What are you thinking? (Part 2)

[Jonipoon]

I used to be a morning person, always getting up around 6-7 AM even on weekends. Sleep was never an issue either as I could stay up late without consequences. But as I'm approaching 30, things have changed and I'm enjoying sleep a bit more. It feels more like a psychological thing though, as if I'm mentally unable to grasp the concept of having to get up early for work. My brain simply refuses to let me wake up properly, so every morning is a fight against my psyche. Which is probably why I have such a terrible habit of sleeping in the shower for around 20-30 minutes. But that only happens when I have to work, morning showers on the weekends will usually take just a few minutes.

 

[UniqTeas]

That was me in High School. I would stay up super late (2~3AM) every night on chat rooms and forums. Then I would have to wake up at like 6:30 AM to get to school. So, I would get up and sleep in the shower for 30 mins, miss the bus, and have to walk to school since it was only a 15 minutes walk for me.

My brother would have to make sure he was up by like 5:30 to make sure he had time to shower before I got in there and napped. He did not like that. haha

 

[KManX89]

Remember when Disney was reported as the greedy bad guys who wanted a ridiculous 50/50 cut to keep Spider-Man in the MCU? Well, it turns out those claims were false:

They actually offered Sony 25-30% in addition to helping them co-finance future Spider-Man films in the contract renewal and Sony gave them the cold shoulder. It was only AFTER this that Disney upped the offer to 50/50, which everyone agreed was ludicrous and no one in their right mind would accept that deal.

So it looks like everyone's suspicions were right. Sony really is f*cking dumb and suffering from delusions of grandeur and not simply refusing to bend over to Disney's greed. Not only that, but Sony painted this as MARVEL's decision not to continue on with Spider-Man in their official statement, which makes them look even worse.

This is not a good look for Sony, after all, they're not exactly lauded as a studio with integrity. #BoycottSony is already a hotly-trending hashtag on Twitter, lol.

But fear not, Tom Rothman thinks they've got this. The guy who's "brilliant" idea it was to make AvP PG-13 and set on contemporary earth, sabotage Mathieu Kassovitz's work on Babylon A.D. to the point where he chewed out Fox and told fans NOT to see the movie, repeatedly stall Deadpool's production, sabotage X-Men Origins: Wolverine in which he explicitly asked that Deadpool's mouth be sewn shut (!), cut a half-hour from DareDevil which left a bunch of plot holes and trying to replicate Spider-Man with CGI when it was pitched as a darker and more violent film and oversaw all 3 sh!tacular Fantastic Four movies, including the godawful 2015 reboot (Fant4****) as well as pitching the idea to turn Galactus into a space cloud in RotSS, yeah, THAT Tom Rothman.

You can read all about his "great" track record here.

Spidey is in great hands, guys! Especially with Avi Arad joining the mix. 'Cuz you know, that guy's track record is superb as well, lol. Now that I think about it, these two clowns were meant for each other.

 

[Jonipoon]

Both studios are dumb, it's really not wise to put all the blame on Sony or vice versa. Disney is stupid for wanting more money as always, Sony is stupid for thinking they can build their own cinematic universe.

I actually find the whole #BoycottSony stuff quite ridiculous, but thankfully they don't speak for the mainstream crowd. These people act as if its totally OK for Disney to suggest an altering deal with 25-30% box office profits plus co-financing. Sony is a business, and handing over 25-30 % of the box office profit to Disney would just be plain idiotic. It's 100% understandable why Sony turned down that deal. The fact that Disney then upped the offer to 50/50 simply showed that they were not willing to play ball, and that it was either the Disney way or the high way.

To understand the situation you have to understand how businesses works, you can't focus solely on how you feel emotionally about Spider-Man's character in the MCU. If Sony had agreed to the first offer, then 2 years later Disney would've suggested yet another deal with 50/50, and then 2 years later a 70/30 deal until there's hardly anything left for Sony. That's just how Disney rolls, and it's nothing new.

I knew from the start back in 2016 that this deal would eventually come to an end. Plus, Sony has had immense success with other Spider-Man IP's recently, like Venom, the PS4 game, and the animated movie Into the Spider-Verse. And it seems as if they're going to move forward with Tom Holland's Spider-Man in their Venomverse, as confusing as that might be and if Holland is up for it (which he seemingly is).

That being said, I'm not trying to defend Sony in any way. But I sure as hell won't defend Disney either.

 

[KennedyKiller]

I'm pretty much on the #BoycottSony train, but mainly because I'm boycotting Funimation, who is owned by Sony. The Spider-Man stuff I don't really care about. He's my all time favorite Superhero. I'll be fine if he leaves the MCU as I think the MCU is kinda overrated, and frankly, there's lots more Spidey material out there than the films. There's comics, games, action figures, and cartoons. I'm pretty set.

 

[KManX89]

Both studios are dumb, it's really not wise to put all the blame on Sony or vice versa. Disney is stupid for wanting more money as always, Sony is stupid for thinking they can build their own cinematic universe.

I actually find the whole #BoycottSony stuff quite ridiculous, but thankfully they don't speak for the mainstream crowd. These people act as if its totally OK for Disney to suggest an altering deal with 25-30% box office profits plus co-financing. Sony is a business, and handing over 25-30 % of the box office profit to Disney would just be plain idiotic. It's 100% understandable why Sony turned down that deal. The fact that Disney then upped the offer to 50/50 simply showed that they were not willing to play ball, and that it was either the Disney way or the high way.

To understand the situation you have to understand how businesses works, you can't focus solely on how you feel emotionally about Spider-Man's character in the MCU. If Sony had agreed to the first offer, then 2 years later Disney would've suggested yet another deal with 50/50, and then 2 years later a 70/30 deal until there's hardly anything left for Sony. That's just how Disney rolls, and it's nothing new.

I knew from the start back in 2016 that this deal would eventually come to an end. Plus, Sony has had immense success with other Spider-Man IP's recently, like Venom, the PS4 game, and the animated movie Into the Spider-Verse. And it seems as if they're going to move forward with Tom Holland's Spider-Man in their Venomverse, as confusing as that might be and if Holland is up for it (which he seemingly is).

That being said, I'm not trying to defend Sony in any way. But I sure as hell won't defend Disney either.

I won't deny Disney deserves a share of the blame, but naturally, if you're gonna agree to co-finance the films (whereas before, the MCU Spidey films were fully financed by Sony with Disney getting a small 5% cut of the box office revenue), then you're gonna want a bigger share of the profits. Unnecessary? Maybe, but it now looks as if Sony simply were the ones not willing to play ball. Whereas before, it was reported that Sony was willing to keep the past deal and Disney instead wanted that ridiculous 50% cut, it's now being reported that Sony didn't give Disney ANY counter offer to their much more respectable 25-30% cut and simply weren't gonna accept or even listen to any offer, which goes back to my point about Sony suffering delusions of grandeur.

Both sides look bad in this, but Sony aren't exactly a reputable studio, so they're in no position to play hardball. They haven't made a good live-action film without Disney's help since 2004 (I actually quite enjoyed Far From Home). It was they who shoehorned Venom into Spider-Man 3, causing it to be a bloated mess and ran both Spider-Man and Ghost Rider into the ground with the horrendous TASM movies and the 2007 movie and 2012 sequel, Spirit of Vengeance, respectively.

The rest of their portfolio isn't great, either with so many sh!tty films like Ghostbusters 2016, Emoji Movie, Men in Black: International, Aloha, The 5th Wave, White House Down, Total Recall, RoboCop, Red Dawn, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 1 and 2, the Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil movies (the first one was alright IMO), The Dark Tower, Spectre, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies, After Earth, Pixels, Sex Tape, Jack and Jill, Grown Ups 1 and 2, and Ghost in the Shell, hardly a boastful list.

Yeah, they make the occasional good film like the first and third Daniel Craig Bond movies, Whiplash, first few Underworld movies, Superbad, Blade Runner, Jump Street movies, Into the Spider-verse, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but they make a LOT more bad than good.

 

[KennedyKiller]

I won't deny Disney deserves a share of the blame, but naturally, if you're gonna agree to co-finance the films (whereas before, the MCU Spidey films were fully financed by Sony with Disney getting a small 5% cut of the box office revenue), then you're gonna want a bigger share of the profits. Unnecessary? Maybe, but it now looks as if Sony simply were the ones not willing to play ball. Whereas before, it was reported that Sony was willing to keep the past deal and Disney instead wanted that ridiculous 50% cut, it's now being reported that Sony didn't give Disney ANY counter offer to their much more respectable 25-30% cut and simply weren't gonna accept or even listen to any offer, which goes back to my point about Sony suffering delusions of grandeur.

Both sides look bad in this, but Sony aren't exactly a reputable studio, so they're in no position to play hardball. They haven't made a good live-action film without Disney's help since 2004 (I actually quite enjoyed Far From Home). It was they who shoehorned Venom into Spider-Man 3, causing it to be a bloated mess and ran both Spider-Man and Ghost Rider into the ground with the horrendous TASM movies and the 2007 movie and 2012 sequel, Spirit of Vengeance, respectively.

The rest of their portfolio isn't great, either with so many sh!tty films like Ghostbusters 2016, Emoji Movie, Men in Black: International, Aloha, The 5th Wave, White House Down, Total Recall, RoboCop, Red Dawn, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 1 and 2, the Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil movies (the first one was alright IMO), The Dark Tower, Spectre, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies, After Earth, Pixels, Sex Tape, Jack and Jill, Grown Ups 1 and 2, and Ghost in the Shell, hardly a boastful list.

Yeah, they make the occasional good film like the first and third Daniel Craig Bond movies, Whiplash, first few Underworld movies, Superbad, Blade Runner, Jump Street movies, Into the Spider-verse, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but they make a LOT more bad than good.

You go on this list about bad vs. good when it comes to Sony, but that's all subjective as hell XD. I mean, I actually enjoyed more movies on your bad list than good list. So, while I hate defending Sony here, because I'm not on their side at all (Again, I'm boycotting 'em), you're going to have to find a more objective way to define them as failures.

 

[Jonipoon]

I won't deny Disney deserves a share of the blame, but naturally, if you're gonna agree to co-finance the films (whereas before, the MCU Spidey films were fully financed by Sony with Disney getting a small 5% cut of the box office revenue), then you're gonna want a bigger share of the profits. Unnecessary? Maybe, but it now looks as if Sony simply were the ones not willing to play ball. Whereas before, it was reported that Sony was willing to keep the past deal and Disney instead wanted that ridiculous 50% cut, it's now being reported that Sony didn't give Disney ANY counter offer to their much more respectable 25-30% cut and simply weren't gonna accept or even listen to any offer, which goes back to my point about Sony suffering delusions of grandeur.

Look, the 25-30% cut is not respectable in any way. You're focusing way too much on that 50% claim when I explained in my text above why the situation escalated the way it did, and why Sony made the right decision to turn it down from a pure business perspective. It was definitely Disney who didn't want to play ball, but it doesn't matter. The deal is over, which was only a matter of "when", not "if".

And I wasn't trying to defend Sony either. All I'm doing is explaining the situation. Personally, I thought Venom was a terrible movie.

 

[Turo602]

Both companies are terrible, but I'm definitely glad Spider-Man is no longer in the MCU. MCU Spider-Man was not Spider-Man and was way worse than anything Sony has done with the character. He's still not in good hands with Sony, but I think he has a better shot with them as opposed to Disney who is just gonna keep using Spider-Man as a way to make everyone think about Iron Man.

Not to mention, the MCU is pretty much a death sentence to all these characters who they're just gonna keep replacing with sh*ttier heroes rather than letting them reboot and be given justice by better directors who aren't bending over to Marvel Studios and Disney and actually make interesting films out of these characters.

The future of the MCU is Captain Marvel and female Thor, the last remaining C-list characters, and what I can only assume is gonna be a watered down X-Men with garbage casting, but everyone is gonna love it because all hail MCU. So f*cking glad Spidey got out of there.

 

[Jonipoon]

It was called "Endgame" for a reason.

I have no interest in the MCU post-phase 3. Personally the saga ended for me with Infinity War. I would've preferred if half the universe stayed dead, since Endgame was a terrible film.

Just like Turo602 said though, the MCU Spider-Man wasn't a very good Spider-Man anyway. He was more like Iron Spider, and I hated the techsuit ever since they first showed it in Homecoming. I really don't see the appeal of having a Peter Parker that's basically a rich kid, with Iron Man as a father figure, when the real Peter Parker should be struggling financially and barely make ends meet because his uncle is dead and he has to take care of his aunt. The only thing I think they did right with the MCU Spidey was to make aunt May be in her late 40's instead of a 80 year old hag, because that's more likely for a teenager.

 

[UniqTeas]

I like that they changed the DNA of who Spiderman is. We already had the traditional versions of Spiderman with the Tobey McGuire and Andrew Garfield versions. And I think Tom Holland is genuinely good as Peter Parker... although the films don't really divulge his intelligence enough. Peter is supposed to have a genius level intellect.

But they made Holland a unique Spiderman with a unique story. The hidden ending of Away From Home was probably the biggest change to the Peter Parker we know and love. But it was fantastic. Looks like this Peter will never get a job at the Daily Bugle!

I do agree that having the tech suit wasn't the best decision. But it made sense at least with the story. So, I can't be too mad.

 

[KManX89]

Look, the 25-30% cut is not respectable in any way. You're focusing way too much on that 50% claim when I explained in my text above why the situation escalated the way it did, and why Sony made the right decision to turn it down from a pure business perspective. It was definitely Disney who didn't want to play ball, but it doesn't matter. The deal is over, which was only a matter of "when", not "if".

And I wasn't trying to defend Sony either. All I'm doing is explaining the situation. Personally, I thought Venom was a terrible movie.

I'm not disagreeing with you that both sides are being f*cking stupid. Disney for needlessly trying to rework a deal that was already working fine for both of them (even if it wasn't as egregious as initially reported) and Sony for thinking they don't need said deal in any capacity despite all evidence to the contrary. Spider-Man is at all-time high popularity BECAUSE of the MCU deal, giving Sony their highest-grossing Spidey film to date which cracked $1 bil (most of that Sony kept for themselves after theater take) and Sony's ability to make good live-action films without Marvel/Disney's help this day and age is dubious at best judging by their handling of both Spider-Man AND Ghost Rider and even Venom since 2007.

My point I was trying to make is this was supposedly the desired outcome for Sony regardless of what Disney did or didn't do. Sure they dealt them a bad hand by demanding co-financing and a 25-30% cut of both future MCU Spidey films and Venomverse movies to boot (I left out that tidbit in my previous posts), but according to the latest reports, it sounds like Sony were hellbent on walking away from the deal regardless after Venom and ITSV. They didn't just say no, they flat out ignored Disney on contract talks for months on end according to said reports. It wouldn't have mattered if Disney offered to extend the deal as it was, Sony wasn't listening to any extension, period if the aforementioned vid is anything to go by. For that, they'll never fully escape culpability.

Personally, I'm disappointed that:

Spoiler

it looks like the rumored film appearance of Matt Murdock/DareDevil in the MCU won't come to pass after Spidey had his secret identity revealed to the world by Jonah Jameson in the mid-credits scene for Far From Home.

 

[KevinStriker]

CT: Magnolia is three hours of people yelling at each other and then frogs.

And I love it

 

[Angel]

So glad summer is almost over - the last 6 weeks have just merged into one horrendously long day with no routine to speak of

 

[UniqTeas]

In New York (not the city) - it feels like early Autumn is descending upon us. It is still pretty warm (65-75 and sometimes 80s), but the wind is picking up. And some trees are giving me that Autumn wink already. Too excited!

 

[bSTAR_182]

While everyone is panicking over the hurricane, I am currently ecstatic over the final Joker trailer.
Can’t wait for this movie!

 

[KManX89]

While everyone is panicking over the hurricane, I am currently ecstatic over the final Joker trailer.
Can’t wait for this movie!

Me, neither. It looks fantastic.

I've been spoiled rotten over the last couple days with both it and the new Terminator: Dark Fate trailer dropping, which I actually think looks pretty good:

Gritty Terminator is back, YAY!

 

[UniqTeas]

October 4th can't come soon enough. The Joker movie is going to be amazing. So many people whining about how the character is different. But that is what I love about it.

Plus, Joaquin Phoenix is still an underrated gem.

 

[Rain611]

October 4th can't come soon enough. The Joker movie is going to be amazing. So many people whining about how the character is different. But that is what I love about it.

Plus, Joaquin Phoenix is still an underrated gem.

I'm beginning to think I'm the only one here who thinks this looks terrible.... Which is strange to me because among the people I know personally, they all think it looks terrible also lol.

 

[Angel]

I'm undecided as to whether I will see it or not - Jared Leto was such a letdown and I honestly might be the only person on the planet who didn't rate Heath Ledger either. I mean, it was ok, but nothing jaw dropping. Seemed to me that most people jumped on that bandwagon after he died - he wasn't a particularly amazing actor, but he did ok.

I personally loved Gotham's version with Jerome - it just clicked for me.

I find Joaquin kinda creepy anyway so maybe he'll do an incredible job, I'm just unsure as to whether to wait for cinema release or Blu-ray...