The Thunderbolts' Trailer Asks, 'What's the Point?' | The Backdrop
Added 2024-10-01 15:02:54 +0000 UTCThis week's episode of The Backdrop is now available!
Comments
To be fair, it's fairly decent. It helps that it's all from the same guy who created Chucky all those years ago.
Darren Mooney
2024-10-03 21:36:12 +0000 UTCProbably the saddest, least surprising revelation I just got from watching this is not that there was a TV series spinoff of a silly 1980s movie about a killer doll, but that there's a third season of it.
Simon Green
2024-10-03 20:08:30 +0000 UTCI do wonder about the things we live through, especially today. I’m not sure a spy thriller has the same pull now that bombs have been detonated from normal electronic devices. Virus/zombie movies are a bust, we did the pandemic and I just worked from next to my bedroom instead of going into the office, I’m actually nostalgic for it. Political dramas are just reality now, even the odd attempted coup. It’s hard for superheroes especially to to exist in the context where the once fantastical has become oddly mundane without pushing it to become “silly” but so audiences want “realistic” Gods who have to work through their daily lives, instead of just an extraordinary day.
Tim Wilson
2024-10-02 12:50:59 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure a lot of the time we're putting more actual thought into it than they did. A lot of the MCU's problems are a result of using up all the stuff they DID actually plan for and left to face with how the rest of it is kind of a house built on sand, and their own bad habits they refuse to stop.
Swift Justice
2024-10-02 08:02:02 +0000 UTCTheoretically, this would be for fans of each sub-franchise, but I'd be surprised if characters like the Ant-Man one and the Black Widow one would have any pull/recognition beyond comics fans. I guess I understand grouping in the Black Widow characters with the Falcon ones, but having the one from Ant-Man return does not make it feel like a larger Avenger-style "these people do not know each other" crossover. In that regard, this feels like another layer of spin-off, like a Defenders-style show putting existing resources to good use (actors, designs etc) and rewarding the audience's loyalty. But bringing the spin-offs back into the mainstream movie world has proven to be a weird move, be it with Wanda, The Marvels or the TVA in Deadpool. Because while this was probably intended to make the Disney+ shows not just filler spin-offs, but a good reason to use another outlet for your Marvel content than just cinemas; and while the "it's necessary homework" argument does not really count in the internet age when everything meta you can read/watch on the internet gives you so much more information and understanding than the "primary text" itself; the fact remains that these are the spin-off characters. I guess Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan are kind of attracting audiences, but are the characters?
Grey1
2024-10-01 20:01:55 +0000 UTCAs much as it feels like the franchise is in a midlife crisis, I can't help but look for the themes running through most scripts as something coming from the mental state of the writers/authors. Just like there's an abundance of daddy issues in movies (which was juxtaposed with mommy issues over the last decade), feeling bad about feeling aimless does sound like something you'd encounter in today's therapy sessions. There's a bit of imposter syndrome, there's a lot of future anxiety. If you combine that with a belief that audiences respond well to this feeling since they mostly feel it as well, you've created a vehicle that the characters have to be used in, no matter what else you could do. There's also no real working through pain for the franchise, since that would not only make the characters and you feel better, it would make you want to do something else than relive the same feelings, the same lessons, the same pain. I guess shows like Loki and Hawkeye reached an "okay I guess we can end this now" point, and just like with Wolverine/Logan, you'll always find a way to go another round on the carousel.
Grey1
2024-10-01 19:46:00 +0000 UTCHoenstly, I look at the roster and I think there's interesting potential there. These are all effectively failed Captains America. You're putting them on a team together to do dirty work. It's basically Seal Team 616. You could do something there with the contrast between American self-image and American foreign policy. (Very much in line with Gunn's "The Suicide Squad", for example.) But I can't see the franchise pulling at that thread.
Darren Mooney
2024-10-01 16:05:04 +0000 UTCMCU Thunderbolts emits such weird vibes to me. Like, the conceit of the Thunderbolts generally in the comics is very reliant on them being existing recurring villains, which the MCU doesn't really have, so they have instead filled the roster with Some Guys™. Where are they going with this, who is this for?
Jack Philipson
2024-10-01 15:54:40 +0000 UTC
