The Big Picture: Future Assembly

Soviet Heavy

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So basically, this will only be a good thing if it sticks to genre films and superhero movies, but the minute that it touches something like The Expendables, Bob will hate it.

Of course. After all, you can't go through a video without him attacking the evil jocks, now can you?
 

DemBones

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I guess it isn't common knowledge enough, but Tarantino has had a shared continuity in every film he's written. There's the obvious example of the Vega brothers, but also more obscure ones like the fact that Eli Roth's character in Basterds (Donowitz) is supposed to be the ancestor to the film producer in True Romance. Also in Out of Sight, Michael Keaton played the same character that he played in Jackie Brown, but that was since they were from same series of books.

But on topic, if everyone tried to create stories around tangentially related characters (whether they're related by location like your Wahlberg/Affleck team-up, or by any other means) it seems like it could be a slippery slope towards professional fan-fiction. A small number of examples would be awesome, but too many would leave those shining examples (like the Avengers) no longer looking as special. The last thing I expect Hollywood to do is to exercise some self control.
 

vid87

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Oh! Other thought -- since we've become a culture of reboots and remakes, could an "Infinite Crisis", multi-universe thing happen where two versions of the same character meet? Like Eric Bana and Mark Ruffalo as dueling Hulks?
 

vid87

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DemBones said:
I guess it isn't common knowledge enough, but Tarantino has had a shared continuity in every film he's written. There's the obvious example of the Vega brothers, but also more obscure ones like the fact that Eli Roth's character in Basterds (Donowitz) is supposed to be the ancestor to the film producer in True Romance. Also in Out of Sight, Michael Keaton played the same character that he played in Jackie Brown, but that was since they were from same series of books.
Weird how I didn't realize that considering I saw Deathproof the other day and they mentioned "Big Kahuna Burger." Don't forget Kevin Smith and "Moobie."
 

SirCannonFodder

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jackanderson said:
Seeing it Friday night! This Friday! Suck it, rest of world!

OT: Really interesting way of putting it down, Bob. Though this is Hollywood so this concept is far more likely to be abused and crapped upon rather than used in any decent way.
Seeing it today! This today! Suck it, rest of world. :p
 

Dastardly

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Apr 19, 2010
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MovieBob said:
Future Assembly

MovieBob is looking forward to The Avengers and its influence on film.

Watch Video
Tell me you remember, and maybe tried to follow, the whole X-Cutioner's Song storyline between X-Men, X-Force, X-Factor, and so on. Then tell me you really believe inter-film continuity won't be used primarily as a sales tactic to make sure everyone sees all the movies in a "set."

I'm excited about this, and I agree that it'll probably be the next big thing, but I dread its inevitable abuse. (See also: trilogies, prequels, gritty reboots...)
 

Andronicus

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Mar 25, 2009
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SirCannonFodder said:
"It's most of you who will have to wait a couple of weeks."

Not us Aussies. We get to watch it in a few hours. I won't, because it's a public holiday and the theatres will be packed, but I could.
My friend got me a ticket to watch it in Gold Class tomorrow! :D

Unfortunately, it's in 3D as well :(

Eh, beggers can't be choosers I guess...
 

Plinglebob

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Nov 11, 2008
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I get to see it Thursday! Thank you advance screenings. Pity I have to see it 3D though.

DemBones said:
But on topic, if everyone tried to create stories around tangentially related characters (whether they're related by location like your Wahlberg/Affleck team-up, or by any other means) it seems like it could be a slippery slope towards professional fan-fiction. A small number of examples would be awesome, but too many would leave those shining examples (like the Avengers) no longer looking as special. The last thing I expect Hollywood to do is to exercise some self control.
This would be my only worry as well as possible shoe-horning characters in if one of the characters got popular so he ends up having to be in every film set in that city no matter what. And why is Spielburg remaking the Ten Commandments when his company already did with Prince of Egypt (and it was AWESOME!!)?
 

irishda

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No, this won't "change the industry". Cross-overs have been regulated to the comic world (and Stephen King) for good reason; mainly the reason you yourself stated. Cross-overs often make the visiting character feel watered down and stale, because there's just not enough time to expound on both their characters. Now, in the Netflix world where a bevy of movies is at people's finger tips, enjoyment of these types of movies still rest on several factors.

First and foremost is the amount of free time needed to watch all the movies necessary. They may be available, but that doesn't mean everyone's going to have time to watch them all to get the full enjoyment. Second, even cross-overs in comics feel like bad fan-fic ("Guys, who would win in a fight? Hulk or Thor?"). They just feel like ridiculous tie-ins for directors/writers to shoe-horn in free advertisement for other franchises, and I really don't wanna see Ryan Reynolds swoop in to save Batman from Bane.

Finally, and most importantly, it tends to take away from the gravity of future situations when several franchises that consist of "the world's gonna end, and only this guy can save it" come together like this. Now there's no sense of danger because if, say, Captain America looks like he's going to fail in CA 2, then so what? Call up Thor, or Iron Man, or any of these other apparently capable people. It diminishes the Hero's Journey story type because now there's not just one Hero the people can call on, there's many. And, like Bob said, "How's Stark gonna act now that he hung out with a living god?" His character's gonna regress because there's literally nothing that could be as threatening or interesting.

TL;DR Avengers won't change the game for the film industry. In fact, I'm betting the Marvel movies decline in sales (and probably quality) after the Avengers.
 

brazuca

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Continuity works better for well stablished characters. How long have these comic book guys been around? More than 20 years!! Then again continuity also means less creativity, because well stablished personas have to follow their traits. Remember: "COMICS ARE WEIRD". Bring that to movies will just alianate more fans.
 

Strain42

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Bob, I'm going to ask this very nicely, I hope you're reading this, and I'm only going to ask because I care.

Whether you absolutely love The Avengers or somehow end up hating it, please keep yourself in the ballpark. Because if you go a bit overboard with hatred like you did for Transformers or Green Lantern, or you go overboard with love like Scott Pilgrim or...or...I don't really have another example, you're gonna have half the comments on your video being giant snarky "I told ya so's" from the masses.

That said, I enjoy this sort of thing, and even in the earliest stages of something small like having Toby McGuire show up in Daredevil, the superhero continuity crossovers have been nice to see, and I'm enjoying the idea of this movie a lot.

We've had a couple other good instances of movie continuity. Kevin Smith's View Askew-niverse handled things pretty well, and you could argue some (some, obviously not all) of the Pixar movies could take place in the same universe (Lotso in Up for instance, could Up and Toy Story co-exist?)

"Indeed, thou art part of a mighty team. A pity that team is called The Justice League and we shall never see that movie." ~ Thor talking to Green Lantern in I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC

SpiderJerusalem said:
Oh cute, Bob thinks himself an actual critic.
...He gets to go to critic's screenings and gets paid to critique movies. What else would you call that if not an actual critic?
 

Ashley Blalock

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If the Moses movie tied into Indiana Jones by being the same Ark and having some of the same music then heck yea I'd want to buy a ticket right now. Although I'm kind of greedy and wouldn't mind Mel Brooks in the film somewhere.

The tie in thing is such a good idea it's kind of odd that movies and TV don't use it more often. When it was unclear if the Finder would work as a TV show they had the pilot as an episode of Bones. If people didn't like it then it's just one episode of Bones lost but if people liked it then fire up the new series.

The thing I worry about though is Hasbro because I don't want GI Joe and Transformers together if it's a Micheal Bay film. He might do okay with the Joes but given how poorly he did the Decepticons I don't want Micheal Bay within a thousand miles of Cobra.
 

Daaaah Whoosh

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Bob, I really hope the Avengers is good, because I get the feeling that you really, really, want it to be.
By the way, I like the idea of a shared-continuity terrorist sect. It's a lot better than using the Russians again.
 

geier

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At 5.09 the women reloads her gun and the magazine just flyes into it, is she psychic ?