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INTEREST: Castle in the Sky Robot Makes Cameo in Avengers: Age of Ultron

EricJ2 wrote:

Until that end credits scene where they had to stick in spoiler[Thanos and the Gauntlet], and that's when that sudden nagging Thor 2 realization sank in: "Wait a minute...This didn't have ANYTHING to do with Phase 3! Just some two-line setups for CA3: Civil War, and I could've waited for that! What the heck did we just sit through two and a half hours for, anyway?? "

Exactly. The movie could have just ended where it began, it was that bad. I also think Thanos will be turned into a joke as Ultron was, but now that the Russos are taking over, I have faith, especially after The Winter Soldier.

Perhaps the reason why I get so worked up when I see people start leaping on complaining about whatever is the most popular Hollywood movie at the time is that I am a populist. Age of Ultron will likely not be in the top 50 or even top 100 movies this year from Hollywood as far as critical reception goes, but it has grossed tremendously well, and I have to wonder if some of this vitriol is due to sour grapes or misanthropy. Whatever the case, money talks, Ultron was able to speak to the masses, and there will be many more movies like this one on the horizon. Then again, the Internet seems to have turned against James Cameron's Avatar. I wonder if this will be a pattern for movies--and directors--capable of consistently topping $1 billion at the box office before home video even happens.

Now, Tomorrowland--THAT is mediocrity (critically, at least--it was an utter failure financially).

at any rate, this fad and production of superhero films will reach its peak within the next couple of years and eventually come to an end (it already has for me. i won't be fooled any longer and buy into the hype. i find myself regretting my ticket purchase more often than not with these shallow superhero films)... the general population will eventually burn out on the novelty of it all as well. by the way, who is going to see ant man? i'd be surprised if that does well critically or financially. i keep getting flashbacks of honey, i shrunk the kids! with that one

at any rate, this fad and production of superhero films will reach its peak within the next couple of years and eventually come to an end (it already has for me. i won't be fooled any longer and buy into the hype. i find myself regretting my ticket purchase more often than not with these shallow superhero films)... the general population will eventually burn out on the novelty of it all as well.

, two Fantastic Four movies that insultingly abused the privilege of being "tongue in cheek",

@leafy sea dragon

despite how i may have sounded in my post, i enjoy live action films, anime, television (not network, but hbo, amc, showtime, etc) and videogames pretty well equally. i'm not a closed minded person who picks on hollywood because i see it to be inferior to anime.

avengers 2 was just a poorly plotted, paced and written film no matter how you look at it. the new characters were lame and had no growth in the entire film. tony stark is probably the most annoying character of the bunch. he fails to evolve and is so one dimensional that he nearly put me sleep mid sentence. how many one liners can a person take? the same applies to the rest of the lot who fail to grow or give me a single reason to give a damn about them... and people complain about character tropes in anime? after the first big set piece i nearly lost all interest in the film. the only redeeming scene was the hulk fight. most people who i speak to feel the same way.

don't fool yourself and think it will be remembered in history because it stole money out of our wallets... also, avatar was a dud since day one... the lukewarm reception it now has is justified. that is another film i had absolutely no interest in seeing twice... i could only stomach the pocahontis and heavy handed environmental message once, thanks.

at any rate, this fad and production of superhero films will reach its peak within the next couple of years and eventually come to an end (it already has for me. i won't be fooled any longer and buy into the hype. i find myself regretting my ticket purchase more often than not with these shallow superhero films)... the general population will eventually burn out on the novelty of it all as well. by the way, who is going to see ant man? i'd be surprised if that does well critically or financially. i keep getting flashbacks of honey, i shrunk the kids! with that one

I don't think that's gonna happen. People say the same thing about moe or SOL, and it keeps on going season after season. This will be the same; Marvel already has movies planned out all the way up to at least 2028. Not every one of those will be a blockbuster or even a success, but it's the new "serial TV series" that people want except it's in the movies every few months instead of a weekly TV series.

I think people go into a Marvel movie expecting big action sequences, snarky dialogue, a villain that either uses the same powers or has history with one of the main characters, and a modernized comic book aesthetic. At least, I think that's how teenagers and adults are doing it.

I also figured that a super high profile Hollywood live action movie getting mentioned on ANN is going to get a lot of hate. Nothing wrong with that--I long realized anime fans are far, far off the mainstream. (And this is why, for those of you who want anime to be mainstream, it's going to take a long while for that to happen, if it happens at all. An anime fan's tastes are pretty different than that of the typical American moviegoer. Just as it seems a number of anime fans find normal Hollywood fare as off-putting and annoying, or at least that's the impression I get, if you go to a forum of Hollywood movie fans, you get similar reactions of disgust if anime ever comes up as a topic.

And in Hollywood itself, anime as a topic ends conversations. I've tried. Repeatedly. If you want anime to be mainstream, then you're going to have to make compromises so as to appeal to a wide audience.)

Then again, the Internet seems to have turned against James Cameron's Avatar. I wonder if this will be a pattern for movies--and directors--capable of consistently topping $1 billion at the box office before home video even happens.

rotten tomatoes is a good site for general reference, but you should also look at the average rating score listed... it currently sits at 83% fresh but only has a rating of 7.4/10.

I don't think anime and hollywood are that different. Anime is essentially adaptations of manga, manga is Japan's dominant medium for popular culture, so anime is a reflection of mainstream Japanese culture.

Hollywood is one of the dominant dimensions of US popular culture (though it's influenced decreased in the last decades due to the rise of cable TV, internet and videogames). Both anime and hollywood usually appeal to young audiences.

Main difference is that anime is Japanese and appeals to Japanese audiences. While Hollywood blockbusters these days are made for a global audience, hence they lose their cultural value and artistic significance becoming bland products of entertainment.

Anime will never be mainstream in the US and in the Western world in general. It's foreign, alien in terms of sensibilities, to the western mind. The US is specially hostile to foreign cultural influences as well (it's well known in fact).

Problem is that Hollywood blockbusters have declined in quality over the past decades as well, Avatar, extremely dumb film made for the global masses, is symptomatic of that phenomena, James Cameron said he made it for the hardcore science fiction fan, well, I am a hardcore science fiction fan and I enjoyed it mostly on the unintentional comedy of being so stupid. Though I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy a lot, it was truly something superior to the usual Hollywood product.

But you do bring up a good point about a movie having an already established fanbase to turn to. (Provided that fanbase isn't incredibly shattered and disdainful towards Hollywood in general. Scott Pilgrimvs. the World bombed at the box office, for instance, I'd bet because the fandom for Scott Pilgrim is not only a pretty small one, but one that prefers to pirate movies rather than paying to watch them.) I am sure that's why we've had a remarkable uptick in adaptations of famous IPs from other media.

When I say "in Hollywood," I mean "in Hollywood," as in speaking to people in the business itself. To the older people, anime is this new and scary thing that young people of the 90's and 00's were into that they could not comprehend. To younger people, it was this big force that they stayed away from. I could detect a hint of resentment if the word "anime" was ever brought up, in a similar way you'd expect a vampire to react to garlic. It is basically a fandom rivalry--people join the film and TV business because they love film and TV, and the segment of the business they're in tends to be the ones they're the biggest fans of.

As for Hollywood blockbusters decliing in quality, there is no denying that there has been a shift in tone. I cannot remember the name of the article in the Los Angeles Times, but one of the newspaper's critics wrote an article pointing out that every major Hollywood studio has shifted from small, humble movies about individuals and everyday life to nothing but big, special-effects heavy action. Talks with insiders show that the strategy is that the latter type of films cost a LOT more money and thus fail to turn a profit more often, but when they do turn a profit, they rake in hundreds of millions of dollars, more than making up for other failures. That is, making six movies for $30 million and bringing in $60 million is good, but they'd rather make one $180 million film that brings in $1 billion, even if three other $180 million films don't turn a profit. And it all comes down to the money. And the technology available. Me, I like big action set pieces, so I'm no less satisfied with today's movies than I was in earlier decades. But I do see a problem here with how Hollywood is now run. To quote Sunset Boulevard, under today's system, everyone "would've turned down Gone with the Wind." (Albeit for a different reason than the main character in Sunset Boulevard called out the secretary for.)

Otherwise, you may run into the problem that everyone in the world who's heard of the property enough to want to see it will run out to see it the first week, causing it to plummet off a cliff the second week when nobody else bothers, like Fifty Shades of Gray did.

These movies were glorious and had atmosphere and personality. Today is all this bland superhero mediocrity. IMO decline was not just lack of personal films but also lack of good original genre movies. Now everything is a sequel: Mad Max 4, Terminator 5, Jurassic Park 4, Star Wars 7, bland-marvel superhero movie 27, etc.