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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.
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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

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#68426: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:26:43 PM

[up][nja]

edited 10th Apr '17 3:26:55 PM by Unsung

stingerbrg Since: Jun, 2009
#68427: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:28:37 PM

If they want to go with making it more like Guardians Of The Galaxy than Thor The Dark World or Civil War I'm all for it.

edited 10th Apr '17 3:28:53 PM by stingerbrg

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#68428: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:28:51 PM

Not every belligerent anti-shipper is a shipper of another stripe, either; some people just hate shipping.

<Suddenly feels the eyes of the entire internet on him>

.....

OH SHIT! WHAT'S THAT BEHIND YOU!?

<Flees>

One Strip! One Strip!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#68429: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:31:38 PM

Plus we all know the real winner is Amalgam

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#68430: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:32:54 PM

Hela looks like she's gonna be a keeper villain. I hope she's as great as she looks here.

DeathsApprentice The Ultimate Lifeform from The Ark Since: Aug, 2011 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
The Ultimate Lifeform
#68431: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:38:25 PM

I freaking love Hela already. She seems like she'll be awesome.

When we're done, there won't be anything left.
KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#68432: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:39:19 PM

Hmm, asking a movie to take it's premise seriously ends with being accused of wanting it grimdark (whatever that means), sounds about right.

I am surprised, the trailer did imply Ragnarok happens early whereas earlier reports suggested Thor is racing to stop it from happening. If the bulk of the movie is the gladiator fights then the subtitle would be off. Still, the laser title implies the games will be most of the movie. I am more interested in an After the End premise than just another Save The World concept.

AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#68433: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:41:56 PM

Nobody was saying that, though.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#68434: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:43:16 PM

Some guy got modded last page for telling off KJ.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#68435: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:43:59 PM

I'll confess that I was expecting something grimmer as well, but I think as soon as we saw Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster, it was clear that it would at least have some campiness.

And I'm okay with that. Hel, I'm thrilled.

edited 10th Apr '17 3:44:40 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#68436: Apr 10th 2017 at 3:44:28 PM

[up][up]

Oh yeah, that guy, forgot about him.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#68437: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:11:26 PM

I'll admit, I struggle with the MCU films and a number of other blockbusters because I feel the humor they use tends to deflate tension and make the movie rather more vapid than it needs to be. Instead of wondering how the hero is going to get out of the situation they seem to be having fun, and the action just becomes cool people doing cool things. As hilarious as "Puny God" was, it stopped the movie dead. "We know each other through work" is similar (at least as far as the trailer is concerned). When used well, humor can add to the tension and drama, such as Strange's "I have come to bargain" or Batman saying "Oh shit" when face to face with Doomsday.

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#68438: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:14:42 PM

That release of tension is the point, I'd say. Letting the audience relax a little with a joke is the difference between Jason Bourne and James Bond. I'd say that's more a matter of taste than a flaw in and of itself either way, though.

edited 10th Apr '17 4:15:20 PM by Unsung

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#68439: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:15:33 PM

The only MCU movies I feel have a serious problem with that are the Avengers ones - especially Age of Ultron - and as such they're something I tend to associate more with Whedon.

Most of the rest of them do a good job having the humor and the tone work hand in hand. The Iron Man movies are extremely comedic yet one of the few things every movie in that series does right is having the humor inform Tony's fragile and insincere mental state. And Ant-Man works perfectly with the humor, because it's intended to be a lighthearted madcap heist movie in the first place - imo, the sudden veering into a dramatic battle against a psychotic supervillain at the very end worked against it.

edited 10th Apr '17 4:16:39 PM by KnownUnknown

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#68440: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:18:50 PM

It can hypothetically be a problem

One of the things people say about Tom Baker's the Doctor Who is that his larger than life stage presence and quipping made him come off as invincible

Then again that made moments where he fought someone excessively dangerous like Sutek and seemed cowed even more frightening

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#68441: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:20:37 PM

[up][up] Well, as close as you can get to a dramatic battle with a giant Thomas the Tank Engine model.

> Why didn't they use Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin sooner? It's the perfect Viking song for crying out loud.

It might have been a licensing issue, I imagine it's not exactly cheap

As I understand it, Led Zeppelin is notoriously picky about licensing their songs. There's footage of the School Of Rock cast and a huge crowd of extras pleading the band to let them use Immigrant Song.

edited 10th Apr '17 4:21:15 PM by Pseudopartition

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#68442: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:21:29 PM

[up][up]I think the first movie had a better balance of humor vs. seriousness than the sequel. One of my major problems was making Ultron into a jokester made it extremely hard for me to take him seriously. A funny villain can still be menacing but I feel they leaned too hard on the "funny" side that time.

I would be interested to see how Hela is characterized. I could see dry humor working in doses.

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#68443: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:29:13 PM

Ultron's snideness didn't really mesh very well with some of the 'too young to know better' notes that kept coming up. It could've, maybe, but it didn't.

Similarly, making Doctor Strange an acid-tongued bully prior to his accident could have worked, but his ongoing snark and playfulness never really coalesced into what felt like a fully-formed character for me.

Whereas Chris Hemsworth seems a lot more complete playing Thor as a big lovable lug as opposed to earnest future king of his previous two movies, or the more, I dunno, jockish persona of the two Avengers movies.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#68444: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:29:34 PM

The problem wasn't that Ultron was a jokester, the problem was that he himself was a joke. I would have been fine with him being a wisecracker (as it makes him a good foil to Tony), as long as the movie gave him adequate gravitas to carry the film itself. The end result we actually got was a mess.

The movie repeatedly goes well out of its way to neuter moments where he is a threat, generally by making humor out of his attempts to succeed and emphasizing the heroes as being awesome all the way through, thus setting the tone early on that he has no real chance of winning and continuing to do so even while the final battle is going on.

He never gains ground whenever he actually faces the heroes, the plot says' rather than shows that he has power and influence, and heck, even given that they spend part of it sulking off the grid, the movie doesn't even really have a Darkest Hour in the real sense. None of the worse things he does - mind controlling Banner, kidnapping Widow, killing Quicksilver - put the Avengers any further from stopping Ultron from doing what he's doing, and he's one of those villains that's actually defeated well before the heroes actually put that final nail in the coffin.

He at least doesn't have it worse than HYDRA. Age of Ultron clearly didn't take them seriously as an antagonistic force at all. Strucker comes off as a total loser.

edited 10th Apr '17 4:34:55 PM by KnownUnknown

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#68445: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:33:18 PM

HYDRA is particularly bizarre because the post-credits scene of Winter Soldier implied Strucker to be a Magnificent Bastard mastermind. It creates quite the whiplash when you go to Age of Ultron and he's a joke.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#68446: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:37:03 PM

I wasn't a fan of GOTG, but I think that's less about execution of the tone and more the style of the jokes themselves being too fratboyish and toilet humor for my taste.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#68447: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:40:38 PM

Strucker is a total loser, especially as time continues to go on

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
dantecito Since: Dec, 2014
#68448: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:47:02 PM

Message deleted

edited 10th Apr '17 7:03:04 PM by dantecito

GAP Formerly G.G. from Who Knows? Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: In love with love
Formerly G.G.
#68449: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:49:34 PM

Joss is well known for witty dialogue and rapid fire humor but sometimes I wish Joss wuld just that tone it down a little bit.

"Mai waifu."
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#68450: Apr 10th 2017 at 4:52:31 PM

[up][up]What the hell is an Elliot Randolph? Also if I were you I wouldn't pay so much attention to the power level stuff. I get that it interests you but I think you read a little too much into it.

[up]The best review I read of AOU opened with saying "It's very Joss Whedon-y and whether you like that or not is gonna determine how much you like the movie."

edited 10th Apr '17 4:53:31 PM by comicwriter


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