Marvel: The Echo of Profitability

[Heartofice]

Don’t think Marvels is anywhere near as bad as it was purported to be, but it’s not good. 
 

Really, it’s got everything I would expect in a modern blockbuster: 

- A chaotic, irrelevant plot that has no impact

- A bunch of storylines that go nowhere and compete for time

- Some over stuffed CGI fueled action scenes that you barely care about. 
 

- Everything is played for laughs, rarely actually funny. A lot of it is lowest common denominator style humour your mum might chuckle along to.

It doesn’t stand out as especially bad I think, because the bar is so damn low these days. If this has come out after Winter Soldier I’d be gobsmacked at how awful it is. But now? It’s not exceptional at all.

Then, the other point. If this was a phase 1 or 2 movie, it might be able to get away with being shit because it was a building block to a much bigger, better Avengers movie.

But in some ways, The Marvels IS the big movie that was being built up to. It’s the culmination of 2 not great tv shows ( 3 if you count Secret Invasion) and a not great movie. Those were these setting this up. That if anything is highlighting the issue Marvel have.

[Myrddin]

Antman 3 was by far worse than Marvels. I actually enjoyed Marvels, even though it wasn't great. The dynamic between the three worked well, even if the story was weak.

Antman was just... bad. Story, production, characters, all underwhelming.

[DaveSumm]

I really don’t get the disdain Quantumania gets. I swear if you put it in Phase 3 everyone would’ve given it a pass. It’s not great, but I think it’s better than AMatW, at least. It feels more coherent than The Marvels to me, it broadly executed the idea it set out to do. 

[Myrddin]

I think AMatW at least had Luis to bolster it, but I completely agree it wasn't very good either.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of AM1 and think Rudd is great in the role. But both his second two movies are on the lower end of the spectrum in the MCU rankings. 

[Heartofice]

Yeah Ant Man 1 was a pretty mediocre movie that was elevated by being quite funny at times and really leveraging the use of scale to make some amusing fights and situations. The bath scene and the train scene are both pretty memorable and the supporting cast brought in a few laughs.

Ant Man 3 has none of that. The sense of scale is gone because everyone is the same size, the humour has completely disappeared and the visual effects are much worse.

I don't agree it wouldn't have stood out. I think if Quantumania was in phase 1  or 2, we might not be looking at an MCU.

[DaveSumm]

8 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I don't agree it wouldn't have stood out. I think if Quantumania was in phase 1  or 2, we might not be looking at an MCU.

Well Phase 2 had Thor: The Dark World which I think is way worse than Quantumania. Probably the worst villain we’ve seen vs probably the best. Neither the ‘warriors three’ nor the Darcy-Selvig-Foster combos have an ounce of chemistry in sight. Thor and Loki are the best things in it and it’s neither of their best films. 

Maybe I’ll be more down on QM when I rewatch it, I’ve only seen it once. And to be fair you’re right, the shrinking stuff was fun in the first 2 which is absent here.

[Heartofice]

25 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

Well Phase 2 had Thor: The Dark World which I think is way worse than Quantumania. Probably the worst villain we’ve seen vs probably the best. Neither the ‘warriors three’ nor the Darcy-Selvig-Foster combos have an ounce of chemistry in sight. Thor and Loki are the best things in it and it’s neither of their best films. 

Maybe I’ll be more down on QM when I rewatch it, I’ve only seen it once. And to be fair you’re right, the shrinking stuff was fun in the first 2 which is absent here.

Yeah Dark World is a hugely forgettable movie. I didn't think it was outright bad, I just thought that most of it didn't land. However as you say, Thor and Loki are always good, and I liked the stuff with Thor's mum.  In the same way Ironman 2 gets a lot of shit, but it has some good bits, it has Justin Hammer and Micky Rourke being weird for starters.

I just don't think Quantumania has a single thing to recommend it.

[sifth]

Well that was a very EVENTFUL, episode of 97. Easily the shows best, IMO

Those last 8 to 10 minutes, wtf, just wtf.

[Winterfell is Burning]

This episode of X-Men 97 would never have been made for a Saturday Morning Cartoon

[SpaceChampion]

You guys ranting about the same topics over and over again and missed a Spider-verse short film was released two weeks ago.

 

[Jaxom 1974]

My gods, X-Men '97 is going at a pace that defies all logic, throwing together and combining and condensing some of the X-Men's best storylines, plus adding its own twists to them...and then Episode 5 lands. That was what you're supposed to get at the end of a season. But this was Episode 5. Five.  Just wow. How do they even keep this up? 

[DaveSumm]

Gotta say, as a huge MCU fan but one who never watched the X-Men cartoon, I have no fucking clue what’s going on with 97. I watched a recap of the original series, and wasn’t gonna bother with 97 but then constantly see people tripping over each other on reddit to praise it. It’s … alright? I’m sure it’d be exciting to see a sequel to something you knew and loved, but with better animation and writing. But for a new watcher, it’s just all over the place. I had to look up what this was Part II of, cos I assumed it was an old episode … but nah, it’s two episodes ago. But it’s in space now, and who the fuck are these people. 

I’ll probably stick it out seeing as I’ve made it this far, and I could see them tying this into What If? or maybe throwing some references into Deadpool and Wolverine. But this feels squarely aimed at old fans and nothing more, I’m getting very little out of it.

[sifth]

37 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

Gotta say, as a huge MCU fan but one who never watched the X-Men cartoon, I have no fucking clue what’s going on with 97. I watched a recap of the original series, and wasn’t gonna bother with 97 but then constantly see people tripping over each other on reddit to praise it. It’s … alright? I’m sure it’d be exciting to see a sequel to something you knew and loved, but with better animation and writing. But for a new watcher, it’s just all over the place. I had to look up what this was Part II of, cos I assumed it was an old episode … but nah, it’s two episodes ago. But it’s in space now, and who the fuck are these people. 

I’ll probably stick it out seeing as I’ve made it this far, and I could see them tying this into What If? or maybe throwing some references into Deadpool and Wolverine. But this feels squarely aimed at old fans and nothing more, I’m getting very little out of it.

I mean just watch the 90's show. It's easily one of the best American animated shows ever made. It's right up there with Batman the Animated series.

[Heartofice]

8 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

Gotta say, as a huge MCU fan but one who never watched the X-Men cartoon, I have no fucking clue what’s going on with 97. I watched a recap of the original series, and wasn’t gonna bother with 97 but then constantly see people tripping over each other on reddit to praise it. It’s … alright? I’m sure it’d be exciting to see a sequel to something you knew and loved, but with better animation and writing. But for a new watcher, it’s just all over the place. I had to look up what this was Part II of, cos I assumed it was an old episode … but nah, it’s two episodes ago. But it’s in space now, and who the fuck are these people. 

I’ll probably stick it out seeing as I’ve made it this far, and I could see them tying this into What If? or maybe throwing some references into Deadpool and Wolverine. But this feels squarely aimed at old fans and nothing more, I’m getting very little out of it.

I have pretty much dropped out of Xmen 97 now. I was a huge fan of the comics, not so much the original cartoon. 
 

I’d say 97 accurately captures the mood and style of 90s storytelling, but that for me isn’t a positive attribute. 
 

I’ve found 97 also mostly incomprehensible even when it was covering storylines I grew up reading and rereading. 
 

You could try going back and watching the old show, or reading some of the comics. I’ve done both but it was clear to me that my expectations are pretty different than they were as a kid in the 90s. Both now feel a real slog to get through and don’t really stand up all that well.

So that’s why I think the 97 show is pretty faithful.

[DaveSumm]

20 hours ago, sifth said:

I mean just watch the 90's show. It's easily one of the best American animated shows ever made. It's right up there with Batman the Animated series.

Eh, right now the concept of ‘this show you’re not digging but worse animation’ isn’t really doing it for me. I think in the scheme of how comic book-y stuff can be, this is just a bit too comic book-y for me. Each to their own, I just thought they might split the difference in tone to bring it more in line with the MCU. 

[sifth]

1 hour ago, DaveSumm said:

Eh, right now the concept of ‘this show you’re not digging but worse animation’ isn’t really doing it for me. I think in the scheme of how comic book-y stuff can be, this is just a bit too comic book-y for me. Each to their own, I just thought they might split the difference in tone to bring it more in line with the MCU. 

It's up to you. Though if I had to compare the two, the original show is much better.

[DMC]

On 4/17/2024 at 5:16 PM, DaveSumm said:

But for a new watcher, it’s just all over the place. I had to look up what this was Part II of, cos I assumed it was an old episode … but nah, it’s two episodes ago. But it’s in space now, and who the fuck are these people. 

I mean…

Spoiler

The Part II is referring to resolving the Storm/Forge storyline from a couple episodes ago.  The stuff in space was indeed us seeing Xavier for the first time in the new series and depicting his impetus to return to Earth upon seeing Gambit’s death in the astral plane.  This is, of course, convoluted, but I don’t think it’s too hard to follow if you’ve been paying attention.

That being said, I do agree the series has been rather scattershot thus far and moreover is a decidedly acquired taste I myself can often take or leave.  They seemed to have aligned the storylines now though, so hopefully it ends strong.

[Corvinus85]

MCU saved!!! 

 

[Myrddin]

This movie is going to suck, all thanks to Feige's interference...

 

But that shoe store looks intriguing! 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Yikes Hugh jackman has aged ! Should’ve just recast him at this point…