The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown: The Future of Superhero Movies

[TheSithChicken]

I'd honestly say it's middle of the pack on the Marvel movies. It was fun but the humor was very forced in certain scenes and often times destroyed any actual emotion a scene should have had. The whole bit with Doctor Strange and Odin was cringe worthy and there were only a few laugh out loud moments. It was entertaining and the best of the Thor movies easily but it's closer to Captain America: the First Avenger in quality than Civil War or GotG 1 or 2. It is better than both Iron Man sequels. I'd put it about the same level as Ant-Man or Doctor Strange.

[Mathim]

I'd honestly say it's middle of the pack on the Marvel movies. It was fun but the humor was very forced in certain scenes and often times destroyed any actual emotion a scene should have had. The whole bit with Doctor Strange and Odin was cringe worthy and there were only a few laugh out loud moments. It was entertaining and the best of the Thor movies easily but it's closer to Captain America: the First Avenger in quality than Civil War or GotG 1 or 2. It is better than both Iron Man sequels. I'd put it about the same level as Ant-Man or Doctor Strange.

Guess I have different criteria. I mean, at 2.5 hours I'm still amazed they were able to include everything that they did. LOVED the Doctor Strange bit, especially what he did to Loki so he could talk to Thor uninterrupted, LMAO.

[TheSithChicken]

The Doctor Strange bit was just a 3 Stooges bit. Schtick after schtick after schtick. It even reused a gag used only a few minutes earlier. It was super forced and utterly unnecessary to the movie. If you had removed it and just had Loki lead Thor to Odin absolutely nothing would have been lost. The extra time could have been used to actually make Odin's death scene meaningful rather than a super rushed cop out that they had to get thru to bring Hela into play. Completely disappointed in that whole sequence.

[Mathim]

But...but...Thor calling Mjolnir to him through the Sanctum and all the walls and windows it was crashing through to get back to him...

Look, after 2 movies where it focused WAY too damn much on his romance with Jane, I'm not looking for really deep emotional moments in Thor movies, I'm looking for action and humor, and those are the director's strengths. I agree Odin's passing could have been more fleshed out and dramatic but it didn't bother me. Him becoming more of a Jedi ghost thing in Thor's imagination was enough for me.

[TheSithChicken]

But...but...Thor calling Mjolnir to him through the Sanctum and all the walls and windows it was crashing through to get back to him...

I rolled my eyes so hard at this in the theater I think I sprained something.

Look, after 2 movies where it focused WAY too damn much on his romance with Jane, I'm not looking for really deep emotional moments in Thor movies, I'm looking for action and humor, and those are the director's strengths. I agree Odin's passing could have been more fleshed out and dramatic but it didn't bother me. Him becoming more of a Jedi ghost thing in Thor's imagination was enough for me.

His humor needs work because it was very uneven in this movie. He feels like a director with a lot of potential to be one of the comedy greats but he isn't there yet. I overall liked it but the praise it's getting is ridiculous. It's not even the funniest MCU movie. The action was some of the best though.

[Mathim]

What was the funniest, in your opinion? I'd have to guess one of the Guardians movies. I thought Vol 2 was funnier by far than the first.

[TheSithChicken]

GotG 2 was the funniest in my opinion. Though I still love the first one. The funniest single scene from any MCU movie comes from Iron Man 2 - an over all forgettable movie. The court room scene was pitch perfect. RDJ at his Starkiest.

[Mathim]

Yup, I knew it had to be GotG 2 if not this one. Gotta disagree about Iron Man 2 having the funniest of all scenes, though. I will say that it did have the best finale of any standalone Phase 1 film, however.

[RubySlippers]

Well I think Justice League was awesome, 4 out of 5 Stars.

[mia h]

It was reported that Rotten Tomatoes had Justice League at 50% making it the definition of a Marmite movie.

But looking at RT the critics gave it 40% but the paying public 86%.


Just for a giggle I had a look at the RT ratings for Marvel and DC movies. For MCU films the critics averaged out at 83% per movie with the public at 84%, with DCEU it's 48% from the critics and 75% from the public, taking out Wonder Woman (the only film the critics liked more than the public) and it's 37% & 72%. Read into that what you will.

[RubySlippers]

Its not high art, The Watchman was artsy heroic well kind of, this is a great popcorn and soda forget your troubles for two hours movie and fun you know the way a good superhero movie should be. And I liked the main villain he was Darkseid's shock and awe hammer not very subtle.

Best bits were anything with the Flash, Cyborg at the end changed to look like Cyborg we all know and love and Aquaman needs more fleshing out but he is getting his own movie so he will. Overall it was not too dark and had great moments.

And I always like this question if a superhero shows up why the hell if your a normal criminal do you bother shooting at them, it never works out, and if you get lucky your up for murder of a beloved icon so good luck with that Supervillains I get but the average criminal, naw. Your best hope is none are going to interfere.

I would love to see a Green Arrow movie he is such a Justice League good hero to add and I mean in the classic costume.

[wander]

There was a tale on youtube recently of fake RT reviews coming into certain films to sway the opinion. I haven't watched Justice League yet mind, though the reviews I've seen have generally said it's a decent filler movie and generally alright. The only thing that seems to be ripped on is how weak Steppenwolf was. Joss Whedon has recently gone on to also kick the villian one too.

I may actually shell out the £8.50 to go see it and give it a go. I was really just going to go see The Last Jedi and leave the cinema going at that, though I do love me my DC heroes even if I've been sorta 'eh' about the cinematic universe to this point.

[mia h]

Not sure about fake RT reviews, but I'm sure there's a certain amount of group-think when it comes to critics as there credibility and careers depend on not being too far away from the pack (which is why Woody Allen films always get fantastic reviews).

Anyway on a totally different subject...

.. loving the Nazi Supergirl costume, but shouldn't the Reverse-Flash be one of the good guys?

[wander]

Well, Harrison Wells has been helping Team Flash for a fair time now, notice it's also the Team regular actor playing him rather than the other blonde evil version, so it's more than likely going to riff off that, I'd say.

Also... I know it's gonna sound really weird, though I really prefer that costume's style Supergirl has compared to her regular one. ^^;

[mia h]

Also... I know it's gonna sound really weird, though I really prefer that costume's style Supergirl has compared to her regular one. ^^;

Not weird, but "I like Nazi Supergirl" can be very easily taken out of context.  ;D

[wander]

It's the thighs. Dems some nice meat on her right there.  ^-^

[mia h]

Well I think Justice League was awesome, 4 out of 5 Stars.

After seeing it I think I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 (maybe a smidge more). On the upside, things like the colour palette they used is way better than BvS & MoS all of those washed out effects are gone, and it never slows down and gets hung up in it's own grim-darkness. Joss Whedon's contributions are bit of a double edged sword, tonally those parts lighten the whole but you can see the joins as the movie switches the Whedon and Synder parts. It is a bit light on plot and character development, but in some ways that wasn't a bad thing while I could happily have sat there for another half hour it's always better to leave you wanting more than less. Steppenwolf isn't the greatest villain, very one note but the upside of having cut him from BvS is that his CGI is much better.
Doubt it'll win any Oscar's (I'm lookin' at you Suicide Squad) but it's nothing like as bad as the critics are making out.

[TheSithChicken]

My whole view of Justice League can be summed up as "meh". It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. I left it with the knowledge that I had definitely watched a movie. And that about sums up everything about it. It wasn't much of anything. It wasn't particularly funny. It didn't have any really good action scenes. It's special effects were there. The plot was paper thin and the villain was cardboard. It existed. I probably won't ever watch it again. Honestly after all of the other DC movies I only watched it because someone else paid for me to see it.

[Mathim]

How's JL faring at the box office? Is Warner Bros. going to plow forward with all their other ideas or are they not making enough, and cutting the DCEU short so they can reboot? I figured at this point JL was their make-or-break movie and if it does as poorly as BvS (since there's bound to be way more reshoots and whatnot to inflate the budget) then they'd be better off scrapping the project and erasing the stink of the previous poorly received films before moving forward. Nothing wrong with giving the other heroes their own standalone films but having them inhabit a more welcoming universe.

[TheGlyphstone]

All the typical sites are using words like 'flops', 'stumbles', and underwhelming opening'. So that's not a good sign.

[wander]

It's currently not made back it's budget, so yeah, it's a massive flop so far.

[mia h]

It's currently not made back it's budget, so yeah, it's a massive flop so far.

It's made $280 M on a $300 M budget, not great but hardly a flop and certainly not a massive flop. If nothing else they picked a really bad time of year to release it, middle of November isn't a great time for big budget films, add in Thor's release 2 weeks ago, Punisher dropping on Netflix and The Last Jedi coming out in 2 weeks it was never going to do stratospheric numbers.

[TheGlyphstone]

It's made $280 M on a $300 M budget, not great but hardly a flop and certainly not a massive flop. If nothing else they picked a really bad time of year to release it, middle of November isn't a great time for big budget films, add in Thor's release 2 weeks ago, Punisher dropping on Netflix and The Last Jedi coming out in 2 weeks it was never going to do stratospheric numbers.

Still, it'll need something in the order of 500-600 M or more to actually make a profit, after advertising and the reduced take from international box office returns is factored in.

[mia h]

Still, it'll need something in the order of 500-600 M or more to actually make a profit, after advertising and the reduced take from international box office returns is factored in.

I was going to say Justice League isn't going to break any box office records but apparently it has, in Brazil. The problem with the 'flop' headlines is the people that predicted with great confidence that it would have a $120 M domestic opening weekend are the same people say it's a terrible movie. But if they think it's such a terrible movie why are they predicting that it will have one of the top 5 opening weekends of the year? At best that's being disingenuous. So all of the stories about the sky falling in I'd take with a generous dose of salt.

[TheSithChicken]

There is nothing disingenuous about thinking a movie is terrible but predicting people will go see it anyway. It is just banking on the idea that the public has terrible taste - which is generally a safe bet.