Lurker > Gremlynn

XxX_6GAMING9GOKU_XxX posted...

Anyone going to watch a marvel movie in 2023 is absolutely going to be clapping like seals the whole time. I think after like 20 of these fucking things you know what you're signing up for. I think a lot of us are just tired of the incessant march of capeshit and simply won't go watch them. I'm glad they're there for people who like them but I was so tired of a new marvel movie every 3 months even when it was at its peak.

People losing interest in the MCU after the big saga was wrapped up is totally reasonable. I don't think it's reasonable to make significant claims regarding the quality of any specific production in a franchise / genre that you have already admittedly lost interest in due to perceived over-saturation.

Also don't think it's accurate to imply anybody still showing an interest is at this point just straight up brainwashed to absolutely love whatever they are fed. Some are better than others, we all know it. Even die hard fans of the entire infinity saga can point out plenty of films within it that they did not really care for. The theater I attended for The Marvels had a mix of people who seemed to barely care what they were watching, people who seemed to enjoy it, and people who seemed to be underwhelmed when they left. I think most people who enjoyed the film recognize that the musical planet sequence was cringe as hell and went on too long. It's possible to enjoy the content and still recognize dumb weird flaws in it.

Punished_Blinx posted...

It's funny to think that just 4 years ago Disney was on top of the world. People were excited that Endgame was going to overtake Avatar's box office record.

Nowadays Avatar took back the box office record and Avatar 2 is Disney's biggest saving grace of the past year. So much for that lack of cultural relevance.

emphasizing beating box office records is a weird one for me too. Pretty much every "cultural event" movie beats the previously established box office records these days. It's less a mark of quality and more just acknowledgement that due to rampant inflation and a growing population, each cultural landmark film has a high probability of generating more revenue than the previous.

XxKrazyChaosxX posted...

It's just too much to want to keep up with now. They're introducing too many characters. They should have a core group that they stick with and tell a story with them like did with Iron Man, Capt and Thor for Phases 1 through 3. They aren't doing that for Phases 4, 5 or whatever we are at now.

Can definitely feel this. At least for phase 4 specifically. Phase 5 absolutely should be spreading its wings wide, getting weird with it, going balls to the wall, because Phase 2's reliance on sequels from phase 1... did not help it for most audiences.

But really if we want to get down to it... even though i am still largely satisfied with most of what the MCU is putting out (yeah it's not all top shelf for the franchise, but i am still reasonably entertained and I actually just really get a lot of enjoyment out of the lore speculation aspect of trying to piece things together over so much disconnected content, this is straight up a cinematic universe catered to how i enjoy stories), i can acknowledge areas where even the smallest of tweaks in release schedule and framework could do wonders for general perception.

A really big one? both in films and in marketing, hold your fuckin horses on setting up the next big saga until you ready to lay more substantial, evident groundwork for it. Don't show us the title cards for the next decade's worth of films and Disney+ shows. A lot of the smaller, character driven stories in The Infinity Saga were able to work because they didn't exist with the backdrop of knowing The Snap was coming (for general audiences, long time comic fans and people who wiki the stories and connections of where elements in the latest movie go knew, but only by virtue of knowing Thanos is present, and I imagine even then the general assumption was that the studios would chicken out on the snap).

Being outright told that the current direction of this saga is Kang the Conqueror and his multiversal war cheapens the tension of any isolated conflict, and makes any stinger to tease unrelated side arcs feel... irrelevant. It makes the core audience look at things that should, and frankly COULD stand on their own through the lens of "but how does this lead to Kang?"

And yeah, they did kind of let the cat out of the bag a little early on this one just with the content itself, but like... let's reframe it without the knowledge that marketing and conventions and early casting announcements has provided. HWR COULD have been a dope-ass hint of another potential major threat that... maybe it's the big one, maybe it isn't, maybe it's more reference than plot-direction, who REALLY knows right? Imagine, without the marketing TELLING us that it's the big one, the satisfaction of the throwback when say mid-late phase 5 in a big cross-over ensemble piece it's openly reveals it in universe. Antman KINDA cheapens it a little, but not to the point it can't still work and be a satisfying reveal without the officially sanctioned spoilers from convention panels.

And counterpoint, to see it go the other way. Let's go back to Phase 1 and the Infinity Saga again. We have to play around a bit to REALLY make this comparison stick, so bare with me for a minute. First, to better reflect the issue with phase 4, lets swap the releases of Captain America and The Incredible Hulk (the "present day" elements take place in the same week with no substantial crossover, so this has zero impact on the narrative itself), and now throughout CA's development we are told "The Space Stone is a big part of this film's story" and then closer to or shortly after release we are told by the studios "some viewers may have noticed the presence of The Time Stone, even though we didn't directly name it. In the comics, this is one of the six infinity stones that are going to be a central theme throughout this saga in the franchise as they are sought after by Thanos, who will have a minor appearance at the end of this phase, and plans to use their combined might to eliminate half of all life in the universe!" Like holy shit, congratulations, you've basically made every film that does not in some way feature an Infinity Stone feel pointless then and there. It won't matter as it's released that Thor builds solid development for characters who will continue to have relevance in the saga, or that it gently expands the MCU's world building beyond Earth. It'll just be a movie that didn't directly advance the core conflict of The Infinity Saga. Captain America: The Last Avenger is now no-longer noteworthy for establishing Steve Rogers as a paragon of liberty, or for the government subterfuge aspects of introducing the tessaract as a cosmic power source that "good guy" government agencies will abuse, but simply for showing us that the space stone exists and where it was last seen.

Like, FUCK. This was a great saga, with a few films that kinda flopped, but at no point was the question of how any of them fed into The Infinity Saga a factor in public interest. We were thrilled just to see in-film confirmation that they even shared a universe and that was primarily viewed as just an easter-egg for most viewers that caught it.

Overmarketing and oversharing of the long term direction of a story that will take nearly a decade and around 20-some movies to tell hurts interest, it doesn't build it.

firedoom666 posted...

Seems like the trailers are a big reason why it's not doing so good. I also thought most the trailers made the move seem bad, but I found myself enjoying the movie quite a bit.

Honestly, while I get that the point of a trailer is to sell the movie and it should do a good job of that, people that claim to have an interest or knowledge of mainstream cinema in general then also claiming that the trailer was a core element in their decision of whether or not to see the movie are just wild to me.

Like, at that point you know that trailers obfuscate things. they string together disconnected bits of dialogue into what seems like one phrase, or sequence scenes together in a way that suggests inaccurate plot details, they use alternate versions of scenes not featured in the film, etc. You also know by and large what in general to expect from a Marvel movie, with or without a trailer, so the degree to which this sort of obfuscation in the trailer can mislead you only points to specific elements of writing and tone, not the type of movie you are going to see. Obfuscation via the trailer is not going to lead you into believing this is a completely different type of film than it is, such as when what appears to be a comedy turns out to be a drama that happens to feature comedic actors (looking at you Funny People), or when what appears to be a horror movie turns out to be a noir romance film that happens to feature a horror movie monster AND THEN NEVER SHOWS US THE FISH MAN'S GENITALS STILL MAD ABOUT THAT BY THE WAY.

uberl33tpro posted...

I know that they're not picky about who they hire. I know that even convicted felons can get jobs at restaurants. I know that now hiring signs are up and have been up at the same places for over a year now, which clearly and obvious means that they've been actively hiring the entire time.

I've seen restaurants so desperate for help that they're operating at diminished capacity, much to the frustration of customers who walk in, can't get a seat and see a bunch of empty booths that are taped off.

If someone can't get hired in this type of job market, then I honestly don't know what to say other than there's something clearly wrong with them.

Ok, you appear to basing this from the outside looking in and not based on hands on knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes. So I'll give you some anecdotes of my own from the inside.

Now hiring signs do not mean a place is actually hiring. It's common practice in high turnover environments to present as always hiring to have a steady stream of applications for when you inevitably do need to hire additional staff. Vast majority of those applications are never looked at because the place in question is not ACTUALLY hiring when it was submitted.

At least in my experience, "diminished seating" is not a result of a lack of available staff, it's slashing labor budgets. An example. We have people available to to work lunch. But lunch we had a stretch of slow lunches, where having one server, one bartender, and two cooks put us over corporates ideal labor costs. So we stopped staffing a server, the bartender handles ALL front of house on their own. Business picks back up while we are still deliberately short staffing ourselves, service is poor, word spreads. Business declines and this is our new normal staffing to keep labor in line with sales, and we adjust and on occasion find ourselves unable to serve additional tables.

We actually turn away most applicants because there aren't even enough hours to go around for the staff we do have.

uberl33tpro posted...

The demand for workers is high enough right now to where you'd have to be a miserable failure at life to get your application rejected from a restaurant chain. Many of them got now hiring signs up, and these signs have been up for quite some time. I've seen some restaurants operating at diminished seating capacity, because they literally don't have enough waiters or cooks to be able to fill all the tables. If things are this bad, and you still get rejected, I believe I'd just call it quits at that point. I'm perfectly OK with giving a person who can't get hired at a restaurant chain a disability check.

What experience do you have with these chains to base this on?

Went back and tried to read the topic after getting my fast jab in.

Asdf's word salad gave me a stroke.

hyperskate65 posted...

Don't be pedantic. It was obvious hyperbole based on my experience working in the service industry throughout my early years.

Not being pedantic. Hyperbole still requires a basis in reality and the reality is these sorts of jobs turn away several times more applicants than they accept.

How fucking dare somebody not be hungry at the exact moment you happen to have leftovers you don't want.

Revisited posted...

...

Did they really use a plot point gimmick from fantastic four 2? They couldn't have could they?

I don't recall that being a thing in FF2 but i also never really went back and re-watched it.

The swapping sets up for some pretty solid action set pieces and a few quirky gags.

it's kinda funny to me how everybody here who says they saw the movie seems to have found it enjoyable, while everybody in this topic talking about it being bad are only referencing the trailers, super hero fatigue, their thoughts on Phase 4 and 5 as a whole, a lack of interest in the characters themselves, lack of marketing, under performing ticket sales, and negative reviews.

hyperskate65 posted...

I've never seen a restaurant decline anyone lol

then you've never left your house apparently?

Like, picturing a universe in which any job that requires no specialized training or a degree or even a high school diploma doesn't get more applications than it has job openings... extrapolating from that change what everything else in that world must be like...

and man i can't even.

Fuckin loved it.

The imagery was on point.

The implications of The God of Mischief becoming the God of Time provides some fun shit to overthink as well.

The purpose of telling someone to shut the fuck up is not to provoke a negative response, but to get them shut the fuck up.

Ultima_Fury posted...

Brony would be better.

but clearly his fursona is a captive wolf.

bigblu89 posted...

To you, it might be.

But in most instances, it takes very little effort to do the right thing.

Most of the time you have to go out of your way to be a dick to someone.

For example, a person asks to refer to them as a "They/Them". You have two choices. Say "Ok", or get yourself in a tizzy as to why you're not going to do that.

You heard someone got an abortion. You can use little effort to sympathize with/for them, or you can lecture them about their decisions.

In both instances, the less effort you put in, the better off you are.

Maybe other people's standards of "good person" are just slightly higher than "not actively and needlessly being a dick."

Link should be played by Zelda Williams. fight me.

I was always told I resemble my mother more than my dad.

But a picture of my older half sister on my dad's side looked like a gender swap filter of me.

So who the fuck knows. Not me. Im legally an orphan.

The Gift of Flesh is not for the weak of heart.

WilliamPorygon posted...

It's stupid and annoying

Like if they don't poop what do they even have the hole for it for

Well i know what I have that hole for...

depending on my mood i might rather play a game by myself than cuddle.

but i'd always rather cuddle than play a two player game.

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

I dunno, hard to see how this could be good. CGI, maybe. And there's the whole "Link will have to speak" elephant in the room.

Then again, some live action ones haven't been horrible as of late (One Piece, Sonic...kinda).

Link speaking is a prime example of things weird nerds care about that do not actually matter in an adaptation. Link speaks in literally every non video game adaptation and has implied dialogue in most games. He's not portrayed as non verbal, the lack of written or voiced dialogue in games is strictly a dated element of the media format that is not seen in comics, manga, or shows.

Furthermore, caving in to fans over this trivial tradition from the games is the exact type of thing that would likely result in a bad movie.

dameon_reaper posted...

Probably because most people tend to do a lot of it on the internet. There's usually videos of it taking place. Honestly, social media is the new 'public'

This is such a terminally online take.

MrMojoRising posted...

being a bit reductive here aren't we

Not really. You might find Lewis's writings on the "moral instinct" interesting.

It's true though. Women don't poop, they SHIT.

NoxObscuras posted...

Given how well the Mario movie did, it has potential to be good. One thing they need to do though, is keep stupid higher ups from inserting butt rock into the soundtrack. As much as I like the songs 'Holding Out for a Hero' and 'Take On Me' the Mario Movie would have been better off with the originally planned musical scores that actually fit Mario. I hope Zelda doesn't have the same issue

I'm not too worried about this until I start seeing proof otherwise. While Mario would have been better with less pop culture infusion, it's not as detrimental to the setting and immersion as it would be with a high fantasy setting like zelda.

Shishiwakamaru posted...

Depends if they model it after OoT or BotW

Most likely either going to OoT (villain origin arc i would expect to have more mass appeal than a return of the mythical big bad), or an original story that's just another run at the classic triforce bearers cycle. Something that feels like it could easily be any existing zelda game but not directly adapting any specific title. Would be a good way to slip in fanservice from across the franchise.

i just find it fascinating that here i am, working with the general public and paid to get them intoxicated, and i never witness this level of fandom in the wild, only people bitching about it on the internet.

Obviously not saying there aren't such types out there, but it sure don't seem that commonplace.

aquablack posted...

Lol, Tom Holland is trending. People seriously want this manlet to be Link?

Well whoever they cast HAS to look cute as fuck in the vai outfit, and i think Tom has that down.

Tmaster148 posted...

Christianity teachers that no matter how many sins you commit, as long as you believe in God and ask for forgiveness, you can make it into heaven.

Just think about that.

That's one way to frame it, and definitely one i feel a lot of the religious community using their piety to mask the still growing stockpile of skeletons in their closet likes to lean on.

But I prefer to frame it as we are not inherently defined by our past mistakes, no matter what they were, so long as we have genuinely repented of them and make a real, lasting effort to change and be better.

majin_nemesis posted...

your family not accepting doesn't mean that society doesn't,your family just isn't a very good one

Except my case is far from unique or isolated and is in fact extremely common?

Just because we're gradually getting better about it (primarily just in more progressive-leaning communities, but still) doesn't mean a significant portion of our generation did not grow up with and internalize the notion that displays of emotion are a weakness and to be discouraged.

Like, if that wasn't your experience then cool, i'm genuinely happy for you. I'm not saying literally everybody had that experience, or that even most who did had it to such a severe level that violence and physical abuse was expected. But these experiences do not happen in a vacuum, they happen in a patriarchal society that associates displays of emotion with femininity, and femininity with weakness.

dameon_reaper posted...

An ex friend of mine is a Swiftie and she takes off work for Taylor Swift's birthday and any time there's an album drop or some kind of merch drop. She doesn't even take off for her own birthday.

I think they're looney tunes, tbh.

weird to me, but i also am far more likely to want to take time off to enjoy new releases of my favorite media content than i am my own birthday (which i barely even give a shit about other than i might get some free stuff from friends or family)

the forced perspective in the first picture is intensely disorienting for me...

this happened.

real talk yall, it'd be difficult for a true to spirit LoZ film to not be what the chuds are gonna call "woke".

Yeah, Zelda usually is in need of rescue. But she's also rarely just there as just the damsel to be rescued. she's important, she's often actively engaged in holding back Ganon or whatever other big bad, even when captured or imprisoned. It's almost never a case of "hero defeats big bad so he can save the princess" and instead a case of "hero saves the princess who is then the one who properly defeats the big bad"

And she's never just dangling over the fridge to move Link's story, if anything Link is there to move her story. Zelda has pretty much always been a fuckin badass.

apology begrudgingly accepted so long as you help with my optometrist bill.

ssk9716757 posted...

Michael Bay may use a ton of CGI but it still requires a ton of skill and creativity to pull off properly. This isnt surprising

Also for all the CGI he uses on characters and shit, he's still big on practical effects wherever possible. Man is a straight up fuckin goblin out here with his love of explosions.

Also gonna nitpick at title. "Proponent against" made my left eye twitch violently upon reading it. wtf TC.

Pogo_Marimo posted...

Cinema has been dogshit for that demographic for a while now, hopefully she can put out a good movie for the kids.

Curious what specific demographic you mean here. I'm guessing you mean christians, since children's/family films still have a lot of quality stuff coming out?

And yeah, I can kinda see what you mean. Feels like pretty much every work of fiction aimed at Christians has zero interest in actually being a quality film or story and is just Sorbo making another persecution complex film.

Ratchetrockon posted...

omg i hope Anya Taylor-Joy is zelda

would unironically be ok with this.

HylianFox posted...

'Narnia' isn't that heavy-handed with its religious themes compared to other works.

Sure, Aslan is essentially "Lion Jesus" but it leans more on vague spiritualism and magic than "YOU WILL WORSHIP ME OR ELSE" type shit

Depends on the book. It gets a lot more heavy handed by the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Aslan explicitly tells the kids that this is just his form in Narnia "so they may came to know him better in their own world". This is the point where his character is no longer simply an allegory but intended to be actual Jesus just having different forms in different worlds.

The Final Battle really goes hard on it as well.

But Lewis did always did explore some rather fascinating theological hot takes in his writing that made the religious community his works targeted kinda big mad. Part of his charm ^.^

Something tells me the motivation behind any person dressing a person of their desired sex (fictional or otherwise) in provocative attire is not the same motivation behind anybody dressing themselves in a similar fashion.

Usually at least. There's always outliers.

Probably because Narnia is a beloved franchise with a lot of potential for great films?

Yeah the preachy elements can divide audiences quite a bit but the film industry has a lot of practice at finding a sweet spot to dilute religious elements of a franchise into something that doesn't step on too many toes.

whenever I think about The Satanic Temple and the sort of work they do, i am reminded of Emeth from C.S. Lewis's "The Final Battle".

Which is kind of neat honestly.

majin_nemesis posted...

and why didn't you kept crying anyway? and why do you most keep following what you family said? they don't own you or rule you

Learn to actually recognize the point being made. I'm not addressing who i am now, or what i've chosen to be despite society is, i am addressing the bullshit claim that society at large doesn't view displays of emotion as a negative.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


it's because of the huge amounts of applications they get.

The number of applications any one drive-thru receives in relation to how many employees they need to hire for that location allows them to quite literally be more selective in their hiring than any top university is in admissions.

The difference of course being in what they are selective with. A 15-16 yo who is going to be thrilled with any little bit of extra spending money as opposed to needing enough to live, and isn't even available to work full time between school and family obligations so will never be eligible for benefits, and is likely to have fucked off before they would be eligible for any raises anyways, and doesn't know what is and isn't legal to be able to report their bosses for labor or osha violations is what they want.

ShaneMcComez posted...

I'll wait to watch and learn anything more about this. When I'm actually playing the damn game lol.

drizzt is joking. it's literally just a shot of somebody in the traditional red on black Adidas track suit of N7 except this time it's a fuckin space trench coat with an N7 logo on their lapel.

majin_nemesis posted...

it's been very okay for men to show emotion for a long time not sure why now suddenly it isn't again,people need to stop listening to the right wing"alpha males" on youtube

stop trying to tell other people what their fuckin life experiences have been man. Congratulations, your family didn't slap the shit out of you for crying because "crying is for sissies". Want a fuckin cookie or somethin?

Zikten posted...

I have a feeling whoever studio head was in charge at the time, had never even read the books and just didn't understand why it was a stupid idea

probably.

But also that manner of serialization for films wasn't really a thing yet. some even credit / blame LotR for starting the ball rolling on the current trend of cinematic universes. These days, even being unfamiliar with the books, an ending like that of Fellowship wouldn't be that out of the ordinary to movie goers, but in 2001 a first installment of a film series ending without resolving a self contained core storyline was almost unheard of.

It's why the star wars format is so common for trilogies, first installment needs to be self contained and prove itself. then from there the 2nd installment can sequel bait, and the final installment can reframe elements of the first to make it part of the broader trilogy story actually started in 2.

But LotR was all "what if the first film in the series ends with NOTHING resolved and two major characters being captured and nobody knows if they gonna be ok!"

Don't get me wrong, glad the studios listened because LotR really CAN'T be slimmed down that far, but it's easy to see how the suggestion was outlandish as fuck for the time.

just call him a furry and move on

pegusus123456 posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaG5SAw1n0c

it was for the meme, mods, don't ban me pls

Anybody that would mark you doesn't ship Anduin with Wrathion and is therefor unworthy of recognition.