The Flash (movie) teaser drop

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

1 hour ago, Frostbiter said:

Not that I would encourage anything *COUGH*COUGH* ILLEGAL...But why wait that long?

Given how muddy the original is in the final multiverse-collapse sequence (claimed intentionally: as you're supposed to be "in the speedster POV", though it could also be "running out of renderfarm budget") , it's probably going to be even more unwatchable on a hookey copy. Or airplane versions, for that matter.

[Techwright]

5 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

 

 

To get butts on seats for a flick of this scale, you need:

 

    4. The right promotion strategy - building up the talking points you want around the movie - managing audience expectations to give them enough to wanna see it, but not give the movie away. (eg: Jurassic Park and Avatar both teased everything apart from the biggest reveals in their campaigns. Those WOW moments then came through reviews and word-of-mouth. This year, the D&D flick went big on socials, word of mouth, well-targeted previews and playing up the fun aspect - even if I think they gave too much away.).

In Flash's case...

  v

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#4: Nope. Strategy has been solidly focussed on saying "it's a quality movie" and stressing Ezra's performance, all of which makes you more conscious That Stuff is hanging awkwardly over it. They've also given away WAY too much: you can watch almost the entire movie online already from promo clips, and other than the first Keaton reveal, there's barely a WOW moment left to tease. 

 

 

I would add that long before the film premiers, telling the world you're going to legacy all your films and start again, then moving right in to constant discussions about how this new vision is shaping up, has got to be a bad promotion strategy for the film as well, even if they did mention it will be something of a bridge into the new vision.  People probably don't pick up on that light note and focus on "this thing is legacy before it is even premiered".

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

8 hours ago, Techwright said:

People probably don't pick up on that light note and focus on "this thing is legacy before it is even premiered".

True. But then again, much as nerds like us like to think we're the arbiters of all things capey, you'd be surprised how many people neither know nor care about casting choices, industry plans, or even canon. Those ignorant FOOLS...

 

[FX/GRAMS: lightning crash, dramatic organ tones]

 

...ahem. Sorry, not sure what happened there. All the vast majority of genpop want is to have a good time, maybe with stars they know, and get a tiny thrill of adrenaline, joy, sadness, laughter, mystification, feel something that they wouldn't do in a normal day.

 

And this flick don't do that enough to get people raving about it and butts on seats. It's a B-grade movie with a AAA price tag.

 

And not just for the studio. We're in a recession. And if I'm going to blow twenty-eight sodding quid on a first-run movie, I wanna be near-guaranteed a good time. (Thought: the "new release" premiums that cinemas have put on some flicks pad the box office, but may also be acting as a deterrent. Maybe drop the price and have a better fill rate if you're not confident in the flick?)

 

EDIT: if I have one annoyance about the retcon, it's that they cut both Cavill and Calle's return scene in favour of [BAT-REDACTED]. I know they wanted to recast Henry but could have left the door open: and Sasha Calle did a pretty solid job here. Kinda hoping her casting is kept for Gunn's grimdark Supergirl flick.

Edited June 20, 2023 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Hyperstrike]

37 minutes ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

True. But then again, much as nerds like us like to think we're the arbiters of all things capey,

 

 

I AM the arbiter of all things capey!
Look!  See here?  The Arachnos bad *OW!*  Why'd you bop me in fhe face?
I'm telling Lord Recluse on you!

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

While we're not fighting over who controls the 'verse... an example of that corporate partnership stuff for you.

 

If you've seen Across The Spider-Verse already, you probably didn't spot the placement for Hyundai...

...because they worked it in pretty cleanly. This isn't always the case and there have been some truly terrible placements in the past (hello, Fringe fans).

But this is pretty decent...

 

So what does the movie get out of this?

Well, there's a 30" animated spot for the new car, done in-Spider-universe.

Which is going to be hammered out by Hyundai centrally, all of their dealerships where they buy ads locally, posters, billboards, quite nifty test-drive competitions... all told, about $20m of well-written, well-targeted activity that doesn't come out of the studio's bottom line, and helps get the flick into people's heads. 

Edited June 21, 2023 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

11 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

 This isn't always the case and there have been some truly terrible placements in the past (hello, Fringe fans).

 

Fringe, Warehouse 13, Eureka...just about every show running during certain years, even juggernaut N.C.I.S.  I've not watched those particular episodes in years, and I still cringe at the Microsoft Surface Pro moments when everything suddenly slowed down and almost intimately watched an actor set up a Surface and start using it.  Warehouse 13 had the Toyota Prius, the only car on the show everyone kept talking about, and either riding in, or standing prominently adjacent to it.  I always felt that in 50 years, when the shows reach classic status, there'll be a debate as to whether they should use AI and CGI to edit out the clearly-weird "ads".

[Hyperstrike]

16 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

Fringe, Warehouse 13, Eureka...just about every show running during certain years, even juggernaut N.C.I.S.  I've not watched those particular episodes in years, and I still cringe at the Microsoft Surface Pro moments when everything suddenly slowed down and almost intimately watched an actor set up a Surface and start using it.  Warehouse 13 had the Toyota Prius, the only car on the show everyone kept talking about, and either riding in, or standing prominently adjacent to it.  I always felt that in 50 years, when the shows reach classic status, there'll be a debate as to whether they should use AI and CGI to edit out the clearly-weird "ads".

Heroes.

Nissan Versa!  Nissan Versa!

You got me the Rogue?
 

Edited June 22, 2023 by Hyperstrike

[Frostbiter]

Flash movie just dropped on Max. I'll be giving it a watch.

[Frostbiter]

I enjoyed it.* I'd say the 80% score is pretty close. There were a few problems but it was basically a decent retelling of Flash Point via the expiring DCEU. The movie clocked in at 2:45 minutes so be prepared. More thoughts and spoilers below.

 

Spoiler

   The opening act and the CGI effects were a bit much. The CGI was noticeably subpar and Miller's costume looked like his face was kind of plastered on the front of his head ala Lawnmower Man. Plus, personally, I would have felt naked in it. The kind of costume you need an athletic cup for if you don't want random shots taken at your beanbag. There are even jokes about it later. Much prefer the Flash costume from CW show because it's not a shiny coat of body paint during slow-mo. And oh boy is there slow-mo in the opening. Affleckman in the opening CGI also suffered from the Lawnmower Man effect. Nearly every CGI imposed face in the movie suffers from this.

 

Everything after that went pretty well (ie: topsy turvy timey wimey) and as everyone else has said Keatonman stole the show. Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El was good and she definitely added to the movie. I didn't mind the two Flashes so much and it played well in the film, far better than just Miller alone in an expose way if that makes any sense? It was also kind of necessary to the plot.  All the cameos and glimpses into the various multiverses was a pretty nice homage and I think the Cageman movie needs to be greenlit. And that was so obviously Brainiac. Was kind of disappointed to see Clooneyman show up in the end. There is a small end credits scene with Mamoaman.

 

And as expected the movie ended in a Reboot. Which may or may not be cannon. Or possibly shot out of a cannon into space never to be seen or heard from again.

 

* Mostly.

[Techwright]

4 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

I enjoyed it.* I'd say the 80% score is pretty close. There were a few problems but it was basically a decent retelling of Flash Point via the expiring DCEU. The movie clocked in at 2:45 minutes so be prepared. More thoughts and spoilers below.

 

  Hide contents

   The opening act and the CGI effects were a bit much. The CGI was noticeably subpar and Miller's costume looked like his face was kind of plastered on the front of his head ala Lawnmower Man. Plus, personally, I would have felt naked in it. The kind of costume you need an athletic cup for if you don't want random shots taken at your beanbag. There are even jokes about it later. Much prefer the Flash costume from CW show because it's not a shiny coat of body paint during slow-mo. And oh boy is there slow-mo in the opening. Affleckman in the opening CGI also suffered from the Lawnmower Man effect. Nearly every CGI imposed face in the movie suffers from this.

 

Everything after that went pretty well (ie: topsy turvy timey wimey) and as everyone else has said Keatonman stole the show. Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El was good and she definitely added to the movie. I didn't mind the two Flashes so much and it played well in the film, far better than just Miller alone in an expose way if that makes any sense? It was also kind of necessary to the plot.  All the cameos and glimpses into the various multiverses was a pretty nice homage and I think the Cageman movie needs to be greenlit. And that was so obviously Brainiac. Was kind of disappointed to see Clooneyman show up in the end. There is a small end credits scene with Mamoaman.

 

And as expected the movie ended in a Reboot. Which may or may not be cannon. Or possibly shot out of a cannon into space never to be seen or heard from again.

 

* Mostly.

I missed it in the theaters, I'm not adding another subscription channel (especially just for one movie), and I'm not buying a film outright just to watch it, so I'll have to take the (probably) long slog waiting for Amazon to add rental option, rather than just selling it outright.  I'll get to it eventually, even if just to see Keaton in the cowl again.

[Techwright]

So I have now seen it.  This movie felt like it was having an identity crisis (and I'm aware of how pun-y that is in this case).  At times it felt like it was trying to be Bill & Ted's Justice Adventure, sometimes it felt like The Odd Couple, and every once it in while it felt on like with Man of Steel. 

 

Spoiler

I was surprised to find I liked the Supergirl stuff.  After having endured a lot of nonsense to that point, I wasn't expecting much, but it played very well.

 

The fight with the Krytonians, and the inevitable reset overkill were both pretty good.  Batman fights, all versions, were appreciated.

 

Michael Shannon's interpretation of Zod here felt different: more tired, seemingly quite regretful that he had to slay Kara to save his people.  I guess he didn't have the enraged animosity toward Zor El's branch of the family that he did for Jor El's?

 

I loved the references to a great many other Superman and Batman works.  It reminded me of that moment in the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who when all the Doctors to that point appeared.

 

The surprise guest at the end was good, a bit redeeming, and reminded me of the King Richard surprises in both Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Robin Hood: Men In Tights.

 

The crazy old Bruce sequence was "meh".  I felt it didn't really jive all that well with the character sitting down and having a serious temporal physics discussion moments later.

 

They took and exorbitant amount of time from the moment of the appearance of the world engine to the time the team got around to fighting the Kryptonians.  The world would have been 25% terraformed by that point in Man of Steel.

 

I definitely didn't care for the extended run of goofball antics by Barry II.  A little to set the stage would be okay, but as the minutes dragged on, I was seriously thinking of pushing the showing up several minutes.

 

I didn't really understand what they were doing by repeatedly bringing spaghetti into the story.  Yes, I understood how it was a metaphor for their version of time travel, but I felt as though they only needed the one scene to explain that.  Not sure why they kept going back to it.  The idea of time travel changes creating a scissor-hinge timeline was novel in my sci-fi experience.

 

Overall, I probably enjoyed about 60% of the work.  Probably not enough for me to watch it again, but maybe looks at specific clips on YouTube.  I've not heard what cast the rebooted DC universe is keeping, but Sasha Calle would be a good one to consider, so long as they write well for the character.

 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Techwright

[Hyperstrike]

22 hours ago, Techwright said:

So I have now seen it.  This movie felt like it was having an identity crisis (and I'm aware of how pun-y that is in this case).  At times it felt like it was trying to be Bill & Ted's Justice Adventure, sometimes it felt like The Odd Couple, and every once it in while it felt on like with Man of Steel. 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I was surprised to find I liked the Supergirl stuff.  After having endured a lot of nonsense to that point, I wasn't expecting much, but it played very well.

 

The fight with the Krytonians, and the inevitable reset overkill were both pretty good.  Batman fights, all versions, were appreciated.

 

Michael Shannon's interpretation of Zod here felt different: more tired, seemingly quite regretful that he had to slay Kara to save his people.  I guess he didn't have the enraged animosity toward Zor El's branch of the family that he did for Jor El's?

 

I loved the references to a great many other Superman and Batman works.  It reminded me of that moment in the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who when all the Doctors to that point appeared.

 

The surprise guest at the end was good, a bit redeeming, and reminded me of the King Richard surprises in both Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Robin Hood: Men In Tights.

 

The crazy old Bruce sequence was "meh".  I felt it didn't really jive all that well with the character sitting down and having a serious temporal physics discussion moments later.

 

They took and exorbitant amount of time from the moment of the appearance of the world engine to the time the team got around to fighting the Kryptonians.  The world would have been 25% terraformed by that point in Man of Steel.

 

I definitely didn't care for the extended run of goofball antics by Barry II.  A little to set the stage would be okay, but as the minutes dragged on, I was seriously thinking of pushing the showing up several minutes.

 

I didn't really understand what they were doing by repeatedly bringing spaghetti into the story.  Yes, I understood how it was a metaphor for their version of time travel, but I felt as though they only needed the one scene to explain that.  Not sure why they kept going back to it.  The idea of time travel changes creating a scissor-hinge timeline was novel in my sci-fi experience.

 

Overall, I probably enjoyed about 60% of the work.  Probably not enough for me to watch it again, but maybe looks at specific clips on YouTube.  I've not heard what cast the rebooted DC universe is keeping, but Sasha Calle would be a good one to consider, so long as they write well for the character.

 

 

 

It was a decent Keaton Batman flick.
And the first 20 minutes or so was a decent Flash short.

Beyond that....

Meh.

[biostem]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:04 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Beyond that....

Meh.

I haven't bothered to check, but I wonder if the Blu-Ray has any decent deleted/cut content.  If so, a good fan edit could really improve things - i.e. less Ezra Miller  🤪