Comic Book Movies

[Avaitor]

The X-Men movies are consistently inconsistent, but I'll always have a soft spot for them. It's just kind of cool how they've always done their own thing and only occasionally taken some trends from other comic book franchises. While it's hard to defend movies like Origins and Apocalypse, you won't see the MCU or even DCEU pull off a Logan or Days of Future Past.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I won't lie, I also have a soft spot for FOX's X-MEN movies, at least the better ones. In the past I'd say that X2 was my favorite, but over time my favorite shifted over to First Class, which I think is genuinely a great superhero movie, not just a good X-MEN movie. And yeah, in that regard, FOX never truly captured the spirit of the comics, but I hate it when people use that to dismiss any of these movies as being lesser films simply because they aren't perfect as adaptations. While they don't necessarily get all the details right, I'd argue that the higher quality ones get the main themes down, and on top of that are just good pieces of cinema in and of themselves. Viewed as a stand-alone story, First Class is an interesting take on an alternate version of history in which mutants were involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis behind the scenes. It's just such a fucking awesome concept that you wouldn't see any other big franchise flicks ever trying to attempt. It doesn't hurt that it has top-notch writing, directing, and acting, and a truly underrated score by Henry Jackman (who also had a good score for The Winter Soldier).

Meanwhile, the first two movies may be somewhat dated, but they work as really well-made science fiction stories, while DOFP and the Deadpool movies are solid blockbusters in their own right. And then there's Logan which is such a unique entity in the genre that just couldn't exist in any other franchise due to the unique circumstances of this franchise's history and missteps with FOX. For all of the duds and negatives, there's also some genuine brilliance that shouldn't be overlooked or forgotten about.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, while they were never faithful to the comics, it clearly wasn't their intent to begin with. It was to take stories from the comics and re-imagine them in an early 2000s climate, which lasted even after the films stopped taking place in the present day and went from period piece to future tale and back again. And while that didn't lend favors to many X-Men characters I like, there are a dozen I can name that got the short straw, it's cool in a way that for an entire generation of people, their mental image of Wolverine is Hugh Jackman in a wifebeater.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The funny thing is that even comic book fans who don't like the movies still tend to admit to liking Hugh Jackman's take on the character. It's become so iconic to the point where it may be in the MCU's best interest to wait until at least a few more years before introducing their version of Wolverine into the MCU to avoid too many direct comparisons.

[Dr. Insomniac]

There are plenty of X-Men elements the MCU will have to avoid or subvert for a while without avoiding comparisons to the old movies. It'll be exceedingly difficult to find anybody who can fit Charles and Erik the same way Stewart and McKellen or McAvoy and Fassbender did. And obviously, they've salted the earth on stories like the Dark Phoenix saga. Honestly don't know how they should approach it. Can't do a straightforward "Cyclops and the team fight the Brotherhood" plot without looking stale, but you can't go for any wild E for Extinction or House of X/Powers of X adaptations without a lot of setup first.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I know one of the writers of some of the previous MCU movies suggested updating the character of Magneto to be a survivor of the Rwanda Genocide instead of the Holocaust. Some people of course don't like the idea of changing his Jewish heritage, while others are just man-babies who think putting any person of color in a prominent role is automatically making it woke. Personally, though, I think that idea makes a lot of sense. For one thing it would kind of be impossible at this point to make a threatening version of Magneto as a Holocaust survivor for how old he'd have to be by now. Meanwhile, the essential aspects of what makes the character who he is at his core would still be there in the other proposed version. Plus, the MCU would have the added benefit of being different enough from both FOX iterations of the character to be seen more as it's own thing. This is a completely different Universe, after all.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, the thing about X-Men is that it's meant to be an allegory for social division and bigotry, and with a series meant to last indefinitely, that means finding more recent sources of division and hatred to mine from. Sometimes the message is too vague to mean anything, sometimes too self-defeating, but it's still there in the best X-Men stories. Logan did end with him helping a group of Mexican-born mutants cross a border. And fortunately for X-Men but unfortunately in real life, there are no small number of recent genocides to base Magneto from.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Matt Reeves' The Crow looks pretty good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Trailer's Out:  https://youtu.be/WbUEueLx-eU

Hey, I'm not gonna lie, I dug The Batman trailer. I've mostly been a fan of Mat Reeve's output over the past decade, what with directing arguably the best X-Men movie so far and taking two Mark Millar properties (a writer who's body of work I genuinely dislike) and turning them into actual fun, engaging stories with likeable characters. I'm good with him going back to basics here and making more of a detective style Batman movie. This seems to have vibes from The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Year One, Hush, and even a bit of The Black Mirror.

I'm not on the "DC is back" bandwagon (especially with all of the layoffs to staff members in the comic book department) when it comes to the movies, since Shazam! is the only one that I have genuinely liked since the last Nolan Batman movie. Even their DTV animated output has ranged from shit to passable, and for the record, I still think I'm going to dislike the Snyder Cut of Justice League since I'm not a fan of Snyder as a filmmaker (though it is cool that fans who want it are getting it). So when I say that I'm genuinely optimistic for this movie and like what I'm seeing so far, I do really mean it. This and WW84 are genuine bright spots in DC's line-up for me.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I've mostly been a fan of Mat Reeve's output over the past decade, what with directing arguably the best X-Men movie so far and taking two Mark Millar properties (a writer who's body of work I genuinely dislike) and turning them into actual fun, engaging stories with likeable characters.

That's Matthew Vaughn. Matt Reeves is the guy who directed the recent Planet of the Apes movies.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I kind of realized my goof up a few minutes after posting it (still stand by what I said about Reeve's body of work, though). I would delete that post but I figured we're all entitled to our embarrassing goof-ups from time to time.

It also doesn't hurt my case that I personally really liked this past decade's Apes trilogy, so my point still stands in that regard.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Paul Dano as the Riddler reminds me of those fanmade posters from over 10 years ago of what people wanted from the 3rd Nolan Bat-movie. Google "The Dark Knight Riddler", and you'll see a whole slew of them. But in a good way. Can't wait to see his take.

Speaking of, I rewatched some Riddler eps of BTAS, and noticed how little he actually appears compared to other Bat-villains. He only has a major role in 3 episodes, and while they're all good, none of them are character-defining the way Heart of Ice, The Demon's Quest or Mad Love are.

[Mustang]

Saw the trailer of Batman. I don't know anything about this guy that got as Batman. My coworker has been going in on the movie itself because of casting choice before the trailer. Like I said, don't know him and after seeing the trailer I'm not sold, but I am interested. I need to see a little more. I like the vibe from Batman himself, but the trailer itself, I need to see more.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I don't know anything about this guy that got as Batman. My coworker has been going in on the movie itself because of casting choice before the trailer.

He's the guy from those Twilight movies a decade ago. He played the sparkly vampire. Since then, he's done better roles.

[Avaitor]

Speaking of, I rewatched some Riddler eps of BTAS, and noticed how little he actually appears compared to other Bat-villains. He only has a major role in 3 episodes, and while they're all good, none of them are character-defining the way Heart of Ice, The Demon's Quest or Mad Love are.

I've heard before that as much as Timm and co liked using the Riddler, they struggled to write for him, especially to come up with riddles. It's especially kind of lame that they could never come up with more material for him in TNBA, since I like his design there.

Besides the upcoming stuff that was announced, I did just see Birds of Prey. I like it alright. I'm still not a big fan of Robbie's Harley voice, and the script needed work. Primarily the character writing, which besides Harley was weak, especially with whatever the fuck they tried to do with Cassandra Cain. But it's still fun enough, and had one of the better climaxes that I've seen from a super hero movie in a while.

I've still yet to find that one DCEU movie that really lands for me. Wonder Woman probably comes the closest, but I can't find it more than just fine. Aquaman loses me around the halfway point, I respect what Shazam was doing but didn't click with it, and I have little use for Snyder or Joker's half-assed nihilism. But at the same time, I do applaud DC for going in different directions with their films. On the other hand, while the MCU does tend to be less diverse, I still end up liking most of their films better. I'd probably take WW or even Birds of Prey over Captain Marvel, but at the sane time, the DCEU has yet to make something that landed for me the same way that a Black Panther or a Guardians has.