#and with the mcu relying on nostalgia…

[it-meant-nothing]

I wonder how the fandom would react if… the MCU brings back Evan Peters and Michael Fassbender as Quicksilver and Magneto again… and then finally make them father and son… only for them to have the same unhealthy —fucking dysfunctional— relationship that they have in the comics.

Me personally I’d die but that’s just me ig—

[evansbby]

BUT THE TRUTH IS

[perseidlion]

Streaming in Kaos

Well, it happened. I can't say that I'm surprised that KAOS has been cancelled by Netflix. I am a little surprised at the speed at which it was axed. Only a month after it aired, and it's already gone.

That has me wondering if the decision to cancel was made before the show even aired. We have to remember that marketing is the biggest cost after production. If the Netflix brass looked at the show and either decided (through audience testing, AI stuff or just their own biases) that it wasn't going to be a Stranger Things-level hit, they probably chose at that moment to slash its marketing budget.

That meant there was pretty much no way that KAOS was ever going to hit the metrics Netflix required of it to get a season 2.

What makes me so angry about this (other than the survival of a show relying on peoples' biases or AI) is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you decide before a show is ever going to air that it won't be a success, then it probably won't be. If you rely on metrics and algorithms and AI to analyze art, you will never let something surprise you. You'll never let it grow. You'll never nurture the cult hits of the future or the next franchise.

Netflix desperately needs people behind the scenes that believe in stories and potential over metrics. Nothing except the same old predictable dreck is ever going to be allowed to survive if you don't believe in the stories you're telling.

The networks and streamers have a huge problem on their hands. They need big hits and to build the franchises of the future to sustain their current model (which is horribly broken.) But people have franchise fatigue and aren't showing up for known IPs like they used to. The fact that Marvel content is definitely not a sure thing anymore is a huge canary in the coal mine for franchise fatigue. People aren't just tired of Marvel, they're tired of the existing worlds both on the big screen and the small one. Audiences are hungry for something new.

It is telling that the most successful Marvel properties of the last few years have been the ones that do something different. Marvel is smart to finally pull out The X-Men because that is a breath of fresh air and something people are hungry to see more of.

There's pretty much no one behind the scenes (except for maybe AMC building The Immortal Universe) that is committing to really taking the time to build these new worlds. Marvel built the MCU by playing the long game. That paid dividends for a solid decade even if it's dropping off now. That empire was built not with nostalgia for existing IP (don't forget the MCU was built with B and C tier heroes) but with patience. Marvel itself seems to have forgotten this in recent years.

Aside from that, I think people really want stories that aren't connected to a billion other things. That takes commitment on the part of the audience to follow and to get attached to. People WANT three to five excellent seasons of a show that tells its own story and isn't leaving threads out there for a dozen spinoffs. We're craving tight storytelling.

KAOS could have been that. Dead Boy Detectives could have been that. So could Our Flag Means Death, Lockwood and Co, Shadow and Bone, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Willow, and a dozen other shows with great potential or were excellent out of the gate.

If you look at past metrics, you only learn what people used to like, not what they want now. People are notoriously bad about articulating what they want, but boy do they know it when they see it. Networks have to go back to having a dozen moderate successes instead of constantly churning through one-season shows that get axed and pissing off the people who did like it in a hamfisted attempt to stumble on the next big thing.

The networks desperately need to go back to believing in their shows. Instead, they keep cutting them off at the knees before they ever get a chance because some algorithm told them the numbers weren't there.

[burst-of-iridescent]

well since i can already tell that we’re all going to be subjected to the same old tired mai & mai.ko discourse for the foreseeable future, let’s get it clear right now that the atla comics have never been, and will never be acceptable mediums of character development, and here’s why:

1. the comics are given the benefit of hindsight, which impairs organic character growth.

it’s become extremely clear over the last few years that many of the comics are made as, or include, direct responses to criticisms of the original show — especially when it comes to katara, mai, and the canon pairings. aang didn’t ask katara for consent? look, he’s checking if he can kiss her! mai doesn’t care about fire nation imperialism? here, she’s an anti fascist! iroh was a creep to june? don’t worry, here he is apologising!

many of the things the characters do or say in the comics feel unnatural because they are not written as characters, but as mouthpieces for the creators to address fandom complaints from the original show.

“but that’s good, right? they’re trying to make it better!” i mean… sure? it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s damage control, and that no matter what stories span the middle, the arcs of these characters still begin and end with avatar: the last airbender, and the legend of korra, both of which are fixed and immutable. the comics cannot retroactively fix the issues of either show, because they’ve already been defined as the goalposts of the characters’ lives, and there is no way to undo that.

it’s like if you eat a meal that isn’t to your satisfaction, and maybe the chief makes you another dish, which is all well and good — but it doesn’t fix the fact that the original meal still sucked! sometimes, accepting criticism means accepting that there’s no way to go back and fix it but to do better next time, with the next story you wish to tell.

if the legend of korra didn’t exist, and the arcs of the characters were left open after atla, then maybe there would be for the room for the comics to function as character development if not for the fact that…

2. the comics are intended for a very different audience than the show.

it’s obvious that the audience for the original show vastly outnumbers the audience for the comics, likely by thousands, if not millions. this isn’t the mcu, where the installation of any atla property is vital to understanding the next, and so on. you can skip the comics and miss nothing whatsoever (and honestly your life would be far improved by doing so).

those who read the comics are likely only the real diehard fans of the show — and the creators know this, which is why we have the whole issue of point one above. but this difference in audience matters, because it reflects the significance of the story being told, and how important it is for the audience to know it. this is why, if the characters’ development and storylines in the comics truly, genuinely mattered, it would have been in the show already.

i’m not saying that the gaang wouldn’t have continued to grow and change post-atla, but generally stories exist as closed circuits, self-contained within themselves. when you end atla, you’re meant to believe that those arcs are finished. that’s the whole reason the comics deal mostly with fun silly adventures, or with quick, temporary conflicts instead of grand, overarching narratives, because they are not truly meant to function as a continuation of the story of atla, or its characters.

(if you ask me frankly, they’re meant to be nostalgia cash grabs, but that’s neither here nor there.)

creator intention matters with the atla comics (or any atla property, in fact), because creator intention was the subject of criticism for the original show in the first place. why must we rely on the comics or the cookbook or avatar legends to tell us that katara did things with her life outside of aang? why do we need to turn to something released nearly two decades after atla to find any evidence that mai denounced the fire nation’s imperialist indoctrination, when she’s romantically involved with one of the show’s most important characters? why are these stories relegated to a medium with far less reach, far too late?

the answer is that the writers didn’t find those stories to be originally worth telling, and that is the real problem fans have been pointing out since 2008.

so, tldr:

[nomadicism]

What are your thoughts on the live action Voltron movie? Personally, I'm not super excited for it for a bunch of reasons. Not even my love for Henry Cavill will get me to change my mind.

Great question!

I gotta say, I had zero interest until Henry Cavill was announced. I still can’t really see it actually getting made though.

If it actually gets made, I expect that I won’t be the target audience. While I enjoy the DotU story, I’m much more into Vehicle Voltron. Lion Voltron relies upon some tropes that were fine for the times, but that I think are too played out by now. If it were a tv series, then the story would have time to breathe and to develop characters, so the tropes would be less annoying to me (again I won’t be target audience, maybe other people would enjoy it just fine). Not gonna get that kinda development for a large cast in a film. It’s not like they have the luxury of the MCU.

So I expect the film to be focused on Keith and will probably aim for nostalgia and try to be edgy for any older audience. The story would be simplified to make it work in a film. Probably gonna feel hollow. In a series, you have time to develop more than one character. The story might well be decent, but it won’t have the depth (such as it was) of the series. It’s totally gonna be the Keith show.

I don’t expect them to try for a younger (child/yourh) audience, because no producer is going to front the money for that. The IP is too old for today’s child/youth audience in the US. They could go youth if they went for a Power Rangers vibe (which would be easy to do because Voltron is cut from the sentai cloth). I doubt that will happen.

Maybe they can do “action dude assembles a heist team” kinda vibe. They need to make sure that the CG doesn’t suck, because if it does then that will sink any future hopes for the IP.

Anyway, I hope to be surprised, but I can think of only a few directors who could do something worthwhile and interesting with the IP, and they are all very busy being awesome and in demand. Thus, my expectations are low.

[ordinaryschmuck]

I think the reason why you often see more game/show/movie announcements for a random Marvel character you never heard of where DC primarily focuses on Batman and Batman related characters is because...Marvel built more trust with the obscure.

All the way back when they started the MCU, Marvel didn't have the rights to its more iconic, recognizable, and, more important, marketable characters. Spider-Man went to Sony, X-Men and Fantastic Four went to Fox, and even the Hulk was technically owned Universal. By the time the MCU was being conceived, Marvel only had its C-listers and D-listers. No one even HEARD of characters like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and ESPECIALLY the Guardians of the Galaxy before the MCU. Even characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, characters considered Marvel's big three nowadays, characters who the MCU relied on, weren't as huge as DC's big three. Meanwhile, DC had access to ALL of its characters, relying on its most recognizable IPs like Batman and Superman...And, oh yeah, I guess Wonder Woman was there too...Sometimes.

But the biggest seller was always Batman. Because how could he not be? He looked cool, he had an impressive rogues gallery to make toys of, and is everything for DC as Spider-Man was to Marvel. Both Batman and Spider-Man could sell anything. But Marvel technically didn't have the FULL rights to Spider-Man and DC...didn't bother with its other characters. Batman made bank with his videogames, movies, and TV shows to the point where they could sell a Gotham prequel series to Fox and STILL make a lot of cash. Why bother making a movie about Aquaman or The Flash when it likely won't sell as well as BATMAN. Sure, you got a Green Arrow TV show on the same network as a Superman prequel series, but that didn't change how most of DC's other projects weren't connected to Batman in someway.

Teen Titans was a show that starred Robin, Batman's sidekick. Same with Young Justice. And the only time kids got introduced to other DC characters, it was for a campy show like Batman: The Brave and the Bold where BATMAN teamed up with a hero a week. Which would have been a smart way to bring other characters into the light, but it's still connected strictly through BATMAN. Even now, DC has what is best described as a Batman problem. The Flash was a movie that featured two versions of Batman, one of them bringing in nostalgia through a past Batman movie instead of focusing on an old Flash product. And with the last few years, the only video games were Batman related, with Gotham Knights starring Batman's sidekicks and that Suicide Squad game starring Harley Quinn, a BATMAN villain who goes to kill BATMAN that's actually the same BATMAN from an old BATMAN game.

And yeah...I love Batman. We ALL love Batman. He's the coolest character ever conceived and it's the easiest thing in the world to make a movie about him. It might not be a GOOD movie sometimes, but it's at least a movie that'll make billions. But with this over-saturation of Batman, it left DC unsure if they can make anything big WITHOUT him. Because how can they be sure it'll succeed without their signature character that gave them a shitload of money?

But let's go back to Marvel. Starting a cinematic universe without their most popular IPs was a risk. They SORT of had the rights to the Hulk, but...there was no way Hulk would have made more money than a Spider-Man movie. If they wanted to make a successful franchise, Marvel had to put more faith in its other characters, allowing to make good movies and hope that enough people would be interested to see more. And...it worked. Iron Man was a hit, Thor and Captain America got people interest, and the big pay off was the box office smash that was The Avengers. Everyone started to know these characters and it didn't stop there. Guardians of the Galaxy became popular enough to be another big franchise for Marvel, Black Panther became the most popular Black superhero after Blade (another Marvel character), and people were left BEGGING for Spider-Man and the X-Men to join this universe so they could see their old favorites interact with their NEW favorites. And that just...never stopped. Marvel kept pushing more and more characters to the spotlight, with it paying it off for them.

Before 2014, NO ONE would consider buying a Guardians of the Galaxy game. But due to the MCU's revamping of those characters, it was enough to make people willing to do so. And in a few years, we're getting games based on Iron Man, Captain America and Black Panther, and JUST Black Panther, all because the Marvel had enough faith to turn this C-listers into A-listers. As for TV shows, we've got connected MCU stuff like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, but also a really good and imaginative cartoon with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Now, to be fair, it's not paying off for Marvel, especially with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels causing the studio to lose bank. They're even thinking about cutting back on riskier stuff and focusing on their bigger franchises. Which...honestly sounds dumb to me not only because the MCU was founded on taking risks, but also because DC is exactly what you get when you focus on JUST the money makers. We're still getting nothing but Batman and Batman related characters or movies/universes that references nothing but Batman. To the point where I just want DC to retire Batman for a year, maybe TWO tops. Marvel proved that you can make a hit if you let other characters than the most marketable one. Even if it fails like The Marvels did, it's not because Captain Marvel isn't as iconic as Iron Man, it's because the movie wasn't as well-written enough. It was a fun time, sure, but not as strongly written as other MCU films. And that's what DC needs to learn and Marvel to remember: It's not about who's the most popular, it's about strong writing.

Hopefully we get more attention on lesser-known Marvel and DC characters in the future.

[csolarstorm]

RDJ as Doctor Doom: More Thoughts

So even though I think casting RDJ as Victor Von Doom was the wrong move, I should still clarify that I'm still looking forward to it. It's a very interesting choice. Rather than just bringing back Iron Man, they are trying something new with RDJ, which makes it seem a bit less desperate or forced.

The biggest problem of course is that with RDJ as Doom, they pretty much can't give Doom the screen time he deserves. RDJ is too expensive to keep around past Secret Wars. And any version of Doom that lasts past the reboot will be overshadowed by RDJ.

But I think I have a solution to this. They should do what they did with Spider-man. In No Way Home, they used a climactic multiversal event to establish the MCU Spider-Man's new origin story. In this timeline, it is Aunt May who dies after giving Peter the "with great responsibility line'. The entirety of Doomsday and Secret Wars should BE Doom's origin story.

A lot of people think it's unlikely that RDJ will always wear the mask like Doom, because otherwise why pay for RDJ's face? Half the budget of the movie wouldn't be worth a few face reveals and some voice acting and gestures. Plus the whole Toby Stark gimmick relies on the old Avengers characters regularly seeing Stark's face when they look at Doom.

And even though RDJ did say "new mask, same task" that's probably a reference to new armor. Victor Von Doom has taken the Iron Man role several times. But armor comes off all the time - not like Doom's mask.

So, here's what should happen. When this Victor Von Doom arrives to cause trouble, he has an armor suit eerily similar to Tony Stark's, only it's green and the mask resembles Doom's traditional mask. Only, this Doom takes it off whenever he's not fighting. Seeing Stark's face shocks the Avengers, and we have all the necessary character moments with Peter Park, Bruce Banner, etc. In fact, this Doom can be all about his relationship with the Avengers. There's no need to worry about establishing a rivalry with Reed Richards until the end of Secret Wars.

Because at the end of Secret Wars, it's Reed Richards who will somehow defeat Doom, and in the process he'll disfigure his face, causing Doom to wear the mask from his armor to hide his shame. Perhaps the mask even gets fused to his face - or even the whole armor gets fused to his body, and he wears the green cloak over to hide it out of embarassment. And this is what starts the rivalry between Victor Von Doom and Reed Richards.

And after that, with Doom no longer showing his face - they can easily hire someone else to play him after Secret Wars. It even provides a reason for his voice to sound different. Doom will have plenty of time to antagonize Reed Richards in Fantastic Four 2 and 3, and in this scenario they can keep the character around as long as they want as long as they just keep switching out actors under the mask. He could be the new Loki.

If they go this route, I think it might be the best of both worlds: cash out on nostalgia AND develop popular new characters that can sustain the future of the franchise.

Or they just kill him off after Secret Wars and leave future movies to deal with the lack of Fantastic Four's archnemesis. Either way.

[destinyc1020]

We have to remember that many of the Phase 4 MCU movies severely underperformed, with just NWH, MOM and GOG3 being successful. The Marvels just made $206M globally despite being the sequel to Captain Marvel which made more than $1B. That performance means that Disney shareholders were coming for Feige's neck and he had to pick nice and reliable nostalgia to bring back the Marvel fans. NWH, MOM and Deadpool 3 are all nostalgia fests with little interest in developing the wider MCU story. At least there's a link between Tony Stark and Victor von Doom as brilliant scientists and inventors. So Dr Doom can be seen as a Stark variant in which Tony uses his intelligence for evil. Avengers Age of Ultron showed how a Tony creation almost destroyed the world. Initially Dr Doom was not evil, but he started making choices that turned him into a villain.

Still I'm a little sad that the MCU has to rely so much on nostalgia. I still think that NWH would have been stronger with a more grounded story that explored the consequences of Peter having his identity revealed and being accused of being a terrorist. The government hiring Kraven as a bounty hunter to apprehend Peter "dead or alive" would have been brilliant. Instead we got nonsensical magic spells that contradict the logic presented in MOM and an irresponsible Peter almost destroying the universe to get his friends to their preferred university. But the logical grounded story would not have made $2B at the box office

We have to remember that many of the Phase 4 MCU movies severely underperformed, with just NWH, MOM and GOG3 being successful.

ONLY those 3 films in Marvel's Phase 4 were successful Anon? 🥴

Lawwwd... the "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" erasure!! 😩😭

Anyway....

The Marvels just made $206M globally despite being the sequel to Captain Marvel which made more than $1B. That performance means that Disney shareholders were coming for Feige's neck and he had to pick nice and reliable nostalgia to bring back the Marvel fans. NWH, MOM and Deadpool 3 are all nostalgia fests with little interest in developing the wider MCU story.

Chiiiiilllle....I know Kevin Feige was ducking and diving rofl 🤣

At least there's a link between Tony Stark and Victor von Doom as brilliant scientists and inventors. So Dr Doom can be seen as a Stark variant in which Tony uses his intelligence for evil. Avengers Age of Ultron showed how a Tony creation almost destroyed the world. Initially Dr Doom was not evil, but he started making choices that turned him into a villain.

I'm listening..... 👂🏾

Still I'm a little sad that the MCU has to rely so much on nostalgia.

Same 😔

I still think that NWH would have been stronger with a more grounded story that explored the consequences of Peter having his identity revealed and being accused of being a terrorist. The government hiring Kraven as a bounty hunter to apprehend Peter "dead or alive" would have been brilliant. Instead we got nonsensical magic spells that contradict the logic presented in MOM and an irresponsible Peter almost destroying the universe to get his friends to their preferred university. But the logical grounded story would not have made $2B at the box office

Yeeeeaaaaa.... the plot could have been a little better in NWH, but it was def realistic? 🤷🏾‍♀️ Plus, they wouldn't have been able to bring Andrew and Tobey back lol.

I do feel that some of the reason why NWH made so much money is due to nostalgia and the fact that they brought back the old-school villains from PREVIOUS Sony Spiderman franchise films, AND because they brought back Tobey and Andrew.... which, c'mon.... who didn't have a feeling that they were coming back?? 😏 There were rumors for over a year! 🤣

If Marvel goes with your "variant" Tony Stark" storyline, then maaaaayyyybeee I can sorta see it working out. Otherwise, they'd have to explain that. 👀

Even if they used prosthetics to change RDJ's face, I'd still need him to SEVERELY change his voice smthg drastic or smthg 🤣, coz all I'd be hearing is Tony Stark/Ironman in my head. 😩

He played that character for like 10 years! 🥴 He (and his voice) is forever associated with it. 🤷🏾‍♀️

He would have to do a voice synthesizer like Darth Vader or smthg rofl 🤣

[courtneysmovieblog]

"Deadpool and Wolverine": Both a love letter and a middle finger to Fox/MCU

We all knew Hugh Jackman's retirement from Wolverine wouldn't last. Both he and Ryan Reynolds still needed to properly atone for the trainwreck that was X-Men: Origins. It took years and a buyout from Disney, but we finally got the teamup we've been all waiting for in Deadpool and Wolverine.

I kept away from spoilers for nearly a week. It nearly killed me, but it was worth it. Now I'm going to do the same and say as little about the plot as possible.

Within the first 10 minutes, it's obvious that Deadpool is more irreverent than ever. Nothing is sacred--and I mean nothing. No Disney paycheck is going to keep him from calling out the MCU on all its crap, and the mess the Fox movies left behind. For those still grieving over all the OC Marvel movies that were rebooted, abandoned, or simply a hot mess, you finally get some closure. Or at least some acknowledgement--Kevin Feige will never admit when he's wrong, but he is willing to mock some mistakes.

And, oh, it was so to see Jackman as the hard-drinking, hot-tempered badass that is Logan/Wolverine. Since him and Reynolds have been taking the piss out of each other throughout the whole promotional tour, you won't be shocked that some meta jokes take potshots at his other projects and personal life. And Jackman gives it right back, because Logan hasn't got any time for Wade's crap.

The fights are amazing. The soundtrack is perfection. Emma Corrin makes an fantastic Cassandra Nova. And the cameos elevate beyond mere fanservice.

Critics have dismissed the movie as relying heavily on nostalgia instead of actual character development. Well, gosh, Avengers Endgame did the exact same thing. Deadpool and Wolverine is at least honest about it -- and it still has more character development than that half-assed overrated finale.

I don't know if this will be the last we see of either Deadpool or Wolverine, but I sure hope not. Those two are just too much, both on-screen and off-screen.

9 out of 10

[therevray]

I've been kinda busy working on my own short rn, but I also know if I rant about that new Hellboy trailer on my IG or somewhere no one's gomna see it so... enjoy this brief interlude where I defend the shit out of the new Hellboy (WHICH IS NOT OUT AT THE TIME I'M WRITING THIS IF IT ACTUALLY SUCKS I WILL GLADLY ADMIT IT)

When I first heard this was happening, I got so excited. Folk horror Hellboy period piece set in rural Appalachia? Are you fucking kidding me? How can anyone hate on that? And the obvious answer is nostalgia. The less obvious answer is the trailer. Let's talk about it.

Would I love to see GDT's Hellboy 3? OF FUCKING COURSE. I adore GDT, I love all the cast members individually, and I do really like those movies. However, as far as I can tell the rights have changed hands, which makes that exponentially more difficult. Additionally, it's 2024. Unfortunately, MCU brainrot has killed any chance of a real dark superhero film getting a blockbuster budget. Maybe a miniseries at best. More importantly, as he's become more influential in the horror community and more adverserial about the "bastards with money," GDT also isn't getting a blockbuster budget anytime soon. And to get all those people on board, and make another film on the scale of the first two, you'd need a strong budget. And to be completely honest, I think it would bomb. I think it's slightly too niche of an audience. Do I care about that? Obviously not. I just directed my first short film and I'm out $250 easily. I'll never see a penny of that. Many of my favorite feature films were made the same way. Unfortunately, studios care just a little bit about that. And especially with massive failure of Hellboy 2019 we should consider ourselves lucky anyone wants to touch the property right now. Also I mean... Ron Perlman's old. Sorry. That's a lot of makeup and a fair amount of action. Not saying he *can't* do it obviously, just saying it'll be harder.

Now that the trailer's out, I also wanna discuss it. It sucks. I hate the editing so deeply. It's the most generic horror shit imaginable. However, I pretty much liked what I saw in the trailer. If it nails the tone I think it's gonna be good. And for what it's worth I also strongly disliked the marketing for I Saw the TV Glow which is easily my favorite film of the year. Also I'm really glad Jack Kesy isn't just doing Ron Perlman again. David Harbour relied way too heavily on that performance. I'm also glad he has more normal proportions, and his voice isn't so deep and gravelly. Obviously Hellboy has some muscle, but nothing about Mignola's art style ever indicated to me that he'd be fuckin huge and I don't think the Perlman/Harbour voice would really suit the lankier Hellboy.

Listen, I'm willing to be wrong. If it actually sucks as bad as everyone thinks it's going to, I'll own up. But some of y'all are in serious denial about what Hellboy's options are in the current climate. I'll take a million of these over an insufferable fucking Deadpool rip-off because no one else knows how/wants to make a different R rated superhero film. Unfortunately, that'd probably be what would make money and maybe even shut up some of the whiny fanboys. "Oh man I really wish GDT did Hellboy 3 but this one felt like a Rick & Morty episode woah epic!" At the risk of continuing to argue with a guy I just invented, I'm gonna stop now. Point made.

[baelatargaryen]

☕ + current state of the mcu

this is pretty hard, b/c i'm gonna be honest, i stopped watching sometime after the first seasons of the spin-off disney+ shows.

out of the spinoffs, i liked wandavision the most. felt the most entertaining/intriguing

tfatws was okay-ish, i'm actually in the sam should be cap camp so that worked for me but overall i found myself p bored conceptually with the show, it definitely didn't feel like anything new. i'm so beyond tired of the mcu coming back to the "glitch" and the super-serum

i absolutely hated the loki show i'm sorry. and i say this as a huge loki fan as my edits will kinda speak for but everything i loved about him was basically stripped away and it felt like i was watching a new character. the worldbuilding was awful, the concept somehow managed to be boring, the show felt static, the acting either bland or over-the-top, with the most ham-fisted dialogue i've ever seen.

um. thor 4. i was excited bc i enjoyed ragnarok for the most part. i think it has its flaws, but it was entertaining, i enjoyed hela a lot as a villain, i liked the new direction thor was moving in, but i honestly turned it on and turned it off within the first ten minutes. i was kinda convinced it was a joke. (this says a lot tbh bc im a huge thor lover, to the point of defending some of the p bad writing his franchise gets stuck with)

those last two were kinda the nail in the coffin for me. overall, i feel they've really oversaturated their own market quite badly, and it's putting out show after show (movie after movie for a while there too), often poorly produced, relying heavily on vfx, often re-using same past plot points. with old characters gone, a lot of the nostalgia that kept people tied to it is gone and i don't think many of their new projects have been exciting to get people invested the way they used to, tbh.

in general, this problem is more of disney+ problem i think. i find that when i've watched other disney+ shows (just recently watched percy jackson, but also the star wars spinoffs like the mandalorian and obi wan kenobi) i am struck by how poorly produced many of them are. the plot is paper-thin, there's almost no physicality to any of the sets bc of the overreliance on cgi, costuming/makeup has gone downhill, writing has been stripped down where there's no subplots interweaving at the same time, just point a to point b, then the next episode is point b to point c. even shows i've enjoyed have this issue, and they end up feeling so soulless.

[evansbby]

OMG I FEEL THE SAME ABOUT CHRIS AND RDJ COMING BACK

i literally ranted to my mum about how the mcu was the best when it didn’t rely on celebrity names to promote something. like a majority of the ppl in the mcu INCLUDING RDJ (who also had a bad rep at the time due to his issues w addiction and stuff) weren’t hugely popular before they got casted

they also used characters that weren’t as well known, purely bc of the story they could make w them, like iron man was not a popular character compared to characters like spider man prior to the mcu, to the point where people were worried that the first film was going to destroy the mcu before it even started

it felt like marvel was a sort of spring board for new and upcoming actors but now it feels like they just cast celebrities that already have a huge fanbase (like why tf was harry styles casted as starfox in the eternals post credits scene) and are already established.

anyway ik you said ur not a huge fan of the mcu but as someone who is, i’m definitely somewhat tired too lol

I totally and completely agree with you! I hate the direction the movie industry is going in in general tbh it’s not even just marvel! but yeah, before they relied on stories bc they were building something from scratch… now it just feels like nostalgia money grab after money grab IDEK

[irondad-defensesquad]

i've probably said this before, but i would rather see miles being introduced in no way home instead of the other two spider-men and all their villains.

of course i'm VERY skeptical of the mcu ever introducing miles at all, bc 1) it would be way more obvious that they wanted to profit from spider-verse and 2) the mcu keeps fucking everything up with every new project, so i don't trust them with anything.

while i don't rlly doubt they're going to introduce miles since they're relying so much on fanservice, and aaron did appear in homecoming - not to mention the deleted scene that basically confirms miles' existence in the mcu -, on the other hand, for example, they never brought up toomes and that guy in prison again. it's weird bc save for peter's loved ones and mysterio, toomes was the only person who knew his identity. i thought they would do something about it in nwh, but from what i've heard, it was never mentioned at all.

still, if actually done right, i think miles would be a great addition to the spider-man franchise, especially at a time where peter is dealing with so much pressure. that would've definitely been much better than the nostalgia cashgrab that is nwh. and said addition would actually make sense bc miles and peter are from the same universe. the latest marvel movies count with honestly bizarre crossovers, like... riri in black panther? america chavez in the doctor strange movie? maybe the first one i can kind of understand since they killed off tony, it just felt out of place when i first heard about it. i don't even have to mention all the other cameos in multiverse of madness, right (and don't even tell me "IT'S MULTIVERSE WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING!!!")

yeah... again, besides the guardians of the galaxy stuff, i'm not looking forward to anything in the mcu. not even the fourth spider-man movie. i mean, i didn't even see nwh and i do not plan to. i might be a little interested if miles does show up one day, but for now i'll just make up scenarios in my head, i guess.

[a-force-dyad-in-space]

I'm still not allowing myself to be excited for the One Piece live action but after having seen the trailer a few more times I'll say that as long as the pacing is good (bad pacing trips me up so hard) and the show captures the essence and spirit of the story, I won't hate it.

I just hope the rest of the writing is better than that "Not a crew" scene, I'm still not very happy with that. Sure, a lot of the comedy from the manga and the anime doesn't translate very well into live action but they can still bring out the silly parts without relying on the same kind of 0815 quips that are used by every action adventure movie since the beginning of the MCU.

Something I didn't learn until today is that Oda himself was heavily involved in the adaptation, including greenlighting the cast, which I guess gives me a little more confidence that the show won't be a trashfire.

I really like the cast (and now that I know Oda gave his okay for Nami's and Sanji's actors I'm putting my earlier reservations to the side), I like their energy, I highly appreciate their love for the One Piece universe, so I have a feeling they may be my favorite part of the adaptation.

Something that's also been pointed out is that the characters are wearing a lot of outfits from color spreads from the manga, which is really cool, I like that a lot, it gives them realistic costume changes while still staying true to their designs.

As for some of the criticism I've seen float around the tag:

"WHY ISN'T LUFFY WEARING FLIP FLOPS????" I was a little put off by that at first, too, but I honestly doubt that we'll pay a whole lot of attention to his feet when we watch the actual show (and who knows, maybe they'll show up at some point)

"WHERE IS SANJI'S CURLY BROW??????" This is probably completely a Me thing but when I watched the trailer for the first time I didn't even notice that because I was honestly much more worried about his hair before the trailer was released; I totally get that him not having the curly brow is a little disappointing and leaves out some of the greatest bickering between him and Zoro, but it's still possible that they'll bring it into the show some other way, even if he doesn't have it all the time; same goes for the smoking (which, given that it's an American production that is aimed at kids, isn't really surprising, since smoking/tobacco is its own content warning on American TV), we might see him light a cigarette here and there but we were never gonna see him chainsmoke the way he does in the manga/anime

"WHAT ABOUT USOPP'S NOSE????" Okay, let's be real here, had they given Usopp his Pinocchio nose through either CGI or VFX make-up, everyone probably would have complained how stupid and cringe it looks translated into live action; Jacob has a very expressive face that more than makes up for the lack of the Pinocchio nose in my opinion, but maybe that's just me (Jacob was also the first cast member I was fully on board with from the start, so maybe I'm biased, but that's how I feel)

"BUGGY LOOKS TOO SCARY" Guys, we only got one shot of him and we don't know the context for it; maybe this is his introductory shot, maybe this is a special dramatic shot, maybe this is how other people describe him, we just don't know; just wait until the show is out

"THE FOOTAGE IS TOO YELLOW" While it is likely that this is the final color grading, it's also possible that the final color grading wasn't done by the time they put the trailer together (like, some of the shots look like the yellow isn't as strong), they still have more than two months until release, they could still be doing final tweaks until then; and maybe they wanted to emphasize Luffy's sunny personality, who knows, the cinematography probably looks different in emotional scenes

Also, and this is only of interest to my fellow Germans, the German anime voice cast is dubbing the show, so I might actually watch it both in the original version and with the German voices because the nostalgia is reaaaaaaaallll

Be still, my heart, so you won't be disappointed, but be hopeful, be so so hopeful 🥲

[tokensbossh]

Spider-Man 4: Breaking New Ground with Nostalgia and Innovation

Spider-Man 4 has fans buzzing with the possibility of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their iconic roles alongside Tom Holland. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) masterfully brought all three Spider-Men together in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the challenge now is to ensure the sequel doesn’t fall into the trap of repetitive nostalgia. This article explores how Spider-Man 4 can blend familiar faces with fresh storytelling to redefine the franchise. The inclusion of Maguire and Garfield, if executed creatively, could serve a meaningful purpose beyond mere fan service. However, the movie must balance this with Tom Holland’s continuing journey as the primary Spider-Man in the MCU. Let’s delve into the strategies that Spider-Man 4 can employ to achieve this delicate balance.

Spider-Man 4 Breaking New Ground with Nostalgia and Innovation (2)

Spider-Man 4 Breaking New Ground with Nostalgia and Innovation (3) Revisiting the Legacy of Maguire and Garfield Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, a seasoned hero with a mentor-like presence, could add a sense of legacy and closure to his storyline. After the events of No Way Home, Maguire’s Peter Parker may be grappling with retirement or the challenges of balancing heroism with his personal life. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, redeemed after saving MJ, still has room for growth. Fans would love to see him mentoring younger heroes or confronting unresolved personal and moral dilemmas. This provides an opportunity to explore themes of redemption and evolution. However, these returning characters must not overshadow Holland’s Peter Parker, who is still navigating the emotional aftermath of losing Aunt May and MJ. Balancing these arcs ensures the film remains cohesive and emotionally impactful.

Spider-Man 4 Breaking New Ground with Nostalgia and Innovation (4)

Spider-Man 4 Breaking New Ground with Nostalgia and Innovation (1) Avoiding the Nostalgia Trap One of the biggest risks for Spider-Man 4 is relying too heavily on nostalgia. While No Way Home succeeded by uniting the Spider-Men for the first time, repeating this formula without innovation could feel uninspired. Instead of another multiverse villain team-up, the film could explore grounded, character-driven conflicts. For instance, the movie could examine the sacrifices Spider-Men make across different timelines. This would allow for a deeper, more personal narrative that resonates with audiences. Alternatively, introducing a new antagonist like the Beyonder or tackling moral dilemmas could offer fresh challenges for the characters. Introducing Miles Morales Another potential game-changer for Spider-Man 4 is the introduction of Miles Morales into the live-action MCU. While audiences have adored him in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, bringing Miles into the fold alongside Maguire, Garfield, and Holland could symbolize the passing of the torch. His inclusion would inject new energy into the franchise and appeal to a broader audience.

d2d21

Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man 4 Could Make 2026 the Year of Spider (3) Pushing the Boundaries of Storytelling For Spider-Man 4 to succeed, it needs a bold narrative twist. Whether it’s one of the Spider-Men turning into a villain or facing moral conflicts that strain their alliances, the film must take risks to stand out. This approach not only adds depth to the characters but also keeps the audience engaged. By blending nostalgia with groundbreaking ideas, Spider-Man 4 can redefine what a Spider-Man film can achieve. It’s not just about bringing back familiar faces—it’s about telling a story that feels fresh and meaningful. Looking Ahead As the Spider-Man franchise evolves, it has the potential to push the boundaries of superhero storytelling. Whether it’s through innovative character arcs, unexpected twists, or the introduction of new heroes, the possibilities are endless. What do you hope to see in Spider-Man 4? Share your thoughts in the comments below. For more updates on the Spider-Man franchise, check out Marvel.com or the latest insights on GameRant. Read the full article

[allthenewzworld]

There are reports that Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine might team up in the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars. 🍿🎬

After successful appearances in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine, fans are excited for their potential collaboration.

Rumors suggest they could lead a multiversal army, though their exact roles remain speculative. However, some believe relying on older characters could undermine the current MCU heroes, raising questions about how Marvel will balance nostalgia with the evolving storylines.

Would you want to see this?! 🤔