Marvel Thread (Movies, Comics, etc)

[DigitalGypsy66]

Secret Wars sucked. Don't even bother with it. Loki season 2 was great though. We'll watch The Marvels on Disney+ in February or whenever.

[eddy]

Sounds like Benson and Morehead (Loki S2) are working on daredevil now. That's good news for marvel, bad news for everyone else who wants to see more original stuff from them

[NTP66]

Loki was so good. Perfect example (and maybe the only one so far) of how a series can work better than a movie. Probably one of the best story arcs for a marvel character on screen.

So damn good. Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson were fantastic, especially in S02. Really gonna miss the show if that was the end.

[meecrofilm]

Newest episode of Loki was really good. I look forward to the weekly episodes when they are done so well like this season and last. This is definitely one show I'd rather they keep a show. Music from RAD was a nice added bonus. Owen Wilson is perfect in this role. Benson and Moorhead are killing it.

I gave a very enthusiastic "**** yes!" when this happened.

[nocera]

The Marvels had the largest 2nd week drop in history this week, dropping 79%. Yikes. This comes after the worst opening in MCU history.

https://variety.com/2023/film/box-offic ... 235792803/

[DigitalGypsy66]

Marvel has one film scheduled for release in 2024. Deadpool 3. Now some of that were because of strikes, but it's probably best for them to figure out a better plan moving forward.

[Kaiser]

Secret Wars sucked. Don't even bother with it. Loki season 2 was great though. We'll watch The Marvels on Disney+ in February or whenever.

Do you mean secret Invasion?

[Dickie Dunn]

It doesn't matter

[DigitalGypsy66]

Yeah, secret invasion. I'm sure secret wars will suck too.

[NAN]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/29/media/ma ... index.html

Iger states the obvious. Focus more on quality and less on quantity. Acknowledges that Disney has been too focused on just cranking out Marvel content, and the quality has taken a hit, and the consumer cant' keep up.

Same thing happened with Star Wars.

[nocera]

If I had a nickel for every time Iger said they were focusing on quality over quantity, I'd have at least three nickels.

[Dickie Dunn]

I wonder how much heat is on Feige. He made them bucket loads of cash but has also steered them directly into this shitstorm, though it's not entirely his fault. Following up The Infinity Saga was always going to be a fool's errand. COVID really **** up scheduling of things and they were forced to rework Spider-Man and Dr. Strange 2 on the fly in order to keep Spider-Man's release date. They've been "we'll fix it in post" from the very beginning, but it went from a necessity due to filming issues to being a planned approach before cameras even start rolling, which has hampered quality and ballooned budgets. The quantity over quality approach wasn't necessarily his idea, but the embrace of it led to the hiring of **** writers and questionable directors.

Biggest issue though has probably been the shows. I think at this point individual streaming services for each network has proven to be a terrible and unprofitable investment, built on the incorrect idea that everyone who sees these movies wants essentially nonstop content and that's just not the case. Despite the production costs, interest is limited to hardcore fans and the quality of most shows has not been good enough to get fence sitters to tune in. Add to that situations like Wandavision being necessary viewing for Dr. Strange 2, The Marvels being dependent on someone watching Ms. Marvel, and things like Loki S2 and Secret Invasion having an obvious impact on future movies despite like 10% of the movie going audience actually watching these shows.

I really do wonder what the future of the MCU is. Spider-Man and Thor are your only big name characters left. One belongs to a different studio and is dependent on a contentious partnership and the other had the opportunity to be a post-Infinity Saga tentpole and instead was just part of the downward trend in quality. That drop in quality has hampered the interest of casual viewers and giving them homework in the form of mediocre TV shows isn't going to draw anyone back. They need Deadpool 3 to be a hit and should probably consider re-working their current MCU map to drop or delay Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars to introduce Fantastic Four (scheduled for 2025) and X-Men ASAP, as well as bring Spider-Man back into the fold. Captain America Brave New World already endured **** reviews in screenings and is undergoing major reshoots. Deadpool 3, Captain America BNW, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, and Blade are the only things on the schedule before the next planned team up. I don't see how they're getting there or getting anyone to care or become invested in the ride. Disney thought they could slap "MCU" on anything and people would watch, while evidence shows that the primary characters (and their actors) of The Infinity Saga is what people were attached to.

[DigitalGypsy66]

They are sticking with Johnathan Majors, too. For now. His trial starts today for beating his girlfriend.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Solid rant by the Dunn but lacking the incredulousness of a top tier legendary Dunn rant.

[meecrofilm]

They are sticking with Johnathan Majors, too. For now. His trial starts today for beating his girlfriend.

The funny (not "funny," but that's the expression) thing about all that is, Kang would seem like the easiest character to recast, from a plot-perspective. Loki variants look different, So could Kang variants. Super justifiable.

[NTP66]

They are sticking with Johnathan Majors, too. For now. His trial starts today for beating his girlfriend.

The funny (not "funny," but that's the expression) thing about all that is, Kang would seem like the easiest character to recast, from a plot-perspective. Loki variants look different, So could Kang variants. Super justifiable.

[meecrofilm]

'xactly.

[LeopardLetang]

[tifosi77]

Just to chime in from a Disney perspective, as I have no entertainment interest in Marvel.

Much of the direction Marvel (and Star Wars, and Pixar, etc) came from on-high. Like, above Feige's pay grade. When Iger originally left, he had a laid some pretty clear ground work for the direction of the company that Chapek - his hand-picked successor - was intended to follow. Well, he chose to not follow that path. He removed much of the creative decision making from the actual creatives and vested it in a whole new division of the company, which Iger disbanded almost before his return was formalized. (Seriously, the president of the division didn't last 24 hours after Iger came back) I've goofed on this before because 1) it's where my position was organized when I first started, and 2) one of the things I like about Disney is that it's the last major that's 'independent'; there's no corporate overlord (WB/Time Warner, NBCU/Comcast, etc)....... well, the division that Chapek formed inserted that corporate dynamic into the functional operation of the company internally.

So things like churning out content for D+, that's not really on Feige or the other studio heads. Not even what content was to be churned out in many cases. Studio heads were given the direction of "we need x, y, z shows for this fiscal year, make it so". So even if the various heads weren't fully in agreement with that direction or felt it was counterproductive to the overall curation and stewardship of the IP, they followed it. And one of the real root causes of consternation has been that content machine has been feeding D+ with often rather-less-than-good material. It is hugely expensive and didn't result in the anticipated return (increase in paid subs).

We're in a period of undoing a lot of systemic damage to the company, and the actual product audiences see is really only the tip of the iceberg. It's hard to overstate what a clusterf**k Chapek was. I joined in the middle of it, and frankly, the sense I get is that if it wasn't for stellar leadership below the CEO level (studio heads, division chairs, etc), the company would be utterly f**ked.

That's sort of how it looks from my lowly position.

Tl;dr --- Pre-Chapek Disney had largely been a company driven by creatives and their storytelling. Chapek turned it into a company driven by bean counters with no creative backgrounds who thought shotgunning content into streaming was the way forward. Post-Chapek....... well, there wouldn't be a 'post' Chapek if that had been a good idea.

[NTP66]

They are sticking with Johnathan Majors, too. For now. His trial starts today for beating his girlfriend.

[nocera]

Somehow Thanos returned.

[nocera]

And there it is. Maybe we can just reset completely and forget the multiverse saga ever happened?

[NAN]

I binged the second season of what if?? the other day. I’d include that as something I still enjoy with marvel.

[Gabe]

I binged the full season of Echo last night. It was a very refreshing take on what standalone Marvel characters can be. Great casting, different storyline. I enjoyed it enough to watch in one sitting.

The Kingpin/Maya dynamic is nearly identical to Thanos/Gamora. Big giant meanies with a soft spot for a little girl they train to be a killer. You can throw Red Guardian and Black Widow in that same kind of storyline as well.

[NTP66]

Source of the post The Marvels was a fun movie. Does not deserve the hate it has been getting.

Just downloaded it, so I'll give it a go one of these days where I have some free time.