Marvel Cinematic Universe 9: Returning to the Fold

[Argonath Diver]

Bill Mauer has gotten increasingly more of an irritant than a provocateur, in my opinion, in the last decade. I have a hard time watching a full episode of his show these days.

More importantly, hey Infinity Wars, everybody!! Now having the opportunity to watch it on my home screen, I still find the constant hammering home of the "One life is equal to all the lives" thing over, and over, and over the most jarring part of the movie. All the first-introduction scenes were perfect, we finally get a menacing villian for the first time in the entire movie collective, a decent amount of the one-liners hit well, but man oh man, did we really need a good six or so major moments where a good guy had to choose to save their friend vs saving the world? Jee whiz, guys.

Long time to wait til March and Captain Marvel. I wonder if we'll see a teaser before the big winter releases come out.

 

[Relic]

5 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Maher is the liberal Ann Coulter.

That's absolutely ridiculous. Maher is way more moderate than many other voices out there, and he has some ideas that actually make rational sense. The anti-vaccine thing is NOT one of those ideas, but he says whatever BS he spouted about vaccines and then turns around and invites a guy like Neil deGrasse Tyson onto his show to totally school him on the issue. Show me a Conservative voice out there that does the same, please. 

[Ran]

Bill Maher is a very strange choice for the "liberal Ann Coulter", given that he's an Islamophobe and that puts him squarely in Coulter's camp.

 

I'm not sure there is any person on the left who fits as the left's version of Ann Coulter/Sean Hannity/Alex Jones/Bill O'Rielly/Rush Limbaugh/etc./etc., but it definitely is not Bill Maher or any of the other usual suspects people bandy about. Perhaps the most ideologue leftists with media presence I can think of are Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, and they are in no fashion a stain on public discourse in the mode of Coulter.

[Mosi Mynn]

2 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

More importantly, hey Infinity Wars, everybody!! Now having the opportunity to watch it on my home screen, I still find the constant hammering home of the "One life is equal to all the lives" thing over, and over, and over the most jarring part of the movie. All the first-introduction scenes were perfect, we finally get a menacing villian for the first time in the entire movie collective, a decent amount of the one-liners hit well, but man oh man, did we really need a good six or so major moments where a good guy had to choose to save their friend vs saving the world? Jee whiz, guys.

I liked that.  It differentiated our heroes from Thanos.  It is absolutely what Steve Rogers would do - he would never sacrifice Vision whilst there was any other option available.  And I think it's going to come back and bite our heroes in their collective butt in Part 2.  And I suspect Steve will have to make that decision ... and it will probably be Tony ...  

[Relic]

41 minutes ago, Ran said:

Bill Maher is a very strange choice for the "liberal Ann Coulter", given that he's an Islamophobe and that puts him squarely in Coulter's camp.

 

I'm not sure there is any person on the left who fits as the left's version of Ann Coulter/Sean Hannity/Alex Jones/Bill O'Rielly/Rush Limbaugh/etc./etc., but it definitely is not Bill Maher or any of the other usual suspects people bandy about. Perhaps the most ideologue leftists with media presence I can think of are Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, and they are in no fashion a stain on public discourse in the mode of Coulter.

Before the election Maher was the only voice on the "Left" that I personally heard (and i admit i might have missed other people saying the same) screaming about what he called a "slow moving Right Wing coup".  He was absolutely correct. 

I like to give credit when it's due, and Maher has been right about a bunch of shit over the years. And wrong on many other issues. His take on Islam is particularly troubling, as was his use of the N word on his show. 

[Ran]

Maher is definitely a refreshing voice in that he doesn't feel beholden to one side or the other, even if his sympathies largely lie more with the left than the right. In particular, he feels no allegiance to either political party as entities in and of themselves. I wish there were more people like that, because the partisanship has taken on the superficiality of rooting for your favorite team against their rival, and that's largely it.

[The BlackBear]

Who the fuck is Bill Maher, and what does he have to do with Marvel?

 

I'll be seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp (my sisters were very happy to hear she was in the title) on Monday, literally a month to the day it came out in the US. Somehow I've managed to avoid all spoilers.

I think the ship has very much sailed on Gunn returning. It's a shame, but I can't see how Disney can save face and U-turn this. I'll give it a fair shot when 3 comes out, I liked Ant-man despite it having no Edgar Wright.

[Mosi Mynn]

6 minutes ago, The EnglishBear said:

Who the fuck is Bill Maher, and what does he have to do with Marvel?

And Stephen Colbert et al? 

They're definitely not Avengers!

[Jeor]

14 minutes ago, Mosi Mynn said:

And Stephen Colbert et al? 

They're definitely not Avengers!

To quote Thor when asked about Kevin Bacon being on the Avengers, "They may be on the team, I haven't been there in a while."

[SpaceChampion]

4 hours ago, The EnglishBear said:

Who the fuck is Bill Maher, and what does he have to do with Marvel?

He's a Skrull.   You can see him say things sometimes and he's totally baffled by the audience reaction.  Because Skrull.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

9 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

If we were dealing in 1 to 1 comparisons of left v right then there would be no conversation at all.

Yeah, I don't know what any of that means.

8 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Maher is an anti-vaxxer isn't he? That makes him as insane as any rightwing nutjob in my books, if true.

He has been in the past; I don't know where he stands now.  He's a big advocate of specific dietary practices to influence health and immunity fro disease.  He's not entirely wrong, but no, a vegan diet isn't going to protect you from Ebola.  Ebola be like "Vegans? I love them. They taste like bacon."

As opposed to this:

Now, I totally get that it isn't Rick Santorum's job to defend Obama, but do you think he could have maybe said to this very-excited person, "You know, I'd be a more skeptical about the 'nuking Charleston, SC' claim if I were you.  That one sounds a bit fishy to me."
Maher on the other hand had no problem booting 9/11 conspiracy theorists out of his audience.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, The EnglishBear said:

Who the fuck is Bill Maher, and what does he have to do with Marvel?

 

I'll be seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp (my sisters were very happy to hear she was in the title) on Monday, literally a month to the day it came out in the US. Somehow I've managed to avoid all spoilers.

I think the ship has very much sailed on Gunn returning. It's a shame, but I can't see how Disney can save face and U-turn this. I'll give it a fair shot when 3 comes out, I liked Ant-man despite it having no Edgar Wright.

he was almost in Iron man 3

Edit: I think he was in IM3 only the dialogue was a bit different.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

9 hours ago, Relic said:

That's absolutely ridiculous. Maher is way more moderate than many other voices out there, and he has some ideas that actually make rational sense. The anti-vaccine thing is NOT one of those ideas, but he says whatever BS he spouted about vaccines and then turns around and invites a guy like Neil deGrasse Tyson onto his show to totally school him on the issue. Show me a Conservative voice out there that does the same, please. 

Yeah, basically this.

[Darth Richard II]

Ha, uh, I just really hate Bill Maher. Thread derail achievement unlocked!

[A True Kaniggit]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Ha, uh, I just really hate Bill Maher. Thread derail achievement unlocked!

Only if you play Ironman Mode. 

[DMC]

On 8/1/2018 at 9:43 PM, Nictarion said:

Eh, matter of taste I guess. I’ve been a fan of Maher going all the way back to Politically Incorrect. I LOVED Religulous. Don’t watch Real Time as much as I used to but I admire how genuine Bill is. And that he’s not afraid to call out both sides. Fellow atheist as well. 

Oh, I don't hate Maher at all.  Watched him since I was 13 (so, twenty years) and he often has great self-righteous rants (plus his and his staff's "new rules" are often excellent).  My comment was to emphasize (1) he's a sleazy guy, no matter how you cut it, and (2) I much prefer Colbert's comedy.  As has been mentioned, Maher's hatred of religion is closer to a phobia than criticism, and he's been susceptible to ridiculous trends like the anti-vaccination movement.  While Maher's acidity is often warranted and full of pathos, Colbert's approach is much more legitimate satire that is ultimately much more biting.  Anyway, sorry for the thread derail.

[RumHam]

Bautista may ask to be released from his contract if Disney wont use Gunn's script

[The Anti-Targ]

Go Dave. I would say Dave is possibly the most expendable live action cast member of the OG GOTG crew. To at least preserve Gunn's script I would think at least one more cast member needs to request release from their contract. Though I also imagine that unless there is some kind of release condition they can use, Marvel is probably not going to voluntarily let them go.

Back to Ant Man box office. I think (hope) China will be good for perhaps $100 million for the movie, which should take it well past $500 million gross. It should beat the first movie's US gross by a good 15-20%. And hopefully will edge past the worldwide gross.

Speculation is that Ant Man might not get a 3rd movie because other solo characters make more money. But I wonder if it has box office target for a 3rd movie to get approved. Hopefully the target is $500 million, which is should pass pretty easily.

[Jeor]

5 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Speculation is that Ant Man might not get a 3rd movie because other solo characters make more money. But I wonder if it has box office target for a 3rd movie to get approved. Hopefully the target is $500 million, which is should pass pretty easily.

Speculation in the Ant-Man thread that we could have a third movie which was actually called The Wasp instead. Or a prequel with Hank Pym, although Douglas would have to be recast which would ruin most of the fun in doing a prequel.

[Myrddin]

I admire Bautista's stance. It's not an easy gig to walk away from. And given that Disney now owns a majority or the major studios, it'll limit his future work considerably.

Sad to say, it won't be hard for Marvel to write out any character right now. They can either not be recovered from the snap (honestly I can't remember if Drax faded or not) or just knocked off in a CGI explosion in A4.

I do wonder how/if Disney could keep Gunn's script without him directing.

I took a look at Gunn's IMDB page. I forgot he did the PG Porn series. About all of his work (except for Scooby Do) is not even close to Disney's brand. The tweet firing is feeling more and more wrong the more I think about it. NOT the tweets. Yeah, those are beyond poor taste. 

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out and whether Pratt and the others will join Bautista.

Honest question: Would you jeopardize your career to defend a co-worker like this?*

 

*Granted, these people can stop working today and retire without a care.