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

The other issue is, when we’re in postproduction, we don’t have a director of photography involved. So we’re coming up with the shots a lot of the time. It causes a lot of incongruity. A good example of what happens in these scenarios is the battle scene at the end of Black Panther. The physics are completely off. Suddenly, the characters are jumping around, doing all these crazy moves like action figures in space. Suddenly, the camera is doing these motions that haven’t happened in the rest of the movie. It all looks a bit cartoony. It has broken the visual language of the film.

like, if you were a director, wouldn't you ... not want some lowly spline jockey coming up with the shots for the climax of your movie?

(apologies to my friends who work in vfx who aren't reading this anyway, but you know what I mean)

I’m definitely in cherry-picking mode with the MCU. These announcements were met with a … shrug, honestly.

That Vulture article was being discussed in my workplace; someone who has worked in VFX a long time had some interesting/detailed comments (it boiled down to, “this is both true and not true, some of it is not Marvel-specific”).

(I don’t work @ Marvel, ftr)

Two related articles (general about VFX):

https://defector.com/a-vfx-supervisor-explains-why-their-job-is-so-tricky/

https://defector.com/writer-x-offers-inside-look-at-bad-special-effects/

like, if you were a director, wouldn't you ... not want some lowly spline jockey coming up with the shots for the climax of your movie?

Multiple directors have said that they have turned down offers to make Marvel movies specifically for these reasons (which Marvel have pitched to them as positives).

telling directors not to worry about a lack of action movie directing because they've got people to do the action scenes always seemed kind of suspect, doubly so when the "people to do the action scenes" is a process of having underpaid vfx artists throw stuff at the wall until it sticks

Wakanda Forever trailer is pretty incredible. Agreed about Hickman's saga being one of the best superhero runs ever.

I want to see Wakanda Forever, but also I kinda don’t.

https://gizmodo.com/disney-marvel-movies-vfx-industry-nightmare-1849385834

Baby Groot shorts we saw were cute.

I’m very tired of all Marvel ventures, but everything in the trailer seemed good. I remembered the action at least being interesting in Winter Soldier, but even that one has the last act huge action set piece where it’s just a mess with all the fake sets and animated fights going off the rails

just keep it close, choreographed, and eschew that shit for once. that other recent article talking about the fight at the end of Black Panther solidified a lot of things I’d not quite thought about

I thought it was when funny when my son started talking about the Submariner and my dad and his wife had no idea who that was. They thought he must be a guy who has a submarine.

I haven’t heard Namor called that in a long time!

(he actually eats submarine sandwiches)

The king of Atlantis and your friendly neighborhood Wawa

https://www.avclub.com/namor-the-sub-mariner-dives-into-the-new-black-panther-1849324149

is it submarine-er or sub-marry-ner?

Quite enjoyed the first episode of She-Hulk (genuine lol at the post credits bit) and of course it's getting review bombed by angry, middle aged males.

CGI wasn't great but better than it was in the trailers and I'm definitely up for a weekly procedural Marvel show

yeah, really enjoyed it . Do enjoy Tas Mas . So long may she make humourous quirky semi sci fi.
I didn't know that Hulk was contagious in that way. Need to look up the comic book origin.
But yeah enjoying this.
So hope it is something that has a few seasons and all like that

I definitely enjoyed it, but it seems a bit basic (so far) and the jokes went took winky-winky too soon

The CGI is very Shrekky at times but I can ignore it

Lol that Ruffalo has a sexier chemistry with a character playing his cousin than with Scarlett Johansson

Ruffalo's movie acting energy vs. Maslany's TV acting energy sort of worked for the character dynamic though

*too winky-winky

And Hulk talking about Iron Man had a very "Sophia reminisces about Dorothy on Golden Palace" energy

I thought this was corny and boring.

Maybe it’ll get better now that they got the Ruffalo shit over with

Sort of unpleasant to look at!

Was the CGI really cheap for a MCU show, or was it just me? We have a pretty decent TV, but I felt like I could see the greenscreen on everything, and something about the perspective/size of Ruffalo vs Maslany looked really strange, like a bad photoshop.

while I didn’t adore She-Hulk I did feel like it captured a self-aware comedic tone that 70s/80s Marvel sometimes tapped into - like maybe it is the Steve Gerber vibe that I mean? and it is only a very light evocation of that vibe and not particularly funny/subversive - but if one Marvel series wants to try and play in that space then I’m at least provisionally interested

I thought the CGI actually did a pretty good job of capturing the She-Hullk I vaguely remember from the comics, it looked kinda cartoonish which - worked? for me anyway

* and i think part of that vibe is that there are real people living in the real world doing real jobs like street-sweeping (and lawyering) and occasionally these super hero bozos are doing dumb shit in the background, which is just faintly ridiculous or bemusing to these regular joes

I didn't mind the FX; motion capture human-hybrid monsters like the Hulk(s) basically epitomize the uncanny valley, anyway, and I enjoyed how She-hulk specifically sort of vacillated between human and cartoon.

I think this show and some like it exist at a kind of historical tech nexus, where they're still expensive and working with state of the art stuff (like those giant wraparound green screen sound stages I first learned about via "The Mandalorian"), but operating on a slightly smaller scale than the movies (because it's TV) that requires some smart cutting of corners. And then along comes covid at the same time, which I imagine further encouraged the FX people to explore ways to virtually assemble all manner of stuff. An actor filmed remotely over here, a set built over there, people acting and interacting together that may have never been in the same room, etc.

captain america fucks

Anyway, upcoming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLEFqhS5WmI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZVTkn2NjS0

i wanna put on the record that i am still watching and enjoying She-Hulk

i was on the fence at first -love maslany but it felt too quippy & corny but this newest episode was really great so i am in

the drunk madisynn girl was hilarious

Secret Invasion looks cool but I’m still not subscribing

Watching these in order with the family. BUT, is it agreed that Hulk, Iron Man 1&2, and Thor 2 are skippable?

Iron Man 1 is great imo

I was a total comic book nerd but missed most of these movies. It’s pretty fun seeing a drawn character perfectly realized on film.

Oops, i meant Iron Man 2&3. We watched Iron Man 1 to start and everybody liked it. It was almost too much for our 7 year old.

olivia colman!

Thor was tonight and everybody enjoyed it. I loved seeing the Destroyer and the wife loved shirtless Thor. Plot didn’t feel as strong as Iron Man but there was way more eye candy.

Thor 2 is kinda muddy & not as good but it’s not terrible

Hulk is a weird oddity but i don’t hate it

Thor 2 was fine? I think part of the bad reputation is that the villain is supposedly way more interesting in the comics, but otherwise it really didn’t stand out as obviously worse or anything...

I might watch those on my own just for kicks. This Hulk has nothing to do with the Ang Lee Hulk? I’ve seen neither.

both are worth seeing imo

It has nothing to do with Ang Lee's film. And it's increasingly relevant to the MCU (just confirmed this morning that the villain in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie made his one and only prior appearance in Incredible Hulk). It seems to be almost universally derided but I enjoy it as low-stakes fun trash.

Just got round to seeing Thor L&T and its the first Taika film I have been a little disappointed in. Most hilarious part was Crowe's Con the Fruiterer accent, geez. I'm prob just an old grumpy cunt now, but "love saves everything" makes me blerk. Was funny in many parts though.

Not sure if its standard for all Marvel tv shows but She-Hulk has post credits scenes.

Iron Man 3 is the best of the 3 imho, definitely not skippable (though not as far above 1 as 1 is above the very terrible 2)

I hope this latest Thor is the end of the "I'm so meta and wacky" school of moviemaking but that's wishful thinking. Annoyingly dorky.

I like parts of the She-Hulk show but the quippy fourth-wall-breaking comments aren’t distinct enough from the default Whedonesque attempts at wit to really stand out. They just become redundant and annoying

yeah it felt at first like the result of a series of focus groups that determined QUIPS THEY WANT QUIPS

Haven’t seen any of this, but fourth-wall-breaking quips were a core element of the Byrne series from 1989