I wonder if Eros/Starfox will turn up for the big knockdown-drag out fight with Thanos, or is there simply isn’t any more space on the rosta for another titan level character. If he does come, maybe Hugh Jackman could play him, after all, he already has the funk hair-do wig.
Especially given the set up. A horror comedy director who’s most significant major studio credit was one of the Scooby Doo movies (as just a writer IIRC). The chubby guy from some sitcom, a talking raccoon with bombs. A talking tree that can only say 3 words. Based on recent relaunch of a completely forgotten, totally bizarre, comic team from the 60’s. A relaunch that got cancelled a few months before the movie announcement. And had a total readership in the sub 25,000 range. Deeply tied to the weirdest, nerdiest aspects of Marvel’s space heroes.
SOUNDS LIKE A MONEY MAKER.
It was a bigger risk at the time. But it was a safe sort of risk. Iron Man was only minorly known outside comic fans. Downey Jr’s career had tanked. Favereau was a comedy director fresh off a bomb and a lul in his career.
But Iron Man was publicly known at the time. Often bandied about in non-enthusiast circles as a significant example of topical comics of the past. The characters reputation outside of comic readers was actually better. He was never all that popular in actual comics. Downey Jr. was at the start of a career resurgence and had been getting big awards buzz, and excellent reviews for a number of years. And Favereau was an award winning indy/art house director to start with. And had just made shit like Elf before the quiet patch that lead into Iron Man. A guy with chops and significant studio experience.
People to tend to down play the risk there now because it worked out so well. But other people like to exaggerate that risk. It was a bunch of clever, well chosen, if interesting and cheap, people. Working on a property that took place in a pretty close to our own real world. And it made fucking sense.
Guardians put a fucking Celestial on the screen.
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This right here, I credit as the exact moment I hit puberty.
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It’s because Marvel understands that “superhero” is a plot device, not a genre.
So you get a grounded sci-fi action flick with Iron Man
High fantasy with Thor
A war movie and a spy thriller with Captain America
Space opera with Guardians
A heist movie with Ant Man
etc.
If DC knew what they were doing, they would have kept Batman all monochrome grimdark, made Superman a touchy-feely inspirational good triumphs over evil lovefest, Aquaman a colorful fantasy romp, and Wonder Woman-
Actually, I kind of think WW might actually work the way they’ve done it. But you get the point- Make a movie that fits the characters, don’t fuck up the characters to fit the movie.
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That would be very fun to see Jackman play the exact opposite of grimdark Wolverine in an alternate branch of what was originally the same universe. : )
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I think that the grim dark Superman was a reflection of Zach Snyder’s Randian Weltanschauung. He has repeatedly proven himself to be incapable of injecting any empathy in to his characters. Hopefully DC will pry their Universe from his cold hands and get in someone with a bit of warmth and understanding.
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Which, within the context of the film, made sense and was way cool, I felt.
Guardians put fucking Howard the Duck on the screen 
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That’s very insightful… I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that pretty well describes the appeal of the Marvel cinematic universe. I do hope Wonder Woman breaks DC’s streak… I know some people have been waiting for her to get a movie for a very long time, so it’d be nice if her debut isn’t a shameful trainwreck.
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DC really should have taken a shot at “building the DC Cinematic Universe” about 15-20 years ago. They could have made a Flash movie when people were still wowed by bullet-time effects, they could have made Wonder Woman while Lucy Lawless was still the optimal age for the character, and they could have cast anyone-but-Nicholas Cage as Superman just to piss him off.
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Superman’s tough. Any Superman movie is going to be compared to the Christopher Reeve classics, and probably come up short. They tried going for touchy-feely comic-booky with Superman Returns (which I actually liked quite a bit) and it didn’t do so well. So now they’re trying for ultra-godlike Alex Ross why-hast-America-forsaken-me stuff. It sounds like DC got the message that grim just isn’t much fun. Fingers crossed that Justice League will have that comic book mojo. Quite frankly, if I was DC, I’d look back at the Timm/Dini Justice League cartoon to get a handle on the right tone.
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Indeed, DC could do a lot worse than simply remaking their animated films as live action ones.
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Wasn’t that the one where Lex Luthor incapacitates Superman with Kryptonite to prevent him from interfering with Lex’s evil plan to reshape entire coastlines, only to be undone by his own assistant-slash-girlfriend growing a conscience at the last minute? As I recall that was one of the biggest box office hits of 1978!
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The sequence with the plane in Superman Returns is probably the most Superman thing ever filmed. I very much enjoyed the movie but felt that connecting it so strongly to the Reeve films was a bad idea, especially since it complicated things by being a sequel to a then 26 year old Superman II while ignoring III and IV. Would have been better to just wink and nod to the Reeve films for the fans.
I think it’s entirely possible to do a tragic Superman story but it has to be earned. Superman has to actually be a big goddamn hero before he falls. And he has to feel bad about it. His greatest enemy has to be his own inability to save everyone. I don’t even read DC comics and I know this. Also, Snyder and fanboys’ obsession with Frank Miller did no favors for Batman v Superman.
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Well, crap, I think we missed 2 then.
Seems clear that the Ravagers (and several other groups) know where to find Earth. So…intergalactic flea market?
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I can’t help but think that a movie Superman would work better with some sort of limit to his power beyond yet another super villain getting hold of another sample of Kryptonite. If he could only absorb some much sunlight, and depleted these reserves more quickly the more he exerted himself, they would have a reason for why he isn’t super all the time.
I have one issue with this flick. “I’m yer daddy, boi” Yeah, we all sort of knew that Yondu was Starlord’s “father figure” and it should have been left unsaid.
Introducing some fresh adversaries would be nice too.
Superman the Movie: Lex Luthor
Superman II: Lex Luthor and some Kryptonians
Superman III: Generic Lex Luthor wannabe with Richard Pryor standing in for Brainiac
Superman IV: Lex Luthor and his idiot nephew
Superman Returns: Lex Luthor again
Man of Steel: Kryptonians again, but with no Lex Luthor!
Batman vs. Superman: Emo Lex Luthor
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I think they added this recently in the comics - that he can expend all of the sunlight he’s absorbed in one ginormous burst, which basically depowers him temporarily.
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