Saving a Studio? This Looks Like a Job for Superman! (msn.com) 102
Warner Bros. releases a $225 million Superman reboot this week that executives consider the studio's final chance to build a successful cinematic universe rivaling Marvel's dominance. The film, written and directed by James Gunn, serves as the foundation for DC Studios' planned expansion into multiple films and television shows.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav appointed Gunn and producer Peter Safran to lead the newly unified DC Studios in 2022, ending decades of corporate infighting that prevented the company's superheroes from matching Marvel's success. The Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe has generated $32 billion across 36 films since 2008. Warner executives want the movie to gross over $500 million globally, according to WSJ. If successful, this would mark the first year since 2008 that DC outperforms Marvel at the box office.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav appointed Gunn and producer Peter Safran to lead the newly unified DC Studios in 2022, ending decades of corporate infighting that prevented the company's superheroes from matching Marvel's success. The Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe has generated $32 billion across 36 films since 2008. Warner executives want the movie to gross over $500 million globally, according to WSJ. If successful, this would mark the first year since 2008 that DC outperforms Marvel at the box office.
Don’t care (Score:2)
I see the same Superman movie every few years but with a different actor. Same goes for all the comic book movies.
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I see the same Superman movie every few years but with a different actor. Same goes for all the comic book movies.
Yeah but 1980s special effects won't "fly" for the kids today. They need something more state of the art. So, remakes kinda make a little bit of sense.
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As most Humans on this planet are garbage that just is plain stupid and as for Justice what type of Justice if its Human Justice Sharia is not the type of Justice I would like superman to hold up. The American justice in the comic universe is much more preferable Why does the movie industry hate America? except when they can make dollars of it
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Superman used to stand for Truth Justice and the American Way. Thats been changed to Truth Justice and the Human way.
As most Humans on this planet are garbage that just is plain stupid
Most Americans are garbage though, right? So it kinda cancels out.
What the fuck (Score:2)
If you want to find Taliban-style authoritarian moralism, you don't have the leave the country. Book bans [cfpublic.org], secret police [nycbar.org], explicitly religious political messaging (Can't find the URL of the whitehouse propaganda video, I was thinking of, but you can find your own examples) , surveillance of political speech [nextgov.com]...
That's The American Way at the moment.
Re: Don’t care (Score:2)
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I see the same Superman movie every few years but with a different actor. Same goes for all the comic book movies.
Yup. "Reboot" seems to be studio-speak for "rehash" - though they don't seem to put much effort into mixing up the hash. While not an exact corollary, as Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) said in The Good Place [wikipedia.org], "They made a second Spider-Man? What is there left to say?" I feel the same about (most) reboots. The 2003/4 BSG [wikipedia.org] reboot being one of the exceptions.
Fire Zaslav (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to save Warner Bros, et. al.
That idiot has done nothing but drive the company further into the ground, and profiting massively from it.
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Appointing Gunn was a good idea though. His DC movies and TV show (Peacemaker) have all been good. Reviews for Superman suggest that it's a great movie and is likely to kick off the next big cinematic universe. Gunn has taken it in a new direction by going back to being more like Reeves' Superman movies. A bit goofy, a bit silly, but compelling. He leans in to how silly the comics are, a big departure from the trend since the late 80s Batman movies of getting darker and grimmer.
Remember ... try not to offend half the country (Score:1, Interesting)
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Re:Remember ... try not to offend half the country (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, if you're aiming at an international market, dropping a line easily perceived as American jingoism might be a net gain.
To interpret Superman's "historical" behaviors as jingoist would be a quite radical political interpretation. I think he is known for what is considered some of the best attributes of America. The attributes the world wishes it would see more of.
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Is it still common courtesy to punch nazis? https://www.ign.com/articles/p... [ign.com]
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Is it still common courtesy to punch nazis? https://www.ign.com/articles/p... [ign.com]
A real one. Not a political hyperbole one.
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I mean if you salute like one and you're the keynote speaker at a German far right political party https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27... [npr.org] Well people might start to say something.
Re: Remember ... try not to offend half the countr (Score:1)
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The shift in tone to despising Nazis for being racists mostly came after the War.
Racists are everywhere. Usually, they just say stupid off color things, but they can still be nice/kind/polite to others. Racists come in many varieties and shades of grey. But kill a few million Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and all of a sudden people are ready to start punching some faces.
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I mean if you salute like one and you're the keynote speaker at a German far right political party https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27... [npr.org] Well people might start to say something.
Yet still be mistaken. While making a gesture from his heart towards the crowd, saying ""My heart goes out to you". A guy on the autism spectrum literally acting out his thoughts. While at a political event saying "children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents". Note he is still referring to the nazi actions as "sins". Being proud of German culture. My great-uncle of German descent who literally fought the Nazis as a WW2 US Army Infantryman is proud of Germa
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Which is an easy point of view to have, should you be a western / American person.
Now look at that through the lens of China. I'm pretty sure the folks in charge want absolutely nothing to do with "the American Way" but the studio is very much interested in the Chinese Yuan.
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Now look at that through the lens of China.
How about through the lens of people wanting to leave China and move to the USA? Rather than the lens of the CCP.
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Anyone wanting to come to the United States in 2025 is a moron. We're no longer the land of opportunity. Instead we're the land of a criminal, pedophile President rapist who sends masked men to major cities to unconstitutionally kidnap and torture people before sending them to prisons or to foreign nations to be tortured. America sucks in 2025.
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Anyone wanting to come to the United States in 2025 is a moron. We're no longer the land of opportunity. Instead we're the land of a criminal, pedophile President rapist who sends masked men to major cities to unconstitutionally kidnap and torture people before sending them to prisons or to foreign nations to be tortured. America sucks in 2025.
You got the years wrong. That was 2021-2025 with Biden deploying the cartel and traffickers to American cities.
See how easy politics is. Now for reality.
"unconstitutionally kidnap" - Nope, a political fiction. Most of those being sought have legal extradition orders. And when sanctuary cities refuse to cooperate with ICE and release the wanted who happened to be in custody back into the community, well now ICE has to go into the community to find them. And now we have collateral arrests of other illeg
Supe is perfectly legal ... (Score:2, Informative)
Supes literally is an illegal immigrant. If observation of that fact sends you into a tizzy, the problem isn't with the movie.
Wrong. He was adopted as an infant by US Citizens. He's perfectly legal.
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Supes literally is an illegal immigrant. If observation of that fact sends you into a tizzy, the problem isn't with the movie.
Wrong. He was adopted as an infant by US Citizens. He's perfectly legal.
Nope. He entered the country without an appropriate visa and I'm pretty sure the Clarks didn't (couldn't) follow the international adoption process [uscis.gov]. Additionally I don't think Ka-el would legally qualify [uscis.gov] as a refugee because none of the criteria include destruction of one's homeland (and I'm not clear if Ka-el would be able to satisfy the condition to be "admissible to the United States"). Also one needs to apply to be a refugee before entering the US -- rules and all, correct?
And if you try to argue th
Foundling adoption doesn't require ID (Score:3)
Wrong. He was adopted as an infant by US Citizens. He's perfectly legal.
Nope. He entered the country without an appropriate visa and I'm pretty sure the Clarks didn't (couldn't) follow the international adoption process\.
Perhaps that would have mattered if the Clarks had traveled to the Citadel of Power to pick him up and bring him back to the USA. However as a foundling discovered in Kansas his adoption is perfectly legal. The foundling process does not require identification of parents, birth certificates, etc.
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They committed fraud.
That assumes the Clarks believe in aliens with interstellar space travel.
it would be obvious that it was "shown, prior to his attaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United States."
How? He appears human not alien. And if one does believe in interstellar aliens then he may be a human abductee whose spaceship crashed during the abduction.
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They committed fraud.
That assumes the Clarks believe in aliens with interstellar space travel.
For those reading along, this is were dmb reveals themselves as a troll. The Clarks certainly believed in "aliens with interstellar space travel" because they found Kal-el in his father's fucking spaceship ...
They found a craft with an apparently human infant in it. Where is the evidence of interstellar space travel and such? I think you are jumping ahead in the story line and inserting facts not revealed until much later at the Citadel of Power. Presumably after age 21 where the reveal would not alter the legality of his citizenship according to the above.
... with radioactive pieces of his home planet!
Seems like a crystal to us mere humans.
(unless they were MAGAs and the Trump Admin told them it wasn't a spaceship
Might have been some human sort of craft, atmospheric or space. Where is the interstellar alien proof.
and that the superpowers were because of clean eating or some such shit)
The radioactive
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"We found him in something that looks like a spaceship." is a material fact, ...
Not a material fact of aliens nor interstellar space travel. Chuck Yeager's X1-A "looks like" a Buck Rogers movie spaceship.
deliberately concealing that fact would have been a fairly obvious intent to deceive.
Where was the infant's origin revealed? They had a wrecked craft with no ID and a human looking infant. I think you are jumping ahead in the story line to Citadel of Power, where presumably he is over 21 and the revelation won't affect his citizenship as described above.
But when he started to lift entire houses, it would have been obvious he was probably not human; deliberately concealing that evidence would also be fraud.
Sure is odd, but how is that evidence of where he was born? I blame the radioactive spider in the barn.
Clark the Orphan interesting Reimagining (Score:2)
They had a wrecked craft with no ID and a human looking infant. And didn't contact any authorities, and made no effort to find the craft's origins.
The Kent's intent to deceive is obvious.
Or the intent was to not look like an alien believer nutcase who should not be allowed to raise a child.
So they are discovered, the craft revealed and they lose custody. The child is still unidentified. His parents are still unidentified. There is still no evidence of where he was born. He remains a presumable US citizen like any other foundling in Kansas, despite what happens to the Clarks. Even if the craft is believed to be of alien origin, he looks human not alien so the more plausible scenario is th
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He committed no misrepresentation.
Did he hide evidence, like flying? Yes he did.
And of course, committing 'no misrepresentation' is not a defense, even if it should be as part of basic human decency: See: DACA, and the many cases where the kids did not even know they were undocumented.
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He committed no misrepresentation. Did he hide evidence, like flying? Yes he did.
Flying is not evidence of his place of birth. The fact remains he didn't know until the Fortress of Solitude, presumably post 21 years of age. He's free and clear.
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Unless he can provide a birth certificate I believe he is a muslim from Kenya.
I don't know what do you think have the country is (Score:2, Insightful)
In other words, yes you are the baddies. No nobody agrees with you except the handful of weirdos you hang out with online. It seems like more people agree with you because those are Russian bots pushing your buttons for political gain and to hurt the country you claim the love so much but always seem to be
Dem Ind Rep would enjoy a moment without politics (Score:2, Flamebait)
In other words, yes you are the baddies.
Nope. I never voted for Trump. I think we do not have to think about him every moment of the day. I think we can have a fun movie without injecting politics into it. Imagine that, a movie being an escape from the mess of the real world.
No nobody agrees with you except the handful of weirdos you hang out with online.
I think you may want to read up on the topic of psychological projection. In the real world I think you will find plenty of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who would enjoy a moment without politics. Just old fashioned American fun as Superman has historically deliver
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In the real world I think you will find plenty of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who would enjoy a moment without politics.
We got a Cheeto Benito presidency specifically because of Democrats and Independents who enjoyed too many moments without politics.
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In the real world I think you will find plenty of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who would enjoy a moment without politics.
We got a Cheeto Benito presidency specifically because of Democrats and Independents who enjoyed too many moments without politics.
Actually we got the Orange Man because Democrats selected two insanely bad candidate, once in 2016 and again in 2024. Candidates so bad that enough Democrats thought Orange Man would do less damage than their own candidate and they voted for him. Dems put Trump over the top, twice. And I am using "selected" quite loosely. Both of these terrible candidates were largely "coronated" by party insiders. Had the democrats had real primaries with a robust set of candidates, they would have had two properly vetted
That's not actually true (Score:2, Troll)
Hillary was forced on us. She spent decades and literally tens of millions of dollars doing that. She also had the support of a large number of women who are absolutely obsessed with having the first female president. We didn't select Hillary though she was literally forced on us. To be fair when I say forced on us I mean the general voter she did actually win her primary election because old people vote and old people were scared o
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Democrat here I can explain why we got the two shitty candidates we got. Hillary was forced on us.
That's what I meant by "coronated" by insiders.
Joe Biden was just the default.
Joe wasn't really the 2024 candidate.
contingent of the Democrat party obsessed with the first female president forced Joe Biden to select a woman and frankly voters are not going to elect a woman president in anyone's lifetime.
That is absolutely untrue. That is just the cover story that Hillary and Kamala supports tell themselves. Look at the 2020 democratic primary. Kamala did terrible, one of the first to be forced out. Did she ever even leave the "other" category when they ranked candidate by percentage? She was soundly, by a wide margin, utterly rejected by Democrat primary voters. As I argued, if there had been an open 2024 primary she would
Re: That's not actually true (Score:2)
So there's a thing you're missing here (Score:1)
For terrible and stupid reasons yes but they still did.
The problem is that we mostly get old farts voting in primary elections and old farts go for whatever is perceived as the safest choice for them personally.
That's why nobody would go up against Hillary and that's why nobody would go up against trump. Both are viewed by a certain class of old fart as a safe choice.
Now Hillary and Donald Trump are anything but safe choices but the
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The Democrat primary voters still wanted Hillary ...
Not really. Others were persuaded not to run in the primary, to leave it open for Hillary. Do you want to be known as the man who stood in the way of the first female President? It's why I meant by a truly open and competitive primary, not the coronation of the insider's choice that we had in 2016.
and that's why nobody would go up against trump.
He was viewed as the "ncumbent", being a former President and all. Someone we had a 4 year presidential track record of.
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You were doing so well, sounding almost sane right up to the cliff "But you know what both candidates could have won if the news media wasn't 120% in the tank for trump." you jumped right off into retard land.
Go take your pills.
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I agree with all of that stuff, but there's also Biden going around congress to fund genocide, and Kamala saying she would be different from Biden but not saying she would stop the funding of the genocide. I can tell you that a whole lot of people were talking about that constantly, and stayed home because of it. That was fucking stupid, but we need votes from the stupid too.
Democrats have power but they absolutely despise using it
They love using it to crush actual progressives.
Yeah I don't believe you (Score:1)
It's always funny to watch you guys deny what you are because you know you're terrible. Like you know you're doing bad things so you deny that you're doing the bad things in order to derail the conversation ala sea lioning.
Dude it's 2025. You won. Civilization will now collapse into brutal techno feudalism like you wanted. You can
A zealot not believing that anyone could disagree (Score:1)
Yeah I don't believe you And neither does anybody here.
LOL. What a surprise, a political zealot not believing that someone could possibly differ from their political formulation of what someone who disagrees "must be".
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I think it's telling you forgot the U in your username, DMB. That is amazingly DUMB.
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I think it's telling you forgot the U in your username, DMB. That is amazingly DUMB.
LOL. The username is DRNB.
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You seem to still believe there is a logical connection between laws, and what these people blame.
They'll pass a nonsense law against cloud seeding, and then still claim the "deep state" is ILLEGALLY doing it anyway, and there's a massive conspiracy to cover it all up.
You know, kind of like how all Democrats and Hollywood types were / are pedophiles, and all they need is the Epstein files to prove it. Until, of course, they have said files, and now magically those files don't exist and never did regardless
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Or so the cold war era propagandists wanted you to believe. Today it's just cringe.
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Or so the cold war era propagandists wanted you to believe. Today it's just cringe.
To the political zealots. Meanwhile to the millions from so many different national, ethnic and religious backgrounds, etc who want to emigrate to America tell us something different. Similar to those who want to emulate America more in their own nations.
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Are you trolling? Because "the American Way" has been considered a cliche on and off since 1958. [smithsonianmag.com]
So I think it's well past time to get over it and move on.
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Are you trolling? Because "the American Way" has been considered a cliche on and off since 1958. [smithsonianmag.com]
So I think it's well past time to get over it and move on.
And it's a cliche embodying kindness and morality, among many other globally admired traits.
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Yes, it tells us that there is latency between current events and mass world view being updated sufficiently.
Please enumerate what parts of the current "American Way" of mass deportations, stripping foreign aid funding, and not upholding ourselves to previously ratified trade treaties lends itself to "kindness and morality" because that's the current "American Way."
Please wake up.
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Yes, it tells us that there is latency between current events and mass world view being updated sufficiently.
LOL. Trump gained support among legal immigrants, Biden lost support.
Please enumerate what parts of the current "American Way" of mass deportations, ...
Not a thing. A political misrepresentation. Have we reached Obama levels of deportation yet? Also, some of those deportations are collateral of sanctuary city policy. City refuses to hand over someone in their custody for whom there is a legal deportation order, and releases him into the community. ICE then has to go to the community to pick him up, others around him may get caught that way. Want to avoid the collateral, reduce forays into
Because this is Trumpistan (Score:1)
The American Way died with the USA, which is now gone. It's Trumpistan. It's certainly not united anymore. The culture changed. The greatest generation won the day but the Fascists won in the end.
Sorry life sucks but stop living in a dream. If you want things to revert back, it's going to be a long fight and only after enough people realize...
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rsilvergun is that you?
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According to the Timcast review (spoilers) he never says either phrase in the movie.
Just some dope making posters, reportedly.
Apparently all the immigrant and Israel propaganda stuff is fake too.
Marketing Buzz achieved - don't believe anybody without verifying.
Re:Nope, the movie sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
And there it is. Because it's a white male immigrant, can't mention it. The fact he is here illegally doesn't enter the equation.
Just goes to show that stating a fact is fightin words to MAGA.
Adopted as an infant by US citizens - 100% legal (Score:2)
And there it is. Because it's a white male immigrant, can't mention it. The fact he is here illegally doesn't enter the equation.
He's not. He was adopted as an infant by US citizens. He's perfectly legal.
Just goes to show that stating a fact is fightin words to MAGA.
The illegal notion is mistaken, a political misrepresentation not fact. :-)
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Adopted? How does that work?
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Adopted? how? Even back in the 40s they had adoption paperwork. birth certificate? social security numbers are need papers! even back in "those days." You can't just birth a kid... besides superman wasn't a newborn so doing a birth at the farm and reporting it later was not so simple. Not impossible but tricky given nobody would see a pregnancy etc. Less likely to investigate back then - today a sudden baby showing up would instigate something since we have a known market for trafficking. How did he go to
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Adopted? how? Even back in the 40s they had adoption paperwork. birth certificate? social security numbers are need papers! even back in "those days." You can't just birth a kid...
From google: "Foundling adoption refers to the process of legally taking custody of a child who was abandoned or whose parents are unknown, often through a formal process like those used by the New York Foundling, or through informal arrangements. Historically, foundling hospitals and similar institutions cared for these children, and adoption was a way to provide them with a permanent, loving family."
besides superman wasn't a newborn
I said "infant". Google suggests "child" works. Wrapped in a baby blanket and all that IIRC. I could be mis
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He entered the country illegally. He had no paperwork, no sponsor.
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He entered the country illegally. He had no paperwork, no sponsor.
He was a foundling. Abandoned. No documentation regarding parents or his own identity.
From Google: "Foundling adoption refers to the process of legally taking custody of a child who was abandoned or whose parents are unknown, often through a formal process like those used by the New York Foundling, or through informal arrangements. Historically, foundling hospitals and similar institutions cared for these children, and adoption was a way to provide them with a permanent, loving family."
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Most people have political opinions, that doesn't mean everything they do is infused with them.
All you're doing with such pessimism is participating in the ultra partisan nonsense you're trying to look down on.
Bold strategy! (Score:2)
Well, looks like a bold strategy for the director to be running his mouth kinda like Zegler did - will be interesting to see how much of a final nail in the coffin of terrible movies this one will be! The age of horribly written entertainment just needs to come to an end eventually.
I haven't seen it yet (Score:2, Informative)
But by all accounts they made a fun comic book movie instead of a edge fest. DC has been plagued by Zack Snyder making shitty movies because he doesn't like comic books but for some reason we keep giving him comic book movies to make.
I guess they do make money but nobody goes to a Superman movie to watch him kill
Krypto - hell no (Score:3)
As a child of the 70's who lived through the stupid ass Super Friends age, I want no part of this new Superman that brings stupid shit like Krypto back into this. Marvel used to rock because it was much darker and everyone wrote off DC from the 70's on because Marvel got it. But then finally DC got dark and brooding and it was wonderful, but now the pendulum has swung back to this level of shit and Marvel is not immune. I would say the enshitification started with Thor Ragnarok and having Taika Waititi be the director. Taika is a enormously talented COMEDIAN. But he should not be driving any franchise that thrived on being serious, dark and brooding. He threw in humour in places and ways that just did not fit. Like Thor throwing a bouncy ball up against a glass window that did not break, but the ball knocks Thor down. I just about got up and walked out. Now you have DC bringing back the childish shit that I had to endure in the 70's and 80's. Give me back my dark and brooding and get rid of this crap. I won't be watching this new superman.
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You must be ecstatic over Fantastic Four bringing back HERBIE... :^D
Fuck Your Cinematic Universe (Score:4, Insightful)
Fuck your "cinematic universe". An expression that translates to; we are lazy and cheap and would like to keep remaking the same drek from an 87 year old comic book for maximal profit.
Write something new. Write something interesting. Write something funny. Don't be lazy profiteering fucks! Don't try to, yet again, phone it in by using AI as your writers to regurgitate the same shit that has been passe since the 1950's.
There are 36, thirty six!, Marvel movies. There are perhaps three that are worth watching even once. Stop trying to squeeze horseshit and expect to get gold.
Movies sucked just as much in your day!!! (Score:2)
Fuck your "cinematic universe". An expression that translates to; we are lazy and cheap and would like to keep remaking the same drek from an 87 year old comic book for maximal profit.
Write something new. Write something interesting. Write something funny. Don't be lazy profiteering fucks! Don't try to, yet again, phone it in by using AI as your writers to regurgitate the same shit that has been passe since the 1950's.
There are 36, thirty six!, Marvel movies. There are perhaps three that are worth watching even once. Stop trying to squeeze horseshit and expect to get gold.
Studios write new stuff constantly and adapt any good book they can find. They're doing Superman because there's a huge audience for it and a lot of people like it. It's like bitching that a restaurant serves burgers instead of something "new."
Also, I challenge you to find a "new" movie. Most of my favorites?...just familiar stories with a twist...blade runner...just a film noir movie in space...Star Wars is just and adventure movie in space...my all time favorite, Aliens...a mashup of existing genres.
Oh great (Score:3)
Two for one (Score:2)
This is dumb (Score:2)
Hah! (Score:1)
Re: Hah! (Score:2)
Oh god I was right (Score:2)
Zaslav is going to fuck this up and the linear television / cable division will be the one that survives.
Superman the Fantastic Four (Score:2)
Looks like the Fantastic Four will finally have a movie worthy of their legacy. Should be more interesting than a reboot of Superman. Of course Marvel still hasn't fixed the issues with the X-Men, which would be helpful as they move towards $50B in profits.
Doomed (Score:2)
If this Superman is the DCCU's last gasp, then the DCCU is doomed. From everything I've seen of the trailer and other snippets, this movie is terrible.