#mcu-ass dialogue...

[firestorm09890]

i would probably enjoy kh much more if i didn't have such a loathing for axel/lea because one of his core personality traits is making other people's business his business so he's all over the damn place but unfortunately i can already hear his smarmy voice saying "well everyone else loves me, sounds like it's your skill issue" in my head and it pisses me off too much for any hope of changing my perspective

[thedevilsoftruth]

I need to see the Winter Solider but in full-face glam goth makeup with pretty sparkles or else ill die. Bonus points if he has a beard.

[strangeauthor]

....yeah im gonna get bg3 on xbox and play that instead. night gays for real

[lets-jam]

'dmc was always cringe the Netflix series isn't anymore cringe-'

[sobredunia]

Oh boy.

[constantfragmentation]

Arcane S2 Thoughts

I've had a week to digest this season and well, I guess I have the unpopular opinion of being very disappointed. After the initial flash of gorgeous animation and some ooo's and awe's.... I was left with a bitter aftertaste. I can rewatch S1 loads of time. I don't think I can watch S2 again.

I'm happy for the fans that loved it and got what they wanted or the shippers that got what they wanted. I'm happy for you. Do your thing.

Me? Not so much. Even as a Silco fan (and I admit to squeeing for any footage of him at first), I'm not pleased. Yeah, my young Silco is a nerd, man-bun hottie, but that's where it ended for me. His entire characterization was nothing like the character I fell head over heels for in S1.

Vander's Flashback: I honestly don't find Felicia's inclusion necessary at all. In fact, I think it waters down everything between Silco and Vander. Their knowing her and the kids creates more questions, plotholes, and problems than it supposedly solves.

Why is Vander only in those memories with the kids? It's before the fallout with Silco. Why don't the kids know or remember nice Silco? Why do they only fear him (obv that's from Vander and Benzo, yes?)?

Why doesn't Silco seem to know Powder at Vander's dead body? Why would he kill Felicia's kids? None of it makes any fucking sense if he cared about Felicia. He hates Vander so much, he hates the kids too because he adopted them?

How the hell does S2 Young Silco turn into S1 Silco? Riot really messed this one up. Vander's attempted murder didn't change his entire personality.

It was a rebellion battle. People were going to get hurt and killed. They had to know this. So, whether Silco accidentally killed Felicia (as some fans are debating) or she died, is so damn dumb for Vander to solely blame Silco. Takes the kids, becomes a pacifist FIRST and then decides to (shave and grow younger) kill his brother for the greater good. Doesn't make one lick of sense narratively.

The narrative, characterization and animation inconsistencies don't help from S1 either. The drowning scene doesn't fit the S2 explanation. They're too young. Vander had a beard and appears much older on the bridge. Hell, S2 Young!Silco looks older than S1 Young!Silco. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. If people want to kiss Riot's ass, fine, but there was too much that was straight up lazy writing.

Silco's death is just glossed over considering how important he is. Silco did what Vander couldn't. Even without Shimmer, the Underground was thriving. Cait's mother's death/burial/statue gets more screen time and Silco gets dumped in the river. No one seems to question his death or what happened? Yeah, ok.

I'll use this moment to complain about the excessive music video montages this season too. I watched S1 again and the writing and use of music worked in unison and enhanced scenes. S2 felt like scenes in between music videos and it was irritating.

There was so much screentime wasted that could have been good dialogue heavy scenes that S1 was great at. Instead, time wasted on poorly executed plotlines that needed way more time to flesh out (Mel, Ekko and Viktor) and we have slowmo music videos and MCU fight scenes. Hermie's guitar song and Mission Impossible jokster crap was laughable and not in a good way.

Riot tried to pack too much into one season, and it was a mess. This season felt like watching a Marvel movie. Cool action sequences with little to no substance. All the nuance and grit from last season were gone in favor of the 'good vs. bad' trope. All the political-societal issues in S1 were abandoned that were far more fascinating to explore.

Mel has superpowers now? It feels all out of place. Her, Ambessa, and the Black Rose plot have zero time to make it interesting and plausible. She was introduced as this master manipulator/politician and her sage persona feels so forced.

Jesus Demigod Viktor was too much. I was excited for the Machine Herald and the psychedelic Arcane magical multiverse took me out. Making him to be the big baddie and timeloop it around to Jayce felt like a big cop out. Viktor deserved better. Hell, Jayce deserved better.

So much was sacrificed to make the whole Arcane magic THE point of the series when it was one of the least interesting aspects of the show. Hextech for weapons and the continuing problems between Piltover and Zaun was RIPE for storytelling. It seems each act needed several episodes to cover.

Ekko sure as fuck deserved better than that half assed time warp with Hermie. The AU really bothered me. Everything felt wrong. EVERYTHING. Nothing was explained well at all. It felt like complete fan service at the expense of the characters. Before people rip me saying "well duh! It was an AU!". You don't assassinate characters and plot to have a happy ending that insults your viewers.

They turned Zaun (its own cool character) into the bargain basement of Piltover. How is it sunny and pretty? Really? Mirror tricks? Everyone just forgave Piltover after years of oppression?

You're telling me Vi's death saved humanity? Fuck that shit right now. Piltover just stopped because a kid died? Suddenly everything became better? What happened to Jayce? Viktor? Hell, Hermie after decades didn't give two shits about Zaun, so what changed with the Council? Where's Singed? I don't buy it.

I don't buy Jinx/Powder being super normal smart girl. I LOVE JInx, but I believe she had mental issues prior breaking into Jayce's apartment. I don't think Vi's death made that go away (as I don't believe Silco's death did either). As someone who battles with mental health, this is insulting to me as a viewer.

I hated AU Silco. There. I said it. He just forgave Vander? Really? Bullshit. The reason Vander tried to kill him is stupid. A simple letter changed Silco? That fluffy-haired softy is not Silco. I can't imagine that Silco being the one who fought a rebellion. He probably would not have become a mob boss peddling drugs but this AU softboi dad feels so wrong. I never would have stanned AU Silco. Not in a million years.

S1 Silco's traits didn't magically appear because Vander betrayed him. The young S1 Silco had to be similar in many ways to older S1 Silco. Drive, ambition, ruthlessness, willing to die for a cause. I don't see Felicia's death changing that. I certainly don't see Vi's death changing that.

If Vander needed to kill Silco to stop the violence, etc, it's because he saw Silco as a threat to him or society as a whole. S1 Vander is known as The Hound. So, he seems to be violent as well. He takes credit for building the Underground when Felicia credits both 'bozos' for it. So Vander being upset she died and blaming Silco to the point of murder is a slap in the face to fans' intelligence.

I do hate that by Vi's death, everything is magically better. I can't express how much I hate that. AU Powder was irritating and was nothing like my Jinx that I love. Again so much wasted time that could have been better spent on good character driven scenes that actually advance the plot.

Pointless characters. Introduce Isha (who I adored). Make her seem important to Jinx. Kill her and never mention her again. So what was the point of her inclusion this season? Just to make Jinx suicidal? I hated that also. Again WASTED SCREENTIME.

Oh, and Caitvi was a disgrace. I think shippers deserved better here, too. Caitlyn goes crazy dictator because of guilt over her mom. Granted, Caitvi only knew each other for a week-ish? Not a lot of time to make their relationship serious past an infatuation. Cait turns from all her good points last season to Ambessa's padawan.

Don't get me started on that side piece Maddie. Really? Cait you were that hard up? And that long awaited sex scene was a big eye roll. Vi goes to her sister, and shit goes to hell, and a few minutes later, she's fucking Cait in the same cell. Vi was reduced to shit this season.

I mean, these characters just got shafted in every way for a high speed train wreck ending that we've seen a million times in Disneyfied stories. Action sequences were more important than actual character development and plot.

You can't make me believe that one speech from Jayce 'seeing a possible future' suddenly got Zaun to work with and dress up as Piltover soldiers? Really?

I had high hopes for Sevika, and the girl got shit nothing to do except in two episodes. Her seat on the Council feels like a last-minute decision and not worthy enough to expand on.

What made S1 so great was the class divide between Zaun and Piltover and how it affected the characters. S2 decided to scrap that and go with the easy good vs evil trope instead. Even the parallels didn't have the same hit as last season.

I did like Jinx talking to her 'ghost' Silco in the jail cell. He was calming to her in contrast to Milo/Claggor except the implication that she should die (that's what I got out of that).

We didn't even get much from Singed. Yeah, he got his daughter back (in some form) but his story was so blah. We didn't get nearly enough of him and Warwick and what made Warwick.

I guessed a few years ago it was going to be Vander but I didn't like how it was handled.

Too many plotlines all rushed together without getting any decent screentime and explanations that don't confuse or insult viewers intelligence. OR you have to be a LOL fan/player to understand. I never played LOL before S1 and wasn't confused as to the main plot.

I loved all the characters in S1 and felt they were pretty much watered down or assassinated in S2 for an apocalyptical Demigod villain vs humanity battle done to death finale.

The Zaun/Piltover political-societal problems, parallels, corruption, science going wrong, pathway to hell paved with good intentions themes from S1 was so much better in every single aspect.

I'm still a fan of S1 and the characters and frankly, I'm going to ignore 95% of S2.

[lavellaned]

I’m going to say something about veilguard that might make people mad:

After playing it myself I still don’t agree with the criticism that the dialogue is “millennial humor” or “MCU level he’s-right-behind-me level cringe”

It’s more like if it was written by an ai that only had access to reddit. It’s giving reddit comment section syntax. They are written like they’re people who get the majority of their human interaction from online but they live in a world where the internet doesn’t exist.

But then there will be an npc or something that talks normally but then someone from your party will chime in with that dumb ass “well THAT just happened” energy, which makes it all the more obvious.

[darthbecky726]

DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN SPOILERS

this is gonna be all my thoughts as im watching so im putting the spoilers below the cut

this is gonna be episode one and ill make a seperate post for ep 2

im so scared for foggy right now, this opening is being so happy right in my face the way matt was telling foggy about a restaurant that closed makes me think matt didnt get snapped but the others did or i heard something about them leaving the kitchen

is that kirsten foggy's talking to?? god i hope so it is!! thank you subtitles OUR FOGGY ok the three of them are sooooo cute

THE WAY THE ASPECT RATIO CHANGED WHEN MATT STARTED LISTENING IN OH MY GOD FOGGYS ABOUT TO DIE

BULLSEYEEEEEEEE

Oh my this cgi is terrible

aaaaand theres the trap FOGGGGGYYYYYYYY NOOOOOOOOO

ok i had to take a pause in typing this up bc holyyyyy shitttttttt

TIME SKIP I FUCKING KNEW IT

AAAAAAAAAaaaaannnnndddd heres fisk oooohhhh i love vanessa

i support womens wrongs SPECIFICALLY when its her and here comes wilson to tap his fingers together and make weird comments to vanessa

ok that shot of him with the halo in the table reflection,,, i see yall the cgi might be shit on the matt swinging around by his billy clubs but the cinematography is still here from the og

also i wanna talk about the theme song bc its different in a way that makes it distracting almost but i dont hate it. like nothing is gonna top the original theme but damn its pretty good

i cant believe we have to watch matt lose his shit in court in the opposite direction

WE GOT A BLIND JOKE i just wish it wasnt like this

matt is soooooo dramatic i love him. literally as he should be, foggy was the love of his life/ his best friend/ the love of his life

literally LOCK HIM UPPPPP sorry dex ily but you KILLED FOGGY HOW COULD YOU

oooh ok karen moved to san fran thats interesting this is such mcu dialogue but its not terrible i like it

"let the system handle it" while the theme music fades in is hilarious

i love that he cooks in the dark literally of course he does why would he ever need the lights on

ok not fisk ruining all of matts inner peace as per fucking usual

also i love matts new apartment matty your food is burning

the politics in this are sooooooooo current and this guy whos ass kissing right now is a type of guy ive met and they actually believe this horseshit and its sad

murdock & mcduffie's logo is the daredevil mask

this cinematography is interesting also i like the nod to matt speaking spanish OOOOOHHHH KIRSTEN SET MATT UP WITH A THEREPIST i love her so muchhhh

him and his scruff i love him so much awwwwwwww theyre cute i like them together im a little upset matt and kirsten arent a thing but i think she was holding a candle for foggy

so this cherry guy is the new brett?? i miss mahoney, he better make an appearance.

ooohhhh the civil war debate on a vigilante level??

OOOOHHHH the organ music i love it

i cant believe fisk is bringing up foggy omg messsssss

the way matt carries around the braille funeral bulletin everywhere he goes matt when youre on a date youre supposed to pay attention to the date not the tv in a building behind you. also watching them kiss right after getting quasi broken up with is a bit painful but whatever

this is very current events coded omg

matt cannot resist the cries of his fellows, the city needs him and he has the ability to help. the fact that hes been able to hold out for a whole year is wild but it truly did take foggy's literal death to accomplish so whats that say about matts mental state

the "born again" aspect for both matt and fisk is very interesting, theyre both very insistent that theyre "not that man anymore" but the control on their lives is slipping away from them both in interesting ways. im very excited to see where they take this for both of their characters

[mbrainspaz]

what the hell was that Heather vs Muse scene? What was that? What was the dynamic between them even supposed to be? Why did her book inspire a serial killer? Why did she freeze like a deer in headlights when dealing with mentally ill people is supposed to be her whole job? What did he even want from her? He obsessed over her and then he was just gonna kill her like all the other randos? In her office?? In the middle of the day???? Why pretend to want therapy just to attack her? It kills me that the whole therapy sesh dialogue only existed to explain that he knew Taekwondo so that he could last 60 seconds longer against Daredevil than your average thug in another utterly underwhelming and cramped fight sequence. Gods the storytelling could not get any stupider.

It's impossible to miss that half of it was awkwardly dubbed, too, so maybe they started out with something that made sense. Honestly her acting makes so little sense that I think in the OG version he drugged her. Even that wouldn't explain some of the dumb stuff she said. "Don't you care about all the people you killed? Huh? Do you feel nothing?" WHILE she's being cut open by a guy wearing a mask with bleeding eyes. "What the f*ck are you doing?"—Clearly dubbed, and yeah, this is said while he's approaching her with a knife. The dubbing saga continues with: "You've kidnapped me and then you're gonna what, SHOOT ME? HUHHGH?!" *Killer picks up gun* Girl... yeah. Probably. Take a hint. Then... then she just calls him a coward for wearing a mask. Rolled a 1 on the survival check.

I laughed even harder when the bad cops said 'Someone stabilized the victim.' Bro she's still unconscious and bleeding out. Daredevil didn't even wrap up her arm.

Muse wasn't even scary once Matt kicked his ass in the last episode. And why did he hate Fisk????? Why did Daredevil even go back to Muse's lair and go directly to his portfolio of paintings of his girlfriend?—Which he was only able to recognize because the paint was so thick they were practically sculptures (and done in a completely different style than all his murals), which was so convenient I had to roll my eyes. They even tossed in a flashback in case we forgot that he could TOTALLY recognize her face because he touched it 20 minutes ago. Just like he's touching the paintings! Wow. Just... if your plot hinges on a character whose whole thing is being a blind man (who can magically 'see' his surroundings but canonically can't read screens or stuff on paper) finding and looking at a bunch of paintings to immediately find the bad guy who just happens to be attacking his girlfriend at that very moment, drag that corpse back to the f*cking drawing board. Honestly between all the nothing sandwich plots, the spectacularly bad therapy scene, and the elbows-in-your-face CGI fight sequences this show should be studied forensically to track down everyone who murdered it. I looked up who was responsible for the writing and found out Dario Scardapane gave us at least some of Season 3 of Jack Ryan, which was one of the most nonsensically dull seasons of TV I've ever tried to watch, so that tracks. The credits mention almost a dozen producers and one 'staff writer', so maybe that was part of the problem. Said writer, Devon Kliger, hasn't done enough to pin him down, but imdb says he's currently working on Furby, the movie.

One last nitpick is that you've gotta expect all the MCU IP nods to other characters now that Disney has their grubby mouse paws on it, but honestly even those have gotten on my nerves in this show. 'OOh, we know who Kamala Khan is tee hee.' Okay try mentioning her once instead of a dozen times.

And all of this is exactly what I've come to expect from Disney. The squad of dirty cops that they're (i hope) setting up to get taken out by Punisher, and Fisk and Matt's acting are the only things making it bearable.

[fallingtowers]

so i'm watching dollhouse currently, and watching a non-buffyverse whedon joint has got me thinking about the phenomenon of whedonspeak. it's fascinating to me, because there have been plenty of moments in dollhouse where a character has said something patently whedonesque and i've been like :/ ahh yeah i see why people can't stand this style of writing. but on btvs, where the dialogue is generally a lot more heightened than on dollhouse, it really doesn't bother me at all (outside of a handful of really egregious examples).

the big reason for this, i think, and the one i always bring up when i'm defending the dialogue on btvs, is that on btvs it always felt like a tool of characterization. at first blush it may seem like e.g. buffy and willow have very similar voices, but the truth is it's all stylized, but in different ways. and btvs is so good at characterization (a lot better, i would argue, than dollhouse) that by the end of the show you know the characters' voices so well that you can clock it instantly when a line isn't 100% in character. it helps, i think, that btvs is patient zero for this kind of dialogue -- it became an established style of the show, but it wasn't yet an established style of writing in general (note that before it was known as whedonspeak, it used to be called "buffyspeak"). it works well because it's tailored to the tonal sensibilities of btvs, whereas if you just slap it onto any old story it's bound to feel incongruous and grating.

(also, as a sidenote, by and large, btvs knew exactly when to drop the banter. that's another thing -- these days whedonspeak as a concept is so bound up in people's minds [and with good reason!] with that particular brand of annoying mcu-ass ironic storytelling that has to mock itself at every turn for fear of coming across as self-serious. but btvs is a very heartfelt work of art! it [not always, but often] takes the emotions of its characters seriously! when buffy comes home and finds her mom dead on the couch, she doesn't go "well that just happened." you hit a certain threshold of dramatic weight and the whedonspeak falls away.)

there's another reason it's become so pervasive, though, i think, and it's one i kind of sympathize with. it's got to do with the demands of television as a medium. i think modern tv and film is the form of storytelling that has the biggest gulf between Showing and Telling. like, in a novel or a comic or whatever, you can just use narration to shed light on a character's thoughts or plans or whatever, but on screen you don't have that luxury, and these days voiceovers and flashbacks and stuff are generally regarded as being kind of graceless. so you've got Showing, which always runs the risk of being too vague and confusing, and you've got Telling -- and dialogue is really your only method of Telling -- which comes with a whole host of potential pitfalls. it might feel too on-the-nose, or too stiff and contrived. or it might commit the cardinal sin of 21st century entertainment: being Boring.

that's the thing, right. screenwriters are always trying to figure out how to do good exposition. one instance of dialogue i found grating on dollhouse is a scene where echo is dreaming, and the audience needs to be told she understands she's dreaming. so what do you do? in writing, you'd just describe her moment of realization, but on tv you can't do that. so instead, they have echo go, "oookay... i think we can all agree this isn't real." which like, if we view it as an attempt to content with the limitations of the medium, it makes sense! she's alone, so she has no reason to say "this is a dream," so we solve that problem by having her make a little joke to herself. but in practice, it just kind of falls flat.

in conclusion, the art of writing dialogue is one thing and the art of writing exposition is another, and neither is at all easy, and in screenwriting specifically they often dovetail in a particularly torturous way. we're still gonna be trying to figure this out when the sun burns out probably. i certainly don't have an answer. i do have a piece of advice though: watch buffy the vampire slayer. it's really good, and the dialogue is only a little annoying

[stark-lord]

Post credit spoilers under the cut

Idk man something about the dialogue delivery of “he’s not happy about it” (I’m paraphrasing, idr it verbatim) didn’t feel like a catastrophic emotional fallout to me?? Gave me more of the ‘goes home and sits on his side of the bed and listens to Sam vent his heart out daily’ kind of vibe. A “yeah,” [beleaguered sigh] “the wife’s not happy” response.

As a move, it does do Sam terribly dirty from a watsonian perspective (cabnw took care of the doylist all on its own), but when it comes to Sam and Bucky specifically, and their dynamic??? Yeah, this is definitely a pain in the ass and a pinched nerve, but they feel too solid to break up over this - especially with the context it has. No way would Bucky not have immediately told him what actually went down. Sambucky divorce era yes, but ONLY professionally.

(Although I’m fully prepared to eat my hat if they’re using them as a civil war 2.0 starting ground for doomsday, which. Why not. Not like the entirety of the mcu isn’t a bunch of incomprehensible character decisions we have to fight for our lives to string together with any coherence. Loving how they didn’t explain anything about the congressman arc, but did manage to keep him extremely Bucky about it all.)

[my-marvel]

How I'd Make The MCU: 2009's The Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer

1. Movie starts with Reed and Sue's marriage, very happy time. Ringbearer is H.E.R.B.I.E.

2. Days later, the Silver Surfer arrives on Earth, and all he does is fly around. Johnny tries to intercept him, only to get his ass beat and knocked out of the sky. 

3. During this, Reed was finishing up work on a portal to the Negative Zone, which he has been using to research anti-matter and Johnny and Ben have been using as an extradimensional trash can. H.E.R.B.I.E. was actually built as a probe sent into the Negative Zone, the only one to survive the trip.

4. Doom uses a powerful electromagnet to pull the Silver Surfer out of the sky. Doom learns of the Silver Surfer's purpose: to herald the arrival of Galactus.

5. The Four learn Doom has captured the Surfer, and the Four go to Latveria to confront him about it. They arrive expecting a fascist hellscape, but Latveria is actually a very nice country. No crime, no poverty, Doom has legitimately made Latveria a great place to live for it's people. So when they arrive the Latverians keep giving them dirty looks, cause the Four are Doom's enemies. 

6. Doom and the Four fight in the courtyard of his castle, where he utilizes his Doombots and newly developed turrets and high-tech armor to level the playing field. Meanwhile, the Silver Surfer escapes captivity, declaring the soon coming arrival of Galactus, the Great Devourer.

7. Galactus arrives and Doom immediately rides out to greet him and offer him a deal: Doom will become Galactus's new herald if Galactus spares Earth and assist him in conquering it. Galactus refuses, as since he is a higher being he can detect Doom's intentions and knows he just wants to get the cosmic power then turn around and try to take down Galactus. 

8. So Doom and the Fantastic Four are now unwilling allies in defeating Galactus. But nothing they use is working on him beyond just stinging him. Reed begins working out how to defeat him while the others keep him busy and stopping him from devouring Long Island. Doom uses a device he'd developed while the Surfer was in captivity to separate the Surfer from his board and transfer control to him, thus granting him the powers of the Surfer and leaving the Surfer a metal statue.

9. Reed discovers Galactus converts matter into anti-matter to eat, and decides the best way to stop him is to remove him from this dimension. So they manage to push him through a portal into the Negative Zone, which is made of anti-matter. 

10. Doom immediately calls off the truce and tries to kill the Four with the Surfer's powers at his command. The Four manage to get the board off of Doom, and he runs back to Latveria vowing revenge. The Surfer goes off into space, now having to find a purpose now that his connection to Galatcus has been severed.

11. Post-credit scheme is Reed drawing up blueprints for a base in the Negative Zone before going off with Sue for some R&R.

And here's some dialogue I had an idea for: 

*Reed, watching the Negative Zone through a window*: fascinating, hey wait a minute! *there’s a used soda can floating in the Negative Zone* 

*Reed stretches his head into the living room where Johnny and Ben are playing video games* Reed: Guys, seriously?! 

Ben: what’s got you all knotted up Reed? 

Reed: Why is there a coke in the Negative Zone? 

Johnny: is that what that is? I thought we just got a new trash can. 

Reed: is that what you’ve been using my portal for? 

Ben: yeah, I thought that too. 

Reed: You must stop this instant. 

Johnny: relax dude, it’s just a bit of trash floating in an infinite dimension, what’s the worst that could happen. 

Reed: I’m trying to study that new dimension, which I can’t do if your trash is contaminating my observation zone. 

Ben: so find a new spot, you’ve got a whole dimension to look at. 

*Reed, slinking back into the lab*: unbelievable 

Johnny: Yeesh, was he always such a knob? 

Ben: Nah… used to be worse.

Another idea:

During Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer when the Fantastic Four go to Latveria, there's an announcement via speakers placed around the capital city which is Doom saying, "Attention Latverians. I have been notified that my average subject requests a proper internet connection rather than just stealing Romania's wifi password. So I have begun the construction of a proper free 5G internet connection and will be providing free wifi in the capital with plans to expand kingdomwide. The network is doom underscore castle, doom_castle. The password will be, until the end of time, Richardsucks. Capital R, only one s in the middle, Richardsucks. Thank you for your attention, goodbye."

[twicearoundthebend]

Just saw the marvels and it’s already one of my favorite mcu movies

So, so much better than expected, for so many reasons

(I will now list my top ten reasons)

1. Kamala Khan (no more needs to be said)

2. Carol Danvers and Valkyrie??? Kind of came out of left field ngl but love them. They should kiss.

3. Whole ass musical number in the middle

4. Communication about emotions and how situations were handled??? Good dialogue!!!

5. This movie is for the girls and the gays and it KNOWS IT

6. The CATS. Also, them playing a song from cats during shenanigans? Iconic.

7. Bringing even more to the x-men crossover they’ve been teasing for forever. Also! Maria Rambeau’s character was Carol in the comics, such a fun swap

8. Kamala Khan’s family and their bickering and love for one another

9. Literally so much fan culture. The fic references, the archetypes, everything

10. Literally everyone left the theater happy! Such a good vibe!

[disappointment-comics]

i watched captain america: brave new world so u don’t have to (a sort-of review)

IMPORTANT: i am fully compliant with boycotts and efforts for a free palestine (and generally not to eager to give disney my money). this is pirated. 🇵🇸🏴‍☠️

WHAT DID I THINK?

i think the main issue with this movie is that it does not have trust in the audience. there are many, many instances of very stilted exposition dialogue as if the movie does not expect the audience to be able to understand references to prior canon or be able to reach plot conclusions. for example, sam has to be talked through the concept of subliminal messages and mind control, despite having lots of familiarity with the concept through bucky and also being. an adult in the world. these are not hard threads to follow, but the movie cannot trust us to.

and in some regards, i do think that might be fair? this movie struggles because it is a sequel to two things the audience is less likely to have seen: the 2008 incredible hulk movie nobody gaf about, and the falcon & the winter soldier tv show which is behind a paywall. it also involves the celestial body from the eternals, another box office miss. the days of the mcu being ubiquitous are over, and premises like this may just be asking audiences to follow too much canon.

there’s also some tonal disconnect. this movie has The Leader as an antagonist who is an unrepentantly comic booky villain and the actor’s performance is very much in line with this. there’s something delightful about it to me in the way that it would not be out of place in the gotham tv show. serving full unironic supervillain mad scientist! but it does clash against the (relatively) more grounded superspy tone of captain america movies, as does the final showdown between cap and red hulk. there's two different movies here, and they don't want to play well together.

HOW ARE THE CHARACTERS?

sam is interesting, caught between his values and his responsibilities. it’s a continuation of the arc we see him on in tfatws. however, i don’t think this movie gives mackie a lot to work with. it’s a solid performance for a solid character, but the movie is disinterested with endearing audiences to him.

isaiah is here and plays a major role, being mind controlled by the government to take the fall for a staged assassination. his trauma from his history of imprisonment, experimentation, abuse, and defamation is revisited as the us government once again treats him as a criminal. he’s easily the most potent part of this movie, though it is difficult to see his trauma exploited.

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH RUTH BAT SERAPH?

she is in it. she is largely unimportant to the plot but does get a good chunk of screentime. she is canonically from israel and a former black widow. that’s about all we get from her. she’s also very shockingly tiny. that’s not relevant i just hadn’t seen the actor before. ruth bat seraph is a minor superhero “sabra” from marvel comics who represents the IDF. she like should not be in the mcu like at all.

IS THE CGI ASS?

well yes.

certainly the days of good marvel effects are long past. turns out big budget doesn't mean shit when you won't spend it on human labour. the superspy quality really aches for practical effects (ca:tws knife fight im sorry sweetie, we didn't know how good we had it) and the comparison between 2012 hulk and 2025 red hulk is pretty damning. it makes the final fight a pretty rough watch.

i hate nanotech helmets!!! bring back real helmets!!!

DOES THIS MOVIE SAY ANYTHING?

politically this movie does clearly have intentions of making a point. ross is president, and we deal with impending geopolitical war between the us and japan over material resource hoarding at his hands. ross's change into the red hulk is a result of him manipulating prisoners for science experimentation, which does harken back to the issues with isaiah. but no, not much.

there seems to be the bones of a point but whereas tfatws seemed to have ambitions on inspecting the systems behind the military industrial complex and race in america far beyond the ken of a capeflick, ca:bnw seems nervous to even take on the kind of commentary already typical to the mcu and writes ross as individually responsible for most of the issues.

in the wrap up, sam makes a statement about how meeting ross in the middle is the only way to win. maybe could be taken as not dehumanizing the enemy but came across very politically centrist to me.

WHAT DOES IT SET UP FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MCU?

this movie confirms the avengers are coming back, but of course we all knew that. sam is soft-launched as the leader of the new avengers. adamantium is now canon to the mcu. bucky is also about to take position in congress?

SO LIKE, DOES IT SUCK?

kind of!! i definitely didn't hate it and there's a handful of really good scenes in isolation, but a movie that doesn't know how it feels can't guide the audience what to feel. diehards will watch it anyway and maybe have a good time but largely i'd personally vouch for skipping and watching the falcon & the winter soldier instead, since it does what this movie should've: been about captain america.

[thekingofwinterblog]

Ok so, having seen the Gameplay trailer that Bioware pulled out of their ass in the aftermath of possibly the worst videogame trailer in history, i have to say im not impressed... But i almost am.

Because they ALMOST got it right. Like all the building blocks are there, but it's always just one step off from being great.

Like the character models dont look anything the like the complete joke that was the fortnite DA trailer... But while you can tell the animators put their heart and soul into the models, they still look awful.

And it's ALL the lighting and coloring's fault.

The thing is, the models and enviornment doesnt look terrible in a vacuum... but the problem is that it ALL blends together. It's all just a mixmatch of colors and shades that makes the entire thing look like an uncoordinated mess with no rhyme or reason behind it.

Take this shot of minarathous. It's not just grey, on top of grey, but it sure looks like it. The colors, rather than contrast and embolden everything to make it look striking, instead makes it one, big, sloppy looking mess.

Here is one, single shot from Inquisition to illustrate the poiny. Notice how everything is very grey here too, but the way the lighting is, you can easily differentiate between everything, every character sticks out so much better and looks infinitly more interesting and memorablr just by virtue of not looking like they're part of the background.

It's not a coincidence that the only part of this gameplay showcase that looks absolutely stunning is Solas, because he is the only character who actually has the lighting to stand out, both when illuminated by the blue magical energy withouth the purple, white and blue mess that is now how magical energy looks, but also in the shots where he's illuminated by the veil.

I can tell you why it looks like this too.

The lighting and colorists of the development team was trying so, so very hard to make the concept art lighting translate to 3d models and enviornments... And it just doesnt work.

Maybe there is a way to make these pieces work in 3d, but this sure aint it.

Maybe the enviornments that are set in the daylight will look better, but i can tell you, that with this engine and style, every single nightshot is going to look absolutely atrocious, regardless of wheter the models look better than that horrible fortnite trailer.

Then there is the dialogue.

Now there are a lot of complaits that a lot of the dialogue is the usual by now terrible Marvel "banter" that the MCU unfortunately popularized.

You know, the quirky, dont take itself too seriously style of writing that almost never works outside the MCU pre Endgame.

But that's actually not my main vomplaint with it.

My complaint is how... Lifeless the voice actors sounds.

I just listened to these lines, and the thing that struck me is not that they're bad, but how i KNOW both Varric and Solas Voice actors are so much better than this.

"People are dying right now! You need to listen!" "People are always dying. It is what they do."

Like... These lines SHOULD work.

I know the common joke is that this is the usual terrible dialogue in the vein of "My face is tired from dealing with you", but the fact is that it's actually good on paper.

Varric here should sound like he's pleading, making one, last, final plea to his old friend Solas, reminding him that people are fucking dying all around them(Though the rest of the scene dont exactly convey that).

A plea to his humanity.

And solas throws back that he knows. He KNOWS people are dying. That's what they always do.

For anyone who knows Solas at all, this is such a good line. You dont need him to go into a spiel about how his entire reason for doing this is so that people no longer have to die all the time, that the entire reason they do die is because of him...

It should work... but it doesnt.

Solas Actor is NOT giving it his A-Game. At all. And neither is Varric's.

He doesnt sound like the emotional Solas we saw in Inquisition, and frankly neither does Varric. Any and all charisma both had are seemingly gone, replaced by two actors who make the characters sound like themselves, but eithouth the emotion that made them work.

Just hearing Solas telling Varric that this story does NOT end with his downfall just makes me think that the actor either didn't give a shit, or was bored... Which was just hammered in further when Solas just gives a pathethic scream of "Noooooo!" When his big plan is foiled.

Maybe it's that the rest of the writing is just so bad that they just gave up, or they had the same level of quality for their voice director that george lucas gave his actors during the prequel triology filming.

Either way, this really just hammered in the point for me of kind of game we're getting here... And i didnt even touch the gameplay in this post.

[martian-martian-martian]

I know it’s like this gigantic trope but AS a very talkative anxious person, if someone said ‘shut up’ and grabbed and kissed me, I would get mad as fuck, and I’m not sure that relationship would survive.

Like damn, you’re not actually listening to what the fuck I’m saying, you clearly don’t think it’s rational or important, and instead you’re making it about your physical desires in a split second and you grabbed me without consent or warning?

I don’t care if we’re dating, I’ll break a foot off in your ass, are you KIDDING?

NEVER listen to me pour my anxieties out to you and say some corny ass Moffat-MCU-ass dialogue ‘you talk too much’ you’ll never speak again I can tell you that.