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.
Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Haven't seen Ant Man yet, but thought of something from some of the above posts- in Mightiest Heroes, Pym!Yellowjacket used a shrinking gun as a tool/weapon rather than shrinking himself. I wonder if that will come up in future films as a nonlethal application of some of Cross's tech.
edited 19th Jul '15 5:04:39 PM by Hodor2
![]()
I've changed my mind about Mad Jim Jaspers, actually. Back when it was stated Martin Freeman was supposed to be Prime Minister, I thought it might be possible, but since he's working for the US government, I think it's actually Everett K. Ross.
Also, Mad Jim Jaspers might be part of the characters owned by Fox - he first appeared in Captain Britain, but is most associated with X-Men characters.
The other obvious answer is he could just be a Composite Character. He sounds a lot like Gyrich but since they can't use him, he could be another character who is essentially an Expy of Gyrich.
Got back from seeing Ant-Man. Very good movie.
Quantum Realm was trippy as shit.
Is it wrong that I thought the death of Ant-ony was one of the saddest things in the whole MCU?
Also, this
sums up the final battle scene.
Quantum Realm was just the best.
Anthony died a hero. Never forget.
edited 19th Jul '15 8:56:19 PM by edvedd
Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau ProjectIs it weird that Frank's death by shrinking and goo-ification is playing on repeat in my head and is probably going to appear in my nightmares for the next few days?
edited 19th Jul '15 9:26:44 PM by TrashJack
"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's DictionaryOn the note of The Matrix and The Wachowskis on the previous page, I object to calling the characters boring and forgettable, but that's an entirely different story (I feel like The Matrix has gotten a lot of undeserved criticism as of late ever since that fricken Nostalgia Critic video).
Anyways, back on topic. Looking at the choice of directors Marvel chooses for their films, I noticed that they tend to go with ones that seem to best suit the tone and genre that the films have. Like, Joe Johnston was best known for old school style films like The Rocketeer, making him a perfect candidate for the first Captain America film. Kenneth Brannaugh is pretty much all Shakespeare with his works, making him suited to the first Thor. The Russo Siblings wanted to make a political thriller, which is exactly what The Winter Soldier was all about. James Gunn's offbeat and quirky way of filmmaking made him the perfect choice for Guardians of the Galaxy. Peyton Reed having a background in comedy and character interaction-driven films made him the likely choice to replace Edgar Wright for Ant-Man. And while I'm concerned about the choice for the writers, horror director Scott Derrickson is a fitting pick for the supernatural and magic themed Doctor Strange movie.
Basically, Marvel chooses the directors not based on previous pedigree, but on how well they do in their respective fields and genres. Note how most of the filmmakers didn't really have much in terms of previous experience or track record before this. You could argue that they do this so that they are less willing to object to the studio demands, but this could simply be that they see something in them, and want to allow them a chance to make a superhero film.
Compare that to DC/WB, where they seem to just be choosing based on who they feel had a really great track record before hand, not because they specialize in a genre. Granted, this can work out for the better (James Wan making Aquaman sounds great, as he made the transition from horror to action really well), but I'm not sure this will really differentiate the films in terms of tone and genre.
the only thing for me is that in spite of the differing genres most marvel films end up feeling similar and hitting familiar beats, almost as if there was some sort of "house style" of marvel moviemaking even though that's not reallly a thing. compare that to say, how batman 89 and the nolan trilogy have very distinct directorial styles to them that helped make them memorable (whether you like them or not you can't deny they stand out compared to other cape movies).
i'm not necessarily saying it's a bad thing (after all it does help make the mcu fairly consistent all-around), but it is something i noticed.
i think the most stylistically different films in the mcu so far would probably be gotg and winter soldier and that's part of why i really liked them.
edited 19th Jul '15 9:49:23 PM by wehrmacht
![]()
![]()
Even though Darren Cross is one of the less-developed villains like Ronan, him reducing Frank to goo and flushing him down the toilet was so horrid that at the end of the film I was grinning when you can hear him screaming in agony as his suit implodes around and crushes him.
edited 19th Jul '15 9:53:54 PM by Anomalocaris20
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
I like to think that Cross had a suit breach when his arm shrunk before the rest of him, and he was turned into human-goo like he did to Frank and the lamb (and perhaps others before them). But because he was shrunk down to the point he would enter the Quantum Realm/Microverse, time would lose all meaning for him and he would experience the whole thing in super-slow-mo for the rest of time.
The goo thing was an unexpectedly gruesome way for anyone or any small animal to go.
Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau ProjectIt's definitely one of the most unsettling ways to die in the MCU so far. Right up there with the other weapon capable of making a person implode into nothingness.
edited 19th Jul '15 11:06:35 PM by KnownUnknown
On a different note...we now had a political thriller, a space opera, a heist movie, a historical war movie, a monster movie...what kind of genre do we want to see Marvel tackle next? I guess they intend to go in the horror direction with Dr. Strange, and Spider-man is already confirmed to be a Teenager movie. But what about Black Panther? Captain Marvel? The Inhumans? Which genres should they fall into?
edited 20th Jul '15 3:08:47 AM by Swanpride

Yeah it's pretty much the same thing as calling the Cosmic Cube the Tesseract. They probably just thought it sounded less stupid.
Martin Freeman talks about his Civil War character
. He says the character is ambiguous within the moral framework, and that his job is to oversee and regulate superheroes for the government.