General

theJaw wrote:



Time to play six-degrees of separation!

So, the guy who produced the actual photographic plates seen towards the end of this trailer is the same guy I helped open an analog community darkroom here in New Hampshire.

Jason Lane, who goes by Pictoriographica, was flown out for a week to coat his own ambrotype dry plates. The plates then went to the photographer, and after the exposures were made, given back to Jason so he could develop them in a darkroom-tent set up in the movie studio. After each plate was developed, they would take a cell phone shot and sent it to Martin Scorsese to get his approval.

On the last day, they finished early and the photographer and Jason got to walk over to where DeNiro and DiCapprio were filming a scene and watch.

They didn't allow an assistant otherwise I would have gone (they had one on set already)

www.photoretro.biz is the place we created.

Not a movie, but WTF?? Love these quirky ass games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRiRyopVm6Q

Kraven the Hunter. Looks good but its another Sony Marvel movie so I'm not looking forward to it too much.

https://youtu.be/rze8QYwWGMs

....who?

back4more wrote:
Aaron is friggin cut.. he's so badass..

Wow, they really Morbed this up.

Looks like The Flash is gonna be an overall financial bomb.

Just watched The Flash today. Good movie. Definite flaws, but some definite great moments too. Ezra Miller can fudge themselves irl but they did good enough in the movie. Fun to see Keaton as Batman again. Sasha Calle was a great Supergirl but underdeveloped, wish there was more of her.

Kraven looks bad. Sony just doesn’t understand the hero/villain dynamic on a surface level. These characters are great because they’re the bad guys, the rogues. Enemies to Spider-man who more often than not need THAT character to elevate them. Making them all solo anti-heroes is so weak.

So, as a person who is NOT watching The Flash series, but do have some interest in the movie... I will say that I haven't seen a single ad for it anywhere. Like, I knew it was coming and out because of this thread, but otherwise my wife and I haven't seen a single ad for The Flash movie.

When I heard it wasn't doing great, I mentioned that to my wife and she replied that she didn't know it was out.

That seems like a problem to me. You can't expect a movie to make money if you don't tell the right people about it.

I've gotten ads on Youtube, but that's about it.

The situation with Ezra Miller means WB can't parade them around to promote the movie. I bet they were just waiting for this movie to come out so they can move on and find a replacement actor.

It definitely feels like all the pre-James Gunn DC stuff that was already produced is just coming out to make whatever money it can considering they’re launching a full blown new connected universe, so just about everyone is getting replaced. Blue Beetle is the only movie Gunn says will carry over. Though he also left the door open for possible “elseworlds” movies with returning actors that take place outside of his DCU (like the upcoming Aquaman movie or the Joker sequel).

I did see a few Flash ads on TV that came off more as a Batman/Supergirl movie for obvious reasons, but yah, the promotion was definitely downplayed compared to usual.

So you remember my complaints about Giancarlo Esposito in the new TMNT movie? I had assumed he'd be playing Superfly.

Nope. He's really playing Baxter Stockman.

And after seeing his character design... I don't know what to think...

Twisted metal trailer.. looks, interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzUQV7Sy7f4

Also new Joaquin Phoenix movie Napoleon directed by Ridley Scott:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=CBmW...

Napoleon looks amazing

New Ahsoka trailer. Can only be cautiously optimistic considering the super inconsistent quality of the SW shows, but this trailer does look great. I loved Rebels, so getting what is essentially a live action sequel to that show is pretty awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7YI_bmBZjY

Blue Beetle Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4thkziXlI8k
I'm super excited for this... looks great..

More Cage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Xc4qq-5Ww

theJaw wrote:
Just learned something new. I had no idea that Napolean fought with Egypt.

Ridley Scott is an interesting combination to me, in that pronouncing it either Ridley Scott or Scott Ridley both flow.

Benjamin Franklin flows, but Franklin Benjamin doesn't seem to flow as well.

George Washington? Okay. Washington George? Nah.

Ronald Reagon? Yes. Reagon Ronald? No.

Hanks Tom?

Reeves Kianu?

I think all 3 of these look pretty darn good. Most looking forward to Invincible Season 2.

INVINCIBLE:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ED1SJ1TA2Do

ONE PIECE:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4XdijhzKs

THE MARVELS:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wS_qbDztgVY

That Marvels trailer didn't get me even more excited for the movie like I was hoping. In fact, I thought it was kind of bad overall. However, I'm still pretty excited for the movie. I think the 3 main characters will have some cool dynamics and interactions. Plus, the thing with them switching places when they use their powers is really intriguing. I feel like there's a lot of potential there to do some fun and cool things. I hope they take advantage of that to the fullest.

I'm pretty much indifferent to the Marvels. It looks fine and I'm sure it'll be fun enough but it doesn't scratch an itch for me or anything.

And I know this is neither here nor there, but with each new big Marvel release, I find myself low-key dreading the inevitable discourse surrounding them more and more. Maybe it's because I have a group of strongly-opinionated friends and we talk about this stuff ad nauseam, but it's impossible for me to not see the exaggerated reactions to Marvel (or Star Wars) these days and I'm just somewhat exhausted by it. If it's not "Phase 4 is ruining the MCU", it's the "MSheU" crap, or the "Brie Larson bad" takes, or a myriad of other extraneous factors that people attribute to these movies and it just makes being a fan of this stuff a somewhat negative experience these days. I've just found myself not caring as much for that reason, and it's not even the fault of the movies themselves, whether I feel they're good or bad.

theJaw wrote:

Same here. I miss the Phase 3 days when nearly everyone was hyped for each new movie and mostly positive about it. Since then, it's been steadily downhill. The cool thing now is to hate on every new MCU project. It used to be so much fun to go see a new Marvel movie on opening night, be in a theater with other hyped fans, then go home and excitedly talk about it online for the next several days. Now, it's a quiet theater, and mostly negativity online. I'm still enjoying the movies myself, and with my family, but the societal excitement is dead.

Probably simply because people are tired. It’s not immune to being overdone, just like everything else that runs it’s course in pop culture.

That's fine, but if you're tired of it, just stop watching it. I don't understand people having to switch to hating on it instead.

That doesn’t make sense. Why people waste time and energy on things they claim are not worth it.

Feeb wrote:

This is true for sure, to an extent. Phase 4 pumped out so much content compared to the other phases, and the quality definitely varied more this time around. That and there's just so much non-Marvel superhero stuff out there.

But if you're one to actually engage in this fandom, it's easy to see that it goes far beyond just general fatigue. I called it when Avengers Endgame came out, that a sect of the fandom would turn on Marvel following that movie. Lots of hyperbolic takes that things are objectively worse now, and a huge influx in the incel-types who hone in on the fact that there are more female-led properties nowadays. It's as if all the golden era heroes had their time to shine (Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, etc) and now that they're moving into the more modern characters, the "old-timers" (in mindset, not necessarily physical age) are rejecting it.

It's getting the Star Wars treatment, but because the MCU is mostly a product of the digital/social media age, those types of negative reactions have been expedited tenfold.

Scott wrote:

This is exactly my take. Or at the VERY least, simply judge things on a case-to-case basis. Implement some sense of subjectivity. Didn't like Eternals or She-Hulk? Fine, feel free to share that sentiment, but don't act like the entirety of the franchise is crumbling solely because you didn't like certain releases. Especially if you openly enjoyed others from the same time period.

I have a real good friend who acts like the MCU and Star Wars are inherently doomed because of Disney, but his entire basis of that is because HE didn't like certain releases. He correlates his negativity to the reason the movies aren't making as much money as initially projected as if everybody feels the same way he does when that obviously isn't the case, or as if there hasn't been a shift in the entire film-making industry since 2020. And this is a sentiment from a sect of the moviegoers who got their favorite characters and are now upset that those characters are either being replaced, or being taken in directions that don't fit the exact mold they wanted (and got for the past decade).

I’m not participating in the fan discussions etc but I can absolutely say that as a casual fan I went from waiting all night for tickets to see these films to not even seeing them until they’re on a streaming service or not at all. It’s definitely multi factorial- for one I’m older with different priorities- but I am absolutely fatigued of these big budget IPs and the soulless products they’re constantly pumping out these days. I blame films like the matrix, inception, Upgrade etc that showed me originality and soul make a much better time.

@Feeb Yah and that’s fine. I’m in a similar mindset too. I find myself preferring the smaller budget or independent movies these days, and before GOTG 3 last month, I hadn’t seen any MCU movie in theaters since, I think, Spider-man: No Way Home. So I’m with you on the fatigue surrounding big budget popcorn stuff - but I’m also willing to acknowledge when those big budget popcorn movies are good, or at least, aren’t mind-numbingly bad. As opposed to the sect of folks who just drop a blanket statement over the entire medium and act like they’re all objectively worse now and not just “worse” due to the level of fatigue one is feeling.

In general it seems like people these days are much more apt to partake in tribalistic behaviors. Everything requires extreme fandom or opposition. The brand loyalty is obnoxious. Politics, computers, game consoles, movies etc. I guess people need to feel like part of something bigger- materials and ideas are the new religion.

The toxic fan thing is real. These are the same people who were bashing the comics when Marvel was doing a lot of new female and minority characters, and especially doging about "replacements" such as Ironheart, Sam Wilson as Cap, Jane as Thor, X-23 as Wolverine, and Amadeus Cho as Hulk. Now that a lot of those same characters are hitting the MCU, the same toxicity rears its head again.

If your friends are bashing the MCU specifically because their are more women and POC, you don't need better movies. You need better friends. There are legitimate reasons to criticize the MCU, but having a black Captain America isn't one of them.

While I agree there are people like that, the pal in question isn’t upset about the fact that these characters exist in the MCU, he just thinks Disney is presenting them in ways that pander too hard in order to meet some corporate quota. He’s actually a fairly forward thinking guy, so no need to get better friends in this case. The pandering complaints aside, his main apprehension seems to just come off as him not enjoying the direction of the new movies in general, like Quantumania, and thinks the general lack of quality is what’s tanking the MCU.

I do acknowledge the quality of Phase IV definitely varies more in comparison to phases I-III, I just don’t feel it’s nearly as bad as the general consensus would have you believe.

The Secret Invasion finale has 13% on RT. It wasn’t that good imo, but it absolutely isn’t THIRTEEN PERCENT bad. Just seems like people are overtly trying to hate on the MCU right now.

Yeah, that's the cool thing to do now.

I honestly think that the quality of phases I-III is a bit overhyped. While I enjoyed most of the movies, some of those are nothing really impressive objectively speaking. Thor's movies are semi-terrible, Ragnarok gets a pass because it's different and has Hulk. The Iron Man trilogy is cool as a character study, but they aren't that good either. Age of Ultron is a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Black Panther was great, but plagued with some terrible CGI (isn't that another complaint for the current saga?). The Incredible Hulk is an MCU movie that isn't an MCU movie. We can be as nitpicky as we want with those movies, and the result would be similar to the current status. It had some bangers though, especially with unexpected heroes like Ant-man and the GotG. Winter Soldier and Civil War are also great, but those were like mini-Avengers movies.

Some people are just hating for the sake of hating.

Looks par the course relative to the first season. I dig that the whole "time travel" aspect is going to get even more play in this season, even if I'm not 100% clear on what the overall story will be otherwise. Notable that they featured Jonathan Majors in the trailer. Obviously he already shot his scenes but it doesn't look like they plan on pivoting away from his casting as Kang unless something wonky happens in this show. Looks pretty good but I wasn't one who loved the first season so I can only be cautiously optimistic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dug56u8NN7g

theJaw wrote:
Feels like it's been awhile. When was the first season? 2 years ago?

Yah, first episode dropped June 9, 2021, so it'll be well over 2 years when Season 2 starts in October. While the MCU shows have varied in quality, having so many IPs to draw from theoretically should be good because it allows more time to develop additional seasons for the existing shows. So hopefully Loki is a general step up from the first season, whether one felt it was great or not.

theJaw wrote:

Haven't had a chance to watch the trailer, but I am excited for Season 2. I think I enjoyed season 1 of Loki more than any of the standalone Thor movies.

theJaw wrote:

You get that the two halves of this statement are contradictory right? He's basically saying "I'm not a racist, BUT...." He is exactly the kind of toxic fan we're talking about. Someone attacking the content while spouting off about "quotas" in terms of diversity is being actively racist. He's just trying to hide it behind buzzwords, which is par for the course right now.