Aquaman (new 2018 DC film)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Vidiot, Dec 25, 2018.

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  1. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I much preferred Wonder Woman, but from all reports, the new Wonder Woman 1984 is going to be even better. I think DC might be on a roll.
     
  2. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    Generations of recognition?

    If you meant “Kids of the 70s remembering the lame guy from Super Friends who talked to fish,” I guess that’s one way to put it. That seems to be the image most people have of the character.

    This Aquaman is more “Aquabro,” but Momoa is clearly having fun with it. Sure beats Affleck’s dreary Batman, or their goofy, neurotic Flash (For the record, I really like Henry Cavill as Supes even if the writing hasn’t always done him, er, justice).

    Anyhow, this take on Aquaman seems closer to the Peter David (comics) revamp of the 90s — and the similar take from the (pretty great) Justice League animated series of the early-mid 2000s. But, again, with more of Momoa’s own personality. Also, for now, this Aquaman still has both of his hands.:D

    I saw the movie today. I would hardly call it “great,” but it was big, goofy fun. Clunky in places, and certainly in dialogue, but Momoa mostly holds it together. A comic book movie that really leaned into being a “comic book,” and was unapologetic about it. I respect that. Nice change from most of the other DCU entries to this point. Even if it was derivative of about half a dozen other films.

    This is no award winner, but it is fun. I giggled a lot. In a good way.
     
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  3. neo123

    neo123 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Kentucky
    I preferred Wonder Woman too but I also thought Aquaman was very good too. The CGI underwater scenes didn't bother me at all despite the negativity about it.
     
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  4. neo123

    neo123 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Kentucky
    Little Tidbit:

    While watching the movie, the actor who played Aquaman's father looked familiar to me and at the end of the credits I caught his name, which is Temuera Morrison. The name sounded familiar and his voice and face looked familiar but I still couldn't remember what I saw him in, but I knew it was in a major movie playing an important role. So, when I got home, I looked him up and saw that he was the actor who played Jango Fett (and all the Clone Troopers that were cloned from him) in Star Wars Ep. II - Attack of the Clones and also as Commander Cody (and remaining Clone Troopers) in Star Wars Ep. III - Revenge of The Sith.
     
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  5. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    So glad to see SOMEONE besides me enjoyed MoS.

    It’s flawed in places. I know. But it still has a lot going for it. First, Cavill is excellent as both Supes and as Clark. He looks the part and, in spite of numerous criticisms about how “dark” this Superman supposedly is Cavill seems to be having (yes) fun in the role.

    The sequence where he’s learning to fly is downright joyous, and so are the scenes near the end telling the general they won’t find him, then talking to his “mom” (Martha) about finding a job, etc., and then his first day at that job. The “Welcome to the Planet” line and his smiling response is a PERFECT ending. Never once did I even think about Chris Reeve while watching Cavill. He made the role his own.

    Had we gotten MoS II (Which would’ve been far better than the abysmal BvS), that would’ve been the opportunity to show us a Superman who’s learned from his earlier mistakes, moving towards becoming the “beacon of light” we expect him to be.

    I know people love the 1978 Superman still, but MoS was a much more (For lack of a better term) “believable” take on the character. I never believed how Chris Reeves’ Superman was so readily accepted. “Oh, you’re from Krypton? OK. Cool!” No. If we were to find out there was an alien from another planet living amongst us, people would lose their s***. I liked how MoS dealt with that.

    Again, it was flawed. I didn’t like Kevin Costner’s Pa Kent telling him that maybe he shouldn’t save people, nor did I believe that Clark wouldn’t have tried to save him! The destruction in Metropolis (and Smallville) was way-y over the top. A few shots of Supes actually SAVING SOME PEOPLE not named “Lois” would’ve helped that.

    Zod’s neck getting snapped didn’t bother me. Supes really had no choice in that situation, and he clearly didn’t feel good about it after it happened. He also killed Zod in a comics storyline from about 30-35 years ago. The sequel could’ve had him working through his guilt, and redeeming himself.

    Sorry for rambling, but I think MoS got a raw deal. Excellent cast top to bottom, and lot of great things that could’ve happened in a sequel. Zack Snyder (Though he films beautiful action scenes) was the wrong guy to head the DCU up, and his vision for Lex Luthor was laughably wrong.

    Snyder really crapped the bed with Batman v Superman, and Justice League wasn’t much better. Sadly, those films pretty much derailed what could’ve been a great Superman saga.
     
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  6. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street

    Justice League wasn’t great, but it’s at least watchable. Which is more than I can say about Batman v Superman.

    That movie’s “Luthor” (in name only) is bad enough, but the script is a hot mess (What was with that “dream sequence”?) It also really did Superman dirty by doing a 180 from the end of MoS and making him extremely unlikable and a total chump. The less said about Affleck’s Batman/Bruce Wayne the better.

    I also wouldn’t call Aquaman a “masterpiece.” Dialogue was way too clunky, for one. I think Black Panther was a bit overrated, but it was very good and far closer to “masterpiece” than Aquaman. At least BP had some worthwhile things to say. As fun as Aquaman was, there wasn’t much of anything new happening.

    Finally, I see your 2018 list left off both Spiderverse and Incredibles 2. Haven’t seen Spiderverse yet, but Incredibles 2 may have been may favorite movie of the whole year, superhero movie or not. Infinity War was right up there too. Amazing how, after 20 or so mostly excellent movies, Infinity War brought everyone in the MCU together and did it so well!
     
  7. And I’m one who really liked Batman vs Superman. You just never know.
     
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  8. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Been watchin' Entourage again, ain'cha?

    Ya know, I just watched Ghostbusters...and not a one of 'em looks like Bill Murray. Guess Leslie Jones is "the image most people have of the characters", huh.

    I wonder just how the DC folks determined the character would be a good for a glossed-over, younger-children's-fare version of some of their most valuable character properties to put them into a Saturday morning show. Wonder what "the image most people have of the character" might have been before that show aired. As I recall, comics were a pretty low-class, low-brow but affordable adventure product back in 1941 when Aquaman first appeared. But, they were pretty pervasive, and I bet there must have been something in the twelve-year-old from that era, and every one up through the first half of 'Boomer-Era culture that remembers a guy riding a seahorse, with a trident, looking a little more like an Adonis, than Senator Blutarsky. In fact, feel free to visit the Wikipedia entry right this second, and see the picture the determined best represents the character they're talkin' about - little blonder, more like Thor than thug, if you will.

    My point is, I stand by my "generations of recognition" comment, whether the original version that started selling to kids 75+ years ago, somehow doesn't pass muster with a fraction of the percentage of audiences that ever met that earlier version. And it isn't just because I'm "old-therefore-not-in-the-loop"...I also happen to have seen more.
     
  9. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    Never saw Entourage in my life, you couldn’t pay me to watch it.

    Aquaman has never been a top seller for DC, though the character has been around for decades of course. Truly, when the character is mentioned in the media, or whenever I’ve conversed with someone about him, that’s the image that always seems to be in people’s minds: The guy in the orange and green who talks to fish.

    Again, the character’s been revamped more than once in the past 25 years or so. I liked what Peter David did with him, and that version is more or less what made it into the Justice League cartoons. Smallville had yet another take on the character, and the Batman: Brave & Bold cartoon a few years back still another (And a very fun take at that).

    But none of them have had that big a cultural impact. The character himself simply hasn’t. Certainly not on the level of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or even Flash or Green Lantern.

    Anyhow, the current Momoa Aquaman certainly seems to share characteristics with the Peter David/Justice League animater version. But also a bit different, as I think Momoa is more or less playing himself. But it works.
     
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  10. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
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    Guess not.

    But I know Jesse Eisenberg was a horrific choice. Might’ve made an OK Jimmy Olson. Not Luthor. Ridiculous how they’ve NEVER gotten that character right on the big screen.

    Getting back to the animated Justice League (and Superman: The Animated Series), Clancy Brown is THE definitive Luthor. They should be basing the character off of that version. Hell, maybe they should just shave Clancy’s head and let him play the part.

    Can’t believe they never asked Bryan Cranston (Who said he was interested), or Mark Strong. Either of those guys would be fantastic too.

    BvS had many other problems too, but none more than the miscasting of Luthor.
     
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  11. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think Batman vs. Superman would've been better if they had featured Jimmy Kimmel in it:



    (Jump to about 2:55 in if you want to avoid the preamble.)
     
  12. The Hermit

    The Hermit Wavin' that magick glowstick since 1976

    Man of Steel is a technically well-made movie and all, and it was an interesting take on the mythology to treat it almost like a Day The Earth Stood Still-esque sci-fi story as much as a comic-book origin story... but frankly, it was too loud, too violent, too over-designed, too cynical for a Superman film (Jonathan Kent would never tell Clark not to use his powers to save people... never), and above all, it was too damn monochromatic in the final color timing... what, were all the colorists on strike during post-production of that film???

    All I could think of in the opening scenes on Krypton - when I was getting battered by excessive CGI and bone-crunching violence! - was just how so much better and more elegant Richard Donner's version was in every respect, it felt like an alien world, not an over-designed video game like MoS appeared to me... sometimes less than be so much more.

    Henry Cavill is a charismatic and handsome lad, but he's just not Superman to me... if anything, he's more of an action actor more suited to the likes of Man From UNCLE, this year's Mission Impossible: Fallout, and yes, even potentially as the next Bond than the Last Son of Krypton... which is not nearly as easy a role to play as you'd think; you have to radiate that sense of inherent innate decency, to be an onscreen shining beacon of morality, but you also have to counter that with the character of Clark Kent and make audiences believe he wouldn't be recognized as Superman-with-glasses the moment he set foot on the street or into the Daily Planet... and so far, only one actor to me has nailed that role in totality and so utterly defined it as to leave everyone who followed in his shadow... and you all know who I'm talking about, God rest his soul.

    It's a pity that Henry Cavill and all concerned with the DCEU got screwed over by the studio's interference and meddling - when the best thing you can say about Justice League is that it wasn't a complete trainwreck, something has gone seriously awry somewhere! - but the roots of the problem were there from the outset; I still think Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation is a masterpiece, but he was the wrong person to helm a Superman movie much less a saga... Bryan Singer seemingly got that character with Superman Returns (despite it's flaws) more than Snyder did, but people moaned that Kal-El never hit anyone in that film (God save us all, I don't even know where to start with that :rolleyes:), so instead they gave the 'fans' what they wanted with MoS, and it was two-and-a-half hours of Superman and his fellow Kryptonians hitting people... and then people complained about that too!!!

    Moral of the story; never listen to the public when making a movie... here endeth the lesson.
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2018
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  13. Chazro

    Chazro Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Palm Bch, Fl.
    There's always buzz that Cavill's run as Superman is ending. I think, and I hope, that he manages to get ONE decent movie before he's done. I think that if they were actually able to make one he'd probably be sticking around as Supes for awhile!
     
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  14. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Liked Cavill as Superman, he was pretty wicked shirtless, evil glint in is eye in JL. Make a good James Bond.
     
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  15. The Pinhead

    The Pinhead KING OF BOOM AND SIZZLE IN HELL

    Seem's it's already 3 of us then;)
     
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  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Jesse Eisenberg comes as across a creep as Lex Luther.
     
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  17. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    What, you didn’t like “Granny’s peach tea”?

    Even without that, he was a creep. And certainly not someone who could reasonably be seen as Superman’s greatest enemy.

    I keep hoping, at some point, Eisenberg’s character gets killed off and we’ll learn he was really just “Lex Jr.” Then we’ll get the “real” Lex. The ruthless billionaire genius/industrialist from the comics and Superman:TAS/Justice League/JL Unlimited.

    Cranston, Jon Hamm, Mark Strong... Someone who’d actually a believable Lex.

    Actually, we have had a great Luthor on the big screen. Too bad he was in the first Iron Man movie, and named “Obidiah Stane”!
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2018
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  18. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

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    And Kevin Spacey humping old women for their fortunes wasn’t?
     
  19. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Evil ?
    Austin Powers was a hoot. :D
     
  20. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Playing himself "
    Half fish/half biker. :)
     
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  21. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    JL still had that old fashioned dated script. Marvel are still leaps ahead of the game in that department. One thing I enjoyed about JL end credits seeing Jack Kirby's name.
     
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  22. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    OK, back to the topic of Aquaman. I saw the movie yesterday, and I have questions.

    1.) Arthur looks through the bottle and apparently solves the mystery of where to find the trident. Next thing we know, there’s a massive chase/fight scene. Arthur defeats Black Manta, but is severly wounded himself. Cut to Mera tending to Arthur on a stolen boat at sea.

    Was the bottle merely pointing the direction/heading they needed to take? At first, I thought the trident was going to be hiding somewhere below those rocks sticking out of the water but, clearly, that wasn’t the case. How far did Mera have to take that boat and how did she know they were still headed in the right direction?

    2.) Where did Arthur and Mera get the plane from, and then, after they dove into the middle of the Sahara without parachutes (Those Atlanteans are tough), how did they get from there to Sicily so quickly? How did they fund this little expedition?

    3.) What was the deal with Black Manta, his dad, and their team of pirates? A little backstory about the grandfather is given, but nothing about why father and son are doing what they do and how they came to know of/collude with Atlantis.

    4.) Some Atlanteans can survive on the surface/breathe air just fine, but others can’t? That was my takeaway from the fight scene in Sicily, after Mera tears the helmets off some of the soldiers she fights. Very unclear as to why.

    5.) When Arthur and Mera get to where the trident is hidden, did they know they were in the right location? Did they know about the area at the Earth’s core where the trident (And a certain someone) has veen hiding all this time? Or was this area a complete unknown to Atlantis? How did the certain (hiding) someone know to go there?

    6.) Possible global war and Arthur doesn’t even consider reaching out to his new friends from Metropolis, Themyscira, and Gotham? I know... This is the problem all solo DC and Marvel films have. I just think having Superman and Wonder Woman with you might’ve made quick work of Orm’s plot to start a war.

    I really did think the movie was fun, and more a step in right direction for DC/WB, but the script and plot needed some work.
     
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  23. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

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    Of course he was. But the less said about THAT Superman movie, the better.

    Also, the less said about Spacey, the better.
     
  24. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    After that Superman movie I never wanted to see another.
     
  25. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    Don’t blame you, really. But Man of Steel, flaws aside, is absolutely worth it. I am sorry they may change course and maybe not build on the potential that film had, but I think it’s best Superman film of them all.

    Yes, ever better than the 1978 one. Chris Reeve was wonderful for that era, but aside from him I find that movie mostly unwatchable now.

    One word: OTISBURG??
     
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