I watched Thor: Love and Thunder a couple weeks back. Wrong universe, I know. Bear with me. It was…fine. When the post credit scene was done, I thought, “The MCU may be played out.” I have watched most, if not all, of the theatrical movies. I have been entertained. I think that Kevin Feige has more than earned every penny they’ve paid him. But there is a sameness to every one of these movies. The TV series are more interesting. But the constant quippiness, the tonal similarity of the movies has worn thin.
Last night I watched League of Superpets. I loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. The voice cast was top tier. The story was good. The jokes were funny. And I was suprised by some of the emotional beats. I have seen Krypton explode almost as often as I have seen Bruce’s parents die but the opening scene of this movie put a lump in my throat. I’d be lying if I said otherwise.
DC movies have been all over the map: from the camp comedy of Batman: The Movie to the Scorsese-inspired darkness of Joker. We have had Marvel-esque outings like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. We’ve had the visions of auteurs like Burton, Nolan, and Snyder. We were blessed with The Suicide Squad. And The Lego Batman Movie. And…
There have been missteps along the way, many of which can be chalked up to studio interference. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Suicide Squad (without the definite article), the theatrical Justice League, Schumacher’s bat-flicks.
Your opinion of any or all of these movies may differ from mine. That’s cool. What I’m saying is: DC movies have given us a tremendous variety of offerings: from Constantine to Teen Titans Go! To the Movies; from Watchmen to League of Superpets.
You’re free to talk about the MCU here. I’ve been waiting for Marvel to make a community website, and they still haven’t lol. I had a fun time with that film but, it was waaaayy too jokey. They didn’t give time for any of the serious and emotional moments to sit in and marinate. I mean, for a film that dealt with themes of cancer (Jane), self-discovery (Thor) and betraying your own religion (Gorr), they didn’t explore much on those themes as much as I’d like. I’ve been debating if I should make a comic of redoing Thor: Love and Thunder, where it isn’t as silly, and then posting it on YouTube or Twitter. (I don’t know, just an idea), but please, you’re free to talk about Marvel here.
Loved all three of them
The Dark Knight trilogy is one of my favorite franchises of all time, and was my introduction to Batman as a kid. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is one of my top 5 DC films. I consider that JL film canon, and not Josstice League (No, I am not in the Snyder mob). I unfortunately have not seen James Gunn’s Suicide Squad yet, but I heard it was amazing.
I liked the Constantine film as a kid with Keanu Reaves. Hell, even my mom liked it, and she doesn’t even know about the character of Constantine. I’m curious how WB is going to approach the sequel they just announced.
Finally watched Constantine: The House of Mystery (HBO Max)
It is actually just a 30 minute follow up to Justice League Dark Apokolips War, followed by 3 DC Showcase shorts. Adding in the segments for Kamandi, The Losers and Blue Beetle, total run time is just over and hour and a quarter.
Constantine: The House of Mystery - Bloody good!
Kamandi - I enjoyed seeing this adventure which was a homage to the original Kirby comic book, including the animation style. But I’m not sure the story would resonate as well for people unfamiliar with the original storyline.
The Losers - As someone completely unfamiliar with the original comics, I found the story and characters completely forgettable, even though there were some elements I would associate with 1970’s Saturday morning cartoons.
Blue Beetle - The hidden gem in this collection. It is done with a late 1960’s animation style, filled with jokey repartee between Beetle and his unexpected ally The Question! This is the first Ted Kord version of the Beetle, and there are even some Charlton Comics in-jokes.
My Hot Take: While the Constantine segment is good, Blue Beetle steals the show. Even if you’re not a fan of any of the characters, fast forward to the last 16 minutes for Blue Beetle!
Relative to my previous post, I need to give a shoutout to @msgtv and his thread DC History Club Blue Beetle: Dan, Ted & Jaime There’s some great history there! I’m betting that it was Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle, and the 60’s Spider Man cartoons (based on Ditko’s Spidey) that provided additional inspiration for the Beetle segment in Constantine: House of Mystery!
Agreed, although I stopped watching Marvel a while ago. I basically stopped going to see everything after Civil War. Once in a while I would go - I mean, I had to see the new Spider-Man. Grant you, didn’t care much for it. Black Panther was a big deal so I eventually watched it. Meanwhile my nephew really wanted me to see Infinity War with him so I did it. But between Civil War and whatever was last, those were the only ones I’ve seen since.
And yes, there is this sameness, this blandness to them. The quips are so annoying. If the MCU made a movie about D-Day I could see them quipping among the commanders right before the invasion of
“I’m a sunny side up kinda guy.
Not me I like my eggs scrambled.”
Or some bull$*&^ like that.
I think here sums it up well with many of the MCU movies. They don’t have any faith in their own drama and must undercut drama with a joke. They lack sincerity for the moment things get dramatic they made end up coming off as ‘cheesy’ so we wink at the audience instead. This is why I loved WW84 there were real, sincere moments like the renouncing of the wish throughout the world, the nukes going off, Max with his son, Diana and Steve’s last moment, and the ending. All of this made me FEEL something. Whereas the MCU their movies for me are the equivalent of “Ok that was fun, so what’s for dinner.” It’s the equivalent of theme park ride, where again, sure fun, entertaining but it left no impact on me. I didn’t feel anything. I dunno, maybe I’ve become a bit of a snob.
And I won’t accept the well so and so and so were like Marvel movies. Again, Wonder Woman, Shazam, etc. do not undercut their own tension with tongue-in-cheek humor. This is part of the reason I’ve come to hate this whole shared universe that media/entertainment is obsessed with. It commodifies and streamlines everything into a generality of sameness. Tomorrow, Steve Spielberg could announce he will direct the new Green Lantern movie. GREAT! But I don’t want a film by committee, I don’t want him trying to shoehorn this into the universe, and doing a dozen easter eggs to wink at the audience just to be like ‘see I get it’ I want him to make HIS movie and do what he does best. And honestly, this is what I want. I don’t need a shared universe, I just want good movies. I think that’s why Matt Reeves’ The Batman was great, cause it’s not slowed down by all of this.
It’s that and a combination of overall Whedon-isms I’d call it. They approach it very formulaic. Check out the link I have above, he explains it well I believe while still sounding professional. It’s not a bash on MCU for the sake of bashing on MCU.
But yeah, I do enjoy GOTG but am growing tired of James Gunn. I get it, he does comedy, everyone does have their schtick and I get it. But I feel like if he would do a WWII movie or something and still feel the need for dick jokes and stuff. Just this over-the-top immature humor on par with like a 12 year old. Hence, I won’t watch Peacemaker (sorry) after seeing a few clips.
That would be amazing to see. The Wildstorm universe is not my favorite but there is something about that world, with wildcats, authority and gen-13 that is ripe with potential.
At least to give us Midnighter.
Eh, what can I say. These big event summer blockbusters do nothing for. And like I said, I was burnt out on Marvel before it. Plus, I think I grew tired and disinterested in waiting for Thanos. Call it a lack of patience maybe. It’s why I almost never do television. I prefer old fashioned sitcoms, anthology series ala Twilight Zone or completely closed off trilogy ala The Dark Knight Trilogy.
I won’t lie though, as an MCU fan, the rate Marvel is going (especially after that sh*tshow, She-Hulk), I’m wishing Marvel ended it at Endgame. But then we never would’ve gotten No Way Home