Darn, now we can't ride bikes

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Darn, now we can't ride bikes

Is there a master list of acceptable and unacceptable hobbies that will not offend the Hightowers?

Haven’t seen any since Batman with jack nickolson as the joker.

I like TV and movies that I enjoy while I’m watching it and immediately forget once it’s over. A lot of the Marvel stuff seems to fit that bill.

I've not read any of the 4 pages yet,

however, as someone that read comics up until maybe 10 yrs ago, (mostly DC and Indie stuff) I've gotten to the point I skip right past them all,


the first Iron Man was good,
the various Batman's (esp the Dark Knight Trilogy, it was done very well just like the trade paperback) are great,

even the early F4 and original Spiderman movie was good,

but the rest just suck,

it seems that the theme is as follows,

look at me , super person,
oh no, here comes super villain,

oops,, we just destroyed 2 or 4 cities to save the world from super villainy, (you never get a body count,, which has to be astronomical)

hey,, we are heroes, we captured/kilt or RUNNOFT the villain, (and only kilt most of earth in the process)

quote:

Originally posted by Steyn:

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by Steyn:
This stuff is for pre-teens, and for « adults » who refuse to grow. Real men read real books, date women, practice sports, build stuff, raise kids. Comic books are for the mentally underdeveloped.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

If you are implying that I am badly educated, well, I am not Samuel Clemens or Henry Mencken, but I did finish my university course at the very top of my class of 40. I also have a library of 1200 volumes, in five languages.

Yup. Comic books are for people with delayed development. The same people who think that a bicycle is a transportation method for adults, that “the Avengers” is as much as a piece of creative art as “the Divine Comedy” etc.

Whatever floats one’s boat: I am all for people consuming whatever pablum and watery beer they want. It’s just not real culture or acceptable entertainment for an adult man.

so much fail in this post

I didn't read comic books as a kid. Seeing some of my friends collect them and going with them a few times to the comic stores to find some or another special number issues, and seeing the whole obsession with keeping them in a "never read" condition in those plastic sleeve "comic condoms" was enough for me do decide not to follow.

Growing up in the 70's and 80's and seeing all the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies in the theater was a huge thing. Waiting for them to come out and wondering what would happen next was a big part of living in that time. Of course I watched the Christopher Reeve Superman movies (well the first three) and the Michael Keaton Batman movies because they were popular. Wonder Woman was on TV too, and Linda Carter was pretty hot.

With regard to Marvel - it started with Iron Man, which I liked. Just a rich genius with cool toys, no supernatural powers. Sorta plausible. Not really, but it's a movie. I watched them, and the first Avengers, and picked up Thor and some others along the way. My son is almost 18 so he was just a few years old when they started and they are more or less age appropriate for teenage boys so we watched most of them too. The second Avengers I think I watched on an international flight.

And then it got all pear shaped with too many movies. I think my son had Guardians of the Galaxy on at some point and I didn't pay much attention. Then I saw Black Panther on a date (her idea) and with the next Avengers coming up I got caught up on the rest with my son - The second Captain America, Guardians I and II, Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, the remaining Thor movies. In order for the second to last Avengers movies to make any sense at all you have so see all the others, even the ones you thought were throwaways. And then a key plot point of the last Avengers is what happened in Ant-Man and Wasp, another seeming throwaway. I can't imagine watching the last two Avengers without the backstories. It would not make any sense at all. I hadn't seen Captain Marvel yet and she saves the day and it's like "WTF was she the whole time?"

Anyway, Iron Man is good on its own. I saw the third in China - normal soundtrack with Chinese subtitles so it was fine, except the surgeons in the Chinese version were Chinese and spoke Mandarin with no English subtitles so I had to ask my friend what they said. But if I didn't have a son of the right age to watch them with and help me make sense of them I wouldn't have bothered.

Transformers 1 was funny, but they got way too elaborate and complicated as they went on. I lost interest in X-men, but the Wolverine standalones were pretty good. The Christian Bale Batman series was good. Again a rich guy with cool toys, not a supernatural. But the current DC stuff is just bad. Really bad.

Now that my son is older we watch a lot more war movies. Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Pacific, Enemy at the Gates, We Were Soldiers, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, and all the other good ones.

Something you may not know - China is a huge market for super hero movies because the government does not permit R-rated content in theaters or "legitimate" media sources, and no true adult content anywhere (they ban and block it, but of course people can find it). Yeah, you can get bootlegs of almost anything. But overall the market is huge for PG-13 movies with action and comic violence but not a lot of blood and gore. Certainly can't have realistic war movies, and no nudity is allowed on screen so what else are they going to watch?

I enjoy most of them as light entertainment, some more than others. In general, my interest is waning as they grind out more. But in terms of the MCU, they are still pretty good, and some were very good.

They will churn along until they stop making money and start losing money.

I'm exactly the opposite. It's mindless escapism that I enjoy, and my family loves them.

I loved them until recently, when they got woke starting around The Avengers-Endgame. Full disclosure: I grew up in the 80s before the internets and cable TV, so comic books were a thing for me.

As for the movies, I strongly agree with Aeteocles' post on page 1. The Avengers movies are kind of a bad place to start. Go in chronological order with Marvel and they'll be a lot better for you.

The outstanding Marvel movies are the first and third Iron Man, both Captain America movies (especially Winter Soldier), and Avengers Infinity War. These are guilty fun.

As for DC, the first Superman "Man of Steel" (2013) with Henry Cavill is fantastic and has a great message. Wonder Woman (2017) and Aquaman are very good, too.

The very best are the 3 Chris Nolan-directed Batman movies with Christian Bale. Nothing else even comes close. They're serious, not campy, and the 3 movies get better as they go along.

You couldn't tie me to a chair and make me watch any of the old stuff. Old Superman series, old Batman series, and any of the stupid Batman movies from the 80s and 90s with all that Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher crap. Nope.

Maybe I missed it in the first 3.5 pages but anyone not starting their "Best Marvel Movies" with:

LOGAN

is >>>smoking fucking dope<<<.

Who tf is Logan?

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Who tf is Logan?

You messing with me right now? Man, don't watch it with the kids but its fantastic!

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Originally posted by OttoSig:

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Who tf is Logan?

You messing with me right now? Man, don't watch it with the kids but its fantastic!

Nothing like a rated-R X-men movie with Logan (Wolverine) slicing up everyone in his way and a Dr. Xavier with dementia that cannot control his brain powers and stop cursing like a sailor.

Logan was good. Some of the early comic book movies from the late 90's and very early 2000's were OK. When I was a kid, I liked Batman so some of those films, I enjoy. Most of the rest of it... meh.

Watched this earlier, and it seemed appropriate to post. NWS, of course.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Who tf is Logan?

The Drinker...


Definitely not a family movie.

I enjoyed Captain America, Deadpool, Spiderman and Venom the most. I really haven't watched them all.
Deadpool's sarcasm is fun plus he will call out other characters movies. Such as his One-eyed Willie joke.

Venom is good because its a darker character. I would like to see more of Venom.

Oh, why didn't y'all just say Wolverine?

I may have to check that one out

quote:

Originally posted by jbourneidentity:
The very best are the 3 Chris Nolan-directed Batman movies with Christian Bale. Nothing else even comes close. They're serious, not campy, and the 3 movies get better as they go along.

I've seen The Dark Knight Rises more than once and I agree it's a fine film due mostly to director Nolan. I do enjoy Tom Hardy's character, although he spends the entire film with that gadget on his face.

Also, I watched Joker, mainly out of curiosity at what the PC fascists don't like about it.

Other than that and brief exposure to seizure-inducing movie trailers that manage to cram seventy-five edits into ninety second clips, I've stayed away from all of it.

Mostly, I haven't liked many of these films. It is too easy to allow special effects and excessive amounts of action and explosions to substitute for actual story-telling and characters.

But some have been well done. The Christian Bale Batman movies were good. I enjoyed the comedy and the tone of the first Deadpool movie. One or two of the X-men movies have been enjoyable enough, although I can't tell you which titles.