Superheroes!

I still haven't seen the first Suicide Squad. I'm not really in any rush.

I did watch the first two episodes of Cloak & Dagger, and it ain't bad. It's all character development so far, with barely a hint of a plot.
 
Suicide Squad was weak in a lot of ways. Good idea executed very poorly. I don't know what Cloak & Dagger is.
 
Cutlass said:
Suicide Squad was weak in a lot of ways. Good idea executed very poorly.
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It had one of my favorite trailers of all time, the one with the creepy-sad cover of the Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke."

Cutlass said:
I don't know what Cloak & Dagger is.
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Two kids are caught in an industrial accident and develop super-powers. One is from a well-to-do family, the other is a homeless thief & con-artist. At the beginning, the two main characters don't even know each other. The first two episodes are all backstory, mostly in real-time but with some flashbacks, establishing the main characters apart from each other (they meet, briefly) and without much super-powered stuff (a couple of accidental "wtf just happened?" moments) and with only some hints about the overarching plot, who the villain is, how the kids their powers. Contrary to what I initially thought, I read somewhere recently that Cloak & Dagger is, in fact, a part of the MCU. I expect it'll be like the Netflix shows, where they don't cross over on-screen.
 
Ant-Man & The Wasp is getting good... um... buzz. Sorry.
 
I re-watched the first hour or so of Thor: Ragnarok over the weekend. It's funnier than I'd even remembered. I was also reminded of a couple of bits that reinforce two theories I have:

Theory #1: That Thanos attacked Earth when he did in part because Asgard is gone (also because The Ancient Died). In Ragnarok, it's noted that the absence of the Odin caused all sort of mess to jump off, across all of the Nine Realms. This was even before Odin died. With the All-Father and the Ancient One both gone, Earth has lost two "cosmic-level" defenders (and either Thanos doesn't know who Stephen Strange and Carol Danvers are, or he didn't consider them a threat - we saw that he wasn't impressed with Thor and The Hulk).

Theory #2: That The Hulk is a full-fledged alternate personality, not merely Bruce when he's angry. I feel like this has changed a little, from earlier movies, and some of Bruce's dialogue with Thor suggests that it's an evolution of the character. When Thor and Hulk are talking, Hulk refers to Banner as though he's another person, but what really cinched it for me was when Bruce had no memory of the previous two years. He knew right away that he'd transformed, but maybe only because he woke up in a strange place with no clothes. Incidentally, I love that he's so nonplussed about that now. He just gets up with the blanket, like it's no thing. Tony's Duran Duran shirt made me laugh, too.

Anyway, yeah, definitely watch Ragnarok. If you're in this thread in the first place, you've probably already seen it, but I would even recommend it to someone who's not normally a fan of these Marvel films.
 
I don't get why Dr Strange's gambit that won the Dr Strange movie couldn't have been used against Thanos. Just make the fight essentially unwinnable in the end.

I'm not sure about Hulk and Banner. My impression was that from the end of Ragnaroc through Infinity War was that where before Bruce's secret was that he was always angry, now his secret is that he's always afraid. And if he needs to be angry to bring out Hulk, then being afraid instead keeps Hulk bottled up. But, then, I don't understand how Thanos beat Hulk so easily.
 
Ditko's work was a little before my time, but I've always felt that he didn't get the praise he deserved. Stan Lee of course is rightly adored, but in a medium driven by the visuals, you'd think the artist would be equally well-regarded.
 
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Season 3 of Jessica Jones has started filming in New York. Some set photos are floating around the web (see below). The Daily Mail has a 10-second video. Lightly spoilery, I guess, if you haven't gotten to the end of season 2 yet.

Spoiler :




Spoiler-within-a-spoiler?

Spoiler :


Rawr!
 
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So... Black Widow. Cate Shortland is now the director, at least until she leaves over "creative differences" or whatever. She's Australian, but works in Europe a lot. Both Lore and Berlin Syndrome take place in Germany. That probably means nothing here, but you never know. No plot synopsis. No release date. I'm jumping the gun like you wouldn't believe, but I've been hoping to see Natasha get her own movie for a while now, so I'm stoked that the ball is starting to move down the field.

I just don't want a prequel/origin story. I like the mystery inherent in the character. I mean, mystery is part of her character. Parts of her past have been inferred or spoken about without much explanation, which is great. A solo movie could explore parts of her past without taking the A-Train straight into it like a battering ram. And no f'ing flashbacks. I mean, like, someone she used to work with, or someone she once fought or double-crossed, some consequence of something she once did coming back to haunt her. I mean, that's hackneyed, a real writer could come up with something better, but you get the idea.

If I was assigned to write a script for Black Widow, my prep work would include the Jason Bourne series, Atomic Blonde, and the Mission: Impossible series, in addition to superhero stuff. Room to write an "R" rating would be nice - Atomic Blonde was rated R - but I don't know if it would be realistic. Logan and Deadpool certainly showed that R-rated superhero movies are viable, but I don't know if Disney is ready to take that leap. I don't know if nudity would be necessary - I haven't seen Red Sparrow yet, but I know some people felt the nudity was just Jennifer Lawrence showing off - but I would like to see some bone-crunching martial arts and stunts, half-realistic and half-superhero, a la The Bourne Identity, Daredevil and Atomic Blonde.

Marvel has had some outstanding stunt and fight choreography, so I'd pay those guys n' gals whatever they want to make Johansson look like she can f you up with whatever is lying around. Rewatch the early fight scene in Civil War in Lagos: In part 1, at the embassy, Natasha throws her motorcycle at one guy and slams another with the door of the truck. Skip ahead to 3:00 if you just want to see Natasha's part.


In part 2, in the marketplace, she throws a basket at a guy and demonstrates how a 5' 4" woman, albeit one with super-powers, could fight two guys simultaneously (one of the few good things I could say about Steven Seagal was how he used his aikido to fight multiple people). Skip ahead to 1:20 for her bit, although I recommend the fight between Captain America and Crossbones starting at 2:14.


Imagine a whole movie with this stuff (actually, you don't have to imagine it, you can just watch Atomic Blonde).
 
https://www.thewrap.com/birds-of-prey-black-canary-huntress-cassandra-cain-renee-montoya/

‘Birds of Prey’ Revealed: Margot Robbie Film Will Feature Black Canary, Huntress, Cassandra Cain, Renee Montoya (Exclusive)



The villain of the upcoming film is a Batman character never before seen on the big screen

Umberto Gonzalez | July 16, 2018 @ 12:30 PM



Black Canary, Huntress, Cassandra Cain, and Renee Montoya will join Harley Quinn’s girl gang in the Margot Robbie film “Birds of Prey,” TheWrap has exclusively learned.

Robbie will produce “Birds of Prey” and reprise her “Suicide Squad” character, Harley Quinn. The film is centered around a revolving group of female heroes and villains, individuals with knowledge of thew project tell TheWrap.

In addition, TheWrap has learned that the villain in “Birds of Prey” will be a Batman comics villain who has never before appeared on the big screen.

“Birds of Prey” will be produced by Kroll & Co Entertainment’s Sue Kroll and Clubhouse Pictures’ Bryan Unkeless, as well as Robbie.

Also Read: Margot Robbie Teases Harley Quinn Spinoff 'Birds of Prey' as 'R-Rated Girl Gang Film'

Here is a rundown of the “Birds of Prey” characters, who will be familiar to longtime DC comics fans:

-Black Canary, aka Dinah Laurel, is a fantastic hand-to-hand combatant who comes from a family of crime fighters. Her father, Larry Lance, was a police officer, while her mother (also named Dinah) was the original Black Canary.

-Helena Bertinelli, aka Huntress, is a vigilante operating out of Gotham City.

-Cassandra Cain is one of the world’s greatest martial artists, and also a vigilante.

-Renee Montoya is a detective working for the Gotham City Police Department. Montoya is openly lesbian, and during The New 52 comics she takes on a costumed identity, becoming the Question.

Cathy Yan is set to direct. Yan is best known for writing and directing her feature debut “Dead Pigs,” which took home the World Cinema Dramatic Award For Ensemble Acting at Sundance earlier this year.

Yan would be the third female filmmaker to join the DC universe with this film, which is still known as the Untitled Girl Gang Movie at Warner Bros. She will also be the first Asian woman to direct a DC film.

Yan was previously a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing and was one of the youngest writers in the paper’s history to pen multiple front-page stories. She is represented by CAA.

As TheWrap first reported, Christina Hodson wrote the “Birds of Prey” spinoff for Warner Bros. and DC Films. Hodson is also writing “Batgirl” for DC.
Click to expand...
 
Cutlass said:
https://www.thewrap.com/birds-of-prey-black-canary-huntress-cassandra-cain-renee-montoya/

‘Birds of Prey’ Revealed: Margot Robbie Film Will Feature Black Canary, Huntress, Cassandra Cain, Renee Montoya (Exclusive)



The villain of the upcoming film is a Batman character never before seen on the big screen

Umberto Gonzalez | July 16, 2018 @ 12:30 PM
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I am cautiously optimistic that Warner Bros. can turn the DC ship around, now that Zack Snyder is no longer involved (he's getting a producer credit on Wonder Woman 1984, but that could mean anything). I note that the writer for Birds of Prey is also writing Batgirl, now that Joss Whedon has stepped aside. Christina Hodson, who wrote Unforgettable - insert joke about ironic title here - and Bumblebee, which I think isn't out yet. It's certainly interesting that women are all up and down this project, being directed by Cathy Yan and produced by Margot Robbie.

In the comics, Barbara Gordon was the founder of the Birds of Prey, during the time she was in the wheelchair and using the codename Oracle, and Cassandra Cain was Batgirl. Renee Montoya was also The Question for a time. I'm guessing that none of that will be true in this film, at least not at the beginning. It's interesting that they're using Birds of Prey to introduce Black Canary and The Huntress, both of whom have relationships and connections to other DC characters. I'm a little wary of this inversion of the model, introducing characters in an ensemble piece instead of giving them solo films and then teaming them up later. Not to say that it can't be done, but if you choose to take the hard road, the payoff needs to justify it.

In related news, The CW is looking at adding Batwoman to the Berlantiverse in 2019.
 
Cutlass said:
Starting as an ensemble film really didn't work for Suicide Squad. :dunno:
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I still haven't seen it, but yeah, that was an example of a team made up of individuals who probably deserved their own stories. With the Fantastic Four or X-Men or The Incredibles, the fact that the characters are a group is part of each character's story. Even Wolverine, the archetypal surly loner, is actually a man who needs a family but doesn't know it. He's incomplete until he joins the X-Men, and his joining the team is an integral part of his story. The Avengers and the Justice League are the opposite; a team of individuals, each with their own story, for whom being in a team is the departure from the norm. I wouldn't say the division of the team in Civil War was inevitable, but it made sense for a group of characters who are all their own men and women to have a falling out, because it was their coming together in the first place that was the interesting anomaly. Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey are more like that, imo, particularly the group of criminals who are being forced to work together. It can be done - The Dirty Dozen is the granddaddy, although I haven't seen it in many years - but it's a challenge to pull off. I can understand that DC/Warners want to create an alternative to their top competitor and not just copy what Marvel/Disney has done, and they're starting to do that by showcasing women. Good luck to them. I grew up reading DC Comics as much as Marvel Comics (the idea that readers needed to declare some kind of affiliation with one or the other was just as dumb then as it is now), so I'd like to see them get their train back on the rails.
 
Well, San Diego Comic Con is underway. I'm not sure I could handle the whole experience today. Autograph signings and vendor displays don't fire me up, but there are a handful of things that look intriguing:
  • Helen Slater is hosting a screening of Supergirl (1984)
  • "Beyond Wakanda: Intersectional Afrofuturism", an unspecified panel "dive into cultural archives to explore the works of author Octavia Butler and the history of Afrofuturism in Southern California."
  • The 10-year reunion of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, with the Whedon brothers, Maurissa Tancharoen, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Neil Patrick Harris is notably absent from the lineup, unfortunately.
  • A Midnight screening of Videodrome
  • They're also doing guest panels with the casts of some television shows that I like - The Good Place, Black Lightning, Preacher, and Legion. I would certainly go out for a beer with any of those people, but I don't know what to expect from a 'panel.' I suppose it's an audience Q&A, and probably a preview of the upcoming season?

The DC Universe streaming service premiered a trailer for Titans and announced its pricing at Comic Con today: $7.99 per month or $74.99 for 12 months. If you sign up for a year before launch, you'll get 3 months as a bonus, so 15 months for $75 is $5 a month. That's a good deal... provided you have 15 months of content to watch, which I'm skeptical about. Still, $8 is less than it costs to see a movie. I could pay $8 just to watch Titans and Doom Patrol over the course of a month. If you're a fiend for DC Animated shows and movies, I guess you could bathe in that for a while.
 
EgonSpengler said:
I grew up reading DC Comics as much as Marvel Comics (the idea that readers needed to declare some kind of affiliation with one or the other was just as dumb then as it is now), so I'd like to see them get their train back on the rails.
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I never knew anyone that "declared an affiliation," but when I grew up reading both I can't honestly say I read DC "just as much." There were a whole list of titles that were eagerly anticipated when I stopped on my way home from school at the Cactus Liquor Store, then there were titles I picked up if the cover looked interesting and I had an extra quarter left over. The majority of the former were Marvel, and DC provided the latter for the most part. Not any "sense of loyalty" involved, any more than there is any sense of loyalty involved in the basic fact that I will see Ant-Man and the Wasp at the theater sometime in the next week or so while I just got around to seeing Justice League on HBO last week. I just expect enough from one to justify a trip to the theater while the other is less compelling to me.
 
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