The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown: The Future of Superhero Movies

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Personally I thought Jessica Jones was ok

The casting choices for Jones and Kilgrave I thought were phenomenal. David Tenant nailed the role so well it blew my mind this guy use to fight lava monsters with a water gun as the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who. (Canon event with the water gun).

Plus it did what most Marvel products haven't done. Touching upon PTSD and other dark subjects like rape, controlling parents, martial issues, drug use. It wasn't afraid of amping up the gore either in some scenes to make Season 1 of Daredevil look like your Saturday morning cartoon.

...but as the show went on it kind of spiraled out of control as to what the point was and just dragged on.

Feel free to read the rest below, its a my personal review for anyone not afraid of spoilers or wanting an different opinion on the subjects below that I FELT messed the show up

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

The whole reason why Kilgrave wasn't simply murdered from the start was because Jessica needed him alive to prove his powers were real to release Hope from prison. It was a clever narrative approach, give reason why this superhuman woman didn't snap his neck at the start. Show this other girl who suffered because of him to give Jessica a form of redemption to save someone else when she couldn't save herself from the effects he had on her life.

However the moment Hope was out of prison for some odd reason she just slits her throat so this way "she can allow Jessica to kill Kilgrave". Basically making her development as a character and the whole point of the first half of the series pointless if that was the end result.


Next is Jeri Hogarth and her martial strife. The problem with it, was how long it was drawn out. It was like every episode we were reminded about this. A lawyer who is supposed to be helping bring down this dangerous criminal was just whining about getting wanting a divorce since she was caught having a relationship with another woman. It really broke the mood at times. It was only made worse when, she freed Kilgrave when he was caught just because he said he would help her get the divorce she wanted. She didn't consider this guy who she was fully aware of has been responsible for so many problems including rape, murder, and theft would not double cross her the first chance he got. Which he did.


Let's examine Will Simpson next. At first I really did like Simpson and I felt his spiral into madness about killing Kilgrave was reasonable. His erratic logic thanks to the influence of his performance enhancing pills was understandable as well. He was an officer of the law sworn to protect the innocent and was mind controlled to act on the whims of a mad man. We see that every time Kilgrave screws with someone (figuratively or literally) they really become messed up and shaken by the experience.

However what got me was when they revealed OUT OF EVERY NYC OFFFICER. He was the only one part of a super soldier program in the military. REALLY? I will accept the needle in haystack odds of finding Jessica a superhuman woman on the street. But a cop who was once part of a Super Soldier program as well? Good thing this guy wasn't on Wilson Fisk's payroll or Daredevil would have been screwed.  I feel if the guys who provided the drugs that provide the boost approached Simpson after his Kilgrave experience it would have flowed a bit better with him rejecting at first before he finally caves in to accepting their offer when he is taken to the hospital.


I won't touch up too much on Trish Walker's strained relationship with her mom too much because that narrative made sense, but it's timing was executed poorly. With minor references at first before showing flashbacks for one episode before trying to execute the subplot in the final quarter of the show. It just didn't flow right and felt rushed.

This last part...oh dear this part is what really gets me so irritated the most.

I am going to just put everyone together as a group here.

All of the member of the Kilgrave recovery group including Malcom and Robyn. At first this little subplot had potential. The recovery group had relatable issues like Jessica from being controlled by Kilgrave and had means to help develop the plot like finding Kilgrave's parents. However this went askew by someone else I will mention last as part of the group.

Malcom who was Jessica's roommate was just a druggie bum who needed a fix and was willing to spy on Jessica for Kilgrave to get it. Seeing him fight his battle against addiction was cool but after that his purpose had diminished greatly other than being just another random person in the recovery group. He didn't do next to anything else, when it felt like the show was trying to place him in the sidekick role to Jessica after he rehabilitated.

Finally....there is Robyn. A crazy paranoid young woman who lost her brother thanks to Kilgrave. Before her brother died, her scenes really just felt like fillers for a few seconds. Afterwards we see her steadily get worse mentally as her brother was presumed missing before she found out he was dead. When she did find out he was dead, she somehow convinced the entire recovery group they were all there because of Jessica and they needed to go and assault her in her own apartment. AND IT WORKED.

To just rub salt in this wound, Jessica had just captured Kilgrave, had him tied up and all with Hope set to be released from prison. Then Robyn freed him, before anyone out of the dozen that attacked Jessica could stop her because they all knew what Kilgrave looked like. In short the whole purpose of Robyn's character was just to let Kilgrave slip away so we can drag the show on later, when the plot was pretty much resolved right then and there.


In short my biggest issue with this show was how some of the characters were handled. Like Robyn and Hogarth were basically set up just to allow Kilgrave to slip out from under the net that caught him on two separate occasions because they acted without thinking.

Or people who's purpose ended up being pointless. Like when Malcom was fully aware of from the start about Robyn and the Recovery Group coming to attack Jessica, he didn't call her to warn her.  Or how Hope who was the whole reason Kilgrave wasn't killed from the start, was just killed immeadiately after that angle reached its end.

It wasn't character development, it was plot induced stupidity. This show was about touching psychological aspects and its understandable they wanted to portray the darker parts of humanity however, some of the decisions made by the characters was absurd to straight up spontaneous at times. Rendering half of the cast as nothing more than plot devices.

That's exactly my problem with it. This mangled the narrative, made the outcome completely unrewarding and nobody was any the better or wiser in the end for it. It felt like a huge step backward. If they'd followed the source material's narrative more closely, it would have felt less like Wile E. Coyote repeatedly fucking up his own efforts to capture the Road Runner and more like the top-quality product that Daredevil was.

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Oh, and final X-Men Apocalypse trailer is here. SUPER heavy duty on the spoilers, like stuff that went unresolved in other movies or up-to-now secret cameos and whatnot that weren't confirmed, are confirmed here, just in case you don't want it spoiled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jer8XjMrUB4

[SapphireStar]

Saw a news article which seemed interesting. It dropped a major casting development for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Apparently, it started with a bunch of faux movie posters for the fictional character Simon Williams aka Wonder Man. In the Avengers comics, Simon Williams was a movie star. And, the "rumored" big casting news for the part is...Nathan Fillion!

[Dice]

Civil war is good. Very good.

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Saw a news article which seemed interesting. It dropped a major casting development for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Apparently, it started with a bunch of faux movie posters for the fictional character Simon Williams aka Wonder Man. In the Avengers comics, Simon Williams was a movie star. And, the "rumored" big casting news for the part is...Nathan Fillion!

Better than his cameo in the first film, then. Just a voice-over doesn't do that kind of role justice.

[Far eyes]

The reported cameo has been bought by some other news sources to, though nobody is sure how large it is.

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The reported cameo has been bought by some other news sources to, though nobody is sure how large it is.

Well I'd heard Kurt Russel was officially confirmed, though in an undisclosed role, but I'm not sure what the status of Sylvester Stallone's involvement is at this moment.

[SapphireStar]

The Flash is getting a fresh jolt from director Kevin Smith. Apparently, Jason Mewes has a cameo in it somewhere!

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The Flash is getting a fresh jolt from director Kevin Smith. Apparently, Jason Mewes has a cameo in it somewhere!

After his review of BvS, I'm surprised they're letting anyone connected to him have anything to do with any of their projects.

[SapphireStar]

Apparently, some of his comments on BvS were backtracked.

I saw a trailer for the Killing Joke animated movie. All I can say is whoa. It is definitely the darkest animated movie they have done to date.

Mini update: The Punisher series has been ordered and is going ahead.

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More trouble over at DC...

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni59776616?pf_rd_m=A2FGELUUNOQJNL&pf_rd_p=2418398782&pf_rd_r=1PZCSC8CB357AP5QJ9X3&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_t=15061&pf_rd_i=homepage&ref_=hm_nw_tp1

[Far eyes]

Huh thats...   his filmography is interesting, yah i will use interesting.
Usually "Creative differences" is something i translate to warning shit fest, i dont know if its just a result of hiring shitty ill suited directors or if WB is torpedoing there own movies at this point

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Huh thats...   his filmography is interesting, yah i will use interesting.
Usually "Creative differences" is something i translate to warning shit fest, i dont know if its just a result of hiring shitty ill suited directors or if WB is torpedoing there own movies at this point

Well it didn't hurt Ant-Man to have Edgar Wright walk out, that movie still rocked. So if Marvel can turn those kinds of situations into something positive, can DC? Although, DC is far enough ahead that the Flash movie isn't in production as of yet so they still have some time. Here's my thinking: Why not get some of the directors on the show into the running?

[Far eyes]

Well all i have to go off is track-records so far, and WB is not really good

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A thought occurs. If WB did ultimately decide to theatrically release the R-rated, extended BvS, when would that happen? They're coming into the summer blockbuster period which is kicking off with Civil War, then X-Men Apocalypse and other such. They could probably do it in the period between August and November before Doctor Strange is released, but...that's months away.

[TheGlyphstone]

Interesting comments from Marvel about the 'whitewashing' of The Ancient One in Doc Strange:

http://mashable.com/2016/04/26/doctor-strange-ancient-one-celtic/#epBcaIo.7Sqk

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Well I'm also not comfortable with what they did with Mordo's casting, but then I'm a stickler for getting things as close to the comics' depiction as possible. But yeah, you've got to take into consideration something that would piss off a huge portion of your audience, no matter how asinine the reason they would be offended might be.

[SapphireStar]

It would have been awesome if they had cast Michelle Yeoh or Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, etc in the role of the Ancient One. I'm not really a fan of Tilda Swinton. Saw her once in the Chronicles of Narina: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Some casting has been a bit eyebrow raising, and changes made to characters left scratching ones head. Like in the first X-Men, Jean Grey was Dr. Jean Grey. Most of the time they explain it as its set in an alternate universe. Main stream Marvel is Earth-616, movieverse is something like Earth-9999999900.

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It would have been awesome if they had cast Michelle Yeoh or Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, etc in the role of the Ancient One. I'm not really a fan of Tilda Swinton. Saw her once in the Chronicles of Narina: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Some casting has been a bit eyebrow raising, and changes made to characters left scratching ones head. Like in the first X-Men, Jean Grey was Dr. Jean Grey. Most of the time they explain it as its set in an alternate universe. Main stream Marvel is Earth-616, movieverse is something like Earth-9999999900.

Chow Yun Fat would have been perfect, or if they insisted on keeping it female, then yeah, Michelle Yeoh would have been better than Swinton.

[SapphireStar]

Apparently, there is alot of trouble brewing over at Warner Bros regarding the roster of DC movies. It is rumored that James Wan who directed Furious 7 who was to direct Aquaman is about to drop out of the project. And, now it is being rumored that there are "lots of fights" between Zack Synder and Warner bros over Justice League and the direction of the DCEU due to the critical feedback it initailly received over BvS.

[CaptainNexus616]

At the rate this song and dance is going, the DC cinematic universe may come undone from the sheer amount of conflict going on from behind the scenes. Instead of people just simply not coming to see the movies in theatres.

Its like what happened involving Channing Tatum and Gambit but only on a larger scale.

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At the rate this song and dance is going, the DC cinematic universe may come undone from the sheer amount of conflict going on from behind the scenes. Instead of people just simply not coming to see the movies in theatres.

Its like what happened involving Channing Tatum and Gambit but only on a larger scale.

Why is Marvel the only one that can keep its shit together?

Okay, DC has to fucking face facts: They were dipshits to give Snyder a second shot after the mixed reception of Man of Steel. Jon Favreau did a good enough job with Iron Man but stumbled with Iron Man 2 and lost the privilege to do Iron Man 3. Marvel drops gangrenous limbs like a sensible body.

Superman doesn't work as a dark character like Batman, that's just the sad truth, and plowing forward trying to keep him all edgy like that is poison. Someone who is opposed to that would have been a better choice for director, keeping the two protagonists appropriately opposite, Batman being dark and brooding and Superman being more hopeful and light. It took a second hammer blow to the foot to get the point across with DC. Either they see the problem for what it is and Snyder is obstinately wanting to keep going in his attempt to turn everything into Nolan's trilogy, or Snyder wants to go in a different direction and the studio is stupid enough to think that continuing on the current course and tone is not the worst idea in the known universe. Honestly, it could be either one equally probable.

[TheGlyphstone]

I suspect the first of the two options, considering Snyder's record of tone-deafness towards not realizing he is the most awesome visionary in the history of the universe. Remember, anyone who doesn't like grimdark Superman just can't handle their beloved character becoming mature and adult.

[SapphireStar]

Apparently, it was reported that even more changes were going to be made to Superman for the next film.

[CaptainNexus616]

Apparently, it was reported that even more changes were going to be made to Superman for the next film.

What kind of changes are we talking about here? Any word on what they may be?