Marvel's upcoming plans

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sugarcoater
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For those who might be curious as to what Marvel has in the works, and in case it was missed, here are Marvel's upcoming plans:

https://deadline.com/2022/07/marvel-cin ... 235076274/
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Mr. X
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Phase Five looks like crap. Blade? A bunch of D-List characters? And one last Capt America movie.
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Femina
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Nothing wrong with Blade?

I don't really mind if the movies are about 'a lister or b lister' heroes so long as they are GOOD movies.

It hopefully can't be any worse than Phase 4... Phase 4 was ASS... and 2/3 of their A-lister lead films were probably the worst MCU films ever made (while the other succeeded pretty heavily off nostalgia).
Last edited by Femina 1 year ago, edited 1 time in total.
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Marvel's characters are often D-list until they get into a movie. I mean this whole thing started with Iron Man. He just used to be the second strip in Transformers when I was a kid.
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Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
Phase Five looks like crap. Blade? A bunch of D-List characters? And one last Capt America movie.
Hey hey hey, let's not say things we can't take back, eh? Blade is cold as ice.

Cold as ice.
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batgirl1969
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Please for the love of God...wtf does pHases mean and why do they use those???
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sugarcoater
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I agree Femina that it comes down to storytelling. I was never a Guardians of the Galaxy fan, but what Marvel has done with the Guardians characters has made the characters worth watching. Iron Man was a decent comic book (I really liked many of the 80s storylines), but the movies have made Iron Man practically the preeminent Marvel superhero thanks to casting RDJ as Stark and well-written dialogue. Conversely, the Fantastic Four was a fairly popular comic of B-list (if not A-list) characters, but the movies have never been successful at making those characters compelling on the screen. It almost seems as though B-list characters are easier to make successful on the big screen and in series than A-list characters as there is more room for interpretation as those characters are not quite canonized to the same extent as the A-listers.
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batgirl1969 wrote:
1 year ago
Please for the love of God...wtf does pHases mean and why do they use those???
Sequences of films and television organized by rough production schedule and, to a certain extent, big story beats where the giant Avengers tentpole-of-tentpole movies generally close out a 'phase'. Why do they use that word? It makes it sound like there's a plan.
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I must admit that the Marvel films in Phase 4 are a little lack-luster. I really don't intend to go to the theater to see much since I have the Disney+ subscription. I didn't even bother to go see Eternals, the new Thor film, and Doctor Strange 2 was just a finale to Wandavision.
Phase 5 doesn't look appealing at all until Captain America : New World Order and Thunderbolts (possible leftover characters from the Disney + series. Ex. Baron Zemo, US Agent, Yelena Black Widow, etc. - a 'dark' Avengers group).
Disappointed Fantastic 4 is pushed off until 2026. Really disappointed that there is not a mention of the X-Men besides the revived animated series. But I do like the announcement of the Avengers films - even though I can see Secret Wars as a mini-reboot of sorts.
Films not mentioned in the phases, but have been confirmed to be in the works : Deadpool 3, Spiderman 4, Shang-chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings 2. More than likely Doctor Strange 3 will happen and I believe that the recent Thor film has alluded that the character will return in some form (Thor 5?).
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In the comics, the Thunderbolts were a new superhero group who stepped up to fill the void left by The Avengers, who were missing at the time following a Big Event. Not sure what big crossover event they have scheduled in the MCU for Thunderbolts to play off of.

I dunno, these phases don't impress me much. The original Phase 1 was the introduction of the individual heroes, capped off with The Avengers, and that was great. Phase 2 led up to Age of Ultron, and was less good, because Age of Ultron was less good, but some of the standalone movies like Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy were excellent. Phase 3 led up to the double whammy of Infinity War and Endgame, again pretty strong.

What did Phase 4 accomplish? Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was no Avengers.

Phase 5 starts off strong with Ant-Man 3 and GOTG3, but I kind of view those as wrapping up storylines, rather than starting new ones. And it ends with Captain America: New World Order, which is what? A movie follow-up to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a mediocre Disney+ series.

At this point, I'm standing by my prediction that Infinity War was peak Marvel, and most of what we're getting now is leftovers from Phase 3.
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Well like Jurassic Park the movies are kind of boring and pointless. And given their propensity to kill off or retire staple characters it seems a lot more like "its my turn now" nonsense than anything else. Again this franchise is dead, the body just hasn't hit the ground yet. I wish people would stop seeing these things so the money dries up. Heck even the actors aren't interested in being in these movies anymore.
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To Mr. X's point, how much of the initial superhero enthusiasm--which went on for over a decade--was due to studios finally being able to make an extravagant scene from a comic book come to life on the big screen? I remember seeing the first Tobey Maguire "Spiderman" movie and being visual impressed. The movie looked real! Since then, the special effects have made subsequent superhero movies seem real, which I believe was a significant reason for the popularity and box office numbers. Casting also played a significant role as the actors seemed to genuinely embrace their characters and played the roles quite well.

But since that initial burst of enthusiasm, I think we have become accustomed to the special effects and we need a strong storyline to inspire us to spend time and money watching new superhero movies. It reminds me of me shamefully spending money to see the movie "Pacific Rim". The visuals were almost good enough to keep me from being bored out of my mind watching an incredibly cliche and insipid plot play out on the screen. Thankfully, most Marvel movies have not had equally uninspiring and vapid plots. But even mediocre or average plots dull my enthusiasm for superhero movies. There's only so much that can be done once the superhero characters are established and locked into their respective roles.

So to echo what has been posted a few times already, Marvel needs to incorporate some quality storytelling and tie their various "phase movies" together. And they definitely should think about having a few significant villains appear throughout the various movies to heighten tension leading up to the equivalent of an "Endgame" finale.
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Mr. X
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sugarcoater wrote:
1 year ago
So to echo what has been posted a few times already, Marvel needs to incorporate some quality storytelling and tie their various "phase movies" together. And they definitely should think about having a few significant villains appear throughout the various movies to heighten tension leading up to the equivalent of an "Endgame" finale.
And we know they can do that cause the last Spiderman movie was fantastic.
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Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
Well like Jurassic Park the movies are kind of boring and pointless. And given their propensity to kill off or retire staple characters it seems a lot more like "its my turn now" nonsense than anything else. Again this franchise is dead, the body just hasn't hit the ground yet. I wish people would stop seeing these things so the money dries up. Heck even the actors aren't interested in being in these movies anymore.
Movies and television aren't comic books and you can't approach them identically. Iron Man doesn't age in the comics (even while the WORLD around him ages to reflect society) the actor who plays him on the other hand does. The mere fact it's occurring on a live action screen portrayed by real human beings who have wants, dreams, desires of their own on top of a definitive expiration date changes the behavior of the medium... They don't have a 'propensity' for killing of staples... the actors involved essentially decide they are ready to move on to other things and (at least to the present) Marvel has displayed a cageyness on recasting what they consider to be their staple 'icons' because so much of the MCU's 'staples' are as tied to the actors who portrayed them as the characters themselves.

SHOULD they recast or not is likely a pretty hot button subject in production circles... I can't say that I'd be MORE invested in the overall film series if the characters were open to just recast and reinterpretation every other film. Care and continuity were the MCU's bread and butter for most of phases 2 and 3... (and the more they vere off to just be 'whatever today's film needs them to be the less invested I become) I don't wager Marvel would be as huge as it is right now if they had been swapping actors in and out of roles either willy nilly or as necessary through all of that period. I expect they have a system that's worked well for them to the present, and they haven't decided its broken enough to 'fix'.

We're fairly 'late stage' MCU now though... and they've opened the inadvisable can of worms that is the multiverse... the whole film series has taken the nose dive of quality I would expect from a phase dominated by a concept as shit as a multiverse... and since Kang is the whole avengers film of phase 6 I guess its just gonna keep getting worse with it until they close them wormholes down and reclaim some semblance of relatable continuity once more.
Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
And we know they can do that cause the last Spiderman movie was fantastic.
WAS it though? I admit I had some fun with it the first time I watched it... but as soon as the bright eyed nostalgia wore off... it became a whole crop of multiversal sized plot holes that become more and more glaring each and every time you think about it.
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Femina wrote:
1 year ago
WAS it though? I admit I had some fun with it the first time I watched it... but as soon as the bright eyed nostalgia wore off... it became a whole crop of multiversal sized plot holes that become more and more glaring each and every time you think about it.
True but Multiverse of Madness and Love and Thunder were far worse offerings. IMHO
The thing is Sipderman it the core aspect of the character when aunt May died. And the other spidermen get their cathartic moments. It stuck to classic themes.
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I think there's something more fundamental at work here too. Look at movies like The Gray Man for example, that's a $200m action movie starring three of the biggest stars around and nobody gives a shit. Why? Because it's just a crapload of digital effects (because cheap, because non-union) and some people you like hopping around in front of a green screen. And it's the Russo Brothers, they're meant to be good at this stuff. Still it's a nothingburger.

What I think this suggests is that the kind of spectacle that superhero movies thrived on at first, big adventures, huge epic battles, all this stuff, it's become done to death. It's ordinary. The final battle in Black Panther is one of my favourite examples, huge battle, loads of cool characters involved doing cool stuff, but it's garbage, it's weightless, it's boring. Ditto Shang Chi, just a bunch of stuff happening. Floaty, silly, explodey stuff.

We've hit the point where digital effects are so good there's no practical limit to what can be done except the movie directors imagination, and the kicker is that the people making these movies have run out of cool ideas.

The things that Marvel have done recently that have worked, things like Spiderman, have been things that had heart. You can't make that on a green screen.

And past all that of course, there's the over-saturation problem.
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How about this as a mental challenge: create a brief three- to five-sentence movie plot for any Marvel character that would be complex and interesting to pursue. Before coming up with anything original (I’ll see what I can think up later today), I would very much like a quality Bane origin story and the 10 Nights of the KGBeast story for Batman. (Not Marvel, but still on the topic of superhero movies I suppose).
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sugarcoater wrote:
1 year ago
How about this as a mental challenge: create a brief three- to five-sentence movie plot for any Marvel character that would be complex and interesting to pursue. Before coming up with anything original (I’ll see what I can think up later today), I would very much like a quality Bane origin story and the 10 Nights of the KGBeast story for Batman. (Not Marvel, but still on the topic of superhero movies I suppose).
Professor Xavier is dead, and a fortysomething Jean Grey is now the head of the Xavier Institute. She must lead and guide a new, young team of X-Men, while also navigating the difficulties of becoming a very public symbol of 'respectable' mutantkind. Some of her own people think she's a collaborator with the powers that be, while many humans think the very fact that she keeps the X-Men going shows she's a radical. Plus, there's her passionate, but tumultuous relationship with her beloved Cyclops, whom a lot of people have started comparing to a latter-day Magneto...
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sugarcoater
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The X-Men idea is a good one, and perhaps the comic storylines can create a storyline that would move towards an older X-Men series. The comic book writers could being writing a storyline that would make its way to the big screen when Marvel decides to focus their efforts on X-Men stories. Perhaps they can do an Avengers' style of plan with the X-Men. Have a stand-alone movie like the first Iron Man to begin the Marvel "phase", then build off that character to expand it to the entire team (while a few other movies with one or two characters from the X-Men). It's not an original idea, but with well-written and connected storylines it can be an effective and entertaining method of transitioning from the Avengers to the X-Men.
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Femina
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Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
Femina wrote:
1 year ago
WAS it though? I admit I had some fun with it the first time I watched it... but as soon as the bright eyed nostalgia wore off... it became a whole crop of multiversal sized plot holes that become more and more glaring each and every time you think about it.
True but Multiverse of Madness and Love and Thunder were far worse offerings. IMHO
The thing is Sipderman it the core aspect of the character when aunt May died. And the other spidermen get their cathartic moments. It stuck to classic themes.
Yeah don't get me wrong. Multiverse of Madness instantly took my 'worst MCU film ever' trophy upon viewing it... a spot that had been held by Thor 2 since it was released at theaters... and while I haven't seen it yet I have no real hopes for Thor 4 since I've been told by people whose opinions I trust on these things that its even worse... considering I DON'T like Thor 3 as much as some do that leaves me VERY concerned with Thor 4 lol...... but that still just leaves Spider-Man as the best film of the worst phase... and judging by the trailer for BP which at least looks like a film that knows what it wants to be and isn't just coming out to sling sixteen jokes at the wall every fifteen seconds it's very much threatening Spider-Man's spot there. I don't think I've been quiet about it elsewhere but I detest the Multiverse plotline... in ALL its mediums. I hoped it would be confined to a single 'phase' but now its obvious its gonna be all three phases of multiverse bullshit... and I'm NOT pleased.

Call me crazy, but I think that we, as entities of linear consciousness existing on a singular quantitative timeline without variance, best consume stories that at least exist on the same plane of theoretical physics as our perceived reality, and the more your series starts to break from our defined interpretive capabilities it becomes impossible to suspend our disbelief and all we can do is pretend like we are still suspending our disbelief through sheer force of fanatic willpower. The Multiverse ruined comic books continuity in both Marvel AND DC and now they're making the same dumb mistake with the films. It's only a matter of time now before every MCU property leaves me asking questions like "But doesn't THIS spell mean ALL Peter Parker's in ALL multiverses have now been forgotten too?" and the film makers having to brush off every such unresolved multiverse incited plot contrivance with 'no because.... don't worry about it!'

At this rate Phase 6 is going to conclude with a multiverse explosion shoring everything up to a single timeline again... but one that's completely different from all that came before so they can excuse a full MCU reboot in a way that has the side effect of invalidating every single film that came before it.
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The turn of the century Blade films are great. I expect whatever modern Marvel churns out to pale in comparison.
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