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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

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#76451: Nov 9th 2017 at 3:22:37 PM

She's an example of a very unfortunate archetype that's often given to female villains, being a woman who becomes obsessively in love with the hero and then becomes insane and violent when he rejects her for someone else. Comics have a bad tendency to write female villains as having motives centered around men, and that's one of the most old-fashioned and cringeworthy character types out there.

It's also, even outside the gender role problems, a really stupid and two-dimensonal motivation to give someone who's supposed to be a major antagonist, especially if it's their primary or even only strong motivation (as it was with Nakia).

IIRC, she's then tortured and/or possibly raped into being even worse before resurfacing as an out-and-out supervillain. Which itself wouldn't fly well either. I agree that her joining Killmonger because she actually agrees with his cause despite her loyalties and love of T'Challa would be a far more engaging way to adapt the character.

edited 9th Nov '17 3:28:52 PM by KnownUnknown

TargetmasterJoe from Velocitron Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
#76452: Nov 10th 2017 at 9:32:23 AM

So, remember that report saying Disney might end up buying most of 21st Century Fox? Turns out it might still happen.

On a related note, I was right about The Simpsons making a joke about this development years in advance.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#76453: Nov 10th 2017 at 9:34:54 AM

Considering the number of predictions The Simpsons made of the years, they are bound to be right once in a while.

ComicFan Since: Sep, 2016
#76454: Nov 10th 2017 at 10:16:46 AM

Chadwick Boseman named the most popular US actor in China [1]. This should kill any worries of how Black Panther will perform overseas.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#76456: Nov 10th 2017 at 12:45:02 PM

@ Targetmaster Joe

What are the chances we can see the Simpsons show up in Kingdom Hearts then grin

[up] Looks pretty good. I'm slightly iffy on Molly the more I see of her because she looks as old as everyone else when I've always viewed her as The Baby of the Bunch, but that's just a personal gripe and I'm sure her actress will do just fine.

edited 10th Nov '17 12:51:31 PM by AlleyOop

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#76457: Nov 10th 2017 at 12:58:10 PM

Growth spurts, whaddya gonna do?

ComicFan Since: Sep, 2016
#76458: Nov 10th 2017 at 10:22:21 PM

There's been a few tweets saying that Stan Lee confirmed that Marvel is developing a Black Widow at supernova con. I remember when Stan Lee confirmed Doctor Strange and Black Panther movies, Marvel didn't announce them for at least 4 years.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#76459: Nov 10th 2017 at 10:34:02 PM

Stan Lee "confirms" lots of things. The extent to which he's actually in the know... varies.

edited 10th Nov '17 10:34:14 PM by KnownUnknown

Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#76460: Nov 10th 2017 at 11:10:41 PM

I find it hilarious that Marvel just uploaded this video and already disabled comments on it. [lol]

AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#76461: Nov 10th 2017 at 11:23:12 PM

Alright well, I've typed up a little review/ramble about Inhumans, given that it's finally ended. I'm gonna go ahead and post it but it's a long one:

Inhumans is one of those shows that only comes around every so often to be remembered with nothing but infamy and disgust. At its best it’s decent, nothing home to write about. At its worse (and it is often at its worse) it’s a train wreck. You can’t look away at it, you have to see it because it’s so awful to look at. In terms of even basic structure it falls on its face in a mad daze to rush everything out to the viewer, as if the writers didn’t know whether they would see a renewal so they had to force everything out at once, whether it made sense in terms of pacing or not.

The setting of Attilan is barely explored. They rush through it so much that there’s absolutely no point for one to care, the viewer is simply dropped into this cheap looking setting that looks like the crew simply rented a warehouse for a week and propped it full of plastic replicas of statues, sand, and leftover Agents of SHIELD props, and is expected to just understand it. At least Iron Fist eased the viewer in, Inhumans just dumps them in there and info dumps everything the audience needs to know. The refusal to do any flashbacks outside of the occasional useless ones to pad an episode out also hamper it, much like how Iron Fist suffered from lack of flashbacks to adequately explain things. Most of them don’t even have relevance, they just throw them there for the sake of acting like they’re adding info that we’ve already been told about, and the actors in there are wooden, stone faced children. The segues into the flashbacks are equally as bad, being abrupt and coming from out of nowhere most of the time.

The actors aren’t bad by any means. Anson Mount has the task of portraying Black Bolt through body language and he actually does a good job of it. Serinda Swan shows a lot of emotion as Medusa, and Iwan Rheon brings his all as Maximus. But the fault isn’t in the actors so much as in their characters being very poorly written. The main characters are a slave owning society of privileged jerks propagating a caste system built on whether or not one’s power is “good” or not, Maximus being bad because his Terrigenesis made him human and he resents being treated awfully for it. Yes, he’s not a good person, he’s ultimately proven to be incredibly selfish and petty, but I sympathize more with him than with any of the main characters because if anything he’s pitiable. He’s a child who wants status, and while he’s selfish and whiny he’s abused so much for being human that I have a lot more empathy towards him than I should.

Our leads are outright jerks at best and downright heinous at worst. Karnak and Crystal probably the worst of them all. Karnak is a manipulative shrew who is incredibly selfish and morally reprehensible, yet we’re supposed to sympathize with him. There’s one scene where he fights with an Inhuman named Mortis, who is basically discount Cyclops except he’s apparently so powerful they locked him up against his will. Karnak outright traumatizes him by bringing it up, acting like he’ll actually help him, and then knocks him unconscious while Mortis is freaking out. Crystal is a brat who talks down to everyone while acting like a huge bigot to anyone who’s human, and yet we’re supposed to sympathize with her. Gorgon is…just there, really. He’s just kind of around and any “development” he gets is barely existent.

Their “development” (or whatever pathetic excuse of development this is supposed to be) amounts to dropping them in Hawaii and having Karnak meet some pot dealers with a random flat female character who teaches him to “relax”, Crystal hanging with some farmer bro and his veterinarian ex-girlfriend that she treats awfully for no reason, and Gorgon meeting with some random Hawaiian surfers who also are militia men who fight with him because “Oh hey we both have kings!” or something. Not even joking, Gorgon immediately wins their loyalty by saying “I have a king” and them saying “We had a king too, then we became a state”. This is simply cheap ways of padding the show out to eight episodes, which is especially weird when they’re busy rushing through everything as well.

Furthermore, the cheapness is so obvious that it’s disgusting. In addition to the set pieces looking like Agents of SHIELD leftovers, the costumes are so cheap looking that once everyone is in a human costume, they look more natural. Clothing bought from a dollar store looked better than the comic book costumes. Gorgon is shot from the waist up for most of it because they have to hide that the actor isn’t wearing the character’s hooves, and even then they miss it so often that you can tell he’s just wearing sneakers and not any prosthetic goat hooves. Medusa’s hair is shaved off in the middle of the first episode solely to remove having to use CGI for her hair, so for the majority of the show she’s in a short butch haircut. Lockjaw is barely there and when he is there, he’s either immediately put out of commission or they hide anyone actually touching him because the CGI is practically see through. The show is even shot in Hawaii solely because of the cheapness in filming there, and it’s padded out with random slow-mo shots and flashbacks to keep an episode at a 44 minute runtime sans commercials.

There’s a lot else I could talk about. How Gorgon is killed off only to come back thanks to Karnak’s selfishness and he’s now rendered a violent gibbering mess (and of course it’s kind of insulting that the only black character is turned into a barely intelligible monster by the end). How they rush through the plot by randomly revealing that Triton, the one Inhuman who was openly killed off in the first episode, had faked his death because of some random plan by Black Bolt that was barely alluded to and only took relevance starting in the seventh episode. How the dialogue and the editing showcase the worst of Scott Buck’s traits. But overall, I feel less mad at the end and more just disappointed. This had promise to it, there were some little moments trying to break through of interesting ideas bogged down by horrible writing. At least Iron Fist, for however bad it got, had the Meachums behind it, but Maximus only feels like he’s an interesting villain in spite of the show’s problems. The show tries so hard to make the viewer hate him but yet the show’s intentions are in contrast to what is actually seen. It’s hard to root for the main characters when they’re trying to support a caste system of slaves.

In the end, this show did have potential, but it fell to the cheap antics of Ike Perlmutter and the outright incompetence of Scott Buck, creating a rushed out product that wasn’t even given a chance, all to heal one man’s bruised ego at Fox and their ownership of the X-Men’s film rights. I got more out of the entirety of Iron Fist than I got out of the entirety of Inhumans. This is, without a doubt, the worst thing Marvel has ever made in the entirety of the MCU. It’s awful. Simply awful. Long may it rot.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#76462: Nov 11th 2017 at 2:00:03 AM

Speaking of Agents of Shield:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PkEY2-E5-8

Holy sh... I have seen movie trailers which looked worse than this...I am ridiculously excited for the two hour finale. I have the feeling that it will be epic.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#76464: Nov 11th 2017 at 5:56:56 AM

I legitimately have no idea what that lizard thing is and I'm excited for it.

I do, however, recognize Ghost! It's Ghost! He's one of my favorite Iron Man villains, and I while I have lots of questions about where the team is and what's going on, I have nothing but pure hype to be seeing Ghost here.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#76465: Nov 11th 2017 at 6:00:18 AM

[up] Nor do I....and I don't care either. Nor do I know who you are blabbing about, but the Ao S interpretation will be its own thing anyway.

Honestly, the wait KILLS me.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#76466: Nov 11th 2017 at 6:03:23 AM

^.^ I'm just excited because I've been wanting him to show up on the show pretty much since its inception. He always struck me as a character who would be a perfect adversary for the low-power, high-espionage Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#76467: Nov 11th 2017 at 6:08:50 AM

[up][up]The man is allowed to be hyped for a comic book character he recognizes showing up.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#76468: Nov 11th 2017 at 6:11:53 AM

[up] I wasn't complaining about it? At least, this wasn't my intention....I just wanted to chime in how excited I am, too, without even knowing anything about a possible comic book nod. Sorry if that come out wrong.....

edited 11th Nov '17 6:12:15 AM by Swanpride

VeryMelon Since: Jul, 2011 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#76469: Nov 11th 2017 at 6:14:12 AM

It sounded like you were brushing him aside, but if that's not what happened then its cool.

LordVatek Not really a lord of anything Since: Sep, 2014
Not really a lord of anything
#76470: Nov 11th 2017 at 6:53:09 AM

I don't know who Ghost Is but he looks cool and reminds me of Star Craft so he's alright in my book.

This song needs more love.
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#76471: Nov 11th 2017 at 7:49:46 AM

Are we sure that's Ghost, given Ghost is supposed to be the villain of the Ant-Man sequel?

edited 11th Nov '17 7:49:58 AM by comicwriter

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#76472: Nov 11th 2017 at 7:57:10 AM

On second watch, it's probably not. I thought he was phasing through the glass, but on closer look, he's just passing through a section that's already smashed. Never mind.

Kinda looks like Xorn, but Marvel doesn't have the rights.

edited 11th Nov '17 7:57:21 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
TargetmasterJoe from Velocitron Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#76475: Nov 11th 2017 at 9:36:16 AM

In the comics, he would later become the Totally Awesome Hulk when Marvel rebooted their universe.

It so weird to see the reboot narrative still going around.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

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