MCU Megathread

[CaptHayfever]

The IMAX premiere of Inhumans got reamed. ZERO positive reviews. This is gonna be a slog. (I didn't see it in theaters, since--again--the TV version will be longer.)

Hurricane Irma has temporarily halted production of Ant-Man & the Wasp and Avengers 4 (Marvel Studios does a lot of filming in Georgia), but they'll be back on track soon. Captain Marvel hasn't begun filming yet, so no delays there.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Deku Tree]

Just recently watched through The Defenders. Maybe I was being punished for not watching Iron Fist, but early on I thought it was just a big frustrating mess. Like two episodes of people being cryptic and trying to set up Mystery Boxes. Doesn't help that the Hand stuff was my least favorite part of DD S2. I always liked the more grounded parts of the Marvel Netflix stuff.

I was also annoyed at how incredulous everyone is about resurrection when they live in the MCU. A Norse god fought aliens in your town. You have your own superpowers. Maybe don't be so dismissive.

It got more watchable later on, but didn't do anything special. I do appreciate the restraint of cutting back the episode total. Luke Cage, DD S2, and JJ could have each used a little tightening up.

[CaptHayfever]

It might be because of the sheer extremity of resurrection--officially, nobody outside of SHIELD & Sif knows what happened to Coulson--but I agree. (But hey, any opportunity to make fun of Danny is welcome! )
That happened twice on AoS, too; arbitrary skepticism about specific powers. In season 1, when tracking "the Clairvoyant", Coulson was wishy-washy about psychic powers existing; the Clairvoyant himself turned out to be a fraud, but soon afterwards two other characters appeared with legitimate clairvoyance. Later, when discussing Lash changing forms, Lincoln was all "but no other Inhuman can do that", & I was all "so? you guys all have different powers anyway! maybe shape-shifting is part of his!"

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

New teaser for The Punisher, but still no release date confirmed. Rumors still point towards November.
New teaser for Inhumans, with a massive spoiler for Medusa. Starts airing on TV in 2 Fridays.

[Edit to add: New full trailer for The Punisher went up today. STILL no release date, though.]

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Okay, after months of promotion, & 4 weeks after a disasterous theatrical preview, they FINALLY put together an Inhumans trailer that actually looks good, ONE DAY before the television premiere.
Also, new footage/interviews for Ragnarok. We're 5 weeks away from that.
Rumor mill says that the release date for Punisher will be announced at NYCC. Exact same rumor mill also says the release date will be NYCC, so I'm taking the rumor mill with a grain of salt.
Still nothing new on Runaways; it's about 2 months away.
Season 5 of SHIELD might be bumped up to start in November, right after Inhumans ends.
Seriously, this Inhumans garbage fire is all we have until either Thor or the Punisher comes to save us.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Thoughts on the Inhumans series premiere:

Spoiler.

The IMAX theatrical showings were a tremendous mistake. Any benefits from filming with IMAX cameras were cancelled out by Scott Buck's/ABC's low budget & rushed production. Also, the fact that the theatrical version was shorter means that it couldn't have made ANY sense; there was no extraneous content in the longer TV version*, so cutting any of it would've left the theatergoers without something important. Apparently the theatrical run made just under $3mil, which is actually decent for a TV-in-the-theater event.

That said, I predicted a while back that this would range from horrible to mediocre, & it looks like it's ending up at the mediocre end of that spectrum. Most of the cast is good, but there are some awkward line readings that would've benefited greatly from one more take, whether on-camera or in ADR. The standouts are Maximus, Karnak, & Black Bolt, in that order. Serinda Swan is trying a little too hard as Medusa,though, & her melodrama sticks out like a sore thumb (& the kid version of her was even worse**). And then Crystal....I dunno, she spoke almost as rarely as Bolt himself until over an hour into the show, & Isabelle Cornish just.....barely reacts to anything.

There are some significant script problems as well. The way these people say things simply grates the ears. The Ulysses stand-in (whose name I can never understand) gets sent to the mines with all the sucky-powers people, despite BEING ABLE TO SEE THE FUTURE. Also, Medusa & Crystal each could've easily ended Maximus's coup if they'd actually used their powers instead of just letting him gloat.***
The design work is nice, though,.....except for Medusa's TERRIBLE costume (at least the CGI for her hair in motion is better than the wig for when it's not moving****). Full points for Lockjaw.

The biggest issue, though, ultimately boils down to one essential problem with the plot: Maximus is (mostly) right. The city of Attilan is low on resources and high on classism & slave labor. The Inhumans should return to Earth. Trying to conquer humanity is a terrible idea, of course, & Maximus needs to cut down on the perviness & murder, but his stated goal (provided he's not lying) is what our "heroes" should be doing. (Granted, they HAVE returned to Earth, but not voluntarily.)

*well, except for maybe the faux-NASA scenes, but those only totaled about 2 minutes anyway

**the actress playing young Medusa is apparently named "V.I.P.", which of course makes her nearly impossible to search for online

***a fact that Black Bolt did not overlook

****but Maximus takes care of that problem PDQ

Executive summary: Not good, but more watchable than Iron Fist. With only 6 more episodes, I can choke this down for the sake of completing the continuity; then I get Thor & Punisher & Runaways & SHIELD to make life better again.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Updates from NYCC:
...The "Punisher" panel was cancelled in the interests of good taste after last weekend's tragedy. Likewise, the release of the show itself has likely been postponed--a recent "leak" rumor indicated that it was gonna come out on October 13th (next week), but Netflix is still sticking to its we-never-announced-a-release-date-in-the-first-place story.
..."Agents of SHIELD", on the other hand, still had its panel, where it was confirmed that season 5 will begin on December 1st, over a month sooner than previously expected. (I guess ABC didn't wanna tread water with filler for 2 whole months straight.) This now means only a 2-week gap on ABC after "Inhumans" ends, but it also means the previous promise of no hiatuses throughout season 5 of "SHIELD" has likely been rescinded. It also means "Runaways" still has a week to itself with no competing MCU TV content.
...Speaking of which, "Runaways" also had a panel, where they screened the first episode, to vastly better reception than "Inhumans". Also, Hulu finally released the official trailer to the public, so here it is in proper audio/video quality & actually longer than the one from this past summer.

Early teaser for "Daredevil" season 3, kinda cool, tells us nothing.

We also have new Ragnarok trailers, these focusing on Hela.

Episode 3 of Inhumans:

Spoiler.

In which Gorgon fights a Cyclops ripoff, Black Bolt goes Shawshank, Medusa stops wearing that stupid dress, Karnak gets a job in an illegal pot farm, Maximus keeps his promise of abolishing Attilan's slavery system so we still don't know why he's the villain, Crystal actually says words & uses her powers, and Lockjaw is badly wounded by getting hit with an ATV less than a third his size traveling at maybe 5mph.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

We finally have a new Black Panther trailer!
Also, some new promos for Ragnarok.
Still no word on the Punisher.
Tomorrow is the home-video release of Homecoming, & we also just recently got Jessica Jones s1 & Daredevil s2 on disc as well.

Inhumans episode 4:

Spoiler.

In which it's Medusa & Louise, the buddy road movie that no one ever has or will want to see ever again, with co-star Unnatural & Kinda Sexist Discussion Of Singlehood Apropos Of Nothing!
Black Bolt accidentally takes out Auran's entire assassin squad without even opening his mouth, in part because they were dumb enough to just stand there as he slowly stepped to the side & slowly pulled open a gas line.
We confirm that Mortis really IS a Cyclops ripoff, as his face glow deactivates whilst he's unconscious & his eyes are (presumably) closed.
Crystal is as much a petulant brat as her sister is.
Maximus finally attempts to do something evil, but it's undermined by the fact that the people he executes are the douchey Genetic Council.
And Karnak gets laid.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

A new Punisher trailer finally reveals the release date: November 17th.
Yes, that's the same day Justice League opens. It's also only 4 days before Runaways comes out, so Jeph Loeb has 2 of his own shows directly opposing each other.

Inhumans #5:

Spoiler.

We're putting the band back together. Somebody from Attilan finally told off Bolt & Medusa on the whole caste thing. Maximus is finally going mad. The plot has stopped being awful; now we just need the dialogue & acting to stop being awful.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Rumor has it that, due to the logistical nightmare of getting so many A-list movie stars all on-set together at the same time, Avengers 4 will be the final major MCU team-up film. Smaller crossovers (e.g. Iron Man in Homecoming, Hulk in Ragnarok, et cet) are still fair game, though.

Inhumans ep. 6:

Spoiler.

OH SURE, KILL THREE OF THE FEW LIKABLE CHARACTERS AT THE SAME TIME.

rip Gorgon, Mordis, & Tibor

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[CaptHayfever]

Happy Thor's Day! Ragnarok is now the best-reviewed MCU film ever (94% RT), & it's already made over $100mil just from the international box office (it opens in the US tonight/tomorrow). I'm gonna see it Saturday.

A weird update on New Warriors: The pilot has tested so well that Disney has taken the show off of Freeform's release schedule entirely & is now trying to find a new venue where it would get more viewers (& thus more ad money). The most likely candidates would be ABC or Hulu, since Disney is working to end its relationship with Netflix outside of the Defenders-linked shows. Disney's proprietary streaming service is pretty much out of the question, though, since that's not expected to be ready until at least 2019, while the company still wants New Warriors to debut in 2018.

Only 2 episodes left of Inhumans. I promise to keep spoiling them so that you never have to watch that crap yourself.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Calamity Panfan]

Was gonna try to see it tonight on Student Thursday but all my friends are working and **** so I'll probably have to wait until Tuesday because I don't wanna pay full price for stuff.

[CaptHayfever]

Inhumans 7/8:
Did I really say this was better than Iron Fist? Wow, was I wrong.

Spoiler.

Triton wasn't dead. Saw that coming; a show this lazy wouldn't put that much work into a character who would only appear for 2 minutes.
Auran tells Maximus she originally admired him for reason A; Maximus gets angry & says she should instead admire him for reason B. Reason B is just a paraphrasing of reason A. Saw that coming; Maximus is insane.
Black Bolt & Triton have had a secret plan all along. Didn't see that coming....because how the crap did they make this plan when seemingly nobody but Medusa can understand Bolt's sign language?
Zombie Gorgon. Didn't see that coming....because THAT'S NOT HOW TERRIGENESIS WORKS IN THIS CONTINUITY.

Ragnarok:
Desperately needed a movie this good to help wash the stink of Inhumans off of my clothes. Fast-paced, well-acted, visually-engaging, high-stakes, smartly-plotted. It's everything that Ike Perlmutter's crappy soap opera isn't.
(WARNING--the spoilers REALLY ARE spoilers. Do not open that box if you want to be surprised by the film.)

Spoiler.

RIP "Team Thor"; it was fun having you in-canon while it lasted.
RIP Mjolnir; you at least got a glorious send-off.
RIP Odin; you were a deeply complicated character for having so little screentime.
RIP Hela; you were an outstanding villain.
RIP Skurge; you had awesome character development.
RIP Thor's right eyeball; that was seriously unexpected.
RIP Asgard; dang, son.
RIP Miek--no, wait, looks like Miek is alive!
Preemptive RIP Asgardian refugees; there's no way what comes next is gonna go well for you. Thanos has caught up with the plot.

Timeline is updated.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Calamity Panfan]

I enjoyed the hell out of Ragnarok. The main plot overall followed the "Marvel villain of the week builds an army to destroy a planet" a bit too much but the movie made up for it with strong casting, really strong writing and good action that doesn't overdo it. I loved seeing an actress like Blanchett ham it up as Hela, and I needed sooooo much more Jeff Goldblum because he was brilliant. I do wish we got into Valkyrie's character a bit more.

I do think it's still the weakest of the three Marvel movies released this year but GotG2 and Spider-Man Homecoming I think are top 5 MCU movies. This is still easily the best Thor movie by like a looooooot.

minor spoiler below

Spoiler.

the play scene was great. My buddy asked if that was Matt Damon and I said it couldn't have been him. Score 0 for Panny. Luke Hemsworth as Thor was lovely too.

Also Mark Mothersbaugh's score is easily the best score of any of these movies, it feels like. Also I'm hoping Taika Waititi isn't rolling in so many big project offers that he can do We're Wolves soon because I've been waiting so long for that.

[CaptHayfever]

^Regarding that scene: It's not the first time that

Spoiler.

Matt Damon played Loki

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Calamity Panfan]

Oh my God that completely slipped my mind. Brilliant.

[ScottyMcGee]

So I really enjoyed Thor Ragnarok. Thor destroying hordes of demons while Immigrant Song blasted was all I ever wanted from a Thor movie.

[Apiary Tazy]

I've also seen Thor: Ragnarok.

I really liked it though I do feel like the future of the MCU is going to invest in having the same atmosphere and aesthetic as Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm not saying that's bad but it may remove the seriousness of the whole franchise which is strange because Ragnarok has tons of death in it but it never felt truly dark despite all that. Up to you if that works or not, but Ragnarok got a more positive reception than past Thor movies and that's really what matters to Marvel.

[Calamity Panfan]

I don't think that's true at all. I think they went the more Guardians-esque route with Thor here because it worked better with the elements of Planet Hulk they wanted to include and also because it was a nice change of pace for a Thor franchise that was clearly the weakest film franchise in the MCU. Black Panther isn't going to go that route looking at the trailers. I doubt that's what Boden/Fleck will be doing with Captain Marvel either. A big part of the MCU so far is that while story-wise many of the films may hit the same notes, the genres they're inspired by differ. The first Captain America was an Indiana Jones-esque adventure film. The second was a political thriller. The Guardians movies and Thor: Ragnarok are inspired by 70s/80s sci-fi. Ant-Man is more of a straight up comedy than any of the others. Doctor Strange had more martial arts/fantasy feel. Spider-Man Homecoming is a teen comedy with action elements.

[Apiary Tazy]

Black Panther is definitely going to be more suited to the character. But Captain Marvel? I don't know since the series is focusing on Thanos and that means there's going to be more of an emphasis on the world set up in Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy and the tone they went for here seems to be working more than The Dark World did.

Nothing wrong with straddling the line of light-heartedness at the moment. It's what made the Guardians of the Galaxy so good and Thor Ragnarok was also great. I'm just nitpicking at something. Far as I can see, MCU is doing pretty good for the lead up to Infinity War.