The Marvel/Sony Superhero Movies Thread

[Grouchy]

It still cracks me up that someone once considered hiring Lucrecia Martel for this. I guess anyone with a vagina had a chance.

[Dukefrukem]

[Skitch]

I dont think I know a damn thing about this property.

[Dukefrukem]

Eternals were created by Celestials. Eternals fight the Deviants. Deviants are a subclass of human, like the Eternals. That's all I really know.

[Irish]

I skimmed the wiki page, so of course I'm an expert now (cough cough).

This was originally a Kirby creation, and similar to "New Gods," cancelled before its time.

The characters occasionally showed up in other Marvel properties over the years. There was a reboot-ish thing some time back written by Neil Gaiman.

I think the trailer is weird. The awful, contradictory voiceover. The premise straight out of conspiracy theory (I can't believe they went with this in 2021). The largely TV based cast. The visuals riffed from a Malick movie.

Laughed at the closing call back, where the little kid makes sure everybody knows this takes place in the same universe as the Avengers.

But Marvel must be confident bc they spent $200 mil. Otoh, I don't see a broad audience appeal unless literally nothing else is happening in November.

[Skitch]

We keep waiting for a major stumble (financially) from the MCU, but they keep chugging along.

[Dukefrukem]

It's a bad year for Marvel with all the delays. Now instead of one new property they are introducing in a fiscal year, they have two. I suspect one will stumble (at least in the US).

[Irish]

I dunno if it'll stumble, or what even counts as a stumble these days. "Cars 3"? "Ant-man and the Wasp"? "Dr Strange"? "A Wrinkle in Time"? "Spider-man: Far From Home"?

But it's interesting Disney bet on an untested director, 2 unknown screenwriters, and an only moderately famous cast.

Usually when they float new characters, they put someone big and brassy in the lead. A known quantity. Someone who is an audience draw all by themselves. Or they establish the role in another film. Cf: the intros and ads around Brie Larson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman for their films.

I know this is only a teaser, but the lead isn't clear. Who's meant to be the draw? Ned Stark Jr and the Robot Chick?

There's an additional challenge around the advertising, which looks a helluva lot like every wannabe world-shaking YA series that's debuted on Amazon Prime and Netflix over the past 2-3 years. Like, even the YouTube thumbnail for the teaser looks generic.

[megladon8]

Robb Stark looks like my brother in law and it's all I can see.

[Grouchy]

At this point Marvel is a brand that can take people to theaters on its own. Guardians of the Galaxy also made it without any visible connection to previous movies or huge stars.

[megladon8]

At this point Marvel is a brand that can take people to theaters on its own. Guardians of the Galaxy also made it without any visible connection to previous movies or huge stars.

This is what I was going to say.

Marvel could sell Mars bars to Michelle Obama at this point.

[Irish]

That depends on how one defines made it, I guess.

"Iron Man 2" and "Thor: Ragnorok" had a similar domestic box office to "Guardians," but you'd never know that from the level of hype that surrounded, and still surrounds, Gunn's movie.

E.g.: "Captain Marvel" and "Iron Man 3" both topped "Guardian's" North American draw by $70-100 mil, but nobody thinks those 2 movies are somehow more popular. I mean ... this is a corporate culture where weak performers such as "Dr Strange" and "Ant-man" receive multiple sequels, box office returns be damned. So it's hard to say what people enjoy once you leave the social media bubble, the constant cycle that exists on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit.

Curious what will happen because covid derailed the hype train and it's unclear whether it'll get back on track by November. If it doesn't, then maybe we'll see a collective shrug, a "Tenet" style reaction. If it does, then no worries? All is as before.

[megladon8]

I most definitely think Marvel will never match the hype (and BO returns) they had with phases 1 through 3.

[Wryan]

I believe Hayek is the group's "leader" of sorts, but Gemma Chan is the movie's lead, from what I've heard.

[Wryan]

I can dig it, tho the movie is so disparate in timeline it looks like an anthology series. I like the weird Children of the Corn Village shit going on. I don't know exactly what the plot will be, but the premise doesn't strike me as straying too far from what usually happens when a given world has immortal watchers keeping tabs on things but not interfering Until They Have To. Kinda standard, I would say.

[Wryan]

They're definitely breaking the Star Trek rule tho. They better have excellent memory-wiping powers.

[Wryan]

Also Barry Keoghan is weird and delightfully fun to watch.

[Wryan]

"We have never interfered..."

*an Eternal whispers* "Tie a key to a kite and fly it in a thunderstorm lol."

[Ezee E]

I don't know about that one.... Looks like FilmTwitter's idea of good MCU...

[StuSmallz]

I most definitely think Marvel will never match the hype (and BO returns) they had with phases 1 through 3.

While there's no way to know for sure right now, that wouldn't surprise me; I mean, I definitely think they've built up more than enough of a track record of success to continue being successful for some time into the future (regardless of if their next batch of releases actually live up the hype to the general public or not), but I also wouldn't be surprised if Endgame turns out in retrospect to be not only the commercial peak of the MCU, but Superhero movies on the whole. I mean, I know it's hard to imagine Superhero movies not being one of the most dominant genres, since it's been that way for about the past 20 years now, but I think every type of film that experiences a particular surge of popularity eventually reaches a saturation point where audiences just begin to lose interest, and there was a time when it seemed as though Westerns, Musicals, and Historical Epics would all just continue to be the most popular genres in Hollywood for the foreseeable future, and looked at what happened to them, eh? Not saying I want that to happen to Superhero movies too, I just think that it's going to inevitably, and we might be at the start of such a downturn right now, as far as I can tell.

[transmogrifier]

Pass. Next.

[Dukefrukem]

I read the one thing that may set this film apart from the others, its Chloé Zhao convinced Feige that most of the shooting to be done on location. Which is something we really haven't seen in a MCU film.

Certainly looks like the case with a lot of natural lighting.

[Skitch]

That might be my biggest complaint of the MCU. Some of the set pieces are so obviously green screen stage. I really hope more productions start taking advantage of the Mandolorian setup because it looks soo much better.

[Dukefrukem]

That might be my biggest complaint of the MCU. Some of the set pieces are so obviously green screen stage. I really hope more productions start taking advantage of the Mandolorian setup because it looks soo much better.

Funny you should mention that

Thor: Love and Thunder will be doing that.

[Grouchy]

Mandalorian really gave us the best of both worlds with its visuals.

Finally watched the trailer, thrilled for the Robb Stark / Jon Snow family reunion.