Topic: The Marvel Thread

@FuriousMachine totally, it's not the worst thing Marvel has done, it's the sense they could have done something so much better with the premise.

I felt this today actually, it's like watching a BBC drama. Perhaps not surprising as it was made over here.

I don't think it's a bad show but I feel like with a lot of these shows, something is lost watching it week to week instead of just binging it as a 5-6 hour movie.

@RogerRoger Well, I'm still watching and I think @BearsEatBeets sums it up pretty nicely. It not bad, it just seems... i don't know, subpar? Lazy even, maybe? I thought I maybe finally caught that superhero fatigue that's been going around, but then I saw the new trailer for The Marvels and my excitement level skyrocketed, so it ain't that
Still going to watch the finale on Wednesday, but I have low expectations.

@RogerRoger You guessed correctly, I'm sad to report. Not that I was expecting a sudden spike in quality, but still, so wasted. There was a "big fight", but I can't say I was particularly invested in the outcome. The thing that bothers me the most about this is the fallout from the show. We lost Maria Hill and Talos, the latter of which was a real blow as Mendelsohn brought so much to the role. Additionally, the events of the final episode now leaves us with the arguably most powerful character in the MCU, even more powerful that Carol Danvers, leaving us with another OP'd character issue going forward. They'll probably shunt her off in a corner somewhere and only reference why she won't help in the next big crisis in some offhand way.
All this in service of a show that amounted to little more than a wet fart.

Ah, well, next up is season 2 of Loki in October, which I'm kind of lukewarm on. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised

OK, excitement level for Loki s2 rising significantly with today's new trailer The first segment with Ke Huy Quan really hit home for me. Hope he's got plenty to do in the show as it seems that he plays well off Owen Wilson there. As the kids say today: I am excite!

Just dropping by to say I thought Secret Invasion was rather bad unfortunately!

@RogerRoger I did enjoy Loki s1, but I didn't love it quite as much as I loved WandaVision. Still, Hiddleston and Wilson are powerhouses and I completely fell in love with Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Add to that a brilliant cameo from Richard E. Grant and a good time was definitely had How about you?

Hope you'll enjoy Across the Spider-verse! I absolutely loved it and can't wait to see it again.

@RogerRoger Yeah, you're absolutely right, quality will vary, and has done so since the beginning. Secret Invasion was the first time I almost felt indifferent to/uninterested in the story that was told, though. Even in my initial disappointment with Quantumania I was at least invested in it.
Still, I'm happy that it looks like I'm still immune to the general Superhero Fatigue

Saw in the Movie thread that you enjoyed Across the Spider-verse as much as I did. Spectacular piece of filmmaking, that

@RogerRoger Absolutely, or as the kids say, "word"
And that reminds me that I should follow Dr. @RogerRoger's orders and administer some of that antidote soon. Still no superhero fatigue to speak of in my case, but it's been a while since I saw Across.. so best be on the safe side and watch it again.

@RogerRoger LOL, but at least your medical advice for combating the dreaded superhero fatigue is sound and should stand up well to peer reviews by other medical professionals

Just got back from seeing The Marvels in IMAX. It's far from a perfect movie; in fact it is quite flawed, but I'm sure plenty of others will relish dumping on yet another superhero movie, so I'll leave that to them. Me? I enjoyed the hell out of it! For me, it was the superhero highpoint of 2023, which, admittedly, is a low bar to clear (and bear in mind that I have yet to see Gen V), but I also thought it was one of the funniest Marvel movies I've seen. I chuckled quite a lot and that was mainly due to the excellent Khan family and, of course, Iman Vellani, who really owns this movie
I was also happily surprised by a couple of cameos I was blissfully unaware of going in and the mid-credits stinger elicited cheers and applause, which is rare as Norwegian audiences rarely engage in such activities

@LN78 You know, funnily enough, I actually agree with most of his points in that review. And yet, somehow, I managed to have a good time at the movies last night. Maybe the ladies charmed me and distracted me from the mess, but still... life being as it is these days, if a movie makes me enjoy myself for a couple of hours, I'll take it

@LN78 Hahaha, touché Flaws, absolutely, yes. However, I still believe that something doesn't have to be flawless to be good and that's where I strongly believe the subjectivity comes in: To what degree any flaw will ruin the experience for a given viewer determines whether it is good or bad for that particular person. So, maybe we were just arguing semantics? I don't know. That is still my opinion, though, and it's why I try to avoid using "good" and "bad" when giving my opinion without at least qualifying it as my experience (like "I thought it was good" rather than "it was good").

@RogerRoger Hope you'll have a good time with it also. I'm fairly confident that the Khans will give you a few chuckles, at least. There are some savage reviews out there, but I'm seeing more and more that emphasizes that the movie is a fun little thing despite its lacklustre villain and overall messiness.

@LN78 A bit of a good news/bad news situation for me, that. Bad because I am actually looking forward to these films (and I'm sure there are at least two, maybe three others who do, as well) and good because they're seemingly resisting the urge to rush them to meet the dates after the long production hiatus. Hopefully they will have gotten their house in order and can avoid the mistakes they've made with recent entries going forward. We'll see.

@RogerRoger It seems like it's going to be a box office disaster (at least in MCU terms), unfortunately, but that will probably lead to a shorter wait for digital, so you probably won't have to wait long. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, but I don't expect I'll be making another trip the theater for it (too many other movies I want to see ).

@FuriousMachine Saw The Marvels myself a few days ago and largely agree with your assessment! I'm not at all a fan of anything MCU-related generally. I'd say the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are about the only films they've put out I would really call great. That said, I still see a bunch of them as my mother loves them and I'm her designated cinema buddy whenever another one rolls around.

It's a total mess of a movie in terms of narrative structure, pacing and a lot of other stuff and yet I think the silliness and non-serious nature of it did a lot to make it entertaining nonetheless. I think a lot of the other MCU movies have very similar issues and nowhere near the fun factor of this one, so it's curious this one is getting so singled out in terms of reception. I could hazard a guess as to why though unfortunately. Kamala and her family were definitely the MVPs, but I think the trio of leads were pretty fun together and had some good chemistry.

Nothing groundbreaking or anywhere near peak comic book cinema, but I don't except otherwise from the typical MCU movie. It was a fun time at the movies and personally that alone already puts it ahead of many other experiences I've had with this franchise!

@Tjuz I love that you accompany your mum to the movies My mother also loves the MCU, but she's too old and infirm to make it to the cinema, so every now and then I visit her and we make a weekend out of catching up on the ones she hasn't seen on Disney+.
I wouldn't be surprised if your suspicions about why this movie seems to get a lot more negative feedback than others with similar problems line up with my own on the topic. Rhymes with "risogyni" and "macism", I think. Luckily, Marvel seems to be aware of the fact that these movies activates a toxic, vocal minority of viewers and, as such, hopefully won't learn the wrong lessons from this movie's box office struggles.

Just finished watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Another fantastic GotG movie! Really loved the deep dive into Rocket's past, it made me appreciate him a lot more compared to the previous movies. Also loved the amount of characters in the movie. Although I have to say that it felt a bit wasted not having Stallone on screen a bit more. Imagine getting a huge actor like him on board and then not having him show up in the movie a lot.

Soooo... just watched Madame Web....
When this was announced, I really didn't know what this was going to be... I remembered the character from her first appearances in the comics in the 80s, but can't say she was a character I knew well... and all I remembered was that she was a clairvoyant, blind and old... like old old.
The other spider-girls I had no idea who were.
I was cautiously optimistic until the trailer dropped, which raised some concerns, and then the reviews came in. First one I read was positive, so I purchased at ticket, but canceled it after seeing more reviews.
Still, I thought, "maybe it's one of those cases where I'm in the small group of people who likes an otherwise panned movie", so when it dropped on digital, I went for it.

It was a great idea to set the movie in 2003 and work as Cassandra Webb's origin story. While she wouldn't be wrinkly, white-haired, knocking on death's door old when Parker starts swinging around (as she was in the comics), she'd at least be a little bit old.
Another good idea was to use this as a setup for a spider-team that could utilize young up and coming actors in their own franchise whilst allowing them to recast them older in the main timeline if so needed.
Another good idea was to link in the Parkers in a way that fans would get, but wouldn't distract anyone else... and I absolutely love the idea of Adam Scott being Uncle Ben, even if it's not canon.

So, lots of good ideas here, but all of them (except casting Adam Scott) was executed poorly, so very, very poorly. This is the most frustrating of films; the ones you know exist as great movies in a parallel universe where competent filmmakers and screenwriters came together and executed on a good concept. Unfortunately, we do not live in that universe.

Did I read it right somewhere that they just cancelled a bunch of films? I was surprised they were still going tbh.