How do you feel about superhero moves?

I'm personally still very much interested in anything Avengers related from Marvel Studios. They've clearly NAILED it. They've all been good to excellent.

I'm not as excited with Spiderman anymore, despite Spidey being tied with Superman as my all time favorite superhero. I didn't like the reboot all that much (except for the web-swinging scenes), and I didn't even see the sequel (the first time I don't see a Spiderman movie on the big screen).

I *love* the X-Men franchise. I was never a Wolverine fan and I give FULL CREDIT to Hugh Jackman into making me a big fan of the character. In fact, I was never really all that into the X-Men growing up, but I loved Ian McKellan as Magneto, Patrick Stewart and the rest of the cast. I even liked the third X-Men, the Wolverine Origins, Wolverine, X-Men First Class, but this last one made me feel like some of the life has gone out. I hate to say that because it was well written, and I love the cast, but I feel some of the energy present in the first few is now gone.

Except for the Nolan Batman films, I have zero interest in anything DC related. Superman, my all time favorite with Spidey, has crashed and burned twice. They don't know what to do with him, and they're trying to make him something he's not. Two films in a row by two different filmmakers have been dreadful. My optimism for future Superman movies is GONE. Green Lantern was HORRIFIC.

To make matters worse, they got a decent show in Arrow on TV, but they don't want to use this guy in the movie? How does that make sense if you want to build your universe and compete with Marvel?

I think DC is just clearly going after The Avengers money but without the careful strategy Marvel has had for many years. They're rushing into it IMO.

 

I've been a fan of comics since I was a kid and am happy they made it to the movies above all. Hopefully, they'll still be around throughout my lifetime.

I'm a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like you said, they nailed it. Avengers has been my top superhero movie since its release. The first Amazing Spiderman was good but I didn't like the second that much. Maybe Sony will win me back with AS3 or the Sinister Six movie but my expectations are low for that one. Fox and X-Men have been on and off. I enjoyed the first and second X-Mens, the third lost me along with the first Wolverine movie, but I'm a fan again thanks to First Class, The Wolverine, and Days of Futures Past. I'm also looking forward to the Apocalypse movie.

As for DC, I pretty much gave up after Man of Steel. He didn't feel like the Superman I read growing up as a kid. The Dark Knight series was fine but everything else they made (post Christopher Reeve) just didn't do it for me and now they're giving the Batman role to Ben Affleck and even though he has his moments, he comes up short in a lot of his movies IMHO. With that said, I'm probably still going to see Justice League but my expectations are going to be low for that one too and if that bombs, I'll truly be done with DC.

 

Love 'em, generally speaking.

The MCU is great, and I feel like the X-Men films are back on track with three good films in a row. Superman and Spider-Man...I'm gutted because those are my two guys and they're not getting treated properly. Supes-Bats will likely be more of the same, and unless there is a major shake-up on the Spidey production, I'm not confident about Mr. Parker's future.

I'm burned out on Batman, but I'm sure I'll dig him again eventually. I don't do DC comics any more, but I'll check out the films as long as they seem worthwhile.

The Turtles just got shit on cinematically and have a sequel on the way, so that sucks. The Nick show is much better, so I'm cool sticking with that.

Whenever someone says that there are too many comic book movies, that the bubble will burst any time now, I can't help but think that they don't realize it's a legit sub-genre now. Will sci-fi movies go away? Will romantic comedies? Sure, they might falter and thin out but I think they're here to stay. Of course, the western is all but dead, so what do I know?

 

Thanks, Cap'n Obvious.

Everybody knows DC/Warner got blindsided by Disney/Marvel and they're desperate to play catch up. I love it, because cause up till Iron Man it was usually the Marvel movies sucking hind tit.

My favorites were always Fantastic Four for Marvel and Green Lantern for DC, but the movies managed to butt-rape both concepts.

My demand for a superhero movie is that the movie people find ways to bring what I've seen in the comics directly to life on the screen. They're not always successful, but I love the ones that get it right.

 

I think the movie-makers apply a lot of license in changing the stories. Note the "natural" spider shooters for the Maguire Spider-Man. But generally, it isn't really bad. Most of them are enjoyable. It's the die-hard comic books fans who'll have a thing or two to say, often.

 

WB already has Avengers money. Harry Potter films, LOTR trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, the Dark Knight Trilogy and the Hangover trilogy are all billion dollar franchises. WB hasn't been hurting to make comic book movies since they've had these other franchises. Now that those other franchises are done, WB is finally moving in earnest with it's comic book films. We have BvS and 8 other untitled films coming down the pipeline. 2 are presumed to be JL and Aquaman respectively.

So yeah there's that.


As for the movies themselves. I think Sony, Fox and Marvel studios have done a good job putting out quality entertainment. The problem I have though is the Marvel characters are owned by separate studios who are inflexible to the idea of uniting these properties.

 

I think the comic films vary greatly. I enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy but I can't stand Iron Man (each to their own). Superman isn't fitting into the current style of superhero film but his time will come round again.

 

Think of the potential of how much MORE money they'd have if they had bothered to make these superhero movies.

And it isn't a recent thing either.

They kept going back and forth on a fifth Superman movie FOR YEARS.

When Christopher Reeve uttered his last line ever as Superman, it was to Lex Luthor at the end of Superman IV, and it was strangely prophetic:

"See you in 20."

That was in 1987. The next Superman film didn't come out until 2006.

Then they ran Batman into the ground (which was fine by me because we then got the Nolan films which were better than anything Tim Burton did)

So WB has been slow to catch onto quality superhero films.

In 40 years of superhero movie making, all WB has accomplished that was any good were the first few Christopher Reeve Superman movies from the 70s and early 80s. The first two Burton Batman films (which are debatable) and the Nolan Bat films.

That's 8 movies in 40 years. Marvel has that many great superhero films in the last 5 or 6.

WB has the line up going now, but they're off to a VERY precarious start. Not only did Green Lantern flop creatively and financially, Superman Returns was also a disappointment and Man of Steel had decidedly mixed reviews at the polar extremes, with fans and critics being very divided.

So they've done TWO Superman movies in a row that were not enthusiastically embraced by the masses.

Batman vs. Superman, to me, is damage control. They don't want the embarrassment of rebooting Superman three times in less than 10 years, so Superman is taking a backseat in his own sequel so that "Batman" can save the day. It's a smart move for WB.

Unfortunately for WB, their only superhero films with any credibility were the Nolan films, which were a trilogy that's over and done with and have no bearing storywise on what's coming.

 

Keep in mind that the Marvel characters are divided among 3 different studios. Marvel Studio s has anything Avengers, 20th Century Fox has X-Men and Fantastic Four, and Sony has Spider-man. WB still has all the rights to the DC characters. So naturally they can't put out as many films in comparison to Marvel characters. Also WB has other films they produce, the aforementioned franchises in my previous post. Include Inception, The Town, Argo etc.


Batman v Superman is not damage control. It's a film WB has wanted for awhile. The plan in 2004 was to release Batman and Superman films on alternating years and they have them team up. Batman Begins came out in 05, and Superman Returns in 06. TDK came out in 08 and Bryan Singer's "Man of Steel" was supposed to come out in 09, but Superman Returns didn't perform well at the BO (19 weeks in theatres and only grossed $391 million worldwide with a $260 million budget) or position the character the way WB wanted. So plans for the 2012 Batman Superman film were scrapped and we got TDKRises instead. Now that WB has their successful Superman film, they are moving ahead with crossing over these 2 characters. It's why they are not commissioning any new Batman films. There is no point in reintroducing Batman to an audience that is already familiar with him.

As far as MOS not being embraced by the masses, check out it's numbers. You can conclude that a lot of people liked the film and even thought it was good enough to buy.

Domestic gross $291,045,518

Foreign gross: $377 million

DVD+Bluray Sales:$101,187,705


Compare to the recent Marvel films

Thor TDW
Domestic: $206,362,140
Foreign: $438,421,000
DVD+Bluray sales: $$58,222,771


Captain America TWS
Domestic: $259,545,867
Foreign: $454,317,000

The first Superman film in the reboot franchise made more money domestically than both the 2nd Thor and Captain America films. Where MOS didn't do as well is in foreign markets. If you compare MOS against Thor 1, Captain America 1, Iron Man 1 or 2; Superman beats them.

So the Superman franchise has legs and it's moving right along with it's sequel. It'll no doubt cross the billion dollar threshold with Dawn of Justice.

 

I'm one of the few that disliked Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Evans as Captain America (probably in part because in the comics I mostly disliked the former and didn't read much of the latter). Liked X-Men, Batman and Spider-Man (not too much the reboot of the latter) but not pleased by how the scale tends to keep getting bigger.

 

Do a little more research.

I'm on my out the door, so I don't have to doublecheck exact figures, but i think you'll find that MOS had a phenomenal first weekend...

And a MASSIVE drop, (over 60%, I believe 61%) in its second weekend, which is a higher drop than most films of its type.

You'll also find that Amazing Spiderman and Batman Begins, two other reboots, did better over time than MOS which got weaker as it went along.

MOS had big numbers, but that's largely due to its frontloaded first weekend.

Also, MOS didn't do well in foreign markets, which is embarrassing considering he's up there with Batman and Spiderman as probably the most famous of all superheros.

Superman SHOULD ALWAYS beat Captain America or Thor.

 

^ Dude. You know you can trim quotes, right? If you're quoting more than a 'graph or two, you're doing it oh so wrong.

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... Anyway, how do I feel about superhero moves? Well, they're a big hit whenever I loose 'em on the dance floor.

ba-dum TSHH!
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Okay, no, but seriously, I'm generally in favor of them, though I kind of hope the DCCU bombs, as I'm not sure the market can sustain both it and the MCU. Let 'em keep making Batmans and maybe the odd Supergirl, but I've got no interest in their Invisible Jet Pilot or Fish-Friend Person.

As for X-Men, I loved DOFP (movie of the summer) but agree it's time to move on from anti-mutant discrimination as the primary motivator of plots. The whole Apocalypse angle suggests that Singer and Co. agree, so I'm optimistic there.

As for Spider-Man, I think the new series could be righted with solid future movies, though given that they're more or less confined to a single city, and team-ups aren't exactly in the cards, Sony may just have to accept that the franchise's days as top-tier mega-blockbusters are ending/over. I was thinking the other day that, if not for the budget issue, Spider-Man may be better suited to TV. A really daring series might try to mix filmed dialogue scenes with unabashedly animated action sequences, but I don't see that happening anytime soon for all sorts of reasons.

 

Exactly. Man of Steel had a lot of hype because of Nolan's name (and, you know, first Superman film in a long time), so people wanted to see it. The massive second weekend drop of 64.6% (compared to 56.6% for Captain America 2 and 57.3% for Thor 2) shows that poor word of mouth really hurt the film.

Yes, it made a ton of money, but it wasn't successful.

 

I grew up reading comics, so I like to go see them. However, with each and every Marvel movie made by Marvel that gets released, I get a little less enthused about any super hero movie not made by Marvel.

 

I've really liked most of the Marvel movies so far (especially the first Iron Man and Guardians), but not growing up a Marvel fan they don't really grab me like they do others here.

The recent X-Men and Spidey movies are watchable enough, but the premises are feeling awfully played out by now.

And being a big DC guy I loved MOS and am extremely hopeful for the upcoming DC Universe movies.

 

I've never been a comic book fan, so my knowledge of superhero comes entirely from the various 90's animated series on television. I've tried reading comic books several times since then, but I've always disliked them. So I guess I'm a casual fan? Anyway, here's how I feel about the big franchises.

Very Positive: Marvel.
Positive: X-Men, Nolan's Batman Trilogy.
Neutral: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four.
Negative: DC.

 

ANYTHING MCU gets my vote thesedays. X-Men also.

Amazing Spider Man - first one way better than the previous run, second one not so good. Not a big fan anyway, so...

DC are utterly laughable. Joined up thinking eludes them. It wasn't necessary to reboot Supes, but as the new one was O.K., they mess up the sequel by shoehorning in a Batman reboot, without really rebooting it...then utterly fail to work in their successful Arrow and Flash TV characters. They just don't deserve viewers.

 

You forgot to add that MOS had a year's head start on CA:TWS.

 

Uh technically Captain America had the heard start. His first film came out in 2011. Captain America was featured again in 2012's Avengers.

 

Man of Steel was the fifth biggest movie at the American box office in 2013. It's being spun off into a massive DC universe franchise. It was, by any definition, successful.

I thought it was awful, but come on.