DCU Movies

[Gaastra]

Was there also and still don't buy it. Family was excited over a marvel movie with a female lead not "oh boy avengers is next and this must have a huge tie in."

Ant-man had a bigger role and tie in to endgame but again it didn't make a billion.

But this is dc movies not marvel so I'll stop complaining.

[HsssH]

Is Gunn allowed to confirm or deny rumors right now because of the strike?

If this isn’t true and people are now running with a sound bite from a two month old story I would be super pissed off and frustrated if I was Gunn.

After writers strike started he did say that script for Legacy was finished. So I'm not sure why he couldn't say that WW movie with Gal is in the plans. Or isn't.

[Styles]

He still debunks rumors. I think these two were the last ones that he's debunked and that was just a couple of weeks ago

James Gunn Debunks Superman: Legacy's Justice League Rumors

James Gunn Debunks Daniel Craig as Lex Luthor Rumor

If someone asks him about WW3 he might respond.

[bat39]

Is there an undercurrent of 90s nostalgia I’m unaware of? Nobody cares about the 90s. I know, I was there.

The film was an 11th hour addition to the Avengers 4 crescendo. They had to build up Carol’s bonafides in the mind’s of the audience. It’s why the film was released one month before Endgame. Add in a further connection; remember that the post-credit scene for Infinity War was a Captain Marvel tease. And the post credit scene for Captain Marvel was a tie-in to Avengers Endgame.

Disney made these connections between the two films. They maximized effect with it being a preamble to Avengers 4.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Captain Marvel was a film that was very much tied to the ongoing Infinity War-Endgame story. In a comic-book sense, it'd be fair to even consider it to 'tie-in' or 'interlude' to the event. Like, Chapter 1 was Infinity War, then we get an interlude that is a prequel introducing a key new character, and then Chapter 2 is Endgame where said new character shows up as part of the ongoing story.

[lefthanded]

I think the one thing the MCU had going for it during Phases 1-3 was that it was building up to something, and Captain Marvel was leading right up to the grand finale. A major complaint from many MCU fans is that Phase 4-5 so far doesn't feel like it's leading up to anything specific (even if Secret Wars has been announced), which actually makes me wonder how well The Marvels will do.

I feel like people overstate the effect of 'building to something'.

The highly online might point to Phase 4-5 lack of success being due to lack of 'building to something', but I would argue that there is still a similar lack of 'building to something' in the earlier phases.

Phase 1 was "building to assembling the Avengers". The building to something was solely Nick Fury appearing for 1 or 2 minutes. That is not strictly necessary when you look at how successful Scream 5 or Jurrassic World Dominion were without needing that 'building to assembling the team' idea. Movie franchises regularly throw a bunch of characters together from prior movies without needing end-credit scenes to tie the movies together.

Phase 2's shared universe only resulted in jokes/references plus the absence of SHIELD. There were shoehorned in acknowledgements of Infinity Stones.
Phase 3's shared universe only resulted in random mentions of Infinity stones, with only IW and Endgame tying things together.

"Building to something" has been very minimum throughout, so the relative lack of success in the recent phases can't be pinned on that.

By and large, shared universes might increase your enjoyment of these movies since you get the references, but to the general movie going public, I always think the "shared universes makes it successful" idea is bunk.

[Frontier]

I feel like people overstate the effect of 'building to something'.

The highly online might point to Phase 4-5 lack of success being due to lack of 'building to something', but I would argue that there is still a similar lack of 'building to something' in the earlier phases.

Phase 1 was "building to assembling the Avengers". The building to something was solely Nick Fury appearing for 1 or 2 minutes. That is not strictly necessary when you look at how successful Scream 5 or Jurrassic World Dominion were without needing that 'building to assembling the team' idea. Movie franchises regularly throw a bunch of characters together from prior movies without needing end-credit scenes to tie the movies together.

Phase 2's shared universe only resulted in jokes/references plus the absence of SHIELD. There were shoehorned in acknowledgements of Infinity Stones.
Phase 3's shared universe only resulted in random mentions of Infinity stones, with only IW and Endgame tying things together.

"Building to something" has been very minimum throughout, so the relative lack of success in the recent phases can't be pinned on that.

By and large, shared universes might increase your enjoyment of these movies since you get the references, but to the general movie going public, I always think the "shared universes makes it successful" idea is bunk.

I think even if the connective tissue is more subtle or less apparent people still thought that each film was a building block to a bigger story that all culminated in IW/Endgame.

[James Cameron]

After writers strike started he did say that script for Legacy was finished. So I'm not sure why he couldn't say that WW movie with Gal is in the plans. Or isn't.

Not familiar at all with the strike guidelines, but I feel like there must be a difference between giving an update on an already announced film vs announcing a completely new film, casting details, etc. Especially since iirc Gunn revealed that Legacy info in a conversation re: the writer's strike and its effects on DCU movies.

[Ascended]

I think the one thing the MCU had going for it during Phases 1-3 was that it was building up to something, and Captain Marvel was leading right up to the grand finale.

Don't forget the novelty of the whole thing. Nobody had ever seen anything like the MCU before.

Odd to think a whole generation has grown up with the MCU as a normal, expected part of their lives. Truly the idea has become the institution.

A major complaint from many MCU fans is that Phase 4-5 so far doesn't feel like it's leading up to anything specific

Which never made sense to me. It's Kang. We've known since Loki that Kang was the new big bad, and the Saga was about the multiverse. Feels like half of phase 4 has been about the multiverse/cosmology, and a few of their biggest tentpole films have centered on it. Even if you were just a casual who didn't know who Kang was, I feel like Loki really made it clear: this is the guy to look out for. If nothing else, it's been pretty clear that the multiverse is the biggest common denominator right now, so that casual should still have a fairly good idea of what's going on even if they missed Loki and Ant-Man3.

And it's not like phase 1 knew where it was going either, and they were making it up as they went along for a good chunk of phase 2 before the big picture really started to take shape. This Saga has always known exactly where it's going, I think people are just impatient.

which actually makes me wonder how well The Marvels will do.

I'm expecting a solid box office by today's standards, but nothing crazy.

Honestly though, I'm pretty okay with Gadot continuing as Wonder Woman. I guess the only issue is that yet again it muddies the waters about how hard Gunn's reboot is or isn't

I'm of the mind that everything connected to the old DCEU should have been left behind. The brand damage looks pretty deep from where I'm sitting (for what that's worth, I'm just armchair quarterbacking like the rest of us ) and any connection to the failed DCEU doesn't seem a worthwhile risk or burden. But that's not what Gunn is doing so we just have to hope that he knows his business and will entertain us. And I think he will. I think he's got it in him. But I'd really like to know how this is supposed to fit together. Are the returning actors playing the same versions, or are they variants with their own histories? Will this be the Davis who dealt with Batfleck and sent Superman to Kahndaq or just the "earth Gunn" version of Waller, who happens to look the same?

[Refrax5]

I feel like people overstate the effect of 'building to something'.

The highly online might point to Phase 4-5 lack of success being due to lack of 'building to something', but I would argue that there is still a similar lack of 'building to something' in the earlier phases.

Phase 1 was "building to assembling the Avengers". The building to something was solely Nick Fury appearing for 1 or 2 minutes. That is not strictly necessary when you look at how successful Scream 5 or Jurrassic World Dominion were without needing that 'building to assembling the team' idea. Movie franchises regularly throw a bunch of characters together from prior movies without needing end-credit scenes to tie the movies together.

Phase 2's shared universe only resulted in jokes/references plus the absence of SHIELD. There were shoehorned in acknowledgements of Infinity Stones.
Phase 3's shared universe only resulted in random mentions of Infinity stones, with only IW and Endgame tying things together.

"Building to something" has been very minimum throughout, so the relative lack of success in the recent phases can't be pinned on that.

By and large, shared universes might increase your enjoyment of these movies since you get the references, but to the general movie going public, I always think the "shared universes makes it successful" idea is bunk.

I also think the novelty of that idea has worn off with general audiences. I think the novelty of superhero movies in general is kind of wearing off. It happens with pretty much everything in entertainment. Look at how many trends in movies, in music, in fashion, whatever that have come and gone. I don't think superhero movies are going away but the hype and the general interest isn't really there as much anymore unless it's something really special and unique.

I love superheroes. I've loved them for something like 30 years of my life. I'm disturbed to think of how much money I've spent on superhero stuff and I remember the old days where a good superhero movie was rare so I was overjoyed to see so many of these characters I love become beloved, popular movies. And even I'm bored of superhero movies at this point. There's not much I'm especially looking forward to at the moment beyond seeing Andrew Garfield Spider-Man appear in Secret Wars (since I have a soft spot for his version for a variety of reasons) and some mild curiosity about Gunn's DCU. Even stuff that's pretty good like the last Batman movie is just kind of whatever to me now.

I just want something cool and different and exciting and not many comic movies offer that now. I don't care if it's a shared universe or not as long as it isn't more of the same.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Apparently Grace Randolph confirmed through her sources that Gal is telling the truth and that James Gunn did indeed tell her this. So…take that as you will.

As for the apparent side debate that’s emerged over Captain Marvel. Um…anybody who claims that the buildup to Avengers Endgame was NOT a part of that film’s marketing and eventual success is obviously in denial. Infinity War LITERALLY had Nick Fury calling for Carol as the mid-post credit scene…

Marvel might as well have just put the words “watch this next” as the poster for the movie.

[Frontier]

Apparently Grace Randolph confirmed through her sources that Gal is telling the truth and that James Gunn did indeed tell her this. So…take that as you will.

As for the apparent side debate that’s emerged over Captain Marvel. Um…anybody who claims that the buildup to Avengers Endgame was NOT a part of that film’s marketing and eventual success is obviously in denial. Infinity War LITERALLY had Nick Fury calling for Carol as the mid-post credit scene…

Marvel might as well have just put the words “watch this next” as the poster for the movie.

Are we still taking what Grace Randolph says at face value...

[HsssH]

Infinity War was Marvel at the top of the world, they could have released 90 minutes movie that was entirely white screen and people would have bought tickets to see it.

[Vakanai]

Infinity War was Marvel at the top of the world, they could have released 90 minutes movie that was entirely white screen and people would have bought tickets to see it.

My memory wants to tell me this was my experience of the first two Tom Holland Spider-Man movies. I still have not watched the third.

[Jokerz79]

Infinity War was Marvel at the top of the world, they could have released 90 minutes movie that was entirely white screen and people would have bought tickets to see it.

I agree to an extent, and I agree with people who say Marvel definitely with that post credit scene made Captain Marvel seem like necessary viewing for Endgame. But Ant-Man and the Wasp was also released between Infinity War and Endgame, and it made a nice chunk of change with 622 million, but it wasn't the billion-dollar movie club BP, IW, CM, Endgame, and Far from Home was in.

[lefthanded]

I agree to an extent, and I agree with people who say Marvel definitely with that post credit scene made Captain Marvel seem like necessary viewing for Endgame. But Ant-Man and the Wasp was also released between Infinity War and Endgame, and it made a nice chunk of change with 622 million, but it wasn't the billion-dollar movie club BP, IW, CM, Endgame, and Far from Home was in.

This is the same problem I have with Ezra as the Flash, but Paul Rudd as the Antman doesn't really feel like I am watching an Antman movie, but rather a Paul Rudd movie.

With Black Panther, Spider-man, etc, I feel like I am watching a superhero movie, where these actors are the embodiment of the superhero. With Aquaman and WW, I feel like I am watching the superhero.

With Antman, I feel like I am watching a Paul Rudd movie where he dresses up as a superhero. I thoroughly enjoy Paul Rudd, and general audiences do too. But just him, is not going to be a billion dollar movie. In this current age, the movie star is not going to generate 1b dollars by themselves; rather it is the IP with an actor/actress that perfectly matches the IP, that generates 1b dollars.

Side note on The Flash: Watching Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle felt like watching Bruce and Kara respectively. That part of the movie worked for me. But watching Ezra x2 didn't feel like I was watching Barry(s), but was just watching Ezra give SNL-level impersonations of a slacker teen and a socially awkward adult.That didn't work for me. I (and general audiences likewise agree) am not gonna contribute to a 1 billion box office to see Ezra and not The Flash.