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signalwatch · 5 months

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The Marvels (2023)

Watched: 11/09/2023

Format: Alamo Drafthouse

Viewing: First

Director: Nia DaCosta

Marvel has been having some issues, of late, with quality and maintaining a fanbase. I'm not sure why having a fanbase for sci-fi/ fantasy stuff means eventually that the absolute worst people on Earth feel like their opinions should dictate what the rest of the planet sees and what constitutes a "good" Marvel, Star Wars or whatever movie. But I suppose it's the same reason that people think they get to tell other people they're the only *real* Americans.

I don't want to define the film Captain Marvel or TV show Ms. Marvel by the audience that manages to mix misogyny and racism into rocket fuel for social media, but I will say - in the event of this year's strike by SAG-AFTRA, it's been tough to get much in the way of promotion out there for The Marvels other than dropping trailers, and that's left a gap in the conversation those folks have filled. It's more likely we'll see the occasional hit-piece by a major industry publication looking for clicks than Disney doing anything worthwhile to actually promote the film on their own. We coulda really used the lead cast hitting Hot Ones and Good Morning America.

Look, I agree: Marvel has put out too much content since Endgame, and that's had a deleterious effect on the overall quality of the material. Even I have been asking "will this be necessary?" as I hear about each new Marvel thing still in the pipeline. And sometimes you're watching, say, Loki Season 2, and you're thinking "I literally do not care what happens here" because something like "oh noes, the timelines will all collapse" is both meaningless, up it's own ass of the story being about itself, and insanely old hat to us aging comic nerds who've seen timelines and multiverses collapse and expand over and over for our *entire lives*. And, yes, Superman will still get printed every month.

Movie superheroes still have to have an antagonist, and they still have to wind up in a big crescendo of a finale, but we've seen this dozens of times in the past fifteen years. You can polish it, put a new coat of paint on it, but eventually it's someone in a slugfest with their evil opposite who has the advantage on paper (but not the heart of a hero).

So what you have left is what you can do with characters.

And that brings us to The Marvels (2023), Marvel Studios' latest offering.

The movie has mediocre reviews and is tracking to open badly. I haven't read the reviews, because (a) I already had tickets and was going, and (b) I kinda wanted to write this before I saw what Chris Spectacles of the Akron Observer thought of the film.* And I didn't want this review to be me addressing the concerns of reviewers.

I saw it in a 2/3rds full theater on opening night, and with not a child in sight. I will say the following up top:

First - there's no post-post-credits sequence to wait for. Go home after the first couple of them. This is not a trick.

Second - Before watching this, yes, you will have to have seen Captain Marvel. You should see Ms. Marvel. You will want to just skip Secret Invasion, which this movie pretends didn't happen, and that's fine, because that show was quite bad and more confused the MCU than helped it along.

SPOILERS

The Marvels (2023) is not going to change the world. This is also not going to "save" Marvel Studios, if, indeed, Marvel Studios needs saving, or the *idea* of saving the studio that means anything at all.

What I'll argue the movie does is provide a fun time at the movies with characters that are a good hang for the movie's speedy, non-stop runtime. If Guardians of the Galaxy taught Marvel that what you need is a mix of action, comedy, space and family issues, this movie is absolutely a product of that line of thinking. The Marvels isn't trying to copy Guardians (despite the fact the villain is a version of Ronan who is a mean lady instead of a mean man), but clearly those items were on a whiteboard somewhere while this movie was getting sorted out.

The movie knows that the villain's plot is going to fail, and knows we, the audience, are just following the beats on that score. And so it does the unthinkable of late for Marvel: it uses the plot as an excuse to tell a three-sided story with three solid characters thrust together an inextricably linked, thereby creating a movie that's character driven. The problems it addresses are personal in nature as much, or more!, than the need to stop Kree Hammer Lady.**

We catch up with the MCU as Kamala Kahn has settled a bit into her role as teen-hero, Ms. Marvel. She's still very much a kid living with her family (Marvel understands when they've struck character gold). Meanwhile Carol is in deep space, living with Goose and part of a network of folks helping keep peace across the galaxy, one supposes. And, working aboard SABRE's orbital base, Monica Rambeau (I think last seen in WandaVision) is putting her powers to some use and being a scientist/ astronaut type.

But it seems since we checked in during the 1990's, the Kree had a civil war that somehow: (a) messed up their sun? (b) evaporated their oceans and (c) ruined their atmosphere, creating a permanent state of planet-wide nightfall. Not-Ronan has taken up the mantle and is trying to restore Hala, the Kree homeworld in a very Kree way - by murdering people. She's obtained the second Quantum Band (Kamala having the first one we'd seen - there are two) and she's using it to open worm holes to...

Look, the plot is the villainous plot from Spaceballs, and our villain is MegaMaid. There's really no way around it. It's not what *I* would have done as a writer, but Spaceballs was also 40 years ago, so... we may have to let this one go. What's important is that MegaMaid is targeting planets in which Carol Danvers has an emotional investment and stealing their water, air and sun, and that's personal and mean. But why? Well, thereby hangs a tale.

But, like I say, it kind of doesn't matter. She could be unleashing cooties on those planets. She exists so our heroes get together and figure out their personal stuff. And that's what the movie is about.

Monica has to figure out what it means that Carol didn't come back for Monica when Maria fell ill, both the why's and the impact. Kamala has a parasocial relationship with Carol that Carol feels she has to live up to, even as it inspires Kamala and Carol doesn't feel at all like that hero. But Kamala's hero-worship is kind of the unspoken opposite of how Monica has reacted to learning she has powers of her own. And Kamala and Monica are complete strangers, navigating knowing each other while also seeing each other's relationship with Carol. It's complicated stuff! You could have made a similar indie movie about a movie star, her old friend and a fan, and gotten much of the same effect.

But this one is in space, action-packed (I mean VERY action packed) and manages to balance the sincere moments with the incredibly silly moments with the pathos of inadvertently causing the self-immolation of Space Nazis. And, in my opinion, it all worked.

I liked the singing planet (but they did need to hold to the concept through the battle), I liked the kitten Flerkens and the absolute chaos of the evacuation scene. I liked Kamala's family dealing with the nonsense of superhero/ SABRE life. I liked the kooky three-way fights and the "we gotta synch up" montage. The fight sequences are very well choreographed and work well despite what absolutely should have been a lot of confusion for the audience - ironically, only the audience is in a position to get what's happening. And I very much liked that our heroes *tried* to reason with the mad despot once it was clear they had the upper-hand and offer a way out of this.

In general, I was already in the bag for Brie Larson's take on Carol, and it's interesting to see a version 30 years older and with a lot of new, self-inflicted baggage. Iman Vellani's Kamala Kahn is an absolute delight and can't wait to see her again. And Teyonah Parris is very pretty great as my first Captain Marvel, and with decades of baggage to sort through with Carol, the blip, super-powers and how to be a superhero, which, frankly, she doesn't want to be.

Complaints:

So - did the singing planet die? I have no idea what happened there. It would be nice to know. It seemed like everyone was going to die, and no one seems to care.

They basically borrowed the ending of All Star Superman, but didn't do it as well or with much emotional resonance, which is a real bummer. Now DC can't use it, and this didn't land as well as it could have for Carol. Felt like it needed a few more beats.

We gotta find more interesting ways to dress aliens. Bright robes are very 1990's ST:TNG and it keeps happening at Marvel

Space is boring in this movie. Marvel space was defined by James Gunn, and it is beautiful. Show that candy colored majesty, not ST:TNG white stars (the new Trek knows this). There's definitely some more creative design they could have done, but maybe less is more if Quantumania was any indicator

Carol sure is good at astro-navigation and everything is apparently cosmically nextdoor in the MCU

I don't understand how the heroes became disentangled

Kamala uses her powers without her bangle, and I didn't know that was a thing

Spoilery Spoilers

It was fun seeing Valkyrie again, and good use of the character in her current role. Also, sure felt like she and Carol knew each other pretty intimately... Close to making that happen as Marvel will get, I guess

I don't know who Park Seo-joon is, but he was swoony. I guess he's a big star? Probably make the kids very happy

The first post credits scene was met with audible joy from the audience, so here's hoping that works.

The second post credits scene received an involuntary verbal response from me and a few others in the theater. I like where they're going with this. X-Men will not work in the MCU, but as close-universe neighbors, seems like a fine idea. Also, thank goodness that isn't the last we'll see of Lashana Lynch

I was led to believe Richard Ryder/ Nova would appear, he does not.

(late edit: this movie has the single greatest needle drop in Marvel history)

I don't think this one landed for me exactly as hard as the origins of either Ms. or Captain Marvel, but if the requirement was "I would like to spend time with these people, and see them together in a fun way" this managed that. It feels unnecessary only in that it only barely strives to move a universe of stories forward and is, instead, self-contained and about these three people and their family/ friends. It is very necessary as a "we should have solo stories that advance the characters but not carry the universe forward in obvious and awkward ways" sort of way.

Would I watch four more of these? Yes.

And thank god they got Nick Fury into a place where it's not a drag to have him around.

Look, I don't know what you people want out of Marvel, but I want something fun I can rewatch without feeling like I'm doing homework. I like a good adventure and fight scenes and jokes and characters to enjoy. I suppose I'll check out some reviews, and I think from my laundry list of nits to pick, it's clear I'm not giving this a 5/5, but when all you hear is "underperforming" and "mediocre reviews" in a world with ten movies about Vin Diesel driving cars fast and the general shit people get enthusiastic for, I won't even pretend to know what people consider a win.

*I swear to god, if I see one more person thinking they've got the edgy take on Marvel by saying "I don't consider Marvel movies to be *cinema*... Dude, we get it. You're very special and very smart and you can get your "I'm a very smart person on the internet" cookie on your way out the @#$%ing door

**no one is beholden to remember made-up alien names for longer than the name pass by in the credits

#marvel cinematic universe #marvel #marvels #captain marvel #ms. marvel #movies #movie review

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thelonesomequeen · 1 year

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The man has a net worth of $110 million. He doesn’t need to play PR games for a check. And this type of thing isn’t going finance a movie either when a script doesn’t even exist yet 🦎/// Yes but he is less and less relevant in Hollywood. His roles are meh he doesn't have Cap to cover for that anymore. He have to stay relevant in the business that is changing to streaming instead of theatrical release. This business always was trashy and now Chris is playing this game hard too. He just get catch cause apparently he can even fake a romans for pics. I don't believe they together. Maybe was are friends but that's doesn't matter. Likes matters lol. Not only for him but others too. That's how agency's gets those less known actors on top lol. It gain traffic and fallows for them. People gets interested in them and that's the pandemic effect. When we all stacked at home that was the only way for them and also people started to pay attention to likes and fallows more (maybe out of boredom). They signed contracts with them so it's in their interest to get them jobs, recognition and higher status in Hollywood. Chris is doing dirty things, stupid Hollywood games. It's just time to accept it and stop baby him. Just watch him burn himself maybe he learn something.

ALL celebrities play PR games to some extent to stay relevant with the public and sometimes studios. But I still don’t think his career is WHY he would be involved with Alba for PR if that’s what’s going on. I just don’t. I’m sorry. 1. It had the potential to backfire BIG TIME by making him another Hollywood cliche. And to a degree, that DID happen. 2. They aren’t in the media together enough for me to be solely convinced this is ONLY PR. The general public isn’t sorting through likes and follows the way fans do to try and connect the two of them together. That’s stan behavior, not public behavior. And they haven’t done a whole lot to gain PUBLIC attention. Gaining fan attention isn’t enough for relevance when we’re a much smaller group of people than a lot of us here on tumblr or LSA would like to believe we are. 3. If he was desperate for public attention, there’s so many better ways PR could have been done. They could have ran with the Sexiest Man Alive title so much further than they did, they could spin ASP to look so much better than it does, the public loves him with Dodger and they could have pushed for more Jinx ads and articles considering he’s a brand ambassador. PR doesn’t have to just be relationship related, and for him, highlighting other parts of his life has always seemed to gain him more favorable public attention. But that’s just my opinion and you’re free to disagree.

Here’s the other piece of the puzzle and I’m just going to say it. If he wants to remain relevant in Hollywood, he just needs to be picking better projects and concentrate on doing better with acting. That’s all there is to it. He’s a mediocre white guy in Hollywood. There’s dozens of those everywhere. He’s very easily replaceable. His acting isn’t strong enough to set him apart from his peers. He’s at an age where the younger, muscly men in Hollywood are going to start taking those “action” type roles (and if they’re new to the industry, they can be paid less) but he’s not growing at the performance rate of his peers or actors that are slightly older than him for more serious roles. If we look outside of Marvel, he hasn’t had very many box offices successes. Knives Out did GREAT, but he was part of an ensemble cast. A cast full of respected actors or those with enough public draw. He didn’t carry that movie on his own. Lightyear didn’t do well with the box office. It was ok, but it wasn’t great. Red One and Ghosted are both streamers that appear questionable in quality. I’m not saying they’ll be bad, but I highly doubt they’ll be scoring Oscar nominations. Pain Hustlers (again, another streamer) I think could go either way depending on how they play out the story line. Studios aren’t going to just look at a celebrity’s PR or who they’re dating. They’re also going to look at what it costs to hire that actor, if their acting chops are up to par on what they need in the movie, and if they can sell tickets based on previous box office numbers. 🦎

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no-romo-hoes · 1 year

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I hate VENOM as a film. I hate it. It sucks. But I also love it. It's great. I'll never watch it again. Let's back up a bit. (Before we begin, No I haven't watched the second VENOM movie, so this is from what I remember from the first one)

I love Venom because it's so fucking funny. The symbiote itself, not the film. It's so strong, it's blood-thirsty, it's horrifying to look at, it's an alien, it's murdered and eaten dozens of innocent civilians, but it's got sass, it's easily offended, it likes tater tots and chocolate, and it provides the funniest commentary of any marvel film. It's like having a really freaky roommate that'll tease you all day if you get flustered by an attractive person, then demand you buy them food, then murder your highschool bully because they called you a mean name. He'll even "leave the apartment" for a night if you wanna do something privately. But he'll tease you endlessly afterwards. And the fact that he explained to Eddie how he was considered a loser on his planet makes their duo that much more lovable. Two outcasts from different societies meeting and becoming best friends/in love (whatever your view on their relationship is 'cause it's kinda vague). I seriously love Venom as a creature.

Next, I love how different the hero is to other marvel heroes. Iron Man is a billionare weapons designer, Black Widow has been trained to kill since she was 12, Thor is a literal god, Black Panther is the freaking king of the most advanced civilisation on the planet, Captain America is a super soldier and the textbook definition of a "good person". And then look at VENOM. Eddie Brock is a stressed, unemployed, drug-addict in a shitty apartment that just got dumped by his girlfriend. He is the textbook definition of a "loser". Then he meets this random glob of alien black-cat-energy and he's just like "aight". The most relatable superhero in the history of superheroes.

But I hate VENOM. I was so disappointed when I watched it. The writing of the dialogue was good, but it could have been way better, we didn't really get to see the development of the relationship between Venom and Eddie, nor the character development we would want for Eddie now that he has something to fight for. We see the classic sacrifice-yourself-for-your-friend-but-oh-turns-out-you-survived trope, but there was no time for Eddie to properly mourn. Basically, there wasn't enough angst. There wasn't enough time for it. I think it would have been better as an episode series instead of a film, that way we could have a lot more time for character development, awesome battle scenes, as well as general Roommate Comedy™. To add to this, I was disappointed at the lack of a training montage. Cliché as it is, they went from having just met to "we're unstoppable and have codes and battle strategy and shit", so having some training time on screen would have eased that transition significantly, and the flow of the film would have improved.

This is the most irritating part of the film; the fact that the concept and characters are brilliant but were executed poorly. I would have no issue with a film that was just bad, but to have such a fun and new idea written in such mediocre fashion is infuriating. Now I feel no shame when I say I have searched for reader-insert fanfictions that include the symbiote (not x readers though, I'm not a monster fucker) and there are very few of quality. If you can correct me, please do. So my appreciation of Venom must remain tucked away in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the front saying "beware of the leopard".

#we are venom #venom #marvel venom #marvel #venom symbiote #eddie brock #venom movie

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nightcoremoon · 2 years

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it is hilarious that people will insult belittle demean and tear into the avengers movies or the legend of korra or halestorm or whatever is popular and claim they’re the worst of the worst bottom of the barrel sub F tier trash available on the market. true they’re not perfect and true they’re not everyone’s cup of tea and true they’re semi poppy and commercialized but this is a capitalist hell hole and you have to commercialize yourself or starve and taste is subjective and nothing is perfect. except maybe lord of the rings. but whatever it’s unimportant.

that is still in the barrel. that is still drinkable. still tasty.

I have seen what is under the barrel. I have seen the moldy rot-infested barnacles infesting the bowels of the industry. I have seen horrors that you lesser minded folks incapable of viewing the big picture couldn’t even begin to fathom. I am the protagonist of an eldritch horror novel and you are just a bystander NPC programmed to repeat what you hear and are told to believe from social media. you are a slave to tiktok and instagram and twitter thinking that whatever is the most popular thing at the time is the worst that you can get, but I am here to tell you that you don’t even know the first thing about objectively bad media.

morbius is the single worst marvel property ever made and yes that absolutely includes daredevil, ghost rider, Xmen 3, fantastic four: rise of the silver surfer. because at least they’re all still good stupid fun popcorn movies (except for silver surfer holy shit that was bad but even then I’d still rather watch that one twice than ever lay my eyes on morbius ever again). and please note that this is five atrocious marvel movies that are not part of your most hated cinematography universe. THERE ARE FIVE MARVEL MOVIES THAT ARE WORSE THAN THE “MARVEL MOVIES” THAT YOU ALL CLAIM TO HATE. and don’t even get me started on the dc movies (suicide squad & catwoman) and dark horse (spawn). and superhero movies in general. I haven’t even touched Netflix originals or other similar garbage.

Sierra Burgess. Tall Girl. The Kissing Booth. Secret Obsession. Swiped. Food Boy. MUSIC. CYBERBU//Y. ARTEMIS FUCKING FOWL. DON’T FORGET THE LAST GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING M NIGHT SHYAMALAN TRAINWRECK AIRBENDER (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ and how about Disney’s remakes? Shyamalan’s rest of the garbage pile? Every single shitty offensive terrible movie Paris Hilton paid for with daddy’s money??? Master of Disguise. Zoom. Cat in the Hat. N O R B I T. Loqueesha.

LOOK ME IN THE EYES AND TELL ME THAT LOQUEESHA IS A BETTER MOVIE THAN IRON MAN OR CAP 2.

“I don’t know what loqueesha is let me look it up.

oh.

oh no.”

Oldboy remake. Cats and Les Mis remakes. Half of Adam Sandler’s filmography. I could go on for hours here.

tell me korra is bad when PPG2016 exists. tell me halestorm is bad when brokencyde exists. tell me any film you’ve heard of is bad when video brinquiedo has a shittier ripped off lower budget & RACIST version of it.

you don’t know what you’re talking about. you only adopted the garbage. I was born in it. raised by it. molded by it. the first time I saw a genuinely good movie I was already grown, by then it was nothing but fun to me! yes I quoted the worst nolan batman movie but blatant copaganda it may be it’s still better than a significant portion of other films on the market especially now that streaming is the way of the future, a way to enable mediocre directors to churn out dozens and hundreds of hours of bad content than you decide to ignore and instead throw rocks at some of the only worthwhile viewing experiences available without cash. although occasionally you do get gems like EEAAO.

it’s the same old bandwagon as always. the haters will just move on to whatever the spotlight shines upon next.

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beautifulhigh · 4 years

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PEOPLE: I’ve watched The Old Guard so many times already. ME: Why would you watch a movie so many times in such a short space of time? ME: *watches The Old Guard* ME:. Oh. This is why.

#the old guard #this movie is amazing #and I need a whole series please and thanks #if the mediocre marvel gets dozens of movies #this can get a few

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wenellyb · 3 years

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Can I ask your opinion on the what if... series? I'm really hating the Captain Carter trailers. I feel like it's disrespectful to Sam's character who has only just taken up the mantle of Captain America and the shield. I get that this is an alternate timeline series but from the sounds of things they plan on launching these alternates into the main MCU via the multiverse. If rumours are true and Peggy appears in Doctor Strange 2, then that means Captain Carter will appear on the big screen as a supersoldier shield-weilding Cap before Sam appears. And that doesn't sit right with me. Not to mention the merchandise that's already everywhere. Feels like Sam's getting sidelined again before he's even had the chance to shine on his own. Anyway, I'd be interested to know your thoughts on it, if you've seen it. (Also, less related, the uniform being the British flag just reeks of WW2 British imperialism which is also just ugh. And I'm an Australian, our flag literally includes the British one! I just do not like any of this.)

Hi Anon!!! Thanks for the ask it's a very interesting question.

I haven't thought about it a lot because I have seen the trailers and I liked it, it looks like a very cool show and I llike Peggy Carter's character.

They have announced the What If... series since a long time ago and one of the scenario announced was indeed what if Peggy was "Captain America", so this isn't exactly a surprise.

I have seem some posts about the fact that there is much promotion and much more merchandise is done for Captain Cartet than for Captain America. And that are disappointed that Sam's character is sidelined and maybe it's too spon and I will changer my mind, but I personally don't feel that way for now.

I guess I would have more of a problem if:

-it weren't an animated series and there was a real show with Captain Carter. I didn't know about Peggy appearing in Doctor Strange 2, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what is the screntime, if she appears as Captain Carter or not. But for now, I personally don't see Captain Carter as a problem or as Sam's character being sidelined.

- if they brought back Chris Evans' Captain America on a different project, like those rumors said some ago. It would annoy me to no end if they used the excuse of the multiverse to bring back another version of Steve Rogers as Captain America, or as

Honestly, for me, there is a problem with Sam's character and how him being Captain America is handled, but it has nothing to do with the What if series. I think it's important to put the blame where it should be.

The problem isn't that there is more promotion or more merch available for the What If series or Captain Carter, because the show is about to air, so it's normal that it would get promoted, that's how it works.

To me, the problem is that we had a TV show with Sam as Captain America, and then... nothing???

The problem is that we had an announcement for a Cap 4 movie but with no realease date nothing? Not even a TBA date in 2024 or whatever? With all these MCU moves already lined up there should be at least an official announcement, even a vague date.

And I'm thinking maybe we'll get to Sam Wilson in other movies, before the Cap 4 movie, but it's not a certainty, and also what about the official dates for his own movie? Not even something like "confirmed" or "announced" with the Captain America logo.

That's what doesn't sit right with me, because for now it looks to me that Disney has no plan to follow up on Captain Sam Wilson... Just from the looks of it, I don't know what they will or will not do.

Am I the only one who remembers that we were supposed to have a Cyrborg solo movie in the DCEU? It was announced and it never happened? So that's what's really making worried regarding Captain America.

From where I'm standing, Disney wants the diversity points without putting in more work than necessary.

Another issue is that historically the fandom never stands up for the Black Superheroes and the Balck actors.

It happened woth Ray Fisher, it happened with John Boyega, and I think John's case it's even more disgustimg because the behavior of the fandom eventually led to his role beong reduced in the Saga...wtf. They preferred to run an incoherent story and make a mediocre movie rather than pay Fonn his due!

Just an example of what I mean when I say that the fandom doesn't support Black Actors: You see all what is happening with Scarlett Johansson right? The lawsuit etcetera.... I have seen dozens and dozens of posts supporting her and her lawsuit.... And this isn't coming from her fans... It's even coming from people who dislike her but understand the importance of what she's doing. I understand the importance of what she's doing... But I can't help and compare it to he support Ray Fisher had in the fandom, when he was calling out the abuse he received from Joss Whedon and from some Executives. Since the story with Scarlett started every 10th post on my dash is about it. And yes, it's still fresh, so it's normal people are talking about it. But when the whole story started with Ray Fisher, the reaction was just not the same.... People were amkong posts that wouldn't get more that a 100 notes, and for me it was easier supporting from Twitter because at least I could retweet Ray's tweets.... but let me tell you that he was bassically fight alone. ALONE.

I have seen so many posts saying.... "I hate Scarjo but..." "I can't stand Scarjo but..." So from where I'm sitting a problematic White actress will get more support than an unproblematic Black actor denouncing abuse. And just to be clear... I do think that the fandom should support Scarjo's lawsuit because Disney is never held accountable for the sh*t they do, I'm just making a comparison and saying they both deserved support but only one of them got it.

That's why I have absolutely no fate that the MCU fandom will stand up for Anthony Mackie or Sam Wilson if it's ever necessary seeing how they turned their back on Anthony Mackie the moment they thought he was against "Sambucky". They will turn their back on him and his character the minute a minor inconvience happen. And Disney/Marvel will love that because they will have a justification as to why they will not follow through with Sam Cap (His characyer is unpopular.... or whatever excuse they will find).

And about the interview thing, I guess I could understand if and only if they had a problem with some of the things he had said... But the fandom made it clear that they only cared about what they thought he said about Sambucky, not the rest, proving once again that the fandom is untrustworthy. Because they were ready to condemn hom for something as trivial as a fictional ship.

If push comes to shove, and for instance they brought back another Steve Rogers from another universe, I'm sure they would be quick to support THAT character instead of Sam.

To me the problem is Disney & Marvel Execs and also the fandom of course... Because the Execs go where the money is... If the fandom is hyping up anybody BUT Sam Wilson... the execs will do the same... because they will promote characters who are the most popular.

It's important to reward reprensation, and hype up movies and shows with reprensentation, but to me it is as important (if not more important) not to reward lack of representation.

That's why I have absolutely no intention to pay for a MCU movie other than Shang Chi, and Black Panther and also Cap 4 whenever it comes out! But other than that... I'm staying away from the movies with always the same group being represented.

TL:DR; in my opinion, there is indeed a problem but the problem isn't the What if series, far from it.

#what if #sam wilson #captain america #peggy carter #ray fisher #john boyega #anthony mackie #And the Marvels too #Forgot to add that!#Sorry for the typos

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crazyintheeast · 3 years

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The last episode of WandaVision really showed just how bad and utterly mismanaged the show is. Why? Because the last episode was brilliant and completely outshined the mediocre garbage that were the first three episodes. Just everything about it was perfect. Monica was a shining charismatic super nova. We started out by getting a fascinating glimpse in the world after the snap was fixed, we got introduced to SWORD and we got Darcy and the amazing Agent Jimmy Woo. If this episode had been the pilot I would have raved about the show

Instead we got stuck with three boring ass first episodes meant to strike nostalgia in boomers who love boring American sitcoms and the whole mystery was what? That Wanda had a mental breakdown and created her little dreamworld? Wow so shocking

Seriously I think the biggest problem with the show is that it’s whole premise treats Wanda and Vision as some beloved characters that are we supposed to utterly adore but why the fuck are we supposed to? MCU canon utterly mishandled Wanda. Instead of giving her a fascinating story they gave us Wanda who was an annoying bratty dick. Seriously her introduction was her and her brother WILLINGLY signing up to join Nazis and then a killer robot who killed tons of innocent people because oh a bomb with the Stark logo traumatized them ? Bohho . Plenty of people suffer trauma without becoming murderous psychos. I am supposed to care about her? Especially since her “redemption” was solely due to the fact that she figured out that Ultron was going to kill everybody and again she suffered zero consequences from all the death she caused

The next few movies didn’t really make it better. Civil War if anything made Wanda even more annoying and bratty. She literally killed innocent people due to her incompetence and the badly throughout plan that involved them deciding to play cowboys in a foreign country without any coordination with local authorities or any attempts to keep civilians safe. And that brat threw a tantrum because she was grounded in a multi million dollar mansion ? Again this is supposed to make me feel sympathetic towards her ? Bitch you killed people. You should be under investigation and await your trial in jail and instead you got away with zero investigations or any charges and you are whining that your were again stuck at a multi million dollar mansion? If a cop or a soldier ended up killing a dozen innocent people due to a mistake we would be outraged but because an ex nazi terrorist was moping around feeling bummed we are supposed to have sympathy for her? And again the Endgame. We are just delivered with a Wanda and Vision pairing and we are just what supposed to ship Wanda and her high tech vibrator because Marvel tells us so? I have zero reasons to care about Wanda. Maybe if I was a comic fan who stanned the character or I was deep into fan fiction where they fixed the mess that Marvel gave us I might feel differently but in canon Wanda sucks and while Elizabeth Olsen is a great actress there is no so much she could do with the crappy writing she had been given

WandaVision should have never existed. This should have been a SWORD show with Monica Rambeau as the lead and Wanda and Vision merely as the first case. they solved..

#wandavision #wanda vision #monica rambeau

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yougotcrit · 4 years

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Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

I have always loved Star Wars. As a kid I would watch the original trilogy endlessly on VHS, alongside my 90′s era action figures and my Action Fleet ships with the little mini figures inside. When that wasn’t enough I played games like Dark Forces and Rogue Squadron, and when that wasn’t enough I read the extended universe books. I was a loyal and knowledgeable fan.

So when the time came and the prequel films were released you could easily guess my initial excitement and subsequent disappointment going in and out of the theater. I believe most Star Wars fans experienced similar emotions. But despite their terribleness, the prequels never killed my love of Star Wars. Sure, those films did many, many, many things wrong, but they inexplicably still felt like Star Wars. It’s hard to explain, but in any case, I was a still a fan and I still loved Star Wars.

When Disney snatched up Lucasfilm in 2012, I was optimistic. Sure they’re evil, but they’d been doing great things with Marvel and a Star Wars without George Lucas could prove to be beneficial. I mean, the films couldn’t get any worse than this, right?

Star Wars could only go up from here.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), while just a rehash of A New Hope (1977), was what the fans and critics had wanted for years. It felt like a Star Wars film: from its practical effects to its locations, its characters to its themes; this was Star Wars. Yes, it had its shortcomings, but overall it was fun and ticked all the right boxes. But most important of all was the potential it built. So much potential. There were so many questions, so many possibilities, so many outcomes, characters and story arcs to explore by the end of the film that it seemed certain that we were in for a fun ride for the next two movies.

Wasted potential: Exhibit A

And then The Last Jedi (2018) came and s*** the bed. Not just in Star Wars terms, but in cinematic terms. This movie s*** the bed. I could rant on for hours why and how The Last Jedi screwed everything up, but the big takeaway is that it took all that potential from The Force Awakens and either ignored it or wasted it. And by doing so, the film killed any interest I had for Episode IX, or Star Wars in general. The film is two and a half hours of subverted expectations where nothing is accomplished and even less is explained. There are exactly TWO cool action sequences (you know which ones), but the film is just people frantically running around or standing around with no payoff in the end. The story doesn’t really go anywhere. The film left a bad taste in my mouth that even the prequels had never done before, and for the first time ever I actually didn’t care about what the future would hold for Star Wars.

But now Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) is here to right the wrongs, clean up the mess that The Last Jedi left, and somehow limp across the finish line. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, it decided to ignore much of what had been established in the previous film. I’m not so sure if I mind this, but I should, because that was my main complaint for The Last Jedi. But at the same time I’m thankful because this means we can forget about much of the stupid that happened in The Last Jedi and move on with our lives.

Yep. Just going to ignore this.

There’s a lot packed in The Rise of Skywalker. Too much, in fact. Because The Last Jedi wasted a movie’s worth of plot accomplishing nothing, Episode IX is forced to cram in two movie’s worth of information, characters, story and cameos. The movie has a good handle of what it wanted for Rey and Kylo Ren, but it still didn’t know what to do with Finn and Poe. They spend their time trying to keep up with Rey and find reasons to be in the movie.

Now before I go further, I’ll say that this film is better than The Last Jedi. By default. There are enjoyable parts and emotional moments, but it’s just not the grand finale we were all hoping for to tie all nine films together. The film is a confirmation that Disney’s trilogy was just following the same template as the original all along, and that they only had a vague notion of what the story would be.

To move the plot along The Rise of Skywalker implemented some unlikely threats and conflicts as the heroes set off on a wild goose chase throughout the galaxy. It’s never just cut and dry; one problem just leads to another that can only be solved on the next set location. There are times when the film stops dead and others when a million things are happening at once, making for some erratic pacing. A dozen new characters are introduced, yet none of them really matter. There’s plenty of fan serving cameos, but I’ve never experienced so many aggressively forced cameos like that before.

So this is where we leave one of my favorite franchises of all time, on the shores of mediocrity. But in the end I’m thankful for more Star Wars, for better or for worse. I know this won’t be the real end, just the conclusion of the Skywalker story line. You’d be crazy to think that Disney was done. On the bright side, you can view the Disney trilogy as one side to a crappy little bookend for the Star Wars saga, with the prequels book-ending the other side of a near perfect trilogy that was started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker,

You Got Crit

#star wars #you got crit #the rise of skywalker #star wars episode ix #star wars the rise of skywalker #rey #kylo ren #Disney #movie review #review

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thenerdparty · 5 years

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Avengers: Endgame Film Review

Written by Shawn Eastridge Has it really been 11 years since the first Iron Man? The Dark Knight might have taken all the credit that year for revolutionizing the superhero genre, but Iron Man’s legacy has proved just as important. While other films in Phase One hobbled somewhere between decent and mediocre, Joss Whedon’s first Avengers exceeded any and all expectations. To this day, it stands as one of the greatest superhero films ever, and it paved the way for the remainder of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

Over the course of the past decade, the MCU has seen its fair share of highs (Anything directed by the Russos), lows (Thor movies not directed by Taika Waititi) and everything in between. But through it all, Marvel Studios has maintained a consistent level of quality, conjuring up box office numbers that made Warner Bros SO JEALOUS they ruined Superman in the attempt to catch up. (Hey, WB: I’m still available to help get you on the right track with the Man of Steel. Call me.)

But now, twenty-two movies later, it’s all come down to this. We’re in the Endgame now, the long-awaited BIG FINALE to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

Let’s be real, though - we all know this isn’t really the finale. The MCU will chug on and on forever. In fact, we’ve even got another Marvel movie right around the corner. (That would be July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home) And while that knowledge does dilute Endgame’s overall effectiveness - can anyone ever stay dead in the realm of comic books - it seems foolish to recognize Endgame as anything other than a monumental success.

Seriously, this ‘conclusion’ to the MCU’s recently dubbed ‘Infinity Saga’ satisfies on nearly every level, fulfilling arcs set up in prior films and providing proper send offs for characters we’ve come to know and love over the past decade. Instead of collapsing under the weight of its ongoing 22-film arc, the Russo Brothers, along with screenwriting duo Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, rise to the challenge and then some, wrapping things up with style, grace and a surprising amount of emotion. That is perhaps the most pleasant surprise: Endgame is genuinely touching in the way it thoughtfully concludes this ongoing story arc. You may find yourself dabbing the corners of your eyes more frequently than expected through the film’s brisk three-hour runtime.

This isn’t all to say that Endgame is without its fair share of flaws - and there are plenty that I’ll get into during the spoiler section of this review - but honestly, the nitpicks feel so minor when compared to all the things that work. Marvel Studios hasn’t just raised the bar for superhero filmmaking and ‘big finales’ in general. They’ve obliterated it.

There. That’s my non-spoiler reaction. MASSIVE SPOILERS await you ahead. So, do yourself a favor: if you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame already, see it. Immediately. If you have any fondness for any of the films in this massive franchise, there’s no way you’ll be disappointed. Once you’re in the know, come back and check out the rest of this review.

Sound good? Okay. Let’s push forward.

. . . . .

Where Infinity War brought the comic book action early and often, Endgame’s opening moments are more meditative and somber. Our heroes have just faced a crushing loss. They’re still reeling from the devastation of Thanos’s infamous Finger-Snap Heard ‘round the Universe. Nothing will ever be the same.

After staging an effectively heart-wrenching opening scene, giving us a brief glimpse at Hawkeye’s family life before his wife and kids fade into ash, the Russos keep the mood low-key and mournful for the duration of the film’s first act. Then we get one of Endgame’s earliest and best twists: within the film’s first twenty minutes, the Avengers find Thanos and discover he’s destroyed the Infinity Stones to prevent anyone from undoing his monstrous deed. In an empty gesture, Thor chops off the purple dude’s head. It’s a brilliant way to kick things off, throwing the audience for a loop and suggesting an ‘anything goes’ vibe to keep us on the edge of our seats.

The story jumps ahead five years(!!) to find our heroes scattered and broken, attempting to mend together the pieces in a world still devastated by its new reality. I loved that the Russos let us wallow in our heroes’ misery for a bit. You really get a sense of the loss they’ve experienced, that the entire world has experienced. These scenes offer some wonderful character beats and conversations, something that has always elevated Marvel above the rest of the pack.

Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man, escapes the Quantum Realm (you saw Ant-Man and the Wasp, right?) to discover a significantly altered world. But he brings a message of hope with him: the duration of time he experienced in the Quantum Realm was only 5 hours, suggesting the potential for time travel. Maybe they can find a way to fix the devastation Thanos has wrought by traveling back in time?

P.S. Can I just take a moment to talk about how much I love Paul Rudd in this movie? Ant-Man has been on the periphery of the MCU’s big events and to see him take on such a big role in this movie was a huge thrill.

This glimmer of hope inspires the band to get back together and it’s genuinely surprising where some of them have ended up. Bruce Banner has finally made peace with his meaner, greener side, resulting in Professor Hulk, a version of the character that maintains Banner’s intelligence and personality. Thor never overcame his grief and has spent the past five years descending into drunken slobbery and gaining a significant amount of weight in the process. This provides one of the film’s best sight gags. Plus, it’s maintained throughout! Kudos to you, Russos!

And then we have Mr. Tony Stark himself, the key to figuring out how to make time travel work. But he’s moved on. He and Pepper have an adorable daughter. He has absolutely zero desire to lose what he has. Ultimately the realization that he can save the lives of countless billions - including one surrogate son Peter Parker - drives him to support the cause.

Endgame’s 2nd act centers around the newly reassembled Avengers time-traveling into the past to gather the Infinity Stones, bring them to their future and use them to ‘un-snap’ their fallen comrades. These sequences are fun and light on their feet. They’re especially effective in lieu of the grim opening scenes.

Here’s the thing, though: As much as I love this portion of the film and the way the time travel stuff is handled, I couldn’t help feeling there was a general lack of consequence to everything that happened during this sequence. Even when things skew from the team’s set plan, it doesn’t feel like a significant snag or an insurmountable obstacle. These moments are treated as minor annoyances before our heroes carry on with a new solution, nary breaking their strides or a sweat in the process.

It’s all fun in a Back to the Future Part II kind of way, but it’s treated more as an extended comedy bit than anything else, and to a certain extent, this robs Endgame of some level of suspense. Plus, it’s time travel. Once you throw time travel into the mix, all bets are off, and I couldn’t help shaking that feeling. After all, what’s to stop them from using this plot device again and again in the future, consequences be damned?

At the very least, the wackiness of the time travel sequence is balanced with some great character beats. I loved Thor’s tender moment with his mom. I loved Captain America vs. Captain America. I loved that Tony gets a sincere heart to heart with his dad, offering some much-needed closure. Robert Downey Jr. has never been anything less than wonderful in this role, but his performance in Endgame might take the cake. Honestly, everyone brings their A-game to the table and these moments ground the sequence, keeping it from getting too bonkers.

This sequence is also balanced with a genuinely tragic moment: Black Widow sacrifices herself to get the Soul Stone. I don’t know why this scene has been stirring up some people, because here’s the thing: this moment works perfectly. Natasha (Black Widow) and Clint (Hawkeye) travel to Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. As established in Infinity War, the only way to obtain said stone is to sacrifice the thing you love most. Clint’s willing to take the plunge. He’s become a monster in the five years since his family’s disappearance (but an awesome, katana-wielding monster) and he doesn’t feel he deserves to see them again. Natasha knows this isn’t true and she’s willing to sacrifice herself to ensure Clint gets his happy ending. After all, he saved her all those years ago. It’s time to return the favor. It’s heartbreaking, but it feels right and Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner sell every minute.

The plan is a success, but it's not without its snags. Past Thanos ends up getting involved when past Nebula tunes into future Nebula’s wifi and begins broadcasting everything future Nebula has seen, including the Avengers’ time travel plan. Thanos gets worked up into a tizzy and he and past Nebula devise a plan to get him into the Avengers’ future so he can ensure everyone snapped out of existence stays snapped out of existence. Also, why not wipe out everyone else in the process just for good measure? Because that’s what big, angry, purple maniacs do. Don’t question it.

Is it a bit weird that the Thanos the Avengers face isn’t the same Thanos so carefully fleshed out in Infinity War? Yeah, a little bit. To be honest, it makes things feel kind of impersonal. This Thanos feels more like the mysterious being teased in dozens of MCU post-credits sequence than the layered, thoughtful villain of the previous film. It’s a bit of a bummer, but it is what it is.

Ultimately, my biggest gripe with Endgame is the same gripe caused by Infinity War’s conclusion. We already knew the disintegrated heroes were going to come back for their obligatory sequels. Their arrival during Endgame’s epic battle to end all epic battles feels inevitable more than surprising.

And, look, let me be clear: Endgame’s climax is the ultimate superhero big battle you’ve been dreaming of since Nick Fury first name-dropped the ‘Avengers Initiative.’ I went nuts with the best of them when all our heroes returned from the abyss for this ultimate showdown, so understand my next criticism comes from a place of love. Once all the heroes show up, the stakes disappear. I didn’t have any doubt the Avengers would win. As a result, the climax is robbed of its suspense. It’s basically fan service to the nth degree, which again, I’d like to emphasize I was totally cool with. It just prevents the battle from conjuring up any emotional depth.

This isn’t The Return of the King. It's not the Battle of Hogwarts or the Death Star trench run or even the first Avengers' Battle for New York. It’s a big, flashy special effects extravaganza overflowing with crowd-pleasing beats, but lacking in genuine (here’s this word again) consequence. Again, I want to emphasize that I loved every second of it, but there’s a significant lack of loss during these scenes. Ultimately, Tony Stark sacrifices himself to save the universe and it’s absolutely BRILLIANT and heart-wrenching, but no one else seems in danger. Iron Man dies so that dozens of franchises can live on.

The remaining twenty minutes or so of Endgame are low key. We witness Tony’s emotional funeral, torches are passed (go, Sam Wilson, go!) and some unexpected-slash-exciting team-ups are teased (Fat Thor with the Guardians of the Galaxy? I am SO in.) But it’s during these quiet scenes that the Russos skillfully remind us what has always mattered the most: the characters. And I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult not to get choked up when Steve Rogers, a man who has sacrificed so much for the greater good, finally gets his happy ending, dancing the day away with the love of his life.

Big finales don’t get much more enjoyable or fulfilling than this. Marvel’s Cinematic Universe will go on and on and on. Inevitably, its quality will wane and fade, but we can rest easy knowing that the heroes that kicked everything off got the send-off they deserved. It might not be perfect, but it’s pretty damn great. Most importantly, it’s satisfying.

With the Infinity Saga, Marvel Studios has accomplished something extraordinary. They’ve touched countless millions across the globe without compromising the artistic quality of this multi-billion dollar franchise. We can rage on and on about Disney’s domination and how everything is just a corporate product and blah, blah, blah, but we’d be ignoring the fact that they got to where they are because they honored their source material and went out of their way to give the fans something special.

So to Kevin Feige and the entire team at Marvel Studios, cast, crew, writers, bean pushers, etc., I’d like to say thank you. You’ve earned every record-breaking penny. We love you 3000.

Now can someone please un-cancel Daredevil?? Come on!!

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clusterfucks · 5 years

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Unpopular Opinion: Marvel Sucks.

Good job marvel fan boys, you’re rewarding one of the least impressive movie runs ever. You couldn’t keep it calm, and now you’ve ruined superhero movies for everyone. I hate marvel movies, and here’s why:

- None of the characters are interesting at all. Tell me, when I say “straight white boy who’s real sad, but he hides it with lots of quips and one-liners. He also has his own Pepper Pots, and a villain who was probably caused by something he or his family did wrong in the past.” Who is it? It is just about every single freaking character in the MCU. Captain America? Boring, self righteous, no positive development, doesn’t deserve his happy ending. Iron Man? Thought you had something going with the panic attack thing, or the family thing, but those lasted 5 minutes each cause you all hate iron man for... reasons? Thor? None of you liked him until you made him hotter in ragnarok. Black Widow? Got screwed over time and time again but none of you care because you’re too busy thinking of her as a sexy lamp. None of these characters are interesting, none of these characters are new, none of these characters are special.

- Going back to Back Widow, y’all freaking screwed her. First like, 4 movies, shes there to be pretty and have a good overly sexualized fight scenes. Now, they’ve decided to go the freaking monster route, and with the worst reason. As a woman who can’t have children, can I just say it is disgusting to me that they would even imply that Black Widow is less capable of having a family or happiness because of her sterilization. And then (spoiler alert) they throw her off a cliff to advance a mans story line. I can not believe, that marvel, who claims to be so great at representation, would take their one main female avenger (please scarlet witch is a joke) and kill her off for a male character who isn’t even that popular.

- The representation in this franchise appalls me. Am I supposed to be impressed by the fact that you can fit all your female characters in one frame? Am I supposed to be impressed that an extra can make a comment about homosexuality? Am I supposed to be impressed that the directer likes the idea of Valkyrie being bisexual? Am I supposed to be impressed that after ten years you give one female her own movie? Am I supposed to be impressed at you marvel? You take fully developed characters like Nick Fury and turn him into a “black sidekick” stereotype? You promise open mindsets and then do the bare minimum to ensure more peoples attendance. I am not impressed.

- The directors in these movies have all been underused. Because marvel has to keep its formula of a loose hero’s journey with a quip every 2 minutes, none of the directors get to add their touches. Take the Dark Knight Trilogy, take Hellboy, you can see the directors touch in those movies. Name me one director in the MCU besides Whedon and the Russos. Because of this all of the movies are the exact same. You could fall asleep in the middle of almost any movie and when you wake up half way through you can still follow the plot. These movies are all the same. They don’t let the directors do anything new. They are all the same, mediocre movie.

- These movies never do anything worth your attention. They are all the same movie. The only somewhat cool thing about any of these movies is that they are a large crossover universe. Besides that they have no interesting characters. They have no interesting themes. They have no surprising plot points. They are not worth remembering. Don’t waste your time on these dime a dozen movies. They are there for making money and nothing else. No marvel movie deserves to be the highest grossing, and that means freaking avatar is more deserving.

- These movies stick to the most common formula. They do whatever they can to get you in a theater seat. They make catchy quips with pretty actors to drag you in while lacking any substance. They make the bare minimum quality of movie to trick you into thinking its a good movie. They appeal to the mainstream audience and quite frankly, take away from the nerdy, comic community as a whole. Because of them all superhero movies are lessened. DC movies went from wonderful, insightful film, to coping the formula. Everything from comics to movies as a whole are lessened by this shallow, greedy, and self righteous excuse for a franchise.

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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Gene Autry's Horse

Peter David recently posted a short essay on the current brouhaha over Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola saying the Marvel movies aren’t real cinema, not genuine works of art, but just “thrill rides”.

Before going further, let me state my unabashed respect and admiration for Peter David. He’s a creator who certainly earned his spurs, he has a massive body of work, he is an all around mensch, and his opinion is hard earned and well informed.

Except in this case, his conclusions are wrong.

To prove my point, let me ask Peter a question:

What was the name of Gene Autry’s horse?

Those of you wondering what Gene’s horse has to do with the Marvel cinematic universe (hence MCU), my explanation is this: The single largest genre of films made before 1960 were Westerns.

Add to that television programs, where Westerns remained a staple until the mid-1970s.

And radio shows.

And pulp novels.

And comic books.

They were the definitive American movie genre from 1903’s The Great Train Robbery until Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid drove a stake through the heart of the standard genre offering in 1969.

There are some who claim Blazing Saddles did the genre in, but Westerns had endured numerous comedy and parody versions in the past.

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid killed the Western as a popular genre by simply having Butch and Sundance do the most logical thing at the first sign of danger, the thing the real Butch and Sundance did in real life: They ran away.

And thus a genre trope was forever slain…

This is not to say they’ve never made another film that falls into the broad category of “Western”, but there’s no audience clamor for more of the genre.

Westerns are now simply historical films set in the American west during the period from the fall of the Alamo (1836) to Arizona becoming a state (1912).

There are films that employ Western genre tropes that take place in the contemporary era (Road House and Extreme Prejudice to name two) or transplant the Western genre to other lands (Sukiyaki Western Django and Tampopo, f’r instance), but as a genre it is dead-dead-DEAD.

Yet at one time, Westerns were so popular that not only did everybody know the name of Gene Autry’s horse, but said horse starred in his own TV series!

So what happened?

Well, several things.

I could cite the changing audience in America, going from 80% rural prior to WWII to 80% urban / suburban after WWII (with a corresponding rise in detective and spy genres, as well as sci-fi), or I could cite a huge glut of material made even more accessible by television, but the truth is this: The overwhelming bulk of American Westerns were nothing but product.

It was actually built into the genre. I’ve been trying to locate the original essay, but a scholarly study some years back concluded only 8 basic plot conflicts drove Western stories, and only 17 stock characters carried said stories (they can be good, bad, or neutral characters, effectively tripling their number).

The essay went on to liken American Westerns to Japanese noh or kabuki dramas: Far from familiarity of material being a problem, audiences came expecting certain tropes and stock characters, and gained their enjoyment from how well said tropes and characters were presented.

Sound familiar?

This is not to say there weren’t films that fell into the Western genre that also aspired to art, but you either had to be a Hollywood heavy hitter to get a chance at making a film like that or, at the tail end of the genre, flying so low under the radar that nobody recognized what you were doing until you did it.

Does that sound familiar?

But the overwhelming majority of Westerns, while possessing technical craftsmanship, were just product: So many feet of gunfights. So many reels of stampedes.

Big budget A-picture or bare bones B-movie, they all fell into the same general patterns, and studios, large or small, promoted them the same way.

And audiences were fine with this. Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans frequently wound up among the top 10 box office draws in Hollywood during their careers.

Where are those Westerns now?

I’m a big fan of old B-Westerns, having grown up with them on TV as a kid, and know a fair amount about the personalities and production companies involved, seeking out B-Westerns on Amazon Prime and YouTube and the multi-pack bargain bins at big box stores.

How many of today’s superhero fans could identify William Boyd or Red Barry or Rocky Lane or Buck Jones?

They might remember hearing the names of Roy Rogers or Gene Autry since those stars were involved in mainstream marketing such as fast food restaurants or baseball teams (and Autry donated a museum to Los Angeles that’s named after him), but how many have actually seen any of their movies?

We have two competing superhero universes today, DCU and MCU.

Where are the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents movies? How come there’s no Dr. Solar or Brain Boy or Magnus, Robot Fighter films?

Answer: No large corporation stand to make billions promoting those characters and licensing them to toys, video games, vitamin, and Underoos.

Corporations possess no sense of integrity to the original creators’ concepts. They will change things in the blink of an eye if they think it will boost their profit margin. They’ll promote the silliest and the most self-damaging ideas if they think it will make them a few extra bucks today.

Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman succeeded at DC bcause nobody there cared what the creators did so long as they turned their work in on time.

Product.

Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and Jim Steranko blazed exciting new trails at Marvel because Martin Goodman couldn’t have cared less what they were doing so long as they delivered on schedule and under budget.

Product.

They flew under the radar. They worked in a fast and grungy fashion, knocking the books out as quickly as they could.

To amuse themselves they trafficked in big ideas, eccentric art, outre stories.

That it caught on and blazed a new trail proved a combination of talent and luck.

There was no similar boom for romance comics or nurse comics or Western comics during the same period.

Right now the MCU movies are riding high and they are made with a great deal of technical care and they are amusing and entertaining.

So were Westerns.

MCU movies aim at too specialized an audience. They appeal to this generation, but there’s no guarantee they’ll appeal to the next.

Indeed, there’s a strong argument that the next generation will reject the previous generation’s entertainment simply because it’s…well…theirs.

The films of Coppola and Scorsese will be watched.

They’re not product.

Oh, there were financed to make money, sure enough, but they were financed to make money by expressing the director’s personal taste and vision.

Further, they tend to transcend genre.

Yeah, two generations from now people who really love gangster movies will probably look up The Godfather and GoodFellas.

But people who love film, people who love art will be watching them as well.

They’ll also watch Public Enemy and Little Caesar, but unless they’re film buffs with specialized tastes, they’re going to skip the dozens of “programmers” cranked out in the 1930s to satisfy fans of that genre.

And the reason? The Godfather and GoodFellas and Public Enemy and Little Caesar transcend their genres.

They are about people, not thrills and chills.

Consider classic Universal horror films.

James Whale & co. snuck one bona fide brilliant work of art past Carl Laemmle with Bride Of Frankenstein but after that the brakes clamped down hard and fast.

Uncle Carl couldn’t have geniuses running around doing whatever they felt like, thus risking the audience for Universal’s product.

Consistent mediocrity is better than risky genius in the eyes of the corporations.

The classic Universal monsters? Reduced to The Munsters now; familiar icons, to be sure, but empty jokes, shadows of their former selves.

Replaced by newer monsters who in turn have been replaced by newer monster who in turn have been replaced by newer monsters and who will be replaced by newer monsters still.

‘Twas ever thus.

I begrudge the enjoyment no nobody who enjoys MCU movies.

Have fun. Knock yourselves out.

But never mistake popcorn for caviar.

Champion was the name of Gene Autry’s horse.

#Peter David #Marvel #superheroes #movies #B-Westerns #Gene Autry #Champion the Wonder Horse #MCU #Francis Coppola #Martin Scorsese

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arcadeigannon · 5 years

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ok but like you were wrong abt the article, like you clearly didn't read it

this is so funny because i actually specifically went and took the time to read the article before i posted anything Because the headline seemed like the perfect kind of quote to be used out of context as clickbait lmao. sorry that i didn’t do a full rhetorical analysis of all the nuances in the statement the russos made about a movie i dont actually care about

but if you want my In Depth Take:

there you go, there’s a screenshot of the full quote.

“but the way we work as filmmakers is we have to satisfy ourselves first and foremost…that’s how we’ve made every one of our marvel movies and it’s how we’re making this one”

let’s get this out of the way first – i can’t actually be Wrong about this because it’s a matter of opinion. maybe u disagree and fine whatever that’s your prerogative. but i’m saying that i, as a filmmaker, as a writer, as a screenwriter specifically, and as an audience member think it’s lazy and even selfish to take the privilege of being able to contribute (more than once!) to the canon and lore of a story, characters, and universe as significant and fantastic as marvel, and use it to just. tell whatever story you think is Neat.

like. let me also establish that this isn’t about me being mad because i’m a marvel stan because i could not care any less about marvel films anymore. i don’t care. I Don’t Care. but using marvel as a way to explain my point: we’re talking about a whole UNIVERSE of stories. it’s part of why comic book films are so difficult bc film canon obviously doesn’t have the versatility of comic book canon. and no you’re obviously not going to be able to fully realize that in film no matter what because it’s a different medium, but when you’re in charge of handling DECADES of history for DOZENS of characters and you have SO many incredible comic book writers and artists who came before you and already spent time lovingly shaping this world and these stories, then i think there’s SOME degree of responsibility there!

so when u come in and go “here is The Marvel Film……i think its exciting for me personally and that’s the best i can do :)” it’s like… lvkfovofgbfg you’re literally getting paid millions of dollars to do this and you’re using it as an opportunity to write glorified fanfiction? alright. (that’s not a dig at fanfic either. honestly. fanfic authors care more about their work than some of these guys lmao)

no SHIT you’re not going to please everyone, OBVIOUSLY when you’re creating something it should come from a genuine place and it should be something that you’re invested in and believe in and sometimes that means tuning out outside opinions, again this is what i DO i KNOW how it works but there’s also a difference between. a fucking passion project. and the culmination of what, over half a century of collaborative storytelling? you’re not only essentially saying “fuck you i do what i want” to millions of fans but you’re saying it to all the artists who spent just as much if not more time and care on this before you to get it to where it is.

do i think they’re intentionally trying to brush off fans or whatever? obviously fucking not i’m not stupid and i’m aware it’s not necessarily that deep but when this is just like. reflective of the kind of stuff i have to deal with in this industry on a daily basis – mediocre people getting praised and rewarded for doing the absolute bare minimum or even less – it touches a nerve u know!

same problem as joss whedon. same problem as rian johnson. all they care about is Their Story. that’s a valid position a lot of times! yeah! but u don’t fucking get that luxury when a) it’s something that’s SO much bigger than you culturally b) it wasn’t even your fucking story to begin with

#im not trying to say they like didn't research marvel or whatever either bc again i dont give a shit #like its literally not about that it's about the principle of it but whatever lol #anonymous #answered

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Ever since I got Marvel Unlimited I have had a tradition of looking up what characters will feature in upcoming live action Marvel movies and what the stories the films will be based upon and compiling reading lists based upon those stories and (usually) the debuts of those characters, or at least feature those characters in the status quos the films seem likely to draw from.

This is how I wound up reading like 10 Bill Foster stories last year along with the Lethal Protector mini-series (ugh).

Anyway, I made myself a reading list for the upcoming Captain Marvel film featuring the debut of the Kree, Ronan, various other characters in the movie, the Kree-Skrull War and as you would imagine lots of Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers stories.

Do you want to know my conclusion having read through all that stuff?

Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers...are crushingly boring.

I’m dead serious I read over a dozen issues for each character skipping around throughout their histories and exempting when Carol appeared in Uncanny X-Men or the Avengers as a team member, both characters were achingly dull to me.

I can fully understand the decision to kill off Mar-Vell and to later replace him over and over.

With Carol though...I just....I just do not understand the appeal to people.

She strikes me as akin to the individual members of the F4. They are layered characters but not really great as solo stars, working better in tandem with other characters. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are much the same. Good characters within a team book, not so great on their own.

I think this is wrapped up with their Kree origins. The Kree work as antagonists for the F4 or the Avengers as this militaristic massive race, personified on occasion through individual members like Ronan. But when you take actual individual Kree and try to play them up as independent operators, like whenever Ronan goes rogue, they are just dull as fuck to me, the lone possible exception being Doctor Minerva. But even she’s just ‘in theory’ interesting.

What’s so ironic to me is that through this reading project I’ve now read more than double the Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers issues than I have Kamala Khan issues...and yet I find Kamala n inherently more compelling character. Like I’ve read less than 12 Kamala Khan issues total and I skipped around for those. And yet ANY of those stories grabbed me in a way none of the Mar-Vell or Carol Danvers stories did, exempting the story where she became Binary or joined the Avengers under Busieck. But noticeably those are Avengers and X-Men stories.

What’s doubly ironic is that Kamala, at least compared to Carol or Mar-Vell, is MORE similar to Spider-Man even though Carol’s first solo series actively promoted itself as being similar to Spider-Man. It had Conway writing it, MJ and Jameson as supporting characters, the Bugle as a setting and Scorpion as the villain!

P.S. This reading list has also confirmed a sad suspicion I’ve held for a while now. Roy Thomas is overrated. Like honestly I read so many Roy Thomas stories for this project on various titles and when taken with his early Iron Fist stories he’s just...I don’t want to say bad.

By modern standards yes he is bad but 1970s Bronze age standards I think it was more like he was crushingly average.

Conway I think had more actively stupid stories than Thomas (Doc Ock marrying Aunt May for instance) but I think he possessed a general talent, flair and just ambitiousness that Thomas lacked in spite of both being ascended fanboys.

The only Roy Thomas stories I thought were actually good were the Kree-Skrull War issues. However recently there has been controversy over how much credit Neal Adams is owed for that arc. Whilst most people have sided with Roy I gotta be honest, the first 3 issues which noticeably lack Adams and are a prelude to the primary conflict are at best mediocre Bronze Age crap. Then when the real meat of the story gets going and one issue before Adams draws anything it markedly improves then markedly improves AGAIN when Adams does show up and doesn’t let up from there.

So there is a huge uptick in writing quality when Adams shows up, leading me to think that honestly Adams has a point. If nothing else Roy benefitted from Adams co-writing with him.

#Spider-Man #Roy Thomas #Neal Adams #Iron Fist #Kamala khan #Carol Danvers #Mar-Vell #Captain Marvel #Ms. Marvel #Ms Marvel

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twiststreet · 5 years

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Serenity Now (2019): I was having a shit night/weekend, but I was over by a movie theater after a bunch of nonsense, so I wandered in and decided to go with the new Anne Hathaway - Matthew McConnaughey movie. The word on this movie was semi-intriguing. I hadn’t read any of the spoilers-- I just keep seeing headlines going “WTF is this horrendous piece of shit?? It’s got the dumbest twist ever” which appealed to me and the mood I was in. (None of the Oscar movies I want to see were playing-- I’m not seeing Green Room 2, and the only other choice left really was the Kid Who Would be King, which I want to see sometime having liked Attack the Block, but it felt a little unseemly being a middle-age man by himself watching a little kid movie... Especially because I planned to masturbate during the movie, so people could’ve gotten the wrong idea if I was doing that during a kid’s movie).

Or I was curious how dumb it could get since I saw the trailers, and the trailer just made it look like that Woody Harrelson neo-noir movie Palmetto, which I always thought people didn’t remember. (That was the one where Woody was in a car yelling “Yes Yes Yes” after having had sex with, like, Gena Gershon or Chloe Sevigny or something, before some routine neonoir nonsense happened...).

Is it a horrendous piece of shit? Yes. Is it bad in at least an “oh my gosh” way that’s kind of entertaining? I would say for myself, yes, though the audience I got seemed pretty angry afterwards. It was so inept in its execution of a bad idea that it kind of ended up being at least amusing. Plus, the actors were mostly very serious about their art, so it was often intensely funny, in the best, unintentional way. The great thing, it’s not trying to be a bad movie-- they really thought they were making something meaningful here, and that ends up being *hilarious*. Does it have the dumbest twist ever? No. I didn’t know the twist going in-- I saw the articles but didn’t bother to read any of them, because who cares. But the twist is just very pedestrian, and I guessed the twist just from seeing the headlines, just by imagining what kind of pedestrian twist would garner that kind of reaction from mediocre-brained online film critics (though to be fair, it must be a very unique experience to see this movie not knowing there’s a twist in it, I’ll say that). The dumbest twist ever, I’d still go with that John Cusack / James Mangold movie Identity... Just off the top of my head... I mean, sure, The Village. Right this second, I’d go Identity over The Village...

(It’s not so much as the twist is crazy as the plot as a whole... like if you described the story out loud, it’s... why would anyone make this? Some critics overstate that though, and are like “How did these actors ever say yes to this” but... I get how this movie got made: the kind of people who make the decisions about these kinds of movies don’t know the kind of people who would know what a bad idea this movie is. That part’s pretty simple. It’s just anthropology. Anne Hathaway doesn’t know any nerds-- she just said, like “they’re making a movie about sinful things happening on boats? *I know about that from my life and immortal photos that have been taken of my life, photos that are a treasure for all humanity.*” I like that gal generally, and I think it’s nice that she was into making this, so I’m not going to judge her all harshly for not knowing that she shouldn’t have done this... And the writer-director was some guy with a long enough resume where they bet on his resume...).

That being said, I don’t think I have a particularly amazing imagination, but even that being the case, before the movie explains what it’s about, I really enjoyed trying to guess what the twist was. I can pretty much guarantee your guesses will be about 10x weirder / better than what the movie’s got, and I thought that part was really fun, just getting to let your imagination run wild like that...

Also, I think people who overfocus on the twist are missing that everything else in this movie is just as nutty. There’s two full minutes of Matthew McConnaughey swimming naked underwater, and they put the camera in a place where you constantly see his head next to his own ass...? I’ve never seen anyone’s body take that shape outside of a Marvel comic before). Or jesus christ, there are about a half dozen scenes of Diane Lane staring at Matthew McConnaughey out a window, muttering to herself about he has to find her pussy... cat. What was going on with Diane Lane in this movie?? I mean, they kinda explain that but ... Not enough!!!

Or Jeremy Strong is in this, and he is ... like, not full-on Keifer in Dark City, but I think with a little nudging, he could’ve gotten there. Or how many Matthew McConnaughey scenes feel like those car commercials he was making. There’s a scene of him just going out to a cornfield (a cornfield... on a tropical island...) to talk to himself, that... Or just how many times Anne Hathaways says “Daddy” in that movie... Or just all the dialogue about fish-- so much fish dialogue, or... I seriously don’t know what Matthew McConnaughey’s character was trying to do exactly for the last, oh, 50 minutes or so.

Matthew McConnaughey’s character has sex for money in that movie. And in another scene, he has to tell another man that he named a giant tuna “Justice.”

On some level, I am as curious about the work the filmmakers did on this movie and the choices they made and how they talked the money people into supporting those choices, as I was after seeing Spiderverse. I don’t know. I am entertained by talking about all of this. I could really go on and on and on and on. I’m having a not-great weekend, and next week’s looking like a turd, so ... yeah, put me down for very entertained, actually.

#movies i saw in 2019

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builder051 · 5 years

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Laur reviews: Into the Spiderverse

Genre/Synopsis: Animated action/adventure/comedy establishing Miles Morales’s origin story (Ultimate Spider-Man) as one of many presentations of the Spider-Man franchise.

Score: Excellent / Good / Mediocre / Poor

Review: I’ll get the Oscar talk out of the way first. Animation-wise, this was brilliant. It was stylistically unique, building on typical 3D computer animation with pop art details like shading action-word callouts that harken back to comic books. Because this film is in the same awards cycle as Isle of Dogs (which is in my top three films of the year, animation aside), I’m not confident in giving Spiderverse the best animated feature prize. However, if Isle of Dogs was not in the running, this one would be on top for sure.

Similar to Ralph Breaks the Internet, this film does the impossible and appeals to all audiences. It’s simple enough that children will be able to understand it, appropriate enough that parents can feel confident in showing it you young ones, and still full of easter eggs that only the most well-informed adult fan will pick up on. The concept is genius, establishing a multiverse that includes Ultimate Spider-Man, Amazing, Sony, and Marvel 67, as well as nods to Daredevil, Watchmen, Venom, The Simpsons, and a good half-dozen other properties. I love the way Miles Morales is the main character (and therefore Ultimate is the mains storyline), but from the getgo the film acknowledges that he is not the most well-known or beloved version of Spider-Man. (@xxx-cat-xxx, you will like it, but for the side characters.)

Another huge triumph for this film is its appropriateness. Violence and death are central to the plot, and not glossed over, but there’s little blood. I found the fight scenes comparable to live-action superhero movies--characters get tired, they get hurt, etc. The representation of urban life is also realistic without losing its family-friendly quality. The characters are racially diverse, and I think this film is up there with Black Panther for bringing a much-needed perspective shift to the world of superhero films. The soundtrack is also similarly blended with hero-esque orchestral music and hip hop.

I have two complaints, both of which are minor in the grand scale. There’s one sequence toward the beginning (right after Miles becomes Spider-Man) where he goes through basically every slapstick error that comes with his new powers. It’s too silly, too much like Thor: Ragnarok for my tastes. The rest of the film balances drama and action humor very well, so that bit feels tonally off kilter in comparison. Also, the animation is a bit harsh on the senses, so non-neurotypical folks take note. The whole thing is presented a bit like iPhone portrait mode, with the things you’re supposed to focus on displayed sharply and everything else slightly blurred. I don’t think it will be as noticeable on the small screen, but in a movie theater, it’s a little vertigo-inducing. There are also a lot of flashing lights and loud noises.

Overall, I highly recommend this film. It’s great for any Spider-Man fan, and certainly one of the best animated features of the year.

#film crit #spider-man: into the spider-verse

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