MCU - This Thread Wasn’t Made For You

[DaveSumm]

Looks like he was EP for Punisher’s excellent first season, but also it’s quite shit second season. Still, sounds like good news overall.

[Kalbear]

How on earth did they manage to make Tom Huddleston boring? This season so far has been just treading water.

[SpaceChampion]

Starting to get into spoiler territory with Marvel's PR campaign for the The Marvels.

This for example:

Spoiler

It's an Incursion from another universe

This also open up possibilities for who the character coming through on the Bifrost is, if it's the Bifrost from the other universe.  I know fans seem rabid for Beta Ray Bill.  It's more likely someone we know.  Alt-universe Mighty Thor?

 

Also released a clip

They appear to only switch places when they use their powers simultaneously.  Which is good, they can use them independently one at a time when together.

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by SpaceChampion

[Rhom]

I've been spoiled on a potential post credits scene for The Marvels and now if it doesn't happen, I'm going to be very disappointed.

[Kalbear]

Just keep in mind that for Ms. Marvel her whole power set and backstory is kind of all about a different universe. Might be referring to that.

(which would kind of suck because they weren't very interesting)

[IlyaP]

I did enjoy the comedy of the fight scene from the above clip. The camera let me always know where I was, what the geography was, it wasn't a fixed shot but nor was it overly edited and shaky-cam, thankfully. Yet the colors still have that frustratingly muted and desaturated MCU color palette that I really find a little ugly. Embrace saturation and colors, Marvel!

[Heartofice]

Most of these spoilers sound like they’ve come from the deranged mind of Panderverse Kathleen Kennedy

[sifth]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Most of these spoilers sound like they’ve come from the deranged mind of Panderverse Kathleen Kennedy

The Pander Stone is indeed a dangerous item. It has the ability to destroy timelines, lol

[Werthead]

This insider report from the last MCU summit meeting is quite interesting.

• Majors' legal problems are causing real issues at Marvel. The original assumption was that the case was falling apart and they could move forwards with Majors, but then fresh allegations surfaced, including things that happened whilst Majors was working on Loki Season 2, which seriously alarmed the team. Currently they are considering all options, including simply rotating Kang out of the key villain role and making him a longer-term threat who doesn't appear much (like Thanos) and promoting another supervillain to be a nearer-term big threat (Dr. Doom was floated). Recasting Majors is also apparently now being more strongly considered, especially after Quantumania did not do well.
• The Marvels tested middlingly and has had substantial rewrites and reshoots to try to right the ship. Marvel has downgraded expectations of the film opening to $70 million, alarmingly low given its budget. 
• Everyone is on the same page now - though it's taken ages - that Marvel films are now too expensive, with single-character films costing what the Avengers team-ups used to. That's unsustainable and something that is going to change. CG demands are also going to be throttled down and CG delivery times will be extended. It sounds like people are hearing about the crunch problem, but more influential has been the shitty quality of effects in multiple Marvel movies.
• Victoria Alonso was apparently blamed for declining quality control in the CG department but there's been some pushback and Feige was apparently also blamed for not getting the scripts in better order before shooting began on various projects (the CG problems have been blamed more on "fix it in post" and last-minute story changes necessitating massive CG re-renders). Feige is in the position of wanting to be too hands-on with every project but there's too many projects, so he's spread thin and can't bring his attention to bear on each project like how he used to.
• Engagement and metrics on MCU-related podcasts, fan channels, etc are all seriously down on a few years ago, which Marvel has noticed.
• Blade went through so many convulsions that Mahershala Ali nearly walked. Feige kept him by hiring Michael Green (Logan) to write a brand-new, low-fi script from scratch. They also want to make a lower budget film for under $100 million, with presumably a focus on physical action and story rather than simple CG spectacle.
• Apparently - and this has the ring of desperation to it - an old-skool Avengers film has been floated which would bring back Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson (presumably it would be set before Infinity War and Endgame, or would involve multiverse versions of those characters). The idea has not been fully committed to, mainly because the cost of bringing back that cast would be astronomical.
• With the strike over, Marvel have started work in earnest on Fantastic Four and are now teeing up writers and pitches for the X-Men relaunch. Apparently Feige and Marvel are both seeing this as an opportunity to freshen up Marvel again, and possibly pivot away from the Majors/Kang issues if required.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Werthead

[DaveSumm]

8 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Currently they are considering all options, including simply rotating Kang out of the key villain role and making him a longer-term threat who doesn't appear much (like Thanos) and promoting another supervillain to be a nearer-term big threat (Dr. Doom was floated).

Oof, imagine they had to un-announce the two Avengers films. I think a recast is the least worst option, but bad news for the Multiverse Saga either way.

8 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Apparently - and this has the ring of desperation to it - an old-skool Avengers film has been floated which would bring back Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson (presumably it would be set before Infinity War and Endgame, or would involve multiverse versions of those characters).

Double oof. Desperation indeed. I’m always baffled how often people talk about bringing these characters back, it would be such a blatant admission that Phase 4 and 5 have been way below 1-2-3 in quality, and just sour what was a perfectly good endpoint for them.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

How about they make no movies for 10 years, let audiences miss this genre and universe and then come back to it and cash out on that nostalgia? 

[Slurktan]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

• Everyone is on the same page now - though it's taken ages - that Marvel films are now too expensive, with single-character films costing what the Avengers team-ups used to. That's unsustainable and something that is going to change. CG demands are also going to be throttled down and CG delivery times will be extended. It sounds like people are hearing about the crunch problem, but more influential has been the shitty quality of effects in multiple Marvel movies.

Hilarious given that the Creator has much better FX than any marvel film on a 3rd of the budget.

[JGP]

3 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Hilarious given that the Creator has much better FX than any marvel film on a 3rd of the budget.

That’s the thing with animation [cg or otherwise] if you got a vision which the script realizes, and your development is on point, ie: previs, storyboarding, layout… your animation houses and/or departments will crank it up to the top shelf.

Dollars to donuts The Creator was a tight, cohesive production [at least insofar as that, can’t speak to personalities] and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Edited November 2, 2023 by JGP

[Heartofice]

Some really shocking stuff in that article. I didn’t realise they pushed Quantumania up by 4 and a half months! No wonder the CGI was so bad.

One She-Hulk episode costing $25million might be the biggest waste  of money in the history of humanity. 
 

It does sound like chaos over there, which is the not surprising thing 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Heartofice

[IlyaP]

20 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Some really shocking stuff in that article. I didn’t realise they pushed Quantumania up by 4 and a half months! No wonder the CGI was so bad.

One She-Hulk episode costing $25million might be the biggest waste  of money in the history of humanity. 
 

It does sound like chaos over there, which is the not surprising thing 

Explain something to me, if you can? Like, I felt dumb in part when reading this article over breakfast today because of the part that involved a She-Hulk episode costing $25 million. 

Now, the show worked for my comic sensibilities and I enjoyed it, quirks and all (it was nice after countless movies with Earth-shaking Consequences to have something so charmingly low-stakes focused) but @Heartofice, nothing on screen in any given episode looked expensive, beyond Maslani's CGI counterpart. It all looked no more or less flashy than an average episode of NCIS: Topeka or whatever they're up to nowadays, so how the hell did those episodes get to pricey? I just...so confused! WHAT. 

[Heartofice]

Who knows how these things become so expensive. My guess would be that nobody had a firm control of the budget and a serious lack of organisation meant there was no efficiency in filming.

If they have to keep going back and changing things to suit what Disney are asking for then that is going to raise costs enormously.

Maybe they got locked into contracts with effects companies that become very expensive if you keep asking for more?

It all sounds very chaotic, and the need to just churn out content overrode any sensible money making decisions.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

19 hours ago, JGP said:

That’s the thing with animation [cg or otherwise] if you got a vision which the script realizes, and your development is on point, ie: previs, storyboarding, layout… your animation houses and/or departments will crank it up to the top shelf.

Dollars to donuts The Creator was a tight, cohesive production [at least insofar as that, can’t speak to personalities] and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

All correct.

Good VFX isn't about the tools or the talent. The hardware and software is both highly developed and quite affordable compared to the days when the first Jurassic Park film was made. As for the VFX artists themselves; I'm sure there's tightness in that labor market (like any labor market) from time to time, but talented people are not going to be hard to find if they're treated right.

Fundamentally, It's about money and time. Marvel studios seems to have gotten into a habit of wasting both, by not doing what you talk about in your first paragraph. Plus alienating a lot of people in the VFX community to boot. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Wasn’t there a video of Taika Watiti and Tessa Thompson laughing at how bad the VFX in Thor love and thunder was ? When your own director dosent give two shits, why would the effects people? 
 

edit- here it is 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

22 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Wasn’t there a video of Taika Watiti and Tessa Thompson laughing at how bad the VFX in Thor love and thunder was ? When your own director dosent give two shits, why would the effects people? 
 

edit- here it is 

 

Yeah I was going to mention the last Thor film. This did not go over well I with the VFX community as I recall.

I don't criticise a films VFX when the first trailer comes out because I know it usually isn't finished yet. But L&T shows another problem.

Marvel tests the shit out of these films. If something doesn't quite work with a test audience or one of the hundred or so producers on these films, they'll go back and retool whole parts of it. In many cases, that means months of work in the bin and 80 hour weeks to get shit done on time.

If you look at the trailers for L&T, there are shots that look very different from the trailer to the film. Not just "more complete" but totally different lighting for example. There's one shot where the sky is dark purple in the trailer and bright orange in the film. In itself it probably isn't a big deal, but you repeat that a few dozen times, it's a bit of work. 

Although the VFX in that movie wasn't even close to my biggest criticism. 

[sifth]

On 11/1/2023 at 6:05 PM, Werthead said:

This insider report from the last MCU summit meeting is quite interesting.

The MCU sounds like a complete mess right now. It sort of reminds me of the state WB/DC was/is in.

Also turns out the budget for She Hulk, was around 25 million an episode and the up coming Blade film was almost made, with Blade as the 4th lead, while his daughter and other women would be the main focus of the film.

Edited November 3, 2023 by sifth