Comic Book Movie Mini Tournament - Day 5

[Deimos 100]

ROUND TWO

 

33

Captain Marvel vs Deadpool 2

 

34

Watchmen vs X-Men: First Class

 

35

X-Men: Days of Future Past vs Superman

 

36

The Incredible Hulk vs The Dark Knight

 

37

Batman Begins vs Black Panther

 

38

Avengers: Infinity War vs Thor: Ragnarok

 

39

X-Men vs Kick-Ass

 

40

The Punisher vs Wonder Woman

[Olly 39]

OMG, I forgot about the "Watchmen" movie 

[MT 917]

Which Punisher? Thomas Jane? Also, do you mean the Donner Superman?

[Deimos 100]

Yeah. All these movies are strictly by title as best as I can.

 

Punisher is Thomas Jane. Superman is Donner.

[webhead 519]

These were tough.

 

• Edge to Deadpool 2 because I thought it was a better movie (not that there's anything wrong with Captain Marvel).  I just rewatched the PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2 and it was fucking hilarious to the point that even Jovanna, who didn't particularly like the first one, actually liked it.  Definitely mad props there.
• Watchmen was a good movie.  First Class revitalized the X-Men.  It was a GREAT movie.
• Days of Future Past vs Superman was super tough.  They were both honestly great movies.  I'm still not 100% sure on which but I leaned Days of Future Past because blending the current and past X-Men together in such a cool story was honestly awesome.  It's sad they followed that up with a ho-hum Apocalypse movie (one of the best villains imo for the X-Men and it was kinda meh).
• The Dark Knight.  Easily.  Very easily.  I think this or Thor Ragnarok could take the whole thing.
• Batman Begins vs Black Panther was another good one.  Batman begins is an excellent movie and it, again, revitalized the Batman franchise after Batman with nipples.  That being said, I'm giving the edge to Black Panther because I think it was just a little bit better.  They both have fantastic villains though.  Liam Fucking Neeson as Ras Al Gul was brilliant.  Black Panther was also just entertaining as fuck to watch.  Not as paint by the numbers as most superhero fair and like Batman Begins, a legitimately great villain that made sense.  This one I'm actually still on the fence about a little.
• Thor Ragnarok. This is one of my favorite MCU movies right now.  Infinity War is incredibly important and satisfying over the 10 years of MCU films but Thor Ragnarok came out of fucking nowhere and is just god damned amazing.  This is another tough one though because I love Ragnarok but Infinity War really does have so much going for it.  A story built up over the course of 10 years through various movies makes landfall here and they do not skip a beat.  Marvel put their best directors on this thing and it shows.  It's incredible to think someone could manage to make a movie this satisfying with this many characters.  God what a fucking choice to make.
• X-Men.  Groundbreaking and still an amazing movie to watch.  Kick Ass was surprisingly good but I still would rather watch X-Men.
• Wonder Woman.  Punisher was okay.  Wonder Woman was awesome.  I know which one I'd rather watch again.

[Olly 39]

Thor Ragnarok is my #1 MCU.  Very sad if it loses to overstuffed, overhyped, unfinished "Infinity War"

 

[webhead 519]

Thor Ragnarok definitely deserves to win but I still think Infinity War was fantastic as well.

[MT 917]

Infinity War was everything I wanted it to be and more. Not to take anything away from Ragnarok mind you, it's definitely one of the best Marvel movies up to that point.

[Olly 39]

I'm mostly just annoyed my fave is losing 

I did think Infinity War had some serious overstuffing problems, but it's not in any way a *bad* movie, enjoyed it too. I just think Ragnarok was a stronger, more cohesive film.

[webhead 519]

2 minutes ago, Olly said:

I'm mostly just annoyed my fave is losing 

I did think Infinity War had some serious overstuffing problems, but it's not in any way a *bad* movie, enjoyed it too. I just think Ragnarok was a stronger, more cohesive film.

 

Agreed.  Infinity War was for me, like MT, everything I expected but Thor is still the better movie overall.

[Downshift 54]

For me, both movies were about bringing everything their respective universes had built to a violent and certain end. Very dark in nature, but funny and true to their DNA in their cinematic fabric throughout. Ragnarok was funnier for sure, but Infinity War just had much better action scenes and character interactions on a scale that Ragnarok could never hope to reach.

[MT 917]

It was the culmination of pretty much every Marvel movie that came before it, the one that brought everyone together. I think that gives it more weight than Ragnarok.

[Galeigh 308]

Infinity war just barely edges out Ragnorak for me (fuck you for this match up) because while both kept me talkin for days only infinity war had me walkin out thinking "Holy shit, they actually ended it with bad guy winning... " and that stuck with me. It actually got me to forget, if only for moment, that no one was actually gonna stay dead. 

[webhead 519]

Ending with the bad guy winning is kind of a lie though because it's really 2 movies.

[Deimos 100]

It's called a cliffhanger. It's used all the time. Thanos won. Now he gets to lose in the next movie.

[Olly 39]

Posit: most of the satisfaction of "Infinity War" relies upon an audience already knowing the characters. "Ragnarok" does too to a certain extent, but also stands on its own as an excellent film.

Whether or not a film stands alone isn't necessarily the most important criterion objectively; and of course "Infinity War" is explicitly not supposed to do so. But for me, it's a crucial criterion and one that significantly affects my appreciation of a film, because it takes a lot to make a work of art capable of standing alone and I feel that. (Kind of like there's a big difference between writing a deeply moving Harry Potter fanfic, and actually creating the character of Harry Potter that spawned those thousand fics.)  

 

I mean, also Ragnarok was more fun, as others have noted... and when it comes to superhero movies I'll take fun over "moving" most times, because superhero movies are just not as deeply moving to me as great realist artworks like "Lawrence" or "Zhivago" or "Painted Veil" - but they're a heck of a lot more fun. Working to the medium's strength.

 

But it's def interesting to hear your thoughts about why you chose the other movie!

[webhead 519]

1 hour ago, Deimos said:

It's called a cliffhanger. It's used all the time. Thanos won. Now he gets to lose in the next movie.

 

That is very true!  But what I said I still think is also true at the same time.  The bad guy didn't win "in the end" because they left off on a cliffhanger that will be resolved in the next movie.

[Deimos 100]

I'll believe Captain America over you. He even says they lost in the trailer.

[Galeigh 308]

I wouldn't call Infinity wars ending a cliffhanger. There was full complete story arc there.