It's vegan and gluten-free

[westen44]

BTW, I failed to mention that I agree with Gwyneth Paltrow about not taking those Marvel movies seriously.  As I've mentioned before, she did those movies as a favor to a friend.  When a Marvel movie comes on, 99% of the time I can find something better to watch.  I know Marvel has a lot of fans, but I'll never be one of them. 

[uwe]

I have fun watching most Marvel movies, but that is it. It's a guilty pleasure, nothing lasting.

[westen44]

Marvel does seem to be branching out and has started to offer movies different than its standard ones--such as Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, etc.  That could breathe new life into things.  But as long as they keep doing the same thing over and over, like having movie after movie with different actors playing Spiderman, that's just running it into the ground.  It's the Avengers thing that they seem to have done to death, too.  I think that may have been what Gwyneth was in.  I'm sure she is glad that's over, if it really is over. 

[uwe]

That Avengers Universe got terribly bloated real quickly. A behemoth of films, but flimsy story telling and characters.

I like films based on comics with a B movie charm. The much derided (unjustly I thought) Venom film was like that. Sub-sub-standard CGI, but above-standard storytelling.

[westen44]

I've always thought writing was the most important thing of all.  Next to that the actual acting and, of course, the directing.  Cheap special effects can be a distraction.  But basing a movie mostly on its CGI usually won't work out well, either.  However, style over substance seems to be the current trend. 

[Pilgrim]

I quickly decided that one way to avoid brain damage was to ignore most of the Marvel movies.  I've seen the first Iron Man, and Deadpool was a hoot.

[uwe]

The first Deadpool was indead a brilliantly disrespectful hoot, the second one already labored.

I think I've seen pretty much all Marvel films, but then again I buy every new U2 album too. Cultural learnings to make benefit glorious CD collection of Uwe, it doesn't make me a fan or even someone who likes them.

I loved the new Dune, anyone else liked it?

[Dave W]

[westen44]

If you read comic books as a kid, it was possible to be both familiar with the Avengers as superheroes and Emma Peel.  That having been said, Diana Rigg was possibly the sexiest woman who ever lived.  I remember we had a thread on that here, but I think it was years ago.  Or if we didn't have an actual thread on the topic, the subject was mentioned on one to an extent.  I think the consensus was that through the years she has been the dream girl for many guys.  She only died in 2020.  I was thinking it was slightly before then.  She was just another example of a great British beauty.  And as Emma Peel, for me at least, she was the ultimate female fictional spy. 

[Pilgrim]

When I was in high school, my friends and I would gather every Friday night at the home of the one who had a color TV.  We watched:

- The Green Hornet or The Wild Wild West
- The Man from UNCLE
- T.H.E. Cat (short-lived but good series with Robert Loggia as a cat burglar)
- The Avengers

None of us were allowed to talk during the Avengers except during commercials. It was a wonderful night of TV. Diana Rigg had an approachable but cool sexiness which I'm sure resonated with all of us.

And incidentally, few things on TV have been more pleasant than seeing David McCallum as "Ducky" in the NCIS series over the past few years. I always enjoy his performances.

[uwe]

I loved "The Avengers" series, but in Germany it wasn't called that way, it gained a new title in the dubbing process alluding to the Brit chic of it:



Which translates as "With Umbrella, Charm & Bowler Hat". Actually, I think that captures the spirit of the series better than the original name!

The comic "Avengers" was sold in Germany as "Die Rächer", actually a literal translation:



I was never really an Avengers comic fan, too many characters! I preferred Spider-Man ("Die Spinne") and X-Men ("X-Menschen") and, with some distance, Fantastic Four ("Die Fantastischen Vier"). Without wishing to hurt anybody's patriotic feelings, I always thought that Captain America's costume looked a little corny, there I said it! I also thought that compared to Spidey's nifty wrist net sprayers that shield was kinda under-engineered. And don't get me started on that silly hammer of Thor! 

My favorite villains were Doc Octopus, Dr Conners/The Lizard and Doctor Doom (to whom Darth Vader will forever be hugely indebted!), I obviously have a thing for academia. 

[westen44]

Even as a kid, I think I had a slight preference for DC over Marvel.  That rivalry between the two continues to this day. 

Just by coincidence, I heard someone say today that Gwyneth Paltrow is no longer his dream girl.  He has shifted his allegiance to a female country singer who is five years older than GP.  If he had heard about GP's vagina-scented candle, maybe none of this would be happening.  Or maybe not.  That guy who had the candle explode on him obviously regretted his purchase. 

[uwe]

Pah, Gwyneth was there first!





That wasn't a bad movie though Dave will no doubt say that none of it was real country.

See how we have elegantly returned to the subject? Only here - at the LBO.


Gwyneth can sing. This version



can't compete with  Kim Carnes' glorious reinterpretation



of a song that wasn't that hot in its original form.



I had no idea that Betty Davis Eyes was a cover, much less such a radical, but gifted departure from the original.

[Dave W]

I remember reading Superman comics until I was about 8. Never read any of the others, Batman was probably the only other one I was aware of. Marvel vs. DC? No idea. Never have seen any of the comic-based movies.

But I was definitely aware of Diana Rigg.

[westen44]

There are people out there obsessed with this kind of stuff and extremely knowledgeable about it.  My observations, though, are casual.  As a kid I found the DC comics to be more polished than the Marvel ones.  But Marvel was very flashy and colorful and got a lot of attention.  In time, even though it may have started like Avis to Hertz, it became a very popular and successful brand.  Also, in general, the Marvel movies have seemed to get more widespread public appeal.  Personally, I find DC to have a little more depth.  But there are many exceptions.  I like the Ant Man/Wasp movies a lot, for instance, and they're Marvel.  Those movies are the most notable exception for me.  Ant-Man seems as much like a DC character as a Marvel one.  Although I don't know the details, supposedly he is based on an obscure DC character called the Atom which I know very little about.  As of yet, I haven't found anything more interesting than Evangeline Lilly's role as The Wasp in the Ant-Man movies.