Captain Marvel (2019)

[The Nth Doctor]

Nonetheless, B movies were generally competently scripted because audiences expected more traditionally logical narrative in American commercial films two generations ago. This isn't generally true of current superhero films.

People often overstate things in these forums. I've read literal nonsense such as descriptions of network television shows as "fan films."

Irony missed.

 

[Mudd]

Irony missed.

Nope.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Nonetheless, B movies were generally competently scripted because audiences expected more traditionally logical narrative in American commercial films two generations ago. This isn't generally true of current superhero films.

People often overstate things in these forums. I've read literal nonsense such as descriptions of network television shows as "fan films."

The Marvel films are pretty good at being the live action comics they are meant to be. There might be justification to call them by their own genre since their stories are the complexity of plot and characterization of your average comic book. To say they are better or worse than a B movie ignores that they are animated comic books not a film though in some ways they do have much in common with silent films in that you don't really need the dialogue, for the most part, to be able to follow the story- again like a comic book.

 

[Mudd]

To say they are better or worse than a B movie ignores that they are animated comic books not a film.

"Not a film."

They are films. They are big, massively expensive movies positioned right in the heart of the current American commercial film industry accounting for a great portion of ticket sales. Trying to redefine them or carve out some new terminology on the premise that "they're not films, they're something else" as a response to criticism of them is literally nonsense.

Claiming that responding to them as films is ridiculous, because...they're films.

A lot of them happen to be poorly directed films with terribly childish narratives. The best one can do to honestly defend them is just to say that they deliberately mimic and borrow the narrative techniques of another medium, and of a specific genre in that medium - American commercial superhero comics - that is characterized by childish, clumsy and repetitive narrative.*

As one well-known comic creator of his day described the genre, "We're talking about page after page of fight scenes and bad dialogue."

 

[marillion]

Well, I can finally say my (now 18 year old) son has moved away from liking the Marvel movies because of the characters and action. He told me yesterday he was really looking forward to Captain Marvel because, "well, you know, she's HOT!" Sigh. LOL.

 

[Anwar]

A lot of them happen to be poorly directed films with terribly childish narratives.

This thread is about Marvel, not DC or Fox.

 

[The Wormhole]

A lot of them happen to be poorly directed films with terribly childish narratives.

Yes, but enough about Zach Snyder.

Well, I can finally say my (now 18 year old) son has moved away from liking the Marvel movies because of the characters and action. He told me yesterday he was really looking forward to Captain Marvel because, "well, you know, she's HOT!" Sigh. LOL.

Honestly, that's a much better attitude than guys who refuse to see a movie with a female lead because it's "SJW pandering."

 

[Mudd]

Yes, but enough about Zach Snyder.

Snyder is far from the worst of the lot. He has vociferous detractors and fans precisely because he brings some individuality and ambition to what he does. So lots of people don't like what he does. Well, even popular art is art - sometimes.

 

[BillJ]

I know lots of people dislike the DC films, but they actually feel different from one another. The Marvel films just kinda melt together and I really can't tell one from another on a story level.

 

[JD]

"Not a film."

They are films. They are big, massively expensive movies positioned right in the heart of the current American commercial film industry accounting for a great portion of ticket sales. Trying to redefine them or carve out some new terminology on the premise that "they're not films, they're something else" as a response to criticism of them is literally nonsense.

Claiming that responding to them as films is ridiculous, because...they're films.

A lot of them happen to be poorly directed films with terribly childish narratives. The best one can do to honestly defend them is just to say that they deliberately mimic and borrow the narrative techniques of another medium, and of a specific genre in that medium - American commercial superhero comics - that is characterized by childish, clumsy and repetitive narrative.*

As one well-known comic creator of his day described the genre, "We're talking about page after page of fight scenes and bad dialogue."

I take it you're not a comic book reader?

 

[Mudd]

I take it you're not a comic book reader?

In fact, I still am occasionally. I think I should get back into that, for a variety of reasons...none of which have much to do with the DC/Marvel lines.

 

[Mudd]

I know lots of people dislike the DC films, but they actually feel different from one another. The Marvel films just kinda melt together and I really can't tell one from another on a story level.

Exactly so.

 

[crookeddy]

There have been some Marvel movies with something to say... but very few. We have to admit to ourselves that we enjoy these movies because they are nothing more than escapist entertainment, for the most part. We don't like them despite this fact, we like them BECAUSE of this fact. Once we admit this to ourselves, arguing about the relative quality of these movies will be much easier.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Doctor Strange was pretty much a copy of Iron Man. Though to be fair both characters are pretty much a lot alike and have similar origins.

 

[Anwar]

Snyder is far from the worst of the lot. He has vociferous detractors and fans precisely because he brings some individuality and ambition to what he does. So lots of people don't like what he does. Well, even popular art is art - sometimes.

Nah, he just brings pretentiousness.

I know lots of people dislike the DC films, but they actually feel different from one another. The Marvel films just kinda melt together and I really can't tell one from another on a story level.

So the MCU puts the extra effort into making it clear it's all one world and this is somehow bad.

 

[BillJ]

So the MCU puts the extra effort into making it clear it's all one world and this is somehow bad.

No, they all feel the same. They all feel like the same movie with different names on the scripts.

 

[crookeddy]

Doctor Strange was pretty much a copy of Iron Man. Though to be fair both characters are pretty much a lot alike and have similar origins.

The characters are similar, but the movies aren't really similar at all. There is the hero's journey, but if all movies that have this Arc are the same, then most movies are the same...

 

[JD]

Yeah, there are more than enough differences between the two for me to be able to really enjoy them both.

I won't deny that they do tend to have the same tone and a similar style, but I really don't see them as being as repetitvive as other people do.
Nobody is going to confuse Ragnarok for Civil War, or Guradians of The Galaxy for Ant Man or Homecoming for Black Panther or the first Thor for The First Avenger.

 

[Anwar]

No, they all feel the same. They all feel like the same movie with different names on the scripts.

Examples?

 

[Mudd]

No, they all feel the same. They all feel like the same movie with different names on the scripts.

Largely. The Black Panther took a different attack on the required elements, though, which is one of the things that made it so entertaining.