The Avengers?

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Bought it on blu-ray, and it's still the best movie of the year, but Wreck-It Ralph still has the potential to dethrone it.

...And in my opinion, it is even better on blu-ray. Wreck-It-Ralph does look intriguing, though.

Speaking of Joss Whedon, I also bought The Cabin in the Woods on blu-ray. Saw it in the theater and I loved it, I don't see why it won't be any different on blu-ray, except maybe I won't hear screaming kids in the room.

I've heard a lot of good things about this movie, and it is a breakout year for Whedon. He deserves it.

My big problem with TDKR was how anticlimactic the final battle was, but the closing sequence soon after was done brilliantly, and actually improved the overall film's quality by several notches.

I will agree with this. Even though the entire film was predictable and uninspired, the ending was well-earned catharsis.
In a way, it was rewarding to see the poster child of brood find meaning and happiness in his life beyond kicking baddies in the face.

Now it's time to make Batman Beyond movies, with Michael Keaton showing up in the "and" credits as elderly Bruce Wayne.

Man...that's asking for too much. Warner Bros. isn't that audacious. Bats and Supes are nothing but cash cows to them.
And they're going to reboot the character in the upcoming Justice League project (which I still believe is a mistake).

 

[Mal12345]

I watched this stinker called The Avengers for the second time recently. I noticed a blooper (maybe) that I don't recall mentioned by the critics at the time the movie came out summer 2012.

According to the wikipedia entry on The Avengers:
"The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises Loki an army with which he can subjugate Earth."

But what it doesn't mention is that the Other threatened Loki with a punishment worse than pain in case he fails.

At the end of the movie, Wikipedia states, "In the first of two post-credits scenes, the Other confers with his master about the failed attack on Earth and humanity's strength..."

So where was Loki's punishment? Or is that Other guy all talk?

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Maybe they have bigger fish to fry (since they got their asses handed to them). Maybe he was "all talk". Maybe the Other can't reach him in Asgard. Maybe it will be a plot point in the upcoming Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Part II, etc.

I wouldn't call this a blooper, per se. That plot thread with Thanos and co. isn't closed--in fact, it hasn't really even begun.

(btw, just saw the new Capt. America trailer--looks badass, surprisingly).

 

[Mal12345]

Maybe they have bigger fish to fry. Maybe he was "all talk". Maybe the Other can't reac him in Asgard. Maybe it will be a plot point in the upcoming Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Part II, etc.

I wouldn't call this a blooper, per se. That plot thread with Thanos and co. isn't closed--in fact, it hasn't really even begun.

Maybe this, maybe that. I don't like comic book movies that much. The poster for the movie even looks like a typical comic book cover - the two or three most popular characters in front, the less popular characters in the back.

For example, in this cover Aquaman is relegated to the back of the line:

I still can't get over the fact that in the final battle some of the Avengers were holding their right hands up to their ears and talking into space, thus enabling other Avengers to somehow hear them.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Maybe this, maybe that. I don't like comic book movies that much.

Nobody is forcing you to watch them.
That said, I am sick of them, too.

The poster for the movie even looks like a typical comic book cover - the two or three most popular characters in front, the less popular characters in the back.

For example, in this cover Aquaman is relegated to the back of the line:

Marketing. Aquaman doesn't sell merchandise--Superman does.
Superman also has a more colorful, eye-catching costume.

Comics are a business after all. Gotta get dat paper.

I still can't get over the fact that in the final battle some of the Avengers were holding their right hands up to their ears and talking into space, thus enabling other Avengers to somehow hear them.

Pretty sure in a movie featuring raging-id giant green monsters, bio-mechanical alien invaders who open portals in the sky, star-spangled super soldiers who throw metallic boomerang frisbees at foes and Norse Gods that wield enchanted mallets that allow the beholder trans-dimensional travel, you're meant to suspend disbelief...just a tad.

 

[Mal12345]

Nobody is forcing you to watch them.
That said, I am sick of them, too.



Marketing. Aquaman doesn't sell merchandise--Superman does.



Pretty sure in a movie featuring raging-id giant green monsters, bio-mechanical alien invaders who open portals in the sky, star-spangled super soldiers who throw metallic boomerang frisbees at foes and Norse Gods that wield enchanted mallets that allow the beholder tran-dimensional travel, you're meant to suspend disbelief...just a tad.

I suspend disbelief when I see monsters flying around using anti-gravity or something. I suspend disbelief when I see all those monsters collapse at once when the mothership is defeated and the portal is closed.

But there's got to be a mechanism of communication.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Meh.

 

[Mal12345]

Meh.

Oh yes, I also suspend disbelief when it comes to the technology that went into Ironman's suit. But he can't possibly control his direction of flight using just his body or arms.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Cool.

 

[Seymour]

Oh yes, I also suspend disbelief when it comes to the technology that went into Ironman's suit. But he can't possibly control his direction of flight using just his body or arms.

Two answers:

One is flight surfaces, is a small nod to reality. Another is use of his hand thrusters (in combination with flight surfaces).

It's all fantastic silliness, but they do provide a small patina of possible technology.

Still, I found all the creatures collapsing when the dimensional portal was closed to be off-putting. A word or two of explanation would have helped... an overlay of alternate physics (a little like Vernor Vinge's regions of space)? A high tech network that the creatures had become dependent on? Some of kind of energy transmission? Just seemed lame without a veneer of pseudo-physics.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Two answers:

One is flight surfaces, is a small nod to reality. Another is use of his hand thrusters (in combination with flight surfaces).

It's all fantastic silliness, but they do provide a small patina of possible technology.

Still, I found all the creatures collapsing when the dimensional portal was closed to be off-putting. A word or two of explanation would have helped... an overlay of alternate physics (a little like Vernor Vinge's regions of space)? A high tech network that the creatures had become dependent on? Some of kind of energy transmission? Just seemed lame without a veneer of pseudo-physics.

I never watched the movie, but I have thoughts on this line of discussion.

For me, I've always preferred the work of fiction to not attempt to explain and validate these things. I already know that it's bullshit, and nothing will make it stop being bullshit. Thus any attempt to talk about it like it isn't bullshit is A) a waste of time, and B) an insult to my intelligence.

The only time a detailed explanation is worth something is if it is of practical plot importance, and if that be the case, the author must try extremely hard to not forget or break their own rules. Man that pisses me off.

 

[Seymour]

I never watched the movie, but I have thoughts on this line of discussion.

For me, I've always preferred the work of fiction to not attempt to explain and validate these things. I already know that it's bullshit, and nothing will make it stop being bullshit. Thus any attempt to talk about it like it isn't bullshit is A) a waste of time, and B) an insult to my intelligence.

The only time a detailed explanation is worth something is if it is of practical plot importance, and if that be the case, the author must try extremely hard to not forget or break their own rules. Man that pisses me off.

Well, it depends... the movie didn't go into depth about the flight surfaces, just showed them in some scenes (adding a bit of verisimilitude).

There are cases where the stated explanation makes no sense, and that's distracting. There are other cases where what's displayed leaves a big plot hole, and sentence or two would spackle over it.

As with theories of rhetoric, it only pays to preemptively fight arguments if they are already in people's minds, or if they are likely to exposed to them (as a kind of inoculation). Otherwise, it just weakens one's own points.

 

[Mal12345]

Two answers:

One is flight surfaces, is a small nod to reality. Another is use of his hand thrusters (in combination with flight surfaces).

It's all fantastic silliness, but they do provide a small patina of possible technology.

The answer at the second link was "antigravity" - a small possibility indeed, based on the fact that he put the suit together in a cave.

Still, I found all the creatures collapsing when the dimensional portal was closed to be off-putting. A word or two of explanation would have helped... an overlay of alternate physics (a little like Vernor Vinge's regions of space)? A high tech network that the creatures had become dependent on? Some of kind of energy transmission? Just seemed lame without a veneer of pseudo-physics.

Magic?