For me it was Guardians of the Galaxy. I had only seen The Avengers and liked it at the time, and I was hyped for this new weird space movie. But all I got was The Avengers in space and it sucked.
I was already getting tired of it towards the end, but End Game really put the nail in the coffin. Thanos was the most developed villain the show had (still pretty generic though), with motivations and emotions and everything. It almost seemed like they were setting it up to be a critique of his worldview, and the final film would show the deep flaws in ideology.
But it just goes: What do you mean, 'faulty premise'? Thanos was right, the world is better for genociding half of humanity. Anyway, now we're gonna do time-travel fan-service, and then undo everything that just happened.
Like, any child can tell you killing 3.5 billion people is bad -- give me a goddamn critique of Thomas Malthus.
Same. I wasn't leftist at the time, but I was interested in Infinity War because of what happened; big bad guy wipes out half of the universe (and a good chunk of the heroes). So what now? Do we move on, hold him accountable, how do we deal with this?
Time travel. No stakes whatsoever, we can just use time travel now. Fuck off. Any time a show/movie opens that can, I just immediately lose interest because there are no longer any real stakes; it serves to undermine anything and everything that happens from then on out.
They've always been a heartless, soulless husk of a film series. None of the higher-ups in the studio, cast or crew actually gives a shit or has a story they feel they have to tell the world, they're in the money-making business, baby. The ones who actually salvage the films are the underpaid and overworked FX crews who never get any recognition. What's worse is Hollywood is just going to keep funnelling billions into this insipid, bland schlock and still say that hiring diverse filmmakers who are actually passionate about cinema is "too risky".
I fully blame the MCU for the fact that every major film now is a prequel or sequel that nobody asked for. Also their "Be a #Girlboss in the US Military this International Women's Day" campaign for Captain Marvel was fucking heinous.
I'm more bummed with how big film IP is starting to invade the television realm. I don't like that big budget shows are just becoming MCU/Star Wars shit. Like it sucks ass, I worry we won't get another Sopranos/Breaking Bad/etc any time soon.
If I'm being honest I still enjoy the MCU in a lot of ways. If nothing else it really is a pretty insane achievement of production logistics the likes of which would have been inconceivable decades ago...but after the first Avenger film and the subtle shift to action comedy I distinctly remembered having a conversation with some friends that I find it a bit unnerving how good disney's marvel algorithm is that they can basically make the same movie again and again and still have it be entertaining and emotionally engaging even if you are aware of said algorithm playing out.
Its like that performance adjustment and blending software tech I saw on youtube a few years ago. Hard to argue with the results...but just the knowledge that you're seeing some form of automated and augmented reality on something as basic as an actors face is....a bit terrifying in its artificialness.
All that being sad: I do think the MCU and the rise of superhero media general will not and probably should not be looked back on kindly by history due to how intractable it is from 9/11 and the rise of hypermilitarism. I still think its funny that people shit on "GI JOE" for basically being "Team America: World Police" played straight...but can't see that's also exactly what all the Avenger films are.
Sidenote: seriously though fuck Zack Snyder. The DCEU could have at least attempted to be some kind of antithesis to all this but he's an even more hypermasculine obsessed manchild then I was at my cringiest of comic nerd cringe. The fact that people still defend his adaptation of watchmen is mind blowing to me.
His adaptation is great, in the sense it was the exact opposite of what Moore was trying to say. It's like Marx filtered through Elon Musk, wrong, completely ass backwards, and somehow popular.
It’s like Marx filtered through Elon Musk
I'm going to personally seize the means of production
after the first couple of DCEU failed, i thought the perfect solution was to just give the IP to whoever wanted to make a cool, stand alone movie. Remember they gave Batman to Tim Burton back in the day? Make the Red Son superman movie, or a black and white batman steampunk, or just a play it straight, but don't worry about the DCEU (basically the first wonder woman).
Genuine Q- I read and saw Watchmen and apart from squid I can't remember any differences. What do you think were the issues of his adaptation?
As an adaptation Watchmen is actually a good study in how subtext and framming can make a huge difference in execution. On the surface the screenplay follows the comic to a T (ending deviations aside) but when filtered through 'snyder-vision' it comes out reading very different.
The entire core them of Watchmen is to dissect and critique superheroes and show how they would be in the real world...but everything about how Zack Snyder approaches the cinematography, lighting, and choreography from fight scenes to even simple dialogue leans more into the hyper stylized comic book visuals of something like sin city. It'd be like if Full Metal Jacket was directed by an MCU director or something. Yeah there's action and even comedy.....but you're waaaaay off the mark. Basically a guarantee that Snyder thinks Rorschach is the hero of the story.
The Dark Knight and The Boys are both much better adaptations at least spiritually of Watchmen then anything Zack Snyder has been a part of.
that's interesting. So you're suggesting tone is the issue rather than anything Snyder and script added. I guess that's true. Rorschach did seem pretty cool to me when I first watched it. I can see what you mean but I think presenting the story mostly as is kinda prevents me from going too hard against the movie. But yeah his filmography post clearly shows he may not have fully 'gotten' what he was adapting.
For me it was when they fired Edgar Wright from Ant Man for being too creative
For me it's an end of trying to watch them all to keep up with the MCU. Now I'll watch individual movies if I think they'll be good. Like, I'm always a sucker for Spider Man, and Ragnarok was really funny. But yeah, I don't think post-pandemic, superhero movies are gonna make as much as they were before. I can already see the future video essays and blog pieces analyzing how much changed because of Covid-19, like we do for Great Depression.
Somewhere around Iron man 2.
4 different Hulks and 27 different spidermen didn't help either
I got frustrated with Civil War because it was clear just how few consequences anything would ever have in universe. Nobody dies, one person loses their legs but they get replaced with sweet robot legs so it's nbd, and Cap and Iron Man are still down to team up if shit goes down. Nobody really learns anything or grows or realizes they were wrong. The status quo is God, everything that ever happens will always revert back to pretty much the same as it was before, and nobody can ever die for real because it might make people sad and plus then they couldn't sell as many toys of them. Like just let one real, meaningful thing happen, please.
That is exactly the same issue I had and the moment I stopped caring about Marvel films.
I remember when there used to be more than 1 type of story in movies.
i was into the concept for a bit but the movies always kinda sucked lol. i still think they can put out literally anything and nerds will suck up to it bc its marvel and nothing else matters, much less how good the movies actually are
i will always stan the marvel ultimate alliance videogame though
there was one that came with my xbox360 for free back in 2008/9 and i played the hell out of that. it was fun to be able to switch around and have cool teamups that the movies don't really allow.
Right from the start. I really dislike superheroes and superhero stories. I have had this crippling no-fun-allowed opinion since I was a child. It’s actually sort of difficult. I didn’t actually mind the space ones, and the Spider Man movie that was all rotoscoped and stuff was enjoyable visually.
i don't hate them. i think it's fine that small children have movies made for them.
I don't dislike them really. Most of them don't really have much rewatch value and this isn't exactly high art, but most are decent entertainment for a couple hours in a theatre.
Honestly I really think they've improved over time, I think they've been taking criticism and working with it. I think the last batch of films was actually a cut above the earlier work: Ragnarok, Black Panther, the Spiderman flicks and Infinity War were all much better than most of the films earlier in the series.
I can't summon much hate for basically decent popcorn entertainment. The one thing about them I actively dislike is their steadfast reluctance to cast any main hero against type, so you just have a bunch of cis het white men. I think they should really be ashamed of themselves for being so gutless, really embracing white supremacy. Like why tf can't Spiderman be a twink, Dr. Stange a latino woman, etc.
honestly, I like a few of them, even though i know their hot trash and just part of the military propaganda machine.
i liked GOTG because it got off earth, and wasn't so based on US hegemony straight up.
but then they just brought it all back to earth anyways.
I think as a broader concept it's very interesting and shows that you can make some pretty crazy (mechanically) stuff when you have enough money. hate how all the movies are basically the same though.
I was a kid when they started so I was obviously hyped. As I grew older I continued liking them and slowly my tastes changed. I still don't think they're bad individually, but they're certainly bad for the industry. I liked the comedy before it became predictable, or the action before it became empty. Seeing genuinely comedic movies like the Cornetto trilogy, or action movies like John Wick contributed to that.
I'm sure peer pressure played a part in it. I've started to critically examine my reasoning for liking/disliking certain things to separate my genuine opinions from those that I am pressured into to fit in my in-group.
Ragnarok has good individual staying power. a bisexual dreamscape.
like in general all the characters are good looking. but i need my supes queer codes thank you very much.
