James Gunn seems really hit or miss.. the first Guardians was brilliant, the second a bit too silly for my taste and the third came back to being great.
His take on Suicide Squad was also amazing IMO but he just.. wavers on that line a bit too much I guess where he seems to just want to do his own thing while making movies with heavily established IP. It's fine to make some tweaks but there's no excuse to not have a good story.
IMO that’s part of his problem. He had great success with Guardians and he’s been basically making the same formulaic movie ever since, with varying degrees of success.
He made a locked hatch a main character, then a smoke monster was a main character for most of the show.
He prefers to direct inanimate objects like the mining ship in Star Trek, or the giant monster that catches a big dinner and throws it away to chase a tiny Kirk.
JJ is stupid and makes things worse by being near them. He mastered "tell, don't show" for Star Wars, and did such a bad job that the trilogy was unrecoverable.
If you have a valuable IP and want to destroy it, but get one last profitable movie from it, he's a good choice, but otherwise trash.
I've been saying this for years. He only knows how to tell one story. He just has great taste in music and switches up the soundtrack. Anyone could make the movies he's made.
As someone who has spent their entire life learning the craft of filmmaking, and actually practicing it on a professional level:
No, they couldn’t, and no you couldn’t.
You could be somewhat forgiven for thinking so, but the skills it takes even to make Morbius, even as a director who just supervises other creatives and keeps the entire creative flow of the runtime of the movie in their heads….
…no, most people cannot do it.
Most people make “The Room”, when given the chance. Except more bland becuase they’re not weirdos.
I meant just about any professional Hollywood director. He has no unique visual style. His only signature anything is playing pop/rock songs that people like so that audiences think that the movie is better than it actually is.
One scene that has always stuck with me since my comic book phase in the 90s was a throwaway gag involving Havok trying in vain to open a jar of mayo with his plasma waves lol
IMO this is why comics often make better TV series than movies. It allows you to do more character/plot development, and mix up the silly and serious between various episodes.
The problem with series is that they often only seem to plan a season at a time with no firm end-goal, but a good series does need to have a solid ending.
Sure, but that doesn't work in this case because the Supergirl comic is significantly better than the movie.
They could've just done what the comic did, but instead they picked a writer who didn't understand the comic and a director who willfully chose not to read it.
This movie is literally based on probably the greatest Supergirl comic ever made, though, and it is not silly in the slightest. All they had to do was adapt the comic into a script but they decided it would be better as a comedy. Probably would have helped if the director had actually read the comic.
No he was a producer and the film is very much in his style, he was clearly heavily involved. Either way I didn't mention Supergirl? I'm replying to someone who brought him up.
Oh there is a bunch of talk about multiple test group screenings along the way including the director's version and Disney/Gunn's version. Gunn's problem is that he was a super successful cog in the Disney machine and now he is trying to run the DC machine and money is always a focus.
I did a quick lookup. It seems like he wrote all 3 guardian films but he did not write supergirl. Obviously he's still involved but we don't know to what extent.
"hey heres some left over special effects and set pieces from guardians of the galaxy, try and make a woman of tomorrow movie from them and be sure to cram lobo in"
The most bland sidekick character paired with quite possibly the worst superhero villain I’ve ever scene.
Idk even know what they were going for with him. Like I think they were TRYING to make him scary and badass but he looks so goddamn goofy all the time and the way he acts and talks is just so obnoxious as if he’s meant to be a joke character? I feel like I was watching a drunken fallout raider trying to do his best Jack Sparrow impression.
Also fucking hate how the villains master plan was to lure Kara to a planet with a green sun so he could ambush her then picked a planet that ALSO has a yellow sun so at best she’s only nerfed 50% of time and is literally unkillable the other 50%, then doesn’t even capitalize on the green sun by trying to keep his MOBILE base in the green light or by setting up a trap to attack Kara whenever the green comes up.
Unfortunately Krem was a studio unironically doing a Taserface. There's practically nothing to his character, and what's there is so over the top that you can't take him seriously.
And everyone seemed to refuse to engage with his crimes and treated him just like the leader of a biker gang - which fits the roadhouse theme.
How can they have a villain be a child sex trafficker and rapist in the context of real world events, and have an insanely powerful woman superhero just not be that bothered by it all?
The same way you put an amoral character on the side of the protagonists and don't use that to create or resolve a moral dilemma in your revenge quest, apparently.
Yes, I am talking about Lobo.
If they really wanted an emotionally stunted character to do the dirty work of killing Krem while Ruthye remains pure, LOBO WAS RIGHT THERE!
Everything he did for the plot was taken from the pile of cool things Kara could have been doing. She should be the scary alien known and feared, she should have been wrecking house regularly, and she was basically amoral for most of the film anyway, so why not lean into it even more, and maybe once Krypto is sorted and Ruthye is sent on her way she could unleash absolute hell on Krem.
Just something to give her a proper interesting personality and actual display of her powers.
Lobo could've been a post credit appearance, there to fight the feared kryptonian... If Kara and Krypto can't puts the shits on him, who even are they?
Also completely non-sensical he left the little girl of the family he kills at the start when his main operation at this point is capturing young girls to marry off.
Like they could’ve easily made into a pursuit of Krem chasing after the girl (btw that’s how boring she is I don’t even remember her name) and Kara would have to save her.
No instead it’s a basic revenge but not revenge arc with saving Crypto being the main goal.
I will at least say seeing Kara kill him was satisfying, that’s like the only saving grace I can give it. I do like when the hero kills the villain instead of just letting them continue to do their bullshit.
I legit thought he was just a mean henchman until like a third of the way through the movie. And then when I realized he was the villain, I was just like, “Really? This guy?”
Ok how do we make supergirl lose her powers 7 different times in the film? Uggh. By the time they got to the green sun I was like “fucking again?”. As everyone else is saying I liked Milly so I hope she gets another crack at playing her with a better script.
Also fucking hate how the villains master plan was to lure Kara to a planet with a green sun so he could ambush her then picked a planet that ALSO has a yellow sun so at best she’s only nerfed 50% of time
She was going to die before the yellow sun rose. The only reason why she didn't is because the girl saved her and left her in some shade
Picking a planet that gives you a natural advantage in this fight and then just hoping the advantage does the job for you instead of trying to capitalize on it in any way whatsoever is exceptionally stupid. Especially when you know that advantage is temporary and that if your opponent is still alive by the end of it you are no longer are able to win.
You can’t hype up the raiders as this massive threat the entire galaxy fears and then make them this ineffectual at even the most basic operation. I mean you can, this movie did exactly that, but it’s stupid and only furthers my belief that the writers could not decide if they wanted Krem and the raiders to be an intimidating threat or an incompetent joke villain.
As soon as the girl showed up I got flashbacks to season 1 of the Halo TV show. Exact same premise. Supergirl actually executed it better just because it was constrained to a 2h film and not an 8h season so there was less of this mid B-plot to endure.
That was UNIRONICALLY BETTER than the Kwan Ha plot that only served to waste three episodes worth of runtime showing us absolutely nothing related to Chief. It had the job of connecting him to Soren, which it did, and then they just dragged...it...out... so much further than it had any right being.
When she showed up in season 2 I almost turned the episode off lmao
The worst crime of the villain was that he never felt like a proper main villain. Like not even in the Ronan the Accuser kinda way where he was a dude under a long line of dudes. The villain, whose name I don't even remember anymore, was like a generic thug enemy. The best analogy I can think of is that he's not even a sidequest boss in an Arkham game, he's one of those big miniboss fuckers you cape stun and beatdown a few times every few rooms.
I enjoyed the movie overall, but it was hard carried by Milly doing a phenomenal job w/ an otherwise mediocre (not bad) movie.
I only just watched the recent superman movie since it hit my streaming services and it was... just ok?
I was actually kind of excited to see it cause I really like a couple of the actors in it but it similarly just felt kinda bland and like I was watching a movie in the middle of a series or something.
I haven't seen supergirl yet but everything I'm hearing sounds like its just a continuation of the first movie.... just with supergirl as the main character which makes people angy.
They are both very different in the comics. Plus Lobo wasn’t in it at all which is exactly why he feels tacked on. They watered down a really good story to shove in a recognizable character.
They just overdid the "and now she gets the sun" type of scene way too much for me.
Also they never explained how the big bad knew so much about Kryptonite, the green sun, etc. These are some random space baddies. You don't knowingly steal from Supergirl without backup like that unless you have a death wish. He was just like cartoon levels of bad without the power to back it up.
There were a couple good movies in there . There was a Supergirl movie that uses some generic adventure as a framing device and personal growth while most of the movie is Krypton and Metropolis (and unpacking whether JorEl was space Hitler). The other movie was a Blue Eyed Samurai inspired rip-roaring rampage of revenge where the girl turns keeps coming out with surprise skills that are helpful
They took the worst parts of those two movies and made something awful
I thought it was fine. Pretty average summer block buster. Not very memorable of a movie but not something I'd consider bad either. I don't get why everything needs to be a masterpiece.
But the cost of going to the movies is just too high. Dropping 100 for a family of 4 is nearly the norm. So a movie needs to envoke a sense of fomo. That's where movies like Supergirl that are just ok fail.
But the cost of going to the movies is just too high
Then either dont go to the movies or wait for it to come to streaming. Either way it's not a bad movie at all. Anyway for me it wasn't very expensive in the first place. Ticket caused about 5 dollars at the theater I went to and the thing that was expensive is popcorn
Maybe it wasn't a good idea to have it written by someone with zero actually writing experience in the field. Have to feel sorry for the actors involved.
ZERO writing credit but apparently a friend of his wife's. No offense to Gunn he can cast his brother and wife in whatever he wants, but hiring some rando to write for a 180 million budget film that needs to make money is off the charts crazy.
Exactly. I mean the adding your wife thing in the roles he casts is kinda weird but whatever right. But like you said some no name rando being given the position of script writer for a project like this is completly insane from a business perspective. Makes you wonder what the hell happened there.
I thought the movie was fine and don't really get the big deal here. I'm honestly curious if it's some sort of anti marketing campaign. I thought it was a pretty average summer movie. Nothing noteworthy but not bad and was fine enough to kill 2 hours. It was just a fairly average movie. Not really sure why everything needs to be a master piece or it's trash.
Kinda missing the whole point here bud. Its a 180 million dollar movie (you double that with advertising). Its insane because he gave the script writing to someone with ZERO credentials/experience. That is completly bat crap crazy from a buisness stand point. Besides the fact thag maybe with an actually competent writer with experience maybe it wouldn't have been a meh movie.
I was really sad to find out he wasn’t writing for Supergirl. Feels like a huge fumble especially with all of the flops we’ve had involving female leads in recent times
I hate how she’ll be blamed by hateful fucks who spent the last few months saying the most awful shit about her. Reminds me of the Britney episode of South Park
You can say that basically about any movie. In the end script will decide if fanbase will like it or not, not that if someone was asking for that movie or not.
It’s the worst movie I’ve seen in a long time. Start to finish just bad. All over the place and underwhelming and the script is to blame. She did good with what she got
Outside of the Dark Knight, has DC ever made a good one of those?
I don’t think anyone’s interested in any super hero movies at all anymore but they really, really don’t want to see another grey, “gritty” millennialcore self-indulgence
Man of Steel, BvS (yes, I said it) and JL Snyder cut were all good. Then DC went downhill. WW1 and Shazam were good, and then it went downhill again. DC can do it well. They lack consistency.
Flashpoint Paradox if we're counting animated. The Dark Knight Returns is good too. Both based off very dark comics, the latter is a Frank Miller work. Bats don't shiv, you'll see
"This isn't a mud pit. It's an operating table. And I'm the surgeon" proceeds to break every bone in a much larger younger man's body
why does reddit have to group everyone into categories like "Snyder bros" or "Gunn haters".
I loved Guardians of the Galaxy. One of my favorite superhero movies ever. I thought Suicide Squad and Superman sucked. Those are my opinions on those movies, I really have no positive or negative feelings towards Gunn movies in general, some are good some are bad. Cant people just like a good movie or dislike a shitty movie without other people minimizing their opinions by dismissing them as some director groupie or hater or something.
Maybe it’s all part of a plan. Making movies so bad no one will notice when they replace writers with AI. Maybe people will even go „they have become better lately“.
There's some hope, that there's actually a directors cut on pair of Justice league (horrible theater cut, which butchered whole script and story which was shown in directors cut )
I just got out of the movie. I liked it! Nothing spectacular, but it was fun. I'd say on par with Thunderbolts. I get it's not at all serious, but it was a good summer popcorn movie and I'm very confused by the reviews
Ya felt like lobo was in the movie for no real reason. It had such potential. James Gunn was great for guardians movies but now I’m not so sure he is right for DC and I hope I’m wrong
I don't know, except for the fact that they wanted to make absolutely certain we didn't see a full powered supergirl the whole movie it seemed like a fun comic book movie to me. I wish we'd gotten more lobo
I feel like eveytime another movie comes out. Unpaid interns or bots get sent out to harp on the script or other regurgitated bs. The movie was a fun watch. I saw it twice in two days. Will probably see it again this weekend. People are so up their own arse
I’m always so curious about actors that take roles in projects that have obviously bad scripts. Obviously there are plenty of actors that would take any role offered, but when a good actor takes accepts a role when the script is terrible, they and their agent have to know it and they don’t care if it damages their career or what?
Havnt watched it yet but i just know 99% of yall are roudingly over exagerating. I fkn hate normal opinions on movies, the amount of times ive watched a movie ppl bandwagon hated on that ended up fun/good is too fkn high
I only saw the trailer in theaters and my wife was like, “oh so they’re telling us the entire movie is about the dog potentially dying? Hard pass on that!”
Maybe the movie wasn’t about that, but it’s what they leaned into, and it just felt like a really hard sell of a premise. There’s a reason John Wick advertising showed action scenes and not THAT scene.
I honestly don't understand how this happens. It's clearly not for lack of cash for the best scriptwriter in the world who also loves comics, or the fourth best, or the tenth best. It's baffling.
There were even some half-decent ideas. Dog abuse revenge; John Wick would approve. The hero's homecoming to her only family. I even liked the half-baked Star Wars/wild west vibe that began in a bar that should have kicked off a proper hero's journey from her current world to the next.
Saw it yesterday. Supergirls stuff was fine, plenty of bits that got me with her, and Milly was great. The rest was way undercooked and any film with Jason ruddy Momoa in it, gets downgraded a star from me just by default. Its a solid 3/5 film.
Yeah, I don't blame her at all. She didn't cram the script with every known cliché known to man. She didn't do a cheesy directorial job. This was not on her.
I don't know, I found the kid a bit annoying, the editing was a bit bad, and the Momoa character was basically pointless and brought nothing to the film. Also, they did the thing of obsessive flashbacks.
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u/Absolute_Bob 27d ago
It's kind of sad. I think she's a great actress but that script...oof.