@therealsilvermane

Yes, that's why Sony ruined the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man Trilogy with that fan pleasing third film because everybody wanted to see Peter boogey down. That's why Sony ruined the story set up in the very good Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man film by turning ASM2 into a MCU wannabe set up for a Spider-Man cinematic universe because that's what the fans wanted. That's why Sony makes the now classic Venom films because the fans want a silly buddy cop Venom. Sony owes ALL to Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios for making Spider-Man relevant again.

I have and it is an image seared into my head from childhood.

Do you have a problem with some folks attacking Shang-Chi and Eternals for their movies' diversity of race and gender? Maybe you should ask those folks to stop, too. Also, the reason why it's "ad hominem", as you say, is because diversity in comics and comic book movies isn't a problem, but the people attacking that diversity are the problem, as I see it anyway. And if there is a God in the traditional sense, then I imagine that God would have a problem with it as well because that God created both man and woman and all the different races, and they all have the right to be solo super-heroes in their own movie regardless of whether that movie is well written or not as long as it earns money making exceptions for a down economy and fearful population during a deadly global pandemic.

Duck, male, straight.

News flash, Howard the Duck won't be in The Marvels. But Howard has appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Avengers Endgame (the final battle).

Also, God, why are some folks so adamantly against super-heroes that aren't all straight white dudes? God, please soften their hearts and make them realize that it's okay for people of all types no matter their gender, race, or sexual orientation to sit at the super-hero table because it's a pretty big table that you have provided. God, please stop the hate. Amen.

I can't speak for anything except BW since I have less than zero interest on either of the other 2 based on reviews. But I shut BW off about 40 min in, was so bad I just couldn't be bothered to watch it.

Okay, outside of streaming shows about Satan or normal people killing, hating, and stalking each other, the MCU's superheroes ruled streaming television in 2021.

First, Brie Larson starred in the first Captain Marvel "on her own" (with a co-star assist from Sam L Jackson) and that movie is still one of a handful of solo MCU films to make over a billion box office dollars. I'm sorry to break it to you this way, but despite all the trolling and hate from the anti-SJW fans and hatemongers, Captain Marvel was a hit. Second, all MCU films are team-up films. All. Of.Them. Phase Four is taking that to the next level and doing a kind of multiverse theme on these team ups. Let's take a look at some of Phase Four, in particular. Loki was a team-up of Loki variants from the Multiverse: Loki, Sylvie Loki, Kid Loki, Alligator Loki, Classic Loki, etc. Black Widow was a team-up of three generations of Black Widows: Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), Natasha Romanoff, and Yelena Belova. Spider-Man No Way Home was a Spiderverse movie teaming up three different franchises of Spider-Mans. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be a team-up of the MCU's sorcerers and witches: Doctor Strange, Wong the Sorcerer Supreme, Wanda the Scarlet Witch, Mordo, Clea allegedly, and introducing America Chavez. Benedict Cumberbatch is on record saying he's not sure Multiverse of Madness is really "his" movie. Moving on, Thor Love and Thunder will feature the villain Gorr the God Butcher versus a team-up the MCU's gods: Thor, Jane Foster Thor, Zeus confirmed (Russell Crowe), Valkyrie, and Hercules allegedly. Finally, The Marvels will be a team-up of heroes who have used the name Marvel throughout Marvel history: Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau, only this time, they will actually create a semi-formal team named after the mother of them all, Mar-Vell (Annette Bening). Third, by the time The Marvels arrives, all three heroes, Carol Kamala and Monica, will have stuck. Carol Danvers is already established and will most likely be installed as leader of the next Avengers team. Kamala Khan will have already have had her own Disney+ series and will have been introduced as Ms. Marvel. Monica Rambeau will feature in the Secret Invasion series and will probably assume her own superhero moniker, Spectrum, by the time that show ends.

No Way Home still does not have a release date in China and will probably not get one. Marvel is banned in China apparently. I think it's because it's so popular there they don't want it cutting into their own movie business.

Marvel movies were completely shut out of China in 2021. Even with that, the MCU's three films before No Way Home...a dead female Avenger, the first Asian super-hero, and a team of obscure superheroes that nobody cared about...were still among the top movies at the box office this year with Shang Chi shattering critical and box office expectations. On television, the MCU practically ruled streaming TV from WandaVision to Hawkeye. I still remember the day WandaVision first aired and the happiness it brought so many in seeing something familiar return in the height of the pandemic. I remember how, not long ago, Shang-Chi returned hope to a gloomy and pessimistic American movie theater industry crushed by non-attendance due to the pandemic. The MCU helped keep the world going during one of the world's darkest times in recent history and has given a lot of people hope that things will get back to normal.

The Dark Knight Trilogy is reputable for one movie alone, the Heath Ledger movie. Other than that, it's just another super-hero movie franchise that lived long enough to become the villain because many fans were disappointed by the third movie. Every past super-hero movie franchise from Tobey Maguire Spider-Man to the Fox X-Men movies to DC's own ambitious movie universe have eventually flamed out in failure. Not the MCU. Marvel Studios has made one relevant and successful super-hero movie after another. Its last movie is poised to become the biggest box office movie of all time (not counting for China and the pandemic) and everybody is talking about it. The MCU has dwarfed everything that came before or absorbs those past failures and makes them relevant again (like it just did with No Way Home). Warner Bros and Disney can make all the Batman and Star Wars movies they want. The MCU sits atop the pop culture mountain and will be there for a long long time.

Also the movie industry lost billions during the pandemic. I guess the movie industry just needs to shut it all down. Oh, except for Spider-Man movies.

So the industry should make nothing but live action Spiderverse movies. Got it.

Yes

I didn’t think it was that big a deal or that anybody would care but sure. The movies title is The Marvels not Captain Marvel 2.

Oh okay. Fair point. Yes, I might have been lost when I made that older post.

Spider-Man is the most popular comic book character on the planet and now dwarfs Batman and Superman in popularity. But when it comes to telling the story of the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel didn't need Spider-Man and still doesn't. Look at Spider-Man's Avengers appearances outside of the Home Trilogy. From Civil War to Endgame, the only purpose Peter Parker served was for Tony Stark to have someone to care about. The Spider-Man Home Trilogy films have zero effect on the greater MCU, but the other MCU films affect the Spider-Man movies. Marvel wants Spider-Man because he's the most popular super-hero on the planet and he brings in the fans. But when it comes to telling the story of the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is what the MCU has been about so far, Marvel has never really needed him and still doesn't.

No, I just don't let a bunch of critics or other groupthink group decide what I like or don't like. With that, in discussion groups like these, I don't just say I hate something or love something because I'm just agreeing with the herd. I've posted why I say Eternals is a commendable film and why I say critics were wrong about the movie. Beginning with Iron Man, Kevin Feige and Robert Downey Jr implicitly stated what they were doing with the MCU, making movies about the comic book character and not dealing with deep dark academic metaphorical mumbo jumbo the way Christopher Nolan was doing with Dark Knight. And for the most part, that's what the MCU films have been, movies that put the comic book hero first (and notably, not the villain). MCU movies don't deal with deep metaphors or high ideals (beyond doing the right thing). Eternals, I believe, is the first MCU film that intentionally deals with higher ideals beyond the hero journey and tackles the higher idea of our shared humanity and what it means to be a human being as these Eternals have strived to understand and live with the Terrans they've become attached to over thousands of years. For me, someone who appreciates movies that Martin Scorsese calls "real cinema", Eternals does indeed play in the arena of "real cinema" and that makes it unique in the MCU pantheon. Unfortunately, because critics don't have a clue when it comes to critiquing comic book movies and most fans like yourself probably just go along with what the masses are saying because many can't think for themselves, Eternals may be the only one of its kind in the MCU and Marvel will probably go back to making its regular super-hero fare, which is also fine I suppose. I guess comic book movies should know their place, right?

It's about time to put Captain Marvel's sequel in a properly titled thread. A recently leaked crew photo from The Marvels set reveals the movie's main players in headshots on the wall, Sam L Jackson not included. From left to right, they are: Brie Larson as Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) Teyonnah Parris as Monica Rambeau (Spectrum) Iman Villani as Kamala Khan (Ms Marvel) Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan (Kamala's mom) Zawe Ashton as unknown villain Park Seo-Joon as unknown character (speculated to be Amadeus Cho) Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie not sure who is last actor on right

Well, sorry you feel that way about Brie Larson. For me, she's perfect casting and is a hell of an actor. She makes me want to buy a Nissan. In comparison, for me, Gal Gadot is great to look at but I find her acting quite stiff. She seems to have trouble expressing more intense feelings. As the MCU is progressively moving towards a universe that is empowering its female heroes where it will be nearly half male and half female and with female heroes in positions of power, Captain Marvel will be right there at the top and will most likely be installed as the leader of the Avengers, even though she's apparently getting her own self-titled mini-team for her sequel. Maybe you will find her sequel to be a better movie and she'll grow on you, because she's here to stay for a while. In comparison, I initially found Chris Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch kind of boring as their hero counterparts in their origin movies, but then Chris Evans nailed it for me in Winter Soldier and I feel Benedict finally grew into the Strange role with Infinity War.

You say it is common. Can you give an example then for discussion? Again, if a storyteller makes a movie about a black superhero that's seen as a bad movie, it isn't because the character is black, it's because the storyteller failed to create a movie with enough tension to keep the audience interested, or failed to account for plot holes in the story, or allowed his/her characters to speak unrealistic or uninteresting dialogue, or other bad storytelling technique. It's not because the character is black. There are hundreds of movies and TV shows that are awful that have an all-white and straight cast of characters. Diversity or even wanting diversity for diversity's sake in one's film has nothing to do with whether a movie is bad or not. The fault is simply bad storytelling by the writers, the director, the actors, and the post-production editors involved. In the case of Eternals, whose thread we are in, I absolutely loved the film and I count it among my favorite MCU films now. However I don't deny that approximately 48% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a less than favorable review. But it wasn't killed because it seemed to be "forcing diversity" into the film. A majority of critics had fault with its "bloated" storytelling as it told the backstory of every single Eternal character which included the film's constant extended flashbacks which in turn broke up the smooth flow of the present-day story. Had nothing to do with the fact that the Eternals featured a cast that represents nearly every racial type on Earth.

I get it. You don't like Captain Marvel or Brie Larson. However, I think you're being a little unfair by calling her place in Endgame's story a deus ex machina or lazy writing, in comparison to other parts of the film. Nick Fury called Carol Danvers at the end of Infinity War because he had an idea of the impossible stakes involved, that the Avengers had failed, and that he needed the ace in the hole "Superman" he had in his pocket. Yes, Captain Marvel is the MCU's Superman. So there's that. She's in the story because Nick Fury called her up. Now, about the Tony Stark and Nebula situation at the beginning of Endgame. Yes, it was a difficult situation for our two heroes to open the film. However, it was a problem that could have been solved any different way, but it didn't really matter how it would be solved because Tony Stark and Nebula being marooned in space wasn't the main problem. Rocket could have built a new spaceship to go find them, or maybe Thor's new hammer might have transported him to wherever they were, a surviving Kree scout ship could have found them, whatever. The point was the story just needed to get Stark and Nebula on Earth so that we could move on to the bigger picture: finding Thanos and trying to restore the universe. As it was, Carol used her unique ability to fly in space and found them tracing the Benatar's distress signal. So the story element of Nick Fury calling in his ace-in-the-hole has now paid off in a small way and has helped move the story along so we could get to the bigger problem. About the finale battle when Captain Marvel takes out Thanos's mothership, the Sanctuary. Again, Nick Fury called up Carol Danvers because she is a big gun, so she needed to pay off in a big gun kind of way. Anton Chekov allegedly said if you show a gun hanging on a wall, then you must fire that gun in the next chapter. Nick Fury's big "gun" fired in the next chapter by taking out Thanos's big gun was that was raining fire on our heroes and gave them a breather to, again, get to solving the bigger problem. Carol's action was no more a deus ex machina in Endgame's final battle than Dr. Strange whipping up the tidal wave into a water spout, or Wanda nearly killing Thanos forcing him to change his battle plan and rain fire on everyone even his own minions, or Steve Rogers magically wielding Mjolnir thus saving Thor, or Stark wielding an Infinity Gauntlet and ending the battle with a snap. Everyone played their part to the level of their super-powers. Strange is a big gun wizard, so he was able to save everyone from the big tidal wave. Rogers has a big gun heart so he was able to lift Mjolnir and save Thor. Stark has a big gun technical mind so he was able to build a Gauntlet that could match Thanos's. And Danvers has big gun energy powers which allows her to basically be a living Infinity Stone level missile. Everyone played their part so that Stark could save the day in the end. Captain Marvel was absolutely not a deus ex machina in Endgame. At least, no more than any other superhero in the movie.

and its also insultng to the people being pandered too. "Look youre human too! I put you in my movie and stuff!". Ah, okay. Here's my take. What kills a story is simply bad storytelling, not what color or gender random characters are in the story. And what makes up bad storytelling? A weak set-up for the story's main problem. Not sticking to your plot's through line as as the story follows its three act structure. Weak dialogue. Plot holes. Insufficient development of the main character when the story needed it. Things like that. Stuff that Aristotle wrote about in Poetics. Including racially or gender diverse characters in a story because the storyteller doesn't want every single character in a movie to be a white straight male does not constitute bad storytelling. And there doesn't need to be a reason for this or that character to be non-white, female, gay, transgender, or whatever, just like there doesn't have to be a reason for this or that character to be white, straight, or male. Again, it only becomes bad storytelling if our storyteller simply can't tell a compelling story, stick to the through line of the plot, uses weak dialogue, etc. A good storyteller can still tell that compelling effective story even if they use every token character in the book.

I meant your complaint of politics in movies. What politics and do you have an example?