InvaderStych

You're not entirely wrong there. I'm in agreement with @Without_Pause with regards to some of the stuff they did with the various series. They worked as series in ways that would not have worked as movies. Imagine trying to drag out the Agatha story across more than one movie, or compress it into a single movie. Neither approach would have worked from a story-telling perspective, and the former would have been a budgetary disaster. The problem is that the financial success of the franchise leading up to Endgame has blinded them to the reality that it simply isn't a repeatable formula. They would see more success focusing on smaller stories set in the world they've created than they will ever see trying to repeat the blockbuster success by invoking a "multi-verse," recycling characters, or re-casting so-called "stars." And let's be honest here. F4 is, imo, a meme. The best version of "Reed Richards" is found in The Venture Brothers. Nothing they do with it will crack the interest of the general audience. Dr. Doom without the Victor Von is a waste of a good baddie, and X-Men is better served in a serial format than in big budget films. The dynamics of serial story-telling coupled with the budgetary realities of releasing on streaming vs. trying for a big blockbuster theatrical success is a much better choice all around. I've been saying all along that trying to repeat what was accomplished with the run up to Endgame is doomed to failure for a variety of reasons, up to and including audience expectations. The general reception of these re-casting announcements simply reinforces that theory. The good news is that as this progresses we might actually start seeing a resurgence of moderate budget movies again. What we used to call the "20 million dollar" film 25 years ago. No idea what that is adjusted for inflation. It was the loss of this level of film-making that led to a number of "big movie stars" making the switch to TV in the first place as it no longer signaled the death of a career but was simply a choice to follow to where the stories were being told.

Watched the first two mostly because Tom Hardy can be entertaining. They're both pretty much Paint By The Numbers movies. Nothing special, but not terrible either. Will eventually get around to watching the third via whatever streaming venue it lands upon. This time though more for Chiwetel Ejiofor than any other reason. I expect more Paint By Numbers with a couple of Entertaining Actors as a bonus.

War Mace/Energy Aura ... the combo so strong (and pretty) it spawned its own badge.

Video version, even though this should clearly qualify under Images You Can Hear in standard meme format.

Kae Tempest - Europe Is Lost

Needs to be a panel discussion moderated by Gerald Cooper.

I mean ... https://www.adultswim.com/videos/the-venture-bros/a-very-venture-christmas/

It looks like you're using regular Teleport for this stuff. I'd recommend Combat Teleport for "escape" usage as it activates much more rapidly and does not invoke that brief period of hovering. I'm going to drop my standard bind-set for both Combat Teleport and regular Teleport below. Just swap the power names as needed. The above works fine, but I found binding to Left Button to cause a few issues on very rare occasions. Binding to "powexec_location cursor" is a more reliable way to achieve the same effect and opens up options other than the Left Button for activation. My binds for that look like this. MOUSECHORD is both L and R buttons simultaneously. You can specify LSHIFT, but it is not strictly necessary unless you want L and R SHIFT to do different things. MOUSECHORD "powexec_location cursor combat teleport" SHIFT+MOUSECHORD "powexec_location cursor teleport" Setting Location to "target" is incredibly useful for melee toons. It can also be used to target a friendly (teammate) or a contact and teleporting to their location. BUTTON4 "powexec_location target combat teleport" SHIFT+BUTTON4 "powexec_location target teleport" As for the escape binds ... SHIFT+A "powexec_location left:35 combat teleport" SHIFT+D "powexec_location right:35 combat teleport" SHIFT+S "powexec_location back:35 combat teleport" SHIFT+W "powexec_location forward:35 combat teleport" I also made a "lazy zone crossing button" that takes advantage of Teleport's brief window of hovering. Point and Port. It means aiming around buildings and stuff, but it works pretty well once you get used to it. I "powexec_location camera:max teleport"

🤣 Fair enough. I have a soft spot for truly terrible films, sometimes, but the entries in the MCU that disappoint tend not to rise (sink?) to the level of "So Bad It Is Good."

Mostly this. WW84 certainly felt like a phoned-in effort from all involved, so don't mistake the following for a defense of that paint-by-numbers-we're-making-this-because-we-have-to mediocrity. That said, not all box office disasters are inherently bad films, nor are all box office successes inherently good films either. As a quick short-hand, box office is a decent metric to determine general audience reception, but imo its a poor metric upon which to judge a films artistic merit. Brazil, Children of Men, Blade Runner, Fight Club, Office Space ... There's a long history of films that were not initially commercially successful (some weren't even profitable) that were later regarded as high quality works, some even being elevated to the status of "classic" or "seminal" depending on the film being discussed. Heck, even The Wizard of Oz was did not turn a profit in its initial theatrical run. (emphasis mine) Citizen Kane also didn't initially fare well by profit/loss metrics (owing in part to Hearst's efforts to bury it) It lost money in several major markets where it initially screened, and while I never agreed with its "GOAT" status despite the incredible work of cinematographer Gregg Tolland (who ground his own lens elements to create some of the deep focus shots among many other innovations during his lifetime), I'm not going to argue that it isn't a seminal work that deserves most of the hype it gets. As Orson Wells movies go, Touch of Evil was his best work, imo. All of that is a long way of saying that we should be considering more metrics than just box office success to determine what makes a movie "good." But to reiterate: WW84 was thoroughly mediocre.

Two very different movies, and excellent examples of how to do their respective styles properly. Hawley is very good at the slow burn - I wasn't really associating Fargo as much as I should have been. The free reign he was given with Legion sits too strongly in my consciousness. It will be interesting to see where he takes this one. That is an odd choice. Of course there were a lot of odd choices in the story-line over the years. I'm not even sure what is and isn't canon for the franchise at this point. 🤣

Cautiously interested in this. I'm not sure Hawley's style lends itself to an Alien(s) installment. I fear he might be reigned in a bit for this one, but would be thrilled to find I am wrong and the proverbial They let him off the leash. Skipping the spoiler tag under the safe assumption everyone in this thread already knows the story beats covered in CA:TWS. Honestly, I'm into it. Sure, they've already done a political thriller once - but we're talking, fundamentally, about genre films here. Each one is pretty much a re-tread of well worn ground. Heck, the first Avengers and Ultron both followed the same basic beats: Bring some characters together, get them to fight amongst themselves in Act 2, get them to come together against the "Big Bad" in Act 3. At least by following in the footsteps of TWS they're working with what I thought to be one of the best structures of the entire oeuvre to date. This one has my interest, but I don't have expectations of it being much more than passably entertaining. Esposito is always a joy to watch though, so that will help. Particularly having him take another turn as villainous. Which brings me to my problem with Thunderbolts* ... ... once more, those same story beats - here's some characters you're mostly familiar with, here is them fighting each other, here is them banding together to fight something else. Character choice isn't my complaint here, the story structure is. Personally, I'd rather they do these sorts of explorations than just giving us the same fifteen or so characters over and over ad infinitum. (I mean, really, how many #$%^ing versions of Batman do we need?) Having said that though, the second trailer makes it appear like they are going to waste HJK's talents again which I find disappointing. Asking this out of genuine curiosity. What would you rather they be putting out there? Mackie was great in Twisted Metal, but a terrible choice for Altered Carbon (among many terrible choices made in S2 of that adaptation). Part of the problem is that he is one of those actors who does work that is largely based on their personality rather than disappearing into a given character. Like the difference between someone like Robert DeNiro or Jack Nicholson (personalities) rather than Gary Oldman (full disappearance). I can see why that would be a turn-off for some fans vis-a-vis Captain America. I don't mind the idea of the evolution of Cap, personally, and find Mackie entertaining enough to take it someplace different than the classic portrayal. That said, I could probably think of better actor choices to do it (if I could be bothered, lol), who would disappear into it more while still being the Sam Wilson version of Cap. -------- One thing occurred to me that I am curious to hear the thoughts of others regarding: I don't think that DisArvel is doing themselves any favors with these "Here is what we are planning for the next decade" reveals. Sure, great, you're thinking that you're going to drop some Mutant stories in 2027. Meanwhile, we're all out here spending the next couple years speculating, arguing, and theorizing, ultimately to be disappointed by the end product because we've been thinking about it so long. Then there's the "talent decided to mis-behave in the meantime and now we have to switch gears after announcing we were betting big on them" issue that crops up from time to time. Part of their ROI problem might just be that they are putting out too much too early into a landscape that is going to obsess over it in the interim and feel let down when it doesn't match their personal expectations.

Certainly one of the top two. 👍 I'm partial to Periwinkle Blue myself. 🤣 Call me weird, but Snatch is on my list of "I need to just watch something familiar that makes me unreasonably happy" movies.

"First Character" is not really a practical marker. I deleted and restarted at least 4 or 5 characters when I found Homecoming in 2020. I'm willing to guess that I'm not the only player who has done this. Also willing to guess that I'm not the only player who's global name is not shared by any characters. Sure, that's a thing that some people do, but it's not likely to be universal. Your best course of action is either leveling the toon or moving the name to a retired 50.

Indeed, apparently there's a history of these but this one was the first to come to my attention.

Well, ep7 I'd say is still the strongest of the series, but ...

Charlie and Vince will be enjoyable to watch, as they were in the Netflix series and their recent appearances in other releases. Wasn't that Kamala's dad asking the Most Frequently Asked Question, or did I see that wrong? Would have preferred a continuation of Luke Cage, but I'll probably watch this one for a little more of Vince's performance as Fisk. I.E. This one is a Will Watch. Call this one a Probably, Leaning Toward Most Likely. Expectations of more of their usual formula. I submit the shot of her punching the truck a'la' Hulk punching the flying whale thing during the Battle of New York as evidence that this will be a Set Piece Heavy ride of Things We Have Seen Before. I'm as down for some Low-Thought-Required-Entertainment (from time to time) as any other 'Murican, so why not? 🤣 Undecided, but not for any particular reason. Call this one an Eventually If I Run Out Of Other Things To Watch, Or Get More Interested Later. Enjoyed, mostly (see below), the first two. This one is a Will Watch. This was my least favorite of the previous What If ... segments. I'm with @Techwright on the Zombie Fatigue. Giving this a Probably Not Unless I Am Reeeeeaaallly Bored And Completely Out Of Other Things To Watch. Nothing much to say here, save for Sure, Why Not? Should be artistically interesting if nothing else. Could end up being solid, could just be into it for the art. I don't even know what this is, so it will have to give me more to get my interest. All in all, some interesting stuff, but nothing that I'm overly excited about. That's not a judgment of any sort, I am interested in watching some of them after all, but nothing that gets me saying I Must Watch This ASAP Upon Release. But the irony is that he is a very good tailor! 😉

Sorry, but this dumb forum put the following inside of my spoiler tags, despite the fact that I added it very clearly OUTSIDE the tags, and the lousy editor (at least in Firefox) won't let me fix it, so I am repeating it out in the open since it was meant for a more general thread audience and not meant to be hidden behind the tags. Definitely a high water mark for the series, very well executed episode. Honestly, I know there were doubts as to basing a series on this particular character, but it works. I'm probably alone on this, but I'd much rather see more of these sorts of explorations than just endlessly repeating the same characters playing out the same formula in a vain attempt to re-capture the magic of the first time through. That, imo, is destined to fail through death by comparison. Late Edit to answer a question no one was asking: Keen eyed viewers probably noticed an image of what appears to be a witch on a paddle board during the end credit montage. That's an annual event in Morro Bay. Probably elsewhere by now as its been going on for just over 10 years. https://www.morrobay.org/event/witches-and-warlocks-paddle/13954/

Well, sorta ... Structurally closer to Following (Headline -> Log Line -> Article) than Memento (backwards). We got the "headlines" scattered through the first 6 episodes with her outbursts, ep7 gave them context. Kudos to the writing and editing teams on this episode in particular. My comment had more to do with the way a few recent releases interact (or fail to) with each other than it did the releases in and of themselves, but that's on me for being vague. 🍻 It's also a distraction from the Reason for the Season ... of the Witch. Well, I am neither Very Online nor Very Knowledgeable in Comics Lore save for a few things here and there. Didn't see the merch-spoiler, and still don't know if she's referencing someone specific, or written for the show. Again, apologies for vagueness here. Loving her performance as usual. She has a great deal of range that rarely gets properly utilized due in no small part to the strength of her persona. Its a good thing to see this time around. A few more thoughts ...

Finally managed to make my way through the timeline and caught up to this one. Fun. It certainly makes more narrative sense than a couple of Dis-arvel's recent offerings. No need to dwell on that in this thread though. Plaza seems more ... subdued ... than I had expected, still her wonderfully odd self, just quieter ... mostly.

Putting this here as there seems to be a bit of a theme at the moment, and just in case anyone happened to miss them a while back ...

I have no idea how I managed to miss this 15 years ago, but apparently I am going to have to track down a stream.

Confession: I am a total car nerd. I watch IMSA/WEC on the regular. I watch Mazda MX-5 Cup consistently. (some of the best racing currently available, fyi) I low-key follow Rallycross, Nitrocross, WRC, various off-road SCORE races, etc, etc etc. My instagram feed is full of footage from Goodwood, Sarthe, Spa, and the Green Hell (iykyk) among many other car nerd related things. And yet, there is one and only one exotic I would actually want to own: The remainder of my f#$%-you money, er I mean lottery winnings would go to the proper support vehicles required to take it to every single track on my extremely extensive list. Driving on public roads isn't driving, it is commuting. The two are not even remotely the same thing. Sure, I love a good B-road as much as the next nerd, but they're almost always too crowded these days. 30-35 years ago, maybe, but now? It is a rare moment that one gets a good road to one's self. YMMV depending on your location. As a daily driver? Probably something like an M5 Touring, M3 Touring if I could convince the US Gov not to crush it because it would have to be a grey market import. Ditto for the Aussie market Landcruiser I'd want for camping/utility. Now if we want to add bikes to the thread, then the list gets longer, but not by much. 😉