• themeatbridge
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    161 month ago

    Each of the movies has a few flaws, but there has been a feeding frenzy for critics who either hate comic book movies, or hate women and minorities. The hard part is separating the legitimate complaints about movie quality from the complaints about an imagined “woke” agenda.

    Love and Thunder was exactly what it was supposed to be. I understand what Hemsworth is saying, and I can see how he feels that they veered too far into parody, but I hope that they don’t lose that flavor of humor in future Thor movies. I also want to see Hercules (especially if Goldstein can do a better Greek accent than Crowe) pulled into Secret Wars.

    Eternals was a bad script. The movie itself is bland, but not poorly made. I liked the characters more than most people, but in the tapestry of the MCU, it felt like an iron-on patch. It wanted to be important, but they have been invisible for the entire Infinity Saga. If they had retconned some of the early events to tie into the wider universe, it might have felt more connected. Having an Avenger show up to check out why a Celestial was emerging from the ground would have also been a nice touch.

    Wakanda Forever was always going to be a farewell to Chadwick Boseman. For that, it was also what it needed to be. I thought Namor was a reasonable adaptation of the character, and I liked that they have set up T’Challa Jr. as a potential for the new Black Panther. Shuri won’t have the gravitas to carry the mantle.

    Quantumania might have been worse on the big screen, but I didn’t mind the CG watching it at home. If there was an infinity stone for “likeable,” you would need to squeeze it out of Paul Rudd like ooze, and it would come out of a surprising orifice. Stature was also well-cast, and I thought the humor was spot on. Kang was better in Loki, but the actor’s personal decisions have made that moot for future movies. It was certainly the most flawed movie since The Dark World, but still a must-watch for MCU fans (unlike Eternals or Shang-Chi).

    I’m really looking forward to Deadpool and Wolverine, and I hope it’s a refreshing adrenaline injection right in the dick of the MCU.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
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      101 month ago

      The Thor “goofiness” started in Ragnarock, frankly I didn’t like ragnarock very much my first watch through because of it.

      The actor for shuri also turned into a complete antivax nut and apparently was a PITA to work with, so I wouldn’t be surprised if marvel/Disney was trying to distance themselves a bit.

      • themeatbridge
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        1 month ago

        I really enjoyed Ragnarok, and thought it was a great way to lampshade the inherent silliness of an ancient Norse god banging around Earth. That’s something the Dark World struggled with, taking itself too seriously. Plus it was as close to a Planet Hulk movie as we’re likely to get, what with the complicated distribution rights of the Hulk property. It made Thor simultaneously more badass and more mortal. And Jeff Goldblum is always a treat.

        I know about the Shuri actor, and I try not to let their personal politics influence how I feel about their work. Obviously, the situation with Jonathan Majors is extremely different, but I try to compartmentalize what the movie did with him, and recognize that he wasn’t the reason Quantumania struggled. Shuri, on the other hand, was not good in Wakanda Forever. She never felt like more than an actress reciting lines. It didn’t help that her story was predictable and her character 1-dimensional. There were simply too many better actresses standing next to her in each scene. Her mother the defiant queen projecting power, Okoye the dauntless warrior stripped of rank, Nakia the isolated widow who still has the skills, Riri taking over as the enthusiastic teen nerdy girl, each of them more badass, it all just crowded out Shuri as a character.

        Imagine Shuri wasn’t in the movie. What’s different? Okoye finds Riri, Nakia finds Atlantis, and one of those three could have fought Namor. It would have been a different movie, but not by much.