Thor: Ragnarok

[ieXush2i]

To be fair, it's not the first MCU film to have lower stakes (not that the destruction of Asgard is necessarily that low when you think about it, but there's a detachment there that makes it seem like less than it is). Iron Man ends with a robot man fighting a bigger robot man. There's a big blue beam at the end, which is unfortunate, but I never felt like the wider world/universe was seriously under threat. Thor is basically just two brothers having a squabble, with a big magic robot at the end that barely even gets to destroy half a town in New Mexico before it's taken down. Ant-Man, whilst implying catastrophic consequences for the planet if the tech gets into the wrong hands, focuses on a single heist. Doctor Strange plays with the usual destructive finale in a really interesting way, and couples with it a final victory that is properly metaphysical in nature. And then there's Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is really just about stopping a crook that's gotten a bit big for his boots. I fully expect Black Panther and Ant-Man and the Wasp will follow suit, with smaller/more localised threats. Hopefully Captain Marvel as well, which is at least likely to focus on interstellar goings-on rather than Earth-based concerns.

I do think there was a tendency especially around Phase Two where they tried to make everything feel massive in scope, but they've done a pretty good job since then in scaling back for the solo films and saving the big threats for the team-ups.

It's interesting how the myth has come about, because I think only 5 of the 17 MCU films have planetary/dimensional stakes in the climactic scenes - Avengers Assemble, Thor: The Dark World, GotG, Age Of Ultron and Doctor Strange. You could make an argument for GotG 2 with the seeds and the living planet but there's a bit more to it than that.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The first Thor film ends with Loki attempting to blow up the ice giant planet too. They were filthy aliens though, so it doesn't count.

[Hemulen]

Admittedly, I've not seen half of the new ones, so...eh. But I liked whatever Thor did while often being rather bored towards the end of Marvel movies.

Fair do's. Even as a big fan of the whole series I will freely admit that the ending tends to be the weakest part of almost every MCU film to date. What keeps me coming back to them is the character interactions, imaginative concepts, snappy dialogue and sheer dumb spectacle of it all. When they're firing all cylinders those factors tend to override any inherent weaknesses in the plots (Thor: Ragnarok being a perfect case in point).

If you've not seen it yet then I'd heartily recommend Doctor Strange as a particularly good recent-ish example of them doing something rather different with the final act. Probably my favourite MCU denouement to date.

It's interesting how the myth has come about, because I think only 5 of the 17 MCU films have planetary/dimensional stakes in the climactic scenes - Avengers Assemble, Thor: The Dark World, GotG, Age Of Ultron and Doctor Strange. You could make an argument for GotG 2 with the seeds and the living planet but there's a bit more to it than that.

Yeah it's one of those received wisdom things like the "Marvel movies all have weak/boring villains" one. GotG 2 is a particularly interesting example, because the interplanetary threat is definitely a factor, but it's almost entirely sidelined in favour of the personal struggle between Peter and Ego.

[Mango Chimes]

We're talking about the same low-stakes Thor Ragnarok where the antagonist is literally a god of death who wants to conquer the universe, right?

[greenman]

Its less the actual stakes and more the style I would say, the Guardians and now this Thor film exist in settings that take themselves much less seriously with the drama being focused almost entirely on the characters instead.

I actually think what saved the Marvel films from the staleness that seemed to be creeping up on them earlier in the decade was developing this divide back in 2014. You had the above in the Guardians of the Galaxy and the opposite from the Russo's in The Winter Solider taking a more down to earth tone.

[momatt]

Watched this last night and loved pretty much all of it.

Except - the Hulk's voice sounded autotuned.  Can someone please confirm or deny this?  Am I going mad or deaf?
It really irritated me and took me out of all the scenes where Hulk speaks.  He just sounds so weird, synthetic and wrong.

Anyway, hugely enjoyable film.  It was pretty much a comedy film, which is a very bold move, but it somehow worked.

[Glebe]

Deleted scene, if you're arsed.

[SteveDave]

Watched this last night and loved pretty much all of it.

Except - the Hulk's voice sounded autotuned.  Can someone please confirm or deny this?  Am I going mad or deaf?
It really irritated me and took me out of all the scenes where Hulk speaks.  He just sounds so weird, synthetic and wrong.

I believe it was. It was very noticeable. I was waiting for him to ask if Thor believed in life after love.

[momatt]

I believe it was. It was very noticeable. I was waiting for him to ask if Thor believed in life after love.

*titter*
Absolutely bizarre choice I thought.  Especially as this is the first film where Hulk properly has a conversation with someone.  It just made him sound like a big gay robot*.

_{*I've got nothing against big gay robots.  Some of my best friends are big gay robots...}

[ieXush2i]

When's Korg back, that's what everyone in the world wants to know

[Default to the negative]

There's a mid-credits scene where we see Jeff Goldblum's vehicle crashed in the outskirts, and the scavenger folk are about to get him. How did this happen? It seems like something is missing there. Thor and Hulk escaped, foiling the Grandmaster's plans in a small way, but they didn't incite a peasant revolt or anything like that.

[Gwen Taylor on ITV]

Korg did.  Korg incited the revolution.

[Default to the negative]

Ah okay, didn't catch that. Was talking through the film a bit, must admit.

[Gwen Taylor on ITV]

He had pamphlets.

[ieXush2i]

Wonder if his mum and her boyfriend turned up.

[momatt]

Was talking through the film a bit, must admit.

You are worse than Hitler.

[Default to the negative]

Not in the cinema, we watched it on DVD at a friend's house. And the host was talking through it himself, setting the decorum for the rest of us. I'm not a Hitler, I was just following orders.

[momatt]

In that case please accept my humble apologies.

You are instead like a footsoldier of some lesser tyrant.  I dunno, Mussolini or someone.

[magval]

That reminds me.

When I went to see this in the cinema, a young couple beside me sat talking through all the trailers as my anxiety mounted and mounted. When it became apparent that they weren't going to shut their mouths by the time the lads met on the cliff, I'd to tell them to be quiet, and was told to fuck off. I thanked the girl for doing so and promptly tattled to the popcorn clerk, and returned to my seat to await justice patiently.

The prescribed streak of gangle soon after arrived to tell them they needed to be quiet, left, and I was stuck sat beside them for the remaining 90 minutes or so of misery and was unable to enjoy the movie as a result. I'm very much looking forward to seeing this on Blu-Ray without being told to fuck off by a stranger.

On the plus side, I did manage to get double my money back by lying about how many of us were there when I spoke to the manager later that night.

[Custard]

At Black Panther the other day, some cunt kept randomly shouting things out, like he was at home, or at the zoo or something

Forest Whitaker appears on screen - "OH ITS HIIIIM!!!"

Black Panther has a fight on a cliff - "WHAAAAAT?!"

At the end - "SO IS HE IN THE AVENGERS NOW OR WHAT?!"

Inspector fucking Gadget in the house

[kidsick5000]

This is why the major studios are looking at getting into the streaming thing.
Few of the reports about the drop in cinema attendance mentioned that cinemas are a gamble when it comes to an enjoyable experience. The blame was squarely placed at the feet of lazy studios.
Now that studios have seen that mediocre and poorly rated stuff like Bright and Adam Sandler films can find success in the home market - of course they're going to bypass the cinemas. Why spend millions on publicity in the hope that someone is willing to give up their evening for that one film that could be easily ruined by idiots. Send it straight to the home where viewers might even grab two of your films in one go.