Movies are awesome

[Sparky Prime]

The Incredibles really is the best Fantastic Four movie to date. It's interesting that Fantastic Four: First Steps is reportedly going to take place in the 1960s. Makes me wonder if Marvel is taking a page from The Incredibles, since it took place in the 60s or 70s. Either way, I just hope they do a better job of it.

[andersonh1]

I liked the 2005 FF film, but not this one. I'm mainly a DC guy, but the Fantastic Four are my favorite Marvel characters. I'm seriously hoping they get the upcoming movie right.

I always feel conflicted on an FF movie, because I always hope it's going to be good, but then I also think, "Will it ever be as good as The Incredibles?" Pixar set the FF bar SUPER high.

I agree, they certainly did. Still, Marvel might pull it off this time. I do enjoy the 2005 and 2007 movies though. They got more right than they got wrong, in my opinion.

[Sparky Prime]

Rise of the Silver Surfer I'd have to say had some big things wrong with it. Having Galactus only show up as a shadow in a cloud that is single handedly destroyed by Silver Surfer in particular was really bad. I think they should have just focused on Silver Surfer as the 'villain' of the film, with the climax having Silver Surfer summon Galactus, just before the FF are able to convince him to help them defend Earth instead. Then in a 3rd film, they could have fully introduced Galactus as he arrives at Earth and begins to set up his devices to suck the life out of Earth as Surfer and the FF team up to stop him.

I didn't mind that they 'unfroze' Doom, although I think they could have come up with something better than 'the Surfer flies past his castle causing Doom to wake up'. I also don't think he should have fought with the FF in this film. Rather, I think he should have stayed in the background, built up his revenge plot for a future sequel. And they shouldn't have regenerated him to his normal human looks. It takes away from Doom as a character if he has no reason to wear the mask.

Having Torch swapping powers could have been interesting... The antics Thing pulls with it was funny, but Invisible Woman loosing her clothes again was a tired joke that I felt the first film overplayed. Then they somehow give Johnny all 4 powers in the final fight with Doom, which we didn't know they could do since that's not how it worked at any other point in the film. How'd he keep his flame powers when it was always a straight swap of powers earlier in the film? Granted, this is the first time they attempted to swap more than one power at a time, but then, they make it seem like they already knew Johnny would get all four powers. It also sort of takes away from the message in the first film that they're stronger when they work together as a team. I think this would have been a better plot device in a film where the villain was Super Skrull, albeit still working as a team rather than one FF member going mono e mono.

They could have cut out some of the wedding preparations at the beginning... I like the wedding itself, but a lot leading up to it makes the movie drag. Like the whole bachelor party, and Sue getting mad, only to immediately forgive Reed because she says her bachelorette party was more wild.

I do like the movie more than the 2015 reboot, but... Well there is a reason why they decided to reboot after this movie.

[Sparky Prime]

The Amazing Spider-Man 1&2 - Recently re-watched both of these films. Both are mixed. I didn't think it was really necessary to completely rehash the origin story again (even if I think they handle it a little better than the Rami films), especially when a bunch of other super hero films were coming out by then, all doing their own origin stories, so it was quickly becoming a tired plot. That said... it's interesting that there is a focus on Peter's parents, since none of the other films establish why Peter was raised by his Aunt and Uncle. But they make Spider-Man a dark character in ASM. Peter comes off angry throughout the film, and doesn't develop the Spider-Man identity until he starts fighting crime, looking for the burglar that killed Uncle Ben. Which feels like they forgot about once the Lizard is introduced. I get stopping Connors is Peter's priority at that point, but Peter never even mentions looking for the burglar ever again. As Spider-Man he's a bit more lighthearted and can have fun with with it, but he also comes off vindictive at times. The sequel does better with the tone... At least until the end when they killed off Gwen. Which doesn't feel like the message the rest of the movie was going for. They make a big deal out of Peter feeling guilty for betraying the promise he made Captain Stacy, and Gwen wanting to make her own choices. And then they prove Captain Stacy right. ASM2 is the product of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, two of the worst writers in Hollywood, and have a habit of throwing in absurd plot twists and holes. Sony didn't help matters either, as they wanted to use the movie as a vehicle to launch their own MCU to build up the Sinister Six. Don't really see the point of a spin off centered around a Spider-Man villain without Spider-Man.... Which they've ended up doing anyway. But the result ends up being way too much being introduced in this film which ultimately didn't go anywhere.

I really like the cast in this iteration of Spider-Man films. There was a lot of potential here, just too bad the writers and Sony didn't deliver. But on the bright side, at least we got Spider-Man in the MCU, and No Way Home.

[Sparky Prime]

Captain America: Brave New World

This was an odd film. It felt like two different plots that got scotch taped together. I think they started out trying for a political thriller akin to the Winter Soldier, but it becomes a semi-sequel to the Incredible Hulk movie. Honestly, I think this would have worked better if they had made it a Hulk movie instead. A big problem being that Sam had no connection to Ross or Sterns. They do somewhat back-build one with Ross, given Ross was in charge of enforcing the Sokovia Accords. Unfortunately, we never saw any of that. And now they have a working relationship with Ross recently elected President, but again, too much is handled mostly off screen to make it seem like these two characters have a relationship we've never actually seen on screen.


I like that we finally got to see what became of Samuel Sterns after all these years. I don't like the design they ended up going with though. It's been shown, originally they gave him a more comic book accurate look with an enlarged cranium, but changed it to more of a exposed looking brain during reshoots for some reason. So, with his increased intelligence, he's capable of calculating how likely outcomes are. Supposedly. I mean, if he was as intelligent as he says he is, I don't understand why he didn't escape earlier, or why he believed Ross would let him go after he helped him get elected President. And then his plan to get Ross to turn into a Hulk and fight the Japanese fleet fails. And his only contingency plan to make Ross transform is to turn himself in? Think after 14 years imprisoned, he would have come up with a better plan... At any rate, not really sure why he needed to involve Sam with his plot. Sterns does explain he needed the situation to escalate to improve the probability for the outcome he wanted, but it never felt like it had to be Sam Wilson.

Sidewinder and Red Hulk were largely wasted. Sidewinder was basically just a glorified middleman. Not that I expected him to be the main villain here, but being played by Giancarlo Esposito, I expected the character to play a more significant role. They do leave the door open for him to make a return, but he needed a stronger first appearance if they want him to be a more significant villain later. Ross, I like that he's trying to be a better person, but his past actions quickly catch up with him, putting him at odds with that. Not sure why he'd trust Sterns with providing him medication. They do explain Sterns was the only one to come up with a treatment for his heart but... this was dumb. Why is Sterns making the pills from his prison? And he's able to put Gamma radiation into them in increasing doses? How? So Ross becomes Red Hulk and it's a pretty anti-climatic fight between him and Sam before Sam ultimately talks him down... Even though he tried that earlier in the fight and decided it didn't work.

So yeah, odd movie. I noticed there were a lot of writers credited with this film, so I think it's a situation of too many cooks. Which is disappointing for Sam Wilson's first solo film as Captain America.