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Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Just got back from Shang-Chi. It's: pretty good! I wasn't blown away, but it's solid, the fight choreography is great, and it's got a bit of a fresh style to it in sort of the same way Black Panther did. There are both mid- and post-credits scenes.

The entire cast is charismatic and entertaining, but I gotta give it up to Tony Leung in particular. He does a lot with a little in terms of what he's actually physically doing, moment to moment -- he puts forth this front of being stoic and unflappable but you can see there's a maelstrom of emotions just below the surface. But shouldn't an immortal thousand-year-old warlord with godly rings and an army of assassins have conquered the world by now? I realize he took a bit of a break when he met his wife, but really dude. Also, I feel like his incredibly bloody past kind of got glossed over to focus on what he's doing right now. "Your family needs you!" ...Do they? Do they really?

Did they ever even say the mother's name in dialogue? Did I just miss it? She's the focal point of the villain's motivations, and I had to look her name up on Wikipedia just now. (It's Jiang Li.)

I'm not really qualified to speak on the topic of Asian representation in cinema, but I do think it's a little unfortunate that the first MCU film with a majority Asian cast leans so heavily on martial arts and dragons and shit. It seems like it was all handled pretty respectfully, but I guess that's not really for me to decide.

Like I said, the fight choreography is bananas, especially on the bus towards the beginning. Acrobatic fights in cramped spaces are always cool, and what is a bus but a hallway on wheels? I also loved all the shenanigans with the rings, like blasting them at the ground to do super jumps. Can't wait to see Shang-Chi bust out more moves in future films.

I feel like the movie forgot Ben Kingsley was in it halfway through. That's fine.

Bruce isn't the Smart Hulk anymore! I was worried that represented the conclusion of his story so I was pumped to see him again. Nice to see Carol and Wong too, of course. And sure, the Abomination, I guess. Also caught a poster for "Post-Blip Anxiety Counseling" in one shot. I continue to want to see more of how the events of Infinity War and Endgame affected the world.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I haven't been able to read this thread for over a year because I never watched Wanda's Television, but I just finished it. It was really good! I liked it! I'll need to find where in the thread it came out and read through there.

I started on Birdman and Chilly Willy right away and intend to get through Loki right after that, too.

I... I might be able to read posts in here again, ever!
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
I haven't been able to read this thread for over a year because I never watched Wanda's Television, but I just finished it. It was really good! I liked it! I'll need to find where in the thread it came out and read through there.

WandaVision premiered on January 15, so you'll want to start at page 8 of this thread.

Glad you're enjoying yourself! Please report back.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
First episode of What If I did not care for; Zombies are never interesting.

Also; read the room everyone; there’s a time and place for quips.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
Usually Scott is my favorite character, but, yeah, kinda wanted to throw him down a garbage chute shortly after he came back. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Peter's How-To video, though.

I've never cared for Marvel Zombies either. But at least they checked off that box so now we don't have to touch the concept again.
 

MetManMas

Me and My Bestie
(He, him)
I've never cared for Marvel Zombies either. But at least they checked off that box so now we don't have to touch the concept again.
But they will touch it again, though.

I mean, I'm no fan of it either, but Marvel wouldn't keep going back to the "Our characters are now zombies" well if it didn't sell loads of comics and merchandise.
 

Daikaiju

Rated Ages 6+
(He, Him)
Usually Scott is my favorite character, but, yeah, kinda wanted to throw him down a garbage chute shortly after he came back. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Peter's How-To video, though.

I've never cared for Marvel Zombies either. But at least they checked off that box so now we don't have to touch the concept again.
The dude is just a head. It's either the jokes or a ungodly amount of screaming and wailing.
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
I thought it was pretty good. Basically every episode of What If? has been a bit off, but not so much that I didn't enjoy it. I felt the same about this one. I liked the group they got together. Kurt, Happy, Sharon, and Okoye were good additions who don't usually get much time in the spotlight. Zombies are always kind of silly, but they had a lot of fun with it.
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Surprised this hasn't been posted yet:

Hawkeye coming Nov 24, seems to have a sort of Christmas vibe, and though she isn't explicitly named we do see Kate Bishop in action.

Kinda surprised there's no sign of a certain Widow as the ending of Black Widow seemed to imply their paths would cross sooner rather than later, but maybe that's either being kept secret or saved for another series/movie?
 

Adrenaline

Post Reader
(He/Him)
Kinda surprised there's no sign of a certain Widow as the ending of Black Widow seemed to imply their paths would cross sooner rather than later, but maybe that's either being kept secret or saved for another series/movie?
It's not a secret, they're just not putting everything in the trailer.

I like the tone of this. They're definitely taking the right comic influences for a Hawkeye show.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Caught up with What If... liked the Dr. Strange episode fine, it was fun to look at, was predicatbly non-plussed by Zombies. I get that the only way to have a Zombie story be any fun is to be a bit blase about death, but I don't really want that with a bunch of characters I've gotten to really like in other stories. The show tries to have it both ways which just results in the aforementioned whiplash between sad and quippy.

Hawkeye coming Nov 24, seems to have a sort of Christmas vibe, and though she isn't explicitly named we do see Kate Bishop in action.
If you have subtitles on it names her as Kate explicitly.
I wasn't expecting a lot out of this, but if they manage to get a feel close to the Matt Fraction run (which it looks like they're going for at least in part) that can only help.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
I like the tone of this. They're definitely taking the right comic influences for a Hawkeye show.

Well, they're outright using the Fraction-era logo, so expectations have gone from very low to very high :)

Also, hey! It's Charlie from the Bumblebee movie!
 
Caught up with What If... liked the Dr. Strange episode fine, it was fun to look at, was predicatbly non-plussed by Zombies. I get that the only way to have a Zombie story be any fun is to be a bit blase about death, but I don't really want that with a bunch of characters I've gotten to really like in other stories. The show tries to have it both ways which just results in the aforementioned whiplash between sad and quippy.
Sure would be nice for one of these What If episodes to not end in either everyone dying, and/or rampant character assassination.
 

karzac

(he/him)
Surprised this hasn't been posted yet:

Hawkeye coming Nov 24, seems to have a sort of Christmas vibe, and though she isn't explicitly named we do see Kate Bishop in action.

Kinda surprised there's no sign of a certain Widow as the ending of Black Widow seemed to imply their paths would cross sooner rather than later, but maybe that's either being kept secret or saved for another series/movie?

Looks like the sweatsuit mafia from the Fraction/Aja run is making an appearance!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
My one-sentence review of Shang-Chi;

"Every time I sit down to watch a movie, *this* is the experience I'm hoping to have"

If you gave me a hundred guesses who the final boss was going to be, I wouldn't have said The Dweller in Darkness
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
If you gave me a hundred guesses who the final boss was going to be, I wouldn't have said The Dweller in Darkness

I'm not very familiar with that character. So, while I understood that it probably is some big mystical baddie in the comics, probably belonging to the magic/martial arts wing of Museum of Marvel, its lack of, well, character or discernible personality made it kind of like "big evil RPG dragon takes over as final boss." Not exactly a Necron, but also something that kinda came out of left field?

I enjoyed the movie nonetheless, though I'm aware it's fairly divisive as a work of representation.
 
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Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
Ugh, really sorry about that, I thought the software would preserve the tag and I didn't check when I typed my reply >_<
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I'm not very familiar with that character. So, while I understood that it probably is some big mystical baddie in the comics, probably belonging to the magic/martial arts wing of Museum of Marvel, its lack of, well, character or discernible personality made it kind of like "big evil RPG dragon takes over as final boss." Not exactly a Necron, but also something that kinda came out of left field?

I enjoyed the movie nonetheless, though I'm aware it's fairly divisive as a work of representation.

No, that's... pretty much the same; it's just usually an octopus instead of a dragon, and he's more of a Dr. Strange bad guy
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
What if... the writers threw all kinds of logic out the window to do pure, nonstop college comedy and slapstick and threw in a suddenly serious cliffhanger to make quota but c'mon, it's still funny.

I mean it didn't make ANY sense but it was still the most entertaining episode so far :p
 
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