I think all his films are quite successful. The notion he is a fading star is kind of false. Just about any actor would love to be in his shoes, especially at his age. Really, only the “Mummy” was really considered to be a “dud”. Most of his sci-fi movies make money. Yes. he will never climb to “Top Gun” like peaks…

Heck, I do go into these movies knowing he does all his own stunts, and it would still never occur to me that he might be seriously injured/killed. The Cruise-as-superhuman myth has seeped into my subconscious. I mean, look at the articles that came out when he shattered his ankle - for any other film we’d get “filming…

While I believe technically Edge of Tomorrow was a box office dud, it certainly had and still has “buzz” and positive reviews re: Cruise, as well as being a cult hit amongst a certain segment. It definitely helped his reputation I’d say, even if it didn’t make a ton of money.

I think Cruise performing his own stunts is mostly due to his own psychology—whether it’s a death wish, his desire to be the ultimate showman or a misguided sense of invincibility—and can’t be placed on any morbid curiosity or enabling behavior from the audience. If audiences are enabling him or daring him, I think…

It also helps when you have slave labor via the Sea Org, and you have women “groomed” to be your wife.

Also, we need to reset the counter:

When you’ve achieved Operating Thetan Level III you can do crazy stunts when you’re in your fifties.  

They have a character like that.. Dr Leonard McCoy. Also one of the Reg Barkley episodes touched on much of that, and if anyone knows how the sausage is made, he does.

I’m calling it now. Frieza is going to end up like Piccolo and Vegeta and be an even gruffer villain turned anti-hero.

If you’re assuming the transporter doesn’t somehow displace what’s in the space you’re transporting into, why even worry about a twig or insect? Even the gaseous atmosphere presents a matter interaction issue. You’d need to transport into a vacuum.

I’m with you on that one. The super saga chipped away at everything dragon ball/z used to be great at.

Sad to report that as an original DB and DBZ fan since the 90's, they lost me long  before they gave the characters RGB hair.

base freeza didnt stand up to jiren, base freeza stood up to an extremely weakened jiren fresh off of fighting ultra instinct goku. big difference.

Now that we’re getting Broly, I hope they make Gogeta canon sometime, too.

Nah, I’ve already seen most of em and I don’t have that sort of free time at this moment. Honestly I prefer Abridged over the real thing, keeps the plot more or less intact and doesn’t spend three episodes screaming and flashing.

And they repeated those two movies in the anime, spanning multiple episodes. I still don’t understand that decision.

None of the movies were canonical, with the exception of Battle of Gods.

Those movies didn’t directly involve Toriyama so they’re not canon. On the plus side it means Bio-Broly didn’t happen.

Haven’t watched any of Super... but younger me saw all the DBZ movies. They fought Brolly twice before. Are they just retconning it?

- It looks SOOOOO Fucking good. The animation reminds me of the early (pre-super saiyan) movies, in a good way.