Board 8 > MCU General 19: Could the MCU be Born Again?

(+) Yeah! (+)

honestly I think I'm checked out at this point

agatha was p good but beyond that I haven't liked much post endgame

will just tune in for doomsday

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I watched the last three episodes of Ironheart.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, but the conclusion felt... in a way, rushed? And I kind of hated how a lot of the last two episodes shook out from a storyline perspective since episode 4 seemed promising. I think it ends entirely too abruptly too and who even knows if we're getting a continuation of Ironheart now because it's so abrupt and not entirely satisfying as a result. It feels like the set up for a final episode we're never getting because there's so many loose threads with no hints at anything in the future.

I think, ultimately, the Hood isn't used as well as he should have been. He's kind of a punk ass, in the wrong ways. His arc is such a disappointment and I wish they had went in a different direction with it. Ezekiel Stane is used terribly, and the character is just really awful in so many ways? Not entertaining? Really stupid? Should have been done a million times better? It's honestly embarrassing how badly they scuffed this character and how dumb and disjointed his arc is.

But there's one thing that may actually make these last two episodes worth it one million percent. Gonna spoiler tag it. Sascha Baron Cohen as Mephisto is absolutely incredible. Best part of the whole series by a mile. He's compelling, swarmy, entertaining, and just utterly intriguing. Again, I have to stress I don't know if or when we'll ever see him again, but it's such a disservice if we never do because oh my god, he's just so good. This Mephisto is perfect. Throw Mephisto anywhere for me, please. I would give up everything else in Ironheart to just get Mephisto in something again.

Overall, I did really enjoy Ironheart until these last two episodes where it skids to a halt and falls flat on its face. Aside from the thing I talked about in the spoilers, the entirety of it just really, really sucks. Actually, I'll go ahead and say I thought the first part of episode 5 was solid too. It's just that there's a point where it all just crashes off a cliff and it's baffling that it ends up the way it does. It's very disappointing for a show I was genuinely hoping would end up being great from how it started. But instead, it's just another MCU show that doesn't know how to end.

And uh, are we ever going to see Ironheart again? Are we ever going to see anything from this series again? Maybe in the not-Young Avengers? The MCU kind of doesn't have the benefit of a doubt that we'll see something again when it's hinted at anymore.

Finally got back to Ironheart and...yeah, it does not stick the landing and felt like they chopped the last bits of story off because they only had 6 episodes.

Ezekiel Stane just comes across as that dude from Infamous.

Mephisto though...yeah, SUPER intriguing. Just immediately commands your attention and interest.

I kind of just hated Riri? She's everything bad everyone says she is. Also, given the deal she made, she decided to bring back her best friend instead of her step dad?!? I suppose she didn't really know that would be the end result but still kind of a curious decision.

Early reactions for FF are *really* positive which is promising

Even using the lens of reading through the lines you have to use with social media impressions it sounds positive, and Disney moved the embargo up which is a sign of confidence in this. It sounds like the visuals, production design, and performances are great though the story is basically just what you expect. In other words aligning with how the trailers seem.

FFDragon posted...

honestly I think I'm checked out at this point

agatha was p good but beyond that I haven't liked much post endgame

will just tune in for doomsday

They clearly rejigged everything from Thunderbolts* on so that is the clear jumping back on point. Its also one of their best films and if were being honest Doomsday probably wont be as good as that was!

Thunderbolts* director is now confirmed to be doing the X-Men film.

Bruh, all of these Kevin Feige comments today are basically just "We know we fucked up, god. We fucked up so bad. We're so sorry we fucked up so bad. Just let us run it back. We'll fix it I swear. Fuck." And obviously just anything justifying their awful decisions and movies/TV without just saying "The quality was very bad" which is the main issue of anything.

They're even throwing Spider-Man back on the streets of New York again instead of high stakes multiversal timelines. lol

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Bruh, all of these Kevin Feige comments today are basically just "We know we fucked up, god. We fucked up so bad. We're so sorry we fucked up so bad. Just let us run it back. We'll fix it I swear. Fuck." And obviously just anything justifying their awful decisions and movies/TV without just saying "The quality was very bad" which is the main issue of anything.

They're even throwing Spider-Man back on the streets of New York again instead of high stakes multiversal timelines. lol

Link, bruh?

....deadline split it into multiple articles it seems (i haven't read any of these, just saw the comments were reported in Deadline)

https://deadline.com/2025/07/marvel-fantastic-four-blade-kevin-feige-1236462995/

https://deadline.com/2025/07/marvel-superman-kevin-feige-1236462997/

MartinFF7 posted...

....deadline split it into multiple articles it seems (i haven't read any of these, just saw the comments were reported in Deadline)

https://deadline.com/2025/07/marvel-fantastic-four-blade-kevin-feige-1236462995/

https://deadline.com/2025/07/marvel-superman-kevin-feige-1236462997/

Much appreciated!

They really should've just called Thunderbolts "Secret Avengers" instead. It's closer to what it actually is and has Avengers in the title.

Honestly, at this point I expect Avengers Doomsday to be a complete disaster. They announced the writer was STILL writing the movie at this point and that's insane. It's going to be legendary capeslop and I'm at the point where I don't even care if the MCU is any good anymore. I want Doomsday to be all timer bad since we know it's not going to be good.

Since Endgame, I got no faith in the franchise at all, and even Kevin Feige clearly has no faith in it anymore with all of these comments he's making. They're talking about soft reboots, saying they made too much capeslop that people can't keep up with the capeslop to consume the next capeslop when it's obvious they overproduced and rewrote all these scripts to death and just made terrible franchise decisions. If everything was good still, people wouldn't have a problem watching it. Just admit you put out some stinkers and people gave up watching it because it wasn't good or fun anymore.

On the one hand, the Russo brothers have a great track record when it comes to the MCU.

...on the other hand, apparently, Doomsday is co-written by the dude who created Loki, which I thought was absolutely atrocious. No thanks.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Honestly, at this point I expect Avengers Doomsday to be a complete disaster. They announced the writer was STILL writing the movie at this point and that's insane.

This is totally normal by the way. Films have on-set writers to do rewrites during production if something could be improved. It is part of why the 2007 writers strike was so devastating, because a lot of films in production were unable to rewrite during the shoot and a lot of them came out as terrible. Hence why in the last writers strike most just delayed filming instead. Frankly Id be more concerned if they werent still writing it.

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

On the one hand, the Russo brothers have a great track record when it comes to the MCU.

...on the other hand, apparently, Doomsday is co-written by the dude who created Loki, which I thought was absolutely atrocious. No thanks.

My understanding is that Waldron is helping but the primary writer is McFeely who co-wrote all of the Russos previous MCU efforts. The lack of Markus from those is concerning though.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_fantastic_four_first_steps

Fantastic Four reviews coming in very positive. First time two MCU movies back to back get over 80% on Rotten Tomatoes since Endgame/Far From Home.

colliding posted...

They really should've just called Thunderbolts "Secret Avengers" instead. It's closer to what it actually is and has Avengers in the title.

Or Dark Avengers, whose similarities include Sentry.

Saw Fantastic Four today. Fun even if far from groundbreaking, with good characters and interesting retro visuals, while also handling a planet-destroying menace with the necessary seriousness. And just as a go-ahead, if you want only extra scenes that further the plot leave after the mid-credits one.

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

On the one hand, the Russo brothers have a great track record when it comes to the MCU.

...on the other hand, apparently, Doomsday is co-written by the dude who created Loki, which I thought was absolutely atrocious. No thanks.

The Russo Brothers have completely used up their benefits of the doubt at this point, between the AI comments and literally everything they made after Endgame being complete garbage

I mean, everything they made before Winter Soldier was garbage too. Is anyone going to argue that You, Me and Dupree is a brilliant movie? It's been established that they're not great directors when they're not doing Marvel superhero stuff.

The AI comments are concerning, though. If they're really going all in on that and will be like "oh yeah we'll just let AI write most of Doomsday it's such brilliant technology people don't understand" then yeah, fuck that shit.

colliding posted...

The Russo Brothers have completely used up their benefits of the doubt at this point, between the AI comments and literally everything they made after Endgame being complete garbage

In fairness, that's the one Russo brother who keeps having terrible opinions. The other one never says anything questionable. Lol It's been a meme that there's the one evil Russo Brother because of it.

I think that the Russo Brothers are not very good creatives, but they are good at adapting the very specific scripts and such they get and following all of the directives, and I mean good for them for it really. But they just struggle on their own.

But when you have no confidence in the creative and the scripts for the MCU anymore, there's no reason to have faith in Russo Brothers rescuing the films.

Eyes of Wakanda bumped up to August 1

https://ew.com/eyes-of-wakanda-premiere-date-shift-expands-black-panther-world-exclusive-11777891

FF beated.

Good stuff! Cidlactus rules, the visuals for Surfer in motion are great, and the family really does feel like an actual family. Everyone nails it but Reed and Sue in particular anchor the whole thing.

Also feels kinda similar to Superman in that they're just established and they've been doing stuff and the movie just kinda jumps in and goes.

Oh we got clapping in the theater for the end of Fantastic Four

I finally got around to watching Ironheart, and it's a very solid show. Not quite WandaVision/Hawkeye level but definitely upper tier, probably on par with Loki

Also Fantastic 4 was great.

Yeah, looks like we finally got a good Fantastic Four movie at the fourth attempt (fifth if we're counting the Roger Corman one). I don't really go to the theater anymore but maybe I will for this one.

Yep, Fantastic Four was very, very good. Not quite as good as Thunderbolts* but the MCU had gotten two good ones in a row for the first time in years. And like Thunderbolts* its actually about something although not as much as that film was. Though the big surprise was learning that the comparisons to Interstellar were accurate.

The cast were all great, with Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer being the real standout for me. Also it is always weird hearing Mark Gatiss do an American accent, and actually this movie was full of British actors mostly doing American accents other than Ralph Ineson. Was very fun hearing Galactus with a Yorkshire accent! Then of course there is the main four who are all great and work very well together.

The main issue is that it was clearly cut down to get it under two hours. You had John Malkovich being cut, Natasha Lyonnes storyline going nowhere and a lot of jumping around in the first 20 minutes. It smooths out after that though.

There was surprisingly little action and I liked that, its much more of a sci-fi film with a couple of big action setpieces. The first big action scene midway through the film is one of the best in the entire MCU though. Also the film looked excellent which is saying something given that most MCU films in recent years have looked between mediocre and terrible. So yeah, overall a thumbs up from me.

Genuinely surprised theres not more discussion about F4 here given the reception and box office. Though it looks like legs are getting hurt by Superman rather than the other way around. With no MCU film for another year after the Avengers Doomsday delay, they should have moved this to November.

Im not watching FF because I havent seen Thunderbolts yet, which Im waiting to watch on D+. So, basically gonna wait for D+ for FF too.

The MCU needs to earn my movie theater experience again.

You really dont need to see Thunderbolts* to see FF, but also you should watch Thunderbolts* anyway. I mean both films are better than a fairly large majority of what Marvel Studios was putting out even before they lost confidence, especially the former. I will say FF does have the visuals to earn the big screen. There are sequences that would not hit quite the same at home.

UltimaterializerX posted...

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3662710273/?ref_=bo_fr_table_1

Gonna see it tomorrow. Are we finally back maybe?

We're only back if by some miracle Doomsday ends up being good.

UltimaterializerX posted...

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3662710273/?ref_=bo_fr_table_1

Gonna see it tomorrow. Are we finally back maybe?

This links to the 20th century fox version

Maybe thats the version Ultis watching

I enjoyed the individual components of the film and the vision, but I think the film suffers from having to, as always, focus on the pretty milquetoast Reed Richards and Sue Storm. This was easily the best version of the characters and taking them back to their roots was the right choice. I just think they're pretty Barry Allen-like.

Fantastic Silver Surfer, fantastic Galactus. I wish we got more of Shalla Bal, quite honestly. But of course, I think all of the complaints of this film will likely revolve around most things just not being able to get enough time.

Yep its very obvious that a substantial amount was cut, seemingly from the first act. There was probably more of just the Fantastic Four being superheroes that we get brief glimpses of in the talkshow sequence.

As for the future, I am fairly confident. They have reduced the enormous quantity of content, clear shifted the shows over to being their own thing while still in the same continuity, theyre not massively overstretching the VFX industry, theyre keeping budgets under control, and theyve improved the quality. The new storyline seems vastly easier to follow (seems like only Loki, Thunderbolts*, Fantastic Four and maybe Wakanda Forever will really matter for Doomsday) compared to the mess that was going on before. I think they have basically done what they need to to get things back on track.

The bigger issue for them is that the market for superhero movies in Asia and particularly China seems to have completely collapsed. Its not as strong as it was for western or even local (other than Ne Zha 2) movies in general there but superhero movies are doing particularly badly. So Marvel will need to be happy with non-crossover movies topping out at about $700 million max and budget accordingly. Which they are kind of on their way to anyway, budgets are way down from the covid era at least.

Saw FF. First MCU movie I've seen in theaters since Endgame.

Very fine! I mean that in a good way. Biggest shame is that the dicking around doing normal stuff parts of the movie, especially with Ben, are by FAR the best part and end up being very sparse. Feels like the movie would have been significantly better with, honestly, 15-20 more minutes in the first act....which from what I'm reading it had but was cut. Sounds like this went through the opposite trajectory of Superman, where Superman fought to keep everything in no matter what focus groups said and F4 just sanded off it's edges to focus group/executive demands. Still, fine film, even if a bit too safe.

So thinking on it, I think my biggest issue with Fantastic 4 is how clean it feels. The woman I saw it with thought it was weird how Vanessa Kirby always has a full face of makeup and perfectly curled hair, even when giving birth and dying. And I think that idea kinda carries over to a good bit of the movie. Like Sue's speech to a rioting crowd that just suddenly makes them all ok with risking the lives of the entire world? Reed telling the media that Galactus them wanted them to trade their baby, when there was virtually no reason for him to give them that info? Them getting the entire world to work together, and then somehow evacuating the entirety of New York City on short notice, AND having Galactus trample over the city with no fatalities? There's a lot of great stuff here but so much of it is extremely convenient, even by MCU standards.

Still better than most of the MCU for the last couple years, but not as good as Thunderbolts

The movie absolutely feels like it was flattened with a rolling pin. But, like, with care. Yes it's not special at all but it's also a cozy watch. I don't want to see it....again, but there are clips that I'd watch!

I give more leeway to the Reed revealing the truth to the world thing because Reed has often been bad on the mic.

The friend I saw it with is far less kind. He's convinced there were sections of this movie written entirely by AI.

That's probably paranoia from the AI poster for FF.

https://youtu.be/ODHh6oe4MlE

I saw all the positive posts on here, and I guess I got my hopes up. I honestly feel like I saw a different movie from you all, because my non-spoiler review is basically that it's C-tier Marvel slop. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but I'm just flummoxed by the praise.

Positives are that it's the best looking Marvel movie in a while, 3/4 leads are good (I irrationally hate Joseph Quinn). The first half is pretty good.

Some spoilery complaints:
As people have said, it's very clear that 20 minutes or so of this film was cut. It's missing an opening Mole man fight scene at least.

The movie really takes a nosedive around when Sue delivers her ridiculous speech. The film sets up this interesting idea about the world hating the F4 for not sacrificing Franklin, and then it's IMMEDIATELY solved by Sue giving a speech to like 200 people outside the Baxter Building. I'm not saying I expect a comic book movie to really get super philosophical about this, but it's just bad writing to immediately resolve something in such a hamfisted way.

Speaking of solving stuff immediately: the Human Torch learning an alien language like that is beyond the pale. I get that Johnny Storm isn't a dumbass, but come on.

Lastly, the fact that their big plan boils down to "use the baby as bait" is so stupid. Again, I know I shouldn't expect Hickman-run level science fiction out of this film, but there's a difference between mindless blockbuster entertainment (Superman) and extremely stupid mindless blockbuster entertainment (this movie). Why would Galactus even do this? Why wouldn't he just send the surfer or tractor beam up the kid or something?

The fact that Galactus is beaten by Sue using her powers "really hard" is also dumb anime bullshit.

I honestly don't want to rain on people's parades, so I respect people who liked the film, but god am I alone here?

I chose to watch Happy Gilmore 2 this weekend instead

colliding posted...

The movie really takes a nosedive around when Sue delivers her ridiculous speech. The film sets up this interesting idea about the world hating the F4 for not sacrificing Franklin, and then it's IMMEDIATELY solved by Sue giving a speech to like 200 people outside the Baxter Building. I'm not saying I expect a comic book movie to really get super philosophical about this, but it's just bad writing to immediately resolve something in such a hamfisted way.

This is the scene my friend said he is most confident was written by AI lol.

Also honestly I'm giving this movie way more credit than it probably deserves just because I don't have to care or know about any other Marvel movies to watch it.

colliding posted...

I saw all the positive posts on here, and I guess I got my hopes up. I honestly feel like I saw a different movie from you all, because my non-spoiler review is basically that it's C-tier Marvel slop. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but I'm just flummoxed by the praise.

I'm a homer for the Silver Surfer so maybe my post comes across as overly positive because of it. But I think there were a lot of aspects of the movie that were pretty overwrought. Also, quite frankly, the right choice was to sacrifice Franklin. It's always the right choice, there's no question about it, Reed and Sue are selfish and villains.

colliding posted...

I saw all the positive posts on here, and I guess I got my hopes up. I honestly feel like I saw a different movie from you all, because my non-spoiler review is basically that it's C-tier Marvel slop. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but I'm just flummoxed by the praise.

At the risk of sounding like LMS here, I will say that in spite of the overall critical reception being so positive, I'm finding it hard to find positive reviews by YouTube movie critics. Doug Walker and Grace Randolph were both meh on the movie. Tyrone Magnus called it "passable, above average." Jeremy Jahns liked it, but he didn't think it was great. Not sure where all these rave reviews are!

Edit: OK, John Campea (whose review I looked up just now) loved it, so I did find one rave review. But still.

I mean it has what, a 65 on Metacritic? Thats good (film scales are not game scales) but it basically means its been getting mostly 3/5s with some 4/5s. Normal MCU scores. I have seen very few people dislike it but not exactly raves.

I mean its a good film and top half MCU but its still a 7/10 for me, good but not exceptional but if were being honest neither are most MCU films even pre-Endgame. Thunderbolts* however I DO think is a legit great movie and the best blockbuster (not just superhero film) of the summer. Unless we count 28 Years Later then its not even close.

Thunderbolts is definitely better.

Cap 4 might be better. just kidding, it's definitely not