TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Go To

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

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#84301: Apr 7th 2018 at 5:58:18 PM

Star power used to be literally the only reason you'd need to go see a movie, but the film industry has evolved to the point that neither the company making it nor any one person working on it can sell a film by itself.

Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#84302: Apr 7th 2018 at 6:04:24 PM

To be honest I keep forgetting that the Venom movie is a thing that is happening, and I can't imagine I'm the only one.

TheAirman Brightness from The vicinity of an area adjacent to a location Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Historians will say we were good friends.
Brightness
#84303: Apr 7th 2018 at 6:50:33 PM

[up][up][up]Black Panther hit a billion before it opened in China. Star Power and hypothetical profits from China are irrelevant if you competently make something that people actually want.

edited 7th Apr '18 6:52:55 PM by TheAirman

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#84304: Apr 7th 2018 at 6:58:24 PM

I agree. I'm not sure how that's relevant to Venom though, given that it's a film few people want that seems to be banking on a star foreign markets will recognise.

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#84305: Apr 7th 2018 at 7:01:20 PM

It really is just sad how studios bank on foreign markets to prevent their bad movies from being total failures.

A movie people could not give a shit about here could be saved simply because the combined profits from 20 something nations add up enough to qualify it as a "success."

If it wasn't for China the last Transformers could have been a bull blown Box Office Bomb.

edited 7th Apr '18 7:01:51 PM by slimcoder

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#84306: Apr 7th 2018 at 8:33:39 PM

In the light of foreign markets giving Hollywood an excuse not to make films about LGBT characters, ongoing international political issues, or ghosts, I couldn't care less about the effect it has on star power in Hollywood.

Besides, I suspect with domestic theatre atendence deminishing, blockbuster films won't be able to afford star power much longer. Unless foreign markets continue to grow I guess.

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#84307: Apr 7th 2018 at 8:39:58 PM

The Mummy which was a bad movie was saved by Tom Cruises star power in foreign markets.

Pacific Rim: Uprising a recent bad movie & a prefect example of Hollywood's homogenization of films was saved relatively speaking by foreign markets though I'm not sure if star power was involved.

The heavy reliance on foreign markets actually has quite a negative effect on movies.

We all know why The Ancient One isn't Tibetan after all.

edited 7th Apr '18 8:42:05 PM by slimcoder

"I am Alpharius. This is a 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
#84308: Apr 7th 2018 at 8:41:50 PM

Dangit I was really hoping that Pacific Rim would be good

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#84309: Apr 7th 2018 at 8:49:41 PM

I mean, I don't think Hollywood is intending to make mediocre plots, it's just that international star power is saving some of the slip ups.

However, they're defiantly intending to avoid casting actors without star power (ie, why east Asian actors are struggling to make it big in Hollywood) and avoiding dealing with political issues (Tibet and LGBT).

Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#84310: Apr 7th 2018 at 8:57:54 PM

[up][up]I've been melodramatically announcing that Uprising is dead to me since I heard some of the spoilers. If I want to watch John Boyega fighting aliens (and let's be honest, who doesn't?), I'll just watch Attack The Block again.

[up]Maybe they're not trying to make mediocre plots or anything, but they're definitely trying to play it safe with a lot of major blockbusters. The bigger the budgets get, the more the effect gets exacerbated in an attempt to turn a profit.

Whowho Since: May, 2012
#84311: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:21:17 PM

True true. Maybe if they weren't spending so much on contracts film makers would be willing to take more risks.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#84312: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:37:57 PM

Is there any reason why Nat being attracted to the Hulk is sexist?

I mean, she thinks she's a monster, he's the most who struggles with inner darkness.

?

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Whowho Since: May, 2012
#84313: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:45:42 PM

I don't think the pairing is sexist so much as it's cliché and lacking the depth such a complex pairing requires. I think it would have been far more satisfying if it had been platonic.

The age and power difference and projecting between them would be fine and interesting if the movie let them actually discuss these things.

And a romance plot for Nat would have been fine if she wasn't at the time still the only female character in the Avengers, making it feel obligatory. Not to mention by that point Winter Soldier had been the only MCU film without a romance sub plot. Maybe Guardians if you're not squinting too hard.

edited 7th Apr '18 9:46:55 PM by Whowho

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.
#84314: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:48:05 PM

Guardians is a bit weird there - there's a pairing that's been teased, but one of them is not having it, and the narrative is more or less taking their side at the moment, so...I guess it counts?

Oh God! Natural light!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#84315: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:49:27 PM

Its not Cheers its that other thing that would have zero ratings

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#84316: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:51:11 PM

[up][up][up] There's that, but the larger problem in my eyes is the specific romance for her blows, was not really fleshed out or built up to properly, and is rife with Unfortunate Implications. It was very poorly conceived and very poorly executed.

edited 7th Apr '18 10:44:44 PM by Draghinazzo

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#84317: Apr 7th 2018 at 9:52:48 PM

I like the idea of a romance arc set up to fail but the writing lets it down.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#84318: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:42:43 PM

I think it's worth pointing out that while Doctor Strange's screenwriter suggested that the Ancient One not being Tibetan was due to concerns of being commercially barred from China, he later stated on Twitter that this was only speculation from him.

Additionally on the queer angle, the comic SQ Begin W/Your Name! was made and sold in China recently, about a romance between two girls, and does not appear to have garnered any censorship, from what I've read so far. (If anyone knows anymore about this case, let me know.)

What I'm saying is, while foreign censorship is sometimes a legitimate concern (Overwatch's Christmas comic being banned in Russia, for instance), so far it appears that Hollywood might be utilizing this claim of fear of censorship to stick by their old prejudices that they've always displayed. China itself seems to go back and forth on how hard it enforces its embargo. They even let "Coco" play there uncensored despite all the usual rejection of movies with ghosts.

edited 7th Apr '18 10:49:59 PM by Tuckerscreator

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#84319: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:44:52 PM

Wait, China bans ghosts?

That's simultaneously hilarious and disappointing.

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#84320: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:46:27 PM

Why do they ban ghosts?

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Ikedatakeshi Baby dango from singapore Since: Nov, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Baby dango
#84321: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:48:50 PM

Advocates superstition and heresy.

Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#84322: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:49:21 PM

Because your only god is the government. tongue

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#84323: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:50:51 PM

Well that's positively anal. tongue

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Mizerous Pet Owner from Hell Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: Brewing the love potion
Pet Owner
#84324: Apr 7th 2018 at 10:54:27 PM

But Doctor Strange is okay in China :V

Just Makima.
Ikedatakeshi Baby dango from singapore Since: Nov, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Baby dango
#84325: Apr 7th 2018 at 11:05:53 PM

They did erase any signs of Tibet for Doctor Strange.


Total posts: 186,763
Top