Topic: Marvel Musings. Now with Spidey Spoilers.

[Armand9]

just seen it for the first time

absolutely awful

liked the finale fight

it's just not funny while trying so hard to be and i dont want thor in a fucking comedy anyway

splashes of humour here or there, we saw it enough in the avengers and guardians, is fine, no problem with that but what i've just watched is a bit of a travesty of the thor character, one i think helmsworth has played really well when the script allows him to - could be a great thor but script's like that reduce him to laughable and that's not in a funny way

[Musketeer Gripweed]

Yeah, I watched it last night as well.

I think I liked the Russell Crowe scene, even if it was just for laughs. I thought Christian Bale was great, would like to see more of that character again.

Better than the first two Thor movies but not as good as Ragnarock would sum it up for me.

[AndyMuller]

Last two episodes of She-Hulk have been a bit too cheesy.

[ScouserAtHeart]

Last two episodes of She-Hulk have been a bit too cheesy.

I'm not too sure who the target audience is supposed to be

[Red Viper]

Well I enjoyed Thor: Love and Thunder. I think what I've noticed with the backlash to this and other recent Marvel entries is that people just have too high expectations for these films off the back of Infinity War and Endgame.

Was it the best MCU film? Nope, probably not even close but it was fun, had a really good, sympathetic villain and some good action. That's all I really expect from these films nowadays and it makes them much more enjoyable as a result.

[Armand9]

i think bale was the best part of it, good villain with a good reason for his angst exacerbated by a nefarious blade (tho his accent did grind on me a bit), yet hardly used really, seems such a waste

apparently they left alot of his stuff on the cutting room floor which seems a major choice fuckup, i was expecting to see him rout a few gods (which they did shoot according to sources) and see his story told much more fully

it seems a problem with this phase in general is the pacing of the movies, everything is wam bam thankyou mam without much exploration, like this thor film's first half was 100mph in moving from one thing to the next in a very light hearted fashion and i was just sat there wondering wtf they were doing. it got better in the last act (tho for some that was the worse part - i'll just says 'kid's', if you've seen it you know) but then it's all over pretty quickly and that was that, so as a movie it was poor for me. it does have its moments, kicks off with a good memorable scene and visually it delivers for the most part but what you could imagine being a good movie having a natural follow up is done in one and not done well.

This movie could have easily been the introduction of Gorr and developement of his god-killing arc, also the developement of the jane side of things, and in the middle you have thor dealing with both sides etc and that would be the movie (plus you could've explored the other god's take on it all, hinted at by the zeus section). The follow up would be thor's exploits to take down what should've been a formidable foe, along with the ramifications of jane's arc, the other god's arc etc.

Oh, and lastly, fuck knows who the G'n'R fan calling the shots on that shitshow was - soundtrack wise done to death overused, a kid adopts the name axel after we see him with a poster of them - what was that all about? It literally felt like some fan with clout has gone in there and said we're having all this G'n'R shit in there and if you don't like, tough tits.

And a quick nod to the post above, i had no major expectations going in to a thor movie (i dont think any of the thor movies have really delivered tho they're ok), i was just hoping it would be decent. And for me it wasn't.

And i'll reiterate what i said previously, helmsworth isn't the problem, i think he's great thor if only he had the right scripts, we've seen enough good stuff here and there in thor and avengers movies to know he can do a stellar job

[Red Viper]

I do think the film could have been a bit longer and more fleshed out but then you'd probably just get everyone complaining about another overlong, bloated MCU movie so I don't blame them for cutting alot of stuff out.

[Schmidt]

Still trying to figure out why part of the story of She-Hulk is that she has to be in Hulk form during work hours, when they seemingly didn't have the time or budget to accomplish that. The actress playing her isn't exactly an eyesore and she's a good actress, yet they're committed to showing as little of her as possible.

[Armand9]

I do think the film could have been a bit longer and more fleshed out but then you'd probably just get everyone complaining about another overlong, bloated MCU movie so I don't blame them for cutting alot of stuff out.

i thought that's exactly what it needed, imagaine another half hour of fleshing out arcs and cutting out shit that really didn't need to be there (and get all the bale stuff off the cutting floor), like the guardians - it was pointless, just there for bad jokes really

i guess that wouldn't necessarily change the tone of the movie (which wasn't for me - almost straight up 'comedy' for the first half) but would have made for a better movie

it has been mentioned it's through the eyes of the narrator corg, hence the tone, fine but that's still a choice going in

btw im aware some did find it funny, fair enough, im scratching my head to think of anything remotely funny - thor's disrobing was kinda amusing, funny... maybe

[AndyMuller]

Still trying to figure out why part of the story of She-Hulk is that she has to be in Hulk form during work hours, when they seemingly didn't have the time or budget to accomplish that. The actress playing her isn't exactly an eyesore and she's a good actress, yet they're committed to showing as little of her as possible.

Yeah weird isn’t it? The CGI is terrible aswell. Is Tatiana the main villain then? Everything just feels a bit up in the air with this but I know it’s meant to have a lighter tone.

[tubby]

Still trying to figure out why part of the story of She-Hulk is that she has to be in Hulk form during work hours, when they seemingly didn't have the time or budget to accomplish that. The actress playing her isn't exactly an eyesore and she's a good actress, yet they're committed to showing as little of her as possible.

Tapped out after the first episode so I dunno how bad it is, but that was definitely something they did in the comics a lot, have her in hulk-mode when she was doing lawyer stuff, so I assume it's from there.

[Barefoot Doctor]

Not a huge amount of Marvel announcements at D23

Probably of most interest was the line-up announcement for Thunderbolts, which I guess is their attempt at a Suicide Squad style film? Winter Soldier, Yelena, Red Guardian, Taskmaster, John Walker (the evil Captain America in the Falcon/WS series) and Ghost (the villain in the second Ant-Man). And Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' character in the Amanda Waller role, I guess.

And while I'm struggling to get excited for a Captain America film without Steve Rogers, they revealed that the main villain in it will be The Leader, played by Tim Blake Nelson who was last seen in the MCU way back in Ed Norton's Hulk film.

Couple of trailers, both of which I think look pretty good. Secret Invasion looks the kind of standard spy type thing we've seen from them before, while Werewolf by Night looks like a big stylistic swing that should be intriguing at the least.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/qZVTkn2NjS0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/qZVTkn2NjS0</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/bLEFqhS5WmI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/bLEFqhS5WmI</a>

[AndyMuller]

Yeah Thor 4 wasn’t as bad as some people have made out. Bale was great.

[Barefoot Doctor]

Yeah Thor 4 wasn’t as bad as some people have made out. Bale was great.

I rewatched it again yesterday, think it's decent just suffers from so much tonal whiplash. Ragnarok felt more balanced between the serious and the silly, think Love and Thunder leaned too much towards the silly that the serious bits didn't land.

[redwillow]

Still trying to figure out why part of the story of She-Hulk is that she has to be in Hulk form during work hours, when they seemingly didn't have the time or budget to accomplish that. The actress playing her isn't exactly an eyesore and she's a good actress, yet they're committed to showing as little of her as possible.

I love how she turns up to work in clothes far too big, but when morphs into She Hulk the clothes are still too big

[Davidbowie]

Watched the new Thor at the weekend and was underwhelmed. It wasnt terrible, but it was extremely forgettable.

I think Taika Waititi tries to be too zany and wacky with his sequences and his characters and it starts to grate on you.

Having the kids at the end all be 'powered up' was super-cheesy and reminded me of Power Rangers or the lame vespa kids from The Book of Boba Fett.

Also, the endless pushing of characters sexuality is just completely irrelevant - I don't need to know that Valkyrie likes women, I do not need to know that Korg makes babies by holding hands with another male - leave that nonsense out of kids fantasy films and concentrate on the super powers and the fight scenes.

[ianburns252]

Watched the new Thor at the weekend and was underwhelmed. It wasnt terrible, but it was extremely forgettable.

I think Taika Waititi tries to be too zany and wacky with his sequences and his characters and it starts to grate on you.

Having the kids at the end all be 'powered up' was super-cheesy and reminded me of Power Rangers or the lame vespa kids from The Book of Boba Fett.

Also, the endless pushing of characters sexuality is just completely irrelevant - I don't need to know that Valkyrie likes women, I do not need to know that Korg makes babies by holding hands with another male - leave that nonsense out of kids fantasy films and concentrate on the super powers and the fight scenes.

You can't have this both ways mate - if its is just a "kids fantasy film" and about "super powers and the fight scenes" then I'd expect more of things like the powered up kids because that is the target market.

If though we are to drop that kind of stuff for being too childish then surely we are all grown up enough to handle less than 2% of the film involving references to characters sexuality that isn't hetero.

I mean, anyone complain about the litany of women Tony Stark shagged? Anyone think the romance between Bruce and Widow needs dropping? Or Cap and Peggy? If not then nothing wrong with having reference to Korg's people being seemingly all male and having those pairings (great 80s tasche on the guy he meets btw) or to Valkyrie (who I believe is portrayed the same in the comics) being in to women.

[kaesarsosei]

Jodie Comer being tipped for Sue Storm in Fantastic Four.

This would be good, but honestly they should have no trouble getting FF right.

[Red Viper]

If anything, I'd argue the opposite that Marvel/Disney need to stop doing these token gestures to the LGBTQ community not because there's no need for them but because they don't go far enough.

[Sheer Magnetism]

I mean, anyone complain about the litany of women Tony Stark shagged? Anyone think the romance between Bruce and Widow needs dropping? Or Cap and Peggy? If not then nothing wrong with having reference to Korg's people being seemingly all male and having those pairings (great 80s tasche on the guy he meets btw) or to Valkyrie (who I believe is portrayed the same in the comics) being in to women.

I don't think Tony was involved with anyone except Pepper Potts after Iron Man 2, Peggy wasn't in any of the films past the first Captain America and I can't remember Thor or Quill having any romantic involvement past their first films. If anything, the hetero men in the MCU are all extremely sexless. Do any of them 'fuck', as the kids say?

[ianburns252]

I don't think Tony was involved with anyone except Pepper Potts after Iron Man 2, Peggy wasn't in any of the films past the first Captain America and I can't remember Thor or Quill having any romantic involvement past their first films. If anything, the hetero men in the MCU are all extremely sexless. Do any of them 'fuck', as the kids say?

Think Thor still does in the 2nd and Quill with Gamora is pretty much throughout (think GOTG3 might even be him trying to find the "new" Gamora and reconnecting?

Either way, they still have reference to relationships and that is all this is.

I wasn't having a go about hetero ones in the MCU just saying that it is no different effectively.

[Stockholm Syndrome]

If anything, I'd argue the opposite that Marvel/Disney need to stop doing these token gestures to the LGBTQ community not because there's no need for them but because they don't go far enough.

They don't go far enough because Disney want as little as possible so they can censor this out for China releases.

Also I find some of the girl power message of She-Hulk to be somewhat for show when you consider they purposefully made She-Hulk less buff because a super muscly woman may be deemed too unattractive for men.

[Barefoot Doctor]

Korg's rock partner being called 'Dwayne' was the best joke in the whole film.

[ianburns252]

Korg's rock partner being called 'Dwayne' was the best joke in the whole film.

I'm really fecked off that I didn't make that connection

[Sheer Magnetism]

They don't go far enough because Disney want as little as possible so they can censor this out for China releases.

Also I find some of the girl power message of She-Hulk to be somewhat for show when you consider they purposefully made She-Hulk less buff because a super muscly woman may be deemed too unattractive for men.

She doesn't look any different from the original character design to me.

[redwillow]

Where the hell is this She Hulk season going? Feels like there is no story line, nothing making you excited for the next episode

[thejbs]

Watched the new Thor at the weekend and was underwhelmed. It wasnt terrible, but it was extremely forgettable.

I think Taika Waititi tries to be too zany and wacky with his sequences and his characters and it starts to grate on you.

Having the kids at the end all be 'powered up' was super-cheesy and reminded me of Power Rangers or the lame vespa kids from The Book of Boba Fett.

Also, the endless pushing of characters sexuality is just completely irrelevant - I don't need to know that Valkyrie likes women, I do not need to know that Korg makes babies by holding hands with another male - leave that nonsense out of kids fantasy films and concentrate on the super powers and the fight scenes.

The first half of the film had two hetero characters lamenting their lost loves. Why is it an issue if a gay character does the same later in the film? I’d argue that strong lgbt representation is needed in films geared towards young people than anywhere else.

[Rob Dylan]

Finally saw Love & Thunder last night, having really enjoyed Ragnarok I was really disappointed with this.

There's probably a limit to how much humour you can put in these films, but if you're going to make it even more of a comedy, the jokes at least have to be funny, but they just weren't. Most of them felt like jokes which had been rejected from Ragnarok, just really weak and lazy.

As well as 90% of the comedy not being funny, the plot was pretty stupid, too many things happened just 'because', a lot of the effects looked cheap and fake, Korg's narration sequences were lame and out of place, there were too many random dumb moments that added nothing to the story, and the whole thing felt rushed and like they couldn't really be bothered. It was like they rushed out a first draft of the script, did one take and just said 'that'll do'.

Natalie Portman and Christian Bale were good and the last 20 minutes or so were OK, but overall it was really poor. For all Ragnarok's jokes and 'wackiness', there was at least some substance to it, but this just felt like an empty shell of a movie. Even though I liked Ragnarok, I always thought Waititi came across as a bit smug and not quite as funny as he thought he was, and that was really true of this movie.

[Drinks Sangria]

Is Korg even gay if his species is entirely male? Is it gay when you’re breeding with the only gender available to breed with?

I think like Red Viper said, unless they’re going to say something interesting or really shine a light on the need for representation, why bother? It’s meaningless gesture politics unless you’re actually going to give a meaningful amount of time to representation. It doesn’t go far enough. Having a secondary character revealed to be ‘gay’ as a throwaway partial joke at the end of the story isn’t really doing much is it.

[wampa1]

Is Korg even gay if his species is entirely male? Is it gay when you’re breeding with the only gender available to breed with?

I think like Red Viper said, unless they’re going to say something interesting or really shine a light on the need for representation, why bother? It’s meaningless gesture politics unless you’re actually going to give a meaningful amount of time to representation. It doesn’t go far enough. Having a secondary character revealed to be ‘gay’ as a throwaway partial joke at the end of the story isn’t really doing much is it.

And yet people still lose their shit over it.

[red_Mark1980]

Did I miss the excitement about Daredevil Born Again?

[Machae]

It looks like Letitia Wright will be the new black panther, I think she would be perfect in many ways, can't wait to see the film.  Things are looking up!

Please for the love of God, definitely not. She might get it, but it would be absolutely one of the most stupid decisions in Marvel casting. She's an anti vax. Should give it to Killmonger, who destroyed Black Panther in a fair fight

Regarding Thor, decent film but felt story for the guy who said his training regime was brutal. Was there any need to bulk up so much? He wasn't as big in his previous films, so why now?

[Agent99]

Please for the love of God, definitely not. She might get it, but it would be absolutely one of the most stupid decisions in Marvel casting. She's an anti vax. Should give it to Killmonger, who destroyed Black Panther in a fair fight

They should have done that. I tthought with the multiverse they could have brought in a version of Killmonger who became Black Panther.

[Scottymuser]

Another really good episode of She-Hulk this week - loving the humour and the "small stakes" nature of the show.  Maybe not as good as Ms Marvel was earlier in the year, but pretty close for me.

Spoiler

Jameela Jalil is brilliant as usual in this episoide; just miss Maddisyn and Wongers - and would love to see a series of shorts showing what they are getting up to

[close]

[Schmidt]

At this point I'm only really watching She Hulk to see if any wider MCU stuff creeps in, the show is just 90% filler and episodes are so short and so kid friendly that there really isn't any room to do anything of interest.

They teased Daredevil in a previous episode and that should have been exciting, I loved the Netflix series, but it feels like the people making these shows are doing so with one hand tied behind their back as they try to keep the Disney execs happy, and I'm worried Daredevil will be a shell of what it was.

[thejbs]

Another really good episode of She-Hulk this week - loving the humour and the "small stakes" nature of the show.  Maybe not as good as Ms Marvel was earlier in the year, but pretty close for me.

Spoiler

Jameela Jalil is brilliant as usual in this episoide; just miss Maddisyn and Wongers - and would love to see a series of shorts showing what they are getting up to

[close]

It’s good old bubblegum tv. I’ve been watching it with my wife and we’re both enjoying it.

[BER]

Tatiana Maslany is great in the role but I tapped out at the 'Avongers' merchandise scene. Just too much cringe and trying way too hard to be funny, to be actually funny.

[Machae]

It's not exactly a super hero series is it though, more like a 20 min entertainment programme, with some reference to her abilities. At least with Wandavision, Moon knight and Falcon & Winter Soldier, they had a story line and showcased their abilities. She Hulk is watchable but largely forgettable

[Barefoot Doctor]

Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine for Deadpool 3.

[Phineus]

Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine for Deadpool 3.

Saw that, mixed feelings as Logan was a great and emphatic way of leaving that character behind.