The Unholy Dragon
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Posts posted by The Unholy Dragon
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Johns wrote (or co-wrote) at least one of the Sinestro Corps Tales stories iirc.
And honestly, it's a much better experience with the other GL series + the Ion mini. Your call, but yeah. -
Yeah, thanks for the tip. Grabbed the first issue or two of a bunch of the new Valiant stuff. Gonna try dipping my toe in the water and seeing how I enjoy it.
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Agreed on Matthew McConaughey. I said on one of the other threads that his roles in Bernie, Mud, and Dallas Buyers Club have turned into my current actor that can do no wrong. All this while freely admitting that I haven't seen Magic Mike and have to see what he plays in The Wolf of Wall Street.
I guess you could say that's true about him in Dazed and Confused, but that was 1993. Nobody in the film had become a good actor by that point.
Magic Mike is full of great acting from guys not particularly known for it. McConaughey is possibly the most entrancing, but Tatum is absolutely fantastic in the lead role as well. I really wish they'd given Matt Bomer more to do, but can't have everything. Besides, it has Kevin Nash as a druggie stripper with a Tarzan routine. What more can you want?
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My problem with Iron Man 3 isn't that they fucked up The Mandarin, i don't care enough about the character to know that, and i doubt the majority of the people watching the film do either. My problem is the film they showed in the trailer and all the hype leading up to the film, the film that looked interesting and different to the past 2 Iron Man films, wasn't the film we got. We got 90 mins of bait, then a twist that takes you completely out of the film, and 40 mins of the same boring evil business man from the past 2 films.
I can see what they were going for, could have been good but they didn't pull it off, Terrible film.
Yeah. Basically this.
I don't care that the movie Mandarin is different from the comics Mandarin.
I also don't care that they pulled a bait and switch.
I care that the Mandarin they initially presented is far more interesting than the result of the bait and switch and that the tone of the movie went from hopeless and menacing to 'every other Iron Man movie to this point' really quick after the reveal went down.
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I heard that interview, I think he pointed out that he thought Adventure Time did a smart thing by sort of doing the female versions of Finn and Jake to sort of give girls characters to latch on to.
We saw those characters like once or twice though and they turned out to be fan fiction characters created by the Ice King.
I think stronger examples of this would be Princess Bumblegum and Flame Princess.
Marceline is pretty much the top choice, I'd think. Peebz is pretty great too though.
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He doesn't bash them . He just says that Cartoon Network wants every show to be them now.Dini needs to lay off Adventure Time and Regular Show.
Moreover, they want every show to be just like them without understanding what the thing is that ACTUALLY makes them work.
So y'know...'random' humour minus plot, character, or actual quality.
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Unholy Dragon's argument is bullshit and his complaints are insane given the fact that Peter Parker is unmasing in ASM every other scene. It's beyond ridiculous.
Yeah, but that's due to people trying to pin him down and unmask him. And despite that, they do mostly keep his identity protected rather than having New York raise him up as maskless crowdsurfing NY Jesus and pretending that his identity is still a secret. There's really only the one time he's unmasked in public and it's by the police, with him trying to keep his face hidden throughout the confrontation bar speaking with Mr. Leary. It's still annoying, but far less conspicuously so.
Peter bent a goalpost in plan view during football practice in Amazing Spider-Man. How the whole school didn't figure it out then, I'll never understand.
Yeah, that scene's a cute visual, but uh...what the hell was that football made of? Even factoring from super strength, the ball should give before the goalpost. Dodgy science moment.
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Never read it, plan to at some point, but that is likely a ways off.
Batman: Hush. I was never sure what to expect from this one since many seem to love or hate it w/o going into much detail on why, but I came out of this enjoying this far more than I thought I would. I dug the pushing of the romance between Bruce and Selina. I also like where it ends with Bruce not really ready due to the betrayals he was a victim of. I liked the general plot and how it played it out. I particularly dug the false clues laid out and certain things Loeb does to screw with the obvious. His use of villains and various characters also felt more natural compared to his previous big stories in Long Halloween and Dark Victory. What I truly love though is the epilogue where the mastermind is revealed. It was a great push for said character that put him own another level. Its particularly nice considering how Loeb had written the character before. While this doesn't quite have the same strength Loeb's stories in Long Halloween and Dark Victory do, I actually think the writing itself is better from the technical aspect. Thought it was a pretty good read overall.
Batman: Death of the Family. The writing was technically decent, and the art added something quite nice to the atmosphere. Unfortunately this had similar problems to Snyder's Annual on Mr. Freeze where it was a case of Snyder either not understanding the character or just not caring for the character as was, using the new continuity as an excuse to screw with things. Snyder screws up the Joker/Batman dynamic in several ways. He tried to make Joker a force of nature which was the completely wrong path to head down. The Joker while an enigma is supposed to still be human in fallibility. Snyder had Bruce being afraid of the Joker which was just complete bs. Bruce has never been afraid of the Joker, just what he might do to him one day when pushed too far. Snyder had Joker using the knowledge of Batman's identity which Joker would never do as it ruins the game by acknowledging the man behind the mask. What makes this worse is the final issue was obviously written under editorial mandate as it pretty much craps over Snyder's attempts to alter the dynamic to such a ridiculous amount. I like Snyder's Batman for the most part, but this is easily the worst thing I have seen him write within the New 52 so far. Its not even terrible per say. The problem is that it ignores the unspoken rules about the Joker/Batman dynamic to make somewhat arrogant changes that actually take way a bit of the uniqueness to the relationship between the two. I'm honestly not sure why Snyder's story was ever approved. The problems with it should have been obvious from the get go.
Regarding Hush...
http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-116-how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-hush/
Basically, I think it's got solid character work and fun moments, but overall the story lacks coherence and just like every other Loeb Batman story...the mystery gives no real clues, and leads to a dumb reveal and horrible payoff...only this time, it was mostly as obvious as it was terrible. It's a solid enough book if you enjoy seeing Jim Lee draw the Bat-universe and the Catwoman stuff is a good emotional core to it. It's just...not a good story.
As for Death of the Family...that IS a good story. I kind of feel like you've misread it a bit...or you've misread the Batman/Joker dynamic a bit. Joker is very much an equal, opposing reaction to Batman. Ergo the more human Joker reflects the more human Batman. The Bat-god take? Turns Joker into something even darker and scarier and deadlier. The Grayson Batman did something else entirely, as seen in Batman and Robin. So here we have a Batman at full power...giving us a Joker who is at his absolute deadliest.
But Snyder's also been putting that humanity back into Batman...the Court of Owls showed him his limitations and made him feel more human and vulnerable than he has in some time. It puts him in touch with that fear...not of Joker himself, but of what he's capable of doing. Alfred's capture worsens that. It's what makes the ending work. The family overcomes by using that very humanity, something Joker can't consider. Batman beats him by taunting him with his own humanity...the promise of an identity long forgotten that would humanize him, something Joker refuses. The whole thing works based on both characters' standing as equal parts man and myth.
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Andreyko is still a fantastic writer. I'd give him a chance on it.
Also, apparently they're now going to be wrapping their run in a special next year. Or so I remember reading. -
I'm of two minds on the Heyman thing. I LOVE that in a No-DQ match, the heel manager would just constantly break up close pins. It would work better if we weren't conditioned to believe every break is a save (ie that Brock couldn't have kicked out on his own) but that's sort of the conditioning we've been given as fans.
I do think the match hit an awkward rut of "Punk nearfall, Heyman chase, Brock stuff, Punk fights back, repeat" near the end which didn't help anyone (since Punk chasing down Heyman ALWAYS fed into Brock feeding him teeth). I still loved the match and thought it was easily in the top 5 of the year, but that bit is a major fault of it for me...not a dealbreaker, but a fault nontheless. -
They got the top 2 right! I love that DB won and all, but I'm honestly surprised so many people here ranked Cena/DB over Punk/Lesnar. In a truly great in ring year, it's pretty clearly the MOTY to me.
I suspect that a lot of it has to do with Bryan beating John Cena clean and winning the big one. If Cena had put on the exact same match move for move with Randy Orton, I doublt it'd be as highly regarded.
Yeah, but character and context matter and Randy Orton has never, will never, and could never have the type of character Bryan had going into Summerslam.
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That actually brings up a good question.
Is the FC collection on there actually the entire trade, or just the actual issues of Final Crisis? Does it have the two Superman issues and Resist tossed in?
Because without them, it's a significantly lesser experience.
Full collection, though presumably not the forthcoming remastered collection with the Batman issues and the extra pages ala the Absolute Edition.
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Unholy Dragon's argument is bullshit and his complaints are insane given the fact that Peter Parker is unmasing in ASM every other scene. It's beyond ridiculous.
Yeah, but that's due to people trying to pin him down and unmask him. And despite that, they do mostly keep his identity protected rather than having New York raise him up as maskless crowdsurfing NY Jesus and pretending that his identity is still a secret. There's really only the one time he's unmasked in public and it's by the police, with him trying to keep his face hidden throughout the confrontation bar speaking with Mr. Leary. It's still annoying, but far less conspicuously so.
The camera thing I took as a rookie mistake/oversight. Kinda like his not at all subtle questioning of Dr. Conners and his inability to keep himself from telling Gwen. Dude's supposed to be like sixteen, and being technically brilliant is not the same as being pragmatic or conscientious of your surroundings. I feel like that's the kind of thing that's going to be learned.
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The thing about Spider-man 2 is that it's the rare movie that had too many inconsistencies for me. Peter being into science is only relevant insofar as connecting him to Octavius. The mask gets no respect and there's waaaaaaay too much NY Jesus imagery going on. And the Aunt May dangling scene is intolerable...not least of which because the only thing that saves her is that she was never really in danger in the first place.
But honestly, I can't get over Ock using the tentacles at several points to basically hold himself up while he goes punch for punch with Spider-man. Yes, this fat average scientist can somehow now take multiple blows to the head from a guy who can lift cars. They took a guy whose whole visual/combat dynamic was based on cat and mouse and turned him into a guy who gets into really boring slugfests that are supposed to be impressive because they're CG'ed on the side of a building. It ruins a bunch of the big suspense moments and absolutely infuriates me.
So you've got a Spider-man who is into science the way hipsters are into irony and an Ock who can't outthink a random thug. But it's cool, because they have a cuddlefest at the end.
Fuck that movie.-
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Final Crisis is the best big event ever. All the crazy big moments, with a great story about characters as gods/icons and some really fun narrative tricks (the pacing is a story element, for example).
It's great if you like comics that remain challenging and fresh even after multiple reads. -
I actually maintain that ASM is the best Spidey movie yet.
Then again, I feel like the original lost it after the origin, 2 was hot fucking garbage, and 3 was the best of the originals but still deeply flawed. Which is not generally the order people rank them in. So maybe it's me.
Seriously though, just about everything in Spider-man 2 made me straight up angry at how bad/dumb it was.-
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JLA Vol. 1 is pretty great too. Collects the first 9 issues of Morrison's run plus some stuff.
All Star Superman is an absolute must.
I get a perverse enjoyment out of Batman Earth One. It's not what you'd typically call 'good' but it's so far outside the usual wheelhouse of what makes a Batman comic that I kind of enjoy it anyway.
Joker is a really good self-contained deal too. -
And....? I don't really see an issue (other than Derek Billington not being a particularly exciting choice),
It's not a problem, it's just funny in how unsurprising it is.
See, I would have gone with The Davey Kid personally.
Or take it a step further.
THE DAVEYMITE KID~!
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The problem is, Ramos' style is good for a very specific style of book...and it's not the types of things they're giving him.
Dude needs something high energy with a minimum of big, tragic, dramatic moments.
I actually think Spider-man is a great fit for him during stuff like Spider Island. It just doesn't work as well when Slott's shooting for more emotional beats. -
http://io9.com/paul-dini-superhero-cartoon-execs-dont-want-largely-f-1483758317
Hey, want to get furious about the cartoon industry for a while? Read this bit from Kevin Smith interviewing Paul Dini on why so many awesome shows that appeal to both boys and girls get cancelled. It's honestly fucking infuriating.
EDIT: Another great quote from Dini not in that link.
"But then, there’s been this weird—there’s been a, a sudden trend in animation, with super-heroes. Like, ‘it’s too old. It’s too old for our audience, and it has to be younger. It has to be funnier.’ And that’s when I watch the first couple of episodes of Teen Titans Go!, it’s like those are the wacky moments in the Teen Titans cartoon, without any of the more serious moments. ‘Let’s just do them all fighting over pizza, or running around crazy and everything, ’cause our audience—the audience we wanna go after, is not the Young Justice audience any more. We wanna go after little kids, who are into—boys who are into goofy humor, goofy random humor, like on Adventure Time or Regular Show. We wanna do that goofy, that sense of humor, that’s where we’re going for.'"
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If there is a "why is this horror franchise now set in space?" movie that is indefensible, it is the ridiculously horrible Hellraiser 4: Bloodline. What a piece of shit. Every Hellraiser movie after that one sucked, too, especially that dreck with the Kung-Fu Cowboy Cenobites. What was that shit all about?
Hellraiser 5 and 6 were both awesome, probably the best in the series. Mostly because they took the notion of the Cenobites' torment a step further into horrifying emotional breakdowns vis a vis surreal reality trips. Love them.
Hellraiser 7 is...eh. It's not bad, but it's not great. It was adapted from a script that had nothing to do with Hellraiser and it shows in both good and bad ways really. Pinhead is totally shoehorned in though.
Hellraiser 8...is just an abomination. And the worst in the series by far (unless the 'remake' 9th entry is worse...I have not seen it)
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Forget hoping. It's already confirmed that issue 41, #1 of a new series, and an omnibus collecting the whole original run including the new 41 will be published on the same day next March. With the new series being ongoing from there (well, ongoing series of minis).
So, so awesome. -
Well, given that Forever Evil is currently in full swing I'll be disappointed if Thomas Wayne, Court of Owls doesn't throw down with Earth 3 Thomas Wayne, Owlman.
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So I really enjoyed basically all of Thor: The Dark World, but nearly all of that was forgotten when we got to the post-credits bit with...
THE FUCKING INFINITY GEMS~!
Between this and the Netflix news, it's been a fabulous day.
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Horror Franchise Thread
in MOVIES & TV
Posted
It's definitely a 'you know what you're getting and will like it or not' kind of franchise.
I've enjoyed all four to varying degrees, so full disclosure there, but I liked Marked Ones a LOT. Like, probably the most pumped I've been for one since the first. It helps that it fixes a lot of the problems from previous instalments. It has a likeable cast, good build, does cool meta-plot stuff in smart ways, some properly scary/intense bits, does callbacks REALLY smartly/well, and has an ending that is both shocking and awesome in a way that the endings just haven't been since the first.
Oh, and there's... *mild spoilers regarding new tricks*
And seriously, it made me pop to see *big spoilers*
And the awesomeness at the end...
Seriously. The ending made all of us shit a brick.