The Pitch Meeting for The Mummy

I will remember that brilliant description

ROTFLMAO

You don't need a +1 weapon to kill a zombie, though.

SSG Pete Fleming - Give American Gods on Starz a go if you haven't already. Last Sunday's episode for example was all about one single character's back story.

Just watched Aliens with my daughter last weekend, and it is amazing how much better the practical effects hold up over time vs CGI.

PO3 Steven Sherrill, great point! I met the novelist and EXP of Outlander a year or so ago and heard their process. Would that all series had the same depth of storytelling.

Lt Col (Join to see) - I think the reason for that is that a practical explosion is just that. Put things that go boom into something that shouldn't go boom, then set off the boom and watch people go OOOHHH. Digital effects are advancing, which means that a digital effect that was state of the art in 1998 looks cartoonish in 2017. Want proof, look at the Star Wars Prequel trilogy. The effects look extremely cartoonish now compared to modern digital effects. If you want an apples to apples comparison, look at Star Trek the next generation over the years, and again compared to the rebooted series. As the technology advances, the older digital effects simply pale in comparison.

PO3 Steven Sherrill - They did fine with the Batman trilogy with Christopher Nolan. I think the wheels came off when the executives saw how well Avengers did and decided they needed to cram all their heroes into a single movie too. They neglected the world-building that Marvel did prior to bringing their characters together, and it bit them in Batman V Superman.

Also, the new Superman movie was just terrible. http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-most-important-scenes-from-man-of-steel-as-i-remem-516405346

Lt Col (Join to see) - I agree, the Nolan trilogy was very well done. The problem is that instead of building on that, maybe introducing Superman there, or bringing in Batman at the end of Superman, they dropped Dawn of Justice on us. You pretty well nailed it when you said "the wheels came off when the executives saw how well Avengers did and decided they needed to cram all their heroes into a single movie too." They shouldn't have forced so much into one film. If they wanted a contrast to Batman and Superman, and they wanted to throw in the Avengers type conflict, they should not have made it like the Thor versus Hulk that they went for, with the problem being it came across as more Thor Versus hawkeye, in which batman was akin to hawkeye. What they should have done is contrast the dark almost anti hero quality of Batman with the wholesome light hero of superman. Same fight, different means to win the fight. The best example is Netflix's Daredevil Season 2. The Punisher and Daredevil are at odds throughout, but both are fighting against evil. They missed a huge opportunity. That is sad because I actually enjoyed Man of Steel in addition to the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy.

I did not enjoy Man of Steel, mostly because Superman, the most iconic and "Boy Scout" hero in the DC universe, was utterly unconcerned with civilian casualties and had no problem snapping Zod's neck or destroying what remained of Krypton in a massive explosion. Superman was always a beacon of light, always found a way to win against any odds, to protect people at all costs. He was never willing to sacrifice others, only himself. I also can't believe how utterly selfish Man of Steel made Jonathon Kent. Frankly, I enjoyed Superman Returns more. It shows us Superman acting as the hero. Actively looking for people to save. Doing everything he can to minimize civilian casualties. Man of Steel has Superman throwing Zod through occupied sky scrapers.

PO3 Steven Sherrill - To be fair, the major storyline we hadn't seen in live action (that's movie and TV), to this point, is Batman versus Superman. Technically, how that movie went, we still haven't... but they at least touched on all the major fight devices from the animated Dark Knight Returns film. There were obviously huge problems, though... as you said, they just tried to cram too much into one movie. 6 separate storylines that could have been full-length movies in their own right. Plus a horrible choice for Luthor. Plus Cavill isn't all that convincing in the Superman role, either (Brandon Routh from Superman Returns gave a far better performance, almost on par with Christopher Reeve... where was he?). Honestly, Batfleck was the best performance all around... only because Gadot had barely any screen time. It just wasn't up to the standards we wanted.

That said, am I looking forward to the next one? Yeah. Doomsday is always just a brute force enemy. Now, they're going up against Apokalypse (and hopefully not Darkseid off the bat... General Steppenwolfe would be a great lead-in enemy). We'll get to see Granny and the Furies at some point, hopefully, along with Barda (next Wonder Woman movie, maybe?). And, of course, Superman pitted against Darkseid at some point. Of course, realistic me knows they'll probably manage to screw that up somehow (I'm looking at you, Smallville). But I'm still hopeful that maybe, just maybe, they'll manage to pull it off.

Id say it couldn't get any worse, but, you know... Batman and Robin...