Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Daniel]

Spoiler alert, Geff!

Tom Cruise = Superior Iron Man. Supposedly.

Amazing trailer. Oozes Sam Raimi. Bloody Wanda!

[Bill1978]

I want to see Dr Strange 2, mainly because I am hoping it continues the groundwork of setting up a Young Avengers something. But the news Tom Cruise is in this movie is really disappointing me. I thought I could avoid his work until he (or I) die but it seems he is intent on reminding me he exists.

[Daniel]

Someone posted a clearer image and to me it resembles Maria Rambeau as Captain Marvel more. That would be a lot better as I'm not keen on Tom Cruise either!

[EricJ]

Yyyyep. MCU still has to prime the audience for "Maria who?...Oh, HER, right!" for "The Marvels" (as in, Maria Rambeau and Kamala Khan, since to call it "Captain Marvel 2" would be box-office poison), later on.

...Y'know, it was more fun when we were just finding out it was all part of Some Larger Plan, instead of having to work twice as hard to keep up that reputation.

[Bill1978]

Someone posted a clearer image and to me it resembles Maria Rambeau as Captain Marvel more. That would be a lot better as I'm not keen on Tom Cruise either!

Ah I think that's the character I thought was The Human Torch and I thought wow that's a major spoiler and why isn't the internet broken with this new haha

[Randall]

I think you all mean the daughter, Monica Rambeau.

[Daniel]

Nope, I for sure mean the mom since we haven't gotten to officially see Monica as Photon/Spectrum.

[EricJ]

Also, Monica in the MCU was the heroine's obligatory Surrogate Daughter/Next-Generation to Inspire (like the little girl Wonder Woman saved at the mall at the beginning of WW84)--

So Monica's most likely also being groomed for the teen A-Force, while MCU canon is probably blending Maria's Photon with the earlier Ms. Marvel, so they can establish why she and Carol are old Air Force buddies.

[gaastra]

“It seems that shield has appeared recently someplace… don’t you think it’s ‘Madness’?” a translation of the tweet says, reminding viewers that Captain Carter and all the What If…? episodes are streaming on Disney Plus.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... d=msedgntp

[Daniel]

Looks like Doctor Strange and America Chavez will enter ..

the animated world of "X-Men ’97":

Marvel wasn't foolin' when they included "Madness" in the title.

[Daniel]

Morbius final trailer:

[EricJ]

Just getting through the 90's Fox Spider-Man cartoon on Disney+, and having gotten through S2's pre-MCU version of the Morbius arc, I'm just on the crest of S3's arc with Dr. Strange and future Sony star Madame Web...

And while Sony HOPES that Morbius will help nudge Blade into the MCU in a roundabout three or four-film sorta way...please give up and go home, Sony.
At this point, it's like "What if MCU's big release-date event wasn't kidding when they announced 'Captain America: the Serpent Society'?"

[EricJ]

Bumping Ben's reaction to Shang-Chi, now that I've worked my way down to it trying to death-clean a backlog of missed Disney, Marvel and Pixar movies on D+:

And therin lies the rub: no sense of his personality in a clip, teaser or not (and, yes, it is just a teaser, though a long one that is more of an initial trailer than a tease) that is supposed to intro him to people like me who are not at all familiar with the character, or at least tenuously aware. And if it’s not even coming over to people like you, who do know the character and the background, then that’s not a real good thing.

Just so it's clear, my opinion of the movie is in no way biased by China's support of Russia's recent actions--I was hating this movie from the minute it was announced, since I thought there was nothing in the admittedly Chinese-audience-pandering setup that looked even remotely designed to appeal to American audiences, and...I didn't know the freakin' HALF of it.
As much as I wanted to give them the benefit of their overambitious "The next new Avenger!" doubt, you never escape the constant feeling that you're watching something made for and by a completely alien culture that liked the Transformers and Monster Hunter (like the furry CGI Pokemon and dinosaurs that show up in the second half because...um, I forget?), but just never quite got behind the whole superhero thing, and keeps trying to turn it into something else.

That's a big reason why the hero seems to have no compelling personality to hook us or make us root for him--The movie is so determined to play the father/son angle, they ground them too much as real-world guys who know a few cool CGI moves, but they don't look like they came out of a Marvel comic book. The dad is so played as "Misunderstood" (yes, it's another one of those '20s superhero movies where the villain only wanted to conquer the world because he couldn't get in touch with his feelings) that when he finally DOES get out of his casual business clothes and into villain gear, he still doesn't look like or act like one--Like watching Darth Vader played by Sam Waterston.
And our hero's deeper angst seems not so much to be that he was descended from an evil clan, so much as that Daddy never had time for him, and he had to go and culturally assimilate in America.

And for state Chinese audiences, that seems to be the bigger crime in this movie: Our hero's sidekick is a "wacky" Frisco AA girl who's cute, and ballsy, and sitcom-wisecracking, and nails-on-chalkboard annoying, and contributes absolutely nothing to the first half of the plot, being utterly clueless about ancient kung-fu (until the dojo helps "cure" her to proper tradition in the second half), in a manner that's supposed to be "aggressively cute" for Chinese fans of cute rom-coms, but ends up creating the new Most Obnoxious Character in the MCU. Imagine if Darcy from the Thor movies had been reincarnated in Beijing, and transplanted into Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In her first scene, where we see her valet-parking a sports car, and says "I won't crash it, I'm the Chinese Jeff Gordon!"...No, you're the Chinese Sandra Bullock, and you don't have to grab the wheels of a bus and crash it through San Francisco just to prove it.

And it doesn’t negate them coming back with a more faithful Mandarin later...

Whether it's Chinese concerns, or MCU still being stubborn about it, the movie obstinately REFUSES to use the M-word despite all evidence to the contrary:
The opening intro backstory clearly indicates the Mandarin's print-canon background ("Some say he found the Rings in a crater, some say in a tomb..."), but then we get an inserted passage of dialogue at how the villain snarks at the idea that Ben Kingsley would use such a stereotypical M-word: "He named himself after a chicken dish!"

And then, continuing the movie's State-friendly hostility/condescension to westerners and westernized Asian-Americans, Kingsley gets to appear in the movie as comedy-relief, dispensing plot exposition out of nowhere while saying goofy-British-actor things, so that our hero and Obnoxious Girl can make wacky "Huh?? " takes at each other.
As HT said about Darcy in Thor 2, now even the comedy-relief character has a comedy-relief character.

(...Yes, I needed to vent. Doubtlessly this line will be the only one quoted in responses.)

[Randall]

Well, I didn't hate Shang-Chi at all, but I did find it rather bland when I watched it a few weeks ago. I really wanted to love it, but I never got there. Eric hits on a lot of valid points, though he feels more strongly than I. I did really appreciate that it was grounded somewhat in Chinese (or mythical Chinese, at least) culture, but the rest of the film hewed too closely to formula - which is still kind of amazing, given that it did introduce a number of things to the MCU, like kung fu and dragons. At its core, however, it was the same old father-son angle, the misguided villain, the wacky sidekick, etc. The film was fine, it was entertaining in places, and I liked it well enough, but as much as it pains me (because I was really looking forward to it and also seeing its Canadian star), it was mid-range Marvel at best, with one of its least charismatic stars. (Awkwafina I actually kinda like, but her character did nothing for the film. The Darciest character since Darcy.) Mediocre, with a side of oh-that's-new-at-least.

[Daniel]

Darciest - I like that!

Main dragon gave me Serpentera from "Power Rangers" vibes. Pokémon, not so much.

Oh, and Awkwafina's line was "I'm the Asian Jeff Gordon".