What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

It’s not scary to me, but it is enjoyable because of the characters and their interactions.

It's a shame that DC/Warner let Zack Snyder loose on their IPs for so long, allowing his twisted grimdark vision to taint several expensive movies that were critical to establishing a modern DCU to perhaps rival the extremely successful Marvel movie franchise. Even now that Snyder is gone, we are still seeing the effects of his poor choices, including in the long-awaited Flash (2023) movie.

I admit that I have generally been more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan, even as a kid. The Marvel heroes were flawed, relatable characters compared to the perfect icons of DC. Flash was one of the less interesting major heroes at DC, a blond-haired blue-eyed generic hero with a bland personality and a power that should have reduced most of his comic adventures to a single panel. However, he did have an interesting rogues gallery, even if most of them were utterly incapable of mounting a serious challenge to his superhuman speed. Flash also had an interesting day job a police forensic scientist, but many decades passed before writers finally saw the storytelling potential of forensic science.

So in my opinion, a Flash movie should have leaned into the forensics and the rogues, and worked at giving Flash a more likeable personality. Instead, Zack Snyder cast a very problematic Ezra Miller, and subsequent writers just ignored the rogues and the forensic stuff for this movie. (I am aware that there was a reasonably successful Flash tv show that took the more conventional approach to this character, and I may eventually watch it.)

Despite his hairy chest and chiseled features, Ezra Miller identifies as non-binary. This highly personal choice shouldn't be any of my business, and also shouldn't be relevant to discussion of the Flash movie. But it is relevant, because Ezra chooses to speak in a thin, wavery voice that sounds more neurotic than heroic. To make matters worse, the movie leans into various negative millennial stereotypes, leaving Flash with many whiny complaints. Combined with his voice, it utterly undercuts the attempt to present him as a hero. Instead, he is overly talkative, constantly whining, and generally, as the millennials say, cringe. Cringe AF. To make matters worse, we soon get another version of this same Flash, and he is younger and even more annoying.

The story is a mess, too. For very personal reasons, Flash decides to put all of time and space at great risk, just to alter his own past. Butterfly effects seem to ensue, but it is ultimately revealed that he has instead wandered into an alternate universe. This universe is in great danger... from the villains from Superman II (1980). Nope, no Flash rogues, just recycled Superman villains. We do get an aged version of Michael Keaton's Batman, and eventually cameos from the Nicholas Cage Superman that never made it into a movie, and the classic Christopher Reeves Superman. There are also guest appearances from the current Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot).

Lots of stuff happens, and eventually Flash realizes that none of it matters and he goes home. Without even saving the alternate world from General Zod. But that's the problem with a multiverse: anything can happen in at least one timeline, so none of it matters. There is a final interesting twist at the end that practically begs for a sequel, but I feel comfortable in asserting that there won't be a sequel.

The movie looks visually spectacular. However, the music selections are questionable and all of the attempts at humor tend to fall flat. Ezra is an adequate actor, but it's telling that he is overshadowed by every other that shows up. All that said, this movie is an okay way to pass some time, especially if you can see it for free.

I liked The Flash, certainly more than you seemed to. As far as DC films go, it was surprisingly coherent, logical (as much as any time travel film can be, really), and emotional. I really liked Supergirl, the actress did well and anchored her side of the film. Keaton was fun to watch but yet ANOTHER burned out Batman after DKR? IMHO The Flashs greatest crime is coming out AFTER Spiderman ACross the multi-verse because most of the plot beats were right there as well.

To continue the DC run, I saw Blue Beetle. It was average, but having married into hispanic culture this film does deliver on a perspective often neglected. Much like The Flash, it feels like this film was a few years too late as a lot of it seems recycled from earlier Marvel films, particularly Ant-man in this case. There is a fair amount of sociopolitical commentary as well that doesn't really hold up within the film, it's just too jam packed with random elements that get neither the time to develop or a reason to be there in the first place. Still, it's nice to see a major superhero film that's half in spanish. Was there much in Black Panther 2? I could barely pay attention to that one.

jason10mm wrote: I liked The Flash, certainly more than you seemed to. As far as DC films go, it was surprisingly coherent, logical (as much as any time travel film can be, really), and emotional. I really liked Supergirl, the actress did well and anchored her side of the film. Keaton was fun to watch but yet ANOTHER burned out Batman after DKR? IMHO The Flashs greatest crime is coming out AFTER Spiderman ACross the multi-verse because most of the plot beats were right there as well.

I probably would have like The Flash better with 200% less Ezra Miller. I think everybody involved knew that Miller wasn't going to be able to carry the movie by himself, which is why we got all these guest stars and cameos. Okay, the whole multiverse concept (which is not time travel) called for variations of characters like Batman, but that doesn't explain the guest shot by Gal Gadot.

Still, it's a weird superhero movie where the hero spends so much time complaining in a high, whiny tone, and then ultimately fails to save the day at the end of the movie. The whole multiverse concept indicates that anything possible will happen in at least one alternate reality, so ultimately his mother survived in some realities and not in others. And really none of them are technically _his_ mother, so he finally realizes that it is ultimately pointless to fight the Kryptonian invasion. And then he gives up, and goes home, except it isn't actually home so much as it is another alternate reality.

I haven't watched it, but apparently the Flash tv show of recent years does a much better job of delivering the Flash of the comics. That Flash is a CSI scientist and a conventional hero with an interesting rogues gallery.

The Flash tv show was pretty good, that first season bordering on great (if you can grok CW level characters, constant forced love triangles, etc). I fell off all that stuff after 5-6 years of the arrowverse supersaturation but Flash was definitely one of the more consistent shows.

But superspeed is just a useless power for shows. Guys could create a brief distraction and RUN AWAY arund the corner form the damned FLASH. Makes no sense.

A different kind of Flash. Watching Flash Gordon and I forgot how weird and kind of disturbing this movie can be. It’s been at least ten years, maybe longer, since I last watched it. It is fun and campy, but there are parts that I recall giving me nightmares as a kid and I can see why.

I liked the Arrowverse until it collapsed under the weight of its own mythology. I appreciate that there's a need to bring in new characters so you don't constantly retell the same thing, but it was just all too much. The first few years were great though.

I was disappointed that they went with Ezra Miller instead of Grant Gustin for the movie role. Miller was always kind of a blob of nothing with a chiseled jaw, even before all the weird behavior.

n815e wrote: A different kind of Flash. Watching Flash Gordon and I forgot how weird and kind of disturbing this movie can be. It’s been at least ten years, maybe longer, since I last watched it. It is fun and campy, but there are parts that I recall giving me nightmares as a kid and I can see why.

I will defend that film (and it's soundtrack) TO THE DEATH. Met Sam Jones and Melody Anderson at Dcon last year and they were awesome. I think it is almost impossible to recreate that type of film deliberately but damn, I wish more folks would try. There have been some campy hokey versions since (I'd even argue that Firefly was in that vein) but we'll see with the Taikiti version coming, I'm cautious at best.

For most of my life, that movie was the only version of Flash Gordon that I really knew. In the last couple of years, I’ve watched the Buster Crabbe serials and that got me into the original comic strips.

The movie now seems a lot different in this new perspective. It’s both an homage and a dig at the original Flash Gordon, especially the serials. It’s also got this angle of uncomfortable weirdness that is found in some sci-fi movies of the 70’s and 80’s. It feels like a product of that time.

I will definitely watch it again.

Today I watched The Witch as we’re getting into Spooky season. I’m 8 years late on this movie. This is in the vein of horror film that I like. Hyper violence, over the top monsters, cheap scares, running and screaming… they don’t normally interest me unless exceptionally done. More grounded, psychological, tension and anxiety, less is more, real and surreal… that’s the stuff I want. And this does it.

My first version of Flash Gordon was the Prescott-Scheimer cartoon in the late 70s:



It came on right after Thundarr the Barbarian(!) for a year or two. It was so well done that every version I've seen since has been lacking either because the writing has been poor or they've been played for their goofiness or they haven't really clung to the original stories the way the cartoon did. It was just a straight-up solid SF story.

I will check it out!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVEs me some Thundarr the Barbarian! I watched that show religiously as a kid, Could probably watch every ep in under 5 hours now as I don't think it ran for very long.

Probably most of the kid shows I recall were just on for a year or less. Time was so slippery back then.

Yep. Found the whole series on DVD for $5 on Amazon one time. (Also found that Flash Gordon series for a similar price, but I think those are all on YouTube now.) It's great stuff and a good dose of Steve Gerber character creation and Jack Kirby character design, too. One of my all-time faves.

After a dry spell, Amazon Prime finally put a bunch of pretty good movies in their free to Prime members section. I decided to give Inglorious Basterds another chance. It was uneven but okay-ish. Every scene with Christoph Waltz playing the loathsome Colonel Landa is excellent. Michael Fassbender is fine, but somewhat wasted in just two scenes. Melanie Laurent is a decent performer, with a very expressive face. Unfortunately, Brad Pitt is awful in this movie, and drags down the whole movie every time he is on screen. Given his Kentucky background, I'm sure that his southern accent is reasonably accurate, but his delivery is broad, ponderous, hammy, and intolerable. He has been phoning in most of his performances since the early '00s, but this is the worst I have seen. Maybe Tarantino is at fault, either for pushing Pitt into this bad performance or else for indulging it.

I also saw the D&D movie, and it was a solid 7/10, just like Predators. There was nothing wrong with the movie, and Chris Pine worked hard for his money. But I frequently saw the movie reaching to be a better movie and coming up a little short. Hugh Grant was well-cast as the villain, as I always found his charming smile to be a bit fraudulent. Michelle Rodriguez offers a solid, understated performance, and all the other principal characters are good enough. The setting felt familiar but a bit bland, but I think that can be blamed on the D&D source material, drawing as it does from disparate fantasy sources like Tolkien, Howard, Vance, etc. Late in the movie, we get to see a variety of monsters that are specific to D&D, like the displacer beast and the gelatinous cube, and they are genuinely fun. There are a couple of well-earned touching scenes near the end. It's a worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours.

The rathskeller scene in Inglourious is fantastic. As is the opening scene with the milk.