I mean, I loved Shang-Chi (even when it devolved into a typically overblown overCGIed climax, it at least featured two cool dragons), so I won’t be fighting you on that. But I don’t think it’s widely considered a stand-out.

What I think people tend to forget is that while we were all well aware for a long time that Phase 3 would end with Thanos and that meant some version of The Infinity Gauntlet, very little of it is actually in the movies. What teases exist are mostly Easter egg level — the “it’s all connected” stuff was almost entirel…

I don’t get this at all.

How does “since 2018” refer to the prequels?

The best Star Wars movie since 2018 is #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania

The main problem was that it didn’t make clear where you could (and couldn’t) transition from one section to the next.

I wouldn’t have minded the backtracking, if not for the map being pretty much unreadable. It was almost impossible to plan a route to that one point where you missed something. Quick travel certainly helps, but I hope they sort out the map out too.

Are they shying away from showing human-on-human violence in this?

In fact, that’s what makes it copaganda. You avoid the pitfalls of copaganda by acknowledging that the institution of policing is fucked up, that cops often aren’t right, that self-interest and corruption are rife, that they circle the wagons instead of weeding out bad apples (but do the opposite for whistleblowers)...…

Trevorrow is far worse than Abrams. Abrams has some talents. He’s got an incredible sense of casting and he can direct the hell out of an individual scene. The problem is that he seems to focus all his energy on wringing every ounce of intensity and excitement and emotion out of whatever scene he’s currently working…

Not sure Hollywood gets the blame here. They didn’t force audiences to turn out to three shitty (and increasingly so) Jurassic Park sequels to the tune of over a billion dollars each time. Even taking The Book of Henry’s failure into account, he’s massively in in the black overall.

What makes you think they won’t? They’re obviously not selling it on the back of whoever it is, but I’d say there’s probably a better chance of the writer being acknowledged inside the book than there is for your average ghostwriter of celebrity “auto”biographies.

it’s also kind of the low hanging fruit

I don’t think Bill and Frank in the game is “bury your gays” at all, largely because Frank is not a character. Can’t really “bury” someone we’ve never met.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll guess I’ll say it again. The whole show is gonna be “filler” until the season finale. There’s no complex and evolving plot to set aside. Joel and Ellie head off in search of the Fireflies, they eventually find the Fireflies — that’s the whole season, nothing in between matters.

Gunn doesn’t seem to have actually offered an opinion to trust though. The quotes are all attributed to Safran.

Yondu is Centaurian, not Kree, in both comics and films. He was only the last of his race because the original Guardians were from a possible future in which the Badoon had wiped out much of the universe.

Eh? Each arc was a blockbuster movie in its own right. That was a core element of the “widescreen” stylings at the centre of the book.

The World’s End still wasn’t very good though.

It’s overblown, but it’s not complete bullshit. Some directors definitely have a very clear voice which leaves their work unmistakably theirs, regardless of who they collaborate with on any particular film. Christopher Nolan. Quentin Tarantino. Michael Mann. Park Chan-wook. Guillermo Del Toro. Tim Burton. Zack Snyder.…