honeycookiez

I remember Scott Derrickson said he wanted to play it safe with Clea as the new love interest and Nightmare as the new villain, which means Dr. Strange 2 could be a very generic superhero film but Feige wanted the other way which we are having now. It's ...strange to see people criticize that Feige doesn't want to take the risk and the films' RT scores are lower than the previous phases because of it.

The people who will be mad are those MCU stans who expect Wanda to stay on her pedestal as an ideal, one-dimensional female superhero (as many critics said the writing for Wanda's arc might be controversial for some people). Casual moviegoers prefer an entertaining product, non-stop action scenes with pretty visuals which this film can deliver.

I've seen reviews of non-Marvel stan Redditors who have seen the film and they pretty much said the same thing, it's gross and gore, Raimi cheated it out, replaced human blood with dark oil and alien "sauces" so they wouldn't label the film as Rated R but some scenes still looked gross, and might be uncomfortable if you bring your children to watch it with you.

imo I don't think Avatar needs to show up in that chart to attract the audience, and yes it's a flawed metric but in fairness, most of the films in that chart (Spiderman NWH, Avengers team-up films) had box office records to prove somehow that metric is worth the deal.

Thank you for the detailed response, so, it's likely that for now Marvel is targeted by their strict examination because it's dominating the superhero genre, it has a large fanbase, and it also has a strong brand awareness which can easily influence its audience and young people. DC doesn't have such luxury, which ironically helps them pass the censorship easier. Plus, unfortunately, Chapek's team and relationships with China couldn't help the situation get any better, unlike in Iger's era. Well, I have no doubt that the market will eventually recover in the long run. I think it might happen probably by the end of 2024. Personally, I don't think zero-covid is a permanent strategy, it's likely just a "display of power" of how China can influence the world (as CNN just stated that US economy just shrank in the first quarter) until after Mr. Xi fully gets re-reelected.

So, I'm a little bit confused, are they being strict this time specifically just because of the upcoming big event (re-electing Mr.Xi)? or will they be more strict moving forward?

Because the government system is just a form of dictatorship to adjust the human society overall. China is not an exception. I would rather learn to play their rules to get what I want than keep yelling at clouds.

Well, to lighten the mood, on the other hand, Twitter users are making fun of Raimi for continuing the same error he has made since the Evil Dead era (letting the same extras appear multi times in one particular scene). Pretty sure even the director himself wasn't aware of the issue of that cult text, let alone reading Chinese. Hiring a Chinese secretary or consultant to avoid stupid mistakes like that should be a requirement at this point.

But they're capitalist companies, there will never be enough, to be honest, only fans think "X won't need Y" because they don't run those businesses. You can frame those companies as "greedy", "immoral" if you like but that's just how capitalism works.

According to that screenshot from Weibo which was posted by Issac Newton, it's obvious that CFA was about to give its release date and if Chinese netizens didn't find any problem with it, then MoM would be the 1st Marvel film that got released after 2 years.

So it's obvious that it was closed to get a release date but then it got killed by a random sign on the street... They still need to make a clear statement for the future of their brand tho

I understand, there is nothing we can do except speculation. But judging by how Disney dealt with Simu lately (making him declare that he will always be Chinese and always remember his root on Weibo) after his personal scandal, I don't think Disney would just ignore and pass by this serious issue.

I think they're misunderstanding it. That cult or Falun Gong had never existed even in Marvel comics, the spell Strange used in the trailer is just ...a magical jigsaw wheel to cut off a bus... This can easily resolve by erasing that logo. Do you think they can negotiate it (similar to the Ancient one)? or is it just... done?

I saw Marvel fans on Reddit had discussed that the next sequel might be reformed to "Agents of Atlas" (similar to Captain Marvel sequel had become The Marvels). It's not because of CCP but because of their so-called new strategy or whatever fancy way they're calling it, which *coincidentally* is similar to how they agreed on removing Shang Chi from Marvel logo, the main hero/heroine suddenly isn't prominent in his/her sequel I suppose. And all we know so far from the official announcement of the studio is they have promised a detailed future specifically for ...Shang Chi's sister with a new spin-off D+ show. But the sequel for Shang Chi is just an empty talk and we don't even know if we have to wait for another 6 years or more like Dr. Strange and his sequel.

^ This, finally, someone said something objective and not influenced by political preference. It's all about money and making shareholders happy. I believe all of us know, deep down the Mouse couldn't care less about these political conflicts no matter how much the anti-CCP want them to give up and stop catering to China. Even hardcore Marvel stans on Reddit pretty much can recognize the truth, Disney often uses small markets as a "proof" to media play on western tabloids that they're a "woke" hero or whatever, but the truth is when it comes to a big market like China, they would willing to kowtow and crawl if they could, but the "banning" of Marvel recently is not something they could resolve all by themselves, least they could do now is keep sending previews consistently before the shareholders realize the truth and get pissed off. I think at this point it's obvious that Disney regrets hiring Zhao, not just because of the whole drama with the CCP, but mostly because of the meh box office performance and low RT scores of Eternals. The other directors, writers, showrunners, and even music composers of other Marvel films/shows immediately got new jobs and got assigned to other MCU or even Star Wars projects while your Zhao is pretty much a goner at this point. Now Disney will have to salvage the Eternals characters and pair them with other newcomers, which I think ain't as easy as altering the plan for a single character like Thor/Thor Dark World in the previous phase. Ironically the critics were right, Zhao is MCU's Snyder incident on a small scale, at least Zhao can't hurt MCU in the long run as much as how Snyder single handly turned 2 DC tentpole superheroes into a joke and damaged the franchise in 2016.

If the theory of China specifically targeting Marvel is true then Disney won't leave it to die like that easily, they will try to negotiate the situation. Marvel is the most marketable brand in the international and Asia market for Disney (while now SW is a lackluster franchise for US nerds and dudebros), there is no way they could just let Marvel's future get killed. Speaking of that theory, on the other hand, I saw some Chinese people on Weibo said it could be that the gov is targeting the whole superhero culture (just like how they tried to eliminate the whole Hallyu and Kpop idols, Kpop fandoms culture out of their country in the past), not just Marvel. If this case is true then even DC films won't be "safe" either, but at the end of the day, I guess things can still be bargain between the studios and local bureau, or perhaps they will try to work with Chinese local studios to secure future release dates of their films.

They have never made any official banning statement about SC and Eternals either. They just simply don't let it get screened. We can only speculate that these 2 got "banned" because of SC's controversial origin, Simu's online drama, and Chloe Zhao's relationship with CCP. I get why they "banned" Venom 2, Eddie and Venom is a gay couple in every universe, they also had a symbiote child in the comic.

From what I've read, the film is very MCU-ish with a light-headed tone, it's nothing like Eternals, the plot is just straightforward. They had a hilarious, simple excuse for the general audience to understand why the multiverse is opening, and also some hints which are connected to the previous Marvel films/shows because technically . It's a nostalgia fest for sho but it's worth it (cause according to Holland it's also his last solo MCU film). It's not like The Flash where you need to bring ...(old) Batman into it just because he's the most famous DC character.

Shuri is a rightful heiress, not to mention she's also the fem BP in the comic, I think they should recast the role, not abandon the character

I guess at least now most people will have the confidence to say that Marvel will stick to their old formula for the next handful of years.

It seems like the "too many characters to introduce (11 new superheroes and their complicated triangle and quadrangle romantic relationships)" is definitely a big issue that most people agree. I guess they should have split the film into 2 parts (and also balanced out the overstuffed exposition and the action scenes) OR should have reduced the new heroes that they want to introduce. It's such a shame because I've skimmed through Korean's old and new reactions over the past hours and most of them said the action scenes look unique and aesthetic, especially the female characters' fighting style is elegant and quite powerful (their fav are Thena and Makkari), but the action scenes are too little compared to the yah-dah-yah-dah talking scenes.

Yikes, I'm reading their reactions on Naver and Twitter, it definitely doesn't look good. They've pointed out some weaknesses: - There are too many characters and not enough time to explain them, so they can't empathize with the emotional lines between the characters. - The story is all over the place, it makes you feel stressed and also feel bored at the same time. - The atmosphere of the film is dark and dull, which might make you fall asleep if you watch it at late-night screenings. (These 2 points remind them of .....Batman v Superman) - Action scenes look cool and unique but the film has too many talking and explaining scenes, so they don't feel engaging. - Don Lee didn't have many things to do, some even joke that it looked like Zhao saw Don Lee's significant scenes in his other action films (bitch slapping other characters) and decided to cast him. Surprisingly, Eternals attracts more female moviegoers than other superheroes films, but it doesn't have a redemption point for them to keep talking about (at least Shang Chi had Tony Leung)

Feige's position was vulnerable back in the day when Thor Dark World was considered as a failure, but now, I don't think so, with Spiderman's nostalgia storm is around the corner, soon people will forget about Eternals' "failure". If even BOT members enjoy this film then I guess the casual viewers might let it too, which will let to the "Critics' opinion differs from the General audience's" situation. They're different cases, most Marvel fans love Feige, while SW fanboys have resented KK since the day she became the president of Lucasfilm, no probably before, might be when they just heard about the news that Lucas was gonna pass the position to KK when he wanted to retire.

I think it's just very likely. So before this whole trainwreck happened, I saw YouTubers and Redditors had serious talks about Marvel should be brave and keep hiring Chloe for other MCU projects despite the fact that her name and her works already got banned from China market. I guess they assumed that an Oscar winner can't immediately produce a rotten film after an Oscar-winning film. I already questioned their logic at the time because, seriously, telling a money-making machine like Disney to abandon their potential money and customers??? I don't think Disney is a hero either, they hired Chloe when she was a no-name, with no Oscar, and not to mention the drama with CCP happened when Eternals was in post-production already, there was nothing they could do. I'm not talking about canceling!Chloe or whatever, I think It's embarrassing to see Eternals become the first rotten MCU film of phase 4 and in the entire brand. I don't expect Feige to trash talk about Chloe and Eternals because the dude is professional and always respects women, but I don't see why Marvel should keep working with her.

I guess this is the end of the relationship between Chloe and MCU? Like, seriously, she's not only getting banned by CCP/getting restricted from China market (which damaged the film commercially) but her Eternals is also the first rotten Marvel film. I don't see any logical point of keeping Chloe for the sequel.