You should give Superman a chance. It really is terrific.
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I enjoyed it immensely. It was simultaneously what I hoped it would be and yet consistently surprised me throughout with ideas and approaches I never would have thought could work, especially in a Superman movie, and yet in the end only added to my overall satisfaction with it.
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https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-50th-anniversary-theatrical-release
I hope it’s the original version. Also, just in time for Star Wars: Starfighter. Also, it makes me think that we’ll get a movie(s) for 2030 (The Empire Strikes Back 50th Anniversary).
I hope that gets a release in theaters as well. QT will truly want it to have a chance in theaters. F1’s box office also will give it a chance to get some time in theaters. I wonder if QT will do what James Cameron has done with Avatar and stay in his OUATIH universe for a while. At least QT is striking while the iron is hot, and letting it franchise itself, instead of his helpers bailing out.
Also, I’ll write down some Superman stories (book and graphic novel) for recommendations soon, as there are a number of them that could influence where the future movies could go.
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I think Superman as a property is always going to garner more interest from the general public than the lesser-known FF. Even after being around for so long and in so many iterations, there’s still a “sure I’ve seen him before but hey, it’s Superman” factor there (as there is with Bond) whereas with the FF the reaction is more, “I saw a movie about them already, what else ya got?”
It could also be that Superman is perceived as the start of a new thing (the DCU) that people are curious about, whereas the FF film, despite being severed from the larger Marvel universe, is seen as just “the latest Marvel,” and people are already very familiar with Marvel, to the point of exhaustion. Naming it “First Steps” comes off as wishful thinking: you can call it a new beginning all you like, Marvel, but at the end of the day it’s still film #37.
Or it could just be that these things needed to be spaced further apart because people need longer breaks between superhero movies. Anyway I’ve got a bad feeling about the upcoming Avengers movies as RDJ’s casting definitely has a whiff of desperation about it. In retrospect, “Endgame” did too good a job in wrapping up the first few “phases.” It provided the perfect jumping-off point for a lot of folks. The real test will be whether DC can keep things going with other properties of if audiences are satisfied to treat Superman as a done-in-one.
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Their track record suggests that they won’t. DC is chasing a fad that is over a decade old now, the whole inter-connected universe, and one that the public has already clearly stated that they’re tiring out on.
It’ll also be fun to watch all of the confusion when there’s more than one Batman appearing on the big screen.
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Yes, it does feel like they showed up too late to this particular party. Indeed it could be that the whole Marvel approach of a “cinematic universe” was something that could only really work once and is not transferable to other studios and properties, let alone sustainable by Marvel itself. And while most folks seem to have had a good time with Superman and applaud the approach to Big Blue himself, I wonder if all those guest-star heroes did anything at all to sell the average Joe on the larger DCU?
It’ll also be fun to watch all of the confusion when there’s more than one Batman appearing on the big screen.
Indeed, I’ve been interested to see all of DC’s “explanations” that superhero films can be interconnected AND independent, bound together in a shared universe AND treated as one-off “Elseworlds” type stories, with characters being played by different actors in the same year or even on the same day. Arguably that approach has worked for them on the printed page but I’m not convinced the non-comic-reading public is comfortable with that level of flexibility and it seems to fly in the face of everything marketers and PR reps have ever believed about brand recognition and consistent messaging.
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Agreed. It is something that can work on the page because the people who are, by and large, reading those are already very much invested and can understand the varying approaches to the same character. The general public who doesn’t put that much effort into it, can’t make that distinction and, quite honestly, shouldn’t really be asked to.
It’s going to be hilarious when we see The Batman Part 2 with Pattinson followed by the “official” DC Universe Batman film starring either Alan Ritchson or Henry Cavill (boy, that would really cause some confusion if they went that route).
It’s also that the whole thing, even since they started trying to do this with Snyder, has felt like a desperate game of catch up from the jump. Marvel caught DC flat footed and established themselves as a decade-plus long cinematic juggernaut and now they’re desperately trying to play catch up and, arguably, damaging the brand in the process because it feels like they’re flailing around, throwing anything and everything against the wall to see what actually sticks. This, of course, while they fail to realize that Marvel is so far ahead of them that they’ve already finished the race while DC is still putting gas in the car back in the starting line.
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Yeah, poor old DC. They pioneered the “multiverse” concept in the 60s, then decided it was too confusing for readers to comprehend so they dumped it in 1985 to start over with a “single Earth” to be more like Marvel, who was kicking their butts sales-wise. Then decades later, Marvel becomes a Hollywood juggernaut and resurrects the “multiverse” concept to the tune of billions in profit. Now DC can only play catch-up at the box office and if they even touch the multiverse concept they’ll be accused of copying Marvel.
In spite of everything I was always a DC guy, but good lord those guys never run out of ways to fail.
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This is why I think they should have just kept going with the more “prestige”-oriented projects like Joker. Keep doing one-offs or smaller, more self-contained series or trilogies that tell good stories featuring the well-known heroes that DC has and stay away from all of the inter-connected stuff. It doesn’t take a high-level degree in marketing to see that the public has grown tired of it and that there are diminishing financial returns in that particular approach. Instead going into it knowing that they’re going to be labeled as copycats to what Marvel is doing, regardless of whether that’s a fair or unfair label, why not just avoid the inevitable of going in that direction and continue down the path that they were forging with successful entries like The Batman and Joker.
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Marvel has been marveled out - simply too much product too fast, and once they exhausted their popular ones it was clear that the mainstream audience would not care about the obscurer heroes.
DC could have been an alternative - but the Snyder approach crashed and burned.
I do believe that Gunn is so much savvier at this, but the time for „universe building“ to be interesting to more than the comic nerds is over. Too much content. Does anybody with a life really want to invest so many hours in something which basically is always the same?
I think Gunn already noticed this and is concentrating on stand alone features which can be folded into a bigger universe - but they don’t have to.
As for different Batman movies - I don’t see the public being confused. They love Batman anyway.
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Will they actually let him be in this one? They announced his casting for Episode IX as well, but he was nowhere to be seen as his character was deleted from the script.
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Is that supposed to be the same character? If they already invested thought and script pages in, say, Qui Ben Lu Cas with Smith in mind it’s possible he will sooner or later get his chance. If they just juggle with various bit parts to throw at him, then he can end up on the cutting room floor or not even appear in the final script. Depends probably on the budget and the director.
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New Pierce Brosnan movie coming from Netflix:
According to the cast list in the trailer, it also features Jonathan Pryce.
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He’s actually in the trailer, for the briefest glimpse.
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I’ll have to go back and watch it again. Completely missed it the first time around.
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1:04 it is - and by 1:05 he’s gone.
I hope Brosnan gets more dialogue than in this trailer which seems to have the task of making everything look uninspired IP boredom.
Benoit Blanc this is not.
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I’ve read the book. He talks a lot!
This trailer is a Chris Columbus film starring Hellen Mirren. I’m hoping it’s not that as the book isn’t that. It’s very knowledgeable with a very dry wit, which I’m not getting from this.
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I doubt he’s going to be the same charcter, at least I hope he isn’t. I believe the plan dor Episode IX was that he was to play Son of Mortis, a character established in one of the animated series (which I’ve never seen).
Given that the film is called Starfighter and it will presumably have a space combat focus I imagine he’s going to the Star Wars version of the Red Barron.
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Don’t get my hopes up.
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