Figured it would be good to have a thread for all things involved with the DC Universe and their movies. Not sure if this is even accurate but found it interesting so give it a look and gander.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awNbvq7BDzw
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Figured it would be good to have a thread for all things involved with the DC Universe and their movies. Not sure if this is even accurate but found it interesting so give it a look and gander.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awNbvq7BDzw
I just stumbled upon these political analyses and I want to share them, but we don't need to discuss them.
“Batman v. Superman” isn’t a flop: A superhero movie that questions absolute power is tailor-made for 2016
The sneaky politics of “Suicide Squad”: A popcorn movie for the prison-industrial complex era
I don't think it's a big deal because it's not really requiring us to share or debate our political policy opinions to the death as we do in P&R, but just to read an opinion interpreting a movie from a political perspective. In doing so, it is less about arguing in favor of political policies and more of a symbolic exercise. In other words, it is just looking at a movie and examining what it is and represents in the grand scheme of things - it is not debating whether or not my political opinion is better than yours. And many movies are inherently political or politically influenced anyway and reflective of the times - especially superhero movies. Like I said, I didn't post them to discuss (although I think there is room to discuss them without engaging in the political talk that we do in P&R), I just wanted to share for those who might find the perspective and analysis interesting.
For example Captain America: Civil War is a very political movie, and I think we can discuss what it represents in the context of film analysis without engaging in political debates over various issues.
I thought the Henry Cavill Superman movies have just been OK. The action scenes at the end of both movies were way too long. They could have shortened both movies by 45 minutes apiece and they would have been the same movie and would have probably been better.
I confuse DC vs. Marvel and what not becaus I'm not a comic book person. I thought there were pieces of Batman v Superman that were just cheap ass set ups for more movies. Maybe I thought that because I waited to watch it and therefore already knew that Wonder Woman and Aquaman movies were coming.
Suicide Squad was amazing. I'm stoked for the Justice League. I've always liked DC over Marvel, but I do like Captain America and I really want to see Dr Strange.
The 'Is the Joker Robin?' thing has already been debunked by David Ayer.
Here is my thing about the DC Cinematic Universe. I like mythology, plain and simple. Marvel is about humans grappling with power and relationships and DC is about gods grappling with their relationship with power. I think there is room for both approaches, but for that reason I have always leaned more towards DC in terms of comic books and characters. And the theory Batman is so popular in the DC universe is that he is that bridge between men and gods. He is what grounds the Supermen and Wonder Women of the world because he trusts no one. In the comics he has a dossier on how to kill any member of the Justice League in case they go crazy, and he expects them to do the same to him. Batman not only acts as an intermediary between power and powerlessness, but he has also punched god in the face and walked away (Batman v Superman, The Dark Knight Returns, etc).
Like MO has pointed out these movies have hardly been perfect. Marvel has a great way of plotting out their movies and checking boxes, but I think some people like me are getting sick of them making good movies that seem to promise something so much cooler in the NEXT movie in their after credits. The first Avengers movie was a revelation to me seemed like a culmination of all the stories that had told in phase one, but everything since then has been a mixed bag that is supposedly moving toward the Infinity War but is taking forever to get there. That and all the false starts of internal conflict that never amount to much. There is kind of a joke journalist on the Birth.Movies.Death site called Film Crit Hulk who writes in ALL CAPS and breaks down the problems with movies. He did a great write up about why Civil War being merely good wasn't good enough:
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/05/...ssumed-empathyQuote:
But then marvel proceeded to stop telling stories.
That may sound extreme, but from the very beginning, phase two became this weird, cyclical exercise in "lots of things happening" but "nothing actually happening." Bad guys would show up. Characters would seem to struggle with things. But it was all surface-level stuff. Mere lip service to the idea of change. Endless yet temporary inversions all before resetting the table with everything still in place (or at least promising it that would be to make the audience feel better). And it was done completely haphazardly. Heck, entire character reconciliation moments would be put in as post-credit stingers instead of in the actual god damn movie.
Go ahead and check the article out if you want, its a good read but you might want to find an extension that turns off the ALL CAPS way he writes. Its meant as a joke, but it is kind of hard to read through.
Long story short, I'm more interested in the DC formula right now of misfires with good intentions of storytelling and depth than the Marvel formula of checking boxes and assumed empathy. It may have took the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman to fully flesh out what it was trying to say, but the fact that it tried to tackle the deeper aspects of comic book mythology (like is often done in the Graphic Novels they are adapting) makes me appreciate them. Essentially, I want to see my heroes and villains deconstructed as opposed to engineered perfectly for my consumption.
EDIT: If you want to read the great article I posted without ALL CAPS, refer to this bookmark to fix the text: http://simonganz.com/2013/04/the-dehulkifier/
I hate Film Crit Hulk.
It's a superficial hate based solely on his choice to act as a character and type everything in all caps, but it is hate nonetheless.
I liked his articles but the CAPS thing threw me off and I could never finish. The extension helps a lot.
To be fair, it seems like everything now (especially on the film geek sites) its just a constant barrage of bitching and moaning. I think they make good points, but I don't see how you can apply some of these criticisms to such wide swaths of movies.
All I know is that Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad are NOT as bad of movies as Blade: Trinity, Elektra, Fantastic 4, etc. and I'm just struggling to find reasons why they seem to get ripped apart by so many critics but embraced by fans.
I loved Blade: Trinity.
:coffee:
Lol. Elektra. My buddy and I won tickets to that horrible flick. We mst3k'd it and had a couple people cracking up.
Did you ever read what a cluster **** that movie was behind the scenes? Form Patton Oswalt:
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/blad...-blade-trinityQuote:
"He wouldn't come out of his trailer and he would smoke weed all day", recalls Oswalt. "Then I remember one day on the set- they let everyone pick their own clothes - there was one black actor who was also kind of a club kid. And he wore this shirt with the word 'Garbage' on it in big stylish letters. It was his shirt. And Wesley came down to the set, which he only did for close-ups. Everything else was done by his stand-in. I only did one scene with him. But he comes on and goes, 'There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist mothe******!' And he tried to strangle the director, David Goyer".
There was also a scene in the film where Wesley Snipes refused to open his eyes so they had to use CGI:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...psnxu4b6li.gif
That movie was great for all the wrong reasons. :lol:
Blade 1 and 2 are easily some of my favorite comic book movies ever.
It's cool that you guys are so passionate about fiction and make-believe things.
Well this is interesting but im not sure how much trouble the director of Suicide Squad could possibly get into. This rap group (Die Antwoord) is claiming that the director ripped off their aesthetic when making SS. They claim he was constantly talking about them to Leto and other cast members throughout the production. At first i thought maybe it could just be coincidence but when i checked out this first video from them and saw Cara D (cant spell her last name but she plays Enchantress in the movie) was in the video i have a feeling they might be on to something. Obviously im not a huge rap fan but did find this band interesting in terms of look. They seem to approach their look from a more "horroresque" angle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMK0prafzw0
thats the two people from Chappie lol
Stuff like that is really hard to prove. Its the difference between outright stealing an aesthetic and simply being influenced by it. I actually like Die Antwoord (they are coming to Denver soon!) but they are kind of morons if you ever hear them talk for extended periods. You could claim that they are stealing the look of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic, soccer hooligans, Brandon Lee from The Crow, South African gangs, or the Beastie Boys.
As Shane eluded to I think they are mostly pissy that they thought they were going to be international movie stars after starring in Chappie. I don't know how you can copyright an aesthetic especially when they borrow so heavily from so many sources. If anything I'd say the look and feel of Suicide Squad was a cross between Escape from New York and The Warriors.
so i heard warner bros cut like 50 minutes of scenes from suicide squad.
And i heard Jared Letos joker is barely in the movie anymore. They even used parts in the trailer, that are no longer in the movie. Like the lines "I am going to show you my toys". That is in the trailer over and over.
Kind of stupid. They did the exact same thing to Batman vs Superman. They cut all the scenes that built the resentment towards each other in that movie.
WB needs to back the **** off and let the directors do what they were hired to do. I heard Suicide Squad is pretty bad. Is what happens when a film is directed by a Studio instead of creative directors.
I don't watch trailers.
Here is a really good piece on Suicide Squad and while the movie has some missteps, it shows that DC is getting their footing and they are only 3 movies in. It talks about how compared to Marvel (currently at 13 movies!) is just starting to explore some of these darker elements while DC is already embracing them. The last sentence sums up why I like the DC Cinematic Universe so much thus far:
http://www.tor.com/2016/08/15/that-l...ing-its-voice/Quote:
Suicide Squad is not even a little tonally coherent and is tediously reductive in a number of ways, but the really interesting thing about the movie isn’t what it does, but what it says. Not only is it the first legitimately FUN movie the DC Extended Universe has given us so far, but it’s also the first to clearly communicate the DCEU’s central conceit…
Namely, that metahumans are the worst thing to ever happen to humanity. And vice versa.
That fundamentally negative approach is incorporated throughout all three DC movies to date. It first becomes clear in the infamous third act of Man of Steel, with the arrival of General Zod’s forces. The impact, both psychological and physical, on Earth is colossal as we’re confronted with absolute proof of alien life—and at the same time, drives home the sense of just how lucky we were that Superman was raised by human parents. In fact, the entire movie can be read as Clark Kent choosing his adoptive world, and its values, over the gloriously eternal and ultimately meaningless battle of Zod’s Kryptonian zealots.
That becomes even more apparent in Batman v Superman. Not only does the destruction at the end of Man of Steel serve as the sequel’s inciting incident, but there’s also some interesting work done in terms of exploring the human consequences of Superman’s existence. Bruce Wayne’s stance—if there’s even the slightest chance Superman can’t be trusted, then he’s a threat—is based in Bruce’s first-hand experience of terror, but it also has one foot in demonstrable fact. This is a being who, as presented onscreen, was complicit in the destruction of a couple of square miles of Metropolis and colossal loss of life. Superman may be a force for good everywhere else, but all he needs is one bad day to cause massive damage. And Bruce, through Lex Luthor’s machinations, ends up assisting in the creation of that bad day.
That fundamental fear of the other, of the new, is something that’s present throughout BvS. The first time we see it is Lex’s obsession with the alien technology and the clear Faustus/Pandora’s Box metaphor that comes along with it. There are huge, unknowable things out there and as the movie finishes, it seems pretty clear that they’ve noticed us and we’re not ready. That’s not just negative—that’s practically Lovecraftian.
I dont know, from the first trailer i saw the Joker had very little to do with it. But, they did sell the idea at the end that he was going to impact the movie in some way. So while films often find themselves being edited anyway it shouldnt be too much of a surprise to Leto that some of his scenes were cut.
On the flipside, it is kind of baffling that they edited it THAT much (at least according to those who have seen it as i have not yet) so i wonder if the plan was to do something more specific with Leto's version of the Joker down the road, he somehow pissed off WB's and they wanted to cut him out, or according to most rumors WB's simply shit the bed after seeing how successful Deadpool was and wanted to scale back the heavy drama a bit.
Never the less, this cant end well unless they intend to have yet another actor portray the Joker going forward. The only way i think they can remotely redeem themselves is to give the dvd its deleted scenes and see how it fares vs what was released in the theaters.
http://moviepilot.com/posts/4034990?utm_source=fb-channel-hollywood-buzz&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=jared-leto-on-suicide-squad-f-em-is-dc-film-about-to-lose-its-joker
Quote:
It seems that our new Joker bore the brunt of the cuts. Understandably, then, nobody seems more angry at Warner Bros.'s editing of Suicide Squad than Jared Leto.
Last weekend, at Camp Mars, Leto gave full vent about his frustration. We don't have the actual quotes, but one fan on Tumblr summarized them:
Quote:
What's more, he also disclosed another thing that's frustrating him about his work with Warner Bros. He's a keen rock-climber, but - as part of his contract - he's forbidden to take part in dangerous activities like rock-climbing. Leto's response was startling: "**** Em"
Quote:
Jared Leto's Joker was a major part of the marketing campaign forSuicide Squad, and everyone was expecting him to play a major role in the film. Leto himself went to incredible lengths to get in-character; a believer in method acting, he delved deep into the character, andensured that the film was always in the headlines! It's pretty clear that Leto was having a blast playing the part of the clown prince of crime, and was excited to see where the Joker's story went next.
Then things went badly wrong.
The critical backlash against Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice took Warner Bros. by surprise, and - with Suicide Squad almost completed - the studio panicked. If behind-the-scenes accounts are accurate, two versions of the film were shown to viewers in Northern California, and the final product was a mash-up of these.
Honestly, what's all the hubbub about? I don't get it.
It typically amazes me how much thought some put into a movie. I go, watch, and either enjoy it or not. I couldn't really give a rip about the whole backstory. who the producer is, where it was filmed, etc.
For me it depends on how much interest i have in said story, director, or actors/actresses. I was pretty pumped to see SS but im a bit amazed at how poorly a showing it has had amongst the viewers so far. Im sure guys like Shake are like me where movies in general are cool when you know the backstories and general trivia. I find those kinds of things interesting.
What's the judgement? Critics? Money?
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "expect". People need to quit watching so many trailers and putting so much effort into researching and learning about a movie before it comes out. I guarantee you that most people that watched this movie with an open mind loved it.
To be fair it is killing it in the theaters. 2 weeks at number 1 and the fan reaction has been pretty positive. I didn't care too much for it, but I enjoyed it enough. The big backlash is coming from the critics but WB can give a rats ass about that when a movie about mostly c-list characters is closing in at $500 million worldwide. It will easily pass up Guardians of the Galaxy when all is said and done, and that is pretty impressive.
I really want WB to stick to their guns and let their directors put out their versions of the movie. You can tell that there is a great movie in there somewhere (I think more of Let's Joker would have helped immensely) but Batman v Superman made them gun shy. That movie is nearing 900 million but it was expected to cross 1 Billion so they considered that a big misstep. When they saw the positive reaction to the Batman v Superman Ultimate Cut (which was Snyders full theatrical version before they cut out chunks so it could play more showtimes in a day) the damage was already done with Suicide Squad. Wonder Woman and Justice League will have to be critical and commercial successes, and I think they will.
Pretty neat summary of what BvS did right (as opposed to the usual EVERYTHING SUCKS videos you see on the Internet). I agree with it for the most part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5S7rjUbC14
Really neat BTS Justice League featurette from the last day of filming in London:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ilFzVLWPog
Just watched suicide squad.
Great movie.
The DC movies are killing it for me.