Gatsby77

I only point it out when your posts are a) "misleading" or b) straight-up "dishonest." In this case, including 10-second to 2-minute cameos of well-known characters alongside full-fledged, fleshed-out leads in X-Men films and presenting them as co-equal is misleading. Just like claiming that Guardians of the Galaxy cost $230 million or more to produce, which has been countered by *every single other source* as incorrect *and* is based on fundamentally misreading of the article itself (i.e., the piece itself states it cost $230 million but they received $30 million in tax credits, thus netting to $200 million) is intellectually dishonest. Beyond that, I never mentioned anything about the MCU in this thread -- rather, I was criticizing an aspect of the X-Men films on their merits. I also don't actually expect Disney will do any better, so I agree with your comment that "acting like the MCU never did this is...biased and ignorant." = 100% agree with you. To this day, I don't understand why you continue to foment this "Marvel vs. DC" BS. I don't think it exists. DC simply has the misfortune to have produced some -poor superhero films over the last decade (including Jonah Hex, Suicide Squad and Justice League). Just as they've produced some of the best the genre's ever seen (including Superman / Superman 2, Batman, The Dark Knight, and Wonder Woman).

Batman '89. Full stop. Danny Elfman theme that echoed through nearly a decade of Batman films. And was bolstered by a soundtrack by Prince.

? That's the point. It's not the "number of characters" shoehorned in that makes an X-men film good, any more than it's the number of villians shoehorned into a Spider-Man film that makes it good. I'm with Comic Connoiseur, that for most of the X-Men films, the producers "didn't do a good job of taking the comic book spirit of these great characters and translating them into the movie versions well." Are you *really* trying to defend Collossus's literal 4 (!) seconds in X2 to say...his actual fleshed-out appearance in Deadpool 2? Or defend how Bishop was turned from a bad- character in the 90s comics to a 2-minute plot device in Days of Future Past? Or the difference between Sabretooth in X-Men as a nearly-mute piece of muscle vs. the character's writing (and actor's performance) in the (otherwise-horrific) first Wolverine film? Of *course* we know there were a lot of X-Men, and that they worked together to support each other. But many -- if not most -- of those characters deserved better characterization than we got. *Especially* Scott Summers. While I think only two of the seven core X-Men movies were actively *bad,* at least four of them could have done more with less -- fewer characters, but highlighted in a more egalitarian manner.

This list is misleading, though, since many of those characters got bare minimum screen-time. Example: Angel in Last Stand - he was in one scene for like 90 seconds, and then he appears again in the final melee for less than 10 seconds. Colossus in X2 - Piotr gets...what? Two minutes of total screen time (If that?), including all of 10-20 seconds actually as Colossus? If anything, Kitty Pryde makes the most impact across the films -- in terms of a minor character done right -- because her powers are unique and instantly recognizable. Believe she appeared in four of the seven films.

21% positive reviews from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes and $5.5 million domestic opening weekend? Wow...puts it in the running for worst comic book film of all time. It takes skill to rock only 1/4 of Ghost Rider: Spirits of Vengeance. Even The Spirit had a better first weekend.

Think you missed two: 1) Constantine (with Keanu) 2) Jonah Hex - debatable, but one of the (many) reasons the movie sucked is it included Hex’s supernatural “reanimate/talk-to-the-dead” super powers, which didn’t appear before the 1993 mini-series reboot, a Vertigo title. Prior to that Vertigo title, Hex had no super powers. I *love* Jonah Hex. I *despise* that film. It also has the distinction of featuring the worst performance of both John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender.

Interesting. If it does anywhere close to the predicted box office numbers this weekend and next, the franchise will have proven it can survive beyond its two original stars. (Yeah - I know Tokyo Drift featured no Paul Walker and maybe 20 seconds of Vin Diesel, but it didn't exactly break any box office records. I still thought it was good, tho.) Truly smart move on behalf of Universal here.

I forgot to include # 30 - "August." Disturbing historical fiction brilliantly told.

It's *got* to be better than Righteous Kill.

11. Seriously - it broke the mold of what could be done in the medium. Personal favorite issues include #s 10, 13, 18, 19, 38, 50, & 52. Yes, most of those stories are now nearly 30 years old, but Gaiman's epic 75-issue run led directly to...say Garth Ennis's break-out on Hellblazer, 100 Bullets, Fables, and more.

As for recency bias, Spider-Man 2 still trumps Far From Home.

Yeah -- and I don't have the source for it at hand but several executives and/or Singer himself are on record as saying the success of Blade (even as an R-rated flick) is what led directly to X-Men being green-lit. Believe there'd been an X-Men -script kicking around since '95 or so. It was the success of Blad in '98 that finally made it viable.

I understand recency bias, but Blade 2 is a masterpiece! That aside, you'd think the haters would at least give it respect for featuring Norman Reedus.

Depends on how you count "MCU" given that the TV and film productions were separate. I think the only crossovers film were with Agents of Shield (with appearances by at least Coulson, Maria Hill, Peggy Carter, Nick Fury and Lady Sif). I bring that up that separation because with the Fox merger we now have at least: - Chris Evans (Johnny Storm, Captain America) - Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm, Killmonger) - (presumably) Ryan Reynolds (Hannibal King in Blade:Trinity & Deadpool in ??) As well as: - Alfre Woodard (Civil War, Luke Cage) - Benedict Cumberbatch (both Dr. Strange and Dormammu in Doctor Strange) - Seth Green (cameo in Iron Man 2, then voiced Howard the Duck in Guardians)

So am I right that Comic Con has come and gone and there was still no hint of a Warlock appearance? I know fully expect we'll see Beta Ray Bill before we'll see Warlock. And I think I'm okay with that.

False

I thought Casino Royale was good, but it had limitations that weren't its fault. Background -- I grew up on Bond in the '80s -- first one I saw was The Living Daylights, but I was sold -- eventually saw all the movies, played the James Bond roleplaying game, read all the Fleming books and short stories, the John Gardner reboot series (well, the first six), and later read four of the Raymond Benson books. All of that is to say...I know Bond. Casino Royale was amazing -- and absolutely necessary, after The Bourne Identity made the Brosnan-era Bond obsolete. *Especially* Die Another Day, which had face (& race) swapping, lasers, diamond-encrusted faces, Madonna, bad wind-surfing CGI and an invisible car. It's fun, but basically a self-parody (see also, A View to a Kill). While the film actually *improved* on the book, adding context and depth to La Chiffre, it was hampered by being Bond's first mission -- he's a rookie, he makes some mistakes, and Vesper dies. This all happened in the book as well. All fine and good. But just as Batman Begins was a good film, but pales in comparison to The Dark Knight, so too is Skyfall a better film than Casino Royale because...we get to see Bond nearer to the end of his career...rebuilding himself from a failed mission that nearly killed him *and* disgraced MI-6 in the process. He's also faced with a worthy adversary -- like 006 in Goldeneye, here we have a former agent who knows all the tricks and training, and uses that against his former employer. But when Bond does come back, he brings not the physicality of his peak conditioning -- but his wits built up over dozens of missions in the field to win the day. This is not the rookie of Casino Royale, but the hardened veteran of years as a government-sanctioned spy and assassin. And the story includes Bond's false identities, the support of his entire team (including Mallory, Q, and M) and a last stand at his childhood home in Scotland. Along the way, we see the political machinations -- very real questions in Parliament -- of whether Bond -- and those like him -- are dinosaurs in this post-Cold War era of cyber threats and a Britain that's traded Russia as an enemy for the faceless terrorism of Al Qaeda and its ilk. The subtext is clear -- does James Bond, an old-school, misogynist white man -- still have a role in a world where the best spies look more like Q -- the scrawny bespectacled hacker. The film answers those questions with flare.

Wrong forum. You might want to move this question more appropriately to "Copper Age." Not sure this is their first appearance together, but according to the Google, they all appeared together in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective # 4 (December 1993).

Ahh...that's understandable. Quantum of Solace is one of the *worst* of the franchise -- it was an abomination. But Skyfall is incredible for a number of reasons -- with vague/minor spoilers Great director (Sam Mendes) Great cinematography (Oscar-nominated) Great villain (best since 006 in Goldeneye) Moneypenny in the field (!) M in the field (!) Mallory in the field Great opening song (for which Adele won an Oscar) Return of the Goldfinger car Arguable *origin* of Bond

False. Casino Royale was a great film, but Skyfall was easily a Top 5 Bond film, and probably top 3. It's arguably the best one since OHMSS -- and that's including the parts of the finale that ripped off Home Alone. The *only* thing that would have made it appreciably better is if Kinkade had been played by Sean Connery.

Well...Suicide Squad had a great trailer too...

You didn't miss anything with SPECTRE. It was bad-Roger-Moore-level bad. *Especially* after how great Skyfall was.

Never say never again

Well - according to the books, only one agent can have the numerical designation at a time -- so, if Bond returns it means the female 007 has been killed. Some fun facts: The known 00 designations go up to 13 008 and 0013 were the first female 00s Four different 004s have been killed (in the films Octopussy and The World Is Not Enough, as well as in two in the various comic book stories)

i caught that scene later online. I do love Warlock. I was 14 the year Silver Surfer 50 & Infinity Gauntlet came out and went hog-wild on it over the next year and a half. So I've read the Strange Tales run and Warlock 1-15 -- and have met Starlin a few times in the years since and had him autograph a few. Here's the thing. Any enthusiasm that I had for him appearing in the films basically died the moment I discovered he was written out of Infinity War & Endgame. In the comic book storyline, Warlock and Silver Surfer were the most important superheroes. And in the films I feel like he Warlock was replaced by a combination of Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel and Iron Man. With Thanos now out-of-the-picture, there's basically no point to Warlock. *Especially* if Disney's got the rights back to Silver Surfer, a frankly superior cosmic hero.