Man of Steel - Your thoughts — Page 5

In an ideal world, this film should have killed the whole superhero trend in Hollywood. But it's being kept alive years after people stopped caring about superheroes, but since they have to compete with the internet and now pander to the Chinese for international releases, it's the only thing playing nowadays. It's fucking horrible; we keep getting the same stories and the same familiar elements over and over again. The situation is so bad that I now only go to the movies one or twice a year since anything good is rarely shown in theaters. 

Hollywood is turning into this sadistic machine charging us fifty dollars for three hour atrocities that destroy every cultural icon in its path (Star Trek, Superman, etc.). The American film industry has been in an irreversible artistic decline ever since Heaven's Gate bombed  nearly 35 years ago. They are becoming more and more crypto-fascist with every passing year, with a new low achieved seemingly every week. Someone needs to wipe Hollywood permanently off the map and spare humanity the misery they spew out every single day.

I know. God to I really hate Adam Sandler. Who did he bribe to get a spot on SNL 20+ years ago? It was the worst thing to happen in the history of comedy. 

Back on topic, how many superhero movies are left this summer? How many are we facing next year? Are there going to be even more in 2015!? Can we get the Geneva Convention to intervene?

SilverWook said:

I've been hearing most of the same complaints about Hollywood for decades now. (Ever since that shark movie came out in '75.) The major difference is the industry used to be accused of pandering to the youth market.

And yet, the mature themed, more serious Oscar contending films still seem to come out every fall.

If people didn't care about Superheroes, who are all those people dyeing their underwear and running around conventions? ;)

The first blockbusters of the 70s-80s were good, though. They respected film grammar, they weren't bloated special effects experiences, they weren't rehashes of pop culture institutions the audience were familiar with, and they treated audiences like adults instead of consumers. 

For the Oscar bait movies, they just nominate the same 10 pretentious dramas released in the last six weeks of the year every single year. For every Godfather that wins best picture there are at least 15-20 Crash(s) that end up winning. They are just as terrible as the loud summer blockbusters of he last few years, we just don't notice because we are so burned out by November.

i have nothing against superheroes, but the superhero movie trend has long overstayed their welcome. The modern trend began with x-men all the way back in 2000 (yeah I know about batman 89, but that wave died with Steel back in 97). Its become too competitive nowadays for a film like Easy Rider or Midnight Cowboy to revitalize the industry because no one in Hollywood can't take risks anymore. Hence they just stick to the same genre again and again, and then try to squeeze money out of the audience with more sadistic measures. They can't recover because of he Internet and overseas box office profits.

generalfrevious said:

SilverWook said:

I've been hearing most of the same complaints about Hollywood for decades now. (Ever since that shark movie came out in '75.) The major difference is the industry used to be accused of pandering to the youth market.

And yet, the mature themed, more serious Oscar contending films still seem to come out every fall.

If people didn't care about Superheroes, who are all those people dyeing their underwear and running around conventions? ;)

The first blockbusters of the 70s-80s were good, though. They respected film grammar, they weren't bloated special effects experiences, they weren't rehashes of pop culture institutions the audience were familiar with, and they treated audiences like adults instead of consumers. 

For the Oscar bait movies, they just nominate the same 10 pretentious dramas released in the last six weeks of the year every single year. For every Godfather that wins best picture there are at least 15-20 Crash(s) that end up winning. They are just as terrible as the loud summer blockbusters of he last few years, we just don't notice because we are so burned out by November.

i have nothing against superheroes, but the superhero movie trend has long overstayed their welcome. The modern trend began with x-men all the way back in 2000 (yeah I know about batman 89, but that wave died with Steel back in 97). Its become too competitive nowadays for a film like Easy Rider or Midnight Cowboy to revitalize the industry because no one in Hollywood can't take risks anymore. Hence they just stick to the same genre again and again, and then try to squeeze money out of the audience with more sadistic measures. They can't recover because of he Internet and overseas box office profits.

I have stopped going to the cinema now... The last film I saw was the Hobbit... That confirmed what you just said in a way...

So I just get DVD's now and hunt about for older films with more going for them...Although there are some good new films I just wait for them to come out on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Cinema is expensive and on top of that you end up sitting next to somone rustling away in a crisp packet or bag of sweets

Rustlers in the cinema are a deal breaker they make the ticket price worthless and ruin the experience.

Rustling should be banned... And packaging should be altered for cinemas so it does not make noise.. People should also be strip searched and have items that can make rustling noises confiscated and then returned after the movie.

Why do these people feel the need to constantly eat while watching a movie?

Then you get the talkers... People who lose interest not surprisingly at most films today but decide rather than get up and leave they will just sit there talking with there mates and ruin it for others who are interested.

Then if it is a busy performance and you need to adhere to seating numbers your bound to have to sit behind a 7ft hulk of a man or some woman with a massive hair do....

When I went to see the Hobbit a Down syndrome Kid kept standing up and shouting in the middle of the film across the seats at the minder that took him who could not be bothered to sit with him. Far from being the kids fault but this minder was being paid and just left him in different seats to have a break from it... Man if you are going to do that atleast be there for them instead of skulking away across to the other side of the cinema and when he shouts out this guy just turned around and waved his hand at him.... Pretty Bad if you ask me how uncaring can you get. 

It's just not worth it.

Ronster said:

Rustlers in the cinema are a deal breaker they make the ticket price worthless and ruin the experience.

Rustling should be banned... And packaging should be altered for cinemas so it does not make noise.. People should also be strip searched and have items that can make rustling noises confiscated and then returned after the movie.

I've never experienced the problem with "rustlers" but it sounds really annoying. In the states nothing you can buy in the cinema makes rustling, and you're not allowed to take food in, so anything big and bulky like even a small bag of crisps would be pretty noticeable unless smuggled in a handbag.

As for searches and temporary confiscations... No thanks! If they take my flask away, how am I going to be able to make it all the way through that crappy movie I just paid to see?

Then if it is a busy performance and you need to adhere to seating numbers your bound to have to sit behind a 7ft hulk of a man or some woman with a massive hair do...

I'm 6' 2 and have often had pity on the short person sitting behind me in crowded showings and chosen to spend the duration of the movie slumped in my seat. So many frustrating memories of being a kid, getting the perfect seat in a movie I have been looking forward to seeing, then feeling my heart sink as some tall person sits directly in front of me and makes the whole event a chore of constantly dodging their head to see what is going on in the middle of the screen.

Fortunately, stadium style seating has become the norm and makes a big difference.

The thing that has been ruining movies for me lately are those damn ushers with their glow sticks.

It is hard not to be distracted from the movie by some bulky 300lb. cinema employee clunking up and down the aisles while waving a glowing blue rod around.

I think this policy was adopted by theaters in the US after The Dark Night Rises shooting. I've don't recall ever seeing them do that sort of thing prior to the later half of last year. They do it several times per movie. So very distracting.

It's not the audience that I have a problem with; it the thuggery of an industry that churns out horrible movie after horrible movie and constantly changes for the worse. Where is our generation's Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola? They can never come into the spotlight today because the marketing side of the industry has long ago obliterated the artistic aspect, fearing that taking risks equals making the next Heaven's Gate. Think of all the classic films in American cinema: Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Vertigo, etc. There is absolutely no chance in hell today that they would be made, because they would not help the Chinese box office or be familiar enough for the middle American to buy a ticket to see. Even films like There Will Be Blood and Mulholland Dr couldn't get made in the Hollywood climate of 2013 because they keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars in superhero reboots to stay relevant in public eye. The problem is that the superhero genre has worn itself out already; but there is no genre to take its place, so were stuck with the latest Superman or Spiderman reboot.

CP3S said:

Ronster said:

Rustlers in the cinema are a deal breaker they make the ticket price worthless and ruin the experience.

Rustling should be banned... And packaging should be altered for cinemas so it does not make noise.. People should also be strip searched and have items that can make rustling noises confiscated and then returned after the movie.

I've never experienced the problem with "rustlers" but it sounds really annoying. In the states nothing you can buy in the cinema makes rustling, and you're not allowed to take food in, so anything big and bulky like even a small bag of crisps would be pretty noticeable unless smuggled in a handbag.

As for searches and temporary confiscations... No thanks! If they take my flask away, how am I going to be able to make it all the way through that crappy movie I just paid to see?

 

Then if it is a busy performance and you need to adhere to seating numbers your bound to have to sit behind a 7ft hulk of a man or some woman with a massive hair do...

I'm 6' 2 and have often had pity on the short person sitting behind me in crowded showings and chosen to spend the duration of the movie slumped in my seat. So many frustrating memories of being a kid, getting the perfect seat in a movie I have been looking forward to seeing, then feeling my heart sink as some tall person sits directly in front of me and makes the whole event a chore of constantly dodging their head to see what is going on in the middle of the screen.

Fortunately, stadium style seating has become the norm and makes a big difference.

The height point is so true. I'm 6' 5 and when I go to the cinema, which has become increasingly rare, I also feel the need to watch the film in a slumped position. Which initially is fine, but as the film ticks by it becomes uncomfortable and invariably leads to concentration issues. 

generalfrevious said: For every Godfather that wins best picture there are at least 15-20 Crash(s) that end up winning.

what was wrong with Crash?   I thought it was a very good movie.

generalfrevious said:

 Its become too competitive nowadays for a film like Easy Rider or Midnight Cowboy to revitalize the industry because no one in Hollywood can't take risks anymore.

I know,  I'd like to see someone take the risk of making a black and white 4:3 silent movie.   But you can't take that risk.   Oh wait . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Artist_%28film%29

CP3S said:

The thing that has been ruining movies for me lately are those damn ushers with their glow sticks.

It is hard not to be distracted from the movie by some bulky 300lb. cinema employee clunking up and down the aisles while waving a glowing blue rod around.

I think this policy was adopted by theaters in the US after The Dark Night Rises shooting. I've don't recall ever seeing them do that sort of thing prior to the later half of last year. They do it several times per movie. So very distracting.

haven't noticed that in movie theaters I go to.

CP3S said:

As for searches and temporary confiscations... No thanks!

I say they should do that for cell phones.   I can't stand people using their cell phones in the theater.    They should do the same thing for church.    As much as I can't stand people using their cells phones during a movie,  I really, really, REALLY, can't stand it when people use their cell phones during a church service.

^ Ah yes, cell phones. A constant pain in the arse.

I'm fed up with seeing phones light up constantly through a film because jerk offs have to check to see if a text message has come through. How frigging sad is that, that people can not sit for two hours without checking their phones.

Warbler said:

generalfrevious said:

 Its become too competitive nowadays for a film like Easy Rider or Midnight Cowboy to revitalize the industry because no one in Hollywood can't take risks anymore.

I know,  I'd like to see someone take the risk of making a black and white 4:3 silent movie.   But you can't take that risk.   Oh wait . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Artist_%28film%29

 

I agree with Warbler. I think the state of modern films isn't as dire as a lot of people make it out to be.

I'm willing to bet there have been more great films made in the last ten years than any ten year period prior. I think your perception is made by a variety of factors, one of which is you know Citizen Kane of 1941, because it was a great film, but all those crappy films of 1941 are long forgotten. You remember the Godfather of 1972, but the mediocre to crappy films of 1972 have been forgotten. It is easy to go back and watch every memorable film of previous decades and think, Wow, movies were so much better back then! You don't take into account all those B movies and serials that kids used to go see on Saturdays for one weekend only before being shipped off to the next theater, or films that weren't as well made, or simply just didn't resonate like Citizen Kane did.

Those have essentially been replaced with comic book movies and dumb action blockbusters. Which brings us to another factor in the perception of movies having gone to shit. More of these types of films are made, because they are so marketable, they appeal to a wide audience, bring in droves of movie goers, and sell scores of toys and merchandise. But you still have guys out there like Danny Boyle, Darren Aronofsky, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Wes Anderson, the Coen brothers, Guillermo del Toro, to name just a very small number off the top of my head, who are still out there making meaningful, well written and preformed films.

I used to belong to the, We're all doomed! Film isn't what it use to be! camp, but after taking a step back and looking around, I don't feel like there is really much to complain about. I have more highly acclaimed films I think I will probably really like on my to-watch-list than I have time to watch, with more inevitably on the way. There are still so many good movies out there. It wasn't like in the 1940's you could walk into a cinema any day of the year and see a Citizen Kane or Casablanca. We're in the same boat we've always been in, only now film making is more prolific than ever, and inevitably, there is going to be a lot of chaff to sift through. Whether or not you should avoid a movie is a no brainer. It isn't like you go to see a film like Iron Man 3, The Hangover 7, or The Bourne Identity 5 expecting to see some cinematic masterpiece, and if you are, there is your problem right there. 

Here an exercise for you, take an actor you really love from that "golden age of Hollywood", find as many films staring them as you can from their most popular period and have yourself a marathon. I'll use Bogart as an example, because he was pretty awesome IMHO, you'll find he plays the same damn role over and over again, sometimes in some pretty mediocre to awful films. The small handful of films he is in that pretty much everyone has heard of, you'll find to be his best, which is why pretty much everyone had heard of them. Those ones you've never heard of are going to be hit or miss, and more often miss.

Will the sequel be called Man of Tungsten?

It could feature a villain called Drake Tungsten.

CP3S said: you'll find he plays the same damn role over and over again,

somewhat true (although the Cain Mutiny is a great example of him playing a very different character),  but he played that role very, very, well.   I've watched multiple versions of The Maltese Falcon, and no one could play Sam Spade anywhere near as well as Bogart.   

generalfrevious said:

 

Hollywood is turning into this sadistic machine charging us fifty dollars for three hour atrocities that destroy every cultural icon in its path (Star Trek, Superman, etc.). The American film industry has been in an irreversible artistic decline ever since Heaven's Gate bombed  nearly 35 years ago. They are becoming more and more crypto-fascist with every passing year, with a new low achieved seemingly every week. Someone needs to wipe Hollywood permanently off the map and spare humanity the misery they spew out every single day.

For Pete's sake, you sound ridiculous. What kind of theater do you go to that charges you fifty bucks a ticket??? And if you don't like those kinds of movies, stop going to see them! There is so much more out there in the world of cinema.

People like this stuff. So what? Let them have it, stop belly aching, and go see something decent. If superhero movies bug you, why on earth even muck around with them? And if you are not watching them, why do they bother you so much? If humanity is in such deep misery from the crap spewed out by Hollywood every day, then humanity seriously needs to get a grip.

Warbler said:

CP3S said: you'll find he plays the same damn role over and over again,

somewhat true (although the Cain Mutiny is a great example of him playing a very different character),  but he played that role very, very, well.   I've watched multiple versions of The Maltese Falcon, and no one could play Sam Spade anywhere near as well as Bogart.   

Yeah, no one could have played Sam Spade near as well as Bogart, because Bogart is awesome. A big part of the reason that film is so great is because Bogart owned the role and made it memorable.

But he did play similar roles over and over, and not every movie he is in is great or memorable. That is my point. You seem to get some people who fantasize that 1940's cinema was grab you by the ankles, flip you upside down, and slap you silly fantastic through and through and through and through. That wasn't the case. There was some great stuff then, there is some great stuff now, there will be some great stuff later. There was a lot of crappy stuff then, there is a lot of crappy stuff now, and there will be plenty more crappy stuff to come later. The great stuff will be remembered and passed onto future generations, while the crappy stuff will be replaced by newer flashier crappy stuff.

I have no memory of an uproar over Batman Returns Happy Meal toys.  I shall have to see if I can look this up. 

Speaking of toys http://theworldofkitsch.com/worldofkitsch/mad-men-action-figures just keep Don Draper away from Ragetty Ann ;)