Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase 4 & Beyond (and a chance to change your vote)

having interwoven stories that made you had to buy a half dozen titles that you didn't care about in order to understand what was going on in the one comic you enjoyed reading was one of the most widely-derided things they did in that medium! and they decided that was what they needed to replicate in movies and tv

there are multiple reasonably successful movie and tv franchises now that do this without making the intersection points the main plotline of the individual elements

Oooof

A Blade movie that isn’t at all about Blade would be very, very funny

it makes it sound more like what would happen if Blade showed up on Sesame Street chasing the Count and was waylaid into a life lesson by Elmo.

I feel bad for the writers because some clueless producers are just "Can you make this like Blade but woke?!"

ironically Blade as a concept is already woke so idk wtf they were thinking

It is pretty woaw that a She Hulk episode cost more to make than a final season Game of thrones episode

Yeah, my older kids either have aged out or had no interest to begin with, and my 13 year old is extremely Disney skeptical at this point. His position is "It sucks unless you can convince me otherwise."

I still remember how good the first Iron Man and the first Avengers were.

the difference is that you can clearly see what is going on onscreen in any given episode of she-hulk and that shit does not come cheap xp

ironically Blade as a concept is already woke so idk wtf they were thinking

“having interwoven stories that made you had to buy a half dozen titles that you didn't care about in order to understand what was going on in the one comic you enjoyed reading was one of the most widely-derided things they did in that medium!”

Marvel in the 1990s, and one of various reasons I quit collecting

His position is "It sucks unless you can convince me otherwise."

He's ready to be a prestige filmmaker!

A Blade movie that isn’t at all about Blade would be very, very funny
― the new drip king (DJP), Wednesday, November 1, 2023 5:11 PM (forty-one minutes ago)

"Blink" being a spectacular Dr. Who episode, I could see the concept possibly working, but that it'd be better applied to Damage Control.

Blade as the continuation (after Werewolf by Night, Dr. Strange...) of wrapping in the supernatural, he needs to be central. They could bring in Ghost Rider, tease or start all the Midnight Sons, etc.

does loki s02 actually make any sense, like, within its own framework? the timelines are disappearing! the timelines are expanding so fast that shit's gonna break unless we invent some chronobabble gadgets! everyone's sprinting through dark corridors shrieking we're running out of time and everyone's gonna die! i mean i guess i don't actually need it to make sense, but this is less fun to me than moons crashing into planets and dozens of lokis fighting each other and the loki-sophie thing/not-thing

the exposition-tastic s02e01 was a major turnoff and my family has not returned

I get the sense the Loki show has had things going on off-screen that were hinted at and the end of the show is going to live within the framework of the beginning of the season
mostly prompted by that Loki seeing Sophie pry herself out of the elevator scene that made no sense at the beginning of the season being resolved by Loki paradoxing himself. So we've got the question of whether he just sheared off some timelines

i will say that between owen wilson and rafael casal/x-5/brad wolfe, this show has some Interesting Noses

Loki has basically been balls-out hilarious across 4 episodes with the cliffhanger on the most recent one being the absolute best thing I’ve seen in a Marvel property in a long time

I like the clock hologram lady

Voiced by Tara Strong who is a voice actor powerhouse!

lol have IG open on my phone and reading the comments on Amy Schumer's latest evil woe-is-me post, I see a comment from Tara Strong just as I read the above post, she's "definitely fallen in love with you"

voice actor powerhouse!

Miss Minutes is absolutely terrifying. The glee she was showing while Renslayer crushed the captive TVA agents was such a great touch.

tara strong made some pretty anti-palestinian and islamophobic tweets fwiw but obviously not the only problematic actor associated with this show heh

but yeah, great performance

There was also some internet chatter about her being racist towards an Uber driver but I don’t really know what happened there

I am going to defer my judgment and just enjoy a ridiculous computer animated character for the time being being

the easy out of “wow I knew they were bad because their acting sucked” is a coward’s refuge I try not to do. I can just offload the moral outrage on to the corporation for giving me that shit

Rob Gordon needs to critique the newest Loki episode

I'm really enjoying Ke Huy Quan in this, he's so endearing.

yeah he’s great!

"Well it did take me 18 months. And my wife left me".

I thought this most recent episode was great and the first of any of these shows or movies in a while to have any real oomph.

Maybe oomph was not the right onomatopoeia. But it had *something* that's been missing.

Genuinely curious how the new "Marvels" movie fares. I mean, it comes out in two days, and I've detected literally nothing in terms of excitement or interest, especially for a sequel to a movie that made over a billion. Maybe it'll be huge!

I bought tickets to the Marvels movie for Friday evening... there were five tickets sold, seven after I paid. It's going to tank, hard.

I’ll probably see Deadpool next, then FF. (I don’t know when the next Spider-Man will happen.)

It might be a problem how this film necessitates at least some familiarity with the events of two TV series, as well as two of the three main characters coming from those series.

And also that Brie Larson is charisma free in the role

Very mixed reviews so far

People are out for blood, regardless. I'm sure it's fine, just that a lot of people are sick of fine.

Well just saw it and I liked it! 'Fine' sure but actually better than that, it being quick helped too, a nice balance of personal melodrama and cosmic stuff with a lot of good zings/LOLs as it went, but I have no idea how it would land if you haven't seen either WandaVision or Ms. Marvel. (But on that latter point, it was just good fun seeing the whole Khan family again.) Still, though, even if it wasn't landing in an angst-filled atmosphere re the MCU, a fair amount of it lands REAL differently given the last few weeks of the world, though that might just be me.

One mid-credit screen, plus a quick audio amusement at the very end.

Haven't seen any of the shows that feed into this one so I may skip it but the short runtime is certainly a draw for me - I always find Marvel movies to be about 20-30 minutes too long

Yeah, bloated this isn't.

Surprised this is projected to tank so hard, I remember liking the trailer, the Captain Marvel movie was huge, and the Ms. Marvel show was critically acclaimed (though to be honest I myself watched only the pilot.) I mean are people more excited about quantum Paul Rudd being quantum Paul Rudd again?

https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/marvel-deadpool-3-now-only-mcu-movie-coming-out-in-2024-1234925191/

I mean are people more excited about quantum Paul Rudd being quantum Paul Rudd again?

Despite grossing around $476 million worldwide, it was considered a box-office disappointment, becoming one of the few films in the MCU not to break even in its theatrical run.[6]

Yeah, when you make half a billion and only break even, you're doing it wrong. Blumhouse has got it figured out: spend less, make more:

Blumhouse just had its biggest opening ever with “Five Nights at Freddy’s”.

It made $130m (on a $20m budget).

Still has weeks to go but another win for the studio that just cranks out horror bangers with wild returns on budgets. pic.twitter.com/d1ay8OLuZz

— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) October 30, 2023

And if you *are* going to spend a shit ton of money on a movie that is seemingly 75% superfluous effects (or 75% FX, full stop), go into it with a solid script. Everything I read about these Marvel movies makes it seem like they have got it backwards. It's like they start the FX without a finished script, eventually get a writer/director, make the writers/directors work around those FX, which means demanding reshoots and throwing shit out, which means more FX, which wastes time, money and energy. Not that they've had a winning track record later, but does Pixar do "reshoots"? Start without finished scripts? I doubt it.

The story of Nia DaCosta leaving "The Marvels" several months early sounds like it wasn't her fault, but the fact that she could at all shows how little Marvel cares about making a coherent movie and more about cranking shit out. It's good that there's little on the sched for 2024. Covid was a sign from god that it was time to take a break. The actors and writers strikes were two more. Finally, Marvel seems to be getting the message that making movies that people want to see means making movies that people want to see.

I'm no marketing genius, but it hasn't helped that most of the TV shows (whatever their worth as entertainments) have hardly been must-see events. I love how "Werewolf By Night" was marketed as a special event. Imagine if they did the same with other shows. Make them seem special. Promote one as a must-see TV movie event setting the stage for big movies to come, not just side-stage wheel spinning. Make people excited, not exhausted.

“Finally, Marvel seems to be getting the message that making movies that people want to see means making movies that people want to see.”

💯

I snark on the MCU, I know. I’m a cynic and a grumbler - but don’t hate comic book movies. Just want them to be better, fewer. and less necessarily interconnected / dependent on one another.

Feel like this season of Loki has been a metaphor for the whole dilemma of the MCU. Too many branches overwhelming the sacred timeline.

I like the interconnected nature of the MCU but it’s just too much. The early days were great—Iron Man movie, Thor movie, Captain America movie, team-up movie.

Since Endgame they’ve had Shang-chi, Spider-Man, Dr Strange, Ant Man, Guardians, Eternals, Black Panther, and now the Marvels—never mind Moon Knight, Loki, Hawkeye, Falcon & Winter Soldier, She-Hulk…. and still
more characters who have been introduced (or reintroduced) like Black Knight, Starfox, Daredevil, Wong… and yet there is still no cohesive team up movie that draws it all together.

It’s the sheer quantity of threads, without the sacred throughline, that’s making it all feel so meaningless.

also doesn't help that there's the Miles Morales films doing multiverse stuff a lot better

I still think Loki and Wandavision were more entertaining than any of the films though

ha you even forgot there was a Black Window movie. That seemed like a real problem for the MCU-- hey, I know we killed off this character, but you still like her so we're giving you a movie about her. We're not going to bring her back though.