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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I thought the bit where Bruce just falls out of the ship without Hulking our was kind of dumb.
I think everything is fine, though.
Oh God! Natural light!Ragnarok has like <5 or so jokes that didn't really work for me, which I think is fine all things considered. It's probably my favorite MCU movie in terms of sheer fun and comedy, with only Got G 2 beating it out as a whole.
On my wave, passing oooooooonI'd argue that while the physical destruction of Asgard is the most immediately identifiable instance of undercutting a dramatic moment for the sake of a punchline, there's a lot of things in Ragnarok that just... don't really work.
The biggest thing for me is how the movie handles the death of the Warriors Three, because it is just... insulting. Some of my friends like to say "well, it doesn't matter, the Warriors Three were super-underdeveloped in the movies anyways", and just... then why even bother?!?
I know Feige said it was to hype up Hela, but that's totally unnecessary because we just saw her take on Thor and Loki together, shattering Mjolnir in the process. If we see a bad guy shatter Captain America's shield, you don't also need to kill Bucky and Falcon to get it across that they're a badass, that's implicit in shattering the unbreakable shield.
So what's the purpose? The Warriors Three as individuals don't have enough of an appearance across the films to really connect with them as characters, and it isn't necessary to hype up Hela because of that (because who really cares if she roflstomps three Asgardians who aren't Thor?), so that just leaves killing them to have an emotional impact on Thor. And that doesn't happen either. At no point does Thor ever find out that his best friends are dead, and Infinity War even seems to shift the position of Thor's best friend over to Heimdall instead per his conversation with Rocket. So for all intents and purposes, there seems to be no purpose for killing the Warriors Three other than just doing it.
Ragnarok in general feels, at least to me, like Taika Waititi caring too much about making a "fun" movie to worry about making a "Thor" movie, not only because he tosses out so many important elements to Thor but doesn't really seem to care about making the audience care that those things are gone. I honestly felt more for the breaking of Mjolnir than I did for the destruction of an entire planet, and it's frustrating because I don't have a problem with fun movies, but I do wish that a movie called "Ragnarok" had a little more gravitas and weight to it.
I'll also add that I don't think this ruins the previous Guardians movies in the same way that, say, the Harvey Weinstein reveal colors everything he's ever had a hand in. It's not like Peter Gunn was molesting people on-set or something. The headline is not "Zoe Saldana comes forward with horrible revelations about Gunn's behavior during shooting."
I'm glad he made the films that he did and I wish him the best of luck in the future. I just also completely understand and agree with Disney's decision to go, "Jesus Christ, those tweets are absolutely not the kind of thing we want to ever be associated with our brand."
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.![]()
I think people are more concerned with the precedent of Mike Cervonich being validated in any way. By itself the decision is understandable, although those tweets were public knowledge for years and if it was really a problem then they shouldn't have hired him to begin with.
I'm not particularly concerned about Gunn himself, both because it's understandable that actions have consequences and that directors who have done far worse still end up getting work even after being exposed.
Edited by Draghinazzo on Jul 22nd 2018 at 1:03:50 PM
frankly, I never think that what a director or actor did ruins any movie because movies are a group project and it is pretty likely that there are people who have done really sh... things involved in a lot of them, we usually just don't pay attention if it is some production Assistent or cutter or whatever.
There are cases in which the toxic point of view of a director or writer bleeds into a movie, but then the problem is the movie itself.
Anyway, none of this will change how I see the Got G movies...I think Disney should walk the middle ground there, sever ties with James Gunn in the eyes of the public, but acknowledge the contribution he made to the franchise in the eyes of the fans...and, if possible, use his draft for the third movie.
Honestly I am amazed Disney just NOW found out about the tweets laced with tasteless jokes (honestly I only laughed at the one tweet where its says “10 Girls Touching Themselves and provided a video link to a choir of ten girls singing to the song “I Touch Myself. James Gunn has an edgelord sense of humor, which really is reflected on how he got his start as a director (he did used to work for Troma, the same film company that gave us Trey Parker and Matt Stone). I am honestly surprise Disney even hired him the first place given how majority of his content isn’t family friendly.
I think Tobias Drake summed it up nicely. Gunn’s tweets are merely just jokes from the past that he most likely have moved away from since then, but Disney does have the right to fire him for such comments to ensure a potential PR nightmare wouldn’t hit them. Which is still a shame as now Got G Vol. 3 is without the guy that brought these characters to life and we won’t get the completed work of the director’s vision for this series.
Marvel Offers Grief Counseling at Comic-Con for Fans Traumatized by the End of Infinity War
https://io9.gizmodo.com/marvel-offers-grief-counseling-at-comic-con-for-fans-tr-1827781404
Has anyone noticed that Kevin Feige hasn't weighed in on the Gunn controversy at all? The fact that Alan Horn was the one who made the statement announcing Gunn's termination suggests that Marvel Studios may have wanted Gunn to stay since he would be crucial for Phase 3 but was overruled by Horn.
If that's the case, the chances of Feige quitting in the future just went way up, potentially putting the entire MCU in jeopardy.
No wonder Disney shareholders are panicking right now: they see Gunn's firing as the tip of the iceberg of a massive, unnecessary shakeup just to appease trolls. The fact that The Last Jedi failed to out-gross The Force Awakens seems to have convinced Disney to feed the trolls.
Edited by Mario1995 on Jul 23rd 2018 at 12:39:56 PM
"The devil's got all the good gear. What's God got? The Inspiral Carpets and nuns. Fuck that." - Liam GallagherKevin Feige won't weight into this. Hell, the guy has put up with Perlmutter for years without ever saying a word. So whatever he thinks, he will gloss over it.
Disney has given Feige all the freedom in the world, he will hardly quit because the company understandably has no interest in being connected to paedophilia. Feige is too much of a realist to see this as the worst problem he can have working as producer for a studio.
He will care once all the MCU stars threaten to quit or refuse to work for them. Already, Dave Bautista (Drax) has been making noise on Twitter about how bad the decision is and it's hard not to look at the tweets as a threat to quit. And if he quits, the other Guardians actors could follow.
Edited by Mario1995 on Jul 23rd 2018 at 12:51:49 PM
"The devil's got all the good gear. What's God got? The Inspiral Carpets and nuns. Fuck that." - Liam Gallagher
Again, unless Nicole Perlman can work out as a director, it's clear that something needs to be done, unless Peter Gunn thinks someone else should step in for his work as both to ease tensions and to have more self-reflection on his past deeds. And probably, encourage the actors to go easy on the new director.
It'd be nice if people weren't under threat of being fired over jokes from ten years ago, but I don't think threatening to quit would be the right way to handle this. If Disney is going to reverse their decision, it should be because they can see that this controversy was stirred up in bad faith, not because their stars are holding themselves ransom. I don't think it would work out well for anyone to make this into a pure business decision, or to stoke the controversy any further. That's exactly what the Cernoviches of the world would want, and would probably only serve to tarnish everyone involved. (More so.)
It's good to see the cast coming together and supporting Gunn, that speaks well of him and them. But making Disney into the bad guy here, turning it into a fight, that's just going to cause more harm. Like I said, James Gunn owning up is probably the best thing he can do. He seems genuinely contrite, and that helps his case. But given the subject matter, Disney reacted about the only way they were ever going to. I don't know if they can really change their mind about this while still being Disney, but they definitely aren't going to do anything right now, while this is still headline news.
Edited by Unsung on Jul 23rd 2018 at 5:28:05 AM
I don't know how much sway Ike Perlmutter has over the Movie department of Marvel these days, but keep in mind he's the president of Marvel and very conservative leaning. There's the possibility that he could've said something about James Gunn to Alan Horn to get him fired. Correct me if I'm wrong, however, as I don't know how much sway he has over the movie department anymore.
Power of Thor!A reminder, it wasn't just "bad jokes from a few years ago" it was "bad jokes which were about having sex with children (or the giving tree f.... a boy)", and those jokes weren't the result of some misspend youth or teen stupidity, they are from the mind of a supposedly grown up man. If James Gunn had joked about ANYHTING else, Disney would have most likely gone the "it was before he worked for us and just like we gave Roseanne Barr a second chance, we gave him a second chance" route, and everything would have been fine.
Edited by Swanpride on Jul 23rd 2018 at 11:25:54 AM

Also his other movies (Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, What We Do In The Shadows) have plenty of quiet, somber moments and emotional beats that are handled well. Especially in Boy, which I actually found really melancholy and sad. They also all center around family themes so he's a good fit for Guardians if he's interested. It's an if, though, because he's said that he wants to go back to doing smaller New Zealand films and I'm not sure he'd sign on to do 2 Marvel franchises which would take him away from that.