Superheroes!

[EgonSpengler]

Okay, I might be getting a little too excited here, but the headband & wristguards; Isaac Hayes ("Walk on By" from Hot Buttered Soul); Luke reading a Walter Mosley book. And I wonder if the line "Everybody wants to be the king" is a reference to Wilson Fisk? I'm probably reading too much into it.


Link to video.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Egon, you keep making me want to watch TV again...

 

[EgonSpengler]

Egon, you keep making me want to watch TV again...

Heh. Um... sorry?

I could recommend a lot of non-superhero stuff too, if you want.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I do not, sir. I likes me some SUPAH adventure.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I do not, sir. I likes me some SUPAH adventure.

Well, you've got about 6 weeks before the flood gates open.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Does the shot of Luke in the head and wristbands not strike you as an easter egg of the gear on him in the tank where he got his powers?

-Pity; there ought to be a way to pull off some way-cool retro Blaxploitation action with him and not only not offend, but make bank -Wesley Snipes has basically made a career of it- protip: just do it better than the comics back then did...

 

[EgonSpengler]

The character was certainly a nod to the Blaxploitation movies of the '70s. Modern iterations have updated the character - his appearance, if nothing else. I'm not too worried about the show offending anyone, with the caveat that of course somebody will find a way to be offended by anything. There doesn't appear to be any of the "whitewashing" or "white people do it better" that Dr. Strange and Iron Fist appear to be wading into, and writer-producer Cheo Coker has said that he wants Harlem to be a character and not just a backdrop. Coker is black, but I have no idea what his background is, or where he's from.

I don't know if this series will be particularly retro, but maybe. Where Jessica Jones was a nod to Mike Hammer and Philip Marlowe, I imagine Luke Cage might tip his proverbial cap to John Shaft and Coffy. There will certainly be Easter Eggs, such as the headband and wrist guards when he gets up off the laboratory table. The classic soul blended with more recent hip-hop in the trailers is also a nod to the character's and genre's '70s roots, and I assume that will continue in the series itself. I won't be stunned if we hear some Curtis Mayfield or Roy Ayers.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Shaft! John Shaft - is just the note I'd try to hit if it was me calling the shots, and not every episode, just have moments of fun with that here and there. I'm white as snow, myself, but I understand a lot of black folks love that stuff -mostly ironically, I think, but still- and unlike Marvel in 1973, I'd try to talk listen to some of them and get it right - Archie Godwin, Tony Isabella, et. all, had their hearts in the right place, after all, from what I can tell, and I gather a great deal of the objection to the character actually had to do with lameness more than anything else. -Just, the headband and chain belt and yellow shirt are right there in the closet, and much fun could be had with all that lame...

 

[EgonSpengler]

Yeah, it could get tiresome if they overdid it, but I certainly hope they give those movies a wink and a nod. I thought the middle of Jessica Jones sagged a little, and would have liked to see one more episode, or even just a B-plot, of the hard-boiled detective stuff. Assuming Luke Cage is 13 episodes, there should be plenty of room to roam from the main story a little.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

You know, it's the kind of thing that done right, you can tell the cast and everyone had a blast doing it, and that can be infectious. How about if they kept it serious, but a few times a season Luke or someone in the supporting cast had a running-gag dream about a Blaxploitation "Power Man" in the yellow shirt and giant-chain belt. -It rather writes itself.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I finally caught up with Batman v. Superman over the weekend.

Pros:
- Ben Affleck is a good Batman and probably my favorite live action Bruce Wayne since Adam West.
- Gal Gadot looked good; the concern over her physical presence seems to have been unfounded (shocker - the Web overreacted ). Also, I heard that Wonder Woman's smirk after getting punched by Doomsday was Gadot's idea.
- Holly Hunter, Laurence Fishburne & Jeremy Irons all nailed it.
- Some good action scenes, on the whole.
- The recreation of the Superman-Zod fight from ground level was pretty cool.

Spoiler :

- Batman's rescue of Martha Kent was probably my favorite scene. "I'm a friend of your son's." "I figured." was a nice line, even though it didn't make much sense in context.

Cons:
- Amy Adams and Jess Eisenberg just didn't work for me.
- The plot is almost completely nonsensical. I'm curious if the extended edition is any clearer, but not curious enough to watch it.
- I don't really like the (re)interpretations of any of the main characters.
- Whoever wrote this movie doesn't seem to like Superman, Batman, Lois Lane or Lex Luthor and maybe thinks the whole idea of superheroes is foolish. This movie isn't a "deconstruction" of these characters, as someone claimed, as much as it's a rejection of them. I'm kind of mystified that this movie was made at all. It's like the filmmakers had a gun to their heads and were being forced into it against their will.

 

[Cutlass]

I've seen more than one other reviewer, IIRC Dachs was one of them, who was of the opinion that the write/director really didn't like the characters. And so was unsympathetic to how they were portrayed.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I was looking at Box Office Mojo's comparison of 2016 superhero movies, and I guess I hadn't realized what an incredible flop X-Men: Apocalypse was. I mean, wow.

I've seen more than one other reviewer, IIRC Dachs was one of them, who was of the opinion that the write/director really didn't like the characters. And so was unsympathetic to how they were portrayed.

The movie also suffered heavily from trying to do too much. I think there were at least two movies jammed together, maybe three, plus some setup for at least one more. It's hard to tell from watching it whether this was the screenwriter's fault, or the director's, or the result of interference from above (which seems to have been part of the fireball of wreckage that is Suicide Squad). I could see this movie being straightened out into a trilogy all by itself. Then they could have done some things with character development and the plot.

 

[Cutlass]

More than that. It also suffered from the producers trying to be so visually spectacular as to set the standard for being visually spectacular. That just never works out. It was actually harder to watch and follow the movie because of the attempts at the visuals.

Also, the motivations and actions of the characters was pretty well just senseless. If there was a reason for Batman to want to kill Superman, I caught no hint of it in the movie. If there was a reason for Lex to go so such efforts to ruin/kill Superman, I caught no hint of it in the movie. If there was a reason for the senator to give Lex such unprecedented access, I caught no hint of it in the movie. If there was a reason for anyone to allow Lex such access, well then they were just terminally stupid.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I agree, there was very little in the movie that made a lot of sense. I don't really like a lot of the creative choices the filmmakers made, but there was a lot that was a failure of craft and technique. It's one thing to dislike the color palette or to disagree with the writer's interpretation of an established character, but it's another thing entirely when the plot is impossible to follow and the characters' motivations & intentions are unclear.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin will be getting a musical crossover episode this season, directed by Joss Whedon (I'm not sure if he's going to write it too, but I hope so). This will be a separate story from the massive, 4-show, all-CW-superheroes crossover.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Turns out Melissa Benoist has a dorky sense of humor. "Met a wonderful woman today." *groan*

(Not a spoiler, a large image.)

Spoiler :

 

[Cutlass]

Caught up with Suicide Squad. While it was worth seeing, the critics have a point in that it really wasn't that good. It continues a trend in these movies of trying to do too much too fast and too soon. They'd make better movies if they set their ambitions lower.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Caught up with Suicide Squad. While it was worth seeing, the critics have a point in that it really wasn't that good. It continues a trend in these movies of trying to do too much too fast and too soon. They'd make better movies if they set their ambitions lower.

I still haven't seen it, but the tales of corporate bumbling make one shudder. I've also heard that Suicide Squad suffers from a confusing script, much as Batman v Superman did, which is crippling. I've heard that the villain's goals and motivations in both movies were incomprehensible. A good screenplay can still be made into a bad movie, but how many good movies started with a poorly-conceived story? Just going with the odds, I suppose it's probably happened.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I happen to be listening to Kermode & Mayo's BBC show and one of them (I can never remember which is which) said of Suicide Squad, "When a film has been edited like that, it's really impossible to tell if the problems are with the script. It really is a film that's been edited with a food blender."