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Color Outside the Lines

Hello! Welcome to COTL, a discussion place for BIPOC. Posted the first 3 Wednesdays of the month

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Ahhh, we meet again.

So I love Iman Vellani. She’s awesome and would highly recommend watching her youtube interviews: pure joy.

To be honest, this video (made before the strikes [footnote]good job Disney on marketing and pushing this film at such an uncertain time & then dumping it in an open release spot /s[/footnote]) sold me on watching the film and the chemistry between the cast is electric. I kind of wish the whole film was just this. Them chatting and having fun. Not forgetting the rest of the excellent cast (including SLJ and Zenobia Shroff). I promise I’m not a Marvel shill. Honest. I swear.

As a westernized South Asian child of immigrants, the Disney+ Ms Marvel show really connected with me (not least because I’m a fan of the comics), but also because I joyfully overheard S.P. Balasubrahmanyam’s vocals for just a few seconds: having heard his vocals my whole life, finally in a major western Hollywood production. R.I.P.

The show had some faults (3rd act CGI-itis, villain issues), but Iman was a delight and now there’s a follow-up in the Captain Marvel sequel movie (directed by Nia DaCosta) called The Marvels.

As some of you may have heard, The Marvels has done incredibly poorly at the Box Office and is being critically pilloried. I just watched it this weekend and thought it was no where near as bad as people are making out to be [footnote]It’s got it’s issues mind you, as I reviewed it here: https://the-avocado.org/2023/11/21/avocado-weekly-movie-thread-11-21/#comment-6328228159[/footnote] & thought it way better than the recent Thor: Nepotism and Squander.

I wonder how much of the fact that certain people seem to be “not as interested or connecting with these films” when coincidentally a lot of diversity & women started appearing at the forefront, is playing into all this? We just forgetting all the Captain Marvel haters and review bombers? Apparently the Rotten Tomatoes has bounced back, but I can’t help but wonder what happens next, given the poor commercial performance and Ms Marvel’s lowest watched ratings?

Then again Marvel haven’t exactly been doing themselves any favours lately spreading themselves thin & generally lacking cohesive narrative & writing focus?

Anyways to the prompt: What’s your thoughts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “decline,” the failure of ‘The Marvels’ (product be producting?) and representation in Hollywood blockbusters in general?

Feel free to discuss other matters important to you! Hope you’re having a nice day!