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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 22, 2023 18:00:27 GMT -5
I quite like Reddit because it's entirely customisable. I just follow music, history and art sub-reddits mainly, so the content I get to see is great. My middle son was at one point very involved in a few history sub-reddit's, particularly ones dealing with African history. It's an interesting place, but I can see it being too much of a time suck for me. The time suck is a problem for me. It’s like watching endless TV.
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Post by impulse on Oct 22, 2023 20:44:33 GMT -5
Yeah, Reddit can absolutely be a time suck, especially when you first dig in and all of the all-time best content is still fresh. Hoooo boy.
I would strongly advise anyone getting into it to take the time to make an account if not already and put some time into adding/clearing out subs and topics. I rarely use the default content as there's a lot of stuff I don't care about or would rather not see, but once you have it tuned in, it's great.
I'd stay off the Marvel-related subs if you are remotely sensitive to spoilers, though. I did.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 23, 2023 19:46:19 GMT -5
I quite like Reddit because it's entirely customisable. I just follow music, history and art sub-reddits mainly, so the content I get to see is great. I've never liked the look of Reddit, it reminds me of the layout of an old Usenet or BBS Group IDK, maybe I've used Chan boards and Internet forums for so long that anything else seems/feels odd
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 25, 2023 6:17:35 GMT -5
I didn't realize at the time that Avengers : Endgame would be my jumping off point to the MCU.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 25, 2023 6:29:48 GMT -5
I didn't realize at the time that Avengers : Endgame would be my jumping off point to the MCU. Sort of the same here. Perhaps for different reasons, but maybe for the same one. When I see MCU projects announced, I hate headlines such as “DEADPOOL 3 WILL SET UP SECRET WARS”. Is everything just a set-up now? Can we have anything that is solely standalone, and which doesn’t link back to something, and which also doesn’t set up something? I haven’t yet seen The Creator at the cinema, but my friend has, and he told me how refreshing it was to see a blockbuster that had a beginning, middle and end, with no prior knowledge needed. Tell me more, please, about your jumping off point.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Oct 25, 2023 6:51:15 GMT -5
GotG2 was mine. And I didn't even really want to see it, I just crossed my fingers and hoped it was as good as it's predecessor. It wasn't. Not even close. As far as the MCU goes the highlight of it all was GotG. Though I did enjoy some of the earlier ones like Iron Man and Captain America. But overall the entirety of the MCU has never wow'd me. Black Panther might be the only other one I watch. Just from the sheer volume of good things I have heard about it.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 25, 2023 8:01:03 GMT -5
With the killing of Cap , Iron Man and the Black Widow, the foundation was eliminated. They made Thor a joke and the Hulk is boring with his glasses persona.
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 25, 2023 8:10:04 GMT -5
I didn't realize at the time that Avengers : Endgame would be my jumping off point to the MCU.
I was never onboard with the MCU (or DCU) concept to begin with. I've watched a film here and there, but they never left me impatiently waiting for the next one.
I've never been a huge fan of sequels or cinema world-building in general, so it's not just funny book films.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 25, 2023 8:20:09 GMT -5
I didn't realize at the time that Avengers : Endgame would be my jumping off point to the MCU.
I was never onboard with the MCU (or DCU) concept to begin with. I've watched a film here and there, but they never left me impatiently waiting for the next one.
I've never been a huge fan of sequels or cinema world-building in general, so it's not just funny book films.
The films involving the Thanos story were great and tied together. Once that story concluded, it was easy to stop watching the other films. Also, Kang as the next big bad, is kind of boring.
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Post by sunofdarkchild on Oct 25, 2023 11:20:11 GMT -5
The Spider-Man movies have been good, as was Guardians 3. But yeah, beyond that the MCU has been a whole lot of meh since Endgame.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 25, 2023 11:36:01 GMT -5
I've been lukewarm, from the start. I liked Iron Man well enough, but didn't care for some of the character elements and some other things and it was mostly a thumbs up, but not way in the air. Hulk wasn't especially good and Thor was just okay. I liked Captain America quite a bit, until they rushed the third act to get to Avengers. From that point on, other than Winter Soldier, I didn't think much of the other films. I liked the first Ant-Man, as a caper film, until the big fight at the end, though it was fairly inventive, which made it more palatable. Guardians was fine, for what it was, didn't bowl me over, but the characters were entertaining enough. The second one is fine, in parts, and weak, in parts (mostly the whole Ego stuff, though I liked Kurt Russell's performance). The Avengers films just felt like a lot of noise, without much plot (especially the first) until Infinity War and even then, I was more in the mood of, okay, big CGI fights, a couple of nice emotional bits; but, not as deep as they try to make it out.
I like Thor Ragnarok, as it is fun, while still having an emotional stake and it has the best use of popular music of any film (I still think the Cap WW2 montage of Howler missions should have been set to "Sing, Sing, Sing"). I like the music in the GOTG films; but that is because it is from my childhood and early adult years.
Mostly, the films are like reading the average Marvel comic; enjoyable while you are watching/reading, but kind of forgettable afterward and a little thin on real characterization, other than snappy dialogue. The Captain America ones and Raganrok are the only ones I have watched more than twice.
I also don't think the Nolan Batman films are that great; definitely not after Begins. The third one is a complete mess and I had a lot of problems with dark Knight, though Ledger was fine, but I think his performance gets overstated, because of his untimely death. Kind of like Kurt Cobain, to me. I liked Nirvana well enough; but, then, suddenly, Cobain is supposed to be the voice of his generation, because he topped himself. It doesn't fit, in my eyes. Same with Ledger; it was a good performance, for him; but, I don't think it was near the level of the praise.
My favorite comic book films are still The Rocketeer and the first Hellboy. Both captured the spirit of the comic and were great films, in their own right. Billy Campbell really felt natural, as Cliff and struck the right tone and Joe Johnston really understood how to tell the story (same with Captain America). Guillermo del Toro was a fan and his film is a love letter to Mike Mignola's creation and story and Ron Perlman just nailed it.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Oct 25, 2023 14:16:17 GMT -5
I also don't think the Nolan Batman films are that great; definitely not after Begins. The third one is a complete mess and I had a lot of problems with dark Knight, though Ledger was fine, but I think his performance gets overstated, because of his untimely death. Kind of like Kurt Cobain, to me. I liked Nirvana well enough; but, then, suddenly, Cobain is supposed to be the voice of his generation, because he topped himself. It doesn't fit, in my eyes. Same with Ledger; it was a good performance, for him; but, I don't think it was near the level of the praise. I thought I was the only one that held this opinion. On all of it. Nolan's Batman movies, Ledger's performance (my favorite of his is A Knight's Tale) and the attention it garnered and, yes how milennials and Gen Z discovering Nirvana and, as you said, thinking it's the voice of music for Gen X. It's weird phenomenon, that I think is mostly American (but I could be wrong) that when celebrity takes their own life all of sudden the entirety of their work is distorted as if anything you knew about them and their work changed. Nirvana especially, since I was there in my teens when their popularity hit high. Didn't care for their music then, just not my type, not saying they aren't talented, don't care for it after hearing the news. And it was all over everywhere. I certainly, and the same with Ledger, feel saddened when a person feels they have no one to talk to and to live for that they take their own life.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 25, 2023 15:07:41 GMT -5
I also don't think the Nolan Batman films are that great; definitely not after Begins. The third one is a complete mess and I had a lot of problems with dark Knight, though Ledger was fine, but I think his performance gets overstated, because of his untimely death. Kind of like Kurt Cobain, to me. I liked Nirvana well enough; but, then, suddenly, Cobain is supposed to be the voice of his generation, because he topped himself. It doesn't fit, in my eyes. Same with Ledger; it was a good performance, for him; but, I don't think it was near the level of the praise. I thought I was the only one that held this opinion. On all of it. Nolan's Batman movies, Ledger's performance (my favorite of his is A Knight's Tale) and the attention it garnered and, yes how milennials and Gen Z discovering Nirvana and, as you said, thinking it's the voice of music for Gen X. It's weird phenomenon, that I think is mostly American (but I could be wrong) that when celebrity takes their own life all of sudden the entirety of their work is distorted as if anything you knew about them and their work changed. Nirvana especially, since I was there in my teens when their popularity hit high. Didn't care for their music then, just not my type, not saying they aren't talented, don't care for it after hearing the news. And it was all over everywhere. I certainly, and the same with Ledger, feel saddened when a person feels they have no one to talk to and to live for that they take their own life. I liked the Grunge stuff, for the most part (there are exceptions); but, I preferred Stone Temple Pilots over Nirvana, by a country mile. Now, here's the thing, I'm in my late 20s, as Grunge is really hitting and I am at the beginning of Gen X. So, I lived through Glam Rock (though too young to have heard a lot until later, since my parents controlled the radio), Arena Rock, Soul, Funk, Disco, Punk, New Wave, Alternative, Modern Rock and whatever else you wan't to call 70s and 80s rock and pop (including Heavy Metal) and Grunge wasn't that different than what came before, especially punk and hard rock/heavy metal. The videos were all supposed to be edgy and it was mostly showing bleak industrial sites, black & white images, people in retro 70s clothing and bad facial hair, piercings and the odd dreadlock. It was some kid's idea of the 70s, who was too young to remember it and only saw it on tv, in a rerun. Like I say, I like a lot of that music; but, so much bollox was perpetuated about it, in the media that it was laughable. It burned out just as fast as Punk, too. I used to get annoyed when I would hear a media piece on Gen X or a book about "Managing Gen X" (a real title and an insulting book), in the 90s, as it was the biggest load of horse hockey (Trademark Col. Sherman T. Potter). As it is, you can't lump people together in an arbitrarily decided demarkation, especially one as wide as 20 years, especially when you talk about the life experiences at either end of that range. I was born in 1966 and I experienced a hell of a lot of stuff that someone born in 1976 had no inkling of, until much later and in the context of history, rather than life experience. We were different people. I had more in common with late era Baby Boomers, since we overlapped. Ten or even five year samples make more sense, for shared experiences. We have a satellite feed for our music, which ranges from the late 70s to today, with the older stuff confined to certain hours of the day and hear the same stuff, day after day. Currently, we hear Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," at around 2:00 and I always joke that it is the baby Boom National Anthem, which got me thinking about what song would be the Gen X Anthem, the song that defines our era. I have two nominees: Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing", as in get famous and get rich, because hard work won't do it; or, Robert Hazzard's "Escalator of Life," because it sums up consumerism and the hollow reality that was the decade of the 80s. Really, they both just kind of define the 80s. Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" fits that, too, politically. Really, the two songs that kind of sum up the late 60s to the late 80s would be David Bowie's "Changes" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".....maybe John Mellencamp's "Small Town," for me, though "Pink Houses" also fits well, since I grew up in a little farm town of 700+ Nolan's Joker didn't work for me, because everything that he pulls off would require too much planning and execution to be that random. The problem is that Nolan wanted him to be a metaphor for random violence and terror; but, his actions aren't random. Rolling down the street, firing a machine gun and lobbing hand grenades would be random......booby trapping a pair of ferry's requires too much planning and too much assistance to execute to be that random. Same with blowing up the hospital or the bank robbery. Acts of violence and terror feel random, when you hear the news, because they are shocking; but, you quickly find that there were warning signs that were ignored, leading to the surprise. Nolan's approach always annoyed me. He always talked about real world justifications for the elements of Batman, when the character is completely unrealistic and derived from pulp traditions. Why does a guy who wants to fight crime without guns do it in a cumbersome costume that limits both movement and peripheral vision? because it scares criminals? Who the hell is scared of someone in a costume, with a cape and pointy ears? Why not a ninja suit, since it is more streamlined and practical and still hides the face? How the hell can the police not trace a tank like the Batmobile/Tumbler? Why would a cat burglar scale buildings and crack safes in a corset and sky-high heels? Because it is fantasy, not the real world! Just admit it, embrace it and have fun with it. Treat the story seriously and the audience will, too. Stop trying to justify it....just present it as the reality and go with it. You still need to have a better internal logic and a good plot that drives things. That is what has tripped up these films, for me. No detective work of any substance (usually high tech gives them answers that even the best of tech could never accumulate and analyze in a short span), organized crime that isn't organized, police who are morons (not just corrupt) and villains who hand themselves to the hero "because they are insane" and the idea that batman is as damaged, if not more, than the villains. The old Batman tv show works better for more, more often (at least the first season episodes) and Batman TAS is about as perfect as you can get (after they worked out the kinks, in the early batch of episodes). There is detection and mystery, villains have motivations and act like multi-dimensional characters, even when insane, the police aren't totally stupid (though Gordon still has to not see things until batman brings them to him), and the tech is there to be a cool gimmick, but it still requires a brain to use it strategically. Plus, the 1966 show had better fight scenes, even with the sound effects and screen graphics.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 25, 2023 16:59:26 GMT -5
I didn't realize at the time that Avengers : Endgame would be my jumping off point to the MCU. It's kinda turned out that way for me, too. I've seen Black Widow, Shang-Chi and Eternals (plus five of the Disney+ TV series) but, honestly, except for WandaVision none of them have really grabbed me the way those first 23 movies did. The whole multiverse thing smacks of fan pandering, an easy way to get butts in theater seats without having to actually concoct a coherent plot. Then, too, I think I'm finally burned out on super-hero movies, MCU or otherwise.
And I still say "The Incredibles" is the best super-hero movie ever.
Cei-U! I summon the limits of my endurance!
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Post by impulse on Oct 25, 2023 20:24:33 GMT -5
I'm also roughly in the Endgame jumping off point. I've seen a few of the subsequent movies, but overall, I'm just not as interested. I will probably watch them on Disney+ eventually. I think this is such a common drop off point for a few reasons.
First - they did it. I was as happy as anyone when the first Avengers movie was more or less a successful sequel to those solo movies. They built up Thanos as the big bad, made the epic saga, got everyone together and more or less pulled it off. It's a pretty big and complete story. It left some doors open for sequels, but nothing was screaming for completion. So, already, this is a perfect point to kind of lose interest.
Second... the new stuff just isn't as good. They seem to have shifted to a quantity over quality approach, and they keep squeezing out mediocre crap with characters nobody cares about.
So, yeah, they already finished the major story and completed the arcs of most of the characters people like, and they keep churning out middling popcorn fodder after.
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