Rate the latest movie you've seen.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My first reaction to Groot was, "OMG, this is really dumb," but he grew on me, which I really didn't expect to happen.  Marvel just kept pushing at it until I sensed Marvel was demanding I get with it or else. So I suspended a little more of my disbelief, and finally I understood.  It was like having a religious revelation, and I became free at last.

And Marvel's depiction of him struggling to remember which was the right button to push is much the same.  They could have gotten the point of his struggle across in one fifth of the time, but they stretched on and on and on, until I didn't know if I was laughing at Groot for being so stupid, or laughing at Marvel punishing me for trying to be such a pseudo intellectual snob.

You have to admit that just about any tree would have the same problems.

[Munch]

Comic books do require a lot of suspension of disbelief, and thats when they get fun. If you focus to much on the logical details you don't have as much fun. For example how golden age superman could do ANYthing the writers wanted him to, they just invented new powers each week for him, but come the 90s in cartoons like the animated superman or justice league, he was toned down and shown to feel pain when he got hit by a missile or lazer.

It really depends on how far your allow yourself to have that suspension of disbelief of course, theres been plenty of moments I've just facepalmed at in comics for how out the way they've gone, like previously mentioned wolverine regenerating from a single cell in moments, superman grabbing a chain of planets and toeing them behinnd though space, or when punisher gets plastic surgery and becomes black

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I quit comics when I discovered scifi.

[davoarid]

As a writer myself, I cannot agree with that.  I can think of few things that would annoy me more than someone telling me "Oh, what you were really trying to say was (...)."  No, I was trying to say what I as creator say I was trying to say -- if someone got something else out of it, either it was mis- (or over-)interpreted, or I failed to make my point.

My favorite counter to this would be Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. Basically everyone who saw it said it was terribly anti-Semitic. But Mel Gibson insisted they were wrong, that he didn't intentionally put any antisemitic elements in his movie.

And then a couple years later he got rip-roaringly drunk and was caught in tape screaming "You goddamn Jews start all the wars."

Gibson was not lying when he said his movie wasn't anti-Semitic. He almost certainly didn't intend to offend Jews with it. But his personal antisemitic views were so overbearing that he couldn't prevent them from seeping to the surface in his art.

Those critics WERE right; their interpretations of the movie in fact WERE more accurate than Gibson's, even though Gibson created it.

This happens a lot; authors are humans, which means they can lie and they can suppress unpleasant truths and they can even make subconscious connections that only other readers can explicate. It's why I align firmly with the New Critics on the question of intent.

[Blackleaf]

Well, good news, he speaks in "Ragnarok". First step.

He spoke in The Avengers too. "Puny god." Not a magnum opus, but he spoke.

[SGOS]

He spoke in The Avengers too. "Puny god." Not a magnum opus, but he spoke.

...one of the greatest movie lines of that year.

[trdsf]

...one of the greatest movie lines of that year.

The only part of that movie I actually liked -- in the main, I can't stand superhero movies, mainly because they're effects extravaganzas that give me vertigo, a headache, or both.

[Munch]

The only part of that movie I actually liked -- in the main, I can't stand superhero movies, mainly because they're effects extravaganzas that give me vertigo, a headache, or both.

You can enjoy ground based heroes, like Charles Xavier in his wheelchair.

Though maybe his mind swirly thing might have the same effect

[trdsf]

You can enjoy ground based heroes, like Charles Xavier in his wheelchair.

Though maybe his mind swirly thing might have the same effect

I haven't read Marvel comics in 25 years.  I got sick of the 'all angst all the time' and seventeen different Wolverine titles.

[Blackleaf]

I haven't read Marvel comics in 25 years.  I got sick of the 'all angst all the time' and seventeen different Wolverine titles.

From what I've seen of recent Marvel comics, they're not any better now. The higher ups seem to think it's more important to push a diverse cast of characters that no one cares about than to tell good stories or produce good artwork. They have a complete disdain for their fans, claiming that the only reason they haven't been successful lately is because they're racists.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Okay, quibblisauri, Hulk has a conversation in "Ragnarok".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I haven't read Marvel comics in 25 years.  I got sick of the 'all angst all the time' and seventeen different Wolverine titles.

Stopped in 1963. SciFi appeared in my life.

[Sal1981]

Wonder Woman - 6/10

Pretty bland origin story, IMO.

[trdsf]

Stopped in 1963. SciFi appeared in my life.

I lasted through Kirby's run on FF.  Came back briefly for X-Factor, mainly because original X-Men.  Then they peed that down their collective leg.

[davoarid]

So I saw two movies last night:

1- My Cousin Rachel (2017, Roger Michell): An adaptation of a du Maurier novel that has all the personality of a Wikipedia summary; it's paper-thin, no texture, no soul. Michell--one of my least favorite of the prestige directors--once again butchers even the simplest tasks, shooting every dialogue scene like a Tom Hooper with the DTs. A complete absence of romance and suspense is pretty rough in a romantic suspense film.

2- Girl Walk //All Day (2011, Jacob Krupnik): A 75-minute dance/music video set to the mashup artist Girl Talk's 2010 album All Day. There's a discernible plot of sorts, but for the most part this is just 100% watching people dance through New York City, in public and in private, alone and in groups. It's shot in a total guerilla style (with curious onlookers gawking in the background of almost every scene--and even one great part where The Girl is dancing through the aisles of Yankee Stadium that ends with her being escorted out by security). The attempts at social commentary are cringe-worthy (e.g. The Girl dances through an Occupy Wall Street rally with her arms full of boutique shopping bags), as are anything which foreground the love triangle plot, but all in all the experience is one of pure joy, a world where dance and music are truly unifying powers, within reach of everyone. (In many sequences total amateurs get so caught up in the moment they start dancing right along with the stars.) Very highly recommended.