Ryan Fleming spent the weekend pretending Comic-Con didn’t exist. Or at least he tried to. It’s hard to be a nerd and NOT notice the world’s most pre-eminent comics-related(ish) Advertising Expo happening all over San Diego like a particularly bad case of trailer-rash had broken out. And so, things like Logos and Costumes and Subtitles were all discussed with the gravitas and seriousness such things command. There’s a Winter Soldier coming, there’s a talking raccoon with a gun coming, there ISN’T a Black Panther movie coming, because movies about talking raccoons are easy, but black superheroes is something different altogether. The Dark Knight Rises is rising, and its already done some horrendous things to Rotten Tomatoes and its cesspool of a comments section. Imagine what will happen when people actually watch the movie. Oh, and we can’t forget the part where 7-Eleven installed a Mashed Potato machine. Don’t forget the gravy. It will be dispensed shortly.
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
As promised, here is the contest I was referring to:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/win-a-copy-of-spec-ops-the-line-on-any-system/
Contest runs through Wednesday.
The one thing from Comic Con that hasn’t been revealed is the Godzilla Teaser trailer. Legendary did a test trailer to show that they are taking the film seriously and what hey can do, and while some images of the trailer has appeared on line, the full trailer hasn’t made it on line at all, officially or leaked.
Mashed potato machine? In high school, this would have been a sick and demented dream, although I wouldn’t eat from it. The gravy? That’s another story. I had way too many 7-Eleven cheeseburgers in my junior and senior years, and I probably would have had gravy doubles. Or I would’ve brought in some chicken & jojo’s from another convenience store and smother that with gravy.
Obviously I didn’t impress any girls during high school.
Trailer Spoilers- Talking about a spoiler can ruin a movie because often trailers ruin the damn movie. For me, if there is a movie I am looking forward to, I won’t watch the trailer.
Since wearing underwear on the outside is not a human thing, but a superheros thing, you could argue superman started that superhero costume underwear fad.
Telekinetics would be how superman could lift a skyscraper without it crumpling. It’s also fallacious to assume the because you fly using TK, that it must be used for other things.
Origins are for the new generations. One of the many awesome things about being a parent is watching my kids experience comics for the first time.
Kneel before Zod.
-If Superman has to use his mental abilities to fly and keep his superhuman nature from injuring others 24/7, I think it would stand to reason that he’s focusing so much on those areas that he has none left-over to move his Nalgene bottle across the room.
-The Punisher short was suitably badass. I always liked Jane’s portrayal, though he was a bit of a softie. Warzone, while definitely gorier, otherwise left me unfulfilled.
-Nothing from Ryan about the Assassin’s Creed gameplay demo? For shame, Ryan.
The Boston demo? That was actually pretty old–they showed it at GDC in March but just released the video of it. Here’s a link to a video of it with commentary if you are interested:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/game-trailers/take-a-walk-through-the-streets-of-assassins-creed-iiis-boston-with-creative-director-alex-hutchinson/
Dammit. You win this round, Flemming!
Thanks for the link.
I have to disagree with you, Bobby; you really don’t have to, and I don’t think you SHOULD just port existing stories into comic book movies. Remixing existing thematic ideas, like with what Nolan does, or just straight-up creating something fresh with existing elements, like every other superhero movie ever, is the best way to go, I think.
Look at DC’s recent attempts at adapting comic stories whole-cloth. They all suck, regardless of source material. I don’t know how anyone can manage to fuck up All Star Superman, but they did it.
My question is – how would you know when NOBODY’s done it the other way? There’s never been a Batman film that adapted a Batman arc straight up. Nor Superman, nor Spider-Man, nor X-Men, etc.
The DC Animated films are a poor counterexample, as they’re cheaply made, poorly adapted, and forced into a 70-minute runtime regardless of whether the story fits within it or not. The problems with those films isn’t that they’re choosing to adapt storylines, it’s that they’re choosing to force every storyline into the same aesthetic container. DC obviously considers them as lesser (ghettoized) because they don’t give them any money, they don’t market them beyond the bare minimum, and they don’t release them to theaters. Its obvious the reason they’re directly adapting those storylines is because they consider it cheaper/easier, not because they WANT to try and do those stories justice.
Okay, you’re right, the DC Animated movies were a bad example. But what about Watchmen?
Watchmen is a perfect example of what I am deathly afraid of, if we start getting straight up adaptations;
I liked the movie. I thought Watchmen was about as good an adaptation as we were getting, and I thought it was pretty darned good, itself. I know loads of people, many of whom are decent, well-mannered folk, who absolutely HATE the movie, simply because it’s not a frame for frame 1:1 adaptation. We would almost certainly be getting lots and lots of those people, if we get adaptations. And a lot of stories, not all, but a lot, while good on their own, won’t adapt to film very well at all, just by their very nature. So you have a production staff that has to choose between making a structurally faithful, but fundamentally flawed movie, or a good movie that “Betrays” the fans and incurs their wrath.
You really kinda need movies that aren’t one for one adaptations of stories, just ideas and concepts. You need that level of cognitive dissonance to keep everybody more or less happy. A given fan might not like Batman’s costume in a given movie, but he’s probably willing to give the movie a chance, because it’s a new take on an old idea, and he might end up enjoying the film regardless. That same fan probably isn’t going to see the movie if he doesn’t like the costume, if it’s supposed to be a faithful adaptation of Gotham By Gaslight, because if they fucked up the costume, what ELSE are they going to fuck up? Really, it’s just more pressure on the production team, and ultimately, if it’s going to be 1:1 anyway, why not just read the comic book and save everyone the trouble?
Also, though maybe this is just me, but I get the feeling movie makers like to savor every little ounce of creative elbow room they get. With the increasingly brand and name recognition driven approach to making movies, superhero movies are one of the few chances they get to have their cake and eat it too; they get to make the movies they want, more or less, and they get to keep the execs happy, by adding to an established franchise. Everybody wins! Part of the reason why the DC Animated movies are, for the most part, straight adaptations is BECAUSE no one gives a shit. It’s easier to slap a well-loved story on a screen and let the cash roll in. There’s no challenge in that. Artists like to be challenged. We certainly wouldn’t have gotten the amazing (so far. DON’T LET ME DOWN!) Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the phenomenal Nolan Batman movies, if they were tied down to simple adaptations. That would be squandering a lot of talent, I think.
Adapting a pre-existing work doesn’t mean that adaptation has to be a 1:1 panel-to-screen translation. Yeah, Watchmen (and Sin City) did that, to differing results, but 300 did NOT, and that film ended up being better than the book. I don’t think an adaptation should hamstring an artists creativity, and in fact, it didn’t seem to hamper Peter Jackson any. Or Alfonso Cuaron on Harry Potter 3. Or Coppola on The Godfather, etc. etc. There are tons of examples of directors/writers tackling pre-existing works, and I don’t buy the idea that their creative freedoms were hampered/kneecapped in any way BECAUSE it was an adaptation.
Basically, I fundamentally disagree with the notion that you can’t adapt a story arc from a superhero comic faithfully, simply because, again, aside from Watchmen, I don’t know of an example of anyone honestly TRYING it, especially with a title that’s gonna give you TONS more leeway than Watchmen does, what with it being considered the greatest Graphic Novel ever written, a greatness that comes largely from the medium it is in, and commenting on.
I’m sure you’ve seen this by now, but if you haven’t and you are still interested here is a link to the nasty mashed potato & gravy machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=013ZKbU-sok&feature=relmfu
There’s actually another video with the same guys trying to record the machine before this one. You can see the “tub” sitting on the counter by the machine. In that attempt the “potato” looked even more like soup or what will come out your butt after you eat it. gross.
Will probably talk about this on today’s show at some point, but I was just made aware of the existence of 2ft long Gummy Worms, and a 26 pound Gummy Bear.
Here’s the video for the Gummy Bear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRcCWIuvDis
That is one seriously disturbing video. 32,000 calories!?!
So THIS is why Gmail was suddenly advertising gummy bears when I was checking my email.
Tub ‘o taters…
Funny you should mention telekinesis with Superman, as I was just watching “Superman IV: The Quest For Peace” (which I maintain is a better Superman STORY than Superman 2) in which Superman has inexplicable telekinesis. It would seem like he’d have to have it, right? I’ve heard “theories” that Superman’s body has a different polarity than humans, allowing him to use reverse polarity to fly. There are also theoretical particles called gravitons that Supes could conceivably “ride the waves of”. Of course, I don;t know how either of those ideas would account for his ability to change speed.
I just watched “Chronicle” the other day, and (spoiler alert), the kids in that use telekinesis to fly. It was probably the best explanation that I’ve seen for it, as well as the best looking flight in a movie that I can recall.
The suit having an alien origin makes much more sense than it being something terrestrial. But how would his parents know that he’d:
1) Be tall enough to wear it, and 2) Be as muscular as he is? Maybe it’s a stretchy material, or maybe it was a good motivator to hit the gym.
The best iteration of Ma Kent putting it together was in “Superman: Birthright”, written by the incomparable Mark Waid. Using the large blanket/banner/coat of arms that was in his ship, he frayed lengths of thread off with his heat vision for Ma Kent to sew with (I think he made the needle out of part of the ship, too).
And I agree with Ryan. I’m not looking forward to an entire 1-1.5 hours of origin. Unless they go into some cool Krypton stuff, then get back to Earth in a timely fashion (maybe with a ration similar to that of Asgard/Earth in the Thor movie).
I love discussing “Supermantics”.
I still wish this was just a straight up adaptation of Birthright. I hold that to be the best of all the different origin stories Superman has had over the course of his almost 75 years of existence.
I agree completely. Have you ever read “Superman: Secret Identity”? It’s not in the DCU proper, but to me, it’s probably the best Superman story out there.
Re: Daredevil
The shot of Bullseye stabbing Elektra with her own weapon was pretty accurate, but how they got to it was different.
Also, Kingpin finds out Daredevil’s identity in a completely different way. Which reminds me, Karen Page was basically an extra in the movie.
And the origin is wrong. Matt Murdock is blinded when trying to save an older blind man from getting hit by the truck with the radioactive stuff, not when running away when he sees his father roughing someone up. And he doesn’t teach himself to fight, he learns from a guy named Stick.
That’s all I can remember because I haven’t seen the movie in a long time.
Oh for god’s sake. I meant to have this as a “new reply”. Sorry.
The idea of 7-11 mashed potatoes could only be saved by decent gravy. But CHICKEN gravy? FUCK chicken gravy!
I don’t care what gravy they use, the whole idea more than just kind of gross.
Now if they made a machine that dispensed hot butter…
I have a nitpick to make: Mashed Potato machine at 7-11 isn’t driving us towards Robocop…it’s driving us towards Idiocracy.
You’ve heard it here first: within a year, Starbucks will start offering handjobs and Costco will hand out degrees.
Driving up to Starbucks. “Have a good day, sir!” Now let’s see what’s at Java The Hut.
I always wanted to be a PhD in Low Low Prices.
Correction: John Travolta as Bill Clinton in Primary Colors was actually the last time his aura helped him in a movie.