Let's be honest, the MCU never handled female characters well.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
- Thread starter Th3Ch33s3Cak3
- Start date
All the more ironic, is that DCEU excels at this. Though the MCU has plenty of movies where they handle female characters well.
They've gotten good or better, but they still need improvement in certain areas. The animated projects that come out usually don't have this problem.
Could extend that to movies in general, though not to the same extent, as there's more than do.
Might be because animation is not seen as a "real" contenders by the bigwigs, and so is giving more freedom to do whatever. Afterall, we were already seeing multiverse shit in the 90's Spider-Man cartoon, while live-action took another 25 years.
They can continue to eat shit. The irony is quality animated movies or mini series still gets them the green, and yet they look down upon them. Though I see this as more of a problem with Marvel, as they rarely ever bother with animated shows anymore. WB/DC seems to at least somewhat understand how important most of their animated films are to the market and consumers.
All No Way Home did was build off the hype from Into The Spider-Verse. That's two animated projects the movie owes credit towards. Without either of them, NWH would still be a pipe dream.
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I wouldn't even say it did that. It was less 'look, the multiverse' and more 'look, the actors and catchphrases from the movies you liked as a child'.
Zack Snyder's Justice League, parts 1&2
How nice of Snyder to divide this movie into distinct and separated sections so viewers don't have to sit through all 4 hours of it in one sitting. Yep, it's Snyder all right. I'm going to judge it as its own thing and not compare it to the Josstice League, since that movie has rightfully been chucked into the garbage bin of history and collective memory. And based on the first 2 parts (about 70 minutes into the film) it's... eeehhh.
This movie is definitely not helping my perception of Snyder as just not that smart of a guy or filmmaker. He definitely has visual flair and style, and the acting in his movies is the one consistent thing I've never been able to fault. But this movie is just not very good (so far). It's slow, overly self-serious, weirdly paced and most puzzlingly in 4:3 aspect ratio. I decided to hold my judgment until I'd seen at least a bit of the film, but Snyder just doesn't seem to understand why certain films use a more narrow aspect ratio. The disclaimer that it's in 4:3 "to preserve the integrity of the director's vision" felt especially telling. Okay, it's the director's vision. But why? I'll tell you why: because Snyder desperately wants to be seen as an artisté, and not just some guy making popcorn movies based on source material for kids. As is further evidenced by his trademark slow-mo scenes punctuated by painfully on the nose music. Judging by how Snyder always wants to make his superhero movies as edgy, violent and shocking as possible I can't help but feel like he'd be happier adapting edgelord garbage like Nemesis. Zack Snyder and Mark Millar, now there's a match made in hell.
I've still yet to feel the 4:3 adding anything to the film, and in many scenes it actually takes away from it. Visually it's very bland, all greys, browns, goldish browns, dark browns, dark greys, and there's almost nothing of note in the cinematography. Darkseid and Steppenwolf look literally the exact same: they're just big muscular grey dudes in armor. If the only way you can distinguish between your BBEG and his lackey is that one has different eyes, something has gone wrong. In addition there's just constant dumb shit that takes me out of the movie: why were the terrorists who wanted to "turn back the clocks" going to blow themselves up as well? Why do the supposed ultra-badass amazons get their asses handed to them by basic mooks? Why does the same happen to the Green Lantern in the flashback? Isn't he supposed to be like one of the most powerful beings in the universe? Why do the heroes in said flashback just let Darkseid get dragged into safety while he's down? Why do we get two introduction scenes for Aquaman? Why were the amazons giving Steppenwolf a group hug instead of stabbing him until he looks like pulled pork? Only an hour in, and already these kinds of instances number in the double digits.
Granted, this film can only do so much even if it was directed by Steven Spielberg. The foundation it's building on was already half-crumbled, so the best it can do is try to pick up the slack. Which is another aspect that makes this movie hard to judge. I'm still going to finish it regardless.
How nice of Snyder to divide this movie into distinct and separated sections so viewers don't have to sit through all 4 hours of it in one sitting. Yep, it's Snyder all right. I'm going to judge it as its own thing and not compare it to the Josstice League, since that movie has rightfully been chucked into the garbage bin of history and collective memory. And based on the first 2 parts (about 70 minutes into the film) it's... eeehhh.
This movie is definitely not helping my perception of Snyder as just not that smart of a guy or filmmaker. He definitely has visual flair and style, and the acting in his movies is the one consistent thing I've never been able to fault. But this movie is just not very good (so far). It's slow, overly self-serious, weirdly paced and most puzzlingly in 4:3 aspect ratio. I decided to hold my judgment until I'd seen at least a bit of the film, but Snyder just doesn't seem to understand why certain films use a more narrow aspect ratio. The disclaimer that it's in 4:3 "to preserve the integrity of the director's vision" felt especially telling. Okay, it's the director's vision. But why? I'll tell you why: because Snyder desperately wants to be seen as an artisté, and not just some guy making popcorn movies based on source material for kids. As is further evidenced by his trademark slow-mo scenes punctuated by painfully on the nose music. Judging by how Snyder always wants to make his superhero movies as edgy, violent and shocking as possible I can't help but feel like he'd be happier adapting edgelord garbage like Nemesis. Zack Snyder and Mark Millar, now there's a match made in hell.
I've still yet to feel the 4:3 adding anything to the film, and in many scenes it actually takes away from it. Visually it's very bland, all greys, browns, goldish browns, dark browns, dark greys, and there's almost nothing of note in the cinematography. Darkseid and Steppenwolf look literally the exact same: they're just big muscular grey dudes in armor. If the only way you can distinguish between your BBEG and his lackey is that one has different eyes, something has gone wrong. In addition there's just constant dumb shit that takes me out of the movie: why were the terrorists who wanted to "turn back the clocks" going to blow themselves up as well? Why do the supposed ultra-badass amazons get their asses handed to them by basic mooks? Why does the same happen to the Green Lantern in the flashback? Isn't he supposed to be like one of the most powerful beings in the universe? Why do the heroes in said flashback just let Darkseid get dragged into safety while he's down? Why do we get two introduction scenes for Aquaman? Why were the amazons giving Steppenwolf a group hug instead of stabbing him until he looks like pulled pork? Only an hour in, and already these kinds of instances number in the double digits.
Granted, this film can only do so much even if it was directed by Steven Spielberg. The foundation it's building on was already half-crumbled, so the best it can do is try to pick up the slack. Which is another aspect that makes this movie hard to judge. I'm still going to finish it regardless.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
And oh look! It's also Tarantino's eighth (studio) movie as director, ho ho.
This is a Western, Tarantino-style. John Ruth is a bounty hunter taking an outlaw, Daisy Domergue, to the town of Red Rock to be hung, with his stagecoach driver during a snowstorm. He ends up picking up first another bounty hunter (ex-Union officer Major Warren) and then an ex-Confederate officer, Chris Mannix, who is to become sheriff of Red Rock. They then arrive at a rest stop to get out of the storm, Millie's Haberdashery, where there are another four characters taking shelter. This is going to end in violence, and you know it: too many clashing characters, and maybe Daisy's got an escape plan.
So, all very Tarantino - the style, the dialogue, the themes, the characters. This is, however, perhaps his most boring movie. We've seen the OTT violence, we've heard the snappy lines, we know the drill, and the pacing drags. It could have been shortened by as much as an hour. The start, particularly, is far too long. Although I say boring, it's not necessarily his worst movie, certainly in my subjective view. And whatever else you say about Tarantino, he knows his business and even on a bad day he's still better than your average filmmaker. So, fairly good, but could have been better.
As a postscript to this, I would note my wife and I checked past two other movies on the way to this, too. The first was The Contractor (2022), starring Chris Pine. We watched about 2 minutes of the film and decided it was going to be extremely dull. (And I'll bet you it is.) Then we put on Push (2009), which puts it about the period of peak Chris Evans, where we got about 10 minutes in before realising we'd already seen it. That's just how memorable it was, I guess.
And oh look! It's also Tarantino's eighth (studio) movie as director, ho ho.
This is a Western, Tarantino-style. John Ruth is a bounty hunter taking an outlaw, Daisy Domergue, to the town of Red Rock to be hung, with his stagecoach driver during a snowstorm. He ends up picking up first another bounty hunter (ex-Union officer Major Warren) and then an ex-Confederate officer, Chris Mannix, who is to become sheriff of Red Rock. They then arrive at a rest stop to get out of the storm, Millie's Haberdashery, where there are another four characters taking shelter. This is going to end in violence, and you know it: too many clashing characters, and maybe Daisy's got an escape plan.
So, all very Tarantino - the style, the dialogue, the themes, the characters. This is, however, perhaps his most boring movie. We've seen the OTT violence, we've heard the snappy lines, we know the drill, and the pacing drags. It could have been shortened by as much as an hour. The start, particularly, is far too long. Although I say boring, it's not necessarily his worst movie, certainly in my subjective view. And whatever else you say about Tarantino, he knows his business and even on a bad day he's still better than your average filmmaker. So, fairly good, but could have been better.
As a postscript to this, I would note my wife and I checked past two other movies on the way to this, too. The first was The Contractor (2022), starring Chris Pine. We watched about 2 minutes of the film and decided it was going to be extremely dull. (And I'll bet you it is.) Then we put on Push (2009), which puts it about the period of peak Chris Evans, where we got about 10 minutes in before realising we'd already seen it. That's just how memorable it was, I guess.
I mean yeah, basically. Its the same stupid shit from Thanos, where they have a problem and the ability to use any solution, and come up with an evil one. In Thanos's case, too many lives and not enough resources, so instead of just making more resources, he just kills half of all life, effectively not solving the problem. Because now its half of all cows, and fish, and trees, and bacteria on top of half of all humans, so the ratios are the same.
With Wanda, with a literal infinite number of realities, she keeps hunting for happy Wanda families to murder alternate Wanda and take her place, instead of finding a universe where Wanda is dead and her kids need a new mom.
And also no Vision. The whole WandaVision enslaving an entire town to have a suburban family with her husband, and it turns out the big take away she learned was to enslave the entire multiverse, and drop the husband. You'd think drop the slavery take the husband would be the logical one, but no, Wanda is a mother, not a monster.
Also Multiverse of Madness just kinda undoes Loki, and the whole Strange 16 million alternate futures to beat Thanos thing, 'cause it turns out if you just stab Thanos he dies.
Also also if alternate reality Thanos died during the events of Infinity War, why doesn't Sorcerer Supreme Mordo have the time stone still? Shouldn't there be a full set of Infinite Stones?
And Wonder Woman. I mean Diana sleeps with and falls in love with the literal first man she's ever seen, only like 2 days after they meet? And then spends the next 80 years depressed? Not exactly a pro-woman view of sex and relationships.
WW84 was their only big slip up on this. Otherwise, DCEU has been doing fine for the most part. They ain't perfect either.
Commando
Didn't wanna go into a rant, but living in the present is so emasculating. Felt down for most of the day, in no mood for smart or artistic cinema, and then this rewatch brought some happiness. Just watching him and listening to that bombastic tropical jazz action score by James Horner (Tempted to find it.) makes you wanna run and get more fit. Really efficient movie too. Having last watched it two years ago and far longer ago before that, I was surprised by how quickly it came up on those setpieces.
For a 14 year old MPEG2 encode, which is probably the best we're ever gonna have*, it looks decent enough. Listened to the Dolby Digital 2.0 track, which I thought sounded more powerful at points when switching back and forth between that and the uncompressed 5.1. But the difference is pretty subtle. I've had my Atmos speakers disabled for a while now because I hardly listen to DTS:X and Atmos tracks and don't want the 2.0 surround tracks getting sent up to the height speakers by the upmixer anymore. People claim that Dolby Surround is "smart" enough to send the right kinds of sounds up. But I don't trust it not to mess up and not to make the mix too front heavy in my setup. If I do have an Atmos or DTS:X track to listen to, I now go into my receiver setup and switch the speaker layout from 5.1 to 5.1.2, rather than simply selecting the correct sound mode. People will have you believe that Atmos is this giant upgrade for general movie watching, but even most new movies are still mastered in 5.1, and the old movies usually have older mixes available on top of the Atmos. Why would you trust some young guy working on the new master to do it right over the people who made the movie? Shit, even games rarely have Atmos, with some of the developers who did use it having aleady dropped it. Resident Evil 2 had Atmos. RE3 did not.
*
Didn't wanna go into a rant, but living in the present is so emasculating. Felt down for most of the day, in no mood for smart or artistic cinema, and then this rewatch brought some happiness. Just watching him and listening to that bombastic tropical jazz action score by James Horner (Tempted to find it.) makes you wanna run and get more fit. Really efficient movie too. Having last watched it two years ago and far longer ago before that, I was surprised by how quickly it came up on those setpieces.
For a 14 year old MPEG2 encode, which is probably the best we're ever gonna have*, it looks decent enough. Listened to the Dolby Digital 2.0 track, which I thought sounded more powerful at points when switching back and forth between that and the uncompressed 5.1. But the difference is pretty subtle. I've had my Atmos speakers disabled for a while now because I hardly listen to DTS:X and Atmos tracks and don't want the 2.0 surround tracks getting sent up to the height speakers by the upmixer anymore. People claim that Dolby Surround is "smart" enough to send the right kinds of sounds up. But I don't trust it not to mess up and not to make the mix too front heavy in my setup. If I do have an Atmos or DTS:X track to listen to, I now go into my receiver setup and switch the speaker layout from 5.1 to 5.1.2, rather than simply selecting the correct sound mode. People will have you believe that Atmos is this giant upgrade for general movie watching, but even most new movies are still mastered in 5.1, and the old movies usually have older mixes available on top of the Atmos. Why would you trust some young guy working on the new master to do it right over the people who made the movie? Shit, even games rarely have Atmos, with some of the developers who did use it having aleady dropped it. Resident Evil 2 had Atmos. RE3 did not.
*
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Not one of Arnie's best, IMHO, but still decent. It lacks the certain something that elevates Conan or the Terminator or Total Recall.
It's certainly not Arnie's best (Predator IMO has that honor), but it is definitely the most "Arnie" of his movies. It plays out like a perfect love letter and self-parody of 80s action movies. It's timeless in how dated it is.
And let's face it, it has one of the best Arnie one-liners.
"You know how I said I'd kill you last, Sully?" "That's right, Matrix, you did!" "I lied."