|
(I think I'd see Ben Affleck's Daredevil over Age of UltronJust saying, try watching the extended, directors cut of Daredevil. They added in 20 minutes of cut footage and it is much, much darker, which makes it much, much better.
I will not try, as it would imply some effort and/or $$$ involved in the attempt.
|
|
no...Antman 2 remains up in the air. Even though Antman opened #1 in box office in the US, it apparently had the second worse box office opening of any Marvel Movie (Just above Incredible Hulk).
SOOOOO...way two early to say if Antman 2 will get a sequel. I imagine that will depend a lot on how well the next round of newer characters do (Dr. Strange, Cap Marvel, Black Panther). However at the very least it was something being thought about prior to the film release.
It's pretty freaggin amazing that they even made an Ant-Man movie. Look at the Iron-Man movie: they should have stopped after the 1st one. Did you really need that Iron Man 2 and 3? eeeesh....
|
It's pretty freaggin amazing that they even made an Ant-Man movie. Look at the Iron-Man movie: they should have stopped after the 1st one. Did you really need that Iron Man 2 and 3? eeeesh....no...Antman 2 remains up in the air. Even though Antman opened #1 in box office in the US, it apparently had the second worse box office opening of any Marvel Movie (Just above Incredible Hulk).
SOOOOO...way two early to say if Antman 2 will get a sequel. I imagine that will depend a lot on how well the next round of newer characters do (Dr. Strange, Cap Marvel, Black Panther). However at the very least it was something being thought about prior to the film release.
I love Iron Man 2. Three's not bad. Baring the whole Mickie Rourke being among the worst actors alive thing, IM2 stands as a pretty decent film.
I'd say as far as summer blockbuster/action and more specifically super hero movies go, all of the Marvel movies fair well.
I mean...Marvel really isn't shooting for more than family friend popcorn fun. They exceed admirably at that, while usually featuring plots that are not completely inane or wooden dialogue, at the same time as being faithful to source material.
if I want creepy psychological horror, I don't watch a Jason movie. If I want science fiction that challenges me, I don't watch Star Wars. And if I want a gritty drama, I don't thrown a Marvel movie into the DVD player.
Every movie needs to be judged within its genre(s) and its goals.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Decent compared to what? sure there are worse movies, but if I take my rose colored Marvel glasses off for a minute, I quickly come to realize some of these movies, well, haven't won Oscars... for a reason...
If the Oscars is your barometer for quality then I'd say that your barometer is broken. There are some excellent films / actors who were not nominated nor have won Oscars. This does not mean that they aren't excellent films / actors.
Marvel hasnt hit a home run out of the gate each and every time. I'm personally not a fan of Iron Man 3 (even though it has grown on me a bit with repeated viewings) and Age of Ultron is definitely a weaker entry. But more often than not when plunk down my $14 -$20 to see a Marvel movie I can expect to be entertained.
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
(I think I'd see Ben Affleck's Daredevil over Age of UltronJust saying, try watching the extended, directors cut of Daredevil. They added in 20 minutes of cut footage and it is much, much darker, which makes it much, much better.
Polishing a turd, just gets you a shiny turd.
|
Decent compared to what? sure there are worse movies, but if I take my rose colored Marvel glasses off for a minute, I quickly come to realize some of these movies, well, haven't won Oscars... for a reason...
Did any SF/fantasy movie *ever* win an oscar? Did any action movie, for the matter? I don't mean technical ones like "best art direction", I mean actual oscars.
Even if some did, they must be very rare. Almost impossible for a genre movie to be nominated, virtually impossible to win.
But I get your broader meaning, that is that the movies aren't great. I agree that some are average or worse - such as both Thor movies, and the first Captain America. I can't really dislike the Iron Man movies despite their numerous flaws because RDJ is such a fantastically fun actor who is given a great character to work with. The third one did try my patience, though. I think it's a good idea to stop making individual Iron Man movies because for some reason it seems that despite the excellent character they have been able to make, they have no idea how to tell an interesting solo story for the character.
However... Marvel has made a tremendous achievement by creating the MCU and actually is getting better with time. Guardians of the Galaxy and Antman have both managed to be really fun and cool despite seemingly weak premises, and Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies I've ever seem.
In other words, those rose colored Marvel glasses? They are there for a reason.
and Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies I've ever seem.
I'm only being partially serious here and dont get me wrong, WINTER SOLDIER is my FAVORITE of the Marvel movies and it's a great action movie but if the above is true? You need to see more movies.
I'm only being partially serious here and dont get me wrong, WINTER SOLDIER is my FAVORITE of the Marvel movies
marvel needs to make more movies with the quickness.
|
|
and Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies I've ever seem.I'm only being partially serious here and dont get me wrong, WINTER SOLDIER is my FAVORITE of the Marvel movies and it's a great action movie but if the above is true? You need to see more movies.
Always true :)
I liked Winter Soldier for a tense and exciting story with one huge twists and many smaller ones, for very solid characters, and for big visceral action scenes that relied on practical effects to make each blow feel real.
But... I suspect I might not be a very good action enthusiast. For example, The Raid, much praised as one of the best action movies ever, I was too bored to watch all the way through. I just can't care about an action scene if I don't care enough about the story and characters to want to know who wins. The Raid has neither, while The Winter Soldier is strong on both fronts.
and Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies I've ever seem.I'm only being partially serious here and dont get me wrong, WINTER SOLDIER is my FAVORITE of the Marvel movies and it's a great action movie but if the above is true? You need to see more movies.Always true :)
I liked Winter Soldier for a tense and exciting story with one huge twists and many smaller ones, for very solid characters, and for big visceral action scenes that relied on practical effects to make each blow feel real.
But... I suspect I might not be a very good action enthusiast. For example, The Raid, much praised as one of the best action movies ever, I was too bored to watch all the way through. I just can't care about an action scene if I don't care enough about the story and characters to want to know who wins. The Raid has neither, while The Winter Soldier is strong on both fronts.
WOW. We're totally at almost opposite ends of the spectrum then because THE RAID (and by extension THE RAID 2: BERENDAL) is one of the finest action films ever made IMHO. Sometimes a streamlined story without much convolution is just what's needed. You didn't watch the movie all the way through so you probably missed Rama's big complication and one of the best two on one fights in any movie in a LONG time. The Raid DID have a story and it DID have characters. Just none that you were interested in and that's fair. But to me objectively they're both good but as much as I like Winter Soldier? The Raid is much, MUCH better on the action front.
I'm a big fan of fight choreography and an even bigger proponent of cleanly and coherently shot action and for the most part it seems like most American action directors are incapable of shooting decent action.
I was actually surprised at how well done the set pieces were in WINTER SOLDIER. As good as the final attack on the Insight Carriers was for my money the best sequence in the film was the attack on the freeway that leads into the first fight between Steve and Winter Soldier. The Russos did a FANTASTIC JOB staging all of that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
and Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies I've ever seem.I'm only being partially serious here and dont get me wrong, WINTER SOLDIER is my FAVORITE of the Marvel movies and it's a great action movie but if the above is true? You need to see more movies.Always true :)
I liked Winter Soldier for a tense and exciting story with one huge twists and many smaller ones, for very solid characters, and for big visceral action scenes that relied on practical effects to make each blow feel real.
But... I suspect I might not be a very good action enthusiast. For example, The Raid, much praised as one of the best action movies ever, I was too bored to watch all the way through.I just can't care about an action scene if I don't care enough about the story and characters to want to know who wins. Raid has neither, while The Winter Soldier is strong on both fronts.
Yeesh. Always on the other side of the conflict, this guy....
|
|
WOW. We're totally at almost opposite ends of the spectrum then because THE RAID (and by extension THE RAID 2: BERENDAL) is one of the finest action films ever made IMHO. Sometimes a streamlined story without much convolution is just what's needed. You didn't watch the movie all the way through so you probably missed Rama's big complication and one of the best two on one fights in any movie in a LONG time. The Raid DID have a story and it DID have characters. Just none that you were interested in and that's fair. But to me objectively they're both good but as much as I like Winter Soldier? The Raid is much, MUCH better on the action front.
My girlfriend and friends were crazy excited to see The Raid so we all set down to do so. At some point I got up from the couch and helped our host with making dinner. After that I took the occasional glance at the screen, enough to get the story, and I DID watch that endless 2 on 1 fight. Endless is the best word I have to describe it because that's how it felt. At some point my brain went completely numb because it was like watching a dance (another activity I was never able to connect with) - there were well executed motions and all, but nothing that happened mattered. They were just pounding each other into slow, agonizing submission.
Not that I take offense at a long action scene - I really loved the corridor one-shot scene from Daredevil, for example - but it has to be dynamic and constantly on the move. That scene was just the same thing over and over and over again with no side gaining a noticeable advantage on the other until it was sort of over.
A good action scene is like a good story compressed to a few minutes. "Bob was getting the upper hand, when suddenly Alice drew a knife! Terrified, Bob tries to run but Alice is too fast. They struggle, Bob giving everything he has, but Alice still manages a slash across his chest, drawing blood. With a surge of heightened strength Bob knocks the knife out of her hands...". Had I written a transcript of that 2 on 1 fight scene, it would be 17 pages long. That's too much of the same thing happening over and over. Like seeing too characters arguing by one of them saying "yes" and the other "no" for an entire scene.
This is all a matter of opinions, of course. But what I liked so much about the Winter Soldier is that each action scene was doing something different than the others, having a feeling of its own, while advancing the plots in a significant way. Opening action scene? Display of the uber competence of Cap and Shield. Fury car chase? Fury is a badass who always has a trick up his sleeve but even he might be overwhelmed by the bad guys. Elevator scene? great rising tension that ends with an explosion of awesomeness. Highway scene? an increasingly big brawl that ends with a face to face between Cap and the Soldier which is a significant character moment. Ending fight scene? back to the traditional absurdly high scale action of Marvel, except this time it feels more earned than usual.
The way action scenes and narrative go together is important to me. The Raid does have a story but it is honestly not very important to the movie, taking a secondary role to the action (and same with characters, who never reach hire than B-movie levels).
So, we are just looking for different things in an action scene and an action movie, I suppose.
WOW. We're totally at almost opposite ends of the spectrum then because THE RAID (and by extension THE RAID 2: BERENDAL) is one of the finest action films ever made IMHO. Sometimes a streamlined story without much convolution is just what's needed. You didn't watch the movie all the way through so you probably missed Rama's big complication and one of the best two on one fights in any movie in a LONG time. The Raid DID have a story and it DID have characters. Just none that you were interested in and that's fair. But to me objectively they're both good but as much as I like Winter Soldier? The Raid is much, MUCH better on the action front.My girlfriend and friends were crazy excited to see The Raid so we all set down to do so. At some point I got up from the couch and helped our host with making dinner. After that I took the occasional glance at the screen, enough to get the story, and I DID watch that endless 2 on 1 fight. Endless is the best word I have to describe it because that's how it felt. At some point my brain went completely numb because it was like watching a dance (another activity I was never able to connect with) - there were well executed motions and all, but nothing that happened mattered. They were just pounding each other into slow, agonizing submission.
Not that I take offense at a long action scene - I really loved the corridor one-shot scene from Daredevil, for example - but it has to be dynamic and constantly on the move. That scene was just the same thing over and over and over again with no side gaining a noticeable advantage on the other until it was sort of over.
A good action scene is like a good story compressed to a few minutes. "Bob was getting the upper hand, when suddenly Alice drew a knife! Terrified, Bob tries to run but Alice is too fast. They struggle, Bob giving everything he has, but Alice still manages a slash across his chest, drawing blood. With a surge of heightened strength Bob knocks the knife out of her hands...". Had I written a...
Again...WOW. There absolutely was a story being told in that fight and it definitely wasnt the same thing over and over again but I'm not even going to bother to try to argue the point. I get it you didn't like it.
That being said, I'll just leave this quote here and walk away from this discussion on action films:
"The Russo brothers were big fan of The Raid, Joe admitted they studied the action scenes in that movie: “Our DVD players and apple tvs live at quarter speed.” The Raid inspired them to have more hard hitting action in the film, "
|
|
Again...WOW. There absolutely was a story being told in that fight and it definitely wasnt the same thing over and over again but I'm not even going to bother to try to argue the point. I get it you didn't like it.
That being said, I'll just leave this quote here and walk away from this discussion on action films:
"The Russo brothers were big fan of The Raid, Joe admitted they studied the action scenes in that movie: “Our DVD players and apple tvs live at quarter speed.” The Raid inspired them to have more hard hitting action in the film, "
Excerpted from this article...
Man, if I agreed with the tastes of every creator who did content I liked I would essentially love everything. George Martin was inspired by Jack Vance - I love Martin's books and can't read through a 10 page short story of Vance. A creator and the stuff that inspired them are two completely different things.
If you read The Blade Itself, for example, did you know that the inspiration to Glokta came to the writer when he sprained an ankle or something? The whole point of good creators is they take something they care about and turn it into something else. I care about the output, not the input.
|
|
Saw it last night.
Ant-Man: B+
Age of Ultron: C-
Affleck's Daredevil: C+
Elektra: D
Cox's Daredevil: A+
Winter Soldier: A
Avengers 1: A-
Iron Man 1: A
Iron Man 2: B
Iron Man 3: C
Thor 1: B
Thor 2: B
Cap America 1: B+
Guardians of the Galaxy: A+
Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton): B+
Ed Norton as Hulk: A
Ruffalo as Hulk: C
Eric Bana as Hulk: B
New Fantastic Four Trailer: lame, and brought boos from the crowd... Zoe Barnes does not a good Sue Richards make... Doctor Doom also can't seem to be made properly... and apparently FF no longer to go to space to get their powers. I'm surprised Marvel is not suing whoever is making this on the grounds that it is damaging their property....
... and apparently FF no longer to go to space to get their powers. I'm surprised Marvel is not suing whoever is making this on the grounds that it is damaging their property....
Too late. The origin in the new FF movie is clearly influenced by the Ultimate FF - so the FF haven't needed to go to space, by Marvel's own writing, since 2004.
wow...I don't think I have yet to meet someone who thinks Norton is the best Banner...
|
New Fantastic Four Trailer: lame, and brought boos from the crowd... Zoe Barnes does not a good Sue Richards make... Doctor Doom also can't seem to be made properly... and apparently FF no longer to go to space to get their powers. I'm surprised Marvel is not suing whoever is making this on the grounds that it is damaging their property....
I would so much rather see the freakin Mole Man in a FF movie then yet another rehash origin story with a half-baked, super-powered Doctor Doom whose biggest threat is not his intellect.
Has Doom ever been done right in a movie?
I loathe these continual rehashings of FF and Spider Man origin stories. We get it, radiation. Moving on. Give me something that hasn't been done before.
Ant Man wasn't so much an origin story as a rebirth/legacy story, and I liked that about it.
Saw it last night.
Ant-Man: B+
Age of Ultron: C-
Affleck's Daredevil: C+
Elektra: D
Cox's Daredevil: A+
Winter Soldier: A
Avengers 1: A-
Iron Man 1: A
Iron Man 2: B
Iron Man 3: C
Thor 1: B
Thor 2: B
Cap America 1: B+
Guardians of the Galaxy: A+
Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton): B+Ed Norton as Hulk: A
Ruffalo as Hulk: C
Eric Bana as Hulk: BNew Fantastic Four Trailer: lame, and brought boos from the crowd... Zoe Barnes does not a good Sue Richards make... Doctor Doom also can't seem to be made properly... and apparently FF no longer to go to space to get their powers. I'm surprised Marvel is not suing whoever is making this on the grounds that it is damaging their property....
I agree with you in many places but not all. I will probably check out the FF movie, but it must be noted that I am not an FF fan...loonies and fanatics turned me off to it as a comic a while back.
wow...I don't think I have yet to meet someone who thinks Norton is the best Banner...
now you've met two. He was actually a mild mannered nerd of a scientist, not a very obviously in-shape actor pretending to be one.
We opened to Norton doing like Brazilian martial arts/meditation stuff...I don't see how you can say he seemed more nerdy than the other actors.
I am skeptical of the next Fantastic Four, but I don't think you can really judge it by the trailers. I have seen horrible trailers for good movies, and awesome trailers for really bad movies.
And I don't think it's really fair to compare a Netflix show with movies. Daredevil was awesome, but that has 10+ hours and a different format. It's probably really only comparable to Agent Carter, AoS, and the various WB tv shows.
We opened to Norton doing like Brazilian martial arts/meditation stuff...I don't see how you can say he seemed more nerdy than the other actors.
I'm talking about the physical shape he was in for the role.
|
|
We opened to Norton doing like Brazilian martial arts/meditation stuff...I don't see how you can say he seemed more nerdy than the other actors.
by necessity only! to prevent the Hulk from coming out! Banner (mostly) hated the Hulk, wanted to get rid of it, etc. Perfectly in line with the lore.
I also remember the breathing exercises but not the martial arts you mention...
It was a mix of meditation and basic exercises.
Norton is wiry...I don't think you could consider him really out of shape. Trust me I know a think about "being out of shape" :)
wow...I don't think I have yet to meet someone who thinks Norton is the best Banner...I think he's by far the best Banner.
Ruffalo's acting is more than competent, but there's something brutish about his facial features that puts me off in this particular role. Banner should be bookish, slender and present a weak, almost effeminate appearance, the better to contrast with the Hulk. Mark really does look like a very attractive Neanderthal, and that doesn't really get it done, in my opinion. I suppose one could interpret it as the Hulk straining to be free at all times, but ... that doesn't work for me.
He does make a sharp-looking Hulk, though. And maybe that's part of the problem - compared to Norton. Although, not all artists who drew Banner drew him all wimpy. For quite a few artists, he's fairly athletic-looking.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ruffalo's a good Banner, but yeah, count me in as someone who thinks Norton's Banner was the best so far.
(Well, next to Bill Bixby, anyway.)
I think as far as movies go, Ruffalo has been the Hulk in the most now (2) as opposed to the others (1).
Of course that doesn't compare to how often you had those two guys from the 70s (?) who were the Hulk and Banner.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
My issue with Maguire is that his Peter Parker just seemed always so depressed. He was completely lacking in the smart-ass qualities I expect from Spiderman
Hopefully the new Spiderman actor can channel Maguire's nerdy qualities and Garfield's smart ass elements. Assuming I am not distracted by Aunt May being hot now.
I am glad they replaced Norton with Ruffalo, I like him much better then Norton.
|
|
I am glad they replaced Norton with Ruffalo, I like him much better then Norton.
The only reason that Norton is no longer the Hulk is that he publicly disagreed with how Incredible Hulk was directed. "Hard to work with" is not what the Marvel Studios execs wanted going forward. I get it, but it makes for an extremely silly situation. Marvel could have probably solved the Norton problem by throwing money at it, and in restrospect, seeing how many gazillion dollars they've made, they should have thrown Norton a few additional millions to keep him onboard.
Some a#~~%+& dug his heels in though, so they had to have this silly divorce.
Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere
|
I really liked Ant-Man. It was fun, and it had good action and great visuals.
More of my thoughts are here, for those of you who are interested. Tales to Astonish! (Loved that line)
I assumed Microverse and Underworld were entailed in the FF license or complicated by the old Micronauts license.
YUP. Marvel no longer has the Micronauts license, in fact I think IDW may have recently picked it up so nope Marvel had to rename thiers the Quantum Realm...