Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread

[TREK_GOD_1]

No pressure Doc, but I'm counting on you to join the winning team.

Dr. Strange had an up and down publishing history, some of his own title's stories could be strong, but as a film, I'm thinking after this origin movie (and the expected threads to existing Marvel movies / Easter eggs) he will not function outside of ensemble films. Unless his (arguably) greatest comic storyline ever gets the adaptation nod--namely his battles with Dracula (and I doubt that will ever happen), Strange as movie character (post his origin film) might be best served as a "guest with moments" in other MCU films.

No, that's not fair. Even if Strange is a masterpiece, it won't help make up for how wretched a year it has been for Hollywood and their ever-expanding-budget blockbusters. I have only one that comfortably cleared the passing grade mark. A few scraped a passing mark, but most failed. Painfully.

Yeah, you're not the only one who thimks this year was a ton of cash spent on films that do not rate a second viewing. I probably enjoyed more than you did, but this was no stellar year for genre film as a whole.

If Rogue One turns into the mess that the interweb media is trying to present it as thanks to its back-office shenanigans, then 2016 might be one of the worst years for Spectacle Films full stop.

Hugo - desperately hoping NOT

I just hope Rogue One justifies its existence as a lead in to a very by-the-numbers story like A New Hope, and does not try to alter the hard-formed imortance of characters chronologically yet to be intorduced in the sage (e.g. Luke).

 

[JD]

Does anyone know if there's a specific reason we haven't gotten an MCU version of Balder yet? He seems to be a huge part of the Thor comics, but we've never seen or even gotten a reference to him in any of the movies.

 

[Reverend]

^The *specific* reason is that they've only made two Thor movies to date (plus a third on the way) and they've yet to exhaust Loki as the only movie villain with any staying power. Also, the previous two movies had to split their focus between Asgardian and Midgard affairs.

The more general reason is simply that they haven't told a story that he'd fit into more than anyone else. They're apparently in this for the long haul and are in no rush to exhaust their options.

 

[JD]

I thought Balder was one of his allies, not his enemy. From the bits and pieces I've seen online he seemed to be right up with the Warriors Three, Sif, and Heimdall in terms of supporting Thor characters, so I was just a little surprised we've seen all of them, but not him.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Balder is Thor's best friend in the comics.

 

[Reverend]

My mistake, I misunderstood and obviously not very well read on the comics.

Still, the basic principle is the same, there's really no place in the stories they're telling for a "best friend" character in addition to Loki as his adopted brother turned traitor, Siff and the Warriors Three. Yet another friend might seem redundant from a storytelling perspective.

For what it's worth they haven't included Beta Ray Bill either and I gather he's a major ally in the comics too. It's not like they're withholding them out of spite or anything. There's only so much you can use in a movie adaptation and we've seen in 'Age of Ultron' & 'Iron Man 2' what happens when you try to cram too much in. Things get muddled and unfocused.

That's not to say these characters don't exist, it's just that they haven't shown up *yet*. For all we know Balder was kicking around in the background the whole time, he just hasn't figured much in what's been going on till this point. They may find a use for him later on or even as soon as 'Ragnarok'.

 

[Captain Craig]

I've also seen every comic book film this year. I feel Dr.Strange will be an above average film at the worst. Likely to land in the Great column for my rankings.

Great:
CA:CW
Deadpool

MEH:
BvS: DoJ
SS
X-M:A

Horrid:
TMNT2: OotS

 

[Myko]

Hey TMNT2 was better than the first one! Oh never mind, that says nothing.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Stan Lee has already filmed his next four cameos.

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...filmed-the-next-four-stan-lee-cameos#/slide/1

 

[bbjeg]

So why didn't they make Alfre Woodard's character from Civil War the same character on Luke Cage. She totally could have fit.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

So why didn't they make Alfre Woodard's character from Civil War the same character on Luke Cage. She totally could have fit.

Because Mariah is a villain who's supposed to become Luke's nemesis, more or less, and whose entire life story revolves around her criminal background? Giving her a random son who died in Sokovia causing her to uncharacteristically try to kill Tony Stark wouldn't exactly be what I'd call 'a good fit'.

 

[Vandervecken]

I want Annihilus. He had a short appearance in Asgard in a few comics years ago, long before the Annihilation wave.

 

[JD]

Wasn't he introduced as an FF villain?

 

[Vandervecken]

Wasn't he introduced as an FF villain?

Way way way back yeah, but he branched out to menace others. This is only way way back:

 

[bbjeg]

Because Mariah is a villain who's supposed to become Luke's nemesis, more or less, and whose entire life story revolves around her criminal background? Giving her a random son who died in Sokovia causing her to uncharacteristically try to kill Tony Stark wouldn't exactly be what I'd call 'a good fit'.

She didn't try to kill Tony. She just wanted him to know who her son was. From that, why couldn't she run for office to rid the world of menaces like Iron Man and Luke Cage? Also, it's not like we know if the woman who met Tony had a criminal background or not. Some people like Marvel for it's continuity between properties, hearing a name drop, seeing a face in multiple places, getting a reference. Here they have an great actor in a blockbuster and they don't take advantage of tying that actor in another property? I'll still be OK with them saying in Luke Cage Season 2 "Yes Mariah, we know about the son you lost when you had your name changed to leave the criminal life behind, and now your back taking it personal against this powered individual" or something like that.

 

[Christopher]

Some people like Marvel for it's continuity between properties...

And they have plenty of that already. They also have multiple prior instances of the same actor playing two or more roles. Stan Lee is the big one, of course, but other high-profile ones include Enver Gjokaj (a cop in The Avengers and SSR Agent Sousa in Agent Carter) and Tony Curran (Bor in The Dark World and an Irish mobster in Daredevil). And there are dozens of other bit players who've done two or more roles. So it's not like Woodard is the first.

 

[Skywalker]

Annihilus' film/TV rights probably belong to Fox. They've got most of the really good villains, the bastards.

 

[LJones41]

I came across this You Tube video clip called

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"Why the Marvel Movie Formula Is Wasted" by someone named Mr. Nerdista. I agreed with some of his points. I was indecisive on others, because I never noticed them and have decided to think about it. And I heartily disagree with one major point.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I came across this You Tube video clip called

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"Why the Marvel Movie Formula Is Wasted" by someone named Mr. Nerdista. I agreed with some of his points. I was indecisive on others, because I never noticed them and have decided to think about it. And I heartily disagree with one major point.

The deaths have definitely been overdone, and the villains could be done better (although the idea that it's simply because they aren't used often enough is ridiculously simplistic and totally invalidated by Zemo and Alexander Pierce and Nebula).

I agree that forced humor has been a problem in some of the marvel movies, but frankly this guy's forced humor radar is terrible. Ant-man doing his 'did I ruin your moment?' thing is forced humor. Tony using a nickname or making a sarcastic comment when he is legitimately pissed off doesn't get in the way of the moment at all.

As for the phase structure, if I understand his complaint, it's that the phase structure forces every movie to cover the same ground just with different characters. But that's blatantly false. Phase 1 was all origin stories because it had to be - people had to meet the characters in order to care about them. Phase 2 was definitely not all about the infinity stones: IM 3, Cap 2 and Ant-man had nothing to do with them, and that's literally half of the phase 2 movies.

 

[Christopher]

As for the phase structure, if I understand his complaint, it's that the phase structure forces every movie to cover the same ground just with different characters. But that's blatantly false. Phase 1 was all origin stories because it had to be - people had to meet the characters in order to care about them. Phase 2 was definitely not all about the infinity stones: IM 3, Cap 2 and Ant-man had nothing to do with them, and that's literally half of the phase 2 movies.

Well, Phase 1 wasn't all origin stories, because it included The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. (Although you could count IM2 as the origin story of War Machine.)