Underrated and overrated films (and other general filmy chat)

I have only seen a handful in the theater, the rest for free from the library so that probably ups my tolerance for them.

And so far my fav superhero comics were the overly silly Justice League when Keith Giffen was writing and that kinda went off the rails at the end of his run. But his approach was to focus on the interactions of the heroes with each other and what they do with the down time. Things like Captain Atom feeling a headache coming on from a stress of a just finished fiasco asking for aspirin and getting told sorry they were out.

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But have you watched Super yet?

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Sigh. NO, goddammit.

Do I really gotta?

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AMEN BROTHER!!! It disturbs my comic hating mojo that now I want to read Watchmen. The movie was a hot mess, so I don’t think it’s spoiled for me.

I think you’re in the same boat I am, just wanting to see something that doesn’t insult my intelligence. I must say, some of the TV series are better than the movies, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones just ask you to swallow a small amount of nonsense to get the ball rolling,then build human stories around good acting and writing. I lost interest in this season of Daredevil, and didn’t get through one season of Arrow.

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I dunno. Did you see Kick-Ass?

I’ve seen most of the superhero films, but they get worse and worse. The last MCU one I saw at the cinema was the first Avengers one, though. The last of any kind was the second Vaughn/Goldsman X-Men one. They just aren’t things I can be arsed to pay money for any more.

I quite liked JJ, but DD is just a load of tedious violence. Each episode could be 20 mins shorter to no loss. I mean, it’s okay to have on in the background or something, but it’s not great TV.

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I was gonna say Persepolis, but it was animated and your list is all live-action so not sure it counts.

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Of the eight I saw, I think I only saw Iron Man, The Avengers, and GotG in the theater. They were satisfying spectacles in the theater, though my brain did get a bit frustrated being stuck in the lobby without even Pin-bot to keep it diverted.

I just can’t help counting the time I spent watching two Christopher Reeve Superman movies, all four 80s/90s Batman movies, two Raimi Spider-Mans and one Webb one, four X-Mens, a Daredevil, both Ghost Riders, a Constantine, all three Nolan Batmans, the Brandon Routh Superman Returns, and those eight MCU movies. That’s 29 movies, and probably over two and a half days of screentime out of my life. And not one of those movies was I ever tempted to see more than once. Unlike all the Star Wars and Harry Potter and Godzilla and Lord of the Rings and Mad Max movies I’ve seen and enjoyed over and over again. Unlike Dark City and City of Lost Children and Heavy Metal and even, god help me, Laserblast.

Well… the movie was not very different at all from the graphic novel, despite what the Faithful say. Just so you know. Couple of key differences, but not enough to make or break it either way, in my opinion. I liked both.

Yeah, that’s true, and it’s a weird fit for me. I have plenty of taste for utterly lowbrow fare. I don’t need a story that requires a literary degree to understand or enjoy. For me, this whole superhero thing is an utterly subjective objection. I’ll give you a semi-unrelated example of what I mean. I dearly love kaiju movies, mostly Godzilla ones. When I first saw the trailer for Pacific Rim, I was excited to see that it was Del Toro making the movie, but disappointed by the concept of the Jaegers. I mean, I’ll swallow the idea of giant monsters attacking a city all day long with a stupid grin on my face, and the world’s militaries can throw all the conventional and nuclear artillery at 'em that they can. But the idea that the world’s governments would build giant robots driven by people in their heads to fight the monsters?! That’s stupid! Only a little kid would think that was a remotely practical solution! And I had to stop and wonder at myself. Giant monsters: perfectly okay. Giant robots: dumb as a bag of hammers. Huh? I had to work on that idiosyncrasy a bit before I saw the movie, and I did end up thoroughly enjoying it. But when I see Gipsy Danger clobbering some kaiju with a cargo ship wielded like a club, a little part of me dies inside.

It’s the same with superheroes, I guess, but mostly because of overexposure. I mean, 29 movies about the same couple dozen characters? I just feel like I got most of the good story situations already a long time ago. Some guy obtains super powers, and wrestles with how it affects his basic humanity? That was Jon Osterman in Watchmen. Batman’s vigilante/vengeance shtick has been done beyond death. Spider-man’s “great responsibility” angst: ditto. The racism/supremacy/bigotry angle of X-Men got redundant in X-2. Superman himself has never really been interesting as a character. He’s a fish-out-of-water boy scout / space alien. Yawn. And the Avengers squabble with each other while some purple dude floating on a space throne plots to collect colored rocks that will make him noticeably more all-powerful. Jesus wept, kids, go play outside!

And yet I’d happily sit down for a sequel to Doomsday, which absolutely nobody wants. I really don’t make sense about this stuff.

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I liked the first quite a bit, the second I was glad I saw it on DVD I still have not seen the third.
The 80’s/90’s batman movies, well I was younger dumber and had more disposable income. I still haven’t seen the last one of those though. I only watched the first Spider-Man.

Oh god Laserblast? Really? That is such an nigh unwatchable mess (not that ever stops me) that only Mike and the Bots can save.

I still happily watch stuff like the old Republic studios movie serials with glee. They are about the same level of cheese as the marvel movies.

Also the X-Men, et al before are all either 20th Century Fox or Sony and are not part of MCU. The recent Fantastic 4 bomb was basically 20th Century not letting their rights expire.

Also

Dude have you never watched Gundam? Robotech? and while not people inside it Johnny Sokko? I loved that movie. My inner 6 year old who watched Ultraman daily was so happy with that film.

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This is the concept of not stretching credibility till it snaps. Sure, go ahead, throw in one crazy thing whether it’s giant monsters or FTL. Then make sure everything else makes sense! Don’t break another rule of physics or common sense in every scene.

One of things I liked about SG1, silly as the concept was, was they mostly stayed within their envelope of assumptions. They sadly strayed into time travel and such occasionally, but mostly stuck to basics to assemble human(ish) stories. It did bother me the Jaffa had the same terrible aim as Imperial Storm Troopers.

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I liked all three about the same. Well, the second may have been best thanks to Ledger.

Don’t waste your time. Both of the Schumacher films are equally bad. Surprisingly interchangeably so.

I liked the first two Raimi ones, and even the first Webb one was pretty good. But, y’know, don’t need anymore. A part of me kinda wants to see him in Civil War, but I have no interest in the rest of the movie, so…

Oh, it’s dreadful, but it’s my kind of dreadful. I can MST it in my head even without the bots.

Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah, I know, same with those Spider-man, F4, etc. Don’t care. Still all superhero movies, and I am done with 'em. I might be tempted to see Wonder Woman for the sheer novelty. But probably not.

Nope. And Robotech was slightly after my time; I was already in high school, and no longer into cartoons. Apart from Mechagodzilla, giant robots ain’t my jam. Eight-year-old Donnie Petersen even rolled his eyes at Jet Jaguar.

It’s a highly subjective thing: that little wafting daffodil petal of absurdity that alights upon the barbell of my disbelief and sends it crashing down onto my toes! For me it’s giant robots. God knows why.

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any good Godzilla fan will roll their eyes at that entire film.

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I’m certain there’s a plausible scenario that could be written to justify giant robots. It’s just not giant monsters. Unless there’s an all powerful evil being that has mandated rules that say the only way to fight them is with giant robots! See how easy it is to write utter crap that makes more sense that what you saw.

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So we’re not all going to watch Pacific Rim 2, then? It’s got Scott Eastwood in it!

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#YES

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Fine, fine, fine. I’ll watch it. For you and @daneel.

And I’ll still watch Pacific Rim 2. I just hope the kaiju are given more personality. Those giant robots have too much cocky attitude for my taste.

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Watched Mascots tonight. I really liked it, even if it was fundamentally the same as Christopher Guest’s other films.

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Pffff, Scott Eastwood. But also John Boyega!

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Ha! Next you’re going to say that you don’t like Robot Jox either!

(I’ll just leave this here…)

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Speaking of Harry Harrison books Stainless steel rat must be due for an adaption by now.

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Oh man talk about absurd plot lines. But Slippery Jim diGriz would be an awesome screen anti-hero.

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