Comic Book Movies

[Dr. Insomniac]

Saw that Spider-Man Lotus movie, AKA "the Racist Spider-Man fanfilm" that it's otherwise known as thanks to leaked DMs and memes. Even when understanding this is not a professional film and many of the shortcomings come from understandable issues like lack of budget and an amateur cast (Mary Jane's actress in particular just isn't good at all), the film is still a garbled mess with no sense of pacing or even chronological storytelling. Felt like someone in the editor's room intentionally jumbled scenes out of order.

It also seemed strange how in a cast the production prided itself over for its faithfulness to the comics right down to their outfits, Harry's actor is inexplicably doing a halfhearted Neil Gaiman impression for most of the story.

On another note, I was reminded of how few good adaptations there are of Mary Jane Watson. There aren't many I genuinely dislike, but the only one I can think of that was any interesting was SSM's, and the show unfortunately ended before she could do much. Meanwhile, Dunst's version is so frustrating that there are a significant amount of fans wondering what Peter saw in her and didn't instead date Mr. Ditkovich's daughter, the TASM 2 one was apparently so bad that we still haven't got her deleted scenes yet, Zendaya's fine but like SSM wish could be explored more. Or the one from the 90s cartoon who was often overshadowed by her awful Aunt Anna, and went MIA and replaced by a water clone soon after.

[Avaitor]

Blue Beetle was solid, feels like the fun kind of low-stakes comic book movie that would be a summer highlight in a less crowded market. I wasn't sure, since I'm hit or miss on the character (really liked him in TBATB, hated his take on Young Justice), but he was handled well here and had an enjoyable supporting cast. Easily the best DC movie since The Batman, which doesn't sound like much, but when you realize that this was the third out of four underperforming releases this year (Aquaman sounds like it's not going to be much better), it really sounds exhausting.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Spoiler

What a bizarre coincidence that we're 3 for 3 in Kelsey Grammer reprising roles in subpar installments these past few weeks.

[close]

[Avaitor]

I'm seeing The Marvels on Tuesday, although I'm not super hyped. Even the most enthusiastic reviews seem somewhat underwhelmed.

But hey, at least Loki's second season was good.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Madame Web's trailer looks like it's gonna make The Marvels look like Into the Spider-Verse by comparison, but I'm kinda hoping the "Adam Scott is Uncle Ben" rumors are true because that would drive the internet insane for a week.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I was waiting for this, and much to my disappointment, he's a "Forever good, Returns bad" guy.

[Daikun]

[Dr. Insomniac]

At last, the secret's revealed.

Spoiler

HERBIE's now in the MCU. Everybody's favorite Marvel character.

[close]

[Avaitor]

It's probably a coincidence, but it feels like Marvel is going into overtime this week between the Deadpool and X-Men trailers and Fantastic Four reveal to hide from Madame Web's disastrous release.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'll believe it when Feige suddenly announces that Stahelski-directed Blade movie everyone wants but we haven't gotten for whatever reason in the next few days.

[Avaitor]

I'm calling it now- that's not happening at all anymore. Maybe it never was in the first place.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watched Madame Web, and my biggest impression was thinking Dakota Johnson has no idea how to open a can of soda. And the pure confusion in seeing Madame Web knowing that some crazy spider-guy wants to kill three teenagers, so he locates said teenagers, and then abandons them in a forest. And then she abandons them again to take a trip from New York to the Amazon.