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[Edguy]

So, as I couldn't find any threads about it, I figured a thread about Marvel's hugely successful cinematic universe was due.

I assume most people around here with any interest in Marvel and superheroes have seen Iron Man 3 by now, so what do you think? I liked it, but the plot was pretty underwhelming and underexplained. Also, movie kids; I hate movie kids.. 

Also, like any self-respecting geek, I love to speculate. One thing I like to speculate about, is BO numbers (gross cinema revenues, if you're not that into films, other than watching them ), and Iron Man 3 has made some pretty damn impressive numbers, crossing $1,1 billion world-wide. That's an increase of ~77% from Iron Man 2. With this kind of increase, likely much due to the massive success of The Avengers, do you think we can expect a proportional growth for Thor 2 and Captain America 2? Or even more, considering they have lower starting points? Anyways, an equal increases would mean a BO result of ~$796M for Thor 2 (from $449M) and ~$653M for Captain America 2 (from $369M).

Anyways, beyond those two, we have perhaps the most exciting film so far; Guardians of the Galaxy. I know nothing about the franchise, but the prospect of Avengers meets Star Wars + talking raccoon and  tree gets the child in me excited. Mixed feelings about James Gunn (director), but we'll see!

After that is The Avengers 2, recently announced to feature mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (son and daughter of Magneto), but obviously without any connection to mutants, Magneto and the X-Men (Fox' property).

Then, phase III starts out with Ant-Man, directed by Edgar Wright.

Detailed (current) release dates:
Thor: The Dark World                       - November 8, 2013
Captain America: The Winter Soldier  - April 4, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy                   - August 1, 2014
The Avengers 2                              - May 1, 2015
Ant-Man                                        - November 6, 2015

After that, the properties that seems the most likely to make their way into the MCU, appears to be Black Panther, Dr. Strange and the Inhmans.

So, lots of listing and factual information here, but what are you looking the most forward to? What IPs do you hope to see in the big screen?
Oh, and there is now a trailer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the upcoming TV series by Joss Whedon. I'm almost looking more forward to that, than many of th movies 

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to the new IPs, starting with GotG. How about you?

[Pilchard123]

I've actually only seen The Avengers/Avengers Assemble. I really should get around to seeing the others.

[Edguy]

You really should!

While not high art or anything, they are definitely fun movies, and the connected universe gives extra nuggets to those who pay attention and watch post-credits

[TheEvilDog]

The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver might be the key to bringing the X-men and the Brotherhood into the MCU, especially with the next X-men film in the works is supposedly based on Days of Future Past.

To be honest, I'm hoping that Marvel and Sony can work out a deal to get Spider-man into the MCU as well, for a few reasons, not least of which that the webhead was always my favourite hero and it'd be fun to see someone out-snark Tony Stark.

[Edguy]

Not to be a kill-joy, but you shouldn't get your hopes up seeing an X-Men crossover any time soon, and sure as hell not Spider-Man. At least, not anything but small easter eggs, like the planned inclusion of the Oscorp tower (from The Amazing Spider-Man) into the New York skyline in The Avengers (which got scrapped due to not being finished in time).

There's just no way Marvel could ever negotiate any large scale crossover with Sony and Fox, even if it would be mutually beneficial.

[mtmerrick]

You guys keep saying this about spiderman,  yet you all seem to forget about the disney/marvel animated spiderman series,  which in fact features most aspects of the marvel cinematic universe,  including the avengers,  SHIELD,  ect,  and fits into the marvel cinematic storyline. It also includes Wolverine and some other mutants.

AKA what you're asking for ALREADY EXISTS.

[TheEvilDog]

Not to be a kill-joy, but you shouldn't get your hopes up seeing an X-Men crossover any time soon, and sure as hell not Spider-Man. At least, not anything but small easter eggs, like the planned inclusion of the Oscorp tower (from The Amazing Spider-Man) into the New York skyline in The Avengers (which got scrapped due to not being finished in time).

There's just no way Marvel could ever negotiate any large scale crossover with Sony and Fox, even if it would be mutually beneficial.

Sony only made the Amazing Spider-man because they were about to lose the rights to him. But considering as well that The Avengers' profit was more than the previous MCU films combined. Money, in all matters, is a great motivator.

You guys keep saying this about spiderman,  yet you all seem to forget about the disney/marvel animated spiderman series,  which in fact features most aspects of the marvel cinematic universe,  including the avengers,  SHIELD,  ect,  and fits into the marvel cinematic storyline. It also includes Wolverine and some other mutants.

AKA what you're asking for ALREADY EXISTS.

There is a huge difference between an animated on-screen snark battle between two characters and watching a live-action scene where Fury/Tony asks Spider-man if he webbed his feet to the floor and having young Peter swinging off with a trollish "maybe".

[mtmerrick]

I've seen a few episodes, but none of the ones with Tony stark yet. My sister (who is crazy about this series) is my source of most of the info I have about this show.

But i HAVE seen that exact scene you described,  with spidey and fury. And it was excellent.

[Lupercal]

The ultimate crossover has already been pitched guys!

[Lupercal]

To answer your question Edguy, no, I don't think we'll see proportional growth for the upcoming Phase II sequels. The Avengers was very cleverly designed to be both a sequel crossover, and a starting point for a lot of people who weren't going to watch Iron Man 2.5, but were going to watch the most talked about summer blockbuster. Hell, I know people who went to see Iron Man 3 without seeing the previous 2 - and really, it was again a product of design for its audience. It was a sequel to the Avengers, more than it was a sequel to Iron Man 2.

Thor and Cpt. America don't have the legs that Iron Man does. The original theatrical trailers for The Avengers made it look like Tony Star and Friends. Robert Downy Jr is hands down the most marketable out of the entire league of all involved in the MCU and that's what it really boils down to.

However, I am excited by the sequels and hope they will bolster some admittedly weaker character developments thus far. Can Thor 2 make me finally give a crap about Chris Hemsworth and his character? Will the Winter Soldier actually be a decent villiain, rather than Hugo Weaving kind of phoning it in with some choppy CGI? More and more the success of the MCU lies in character development and maintaining a relatively understandable story arc. Guardians of the Galaxy is so far an unknown franchise to me, and I've heard John C Reiley is in the running to play the lead guy.

But on their own, these characters can't pull the kind of audience that will surpass the $1billion mark. Or at least, I'll be very surprised if they do. We've just got to hope they leave Hulk alone, standalone Hulk films don't fare too well - although again, Marvel Studios have said they may do a film with him along the lines of the Planet Hulk arc.

[ackblom12]

Yeah, Hulk is pretty difficult lead character to do well in film format for some damn reason. It may have something to do with how bad Hollywood is at mixing proper character development and action, but it's pretty much always either really bad and unenjoyable, or enjoyable camp.

[Lupercal]

Bingo - the key word there being development.

The Hulk movies of the past generally just have Hulk in an uncontrollable rage smashing the shit out of things and killing army guys. Always confused me that at the end of the 2008 version, Ed Norton gives this little green-eyed smirk, as if his previous torment, pain and forced seclusion was just leading up to everything being 'ok'. Also, Liv Tyler was awful. Actually, the premise of good Hulk vs Bad brown Hulk was just lazy to be honest. Based on what I saw in the Avengers and the after-credit sequence for Iron Man 3, Ruffalo is a great choice and hopefully the writers are being careful enough with h im - the decision to not make him a super-serious character in The Avengers definitely made him more memorable in the long run.

[TheEvilDog]

I think both Norton and Ruffalo brought to the fore different versions of Bruce Banner, from different eras of the comics. Norton is the younger Bruce, still trying to find a cure for his transformation, still dealing with all the emotions that he had previously kept to himself. Ruffalo, on the other hand, is the later Bruce, tired from always having to run away and now possesses a weary acceptance of the other guy.

Both played their characterisations of Banner quite well, in my opinion and its quite likely Norton would have been brought back for Avengers if he hadn't acted the primadonna about several things.

As for RDJ in Avengers, it became pretty clear that the team pretty knew who was going to be breakout star, you can see it in the promotional pictures, as the likes of Chris Evans and Chris Helmsworth were moved from having an equal standing with RDJ and pushed further and further back. Part of that though is that a lot of people saw Robert Downey Jr's lowest point in the 90s and the slow road he's taking in rebuilding his career, because in their mind, its not Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (Who was himself a take on Howard Hughes), its Robert Downey Jr as himself.  Both have gone from being strongly disliked individuals to well loved and incredibly popular. He's the former bad boy and people love it.

[Edguy]

To answer your question Edguy, no, I don't think we'll see proportional growth for the upcoming Phase II sequels. The Avengers was very cleverly designed to be both a sequel crossover, and a starting point for a lot of people who weren't going to watch Iron Man 2.5, but were going to watch the most talked about summer blockbuster. Hell, I know people who went to see Iron Man 3 without seeing the previous 2 - and really, it was again a product of design for its audience. It was a sequel to the Avengers, more than it was a sequel to Iron Man 2.

Thor and Cpt. America don't have the legs that Iron Man does. The original theatrical trailers for The Avengers made it look like Tony Star and Friends. Robert Downy Jr is hands down the most marketable out of the entire league of all involved in the MCU and that's what it really boils down to.

Yeah, breaking the billion dollar mark seems pretty unlikely, but is $6-700M-ish too unlikely? While RDJ is the obvious star of the franchise, being in the top league with the likes of Depp and DiCaprio now, the rest of the franchise should enjoy some considerable growth after The Avengers, as well?! I don't think $600M for CA and $700M for Thor is too unrealistic.

About Hulk, I think it's fair to say he fares best as a supporting character. Especially the way they have developed him in the MCU, as just being the angry side of Bruce Banner, as opposed to a completely different personality. I really hope they don't go the way of Planet Hulk/WW Hulk. I can't for the life of me picturing those being even remotely good.

[Thrillho]

I saw most of the films leading up to the Avengers Assemble movie, except for Iron Man 2. Iron Man was great, Thor was meh but I will always take a chance to ogel Natalie Portman, Captain America was fuckyeah entertaining but not really a very good movie and the Hulks both kinda sucked.

I liked Avengers Assemble a lot, though. Here is my review for an indication of just how much I liked it. Caution, here be 700 words: http://pronomo.co.uk/2012/05/19/film-review-avengers-assemble/

(click to show/hide)

TL:DR; I think it's the greatest superhero movie ever made

[ackblom12]

I think Unbreakable still takes that title for me. Dark Knight is a close second, but that might be because of Ledger's Joker and how much I love Nolan's critical deconstruction of supers. Nolan isn't real fond of them.

[Edguy]

I actually thought the Watchmen movie was pretty damn good 

[Thrillho]

Really? I thought Watchmen kinda sucked.

[ackblom12]

I enjoyed it despite the flaws, but it's been outdone by so many other Costumed Hero films since then that it's quickly lost ground.

[Edguy]

Really? I thought Watchmen kinda sucked.

I guess it's one of those "hate it or love it" films. I actually think Snyder is a great director, and I can't help but love his VFX scenes. As opposed to Nolan's awkward SFX explotions and stiff fighting scenes.

I have high hopes they can compliment each other pretty well on Man of Steel.

[LeeC]

sooo uh random "conspiracy theory" on why coulson may still be alive for the SHIELD TV show....

(click to show/hide)

http://imgur.com/gallery/mK26d

I doubt it but you never know.....

[TheEvilDog]

Or Phil got to the Erebus Casino and won a second life.

[Lupercal]

sooo uh random "conspiracy theory" on why coulson may still be alive for the SHIELD TV show....

(click to show/hide)

http://imgur.com/gallery/mK26d

I doubt it but you never know.....

Holy crap. Mind = blown! I try to watch the Phase I films and notice stuff like that but damn. When is the TV show supposed to be set? Between the Avengers movies? I suppose it has to be post-Avengers...

[Edguy]

It has been confirmed to take place after The Avengers, yes.

[Edguy]

Some gossip about Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers 2.

EDIT;

The rumors of Vin Diesel being in talks for appearing in the MCU are more or less confirmed.

[Edguy]

Avengers sequel officially annouced and named; Avengers: Age of Ultron

Thoughts?

[Blue Kitty]

People are in an uproar that Hank Pym won't be involved with Ultron, at least that's what Joss Whedon is saying.

[ackblom12]

Because comics find continuity oh so important. :p

[Edguy]

If I'm to guess, I'd say Hank Pym is involved in making Ultron in Avengers 2, but doesn't become Ant-Man until his own film, later that year. At least, that' what I would have done. That would be a sure way to generate interest and awareness around the otherwise pretty obscure Ant-Man film. On the other hand, though, from what I've previously heard, Wright's Ant-Man film is supposed to be it's own thing, not serving the MCU in such a big degree. But things change, maybe they've changed the script to serve better with the larger universe.

[Blue Kitty]

The other day, Joss Whedon revealed that Avengers: Age of Ultron won't feature Ultron's creator, mad scientist Hank Pym. Just now, we were interviewing Edgar Wright about his new film The World's End, and he told us that we will, indeed, meet Hank Pym in Wright's Ant-Man movie

[Lupercal]

If you've loved Logan for almost 40 years, here he is.

Original site for the aspects of keeping the artist's work their own, etc.

[Edguy]

The other day, Joss Whedon revealed that Avengers: Age of Ultron won't feature Ultron's creator, mad scientist Hank Pym. Just now, we were interviewing Edgar Wright about his new film The World's End, and he told us that we will, indeed, meet Hank Pym in Wright's Ant-Man movie

Meh, never believe the details they spill when asked like that. When asked direct questions about characters they haven't revealed yet, they some times choose a white lie before releasing info they weren't planning to release yet (or info that isn't 100 % certain at that point). Not saying that has to be the case, but it is a possibility. It would seem kind of silly wasting an opportunity like this to promote the Ant-Man film.

[TheEvilDog]

In all fairness, Henry Pym has had several successors (and at least one pretender). Ant-man has seen Scott Lang and Eric O'Grady take up the mantel, then going into Giant-Man and Bill Foster, who also went by the name Goliath, as did Clint Barton, Foster's nephew Tom and the former villain Erik Josten. Hell, there's even an evil Life Decoy Model of Eric O'Grady still running around the Marvel universe.

Directors are always going to have a little fun messing around with people's heads, giving them false information and twisting things a little bit. It gets even more twisted when you start adapting comics. Giving that Hank Pym and Scott Lang are slated to be major characters, it might be that Pym causes Ultron to go on the rampage in Age of Ultron and Scott Lang taking over in the Ant-man film. Or it could be a dozen other ideas. We just don't know.

[Edguy]

So, Thor: TDW is out soon, who's excited? It has been getting decent reviews so far!

Also, how well do you think it will do at the box office? Considering the immense gross of Iron Man 3 post-Avengers, it should be able to do at least 6-700 million worldwide, don't you agree?

[Blue Kitty]

I really liked Thor, hopefully they can keep the same humor and energy from the first film.

[LookingIn]

Anyone keeping up with the tie-in TV show Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

It's directly tied into the movie universe with references and featuring a somehow reanimated Agent Coulson, with the mystery of him surviving the Avengers movie or the circumstances of his being there at all being a season-long story arc. Nick Fury and Maria Hill have made cameos in the show, but otherwise this is taking place between and alongside movies timewise.

[Thrillho]

Watched a bit of it and I kinda hate it. It's incredibly 90s in its staging and writing. I just don't think it's very interesting.

[Method of Madness]

It's fun enough to keep me watching, but nothing great.

[LookingIn]

Watched a bit of it and I kinda hate it. It's incredibly 90s in its staging and writing. I just don't think it's very interesting.

Considering the writer, it's not a shock. He has the same structured storytelling style, which was born in the 90s. It's worked well for him so far, his fans seem to enjoy it even if ratings don't support his works.

[Jimmy the Squid]

I'm really enjoying the films (I just had an Avenger's Marathon a few weeks ago when I bought the "Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One" boxed set). Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is fun. It's very reminiscent of Whedon's earlier work in that it'll take a while for it to get up to speed but the more recent episodes are already leagues ahead of the pilot which is exactly what's happened in basically everything but Firefly (which was great all the way through). It's mostly being written by Whedon's brother, who co-wrote Avengers, so there's some differences in style but it's relying heavily on Whedon tropes (young, attractive adventurers kicking the shit out of bad guys while being overly witty) which to be fair, fits in very well with the whole comic book feel.

(click to show/hide)

I'm thinking that Coulson's resurrection is going to factor in to The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. I'm betting he's eventually going to become Vision.

[Edguy]

Just watched The Dark World, was a lot better than the first, I'm happy to say! The fight scenes and effects were very interesting, it was chock-full of mostly well executed humor (the film was always on the border to being too unserious about itself, but never seemed to cross it, imo) Hiddleston was great as always, and I really enjoyed his arc in the film! The plot and events were full of logical holes, within the universe's internal logic, but in a movie with so much magic and technology and space and Tolkien-ish lore, that could hardly have been avoided. It never really bothered me much, and I'm the kind of guy that really notices logical holes in films. Really got me pumped for The Winter Soldier and everything that comes next! Btw; there's a post credit scene, obviously. And another one. Definitively worth a few minutes of credits.

I'm really enjoying the films (I just had an Avenger's Marathon a few weeks ago when I bought the "Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One" boxed set). Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is fun. It's very reminiscent of Whedon's earlier work in that it'll take a while for it to get up to speed but the more recent episodes are already leagues ahead of the pilot which is exactly what's happened in basically everything but Firefly (which was great all the way through). It's mostly being written by Whedon's brother, who co-wrote Avengers, so there's some differences in style but it's relying heavily on Whedon tropes (young, attractive adventurers kicking the shit out of bad guys while being overly witty) which to be fair, fits in very well with the whole comic book feel.

I've watched the three first episodes, I believe, and while I liked it, I find I'm mostly just watching it because it's MCU. The witticism is pulled one step too far for my liking. It's no fun when every character is "the witty and jokey one". Pleased to hear it gets better tho!

(click to show/hide)

I'm thinking that Coulson's resurrection is going to factor in to The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. I'm betting he's eventually going to become Vision.

You're not alone in this theory Time will tell!

[Method of Madness]

Mind if I ask how you saw it? Do you work at a movie theater?

[Edguy]

Mind if I ask how you saw it? Do you work at a movie theater?

I live in Europe.

[Method of Madness]

It came out earlier there? Weird.

[Edguy]

Not really 

[Method of Madness]

Why does it make any sense to release things later in different countries? It's asking for your stuff to be pirated.

[Pilchard123]

One part of cynic/conspiracist me would say that's because they actually do want it to be pirated. Then they can cry about how nasty people are stealing their lunch money.

[Method of Madness]

Ha, holy shit, I just thought of something. I wonder if piracy can be written off as a loss for tax purposes.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Yeah I'm in Vienna, Austria at the moment and for lack of anything better to do I went to see The Dark World twice. It's actually quite good and overall a better film than the first one. Almost everyone plays their roles well and characters that we didn't really see much of in the first one get fleshed out a little more which is really nice. Probably the main problem I had with this one is Jane Foster being a pretty boring damsel in distress. Given that she's also meant to be a physicist with several degrees, she's played kind of dumb throughout and I feel like Portman kind of phoned this one in. Given that she apparently only wanted to do the first one to work with Kenneth Branagh I can kind of see the lack of enthusiasm in her performance. Otherwise, very good.

[Edguy]

Why does it make any sense to release things later in different countries? It's asking for your stuff to be pirated.

I don't think piracy is a big issue before the release of DVD/Br. Who the hell downloads cam recordings anyways? 

Anyways, I'm sure there's a lot of factors that work in on the distribution schedule. Some times it's not the best option to release a movie the same week in every region.