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Bloodshot
151 Plays3 years ago
Bloodshot was supposed to be the start of a shared Valiant universe, but it ended up being mostly overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Comic book investor Andrew Davis and host of the Pop Anime Podcast joins to discuss what was supposed to be Valiant's answer to Iron Man, but instead just turned into a pretty generic and forgettable Vin Diesel action flick.
Visit Pop Anime Podcast for more on Andrew.
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This month, we're teaming up with Technically A Conversation, a podcast for curious people by curious people. Head on over to their site to listen to conversations on all sorts of interesting conversations, from urban legends, the supernatural and the occult, science, espionage, and so much more.
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Transcript
Introduction to Technically A Conversation
00:00:00
Speaker
Greetings, we're technically a conversation, a podcast for curious people by curious people. Every week we take turns presenting a new topic and the other host has no idea what the topic will be. We strive to educate in a way that's loose and fun. Our topics are all over the place from light and funny to dark and sometimes spooky.
00:00:22
Speaker
Some of the topics we've covered include urban legends, civil rights activists, vampires, pop culture icons, the supernatural and occult, spies and espionage, science and astronomy, and other weird and random things.
00:00:38
Speaker
If any of these topics interest you, give our podcast a shot. Listen and subscribe at TechnicallyAConversation.com, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Parental advisory, we might use strong language.
Advancements in Military Technology
00:01:08
Speaker
RST focuses on rebuilding the most important asset in the US military. Soldiers, just like yourself. We are explorers on a new frontier. We develop everything from exoskeletal reconstruction, which makes soldiers faster and stronger, to neural prosthetics, which enhance the way they react. But you, my friend, you are the proof that we are leading the way in the greatest human advancement of all time. Come, I'll show you.
00:01:50
Speaker
May I? Yes, sir. What the hell, Doc?
Biotechnology and 'Nemats'
00:02:00
Speaker
Let me explain. If you would place your hand here, please. Now look at this.
00:02:19
Speaker
I'll wipe the hell out of those things. Biomechanical constructs. They call them nemats. They intuitively enhance your biology. Most notably, they react very quickly to catastrophic injury. Rebuilding damaged tissue. So those are in my blood.
00:02:43
Speaker
They are your blood. We had some success applying them to single organ systems. We thought it was time to try a full-body transfusion. Of course they did. Well, just like our own bodies need calories, the nanites need their own energy. And this lab supplies that. Obviously, the more effort they make, the more energy they consume. What's that glow? That's heat. Being generated by the nanites battling malignant cancer. Trying to save that mouse.
00:03:12
Speaker
Your mouth had just died. Admittedly, some of the early results were suboptimal. Maybe we should fast forward to the optimal part. That's you. You're the optimal part, because now we have the ability to recharge when they're running low. I cannot remember anything about me. Because of who you were and what you did.
00:03:35
Speaker
Sadly, everything about you is classified. And that was all your past. This is your future. Listen, when I was a boy, I was a tennis champion. And then when I was 15, I got cancer. And they took my arm within six months. Instead of dwelling on what I'd lost, I chose to focus on who I could become. And so now when a soldier loses his arm, he gets a better one.
Introduction to Superhero Cinephiles
00:04:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. I'm your host, Perry Constantine, and we're welcoming a new guest on today, and that is Andrew Davis. Andrew, how are you doing today? I am doing great. You know, anytime I get to be on somebody else's show is always fun for me. So thank you for having me. Well, thanks for coming on. So before we get started with today's movie, why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself? Yeah. So my name is Andrew Davis and I am the host of Conversations at Pop Culture.
00:04:31
Speaker
It is an interview show where I interview voice actors, comic writers, artists, cosplayers, professional wrestlers, anywhere from four to six times a week. And yeah, I'm very aggressive and it's on Facebook on pop anime comics, which is my page and my YouTube pop anime comics. And as I'm on Twitch under pop anime comics and all my social media is pop anime comics. And let's owe you money. And if that's the case, I'm going to quietly walk away as if I broke something in a store.
00:04:59
Speaker
But yeah, no, I just like talking about pop culture. And my other thing that I like to talk about is money and economics. And in particular with pop culture and buying and selling comics. So that always gets snuck in there. And that's kind of my jam, but it's free to listen to it.
Comic Book Investing Strategies
00:05:15
Speaker
I usually record Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays. So got a lot of cool people coming this week. Okay. How do you find the time? Four or five times a week? I can barely keep up with once a week.
00:05:28
Speaker
Oh, you know, it's weird. It just sort of happens. And I love this stuff. And I also do a lot of my writing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Monday. And I just roll and roll and roll and roll. And I love what I do. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. And I don't know.
00:05:46
Speaker
Sleep is not mandatory. It is the answer. Sleep is a choice, everybody. Sleep is a choice. That's the key then. If I could crack that nut, then I'd be in much better shape. Now you mentioned investing. So tell me a little bit about what the comic book investing scene is like. Because of course, back in the 90s, you had the whole speculator boom stuff and all that. So is comic book investing still a big thing these days?
00:06:14
Speaker
I mean, I'm making money doing it. But I also have it down to a science where I think that's the big issue where there's a lot of speculation in the market and there's a lot of people who are buying a lot of stuff and they're hoping it becomes big and it runs away and you make a big exit out of it.
00:06:35
Speaker
I tend to invest in what are known as variants, which are special covers. And then I have adapted to a science where the artist is a certain person, the writer is a certain person, the company is a certain person. And I have adapted to a science. I also don't over leverage myself. And the way I run my business is that I actually take a distribution out and put it into the stock market or cryptocurrencies. So I have take the money I make
00:07:04
Speaker
And I treat it like a closed hedge fund essentially. So my eBay store is how I sell. It's not a growing business because I'm taking a distribution that then goes into other avenues. So this way, because it will fall, it will fall, it will rise back up, it will fall, it will rise back up. And so, but unless you know what you're doing, you should not be involved in this just like anything else in life. If you don't know what you're doing or you're confused, best piece of advice I can give anybody and I'm not your financial counselor is learn
00:07:34
Speaker
the trade before you start playing with big money. So I'm going to say, but there's real money to be made in it. And if you know what you're doing, you can make a fuck ton of money. And I'm going to say that very nicely where I'm probably going to have a $25,000 a year on eBay in my eBay store alone this year. And I'm going to be taking eight to 10,000 as a distribution.
00:07:57
Speaker
Nice. Okay. Wow. That's cool. Nice to see that it is working for, for some people then. Um, cause yeah, of course, you know, that was the big thing is like speculation. Everybody thought that all the, the number ones would be like these big sellers or the, and then, you know, 10 years later, they're all in the quarter bins.
00:08:15
Speaker
It's the best thing. They're like, this is honey, this is going to be our retirement plan. And then like these people in comic shops, they have all these number one issues. And they're like, do you want this for free? And like, that's how it goes. I'll pay you to take it. That sound like.
00:08:35
Speaker
I went through that when my parents were downsizing a few years ago and I had to sell off all the comics I had left at their house because I wasn't going to be able to ship all those back to Japan. And just like I had a bunch of that stuff from the 90s and it was just like having to sell it away for like pennies on the dollar type of stuff.
00:08:57
Speaker
I mean, I'll tell the story how I got into all this. And the brief story is that I'm a kid in college, I was a comic collector, and I needed money for two things. I needed beer money, and I needed money to buy new comics. And so you go through your collection, I like that cover, but I don't love it. Turns out, bought the cover five years prior for 20 bucks, was selling for 120 bucks on eBay. I sold it for 110. And so I had beer money for the next like
00:09:24
Speaker
five weeks, I had comic money, and then I didn't need to sell another book for a while. And then obviously, I had money coming in. And then fast forward five, six times of doing that, you then discover a pattern. So I came into this entire sector, very not as an investor, but as a collector, and I needed money. And then I started my first podcast by selling some books, I started my website by selling some books. And so there you go. That's kind of how you get in, and then you
00:09:53
Speaker
discover a pattern and it's weird where not my intentions just start making real money with this stuff, but I like money and money's fun.
Analysis of Bloodshot Movie
00:10:01
Speaker
Okay, cool. So today we're talking about Bloodshot, the 2020 adaptation of the Valiant Comics starring Vin Diesel. And this was a movie that judging from the trailers, my first thought going into it was
00:10:22
Speaker
when they said the title was bloodshot, I'm like, wait a minute. That's not an adaptation of the Valiant comic, because it just looked like a generic Vin Diesel action movie. And then I went up and looked online, turns out, oh yeah, it's an adaptation of the comic. And then later they came out with previews of him having the white skin and everything. I'm like, oh, so maybe it was just that first trailer. So finally sat down and watched it last night.
00:10:49
Speaker
It seems like my first reaction was the correct one. It does seem just like a generic action movie. What were your thoughts on watching Bloodshot? Yeah, it's a rough one. It's a rough one to watch where and look, I think that there are two problems with it.
00:11:06
Speaker
I think that if you come in and you're just like, I wanna shoot her up military thriller, you know, I was watching two nights ago, Olympus has fallen. I came into that movie saying like, I just want a shooting up type of action movie where I don't have to think and I can drink a beer and chill out, right? So if you came into bloodshot with that mentality and not treating it like a comic movie, it was okay. And if you didn't pay 15 bucks for it, which is when it came out,
00:11:34
Speaker
Might've even been 20 bucks back in 2020. I don't know. Cause I think cause they went straight to streaming cause that was like right when COVID lockdowns hit. So, so if you paid 20 or 25 bucks for it, you know, it wasn't worth the money, but if it's on Netflix and you're sitting and chilling and drinking a beer or two, and there's nothing else you're doing.
00:11:53
Speaker
It's a great movie. But there was nothing special about it. And also it was not about family. It was not about family at all. You know, the answer. It's too easy with Vin Diesel. But like you said it perfectly where it was just generic.
00:12:13
Speaker
But I don't think it's a bad movie. I just think it's like every other movie that like Olympus is falling is not an Oscar performing movie. But you know, if you want to sit and chill, it's a great movie. Right. It's a great movie if you just want to sit and chill and not worry about a thing. So before we talk too much in the movie, are you familiar at all with the Bloodshot comics? I am slightly familiar with Bloodshot.
00:12:39
Speaker
And look, I've read pieces of Bloodshot and I enjoy what I've read from Valiant because back in the day, and obviously I'm 29, so I read it post, you know, when, when it came out. So I didn't get into comics in the 90s. I went backwards, but like, I liked the concept of Bloodshot. I liked the concept that like, he's sort of a Deadpool type character, but he doesn't break the fourth wall to some degree and he can regenerate
00:13:05
Speaker
And that, you know, he's also a little bit more R rated. And I don't mean movie Deadpool. I mean, like, if you read the Deadpool comics, Deadpool is not R rated in Marvel, right? But bloodshot is. And so I like that idea. And I like the entire idea what bloodshot was representing and also having that darker, more militaristic, and also the sci fi elements in the comic, I thought was nice. And it's not a bad comic. So if
00:13:34
Speaker
I'm gonna say this, give Bloodshot the comic an opportunity. I would not give the movie an opportunity, if that makes any sense. No, that makes perfect sense. And yeah, I had read, I hadn't read any of the, so there have been three different iterations of the character. There was the original one in 92, and then there was a reboot when Acclaim bought up Valiant. And then in 2012, when Valiant kind of had their Renaissance, they did another,
00:14:03
Speaker
Big reboot and this is the one I know of is the is the from the one from the 2012 and I read a few of those. I think like maybe the first two or three trades. I read through Comics ology unlimited and this was like, you know, this is like five years ago that I read these now. So my memory is not very fresh on them.
00:14:22
Speaker
But I remember enjoying them. And I think it was Dwayne Swierinski, who, I'm probably mispronouncing his name, who wrote it. But, and it was, it was pretty entertaining. It was a, it was a pretty good comic. Nothing like groundbreaking, but it was fun. It was definitely entertaining. It was not right or raw or whatever that thing is, which is Valient's best project they've ever put out there in 2000 AD, I think it's been good by Valient or something of that nature, but I digress.
00:14:51
Speaker
My favorite thing of theirs I've read, and I haven't read, I read some of Ry and that was pretty good, but the thing I've loved of theirs that I've read so far was actually the original Quantum and Woody run that Christopher Priest did, which if you ever read that, that was just, you know, perfect superhero comedy stuff.
00:15:09
Speaker
See, my favorite thing that I never did was faith. Oh, I love the concept of an oversized plus superhero and just breaking the norms. And I do. I think it's the best writing out there. Of course not. But I also like the fact that there was the experimentation and it got through the entire, I guess, corporate machine, for lack of a better word. But, yeah, no, I enjoyed the 2012 because I read that too. And I haven't read all of it, but I read the first trade paperback because I have a psychology unlimited
00:15:39
Speaker
It's the best six hours you could spend every month. I guarantee everybody that. But that's something that, you know, obviously it's enjoyable, but yeah, going back to the movie, I mean, the movie is just horrific. It really is. Yeah. And it's just, it's just so by the numbers, this movie. And like, I'll tell you,
00:15:58
Speaker
And you know what, here's one of the problems I had with it, because you're right, as a generic action movie, it's not bad. There's good action in it, the effects are well done, but it's just, there's nothing that stands out. I mean, there's, and if you're gonna do a generic action movie, you need to at least have something that stands out. Like you need to at least have like a charismatic lead or something.
00:16:23
Speaker
And the only thing it had was Vin Diesel, legitly. That's all they had in this movie. And that's not a failure on the director. They really put all their faith in Vin Diesel. And that was the problem. And this is the whole issue with it. You know, I go back, I just watched Olympus has full on. I watched that movie for two reasons. I love Gerard Butler as an actor. I just think he's so good in what he does. And I don't think the guy gets enough credit. And I love Morgan Freeman.
00:16:53
Speaker
And I knew it was an easy movie. It was on Netflix. And I'm like, I haven't seen it. This movie just looks really fun with all the explosions. And that's what it was. I'm like, this is we're now fighting to sort of get into the White House first thing I need to get out of the White House. And it's a great movie. And in London, I watched London is fallen last night, it was great. And I was half drunk when I watch it, which made it even better. It was wonderful. I didn't have to think about anything, because I knew the whole premise is that
00:17:20
Speaker
There's a bunch of bolts that are going to be flying at an enemy. That's all that mattered to me. That's all that mattered. This movie on the other hand, because I watched it too, like three nights ago. And I'm like, there's nothing even like that where this isn't even fun.
00:17:35
Speaker
like that that's the problem like it's not bad and if I was in the mood and I'm like man there's nothing else and I have this movie didn't cost me a dime to purchase it cool that's great but like yeah there was nothing there beyond the fact that okay cool we got a bloodshot movie something too is and I think the fact that they hung all their hopes on this being a Vin Diesel movie and
Vin Diesel's Performance in Bloodshot
00:18:01
Speaker
Vin Diesel is not much of a screen presence like as far as like a leading man type. He just doesn't have that. He's not really a charismatic guy in the way that someone like Jason Statham is or
00:18:16
Speaker
or even like Liam Neeson or something like that, right? These guys, they have charisma. You want to watch them on screen. Vin Diesel, he feels like he's mumbling his way through all these performances. And like the most successful Fast and Furious films have been the ones when it's been more of an ensemble cast where they're not depending on Vin Diesel so much. And I saw, what was it, F9, I think like last month.
00:18:42
Speaker
one of the biggest flaws in it is that you've lost Dwayne Johnson now. And so without him, without Jason Statham, the movie's lost like, you know, 70% of its charisma and it's not as entertaining without those guys in it. There were other problems with Fast 9. I didn't see Fast 9. I love John Cena. I'm a huge John Cena guy. I have a John Cena sign, great comic.
00:19:07
Speaker
And I bought another one and then I sold that one for a profit. I paid for the both, but that's not the point. I am a huge John Cena fan. And I thought he was okay in that movie. I didn't think he was bad. I don't think they got to take him out at the third gear in that movie. And in my understanding, I think they killed him off as well. And I'm like, why would you kill off John Cena in a movie? That makes no sense whatsoever. Especially when you have such a charisma suck now.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely, you would definitely, and he is, you're right. He is such a, he's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Like him and Peacemaker, oh my God, that show was brilliant. And it was brilliant because not only is he so charismatic on screen, but he is actually a really talented guy. Like he's really, he sells those emotional beats. I love, I love him as Peacemaker. Here's where I think John Cena's best performance was, and it was in train wreck.
00:20:03
Speaker
OK, Amy Schumer. So yeah, I did see that. Yeah, yeah. So he has a small role, but he is so on point. He is so on point. And then I think Daddy is home. I think he was in that or me. I think he was in Daddy's home or Daddy's home, too. Maybe I might be mixing up a movie. And then he was in another movie with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
00:20:25
Speaker
And he had a small role in there and he was on point there. I mean, the guy is so funny and he's so good at timing. And he also just looks a certain way and he's more jacked than he's ever been. I mean, he is, but it's also the entire problem is that, I mean,
00:20:45
Speaker
That's just it is that Vin Diesel, like I love Fast and the Furious. The first one, I thought Vin Diesel was great in that. I thought he was great in the third one and the fourth one. And I thought he was okay in the fifth one. I don't have a problem with an ensemble cast because it works.
00:21:01
Speaker
And from, from a business standpoint, you know, it's the same reason why an anthology and comics works, right? Where there's a reason why I have friends who do 50, 60, 70,000 kickstarters that are anthologies and maybe they'll do a 20,000 Kickstarter by themselves, but it's an ensemble cast because everybody can promote the same movie at the same time in 15 different markets.
00:21:21
Speaker
I don't have a problem. I don't fault Vin Diesel for that. So I disagree that he's mumbling through. I just felt that bloodshot had no effort by him. And then on top of that, bloodshot got legitly screwed over also, because it's COVID hits
00:21:36
Speaker
And if it was in theaters, there would have been more media surrounding it. There would have been more of a push. They would have broken more money and not the $37.8 million they did on a $45 million budget. And I don't think it would be as beaten up as much as it is right now.
00:21:54
Speaker
I think the environment has messed up their entire lineage. And this doesn't help Valiant in any which way either because you have a failure coming out of the gates on the reboot. How the hell do you go into a rye movie now? How the hell do you do another Valiant title? Archer and Fabian, I think is another title that the Valiant has. And I'm like, how do you go and say, we failed here, but we got it right this time.
00:22:21
Speaker
you got no credibility. So it's just, it's a disaster on so many levels. Yeah. Well, I mean, thinking of John Cena, like, and looking at Bloodshot and the comics, like, that actually would have been a much better choice for, I think, for this character. But also, I mean, like, you've got, and this is kind of like the
00:22:45
Speaker
I call this the Punisher problem because you had the same problem with the first Punisher movie with Dolph Lundgren where you've got a character who's got such an iconic visual symbol, and you don't use it in the movie.
00:22:58
Speaker
And you have the same thing here where blood shots, you know, got a very iconic, very simple visual design, right? He's all white. He's got this red circle on his chest. It's such, it's so visually striking. And you're only going to use it for like five minutes in the movie. And that's it. That's such a wasted, such a wasted potential. Yeah. I don't think that, that they knew what they're doing.
00:23:25
Speaker
And look, I think they were trying to be different because let's let's call it what it is. Marvel and DC run the superhero gambit essentially, and you can't compete with Marvel or DC on a billion dollar movie play or even a two billion dollar movie play, which is the direction they're going in right now. So what really what should have happened with Bloodshot
00:23:52
Speaker
is that they needed to say, hey, how do we compete in an environment where we got to go find our audience and we don't need to do a billion dollars on bloodshot. We need to do 200 million and we need to create a loyal fan base and we need to cultivate our fan base
00:24:13
Speaker
So that we get bloodshot too, and that we build out this universe and we're not looking to hit the home runs. We're looking to hit base hits. And I think that was what they were trying to do is hit the home run person getting on base. Yeah. You know, and if they got on base and they got on base again.
00:24:31
Speaker
And they got a base a third time. Now you have three bases full. And when you come out with your fourth movie, you know, you, you get to run in for, for, I mean, I'm using a baseball analogy because I think everybody gets what a base, how you score runs in baseball. But the idea is that that's how they needed to play. And I think it was a failure collectively. And I don't think it was an acting failure. I think it was a strategy problem.
00:24:56
Speaker
I mean, I this is what what I think about and how I function is I'm like, okay, look, I want longevity. And valiant shot themselves in the foot by trying to go for the grand prize instead of taking small victories. And that's why this movie failed. They failed in what they were trying to achieve rather than before was even in a story. Yeah, that's the whole problem with this entire thing. That's why it's tragic, because
00:25:25
Speaker
You could have just got on dates. You could have hit a double for all I care. And that would have been a stretch. And guess what? You've got a small victory because now you got a fan base. And now you're getting people back to your IPs. And now you have a track record so that when you go to another movie studio, you could go build it out that way. And that's the whole problem because now we'll get dynamites entering the movie game. You know, all these other smaller companies are entering. And guess what? Valiant, you screwed yourselves over.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, too, it then I get why if you're going to go for a not on that, but if you're going to try to go for the home run, if you're going to try to go for the big pie, I mean, why would you try it with something that just doesn't distinguish itself really from every other action movie out there? I mean, I could tell you why the answer is easy. I know the answer. And I think everybody else does the answer to.
00:26:24
Speaker
it's because they're trying to copy Marvel. And look, Marvel's not breaking new ground. And breaking new ground is a corporate dangerous game because it either goes really well or it goes really bad. And then you really screw up. It's the same thing where being generic in comics, look, DC and Marvel, and you could even make the argument that image hasn't broken new ground in a long time. And even on the indie sector, and I spent a lot of time doing a lot of indie comic
00:26:54
Speaker
creators, a lot of them haven't broken new ground. It's the idea that I haven't seen a new idea. I see maybe three new ideas in comics a year now that are actually generically new, and that actually have a position. So that's what I think they were doing is saying, look, this is the formula that has worked that has produced a huge amount of money, and we're just going to copy it and screw it. And if they went out on their own, and say, we're going to take that formula and
00:27:22
Speaker
dump it in the trash that the trash can on fire and we're going to build our own script and we're going to break every rule, not.
00:27:31
Speaker
to break every rule purposely, but say, Hey, we know what the rules are. We're going to break them because we know what the rules are and we're going to produce what everybody wants, not what everybody has already got it. And I think if they did that, they might've done a billion dollars on bloodshot. They actually went in with that position and said, we're breaking every rule. Cause guess what? Bloodshot is a character who breaks rules. And then you go, you got your marketing right there.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So what are some things you want to touch on with this
Military Themes in Bloodshot
00:28:00
Speaker
movie? What are some specific things that stood out to you either in a good way or in a. OK, well, that does it for this episode of Superheroes. I like the graphics. I mean, look, I like the fact that it was militaristic.
00:28:17
Speaker
I love military type movies. I like the fact that that's what it was. I didn't actually think the cast was bad at all. I actually thought the cast themselves was great. I thought Vin Diesel was decent in his role. I just think the movie was horrific. I don't know if that makes any sense. No, it does. My biggest problem with Vin Diesel is that
00:28:38
Speaker
I like Vin Diesel. I'm not going to say I don't like him, but I don't like him in this. I don't like him as action movie star. Like I like him as
00:28:48
Speaker
My favorite Vin Diesel role is Pitch Black, right? He was great in that. He was like menacing. He had this whole vibe about him. And like the way he speaks and he does kind of speak, maybe mumbling is taking it too far, but he does speak in this kind of like lower voice and it really works for a character like Riddick. But when you put that guy and try to make him the center of a tentpole action movie, that type doesn't work as well.
00:29:19
Speaker
I mean, he doesn't strike me as a hero type. He strikes me as being much better as the villain character. And I think that's a big problem with a lot of the, which it gets, it doesn't become as, the problem doesn't seem as obvious in Fast and the Furious movies because he's got so many other people around him who are taking a lot of the bombastic side of him.
00:29:43
Speaker
So it works in those movies, but in something like this where everything is hinging on him, I think he doesn't have the presence to really make it work. Yeah. I mean, I could see it and look, you know, I like Vin Diesel, but I get it where I don't even think it's a Vin Diesel problem. I think the writing was just so bad. Yeah. Like, like I don't think even if you put John Cena in this role, it would have been much better. I don't.
00:30:11
Speaker
I mean, we look at Peacemaker, right? Peacemaker, I can think of four other people who could have done Peacemaker just as well, you know, as John Cena did where because Peacemaker was written so well. Yeah. And that's the whole problem is that I think it's a writing problem. I think it's a generic problem. I mean, look, the entire movie itself is great.
00:30:33
Speaker
pretty much an ex-military guy or a military guy goes on vacation, then his wife gets killed. And then he gets killed on a hostage situation, essentially, slash military situation. And then he gets into the bloodshot program, and he comes back and wants revenge on the person who killed his wife. Yeah. And then basically, for me, other experiments pretty much on the same thing. And
00:31:02
Speaker
Now they're going on a mission mission goes good hiccup solve the hiccup kill the enemy bunch of fun action scenes and then now you know bloodshot and kt are running
00:31:13
Speaker
to the point where you're like, okay, cool, mission accomplished, we're good. You know what movie that is? You know what movie that is? That's Exander Cage, Triple X. By definition, this is Triple X, guys. This is not even funny anymore. It's Triple X. This entire movie is Triple X. We've pasted over with Bloodshot in it. Triple X and Exander Cage and Bloodshot are the exact same character, except Exander Cage is fucking cool.
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I never even really liked the triple X. So I love, I love the first one. I think I watched the first one. I don't think I could, I did not get very, it did not make me want to see any more of it after that.
00:31:57
Speaker
There's only one scene in the movie that really matters. It's awesome. There's actually a few scenes. But when they're in the barn, they said the guy that falls, he gets in. That's a funny scene in the movie. And then the second cool scene is when he's driving off of the bridge, and he's like driving in the car. There's a parachute in it. Oh, it's so cool. Because he's just like trying to shoot a stunt. And it's great. That's a great scene, too. Because it's just so visually appealing, that shot. You're just like, this is awesome.
00:32:27
Speaker
That's what I'm going to do after this, by the way. So I'm going to totally watch Exaggerate Cage.
00:32:32
Speaker
and open up a beer, but that's not the point. But this is legitimately the same movie. And that's the whole issue here. It's like great graphics. They basically just said, hey, this is a demo reel for graphics. It's really what this is. Yeah, it really is. I mean, the visuals are great. And that's why it also upsets me that they didn't use the whole bloodshot visual because they do it so well when in that brief moment they use it.
00:33:03
Speaker
Anyway, what about some of the other cast members? I know you said that you liked the cast in it. What are some of the cast members that really kind of stuck out to you? I mean, Katie is pretty attractive. So that's all I got, really. I mean, that's the only other thing I could think of, where it's just like she's attractive, but she's not overly attractive, which is what I liked a lot as well, where it's not like they put a super blonde shell, like supermodel.
00:33:29
Speaker
Like she's a tough, attractive girl, which I actually thought was a nice touch in the movie. Yeah, so that's Aza Gonzalez. I liked her too. And she's, she was also in Hobbs and Shaw. She was really good in that. And she was in From Dust Till Dawn, the series. She played the, the Santanico Pandemonium part in that. And she was really good in that too. I thought she did a great job with that.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah, it just, it's just, she did a pretty decent job. And yeah, she's great to look at. But she was just kind of underwritten too. Guy Pierce, I was kind of surprised to see him in this because last thing I saw him in was an Iron Man 3. So seeing him as a, as another tech villain guy was an interesting choice.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, I don't disagree. And I mean, but again, you know, I didn't really pay much attention to the cast as far as that. I just knew who K.T. was. And I think I don't know how to say her name, but obviously, you know, and then Vin Diesel. But beyond that, I mean,
00:34:37
Speaker
Look, I didn't mind watching the movie. I had a good time watching. I had nothing else to do and watch. But honestly, I would have been better off watching anime. Like, I'm not even joking when I say that. But you know what is? I'm not going to completely bash the movie because I do think it is an important step for Valiant, where I think obviously Valiant is on their reboot. I think Valiant is still in existence. And it also shows that, look,
00:35:03
Speaker
Even if you produce a shitty movie, you still made a movie. You still got something out there. You still got a big cast. You still got Ben Diesel. And while they lost money on the movie, they did say, hey, we can do this. And I think that is important in a lot of ways, especially as we enter now the realm where, look, it is now a war in Hollywood.
00:35:28
Speaker
with superheroes and other comics stuff. And whether this directly benefits Valiant or benefits another company like Image or like Dark Horse or like Titan Comics or like IDW, you know, this is a step that says, hey, a smaller company
Valiant's Cinematic Universe Plans
00:35:47
Speaker
A tier two or tier three company can make sure and get a movie done and actually attract a big superstar in Hollywood, whether you think Vin Diesel is a good actor or not. I mean, Vin Diesel is a very big star in Hollywood. And so I think it's very important that this was done. And also, I think it's very important for comic fans.
00:36:08
Speaker
to some degree as well, where they're like, oh, now we can actually, our books that we sort of grew up watching that are not the mainstream are now becoming mainstream. And a bunch of other people now know who Bloodshot is. I mean, I think that it costs them $45 million.
00:36:30
Speaker
Most people did not know who Bloodshot was until a shitty movie was made. And you want to hear the craziest thing? If the movie was good, less people know who Bloodshot is because the movie was horrific. More people know because negativity goes further than positivity. That's true. Yeah. You know, one of the tragedies about this, too, is how much better it could have been because
00:36:57
Speaker
originally they had, Sony and original film and Valiant had originally announced a five picture deal. And which was not only, not only just for bloodshot, but it was for all Valiant characters, but the original directors were Chad Stahelski and David Leitch who did John Wick, which those guys directing, I think you would have gotten, maybe it would have still had a lot of the same problems with this script, but I think it would have been slightly more interesting to watch at least.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think that you know what is yeah, I just think that it was a disaster. And I think that if Sony came in, it would have been better. I think also would have been treated better. I don't know exactly who was backing this completely. But the idea is that even if you had a better director, or you had somebody who understood the property,
00:37:50
Speaker
Right. And look, I don't know how much control Valiant had. I don't know how much control the other people had. I don't know how much control Vin Diesel had. Also, I don't know if Vin Diesel was an executive producer, influenced in it, all that stuff, because that's where this gets complicated. Because Vin Diesel was just the actor that didn't have it. Well, please continue.
00:38:19
Speaker
No, I was just going to go ahead and finish your thought. There was just a delay. Oh, what I was saying is that in Fast and Furious Vin Diesel pretty much owns Fast and Furious. OK, and it's his baby and it's his studio.
00:38:34
Speaker
And so he has all the power to do what he wants in that movie. And when he's an executive producer or he has an equity stake in the film, obviously it's treated differently. And so that's also what I think this is because I don't think that was going to give him an equity stake in the film.
00:38:50
Speaker
And so that's the whole thing too, is that all of a sudden he doesn't have an executive producer position in it. He doesn't have some equity. He doesn't have benchmark requirements or returns or bonuses that that might've, it might've just been, hey, we're going to pay you $8 million. We're doing this sort of cheap and you want to do this because you want to do a superhero movie type thing. But yeah, and also might've been shot in in my,
00:39:18
Speaker
three or four weeks too, which is also another problem. But this thing, I get the love it needed. Yeah. Although as much as I criticize Vin Diesel, he's actually much better than what we could have gotten because apparently Jared Leto was in early negotiations to star his bloodshot, which would definitely been a huge miscasting. Yeah, I definitely agree. I mean,
00:39:48
Speaker
Jared and Lionel, nothing against him, but I don't think that would have been a good call. No, no. Now, there is still apparently a future plan for this, because this was intended to be the launch of a shared cinematic universe of valiant characters. So it was going to be bloodshot and a sequel, and then two films based on Harbinger, and then a crossover called Harbinger Wars. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Harbinger at all.
00:40:15
Speaker
I've never read any of the Harbinger comics, so. Yeah, I am not familiar with Harbinger and and it's it is what it is. I mean, but, you know, it makes sense that they would want to build an entire universe and look, I think they should do it. I mean, let's let's let's be realistic here. I mean, look at Netflix. I mean, Jupiter's legacy was to put it nicely. A fucking disaster.
00:40:44
Speaker
But guess what? Netflix owns that. Netflix owns that. And they spent a lot of money for a fucking flaming piece of shit. For further to be as blunt about it as humanly possible. But guess what? They own it. And I think that wherever this thing ends up, whether it's on Hulu, Amazon, if it goes to Netflix, what is it? Paramount, which is Vitacon. What else is there? It's not going to go to Disney.
00:41:11
Speaker
It's not going to Disney, I can tell you that. Um, whoever goes up, I mean, it makes sense now, because there's only so many places you could put this content. And guess what, it'll be watched, whether it's watched when it debuts, or it's watched five years from now. It's gonna make money. And even this bloodshot movie is going to make money. And guess what, if the first one's horrible, it gets suicide squad, right? Look at the second suicide squad. So maybe if you have a good IP,
00:41:39
Speaker
because I don't think the Bloodshot IP is ruined. I just think it's a bad movie. That's the problem here is that, and this is the problem I feel with comic movies, is that, I'll give a great example. We'll go talk about Captain Marvel. First Captain Marvel, pretty bad movie in reality. I thought it was actually pretty good. I thought it was pretty bad. So we have to agree to disagree on that one.
00:42:02
Speaker
But the point I'm going with is that not every movie that comes out of Marvel is good, but I don't think Captain Marvel as an IP is ruined. I just think it's a bad movie. You know what I mean? So like, and we get to agree what, but there are bad movies. I don't think Iron Man 2 is a great movie. I don't think Iron Man 3 was a great movie either. But again, people get to disagree. That's fine. But the idea is that Iron Man as a character isn't ruined. I think the ending to Tony Stark and how he ran all out
00:42:32
Speaker
was was was he could have went out in a more badass way at the end of endgame. But that's neither here nor there. Um, I thought that his send off was not a good send off. But the point is that where we were, I don't think the IP in the underlying properties room. And guess what? If the movie you can redo that character
00:42:54
Speaker
in a new way because guess what? In the comic world, these characters die and they come back. So they could, I mean, I don't even know if the first Suicide Squad is canon that James Gunn did. I think it's hard to say. I mean, because they have a lot of recurring elements from it, but nothing that directly references it necessarily. So it's, but, you know, you get the same, you get some of the same cast members, but there's no, you're right. There is no like direct references to it.
00:43:24
Speaker
I mean, because the Suicide Squad is basically DC's version that they already does. Yeah. And it's what the jobs that the Justice League doesn't want done. And it's almost paranormal military troopers coming in essentially cleaning up shit. And it's the idea that the Justice League is all fighting a war with our side. And well, the US military needs something taken out. And you call the Suicide Squad. And it's the dirty dozen. And they get time off their sentencing.
00:43:51
Speaker
which makes complete sense. It's actually a really brilliant concept, but it's not a new concept. Suicide Squad is not a new concept, especially the imagination. But guess what? First movie sucked, they revamped it.
Bloodshot's Role in Valiant's Universe
00:44:02
Speaker
So I mean, if I'm valent entertainment, you know what I would do? I would be saying, how do we get rid of this movie? Make it so that it's not canon, make everybody forget that it's a piece of shit. And let's go
00:44:14
Speaker
build out the great bloodshot movie that we should have built out the first time, but at least we showed that we can do a movie. And that's my whole thing with bloodshot is I think bloodshot is just a stepping stone or starting to lay down the foundation. Yeah, it looks like, at least as far as what I'm able to see, and this has been, you know, this is like two years ago, but in December of 2020,
00:44:41
Speaker
there was a Bloodshot sequel was still in development and Diesel said he was still involved in it. But I don't know if there's, I haven't heard anything since then. So I'm not sure what's happening. But I mean, in their defense and you know this and I know this, obviously every movie has been delayed. I mean, I'll throw another movie out to you. That's not super related. Top Gun Maverick. Top Gun Maverick was supposed to come out what, last year?
00:45:08
Speaker
And and now it's coming out and it looks so awesome. Don't get me wrong. I've been hearing people say it's actually better than the first. I mean, I haven't seen it yet, but that's what the well. Top Gun Top Gun is classic. I don't know what people are smoking, but that's not the point. You can't. Top Gun is just the classic like 90s. I mean, it's like almost like an 80s, 90s movie. And it is what it is. And I think Top Gun is you can't you could get better than Top Gun.
00:45:37
Speaker
but you can't be worse than Top Gun because it's sort of like, it's like Eagle, you know, whatever that movie is that Johnny references in Cobra Kai. I can't think of its name, but it's great. It's all about the fighter pilot stuff. Oh, is that Iron Eagle? Yes, Iron Eagle. It's a great movie. Ridiculous, ridiculous movie. It is not a good movie, but it is epic to watch. It is epic. Top Gun is like that, where Top Gun is just epic to watch.
00:46:05
Speaker
I have never ever watched Top Gun in my life and have been miserable at the end of it. Like, if I'm in a bad mood and I watch Top Gun, my mood improves. Yeah. Like... So it looks like the... So what I'm seeing here is I did find out more recent articles saying that... And this was... Top Gun or Bloodshot? It's about Bloodshot. Too easy to get up. Sorry.
00:46:27
Speaker
This was as of a few months ago, this past February, is that West Ball has signed on to direct Harbinger. So it looks like they are still, no word if they're actually going to be still connected to Bloodshot, but it looks like they are still making stuff. So that's good, at least. Let me ask you a question because this is my issue and it's collective with superhero stuff.
00:46:53
Speaker
I don't know how you feel, but I feel like the connected universe stuff is so overdone. And I feel like everybody is trying to create a vertical integration with all their properties. DC is trying to do it. Marvel's done it. And obviously, sometimes you can't do it in certain universes. But even at this point, whether it's in comics or elsewhere, and I'm kind of saying to myself, like,
00:47:19
Speaker
Maybe this is not the answer. Maybe it makes sense to keep Bloodshot and Harpinger's and Rai, Rei away from each other and take that approach and never have the crossover because it, the crossover is to me complicated. And then, I mean, look at what was it, Infinity Wars and Endgame, just use those as examples. You had so many people in who's,
00:47:45
Speaker
movies and it was insane. It's like you had the Guardians, you had Avengers B team, you had Avengers A team in there. And it was just like, enough is enough. And even with like the Fast and Furious movies, there gets to a point where you have 15 cast members, this is getting overkill. Oceans 12 and Oceans 13
00:48:09
Speaker
Like there were too many people in those movies. And so I don't know how you feel about it, but like for me, I'm like, I kind of just want Batman to stay in Batman's world. I don't need Batman to be in the Justice League. I don't need, you know, Captain America to be in Iron Man's shit, for lack of a better word.
00:48:29
Speaker
So I'm admittedly very biased against this because I come from the background of superhero comics. So I love the shared universe stuff and I love the MCU. Endgame is one of my favorite movies ever. Like I love that movie. I loved everything about it. So I'm very biased. But on the other hand, it's not something that necessarily has to be for every single property. I think you're right.
00:48:57
Speaker
And yeah, the valiant properties are different enough where you don't have to have them cross over. I don't think you need to have, I mean, it's fine to have a shared universe and have references to them. I think that's one thing.
00:49:14
Speaker
I thought Peacemaker actually did a really good job of this where they make reference to other stuff that's happening without necessarily showing it. And I think that kind of stuff can be cool. So I'll throw a DC show. Arrow did a really good job of this. Yeah, yeah.
00:49:30
Speaker
Superman, I feel, would overshadow the entire premise of Arrow, right? And this is what I mean, where you have your A team players. So if Batman shows up an arrow, Batman then becomes the center of attention. And this is my whole problem with that. So I feel like if, you know, Bloodshot shows up in a certain movie in the Valiant universe, then Bloodshot commands the attention.
00:49:59
Speaker
And then even when Bloodshot leaves that position, the attention has been diverted. And that's my whole issue. Endgame to me was all about this is the last stand for the original five Avengers. And I felt that when you introduced all these other people in there, you had diverted some attention of the Avengers are changing. There's a cosmic shift.
00:50:24
Speaker
In this, there's this new younger superheroes coming up. And also the idea is that what happens when you have Avenger 2.0 and 3.0 reality coming into the existence where Iron Man and Captain America are now stepping aside. And that's what Endgame to me was. And it was
00:50:44
Speaker
like 20 years in the making, essentially, maybe not 20 years, but 20 movies. And now we're getting to, okay, the the gauntlet has been passed. But when you put Star Lord in there, that's five minutes that we have a diversion away from from from from this great ending of the people who have really made billions of dollars for Disney, and have, you know, really established the core foundation. And that's why I have an issue with shared universes, because
00:51:14
Speaker
you get to the stage and then there's always one character that diverts attention away from what the story is. No, that's a fair point. It's definitely a fair point. I'm just, again, I'm biased. I love the shared universe, but like I was saying, it doesn't work for everything. And with the Valiant stuff, and I think you can have
00:51:37
Speaker
You can still have those inter-universe connections without necessarily having a crossover. You can have Bloodshot and Harbinger set in the same world. You can have some of the same elements that are going across movies without necessarily having Bloodshot appear in a Harbinger movie necessarily. Yeah, I mean, I've also thrown this
00:51:57
Speaker
premise out there, especially with DC, where I've also thrown out with my friend that I said, hey, wouldn't it make more sense for them to do and have certain characters have separate movies, and then have not one gigantic crossover, but you have Green Lantern crossing over with another character that's out in space. Oh, yeah. And then you have a bunch of mini crossovers instead. And then you eventually have a gigantic crossover. So for instance,
00:52:27
Speaker
If you had the Guardians crossing over with Captain Marvel, right? That to me would make so much sense. And then you and then now you have essentially three things that don't interact with you have A and B interacting here, C and D are interacting here, and E and F are acting interacting with each other over here. And so you're having a bunch of stuff going on.
00:52:52
Speaker
in those things. And I think that would work almost better for Valium, especially if they get to the idea where they have 10 movies in play. You don't need bloodshot interacting with Ray or Ray immediately. Maybe in the 15th or 16th movie, you get that down the line. But I also think that's another thing where I don't think you need to have the mass of Infinity War endgame final, you know, kumbaya hooray moment.
00:53:17
Speaker
right off the bat, and I think you have little miniature interaction that I think it makes so much more sense. And I think that the idea is that they're trying to get a fast burn versus a slow burn. I think I think that that's a big issue in comics, because it's also money. And that's the whole thing too, is that versus longevity versus really fast payoff. Right.
00:53:41
Speaker
No, I think those smaller crossovers make a lot of sense. And I think especially, and it gives you a chance to do, to have both that crossover appeal that's gonna be, you know, that idea of like, oh, these two characters are gonna be meeting without having to make, without having to have it overloaded with too many characters. And also I think too,
00:54:06
Speaker
And I think you're starting to see a little bit more of this, now that they've had their big crossovers out of the way, I think Marvel is starting to do a little bit more of this, like with the TV shows, or Multiverse of Madness, or No Way Home, where you have these characters where it's just like Doctor Strange appearing with Spider-Man, or Scarlet Witch appearing with Doctor Strange. And it's not these big crossover events. And I think, yeah, it's cool to see, I'd love to see something more, I mean,
00:54:35
Speaker
one of my favorite comics ever was the Green Lantern, Green Arrow comics from the 70s with Denny O'Neill and Neil Adams. Like, you know, do something like, yeah, do like the hard traveling heroes. I think that'd be awesome to do. And I think, yeah, I think they're that, and that would make a lot of sense for Valiant too, because there are certain characters that work a lot that are much more synchronous as a, where others are less. So like,
00:55:03
Speaker
Harbinger being like a much more superhero style comic book would work much better crossing over with something like Quantum and Woody than it would with say Bloodshot or Ry. And, cause I think Ry is even not even set in the same time period. Am I correct about that? Yeah, I think so. But I also think Ry Van Gogh was like, they did like something where it's like 2000, like 80 or something like that, jumped everything up. I mean,
00:55:32
Speaker
there's a lot of stuff going on. Um, how, how I got into value and I got into the 2012 is that they had a bunch of CGC variants. So a CGC book is a graded encapsulated book and plastic is don't know. So what valiant did as a variant is they did a bunch of ones that were in CGCs. So the cover was a CGC case of the comic itself, which is super funny. Um, and I'm like, Oh man, that's a brilliant, brilliant idea where it looks just
00:56:01
Speaker
certain way and then they did it so that there's yellow ones which mean it's signed by the creator so they did fake signatures like on an auto pen of the creators on some of these books too, brilliant concept, brilliant concept.
00:56:16
Speaker
very, very, very smart, but by valiant to do something like that. So they got me interested in some of this stuff purposely that way, because I'm like, this is such a fun cover to put up there. But it's the idea that, yeah, I agree that they can do that. And other companies have done this too. I mean, there's a company called Xenoscope, and they have a character called Robin Hood. They have their version of Van Helsing and Robin Hood. And Robin Hood and Van Helsing have come across each other.
00:56:46
Speaker
in books, but then they've gone their separate ways after six issues, because they're set in the same universe. And so you might have a crossover for six issues. But then Van Helsing is going on her mission. Robin's doing her mission. And there you go. And so as an individual, like, I think that's also something that companies need to figure out where it goes because there's the comic stuff, which is different than the movies. A movie takes 18 months to three years to go. Right.
00:57:15
Speaker
So to, to, but also I think that like these companies need to figure out saying, Hey, if we're going to, like, what was it? Um, uh, vision and, uh, scarlet witch, um, Wanda vision, Wanda vision. Yeah. That was brilliant. How it led into Dr. Strange. Like that's what needs to happen with these crossover events is that they need to get entry points, correct. And they need to get exit points. Correct. So bringing in Dr. Strange into.
00:57:44
Speaker
What was it? What was it? No Way Home? What was the last better man? Yeah. I always get like all them mixed up. We're far from home. No Way Home. And then I've seen all three of them. I thought, I thought the last one was brilliant, but the idea that they brought Dr. Strangen and now Dr. Strangen and WandaVision happens and then they're getting that. And that's what I think Valiant needs to figure out. And I think they just need to scrap this bloodshot movie, chalk it up to an L and say, look, we got to fix our universe.
00:58:13
Speaker
And look, there's a million ways you can reintroduce bloodshot into something where you could have it into something and then spin it off and then go a different direction and have like four scenes with bloodshot and this Harbinger movie or Harbinger. And then there you go. You got your bloodshot spin off that launches, which is what I think these companies need to figure out how to do. So
00:58:39
Speaker
So we know Harbinger's coming next. So if they figure out, if they do do another bloodshot thing, do you think they should, do you think they should recast or do you think they should do like a soft reboot, kind of like the Suicide Squad or kind of like, what's another example? Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance, when they basically ignored the first movie, but they kept Nicolas Cage for the second one.
00:59:08
Speaker
What do you think? Do you think it should bring back Vin Diesel, or should they do go another route completely? I think they should just bring back the rock, just get the rock in the movie, you know? Go all the way. Just be like, we're going hard. No. That's tricky. The question is that what does the script look like? Because can Vin Diesel command the movie? How much presence is on Bloodshot? Because if you...
00:59:36
Speaker
You have a villain that is over the top and eccentric. You know, then maybe you do need somebody who is less eccentric per se to balance it out. Yeah, that's another and that's another problem. There's not really a despite you having a good actor like Guy Pearce, like there's not really a big villain presence in this movie.
00:59:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's the whole problem too. It's it's it's not like you know, or you don't have a situation with the villain. Right. I go back to Olympus on London and fall is falling is my mind. The villains don't have a big presence in it. But in Olympus has fallen. They've taken the president hostage in his bunker. That's a pretty intense situation.
01:00:24
Speaker
Okay, so you don't need a big villain. You have a situation that that exceeds any one villain. The villain in that movie is not all that impressive, except the fact that he sort of pulled it off. The real driving point is that that's the situation. And how are you going to get the president out and save the president before they basically launch every nuke and detonate every nuke they have?
01:00:50
Speaker
London is fallen is that how do you get the president out of a terrorist situation that London is experiencing again the enemy in the villain doesn't have a big presence it's the situation right and in bloodshot and in this movie there is no situation that is driving the point
01:01:07
Speaker
and the villain, I mean, I didn't think about it until you brought it up. Like, again, it was so non-existent. Yeah. Like, like, who is this guy fella? Like, I don't even know the actor. That's how it's like. And nothing against I'm sure Guy is a very nice man. No pun intended there. But the idea is that it like there was like no driving force and there was no investment. Right. Like, at least when I watch Fast and Furious, I know it's about family.
01:01:38
Speaker
It's all about family guys. Yeah. And like that will end a guy Pierce, he was the, he was, he was the villain in Iron Man three. So you remember that? I don't even remember that movie either because again, there was like no presence in that. The only thing I remember is that, uh, the, the, the ending is that he blew up every suit and I was like, how would you do such a thing? That's like the worst idea ever. You could throw all these suits from all over the world. Like, why would you blow them up?
01:02:06
Speaker
for you know what what is it pepper like yeah that was kind of the kind of the reason why yeah it was a it was a week ending it was at that time we talked about this we talked about iron man three but at that time they weren't quite sure if they were gonna have another one if
01:02:21
Speaker
If Robert Downey Jr. was going to come back because that was his last movie he was contracted for. So they decided to do all that as to kind of close Iron Man's chapter if they had to. But yeah, I agree. It's definitely not my favorite of those movies.
01:02:43
Speaker
But yeah, there's not a lot of presence from anyone in this movie. That's the problem, is that it's so generic, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's even hard to criticize, because after a while, at this point,
01:02:59
Speaker
you and me are just beating the shit out of this movie. And it's not that anybody necessarily did a bad job. This is a conceptual, this is the idea that it's kind of like you go out and lay the blueprints for a building and the building turns into, is leaning 15 degrees right and is curving inward on itself. And you're like, how did this happen? And you realize, well, the blueprints told us to do that. So the builder built it according to spec.
01:03:29
Speaker
So however this movie was written, however this movie was directed, everybody did their job and the movie was developed perfectly to its blueprint, which was a disaster. So this movie was a success by definition because the blueprint you got was exactly in the blueprint of this movie, which means that this movie is arguably the greatest movie ever that delivered exactly what somebody asked for.
01:03:57
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah. Problem is what somebody asked for was. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I mean, so everybody did their job just because the product is a disaster doesn't mean everybody didn't do their job. So in fact, I respect everybody did their job to what was required of them. And I believe we should give them praise.
01:04:20
Speaker
I wouldn't go that far baby. I'm being facetious purposely here. I am saying something so outrageous that nobody in their right mind can think of being serious. Hopefully, nobody in their right mind can. I mean, we're now in a place where reality and satire seem to have intersected with so much right now. So it's hard to tell sometimes. No, no, no, no.
01:04:49
Speaker
This movie was conceptually bad from before the filming. And this movie should have never been greenlit by definition. It should have been like, we got to go back to the drum board. We have some good elements. We need to have a nice re-edit on it and a nice new draft. We got to smooth things out. And look, if they smooth 20% things out, this would have been a better movie.
01:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, 20%. We're not, we're not, even, I'll even throw a better thing and I'll be beyond generous. If they did, and they went with several different edits, and they spent an extra three months editing it, it would have, and they made only 10% improvements on it.
01:05:34
Speaker
it would have been a better movie by definition. So the little things on this and that's where I'm going with this is that this was a failure completely because it was conceptually bad designed and then it did not get the proper edit and the proper love and the proper attention
01:05:54
Speaker
even in post-production. And that's why this thing was the way it was. And then COVID literally beat the shit out of it because you're now going from a promotional where you could drive it into or somebody says, honey, I'm a comic book fan, let's go see this. And as she's dragged along for her boyfriend or the boyfriend's dragged along
01:06:15
Speaker
for the girlfriend or me and my friends might say, hey, let's go see Bloodshot. We got nothing to do. We'll go to the bar after. And we go to a movie every Thursday night, me and my friends sometimes.
01:06:26
Speaker
And we used to do that a lot and now it's like, okay, cool. There's nothing in theaters, we'll go see it. And when you took that out, now you're acquiring people to pay 20 or $30 or even $40 to go see something. And that's a big rough position before everybody was accustomed to doing that in COVID. So now you have so many things working against you.
01:06:50
Speaker
where you don't get the impulse fire because it's a cost barrier. And that's also the problem with this too. If the movie was five bucks on Apple TV,
01:07:01
Speaker
this would be a different discussion completely. Yeah, absolutely, I think so, yeah. Okay, so yeah, that pretty much brings us to the end of Bloodshot. Ultimately disappointing, not really much there. Some interesting visuals, but overall, I mean, like I fell asleep twice watching it. I had to go back several times. And just to show you how generic it is, like I had trouble finding out, okay, what have I not seen in this movie yet?
01:07:28
Speaker
But that does it for this discussion of Bloodshot. Andrew, do you have anything you'd like to promote before we close up? Yeah, you can check out my podcast Conversations in Pop Culture. It's on Facebook, Pop Anime Comics. If you type in anything, Pop Anime Comics, my stuff will pop up, whether it's my other show, Pop Anime Comics Lounge or Conversations in Pop Culture. If you go on YouTube, it's Pop Anime Comics or Conversations in Pop Culture.
01:07:54
Speaker
I have a very cool interview on an NFT project slash comic book. The world's first glow in the dark fully glow in the dark comic slash NFT that is Tuesday at nine o'clock. So check that out. And then I got a massively cool poster artist who's done a lot of work for bands like Blink 182 and James Brown and a bunch of other people for the last 40 years, Justin Hampton. And that is on Wednesday. So, and that is at I think seven o'clock or eight o'clock
01:08:22
Speaker
Um, but again, it's free YouTube, Facebook, pop out of my comments, go like my page. I need the likes, appreciate it. And everything else. And thank you for having me on. Well, thanks for coming on. Uh, it was nice discussion and it was, uh, I'm glad we both came at this from the, we had both had the same kind of reaction to this. Otherwise we might've just been arguing for the whole time. So this would have been so much better and I'm just going to give everybody a piece of advice.
01:08:47
Speaker
If you're gonna watch this movie, have at least a beer or two, it'll be much easier. And you could thank me later on. After the 90 minutes or two hours you spent, you'll be like, you know what, at least I had two nice beers. Yeah, unfortunately, I didn't have that. I didn't have some stomach sickness problems, so I wasn't able to drink last night. That probably would have made it better though if I could have been drinking while I was watching this.
01:09:12
Speaker
All right, but thanks so much for coming on, and that does it for this episode of Superhero Cinephiles. Superherocinephiles.com is the website, and we are Supercinemapod on Twitter and Instagram, and Superhero Cinephiles is the Facebook group. Thanks so much for listening, and we will talk to you next time.
01:09:30
Speaker
If you enjoy the Superhero Cinephiles, then you'll also love my companion podcast, the Superhero Cinephiles Book Club. All my Patreon subscribers get access to this exclusive podcast where I review superhero comics and graphic novels. Not sure what comics you want to read next or what you should dive into? I've got you covered on that. I'll be doing reviews, recommendations, and also talking to you about useful entry points.
01:09:51
Speaker
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01:10:34
Speaker
Thank you for listening and as always good night. Good evening. God bless.