Whatcha Been Watching?

This is the place where you can conflab about all the other stuff besides videogames
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by ratsoalbion »

I haven't actually started this yet despite being a big MCU fan who was very much looking forward to this show!
Going to watch it with my partner when we can find time.

I thought the Netflix stuff was mostly fine, and fun, with some really great bits but with every series (I still haven't watched them all) going on for far too long.

I haven't watched Agents Carter or SHIELD but my partner enjoyed them both well enough I think.

I am confident that, broadly speaking, the Disney+ content will likely be the strongest Marvel TV showing yet however.
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Miririn »

I hope you both enjoy it when you get round to it :-) it's my favourite type of MCU show/film where it feels like it's trying to do something new but also feels like it fits pretty seamlessly into the MCU-verse.

I should have given SHIELD/Carter more of a chance but I was living abroad and if I wanted to watch English-language dramas I had to rent them on DVD (!) and there were so many episodes and nothing was really grabbing me. I would like to try the Netflix shows, but I also heard from friends they're a bit too padded.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Alex79 »

Haven't watched WandaVision yet, but it is the reason I recently started a huge MCU marathon. I've only ever seen a couple of the movies before so decided to watch the entire MCU, all movies and series in release order, making my way to WandaVision. Loving it so far. Just started season two of Agents Of SHIELD, and enjoying it far more than I thought I would.
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Miririn »

Oh man watching all the MCU films again from the beginning would be so much fun. I might copy you and do that too. Haven't watched a lot of the earlier ones in a long time.

This week I've been re-watching all the non-MCU Marvel films / the Batman films from my teen years/early twenties (so Spidey, Nolan Bat, X-Men etc). Some have aged better than others (I still think the first two X-Men films have held up pretty well, for example) but it's still a lot of fun despite some of the duds. ...possibly I should be doing something cooler with my time but it is a lockdown and I was never particularly cool before Covid either! I even dug out some of my old Spidey and X-Men comics.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by ratsoalbion »

I did the complete MCU last year, and will likely do it again at some point in the not too distant future too.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

If you do decide to do an MCU rewatch, than can I plug my podcast NeverWatchers, where I who has never watched the films watch them in release order and each episode I discuss my thoughts on the film with my co host who is a Marvel expert. Up to Thor so far, next episode will be Captain America.
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Miririn »

Truk_Kurt wrote: February 6th, 2021, 9:51 am If you do decide to do an MCU rewatch, than can I plug my podcast NeverWatchers, where I who has never watched the films watch them in release order and each episode I discuss my thoughts on the film with my co host who is a Marvel expert. Up to Thor so far, next episode will be Captain America.
Of course! Sounds great :) I used to listen to "Gilmore Guys" (which was the same sort of thing with a newbie and a long-time fan) and I really enjoyed that. Looking forward to it!
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Alex79 »

It's great. *2 thumbs up*
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

I watched Greenland last night, it's a new film exclusive to Amazon. If you like disaster films, you can't go wrong with this film. An enjoyable two hours, more stressful a watch than other films like it, but in a good way.
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Alex79 »

Last night I watched Avengers: Age Of Ultron, as part of my big MCU watch. It's easily the weakest thing I've seen so far. It was ok, but actually felt kind of pointless as part of the overarching story. It doesn't feel tied in to the rest of the story at all, really. I thought the 'big baddie' was boring, the action muted and the story forgettable.

Disappointing really, especially when the rest of the Universe has been so enjoyable and cohesive so far.

Aside from that, I've been enjoying the TV shows more than I thought I would. Seasons 1 and 2 of Agents Of SHIELD have been excellent. Season 1 of Agent Carter really enjoyable, and after a slow start the first season of Daredevil was great, too. In fact, I'd go as far as saying I've been enjoying the TV so much, I almost felt a bit annoyed it was a movie 'next' as I checked my list last night!

Looking ahead I've got Ant Man, season 3 of Agents Of Shield and Jessica Jones coming up, all of which I'm looking forward to.
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ReprobateGamer
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by ReprobateGamer »

I've been keeping up with Wandavision and really enjoying it. Have to say that I think it's got a little weaker the last couple of weeks but as was pointed out in another forum, each episode has set a high bar and is possible that the nostalgia for the sitcom styles is less for the more recent sitcom tropes ...
I've found it useful as well to watch an easter eggs video on it a few days later - the extra bits of knowledge have really helped to set up the show in the Marvel Multiverse
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

I watched I Care a Lot over the weekend and it is the best film I've seen in ages, probably since Knives Out. It's a new amazon prime exclusive and stars Rosamund Pike in the leading role. She plays the head of a care home facility but she is also a con artist, forcing old people to go into this care home when they don't really need to. She is a horrible human being but comes up against a mob boss (Peter Dinklage) when she puts his mother in a care home. He is also horrible. I don't want to say much more as I don't want to spoil it other than that its Pike's best performance since Gone Girl and that the soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard.

The closest film I could compare it to would probably be Nightcrawler, so if you liked that film watch this. But still watch it even if you didn't!
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Miririn »

I loved Rosamund Pike to bits in "Gone Girl" so I'll definitely add that to my watch list! Especially as she's cut her hair into a power bob again.

I think my first dud MCU film that I remember just really not enjoying at all was "Thor: The Dark World". They got back on track afterwards because "Thor: Ragnarok" was great and I really liked Thor in the latest Avengers movies, but I think with "The Dark World" they were struggling with what makes Thor work as a character/franchise and it was all too gloomy and serious and dull (the first film is also a bit serious but works because it does have effective humour and the cod-Shakespearean melodrama is so OTT that it's really fun). I don't remember much about "Age of Ultron" beyond "robot who sounds like he's smoked fifty cigarettes a day for twenty years", but it didn't make me annoyed I had spent money on it in the same way "The Dark World" did. It was just sort of forgettable.

I'm still loving "WandaVision" and especially Kathryn Hahn.
Spoiler: show
Her villainous theme song is everything to me.
Still waiting for season 3 of "Succession" so it's been really nice to have a weekly show to get excited about. I read the plot synopsis for "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" and it sounds... just ok. I'm really hoping to be pleasantly surprised. (I am one of five people on earth who found "The Winter Soldier" underwhelming - much prefer "Civil War"). "Loki" could go either way - plot sounds fun and the cast is great (Gugu Mbatha Raw and Richard E Grant??) but it depends on Loki himself (who I think can be hit and miss depending on who is writing him).

...wow I have a lot of long-winded MCU opinions. Apologies for that.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by KissMammal »

Truk_Kurt wrote: February 22nd, 2021, 9:43 am I watched I Care a Lot over the weekend and it is the best film I've seen in ages, probably since Knives Out. It's a new amazon prime exclusive and stars Rosamund Pike in the leading role. She plays the head of a care home facility but she is also a con artist, forcing old people to go into this care home when they don't really need to. She is a horrible human being but comes up against a mob boss (Peter Dinklage) when she puts his mother in a care home. He is also horrible. I don't want to say much more as I don't want to spoil it other than that its Pike's best performance since Gone Girl and that the soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard.

The closest film I could compare it to would probably be Nightcrawler, so if you liked that film watch this. But still watch it even if you didn't!

I thought I Care A Lot started out interesting, but it started to lose me the longer it went on and the more far-fetched it got. By the end I thought it was all pretty silly.

The initial premise is a great one but for me all of the initial tension and mystery dissipated as soon as Dinklage was revealed as the villain.

Pike is great, but is imo lumbered with a pretty one-note character. In fact, I'm really not sure who I was supposed to be rooting for throughout - the fact that she's such an unsympathetic and amoral person drains the film of a lot of its potential tension.
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shadowless_kick
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by shadowless_kick »

recently watched Malcolm & Marie, the new Netflix drama with Zendaya and John David Washington (Tenet). it's a pretty intense look at one night in a relationship between two passionate, damaged people. great performances from both actors, with lots of long, one-take shots and interesting camera work.

it reminded me of Uncut Gems in that the protagonists' decisions often made me squirm (though not nearly to the same degree — Uncut Gems was borderline unwatchable for me due to the squirm factor). it was pretty heavy; I felt like I needed a nap when it was over.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

KissMammal wrote: February 23rd, 2021, 11:00 pm Pike is great, but is imo lumbered with a pretty one-note character. In fact, I'm really not sure who I was supposed to be rooting for throughout - the fact that she's such an unsympathetic and amoral person drains the film of a lot of its potential tension.
That was one of the best things about the film for me, that we have two main characters and rather than rooting for any of them I was trying to figure out which I was supposed to hate more which very few films do.
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by duskvstweak »

So, having been reading a lot of Hellblazer and Lucifer comics, as well as having a curiosity of how it could last for fifteen seasons, I watched the first season of Supernatural. And, it's not bad! Some of the effects weren't great, even given the time, but I'm digging the mythos/folklore of it all. Unfortunately, it seems the show has a classic rock vibe that I'm not getting, since the streaming has all replacement tracks... and they're definitely not great.
Anyway, it's not a bad show to watch while playing Civ VI.
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by duskvstweak »

Also, now that it's over, I can say that I thought WandaVision was all around great. I've been ignoring most negative or disappointed criticism of it. But, considering that Wanda has been a cool background player with only a few moments of character development in the movies, I'm glad she got this spotlight (and Vision too). I really think it was a star making turn for the character.

However, I'll never forgive the show for skipping the 90s era of sitcoms.
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by Miririn »

I thought "WandaVision" really stuck the landing and I'll miss having it as a weekly treat (but far better that it ended on a high note rather than dragging everything out). Its villain also became my new favourite MCU villain.

It switched to being more standard MCU by the last two episodes, but it was still a lot of fun and all the characters stayed interesting. I'm not normally the type to get that emotional over MCU movies (with "Guardians of the Galaxy" being a notable exception, but I was drunk at the time) - they're happy sugar rush junk food films for me mostly. I watched each new "WandaVision" every Friday pre-work while eating my breakfast as an end-of-week lockdown pick-me-up. ...so I was completely mortified when the penultimate episode had me in tears at 8am while eating some toast. Lovely stuff. Cheesy, yes. But lovely.

Kathryn Hahn was my favourite out of a great cast, and Elizabeth Olsen was fantastic. I'm also a "Mad Men" mega fan, so I was so happy to see Teyonah Parris brought into the MCU. (If "The Mandalorian" keeps using "Deadwood" actors, can the MCU slowly introduce more and more "Mad Men" alumni?)
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Re: Whatcha Been Watching?

Post by KissMammal »

Nice to see Promising Young Woman, Minari and Sound of Metal getting some awards love - I thought all three were really outstanding and all are highly recommended.
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