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1. Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 11:02:06 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅
   We watched "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" today. It was good! More interesting than Spider-Man: No Way Home, and with a couple of interesting twists.
   
   No spoilers below, just an abstract obervation on the film and the context needed to see it.
   • ghostdancer (ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 11:57:20 UTC ghostdancer

     in reply to

     @clacke Son liked a lot, told me something about it and then I saw that Sam Raimi is the director. I will probably watch it.

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   • ghostdancer (ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 11:57:37 UTC ghostdancer

     in reply to

     • Paul

     @Paul There are always the old faithful waters of the Bay 🏴☠️ .
     Belonging to Marvel the only series seen is WandaVison and it's quite funny on itself. @clacke

   • Paul (paul@social.lightlyseared.online)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 11:57:37 UTC Paul

     in reply to

     • ghostdancer

     @ghostdancer @clacke I'm aware that WandaVision is a thing, but I've never seen it. It's not a huge issue, but there were a few moments early on when I found myself wandering what the characters were talking about.

     Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 likes this.
   • Paul (paul@social.lightlyseared.online)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 11:57:38 UTC Paul

     in reply to

     @clacke We saw this #film on Friday. It was good -- and a lot darker than previous Marvel movies -- but I can't help feeling that I missed a lot of context from not having Disney+.

   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:02:51 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     The movie explains itself well enough and doesn't entangle itself too much with other things.
     
     I was expecting it to be like "an episode in the MCU Season 4" where you'd be entirely lost without the full 30-something films and the several recent TV series, but actually I'd say you only need them for character depth and to catch several references.
     
     Of course I'm saying this as someone who *has* seen all the films and TV series except Agents of Shield. But judging from the others in the group the challenge is mostly following a multiverse, alternate-versions storyline, not so much the specific backstory.
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:14:01 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     If you *do* want to study up on backstory, I think it's very helpful to watch:
     - WandaVision
     - Infinity War
     - The Dr. Strange episode of What If
     - Maybe the first Dr. Strange film
     
     The rest ... actually mostly not important. But if you want deep background to catch references etc:
     - The other 8 What If
     - No Way Home just for more Dr. Strange, but Multiverse of Madness is not "No Way Home II" like I thought it would be
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:15:05 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     Oh! And Age of Ultron, as that's "Wanda I".
   • Paul (paul@social.lightlyseared.online)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:17:07 UTC Paul

     in reply to

     • ghostdancer

     @ghostdancer @clacke Indeed. Disney is a company and films are a product. But I do think that they need to be careful not to kill the franchise by assuming too much commitment from their audience.

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   • ghostdancer (ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:17:08 UTC ghostdancer

     in reply to

     • Paul

     @Paul It's Disney, loves money and if you make a captive audience you can get every single coin from them from childhood to adulthood ... and beyond. @clacke

   • ghostdancer (ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:17:09 UTC ghostdancer

     in reply to

     • Paul

     @Paul Not seen the movie I hope that Disney don't try to make to watch everything mandatory to follow. @clacke

   • Paul (paul@social.lightlyseared.online)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:17:09 UTC Paul

     in reply to

     • ghostdancer

     @ghostdancer @clacke You can follow the film without having seen the series, especially once it gets going, but assuming that everyone in the audience has seen everything is a step in a slightly worrying direction.

   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:18:08 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to

     • ghostdancer
     • Paul
     @Paul I think they mostly averted that for now. But they need to keep being careful. The backlog is ever-growing.
     
     @ghostdancer
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:54:52 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to

     • Strypey
     @strypey Yeah No Way Home was mostly a spiderman fanbase reference fest, but not much really happened. Like, I liked it, but it wasn't objectively good. =)
     
     Madness is not like that, it has some of that good "what capacity for good and evil do we have" and "how do experiences shape us" material that a multiverse flick is good for. It wasn't amazing (although the effects were), but it was solid and well worth the time. For people who enjoy scifi fantasy multiversy stuff.
   • Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 12:54:53 UTC Strypey

     in reply to

     @clacke I'd never heard of What If. Thanks for the tip! Also for the critical review, I'm much keener to see the new Dr Strange now. I was quite disappointed by both The Eternals and No Way Home, the former having most of the failings of Justice League, and the latter, ironically, the failings of the Maguire and Garfield era Spiderman films. Loved Black Widow and Shang-Chi though, so hadn't given up on the MCU.

     Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 likes this.
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 13:03:28 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     One thing to note about "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is that it is not just a superhero action adventure, it's also a little bit horror, both creepy horror and jump-scare horror. That's good to know if you don't like that kind of thing. 90%–95% of the film isn't like that, but it's there.
     
     Also, it's a pretty dark film overall. Irreversable cataclysmic destruction and cold-blooded murder takes place, more explicitly so than "just" a Snap.
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-May-2022 13:06:08 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to

     • Strypey
     @strypey What If is fun and interesting and less than a five-hour investment for all nine episodes.
     
     It's animated and the storytelling is very brisk, as it'll cover a whole alternate universe in less than half an hour.