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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Yeah but considering the parents' importance, I highly doubt they'll "drop them all" at once like they did in the comics (even though some came back later - I think some got kicked out sooner right?). The acting from the kids is variable from one to the other, and I doubt they are strong enough at the moment to hold a show by themselves. Chase and Nico are good, but Alex and Molly...meh.
Here I am, praising the one white guy in the bunch. What has become of me?
Joke aside, in my opinion the main issue in Runaways can easily be understood: they wanted to expand the parents' roles because in the comics they mostly were flat, with a handful of exceptions, and many couples were dual characters (the Hayeses, the Minorus) with not many differences or disagreements. Problem is that they went too much in the opposite direction and now we are left with the kids who need more screentime (that wasn't an issue in the comics, and that's why people enjoyed them - they were a fully-fleshed, entertaining group of flawed and sometimes insufferable kids).
It can be fixed in the future. AOS got rid of the "episodic episodes" that didn't work, and focused on story arcs which were much better suited to its strengths.
But overall, the pacing and balance issues are becoming more frequent with cable/streaming services shows (funnily, Game of Thrones, the most prominent one, is actually getting better at pacing as of recently). The last three Netflix shows suffered from that (Luke Cage, The Defenders, and to a lesser degree The Punisher), while AOS is still featured on a "free channel" (I don't know what the name for those is) and its writers have to focus on the pacing if they don't want viewers to change channels during a break.
I think the Punisher was really good paced. Better than all the other Netflix shows by a mile. Yes, it started out a little bit slow, but that is okay, I am always ready to give a show four or five episodes for basic world building.
Though I might "feel" the length with Runaways more because it drops weekly instead of every at once. But I guess even then I would have been frustrated at this point because the show has STILL only fulfilled half of its premise.
Punisher filled the 13-episode count surprisingly well. I'd say it's the first since Daredevil's first season to not have a lopsided first or second half.
Though I suppose Defenders had the opposite issue of trying to cram itself into only eight episodes.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!The Defenders had a metric f*ckton of characters from disparate points in its universe, an overarching conflict that needed to be resolved, and absolutely no ideas for how to make these things intersect one another.
Really makes you appreciate how good a job the Avengers film did of seeming like a natural sequel to the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor film franchises simultaneously.
Honestly, I'd say the biggest thing that held Defenders back was the idea that it needed to be a team-up series at all. Instead of trying to be a team story, it should have embraced the idea of just being a crossover story; letting the characters go their own ways and pursue their own angles on the conflict, occasionally crossing narrative paths, but never putting all four of them together until the final climax.
edited 21st Dec '17 10:41:33 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I'm looking forward to season two now that they all know each other.
I'm also hoping they'll flip things around a little; the first season built on plot points established in Daredevil and Iron Fist, with Jessica Jones and Luke Cage basically getting confusedly dragged into mystic ninja shit that they were never trained for. I want season two to invert that, with Jessica Jones' and Luke Cage's second seasons setting up some kind of overarching plot (perhaps IGH?) that then Daredevil and Iron Fist get dragged into. Maybe bring back Nuke if he isn't already in JJ S2, and connect Dr. Burstein's medical custody of Diamondback to IGH too?
Also more interaction between the character pairs who didn't get much time together; Daredevil with Luke Cage (A lawyer and a man who has been subjected to intense courtroom injustice), and Jessica Jones with Iron Fist (PTSD buddies).
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!The Defenders' problem as a show is overthinking itself. They really didn't need to reframe the conflict nearly as much as it did. Seriously, if they'd just thrown the characters into the thick of things with one major fight scene an episode after the first two and plenty of dialogue between characters and they'd have been fine if the gist of the plot was simply "Find the Hand, break the Hand, one Finger at a time."
They could've just taken some advice from the directors of Daredevil's Vladimir episode (you know the one) on how to make scenes seem like there's a whole crowded city blowing up around you while barely showing any of it onscreen. This is where news clips and stock footage come in handy. Or look at Jessica Jones: Jessica has superstrength, but she's not a fighter, and the best fights of the season, against Nuke and Luke, she's injured, untrained, and holding herself back, and that shows.
Two long-ish fights— Murakami hunting the team/supporting cast and Sowande's pressure point duel with Luke— could've supported whole episodes on their own. Those could've each been very impressive sequences that increased the tension, made the Hand feel threatening again, and all without necessarily having to eat up a lot of casting or set budget or choreography time. There's a lot of that tension to be had in just waiting for the blow to land.
That's what I thought was so effective about the first three episodes, and about season 1 of Daredevil or Jessica Jones. Yes, sometimes they drag a bit, but the soap opera drama is at least as important as the fight scenes in these shows. You build up that anticipation, and the catharsis of the fight is huge even if the actual fight itself isn't overly impressive. Like, what do you really remember about Jessica Jones, her just punching things, or the season's cat-and-mouse game with Kilgrave, the various mini-heists she pulls to outsmart him?
Anyway, whatever else you do, you have to earn those fight scenes. And it's okay to take the time you need to do that.
edited 22nd Dec '17 1:46:38 AM by Unsung
I am already bothered with how overcomplicated it is to get the Defenders together at the same place. I mean, there is a giant earthquake and a woman on the radio claims that it wasn't natural. They could all investigate said earthquake and end up at the epicentre of it. But instead they do this overcomplicated story in which each of them investigates something else which just happens to be connected to the hand.
I know some people (*coughTobiascough*) won't agree with it, and I know it's a weird thing to want to change, but I wish Danny was the better at Hand-to-hand combat out of the four. Like, Iron Fist's thing in the comics is to be the best martial artist in the Marvel Universe. And I know that the MCU is the bitch-ass, watered-down version of the mainline universe, but it does make Danny the most useless person on the team.
My various fanfics.![]()
Agreed. Also, I like how each of their motivations ties into their characters, rather than it being just one generic reason.
The only reason I wouldn't want Shang Chi to show everybody up on Defenders is because I want him to have his own movie. With Marvel doing whatever the hell genre/superhero mix they want to these days, I wouldn't mind a bombastic Martial Arts Fantasy story up there at some point.
edited 21st Dec '17 11:49:09 PM by KnownUnknown
@Shang Chi. Huh. Really? Cool.
Did somebody, though? Could they not have been four cool people teaming up to do a cool thing? Like, I don't think anyone on The Avengers had to get designated "The useless one." Even Hawkeye shot Loki in the face.
I wouldn't have necessarily minded Danny being the best at kung fu. The whole 'blind ninja' thing is the most obvious part about Daredevil, but he's been outfought before. The real thing Matt brings to the team isn't that he's a natural leader or a preternaturally skilled fighter— it's just that he wants it more. He's got that iron will, that lets him take a beating well beyond what most people would be able to stand. He's the Man Without Fear.
The only problem with making Danny the best fighter is that Finn Jones...isn't. But he's getting better, so maybe that'll change.
The problem is that they don't portray Matt as a natural leader...I mean, there is some "telling" that he is, but what they actually show is that he is the most reluctant to work with the others not to mention that he constantly puts them in danger by withholding information from them or running out on them instead of sticking to the plan. Luke is a better leader than he is...actually, I think Jessica would be the best leader except that Jessica's self-destructive tendencies prevent her from reaching her full potential. But Matt is actually the worst of the bunch, Danny shows more leadership qualities than he does and that is saying something.
So, since it's pretty much a given that Marvel is going to do an MCU set reboot of the X-Men movies, I was wondering what characters you think should be in such a reboot?
When they rebooted Spider-Man, they went out of their way to avoid repeating stuff from any of the previous Spider-Man movies. Aside from Peter, Aunt May, and a vastly retooled Flash Thompson, no characters from any of the previous movies appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming. I doubt they'll go that far with the X-Men, if only because the larger number of X-Men movies and their Loads And Loads Of Characters nature means pretty much every popular X-Men character has gotten at least a cameo. Still, they could probably stand to give some of their mainstay characters a break.
Personally, I think they should definitely hold off on trying to introduce Magneto and Wolverine. Hugh Jackman played Wolverine for so long, and got such a good send off in Logan, that you're gonna want to let some time pass before you ask audiences to accept someone else in the role. As for Magneto, he's been the Big Bad of several movies already, and a tense, Enemy Mine ally in a couple more, to the point where it's hard to picture him having a major role in an X-Men reboot without the plot feeling like too much of a retread of what came before.
I think that Xavier needs a break or severely Demoted to Extra as his portrayal by Patrick Stewart and James Mc Avoy is so beloved by audience that it would be hard to top (although they can always bring back Stewart). Same story for Mystique (since audience grew tired with Jennifer Lawrence as her). The other X characters like Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Rogue, Storm, Kitty / Shadowcat and maybe Nightcrawler? should definately be focused. And bring Kelsey Grammer back as Beast.
edited 22nd Dec '17 11:46:48 AM by shatterstar
Master Mold maybe
Big robot that poops out smaller robots
Don't make it a government project or make it so the idea wasn't to kill all mutants and you're right as rain
Forever liveblogging the AvengersMagneto is the greatest X-Men antagonist (or antagonist, period) in Marvel's catalogue, so they shouldn't steer away from him too much if they want stories where villains are not once again interchangeable bad guys with various face paints. So far, the most disappointing X-Men movies where Magneto was present were those where he had no agenda of his own (Last Stand: Dark Phoenix' minion, Apocalypse: Apocalypse's minion). Every time he had his own plan, the movie worked, because he is a great grey villain.
Wolverine is a charismatic hero but Logan aside, his character was not driving plots, so with a good enough portrayal, his role can be taken by a number of other mutants. Magneto is kinda irreplaceable.
The best thing about Magneto is that he is such a layered character that you can honestly start a story without knowing if he'll end up a hero, a villain, or somewhere inbetween. He can be a schemer, but he can be equally as interesting hijacking a storyline and altering it just by the way he reacts to it. You can have a genuinely interesting Magneto movie that will endear viewers without whitewashing his character's flaws or having to tone down some of his traits.
One of the MCU's (the film part) most common issues was its forgettable or average villains with only a few exceptions (Loki is the undisputed best one, then Vulture and Zemo are good, but out of 15+ movies it's a small tally), now that they got the rights for their two best comic book villains (Magneto and Doom), it would be stupid on their part to ignore them.
Plus Magneto already had two faces, and while both portrayals were excellent, a third one would not feel that heretic to viewers who already lived through the Sir Ian -> Fassbender transition. Wolverine, however, is Hugh Jackman, and has to be one of the if no the most iconic portrayal of a superhero on film. You'll need time for people not to be utterly shocked to see his character played by someone else.
The problem is that the MCU tries to be realistic with its characters powers and power levels, so some entries on that list would be problematic. Telepathy, for example, is literally a writing headache, and so is teleportation, which means Jean Grey or Nightcrawler are risky entries - either you have to pit super big threats against them, or you have to cripple them somehow or invent a silly reason their powers are blocked, or they'll look like they grabbed the Idiot Ball.
There is a long list to pick from however. I'm partial to Dust and Prodigy.
And most importantly, the MCU better not touch The Gifted.
edited 22nd Dec '17 1:00:26 PM by Julep

The comics just contrived contrivances to keep bringing the parents back in one form or another
Forever liveblogging the Avengers