Topic: The Marvel Thread

@AgentCooper Csn you imagine how much money a post Academy Award RDJ and the Russos must be getting? The budget must be at $200M already.

@AgentCooper in the world of Hollywood? Never!

@LN78 Almost definitely, It reeks of desperation and creative bankruptcy.

@AgentCooper Especially when they could've hired Nikolaj Coster-Waldau for $3.49 and a bucket of chicken. Astounding, really - I can't think of a worse example of stunt casting from the near 40 years that I've being paying attention to movies. Even the Broccolis had the good sense not to bring Connery back (for a cameo, no less) in "Skyfall".

WTF?! That is one of the worst casting decisions I've ever heard.... I'm firmly in denial...

@FuriousMachine it is sadly all real, my friend. And im still in denial.

Was just about to see if anyone had seen the RDJ announcement and it seems I'm late to the party. Utterly bizarre decision. I'll admit I'm curious to know how they plan to make it work. Odd it's for an Avengers movie also, thought they were making a Fantastic Four film which the character is more closely associated with.

@BearsEatBeets Yeah, Galactus is reportedly the main villain for the Fantastic Four movie, which is also a "period piece" (set in the 60's in a reality different than ours, apparently). I would not be surprised if there's a Doom cameo or setup there or something, though. It was also confirmed that the FF (along with the Thunderbolts) will appear in the Avengers movies, so that's likely the connection..
How much of all this is smoke and mirrors or subject to change, I don't know. All I know is that I'm excited about The Thunderbolts* and vary about the rest of it.

Regarding RDJ as Doom.... Honestly, what the hell is happening at Marvel?

Under most normal circumstances, even if I do not agree with a specific casting choice, I can usually 'objectively' appreciate why such a decision has been made.... but this is borderline absurd, not to mention remarkably confusing.

Is RDJ the result of Marvel's "smash glass in case of emergency" plan??

IMO, they either should have stuck with the Kang narrative and re-cast (would have been challenging, but do-able... especially as appearance differences can be explained away with Multiversal logic.) OR followed through in a better casting choice for Doom.

This might be unpopular, but I was really hoping they would bring back Julian McMahon - who played Doom in the 2 early F4 films. Julian McMahon's work in 'NIP/TUCK' was fantastic, and genuinely think he is a solid enough actor. The fanfare would welcomed the return of a familiar face also.
(Or as a runner up, the actor who plays Jaime Lannister - can't remember his name - but he would have been excellent)

The more I think about RDJ coming back as Doom, the weirder it seems....

On a plus-note, good to see the Russo boys back at the helm

@FuriousMachine Now you mention it that does a ring a bell regarding the 60's setting. Another bizarre idea and can only assume there is going to be some kind of teleporting/dimension hoping near the end so that they can tie in with the rest of the MCU.
Ultimately I think the desire to have all the films be 'connected' is just going to get more and more convoluted and messy. They did a great job to just about pull it off up to Endgame.
Can't say I'm familiar with Thunderbolts but sometimes that can help with the enjoyment of the films if you have no preconception of how it should be going in.

@BearsEatBeets I fully expect them to wind up in the Negative Zone or similar at one point (I say "similar" because with the Quantum Realm and the TVA realm already in play, I suppose they'll probably want to avoid adding yet another realm that can displace them in space/time, not trusting their audience to be able to grasp that much variety. See also: distrusting audiences to grasp variety in actors).
Not sure how that would fit with the Galactus thing, though, but I don't believe they'll spend much time on earth, at least.
It is speculated that Avengers: Secret Wars will serve as the cap to the entire MCU thus far and provide a soft reboot. Maybe they'll loosen up the "everything is connected" thing after that. I only know that I fully expect every post-Secret Wars role to be played by Robert Downey Junior.

@CJD87 I agree 100% with the notion that they simply should have recast Kang instead of going with Doom, but that would mean leaning even heavier into the multiverse things, and that has not gone over well with audiences, to say the least. I think going the Doom route is not only to handle the Majors problem, but maybe also tone down the multiverse stuff. Can't say I'll miss the multiverse, it is lazy and while I loved the cameos in D&W, I don't want the MCU to simply re-heat old characters and actors (which is why I was against bringing Jackman back, too... it worked in Deadpool, but I do indeed worry that they'll make him play Logan 'till he's 90).
And, yeah, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime from GoT) would make great Doom, but they could even go with a relative unknown, as Doom absolutely should be masked and/or disfigured for 99% of the movie (allowing for 1% if they insist on doing the origin story). I worry that we'll get a Stallone/Judge Dredd situation here. And that's the thing, I've tried to be accepting of RDJ as Doom with him only doing voicework and nothing else, but I don't think they'll go that route and we'll end up getting notes of Tony Stark in our Doom.

@FuriousMachine Yeah the whole MCU has been a bit of a hot mess post-Endgame, with a few notable highlight amongst a sea of mediocrity.

RDJ is a class act, and was/is phenomenal as Tony, but it just seems to senseless to cast him in another separate high-profile role - it just reeks of confusion, and I just can't see how it will work well.

As for multiversal escapades.... I'm just so over it. Also had enough of every movie needing to tie into other multiple franchise entries (TV or Movies) whilst trying also to serve as a standalone narrative.
Its exhausting, and also makes me feel like the stakes are never 'really real' - any character can reappear of be brought back to life via Multiverse shenanigans. At least Deadpool 3 was pretty funny, and generally a pretty entertaining 2 hours.

I guess tough for Marvel/Disney though as that initial run from Iron Man - - -> Endgame was a decade of majority-hits, with very few misses. Films like The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Homecoming.... all seem like a million miles away from today in terms of quality.

I guess time will tell, but superhero fatique is definitely a thing.

@CJD87 If it was somehow impossible for them to get a Romani actor for Doom considering they whitewashed Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (to the extent that they were working for Nazis despite being Romani)… I’d have taken Julian McMahon or Toby Kebbell over RDJ despite their takes on the character previously being terrible. But still, this is the company who struck gold with Iman Vellani for Ms Marvel. They also found Alaqua Cox who is a young Native American deaf amputee and a brilliant actress who could also pull off the fight scenes required for Echo, to the point she got her own show as her performance was widely praised. It can’t be this difficult to get Doom right but it’s sure as hell easy to get him wrong.

@CJD87 Amen to the “had enough of every movie needing to tie into other multiple franchise entries (TV or Movies) whilst trying also to serve as a standalone narrative.” Both Marvel and Star Wars have almost alienated me entirely because of the sheer quantity of intertwined shows and movies. It’s the movie/TV version of the Legend of Heroes phenomenon. 😅

@Th3solution what’s crazy is that they want it both ways. In every way. They wanna take risks, without taking any. They wanna seem bold, but give the same ol same ol. They wanna seem daring, but they’re as accommodative as ever. You cannot take risks without, Y’know, taking risks.

@Th3solution Welcome to my world, albeit about 5 years later!

@nessisonett Yes Marvel loves a good white-washing, no doubt about it.

I just find the RDJ casting to be utterly bizarre on so many levels.....Deadpool was right to warn Logan about it being a 'low point' ha

@Malaise no, it started with The Incredible Hulk.

@Malaise 🤣 you’re not alone.
Yeah the 2003 hulk is its own thing.
Yeah both were 2008.
Don’t worry about cherry picking. I think it’d be quite exhausting to watch all films that came out in the sixteen years.