Marvel Cinematic Universe

[mfnick]

I enjoyed Loki S1 but yea I completely agree with your thoughts when it comes to S2. It was so boring, had to bail out half way through. I’ve just stopped watching the MC TV stuff now. It’s either just ok or actually bad.

[Maf]

I didn’t realise Loki was acclaimed. Why is that? S1 had a good ending and I really like the way they introduced Kang. S2 was rubbish, though. 
 

I still think X-Men 97 is one of the best things Marvel has done to date. Movie, TV, live action, whatever 

[Maryokutai]

Maybe people liking Tom Hiddleston and convincing themselves that the stuff he's in is always good? 

 

I wonder if the reason movies like EEAAO and Spider-Verse make the multiverse work is because they are single, closed-off storylines. Whereas the MCU mostly used it as a springboard to flood the market with potentially lucrative IPs, with little regard to how it could result in interesting narratives. It sounds like a paradox, but maybe multiverse isn't meant to be massive, but contained.

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah, Everything Everywhere has a motif in it with the googly eye, I think like it's sort of the same idea as The Matrix where you funnel all possibilities into one space or something. This article explains it better (spoilers): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/16/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-asian-hollywood-film

 

The praise I read for Loki was on lots of other message boards. At least I know I'm not going crazy tho, if others here feel similar on it (S2 anyway)

 

I guess I should watch Spiderman at some point, I actually got it on sale months back on 4K cause it's one I did hear was really good and not just from marvel heads

[Maf]

16 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

 

I wonder if the reason movies like EEAAO and Spider-Verse make the multiverse work is because they are single, closed-off storylines.

The multiverse stories I like are the ones that use the multiverse to focus on the main characters

 

Spoilers for Secret Wars comic but

 

Spoiler

At the end of everything after every single reality has collapsed and been melded together on a patch work Earth the final fight comes down to Reed Richard’s and Dr Doom. Marvel’s first leading man and he’s greatest enemy. Out of all of everything, it still comes back down to these 2

Stuff like that is cool

[one-armed dwarf]

So anyway on Doomsday, there are some pretty big paychecks being given out. They haven't started filming yet and the budget is already two Oppenheimers

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/robert-downey-jr-doctor-doom-avengers-pay-salary-russo-brothers-1236089512/

 

This definitely feels like a big Hail Mary, throw the cheque book at them to save the MCU series. Cause even if Deadpool did great, it hardly seems to promise an audience will return to the next film. But something like this might

[Maf]

I wonder how they will play Kang out of the story. Will they recast for one scene where Doom comes in and kills all the Kangs, or will they Infinity War that shit where

 

Spoiler

Thanos kills an entire planet and grabbed the first infinity gem - and it all happens off-screen 

 

[OCH]

For the record, it's the ending to (Loki) Season 2 that sells it. If you didn't make it that far, objectively you wouldn't get it. I've read elsewhere people decrying that Kang is boring (and generic) to watch. That's because Kang is boring, full stop.

 

Hopefully Secret Wars will be the original one, which will better explain multiversal characters being folded into the MCU. The Hickman Secret Wars is too steeped in Fantastic Four lore to make sense within the framework of a mostly FF-absent MCU.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I did finish Loki, it doesn't excuse how boringly mechanical its storytelling is. It's not about people

 

Like Mary mentioned it but I like Tom Hiddleston and it's why I watched it, but his version of the character on the TV show is barely alike to his movie appearances, at least not past the first couple episodes. You could call that character development, but they develop him into something devoid of his more attractive characteristics when he was a villain in Avengers, or an anti-hero in Thor Ragnarok

[Maf]

This clip of Hugh Jackman’s acting from DP3 is doing the rounds

 

Spoiler

 

Like, yes it is good. But I kind of wish they didn’t make Wolverine swear so much. Not the point of the clip but it really sticks out to me

[Maf]

More DP3 cameo spoilers

 

Spoiler

Essentially Ryan Reynolds just called James Gunn a shit-fuck lol

 

[Maf]

[mfnick]

It’s not big and it’s not clever.

 

Sure is fucking funny though. 

[Maf]

Deadpool 3 story spoilers

 

Spoiler

So in the movie they introduce this idea of anchor characters. Basically characters that are so special that they anchor their entire time line. Turns out Logan was that for the Fox universe, and when he died so did that entire time line. 
 

I read a good point that it doesn’t make sense. Because what happens if even that anchor character dies of old age? The entire time line is erased? It also makes the idea of Kang trying to prune time lines obsolete.

 

I think they looked at Spiderverse 2 and the idea that all Spider-People have a ‘canon event’, and thought they’d do their own version. An event that cements the character. Except they did it back to front and it doesn’t work at all

 

But it’s Deadpool, I guess, so it doesn’t matter too much. 

Everything I’ve seen of this film makes me really want to watch it. I guess because it’s so successful it won’t be on streaming for a very long time 

[one-armed dwarf]

Go to like an early showing over the weekend or something when there will be less dickheads at it.

 

I watched Incredible Hulk. Damn man, wtf is this film. It's so languid. There's stuff at the start where Bruce Banner is in South America in hiding that actually was pretty interesting, then it just descends into a fairly turgid series of chase sequences with Tim Roth as the villain yet barely engaged and watching the clock and Liv Tyler being Liv Tyler.

 

tbf expectations were low here, even MCU fans don't seem to like this one and it torpedoed Ed Norton's career for some sad reason. It's the only phase 1 film I had not seen tho and it's clear that the formula for MCU was in a very undeveloped state cause the film has that mid noughties 'edge' about it, next to something like Iron Man which much moreso resembles the modern direction

[Maryokutai]

They should import Bana-Hulk into the MCU. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Funny thing is, the 2008 film is apparently a loose psuedo sequel to the Ang Lee version. The screenplay started out like that and then morphed into its own continuity.

 

They skip past the initial 'Hulkening' in this, it already happened in the past in the film that came out 5 years before

 

Similarish situation as Evil Dead 2, sequel reboot

[Maf]

I really like the 2008 Hulk film. I’ve watched it at least 4 times and always enjoyed it 

[Nag]

Like I said in the Films thread I enjoyed the shit out of Deadpool and Wolverine but I've got to admit I have no idea how he's going to work if he's folded in to the bigger MCU pictures like Secret Wars and such.... literally every other sentence has profanity or something offensive in it, he'd have to be pretty much mute to feature in a rated 12 film... and a muzzled Deadpool wouldn't be half as enjoyable. 

[Maryokutai]

You could play around that by having him self-censor himself, both for swearing and violence. Would get old quickly maybe but in a team movie he'd have significantly less screen time anyway.

 

But I think moreso than the R-rated stuff I feel like the entire concept of him taking nothing seriously and constantly breaking the fourth wall wouldn't really work in another MCU movie. It's an idea that works fine in comics or even video games, but I think She-Hulk proved that mixing it together with an IP that, despite having serious issue committing to a tone, takes itself seriously doesn't work out particularly well (I wouldn't mind seeing a team-up movie between Deadpool and She-Hulk though).

 

Also, Reynolds is rapidly approaching 50 and probably doesn't want to do the spandex stuff for much longer either.