Rolling Marvel Cinematic Universe thread (+ a poll: Classic or Dud?)

Anyway, series as mentioned but:

Just found out they’re making a Moonknight movie and this better be in it pic.twitter.com/o1gQLLBtXo

— Cooper Wilhelm (@CooperWilhelm) August 24, 2019

Don't think I've ever actually seen Steinfeld in anything, but seems like potentially good casting?: https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/hawkeye-series-hailee-steinfeld-disney-plus-1203318859/

Don't know about good casting, but seems like potentially a good career move.

she was great in True Grit and Edge of Seventeen

that is great casting, she’s a perfect kate bishop

https://io9.gizmodo.com/sony-and-marvel-strike-new-deal-to-keep-spider-man-in-t-1838527425

Inevitable. Although less so is the deal to have Spidey straddle both the MCU and the Sony Crapverse. Nice bit o' extra walkin' around money for Holland.

Are you his accountant or something, lol

Only for Spidey 3 and a single MCU movie, I'm guessing whatever grand plans Marvel had for him are still kinda derailed. Still, much better than nothing, at least the Home trilogy will get a completed ending.

Popcorn movies reinforce cultural values of the moment. Marvel is brilliant at encapsulating the Kardashification of wealth and power as virtue. You can hang out in the mansions with the toys with your good looking friends and still save the world.

— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) October 21, 2019

wow, superheroes as power fantasy, what a novel take

This is an important point to make right now, in the midst of a nearly year-long period when Marvel is releasing precisely zero movies. But you knew that, of course.

Why don’t Coppola and Scorsese come at their boys Spielberg and Lucas (ret.)? “Popcorn movies” have been around for a minute; I don’t get what inspired this round of, er, “commentary.”

Spielberg and Lucas' best efforts at 'popcorn' look like Bresson in this context

“Best efforts,” I guess... I’m much more of a Star Wars fan than an MCU fan, but 3 or 4 of the SW movies Lucas made seem no “better” than the best of the MCU.

Morbs, I have prepared a substantial bowl of popcorn and I await your defense of the Star Wars prequels.

Has Scorsese ever commented on Star Wars? I can't imagine him liking it that much.

Anyway, MCU seem way more defensive than Star Wars fans, for whatever reason (at least from what I can tell online, nobody I know in real life cares that people don't like their favorite movies).

that's called "cherrypicking" rogermex

however i thought Phantom Menace was about as good as the first Iron Man

Phantom Menace was a seeping fistula

v harsh on fistulas imo

Attack of the Clones was horrible, Sith slightly better bcz mangling of Hayden Christensen

The prequels are DC level bad

Sith would have been a cinematic classic had it been 150 minutes of Christiansen dying

Marty was a big expanded universe fan, and he was steamed when Disney rendered all that stuff non-canon.

Xxxxpost

Just think how much worse it would have been without Scorsese et al’s thoughts on it. https://variety.com/1999/voices/columns/lucas-friends-approve-of-episode-1-1117492871/

i would argue the star wars prequels are more interesting than any marvel film i've seen but y'all know where i'm coming from here. marvel movies are way more anonymous

though i guess i haven't seen them all

First Star Wars movie heavily indebted to Kirby's Fourth World comics, so it's just as much a comic book movie as Endgame

The prequels kind of get an unfair rap in some ways; at least Lucas was trying to do new things. (Though I think Revenge of the Sith is a truly awful movie)

i would argue the star wars prequels are more interesting than any marvel film i've seen but y'all know where i'm coming from here. marvel movies are way more anonymous

― american bradass (BradNelson), 21. oktober 2019 17:43 (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well, yeah, but you know what's also not anonymous: Zack Snyder films! Still abysmal.

i like batman vs superman (i know it has no fans here, you don't have to tell me)

This is an important point to make right now, in the midst of a nearly year-long period when Marvel is releasing precisely zero movies. But you knew that, of course.

Seven (7) Marvel films have been released in the 23 months since his last feature was only able to screen for a week despite packing a theatre, and he is an American having his thoughts while flying from a commercial gig in Buenos Aires to one in London. He has to make commercials because he cannot get funding for mid-level features, which have been squeezed out of the market. Would it have been okay for him to have frustrations about a massive monopoly reshaping his chosen industry three months ago, if it’s not okay now?

It's too bad that Francis Ford Coppola can't get funding because of superhero-films, when in a perfect world he wouldn't be able to get funding because he haven't made a good movie in 40 years.

*continues to clown self itt* dracula was only 27 years ago

Tucker is a good movie also, that's only 30 years old.

Dracula is A Good Movie, I will die on this hill.

If there were no superhero movies, there'd have been 10 more Rambos

it's fuckin great xp

the larger point though is this squeezing-out of mid-budget fare. it's not just superheroes doing the squeezing - it's the well-discussed combination of franchise marketing, studios chasing reliable huge international grosses through effects-heavy spectaculars, and streaming options drawing away viewers (especially older viewers).... and it's not just New Cinema veterans losing the chance at wide releases for more serious or adult films, it's the theatrical death of the rom-com, the romantic drama, the police procedural, the biopic, the crime thriller, the espionage thriller, the buddy-cop movie...

there are exceptions to all of these obv, but what fills studios' slates and multiplex schedules is very very different than 10 or 20 years ago and i think it's okay for those who have some clout to complain about this to use that clout, even if it's tilting at windmills.

I feel like there are two biopics in the theatre at any given time. I am sick of them

people just not going to the movies as much people used to killed off mid-level features way more than superhero movies. If there were no blockbuster movies, there would probably just be way less movie theaters.

Yeah, the only one where I think there's been a significant drop-off is police procedural, and there's probably other reasons for that?

ok biopics were maybe a bad one to include in my list... esp ones that can leverage a popular discographic IP.

it's the theatrical death of the rom-com, the romantic drama, the police procedural, the biopic, the crime thriller, the espionage thriller, the buddy-cop movie

tbf most of these formats/genres suck. we just have a different brand of shit now *shrug emoji*

and i mentioned streaming!

it's very hard to say which did more harm. but it's a real thing that when screens are booked up for weeks for a sure thing (often under contractual demand), those screens are not holding something else. there's no way to know if given time to hang around and let word of mouth do its thing (or even to commit to a slow-n-steady marketing campaign, versus opening-weekend-or-bust), certain underperforming, grownup fare might have had time to find its audience.

the success in recent years of a handful of big word-of-mouth hits (girls trip, get out), and of e.g. the handful of "dad movies" that are blockbustery enough to get a chance for dad to notice they exist (dunkirk), and things with yknow "heartland appeal" (american sniper), are also suggestive. yes, streaming and ticket prices are hugely to blame here - it's absolutely just plain harder to get people to go to the movies. but to make room for superhero movies and animated movies, everything else is in and out so fucking fast that water-cooler recommendations become almost pointless. that's a problem for lots of filmmakers or aspiring filmmakers (assuming they want their work seen on the big screen), not just your coppolas and scorseses.

Would it have been okay for him to have frustrations about a massive monopoly reshaping his chosen industry three months ago

Also he didn’t say anything about this; he said the films are “despicable” and that Scorsese was “being kind when he said it wasn’t cinema.”

Seven (7) Marvel films have been released in the 23 months since his last feature was only able to screen for a week despite packing a theatre, and he is an American having his thoughts while flying from a commercial gig in Buenos Aires to one in London. He has to make commercials because he cannot get funding for mid-level features, which have been squeezed out of the market. Would it have been okay for him to have frustrations about a massive monopoly reshaping his chosen industry three months ago, if it’s not okay now?

― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Monday, October 21, 2019 11:10 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mea culpa, I didn't realize Morbs' filmmaking career had been so directly impacted when I ribbed him for what seemed at the time an unnecessary revive of this thread.

Sorry to break it to you, but Francis Ford Coppola did not direct the battle rap movie or the motorcycle race movie

xp

The worst thing about Marvel becoming so ubiquitous is that thing where everybody has to have an opinion about it now. Ugh.