Tag: Movies

Deano’s answer to: “At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, why is Lando wearing Han Solo’s clothes?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

I’d like to submit a theory here:

He’s NOT wearing Han Solo‘s clothes!

Seriously, Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian. Mightn’t he have also won everything on board the ship, including the onboard wardrobe? Because Solo apparently won(*) the Falcon after Lando was already running Cloud City, it would make sense that Lando would shed all of his former smuggler identity when he lost his ship.

Thus, in point of fact:

Lando Calrissian is simply wearing his own old clothes, which had previously been used by Captain Solo.

For those who might argue hygenie/sizing issues with this, keep in mind that:

  • both men are roughly the same size, and
  • it’s fairly common for people to “try on” old clothes that have nostalgia value
  • So-called “spacers(†)” would necessarily exhibit thrift-driven behaviors with regard to any supplies – when you don’t know when or where you may next land, you can’t be too picky about what to eat/wear, when to sleep, etc.

While Truly Evil Bob‘s answer evokes the Star Wars MMO or other video game logic, I think he is on to something – by putting his old outfit back on, Lando Calrissian is expressing/recalling his former smuggler days, which he clearly missed as a responsible colonial administrator.

[UPDATE]

Alexander Bogdan raises an interesting point about documented sourcing of Han Solo’s outfit depicted in semi-canon Star Wars novelizations, but since I’m already merely theorizing, let me extend into the Bat-verse for a supplemental defense:

Perhaps, much like The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Han Solo’s stories about how and where he started wearing his iconic outfit changes with the telling, in order to distract attention from the truth of his background/true origins (which might be used against him somehow), or to increase his perceived reputation/leverage in a given situation.

(* this is mentioned in passing as part of the Millenium Falcon’s Wookiepedia article: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/M…)

(† In the Star Wars Universe, this would primarily represent people who roam from port to port, rather than having a single established planetary base of operations – smugglers, bounty hunters, traders, and the like.)

This answer originally appeared on Quora: At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, why is Lando wearing Han Solo’s clothes?

Deano’s answer to: “What are the chances of a Hawkeye feature film?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

From the original question – Hawkeye has an incredible background and seems like the perfect candidate for a grittier darker film. Thoughts?

Hawkeye - Can he handle a movie?
Ready, Aim, Wait - you brought a bow and arrow for the HULK?!?

You know who else had a nice dark, gritty, incredible background?

  • Daredevil
  • Ghost Rider
  • The Punisher
  • Man-Thing (no, really!)
  • Wolverine

Uh-oh(*).

Historically, Marvel’s “dark knights”, if you will, have had a problem: how do you make money on the movie?

  • Because it’s a licensed film, you can’t go too low budget, or you’ll hurt the overall brand.
  • If you aim too wide, especially in terms of movie ratings, a lot of the grit/pathos that makes the character interesting is lost.
  • Related, if you focus too much on star power, what ends up on the screen is Ben Affleck in red leather, rather than Matt Murdock, Daredevil.
  • Of course, stars are bad for other reasons… It might be easier to get a fan of the title to sign on, but then they may use their leverage to screw up the script or direction because they “know better” – looking at you, Nic Cage!
  • Sometimes Hollywood gets lost in the origin issue – how can you tell fun new stories about the Punisher without first doing a “set up” piece about how he became a deranged homicidal maniac?
  • If you ignore the origin and just tell the story, “won’t all the non-fans get lost/turned off?” – this is not entirely unfounded… A lot of Marvel characters, especially, depend on their origin and background in the larger universe to be interesting. The Punisher by any other name… Is a dude with guns killing bad guys. That becomes a “red ocean” problem, where you suddenly ALSO need to just make a kick-ass vigilante action movie to compete with the rest of that genre, on top of everything else.

For these and other reasons, comic book movies tend to have a lot working against them from the very outset… And if the comic title in question isn’t a “household name”, well, for most producers and studios, it’s just too risky to do as a tentpole/blockbuster.

On the brighter side – this is, in large part, why Marvel pulled out of its production deal with Sony in order to found their own studio – use your own cash, make your own rules. And now that they are “free”, their execution has been much better… They will have released the entire “Avengers Core Team” as solo films by the end of 2011 – Hulk, Thor, Cap, and the Tin Can. With the exception of Captain America (not yet released), performance globally has been from decent to astounding.

The next step is to bring them all together in an eye-exploding orgy of hopefully-not-suck called The Avengers, in 2012. That movie should also see an expanded list of tier-two ‘masks’ like Hawkeye getting a bit of screen time… If done right, that might tip such heroes into the household name category, enabling them to star in their own films, gritty or otherwise.

To say the least, there are a lot of “what if’s” involved, and only time will tell. But it’s certainly fair to say that Marvel has learned an important lesson about fully-outsourcing its product to Hollywood, and that while there are likely to be continued misses down the road (Ghost Rider II, whaaaa?!?), the batting averages for the next 20 years are almost going to be better than the last 20.

(* Daniel Shi, like some kind of mothafucka trying to ice skate uphill, pointed out that I left Blade off my list, but I had good reason: the titular hero, while dark and gritty as the rest, had a pretty good “daywalk” at the box office for a movie series of its time – $415,098,928 grossed in theaters across 3 films, with additional revenues from domestic and international licensing, digital, and DVD sales. For more details on the Blade trilogy, check in with my good buddy Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bla… )

This answer originally appeared on Quora: What are the chances of a Hawkeye feature film?

Deano’s answer to: “In Thor, does Thor’s power originate entirely from his hammer? Or were there other powers that Odin stripped from him?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

Thor’s power originates within Thor. He’s the God of Thunder, not the Dude Who Carries Thunder-God-Power-Hammer.

That said, magic is a funny thing, as are curses. In Thor’s case, his own powers are “removed” until he can pick up the hammer, and he can’t pick up the hammer until… Well, spoilers, you know…

Anyway, as for Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer’s name) itself, the powers are basically agreed to be the following:

  • It’s a very good hammer, good at hammering just about anything, really really hard (basically as hard as Thor wants it to hit).
  • When thrown, it will unerringly return to Thor’s hand.
  • When Thor aims it, it doesn’t miss.

Between the movie and the comics, there are a few other powers hinted at, though I would submit that the majority of these (like teleportation) are actually particular manifestations of one or more of the above powers combined with Thor’s own (say, unerringly aiming the hammer at a point halfway across the galaxy, then throwing it so hard it travels there instantaneously).

In a nutshell, it’s a really big(*) hammer, that allows someone with god-level powers to actually do even more damage when he hits something – or, conversely, a lot LESS, based on his desires.

When you think about it, it’d be pretty ridiculous for a god to carry around weapons that didn’t make him even more powerful.

(* It also has, according to Norse mythology, the ability to shrink to a pocketable size when not in use)

This answer originally appeared on Quora: In Thor, does Thor’s power originate entirely from his hammer? Or were there other powers that Odin stripped from him?

Deano’s answer to: “Were the Hulk movies accurate in portraying Hulk’s strength?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

It would be exceedingly difficult to claim that a movie didn’t portray the Hulk’s strength accurately, for one simple reason:

The madder he gets, the stronger he gets.

(Rarrr… Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim…)

Thus, any time the Hulk appears to be “weaker than he should be” could be argued away as merely a reflection of his lack of sufficient anger at the given moment… Or, in general, a lack of adrenaline, which is not always induced by anger (there’s a scene in The Incredible Hulk which covers alternate potential means of transformation, but those images are all protected by copyright)

(Let’s just say this is a fair facsimile, and be done with it. Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/the…)

Given the comics’ precedent that there is no significant “upper limit” to the level of the Hulk’s strength, which can reach so-called “Cosmic Levels” under the right circumstances, it’s basically impossible that anything the Hulk does in the films could be considered to be “too strong for the character”, for similar reasons[*].

Where the movies tend to fail is in over-simplifying or misunderstanding the Hulk’s many weaknesses.

[* Actually, since the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk movie appears to have closer ties to “Ultimate Hulk” – a creature born of a mutated gamma-irradiated version of Captain America’s Super Solider Serum, there probably is a more reasonable upper power limit, we just haven’t come close to hitting it yet.]

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Were the Hulk movies accurate in portraying Hulk’s strength?

Deano’s answer to: “In Thor, why does the Destroyer walk in such a hip-swiveling sexy manner?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

After much researching online, and despite counter-evidence in the form of IMDb listing, it seems that the motion capture for The Destroyer was done by Joseph Gatt:
“I’m a lover, not a Destroyer…”

Though Gatt’s IMDb entry for Thor (2011 movie) listed him as Frost Giant Grundroth several weeks before the release, in several interviews Gatt gave before the movie’s release, he made it clear that his role was “top secret”, and that all he could say was the following:

  • He’s a villain
  • Action-oriented role
  • Gives Thor lots of trouble
  • Has scenes with Loki
  • Has sweet weapons
  • Is an Asgardian warrior

The last three items make it much clearer – the only ‘Asgardian warrior’ (Frost Giants are… uh… Juntenheimers?) who gives Thor trouble, who also has scenes with Loki… Well, he’s either Odin or the Destroyer. And last I checked, the guy in the photo above doesn’t look nearly cut enough to be Anthony Hopkins, so…

As far as the “beefcake factor” with female viewers… I think the prospect of a crazily-morphable unstoppable sexy robot eunuch is a fantasy that spans gender identity, so in that sense, no, it’s probably not aimed at the ladies (exclusively).

Finally, none of the data at IMDb, Gatt’s website josephgatt.com, or Wikipedia reveals the specific sexy-quotient of Mr. Gatt’s stride for comparison. Intrepid researchers are undaunted, however, and are looking for copies of the God of War video game series for possible corroboration.

This answer originally appeared on Quora: In Thor, why does the Destroyer walk in such a hip-swiveling sexy manner?