[Spoiler Alert] Film reviews and ratings

Stuck with the tv series for about 4/5 seasons but was just the same thing over and over so binned it.

 

I was the same. I actually loved the CW. Thought all of them petered out though.

 

People will be going to see Keaton as Batman I defo am


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Just back from Ant-Man.

Good enough, but drawn out.

Cutting them some slack cos they are setting up the phase and next big bad.

 

Very good film.

 

Just finished watching The Stranger with Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris. About an undercover officer in a sting to catch a suspect in an abduction. Good film with great performances from Edgerton and Harris. Kept me on the edge of my seat and didn't glamourise or sensationalise the subject matter it was dealing with. Only real complaints is it can be a bit slow at times, maybe could of been shortened a wee bit and the audio mix on Netflix was a bit bad at times. Great film 8/10.

 

Antman and Wasp: Quantumania

Very by the numbers, formulaic, lack of any real sense of peril and the talents of a cast wasted, all to introduce the next 'Big-Bad' of the MCU, but all it's done is grow more apathy. Certainly the case for me. Underwhelmed to say the least and a whole lot of meh.

 

Finished with season 1 and 2 of Still Game. Must say it is a solid 9.5/10. How have i missed this masterpiece.

 

Lacked action for me. Seemed to completely rip off Star Wars with the Quantum Rebellion as well.

The use of MODOK was infuriating for me also. In the comics he has nothing to do with Kang, nothing to do with the Quantum Realm and nothing to do with Antman so why is he even a character in this film and why did they make it as ridiculous as they did? Just trying to fit him into the MCU? Strange from Reed and strange from Feige for allowing that to happen.

Fortunately, the End Credits really did pull the film up to a decent level of enjoyment for me. The addition of the Council of Kangs and the Loki Season 2 spoiler were brilliant and an exciting glimpse of what's to come.

The scripts need to be better. Not a great start for the new saga of the MCU. With $104m dollar at the opening weekend box office, it seems to be Marvel are at a crossroads with where they go.

 

@Celtic_Daft1888 I'd suggest checking the 2nd weekend's figures when they are released on Sun/Mon, to see what sort of hold/drop Quantumania has to get a better gauge of that, as the estimate for opening weekend for any MCU flick is about US$80-90M is the hardcore MCU fans and beyond that is the casuals and general cinema-goers and as weeks go on, its incl that hardcore going back to rewatch again.

 

Yeah. I think if it manages to have a maximum drop of 40%, it may do well. I can't see it getting anywhere near the billion dollar club and I think it will end up somewhere around the $800m mark worldwide, which they would argue is significant and continual progress for the Antman series.

Antman- $575m
Antman and the Wasp- $640m

They'll argue anything with a '7' in front of it is progress I'd imagine. Thor: Love and Thunder made about $770m so if they get it up around there, I guess they'll count it as a success.

 

TBH I think that is optimistic and would be genuinely surprised if it gets anywhere near the $800m mark and even the $700m could be a stretch. The last Thor movie had a significantly bigger first weekend ($144m v Quantumania's $104m), and it fell well short of that $800M global figure - and Antman's cine-score was on par with that. The only potential AM&W:Q has of surpassing that could come down to those countries that refused to release Thor 4 because of the LGBT elements - but those countries are not exactly massive markets, but combined it could close the gap... maybe.

 

I always found the quality variable, but there's no doubt that when they nailed it, they * NAILED IT!

I miss them!

 

I think that, certainly in the MCU community, there seemed to be a lack of direction with Phase 4. It seemed as if Disney were struggling to work out where they wanted to go with it and how to get there. I think the 45 day window for Disney plus will also directly impact their box office numbers. I think Dr Strange and the MOM was the first film to have the new 45 day window. Seems to be that the non core, comic book fanbase will be happier to wait 6 weeks or so to watch it for free on Disney+. As far as I'm aware, it's something Disney are actively looking to maybe change up.

The second week hold will be a huge factor on where it goes. Thor and Jurassic World had identical opening weekends in 2022, one made $1b and the other $770m. There does seem to be a fatigue with comic book films in general but more with Marvel. I really really enjoyed The Batman, I liked the darker, dingier detective aspect of Matt Reeves version. The MCU just seems to be heading to a more family based, silly, light hearted set of films. I found that with Antman and, Black Panther WF aside, the majority of films in Phase 4. It's not like that's going to change either with their next 2 releases. Guardians of the Galaxy films are always on the silly side, even though they are successful and The Marvels won't be popular. Again, I've heard it's intention is to be a fun, family friendly film.

 

You make some good points there, and can see where you're saying. Couple of things. On the business/BO side, The highlighted part was why mentioned the cine-scores previously...

Thor 4 had a B+ cinescore. Jurassic World Dominion got an A cine-score. This new Antman got a B. These are determined from random exit-surveys and are a better indicator than RT scores for example, where potentially anyone on the internet whether or not they've actually seen it or not can contribute/campaign to effecting these scores.

Cine-score as they are done literally polling individuals/couples/families etc as they are exiting the theatre so they are assured of actually seeing it, and while in that initial flush gives that more immediate instictive reaction and the scores/grades are determined from that. This then helps to reflecting/anticipating positive/negative word-of-mouth, which is often very different from what critics opinions might be for example. This then is often a strong indicator of how a film will hold or drop off after that opening weekend, and that's why you get those descrepancies between those you mentioned. It's not perfect but it is generally speaking a pretty good indicator.

As for the release window, I totally agree, and Disney really have not done that well in this regard, post-pandemic.

Storywise, I think that a big part of the problem is the further they've gone down the rabbithole of multi-verses and dependant on previous movies, the more it is skewing away from the more casual fan or cinema-goer and it's created a rod for their own back accordingly, especially when there is the natural basis for comparison with what went before. And I do think there is a little bit of MCU burn-out happening when there has literally been another one of these out every 3 months or so.

The Batman I really liked also. I liked the almost noir-ish detective take on the character and will be curious to see where the new direction that the DCEU goes with James Gunn taking over that, given the many missteps that has been made there previously.

 

@Taz massive drop for Quantumania. Biggest drop in the MCU. 70%. Will be lucky to make £650m with that sort of drop. Cocaine Bear took a massive chunk I'd imagine. Can see it having a similar level of drop next week. Creed III comes out and they films have generally done quite well.

 

Watch two over the weekend.

A Knock at the Cabin.

Decent enough. Big Dave Bautista runs the show.

The Banshees of Inisherin.

Excellent acting and funny as *, as expected. Not a massive fan of the ending. But really deserves the praise it’s getting.

 

Banshees was great on second watch.....

Knock at the cabin was ok,M Night Shyamalan just cant do great twists anymore....Thought the ending as kinda * to be honest.

Agree with Bautista though...Thought he was excellent in this,if he keeps this up he is really going to be a Big Actor in many more movies.

 

Banshees is terrific. Well written allagory for the Civil War being fought out on the mainland in the background and reallywell acted by all of the principals and supporting cast.

Knock at the Cabin was disappointing. Great premise, and as @MacEwan says Dave Bautista is the show, but the entire 3rd act is just pfft. I don't have an issue with ambivalent endings generally speaking when it makes sense to do so, and when the director can either trusts the audience or spaek debate, but this does neither. So, why M Night Shymalan chose to pivot away from the 3rd act that was in the book it is based on I have no idea, but the path he chose to go down was just daft, not to mention left a whole bunch of threads unanswered.

As @Celtic_Daft1888 noted, Antman 3 BO drop 70% from W1 to W2... That's in line with that cinescore indicated was likely, as mentioned because of the poor word-of-mouth. That is horror show for MCU, and has already sparked a number of changes with them discussing different rollout strategies and slowdowns etc. It will be lucky to reach that WW $650m figure - and honestly I genuinely can't see it getting there.

I was at the cinema today and was talking about this with some of the staff before was leaving. They had 15 scheduled screenings of AM3 today. When I left, they said 3 of the had ZERO people, 1 had 2 people and another had just 6. The 6.30 screening which had just about to start had 14 and that -to that point - had been the busiest screening of it they'd had all day. And they were saying that it was pretty quiet over the weekend for it as well - not as dead as that is as today is obv a Monday, but even still...

Speaking of which, went to Cocaine Bear today. Good little horror/comedy/'based on true story' that didn't outstay it's welcome and really felt like a bit of a 80's 'B' throwback, which am totally on board with here. Based purely on the AD of some of the maulings, I am glad that I couldn't see it, as the descripitions were more than enough to give me the wiggins, lol.

 

Knock at the cabin, fkn pish.