Marvel TV & Movies - 2025

[Contentious C]

Marvel Zombies was fun, but I would have rather had a self-contained story and no need for a second season, whenever that theoretically happens.  I did dig how Iman Vellani really, really dialed back the squee stuff she does a lot in her show and in The Marvels, since it paid off better here on the rare occasion that it came out anyway.

Watching Kraven the Hunter makes me realize something about Spider-Man - he is the anti-Ted Mosby.  HIMYM would have been better without its main, but even though every Spidey villain seems interesting on their own as an anti-hero, they nearly always can't elevate material in a meaningful way without having Peter to foil against.  Venom's a solid concept, so is Kraven, but rolling out solo films minus their anchor just...does not work.  I have psoriatic arthritis, and yet I still have more high-quality connective tissue than these movies did.  Good thing Sony's foolishness is over.

Edited October 5 by Contentious C

[odessasteps]

I think Kraven could work sans SM with the right story. As an animal rights anti hero fighting poachers or Gentrification of the Plains/Veldt/etc. prob best to make him not Russian. I think you could a great story with Mysterio playing off his SFX background, like Bryan Brown in that 89s movie. 

[tbarrie]

6 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I think Kraven could work sans SM with the right story. As an animal rights anti hero fighting poachers or Gentrification of the Plains/Veldt/etc.

He's Kraven the Hunter, not Kraven the Preserver. I'd think he'd be more likely to be a poacher than to fight poachers.

[odessasteps]

If he’s the protagonist of a movie and not the villain, I don’t know you’d want him as a poacher. Maybe if he’s a bounty Hunter tracking bad guys, you can play up the hunter part of the gimmick. ‘He hunts the most dangerous animal … MAN.”

[tbarrie]

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

If he’s the protagonist of a movie and not the villain, I don’t know you’d want him as a poacher.

Oh, you certainly wouldn't, which was the point I didn't elaborate properly. For the character to work as a non-villain protagonist, you'd need to change him enough from his comics version that there wouldn't be much point in using the name. In my opinion, anyway.

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Maybe if he’s a bounty Hunter tracking bad guys, you can play up the hunter part of the gimmick. ‘He hunts the most dangerous animal … MAN.”

Maybe, but to me his being a big game hunter is a big part of the character's identity. I guess you could make that part of his past, but he gave it up to hunt bad guys.

But the only Sony villain movie that seemed to me to have any chance of being decent was Morbius. I gather from the word of mouth that the movie wasn't good at all, but I'm still confused why everybody online seemed convinced from the time it was announced that it was going to be terrible. I mean, Morbius is arguably not the most imaginative Spidey villain. He's pretty much just a vampire. But there have been decent vampire movies, so why all the pessimism? Did the creative team announced for the project have a reputation for ineptitude?

[JLSigman]

26 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

But the only Sony villain movie that seemed to me to have any chance of being decent was Morbius. I gather from the word of mouth that the movie wasn't good at all, but I'm still confused why everybody online seemed convinced from the time it was announced that it was going to be terrible. I mean, Morbius is arguably not the most imaginative Spidey villain. He's pretty much just a vampire. But there have been decent vampire movies, so why all the pessimism? Did the creative team announced for the project have a reputation for ineptitude?

It's because Jared Leto is an asshole and ruins everything he touches.

[tbarrie]

1 minute ago, JLSigman said:

It's because Jared Leto is an asshole and ruins everything he touches.

I think I recognize that name. Is he the only guy to play The Joker in live action and not have his performance generally regarded as great?

[JonnyLaw]

I watched 10 Things I Hate About You recently, and in addition to Heath Ledger being Julia Stiles’s love interest, at one point they mention she had a crush on Jared Leto, which got a sensible chuckle from me.

[Zimbra]

My understanding is that Jordan Catalano was a, uh, formative experience for a lot of girls in the 90s.

[odessasteps]

1 hour ago, tbarrie said:

Oh, you certainly wouldn't, which was the point I didn't elaborate properly. For the character to work as a non-villain protagonist, you'd need to change him enough from his comics version that there wouldn't be much point in using the name. In my opinion, anyway.

Maybe, but to me his being a big game hunter is a big part of the character's identity. I guess you could make that part of his past, but he gave it up to hunt bad guys.

But the only Sony villain movie that seemed to me to have any chance of being decent was Morbius. I gather from the word of mouth that the movie wasn't good at all, but I'm still confused why everybody online seemed convinced from the time it was announced that it was going to be terrible. I mean, Morbius is arguably not the most imaginative Spidey villain. He's pretty much just a vampire. But there have been decent vampire movies, so why all the pessimism? Did the creative team announced for the project have a reputation for ineptitude?

Science Vampires is a good subgenre if done right, like Ultraviolet. 

[NikoBaltimore]

7 hours ago, Zimbra said:

My understanding is that Jordan Catalano was a, uh, formative experience for a lot of girls in the 90s.

He sure was popular with them, that's for sure.  My sister had quite a crush on him during that time as well.  When he was all over the place in the late 2000s onward first times seeing him was "Wait, that's the same guy from that show?  WTF?"  After hearing so much about how his take on Joker was trash I refused to watch the first Suicide Squad movie.  And I never paid attention to whatever else he did so eh.  But it looks like he's been accused by 9 women of sexual misconduct so even if I wanted to see the new Tron movie I'm okay with not seeing it until it hits streaming.

Edited October 6 by NikoBaltimore

[Contentious C]

"Women" may be applied with the same dubious distinction there as it is in other circles, from what I'd read. Yeah, I tend to avoid.

[Curt McGirt]

On 10/5/2025 at 12:47 PM, odessasteps said:

Science Vampires is a good subgenre if done right, like Ultraviolet. 

Lifeforce. You know it.

Actually Plan 9 from Outer Space is on TV right now. I never knew they actually did show the dentist's face though it is clearly not Lugosi and Ed had him cover it anyway 

[Casey]

On 10/5/2025 at 10:57 AM, tbarrie said:

Did the creative team announced for the project have a reputation for ineptitude?

Dracula Untold, Last Witch Hunter, Gods of Egypt, that fucking abomination of a Power Rangers movie...

(I like those movies, except the Power Rangers one, so I'm not in that camp on that complaint, but they aren't like STELLAR movies or anything either)

So, yeah. That was probably a factor.

Also that nobody wanted any of these Spidey villain movies from Sony. Show me a person that wanted a Morbius/Kraven/Madame Web movie without Spider-Man, and I'll show you a liar. Venom was the exception, but everyone generally agrees those movies are more "so bad they're good". And it's also Venom, the one character you can pull from Spider-Man's collection of anti-heroes and villains and make billions of dollars with

And: everyone knew going into these movies that they'd have little to no connectivity to the MCU. The most you get is Venom looking at a TV with Spider-Man on it, or the Vulture suddenly appearing in the Sony universe even though he's in jail in the MCU. Neither of those have been paid off, likely never will, and a piece of symbiote left behind in the sacred timeline universe might not either (maybe, but at this point who cares? They're about to reset the whole timeline lol).

All of this could have worked if they just got Andrew or Tobey back, and said these are villains from their universes. A Sinister Six of Morbius, Kraven, Rhino, Chameleon, Vulture & Carnage versus Venom and one of the other Spider-Men probably would've done well if they had planned this out from the beginning. But they wanted that MCU integration.

[Travis Sheldon]

I can tolerate the revision of Morbius to an anti-hero, but MY Morbius was at most a tweener who was written by Roy Thomas in the 70s.

(And it's because of this post I just thought of OSJ. )

[The Natural]

On 10/5/2025 at 5:24 PM, JLSigman said:

It's because Jared Leto is an asshole and ruins everything he touches.

Thank you, my friend.

On 10/5/2025 at 5:25 PM, tbarrie said:

I think I recognize that name. Is he the only guy to play The Joker in live action and not have his performance generally regarded as great?

That's the one. By far the worst live action Joker ever. Live action Joker rankings:

7. Jared Leto.

6. Barry Keoghan.

5. Cameron Monaghan.

4. Cesar Romero.

3. Joaquin Phoenix. Love Joker. Hate Joker: Folie a Deux. The latter has tainted the former big time with me.

2. Jack Nicholson.

1. Heath Ledger.

On 10/5/2025 at 5:38 PM, JonnyLaw said:

I watched 10 Things I Hate About You recently, and in addition to Heath Ledger being Julia Stiles’s love interest, at one point they mention she had a crush on Jared Leto, which got a sensible chuckle from me.

I watched 10 Things I Hate About You when it came out in 1999 in cinemas. It's still a sentimental favourite. Great film. Heath Ledger's first. It's where my crush for Julia Styles started. Liked Larisa Oleynik since I watched The Secret World of Alex Mack, her TV show as a kid.

[The Natural]

On 10/6/2025 at 1:39 AM, NikoBaltimore said:

He sure was popular with them, that's for sure.  My sister had quite a crush on him during that time as well.  When he was all over the place in the late 2000s onward first times seeing him was "Wait, that's the same guy from that show?  WTF?"  After hearing so much about how his take on Joker was trash I refused to watch the first Suicide Squad movie.  And I never paid attention to whatever else he did so eh.  But it looks like he's been accused by 9 women of sexual misconduct so even if I wanted to see the new Tron movie I'm okay with not seeing it until it hits streaming.

Take it from the biggest Batman fan on the board, Jared Leto's Joker fucking sucks. Fucking shit.

[tbarrie]

7 hours ago, The Natural said:

That's the one. By far the worst live action Joker ever. Live action Joker rankings:

7. Jared Leto.

6. Barry Keoghan.

5. Cameron Monaghan.

4. Cesar Romero.

3. Joaquin Phoenix. Love Joker. Hate Joker: Folie a Deux. The latter has tainted the former big time with me.

2. Jack Nicholson.

1. Heath Ledger.

Leto's performance served a purpose, though, in that it makes the others look better. Before I heard the word of mouth on it, I sort of thought maybe the Joker was just a really easy role to play. Romero, Nicholson, Ledger, and Phoenix were all pretty great. 

I don't think I've seen Keoghan or Monaghan as Joker. Where did they play him?

[The Natural]

11 minutes ago, tbarrie said:

Leto's performance served a purpose, though, in that it makes the others look better. Before I heard the word of mouth on it, I sort of thought maybe the Joker was just a really easy role to play. Romero, Nicholson, Ledger, and Phoenix were all pretty great. 

I don't think I've seen Keoghan or Monaghan as Joker. Where did they play him?

I think the Joker is a hard role to play because of the roll call, you don't want to shit the bed and Leto well and truly did. The Joker has high expectations for that and he's a cultural icon.

Keoghan in The Batman. Monaghan in Gotham. Monaghan was never called the Joker because of copyright issues but it was widely interpreted he was. Most underrated live action one I reckon.

[The Natural]

Fuck it, my top ten Joker's ever:

10. Alan Tudyk. Harley Quinn.

9. Troy Baker. Batman: Arkham Origins.

8. Michael Emerson. The Dark Knight Returns.

7. John DiMaggio. Batman: Under the Red Hood.

6. Cameron Monaghan. Gotham.

5. Cesar Romero. Batman 1966.

4. Joaquin Phoenix. Joker and  Joker: Folie a Deux. 

3. Jack Nicholson. Batman 1989.

2. Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight.

1. Mark Hamill. Batman: The Animated Series. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

[odessasteps]

This Womder Man thing not looks overly meta but …

more of the making fun of classic marvel costumes 

more “let’s make fun of fans who take these things too seriously” 

[Dolfan in NYC]

13 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

more “let’s make fun of fans who take these things too seriously” 

Yeah, welcome to every MCU project for the last decade.  

Anyway, here's the Wonder Man teaser:

Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Ben Kingsley, Demetrius Grosse, Josh Gad, and Ed Harris

On Disney+ January 2026

[odessasteps]

I know. That’s one reason I stopped watching them.

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

more “let’s make fun of fans who take these things too seriously” 

I don't see a problem with poking fun at people who take escapist entertainment too seriously, as long as it's not mean-spirited.

[odessasteps]

I would call most of their portrayals that. Of course, since they are also dudebros, most people prob think it’s okay to make fun of them.