What are you watching?

[Cam]

Nothing soon. Lori just cancelled Netflix and Hulu. I encouraged her to when she got back from Antarctica. It only took her nine months to think about it.

[Leon]

Mars (2106) has suddenly arrived with Season 2, after two years. Much to my surprise and pleasure.

Cool format of talking to a bunch of current science / planetology types, in between scenes of a fictional future colonising Mars TV show. My nerd approves.

[George]

We saw Venom this weekend at the movie theatre, including a cameo by the late Stan Lee. My son and I enjoyed it very much, although he is getting tired of me sneaking up behind him and saying in a deep Venom voice, "I'M HUNGRY!"

Hee hee - this is almost as much fun as talking like Karl Childers, mmm-hmm.

I had read that fans said Venom was one of the worst Marvel movies. If so, I guess I'd better start catching up on them, because I thought Venom was a lot of fun. I can't remember the last Marvel movie I've seen - it might have been Spiderman with Tobey MacGuire.

[MR2 Fan]

I had read that fans said Venom was one of the worst Marvel movies. If so, I guess I'd better start catching up on them, because I thought Venom was a lot of fun. I can't remember the last Marvel movie I've seen - it might have been Spiderman with Tobey MacGuire.

wow, so you haven't seen ANY MCU movies?

[tigeraid]

Watching The Alienist on Netflix. Have the books but never got around to them yet. Enjoying it so far, despite some ham-fisted acting. I really hope the plot's going somewhere in terms of theme though, because while the storyline is a fun 1800s crime procedural, I have no idea where they're going with the characters.

[George]

wow, so you haven't seen ANY MCU movies?

Apparently not.

I just googled "MCU movies" and found this on wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe

According to that, they started in 2008, which is when my wife had twins. Of course that put an end to most of our free time to do things like watching movies.

The first few years of their life is a blur in my memory now. Occasionally someone will talk about something that happened in 2009 or 2011 and I can only shrug and say I must have missed whatever that was.

I also fell behind with popular culture things like smart phones (finally got one in 2017), cars (I'm still driving the same old car as I was then), household projects/improvements, my former guitar hobby, and other things that there just wasn't time to pursue while being parents of babies/toddlers/little kids.

Now that the kids are older, we have a lot of movies in our future, both in the theatre and at home now that so much is available on Netflix and similar sources.

[MR2 Fan]

Apparently not.

I just googled "MCU movies" and found this on wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe

According to that, they started in 2008, which is when my wife had twins. Of course that put an end to most of our free time to do things like watching movies.

The first few years of their life is a blur in my memory now. Occasionally someone will talk about something that happened in 2009 or 2011 and I can only shrug and say I must have missed whatever that was.

I also fell behind with popular culture things like smart phones (finally got one in 2017), cars (I'm still driving the same old car as I was then), household projects/improvements, my former guitar hobby, and other things that there just wasn't time to pursue while being parents of babies/toddlers/little kids.

Now that the kids are older, we have a lot of movies in our future, both in the theatre and at home now that so much is available on Netflix and similar sources.

Ok, let me tell you that I've never been a comics fan, never read comic books or watched TV shows or movies other than obscure ones...but the MCU are mostly brilliant movies that are suitable to a very wide audience, starting with Iron Man. I highly recommend checking them out if you have any interest at all

[tigeraid]

If you read the comics as a kid, you will absolutely dive in with all the little trivia and minutia and lore. But if you didn't, you'll still enjoy them as really good popcorn movies with surprisingly deep character work.

I would say all three Iron Mans (2 is kinda meh), all three Captain Americas, Thor 1 and 3, all three Avengers (2 is kinda meh) and Black Panther are mandatory. The other ones vary from meh to excellent. I would say basically all of them are "worth watching" though.

[MR2 Fan]

don't forget Guardians of the Galaxy, both are excellent

[George]

Thanks for the recommendations. I imagine we'll get to most of them eventually. My wife has taken the kids to see Black Panther and Avengers Infinity War and said she (not just the kids) liked them. But then she hated Ready Player One, so I'm not sure if I can trust her judgement.

I went through a phase of reading Captain America and Daredevil comic books in the late '70s after we moved next door to a kid my age who was really into them. And I think every kid my age watched The Incredible Hulk with David Bixby and Lou Ferrigno on TV, although now I'm told The Hulk can leap tall buildings in a single bound. The guy on TV settled for knocking over stuff and making bad guys run away.

I can even still sing some of the '60s Marvel cartoon songs that I saw as reruns in the '70s...

"When Captain America throws his mighty shield...all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!"

*zoom in to show bad guy's head snapping back as the shield ricochets off his chin*

Man, that was some lyrical genius right there!