General

Wait a minute. Just realized something. I actually rewatched Man of Steel last year. It's Superman Returns that I haven't seen in years. Not sure why I mixed them up.

Now that I think about it, the colors definitely were somewhat muted. I get what they were going for, but I don't think the duller look is necessary. I get it, but it's not a must.

I bet you're on to something with that whole city destruction thing being related to the budget. Big effects and all. It's in the budget, so why not. It was a bit over the top though. Just a bit

1. Wonder Woman
2. Man of Steel
3. Justice League
4. Suicide Squad
5. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Wonder Woman is definitely my favorite, but even that movie is just pretty good, I don't love it or anything. Plus, I'd be lying if I said that much of my enjoyment of the movie wasn't simply because Gal Gadot is in it. I haven't seen Man of Steel in a long time but I remember it being ok. Justice League and Suicide Squad are close. Neither were as bad as I expected based on how people talked about them, but neither were particularly good either. Batman v Superman was total garbage, I hated it so much.

Haven't seen yet:
Aquaman
Shazam!
Birds of Prey
Wonder Woman 1984
Zack Snyder's Justice League

Don't want to see:
Joker

Shazam and original WW are the 2 best.. I liked Birds of Prey too..
Just finished Snyder's JL.. what the hell was that epilogue with the Joker?? So damn weird..

Interested in the new Suicide Squad since they haven't said anything about it.

shadyfozzie wrote:

That’s part of Bruce’s “Knightmare” vision that he originally sees in BvS, though I’m not entirely sure WHY he can see the future in his dreams. Snyder had a whole JL trilogy planned out, and the sequel was going to be set in that dystopian future. In that Joker scene, Joker asks how many universes Bruce is willing to destroy because he refuses to just die, so it’s possible something was going to happen in JL 2 or 3 to explain why Bruce saw visions. It’s insinuated that something Bruce does leads to Lois getting killed, which makes Superman snap.

Cyborg sees the same future too, which makes more sense because he’s able to tap into the Mother Box being a cyborg and all. He’s the one who sees an image of Superman mourning over a dead body, which is probably Lois.

And if you’re just asking why the frig is that particular group of characters together, who knows!? We’ll probably never find out unfort.

1. Wonder Woman
2. Birds of Prey
3. Batman v Superman
4. Man of Steel
5. Zach Snyder's Justice League
6. Shazam
7. Aquaman
8. Justice League
9. Wonder Woman 1984
10. Suicide Squad

10. Justice League - Yeah, it's that bad.
9. Batman vs Superman - There are so many problems with this movie. Don't get me started.
8. Shazam - I don't get the love. I thought it was silly.
7. Wonder Woman 1984 - I was entertained even if there are some really dumb character choices, and the whole Diana's boyfriend possessing another human thing was obviously a poor choice.
6. Suicide Squad - I actually liked this movie except for the Joker. I understand the critiques, especially when comparing it to Guardians of the Galaxy, but it was a fun movie. Harley Quinn was fantastic! I liked the setup a lot. I think the middle dragged a bit, and I didn't really like the ending, but overall I liked this one.
5. Aquaman - This was a fun movie. I thought the Mantis stuff looked like a Power Rangers battle, and that entire subplot seemed a bit pointless. Overall though, it was a much better movie than I ever thought we would get from Aquaman.
4. Birds of Prey - More Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn without Jared Leto's Joker. This was another fun one.
3. Wonder Woman - Good movie, not great. I don't know why this one got so much love.
2. Man of Steel - I love Superman. This was not the best movie or when a good interpretation of him, but it was still a really good movie. I have rewatched this the most of every DCEU film.
1. Joker - I don't think this counts, but of the topic creator can add it, then I can too. This is a fantastic movie and light years beyond every other movie on this list.

If Joker counts, then we should add in every Batman movie ever. Also, I still haven't finished the ZS Justice League yet, so I can't add that one.

@bonham2 Joker counts for this particular list because it was released after Man of Steel, which was the start of the “DCEU” (or whatever they officially called it). I know it’s out of continuity but it’s a DC film that was released during the “connected universe” era even if it’s not part of that connected universe, and is so far the only DC movie released since MOS without connection to the others that were released since. All the other Batman movies came pre-DCEU.

Your thread, your rules 😆

Friggin RIGHT gosh darnitall

Pierce Brosnan to play the role of Dr. Fate in Black Adam. I'm not familiar with the character but he looks cool and I've always liked Brosnan.

1. Joker

2. Batman vs Superman

these are the only ones I've seen.

So I finished ZS Justice League. The original was #10 on my list, but this probably deserves #3 after Man of Steel. Why is it that the film has practically the same plot but this version is SO MUCH BETTER?!?

I think this feels like like a Justice League movie, whereas the original release was a bunch of people Thai didn't know each other getting their asses bat until Superman showed up to save the day. In this one, Batman is a bad ass. In the original, he is weak and completely unnecessary. In this one, Cyborg is awesome with a real backstory. In the original, he is completely pointless. In this one, Wonder Woman is owned by Steppenwolf. In this one, she is just as strong as him and holding her own. I especially like how they will fought TOGETHER with Superman, instead of how Superman just saves the day in the original. I think Barry's run around the block in this one was stupid, but at least he served a purpose (turning back the clock). In the original, he's just saving people (that aren't even present in this version). So many things didn't make sense in the original (what the motherboxes were, what was Steppenwolf's purpose, how they found him in his remote location, etc.). This does such a better job of explaining things. The epilogue was a waste though.

When I saw the epilogue setting up injustice I was like ah this is the foreshadowing of the Lois is the key and bats says something darker I was like oh injustice and then it was happening but then it was a dream.

tonymack21 wrote:

It was a dream but it was also a legit vision, and it totally was another tease for that “Lois is the key” beat. Cyborg saw similar visions when he tapped into the Mother Box while they were in the Kryptonian ship, including that one of Superman mourning over a body (likely Lois) before Darkseid puts his hand on his shoulder. Snyder planned for 2 other JL movies that would have at least partially taken place in that dystopian Injustice-style setting.

I imagine it would have been explained in one of those movies why Bruce was able to see the visions himself. Either way, it’s my theory that Flash traveled back in time to BvS to warn Bruce that “Lois is the key” and that he meant Bruce should 100% not let Lois die the way she did in his (Flash’s) timeline in order to avoid the whole “evil Superman” schtick.

theJaw wrote:

Oh ya thats right. I liked how they did that.

As for the Epilogue being a “waste”, I don’t necessarily feel that way. I do agree it was all totally tacked on in a weird way, but the scenes were still integral to what would have been if Snyder got to make more movies (even the Joker scene, which wasn’t originally in the Snyder cut).

If I edited this movie, I would have handled those epilogue scenes like this:

1. Insert a slightly shorter version of the Batman/Joker Knightmare scene into the middle of Cyborg’s vision sequence. I’d place it so that the final shot of the epilogue scene (Superman’s menacing red eyes) comes right BEFORE the shot of the dead Lantern lying in front of a silhouetted Superman who’s holding what seems to be a severed head. Even if that severed head didn’t belong to Batman or any of the heroes/villains who appear in that epilogue scene, the visual of seeing Superman holding it RIGHT after he’s seen approaching them would have been a nice hook and add to Cyborg’s newfound apprehension toward bringing Superman back to life. It would also make a bit more sense of why Cyborg’s auto-defense system kicks in right before they fight Superman.

2. Use the montage scene with Cyborg’s father’s narration as the only scene in the actual epilogue section after Part 6, ending with Superman pulling his shirt open to reveal he’s still rocking the black suit. Cut to credits.

3. Make the Lex Luthor/Deathstroke scene the “mid credits” scene, a la the MCU. Have some visual credits first, cut to that Lex scene, then cut to the normal scrolling credits.

4. Finally, I’d subtly fade some Joker dialogue/laughter and maybe even some menacing Superman dialogue in over the end of the scrolling credits, before they SMASH CUT to Bruce waking up from a nightmare. So now it’s not necessarily a Knightmare scene he wakes from (though it could still be), it’s just a suggested nightmare he’s having about the Joker (and/or Superman). From there have the conversation with Martian Manhunter act as the true “after credits” scene.

Just feel like that would have made those scenes work a little more coherently as opposed to just seeming crammed in at the end just for the heck of it.

I can get behind that. I found the Batman/Joker stuff to be an absolute bore. Jared Leto should've declined. Nobody wants to see him as Joker.

bonham2 wrote:

I sure did. What I didn't want to see was Jared Leto as the Suicide Squad version of the Joker, at least visually. But to be fair, we didn't even see his version of the Joker IN Suicide Squad. We saw clipped scenes that the studio decided were all we were allowed to see, and stripped both the director and the actor of their vision when it came to that character. Mind you this is the same studio that opted for the Whedon cut over the Snyder cut, so their priorities are clearly not ironed out.

It's easy to be salty about his look in Suicide Squad (I definitely was) and no, the couple scenes he was in weren't anything to write home about, but considering Ayer and Leto have both stated that there was enough footage shot for a Joker-centric movie, I'm willing to bet we didn't even get the opportunity to judge his take on the character in full. If the Snyder cut proved anything, it's that crapty editing and removal of key scenes can detriment a performance in major ways. So when it came to JL, I was all-in on giving him another go. I dug the comic accurate jokey-dialogue and classic dark sense of humor. And, thankfully, his look was changed to be less gang-bangery.

Tbh I'd still like to see a movie that uses him more traditionally as opposed to just glorified cameos, but that's likely never going to happen.

(Didn't neg ps)

Yes and no. I don't think editing made the Justice League characters any better. I think the reshoots really changed Superman's and Aquaman's personalities. Superman was lighter and happier in the original, which never felt right anyway. And Aquaman was too bro-dude for me in the original. That's not editing. That was a directors poor decision.

The stuff we saw of Joker in Suicide Squad was either Jared Leto's vision, the director's vision, or a combination of both. Maybe there's more unseen footage somewhere out there. I have no interest in seeing it. In my opinion, Jared Leto's Joker was the worst part of a movie that I enjoyed for the most part (Suicide Squad).

I meant "editing" in terms of removing key character moments, which Whedon did. He replaced some with worse scenes, for sure, but he also just cut certain performance-driven scenes all together and with no explanation - very similar to what WB did with Joker in Suicide Squad. Cyborg's character moments were removed almost completely from JL, and in turn he came off completely different in Whedon's cut as opposed to Snyder's. One version was one-note and boring, the other was the complete opposite - that was due to the WB's editors removing a performance and Snyder adding the removed material back in.

Like I said, I know the Joker scenes that were actually in Suicide Squad were bad - but really any performance can come off bad when all the scenes offering context for said character are completely removed from a narrative written with said scenes in mind. I'm not trying to sway your opinion on the performance we saw, I agree he ranked real high on the list of bad things about Suicide Squad (I very much did not enjoy the movie), I'm just saying we really didn't see the material that may have helped understand Leto or Ayer's vision a little better and that ZSJL proved just how much of an impact something like that can have on a movie.

I hope Ayer does what Snyder joked about and just leaves his cut of the movie on a thumb drive somewhere random for someone to find. Give it a chance to be seen on the ol' high seas.

NEW TOPIC: Top 10 (or 5) Movies of 2020

This topic could literally just be "new movies you bothered to watch in 2020" due to the major lack of content. My list really is almost every new movie I saw in 2020 and therefore a few of them make the cut by default. A lot of them would have been completely ignored if it weren't for the nearly complete halt of the movie business, but I've done this for every year since 2017 and I'm not about to stop now gosh darnit.

Even though 2020 was a rough year for new releases, I felt obligated. Share your list (if you bothered to watch any new movies last year).

1. Hamilton - I've re-watched this so many times, I've lost count. I know it's not technically a "movie", but it is the "filmed" version of the stage play with camera angles reserved for film so there ya have it. I was somewhat interested in this when it released, but it took my girlfriend forcing me to watch it to finally get me to, and I've been unable to stop since. Just a masterpiece for modern musicals, with a strong (if not entirely historically accurate) story and great performances all around. Some of the catchiest tunes of the past few years easy. For me, it's very easy to listen to an album I enjoy consistently for a few months after discovering it... and Hamilton is no different, there's just an incredibly well put-together play to go along with it. 2. Onward - Easily among my favorite Pixar movies. Maybe not as well-animated as others, but the story and characters make up for that in my opinion. As a major sucker for father/son stories, this one hit me in every single feeling that resides in my body and it has one of the stronger, more meaningful endings out of any Pixar movie. 3. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - I love that this movie came out of absolutely nowhere, with little to no reports of it filming until it was released. While not consistently as funny as the first Borat, I do feel like there are a few moments in this sequel that made me laugh harder than anything in that first one. If this is the last we see of this style movie from Sacha Baron Cohen, he went out on top. 4. Happiest Season - I really dug this Christmas movie. Loved the characters, especially how they avoided normal tropes of the genre and of the subject material itself. Kristen Stewart impressed, Daniel Levy rules in everything, and I'll never complain about seeing Allison Brie in anything. 5. You Cannot Kill David Arquette - David Arquette, staple of the 90s thanks to Scream, enters the world of independent wrestling in an attempt to give back to an industry and its fans that shunned him for like 2 decades, ever since WCW booked him to win their world championship. Real interesting and wacky story. It's not as surreal as a documentary like "The Devil and Daniel Johnston", but there is that element of "I can't believe this guy is real and doing this crap" like that movie. 6. The Old Guard - I remember I was up all night one summer night this past year and decided to start watching this at like 5AM. I couldn't turn it off once I started. Not the best action movie out there but it hit the spot at the time. 7. Da 5 Bloods - Came for one of Chadwick Boseman's final performances, stayed for everything else. Really well directed, had a very unique vibe to it, and while the story sort of jumped around in strange ways, it was definitely entertaining. 8. The Lodge - Super depressing movie but also super atmospheric. I enjoyed the sheer terror the movie conjured without any real supernatural elements or anything of the sort, just a horrifying situation and fear of the unknown. 9. Enola Holmes - Was pleasantly surprised by this, Millie Bobby Brown was great in it. Threw it on with no real knowledge of what it was randomly while I was working one day during lockdown, and couldn't stop watching at times. 10. Wonder Woman 1984 - I thought it was fun if very unbalanced and not too great. Still had a good enough time with it. Can't blame people who disliked it, it was too long and there were a ton of pretty poor story elements involved, but the performances, characters themselves and "classic Christopher Reeves Superman" vibe did enough to keep me hooked. 11. The Last Blockbuster - Eff it... it was 2020, I'm doing 11 movies. This is the only one I didn't watch IN 2020 (just saw it a few weeks ago) but it WAS released in 2020 and to be honest, I like this as much as most movies on this list so there's no reason to leave it off. Still need to see/finish: Sonic the Hedgehog, Soul, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Mulan - Saw most of Sonic but still haven't finished, enjoyed what I saw for the most part. The other 3 are movies up my alley that I need to watch, that I have a feeling could have ranked in my "top" list if I had watched them.

All in all, 2020 was definitely the year of "this movie isn't as good as the delayed blockbusters but will at least help pass the time". While I enjoyed them all and think they're all generally at least "good", I wouldn't say I'm in much of a rush to watch most of these again. I've already watched Borat and Onward twice, and have watched Hamilton like 75 times, so 1-3 are safe. And I'll probably watch 4 again around Christmas time, but that's about it. 5 was admittedly pretty great, but it's not really "necessary re-watch" material to me. 6-11 were fun to watch once, but I'd be comfortable if I never sat down with them again (though I'm sure I will with a few eventually).

Had to check Wikipedia to see which movies even came out in 2020, only one I could remember was Onward.

Onward
Impractical Jokers: The Movie
Trolls: World Tour
Soul
Sonic the Hedgehog
The Croods: A New Age

I'm going to have to try to create a list of movies I've seen first. Okay, I've got that done. I've only seen nine movies from 2020.

1) The Trial of the Chicago Seven
2) Hamilton - It's a great play.
3) Judas and the Black Massiah
4) The Sound of Metal
5) The Father
6) Minari
7) The Croods: A New Age - This was a surprise for me. I really enjoyed it.
8) Tenent - I liked it.
9) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - Good, but I'm just not a huge Broat fan.
10) Mulan - It was fine.

____

9) Class Action Park - I've already read about the story, so not much new.
10) The Social Dilemma
11) Trolls World Tour - I just didn't like this film all that much.
12) Wonder Woman 1984 - Such a letdown.
13) Nomadland - It's not a documentary, but I enjoyed documentaries on the subject more.
14) Bill & Ted Face the Music - Meh.

On my watchlist: The Father, Nomadland, The Trial of the Chicago Seven, Judas The Black Messiah, Minari, The Social Dilemma, One Night In Miami, Impractical Jokers: The Movie, and Soul. Man, I really wish I could go back in time and swap this list for my list of watched movies. After I complete this list, I'd be shocked if more then three of my watched movies remain in my top-ten.

EDIT: I'll try to edit my list as I cross items off my watchlist.

lpeters82 wrote:

Did you like the first one? I love the first one, it's one of my favorite non-Disney/Pixar movies. This one definitely wasn't as good as the first, but going into it I thought it as a musical or something, so I was pleased to find out that wasn't the case.

Scott wrote:

Yeah, I liked the first Trolls movie a lot. Not my favorite, but it was really good. I just really don't see the second as a movie I'd ever need to rewatch. In contrast, I hadn't seen the first Croods movie but was really surprised by the second film. I did see the later in the theater as we rented it out for my nephews birthday party. Maybe that made a difference, but a lot had to do with my expectations going into each. All three of my bottom movies where films where the sequel lowered my opinion of the franchise. The more I think about it it's probably better then Wonder Woman 1984. I just want to force myself to not let 1984 completely ruin that franchise.

I watched the first movie on my 2020 backlog, Judas and the Black Massiah. I really like Hamilton, but as expected this would be right up there for number one.

I don't believe I've seen a 2020 movie, but I did get to watch The Empire Strikes Back in an empty theater with my two oldest boys. That was pretty awesome.

Crossed another movie off the list, The Trial of the Chicago Seven. Really good. I'm moving that to the top of my list. I'm not proud of this, but the movie could have been made better by my ignorance of the topic. I knew almost nothing about the trial, so I really didn't know what was going to happen.

The Sound of Metal - My friend really liked it. I thought it was just okay. He thought it was super deep. I just didn't see that. I thought is just a normal story of a former attic trying to cope with silence.

In the list of theJaw's best lists, this top 10 is at the bottom. 2020 was the worst year ever for movies due to COVID.

Yaaah but I had to do it. Still saw enough to rank and I didn’t wanna skip a year damnitall

KCPenguins wrote:

Nice! Sounds amazing.

Haven't seen any 2020 movies either. Though I do want to eventually watch Sonic. Curious to see how that one is, such a well known videogame character being in it and all.

Nomadland - Hmm...I really don't get the hype for this film. There were some nice shots, but I've previously seen some documentaries on this nomad lifestyle that I thought were much more interesting. This docudrama just fell pretty flat for me.

Okay, fellow adults, it’s time to rank the next topic...

Top 10 Disney Songs!

Big fan of music and appreciate when tunes are integrated into movies well. This is for songs from the animated movies, traditional or CG. I’m gonna try limiting my list to one per movie.

1. “Go the Distance” - Hercules
2. “Remembe Me” - Coco
3. “How Far I’ll Go” - Moana
4. “Strangers Like Me” - Tarzan
5. “Hakuna Matata” - The Lion King
6. “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” - Toy Story
7. “Friend Like Me” - Aladdin
8. “Almost There” - The Princess and the Frog
9. “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” - Mulan
10. “Down to Earth” - Wall-E

Not in any order, but:
Into the Unknown/ Some Things Never Change (Frozen 2)
Ever Ever After/That's How you Know (Enchanted)
I've Got a Dream/I See the Light (Tangled)
You've Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story Quadrilogy)
Zero/When Can I see you Again (Wreck It Ralph 1/2)
Immortals (Big Hero 6)
Touch the Sky (Brave)
Remember Me (Coco)

Some of the songs from the Decendants, High School Musical and Zombies movies are catchy too

Not a big fan of Tarzan, Lion King, Mulan, Hercules movies (I don't think I've ever seen any of them from start to finish to be honest, don't really have an interest in them)disnet

The fact that a whole new world isn’t on this list is blasphemy.

Prime wrote:

lol it was, but I tried to stick to a song per movie and I love the musicianship of "Friend Like Me". Such a wild tune.

You should do a top ten best looking men in their prime list in honor or phil.

There is a serious lack of classic Disney tunes on here.

11. That's How You Know (Enchanted)
10. The ENTIRE Princess and the Frog soundtrack, especially When We're Human and Down in New Orleans
9. One Jump Ahead
8. Let It Go
7. I Just Can't Wait to be King
6. Be Our Guest
5. Part of Your World
4. Under the Sea
3. Friend Like Me
2. Circle of Life
1. A Whole New World

(I LOVE Aladdin)

Also, I obviously didn't include Pixar at all, but the Soul soundtrack is fantastic.

This must be the most difficult list ever, lol

Since Fox is owned by Disney, and just to be that guy. List is in no particular order:

10. Bird is The Word
9. A Bag of Weed
8. Mr. Booze
7. Give Up The Toad
6. I Need A Jew
5. You Have AIDS
4. FCC
3. This House is Freakin Sweet
2. Shipoopi
1. Can't Touch Me