Is all this Universe sharing really necessary?

Mr Trick

Mr Trick

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I am of course speaking about all the crossover comic book movies we are getting. And of course the new Mummy film is the first of many reboots of the classic monster movies and from what I hear they are planning crossovers with them too?

I get that with the superhero films its a novelity and opens up new possibilties. But way I see it these characters should be able to stand up in their own movies. We already have enough comic book films as it is, and this is just over kill. As someone who enjoyed the recent Wonder Woman I think its sad that the character has to share the screen with all those other characters. Feels like a step back. I don't want to see Batman/Bruce Waye in a Wonder Woman film. I don't want to see Iron Man in a Spiderman film etc...

And I have zero interest in these monster movie reboots, yet alone the crossovers. Thoughts?
 
Dude, I have so many thoughts but The Handmaid's Tale is on in 10 mins, so priorities.... 😛

But, I will say that the only Mummy movie I'll recognise is the quite frankly perfect 1999 Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz vehicle. This new Tom Cruise one is null and void and serves no purpose in cinema. Evie Carnaghan is one of the greatest female heroines in modern movie history! And whilst I'll agree that the CGI is very ropey, it's just a great fun movie, which doesn't take itself too seriously.

I feel like this whole 'shared universe' thing is honestly just a ploy by movie studios to make as much money as possible, but to be honest before Universal build a shared universe, they need a strong foundation to build it on and quite frankly they don't seem to have it. I mean, that's not to say they might do something spectacular, but Marvel did it the right way by having a few movies that did well, building up character growth and development, and then announcing a shared universe aspect and bringing the team together on The Avengers. Marvel aren't perfect, and not all their movies have completely worked, but this whole shared universe is kind of their fault. Studios want to emulate something that works after all.

I'll be back with more thoughts after THT 😉😛
 
I want more stuff like Alien vs Predator and Freddy vs Jason. Some say these movies cheapen the originals, but to me, they are good fun.

Tom Cruise needs to make something good soon. No more action or sci-fi. We know you can do stunts. No longer impressed.
 
Ahh Les Grossman. Proving Tom Cruise has a sense of humour at least.

The thing with the Universal universe, is that most of these movies have been done many times before: The Mummy, Dracula, The Wolfman etc, all to middling and varying degrees of success in the past. I mean the old Hammer Horror movies are legendary. How many times do we need to see Dracula's backstory? It all feels a bit Spiderman-y to me. How many reboots do we need to know 'with great power comes great responsibility' and 'nooo, my Uncle Ben is dead!'. At least with the new Spiderman they aren't going down that route.

As for having Iron Man in Spiderman Homecoming, they want to make it clear that this is a Marvel movie. Previously the rights were with Sony, they want to distance themselves from Raimi & Webb, and the best and easiest way to do that for moviegoers is to introduce someone like Tony Stark into this movie, as a mentor/father figure to Peter. It's not necessary from a storytelling POV but I think it is to show fans that "Yes, we are Marvel and we have Spiderman now" (even though technically it's by agreement with Sony)
 
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When I saw the title, I thought you were gonna talk about Uber and Airbnb and stuff.😳
 
Athena
Athena
You can stay in the UNIVERSE on AirBNB?? lol
I don't really have a problem with the Dark Universe as a concept. However, they really need to make better movies. They were going to launch it with Dracula: Untold. Then they decided to wait on The Mummy. Now that that's being panned too, maybe they will consider getting better writers/directors involved. Also, no offense to anyone, but the Fraser Mummy films were gawd awful!
 
I like it, I think Marvel is the blueprint on how to do it correctly. I am a Marvel fan and this is completely due to how they did the movies. They had me hooked with Iron man...which started it all.

A dark universe sounds awesome. I would love crossover in films like that.
 
I can see why some fans would love the idea of crossovers, you get to see more of your favorites, or get to see them interact with other heroes, and for the studio it means more bankable faces to put on the poster, simple as that.
For a non-fan like me it can make a movie more interesting because I know who Batman and Spiderman are, so it has something that immediately connects my feelings to the story (whether good or bad) because I don't have to get invested in all new characters. This may also help sell movies to a wider, non-fan specific, audience.

It can get a bit too much though, especially for people who are indeed fans and see all or most of these movies. So while I don't see a problem with shared universes, I can certainly see that it gets tiresome.


Mr Trick said:
And I have zero interest in these monster movie reboots, yet alone the crossovers.
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Bite your tongue! Monster movies are amazing!😎
 
The way I see it the 'shared universe' thing should be like a bonus thing, something extra that ties films together within a connected world and so the writers can try to do clever things with it and the fans can invest in continuity from film-to-film. But firstly the films need to be of a good enough quality to show off the world the writers are trying to create; great character, spectacle, drama, etc.

Mr Trick said:
I get that with the superhero films its a novelty and opens up new possibilities. But way I see it these characters should be able to stand up in their own movies.
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This, to me, is where the Marvel movies have succeeded where others have failed. Iron Man can stand on his own as a separate character as can Cap as can Thor. They can all hold their own in terms of movies but they inhabit a larger, shared universe

In contrast the DC universe doesn't have that yet; not even close. Superman has had two (dire) movies, Batman had gotten half a movie (plus a Suicide Squad cameo) and WW has has one (apparently solid) movie plus a random appearance in BvS. And then their going to have their big 'team-up' movie that ties into later Flash and Cyborg stand-alone films. If this sounds half-assed and ass-backward way of doing things then you'd be right because the universe and character building is entirely separate to making money.

As for the Mummy/Universal monsters thing; its a lazy cash-in. They saw what Marvel is doing, see how much money its making and now want to emulate it in hopes of similar profit. The problem is that the tie-in movies thing is WAY harder than it looks. Marvel has had a pretty phenomenal success rate in terms of movie quality (they range from above average to good to excellent) but Universal has had plenty of duds.
I seem to remember 'I, Frankenstein' and some god-awful Dracula origin story were there other attempts at this 'Monsters universe'.
 
I just got round to watching Captain America: Civil War yesterday and I must admit, there were times when I was really struggling to remember what was happening with certain characters and who was relevant to which stories and which movie. Then they were adding new characters as well and I was going "okay, so have I met this person... no, this one is new, okay."
I worked it all out, but the friend I was watching it with was completely confused through a lot of it. I personally like having the connections, but I do think it's getting to the point where it could put off some of the more casual viewers.

Not that interested in seeing The Mummy. I was surprised they started with that, I would've thought Dracula or Frankenstein would be a better way to start off a series of monster movies. Either way, I've seen The Mummy and it's sequels, I don't need another one.
 
What topher said really. Great if it works but everyone will assume you're trying to cash in on Marvels success so you'd better be sure the movies pull their own weight. As for The Mummy, I resent them remaking it. I remember the Fraser one being released, so that's plenty new enough!
 
I really like it when well done. In my opinion Marvel is the best example of that. I'm not big into superheroes, but there's a couple I like. Before I would only see the movies specific to those characters. I really liked Guardian, and I usually like Spiderman. X-Men is my favourite (even if they have a smaller role in the Marvel universe cause of copywrite). I was never into Cap or Thor. But now that they are all sharing a universe and there's an overarking story, I actually feel more inclined to watch movies I previously wouldn't have seen. I know that even if I don't enjoy the character on its own, there's a good chance I will get something out of the story. To me it greatly enhanced the watching experience. But it's also very important that each movie can stand on its own, as well as each character being able to lead the movie. This is where DC has been lacking thus far, although it seems to be looking up with Wonder Woman and the upcoming Aquaman, two movies I'm really excited for.

I'm not sure how this formula would work for other franchises though. I don't really see how it will work with the monsters series.

I guess a slightly unpopular opinion is that I really liked what they did with Prometheus. I know people didn't like it much, but I think it was a great addition to the Alien franchise while being a movie that stands on its own, amd without being an outright Alien movie.
 
I don't get all the Fraser love. *shudders* 😕 So I definitely don't mind if they reboot the old movie monsters. Anything better than another zombie film. 🙄 The Mummy's do for a good version. There hasn't been one since...probably Karloff's 1932 original! 😵 Poor old Drac could use an image upgrade too since the whole Twilight saga. Ditto for Frankie (I, Frankenstein) & Wolfie (does anyone even remember 2010's Wolfman?). They just need to be better. 🙂

By the way - just read that The Mummy actually did fare pretty well overall at the box office (world wide). Go figure. 😕
 
No, I hate this trend. Those studios need to make one movie at a time. These studios are getting ahead of themselves. The Marvel thing worked, because it was thoroughly thought out and planned and they built up to The Avengers rather slowly.
DC was too impatient. They should have chilled for a while and really thought about what they wanted to do instead of making the second film in the series a semi-Justice League film. They couldn't wait and what they got was (at least from what I'm hearing) a mess of a movie.
Similar story with Star Wars. I think The Force Awakens was awesome, but the more I think about Rogue One, the less I am interested to watch it ever again. They should have taken more time instead of shoving it in between the two 'big' Star Wars movies.

I also think that they went the wrong route with The Mummy. They should have made this Monsters Universe a series of mid-budgeted horror films instead of Tom Cruise action films. I really don't think they will ever make the Wolfman movie that I want to see.

Now, Jurassic World may not have been the greatest thing ever, but I'm really glad that they're not making a universe out of this series. There is a gap of three years between the first and second movie. By today's standards, that's a long time. They started writing the sequel after the first one came out, and that's how I think it should be done, and I'm glad that's how they're doing it because the sequel is shaping up to be very promising.
 
Star Wars 7 is a crossover with the show Girls. Kylo is Adam in cosplay. I was terrified he would do something pervy when he had the good guys tied up in his chair.
 
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