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Marvel Superheroes hit Netflix

Started by COMMANDO FORCES, 28 May, 2014, 04:47:45 AM

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JOE SOAP

Quote from: CrazyFoxMachine on 07 December, 2015, 07:44:32 PMI think it represents a bit of a problem with the miniseries format as a whole actually - it's obvious from the other comments that it's obviously setting itself up for a big pay off. But this is like... what 12 hours of episodic television. If it doesn't grab me in the first few parts why the balls would I watch the whole thing through to that 'well-set-up' finale?


Both Jessica Jones and Daredevil are about 4 hours too long. Rather than the weak start of Jessica Jones, Daredevil felt too episodic and fell flat beyond the midway point. After introducing good characters like Murdock, Claire Temple, Stick, Madam Gao and Fisk, it plotlessly muddled around with far less interesting touchy-feely characters being sad and investigating things we all ready know before picking up at the end.

I don't think the mini-series format is the problem but maybe their scheduling is: they began filming Jessica Jones in February and released it in November. The demand for all 13 episodes to drop at once must be punishing.

Goaty


Goaty


Dandontdare

Just watched the full run of Jessica Jones over a couple of weeks and I bloody loved it.

Personally, I like my PIs to be drunk, hard-boiled and abrasive, I thought she was a wonderful character. I don't think we'd be having a conversation about the "likeability" of the protagonist if it was a man - we don't usually worry that Sherlock Holmes or Philip Marlowe are 'unlikeable'.

I thought the theme  music was fantastic - not usually something I notice , but I really did love this one (last time i was so taken with a theme was Firefky)

Tennant was great as The Purple Man, Luke Cage was fine but a but bland. The lawyer was more evil than the villain, a great character; and the best-pal was okay too. I assume the nurse was from Daredevil, which I haven't watched yet? the only character that I wanted rid of was the junkie-neighbour.

The super-shenanigans were used sparingly but very well. ("Laser eyes" lol)

Anyone else notice the plethora of EXIT signs in every shot? usually red and white in the same typeface as the Netflix logo and sharing similar letters, so I'm guessing it some kind of subliminal advertising. I spotted one or two in Agents of Shield and I'll be keeping my eyes out for them in Daredevil.

Mardroid

QuotePersonally, I like my PIs to be drunk, hard-boiled and abrasive, I thought she was a wonderful character. I don't think we'd be having a conversation about the "likeability" of the protagonist if it was a man - we don't usually worry that Sherlock Holmes or Philip Marlowe are 'unlikeable'.

You might have a point there.

I enjoyed it, and I largely liked the characters. As for the junkie, I found him very endearing later on in the show. The female (uh-oh! ;-) ) neighbour was annoying, but she as supposed to be. And I warmed to her later.

I felt they overdid it a bit with the sexual stuff, although I understand that features in the comics too. It felt like they were overcompensating a bit due to the lack of explicit rumpy pumpy in the he other shows.

I'm not saying characters shouldn't have sex. I just prefer it to be implied rather than shown. The (grantedly few) sequences were almost soft porn! Although without any actual nudity, to be fair.

But overall, it was rather good.

I'd recommend Daredevil certainly.

I'm not that fussed about the upcoming Cage spinoff (the character didn't really do it for me either although [spoiler]their fight sequence[/spoiler] was great), but i'll likely give it a go.

Professor Bear

Quote from: Dandontdare on 21 January, 2016, 01:12:14 PMI don't think we'd be having a conversation about the "likeability" of the protagonist if it was a man

Most reviewers touch upon the likeability of protagonists, they just don't use gender as a yardstick - IE, male PIs being "hard-boiled", "laconic", "no-nonsense", and so on.

IndigoPrime

Bar some minor wobbles regarding pacing, internal logic, and editing (a voiceover popping up now and again, and then vanishing for good), I thought Jessica Jones was the best of the MCU to date. Only Iron Man and the first Avengers flick rival it in my mind. I'm really happy to see it's getting a second run.

As for likeable, I don't really see how that factors into it. People here raved over Dredd, and he's basically a fascist who goes round shooting people in that film. Empathy and sympathy, however, might be more to the point, depending on the life you've led. I know a lot of women found the series equal parts compelling and difficult with Kilgrave clearly being an analogue for an abusive and controlling partner.

Dandontdare

My point was that people were citing JJ's likeability as a reason why they didn't rate the show, rather than just as character trait - Nobody has said Dredd is a crap film, or that they didn't enjoy watching it because he's not likeable.

QuoteAs for the junkie, I found him very endearing later on in the show.
Funnily enough, I quite liked him as a junkie it was when he became such a whiney earnest do-gooder that he began to bug me!

I googled the EXIT sign thing and somebody else had mentioned it on reddit, and was nastily shot down because NY buildings have to have exit signs due to fire codes ("ITS A FUCKING FIRECODE!!! GO READ UP ON NFPA1 NOOB") - when it's obvious that these can be removed, or shots re-framed when filming - there are just too many prominent ones in in JJ to not be deliberate.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Dandontdare on 21 January, 2016, 05:08:01 PMMy point was that people were citing JJ's likeability as a reason why they didn't rate the show, rather than just as character trait - Nobody has said Dredd is a crap film, or that they didn't enjoy watching it because he's not likeable.

I was agreeing with you on that point. I think if nothing else, Jessica Jones has starkly highlighted some people's response to a show breaking from the default 'male gaze' stance that pervades pretty much everything on telly, and certainly the vast majority of anything linked to comics. I saw quite a few people 'disgusted' at the way she shagged blokes and tossed them aside, and when challenged on the reverse happening frequently argued that was somehow different.

Frankly, I thought Jones was an interesting and nuanced character. And it was also rather nice to see a show that didn't so much pass as blaze through the Bechdel test every episode.

Theblazeuk

I think I'd still find John Jones* to be boring, contradictory and irritatingly stupid for huge chunks of the show, particularly if he mastered that sullen pount. I'm sure there are a lot of people falling on the old double standard, but I don't think it's universally the source of criticism. The Dredd comparison falls apart on any examination (I am pretty sure 0% of screen time was spent on Dredd's motivation, his backstory, his emotions) though I do understand your point.

I'd be happy if they cut all sex scenes at the bedroom door if it meant more time for stuff I actually cared about, a faster pace...

Oh and I'm not convinced it did pass the Bechdel Test :) Everyone is talking about Killgrave...

I never warmed to TV Jessica the same way I did to Alias - though it quickly became apparent TV Jessica is a much more aggressive character than comic Jessica, so I tried to stop making comparisons. The world they occupy is also so much different and offers less opportunity for interesting complications outside of Killgrave himself.

I personally think the major problem was leading with the flashbacks, trauma etc, way before we actually had any reason to believe this woman was ever anything different. And that Jessica's main obstacle was small locks. By the end it was a much better show and I thought the terrible events in the lift were extremely well shot, and were my main motivation for persevering till things ramped up. The supporting cast were a mixed bag of excellence (Pattie), blandness (Luke), personality (Malcolm) and problematic writing (Will & Hope, and in completely different way, crazy neighbours, ergh).

I suppose overall I say it was OK to good, with some very mixed moments. Don't think it was the best thing by Marvel so far by any measure but see it as a good stab at a harder challenge than Daredevil (which I rate as the best). Marvel messed up Agents of Shield for a good 60% of the time and that should have been the easiest to pull off really, on that basis JJ was actually surprisingly good.

*Anyone who gets the reference should know that Jonn Jonzz would be a much different show anyway :)

IndigoPrime

QuoteOh and I'm not convinced it did pass the Bechdel Test :) Everyone is talking about Killgrave...
I suspect at least once in every episode, two women have at least a two-line conversation that isn't about a man. That's essentially all that's required to pass the test, which is why it's so astonishing a great many films and TV shows fail.

It'd be interesting to see how familiarity with the source material impacts on people's enjoyment (or lack thereof) of the show. I know very little about this area of the Marvel universe. I read a few Daredevil crossovers with Spider-Man as a kid, but that's about it. So I'm coming into all this stuff completely blind. For what it's worth, I do agree with quite a lot of your criticisms, Theblazeuk, but they didn't knock back the show to nearly the same extent for me.

As for Agents of SHIELD, I quite like that now, although it's very popcorn. The first half of the first season was dreadful, but it found its feet. It does have a habit (along with quite a lot of the MCU) of going for very high body counts with few ramifications for the heroes, though, which I find distasteful. "Oh, it's OK, because they're BAD GUYS." I think of that Invisibles comic increasingly frequently these days.

Theblazeuk

I love Shield now but it was really tough going for the first season till Winter Soldier events kicked in, and even in the second series it had a few dull, irritating slips back into rubbish-ness.

However Coulson skydived into a portal to an alien world with three moons, on a mission to hunt down an enemy agent and rescue his people from a terrible being. And his first words when arriving were "Tatooine". So I am 100% sold on that show at this point. The body count is pretty high but then everything we see of the bad guys makes them appear to be fanatical murderers. Plus we see plenty of SHIELD agents drop like flies, stabbed in the back on many occasions - feels like the stakes are higher than in the regular Marvel world.

They even made me interested in the Inhumans :o Though I still wish it could have been good old fashioned X-Gene mutants :(

(And RE the bechdel test, I just thought it would be funny if it did fail because most conversations are at least obliquely about Jessica's encounters with Killgrave. Probably at least one of the lawyer/lover/wife scenes are all about women. It would have just been hilarious if it failed that extremely low bar for entirely different reasons than most films/TV shows.)

Professor Bear

Except it wouldn't be failing for entirely different reasons other shows and movies do, it would be failing for exactly the same reason: they talk about men, be it their boyfriends or their rapists.

It should be pointed out that the Bechdel Test isn't any actual scientific test or anything, it's just an observational technique in the same way Godwin's Law is.  It doesn't have any actual merit as a yardstick of something's feminist credentials, as there are plenty of feminist works that would fail it, but something like Rambo 2 or Transformers would pass.

Theblazeuk

Yeesh. Methinks things are being taken a tad too seriously.

Goaty