swanpride

There are just too many ideas crammed in Ironman 2. I actually like them all separately, but not together. Also, the movie was made too early. That was before Marvel was brave enough to try something different for a climax.

Sure, but just because criticism of Israel is often used as a cover for anti-semitism, it doesn't mean that we should stop criticising Israel altogether. And Netanyahu...HE is the one who keeps pushing for resettlements, ignoring human rights in the process, he is the one who insisted on turning Jerusalem into the capital of Israel, he is the one who supports nonsense like the Jerusalem day, he is the one who ordered the various strikes against civilian targets with the standard excuse of "terrorists hide there", and he is the one who is currently implemented in various corruption affairs. I don't think that there are much "shades" when it comes to criticising Netanyahu.

Honestly, I just dislike people throwing in random quotes in general, no matter the source. But that was especially cringy.

Yeah, the writing of Ironman 2 is just bad, but if I had to cut a villain, I would actually cut vanco, not Hammer. Hammer is at least entertaining. And frankly, I think a bigger focus on Tony hurting himself would have made the movie more interesting.

I am currently just p... at the Israeli government. Especially since I am sure that the whole thing is mostly about distracting from corruption affairs in order to stay in power even longer. They courted this conflict for their own gain. And now we have to deal with explaining people "protesting before the Israeli Ambassi = okay, bothering a random synagogue = not okay". Because that is what we actually need, anti-semites being able to hide behind the whole matter, as if Jews living elsewhere are in any way responsible for what is currently happening in Israel. And yes, the US (and a couple of other countries) have to stop defending this, no matter what. What is happening in Palestine is simply not right. And while none of the US presidents have been in any way helpful regarding that matter, the whole Jerusalem as capital thing Trump supported is part of the reason why it has escalated so badly now. Good Job showing that while Trump was especially bad dealing with the situation, the other presidents were happily sidestepping the confrontation about that particular matter, too. Stand Your Ground is BS. It is just an excuse to literally get away with murder. Even if you feel threatened by someone, it is no reason to just shot that person, the force of defence has to be equal with the force of the attack.

They have roughly sorted it by studio (Marvel studios, what used to be Marvel and Fox television and then all the animated stuff). And then there is the "MCU in the timeline" option, but that one has only Marvel studio releases, meaning that there is even some stuff missing which we know is part of the MCU, but Disney currently doesn't have on streaming (meaning the Incredible Hulk and the Spiderman movies). I guess they still want to leave it open for fans what they want to count into it and what not.

It's on Disney + in my country. I guess one can expect that other than the Netflix shows and the things Sony produced, all Marvel shows will eventually turn up there.

With "hands" the ones which usually point at the time are meant.

I think that it was pretty clear that after Fury "died" he kept working in the underground, and Agents of Shield even showed how he had access to resources (by falling back on people true to the cause). Anyway, no matter what Marvel or Feige says (and they don't really say anything about that topic), Agents of Shield will always be part of the MCU for me. And structure on Disney Plus is kind of a mess anyway, I guess partly because they have no idea how to deal with certain things. It is really hard to figure out what they have and what they don't have outside of the "big franchises", because they have no idea how to sort anything which doesn't fall into some need umbrella. Under the Disney category for example they showed all kind of stuff under "nostalgic disney"

I was more bothered by the five years...why not three years? That would have already been hard enough but five years, that is the point at which people have moved on.

Have you already seen Agent Carter? And maybe Cloak and Dagger (the latter isn't really all that connected anymore, but I really enjoyed it). I mean I assume that you are up to date with all the other Marvel shows.

What I loved about Ant-Man was mostly that Maggie wasn't portrayed as an unreasonable shrew and Paxton not like some sort of a-hole, as it is usually the case in this set-up. They had good reasons to be weary about Scott turning up in Cassie's live (and frankly, their concerns were warranted considering that it took only another year for Scott to end up in prison again...and then on probation. Scott tends to have good intentions, but he is really a mess overall). And I loved the big-family dynamic in the second part, too. I hope someone was there for Cassie in the five years. Maybe even just Paxton.

possible...I mean, I wouldn't mind to see some good old traditional animation blending, but I guess that would look kind of weird.

??? Why is there a cartoon clock on the poster?

I enjoyed Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer.

Well, it has been established that the content of the Darkhold changes depending on who looks at it, why shouldn't the cover change, too?

Ironically eventually people started to scoff because Cumberbatch for Doctor Strange was "too obvious". I have to correct myself, though, there is one casting choice I am bothered with ahead of time and that is the one for Shang Chi. But that is less because of the actor and more because I imagine the character younger.

Norton and Liv Tyler were a terrible choice if one asks me, but I guess that is more on Universal anyway. I actually never complained about a casting ahead of time. Marvel knows better what they need in a role than I do anyway. (Though I still hope that they will cast Matt Bomer one day).

Possible. But maybe that was also the point at which they realised that they didn't need big names to draw the audience in because the names of the characters were already more than enough. Or a combination of both.

I certainly would love to learn what Sif has been up to, since she apparently wasn't on Asgard when everything went down, and there is a possibility that she was one of the snapped. Which would be confusing as hell, wouldn't it?

Well, I am sure that Loki would be pleased...after all, Wednesday always comes before Thursday (Thor's Day), and he will be very placed to get the day of his daddy.

Money was part of the reason, but if it had been the only one, Marvel could have walked away from the negotiation table waiting if Howard relented, but they didn't, they basically cut him lose at the first opportunity. Rumour says that the bigger reason was that Howard didn't really get along with everyone else, especially with the female staff. Considering that since then there have been multiple domestic abuse incidences, one of which Howard admitted to with the words "she was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids." (yes, he actually used the "she provoked me" excuse - apparently his wives "provoke" him a lot, because that was his first wife and his second one has by now requested two restraining orders against him. And then there is the story with the flight attendant he assaulted because she dared to tell him to get back on his seat when the seat belt sign went on). In short, Howards is apparently quite a piece of work. His history with women points to him being an abuser and a misogynist, the whole 1x1 story points to him being a narcist who can't take any criticism. And all this aside, I am actually pretty dispassionate regarding the two performances. Both did a fine job, I would have to lie to claim that I would miss either of them. Partly because Rhodey is simply not that important, partly because neither of them ever managed to make as much out of the scenes they got as for example Sebastian Stan or Anthony Mackie did. They just lack the natural charisma of the latter, or the ability to put all the hurt of the world into one look if needed.

I don't mind the change to Ego. Honestly the "heir of an empire" idea is somewhat overdone and something which can just as well if not better be explored with Shang Chi. The more evil the leader the better. Quill defeating "ego" had way more meaning. Sadly the Russos didn't really built on this, but okay.

They are pretty even for me...GotG has the better structured story, but GotG 2 packs a bigger punch in certain scenes. Or, to put it differently: I prefer the battle for Xandar over weird blobs popping up on random planets, but there is no denying that the funeral scene in Vol2 is still the best in the MCU.

The Russo's always said that they ended up with Civil War pretty naturally while working on the script, and I am inclined to believe them. I mean, the conflict between Steve and Tony was basically set up from day one and the fan theory that Bucky killed Tony's parents was around pretty much since the release of The Winter Soldier. What I don't quite forgive them is that they kept short-changing Bucky in favour of Tony once they got him to play around with. But at the end of the day, Civil War is still mostly a Captain America movie. After all it is his world view which is challenged above all.