KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
In my opinion, AoS finishes pretty strong. Ties up most of the story threads, lots of character callbacks to earlier seasons. Be ready to wonder where Fitz is, though, he barely shows up in the final season.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Thread starter Triggermv
- Start date
Yep, a Celestial. Two living ones also appeared at the god city. Also our second reference to The Living Tribunal. It was one of the statues at the end and was also in the dumping grounds on Loki.
Are they just other Gods then? I was thinking it I understood their role after watching the externals but I’m second guessing myself now
Season 7 has been strong so far. Kinda a wandavision vibe going through the decades. Im liking 7 better than 5 or 6
It's definitely hard to see what the big picture is right now. Obviously, Kang will figure heavily into Ant Man 3, and I think it's clear the Ms. Marvel/The Marvels/Shang Chi are going to be connected somehow. But beyond that, it's murky as hell.
But on the other hand, Phase 4 is introducing a ton of new characters, and Phase 1 didn't feel *that* connected until Avengers 1, if we're being totally honest with ourselves. Obviously, that's a tough needle to thread a second time when there's now an expectation of connectivity and a massive saga told over multiple phases. And I think part of the negative reaction to this film, in particular, is more about frustration over that than this movie, itself. Kind of like people leaving bad reviews on a product who are really ******** about poor customer service than the actual product (**** people who do that, btw).
I also can see how some people might get turned off a bit by the Taika-ness of this film, especially given his general market saturation right now. But I'm 100% here for the Taika experience, so I loved the film from start to finish.
I took one of my kids to see Thor for his birthday Friday afternoon. It's not going to win any awards but I enjoyed it. I laughed every time the goats showed up but I could see how they would annoy most people.
The newly minted teenage boy I had with me had a smile on his face the whole runtime of the movie so no matter what the reviews say I'd call it a good movie with the target audience.
The newly minted teenage boy I had with me had a smile on his face the whole runtime of the movie so no matter what the reviews say I'd call it a good movie with the target audience.
VFX Artists Refusing to Work With Marvel Due to Stress and Overwork: ’They’re a Horrible Client’
VFX artists are speaking out about the demands of working on Marvel shows.
www.primetimer.com
Goes a long ways in explaining some of the shoddy VFX in a lot of Phase 4 work.
VFX Artists Refusing to Work With Marvel Due to Stress and Overwork: ’They’re a Horrible Client’
VFX artists are speaking out about the demands of working on Marvel shows.
Goes a long ways in explaining some of the shoddy VFX in a lot of Phase 4 work.
I can't say I'm shocked. I'm probably one of the biggest VFX critics on this forum as it is something I'm always analyzing and does affect my enjoyment of projects to some degree. Each studio has kind of built up its MO over the years as well. For the MCU in particular, it has been clear their MO has been to shoot as much stuff green screens as possible and then do all the work in post production. While the early years of the MCU had some killer practical effects and suits (see Iron Man 1 and 2), the bigger the universe seemed to expand and the bigger Marvel Studio's plate got, the more the studio has seemingly relied more and more on pure VFX. It has really bothered me and that, along with their tight purse strings for music composers are two or my biggest critiques of the studio.
Now lets compare Marvel Studios to say Lucasfilm. In general, I believe Lucasfilm has been the benchmark in general on producing the perfect blend of both special and practical effects since Disney took them over. To me, you need both to create the perfect blend of verisimilitude, or realness feel to a picture. Critique the movie quality all you want, the visuals have been nothing but spectacular in general at Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm and ILM pioneered the advent of VFX even further here recently with the invention of the Volume, which was first used on The Mandalorian and in a spectacular way. For certain shots, The Volume has taken VFX to another level, but as we are learning recently, due to its size limitations, it can also be overused, which we are also seeing ramifications here recently. Now Lucasfilm, the staple of balancing practical, VFX, and the Volume technology, is suddenly relying WAY TOO MUCH on the Volume, and its detrimental effects are showing up in shows like Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan. The volume's benefits are that its cheap once you have it, its quick, and it looks good, which is great for all these Star Wars TV shows to use to some level. HOWEVER, its downfalls are that it is small, you can only fit so much in it, and it can feel small for bigger, more expansive shots with a lot of characters and a lot going on. These expansive shots tend to still look better when using a blend of real-world sets, practical effects and traditional VFX. However, all three of these take more time and cost more money, especially the on-site shooting and practical effects. Thus, its seems like the Volume is starting to become the answer for everything, which isn't exactly good.
Moving back to Marvel Studios, while they haven't talked about it much, it is becoming clear here recently that they too have started to use the Volume in at least all of their shows, if not their movies too. Again, its cheap and easier for these shows, especially as quantity keeps going up, but it doesn't necessarily give you the best quality product for everything. The net effect of all of this to me has been somewhat a homogeneous effect where both Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios are becoming more of the same when it comes to VFX. As volume goes up at both studios, they are both going to rely more and more on what is cheap and easy, and they are going to push their VFX artists to their limits in the process. The trouble is that the product is and already has suffered for it. In fact, some of the more recent episodes of BOTH Obi-Wan and Ms Marvel has given me a few of the worst VFX sequences I've seen in years, much less from either one of these two big studios. Its been borderline embarrassing how bad of few of them have been. Its too bad because I thought early Disney Lucasfilm gave us some of the best blend of everything we've ever seen and I'm not sure things are set up to give us it again.
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I liked being oblivious to how Phase 4 was going to tie together. I'd rather have the movies be strong on their own versus needing to tie into something else. For me, my criticism of the movie had nothing to do with that aspect at all.
I enjoy a lot of what Taika does, but there was almost a Deadpool-level of winks at the audience, just without the fourth wall breaks. Everything surrounding the villain had a much different feel than the rest of the movie and the villain moments were some of the best parts for me.
I'm sure I'll watch it again at some point. I know I went in there with lower expectations, but I'm sure they were still higher than they should have been. I went into this hoping for a bit of an MCU redemption after Dr. Strange 2, which I really struggled with.
Like Ragnarok for me, my guess is I will like Love and Thunder more with the second viewing than the first. However, my guess is that it doesn't climb as much as Ragnarok did with a second viewing. I've never been someone who just makes their mind up on really anything and then move on with that same opinion for the rest of my life. My thoughts are always what they are now, but I'm always up for reconsidering stuff with further info. This is why I always love watching all of this stuff at least twice, as my opinion can sway quite a bit either direction with a second viewing. It helps that I'm a big 4K physical media collector, so with all these superhero movies, I always have a second viewing once released on 4K Blu Ray.
I agree the Volume has been getting overused, but I do think it's worth noting COVID. Both from a financial and a logistical standpoint, using the Volume as much as possible was probably the best option when the things we're watching now were being filmed. If it's still being used to this degree in another couple years, then I think it'll be a sign of a problem. But I'm willing to cut them some slack on it for now.
You are absolutely right, and that is something I should have mentioned as being a big factor. I'm glad you did bring it up. Count me as well in the camp that is hoping a lot of this overuse of the Volume is partially due to COVID, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm still somewhat skeptical that they will eventually back off of it. Like I said above, the Volume is cheap and quick, which works well with studios being forced to lean more into volume over quality. Only time will tell.
I’m pretty confident I will like L&T more the second time and I liked it the first time. My expectations were off base for what I thought I would see which led to me being slightly dissatisfied. Now that I know it’s a complete slapdick movie, I can enjoy it instead of waiting for it to change in tone.
Many will hate this news but given Eternals is one of my personal favorites and I think Zhao is a hell of a director...I like this.
For all of its faults, there was a really solid film hiding inside Eternals. Hopefully with less exposition they can put together a more cohesive plot.
Eternals, more than I think any other MCU film, really benefits from repeat viewings. I liked it from the start, but not nearly as much as I thought I would; it's gotten better each time I've watched it.
We’ve watched a few times — I agree. Very enjoyable film, but the more I watch it the more I’m apt to tear it apart and pick apart things that could have been done differently.
I have only watched it once and thoroughly enjoyed it. But I agree with this. I can myself picking apart how much is smashed into that thing upon a rewatch. It really would of been perfect for one of those Disney+ series so they had more time for all the character development.
