DC Movies- if at first you don't succeed...

[Starlord]

I also enjoy them greatly, particularly the extended.  I also generally approve of Jackson's changes/additions.  IMO he improved upon several dramatic scenes and Aragorn's interactions with Arwen and Eowyn added depth to his character and the overall story.

 

So...how bout that new Suicide Squad movie, eh?

[Christopher R Taylor]

The trailer for Suicide Squad looks sort of funny, but in a really crude, frat boy way, like Gunn spent extra time molesting children and got all amped up.  I dunno, probably no worse than the last one.  He's the last person I'd pick for this kind of project, but I guess he makes the studios money so maybe it will work.

[zslane]

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

You appear to feel that was arbitrary

 

I don't know how you got that impression. I don't for a moment think Jackson's changes were arbitrary. I already explained what I feel his reasons were, and yes you are right, I disagree with those reasons rather strongly. I also disagree rather strongly that it couldn't have been done any other way, as if Jackson had a choir of angels directing his hand when writing the script, and that what we got was adapted cinematic perfection.

 

I still enjoy the movies, particularly the extended editions, as I've pointed out repeatedly. That does not, however, make me blind to (what I feel are) numerous unnecessary blunders on Jackson's part. In most respects his achievement is nothing short of astounding, and I give him tremendous props for pulling it off as he did. However, where he changed/compromised/updated the original story under the auspices of "adaptation" I feel he sometimes went too far astray and did not do the original story justice.

[Old Man]

On 3/30/2021 at 3:49 PM, Spence said:

After all we can't have a movie without a love interest somewhere...

I used to have a running joke with my coworkers that most movies were love stories. Return of the King? It’s a love story! Die Hard? It’s a love story!  Fast and Furious? It’s a love story! Creepshow? It’s a love story!

 

It’s depressing how often this actually works. 

[Starlord]

Lessee...The Human Centipede?  It's a love story!

 

Yep, I guess so.

[L. Marcus]

Twilight?

 

Naaah ...

[Bazza]

Avengers Infinity War: coulda been a love story. #ThanosTheMadTitan4MistressDeath 

[Lord Liaden]

Infinity War is full of love stories, particularly if your definition of "love" isn't just romantic. Vision and Wanda. Tony and Pepper. Gamora and Quill. Thanos and Gamora. Thor and Loki. Gamora and Nebula. Tony and Peter. Bucky and Steve. Rocket and Groot. Drax and Thor.

[Jhamin]

6 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

The trailer for Suicide Squad looks sort of funny, but in a really crude, frat boy way, like Gunn spent extra time molesting children and got all amped up.  I dunno, probably no worse than the last one.  He's the last person I'd pick for this kind of project, but I guess he makes the studios money so maybe it will work.

 

The first trailer for the last Suicide Squad looked surprisingly promising.  Then we got what we got.

Different creative team, maybe lessons were learned from the last one.  We shall see.

[archer]

1 minute ago, Jhamin said:

 

The first trailer for the last Suicide Squad looked surprisingly promising.  Then we got what we got.

Different creative team, maybe lessons were learned from the last one.  We shall see.

 

There's just way too many characters. 

 

I expect this one to be a slapstick bloodbath with characters dying in sudden, unexpected, and humorous ways early in the movie as part of an effort to hide who the central characters of the movie will be.

 

And, no, I don't expect that the gimmick will work in a way that the audience will enjoy.

[death tribble]

21 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I'm baffled what they figure to do as a sequel, he's kind of a one-note character bro without any real satisfying backstory or comic book saga to pull from.

Consider the mess they made with Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman and the Justice League movies. People know a lot about Batman and Superman and what they saw was not very good. Now consider what happened with Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Two characters that are not as well known or beloved and you get major box office with both. Why ? perhaps because Zack Snyder did not direct them. And that is maybe what DC needs. Zack Snyder not directing the films.

[death tribble]

I do not believe that they will kill off Harley Quinn, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang or Rick Flag in the forthcoming movie. I read an earlier story with the Squad where the Weasel killed the Thinker and that I am expecting in this. Nathan Fillion's character and Polka Dot Man are begging to be casualties. The rest could be expendable, Michael Rooker plays characters that get killed so expect him to die.

But as the enemy will be Starro, this could be interesting with the Squad fighting each other.

I don't really like Peacemaker (I have the issues of Vigilante when he turned up first in DC) but with Jon Cena playing him, they'll want a separate film for him or to use him in a sequel.

 

[Bazza]

Peacemaker has already booked a spin-off tv series. 

[death tribble]

This is why Cena is playing him.

[Ranxerox]

23 minutes ago, death tribble said:

I do not believe that they will kill off Harley Quinn, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang or Rick Flag in the forthcoming movie. I read an earlier story with the Squad where the Weasel killed the Thinker and that I am expecting in this. Nathan Fillion's character and Polka Dot Man are begging to be casualties. The rest could be expendable, Michael Rooker plays characters that get killed so expect him to die.

But as the enemy will be Starro, this could be interesting with the Squad fighting each other.

I don't really like Peacemaker (I have the issues of Vigilante when he turned up first in DC) but with Jon Cena playing him, they'll want a separate film for him or to use him in a sequel.

 

 

King Shark is an immortal and he is being played by Sylvester Stallone, so I think he is pretty safe also. 

[Spence]

3 hours ago, death tribble said:

I do not believe that they will kill off Harley Quinn

 

I thought that already happened....

[Lee]

On 3/31/2021 at 4:21 PM, zslane said:

As an aside, Tolkien organized the complete work into six "books", adding further confusion. Moreover, he submitted the material to Unwin over several years, not all at once, so the publisher couldn't have released it as a single volume in any case.

Thanks for setting me straight. I love to learn new things.

[DreadDomain]

On 3/29/2021 at 8:01 PM, DreadDomain said:

For some reason I keep thinking the runtime is 4 hours but I checked again today and it 3h52 including credits and all. I was intrigue by my assessment that "cutting 30 minutes would be easy" and kind of feared I was just believing my own BS. I rewatched the Intro and Part I (roughly 40 minutes) and I came to the conclusion that 10 minutes could be cut from it without significantly changing what is going on. To be fair, the start of the film is slow (to build drama I assume) so I do not believe the film could be cut by 25% but it did reinforce that cutting 30 minutes would have being easily achievable if the aim would have been a theatrical release, bringing it to 3h20. Possibly shorter if you cut secondary scenes like Barry saving Iris or Martian Manhunter. Of course they were not planning for a theatrical release so they did not bother.

Ok, I rewatched the whole thing (still loved it) with an eye on bringing down the run time. I am now convinced that because it was released on HBO Max, they treated us with the extended version and that a theatrical release at 3 hours would have been quite achievable. The last 30 minutes (the epilogue) could have been reduced by 20 minutes easy and, if no sequel is planned (which I think is the case) you can cut 30 minutes right there.

 

Even without totally extracting the epilogue, it is still 30 minutes cut from the intro, part 1 and the epilogue. You only need to cut 20 minutes from the core of the movie (roughly 160 minutes).  The main candidate would be to cut the scene where Barry saves Iris. It's cool but doesn't add to the story.

[archer]

3 minutes ago, DreadDomain said:

Ok, I rewatched the whole thing (still loved it) with an eye on bringing down the run time. I am now convinced that because it was released on HBO Max, they treated us with the extended version and that a theatrical release at 3 hours would have been quite achievable. The last 30 minutes (the epilogue) could have been reduced by 20 minutes easy and, if no sequel is planned (which I think is the case) you can cut 30 minutes right there.

 

Even without totally extracting the epilogue, it is still 30 minutes cut from the intro, part 1 and the epilogue. You only need to cut 20 minutes from the core of the movie (roughly 160 minutes).  The main candidate would be to cut the scene where Barry saves Iris. It's cool but doesn't add to the story.

 

Barry saving Iris is probably there as an Easter egg for the Flash movie. It could have been cut but that's probably more useful to the storytelling than showing a scene of Lex Luthor not doing anything special.

 

Aside from the other things that were mentioned, I think they could have cut out almost all of the repeat of the death of Superman scenes from the previous movie. I didn't time it but it seemed like it went on forever when it could have been covered with showing a couple of the black mourning Superman flags and a voiceover from a news broadcast telling the audience how many days ago it happened.

[Greywind]

Do they ever explain how/when Lex started drinking the Joker's bong water?

[BigJackBrass]

 

 

[Starlord]

Ray Fisher Opens Up About 'Justice League,' Joss Whedon and Warners: "I Don't Believe Some of These People Are Fit for Leadership"

[zslane]

I agree that the people at the top of WB aren't fit for leadership (in the movie business), but not for the reasons Ray Fisher is going on about.

[Old Man]

2 hours ago, Starlord said:

Ray Fisher Opens Up About 'Justice League,' Joss Whedon and Warners: "I Don't Believe Some of These People Are Fit for Leadership"

 

Man, how badly do you have to screw up in order to come off as a worse director than Zack Snyder?

 

Anyway, my faith in the execs running the DC movies is... still nonexistent.

[zslane]

WB put that movie on the path to failure from the very start. Firing Snyder and bringing on Whedon out of desperation only made matters worse. But rather than pulling up his big boy pants and just getting through the crappy situation with as much grace as possible, Fisher went the route of passive aggressive resentment, and has turned this into the cross he has chosen to bear for what will probably be the rest of his rather brief career in Hollywood.

 

Was WB responsible for cultivating and fostering a completely miserable on-set environment? Absolutely. Was Fisher being way too precious about his role? Without question. Could it all have been handled better/differently? With all the particular players involved, probably not.