We Need To Talk About ‘Avengers - Infinity War’ : Spoilery

[Patrick Thistle]

The Lego sets are out and as usual spoiler something by dressing all the surviving Avengers in white uniforms.

Even though I feel about as attached to the Avengers movies as I am to my toenail clippings, I'm obviously still going to go and see it, for closure. Captain Marvel and Rocket will be in it so it won't be a total write off.

In the other comics behemoth movie studio news, I'm looking forward to seeing Shazam. Zachary Levi is comedy gold.

[BallochSonsFan]

Infinity War suffered from some questionable writing, a desire to cram as many characters in as possible before deals ran out and they were put out to pasture and the inexplicable decision not to cut Thanos' hand off, thus saving the need to faff about trying to take the sodding gauntlet off.

But even at 3 hours, which is madness for a comicbook movie, I'll still go to see End Game.

[BallochSonsFan]

I went.

It wasn't very good.

[Lang Spoon]

Does any more of Edinburgh get destroyed? That might be the only reason I'd consider watching this.

[RobW]

I saw it, it was ok, but I never liked the ensemble Avengers films anyway, compared to the single character films. Paul Rudd and Chris Hemsworth give excellent comic relief.

[Ray de Galles]

SPOILERS


I saw it and very much enjoyed it ( I think I was one of the few fans of 'Infinity War' on here and my immediate take is that first one is the superior movie) but had a problem with the deus ex machina with which they solved the central problem of the Infinity Stones being destroyed early in the film.

That may sound ridiculous given we've bought in to the Infinity Stones themselves and all of the other stretches of the imagination over the series of films but it was just too pat to have Tony perfect the theory of quantum time travel in an evening at his coffee table and for the group to refine the mechanics over a short period of time. It left a bit of a harumph in the back of my mind through the time travel section of the film.

That quibble receded as the film went on but I was far happier when they returned to the present day or were on other planets and I thought the finale and wrapping up of the plot strands were great. I might go and see it again to see if the middle section works better second time around.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

At least that twat REDACTED - SPOILER - won't have any more films. Oh, and the other one.

[Hot Pepsi]

I squeezed into a sold out showing. All the showings are sold out. This movie will make a squillion zillion dollars and will need it to cover the enormous cast chock-full of movie stars. Robert Redford is in it, FFS.

It’s awesome. It’s mad and the plot is complicated and it’s three hours long and may or may not make sense but it doesn’t matter. It’s the most entertaining superhero movie by a long shot and it’s beautifully done in every detail.

Definitely has to be seen on the big screen.

I love Brie Larson as Captain Marvel so much and Big Lebowski Thor is fantastic.

[hobbes]

Saw it last week. It was marginally less terrible than Infinity War, but by christ you could easily have shaved an hour off it and not lost anything.

[Patrick Thistle]

I thought this was much better than Infinity War and the best Avengers movie since Assemble.

Thor was great, and Valkyrie and Korg somehow survived Thanos' massacre. Yay.

It even somehow made time travel work, so kudos to it. They've managed to keep the franchise going despite losing some main characters.

Thor teaming up with the Guardians has to be a precursor to a GOTG3, doesn't it? I mean, please, please, please let it be so. And will we see Star-Lord and Captain Marvel get together like in the comics (even though she's still Carol Danvers not Kitty Pryde).

So, yeah, Avengers Endgame would be a great way to knock a decade of Marvel films on the head. But I really don't want to.

New Spider-Man movie coming soon.

[Hot Pepsi]

There will be a GoG 3, at least one more Spider-Man, and a Black Widow film, which is a prequel probably. Some Avengers will be in the Marvel shows on the new Disney + service, including one about Hawkeye, a Scarlett Witch show, and maybe a Falcon/new Captain America thing. I think those are all miniseries, from what I’ve read. Not sure if they’ll do more with the Defenders characters from the Netflix shows. Those had kinda run their course, I suppose.

There’s also an Immortals thing happening. I never read that. Doesn’t sound interesting. Not sure what’s going on with Agents of SHIELD. I found that really dull.

The future of the X-Men on screen is unclear since Disney took over Fox. The Dark Phoenix film about to come out will be the last in that series (and largely repeats the third film from the first X-Men series). There’s also a New Mutants film coming out that was actually done two years ago but stayed in limbo. I suspect they may want to do something with the new Wolverine girl. I forget her name.

Remains to be seen how DC will respond. Justice League looks really shit compared to the Avengers, and I say that as a DC partisan. They’re doing a new Batman about a younger Batman, I think, which looks promising but it hasn’t been cast. They’ll need to recast Superman too. But Shazam, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman are all working so I guess they’ll keep them for now. Not sure if the plans for a Flash movie and a new Green Lantern Corps film are still going ahead given how badly the “Snyderverse” went.

DC has had more luck with TV than films. The stuff on their new DC Universe platform is ok and their CW shows are entertaining, albeit pretty lightweight. As part of the ATT/Warner empire, they could do stuff for HBO or the new HBO/WB thing in the works. There is a new Watchmen series coming to HBO. No idea what that will be like.

I suspect that it’s about time for the world to move from superheroes onto the next big genre trend. Not sure what that will be. And there are larger issues about the fate of movies in theaters versus at home that are unfolding that will determine how that all plays out. It looks likely that even with Avengers and the last Star Wars that overall cinema revenues will be down year-over-year, again. I just don’t see how their model of $12 plus $5 for a Coke is sustainable when one can watch almost anything ever filmed at home on a nice screen for a lot less money.


For example, the future of the Star Wars universe appears to be on TV. There’s no plans to follow up Solo, which was actually good, but The Mandolorian is going to be a show on Disney +.

[Patrick Thistle]

(Different thread perhaps but Disney released Solo at the wrong time. We'd just got used to a new Star Wars film for Christmas and then they released it in July.)

I don't know where the DC movies go from here, but Shazam! was great. Gal Gadot as WW is the only other reason to watch the movies.

I didn't realise Disney bought Fox. I'd like to see X Men integrated into the MCU. Dark Phoenix is a "cosmic" storyline and in the comics the Guardians get involved.

[Hot Pepsi]

DC just shat the bed by handing the keys to Zach Snyder and yet there is a cult of fans who think everything will be fine if we get to see his original cut of Justice League. I don’t get that.

They should let me direct the next Superman film. I have ideas.

[Patrick Thistle]

I think I'm the only person who didn't care for the Nolan Batman movies but they were masterpieces compared to the Snyder movies.

Superman's problem is that Superman is boring. He is practically unkillable and has too many superpowers. It's the same problem Marvel are going to have with Captain Marvel, long term - if you can fly through space and destroy entire spaceships then not much is going to stop you, and eventually there has to be some weakness for you to overcome otherwise you;re just super, not a hero.

[Eggchaser]

Just got to see Endgame, after people like my assistant at work who hasn't seen any of the other films, FFS.

Loved it. I was wrong about SPOLIER which one of Cap and Iron Man died, I would have lost the house betting on it being Cap, but then to some extent the films have always been about Iron Man and friends.

Fat Thor was hilarious. Guardians 3 should be great.

[Hot Pepsi]

Superman doesn't have to be that boring if the stories focus on Clark Kent and the burden he carries. And he is stoppable.

The problem is trying to create stories that include both not-very-powerful characters like Batman and Green Arrow along with super-powerful characters like Superman and Dr Fate.

It would make more sense if DC had three universes - a "real world" one led by Batman, Green Arrow, Nightwing, etc that plays mostly by the rules of our world with some slight license for technology and characters being able to do things that aren't very likely as in a James Bond film. Then there'd be a more sci-fi, yet fantastical universe with Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, etc. And then a third one based more on magic and mythology with Aquaman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman. Then the magic and sci-fi characters could occasionally cross into the others via wormholes or whatever, but not on a regular basis.

Marvel has the same problem. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Daredevil, and even Spider-Man and Iron Man don't really make sense in the same universe as Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel.

[Patrick Thistle]

Marvel tends to separate out the "cosmic" stories, which are my preferred films. But I agree Dr Strange doesn't fit and that film is by far the worst of all the MCU films.

[Hot Pepsi]

I liked Dr Strange. It’s just an awkward fit. M

The worst MCU film is, I think, the second Thor movie. And Ant-Man 2 seemed kinda meh at the time, but then it turns out to be really important to the plot of Endgame and Paul Rudd is great in this. It’s like the whole film is a Checkov’s Gun.

[Hot Pepsi]

I liked Dr Strange. It’s just an awkward fit. M

The worst MCU film is, I think, the second Thor movie. And Ant-Man 2 seemed kinda meh at the time, but then it turns out to be really important to the plot of Endgame and Paul Rudd is great in this. It’s like the whole film is a Chekhov's Gun.

[Eggchaser]

The second Thor movie wasn't great, and had that arch miserablist Christopher Ecclestone in it, a man who appears to actively resent his chosen craft.

Iron Man 3 was cack, badly mishandling both The Mandarin and Extremis.

Oddly, if the MCU had ever managed to bring out a properly realised Fantastic Four film, then a lot of the plot for this would fit in perfectly with their schtick, given the amount of madcap time travelling, Negative Zone visiting and sciencey wiency shenanigans they routinely get into in the spare five minutes they have when not indulging in their true passion of interminable bickering.

Not that The Avengers are really strangers to magic and space, see the Kree-Skrull war, the original Captain Marvel, various resurrections by black magic e.g. Grim Reaper, all the Black Knight and the curse of the Ebony Blade stuff, Immortus (or is he?) whackiness, the whole Rama Tut/Kang the Conqueror affair and, of course, everyone's favourite character, Doctor Druid.

[Hot Pepsi]

I can’t remember anything about Iron Man 3, but that it wasn’t great.

None of the versions of FF are part of the MCU canon because they weren’t made by Disney/Marvel. So they can try that again. They are, as I recall, important to the Marvel universe, so they should be part of all this.

The Ed Norton Hulk movie is supposed to be canon, but I don’t think General Ross or Betty Ross appeared again.

The Netflix TV shows are in the same timeline too, I think, but I don’t know if we’ll see any of those characters soon. Certainly not with those actors.

Black Cat played by Felicity Jones was set-up in the second Andrew Garfield Spider-Man. I like the new Spider-Man better, but that had potential.

A Daredevil/Spider-Man/Black-Cat team up could be good.

I suspect they want to try again with Silver Surfer. Maybe do something with Submariner, Captain Britain, and Moon Knight.

[Patrick Thistle]

That's a good shout on Thor 2 being the worst MCU film. But it did have a starring role for a Vimto can. I wasn't keen on Iron Man 2 or Iron Man 3.

I wonder if they are planning a second massive tranche of films and whether the Fantastic Four or Daredevil would feature. Trailers are out for the new Spider-Man film. There's a lot of love for Guardians of the Galaxy so it would be crazy not to do more with that.

[Eggchaser]

Saw Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse last night. Damn, that's a good film.

[Hot Pepsi]

Saw Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse last night. Damn, that's a good film.

Yes it is. That will get sequels too.

DC has made a number of good direct-to-video animated movies. Maybe they should focus on that and put those in theaters.

[Eggchaser]

DC animation is the inverse of their cinematic efforts in terms of quality.

Still hoping for a decent Green Lantern movie...