Ran Posted January 9, 2022 Share Posted January 9, 2022 Cal Dodd, the voice of Wolverine in the 1997 X-Men animated series, shared a photo of himself back in the recording studio for the Disney+ revival X-men 1997: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumHam Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 I see Eternals hits Disney+ Wednesday. Can't wait to see what all the meh was about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 1 hour ago, RumHam said: I see Eternals hits Disney+ Wednesday. Can't wait to see what all the meh was about. I'm totally meh-cited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 y'all are so mehlancholy about this mehsmerizing cinema mehsterpiece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I knew things were getting meh when the most excited thing anyone could say in the post-release hype was 'hey it has Marvel's first fuckin'!'. Hope it's at least better than Shang-Chi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 11 minutes ago, polishgenius said: Hope it's at least better than Shang-Chi. Wait. What? Shang-Chi was fantastic! Absolutely inside the top ten of the MCU... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I thought it was really bleh, apart from the bus fight basically. Like there are definitely things about it that I enjoyed but my overall experience with it can be summarised in the fact that they chose a fantastical, colourful setting for the final battle then lit it up in a dull, even grey and set a major part of it on a grey cliff above a grey lake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog-days Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I quite liked Shang-Chi, especially Awkwafina (who is apparently someone famous and, yes, I live at the bottom of a mine in the Arctic Circle). It had a better antagonist than usual, even if I didn't care for the radiant memories of the lost perfect mother or the final big bad. At the same time, the protagonist - as they often do - became less engaging as the film moved from his fun and irresponsible NY existence into mystic hero territory. I'd have enjoyed the film even more if he wasn't already a brilliant kung-fu fighter. At this point, it feels unnecessary to complain that the end was a dull CGI-fest, because it's a Marvel film, and that's just what they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Honestly, it’s ‘better than Shang Chi’ is one of the few instances of praise I’ve heard about Eternals. Shang Chi was fine - it had some cool fights but the end fight was bad is as good a way as any to sum up. But I am more encouraged to watch Eternals now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Shang Chi was ok. There were bits of it to like, the lead performances, I enjoyed the opening sequences etc. But it really quickly devolved into a mostly forgettable MCU thing. I guess kids must still find it interesting to see people shoot little lasers out of their hands and stuff but its just a real shame that like most MCU properties the last 3rd is some big CGI mess. They did a good job with some of the fights, with high quality choreography, but they ruin it by placing it all in a CGI box. The bus sequence would have been great were I not totally distracted by how fake it all felt. It really felt symbolic of what I personally dislike about Marvel stuff right now. They hint at this line of individuality, but in reality its all straight from the Mouse Factory, following the preordained blue print for success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifth Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Yea, I wasn’t a huge Shang-Chi fan either. They really over used CGI in some parts and the pacing was all over the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I would put Shang-Chi and Eternals on about the same level of meh. Shang-Chi had cool fight scenes, fun characters and an engaging villain, and as stated above it just followed the same tired MCU formula with a bloated CGI mess of a final act. OTOH, without giving any spoilers, Eternals attempted something a little more differently in the storytelling formula, but it was difficult to engage with a whole new ensemble cast that missed the wow factor of Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought it had really clean looking CGI, considering the plot of the final act. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 11, 2022 Author Share Posted January 11, 2022 10 hours ago, polishgenius said: I knew things were getting meh when the most excited thing anyone could say in the post-release hype was 'hey it has Marvel's first fuckin'!'. Hope it's at least better than Shang-Chi. I liked Shang-Chi. It was a very fun Martial Arts film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 yeah, they're all more or less anodyne--though eternals tries to dignify a more complete inclusivity for the setting, which neither enhances nor diminishes the presentation. there's no departure here from previous installments otherwise. avengers 3/4, say, is not a serious commentary on genocide (the snap does not even meet the legal definition thereof)--if it were, there'd be a bit more hesitancy in the presentation, some defectors, perhaps, to the snapper cause. black panther is closest to serious of all of them, and we see that the villain's ideas win over the protagonist by the end. endgame could've been more interesting in this regard had someone adopted a hydra herrenvolk doctrine and taken the gauntlet for that end. civil war also presents a critique of vigilantism in a democratic society, which is not without severity, but perhaps no more effectively than daredevil season 2--though that critique is limited to the genre, which is false, so it has little portability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Big film franchises are practically defined by sticking to a formula: it's how they work. Bond, Fast and Furious, Godzilla, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones... these are not properties that shocked and amazed us with their radical twists in each new instalment. Not sure why people grumble about it in Marvel's case, but there we go. Personally I really liked Shang-Chi. It's a well executed example of the formula. (Also the CGI complaint. Again, to me that's like complaining about too many vehicle stunts in the Fast and the Furious...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 7 hours ago, Heartofice said: They did a good job with some of the fights, with high quality choreography, but they ruin it by placing it all in a CGI box. My feeling was like even aside from the CGI issues (which are very much a problem of using CGI as a go-faster crutch, not of using CG in itself- CGI used properly can do great stuff*) the main issue with the fights was that they were choreographed by experts at this kind of thing but shot and edited by people who aren't. But ultimately the action wasn't really what my problem was, it was just overall perhaps the most obvious example of a film being taken over by Marvel's visual template when, importantly, it really needed not to. If you've ever seen this youtube vid about the costuming in the MCU, it makes the point that for the most part it's the fantasy movies that get more of a visual and design free-reign than the straight superhero ones which are fitted into the pattern more strongly- but in Shang Chi I felt (even before I watched this video) that that didn't really happen. Like there's no comparison for me with the design effort that went into Wakanda in Black Panther - even when the CGI broke down badly at the end- than what went into Shang Chi. (I think I mentioned it in the watching topic at the time, but I followed Shang-Chi up immediately with a Chinese-made Chinese fantasy martial arts film, Yingyang Master, and that used CGI combined with practical stuff really well for some great design work, despite almost certainly having a vastly smaller budget- because they clearly took time over it) That all makes it sound like I disliked the movie. I didn't, I had fun enough while watching it, I just thought that even within Marvel it could have done more. *very very often, it's because making the lighting look convincing in CG stuff takes loads of time both before the stuff is shot- the CGI artists have to know what the lighting in the real scene will be, and needs to be prepared with that in mind - and after, and you can really tell Marvel aren't taking that time and just lighting everything evenly, and then dialling down the colour whenever they can get away with it to make it less obvious. Yes, I watch Corridor Crew, can you tell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Also the CGI complaint. Again, to me that's like complaining about too many vehicle stunts in the Fast and the Furious yeah, best to consider these sorts of things as intrinsically animated films with incidental live acting. the political integration of animated and non-aminated persons intrinsic to the narrative of roger rabbit is here achieved at the level of form through the production process. CGI complainers become chris lloyd's character in the latter film, loathing animated persons with genocidal rage. for shame, CGI complainers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poobah Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 18 minutes ago, mormont said: Not sure why people grumble about it in Marvel's case, but there we go. ... (Also the CGI complaint. Again, to me that's like complaining about too many vehicle stunts in the Fast and the Furious...) How many other franchises have made 27 films and counting? Not to mention the level of media saturation and the way fans actually seem to take these films seriously, and even some critics occasionally. No one expects the latest Fast and Furious or Mission Impossible or most of the other franchises you listed to be anything but more of the same dumb, formulaic entertainment that they are, yet somehow people act like some of these MCU movies are great moments in cinema or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Mission: Impossible isn't a great example anyway coz while sure, they're not setting any narrative worlds on fire, it's a franchise where the craft in their chosen direction - action, specifically- has gone up significantly as it's gone on, particularly in the last two (and the plotting has improved as well, I'd say). It looked like they might go the Marvel-y route with Ghost Protocol, but there was a course-adjustment after that. I'd say it's pretty much an example of why being a formula-franchise film doesn't mean they have to coast. There's nothing in Marvel like the halo jump or bathroom scene in Fallout, or even the opera scene in Rogue nation for my money. I mean, I like Marvel movies, I watch most of them, my problem isn't with the premise of silly formulaic screen action itself nor even with the general template behind Marvel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 My problem is that pretty much every marvel movie shows promise in some direction, and just when you think it might become interesting, boom, it needs that big final battle. That problem is made worse because the MCU does have some genuinely good movies that do things right. I absolutely love Winter Soldier, it tends to get the balance completely right in a number of areas. Compare and contrast the fights in Winter Soldier to Shang Chi. The quality of martial arts skill is higher in Shang Chi but it’s presented like it’s a computer game and so nothing has any impact. In winter Soldier, every punch and kick is felt. Civil war also didn’t end on one big CGI battle but a more personal fight. It shows you don’t need big flashy cgi moments to be good . The best moments in almost all Marvel moments are the smaller ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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