Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

[famicommander]

I would go one step further and say that if WB had not overreacted to Man of Steel slightly underperforming at the box office and had not panicked with the desperation move of forcing Snyder to use Batman in the sequel, we could have gotten a decent Superman trilogy that actually finished setting up the character and his world/supporting cast.

People don't remember this now, but Batman Begins also somewhat underperformed. What if WB had overreacted then, interfered, micromanaged, and forced Nolan to include Superman in The Dark Knight? Well, I'm sure it still would have been a lot better than Batman v Superman, but it would have been much worse than the Dark Knight we did get and which everyone loves.

I'm not a Snyder fan, but he's been a solid money maker for WB and they would have been infinitely better off letting him make the movies they hired him to make.

They definitely could have done a lot of things differently but all they had to do to not fuck up this bad was:
1. Don't butcher Batman vs Superman by cutting over 30 minutes of important plot in the theatrical cut turning it into a completely incoherent mess
2. Don't hire Joss Whedon (whose work I generally like) to finish a movie by Zack Snyder. The two couldn't be more different in terms of style or tone.

They could easily have released this Snyder Cut four years ago. All they added were the Martian Manhunter scenes and the flash forward with Joker and Mera at the end. Then they finished the visual effects and released the movie. The movie would actually be better without those added scenes, and also shorter. They should have just finished the VFX and released the movie as it was back then.

It was literally MORE work to fuck up than it would have been to just release the better cuts of these movies that already existed.

 

[terry.330]

You sure spend a lot of time thinking about shitty comic book movies. Like way more than you should.

@M: Easy A is actually not a terrible movie.

 

[@M]

Why do you feel that the theatrical cut of Batman vs. Superman is an incoherent mess? I didn't. I grew up collecting and reading comics, so, maybe I just mentally filled in any logic gaps with that knowledge?

 

[famicommander]

Why do you feel that the theatrical cut of Batman vs. Superman is an incoherent mess? I didn't. I grew up collecting and reading comics, so, maybe I just mentally filled in any logic gaps with that knowledge?

They cut out all the scenes of Luthor setting up Superman to draw Batman into a conflict, and all the scenes of Lois investigating and figuring these things out. They cut the scenes of Batman acquiring the kryptonite he uses to fight Superman. They cut out scenes of Superman encountering the families of criminals that Batman mutilated.

Basically, they cut out all the reasons why it made any damn sense for the two of them to be fighting in the first place.

 

[100proof]

You sure spend a lot of time thinking about shitty comic book movies. Like way more than you should.

@M: Easy A is actually not a terrible movie.

Easy A is like a lost John Hughes movie. Peters out a little in the end IIRC but super good even if I'm not the target audience.

Batman v Superman is boring, dour garbage (and yes, I saw the interminable director's cut). I'll watch the Snyder Cut some day I'm sure but I'd rather spend four hours passing a kidney stone.

 

[@M]

Basically, they cut out all the reasons why it made any damn sense for the two of them to be fighting in the first place.

The death and destruction Superman and Zod wreaked on Metropolis, during their final battle, at the beginning of the movie, and Bruce witnessing that, on the ground, did a good job, in my opinion, of making a case for why Batman would want to neutralize the threat that Supes represents to humans. I certainly felt for the suffering of the citizens, and it was also suggestive of 911, which I think was intentional. And Batman is arguably unhinged at best, and always has been, which disturbs a goody-goody like Clark.

 

[fake]

Joss Wheden is a tool

 

[ShaolinAce]

Spoiler:

That Joker and Batman scene was the movie that I wanted to watch. What a heck of a narrative that would have been with the team they had going against superman and darkseid. Totally underdogs and totally hopeless. I loved it. Never had such a huge cocktease.

 

[evil wasabi]

Joss Wheden is a tool

That aside, his position was completely undesirable. It was fail-fail. Snyder’s daughter died and so WB replaced him with Whedon and tasked him to make JL a lighter movie.

 

[LoneSage]

That aside, his position was completely undesirable. It was fail-fail. Snyder’s daughter died and so WB replaced him with Whedon and tasked him to make JL a lighter movie.

Word has it that WB used his daughter dying as an excuse to get rid of him for not listening to the suits.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Joss Wheden is a tool

Sure, but it also strikes me as unbelievably convenient that all his toolness comes to light exactly at the right moment in time to help push the Snyder Cut.

 

[fake]

Sure, but it also strikes me as unbelievably convenient that all his toolness comes to light exactly at the right moment in time to help push the Snyder Cut.

Oh, I don't mean just for JL. He's a proven asshole, both at work and online. There have been a bunch of times on Twitter when people call him out and he has a meltdown and quits Twitter. IIRC he's not allowed to be the only one in the room with a woman when he's on set.

 

[famicommander]

There have been stories about Whedon for years but a lot of them got ignored because they came from his ex-wife and everybody just figured she was being bitter. It was known that he was a dick to Charisma Carpenter and that at one point Sarah Michelle Gellar wouldn't even speak to him while filming Buffy, but that all kind of went away until the Justice League stuff blew up and people started asking the Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dollhouse crews about his behavior from back then.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Oh, I don't mean just for JL. He's a proven asshole, both at work and online. There have been a bunch of times on Twitter when people call him out and he has a meltdown and quits Twitter. IIRC he's not allowed to be the only one in the room with a woman when he's on set.

Yeah, the underage little sister character. But that struck me as an odd accusation as I'm pretty sure no man is allowed to be alone in a room with any underage female actor on a movie/tv set. There are pretty strict rules about underage actors on set and they're supposed to have some kind of guardian figure around at all times, from my understanding.

 

[LoneSage]

Great artists can be terrible people. Most people are not that great anyway. Joss had an amazing career and big impact on American pop culture.

Personally I'm over the character hit pieces. Oh he was mean. Oh he said something sexually suggestive. Oh he said something racist. Yeah welcome to the human race, pal.

 

[terry.330]

I wouldn't exactly call Buffy art.

 

[fake]

His stuff comes across more as camp than as "genre" to me.

 

[LoneSage]

I wouldn't exactly call Buffy art.

I never watched it but I understand it was hugely popular and influential.

 

[Heinz]

Watched Midsommer recently albeit rather reluctantly but it impressed me. Soundly fucked up so thumbs up from me.

 

[ShaolinAce]

I wouldn't exactly call Buffy art.

I would. The early seasons 1- 3... maybe or maybe not 4. Kinda turned down when she went to college. I loved that show. Its on disney+ but ive already gone through it twice in my life.

 

[SouthtownKid]

His stuff comes across more as camp than as "genre" to me.

Then you don't know the definitions of camp or genre. People seem to most associate the term 'camp' with the 1966 Batman tv series. And because that series was goofy, they make the leap that 'camp' must mean 'goofy'. But there's more to it than that.

 

[terry.330]

I would. The early seasons 1- 3... maybe or maybe not 4. Kinda turned down when she went to college. I loved that show. Its on disney+ but ive already gone through it twice in my life.

I actually enjoy a good chunk of Buffy and Angel but they are just fun, goofy junk entertainment on the same level as Xena. Firefly is a step above those but none are art. I don't wanna hear the whole art is subjective BS, there's a difference between something you happen to enjoy and actual art. The first season of True Detective is art.

I watched Aquaslash, I regret very few of the many horrible decisions in my life but this was one.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I actually enjoy a good chunk of Buffy and Angel but they are just fun, goofy junk entertainment on the same level as Xena. Firefly is a step above those but none are art. I don't wanna hear the whole art is subjective BS, there's a difference between something you happen to enjoy and actual art. The first season of True Detective is art.

I watched Aquaslash, I regret very few of the many horrible decisions in my life but this was one.

None of his work is nearly as good as True Detective season 1, but all are equally art. All of Whedon's series are instantly recognizable (for better or worse) as being his voice, and his voice expressing his vision. Buffy and Angel particularly in a time when that was almost unheard of as compared to today. That's art. You can call it pop art or junk art or shit art, but it's art.

 

[SouthtownKid]

On an unrelated note, my custom rank got shortened in the forum changeover. If I can't have VT's entire insult to me, can I at least change "There are two types" to "There are four lights"?

 

[evil wasabi]

Cherry
This movie looked promising in the preview but it is actually about drug addiction and the opioid epidemic. If you're not into that, don't bother. It's not funny, action packed, or well shot enough to carry the movie beyond the drug addiction angle.

Don't bother.