MCU General 14 - Nick Fury is back

For more Skrull

Samuel L. Jackson telling stories about Marvel Studios finding people easily who wronged them and them disappearing is certainly a way to promote this show.

honestly I kind of hope Secret Invasion sucks now

Finding out they used AI to create the opening credits, and them choosing to kill off Maria Hill took out a lot of my desire to be invested in the series.

I thought the opening credits were neat and don't care that they were AI generated.

I'm 50/50 on (big spoilers) Hill's death being a fake out. I get the feeling we're going to get a whole bunch of episodes of Fury failing at life until a final episode big reveal where it was all part of his plan

but yeah the AI thing is pretty bad

UltimaterializerX posted...

I dont get whats wrong with AI art other than these particular credits looking like ass.

The fact that they are a multi-billion dollar company and can afford more than anyone else to give jobs to people instead of going the cheapest possible route they can and saying "It's about the aesthetic, not being cheap as fuck."

As a creative, I want companies to offer jobs to creatives

Nick Fury "is" Old Snake

UltimaterializerX posted...

https://daily.jstor.org/when-photography-was-not-art/

The same argument was made against photography in the mid 1800s -- "they gonna take took our jerbs, durkadur" -- and it was equally silly at the time. Creatives need to learn how to become valuable by using AI themselves, because it isn't going anywhere.

My guy, this is extremely different than using AI to help. AI has its uses, but using it to make an ugly intro for a fraction of a price instead of paying for actual artists to make an actually good intro isn't the way.

Oh right, watched Secret Invasion. Hill's death is kinda whatever to me. She's been around a long time, but never did anything, and I didn't ever feel invested in her character. I saw she got a recap Legends episode, but I figured it was safe to skip it, and what do you know. (I also skipped Ross' episode, lol)

The episode itself was kinda... just there? It did get more interesting in the later half, but it was a kinda rough start. We'll see how it goes from here.

i had a weird thing about not realizing human form Talos wasnt Ross

like i know but theyre so easy for me to mix up

Yeah, I'm not really phased by the spoilers and I don't even know if I believe that's what happened. This is a show about spies and shapeshifters, trust nothing you see.

Maybe itll grow on me, but I think this is the least excited Ive been to see the next episode after the first episode of one of these series.

So apparently there looks like there is a good chance Johnathan Majors is actually innocent of everything he has been charged with.

IfGodCouldDie posted...

So apparently there looks like there is a good chance Johnathan Majors is actually innocent of everything he has been charged with.

*MCU moves everything in their calendar back to its original date*

IfGodCouldDie posted...

So apparently there looks like there is a good chance Johnathan Majors is actually innocent of everything he has been charged with.

If true that's great news for him. I had initially thought by the reaction of his attorney that he was probably more innocent than guilty. But then his legal team uh, kind of did not do great after that initial action, which led me to think he may actually be guilty, especially with his PR and managerial team bailing too.

yeah the Majors thing has been updated for a few days back to we'll see what comes, I think there were multiple accusers though that started coming out after the initial?

but what an absolute blunder for his lawyers releasing the texts they thought looked good because that was what really got a lot of people over the hill to say he looks bad

Yea those texts were pretty bad, but supposedly they have body cam footage of the police coercing the gf to blame Majors, surveillance of the gf being perfectly fine and partying after her and Majors departed from each other, a third party claiming that the gf was the aggressor and Majors actually being very calm cool and collected during the whole thing and apparently Majors is even saying he wants this to go to trial so he can prove his innocence in a court of law.

What about all that other stuff that came out from his past when the scandal happened.

Grand_Kirby posted...

What about all that other stuff that came out from his past when the scandal happened.

Two possible scenarios, 1. It was a case of people dog piling trying to make him look worse 2. It was real but without evidence it is just hearsay. I haven't heard anything else about the other accusers since the initial accusation came out.

Grand_Kirby posted...

What about all that other stuff that came out from his past when the scandal happened.

He could still be an asshole in other ways without being a domestic abuser.

Ep2 beated, I think I'm getting more into it. Definitely more of a political thriller which also shouldn't be the least bit surprising.

Nice to for once really follow the antagonist's perspective so much with this show, tho my brain keeps lolling "that gotta save some budget off Sam Jackson". But hey it also lets Olivia Coleman shine and wew she's much more morally intimidating than Valentina.

Just saw an update on Majors. Apparently Majors and his lawyer presented video evidence to the NYPD and they have in fact arrested his ex-gf for assault now.

watch the second ep y'all

The scene in the train car between Fury and Talos was excellent

The Fury/Rhodes scene was really good. The rest has been fine? Maybe FATWS tier

Episode 2 was better.

I don't remember what the British lady's position is. Fury knew her in the last episode, but I don't remember what, if anything, they said to establish her as a character.

she's MI6

Majors ain't in the clear yet, new reporting from Rolling Stone that digs into his history of alleged abuse.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/jonathan-majors-abuse-allegations-yale-1234781136/

Speaking with +40 people, over a dozen alleging abuse on two romantic partners - "one physically, both emotionally". Nine supporting the woman alleging physical+emotional, with the physical instance being a strangling.

In response lawyers point towards 6 character witnesses from past exes. Rolling Stone has reached out to all 6, three say they never gave the lawyers permission to release such statements, one declined sharing the statement credited to her, claiming that it was pre-written, not truthful, and she never approved of it. One did not respond, but the last one consented to her statement - in a relationship with him from age 13-18 and knowing him for 20 years.

Hollywood testimonies largely claim abusive behaviour (often couched as method acting), school life a lot of testimony a bit both ways - "He can be very charismatic and really gentleman-like and sweet, but then he could also be really cold, scary, and violent".

That's about the gist of it reading the article, obviously you can go read yourself but there's certainly more text on the school & work testimonies. Ultimately I don't think there's every going to be a consensus on Majors, the current legal case may end in his favour but it would be a separate matter to his larger history which I wouldn't expect to be fully unravelled.

GANON1025 posted...

The Fury/Rhodes scene was really good. The rest has been fine? Maybe FATWS tier

Rhodey has the uncanny ability to pick the wrong side in an argument every single time

Over the last little while I got caught up on all the MCU stuff I missed lately, which is everything post Love & Thunder except for Wakanda Forever which I liked a good amount. Heres my thoughts on everything:

She-Hulk: A delightful show, Tatiana Maslany was stellar, loved that it wasnt afraid to be light and silly. The jokes were great, even in the slower episodes 5 and 6 it was getting chuckles out of me. Also along with WandaVision the only show so far to really be taking advantage of the TV format and not just be a film in six parts. Also great use of Daredevil and reminded me why Charlie Cox was so good in that role. This one gets a big thumbs up from me.

Werewolf by Night: A bit slow to start but when it got going this was also really, really good. I really appreciated how much they went with the Universal monster movie vibe (from Disney no less) right down to a dodgy looking Werewolf costume. The action scene with both that guys throat getting cut and the scene with the blood splattering the camera were highlights.

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Its light silly fun, what more can you expect? The really admirable thing about this is the way it gives Mantis some much needed development.

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania: This has to be the worst MCU film. I would struggle to say its outright bad as most of these films are so focus-tested that is almost impossible but it is highly mediocre and generic. The problem is they took the Ant-Man movies which had been deliberately smaller (pun unintended) more comedic family-friendly affairs and turned them into MCU by numbers. Its not that its vastly different that is the problem, its that they traded in all the fun unique things about Ant-Man for just another MCU film, but one that looks worse. On which point to be honest if the visuals had been good, I would rank this higher - the problem is when you have a film that is so VFX heavy if they dont look good it makes the whole film look fake and bad. They didnt even make the Quantum Realm feel like a tiny world, it just feels like it could be set in space and even the subtitles refer to the creatures as aliens. It just felt like Star Wars that looks worse. Kang was alright but didnt really add anything that wasnt already covered in Loki. In fact it repeats the same beats - one variant holding all the others back.

On the positive side this was great for Janet, who is the actual Wasp of the title. I enjoyed the opening and closing sequences set in the normal sized world which had the dynamism you expect from an Ant-Man movie. When it did try to be funny the humour usually landed (like Scott counting his holes) even though there was a surprising lack of it. The script was better than Multiverse of Madnesss at least. I just think the effects werent there and the whole concept didnt work for an Ant-Man movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3: This was a lot more like it. I loved it, a lot better than Volume 2 and my second favourite post-phase 3 movie. The darkness worked surprisingly well. Chukwudi Iwujis performance as the High Evolutionary makes a villain that may be boring on the page one of the MCUs best. I have a hard time thinking of a better ending for these characters. Also the Adam Warlock scenes were clearly Gunn practicing for Superman haha.

Secret Invasion: The first episode I wasnt sure about, I loved the tone but it felt really choppy and slapped together with an awkward fridging at the end. The second episode was much better, I really enjoyed it. That is the kind of more serious thing I feel has been missing from the MCU of late. Hopefully the rest of the series will be like the second episode rather than the first one.

Overall watching a bunch in quick succession drove home what I had already been feeling. The problem isnt the quality of the output necessarily (other than Quantumania) it is the volume of the output. I have liked nearly all of it but its too much to keep up with and it lessens the drive to watch. So its a good thing they decided to slow down.

Another good episode. Ben Mendelsohn is the best.

The chemistry between Fury and Talos is outstanding

I'm two and a half episodes behind.

Another good episode. Kinda surprised they'd kill Emilia Clarke only halfway into the show. Maybe it's a fake out somehow, like she convinced some other anti-Gravik skrull to die in her place or something. I expected the "twist" with Gravik as soon as she immediately texted out what she heard.

Jesus wow. Really? Jesus. But like yeah it had to happen in that situation because damn was that a last resort move and it would be really unbelievable of G'iah got away there.

But Jesus wow.

Maybe she gave herself Extremis healing powers like they showed Gravik having, and then faked death by reverting to her natural form.

with Maria Hill & now G'iah they're allowed one fake-out credit

Theres scenes of her from the trailers that havent popped up in the show yet, so I bet its a takeout.

So far, shows been fine but I cant say Ive really been impressed yet.

So, a though I had about Rodey. When Talos calls him Nick, he recognizes it as a distress signal. Could Rodey calling him Nick be a subtle hint to Fury that he knows something is wrong behind the scenes that he can't openly discuss? I mean, the man knows you can't fire Nick Fury, you can only drive him deeper underground.

lmao

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/deadpool-3-jennifer-garner-returning-as-elektra-1235530539/

I thought it'd be worth sharing this since the majority of people can't make it down to Disney California Adventure:

https://youtu.be/6d3k_ulXcMY

Grimlyn posted...

lmao

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/deadpool-3-jennifer-garner-returning-as-elektra-1235530539/

Plz plz Chris Evans Human Torch plz plz plzzzzzz.

i want evans human torch so bad

Although I'm not sure how he'd interact in deadpool. I can't tell if I want the resemblance to Captain America to be noted or not. Instinctively I think yes but maybe it's too on the nose

Let the guy who played him in Rogers: The Musical be the Human Torch

Alternatively, Deadpool recognises Human Torch, but mistakes him for either a bunch of other heroes, or characters Chris Evans has played in other movies.