Superhero Movie Fatigue Thoughts...

The seemingly infinite obsession people have with thinking the Russos are an authority on all things comic book film means of course they've been forced to wade in on this never-ending conversation about "what's gone wrong." For what it's worth, I thought their answer was fairly diplomatic and anyone who has been following me even briefly knows it costs me QUITE a lot to compliment them (to be honest, Winter Soldier was definitely very good) but they do have a point. I think they're only part-right that viewing habits between generations is to blame, but they were hardly likely to be more frank and say "yeah the recent offerings have been absolute ass" when they're more famous than they could ever dream of being due to Marvel/Disney. Before I get into my own relationship with comic book films I need to give some other context: I am genuinely a film fan in general and the lack of choice some months in the cinema thanks to Marvel Release #367 has started to annoy me. Sometimes there'll be a different film I want to see and it's a case of blink and you'll miss it. Life gets in the way and you didn't find the time to go to the cinema for that one six hour window it was actually playing. I know this seems pretty rich coming from someone who mostly blogs about Loki and other science fiction/fantasy stuff but I do genuinely love films. Despite the existence of streaming my husband and I have a huge Blu-ray and DVD collection. We want more original content at the cinema. I really enjoyed Barbenheimer last year, I can't remember the last time I wanted to go to the cinema for a double feature before then - I think it was 2019! I know there are ways you can criticise that phenomenon too but it felt like an organic build up to something that was a lot of fun and, depending on your view point, you got to see 1 or 2 pretty good films out of it. Christopher Nolan has this whole counter movement and counter-counter movement surrounding him that isn't exactly unearned (I'm boring and fall in the middle, he's got good and bad points) but Oppenheimer was a genuinely great film in my opinion. It didn't feel like three hours and the main performances were all outstanding. By contrast I remember feeling every minute of Endgame's run time. That's not me saying I can't sit for three hours, that's me saying that I think my brain was simply done with the Infinity Saga by that point. (Going to put this under a cut because it's getting quite long...)

Now to circle that back to what the Russos were saying, I do think a lot of folk in my generation basically decided Endgame was a good time to check out. Many of us had seen the bulk of any comic book releases between circa 2000 and 2019, that's from childhood/teens through a lot of life changes. It's not that we don't necessarily love comic book films any more, it's that you become a bit more time poor as you get older for various reasons and you're maybe a bit more choosy about what you are willing to schedule among everything else in your life. Personally I don't have my own kids but I have family (mine and my husband's) scattered all over England and Scotland (which requires a lot of time to visit them) and I've become busier at work over the last five years. A lot of my tumblr posting happens during evenings/weekends or in a flurry when I'm on a tea break. I got to the point with the MCU where I realised that I was getting attached to characters and storylines and canon was just never going to give me the things I wanted. You accept this is part of following fiction btw, it's just that I took the view "what's the point in wasting my time on something that isn't bringing me the joy it once did?" Hence I decided I would no longer go to the cinema for every Marvel release regardless of how good it allegedly was - quality didn't factor in my decision, I think "maybe I'll watch it on Disney+" - which is what I did with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol3. The other thing in the equation is that over that 19-20 year period I mentioned I think people forget that there were other non-MCU films where there's a LOT of drek. I have never enjoyed a Fantastic Four film. The X-Men and original Spider-Man trilogies seemed to fall off a cliff during their third entries and my personal take on that is that both of those third films are overstuffed with references and characters and they also contain stupid decisions like doing the Dark Phoenix saga yet killing Cyclops. At the same time, and speaking of Christopher Nolan, I will always love the Dark Knight trilogy even though TDKR skirts around that third-movie disappointment thing. The MCU felt so much different for a while because even when there were films that maybe felt not quite as good as some of the others, it still managed to pull you in and make you care. But I always knew there was a point where it would start groaning under its own weight and although some people point to the Multiverse Sage I feel it was already happening in Phase 3. Just think of how many characters were on the posters/general promo for Endgame - how many of those characters were in the entire run time for probably less than a dozen or so minutes? It was just too much. But you forgave it because you were invested in seeing how it ended. And then it ended, pissing some people off in the process, and you're surprised that a lot of the audience just doesn't want to do this any more? You know what else this reminds me of... ...welcome to comic books Marvel Studios. You have finally created a wholly authentic page to screen experience right down to people getting fed up of keeping up with everything. I guarantee now the original actors are aging out of their roles you're considering blowing it all up aren't you? Aren't you?! So yes, the Russos are maybe right that younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha would rather consume things instantly in their own time than gather around for event TV/films. But considering that many of us across the generations are into older media and technology (e.g. collecting physical media) I know from observing the audience at my screening of Barbie that there are younger folk who would go to the cinema for an event film...it's just that maybe the MCU defined their childhood in the way the older comic book films (and I mean stuff from earlier than the 00s too, things that were on TV on a Saturday afternoon!) did for me and now that chapter of their life is a nice memory to look back on - they maybe just can't be bothered with going through all that again.

I think about this tweet all the time because they would've been SO powerful...

Like Brendan IS the lovable "oaf" superhero, and Sandra IS the no-nonsense, competitive journalist. The VISION:

hey did you know??? that if you stop stretching and maintaining mobility in your body then it goes away?? things get tight and you can't move the way that you used to??? and when you decide to try getting a stretch routine going that the first week fucking sucks because you keep going 'damn i used to be able to do this no problem' and then you have to switch gears and be kind to yourself and just focus on getting better from here instead of berating yourself for dropping the good habits in the first place??? and your body never stops aging so you gotta keep taking care of it and sometimes you gotta take care of it extra in certain areas because of things that happened when you were younger and it's boring and sometimes hurts but it's so necessary???

i am yelling this at myself right now i am going through An Experience (trying to get into a routine of body maintenance again for my physical and mental health)

high school teacher voice hello neurodivergent openly queer kid everyone sees as weird. you need to select a partner for this group pr- what do you mean everyone partnered up already? what do you mean youre the only one left without a partner? well i guess i have no choice but to force you to walk up to a random set of friends and join their group while they ignore you for the entire class again

its baffling seeing people on here being all shocked about how other ppl didnt have sex or do drugs or drink or go to parties etc etc in high schools like. sorry i was too busy getting bullied to do all of that stuff i guess. why are you surprised that there’s losers on the cringe loser website

WWDITS / BG3 crossover

I wonder what the largest shellfish is?

Edit: Okay this post is getting a LOT of traction. What is going on?

Edit: Fucking hell.

This post has set off a fucking MINEFIELD!!!

What have I DONE????!!!!!

I’ve lit the blue touch paper and found there’s nowhere to run to!

I’ve summoned a wolf only to unleash a tiger!!!!! Made of fire! And nails.

Probably….

Idk.

Edit 2: 5,000 Notes! Good god! What the HELL do you want from me. I’ve never had a post of mine take off like this until now.

Some got close like the one about homeowner associations (fucking powertripping middle aged mediocrities!) which got at least 1.5k notes but this is the most I’ve gotten on a single post so far.

Anyway.

AND this post has officially gone to hell. (6,666 notes)

Edit: 8,000 notes! Holy shit!

Edit: 9,000 notes!!!

Edit: 10,000 notes!!!!!!!!!

Edit: 15,000 notes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edit: 20,000 Notes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHO THE HELL TURNED OFF THE REPLY THREAD FOR THE REBLOGS?!

Okay never mind it’s back. For now at least.

Anyway.

Been thinking about my old fakemons and what good good pubbies they are.

Cerbernard's barrel is full of aged berry juice that works as a Full Heal for lost and injured mountaineers. Berrel's barrel is full of Berrel.

Apparently, my decision to be silly and make fanart of someone's writing (because I genuinely enjoy the story the person is writing and I was struck with inspiration upon reading a particular scene) has benevolent and wildly unforeseen consequences.

I apparently gained a bit of control of the canon because said writer really loved the art and decided what I drew/draw is canon.

2. Writer put said artwork into the document of his story right below the scene, so now it's IN the story where people who read the story will see it (with a link to me)

3. He sent the artwork to all his friends and people he knows because he was so excited

Wholesome interaction and I watched him do all that in real time, good stuff. However...there are two more consequences I was notified of today...nearly a full week after I gave the artwork.

Seeing the artwork caused his friends to become interested in reading and hearing about his story, which means more people are reading what he's writing and giving him critique on the story (which he actively asks for).

Apparently, upon seeing the art, his writer friends got a sudden second wind to pick back up writing they'd abandoned for a few months. Because, I quote, "seeing that someone enjoyed {his} writing enough to take the time to make art of it gave them the motivation that maybe THEY can write something that will inspire someone to also create something." I have accidentally caused a writing frenzy among his writer friends and my silly idea to make art for someone has had a butterfly effect for people who I don't even know.

Uhh...I'm pretty sure there's a moral here but I am tired and have a great deal of emotions about this.

- No gods but us.

I keep seeing ads for cotton candy flavored vape pods on tumblr and it made me wonder…

Why/Why not in the tags?

I’m interested because I feel like when I was in high school/college in the mid-10s, almost nobody smoked - even if you otherwise had some pretty hard vices. I think it was considered not really worth it for something with such a small buzz. But now, idk. Maybe the advertisers are right to target people here because it’s just that popular again??

(Reblog for a bigger sample size etc etc.)

Fantasy books stop having arctic kingdoms of all blond hair blue eyed white people.

Penelope reading Colin to filth in front of god, the queen and the ton is kinda funny though

He really went on a whole trip across Europe to reinvent himself as a charming and mysterious ladiesman only for her to go: What a poser. He’s still a nerd. Hashtag not my Colin

In front of the Journalists' Syndicate, Cairo, Egypt, on 15th January 2024.

The crowd chants:

مصر مشاركة في الحصار معبر بيننا و بين اهالينا الصهيوني متحكم فينا طول ما الدم العربي رخيص يسقط يسقط اي رئيس عملوها احفاد مانديلا و احنا فخوف و فعار و مزلة عايزين المعبر مفتوح

Translation:

Egypt participates in this siege! A crossing between us and our people! Controlled by Zionists! As long as Arab blood is seen as cheap, Any and every president must fall! Mandela's grandchildren have done it, While we are seized by fear, shame, and humiliation! We demand Rafah Crossing open!

penacony quest thoughts

Can you imagine the puppet scene in FNAF 2…