All Things Superman: An Open Discussion - Part 3

[Alientraveller]

Nope.

http://www.wetafx.co.nz/in_production/

 

[Superman2007]

Didn't WETA do the Green Lantern effects? :|

Nope, Sony Imageworks...they're responsible for some of the shoddy effects in the Matrix Reloaded, Superman Returns, I am Legend and apparently Green Lantern too. Snyder used them for Watchmen...remains to be seen if he'll use them for Man of Steel.

 

[Solidus]

I doubt it. After the flak that GL now has, I kinda think they will pull all stops and use ILM and maybe WETA (even though they will be primarly busy with The Hobbit for sure).

 

[I Am The Knight]

Sony Imageworks' work on Watchmen, primarily Dr. Manhattan, was incredible.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

I hope it's not some SHI!!Y company that couldn't pour poop out of a boot with the instructions printed on the bottom

 

[Solidus]

Sony Imageworks' work on Watchmen, primarily Dr. Manhattan, was incredible.

I do agree with that, Jon looked amazing.

 

[Doc Ock]

I would much rather have ILM or WETA do the effects and such. I want Superman to be able to do amazing stuff.

 

[WeasleyIsRKing]

Yet when these types of movies do take risks, then generally fail. Say what you will about Superman Returns (personally I hate it with the passion of a thousand hotly burning suns), but it was a risk taker. It was a superhero epic with almost zero action focusing on the feelings and emotions of the hero instead of the punching and the adventure. Turns out everybody wanted to see funny pirates instead. And look at Ang Lee's Hulk. Almost the same thing. Focus on the drama instead of the Hulk Smash. Didn't work.

But then we have movies like Iron Man, which might be the most standard superhero origin movie ever released and it killed at the box office. Same with Transformers, a movie that takes zero risks and even at its worst becomes the highest grossing movie of the year besides Avatar. Speaking of Avatar, there's Avatar, a movie with zero compelling plot but tons of super pretty VFX. Guess what movie people flocked to?

In the end people just want to be entertained by these movies. Sure, they can accept something deep and meaningful. Christopher Nolan did something huge when he made his Batman movies. He proved that comic heroes can make that type of movie. But I think 95% of the time people just want to chill in a nice air conditioned theater and watch a simple story with fantastic special effects. And that's all the new Superman movie needs to do. Hell, this one shouldn't even try that hard to break any molds after what happened with Returns. Superman is a damaged film property right now. If this new one doesn't work, its bye bye Superman for a very long time. That's why, God help me for saying this, it needs to be more like Transformers than risk being the next Dark Knight, at least at this moment.

Most people don't want to think while in the theatre. Which there is nothing wrong with. But, you have to remember that Nolan and Goyer developed the story for MoS, so its not just going to be an adventure and action flick. Its going to have an interesting story with characters that grow and develop over the course of the film. It will. The X-factor is if Snyder is the one that can balance of these elements into a coherent whole that is both a commercial success and a great film, a la Nolan and Batman Begins.

 

[KRIM]

I doubt it. After the flak that GL now has, I kinda think they will pull all stops and use ILM and maybe WETA (even though they will be primarly busy with The Hobbit for sure).

They won't have a choice if they're busy with other productions. But yeah, more than ever I'm incredibly adamant that IMW doesn't get the job. I was underwhelmed back in '06 when they took their shot at Supes, and I'm confident I would be six years later.

 

[Herolee10]

Who knows; with the Nolan franchise in Batman closing down after it's release in July next year, maybe it'll be MOS that revitalizes the GA's interest in DC heroes again (which was what DC/Warners had hoped for GL to do, but now we pretty much know that it's not going to happen), allowing for other DC heroes to eventually get their own films if given the same treatment that MOS was.

I mean S:TM was what opened the door for the comic book film genre to be taken as a serious contender, so I wouldn't be surprised that with A LOT of LUCK and things going right, that MOS has somewhat of a strong and positive impact on the future for other DC heroes getting their time to shine.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

Who knows; with the Nolan franchise in Batman closing down after it's release in July next year, maybe it'll be MOS that revitalizes the GA's interest in DC heroes again (which was what DC/Warners had hoped for GL to do, but now we pretty much know that it's not going to happen), allowing for other DC heroes to eventually get their own films if given the same treatment that MOS was.

I mean S:TM was what opened the door for the comic book film genre to be taken as a serious contender, so I wouldn't be surprised that with A LOT of LUCK and things going right, that MOS has somewhat of a strong and positive impact on the future for other DC heroes getting their time to shine.

he damn well better

 

[routhman]

Most people don't want to think while in the theatre. Which there is nothing wrong with. But, you have to remember that Nolan and Goyer developed the story for MoS, so its not just going to be an adventure and action flick. Its going to have an interesting story with characters that grow and develop over the course of the film. It will. The X-factor is if Snyder is the one that can balance of these elements into a coherent whole that is both a commercial success and a great film, a la Nolan and Batman Begins.

Where are you getting this statistic? It's wildly presumptuous and wholly unsupported. I prefer movies that make me think. If MoS were a mindless action-adventure film (i.e. what GL is looking like), that'd be a huge disappointing fail, imo.

 

[Herolee10]

Right now, I'm hoping that MOS will AT LEAST be as well received as FC, no correction, as well as Iron Man 1 was well received.

I don't want to one day wake up and come into the Review threads, only to find that MOS has a 22% average score on RT and that every reviewer that has seen it has pretty much said nothing but unfavorable things about it, while fans who have seen it early, labeling it as even more worse than Speed Racer of all things.lol

 

[WeasleyIsRKing]

Where are you getting this statistic? It's wildly presumptuous and wholly unsupported. I prefer movies that make me think. If MoS were a mindless action-adventure film (i.e. what GL is looking like), that'd be a huge disappointing fail, imo.

Not a statistic, just my generalized opinion of the general audience. You can disagree, thats fine. I also prefer movies that make me think. I totally agree that Man of Steel needs depth, story, character development, and has to ask questions...why is Superman the way he is...what makes him that way, why does he chose to do what he does. That is why I personally loved Batman Begins. It gave answers to those why questions.

 

[routhman]

Not a statistic, just my generalized opinion of the general audience. You can disagree, thats fine. I also prefer movies that make me think. I totally agree that Man of Steel needs depth, story, character development, and has to ask questions...why is Superman the way he is...what makes him that way, why does he chose to do what he does. That is why I personally loved Batman Begins. It gave answers to those why questions.

I'm just not convinced that your generalization is correct. I think you underestimate people's appreciation for a strong story with memorable performances. Then again I could be wrong and the whole world could be 80% nincompoop, 20% thinker.

 

[WeasleyIsRKing]

routhman, it may be closer to 50/50. I don't know. It just seems like the better movies (Award nominated and winners) get low Box Office and the Summer tentpole Blockbusters win nothing and get huge Box Office numbers. You could argue that award winning movies suck and Summer Blockbusters rock...but I think some would disagree. I myself, like a mix of both.

 

[routhman]

Avatar made ~$2,000,000,000, the highest grossing film ever, and won 3 Oscars (ranked 179th best film by IMDB). Titanic made ~$1,800,000,000, the second highest grossing film ever, and won 11 Oscars (not ranked in the top 250 by IMDB). LOTR:RTK made ~$1,100,000,000, the 3rd highest grossing film ever, and won 11 Oscars also (ranked 12th by IMDB). The Dark Knight made ~$1,000,000,000, the 7th highest grossing film ever, and won 2 Oscars (ranked 10th by IMDB).

All these movies were huge and still award winning. There isn't a conflict there. I think the general public can recognize a film that's both thought provoking on some level and entertaining.

I do admit to not understanding the hype behind Avatar or Titanic. Neither film impressed me much, though I haven't seen Titanic since I was young.

 

[WeasleyIsRKing]

James Cameron is not a great filmmaker. So overrated. Titanic made a bunch of money because of teenage girls in love with Leo. Avatar...ugh. Didn't like it. Not an engaging story, relied to heavily of special effects.


I love all the Lord of the Rings movies, and The Dark Knight...in my opinion those are outliers and exceptions to the rule (which I might have made up earlier). You haven't convinced me sir, but nice try.

Want to try again?

 

[DorkyFresh]

James Cameron is a great filmmaker.

fixed...

...i wouldn't kiss his shoes if i were in his presence, but the guy knows how to tell stories very well on the big screen even if certain elements are borrowed from previous films or novels. he is also a one man powerhouse when it comes to effects. i would argue that no director has pushed special effects as far as James Cameron.

 

[WeasleyIsRKing]

Haha. Ok. I was using hyperbole. I guess its hard to establish some kind of unbiased criteria that determines whether or not a movie is "great". It seems like everything comes down to opinion.

 

[Rust]

Not a big surprise really, but GL was a testcase for future DC-movies, Variety reports - http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118038706?categoryid=13&cs=1&cmpid=RSS|News|FilmNews

And yeah, Batman and, more importantly, Superman are apparently safe. Good. I dont give a poop about Wonder Woman anyways, but I wouldnt mind a Justice League-flick down the line.

 

[Mr. Earle]

If the movie fails it will be because they did it wrong, not because non batman superheroes dont sell. Marvel proves this. They just needed to work more on it and get ILM for the CGI. Seriously.

 

[Mr. Earle]

All GL has to do is achieve IM1 numbers. Its a new franchise. IM1 did decent in the B.O. and paved the way for the rest of Marvel's movies which are now promoting one another with the whole Avengers thing.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

All GL has to do is achieve IM1 numbers. Its a new franchise. IM1 did decent in the B.O. and paved the way for the rest of Marvel's movies which are now promoting one another with the whole Avengers thing.

Decent nothing. Iron Man did great.

 

[Mr. Earle]

In the box office? Really? I wasnt sure. Ok then.