ben 
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this is a thread for the ever increasing dearth of mainstream comic media.
in honor of this new, most-likely not good Superhero Mash Up Blockbuster, iām rewatching the first Man of Steel, since the last time i watched it i just remember hate yelling at a bad quality .avi with a group of drunks. iām like 20 minutes in and thereās a scene where a bunch of space dildos carrying lazer shooting terrorists blast up into the sky, what the hell is up with this movie. the whole krypton scene is stranger than i remember.
after this, iām watching Batman Returns. i rewatched the 89ā Batman fairly recently (after coming across this), and liked it overall. it has this faux 50ās noir style mood and pacing, and i really love those gotham matte paintings. i was always a fan of Keatonās Batman and jack nicholsonās joker was just as weirdly fun and manic as i remember. prince soundtrack rules.
i havenāt seen Returns in a while, but i remember it being veryā¦blue. just like moodier and darker and more penguins with bombs attached.
oh jeez, Man of Steel.
itās like every individual part of this movie (the actor choices, the design of things, certain lines of plot) are good but together itās just soā¦boring. even when thereās tons of crazy action happening. like taking a color palette and blending it until itās brown (or in this case teal) mush. itās like watching a super expensive fan film from someone who liked the more alien/Kryptonian parts mixing with their 9/11 allusions. some really awful CGI too, even for a super expensive franchise movie like this. i bet the concept art for this movie is good though, very much like 70ās sci-fi weirdness (but with less color). i canāt help have the feeling that the first half of this movie was going to be āthe First Movieā of a Trilogy but they decided to condense that with their other idea for a Part 2 (the Zod Fight) into one movie so they can get all the things into place for the new Batman v Superman.
iām a big fan of the idea of Superman as a ājerk godā walking among us (my favorite Superman stories being All-Star Superman and that one Jonathan Goldstein This American Life short story) but they deliberately hammer home some super Jesus-y type god stuff that seemed mostly in service of a trailer and not a full length feature. i think a lot of action movies these days get criticized for looking too much like AAA videogame cutscenes, and Man of Steel is the embodiment of that critique.
i still love you Chris Meloni.
meanwhile, the gentle understanding softspoken psychiatrist from Law & Order: SVU (BD Wong) is now on Gotham as Hugo Strange
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is Gotham any good? or does it get good at any point? iāve always wondered
ok now iām watching Batman Returns, and woah, Paul Rubens is totally Penguinās dad! i forgot that part.
I got curious and read the last bits of Hickmanās Avengers stuff and decided I legit like Dr Doom and would enjoy Doom-focused moving image media hence possibly
god, itās fucked up how much better Batman Returns is than most superhero movies
you really get the sense that Tim Burton had way more ownership over this one than Batman '89 and it comes across as a way more entertaining movie. (seemingly re-using similar background from Edward Scissorhands) his stamp over Gotham is way more prominent and āgothicā and i love everyoneās costumes and the background art/aesthetic style of a Christmas Burton-Gotham is soā¦weirdly refreshing after watching Man of Steel.
the thing i love about these Burton movies, is that he really captured a neo-50ās noir style of pacing and ācomic panelā delivery (using his art-deco matte paintings), and they just look so much moreā¦dramatic than any other Batman media product. they feel so āclassic cinemaā in a way that new Superhero movies can never feel. granted, the characters donāt feel like real people or real relatable or anything. but i donāt honestly mind. it matches the style and tone for me.
i remember when people complained about this movie being 2 hours long, thinking about how now thatās the absolute minimum for every Marvel movie from here on out.
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thereās a scene in this movie where a real monkey in a vest delivers a handwritten note to Danny Devito penguin in the sewers, the note being from Batman himself (with custom bat stationary). this is followed by an old man hitting a bunch of keys at a large computer, yelling into a headset mic, āthe penguins are above groundā and a bunch of penguins with rockets climb up out of the sewers.
itās admittedly not the best or most cohesive movie, but itās just so damnā¦vivid.
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i like man of steels krypton and the fight scenes
like if somebody else was actually directing and writing the movie zack snyder would be like the best second unit director
I really dig Russell Crowe in a space onesie on a space dragon flying around a roger dean painting.
BvS could have used some Russell Crowe on a space dragon.
It does have a v. serious crossfit/making kryptonite weapons montage I WILL MENTION EVERYWHERE BECAUSE I CANNOT GET OVER IT
Oh yeah itās also the first of 8 movies to actually build a decent action scene around Batman Batmanning?!
NOW WHERE ARE THE DILDOSHIPS ZACK?
I love that in Batman Returns it feels like the guy playing Christopher Walkenās kid acts like he was deliberately coached to pick up mannerisms from Walken and lean on the more heavily when Walken is standing close to him and how clearly exasperated Walken is by this and heās a good enough actor to incorporate that into āI love my idiot sonā
Snyder peaked with Suckerpunch
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man oā steel is on netflix over here, and i watched it again in like 20 minute increments every day a few weeks ago. realizing that i could just stop watching it before the 40 minutes of grinding steel and blue lasers in the ending was a very pleasing moment.
This is the Zack Snyder experience for me
Michael Shannon
Iām so utterly unconcerned with the outcome of that fight. So profoundly, utterly unconcerned. I canāt even come up with a fake answer. I guess I have to root for Superman because he killed me, so I would hope that he would continue his killing spree and become like a serial killer Superman. Thatās a new take on Superman. Weād all be in a heap of trouble if Superman was a serial killer. He could just wipe us all out. But then heād be lonely.
Isnāt he already lonely?
Well, weāre all lonely.
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Is BvS the first movie where characters looking at viral marketing material is presented as a key dramatic moment?
So does everyone appreciate Superman Returns now or what?
no
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I appreciate the Timmverse, still
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