On February 25 2019 02:21 The_Red_Viper wrote: Cold War This years' foreign film category is stacked and cold war is part of the reason why! Beautifully shot with images which will burn themselves into your mind, great performances and musical numbers you'll also remember for a while. 8-8.5/10
Cold War was great. Thanks for this review.
Do you agree with the little criticism? I think it was a little cold and emotionally distant through some of the scenes, which imo made the love story and its ending (no spoilers!) less convincing. If not for that it might even be my favorite of the year, but it's still something people should definitely watch ofc.
Well i'm going to stereotype cold war era eastern europe ... cold and emotionally distant is how they roll. That's how the hockey teams were and how the audiences were at big hockey events during the cold war... cold and distant.
So I felt the emotional coldness fit the geographic location and the time period.
Well i thought about this as well, and in my experience there seems to be truth to that. But even if, it still made the movie a little less effective for me personally, no absolute dealrbeaker in the big picture, but noticeable.
If you haven't seen the other movies i recommended here, go for them as well btw, hehe :D
On February 25 2019 06:44 CosmicSpiral wrote:There are many salient points to argue that Carol Danvers 2.0 is an unsympathetic hero with few relatable traits who embarks on a permanent power trip with undisguised approval from the writers. Yet that is the comic book version. Any vaguely informed fan knows that Marvel Studios will reinvent, recontextualize, or wipe out facets of a character's personality to make them more palatable on the big screen. Regardless whether comic book fans embrace or reject her, Marvel is betting the general audience will head out in droves to view this version. Tony Stark was made infinitely more charming and roguish during the first movie than his previous comic book incarnations - which lead to the latter being molded to resemble the former. It may be Carol Danvers undergoes the same transmutation and fans end up loving her.
Larson is in the same position "The Rock" was in around 2003 and that Ronda Rousey is in right now. A "Heel Turn" by "The Rock" rejuvenated his movie career. They need to make Brie Larson//Captain Marvel "turn heel"//"go evil" in the next movie. Present her as "good" in the advertising.. and she becomes evil with a vicious unforeseen backstab.
I'd like to see Larson turn up the volume on her feminist rhetoric. "Smash The Patriarchy" ... "Privileged White Men". Non stop catch-phrases. Maybe we can get her to run around on a promo tour and talk about "Rape Culture". Just crank it right up.. The same way "The Rock" went at Canada in 2003. He ripped Canada and Canadians to shreds in 2003.
Then in the next Marvel movie they continue to present Larson/Marvel as "good"/"babyface". 2/3s of the way through the movie she can back stab a 40 year old white male hero... let's say "Captain America". She has to kill him off.
This 2nd movie swerve would be damn cool. I don't think they have the balls to do it. I don't think Larson can play "evil" the way The Rock or Charlize Theron has in the past.
if they do this .. "the haters" will watch the movie 20 times.
Captian marvel being an anti-villian just sounds like too much of a narrative risk for marvel to take, although it would be amazing and could work for everyone.
I absolutely hate the stereotype of a "strong woman" being just a man that the editor told the writer that he needed to make female because he didn't have any relevant female characters in their story. Retasking the male-oriented "does good by doing bad" that we see in other stories would give them the space to have a superman-but-woman archetype but without the problem of that character making the rest of the ensamble irrelevant like superman.
Wonder Woman should have been this in JL, obviously shes the most experienced leaguer and the most capable leader. She'd been scared by war after war after war yet fights for the lost. The weight of 90 years of service and all the dead friends (everyone other then her in her debut movie is dead 100%) and enemies.
They don't even need to have her kill or betray anyone, She could have stopped thanos from killing everyone but didn't come until it was too late. Thats the billion dollar hook.
Its the same story as world of warcraft right now basicaly. Thrall is the warcheif the horde needed and needs again, but instead of bearing the burden he allowed garrosh and now sylvanna to lead the horde astray. Granted the story is much more complex its a definite thrust.
I think that one of the big problems with Captain Marvel is that Marvel is doing their utmost to push her as the new flagship hero for the studios (that's why they've rebooted her series 4 or 5 times already, without really changing the character that much). Captain Marvel is also not recognizable enough. Before they announced the movie most people probably have never heard of her. It was similar with Ant-Man I believe but his movies were lower budget and weren't trying to make him a flagship, Thanos-killer or anything like that. Just fun stories about one of the lesser known heroes.
Captain Marvel is being presented as big and important figure. Just judging by what we saw in the movies so far: half the people start disappearing randomly, who does Nick Fury call? In the trailers for CM we also see her with Nick wearing the shield cap, implying she was essential then and maybe even the first superhuman there. And in the trailer we see her blasting alien ships in space like it's nothing (where were you CM during the Chitauri invasion?). If she's so powerful and important how come no one knew anything about her beforehand? There weren't any threads or YouTube videos popping out after the Avengers movies asking where did CM go/why didn't they include her/what would happen if she were there?
Not hyped at all.
Edit: And seriously, if Marvel really wanted to make a solo female superhero movie I wish they'd go with Storm. Ticks all the right boxes for PC (black, female) and is well-liked and well-recognized all around. She's powerful too so nothing wrong on this front either. And there's potential for much cooler special effects with her!
Well they can’t pick Storm because Fox has the rights to make films about her and won’t give them up. And she is an ok character, even if her story is all over the place.
And Marvel will make the movie work. They made Ant Man work. Though there seems to be this fevered pitch of dislike towards a movie that hasn’t come out yet.
On February 26 2019 01:36 Plansix wrote: Well they can’t pick Storm because Fox has the rights to make films about her and won’t give them up. And she is an ok character, even if her story is all over the place.
And Marvel will make the movie work. They made Ant Man work. Though there seems to be this fevered pitch of dislike towards a movie that hasn’t come out yet.
The same thing happened with Black Panther before it came out and it ended up doing well (even though honestly I don't even think its in the top 5 Marvel movies). Its the same people hating on this, generally.
If Marvel really wanted to make a solo female superhero movie I wish they'd go with Storm
They can't make more than 1? I don't understand all of this really. Why can't they make a bunch of solo female superhero movies and then see which ones are more successful? Y'know, like they did with male fronted movies. What's the big deal about the female gender that means they only get one chance and they have blown it y choosing Captain Marvel?
On February 26 2019 01:36 Plansix wrote: Well they can’t pick Storm because Fox has the rights to make films about her and won’t give them up. And she is an ok character, even if her story is all over the place.
And Marvel will make the movie work. They made Ant Man work. Though there seems to be this fevered pitch of dislike towards a movie that hasn’t come out yet.
The same thing happened with Black Panther before it came out and it ended up doing well (even though honestly I don't even think its in the top 5 Marvel movies). Its the same people hating on this, generally.
You know what, I sort of expected the hate with Black Panther so I might have been less surprised when it happened. This time around I sort of expected everyone to be “Well its another Marvel Movie, but this time with a lady with a mohawk helmet”.
On February 26 2019 01:36 Plansix wrote: Well they can’t pick Storm because Fox has the rights to make films about her and won’t give them up. And she is an ok character, even if her story is all over the place.
And Marvel will make the movie work. They made Ant Man work. Though there seems to be this fevered pitch of dislike towards a movie that hasn’t come out yet.
The same thing happened with Black Panther before it came out and it ended up doing well (even though honestly I don't even think its in the top 5 Marvel movies). Its the same people hating on this, generally.
If Marvel really wanted to make a solo female superhero movie I wish they'd go with Storm
They can't make more than 1? I don't understand all of this really. Why can't they make a bunch of solo female superhero movies and then see which ones are more successful? Y'know, like they did with male fronted movies. What's the big deal about the female gender that means they only get one chance and they have blown it y choosing Captain Marvel?
In retrospect, I think it should be Black Widow. She's already recognizable and took part in plenty of movies. People would definitely want to see that.
Edit: I also don't really get why Marvel released those new Avengers where Iron Man is a black girl, Captain America is also black (Falcon basically) and Thor is a female because original Thor is unworthy of wielding the hammer and female Hawkeye. I understand PC but I also understand going overboard on things...
That is just typical comic books, going back to Iron Man and War Machine. That is the classic Tony Stark has alcoholism, so Jim Rhodes fills in as Iron Man while Tony figures out his shit. And he was Iron Man for a while until the comic spun off to be War Machine.
It is a classic narrative thread. The seasoned hero is unable to do their job for some reason and some bright new star has to fill the heroes shoes. The new star confronts challenges equal to what the seasoned hero would face and struggles through them. Then when the mentor returns and assumes their former mantel, the young star adopts their own role in the greater tapestry of that heroes narrative. A large number of our favorite Marvel and DC heroes followed this arc. It is why we have like 2-3 Robins, Nightwing, 2 batgirls and a Batwoman, all who have had their own compelling comic book runs. Iron Heart(the black girl Iron Man) is exactly the same. She is just filling in for Tony, who has gone missing(I think he is in space). The other alternative is the spin off or alternative history comic, like Marvel Ultimate's Miles Morales and separate spin off Spider Gwen.
Comics are not about one controlling narrative any more, so making new heroes for a spin. The era of reboots and interlinking timelines has faded, after being crushed by their own dead weight. Comics have tapped back into their mythological roots as stories of elemental heroes with overarching themes, rather than dense plot lines. So writers are allowed to do crazy things like Spider Gwen and not be saddled with whatever trash Spider-man plot line existed in the early 2000s(a truly dark time for Spider-man fans). And that comic can exist, run, be canceled or rolled into the main Spider-man series. Or be part into a Oscar winning film. We are in one of the better times for comics and comic films, because Marvel has embraced making wild, creative shit again.
Reconning is comics. Some of these characters have been around for 60, 70 or 80 years and different authors do different things with them. And the power level of comic book characters is so much 90s comic book store argument non-sense. Captain Marvel and other characters that interact with the cosmic level conflicts have always been on the level of a Thor.
I believe it would go much better for Marvel if they didn't decide on politicizing the marketing for this movie so much. They should do what Respawn did with Apex Legends in the game world. Just drop it and let people judge it afterwards. I bet it would go much smoother and wouldn't be so off-putting to watch all the cringe-theater forming around this movie and character right now. It's basically Ghostbusters 2016 all over again.
The fact that they go out and say that CM is the most powerful entity in MCU and that she will be taking the lead even before people got to see a single movie involving her is just forcing things on the audience (and no one likes that). Usually the first movie introducing a character is there to gauge people's reactions and then possibly making adjustments as necessary. Not the case this one, it's been decided. I'm just wondering what the thought process at Disney/Marvel will be if this movie flops horribly (unlikely, but let's wait and see). Will they keep forcing the issue or will they make concessions?
Recent failures in the gaming industry have shown pretty clearly that actually catering to your customers brings in good results and going against them or trying to force things on them is rather detrimental to company's success.
You are having some very strong reactions to marketing materials for movies that have not come out yet and plots we have not seen. All of the marketing materials around CM say she is a powerful hero. Not the most powerful entity in the marvel universe, fullstop. The rest of that is a bunch of speculation about the performance of a movie that has not come out yet and a customer base that is far uniform in taste.
On February 26 2019 04:16 Plansix wrote: You are having some very strong reactions to marketing materials for movies that have not come out yet and plots we have not seen. All of the marketing materials around CM say she is a powerful hero. Not the most powerful entity in the marvel universe, fullstop. The rest of that is a bunch of speculation about the performance of a movie that has not come out yet and a customer base that is far uniform in taste.
But these are interviews with the mastermind behind the whole universe who is saying that she is the most powerful character in the universe.
On February 26 2019 04:16 Plansix wrote: You are having some very strong reactions to marketing materials for movies that have not come out yet and plots we have not seen. All of the marketing materials around CM say she is a powerful hero. Not the most powerful entity in the marvel universe, fullstop. The rest of that is a bunch of speculation about the performance of a movie that has not come out yet and a customer base that is far uniform in taste.
But these are interviews with the mastermind behind the whole universe who is saying that she is the most powerful character in the universe.
I believe the quote is that she is one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU so far. I’ve watched a few interviews and they didn’t give me any impression that she is a god or anything. She can just fly around and get in a fist fight with Thor.
Also, these are marketing tours where these guys give hundreds of interviews to promote their movies. Taking the wording of a specific interview as prescriptive to the exact plot of all future movies is silly.
On February 26 2019 04:16 Plansix wrote: You are having some very strong reactions to marketing materials for movies that have not come out yet and plots we have not seen. All of the marketing materials around CM say she is a powerful hero. Not the most powerful entity in the marvel universe, fullstop. The rest of that is a bunch of speculation about the performance of a movie that has not come out yet and a customer base that is far uniform in taste.
But these are interviews with the mastermind behind the whole universe who is saying that she is the most powerful character in the universe.
I believe the quote is that she is one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU so far. I’ve watched a few interviews and they didn’t give me any impression that she is a god or anything. She can just fly around and get in a fist fight with Thor.
Also, these are marketing tours where these guys give hundreds of interviews to promote their movies. Taking the wording of a specific interview as prescriptive to the exact plot of all future movies is silly.
Directly from Feige himself:
[...]she's one of the most powerful characters in the comics and will be the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
[...]Captain Marvel is about to take the lead and be at the forefront of the entire Cinematic Universe
What I take from this is they're going to take her most powerful version from the comics and amp it up to 11 because they want to make her their flagship and don't give a damn if fans want it or not.
And in every movie the heroes face their most dangerous foe. Until the next movie, which has the real most dangerous foe and their greatest challenge. Until the next one, where the greatest challenge and most powerful foe arrives to show them that the last two foes and challenges weren’t shit.
I think folks might be reading into the marketing material for Captain Marvel. And along those lines, I’m not convinced these authoritative statements about what “fans” want or don’t want represent a knowable section of people that like Marvel movies.
On February 26 2019 01:08 Manit0u wrote: Captain Marvel is also not recognizable enough. Before they announced the movie most people probably have never heard of her. It was similar with Ant-Man I believe but his movies were lower budget and weren't trying to make him a flagship, Thanos-killer or anything like that. Just fun stories about one of the lesser known heroes.
The popularity of heroes within the MCU is based more on cinematic portrayal than their initial popularity. When Iron Man was announced as Marvel Studios' first film (and the bankrolled one that would essentially determine whether the studio swam or sank), it faced enormous skepticism; Tony Stark was a third-string hero at that point in the comics and fans didn't believe he had enough heft to draw into an audience. Ditto for the GotG, Black Widow, etc.
On February 26 2019 01:08 Manit0u wrote: Edit: And seriously, if Marvel really wanted to make a solo female superhero movie I wish they'd go with Storm. Ticks all the right boxes for PC (black, female) and is well-liked and well-recognized all around. She's powerful too so nothing wrong on this front either. And there's potential for much cooler special effects with her!
Feige hasn't finished negotiations with 20th Century Fox for regaining the X-Men rights. Even if he finished up the paperwork today, the movie wouldn't have a release date before 2022.
On February 26 2019 01:54 Jockmcplop wrote: They can't make more than 1? I don't understand all of this really. Why can't they make a bunch of solo female superhero movies and then see which ones are more successful? Y'know, like they did with male fronted movies. What's the big deal about the female gender that means they only get one chance and they have blown it y choosing Captain Marvel?
Er...you do realize movies cost money right? Superhero movies in particular operate on a feast or famine metric. Being one of the last genres that caters to male-centric audiences, they tend to be conservative in themes; no sane executive wants to alienate the equivalent of a captive voting bloc that guarantees profit. This is especially true now that previous competitors like Star Wars have declined in appeal to the same demographic.
Studios in general won't experiment with hundreds of millions of dollars unless proof of concept is provided. Black Panther needed to wait a decade until the MCU was fully established and it wasn't guaranteed to be a massive hit either.
On February 26 2019 03:09 Plansix wrote: Comics are not about one controlling narrative any more, so making new heroes for a spin. The era of reboots and interlinking timelines has faded, after being crushed by their own dead weight. Comics have tapped back into their mythological roots as stories of elemental heroes with overarching themes, rather than dense plot lines. So writers are allowed to do crazy things like Spider Gwen and not be saddled with whatever trash Spider-man plot line existed in the early 2000s(a truly dark time for Spider-man fans). And that comic can exist, run, be canceled or rolled into the main Spider-man series. Or be part into a Oscar winning film. We are in one of the better times for comics and comic films, because Marvel has embraced making wild, creative shit again.
You're overcomplicating a simple trend: comic books possess "creative freedom" (which they don't in reality, not compared to old-school Vertigo or even a nostalgic-tinged publisher like Dynamite) because they lack relevance in the public consciousness and are trying to lure in a new audience. This gambit hasn't worked either. It simultaneously drove away the old guard via belittlement and proselytizing while failing to convince the other side to start investing in the medium. Why would up-to-date, socially conscious millennials care about one fading industry with so many other forms of media out there?
Spider-Gwen is just a more mawkish, female replica of Joe Kelly-era Deadpool. That doesn't diminish the absurd hilarity of the writing, but let's not portray her as a novel character. Squirrel Girl and Galacta existed as predecessors as well.
I’ve been hearing about the death of the comics industry for my entire adult life, so I’m not sure about this whole fading industry concept I keep hearing about. And having grown up with a lot of the old guard of comic book fans, I’m fine with losing some of them. Amazon feed me from having to go to the local comics store and I never looked back. I don’t have a lot of reverence for the 1990s or early 2000s comic book era in general. I think it was kinda shit with some exceptions and slavish need for cross over events and branching story lines always sucked. Vertigo were good comics in their time, but they were also a place where authors could go to do wild things away from existing IP that were part of the overarching continuity of main line comics. And socially conscious millennials are not that young. My wife one and we are both in our 30s. And socially conscious millennials are not that young. My wife is a millennial and we are both in our 30s. And she reads both Ms. and Captain Marvel, so again, I’m not seeing the industry dying. Just moving out of the comic book store.
Squirrel Girl is a fine comic, but I don’t see her recent runs and character as being that similar to Spider Gwen. But I also didn’t claim that Spider Gwen was this new original character breaking new ground. She is just a wild idea that had a successful comic run that people seem to like.
I don't know what happened to Vertigo. They used to pretty much redefine comics with The Sandman series. The original series showed that you can make comics with adult themes, they had LGBT characters back in 89, discussed stuff like death, suicide, various existential problems and religion in depth etc. With The Sandman: Overture deluxe edition they have actually redefined how a comic book should look like (seriously, even if you're not a comic book fan go and get Overture DE or Absolute Edition, you won't regret it).
This really showcases what you can do with the medium if you put your heart to it.
But nowadays we're getting crap like High Level from Vertigo
EPT
