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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

Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#80001: Feb 7th 2018 at 6:28:05 AM

[up]There’s bound to be a contrarian.

Spinosegnosaurus77 Ramen Fairy from Ontario, Canada Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: All I Want for Christmas is a Girlfriend
Ramen Fairy
#80002: Feb 7th 2018 at 6:40:35 AM

Manohla Dargis from the New York Times already reviewed it, so A. O. Scott (who also works for the Times) probably won’t be the one to break the streak.

Peace is the only battle worth waging.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#80004: Feb 7th 2018 at 8:03:42 AM

The clapping is really creepy.....

JRads47 Since: Nov, 2014
#80005: Feb 7th 2018 at 9:23:36 AM

wild mass guessArmond White will give it 4.9wild mass guess

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#80006: Feb 7th 2018 at 9:23:40 AM

So I was reading reviews for Black Panther on RT... anyone else notice that of the 15 top critics, none of the 9 with pictures are black? Out of 35 critics overall with photos, only 4 are black.

Some of the non-photo critics could be black, but I just found it really jarring to see a sea of white faces for the reviews.

edited 7th Feb '18 9:24:00 AM by wisewillow

Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#80007: Feb 7th 2018 at 9:26:36 AM

I will need to find it again, but I recall there being an article talking about Rotten Tomatoes not being very diverse in its critic selection.

They’ve gotten better in some respects, such more frequent inclusion of Spanish-speaking reviewers, but like many things there’s still work to be done.

edited 7th Feb '18 9:26:56 AM by Tuckerscreator

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#80008: Feb 7th 2018 at 9:27:41 AM

[up][up] You do realize that Black's are only a little bit above 13% of the US population, right?

But now I am wondering...how does RT decide who is a top reviewer?

edited 7th Feb '18 9:27:55 AM by Swanpride

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#80009: Feb 7th 2018 at 9:32:36 AM

Black people, not blacks.

Yes. 4/35 is 11%; however, I suspect that none of the non-photo reviewers are black. If I’m right, then 4/67 is 5% (rather than googling thirty people, I’m guessing based on the names; obviously I could be wrong).

I’ll also note that when a film has great cultural significance, choice of reviewer matters. I’d rather not have 90% of the Lady Bird’s reviews be by men, or 90% of Moonlight’s reviews be by straight people. Cultural perspective is an important aspect of a good review.

edited 7th Feb '18 9:33:32 AM by wisewillow

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#80010: Feb 7th 2018 at 9:38:21 AM

How many top reviewers are black? If there's a small sample it doesn't surprise me few of the reviews are from black people.

Falrinn Since: Dec, 2014
#80011: Feb 7th 2018 at 10:29:32 AM

[up][up] From my understanding Rotten Tomatoes doesn't approve/disapprove individual reviews for individual movies, they approve/disapprove reviewers, who are then free to submit reviews for any movie they see fit.

And I'm not sure we want Rotten Tomatoes to get in the business of deciding who does and does not get to submit reviews for movies based on who better lines up with the target demographic. Perhaps they could do a better job at recruiting a more diverse range of critics, but I beyond that there's not a lot they can do.

But more specifically, to just not take the Rotten Tomatoes score as being anything other than a surface-level "Do a majority of critics approve or disapprove of this movie" thing, the more complexity that gets added the less useful it is for this purpose. If you want to see how people in a movie's target audience are reacting to the movie, then you should disregard the RT score entirely and look at individual reviews.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#80013: Feb 7th 2018 at 11:40:48 AM

Perhaps they could do a better job at recruiting a more diverse range of critics, but I beyond that there's not a lot they can do.

That’s all I’d be asking for. That they broaden their scope and try to recruit a broad range of critics across races/genders/orientations.

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#80014: Feb 7th 2018 at 12:01:57 PM

Re: Jessica Jones trailer: Oh, shit, are they literal about Jessica being "brought back from the dead"? Is she a Hand experiment too? Or a rival business also meddling with dragon bones?

And we all know whose hands those are clapping at the end.

edited 7th Feb '18 12:04:01 PM by Anomalocaris20

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#80015: Feb 7th 2018 at 12:39:18 PM

Is Typhoid Mary in Jessica Jones 2? There's a whole lot of fire in that trailer.

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#80016: Feb 7th 2018 at 12:41:16 PM

Yes she is.

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#80017: Feb 7th 2018 at 12:49:40 PM

Wow, I didn't expect that wild speculation to be correct. Good. I'm glad. I speculated for a while she'd make a good foil for Jessica.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#80018: Feb 7th 2018 at 1:09:25 PM

I am not sure how RT decides which reviewers they pick or not, but they seem to be partly go for the "serious" newspaper and entertainment outlets, which have a certain degree of professionalism. They have hardly any influence on how many minorities are hired for this very specific job.

Like with everything else, RT just reflects what is there.

edited 7th Feb '18 1:09:47 PM by Swanpride

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#80019: Feb 7th 2018 at 1:35:25 PM

RT decides the criteria for “Top Critics”; if they wanted to expand to more sources, they certainly could. There’s plenty of reputable, professional papers/magazines/websites they could add.

In other news, we’re down to 99%. Thanks, guy who claims that

Black Panther spirals into a stodgy tale of internecine feuding, in which T'Challa is required to come to terms with the sins of past generations. What he doesn't get to do much of is jump around beating-up bad guys.

This dude is entitled to his opinion, but that’s a very punchanble two sentences.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#80020: Feb 7th 2018 at 1:47:24 PM

[up] Honestly, what follows makes it even worse....

"What he doesn't get to do much of is jump around beating-up bad guys. That’s a shame. Marvel has finally given us an African superhero. The hope surely was that he would be allowed do superhoeroic things."

So apparently the main feature of a Superhero is that he has to punch things...

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#80021: Feb 7th 2018 at 1:55:17 PM

Also, apparently 3/5 is rotten? I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Edit: also, internecine is like a $50 word. And he is using it to complain about the movie being too complex.

edited 7th Feb '18 2:03:24 PM by wisewillow

Eagal Since: Apr, 2012
#80022: Feb 7th 2018 at 2:07:28 PM

59% or less according to the About page.

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#80023: Feb 7th 2018 at 2:10:33 PM

RT is a terrible system for deciding if a movie is good or not, and people put far too much stock in a number that tells you nothing about how well a given movie lines up with your personal tastes or interests.

If a lot of critics agree that a movie is good, it's going to have some merit, and don't get me wrong I'm very pleased that Black Panther sounds as good as it does, but I really hate the way RT boils down something so subjective to a percentage.

comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#80024: Feb 7th 2018 at 2:19:46 PM

That's probably the first time I've seen someone complain about a movie being too focused on character building and meaningful discussion and not enough on punching.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#80025: Feb 7th 2018 at 2:20:14 PM

[up][up][up] 3/5 = 60%... which is above 59%...

[down] 3/5 =.6 = 60%...

edited 7th Feb '18 2:23:40 PM by wisewillow


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