Wot films are you watching?

[The JG Man]

/Snip

Sounds like you've been Joss Whendon'd!

Anyhow, once my exams are out of the way, I'll try and see The Avengers if it's still showing in Canterbury, otherwise I'll be waiting for the DVD release. As for Prometheus, well...I was initially uninterested, but I have no doubt it'll be a good film now. That latest trailer does everything I want out of a trailer to get me interested. Job done. Although, I think I'm more interested in seeing how it is apparently COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO ALIEN, YES SIREE!

[Timofee]

Just watched Avengers. Thoroughly enjoyed it, a fair few stupid/annoying bits but honestly my general enjoyment was so high that I can't seem recollect exactly what they were.

Hulk was indeed awesome - especially those two scenes (you know the ones I mean)

And Stark was amusing as always.

[Rii]

Don't really get the criticism of comic book films, they have as much of a chance of being genuinely good as any other source material, at least it was infinitely better than trash like Transformers.

It's mindless bullshit in general that I and some others don't care for. Comic-book films (considered in toto) cop particular flack merely because they have managed over the course of the last decade to single themselves out as a prolific and clearly distinguishable sub-category of mindless bullshit. Incidentally, "Michael Bay" is certainly another such sub-category.

There are some superhero/comic-book films that I like: Unbreakable, V For Vendetta, Sin City, Watchmen. 300 is almost there, pity about the post-9/11 propaganda nonsense.

[Smashbox]

You damn foreigners and your early Avengers release. Wot about the new Batman films?

[Lukasz]

You damn foreigners and your early Avengers release. Wot about the new Batman films?

its going to be released here on 19th of july. and wide release is on 20th (according to wiki) in USA.

so we will still see it earlier than you.

[DaftPunk]

I don't like new batman movies,they're overrated as hell. Batman One Year is better then both new batman movies combined together.

[Smashbox]

Agreed, but The Dark Knight Retuns is even better.

[Alex Bakke]

Agreed, but The Dark Knight Retuns is even better.

I actually bought both Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns last Friday - I really enjoyed both, but Batman: Year One was, for me, the stronger of the two over the first read-through. I don't think that means it's better, though, because TDKR seems like a book you really need to read a few times.

[Fumarole]

300 is almost there, pity about the post-9/11 propaganda nonsense.

Er. Say wha?

[LaunchJC]

It's mindless bullshit in general that I and some others don't care for. Comic-book films (considered in toto) cop particular flack merely because they have managed over the course of the last decade to single themselves out as a prolific and clearly distinguishable sub-category of mindless bullshit. Incidentally, "Michael Bay" is certainly another such sub-category.

There are some superhero/comic-book films that I like: Unbreakable, V For Vendetta, Sin City, Watchmen. 300 is almost there, pity about the post-9/11 propaganda nonsense.

I actually wasn't such a fan of V for Vendetta or Watchmen, but maybe that stems from the fact I'd read Watchmen so it might be different for real comic fans. 300 really was pretty crap for me though.

[Theblazeuk]

It's mindless bullshit in general that I and some others don't care for. Comic-book films (considered in toto) cop particular flack merely because they have managed over the course of the last decade to single themselves out as a prolific and clearly distinguishable sub-category of mindless bullshit. Incidentally, "Michael Bay" is certainly another such sub-category.
.

Well, some people prefer pretentious bullshit over fun bullshit. Doesn't mean that everything you don't like is shit bullshit, ala Michael Bay. Its not like Sin City was anything greater than pulp superviolence beyond the visual style, though that was awesome.


Every goodhearted person with a love for larger than life heroics and any affinity whatsoever for the source material will enjoy the Avengers.

[Angel Dust]

I'm a as big a member of the turtle-neck wearing, pipe smoking, film festival frequenting brigade as the next pseudo-intellectual arsehole and I very much enjoyed The Avengers. It's not a great film (the plotting is too pedestrian, the score dull, Samuel L. Jackson can't seem to find the right note for his potrayal of Nick Fury) but it is a very good one, packed with character, humour and some spectacular, and, for once, coherent, action sequences. Whedon deserves massive props for taking characters from tonally different films, a recasting (Ruffalo brings a pinch of Method nuance to his portrayal of Bruce Banner) and a couple of new faces, and bringing them all together in such a cohesive, entertaining and accessible (I had only seen the original Ironman prior to seeing this) way.

However it was Roger Ebert who delivered the film its ultimate burn by disdaining to review it at all.

Except, of course, he did review it and liked it well enough.

[Xercies]

I don't like new batman movies,they're overrated as hell.

I do think they are overated, ergh The Dark Knight did have a lot of flaws in it and i'm sick and tired of people saying its the best ever comic book movie, but I still like them enough and think they are doing something different to the other comic book movies out there, plus i always have a soft spot for Christopher Nolan.

[Drake Sigar]

I do think they are overated, ergh The Dark Knight did have a lot of flaws in it and i'm sick and tired of people saying its the best ever comic book movie

Well, at the time it was the best wasn't it? But that's not saying much when the competition was Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and The Punisher. We're talking about a sub-genre which if you don't count stuff like Robocop and Dick Tracy, produced about two great movies over several decades - Superman (1978) and Batman (1989). Do you remember that 90s Captain America movie? How about 1997's Spawn? Yes, let the shit come flooding back. Superhero movies were even worse then fantasy movies before Lord of the Rings came along.

[Theblazeuk]

Well, at the time it was the best wasn't it?

I dunno I prefer Xmen to Dark Knight, which if you were to take out Heath Ledger would be absolutely rubbish (though obviously thats a ridiculous idea, I'm just saying he makes the whole thing work).

But even discounting that people forget about possibly the greatest of the earlier comic book movies. Best opening scenes in many a movie, awesomely good action and one of the best pieces of urban gothic to date. Also the role Wesley Snipes was born to play. Introduced best by the words of one terrified vampire goon in a nightclub:

"Oh shit it's Blade!"

[Drake Sigar]

I love Blade and Darkman, but I wouldn't call them great movies. :P

[sabrage]

I don't see how you can make a blanket statement about superhero movies being mindless bullshit (fair enough, I actually agree) and then half-defend 300 and Watchmen, the mindless bullshittiest of them all. I almost walked out of 300, and the sex scene in Watchmen had me laughing out loud at how ridiculous it was.

[Rii]

I don't see how you can make a blanket statement about superhero movies being mindless bullshit (fair enough, I actually agree) and then half-defend 300 and Watchmen, the mindless bullshittiest of them all. I almost walked out of 300, and the sex scene in Watchmen had me laughing out loud at how ridiculous it was.

I totally disagree with you about Watchmen, but for the standard reasons, i.e. the ones that any fan of the comic is going to offer, and so I will leave it to them to do so. My position on 300 (and Sin City) is more uniquely my own:

300 is laudable in that it so unabashedly revels in the warrior cult of masculinity. In the real world this would be a problem, as most of the world's social ills both today and throughout history can be traced directly to that cult. It is something that society requires us to frown upon even as we are required to indulge in it. And it is no less problematic in most media, with all its pretensions of realism and subtle messages for and about society. In 300, though, the masculinity is so concentrated and unadulterated, so raw and undisguised, and the context so obviously and aggressively fantastical, that the id is free to indulge in it without the superego making a nuisance of itself.

[The JG Man]

It's worth noting that Watchmen is supposed to be a deconstruction of the super hero concept. The graphic novel shows this a hell of a lot better, especially in the sex scene; they are, ostensibly, normal people and deal with issues normally. So, yes, the sex is a little awkward and silly, but it works. Not that I'm entirely praising the film - I've seen it twice and think it's alright. I'm not sure if Alan Moore was happy with it, but I find it hilarious that he disowned V for Vendetta in comparison, which I think is easily superior. I think the same about the graphic novels too.

[sabrage]

Zack Snyder is the Baz Luhrman of action movies. That is all.