Gatsby77

Thanks. I haven't read Black Panther since the first Christopher Priest Marvel Knights title back in the late '90s. I thought it was the best treatment of the character I'd seen. Pretty sure I even have the Italian language version of # 1 somewhere too.

Anybody reading the most recent Black Panther titles? It was a big deal that they secured Te-Nehisi Coates to write them.

This is a great teaser. Imagine you hadn't heard they were planning a Venom movie -- just didn't know. So you were watching this cold in the theater -- thinking it was just a Tom Hardy mystery/drama. And then find out at the end...it's Venom. Blown away!

Much better. Gives it a Blade Runner 2049 (or even Mad Max) sort of hard sci-fi vibe. Look - this shouldn't be hard to do. Mal Reynolds in Firefly was basically Han Solo. Tonally, something similar -- but with a solid smuggling plot -- would be perfect.

While I was really excited when this first played... I've now watched it twice more and it doesn't work for me. Looks more like a well-made fan teaser than one for a true Star Wars film.

I don't know about this -- and by this project, I mean that it's apparently based on the Lethal Protector storyline. I am _in_ for a dark, noir solo Venom film that shows Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock slowly descending into madness. That said, I am mad skeptical about bringing in Carnage and a bunch of other symbiotes in this first true go at it. Spider-Man 3 was a disappointment on so many levels, but at least they got the bell scene right. This could be an excellent thriller as a small character study -- bringing in 3-4 other symbiotes this early though makes me queasy.

Somewhat related: The Japanese "Solo - A Star Wars Story" logo is being called 'dorky' This fascinates me because I lived in Tokyo for a year back in the '90s -- actually saw Episode One for the first time on its opening day in Tokyo back in 1999. The problem with Solo's logo, as noted by the author, is two-fold: 1) There's no "L" in Japanese -- they use an "r" sound that is verbalized more like a "d" -- so this logo literally says "Han Soro" 2) Inconsistent use of Katakana (foreign-based phonetic alphabet) vs. English. When I was there, they often changed movie titles that made no sense because they were based on U.S. slang that didn't translate. Example: Denzel's "He Got Game" was marketed in Japan as "Last Game." But I was also disappointed in "The Day After Tomorrow." There's a Japanese word for it - "Asatte" (literally, "The day after tomorrow.") But because it was a foreign title, they used katakana for the English words instead, phonetically spelling out "Day Afuto To-morro" Would have made more sense to just title it "Asatte" and then have the English title beneath it, as (apparently) they did for "Rogue One."

Granted. But then the relevant metric should be past performance against prior Star Wars movies. Empire made 68% of Star Wars Attack of the Clones made 70% of The Phantom Menace As of today, The Last Jedi's made 65% of The Force Awakens, and it still has a few weeks of juice left. So...a bit off of where it should end up, but well within the expected range.

Slight correction: It's now sitting at # 46 on the all-time domestic list (when adjusting for inflation). (Where The Force Awakens sits at # 11 and Jurassic World sits at # 24). This is the true list, because Gone With the Wind was still seen by more eyes than any other movie, and The Exorcist and Beverly Hills Cop are still the most-watched R-Rated movies of all time.

Yeah. To put that in perspective, Flash in December outsold Superman, Action Comics, and all the main X-Men and Wolverine titles (X-Men Blue, X-Men Gold, Astonishing X-Men, Old Man Logan, and All-New Wolverine). See the full chart here: https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/39349/top-300-comics-december-2017 You have to go down to # 170 on the sales chart to see a book with under 10,000 copies. And consider, back in the day Previews/Diamond only showed us the top 100.

Looks like Flashpoint has a new set of directors: I haven't read the original THR article but here's Scott Mendelson's take. I'm intrigued because I still think of John Francis Daley as "Sam" from "Freaks and Geeks" and Lance from "Bones." But yes, like Ron Howard, he's transitioned behind the camera, having written Horrible Bosses, Horrible Bosses 2, Vacation, and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and directed Vacation and Game Night.

I like Gyllenhaal and think he hasn't gotten the credit he's deserved over the last decade for superb work in films like Zodiac, Nightcrawler, and Southpaw. But he's not old enough to play Batman. Or, the right "type" of old. As in, he may actually be around the same age now as Bale was when he was cast, but they're different body types and bring different baggage to the role. Bale brought his edge from films like American Psycho and even Shaft. Gyllenhaal - not so much. I'd rather have seen him as Peter Parker back in the rumored Spider-Man 2 days.

I really like the actor playing Black Lightning (Cress Williams). He was good on Hart of Dixie, but he was _phenomenal_ in his short 10-episode run in Friday Night Lights as Vince's (Michael B. Jordan's) estranged dad.

Never forget that David Goyer got his start writing such classics as: Demonic Toys DollMan vs. Demonic Toys Crow: City of Angels (technically, his first comic book film) Nick Fury (the Hasselhoff TV movie) Before graduating to: Blade/Blade II/Blade Trinity Batman Begins/The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises Man of Steel Green Lantern Corps (forthcoming)

I'll see it, but mainly because: I'm a sheep who will pretty much watch any Star Wars movie at this point -- only one I've turned off was the first of those hideous Ewok movies back in '85. I'm curious to see what Donald Glover does as Young Lando. But the main thing is - no one asked for this. Han Solo (and Harrison Ford's portrayal) was perfect. Going back now (a la Young Indiana Jones) seems stupid -- as part of the character's mystique is *not knowing* how he got there. The only way I see this being really *good* is if they make it a solid -- and slick -- heist film. But even that rode has been well-worn by Firefly. And - by way of proper geek cred - I remember reading the first few Lando and Han Solo stories back before there even *was* an official EU (i.e., Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Han Solo at Star's End, Han Solo's Revenge, and Lando Calrissian and the Mind Harp of Sharu). Most (all?) of those books came out before Return of the Jedi.

To be fair, he beat the same drum about Rogue One well before its release as well. There, his narrative was "Is it ever okay for a Star Wars film to make *just* $500 million worldwide, even if it's just a one-off "Star Wars story?" Keep in mind that this when a Star Wars spin-off story had never been done before -- and for a film that -- like Han Solo -- required significant unplanned re-shoots by a different director.

Joel Edgerton's quietly become one of my favorite actors.

Yeah. But Greg -- *something* needs to happen for Valiant to become anything more than a curiosity. I discovered these boards through joining your ValiantFans boards back in 2004. VH1 was my childhood. I'm down to missing just 14 of the VH1 books (two of which are Bloodshot 0 gold and Bloodshot 0 platinum). I'm also the guy who went back & built a set of Gold Key Magnus 1-46 in average CGC 9.6 (only one book -- # 37, is below 9.4, and 15 of them are 9.8s). And yet, I've only read 7 of the 2012-present Valiant books. This new Valiant's survival for longer than the original VH1 universe is impressive, until you drill down and realize it's limping along at 1% market share in a vastly constricted comic book market vs. 25 years ago -- when it held a solid 12-15% share month after month. If I'm reading this chart correctly, in November Valiant had just one book place in Diamond's top 150 books -- Ninjak # 1, placing at # 84 with 25,500 copies. X-O and Bloodshot couldn't break 11,000 copies, and Harbinger -- once the jewel of the Valiant line, limped in at 6,500 copies. Yeah - all it takes is one good -script and one A-list actor to bring this new universe into the mainstream. But I've little faith. It was already two years ago that the five-picture deal with Sony was announced, leading up to the shared universe Harbinger wars. And after all the rumors (Brett Ratner, Jared Leto, now -- maybe -- Vin Diesel) all we've seen is a trailer for a YouTube webisode series. Hate to say it, but -- as much as I think a Bloodshot film would be great (if Deathlok doesn't get there first), when it comes to Valiant film productions, "I'll believe it when I see it."

Hmm... I hear you. Nonewithstanding what I wrote above, part of me thinks Jared Leto is a far more interesting choice for the part. But Diesel is nothing if not a smart businessman. He may see this as a new franchise with 10 year potential (a la what Tom Cruise did with Mission Impossible -- 20 years & counting!) A quick glance at his IMDB page shows it's nothing but big-budget sci-fi sequels (literally -- XXX 4, Riddick 4, Avengers 3 and Fast & the Furious 9 and 10). He's also painfully aware that his star in the Fast & the Furious sequels is slowly being supplanted by that of The Rock. While he's not the same level of box office draw (or frankly -- actor) as The Rock, Diesel does have one of the largest -- and most engaged -- followings on social media -- that's a key competitive advantage that most other Hollywood A-listers can't touch.

Remember back in the day when we thought Vin Diesel would headline The Inhumans movie as Black Bolt?

It's been a few decades, but I was always under the impression that Angelo Mortalli wasn't white. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I'd much rather see a person of color (i.e., Oscar Isaac, Vin Diesel) in the role than someone like McAvoy or Walhberg (or the aforementioned Jared Leto). Even if he's just Italian American, that gives him more color (literally and figuratively) than a generic white actor. Also seems more fundamental to the character than say...Deadshot (who is white in the comics) being played by Will Smith.

The Rock was the highest-paid actor of 2016 (at $64 million+) for a reason. He consistently makes his projects better. I love that, because he's clearly put in the work to improve his acting since his Scorpion King days. He also has a clear sense of humor, going all the way back to Southland Tales (2006).

Honest question for those contending that The Last Jedi is under-performing: What were your realistic expectations for this film? Seriously. In terms of domestic benchmarks: The Dark Knight Rises did 83% of the The Dark Knight Age of Ultron did 73% of The Avengers In less than a month, The Last Jedi has already done 61% of The Force Awakens' business This week it will become only the third film to surpass $600 million, and it has plenty of gas left in its tank. Further, more folks have seen it than saw Batman (which ruled the summer of 1989) or any of the Lord of the Rings films. Was this magically supposed to do 120% of The Force Awakens' business? Or do you honestly expect Jurassic World 2 to magically out-perform Jurassic World? If these are *excuses* for its performance, I'm curious as to your measuring stick.

The Force Awakens did $52 million opening weekend & $124 million total in China. Despite having two Chinese stars, Rogue One did $30 million opening weekend & $69 million total in China. So each of those did 42-43% of their total business for the country opening weekend and (to quote Scott Mendelson) then "flamed out quickly." If that pattern holds for The Last Jedi, its $28 million opening weekend equates to $65-$68 million total. Meanwhile, in less than a month, The Last Jedi now sits at # 50 on the all-time domestic list (adjusted for inflation) where (mind you) The Force Awakens sits at # 11. While it won't catch The Dark Knight or Jurassic World on the all-time adjusted list, I think Disney is more than satisfied with their choices (and the box office) for The Last Jedi. As Mendelson pointed out (repeatedly) it's playing exactly as Empire and Attack of the Clones did relative to Star Wars and Episode 1. More importantly, Johnson (approved by Paul Hildalgo, Kathleen Kennedy, and yes - JJ Abrams) did the hard work in this chapter -- setting the universe up to go wherever they please in subsequent ones.

Can't speak for the internet critics as a whole, but I'd wager the _vast_ majority of who Rotten Tomatoes deems "top critics" (the top 50 of the 300 or so critics they aggregate) do. There's a vast difference between someone who writes for Jo Blow's Blog and those who write for the Chicago Tribune, NPR, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal or New York Times. I've noted several times that Forbes' Scott Mendelson is currently my favorite critic, whom I discovered only about a year ago. While Forbes primarily cares about his existing audience rather than any formal creds -- he's not just someone who blogged about movies for a decade. BA in Film Theory/Film Studies from Wayne State University 1 year as a film critic for blog Film Threat 6 years as a film critic for Salon 4 years as a film critic for The Huffington Post Nearly 5 years now as a film critic for Forbes And among those "top critics" with demonstrable creds from the top journalism outlets, The Last Jedi ranked 96% positive (48/50), while Justice League ranked 24% positive (11/45).