Reply To: Hobby Weekender 28/09/18 Pretty much on time

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Okm going to re-attempt question responses 😛

1) Did you see the movie ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’? And what did you think?

Not yet (I usually don’t bother catching things at the cinema…) but I gather it is out on DVD shortly so will see it then. Prequels are a bit difficult as far as the action genres are concerned because you know several characters are guaranteed not to die or have any overly life changing consequences. I’d personally love to see more spin-off stories as well – I mean come on, who wouldn’t want to see stand alone films about all the bounty hunters from Empire?…

2) What is an acclaimed movie or one a fanbase really enjoys but you hated? Also why

Hated might be a bit of a strong term, if something is causing that much anguish I’ll just stop watching it. The harry Potter films never gelled with me (I’m probably the wrong demographic.age, i just found them too slow) and the first Hobbit film was pretty painful. OK I know that the cinemas were feeling threatened by the prevalence of DVDs and online movie piracy and 3d films were seen as a way to lock in a cinema audience but really – the whole film was dwarves falling out of things or being thrown from things. Or choreographed showtunes… In fairness to Peter Jackson things did pick up thereafter.

3) What is a movie with ok to bad reception that you liked?

Suicide Squad. Even though most of the first half of the movie was background setup and introducing characters for the uninitiated I thought the rest of it was just the right balance between cheesy action and cinematic tension. Still need to get around to seeing the rest of the films in the DCverse…

4) Slightly different question, what movies disappointed you

Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, prometheus, Alien V Predator… Anybody spot a pattern here? Ridley Scott’s Alien was amazing, no other word for it. A claustrophobic sci-fi horror of terrifying proportion, based on an abomination crafted by the mind of H R Geiger.. The film gave us Ellen Ripley, an amazing iconic female character. Then, James Cameron backed up with Aliens – taking the same monster, upping the numbers and pivoting the franchise as a sci-fi action film. Ellen Ripley achieves epic legend status in the end fight scene. And then Alien 3 happened, and not even Sigourney weaver could save the franchise form there… Ahem, anyhow… Oh yeah, and Dungeons and Dragons the Movie was Terribad. If anyone hasn’t seen it you should get some popcorn, invite friends over and make a night of it 🙂

5) Can an affective movie universe outside of Marvels be done?

The advantages that marvel ahs here are the IP on over 4000 characters and a nearly 60 year continuing story arc where the characters all interact with one another. Ie, there is a wealth of source material to draw upon and the content is not limited to a few key notable personalities. If we compare and contrast to other franchises with a large back catalog of source material (Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, Conan) the problem is that the action focuses on one or a handful of key individuals, so while the worlds/universes they inhabit are well crafted and fleshed out, almost by necessity those key individuals would need to be present to continue the narrative (or at least draw in a cinematic audience) which would make the franchise more of a continuing series rather than a ‘universe’ per se.  DC could do it if they didn’t keep dropping the ball comparatively at the box office (but Sony keep doing this too with most of their Marvel IP so I don’t think that it’s DC getting it wrong so much as MCU nailing it).  Crossgen Comics were doing something similar (albeit in comic book form) before they went under  – my fault – every time I book a standing order for a comic the run gets cancelled – with Crossgen I was reading Sojourn, Scion and Brath so they had no hope of staying solvent :'(  So could I see anybody getting away with a cinematic universe? Star Wars and DC are both trying. Something based on Tolkien’s lore could maybe work. Beyond that I’m kind of stuck for ideas…