MCU Multi-thread of Marvels

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, KalVsWade said:

Mjolnir reads (paraphrasing) whoever shall be worthy wields the power of Thor.

I think that's also the enchantment Odin puts on it in the first Thor. But there's a difference between wielding his power and being Thor. If they said "she wields the power of Thor," that makes total sense to me. Captain America did that briefly.

In the movies so far it's just been the guy's name. I don't even know for sure that they call her "Mighty Thor" in the movie. If they do maybe they play it off as a joke?

[Jaxom 1974]

12 minutes ago, sifth said:

So what’s Thor’s “real” name? If it is in fact just a title. 

Bob.  Bob Odinson.

[sifth]

37 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Bob.  Bob Odinson.

I believe you, lol 

[karaddin]

16 hours ago, DMC said:

Agree with you on WandaVision (I think most would), but I'm not sure what you were expecting with Falcon & Winter Soldier.  First of all, it was decidedly my least favorite Marvel series (albeit I have not seen Moon Knight nor Ms. Marvel) - it was a very generic show all the way through which dabbled its feet in some very dicey racial terrain but predictably couldn't pull it off - the finale definitely didn't ruin it for me.  Second, if there's gonna be one series that follows the standard MCU format of big CGI climax, it makes perfect sense it's gonna be the one about replacing Captain America.

Just been mulling on this more today and I think part of the problem for me isn't just with the idea of resolving it all via a big fight, that can work. The problem is that the fights don't tend to be executed in a way I find engaging and I'm not sure I can even put my finger on why. I was going to say that the fight needs to be telling the story as well, but the fight in WandaVision was doing that - the big red bolts being thrown were actually setting up and distracting from the trap, but it still just felt like throwing CGI at the wall and hoping it sticks. I guess the fights don't feel like they have the emotion suffused in them the way I expect from things like battle shonen (the genre where I expect the story to climax in a big fight but tend to be satisfied by them).

[Liffguard]

9 hours ago, karaddin said:

Just been mulling on this more today and I think part of the problem for me isn't just with the idea of resolving it all via a big fight, that can work. The problem is that the fights don't tend to be executed in a way I find engaging and I'm not sure I can even put my finger on why. I was going to say that the fight needs to be telling the story as well, but the fight in WandaVision was doing that - the big red bolts being thrown were actually setting up and distracting from the trap, but it still just felt like throwing CGI at the wall and hoping it sticks. I guess the fights don't feel like they have the emotion suffused in them the way I expect from things like battle shonen (the genre where I expect the story to climax in a big fight but tend to be satisfied by them).

I think this is exactly it. The action scenes, for the most part, do not seem to be an organic part of the characters' emotional journeys. The scripts seem to go:

- Talky bit (exposition)

- Talky bit (emotion / character beat)

- Insert fight scene here

- Another talky bit (exposition)

Like, you know how it was in Star Trek that the scripts would sometimes just go "insert technobabble here"? I feel like the recent MCU frequently just goes "insert action/fight scene here" and as a result the action feels disconnected from the rest of the story rather than an organic continuation.

[RumHam]

I can't decide if that episode was a little rushed or refreshingly fast paced. It also occurred to me that Bruno and Peter Parker would probably get along really well.

Spoiler

I love that Damage Control is just so... blatantly evil. Sending drones after kids and stuff. I know from set pictures that at once point they were going to be N.I.C.E. which everyone figured was an upgraded I.C.E. Unless a new organization called N.I.C.E shows up in the finale, but that seems unlikely.

 

[SpaceChampion]

55 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I can't decide if that episode was a little rushed or refreshingly fast paced. It also occurred to me that Bruno and Peter Parker would probably get along really well.

  Hide contents

I love that Damage Control is just so... blatantly evil. Sending drones after kids and stuff. I know from set pictures that at once point they were going to be N.I.C.E. which everyone figured was an upgraded I.C.E. Unless a new organization called N.I.C.E shows up in the finale, but that seems unlikely.

 

Spoiler

That would a weird change to make at the last minute.  The script might not be locked down 100% but changing which organization is playing a role in the story after the costume design department has already produces work and you're filming scenes seems unlikely.  So I'd think Deever might be a double agent.

That reminds me, there was an evil organization name N.I.C.E. in C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, an acronym for the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments.  Which probably inspired the Dharma Institute in LOST.

 

Of course DODC was started by Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk.  What was Tony thinking, that was a good idea??

I'm come up with a new acronym:  A.A.A.A.E -- All Acronymed Agencies Are Evil.

[Winterfell is Burning]

If mutants are arriving soon, turn all government agencies in completely evil and/or incompetent is inevitable.  Though, to be fair, it isn't that far off from the real world.

Anyway, this episode, and I suppose the entire show as a consequence, reminded me JJ Abrams' Super 8. Allow me to explain: while that wasn't a bad movie at all, it was the story of kids facing a non-human entity (in the case, an alien) that suffered because clearly, either from the start or while filming, the makers realized the story of the kids was a lot more interesting and the alien was more of a nuisance and a distraction from it.

This here suffers from the same problem- the story about the Pakistani/Muslim community in NJ, the horrors of the partition, Kamala dealing with high school, etc, is a lot more interesting than the whole Clandestine/Damage Control/super hero stuff, and the makers clearly know this, and are basically half-assing the other side of the plot, and it shows.

[Corvinus85]

8 minutes ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

If mutants are arriving soon, turn all government agencies in completely evil and/or incompetent is inevitable.  Though, to be fair, it isn't that far off from the real world.

Anyway, this episode, and I suppose the entire show as a consequence, reminded me JJ Abrams' Super 8. Allow me to explain: while that wasn't a bad movie at all, it was the story of kids facing a non-human entity (in the case, an alien) that suffered because clearly, either from the start or while filming, the makers realized the story of the kids was a lot more interesting and the alien was more of a nuisance and a distraction from it.

This here suffers from the same problem- the story about the Pakistani/Muslim community in NJ, the horrors of the partition, Kamala dealing with high school, etc, is a lot more interesting than the whole Clandestine/Damage Control/super hero stuff, and the makers clearly know this, and are basically half-assing the other side of the plot, and it shows.

Agreed. The show doesn't necessarily need a compelling villain, but the Clandestines' motivations are so obscure and confusing that I wonder why bother.

[DaveSumm]

16 hours ago, karaddin said:

I was going to say that the fight needs to be telling the story as well, but the fight in WandaVision was doing that - the big red bolts being thrown were actually setting up and distracting from the trap, but it still just felt like throwing CGI at the wall and hoping it sticks. I guess the fights don't feel like they have the emotion suffused in them the way I expect from things like battle shonen (the genre where I expect the story to climax in a big fight but tend to be satisfied by them).

What should’ve happened is Wanda sets up some kind of sitcom scenario, and beats Agatha due to her superior knowledge of the tropes. That would’ve tied the series together more neatly.

[polishgenius]

I watched Love and Thunder (Potsdam's main cinema only shows one showing, at least in the first week, of Marvel movies, in English, without 3D, and it's always late on the first day, so I'm seeing these early I guess). Big, messy, silly, emotional, and loads of fun. 

[Caligula_K3]

14 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I watched Love and Thunder (Potsdam's main cinema only shows one showing, at least in the first week, of Marvel movies, in English, without 3D, and it's always late on the first day, so I'm seeing these early I guess). Big, messy, silly, emotional, and loads of fun. 

Glad to hear that! I was worried by the reviews. Ragnarok is my favourite MCU movie - Thor 4 and Guardians 3 are pretty much the only ones I care about at this point. I can handle some mess as long as it's fun and funny.

[sifth]

I loved this episode; it’s probably my favorite. That being said the MCU broke its time travel rule………..again. End Game really did choose the worst time travel option, which the Russo brothers themselves, broke at the end of End Game.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, sifth said:

I loved this episode; it’s probably my favorite. That being said the MCU broke its time travel rule………..again. End Game really did choose the worst time travel option, which the Russo brothers themselves, broke at the end of End Game.

I’m not crying… you’re crying…

[mormont]

I'm not bothered by the breaking of time travel 'rules'. Time travel breaks storytelling in particular ways and inventing rules for it does not work. See also: Doctor Who, Terminator, any other story with time travel because inevitably those rules get broken.

It's not bad to break storytelling in this way, by the way: breaking the fourth wall also breaks storytelling but if you do it well, it works. Same with time travel. And this was a good example. I'm just saying, trying to explain it or confine it within rules never sticks.

[DaveSumm]

I guess there’s scientific time travel (in which case you need Tony Stark and some Pym Particles) and then there’s magical time travel, in which case you need a magic bangle.

Regardless of rules, I think they should emphasise that this was an extraordinary event and that the bangle can’t just summon any potential future-bangles at the drop of a hat, otherwise Kamala could summon an army of Kamalas whenever she needed.

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, mormont said:

 See also: Doctor Who, Terminator, any other story with time travel because inevitably those rules get broken.

 

Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...

[Werthead]

On Thor: Love and Thunder

Spoiler

I'm not sure what the fuck happened, but the first half of the movie is shambolic, hideously-directed and badly-written. Every joke misfires or is cut in such a way that any genuine humour is drained out of the situation. Christian Bale gets either no or mixed direction, going from ice-cold menace to silly posturing, sometimes in the same sentence. The Guardians act out-of-character and might as well not have been in it. The first half of the movie might constitute the worst slice of the MCU to date.

The second half of the film is much better, starting with Russell Crowe delivering just the right amount of knowing camp and more genuine drama and stakes cropping up. Killing Jane for good was a surprise, I assumed she'd be saved, and seeing her in Valhalla with Hemidall at the end was fun (I guess they couldn't get Hopkins to come back as well). Also good to see Sif survive, even if she had jack shit to do in the film. I think they probably should have killed Korg for good as well, that joke has worn out. Thor giving the kids his powers and them doing crazy kid stuff that also kills the bad guys is just the right amount of Waititi whimsy and humour. But it's tough going to get to the good stuff.

The goats, though, are fucking great. And Roy Fucking Kent as Hercules is batshit casting, but could work well. I was hoping for someone more like the comic Hercules, but I guess he was too close to Thor so they went in another direction.

I think the moral here is not to hire a director who's also producing three TV shows simultaneously and involved in half a dozen other projects at the same time. If they announced Waititi would not be helming Thor 5 at this point, I'd be perfectly fine with that.

[Corvinus85]

Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio will reprise their roles in the new Echo series.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/charlie-cox-vincent-donofrio-echo-1235170929/

I hope they don't overshadow the protagonist (too much) but can't wait nonetheless.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

On Thor: Love and Thunder

I have to see this now.

Quote

I think the moral here is not to hire a director who's also producing three TV shows simultaneously and involved in half a dozen other projects at the same time. If they announced Waititi would not be helming Thor 5 at this point, I'd be perfectly fine with that.

They're making a fifth one?!?

On a side note, There was one movie review from a pro critic and CBM nerd that had the line, "Greece should build a statue to Russell Crowe." I get that he was half joking but goddamn, American CBM nerds can be embarrassing at times.