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chairdriver

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Posts posted by chairdriver

  1. Posted

    Presumably somewhat of an Avengers spoiler.

     

    Thanks.

     

    Not really, there's just no other explainable reason why you'd contract such a boring non-event of a character for 9 movies.

  2. Posted

    Whatever the undertones in the X-Men films those same things would have been present in the comics and it would be kinda hard to not touch on such things in a movie adaptation.

     

    Yes, this is true.

     

    But the X-Men is it's own franchise in the comics, The Avengers is like extra stories of different characters brought together to just kick some ass. And that what the film is too. I don't think there were that many people expecting any deep meaning behind the characters, hell there wasn't much in the ways of character development for anyone (except maybe Black Widow) but there didn't need to be as they were all established in their own films anyway. The draw of this film was to see if this whole "experiment" as it were to merge different films into one would work. All I wanted to see was the Avengers to kick some ass and be awesome. And to 99% of people that's all it needed to be and it exceeded I'd say most peoples expectations in the process.

     

    I wanted that, and a compelling plot and an engaging script with intellectual depth. Basically I'm just contesting the thing where everyone's like "Joss Whedon is the best writer" when he's not. [He reminds me of David Guetta. I'm stunned by Titanium and I love the feeling of Who's That Chick on my puss, but ultimately, his work is kinda vapid.]

     

    Anyway I think Shorty's point in his last post anyway was that he thought it odd to consider the X-Men films just having LGBT undertones when it clearly dealt with more and for most people it would have been the racial undertones that showed more.

     

    Only because most people aren't "familiar" with LGBT plight (in the sense that it wouldn't spring to their mind because it doesn't apply to them). The race allegory doesn't stand up as well as the LGBT allegory does. The MLK vs Malcolm X / Prof x vs Magneto thing fits really well, but there's lots of places where the allegory doesn't apply: Bobby Drake is scared to tell his parents he's black? Bigoted scientists are looking for a cure for people being Chinese? Angel is self-harming because he's realised he's not white?

    [You can even see Professor X and Magneto in Hamishmash and I, respectively, when it comes to our views on LGBT politics. He's liberal where I'm like ultra-queer "sterilise everyone and have children born in birthing chambers" :p.]

  4. Posted

    I'm still puzzled that you think people chose to watch a superhero movie for anything other than the superheroes and action.

     

    Because to think that a superhero movie is confined to the sort of film delivered to us with Avengers is to underestimate the potential the genre holds.

     

    There's no reason why a superhero film well written and directed shouldn't be as good/relevant as films like Alien, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner etc etc.

  5. Posted

    A mate of mine keeps telling me Coulson will be back in Iron Man 3.... a "friend" of his told him.... though so far he can't provide me with a link... how many films was he signed up for anyway?

     

    He's contracted for 9 films.

  6. Posted

    I know it fits it, absolutely. I'm not arguing that the allegory doesn't exist, and in more ways than one, only that it's strange to call X-Men "an allegory of LGBT repression" as though that's its main underlying purpose.

     

    Specifically the movies, it undeniably is. Bobby Drake "coming out" to his parents, "the cure", William Stryker: "my son is not a mutant / I don't have a son", Nightcrawler being self-loathing, Mystique: "I shouldn't have to pretend to not be a mutant", etc etc.

     

    ^ Which displays my point well. With X-Men you can pick out a plethora of stunning bits / aspects, and see that they are devices in the script. Avengers you can kinda talk about Nick Fury and the baseball cards, the attempt to give Maria Hill a life at the start, perhaps talk about Hulk, but it feels like there's not much depth to anything. Everything is as what you see.

     

    I agree with Oxigen Waste, it's going to be largely irrelevant in 5 years in the sense that the only reason you'd watch it is to watch a film about the Avengers.

  8. Posted

    Y'see, I absolutely hated both of those films. They attempted to be far too cerebral with ridiculous subject matter. The high point of Watchmen was the actor playing Rorshach and the saving grace of V was the fact that it did, eventually, have an end.

     

    I feel that's more because both were badly directed though. (Zack Snyder is the worst person.)

  9. Posted · Edited by chairdriver
    Automerged Doublepost

    I read a theory that Coulson is going to become Vision, given he had so much irrelevant screen-time and has been contracted for 9 movies. I feel stunned by the joke.

     

    Yeah, maybe. They need that scene between Cap and Thanos for sure, though. I don't actually know much about Thanos, or at least his involvement with the Avengers.

     

    The thing with Thanos is that he's too powerful for fight scenes against him to actually be in any way interesting. Like, his function in the comics originally was so the writer could monologue about death, mortality and nihilism for pages and pages.

     

    I wish they went down the Masters Of Evil route, where the Avengers are faced by a team of weaker villains, who are still great.

     

  11. Posted · Edited by chairdriver

    I don't know about anyone else but when I went to see the Avengers I expected there to be a shitload of explosions and some funny one-liners. I feel like discussing deism and femininity would have probably lowered the number of explosions and funny one-liners. I am happy with the current balance.

     

    I feel that's you misconceiving how comics are written though. Most of the time they are way more than explosions and laughs, many comic writers actually are stunning; it would have been nice to have this reflected in the film.

  12. Posted · Edited by chairdriver

    It had one of the best working on it.

     

    I feel X-Men and X-2 are both better in the sense they actually have depth to the script (worse in the sense they're in parts cheesy and awkward and have worse comic timing); they actually make an effort to explore themes. I guess this is partly because X-Men is obviously an allegory for LGBT oppression, but that doesn't mean the characters of Avengers couldn't have been written in such a way to make you actually think about things. All the following could have been incorporated into the Avengers easily, and would have infused the film with actual content, rather than just being a popcorn flick.

    - Masculinity and femininity / male vs. female

    - Myth / reality, utopia, deism

    - War

    - Military as a form of operation/government

    - Change since 1940s, or lack of it

    - Mind control, loss of control over your own actions, what it means to have agency / humanity [this could have been done nicely if Hawkeye had had a conversation with Bruce Banner]

    - Capitalism, and its interaction with war/military/government

    etc etc

     

    And I wish Loki actually had a proper motive, rather than just being a megalomaniac.

  13. Posted · Edited by chairdriver

    Why would they spend time talking about something completely random, which has no relevance to the events in the film? The only person who has any kind of experience on this kind of "war" is Thor.

     

    It seems like a subject best left for Captain America 2.

     

    Because that would help the film have some value above being just what it is as a story?

     

    It wouldn't take much, just someone who can actually write properly to write the script, you could add so much depth to the script by a couple of sentences here and there.

     

    ~~

     

     

    I only just remembered this, but was anyone else literally SHOCKED when Loki called Black Widow a "Mewling quim"?? Probably the most obscene thing I've ever heard said on film. I have absolutely no idea how they got away with that. And there wasn't even any notion of "oh you sexist piece of shit" in retaliation. While she was over it (she was just acting), I think it's important for people to know that you can't just call a person a quim and it not be a thing.

     

    Quim is like the number 1 most offensive/disgusting word in the whole English language. Actually sounds horrid and slimy, where cunt just sounds aggressive.

  14. Posted · Edited by chairdriver

    It also feels really empty in the sense that it doesn't contain any sort of depth to the script. I mean, the team consists of a WWII soldier, a weapons dealer, a warrior god of myth and a walking metaphor for the dangers of nuclear warfare, and throughout the 2 hour film there's not one reflection on the nature of war? There's not one comment on how war has changed over time? There's nothing said to give us any feeling that Thor's presence is supposed to represent something more than him just being a _literal_ god.

     

    I mean, it's would be so easy to write a really good script (in the sense it has content) with this array of characters, but it doesn't delve at any point deeper than a surface level. Even the reaction to the death avoids any comment on what it means to give up elements of your personal freedoms in joining military.

     

    It's just completely apolitical and contentless. But the action was good.

  16. Posted

    So it was the surprise party for my friend's birthday. The theme was dress as him, so I went as the Latvian gay facet of his personality: 562208_10151606991750307_236865439_n.jpg582689_10151606991180307_655720306_23545777_1779453278_n.jpg

     

     

    Photo with me and birthday boy. Ignore my face, but this has to be posted for incredible pec action to be fair.

    403490_10151607009575307_655720306_23545828_1543118060_n.jpg

  17. Posted

    Amazing post Dog-amoto.

     

    I hope Rihanna isn't going to the beach any time soon. The pictures the newspapers keep showing [EVERY WEEK] are just ugly. In fact 9 times out of 10 she isn't that attractive.

     

    And of course her sole purpose of existence is to be attractive?

  18. Posted

    The majority of the bits quoted are choruses, where its an established thing to repeat phrases/words. And she clearly wasn't referring to Rude Boy when she said that, nor Birthday Cake.

     

    I can imagine her crying writing We Found Love or Where Have You Been, since they clearly written from some place of heart. In particular, Man Down is actually a really well-written song: "Lord have mercy, judge please give me minimal."

  22. Posted

    Ant-Man and Wasp will clearly be Avengers 2, considering they're doing an Ant-Man film. Would be a joke to have Sersi, to tie into the Immortals mythod.

     

    Watched Thor again last night and noticed.

     

    the older doctor guy is obviously controlled by / is Loki at the very end but watching it again it totally holds up to consider him to be Loki the entire time. He's very subtly negative about Thor throughout and a lot of his actions seek to undermine or distract Thor from his journey. He also spends a lot of time trying to keep Jane (who's a few months work away from reversing Thor's banishment) from spending time with Thor. Of course, the clever part is that he's a legit character without being Loki, but it's a fun way to think about him.

     

    I said this immediately after coming out the cinema of seeing Thor and everyone was like "no John stop being stupid", where it's clearly there. Or at least written so it's ambiguous.

  23. Posted

    Cap was turd.

     

    I enjoy how he felt "bad". Like, shit in comparison to Iron Man and Thor. And I liked how they actively made a thing of him being really anachronistic and annoying to talk to. It felt like he only came into his own in the last 20 mins of the film, which felt stunning. Really loved the team-up fighting, using his shield to deflect the energy from Thor (or was it Iron Man?) to hit an alien etc. And I enjoy the feeling of being agile, like jumping over cars etc, but not ridiculously so, not like CGI / Spider-Man agile.

     

    I loved how Black Widow felt like she had his role covered, and was more efficient at doing it. Of course she was the one to outwit Loki. EASY.

     

     

    I also liked how it was a thing that his costume is bad. Actually part of the script.

  25. Posted

    I guess

    it would have been more of a thing if I actually liked Agent Coulson in the first place. And it feels like: if you sign up to join the military, of course that's going to happen eventually so I have less sympathy.

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