RDJ back in the MCU...as Doctor Doom?!

[Monterey Jack]

[Monterey Jack]

[AndyDursin]

The more I think of it, the dumber his casting is. Just looks so desperate and how poorly they've managed this post-ENDGAME phase, failing to cultivate new heroes and the lack of star power associated therein.

[Edmund Kattak]

Another problem apart from the weak development of the "Marvels" ensemble is that I've already forgotten about "The Ten Rings" storyline and characters and NEVER could sit through THE ETERNALS for the same reason. The individual stories of these people are "lost" on me. By the time AVENGERS: DOOMCOCK or whatever it's called rolls around, will all of these people be relevant (or alive) at that point?

The Disney culture schizophrenia coupled with the "Marvel" way of moviemaking makes the story and character development suffer at this stage of the game. I just watched some of the Icons Unearthed "Spiderman" examination and it makes clear that Feige likes to come up with ideas on the fly that have a cost and time factor impact. While Marvel and Sony praise Jon Watts for Spiderman, they admit that he had virtually no directing street credibility going into Spiderman which Marvel likes, but Sony was skittish on. My takeaway is that Sony was bonkers over the ad hoc filmmaking approach of Marvel (Disney), namely because Sony was solely fronting the money for the first two Holland outings. Despite the positive outcome of all three of those Holland movies, I can't help but think that Sony is even more skittish now that Disney (and Marvel) seem to be imploding post pandemic.

I still get roasted by sycophant fanboys when I say that Marvel should have stayed at Paramount.

[Monterey Jack]

I still get roasted by sycophant fanboys when I say that Marvel should have stayed at Paramount.

Paramount (and Universal for The Incredible Hulk) MCU remains the only horny MCU. Now we have acres of hot people who never want to bang.







The Netflix Marvel shows are the only post-Disney acquisition MCU products where the characters are interested in sex in any way, shape or form.

[AndyDursin]

The whole franchise turned into this seed-planting Disney thing the second they turned it over to them. When we rewatched the run up to ENDGAME with Theo you could see it -- once Disney's executives started giving "input" the movies became cluttered ads as much interested in pushing the NEXT movie as they were the film they were trying to make. It was just as bad as I thought, needing a road map to remember "wait, is this Avengers movie before Iron Man 3" and "wait, is this the movie that introduces Spider-Man or do we need to see Thor 2 first" etc.

Beyond the fact they all have the same boring climax and lame scores!

[Paul MacLean]

I can't remember much of anything about Endgame, except for the CGI-embellished big brother from Goonies trying to destroy the world, and about a thousand "main characters" trying to stop him and in a big battle that looks like every other big battle from the past 15 years.

[Monterey Jack]

The whole franchise turned into this seed-planting Disney thing the second they turned it over to them. When we rewatched the run up to ENDGAME with Theo you could see it -- once Disney's executives started giving "input" the movies became cluttered ads as much interested in pushing the NEXT movie as they were the film they were trying to make.

It used to be you'd roll out for a sequel simply because you liked the previous movie(s)...franchises didn't need to "bait the hook" by intentionally leaving plot threads dangling and doing crossovers with totally unrelated movies. There were pre-MCU examples, of course...Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, Back To The Future II and III and the second and third entries in the Matrix and Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises, but at least there, the only movies you needed to watch when the new one came out were the previous entries within that series! Imagine Bruce Willis rolling in for a mid-credits cameo in Lethal Weapon 2, setting up a crossover "Joel Silver Cinematic Universe" adventure with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Die Hard 2. Whether it was James Bond, Indiana Jones, Dirty Harry, or whoever, each movie within that respective series would offer up a satisfactory standalone adventure. Now you practically need a flowchart to keep track of how these Marvel movies (and TV shows!) interconnect.



It's exactly this thinking that causes teenagers to eventually drift away from actual comic books, because it becomes too cumbersome -- and expensive! -- to keep up with buying twelve issues of a dozen different superhero titles just to have a complete narrative. Even in the days when comics cost twenty-five cents, a kid's mid-70s $5.00 weekly allowance would only stretch so far at the spinner rack. And these days comics are like four or five bucks for a single issue!

[Monterey Jack]

Now they're roping in Chris Evans.



ScarJo will be announced within the next three months, guaranteed.

[Monterey Jack]

[AndyDursin]

Sheer desperation at this point -- a sign they both failed to launch any meaningful new characters that people give a bleep about since the last AVENGERS movie, and that they think bringing the band back (even if it's in some kind of half-assed "multiverse"/flashback form) is going to get fannies back into seats.

I thought it was funny some guy on X was writing Evans suddenly needs this now that RED ONE flopped. More like Disney needs him given where they're at in this franchise. And, more signs the new CAPTAIN AMERICA is junk.

[Monterey Jack]

I thought it was funny some guy on X was writing Evans suddenly needs this now that RED ONE flopped. More like Disney needs him given where they're at in this franchise. And, more signs the new CAPTAIN AMERICA is junk.

How much "Ya'll racist!" bullsh!t do you think we'll be subjected to when Cap. 4 makes less than $500 mil at the box office?

Also had someone on Twitter ridiculing me for bagging on this latest news like, "Ohhhh, Monty's predicting Disneyland will shut down, despite them releasing three billion-dollar smashes in a single year!", but...does that make up for the previous two years' worth of gargantuan flops? Or the fact that the MCU is desperately scrambling to remain relevant with a retreat into nostalgia for the franchise's "Good Ol' Days" of 2012-19 by bringing back the old guard?

The death of Chadwick Boseman really threw a wrench into the cogs of the MCU machinery, because he was one of the few post-Phase One actors who had the raw charisma to hold the Avengers together as a team. but who's out there now who has that level of gravitas? Moon Knight? Deaf Girl from the Hawkeye miniseries?

[AndyDursin]

I'm not feeling the faux 60s aesthetic, more slop from Giacchino, or the casting of this at all -- but the fanboys are excited.

Seems like this whole "multiverse" thing is going to be a way of reintroducing new versions of all the old characters? You have to wonder.

[AndyDursin]

I concur with Doomcock on the central miscasting of Pascal and Kirby. I think she's all wrong for this and Pascal looks like he's playing himself in a beer commercial.

[Monterey Jack]

Now there's the rumor of Denzel Washington being cast as Magneto...