Avengers mega-thread

[darkness]

Date moved up to April 27th now. Maybe they wanted to cash in on Black Panther as soon as possible.

[Alexhead]

They want to give it more time to rule the box office before they drop Solo.

[darkness]

Something tells me Solo is going to be on the lower box office end of the Star Wars franchise. The love of SW nostalgia is starting to wear off now that we've had a film a year out milking it (though thankfully Last Jedi didn't so much).
At the rate Black Panther is going they should be worried about Infinity War eating into it's boxoffice. $500 mil now and a no signs of stopping.

[Alexhead]

Forbes is predicting BP will steamroll Wrinkle In Time and the new Pacific Rim. My guess is if buzz continues to grow RP1 will put something of a stop to that, but looking at the release slate through May I'm wondering why more of these aren't spread out into the summer.

[darkness]

but looking at the release slate through May I'm wondering why more of these aren't spread out into the summer.

Too many huge films in summer already. You've got Solo starting at the end of May, which if Rouge One is any indication will be a sold $600 mil+ earner. Then Jurassic world in the latter half of June, again probably a $600 mil+ film that will take over the box office a while. Throw in there other likely other sure thing box office earners like Incredibles 2, Ant Man and Wasp, Mission Impossible (whatever number their on) and there are just not a lot of open weekends.

[Alexhead]

Thank you for listing those, but I can't think of another big tentpole outside of that exact list.

[darkness]

Thank you for listing those, but I can't think of another big tentpole outside of that exact list.

That's really enough for any smart studio to want to avoid, especially with a film that's not a sequel of an existing proven franchise, like Wrinkle in Time. Release it now and they have a fairly clear shot without much competition. Or so the thinking was, I don't think Hollywood realized how huge Black Panther was going to be. Everyone else knew, but studio execs seem to only get these things after the fact. They're still coming to terms with Wonder Woman's "surprise" success.

[darkness]

3/5 stars. There's just so much having to be crammed into the film that nothing really gets much time to develop. Still, I like the parts with Thanos and Gamora, there's some nice character development there. It really helps elevate Thanos above just being a one-dimensional villain like Steppenwolf. Make no mistake about it, this film is total Marvel fan wank, not Citizen Kane. But for what it is it's good. It is the weakest of the Avengers films though. I can't help but wonder what it would have been in Wheedon's hands.
Spoiler for the end: I like that they reset everything more or less back to the basic core Avengers for most of the next film. Looks like Captain Marvel will take on the Warlock role from the comic.

[TC]

really? wow. ok. maybe i won't go out of my way to see it this weekend, then. that means i can wait for BP to be out next week so i can see it first. other than that, i'm caught up.

[darkness]

I would say if you're a fan of the existing MCU films, go see it and you won't be disappointed. If you're just lukewarm about them, you can probably hold off a bit, assuming you don't mind being spoiled because that's inevitable the longer you wait.

[TC]

can someone tell me what i need to know from black panther to watch infinity war? i can't fucking believe marvel marketing completely blew the home release date so hard. that's part of the benefit of having a successful series, you get built-in hype for home release the week before the next film comes out. ugh.

[O-dot]

You're probably fine. Black Panther seemed fairly isolated from the overall Thanos storyline. The Marvel diehards may differ from me on that.

[darkness]

can someone tell me what i need to know from black panther to watch infinity war? i can't fucking believe marvel marketing completely blew the home release date so hard. that's part of the benefit of having a successful series, you get built-in hype for home release the week before the next film comes out. ugh.

They didn't blow it. This past weekend Black Panther re-entered the top 5 theatrically. They're still making too much money in theaters, why cannibalize it with home video? If anything they should push the date back more.
You're probably fine, you can get most of what you need to know about Black Panther for this film from Civil War really, aside from not being familiar with the Wakanda characters.

[TC]

back in theaters?? haha wow. ok then, dances with wolves. guess i'm the idiot.

[TC]

saw this yesterday. completely blown away by not just how many characters died in this, but which characters died. can't fucking believe they killed spider-man, BP, starlord, groot, bucky, heimdal, loki, etc., etc. really seems like, given the scope of characters that are now "dead", this isn't how things will stay. i feel like someone will turn back time and bring at least some of these characters back. no way marvel is going to throw away the groundswell they felt with BP. but, i guess really someone else could inherit that mantel. but man... i wasn't prepared for this. i figured they'd kill one to have real stakes, maybe two. but everyone? i know there's already another spider-man coming out, but i'm guessing that takes place in the two years before this film? i don't know man, it's really crazy.

as far as the film, it was balls to the wall from the very beginning to the end. so much going on, i feel like i can't have a proper opinion until i see it a few more times. as a stand-alone film, it probably doesn't do well. like, you really have to know what's happening before going into this. i'm perfectly fine with this and applaud the studio for buying into this concept. but man, wow. i'm kind of beside myself and don't know what to say.

[O-dot]

Totally expect all the characters to come back through some means of fishing through alternate dimensions or the like. Unless we're really going to have a Guardians 3 with only the raccoon.

[TC]

Totally expect all the characters to come back through some means of fishing through alternate dimensions or the like. Unless we're really going to have a Guardians 3 with only the raccoon.

*ahem* bunny.

[Alexhead]

Honest to goodness guys, it's 2018 and there's like five of us here. If you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read on. Tags be damned.

You mean rabbit. Clearly they're not killing off all their new franchise players. Have you read the original comic? It's the Rosetta Stone of "nobody ever dies in comic books," of course Thanos is defeated and everyone comes back. I love how they fucked with expectations and left all the originals standing. And that's going to be the real gut punch for the next one, when they bring Strange and Spidey and others back but kill off Steve and Tony. We are thinking the twist is not the Time Stone as the key, but the Soul Stone--Gamora is clearly still inside it, as we see him visit her in the next to last scene, and I suspect that soul for a soul stuff will come into play.

[TC]

the more i think about it, the more blown away i am by how it was all displayed. i mean, ALL the asgardians other than thor were killed. ALL OF THEM. every single one that was left after the tragedy of ragnarok. and really, the guy who was my favorite character from ragnarok - the big rock guy who called thor "new doug". i was really looking forward to seeing him again. he was the best. and he's fucking dead because maguffin. brutal.

[Alexhead]

My understanding is that Valkyrie is in the next Avengers movie, so they may be more survivors. It's pretty fucked up though. Infinity War is a surprisingly good Thor movie, and how Ragnarok and BP lead into it tells you these guys know what they're doing.