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

but he died in Brubaker and Phillips' Criminal

http://www.kevhines.com/media/dead_adsit.JPG

haw!

Welp, it's official: X-Men & FF coming to the MCU.

(And yeah, that whole thing where one massive media company has become even more massive and all of the probably not-great implications of that, blah blah.)

Day three of the Ethan Hawke/LOGAN wars, as I wonder what we, as a society, have done to deserve this.

— Vadim Rizov (@vrizov) August 27, 2018

I had not heard of this - there’s a good article about it here:

http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/what-ethan-hawke-really-said-about-superhero-movies-was-lost-on-twitter.php

that doesn't really change the context or meaning of what he said though
not that i want to die on the hill of LOGAN (though it was great!) but yeah, it is weird to hear that coming from a guy who's done a lot of successful genre stuff

Guys. I'm clearly a huge fan and champion of good superhero movies. Huge. Unabashed. They are not great cinema.

logan was under the impression it was a great movie and it was not a good movie, not of any genre

dude claiming hawke was unwoke because superhero movies help people escape capitalism then namechecking wes anderson as a revered art cinema icon probably the peak of this

even before the 'then'

also great was people responding 'actually he didn't wear tights in logan'

Railing against superhero movies is like railing against oligarchy or bacon. The normies always win

(my own dense, hypocritical and not entirely serious take)

logan was under the impression it was a great movie and it was not a good movie, not of any genre

extremely otm

logan was not good, no, but i thought patrick stewart was fantastic in it, especially given what the script gave him to work with

^^ cosign - love him more than ever after watching

eh, i just think pitting shitty mainstream movies against "great art" films is a foolish, close-minded position to take the older i get. those Marvel dollars were never gonna fund another Agnes Varda film, know what i mean?

yeah this is 2 different things. It's a false argument. I can enjoy a lot of different kinds of art at a lot of different levels. I appreciate the attempt to make the Marvel stuff as high quality as they do. It makes them much more fun to watch.

agreed

However, there is less commercial room than ever for adult-targeted films -- nowhere near as arty as Varda's -- while the pajamas-wearing bodybuilder shit dominates every year's b.o. Sorry, not "same as it ever was."

weird to hear that coming from a guy who's done a lot of successful genre stuff

Perhaps, but at least that Valerian thing was weird enough to be not especially successful.

The mortal enemy you'll want to direct your ire to goes by the name of Kevin Feige, Morbs. Once that dude moves on to other projects or retires to whatever island he buys, you will see a gaggle of clueless also-rans bumblefuck their way toward the slow dissolution of the superhero genre's steely grip on the box office. Like, they'll still rake in the dough but more on the level of the previous century's offerings (adjusted for inflation, natch).

morbs must have some elaborate pajamas is what i’m taking away from this thread

However, there is less commercial room than ever for adult-targeted films

this is a fair and reasonable point.

lol no it's not

yeah don't see that at all as someone who has gorged on as many theatrical films as possible during this Year of Moviepass (RIP)
there's less middle of the road crap that ISN'T superheroes... well, actually even that's not true

idk I get that less "adult targeted films" get made by the big studios because the superhero stuff is where the money is. it doesn't seem so off the mark. but i hardly ever go see anything that isn't the stuff of which the Dr. appears to disapprove. end of my discussion is there's room in this viewer's brain for a lot of different kinds of movies that do all kinds of different things to it, and comparing them doesn't tell you much about them

blame HBO and Netflix...
blame THE SOPRANOS, BREAKING BAD and, i dunno, RECTIFIED...
blame the new consumption models that let smaller features (like eh, let's say CAPTAIN FANTASTIC) to actually find distribution and audiences outside of the art houses...

popcorn halls are for popcorn pictures. I for one do not mourn the absence of RABBIT HOLE from my recliner-equipped multiplex, and to imagine that if Marvel would simply stop making movies that people of all ages enjoy the floodgates would open for quality grownup storytelling ignores the evidence of dunno fkn WILD HOGS or TRANSFORMERS 6 or whatever.

a fair and reasonable point

However, there is less commercial room than ever for adult-targeted films

this is a fair and reasonable point.

lol no it's not

Yes and no. Films are cheaper to make than ever, and the barrier to make a film and get it thrown into, say, Netflix US listings is much lower than older forms of mass distribution. But it's absolutely, 100% true that the "middle budget" films (of the type Alexander Payne, PT Anderson, Todd Haynes etc) are getting funded less and less. There may have been a slight uptick recently due to the influx of streaming production cash but we're definitely a far cry from the era when "adult-minded" dramas routinely populated the top 10/20/30 grossers of a particular year.

"ethan hawke/logan wars"??????? film twitter is hell

tbf all twitter is a garbage sewer

Today’s adult-adults (25-40) generally watch movies at home unless there’s a minimum of 10 cameras and 15 server farms involved, in which case they might buy a ticket if they heard it was real good.

There’s just a lot of other things to do! Movies are no longer the pre-eminent time waster - just like ballgames aren’t either. Hey look what I can do with my phone look see this I’m oh wait hang on typing

In a world where wars are sparked by poor reading comprehension

...one celebrity with an opinion about a movie can stoke the bad faith of twitter dorks into a frothing nerdgasm.

been avoiding the whole thing. I don't take Ethan Hawke especially seriously to begin with but it doesn't sound like he said anything especially controversial.

LOGAN is a good test case though. It's not MCU, it has a couple of moments and Patrick Stewart but it's mostly crap, and hey, the rest of Mangold's more adult-targeted "serious" work is also mostly crap!

idk I get that less "adult targeted films" get made by the big studios because the superhero stuff is where the money is. it doesn't seem so off the mark. but i hardly ever go see anything that isn't the stuff of which the Dr. appears to disapprove. end of my discussion is there's room in this viewer's brain for a lot of different kinds of movies that do all kinds of different things to it, and comparing them doesn't tell you much about them

― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, August 29, 2018 3:05 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I get that one person can like a diversity of films, sure, I do. I truly enjoyed some MCU films and seen almost all Bresson films. However if you live outside a major metropolitan area, one that cannot sustain having a selection of art houses cinema or the presence of decent film festivals, well you probably know how hard it is to get to see some films. I'm lucky here in Montreal because we get to see a wider selection of french film but virtue of the language but boy it's a hunt still.

I won't say anything new to anyone on this thread but basically, the distribution game is rigged and has been rigged for a long time. While I'm not asking for the good ole CanCon documentary I produced to be in 2000 theaters across the continent, more antitrust laws like preventing blockbuying would give us a bit of that breathing room we need to live of our profession. So when those super hero movies are shitty, like Fantastic Four, and they are busts but still cover 5% of the screen time in the entirety of Quebec for 3 weeks and my friends and I have to scrap some sessions at the art house who is forever on the verge of closing down then yeah, I'm mad at the very existence of some of these films. I fully stand by Hawke's idea that when you get to make big movie at least put some love in it and abide by a standard of quality to ensure the film will be good. I haven't seen Logan so I can't vouch for it, but surely you can think of another shitty blockbuster, or another superhero blockbuster that can replace it.

another fair and reasonable point

Remember when Ethan Hawke "wrote" a novel?

Marvel has apparently secured studio space in the UK and rumors are bubbling up that a Captain Britain movie may be underway. Which I find potentially very exciting (particularly if it might lead to an Excalibur film down the road). Less exciting are the rumors that it is to be helmed by Guy Ritchie. Hmm.

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iur/?f=1&image_host=http%3A%2F%2F24.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lojtyxBJz71qehn0to1_500.gif&u=http://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lojtyxBJz71qehn0to1_500.gif

Like this idea, which strangely had never occurred to me before, could (in the right hands) be my most favored MCU project yet. The Moore and Delano runs on Captain Britain and then up through the end of Davis's solo run on Excalibur are some of my favorite comics ever.

I re-watched Spider-Man: Homecoming last night (second time seeing it) and I think -- to the extent that ranking these things matters, which is "not at all" -- it's a top five out of all of these. Skips the origin story, ties in well into the other movies, a villain with understandable motives and who isn't the victim of some experiment gone wrong, ace performances from all involved. And a lot happens in it! But it never feels overstuffed. Like so many of these characters, Peter is often a victim not of the bad guys, but his own overconfidence and hubris -- but it's an understandable, youthful hubris. He's 15, and this is the one thing he's really good at aside from school, and it's much more rewarding; why not concentrate on it, and why not try to go big time? That's how kids think!

The whole segment from when Peter first shows up at Liz's house and Keaton answers the door, to when he gets out of the car in front of the school, is so great. A lot of good "eye acting" from Holland and Keaton, and I love that it's Liz's mention of the "Stark internship" that gets her father suspicious.

Like this idea, which strangely had never occurred to me before, could (in the right hands) be my most favored MCU project yet. The Moore and Delano runs on Captain Britain and then up through the end of Davis's solo run on Excalibur are some of my favorite comics ever.

how could you forget

"is there a name or a phrase for or anything much written about that distinctly British CREEPY VIBE prevalent in TV shows and movies of the '60s/'70s? (e.g. The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, Baker-era"

aye, it just slips right off the tongue right enough

actually you know who'd be a good captain britain is henry cavill - a giant side of beef who's not too smart and is kind of an asshole is a much better fit for cavill's vibe than superman

That is precisely who a large number of internet denizens are pushing for, apparently. Careful what you wish for...

it's a top five out of all of these

the last 30-40 mins felt really draggy to me

there's a weird buildup to the homecoming then it only gets five minutes screentime

overall it's great though. it's overlong but it's a great hangout movie so length = more time with fun characters

karl urban would be a great captain britain

or wolverine

or almost any male superhero tbh