Board 8 > Black Widow topic (marked spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

scarletspeed7 posted...

Be happy they didn't waste Taskmaster as the lackey to what I would say is the single least-interesting Marvel Cinematic main villain in the entire 20+ film run thus far.

Are we talking about the "Mandarin" here?

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Are we talking about the "Mandarin" here?

We're talking about Black Widow. And the Mandarin wasn't the main villain of IM3!

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Heard we are getting the real Mandarin in Shang Chi.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

He sadly was. The Bin Laden knockoff was not the Mandarin.

And yeah this villain is soooooo bad. He literally is not in the movie outside of like, five minutes.

Ulti.

Aldrich Killian is the main villain in IM3. Please.

You're right about Ray Winstone though. Five minutes sounds about right, too, which is crazy.

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I didn't mind that they made Taskmaster a silent killer. I only really know him from UMvC3 where he's one of my mains, but I knew they weren't gonna use that voice bc it's basically Rocket's voice, so actually not having any voice is better imo. I think they were a little too subtle with the copied moves though, since they were there but most people didn't notice them aside from the Cap shield stuff.

MrGreenonion posted...

I didn't mind that they made Taskmaster a silent killer. I only really know him from UMvC3 where he's one of my mains, but I knew they weren't gonna use that voice bc it's basically Rocket's voice, so actually not having any voice is better imo. I think they were a little too subtle with the copied moves though, since they were there but most people didn't notice them aside from the Cap shield stuff.

Yo what? Lol

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVxocz5bCms

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SwiftyDC posted...

Heard we are getting the real Mandarin in Shang Chi.

Latest trailer featured him pretty prominently

looks great!

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Grand Kirby posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVxocz5bCms

I really want to punch this guy in the face but his videos are always on point.

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MrGreenonion posted...

I think they were a little too subtle with the copied moves though, since they were there but most people didn't notice them aside from the Cap shield stuff.

Marvel fanatics are so crazy that even if Taskmaster fart they will go like "hey this is exactly how The Hulk farts!!" Or some shit

But us generic fans really couldn't notice that. Cap was the most obvious. Using a arrow one or twice was also easy to notice Hawkeye. That sharpening claws thing as Black Panther too. But that's it.

And they were so proud of Taskmaster copying powers. They said it like 3 or 4 times in the movie

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Johnbobb posted...

I don't love Taskmaster as the silent, brooding villain. I get they made her silent to not spoil the reveal, but they took the entire personality out of the character.

I haven't watched yet but this is a little disappointing, a voice modulator would have been completely fine for taskmaster.

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

I haven't watched yet but this is a little disappointing, a voice modulator would have been completely fine for taskmaster.

Having watched it, no. Trust me, they didn't just keep the character silent to hide their identity. The character is also silent because Taskmaster literally has nothing to say that could possibly add to the movie.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Having watched it, no. Trust me, they didn't just keep the character silent to hide their identity. The character is also silent because Taskmaster literally has nothing to say that could possibly add to the movie.

That is also a little disappointing. I'm going to see the movie regardless and I don't expect it to disappoint because I'm a huge Marvel fanboy, but small things like that do make me see it as missed opportunities.

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Without knowing anything about Taskmaster other than what I've been reading here and elsewhere about the movie, it sounds to me like it might've been too much for them to have their genuine personality when the movie already had Yelena and Alexei being jokey or sarcastic much of the time.

But then that's probably just more of an argument to not put Taskmaster in the movie at all, and just make the soldier someone else/someone new.

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Yeah that's mostly the thing about the use of "Taskmaster" that bugs me... they really don't make it feel like they needed the moveset copying, so when that's the only thing the movie version has in common, it feels a bit weird.

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I don't have any personal attachment to Taskmaster but yeah I don't really get why they used them in this movie. Taskmaster's role in this movie seemed to be to have one really cool fight scene in the beginning on the bridge and then mostly be beside the point for the rest of it - the reveal was predictable and I don't think really deepened Natasha's story in any meaningful way.

Whoever put Taskmaster in this movie must have really loved the Wolverine Origins version of Deadpool, huh?


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I liked the movie, it was fun. I didn't really get the main villain's motivations. Taskmaster was awesome but ended up just being a bit on BW's redemption arc that I didn't really care about. It took a little while for the humor to feel like it was OK to laugh at. I'm happy with over-the-top action, though some of the CG was a little iffy.

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profDEADPOOL posted...

Yeah that's mostly the thing about the use of "Taskmaster" that bugs me... they really don't make it feel like they needed the moveset copying, so when that's the only thing the movie version has in common, it feels a bit weird.

Yeah, Taskmaster not being needed definitely rings true when the copy abilities aren't really important in any way either, they're just about adding in a few different flashy moves that viewers can go "oh that's Captain America's thing!"

Like it'd be one thing if they used an actual character like Taskmaster with a personality, but if all they wanted was copy abilities they could've at least had a purpose/use for them but nah.

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Finally saw Black Widow.

This might be my least favorite MCU movie. There is just barely anything here and a lot of the action scenes just felt entirely too overtop, which normally in a superhero movie is fine but Black Widow is supposed to be the most grounded among them.

Taskmaster could not have been a bigger letdown and I actually knew what was coming. The people defending the character are ridiculous. This villain is nothing. Just a husk. And her only line is about A MAN.

Speaking of, the villain is just fucking Harvey Weinstein. That's it. You just had your villain be Harvey Weinstein. She literally walks into his office and he's sitting on a couch. Just read between the lines and it's obvious what they were going for. Like fuck Harvey Weinstein, but who made the call to make his stand-in be the main villain of a superhero movie? You couldn't have done anything cooler?

The worst part of the movie was just how boring it was. Red Guardian and Yelena Bologna livened things up a bit but they seemed like they were barely involved.

Just not a good movie all around. I don't know what they were thinking with a lot of choices in this one.

Edit: Oh and while we're saying it, Taskmaster using copy abilities was just so underutilized. Total waste of a cool character and idea, only meant to draw in fans of the character and nothing more to watch this film.

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Pretty good stuff! Enjoyed it the whole way through. Didn't blow me away (dinner scene was the highlight), but it didn't have any real flaws, IMO.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I also absolutely adore Taskmaster. I haven't seen the movie yet, but this has all deflated my interest in it. I just don't understand the choice here, especially after everyone has been big on literally every Taskmaster appearance in other media where he gets to have a personality. This is just such a bizarre choice.

Spider-Man 2018 (game) is the only thing I've seen Taskmaster in, and he was one of the more boring characters in that. BW version definitely superior.
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Taskmaster in this movie is like they put Originspool and the Phantom Menace version of Darth Maul into a blender, and then removed what ever personality happened to squeeze through.

They're not ever a character, honestly. Birds of Prey did Cassandra Cain less dirty than this, honestly.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Spider-Man 2018 (game) is the only thing I've seen Taskmaster in, and he was one of the more boring characters in that. BW version definitely superior.

Geez I having played yet, but he must be fucking horrendous in that case lol.

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Taskmaster wasn't great in this but at least the character is still around to potentially develop in the proper direction. Or just have the copying tech stolen by Tony Masters since Antonia going that way seems a little weird, they have ways to get a proper Taskmaster set up.

Watched this tonight and thought it was pretty bad, to be honest.

The start had a pretty cool feeling and was pretty engaging but as things went on it just started to feel weighed down by so much wasted potential and generally poor writing. By the end I was really bored and just waiting for it to be over.

So much little wasted stuff like the jacket pockets joke and all of Red Guardian's ridiculous stories. Like I was expecting those to result in a moment where a vial gets pulled out of one of those pockets for a last second save or a cool moment where Red Guardian is able to fend off Taskmaster because of his dumb Captain America stories, but no. None of that stuff comes back in any meaningful way and is just pointless dialogue.

On the opposite end you had a lot of stuff that comes out of nowhere with no proper set up, like the masks switcheroo or Taskmaster being able to copy stuff just because, or villain-whose-name-I-literally-can't-even-remember having a pheromone defense just because he does.

It's not the worst Marvel movie nor is it actively bad, but IMO this was just barely passable without any actively bad parts - I'd give it a 5/10.

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Spider-Man 2018 (game) is the only thing I've seen Taskmaster in, and he was one of the more boring characters in that. BW version definitely superior.

I actually cannot fathom having this opinion that the BW version is superior to anything. The BW version doesn't even do anything. lol

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Taskmaster was my favorite character to play as in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 v_v

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ln39_LyVU

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I liked this quite a bit. Some of the Taskmaster takes are baffling, they are clearly being set up for more. Theyre not the main villain, and if they had spoken more the character couldnt work in the story. If Taskmaster is your fave in the comics that would be unfortunate however as the story of this film goes it is fine and that is all that matters for this film. And if you fo want to see that Taskmaster, no need to worry as they will get there.

Otherwise it was solid. I enjoyed that it actually stuck to its genre roots and didnt go into generic superhero fare near the end like Winter Soldier does. Florence Pugh was predictably amazing. I enjoyed the brutality (shocked this got away with a 12) and the darkness of the themes, the entire film was essentially a thesis on the exploitation of young women by powerful creeps and it really worked. Its probably the most effective message in a Marvel film.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Speaking of, the villain is just fucking Harvey Weinstein. That's it. You just had your villain be Harvey Weinstein. She literally walks into his office and he's sitting on a couch. Just read between the lines and it's obvious what they were going for. Like fuck Harvey Weinstein, but who made the call to make his stand-in be the main villain of a superhero movie? You couldn't have done anything cooler?

To that point I simply have to say and? With what this movie is about and the themes it is dealing with how could any other kind of villain be appropriate? They also clearly took a lot from Epstein as well, but that tracks with what this film is actually saying.

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Lightning Strikes posted...

To that point I simply have to say and? With what this movie is about and the themes it is dealing with how could any other kind of villain be appropriate? They also clearly took a lot from Epstein as well, but that tracks with what this film is actually saying.

To put it simply... it was extremely lame and a laughable attempt to make this exploitation of women story in a movie like this. Like dude, they literally had her unable to strike back at him, inexplicably, because of the power of being MALE with pheromones to try showing the helplessness of women in that position. Further to that, we can do better as a Harvey Weinstein stand in than some chubby short dude. It's a superhero movie. Give us someone who is actually... cool? At all? Not just some loser whose name I can't even remember, and all I can remember about him is that he looked like Harvey Weinstein.

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