly side.

The Green Goblin is a silly villian in general. In the comics he carries around this big purple purse that he keeps his weapons in.

But they included him because he is unarguably Spidey's nemisis. He killed Gwen Stacy (Peter's first true love) and knows Peter's true identity. Venom's my personal favorite, but the Goblin's done the most poopie to him.

[Torgo]

MightyJack said:

Dardevil I feel is flawed but very good. I know it was cut to shreds and I hope a directors version makes it's way out there. The scenes with Elektra in the rain are both poignant and beautiful.

The Directors Cut is rumored for April. Either that or somewhere in 2005 for the hyping up of the Electra movie.

MightyJack said:

and I can't disagree more with you on Elfman's score. It is some of the most mature and haunting work he's ever done.

That's cool. I just found it repetative. However his score for the desert scene kicked ass.

[mightyjack]

I swear I can remember early trailers for Daredevi that showed, who was it, Coolio, getting out of a car..or a car crashing through a window and then cutting to him.

Memories fuzzy, but I can picture those scenes in my head. Then the movie comes out and that's all gone.

Ben often gets on my last nerves, but I must admit that I really liked him as Murdock. And Favreau (sp?) as Foggy was great casting. In fact the reason I went ot see Elf was because he directed it and I like his quirky, comic style as an actor.

[Torgo]

MightyJack said:

I swear I can remember early trailers for Daredevi that showed, who was it, Coolio, getting out of a car..or a car crashing through a window and then cutting to him.

Memories fuzzy, but I can picture those scenes in my head. Then the movie comes out and that's all gone.

Yeah. Coolio was in several scenes of the teaser trailer.

He was the main focus of an entire subplot that was cut out. I think he played a prisoner who was framed by the Kingpin and the whole thing led up to the capture of the Kingpin. It would have made a lot more sense than the ending they had in the movie. Were we supposed to believe Bullseye ratted out Fisk to the police or what?

[Afgncaap5]

The thing about the recent run of Marvel films is that they generally don't do things traditionally in the movies, yet keep the traditional style.

I'll only post a few comments here:

Hulk: I loved the comic-book style screen shots, I didn't mind the music, and Hulk's dad (when he was just a mad scientist and not using super powers) acted his part well. However,....NOT ONCE DID THEY USE THE LINE "HULK SMASH!" That is simply INEXCUSABLE!

X-Men/X2: Both pretty decent action flicks, and I'm a long time fan of Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan. In the first one, I thought that the were kinda shaky in how they introduced the concept of Prof. X's school of "X-Men" (the way he described it, it just seemed far too easy for some reason), but aside from that I really have few complaints. I wish they could've added another supervillain to the sequel (I mean, we lost Toad and Sabertooth, and we only get the crazed military man in compensation. I would've liked for them to....I dunno....maybe have Apocalypse be referenced, or have Galacticus show up as a "blip" on a radar at the end of the film, or something). But aside from that, fairly enjoyable.

Spider-Man: My personal favorite of the "recent" runs of Marvel comic movies (MIB would be my all-time favorite, but MIB came out before the Marvel movies were much of a franchise). Spider-Man is almost the definitive Marvel hero in my opinion (you've got a lot of other great classics, don't get me wrong, but do any of 'em have Spidey's fan-base?), and since the movie was so true to the spirit of a good number of the comics, I feel that this is their best work.

DareDevil: I liked this movie, but I didn't like myself for liking this movie. DD always was a bit of a maverick hero (kinda like Batman, but without the gadgets and with extra speed, strength and agility), so I guess this is a maverick movie in compensation. The Kingpin didn't seem very true to the one that I already knew, but he was definitely done very, very well.

Now then, I just have to wait for the next ones.

[Torgo]

Afgncaap5 said:

Spider-Man: My personal favorite of the "recent" runs of Marvel comic movies (MIB would be my all-time favorite, but MIB came out before the Marvel movies were much of a franchise).

While it's true that Malabu comics is owned by Marval now, Not many consider MIB to be a Marval movie. In fact when MIIB was released they changed the Marval Comics in the opening credits to Malibu Comics.

[mightyjack]

If there is a next X-Men and if they do what they hinted at, at the end. Then that's a movie I'll be dying to see.

Dark Phoenix was such an awesome story, a memorable moment of my early teens. I fear that my expectations could be too high tho.

[Torgo]

MightyJack said:

If there is a next X-Men and if they do what they hinted at, at the end. Then that's a movie I'll be dying to see.

Dark Phoenix was such an awesome story, a memorable moment of my early teens. I fear that my expectations could be too high tho.

What pissed me off about X-Men 2 was all this setting up for X-Men 3 and we gotta wait 3 years for it.

And yes, Phoenix is the most likely premise.

[Afgncaap5]

How could it NOT be the premise?

[Torgo]

Afgncaap5 said:

How could it NOT be the premise?

Well, there's the possibility that Famke doesn't want to come back, so they use it as an excuse to kill Jean off.

[mightyjack]

In an interview I read with Singer, Phoenix story wasn't a slam dunk. He was still trying to decide what angle to go with, with Phoenix a possibility.
Where they go with it, if they even film a third, depends on what actors they can bring back. It doesnt sound like Berry will be back as Storm for example. And there's even talk that they could just do a Wolvarine solo movie.

Money, time, contracts and wanting more screen time are all factors.

[Torgo]

X-Men 3 is happening. 2006 is being eyed.

Patrick Stewart is close to getting signed for it.

While it's true that Halle is probably the most unlikly to return, according to Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) she'll gladly return if she gets a "bigger part and shorter hours."

A Wolverine solo movie is being talked about, but Jackman and Fox want to do X3 first. After X3, Jackman says he'll be done with that series but will consider a Wolverine movie.