Sunday, March 17, 2019

POST-CREDIT SCENES - Why I love and kinda hate them



You are still here?....It’s over…go home..Go..”


Ferris Bueller’s day off was a movie so ahead of its time that it probably predicted the whole post credits era of storytelling and got to parodying it 20 years before Nicky Fury walked out at the end of Iron man 1 to the delight of the few people who had stayed back after the credits started rolling.
But as much as many people would like to believe, Marvel didn’t invent post credit scenes. Neither did they invent shared universes (But that’s a different story for a different time).  A few movies from the 80’s like Airplane or The Producers had post-credit scenes just for the fun of it. Jackie Chan movies had blooper reels play during the credits. The Pirates of the Caribbean series also had some funny scenes.
MCU (meaning Marvel cinematic universe as run by Disney Marvel) probably wasn’t even the first one to use it in place of what was earlier the cliff-hanger ending in movies or the season-finale style tease on TV. X-men: The last stand had an ending with Professor X waking up to talk to a nurse. However, that can also be said to have been just fan-service as there were no apparent plans to expand the X-men trilogy after that point (Not that I know of. There are rumors that stand-alone movies were being planned). So it’s not like they were teasing the next planned movie. But Marvel in 2008 already had a very ambitious plan in mind. So when the first Iron man movie released and it had that Nick Fury scene, it wasn’t just fan service…it was actually teasing what direction they were gonna go next. Although the Avengers coming together seemed impossible at that point, kudos to Marvel for really changing the face of comic book movies and cinematic story-telling as we knew it.
Now teasing the next movie of a character used to be done either in the actual climax of the movie (In Batman Begins, Gordon shows a Joker card left by someone on a crime scene to Batman) or with a simple on screen title declaring “James Bond will return” (Let’s face it- World conquering villains, an attractive but flawed hero with incredible gadgets, secret identities and action scenes- the Bond movies are essentially comic book movies). Comic book movies weren’t that big a deal and were seen as a risky genre which sometimes makes good money. The next one only happened if the first made money. So rarely anyone teased the next movie because they didn’t have anything planned that way. Even if Batman Begins teased the Joker or TDK ended with Batman taking blame for Harvey Dent’s crime…it wasn’t necessarily an advertisement for the next movie. It was the good ol’ cliff-hanger, meant to keep you excited but only for the next Batman movie.



“You think you are the only superhero? You are a part of a bigger universe…you just don’t know it yet”






Since Marvel was going for a shared universe with multiple characters having their own movies and eventually teaming up, the post-credit become a good story-telling tool to link an Iron Man movie with a Thor one without having Thor actually show up at the end. Keeping it post the credits was a stylistic choice. Director Jon Favreau of Iron man 1 & 2 had said in an interview that it was meant to be wink at the fans because nobody ever believed an Avenger’s movie would ever happen. The dialogue was carefully chosen to almost break the 4th wall and tease delighted fans with a wise reveal on par with a particularly skilled married seductress. A tradition was born which was so popular that many movies started having 2 post credit scenes- one mid-credits and one after all the titles are done. Marvel themselves parodied it in Avengers (The team eating Shawrama) and Guardians of Galaxy Vol 2. So did others like Deadpool (owned by Fox at that time) who literally used the Ferris Bueller scene and even poked fun at Nick Fury’s scene from Iron Man 1.

Over the years, the fame (or notoriety) of the post-credit scenes has grown so much that people waited for stuff to happen at the end of all comic book movies. As much as a shocking twist is considered a part of suspense movies, the post credit scene became a part of comic book movies in the minds of people. It grew so much that soon people started to wait at the end of horror or other fantastical genre movies for a tease for the next movie.

However many people failed to realize that a post credit scene is something integral to the MCU and not everyone has a shared movie universe planned. Even film-makers didn’t realize this as many studios rushed to cash in on the shared universe concept and we saw post credit scenes in movies like Green Lantern (2011) and The Mummy (2017) try to bait its audience into its universe without any proper plans. The worst affected by this trend was of course Marvel’s big rival – DC.


“The world changed when Superman flew across the skies….it changed again when he didn’t”






When Nolan finally finished his epic Dark Knight trilogy in 2012, Marvel had already tasted success with their first Avengers movie (Phase 1). Warner Bros. was eager to get in on the action and employed papa Nolan to steer the ship into a shared universe direction. They wanted him to do to Superman what he did for Batman by rebooting him and then subsequently set the stage to branch off into a shared universe. Nolan laid his faith in one man – Zack Snyder to bring Superman to the big screen.
Man of Steel (2013) was a big success for WB as it was their most successfully non-Batman comic book movie ever. Even though Snyder still had his haters, many critics liked the movie as well. The movie did well…but it was something different. Not just the tone or the superior cinematography but the story-telling as well. There were no open name drops for other characters and no set up for future movies. Something which the audiences had started to expect by now.  It only had two major easter eggs for the keen eye – A Lexcorp oil tanker and a Wayne satellite destroyed during fight scenes alluding to the existence of other popular DC characters. It didn’t have a post credit scene which many people were accustomed to by that point. It was in essence a stand-alone origin film.

Initial interviews and articles show that Snyder wasn’t really open for a Marvel style multi-character universe- he only had a 5 film arc in mind for Superman. But studio managed to convince him to jumpstart a shared universe and Snyder being Snyder knew that he had to distinguish himself from the competition. Now this is not the first article to point out how he did it. John Arryn Garza at DC Films Hub wrote this fantastic article which you can read here - https://dcfilmshub.com/how-zack-snyder-was-replacing-the-post-credit-fad/  

Essentially Snyder decided to do away with the post-credit scene to create a unique story-telling device that would make a movie self-contained yet leave room open for other characters as well. The climactic fight at the end of Man of Steel (MoS) between Superman and General Zod in Metropolis is used as the opening setting for Batman V Superman :Dawn of Justice. It was smart of Snyder, writers Chris Terrio and David Goyer to take this route. MoS was criticized for something many superhero/monster movies had gotten a pass for over the last 50 years. It was criticized for showing city-wide destruction caused by two super-beings fighting and not caring about collateral damage it could cause. (Something that also happened in New York in Avengers but somehow no one pointed that out). Leave it to Snyder to take something negative and turn it into a positive- they literally used that criticism as a valid point for the next movie. Bruce Wayne witnesses the fight and this is what fuels his rage against Superman for not caring about the collateral damage. This time we witness the scene from a normal citizen/Bruce Wayne’s perspective on the ground and the ensuing destruction with it. The scenes are shot so well, you will find many videos on youtube combining the ‘Black Zero event’ into one seamless scene that fits perfectly well together from both Superman’s above ground as well as Bruce Wayne’s on ground perspective. Essentially the ending of one movie was the beginning of another but from a different perspective.

BvS doesn’t have any post-credit scenes (while some argue it could have used one). It drops some key connections to other characters in the middle of the movie itself -The Knightmare scene with flash running back in time to warn Bruce, Lex Luthor’s ‘communion’ with Steppenwolf 's hologram just before his arrest and the (in) famous Lex Luthor’s metahuman research files on Wonder-Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg. Wonder-woman being a major character in this movie, her origin is teased more than the others.  While some argue that setting up other characters in the middle of the movie may have made the film a bit bloated, it was probably done that way for two reasons. One being that WB was obviously desperate at this point to branch out all the other characters fast and two being that Snyder and co. wanted Superman’s death to be the last thing that you remember going out. Not some post credit interruption that you will think about more.

But alas, due to the biased trashing of the movie by critics and cowardice on WB’s part to not release the fully fleshed cut of the movie, the movie didn’t perform as well as WB would have liked. They panicked and butchered their next movie – Suicide Squad- before it got released. They added a lot of Marvel style humor and wait for it…a mid credit’s scene. Admittedly though this movie wasn’t written or directed by Snyder meaning it didnt need to have the same narrative technique…David Ayer still admits that it wasn’t the movie that he originally filmed. Although the movie was changed drastically by a marketing team it carries somewhat of Snyder’s prologue-epilogue style and opens with Superman’s funeral and Amanda Waller mouthing those words about the effect of Superman's death on the world in the first few minutes.

Wonder Woman which was penned by Snyder also opened with a plot device set up in BvS. An old war photograph. I wonder if Snyder co-opted this idea from his proposed film ‘The Last Photograph’ which was also about a war photo. It also had post-credit scenes shot but Snyder and Director Patty Jenkins decided to go against it. But by this time, WB’s panic levels were reaching sky-high levels. Their greed not letting a barely nascent cinematic universe flourish as planned. Justice League was originally again supposed to open with Lois Lane at Superman’s funeral and we would have started the movie through her perspective. The whole drama behind JL is pretty well known now and that was the end of what could’ve been a great alternative experiment in serialized storytelling. Snyder and co. by no means invented the recap or prologue/epilogue but it still was an interesting story-telling choice much like the Post credit scene originally was.

DC’s next movie Aquaman was supposed to pick up with when he leaves in a truck at the end of Justice League. It opened differently barely referencing Justice League. WB decided to change its approach and Aquaman also had a proper post credit scene teasing his next movie.



There has been a lot of debate about the post credit scene as a story telling device. While some argue it essentially makes the movie you are watching a 2 hour commercial for the next one, others say it is nothing but a harmless tease. Director James Mangold of Logan said that he didn’t feel like he needed any post credit scenes after such a dramatic and heartfelt ending. The surprise was the many people expected it. Just because it is a comic book movie.
I personally had initially loved post credit scenes,a tease is something that fascinates me. The excitement for the unknown, the wait for it is very much a process I enjoy. But having said that this fun little tool has now been reduced to gimmick. An obligatory one. Even Joss Whedon initially didn’t want to insert a post/mid credits scene during Avengers: age of Ultron.
Whatever becomes obligatory starts becoming less fun as time goes on…what was once a surprise has now become a formality. The post credit scene has become such an important tool that many MCU movies have had decent success only because of people being curious about what next movie is being teased. Antman and the Wasp and Captain Marvel are such examples. Mediocre movies which only had success because they had this connection to the eagerly awaited Avengers: Endgame.
Will Marvel ever change the post-credit trend? Well not in the near future at least. They know they have a winning trick in hand and are gonna use it till it stops earning them money. So the post-credit tease is here to stay for a while at least. 

WB will obviously try to copy the formula in lieu of doing something original at least until the management changes or they stop making money off of it. But there is one thing where they could be doing something different from MCU. Something bigger…something if which they can properly exploit could potentially change cinematic story-telling again…..





Written and researched by Ambarish Deshpande. (Twitter- @ambarish17)
Thanks to DC Films Hub, John Arryn Garza, other youtubers like CinemaWins, Patrick Willems Chris Wong Swenson for inspiration.
Thanks to My wife Madhura for being my bouncing board of ideas.
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P.S. – No I already teased my next article in the climax, not gonna tease it post-credits.
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Monday, March 11, 2019

Badla (Spoiler free) movie review


So here is a review you have all been waiting for



BADLA
DIRECTOR – SUJOY GHOSH
CAST- AMITABH BACCHAN, TAPSEE PANNU, AMRITA SINGH & DETAILS…LOTS OF DETAILS

What? How is this possible you ask? How is it possible that a comic book/movie lover like me hasnt watched Marvel’s latest movie – Captain Marvel?! Well three things – a) The trailers didn’t excite me. B) Marvel posing this as an achievement in feminism turned me even more away from the movie (Jesus it’s a commercial movie for God’s sake not a revolution. Besides it took you guys 21 movies to get here…DC did it in their 4th movie)  c) I honestly don’t really care about any movie between the great cliff-hanger ending of Infinity war and Endgame. I learned that the hard way when I watched Antman and the Wasp. It is a movie I increasingly hate for some reason. A movie so totally pointless that it disgusts me now as to why I spent money and time on it And d) Yes there is a 4th thing too- I honestly don’t care for the fact that most Marvel movies are now becoming an advertisement for their next one. The post credit scene has gone from being fun fan-service to being the most important story telling tool that MCU has. But lest this turn into a rant, I decided to give myself a break from mediocre comic book filler movies (i.e. 70% of the MCU) to watch Badla.
Why watch Badla? (You do ask a lot of questions to conveniently make the narrative interesting, don’t you hypothetical reader?) Well, firstly coz it’s titled Badla…I love a good revenge story. Secondly it has Big B in it. And Tapsee Pannu. And is directed by Sujoy Ghosh…the same guy who directed Kahaani (and a host of other movies like Jhankar beats). Basically it has all the ingredients necessary to convince me to watch a Bollywood movie.
Badla is the story of Naina Sethi (Tapsee) who has been accused of murdering her lover Ajay in a hotel room. She claims she was assaulted as well and the murderer was a person trying to blackmail them both. The room was locked and the windows were shut, no one could’ve walked in or out of the room. She is telling her story to hot-shot lawyer Badal Gupta (Big B) who assures her that he can get her out only if he knows all the details. The details then start unravelling. The movie is an official remake of the Spanish film – The Invisible Guest.
 I really love murder mysteries and who doesn’t? I love the exercise of trying to outguess the movie and the sad part of being a writer is that you can spot the twists coming a mile away usually. So for me the game stopped being one of ‘Who did it?’ but one of ‘how are they gonna reach this point and will the movie’s logic hold up?’ I guessed the twist of Kahani within first 10 mins and still fucking loved the movie. I guessed the twist of this one within the first 3 minutes and…kinda liked this movie.
First the positives- Big B is…just Big B. I mean anyone else and this movie would have been so-so. I think it’s after a long time I watched him in a theatre and I firmly believe he should do more such thriller dramas. With age action thrillers may not suit him, but I need him to do intelligent cocky roles than playing quirky grandpas. He is charismatic, magnetic and every other adjective you can think of attaching to the greatest superstar Bollywood will ever produce. Needless to say he is obviously the best thing about the movie. Tapsee Pannu is really good as well. Although the script kinda makes her character behave oddly at times, she keeps with Bacchan. Their chemistry was very essential since the majority of the movie is 2 people sitting on a table discussing a story. Amrita Singh in a supporting role is great as well.
Now comes my problem with the movie…forget the fact that it is predictable…even wifey found it predictable…the twist was apparent if you were paying attention. But as I said before, my concern isn’t the twist. I don’t watch movies for the twist these days…it’s just that the path to the inevitable surprise isn’t as interesting here. It’s like a magic trick (Yes am referencing The Prestige here)…we go in not because we don’t know that it’s not true….we go in wanting to be fooled. If a trick can really pull the carpet from under your feet that’s great…but that rarely happens. I at least expect the magician to make some effort to distract me. I appreciate the craft and the effort behind it.  Here although right before the climax there was some kind of doubt created in your mind about the subjective nature of truth and unreliability of narration but throughout the movie it was almost blatantly obvious. And when it finally reaches the twist, it tries to be way too smarter than it should’ve been and frankly has a Race movies level twist (Although it’s there in the original movie as well, it’s still dumb).
Badla is a good movie that could’ve used some more tightening of the script, has some great performances is very enjoyable but tries too hard to have that ultimate twist moment. It proves that adaptation is an art and sometimes improvements can be made to the original as well.
I would recommend watching this ­- only if you have Nothing else to do. (that too preferably stream it on Netflix/Amazon)


PS - SHAZAM trailer is out! April 5th cant wait!