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Post by Metallo on Mar 5, 2021 13:45:31 GMT -5
One of them is 19 or so in real life. Jon I think. The kid playing Jordan is younger. 14 is about right. Any older would be pushing it considering Lois and Clark are near 40 and didn’t have kids right after the met. It’s forgivable after we had a 24 year old playing a 14 or 15 year old on Smallville.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 5, 2021 13:42:09 GMT -5
Nice! Was thinking about something like this the other day after comparing the Smallville locations from the Superman & Lois and Smallville tv shows. This is just what I’ve been wanting to see for a while. I’d really love to see more of the Metropolis and Smallville locations from Superman III revisited today.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 5, 2021 13:28:50 GMT -5
I find that Neca is great with detail but not always so great with accuracy. Sometimes they overdo it on portraits. I’ve got several terminators and sometimes they look more like caricatures of Arnold.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 5, 2021 13:25:53 GMT -5
Nice points Metallo Personally, I just regard STM as being a great movie first and foremost(and IMHO one of the greatest ever made)......and then, the greatest comic book movie ever. You are absolutely right that it's not perfect(what movie is!) but there is a heart that comes through it all. And you can see the struggle to make the film practically oozes out of every frame.....and in doing so ...elevates it to another level entirely. Star Wars has exactly that same thing going on. These guys really pushed the boundaries of what was possible. Cinema itself is a perpetually evolving art form..........and there was that one moment in time(late 70s/early 80s) when technology, artistry, storytelling and acting personalities converged to create a unique moment regarding cinematic fantasy that can never be repeated. Either you were there to experience it or you were not(be it as film makers or the audience). In some ways the current generation of filmmakers are constantly trying to recreate that moment and they simply can't. Even guys who were instrumental in that period ------like Lucas(the prequels), Spielberg(Minority Report, AI, Crystal Skull, Ready Player One) and Scott(Prometheus, Covenant) have found that recreating that magic is next to impossible. And maybe we as audience members are also looking for a recreation of that moment......but it can never be. And with regards to the Winter Soldier-it's definitely got 3 Days Of A Condor(one of my personal favorites) influence written all over it----I think the Russos bagged Redford just because of that reference! And you are not wrong abut the wax and buffing with regards to todays actors....quite literally!-----The eradication of Cavill's mustache would not have been possible in the pre-CG era. It is the main reason why Nolan espouses the photochemical era of filmmaking-----it's level of reality is only now being appreciated precisely because it has been eradicated. But at the time it existed ---it was simply par for the course. That generation of filmmakers that came of age in the 70s and 80s grew up fans of cinema and different genres but they also went through the fire that you had to go through to just get into the business. More of the best who had natural love and talent made it and got opportunities. They could make any kind of film. We’re in an age now where people are getting into the entertainment industry far more easily (some would say too easily) and with far less talent. The industry wants drones not artists because it’s producing so much to be devoured. That’s why they aren’t innovating but are simply rehashing what they grew up on that was made by previous generations. Sure you could say the studios are less risk averse and aren’t giving them opportunities to try new things but at a certain we have to stop putting all the blame on the studios. Some for these guys are getting the clout to do what they want and instead of doing great new things they simply continue to rehash old stuff and do it poorly. JJ Abrams is the textbook example of this. All the power he has and he continues to do safe lazy crap. It’s because he’s in it for the money and never had any real vision of his own. Then you’ve got guys like Zack Snyder who do think they’re artists but again they don’t have the pure talent or aptitude nor were they put through the wringer to force them to improve. We need more Chris Nolan’s and fewer JJ Abrams. Nolan’s stuff might be dry and clinical but at least he’s taking that power he got from the Batman films and is making his own stories.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 5, 2021 11:12:36 GMT -5
atp The strength of the Marvel stuff has been the mixed universe flicks....and in particular the flair of the Russo bros. Everything else is variable. But lets compare apples with apples. The stand alone Marvel flicks vary in quality and are mostly pretty average IMHO: The below represent my own personal opinions(and others may disagree strongly!): Iron Man 1 was pretty cool---2 and 3 were average or poor. Thor 1 was interesting(but I still found it a touch bland)--2 and 3 were awful. Spiderman 1(Homecoming) was nice / average. Spidey 2 is the same---nothing that really stands out to me. Hulk(2008) started off with promise and then degenerated into an almost Snyder like CG poopfest! Cap America 1 was ok-again a bit bland for me but respectable-Winter Soldier was exceptional. Cap 3(Civil War) was not a stand alone movie---no way!(still pretty good though). Black Panther was good but again(aside from the social contexts was nothing new when it comes to ground breaking fantasy entertainment) Cap Marvel is rubbish! Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 & 2 are simply "meh" for me. STM is f***ing exceptional and well above anything that Marvel has ever released(be it stand alone or mixed).Period.And I am saying that within the 2021 context. In terms of sitting in a theater in 1978(ok I did not see it until 1981--but it's still the same era cinematically!)---I would take that experience over sitting in a cinema to watch any of the Marvel flicks(2008 to 2019). I will still take Lester's SII over any of the Marvel stand alones anytime(I know that sounds controversial). Allow me to elaborate. Sitting in a theater in 1981, SII was unique(sure you had Raiders but that was a different kind of spectacle). And as I said before, there was Clash Of The Titans, Dragon Slayer, Outland and Excalibur which are no where near SII in technical or artistic proficiency. Indeed the only other thing that matched(or surpassed) SII for technical fantasy was STM(in the context of 1981). Fast forward to 2014 That year I watched(in no particular order): Transformers(Extinction)----yeah I know it's the biggest sack of crap ever! Hobbit 5 armies. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 The Planet of the Apes The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier. X-Men: Days of Future Past. Guardians of the Galaxy. Interstellar ect ect So whilst the Winter Soldier stood out compared to the other Marvel movies that came before....it did not stand out from a technical standpoint in 2014(compared to other stuff that was around) like SII did in 1981. The same goes for SIII to a degree(that will sound controversial!). The real elephant is SIV which quite frankly should not even count as a movie. Having said that if I were to hypothetically strip out or water down the CG from most of the Marvel movies(......you may be surprised that even SIV could look quite good in comparison!). All my opinions of course P.S I was too young to watch Excalibur in 1981(it had a 15 certificate here in the UK)......but I remember seeing it's trailer in between STM and SII in that double bill. The thing that makes Superman the movie stand out is it’s not following a superhero movie formula because at the time one didn’t really exist. They created the formula. It’s drawing from genre films and blockbusters from the era. It’s not necessarily one of the greatest films ever or flawless but it has its own identity. The first Burton Batman movie falls into a similar category. It’s got plenty of flaws but there was nothing like it at the time. Visually it was overwhelming. While today’s superhero movies are more polished and more consistent than either one of them and the quality is more Consistent across the comic book/superhero genre most are following some kind of template or formula laid out by other superhero movies. Even Wonder Woman, which is widely considered the best DCEU film after being influenced by STM, fell apart once it started to rehash the third act of every big budget cgi laden comic book/superhero film. As more and more films come out most of them feel more homogenized. The same is true of most Blockbusters today compared to those from decades past though. Even the first few Spider-Man films, as good as they were were drawing somewhat from the Superman formula. But it was still so early in the history of the genre that they were innovating and making up a lot of things themselves. The comic book films that stand out are the ones drawing from outside the genre like The Dark Knight, First Class, Deadpool, Joker, Logan, Guardians, and Winter Soldier. Winter soldier is drawing from political Thrillers just as Logan draws from Westerns. Guardians is drawing from space opera. They’re mixing and machine genres. That’s what’s going to keep the genre fresh. Today’s films are truer to the source material but I miss some of the risk taking and artistic innovation. Flash Gordon may have been a failure in 1980 but it was a fun and interesting failure. The sum that all up STM may have its warts but they’re interesting warts that were part of the genres growing pains. Just like a person with physical flaws or blemishes they give character. You could do the same comparison with the leading men of today with those from 40 years ago. It’s like I told ATP a while back most of today’s leads look too plastic and airbrushed.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 4, 2021 18:36:19 GMT -5
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Post by Metallo on Mar 4, 2021 14:22:25 GMT -5
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 11:22:49 GMT -5
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 9:02:32 GMT -5
In this case his hand was forced because one of his kids displayed powers and they found his ship. I think Clark and Lois eventually would have told them but when they were more mature enough to handle it. You know how kids can be.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 8:59:38 GMT -5
I’d agree with you if he could keep his style in check. I really do think he should be doing something that handles visuals and not story though. He lacks discipline as a director.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 8:57:35 GMT -5
I think they’re just going for something more modern. Plus more digital work probably helps them shoot faster in some instances. Like I said before this feels like MOS done right. Modern but still keeping some of the classic Superman feel and doing stronger storytelling. Snyder is all visuals.
I thought the evil Superman shown here was far more intriguing than the evil or black suit stuff Snyder keeps trying to push because it’s straightforward. It’s not a nightmare or vision of the future but something that did really happen. Feels like they want to dip into the Injustice/Justice Lord well but do a better job exploring it than Snyder ever did. Best of all it’s not being glorified as something cool. I always got the sense that Snyder wants to do a dark villainous Superman flat out.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 7:56:40 GMT -5
True- The thing that I think drove me crazy after STM came out, was the excitement and anticipation of the floodgates all opening at that time for something like the MCU the last few years... So- That adds to my frustration with Lester, I really feel that he was the cause of the wiping out of that kind of comic book movie explosion at the time with parts of Superman II and Superman III. If Superman II and III had exploded creatively and box office wise, I could see the Batman series being greenlit MUCH faster- and then possibly the idea of a "Superman & Batman" movie- and then the JLA soon after, if that succeeded. If those had all happened during THAT timeframe- Marvel movies might have started sooner- and most of the comics I grew up with probably would be closer to what have been used to adapt. BUT-- With such a slow move in Hollywood to get to Marvel Studios, a lot of the comics I grew up with are decades & decades OLD and I get why movies are going to be further and further removed from the bronze age comics. Oh well... STM was at least 20 years ahead of its time in a lot of ways. No one within Hollywood really knew what it was or how to replicate it. It wasn’t studio insiders or executives that had the drive to even make those early films it was outsiders. That’s why after it hit they tried to turn pulps and serials and comic strips into movies. Same with Batman in the 80s. To them Superman was in the vein of Popeye or Flash Gordon. They had no clue of the potential of a “superhero” genre of films. They didn’t get it...just that it was colorful characters. Even after Batman hit it big we didn’t see WB pushing tons of DC superheroes onto the big screen. What we saw was other studios trying to capitalize on its success with cheaper outdated characters they could get their hands on line The Phantom or The Shadow or D!ck Tracy. Not the popular characters of the day. It took the generation that grew up on STM to really understand what it was and why it worked which is why we finally started to see these things become more consistently good by 2008. They understood the appeal and the good filmmakers were drawn to make them unlike the generation before where most of the good filmmakers didn’t take the material seriously.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 7:44:32 GMT -5
@cam & metallo Yup I too fear that Snyder will succumb to his usual base instincts with regards to the JL. Also, totally agree that Sucker Punch was goddam awful....... and back in 2011, it was the main reason why I personally began to worry for the fate of the (soon to be in production) new Superman movie. The rest as they say is history! And cam SIII is undiluted brilliance......compared to Sucker Punch! It’s style over substance. He gives the story part just enough lip service but doesn’t have the mindset to follow through on the kinds of stories he says he’s making.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 7:43:13 GMT -5
I think Snyder’s going to keep doing his Snyder thing. The Snyder cut looks to be him doubling down on his worst creative instincts. Army of the Dead seems to be more fun but it’s hard to tell because of the trailer. I though Sucker Punch was terrible. It had the facade of trying to send out a message of empowering women to overcome oppression but I think it was just him using it to showcase is favorite geek ideas in a fetishistic way. Snyder as usual not being able to work well with heavier deeper themes. I’d give most of the credit for any good performances to the actors. He had a few great actors working for him. There’s a reason Oscar Isaac has gotten some high profile gigs in recent years. The same thing happened on Snyder’s DC movies. Some actors floundered while others could occasionally rise above the limitations of the material. Yeah, Sucker Punch was incredibly painful... but I know of folks who actually LOVE it and talk about the themes of it--- To me, I enjoyed one of the extended cut's action sequences. But, otherwise, I hated it myself. BUT... I remember the adage: "nobody sets out to make a bad film", which I think is (mostly) true. Even as much as I have major annoyance at Richard Lester, I do think he was trying to make the film his way and thankfully for him, we see his undiluted brilliance with Superman III! (Sorry, I still can't escape my snark) But- it is weird, because I do think he is passionate and maybe he's a nice person- but his choices drive me insane. Some creators might be able to recognize things that work, but for the most part, I think anyone who survives in Hwood probably has to have a certain level of self-delusion in their work to survive.... I just don’t think Snyder is suited to being a director. He’s more like a DP or concept guy. He can’t seem to make the tough choices a director has to make. He loses track and tries to cram too much into his films. I don’t think he gets the point of the stories he’s telling or cares. Maybe he should stick with visual filmmaking instead of trying to do anything with a traditional narrative.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 7:39:13 GMT -5
Great thing about this figure is it comes with three heads. I never cared for the headsculpt on the Neca figure.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 3, 2021 7:29:11 GMT -5
Episode 2 behind the scenes photos.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 2, 2021 16:51:41 GMT -5
I think Snyder’s going to keep doing his Snyder thing. The Snyder cut looks to be him doubling down on his worst creative instincts. Army of the Dead seems to be more fun but it’s hard to tell because of the trailer.
I though Sucker Punch was terrible. It had the facade of trying to send out a message of empowering women to overcome oppression but I think it was just him using it to showcase is favorite geek ideas in a fetishistic way. Snyder as usual not being able to work well with heavier deeper themes.
I’d give most of the credit for any good performances to the actors. He had a few great actors working for him. There’s a reason Oscar Isaac has gotten some high profile gigs in recent years. The same thing happened on Snyder’s DC movies. Some actors floundered while others could occasionally rise above the limitations of the material.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 2, 2021 16:43:56 GMT -5
I have watched the first two episides of Season 1. Does it get better? So far it feels like the X Files with a different monster every episode. I didn’t stick with the show for the whole run and only occasionally dropped back into it after the halfway point but here’s my take. MINOR SPOILERS! MINOR SPOILERS! I thought the early seasons with him in high school had some of best focus with the coming of age drama but the kryptonite mutant of the week crap got stale fast. It was like half a good show half a formulaic mess. I though the show got better with seasons 2 3 and 4 after they slowly dropped the kryptonite monster stuff and added Lois but it began to fall off after that. After a while it was clear they didn’t know what to do with Pete and even Lana outstayed her usefulness. The show got wrapped up in its own convoluted mythology and trying to be a Superman show without Superman. It was basically a darker version of the Superboy series in a lot of ways. When Rosenbaum left it was a huge blow that they never really recovered from. The Lex/Clark dynamic carried the series over a lot of garbage and was the biggest thing that made it worth it. I think after season 7 or 8 the show was on fumes with a lot of filler to try to stretch out its run as long as possible. The early seasons had filled too but it was clear they had something closer to a five year plan than a ten year plan. Smallville really should have stuck to a five or seven year plan that condensed all the best elements and trimmed the bad ideas and extra fat. The lack of long term planning hurt it more than anything.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 1, 2021 20:15:06 GMT -5
Well the MCU hot toys figures have current movies to push current product. They’ve got those films to fuel fan excitement and draw in new fans to the already massive fanbase all the time. A better comparison might be another older property like BTTF or Batman but even those aren’t the same. As cool as Zod and co are they aren’t as popular as Joker and movie Superman only has so many looks compared to movie Batman. We’ve gotten two figures from the Reeve films. Three if you count the SR JorEl figure. Technically it’s a Superman Returns figure but it’s close enough. That output is similar to a lot of older film and tv properties.
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Post by Metallo on Mar 1, 2021 20:04:21 GMT -5
I’d love to see it happen since you know he has a love for DC characters too but Disney would be crazy to let him go. He’s been laying them nothing but golden eggs for years. People can quibble about creative success but commercially the guys been untouchable. Even WandaVision was rated the most popular show in the world recently. Disney Plus has been crashing for some people because of so many people trying to get on at once. One thing I have mixed feelings on is having something taken over that has had so many reboots not too long ago- I love the new Tom HOlland Spiderman.... but the Sam Raimi is the 'canon' one for me, as it went closest to the original comics and got to what was the best about them. (For the most part) I understand why Feige updated a lot of things - and changed them, given how fast the reboot was right after the Raimi version... but I have a hunch that with so many different Superman versions so close in time to one another, it'd be highly unlikely for them to go back to the originals and just be further and further removed from the classic comics going forward... even if Feige were attached, given how his Spiderman was done (again, extremely well done but almost like a checklist was made to do the 'opposite' of anything done before). Well remember Sony themselves rebooted the Spider-man movies first not Marvel. Marvel Studios wasn’t really left with much choice if they wanted clean history to work with. The previous two iterations of the character would never work with the MCU continuity and timeline and even if they could it would be awkward because which one would they pick? The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was awful so it made sense not to follow that wreck and the Raimi series was almost 15 years old by that point. Plus while The Raimi/Maguire movies were faithful to the Ditko era in a lot of ways in others they weren’t. MJ wasn’t his first love back then so that wasn’t faithful. Peter didn’t have organic webshooters in the 60s comics so that wasn’t faithful. And they retconned Sandman into being Ben Parker’s killer. Stupid. Raimi kept some things from that era and was clearly made to draw from other eras as well. Just like all the Spidey movies have. Heck I’d argue Garfield’s second costume was far more faithful to the Ditko design than anything Maguire wore AND his leading lady was Gwen not MJ. The Holland movies proved that IF a reboot is done the right way and very good a lot of people (not all but more than enough) will not only accept it but embrace it even if it’s just a couple of years later. If Feige was in charge he’d definitely go with classic Superman influences but updated. Of all the versions of Superman we’ve had in the last 20 years none of them were truly set in stone faithful to anything most people consider “classic” Superman so staying away from that wouldn’t be an issue. The Spider-Man character has been updated and modernized with every new version over the last 20 years but you could say the same things been done with Superman over the last 40 years. The current movie Aunt May is nothing like the original comics but she’s been getting younger and more modern with every reboot. The same thing has been done with the Superman story. The Kent’s have been getting younger and more trendy with almost every reboot. Compare Phylis Thaxter, K Callan, Annette O’Toole, and Diane Lane. The only one even close to the “traditional” depiction of Ma Kent was Thaxter. Callan wasn’t even close to the Byrne version of Martha despite the show being heavily based on Byrnes comic book reboot. The Lois & Clark series made her a granola crunching, organic drink sipping, nude posing, yoga doing older woman of the 90s. It’s been a long time since even Superman has been purely “classic.”
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Post by Metallo on Mar 1, 2021 18:21:28 GMT -5
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Post by Metallo on Mar 1, 2021 16:37:44 GMT -5
Loved seeing him in the classic costume. WOuld be nice to see flashbacks with him in it. On another note: Is or isn't Jon Cryer able to be Luthor and is Supergirl considered on the same earth- has anyone heard? He CAN be Luthor again (and if I had to guess I think we will eventually see him on the show) but it’s not clear if they’ll use him as Luthor on their show any time soon. Part of it is the probably Covid restrictions but I think it’s mostly because they want to establish their own “Luthor” big bad first. I wouldn’t expect to see Cryer on the show at all this season. I hope I’m wrong though...at least as far as the long term. After Supergirl ends it would free Cryer up much more to appear on Superman & Lois as well. It would be a real missed opportunity if they never use him. He and Hoechlin have been in the same scenes a couple of times but their characters interactions have been almost nil. They haven’t really worked together. It would be a shame if they never did because they should have at least one big face off like all the Lexs and Supermen have. Makes me think of the similar situation between Ben Affleck and Jared Leto in the DCEU. They’d never really had a great back and fourth together despite being in the same movie. Now thats being changed with the Snyder cut.
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Post by Metallo on Feb 28, 2021 19:10:27 GMT -5
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Post by Metallo on Feb 28, 2021 17:37:16 GMT -5
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Post by Metallo on Feb 28, 2021 17:35:34 GMT -5
I love Superman For All Seasons so I’m disappointed I didn’t even catch this when the pilot premiered.
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