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Maybe they were trying to bring in a hint of a Kryptonian accent?

It doesn't bother me a ton because of when that accent pops up, but I did kinda pause to ask what was up with that.

Spider-Man Homecoming was an absurd mess of a movie. The plot was a sloppy mess. The characters were a sloppy mess. The writers didn't seem to know whether this was a John Hughs movie or a standard Marvel movie. The continuity was a very distracting mess. I don't get why they would fight so hard to get the character in the MCU, ditch Andrew Garfield just so they can do it their own way, and then have no clear vision for the movie.

And I don't get Marvel's need to have blundering heroes who make things worse every time they show up. Honestly, how many big battles could be avoided in Marvel movies if only their characters weren't such screwups?

By the end of the movie, I wanted Peter to reject the Avengers offer and tell Tony to f*** off, because his f***ing handler wouldn't listen to him for five f***ing seconds, and the whole f***ing movie could have been avoided if they had. The Avengers didn't have Peter's back, so why would Peter even want to be one, or associate with them? Stark almost got Peter and many others killed because he was such an a**hole.

I like Iron Man, the first movie. However, it seems like they've been working hard to make me hate him ever since.

It seemed like they were messing with established characters just for the sake of being different. Why do this "hot Aunt May" schtick?

The movie was such a baffling mess. Why did nobody fix this script? It wasn't like it would have been hard to make a better movie. Did they have a set release date before they started, and just couldn't take the time to do it right?

I've seen Justice League.

I have thoughts.

But you'll have to sit through seventeen other half-assed posts that build up to my underwhelming comments about my thoughts... nah, I'm just joking. My posts aren't Marvel movies. But I don't have time to type them all now, so I will be back later.

No! I really, really want to see it and love it (though I have my concerns with it). It isn't a decision to not see it. It's just that I have the entire family in town, a book about to be published, an audiobook in production, work on a movie coming up, and I've spent the past month trying to get all of these plans in order.

Timing, not decision!

That said, I just rewatching Man of Steel and Wonder Woman with my nephews. Man of Steel is still great. Wonder Woman still falls apart directly after a really solid emotional climax, which is immediately rendered useless to the movie.

It's been signed now. It's surprising that it happened, but I guess it surprises me whenever Republicans actually do something.

I haven't seen Justice League yet, but I have a feeling that they're going to mess this up. No matter what they do, the reviewers will bash them and the audience will be torn. Because all audiences are torn.

There's nothing wrong with the universe they have. It allows them to do all sorts of movies. I hope they don't mess it up, but whatever. Man of Steel will still be the best Superman movie.

Well, the bonuses won't come until the bill is signed, so if that doesn't happen by Christmas, I'm sure that the bonuses won't come before Christmas.

I don't know how the companies are doing it, but they could have money budgeted for taxes, which would be freed up. Or they could just put the bonuses into their budget going forward.

Do I think that the companies benefit from this tax cut? Yes. Of course. Everyone benefits. But I don't think it is some sort of political conspiracy on their part.

I wouldn't expect it either, but...

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/tax-ref … oyees.html

I just don't get why people are so dedicated to that one, incredibly dated, incarnation of the character. I don't get the appeal. I don't get why they just want to recreate it over and over again. It is the worst way to do a remake/reboot/whatever.

I guess. Like I said, it's probably my change in perspective from being one of the kids, to being one of the adults. Now I'm thinking that Betty's mother should have yanked her off that stage, put a coat on her and dragged her ass home, where she would spend the next three years being grounded.

These kids today...

The show is interesting, but I think it's appeal will wear off before long. The original mystery drove the show in season 1, but as with most shows, it feels like they're now stretching to keep it going. It's not really bad, but it could reach a breaking point if they're not careful.

One thing that I find weird is how teen shows are handled today. When I was younger, it wasn't as common to show kids drinking, taking drugs or having sex. It wasn't that they avoided those things, but that those things were seen as things that kid's shouldn't be doing, so it was shown less, and usually with more consequences. Today's shows treat kids like they're adults. School and parents aren't huge factors, and parents with authority are even more rare. They drink like fish, and do drugs without the writers making any fuss over it. And sex is handled with much less weight.

I'm not trying to be all square about it or anything. I'm just commenting on the way that tv writing has evolved, for better or worse.

Yeah, I honestly have no idea what to expect from Disney taking over FX. I think this whole deal is going to be a mess for anyone who enjoys quality TV or movies.

I believe that Gotham films in New York.

Legion will still benefit them, right? So I could see that show sticking around. The Americans is already ending (or over? I'm behind). So there's Fargo to think about, yeah. And I don't expect to see Sterling Archer walking around Disney World, taking pictures with kids.

It's a mess. It shouldn't be happening. It's going to end up sucking for us, either by seeing shows and movies canceled, or watching them turn to crap. You're right about Gotham. They'd probably have to move to Vancouver, which would kill the feel of the show, and probably cost them some actors along the way.

I don't like this. But whatever. Disney doesn't realize that it's pushing the industry closer to the end of the big studio system that has ruled the industry since it began. People don't need them anymore, and if all they're going to produce is hollow, soulless crap, they will go away.

The problem with the democrats is that anyone who comes out to be the face of anti-Trump is going to have to deal with being slammed by Trump for years, and there really aren't many of them who could hold up to that. Bernie is a crazy old man who can't have a serious conversation on any issue without looking like a bumbling fool.

So the democrats have anointed the media as their leader of the anti-Trump movement. Late night talk shows that used to be hosted by comedians are now propaganda commercials, making crap up and acting as though it's the truth. Kimmel even waves a baby around these days, because anyone who would dare ask questions while looking at a baby (who is in no way related to the topic that he's talking about while holding said baby) is a monster. It's ridiculous... but at least it's interesting.

I keep seeing actors or directors talking about their "timely and topical" projects that involve crazy neo-Nazis, as though we are dealing with a surge of neo-Nazis 2017. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen many of them running around.

I think the democrats are going to wait a while, and pick their man closer to the election, to limit the amount of time that Trump can tweet about him/her/ze/whatever fun new word pops up before 2020. Is this a good idea? I doubt it. They will have to pick someone like Hillary, who doesn't require much foundation building. The problem is that they will be stuck with someone like Hillary. They're banking on someone like that looking better when compared to Trump, but honestly... I'd still happily vote for Trump over Hillary.

I'd heard that season 3 was bad, so I was worried going in. I actually didn't dislike it. There was some good stuff in there. I think my least favorite of season 3 was "Men Against Fire". It had some interesting ideas (using technology to distance soldiers from the people they're killing), but it just didn't work for me.

Okay, so the disagreement...

After watching the episode, my brother said that he didn't think that he could watch the rest of the series if that's what the show is like (he's never seen it before). I asked why, and he told me that different countries have fundamentally different views on what justice looks like. He wasn't comfortable with the way Jon Hamm's character was essentially branded like a pedophile because he whispered lines into a guy's ear, or the way the other guy (and his consciousness in the egg) was treated like a stone-cold killer for snapping, after years of having his mind messed with in the worst possible way. He was pretty much given a child, and then had that child taken away from him, all based on the whims of one woman and her technology.

While I agree with my brother that other countries have severe problems with justice and liberty, which many Americans don't notice because we assume that all civilized countries are like our own, I had a very different take on the episode. It might have come from the fact that I have seen the whole series and understand its themes, but I viewed the episode as a techno-horror story. When someone is able to push a button and block you from their world, or when people have the ability to control what information you're allowed to have access to about your own life, the world becomes a twisted and dark place. People become cold and inhuman, treating people the same way they treat tech, and treating tech no thought or care after working to make it believe that it's alive and can feel.

I certainly don't view Hamm's character as entirely sympathetic or good, but the sentence did not fit the crime (which was essentially just not reporting a crime). And the other guy, I actually did feel sympathy for. I think that he was forced to pay for someone else's misdeeds.

Basically, I viewed the episode as a campfire story about the world that we're creating. I didn't view the police in the episode as though they were intended to be the good guys.

My brother saw it as a reflection of the world that we live in, with the assumption that the show works like most shows, and that "justice" prevailed in the mind of the writers.

I see the Fringe comparison, but I think Fringe did it better. AoS has a problem with tone. I'm not sure if the show is supposed to be taken seriously, or if it's supposed to be a campy comedy. Buffy kinda did both, but not many shows pull that off, and with AoS, I'm really not sure how much I'm actually supposed to care about any of this. The characters are poorly developed and the stories aren't well crafted, so I assume that it's supposed to be like a 1980's action series, where we're not supposed to ask too many questions. But that format really doesn't work today, especially on a show where plotlines are drawn out for the entire season.

I watched Punisher!

First of all, I thought that there were 8 episodes when I started watching, so as those 8 episodes were playing out, I was admiring the pace of the show, and their ability to avoid some of the problems that the other shows had because of their episode count. Then I saw that there were 13 episodes... so... yeah. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show. I just think that these Netflix/Marvel shows would benefit from fewer episodes, or more standalone episodes where the characters are fighting one-off bad guys.

The show's attempt at a secondary bad guy is Lewis Wilson (played by Daniel Webber, whom I've met and worked with. Great guy, so none of the following comments are meant against him personally), a character who does nothing to help the falsehoods and misrepresentations that TV and movies often depict when dealing with soldiers who are suffering from PTSD. I thought this character's story did little to serve the overall series. If you were to remove most of his scenes, I doubt that there would be any significant damage to the show. In fact, his arc's climax leads to one of the weaker parts of the show.

Lewis holds Curtis hostage, which brings Frank out of hiding and this is how he is revealed to the world. Now they know that he is alive, and for some reason, they think that he was responsible for what happened to Curtis. This makes no sense, since Curtis lived and was therefore the only witness to what happened. As such, he would have obviously told the police that Frank *saved* him. And he probably would have spoken with Karen, just for good measure (in case the police chose to cover up Frank's heroics).

Instead, Curtis isn't seen or heard from again until the series has played out.

Lewis is used to show us how much Frank cares about Karen, but I don't think this required as much time in developing the Lewis character as we got.

Billy Russo was another problematic character. The reveal of him being a bad guy wasn't shocking, but it also wasn't well done. There was no attempt made to smooth the lines of who he was and who he now is. There was no attempt to rationalize how Frank's old brother-like friend was now okay with the slaughter Frank's entire family. There was a chance to do some really interesting things with the character and how he could rationalize all of those bad things, or maybe even convince himself that they're not bad at all. Instead, he transformed into a mustache twirling bad guy who occasionally pretends to care about Frank.

For a show a bout guns and skill, the show failed on a lot of technical levels, just to get the story to where the writers wanted it. The use of "silencers" in crowded buildings is a Hollywood trope that is just comedic at this point, and this show is aimed at people who know how suppressors work, so a good part of the audience was probably cringing when the Hollywood silencer showed up. Also, the way the federal agents handled themselves in certain scenes was baffling, but it led to things like Stein's death, which would have been harder to accomplish if they... thought about it. I mean, how did he beat Madani to the confrontation outside when she was directly behind Russo and left Stein behind?

For all of the complaints that I have, I actually didn't hate the show. Frank was a compelling character. I would have loved to have seen more of him hitting the streets and taking out lower-level criminals, but maybe that's what future seasons are for. I think that his relationships on the show were really interesting (aside from the Billy Russo mess). The action was exciting.

Even with too many episodes, I didn't think that the show had as many pacing issues as Jessica Jones or Luke Cage did. And its plot was much more coherent than The Defenders.

My current ranking of the Netflix/Marvel shows, from best to worst:

Daredevil
Punisher
Luke Cage
Jessica Jones
The Defenders

Luke Cage (I didn't want to be absurd and waste too much space on this board by putting in the full amount of distance between the other shows and Luke Cage)

Question about The Flash:

Maybe I've been in Texas too long, but the cliffhanger didn't strike me as that dire. The man who Barry claimed was a murderous criminal turned around and accused Barry of stalking him and got a restraining order (if I remember correctly).

So I assume that a crime was reported at Barry's apartment. He has a security alert on his phone telling him that someone was there. And Devoe turns up dead on Barry's floor.

How does this look like Barry is in the wrong? If a guy enters my house without permission, I can kill the crap out of him and I'd probably get a high five from the cops that showed up.

I assume that Devoe's wife made some sort of panicked phone call or whatever, but that wasn't shown. Was Barry being framed for kidnapping and murder, or just killing the guy who was in his home uninvited? Not everyone who is found standing over a dead body is going to be treated like a murderer.

I feel like the show wanted us to base our reaction off of what we've seen on other shows/movies and not what we were shown here.

I did enjoy Iris making a passive aggressive comment about Felicity and Oliver highjacking their wedding.

Spoilers for the Arrow midseason finale...

First, I'd like to say that the writers haven't learned their lesson when it comes to Felicity or Olicity. It wasn't too bad this year when she was just one member of the team, but pushing the relationship has really made her annoying again. She was designed to be a supporting character, not the female lead.

Second... Thea just woke up from a six (plus) month coma, and she just hops out of bed and gets back to normal life? Why do shows insist on doing these massive medical arcs if they refuse to follow up on them? Thea was long past the point where anyone would expect her to wake up, especially without any permanent neurological issues. But it's a comic book show, so fine. But zero rehab? Zero recovery time? This isn't as bad as Oliver being stabbed and thrown off a cliff, only to walk it off. Or Felicity being incurably paralyzed for a couple of episodes. However, it is still frustrating.

I feel like the team splitting up is an act, put on for the cameras in the Arrowcave. Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't feel any sense of doom or kiss from this.

Also, I still don't get why they didn't use the evil Oliver corpse to get Oliver's charges dropped. If they can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone with his face, his DNA, and his fingerprints is out there doing bad things, they really can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was our Oliver who they've been tracking this whole time.

And one last question... Does it really follow Vigilante's MO to join a supervillain club?

Interesting.

You know what's weird? I can't read an article about the DC movies without getting the same frustration that I get when I read political articles. I would prefer facts without sly little commentary and opinion shaping.

Because then you wouldn't have to buy all of the sets.

This is why it became impossible for me to keep up with comic books.

See, that type of opinion is something that I have no problem with. I don't 100% agree, nor do I 100% disagree. On the other hand, I absolutely find the Nazi/Hitler thing to be stupid and insane, and won't even pretend to respect it as a legitimate viewpoint. The people who believe that are just uneducated about Nazis and uneducated about Trump. It is factually untrue, for so many reasons. It's like saying that he is an elephant... It's not something that can be a matter of opinion. It's either true or it's not, and in this case, it's not.

Honestly, I am not fully versed on either story, and I don't want to speak without knowing where I stand. I have vague ideas of opinions, but I have so busy lately that I've barely had time for headlines, much less actual news stories. I'm sure you believe that I would defend James O'Keefe to the death, whether I knew what I was talking about or not, but that's not really the case.

Sorry, but I was talking directly about these episodes and these writers, not political beliefs. The belief that Donald Trump is literally a Nazi is not a political belief, because it is a belief that requires a lack of understanding politics. Saying that Donald Trump is not a Nazi is not a political belief, it is a fact. Donald Trump is not a Nazi. Barack Obama is not a Nazi. Hillary Clinton is not a Nazi. Bernie Sanders is not a Nazi... I believe all of these people to be many other things, but to say that they are Nazis is blatantly wrong. If someone out there would like to explain to me how I'm wrong about that, or how it is intimidating for me to state the obvious, feel free.
If these shows are going to continuously voice their views on the subject, I can't be blamed for discussing them. If you're not comfortable with that in a discussion about silly comic book shows, welcome to my world. You didn't have a problem when the actual writers of the show did it, probably because you thought it was funny.

I wasn't commenting on their politics. I was commenting on their maturity and professionalism.

And on another note, how come nobody thought of using evil Oliver's dead body to get normal Oliver cleared of those charges that he is facing? Showing that there are two identical Oliver's running around would make the "beyond a reasonable doubt" thing pretty hard. Though I kinda think they might go ahead and send Oliver to prison next year.

I wouldn't call BvS a massive success. I would call it a solid success. I would call it impressive for a franchise that is several reboots down the line for both of its main characters. That's a detail that Marvel has only had to deal with when it comes to Spider-Man thus far. And considering that they cut off a lot of potential profits by making the movie less than kid-friendly, I think it did pretty well. I'm not delusional about its success, but I'm also not in the camp that would consider it to be any measure of a failure or disappointment.

I don't disagree with what you say will happen to the franchise in the future, but I disagree with the logic behind your comments. You see the DCEU as a reaction to the Marvel universe. The truth is that DC has been trying to put together a Justice League movie, and a shared universe, for many years. It just didn't come together until after Marvel put theirs out, and there are a bunch of factors going into that situation, from the basic ability for the studios to produce these movies regularly, to the fact that Nolan's movies were never going to be a part of a joint universe and they were out while the mainstream popularity of comic book movies was on the rise. Obviously, the success of Marvel's movies helped to prove the theory that the audience would go for this sort of thing, but saying that Marvel is responsible for the idea, and DC was simply reacting to the MCU is like giving Apple credit for the popularity of cell phones. DC was the one that built this foundation, over the course of decades, yet nobody says that Iron Man was a response to the success of Batman Begins.

You say that DC was trying to catch up to Marvel, forcing the joint universe, and will now break them up as a response to the less than stellar reaction, allowing them to be their own thing. However, this was always the plan. The Justice League movie was never meant to be the grand finale, as it was with the Avengers. It was the big bang that creates the DC universe. It was always intended to launch characters like Aquaman and Cyborg, with the help of more established characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. DC has always had the idea of allowing filmmakers to take these characters into their own corner of the DC universe and do their own thing, not dependent on the bigger universe. Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad are examples of this. I don't think that it's a reaction to anything. I don't think it's a sign that Justice League didn't work. I think it's just the way things were always going to happen.

The problem is that people are measuring the DCEU against the MCU, and the two are not the same animal.

Joss was brought in to work on Justice League by Snyder, because he had skills that Snyder wanted to use (and he was already working with the studio on the DCEU). It wasn't something that the studio was forcing. Whedon was working under the direction of Snyder, and people seem to be overlooking that detail quite a lot (I've seen articles asking why Whedon wasn't getting directing credit, which is absurd).

(side note: I think there's a chance that Joss is already gone from the DCEU, following what his wife wrote about him. He hasn't spoken much about Justice League in the press, and he made a passive-aggressive jab at the JL villain on Twitter. They insist that he's still working on Batgirl, but I think that could possibly just be a way of avoiding bad publicity right now)

I think Aquaman will stand on its own. I think Shazam will stand on its own. I think most of the single-lead movies will stand on their own, just like Man of Steel and Wonder Woman did. There may or may not be another JL movie in the near future. I think the plan for that probably got thrown when the Snyders (who have been developing this movies) stepped down. We'll have to see what happens, and if they ever decide to come back.

I still haven't seen Justice League. Soon, I hope. I'm avoiding spoilers as much as possible. A lot of people seem to like it... so I'll probably hate it.

I tried a couple of Mr. Robot episodes, but it didn't grab me.

I'm starting to think that my brain is wired backwards. It seems like I don't like the things that everyone else loves, and I love the things that everyone else hates.

Justice League has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 37%! Things are looking up!

I think they've been trying to explore more obscure characters and storylines, keeping in mind that we have been exposed to a lot of these characters, in one form or another, for decades. Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman did the same thing.

The question is, are these just mainstream film reviewers who don't like the plot, or do comic book fans hate it too?

I think the crossover has been confirmed to be one big movie, where you wouldn't even know which show you're watching if you didn't see the title card for the series. It is a shame that I'll have to watch the Legends and Supergirl stuff though, but hopefully they can make them less annoying for the crossover.

I was out of town, so I just got around to seeing last week's Flash (and I'm still behind on Arrow). I have to say, I'm tired of the overly comedic, silly episodes. The guy that they cast as Ralph Dibny is annoying, with his Jim Carrey-style delivery of every line. I'd actually rather have Wally back. Also, the campy comedy doesn't work for the show. It just doesn't. I'm all for light and fun, but within the structure of the established series.

I also don't get the Killer Frost arc. When we left her in last season's finale, she was a blend of Caitlin and Frost, bringing those sides together and figuring out what that meant. She didn't take Julian's cure because she didn't want to throw off that balance and ignore either side of herself. So it didn't make sense when she came back as Caitlin this season. And now we learn that she went to Starbuck (or whatever Katee Sackhoff's name is on this show) for help repressing the Killer Frost side, but it didn't work.

This doesn't make sense. What good was Caitlin working for this woman without the ice powers? Why didn't she just take Julian's cure if that's what she wanted? Why did the writers decide to abandon the idea of mixing these two sides of the character, and instead decided to replay last year's arc for her?

So far, this season seems really sloppy. They look like they're attempting to bring lightness and fun into the show, but they're doing it as the cost of the actual story.