I’ve seen some film critics respond negatively to what they see as a now tired formula for getting Oscar buzz. But that seems a stupid criticism to me even if they are correct on what is the motivation behind some of these biopics.
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Paddington bear goes apeshit!
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Opinion seems to be all over the place, and not just in a binary good or bad sense, but there are multiple camps on both sides with completely different arguments. I think it’s a perfect illustration of the sort of no win situation cinema has found itself in - only familiar IP reliably sells but fandom of the IP is so entrenched, and in lots of cases toxic in their response, that decisions are made about an adaptation before its even available to watch.
I am not the target audience, but eventually end up watching most of these adaptations at some point, but everything I’ve seen about this one doesn’t look positive. I’ll withhold judgement, but it looks WAY too busy. I think a lot of modern movies are really chaotic in their action - unending jump cuts, action happening so fast you cannot actually see anything. There was one of the marvel films, maybe Ultron, that had a 30 minute stretch towards the end that was to me just utterly unwatchable. The clips Ive seen are impact by the same style.
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I wasnt impressed by the trailer and had no interest in watching it, although I think Superman would be the right character to have for a movie that wants to promote a more positive outlook for people in a time of economic/ political strife.
Then I saw a second trailer yesterday with a clip of Krypto the Superdog and thought it might be worth watching for that - although I suspect it is only a 20 second cameo.
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It was clip of Krypto that tipped me fully into full “nope” 
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Don’t worry Kryptodog will get it’s own movie next year. Completely scripted, acted and directed by AI no doubt.
Apollo says, “I’m ready, boss. Put me in”
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Not sure how true this is… makes for a good story though
“I invented Superman the day after we buried my father. That was no coincidence.” 
I was just a teenager when my father was murdered during a robbery at his small shop. There were no superpowers. No one came to save him. That moment shaped my life forever. That very night, I locked myself in my room and began writing a story—about a man who could protect his loved ones. A man no bullet could stop. That’s how Superman was born… not from fantasy, but from grief. 
But nothing came easy.
No one wanted our comic. Editors laughed at the idea of “an alien in a cape.” For years, Joe Shuster and I knocked on every door, hungry and desperate. We skipped meals just to afford envelopes and stamps to send out our pitch. 
When someone finally said yes to Superman… we were paid $130. That was it. We signed away the full rights to the character. The world got a hero. We got a heartbreak. As Superman soared, Joe and I could barely pay rent. I fell into depression. For decades, we fought in court to be recognized as the true creators. 
It took over 40 years for justice to knock. Not until the 1970s did DC Comics offer us a modest pension and began crediting us publicly. But by then, Joe was blind… and living in near poverty. Behind the hero’s smile was our silent tragedy. People saw Superman. No one asked who was bleeding behind the ink. !
|16x16
“Everyone sees the superhero. No one sees the man who drew him out of pain. Sometimes, the real heroes are the ones who endure in silence—with no cape, and no applause.”
– Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman
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The Kal El version of superman, where his powers came from being an alien, was at least the 4th different version of the character. There were a couple where he was a regular human who got super powers from science experiments. There was one where he was from a future where everyone had powers and travelled back in time to save the world. They went through years of rejections and seemingly just kept adapting the idea until someone finally bought it.
It puts into perspective the common current story of “Superman has always been political - it was written by American jews in response to the Nazis afterall.”
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Finally got around to Sinners on the weekend - it’s brilliant.
Ha, I was absolutely convinced that you of all people wouldn’t like it. There’s something about Coogler’s films that always misses the mark with me. Performances are always great but it’s the emotional depth that I fail to find in his films. It’s not a bad film, quite contrary, it’s just that I expected a masterpiece having read the review prior to seeing it. That’ll teach me.
How similar is it to from dusk til dawn?
Very! And both have killer soundtracks.
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One the one hand it seems quite silly to say they are nothing at all alike considering the whole “this is a movie about a thing, holy shit where did the vampires come from? Now it’s a completely different movie” thing they both do. But they are really nothing at all alike.
You dont need to work too hard to to find the meaning of what Coogler is doing with his vampires. Rather than a genre change as we had with FDTD, the vampire bit builds on the core theme of the story. But it does still seem a lot of people dont see it.
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It means I hold you to higher standards!
(This has to be the most duplicitous, most manipulative post I’ve made on these boards. Tell me you love it, though!)
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:0)
In Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), the crew made Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder appear to hover over Tatooine by mounting angled mirrors on its sides. These mirrors reflected the desert ground, cleverly hiding the wheels and creating the illusion of a floating speeder—no CGI needed.
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