…the ones connected to comic books, anyway. And Star Wars. Because, hey, there are Star Wars comics again! And they’re mostly not bad!
I’m hoping for this to be a conversational sort of post, so please feel free to argue with me in comments, and if I missed anything notable, let me know and I’ll pass judgment.
BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
I’m on record in any number of places: I don’t think there has been a good Batman movie since the first Tim Burton movie, and yes I’m including those three abominable Ninja Punchy Man Dressed Like a Bat movies that just came out. I have also loathed the last two Superman movies; the last one in particular drove me into such a berserk rage that I left the room halfway through and never came back.
What I am saying is that I may not be the target audience for this product.
Now, that said: I do like the idea that what is setting up Batman’s vendetta against Superman is that he was in Metropolis during the carnage at the end of Super-Strong Alien with Assholes for Parents. I like everything about Batfleck except for his face; he really wants Batman to come off as crazypants angry and I think most of the time he’s hitting somewhere near “Teenager being forced to eat vegetables.” This isn’t making me want to see the movie, in other words, although I might want to see the movie Jesse Eisenberg seems to think he’s in, where he’s playing Lex Jokor. (See what I did there?)
Blech. Cool blech, probably, but blech.
SUICIDE SQUAD
The best thing about this is Amanda Waller, who appears to have been ripped straight from the comics pages, and the line “I threw them in a hole and then threw away the hole.” I also like that even though Will Smith is in this movie you can watch the trailer and not quite catch that Will Smith is in the movie. I have no particular attachment to any of these characters– I don’t even know who a couple of them are– so it’s gonna be difficult to mess them up for me.
And I like Jared Leto’s Joker, at least the few seconds of him we’ve seen. I hold no affection for Heath Ledger’s version– see above– so I’m comparing him with Nicholson, who was fun but wasn’t scary at all. This one has a sort of twitchiness to him that I like a bit. The tattoos are a bit much but I assume he won’t be shirtless for the entire film.
DEADPOOL
As of this morning, I was able to watch this, but the cellphone video on the site I was using is gone already, and while I suspect you’ll still be able to view it if you’re willing to look around hard enough I doubt Gene’O is super interested in Sourcerer getting a DCMA takedown notice, so I’ll leave it to you if you want to look around. Suffice it to say that this movie really is going for an R rating, and while it certainly captures Deadpool perfectly the number of F-words getting tossed around actually felt gratuitous to me by the end of the trailer. If there are hard-R Deadpool comics out there I haven’t read them; my objection is less to the profanity itself (Read my blog! I love profanity!) than to the rather jarring tone shift from every other Marvel movie and every Deadpool comic I’ve ever read.
That said: The cast is clearly having a tremendous amount of fun, particularly Ryan Reynolds, and I suspect Deadpool fans are going to love this.
FANTASTIC FOUR
“Reed. You’re insane.”
“Thanks.”
I haven’t seen either previous Fantastic Four movie. I have twenty longboxes full of comics in the room with me right now and maybe a dozen of them are Fantastic Four comics. I’ve never been a fan of the series.
I am super psyched about this movie for some reason. I’ve always liked the Ultimate version of the FF more than the 616 version, so making the Four a bit younger doesn’t bother me any. Doom isn’t the typical guy in armor, but I like the look. And I love everything about the Thing other than his voice and his lack of pants. This movie is getting greeted with a lot of skepticism that I’m not certain it deserves; I think if it hadn’t been for the poor reception the two previous films got, people would be more excited about it. I certainly am.
But put some pants on the Thing, ferchrissakes.
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Not a trailer, I know, but close enough. And if you can watch this without a catch in your throat by the end of it you and I cannot be friends.
I have been skeptical about this “Episode Seven” business. Quite skeptical.
You win, Abrams.
And I think that’s all I need to say.
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No disagreements yet? Let’s see if I have any! Let’s see…
Superman: The Dark Knight Returns – While I might disagree with you on the Nolanverse, that’s not really the point. The point is… it feels like they’re running their stories backwards with this, and having Superman be the Batman origin story, while new and different, also feels weird. Or, ya know, like Watchmen.
Suicide Squad – see my comment above re: doing it backwards. They’re introducing all of these villains all at once in one movie. Do we not know/care who most of them are? Yes. Did the trailer help with that? No. Will the movie pull it off? Also probably no.
Deadpool – I don’t know that I see many R-rated movie trailers that are themselves that R-rated. That said, this one was probably fully intended for Comic Con only and not for a pre-movie viewing… Having read some graphically violent R-rated Deadpool stuff, I’m glad they’re focusing not just on that but on the pop-culture references and fast-talking. Which all apparently just includes profanity. Will the movie be too much of all of those things? Possibly. That might be the point?
Fantastic Four – I am also not much of a fan of Marvel’s First Family, but I like them well enough. The first couple of movies made me sad like many fans, and one of the biggest things for me is the Reed Richards casting. I’m honestly not sure this one looks any better for that. It does seem closer to Ultimate FF… and in the Ultimate version, Reed ends up a villain. Now THAT could get interesting!
So far of these, I’m not sure I’ll end up seeing them in theaters. Any of them. I just don’t know that they’ve excited me enough to run out as a comics fan and see them. Which doesn’t have me too far off from your review, so… I guess not much argument here?
Star Wars – ’nuff said.
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I got less of an origin story and more of an “out of retirement” vibe for Batman. Then again, they were talking about him like they’d never heard of him before, so… hell, you may be right. Interesting.
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The “out of retirement” vibe would be the correct vibe (for it to be The Dark Knight Returns, which so clearly seems like their source material). But yeah, I’m not sure that’s what it sounded like there.
Plus we now have a movie ‘verse with that young-seeming Jared Leto Joker, and the oldman Batfleck. Who have possibly never faced each other before? Except the Suicide Squad trailer had people in Batman costumes. So maybe I’m just overall confused. Again: they’re doing it backwards!
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There’s Joker references in the BvS trailer, too, though. So clearly they know each other. And Joker had to get all those broken teeth from somewhere. 🙂
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Batman punching in the Joker’s teeth is not figurative then, yeah… It’ll be interesting to see how they build this shared universe! You’re getting me slightly more intrigued.
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Also, that appears to be a Robin costume the Joker’s left that message on. So we’ve had Tim Drake already, it seems.
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Oh yeah! That’s right!
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I am still undecided about Fantastic Four, less dreadful about B v S, thrilled about Deadpool (surprise, surprise) and anxious to see what comes out next for Suicide Squad.
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LoL. And how do you feel about The Force Awakens? (I’m back, I think.)
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I’m looking forward to seeing the Deadpool trailer again in less bootleggy form. Supposedly it’s 2-3 weeks out; they need to finish some fx shots.
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I know nothing about Suicide Squad, wish you hadn’t had to nix the Deadpool video, and agree with everything you’ve said here about portrayals of the Joker. Also that the Thing needs pants. The Force Awakens is giving me the squeals at this point, and I am not ashamed to admit it.
“Ninja Punchy Man Dressed Like a Bat” is such an awesome way to sum up The Bale. It nearly made me spew liquid out my nose. Might have been beer last night when I was tagging the post, might have been coffee this morning when I checked to make sure the scheduler didn’t have a hiccup. I’m not saying which, because then you’d know something about how closely I read your posts before they publish. 😉
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I want one– JUST ONE– Batman movie where he’s a detective first and a brawler second before I die. Just one.
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Yaaas.
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I feel like, for DC movies at least, I have to hope and go with it or not care at all. I still care (in spite of some of their best attempts to make me indifferent) because I think they’re still trying to do interesting stuff. If I had to pick one hope for the DC universe, it would be that the Superman movies are setting up a Justice Lords universe, not the main DC-verse.
I wasn’t so choked up by Star Wars (though I did get misty eyed due to an earlier trailer: “We’re home, Chewie.”), but I do like that they’re using actual sets and deserts. It feels like the video should be titled, “Take THAT, George Lucas.”
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BvS: looks pretty and yay Wonder Woman! Jesse Eisenberg’s character did not read as Lex Luthor to me at all.
Suicide Squad: I am a huge Harley Quinn fan, and I think they got the crazy right, but couldn’t she put on some pants or something? Waller looks great, too. Still worried that having so many “new” characters will be a train wreck.
Deadpool: Didn’t see it, but response sounded positive, so, cool.
Fantastic Four: This somehow made me neither more nor less excited to see the movie. I like that it looks sci-fi?
Star Wars: ❤
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I still don’t see how WW or Aquaman fit into this movie. Is that her in the backless dress getting into the car in that one shot?
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Yes I think so, and maybe also in the white suit at 2:03? I also have no idea what they will be doing in this movie. There’s no context for her in the battle scenes either. I inferred that she’s fighting Supes, but who knows.
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I am still nervous about the Deadpool movie, but I am excited for FF (I’ve also never been a fan of the series)…. I’m more excited for the new Batman VS. Superman because the new trailer teased Justice League beginnings, which makes me happy, as it’s about the only thing from DC I’ve ever been interested in. (And I might be interested in more, if they weren’t so expensive as a brand. Yikes.) Suicide Squad was a total turn off for me… but that’s because I’m getting a bit tired of the gritty superhero trend going on. There is a wider range of emotions in the human heart than violence/anger/mope/foreveralone, and I really wish a film/TV adaptation wouldn’t be afraid to try it. We get it a bit with Flash, but it’s a bit hokey at times, and I would have liked to see a bit more thoughtful character development.
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