Comic Book Movies

[gunswordfist]

I just got back from seeing Thor. It was good, overall (certainly a hell of a lot better than Iron Man 2, IMO), though there were some issues which I had with the film, but the most important thing is that it was enjoyable and done relatively well. They didn't make the movie as action-heavy as I had expected, which is a good thing since they made more of the film based on its story and characters, and the action scenes in the end meant a lot more because of that. And yeah, I have to say they really did a great job designing Asgard, even if it is really all just computer generated.

I have to say, though, I thought the trailers for this movie were complete crap. They didn't do a thing to get me excited or pumped up for the film, but the actual movie itself was actually a lot more entertaining than I had expected. I'd say that my favorite aspect of the film was how they handled Loki's character. I'm not sure how accurate or not it is to the comic books, but I found him to be the most interesting character in the film by far, and I actually liked this interpretation of him even more than the one in EMH.

Oh, BTW, I didn't really get that scene after the end credits. Anyone who saw the movie and that scene, and who knows more about the Marvel comic book Universe, care to elaborate on it for me?

Funny, the other person who said Thor was good said it was also better than Iron Man 2. And I also thought all the promos were shit. I'm interested to see how good Loki is in the movie. I've seen how good the character is here and there (mostly Hulk Vs Thor) and I think I know what to expect out of him done right.

[Avaitor]

It isn't really that hard to be better than Iron Man 2. It's far from the worst super hero movie ever made, but far from the best, either.

[Lord Dalek]

Iron Man 2's storyline was a trainwreck of epic proportions. Even I could do a better job than that.

[gunswordfist]

Did I mention that X-Men: First Class looks stupid and the guy from Gossip Girl's writing can never be trusted yet?

[Angus]

It looks stupid or is stupid?

Saw the first half of the Scott Pilgrim movie last night.  Liking the comic styling captions and visual fighting effects. Then again those names of Knives and Envy threw me a bit off, since they're associated more with those titles from Japan.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I plan on seeing X-Men First Class this weekend (if I get the chance, to). So, if and when I see it, I'll be able to confirm for you all whether GSF's assumptions are right or not, whether its as stupid as the previous couple of X-Men films to be released, or it redeems the series at all to the level of the first 2 films.

As for me, I personally thought the trailers looked awesome. Coming from someone who feels that the trailers for all of the other big Superhero movies of this summer were completely stupid, this one actually excited me for some reason. The Thor trailers left me completely underwhelmed, the Green Lantern trailers are all absolutely garbage (and I won't be surprised one bit if the film turns out to suck), and I'm sorry but as great of a superhero as I'm sure that he is, and as hard as that trailer tried to make audiences take it seriously, I still find that Captain America looks completely ridiculous in live-action, and its honestly kind of hard to watch with a straight-face. Still, hopefully the film itself will prove me wrong, but I can't say that its trailer did anything to change my mind.

So yeah, after watching the trailer for First Class and the short preview clips for it, its honestly the only superhero film that I'm currently looking forward to. I do hope it turns out to be good, but it could also be lame since Bryan Singer isn't exactly the most perfect director that he can occasionally fuck up a movie or 2 (see: Superman Returns). Still, the previous so far have left me hopeful for this movie, honestly.

[Avaitor]

The reviews are very good for First Class, and it seems promising enough. I'm going to try to find time to see it, but who knows.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm seeing it this weekend, so I'm hoping for good stuff.

Hopefully Bryan Singer's input was heavy.

[gunswordfist]

Did I mention that Ryan "Bad Acotr" Reynolds is the worst possible choice for Hal Jordan and that I'll watch the movie anyway since it's directed by Michael "Fucking" Campbell? There's no director I can trust more these days than Campbell. He's not my absolute favorite but close enough and Casino Royale alone blows away whatever Speilberg, Cameron and Peter Jackson has done recently. It's not even close. He rapes those guys recent work.

[Avaitor]

I noticed that reservations are available for the midnight premiere for Avengers now, so I was checking that out. The AMC at Downtown Disney is showing a Marvel movie marathon just before the premiere, with all the precursor movies. That sounds really cool, but also kind of excessive. If I went over to Downtown Disney for the premiere, I'd want to go around Downtown Disney before hand, not spend all day in the theater.

I am thinking of convincing my friends to go to that, but I'm not sure if they'll be down for it, since it's just as easy to stay in town and go to one of our local theaters.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The movie is coming out on the exact day that my semester ends. My last final itself is on May 3rd, I believe, but since its at 6:00 PM I probably won't get to go see the midnight premiere since it'll be too late for my dad to bring the car and for us to take the time to load up all of my stuff and drive back to New Jersey.

That said I can just see the movie on release day since I'll be going back on Friday morning and will have plenty of time left in the day after I unpack all of my stuff to go see the film. I also won't have to worry about reserving tickets like how I would for the midnight premiere.

[Avaitor]

I just finished watching Iron Man 2 for the first time since it was in theaters.

You know, it's still by far the weakest of the Marvel movies, and its flaws are as apparent as ever, but I enjoy it as much as ever. When it's funny, it's still hilarious. When the action is great, it's still great. Some of the sillier aspects, like Tony in the Grand Prix and the entire bit with DJ AM, could've easily been cut out or redone, but I still don't hate the film.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't know, it still felt too clustered and disorienting to me when I re-watched it. The action scenes were OK when they were there, but I felt like there were barely any and not really worth the build-up (I mean, come one, the final battle lasted all of 30 seconds and felt completely anti-climactic, especially when you compare it to how it was done in the first movie), and I didn't even find the humor to always work (it was really funny at times, but there were also a lot of times when it just didn't do anything for me, either). I do also feel that Black Widow felt way too forced into the story-line just for the sake of giving her character some exposure before The Avengers movie. She honestly would have been just as fine with a small cameo akin to what Hawkeye got in  Thor. Personally I think I would have enjoyed the film much better if it had completely cut out the Tony dying sub-plot and the tie-ins with SHIELD, and instead just focused on the main conflict between Tony Stark and Whiplash as well as the government and military trying to get him to turn over his Iron Man property and technology to them for study and mass production. Those 2 plots alone would have been more than enough to sustain a full movie and could both be interesting while having plenty of room for humor and character development. I felt that everything else just dragged the movie down, personally, but that's just my opinion on it.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, you could've easily cut out most of Natasha's role as Tony and Pepper's assistant, and just introduce her shortly before she suits up as Black Widow and kicks ass alongside Coulson. And as much as I love the line "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the donut", you can also completely remove Nick Fury's first appearance and only keep in his ending scene.

There's a lot wrong with the movie, I won't argue, but I don't think it's as poorly executed as you say.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, for all I criticize the movie, I don't actually hate it, but I just can't bring myself to like it, either. I think we can all agree that the first movie is far superior, and that Iron Man 3 would do better to look at what that movie did right and make sure to avoid the things that Iron Man 2 did wrong. We still have the potential for a truly great sequel in this film series.