Superheroes!

Why tag me? I've never been a fan of Batman.
 
Saw Guardians of the Galaxy 3 last night. Nothing to do, so went to the theater. Been trying to think of how to write about it.

Spoiler And how much to spoiler. :

First of all, I really didn't love it. But the more I think on it, the more I think I understand it. Was it a good movie? More or less no, IMO. Probably in the bottom group of MCU movies. If not all the way to the bottom.

Maybe if I knew the GotG comics and backstories better, I would have appreciated the movie more. But I didn't, and so didn't.

But it fits a place. And it took me a while to figure out what that place is. And what I figured was that what this movie was really doing is wrapping up all the loose story arcs of the characters. It doesn't do anything to move the MCU forward. Not even the post credit easter eggs did that. It was just about the GotG characters. And even a couple who weren't core to that.

Except Groot. We didn't get jack to deal with his story arc. But the others, Rocket in particular, this was about bringing some closure to their arcs. And all the rest was just a vehicle to do that.

So if you want to follow what is going on in the MCU, this movie can be missed. If you care about the GotG characters and their arcs, then this movie makes more sense to see.

That said, there was a lot about the movie itself which was not that good. The CGI scenes were often far too busy, with far more going on than the eye could really follow. Lighting choices were dark, making that worse. The story wasn't very good. And they kept forgetting that in space you need some sort of air containment apparatus. Except when remembering it was a plot point.

But what you did get was some closure on the characters. And that was about all you got.
 
The nerd rumor mill is going a little berserk today. Even Forbes is 'reporting' that the cast of the MCU's Fantastic Four has been leaked: Adam Driver, Margot Robbie, Paul Mescal, and Daveed Diggs. I'm not real familiar with any of them, but I know they're all well-regarded actors, with movies and roles that have been praised by critics. None of this has been confirmed by Disney yet.

Also no word on what the plot or who the villain will be. Doctor Doom seems obvious, but if it were me, and knowing the movie is the beginning of a franchise, I might wait and use a different antagonist than one of the iconic supervillains (no Doom and definitely no Galactus - if they use Galactus in the very first movie, I might actually be a little mad). I might use someone like Annihilus in the first movie, and maybe introduce Victor as a friendly-ish rival of Reed's, just to set up the later conflict.

Anyway, here's our Fantastic Four..?

 
I'm not feeling it.
Me neither, but that's been true of almost every actor who's ever been cast for the MCU, so wtf do I know? :lol: One of their greatest strengths has been in casting. Setting aside the near-total dumpster fires (Inhumans; Eternals) I think I could count the number of bad casting decisions on my fingers. Mickey Rourke. Finn Jones. Tilda Swinton. I'm not sure Lee Pace was bad casting, so much as Ronan the Accuser was badly-written. Same with Brie Larson as Captain Marvel; I think my problem with her might have been in the script more than her performance, but sometimes I have a hard time teasing those apart.

Conversely, there were a number of casting choices that I either didn't know or was skeptical of who turned out to be excellent, including a couple who've become iconic. Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson all raised an eyebrow, until I saw them do it. I don't think I knew Hemsworth or Hiddleston at all before Thor, but before they found Hemsworth, I'd have said Thor was an all but impossible character to cast. I had seen Tom Holland in The Impossible. I'd seen Paul Rudd and Mark Ruffalo in a thing or two, and neither screamed "action hero" to me.

In fact, now that I think about it, there have only been a few MCU casting choices that I liked, right from the jump. Hugo Weaving was actually my choice to play the Red Skull when I was "fan-casting" a Captain America movie in the '00s, and while I hadn't thought of it myself, I immediately took to the idea of Jeff Bridges playing Obadiah Stane, even before I saw the movie. Benedict Cumberbatch seemed like a good Doctor Strange after Sherlock.
 
Last edited:
Would've rather had Krasinski instead of Driver for the role of Reed, but alright, I guess.

Daveed Diggs is cool. But having him as Grimm is a waste of his talents (even though he does a lot of work in voiceover).
 
The nerd rumor mill is going a little berserk today. Even Forbes is 'reporting' that the cast of the MCU's Fantastic Four has been leaked: Adam Driver, Margot Robbie, Paul Mescal, and Daveed Diggs. I'm not real familiar with any of them, but I know they're all well-regarded actors, with movies and roles that have been praised by critics. None of this has been confirmed by Disney yet.

Also no word on what the plot or who the villain will be. Doctor Doom seems obvious, but if it were me, and knowing the movie is the beginning of a franchise, I might wait and use a different antagonist than one of the iconic supervillains (no Doom and definitely no Galactus - if they use Galactus in the very first movie, I might actually be a little mad). I might use someone like Annihilus in the first movie, and maybe introduce Victor as a friendly-ish rival of Reed's, just to set up the later conflict.

Anyway, here's our Fantastic Four..?

Again?? :shake: They need to just give it up and do something else... they've tried this three times already and it flopped all three times. I'd rather see another Incredibles movie.

Where's our X-Men MCU reboot?? Another Fantastic 4 instead? Ugh:cringe:

The cynic in me says some of this is a desperate bid just to make Human Torch a blonde dude again, to placate the butthurt fanbois over Michael B. Jordan, in forlorn hope that will be enough to carry the film to success... I'm skeptical.

Also... Fantastic 4 seems to have a pattern of using actors who have either already played other superheores in other franchises, or eventually do so... Chris Evans, Michael B. Jordan... Adam Driver was Kylo Ren... and I mean Magot Robbie is the current Harley Quinn!
 
Last edited:
Again?? :shake: They need to just give it up and do something else... they've tried this three times already and it flopped all three times. I'd rather see another Incredibles movie.

Where's our X-Men MCU reboot?? Another Fantastic 4 instead? Ugh:cringe:

The cynic in me says some of this is a desperate bid just to make Human Torch a blonde dude again, to placate the butthurt fanbois over Michael B. Jordan, in forlorn hope that will be enough to carry the film to success... I'm skeptical.

Also... Fantastic 4 seems to have a pattern of using actors who have either already played other superheores in other franchises, or eventually do so... Chris Evans, Michael B. Jordan... Adam Driver was Kylo Ren... and I mean Magot Robbie is the current Harley Quinn!
I'm kind of the opposite. I'm much less excited for the MCU's X-Men because I thought they were done well already, even though some of the Fox movies were trainwrecks. X-Men, X2, First Class and Logan were all good-to-great. Meanwhile, the FF still haven't gotten the movie they deserve. As a rule, I'm against reboots or remakes of movies that were done right the first time, but it's not impossible. I would have thought a 3rd Spider-Man was unnecessary, but Tom Holland's Spider-Man is my favorite Spider-Man, now. (I still haven't seen Amazing Spider-Man, but everyone seems to agree it was 3rd-best.)

I never saw the 2015 version of Fantastic Four, but the flops are the reason I'd like to see the MCU do it properly. Although, the MCU seem to have misplaced their mojo lately, so it's possible it's already too late for a good Fantastic Four movie. :lol: Chris Evans' Johnny Storm was one of the only things I liked about the 2005 version. I think that was why I was skeptical of him playing Captain America.
 
I'm kind of the opposite. I'm much less excited for the MCU's X-Men because I thought they were done well already, even though some of the Fox movies were trainwrecks. X-Men, X2, First Class and Logan were all good-to-great. Meanwhile, the FF still haven't gotten the movie they deserve. As a rule, I'm against reboots or remakes of movies that were done right the first time, but it's not impossible. I would have thought a 3rd Spider-Man was unnecessary, but Tom Holland's Spider-Man is my favorite Spider-Man, now. (I still haven't seen Amazing Spider-Man, but everyone seems to agree it was 3rd-best.)

I never saw the 2015 version of Fantastic Four, but the flops are the reason I'd like to see the MCU do it properly. Although, the MCU seem to have misplaced their mojo lately, so it's possible it's already too late for a good Fantastic Four movie. :lol: Chris Evans' Johnny Storm was one of the only things I liked about the 2005 version. I think that was why I was skeptical of him playing Captain America.
Agree that X-Men was already done properly. Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman were born to play those characters. However, I'd say the same for Christopher Reeve, and Henry Cavill is a perfect example that you can actually improve on a character that seems to be already perfect.

On a related note, Chris Evans was a damn fine Captain America... another casting that was basically perfect. I can't imagine anyone hitting the notes better for the character. Same for Chris Hemsworth's Thor. As you already referenced, the MCU Gen 1 was pitch perfect on a lot of the characters... it was just really well done overall. I'm skeptical that they are going to be able to continue to live up to the bar that they set, and its not looking good so far, but i remain hopeful. I just think another Fantastic 4 is throwing away good money after bad. The last version (2015) isn't anywhere near as bad as it is generally claimed, but it certainly wasn't great and wasn't worth the reboot. It was mostly forgettable and meh, like the 2005 version. I'm not looking forward to another.

To be fair, the last 2 Batman reboots show that you can redeem a franchise that has gone totally off the rails. The 1989 Batman was a masterpiece... last two sequels were trash, obviously... but the Christian Bale version was the reboot we never knew we needed... then the Ben Affleck reboot shocks by not being as terrible as everyone expected... then the Robert Pattinson reboot shocks again, by actually being pretty damn spectacular... so with Fantastic 4, who knows? I'd be kidding myself to say I'm not going to at least give it a watch.
 
If I was sure that the MCU's X-Men would be as good or better than Fox's, I'd be game for it. I'm not, though. And of course it's not that I don't want to see good reboots or remakes, it's just that a reboot or remake of something that was already good is more of a high-risk play. Creatively, not commercially - commercially, it's the opposite, that's why studios do them.

And in the case of the X-Men specifically, I don't really see how they fit into the MCU as presently constructed. That's not to say that it can't be done, and done well. I'm not a writer. The fact that I don't see how to do it doesn't mean a more creative person couldn't. I just think it's a bigger challenge.

That said, besides Fantastic Four, I'm not sure who I'd introduce to the MCU right now. I think they need to get a grip on the wheel and get things back under control. If anything, they have too many characters to work with. For instance, I thought the inclusion of Ironheart in Wakanda Forever kind of dragged that movie down a little. Nothing against the character, but that movie had enough going on. If it had been great, then great, but why did they burden themselves by adding another layer on that movie? Similarly, I thought Echo was fine in Hawkeye, but is a merely adequate Echo series going to do anybody any good? Again, if it's great, then great, but it kind of has to be great. And I've rambled here before about the myriad, as-yet-unconnected stories about the multiverse(s). I skidded past a click-bait article on my phone on the way to work this morning that was a list of all of the MCU post-credits scenes that have led to nothing. I didn't bother to read it, but I'm sure there must be several by now. This is more about content overload than about reboots, per se, but the two are connected.

So I'm still waiting for a good Fantastic Four movie (although, as you point out, The Incredibles was our good FF movie - heck, I might just rewatch that again).


p.s. As with Evans' Johnny Storm, Affleck's Batman was one of the few things I liked about Batman v Superman. The scene where Batman rescues Martha Kent gave me a chuckle. "I'm a friend of your son's." "Yeah, I figured."
 
Last edited:
Clever framing. Quite long, yet doesn't spoil much. Not bad.

I see they're giving Emilia Clarke another go. Iffy on that. Her acting skills post-GoT have been... lacking.
I think I've only seen her in the Terminator movie and the Han Solo movie, both of which were fine, I suppose. I don't really remember her performance, specifically, in either one. So, yeah, I guess I'm with you. Wait and see.

But it's a scifi-espionage, paranoid action-thriller with Sam Jackson, Don Cheadle, Ben Mendelson, Martin Freeman, Cobie Smulders and Olivia Colman. Also Kingsley Ben-Adir, who I liked in One Night in Miami. That pitch would be exciting even if I didn't know it was part of the MCU (heck, maybe more).

Too bad they didn't build Secret Invasion up and have it payoff as a Phase IV or V arc. Or, even a multi-phase arc. Relegating the story to a singular D+ show is disappointing and I don't think it will do it justice.
I haven't read the comic, but I can certainly see the lost opportunity for a longer, winding story, just in the premise. This could have been the next big, multi-chapter story that involved characters across multiple movies and series, but without the cosmic scope of the Thanos saga. And unlike Infinity War, this one would reward fans of the characters who aren't immensely-powerful. Carol Danvers, Stephen Strange and Thor would have to take a back seat to people like Clint Barton, Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova. Bruce Banner's skills as a biochemist would be more important than Hulk smashing things (and that would've been the only time in his entire career that his skills as a scientist actually benefited anyone). Matt Murdock is probably one of the only people in the world who could tell a Skrull apart from a Human, once he knew what he was looking at. (We can imagine a scene of Matt walking down the street, and he passes some random person who has an unusual scent, and who doesn't reflect sound in quite the same way as everybody else. But they aren't doing anything, just walking down the sidewalk with a bag of groceries, so he shrugs and says, "huh, weird" and goes on with his day/episode.)

otoh, I kind of want the MCU to stop overthrowing and just hit the strike zone, and if this is a good series, then it's exactly what I want.
 
Fantastic Four's powers just don't come off, imho, as heroic. Rubberman can do lots of things, but they always feel goofy. All invisible woman can do is go invisible. That's useful, but the audience, by definition, can't see her doing whatever she's doing. Rockman seems like a low-budget Hulk.

Dunno. It once occurred to me that what's so satisfying about the key four of the Avengers is that they all smash things, in different ways. And smashing is discernably, and viscerally, heroic-feeling and heroic-looking.

Not a books, guy, as is probably obvious from my names for the Four. Just judging by how this all comes off in movies.
 
Fantastic Four's powers just don't come off, imho, as heroic. Rubberman can do lots of things, but they always feel goofy. All invisible woman can do is go invisible. That's useful, but the audience, by definition, can't see her doing whatever she's doing. Rockman seems like a low-budget Hulk.

Dunno. It once occurred to me that what's so satisfying about the key four of the Avengers is that they all smash things, in different ways. And smashing is discernably, and viscerally, heroic-feeling and heroic-looking.

Not a books, guy, as is probably obvious from my names for the Four. Just judging by how this all comes off in movies.
The thing, really, about the Fantastic Four was that the majority of their heroism didn't actually utilize their powers.
 
I suspect that's cool in the comic books (that's why I identified myself as just a movie-goer). But it's not going to cut it for a big block-buster-style movie.
 
I suspect that's cool in the comic books (that's why I identified myself as just a movie-goer). But it's not going to cut it for a big block-buster-style movie.
Sadly, maybe not in the 21st Century. The fine art of move-making (even blockbusters) seems to dead - or quickly dying. :(
 
I'm out on the Flash movie. And kinda happy to see the low opening weekend projections. I'm rooting against this movie for a very specific, very personal reason: I have 8 (just counted) Supergirl action figures. You know what they all have in common? Long Blonde hair! DC, you had One Job: to give me a cute blonde awesome powerful Supergirl in your movies I can celebrate! She's my 2nd favorite comics character (Terra).

One. Job.

Ok, more seriously, shoving her into the Superman role in Flashpoint Paradox was unlikely to work for me anyway. What I love about Supergirl, & one of the... many reasons the CW show failed for me... is that Supergirl loves using her powers, loves just being Supergirl. She never wanted a secret identity, although Clark eventually persuaded her to have one. Like if she just wanted to go to Outback for dinner, she needed to not be Supergirl right then, or go shopping at Target for clothes, probably don't wanna be Supergirl for that, but she wanted to be Supergirl as much as possible. She loved it!

She was so different from Superman, who really was Clark Kent, raised by a human family on Earth, but occasionally had to go be Superman. Kara Zor-El (pronounced "Care-uh", not "Khar-ah", another turnoff for this movie) celebrated her powers. Exulted in her powers. Because she came to Earth much older & she wasn't raised on Earth by humans. She occasionally had to be Linda/Kara Danvers just to do "normal" Earth stuff, sure, but she never liked it, or wished for it. Her appreciation, excitement, love of her powers... is why I always liked her.

So... Supergirl in the Superman role from Flashpoint?!? (if you're not familiar with the Flashpoint story, that role is the opposite of "arrived later, now exults in your powers"). Nope. Not my cup of tea.

I'd be happy to see this movie flop for that reason alone: the butchering of Supergirl, both in physical appearance & inserting a totally different character into your story but calling her "Supergirl" for the name recognition alone. Oh... & also Ezra Millar being a turd of a human being I suppose.
 
Top Bottom