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

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

figured that was likely

still it felt a bit corny in the execution at first but it’s grown on me

SH is sloppily paced for a workplace comedy

Tatiana Maslaney is one of the most charismatic people I’ve seen on screen IMO

she’s so great in everything

Watched the Incredible Hulk while folding laundry. The CGI was pretty rough, but I liked Norton more than I expected. He’s no Ruffalo, but I can’t hold that against him. Ruffalo in the MCU makes me extremely happy.

They should do a multiverse thing where Norton and Bana show up and give Ruffalo a purple wedgie.

The design of Norton Hulk was repulsive. His little pinched face in that big head gave him a strange childish appearance, and the absurd amount of muscles was silly. Not the size of them, but the quantity. It’s as though his muscles had muscles.

Oh I read a lot of the John Byrne series, so I knew the gag. The writing is such that it doesn’t differentiate enough between those(which made the character distinct) and default MCU speak

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.

Also saw this this weekend (with my son) and was also disappointed. Felt like they were trying too hard to be funny & wacky and so lots of it came off almost as a spoof. The whole Guardians bit felt especially phoned in.

My son loved the goats though.

Tickets on sale...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3QKkl1WyM

Finally got around to watching Thor Love and Thunder this weekend and I think this was maybe the worst Marvel film I've seen.

tapped out an hour in

I think I may be done with the MCU

"Thor" was fine but all the criticisms I've heard of it I also think are legit.

Speaking of tapped out, there is so much MCU out there, between the movies and the TV shows, that I've totally lost track. Finally finished "Moon Knight" because I forgot I hadn't. I think I'm a few episodes behind in "She-Hulk." Does "Werewolf" go live today? Tomorrow? No idea what movies are coming out in the next year (besides "Black Panther 2"). No idea what shows are coming up and when. And there still is no over-arching plot/villain, right? Just hints of several (Kang, more multi-verse, Krulls, etc.) as they keep adding characters.

Thor was totally dumb and that's why I was watching it, to see some dumb shit.

The shows can be a little harder to stomach because their action/CGI budgets are smaller and their stories have more opportunities to be incoherent or less easy to ignore over the course of multiple episodes vs. a couple of hours. For instance Ms. Marvel had some charm but the story unraveled into a mess and the action felt proportionately cheap, so there wasn't a lot of incentive left to keep going aside from momentum (not to mention the unique Marvel-specific requirement to learn what events will effect the plot of the next movie).

I totally forgot about Ms. Marvel, too! I think I saw two (fine) episodes, so need to catch up.

I keep up with nearly all of it but She-Hulk is where I've been slack. At this point -- and COVID kinda accidentally underscored it -- it's pretty clear that the growing center-of-pop-culture mania throughout the 2010s over the whole cycle can't be recaptured in full. But as long as there's interest and money there's going to be more.

I've only really cared about the MCU since the tv shows started.

I really enjoyed Ms. Marvel, but we haven't watched beyond episode 3 of She-Hulk. My 11 year-old flat out told us he doesn't want to watch it anymore.

new She-Hulk ep was quite fun this week

She-hulk is clearly not meant for the younger demo. Ms. Marvel target audience definitely skewed younger.

For sure, just notable for the first time my kid has ever expressed distaste for anything Marvel related.

I don't hate the show, we've just had less time to watch TV lately and we've finally cracked into The Americans, which is eating up what time we do have. I'll def return to She-Hulk, because I <3 Tatiana. It's just the first Marvel show to not feel like a "must watch".

For the most part, I've been enjoying the TV shows more than the movies lately, it feels like they are at least trying some new things there, even if they often don't really work.

Also it helps that my 9 year old daughter really liked Ms Marvel and now really likes She-Hulk, so it's fun that we have a show that we watch together every week.

My 15-year old watches all the movies but outright refuses to watch the shows (no idea why).

Yeah, She Hulk has been really fun so far. I do like the fact that a lot of the tv shows feel more like comics and are trying different things to the movies.

I dont think anyone who works on she hulk understands pace or timing

They feel like shorts to me.

not enough hulking and not enough lawyering and too much of “nobody likes jen, everybody loves she-hulk”
maslany so far is the only reason to keep watching

because everybody likes maslany but why is she hulk?

because captain marvel was already taken

i could not be happier abt this week’s she hulk 😍

// #SheHulk spoilers
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charlie cox as matt murdock daredevil barefooted whistling and humming doing the walk of shame the morning after having sex with jennifer walters in she-hulk attorney at law pic.twitter.com/QsEW5hcV13

— mcu reactions & clips (@reactmcu) October 6, 2022

lol loved that so much, although jen was right, should’ve ended the episode there. the change in mood at the end gave me whiplash

They needed to lead into the finale with increased tension.

"charlie cox as matt murdock daredevil barefooted whistling and humming doing the walk of shame the morning after having sex with jennifer walters in she-hulk attorney at law" sounds like an ai image prompt

Haven’t loved this so far – can I skip to the daredevil episode?

Haven’t loved this so far – can I skip to the daredevil episode?

Not MCU-related, but the latest She-Hulk comic collection, by Rainbow Rowell, is recommended. There’s not a lot of action (mostly dialogue), but it’s cute and funny, one of the better comics I’ve read in a while.

Haven’t loved this so far – can I skip to the daredevil episode?

FYI, my daughter changed her mind and decided to watch it, so I started over from the beginning. I'd only seen three episodes, but fwiw they were better the second time around.

i really wish it would drop all the internal arc stuff in favor of it being a full on romcom but it's otherwise the best marvel thing yet. The quality of the acting and the dialogue feels higher. The doxing of jen stuff mirrors the mariko tamaki adjectiveless "hulk" run from 2017 iirc, no one seems to be discussing that series. that had her connected with hellcat as a bff and i'm wondering if they're grooming ginger gonazaga for that role? I'd be good with that.

* best marvel TV thing yet

suggesting my friends who aren’t interested in the whole She-Hulk series watch the Donny Blaze/Madisynn/Wong episode

wedding episode is fun, too.

yeah that was def when it kicked into gear

(xpost)

"Werewolf by Night" was slight but enjoyable enough.

I was finding this show a bit too meta and glib, but the Daredevil episode was good, especially because of Leapfrog, what a twat.

RIBBIT AND RIP IT