Allow me to now eat my hat by posting a Marvel franchise trailer that looks awesome - by Scots Taffer
ZylonBane on 31/5/2014 at 16:56
It's somewhat hilarious that people complain about the lack of new ideas coming out of Hollywood, yet with GotG at least some people are now complaining that they're too obscure to make a movie about.
Renzatic on 31/5/2014 at 17:55
Welcome to the internet, ZB. It's a goddamn stupid place, and no one's ever happy about anything ever.
Thirith on 31/5/2014 at 18:10
Not that you haven't got a point, both of you, but there's still a bit of a fallacy going on here, unless the people who clamour for originality are the same people who complain about GotG's weirdness. The internet is not a homogeneous bunch of people, and just because there's a hell of a lot of noise about one thing doesn't mean that the people making a hell of a lot of noise about its opposite are identical with the first bunch.
Renzatic on 4/6/2014 at 02:22
I had a conversation a couple hours ago I have to share with you all here because it was so absolutely stupid, it blew my mind.
So I've got this friend, right? He's a big superhero geek, and loves to go see all the superhero movies. This is in complete opposition of me, who only really likes Batman, and couldn't really give much of a damn about any of the others. It's not that I hate them. I don't. I just don't get all that excited over them.
So he's talking about getting all stoked about seeing the new XMen movie with a bunch of people tonight, and I give my usual "eh, I'll pass and wait for it to show up on Netflix or something" response. We start talking about superhero movies in general, and I admit that I'm kinda interested in seeing Guardians of the Galaxy.
The shit hit the fan.
"Figures you'd like the weirdest looking one".
"Weirdest? How is it any weirder than any other Marvel flick".
"I just...I don't know. I think it looks stupid".
"How"?
"I find it implausible and childish".
"DO WHAT"?
"Yeah. Implausible. It has a talking North American Raccoon as one of the main characters. Like I'm supposed to be able to take something so outlandish seriously. It's something written for kids. I don't find it logical".
"That's the most goddamn stupid thing I've ever heard in my entire life. The fact you of all people would say that just absolutely blows my mind".
"Me of all people"?
"Yeah. You of all people. You have a borderline fetish over a superhero that is a completely human looking alien who arrived on Earth after traveling millions of light years in some space crib launched shortly before his planet blew up, who, for reasons entirely unknown, becomes impervious to bullets and able to fly around and shoot lazers out of his eyes because...what...yellow light? Oh, and the only thing that can hurt him are chunks of his old planet, which can be found all over the fucking place, apparently. And yet despite all that dumbness, you won't watch a superhero movie with a talking raccoon because you think it's air quote implausible"?
"You have to admit Superman is more plausible than that".
"No. All superhero movies are incredibly stupid when you think about them even the tiniest bit".
"...but a talking raccoon...".
"It's a goddamn alien that looks like a goddamn raccoon. How bout that? Now you can allow yourself to watch the goddamn movie without feeling stupid".
"I still think it's stupid and childish looking".
"Remember when we all got together to watch horror flicks on Halloween, and you kept complaining the entire night that they weren't scary at all because ghosts aren't real..."
And it got dumber from there.
june gloom on 4/6/2014 at 03:18
Do me a favour.
Ask him if he knows who Keith Giffen is.
If he doesn't, punch him in the face for me.
DDL on 4/6/2014 at 12:05
I'd say your friend has a point though, renz: look at all the other superhero movies and they're basically all "dudes who look like people".
Sure, they might be actually aliens, or gigantic green monster people, but ultimately they have body language and facial expressions and stuff that are really easy to relate to, and that gives you an anchor to base your acceptance of the rest of the craziness around. "He may be flying around in a giant armour suit that flies by...repelling stuff, using power drawn from a tiny reactor made of bullshit and palladium, but he's basically a rich douchebag who likes boobs and money. I can relate to that."
Plus all the other stuff (spaceships, lasers, giant robots, mutant powers) are all fairly common tropes.
...whereas a talking raccoon with a giant gun? There's a slightly higher barrier to acceptance, and it's...not a common trope.
Still gonna see it, obviously, but yeah: the bit that really stands out from the trailers is "hahahhaa holy shit they have a talking raccoon. With a giant gun."
It just depends on the person as to whether that falls on the "awesome" or "WTF no" side of the spectrum.
Thirith on 4/6/2014 at 12:15
... perhaps the racoon likes boobs and money?
nicked on 4/6/2014 at 12:19
I guess it's about context. Would it be more "acceptable" if there was, I dunno, a comedy drama ostensibly set in the present day real world, but the storyline is about a talking racoon? On Wall Street maybe.
I mean, no-one complains to Disney about talking animals.
I guess it's the same principle as people complaining about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull because it had aliens in it (as opposed to it just being a terrible movie). I suppose it's about incongruous worldviews. You can only have one "suspension of disbelief" factor at a time for some people. If religious magic exists in Indy, it can't coexist with sci-fi aliens. And if we're asked to accept a metropolitan galaxy of aliens, we can't also accept Disney-style talking animals.
There's some weird psychology going on there to be sure.
ZylonBane on 4/6/2014 at 13:44
Quote Posted by Thirith
... perhaps the racoon likes boobs and money?
He does.
I wonder how Renz's friend reacted to the TMNT movies. He sounds borderline autistic on the whole realism of superheroes angle, and anthropomorphic talking animals is one too many fishsticks.
