The greatest superhero movie of all time
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Jenova_Project — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 10:37 AM)
I remember seeing a review for this movie, and the reviewer said that she thought the 80s atmosphere of the movie was really well done. I was dumbstruck; I had no idea how she could have said that I thought the movie missed a prime opportunity to take advantage of the time period.
My point is especially with very explicitly defined genre films like superhero action flicks, it is very possible for two people to see the same movie and have polar opposite responses. I certainly don't agree with a majority of what you said, but I understand WHY you say so.
I honestly fit somewhere in the middle. XMA is not transcendent enough to be great and not egregiously offensive to be bad. My favorite superhero films were always "First Class" and "Batman Begins," instead of X2 and Dark Knight. So, who knows. -
hafabee — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:06 PM)
Everyone has their own taste for sure, but regarding the 80's references there were a lot of nods towards sci-fi/fantasy films of the 80's hidden within, including
Tron
,
John Carpenter's The Thing
,
Superman II
,
The Keep
,
Return of the Jedi
, and
Prince of Darkness
. Each time I've seen the film I've noticed another homage! I'm sure there's a few still left to discover.
X-Men First Class
and
Batman Begins
are your favourites eh? I can think of one thing that both movies have in common; they're both character introductions and set-up their respective series, and in the case of those types of movies there's so much wiggle room, because you're not building off of anything that's pre-established, they are the fulcrum of their series. I can understand why they'd be someone's favourite because the room for story building is wide open (and both movies take full advantage of that) and they get to establish their characters in a fresh way. -
TheSolarSailor — 9 years ago(June 21, 2016 08:29 AM)
Some people were saying that it could be that he transferred to Psylocke's body at the end? Which is another possibility!
What are you talking about, if you don't mind me asking? I am a big fan of John Carpenter. I love The Thing and Prince of Darkness, but I don't recall anything in this movie that reminded me of them.
Speaking of Batman Begins, it is the only film in The Dark Knight Trilogy that I like to revisit every once in a while. Overall, the other two are bloated and just don't interest me that much for some odd reason. They were good, but I just don't really want to watch them again. Only Batman Begins draws me back.
I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.
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hafabee — 9 years ago(June 22, 2016 11:01 AM)
Sorry but what are you talking about, if you don't mind me asking? I have no idea what you mean by that quote, I don't even think I wrote it.
As for John Carpenter references I made a thread on it about 3 weeks ago but I guess it's been buried, too bad you didn't read it and contribute, being a big John Carpenter fan yourself. To summarize Apocalypse's awakening mirrors that of Satan's child in
Prince of Darkness
; he's been dormant for thousands of years buried underground and a curious woman investigates and awakens him, and he begins trying to take over people's bodies to increase his influence and power and to bring about a world-wide catastrophe. The tone of the movies are similar as well, both walking the fine-line between being over-the-top dramatically while still maintaining a strong sense of tension and suspense.
As for
John Carpenter's The Thing
, the assimilation process of Apocalypse mirrors that of the alien horror. Watch closely the next time you see X-Men Apocalypse; when he's on his stone slab and his essence starts moving out of his body, the energy tendrils that snake over to his intended victim look exactly the alien monster's assimilation process! It's really creepy.
My troubles with
Batman Begins
are the shoddy lighting and the sloppy cuts in editing. I'm also not a fan of the amateurish "shaky-cam" effects which were prevalent throughout the action scenes in the film. I for one appreciate nice smooth well-imagined camera shots, it separates the cinematic men from the boys (
Captain America Civil War
was shot far worse though, total amateur hour cinematography there, especially in the 1st act, it was atrocious and totally unprofessional). When I saw
Batman Begins
in the theatres the sound levels were all over the place too, although I think they fixed that before it went to home sales. In short, a lot of the technical work on the movie was poorly done, but yeah I love the story and most of the performances were tight as well. -
TheSolarSailor — 9 years ago(June 23, 2016 02:43 AM)
Thanks, hafabee, those are some interesting analogies to the Carpenter films. Yes, I am sorry I missed your thread about it. Thanks for answering! As for the quote, obviously it was from another thread/previous conversation and I failed to notice that I never copied your own comment.
I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.
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hafabee — 9 years ago(June 27, 2016 09:29 AM)
Okay yeah that makes sense! I have to admit it took me longer than it should have to realize that, I was trying to understand the context of your quote and was failing hard heh heh.
I'm a big John Carpenter fan myself, what do you think of them remaking
Big Trouble In Little China
? I think it's borderline sacrilegious! It's such a unique movie, remaking it seems like a terrible idea but I suppose I'll wait and see the trailers at least before passing final judgment on it, but I'm not impressed with the idea at all. -
bud-47 — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 10:52 AM)
Not sure what you're trying to do here. You've already shared your opinion on this film several times. We get that you really liked it, but this is starting to seem suspicious, bordering on shill territory.
I know you have this habit of looking at these films through rose-colored glasses and insisting that no matter what, Singer and Fox can do no wrong here. I admire your devotion and loyalty to Fox and these films and I can see you (and a few others here) are trying very hard to cheer this film on by trying to spread good word of mouth (even though it's theatrical run is nearly finished). But this film's mixed reception and relatively disappointing box office returns reflects a noticeable decline from DOFP. Either you're part of the minority that genuinely sees something that no one else does or there is another agenda here. -
hafabee — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:20 PM)
I don't have an agenda here beyond pleasure, you'll just have to take my word for it that I loved this movie, and a lot of recent X-Men movies including
Deadpool
and
X-Men Days of Future Past
.
I know a lot of people are liking that Bryan Singer is stepping down and that new directors will be taking over the series from now on, but I'm not. I think he's done a fantastic job with the series overall and I'm worried that the next X-Men movie won't live up to the recent tradition of excellence. The one good thing I can say about moving forward is the foundation that's been set is great; good cast of actors here and well established characters will go along way towards keeping the series good. But I do have my doubts about the quality being there with Singer's departure because the guy has been so committed to making great X-Men movies, it's obviously a labour of love for the guy, and personal movies to him as well seeing as how he's a gay man, and the central theme to these X-Men movies is the socio-political concept of "The Other".
In short, I likely won't get into future X-Men movies as much as the recent ones, but who knows, maybe they'll be excellent! Matthew Vaughn certainly did a great job with
X-Men First Class
, but again that was written and produced by Bryan Singer. -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:33 PM)
A new filmmaker is probably not gonna be capable of building the suspense and emotional investment that I got from this movie. Even though I know it all turns out well (given the end of DOFP), I was literally worried that they wouldn't reach the Professor in time. I was literally worried that they wouldn't be able to stop Apocalypse. But I was also wondering what they were planning with Jean and then, I felt overwhelmed with joy that they were going to give us The Phoenix that we always wanted to see. I don't feel that intensely when I watch Captain America or The Avengers movies or Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. Singer had a BIG HURDLE to leap over, suspending the audience's knowledge of what will happen (as he laid out in DOFP) and give those audiences some new thrills. And for my money, Singer succeeded in spades.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin. -
hafabee — 9 years ago(January 22, 2017 01:07 PM)
Agreed on pretty much every point, the X-Men movies have a level of tension, danger and suspense that I haven't seen from any other recent comic book movie endeavour save for Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, and I'm not sure you could even call those current anymore.
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LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 11:03 AM)
A week ago, weren't you saying that Apocalypse isn't quite as good as Days of Future Past?
I've seen Apocalypse 8 times and as entertaining as it is, I myself can't bring myself to say that this is more satisfying and fulfilling as DOFP. Singer may have raised the bar way too high with DOFP. Living up to it is gonna be a bitch.
However, that said, I think Apocalypse is a damn good superhero movie. I am far more emotional invested in X-Men: Apocalypse and all the characters in it than I am whenever I watch The Avengers.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin. -
hafabee — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:11 PM)
I think
X-Men Days of Future Past
is a better character-centric story, it was more intimate and had better character development in the case of Charles Xavier, I love his arc in
X-Men Days of Future Past
, but I like the action, style, villain, flow and wealth of characters in
X-Men Apocalypse
more. I think this was just a better all around superhero movie, a bigger challenge artistically (although
X-Men Days of Future Past
was expertly made and was a better dramatic movie) and more fun. I'm giving the edge to
X-Men Apocalypse
. -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:40 PM)
It was all wonderfully crafted to hook the audience, make them forget the end of DOFP and thrill the hell out of us. But I feel like there wasn't enough payoff for my investment.
Or maybe I'm paying too much attention to what the critics are saying.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin. -
hafabee — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:46 PM)
I seriously doubt that the critics' opinions affected you that much!
You just like other superhero movies better. To each their own, I've just been loving this movie more and more over time, and I went in pretty hyped for it too so it certainly had some large expectations of mine to overcome. I think it's a little bit more shallow than most of the X-Men movies have been, and I can understand that as being a complaint, but it's all so well performed and crafted that in my opinion, it still manages to upstage the likes of
X-Men Days of Future Past
and
X2
by a small margin, and any other superhero movie you can think of too. -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:50 PM)
Stop treating me like I'm not a fan. I'm here trying to defend this movie against incredibly backlash and it's all due to these peoples' lazy misunderstanding of the film's craftsmanship. As a novice filmmaker, getting to know his own skills with cinematography, that gets so frustrating for me.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin. -
hafabee — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 12:58 PM)
Oh I know you're a fan, I didn't mean anything by it, it's just that I have my doubts that critics affected your opinion on the movie much, you're a smart guy and know what you like and write well about your opinions too. Just because it's not your favourite doesn't mean you didn't like it! You so plainly did.
I don't know why the critics turned their noses up at this movie, to me it doesn't make any sense but it doesn't matter, I liked it! I'm just glad I didn't pay them much mind, most of them were way off on
X-Men Apocalypse
. -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 01:14 PM)
Again, I don't think they fcking realize what Singer had to do here and succeed at with this movie. He set up the fact that this universe has a bright happy future at the end of DOFP. I didn't think of the end of DOFP once while watching Apocalypse. In fact, I was so invested with what was going on in this film, it was hard to remember that Mystique saved Wolverine in the end of DOFP too. So, I had to put two and two together and realize that it's been 10 years since the events of DOFP and so much could've happened in that time.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin.