Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread

Wha--? I do not know too many people who found anything positive to say about Ang Lee's Hulk film, including the casting.

...or, its proof that you're certifiably insane.

 

I absolutely hated that Ang Lee movie when I first saw it. Recently bought it on DVD at a thrift store for the sole purpose of checking out whether I still hate it. Will report in if I ever get around to it.

 

Oh come now. Even nothing nice to say of Sam Elliott?

 

Only in Ghost Rider.

 

That Ang Lee film was such a giant pile of garbage. Its pacing and pretentiousness makes the damn Snyder Cut look like an MCU film in comparison. Eric Bana is a block of wood and Nick Nolte's performance feels like it belongs in a totally different movie. The climax is Hulk fighting a cloud, which comes after the "thrilling" confrontation with mutated dogs.

Hulk is one of the superhero movies I legitimately despise the most. It takes everything I hate about artsy films (terrible pacing, the writing being up its own ass) and combines it with nauseating editing, generally bad acting (although I do like Sam Elliot) and bad action. Hulk and the Seth Green Green Hornet are actually probably the worst superhero films I've ever seen from a technical sense, and I've seen most of the mainstream ones. I might subjectively dislike some superhero movies more for doing things I dislike to characters I care about, but if I try to take how much I care or don't care about certain characters out of the equation, I legitimately think that Hulk and Green Hornet are the worst superhero films I've seen. I'd rather watch films like Fant4stic, Blade Trinity or even BvS before I'd watch either of those two films ever again.

 

Looks like we might be learning more about Armor Wars soon if this Don Cheadle tweet is any indication. Presumably at D23.

 

Sam Elliot has a boatload of fine performances on his resume, but Hulk is not on that list. I found him playing up the sinister angle more than alpha-megalomaniac Ross as seen in the comics.

 

I'd like to see Sam Elliot as a live action Yosemite Sam.

 

^That would be amazing.

 

I have to admit that I found his Thaddeus Ross a bit extreme.

 

Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliot were fantastic as the Rosses. No disrespect to William Hurt or especially the underrated (imo) Liv Tyler, but they did remarkable jobs I think.

And yes, I think it sucks that the MCU's approach to Betty has been "Who?" At least Jane Foster got to come back - twice now!

 

Betty was already moving on with her life when Bruce crashed back into it. I think it's not unreasonable to assume he just left her alone from there on out, lest he do more damage.
I mean sure, if there were more solo Hulk movies then that thread would have been developed more, but there weren't, and it's one thing to piggyback Bruce's story into other characters' movies, it's quite another to try and jam Betty in there with him too. I mean exactly where would she logically fit in Avengers, AoU, or Ragnarok where she wouldn't have been an insubstantial cameo?

You mean he's not already?

 

Honestly, I don't think another Sam Elliot comicbook film role can top him being a Cowboy Ghost Rider, even if we only see him as a Ghost Rider for a little over a minute.

 

After seeing the first episode of "She-Hulk", I find myself wondering how long the MCU will last.

 

At least 5 years... Definitely will do better in the next 5 years than the DC Film Universe / TVU

 

I think She Hulk is by far the most refreshing thing the MCU has given to us in ages. Shang-Chi, Doctor Strange and Thor 4* have all been great financial successes (*and, yes, I know that financial success is not necessarily indicative of quality, but it does show that interest in the MCU is still strong), and considering that the franchise has yet to even introduce the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, I can't take anyone who thinks the franchise is dying or on life support seriously. It flies in the face of reality, and people who believe such can only be divorced from said reality in favor of what they want to believe.

 

The advantage Marvel has that a lot of people don't realize is that Marvel's IP is not one thing. Yes, it exists in a shared universe, but it's a universe that grew out of a comics publisher that was doing crime, mystery, Western, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comedy, etc. before it started building the Marvel Universe proper in the '60s, and ended up folding all those different genres into its nominally superhero-driven universe. So Marvel Studios has a very wide, eclectic base of material to draw on, spread across numerous different genres and appealing to numerous different audiences. It can still do works that completely stand alone as their own independent things, like Moon Knight, or Eternals to an extent. Yet at the same time, it's built up this incredibly rich ongoing continuity and history that any of its new projects can draw upon as needed, something essentially unprecedented in film history, or at least never done to this degree, encompassing so many works with such consistent continuity.

So MS has just about as wide a potential range of subjects and genres to draw on as any other film studio, but with the ability to use them to reinforce and support each other. I see no reason to imagine that ever has to stop.

 

Will the franchise improve after what seemed, at least to me, six to seven years of mediocrity and crap?

 

Sounds like for you, it can't necessarily get worse, can it?

I feel badly in a way. I'm loving what's going on now, except the last 2 movies. But really, I can't think of a franchise where I loved every moment of it so it doesn't exactly get me down.

Wish you enjoyed it like the millions of others are able to.

 

At this point inching mediocre is it for now.