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Upcoming Marvel Adaptations

Morbius: A Vampire with a scientific origin story. It fits into the MCU, there are a few clues buried in the film so pay attention, no need to wait for mid-credits teasers. A tale of mortality, Morbius and his "brother" Milo have a chronic blood illness, they meet as 10 year olds in a clinic run by Nicholas. Morbius vows to ensure that they grow into cranky old men together. Morbius is cranky anyway, 25 years later he turns down a Nobel Prize at the Stockholm ceremony because his invention of artificial blood was only a by product of his ongoing search for a cure for the blood disease. Milo's wealth funds the research laboratory run by Morbius but they both realise time is short as does Martine his co-researcher. An experiment splicing vampire bat genes with his own goes awry transforming Morbius into a Vampire and putting Martine at risk.

Some great combat scenes, especially aboard the freighter where the clandestine experiment is being carried out, Morbius picks off his victims among the gangways and pipes. The tearing out of throats etc is a bit restrained and often off camera to ensure a lower age rating for the film. The opening sequence involving Morbius encountering a cave full of vampire bats is spectacular. While generally impressive the CGI is a bit ropy but not in the usual sense: Vampires move swiftly leaving coloured ropes or tendrils in their wake. The vampire nemesis of Morbius is truly savage, like the Joker at times with his grimaces. Jared Leto is best when he plays Morbius in his debilitated state or as a Vampire, less so when Morbius is an enhanced human. Jared Harris is Nicholas with Matt Smith as Milo and Adria Arjona playing Martine; all put in convincing performances. I get the impression that some crucial scenes may have ended up on the editing room floor during so I await a director's cut. Directed by Daniel Espinosa from a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. 7/10

In cinemas.
 
The director of Morbius seems to be having a public mental breakdown this week.
 
The director of Morbius seems to be having a public mental breakdown this week.

But it needs to be put in context of the MCU and movie release dates.

When asked about the negative reviews, Espinosa told Insider a story about his first feature film “Babylon Disease” being criticized by viewers and the lesson that it taught him

“I remember one day going home on the subway and I had a few drinks so I was a bit drunk. Someone nudged me on the train and said, ‘I have to tell you what’s wrong with the second scene in your feature,’ and I was like, ‘Well, OK,'” Espinosa explained. “The point I’m making is that it’s a strange thing to make something that is so public.”


He continued, “Look, I have a lot of self-hatred so I have a lot of criticism of my own work. I’m always trying to focus on being better. But I am also proud of what I do. There are parts in all of my movies that I’m really proud of.”

And Espinosa is hoping the film stands on its own regardless of the order behind the MCU release dates.

“To me, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, the movie is the movie,” Espinosa said. “As the years go by, no one remembers when it came out, just that it exists.”

While Espinosa confirmed that Tom Hardy’s “Venom” arc is occurring “at the same time” as the events in “Morbius,” the filmmaker also wanted to make a Marvel movie that is “kind of purified from details of other Marvel movies.” Throw in a baffling reference and surprise cameo in the post-credits, and “Morbius” does have a tenuous tie to the rest of the “Spider-Man” baddies. But did it land with critics? Not so much.

“This picture, if it came out earlier, who knows what would have happened,” said Espinosa, whose movie has been delayed since 2020 due to the pandemic. “I think if I had sat two-and-a-half years in a normal world waiting for a movie to come out I would have been frustrated, but it wasn’t like that. But it was very hard [with the pandemic].”.

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/04/morbius-director-daniel-espinosa-reacts-bad-reviews-1234714405/
 
I watched it at the weekend and... I didn't hate it.

Don't get me wrong, "good" would be a very strong word to use; there are plot-holes aplenty, and it has the least charismatic lead of any superhero film I can remember, but still, I had some fun with it.
Or, should I say Matt Smith had some fun with it...

I'll put it this way, comparing it to non-MCU superhero films (which are on another level, in terms of story-telling and artistry), for me it was more fun (that word again) than WW84, and frankly most of the DCEU.

Interesting to note, the showing I saw was late afternoon on Saturday, and the cinema was packed, oddly mainly with adults, with very few teenagers in attendance.
Not sure what that that says, if anything.
 
Moon Knight: the Egyptian director of this third episode recently complained about his nation's depiction in Hollywood, and how he was going to use this series to break the cliches. I don't know what happened, because it was the most Hollywood friendly version of Egypt I've seen since Raiders of the Lost Ark, they even had the characters going down the Nile in a barge (!). Apart from that, um, don't ask me what's going on...
 
Moon Knight, I see they're trying to go the Loki way with it, but I feel that's a trick that really only works once in the MCU. It's a bit of a mess. Oscar Isaac is throwing himself into it, mind you.
 
Moon Knight, I see they're trying to go the Loki way with it, but I feel that's a trick that really only works once in the MCU. It's a bit of a mess. Oscar Isaac is throwing himself into it, mind you.

What do you mean by the Loki way? Post as a spoiler if you like.
 
What do you mean by the Loki way? Post as a spoiler if you like.

I mean they're throwing the Moon Knight character into a multiverse situation, all very au courant at the moment I suppose, but I felt it had been done before with the Loki TV series. And then I remembered they'd already tried it with Legion, which seems like ages ago now, and who would have thought it would be so influential with the reception it was given at the time?
 
I mean they're throwing the Moon Knight character into a multiverse situation, all very au courant at the moment I suppose, but I felt it had been done before with the Loki TV series. And then I remembered they'd already tried it with Legion, which seems like ages ago now, and who would have thought it would be so influential with the reception it was given at the time?

Thought so, "multiverse" is where they are going with everything, DC too with the new Flash movie.

I think this might be the point where "cinematic universes" collapse under their own weight.
 
Thought so, "multiverse" is where they are going with everything, DC too with the new Flash movie.

I think this might be the point where "cinematic universes" collapse under their own weight.

Not while Spider-Man: No Way Home is the biggest movie of the past few years.

DC may have their own problems with The Flash now Ezra Miller is having a public meltdown.
 
Not while Spider-Man: No Way Home is the biggest movie of the past few years.

DC may have their own problems with The Flash now Ezra Miller is having a public meltdown.

Spiderman 3: EVAN MOAR SPIDDERMANS!!!!! was enormous, much more successful than I would have anticipated, let's see how Dr Stangelove 2: We Are Pretended That This A Horror Or Something does. I'm sure it will be big, likely very big but I don't think it'll do Spidey numbers or even close. I'm quite prepared to be wrong about that though. I do wonder how much complexity and interconnectedness to average cinema going punter is prepared to go along with, never bet against the MCU but nothing lasts for ever and the seas of public taste change.

As you say, The Flash: We Finally Made It! Also What Are We Doing? has been pushed back to next year and Ezra Miller is proving to be a prize cunt and utter liability. DC seemed to finally be getting something right, the Flashpoint is their course correction, maybe as a way of bringing together discrete separate films like Joker and The Batman but also combining them with what is salvageable from the Synderverse and newer stuff, again, I don't know much audiences will go along with.
 
Am I the only person in the world who thought the latest spiderman film was a bit of a let down? I'm struggling to work out why I didn't like it, I just wasn't keen on it. And yet it seems so popular??
 
Am I the only person in the world who thought the latest spiderman film was a bit of a let down? I'm struggling to work out why I didn't like it, I just wasn't keen on it. And yet it seems so popular??

Some movie podcasts I listen to were lukewarm on it, I don't think anyone loved it or loved it without substantial reservations anyway.
 
Am I the only person in the world who thought the latest spiderman film was a bit of a let down? I'm struggling to work out why I didn't like it, I just wasn't keen on it. And yet it seems so popular??
It was good I thought. I enjoyed it. There was a lot of hype. Nothing could live up to it.
 
Well, that was Moon Knight. I seemed to spend most of the second half of the series wondering "Are you dead or what?" Ended in a big fight, just for a change.
 
Well, that was Moon Knight. I seemed to spend most of the second half of the series wondering "Are you dead or what?" Ended in a big fight, just for a change.
It's always going to end in a big fight. That's the nature of the genre. I enjoyed Moon Knight as something very different in style from the usual Marvel feel, and really something different from usual superhero output. It was definitely not perfect, but I think it was different and brave.

EDIT I think I'd like to have seen the same character treated in something like the original movie of The Crow.
 
I kinda feel like the only one who's tired of all these series coming out and just wants a few more movies.

The trailer @MrRING posted above is a good example. I could stand to see that as a movie (if a little campy), but I really don't want to invest time into watching the plotline unfurl over several (even one) seasons.
 
As a She-Hulk fan, this is one that interests me... as WandaVision looked cool. Not all of them are instant grabbers... Moon Knight wasn't a grabber to me in terms of trailers, nor was the Captain America/Winter Soldier series.
 
This looks like a mash-up of the Dan Slott/Charles Soule runs of She-Hulk, along with touches of the John Byrne Sensational She-Hulk and a pinch of classic Savage She-Hulk:
The CGI in that trailer looks janky. I've heard they've had some problems in production but I hope it's a little cleaner in the final product. Otherwise, it looks fun.
 
Spiderman 3: EVAN MOAR SPIDDERMANS!!!!! was enormous, much more successful than I would have anticipated, let's see how Dr Stangelove 2: We Are Pretended That This A Horror Or Something does. I'm sure it will be big, likely very big but I don't think it'll do Spidey numbers or even close. I'm quite prepared to be wrong about that though. I do wonder how much complexity and interconnectedness to average cinema going punter is prepared to go along with, never bet against the MCU but nothing lasts for ever and the seas of public taste change.

As you say, The Flash: We Finally Made It! Also What Are We Doing? has been pushed back to next year and Ezra Miller is proving to be a prize cunt and utter liability. DC seemed to finally be getting something right, the Flashpoint is their course correction, maybe as a way of bringing together discrete separate films like Joker and The Batman but also combining them with what is salvageable from the Synderverse and newer stuff, again, I don't know much audiences will go along with.

I said from the start that they had the perfect Flash in Grant Gustin. There was no reason he couldn't have held his own on the big screen.
 
I said from the start that they had the perfect Flash in Grant Gustin. There was no reason he couldn't have held his own on the big screen.
Yeah, he was good as The Flash. I watched the whole series when it was on TV.
 
This looks like a mash-up of the Dan Slott/Charles Soule runs of She-Hulk, along with touches of the John Byrne Sensational She-Hulk and a pinch of classic Savage She-Hulk:

The only She-Hulk I've read is the John Byrne run, and it was pretty great. If they can capture the irreverence of that, they could be onto a winner.
 
Disney Plus says filming on season two of Loki has started and coming spring 2023.

Disney claims that Loki season one beat out all programs as being the number one watched series ever on Disney Plus.

I guess people love “ bad guy “ Loki.
 
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Yet another trek through the Multiverse and Dr strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has to undertake that voyage if he's to prevent the destruction of his universe and perhaps the Multiverse itself. There's this teen girl, America (Xochitl Gomez) who appears in the Doc's dreams but the events are actually happening in another universe, she then appears in his universe pursued by a giant octopus which Dr Strange battles along with the help of Wong (Benedict Wong), now the supreme Sorcerer in that universe. Things get complicated when Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) goes over to the Dark Side in her Scarlet Witch persona. So the battles continue through assorted universes in search of an Occult Text and Docs galore are revealed, dad, alive, bad, good and in between. Some interesting superhero guests also feature but best not to reveal who exactly. A good fantasy adventure with some dark moments but all is leavened by the strain of humour which permeates the film. Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Michael Waldron. 8/10.

In cinemas.
 
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Yet another trek through the Multiverse and Dr strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has to undertake that voyage if he's to prevent the destruction of his universe and perhaps the Multiverse itself. There's this teen girl, America (Xochitl Gomez) who appears in the Doc's dreams but the events are actually happening in another universe, she then appears in his universe pursued by a giant octopus which Dr Strange battles along with the help of Wong (Benedict Wong), now the supreme Sorcerer in that universe. Things get complicated when Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) goes over to the Dark Side in her Scarlet Witch persona. So the battles continue through assorted universes in search of an Occult Text and Docs galore are revealed, dad, alive, bad, good and in between. Some interesting superhero guests also feature but best not to reveal who exactly. A good fantasy adventure with some dark moments but all is leavened by the strain of humour which permeates the film. Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Michael Waldron. 8/10.

In cinemas.
The Bruce Campbell cameo was hilarious with its nod to The Evil Dead
 
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