FL_Ag1998 said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Who was the congressman who was grilling Elaine at the beginning of the movie? His face was familiar. Was that the guy who played Admiral James Greer in the Jack Ryan series?

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You don't recognize him?!

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He's also Perry White in the new Superman movie

Speaking of Doomsday, I read that the second post-credit scene was shot just LAST MONTH, on the Doomsday set, and wasn't shot by Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier. He said he was there, on set, but it sounds like the Russo Brothers handled the sequence itself, which thankfully looked/felt great as well, and hopefully bodes well for that movie.

Also, I have to say, the audience went NUTS when the F4 ship was revealed, while The Fantastic Four trailer got the biggest trailer cheers by far, both at the beginning and then especially the end of the trailer. Granted, it was a primed Marvel audience, but man the anticipation for that movie felt massive tonight. It starts getting good reviews and if tonight is any indication, it could do big, big numbers.

TCTTS said:

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sburg2007 said:

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Shiiiiiiit.

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That's Isiah Whitlock Jr's catchphrase, not Wendell Pierce's.

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Well I'm an idiot. Shows how long it's been since I've seen it.

I said his face was familiar. Would that not qualify as recognition? The issue was I couldn't recall his name so I kept wondering who he was.

TCTTS said:

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Speaking of Doomsday, I read that the second post-credit scene was shot just LAST MONTH, on the Doomsday set, and wasn't shot by Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier. He said he was there, on set, but it sounds like the Russo Brothers handled the sequence itself, which thankfully looked/felt great as well, and hopefully bodes well for that movie.

Also, I have to say, the audience went NUTS when the F4 ship was revealed, while The Fantastic Four trailer got the biggest trailer cheers by far, both at the beginning and then especially the end of the trailer. Granted, it was a primed Marvel audience, but man the anticipation for that movie felt massive tonight. It starts getting good reviews and if tonight is any indication, it could do big, big numbers.

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As good as the movie itself was, that second after credits sequence was my favorite part. F4 were my favorite Marvel characters growing up (more so than Spider-Man or Hulk), loved watching the cartoons they were in every Saturday morning, so I'm anticipating their movie more than any Marvel movie since Infinity War. My audience last night wasn't nutty over anything they saw in the movie - we sat next to some corn dog family that my wife tried to explain to the wife, who apparently was not familiar with any of what has come before, who some of the Thunderbolts* characters are. But I had a reaction to that credit sequence much like a far nuttier audience had at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger when that film ended with shots from the following year's The Avengers.

By the way, was there an explanation for the asterisk? I missed it if there was.

$31.5 million Friday box office
88% RT
95% audience

going to see it with 2 ag friends in 3 hours

Great characters; good movie. Maybe a little too emotional/sappy but I get why they did it.

I thought the conversation at the end regarding Sam suing the Thunderbolts for the rights of Avengers name was silly. Surely they aren't going to make that a storyline with the F4 coming on the scene...?

I assume this was a joke from OP? I may be missing something here.

Quote:

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Also stars my boy Deke Slayton from For All Mankind
Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster
Rachel "Smokeshow" Weisz as Melina Vostokoff

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My guess is the first 20 min of Doomsday are the two Avenger teams squabbling over who controls what and then the F4 shows up and they realize that it doesn't matter with the threat from space looming

johncAG said:

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My guess is the first 20 min of Doomsday are the two Avenger teams squabbling over who controls what and then the F4 shows up and they realize that it doesn't matter with the threat from space looming

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This. Potentially squabbling over who the real Avengers are is good, fun conflict. Then they're inevitably/reluctantly going to have to join forces to try and take down Doom. Otherwise, 50 (or however many heroes) vs 1 (Doom), from the jump, is kind of boring. The more conflict and factions at the outset the better.

YouBet said:

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Great characters; good movie. Maybe a little too emotional/sappy but I get why they did it.

I thought the conversation at the end regarding Sam suing the Thunderbolts for the rights of Avengers name was silly. Surely they aren't going to make that a storyline with the F4 coming on the scene...?

I assume this was a joke from OP? I may be missing something here.

Quote:

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Also stars my boy Deke Slayton from For All Mankind
Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster
Rachel "Smokeshow" Weisz as Melina Vostokof

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All I did was copy what it said on Wikipedia. Weisz was in a flashback scene for about 2 seconds. Deke was the general who was pissed he couldn't use lethal force, Fishburne wasn't there as far as I could tell.

The Original Houston 1836 said:

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YouBet said:

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Great characters; good movie. Maybe a little too emotional/sappy but I get why they did it.

I thought the conversation at the end regarding Sam suing the Thunderbolts for the rights of Avengers name was silly. Surely they aren't going to make that a storyline with the F4 coming on the scene...?

I assume this was a joke from OP? I may be missing something here.

Quote:

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Also stars my boy Deke Slayton from For All Mankind
Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster
Rachel "Smokeshow" Weisz as Melina Vostokof

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All I did was copy what it said on Wikipedia. Weisz was in a flashback scene for about 2 seconds. Deke was the general who was pissed he couldn't use lethal force, Fishburne wasn't there as far as I could tell.

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Missed Weisz. When I saw Deke my first reaction was turning to my wife, "It's the sheriff from True Blood!".

Thoughts on the movie.
Unless we're counting Deadpool & Wolverine, it's my first time seeing a Marvel movie post-Endgame on the opening weekend except for GOTG3.

Likes
The middle of the movie was my favorite part. From the time Red Guardian picks them up in the limo until Bob goes dark I really enjoyed the interplay between Yelena, Walker, RG, and Bucky.

Really liked Red Guardian telling Yelena that being a hero and having people look up to you is the reason to do it. Being someone's hero is a great feeling.
Them all picking up the giant concrete slab together was great - considering you know Thor or Hulk or probably Iron Man could do it alone no problem. Watching Walker take it on alone, knowing he shouldn't, and the strain on his face wasn't too far away from watching the real Cap try to fight Thanos in Infinity War. You know it's impossible but you're still going to do it until you can't anymore.

Wyatt Russell needs to have the Glen Powell treatment in the next couple of years. Guy is awesome. My friends and I died laughing at him listing his high school football accomplishments in his resume when they were locked in.

The origin of the Thunderbolts name was a great running joke, and RG being so pissed off about Shane from the tire place sponsoring the team. "Shane didn't have that kind of money."

The limo's defense mechanisms that turned on the track lights and the music and the smoke machine and Yelena asking, "Who were you driving around in here?" Also Walker going very quickly from happy to sad when Bucky shoots that magnet thing onto the back of the limo and flips it.

Yelena saving the guinea pig from the lab.

Letting other people be funny. Deke Slayton from For All Mankind being pissed that he had prepared for lethal force and now he was only getting to use non-lethal force was really funny. Elaine herself in front of Congress was funny.

Dislikes
Way too dark on screen as they were breaking out of the secret base and Bob's first revelation. I had no idea he had crashed back down and lost consciousness until I saw his coffin thing being lifted out by crane the next day. It just feels like such a waste to have all this stuff going on and the screen so dark.

Not nearly enough Bucky, and then Bucky with very little emotion.

Ghost - just sort of there, but I guess that was her role in Ant-Man 2.

TaskMaster - shouldn't have been paid more than $50 to be in the movie.

They stop Bob by reaffirming his value - and I don't have a problem with his arc at all, fighting against our own darkness is a very real and relevant topic for me - but then he's just going to hang out at Avengers HQ? If ever a guy was made for that prison they've got out in the ocean, it's Bob. I'm sure he's got some role to play in Doomsday / Secret Wars, but feels like the public and the government wouldn't be cool with him being free.

$76 million opening weekend: $31m Fri, $25m Saturday, $20m projected Sunday, but I bet it lands higher on word of mouth.

I wonder what the thought process was of taking out Taskmaster so early but leaving the quantum lady. Was it simply because quantum lady became a plot device to get them out of the vault?

Because Taskmaster is a really cool character and idea. Would have made that team stronger, I think.

And it seems like The Sentry would be an Omega level mutant, if he was a mutant. He looked to basically be Superman with telekinesis and unstoppable.

Just got out. Thought it was good, not great. Not sure why Taskmaster was on all the posters for having maybe 30 seconds of screen time.

TXAG 05 said:

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Just got out. Thought it was good, not great. Not sure why Taskmaster was on all the posters for having maybe 30 seconds of screen time.

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I wonder if they changed the story. Taskmaster was in the early trailers more, even in scenes towards the end, if I remember correctly.

https://www.ign.com/articles/thunderbolts-ending-new-mcu-team-new-avengers-doomsday

This IGN article explains it well, but for those that want some comics lore without reading a whole article, here we go:

In ~2005, the Avengers had disbanded but a new group of heroes came together to stop a breakout at the Raft prison. New Avengers was the name of the comic.

After Civil War, you had the "official" Mighty Avengers (Tony Stark's government-registered team), which included the Sentry, and then you had the "rogue" Team Cap Avengers who were underground (Wolverine, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Woman). It kicked ass.

Eventually, Norman Osborne took over Shield and therefore had the official Avengers team under his thumb. He ended up stealthily replacing its members with his cronies. Bullseye, for example, was the "new Hawkeye". Norman Osborn was Iron Patriot (a Cap/Iron Man mix). They were bad dudes mostly doing bad things, or taking out other villains to consolidate their own power.

So there is precedent for two Avengers teams. I don't think Bucky vs. Sam will be a very big part of Doomsday, if it is at all, but the Thunderbolts could be the government stooge Avengers (technically still under Val's jurisdiction?) and Sam's could be your true inheritors to the title. Or it could be the other way around - Sam's team is your media darlings and the "New Avengers" are your B-list bad boys who are willing to do the dirty jobs? I guess we'll see.

Lastly, a quick post-credits thought. I had assumed since Fantastic Four was confirmed to be in an alternate universe that for one reason or another, their universe will end and they'll come to 616.

But what if their universe doesn't end - at least not prior to Doomsday - and they temporarily come to 616 to get allies for the fight? And maybe by the end of Secret Wars, all non-616 universes are ended and everyone left ends up in 616?