Rolling Marvel Cinematic Universe thread (+ a poll: Classic or Dud?)

Ant Man is the first superhero movie in a while I actually have an interest in seeing. From what I've read, it's basically going to be a heist movie, which is to me is likely to be much more enjoyable than the typical people with superpowers punching each other (although I realize there will also be some of that in this movie).

Wellllp, the FF reviews are coming in, and it looks like an even bigger dud than I would've imagined.

I like the cast, but the trailer looks so flat, like more Divergent/ YA fiction than superheroey. so I wasnt sure how it wd go over

the director has already disowned it

https://twitter.com/joshuatrank/status/629467936793559040

I never know how to feel abt that

Part of me feels like it's shitty to do that on release day. I totally get that that is a thing that happens & franchises are unwieldy beasts & movies are made by committee now but also...its not an indie movie & he knew that going in and hes not the only person who worked on the movie & maybe he should own his part in the end result instead of bragging NOW about the awesome unseen version he made? idk.

Since that's apparently been deleted

https://twitter.com/SamuelAAdams/status/629474307140415488

I'd like to be thread fascist and point out that this isn't MCU, but I'm not surprised no-one made a thread just for it - most of the discussion seems to have been in the Star Wars 7 thread!

Also yeah, by all accounts a lousy lousy film - 100 minutes long but they don't get their powers until after the first hour, missing most of the footage people were interested in (including the Thing-drop from the trailer), and establishing that "it's clobbering time" is actually something Ben Grimm's abusive older brother used to say below beating him up as a kid.

i do feel for the guy. matt zoller seitz kinda poignant here:

I have no idea why this movie is so terrible, only that it is terrible ... It's as if somebody took two pretty-decent feature length movies, broke them into pieces, and re-edited them into one film, but without any discernible plan beyond "get this down to 90 minutes." This is not a shortness issue, though. It's an everything issue ... The Marvel factory is indeed a factory, stamping out pre-sold intellectual property widgets with movie stars and the best visual effects that money can buy, but even their least ambitious products work. This one doesn't. It's defective, a discard, a huge ball of metal and plastic and spandex, all fused together. It's impossible to tell what it was supposed to be.

(of course the tone of that tweet is why we have the word unprofessional)

"it's clobbering time" is actually something Ben Grimm's abusive older brother used to say

well he is responsible for the overall direction of the Fox superhero movies

9% on Rotten Tomatoes now!

FF 'TRANKS' AT BOX OFFICE

In actual MCU "news," the cinematographer for Dr. Strange says it's going to be "dark" and "psychedelic." I'm going to be more interested in the sound design, myself. (Hoping for Lynchian/Spletian)

Finally a dark take on comic book heroes.

Could be appropriate in this case. I hope they showcase actual demons and Mindless Ones and other weird Lovecraftian shit.

i want ditko strange goddammit, give me dali-esque backgrounds and slim, squinting men

i want ditko strange goddammit

it's off to the "out of context" thread we go

Would have been more interesting if he'd said bright and psychedelic instead of dark and psychedelic, but 100+ micrograms of Ditko is called for either way.

xp lol

what can i say, i like em slim and squinting

i think seitz knows this wasn't made by the marvel factory, but as he never mentions fox in the piece i think it could be clearer

fuckin bananas that they don't get their powers until more than half-way into the movie

AFAICT, the new FF movie essentially exists for the same reason that the original Corman FF does. Has there ever been a rights-retention spite production that was also a decent movie?

http://news.blog.gustavus.edu/files/2012/04/Origin-Story.jpg

also fuckin bananas that ACTION SEQUENCES in the trailer aren't in the movie - supercurious to know why one would decide cut those out of a superhero movie

http://www.vulture.com/2015/08/timeline-of-fantastic-fours-terrible-buzz.html?cx_navSource=latest-news-a

I think Fox's screenwriters and Marvel's publishing-side writers are all realizing the same thing, that in the post-Watchmen post-Bendis post-Millar landscape, the basic concept of the FF has too many dumb parts that require too much suspension of disbelief. A lot of the best FF stories from the last ten years have been sort of solo adventures with the rest of the family as bit players (given an infinite number of Reeds, some of them are going to turn out evil; Johnny spends a year dead in the Negative Zone for tax purposes). Franklin and Valeria are more interesting than the actual FF. There hasn't been a really great Ben Grimm story since "This Man This Monster" that I can recall, and he hasn't even shown up in Secret Wars (unless Doom is sitting on him). The character with the really interesting power set, Sue Richards, hasn't been developed that way she should because "lol girls, that won't sell" though hopefully that's changing.

#NERD

Nahhh, the FF aren't my favorite but they're generally only bad when they're mishandled by writers/creators who don't understand their strengths. The comics have been fairly strong for the better part of a decade now. I do agree that the emphasis on Franklin and Valeria is one of the best developments of late.

As far as the movie is concerned, Ultimate FF was probably the wrong source material to tap into, as it never really seemed to find it's footing or a voice of its own and no one's arc ever panned out in a way that was satisfactory to me (besides the interesting take on Evil Reed, which was never gonna make it into the movie).

I think the best route to take with some of these books that have been around forever like FF and Spider-Man is to expand and relegate focus onto a strong supporting cast as much as possible.

I think the best route to take with some of these books is to put the origin story in the first 10 minutes and then get on with the superheroing, or at least put some superheroing into the movie well before you hit the 60 minute mark

I've seen more than a few reviews that suggest the movie doesn't really get going until the last ten minutes or so...

lol that is an excellent way to plot a movie

u_u

I've been thinking they should have done it like Hickman's arc where one of them was supposed to die. Just an ungodly amount of happenings in fifty dimensions at once, where they all have to travel at the same time. Focus on the adventure, on the excitement. And loads of time-travel. They should get Stephen Moffat to write it.

But again the kids (at least to me) were often the most interesting part of that and I can't figure how put that on the big screen (though admittedly I haven't given it too much thought).

Not of that particular arc, though, right? They took over later, when it became the FF Foundation. Though of course, what I really want is an FF adaptation, with Dragon Man and all the rest. I have no idea who anybody was, but it was so charming.

Aah right, I only caught the latter part of it and got it confused with Fraction's run.

They should have saved the FF for Marvel Zombies.

kinda bummed that teller comes off like an asshole, he seems like a very good actor

um so the "MAN THING" movie is streaming on hulu now and i watched about twenty minutes, it is amazingly bad

wow i seriously never even heard of that

it was a placeholder to keep the rights, came out before marvel became MARVEL (but they have the now iconic opening credit sequence)... it is hot garbage

never commercially released, here is a fan built trailer that is spot on with the general feel and the plot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTUL1GWbrRw

it's sorta Vertigo presents True Detective s3

Between this and Howard the Duck why has the ghost of Steve Gerber not returned to wreak a terrible vengeance?

aww, that's sort of adorable.

like i could imagine it being an actually lame-but-okay shitty TV series.

Has to be called Giant Sized Man Thing though.

tbh that's been on my band name list for like ever

that was the name of my nascent aborted band many years ago

Size not Sized

The weird thing about that terrible Man Thing movie is that does feature quite a lot of stuff drawn from the Gerber comics, including this character:

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/faschist.htm