Superhero Films: Will They Ever Take Off? - The Bear and Badger

Tempy

We have a Star Wars thread and there are only 10 of those, tops, but there are approximately more Superhero films than one man can ever comfortably watch before the bell tolls for him.

Maybe we can use this thread to discuss them and leave the film thread for boring genres such as: people with problems, giant ape, racism!, crime, alien, cowboy, and other.

It not, carry on as you were.

afgavinstan

I've made it. Bless u temps xxxx

stonechalice

Hopefully super hero films will take off then fuck off forever.

poprock

Only some superheroes can fly. The others might jump really high but will never really take off.

regmcfly

I mean did you just make a stealth guardians of the galaxy thread temps

RamSteelwood

Phew. I don't care much for most of these super hero movies, but at least now I won't have to wade through pages of Tempy and DS discussing films I've never heard of in order to read about the films I might watch one day (maybe).

ShabbyMcCrabby

I just saw Guardians 2. Were good. Very nice visually, lots of colour and nicely directed to really show it off. Especially in 3D, Gunn knows how to shoot 3D in a way where it really works.

Spoiler:

Not all the jokes stuck to the wall but there were enough that worked.

ShabbyMcCrabby

I think a large chunk of why it works well it's because it is still so separate from the rest of the Marvel universe. Yeah sure thanos is mentioned but that's about as far as it goes.

I'm kind of hoping Thor plays out the same in that they've removed him from the main thread for the next one.

g.man

Was Flying Black Man in that one Shabs?

cockbeard

HawBawJaws

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

I think a large chunk of why it works well it's because it is still so separate from the rest of the Marvel universe. Yeah sure thanos is mentioned but that's about as far as it goes.

I'm kind of hoping Thor plays out the same in that they've removed him from the main thread for the next one.

Far as i know, they're planning on tying all the marvel films together, following the infinity stones storyline. Thanos is trying to get them all etc etc. Think it was doctor strange that had the first open reference to the stones. So, there's one in that red avengers head, there was one in the first guardians film, and one in Dr strange. I don't know all of the stones storyline from the comics, but i remember a character that had the infinity gauntlet, which had all the stones in it, he was basically super mega invincible. I'll wager the films will eventually run into a similar story.

Dinostar77

Infinity War part 1 & 2, covers exactly that. Thanos getting the infinity gauntlet. He doesn't have all the stones yet. The soul gem stone is the only one that hasn't appeared in the movies yet. However guardians of the galaxy 2 drops a teaser about it(no spoilers).
I expect some of the avengers to die, at a guess Captain America at the end of infinity war part 1 (in the Comics he's replaced by bucky).
Problem for marvel will be where do you go with the franchise after infinity wars?

PS. Wonder Woman trailer doesn't look too bad, IF they get it right she really could become a popular character. The music riff for her character is awesome.

Yossarian

Dinostar77 wrote:

I expect some of the avengers to die, at a guess Captain America at the end of infinity war part 1 (in the Comics he's replaced by bucky).

I'd guess Iron Man. RDJ has been doing this schtick for a while now, presumably he's getting bored of it by now.

Bollockoff

Once I almost cosplayed Italian Spiderman.

mistercrayon

He could always comeback as a computer or some shit anyway and just do cameos.

Dinostar77

Btw I can see DC Comics torpedoing the superhero movie golden age. Who really cares about Aquaman and Cyborg? Flash could be good potentially but the TV series has done such a good job with the character that the movie would have to knock it out of the park. Shazam, Gotham city sirens (Harvey Quinn + another DC Comics chick), nightwing and batgirl sound like they could be epic flops.

HawBawJaws

Dc are just jumping on the trend of one movie tying into another through post credit scenes. The crowd behind kong skull island are doing exactly the same.

(Cue my rant as a cinema manager about post credit scenes, and the fact that folk now expect them on every bloody film and stay to the end of the credits, just in case Google was lying when it said there wasn't a post credit scenes........)

tin_robot

Dinostar77 wrote:

Btw I can see DC Comics torpedoing the superhero movie golden age. Who really cares about Aquaman and Cyborg? Flash could be good potentially but the TV series has done such a good job with the character that the movie would have to knock it out of the park. Shazam, Gotham city sirens (Harvey Quinn + another DC Comics chick), nightwing and batgirl sound like they could be epic flops.

Whilst I agree that so far DC's superhero movies could certainly prove to be kryptonite for the whole "genre", I don't think it's because no-one cares about the characters.

Before Marvel started making its own movies, if you'd asked me if I "cared" about Iron Man, I would have shrugged at best. If you'd asked about Captain America, Thor, or Ant Man I would have actively laughed in your face. Meanwhile Batman and Superman were shoe-ins. It's not whether people care about the character - is whether you do anything entertaining with them.

DCs problem isn't the characters, it's that they don't seem to know how to make a good movie.

Diluted Dante

Yossarian wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

I expect some of the avengers to die, at a guess Captain America at the end of infinity war part 1 (in the Comics he's replaced by bucky).

I'd guess Iron Man. RDJ has been doing this schtick for a while now, presumably he's getting bored of it by now.

I'm not so sure. When Chris Evans was wanting to leave, it was RDJ who convinced him to stay by pointing out that it would give him leverage to be able to do other things that he really wanted to do.

Tempy

tin_robot wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

Btw I can see DC Comics torpedoing the superhero movie golden age. Who really cares about Aquaman and Cyborg? Flash could be good potentially but the TV series has done such a good job with the character that the movie would have to knock it out of the park. Shazam, Gotham city sirens (Harvey Quinn + another DC Comics chick), nightwing and batgirl sound like they could be epic flops.

Whilst I agree that so far DC's superhero movies could certainly prove to be kryptonite for the whole "genre", I don't think it's because no-one cares about the characters.

Before Marvel started making its own movies, if you'd asked me if I "cared" about Iron Man, I would have shrugged at best. If you'd asked about Captain America, Thor, or Ant Man I would have actively laughed in your face. Meanwhile Batman and Superman were shoe-ins. It's not whether people care about the character - is whether you do anything entertaining with them.

DCs problem isn't the characters, it's that they don't seem to know how to make a good movie.

Iron Man is the lynchpin for the whole thing. RDJ was an inspired choice (though like all of this MCU stuff you've perhaps got Millar's Ultimates to thank).

Given you have the same propensity for higher level wankery that I have, you would probably enjoy the transhumansit reading that my girlfriend threaded through the whole MCU witch characters like Stark, Ultron and The Vision. The bottom line: Marvel are still quite conservative and always resolve their posthuman crisises by shielding human values.

But erm yeah what about those DC films eh lol

[Deleted User]

An advantage to Iron Man over Cap is that RDJ isn't required on set/location anywhere near as much. All his action can (and probably is) done by body doubles and CG. Just need to film him close up in a room for a few days to get those in helmet shots. RDJ's time could be cut back to a handful of scenes as Stark, some voice work and the headshots while Iron Man still has a large presence in the movie.

djchump

Also, Favreau.

ShabbyMcCrabby

HawBawJaws wrote:

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

I think a large chunk of why it works well it's because it is still so separate from the rest of the Marvel universe. Yeah sure thanos is mentioned but that's about as far as it goes.

I'm kind of hoping Thor plays out the same in that they've removed him from the main thread for the next one.

Far as i know, they're planning on tying all the marvel films together, following the infinity stones storyline. Thanos is trying to get them all etc etc. Think it was doctor strange that had the first open reference to the stones. So, there's one in that red avengers head, there was one in the first guardians film, and one in Dr strange. I don't know all of the stones storyline from the comics, but i remember a character that had the infinity gauntlet, which had all the stones in it, he was basically super mega invincible. I'll wager the films will eventually run into a similar story.

Yar, I knew that was where it was heading as infinity wars has everyone ( will be interesting to see if they can pull off that many story threads) but it's kind of a shame as wholly separate stories are nicer. Hopefully Guardians 3 doesn't have Dr Strange in it as well or something.

There was a WW trailer before Guardians and I cringed at the bit that had them trying Marvel's bantz shtick. Just didn't really work. They really just need to do their own thing. They could have gone down the "serious" route and had some more stuff like batman or, heck, even like man of steel but just with better writers and directors.

[Deleted User]

Logan is returning to cinemas in a black and white version. Would be keen to see that but I'm not going to the cinema again for it, I'm sure it will appear on a Blu ray at some point.

Tempy

Hmm. I think the colour palette worked well for it.

EvilRedEye

It'll be interesting to see where these things head over the next few years. There seems to be an increasing concern that strongly interwoven storylines will be difficult for casual cinemagoers to follow as more and more films come out - the X-Men franchise seems to be moving increasingly towards relatively standalone films and it seems like Marvel are giving signs they might move more in that kind of direction when the current big storyline is done. Seems like every franchise and his dog wants to start a massive cinematic universe these days but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole Infinity Stones saga thing or whatever you want to call it ends up being pretty much the only thing of its kind despite its commercial success.

[Deleted User]

Tempy wrote:

Hmm. I think the colour palette worked well for it.

Agreed but I think it could look good in BnW as well. I liked both versions of Mad Max.

JRPC

EvilRedEye wrote:

It'll be interesting to see where these things head over the next few years. There seems to be an increasing concern that strongly interwoven storylines will be difficult for casual cinemagoers to follow as more and more films come out - the X-Men franchise seems to be moving increasingly towards relatively standalone films and it seems like Marvel are giving signs they might move more in that kind of direction when the current big storyline is done. Seems like every franchise and his dog wants to start a massive cinematic universe these days but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole Infinity Stones saga thing or whatever you want to call it ends up being pretty much the only thing of its kind despite its commercial success.

Fox have no idea what to do with XMEN.

The real problem with them is that they've been generally pretty shit, and even when they weren't they totally failed to capture the spirit of the source in the way Marvel have totally nailed.

Jackman was pretty much holding the whole thing together and now he's gone I think they'll reboot.

Or even better do a Spiderman and give it to Marvel.

WorKid

DCs apotheosis was surely this :

And they've been struggling to meet our expectations ever since.

Dinostar77

JRPC wrote:

EvilRedEye wrote:

It'll be interesting to see where these things head over the next few years. There seems to be an increasing concern that strongly interwoven storylines will be difficult for casual cinemagoers to follow as more and more films come out - the X-Men franchise seems to be moving increasingly towards relatively standalone films and it seems like Marvel are giving signs they might move more in that kind of direction when the current big storyline is done. Seems like every franchise and his dog wants to start a massive cinematic universe these days but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole Infinity Stones saga thing or whatever you want to call it ends up being pretty much the only thing of its kind despite its commercial success.

Fox have no idea what to do with XMEN.

The real problem with them is that they've been generally pretty shit, and even when they weren't they totally failed to capture the spirit of the source in the way Marvel have totally nailed.

Jackman was pretty much holding the whole thing together and now he's gone I think they'll reboot.

Or even better do a Spiderman and give it to Marvel.

Yep, they had apocalypse on screen and made him a short guy. Oh dear oh dear

[Deleted User]

EvilRedEye wrote:

There seems to be an increasing concern that strongly interwoven storylines will be difficult for casual cinemagoers to follow as more and more films come out...

Too late, that's already happening. I wrote about Civil War, there were characters I was clearly supposed to remember, and didn't. I was watching X-Men Apocalypse today, and there was one character who has apparently been in a few of them. I haven't seen them all, but barely remembered her even when I was explicitly shown some of her previous appearances.

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