stealinghome

Villains and supporting characters. Even back in Phase 1, Marvel was very careful to cast big-name actors in supporting roles to help draw fans to the movies headlined by relative unknowns. (Portman, Russo, Hopkins, and Skarsgard in Thor—maybe Elba too, I can’t remember just how big he was at that time; TLJ, Tucci, and Hugo Weaving in CA:TFA; even Paltrow, Howard, Bridges, and Bettany’s voice in Iron Man, though RDJ was more known than Evans or Hemsworth.)

I agree with pretty much everyone else here—the movie was fine but can’t hold a candle to the original. I agree that it was, I don’t know that I would say dull exactly, but at no point was it really emotionally engrossing. It felt a bit perfunctory, like it was relying on you loving the original and so it thought it didn’t have to make you care about THESE versions of these characters. It also felt a bit rushed—it would have benefited from slowing down in several scenes. The voice work wasn’t NEARLY as good as in the cartoon; I agree that Donald Glover was meh as Simba, which surprised me, and I thought Beyoncé was fine but I don’t get why you hire Beyoncé and then only have her sing one song! And Chiwetel Ejiofor tried, but just couldn’t sound as evil as Jeremy Irons (to be fair? Probably no one could). Even James Earl Jones wasn’t as good as the cartoon. Timon and Pumbaa, and to a lesser degree Zazu, were the highlights for sure, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those were also the characters who were most different from the cartoon. This movie would also have benefited from changing a bit more. I also agree that the CGI, while beautiful, didn’t help because the lack of expressiveness was jarring. I’m not sorry I saw it for $5, but I definitely wouldn’t pay to see it again in theaters.

I wish there had been more information on Captain Marvel 2 and Black Panther 2, because most of this news is pretty meh to me. I WOULD be super excited for the Black Widow film, especially because I absolutely adore Rachel Weisz and David Harbour, except, you know, Natasha's dead. If the film resurrects her great, but otherwise.... Thor: Love and Thunder could be all right...maybe. I know I'm in the minority but I like Jane/Natalie Portman and thought she and Hemsworth had decent enough chemistry, so I am kind of excited for Jane coming back (especially if Darcy and Selvig come with...the Thor films always had the best ensemble cast outside of CA:TWS). Tessa Thompson is always welcome on my screen. But after what Endgame did to the character I just don't know that I can really get excited for Thor, which sucks because he was totally my fave Avenger in Phase 1/2. Otherwise, not really excited. Shang-Chi, Eternals, and Doctor Strange 2 all get a pass from me, and I doubt I'll subscribe to Disney-Plus. imo you're not missing much...the character is basically Tony Stark without RDJ's charm and charisma.

Yeah, I totally teared up.

Congrats to the USWNT!!! The Netherlands kept it close in the first half but I thought the US were clearly the better team today. The Netherlands rarely threatened, and after about the 35 minute mark or so it felt like just a matter of time. (I know England didn’t really show up yesterday—at least in the first half—but I think they gave the US their stiffest test, actually, and were probably the second-best team in the tourney.) Glad to see Lavelle get the Bronze Boot—she really made this team tick. Sari van Veenendaal deserved the Golden Glove for the first half today alone, she was spectacular. Rapinoe has nerves of steel and I get why she was the pick, but you almost wish the Golden Ball could have gone to the whole US starting eleven, as it has been such a team performance. Becky Sauerbrunn was a warrior today. What a way to probably exit the World Cup. Legend!

Now THAT was the match of the tournament. What a game!!! That is what you want soccer to look like. The US definitely lucked out. Had a few balls bounced differently, they would be playing for third instead of first. England gave them all they could handle. Naeher picked a great time to have the game of her LIFE. I’ve been skeptical of her but am happy to admit she really showed me today! I feel quite badly for England. They played amazing. Forget the France game—this may have been the real final of the WWC. This may be slight heresy, but at times the US looked a bit more offensively dynamic with Press instead of Rapinoe. Press has fresher (and younger) legs and it showed. What a viewing experience.

It's going to be hilarious, but I also feel like it's maybe a bit meta. Yet I'm also hoping that it means PWB might be a little more involved with the show in S3. The show could deeeeefinitely use more oversight from her.

Steve being Peggy’s husband all along doesn’t work emotionally for me because that means Steve is a monster who sat by and (among other things) let HYDRA grow inside SHIELD—which was Peggy’s life’s work—and allowed Bucky to be tortured by the Red Room/HYDRA, mindwiped, and turned into an assassin, all without saying a word; it also means he did nothing to prevent the Winter Soldier’s assassination of Howard and Maria Stark. For me, there is zero emotional sense there—it’s character assassination of the highest order—and while it’s still a bad option, the alternate universe explanation is immensely preferable to the closed loop explanation. Or the writers could have avoided all this by just writing better! Word to all this. It’s not as if the events of Endgame would prevent the MCU from somehow magically bringing young Steve back if they wanted to and somehow could convince Evans to come back. I would also add that they could have written Steve off by having him disappear and Natasha reappear at the end, and wave Nat off into retirement that way (if Scarlett Johansson also wanted out). Nat’s never had any solo movies so it’s easier to swallow her not appearing in the MCU again outside of her solo movie...which could also have been used to tie up that loose end.

Agreed. I didn’t think France showed a ton of fight today after they went down early—they never really looked like they thought they were going to come back and they didn’t have a ton of urgency. England has more fight in them and are riding high after dismantling Norway.

I really dislike Steve’s ending, BUT I would have liked it a whole lot more if Natasha had come back in Steve’s place (which is what I actually thought would happen for a minute while watching the film). If the implication was that Steve went back and saved Natasha on Vormir, and the two of them returned the rest of the stones but there were limited Pym particles and only one could come back to the future, I would not at all have minded an ending where Steve sent Natasha back to resume her life (it could have been poetically perfect had Steve and Nat brawled for who got to go back and this time Natasha lost, in fact) and then went to Peggy because he was stranded in the past. You can still have Old Steve pop up on the bench and give Sam the shield. That actually would have been a GREAT end for Steve—he makes the sacrifice by staying in the past, but is able to make a life for himself and be happy in the past in a way Natasha never would be able to do. And then Steve’s not running out on the friends who need him.

I will definitely be seeing this—it looks like it will be a blast!

I finally had a chance to watch the finale, and I have to say I think the writers really, really screwed the pooch with this finale. And honestly, to some degree with the whole season, given its denouement. On the whole, this season reeks of writers really rushing to a certain plot point--Villanelle and Eve working together (I would have waited for that until S3)--only to have absolutely no idea what to do once they have rushed to get to that point, so nothing particularly interesting happened and they've now yet again re-set the board with the season's end. Only the reset, while it mirrors S1, pretty much makes whatever the writers decide to do next ring hollow because it will be either uber-repetitive or totally unbelievable. As others have said, it probably would have been better for Eve and Villanelle to run off together at the end of the season and to see them both grapple with the ramifications of that decision--not because I expect them to live "happily ever after" in any way (I now agree more than ever that Eve will probably kill Villanelle before the show is over), but now I'm not sure the show can team them up believably ever again, and I think they probably DO need to team up to take down The Twelve still. So this season ending really handcuffed future seasons. You can definitely sense that there is a lack of a strong overarching creative vision for the show. Also a lack of a strong narrative thread--the The Twelve plot really needs to come back full force, because the show is just flailing about without it actually being front and center as the work plot. What else? I am the least shocked person in the world that Carolyn used Villanelle and Eve to kill Aaron without dirtying MI-6's hands (officially), and that Konstantin went along with it. The show has been telegraphing the hinkiness there for quite a while now. Is Carolyn magically going to take Eve back again next season? Also, ouch, poor Kenny being part of the clean-up. No wonder he warned Eve off the Rome op. I'm actually surprised Carolyn didn't shoot Konstantin in the back as he was walking away from her--I was totally waiting for it given the way the scene was filmed. Konstantin-Villanelle continues to be a stealth MVP relationship for the show. Konstantin betrayed Villanelle...but he also threw her a lifeline (in a way Carolyn didn't Eve). Curious to see where that goes. I will say the humor was on point in this episode. When Villanelle asked Raymond "how long have you been standing there?" I laughed because I had the exact same question! Other moments that made me laugh included V's confusion when Eve broke down that door--her tone-deaf "are you sure you’re okay?" was a gem, as was her little head shake when Eve said "yeah"--and Eve unexpectedly getting asked out by the assassin dude. Oh's face was hilarious. The scene where Eve killed Raymond also balanced humor and horror very, very well. Oh, and I laughed at Hugo's "Mrs. Robinson" crack, hee. Super paranoid Aaron leaves the door to the room with his computer full of murder files open? Sure, show. That felt contrived and also really unnecessary--in fact the whole damn Aaron plotline was a hot mess. As if Villanelle was ever going to join forces with him. I really enjoyed Villanelle brazening her way out of the villa, though. It was so very Villanelle (complete with Eve's "you're an asshole," heh). I hope Jodie Comer gets a LOT of awards love for this season. She found her footing with the character in the middle of the first season, and was just spectacular this year. Really magnetic. I don't think Sandra Oh's performance was as strong as in S1; then again, the material for Eve wasn't nearly as good either. I'll definitely be watching the third season, but I hope the show can rebound.

I wonder if the “surrogate mother” plot got dropped when they decided to kill Natasha, as the depressed WSC head job fit a basically suicidal Nat much better.

I've actually never felt that the writing team behind Endgame had a particularly good handle on Natasha's character, so it doesn't really surprise me that all their plans for her in Endgame were hot messes. The MCU in general has never known what to do with the Natasha character. That there is any consistency and continuity in the character at all between movies is pretty much down to Scarlett Johansson's talent and screen presence.

I recently re-watched on an airplane too, and I still want to know what happened to the fourth Skrull that landed on Earth. By my count, one was Talos, one was the science guy Yon-Rogg killed, and one was the Skrull impersonating Coulson that Fury killed and SHIELD did the autopsy on. But I swear that four Skrulls total landed, so where did #4 go? Or am I embarrassingly missing something big and obvious here?