Comic Book Movies

[Avaitor]

I'm also pro-Wakanda Forever. I don't think it's as tight as the first film, but considering the obstacles they had to go through, who was expecting that?

Namor absolutely crushed it, would like to see more of him soon. In fact, I wonder how he'll interact with Reed and Sue when the Fantastic Four inevitably make it in.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Considering that a lot of the older comic stories featured Namor trying to cuck reed by wooing and/or kidnapping Sue Storm in an attempt to make her his bride (with Sue in particular being treated more as a plot device than as a character), I'm going to take the safe bet and assume they won't be going that route in the movies. I'm thinking it'll be closer to their more modern relationship in the Illuminati where Namor has both a disdain and begrudging respect for Reed's intellect. I could see conflict between them in the movies with how he perceives Reed as a potential threat since he could elevate the technology outside the world of Wakanda and Talokan to a level that could compete with them (same reason he wanted Riri out of the picture).

I'm just glad that they didn't kill off Namor like they do most other MCU villains. Part of the fun of the comics is seeing the developing rivalries and dynamics between certain heroes and villains. It also makes for some great moments in bigger events where both sides have to put their differences aside to face greater threats. It's one of the things that disappointed me about Doctor Strange 2 since I wanted to see how the conflict between Strange and Mordo would shake out, but we just got an alternate Universe version of him instead.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Got bored, and I've been meaning to do this for a while but there were some films I hadn't rewatched in a while, so here are my Batman movie rankings. Just counting the theatrical ones because I'm too lazy to go through all of the DTV movies (Wikipedia lists 24), so sadly no Return of the Joker. Not counting ZSJL, Joker, or that recent Krypto the Superdog movie with Keanu Reeves either even though Bruce is in them since they're more their own thing, though some of them would probably be somewhere in the middle here.

13. The Killing Joke: Speaking of Wikipedia, they reminded me this was released in theaters a week before the video release. And since it counts, last place. A miserable affair with an abominable first half that doesn't even attempt to branch out the source material in any meaningful way and just slathers it with sleaze instead, and a lifelessly 1:1 second half that brings nothing new or exciting to Moore's words. All the ones after this have some kind of redeeming factor, while this feature takes one of the dream projects DC fans have wanted for decades and produced this schlock.

12. Batman Forever: Is it weird the one thing I like about this film is Tommy Lee Jones? I know people hate his Two-Face and wish Billy Dee Williams were here, but I'm oddly intrigued by him due to how much TLJ gets to play a role that's the opposite of his usual type. Or maybe it's because everything else in the movie is so blasé. It's the most thematically void of the Batman films, wish we got more of that Lost Boys/Phantom of the Opera Schumacher instead of this, but they doubled down and we got...

11. Batman & Robin: At least this one's more fun to watch, even if in all the unintentional places. If nothing else, it's never boring and it leaves some memorable imagery in my head, and you can tell Arnold and Uma Thurman are having a ball. Maybe time's been kind to it, particularly now that the Batman film franchise is more alive than ever, but there's also no way I'd call this a good entry either. Especially with how painful O'Donnell and Clooney are here.

10. Lego Batman: I liked the Lego Movie, but this one feels like its predecessor's reheated leftover. Not bad, mind you. Arnett, Cera, and Dawson are fun. I'd be lying if I said this version of Bruce wasn't hilarious.

9: Batman 1966: And I've got a similar feeling with this film, that while I enjoy the Adam West show, this just feels like more of the Adam West show than its own thing. And that's not a slight. Both this and Lego Batman are good, but they're little more than extensions. So they don't get me thinking about them as much as the ones below. Though the ending where Bruce and Dick accidentally scramble the languages and personalities of the entire UN council is great.

8: Batman v Superman: Maybe time's made me kinder to this film, but it does have a few genuinely wonderful scenes. Sure, the ending unravels into a big mess, Lois does almost fuckall in this and all the other DCEU films, and I still hate Eisenberg's Lex, but the director's cut helps fix a lot of the problems the theatrical version had, clearing up Bruce's character arc and his eventual confrontation and partnership with Clark. Don't get me wrong. It's still a very messy picture, but I don't dislike it as much as I used to.

7. Batman 1989: And in contrast, I've liked this movie a little less over time. It's still filled with great scenes and performances though, and you can absolutely why this helped breathe new life into the superhero film genre and led to a lot of blatant copycats like the first TMNT movie. But a lot of my criticisms I made months ago in this thread still stand.

6. The Dark Knight Rises: Like BvS, this one's also a mess, one that's in love with its Tale of Two Cities allusions but does little to transmute them into a thematic message, but I still really enjoyed this. It's Nolan fully unleashing his Bond fan-brain and filling his version of Gotham with over the top villains and Bruce forcing himself to transform against all odds. With a version of Selina I find underrated, probably because of how overshadowed she is by Pfeiffer's performance in Returns, and Kravitz's in...

5. The Batman: In the months since this movie's premiere, I've on occasion played the Giacchino Batman theme on loop. Every rewatch offers some new insight, because it's a Batman movie filled with detail and subtext. Pattinson takes all the experience he's gotten over the last decade of his life in acting and channels it all in this Bruce, all while facing off against Kravitz, Farrell, and Dano at the height of their own acting careers as well. While it doesn't shake up the playing field as much as Begins or TDK did, it definitely offers a new vision of where WB can go not just with Batman but with their DC movies in general.

4. Mask of the Phantasm: It pains me to admit I hadn't rewatched this one in a long time, and Conroy's passing was what kicked my ass into giving it another viewing. This film distills everything about the DCAU version of Bruce into his best and worst qualities. The man who will sacrifice even a chance at finding future love or family of his own just for a promise he swore long ago, while not knowing if he'll go down with Gotham or if Gotham will go down with him. Though the latest rewatch made me realize how much of this was a recycling of Returns' core plot (Bruce finds a girlfriend whose life was destroyed by corrupt businessmen, which leads to her insane quest for vengeance, donning her own vigilante costume, and almost losing her life at a final standoff in an abandoned Gotham City attraction). Which isn't a criticism, but it's nevertheless interesting seeing how Timm, Radomski, Dini, and the others make it their own.

3. Batman Begins: The one that reignited Batman as a film series, and its effects can still be felt 17 years after its release. It's hard to remember how back between 1997 and 2005, these movies were stuck in development hell and viewed with little of the acclaim they have now. But it was this one that dragged Batman movies into the 21st century, refining all the flaws of the preceding live-action films and turning it into a fierce acting battle between Bale and Neeson. Ra's in particular is great in how he's a dark mirror of everything Bruce wants to be and hopes to do, challenging him on levels few other Bat-villains can.

2. Batman Returns: I love how this movie's gotten tons of positive re-evaluation over recent years. Unburdened from being the hired gun he was in his last film, Burton gets to really mold Batman into his own image at the peak of his powers at the time, creating a vision where Gotham and its denizens celebrate their most morbid yet most romantic Christmas. It's easy to forget thanks to his dismal recent work, but Burton in the early 90s was one of the most exciting Hollywood directors. He was probably the first filmmaker I knew of where I was watching movies just because his name was on them. And one of WB's biggest shames was looking at this movie, looking at its box office success, and deciding to pressure him out of the director's chair.

1. The Dark Knight: Yeah, the boring choice. Just when I think everything that can be said about TDK has been said, someone always comes out with a brand new thesis. This movie is what every superhero movie in the last 14 years strives to be. Where Begins and TDKR were Nolan's tributes to Bond, here he goes "Let me show you why I love crime thrillers like Heat" and takes everything up to 11, all while making the most out of Bale, Caine, Ledger, Gyllenhaal, Eckhart, Freeman, Oldman, and everybody else. Bruce and Joker are whittled down into elemental forces waging war with each other for over two hours, and it's spectacular. I remember when I saw that movie for the first time, I walked out the theater thinking "How the fuck are they going to make a better Batman movie than that?" I hope Reeves' sequel steps up to that challenge.

[Avaitor]

That's a pretty good ranking, and I like how Returns only seems to further improve its reputation in years. I still have a soft spot for 89, but Returns belongs in that special place with Gremlins 2 as mainstream sequels that didn't have to be as bizarre as they turned out, but am grateful that they did.

[Dr. Insomniac]

A while ago, I saw videos showing concerned parents and kids talk about how unsettling and polarizing Returns was, and it's so quaint compared to today.

[Dr. Insomniac]

In Gunn's first weeks as the DC Feige, those Black Adam 2 and Wonder Woman 3 films have been pulled.

In exchange, gorillas.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Across the Spider-Verse trailer is out and I'm really digging the vibe it's giving off. The first one has since become my favorite superhero movie up to this point, so it makes me a tad nervous that a sequel can't live up to it, but I do have some hope that it's at least possible.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I'm interested where they're going. Even if it's a third as good as the first one, that's still cool on its own.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So Reverse-Flash has like zero role in this? Were the movie guys really that afraid they couldn't find a guy better than Tom Cavanaugh?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Gunn's new movie slate is up. We're getting Superman, Brave and the Bold with Damian, Supergirl, Swamp Thing, and The Authority movies. And shows for Booster Gold, Creature Commandos, Green Lantern Corps, Amanda Waller, and a Themyscira prequel.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm low-key hoping that Booster Gold becomes a lead-in to JLI, or at least a sequel show or movie with him and Ted's Blue Beetle teaming up.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Still kind of a shame that they're wiping the whole slate clean for Clark instead of giving Cavill another shot, while I'm really curious just what's in The Flash movie that the execs are open to keep working with Miller.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Why does Michael Keaton look like he's CGI?

[Avaitor]

Quantumania is not getting very good reviews, and... yeah, I was never very excited for this to begin with. But man, am I tired of the same damn Marvel discourse hitting Twitter.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I wasn't expecting anything to begin with, never really dug the Ant-Man films and think Scott works better as a side character, especially with Michael Peña missing from the cast this time.