NOTE: During housekeeping on April 27 2020, I must report that I no longer recall the clips that were attached to this post. Those with broken links shall, alas, remain broken.
Karen: There have been a ton of clips from the upcoming Avengers:Age of Ultron film hitting the internet recently. Are you avoiding them or watching them all? I've pretty much stopped now, wanting to go in to the theater not knowing everything that's going to happen in the film. But here's a couple to get us talking:
Karen: There have been a ton of clips from the upcoming Avengers:Age of Ultron film hitting the internet recently. Are you avoiding them or watching them all? I've pretty much stopped now, wanting to go in to the theater not knowing everything that's going to happen in the film. But here's a couple to get us talking:
Karen: Looking good, although I am still thrown by Ultron's voice. I like James Spader but it's just not what I expect for Ultron. We'll see how it works out in the film.
Karen: Marvel also gave us a full Ant-Man trailer last week. This one had the title character in action, and it also gave us a good look at Yellowjacket -the villain of the film. It's definitely going to have humor but it seems like it will be balanced with a lot of super-heroics. Thoughts?
Karen: DC just got in on the action with the release of the first trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. This looks to borrow heavily from The Dark Knight Returns, as well as address the massive destruction of Man of Steel. I'm not sure what to think yet, but it looks awfully dark. I did think that Batman dialog was way too cheesy.
Karen: How about the small screen? Has anyone been watching Daredevil on Netflix? I've seen five episodes so far, and I'm impressed. The production is high-quality all the way around. My only complaint would be the excessive violence, which feels unnecessary to me (I don't need to see a villain beat a man's head into pulp to understand he's volatile and a bad guy). But the story and acting are strong enough that I'll keep watching -and I'm not even particularly fond of the comics!
Karen: How about the small screen? Has anyone been watching Daredevil on Netflix? I've seen five episodes so far, and I'm impressed. The production is high-quality all the way around. My only complaint would be the excessive violence, which feels unnecessary to me (I don't need to see a villain beat a man's head into pulp to understand he's volatile and a bad guy). But the story and acting are strong enough that I'll keep watching -and I'm not even particularly fond of the comics!
Karen: Finally, I can't close without noting that a trailer for the next Star Wars film dropped on April 16th. I am concerned about this one -I want it to be good, because they are bringing back Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie! -but it is J.J. Abrams at the helm, and his track record is decidedly mixed. But watching this trailer the first time, my heart started pounding. It's Star Wars!
16 comments:
Leapin' Lizards-- Karen, those first three clips totally gave me that old, familiar, delightful, thrilling tingle straight from the submerged part o' the brain that operates w/ the sensibilities of a 12-to-14 year old. I'm not kidding-!
A gleeful, "Oh man, this is gonna be GREAT!"
Ultron's voice and manner of speaking? As the clip started I didn't have my eyes on the screen (talking to my lovely wife instead), and for a moment I couldn't distinguish between Ultron and Stark--- and afterward it occurred to me: surely that's a conscious choice? Is Ultron's A.I. built on Tony's brain patterns, by any chance? So in effect he becomes "Dark Tony", snarky sense of humor and all? Pure conjecture on my part-- but if that's the case, I love it-- very smart, entertaining adaptation for bringing this iconic villain to life on the big screen.
Hulk vs Tony-Buster fight-- god bless CGI (and the clip stops at a terrific, clever moment), but it has the same in-the-moment contextual problem as the entire finale of MAN OF STEEL: Hey, Mr Big Hero-- FIRST PRIORITY-- TAKE THE FIGHT OUT OF THE DENSELY POPULATED AREA!!! Yeah, yeah-- it looks cool, great carnage, etc, but Tony's armor clearly is capable of moving even this opponent off to less-hazardous ground, even during a battle. It may sound silly, but watching Tony hurl a raging Hulk into a crowded farmer's market (or something) really takes me out of the moment. In comics, you can sort of get away with it (and invariably the hero's thought balloons are going, "Oy, I have to get BlunderBoss away from this crowd before someone really gets hurt. . .!"); onscreen, the peril's just too immediate and real, and I think that detracts from the desired element of fun.
And ANT-MAN's looking considerably better than I expected! Is that. . . is that not Janet we're seeing in the clip? I mean, that young woman has her hairstyle and everything. There are some visual moments that totally capture the neat feeling that came from the comic page-- hopping onto & running on the handgun was particularly cool. My only reservation is that the fellow playing Scott comes off as an awfully light RomCom leading man-- kind of playing the "attitude" of the lines, rather than being in the moment. A common problem, and one that falls squarely on the shoulders of the director rather than the actor for something like this.
Ohhhhhhh boy, oboy,oboy,oboy,oboy!!!!
HB
Isn't it a bit strange that we are supposed to be excited about this movie when nobody cares about the "Age Of Ultron" comics series ? The original Age of Ultron was a huge comics event from 2 years ago involving the entire Marvel Universe and time travel to the past and future among other things - this dumbed-down movie will feature absolutely none of that and just steals the name because it sounds cool. As for Star Wars, I lost interest when George Lucas decided that Darth Vader was Luke's father and even more so when Leia turned out to be his sister, just ridiculous.
Nah, it's different universes, Colin-- and COMPLETELY different audiences. The Age of Ultron comic event may have been read by, what, maybe 150,000 people? Maybe 200K? To, literally, several hundred million people, the cinematic Avengers ARE the "real" Avengers, and if that franchise decides to co-opt an existing (you're right-- very cool-sounding) story title to its own benefit, heck, I've no problem with that at all. I think there's even sort of a precedent for that kind of thing with the early James Bond films, isn't there? The movies took the titles from Fleming's novels, and then pretty much threw the whole plot away?
It's just the nature o' the Hollywood Beast.
HB
HB, I meant most READERS OF BAB don't seem to know or care about the original Age Of Ultron story because they don't read any modern comics - and yet we are supposed to be excited about a movie that will be a zillion times less interesting and inventive which just happen to have the same name :)
Oh, I don't know, Colin, in this case I'm not at all interested in reading the almost current Avengers comics, but I'm very excited about the movie.
As with all of the Marvel movies, I'm looking forward to this, and I'm completely unconcerned about knowing too much about them before I see them. I always watch these movies way after their original release, after any and all plot elements have been thoroughly revealed and discussed online, and it has not diminished my enjoyment of any of them.
On the other side, however, the Batman v. Superman movie, does not look like anything I'll be interested in seeing.
The Daredevil series does look pretty cool, but I doubt I'll be seeing that any time soon. Also, I see that D'Onofrio has gone from being Thor (heh, a No-Prize to anyone who gets that reference) to the Kingpin...
As for the Star Wars trailer, I just loved that it's Mark Hamill doing the voiceover, and every time (watched it about 5 times now) I see Han and Chewie show up at the end, I get this big Cheshire cat grin on my face. Unlike those three prequels, this one may actually be worth watching, just because it will feature Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie - characters we fans actually care about, rather than all of those bland and/or unlikable duds from the threequels (seriously, I think the only character I responded to positively in those movies was Yoda, and he was friggin' CGI).
And I've said this before, but I think as bad as Abrams was for Star Trek (and I like his revamping of that franchise less and less with each passing day), I honestly think he may do a good job with Star Wars.
Edo is that an Adventures in Babysitting reference?
For me, I am actually looking most forward to Ant-Man. I admit some of the dialogue and humor seems forced, but I like the character and it looks like they've done a nice job on the costume and the powers. It seems fun. I hope it is a pleasant surprise. Don't know if you have seen the movie poster but it is all white with a tiny spec that is the hero. I hope the whole thing is like that and has a hero who likes being a hero.
I will definitely see Avengers but I have been avoiding trailers as much as possible.
Saw the Superman Batman trailer and think it is odd and not my taste at first glance. It seems so dark and brooding and cynical. I don't know why the film makers felt they had to jump to this level of gloom. DC comics to me always seemed bright and hopeful, particularly Superman. In film, everything seems to be through the lens of the Watchmen. It' is as if they doubled down on everything I didn't enjoy in Man of Steel in terms of gray tones, dark mood, and questionable heroics. It is possible to be serious without being despondent. I know I have not seen the movie in full,but this is what they are leading with. The contrast to the "seriousness" I'm Ultron is noticeable. I guess I'm not looking for a philosophically grim treatise.
When the Superman v. Batman trailer was leaked, my original thought that was this was a fanmade spoof meabt to make fun of the grimdark movie we feared it might be, but no it will actually be that bad. I don't know what DC is thinking. . .
Age of Ultron looks great! As someone who read the series it was named for, there is no way it could be worse than it - it was one of the worst "event" books I ever had the displeasure of reading. I only finished collecting it so I'd have a better chance to selling it all off.
Ant-Man is a wait and see for me, but I do love the character.
As for Star Wars, the trailer looks good, but to quote Yoda, "Judge a film by its trailer do you? And well you do not, for the film may still be crap, and a powerful crap it could be. . ."
Lastly, I've been watching Daredevil, and it is alright - but I don't think it is as good as everyone says. I have a problem with his doubtful use of torture and the way his hyper-senses are written to be god-like. Don't think the guy who plays Foggy (despite looking the part) is a very good actor. . . the racial representation is also problematic. Still, it has its fun and tense moments.
Osvaldo, I had the same problem with Daredevil's use of torture. As soon as I saw him do that to one of the gangsters, I sort of pulled back from the character, because I simply can't stand that in characters that are supposed to be "good guys." However, the last episode we watched !!!!!SPOILERS HERE!!!!! (number 7, I think), had the typical "hero confronts villain and realizes he's becoming just like what he hates" scene, so I'm hopeful Matt is going to change how he does things. !!!SPOILERS OVER!!!!
I don't want to judge Batman v. Superman based only on a single trailer yet, but I hope that we are not getting a Christopher Nolan -ultra-dark film. Although I admit I don't care much for the idea of the characters being adversaries to start with, or using the Dark Knight premise -that worked because there was a long-standing relationship between the two. But it's likely they're mainly lifting the imagery from the Miller comic.
As for Age of Ultron, I think they could call it just about anything and I'd go see it. The movies are their own thing; I enjoy them on their own merits. HB, I think you are right about Ultron and Stark's voices -I had the same problem telling them apart. Maybe they are borrowing from Busiek's Ultron story in Avengers volume 3, when he revealed that Hank Pym had put his brain patterns in Ultron? I always thought that was a fantastic idea.
I'm still not sure about Ant-Man but I will go see it. I'm not a fan of Paul Rudd. From what I understand, that's not Janet but Janet and Hank's daughter played by Evangeline Lily.
Just keeping my fingers crossed for Star Wars. What I want to see is Luke. I am a Luke fan, I fully admit it. I am hoping that the rumors that he has gone to the dark side are not true. That would be a bummer!
Martinex (or rather, Martijex?), yes, I was indeed thinking of Adventures in Babysitting.
Karen, when I was a big Star Wars fan (I'm much less so now), I was also an enormous Luke fan - I not only had the action figure, but also a T-shirt. And as I noted above, what I really want to see in the new Star Wars movie is not only Luke, but all of the four major characters from the original trilogy. (Heck, I wouldn't mind seeing Lando, either, but I don't recall reading anywhere that Billy Dee Williams was involved in this project in any way.)
I haven't really been following all of the commentary and speculation on this new film, so I haven't even heard any talk of Luke going over to the dark side. That better not be true!
How can DC/Television and DC/Cinematic seem to be so completely detached from each other as far as tone and vision go? I did just watch the DoJ trailer and--ugh. It makes me NOT want to see the film. It's like Superman/Batman buried under a dense veneer of played-out X-Men Mutant Angst. It's playing to pretty much a two-decade-old sensibility--- not breakin' any new ground at all, here.
HB
Avengers Assemble and May the Force be with you! Can't wait for these to movies to come out!
- Mike 'breathless' from Trinidad & Tobago.
And here's one more, for a movie that most comics fans seem less excited about, to wit: the second trailer for the new Fantastic Four.
Edo! I know! Right? The Fantastic Four movie has got to be the forgotten movie of the summer!
The dilemma I have going on is the opening of the Avengers movie is the same day as the first day of playoffs! What a problem to have......
Interesting story that happened to me recently. I was at working and my partner for the past few days was someone I had never really talked to before. Not the first time we had worked together but I had mostly kept things to this is what we need to do, this is when it needs to be done. That kind of stuff. As we were heading to break, she made the comment: This Sucks. Any time someone makes a two word statement, I have an automatic response that starts with Fire Bad and ends with Hulk Smash. She started going into Iron Man's battle with the Hulk and how she can't wait for the movie and then we started talking about the old Iron Man and how he never had any power and it was always on it's lowest ebb. She then went into the Star Wars movie and her excitement about that.......Fun Times. And as it usually happens, we haven't been partners again since!
(Double XL, Double XL!
Don't call me on the phone just ring my dinner bell.
Double XL Double XL!
I'm a lean, mean, love machine that likes to be held,
ooo bbbppp baby I'm a double XL!)
If the Batman v. Superman trailer is too grim n' gritty, check out this one:
http://io9.com/adam-west-and-christopher-reeves-batman-v-superman-trai-1698943621
Much better!
Mike Wilson
Mike W., ha! Still don't like the voiceover, but I love the pictures.
Just a few quick comments to play catch up here at BAB..
1) The latest SW trailer.., calculated to burst the head of nearly every geek with a light-sabre or 501st member. Is it me, or is Harrison starting to look more like his gal Calista each and every day..? I did like the downed Star Destroyer, evenhad that as my banner on my FB page for a few days.. (yes, I can that as often as my avatar here....).
2) I dooooon't like the use of Yellow-jacket as a villain, but I can see in the short span of attention the movie makers seem to have, you'd rely on a once-proud, now tarnished hero as the antagonist. Oy...
3) Avengers 2 is looking better and better. Cannot wait for its premiere.
Agreeing with both HB and Colin here on the 'Age of Ultron' title, but you have to admit for a movie sequel, it sure beats calling it 'Avengers 2'.
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