The MCU Omnibus ThreadFollow

I'm almost thru episode 3 of Defenders. It's been pretty slow for me. Hoping it picks up soon.

Preacher: SpoilerI'm hoping this thing doesn't devolve into a cliche "Holy Grail" story line. I've only watched the first 45 minutes of the episode (Had to go to work, so didn't finish the rest). But Jesus screws some woman, she has a baby, some of the disciples find out and "protect" it by beating the woman to death and taking the child to raise and protect until the second coming...

Tulip's storyline is dull. Preacher himself is a bit boring currently too. I'm hoping the Saint of Killers comes back and lights a fire under this thing's ass. Or something else good happens to keep it away from being a Dan Brown novel with a bit of Gore added.

Defenders: So I watched the fourth episode, fully expecting a fight scene and Spoilerit never came. Was that brief scuffle at the end of the third episode supposed to be the Hallway Fightâ„¢? I can't believe that. Maybe it's in a future episode. Either way, kind of liked the episode. Jessica really steals the episode with the conclusion, but I've got to say I enjoyed watching all of the different personalities and motives clashing with each other over food. It reminded me of Thanksgiving. I've got to say I'm definitely happy to hear that. His choreography was one of the major problems with the first season.

There appears to be some news from the Warner Brothers camp that not only are they developing a movie based around the Joker, the same way that Sony is working on Venom, but that it won't be connected to the main universe and kick start it's own Elseworld-esque universe of it's own. Personally I think they should focus on their main universe considering just how shaky it is before branching off to multiple shaky multiverses.

Edited, Aug 23rd 2017 10:06am by lolgaxe

The Mist: SpoilerDisappointing overall. The Mist being some psychological thing instead of being filled with creatures from another world was a let down.

The showrunners are trying to capitalize on the Walking Dead formula. Making it all about the human interaction. But that doesn't work well here. Maybe bad characters, maybe bad writing, maybe people just expecting more Mist-Monsters. But it just doesn't work well.

At least with the Walking Dead with have a real and somewhat interesting threat with the dead people. Here in the Mist, the Mist itself is a dull threat. The final revenge scene in the mall was a huge let down. Some bleeding eyes, an invisible neck snap, some snakes. Pretty sure Gus is still alive and held up in his office? That's a big let down.

The ending to the Mist movie may not been done well, but the Mist itself was great in that movie. The Mist in this TV series is just an extension of the whole "human drama" aspect. Leaving both "dangers" in the Mist to be the same danger really.


And it seems that season 2 of the Shannara series is coming to Spike instead of MTV. But will still be ruined. (Hey, they got the SWORD OF SHANNARA now. See that? All better guys, honest!)

Edited, Aug 24th 2017 11:25pm by TirithRR

Game of Thrones:
SpoilerJon Snow... Spoiler

Edited, Aug 27th 2017 10:26pm by TirithRR

Finished up The Defenders. Little slow and the fight choreography was either lacking or there was just too many different fights going on at the same time to make it noticeable. Either way, easier to watch than Iron Fist was, but I wouldn't exactly put it near the top half for favorites. SpoilerI think I'm disappointed that apparently whatever that was near the end of the ... third episode I think it was ... whatever that was was the Hallway Fightâ„¢ and it was just lacking. On side note, I can't wait to see Misty in whatever series they put her in next. I don't usually leave the shows running during the credits, but for whatever reason I did for the last episode and there was the Punisher teaser at the end. I think I'm more hyped for that then the next seasons of the already established shows.

Speaking of next seasons, SpoilerI really hope the whole Hand storyline is abandoned. I've personally never enjoyed it when it was the B-Plot in Daredevil, or it's parts in Iron Fist. I think it had a pretty satisfying conclusion in Defenders, at least for the time being.

Next weekend, The Tick.

Edited, Aug 28th 2017 9:38am by lolgaxe

SpoilerIt's the same Punisher teaser I posted a week or so back, with the sledgehammer. Speaking of Punisher, former Marvel Comics editor turned Senior Vice President of Creator and Content Development and Having Really Really Long Job Titles C.B. Cebulski commented that "another Marvel may be showing up (in the Punisher)." Now, the most obvious speculation would be Daredevil, but when you consider how Shohreh Aghdashloo role in the show is of a psychiatrist one could speculate for SpoilerMoon Knight. That'd be neat, but a less likely guess.

More Punisher news, as while the release date is still unknown episode titles have been released on twitter ... in Morse Code. Spoiler
01 ...-- / .- --
02 - .-- --- / -.. . .- -.. / -- . -.
03 -.- .- -. -.. .- .... .- .-.
04 .-. . ... ..- .--. .--. .-.. -.--
05 --. ..- -. -. . .-.
06 - .... . / .--- ..- -.. .- ... / --. --- .- -
07 -.-. .-. --- ... ... .... .- .. .-. ...
08 -.-. --- .-.. -.. / ... - . . .-..
09 ..-. .-. --- -. - / - --- .-- .- .-. -.. / . -. . -- -.--
10 ...- .. .-. - ..- . / --- ..-. / - .... . / ...- .. -.-. .. --- ..- ...
11 -.. .- -. --. . .-. / -.-. .-.. --- ... .
12 .... --- -- .
13 -- . -- . -. - --- / -- --- .-. .. Spoiler
01 - 3 A.M.
02 - Two Dead Men
03 - Kandahar
04 - Resupply
05 - Gunner
06 - The Judas Goat
07 - Crosshairs
08 - Cold Steel
09 - Front Toward Enemy
10 - Virtue of the Vicious
11 - Danger Close
12 - Home
13 - Memento Mori

Apparently there's a rumor that Martin Scorsese is in the works for a Joker Origin Movie. Which is weird since the Joker doesn't have an origin story. I'll just treat it like The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight: It's a story Joker tells that even he doesn't exactly believe is real.

Super Troopers 2 trailer. April 20â„¢, because of course 4:20. Spoiler


Edited, Aug 28th 2017 2:45pm by lolgaxe

Nothing spoilery in this part of my response. I was bothered by the choreography during the entire Defender's series, and I think I figured out why. In each of the solo series, each character had their own "style" of fighting. Jessica Jones basically just hit stuff like a normal person. Luke Cage usually either stood there and smirked at his opponent's helplessness, or blocked with his arm, whatever. Then whacked them when he felt like they hadn't gotten the hint yet. Daredevil had this kind of "throw my body at the other guy" style, complete with some really cool combo kicks and punches that really "worked". Even Iron Fist, which got panned for this, still had Danny with a distinct style (kind of a crane kung fu thing).

In Defenders, it kinda looked like they had one person handling everyone's fight choreography. So everyone fought in the exact same style. They all kicked the same way. All blocked the same way. All jumped the same way. It was by far the most jarring with Daredevil and Iron fist, IMO. Both had very distinctive styles in their respective solo series but they were just "generic" in Defenders. We saw zero fancy hand flourishes from Iron fist. Not one scene of Daredevil doing a spin/flip move with legs and arms curled and whacking folks as he spun around. No one had a signature anything. Which was somewhat disappointing.

I thought the fight sequences in Iron fist (even the bad ones) were still better than what we got in Defenders. It just looked... boring. Every fight the same. Every person in the fight the same. In the final fight sequence, I couldn't tell half the time who was fighting in a given scene. Yes, part of this was the lighting, but if they'd had more distinct styles, that wouldn't have been a problem. I get that maybe it would have been too difficult/expensive to do this right, but it was really jarring to me.

As to the plot itself: SpoilerWhat was supposed to be the A plot kinda wasn't IMO. So the hand, an organization that's been around for some amount of time (they can't seem to set a firm number here, but whatever), complete with a handful of more or less immortal leaders who have been kept alive for this entire time (and brought back from the dead when needed) by the "substance", has run low due to the cost of bringing Electra back. Ok. So internal strife due to that decision, etc, etc. They never got along so great anyway, yadda yadda. Got it. We can assume that this "substance'" (were those dinosaur bones? Dragons maybe?) is what they use for this, and what they stole/misused/whatever which got them kicked out of Kun'lun/whatever ages ago. Got it. We can assume that it's the same substance that grants the Iron Fist power as well (he mentioned something about putting his hand into the heart of the dragon, which made me think it's the same thing ultimately).

In any case, the whole thing is basically "we need this, and it's blocked off by the monks, and can only be opened by the Iron Fist". Got it. So all the heroes need to do is *not* open the thing. Of course Danny's a dummy and falls for the obvious "let me get you mad, activate your Iron Fist, and then position myself right in front of the wall/door/whatever that can only be opened by said fist, which you know all about, but are going to foolishly punch at me anyway (why? Can we please not slavishly follow the "hero must ultimately cause the problem" trope?). Ok. Whatever. Then grand finale fight. Problem solved, right?

Wait. They resolved the problem by dropping a building on the giant pit with the tunnels at the bottom with the substance. Er... With the resources of the Hand, can't they just dig new tunnels down there and retrieve the stuff anyway? Buy up the inevitable "clean up the collapsed building" contract and get to work, right? It's not like they re-sealed the door or anything. Just dropped a ton of rubble on top of it. The Hand had to spent years digging the first tunnel. How is this different? In the context of a ages old organization, this is at best a minor speed bump. Within a few years, their minions will have recovered more substance, retrieved the bodies of the fingers, and have them all back up and running.

The entire plot fails from the "ancient thing shouldn't have lasted this long if it was that easy" hole. They even mentioned that they've done this several times in the past. So presumably, there's more of this stuff lying about under other major cities or whatever, scattered all over the world. Maybe they've been sealed off by the monks as well (although they seemed to be surprised by this, which itself seems strange). So was this the only location sealed away by a past Iron Fist? Why not just go somewhere else to cause their destruction while obtaining it? Dunno. There were large portions of plot just not really explained. It seemed more like "evil guys have to do this this way so that the good guys have a reason to stop them". Which is not a plot methodology I'm a huge fan of.

The B plot was much more interesting IMO. Getting Electra back basically worked. I just wish they'd come up with a better conflict to wrap that up in. Aren't the good and bad guys supposed to have been in a very long running conflict? What is this conflict really about? It can't just be "they use the same stuff we use, just for different purposes". There would have to be some evil objectives of the Hand that need to be stopped beyond them merely existing. Dunno. Again though, I thought they handled her gradually remembering who she used to be pretty well. Although the one bit I'm still confused about (they didn't explain much at all, IMO because of not enough episodes in the series), is "what is the purpose of the Dark Sky anyway?". They went to a silly amount of effort to turn her into it. The implication is that certain people are born with a connection to it (mentioned in Daredevil series by Stick). Electra had it, and was supposed to be killed because of it, but Stick decides to train her instead. Ok. And she gets killed and turned into Dark Sky, and then...? Nothing. She's super tough and whatnot, but what's the point? Again, other than existing, there didn't seem to be a purpose to the whole thing. Or at least, not one we were informed of.

I guess in the series, they used her to wipe out the Chaste, but couldn't the Hand have done that anyway? She was tough, but didn't seem that much more powerful than the fingers were. If the Hand had really wanted to wipe them out, it seemed like they could have at any of a number of points in time. And again, wiping them out accomplished what, exactly? While Stick alluded to a conflict, we're still left not really knowing *why* they're fighting, or what they're fighting over. It certainly hasn't seemed like the Hand has been seriously opposed in whatever they've wanted to do over the entire history of the organization, so aside from killing of anyone who might become Dark Sky, it didn't seem like the Chaste ever actually accomplished anything. And since the entire purpose of Dark Sky seemed to be to destroy the Chaste (at least, that's all she was used for, well, until she turned on them and semi-took over), that seems like silly circular purpose to me (group A exists solely to prevent the creation of a weapon by group B that exists solely to destroy group A).

Eh. Despite all of this, it was actually pretty enjoyable. Crazy, I know. I did like the dialog between the characters, especially when they were first meeting up and kinda introducing themselves. I didn't even mind the pacing of the first few episodes. But then, I usually like to have a decent build up where we get to see how the characters get together and why they're working together. And the plot hooks used in the story actually did work pretty darn well. Each character had a reason for showing up where and when they did, and meeting up with each other, and then ultimately working together. So yeah, the motivations of the good guys made sense. Bad guys are engaged in evil plot which will do bad things to the city we're all living in great.

It was the bad guy's motivations that were problematic IMO.

Edited, Aug 28th 2017 7:31pm by gbaji

Edit:
Appears to be faster now when posting... but still double posting.

Edited, Aug 29th 2017 8:42am by TirithRR

SpoilerYeah. I really wish they'd have the Hand actually... doing something really evil. Have them work towards summoning a demon or something. Bringing back their dread deity, long buried in the sands of time. Sacrificing babies. Something! There just never seems to be a pay off in terms of their plans, and no real reason to oppose them other than that they're there. Aside from the regular crime lord type stuff they're involved in, they don't actually seem to be doing anything more mystically evil than the folks who are fighting them.

You've created an evil ancient organization using magical powers. You kinda need to have them actually have some objective that's magical in nature. And sure, I suppose recovering the substance to retain their immortality is magical, but as I wrote above, all that does is allow them to continue doing what they are already doing. What's their long term plan? It has to be something more than just existing. And it should be something more than just "being criminals".

Got 300 dollars you don't know what to do with?
DC Universe 10th Anniversary Collection BluRay

It's kind of tempting. I do like most of those animated films. Maybe if it was under 200 dollars.

I realize the article is a couple months old, but Amazon just started telling me to buy it yesterday when I was checking out the Samurai Jack complete series bluray collection (Which... I will probably buy).

Ten bucks a movie isn't a bad deal if you don't already have any of the movies in the collection.

Every single time...

Edited, Aug 30th 2017 9:41pm by TirithRR

Looks like Australian actor Brenton Thwaites will be joining Teagan Croft and Anna Diop as Dick Greyson in Titans. So that's a thirteen year old and two thirty year olds. Not that it makes a huge deal if the script is there, and it is Titans and not Teen Titans. Just kind of curious if they'll have Robin try to block Raven from joining because of her age and his experience as a human shield young sidekick.