The Marvels Full Reaction!
Added 2025-10-28 17:09:29 +0000 UTC
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Haven’t seen the Pennywise prequel pilot yet. Still mildly disappointed that the newer films didn’t adapt certain things like the Turtle, (and the one part, of course, they’re NEVER touching that one,) though seeing part two of that in the theaters with my brother and sister in-law was a great time. Not heard much about the new show yet. See we both hold this in the same boat as Quantumania and Love and Thunder. Quantumania being the only one I saw in theaters, and even before the opening weekend was over, you heard LOTS of people pissing and moaning about it. All three of the films, they’re all fine. Not the greatest things ever, but fun enough. Probably liked Quantumania the best out of the three. Like I said, plenty of movies made a shitload of money that were complete garbage. Combine that with the list you put together, clearly the correlation between quality and money earned doesn’t wash. Feels like Love and Thunder and this one are two of the most affected by the pandemic, if not the most. One legitimate criticism I had is that a miniseries format would have helped with this, or at least they could have used some more material in the film. You highlight Kamala going through the getting to know your hero, warts and all plotline feeling thin, and yeah, that part does get a bit shortchanged. Heard that Nia DaCosta faced some trouble with the film. Almost ALL of the MCU villains need more screentime, though this one I anticipated from the trailers. They do give Dar-Benn something at least. Felt sorry for her, whilst conceding that she is in the wrong. Refreshing how Captain Marvel does fuck up, and the narrative doesn’t pretzel itself to say she isn’t in the wrong. And it is good how Captain Marvel has more than one scene where she rather freely owns up to the fact that she fucked up. And it leads to Dar-Benn’s nefarious plan to steal the resources, thus putting an end to her people having to huff the cans of Perri-air. (Inevitable that we both reference that film with this one practically gift wrapping it to us.) Again, chagrinned over Dar-Benn anti-climactically taking herself out, as I just keep missing the days with the villain being just as much, if not more so the protagonist of the film as the hero. You note that that’s not what this film is. True. Still. I just cackled how this film had the lampshade of Fury agreeing with Jess about the NO touchy rule, and I joined Fury in having the eye roll and sigh when Captain Marvel accused him of negative energy. Plenty of rewatchability in the protagonist hot potato switching during that fight scene. Good note on how it keeps the lid on Captain Marvel not being able to let loose with her full power, rather than Endgame just having her not involved for so much of it. Still love Thanos showing smarts and creativity with the power stone, leading to Captain Marvel having the rather glorious “Oh, SHIT!!” look before getting blasted away. And the fight scene here does have the great showing of the Khan family being brave as all hell, and the confusion of it all does help them get some good moves in. See we both acknowledged about Secret Invasion. I mostly liked the show. The ending derailed it. You make the note of “immigrant strawman” and it’s the keyword of “strawman” that was a problem of they did need significantly more nuance with that. Here, they reach the better middle ground. Feels weird that the show’s not mentioned much, though I read your comment on even the high ups of Marvel are trying to bury it. And the Bollywood planet pissing off the male fans, well, that doesn’t work as I’m a non-gay who lives for musical theatre. Plus, last year we had Agatha All Along with all the gays and/or theatre nerds just eating it all up, so the toxic fans can keep on crying, and I’ll keep savoring the tears as I did with all the grown adults and kids in the theater with Infinity War. Fun night that one was. The reaction Jess had to Goose having the whole litter of Roosters was a riot. Does have a touch of Gunn to the sequence. And yeah, he probably would go with a different song selection. Wish the film did, as the fucking song they went with is so goddamn overplayed to the point that Jersey Girl had one of the best jokes ever about it. Can imagine the theater response being quite glorious, in addition to how you said it felt like a treat for you, which reading your comment on that made me have a huge laugh. Love that. We have been building toward the Young Avengers, which they need a better name. They could go with Teen Titans, and we’ll sound like J. Jonah Jameson, saying, “That’s pretty good. But it’s taken.” See you went with the Vi quote as you ponder what Kate Bishop’s rocky road to Dublin, er, sorry, Doomsday will be like. Sounds like less of a wait than the next Christmas special and season of Doctor Who. (Not to mention we now don’t know where it’ll be airing, or at least I didn’t catch word on that one, barring it won’t be on Disney+, apparently.) Seeing Kelsey as Beast again is a treat, shit though the cgi is. And we get that before Blade. Starting to think that movie is more cursed than the Omen films. (Albeit they haven’t had any really bizarre and eerie deaths.) All in all, as I said, fun enough movie that it’s a great time to share with Jess.
Thomas Corp
2025-10-29 00:39:53 +0000 UTCA lot has come out about what a mess the production of Secret Invasion was, essentially shot all over from scratch even more than Solo, and it seems even the highest people at Marvel are fine just letting people forget it. My big joke in the lead-up to the Cats movie was that the twist ending would be they were actually flerkins, since the first Captain Marvel had come out earlier that year. So this felt like a treat to me specifically.
Ryan
2025-10-28 23:48:46 +0000 UTCI have to start this one by going way off topic and saying that if you're thinking of watching Welcome to Derry, be warned that the first ten minutes has one moment that will hit one of your particular hang-ups HARD. Definitely not expected at all, but I thought it was worth bringing up just in case. This movie's in the same boat with me as Quantumania and Love and Thunder, where I saw it before anyone could tell me I was supposed to hate it, so now I'm stuck having the wrong opinion. And for all the dipshits gloating over its box office failure, let me just respond: The Wizard of Oz. Willy Wonka. The Shawshank Redemption. Ed Wood. Almost Famous. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Killers of the Flower Moon. Dark City. Furiosa. Quiz Show. Still want to argue the money a movie made has anything to do with its quality? I will say it very much feels like a significant amount got cut from this one, especially since it's barely over 90 minutes without credits. Most of all, Kamala getting the slap in the face of her hero not living up to her highest hopes seems to jump straight to them coming to a new understanding with nothing in between. And from all reports Nia DaCosta had a very hard time getting a handle on making this kind of film after her auteur projects like the Candyman remake. Which all on its own makes her one of the very few people who could make me comfortable that they were taking over the second 28 Years Later film, so that was nice to see. Dar-Benn could have used more screentime, but we still get plenty to understand why she's doing all this even while it's clear that it's wrong. Turns out that ending to the first Captain Marvel film with her going off to take out the Kree leadership doesn't go that well if you just cut off the head and swan off, and good on Carol for fully recognizing this really is all her fault and doing what she can to make up for it at the end. But for now, the evil leaders of Hala, having foolishly squandered their precious atmosphere, have devised a secret plan to take every breath of air away from their peace-loving neighbor. If you can read this, you don't need glasses. So all that collateral damage is plenty for us to root against her, yet I'm also fine with her anti-climactically taking herself out, because really this was never about her and she's pretty much incidental to Carol cleaning up her own mess. Turns out none of our three heroes think like Stephen Sommers and immediately have to touch a glowing artifact, which gives us the most fun part of the whole thing with their uncontrollable switching around, and the movie wastes no time playing this for as much chaos as humanly possible in the kind of sequence that if you're like me you want to keep watching over and over to catch all the little details. It also conveniently means Carol has to keep a lid on using her full powers after Endgame was forced to keep her mostly offscreen so she wouldn't just get everything done in moments. Also nice job on making it believable that three normies can hold their own in this very specific circumstance with all its confusion. The movie was in a very tricky position of having to immediately follow Secret Invasion, bringing back the Skrulls right in the middle of everyone hating the direction they were going in. And it does about as good a job as anyone could, making them understandably bitter about their situation without going full cartoon evil immigrant strawman like the show made them. And if that doesn't do it for you, we get to immediately switch gears with the musical planet, where you can practically hear DaCosta telling the toxic male comic fans "Yeah, we're doing this now. Die mad about it." But that's all just an amuse bouche to the true highlight of the whole movie, where it's no surprise you had the reaction you did. Hey, it could be worse, the flerkins could have been designed after snakes. It honestly feels like James Gunn stepped in to guest direct this part, though he probably would have made a different music choice. I managed to see the movie in a reasonably full theater and everyone was losing their minds here, it was beautiful. The franchise has been building up the Young Avengers for a while now, though it took long enough about it that it'll be really awkward if they actually try to call themselves that. But first on the list is the dirt under your nails, cupcake, and I can't wait to see her pick poor Robin clean in whatever role she has in Doomsday. But of course the bigger reveal is the return of Fox's X-Men universe, not quite as big a gasp after Multiverse of Madness but still quite neat to see. Though since Kelsey could barely be arsed to show any effort in the new Frasier show, of course he's not going to sit through the makeup again and they have to resort to pure CGI. And we can add one more big name that we get to see before Blade.
Ryan
2025-10-28 23:36:57 +0000 UTCYeah, perpetual lawn care has been in full swing; everyone wanting to get that in and tied off before Thanksgiving. Need to mow the lawn again myself, and I think it’ll be the last go of it for the year. The shows and films traditionally drown out the sound, as indeed it did here, so it’s cool, Jess. Now to the film. So, this is the biggest (unadjusted for inflation) box office bomb in the history of cinema? ...Well, I’ve seen films that made a shitload of money that were a thousand times worse than this, so I guess it balances out. Another recentish MCU film that, I mean, it was all right. Not the greatest thing ever, but not bad. Think it would have been better served as a miniseries to let it breathe some. Feels in a similar boat to Quantumania or Love and Thunder. All three, though nothing spectacular, are perfectly serviceable popcorn pictures. Think of the three that I liked Quantumania the best. Make of that what you will. All three, I get most of the legitimate criticisms, but they’re all far from being the most awful thing ever. Wish I was in a better headspace when I finally saw this one, but it’s what it is. I’m sure for general audiences, unrealistic audience expectations hamper things, as always. The continuous thought that I have in that if people keep expecting a superhero film to surpass or at least match the two Tim Burton Batman films or the two Richard Donner directed Superman films, you’re just asking to be disappointed. Yes, occasionally you get a Spider-Man 2 or a Logan, and there is, of course, Mask of the Phantasm. By and large, however, the four live action DC films that I mentioned are untouchable. You again have the “Just have fun out there.” mentality, which continues to be perfect, Jess. You said that you were not expecting to get as emotional as you got with this one, yeah, well, I wasn’t expecting the same with this reaction, so we’re even. The general vibe and tone was for the most part conveyed in the trailers that were shown before I saw Indiana Jones over two years ago. We shared being unclear about the precise plot for this going into it. Plot is kicked off by the ladies not giving a shit about the rules, no touchy-wise. We’re simpatico with Fury on the NO Touchy rule. KNEW your reaction to that would be about what it was. The tone in question being prominently on display in that scene when the heroic trio keep switching in Kamala’s house. You were singing and dancing along to the one song during said scene. ...Was I supposed to recognize the song? Give the Khan family massive credit: they fought braver than most. Leading us to the shining light of the film that is the Khan family. We agree about Kamala’s family being the biggest draw for this, moreso her parents in my case. They were the best part of this; you’re right about that, Jess. We hold complete confidence in Muneeba being able to kill Captain Marvel if shit happened to Kamala. She made that threat, and I said, “I believe you.” Your joy with the family is some of the best, Jess. The overall thing is the dynamic with our trio of heroines. You spoke of it better than I would, so I won’t add much there. Kamala fangirls hard, saying “O Captain, my Captain.” which at that specific part, I quip about Captain Marvel, “Such a poser.” And with Dar-Benn, we have a villain not properly given adequate time to shine, AGAIN. I even went into this completely unaware of who the villain was going to be as the adverts only ever said two things on that front: Jack and shit. And Jack left town. All fairness, she does make more of an impression than the Whovian Dark Elf whose name I can never retain, give her points for that. Neat goal of stealing the resources from the planets. Water from the Bollywood planet. Our sun. And aside from the obvious revenge angle with the Skrulls, I assume that she didn’t try to steal the air from planet Druidia because President Skroob already served her a cease-and-desist order putting the kibosh on that one. All because Captain Marvel came to wreck the day, giving her a dashing appellation in the process. It would seem that the good Captain Marvel apparently hates the moniker the good people of Hala have bestowed on her. Actually, why she would hate the name “The Annihilator” is baffling to me. It would appear she has done everything in her power to earn it. We both appreciated the examination of how the usual heroic acts tremendously backfired, and how Captain Marvel contended with that. Leads to some tension with the Skrulls too. Sidenote: We’re continuing to not talk about Secret Invasion, save for the Olivia Colman of it all? The Ben Mendelsohn of it all too? Not even to say anything about the Skrulls being Bitter Bettys about the Dragon Queen winning the power lottery and not sharing, (which isn’t surprising,) not even that? Mm, tough crowd. Serious waste of McGloin as the Skrull emperor by the way. That’s all I’m saying about that one. Hated how perfunctory the villain death was, leading to an obligatory remark of, “Well... That’s just lazy writing.” Fun reactions to the Bollywood planet. Fair question you have about why you don’t receive the sort of introduction when walking into a room as the Marvels got. Makes you feel any better, the prince guy’d read me as he did Monica. It also sounds like all the men on the planet are tenors, so my baritone bass would undoubtedly clash. The fan fiction line got one of the biggest laughs of the whole thing; that line was hysterical. And yes, the weaponized fashion, of course you love that. The other big scene being the flerken birthin’. Feels like Goose giving birth to a whole litter of Roosters was supposed to be a big shock, when you and I called it when Muneeba made note of Goose being a bit pudgy. If the film wanted us to be surprised, it did not work. Seemed obvious to me. You found the herding scenes both terrifying and adorable, that it was you favorite thing ever, and the most horrifying thing ever, all in one, which is sweet. And I would share that except that I was distracted as the theatre nerd that I am got rather MASSIVELY triggered by the sequence, saying, “...We’re SERIOUSLY going with this fucking song? Like the Streisand. That bit’s all right. But we’re SERIOUSLY going with this fucking song?” Imagine copyright was a bitch with that one. You also asked if it’s a TARDIS type deal rather than a Nope type deal. Fucking hope so. Rushed though it all felt, Monica making the Kobayshi Maru play does work well, and certainly got you right in the heart, striking to see. We do catch up with her in the end credits. Anticipated the IV comment. And we see that she’s safe in the one world with Kelsey Grammer back as Beast, knew you’d react to that, and I loved it. Wish his look was makeup and prosthetics, as my one remark was, “Jesus Christ, the cgi is SHIT.” Stressful situation for Monica. Better than the sexism and racism she faced back in the Sterling Cooper days, so there is that. And we also see Kamala is putting together a special team. She needs members of the team to be people of true grit, so, naturally, she pays Kate Bishop a call, love your response to that. Again, not overly fond of the film itself, but it was fun enough experience, I had a nice enough time, and it’s just great to share it with you, Jess. So, the list of MCU films that I still have yet to see is down to Shang-Chi, Captain America Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The remarks made about the speed of the uploads, I know it is difficult. Take your time. A small request would be to give a head’s up so I can plan my viewings of the films in advance, but if that’s really not in the cards/something you can do, that’s ok, that’s all right. I’ll work with it as best I can. And seeing as we are days away from Halloween, it would appear that we avoided the February upload with Michael and Linda keeping you company, hence I’d say you’re good on that one. Good fortune to you either way. Good fortune to Rocco, hope he continues to do well. Hope you’re doing well as well, Jess. Thanks for the fun reaction.
Thomas Corp
2025-10-28 22:21:47 +0000 UTC
