RRA

You know to be fair to NM, it's actually watchable albeit as background noise. It's the sort of thing that I could see folks become fans because they went in with zero expectations and caught it like on TNT at 2 in the morning. Dark Phoenix is just useless though lol. Speaking of Smith/Morbius and his character, reminds me of that online conspiracy theory that King Kevin forced Fox to not make Jessica Chastain be a Skrull in DP because he didn't want his Captain Marvel and its Skrulls to get beaten to the punch.

This should've opened back in late January, but no Sony thought they made too much money in that quarter* so it moved lol. As for the eggs/universe thing....I do find it annoying when my fellow Marvelites (or general modern spandex cinema fandom online) sometimes seem to care more about the shared universe connections more than you know, THE MOVIE. It unintentionally gives credence to what the pretentious annoying cinephiles cry about these sort of things. Do I enjoy that stuff? Absolutely, but it's desert and not the main course. I go to these things because they tend to entertain me, rapture me with their imaginative characters and fantastical feats and divert me from this chaotic lousy world for a couple of hours. The fact that they might reference a character from a movie 7 years ago or a yet-unseen agency? It's bonus for the hardcore fans, adds an extra level of pleasure to these proceedings. Or the inevitable (if sometimes fun) fandom mental masturbation that gee Character A might meet Character B someday! Reminds me of how alot of Marvelites HATED that post-credits tag after Hawkeye's last episode and you can sum it simply as this: it didn't set up anything. Meanwhile I enjoyed that King Kevin and Marvel indulged themselves Disney's blank check. Did it mean anything? Not really, but does entertainment necessarily have to? *=This happens when execs run studios. Not knocking the character, but I've struggled to understand what exactly would he add to the current well-populated spandex cinema landscape. "Oh he's a vampire!" Well OK...so like Blade but without the cool superhero touches? If say this universe has a Blade, then add Morbius...OK, that adds some context. Of course I'm biased because this thing has been working uphill since the beginning because I have no use for Leto as an actor. It's not Venom where even if I went "meh," you still had a charismatic good actor at front that gave some appeal. Of course vampires have historically always been popular in form or another, so there is still something in that basic concept even if that monster has been well-explored in media so far (books where "normal female protagonist gets the hots for vampire dude" seems to be a timeless popular pitch, long long long before Twilight.) Also points for the Spider-Man TAS reference. Thanks for that brief nostalgic flashback.

It's 2 things really: (1) Let's be honest: when...let's say a good portion of self-proclaimed DC "fans" say that, they're really just Batman fans. Like a kid whiny when their peas are touching the corn on their plate, they don't want Superman or Green Lantern or anything fantastical whoever touching their supposed grown-up/serious Batman stuff if that makes sense. Some of those same folks are the ones who'll lecture you how Superman is lame/boring boy scout/terrible character while preaching what a great character Batman is. (Free memo: Superman can suck but he's also had a crapload of great stories told over the 80 plus years he's been around. Batman can be great, but he's also had some bad comics in his lifespan too. It's almost like any character can suffer from garbage writing. What do you know...) (2) Not quite the same, but to be fair there is a similar anal seperate-it-dammit issue with Marvel fans. "How can X-Men exist in the same Marvel universe with Spider-Man and Avengers?" *me points to almost 60 years of Marvel comics* "But it makes no sense!" *me points to same comics again!* and rinse/repeat. This pops up on Twitter/ reddit alot.

I'm going to bet 5 Monopoly bucks that TB will be praised for being able to tell a stand-alone story without shared universe concerns/obligations and blah blah, and what will happen and fans expect to happen? Another shared universe launched. Reminds me when a similar song and dance was done for The Joker and then fans turned around and demanded Joaquin join the DCEU or hang out with Pattinson or whatever. (I mean there's that HBO Max Gotham cop show tie-in already going to happen so...yeah.)

I’m fully expecting to hear “Fuck you Diana”

Honestly I would be surprised if AR wasn’t in S3, because that feels like something a franchise at that point and try to get away from the sausage party.

I stand by my criticisms of the show (especially earlier this season) but I would chalk this show up as an overall win. How it got there near the end is open for ridicule I suppose, but a win is a win. This was a banger finale. Certainly one scene (you'll know which one which I'm already sure will be red hot GIF on Twitter) is pretty dang precious, including the ending as we wait for Mando S3 at Xmas but hey in the meantime we have Kenobi and Andor. The last one I just can't get excited about conceptually but hey if its watchable like the live-action SW shows (in varying degrees) have been so far, I'll give it a shot.

I like how these live-action shows introduce to the casuals/masses characters already familiar to the hardcore fans yet done such that you don't really feel like you missed anything. In short this show was basically the SW equivalent of this The Monstrous Kane makes a shocking WWE Debut - Happy 20th Anniversary! - YouTube

Matt, if you're trying to make me want to see your movie in theaters.....you're doing a good job.

reminds me of Batman ‘89 and it’s product tie-in tour

I wont' go into Franchise War soldier prick sizing, but I'm willing to put this movie down as a safe bet. I know fans of either side of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate wants their movie to make more, but that's irrelevant for what matters: TB in itself will do fine (however that is defined ultimately remains to be seen) but if its liked? New franchise and new shared Batman-y universe blah blah for nerds to get lost in, I still contend that the real money will come long term with the next film. Its about establishing (or in this case refurbishing) the foundation for that IP as a solo entity.

45 days is the new default norm. Will that cause more folks to wait for it at home than the old 90 day window? Sure, but the hardcores who can't wait will go see it regardless. If it has great WOM? More will check it out. (This goes deeper into a problem of signaling further that only supposed event level films should get a theatrical release, but that's not the fault or problem of one movie or even one studio, its an industry issue.)

Clayface. Both a physical and mental threat when you think about it.

Jesus. RIP

So we’re getting big budget hallway fights?

This is what happens when studio execs prioritizing worrying about yearly spreadsheets (that might tie conveniently into bonuses.) "Oh sure this might've killed in a barren January but we could make less money in a few months so our 2022 will look better to our bosses in Japan!" Hollywood thinking is sure something.

I find Vigilante annoying, which to be fair is the point where even as everybody dumps on Peacemaker...even he at best merely tolerates this homicidal dweeb. I just don't know how he can sustain a series on his own.

Dope costume

Weirdly this happens even in the MCU sometimes. The Hawkeye folks apparently were blindsided by that Black Widow credits tag meant to set-up that show.

2 eps in, this is decent. Gunn's edgy humor is hit and miss, but Cena is a comic stud. Gunn has come full circle for this is a Troma TV show made with Hollywood money. Lloyd Kaufman must be so proud.

I find fascinating how with Spider-Man and (explicitly, not implied) with Kate Bishop on the recent Hawkeye show, the MCU with the younger heroes they're meta-representing the kids back in 2012 who saw The Avengers and now are teenagers/young adults, trying to age with them.

Marvel has been doing the victory lap alot longer than that when you think about it. That logo intro? It's practically bragging "gee look at all these awesome characters you love!" Endgame's climax was basically a self-wank job 11 years in the making. Even that controversial girl team-up moment is "look at all the cool gals on our roster!" And so forth. I would argue the first true MCU throwing itself a bachelor party moment was the 360 scene in The Avengers. Climax of Phase 1, "yeah we actually did it!"

This did play better 2nd time around, in fact I'm willing to bump up my rating to 6/10. Some of the same problems remain, but its bursting at the seams with interesting thematic ideas (whether they're all dramatically compelling is whole other issue.) Some roll their eyes at the Marvel trademarks with the quips/banter but they help here at times when you're perhaps not completely sold on the proceedings. Its watchable. That's the weird thing for me. I remember when I gave second chances to notably polarizing spandex films like MOS and Ang Lee's Hulk and they didn't move up from my indifference so that's something I guess. Great imagery though. Probably destined to be a cult favorite within the MCU franchise like the first Cap movie was (one of the lowest grossers despite decent reviews and one of the vital canon-entries.) In retrospect perhaps its good that the pandemic happened and this came out in '21 because with that crowded release frame with Hawkeye and NWH (especially NWH) coming right afterwards the fans didn't have much time to focus on Eternals so the negativity wouldn't fester and poison the discourse well like TLJ did within the SW fan community (which arguably they still haven't recovered from.) With NWH being considered a homerun by the fandom, Eternals can chill as that weirdo arty project your favorite artist/band did i.e. Paul McCartney's Firemen records, Prince's The Rainbow Children, etc.

Don't forget its Chinese release was shaggy as retaliation for something Bale did at the time (I can't remember exactly and I'm too lazy to Google) which annoyed Beijing. Theoretically if that marketplace is open, it'll have that advantage over TDKR.

As an eyewitness from that era, I thought the ads were fine? I mean they did their jump hyping me up. I just think that BB was hobbled by B&R and (again as an eyewitness from that era) even with the enthusiastic reviews, alot of people just thought he was just regular Batman again (i.e. unless I'm a comic book fanboy homer, why do I need to see this in theaters now?) and didn't wait until video (which BB was a total gangbusters hit.) I know it's now CW that TDK did what it did because of Heath Ledger's pre-release passing adding a morbid curiosity/hype to it, and there is truth to that. But it ignores how much people discovered it on DVD inbetween '05 and '08. I wouldn't be shocked if The Batman doesn't do the billions that some locals are forecasting. Now if the movie is damn friggin good like BB was? Then that sequel will hit that mark.