I saw folks who do not know a whole lot about Marvel being impressed specifically the stealth suit and the fight choreo in the beginning on the boat. Plus the story was very interesting for them to paraphrase a bit.

Looks like it's at 14% on RT right now. I feel like most of the MCU films are great, pretty good or mediocre. I think Iron Man 2, Iron Man, the 2008 Hulk movie and Thor 2 sucked to be honest.

New Guardians clip. Bautista continues to kill Drax's scenes. :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBqEGo8zOcE

I feel Incredible Hulk is pefectly fine. It's not spectacular, but it's the first time a movie based on the Hulk has not sucked. It's mindless fun, like the Hulk should be.

Thor 2 is the worst of the MCU for me, but I'll stick take it over a lot of other movies.

It seems Rocket and Yondu will have a nice little chemistry together.
Can't wait to see it.
Also, will Rocket ever get his rocket skates?

I really like Incredible Hulk when I first saw it in theaters in 2008. I rewatch it again in 2015, 7 years later and I didn't like it as much as I used too. I think it's okay to be honest. Great action and good special effects, but that's about it. Sure it is better than the 2003 film, but that is not saying much in my opinion.

Thor 2 would have been better if it had a better story. I remember the parts of Loki and the final battle, but that's about it. The first Thor movie was pretty good, but the sequel was a let down to me.

Thor 2 is the only MCU movie I haven't gotten around to getting on blu-ray. It's not that I didn't like it, it's just that it never feels like a necessary purchase.

Only MCU movies I've yet to see are Thor, Avengers 1 and Incredible Hulk, but I have no interest in the last one due to me not liking Hulk conceptually

Thor and Avengers are both solid films. Quite enjoyable~

I've heard the director plans on bringing back some of the more light hearted nature of Thor 1 into Thor: Ragnarok. I wonder how that will end up playing out...

Hulk and Thor will ride skeletal dragons together and stop by the local tavern for a pint or two. Enter popular UFC or WWE cameo and bar fight ensues. Profit. :rock:

Finally watched X-Men: Apocalypse.
It was a wreck, but not a complete piece of crap. I've certainly seen worse super hero films. The movie goes a little quickly and there's a lot to complain about, but eh, I don't really feel up to it.

I liked Cyclops's characterization. I hate his authoritarian attitude from the comics, so seeing him as the punk was different. Nightcrawler is my favorite X-Man, so I just kind of dig any appearance he gets. Wolverine's scene was spot on, and I do quite like McAvoy's Professor X.
Quicksilver's scenes are always great, too.

I don't like Jean Grey and the Phoenix bullshit, though. Jean was an exposition machine (Well, not really exposition, but she'd basically just outline what the plot needs for the cast to do in the next 15 minutes). If they want to set up the Dark Phoenix, here's a quick tip: Don't. It works because is turns our precious little Jean into a villainous super psychic out of the blue. Establishing it basically turns it into a waiting game of "When are they going to botch the Dark Phoenix saga again?"

Anyway, mediocre film, but watchable. 6/10

Just got done the first episode of Iron Fist

It's not bad, but it is off to a very slow start so far.

Edit:

Okay three and a half episodes in and I can safely say that the critics are full of BS and weren't watching the same show: Iron Fist is great

I'll be watching it tomorrow, but I think the problem is critics are comparing it to the other shows. That's like saying, "I don't like Ghost Rider comics because he's not written as good as Spider-Man." Each show has to be graded on its own merits first and foremost.

So the Venom movie is finally happening next year. I'm surprise that this movie is happening now. If we get Carnage in the same movie, I hope for a R rated film. I doubt that will happen since Marvel and Hasbro will probably want some toys to sell with the movie.

Watched the first 2 episodes of Iron Fist.
Unless the next 4 episodes go downhill fast (As the reviews were based on the first 6), I don't quite get the problems. Episode 2 moved a little quickly, but that's about it...

It's apparently going to be unrelated to Spider-Man: Homecoming.
That's a little problematic, since 3 of it's 4 iconic hosts were all Spider-Man supporting characters, and I doubt they'll use the latest incarnation.

If they do make it a stand alone film/franchise, I hope they do it well. I'm afraid they'll try to come up with an alternate origin to remove Spidey ties, which will just bloat the film and make it clunkier.

Sony's in charge and it has nothing to do with MCU
Lots of criticism ttowards the show is stuff like bad fighting choreography, Finn Jones not looking the part and generally bad writing "It's me", Danny's a Mighty Whitey, too much company politics, boring villains and stuff

Only watched the first episode...

Great. Just what we needed. Another dickish Ward in the MCU. :lol

It'll suck.:lol

Those were my thoughts :lol

I wonder if they will go for a R rating "if they try to put in Carnage. I know a lot of people are not used to having R rated blockbusters (I remember people bitch about the idea of more R rated comic book movies), but I don't like watering things down if the original characters in the comics are R/M rated.

Well, Carnage's whole shtick is that he's a violent serial killer. If I recall, The Avengers had to edit Coulson's death about 4 or 5 times to avoid getting an R rating, so including Carnage without having an R rating would be a bad sign right out of the gate.

I doubt that anyone disagrees with you

So he's exactly like he is in the comics.

How is that any different than anything else? They've had that since Iron Man.

Well do they really think they're going to be able top Kingpin and Purple Man? The only way they can beat out those is by having a villain wear their costume and be fully developed.

Welp, someone wrote a racist comic 40 years ago, guess there's nothing they could do.

...So if he was Oriental, it wouldn't be racist? Do you... do you understand the implications there-in?

Maybe.

The "Asian=martial arts" stereotype? Because you realize that's not what the issue is, right? What people take issue with is the white savior narrative that stuff like Iron Fist is built on. Independent of anything else, the white savior narrative absolutely is racist. A white guy doing martial arts is not objectionable--it's Daredevil. But the "mighty whitey" trope is not that.

Of course, whether the solution is to change the character's race is a different question, to which, as I said, the answer is "maybe." An Asian character defined by their mystical eastern martial arts absolutely could be equally, likely even more, racist. But, like most things, it's all about execution. Could a story with an Asian Danny Rand be written in a non-racist way? It's probably not impossible. Also probably not impossible to write a story with a white Danny Rand that is able to separate itself from the orientalism of the comics, but well, based on what I've read, doesn't seem like that's what we got. It's probably a bigger hurdle in the first place.

Of course, as a standard disclaimer, I have yet to see the show, nor am I very familiar with the comics, personally. This is largely just based on the perspectives on this issue that I've read.

Though also of course, it sounds like the show has bigger issues than this...

Frankly, I think it's more racist to assume a person that deals in martial arts has to be Asian.

He's white, that is what he is in the comics, so that is what he has to be in the show.

I agree with this.

Let me try that again.

Would it still be racist if he was, say, black? Or Hispanic? Or literally anything other than white?

Exactly what I've been saying

You can't white wash a character that's already white.

Good thing no one's doing that then.

It'd probably still suffer from the orientalism inherent in the concept, but strictly speaking it would not be racist in the same white-saviory way, no. It wouldn't really be for me to say, though.

I want to know who's claiming that the problem is whitewashing, because that's a pretty specific thing and I've never seen anyone claim that as the issue (which it isn't).

Ah... congratulations, you're a hypocrite.

Apparently I'm the only one in agreement on these points.

On the subject of Danny's race, it's something I've been confused by in it's origin. Clearly his creation was a product of the time, capitalizing on martial arts films as much as Luke Cage was on blacksploitation. Yet for some reason Danny was a white dude, which I find confusing. Obviously an adaptation was an opportunity to change that, so I get the point/desire behind that. Regardless of it being part of the original comic, it doesn't change that it can be viewed as problematic from the start.

As for the concerns for the Asian stereotype...well, the story itself is already full of Asian side characters with Magical powers so there's that. But beyond that it is- as you stated, contextual. Hell, Luke is a Black dude in a hoodie getting shot listening to hip hop and rap, but that series got on fine with it because of it's presentation and that wasn't all there was to his character despite how easy he could have been a Dolemite. It can be an aspect of the show, even a big one, and therein lies the point. If Danny was an Asian guy good at martial arts and that's all to be found in his character, it would be a problem because that's all that defines him. That in general is just bad writing, anyway. Granted, from the sounds of things, writing seems to be a big issue on the series and no amount of race bending would solve that. Buuut I still gotta check it out in its entirety.

Except like, people are. Some of the negative reviews are complaining about it being white washed or racist for Danny not being Asian.

Anyway, I finished the second Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus today and except for Mary Jane's horrid hair style they gave her in the last few issues, it was... well amazing. Just like with the first volume, it was a blast to read all of the stories in order and I love how halfway through they became nothing but multi-part adventures. It's a shame this is it until May, but at least I can keep myself occupied with the Roger Stern Omnibus (even though I'm jumping like 150 issues).

Romita's artwork was just outstanding to stare at and I love how colorful he is. His action scenes of top notch too. And then of course the quips Spidey made remained a highlight. Great stuff all around.

I'll just say I hate the entire "Mighty Whitey" thing because to me it implys that having a White protagonist is a problem.

Because to some, it is.

I mean, I don't even have a personal stake in this, but I'm sick of people suggesting as "solutions" to "racism"... actually racist ideas.

I'd go into more detail, but unless you'd like a long rant as to why Affirmative Action and the minimum wage are the worsts things to ever happen to minorities that I'd probably get banned for... Yeah.

Although I'd recommend looking into the origins of minimum wage laws. You'll find a lot of eerily familiar rhetoric if you are at all familiar with the history of marijuana legislation. VERY eerily familiar.

Oh, neat. I learn new things about myself every day.

Not to draw this discussion out too much, but again, it's not that it's a white guy doing martial arts that some see as the problem, but that Iron Fist as a story is fundamentally (as PS put it) a product of its time. You say that it should be that way because that's how it was in the comics, but the comics didn't just come to exist in a bubble. The time period Iron Fist comes from is marked by orientalism in American media. It's sort of built into the fabric of his origin story. That's what some are unhappy with and why some argued for changing it.

Though, I don't doubt some people do have off-kilter criticisms to make. Some people are awful at presenting their points (like me, probably), and some do just go off the deep end with their criticisms or complain just to complain, as the stereotype goes. And, of course, there's a lot of pushback for these arguments. It's not like it's a clear cut argument, I'm just trying to illustrate some of the reasons why some people may be less than enthused with this, as people who are far more knowledgeable than me on the subject have explained to me.

It really only implies having white protagonists in some specific contexts, executed in some specific ways, is a problem, though.

Man, I sure do wish Moon Knight got a Netflix series.

Y'all are stupid. Mighty Whitey isn't because he's white. Mighty Whitey is what they tried to avoid in Dr Strange.
White guy goes to train in foreign martial arts
Instantly becomes better than the people who've trained all their lives in a short time
OR
White guy goes to native american tribe
Becomes the best warrior in the tribe near instantly
Gets the village chief's daughter
The issue isn't that Danny's white, it's how he's superior in the martial art than the people studying it all their lives. There's LITERALLY a scene in which Danny lectures an East Asian person who dedicated her life to martial arts on how to run her dojo. THAT'S Mighty Whitey stuff. Danny being white? Again, not inherently bad, make it like Dr. Strange in that he's good, but still has a long way to go and is clearly not the best. Besides, Danny being white was always used a to have white privilege stories with Luke Cage iirc
EDIT: Holy shit they had Danny wear SHOES in the dojo

I'd like to see a Marvel Horror Series where each episode or two stars a different character.

You can have episodes with Morbius, Blade, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, The Living Mummy, etc.