Blue Beetle (2023)

[Joey9775]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

So no DC movies for a whole 3 years?

I think it's the only way to get people back on the train.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Joey9775

I think it's the only way to get people back on the train.

Let's just hope the train hasn't left the station.

[DThompson]

Originally Posted by Joey9775

I think it's the only way to get people back on the train.

Agree. Give everyone a break. Maybe some time to forget about the old universe, good and bad.

Like they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And when they come back, they'll be faithful adaptions and be a breath of fresh air compared to what came before.

[-JKR-]

Originally Posted by DThompson

Agree. Give everyone a break. Maybe some time to forget about the old universe, good and bad.

Like they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And when they come back, they'll be faithful adaptions and be a breath of fresh air compared to what came before.

I mean, 2024 will only have Joker 2, and that's something entirely different (and the GA is well aware of that).

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

So no DC movies for a whole 3 years?

Originally Posted by Joey9775

I think it's the only way to get people back on the train.

Frankly I think 5 years minimum would be better (10 years would probably be more ideal to really drive home the separation between universes), but we all know that they won't wait that long. It's not that I don't want to see these movies, but this thing needs to rest for a while.

The DCEU really never found it's footing. It's been a mixed bag at best.

For those enjoying the movies that are still coming out (but not doing well at the box office), that's fine. I did see the Flash (mainly for Keaton's Batman), and overall I enjoyed it.

[Show spoiler]My only issue is the ending with George Clooney. I did laugh and I do appreciate the joke that they went for in-and-of itself. But they changed the original ending (which would have had Keaton's Bruce Wayne and Supergirl there) because it was going to be setting up future movies that now won't be made. But as a result, it just leaves the world that Keaton's Batman and that version of Supergirl inhabit to be doomed, and with them not surviving through multiverse/timeline altering shenanigans, it makes pretty much the entire part of the movie that took place in that universe feel utterly pointless.

But what we are seeing with both DC and Marvel (and other films like Indiana Jones) is a whole lot of mishandling of these franchises overall and audiences just having enough of it.

I'm going to go down an MCU rabbit hole here, but I will get back to DC (all of this is related to the overall problem). While there were some so-so movies here and there, overall the first 3 phases of the MCU (aka the infinity saga) were pretty rock solid, and we saw how it grew over the course of time, building to something amazing. The individual movies were mostly entertaining, and were building to a larger overall completed puzzle.


But what we are seeing now (and to some extent have been seeing all along with DC, albeit now it's at a much bigger level) is the opposite of that.

There have been some good movies that have been profitable. But with Marvel, overall with Phase 4 and onward, they have failed in really feeling like they are building up to something new. Many of the movies (not all, but many) haven't been as good individually as most that came in the first three phases. Then throw in the Disney+ shows, many of which feel like they should have been 2 hour movies, but have been stretched out to be spread across several episodes, which have been a mixed bag of quality as well, and it's just A TON of "content" that starts to feel like it's all a bunch of required homework and a chore to watch just to understand the eventual next Avengers movie.

While some have been entertaining, bringing the Disney+ shows into the mix was a huge mistake IMO. It spread the creative talent way too thin. It has created more complication (rather than helped) in bringing the bigger picture together, and again, just feels like a chore to keep up with.

It was already a bit much to ask when it started to average 3 movies a year, but that was an amount that was within reason for people to keep up with. Now it's just overwhelming. And for those who weren't already subscribed to Disney+ and are in a position of needing to catch up... most of them are probably going to look at all of that stuff and say, "F--- it!"



Sure, it is the multiverse saga and they are trying to "build another puzzle," so to speak. But it feels like it's a bunch of pieces from different puzzles all being thrown together in a pile with the bigger picture really NOT coming together. And except for stand out exceptions like Guardians 3 (which people are likely wanting to see since it's wrapping up the story of that specific group of characters and want to see where things go with the alternate version of Gamora from Endgame), we are seeing the opposite effect of what Phases 1-3 did.

The momentum and good will that was built during the Infinity Saga was such that Marvel could make a movie about characters that at the time were largely unknown to the public, like the Guardians of the Galaxy, and have it be a success. The Avengers was a huge hit, they were building to the second Avengers movie, and along the way Marvel/Disney basically said, "Here's a movie with a Raccoon and Tree that can talk!" and the audience responded, "Okay, we're in!!!"

Now the overall quality is dragging everything down. I honestly don't know how they are going to correct the ship at this point. Even if every Marvel project that they begin work on from this day forward is of top notch quality, of the same caliber as the better entries in Phases 1-3, they go back to 2 or 3 movies a year, and slow down or entirely stop the production of more connected TV shows, it's still going to all be connected to this overall huge pile of "barf" that has come out in the meantime. There is simply no escaping that now.

While there are some movies that I didn't care as much for in Phases 1-3 like Iron Man 2 and Thor The Dark World, for example, and I probably would have lost interest if the quality of the other films never surpassed those (but they did), I will still happily watch them again as part of a rewatch of the entire Infinity Saga because I still appreciate it as a whole, and there are worse movies in the world to rewatch.

But for me at least, Phase 4 and onward has been the opposite. The really good ones are the occasional exceptions IMO. Most of rest have been of that middling quality at best, and there's just so much of it that I've more or less checked out. If 3 years ago you had told me I would be writing what I just said and actually mean it, I would have called you crazy. But here we are.



Getting back to DC, they arguably have it somewhat worse at the moment since their movies are flat out tanking so badly. That universe never really gained the momentum that the MCU did. And they basically announced a reboot of everything well in advance, with none of these current movies leading to a satisfying conclusion to this universe, and people have checked out.

There's been talk of Blue Beetle being the "beginning" of the new universe, and even if that has retroactively become the intent, they are just creating confusion by trying to have the new universe start immediately while we are still in the midst of movies from the dead-end universe coming out, and with a character that most of the public has never heard of.

It will probably a decent, fine, relatively entertaining movie. But it looks like another cookie-cutter superhero origin story. Sure, the specific details with be different, but in broad terms, it looks to be following the same common tropes that we've seen MANY times already.

And from what has been said, it sounds like some elements from the existing universe may carry over. Again, that will just cause confusion.

What they need to do is have the new continuity be 100% completely separate from the existing one. And they need a decent amount of time in between them to really drive that home.

They can't be "wishy-washy" about this. They can't start a new universe while the other is still winding down (or immediately after it ends), and pick and choose what elements that were originally part of the old universe will now carry over to the new one. Otherwise the current downward spiral is going to drag the new universe down with it. The audiences that have already checked out will either not know the difference, or just not care if they do know it. The momentum is going in the WRONG direction. They need to let that particular momentum die down, letting things get to a resting point, so they can start from an neutral playing field and build positive momentum.

But I will NOT be holding my breath on them actually doing that.

[Prog5000]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Frankly I think 5 years minimum would be better (frankly 10 would probably be better to really drive home the separation between universes).

Agreed, 100%.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

[Show spoiler]Frankly I think 5 years minimum would be better (frankly 10 would probably be better to really drive home the separation between universes), but we all know that they won't wait that long. It's not that I don't want to see these movies, but this thing needs to rest for a while.

The DCEU really never found it's footing. It's been a mixed bag at best.

For those enjoying the movies that are still coming out (but not doing well at the box office), that's fine. I did see the Flash (mainly for Keaton's Batman), and overall I enjoyed it.

[Show spoiler]My only issue is the ending with George Clooney. I did laugh and I do appreciate the joke that they went for in-and-of itself. But they changed the original ending (which would have had Keaton's Bruce Wayne and Supergirl there) because it was going to be setting up future movies that now won't be made. But as a result, it just leaves the world that Keaton's Batman and that version of Supergirl inhabit to be doomed, and with them not surviving through multiverse/timeline altering shenanigans, it makes pretty much the entire part of the movie that took place in that universe feel utterly pointless.

But what we are seeing with both DC and Marvel (and other films like Indiana Jones) is a whole lot of mishandling of these franchises overall and audiences just having enough of it.

I'm going go down an MCU rabbit hole here, but I will get back to DC (all of this is related to the overall problem). While there were some so-so movies here and there, overall the first 3 phases of the MCU (aka the infinity saga) were pretty rock solid, and we saw how it grew over the course of time, building to something amazing. The individual movies were mostly entertaining, and were building to a larger overall completed puzzle.


But what we are seeing now (and to some extent have been seeing all along with DC, albeit now it's at a much bigger level) is the opposite of that.

There have been some good movies that have been profitable. But with Marvel, overall with Phase 4 and onward, they have failed in really feeling like they are building up to something new. Many of the movies (not all, but many) haven't been as good individually as most that came in the first three phases. Then throw in the Disney+ shows, many of which feel like they should have been 2 hours movies, but have been stretched out to be spread across several episodes, which have been a mixed bag of quality as well, and it's just A TON of "content" that starts to feel like it's all a bunch of required homework and a chore to watch just to understand the eventually next Avengers movie.

While some have been entertaining, bringing the Disney+ shows into the mix was a huge mistake IMO. It spread the creative talent way too thin. It has created more complication (rather than helped) in bringing the bigger picture together, and again, just feels like a chore to keep up with.

It was already a bit much to ask when it started to average 3 movies a year, but that was an amount that was within reason for people to keep up with. Now it's just overwhelming. And for those who weren't already subscribed to Disney+ and are in a position of needing to catch up... most of them are probably going to look at all of that stuff and say, "F--- it!"



Sure, it is the multiverse saga and they are trying to "build another puzzle," so to speak. But if feels like it's a bunch of pieces from different puzzles all being thrown together in a pile with the bigger picture really NOT coming together. And except for stand out exceptions like Guardians 3 (which people are likely wanting to see since it's wrapping up the story of that specific group of characters and want to see where things go with the alternate version of Gamora from Endgame), we are seeing the opposite effect of what Phases 1-3 did.

The momentum and good will that was built during the Infinity Saga was such that Marvel could make a movie about characters that at the time were largely unknown to the public, like the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Avengers was a huge hit, they were building to the second Avengers movie, and along the way Marvel/Disney basically said, "Here's a movie with a with a Racoon and Tree that can talk!" and the audience basically responded, "Okay!!!"

Now the overall quality is dragging everything down. I honestly don't know how they are going to correct the ship at this point. Even if every Marvel project that they begin work on from this day forward is of top notch quality, of the same caliber as the better entries in Phases 1-3, they go back to 2 or 3 movies a year and slow down or entirely stop the production of more connected TV shows, it's still going to all be connected to this overall huge pile of "barf" that has come out.

While there are some movies that I didn't care as much for in Phases 1-3 like Iron Man 2 and Thor The Dark World, for example, and I probably would have lost interest if the quality of the other films never surpassed those (but they did), I will still happily watch them again as part of a rewatch of the entire Infinity Saga because I still appreciate it as a whole, and there are worse movies in the world to rewatch.

But for me at least, Phase 4 and onward has been the opposite. The really good ones are the occasional exceptions IMO. Most of rest have been of that middling quality at best, and there's just so much of it that I've more or less checked out. If 3 years ago you had told me I would be writing what I just said and actually mean it, I would have called you crazy. But here we are.



Getting back to DC, they arguably have it somewhat worse at the moment since their movies are flat out tanking so badly. That universe never really gained the momentum that the MCU did. And they basically announced a reboot of everything well in advance, with none of these current movies leading to a satisfying conclusion to this universe, and people have checked out.

There's been talk of Blue Beetle being the "beginning" of the new universe, and even if that has retroactively become the intent, they are just creating confusion by trying to have the new universe start immediately while we are still in the midst of movies from the dead-end universe coming out.

It will probably a decent, fine, relatively entertaining movie. But it looks like another cookie-cutter superhero origin story. Sure, the specific details with be different, but in broad terms, it looks to be following the same common tropes.

And from what has been said, it sounds like some elements from the existing universe may carry over. Again, that will just cause confusion.

What they need to do is have the new continuity be 100% completely separate from the existing one. And they need a decent amount of time in between them to really drive that home.

They can't be "wishy-washy" about this. Otherwise the current downward spiral is going to drag the new universe down with it. The momentum is going in the WRONG direction. They need to let that particular momentum die down, letting things get to a resting point, so they can start from an neutral playing field and build positive momentum.

But I will NOT be holding my breath.

Excellent post.

[BluBonnet]

‘Blue Beetle’ Director Was Ready to Pitch a ‘Bane Origin Story’ Film When Warner Bros. Called About a DC Movie

When Warner Bros. contacted “Charm City Kings” filmmaker Angel Manuel Soto about potentially directing a DC comic book tentpole, he geared up to pitch the studio on a much different movie.

“I wanted to pitch ideas, and one of them was the Bane origin story,” Soto recently told Den of Geek magazine. “I always thought that there was something interesting in exploring his reality and how a character like that comes to be…[but] the conversation was not about that.”

According to Soto, Warner Bros. already had “Blue Beetle” in mind for him to director. He recalled the studio saying, “There’s this character that we’ve been developing for a couple of years. The Blue Beetle, a Latino superhero.”

It’s not the first time someone has tried to bring Bane back to the big screen following Tom Hardy’s portrayal in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” Dave Bautista revealed revealed in April 2021 that he met with Warner Bros. and demanded he play Bane. The studio wasn’t planning for the villain to appear in a movie at the time, but that didn’t stop Bautista from trying again when his “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn took over DC Studios.

“I have had conversations with James about that,” Bautista told Insider earlier this year about his dream Bane role, “but I think the direction he’s leaning in, completely rebooting that whole universe, he’s starting from scratch and starting younger and fresher and I think you need to do that. I think for the DC Universe to be revived, you need to start from scratch.”

As for Soto, he wasn’t so sure “Blue Beetle” was the right project for him at first when Warner Bros made the offer. “I didn’t want it to be another story where 15 minutes in, something happens, and 50 minutes later, he’s dominating the experience, and by the end, he’s saving the world,” he said. “I get it, I enjoy it, I go watch those movies and eat the popcorn and it’s fun, but it was hard for me to relate to an experience like that. If someone gives me a lot of power, the first thing I’d do is say, ‘I don’t want it.’ I just wanna provide for my family; I don’t need it, more power, more problems!”

Getting the keys to a comic book movie was hard to pass up, so Soto found his way into the “Blue Beetle” story by grounding it in the real world as much as possible.

“He’s not going to save the world yet; he doesn’t deserve to yet,” Soto said about creating believable stakes for the film. “We wanted to find a way to really explore his growth, how it relates to how his family and community see him in this role, as well as how his relationship with Khaji grows as well.”

[Zivouhr]

A film about Bane, that's different if he was going to be the star. Dave Bautista would make a good Bane.

Blue Beetle will be in theaters soon. Not sure how it'll do. I'm on the fence with seeing it, but the 2nd trailer helped a little bit in a positive way. I need to see a bit more of the action to see if there are martial arts at least. Or a sword fight since he's got that sword.

[BluBonnet]

Susan Sarandon sees her Blue Beetle villain as the embodiment of imperialism

Oscar winner Susan Sarandon had never been asked to appear in a superhero movie prior to DC's Blue Beetle, which may seem strange since even the lovable curmudgeon that is Harrison Ford is involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days. Sarandon points out that she appeared in 2008's Speed Racer, which was based on a comic book but still not a superhero story.

"I would've probably taken it," she tells EW in an interview (conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike) if she had received a prior offer from Marvel or DC. So, when the actress of Dead Man Walking and Thelma & Louise got a call from director Angel Manuel Soto to play a part in Blue Beetle, in theaters this Aug. 18, she was already open to the opportunity. "I just was so impressed by his passion," she recalls. "He has this art background, so he was this nerdy fan of superheroes."

Xolo Maridueña (Cobra Kai) stars in Blue Beetle as Jaime Reyes, a college grad who returns home to Palmera City and finds his family in dire economic straits. Damían Alcázar (Narcos) plays Jaime's father; Elpidia Carrillo (Mayans M.C.) plays his mother; Belissa Escobedo (Hocus Pocus 2) plays his sister, Milagro; Adriana Barraza (Rambo: Last Blood) plays his grandmother, Nana; and comedian George Lopez plays his Uncle Rudy. His job search leads him to Kord Industries, run by Sarandon's Victoria Kord, and the Scarab, an alien artifact that bonds with Jaime and transforms him into the armor-clad hero known as Blue Beetle.

It was clear to Sarandon that Victoria Kord represents "the theme of imperialism in the name of democracy." She says, "My character's really the one who's driving that charade in order to get wealth and uranium and what other natural resources, under the guise of making the world safe for democracy. That rang a bell. All of those themes I thought would really be fun to dabble in."

Always flanked by her muscle, Carapax (Sicario's Raoul Max Trujillo), and her science guy, Dr. Sanchez (What We Do in the Shadows' Harvey Guillén), Victoria covets the otherworldly Scarab. She maniacally muses in the film, "We are going to change the world" with its power.

Victoria is a new character created for the movie, but she did begin to appear in DC comics in the past year, beginning with Blue Beetle Graduation Day. She's depicted on the page as the older sister of Ted Kord, who formerly held the moniker of Blue Beetle in DC lore. In the film, Bruna Marquezine (Maldivas) plays Victoria's niece, Jenny Kord, who gives the Scarab to Jaime.

"She's a woman who is very smart and was dedicated to the family business, and then the father gives it to the son, which is a huge shock," Sarandon explains of Victoria. "On top of that, the son is very irresponsible and basically destroys the fortune that has been built, and then just disappears, leaving her to put the business to sleep. Then she builds it back, but with great resentment because she's been passed over."

Sarandon believes it's always more fun to play the villain than the hero, but she understood Victoria's need to be ambitious and prove herself. "Here she is, the only one who really made [the family business] her life," the actress continues. "She has no family, she has no friends. She's not interested in anything but Kord Industries. She doesn't shop, she doesn't hang out with her girlfriends. She doesn't have a lover; if she does, it's nobody important. So, everything has gone towards the building of power."

When it came to her costume, Sarandon felt it was important that Victoria had something that felt more like a uniform over anything sartorially trendy. What costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo came up with based on those conversations was "something that is rather masculine but at the same time very strong," Sarandon says. "It doesn't look like Donna Karan. It's not something out of Vogue."

The film's other big selling point for Sarandon was the rest of the cast, which predominantly consists of Latinx actors. Parts of the movie are even performed in Spanish. "It means a lot to have that representation," she says. "You really felt that people were there understanding that this was a chance to do something that hadn't happened before, which was this Latino superhero having his own movie," she adds. "We didn't have anyone who came late or was in it for the money."

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Susan Sarandon sees her Blue Beetle villain as the embodiment of imperialism

That groan of anguish was pretty loud. The youtubers are already counting their money.