Resurrection of the Off-Topic Thread

[Mister Mets]

it’s really interesting because conventional hollywood wisdom would peg pratt as a tv star rather than film. movie stars and leading men tend to be a mix of relatable and mysterious, whereas tv tends to go for 100% relatable in terms of acting types. pratt is a “traditional” tv star on the big screen.

if i was cynical i might think that doesn’t bode well for his longevity, but hey, he’s surprised everyone so far…

Interesting point.

I wonder if that's got anything to do with the change in TV right now, where it's telling the stories that can't be done in two hour films.

Though it also means twenty years from now, Pratt could be in the next Breaking Bad if his film career declines.

[Kevinroc]

http://www.avclub.com/article/emma-s...busters-221007

Emma Stone turned down a role in the new Ghostbusters film. She said that these big franchise films are "a whole ‘thing’" and she would "need a minute" before doing another one.

Damn those Amazing Spider-Man films. They didn't just damage the Spider-Man film brand, they've damaged other brands!

[Scott Taylor]

Seems like almost no one involved in the Amazing Spider-Man films saw them as the disaster they would become. Makes me question the judgement of everyone involved. But Emma really should consider doing ghostbusters. I'll watch that girl sit and drink coffee for an entire movie.

[Aruran.]

I think it's a smart move. We all saw the last time she joined a movie franchise that was rebooting .

[David Walton]

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of Batman Forever.

There's a nice article on CBR about the soundtrack, and I'm agreed with the author's points. It was indeed an awesome album.

As for the film itself, I feel like it's unfairly viewed through the lens of Batman and Robin. At the time, it was considered a breath of fresh air, keeping to the darkness of the first two films but balancing things out with some levity. I still enjoy it, and if they kept to this direction instead of going full-out camp, I think the franchise would have continued.

[Kevinroc]

Inside Out was definitely one of the better Pixar films, IMO. Felt like a true return to form after Up and Toy Story 3. (Brave, I thought, had good intentions but was overall a lackluster film, Monsters U. was a weird prequel that didn't feel like it had the heart of other great Pixar films, and Cars 2 was Cars 2.)

In a bit of interesting news, Meg LeFauve worked on the Inside Out screenplay, and she's co-writing the Captain Marvel script for Marvel Studios.

[David Walton]

Inside Out was definitely one of the better Pixar films, IMO. Felt like a true return to form after Up and Toy Story 3. (Brave, I thought, had good intentions but was overall a lackluster film, Monsters U. was a weird prequel that didn't feel like it had the heart of other great Pixar films, and Cars 2 was Cars 2.)

In a bit of interesting news, Meg LeFauve worked on the Inside Out screenplay, and she's co-writing the Captain Marvel script for Marvel Studios.

You now, I really enjoyed Cars 2! But hey, I'm a sucker for the world's best backwards driver taking on the role of superspy.

[Mister Mets]

Jaime Weinman of Macleans has an interesting piece on continuity and comic books.

He observes that Kirby's 1970s approach upset readers at the time, but has held up.

One model for the more writer-driven, less editor-driven approach was the guy who co-created the ’60s Marvel universe in the first place, Jack Kirby. In the 1970s, his deal at both DC and Marvel was that he would be his own writer and editor. He preferred working on his own new characters, but when he took on an established book, he didn’t show much interest in what other writers had done with them. When he came back to Marvel to write and draw Captain America, a character he co-created, he ignored most of what had happened to the character in the years since he’d been gone.

At the time, this refusal to acknowledge other writers’ work was one of the things that led Kirby to be dismissed by fans as old-fashioned and out-of-touch; his solo work never sold very well, and letters columns were often hostile. And Kirby’s Captain America and Black Panther do seem like diminished characters after all the things the previous writers had put him through. Kirby created them, but they’d become bigger than Kirby.

But, as so often with Kirby, he was dismissed as being behind the times and then turned out to be ahead of his time. His ’70s comics, particularly at DC, became cult favourites for their ambition and scope, their attempt to create genuine epics. They were personal comics in a way that Kirby’s ’60s comics could never be (since those were edited and dialogued by Stan Lee), and his four comics at DC all told one bits of one big mind-expanding tale about the meaning of life and death, good and evil. Instead of being part of a company-wide story, Kirby was telling his own story, and the “continuity” that mattered was his own.

And he highlights why there doesn't seem to be a place for Wally West in the new 52.

History brings something to these characters – a sense of weight, of substance, of reality. Wally West used to be DC’s best character because he had decades of history behind him as the Flash’s sidekick and successor, and because writers like Mark Waid used that history effectively to build his character and his place in the world. Now that he’s been rebooted, he really isn’t anything, because superhero characters’ personalities aren’t unique or special; their histories are.

These characters can never change in any meaningful way (fans are wrong to want them to change, but that’s another argument); they’re destined to learn and teach the same lessons over and over again for all eternity. What changes is their history. And you can get some very good stories from honouring that.

[Kevinroc]

Legendary Film Composer James Horner has passed away in a plane crash.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...omposer-804365

I would have talked more about his involvement with composing the first Amazing Spider-Man, but he hated that movie and didn't return for the sequel. His credits also include two Star Trek films (Star Trek II and Star Trek III), several Don Bluth films (An American Tail, The Land Before Time), Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Titanic, Avatar, and many more.

[Aruran.]

I still can't believe the 76ers took Okafor.
Like I get the pick as "best player available", but still.
I always thought that 2016 would be the last year of the 76ers tanking on purpose, but now I see the frustration everyone else has from Hinkie's plan.

[Pav]

I still can't believe the 76ers took Okafor.
Like I get the pick as "best player available", but still.
I always thought that 2016 would be the last year of the 76ers tanking on purpose, but now I see the frustration everyone else has from Hinkie's plan.

Saying the 76ers have a "plan" might be generous.

-Pav, who feels bad for their fans...

[Mister Mets]

With the non Spider-Man Marvel Now! titles, I'm not surprised that Charles Soule is taking over Daredevil, considering his work as a lawyer. The idea of Gambit as a sidekick is a bit weird.

The most unusual combination may be Warren Ellis and Karnak. It's a shamless effort to raise the profile of one of the Inhumans, but it's a good fit for Ellis, given his penchance for arrogant characters and weird science.

[Kevinroc]

With the non Spider-Man Marvel Now! titles, I'm not surprised that Charles Soule is taking over Daredevil, considering his work as a lawyer. The idea of Gambit as a sidekick is a bit weird.

The most unusual combination may be Warren Ellis and Karnak. It's a shamless effort to raise the profile of one of the Inhumans, but it's a good fit for Ellis, given his penchance for arrogant characters and weird science.

It's not Gambit that Daredevil is training.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/06/...marveloctober/

The popular theory is it is a new Stick.

The Karnak book by Ellis is probably the most surprising so far.

That, and Ultimates with Galactus as a member.

[Kevinroc]

With Jon Stewart finally stepping down from The Daily Show, Comedy Central is hosting a marathon stream called the "Month of Zen." Stewart's entire history on The Daily Show.

I check in occasionally with The Daily Show's Month of Zen.

http://www.cc.com/events/month-of-zen/live.html

[Mister Mets]

I really like this song/ music video.