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Friday Fun Thread for February 24, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I have my final mid terms of my life (at least ug) this week and they only have two technical subjects so all should be fine. I watched nearly all DC Animated movies and here are the ones I would recommend.

  • Batman - The Long Halloween (part 1 and 2) - This is peak batman, not just bruce wayne in all his different forms but even the batman and his rogues gallery in all their forms. It is a detective story with great action and real cosnequences set in a world of gotham with Godfather like aesthetics.

  • Batman - The Dark Knight Rises (1 and 2) - Classic, watch them both.

  • All-Star Superman - Quintessential Superman story which deals with death in a very mature way. A story worth watching imo

  • Batman - The Mask of the Phantasm

  • Batman - Under the Red Hood - Amazing movie, classic storyline that will actually make you hate Batman and his morals.

  • Batman - Gotham by Gaslight - Victorian Era Batman who fights a killer. The setting alone makes it worth watching

  • Batman - Assault on Arkham - Good brainless action done right

  • Constantine - City of Demons - Worth a watch

  • Justice Leage Dark Apokolips War - Pretty good

  • The Batman (Tetrology?) - Bunch of movies like batman vs robin, etc look em up on wikipedia, not that good but worth watching just once.

  • Justice League - The Flashpoint Paradox - I hate the new 52 that happened due to this even but the storyline is good, deals with loss, mortality and the finiteness of time, how trauma breaks people.

Most if not all comic book movies, hell most movies seem childish now since I watched one every day, sometimes 4 or 5 a day. I have a projector in my room that I fire up when I wish to watch movies and watched these alongside the Dark Knight Trilogy and the new Batman. All 4 are great movies. The best comic book stories are ones that are not supernatural but with mortals who have a sense of fear, grief, loss and finally some catharsis of some sort. Daredevil the Netflix show, punisher and some comics are in this very list.

Marvel has better storylines than DC in many cases yet DC does a good job putting its stories in these animated movies. Some of them are R Rated too I guess. Ngl, Animated Selina Kyle is genuinely super super attractive to the point where I cannot like a live action version of her (hated all of them actually) and the animated one is just perfect.

Comic book movies are for children at the end of the day, watch enough movies and the fatigue sets in quick but these all are worth watching at least once if not more and provide good entertainment.

My list of ones worth watching would be:

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 1 and 2- Very good, classics

Batman: Year One- It's been a while since I actually watched it, but I remember it being good. More focus on Jim Gordon

Batman: Assault on Arkham- Really good, I don't think it's that brainless. My favourite Suicide Squad piece of media.

Flashpoint Paradox- Excellent, one of my favourites, but I've also always had a soft spot for alternate timelines

Justice League: War- Good intro to the Justice League

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War- Really good if you've seen all the other DC animated movies, but there are like a dozen that aren't worth watching, and I don't know how good it'd be without more context

What I like from comic book stories, in order of priority, are:

a) Lack of plotholes and reasonable motivations from everyone. If the villain's utility function is just causing other's to suffer and they act like the Joker, that's fine. If the villain's utility function is they want more money, and they act like the Joker, that annoys me because being a domestic terrorist is not a good money making strategy. I want this from pretty much all media, not just comic book stories.

b) A real challenge to overcome. I have to believe the character is struggling to accomplish their goal, and also related to a) aren't only struggling because they're holding an idiot ball.

c) Impressive/superhuman abilities. I like seeing characters do the impossible like punch through walls or fly, it's satisfying in a simple way.

Yeah, they just get repetitive after a while though. That is why I love Mask of the Phantasm, Under the Red Hood, The Long Halloween(both parts), Gotham by Gaslight. All 4 have different villains who have objectives beyond money, who you have not seen before in other movies and have a personal struggle for both Batman and Bruce Wayne.

I dislike the Justice league stuff somewhat given Batman punches robots that superman fights, even though one is a normal dude whilst other is an alien capable of smashing planets. The lack of consistency in this stuff does make me a bit bored but otherwise these are good movies. I liked all 4, the fourth especially.

Also Assault on Arkham is a more action oriented movie and yeah, it is great. I too think it is the best piece of Suicide Squad media. I just wish they could make more movies like the ones listed in this post.

I dislike the Justice league stuff somewhat given Batman punches robots that superman fights, even though one is a normal dude whilst other is an alien capable of smashing planets. The lack of consistency in this stuff does make me a bit bored but otherwise these are good movies. I liked all 4, the fourth especially.

That's definitely an issue for me, I consider it a plot hole, but at this point I've basically just accepted that, like how I accept that Superman can fly and shoot lasers out of his head. But some of the movies still go too far for me, like Throne of Atlantis, where whichever character was using the Trident was essentially more powerful than the rest of the Justice League combined. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so maybe I'm being unfair to it, but I think Ocean Master should've had a more complex strategy to defeat the Justice League than just "Get my hands on the trident", and the Justice League should've had a more complex plan to defeat Ocean Master than just "Get the trident into Aquaman's hands".

I never understand how DCs animated tv/film division can put out so many great products while the live action ones are consistently worse.

Warner Bros owns DC and thus has all of the film / tv / etc rights.

WB Animation values the DC universe because it's a very useful setting for action adventure shows & films. Most of their other IP is aimed at a younger audience -- Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, others. So DC films are actually their opportunity to make more serious content.

WB Film likes making serious respectable dramas. They view comic book films as ways to make money to make their "real" films. Comic book films are just seen as a way to market toys and merchandise. It doesn't matter if they're good so long as they get kids excited.

Ben Affleck got disillusioned with working with WB on Batman / Justice League because when he was talking about story problems with the studio an exec straight up told him "I don't care if the movie is bad."

the studio an exec straight up told him "I don't care if the movie is bad."

Well, that confirms what we've long suspected - they don't care if it's bad if it makes money.

Marvel just got luckier more than anything else. Also animated stuff is much more niche, less money is required and earned via that stuff so its is much more appealing to the masses.

Also, DC owes a lot to BTAS (Batman the Animated Series) which along with Superman had animated movie spin offs. Since these were superior to the live action movies then, they set the tone and DC just made more animated stuff for nerds like us. I honestly like it a lot.

Why do you think they struggle? Replicating marvel is not smart as they are an anomaly, not the norm.