Superman v Batman v Fantastic Four v Spider-Man v Indifference
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 6:00PM 
Tom Holland for Spider-Man?We all know that eventually the superhero bubble will burst. But until then, they will dominate cinema. Still, even in their new golden age of popularity, there is a growing semi-intangible resistance out there to caring about each and every one of the films. I've been feeling that about Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice especially and it's a little strange that the Fantastic Four reboot has been so non-buzzy since the internet loves talking superheroes like little else. (Both films recently got new trailers, t'was time to discuss)
Spider-Man
Not that this indifference or in some cases outright hostility affects the box office mind you. Everyone seemed to hate The Amazing Spider-Man 2 last summer but it didn't stop the movie from making $708 million globally and it certainly hasn't dampened enthusiasm at Sony or Marvel for Spider-Man as a cash cow. They're already busy recasting Spider-man for the third time in less than 14 years. They've supposedly narrowed it down to five actors... They're all between the ages of 18-20 to insure that Spidey goes younger but not too young because you can't work child actors too many hours. Asa Butterfeld (Hugo, Ender's Game) and Nat Woolf (The Fault In Our Stars) have gotten the most press from their names coming up, but the list also includes Liam James (The Way Way Back), Timothée Chalamet (a brief role as the son in Interstellar) and Tom Holland. Of that batch, I'm unquestionably rooting for Tom Holland who was so special in and so ably carried The Impossible (2012). Plus he has significant dance training (one of the Billys from Billy Elliott: The Musical) so the lithe physicality of Spider-Man shouldn't be a problem and you should never underestimate an actor's physical gifts when casting these roles. Stunt men shouldn't have to do everything.
Well, I'm rooting for Holland when I'm not feeling indifferent to the whole thing that is.
Batman v Superman (Or, our preferred title Batman ♥ Superman)
When Man of Steel (2013) it was greeted with polite applause and mucho box office. But not so slowly there was a coalescing aggravation and then outright disdain for its characterization of Super-Man as less noble and far more violent than he'd been in the past. But that didn't stop the movie from making $668 million worldwide. It's doubtful that the general grumpiness online surrounding Batman v Superman whether its due to the Ben Affleck or Gal Gadot castings or the exhaustion with "dark" superheroes or Zach Snyder himself, will translate into anything other than free publicity. The movie will surely be huge even if it seems hard to find people who are enthusiastically optimistic about it. But how are you feeling after watching the trailer?
That my biggest takeaway was "oooh, that's Holly Hunter's voice!" says less about the trailer than it doesn't about me but that was my biggest Yes. My biggest no was that prolongued shot of Ben Affleck emoting by which I could tell I was supposed to be feeling something ("the fever. the rage" ?) but I was getting more of that from the new furrowed brow of the Batman costume than from Affleck. Bring Your Own "Yes No Maybe So" in the comments won'cha?
Fantastic Four
Well... it looks infinitely better than the first big screen go at these characters. Low bar, but still...
Reader Comments (13)
I call that thing Ben Affleck was doing "The Town Face". And (sigh) instead of making an interpretation of Batman that fits Ben Affleck (an Adam West-like take which could have been an interesting inversion of the current perceived dynamic?), we instead get a full Dark Knight Returns Frank Miller take. Might have worked with John Hawkes, though.
I don't want to see another Spider-Man. The last film is just fucking awful. The trailer for Batman vs. Superman was... eh.... Fantastic 4 looks alright but... I don't know.
I love the Fantastic Four, and as such would be elated to see a good film version. Still, I sense they will never go as operatic or geeky as the comics, which has much more of a British BBC vibe to be honest, with ridiculous - in a good way - sci-fi mumbo jumbo amidst the family dynamic.
Holly Hunter is more important than any superhero franchise. Glad she is making a bit of a resurgence. She could use a fifth Oscar nomination and a second Oscar. Holly Hunter should be remembered for the walking piece of awesomeness she's always been since breaking out in 1987.
Holly Hunter is more important than any superhero franchise. Glad she's making a bit of a resurgence. She could use a fifth Oscar nomination and a second Oscar. Holly Hunter should be remembered for the walking piece of awesomeness she's always been since breaking out in 1987.
No no no- not another Spiderman origin story movie- enough already- it might be wiser to show him as man and then maybe have a brief flash back to his nerd stage- and get him a great villain this was the main weakness of the last film .
The samey bombastic soundtracks make my ears bleed.
With Zach Snyder's Batman + Superman, the only thing that makes or breaks the movie for me is Wonder Woman. Pleeeeeeeeeease let them nail Wonder Woman.
(Sidenote: Snyder looks great for 49. Mmm.)
"That my biggest takeaway was 'oooh, that's Holly Hunter's voice!' says less about the trailer than it does about me"
Only that you have good taste. Because everything else... yeesh.
That "Cape. Wars" trailer sucked. The FF trailer never loaded.
And I have no desire to suffer another Spiderman film.
You know, I didn't hate the last Spider-Man movie. My adoration of Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield knows no bounds, the action scenes were surprisingly adroit. But I also have skipped so many superhero movies that I probably don't have much of a bar.
I have been going to this site for more than 13 years now and have been enjoying the posts and discussions coming off from the comments, but the ever-increasing snark toward superhero movies is getting rather distressing. Call it indifference or what you will, but the site's (and many commenters') general disregard for superhero movies and the flippant attitude toward those who love these movies as being all non-discriminating "fanboys" are bordering on insulting. Definitely elitist. Yes, I know that comic book movies are huge and dominating the box office to the detriment of excellent smaller films, and of course these films aren't all good and even those that are of course aren't perfect, but I'd rather go to a site that doesn't make a snooty remark about the genre in every post about it just because of its ubiquity. I count myself VERY lucky that I live in a time when I can see these comic book characters come to life with so much vibrancy and flair and yes, emotion and intellect. A lot of people I know who aren't necessarily comic book fans feel the same. Why all the negativity here?
This isn't too say that I won't be visiting, because I do really like this site in general and no one would care anyway if I didn't.
Anyway, there's not much hype regarding the Fantastic Four movie because a lot of comic book movies fans, particularly MCU fans, want to see it crash and burn because 1) of Fox's blatant disrespect of the source material and 2) if it does, it's likelier that the MCU will be able to scoop it up as it did Spider-Man. I myself have decided not to watch it.