Marvel Cinematic Universe Part II

[Drops Of Venus]

To me the thing that really sums up the ridiculousness of the rewrites is that they spent a fortune in reshoots to add John Krasinski as Reed Richards instead of Daniel Craig as Balder the Brave in the role of "Illuminati member who gets instantly killed." What did this change get them? The cameo was unpopular, didn't address any of the movie's problems, and was a waste of time and money. Someone at Disney must have looked at the first cut and actually thought "another five-minute cameo" would solve anything.

Changing things at the last minute is definitely a bad habit that Marvel Studios has developed, but I think the worst part about this for me is that Balder was their first choice to begin with. How do you think of freaking Balder as an Illuminati member before Mister Fantastic? And maybe that's the reason why they changed it; someone must have realized Balder was too random of a character to be in there. Krasinski as Reed would at least generate some hype for the upcoming Fantastic Four.

[gurkle]

Changing things at the last minute is definitely a bad habit that Marvel Studios has developed, but I think the worst part about this for me is that Balder was their first choice to begin with. How do you think of freaking Balder as an Illuminati member before Mister Fantastic? And maybe that's the reason why they changed it; someone must have realized Balder was too random of a character to be in there. Krasinski as Reed would at least generate some hype for the upcoming Fantastic Four.

Well, the whole scene was basically a joke -- one of the few things in the film that I thought was funny -- which is that they have these huge cameos and they're just there to get instantly and humiliatingly killed. Getting Daniel Craig to be a character most MCU viewers have never heard of and then have him go down without doing anything is part of the cruel but funny joke of the scene.

[Frontier]

Well, the whole scene was basically a joke -- one of the few things in the film that I thought was funny -- which is that they have these huge cameos and they're just there to get instantly and humiliatingly killed. Getting Daniel Craig to be a character most MCU viewers have never heard of and then have him go down without doing anything is part of the cruel but funny joke of the scene.

Sounds a tad mean-spirited to me .

[gurkle]

Sounds a tad mean-spirited to me .

Everything about that movie is mean spirited, starting with the filmed but cut opening scene where Mordo shows up to continue his arc from the first movie and gets murdered by Wanda. Even though they cut it, it sums up the tone of the film: if you wanted to see characters from the first movie, or the Scarlet Witch acting like herself, then you're out of luck!

[Frontier]

Everything about that movie is mean spirited, starting with the filmed but cut opening scene where Mordo shows up to continue his arc from the first movie and gets murdered by Wanda. Even though they cut it, it sums up the tone of the film: if you wanted to see characters from the first movie, or the Scarlet Witch acting like herself, then you're out of luck!

It's kind of hilarious how they set up Mordo as this future and prominent antagonist only to basically side-step all of that even when we get his Variant on the Illuminati Earth to the point where they're basically expecting the audience to be familiar with a more villainous Mordo we hadn't even see on-screen.

It also made me think back during the lead-up to the movie people thought What If was going to matter because we were getting Supreme Strange, Zombie!Strange, and the like but it ended up not being that way at all. At best you got Captain Carter.

[Dipter]

Everything about that movie is mean spirited, starting with the filmed but cut opening scene where Mordo shows up to continue his arc from the first movie and gets murdered by Wanda. Even though they cut it, it sums up the tone of the film: if you wanted to see characters from the first movie, or the Scarlet Witch acting like herself, then you're out of luck!

Let's be real, nobody was waiting to see more of Mordo lmao. He'd have to be an actually interesting character for that.

But yeah, besides the fun, brutal deaths, the Illuminati sequence is the weakest part of the film. It's just a bland exposition dump setting up stuff that won't be important until the next Avengers movies. And sure, Krasinski was a very popular fan cast for Reed on twitter and reddit, but 90% of the audience are not chronically online geeks who know that, so they had no reason to be hyped about his cameo. That type of fanservice is way too niche and specific, to the detriment of the film

[Force de Phenix]

Let's be real, nobody was waiting to see more of Mordo lmao. He'd have to be an actually interesting character for that.

But yeah, besides the fun, brutal deaths, the Illuminati sequence is the weakest part of the film. It's just a bland exposition dump setting up stuff that won't be important until the next Avengers movies. And sure, Krasinski was a very popular fan cast for Reed on twitter and reddit, but 90% of the audience are not chronically online geeks who know that, so they had no reason to be hyped about his cameo. That type of fanservice is way too niche and specific, to the detriment of the film

The Illuminati were used to show us that Wanda was more powerful than the "leader" of every type of hero and how Doctor Strange was able to be corrupted, and was a warning to him. The Illuminati scene worked and when people go to a Disney movie, they expect to see expensive fan service. Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch are niche, and they were the two main elements of the movie. Being niche doesn't disqualify anything in this day and age.

[mace11]

‘Incredible Hulk’ Is Finally Coming to Disney+

“The Incredible Hulk” is smashing its way to Disney+ on June 16, the streamer announced Thursday.

The film was initially released and distributed by Universal on June 13, 2008, and the company held the rights to the title for 15 years. Now, in a notable shift, the rights have reverted to Marvel Studios, leading to the film’s release on Disney+.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/i...te-1235645525/

[Galerion]

Marvel updated their banners.

[Ascended]

At best you got Captain Carter.

And not even the What If? Captain Carter, just another Cap Carter variant.

Which is good, given how MoM handled their version of Peggy.

I still think MoM is a decent enough film on its own, but I take issue with how everything that had happened to Strange was set aside and ignored for a random multiverse story we never needed. Mordo? Destroyed time stone? His apparent status as one of the world's most famous heroes? No, we get none of that. We get a weak version of America (actress was good tho) and several versions of Strange revolving around the same character twist in a story that, ultimately, leaves us largely in the same place we were already at.

Feel the same way about Spidey-3. It was a better movie than MoM, but it wasn't the story I wanted to see and I'd call it an 'average' MCU film at best.

So a whole lotta stuff got delayed. Not surprising. But I'm glad Deadpool moved up a bit, that's nice. I'm interested in how they add Reynold's Wade to the MCU. Will they just fold him in like "oh he's been here the whole time" or is he gonna be reality jumping? Maybe he triggers an incursion and needs a new place to live?

[John Venus]

I think it's clear that the problem with MoM was that Waldron and Raimi didn't do their homework and just approached it with their presumption when it came to Scarlet Witch. Waldron, a self admitted comic fan, has admitted that he loves Disassembled/HoM and made the call to make Wanda the villain instead of Nightmare. It's also clear that Raimi had to work with some of what Derrickson had established in pre production before he quit (like the minotaur character) and the carry over from WandaVision as well plus what Marvel Studios wanted for the film *and* he also had to make sure his film lined up with NWH continuity wise. Oh and there was also a global pandemic going on and he had to adjust to co-ordinating everyone over Zoom. It's no wonder why he compared making the film to building the next piece of a bridge. That is a difficult balancing act especially for someone who hasn't directed for almost a decade. I still wonder what a pure Raimi Dr Strange film would be like where he truly got to start from scratch instead of having to deal with all the baggage. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind if Derrickson returned for another shot either.

Olsen has always expressed interest in wanting to explore Wanda's dark side and often cited HoM as her favorite and lets face, a villainous turn for MCU Wanda gives how her character arc has developed so far and she technically *was* the villain of WandaVision while Agatha was just the antagonist. But I don't think the one dimensional cartoon villain is what she wanted. She has also said she wants to explore Wanda's lighter, comedic side, at this point, I think it would make sense it Wanda returned in Loki Season 3. There is a chance that she could show up in the upcoming Agatha show or Vision Quest.

I know I'm saying this with the benefit of hindsight but maybe they should have scrapped the idea of having Wanda show up on Dr Strange 2 all together, do more seasons of Wanda Vision (and we are getting WV season 2 and 3 anyway in the form of the Agatha show and the Vision Quest show) and have Loki appear in Dr Strange 2 instead.

It's clear they are still having trouble having the shows and movies line up properly. They are getting it right with Sam Cap where they first gave him his own show, waited for the reaction then announced the movie. But ultimately I think Gunn over at DC had it right; established all the characters in 'The Suicide Squad' then he used shows like Peacemaker to further flesh out one of the characters and we are also getting Waller in the future which will flesh out her character. Bottom line; use shows to add depth to characters from movies, don't use shows to set up major plot lines.

[Frontier]

Let's be real, nobody was waiting to see more of Mordo lmao. He'd have to be an actually interesting character for that.

But yeah, besides the fun, brutal deaths, the Illuminati sequence is the weakest part of the film. It's just a bland exposition dump setting up stuff that won't be important until the next Avengers movies. And sure, Krasinski was a very popular fan cast for Reed on twitter and reddit, but 90% of the audience are not chronically online geeks who know that, so they had no reason to be hyped about his cameo. That type of fanservice is way too niche and specific, to the detriment of the film

Like in a Dr. Strange movie it seems pretty natural to expect Baron Mordo to do stuff.

‘Incredible Hulk’ Is Finally Coming to Disney+


https://variety.com/2023/film/news/i...te-1235645525/

I didn't even know it wasn't on there.

And not even the What If? Captain Carter, just another Cap Carter variant.

Which is good, given how MoM handled their version of Peggy.

I still think MoM is a decent enough film on its own, but I take issue with how everything that had happened to Strange was set aside and ignored for a random multiverse story we never needed. Mordo? Destroyed time stone? His apparent status as one of the world's most famous heroes? No, we get none of that. We get a weak version of America (actress was good tho) and several versions of Strange revolving around the same character twist in a story that, ultimately, leaves us largely in the same place we were already at.

Feel the same way about Spidey-3. It was a better movie than MoM, but it wasn't the story I wanted to see and I'd call it an 'average' MCU film at best.

So a whole lotta stuff got delayed. Not surprising. But I'm glad Deadpool moved up a bit, that's nice. I'm interested in how they add Reynold's Wade to the MCU. Will they just fold him in like "oh he's been here the whole time" or is he gonna be reality jumping? Maybe he triggers an incursion and needs a new place to live?

Honestly I appreciated how she was more of a hardcore, no-nonsense, type which is more of what I expected from Peggy as Cap than basically just female Steve like she was in the cartoon.

[Colossus1980]

Marvel updated their banners.

I think they should have added Dr. Strange.

[Dipter]

The Illuminati were used to show us that Wanda was more powerful than the "leader" of every type of hero and how Doctor Strange was able to be corrupted, and was a warning to him. The Illuminati scene worked and when people go to a Disney movie, they expect to see expensive fan service. Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch are niche, and they were the two main elements of the movie. Being niche doesn't disqualify anything in this day and age.

I don’t care that the Illuminati were in the movie, I’m referring to the casting of John Krasinski as Reed. They did that to pander to a specific sliver of the online fandom that wanted it. The rest of the audience was just left confused or reactionless.

[Force de Phenix]

I don’t care that the Illuminati were in the movie, I’m referring to the casting of John Krasinski as Reed. They did that to pander to a specific sliver of the online fandom that wanted it. The rest of the audience was just left confused or reactionless.

That's a good thing. They should definitely be pandering to some fans. I don't know what confusion you're talking about, because either people liked it and cheered, or they were indifferent to seeing the guy from the Office. I don't think the general audience pays attention to easter eggs, etc. They just want action and fan service (with good special effects). And those who do look out for easter eggs were pleased. Besides, he's probably not going to be returning to the role.