Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND

[Lord Liaden]

I think the Vision's cape was, conceptually speaking, more of a gamble since it had no other explanation than its always been part of the character's design in the comics. Mainstream audiences were less likely to buy into it, but with Vision appearing so late in the movie, there was simply not enough time for viewers to get squirmy over it.

 

 

Age of Ultron did explain Vision's cape, in a brief and delightfully subtle way. While he's talking to Thor after he calms down, you see him glance down at Thor's cape; then Vision's own body morphs a matching accouterment. He obviously liked the fashion statement.

[Lord Liaden]

In the early issues he needed the cape to fly. If they keep that as part of canon then the cape is necessary. Besides that it looks cool and the high collar and the Orb of Agamotto are kinda his trademark look.

 

Absolutely agree. Strange's Cloak of Levitation serves a practical purpose. Even in recent comics, the Cloak lets him fly without expending any of his personal magic power. And Strange has even used it offensively a number of times, to blind or bind opponents.

 

As for the Eye of Agamotto (that's the amulet he wears -- the Orb of Agamotto is that big crystal ball he views the Multiverse in), IMHO it's one of the coolest, most distinctive identifying gimmicks in comics. It just wouldn't be Dr. Strange without it.

[zslane]

I think studios are more comfortable putting capes on characters when they are in a team context. As I mentioned, Thor would appear to be a minor exception if it weren't for the fact that he spends most of his first film out of his costume (and without the cape), and even when he did wear it, they had a reasonable explanation for why it exists. And while audiences accepted a talking raccoon and a sentient tree, you'll notice neither of them wore capes. ;-)

 

It would make sense for Dr. Strange to wear oriental fashion while in the orient, especially if he tears his normal clothes to tatters trying to reach the Ancient One and he is given "native garb" as he recovers. But once he's back in Manhatten, he's not necessarily going to want to look like some wierdo in flowing asian robes and a big red cape. That works in the comics, and I dearly love the image of it myself, but I don't believe movie studios like such implausible treatment of their characters, not even Marvel. Urban Wizards may be played out in your mind, but Dr. Strange might very well be Marvel's chance to have their own Constantine Meets Harry Dresden, in which case street clothes (even if well-heeled) will be the chosen fashion statement.

 

I'd love to give Marvel more credit for the costume possibilities here, but given what I've seen with Hawkeye, Falcon, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch, I'm not holding out too much hope of seeing Benedict in Dr. Strange's traditional outfit, or even a reasonable facsimile.

[Ragitsu]

I hope they don't go the damned leather armor route is all.  If there ever was a character that could most plausibly wear Ditko's original outfit for him, its Dr Strange.

 

It will be dark, it will be leathery, and it will be ridge-y. Accept this!

[BoloOfEarth]

I think studios are more comfortable putting capes on characters when they are in a team context. As I mentioned, Thor would appear to be a minor exception if it weren't for the fact that he spends most of his first film out of his costume (and without the cape), and even when he did wear it, they had a reasonable explanation for why it exists. And while audiences accepted a talking raccoon and a sentient tree, you'll notice neither of them wore capes. ;-)

 

It would make sense for Dr. Strange to wear oriental fashion while in the orient, especially if he tears his normal clothes to tatters trying to reach the Ancient One and he is given "native garb" as he recovers. But once he's back in Manhatten, he's not necessarily going to want to look like some wierdo in flowing asian robes and a big red cape. That works in the comics, and I dearly love the image of it myself, but I don't believe movie studios like such implausible treatment of their characters, not even Marvel. Urban Wizards may be played out in your mind, but Dr. Strange might very well be Marvel's chance to have their own Constantine Meets Harry Dresden, in which case street clothes (even if well-heeled) will be the chosen fashion statement.

 

I'd love to give Marvel more credit for the costume possibilities here, but given what I've seen with Hawkeye, Falcon, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch, I'm not holding out too much hope of seeing Benedict in Dr. Strange's traditional outfit, or even a reasonable facsimile.

 

Wasn't Iron Man's "armor in a briefcase" similarly touted as completely implausible?  They managed to find a way to not only make it work, but to also make it totally cool.

 

I'm not a follower of Dr. Strange in the comics -- does he always wear the traditional outfit no matter what, or has he used some sort of disguise spell to make it appear as normal clothes?  If the cloak and Eye of Agamotto are magic items, he'd need them around.  Couldn't some sort of spell (presumably with cool SFX when turning it on/off) allow him to walk around in his traditional outfit, but be seen by most people as in normal clothes? 

[Christopher R Taylor]

I'm just curious how they are going to handle magic, given that they've gone out of their way to totally reject the very idea of magic, defining all of it as science.  Again and again.

[Old Man]

He can do exactly that. Strange is the walking magic VPP that most GMs wouldn't want to GM.

[Lord Liaden]

 

I'm not a follower of Dr. Strange in the comics -- does he always wear the traditional outfit no matter what, or has he used some sort of disguise spell to make it appear as normal clothes?  If the cloak and Eye of Agamotto are magic items, he'd need them around.  Couldn't some sort of spell (presumably with cool SFX when turning it on/off) allow him to walk around in his traditional outfit, but be seen by most people as in normal clothes? 

 

A big part of Dr. Strange's schtick is that normal people need to be protected from awareness of the supernatural horrors lurking just beyond their familiar world. So yes, spells to disguise his unorthodox garb, as well as to wipe the memories of witnesses to occult events, are commonly used.

 

Most of the time I've seen Strange depicted as relaxing at home, he's wearing his sorceror's outfit, but without the Cloak of Levitation. I guess he's just comfortable in it. But I admit it's been years since I read any comics featuring him. Maybe something different has been shown.

 

Personally I would have no problem with Strange wearing fashionable clothes in mundane situations; but I really want him to have a distinctive "suit" for when he goes into action, like every other self-respecting superhero.

[Lord Liaden]

I'm just curious how they are going to handle magic, given that they've gone out of their way to totally reject the very idea of magic, defining all of it as science.  Again and again.

 

The line gets blurry at times. Thor said that he comes from a place where magic and science are one and the same. Loki was called a "master of magic" in the first Thor movie. Often the powers displayed by Asgardians and their enemies look more like magic than science. Heck, real-world theoretical physics these days sounds like metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.

[zslane]

Reality-warping power like the Aether probably give us a hint as to the sort of multi-dimensional "magical" effects at Dr. Strange's disposal. I'm sure someone like Stark would give us some sort of quantum physics technobabble explanation to frame it in a scientific context, but the resulting effects will be indistinguishable from magic in a Clarke-ian way, so I doubt the distinction will matter.

[Pattern Ghost]

I think that's pretty much how they said they were going to handle it.

[Bazza]

Yep.

[Hugh Neilson]

The line gets blurry at times. Thor said that he comes from a place where magic and science are one and the same. Loki was called a "master of magic" in the first Thor movie. Often the powers displayed by Asgardians and their enemies look more like magic than science. Heck, real-world theoretical physics these days sounds like metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.

And let's not forget that Tahiti is a magical place!

 

What?

[Ragitsu]

After seeing how Marvel decided to **ck with both the Fantastic Four and X-Men comics, I became disgusted with them.

 

This whole snafu between Marvel and Fox reminds me of two extremely bitter (not to mention egocentric) parents going through a divorce. They'll make life a living hell for the kids (fans) and not think twice about it.

[Ragitsu]

The MCU seems to be deliberately snubbing East Asian actors for important roles, as they've already missed out on Yinsen, Mandarin (yes, I know), and now the Ancient One.

 

Reminds me of films such as Legend of Chun-Li, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Dragon Ball Evolution where there seems to be an "anybody but an Asian lead" approach.

I'm not even asking for Marvel to change preexisting Caucasian characters into Asian. All I'm pleading is for Asian characters to be played by Asians. But...I guess that is a lot to ask for in Hollywood.

[Ranxerox]

Well, in Daredevil that got Asian actors for Nobu and Madame Gao. 

[Lord Liaden]

Marvel television does seem to be a little more representative of East Asians than their movies, notably Melinda May in Agents of SHIELD. At least we got Helen Cho in Age of Ultron.

 

But Yinsen and the Mandarin are tricky cases. Keeping the wartime arms-supplier connection for Tony Stark meant moving his origin from Vietnam to Afghanistan, so the ethnic change made sense. As for the Mandarin, I strongly suspect Marvel was concerned over offending and alienating that big Chinese moviegoing revenue stream.

[Pattern Ghost]

Skye's also half Asian, as is her actress.

[Old Man]

This didn't seem to be an issue in the most recent Wolverine film. (Though I could be really, really picky and point out that a couple of the Japanese roles were played by a Chinese actor and a Korean actor, respectively.)

[Old Man]

I'm also looking forward to seeing Olivia Munn play Psylocke.

[Christopher R Taylor]

As described a few pages back it would have been easy to write Mandarin as a throwback to the bad old days of imperial Japan and thus an acceptable bad guy to the Chi Com government.  I think they had an existing script they adapted to Iron Man where a terrorist wasn't a real bad guy (with an evil corporation being the real bad guy) and wanted to keep a tech theme instead of introducing magic or faux magic through alien tech.

[zslane]

Katana in WB's Arrow was undeniably Japanese, right down to her barely intelligible English. They also cast Kelly Hu as China White, which feels very appropriate given the character name...

[Pattern Ghost]

Eh, I thought her English was plenty intelligible. Assuming you meant Rila Fukushima. (The first Katana, Devon Aoki, is an American.)

[Bazza]

Dad Says ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Movie Helped Son Speak

http://time.com/4004099/boy-speak-guardians-of-the-galaxy-groot/

[zslane]

Eh, I thought her English was plenty intelligible.

I needed close-captioning on half the time to understand her dialogue. And no, I am not referring to Devon, an actress whose time spent on the show never aired.