Octopus Overlords

This may be the best new show out there.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:43 am This may be the best new show out there.

How would you know?
Honest question.

I assume that someone who watched it had a really great reaction, with lots of 'whoah!' and 'Ooh!', and bulging eyeballs.

Unagi wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:54 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:43 am This may be the best new show out there.

How would you know?
Honest question.

Watch YT react videos. I get the whole show by watching a few react vids...like 20 or so. Cuts out all the garbage and see all the neat stuff. My mind can fill in the rest.

I think I'm going to have to start pigeonholing MarveI scores from Rotten Tomatoes from now on. This currently has a 86% "score" (let's not go down that rabbit hole again please!), and at best I would rate this 6/10. I say that bc as I have mentioned before, RT scores track REALLY closely with my tastes (exceptions: anything that has to do with kung fu, several comedies). But this is maybe the third or fourth recent MCU 'product" where it gets a really good rating, and I think it's either luke warm recycled material at best, or lazy garbage.

I won't even take points off for the noticeably bad CGI (story, writing, acting can trump that IMO), and the VERY uncanny valley effect that immediately took me out of the show and made me stare at/try to not stare at weirdo Bruce'Hulk's face the whole time. Painful. I think it was both the writing and the acting (and definitely the stupid premise (yes, I am aware we are talking about green radioactive giants). But my counter-argument is that they have done fantastical premises VERY well in the past, and now they aren't...or just lazily recycling the same themes, ideas and tropes in slightly different ways. Anyway, the writing and/or acting of Ruffalo was horrific IMO. Both as disturbing CGI Bruhulk, and even as Bruce Banner only. (Thinking more, I think it was probably writing...Ruffalo is not a bad actor). Or it could be he himself is just tired as an actor of playing this same damn role over and over for so long, he's just mailing it in.

This is to me a prime example of "we've exhausted the mainline Marvel stories, but we have to maintain the money machine, so let's just start throwing shit at the wall and hopefully some will hit." Too bad more "entities" don't take the Seinfeld approach (and maybe the BBC series approach? not sure about that but I get that sense) and know when to stop. Just constantly churning MOARRRRR bc the share price demands it just demeans the prior amazing work IMO.

I know this won't be a popular take here, but thought I would throw it out there for some diversity (and not playing devil's advocate this time, like I sometimes do here, I genuinely feel this way).

The above is possibly an anti-capitalitic rant as well, not sure. Definitely hits some of the marks for "MAKE MORE MONEY NO MATTER WHAT..ism".

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:53 am This is to me a prime example of "we've exhausted the mainline Marvel stories, but we have to maintain the money machine, so let's just start throwing shit at the wall and hopefully some will hit."

I think you're severely underestimating the library of stories the Marvel universe has at their fingertips. They could probably double the amount of stuff they're releasing now and still not be close to exhausting it.

"Your" not alone. I have felt that way about the majority of MCU offerings for quite some time. Some of them are cringe worthy like that Black Widow hot garbage.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:09 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:53 am This is to me a prime example of "we've exhausted the mainline Marvel stories, but we have to maintain the money machine, so let's just start throwing shit at the wall and hopefully some will hit."

I think you're severely underestimating the library of stories the Marvel universe has at their fingertips. They could probably double the amount of stuff they're releasing now and still not be close to exhausting it.

Thus "mainline". Someone upthread beat me to it, but they are literally using 80's SNL skit material (Caveman Lawyer - which I actually loved, so not really a knock!) And also just having untapped material doesn't mean it's good. Can we not assume they started with the "A" material first? Now we are well into C at best (it seems to me). I mean "SHE HULK LAWYER"? That's almost Onion material, or MAD magazine.

Lest it sound like I am unfairly bashing, the alternative WHAT IF was fantastic IMO (and FAIRLY recent), so there are exceptions in my head at least. Well done, well acted, interesting (even if you could easily sling the "recycled" complaint there).

Not even considering the silly and boring premise, like I said, this show has awful writing. They (?) can, and have done MUCH better than this warmed over turd.
/runs far away before the flames lick my butt

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:08 am

Unagi wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:54 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:43 am This may be the best new show out there.

How would you know?
Honest question.

Watch YT react videos. I get the whole show by watching a few react vids...like 20 or so. Cuts out all the garbage and see all the neat stuff. My mind can fill in the rest.

Sounds like you are just adopting other people’s opinion as your own. And then coming here and telling us about your opinion of the show. It’s pretty weird, if ya ask me.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:16 pm Not even considering the silly and boring premise, like I said, this show has awful writing. They (?) can, and have done MUCH better than this warmed over turd.
/runs far away before the flames lick my butt

I mean...She-Hulk has been around 40+ years and she's a member of the Avengers. I'm not sure I'd describe her as C list. When we get to Batroc the Leaper spinoffs, I suppose I'd be more inclined to agree.

Regardless, I get that for many comic-based movies/entertainment has overstayed its welcome for many, but I'm going to continue to enjoy the hell out of everything.

What I want is more deep dives into the archives of Marvel characters. Especially ones that aren’t really superheroes. Give me a decent Man Thing movie (they made a passable one on the cheap years ago, but I’d like a big budget one), for instance. Or a Morbius the Living Vampire film. I mean, that character would be fantastic on the big screen.

I’m trying to understand the mindset one would have to be in to watch that episode and call it a warmed over turd.

Maybe you should just take a break from the MCU for awhile.

Unagi wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:19 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 11:08 am

Unagi wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:54 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:43 am This may be the best new show out there.

How would you know?
Honest question.

Watch YT react videos. I get the whole show by watching a few react vids...like 20 or so. Cuts out all the garbage and see all the neat stuff. My mind can fill in the rest.

Sounds like you are just adopting other people’s opinion as your own. And then coming here and telling us about your opinion of the show. It’s pretty weird, if ya ask me.

Nah I usually click through their pausings and opinions. I watch for their face reactions and some tidbits of info Im not up on. I dont read the comics. I gleaned she breaks 4th wall in them like show and such just by watching the react videos.

msteelers wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 2:11 pm I’m trying to understand the mindset one would have to be in to watch that episode and call it a warmed over turd.

Maybe you should just take a break from the MCU for awhile.

You're probably right. And the mindset I guess is "MCU fatigue". Literally fell asleep watching the last Dr. Strange.

Again, this is my opinion, and it obviously shouldn't affect anyone else's enjoyment (I don't pretend to pull that kind of weight!). Remembner that I am the minority opinion (both here, and critically - refer again to the RT score for She-Hulk).

Final comment and I will shut up: NO one else thought the acting/writing for Smart Hulk was wooden at best (or downright awful if we're being honest?)? I was beginning to wonder if they also might have used a computer AI to deliver the lines for him, in addition to the CGI.

And "warmed over turd" is probably a bit strong. But not by much.

I was thinking they'd run out of top-tier comics/characters (not being a comics fan), but I enjoyed the first episode more than I thought I would. Honestly the CGI didn't bug me as much as it did in the trailers. But it appeared to me that she isn't actually CGI in some hulk scenes and they just play with camera angles.

I think it's probably too early to make a judgment as I imagine the structure of this episode was much different than what will follow. It's still extremely predictable, and I found some of the jokes grating. I think going off the beaten path is what the MCU needs to maintain/regain relevance, but the problem (to me) is that the ideas are fresh while the execution is stale.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:24 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:16 pm Not even considering the silly and boring premise, like I said, this show has awful writing. They (?) can, and have done MUCH better than this warmed over turd.
/runs far away before the flames lick my butt

I mean...She-Hulk has been around 40+ years and she's a member of the Avengers. I'm not sure I'd describe her as C list. When we get to Batroc the Leaper spinoffs, I suppose I'd be more inclined to agree.

Regardless, I get that for many comic-based movies/entertainment has overstayed its welcome for many, but I'm going to continue to enjoy the hell out of everything.

Also the whole "She Hulk Lawyer" thing is central to the character, not like something tagged on for the show for comedy.

AWS260 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 12:11 am

Hamlet3145 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:59 pm
Also, important: there is an after credits scene.

So good.

So I honestly need some help with it, and it sounds like you are the one to ask. (But I'd be interested in anyone's take)

I think we’re going to see more of such things as Disney tries to be more than just a G to PG platform.

I don't mind the language, I just honestly didn't understand how that sentence would end. And when something like that is cut-off, and everyone laughs, it makes me feel like the conclusion is 'obvious', but I couldn't really guess what it would have said that would have been all that hysterical.

...fumbled?

Unagi wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 8:48 pm I don't mind the language, I just honestly didn't understand how that sentence would end. And when something like that is cut-off, and everyone laughs, it makes me feel like the conclusion is 'obvious', but I couldn't really guess what it would have said that would have been all that hysterical.

You're thinking too linearly. Think bigger.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:22 pm...fumbled?

I don't think you clicked my spoiler. I know how the cut-off word was completed, but I don't know what she said after the F word.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:26 pm

Unagi wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 8:48 pm I don't mind the language, I just honestly didn't understand how that sentence would end. And when something like that is cut-off, and everyone laughs, it makes me feel like the conclusion is 'obvious', but I couldn't really guess what it would have said that would have been all that hysterical.

You're thinking too linearly. Think bigger.

OK, I read your link and guess I still am thinking too linearly.

I mean, did she say

Am I the only one who assumed she said fhqwhgads??

not helping

Unagi wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:40 pm

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:22 pm...fumbled?

I don't think you clicked my spoiler. I know how the cut-off word was completed, but I don't know what she said after the F word.

I don't think you understood my post.

...fucking fumbled!

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:54 pm

Unagi wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:40 pm

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:22 pm...fumbled?

I don't think you clicked my spoiler. I know how the cut-off word was completed, but I don't know what she said after the F word.

I don't think you understood my post.

...fucking fumbled!

Ahh, ok - you are right I didn't understand your post. But uh, I don't get that either.

stimpy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:31 pm

Spoiler:

Captain America......FUCK YEAH!!!

OK, I can get with that perhaps... assuming you're serious. And yet, I'm not sure you are - or that you are pointing out (like everyone else, so far) that we don't know?

Although I'm now going to press Smoove to keep helping me get it.


I'm leaning on two possible outcomes. (Context: I'm not well read on She-Hulk nor Captain America or USO Tours of 1943)

One is that no one agrees on what the punch line there is... That it's something meaningful to a small group that read a specific issue of a specific comic 20 years ago - and that everyone else is totally pretending to sorta get it...
Or Two, (pretty close to the first one) that it's something new that we should be going back to previous MCU movies to figure out who this could be... but I'm missing that knowledge too, and that most people not telling me what she likely said are in my same shoes: they also have no clue what she may have said in completion of her sentence.

I'm trying to learn here. I think AWS and Smoove may hold the real answer.

Is this link telling me what I should be thinking here?
https://decider.com/2022/08/18/she-hulk ... n-america/


Also, is there some implication here that perhaps there is Captain Jr. out there?? A bloodline?
Am I totally talking about something everyone already knows that has read these comics?

Sudy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 11:52 pm

Spoiler:

Honestly I don't think it's that complicated. She's a bit starstruck by association and has a humourous obsession with whether goody-goody, life-experience-screwed Steve Rogers died a virgin. She finds out he didn't, exclaims "Captain America fucks!" as, to me, a bit of an eye-rolling throwaway joke. I don't use this expression, but I did hear it once on an episode of Silicon Valley.

Yes, this is obviously correct.

So it’s not farfegnugen, the German expression for pleasurable driving?

Sudy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 11:52 pm

Spoiler:

Honestly I don't think it's that complicated. She's a bit starstruck by association and has a humourous obsession with whether goody-goody, life-experience-screwed Steve Rogers died a virgin. She finds out he didn't, exclaims "Captain America fucks!" as, to me, a bit of an eye-rolling throwaway joke. I don't use this expression, but I did hear it once on an episode of Silicon Valley.

Yeah. Ok.

In the first Captain America movie it's implied in one scene that a female staff member (played by the ever gorgeous Natalie Dormer) pulls Cap aside for a little action at one point.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:24 am In the first Captain America movie it's implied in one scene that a female staff member (played by the ever gorgeous Natalie Dormer) pulls Cap aside for a little action at one point.

Spoiler:

If you read the link that Unagi posted, it totally dispels that possibility.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:24 am In the first Captain America movie it's implied in one scene that a female staff member (played by the ever gorgeous Natalie Dormer) pulls Cap aside for a little action at one point.

Spoiler:

I appreciate that help. That’s part of what I learned from the link I shared above

Ah, got it. I didn't read that fully.

And by "fully" I mean "at all".

Sudy wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:44 pm Am I the only one who assumed she said fhqwhgads??

Come on, fhqwhgads.
You're just making yourself look worse, y'know
I mean, everybody's just gonna feel sorry for ya
I mean, I do.

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:50 am Yeah. Ok.

Spoiler:

I suggested above that was perhaps one exclamation she could have declared. It honestly sounds like an odd exclamation though (kinda) and so I felt it was more likely she had a theory ‘who’ he fucked. And that perhaps somewhere out there a comic exists where this declaration was less censored.

Yeah, that's it. It's come up a few times and I think it's unofficially been a point of debate just because of who he is and how he's been presented. Do you remember the discussion between him and Ant-Man in Endgame about the Captain's costume? Namely, his new one is more flattering and Ant-Man notes, "That's America's Ass!"

But going back to my earliest comment, it's a meta connection - it gets people talking (like here). It had Chris Evans on social media noticing. It's the equivalent of Starbucks writing your name as OOnoggee on the side of your order and you posting it online - free advertising. It got people talking and it worked.

Also, anything that might bring Natalie Dormer back into the MCU (even if it's wrong) is good in my book.

And I like the idea that there could be a little Jr running around (who I suppose would now be an old man)

Has that ever been ‘a thing’ in the comics?

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 11:33 am And I like the idea that there could be a little Jr running around (who I suppose would now be an old man)

Has that ever been ‘a thing’ in the comics?

You mean the ability to have children? I'm pretty sure it is.