Topic: Superhero Movie Discussion (spoilers abound)

[crisis]

Use this thread as an outlet to vent your opinions on all these superhero movies that have been released/soon to be released/previously seen. Best/worst adaptations, etc.

I watched Iron Man 3 recently [through.. questionable means..] and, I don't know what to think of it. The CGI is incredible, blends perfectly with the "real" stuff & actors. RDJ was literally born to play Tony Stark, his performance in all the movies was nearly spot-on. But this movie.. I dunno. Maybe it's the fact that the third movie in most Hero franchises always deals with the "defeated hero rises from the ashes" motif. Just something about it left more to be desired. The fact that

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they (Marvel execs, Hollywood, whoever) totally butchered Mandarin was unacceptable. I was never a big Iron Man fan growing up, only recently have I learned that the Mandarin is Iron Man's archnemesis in the vein of Joker is to Batman, Luthor to Superman, etc. This interpretation, however, completely shits all over the mythology of the character; a typical "bait-and-switch" reminiscent of Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins, but much worse. The Mandarin has been hinted at since the very first film, so to see Marvel completely drop the ball here has A LOT of fans pissed across the internet. However, if you're clueless about the character and Iron Man's stories, then you probably won't mind. But I can see why so many fanboys are pissed.

. It's kinda obvious that RDJ sorta wants to move away from Tony Stark for a while, at least until he renegotiates his contract, and you can see hints of this towards the third act of the movie. Oh yeah, the after credits scene

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is one big missed opportunity. Tony Stark is relaying the events of the movie to Bruce Banner, who casually falls asleep from boredom. That's it; no segway to Thor 2, Avengers 2, nothing. Lol.

I'm kinda looking forward to "Guardians of the Galaxy," many haven't even heard of the property until Marvel announced it. But this is supposedly gonna tie into Avengers 2, Thor 2, Ant-Man, etc. Especially since they're leaning towards Thanos & the "Infinity Gauntlet" storyline (The Infinity Gems gives the wielder unlimited power to literally alter reality, to the uninformed.)

X-Men: Days of Future Past has a lot to live up to; First Class was okay, but the debacle that was X-Men The Last Stand & Origins: Wolverine has tarnished the franchise. This movie should fix all the continuity errors in the X-Men movies (and believe me, there's A LOT. For example: Xavier walking and gathering a young Scott(Cyclops) & friends to the helicopter in Origins when he was paralyzed at the end of First Class, and Xavier/Magneto meeting young Jean in the prologue to Last Stand, once again Xavier walking, and him & Magneto still working together despite having their falling out in First Class.)

Then there's "The Wolverine" which takes place AFTER The Last Stand.. I just don't know what to think of the franchise anymore. Marvel needs to get the rights back from FOX. Fantastic Four is being rebooted, too. I think a Spawn reboot would be pretty cool, under Guillermo Del Toro's camp.

[son_the_vampire]

I totally agree with what they did to Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Not the first time that i've seen the movies butcher things but this was too much. Luckily though i laughed through the entire movie so props there. Now far as The Wolverine, id like to see where they are headed with this. Just a little play on all the events in Japan. Im a longtime Marvel fan but i think my movie of choice is Superman. It seems from every trailer that they may finally do this movie right. Personally i believe that they bit a little off of Thor's leg (btw don't really care for part 2) but its for the best because Batman has reigned supreme over Superman movie-wise for too long. Interesting plot and i hope that there is justice done for his character. No more goody-good Superman please???!??? Maybe if its not a total flop, they can bring Wonder Woman out ( Megan Fox  ) and start the Avengers/Justice League wars every summer! Finally, Will Smith is his own super-hero entity so i definitely look forward to what he's gonna bring to the table in After Earth.

[Pfil]

I really loved First Class, it's one of my favourite movies of the genre.
But I believe the best ones so far are the 1st and 3rd of the Nolan's Batman's films (not TDKR, I didn't like it very much).

About the huge mistakes on the X-Men continuity, just think of Xena The Warrior Princess and anything goes... "A wizard did it".

[DragonSlayr81]

I totally agree with what they did to Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Not the first time that i've seen the movies butcher things but this was too much. Luckily though i laughed through the entire movie so props there. Now far as The Wolverine, id like to see where they are headed with this. Just a little play on all the events in Japan. Im a longtime Marvel fan but i think my movie of choice is Superman. It seems from every trailer that they may finally do this movie right. Personally i believe that they bit a little off of Thor's leg (btw don't really care for part 2) but its for the best because Batman has reigned supreme over Superman movie-wise for too long. Interesting plot and i hope that there is justice done for his character. No more goody-good Superman please???!??? Maybe if its not a total flop, they can bring Wonder Woman out ( Megan Fox  ) and start the Avengers/Justice League wars every summer! Finally, Will Smith is his own super-hero entity so i definitely look forward to what he's gonna bring to the table in After Earth.

I don't know about Superman. Snyder is really hit-or-miss and he's almost, IMO, a "Lesser Michael Bay" regarding his whole "style over substance". That and the recent thing I heard regarding Superman NOT being weak to Kryptonite. I think they commented something about how his only weakness is his feelings of isolation(as being the only person with super powers and the only alien on Earth). I laughed at a quip someone commented on the article regarding "Emo Superman". Though, even in a lesser way, do we REALLY have to change these super heroes(or villains) SO MUCH just so they can be accepted by a modern pop cultural taste? Why can't they be celebrated for what they are instead of regugitated by the mouth of "popular trend"? Their original identies, weaknesses, strengths, are all pretty damn cool and are part of what makes them THEM. Be it the Mandarin or the "Man of Steel"(even though Mandarin seems more drastic of a case, though we'll have to wait to see how Superman fairs to judge him correctly).

I think the thing regarding the Mandarin that hurts more than him being written like that is the fact that MARVEL wrote him like that(or at least Marvel/Disney saw it as a good idea not to interfere and roll with it). If it was some other studio, you could alwasy chalk it down to the, "Hehehehe, well, it's just SONY being stupid!" or "It's just Fox trying to cater to yadda yadda...", kinda like thinking that maybe Marvel would've done better. The Fantastic Four movies were HORRIBLE, but maybe Marvel would've done it justice. To see them pull that crap with the Mandarin.... it's like no studio's safe. EVERYBODY's making asinine calls regarding super hero movies. Of course, Warner Bros/DC's been doing that for a while(which is kinda sad in itself, as Green Lantern COULD'VE been good). I don't know, it almost seems like those studio executives think on a whole different level of idiocy. Like they are living in their own little dimension where good is bad and bad is good, and yadda yadda. It's like they are from Bizarro World.

[Shiroi Koumori]

I think the reason why they butchered Mandarin was a political one. US does not want to anger China with all these political tensions in Asia.

In my opinion, there is no actress of recent years worthy of taking Linda Carter's mantle as Wonder Woman.

First Class is an epic bromance movie! I love it. hehehe. I am expecting a good sequel.

Regarding Thanos and the infinity gauntlet, they might save it for Avengers 3.
I hope Guardians of the Galaxy is good.

The movie franchise rights of all those superhero films must be realigned. things are just so all over the place right now.

[A-Yty]

Agree about Mandarin. I'm not an Iron Man fan, but still. Besides, the whole scenario was a complete waste of Ben Kingsley.

Random trivia. Guy Pearce is apparently kind of an asshole. When they were filming Memento and there was a scene where his character fought with another guy, he asked the other actor if it was okay to not hold back in the fight to make it look real. The guy said no problem and Pearce started pummeling him for real real, not for play play.

[X]

I have yet to see Superman: The Man of Steel, but I already don't like what they've done with his outfit. It's too dark for superman. The only time I'd expect to see a dark superman outfit is if he was exposed to a chunk of counterfeit Kryptonite like what happened in Superman III. No-one, not even Hollywood should mess with an already good thing. The outfit in Superman: Returns was also more darker then it should have been but at least it was still closer to what we all know to be superman's. But if this new movie is going to do Superman any sort of justice then hopefully they'll keep the original John Williams superman theme as nothing to date in terms of superman has ever topped it.

[uzo]

I like the plot line of what they did in Ironman 3, since it's a great twist in itself. However, I don't know if using the Mandarin for that was the best of choices. Perhaps wasted potential on that front.

[Lone Wolf]

Okay... One thing i couldn't understand nor accept in the other Iron Man movies..
Why did they replace Terrence Howard for Don Cheadle? Why didn't they keep the same actor? I think he was great in the first movie and i bet he would give it a nice partner for Iron Man in the other ones, too.

[crisis]

Same reason they replaced Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo as Hulk.. contract issues, etc.

One thing that bugged me about Iron Man 3's plot was that when you strip all the fancy toppings away, it's the same typical "jaded industrialist wants revenge on Tony" plot.. same as the previous 2 flicks.

But if this new movie is going to do Superman any sort of justice then hopefully they'll keep the original John Williams superman theme as nothing to date in terms of superman has ever topped it.

They already confirmed that the classic theme won't be used.. they're starting from the ground up with this movie (which should be expected.. I mean, can you imagine if they used the classic Tim Burton Batman theme in the Nolan movies?) And supposedly, depending how well it does (which is a no-brainer, Man of Steel is one of the most anticipated movies in a long time) will determine how Justice League will be made in 2015.


How do you guys feel about Jamie Foxx playing Electro in Amazing Spider-Man 2? Other than that, Paul Giamatti is set to play The Rhino as well.

And then there's the Ninja Turtles reboot... which imo will be hit or miss. Megan Fox is playing April O'Neil.

[uzo]

And supposedly, depending how well it does (which is a no-brainer, Man of Steel is one of the most anticipated movies in a long time) will determine how Justice League will be made in 2015.

I think you mean IF it will be made. The Justice League movie hangs in the balance for real. If Man of Steel tanks, then the entire project is off the map.

[A-Yty]

I wonder if they start building the JL movie universe in Man of Steel. Logic says yes. But if they're going to introduce all JL members individually like Marvel, it's gonna be a tough road. There's no continuing from that turd of a Green Lantern movie, for example. But making a reboot GL movie now would not be smart, because the failure is fresh in memory. If I were Warner, I'd do Wonder Woman (heh) next. Then Batman. The Big Trio is what counts at this point. If I were to do solo movies for JL members, it would be after the movie. But I really think DC should do its own thing instead of just ape the Avengers method of introducing the characters.

Also, the reason this Superman might seem strange is that DC/Warner is having some legal issues with the relatives of Superman's creators. At least at one point they couldn't use things like Lois Lane as Superman's squeeze and so on. Don't know if that stuff is settled now.

[uzo]

Warner Bros is aping it, because Marvel made a boat load of money from the Avengers project. This is one reason I'm not convinced the Justice League movie will be anywhere near as good. It was started because WB wants in on the cash cow. Not because of any artistic vision, or grand plans. It's seen as a cash grab super plan. Given the track record so far, new Batman aside, they have done an extraordinarily piss poor job at live action DC Comic movies.

I pray it doesn't suck, but I have the feeling WB just isn't doing it for the right reasons, and the project will suffer as a result.

When talking about the animated TV and movie productions though, DC beats the pants off of Marvel. If you want an excellent Superman movie go watch Superman VS The Elite. It is probably one of the best superhero movies I've seen, animated or not.

Why are these people not in charge of the live action movies?

[A-Yty]

I've seen Superman vs The Elite. And I agree that DC owns Marvel on the animated front. Video game front too, it seems.

Superman Vs. The Elite actually makes a good point about why the desire to see Superman go on Punisher mode is short-sighted. It's actually more about people not liking Superman's style instead of thinking his ideals are antiquated and his methods are ineffective. It's addressing the audience as much as the people in the movie.

Now that I think about it, they should do a Batman & Superman movie before any other team-up movie. That's the best way to balance the boy scout ways of Superman and add variety to the post-Nolan Batmanverse. Not to mention they are the two DC characters the bigger audience actually cares about. End the movie with the arrival of Wonder Woman or Green Lanter getting his ring or something like that.

[X]

Why are these people not in charge of the live action movies?

Good question... But you know Hollywood.