Superheroes!

Finally saw Civil War last night. And while I liked it, it didn't blow me away.

Spoiler :
Stark, for all his brilliance, never doubts/questions his judgement until after it blows up in his face.
 
Cutlass said:
Finally saw Civil War last night. And while I liked it, it didn't blow me away.

Spoiler :
Stark, for all his brilliance, never doubts/questions his judgement until after it blows up in his face.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'd say that's the core of his character arc in a nutshell. From Iron Man to Age of Ultron to Civil War, even when he tries to fix things, he ends up making them worse. He regrets the consequences of his past decisions and then makes all-new mistakes in an effort to fix or atone for the old ones. It's a comic-booky parable of US foreign policy.

I remember Iron Man 2 hardly at all, so I'm not sure if that fits in or provides another chapter of the story. Iron Man 3 was sort of about terrorism and sort of not, in that the villain tried to take advantage of the hysteria. Captain America: The Winter Soldier fits in there too, albeit not wrt Stark, but Steve Rogers, which of course leads to their butting of heads in Civil War.
 
The Daywalker himself, Wesley Snipes, is making more noise about a Blade reboot. It's just talk at this point, but I think Marvel should do it. Norrington & Goyer's 1998 film and del Toro's 2002 sequel were great superhero films that aren't usually given the credit they're due. I really liked the villains in both movies, the martial arts choreography is good - Snipes has multiple black belts in Korean martial arts - and both films have a '80s-'90s cyberpunk vibe that has pretty much gone the way of the Dodo, with soundtracks to match. The films aren't generally considered part of the MCU, but there's no reason they couldn't be. I think Blade would be a natural choice for another dimly-lit Netflix series with a moderate budget and bone-crunching fight scenes.

(Song is NSFW for anyone who speaks Japanese.)


Link to video.
 
Not a good episode for Flash. I get the feeling the original writers got shuffled around and the new ones really, really want comic continuity.
 
The DC shows aren't working for me. Flash can't hold my interest. Most of this season of Arrow has been utterly terribly written. I tried Legends of Tomorrow and gave up after 1/2 hour.
 
I thought the finale of The Flash was alright, but I agree, The Flash and Arrow have been pretty dull lately. I haven't watched Legends of Tomorrow in quite a while. I still like iZombie and Supergirl, though.

Lots of folks around the web think season 3 of The Flash will be an adaptation of "Flashpoint", a story in the comics from about 5 years ago that I'm not familiar with. Something to do with Barry changing the past and then realizing everything's worse and trying to change it back. It's a really hackneyed premise, but there's no reason they can't do something cool with it.

I haven't watched the finale of Arrow yet. I got so bored during a recent episode I shut it off halfway through and haven't caught up yet. Maybe I'll skip ahead to the finale and see how the season ends. I think Flash and Arrow are straining under the weight of a 22-episode season and, as someone mentioned earlier, the quality superhero writers may be stretched across the 4 shows.
 
I'm basically not watching TV in recent years, so when I came into the room and saw something, that had come on after Mom left, playing, it looked all dark and violent - then I saw the Flash. Huh. A few-seconds viewing snap impression, but I miss John Westley Shipp...
 
Buster's Uncle said:
I'm basically not watching TV in recent years, so when I came into the room and saw something, that had come on after Mom left, playing, it looked all dark and violent - then I saw the Flash. Huh. A few-seconds viewing snap impression, but I miss John Westley Shipp...
Click to expand...
Amanda Pays has a small role in the new Flash too.

 
Buster's Uncle said:
The old 90s CBS show would not be all that out of place on the WB, I think - I saw a clip last year from that one's reverse-flash(ish) episode and thought that.
Click to expand...
Berlanti was 18-19 when that show aired, so I wouldn't be shocked if he was a fan.

So I watched the season finale of Arrow all of 12 hours ago, and I can barely remember it. This show's been a real snoozer lately. Oliver's speech atop the car was a laugh-out-loud eye-roller.

We Got This Covered, 27 May 2016: "Enraged Arrow Fans Turn On The CW Series By Re-Dedicating Its Subreddit To Daredevil"
Click to expand...
Oh dear. :lol:

I think the end of the season leaves the writers in a fine position to make some major changes, but I won't hold my breath. I don't think it took them even one whole episode to reset everything at the beginning of this season after Oliver and Felicity drove off into the sunset. Even when their ship is sinking, most shows get canceled before they attempt a serious overhaul. Still, I have seen shows pull up out of a dive when I was sure they were toast, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised again.
 
EgonSpengler said:
So I watched the season finale of Arrow all of 12 hours ago, and I can barely remember it. This show's been a real snoozer lately. Oliver's speech atop the car was a laugh-out-loud eye-roller.
Click to expand...

No kidding. :lol: It just kind of ended. I can't wait for next season where there's another villain who gets away with things for no reason and the heroes navel-gaze in the Arrow Cave half the episode.
 
I saw X-Men over the weekend and have mixed feelings about it.

Spoiler Maybe spoilerish stuff :

The actors who played Professor X and Magneto were fantastic as usual. I also liked Apocalypse as well despite what the critics say. I saw him as inspiration from/inspiration for the God from the Old Testament and I think that came across really well in his dialogue and "vision" of the world. The movie at one point even directly compares him to the Bible. So I don't really get the label of "generic" being thrown at the character unless you only half pay attention to him.

I didn't like how many characters they tried to stuff into the movie. I count at least 14 characters who get major screen time in the form of action sequences but some of them get hardly any dialogue or character development. This happens in other superhero movies too and it kinda bugs me. Someone just rolls up in a van and goes "Ok, let's fight!" without giving proper justification for fighting. It the entire film seems more convoluted than it has to be.

There were also a handful of scenes that by themselves are awesome but seem thrown into the movie just for the sake of lead-ins to extra movies or because they felt like they had to have to make it an X-Men movie. Specifically the QuickSilver and Wolverine scenes.
 
I also saw X-Men over last weekend:



Spoiler :

My general impression was one of overreach. While I generally like superhero movies, this one tried to be too big, too spectacular, too monumental. It was an entertaining movie. But it would have been better had it not been so grandiose in scope. Magneto is powerful. But even with his power being augmented, destroying cities from New York to Sydney at the same time from Egypt? No. That's too much. And if Magneto is augmented to that level of power, why is it that the other 3 can be fought to a draw by the X-Men? Too much was made of Olivia Munn as Psylocke, and she turned out to be hardly a presence in the movie at all, except for the one fight scene. Storm was a bigger presence in the movie. But for some undefined reason, she just randomly changes sides.
 
The casting breakdown for a new "Big Bad" on season 5 of Arrow:

TVLine has learned exclusively that the CW drama’s upcoming fifth season will introduce a new villain loosely inspired by Idris Elba’s The Wire drug kingpin Stringer Bell.

The character, tentatively named “Anton Church,” is a ruthless crime lord who sets out to fill the sizable void left by Damien Darhk and H.I.V.E. The initial casting notice describes him as an “apex predator” who “cuts his way through the shadows” by taking down “the biggest threat first.” (Um, he’s looking at you, Ollie Q.)

While the role is being likened to Elba’s classic Wire baddie, the breakdown also references ex-Game of Thrones actor Jason Momoa as a physical prototype.
Click to expand...
It also notes that, so far, the character will have no super-powers. It sounds like they're getting away from the mystical stuff, which may be good. They haven't said so, but maybe they're looking to season 1 of Daredevil. Anton Church sounds a little like Wilson Fisk, someone who can be a threat to Oliver in law, business, or politics as well as in crime and violence. Like Fisk and Bell, Church could have legit businesses, lawyers, police officers on his payroll, etc, and also be perfectly capable of beating someone to death. A young Al Capone, or Ronnie & Reggie Kray if you're British.

I wouldn't mind if they're trying to get back to basics, so to speak; get rid of the team, get rid of the James-Bond-style villains, get rid of the mystical stuff. I might pay real money for them to ditch the flashbacks too, but I don't expect that to happen. I think they're committed to finishing that 5-year arc, however tedious and meaningless it is (this year's flashback story will take place the year before the show started, and thus be the last flashback... hopefully).
 
2 minutes of Melissa Benoist being cute. I assume it's from last month's "upfronts." She doesn't provide much info we didn't already know. I was hoping the guy would ask her about Calista Flockhart's status, but I guess she probably wouldn't know anyway (or be allowed to say, if she does). And it turns out I've been mispronouncing Chyler Leigh's name all this time. :lol:



Link to video.
 
Cutlass said:
Spoiler :
Storm was a bigger presence in the movie. But for some undefined reason, she just randomly changes sides.
Click to expand...
Spoiler undefined reason :
At the beginning of the film, when she first meets Apocalypse, she's shown in a room where she's put up a poster of Mystique, and refers to her as a true hero, a liberator, etc. Then, during the battle in Cairo, she changes sides when she sees Apocalypse strangling Mystique.
 
Can somebody explain to me the appeal of superheroes, either in comic book form or film? I've never gotten into any of this stuff and I don't see the appeal at all. I thought the superhero movies I've seen (Dark Knight, first Iron Man, one of the Avengers films but I can't even remember which one) were big fat piles of steaming crap.
 
I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it's because as a kid I got into superheroes because they were an ideal to look up to. They had cool powers and saved people which are admirable qualities. Now as an "adult", reality has set in and I realize that I can't do all that stuff so I live vicariously through the movies.
 
BenitoChavez said:
I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it's because as a kid I got into superheroes because they were an ideal to look up to. They had cool powers and saved people which are admirable qualities. Now as an "adult", reality has set in and I realize that I can't do all that stuff so I live vicariously through the movies.
Click to expand...

I guess that's as good an answer as any, and probably the reason I got into lots of things (just liked it when I was a kid, continue to like it due to nostalgia points).
 
To some degree, superhero stories are just another version of the stories you can find in other forms. Superhero stories are frequently allegories for topical issues or concerns, allowing the writer and the audience to tackle difficult or controversial topics with a little bit of distance or padding (a very little bit, at times). Jessica Jones is about abusive relationships. The Winter Soldier is about corrupt government. The Dark Knight is about terrorism. The Incredibles is about responsibility and aging. This isn't unique to superhero stories, of course; science fiction, horror, and comedy also have long histories of addressing "hot button" or uncomfortable topics (of course, many superhero stories are also scif-fi, horror, and comedy - these genres aren't mutually exclusive).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

stfoskey12
How White and Nerdy are you?
2 3 4
Replies
61
Views
3K
H4run
H4run
Bonyduck Campersang
Lovecraft and Friends (if any)
Replies
13
Views
386
Kyriakos
Kyriakos
Birdjaguar
Entertainment News and Opinion
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
Birdjaguar
Birdjaguar
Valka D'Ur
All Things Harry Potter
3 4 5
Replies
86
Views
10K
Broken_Erika
Broken_Erika
PDX Firefly
  • Sticky
Millennia | Future Ages & Update 0
Replies
0
Views
528
PDX Firefly
PDX Firefly
Top Bottom