Bosco685 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 ▫️ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashsaytr Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 anyone see this?...and if so... how was it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 4 hours ago, ashsaytr said: anyone see this?...and if so... how was it? I have not seen this yet. But some reviews have been extra-harsh on its story, which is the norm nowadays. This reviewer enjoyed it. ashsaytr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
▫️ Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 Looks interesting enough, I added it to my watch list. I’m sure it will be streaming on one of my services soon if not already. Bosco685 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 12, 2021 Author Share Posted January 12, 2021 Quote Today’s Hollywood and film industry is filled with superheroes and the studios can make those most bang with their buck. The MCU is on top with DCEU trying to catch up while a few others are making their way—I’m looking at you Valant Comics. There have been a few indies and lesser-known comic book films that have slid under the radar but Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Archenemy stands out as an unconventional superhero flick and should not be missed. Archenemy stars Deathstroke himself, Joseph Manganiello. The story follows the vice loving homeless man Max Fist (Manganiello) and the idea that he might just be an intergalactic superhero underneath all those rags. The plot plays with the concept of what could be someone’s reality vs. insanity and does not hold back the violent exploits of what that might cause. I was able to talk to Adam Egypt Mortimer about his filmmaking process, working with Manganiello, what could be in store if a sequel is made, and what the director is working on next. Where did the idea for Archenemy come from? Adam Egypt Mortimer: Well, I’ve always loved comic books. I’ve never stopped reading comic books and I’ve always felt like with comics—stories about superheroes can do so many different kinds of things. It’s not in comics, it’s not a genre. It’s like a set of possibilities. And so, therefore, starting decades and decades ago, comic books were able to do things with superheroes and with the genres that they play in and what the aesthetics of it, and really treat the audience in a very sophisticated way. So, when I started thinking about Archenemy, I was thinking, “Well, now that the people seeing movies have seen so many superhero films. We can treat them with the same kind of sophisticated way and do different kinds of things. Use different kinds of genres and make a movie about superheroes that feels different.” And so, I sort of felt like there was a lot of interesting possibilities in that idea. So, was Joe Manganiello always the first choice for Max Fist? Adam Egypt Mortimer: Well, when I wrote it, I hadn’t really been thinking about it in terms of casting. But, we sent him the -script and he had been a fan of my previous movie, Daniel Isn’t Real. He’s a huge comic book fan and he loves superheroes and he has played in the superhero space himself. He’s also always looking for ways to be a more dramatic actor and to show off his dramatic chops. So when he read the -script, I think he thought of it as the perfect way to blend those two things. And he’s great because he’s so physical and he loves to do stunts and punch people, throw people through windows, but he also really gravitated to the idea of playing the realism of this gritty character. Speaking about dialing; Paul Scheer’s character…was that all him or did he have to dial back or dial it up? Because he was a pretty wild- character in Archenemy. Adam Egypt Mortimer: Yeah, I know. I really loved that scene. I loved that scene when I wrote it and it was super exciting to be able to get Paul. What’s so great about him is that he really uses everything in the scene. He understood what the character was, which was a guy who was super hopped up on drugs and pretty crazy. We presented it with, “Okay, you’re wearing red underwear and snakeskin boots and you’ve got all these drugs and bottles and a gun and face tattoos.” He just went to work on it. Mortimer uses animation to deepen the story of Archenemy. The style gives it a superhero origin vibe with an acid drop of surrealist nature. Something that suited well with the mindset of the Max Fist character and the world he inhabited. The animation is pretty interesting. Was that always going to be the style of the animation? Adam Egypt Mortimer: I think that the question for me was always—those sequences that are animated— “How do we separate them from the rest of the movie?” The things we’re seeing in the live-action are what’s really happening. The things that we’ve seen in the animation or these things where we don’t know if they’re memories or fantasies or nightmares. So, I had to figure out a way to make them feel really separate. I was thinking a lot about the way they use animation in the movie Pink Floyd, The Wall. I was thinking about the art style in some of these amazing comic books from the eighties. Particularly, I was thinking about Elektra: Assassin and Daredevil: Love and War. Which are these two Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz collaborations that approach superheroes in this very sort of surrealist and impressionist expressionist kind of way. So, ultimately when I decided on animation, I wanted to make sure that the animation would feel very sort of rough and abstract. It wasn’t about being literal and showing sort of—here’s very specific and exactly what happened. It was more about leaving an impression of it; which is why the colors are so vivid and specific and limited. Sometimes it looks more like dream imagery than science fiction imagery. I think that provided a really sharp contrast, but then also there’s this sort of “Roger Rabbit” effect where sometimes the animation is coming in behind him in real life. So there’s a blend, even though it’s so different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted October 8, 2021 Author Share Posted October 8, 2021 Finally got to see this movie last night due to a free Redbox coupon. Not horrible. Not spectacular. But a decent comic book movie. A low-key buildup where you find out what the lead character shares is true or not. I'd give it a 6.0/10 for the story approach and effort. But unfortunately nowadays so many require big, explosive event films to satisfy their superhero needs. Which makes films like this that much tougher to get attention on when they are compared to the bigger event films. I had a decent time watching this one. And that's what mattered to me. Mighty Hal 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
