Board 8 > MCU General: Up Next The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

(+) Yeah! (+)

actually, the trailer for Fellowship was probably the biggest applause I've heard in a theater. Specifically when the Fellowship walks between the two rocks and the dates for the trilogy show up.

I think it was Gladiator opening day.

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Gladiator rules

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Biggest applause I ever witnessed was when I went to see Sucker Punch in high school.

The theater was filled. Not too sure why, but it was. Opening weekend I'm sure. Anyway, previews are on, and one comes up for this movie and I could not tell you what the movie was. Pretty uninteresting. People were just chilling in the theater, but previews are loud, so nobody was chatting. Anyway, it gets to the end of this preview and announces the name of the upcoming film, and that it will be available in 3D.

It's quiet, so my buddy beside me just loudly goes "Yeah! 3D!" Entire theater erupts in laughter, followed by applause.

He now works for NASA.

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The one theater audience reaction Ill always remember is the trailer for Devil.

There was a collective burst of laughter when M Night Shymelons name appeared
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MoogleKupo141 posted...

The one theater audience reaction Ill always remember is the trailer for Devil.

There was a collective burst of laughter when M Night Shymelons name appeared

This is amazing.

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The people who clap are secretly Mephisto.

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Aecioo posted...

My god, the worst part of a dull film got clapping.

90% sure you have no soul if the Vader as slasher icon sequence of Rogue One did nothing for you
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mnkboy907 posted...

The people who clap are secretly Mephisto.

I knew it!

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Is it okay to boo and jeer at movies?

I remember when me and my friends boo'd the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer. That's probably what made them change the CGI, you're welcome.

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Grand Kirby posted...

Is it okay to boo and jeer at movies?

I remember when me and my friends boo'd the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer. That's probably what made them change the CGI, you're welcome.

I can't remember actively booing a movie, but I've definitely been in a theater where something so bad or ridiculous happens that you can hear everyone almost collectively groan at it.

One of the biggest unintentional "theater laughs at how bad something is" was definitely the reaction to the trailer for The Midnight Meat Train. Dark, gritty, R rated horror film about someone dismembering people on a train. Cut to end title card and everyone laughed because lol sex. Wonder why that movie was such a colossal flop...

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It's probably happened more than once for me, but the first time I saw Rise of Skywalker, I (and several others) booed out loud at the end of the movie when Kylo Ren and Rey kissed.

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Loving the Bucky/Sam dynamic so far.

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Great episode, and yeah Bucky and Sam are great together. I'm 100% with Bucky if someone told me to my face their name was Battlestar I would walk away too.

I didn't think they'd go there with Isaiah Bradley, that was a nice surprise.

I appreciate that they haven't made John Walker an asshole (yet at least), it would have been real easy to make him the Anti-Cap who's a complete dick.

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I found the scene with the two of them and the therapist to be a little too silly and weirdly placed in the episode, but other than that I liked it!

Obligatory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOyE_l80D4Y

Paratroopa1 posted...

I found the scene with the two of them and the therapist to be a little too silly and weirdly placed in the episode, but other than that I liked it!

I liked the scene, but I do agree that it was oddly placed.

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That episode was so good. Falcon and Bucky work so damn well together. I loved every scene of theirs. I'm glad they didn't make Walker this huge unlikeable jerk like I assumed they were going to do. He has humanity to him, and was genuinely helpful and trying his best. Sam and Bucky end up looking rather bad in how standoffish they acted towards him, and yet it still works because they have legitimate reasons to dislike him, even irrationally so. And in the end Walker isn't exactly perfectly nice. I don't know where they will go with this storyline, but no matter what happens; if he becomes an ally, if he's antagonistic hero, if he becomes more of a villain as the plot progress, it will feel justified and not reeking of flat characterization. One a similar note, even the Flag Smashers aren't presented as one note villains. I love the depth they're giving to all the main players in the story when it would have been so easy to just make a standard good guy/bad guy action show.

Oh, and the scene with Isaiah Bradley and Sam getting harassed by the police. Woo, so good. These D+ shows are going places I did not expect Marvel to really go and it's great.

Finally, while the special effects could be a bit wonky in a few shots, the fight scene on the truck was still really good and interesting. I liked this episode so much.

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Miscellaneous episode 2 thoughts in no particular order:

Why did Bucky come to Germany with Sam? It seemed so out of nowhere. One minute he's arguing with Sam about the shield, then they're arguing over the big 3, then all of a sudden it's "oh you're going to Germany to track down some terrorists? Sure I'm in". Was he just that desperate to get out of his therapy session?

For that matter, why did Bucky bother tearing the arm off his jacket? It's not like the vibranium arm is suddenly going to be less effective because there's a layer of leather over it.

NuCap has a loooooooooooot to learn. It seems like he just expects everyone to love him and want to work with him because he's Captain America, without realizing that people loved and wanted to work with Steve Rogers mostly because he was Steve Rogers and not because he was Captain America. The cold open does a decent job of showing he has some amount of charisma and media savvy, but the man just has no idea how to approach people who don't already like him.

Wasn't Steve's super soldier serum a one-of-a-kind thing that only worked on him? How the fuck did some random terrorists manage to not only get 8 doses of it but also make it work without horrible side effects? This is mostly a rhetorical question because I expect the show will answer eventually, but it's still bothering me.

Karli doesn't particularly seem like the leader of an international terrorist organization. She seems... I dunno, too soft? Emotional? The safehouse scene makes it seem like she's not particularly assertive, and she's not the one who gets the group's morale up either. I wonder how she got put in charge. There's also the obvious mystery of who sent her the threatening text, which I imagine will be answered sooner or later.

What was the point of the terrorist's sacrifice while they were loading the plane? From the looks of how the timing worked he could have just ran out, pushed down the telephone pole, then sprinted back to the plane and gotten in before they took off. There was no sense of urgency. I feel like that scene would have been more effective if they showed a few of the soldiers running after the plane as it took off, maybe take some pot shots at it. As is it seems like the terrorists had plenty of time to get away and the one dude died for nothing.

The sequence with Isiah and the cops was brilliant. It ties in well with the loan sequence from episode 1 I feel, in that it all comes together to show the casual racism inherent in American society. Isiah's story mirrors real-life history of Black soldiers returning from World Wars 1 and 2, while the cops demand Sam's ID, tell him to calm down, and ask Bucky if he's bothering him when Bucky was being at least as argumentative as Sam was. I appreciate that the show is not afraid to get political.

The therapist sequence was fine. It's definitely where the writing most closely approached Peak MCU, which may or may not work for you. I think I like the therapist as a character more than I liked this particular scene, but it all worked out pretty well.

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I actually wasn't really feeling this episode quite as much as the first, I feel like the beginning half was a bit too quip-y. Bucky and Sam's initial convo with the Big 3 was fun but then all the banter as they're infiltrating the spot was a bit much for me. I actually think the second half got better, and I liked the therapy session. I wish Sam didn't cut it off but for where they're both at I get it.

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to me the Big Three will always be aliens, time travelers, and espers

also Dr. Raynor low-key best character in the show so far

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So is it time to start speculating that Power Broker is who Flagsmashers stole from and that John Walker and Lemar Hoskins are going to end up indebted to him because they believe they will need powers to fight the Flagsmashers?

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It's Mephisto.

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FFDragon posted...

It's Mephisto.

You're probably right.

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Black Falcon/Black Kid joke got the biggest laugh out of me

got'em

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black panther and black lightning in shambles

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

So is it time to start speculating that Power Broker is who Flagsmashers stole from and that John Walker and Lemar Hoskins are going to end up indebted to him because they believe they will need powers to fight the Flagsmashers?

I think so, either that or they get a bad batch from the guy. Sam's going to have the same choice but turn it down.

I'm curious if the Power Broker will be someone new or a previously seen character. Sam Sterns long shot call.

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Power Broker is a comics character so I assume itll just be the normal alter ego. I couldnt tell if the guy with the phone after they kill the one Flagsmasher was supposed to be him or he was a guy calling the actual guy.
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MoogleKupo141 posted...

Power Broker is a comics character so I assume itll just be the normal alter ego. I couldnt tell if the guy with the phone after they kill the one Flagsmasher was supposed to be him or he was a guy calling the actual guy.

I assume calling the actual guy. The actual guy will likely get a proper introduction. I also assume Zemo agrees to work with Sam and Bucky because he doesn't want supers running around. Kind of an enemy of my enemy situation.

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New Captain America has some serious Homelander vibes. I wonder how he's gonna turn out.

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BlackDra90n posted...

New Captain America has some serious Homelander vibes. I wonder how he's gonna turn out.

I've seen this sentiment posted before.

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searches twitter for captain america homelander

vibes everywhere

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I mean, Homelander is a full blown sociopath.

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jesus christ what a terrible episode. all of the jokes sucked.

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See this is where i think the MCU might not be for you because I think that was the best episode of Wandavision and Sam & Bucky combined

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i like plenty of MCU movies! and i thought wandavision was good.

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

jesus christ what a terrible episode. all of the jokes sucked.

Really, you didn't like white panther/wolf or couples therapy?

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no

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I've gotta agree with Lasa on this one. I found most of the attempts at humor to be forced and cringeworthy.

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Oof

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Another issue I had, and I hate to use this term, but I hated the "forced wokeness" of the Baltimore scene. Last week, we had the bank scene, and that didn't feel forced. That felt like establishing Sam (perhaps the least-developed Avenger at this point) as a character, and explaining his role in the universe, his familial connections, how his life and family were affected by him getting snapped five years prior. And yes, there was a racial undertone to the preceding, but it didn't feel like the writers were smacking us in the face with "look at the hardships faced by the black community!"

This week though, the whole Baltimore segment felt completely detached from the rest of the plot. The only tenuous connection was "there are new supersoldiers now; Bucky knew a different supersoldier fifty years ago". And that still could have worked. That could've still been the same kind of subtle-ish storytelling and messaging that we got last week. But then the cops show up and start harassing Sam in a manner that feels like the writers were SOLELY trying to shine a spotlight on "look at the hardships faced by black Americans!", rather than writing a scene that stands on its own and feels like it serves a purpose in the story of the episode.

It also doesn't help that The Boys did that shit back in season 1 already, with A-Train getting harassed by a mall rent-a-cop out-of-costume. And it worked, because that played into developing A-Train's character.

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Inviso posted...

Another issue I had, and I hate to use this term, but I hated the "forced wokeness" of the Baltimore scene. Last week, we had the bank scene, and that didn't feel forced. That felt like establishing Sam (perhaps the least-developed Avenger at this point) as a character, and explaining his role in the universe, his familial connections, how his life and family were affected by him getting snapped five years prior. And yes, there was a racial undertone to the preceding, but it didn't feel like the writers were smacking us in the face with "look at the hardships faced by the black community!"

This week though, the whole Baltimore segment felt completely detached from the rest of the plot. The only tenuous connection was "there are new supersoldiers now; Bucky knew a different supersoldier fifty years ago". And that still could have worked. That could've still been the same kind of subtle-ish storytelling and messaging that we got last week. But then the cops show up and start harassing Sam in a manner that feels like the writers were SOLELY trying to shine a spotlight on "look at the hardships faced by black Americans!", rather than writing a scene that stands on its own and feels like it serves a purpose in the story of the episode.

It also doesn't help that The Boys did that shit back in season 1 already, with A-Train getting harassed by a mall rent-a-cop out-of-costume. And it worked, because that played into developing A-Train's character.

I mean, Bucky introducing Sam to Isaiah is going to be more powerful than just telling him about it and a black and a white guy arguing like they were is very likely going to end up that way if cops get involved. The only issue I have with that scene is how the cops arrived seemingly out of nowhere. Maybe people in the neighborhood heard what they thought was a disturbance at Isaiah's house so they called and cops were close by the time Bucky and Sam were leaving.

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Inviso posted...

But then the cops show up and start harassing Sam in a manner that feels like the writers were SOLELY trying to shine a spotlight on "look at the hardships faced by black Americans!", rather than writing a scene that stands on its own and feels like it serves a purpose in the story of the episode.

agree with this, that scene was way too on the nose. you could just hear the writers go "HAY GUYS WE'RE REFERENCING BLM AND ACAB GET IT?"

it's nice that disney isn't afraid to get political, i guess, but that scene was still bad.

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To be fair it was Baltimore.

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the original comics story involving Isaiah Bradley is 100% political and racially-charged so adding that scene seems in line with whats going on IMO

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People comparing John Walker to Homelander make me have no faith in other peoples' ability to analyze media.

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I will say that John Walker's role in the episode was the best part, especially since they're writing him as so sincere for now (I worry that they're gonna make him full villain later on to make Sam and Bucky justified in their hatred). He's trying his best, but he's just nowhere near Steve Rogers, and it makes sense that Steve Rogers' friends would be irritated by someone else taking on their friend's mantle. Them being dicks to him for something irrational was interesting to me, and I thought that was the one part of this episode that really landed properly.

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