Lie they always say; Marvin’ Makes me feel good
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To Infinity and Beyond: The Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Thread starter Vaeran
- Start date
Madame Web having four female Spider characters and none of them are Jessica Drew is giving me they-made-a-Birds-of-Prey-movie-without-Babs vibes
Huh! More "What if...?" is probably the only single Marvel thing that's sounded interesting to me lately. (Not that I have D+ anyway, oh well.)
What If We Done A Mad Max and What If Christmas But Superheroes could be fun. Could take or leave the rest of it but we'll see.
Yeah I don't love it
Marvel dropped Majors after his assault trial verdict.
Still no word yet on whether they'll recast Kang or shift gears entirely, supposedly they're referring to 'Kang Dynasty' as just 'Avengers 5' internally now. So. lol.
People clamoring for Dr. Doom or the X-Mans to take center stage now are missing the point. They should take this opportunity to not fully reveal the next ten years or whatever of movies and just, y'know, build things up naturally and maybe even surprise us on where it goes. They chained themselves to this Kang thing years out for no good reason and it blew up in their face. Just let the movies and TV series come out and stand on their own merits for a bit.
Still no word yet on whether they'll recast Kang or shift gears entirely, supposedly they're referring to 'Kang Dynasty' as just 'Avengers 5' internally now. So. lol.
People clamoring for Dr. Doom or the X-Mans to take center stage now are missing the point. They should take this opportunity to not fully reveal the next ten years or whatever of movies and just, y'know, build things up naturally and maybe even surprise us on where it goes. They chained themselves to this Kang thing years out for no good reason and it blew up in their face. Just let the movies and TV series come out and stand on their own merits for a bit.
Good. Glad he's out. They should have done it earlier.
Recasting seems dead simple, honestly, for a multiversal character in a setting where another multiversal character appears as an alligator, a little kid, and even a lady.
Recasting seems dead simple, honestly, for a multiversal character in a setting where another multiversal character appears as an alligator, a little kid, and even a lady.
I read rumors that waiting until after the trial made it easier to get out of the contract without paying him a big / as big of a chunk of money.
I was unhappy with his part in Loki, because season 2 was fun otherwise. I’m really hoping they just recast.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Don't forget to unwrap the first episode of What If...? season 2 today!
I doubt that "What if Nebula joined the Nova Corps?" was a burning question on anyone's mind, but it turns out the answer is "some Blade Runner-ass shit" and I am here for it. I know people bag on the animation style of this show but I thought this one looked fantastic. Maybe I just have no taste.
I will say the reason for all the subterfuge in Nova Prime's plan left me kinda scratching my head, though. She literally has a kiosk in her office that switches the shield generator on and off. Why go to the trouble of having Nebula get the codes to hack it in the first place? You might say "well she wanted plausible deniability that she was responsible for it going down," but at the climax she's standing there surrounded by Nova Corps as they transmit the codes. There's probably something obvious I'm missing.
Anyway, check it out.
I doubt that "What if Nebula joined the Nova Corps?" was a burning question on anyone's mind, but it turns out the answer is "some Blade Runner-ass shit" and I am here for it. I know people bag on the animation style of this show but I thought this one looked fantastic. Maybe I just have no taste.
I will say the reason for all the subterfuge in Nova Prime's plan left me kinda scratching my head, though. She literally has a kiosk in her office that switches the shield generator on and off. Why go to the trouble of having Nebula get the codes to hack it in the first place? You might say "well she wanted plausible deniability that she was responsible for it going down," but at the climax she's standing there surrounded by Nova Corps as they transmit the codes. There's probably something obvious I'm missing.
Anyway, check it out.
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The official verdict on episode 2: Pretty Good, I Guess
The premise ("What if Yondu delivered Peter to Ego like he was supposed to?)" feels like a much more natural branching-off point from MCU canon than some of these plots, like last episode's. I like that even in 1988 we have a pretty solid roster of Super People, twenty years before Iron Man. They could have included Isaiah Bradley from TF&TWS if they really wanted, too. That would have been cool.
I thought the kid they got to voice Peter was a little flat, though, and he's really the emotional core of this story so some parts did not perhaps land as well as they should have.
Enjoyed this line:
HOWARD: I intercepted your handler's transmission. It's just you and me, pal.
BUCKY: There is no "me."
I thought the kid they got to voice Peter was a little flat, though, and he's really the emotional core of this story so some parts did not perhaps land as well as they should have.
Enjoyed this line:
HOWARD: I intercepted your handler's transmission. It's just you and me, pal.
BUCKY: There is no "me."
Yes. And you know who should play him?
Terrence Howard. And they should never explain why.
Having 79-year-old Michael Douglas play himself in the 1980s takes me out of a story more than just casting someone else would.
Gotta say that the visuals of What If are vastly better than the visuals of the movies.
Also while Hank Pym looked like 1980s Micheal Douglas, Ego and Bill Foster didn’t look a thing like 1980s Kurt Russell or Laurence Fishbourne.
The latter also didn’t sound like him but the credits confirmed that it was he.
Also while Hank Pym looked like 1980s Micheal Douglas, Ego and Bill Foster didn’t look a thing like 1980s Kurt Russell or Laurence Fishbourne.
The latter also didn’t sound like him but the credits confirmed that it was he.
She mentions having her team kill all the other Nova Corps in the building, so I’d presume that only a few of them were aware of and play with the plan
I thought Fishburne sounded plenty Fishburne-y. I was surprised that that wasn't Annette Bening, they got a good sound-alike.
Iron man Plays hot Wheels was by far the best one so far.
I think it comes down to the animation style?
Fights in this show barely interest me but car chases in this style work just fine! I think it's because the CGI style is a 1:1 match to HOT WHEELS HIGHWAY 35 WORLD RACE (2003).
I think it comes down to the animation style?
Fights in this show barely interest me but car chases in this style work just fine! I think it's because the CGI style is a 1:1 match to HOT WHEELS HIGHWAY 35 WORLD RACE (2003).
What If...? season 2 lightning round!
Overall, pretty good! Getting one a day helped make the disappointing ones less so since I hadn't waited a week to see them.
Anyway season 3 confirmed.
3. What if Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? Fun piece of holiday fluff. Loved having Sam Rockwell back as Justin Hammer and even getting a little dance out of him. Please please please be in Armor Wars.
4. What if Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster? Super Marvel Kart! Visually exciting and inventive. I will take all the Jeff Goldblum you care to give me. The guy they've got playing Tony does an amazing RDJ impression.
5. What if Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? Started out as a fun twist on The Winter Soldier but then it's like 15 solid minutes of fighting. The choreography was good but I started getting bored after a while.
6. What if Kahhori Reshaped the World? Big ups for the inclusion of Native American heroes, and watching them whoop colonizer ass was very satisfying. Nice visuals.
7. What if Hela Found the Ten Rings? Cannot believe they got Cate Blanchett back for this. I found Hela's arc unbelievable and her constant quipping grating. This one didn't work for me.
8. What if Avengers Assembled in 1602? Decent fun, but not a patch on the original 1602 comic. "Rogers Hood" got an eyeroll from me.
CARTER: You're even more of a drama queen than your brother!
LOKI: Bless!
9. What if Strange Supreme Intervened? Another one that's nearly all fighting. Captain Carter with the Infinity Stones, Hela's crown, Mjolnir, and every other weapon in the multiverse: not enough to defeat Strange Supreme. But Captain Carter with just the Stones: enough. Okay.
4. What if Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster? Super Marvel Kart! Visually exciting and inventive. I will take all the Jeff Goldblum you care to give me. The guy they've got playing Tony does an amazing RDJ impression.
5. What if Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? Started out as a fun twist on The Winter Soldier but then it's like 15 solid minutes of fighting. The choreography was good but I started getting bored after a while.
6. What if Kahhori Reshaped the World? Big ups for the inclusion of Native American heroes, and watching them whoop colonizer ass was very satisfying. Nice visuals.
7. What if Hela Found the Ten Rings? Cannot believe they got Cate Blanchett back for this. I found Hela's arc unbelievable and her constant quipping grating. This one didn't work for me.
8. What if Avengers Assembled in 1602? Decent fun, but not a patch on the original 1602 comic. "Rogers Hood" got an eyeroll from me.
CARTER: You're even more of a drama queen than your brother!
LOKI: Bless!
9. What if Strange Supreme Intervened? Another one that's nearly all fighting. Captain Carter with the Infinity Stones, Hela's crown, Mjolnir, and every other weapon in the multiverse: not enough to defeat Strange Supreme. But Captain Carter with just the Stones: enough. Okay.
Overall, pretty good! Getting one a day helped make the disappointing ones less so since I hadn't waited a week to see them.
Anyway season 3 confirmed.
I caught bits and parts of Season 2 while family members were watching it. I think the animation has improved over last season but it's still not good. I think there's a few points of clarity here that are worth bringing to the discussion, since "animation" gets used as a catch-all word the way "graphics" gets used in video games.
I think the art style in the show is fine. It's not my cup of tea, but it's not inherently bad or ugly. It looks like house-style American comics, which - considering the franchise is probably pretty appropriate. The color palate is a bit flat and uninspired, but that's to be expected for a show like this made on a smaller budget/quick timetable.
I think the character models, environmental models, and general modeling is also good. Nothing has obvious flaws, there's no jaggies or stray polygons poking out of things.
The texture work on show is also fine. Nothing clashes too much, you don't see any obvious low-quality textures, things generally look like they should. The cell-shaded look of the character models don't clash too much with the slightly more realistic textures of the environment.
The problem with the show's "animation" is literally just that - the animation. The way the characters/objects animate and move. This is by far the hardest part of most animation, 3D or not. Getting the movements to look convincing and not stiff or programmatic. The clips I've seen have been a marked improvement on the first season where character models - and character faces particularly - looked stiff and lifeless. Here, I can tell the animators are going off of well-designed storyboards that are conveying a lot of personality in the facial animations and that the show is being animated with the traditional key-frame model. The problem then is that a lot of the tweening looks like that - stiff and programmatic between keyframes. Objects/body parts/entire characters moving in straight or very mathematically precise vectors instead of replicating anything organic. No attempts at creating blur-frames, very little transformation of the models to imply extra motion, etc, etc.
This stuff is hard. Big productions full of animation veterans have problems with these kinds of things. (The Clone Wars guys have been doing their thing for well over a decade and still can't seem to get this stuff right.) Start up studios really don't stand a chance unless they manage to get some kind of wunderkin on their payroll who is the next Picasso of animating. I think the 3D animation industry is finally beginning to learn to incorporate a lot of the tricks of 2D animation that has been finely honed and developed for over a century instead of just doing the Pixar-model on a budget of very smooth animation on a budget. Films like the Spider-verse movies and the recent TMNT cartoon did a good job of replicating the whole "animating on fours" look of traditional animation, and focusing on doing as much hand-crafted model manipulation versus letting computers do automatic tweening. Hopefully production houses like this will begin to take notes and learn to improve in this realm. Because as hard as it is, it's not impossible; these animators just have to do some real studying and learn to work outside of their comfort zone. But if small Japanese animation studios like Orange can put things like this out on TV-Anime budgets, someone backed by Disney/Marvel ought to be able to do something half as good and they're not even in the same ballpark:
I think the character models, environmental models, and general modeling is also good. Nothing has obvious flaws, there's no jaggies or stray polygons poking out of things.
The texture work on show is also fine. Nothing clashes too much, you don't see any obvious low-quality textures, things generally look like they should. The cell-shaded look of the character models don't clash too much with the slightly more realistic textures of the environment.
The problem with the show's "animation" is literally just that - the animation. The way the characters/objects animate and move. This is by far the hardest part of most animation, 3D or not. Getting the movements to look convincing and not stiff or programmatic. The clips I've seen have been a marked improvement on the first season where character models - and character faces particularly - looked stiff and lifeless. Here, I can tell the animators are going off of well-designed storyboards that are conveying a lot of personality in the facial animations and that the show is being animated with the traditional key-frame model. The problem then is that a lot of the tweening looks like that - stiff and programmatic between keyframes. Objects/body parts/entire characters moving in straight or very mathematically precise vectors instead of replicating anything organic. No attempts at creating blur-frames, very little transformation of the models to imply extra motion, etc, etc.
This stuff is hard. Big productions full of animation veterans have problems with these kinds of things. (The Clone Wars guys have been doing their thing for well over a decade and still can't seem to get this stuff right.) Start up studios really don't stand a chance unless they manage to get some kind of wunderkin on their payroll who is the next Picasso of animating. I think the 3D animation industry is finally beginning to learn to incorporate a lot of the tricks of 2D animation that has been finely honed and developed for over a century instead of just doing the Pixar-model on a budget of very smooth animation on a budget. Films like the Spider-verse movies and the recent TMNT cartoon did a good job of replicating the whole "animating on fours" look of traditional animation, and focusing on doing as much hand-crafted model manipulation versus letting computers do automatic tweening. Hopefully production houses like this will begin to take notes and learn to improve in this realm. Because as hard as it is, it's not impossible; these animators just have to do some real studying and learn to work outside of their comfort zone. But if small Japanese animation studios like Orange can put things like this out on TV-Anime budgets, someone backed by Disney/Marvel ought to be able to do something half as good and they're not even in the same ballpark: