bigdamnhero Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 We're so used to slamming DC and praising Marvel that the DC moviemakers may as well give up on us and just make a bunch more movies that bring in a few hundred million in ticket sales from moviegoers, rather than try to appeal to the fans who buy over 110,000 copies of each of the three top-selling books in a month! http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2017/2017-01.html Just imagine if movies could rake in that kind of attendance!!! [sarcasm acknowledged & appreciated] Exactly. Financially-speaking, comparing comic books to movies is like comparing video games to tabletop gaming - they're so far apart they have basically nothing in common. Comic book movies are not made for comic book fans - period. Sorry. Sure, because Waller is utterly amoral and thinks the ends justify the means. I'd say that your example scenario is as unethical as they come, and not merely "questionable". "Questionable" in terms of there are intelligent grown-ass people who disagree on the matter. And right or wrong it is the kindof stuff that actually happens in the real world. Personally I happen to agree with your assessment - as do the writers of the comics for the most part. That's kindof the whole point of the series, and why they can't get superheroes to do it. I get that it's not your taste - fine. It's not high on my list either. But you keep insisting the premise is fundamentally flawed and uninteresting, despite it having supported several decades worth of comics* and a major summer blockbuster.** As has been pointed out before, "not for me" does not automatically equal "fundamentally flawed and uninteresting." * Which you insist on judging despite not having read. ** Which I insist on judging despite not having watched, so... We did? I was left with the sense that, did I not already know who Hawkeye was, I would be wondering why some guy in SHIELD is using a bow and arrow to line some guy up in the sights, then put the bow down and walk away. I also got the sense they had not really figured out how he should look in the MCU yet. Given his "extensive" screen time, "Easter Egg" felt about right Well, he put the bow down because Coulson called him off. The scene would've played out the same if he'd used a gun; the bow just gave him an ounce of memorability. But yeah, glorified Easter egg is about it. IIRC, the reaction from my non-comic-reading friends was basically: the "I'm starting to root for this guy" line was kindof funny, not sure what was up with the bow & arrow [shrug]. Marvel's actually been pretty savvy about how & where the drop their eggs, sometimes because they have plans to use it later, sometimes just to see what kind of fan reaction it gets. I will suggest it was trying to be a summer blockbuster action movie that made a ton of money, and any moral lesson or allegory to society was not high on the list of objectives. This. Hugh Neilson and Christopher R Taylor 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 "Questionable" in terms of there are intelligent grown-ass people who disagree on the matter. And right or wrong it is the kindof stuff that actually happens in the real world. Personally I happen to agree with your assessment - as do the writers of the comics for the most part. That's kindof the whole point of the series, and why they can't get superheroes to do it. I get that it's not your taste - fine. It's not high on my list either. But you keep insisting the premise is fundamentally flawed and uninteresting, despite it having supported several decades worth of comics* and a major summer blockbuster.** As has been pointed out before, "not for me" does not automatically equal "fundamentally flawed and uninteresting." Yes, that stuff happens in the real world, no question. And when it does, it should be setting off everyone's inner ethics alarm, loudly. Still, I think that's a poor example if only because there really is no viable debate to be had there. But even the example of taking out a rival nation's "superhero creation program" (perhaps written to be a sort of allegory for the nuclear programs of scary totalitarian regimes) doesn't support a "let's send in our villains" approach. When we do this in the real world we send in Navy SEALS, not supermax prison inmates, regardless of how much political egg might end up all over our faces if they are caught. So yes, the premise of the Suicide Squad movie (and the comic plotlines I've seen trotted out as examples) are fundamentally (i.e., logically) flawed. It isn't my "cup of tea" because it makes no sense, not because I dislike the notion of villains as primary characters. It takes a lot of skill to write a compelling and convincing story in which supervillains like those in the SS are protagonists rather than antagonists, and that skill was sorely lacking in the screenplay for the movie. Moreover, the box office performance of the movie says nothing at all about the quality of the script or the validity of its premise. Only that a lot of people were suckered into theaters by the trailer because they were really curious to see if DC could make a fun movie for once. Oh, and a lot of dudes really wanted to see Margot Robbie in booty shorts and a tight t-shirt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 I actually don't think the premise was that flawed, any more than the original Dirty Dozen was flawed. SS could have been about a bunch of freakish antiheroes thrown together on this impossible mission, overcoming their differences along the way, and succeeding where others assumed (or wanted) them to fail. And there was a little of that in what we got. But it was poorly executed and diluted with too much extraneous crap. Grailknight, Pattern Ghost and Christopher R Taylor 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 Yes, that stuff happens in the real world, no question. And when it does, it should be setting off everyone's inner ethics alarm, loudly. Still, I think that's a poor example if only because there really is no viable debate to be had there. Well I'm certainly not going to argue with you because - as I already stated - I happen to agree with you. But I'm also aware that there are a shitload of people who disagree with us. [obvious commentary on current politics redacted to avoid pointless flame war] So saying there's no "viable debate" frankly seems a little egocentric. But even if we allow it: feel free to insert your own "morally grey" scenario that might be debatable, but that most superheroes still wouldn't touch. I don't know about you, but I don't want comics to go back to the Iron Age of making superheroes do questionable shit in order to tell those kinds of stories. So think of Suicide Squad as a great way for DC to tell stories that you don't have to read, without them having to crap all over real heroes. When we do this in the real world we send in Navy SEALS, not supermax prison inmates Sure the "we have to draft bad guys to do jobs we can't get good guys to do" premise doesn't stand up to rigorous logical scrutiny. But no less so than a dozen beloved comics tropes we could name off the tops of our heads. And "set a thief to catch a thief" is hardly a new trope, nor is it unique to comics. (I have friends who love La Femme Nikita, but I could never get past the ludicrous premise of pretending to kill criminals and then blackmailing them to do covert ops no one else will do because it's too risky? No government in history has ever had a shortage of young people eager to die for a cause.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 Well, at least some folks are interested in the trailer that just came out... pinecone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 The original Suicide Squad, back when it first came out was in 1959 (in The Brave and the Bold), and featured normal but skilled guys in a sort of special forces/super scientist/explorer team going out on missions none of them expected to come back from. In the 1980s, the rebooted the concept with the (quite good) Legends series and retconned the Suicide Squad to be an ongoing thing as part of Task Force X to deal with problems using highly skilled normals. When Darkseid sent a horrendous monster called Brimstone to earth, Waller formed the task force with supervillains and sent them after the thing, then later was able to set up the task force permanently as a government wetworks/special forces team to deal with problems around the world. They mostly went after super-terrorists. Incidentally Deadshot was pretty much an obscure nobody until Ostrander put him in Suicide Squad and made him kinda interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted April 20, 2017 Report Share Posted April 20, 2017 Incidentally Deadshot was pretty much an obscure nobody until Ostrander put him in Suicide Squad and made him kinda interesting. Good point. There are a number of now well known villains who would be far less well known if it weren't for their SS appearances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 There have been several fan-edited versions of the live-action Justice League movie clips set to the theme from the classic JL animated series. This one is by far the best I've yet seen, capturing the spirit of both IMO. Hermit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 I still really don't like Flash's costume. Its all wrong. Too much lightning, too but that may just be the scenes we see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 And all that armor plating... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 Hi-velocity shielding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 He never needed it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted May 1, 2017 Report Share Posted May 1, 2017 I could see a speedster wanting to integrate something like motorcycle leathers into his outfit if he ran a similar risk of crashing at high speed. I'm far more worried about the writing, since the best-written DC film so far is a Lego movie. aylwin13, Christopher R Taylor, Bazza and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 In answer to the too much lightning, that actually seems to be the norm now for the comics and the Flash tv show (although red in the tv shows case). It's their representation of the speed force. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 He never needed it before. No, from what I recall, Barry Allen had a force field when running that obviated the need for protection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 Just a speedo, then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 No, from what I recall, Barry Allen had a force field when running that obviated the need for protection. That's just what he told Iris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 That's just what he told Iris. No. That was how he managed to hammer his way out from the inside of a giant ice cube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 No. That was how he managed to hammer his way out from the inside of a giant ice cube. Now we're getting into Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex territory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 No. That was how he managed to hammer his way out from the inside of a giant ice cube. So... we're shipping Flash and Killer Frost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 Why is Captain Cold getting iced out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted May 2, 2017 Report Share Posted May 2, 2017 Gang war with Mr. Freeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 Diane Lane weighs in on the upcoming JL movie that she is in and how it will compare to Avengers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 Diane Lane weighs in on the upcoming JL movie that she is in and how it will compare to Avengers Diane Lane :love: Burrito Boy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted May 12, 2017 Report Share Posted May 12, 2017 No, from what I recall, Barry Allen had a force field when running that obviated the need for protection. I thought it was an experimental Russian pilots suit meant to be able to handle high g-force maneuvers and tough enough not to shred due to friction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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