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I’m looking forward to this movie, very much, but…

After a string of picture perfect logos, this one is pretty damned ugly.

That logo has all the charm and dynamics of a Hallmark greeting card.

This movie is going to have to be pretty terrific to overcome some challenging hurdles:

– That ugly, patchwork logo.

– Putting Peter back in high school again does feel like reboot territory.

– Tying him into the crowded MCU from the start takes away the best parts of the original Spider-Man (for me) which was the hero who felt all alone in the world.

– “From the director of Clown’ doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.

– No J.K. Simmons as JJJ!

– Marisa Tomei as Aunt May?! Then, I guess Tobey Maguire is almost old enough to play Uncle Ben. (Though, if 50 is now considered of age for Peter’s aunt and uncle, Kyle Chandler would be a good choice.)

The original cast was excellent. All of them! The idea that after the third movie flopped (which had nothing to do with the cast) that they should reboot the entire thing and throw the baby out with the bath water was absurd And it’s ruined this franchise (so far.)

“And it’s ruined this franchise”

No, the fact that Amazing Spider-man 1 and 2 sucked (and Spider-man 3) is what ruined the franchise.

If any of them were worth a shit, no one would be whining like you are.

I’ll add my vote to say that logo sucks too. What were they thinking?

Intelligent analysis of what went wrong with the Amazing Spider-Man movies.

“Is this a modern Spider-Man (who inspirationally skateboards to Coldplay like all the cool kids do these days) or some kind of old fashioned throwback (Peter Parker takes pictures with an ancient film camera instead of his phone)? Is it a retread of the same old Spider-Man origin or is it really going to do bold new things with the character? Is Peter Parker a wisecracking dork or a James Dean-style (or, if you’re feeling less generous, Luke Perry-style) introverted brooder? The answers to all these questions shift from scene to scene.”

http://screencrush.com/the-amazing-spider-man-series-what-went-wrong/

My big concern is that they are going to swap bullseye and punisher in regards to Elektra.

I’m afraid I’ve had my fill of Bullseye, Kingpin, Elektra, Punisher and Ninjas. I read that stuff in the Frank Miller days (early ’80s) and I still have those issues and cherish them. But I don’t want to read or watch rehashes in 2016.

Mark Waid had the right idea — clearing away some of the darkness and angst, and getting back to the fun of the Stan Lee-Gene Colan days. Ant-Man and Guardians showed there’s an audience for lighter takes on superhero tales. Why can’t it work on TV?

“the television rendering of this character, while very well-acted by Jon Bernthal, fails to match the ferocity and depth of his comic book incarnation.”

Who the hell cares? Since when has the comic character been interesting? Why does the show have to be like the comic?

Is the show, and the character on the show, in and of themselves, worth a damn?

I’d say the Ennis and Aaron versions of the Punisher are very compelling. Even his appearance in Brubaker’s Daredevil was a highlight.

I really hope they go with the Brubaker 12-issue run from a few years back. That’s such a good book and I think most of it would translate well to film.

Can’t wait to see the costume they dream up for him

elektra looks like the old bazooka joe bubble gum character, mort, that would pull his red turtleneck over the lower part of his face.

It looks to me like they borrowed Elektra’s costume from Silk. I’m okay with that.

Meh. Donning the costume was, weirdly, the low point for season 1. It was too dramatic and awkward a tonal shift from what had come before. Season 2 will essentially be a completely different show in terms of tone.

NO ONE likes that costume design. I”m honestly shocked they didn’t listen to the fans and update it before season two…

Does that mean they’re changing the movie’s title to Dr. Cumberbatch?

Not since Burt Ward was cast as Bruce Wayne’s ward has a sidekick had a more spot on name.

‘Creature performer’ Brian Steele could play Rintrah: just get his minotaur costume from ‘Your Highness’ and spray-paint it green…

My all-time favorite Ego story is “Ego the Loving Planet” from Marvel Adventures Avengers #12: http://www.comicvine.com/marvel-adventures-avengers-12-ego-the-loving-plane/4000-111416/

IIRC, Jeff Parker said that he wrote Ego’s dialogue in that issue with Billy Dee Williams in mind…

Especially paired with that Kurt Russell rumour… his current mustachioed face is very EGO

So now the Punisher is a hottie? Why not? :p

I live in a time where all my heroes, from both DC and Marvel are on big screens. This! Is! Paradise!

Well, since the one is streaming and the other will be in theaters, I didn’t see it as much of a showdown in the first place.

Andrew, you’re right. And factor in that many, many more folks will watch the DCU film than will actually watch the second season of Daredevil.

wasn’t sure if they would punk out in making doc strange look the way he looks in the comics, maybe go for a whole new look instead. glad to see they went classic with some added touches to the overall look. coolest accessory? the cloak of levitation.

It’s a little thing but the fact that they tried to get something like the high collar right fills me with confidence about the whole film. There’s no way you can make the comic version work in the real world but that they wanted to try shows me something.

Mike

As someone with little to no interest in the comics character, this is a promising first look.

Reflect on how far we’ve come since those awful first look images of the original X-Men film’s costumes.

CREED is indeed a very good movie. Stallone, who emerges as a nuanced character actor with this film, deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

This actually kinda bums me out.
He’s obviously a talented storyteller who’s been able to carve his own path so far.
It’s a shame to see him sucked up by such a heavy handed studio.

I don’t doubt for a second that a Coogler Black Panther would be a far better movie if it had zero input from Marvel Studios.

That’s not to say Marvel hasn’t churned out some damn entertaining movies, just none that showcase the directors.

Marvel tightened its grip on directors in the 3 years between THE AVENGERS and AGE OF ULTRON — as Joss Whedon learned the hard way. Not even Scorsese or the Coen Brothers would have any power on a Marvel set today.

This Wired article explains that auteurs have no place in today’s franchise-crazy Hollywood. Paramount has patterned its Transformers team explicitly on the writers’ room of a TV series, with a showrunner and a “bible” explaining the characters and even the plot twists. Disney and Warner may not be that extreme, but they’re getting there.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/building-the-star-wars-universe/

That’s a good piece George, thanks for cluing me into that.

I’ll say this much about Marvel, they don’t make artful films and they certainly haven’t done anything with the same verve and vision as The Dark Knight trilogy. On the other hand, they also haven’t produced outright bombs like Green Lantern. I really dislike Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, but those aren’t movies that I’d be actively embarrassed to watch either.

On the other hand, that lack of narrative and visual ambition also just becomes deadly stale after awhile. I guess it just depends on if you prefer the risk or not, I certainly do. Marvel doesn’t seem to. With the former mindset sometimes you’ll get Skyfall and then other times you’ll get Spectre. Of course, I still think it’s only a matter of time before we see the first actively “rotten” Marvel studios production. All good things…

It looks like they’re bringing lots of aspects of the character from the phenomenal run by Priest.

The only part I can’t wrap my head around is why Feige and crew were reluctant to use Panther at first and wanted someone “like” Panther.

Very good post. I absolutely love this website. Stick with it!

Does this show have the R-rated language of the “Alias” comic book?

I’m surprised by the seeming lack of interest in this show on several comics-related sites. Very few comments posted.

But maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. If the characters wore spandex, masks and capes, there would probably be more interest. Cinephile (film buff) sites seem to be more enthusiastic about “Jessica Jones.”

I respectfully disagree that this is a step down from Daredevil. I think this show has improved on all the shortcomings Daredevil had. And I truly adored Daredevil.

Agreed with Erik, while this show doesn’t have the same level of kinetic energy as DD, nor the same amount of opportunities to provide some truly great geek-out moments, I think Jessica Jones is a stronger series thus far. I just finished episode seven myself and am excited to see how this all plays out. It’s extremely intense and well-crafted.

Fair enough. In the comparison between the two, I just think Jessica Jones’ lows are much lower than Daredevil’s, which felt like a more consistent ride throughout. I just can’t muster much interest in the Trish Walker, Jeryn Hogarth, or neighbor plotlines. But YMMV as always.

I agree the show was a step down from Daredevil. I really just think that Jessica Jones doesn’t work in a newly forming MCU, it lost a lot of the charm of the source material while still managing capture the characters really well. I loved that Jeryn was played so strongly.

I didn’t like how it cut corners to ratchet the tension. In the source material Purple Man never raped Jessica, the scars were all from intense and well constructed mind games. The show took the easy route over and over, without making anything actually deeply dark. Implied drug abuse, etc… the show felt overly lazy to me. I was disappointed.

There were tons of tiny things to enjoy. I found the Patsy story well constructed, if badly acted and Luke Cage’s first fight scene was amazing. I don’t think anything in the show will bring me back for more.

I mostly agree with the pros and cons you listed. I don’t personally think the show is a step down from Daredevil. While I enjoyed both shows, I think the shows were different enough that it makes them difficult to compare fairly. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of similarities to Daredevil, but I think Jessica Jones trades out a lot of comic fantasia and action in favor of exploring realistic people and drama. For example, you see the life of normal down-trodden citizens making reference to the “god-like” Avengers, there is the social fall out and how it affects people like Jessica and Luke, you see deep exploration of psychological problems like what Kilgrave did to Jessica. A lot of this minutia is ignored in comic book shows, even Daredevil to some degree.

Chaos McKenzie hits most of the issues I have taken with this show. Too many corners were cut from the source material. I understand why they had to do it in order to shoe horn it into the universe they are building, but with tropes galore and cliche after cliche I find myself less and less willing to forgive.

DareDevil going its own way didn’t seem like a betrayal of the cannon since it has decades of plots and characters to draw upon. (still hate that they killed Ben Urich) But Jessica Jones has approximately two mini-series worth of plot; they could have been slightly more faithful to some of the major plot points.

Before this turns into a full blown rant that makes me look like (more of) a lunatic fan boy, I would just like to say that the removal of the language from ALIAS really cramps the flow of the characters. It’s on Netflix. It’s rated TV-MA. Don’t be afraid to use the word fuck or cunt. Marvel wasn’t when it was in print, they shouldn’t in film. Not everything if for kids. The way this show is done is already not child friendly, so pulling the profanity punches is a weak move that serves nothing.

All in all I’m very disappointed. I had such high hopes after DD, and found this follow up extremely wanting. I fear Cage will follow this more than DD and also be a big let down. Ah well.

I loved it.
Loved Kristyn Ritter as Jessica (and I have to admit, I was on the fence when she was first cast). She eased my fears and made me a fan.
Trish “Patsy” Walker was a great character. Her backstory was kind of interesting, and I found myself really rooting for her during the series.
Anytime Jessica and Luke Cage were on screen, the show was just that much better. The chemistry between the two was perfect, and I am now even more pumped for the Luke Cage series, so we can dig into his life a little.
Hogarth was a queen B. I wanted to hate her so many times, but she was also so damn compelling to watch, I wanted to see what she would do next. Crazy shit going on there.
NUKE!!!! I didn’t like the character of Officer Simpson, and honestly felt his storyline was the weakest part of the show…but that’s just my opinion.
I found myself digging ‘crazy neighbor girl’. She had a lot of issues, but again, fun to watch.
I liked how Jessica and Luke’s relationship ended on a completely different note than the comic, and some of the other surprises.
I feel that Killgrave could have been much more menacing if he was played by someone other than Tennant. But everyone seems to love him in this role, so what do I know..?

All in all I bitched through all 13 episodes in two days. Had a ball watching some of my favorite characters come to life, and hope there is a Season 2 to explore those issues brought up towards the end of the series (Trish’s mom, IGN, etc).

This is a step way up from Daredevil. And Daredevil was solid. The characters in this have depth and the plot twists were truly shocking.

I don’t think there’s a multiplex big enough to beat 32 simultaneous screenings. For some time, the largest number of screens under one roof was 20, at Grand Rapids Michigan’s Studio 28 (so-named because of it’s location on 28th Street). This was at the height of the multiplex craze in the 1990s, when more was always better, before cinema attendance started to drop off. (There was talk of expanding to 28 screens – because obvious – but it never happened… and Studio 28 is now just a really big parking lot.) There’s probably a few bigger plexes out there somewhere, but I doubt anyone’s built one that much larger.

Yes… I did some basic research, and there doesn’t seem to be a 32-plex.

AMC does have the Empire 25 in Times Square. Many of the theaters on the top floor are smaller theaters, usually used for screenings and foreign films.

With regard to the 7/8/2016 date, noted as “??? (Was Doctor Strange)”: I believe that’s now held for the Ant-Man sequel, “ANT-MAN AND THE WASP,” the addition of which pushed the BLACK PANTHER and CAPTAIN MARVEL movies to these later-than-originally-announced dates.

Oops, got that wrong!

The Ant-Man sequel is for July 2018, not 2016! To the extent that the 7/8/2016 date may be a hole to be filled in the schedule, I’m not sure if any “nerd-friendly” flick will move to fill the space vacated by DOCTOR STRANGE, or if folks will cede July to things like GHOSTBUSTERS and STAR TREK that have staked out spaces later in that month.

I feel that the Frank Miller-inspired Elektra/Bullseye/Kingpin stuff has been done to death, in comics and in a 2003 movie. I’d be more excited if they went back to the lighthearted Stan Lee/Gene Colan comics of the late ’60s. Bring back Mike Murdock, Stilt-Man and Leap-Frog, and I’d be happy.

If Marvel is going to continue with the strategy of putting out as many movies as the market will bear, they’re going to have to release them at times of the year that are traditionally “dead”, and count on audiences to show up anyway.

Yeah, at this point, I’m thinking the old early part of the year vs the summer paradigm is probably out the window. Deadpool might be the start of that.

Kyle, it’s already been happening. The start was probably back in 2007 with 300 opening in March making over $200 million. However, then in 2012 The Hunger Games blew away all records making over $400 million while opening up in March. So yeah, it’s now a thing to open up in the spring knowing there will be less competition.

I guess Ant Man & Wasp have actors & directors all set up, just looking for a script but it still sucks that Captain Marvel was delayed a second time!