Avengers: Infinity War/Avengers:Endgame (2018/2019)

[O.Supreme]

[canofhumdingers]

[jellydonut25]

[canofhumdingers]

^yeah. I didn’t dislike Thanos, and he wasn’t as bad as Killmonger* to me.

But I still didn’t care for the attempts to rationalize his evilness or make him sympathetic in any capacity. It didn’t ruin him for me, but it certainly bumped him further down the ranks of movie villains to just average. For me.

*Killmonger was, to me, one of the weakest movie villains in recent memory. His back story is SO sympathetic you actually feel sorry for him and that he’s often quite justified in his opinions and possibly a good portion of his actions.


Edit:



It’s the difference between misguided evil and chosen evil. Personally, I find villains who intentionally choose evil to be more compelling, more interesting, and more satisfying to root against in entertainment.

[angilas]

[lhb412]

[canofhumdingers]

Dude! You still haven’t seen Doctor Strange? Based on what I know about you strictly from our interactions here on MZ, I’ve thought it would be one of your favorite marvel movies to date.

It’s worth it just for the visuals. Like, I never thought they’d be able to make images like the one below work in live action, but they totally do! It’s amazing. And it’s even on Netflix right now!

[Gentleman]

[lhb412]

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

Whoa. The first Iron Man movie turned 10 years old this week!

Where does the time go?

[jellydonut25]

[canofhumdingers]

I'll agree that it suffers from a common case of the lame forgettable marvel villain syndrome, but I'd hardly call doctor strange mediocre.

I knew basically nothing about the character (aside from the psycadelic art) going in. I was thoroughly entertained and found it to be quite fascinating. And I was totally blown away by how they were able to translate that psychedelic art to a live action film. As I said, it's worth watching for that alone. But I also found Strange to be a cool and interesting character who goes on a fascinating physical, mental, and spiritual journey. And, as a big fan of doctor who, I thought the third act was *really* cool.

But previously I wasn't touting the film to everyone (though I would, and am now), I was specifically addressing lhb as I think it's something he'll enjoy based on his tastes.

[lhb412]

^Thanks for the rec! I'll try to get to it this week.

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

Is it funnier to call Thanos Grimace or Grape Ape?

[canofhumdingers]

I think I did a poor job explaining my opinion of Thanos. I liked him. I just didn’t love him. And it’s for the reasons I explained. I think I got hung up on the Killmonger comparison (I think they have similar flaws when it comes to being a really “great” cinema villain) but while Killmonger’s issues really sidelined him as a villain for me (to the point I wasn’t rooting for Black Panther, I just felt sorry for Killmonger), with Thanos it just meant he wasn’t the most fearsome/scary version he could have been. And I think I was too harsh by calling him middle of the road. He’s better than that, but he’s still definitely a “B” level baddie to me, as opposed to A-listers like the Joker.

It’s interesting you brought up Magneto, Jelly. I’d actually say he’s a definite A list, great villain. And he IS complex, and flawed and all that. But he’s also really terrifying in that he lived through one of the WORST evils of all history (the holocaust) and then he wants to go do the exact same thing!! Talk about willfully choosing to do wrong!

[Kong2004us]

[mr.negativity]

[The Shadow]

A rather belated posting about Thanos; I thought he worked out decently as a villain (better than MCU Ultron at a minimum). While I'm not as familiar with the comics as I would like to be, I do know that Thanos' motivation in the comics is his infatuation with Lady Death.

A:IW turns Thanos into a basically misguided philanthropist -- using his power for the future of the universe by killing half of all life. If the movie left Thanos' motivation as getting the attention of Lady Death intact he would have been a better villain. Even better, prior to A:IW release I had read speculation that the directors might combine Lady Death with Hela and Hela would be the person Thanos committed his death and destruction for.

Combining Lady Death into Hela made a lot of sense to me, especially with the success of THOR: RAGNAROK. Thanos quest to make the Infinity Guantlet and killing half of all life in the universe could have been for either reviving Hela or freeing her from wherever she was stuck after T:R, while simultaneously doing what he views as a grand gesture for her attention.

A:IW could have played out largely the same -- even the final scene would only need to be tweaked a bit to reframe it as Thanos waiting for Hela (maybe just showing her walking up to him).

[mr.negativity]

Chris Evans Officially Wraps Playing Captain America

[O.Supreme]

I'm sure Disney/Marvel is working very hard now, especially with the exiting of James Gunn, to restructure the MCU. I have this feeling there may be no GotG 3. Here's why...

Since Marvel initially wasn't able to recapture cinema rights to The X-Men & F4, cinematically speaking, they had to find replacements. The Inhumans were thrust to the forefront of the comics (pushing the X-Men to the backgorund), and all ancillary media, had their own film on the MCU slate (until it was downgraded to a TV series, that failed after one season).

They also needed a new *family* dynamic to replace the F4. The GotG seemed to fill that need, until of course about 2 months ago. GotG also were thrust to the forefront of Marvel Comics, and all ancillary tie-ins, while the F4 got the shaft.

Now that Gunn & Marvel have officially separated. I just have this feeling. The GotG animated series still has 13 episodes of a 3rd season left to air. If we don't see those in the next couple months, I would take that as a sign, also if we see all GotG comics end abruptly, and a slow reemergence of the F4, that will be a sure sign as well.

Though the Fox/Disney merger has a LOT left to sort out, and I don't think we will see the F4 or X-Men in an MCU film for at least 3-4 years, I believe they are doing some early prepping now, to cast aside their "stand ins", now that they have access to the rest of the main players in Marvel Comics. It's sad, and very petty of Disney, but I've seen it before. Also another sure fire sign is...if in the next year or so, we start to see F4 or any X-Men characters show up in animated series. They could have used them all along, but stopped around 2013-2014, because, ya know, they didn't want to hype the characters of another studio .

In 2014, the entire MCU slate was revealed through 2019. Of course we know that has changed a little, some dates were shifted. Ant-Man got a sequel, Spider-Man got 2 films, and Inhumans was eliminated. However, now we are approaching the end of what had previously been revealed some 4 years ago.

2019 schedule
February -Captain Marvel
May- Avengers 4
July Spider-Man Far From Home...

and that's it. Sure there are "dates" for 2-3 MCU movies every year until 2022, but nothing more has been revealed. Marvel Studios had no presence at SDCC or NYCC this year. I know Disney has their own show, I guess the next one will be in August of 2019, after Spider-Man FFH comes out. I guess THAT could be their big reveal for the next few years....Still, that would be cutting things kind of close, especially for any films released in early 2020.

[Dai]

I'm pretty sure the only reason Marvel haven't announced any post-2019 titles is to avoid spoiling who survives Avengers 4. Expect those blank slots to be filled in rapidly after that movie debuts. I wouldn't read any more into it than that.

As for Fantastic 4, I'd be shocked if Marvel drop a proven cash cow like GotG in favour of a franchise that has been box office poison three times in a row.

[mr.negativity]