Macduff

Name: Jeff

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Macduff's Recent Comments
July 11, 2019 12:34 pm I enjoyed this one, and it a was a relief to have a relatively low-stakes Marvel film on the roster after the Infinity Exhaustion. It was fun but it didn't feel all that different from Homecoming in some ways. SPOILERS 1. Villain jilted by Tony Stark and then stealing his tech. Check. 2. School trip. Check. 3. Stark-tech Spider-suit. Check Can we just get Peter back in Brooklyn in his old-fashioned, not Stark-Tech costume for awhile? Also, I really liked the idea of an Alt-Earth Mysterio. I think the audience could have handled that as a thing, the alternative was a bit of a let down. That costume though? Fantastic. Loved the smokey fishbowl. I did appreciate the whole illusion/fake news motif that ran through the film. Marvel has a long history of having their finger on the pulse of current events so I appreciated it and it gave that post-credits sequence some weight. Last nitpick, the Skrulls sounded a bit muffled, like they were talking though rubber suits. Maybe it was the sound quality in my theatre. Did anyone else notice? Oh hey, there was a passing reference to a surfboard in there somewhere, I can't recall the exact line. Foreshadowing the Silver Surfer? :D
May 1, 2019 10:04 am Where did Valkyrie's winged horse come from anyway?
May 1, 2019 10:00 am On the subject of Cap, his exhausted annoyance at his younger self's "I can do this all day" was a great bit and "America's ass" made me laugh way more than it should have. His run at Thanos while wielding Mjölnir was thrilling and delightfully unexpected. I don't know how I was the only one who cheered in the theatre; it was such a perfect scene.
May 1, 2019 9:40 am I was really disappointed with how Thor was handled throughout. Infinity War did a wonderful job showing just how years of cumulative trauma were finally bearing down on him. His moment with Rocket on the Benetar was heart-breaking but sensitively handled. And Endgame - for a few minutes at least- followed that up in a way that felt legit. I absolutely accepted a broken, overweight, alcoholic God of Thunder. What sticks in my craw is the way his teammates responded to his depression and guilt- by making fun of him and treating him like a weirdo. I suppose we could argue that he didn't want, or think he needed, anyone's help, but when he finally came around to the plan, they still gave him the side-eye and "melted ice cream" treatment, Same with Hawkeye, really. I'm slightly baffled about his life choices after The Snap, but it doesn't make his suffering any less valid. Why did it take five years for anyone to go out and find him? In fairness, Nat acknowledged that failure but overall, I'd say the Avengers are lousy at emotional support. For a movie that was so rightly engaged with the aftermath of The Snap, the Avengers really dropped the ball on their teammates. One more thing, I kinda dig the idea of Thor hanging with the Guardians- maybe he can finally get Peter to grow the eff up- Quill's reckless, insecure bluster has gone on long enough.
February 10, 2019 5:38 pm Wow, check out how Old Man I sound in that post.
February 10, 2019 5:08 pm Old Man Quill was a boring disappointment but, sadly, I can't say I'm surprised. It's what I expected Old Man Hawkeye to be when that one was announced way back when, and which thankfully turned out to be pretty wonderful, so it seemed risky that they'd go back that well for OMQ. I was hopeful OM Quill would have the same nervy energy as OM Hawkeye but it did not. The tragedy of Quill's dead family barely registered for me, and when the other Guardians showed up it just slipped back into that vaguely quippy, bickering mode that passes for characterization these days. Groot's absence was supposed to be sad, I guess? I have no idea why. Maybe we'll find out but I don't care. Also, this takes place fifty or so years after the fall of Earth's heroes, right? How is Rocket even still alive? I know, I know, comic books. Anyway, Old Man Hawkeye managed to find the perfect formula of tragedy, humour and pathos by very effectively mining the classic Thunderbolts stuff, Old Man Quill seems to be drawing from the more recent Bendis run which was not great as I recall and if Sacks had dug into the cosmic insanity of Abnett and Lanning's Guardians - which, for second there, he seemed to be doing with the space church stuff - I wonder if it might have turned out a little more compelling than what we got. It was perfunctory and I kind of hope the excuse was that this was editorially mandated and not all on Sacks after the greatness of Old Man Hawkeye.
November 6, 2018 6:51 pm In response to James R. and his question about the fellas reviewing old superhero films, by pure coincidence, after tuning in to this most recent episode, I scrolled back to #448 at random and was delighted to hear a highly amusing discussion with Paul Montgomery about his first full viewing of Batman ‘89, 25 years later. You should check it out, it’s a treat. https://ifanboy.com/podcasts/pick-of-the-week-podcast-episode-448-rocket-raccoon-2/
May 5, 2018 7:18 pm Terrific interview, thank you for this. Donny Cates is on my must-buy list, and that’s probably gonna include his take on Venom, a character I haven’t cared about, well, ever. Truth be told, I’m actually excited about it and that’s remarkable.
April 28, 2018 5:58 pm In that spirit, Quill was an absolute dick when Thor showed up, to the point of being off-putting. Rocket was more sensitive and sensible and he’s a raccoon. Between that and blowing theit chance to get the Gauntlet, Infinity War was not Quill’s finest showing.
April 28, 2018 5:13 pm I was okay with the problem of Hulk refusing to emerge. After, what? Two years Hulked out on Sakaar, and maybe traumatized by the slaughter of the Asgardians, I could get behind the idea that Hulk- who I think was surprisingly effectively as a massive, angry toddler in Ragnarok- would be more than a little tired of being the muscle-on-demand. I think the Hulk/Banner dynamic in the MCU, overall, has evolved to be fairly interesting and resolves some of the tension of Banner unpredictably Hulking out where it would make no sense to have an out of control WMD on the team. As the dad of a three year old who does what I say maybe, maybe, 60% of the time, it worked for me that Hulk was being petulant and stubborn despite the stakes. One nit-pick about Hulk in Infinity War remains for me though. The film picks up shortly after the last scene in Ragnarok, where we saw Hulk on the bridge of the Grandmaster's ship with the whole Asgard Gang but where was he, later, when Thanos and the Black Order boarded the ship? When Loki "summoned" Hulk it was a "Hell yeah!" moment that took Thanos by surprise but why wasn't Hulk already in the fray? Where were they keeping him while the Asgardians were being slaughtered? I'm not saying Hulk would have prevented all that death, but I feel it would have made more sense to break out the Hulk before, y'know, the mass-murder of a ship full of innocent refugees. Did I miss something there? As to the matter of Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek being MIA, I was willing to accept (grimly) they were already dead or dying along with everyone else.