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lokiondisneyplus · 1 year ago

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Disney has revealed that it has spent $141.3 million (£110.6 million) on pre-production and filming of the second season of its Loki streaming series as it attempts to reinvigorate its struggling Marvel Studios division after a string of critical and commercial failures.

No expense has been spared on Loki Season 2 which cost more in pre-production and filming than many big screen Marvel movies including Doctor Strange (£102.7 million), Thor 2: The Dark World (£99.4 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy (£91.1 million).

Due to debut on the Disney+ platform in October, the sequel to the hit 2021 series stars Tom Hiddleston as the eponymous Asgardian god of mischief. He is joined by Owen Wilson and a new addition to the cast, Oscar-winning Indiana Jones actor Ke Huy Quan who team up to stop a time-travelling conqueror called Kang.

Indiana Jones star Ke Huy Quan is joining Loki for Season 2.2023 MARVEL

Quan's role has been particularly well-received with one fan gushing that "this is the greatest thing to ever happen. I adore this man". Another described it as "like seeing an old friend. It is comforting to see him on screen." One fan even went as far as to say that Quan is reason enough for tuning in. "I was on the fence on watching Loki season 2 but I saw that Ke Huy Quan is in it and yeah...I'm definitely watching that." It is more than can be said for most of Marvel's productions this year.

The studio kicked off 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a sci-fi film which opened in February and introduced the Kang character. Its domestic debut weekend box office of $106 million was the highest in the Ant-Man trilogy but then it fell by 70%, resulting in the biggest second-weekend drop in the franchise's history. The movie ended up grossing $476.1 million worldwide which was lower than both of its prequels. As we revealed, Disney spent $193.2 million on pre-production and filming alone.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was widely criticised for its CGI Photo courtesy of Marvel ... [+]COURTESY OF MARVEL STUDIOS

Just days after her departure, Marvel was rocked again when Kang actor Jonathan Majors was arrested on assault and harassment charges. He denies them and will get a chance to explain why when he goes on trial this month.

Then came Secret Invasion. Disney had high hopes for the streaming series which launched in June and was based on a beloved comic series about a race of shape-shifting aliens secretly invading the corridors of power. However, its serious tone, gaping plot holes and poor CGI put off fans leading to its crescendo becoming the single lowest-rated episode of any Marvel series with just a 7% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

As we revealed, staggeringly, it had a budget of $211.6 million. It explains why Disney's chief executive Bob Iger said in February that the studio needs to "reduce costs on everything that we make because, while we're extremely proud of what's on the screen, it's gotten to a point where it's extraordinarily expensive."

A total of 7,000 job cuts and $5.5 billion of cost-savings followed, but even that wasn't enough. Just last month, Iger told CNBC that Disney is slowing down when it comes to making movies and streaming series for its Marvel and Star Wars franchises. "You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less," he said.

Season 2 of Loki was given the green light long before these comments and before Iger even returned to the helm of Disney in November last year. It shows.

The series was filmed at the historic Pinewood Studios just outside London as well as on location across the UK capital. It's a far cry from tinsel town and this shines a spotlight on the otherwise secretive cost of film-making.

Budgets of streaming shows are usually confidential as studios combine the cost of them in their overall expenses and don't itemise how much they spent on each one.

Shows made in the UK are an exception. They benefit from the government's Television Tax Relief scheme which allows studios to claim a cash reimbursement of up to 25% of the money they spend in the country.

To qualify, shows must pass a points test based on factors such as how much filming was done in the UK, the level of UK content and how much they promote UK heritage. Furthermore, at least 10% of the core costs of the production need to relate to activities in the UK and in order to demonstrate this to the government, studios set up a separate Television Production Company (TPC) there for each picture.

These TPCs have to file publicly-available financial statements showing everything from the headcount and salaries to the total cost of the production and the amount of cash they have got back.

The UK government's regulations state that each TPC must be "responsible for pre-production, principal photography and post-production of the television programme; and for delivery of the completed programme." Accordingly, there is no doubt that their financial statements show all of the costs of each series. It isn't even possible for studios to hide costs in other companies as the law also states that "there can only be one TPC in relation to a programme."

The companies usually have code names so that they don’t raise attention when filing for permits to film on location. The Disney subsidiary behind Loki Season 2 is called Limbo Productions I UK in a nod to title character's transient status. Its first set of financial statements were filed on Sunday and cover the 18-month period to October 31 2022 which is when filming wrapped.

They reveal that the company was handed a $27.9 million (£21.8 million) reimbursement bringing its net spending down to $113.4 million which is still far from small beer. The colossal cost dates back to the peak of the pandemic when much of the world was locked indoors addicted to streaming content. Disney was eagerly adding shows to its streaming platform in a bid to attract more subscribers than its rivals.

Season 1 of Loki was the most-watched Marvel TV show to date on Disney+ ©Marvel Studios 2020. All ... [+]COURTESY OF MARVEL STUDIOS

According to industry analysts Samba TV, Loki's first episode was watched by 2.5 million households in its first five days giving it a higher audience than any of Marvel's other streaming shows - a record which stands to this day. The streaming bubble has long since burst thanks to the easing of the pandemic and pure strings being pulled due to rising inflation. However, Season 2's budget could be more important now than ever. Disney doesn't just need it to succeed in order to give a glow to Marvel but to its entire streaming platform.

Unlike theatrical releases, which share ticket sales between studios and exhibitors, Disney receives all of the revenue from its streaming platform. Subscribers pay a single fee which grants them access to all of its new content throughout the year, with or without advertising depending on how much they pay. This makes it impossible to calculate how much subscription revenue is generated by each streaming show.

Instead, the total costs of the shows are deducted from the total revenue to determine whether the platform overall made a profit or a loss. The more subscribers it has, the higher the revenue and the greater the potential for profit. However, Disney wisely changed its goal of chasing subscribers in light of the bleak economic backdrop. Its aim now is to reduce the cost of the programming which also gives a greater potential for profit. It is badly needed.

Disney+ hasn't made a profit since it was launched in 2019 and made an operating loss of $659 million in the first quarter of 2023 alone. Disney has assured investors that the platform will be profitable by the end of its 2024 fiscal year and time will tell whether Loki Season 2's blockbuster budget is a help or a hindrance to that.

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scrawnydutchman · 2 years ago

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"Hooked on a Feeling”: A Retrospective on James’ Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING FILMS:

-Guardians of the Galaxy 1-3

-Avengers, Infinity War

-Avengers: Endgame

Thor: Love and Thunder

-The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

The Guardians of the Galaxy films . . . . . I struggle to find the words as to how much they mean to me, which is saying a lot because I’m probably the wordiest motherfucker I know. In a franchise like the MCU that has become so oversaturated and so bland with every release that it has made the term “Superhero fatigue” prominent, the Guardians manage to stand out with their immense heart and exceptional film making. Guardians 3 is no exception. While it is a *slight* departure from the norm established by the prior films as it’s much darker and more mature, it still manages to be so incredibly fun and uplifting. In my opinion, given what James Gunn had to work with after Infinity War and Endgame (we will get to those in a minute) it truly was the perfect conclusion for all of these characters.

In celebration and tribute to these films that I love so much, I thought rather than doing a long film review of 3 like I usually do, I’d take a look back at the Guardians film franchise as a whole and see what it has meant for the evolution of these characters as well as the general impact on the Marvel cinematic universe. In this retrospective we will be covering Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and finally, closing it off with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

When this film was coming out, it seemingly had everything going against it. It had to establish 5 of the most obscure characters in Marvel’s catalogue all in one film. It had to sell the guy from Parks and Recreation as the leading superhero. It had to compete with the first Avengers, which many called the best superhero movie of all time when it premiered. It had to take a gamble on whether or not the audience could buy the idea of a talking Raccoon being in a superhero movie. If this franchise was to survive, it had to be GOOD.

And boy was it.

It was so good that became a box office hit. Suddenly, these obscure marvel characters of which only the most dedicated of fans would be aware of skyrocketed into household name territory. Baby Groot merch started flying off the shelves. Everyone was talking about how funny and heartfelt the film was, because it is! All the characters were so lovable and hilarious. It was colorful, dramatic, fun, inventive. Chris Pratt was SO charismatic as the leading man. The soundtrack was iconic: a meticulously and appropriately picked set of 70s classics. It just goes to show that when your product is quality enough, anything is possible.

The success of the Avengers may have paved the way for all the crossover potential of the MCU, but the Guardians had set the tone not just for themselves but have captured a charm that the rest of the MCU has been attempting to capture ever since . . . for better or worse. Yeah, unfortunately the lesson the MCU and many other films’ took from the Guardians success is that the audience will eat it up as long as it has a soundtrack of all hits and a buttload of quips, but there’s more to it than that. The soundtrack can’t just be a collection of randomly selected pop hits: it has to be tonally appropriate for the scene and thematic to the plot. And the character’s can’t always just be quipping for the hell of it: it has to be driven by character. So yeah, this film inadvertently set a bit of an unfortunate precedent going forward, but that doesn’t change the fact that it kicks ass. Quality will ALWAYS have its bargain bin imitators.

The film’s biggest strength is how it sells such a big cast of new characters through their chemistry with each other. Backstory, character arc and personality traits aren’t enough in a vacuum: they are at their best when put in contrast with opposing characters. Even though these guys don’t spend *that* much time with each other initially, you get a very quick sense that they were arguably meant to band together. It makes the climax of this film where they join together to share the energy of the power stone all the more satisfying.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017)

So while I do certainly love the first film, I would probably say it was also the most flawed. It had a decent theme about the value of friendship and the importance of coming together, especially when you have no one, it was definitely lacking in some places. The biggest example I can think of is its villain. Ronin is lame, there’s no getting around it. He didn’t tie in to the arc of the main characters by any stretch. He wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things. He doesn’t have any particularly memorable lines (other than giving the group their team name). He was merely an obstacle for the heroes to dispose of. On top of that, while Nebula and Yondu were both present in the film, they weren’t given a whole lot of characterization just yet. They were either more mere obstacles or plot devices to further things along, with any further depth merely hinted at.

Vol 2 manages to radically improve where the first one fell short. Ego is the main villain this time around and HE. IS. AWESOME. Cunningly manipulative. Disgustingly charming. Even more disgustingly evil. The dude was a breath of fresh air at a time when many marvel villains were just so forgettable. In my opinion, Ego is still the best villain in the trilogy (we will get to the High Evolutionary later). His intimate ties with Peter’s arc about moving forward and finding new family (not to mention the definition of family) was simply fabulous. Plus Rocket’s side story where he bonds with Yondu was particularly entertaining too. Also, Nebula and Gamora’s relationship was a great source of entertainment. This is the other way Vol 2 improves upon its predecessor: Yondu and Nebula are becoming fully realized. Yondu provides a noble sacrifice that redeems him of his abusive ways while also confirming that he always loved Peter, whereas Nebula gets to shine as, in my opinion, the best female character in the MCU. She’s tragic, she’s ruthless, she’s badass . . but she’s also very, very funny. Other MCU writers could take notes from this because she has adjectives to her personality besides synonyms for “strong” or “capable”. Not to mention we get Mantis in this movie. She was fantastic chemistry with Drax from here on out and only brings more to the group’s already stellar dynamic. This movie is great and is an improvement on the first one in every way.

The film also establishes Adam Warlock in its after credits scene. Given the timeline of the MCU and my knowledge of who Adam Warlock is in the comics, I was expecting him to be prepared in time for an appearance in Infinity War and Endgame considering he’s basically a primary adversary for Thanos. But, among many things, Infinity War and Endgame did not really capitalize on what the Guardians established as well as it should have. Which brings us to . . .

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019)

Sigh . . . . . so this is around where the quality of the Guardians’ involvement in the MCU goes down. Don’t get me wrong, I like Infinity War and Endgame. I became a 10 year old boy in my seat when Cap lifted Mjolnir too.

But MAN did these movies rob the Guardians.

This is the movie where Thanos makes his move as the big baddie of the infinity saga. The Guardians, indisputably, have more history with Thanos than any other characters in the MCU. Thanos was introduced officially (not as an after credits scene or easter egg) in Guardians 1. Drax’s whole arc for a while was about wanting revenge on Thanos for the death of his family. TWO OF THE GUARDIANS ARE THANOS’ DAUGHTERS. And yet . . . . not only is almost the entirety of the team blipped away for 5 years with the only survivors being Rocket and Nebula, but when they all come back NONE of them get their own chance for licks against Thanos. Drax never gets his long awaited revenge. Neither Gamora nor Nebula have a chance to tag team Thanos the way Cap and Bucky tag teamed Iron Man. Quill never gets a chance to make up for his error that got half the universe killed. SCARLET WITCH GETS HER OWN CHANCE AT REVENGE AGAINST THANOS BUT NOT THE GUARDIANS??? ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!

Also, in my opinion, they reduce Peter Quill to a complete dullard punching bag in these movies. I know Peter is supposed to be a manchild and is somewhat dumb, but it’s like the Russo brothers have a hate boner for him or something.

The line “I’m not from earth, I’m from Missouri” makes literally no goddamn sense. Peter was 8 when he was abducted by the Ravagers. He would have to be Patrick star levels of dumb to not know that Missouri is on earth. Not to mention all the other Guardians treat him with absolutely no respect. They have SO much more respect for him than that. And then in Endgame all he gets is being a punching bag as quick jokes and then immediately going back to being belittled by Thor.

Speaking of Thor, they tease at the end of Endgame that Thor becomes a temporary Guardian . . . and then he leaves the group basically immediately in Thor: Love and Thunder (which is its own trashfire that’s for sure). That movie has weird characterization of Quill too as it essentially shows him at the end of the journey that Thor is supposed to take . . . but then in the Guardians films Gunn still has him struggling with missing Gamora. Yeah, I can’t help but feel like the rest of the MCU really messed with Gunn’s plans for these characters. He now has to make lemonade out of the fact that most of them have been gone for five years, Gamora and Quill’s relationship has hit the reset button, Thanos is now dead which means Drax effectively has no direction and Adam Warlock wasn’t brought out when he should have been. To bring it back, Gunn would have to make some serious lemonade.

Luckily he succeeded.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)

So this was a funny and sweet little movie to tide us over while we wait for Guardians 3. Not entirely necessary, but damn if it isn’t fun. Drax and Mantis are saddened that Quill is still struggling with how much he misses Gamora. On top of that, they learn that they’ve entered the time where Terrans celebrate this little holiday known as “Christmas”. So they have the idea of cheering Quill up by throwing him a big Christmas party and getting him the greatest gift of all . . .abducting and brainwashing his hero, Kevin Bacon. That premise alone is worth checking it out at least once because the Hijinks that ensues is pretty damn funny. But the movie also surprisingly establishes from rather important elements. For one, it introduced Cosmo the telekinetic spacedog as a major character rather than a quick cameo, who will be important for Guardians 3. For another, it reveals that Mantis is Quill’s half sibling as she too was a child of Ego. Sadly this doesn’t shake up the dynamic of the group THAT much, but it IS mentioned in Guardians 3 in a way that furthers the plot along nicely.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (2023)

So here we are at the conclusion for this team of Guardians. After almost a decade of entertaining us with their antics, Star-Lord, Gamora, Nebula, Drax, Groot, Mantis and Rocket are going on one last ride before their stories come to an end. I was simultaneously so excited and so scared coming into this movie. It’s basically the only thing in the MCU I give a shit about at this point and I got so attached to these characters that I simply couldn’t take the idea of any of them dying. Gunn knew how attached we all are and played a mean trick on us. All the marketing made it seem like they were going to straight up die at the end. My heart couldn’t take that.

Fortunately nobody *actually* dies. Most of the team just does into retirement, which is also sad but much preferable. Peter goes back to earth to get back in touch with his grandfather. Mantis sets out on her own to discover what she’s all about. Drax and Nebula become an adopted dad and mom to a whole race of kids (which is hilarious, I want to see that dynamic in action). This version of Gamora finds a new home as a Ravager. And Rocket, who is the star this time around, becomes the captain of a new generation of Guardians alongside Groot as a returning member.

This film is quite a radical departure from how Guardians usually does things. While the first two had a soundtrack comprised entirely of 70s hits in reference to Quill’s relationship with his mom, this film starts integrating 90s hits, and I like to think of this as Quill’s evolution as he starts moving forward rather than living in the past. This film is also MUCH darker and sadder. AND more violent. Like . . . holy shit the drama is cranked up to 11 and the film comes out literally swinging in the first 10 minutes. But don’t worry: it still manages to have a lot of classic Guardians fun, especially with it having the best action of any Guardians film BY FAR.

By far the biggest change is that Rocket and Quill switch roles, in more literal ways than one. In the first two films, Quill was the center focus whereas Rocket was something of a deuteragonist (secondary protagonist). But here, Rocket takes center stage and Quill’s storyline serves to further the themes of Rocket’s in a different way. Considering the mess that Gunn was left with after Infinity War, Endgame and Love and Thunder, I gotta say: He made some sweet ass lemonade. Peter and Gamora’s reset relationship resolved in a way that was thematically appropriate for the film (I.E. accepting things as they are instead of trying to bend it to fit your way). Drax was given direction back as a father rather than a destroyer, which is what motivated his revenge arc to begin with, resolving the fact that after Thanos died he didn’t have much to do. Mantis was given a lot of time to shine. Even Adam Warlock had a role in this film that wasn’t completely pointless. He got the ball rolling with his attack on Rocket, he tied in to the theme of self acceptance and discovery over being told what you ought to be, and he saved Peter at the end, solidifying his place as a next gen Guardian. He was definitely childlike, but he was literally born yesterday so that tracks, and again, only further serves the theme of self discovery and actualization.

Also, one of my more minor complaints of past Guardians films is that action has been rather lackluster. The first Guardians film suffers from sporadic editing and uninspired cinematography while the second film pushed comedic value over cathartic action (except for the Yondu arrow scene, that was sick). Guardians 3 goes SOOOO HARD with its action and it’s fucking amazing. All the Guardians got significant upgrades in their abilities on screen. Drax very much earns his reputation as “the Destroyer” in this one, which is a relief because ever since Vol 2 he’s sort of been reduced to just a walking punchline. Mantis proved how scary she can be with her empath powers. Nebula showed off how unstoppable of a force she can become. The hallway scene is the best action scene in the whole MCU, no contest. The Guardians dogpiling on the High Evolutionary was so fucking satisfying.

Also, High Evolutionary was a great villain. A bit hammy for my taste in select places and ultimately I think Ego is a stronger villain overall, but it was cool to see a villain that is 1000% scumbag and it makes him getting his comeuppance all the more satisfying.

This film will leave you crying like a baby over the drama of a little Raccoon. It’s fantastic.

Conclusion

So yeah. The MCU all in all has been quite the spectrum of quality, with some films being much, much, MUCH better than others, especially in recent years. But the Guardians have been consistently amazing quality from beginning to end . . . as long as Gunn is in charge, that is. This team of Guardians is where Gunn says goodbye to the MCU and the new team (plus Star-Lord’s new adventures) will likely be handled by a different director going forward. I’ll keep an open mind about how well that goes, but regardless, all I can say is thank you James Gunn for these incredible films that introduced us to such lovable characters.

#guardians of the galaxy #marvel #mcu #guardians of the galaxy vol 2 #guardians of the galaxy vol 3 #avengers endgame #avengers infinity war #retrospective

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insanityclause · 1 year ago

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Zoe Saldana stars in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"SOURCE: MARVEL

That’s not to say Marvel — along with all studios and streamers — doesn’t face some hurdles going forward. But the nature of those obstacles for Marvel are frankly pretty obvious; it’s mostly things Marvel has overcome before; and regardless of those issues and the need to address them, Marvel is still actually doing pretty good right now even amid the problems they’ve had.

So let’s just unpack what’s really going wrong, and what it means for Marvel Studios.

The situation with actor Jonathan Majors — the star of several Marvel films and streaming shows, as the MCU’s time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror — is that he faces multiple accusations of abuse, and is scheduled to stand trial for one recent case. After that case was initially reported, other accusations surfaced, as did previous public statements from years ago by performers who asserted accusations of abuse were already circulating about Majors.

So yes, Marvel will almost certainly recast Kang. Lucky for Marvel, the character literally exists across a near-infinite number of alternate realities where he takes different forms and changes appearance. Likewise, Marvel has had to recast characters in the past, just like lots of other franchise or TV/streaming series. This isn’t brain surgery, and the framing of this issue as something that could sink Marvel’s whole future plans is frankly nonsense.

Just one great example, Marvel could offer the role to John Boyega (who I’d argue should’ve been the top candidate for the role in the first place). Or maybe Denzel Washington as an iteration of Kang who sat out the in-fighting and collective efforts of the rest of the Kangs and grew older and wiser as he made his plans to take over. Or maybe Ray Fisher could be offered the role, if Marvel wants to poke DC and WBD while scoring a great casting option.

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Or perhaps Marvel could offer the role to Leslie Odom Jr., Lakeith Stanfield, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Daveed Diggs, Stephan James, or any number of other fantastic casting choices to take over the role of Kang in the MCU.

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The point is, the worst part of the situation with John Majors is if the allegations are true and women suffered this abuse while Hollywood ignored it. The casting “problem” is small potatoes by comparison, and is easy to solve.

So let’s look at the financials now, since a central claim to the “Marvel is in trouble” narrative is that the studio is struggling at the box office while streaming is an unpopular mess.

At the box office, it’s true Marvel hit a high point with their back to back releases of the two-part Avengers conclusion to the Infinity Saga. The $2.79 billion from Endgame and $2 billion from Infinity War elevated the final global gross for all 22 films in that saga to more than $20 billion, for a per-film average of around $935 million.

In 2018 and 2019, the MCU put up the following numbers: Black Panther hit $1.34 billion, then Infinity War topped $2 billion, then Captain Marvel scored $1.1 billion, and then Endgame took $2.79 billion. Ant-Man and the Wasp at $622 is the only MCU film in those 24 months that failed to top $1 billion.

Since the Infinity Saga ended, Marvel’s releases have taken north of $8.1 billion across 10 movies so far, with a Multiverse Saga per film average of about $815 million. The difference between $815 million and $935 million is not insignificant, but nor is it disastrous, and it’s certainly not hard to understand why it’s happening.

The 2018 and 2019 slates for the Infinity Saga benefited from a decade of build-up, and it was those last four (out of five total) blockbusters topping $1-2 billion each that provided the final heft and resulted in an even higher per film average. We are only in the first half of the Multiverse Saga to date, and so far we haven’t had a single Avengers movie in this new saga, while as noted the Infinity Saga ended with a one-two Avengers punch good for more than $2 million per film.

And then the fact of the Covid pandemic alone accounts for most of the rest of the downturn in Marvel Studios’ average box office performance. Even during the Covid pandemic, when films were flopping or going straight to streaming/PVOD, Marvel’s three releases that performed “badly” due to the global health crisis still managed to finish between $379.7 million on the lowest end and $432 million. That’s better than the DCEU can perform even after theaters reopened and box office started its climb back toward something resembling “normal” — at least for the right films, since 2023 has been a roller coaster ride for theatrical.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperformed earlier this year and wound up the weakest performer of that franchise at $476 million, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 scored blockbuster results with $845.5 million.

Indeed, Vol. 3 is currently the fourth-highest grossing movie of 2023, both domestically and worldwide. And for the record, as disappointing as its box office was, 2023 has been so cruel to theatrical releases that Quantumania is still a top-10 box office performer.

We’ve seen one would-be blockbuster tentpole after another face-plant or otherwise disappoint, and often when a tentpole has managed a healthy box office performance it’s at a more moderate level than expected or typically enjoyed by the given franchise and/or its prior financial trajectory.

Other than Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, nothing else truly put up top-tier results this year. Fast X topped $700 million, but is fourth film in a row from the series to suffer a decline from its predecessor’s box office gross, and the lowest box office for the franchise since 2011’s Fast Five, so it’s a mixed bag there.

Besides that, 2023 saw three films in the $500-600 millions range, four in $400 millions territory, and a couple of $300 millions.

The makeup of the top 10 this year looks like this: Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Little Mermaid, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Elemental, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Notice, there are three Marvel superhero movies in the top 10. Yes, one of them underperformed, but the point is that it seems silly to talk as if audience are in any widespread or large scale way turning away from superhero cinema, or that Marvel is somehow reeling from a downfall and have lost control.

The Marvels is currently tracking toward a shockingly low debut this weekend, with most projections pointing to a $130-$150 million global opening. Without at least average holds, the film could struggle to get past $300-400 million. On the other hand, I think tracking has proven pretty unreliable these days, and I believe a significant part of these disappointing numbers is the fact a lot of people are confusing this film with being another new Disney+ Marvel show, or think it is coming to Disney+ as a film soon. There’s also the general 2023 ongoing curse to consider.

But regardless, The Marvels should’ve been a home run sequel. While we can point to the unethical shenanigans and toxic behavior of fans and of certain organized hateful online voices obsessed with attacking women-driven movies or shows, if this film flops or underperforms rather than merely suffering a downward adjustment consistent with the genre overall (which would mean a box office for The Marvels in the $700 million range, I’d say), then it’s entirely fair to call it a big stumble for the studio.

The large-scale tainting of superhero cinema by the DCEU’s overarching failure the past several years (eight films in a row across five years, all failing to reach $400 million and averaging in the roughly $250 million range) coinciding with the Covid pandemic and theatrical downturn, coupled with a leveling off — not uncontrolled free-fall or any other hyperbolic situation — of Marvel’s must-see “event” status in the aftermath of their 11-year Infinity Saga’s conclusion (and lack of any Avengers team-ups for four years and counting) has no doubt reduced the dominance of the superhero genre and audience’s previous high-level anticipation.

But that sort of heightened “event” status is impossible for any franchise or genre to maintain, and no serious person expected the genre or any one studio’s piece of it to be some perpetual ever-increasing profit machine

Neither Marvel nor the genre in general need to treat the usual ebb and flow of primacy in entertainment as if it’s some major crisis threatening the existence and profitability of the studio or genre. That’s just the natural clickbait mentality driving entertainment journalism. We should be able to report on and assess such situations without resort to exaggerated portrayals for melodramatic purposes, nor parrot claims from those with obvious incentives and ulterior motives behind any of that sort of hyperbolic claims. We know better, but that doesn’t mean the profession behaves better, and so we get clickbait and studio drama delivered up like silly reality TV, and everyone pretends not to recognize it as the nonsense it usually is.

Marvel has to recast a major lead actor, something we’ve seen plenty of times by studios and projects, including literally by Marvel themselves on more than one occasion. Marvel’s first two films of 2023 grossed a combined $1.3 billion in box office. Even if The Marvels only does about half the box office of Captain Marvel — a vastly bigger drop than the Ant-Man franchise experienced, but let’s just use a 50% dramatic decrease to make the larger point — the MCU will have grossed a total of about $2.45 billion for 2023, an average of $815 million per film.

If that figure sounds familiar, it’s because I mentioned it earlier since it’s the per-film average for the MCU ever since the end of the Infinity Saga. Marvel settled back a bit from the high per-film average of $935 million, and for four years we’ve consistently seen this same new average level of performance for their films. Again, not insignificant as a drop, but in context it’s easier to understand and recognize as not a sudden emergency situation, and I suspect most studios would be happy if they could average north of $800 million per film on average every year.

And let’s face it, once the latest Avengers movies hit the radar, we’ll see the average per film gross go up during those years, just like always, and in the long run if the two scheduled Avengers movies play at the $2 billion level, that will actually result in an increase in the final average per-film gross for the Multiverse Saga, just as those huge Avengers box office grosses at the end of Infinity Saga seriously raised the saga’s per-film average.

This is all fairly predictable, within an obvious margin of error but not frankly too far of deviation. Which doesn’t negate the fact of the downturn in average performances, but rather puts it into less histrionic perspective as solvable problems for a still overwhelmingly successful studio that’s seeing per film averages still far superior to what any other studio can claim.

On streaming, where audience trends and preferences have likewise evolved during the Covid era, Marvel

First we got the ABC broadcast series: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Inhumans. Want to take a moment to recall how did those all fair with audiences and critics?

Then came Netflix's slate, with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher — half of those got mostly good or great reviews, a couple got mixed to negative reviews, and along the way different seasons of a given show had their ups and downs. Many fans and reviewers bemoaned the general lack of tie-in to the cinematic releases, a point that's amusing in light of how the same reviewers and fans completely reversed course a few years later to bemoan the fact the newer MCU shows often try to tie in to the MCU.

So next up are The Runaways and Cloak and Dagger, shows with younger casts and less direct connection to the rest of the MCU, but both were short lived and appeared on two different streaming services.

Which brings us to the MCU shows on Disney+, overseen by Marvel Studios itself and consisting of WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Secret Invasion.

While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and What If...? received mixed reactions, WandaVision and Loki got generally good to great reviews, as did Hawkeye and Moon Knight.

Ms. Marvel likewise received strong positive reviews, aside from resentful fans mostly motivated by racism or sexism who bashed the show (the same way angry bigoted fans harassed Brie Larson and tried to manipulate online reviews for Captain Marvel, and to this day engage in bizarre conspiracy theories pretending movies with women leads are secretly propped up by studios buying up tickets), and the same mob of boys and men perpetually upset that everything isn’t just a mirror reflecting themselves were incensed that She-Hulk dared make fun of them for being immature, bigoted, and all-around goofy.

Granted, She-Hulk did often have what looked like rushed and unfinished CGI, but it was also still miles ahead of most TV CGI and it didn’t detract from the entertainment value of the show and was generally fine. (Yes, plenty of folks just didn’t enjoy these shows, and I’m sure it’s entirely a coincidence that for many of them it always happens to be women-led shows that bother them or are declared “meh”).

Secret Wars is the most recent new MCU show (besides a new season of Loki), and it got mixed reviews that lean mostly positive but still point to trouble in the decision-making to develop the series, questions about

The point of all of this is, Marvel’s had a lot of superhero shows for a long time during the reign of the MCU, and the shows have tended to mostly get good or great reviews, while often suffering complaints of inconsistency in tie-ins vs stand-alone abilities, or iffy VFX, or questions about who is in charge and why certain decisions were made. Sound familiar? It should, because it’s a broken record of reality at this point, the sort that gets mentioned as if it’s a new development any time someone is pushing the latest version of the “sky is falling” narrative.

Not that there aren’t issues needing solutions. The budgets are too high, and Marvel — like many streamers — is discovering it’s simply not sustainable to spend $20 million or more per episode with rushed production schedules and increasingly unreasonable demands on VFX workers.

But the shows themselves are so far working and working pretty well, if you aren’t focused entirely on social media debates and media exaggerations. Most every MCU show on Disney+ has enjoyed positive reception from critics and viewers, enjoying good (and sometimes record-setting) viewership. Fixing the problems for the Marvel streaming plans is not really any more difficult than fixing the theatrical issues, because it’s easy to identify the problems, easy to see where the problems arose, and easy to see what is necessary to end those problems.

Nobody foresaw the Covid pandemic (or at least the extent of it) or the utterly shameful, failed public health response it elicited from governments and organizations that are paid and entrusted to prevent or deal with such crises. Marvel was caught off guard like every studio, Marvel suffered the same box office downturn as every studio, Marvel leaned into streaming like every studio, and Marvel is now having to make adjustments to adapt to the still-evolving environment theatrically and in streaming.

So media and fans and others in Hollywood pretending this is some shocking, Marvel-specific situation are making disingenuous claims, and they should know better. Most probably do, but the truth is more boring than doomsaying — and with everything else in the world falling apart, clickbait and hyperbole are the best way to get attention for entertainment news during a drought (caused by few new films/shows releasing, and the likelihood of strikes dragging into next year because studios put money toward bonuses, yachts, and private jets rather than pay artists, writers, and performers living wages from a fair share of the revenue they generate).

Marvel will recast Kang, they’ll reduce the number of shows and films in production at a given time, they’ll get budgets under control and allow more time for VFX work, and they’ll refocus on the approaches and measures that worked so well in the past to determine which projects to greenlight and how to return to the sense of a big shared world the Avengers have to team up to save.

Luckily, with the X-Men and Fantastic Four reboots around the corner, Marvel has a couple of big teams with lots of potential for precisely the sort of storytelling Marvel does best at the blockbuster level. They could even simply move toward a post-Secret Wars setup that lets Fantastic Four, X-Men, and a handful of other existing popular franchises carry the Marvel brand forward for a while.

We will also probably see the temporary return of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson reprise their popular MCU roles for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and/or Avengers: Secret Wars.

And looking at the upcoming slate, it’s not hard to see there’s plenty of reason to feel confident Marvel will continue to enjoy success, even if it’s at a slightly moderated level due to the myriad factors we’ve discussed, including the idea that superhero genre films are settling into a more consistent long-term level of popularity and performance from now on.

The next four years brings Deadpool 3, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Blade, Fantastic Four, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Avengers: Secret Wars, and at some point thereafter Armor Wars and the X-Men. Of these films, the two Avengers movies are likely to be blockbuster hits, as is Deadpool 3. Captain America: Brave New World is an established franchise, lacking the original series lead but with a continuing cast and brand that I think are enough to avoid any significant downturn in box office, even if we see some drop from the peak levels of the Infinity Saga.

Blade and Thunderbolts are the riskier properties here, but the former is a previously successful cinematic brand and the latter is a team-up movie including some recognizable characters and stars. Still, this is where we might see more underperformances. Fantastic Four could likewise either perform at a blockbuster levels, or might wind up in the $700 million range, but as a key property getting lots of attention and must-work oversight, I think it’ll avoid being a problem.

Armor Wars as an extension of the Iron Man movies — and possibly/probably coming after we see Robert Downey Jr. again in some Avengers action — should perform well, and X-Men is a known successful brand getting an MCU reboot and polish as a big team franchise including younger cast members, so I think it’ll at least be capable of playing at the Guardians of the Galaxy level, if done right.

This isn’t a debacle, it’s not doomsday, and Marvel isn’t in disarray. The internal difficulties they’ve faced are frankly typical and easy to identify and solve, as much as everything else we’ve discussed here. The bottom line is this: we’ve seen Marvel Studios kick off with a big hit in Iron Man and an outright flop with The Incredible Hulk, after which Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor performed at okay levels but didn’t set the box office on fire by any stretch.

We got the original Avengers movie off the strength of Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and to really help put this into perspective I’ll point out the average per film box office of Phase One was $634 million. Phase Two’s per film average was $876 million.

Marvel worked hard to build what they created, and it’s a tremendous historic success full of ups and downs that so far have ultimately maintained an impressive level of successful across a large slate of films and series. To look at this history, this math, and think Marvel Studios is in deep trouble, struggling, or never really was very good to begin with, is unreasonable and contrary to the data and any serious considerations.

#exactly the kind of data we need to remember #Thor TFA and TDW weren't huge hits

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keldjinfae · 6 months ago

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I was tagged by my musical doppleganger @oldefashioned to list my top ten recent(ish) movies, but my memory is absolute shit and what feels like was "just last year" was probably back in 2017. I also can't remember if I've already responded to this one. Thankfully it's not a coffee pot or the house'd probably have burned down by now.

Edit: Thanks to an artwork reblog, I remembered that 1) my sister and I also saw Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and 2) it was released in 2019. We enjoyed the hell out of it, and it's a shame that there likely won't be a sequel.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - I went to see this one with my sister right before the pandemic shut-ins, and we loved the hell out of it. We expected to because it was a Tarantino movie, but both DiCaprio and Pitt were brilliant in it, and were each given the opportunity to stretch their comedic muscles in a way that the '90s and early '00s didn't really allow for because they had to be Hollywood's ideal of "leading men." They're both just dudes in this movie--totally relatable dudes.

Bullet Train - I actually went to see this with my sister right after the pandemic shut-ins, and we thought it was poetic to be bookending the experience with Brad Pitt in another oft-times comical role. The whole thing is a very black comedy, but it's so damn good. The timing is perfect, the acting from everyone is spot-on, and Pitt is only arguably the main character in a brilliant ensemble cast, because he often just sits back and lets everyone else steal the show. Also, there's something about Michael Shannon that draws me into every single thing he's ever been in, so...

John Wick Chapter 4 - also went to see it with my sister, but this was the one that we finally managed to get my brother-in-law to go see as well and thereby pulled him into the John Wick 'verse. Sis and I also flailed around like idiots over the reference to The Warriors, and I'm never going to dismiss a chance to see something with any of the Skarsgards.

Love and Monsters - I put off watching this one for a while because of the marketing for it, actually. I thought it was going to be another movie about a protagonist who was the butt of everyone's joke, and I eventually "went in" prepared to cringe hard and take frequent pause breaks... only to be very pleasantly surprised when this wasn't the case at all.

Red, White, and Royal Blue - again, one that I put off for a bit partly because of aversion to secondhand embarrassment, but also because I'd been in the middle of writing a Sterek fic with an approaching deadline. Still, I was also once again pleasantly surprised.

Joker - yet another one I went to see with my sister. Appropriately twisted, had Joaquin Phoenix, and we both walked away wanting to get our hands on the soundtrack.

Bohemian Rhapsody - I know this one was pre-pandemic, but 2020 was also the year that my back gave out and I've more or less been struggling just to get by ever since, so "recent" is going to have a somewhat warped definition. It wasn't "the perfect biopic," but it was still enjoyable, and my sister and I went to see it with our mom and her best friend, who've both been die-hard Queen fans since they were twelve. We couldn't afford to take Mom to see Queen in-concert, so we took her to see their movie instead.

Deadpool 2 - loved it just as much as the first Deadpool, though I do wish that the movies would just let Vanessa be Copycat already instead of making her a damsel in distress/killing her off every time.

Infinity War - I honestly preferred Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2, but there were plenty of moments in this movie that either hit hard or hit right.

End Game - I saw it, though I don't remember a lot of it. Not because it was a terrible movie or anything, it just came out less than two weeks after my father passed away, so my sister and I basically went to see it because he didn't get to see the last two movies of the series. Well, before they went ahead with Phase Four, that is. Dad, Sis, and I were all die-hard Captain America: Winter Soldier fans and we'd loved the hell out of Civil War, too, so Dad would've wanted to see how everything resolved. More no pressure whatsoever tags for people who have hopefully been able/willing to see more movies than me in the past few years: @vmures @nerdherderette @ice-mage @dear-massacre @renmackree

#this is a tag game #i have apparently lived beneath a rock for the past five years #this is probably what busted up my back

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celerieth · 1 year ago

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Goose's impact on the MCU (or how much was changed by one blue cube that was hacked up like a furball by a Flerken)

Does anyone think about what would have happened differently or just not happened at all if Goose hadn't hacked up the Tesseract like a furball? Well, I do. And these are my conclusions.

Most of Phase 1, which means Iron Man 1 & 2, Hulk and Thor 1 + Captain America; The First Avenger, would have been the same, but the post credits of Thor 1 wouldn't have happened at all, and the post credits of CA;TFA wouldn't have happened the same, because said post credits scene was basically an ad for Avengers 1, which leads me to...

S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't have been experimenting on the Tesseract because they wouldn't technically have it. So no portal, which means no Loki, which means no Mind Stone/Chitauri Sceptre, which means Barton and Selveig wouldn't have been enslaved, which means the Avengers wouldn't have banded together, and there would be no Battle of New York. Basically, the entire film wouldn't have happened.

Iron Man 3 would have been pretty much the same, minus Tony's PTSD from throwing a nuke into the portal. Thor; The Dark World... well, Jane probably would have still been on that date and wound up with the Aether/Reality Stone inside of her, can't see how that might change. Whether that's something that could have been solved without Loki (since he'd still be missing, because Thor wouldn't have taken him back to Asgard because Avengers 1 didn't happen), is up for debate, but the Dark Elves would still be an issue. I can't see how they could be defeated, but for the sake of argument, let's say they're vanquished. Captain America; The Winter Soldier... I can't see it happening the same, because I can't think of how Natasha and Steve met without Avengers 1 happening. Guardians of the Galaxy... that'd probably be exactly the same, as well as Ant-Man.

Age of Ultron. Well, no Sceptre and no CA;TWS (the latter is just for the sake of argument, okay?) means no raids on Hydra bases to find the Sceptre, and no Sceptre means no Mind Stone which means Wanda would be an ordinary witch (according to WandaVision) and Pietro wouldn't have super speed. Also, they wouldn't have been experimented on with the Mind Stone, so they likely wouldn't be at the base anyway. And if they, the Sceptre and the Avengers weren't at the base, then Tony probably wouldn't have had that waking nightmare/trance thing (thank you, Wanda Maximoff) which would lead to him coming up with the terrible idea to 'build a suit of armour around the world', which means no Ultron. That and the lack of the Mind Stone means no Vision. And Sokovia wouldn't have been destroyed, which leads to...

No Sokovia Accords, which means the chain of events leading to the death of T'Chaka didn't happen, which means T'Challa doesn't become Black Panther. I'm not saying Killmonger doesn't show up, but T'Challa probably wouldn't be having to deal with it entirely on his own. Away from Wakandan politics, Civil War wouldn't have happened because a) no Avengers in the first place and b) no Accords for them to fight at a German airport about. Which means Ant-Man and the Wasp wouldn't have happened the same because Scott wouldn't have taken Hank's suit to Germany to be arrested in, which means he wouldn't be limited to his home by the law. Ava Starr probably would still be out there, but she'd likely be dealt with differently. Janet might have still been rescued from the Quantum Realm, but I'm not sure. Thor; Ragnarok wouldn't have happened because Thor wouldn't have had that vision in AoU, which meant he wouldn't be scouring the 9 Realms for other Infinity Stones. Also, Loki wouldn't have been there to cast that spell on Odin, so he might have lived a bit longer and decided to give Thor a heads-up about Hela. I stress the word 'might' here because he's a terrible father. Also, Dr. Strange and GotG Vol. 2 would have probably happened the same. I mean, I can't see why they wouldn't.

Due to Ragnarok not happening, the Asgardians wouldn't have been an endangered species of refugees when Thanos found them, assuming he even comes after them at all in this altered reality. Because without the Tesseract and Loki, why should he care about Asgardians, unless they were dumb enough to keep the Reality Stone on Asgard in this timeline? Not that likely. So, yeah. The attacks on Earth by the Black Order to try and get the Time Stone... might have still happened, but probably not in the same way, I'd imagine. Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian would probably still have attacked the New York Sanctum Sanctorum (or the streets near it, whichever), but they might have been joined by the other two, since Proxima and Corvus wouldn't be seeking the Mind Stone in... wherever it was Wanda and Vision were hiding (I think it was Edinburgh, but I probably heard wrong). Which means they might have gotten to the Time Stone early, even with Tony and Peter helping Strange (oh, forgot to mention it earlier, but Spiderman; Homecoming probably wouldn't have been exactly the same, since the fight in the airport didn't happen, so Tony wouldn't have had that reason to seek out Peter, so probably wouldn't have given him the upgraded suit or taken it away). The Guardians of the Galaxy wouldn't have recieved Thor's distress signal, so wouldn't have been roped into this whole mess as soon, if at all. Several other events wouldn't have happened, which would mean no battle in Wakanda. That combined with Goose presumably still having the Tesseract inside themself would mean no completed Infinity Gauntlet, which would mean no Snap. So no Endgame or Phase 4-5 either.

So this got long. Sorry for everyone having to read it, but this literally just occured to me because I was rewatching the Marvels trailer and thinking about Goose. So... yeah.

#goose the cat #marvel meta #mcu meta

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yourdailykitsch · 2 years ago

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Chris Pratt’s ‘The Terminal List’ Gets Second Season & Prequel Series Starting Taylor Kitsch At Prime Video

The Terminal List is continuing — and becoming a franchise for Amazon Studios. I have learned that Prime Video has finalized a Season 2 renewal for the hit series starring and executive produced by Chris Pratt, and also has picked up an untitled prequel/Ben Edwards origin series headlined and executive produced by Taylor Kitsch, from The Terminal List creator/executive producer David DiGilio. I hear other Jack Carr characters who have or have not appeared yet on The Terminal List, an adaptation of his 2018 novel, will be featured in the prequel, including Pratt’s Navy SEAL James Reece and Raife Hastings, a former SEAL pal of Reece’s whose potential arrival was set up in Season 1 of the mothership series. A rep for Amazon Studios declined comment. Talks about a second season of The Terminal List — which has been a big hit for Prime Video, reaching No. 2 on Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 streaming ratings chart — have been going on for months. I hear that during those conversations, Pratt suggested expanding the series with a prequel, which he is executive producing through his Indivisible Productions alongside Kitsch.

According to sources, also executive producing the offshoot are DiGilio, who serves as showrunner; fellow The Terminal List executive producers Carr and Antoine Fuqua; and producers include Max Adams, a writer who is a former Army Ranger; and Pratt’s longtime coach Jared Shaw, a former Navy SEAL. The prequel is described an elevated espionage thriller that follows Ben’s (Kitsch) journey from Navy SEAL to CIA paramilitary operator, exploring the true darker side of warfare and the human cost that comes with it. The Terminal List, a co-production from Amazon Studios and Civic Center Media in association with MRC Television, tells the story of James Reece (Pratt), a Navy SEAL who seeks to avenge the murder of his family. Following the outsized ratings success of the eight-episode first season, which launched July 1, Pratt hinted that more episodes are coming during a September appearance on Carr’s podcast Danger Close. “To the rabid fans of The Terminal List out there, you have nothing to worry about,” he said. “We love you and appreciate your support. It’s our life’s mission to make sure you can come back to the well. We are working away.” Added Carr, “There may be some cool stuff on the horizon being discussed.” Besides Pratt and Kitsch, the main cast of the conspiracy thriller’s first season also included Constance Wu, Riley Keough, Arlo Mertz and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Waco alum Kitsch will next be seen in the Netflix limited series American Primeval and Painkiller, both directed by Pete Berg. Pratt next will be seen reprising his role as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and heard as Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. His recent credits include The Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special for Disney+, Thor: Love and Thunder, Jurassic World: Dominion and The Tomorrow War, which he executive produced.

#taylor kitsch #Chris Pratt #The Terminal List #ben edwards

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mylifeincinema · 2 years ago

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My 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2023!!

No intro this year. Just, y’know, here they are...

PHOTO ONE:

1. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg) – 1.27.23

Haaaave you seen Possessor?!? Plus, that trailer!!

2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Peyton Reed) – 2.17.23

Bring on Kang...

3. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski) – 3.24.23

I’ll never not be excited to see Keanu kill the shit out of people.

4. Renfield (Chris McKay) – 4.14.23

Nic Cage as Dracula... I repeat, Nic Cage as Dracula!!

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (James Gunn) – 5.5.23

The trailer alone has me more emotionally invested than anything I saw in 2022, period.

PHOTO TWO:

6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Dos Santos, Powers & Thompson) – 6.2.23

Haaaaaave you seen the first one?!?

7. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson) – 6.23.23

Wes is one of my very favorite directors. Enough Said.

8. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold) – 6.30.23

If you’re actually questioning why this is here, you clearly did not know how obsessed I was with Temple of Doom and Last Crusade as a little kid.

9. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One (Christopher McQuarrie) – 7.14.23

Cruise can do no wrong... until he does... but even then the footage of his death will be a fucking blockbuster, and all his fans will give him the exact sendoff he’s apparently begging for. Can’t wait to see how he almost dies, this time.

10. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) – 7.21.23

So very excited to see Nolan take on something more dramatic... plus, look at that cast!!!

PHOTO THREE:

11. Barbie (Greta Gerwig) – 7.21.23

Margot and Greta... enough said. Oh, but I’ll say more... we live in a world that will soon be home to a Barbie movie co-written by Noah Baumbach!! That’s beautiful.

12. Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve) – 11.3.23

The first felt too unfinished to not be excited to see where Villeneuve brings it next.

13. Wonka (Paul King) – 12.15.23

Really couldn’t care less about Chalamet, and this project is totally unnecessary. But... I’m a die-hard Roald Dahl fan, and this is directed by the man who gave us Paddington 2, so... yeah.

14. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) – TBD

C’mon... It’s Scorsese!

15. The Killer (David Fincher) – TBD

C’mon... It’s Fincher!

PHOTO FOUR:

16. Napoleon (Ridley Scott) – TBD

I love Ridley Scott... and Joaquin Phoenix looks like he’s going to murder this role.

17. Maestro (Bradley Cooper) – TBD

The theatre geek living deep down within me is enough reason. But then I also want to see if A Star Is Born was a fluke.

18. Ferrari (Michael Mann) – TBD

Michael Mann directing a movie about Enzo Ferrari starring Adam Driver... why aren’t you excited about it?!?

19. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster) – TBD

No clue what we’re in for... but I’m certain it’s going to fuck me up for a week or two.

20. Peter Pan & Wendy (David Lowery) – TBD

David Lowery... enough said. I mean, seriously, have you seen A Ghost Story or Pete’s Dragon?!?

PHOTO FIVE:

21. Lee (Ellen Kuras) – TBD

If Kate Winslet wasn’t enough... well, it is... it really is.

22. Blitz (Steve McQueen) – TBD

It’s McQueen doing a WWII drama starring Saoirse Ronan...

23. Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola) – TBD

I’m hoping it’s as wild as those set photos have been...

24. The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick) – TBD

Malick does Jesus...

25. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson) – TBD

I doubt this is actually going to release in 2023, but it is already in post, so in case does, I really need you all to know just how excited I will always be for new Wes Anderson.

There they are!

As for My Best of 2022, once again all of the major lists will not be getting posted until mid/late January, but I’m going to try to get some of the early lists – such as Posters, TV & Non-2022 Films – sorted and posted over the next week or two. Please Feel Free to Follow Along So You Don’t Miss Anything!

Stay Tuned!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

#movies #most anticipated #cinema #barbie #oppenheimer #2023 #Christopher Nolan #killers of the flower moon #Martin Scorsese #asteroid city #wes anderson #beau is afraid #film

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inquisitivewordsmith · 11 months ago

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What did you think of the Blue Beetle movie (if you saw it)? Also, where should Jaime show up in the DCU (ex. Peacemaker season 2, Booster Gold, new Blue Beetle movie) and in what way (lead character, supporting, part of a team)?

Sorry I only got to see this now. It's been a while since I've been getting asks.

I generally liked the Blue Beetle movie. Yeah, the overall story was predictable and the villains were (mostly) flat. I didn't like that Jaime was a college student instead of a high schooler. Also, I missed the El Paso setting and Paco and Brenda as part of the supporting cast, but honestly, no adaptation has truly gotten those aspects right.

That being said, I loved everything else about it. I liked that the lower budget (originally intended for HBO Max) had them film more grounded action sequences and combine practical effects with CGI. The suit and its abilities were perfect, and Xolo Maridueña was a perfect cast for him. Even though they overdid it a bit with his family, I still liked them a lot and were the heart of the film. If Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hadn't come out last year, it would've been my favorite superhero movie of the year easily.

As far as the future, I would greatly prefer a proper sequel, but I understand the movie's underperformance ruined that. I wouldn't mind an appearance in Booster Gold and then move him into the Justice League International project that James Gunn is not-so-subtly trying to set up.

#iw answers #anonymous #blue beetle #detective comics

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0poole · 2 years ago

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I’ve never hated a movie this much in a long time

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 made me so mad that I'm breaking this random rambling blog out of retirement

I'm seriously the "enjoy everything" guy. I'm not really interested in Marvel much at all anymore, but I do honestly expect to go to a Marvel movie and have a good, simple time. But like… for some reason this one feels like a special kind of bad. I guess that's because the solution to all my genuine problems was so close.

The ONE thing I genuinely, honestly believe is an issue is that this movie isn't about Rocket enough. Everything else is stylistic junk I should've expected to have an issue with, cuz of course modern Marvel art style is just, like, awful (because it's not fully animated). But I swear

Here's the pitch: Keep all of Rocket's flashbacks as is, and keep the overall current time throughline of the crew trying to save him, but SERIOUSLY cut them down. Like, a lot a lot.Pretty much any time any form of Rocket (near-dead or young) was genuinely good content. Obviously super grim and intense for a Marvel movie, but I feel like something like that was basically guaranteed to be his backstory anyway, so I was actually hoping to see it through. Also, Floor (spider bunny) was so utterly perfect that I honestly might buy a plush of her (him? them?) and thus end up fuelling the very thing I'm criticizing in this post but I can't help it, they were a seriously amazing design. And I even have a disagreement with some of the criticism, I'm hearing from multiple (2) places that people (two people) didn't like how the main villain was so utterly despicable that they didn't like it, while I actually like him. Maybe it's my character designer brain both liking purple and also his tacked-on skinface. His weird eccentricness was really fitting for someone who believed he was god. I think the only reason he felt so despicable was because he was abusing animals, while I think if he was just your average planet-conqueror he would either be a little fun or boring. I also really liked the line someone (I think Quill) said where his crew were basically responsible for certain whole civilizations across the universe, and that they would actually call them gods.

The problem was everything in between these scenes. They tried to make this a Guardians movie when it really should've been a Rocket Raccoon movie. And yeah, I get that they wanted to call it a Guardians movie, but they still made it so much of Rocket's movie that every random interpersonal conflict not involving Rocket just felt like filler junk. I guess the fact that I knew these conflicts would be resolved by the end of the movie made them feel like petty squabbling in the moment. It's even worse with Quill and Gamora, because I honestly thought Gamora was straight-up dead from the Infinity War junk, but I guess she's just back now, minus her memories? I used to think I understood what was going on with the whole Marvel Cinematic Multiverse but I guess now I have to admit I'm out of the loop. Was there some series that established what happened to her that I heard nothing about? I don't remember one but there also have been like dozens coming out and being announced a month so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Same goes with the Soviet space dog, although that was clearly meant to be a much less deep character so I could excuse it then. I do like the prospect of the Guardians as characters being more like a rotating cast instead of a set group.

(Also the whole concept of the Yondu-tech with the whistling and the arrow and such is still one of the coolest character design traits ever. I still will keep that much true to my heart)

But yeah anyway, not only did I really not care about most of the "important" stuff happening with the current-time shenanigans, the fact that they had the usual Marvel jokiness about it half of the time really caused some serious tonal whiplash at some points. Like, in the flashback where Purple Guy (I don't remember his name if he had one) shoots all Rocket's buddies to death and as Lila utters her last dying wish to see the sky it still cuts back to the random group banter of the other characters just being goofballs amidst the chaos. Seriously? We just witnessed the most traumatizing event in a cartoon animal's life, where his friends were murdered right before his eyes by his captor, and we still go back to that? Can't we just have some kind of emotional parachute? Maybe like a cutaway to some little trinket Rocket kept around that reminded him of them? Or at least Groot watching over the holograms they had in that meatball they stole so we can share the emotions with one of the characters?

And really, the thing that really capped it all off with the worst possible ending was the fact that Rocket didn't fucking murder the Purple Guy. What kind of catharsis is that? He literally could've just held the gun to his head and shot him dead, but I guess for some reason the Guardians have this bullshit pathos to bad guys, even though they just DON'T. They murdered dozens of random soldiers to get to where they were, BUT FOR SOME REASON THE SOLE CAUSE OF IT ALL DESERVES TO LIVE (or die ambiguously in a ship explosion, still is bullshit). Purple Guy deserved all the pain and suffering he inflicted on not only Rocket but literally all of his creations, even his lackeys, and yet for some reason they couldn't just shoot him. And not even that, but they (Nebula) clearly didn't have an issue stabbing that Sovereign guy in the heart. Was somehow terrorizing their town more bad than destroying an entire planet of your own creation? And the worst part is that Rocket was kind of defeatist about it too, like he sounded like he wanted to shoot him, but thought his buddies would be mad at him, even though his buddies were the ones killing everyone to save him. Quill literally said verbatim to Groot "Okay you can kill them all now" and then jumped off a ship to drive one of the scientist guys into the ground to scoop out his fucking brains. And even Groot, the guy who seems like he should be the most pacifistic of them all, fucking launched his arm into one of the experiments' throats to gore him from the inside with his spiky branches. Are you fucking kidding me? Even I was like "This is the shit they would rather show kids instead of a naked boob?"

Seriously. A boob on screen would send this up to like an R rating nowadays, but apparently that, or multiple situations where one of the experiments' heads gets torn off, or their body gets sliced in half, or idk maybe a guy shooting fucking innocent little animals keeps it at a safe family film rating. Shit's like a normalized Liveleak video.

And one last thing before I get to the less important stuff, Quill had the audacity to be the fake out death at the end when Rocket was clearly the only emotional core of the movie. It would've been so much more impactful if Rocket was the one who nearly died there. We saw his trauma all over screen, he saved his (other) animal buddies, and if doing so nearly cost him his life that would've been so much more impactful. Plus, the fact that he's not the mainest of the main characters also means there's a small chance he might actually fully die there. AND let's not forget the fact that in like the first or second movies, the exact same thing happened to Quill before and literally all they had to do to save him was to put a helmet on him. How could no one on their whole spacefaring colony have some sort of helmet to just throw out to him? Like this is turbonerd-critic-who-cares-way-too-much-about-plot-holes territory but I'm genuinely annoyed at that scene. I think it pisses me off because it wasn't just some throwaway detail in the past movies, it was the biggest deal because I think it was like Gamora or Yondu or someone who passed over their only helmet to save him, so the fact that that's how you help someone dying in the vacuum of space being so present in this series and they just completely ignored it just shows serious lack of care on whoever chose that to be the case's part.

I feel like I should leave it at that for the serious stuff, but I obviously have a lot of random stylistic annoyances that are obviously just par for the course and I really shouldn't be angry about but I still am so

The simplest one is the music, and I feel like this annoys me more because my dad specifically actually really likes music choices like this. I realized this about him when we watched Lightyear and he was explicitly disappointed that Starman wasn't directly in the movie even though it was in all the trailers. He said something like "Movies need to have good music in them" which in principle I agree with, but the fact that he basically meant it as "Movies need to insert more classic songs into their movies" kind of annoys me honestly. I can actually like it in the first Guardians movie since back then it was a unique vibe for superhero stuff to have, but now it's so beaten down that I am really just over it. Really here specifically I have no right to be annoyed since it is truly a part of the Guardians brand, but yeah it is annoying. I do want movies to have good music, but good ORIGINAL music. Like either songs made for the movie (Sunflower and What's Up Danger, again Spiderverse does it right) or actually, somehow, make a score that actually has any degree of staying power at all. Between the "Oh I remember that song haha!" moments was still the most generic "I'm a movie" drivel. It almost made the emotional climaxes for anything besides Rocket's backstory feel really overblown because of how hard they tried to make the music carry the very shallow emotional weight of all of it. And the funny thing is that I do actually know an example, and it's Unicorn Warriors Eternal. Only 3 episodes so far and it's already one of the best cartoons I've seen, and it manages to have a completely original score that doesn't sound like it's trying to be a standalone track you buy the single for, and still matches the tone of the scene its all used for too. There have been multiple points where I've been taken aback at the score being both catchy in its own right but being really good and fun for the goofy scenes its used in. Modern cartoons are still the pinnacle of stories honestly I swear

And I guess I'm basically just going to be saying that all again because this has officially been the worst of both CGI and Practical Effects at the same time. Neither are good. Both suck. Both were terrible in this movie. Every fantastical property ever should be fully animated (or at least have impressive artistry on display like Dark Crystal or something, even though I still don't really like Dark Crystal).

The most hilariously bad part was unfortunately a part of Rocket's backstory, in the weird evolution chambers the purple guy made, where he puts in a completely normal, real animal, presses a button, and the animal turns into a crazy CGI fest transformation sequence, then literally a guy in an animal mascot costume. I can't believe it. Did no one in the editing bay look at that and think "That's what we're going with? Really?" And here's the solution: Just do it with CGI. This is where practical effects completely suck ass. Shit looked like one of the classic TMNT movies. Even if the CGI wouldn't nearly be animated correctly to truly mimic real life, it would've at least not looked pathetic. Stupid is better than pathetic. And Rocket and all the cyborg experiments are CGI anyway, as is everything else in the movie, so like… was it to save money? Do they not have money anymore? What's the point of me buying a Floor plush if they're just gonna pull trash like this?

The iffy part was with the humanoid animals in the suburb on Counter-Earth, because I truly got the joke (weird animal people in a super generic American landscape), but it still was almost too ridiculous to even get the joke good enough. I was so close to enjoying it, but I still think it would've been better if they all were extra weird in the way only CGI could provide. Think about it, a weird blob monster with like 5 malformed legs, 3 arms, a melted face, but in a polo t-shirt and khakis mowing a well-pruned lawn would've been so much better. Not just someone who's clearly just a human with a lot of makeup and plastic on their face. Or, in this case I feel like they were adapting an exact moment from the comics, and I can only imagine that moment was so much better then because of the stylistic way you can represent these people. This is a big case where my catchphrase of "animate everything" Actually makes so much more sense

And the last case is of course with everyone else. I'm still making it a mission statement of my own sci-fi universe-sprawling world to have plenty of body types that aren't just "human but with weird face parts." And I'm extra mad here because there was ONE background character that was exactly what I wanted, in between all the random humans with face paint. It was when the Ravagers first boarded the ship and Gamora came out, one of them was this weird mouthless serpent guy with Dr Strange powers who speaks in visualizing emoticons with magic. First of all, the fact that he uses normal ass emojis was actually funny and I liked it, but aside from that when he first came on screen I was seriously like "WHO IS HE????" because I'm so not used to any character being that cool looking. Again, this is what CGI can do right. It can show you weird monsters that actually look interesting and show diversity in this world which is supposed to take into account every single species that exists across every planet ever. Man, if only there were a show that took place exclusively in space that was expertly animated and character-designed to actually represent all the weirdness that can happen across the univer--Oh wait it exists it's Wander Over Yonder my favorite show of all time funny how that works anyway

The last bit was all the suits and stuff all the guard people were wearing, especially on that fleshy starbase thing. My mom put it perfectly, where it feels like the era of sci fi in things like Sharkboy and Lavagirl or Spy Kids 3D where they just look so stupid and goofy. Back then, it's charming because it was a product of the time. Now, it just looks dumb. The whole location was made to show like how flesh can be bent to their whim or whatever, right? Why not make it so their armor is much more obviously fleshy, and also directly attached to their skin instead of being an obvious suit they just put on? That would be much more fitting.

And I'll make this the last thing, I actually loved that fleshy place. I am a BIG proponent of meatbending, or whatever term you want to use, both in general but especially in a more normal, nonhorrific light. When they were sawing into the walls of that place and lifted up the removed core I was disgusted, but in an intrigued kind of way. And I was blown out of the water when they walked around inside, and not only were the nonorganic parts still cool looking and unique, but the sheer design potential of decorative flesh was extremely cool to see. I was especially interested in the fact that they shaped plants out of flesh, which was hilarious, but even things like one of the spy cameras being a giant eye, and a floating flesh blob thing leaking plasma-like goop. I LOVE that. I want more of it. Make that one yelling Spongebob meme in your head but with flesh tech or whatever, it's seriously cool and rarely done.

Anyway that's it whatever time to get back to the stuff I actually like, like damn that new Pokemon series is kinda aiming to be pretty good ngl

#guardians of the galaxy #3 #volume 3 #marvel #rant #rambling #rocket raccoon #poole #etc #who cares

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omegatheunknown · 1 year ago

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Top 10 of 2023 -- Theatrical Releases

Started using letterboxd as a journal two years ago, mostly so I could remember just how recently I'd watched Big Trouble in Little China or Hot Fuzz, but also to hit 'em with of the moment reviews and ratings fresh from the theatre. Which is to say, I'm a little nervous to see what'll come up at the top, but let's take a trip.

10- The Boogeyman (**1/2) - Technically in theatres for a week or two. Buried otherwise, a low stakes King adaptation/remake/reboot that makes the list so I don't have to say anything about AntMan, Elemental, Renfield, or, god forbid, Mario. Effective horror, kind of a neat creature at the center of it, pleasantly surprised that I didn't hate it.

9- Asteroid City (***) - Did lead to a minor personal epiphany, so not all bad. The amount of meta-fictional artifice (lest we for a second want to empathize or consider Wes' paper doll characters in his paper doll theatre as being recognizably human) has gone well-beyond the 'as Royal Tenenbaum' and 'let me tell you about my boat,' past the authorial frame of the Grand Budapest and as of The French Dispatch, Mssr Anderson is now almost entirely preoccupied with stories within stories and it is actually very annoying. (The minor epiphany is that I have also been doing this, as metafiction delights me too, Wes, but why should anyone else care?) Anyway, highlight here is the usual meticulous design, the ridiculous stop-motion sequence, some crackerjack dialogue (muted because now every character has the same blunted affect and without subtitles I sorta glazed over in parts) and these movies remain quite funny.

8- Barbie (***1/2) - Watched a lot of pablum this year, most of it with very naked corporate ambition. Barbie's central trick is to critique itself and the very cynical context in which it critiques itself and hopefully contain within it the entire discourse (good luck to you.) Wish I hadn't had to listen to people earnestly tell me how brilliant and resonant certain 'pause for applause' moments were, but the humour may well stand the test of time, and people were rightly hyped on Ryan Gosling's over-delivery on what once was seen as an unlikely bit of casting.

7- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (***1/2) - Not too proud to admit I was, in 2023, still kind of excited to see this one (1) marvel movie. Crisp Rat aside, the Guardians deliver best on the comic-to-screen vibe and rarely seem embarrassed with their source, leading to the intense emotional journey of a CGI mutant raccoon bounty hunter reckoning with his maker, no winking involved. Rocket Raccoon is my fucking guy, anyway, no more of these, please and thanks.

6- Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves (***1/2) - Yeah, okay, more popcorn flick pablum. Hasbro hoping to further capitalize on the pop culture rise of and monetize and micro-transaction-atize and thereby enshitiffy one of my dearest hobbies (I am diversifying away from D&D TM) looming large in the background here, given the whole OGL blowback it was briefly reasonable large portions of diehards might boycott this thing. Anyway, saw it, liked it, succeeded wildly in the goal of effectively conveying what it's actually like to play a fantasy ttrpg, all the weird in-jokes, wild variations in tone, hand-waving and quirks of 'the rules' there for snorts of recognition. Cannot imagine this was much fun for non-players, but maybe.

5- Across the Spider-Verse (****) - Extremely hyped, but hopefully not the zenith of the trilogy, a lot is riding on part 3, which is thankfully due, uhhh, sometime next year? Dragged out its ending laying more groundwork, but before then, another ceiling breaking exercise in contemporary animation, an almost non-stop kinetic kaleidoscope of visual creativity that augurs well for animation's continued evolution.

4- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Mutant Mayhem (****) - Speaking of. Now, I've loved the Turtles since I was 4 years old, so my personal belief has always been, even though I love the 1990 rubber-suited cash grab, that the central premise is something that in the right hands can actually be objectively good, as opposed to personally delightful to me. This is that movie, the good Ninja Turtles movie. 'Teenage' -- to the point of being endearingly, obnoxiously immature, 'Mutant' -- to the point that the world around them is just as grody and fucked up looking as they are, 'Ninja' -- with sly handheld camera angles and satisfyingly fluid motion to rival Spiderverse, and uh, 'Turtles' -- they sure fucking are. I loved this. Jackie Chan forever.More, please.

3- Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (****) - Exceedingly Quebecois take on the contemporary hipster vampire movie, Can-con for my list. Canadian Indies in 2023 are strikingly similar to American Indies from 2008, if that at all recommends. Ranks high for efficient self-contained everything, very charming, funny, just bizarre enough.

2- The Boy and the Heron (****1/2) - Easy to feel like this is a Ghibli greatest hits compilation, easier to remember that's what we all kinda want-- cute and unsettling creatures, delicious looking food, spirit worlds, quiet moments of reflection, arcane rules for how any and everything works... yet also maybe the truest return to the titanic achievements of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away (especially.) Story forms a suitably esoteric thesis about grief and creation and, ultimately, endings. I think Miyazaki might actually be done this time.

1- Godzilla Minus One (*****) - An entirely different movie than Shin Godzilla, very possibly even better. It's tense (Godzilla hasn't felt creepy like this for a while.) It's emotional (rivals Godzilla vs Biollante in its human story.) It's very naked in its message (ah, the guilt.) The action is superb. I do not know where Godzilla goes from here. (Mothra!)

(Haven’t seen: Poor Things, Bottoms, Napoleon, the Killer, a bunch of other crap.)

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