Marvel Studios TV Shows and Animation on Disney+

[Mog]

Well, that was rather underwhelming.  Let's see what MCU tropes were dragged out yet again for Secret Invasion:

• Massive final CGI fight where one of the heroes fights an antagonist with almost the exact same powers? ✔️
• Plot driving the characters instead of the characters' traits driving the plot?   ✔️
• New characters taking over roles of older characters?   ✔️

I liked Mr. Robot, but I guess it was more Sam Esmail that made that show so damn good, rather than Kyle Bradstreet (one of the writers/producers for Secret Invasion).

Did this Marvel series have some good moments?  Yeah, mostly the talky scenes were good.  Yes, Sonya is a fun character with her cheery but hard-nose/blunt way (I can respect what she says at the end).  Most scenes with Talos were good.  But G'iah and Gravik are just there to move the plot along.  They never really give us enough to fully understand their characters, and they never made their actions have any semblance of consistency.

Honestly, I'd rather they spent more time with the characters than driving us from one crazy plot to the next.  And it was tiring doing the whole "Is this character an ally or enemy of Fury's?!!"

Everyone said Fury changed after the Snap/Blip, but we really never hear how or why exactly he changed.

We see this scary concept of Skulls hiding amongst us, but it's only a surface level treatment.
 

Spoiler

We can speculate that Fury's wife was probably one of his Skrull spies, but we never once hear about her "diplomatic skills" until the very last moments of the show.

All these people replaced, and only Maria Hill is killed.  But everyone else is okay. 🤮 Of course, now everyone wants to know when Rhodes and Wakanda's ally spy were captured, but we have to wait for the next Marvel show/movie to reveal that. 🤦‍♂️

And you rescue the humans, but where were all the Skrulls that were supposedly locked up somewhere in the compound/secret base.

Umm Fury, why didn't you just tell the President that a damn Skrull saved his stupid ass?

So Thanos' planet (either his original one or the one where he got his head lopped off at) isn't habitable for Skrulls?  I call BS on that "couldn't find a home planet" excuse.

Honestly, it just felt like a drag and a sludge to watch through all this.

Want to right the ship Disney?  Settle these stupid strikes, and then hire Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and most of the Netflix-Marvel series writers to do your + shows.  Because I'd rather see what these writers can do or the follow-up stories that these folks had set up, rather than be obligated to watch whatever slop your current crop of writers will chug out.

[sh9000]

X-Men '97 update.

[sh9000]

Loki Season 2 on 10/6.  Looking forward to it.

[technoblue]

Interesting eye catch for the Loki season 2 poster. It reminds me of a hamster wheel. Hm. There could be some unfortunate double entendre there…will have to see how things go.

Alas, Secret Invasion ranks the lowest for me of the Disney produced content. Much lower when compared to other entries like CA: Civil War and CA: The Winter Soldier. The series felt like it was trying too hard to set up something else rather than tell its own contained story. This was the first time the CGI effects jumped out at me. I didn’t care for Disney showcasing AI art in the intro, either.

Spoiler

Gravik’s relationship to Fury was convoluted. I think we are meant to think Fury adopted him or something after he got together with Varra. But the show only leads the audience on with this idea and never gives a clear picture like it does with Fury’s wedding ring and the conversations he has with Varra when he returns home.

There is also no resolution with Gravik like there was with Varra at the end. The real Fury was off saving Rhodey.

When Hill dies, I was disappointed that it didn’t change Fury much at all. Here was one of his closest friends who got shot to death by his doppelgänger and he continues to act like he’s lost or disconnected to what’s going on around him. Talos seemed more invested in doing something. And, sure, it could be grief but as the audience we never get insight as to why Fury was blindsided.

If we knew that Gravik was important to him, that would have been important character development. It would have given the audience a notion of Fury’s moral quandary where one soul he cared about had just betrayed another to hurt him. 

Speaking of Talos, the show spends so much time setting up how he and G’iah fell out with each other. Things were so bad that G’iah wasn’t even aware that her mother had passed away. But somehow G’iah does her own 180. Was it Gravik attacking Talos or him going bonkers on the other Skrulls in the compound? Regardless, she ends up working with Fury, takes her Super-Skrull powers and confronts him. It still felt like I missed a few important scenes where her heart grew two sizes.

Curious side note: If the Super-Skrull powers made Gravik even more unstable psychologically, then what negative side effects might G’iah get from them? Why didn’t we see the cost of these powers affecting her as well?

So, to go on a related tangent, I heard about the animated movie Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: Secret Invasion after watching the live action series. I noticed that the animated movie includes many of the Avengers in its story, and that ups the stakes. Yeah, I really felt how the live action Secret Invasion series was missing the Avengers. Would it have been better served as a movie with ensemble casting? Something to think about, I guess.

Edited July 29, 2023 by technoblue

[Big s]

On 7/29/2023 at 8:31 AM, technoblue said:

Alas, Secret Invasion ranks the lowest for me of the Disney produced content. Much lower when compared to other entries like CA: Civil War and CA: The Winter Soldier. The series felt like it was trying too hard to set up something else rather than tell its own contained story. This was the first time the CGI effects jumped out at me. I didn’t care for Disney showcasing AI art in the intro, either.

Just finished watching it. It’s the first I’ve the marvel shows that I didn’t try to watch as it was being released and while I agree that it wasn’t good, it’s still better than She Hulk and Ms Marvel. This show definitely didn’t have the budget that earlier D+ shows had and kinda looks and feels more like the shield tv show.
It’s another Disney replacement story that pretends that it’s something bigger, but is really a lot of fluff. Talos gets a female replacement, Nick Fury gets a hopefully only temporary female replacement and then has a female superhero that can pretty much do everything and is somehow stronger than a highly trained twice advanced supervillain even though she’s so small her eyes were barely at the top of the steering wheel when she was driving 
It’s unfortunate that we finally get a show with Nick Fury and he’s mostly a damsel in distress that constantly needs rescuing . And the worst part is that the story is so unnecessary at the end when he finally says they worked things out with the Kree. That info could’ve save over 2,000 lives.        It’s like the writers and production crew just phoned it in. I’d put this show lower, but the actors really couldn’t be faulted here and even though the show was poorly written, they did a good job with crap material 

[technoblue]

5 hours ago, Big s said:

Just finished watching it. It’s the first I’ve the marvel shows that I didn’t try to watch as it was being released and while I agree that it wasn’t good, it’s still better than She Hulk and Ms Marvel. This show definitely didn’t have the budget that earlier D+ shows had and kinda looks and feels more like the shield tv show.
It’s another Disney replacement story that pretends that it’s something bigger, but is really a lot of fluff. Talos gets a female replacement, Nick Fury gets a hopefully only temporary female replacement and then has a female superhero that can pretty much do everything and is somehow stronger than a highly trained twice advanced supervillain even though she’s so small her eyes were barely at the top of the steering wheel when she was driving 
It’s unfortunate that we finally get a show with Nick Fury and he’s mostly a damsel in distress that constantly needs rescuing . And the worst part is that the story is so unnecessary at the end when he finally says they worked things out with the Kree. That info could’ve save over 2,000 lives.        It’s like the writers and production crew just phoned it in. I’d put this show lower, but the actors really couldn’t be faulted here and even though the show was poorly written, they did a good job with crap material 

Eh. I liked She Hulk and Ms. Marvel more than Secret Invasion. Of the three, Ms. Marvel stands strongest on its own because it also works as a coming of age story for Kamala Khan. She Hulk was all right but I think its experimental ending went too hard with the 4th-wall hulk smashing. 

With Secret Invasion, I think fault for the miss rests squarely on Disney for forcing its creative teams to pump and dump half-baked productions. The mouse is driving this content like it’s the media equivalent of fast food. So quality is no longer a priority. The company is mistreating actors, writers, and set workers alike, and the focus is on benefiting those with deep pockets.

Anyway, I digress…

Spoiler

As @Mog noted earlier, there is a lot of important character development in Secret Invasion that felt like it was left on the editing table. We didn’t really see how the blip changed Fury. We are told that it changed him. We see him helping the Skrulls pre-Blip and we see how he became distant post-Blip. There isn’t much connecting those versions of his character. Really, it’s only the conversations he has with Varra and Hill, and I think there should have been more.

With Talos and G’iah the story should have been developing another parallel complex relationship dynamic. Unfortunately, again, not much is shown. We are told about their rift and how G’iah and Talos are not exactly on speaking terms. It is inferred that Talos wants to build a bridge and the the story moves in that direction. We even see how Talos and G’iah are helping to find the Skrulls a new home in their own ways. But G’iah is shown to be rebellious and stubborn. We don’t see her empathy until the final episodes, and that change is a sudden thing.

I didn’t see G’iah as replacing Talos or Falsworth as replacing Fury, so i can’t speak to that myself.

 

[Big s]

2 hours ago, technoblue said:

I didn’t see G’iah as replacing Talos or Falsworth as replacing Fury, so i can’t speak to that myself.

Spoiler

Talos was being replaced by Fury’s lady. She said it at the end. I know Fury is supposed to be in the Marvels, but it’s been delayed so much, that I think it was supposed to be out before this show, I have a feeling there were quick changes made to compensate for the delays

Spoiler

 

Falsworth seems like a temporary replacement for Fury, but not as much a permanent replacement, maybe more of a British stand in for a couple of the upcoming projects 

 

[technoblue]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

  Hide contents

Talos was being replaced by Fury’s lady. She said it at the end. I know Fury is supposed to be in the Marvels, but it’s been delayed so much, that I think it was supposed to be out before this show, I have a feeling there were quick changes made to compensate for the delays

Falsworth seems like a temporary replacement for Fury, but not as much a permanent replacement, maybe more of a British stand in for a couple of the upcoming projects 

 

Varra replacing Talos?

Spoiler

Ok. I can see that. Talos wanted to do things diplomatically but kept being goaded into his role as a great Skrull general or somesuch. Since he died, he wasn’t able to fully embrace his diplomatic side for obvious reasons. 💩 happens. Makes sense to me.

Varra is shown amongst the Skrull community in the show’s flashbacks. She even seemed to still be in contact with Gravik. But the change from estranged wife to diplomat was a jolt. I expected to see her doing more for the Skrulls, more to keep them hidden, to keep the peace on earth before Gravik went bonkers. Stuff like that builds up her character.

Instead, yeah, things are implied, inferred, or assumed, and we get the dialogue at the end when she and Fury leave together. I don’t mind putting the focus on her new motives, but there wasn’t a lot there to help me make the leap with them.

Oh well. 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by technoblue

[sh9000]

Season 2.

[Tking22]

12 hours ago, Big s said:

This show definitely didn’t have the budget that earlier D+ shows 

Somehow, some way, this show had a 200 million dollar budget, go figure. 

Finished Secret Invasion and it was pretty awful overall, easily my least favorite D+ MCU series, far worse then expected. What a waste of money and talent, it was poorly written, it looked really bad, it was painfully dumb and borderline idiotic in it's story beats. Shockingly bad considering this was Jackson's big come back as Fury, what a waste, he came back with a whimper. Maria Hill died for this garbage? And in such a completely underwhelming and forgettable way? Just terrible. I am absolutely positive every revelation and major event from this turd will be forgotten just like Eternals, Disney should be embarrassed, I saw the director is already trying to do damage control on social media. Apparently he won't read the universally awful reviews, what a bold strategy, let's see if it works out for him. 

Looking behind the scenes I'm a bit baffled, the director was a nobody with little experience, same with the script and screenwriters, why hire such mediocre talent for a show like this? How was so much money spent when it looked so awful? The reshoots and behind the scenes drama must've been intense, this whole thing was just shockingly bad in every way, I've been a shill for most of the D+ shows, I've enjoyed them all, even She Hulk, but this was blatantly awful and a complete disappointment. 

[Mog]

As I mentioned a few posts up, the show had Kyle Bradstreet as a writer, who was one of the executive producers for Mr. Robot.

But after watching this dreck, it’s more obvious that Sam Esmail was the driving creative force behind Mr. Robots success, and not so much Bradstreet.

[Big s]

40 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

Somehow, some way, this show had a 200 million dollar budget, go figure. 

I think the majority of this money went to hiring the actors and most of that was probably due to having Samuel L Jackson in a live action series. They obviously didn’t spend the cash on writing, effects, lighting or cameramen. They even saved money having an AI make the intro, which I don’t even remember and I just finished the show yesterday 

[no3Ljm]

Season 2 of the alive LOKI from Avengers: Endgame coming October 6 only on Disney+.

[sh9000]

Loki Season 2 Trailer Breakdown.

[no3Ljm]

Photos.

[Mog]

So, no Ravonna Renslayer for Season 2?

[sh9000]

[Big s]

I really hope Loki season 2 is good. I’m getting tired of dismal Disney disappointments

[Thom]

Just finished watching Secret Invasion and *except for a few points, I liked it. I'm not much for espionage shows, but this was pretty good. Good action and characters, Fury definitely looked down and trodden. I liked G'iah, though I think they could have had more of her and Talos together. I felt Gravik was a good antagonist, though I felt the fight at the end robbed him of his character. If G'iah could be fighting in her human guise then so could Gravik. Doing it this way, they should have had more of him looking like a Skrull than a human, to keep less of a disassociation with how he looked at the end. Sonya is awesome! If she's a 'stand-in' for Fury, then that's great cause she is a bad-ass! And I liked how Fury got his groove back on at the end. Overall, a good show.

 

*That the Skrulls could not find a new home in the entire universe is too far fetched. We are shown a universe teaming with life and life-bearing planets. Yes, the Skrulls have a bad rep, but there should have been somewhere out there where they could have found a place. But then again, apparently, they only tried for two years... You have to give it more time than that!

Just off the top of my head, I would have had them find a world and start to get settled. Then the Snap** happened and with Danvers too busy to keep watch over the Skrulls, they get attacked, either by the Kree or another race either blaming them somehow or for revenge. The new Skrull home world gets blitzed and the refugees sneak back to Earth. Kind of easy after the Snap and the chaos it caused. But they are frightened even more now of reprisals and angered over losing another world and more people, so they end up being more fanatical and militaristic and seeing enemies everywhere. This makes them easily led by Gravik who now just wants to take Earth, more in a need to do Something rather then seeing more of his people becoming disaffected and dying off.  Go from there...

**I hate the Blip. It sounds stupid. Snap sounds so much better and it's actually in line with the actual event.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Thom

[Bolt]

I found Secret Invasion to be entertaining. And yes, I agree with you @Thom, there could easily be a suitable world for the Skrull. Just finished watching Guardians Of The Galaxy volume 3, and was once again reminded that there's all kinds of worlds and species out there. Why not even build a space colony. Of the other many cosmic species out there, surely some are better equipped and willing to help. The Guardians themselves could probably have better luck than Fury. 

[sh9000]

I Am Groot Season 2.

[Bolt]

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

 

FYI, this is fan art created from Rise of the Silver Surfer storyboard art.

[jvmacross]

On 8/1/2023 at 12:50 AM, Big s said:

I’m getting tired of dismal Disney disappointments

OK....so Disney has several specialities...

[Bolt]

46 minutes ago, azrael said:

FYI, this is fan art created from Rise of the Silver Surfer storyboard art.

Yes. "Galactus will reportedly be the main villain in Fantastic 4"  So the announcement came with the fan art.
From Marvel Movies on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvfn_XhPepO/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Big s]

I was hoping they would start out a bit smaller with the Fantastic Four. Hopefully they don’t just kill the big bad in one movie. And if they have Dr. Doom, I would prefer having a more recurring bad guy a bit more in the shadows. But my biggest hope is that they don’t screw this one up. This would be the third big movie version of the group and they deserve a great movie, but current Disney hasn’t been able to get things right lately.

[sh9000]

Honest Trailer.

[no3Ljm]

Legends.

 

 

 

[sh9000]

 

 

 

 

 

Marvel Studios' Legends Full Episodes.

[sh9000]

Loki Season 1 and WandaVision blu-rays will be available to preorder on 8/28.  Loki Season 1 will be available on 9/26 and WandaVision will be available on 11/28.

[Big s]

You could probably throw out the first disc of wandavision and be alright 

[sh9000]

As Featured In Meal.

[sh9000]

Marvel Studios has decided to change their release schedule for their upcoming Disney+ series due to the ongoing strikes.

The studio is keeping the second season of Loki to its original premiere date of October 6th.

The second season of the animated series What If…? will debut sometime over the holiday season.

Echo, the Hawkeye spinoff will now be premiering in January, instead of November.

The animated series, X-Men ’97 has been pushed back to 2024 instead of premiering in the Fall of 2023.

Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, the WandaVision spinoff will now premiere in 2024 in late October, around Halloween. It was originally planned for the Winter of 2023.

[sh9000]

Loki Season 2.

[TangledThorns]

Looks good. LOKI is the only Marvel series I'm interested in.