MCU - Hawkeye v Snowcat

[RumHam]

Spoiler

It's weird seeing this new "old" Nick Fury when I just saw the previous version back in space in The Marvels trailer and that's not out yet. 

I don't know why you'd put Fury in charge of building space defenses anway. He was a spy, I'm not sure how that qualifies him. 

I'm still dissapointed this isn't a big crossover event like I for some reason assumed it was going to be when they announced it. I look forward to the scene explaining how all the people with actual powers are busy. 

 

[Corvinus85]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

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It's weird seeing this new "old" Nick Fury when I just saw the previous version back in space in The Marvels trailer and that's not out yet. 

I don't know why you'd put Fury in charge of building space defenses anway. He was a spy, I'm not sure how that qualifies him. 

I'm still dissapointed this isn't a big crossover event like I for some reason assumed it was going to be when they announced it. I look forward to the scene explaining how all the people with actual powers are busy. 

 

I think the only explanation is

Spoiler

Fury decides to not trust anyone for fear of them being a Skrull so he goes at it alone. Well with Talos.

 

[Heartofice]

Oh so the opening credits actually were created by AI. Blimey.

https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23767640/ai-mcu-secret-invasion-opening-credits
 

Quote

As we see a sort of jittery and ominous sequence of the Skrull green taking over more and more of the world, it looks a lot like if an AI was prompted with the concept of “Skrull cubism” — which, actually, isn’t that far off of what it is. As director and executive producer Ali Selim tells Polygon, the intro sequence was designed by Method Studios using artificial intelligence, something he thinks plays with the very themes of the show

 

[mormont]

Somewhat disappointing start. The AI-generated credits... I can see people involved patting themselves on the back about how timely and apt that was, but the problem is, they're ugly and boring. Please just pay someone to do a good job. You have the money.

Spoiler

Killing Hill was a bad idea. I hope at least this was something Cobie Smulders actively asked for. If it was done just to give Fury motivation, it was unnecessary. Also, the optics of portraying a successful terrorist attack in Moscow right now, on an American TV series, with American actors playing the terrorists, well, that feels like a weird choice. 

I'll keep watching this but I hope it gets better. It feels like a wasted opportunity so far. 

[sifth]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Oh so the opening credits actually were created by AI. Blimey.

https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23767640/ai-mcu-secret-invasion-opening-credits
 

 

This stuff is getting scary. No wonder the writers are striking.

[mormont]

ps if you want to talk about a surprise twist Skrull character, it's almost certainly

Spoiler

Fury

 

[Jaxom 1974]

3 hours ago, mormont said:

ps if you want to talk about a surprise twist Skrull character, it's almost certainly

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Fury

 

Spoiler

Interesting...but it's kinda been done already...kinda...

But interesting...

 

[Denvek]

4 hours ago, mormont said:

ps if you want to talk about a surprise twist Skrull character, it's almost certainly

  Reveal hidden contents

Fury

 

I'd have thought the real surprise Skrull would be

Spoiler

Talos

 

[Maltaran]

23 minutes ago, Denvek said:

I'd have thought the real surprise Skrull would be

  Reveal hidden contents

Talos

 

Or

Spoiler

a reveal that his wife actually isn’t dead. Although would that be a Skrull surprise instead?

 

[Winterfell is Burning]

On 6/21/2023 at 5:17 PM, Denvek said:

I'm going to call it now that

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the President is a Skrull

 

Would explain 

Spoiler

Ross being the president in the new Captain America movie.

 

[RumHam]

I can't remember is Rhodey VP? That was at one point going to be the case in like, Endgame. I'm not sure if it ever made it on screen? 

[SpaceChampion]

Distribution rights for The Incredible Hulk is back in Marvel's hands from Universal's.  Not clear if that means Marvel has the rights to make solo Hulk movies now.

[Derfel Cadarn]

8 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Distribution rights for The Incredible Hulk is back in Marvel's hands from Universal's.  Not clear if that means Marvel has the rights to make solo Hulk movies now.

Probably not. They have some spiderman films on +

[hauberk]

Watched it.  The credits were not good.  Storyline has the potential to be interesting, but it's been so long since Captain Marvel it took a bit to remember where things were left off.

[Jaxom 1974]

Despite the still terrible opening credits, Episode 2 of Secret Wars was solid.

[Corvinus85]

It was better than the first episode, but some things are still off. Olivia Coleman is the highlight of the show so far.

Spoiler

If about a million Skrulls slowly made their way to Earth from various parts of the galaxy, why couldn't they assist with their ships in finding a new planet for them? Why does it fall just on Fury and Captain Marvel?

 

[DaveSumm]

Hot take: if you’d never seen AI art before, the credits would be fine. I like them.

Good episode. It’s a little tricky to take it as seriously as it wants to be taken, when it’s fictional world leaders talking about fictional alien races and fictional space organisations. Doesn’t quite gel with the Cold War vibe they’re shooting for. But my heads been in the DC stuff for a while, so it’s refreshing to see them referring to the whole of the MCU history and it to be so coherent.

I don’t really follow why they’re mad at Fury for going to space when he was supposed to be looking for planets. Sounds like just the place to be if that’s what you’re after. That’s where planets are, after all.

[mormont]

2 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

Hot take: if you’d never seen AI art before, the credits would be fine.

Nope.

Objectively they're awful. You're free to like them, but please don't tell me I only think shit stinks because I'm prejudiced against it. Those credits are terrible art, and would be terrible art even if Picasso had created them.

Anyway, the second episode isn't restoring my faith. Some good scenes, some bad scenes. Have the writers ever watched a news broadcast? And yet the scene between Rhodey and Fury is pretty good. The torture scene was kind of predictable and dull, which is not a thing a torture scene should ever be, but the train scene was good. I guess Sauel L Jackson is the common denominator.

I'm going to pick on the torture scene a bit, actually. Why is there always a torture scene? And why does it work? Torture doesn't work very well IRL but in productions like this it's 100%. And why does it work for Falsworth but not the Russians? Did the Skrull somehow not believe the Russians were going to kill him? Is Falsworth more serious a threat? Oh, it's because his blood was boiling from the (extremis?) injection? And yet the pain wasn't bad enough to render him unconscious or incapable of speaking? It's magic juice that creates irresistible pain that still leaves you capable of speaking but incapable of lying?

Can we please just skip the torture scenes instead of writing this nonsense? Have them get the information some other way. They're spies. There are dozens of more interesting ways for them to get information. It's just a cliche at this point.

I love Olivia Coleman as an actor, but I'm not seeing where the love for her character here is coming from. It's a very broad performance and I have trouble taking her seriously as on the same level as Fury. Not here for it.

I think this series can still pull it out, but it needs to be a little more interesting and a little less paint-by-numbers spy thriller.

[Werthead]

I'd say so far this is aggressively okay, but it is being carried a lot by the acting firepower of Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Cheadle and Coleman. The thriller-style plot is decent but nothing too special at the moment.

That exchange between Cheadle and Jackson was probably the highlight so far, even if it is a little cheesy. The idea that people came back from the Snap changed and dwelling on the existential horror of it (especially as Fury knows he doesn't have a vast number of years left to him) is interesting, although it seems to contradict both WandaVision and Far From Home where people who were Snapped and Blipped had absolutely no idea anything had happened (presumably a deliberate choice by Hulk so as not to give half the population of the universe PTSD).

[Heartofice]

19 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

Hot take: if you’d never seen AI art before, the credits would be fine. I like them.

I quite like them. Yes they are relatively ugly and once you know they are AI I think it influences your opinion a bit, but in general I think they allude to a visual style and creativity that is severely lacking in this show. Secret Invasion might be the most aggressively ugly show in the MCU. It looks like it was shot for tv, its grey and dull and grimey.

On top of that Skrulls look fucking stupid.. it's impossible to watch one on screen without laughing a bit, but the show's tone is so serious it's just a mismatch.

Anyway, second episode was a slight improvement. If there was a chart plotting my interest I think it was mostly a trough with a couple of peaks. Mainly the conversation on the train between Fury and Talos, where I got a little excited about all the Skrulls on earth. That quickly died down as the show just meandered along with little to no tension.
 

17 hours ago, mormont said:

I love Olivia Coleman as an actor, but I'm not seeing where the love for her character here is coming from. It's a very broad performance and I have trouble taking her seriously as on the same level as Fury. Not here for it.

I'd suggest its because she is just generally very good and entertaining to watch and the show is so relentlessly grim and grey that she is the only thing lightening it up, outside of the green shine on the Skrulls stupid looking heads.