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The Lego Batman Movie is one of the best Batman movies.

I definitely enjoy when a movie makes a lot of references. Hearing stuff, like Batman asking for the Fox Force Five makes my day.
I'll pick it up on Blu-Ray. This will be a good movie to introduce junior to the world of movies.

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 8:33 am Does the Lego Batman Movie qualify as a superhero movie? Just watched it last night. Leight-hearted fun; I'd recommend it. Not sure if comic lovers would like it.

It's as much a superhero movie as all of the animated ones are. I usually break them into 2 categories; Live-action, and Other.

theCapraAegagrus wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 1:43 pm

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 8:33 am Does the Lego Batman Movie qualify as a superhero movie? Just watched it last night. Leight-hearted fun; I'd recommend it. Not sure if comic lovers would like it.

It's as much a superhero movie as all of the animated ones are. I usually break them into 2 categories; Live-action, and Other.

I think it was amazing the way Will Arnett bulked himself up for the role.

rousselle wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 2:32 pm

theCapraAegagrus wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 1:43 pm

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 8:33 am Does the Lego Batman Movie qualify as a superhero movie? Just watched it last night. Leight-hearted fun; I'd recommend it. Not sure if comic lovers would like it.

It's as much a superhero movie as all of the animated ones are. I usually break them into 2 categories; Live-action, and Other.

I think it was amazing the way Will Arnett bulked himself up for the role.

Is Captain Marvel (the recent MCU film) worth watching?

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:34 am Is Captain Marvel (the recent MCU film) worth watching?

Depends on the context. Between Infinity War and Endgame? Yes. By itself? No.

What about retrospectively? I watched Infinity War and Endgame and since I'm no comic book reader I have no clue who Captain Marvel is. The recent Dr.Strange movie peeked my interest again (I know the Captain Marvel in that is a different one).

I liked Captain Marvel. It’s a little slower and less action-packed than other MCU movies. There’s a cat

I want to comment on the topic of Captain Marvel, but my full comment would rely upon some spoilers.

I know we don't have a spoiler tag, but I wonder if I were to use the "Font Color" tag to change the spoiler text to black, do you think that would work well enough in general to make spoiler text difficult to read (unless you were to highlight it)?

For example.

SPOILER WARNING - HIGHLIGHT TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Here are some excellent spoilers.

Star Wars Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back: Darth Vader is Luke's dad.
Star Wars Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi: Darth Vader is Leia's dad.
Star Wars Episode I -- The Phantom Menace: Darth Vader is C3PO's dad.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock is sacrificed to save the Enterprise.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: The Enterprise is sacrificed to save Spock.

Presumed Innocent: The Wife did it.
Gosford Park: The Maid did it.
JFK: Everybody did it. (Except Lee Harvey Oswald, I guess.)

The Stepford Wives: They're robots!
Soylent Green: It's people!
Planet of the Apes: It's Earth!

Vanilla Sky: He's asleep!
Identity: He's insane!
The Sixth Sense: He's dead!


END OF SPOILERS

What do y'all think? Is that easy enough to skip reading if you don't want spoilers? (If not... sorry about that.)

Or, does anybody have their browser set to ignore UC's color scheme, so this wouldn't be effective?

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:29 am What about retrospectively? I watched Infinity War and Endgame and since I'm no comic book reader I have no clue who Captain Marvel is. The recent Dr.Strange movie peeked my interest again (I know the Captain Marvel in that is a different one).

If you already saw Endgame, I don't see the point. It's mediocre-at-best.

Edit: I guess it's worth watching if you want to know who that version of Captain Marvel is, or if you plan on seeing The Marvels movie, or watching the Ms. Marvel show.

Also: *piqued

rousselle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 1:03 pm I want to comment on the topic of Captain Marvel, but my full comment would rely upon some spoilers.

I know we don't have a spoiler tag, but I wonder if I were to use the "Font Color" tag to change the spoiler text to black, do you think that would work well enough in general to make spoiler text difficult to read (unless you were to highlight it)?

For example.

...

What do y'all think? Is that easy enough to skip reading if you don't want spoilers? (If not... sorry about that.)

Or, does anybody have their browser set to ignore UC's color scheme, so this wouldn't be effective?

Somewhat effective, but scrolling by the 2nd time it was super easy to read.

hsbc wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:21 am There’s a cat

This is likely the most compelling argument that can be made in favor of watching CM.

Any one watched Ms. Marvel yet? Just watched it tonight and thought it was really fantastic. One of their best shows yet. The visual style was well done and the cinematography was so good to the point that this is probably the first of these shows that actually felt like a movie instead of a TV show.

EvilDuncan wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 12:03 am Any one watched Ms. Marvel yet?

I probably won't get to it, much like I ignored Hawkeye, and Black Widow (wish I could say the same for The Eternals). Going forward, I'll be very picky with what I choose to spend my time on when it comes to comic book properties. Thor is next on the list. Not even sure beyond that.

theCapraAegagrus wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:55 pm I probably won't get to it, much like I ignored Hawkeye, and Black Widow (wish I could say the same for The Eternals).

I get that. I found Hawkeye underwhelming, like they didn't really know what to do with the series. I think Black Widow's main issue was that it should have been made before Infinity War. Having it now made it feel pointless. And despite mostly enjoying Eternals, I still agree with just about every negative criticism about it.

That said, if you liked Spider-man Homecoming/Far From Home or Spider-man Into the Spiderverse, I think you'll like this. Very comic book inspired aesthetic. While the first episode mainly focuses on Kamala dealing/struggling with her family and some typical teenage issues, I found it quite compelling and I enjoyed her character. Would recommend.

EvilDuncan wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 4:11 pm That said, if you liked Spider-man Homecoming/Far From Home or Spider-man Into the Spiderverse, I think you'll like this. Very comic book inspired aesthetic. While the first episode mainly focuses on Kamala dealing/struggling with her family and some typical teenage issues, I found it quite compelling and I enjoyed her character. Would recommend.

I like Homecoming a lot, but not for the high school aspects. Peter's relationships with May, Ned, and Stark were all compelling. Keaton's Vulture is the highlight for me, though. It's the more adult inclusions, like Tony scolding Parker, that elevated the movie.

If there's some mature drama in Ms. Marvel, I'll check it out. I can't stomach jokey-jokey all episode/movie long. It's why I consider GotG Vol 2 to be a very bad movie, although funny as-balls.

Separate, but related thoughts:

I think that the reason I enjoy more 'serious' movies (Nolan/Snyder DC, TWS/IW) is because the serious writing makes for very compelling narratives. The writers focus on story first, and sprinkle in jokes, rather than using jokes as an out to avoid dealing with serious situations. I'm a big fan of the middle ground too, such as The Avengers. I can enjoy a balanced movie tremendously, but even still, flicks like Man of Steel fly so much higher because of how serious the characters take the tasks at-hand. It feels more realistic, allowing me to lose myself in the movie (or show) much more easily.

Have you seen Peacemaker?

theCapraAegagrus wrote: ↑Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:35 pm I like Homecoming a lot, but not for the high school aspects. Peter's relationships with May, Ned, and Stark were all compelling. Keaton's Vulture is the highlight for me, though. It's the more adult inclusions, like Tony scolding Parker, that elevated the movie.

I think Ms. Marvel does a really good job of creating a compelling family dynamic, specifically as Kamala being a child of Pakistani immigrants. I enjoyed her interactions with her parents and brother, as well as her friend(s). I found plenty of more mature moments in the first episode. It wasn't packed with too many jokes, but also had plenty of jokes/references that felt like they belonged based on the context of the story. 2nd episode comes out tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

Harvonsgard wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:34 am Is Captain Marvel (the recent MCU film) worth watching?

It's a middle of the pack movie, not as bad as Eternals or Thor Dark World; but just around or below Black Widow level. Good to watch to fill out the gaps like how she gets her powers , why she can go toe to toe with Thanos, how Fury loses his eye. Most important part is that Skrulls and Kree gets introduced here. Skrulls will be a big part in MCU's Phase 4 which is Secret Invasion.

hsbc wrote: ↑Tue Jun 14, 2022 2:38 pm Have you seen Peacemaker?

No. The Suicide Squad wasn't good enough for me to consider watching spinoffs. I also think that Cena is a horrible actor. I would have considered watching a Bloodsport show, though, because Idris Elba.

EvilDuncan wrote: ↑Tue Jun 14, 2022 3:37 pm I think Ms. Marvel does a really good job of creating a compelling family dynamic, specifically as Kamala being a child of Pakistani immigrants. I enjoyed her interactions with her parents and brother, as well as her friend(s). I found plenty of more mature moments in the first episode. It wasn't packed with too many jokes, but also had plenty of jokes/references that felt like they belonged based on the context of the story. 2nd episode comes out tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

I may put it on today or Friday, then, and give it a shot.

theCapraAegagrus wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 11:52 am I also think that Cena is a horrible actor.

Completely agree, but somehow that seems to work in his favor in this series. Not sure how, but I really enjoyed Peacemaker including Cena's performance in it. And I still don't think he's a good actor

I have been in the process of composing a brilliant assessment of the Ms Marvel pilot episode, and it is turning into a book at this point.

The weirdest thing about writing this is that the list of problems is long, and the list of things they do well is constantly being offset with a different list of corresponding problems. The stakes are low, the script is on-the-nose, there appears to be a great deal of talent here that is completely going to waste and a *ton* of missed opportunities with regard to the story itself, the pacing is wildly erratic (much like the other Marvel TV series) and yet... for all that... I'm inclined to watch the second episode. There is enough here, for the moment at least, to keep me going. The production values are high, I like some of the directorial choices, and I think that overall, despite itself, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I fully anticipate that @theCapraAegagrus will hate it with all the disdain he is willing to muster (which won't be much, because it's not worthy of full-on scorched Earth-style hatred), but even so, I think @EvilDuncan's recommendation was worth giving a go.

rousselle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:07 pm I fully anticipate that @theCapraAegagrus will hate it with all the disdain he is willing to muster (which won't be much, because it's not worthy of full-on scorched Earth-style hatred), but even so, I think @EvilDuncan's recommendation was worth giving a go.

Sounds like my avatar could be my review for E1.

rousselle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:07 pm there appears to be a great deal of talent here that is completely going to waste and a *ton* of missed opportunities with regard to the story itself, the pacing is wildly erratic

This is where you lost me. To me there seems to be a lot of talent here that is used very well. They're telling a smaller scale, more character driven story so far, and these actors are really selling it for me. If you wanna talk about missed opportunities, we can talk about the Kenobi show. Ugh, what a letdown. (Edit: Last two episodes were pretty good and pretty much salvaged the show for me.)

To me, Ms. Marvel know exactly what it wants to be, and executes it quite well.

As for pacing, I have literally no idea what you are talking about. I found the pacing quite consistent throughout. I never noticed the plot dragging or rushing. Though admittedly I don't notice things like this as much as others.

My personal take is that while this show may not be for everyone, it is objectively Marvel's best executed show so far (Though we only have 2 episodes so far, so time will tell).

So, I finally put Ms. Marvel on...



Great production value, awful writing. I will not be watching further.

Alright guys, just saw the new Thor movie.

I'm not usually one to complain about these Marvel movies having too many jokes. It's only ever bothered me in Eternals before. But this movie had waaaayyyyyy to many forced jokes. A little of Taika Waititi's humor goes a long way and there is a LOT of it here. It ends up taking away from practically every scene (I'm exaggerating, but you get my point). There are several recurring gags that definitely overstayed their welcome. I would go so far as to say that almost every established character feels completely different in this movie (Except for Korg, but he's voiced by Taika, so go figure). I liked the shift in Thor's character from Dark World to Ragnarok, but this takes it even further. If you like What We Do In The Shadows and you want that style of writing/dialogue in Thor, well here you go.

Also there was far too much telling and not enough showing. I could go on.

Easily the best part of the movie is the villain, played by Cristian Bale. Great villain and great performance (minus one scene). The problem is we don't see enough of him. Also, one of my new favorite bits of MCU cinematography is in this movie. I was blown away by this one sequence. A few others were pretty cool too. In general I can't complain about the visuals.

Now, needless to say, I love MCU movies and shows.

I liked Incredible Hulk
I liked Iron Man 2
I liked Thor: The Dark World
I liked Black Widow
I even liked Eternals

I did not like this movie.

And I was about to go to the movies to watch it. You just saved me ~15€. Thank you.

EvilDuncan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 9:19 pm I liked the shift in Thor's character from Dark World to Ragnarok, but this takes it even further. If you like What We Do In The Shadows and you want that style of writing/dialogue in Thor, well here you go.

Would you say those who loved Ragnarok would like this show as well? I actually loved What We Do In the Shadows as it was a nice deconstruction of the vampire lore and re-imagining just what would it be like for them to exist in modern day society as an average joe. It was the perfect anti-Twilight movie.