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Marvel films lack cinematographic style

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The Kree

Banned
What the MCU films lack in visual style they make up for with competent writing, directing, acting, and casting.

Evens out I guess.
 
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Completely unexcting. Why is everything so grey and washed out.

And before somebody calls "Oh you want them to go Snyder style" don't forget there was a filmaker who already acomplished the perfect balance with an iconic marvel character
spider-man-2-2004.jpg


Meanwhile, in 2017

...why did you stealth edit to a screenshot of a night scene when you had a picture a daylight scene that more or less had the same look as the Raimi picture?

I agree with OP. Kenneth fucking Branagh directed Thor and it looks like every other candy coated superhero movie. This is the guy who directed and started in Hamlet for christ sake..

That being said I still enjoy the Marvel movies.


BEHOLD THE DUTCH ANGLES

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Dead

well not really...yet
Did you not watch Dr strange or Antman?
Both of those look just as milquetoast, unthreatening and bland as every other MCU movie. Unless vomiting colors in a cg sequence is supposed to stand for good cinematography now?
 

Ahasverus

Member
What the MCU films lack in visual style they make up for with competent writing, directing, acting, and casting.

Evens out I guess.
They're all vanilla af, it doesn't even out anything imo. They should take more risks in all aspects. it's not that marvel doesn't have great provocative stories and characters to take from.
 

Veelk

Banned
It's hard for me to picture a cheesier and less stylish way to make these characters and this idea for a shot look
635951443707369040-901437561_avengers-gif.gif

This is a bad example, because I would argue that shot is very good, atleast the complete version of it.


The panning shot gets a good view of everyone, and everyone has a "Pump Shotgun" kind of moment. The Hulk roars in defiance, Hawkeye notches an arrow, Thor readies his hammer, Widow reloads her gun, Cap readjusts his sheild, etc. Iron Man just mostly takes his place, but that's significant in itself since he was by far the most defiant against joining up with the rest of the avengers. Everyone has their back against each other (literally showing how they have each others back, compared to the rest of the movie where they were barely functioning together), and their all looking skyward toward the thread, giving the feeling they're up against something big and intimidating.

I think it's a very good shot and compare it favorably to the BvS establishing teamshot which just has Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman just....standing there.


They're in a battlestance, but almost entirely motionless except batman who kinda adjusts his gun a little with a camera zooming on on center shot of Wonder Woman. Them standing together and facing the same thing implies unity, but that's it.

In comparison to this, I'd say the Avengers shot is stellar and conveys much more. And I'm not trying to say that Marvel has great cinematography as a whole or anything, but that shot in particular is good.
 

-griffy-

Banned
It was too compressed, but if you so desire...



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One looks like the real world, the other straight from a PS4 videogame.

I mean, when you compare a closeup shot of an actual actor to a mid action scene shot of a CG character of course. You pick out a shot of the CG doubles from Spiderman 2 and the comparison isn't gonna be so stark.
 

Ridley327

Member
Controversial opinion: I've never been a big fan of the color scheme Raimi went with for his Spider-Man films. I totally get what he was going for, looking like faded pages of the 60s-70s run that he grew up with, but I don't think it worked nearly as well in execution and comes off as being pretty drab. That being said, his trademark editing tricks and transitions do a great job of feeling like you're following a comic book from panel to panel, so the color scheme doesn't tell the whole visual story.
 

Hagi

Member
One of them is also a finished movie project. But you're not gonna find me arguing that Spider-Man 2 is a bad looking movie. It's a high standard all comic book movies should strive for.

Is it going to look that much better in 3 months? I know Guardians had a few improvements from trailer to release but I can't recall any other Marvel films that have had that off the top of my head.
 

Busty

Banned
Yeah, I'm sure Marvel gives all of the cinematographers strict guidelines to follow lmao. You're full of shit.

Spoken like someone who's never worked in a professional industry before let alone the business of show.

Even your wording is horrible. Do you think that 'cinematographers', as you say, just turn up and do whatever they feel like on the day?

Please elaborate, I'd love to hear your delightfully uninformed thoughts on the matter.
 

Tall4Life

Member
I'd say most movies these days don't have any cinematographic style, they just say the script while the camera switches point of view sometimes.
 

Ahasverus

Member
I mean, when you compare a closeup shot of an actual actor to a mid action scene shot of a CG character of course. You pick out a shot of the CG doubles from Spiderman 2 and the comparison isn't gonna be so stark.
Spiderman is all CGI in the new movies IIRC, or at least heavily retouched, as the real suit doesn't fir that well. It falls into some sort of uncanny valley to me imo, which didn't exist in the old movies.
 

icespide

Banned
Spiderman is all CGI in the new movies IIRC, or at least heavily retouched, as the real suit doesn't fir that well. It falls into some sort of uncanny valley to me imo, which didn't exist in the old movies.
He's all CG in civil war. Plenty of non CG spidey in homecoming trailers other than the eyes
 

-griffy-

Banned
Spiderman is all CGI in the new movies IIRC, or at least heavily retouched, as the real suit doesn't fir that well. It falls into some sort of uncanny valley to me imo, which didn't exist in the old movies.

It was all CG for Civil War since they didn't really have a real suit fitted yet, but he definitely has one for Homecoming. Obviously he'll tend to be CG in a lot of the action scenes.

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I mostly agree with you, OP.
Marvel fans live in a fantastic age right now but with the exception of the Cap trilogy to some extent, I've never been able to connect with any of these films despite the fact that they are always at the very least competently made. Iron Man, Avengers, Thor... I just felt nothing while watching them and a lot of that has to do with their bland style and lackluster soundtracks. Whedon just puts me to sleep.

The MCU finally clicked for me briefly with Civil War but then I couldn't even bother finishing Doctor Strange.

I disagree with you about Guardians though, I thought it looked gorgeous but I was bored by the final act.

I actually prefer when comic-book movies take a chance and go in unexpected directions: Batman Returns is still one of my favorite comic-book films even though Burton clearly didn't give a fuck about the source material. Hell, I even prefer Ang Lee's Hulk to most of the MCU.

Oh well, at least a majority of Marvel fans enjoy the films and I got Daredevil season 1.
 

firelogic

Member
If you want to see the stark visual difference between the MCU and DCEU, specifically Zack Snyder's work, just watch the Justice League character teasers. Each one only shows a few seconds and they beat everything in the 14 or so MCU movies in their entirety, hands down.
 

Ahasverus

Member
It was all CG for Civil War since they didn't really have a real suit fitted yet, but he definitely has one for Homecoming. Obviously he'll tend to be CG in a lot of the action scenes.

98ef7464d505d0442022f35167524284.jpg
Oh that's reasurring. Hope they polish up the CGI model then.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
It was all CG for Civil War since they didn't really have a real suit fitted yet, but he definitely has one for Homecoming. Obviously he'll tend to be CG in a lot of the action scenes.

98ef7464d505d0442022f35167524284.jpg

God, if they just got rid of those countless, utterly unnecessary black lines that are scribbled all over the outfit, I would be head over heels in love with this suit.
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
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Completely unexcting. Why is everything so grey and washed out.

And before somebody calls "Oh you want them to go Snyder style" don't forget there was a filmaker who already acomplished the perfect balance with an iconic marvel character
spider-man-2-2004.jpg


Meanwhile, in 2017
I agree with the OP but this post inherently misunderstands filmmaking.
 

Deepwater

Member
God, if they just got rid of those countless, utterly unnecessary black lines that are scribbled all over the outfit, I would be head over heels in love with this suit.

They're only there because it's a stark suit and the second trailer lowkey spoiled that
he has a major (or even the final) fight with vulture in his homemade suit afterr tony takes his new one away
 

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
Spoken like someone who's never worked in a professional industry before let alone the business of show.

Even your wording is horrible. Do you think that 'cinematographers', as you say, just turn up and do whatever they feel like on the day?

Please elaborate, I'd love to hear your delightfully uninformed thoughts on the matter.

Why don't you elaborate on how you know all about Marvel's filming process? Because as an "insider", I'm sure you would know exactly how its done.
 

Corpsepyre

Banned
There was a very good video on this sometime back that went into detail as to why these films look so weak. I'll see if I can find it.
 

sans_pants

avec_pénis
I blame digital.

The First Avenger is hands down the best looking movie of the MCU, and it's no coincidence it was shot on film.

but it doesnt even look good. i dont know if there is a single interesting shot in that whole movie. color balance and contrast arent the only problems here
 
I blame digital.

The First Avenger is hands down the best looking movie of the MCU, and it's no coincidence it was shot on film.

But if a CBM aspired to do something greater?

Nah, Skyfall was shot on the same camera as The Avengers, and it's one of the prettiest modern blockbusters. Film is lovely, but digital isn't this blight on modern film visuals that Nolan fanboys would like you to believe.
 

Ahasverus

Member
Nah, Skyfall was shot on the same camera as The Avengers, and it's one of the prettiest modern blockbusters. Film is lovely, but digital isn't this blight on modern film visuals that Nolan fanboys would like you to believe.
It's not but AFAIK (Probably almost nothing) you gotta work harder for a film to look "right" on digital than film due to the natural balance of film, so many digital movies just end up being half assed as they get made "easier and faster"
 

Ridley327

Member
Nah, Skyfall was shot on the same camera as The Avengers, and it's one of the prettiest modern blockbusters. Film is lovely, but digital isn't this blight on modern film visuals that Nolan fanboys would like you to believe.

Yeah, the whole FILM IS BETTAH argument never has held much water for me. It's a difference on the level of between painting with acrylics and with oils, and not painting with acrylics and grabbing a coloring book with heavily used Crayons.
 
I mean at the end of the day they're still comic book movies.

They aren't exactly trying to be Kubrick.
What does one have to do with the other? That's no excuse

If a book adaptation can be a film classic, why not a comic adaptation? I guess you mean superheroes? Because A History of Violence, Road To Peridition, Edge of Tomorrow, Dredd, and Kingsman are comic book movies too

But even superhero or not isnt an excuse either
 

guek

Banned
Guardians is easily the best looking film in the MCU. I get what the OP is talking about but I personally think it's a problem with how Marvel shoots conversations with a tendency to repeat the boring medium 2-shot over and over and over again. Most everything else actually looks pretty good. Anywho, screenshot dump time

 

Blader

Member
The finished CW Spider-Man was disctractingly CGI-like, but here's hoping. I might not give two damns about marvel hero of the month, but Spiderman really deserves a great film in general.

Well yeah, if they're going full CGI they should try to make it look realistic enough. Even the lightning is flat.

There is a lot of poorly lit CGI Spider-Man in the Raimi movies too.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
The best shot ones are still Thor 1 and Capt 1. Both had a pretty unique visual style I felt, in comparison to the 2nd generation which dropped most of it.

But I will say, while the looks have decreased in quality, the actual framing, sequences, etc. Have drastically improved. Specifically looking at Capt 2 and 3.
 

Theecliff

Banned
i thought doctor strange was very nice looking - moreso than most of the marvel films. helped that the sets, costumes and cgi work was stellar. same dp (ben davis) as guardians (which, despite you using it as an example in the op, i remember being a fairly pretty film) and age of ultron.

the juxtaposition with the shots of his hands before and after the surgery were very well done in my opinion.

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i wish he was the dp for infinity war, seems like he's better suited to grander scale stuff than the dp of civil war and winter soldier.
 

B33

Banned
They were made ages ago, with half the budget.

Definitely not half and the point still stands. They've been using CGI Spider-Man doubles since the first film and they looked worse in terms of consistency. Mind you, I like Spider-Man 2 a great deal.

The current rendition of Spider-Man is pretty damn good. It's a major improvement over The Amazing Spider-Man series.
 
what I'm trying to say is that Marvel revels in their comic book roots and shoot for maximum mainstream appeal, raking in the billions doing so.

Dark Knight and Watchmen aren't comic book movies in that sense, even though they share the source medium, they're vastly different takes on it.

You can revel in comic book roots and have mainstream appeal and still have interesting cinematography. Just look at James Cameron movies, those things earn more money that god, are pretty comic books feeling, and use the camera to tell the story and action in interesting and visually appealing ways.
 

Bronx-Man

Banned
Guardians is easily the best looking film in the MCU. I get what the OP is talking about but I personally think it's a problem with how Marvel tends to shoot conversations with a tendency to repeat the boring medium 2-shot over and over and over again. Most everything else actually looks pretty good. Anywho, screenshot dump time

What tv show is this from? Something on FX?
/s
 

B33

Banned
What tv show is this from? Something on FX?
/s

Hahaha!

The funny thing is that I prefer the cinematography of Legion over Batman v Superman.

Yeah, the latter has a larger budget, but the former makes way better use of its resources without an overreliance on post-production color correction and ugly lighting. Some of Legion's CGI is admittedly spotty, though.
 
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