InvaderStych

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. 😉

Recently started watching this one; highly recommend provided you're into a rather twisted tale that unfolds slowly, with punctuation in all the right places. I guess I'm going to have to track down the novel once I'm done with the season. .... Which is apparently this ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42106690-the-dark-manual?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=2FaPt5HfNr&rank=1 ... or maybe this, which has the same main character and basic premise with a different description? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187016383-sunny Reprint/Rehash of the same thing? GR comments don't offer much of a clue, not that I looked for too long. Whatever, still a solid show, enjoying it greatly.

Some twists and turns would be fitting in this one. One thing did strike me as odd, but perhaps my memory is fuzzy ... What we saw of the set pieces did look to be well done and executed practically, here's hoping that holds true throughout. Oh ... yeah ... that poster on IMDB is ... well, the nicest thing I can say about it is that it exists. 🤣

With any luck, and if they are smart, they'll give HJK more to do than just fight scenes in a neat outfit. Her talents were wasted in the Ant Man movie. I'll probably watch it anyway just for some "Brain Off, Show Me The Shiny Action Set Pieces" fun, but it does look like they are leaning on the same formula that was used in multiple Avengers movies. Get some characters, have them bond through fighting each other, introduce the McGuffin, deal with the McGuffin, close with a cheeky group shot in the credits. Tweaking the formula here by using morally ambiguous characters is all well and good, but it's still the same numbers they usually use as a painting guide. Likely to have some solid moments and great production value, as usual, but expecting them to break new ground is setting oneself up for disappointment. Take that further, it does seem that the audience doesn't really want them to try breaking new ground anyway. As much as I wish it were otherwise, we're not likely to see another Legion or Logan.

I got this far into the sentence and immediately thought ... ... which is a team-up I enthusiastically endorse. As for an original contribution to the thread ... I'll have to get back to you on that. 🤣

If they wanted to do S31, it should have just been a story about this guy (with some of that not-at-all-uncanny-valley-invoking-de-aging-tech): Or, hell, even this would get my support: ... Tangential thing I discovered while pulling up William Sadler's name from IMDB ... ... what in the love of Trek is this likely abomination, why is J-Dax in it if it is set 25 years after she dies, and why do I feel compelled to watch it because that's how much I loved DS9? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12669884/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_ds9 ... back on topic ... I still expect it to be fun to watch Yeoh strut around this for the giggles, but I don't expect it to be a compelling take on S31. I'll just imagine I'm watching something else. 🤣

Hmm ... As a vehicle for Michelle Yeoh? Yes. Looks great. As a piece centered on Section 31? Nah. Not what I was hoping for when the rumors were firing up. I get why ... take a popular character (deservedly so) played by an excellent actress and give them a bit of a run. Folks will watch it just for a bit more Georgiou (I know I will) ... ... but there is so much more that could be done with something like 31 that I can't help but feel a slight tinge of disappointment that the potential isn't being explored.

Only if we're getting motorcycles in Homecoming.

By internet standards, this is an oldie, but definitely a goodie. Circa 2011 homage to 1950s Sci-Fi serials. Won't link the actual website as it seems to have triggered a certificate error, but since I didn't verify that was what triggered the Firefox alert I'll err on the side of caution. Might have shared this before in a previous thread, but I don't recall. Back when it was new the director posted a lot of really nice BTS on the costume/prop construction. Counts here as it was originally released online-only. The Mercury Men https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1995142/

Of the series I've seen to date, I can agree with that. WV and Loki weren't really action-oriented, and I liked both of those quite a bit for different reasons. Particularly the art direction in Loki, which reminded me quite a bit of the designs for Clockworks and Summerland in Legion. (this is a very good thing, imo) Mostly there were a handful of moments of ... not great ... dialog writing in F&WS, imo that dragged it down a bit. Beyond that I did enjoy the watch, even if there wasn't enough of the banter I was hoping for. 😄

If I'm being honest, all I really wanted out of the F&WS series was a whole lot of cheeky banter between Stan and Mackie. Got some, but not nearly enough. Still enjoyed the series, save for a few weak moments here and there. Trailer looks like they're trying to walk in CA:TWS's footsteps, which is great and all, but not enough there in the clip to render judgment. Looks like they mostly painted by numbers on this one, for better or worse. I'll still give it a watch when it hits the D+ though, just for the fun of an action movie diversion. I've been slowly catching up on the various series, and am still several movies behind the curve though. Slightly off-topic comment follows:

I always start with a concept: I've either got a specific character (backstory/homage/etc) or visual design (costume) I want to make and experiment with power combos that both fit into it and are enjoyable to play. My Fire/MC blaster started this way. Kat/Rad scrapper started this way as well. My Psi/SD scrapper was originally a Psi/Nin, but that didn't fit what I was going for so I re-rolled. I tried a variety of Savage/XXX combos on a scrapper because I wanted to build something inspired by those creepy, headless, Boston Dynamics Robot Dog things (Spot?), and landed on Savage/Invuln. Currently (although it has been a while since I've devoted any significant time to play) I have a couple of toons with great names and looks, but am struggling to find an enjoyable combination for them. Rarely, I will have a specific power-set pairing in mind and will mold a concept/look around that. My Fire/Stone/Blaze Stalker started out this way, and turned out to be quite an enjoyable character. I'll always level through a mix of solo arcs and TF teams. I have no problems re-rolling to a different powerset combo, even if I am well into the 40s. Any IOs slotted simply get moved to the inventory of the re-rolled toon. I also have no problems dropping an idea entirely if it isn't working out, or shelving it for a while for later. I have a Praetorian concept or two that fall into this category. While leveling, I'll slot SOs and use the "Upgrade" button every 3rd level or so. As specific IOs that I know I want to slot become available (ATO sets, standard pieces like Panacea, Perf Shifters, etc) I'll slot them in. Mostly these are attuned pieces where I know I won't gain value from the 50+5 treatment. Some I will swap out at 50 if I want to +5 them to satisfy that numerical OCD. As far as mids: I'll poke around a bit in mids after the toon hits the mid-20s or so and start contemplating a post-50 build. I rarely exemplar, and have some toons (looking at you Psi/SD) that don't lend themselves to doing so, so I am generally not too concerned about that aspect. Occasionally I'll hit a sweet spot and build with that in mind (Fire/MC blaster does this well). Eventually I'll land on a target build, and revise it any number of times on the way to 50 as I get a feel for what I want out of the power combos. On toons that I play extensively post-50, I'll go through a few revisions to fine tune power choices and slotting. I rarely consider a build "finished," especially as various Page updates to HC change things around.