#the mcu is at its best when it shows its love for the entire franchise imo

[technicalthinker]

I think I wasn't really ready for this episode to tie together the events with Loki's entire arc. I expected it to tie up the plots of the season, maybe setting up future ones, which it kind of did but,

The way it tied up/referenced/came full circle with the first Thor movie? And The Avengers? That is what makes it hit different for me. It showed a love for the character that just got to me.

#thor 1 was my first marvel movie and the only one i had seen before avengers 1. #do you understand what im going through right now. #marvel blogging #amanda rambles #loki spoilers #loki #loki s2 #the mcu is at its best when it shows its love for the entire franchise imo

[twh-news]

Loki season two review – by far the best Marvel TV show in years ★★★☆☆ | The Guardian

Tom Hiddleston’s lovably narcissistic Norse god is back with Owen Wilson for a spectacular time-hopping caper that may just save the MCU from certain death

If ever there was a time for a second season of Loki, it’s now. The first outing was a witty romp through time and space, in which Tom Hiddleston’s lovably narcissistic Norse god charmed the pants off viewers. There were wild cameos (Richard E Grant as a weird alternate Loki!). There was sizzling chemistry (the bromance with Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius!). There was even the tender blossoming of love (with Loki’s metaverse alter ego Sylvie – almost certainly the most poignant romance a TV character has ever conducted with themselves). So, naturally, the Marvel Cinematic Universe chose to follow up this televisual triumph with a disastrous series of flops, culminating in June’s Secret Invasion: a slog of a show that felt like the death knell for the franchise’s entire TV future.

[Possible spoilers ahead]

Luckily, Loki’s action-packed return suggests it is more than prepared to rise to the challenge of shaking off Marvel’s track record of TV tedium. We’re taken to the exact moment the previous season left off: the aftermath of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killing He Who Remains – the shadowy figure behind temporal police the Time Variance Authority (TVA). There are slow-mo chases, car crashes in flying vehicles and Loki constantly running into effigies of He Who Remains. One thing is instantly clear: you really can’t avoid season one if you expect any of the following to make sense.

A good chunk of the opener consists of Hiddleston vanishing into another timeline. His body briefly turns into something that looks like it belongs in Stranger Things’ Upside Down, while he makes the sound of a man who has eaten some seriously out-of-date scampi. “It’s horrible,” quips Wilson’s Agent Mobius. “It looks like you’re being born, or dying – or both at the same time.” There are temporal loops, baffling causality chains and the establishment of what will be a series-long plot about stabilising a “temporal loom” – whose explanation is so convoluted the characters may as well be repeatedly chanting the word “MacGuffin”. Compared to the first season’s simple thrills, it’s all a bit overcomplicated – a disappointing choice of direction, if predictable.

Less explicable is the decision to do away with the beating heart of season one – the surprisingly lovely romance between Loki and Sylvie. This time, they’re on very separate paths, with Di Martino’s character reinvented as a time-hopping assassin, while Hiddleston moves ever further from his character’s mischievous past to buddy up with Agent Mobius in a bid to fix the McTimeWotsit. This makes for more zingtastic back-and-forth between Hiddleston and Wilson, but it robs the show of emotional heft. And with Loki proving ever less of a bad cop to Mobius’s good cop, there’s less edge to that sparkling comic chemistry too.

Nonetheless, the performances are as excellent as ever. Hiddleston is fantastic in every mode, from debonair to monstrous or ashen after a brutal insult from Sylvie. Di Martino is a bubbling pot of empathy, eyes constantly dewy with sadness, when she’s not spilling over into murderous rage. Wunmi Mosaku’s reprisal of her role as a TVA agent is ineffably intense – from taking down fugitives while wearing a tangerine ballgown to subjecting goofy colleagues to a Paddington-esque hard stare. And Owen Wilson is … Owen Wilson: a twinkle in the eye in human form.

When it spreads its wings, Loki’s second season manages to have plenty of fun. By episode two it feels like a time-travel thriller, with Loki and Mobius being shot into period-specific missions. There’s a retro spy caper in 70s London, our heroes suiting up like extras in Gangs of New York for a hot pursuit through 19th-century Chicago and an attempt to track down Sylvie in a 1980s McDonald’s in which romantic tension simmers over retro cash registers. The design is spectacular throughout, particularly the gloriously stylised TVA building in which every computer monitor looks like a microwave’s great grandparent, corridors are lined with tarnished aquamarine filing cabinets and even their IT guy (played by Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Ke Huy Quan) is dressed in a Ghostbusters-esque boiler suit that drips with vintage cool.

A few episodes in, things are settling into an enjoyable enough – if not tremendously exciting – groove. Then there is a gigantic cliffhanger that upends the narrative, wrongfoots the viewer and blows the show wide open. The final two instalments aren’t available for preview, so it is hard to say whether this will kickstart the show into scaling the heights of its first season. But either way, one thing is certain: this is easily the best Marvel TV series in years – for all that’s worth.

#loki #loki series #tom hiddleston #article #review #loki season 2 #loki S02 #owen wilson #sophia di martino #ke huy quan #wunmi mosaku #loki spoiler #loki spoilers #spoilers

[ryanmeft]

Movie Review: The Marvels

This is Ms. Marvel’s house, and everyone else is just a tenant. The latest MCU outing is the lowest point of the franchise to date, with a muddled and poorly-explained plot, two wooden leads, an underutilized villain, and entirely too much MCU advertising. At a brisk 105 minutes, it is somehow both overstuffed and rushed. So how, then, can I say you should see it? Two words: Kamala Khan.

It is thirty years after the original Captain Marvel. Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) lives on a spaceship and seems to hold down a job as a galactic peacekeeper-ambassador, though how this keeps food on the table is unclear. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), also residing in space but on a massive station, sends Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) out on missions to investigate…something. This something, which looks kind of like the way movies always portray event horizons, is a strange disturbance in space that can A: cause wormholes, B: be used as a source of power for the villain and C: make it so that the movie’s three heroines swap places whenever they use their powers. It’s a cosmic maguffin working overtime.

This plot is, to be kind, a mess. The Space Something causes Danvers and Rambeau to swap places with each other and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), lead hero in the Disney+ show Ms. Marvel. As the characters swap powers, they shift between Kamala’s home, Danvers’ spaceship, Fury’s space-station and various other planets, including an intriguing one where everyone speaks in song. None of these feel like any more than pit-stops for the plot, and we constantly wish the film would pick one or two and focus on those. So, too, does Zawe Ashton’s villain get slighted. Superhero movies usually deal in uncomplicated maniacs, and Ashton’s Dar-Benn bucks that trend, with a legitimate reason to be pissed off at the hero. This reason is done away with in a flashback and never explored as a deeper part of the character. Like Thor: Love & Thunder, the movie could have benefited from slowing down and taking more time to establish its villain as a person.

Let’s leave aside the plot for a moment, though, and discuss the young woman named Kamala. For those who watched the show Ms. Marvel, no introduction is necessary. For those who didn’t, she’s a teenager in Jersey City who inherits light-bending properties from a time-traveling gauntlet inherited from her grandmother. Her powers are less important than her personality, for she ends up being the glue that barely holds a confused and dull film together. Played by newcomer Iman Vellani, she has that Spider-Man energy, bringing an enthusiasm and seemingly effortless charm to every scene she steals.

She also happens to be a massive fan of Danvers, yet Vellani knows how to hold back and let her enthusiasm build rather than just running up and spouting a one-liner. Her expressions, body language and every line of dialogue are perfect for the character, which is good, because the film desperately needs her. Larson and Parris never manage to generate any individual sympathy from the audience, and spend all their non-Kamala time dryly reciting details of the impossible-to-follow plot or making bland promises of heroism. At one point, when CM must reduce herself to tears over having accidentally done a very bad thing, it’s obvious Larson is forcing the waterworks, and when Parris must confront a vision of her deceased mother (Lashana Lynch), her reactions are right out of summer stock.

Vellani’s only credits so far are all playing Ms. Marvel, but if the universe loves us, she will be a star long after the MCU has finally crumbled to dust. She and Jackson are the only ones on screen who seem even dimly aware of how silly this all is, and they treat it all like a game. You can’t say the movie doesn’t have some clue what the audience wants, because in the best non-Kamala moment it multiplies the previous film’s mutant alien cat into dozens. I won’t tell you why the film needs these cats, but does it matter? An alien mutant kitten is its own reward. To get that reward, you need to have watched several TV shows and movies (I won’t say which ones, to avoid spoilers), and the film often feels like homework that most people forgot to do.

Once we’re done with the nonsense plot, the rolled-over-and-died dialogue, the emotionally hollow acting and constant pushy references to the larger MCU, we know only one thing: Ms. Marvel needs her own movie. She’s already left this one in the dust.

Verdict: Average

Note: I don’t use star ratings. Here are my possible verdicts:

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid Like the Plague

#movies #disney #the marvels #iman vellani #brie larson #samuel l jackson #teyonah parris #zawe ashton #superheroes #comic books

[mrnerdteacher]

A Cosmic Hourglass Half-Full: A Spoiler-Filled List of Everything I Appreciated about "Quantumania"

“So… what’s next… Secret Wars?” As someone whose feelings for the last two Marvel movies can be described as “mixed at best,” I was surprised to find myself uttering these words outside my local Laemmle.

It was 3 pm after a matinee showing of “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania”, and while I found the movie heavy on the green screen and light on just about everything else, I was already looking forward to reuniting with my college friends for the next entry in ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It was at that moment that it occurred to me: the MCU, for better or for worse, is no longer just a franchise of movies and tv shows. They are cultural events. They are a recurring reason to gather with friends and family, and they give us something to talk about besides climate change and the price of gas. For this reason, attending a Marvel movie is almost like a sporting event. Sometimes, as with the case in Quantumania or Dark World, your team has a bad day. But that doesn’t mean you quit being a fan. It’s just more of a reason to celebrate franchise-defining moments, ala No Way Home or Endgame.

Therefore, in the spirit of optimistic fandom, here is a SPOILER-FILLED LIST OF EVERYTHING TO APPRECIATE ABOUT QUANTUMANIA, in order of appearance. Because yes, we lost this round, but the game definitely had some highlights…

-Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror-

Simultaneously the movie’s greatest strength and most glaring weakness is the way it left you wanting more from the MCU’s newest big bad. Can an actor nail all his lines, even without things like motivation or context? Apparently, yeah. Majors might not actually have much to do in this movie, but you’ll struggle to take your eyes off him.

-Look Out for the Little Guy-

Scott’s post-Endgame memoir has been a running gag in the MCU for awhile now, but seeing Rudd ham it up in a Barnes n’ Noble is joy in its purest form. If this didn’t make you smile, I think you got the wrong theater…

-William Jackson Harper as Quaz, the Telepath-

Yeah, I didn’t know that character had a name either. Still, this Good Place alum delivered the laughs with every line. I think we’d all watch a comedy sitcom set in the quantum realm if Harper was the showrunner.

“Like Stuffing a Turkey”

Whatever discomfort we endured watching Michael Douglas double-fist a pair of gummy worms was paid off in perhaps the greatest “I’ll drive” moment in movie history. I’ve never heard an audience cheer for anything stranger.

All Things M.O.D.O.K.

While Cross’s freakish appearance provided some of the movie’s best visual gags, writer Jeff Loveness also deftly turned Yellowjacket from a D-list villain into one of the most entertaining and memorable characters in the entire MCU. And his death scene? Instant meme material. It was THAT good.

One in a Million Paul Rudds

-Remember that iconic Infinity War moment when Doctor Strange tells Tony that there is literally a one in 14 million chance that Thanos is defeated? Well apparently there’s also a one in a billion chance that Scott keeps his job at Baskin Robbins and never becomes Ant-Man in the first place. That’s pure comedy.

What about you? Which moments saved the movie for you, if even temporarily?

#marvel mcu #mcu #ant man #quantumania #paul rudd #movies #evangeline lilly #michael douglas #michelle pfeiffer #ant man and the wasp #m.o.d.o.k. #baskin robbins #infinity war #avengers endgame #spider man no way home

[hectormcfilm]

INVINCIBLE

The first half of Invincible season 2 just wrapped up and I am raring to talk about it. I watched season 1 of Invincible week to week back when it first came out with my Dad and I still remember what an impression the first episode made, creating a well realised superhero world, having a great family dynamic of Nolan (Omni-man) Debby and mark within one episode then ending it with one of the most shocking and violent scenes in recent television history. Season 1 was an exciting and refreshing superhero project, there were some weaker episodes, most noticeably the mad scientist making cyborgs at the college Mark and his friends were viewing was very average and contrived BUT for the most part it was a great season of TV. The best part was easily the final episode and the conflict between Mark and his own father, their battle was relentlessly brutal, the scene of Omni-man holding Mark by the head as a train crashes into them at full speed, tearing through and murdering everyone inside was beyond shocking and traumatising. Besides the amazing action and impactful death and violence the emotion of the final fight was stellar having Mark still illustrate his love for his father despite everything, it was just brilliant.

Now season 2 has released its first 4 episodes and I'm ready to discuss them. (As a side note the second half of the season isn't releasing until February which is really irritating and I wish they released it all at once as this split over months really kills the hype and momentum of the show). I think so far season 2 is just as good if not even better then the first season honestly. There are lots of unchanged and improved elements with only some downsides. To start off the worldbuilding is still great. I love how this is a fully realised superhero world with locations like Atlantis being known and normalised, having an entire working civilisation there. Similarly, the multiple worlds across the galaxy all feel real and believable, I appreciate the way things aren't being discovered for the first time or created they feel like they have been around for centuries or millennia, realistic and soft worldbuilding.

When it comes to characters Mark and Debby have easily been the best this season. Mark's want to not be like his dad after everything but needs to become stronger and being pushed to kill, the arc being built for him is great so far and Steven Yuen is still great a portraying a wide range of emotions. The star of the show for me however is Debby, Sandra Oh has such an emotional and grounded performance its honestly beautiful. Debby's struggle to come to terms with Nolan's betrayal is so engaging and seeing her breakdown and crumble is perfectly disheartening. My favourite moment of this season so far is probably the parallel between Debby and Nolan, both wondering alone and lost. there are some weak characters like Rex is still annoying and some of the Guardians of the Globe in general need development as at this point the story only really focuses on their relationship problems which feels like such a waste, they also need more action scenes and a bigger stake in the plot as they feel quite tacked on and unnecessary this season.

One of my main worries with the show so far is the introduction of multiverse. Granted it has only just been introduced and it is all great so far but I am anxious where it will go. Multiverse allowed for an incredible opening to the season having Mark and Omni-man tearing through a destroyed Earth and hunting down the characters from season 1, murdering everyone, it was striking and confusing, the audience only realising it was an alternate reality at the end of the episode. HOWEVER, besides the spider-verse films and Everything Everywhere all at once thriving off the concept of multiverse many superhero franchises like the MCU and DCEU have completely failed at it, leading to the concept destroying all logic and demolishing the stakes, making everything too big and hard to comprehend or care about and making it that if any character dies they can come back. Basically so far the short multiverse teasers have been intriguing but I am weary.

The final elements I want to talk about are the more formal filmmaking aspects. I think overall the show has pretty great cinematography and framing especially for action and flight scenes, the music has been a standout this season having a very sombre and depressing atmosphere perfectly reflected by the music choice. I also enjoy that the show allows for silence and doesn't always use music when its unnecessary. The animation is unchanged from season 1 meaning it is decent but has some disappointing scene where some fights turn into a slideshow, making them feel like they have less motion then the comic book it is based on.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #580

Top Ten Iron Man Suit-Up Moments in the MCU

Ah, back to the MCU; along with stuff to do with Transformers, this is absolutely my Top Ten comfort zone (memo to self: “Top Ten Comfort Zones”). And where would the MCU be without Iron Man? The lodestone of the entirely seventy-film, eighty-year saga (or something like that). Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Tony Stark really did set the tone for the entire endeavour though; he was the backbone of the franchise for about a decade, and provided it with some of its best and most iconic moments, right up until his heroic death in Endgame (spoiler alert).

Whilst a lot of what made Downey’s Stark so great was his delivery – his louche demeanour, his charming arrogance, his way with a nifty nickname (“Legolas”, “Manchurian Candidate”, “Lebowski”), so much of it also derived from how well various filmmakers displayed his signature superhero hook – that is to say, the Iron Man armour itself. Right from the off, Jon Favreau rooted the visual style of the first Iron Man in an attempt at something approaching down-to-Earth realism; from the gritty Middle East-set opening, with its War on Terror-evoking palette and action, through to the street-level action and boardroom shenanigans, it felt a world away from Tim Burton Gothic Gotham City or the hyper-colourful New York of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, and a lot closer to what Christopher Nolan was attempting at the same time over in his Dark Knight trilogy. And this extended to the portrayal of the suits; all whirring cogs and shifting pistons. Whilst we know arc reactors and repulsors and the things of fantasy, the armour itself still felt like something that could just about exist in the real world. I remember back in 2008 thinking the most out-there aspect of the whole film was the idea that Stark could have designed a sentient AI in the present day.

As the films ploughed on, barrelling into the wider MCU with aplomb, the scale, scope, and tone shifted somewhat. As soon as giant green rage monsters, space Vikings, and wizards became part of the MCU, Tony’s humble suits ran the risk of looking quaint. As such, new films explored new ways of dressing up Our Tone, giving him snazzier duds that he was able to pull on in new and exciting ways. And that’s what this list celebrates; not the various Iron Man armours themselves, but the really cool ways Tony gets dressed into them in different films. Because – again, right from the very start – one of the showpiece spectacle moments of most Iron Man appearances has been seeing him suit up for the first time in each movie, revelling in the way the armour wraps itself around Downey’s frame. It also helps to showcase the different styles and improvements he’s made over the years. And that’s what I’m ranking here. Just below.

One caveat: I’ve called this a “suit-up” list, but there are a couple of outliers here. Some are when he’s removing his suit; I think it still counts, because it’s seeing the different ways it goes on or comes off that I like (er, that sounds dodgy). And there’s at least one that’s technically not really a suit at all, but it’s something Iron Man-y that Iron Man wears, so I’m including it. What can I say? I love it three thousand.

The Briefcase Suit (Iron Man 2, 2010): after the first film had established the concept of Tony Sark putting on his shiny metal pyjamas, the second one naturally had to twist it and show it off in a new and exciting way. As an inventor, it helped to also show Stark’s ingenuity; as a comic adaptation, it would be cool to call back to something from the source. Hence the transportable suit-in-a-can, a briefcase that contains a lightweight easy-on version of the armour. It’s cool on a number of levels but for me the best bit is the way it goes on, unfolding accordion-like, pulled in two separate directions to activate the armour. It looks great, and this whole sequence is by a mile the best thing in the film.

One-Button Suit-Up (Captain America: Civil War, 2016): taking the ingenuity to heretofore unmatched heights is the suiting-up process in Stark’s private jet. Up till now the film has deliberately shied away from Iron Man, instead giving us Stark the negotiator, the politician. Now, finally, he suits up, pressing just one button on his chair, only for the mechanisms to spring forth and wrap around his finger, as he’s pulled backwards into the plane as parts of his armour are built up automatically around him. It’s an almost organic process and while it makes little practical sense it does look great.

Automatic Suit Removal (The Avengers, 2012): here we do have, to be honest, a suit-off process. Landing on the balcony-slash-runway of his sumptuous tower (full-tilt diva), a series of circular tracks rotate around him as mechanical arms grab and remove all the parts of his armour. It’s a streamlined version of the robot arms we’ve seen in the prior Iron Man movies, and the fact it takes place along walkway gives it an almost assembly-line feeling. The icing on the cake, though, is how nonchalant Stark is, never breaking his stride or slowing down as the machines do all the work.

Mark 42 (Iron Man 3, 2013): Stark’s travails with his new armour in this movie are a recurring gag. The new suit is – a bit like the robo-arms from earlier films – given a good deal of personality and there’s a lot of humour as the individual components rocket around and bounce off things as they try to find their mark on Stark. It’s a great, fun sequence that again shows off Stark’s inventiveness; and it’s paid off again and again, especially when he calls upon the armour to rescue him doesn’t go quite as well as he’d hoped. I also want to shout out the homemade jerry-rigged “suit” he builds out of the contents of a local B&Q, but as we don’t really have a “suit-up” moment for that I didn’t include it in the list.

The Nano Suit (Avengers: Infinity War, 2018): after praising the more down-to-Earth nature of some of the suits, here we go with something so outlandishly futuristic it borders on magical. It was fairly obvious Downey was leaving the franchise because really, where do you go from here? A nanotech Iron Man suit that almost bleeds itself over his body, generating weapons and shields organically. It’s a great effect, and the culmination of every bit of tech we’ve seen from him before. But it’s the first moment he puts it on that really rocks, when he tosses his glasses aside and seemingly tugs on the strings of his hoody to activate it. He is Iron Man.

The Watch (Captain America: Civil War): yeah, here we go again with something that can only charitably be referred to as “a suit”. But it’s just so damn cool, and again it’s another show of his ingenuity. Many references are made to him being a “civilian” in Civil War, only wearing his “Tom Ford” suit. But when the need arises, he taps a few commands into his watch and then sort of pulls it over his hand in one incredibly cool motion, creating one Iron Man glove. It allows him to off a few repulsor blasts and is robust enough to stop a bullet at point-blank range with seemingly no ill-effects.

Veronica (Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015): the Hulkbuster armour is something from the comics so naturally everyone was clamouring to see it realised on-screen. Its use in Age of Ultron is great – the best bit of the film? Nah, that’s Hawkeye’s “the city is floating” speech – because of how it’s teased and how it unfolds. We know that “Veronica” (a nice play on Betty and Veronica) has been designed by Stark and Banner to control the Hulk just in case, which adds a good bit of tragedy to the proceedings. But launching from space, initially plonking great walls around the Jolly Green Giant, with some kind of Centurions-style wing-suit just about visible attaching itself to Iron Man in the background. And then the reveal: all the component parts fired from space, clicking into place around Stark’s existing armour, his squat round head flopping down over his tiny human head. And the fight begins, which is great; bonus “suit-up” points for replacement limbs flying in when Hulk trashes the existing ones.

Mid-Air Suit-Up (The Avengers): Stark’s nifty suit-removal system in his penthouse has already been singled out, but there’s another really cool moment in Avengers. Typically this scene is remembered, I’d say, for Stark’s “We have a Hulk” line to Loki, but his suit-up is great too. Slyly putting on some wristbands during his convo, he’s chucked out a window and mid-fall his new suit is fired to him, locking onto those fancy bracelets (still attempting some kind of just about plausible technology at this stage) and then folding itself around him like an uncomfortable-looking billion-dollar blanket.

Testing the Mark 2 (Iron Man, 2008): the iconic red-and-gold Iron Man armour is actually the third suit he wears in his debut film. And whilst it’s cool and all, it’s this, the first “real” suit-up moment, that I think set the stage for all that followed. Stark’s various automated arms and appliances piece the suit together around him, with lots of close-ups of screws being whirred into place and different flaps and hinges opening and closing. It’s an almost pornographic depiction of metal, a real petrolhead’s dream of the future. As I said before, the realism afforded this suit – its tactility and rigidity, its almost plausibility – gave the whole film and, really, the whole MCU a solid foundation.

House Party Protocol (Iron Man 3): well, where to start? The finale of Iron Man 3 might be another CG-heavy aerial battle, but conceptually it’s so damn fun. The running theme of a traumatised Stark building too many suits comes to a head as he unleashes all of them, running on autopilot, but available for him to jump into and out of at a moment’s notice as he battles the metal-melting Extremis-addled baddies. Cue a helter-skelter sequence of Stark leaping into one suit, ejecting just in time, losing (mechanical) limbs, getting picked up by another suit, et cetera. It’s hilarious and – that word again – ingenious and in culminates in a fantastic Mark 42 gag.

Shame I didn’t have room for Stark using the Mark 42 to save Pepper in Iron Man 3, but there’s only so much you can do. I think the various ways filmmakers have depicted these suit-up (and suit-down) moments over the years has been tremendous fun. Thus far, the “Iron Man-adjacent” characters we’ve met in Black Panther haven’t had anywhere near as cool a moment to shine. Hopefully the Ironheart show will give us a new contender.

Also, looking at the gif from Civil War again: where does the top of the glove come from? These films make no sense!

#top ten #iron man #avengers #mcu #marvel #movies #comics

[blast0rama]

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023): A Review

I know, long time since I’ve reviewed, right?

Welcome back.

The year is 2023, and the nerds have, unabashedly, won. It seems every week brings us a new Star Wars/ Star Trek / video game adaptation / comic book movie. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has hit its 31st film1, and began its fifth phase, with this release — Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

And how bizarre is that? When I started this blog in February 2008, we were all just hoping that Iron Man would defy the odds and be a great adaptation of a B-Level hero and The Dark Knight would be a decent follow-up to the shockingly good Batman Begins.

Now we’ve got dueling comic movie universes, with DC looking like it might finally have its shit together with new leadership, and Marvel starting another phase of its (perhaps?) long-in-the-tooth franchise with a third Ant-Man movie.

That’s where we’re at now, people. THREE. ANT-MAN. MOVIES.

Dig into the power of Paul Rudd all you want, but this should not be. Ant-Man has been lucky to string three issues together, let alone three movies.

And who would have thought that this would be the lynchpin of this series of Marvel movies, introducing the awesome Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) as Kang — yes, the guy whose action figure got dusty on pegs in stores nationwide for YEARS.

It’s a surreal mix to hang $200 million on.

And that’s the odd background that this perfectly fine movie lands in. It’s fine. Not great. Good at best. But fine overall. It’s not a disaster, it’s not the misfire that Eternals was, it’s not going to become a meme joke of a bad movie like Thor: The Dark World was (which I kinda thought was OK, honestly), it’s capital F, Fine.

The setup is actually pretty simple. It’s a few years after Avengers: Endgame, Scott Lang (the eternally cool Paul Rudd) is sort of a cult hero. Not the superstar a Tony Stark or Steve Rogers is, but he can live his life. His love interest, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly, whose political opinions you shouldn’t google) is running an incredible science division of the reborn Pym Van Dyne company, along with her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas, happy to be here). Hope’s long lost mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) has returned from the Quantum Realm (basically, where Tardigrades live), though she doesn’t want to talk about it. Scott’s even written a book about his life, Look Out For The Little Guy!

It’s a shame he’s just having some issues reconnecting with his daughter Cassie, now an adult (thanks, The Blip®!). It seems that Cassie (Kathyrn Newton) is striking out a bit, but showing some scientific prowess. So much so that she’s building a way to map the Quantum Realm! Which sends Janet’s blood running cold…just in time for them all to get sucked into the Quantum Realm themselves.

The worry? A quiet spoken, green and purple jumpsuit wearing man named Kang, who also calls himself A Conquerer. Who you may recognize from — though, really don’t need to have seen — the Disney+ series Loki.

Seems he has a history with Janet, he wants out of the Quantum Realm, and it’s gonna take the whole Ant-Man family to figure it out.

And that’s where the problem of this movie really lies.

There’s two fighting elements here, one micro, one macro.

On the micro (heh) side, there’s a really fun Journey to the Center of the Earth-by-way-of-Rick and Morty adventure here, filled with grumpy telepaths (William Jackson Harper), flashlight headed beings, Broccoli Men, and some weird goo guy obsessed with holes (voiced by David Dastmalchian, the only of Scott’s old crew to return, though as an entirely different character.)

It’s in this mode that the movie really sings. Amazing visuals, stunning creature and character designs that I only would’ve loved more if they were practical. I would love to just see a romp with the Pym Van Dyne Langs in this world.

But on the macro level, it’s time for the MCU to establish a big bad. And though he is performed admirably by Jonathan Majors, and I cannot wait to see him in more, bigger movies ahead…this is not the movie for this weight.

Ultimately, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania starts to sag whe these elements collide, and more than anything, I just wished they had picked a lane. And that’s sort of the issue with where we’re at 31 movies into the this franchise. A movie cannot stand alone, it must feed into the bigger world. And Scott Lang, Avenger though he may be, cannot anchor an Avenger-level adventure.

Sometimes, small is best, and I thought that 3 movies in, Marvel recognized what they had here. Instead, we get stuck with neither side getting what they want, as hard as they try.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in theaters now.

31. Like the flavors at Baskin Robbins. Get it? I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but, well done, Marvel.

[agivins10]

Everything There Is to Know About Thor: Love and Thunder – Marvel’s Next Big Title

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) continues to grow and will release its next piece of content on July 8, 2022: Thor: Love and Thunder. From what fans have been able to gather thus far, the story will follow Thor’s journey of recovering from the events that took place in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which both left him absolute shambles. He was seen as a powerful god when we last saw him on screen in the final battle against Thanos, but there is still a great amount of work for him to do. The trailers have revealed his intense workout sessions which will ultimately result in him getting back into shape and obtaining the physique of the god that he is.

The trailers also revealed the return of another major character, Jane Foster played by Natalie Portman, and the introduction of the next big bad villain, Gorr the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale. It has been revealed that Jane Foster will be returning to the series to find herself to be in a very similar position to that of her character in the comics. Jane will develop some sort of cancer during her time spent away from Thor, and the use of Thor’s might hammer, Mjolnir, keeps her from being sick while wielding it. Unfortunately, her illness gets worse every time she does use the hammer to turn in Thor. It will be interesting to see how Gorr the God Butcher will deal with her character, as well as the original Thor, as he seeks out to find and kill all living gods within the universe after those that he loved suffered by their hands. There are fan favorites of Valkyrie, Korg, and the members of The Guardians of The Galaxy also set to return to the screen. It is still unknown if Tom Hiddleston’s Loki will be making an appearance. There are even rumors of Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool making his MCU debut in this movie. These cast members paired with director Taika Waititi will undoubtedly produce another Marvel masterpiece.

                Although Thor has always been my personal favorite, many other Marvel fans have not showed the same admiration for Chris Hemsworth and his character until recently, specifically with the release of Thor: Ragnarok. This is largely due to what most fans refer to as the “Taikification” of the Thor series. The original two movies that were produced by Marvel are quite frankly not good. Most fans consider those two movies to be some of the worst in the entire MCU. Taika Waititi came along though, and completely changed that. The third film in the Thor series, Thor: Ragnarok, is considered by many fans to be one of the best in the entire MCU, and fans have hope for the upcoming title as it seems to possess a similar identity. With the first two being dark, gloomy, and at most points boring, Waititi finds a way to make the movies colorful, bright, and witty without discarding the sadness and dread that the character of Thor carries with him. There is never a dull moment in his take on the movies. His pairing with his casting superstar, Chris Hemsworth, makes for an amazing theatrical experience.

                The superstar himself, Hemsworth, recently stated in an interview that he really enjoys playing the character of Thor and will come back for as many movies as he is asked to come back for. He also goes on to say this character has really made his career what it is, and he will always be grateful for that. As a major fan of both Thor and Chris Hemsworth, that is music to my ears. It is exciting to see what Marvel has already done with Phase Four of their franchise which makes the future more difficult to wait for.

[lnkedmyheart]

Some random thoughts on all the spiderman movies.

My personal ranking based on MY enjoyment and overall appeal of the movies goes like this: spiderverse (Miles Morales is my favorite version of spidey) -> Raimi films (I'm a hoe for camp and Doc Ock) -> TASM (it has my heart for every single reason much of which is my deep love for every cast member, Zimmer and the visuals) -> mcu (I dunno I only like NWH because it was like a breath of fresh air after the decade long rinse repeat format)

Tobey was NOT the best Peter. He didn't even remotely feel like Peter from the comics. Nostalgia is the reason why people think his Peter was accurate. Andrew's Peter was accurate, Toby's was the version that overwrote the OG in public memory. Still an amazing performance.

I like the younger hotter version of aunt May, I love that we are showing older women in a sexy light. Yes, just because a woman isn't 20-30 doesn't mean she can't be attractive. Although my favorite is Sally Fields 110%.

Gwen/Peter is my peak ship and has always been my peak canon ship. However MJ (any version) was also cool. Sure I got irritated with her role in the Raimi verse but like, she was independent and knew her worth. And I'm sorry, but MJ screaming and falling wasn't overdone. YOU try dating a wall crawling spandex clad nerd who's enemies have a tendency to throw you off of tall buildings.

I legitimately shipped (and still ship) TASM Flash and Peter. Although that's not saying much because I also shipped Flash and Peter in some comics.

Peter in the comics is definitely bi with a lean towards women and Andrew Garfield bodied that vibe in NWH.

Tobey and Tom ARE attractive, just not generic (even Andrew isn't your stereotypically attractive guy). The difference is that while Tobey and Tom look like awkward nerds, Andrew had them beat in the physical and social awkwardness which is actually what is more likely to make you standout in a negative way than not being particularly attractive. Tom's awkwardness is endearing, Tobey is a dorky sweet guy but becomes legitimately cool once he gets his powers and becomes super chilled out. Peter is quite literally wildly gesticulating the entire time even after his powers and he wouldn't have gotten Gwen had she not already liked him. Seriously I love how much I cringed (in the best way I swear) whenever they interacted before dating in tasm.

Raimi's MJ did like Peter once he got his powers but it's not because she was shallow. It was because Peter never let people see him. He was a wallflower and always tried to blend into the background. It was only when he became confident did he put himself out there to be seen.

Zendaya is a great MJ but I still think Gwen Stacy is a far more active love interest.

Tasm has the best swings, and shot composition of the franchise. Andrew is honestly the most raw version of spidey with his agile spidery-ness. Raimi has the most iconic and swoon worthy swings and HOLY SHIT the fights, particularly the one with Doc Ock on the train!!!

Tasm is basically the Titanic of superhero films. It's primarily a love story with some superhero elements thrown in which saves the movies imo (fuck you studio execs who screwed over Garfield and Webb).

Doc Ock IS the best villain of all time but I also adore Electro.

The best leap of faith is the same as my movie ranking.

MCU needs to step up its game when it comes to shot composition and visual storytelling. They have a decade worth of experience and 5 visual masterpieces to rely on but still somehow dish out the most static and stiff looking spidey films. You've got Holland in the movie and you're somehow making HIM look stiff!! Sure Iron Man and Captain America etc can have stiff and rigid visuals because they are all about power, but Spiderman is about agility and speed, using the same style of camera work as the other stuff makes it look unpolished and clunky.

#tasm peter #spiderman #biderman #spideyflash #gwen stacy #mary jane watson #michelle jones #peter parker

[cevans16]

I Don’t Hate You, I Like You

Summary: Sebastian seems to get along with everyone except you. Why is that?

You had the role as Tony’s best friend in the Avengers. You had been part of the MCU since the beginning of the franchise. You always got along with the cast, you were real-life best friends with Chris Evans however there was one exception, Sebastian. No matter what you asked him, he always seemed to only give you one word answers, you weren’t sure as to why since you had always been friendly to him. 

You guys were reuniting for the next installment of the Avengers. You had arrived earlier from your vacation in Australia with Chris Hemsworth and his family whom had invited you to their place in Byron Bay. You were looking for your best friend Chris Evans but had yet to find him however you did spot Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. They were both alone conversing with each other, you decided to walk up to say hi, you noticed Sebastian was very talkative with Anthony until he saw you coming up to them. You honestly had enough with him always being quiet when you were around, you didn’t want it to be like this again when filming for the next months so you decided to confront him about it. 

“Hey Mackie!” you said pulling him in for a hug, “Hey how’s it going?!” he replied excitedly. 

“Good! I just came back from Australia, hey Sebastian” you said smiling up at him. He whispered a shy “Hi” to you while looking down and away from your eyes. 

“Soooooo I didn’t know THIS man actually talked” you said to Mackie referring to Sebastian. “What do you mean? He talks all the time!” Mackie said. 

“No I have to pull the words out of him when I try to talk to him” you chuckled, you saw Sebastian’s cheeks turn pink but you decided not to comment on it. 

“Well its because he’s my friend” Sebastian replied a little harsher than he intended to. You felt yourself gasp at his response, you didn’t understand why he had always been quiet with you but you didn’t know that he disliked you too. Mackie didn’t say anything, he himself was surprised at Sebastian’s remark to you. 

“I see, so it’s personal. No worries Sebastian, I guess not everyone can get along right” you said cutting him off when he tried to say something else. “Anyways have you guys seen Evans?” you said looking around for any sign of the Bostonian. Luckily he was coming up to you guys just in time to save you from the awkwardness. 

“Heyyyyyy, I’m glad you’re back, you wouldn’t believe the shit that happened to me while you were gone. What’s up guys” he said to you and the boys. 

“Tell me about it over snacks” you said instantly pulling him away with you to head towards the snack bar they had set up. 

“Fucking shit, what the fuck did I ever do to him” you said annoyed to Chris

“What are you talking about?” he asked you confused

“Sebastian, I thought he was shy but no. I basically asked him why he’s quiet with me and he said well Mackie is my friend in like a douche-y tone. I didn’t do shit to him” you rambled on to Chris while you stuffed your face with a chocolate bar. You noticed his lips curve up in a devilish grin. 

“What’s so funny?” you asked him

“You like him don’t you?” he asked. You didn’t like Sebastian, you couldn’t, especially with the way he was towards you. You did think he was a handsome guy and you always felt butterflies whenever you saw him. But no one could know that, not even your best friend. 

“Pfttt no he’s not....no” you said stumbling with your words. 

“Yeah that was convincing” he snorted. 

“Shut up Evans, you’re supposed to be on my side” you said defensively. 

“I am but as a best friend I can also tell you have a thing for him, maybe you should tell him” he said. 

“Oh fuck off, not after what he said to me five minutes ago....but I DON’T like him” you enunciated the last words. 

“You keep telling yourself that sweetheart” he smirked at you. You playfully smacked his shoulder. You turned to look where Sebastian was, he was in the same place you had left him and Mackie. He looked over at you, shyly smiling, you didn’t smile back but returned an eye roll. 

The Following Day

You were all cooped up in a van heading towards Jimmy Kimmel’s show. You were sited in between Evans and Hemsworth. The three of you together were chaos in the best way possible; very loud, slightly obnoxious, childish, but the cast wouldn’t have it any other way. The three of you were uncontrollably laughing about something dumb Evans had said, you were to the point of tears.

Sebastian was on the seat behind you next to Mackie. Mackie had noticed that Sebastian always stole glances your way but he never said anything until now. 

“You know maybe you should tell her how you feel” Mackie whispered to him

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Sebastian said in his best way to sound nonchalant.

“You know EXACTLY what I am talking about” Mackie said motioning his head to your direction, “plus you should apologize for yesterday, that was a little fucked up” he said. Sebastian nodded his head in agreement, “I will apologize but that is it” he replied. Sebastian did like you, he liked you a lot but was afraid to overstep any boundaries. He hated that he always froze whenever you would try to talk with him and definitely hated himself for how he responded to you yesterday. He felt like an asshole when he saw the look on your face, he didn’t blame you. 

------------------------------------------

“Alright! So you are all going to play musical beers!” Jimmy Kimmel said, next explaining the game. You weren’t much of a beer person but loved to compete so you agreed to participate. 

“Okay so the final team is.....Chris Hemsworth, Robert, and (Y/N)” Kimmel said. 

Robert, Hemsy and you walked to form your group together.

“We’re going to win” Hemsy said excitedly

“You bet your ass” Robert replied. You were going to say something when you heard Evans taunting you, he was paired up with Sebastian and Mackie. You were really hoping that Evans wouldn’t mention anything about you to Sebastian but you weren’t entirely convinced. 

You were going around the circle dancing around when the music stopped, somehow Sebastian mixed up the rules and began to drink from a red solo cup. “Not yet Sebastian!!!” Jimmy yelled at him causing Sebastian to spit out his drink back into the cup, the audience yelled in disgust and laughter. You were laughing about it feeling sorry for the person who would have to drink it.

Ten minutes later it was down to your team and Evans team for the tie breaker. You were moonwalking back and forth when the music abruptly stopped, you realized where you had stopped in front of....Sebastian’s cup. You tried to play it off by slowly moving onto the next part of the circle but Chris Evans being Chris Evans made sure you had to drink it. 

“No, nooo sweetie stay where you are” Chris said to you laughing

You turned around for Hemsworth or Downey for any defense, they looked at you with puppy dog eyes hoping you would do it so you could win.

“Just take one for the team” Downey said

“Right since you’re not the one that’s ABOUT TO DRINK SEBASTIAN’S SPIT!” you said 

“We are ABOUT TO WIN (Y/N)” Downey yelled back

“FINE, YOU OWE ME” you yelled. The chaos with the situation was causing the audience to erupt in laughter and sympathy for your own situation.

You took a deep breath, grabbing the cup off the table, you turned to look Sebastian dead in his eyes and said “Cheers to your spit” before chugging it down quickly. Sebastian stood there frozen, one he felt bad that out of all people it was you, two he didn’t know why he was turned on by how you took it like a champ.

“It wasn’t that bad” you said chuckling, “WE WIN SUCKERS” you said slamming the cup towards Evans who was rolling his eyes even though he knew you would do it to win. 

You, Robert and Hemsworth jumped up and down in excitement for winning, they brought the three of you mini trophies that said ‘Champions of Musical Beers’.

“Yes! And I would love to nominate myself as MVP. It took blood, sweat and spit to win it” you joked. 

Once you were done with the show, you all collectively walked towards the nearest bar. You were deep in conversation with Robert about space shuttles while Evans and Mackie were grilling poor Sebastian about his crush on you. 

“He doesn’t like her, he lovvesss her” Evans taunted, giving Mackie and opportunity to join in, “And the plus side, she’ll drink your spit”

“Can you guys stop” Sebastian said laughing while he ran his hands through his long hair, “I’m in deep shit aren’t I?”, “YEP” Mackie and Evans replied in unison. They came up with a plan to get you and Sebastian alone. 

You walked inside the bar ordering your food while the rest of the cast grabbed a high-top table on the corner of the place. You thought they were there until you only saw Evans drinking the last of his beer there. 

“Where’s everyone else?” you asked looking around, Evans turned to you shrugging. You sat next to him, taking a batch of fries into your mouth, you had done the wrong thing in drinking two cocktails first rather than eating. 

“This is a cool place huh” Chris said taking his food from you, “Yeah it’s neat” you replied. About five minutes later you were finishing up your fries, Evans taking the occasional one when you noticed Sebastian was heading to your table. You rolled your eyes at the sight of him, he caught that. 

“Someone isn’t happy to see me” he commented once he was in front of you and Evans. 

“Mhmmm we’re not friends remember” you replied snarkily

Sebastian sighed, “Look about that I am so so-”

“Save the bullshit, we don’t have to get along. Where’s everyone else?” you asked. 

He shrugged, “Fuck I know, bathroom, upstairs drinking, some left”

“Well I am going to get another drink want one?” you asked Evans directly, he nodded at you. 

“Can I sit with you guys?” Sebastian asked, you looked at Chris who nodded, you shrugged and walked away heading back to the bar. While you waited for your drinks you looked around to see any sign of the rest of your group, no one in sight, where had they gone you asked yourself.

You came back with three drinks, one for you, one for Chris and one for Sebastian, you were annoyed with him but felt bad in not asking if he would like a drink. 

You passed the beers to Chris and Sebastian who politely thanked you and was surprised that you knew what he normally ordered. 

“I’m leaving back to the hotel” Chris abruptly said

“What, you just said you were having a good time here” you replied

“Nahhh I’m getting sleepy, here Sebs you can have my drink” Chris said pushing the beer over to him. He was about to get up from his seat when you grabbed his arm. 

“Wait for me” you said to Chris, you didn’t want to be alone with Sebastian. You didn’t catch Sebastian’s eyes open in panic that their plan was about to fail. 

“(Y/N) you still have your drink and Sebastian doesn’t like those so don’t think about passing it over to him” Chris said. 

You looked over to Chris and then Sebastian, you picked up your cocktail chugging it quickly before hopping off your seat when you toppled over.

“Whoah, one too many” Chris chuckled catching you in time

“Exactly, I will not be here any longer” you said 

“(Y/N), can I talk to you?” Sebastian spoke up loud enough for you to hear. 

“WHy you already said sorry remember” you said annoyed to him

“(Y/N) come on” Chris said in defense

“Why, he clearly doesn’t want to be my friend, so I’m not kissing his ass” you said even more annoyed. Chris looked you dead in the eyes, an expression he didn’t give you often but it basically said to not be an asshole.

“Fine, two minutes” you said to Sebastian

“After you” he said getting up from his seat

“I’ll wait for you outside” Chris said to you

You walked ahead of Sebastian towards the restrooms where it was a bit quieter and more private. You stopped to face him, he leaned on the wall fidgeting with the zipper on his jacket, not saying a word. The alcohol in your system had kicked in because you were feeling extra blunt. 

“Okay, here’s the thing Sebastian. I get along with everyone, I love to hang out with you guys, we work so much and it never feels exhausting. I tried to be your friend the moment I met you, what I did to you I have no fucking clue, but we are not in elementary or high school for you to be a dick to me” you said.

You calling Sebastian a dick irked him, that wasn’t him, he didn’t want you to think that about him.

“I’m not a dick, you’re not entirely nice to me” he said

“That’s bullshit, I tried to talk to you the most polite way. What you want me to get on my fucking knees and suck your dick?!” you said feeling yourself get agitated with him. 

“Uhhhh yes” he blurted out, oh shit he thought. 

“Excuse ME?! Fuck this” you said walking away from him. 

“(Y/N)! Fuck I’m sorry that’s not what I meant, yes I do, noooo, okay shut up for a second Sebastian” he started rambling following you out the bar. You quickly walked towards Chris who had in fact waited for you. The look he saw on your face wasn’t good, he knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it for doing this to you.

“He wants me to suck his fucking dick” you exasperated to Chris. Chris laughed at the comment but was confused to how the conversation went there. 

“(Y/N) stop please” you heard Sebastian say, “What?!” you yelled at him this time. 

“I don’t hate you....I like you. I thought you were fucking gorgeous the moment I met you but I don’t know why you make me so fucking nervous that I freeze, I’m afraid I am going to say the wrong shit like I just did two fucking seconds ago back there. I like you more than a friend and being a dick is not an excuse, I didn’t mean for yesterday to sound mean. I am so sorry and I hope you forgive me” he said exhaling loud at the end.

“Annnnnddd?” Chris added in

“Fuck.... and I hope you would like to go out on a date with me...please” Sebastian said to you more quietly and shy this time. 

“Let me try this first” you said walking to Sebastian, you pulled his face down to yours to kiss him. His lips were soft, the taste of alcohol and the smell of his cologne intoxicated you more than you already were. He kissed you back passionately, cupping his hands around your face, you guys fought over dominating each others tongue until you won by tugging his hair. 

“Uhmmmmm guys” you heard Chris pull you out of your intimate moment. You pulled back to look at him and realized the rest of the cast was there. 

“Well I fucking walked in to an amazing show” Robert joked.

You laughed, feeling yourself blush, you weren’t one for PDA. You turned to look at Sebastian who was blushing just the same. 

“So is that a yes on a date?” he asked you

“Definitely a yes, although I won’t suck your dick” you teased him. He gasped at you saying that out loud in front of the cast.

“Well YET” Lizzie said unexpectedly 

“Lizzie?!?!!” you yelled over to her

“Whatttt? You already drank his spit, swapped it with each other” she said shrugging. 

#Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan imagines #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan x latina reader

[purplepenntapus]

Rating Versions of Harry Osborn: Updated

Wanted to redo this post with a more comprehensive and inclusive list of Harrys

616 Comics: 

Just such a good and complex character. The OG Harry. His relationship with Peter just adds so much depth to every Green Goblin arc because of the inherent conflict of Peter knowing he needs to take down Norman Osborn, but not wanting to hurt or lose his best friend. (If you’ve read Kindred no you haven’t.) He’s still... ugly... I’m sorry 616 Harry... I love you so much but they did you dirty... Some artists do their best with what they have but... I’m not a big fan of western comic style in general so that doesn’t help. Has three failed marriages by the time he’s 30 because he’s gay and deeply closeted.  8/10

Spider-Man the Animated Series (1994):

The Harry plotline in this show reeeeally doesn’t feel earned, because the first time we see Harry having an active role in the show, he asks Peter to move in with him because Norman wants him to have a responsible studious roommate  (a detail from the comics I was EXTREMELY excited to see play out), and Peter comments that they barely know each other. Ultimately they live together for all of one day before Peter decides to move back in with Aunt May. The next time we see Harry, MJ calls him Peter’s best friend, despite the fact that we haven’t seen Peter hanging out with—or even MENTIONING—Harry since the last episode when they were basically strangers. Really it feels like he’s just there to cause romantic drama as the guy MJ graciously settles for when she gives up on Peter. I found the whole goblin plotline kind of boring and lacking in depth.  3/10

Raimi Trilogy:

I was never interested in Raimi Harry until after I started liking and exploring other versions of Harry, because I just thought he was kinda a shit friend. He’s a pretty strong character overall, but his motivations aren’t as obvious. He’s torn between his love of Peter as his best friend, and his bitterness towards Peter for being the man his father wished he was. I don’t think Raimi Harry really wanted MJ, he just wanted to get back at Peter in a way by taking someone that HE loved. However I feel like his characterization kind of sways back and forth between sympathetic and not depending on how he’s written in the scene, and it disappoints me that the thing that gets him to stop tormenting Peter is the butler telling him out of nowhere that Norman died from his own blade, rather than any real character development on his part. 6/10

Spectacular Spider-Man:

I still haven’t watched all of this show because I... can’t STAND this version of Peter... but I’ve watched many clips with this boy and he’s just... so sweet... He only wants to be loved and keeps getting his heart broken. Deserves better. On everything. He deserves a better father, a better best friend, better love interests, everything. I do really enjoy the way they incorporated 616 Harry’s drug abuse into this show with the Globulin Green, it was a very clever way to incorporate that aspect of his character, but tone it down for younger viewers. I’ve watched the scene of him getting “unmasked” as the Green Goblin about a million times it’s very good. 8/10 

Ultimate Spider-Man:

I love him. Most people fear drifting apart from those close to us, so watching Harry struggle with the new and increasing distance between him and Peter as Peter seemingly makes new, “better” friends is downright heartbreaking. Especially when he overhears Sam implying that Peter only hangs out with him for his money which is something he’s clearly experienced a lot. (Seriously Sam what the fuck.) I also love his struggle with Venom throughout the series as a metaphor for his anger and bitterness, it’s never truly gone even when they work hard to remove it. It’s always there to bubble back up under extreme amounts of stress, especially when Norman is involved. (Also this isn’t a Norman review, but USM Norman is the only version of Norman Osborn that has rights and he works hard to be the father Harry deserves.) Had an honest to God meet-cute with Peter like come on???? Its unfortunate how much they cut back Harry’s role in the third and fourth season, I really would have loved to see more of him. Threw a party specifically so he could ignore Peter to his face because he was jealous and I respect that level of pettiness. 9/10

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series

I didn’t think it was possible to create an uglier Harry than 90s Harry but this blonde, fuck-boy lookin creepass came and proved me wrong. Who the FUCK is this?? Doesn’t have any recognizable characteristics of Harry Osborn besides being rich and hating Spider-Man. Also just... look at him. I wouldn’t trust this man anywhere NEAR my drink at a party. #NotMySon -3/10

The Amazing Spider-Man:

He’s okay. I think he has some very emotional scenes and good chemistry with Peter, but it’s dampened by the fact that he wasn’t present in the first film and had to share the second with like two other main plot lines. Ultimately ends up being the least sympathetic version of Harry Osborn because he became the original Green Goblin and killed Gwen, rather than following in his father’s footsteps. That’s not to say he’s a completely unsympathetic character. He has a strong motivator in his fear of death, and I do think the choice they made for his character were interesting and could have developed really well, but they didn’t get the chance since the franchise was dropped. 5/10

PS4 Spider-Man:

ABSOLUTELY ADORE HIM. WISH WE GOT MORE OF HIM. HAVING YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF HARRY OSBORN BROKEN AS YOU SNEAK AROUND NORMAN’S PENTHOUSE AND LEARN THAT HE’S BEEN SECRETLY STRUGGLING WITH A GENETIC DISEASE HE’S BEEN HIDING FROM HIS BEST FRIENDS FOR YEARS WAS -chef’s kiss- GENIUS. PLEASE GIVE US A SECOND GAME WITH VENOM HARRY. 10/10

Marvel’s Spider-Man (2017):

Still easily my favorite version of Harry Osborn. When I first began watching the show I was startled by their decision to make Harry a science genius like Peter because it was so different from their usual dynamic, and many people who aren’t fans of the show point to this as something they dislike. But I actually ended up really loving the decision. It gives a different flavor to Harry in how he reacts to the events of the show and how we interpret his character traits, while still being very inherently Harry Osborn. Harry is jealous of Peter, he loves him dearly, but there’s always this ember of bitter envy ready to burst into anger whenever the plot creates friction between them. This is one of the defining traits of their relationship and in most versions it’s not hard to understand why. Peter has what Harry wants. He’s intelligent, he has potential, and most importantly he’s loved. Peter is the son Harry knows Norman wishes he had, and that creates a wedge between them. Marvel’s Spider-Man changes this dynamic. Harry can easily stand toe-to-toe with Peter in terms of intelligence, and in fact they often work together to create things or solutions Peter couldn’t have come up with on his own. That initial wedge between them isn’t there, creating a very endearing and loving friendship that we know is doomed to sour because it isn’t enough. MSM Harry could be the person Norman wants him to be, and that places the full weight of his father’s impossibly high expectations on his shoulders, always within reach but never quite achievable. So it makes a lot more sense why Peter initially has a low guard towards Norman (as opposed to some other series where Peter seems oddly dismissive of Harry’s justified complaints) and Harry’s own steadfast loyalty to his father. On the surface Norman seems like a perfectly loving parent, he encourages his son, he created an entire school for him when he was wrongfully accused of sabotage, it’s only when you start to dig deeper into their relationship that you see the subtle manipulations and the issues Harry has from constantly chasing his father’s approval. This creates a Harry who is desperate for validation and extremely sensitive to rejection, which colors his relationship with Peter throughout the show. I’m still mad he got nerfed in the second and third seasons because Disney is homophobic. TLDR: I may be biased ... Infinity/10

MCU:

Where is he? Who knows? Man missing in action.  ?????/10

#Harry Osborn #spider-man #msm 2017 #did i rant about various Harry Osborns way longer than I intended to? Yes yes I did #if anyone reads this tell me if i missed any prominent Harrys lmao #long post

[ot3]

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 

anyway. here you have it. 

Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.

So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:

1. The Writing

Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith.  I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.

Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)

And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it. 

The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.

2. The Visuals + Fights

I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.

The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.

It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene. 

I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department  as well.

3. The Comedy

Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land. 

A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:

saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny

saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier

saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest

The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.

Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.

All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.

In comparison to Red vs. Blue

Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.

RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.

Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass. 

The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area.  In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.  

#long post #really long post guys. look out ! #rvb

[lokiondisneyplus]

SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you haven’t seen Season 1, Episode 5 of “Loki,” now streaming on Disney Plus.

I think it’s when Alligator Loki ate President Loki’s hand that I realized I was in love.

To be sure, I was always into “Loki,” Marvel Studios’ third Disney Plus series and the first devoted to exploring a single character: the god of mischief as played by Tom Hiddleston. From the first episode, I dug the absurdist deadpan humor imbued by head writer Michael Waldron, and I was immediately smitten with how director Kate Herron employed ’70s sci-fi brutalism and a particularly British affinity for bureaucracy to build out the world of the Time Variance Authority.

“Loki” looked unlike anything I’d ever seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an increasingly difficult prospect given there are now 26 discrete iterations of the MCU — soon to be 27 with the impending debut of “Black Widow.” As the show has progressed, that feeling has only grown more acute as “Loki,” in its exploration of its title character’s identity, managed to carve out its own unique personality not just in the MCU, but also in the grander landscape of sci-fi storytelling.

To put it as simply as I can, “Loki” is a cosmic-yet-intimate time-traveling romantic action comedy about how Hiddleston’s sexually fluid narcissist finally learns how to fall in love with himself — or, rather, the female version of himself who has lived a whole lifetime of harrowing experiences apart from his own. In doing so, the show has proven that not only can the MCU work on television, it can thrive on it.

Marvel Studios’ first Disney Plus series, “WandaVision,” was a fabulous first step onto TV, proving that the MCU, itself an experiment in creating an episodic series of blockbuster feature films, could shrink itself down to the scope of an American sitcom. Its exploration of grief and the restorative power of comfort TV could not have been more relevant to an audience enduring a devastating pandemic. But as it unfolded, the escalating mystery of what was actually happening on “WandaVision” — Evan Peters showing up as Pietro-but-not-actually-Pietro, Kathryn Hahn hiding in plain sight as Agatha, Elizabeth Olsen unwittingly responsible for almost everything on the show as Wanda — began to overwhelm it. Fans and major entertainment news outlets alike began wildly theorizing each week — it’s Mephisto! it’s Magneto! — and the pressure to achieve a Marvel-sized scale, service a wide ensemble of MCU characters, and resolve all its narrative strands made the final episodes of “WandaVision” feel, to some, misshapen.

Marvel’s follow-up series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” meanwhile, was at once more conventional and more ungainly, with five separate antagonists (John Walker, Karli Morgenthau, Helmut Zemo, Sharon Carter and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine) operating at cross-purposes and overshadowing the two title characters meant to be at the heart of the show and the exploration of being a Black man in America meant to drive it.

“Loki” avoids all of that, because it’s the first MCU show that understands to its bones that the best television is about its characters first, and its story second. The lasting pleasure of longform storytelling is allowing the audience a far deeper understanding of who is on screen than a two-hour movie can allow. That sensibility is already woven into the MCU: Watching Tony Stark, Thor, and Steve Rogers grow and changed over multiple features has been central to the franchise’s unprecedented success. But while Marvel’s conviction to make their shows the same way they’ve made their movies makes sense, it’s also had the paradoxical effect of making “WandaVision” and “FAWS” feel too overloaded with their characters doing stuff than just letting them be.

Each episode of “Loki” does just that. In Episode 1, Loki and Mobius (Owen Wilson, never better?) sit and talk about why Loki does what he does; in Episode 2, they ruminate on the nature of accepted reality while trying to solve the mystery of the variant Loki’s whereabouts. In Episode 3, Loki and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, an instant star) spend the entire hour walking through a doomed planet getting to know each other, and casually coming out in the process. Episode 4 is when the story shifts into a higher gear, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer emerging as its true antagonist, but even that episode allowed for several extended scenes of human connection, between Ravonna and Mobius, Loki and Mobius, and Sylvie and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku, richer with each episode).

This week’s penultimate episode, “Journey Into Mystery,” introduces several new Loki variants, a critical new location in the Void (the purgatory at the end of time into which all pruned entities are dumped) and a blockbuster movie sized enemy in the monstrous, timeline devouring Alioth (re-imagined somewhat from the comic books). And yet, there’s still time for Loki and Sylvie to sit on a hill, share a conjured blanket and quietly express how much they mean to each other, and there’s also time for Classic Loki (the great Richard E. Grant) to get a deeply satisfying character arc. After explaining how his own existential despair at his lot in life allowed him to live well past his encounter with Thanos, Classic Loki’s encounter with Loki and Sylvie reinvigorates his sense of glorious purpose — and helps Loki to understand he’s more powerful than he’s ever allowed himself to be. It’s a full meal in miniature, and Grant makes the most of it.

All the while, Herron and writer Tom Kauffman work in all manner of delightful alternate reality Easter eggs, from the USS Eldridge (purported to have been part of an experimental cloaking and teleportation device in 1943) to the Polybius video game (purported to be a government psy-ops scheme). More notably, there are also some MCU Easter eggs, including the Thanos helicopter and the Living Tribunal that flit by quickly and appear designed to tickle Marvel die-hards and pleasantly mystify everyone else. And then there’s Alligator Loki, a flawless creature who should be protected at all costs.

There is one blink-and-you-missed-it moment, though, that could be something more, when the Qeng Enterprises logo shows up on the Avengers tower. In the comics, Tony Stark sells that tower to Qeng, which is secretly connected to the same Marvel boogeyman that’s haunted “Loki” from its premiere: Kang the Conqueror. The decrepit house Loki and Sylvie are stepping towards at the end of the episode also looks like it could — could — be Chronopolis, Kang’s HQ in the comics, although the TVA itself could be that as well. In any event, it’s been well documented, here and elsewhere, that Kang could be the entity who is really behind the TVA, especially since “Lovecraft Country” star Jonathan Majors has already been cast in the role and will appear in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

If “Loki” does introduce Kang in its finale, however, then the show is stepping onto its highest, thinnest tightrope yet. This is supposed to be a show about Loki, not about a villain that, within the world of the MCU, remains a total unknown. It’s a massive risk for any series to bring in a brand new character — let alone the Big Bad! — in the final episode, so this could be another example of an MCU series serving the larger franchise at the expense of its own story. That would be a shame. Sticking the landing, after all, has always been troublesome for TV because TV is so much more about the shared journey than the ultimate destination. And yet, if anyone in the MCU knows how to alight onto safe ground despite impossible odds, it is the god of outcasts, who lives to survive.

“Loki” streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney Plus.

#Loki #episode 5 review #spoilers

[vavandeveresfan]

What You Don't Know About Michael Keaton's Vulture.

Via looper:

When Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures finally reached an understanding about how to integrate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was a huge deal. Marvel not only found a way to add the web-slinger to its 2016 blockbuster "Captain America: Civil War," but also adjusted its entire slate of films just to make room for a solo film featuring Marvel Comics' flagship character.

One would think that such a massive undertaking would merit an equally bombastic villain, a threat that would cement Peter Parker's reputation as one of the MCU's premier heroes. Instead — and aptly enough, given how he is, at his core, Marvel's everyman hero — "Spider-Man: Homecoming" pitted Spider-Man against one of his earliest (and ironically, most down-to-earth) foes: the high-flying Vulture, portrayed by Michael Keaton. In an interview with ComicBook.com, director Jon Watts explained this decision: "We wanted to sort of go back to the origins of what made Spider-Man and Peter Parker so unique ... The Vulture is really the first supervillain that Spider-Man ever fights, so it just felt like the right thing to do, to go back to the roots in that way."

That said, the flight route towards Adrian Toomes' film debut wasn't without turbulence — and by the end of his journey, the cinematic Vulture seemed to have been shaped just as much by his actor as the comic book character he was based on. Here are some things you may not know about Michael Keaton's Vulture.

Michael Keaton's Vulture: A cinematic debut ten years in the making

"Spider-Man: Homecoming" wasn't the first time filmmakers attempted to bring the Vulture to life. In fact, the character had been strongly considered for inclusion in the two Spider-Man film franchises that preceded Tom Holland's turn as the web-slinger.

After the success of "Spider-Man 3" in 2007, fans expected Tobey Maguire to continue playing Spider-Man in more sequels. Director Sam Raimi also shared his thoughts about the hero's next nemesis even before development on "Spider-Man 4" began. Den of Geek cites a 2007 interview in which Raimi stated that he'd "love to see" Vulture or the Sinister Six, a team of Spider-Man's A-list villains. Eventually, reports surfaced that John Malkovich would fight Maguire's Parker as the Vulture. However, Sony Pictures announced plans to reboot the Spider-Man movie-verse in 2010 with a different creative team, as Raimi reportedly "felt he couldn't make its summer release date and keep the film's creative integrity" (via Deadline).

Director Marc Webb picked up the reins, releasing "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 2012 and its sequel two years later. The duology starred Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, and was intended to expand Sony's Spider-Man universe a la the MCU. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" even dropped hints of the Sinister Six forming in a future movie by showing their gear — including the Vulture's wings — in its trailers and credits scene (via Business Insider). Sadly, the lukewarm reception to the film killed any hope for spinoff movies.

Movie Vulture puts a different spin on the comics villain's motivation

In 2017, Abraham Riesman argued that the cinematic version of Vulture was one of the best Marvel movie villains, taking only the core elements of the comic book character and building a brand new one. As he put it, "[Vulture] isn't the world's most compelling villain, nor would he have been an interesting — or even just non-laughable — baddie on celluloid in his comics form."

In the comics, the Vulture's origin was only revealed 20 years after the character's debut. A former electronics engineer cheated out of his profits by his business partner, Adrian Toomes accidentally discovers that the flight harness he invented also grants him incredible strength. Initially seeking to destroy his ex-partner, Toomes dons the Vulture suit and becomes a full-fledged criminal. While the Vulture's motivation may seem weak, the question at its core — "Where's mine?" — served as the anchor for his silver screen counterpart.

In "Spider-Man: Homecoming," the Vulture is the owner of Bestman Salvage, a small company that cleans up after superhero fights in New York. However, when the government takes over all post-battle cleanup operations under the leadership of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Toomes' company effectively goes belly-up. "[Toomes] takes things in that he feels like a victim, and some of it is justified actually," explained Michael Keaton in an interview with Collider. "He believes that there's an upper echelon of society of people who are getting away with a lot and have everything."

Michael Keaton's Vulture was almost an Avenger's ex-military teammate

The version of Vulture that audiences see in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" differs vastly from the filmmakers' original vision for the character. In fact, at least one version of the cinematic Vulture was planned to be a former colleague of another winged character: The Falcon, a.k.a. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).

In an Instagram post, concept artist Josh Nizzi revealed one of the scrapped plans for Michael Keaton's Vulture: "In an early version of the character, Adrian Toomes was a member of the Air National Guard alongside Sam Wilson, and the Vulture's Exo-Suit was a less refined version of the EXO-7 Falcon." Had Jon Watts and company decided to go this route with the Vulture's origin, it's safe to say that Keaton's portrayal of the character would have been vastly different. However, even though the finished version of Vulture doesn't feature any military background, the designs of the character's costume and gear still draw inspiration from military technology.

As revealed by Inverse, Sony Imageworks, the team that worked on the VFX in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," took cues from modern-day personalized flight technology instead of the character's avian namesake. "Marvel and Columbia needed him to be heavy, mechanical, inspired by steampunk aesthetic and military design ... So we looked at jetpacks and flight suits, seeing how actual people fly using metal machines. We saw that the jiggle and shake was less predictable than you might think."

The cinematic Vulture was almost Spider-Man's science teacher

One of the most gripping scenes in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" comes when the Vulture finds out that Peter Parker — the boy who's taking his daughter Liz to the homecoming dance — is actually his hated foe, Spider-Man. This creates an interesting connection between the hero's school life and his superhero career, which was the filmmakers' original intent (via Yahoo! Entertainment). This idea was also a crucial element in an early alternate take on the cinematic Vulture — one that screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein ultimately junked.

As Daley explained, they threw around the idea of Toomes being Parker's science teacher at Midtown High School as an "organic" way of connecting the young superhero's two worlds. According to Daley, Toomes would have been stealing tech from the government cleanup crew and covertly working on his Vulture suit while performing his teaching duties. However, they decided not to go through with it, paving the way for the film's best twist: "We were like, 'No, let's separate him fully from the school — or at least so it seems. And that's I think when we decided to make [the Vulture] the love interest's dad." According to Rolling Stone, Watts "really liked" how the Vulture was depicted in "Spider-Man: Homecoming": a blue-collar worker with relatable problems, who simply wanted to "have a place in the world."

Michael Keaton almost didn't play the Vulture

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that early talks between Marvel Studios and Michael Keaton didn't pan out, and for a time, the filmmakers asked other actors if they were interested in portraying Adrian Toomes. However, when Marvel approached Keaton a second time, the chips fell into place — which proved to be quite fortuitous, if the actor's alleged influence on the character's behind-the-scenes evolution is any indication.

In 2017, Keaton told Collider the real reason why the initial discussions with Marvel Studios didn't work out: His schedule at the time was packed, with "The Founder" and "American Assassin" leaving little room for another production. However, "The Founder" was delayed, enabling Keaton to re-enter talks with Marvel. "When I got here, [director Jon Watts] started seeing — I think what it is a combination of him watching me, and going, 'Oh, that's kind of interesting,'" Keaton recalled. "But also — and this is more the case — him saying to me, 'I really want to do more of this with him.'"

That said, another veteran actor may have been waiting in the wings had Keaton said "no" to the role. When Rotten Tomatoes spoke to Mark Hamill (who incidentally voiced a different Spider-Man villain, the Hobgoblin, in the '90s animated cartoon), the actor joked: "I had my fingers crossed that Michael Keaton would turn down the Vulture, but darn it!"

A Vulture scene mirrors an iconic DC movie scene

Despite his take on Vulture being well-received, Michael Keaton's most beloved comic book role remains his turn as Bruce Wayne in director Tim Burton's "Batman" movies. At the time, Keaton's casting was a controversial choice, as Variety recounts. Because of his previous roles, Keaton had been typecast as a comedic actor, causing many to doubt that he had the chops to do justice to the character. Fortunately, the box office success of both "Batman" and "Batman Returns" proved that he was worthy of the cowl.

Interestingly, a scene in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" pays homage to one of the most memorable sequences from Keaton's time as the Caped Crusader (via Digital Spy). When the Vulture catches Spider-Man by surprise and drops him into a lake, the villain briefly flies all the way up into the night sky, his silhouette illuminated by the moon behind him. It's a clever callback to the first "Batman" film, in which Batman's high-tech plane, the Batwing, flies upward and stops in front of the moon for a few seconds before diving back down to the streets of Gotham City.

Perhaps what Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent said in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is true: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Batman, Birdman, Vulture: Michael Keaton's multiple flight-themed roles

While Michael Keaton is a versatile actor, it's hard not to see a pattern when it comes to his superhero-inspired acting choices. In three films, the actor has played characters inspired by flying animals.

Keaton played the role of DC superhero Batman in 1989's "Batman" and its 1992 follow-up, "Batman Returns." In 2014, he starred as the titular character in the award-winning film "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)." Keaton played Riggan Thomson, a Hollywood actor past his prime whose claim to fame is his role as the superhero Birdman in a series of movies two decades earlier (via The Hollywood Reporter). In a way, it mirrored Keaton's own career journey at that point, as it had been at least a decade since the actor had any high-profile starring roles (via Variety).

One could say that playing Wayne and Thomson helped Keaton prepare to bring Toomes to life on the big screen. As Jon Watts shared in an interview with ComicBook.com: "We talked about a lot of different things, but the Vulture always sort of rose to the top and just the opportunity to have Spider-Man versus a guy that can fly really lends itself to some pretty cool visuals."

The Vulture: a movie Spidey foe who purposely became a villain

Among all the main villains that Spider-Man has fought in his movies, the Vulture is arguably the first primary antagonist whose evil turn is not a direct result of a freak accident, experimental serum, or any other factor beyond their control.In Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" films, both Norman and Harry Osborn were under the effects of the performance-enhancing Goblin Serum, Otto Octavius' mind had been taken over by his mechanical tentacles, Flint Marko was trapped in a massive radioactive sand experiment, and Eddie Brock came into contact with a symbiote that amplified his strength and his negative emotions. Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man" saw Curt Connors' reptilian persona dominate his transformed body after his attempt to regrow his arm went awry. In "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," Max Dillon turned into living electricity after surviving what should have been a lethal fall into a tank of electric eels, while Harry Osborn physically transformed (and became unhinged) after equipping himself with Oscorp's experimental gear. In contrast, Toomes donning the Vulture gear neither transformed him physically nor affected his sanity. All of his criminal actions were the product of his hatred of government officials and billionaires who contributed, in some way or another, to his personal troubles. As he tells Spider-Man: "Those people up there, the rich and the powerful ... They don't care about us. We have to pick up after them. We have to eat their table scraps."

The cinematic Adrian Toomes never calls himself the Vulture

As far as alter egos go, the Vulture is a perfect fit for Adrian Toomes, especially considering his criminal activities in "Spider-Man: Homecoming." On a superficial level, it works because of the character's aesthetic: his majestic wings, his dark bomber jacket, the collar that resembles the feathers around the eponymous buzzard's neck, his smooth, rounded helmet, and even his metal talons. From a character perspective, it captures Toomes' modus operandi of salvaging whatever technology he can find from structures demolished in super-powered brawls.

It's worth noting, however, that Toomes doesn't even choose the name "Vulture" for himself throughout "Spider-Man: Homecoming." In fact, his villainous moniker actually comes from the MCU's master of nicknames himself, Tony Stark. Right after Stark uses a remote-operated Iron Man suit to save Spider-Man from drowning in a lake, he reprimands the young hero and instructs him to remain a "friendly neighborhood" Spider-Man, quipping: "Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please."

The Vulture: Spider-Man's least villainous movie foe?

Adrian Toomes' frustration and desperation leads him down a villainous path, as he has no qualms about resorting to criminal methods in order to claim what he believes is rightfully his. That said, his entire journey in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is all about making money out of stolen technology, not causing harm to innocent people — a far cry from many of the web-slinger's foes in his previous cinematic outings.

Screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein explained in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment that they intended to make the Vulture as relatable as possible instead of writing him as an irredeemable, mustache-twirling villain. According to Daley, the prelude of "Spider-Man: Homecoming," which is set right after the events of the first "Avengers" film, is meant to establish Toomes' backstory and make him a more sympathetic character. "It helps you empathize with this villain character, which is always great," he pointed out. "I think our intention was always to keep him not a terrible guy." They even made Toomes the father of Peter's crush Liz, a twist that further cements the villain's admirable quality of prioritizing family over everything else.

During a press conference for the film, Michael Keaton shared similar sentiments about his character, saying that the cinematic version of Toomes is approachable and has "a legitimate gripe and a legitimate argument."

Michael Keaton researched the Vulture by talking to children

Despite the mark that Michael Keaton has left in the world of comic book movies, he is, by his own admission, not a huge fan of the medium. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton admitted that after doing Tim Burton's "Batman" in 1989, he had not actually sat down to watch a single comic book movie from start to finish.

That's not to say, however, that Keaton has no love for comic book movies. In fact, he expressed admiration about how the market for superhero films has changed during the last few decades, and even attributed the explosion of comic book movies to Burton's original artistic vision. "What Tim did changed everything," he argued. "If you really think about what happened between 1989 and now, on a cultural, corporate, economic level, it's unbelievable."

Due to his unfamiliarity with the source material, Keaton had to enlist the aid of some very special researchers in nailing the Vulture correctly. As he revealed to Collider, he consulted the two young daughters of a former employee during production, sending them text messages to ask about his character.

Is Michael Keaton playing the Vulture in Sony's Morbius?

One of the biggest surprises to come out of Sony Pictures' marketing for "Morbius" was the fact that Michael Keaton will be making an appearance in the film. In the first teaser, released in 2020, the actor pops up in the final few seconds, dressed in the prison clothes he was wearing in the post-credits scene of "Spider-Man: Homecoming." Over a year and a half later, the first full-length trailer of "Morbius" showed Keaton again, suggesting to Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) that they should "stay in touch."

An article from The Hollywood Reporter seemingly confirms that the character Keaton is playing in "Morbius" is indeed the Vulture. According to Keaton, while the "Morbius" team did explain exactly how his character would work within Sony's universe, he didn't quite understand it: "You may as well be explaining quantum physics right now to me. All I know is I just know my guy. And I know the basics."

Interestingly, Keaton gave an even more coy response when CinemaBlend asked him point-blank about Toomes' potential multiversal hijinks: "Boy, you're going to have to hold off on that answer. That's 'Answer to come.'"

#Michael Keaton #Adrian Toomes #The Vulture #Spider-man Homecoming #Morbius #MCU #Marvel #Marvel comics

[gthreepio]

i’ve been thinking about the future of the mcu and realized there’s a LOT that i didn’t know/didn’t remember in terms of where things are going so i figured i’d sum it up incase anyone else was in the same boat!! 

quick recap of (unresolved) mid-credit scenes:

doctor strange: mordo (a sorcerer that is one of strange’s mentors, who by the end of the movie becomes disillusioned with magic/the ancient one and quits) confronts pangborn (the paraplegic who healed himself with the mystic arts, who tells strange about mystic arts in the first place) and steals his magic because according to mordo, there are “too many sorcerers." of note, this guy is typically a villain in the comics but hasn’t been thus far...

gotg2: ayesha (leader of the sovereign, a golden skinned alien race obsessed with genetic purity), after spending most of the movie chasing the guardians for stealing some stuff, is revealed to have created an artificial being named “adam” which is presumably, adam warlock. (other stuff that is less relevant: kraglin appears to take up yondu’s mantle; the ravagers regroup and several old and obscure comic book characters are introduced [charlie-27, aleta, martinex, mainframe]; the watchers are watching things.) 

far from home: j jonah jameson basically tells the whole world spider-man’s secret identity, and frames him for what happened with mysterio....making him public enemy #1. ALSO, turns out nick fury and maria hill in the movie were ACTUALLY the two skrulls from captain marvel (talos and soren) attempting to do their job, while the real fury (and presumably hill) is ... up in space on some spaceship!!!

wandavision: monica (who we can assume is photon) is called by “an old friend of [her] mother’s,” up in space, which presumably means fury, talos, or carol. ALSO, wanda sits in the middle of nowhere reading the darkhold and hears the voices of her children who.. by all accounts, should not exist. 

aaaaand what we know about future movies (i’m not even going into the tv series.....): 

black widow: 

takes place after civil war

nat confronts a “dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past,” likely has to do with taskmaster who has apparently taken over the red room where nat was trained as an assassin

prominent new characters: yelena belova, who will take over the mantle of black widow after this; alexei shostakov aka red guardian, an ollllld marvel hero analogous to captain america except for the soviet union.

tony stark will make an appearance... SOBS

shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings:

shang-chi has never been seen in the mcu before, but he is, essentially, a superhero that is a master martial artist, and in some adaptations can also create duplicate (fake) versions of himself to confuse opponents

main villain will be the the mandarin who we have *sort of* seen before... he is the leader of a terrorist organization called “ten rings” whose main goal is to destroy world peace. brief history -- in iron man 1: one ten rings cell kidnaps tony stark and tries to force him to make weapons (he of course, makes his suit instead). stark and ten rings become enemies and fight a bunch. nat and nick fury fight them too. in iron man 3, the villain aldrich killian hires a dude to pretend to be the mandarin and claim responsibility for a bunch of stuff, but its not the ten rings or the mandarin at all. this makes the mandarin v mad and he has a dude kidnap the faker to punish him. they also briefly show up in ant-man, when a ten rings agent tries to buy the yellowjacket suit that darren cross is selling. BUT IN SHANG-CHI....... looks like we are FINALLY going to see the real mandarin after over a decade!! 

the villain razor fist will also show up, he is lesser known... he has no superhuman powers but he has surgically replaced his hands (1 or 2, depending on the version) with a steel blade, and is highly skilled at hand to hand combat.

besides the presence of these characters, the only bit of plot we know is “shang-chi is drawn into the ten rings organization and forced to confront his past.” so... yeah. we don’t know much at all.

eternals: 

quick explanation: the eternals are an immortal alien race who have been secretly living on earth for thousands of years. they were created by the celestials, who are most prominently in gotg2. 

more entirely new characters!!! their names are: thena, who can form any weapon out of cosmic energy; gilgamesh, who can make a super strong exoskeleton out of cosmic energy; ikaris, who has superhuman strength, flies, and can project cosmic energy out his eyes; kingo, who can shoot cosmic energy projectiles from his hands; makkari, who creates sonic booms, has super speed, and is deaf; phastos, who has enhanced intelligence, and is also gay (and married with a kid!); ajak, who has healing powers; sprite, who can project illusions; sersi, who can manipulate matter; druig, who can mind control; and dane whitman (black knight), a human with a mystical sword. 

regarding the plot... it seems the eternals have kind of dispersed, but have to come together again to fight the deviants, who are their “evil counterparts” (also created by the celestials, though i’m unclear on why). thena and gilgamesh have apparently been in exile, unclear why; sersi, who is posing as a museum curator, has apparently been in love with ikaris for centuries and it seems as if their love story may be central to the film; and kingo is a bollywood film star in his spare time. aaaaand that’s pretty much all we know.

directed by chloé zhao of nomadland fame! 

spider-man no way home: 

based on the post-credits scene in far from home, peter parker will now be known as spider-man to everyone. unclear if he’s going to be seen as a bad guy due to mysterio framing him, but i guess we’ll see! 

jamie foxx is electro, and alfred molina is doctor octopus; which is VERY interesting considering they played these roles in other spider-man franchises, once again stirring up excitement for possible multiverse. 

there have been *multiple* reports that andrew garfield, kirsten dunst, tobey maguire, and emma stone will be in the movie but tom holland has repeatedly denied this... so... who knows. 

there are also rumors that matt murdock / daredevil (from netflix) will be in several scenes! not confirmed though. 

MJ is still his girlfriend and i hope it stays that way!! 

doctor strange will be featured in the movie, taking on the mentor role now that tony stark is gone :( this will be interesting as i.. haven’t really seen them interact much before. because of this inclusion some people speculate that the film may draw inspo from some comic storylines where peter’s secret identity is restored with magic. 

doctor strange in the multiverse of madness: 

scarlet witch is essentially co-starring!!! it’s going to be really interesting to see if they bring vision or the twins into this at all, though i’m not counting on it. 

seems like mordo will be the main villain -- recall the ds1 post credits scene where he is apparently running around trying to steal people’s magic.

america chavez will make her debut!!!!!! i have no idea how this plays into anything but i am so excited!! 

regarding the plot, all we really know is that strange has been researching the time stone, mordo messes with him, and this results in him accidentally unleashing “unspeakable evil.” presumably there will also be heavy involvement of the multiverse, and who knows what kind of craziness that will bring!! 

initially was going to be directed by scott derrickson who did ds1; however he stepped down to being just EP due to “creative differences.” i am presuming this is because derrickson really wanted to make this more gothic and horror than disney was comfortable with. i REALLY hope they keep some of those elements though and don’t erase the idea entirely! anyway, it will be directed by sam raimi now (of evil dead and spiderman 2002 fame). 

the film also reportedly ties in with the loki series (will loki show up!?) and spiderman 3 (which is obvious enough, given that strange is in that movie and those curious electro and doctor octopus castings...)

thor: love and thunder

directed by taika waititi again, hell yeah!!! and he has stated, the film will be “so over the top now in the very best way" and would make ragnarok look like a "run of the mill, very safe film" .... so.... oh god

so many great returning players!!! including.... valkyrie (now the king of new asgard), jane foster, lady sif, korg, star-lord, mantis, drax, nebula, and kraglin (takes up yondu’s mantle after he dies in gotg2)

in this movie, thor isn’t thor anymore.... it’s JANE!!! she gets cancer :( and is undergoing treatment while simultaneously being thor. i’m a little nervous how this will be handled, but i’m excited. (it’s based off an amazing comic series by jason aaron) 

the big bad: gorr the god butcher, played by christian bale! the gist of it is, this dude HATES gods because nobody helped when his family was dying and in need. his weapon is “all-black the necrosword,” forged from the head of a celestial, and allows the user to create wings and fly at extreme speeds. honestly, he sounds cool as fuck. 

valkyrie is going to be made canonically bisexual!!! 

it will explore more of korg’s backstory, and also include... space sharks!?!?! an alien race from the comics.

taika has called the script “very romantic” so take that as you will 

black panther 2

will again be directed by ryan coogler

not much is known at this point, does not have an official name

t’challa will NOT be recast (which i’m happy about) so..... honestly no idea what to expect for this one. i think we can probably expect shuri to have an expanded role. all we know so far is they will be “exploring the world of wakanda.” not clear to me how this is different from the upcoming wakanda D+ series. 

tenoch huerta has reportedly been cast as a villain, but no one has any idea who. there’s also rumors that donald glover is in “informal talks” to play a role. note all of this is unconfirmed.

captain marvel 2

will be directed by nia da costa (candyman!) and written by megan mcdonnell, who is one of wandavision’s best writers! 

will take place in the present day 

will feature kamala khan / ms. marvel, monica rambeau / photon!!! this will be so interesting.... kamala is a huge fan of carol’s in the comics, she is her mentor/idol. the ms. marvel series will also resportedly lead into cm2. and monica, well, monica knew her when she was a little kid. wandavision implies that there’s some bad blood between carol and monica though, not sure why. maybe because carol left and never came back? (until endgame) 

post-credits scene of wandavision appears to tie into this, having monica go up into space at the reqeust of her “mom’s old friend.” again, not clear who that is. this could also be a tie in to secret invasion though, so we’ll see. or both.

zawe ashton has been cast as an unknown villain... a lot of people are actually speculating that she may play rogue? which would be fascinating, as there’s a comic arc where rogue steals her powers and memories. BUT there’s still no confirmation that X-men exist in the MCU so for now i remain skeptical.

they are looking to cast a ‘john boyega’ or ‘michael b jordan’ type which makes me wonder if they are going to create a new character, a “younger” war machine to be her love interest? (note: carol and rhodey are a huge thing in comics!) carol obviously does not look her age but her and don cheadle.... that just doesn’t work. which is why i wonder.

ant-man and the wasp: quantumania 

in addition to scott and hope, pretty much all the major players are returning including: luis, hank pym, janet van dyne

cassie lang has been recast with an actress 5 years older, which is really making me wonder if they are going to make her stinger in this movie! (aka one of the main young avengers)

the villain: kang the conqueror! this dude time travels. original name nate richards. in the comics, kang travels back in time to rescue his younger self (nate) from an attack that would help shape him towards a life of villainy. kang also gives him some fancy armor. his younger self actually is like, what the fuck dude? and renounces his destiny, becoming a hero. and he makes his armor look like iron man, calling himself iron lad. who is a young avenger. which also makes me wonder about cassie lang.

otherwise not much is known! 

guardians of the galaxy vol. 3

james gunn is returning, i’m mixed about this...he really does *get* the guardians though. 

based on the gotg2 post credits scene, i think we can assume adam warlock will be a HUGE part of this. there are multiple versions of him, some villainous and some heroic, but no idea how this is gonna turn out.

no word yet on whether thor will be involved, or if those ravagers they introduced will be involved. 

fantastic four 

will be directed by the spiderman guy, john watts.

otherwise we know literally nothing.

aaaaand that’s the roundup! 

#mcu #marvel #black widow #shang chi and the legend of the ten rings #eternals #smnwh #spiderman: no way home #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #dsitmom #thor: love and thunder #tlat #black panther 2 #captain marvel 2 #ant man and the wasp: quantumania #amatwq #guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 #gotg3 #fantastic four #mcu thoughts

[hipsterfrankcastle]

Hi! I haven’t watched FATWS yet so I’m weighing up whether to or not to bother? What do you think went wrong with it?

Hey! I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me this haha. I could go on for a really long time but I guess there’s a few key things that I found really off:

Structurally and thematically this show makes no sense. I’ve watched the whole thing and even now I really struggle to understand what this show is about. I don’t feel qualified to evaluate how it deals with race in America because I’m a white British woman, but what I can say is that the scenes that deal with the topics are poorly written and quite often genuinely excruciatingly embarrassing. They point to a larger issue that nothing within the show’s narrative feels coherent or is ever really brought together, so any scene that really tries to Tackle Race feels like it’s doing so in capital letters; it’s delivered clumsily, often through monologue. There’s actually one scene early on in the show that actually SHOWS racism in the world these characters live in (rather than having Sam telling us about it via several misplaced monologues) that I found to be really effective, but it’s only one scene and it’s so tonally jarring - and once it happens, it’s never discussed again.

My “what a waste” post from the other day comes from the fact that Sam and Bucky are arguably two of the biggest, best written side characters from the MCU. If you cared to, you could compare this to Wandavision (which I didn’t also didn’t enjoy, but more because it wasn’t my thing than due to poor writing) - a series that brings an absolute, rigid specificity to two largely unexplored side characters. You couldn’t tell the story of Wandavision with ANY other characters; it belongs entirely to them. But you could literally take the plot of FATWS and apply it to any Marvel characters. It’s fascinating that both Bucky and Sam are introduced with rich, specific back stories in CA: TWS that are largely ignored in this series. I would have LOVED to see a story in FATWS that explores Sam’s background with the VA. Or maybe someone from Bucky’s past makes a reappearance and causes trouble (Zemo doesn’t count as, whilst iconic, his appearance in the series is entirely random and, again, you could have replaced him with literally any other minor villain from the series and the plot would have been the same). I actually think that a lot of this show’s issues come from the fact that Hydra is the key villain of Sam and Bucky’s histories in the MCU, but Hydra has now basically been “dealt with” and written out of the franchise - not a problem with that, we all have to move on etc etc but it means we lose the specificity of these characters and this series feels... so lost.

So instead, these characters engage with an almost “villain of the week” vibe in Karli & the Flag Smashers (great band name) that’s dragged out over six episodes. The writers posit a villain in Karli that they truly don’t seem to understand, and have no idea what to do with her when she’s on screen. There’s no real over-arching antagonist to this show and it really shows. The one character that DOES make sense to introduce is John Walker, truly this series’ biggest waste of potential. I’m trying to keep this spoiler free but his appearance in the show, like Zemo, like Sam’s stupid boat, like the entire loan plot line from the first episode, amounts to literally nothing. The work and consequences that this show has retained by episode six should have been executed by episode one. I’ve never seen a show pick up and drop so many storylines at random, I’ve never seen a show do three quarters of a character development and then do an about turn and abandon it at last minute, I’ve never seen a show that posits itself as a buddy/team up series that has so little to say about EITHER of its leads, but particularly one over the other (rip bucky’s characterisation), I’ve just... truly seen nothing like it.

THAT ALL BEING SAID: should you watch it? If you like trash, sure. I for one enjoy watching Sebastian Stan cry whilst wearing a bad wig, so this show has a certain appeal. Sharon Carter’s appearance and plot line is GREAT; whilst it’s a little patchy, it’s literally the only thing this show pulls off and sets up for a second season. Zemo? Icon. Daniel Bruhl is great and brings a real camp energy to eps 3&4 that really lifts the whole thing. The only time this show is really DULL is the last episode (there’s a weird 30-minute long fight scene, a five minute long monologue where the writers attempt to bring together the themes of the show and fail, then every plot is wrapped up in a bizarro ten minute montage). I wouldn’t say I resent the time I spent watching FATWS, I’m just so so disappointed it wasn’t better.

#fatws #captain America #Bucky barnes #Sam Wilson #I come from the tumblr age of dont tag your hate so I’ve not been tagging all my #all my posts but this is valid criticism so like.. go off #this show but where John Walker is the key antagonist and we watch him turn dark due to his backstory #exploring themes of how war makes you complicit in an inherent darkness (relevant to Bucky) and then exploring how his white privilege #allows him to take up the cap mantle and how that compares him to Sam? #potentially iconic #so annoying that the perfect storyline was right there and Disney are cowards so they wouldn’t do it