The MCU - Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Tallguy 5,653]

2 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I think Raimi's film, for all its shortcomings, is a more interesting film overall. I do prefer the score, too, as it has more astute dramatically.

 

Karol

 

I get why it's more interesting. But it's also not good. "By the numbers" and good is better than wild and weird and not good. (The one thing I enjoyed about Strange 2 was that it was my kids' first Raimi movie and it actually scared them.)

[crocodile 9,206]

3 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

I get why it's more interesting. But it's also not good. "By the numbers" and good is better than wild and weird and not good. (The one thing I enjoyed about Strange 2 was that it was my kids' first Raimi movie and it actually scared them.)

What's so bad about it?

 

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

Its fine.

[Edmilson 10,517]

My pick for "MCU film that most people consider mid but I like it anyway" is Ant-Man and the Wasp . Christophe Beck's score is so good.

 

As for Giacchino's Dr Strange, I tried numerous times but I can't bring myself to like it. I have with this score the same problem that I have with Lorne Balfe's Fallout: I can recognize its qualities, but when I think that we could be listening to a much better score from an underrated composer who should be working on blockbusters like those (in M: I's case, Joe Kraemer, in Strange's is Chris Young) I just become unable to actually like the music.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

My pick for "MCU film that most people consider mid but I like it anyway" is Ant-Man and the Wasp . Christophe Beck's score is so good.

 

Its great ensemble movie

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

 

I get why it's more interesting. But it's also not good. "By the numbers" and good is better than wild and weird and not good. (The one thing I enjoyed about Strange 2 was that it was my kids' first Raimi movie and it actually scared them.)

At least watching it I could say: that's Raimi! You don't really get anything like that in the other MCU films.

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

My pick for "MCU film that most people consider mid but I like it anyway" is Ant-Man and the Wasp . Christophe Beck's score is so good.

 

As for Giacchino's Dr Strange, I tried numerous times but I can't bring myself to like it. I have with this score the same problem that I have with Lorne Balfe's Fallout: I can recognize its qualities, but when I think that we could be listening to a much better score from an underrated composer who should be working on blockbusters like those (in M: I's case, Joe Kraemer, in Strange's is Chris Young) I just become unable to actually like the music.

So you can't enjoy what is, because of what isn't?

[Tallguy 5,653]

52 minutes ago, Meredith McKay said:

You don't really get anything like that in the other MCU films.

 

It's there any way his two Avengers films could be MORE Whedon?

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

 

It's there any way his two Avengers films could be MORE Whedon?

True, I haven't seen much Whedon (just the 2 Avengers, SHIELD and Josstice League, and a couple episodes of Dollhouse)

[ddddeeee 486]

I like Doctor Strange, but I find it very disappointing that the MCU's first foray into sorcerers and magic was essentially hand combat with flashing lights. 

 

I like Giacchino's theme a lot and enjoy the eastern instrumentation, but his dramatic writing still just feels like meandering chords to me. His action writing isn't as limp as in his Spider-Man scores, but it's still lacking. Elfman's writing is much stronger despite the less memorable theme. I think a cross between the two - Giacchino's orchestration and theme with Elfman's superior musical dramaturgy - would be ideal, actually.

 

Raimi's film is a lot less tight than the first, but I find what it's going for - both Strange and Wanda confronting. in very different ways, the fact that despite all their powers, they're not happy -  quite compelling, even if the execution is messy. Wanda's character losing her autonomy after WandaVision is really unfortunate, but Olsen's so good that I can let it go. I also appreciate that the conflict wasn't resolved by who could punch harder or who could outthink the other (Raimi's quite good at this in general).

[mstrox 7,215]

The first one was fine, a perfectly cromulent entry into the MCU.  The second one had a lot more interesting Things within it - character moments, cool stuff, jokes - but also felt a bit disjointed, kind of similar to Thor 4.  Maybe a result of late-in-the-game pivots, or the general COVID of it all?  I haven’t seen either again, but we’re starting an MCU watch with our kid soon so I’ll see them both a second time eventually.

[Edmilson 10,517]

6 years ago 

 

 

[Brando 2,469]

My favorite theater experience. It was such a blast to get to watch Endgame the first time with a theater full of fans. So much fun.

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

3 minutes ago, Brando said:

My favorite theater experience. It was such a blast to get to watch Endgame the first time with a theater full of fans. So much fun.

It was actually one of my first times consciously watching the film before listening to the soundtrack.

[Brando 2,469]

30 minutes ago, Meredith McKay said:

It was actually one of my first times consciously watching the film before listening to the soundtrack.

Yeah I never listen to the soundtrack first. Doing that with Marvel is risky with musical spoilers haha

[Edmilson 10,517]

51 minutes ago, Brando said:

My favorite theater experience. It was such a blast to get to watch Endgame the first time with a theater full of fans. So much fun.

Mine as well. Not only the theater was packed with fans but also my friends were with me and it made the experience even more special.

 

5 hours ago, Meredith McKay said:

At least watching it I could say: that's Raimi! You don't really get anything like that in the other MCU films.

Raimi's talent unfortunately wasn't enough to save this movie from a truly horrible script where the screenwriter didn't even know about Wanda's arc in WandaVision before turning her into a murderous supervillain. And yet Marvel wanted that guy to write the new Avengers movies, thank goodness he (and the dude who "wrote" Quantumania) got kicked out.

 

5 hours ago, Meredith McKay said:

So you can't enjoy what is, because of what isn't?

Absolutely! Especially because I can't enjoy those scores at all. Even without taking into account what could've been with Kraemer and Young, I still don't care about them.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AWkPFj83D/

 

Just bring all these old Fox characters into the MCU, since they're already doing it in funny book land.

[Brando 2,469]

24 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Mine as well. Not only the theater was packed with fans but also my friends were with me and it made the experience even more special.

The air being sucked out of the room when this happened is something I'll never forget

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

30 minutes ago, Brando said:

The air being sucked out of the room when this happened is something I'll never forget

Were you expecting it to fly to Cap?

[Edmilson 10,517]

55 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Just bring all these old Fox characters into the MCU, since they're already doing it in funny book land.

Phase 10 of the MCU will be Avengers vs X-Men vs Aliens vs Predator vs Kevin McCallister.

[Brando 2,469]

1 hour ago, Meredith McKay said:

Were you expecting it to fly to Cap?

No, just the surprise of it was amazing 

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

10 minutes ago, Brando said:

No, just the surprise of it was amazing 

I was like 

 

along with this scene: 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Phase 10 of the MCU will be Avengers vs X-Men vs Aliens vs Predator vs Kevin McCallister.

 

Not as far-fetched as people might think. Disney swallowed up all these other franchises, so chances are it'll use them in this distorted fanficcy crossover capacity. It'll become a thing in the 2030s.

[Brando 2,469]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Phase 10 of the MCU will be Avengers vs X-Men vs Aliens vs Predator vs Kevin McCallister.

How much prep time does Kevin get?

[Brando 2,469]

[Edmilson 10,517]

Preview of the score to Thunderbolts:

 

Eh, I was kinda hoping for the first MCU full on electronic score. Didn't their music for Everything Everywhere was full synth?

[Yavar Moradi 3,597]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Everything Everywhere was full synth?

 

Nope! This podcast episode on the 2023 Oscar score nominees has an examination of the score and its varied elements: https://www.settlingthescorepodcast.com/58-2023-oscars-special/

 

Yavar

[Mysterio 68]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Preview of the score to Thunderbolts:

 

Eh, I was kinda hoping for the first MCU full on electronic score. Didn't their music for Everything Everywhere was full synth?

Superheroes Film scores shouldn't be synth. You can experimant in tv shows but the movies should be mostly orchestral, it works better in my opinion!

[Yavar Moradi 3,597]

I dunno... I love the traditional orchestra sound, but I also think different superheroes and different directors/film styles merit a diverse number of approaches, possibly even an all-synth one.

Yavar

[crocodile 9,206]

Quite a lot of Thor: Ragnarok was synth based. And it was quite fun.

 

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

Superman: The Movie is the baseline for every Superhero score, which is why they're all a bit of a letdown really.

 

 

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

*The Shadow.

[Edmilson 10,517]

Yep. I mean, I love orchestral film music, but it has been the basis for almost every blockbuster. A full electronic score for a film like Thunderbolts would be a nice way of doing something different and bold.

 

Now that I think about it, we did get a synth score for a major superhero production over the last few years. Resznor and Ross scored that Ninja Turtles cartoon from a couple years back.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

It would be a lot cheaper and easier to go synth only anyway.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

It's really hard and time consuming modulating all those synth tones.

[A24 4,813]

 

 I got synths! 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

2 minutes ago, A24 said:

 

 I got synths! 

 

The Dutch John Williams!

[Edmilson 10,517]

On 29/04/2025 at 2:43 PM, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

 

The Dutch Hans Zimmer!

Fixed

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

Techno DJ fancies himself as a film composer.

[Mysterio 68]

10 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Techno DJ fancies himself as a film composer.

I saw Thunderbolts* yesterday and i gotta say it was a good movie. Fast paced, funny and some pretty dark scenes for an MCU film which i love. The cast is great, they work so well together but the 2 main actors, florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman are the standouts. Pretty good acting overall. The only complain that i have is the villain, Valentina, she's nothing special, a regular careless villain that doesn't care about anyone. 

 

Sentry/The Void is a chef's kiss, Sentry doesn't have a lot of scenes but The Void was great, some great Horror-esque moments with him

 

Overall good movie, i will see it again this week, and that End Credit scene, my god it was beautiful. They referenced Alan Silvestri's Avengers themes a couple of times which was unexpected.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

7 minutes ago, Mysterio said:

I saw Thunderbolts* yesterday and i gotta say it was a good movie. Fast paced, funny and some pretty dark scenes for an MCU film which i love. The cast is great, they work so well together but the 2 main actors, florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman are the standouts. Pretty good acting overall. The only complain that i have is the villain, Valentina, she's nothing special, a regular careless villain that doesn't care about anyone. 

 

Sentry/The Void is a chef's kiss, Sentry doesn't have a lot of scenes but The Void was great, some great Horror-esque moments with him

 

Overall good movie, i will see it again this week, and that End Credit scene, my god it was beautiful. They referenced Alan Silvestri's Avengers themes a couple of times which was unexpected.

 

Wait are you talking to me?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

12 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Fixed

 

Holkenborg is classically trained though. 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

You really wouldn't think so if you hadn't heard his Sonic scores.

[Giftheck 1,108]

Or Terminator, or Godzilla/Kong

[Mysterio 68]

2 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

 

Wait are you talking to me?

Oh my bad i didn't see that i responded to you, sorry

[Naïve Old Fart 11,648]

2 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Wait are you talking to me?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,935]

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2.

 

James Gunn had a huge financial and cultural hit with the first one. 

For the second it looks like he could do whatever he wanted and does.

 

The title sequence says it all, and the movie doesn't shut up even during the end credits.

 

Its a very colorful looking movie. Like Ragnarok a bit later. 

 

Sylvester Stallone's cameo is pretty awesome 

 

Chris Pratt is at his most muscular ever here. Its quite funny he gained weight in Infinity Wars, to make it funny

[crocodile 9,206]

Watched Thunderbolts* this morning. It wasn't amazing but at least felt, shall we say, less corporate than some of the recent MCU stuff. There was an idea there and it was going for some kind of tone at least. I like that it put some emphasis on characters, even if some bits got bit repetitive.

 

The score was interesting in parts but bit too overbearing elsewhere. The music was mixed quite loud.

 

Two things that surprised me is that:

 

Spoiler

They eliminated Kurylenko's Taskmaster very quick. I was genuinely expecting her to reappear later on in the film.

 

And the hearing sublot got cut really short. It sort of went nowhere. There must be some deleted material there.

 

Karol

[Edmilson 10,517]

 

[Director of Poltergeist 8,112]

Why is Florence Pug suddenly in everything? It's only a matter of time until she's in some Disney SW production I'll never watch, a Marty Scorsese Leo flick I'll never see and whatever else. These actors nowadays suddenly show up in everything everywhere all at once when you'd never heard of them before.

[Edmilson 10,517]

9 hours ago, crocodile said:

but bit too overbearing elsewhere. The music was mixed quite loud.

Ah yes, the Nolan/Villeneuve school of how to use music in your movie