The best superhero movie (I’ve already limited the scope rather strongly with that) of the century was Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, without a doubt. I will not accept any arguments otherwise. I’ll let Mikey Neumann explain why.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
How about “best animated movie”? That’s what the video is raving about: the interesting animation choices, which disregards many other elements that make up a movie. I mean, a CGI orgy-splosion could be enough for you, but there’s no explanation of why that’s enough.
It’s not so clear how you’ve limited the scope, to the exclusion of various other fantasy or sci-fi movies … and why leave out TV? The way some people talk, it’s more or less about whether it derives from comic books. That may be roughly what you’re thinking with “superhero”: Gandalf, Harry Potter, Spock and Robocop aren’t granted that status, while characters like Batman, Iron Man and Black Widow are. Legion would presumably count as a single superhero, as confusing as that may be. But it doesn’t exactly seem fair to count each of the Spider-man variants.
It’s premature to talk about the best of the century. If you mean the last 100 years (not the last 18 or 19), there’s a lot more competition.
Does Birdman count as a superhero movie? It was good. And there are no spiders in it. That’s got to count for something.
Don’t you have something better to do?
You can’t get any better than ‘Bananas-ass Math’…
Hi doc ,think i have found the reason for your recent obsession with them spiders .
Please check your ears regularly .
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/spider-in-ear-china-video-yangzhou-hospital-doctor-a8913236.html
cr@1–
The video shifts to talking about the narrative and emotional meaning at about 10.00. I found it way too hyperbolic and I think it’s a great movie! The guy’s enthusiasm is wonderful, but the video would be even better if he talked about what he loved without constantly insisting it’s the best thing ever made on every level.
The movie’s also got a slightly disingenuous message — it’s nice to say that anyone can wear the mask, that is, being a hero is a matter of attitude not race, gender, etc., but in superhero settings you generally only get superpowers by sheer freaking luck. If Miles Morales hadn’t chanced into his powers, he would have been dead several times over by the end of the second act. The handful of popular heroes without superpowers (Iron Man, modern Batman, Falcon) tend to have impossibly powerful technology that is exclusive to them personally. There is an even smaller group of popular heroes with neither superpowers nor supertech (Elektra, Black Widow — well, mostly…it’s impossible to be a recurring hero or villain at Marvel or DC without someone writing you some fantastical abilities at some point), but even then they’re portrayed as having the very peak of human abilities so good luck with that, average people.
Still, at least it’s a good message — better that than slavish attachment to the specifics of the movie’s universe.
That’s Neumann’s schtick — he finds the good in every movie (he’s kind of the opposite of me).
I think if I were a youtube reviewer of superhero movies, I’d be constantly harping on the role of chance and the extreme inequities these magically enhanced beings represent.
Meh. I lost interest within 10 minutes. I’m a grown man, so I don’t really relate to prepubescent or teen life anymore.
Honestly I don’t really care for anything the MCU-abomination has to offer anymore. It was fun for a while, but with a few exceptions (GotG and AntMan) pretty much everything starting with IM3 has been steaming piles of shaite.
In addition I get this sneaky feeling that it’s all part of a plot to keep people distracted from bigger issues.
Erlend Meyer@7–
Each to their own, but for me one of the great things about story-telling is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s skin for a while, including impossible skins like superheroes or time travellers or magic wielders. And although it’s been a long time since I was Miles’ age, I still found him a relatable and interesting character.
Also, the film touches on some adult themes once you get past the first act — (SPOILER ALERT) — Kingpin trying to get his family back because he can’t understand he lost them not by accident but because they saw him for what he is, or the other Peter Parker stricken with grief over screwing up his relationship with M-J, or Miles’ father learning to get past his sincere but simplistic cops-vs-robbers mentality, or Prowler finally realising the risks he had placed on his own family. These were crucial plot points.
Idunno, it just didn’t work at all for me. I didn’t care much for the animation either, and when it got to the uncles dating advice or whatever I just gave up. Funny thing is that I was a comics fan in my youth, I thought the animation would appeal to me.
I vaguely recall an average man type that called up an intelligent lightning bolt whenever he said “say you”.
jack16
Err…. it barely scratches the surface, but yes, it does sort of cover a few things other than the animation.
Sure. I’d say that, as long as it’s supported, we shouldn’t try to set a predetermined limit on what he should claim. The lack of support is the problem. Similarly, if somebody wanted to say how general relativity is so great, deep, important, fundamental, and so forth, that’s totally fine. But just saying it is the easy part.
It’s a pretty common thing. Other musicians are a constant source of frustration to me…. So often, they talk about certain composers (especially big names like Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky) as if they could do no wrong. You can go deep into the weeds with them, analyzing everything down to the smallest detail. All good so far.
But they just don’t see how much they’re taking it for granted that everything was a stroke of genius, that there must be a good reason for every choice, that there’s just no way to improve the thing they see in front of them. I’m just thinking “you’ve never had to make it yourself, have you?” because that’s never how it works for me. It’s always a messy process.
It seems like at some point their imagination fails, so they pull a Leibnizian sort of move (without realizing it) and conclude it must be the best thing ever. Normally, they don’t start rambling about monads or whatever, but it can get pretty wacky.
Got to finally see “Endgame” this afternoon. It was fun. Not high cinema, but enjoyable enough. Didn’t end how I thought it would. I was expecting it to end something like the original Infinity War comic story arc where Nebula got ahold of the gauntlet and snapped things back to normal. Still, it put a nice bow onto the MCU franchise.
From experience there is little point in giving movies a second chance, but I figured this one deserved one. Nope. Skipping over the worst prepubescent parts it got better, but I never really got any connection to the main characters.