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

this stuff is not changing back anytime soon

So your contention is that, in the context of the Scorcese argument, One Eye Open said "the series of films" when he meant "Disney's rep and small new releases policy"?

The weight of this series of films is a significant contributor to Disney’s closing off of lesser profit streams, yes. They would rather spend person-hours on $300MM films that they expect to make $1B than to keep employing people who rent out films for $1000 a shot. It’s the hegemonic nature of these films that allows them to demand a higher percentage of receipts, even though (as linked) this is actually driving exhibitors out of business. Their demands on exhibitors for their series-sized films specifically do stop smaller films from being seen, even when “smaller” means big expensive colourful action-filled family-friendly adventures, as with Paddington 2 and Black Panther.

There's probably something to be said for distinguishing among these claims/critiques:

• Aesthetic: MCU movies are shallow, simplistic, homogeneous, too long, too loud, too chaste, have too much and/or crappy CGI; their financial success will lead to more of the same
• Generic: superhero properties take up too much space literally (screens) and figuratively (in the discourse / the attention economy)
• Sociological: the often aggrieved fan culture around these culturally hegemonic movies irritates me for the following reasons
• Economic: insert a variety of concerns over Disney's increasing consolidation of and power within the industry (see that other thread)

A respite and then there’s an 18 month span coming up in which we’ll get six new marvel movies

And we were singing bye bye miss American pie

xp
yeah it's not a good defense lol

Speaking as an unabashed fan of Marvel, I could easily cobble together a half dozen barbed critiques of the MCU with more substance than those voiced by many of the folks who actively loathe the MCU. The maverick filmmaker cognoscenti should hire sic and Ward Fowler for their talking points, imo.

eeeeeaaaaasily

All the things on rob’s list are inarguably correct perfectly valid reasons to criticise these things and, as sic says and andrew seems to be denying, they are not unrelated to each other

maverick filmmaker cognoscenti

I mean, I cited the studio’s highest-grossing film of the decade

I was, ftr, not snarking! When a reporter approaches let's say a Wong-Kar Wai about his thoughts on the latest Marvel film, it would be a boon if he were able to consult with you and refine some sound talking points beforehand so he isn't forced to extemporize all like 'these superheroes today with their rocking and a-rolling and hipping and hopping, Batman punching Spider-Man in Riverdale...it's all just noise!'

Did we miss Ken Loach? There's almost enough for a poll pretty soon:

Loach said of superhero films: “I find them boring. They’re made as commodities … like hamburgers … It’s about making a commodity which will make profit for a big corporation – they’re a cynical exercise. They’re a market exercise and it has nothing to do with the art of cinema.”

lmao what a hypocrite btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJp6tBoa9JI

They're not entirely unrelated, but at worst they spring from "these films are very popular", which isn't the angle Scorcese et al are taking.

putting aside the more interesting critiques raised in this thread, there's an implication here that man, anyone could do it if they just set aside their principles and devotion to the craft which, uh, Dark Phoenix and F4 and Justice League and etc etc called and they'd like you to know they tried that and where is their cookie?

the angle Scorcese et al are taking.

1) the angle he's taking? he was asked at the end of a 3000-word career-retrospective piece if he had watched Captain Marvel for tips on de-aging software before making The Irishman, and, concluding an interview where he had repeatedly praised multiple films that he thinks are great and influential and worthwhile, said that made-by-committee superhero films aren't to his taste.

2) of course they wouldn't care about some bad films if the market wasn't unbalanced towards them. neither Loach nor Coppola nor Scorsese have ever been clickbaited for slagging DTV trash, and Coppola always urged amateurs to use cheap video technology to get out and start making something.

If he had merely said they "weren't to his taste," we wouldn't be having this conversation!

do you really think that in the context of the interview he was any more extreme than that?

"that's not cinema" is fairly extreme!

bazin to thread to settle this

Like, imagine you are Anna Boden or Taika Waititi or Favreau or a Russo Brother, and Scorcese says of your stuff -- "It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being." That's hardcore!

Seriously, they've been inconsolable for days.

OTOH, WGAF about what Scorsese considers (dons beret) AH-SIN-AY-MAHHHH! (chef kiss)

a) this is correct, it is about superhumans and cartoon gods

b) p sure Waititi and Boden know that their Marvel work is not the same as Mississippi Grind or Boy

c) compare it to everything he says about other films in the same interview.

I've only read the press excerpts of what he said about the Marvel films! What else does he say isn't cinema?

(I GAF solely b/c what he and Coppola said seems so harsh, and it's interesting to me that they would say it... but if they say that kinda stuff all the time, then I admit it's not so interesting!)

p sure Waititi and Boden know that their Marvel work is not the same as Mississippi Grind or Boy

Yep. Esp considering, based on anecdotal evidence, we can at least guess (at least for Boden/Fleck) there are chunks of the movie they flat out did not direct.

https://i.imgur.com/IVar7ME.jpg

I've been a Marvel Zombie since 1972, but Scorsese's not entirely wrong.

xp It’s still gotta sting a little!

Coppola is the exemplar of the "one for them, one for me" philosophy. He knows that taking a commissioned job doesn't necessarily say anything about a filmmaker's personal work.

that said, I'd hate to be the director on the end of this stinging rebuke from the big man:

"It was considered that I had made Apocalypse Now and I'm like a Marty Scorsese type of director, and here I am making this dumb Disney film with Robin Williams. But I was always happy to do any type of film."

oooohh, shots fired!

it is about superhumans and cartoon gods

this is mostly where the films fall a bit flat for me, i guess. they're mostly entertaining, i'm pretty deferential to them, and i consider at least Ragnarok to be some kind of masterpiece. but they don't really move me or really make me care that much.

"But I was always happy to do any type of film."

Worth noting he filed for bankruptcy three times between 1990 and 1992 thanks to taking risks on stuff like One From the Heart.

Francis Ford CaptainEO

(Again, before anyone gets butthurt, I hold Coppola in the highest esteem.)

(But also: Francis Jack Coppola)

Now he’s flush, cuz he added some wine to that cheese!

Why are we still litigating this?

These are popcorn flicks, do we care that Scorsese feels like they're not Ingmar Bergman flicks

That's an insult to popcorn flicks.

Not really

a popcorn flick is not such an ordeal

Hyperbole on overdrive

Bonnie and Clyde and Jaws and Psycho and Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park were all popcorn flicks.

The MCU is the middlebrow Oscarbait dreck of popcorn flicks.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

https://i.ibb.co/R4SBb8M/bored.gif

Bluish green is the greatest color on earth! Greenish blue on the other hand makes me projectile vom and anyone who likes it is literally satan, omg u guys

Sunrises fill me with joy! Sunsets otoh are like the goatse of the sky.

Netflix Originals:MCU::prestige TV:popcorn flicks

dang what does that make DC?

Vudu Originals