Ongoing Sci-Fi, Comic Book Movie Thread v2

[Harry Lime]

This isn't so much for Stang, because he hasn't watched all of the films. This is the basic idea behind the original order that I posted.

NSFW!

Days of Future Past was a temporal reset for the series. It made so that anything that happens post 1973 is no longer in existence. So crappy Deadpool is gone, Cyclops and Emma Frost escaping mutant prison in 1979 is gone, and other dumb decisions get to be reset.

So all of the films up to that point are a part of one timeline, and anything afterwards are part of the second timeline. You start with First Class, because it is immediately prior to 1973, and then a direct jump to the outcome of that timeline. Once you get past Wolverine, the future resets with DOFP, and the rest of the stories exist in the new timeline. That way it's not confusing.

Thoughts?

[Ashartus]

I skipped the Last Stand because it's truly awful and not necessary to watch to appreciate the others.


I skipped the Wolverine movies mostly because I thought they might be a bit violent for my 12 year-old (he has trouble sleeping after movies that are too intense or scary for him), we'll probably get back to them at some point.

[CaptainCrunch]

I thought Days of Future Past was convoluted, and a bit ridiculous, and they tried to put too much of a look this is cool look at us feel. I thought it was one of the worst of the X-men films.



I was wrong.


Apocalypse drizzled, and then Dark Phoenix was utter crap.


It is really time to reset the X-men again.

[FireGilbert]

I need to watch DoFP again after seeing it top some of these rankings. I enjoyed the movie but always considered it more above average in the overall X-men Universe.

Also since Suicide Squad was mentioned I've now been thinking about how much this has in common with Dark Phoenix:
-A team of misfits with one of their members killed off early
-Script and editing which screams writen by committee and gone through multiple changes and re-shoots.
-Exessive use of flashbacks
-One redeeming acting performance (Fassbender and Robbie)
-A vaguely defined villain with even vaguelier defined henchmen
-A finale with poorly lit mediocre CGI

It's tough to decide which is worse. I think I gave both a 2/10. I'm going to say Dark Phoenix is the better one because at least being part of a continuing series they didn't need to do all the character introductions. That SS "This is Katana..." introduction might be the worst bit of dialog in movie history.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

I need to watch DoFP again after seeing it top some of these rankings. I enjoyed the movie but always considered it more above average in the overall X-men Universe.

Also since Suicide Squad was mentioned I've now been thinking about how much this has in common with Dark Phoenix:
-A team of misfits with one of their members killed off early
-Script and editing which screams writen by committee and gone through multiple changes and re-shoots.
-Exessive use of flashbacks
-One redeeming acting performance (Fassbender and Robbie)
-A vaguely defined villain with even vaguelier defined henchmen
-A finale with poorly lit mediocre CGI

It's tough to decide which is worse. I think I gave both a 2/10. I'm going to say Dark Phoenix is the better one because at least being part of a continuing series they didn't need to do all the character introductions. That SS "This is Katana..." introduction might be the worst bit of dialog in movie history.

There were parts of suicide squad that I did like, it was just such an incomplete movie and the Joker really ruined the movie.


But adding on to the dialogue part yeah it was awful, but I still loved Harley's reply to it.



Love your perfume. What is that? The stench of death?

[GreenLantern]

Margot Robbie is one of the best casting choices for any comic book role to date. I'm glad she got her own spinoff movie, which was actually OK as well.

I feel bad for an actor who puts so much into a role, nails it, and then is just surrounded by garbage.

Will Smith was a bad choice for Deadshot, I love Will Smith, but that was not the right pick. And then ya, the Joker.. horrible. Viola Davis was good as Waller, everyone else in that movie was totally forgettable/replaceable.

And WB has to work on their CGI. Disney is blowing them out of the water. Jurassic Park looks better 30 years later.

[Nadal Fan]

Interesting, I always thought the DCEU films looked really good. Could be my bias but a film like Aquaman looked spectacular, same with Man of Steel and Batman V Superman. And ya Justice League looked bad but I have no doubt the Snyder Cut JL will look much better.

These are some God tier visuals in Aquman.

Spoiler!

[KTrain]

I started watch Swamp Thing. I avoided it because it was cancelled but heard good things. It's a surprisingly good show. Glad to hear it got picked up by CW but hopefully they don't neuter it. The effects are good and some of the creatures are terrifying. It's worth a watch even though a second season is up in the air.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

Interesting, I always thought the DCEU films looked really good. Could be my bias but a film like Aquaman looked spectacular, same with Man of Steel and Batman V Superman. And ya Justice League looked bad but I have no doubt the Snyder Cut JL will look much better.

These are some God tier visuals in Aquman.

Spoiler!

Aquaman has by far the best visuals of any comic book movie.

It's amazing how quickly, what seemed like top end visuals and effects at the time, begin to look outdated though. Was re-watching a couple of super-hero movies, that I thought looked pretty spectacular at the time, only to see how obvious the CGI stood out now.

[GreenLantern]

Sorry I meant more so Justice League and Suicide Squad, as those were the movies we were talking about before.

Both CGIed big bad guys in those movies looked horrible.

[Nadal Fan]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Sorry I meant more so Justice League and Suicide Squad, as those were the movies we were talking about before.

Both CGIed big bad guys in those movies looked horrible.

I hope that the reason for JL is because it was such a rush job. Snyder has already teased a different look for Steppenwolf and I'm confident if nothing else it will look vastly improved. At least no mustached Superman looking for his car keys

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

I hope that the reason for JL is because it was such a rush job. Snyder has already teased a different look for Steppenwolf and I'm confident if nothing else it will look vastly improved. At least no mustached Superman looking for his car keys

The original Steppenwolf design looks a lot more alien and monster-like, in particular the texture of his skin:

https://heroichollywood.com/zack-sny...ustice-league/

In the final version they made his skin far more human like, which is notoriously difficult to pull off with CGI, as you can't hide the CGI in textures.

[SportsJunky]

If the Snyder cut means a non-prissy, non-cackling Lex Luther than you have my interest.

Oops, mixing up my JL crappy villain with my B v S crappy villain.

[Harry Lime]

4 Wonder Woman (2017) - straight up solid movie, regardless of genre.
1 Man of Steel (2013) - had some really good bits, let down by the ending.
7 Shazam! (2019) - refreshing, lost it's lustre on second viewing.
8 Birds of Prey (2020) - finally! Another Tank Girl movie!
2 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) - bad bits outweighed good bits.
3 Suicide Squad (2016) - so much wasted potential.
5 Justice League (2017) - weak villain. All over the place.
6 Aquaman (2018) - really weak writing. Waste of great cast.

Release order is on the left. After the first two on the list, there is a massive drop off in quality. Am I the only one that really disliked Aquaman? The made him indestructible, learn everything instantaneously, and have basically no trouble defeating anything put in front of him. He was in God mode the entire time.

On this list, they used multiple storylines up in each one of the movies (form BvS down), so that none of them 'clicked' very well, and they now can't be used in any other context. That's one of the major failings of DC, is that they can't tell one story, they have to tell four stories at once, all kind of poorly.

I might be biased in that I really like the DC comics.

If they can retro-release two out of their worst three movies, to be at all better, that's a win.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by blankall

Aquaman has by far the best visuals of any comic book movie.

It's amazing how quickly, what seemed like top end visuals and effects at the time, begin to look outdated though. Was re-watching a couple of super-hero movies, that I thought looked pretty spectacular at the time, only to see how obvious the CGI stood out now.

and yet ... Terminator 2.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by nik-

and yet ... Terminator 2.

Much like Jurassic Park, the mixture of CGI and traditional effects worked almost perfectly.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by nik-

and yet ... Terminator 2.

Couldn't agree more. The CGI was just used better. They used practical effects when they could and a lot of the CGI was for the liquid metal scenes.

Even the original Jurassic Park holds up well. They too used loads of practical affects and they worked around the availability of the technology. For example, using CGI to depict dinosaurs in the horizon, at speed, or in the dark.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

Much like Jurassic Park, the mixture of CGI and traditional effects worked almost perfectly.

The lightning effects for the time machine and the T-1000 through the bars are basically the only really noticeably aged effects after 29 years. It's pretty amazing.

The T-Rex in Jurassic Park can look pretty janky sometimes, which is unfortunate since it's so prevalent. But overall, yes it's still pretty damn good.

The funny thing is that The Lord Of the Rings did so much traditional effects and they look amazing, but their CGI is noticeably bad now too, other than Gollum which has held up pretty well.

[Nadal Fan]

So I guess Henry Cavill re-signed with WB to continue as Superman, however, they are saying for now it is just as cameos in other DC films. Think Hulk from the MCU. I guess i'll take it but come on we need another Superman solo film, with the state of the world we are in now, it would be the perfect time to release a Superman film.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

So I guess Henry Cavill re-signed with WB to continue as Superman, however, they are saying for now it is just as cameos in other DC films. Think Hulk from the MCU. I guess i'll take it but come on we need another Superman solo film, with the state of the world we are in now, it would be the perfect time to release a Superman film.

I hope superman gathers up all the virus and throws it into the sun. Either that or he flies around the world fast enough to turn back time and then throws a secret Wuhan virus lab into the sun. I would also accept him putting Chinese officials into the phantom zone...or whatever the eff happened at the end of Superman 3.