Here's why 'Wakanda Forever' looks so much worse than 'Black Panther' - "absent from Wakanda Forever as well are the rich, eye-popping colors that defined Black Panther as an exceptional feat of filmmaking. Obscured by murky, downcast hues, this superhero sequel seems to confirm that not even a director of Ryan Coogler’s caliber can withstand the imposition of Marvel’s dreaded “house style” of cinematography. Much has been written about Marvel’s efforts to standardize its production pipeline in terms of color and on-set filming to better accommodate the head-spinning amount of VFX work utilized in its movies. Especially as that universe has increased its theatrical output and expanded to television throughout Phase Four (all the while exerting intense pressure on VFX studios responsible for working on the vast majority of shots in its releases), Marvel has placed its cinematographers in the terrible position of relying upon flat, low-contrast lighting to ease its post-production processes. Helpful though the visual consistency of this lighting style may be when it comes to editing color schemes and incorporating CG elements, it homogenizes the color palettes on display in Marvel films and makes it near-impossible for individual characters, even individual story beats, to stand out amid a sea of unrelentingly drab, overcrowded composite shots. One need only look back on the uniformly hideous visual sludge of Avengers: Endgame to see the artistic limits of such a strategy. With its vision of the Afrofuturist nation of Wakanda, Black Panther was a notable departure from this new norm (which has only become more inflexible in the four years since that film’s release). Black Panther’s Oscar-nominated director of photography Rachel Morrison elevated even large-scale action sequences through bright, richly textured colors and naturalistic lighting. The result was that rare Marvel movie that kept sight of its characters and remained invested in their world even amid CG-assisted spectacle. Her keen eye for contrasts and shadows offered Black Panther the kind of unique visual identity that no Marvel film has showcased since... he first season of Loki. That series, never meant for the big screen, found Durald Arkapaw flooding the frame in single-tone purple neon but otherwise shrouding the characters in shadow, a common Marvel tactic to distract audiences from the enervating fogginess of its product... In Wakanda Forever, by contrast, Durald Arkapaw’s anamorphic lenses — better for tracking movement across the busy, large-scale action setpieces that tend to dominate Marvel finales — fare worse with the close-ups required of intimate character beats. The more ovular elements inside anamorphic lenses tend to distort images, reduce clarity, and require “de-squeezing” in post (a process that comes in handy for films reliant on VFX and that lend themselves to Marvel’s requisite lens flares and bokeh effects). Wakanda Forever’s close-ups are marred by this approach, which keeps backgrounds blurred and softens focus at the expense of all aesthetic detail besides generic bluish-purple tints... There’s a curious artifice to Wakanda Forever that works even against the utopian kingdom of its title. Lacking the dynamic, tactile tones that made Wakanda feel thrillingly real and afforded Black Panther a fantastical sense of space, this sequel imposes a sluggish digital sheen, sapping the nation of its past glory and reducing this series’ exploration of its vivid world to an empty time-filler. Such monotony might have passed muster on streaming, but to watch it seep into a Black Panther sequel is a dark, dispiriting reminder of how artless and impersonal the MCU has become."
Meme - The Marvelous MCU @marvel_ousmcu: "When quotes become reality... See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil
*Daredevil, Echo, Hawkeye*"
Meme - *Alfred Molina with Rosemary Harris, Alfred Molina with Sally Field, Alfred Molina with Marisa Tomei*
*3 Spider-men stunned*
"HELLO NEPHEWS"
“I’ve done some damage”: Hugh Jackman Blames His Wolverine Role for Doing Irreparable Damage to His Body That Will Affect His Future Roles - "the films seem to have taken a toll on his singing voice as he mentioned that the excessive growling and yelling have affected his ability to do a falsetto."
Meme - *Distracted man having sex with legs on shoulders meme*: "Daredevil hearing and ignoring the street crimes happening few blocks away because he just got premium green puxxy"
Meme - "'She-Hulk' Star Tatiana Maslany Thinks Season 2 Is Unlikely"
"Well hey, the writers got in their licks at the "toxic fandom" so she can keep that in her pipe and smoke it later when she's unemployed"
Meme - The Marvelous MCU @marvel_ousmcu: "There are other fish in the sea, guys
A HERO DESTROYED THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE JUST FOR ONE GIRL *Strange Supreme*
A VILLAIN SAVES THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE JUST FOR ONE GIRL *Loki*"
Meme - "What's Kingpin's biggest weakness?
Arrows to the Chest
Getting Hit by a Car
Bullets to the Face
Magic Choctaw Fingers"
Meme - "In an alternate universe..
Scarlet Witch: I lost my two kids and my husband
Thanos: I am a single father with two children
5 minutes later: *Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen hugging*"
People aren’t tired of superheroes, they’re tired of bad superhero movies - "These superhero movies took the audience for granted. Companies considered the simple existence of an extended universe and the affection for recognizable characters as a core selling point, when it is, and should always be, the sauce and not the meat. What failed this year was the interconnected universe. But superheroes themselves succeeded. What worked? The rejuvenating Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, television shows like Invincible and The Boys spinoff Gen V, and the adorable, all-ages action-romance cartoon My Adventures with Superman, which bids 2023 farewell with an ardent following and a season 2 renewal. What succeeded for the MCU was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a demonstrably heartfelt sendoff and inarguably the most comic book-honoring ending the MCU has yet produced. What succeeded was Loki season 2, which, its numerous faults aside, delivered on what hardcore fans of the character wanted: Tom Hiddleston’s puppy-dog eyes, and their fave secretly becoming the most important person in the universe. In 2023, Hollywood didn’t just make superhero movies, it’s started repeating history — comics history, that is... If you ask comic book superhero fans about the best superhero stories ever told in comics, you will get a very long list. There will be dozens of stories about Batman and Wolverine — and half a dozen about Superman, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, the rest of the X-Men, and so on and so forth. There will be two, maaaaaaaaybe three, that are about the multiverse. There will be none that are about Kang... A decade-plus of continuity homework became a hurdle to access, and as overall quality succumbed to the demands of quantity, old associations of superhero stories as meaningless explosions and punching have been reified. And it was all pinned around the “multiverse,” one of the trickiest ideas to create universally compelling, lasting stories around — a sprawling collection of secondary timelines and parallel Earths that are by their own definition less meaningful to tell stories in than one central continuity. Huge cosmic struggles became common superhero events in contrast with the more common everyday, soap-operatic adventures of individual heroes. And the superhero comics scene even has a term for when a company spends too much time reaching for the big and bombastic and world-ending, and not enough time letting characters breathe: event fatigue."
Aquaman 2 Box Office Passes 2023 Historic DC Bomb's Entire Global Gross In Just Two Weeks - "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has surpassed The Flash's total earnings in less than two weeks. On its fourteenth day in theaters, the Aquaman sequel has amassed over $274 million, whereas The Flash's 40-day theatrical run earned the Ezra Miller-led movie $266.5 million in total... Considering that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom cost around $215 million, James Wan's DC film might be on track to break even, or even make a profit despite the DCEU's recent track record. In theory, The Flash had all the makings of a resounding box office success: The Flash features several multiversal cameos by previous DC actors, deals with the multiverse, includes Supergirl in a supporting role, features two beloved Batman actors reprising their roles as the Dark Knight, and it's the big-screen solo debut of a famous Justice League founding member. However, these aspects may have achieved the opposite, as they resulted in a disjointed movie that didn't do any character justice. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom avoids this problem by focusing entirely on Aquaman and Atlantis, which makes it more welcoming to general audiences who aren't familiar with previous DC projects. Besides Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom's straightforward story, the Aquaman sequel's VFX and production design are much cleaner than The Flash's, its action sequences actually move the plot forward, and the characters have clear motivations and character arc. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom's ending also provides a more logical conclusion to the story than The Flash's. Even the post-credits scenes show a drastic contrast, with The Flash's post-credits George Clooney cameo coming off as an unintentional set-up and a bizarre nod to an unpopular DC movie and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom's post-credits scene simply ending the movie on a lighthearted note. Aquaman's box office background also helps Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Unlike The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom benefits from Aquaman's 2018 commercial success, which took it to the top of DC's all-time highest-grossing movies"
Aquaman 2 Box Office Passes The Marvels' Entire Global Gross In Just Two Weeks - "Each movie is surviving and failing based on its own merits. While Aquaman 2 has lost its expanded universe, it benefits from having the opportunity to serve as the finale for the DCEU. The Marvels, meanwhile, is meant to serve as a seemingly inconsequential movie in a multiverse saga that has slowly fallen apart. After the ongoing Jonathan Majors' controversy began with his arrest in March, the future of the MCU has been questionable."
Of course, there were people (with more on Facebook) who claimed sexism was the reason people slammed The Marvels and called it a box office failure, but not Aquaman 2
'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom's Global Box Office Refuses to Drown - "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was all but written off by audiences and Warner Bros., which gave it a half-hearted marketing push following back-to-back debacles and major behind-the-scenes change-ups. Despite mixed reviews and the well-publicized issues around the film’s production and release, Aquaman 2 has stayed above the surface for over three weeks now. The movie grossed an estimated $5.2 million at the domestic box office this weekend, slipping out of the top five for the first time since its release. A strong opening in Japan pushed its overseas numbers to over $265 million, which puts the movie’s cumulative worldwide gross at $373.7 million. A $400 million lifetime haul is totally on the cards, which wouldn’t look too bad when compared to the film’s reported production budget of $200 million. The general rule-of-thumb states that movies this size should ideally gross twice their production budgets theatrically to break even, and Aquaman 2 is on track to becoming the first DCEU movie since 2022’s Black Adam to come close to doing so"
Given the lack of marketing, it might not even need 2x the budget to break even
Patrick Stewart Calls Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Filming 'Frustrating and Disappointing' - ""It was alone," Stewart said, shaking his head. "I think the big scene, each one of the leading actors had the same experience. They were shot on their own. It was a frustrating and disappointing but that's how it has been. The last few years have been challenging.""
Meme - Jonathan Majors (Kang): "Am I dead?"
Terrence Howard (War Machine), Emma Fuhrmann (Cassie), Edward Norton (Hulk): "no...just recast"
Meme - Rhodey: "Wow. You guys... ...really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple years."
Hulk, Thor, Ant Man, Nick Fury, Dr Strange: "Yeah, well, the writers weren't exactly five star."
Meme - Monica Rambeau: "*Queefs* Oops, sorry about th-"
Wanda: "Did you just challenge me to a queef-off?"
Monica Rambeau: "What?"
*flies through house*
Meme - How it started: "Tony: "I am Iron Man.""
How it ended: Monica Rambeau: "Oh Shit"
Meme - Official Bounding Into Comics Fans: Jeremy Winfield: "Plank from Ed, Edd, n Eddy had more range then this woman."
*Lashana Lynch in Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness & The Marvels*
Meme - "WHEN YOU GO TO A MARVEL MOVIE AND TWO WOMEN START FIGHTING SO YOU GET A LITTLE ENTERTAINMENT
Black Girl Magic!"
Meme - Monica Rambeau: "Who are you??"
Beast: "Oh, I'm just here to keep the fans interested for for another year."
The Marvels Box Office Won't Be Reported Anymore by Disney - "Marvel Studios is not reacting well, at all, to having its first real box office bomb in 15 years. After years of unprecedented success, including four of the 10 highest-grossing films of all time, the studio’s latest release, The Marvels, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. After about a month in release, the film has begun to taper off its box office run and will be, by far, the lowest-grossing movie in the entire franchise, failing to crack $100 million domestically and only flirting with $200 million worldwide. One bomb in 30 or so is, obviously, pretty damned incredible, but you wouldn’t know it from how Marvel and Disney are handling it. The most recent example happened this weekend when the studio released the following statement, reported by Variety: “With The Marvels box office now winding down, we will stop weekend reporting of international/global grosses on this title.”"
They didn't even hit their budget. At least The Flash roughly did. Morbius actually made back costs
‘The Marvels’ Global Box Office Ends as Lowest-Grossing MCU Movie Ever - "Not only did The Marvels register the lowest-ever opening in the franchise’s 15-year history — lower even than 2008’s largely overlooked The Incredible Hulk — the superhero sequel will also become the first MCU movie ever to conclude its domestic box office run with under $100 million, which is a figure that most MCU movies used to routinely cross in their opening weekends alone. The film’s current domestic gross stands at just $83 million, while its overseas figures have stalled at under $120 million. Combined, The Marvels has generated $202 million worldwide. For context, this is around $60 million short of what The Incredible Hulk concluded its global run with in 2008, and roughly $150 million shy of what Avengers: Endgame made in its first three days of release. Just in North America. It’s also around $70 million less than what rival DC’s The Flash made over the course of its theatrical run, before effectively ending that franchise"
Of course, they blame "Superhero Fatigue"
Why "THE MARVELS" Fight Scenes SUCK! A Scene Comparison - YouTube
This is a within-Marvel comparison too
Meme - "When Kevin Feige wants to bring back everyone from the Fox Studios Era X-Men franchise but then he remembers Ellen Page isnt exactly available to reprise the role of Kitty Pride"
How Disney’s Push For “Equality” KILLED Retail Sales - YouTube
Looks like the Eternals are even more unpopular than I thought : ActionFigures - *Shelf full of clearance items*
Bob Iger says 'The Marvels' had little 'supervision' and Disney has made too many sequels - ""'The Marvels' was shot during Covid," he explained. "There wasn't as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what's being done day after day after day."... Iger also defended Disney's theatrical output, suggesting it was a victim of its own success after having dominated the film business for a decade before Covid. "And I'm not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved. I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn't do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed," he said. "That's an unbelievably high standard and I think we have to get more realistic.""
Weird. We're always told that studio interference is why movies suck
Apparently movies making money is not a realistic standard for success. With the straw man of the billion dollar box office revenue, looks like they need to cut their budgets
Alarming The Marvels Statistic Sets Up A Huge Problem For The Avengers Replacement - "only 19% of The Marvels' viewers during its opening weekend were between the ages of 18 and 24. The largest piece of the viewership pie belongs to the next age group up - those between 25 and 34 - but the failure to connect to younger viewers is an issue that signals more trouble as the MCU carries on for, presumably, another decade or more... The Marvels disappointing viewership statistics for those between 13 and 24 begs the question of whether younger audiences ever actually made up a larger piece of Marvel Studios audiences. The data says that they did. The most direct comparison is data from 2019's Captain Marvel, which presumably targeted the same demographic as its sequel. There, viewers aged 18-24 made up a much more substantial 40% of the audience"
How Disney can save the Marvel Cinematic Universe - "Marvel executives may have a grand plan, but the easily-followed threads that connected the Infinity Saga, which concluded with “Endgame,” aren’t so apparent. The new Multiverse Saga has yet to cohere around the villainous Kang... “Everybody knew the Infinity Saga was going to take time,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “Marvel earned their audience during that lead-up by staying true to character-driven story threads that weaved around each to form the bigger picture.”... There hasn’t been time for the franchise to collect nostalgic dust on a shelf or for one generation to pass it down to the next. This is why it’s become important for Marvel to introduce so younger and more diverse characters. Introduced in recent shows and movies, America Chavez, Kate Bishop, Kamala Kahn, Cassie Lang, Skaar and Riri Williams are all potential members of a Young Avengers team, one that was teased in a post-credit scene of “The Marvels.”"
Too bad they propose doubling down on C and D grade characters because of "diversity"
Marvel Cuts Ties With Jonathan Majors Following Guilty Verdict
Marvel forced to keep Jonathan Majors as Kang The Conqueror, leaked contract shows - "Dexerto reported that during a recent episode of a podcast titled The Weekly Planet, a crew member on the WWII drama Devotion (which also stars Majors) shared details about Majors's contract, indicating that he may be contractually bound as the exclusive actor to portray all versions of Kang"
Meme - The Bugle Daily @TheBugleDaily1: "Imagine taking a property like Barbie where the main demographic is women and pandering to men. Then imagine blaming females for its failure. This is what the MCU is doing. It's a property where the main demographic watching is men, and they are trying to make it for women."
Iman Vellani Proves Ms. Marvel Truly Was the “Most Mature” Among the Marvels Trio for 5 Reasons - "The most unique aspect of Vellani’s character is that she understands humans. Kamala leans more toward the human race than her superhero world. Surrounded by the strings of family, culture, and her religious community, Kamala values human life the most. The people that she loves and cares for, kind of, make her entire personality. On the other hand, Carol Danvers is a solitary lady with a cat and amnesia."
"I was trying to get him swear at me": Iman Vellani Went Above and Beyond to Make Samuel L Jackson Go Berserk in The Marvels - "Vellani is a die-hard comic book enthusiast and she has been a lifelong Marvel fan. At times she would not hesitate to point out comic book inaccuracy. “I’ve e-mailed our director, Nia DaCosta, like, a laundry list of plot holes, and, like, ‘I don’t think Sam Jackson would actually say this, but here’s what he could say instead.’” Vellani said appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “I’m sure she very much appreciated all of that unsolicited advice. But, no, there was, like, literally one day on set, I pointed something out really early while we were filming it, and I’m like, ‘This doesn’t make sense.’ And they were like, ‘Iman, just like, chill. Sit down for one second.’ And then, like, half the day goes by, and then suddenly Nia notices. ‘Hey, this actually doesn’t make sense.’ And then Teyonah goes, ‘No, you’re right.’ And I’m sitting there. ‘It’s almost like someone told you.’”"
Meme - "Toxic man baby gamergate incel chud summoning 5 million women to not watch the Marvels so it bombs *Saruman with Palantir*"
The Marvels Was Doomed From The Start - YouTube
Meme - Brett R. Smith @BrettRsmith76: ""The Marvels" crashing and burning at the box office has nothing to do with the fact it has 3 female leads. *Charlie's Angels 2000 cast: Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu*"
One cope is that they're sex symbols. Yet, Aliens, Terminator and Halloween did not have that problem
Meme - @WandasAttorney: "I will NEVER forgive y'all for letting this movie fail like this like it's one of the nastiest things I've ever seen."
The Hollywood Handle @HollywoodHandle: "'THE MARVELS' had a -77.9% drop on its 2nd weekend domestically, the worst of all time for a CBM. In comparison, 'MORBIUS' had a -73.8% drop and 'THE FLASH' a -72.5%."
Meme - Stephen King: "I don't go to MCU movies, don't care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for THE MARVELS very unpleasant. Why gloat over failure?"
Carl Benjamin @Sargon_of_Akkad: "Because the people who make these movies hate us, Stephen."
Hunger Games Prequel Opens No. 1 at Box Office, The Marvels Crumbles - "The outlook remained bleak for superhero pic The Marvels, which fell 78 percent in its second outing to rank as Marvel Studios’ worst second-weekend drop of all time, as well as the worst for any Hollywood superhero pic in modern history. Among Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, threequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania previously sported the worst drop of 69 percent."
Meme - alex @LinkachuHQ: "oh we WON! speak against The Marvels and it'll cost ya!"
"You submitted a report for hateful conduct.
"THE MARVELS' debuts with 54% on Rotten Tomatoes.
VIOLATION FOUND
We locked @DiscussingFilm's account for breaking our hateful conduct rule. We found they broke our hateful conduct rule through different reports we received about their behavior. They can't post, repost, or Like content, and we'll ask them to remove the reported content if they want to regain full access to their account. Your safety is important to us, If they break our rules again, we'll respond with a more severe action, like suspension. We appreciate you taking the time to submit a report and helping keep X safe for everyone"
It didn't get removed, but the fact that he cheered its alleged removal is telling
Falcon and the Winter Soldier: How John Walker Is a Symbol for White Supremacy
Believing in yourself is white supremacy - if you're white, at least
Meme - "I fully understand why Captain America went back into the past to be with Peggy *sexy Hayley Atwell*"