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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
  • While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
  • Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.

If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.

    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

BadWolf21 Since: May, 2010
#27576: Feb 22nd 2015 at 11:35:44 AM

Does Netflix even have to answer to the FCC? Because not even basic cable is answerable to them. The only reason basic cable censors anything is so they don't chase off their advertisers, which is why premium channels like HBO and Showtime can show extremely graphic violence and full frontal nudity; they're being paid by the people who subscribe to the channel, and if they don't like it, they'll just stop subscribing.

It's more likely that Netflix rates their shows themselves so that people are informed about what they're watching.

Wackd Since: May, 2009
#27577: Feb 22nd 2015 at 11:43:18 AM

Okay, so, I did a bit more research—using the FCC's TV Parental Guidelines is completely voluntary and used even by cable and digital content providers as a courtesy to the consumer. What show gets what rating is, in fact, decided internally by the content providers, which means it was a Netflix executive, not an FCC official, who decided Daredevil was TV-MA.

I was wrong, Bad Wolf is right, and I apologize for any confusion.

edited 22nd Feb '15 11:43:48 AM by Wackd

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
BadWolf21 Since: May, 2010
#27578: Feb 22nd 2015 at 12:52:01 PM

Most people don't know that. I don't remember why I do, actually. Might've been looking up why The Daily Show occasionally lets the word "shit" go by uncensored.

Also, Canadian network broadcast laws are a lot more like the UK's than the US's. Language isn't as strictly censored (the CBC actually has a show on right now called "Schitt's Creek", pronounced exactly how you think), and there's a watershed hour after which you can say pretty much whatever you want (I saw a Quebec-made police drama a little while ago on CTV, and they were dropping f-bombs all over the place, at 10 PM). You just wouldn't necessarily realize it because of the sheer amount of American programming we simulcast.

BadWolf21 Since: May, 2010
#27580: Feb 22nd 2015 at 1:07:00 PM

Why did TV Guide have a network?

Wackd Since: May, 2009
#27581: Feb 22nd 2015 at 2:29:52 PM

[up]There was a time when you couldn't just press a button and have a fully-navigable channel guide with every program on every station going forward weeks at a time. So the TV Guide Network was basically just a shittier version of that—a station that scrolled down the program listings an hour and a half at a time in blocks of like six networks. You'd have to wait for it to get to the channel you wanted. It was excruciating.

edited 22nd Feb '15 2:30:12 PM by Wackd

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#27582: Feb 22nd 2015 at 2:33:05 PM

god i remember that

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
BadWolf21 Since: May, 2010
#27583: Feb 22nd 2015 at 4:44:26 PM

No, I remember that. I just didn't realize it had a name. Or that TV Guide ran it.

LordofLore Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Consider his love an honor
#27584: Feb 22nd 2015 at 10:48:16 PM

The Oscar's are over. Best Makeup and Hairstyling Guardians of the Galaxy lost to The Grand Budapest Hotel, Best Visual Effects Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier lost to Interstellar but Best Animated Feature Film Big Hero 6 won!

edited 22nd Feb '15 10:48:31 PM by LordofLore

LDragon2 Since: Dec, 2011
#27585: Feb 22nd 2015 at 11:42:35 PM

Did anyone else notice that they were taking several potshots towards superhero films throughout the ceremony?

SonOfSharknado Love is Love is Love Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Love is Love is Love
#27586: Feb 23rd 2015 at 12:01:11 AM

I didn't even watch The Oscars because fuck you for not having LEGO movie

My various fanfics.
edvedd Darling. from At the boutique, dear. Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: We finish each other's sandwiches
Darling.
#27587: Feb 23rd 2015 at 12:03:02 AM

Eh, when you get to Oscar season everyone's all about the 'art' and stuff. Never mind that the big tentpoles are how they stay afloat the REST of the year.

Not to say that superhero movies have no artistic merit, of course. People wanted The Dark Knight in the Best Picture noms a few years ago, after all.

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project
Wackd Since: May, 2009
#27588: Feb 23rd 2015 at 12:15:00 AM

I stopped caring about the Oscars when I realized that the amount the voters actually have to watch any given film on the ballot was remarkably small, and that the people who comprise the voting party haven't had any of their assumptions about filmmaking challenged in decades.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#27589: Feb 23rd 2015 at 1:28:20 AM

I love Disney, but I don't think that Big Hero 6 should have won. Neither should HTTYD 2 won the Annies. I think the best animated movie of the last year was Song of the Seas. But then, I knew it was a long shot that they would give the price to movie with barely any buzz. I guess it is somewhat fair that one price went to Dream Works and the other to Disney.

TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#27590: Feb 23rd 2015 at 2:22:42 AM

According to Cracked, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is "a private club of 5,765 individuals. Membership is invitation-only, with said invitations extended by current members. Those current members are very, very old white males, and they extend new memberships to other old white males." Of the voting members, 77% are male, 54% are over 60 years old, 98% are over 40, the average age of voting members is 62, and 94% are white.

In summation, the Academy is filled to the brim with crotchety old guys who have long since been set in their ways and who almost always invite other crotchety old guys who also have long since been set in their ways, so that's probably why superhero films (and science fiction films in general) get shafted at the Oscars. They're a bunch of pretentious old men playing at running culture.

edited 23rd Feb '15 5:27:42 AM by TrashJack

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
cutewithoutthe Góðberit Norðling Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Star-crossed
Góðberit Norðling
#27591: Feb 23rd 2015 at 4:13:16 AM

Yes, crotchety old men, but then again I personally don't think any Marvel movies really deserved any awards anyway.

MousaThe14 Writer, Artist, Ignored from Northern Virginia Since: Jan, 2011 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Writer, Artist, Ignored
#27592: Feb 23rd 2015 at 4:36:45 AM

They haven't yet, except maybe Winter Soldier, but definitely not for visual effects.

The Blog The Art
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#27593: Feb 23rd 2015 at 5:24:12 AM

I think Winter soldier deserved the nominations (and should have gotten one for best picture, too, but not the win), but I see why other movies took the price. I wouldn't worry too much about the old men who judge the awards...after all, comic book movie fans don't stay young, either. Animated movies used to be considered too childish to warrant any attention at the Oscars aside from best score or best song. That changed, too, with time.

Heatth (X-Troper) Relationship Status: In Spades with myself
#27594: Feb 23rd 2015 at 5:26:49 AM

[up]There is a lot more wrong with the Oscar other than "my favorite films aren't awarded". The fact that super heroes movie fans may eventually become crotchety old guys enough to join the club doesn't mean the institution isn't flawed in its core.

As far I am concerned, the less attention is given to these guys, the better.

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#27595: Feb 23rd 2015 at 6:16:39 AM

Yeah this year just highlighted a lot of the problems with the Oscars. And I mean a lot.

Lionheart0 Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: I'm just a hunk-a, hunk-a burnin' love
#27596: Feb 23rd 2015 at 6:24:28 AM

Eh, when you get to Oscar season everyone's all about the 'art' and stuff. Never mind that the big tentpoles are how they stay afloat the REST of the year.

It's funny when you put it like that. During Oscar Season, Hollywood loves taking potshots at the "lesser films" but come May they're more than happy to market the films left and right.

edvedd Darling. from At the boutique, dear. Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: We finish each other's sandwiches
Darling.
#27597: Feb 23rd 2015 at 6:26:31 AM

Superheroes: They keep Hollywood afloat.

And Avengers 2 is going to keep Marvel VERY afloat.

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#27598: Feb 23rd 2015 at 9:36:44 AM

Let us wear baggy pants and play loud music in front of them. Whilst standing on their lawns!

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#27599: Feb 23rd 2015 at 1:09:07 PM

Someone asked PAGES ago what new properties we think Marvel will mine after Phase Three. Well, perhaps at that point they'll have more than enough characters to be making two or three successful films a year for a while, but it has got me thinking; what remaining properties offer a genre the other franchise don't?

I guess there are no real dystopia setting franchises in the MCU (which might look desirable considering how well Fox's Days of Future past went and their hypothetical Old Man Logan film)but I'm not sure which Marvel Property could give us that. (Why can I only think of travelling villains in the 616? Where are the heroes?

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#27600: Feb 23rd 2015 at 1:30:26 PM

The Punisher is a more or less unexplored genre (namely because previous attempts failed in one way or another). A a violent, R-Rated, Black Comedy "superhero" vengeance thriller would be a incredibly bold move for Marvel, and I'd normally say that's impossible, but given how far Marvel has gone, I wouldn't doubt they'll eventually venture in these uncharted territories.

As a matter of fact this may be part of their plan, to revive failed characters they acquired. Daredevil is getting "the Marvel treatment" in television realms after the fated Ben Affleck movie, Punisher and Ghost Rider are the other characters with similar backgrounds.

Maybe they plan on giving them "The Marvel treatment" as well at some point in the future (though I maintain my belief Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is the best Ghost Rider film I could ask for).

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

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