What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

First of all, don't take anything I'm about to say as an attack on you. It's just that since you brought up your points, I feel obligated to present you with my rebuttal. I only say this because I'm aware that sometimes I give off the wrong impressions on people, even though I expect that you know me better, by now. At any rate:

RDJ was doing a lot more than just cracking jokes in the first movie. What about the whole first third of the film where he's in a serious dilemma trying to escape from a group of terrorists and has limited resources to work with? The situation is intense and while the guy who helps him dies early on, RDJ does a good job of showing remorse for the guy who saved his life at the expense of his own. And the whole theme of that movie is Tony Stark dropping his shtick as a playboy and taking a step to protect use his money, resources, and intelligence to help people. A good portion of the movie has him deal with his guilt of having been profiting off war for most of his life. I definitely think it showed a wide enough range of emotions.

As for IM3, it may be more story driven, but more story doesn't mean it's a better story. I already mentioned my problems with the plot in the previous post. As for the Mandarin twist, I didn't mind the twist itself, but I wouldn't call it phenomenal, either. It basically sets up that Aldrich Killian was the Mandarin the whole time, in essence, which in and of itself would be fine if you didn't stop to consider that his whole beef with Tony was just being pissed that he didn't take him seriously and skipped out on a meeting with him, which does sound pretty pathetic. I understand that he also had ideological reasons for doing what he was doing, but that's another problem with the film. They didn't spend any time exploring that side of his character, so it really just comes off as his bitter revenge towards Tony Stark. Simply being a twist that was a big risk and took a lot of faith to pull off doesn't make it a great one. As for Tony Stark not activating the suits at his mansion because he was caught off guard, if that was true, then that just makes him an idiot considering that he gave the enemy his address and bated him to come and attack him. One would find it common sense to be prepared for that.

As for the ending, I agree that it was a great set-piece action scene, and probably the best part of the movie, and if was never surprised that Pepper was still alive given her Extemis upgrade and the fact that the movie was still playing it tounge-in-cheek in tone after she "supposedly" died, so I had no qualms with that segment of the film.

At any rate, I'm not trying to sway your opinion, so don't take it that way. And also, I'm not more educated on the subject than you are. As far as Marvel comics go, I've only ever read the first 28 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, Infinity Gauntlet, Extremis, and The Dark Phoenix saga, and that's literally everything I've ever read of any superhero comics that I can think of (well, that and about half of that Superman origin story). All I'm using in my arguments is stuff that I noticed from the movie the second time through. Like I said. It's fun, though, so don't take it as me bashing the film, because I'm not.

[Foggle]

oh gail...also, someone needs to photoshop a gif of thor saying "she's adopted".

Gail Simone writes some of the best comics in the industry, and perhaps my lack of knowledge on the GOTG source material means I'm not privy to knowledge she might have, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Gamora did somehow inherit Thanos' powers, I dunno. Regardless, I don't think it negatively impacted the film or her character in any way.

[talonmalon333]

Just to be clear, I do know you don't mean anything as a personal attack, and I appreciate the fact that you took the time to respond, and I just wanted to do the same. But anyway, overall, I exaggerated how much of the movie he was just cracking jokes, now that I'm thinking about it more. I do still think he gave wider dramatic acting in 3, but you are right. As for the Mandarin, I was referring more to the commentary of it, you know, on American sensibilities and how easy it is for people to accept a Middle Eastern villain. The Mandarin in the movie shows images that are all too familiar to people, so it is a form of the enemies taking exactly what is in the back of the minds of the American public and using it to their advantage. Even Shane Black said the Mandarin "represents every terrorist in a way". It's just darkly satirical and I'm surprised they went the route they did.

As for the point that he shouldn't have been unprepared, that "caught off guard" idea was just something I thought up on the spot. Again, I really need to rewatch the movie. That's what I meant when I said you're more educated since you've seen it more than once. I remember the guys at Red Letter Media said the ending fight would have been more interesting if Tony didn't have all of those suits and instead had to win with his broken down suit. As much as I liked the ending fight, I'm curious how it would have gone if it went that way, plus it would potentially fix your complaint as it would likely omit all those suits from the movie period (though in this scenario, the movie would also cut out any other mentions of all those suits).

Also, it's worth nothing that, for the most part, I do like the two movies about equally. It's just that, if I had to chose only one of them, I might side with 3. It just really clicked for me when I watched it and was a great comeback after 2 ended up being a disappointment.

As for The Avengers sequel, I think something they should do to help kick it up a notch and bring it to a level that the first Avengers didn't do, is bring the team into a situation that's a real challenge to them. As cool as the first movie was, it always felt like they had a clear upper hand in the final battle, which was fine since the writers really wanted to show off how awesome and powerful the team was when working together in that movie. But now that that's been established, the heroes should be presented with a battle that's a challenge for all of them working together.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I disagree with RLM on that one. The plot-hole was a problem, but the ending fight with all the suits was really cool, and it was a superhero movie so we were overdue for some cool action scenes. As for fighting with a powered down suit and using his wits, didn't we already get that throughout the entire rest of the film? I mean, when he was defending Pepper and Maya at his home, while he should've used the suits then, he basically ended up fighting with his MK42, which as Jarvus said, wasn't combat ready, forcing him to improvise. The whole second act of the film featured Tony using nothing but his wits because he had no suit to rely on, at the end it feels more rewarding when he is able to finally go all out after having survived with minimum resources. Also, if he were to fight his enemy with a severe disadvantage due to a damaged or powered down suit, it'd just be reminiscent of the first movie, in which that very scenario basically happened.

As for Age of Ultron, I pretty much think that's the route they are going with it from what Joss Whedon has said about the film. If you haven't watched Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes yet, you should definitely check out The Ultron Imperative 2-parter (or better yet, the whole show, if you have the time) to get a good idea of just how dangerous of a villain he can be.

[talonmalon333]

I disagree with RLM on that one. The plot-hole was a problem, but the ending fight with all the suits was really cool, and it was a superhero movie so we were overdue for some cool action scenes. As for fighting with a powered down suit and using his wits, didn't we already get that throughout the entire rest of the film? I mean, when he was defending Pepper and Maya at his home, while he should've used the suits then, he basically ended up fighting with his MK42, which as Jarvus said, wasn't combat ready, forcing him to improvise. The whole second act of the film featured Tony using nothing but his wits because he had no suit to rely on, at the end it feels more rewarding when he is able to finally go all out after having survived with minimum resources. Also, if he were to fight his enemy with a severe disadvantage due to a damaged or powered down suit, it'd just be reminiscent of the first movie, in which that very scenario basically happened.

As for Age of Ultron, I pretty much think that's the route they are going with it from what Joss Whedon has said about the film. If you haven't watched Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes yet, you should definitely check out The Ultron Imperative 2-parter (or better yet, the whole show, if you have the time) to get a good idea of just how dangerous of a villain he can be.

I do agree with you, I prefer the final battle that we got. When I say I'm curious how their idea would go, I mean that in a way that I wonder how it would go more out of curiosity sake. Like, in some alternate reality where we can see both possible final battles. The ideal scenario is to have the ending fight we got, with a good explanation as to why those suits couldn't be used when his house was attacked or something.

And yeah, I really need to finally see that Avengers series (and Spectacular Spider-Man, on the topic of animated Marvel shows).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While on the subject, you should also check out GLTAS (consider it an apology for the terrible Ryan Reynolds movie) and BTBATB as well. The Spectacular Spider-Man is my favorite superhero show, and the best Spider-Man related thing that I've seen. Way better than any of the movies, for sure (and I actually like all of the movies, even SM3 and TASM2).

[talonmalon333]

While on the subject, you should also check out GLTAS (consider it an apology for the terrible Ryan Reynolds movie) and BTBATB as well. The Spectacular Spider-Man is my favorite superhero show, and the best Spider-Man related thing that I've seen. Way better than any of the movies, for sure (and I actually like all of the movies, even SM3 and TASM2).

Got it. There are really a lot of animated superhero shows that I should finally get around to. A few summers ago, my friends and I rewatched the entire DCAU and had a great time, and for a while it seemed like it was going to become a thing where we all watch superhero shows, but that never happened.

I actually didn't see the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie. Pretty sure I'm not missing anything, either. Does DC have any good live action movies with the exception of Batman and a few Superman movies?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think some people liked Watchmen. The general consensus is that it's nowhere near as good as the comic, but it's still a decent flick (especially by Zack Snyder standards). I haven't seen it myself, though, so I can't comment.

[talonmalon333]

Speaking of movie plot holes, I was wondering something about The Dark Knight Rises.

Why was Batman retired at the beginning of the movie? I mean, technically it makes sense because he became wanted at the end of the previous movie... But wasn't the idea that he's going to continue being a hero on the run because "he can take it"? It's not necessarily a plot hole, but thematically it seems weird.

Also, why was he crippled?

[gunswordfist]

he retired because the city was saved by new laws that were hard on criminals. the crime rate severely went down and the only two crime syndicates in all of gotham were the ones bane was in.

[talonmalon333]

he retired because the city was saved by new laws that were hard on criminals. the crime rate severely went down and the only two crime syndicates in all of gotham were the ones bane was in.

Still seems like a bit of a cheat from a storytelling point of view. With The Dark Knight they had that theme going with Batman and Harvey Dent of "the hero Gotham deserves" versus "the hero Gotham needs", and then Batman riding off being chased. I feel like saying "they cleaned up crime and Batman stopped being Batman" seems like a way of writing out of a plotline that they didn't want to do anymore.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Meanwhile, this weekend I watched Big Trouble in Little China.

[talonmalon333]

Robin Williams died today. Learning this was a real shocker.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724

RIP

[Spark Of Spirit]

Robin Williams died today. Learning this was a real shocker.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724

RIP

Wow, that came out of nowhere.

RIP.

[gunswordfist]

i pretty much screamed when i heard he died. i've been thinking about how genie is probably my favorite disney character. r.i.p.