The Movie Thread

[Rich Taff]

Finally saw Star Wars VII. Not quite sure what I made of it.
Think I need to watch it another 30-40 times to develop an opinion.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Well I ignored this thread for a while as I didn't want to spoil it for myself when I watched BvsS. And am I glad I did that. I loved the film. I thought Ben Affleck was a brilliant Batman, and dare I say it, better than Christian Bale. I loved how they even added the little grey hair on the side of Affleck's head, to make him look like the Comic Book Bruce Wayne.

I've read a lot of bad reviews about the movie, and I honestly can't see what they're *****ing about...

 

[ncurd]

I really enjoyed it (and I think I'm enjoying it more in retrospect than I did walking out the cinema last night), it wasn't the best movie ever made but it's not the pile of dog turd some are making it out to be. Those people need to watch Batman & Robin to remember what truly awful is.

It certainly felt like 30 minutes of footage and scenes were left on the cutting rooms floor and the transition between scenes probably would flow a lot better. Maybe one of those weird things where making the film longer might actually make it better and seam quicker.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Anyone see the Steppenwolf clip?

 

[RoosTah]

Ok, so after reading a bunch of non-spoiler reviews of it I reluctantly agreed to go watch Batman V Superman yesterday, and I gotta say after seeing it I feel like a lot of reviewers just need to pull the rod out of their ass and lighten the **** up because the movie was a ****-tonne of fun!


Sure, it's not gonna win best picture in a hurry, but as far as comic book movies go this was the most fun I've had in a while. People's gripes about it seemed to be centred on **** like Batman killing people, bad editing and weird dream sequences, but whilst it was all a bit weird with the dreams and clearly aimed at comic fans (had my mate explain to me that the weird flying things in Batman's dream were some alien bad guy's henchmen from the comics) none of it bothered me very much.


On the whole, I thought this was definitely better than the last avengers movie in any case definitely made up for Man of Steel. All in all it kinda felt like what you might get if you mixed the light and fluffy marvel avengers movies with the dark and more grounded Nolan Batman movies, and for me at least it worked a treat.

 

[nickdnz]

Ganna have to disagree with the positive Batman v Superman reviews.

The cast acted well with the material given - but for the most part I found it tedious. Batman happily killing dudes, out of place dream sequences, a convoluted narrative in which reads like a series of moments rather than a constructed story, Snyder's style over substance art direction camera work, crappy exposition, and like 15 finals scene moments in a row. But hey, maybe Snyder and my Mum's name are the same, so I can let go all of these problems instantly.. No criticism really of the cast (I felt at times Eisenberg chewed the scenery a bit much).

Wasn't a fan.

 

[RoosTah]

Ganna have to disagree with the positive Batman v Superman reviews.

The cast acted well with the material given - but for the most part I found it tedious. Batman happily killing dudes, out of place dream sequences, a convoluted narrative in which reads like a series of moments rather than a constructed story, Snyder's style over substance art direction camera work, crappy exposition, and like 15 finals scene moments in a row. But hey, maybe Snyder and my Mum's name are the same, so I can let go all of these problems instantly.. No criticism really of the cast (I felt at times Eisenberg chewed the scenery a bit much).

Wasn't a fan.

It wasn't a brilliant movie, but as far as comic book movies go it was definitely one of the better ones I've seen over the past couple years. Agree that the editing was a bit haphazard, but it didn't really bug me that much.

On the points you've raised above, I don't get why either seem to be such a source of annoyance for people... maybe it's because I've never read comics, but is it really that out of character for batman to be killing dudes? Because I grew up on the Burton Batman films and in those he kills like A LOT of people and has machine guns in his bat-mobile and bat-wing which he uses pretty happily.

On the whole Martha thing, that actually made sense to me; Bruce has spent two years obsessing over dehumanising Superman and yet despite their differing philosophies Superman still has to be manipulated into trying to actively hurting Bruce. The thing with their mums was a neat way to force Bruce to see that both Supes isn't as far removed from humanity as he's imagined whilst also allowing him to see he'd been manipulated by Luthor.

All in all, it was a nice antidote to the fluffy kids material of the avengers movies.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Tickets booked for Civil war 10am 29th April

 

[RoosTah]

Tickets booked for Civil war 10am 29th April

That does look pretty awesome, but I'm actually more psyched for X-Men: Apocalypse. People are freaking about how he looks, but Oscar Isaac is an awesome actor and Apocalypse is one of the most badass villains in comics - I grew up on him being the big bad in the X-Men animated series and have waited forever to see him on the big screen.

 

[ncurd]

Batman has two central tenants in the comics.

a) He doesn't kill people.
b) He doesn't use guns.

He breaks both of these in BvS

Now I will add in various versions he has and did so in very early comics but it's pretty much a central conceit of the Earth-1/New Earth character (prime DC universe continuity). It should also be noted he's been on the edge a couple of times, letting people die, letting people he knows will kill people know where other people are.

As to BvS itself there are several theroies going around due to the dead Robin suit in the Batcave. However a Batman that's been pushed over the edge which the events of this film bring him back? Yeah I totally buy that for the character.

 

[RoosTah]

Batman has two central tenants in the comics.

a) He doesn't kill people.
b) He doesn't use guns.

He breaks both of these in BvS

And in both Burton films, with the added fact that he also blows a dude up with a grenade and smiles whilst doing it. I also heard that in the Frank Miller stories he kills dudes left right and centre.

In any case though, who cares? It just shows that for "central tenants" they're not exactly immutable.

As for the events of the film "bringing him back" - did they? From what I could tell he was still killing dudes and using guns at the end of the film.

 

[ncurd]

And in both Burton films, with the added fact that he also blows a dude up with a grenade and smiles whilst doing it. I also heard that in the Frank Miller stories he kills dudes left right and centre.

In any case though, who cares? It just shows that for "central tenants" they're not exactly immutable.

As for the events of the film "bringing him back" - did they? From what I could tell he was still killing dudes and using guns at the end of the film.

Well he doesn't kill anyone in Dark Knight Returns, Year One or Dark Knight Strike Back( and only the first two are worth reading). Frank Miller wrote some important stuff mid-80's in regards to those first two books but what he's done since has been considered pretty poor. Apparent Dark Knight III is pretty good but I've not read it.

The Tim Buton films have not aged well when compared to the Nolan ones and whilst they get some aspect of the character right the guns and killer were pretty far devolved from the character. We expect movies to do better with source material these days.

And it matter because of the character psychology his parents were murdered in front of him by a gun (which is why it's supposed to be the unsolvable crime- which virtually all movie depictions screw up). His entire philosophy is so no 8 year old boy has to grow up without parents, murder and guns because of this are supposed to be totally against his nature. It's pretty important to the character itself and causes conflict for him as in why doesn't straight up kill the joker? BvS Batman would have no issue killing any of the bad guys. If they want explain why he's over the edge in later films I accept that this a Batman with lots of baggage.

If you want to watch the definitive version of the character watch The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited they pretty much get everything spot on.

The events of this film bringing him back for later ones just because he kills immediately after becoming superbuds with Superman doesn't mean on reflection he won't have guilt.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Anything considered canon uses those rules now.

Otherwise the Joker would be pointless as a main villian.
Joker try's to make Batman break his rules.
Batman has to stop Joker without breaking them.

Also make Red Hood (Jason Todd) pointless as a character as well considering he is Batman but uses lethal force.

 

[RoosTah]

The Tim Buton films have not aged well when compared to the Nolan ones and whilst they get some aspect of the character right the guns and killer were pretty far devolved from the character. We expect movies to do better with source material these days.

And it matter because of the character psychology his parents were murdered in front of him by a gun (which is why it's supposed to be the unsolvable crime- which virtually all movie depictions screw up). His entire philosophy is so no 8 year old boy has to grow up without parents, murder and guns because of this are supposed to be totally against his nature. It's pretty important to the character itself and causes conflict for him as in why doesn't straight up kill the joker? BvS Batman would have no issue killing any of the bad guys. If they want explain why he's over the edge in later films I accept that this a Batman with lots of baggage.

If you want to watch the definitive version of the character watch The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited they pretty much get everything spot on.

The events of this film bringing him back for later ones just because he kills immediately after becoming superbuds with Superman doesn't mean on reflection he won't have guilt.

I could never watch those animated series... I just really hate the animation style. It just looks so cheap.

As for the other stuff, fair enough I guess. I always liked Batman as a character, but have never been into reading comics, so I've only ever experienced the film versions and so unless they're putting nipples on the bat suit and giving him 'bat credit cards' I don't really mind a bit of creative reinterpreting.

My favourite Batman movie is actually Batman Begins because it really makes Batman's origin all make so much sense and Liam Neeson is so compelling as Raas. Of course TDK has the best villain ever in comic-book films in the form of the Joker, but they really botched the third act with Dent and drops the film from almost perfect, to a very good one.

In any case though, maybe they will go back and explain Batman killing people in the upcoming films. Maybe it'll show Batman had a chance to kill the Joker, and his refusal to do so led to Robin's death. That would make it all fit quite well.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Would love Dent to have a proper film with Batman as the main villain.

 

[Which Tyler]

Would love Dent to have a proper film with Batman as the main villain.

might be a bit one-sided

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I've read some of the theories about the Robin suit and who the Joker in Suicide Squad is etc. - very interesting.
Not a big DC fan (I've read killing joke and seen the Batman films but that's the extend of my knowledge) but some decent backstory/ideas in there.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

SS second trailer dropped - Looks pretty damn good, Not sold on Smith or even Robbie as Quinn (prob the only one though) would rather an Arkham games look and I'm not sold on his accent.

Everyone else looks better than I thought TBH, and Leto looks really good as Joker which I was expecting.


And also first "teaser" trailier, of Fantastic Beasts and where to find them, out really wasn't giving this much hope but looks brilliant, can't wait.

 

[lynam1104]

I quite enjoyed Batman v Superman, partially because i expected it to be absolutely terrible. Agree that Batman really shouldn't be using guns, but I can let go of the killing people thing, particularly with the Joker not involved. The stylistic sequences I think worked better than in Man Of Steel (which is the worst movie I've ever seen) but when their contrasted with the big explosive ending I'm not too sold on it. One thing which is certainly better is the massive explosive ending doesn't take place in the middle of a densely populated area, where nobody seems to care that all of metropolis is destroyed in about 30 mins.

Afflick is a much better Batman than Bale.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Would it be hugely embarrassing to admit that I've just seen Eddie The Eagle, and really enjoyed it?

First trip to the cinema since the start of last year when I saw Paddington....