Marvel Cinematic Universe

I think the biggest problem is at the beginning asking you to care about characters that you haven't met before. The film's have worked as a connected world because you've grown with the characters over the years. With this one it has genuine end of the world stakes but without earning it, especially in a cinematic universe that had end of world stakes that grew over a decade. I would imagine it was a case of Marvel perhaps wanting to put a foot forward with a movie that was an answer to critics complaints of a machine that has perfected a style of movie that ends with a light beam in the sky or a city being destroyed. Obviously they overcorrected a bit too much. I still chuckle that one of the characters essentially disappears for the last third of the movie because reasons. Then it goes all Poochie from the Simpsons at the end.

GOTG had hooks like the 80s nostalgia and characters with charisma. I seem to remember it being something of a surprise hit at the time too. Certainly the size of success it was.

I suppose another finger you could point at Eternals is the argument that the MCU is essentially its own genre now - separate from previous sci-fi or superhero films - and Eternals isn’t an MCU film by genre in those terms. So it ends up feeling divorced from the rest of the franchise even further. Like sure, GOTG 1 wasn’t explicitly connected to any previous MCU film and its setting was totally different being set in deep space, but it feels like its an MCU film.

I'd go with that.

I really, really enjoyed Eternals - more so than, say, Black Widow. And the main reason I enjoyed it so much was because I thought it WAS well-cast and well-acted; I liked all the characters, so I liked spending time with them and seeing how they solved their little familial predicament.

However, it was a swing for the fences in a rather weird way, because despite the end-of-the-world stakes, it was at its heart a contemplative family drama with rather more spiritual themes going on than most MCU films. In that regard, I do wonder if it had been developed maybe a year or two later it would have ended up as a D+ series (where maybe people might have been more forgiving of its longueurs).

We'll definitely see team movies - I mean, they've already announced Fantastic Four - but I don't think we'll see something as tonally different as Eternals on the big screen for a while.

I think I put my film analysis hat on and wrote a pretty detailed breakdown of why Eternals is terrible and boring when it came out, but I can’t now remember anything about it apart from the lighting was utterly, utterly terrible and the script was a series of wasted opportunities, and, by association, the direction was terrible.

No, no. It's a film with only El Muerto, no Spider-Man involved.

I did enjoy The Eternals much more on D+ and on the second go round in general. But in hindsight (and after rewatching some earlier films) it isn’t as good as it should be on paper.

I don’t think the director was a mistake inasmuch as for all the talk about “formula” the MCU does take risks with its directors; James Gunn only had “slither” and “super” to his name prior to GOTG1, Joss Whedon only had “serenity” and even the Russo brothers last film before Winter Soldier was You Me & Dupree. But clearly something went a bit wrong in production and it’s not quite up to the standard of the other later MCU films.

Rewatching Infinity War the other day got me wondering if we will ever have it that good again - a beloved set of characters introduced slowly over a series of films and tied into a truly epic piece of cinema. I do hope that in 2032 I can look back and realise I was wrong (when we have “The universe VS the Celestials” or something) bit even with the introduction of the X-Men & the Fantastic Four it’s hard to comprehend that anything will reach the heights of the payoff we get in Endgame.

I was thinking something similar about Hawkeye recently. Would have felt more propulsive as a movie. Disagree about Moon Knight though; I think last night's episode would have been nowhere near as effective if reduced to a ten-minute sequence in a two-hour film.

Balls to it, let's look at everything post-Endgame and see if it'd be better as a movie or show:

WandaVision: perfect TV show, would have been worse as a film
Falcon & Winter Soldier: probably would have been better as a film as it went on a bit and was occassionally boring
Loki: worked great as a TV series, leaning into the world-hopping Doctor Who vibes
Black Widow: was a decent enough film; going deeper into character stuff on TV might have been nice, as would exploring more of the Widows, but TBH the plot was flimsy enough in two hours and the bad guy was shit, so maybe those elements would have felt worse. Let's say it's fine as it is
What If...?: yeah, it's TV, wouldn't have worked on the big screen
Shang-Chi: great as a movie, its only drawbacks being going on a bit towards the end, and a disappointing attempt to be spectacular when all we wanted was a kick-ass kung-fu fight. Whilst not being at the cinema maybe would have influenced them to reduce the ooh-ahh quotient, I worry that we'd have got more ponderous family drama instead of kicks to the head, so I'm gonna say it's best as a film
Eternals: arguably a bit too slow-paced and introspective as a film, a TV series would have allowed it to go deeper into the characters, maybe introducing them one by one, so I reckon it'd be better on TV
Hawkeye: thoroughly enjoyable, but maybe it got stuck in the reeds a little bit; tightening it for the cinema could have made it a taught, tense, very funny little film
No Way Home: perfect as it is, leave it alone
Moon Knight: although some of the early episodes droned on a bit, the space afforded by TV to go deep into Marc/Steven's psyche makes it ideal for the small screen

I don't know what they do/don't have available to them under the weird terms of their license agreement, but their choices seem very odd. 

They have the rights to Spider Gwen, right? 

Maybe that's the movie Olivia Wilde is supposed to be working on. Actually, they should have her do a Mary Jane movie, and get an additional director to do a Spider Gwen one. 

Heck, why not a Doc Oc movie? 
Or even a Sandman movie. His character seemed potentially interesting in Spidey3, but had no chance to develop. 

I have a feeling that Marvel have already made it clear with Sony that Miles is MCU bound and not in whatever this Morbius/Madame Web movie land is. Sony seems very much consigned to what D tier Spidey villains there are otherwise you would imagine they would have gone bigger. In time they might even announce a Sauron movie. images.app.goo.gl/Rn7nKc9YiXc77epbA

A proper Conan Doyle Lost World style Savage Land movie would actually be pretty cool

I want a sequel to Seabiscuit.

Seabiscuit 2: This Time He's Glue

I don't want to like that, so I'll