"Comic Book" Movies Discussion

[sabby47 2]

If you haven't seen Dredd yet, you must go see it soon! It was surprisingly the best movie I've seen in quite awhile, and paying extra for 3D actually was worth it this time. Tons of action and blood, going to see it again tomorrow.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Still haven't seen Avengers...but bought it on Blu Ray. I should get a chance to watch it this weekend. Sadly...I saw a parody thing today that spoiled part of the ending. I had actually gotten this far without hearing anything about it.

Damnit!!!!

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

Saw Iron Man 3 on Monday. Really solid action flick. Much, much better than the second one. I'd say on par with the first, but a bit of a different, more mature tone. I have a couple questions about it, but I'll discuss after it's released in theaters. Unfortunately, I wasn't at the screening RDJ came to.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Don't know if this counts as "comic book", but Star Trek is looking to be the best movie of 2013. Cumberbatch is probably the best actor in the world right now. We already have tickets to the IMAX screening on the 15th, and the luxury cinema (highly recommend people try one!) on the 17th.

[Chadd 916]

Saw Iron Man 3 on Monday. Really solid action flick. Much, much better than the second one. I'd say on par with the first, but a bit of a different, more mature tone. I have a couple questions about it, but I'll discuss after it's released in theaters. Unfortunately, I wasn't at the screening RDJ came to.

I may do that on Friday, I have a ton of time to kill and there isn't much to do near my hotel.

[hunt3rsean 44]

I've been very excited about Iron Man 3. Loved the first. Enjoyed the second. The trailers for the 3rd seemed to hint that it had a darker undertone.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

Darker undertone, but not what it seems.

[Machinehead2k5 32]

Who thought that they did a great job of finishing up the Iron Man series, if they choose to go that way with this movie? Also the multi-suit fight scene was nice to see the Hulkbuster suit.

[mack 44]

I didn't like it and that surprised me since I've loved what the MCU has done so far and love Shane Black's movies. I don't think we have a spoiler tag so I can't go into all my reasons I disliked it, but I hope Thor 2 and Winter Soldier hold up better. I can't imagine they don't plan on having RDJ back, but they said even if he doesn't re-up for more movies they plan on going on with Iron Man in their movies. I can't imagine anyone else playing him since he's pretty much become Tony Stark.

[Machinehead2k5 32]

No need to use spoiler tags as this is the thread that is the discussion about each movie.

This is the rumors/info thread:

http://www.modsquadhockey.com/forums/index.php/topic/41789-comic-book-movies-info-rumors/page-15

[mack 44]

All right then here goes:

Tony doesn't act like Tony as soon as the shit hits the fan. Want to see an Iron Man movie where Tony instead runs around with a gun and karate chopping mercenaries? Somehow Tony is a better martial arts fighter than most action heroes in this film. Very little about the ending of Avengers is in this film. It's like that crap didn't happen. Avengers tower? Not seen at all. Evidently after Avengers, Tony just went back to Malibu and started building robots in his basement. He's not at all the changed guy at the end of Avengers.

Tony's "flaw" in this movie doesn't actually get fixed. He doesn't do anything about it. He keeps whining and having panic attacks because of what he saw in Avengers, but he never actually fixes that.

Want to see Tony have 100 Iron Men in an army, but not actually control them? This is the movie. Literally the climax of this film is Tony sitting behind a crate and going, "Jarvis. Kill the bad guys for me."

Just like Batman, this stops making sense. Tony on two occasions says "I'm going to kill you," to bad guys. Then runs around with a gun shooting at people. At one point Tony breaks into a kid's house. Kids parents don't exist. This kid just starves out in BFE, Tennessee.

Everything that the plot takes from is done worse in this movie. Extremis? Amazing comic book. Extremis parts in the movie? Don't make sense. Really crappy. Mad scientist nerds replace soldiers in this version and so it turns really unbelievable really quick. Guy Pierce is a nerdy scientist. He also, evidently, is the goddamn Batman when it comes to martial arts prowess. And so is Tony.

The Mandarin at first had me in glee. Dude is terrifying. Completely like Ledger's Joker. Fun tone; really scary speeches. Really terrifying way of being a menace and taking advantage of people's fears. I was waiting on the edge of my seat during the first act to see when he'd blow up some public place, and I was not let down. Then, he's a joke. We laugh. I mean, Ben Kingsley awesome in those joke scenes. It's hilarious.

Stark dissembled elements? Awesome in the book. Completely screwed up in this. He's not wandering through Siberia. He's lost in Tennessee; it's really stupid.

Movie is really boring because they replaced "cunning Stark in a neat suit" with "crying baby Stark uses automated robots to fight his best fights," then the final act is really boring.

And then when it can't get worse? Terrible fan service. Enjoy watching Gwenyth Paltrow turn into a superhero (not an Iron Man, but a glowing dragon freak) and fight Tony's fights for him. Seriously. Slow motion shots of Paltrow doing flips and trying to be bad ass.

[Hooah4 12]

Enjoyed IM3 despite everything Mack points out. Agreed on his PTSD "issue". The premise made sense for me but the fact that it just appeared and disappeared was a PIA.

Mandarin had so much promise as I remembered in the first movie the desert villains were mentioned as "the ten rings".

Kingsley did kill the part though.

Ending was a bit lame for me.

[EvilPepe 24]

Saw it last night.

I haven't read much Marvel in years, and from some of the criticism here I think I enjoyed the movie more for it.

Mack, I agree with you on the end action scene, but how much criticism of the movie is because it doesn't make sense in the context of the movie as opposed to making context in the greater Iron Man story (including comics)? While Tony sans suit seemed to take people down with way too much ease, they have at least established he does some sort of martial arts training within the movies. Pretty sure they establish the deal with the kid's parents, too.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (I definitely think it was better than #2), but it faced the problems I think most people assumed it would (or maybe they were only problems because we already determined they would be?) - how do you have a convincing single-hero movie after The Avengers? As funny as the after-credits scene was, it just underscores this.

[mack 44]

It doesn't make sense in either context. It only makes sense in a Shane Black movie. I knew it would be different tonally from the other ones, with a new director and especially the one they chose, but not that different. The other small thing that bugged me is how the President was on AF1 and something was about to fall on him and you hear him say "Oh..." and the "shit" is muted. I guess Shane Black had to get some cuss word in there and they cut it anyway.

As for any standalone movies post-Avengers, I have faith in Winter Soldier and I'm trying to reserve my hopes for Guardians of the Galaxy.

[chk hrd 164]

The plane and simple problem with comic book movies is they let people who have never read, let alone followed comics write the movies and someone who is to good to read comics direct it. Most comics have a incredible story arc, Tony Stark is an extremely flawed person in the Marvel Universe. Wolverine Origins or whatever they called that movie is so far away from Wolverine's true story it's rediculous. Did any of the writers look to see what Sabertooth actually looks like (X-Men #1 was close). They ruined the Hulk with the 1st two movies, hopefully 3 will be better. Shows like The Walking Dead (a graphic novel) go off track and invent things that didn't happen. Ghost Rider, Green Hornet, Green Lanter...jokes.

Take a good comic series, follow the story line as close as possible and you would have a great movie.

[mack 44]

Lee's Hulk was awful but I liked the last one more than I thought I would have; it was enjoyable. I'd much rather see one with Ruffalo now but it doesn't seem like one is going to be made.

[EvilPepe 24]

Take a good comic series, follow the story line as close as possible and you would have a great movie.

Not necessarily. There are some things that simply won't translate as well from an artistic or a marketable aspect (the concept of hot vs. cold media is at play here). Not to mention comics are chock full of reboots and retconns...which version of a given character should be presented?

I don't know much about the state of the comic book industry (in terms of title sales and things like that), but I imagine the current popularity of comic book movies has given the publishing side a jolt in the arm. One of my local comic guys said if not for the recent Batman trilogy, he may have had to close his doors (whereas now he has expanded his open hours to accommodate more customers and is finding his shop to be a bit on the small side to meet the demand). Granted, this has also led to DC's "New 52" where 27 of the 52 titles have the word "Batman" in them and the cancellation of Booster Gold :p

I'd love to see a Hulk movie with Ruffalo, but I don't see it happening either.

[chk hrd 164]

Not necessarily. There are some things that simply won't translate as well from an artistic or a marketable aspect (the concept of hot vs. cold media is at play here). Not to mention comics are chock full of reboots and retconns...which version of a given character should be presented?

I don't think it maters which story line, reboot or character arc you take, just make the movie as close to the original as possible instead of adding BS to it that doesn't add to the storyline. The perfect example is the Wolverine movie, it is so far off the comic story and added a bunch of crap that ruined it. When you read the comic you get the complete understanding why he is the way he is. It is like taking a true story and making a movie of it, except adding things to make it more exciting or to add artistic value. If the story is a "true life" story chances are it is already pretty interesting. Or taking a classic novel like Count of Monte Cristo and changing the majority of the story, its a classic novel for a reason.

[EvilPepe 24]

What if the comic it was based on was crap to begin with - could the filmmakers potentially improve upon the story with changes?

I guess I just look at it a bit differently. Personally, I think a big reason why comic book movies are still going strong is that they just work better than, say, a novel for movie adaptation. Comics by their nature involve the collaborative efforts of many individuals, each with their own "vision" (after, of course, Jack Kirby invented all the characters ). There are always some inconsistencies from one to the next. A lot different than a novel. I would think most comic book readers should be pretty well conditioned to these changes.

[Machinehead2k5 32]

Anyone seen The Wolverine yet? Pretty good movie and a few spoilers to some degree.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

Not yet, I didn't get a preview screening for that one.

[17D1998 1]

Why is it that no one is talking about TASM2 in this thread? I can't be the only one looking forward to it

[chippa13 1844]

I wasn't impressed enough with the last one enough to care about a sequel.

[Jason Harris 31]

Why is it that no one is talking about TASM2 in this thread? I can't be the only one looking forward to it

Because there are two threads for comic book movies - before and after.

The before is for discussing the rumors. The after is meant for people who have seen the movie, so people enter at their own risk if they don't want to learn of any spoilers.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Ben Affleck as Batman???? Doesn't sound promising!