Excelsior, True Believers! The Mighty Marvel Movie Thread

[Pizzarino Sbarro]

What’s up with Hulu’s different release schedules for its shows? The Mindy Project, (just ended; nothing finale) a half hour sitcom, aired one ep a week. Hulu presented to me a random show about Josh Hutcherson in the Future all at once. I passed, too much content all at once, no interest. There are three episodes of The Runaways and the first one is 53 d*ng minutes long.

I can see no rhyme or reason to this, but I know Hulu’s some joint project with FOX/Disney/Comcast. Maybe that’s what’s up with that. Maybe not!

[muteKi]

I finally saw Doctor Strange, and I must say it was quite a bold move from Disney to create a film whose target audience was just me. It was indeed very good and a lot better than I expected it to be what with the whole white savior kinda thing going on.

It is much better than the seemingly lukewarm reception it got. In fact, I think it is a crucial film that explores questions asked since time immemorial: 1. What is the relationship between mind and body? 2. What if Dr. House were Bayonetta?

More thoughts:

Fractals, academics who won't take responsibility for their actions, bullet time, dark magic stuff, a guild of folks who protect the earth from multidimensional threats? Feels like someone read my treatment for an adaptation of Mobius Klein. Man.

A climactic fight scene where a major city gets UNDESTROYED as it progresses and the final fight is a practical joke? Beautiful. Worth it completely.

I'm slightly disappointed there wasn't more spatial manipulation. I want something like the pillar scene from Journey to the West, where we think we've gone to the farthest corners of the world but really we're still in the Buddha's hand the whole time. Make me doubt the nature of space and time harder, daddy. Give me more stuff like Neo's training in the Matrix. Give me a fight scene where no punches are thrown at all but spells and dimension-warping are used as means of control.

Also, more prog rock. Gimme Dat Deep Purple and Captain Beyond and Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Lonnie Smith and Herbert Hancock.


Marvel films I still haven't seen:
Hulk
Captain America 1
Ant-man
Thor 2

(Thor 3 I will see this week.)

[Adrenaline]

Runaways is fine, but why is it that every show connected to the MCU has such glacial pacing? I'm pretty sure the first three 50-minute episodes make less progress than the first three 22-page issues.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by muteKi

Marvel films I still haven't seen:
Hulk
Captain America 1
Ant-man
Thor 2

(Thor 3 I will see this week.)

Captain America 1 and Ant-Man are both worth checking out. Hulk and Thor 2 are both fine, which is as bad as Marvel movies get. Watch them if you're a completionist, but they're not worth seeking out otherwise.

I wasn't paying attention and posted this in the main movie thread, but I watched the series of movies leading up to Civil War recently.

Originally Posted by Patrick

Yeah, Captain America holds up better than I expected and I find myself liking it more each time I see it. It does a ton of work establishing concepts that will be important in later MCU movies. Plus, it’s just fun.

After talking about how which movies depend on earlier ones a while back, I went back & watched Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers, Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, and Civil War. Even cutting it down to six movies, that’s still a ton to watch in a row! As I said above, Cap 1 is great. Iron Man contrasts pretty strongly as a follow up though. It doesn’t tie in to anything else except for the post credits scene, but also Tony comes off as much more of a jerk in contrast to Steve. This isn’t the intended order, but it really stuck out. Also, I don’t think it added as much to this particular group of films as I thought it would since he’s reintroduced pretty well in the Avengers movies. It’s still a great standalone action movie & intro to Iron Man though.

The two Avengers movies were probably the weakest part of the whole thing. The novelty of superheroes teaming up has totally worn off now, and they seem goofy & clunky when sandwiched between Russo Bros. movies. Winter Soldier is still my favorite one in the series. It’s a great action movie, it moves along quickly, it’s strongly character driven, and it’s never too over the top. Even the triple helicarrier sequence has grown on me over time. Civil War is still a bit overpacked, but man is it ever well made. It really does strengthen it to watch it following the earlier Captain America movies.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to seeing two Avengers movies with the Russos at the helm.

[Rascally Badger]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

Runaways is fine, but why is it that every show connected to the MCU has such glacial pacing? I'm pretty sure the first three 50-minute episodes make less progress than the first three 22-page issues.

Those are pretty much my thoughts as well. Its not a bad show, but in 3 episodes of Runaways, no one has run away.

[Torzelbaum]

Originally Posted by muteKi

I finally saw Doctor Strange, and I must say it was quite a bold move from Disney to create a film whose target audience was just me.

More thoughts:
Also, more prog rock. Gimme Dat Deep Purple and Captain Beyond and Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Lonnie Smith and Herbert Hancock.

I think Stormbringer would have been a good choice for Thor 3.

[Vaeran]

Infinity War trailer coming t o m o r r o w

Here's the teaser for the trailer, because that's the world we live in now. It contains no new footage, and is the most exciting thing I've ever seen.



Feed me head-first into the hype machine.

[estragon]

Just as a warning because I really wish I had not clicked on that, the video is a something like a compilation of youtube reaction videos of people being excited for Marvel Studios Products.

So, watch it you want to watch something like that!

(This is my fault for clicking the video before reading the post.)

[Zef]

Soon Marvel will follow Atlus's example and give us mysterious countdowns to the midnight Youtube show that will spend a few hours shooting the shit and making raunchy jokes about the franchise then very suddenly air a ten-second teaser of the title and the prototype slogan with a generic "Q1" release window of the actual trailer.

[Vaeran]

Originally Posted by Zef

Soon Marvel will follow Atlus's example and give us mysterious countdowns to the midnight Youtube show that will spend a few hours shooting the shit and making raunchy jokes about the franchise then very suddenly air a ten-second teaser of the title and the prototype slogan with a generic "Q1" release date of the actual trailer.

I promise to get unreasonably excited about that as well

[Pizzarino Sbarro]

Loved it. Love a trailer. Love a subtrailer.

[Dracula]

I realize I've been yakking about marvel movies in the generic movie review thread, so I guess I'll continue doing so in here.

I rewatched Avengers! I love Avengers.

One of the reasons the movie works so well is it does a great job of giving each of its characters a motivation for their actions. A reason for being there. Some of the groundwork for these reasons has been laid in previous films, but Avengers restates, builds on, or establishes them in economic ways.

Cap wants to find a context for himself in his new world. Tony needs to demonstrate that he doesn't just look out for himself anymore. Thor simply wants to contain Loki. Loki wants the grandeur that he lost when he was deposed as king of Asgard. Bruce wants to help, but hasn't figured out how to do that with "the other guy." Natasha wants her record cleared (and to save her only friend). Even Clint, who spents most of the movie enslaved by Loki, has the motivation of wanting to stop the guy who played with his brain.

Fury needs to save the world, and by doing so, prove to the SHIELD council (and to the audience) that the Avengers Initiative could work.

The fact that you know each of these characters and what they want, and seeing all of these threads come together, is why the enormously complex action scene at the end of the film feels earned in a way that very few crossover stories achieve.

[Kate or Die!]

Yes but Cap's suit kinda looks like jammies compared to his later outfits.

[juanfrugalj]

That's entirely Coulson's doing.

[Octopus Prime]

And his earlier outfit.

And I’ve seen the movie several times and I still don’t understand the purpose of the entire middle-section on the Helicarrier.

[Vaeran]

Aw, that contains some of my favorite bits in the movie. The scene in the lab where all the Avengers are bickering with each other and with Fury is great.

Also, helicarriers are objectively awesome and I'm grateful for any screentime spent aboard one.

[The Raider Dr. Jones]

Originally Posted by Octopus Prime

And I’ve seen the movie several times and I still don’t understand the purpose of the entire middle-section on the Helicarrier.

Yeah, it kind of only works if comic books have trained you to expect that the heroes have to fight each other for at least the first third of a team-up story.

[Mightyblue]

You need the middle helicarrier section to establish a few things; A) that the staff/spear of Loki is the thing doing all of the brainwashing bits (Guy is doing his magic trickster god schtick even if you've never seen Thor, so minor clarification), B) show that the Avengers aren't even starting to become an actual team yet, and C) give them some moderately low-stakes events to start building a team identity around.

You need those mostly dialog bits in the middle to establish characters.

[Octopus Prime]

My issue is kind of the opposite of that though; his rational for letting himself be captured was to try to drive a wedge in the team, but, as you said, team-ups always begin with everyone trying to kill each other and the movie already established that the Avengers don’t want to work together.

The scene was cool, it just didn’t make a lick of sense for the plot whatsoever.

[Mightyblue]

Yes, but when was the last time Loki was actually good at doing maniacal master plans? Dude's a one/two-trick pony fuelled by resentment and an excellent accent. Even post Thor 1 Loki is mostly a jobber good at dodging consequences if nothing else.

[Dracula]

Originally Posted by Kate or Die!

Yes but Cap's suit kinda looks like jammies compared to his later outfits.

What's even better about this is how the people who designed his costume for Cap 1 went out of their way to make it all straptastic/bodyarmorlicious and move away from the more superhero-y look. Avengers just turned right around and charged full steam ahead, even adding back the little head wings.

I kind of love it for that.

[Pizzarino Sbarro]

I'm enjoying the first episode of Runaways. I can understand why it's paced more slowly than the comics, too: because Runaways after the first 18 issues (once they kill their parents) is bad and disquieting; these teens should no longer Run Away together and raise a goddamn 12 year old (or 2) on their own. (OTOH, I can't tell how old anyone from the age of 15-32 is thanks to TV teens, but I think they've aged Molly up here)

Also, Molly has basic, indistinct yellow Power Eyes, like countless half-cheetah randos on television. Should still be pink. Terrible change.

[Parish]

Cap's Avenger's 1 uniform looks fine in motion but boy does it not read well in stills.

[juanfrugalj]

Originally Posted by Parish

Cap's Avenger's 1 uniform looks fine in motion but boy does it not read well in stills.

I love that they realized this and used it for laughs, having him almost motionless in the goofy PSAs in Homecoming.

[Vaeran]

[Octopus Prime]

Okay. Yes. Yes, let’s do exactly this. I am okay with this trailer.

Thanos without his hat seems weird and wrong though.

[Adrenaline]

Obviously the Infinity Gauntlet is a big part of it but they're also clearly taking influence from Hickman's Infinity event. I dig it.

[Deptford]

Originally Posted by Octopus Prime

Thanos without his hat seems weird and wrong though.

That is my lone complaint as well, actually. CALL ME OLD-FASHIONED, but the only time I think Thanos should ever be struttin' around with an uncovered head is when he's philosophically farming after having his ambitions thwarted.

Aside from that though, this looks cool!

[Ample Vigour]

Thanos looks goofy enough in CG that putting a big gold hat on him might have crossed into high camp.

e: Looks like fun, but I weary of the "single piano note" cue in trailers. Big "everyone runs at each other" battle shots too.

[BEAT]

Thanos sans helmet reminded me more than anything of Ron Perlman as Hellboy.

...

Why didn't they just get Ron Pearlman to play Thanos? Like, just, do him up in purple makeup and have him Stomp around like SUP MOTHERFUCKERS I'M THANOS NOW

I have literally no problem believing that Ron Pearlman wearing silly purple makeup could kill the hulk with his bare hands.

Ron Pearlman is a gift. A blessing.