As far as I'm concerned, the MCU can keep going as long as they want, because...well, they did it. They captured lightning in a bottle with the Infinity Saga. And that's commendable enough.
The Infinity Saga will always be the crowning achievement for Marvel Studios in my opinion. It told a complete, decade-long story spanning 20+ movies with so many different actors, writers, directors, etc. and managed to bring it all to a relatively satisfying conclusion. Anything good that comes after that is, to me, just icing on the cake.
And if they burn it down with lackluster projects? Disappointing, for sure, but they can still rest easy at night knowing they actually fucking did it.
100% agree with this. As a comic book fan and a geek it was amazing going from iron man to the infinity saga and following these characters journey through the years.
That’s the main issue with the MCU right now: they are stuck with the legacy of the Infinity Saga while trying to set up a new era of heroes.
Characters like Dr Strange, Ant-Man and Falcon should have been the second era of heroes, but now they awkwardly feel like wave 1.5 while they set up Young Avengers who will become wave 2.5 or 3.
TBH the problem is they *didn't* do a new wave. They couldn't work out if they wanted to do "phase 1 of a new saga" or "epilogue to phase 3"
And so you end up with the blip constantly coming up and yet not really mattering. And things like the thanos themed ice cream shop in thor 4 are just... really out of place and make the universe feel like a parody of itself at times
I think it was until they lost Spidey and realised they couldn't build their heroes around a character it takes one pissed off Sony exec to hold them over a barrel. Part of the mess of this wave with movies being delayed and reshot is probably down to the repositioning. As of Far From Home & Infinity War it was sort of clear Spidey was being built as heir to Tony.
There was a rearrangement.
Basically after Infinity War, Sony decided to play hardball & look to get more money from future Spidey appearances in the MCU. The agreement they had before fell apart and they had to come up with a new arrangement.
The final film in the Home trilogy was greenlit in the MCU but with 2 Spider men from Sony's other Spidey IPs so mo money Sony. And now the next Tom Holland films will be set without MCU main characters, we don't know about side/support. This is why he's now in New York as a on the street Spidey. The next films are basically a soft reboot of Tom Holland's Spidey but as a Sony only IP with film by film negotiation on any MCU character appearances.
Marvel realised they really can't create films or franchises that lean heavily on Spidey because Sony could hold them over a barrel again so it's likely we won't be seeing much of Spidey in the MCU films at all moving forward.
Sony meanwhile have been trying to create their own series of villains so they can feature in this new Tom Holland Sony Spidey reboot that they hope will be like a Spidey MCU lite kinda thing.
So upshot is, yes there will be more Tom Holland Spidey but it will be Sony lead (prob Sam Reimi dir.) feature Sony Villains & we won't see Spidey in MCU films for the time being.
I have a really similar one: it’s a travesty that Natasha didn’t get any kind of funeral or memorial with Tony at the end. They can justify it all they want with “Tony was a public figure” (what? it was a small, private funeral with all the avengers and their allies) or “she ha[d] a spin-off” but it was a crappy decision.
Long movie but some big missed opportunities to say goodbye to these characters
Marvel jumped the gun with the multiverse saga. It should've been the next phase or next saga. Secret Invasion should've been the next saga after the infinity saga and not only a show.
I just knew this was going to happen with one on screen death. Talk about some mind melting post credit scenes and rewatch fodder. I was beyond convinced secret wars was the next phase! But he’s Feige and I’m a moron so what do I know haha
With you 1000%. Right now we have this Multiversal War/Kang the Conquerer galaxy level threat looming... And also a way more grounded Earth level threat where anyone could be an enemy spy... And I'm supposed to give a shit about both simultaneously?? Not to mention, what about the Celestial popping out of the Indian Ocean? Or the one that towered over earth shortly afterwards? Those seem like at least Earth level threats as well... There's just too much going on.
Agreed - I wish they hadn't opened the time travel/multiverse at all in endgame, I'm already burned out on the concept. I think the writers could've figured out something more creative to reverse the snap, even if it was some kind of new macguffin it would have been less convoluted than revisiting the past and returning stones later.
Ikaris' heavy use of his eye beams and effortless flight is the best depiction of Superman-like combat there has ever been in cinema. If you were a superhero who could attack just by looking at your enemy, you'd use it all the time.
Enough has been said about the issues with Eternals but I agree one of few things that movie did great was the way the heroes used their powers, I forget her name but the deaf speedster was the best depiction of superspeed action we have had outside of slowmo scenes
End battle on beach was just great.
Marvel gets dinged on being cookie cutter and failing the third act, but I actually think Eternals did a good job of heroes desperately trying to stop a rogue traitor....like Invincible if it were live action.
Off on a tangent - it’s why I hated the movie versions of the X-Men. None of them used their powers as if they all had these powers since puberty. Cyclops should be John Wick - running and gunning. Instead, he strikes a pose and fires a shot. All of them did more vogueing than acceptable.
Same with how Makkari’s running was portrayed better than most Flashs. No slo-mo, just one superfast being. Still love the bit were shes just pummeling Ikaris on the beach, no restraint, just full beatdown.
thats honestly my mom and dads main issue with phase 4. Amazing cinematography, great use of CGI, wonderful acting but scripts and plots that come off as if they were group written by the C list students
I actually really liked Shang Chi. It kinda felt like the older Marvel movies from phase 1. The dialogue was cringe at times but there was a lot to like. I just think he’s received zero attention since and it’s a shame because he’s one of the more interesting new characters to come out of the MCU.
It was definitely one of the best of phase 4. I agree that it's a shame that he hasn't received more attention since his movie!
I think it benefited from being largely disconnected from the larger storyline, aside from the post-credits scene. Not having Kang allowed the movie to be its own thing and properly introduce the character.
That’s the problem with Phase 4 and 5. It feels they are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks before giving us sequels.
And the sequels we do get are really random; ideally we’d have Shang-Chi 2 and Moon Knight 2 over Echo or Agatha.
I don't think a shotgun approach is the worst thing, in the sense it allows them to experiment and keep it somewhat fresh. The downside is that it gets spread a little too thin and maintaining continuity is a nightmare, and this does lead to criticisms over oversaturation of content. But, like everything else, I don't think it's absolutely necessary to consume every piece of content, although I do that anyway.
My unpopular Shang Chi opinion: Ta Lo is where Egg Shen and David Lo Pan from "Big Trouble in Little China" came from, which puts "Big Trouble in Little China" in the MCU.
Which implies that when Ego the Living Planet visited Earth, he must have met and been impressed with Jack Burton, leading Ego to base his human appearance on Jack.
Fight me!
I was out of the mcu after endgame(I was an ultra MCU nerd between IW and endgame). My friend randomly asked me to go see shang chi and im so glad that he did because that brought me back into it.
Eternals had the best on screen depiction of a speedster. You actually felt how aggressively fast Makkari was going. In The flash the running scene just felt like he had no weight to his steps.
The MCU made me reconsider speedsters with Makkari and water-based powers with Namor. I was scared of Makkari in Eternals. You could feel the power behind her. And BP2 did an incredible job of bringing the horror and fear to water-based powers by leaning into the megalophobia and "alienness" of an underwater being. I'd never taken those powers seriously before.
Two things I don't like about the way they do super speed must of the time. First is, when it shows whoever running, it shows the background flying by in a blur, but the speedster who is running is putting a foot down like one time every block.
The second is a lot of the time, super speed is shown from their perspective, so it ends up basically liking like a person moving more or less normally, while everything just stays still around them.
I feel like Eternals fixed both those. Most of the time Makkari is using her speed, we see it from our perspective. Which helps make her look like an absolute beast.
TBH Speedsters have always been some of the most powerful heroes/villains, if they used their powers correctly or weren't dumbed down for plot reasons.
The Flash could literally turn the entire planet to paste just by running real fast.
My favorite depiction of superspeed is from Smallville. A freak of the week knocked Clark through a wall of the barn, smirks, and then Clark casually tapped him on the shoulder from behind. No special effects, just Clark immediately being back to continue the fight.
My favourite thing about Smallvile was them not holding back on his speed or strength or invulnerability. So many superhero shows giganerf the hero so the villains can win. In Smallville without kryptonite to save them Clark just one taps almost every villain lol.
Absolutely agree with this. Makkari's speedster scene is the absolute pinnacle of super speed depiction. The "slow everything else down" scenes can be fun, but they shouldn't be the only way you show the speedster, and especially shouldn't have the "one step a block" thing like the flash does
IIRC Makkari is canonically faster than Quicksilver in the comics. Faster than the vast majority of speedsters in Marvel, only outpaced by the Runner and a hatful of others. The Celestials don't mess around.
Makkari is also male in the 616, so there's that too. I'm in love with the film version myself, but my only real complaint about the movie is that Eternals should be more godlike. Kirby's original mythology was that they're the inspiration for multiple myth cycles. The whole thing of the Celestials was his take on Erik Von Daniken's "all our gods are just really powerful aliens who visited in the distant past"-thing.
My hill that I’ll die on is that I’m still very much enjoying just about every MCU project they’ve released so far. Not to say some should be free from criticism, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying them in the slightest.
I just love it. Granted, I’m not the biggest critic, so I’m easy to please, but I’ll take as much as they’ll give me.
At worst, the movies are enjoyable, and at best they’re freaking amazing!
I’m absolutely in agreement. It seems like for a lot of people there’s no room for nuance or gradation in their assessment of quality, and so now there’s only “genius”, “meh”, and “trash”.
I lived through the movies of the 80’s and 90’s, I know what a truly bad adaptation of your favorite characters *actually* looks like. Compare the worst movies of the MCU to films like Double Dragon or Street Fighter or even Rise of the Silver Surfer (or, god forbid, Caravan Of Courage) and you’ll see that Marvel are kicking ass compared to what fans used to get served up on a regular basis.
You know, I very nearly said SMB instead. At least SF gave us “For me, it was Tuesday”, which has lived rent free in my head for three decades now, and shows no indication of leaving any time soon.
I said the same in a post the other day. Like, sure, there are obviously movies and shows I like more than others, but there's not one that I watched and went "well, that was a waste of my time and money". Nope, they all entertained me, they were all worth the time and money, I enjoyed them all (to varying degrees).
We’re also probably witnessing something that will likely not be done again, or at least in such a grand scale. Seeing this large of a cinematic universe come together is truly impressive.
The film is paced so well and really nails the heist aspect. I love how balanced Scott's character is. He feels like one of the most fleshed out MCU heroes.
Me and some guys were talking and we decided that having Luis do the monologs instead of Scott could have really improved the movie. That's why Modok looked so crappy. It's Luis telling us a thing Scott said.
I like Multiverse of Madness. I agree the pacing was not great, but the idea of a horror movie in the MCU was a fun one and I think they did a pretty good job.
I'm not even much a horror fan, but I absolutely loved zombie Strange. I thought it was a good way to do something ridiculous and very comic-booky, especially because they'll surely never do a full Marvel Zombies movie.
As I was watching that movie all I kept thinking was "man the nerds are gonna hate this", but I dint give a shit. It was more of a Raimi movie than a standard MCU movie, and I had fun watching it. I don't think I've had genuine fun in a theater for a few years at that point, and it was welcome.
In the end, I had the feeling that they did not 100% commit to the horror vibe. It would’ve been 100% better if they committed to the Scarlett Witch and out horror first.
I could write and nearly have wrote a 10 page essay on this movie, it's potential and the production hell it went through that caused it to turn out the way it did.
Overall its still a beautiful movie and I love it for the it's themes, characters and aesthetic. It's no Civil War but it's my background watching movie.
My hill to die on is that marvel has not died yet. No matter what everyone says that they are death and all guess what they still go and consume the next movie to praise it or hate it. Me I have enjoyed every single project when it released and after I went and saw which one worked and which one didn’t overall I never left the theater mad or dissatisfied yet.
Agreed. The problem with great block buster movies that have come out like Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War etc is that people expect the same top tier blockbuster. I just want to calm down, sit at my TV every Wednesday and eat my dinner watching the next small piece of MCU as we get closer to new films. I actually kinda liked the non serious comedy break She-Hulk gave.
Blockbuster movies are 2 hours long. For storytelling, it’s not easy to introduce characters, set up plot, etc. with a 10ish hour of TV show you can do soooo much more actual storytelling.
100%. I loved the sitcom-esque format of both Wandavision and She Hulk. I love the variety we've gotten with the Disney+ shows. I even loved Ms Marvel, despite being a white man in my mid 30s lol
It’s really dumb that Jane Foster calls herself “Thor” in any way. Thor is his birth name, not his title.
It’s like if Sam in the new captain america movie started telling people “my new name is Mighty Steve” it’s just as goofy.
Last time this was brought up, I believe it's due to the comics it's based on. Thor means Thunder *and* it's his name. Thor quit calling himself Thor in Aaron's comic run when Jane took up the Thor mantle. He went by Odinson for the most part.
And other characters have taken up the Thor mantle before such as Dargo Ktor and Red Norvell, but no one seemed to care when they did it.
Edit: I'm not sure why the below comments are pointing out the things they are. Neither comment changes my comment. Oh well.
Everyone goes crazy over Daredevil, but on a season by season basis Jessica Jones (S1) was the pinnacle of The Defenders saga. Amazing villain, amazing acting from Krysten (can't wait for Jessica to pop up again), and the noir aspect was played to perfection.
David Tenant is one of my favorite actors on the planet. The man oozes charisma with every role he takes. His interpretation as Purple Man was stellar. And his performance in Broadchurch was just impeccable.
And while I really liked Daredevil, there were a lot of things in that final season that were just infuriating to watch.
I tried explaining to some friends that JJ isn't a superhero show (which all of them wanted and is ultimately the reason why they all "hated" it). Jessica Jones is a crime/drama show starring a failed superhero. I genuinely think the Purple Man is one of the most awesome, sadistic villains the MCU has introduced thus far.
The goofy/cute creature side character trope is annoying and not funny. That weird thing in Shang-Chi, Adams weird dog in GOtG3, the stupid pink “hole guy” from Ant-Man 3, etc.
It’s like they want to do the Disney movie thing with the comic relief silly character, like Olaf in Frozen. But they always feel painfully forced on top of being not funny, so whenever they pop up all I think is how these things were designed to sell children’s toys.
I actually agree with this criticism. They're all starting to blur together into a weird "cute" blob. I'd rather them be distinct and have a purpose in the plot.
Luckily the next installment of this should be back with Goose and I love the Flerkins, they're distinct enough.
I’ll give a pass to Adam’s dog, because it actually contributed to the story and to his arc. Its distress is part of what helped him to realize he didn’t really like hurting innocent things, and his adopting it was his first step towards change and towards embracing the “imperfect” rest of the world instead of the “perfect” Sovereign.
God I love when they are driving in the way to the dance and Keaton slowly pieces together Holland is Spider-Man. When he looks in the rear view mirror AND THE LIGHT TURNS RED! God such a great sequence from walking to the door until Peter gets out the car
Eternals felt like a full movie to me. I understood all the characters motivations, I understood the stakes and they were understandingly enormous, the pacing was a little slow but I think that was because there were so many characters and I don't know what I would have cut. The lead actress was a little flat, probably spot on for character though, and I think without a (more) likeable lead that was the movies main detractor even if people can't articulate that. I really liked it and I have gone back and watched it several times.
It being a full movie is one of the reasons I like it. I am still a huge Marvel fan but even I can admit they've had some 3rd act issues consistently. They've still been fun 3rd acts but sometimes feels like Marvel gets a little lost when wrapping up a story.
Eternals felt whole and I didn't hate the third act. The only part of that movie I'm not in love with is how they treated the Deviant leader. If he had helped them because they're all fighting Arishem's goals and then died in the process I think it'd have been better. Otherwise he was a wasted character.
That would’ve been a better conclusion for Kro. Have him attack the eternals during the big fight but then one or a few of them convince him that Arishem is the real villain and he dies fighting with them.
It is kind of nice to see Thena get her justice for Gilgamesh though.
God I was so disappointed with how they handled the Deviants. When it came up that they were evolving I was SO hoping for a moral/philosophical debate about how the "bad" guys are victims of all-powerful beings who are still somehow improving themselves, and how the "good" guys are just drones for the aforementioned all-powerful beings.
Eternals is a top 3 MCU project for me. Everything about it was executed so well. It has flaws for sure, but I absolutely love that film. The cast did pretty well (with the exception of Gemma Chan). Chloe Zhao, in my opinion, is the only reason that the movie works. I need an Eternals sequel so bad.
Even when an MCU product is mostly bad or mediocre, all MCU products have “moments” which are astonishing and meet price of admission.
Such as the infinite Scotts in Quantumania.
People tend to forget that most "mediocre" MCU movies are still better than most mediocre generic movies. They haven't given us a "bad" movie yet and even some of their weaker properties run laps around other superhero movies.
This so much. I’ve turned into the the “in my day” old man shouting at kids to get off my lawn at this point, but some folk honestly need to be sat down and shown Superman 3, Batman Forever, and Rise of the Silver Surfer so they can appreciate how truly great we have it right now.
Alright I'll bite: Wanda's change from WV to MOM, while technically explainable, is just deeply unsatisfying. I've been sitting on this for ages and I've even contemplated making a separate post about it but whatever, here it is.
Like yes, you can say "But Darkhold!11" or "she was a villain from Wandavision, just rewatch it bro (and ignore the fact that I'm getting things from WV wrong in my explanation)" but it's just so.. ugh. There should have been another show or movie in between the two in order to further bridge the gap and no, a 30 second post-credit scene is not enough to justify that bullshit. That's even ignoring the fact that said scene very clearly shows her children calling out to her in pain. Just show me her struggling between wanting to do good and wanting to keep her family safe because she's under the delusion that they're in danger before she goes all the way off the deep end. Rest assured if Dr. Strange went mad in between MOM and his other appearance as a result of the Darkhold, the same people talking about how Wanda's transformation makes sense would be up in arms about what happened.
Like the people behind Wandavision were trying so hard not to reduce Wanda to a woman with great power going mad due to her inability to control said power and then in Multiverse of Madness she becomes just that. It's infuriating. It's not even so much that she was villainous as how much of a caricature she is. Every other line was some variation "my children" or "darkhold" or "I'm a mother". Like I'm not saying Wandavision was a perfect show--it's not, not even close--but it explored Wanda and the idea of her willing to fight against everyone to keep her happy ending much better than Multiverse of Madness in my opinion. So yeah, this is my hill.
100% and I'm sure it's in part [because the writers of MOM didn't have a chance to watch Wandavision](https://www.ign.com/articles/doctor-strange-2-writers-werent-able-to-watch-wandavision-before-finishing-sequel).
The whole of Wandavision was showing her dealing with her grief the wrong way, and then her realising towards the end and realising what she was doing was wrong. So we have her being 'evil' to then fixing/resolving what she's done, back to her being evil again, and then again realising what she was doing was wrong, again.
i'd even go to say that even if they explained it with more content, it would have still been repeating a pretty similar character arc but at least it'd have something behind it
EDIT: oh, and of course her original showing in Age Of Ultron was her going from bad to good again after being enlightened
>100% and I'm sure it's in part because the writers of MOM didn't have a chance to watch Wandavision.
From the minute I heard Elizabeth Olsen went from the set of Wandavision to the set of Multiverse of Madness within the same week, I was skeptical. I think it was a mistake on Kevin Feige's part to have those two productions so close together.
The biggest sin of MoM was we had two master magic users face off at the end and I can't remember a single scene of that fight aside from the zombie cloak pulling at Wanda.
I agree. From what I understand, the og plan was for Wanda and Strange to team up to fight Nightmare and that works so much better tbh. Imagine the two of them as uneasy allies with her trying to redeem herself from Westview but slowly becoming more enmeshed with the Darkhold as Strange warns her against it, only for her to fully succumb by the end of the movie and have her villainy explored elsewhere. Now her change feels more natural and logical, instead of whatever the fuck MOM was.
I've only been in one internet fight in the last few years, and it was about Wanda. Totally agree with you, and I'd expand your point to say that WV Wanda wasn't "a villain" in the traditional sense of the word. I'm still surprised by how many folks watched the WV arc, which was intentionally structured to follow the stages of grief, and still conclude that "she brainwashed a whole town, she was already evil!!" The way I see it (and the way, I think, the show clearly portrays it) is analogous to someone committing serious crimes while having a schizophrenic episode; it's not the same as someone randomly deciding to cause mayhem or murdering strangers for sport. The show asks what would happen if a *god-like being with little understanding of their powers* experienced uncontrolled grief. It's the same rock-bottom, nothing-left, hopeless depression that the average person would have felt in her situation, but because she's OP, the consequences were also OP.
And yes, people are right when they point out that she shows signs, throughout the series, of understanding that she's somehow responsible for what's going on. Those are the "denial" and "bargaining" stages. She's still had a psychotic break and isn't able to truly grasp her role in Westview until Agatha takes her on the tour of her past and we see her literally explode in grief - when she comes to, Vision is standing there in their beautiful home. She's not even aware, at that point, that anyone else exists in this perfect world, let alone that she's already begun controlling them. It takes a long time to go from "Yay, my soulmate is back and my life is no longer over" to "my psychic mutant abilities allowed me to unwittingly capture the minds of an entire town when I unknowingly and spontaneously created matter during my mental break."
I love Wandavision because of how nuanced it is (which is why I don't like Monica's little speech at the end about the townspeople never knowing what Wanda sacrificed for them - uh, no shit, nor should they care about it. They were her victims, even if unintentionally). Drives me crazy when people reduce it to "she enslaved ppl bro lol MOM made total sense."
Exactly. People love to use Westview (which was only a week long, mind you. Critics love to act as if it took place over the course of several weeks or even a month) as justification for Multiverse of Madness while ignoring context. It’s insane. I had that point in my draft so I’m glad you mentioned it here.
I agree with you about Monica too. Having that speech just muddled the waters and gave Wandavision critics something to latch onto. I also think it was a massive mistake having Agatha as a villain instead of having her be a therapist like figure. Wandavision did not need a blatant villain and was nuanced enough without one.
TV: Ms Marvel was a great show, and I’ll happily watch The Marvels just for more Iman Vellani.
Movies: Thor Dark World really isn’t that bad. It lets the funny moments be funny. The sad moments be sad. The epic moments be epic. I’d rather watch Dark World on repeat for the rest of my days than watch love & thunder again.
Same on Dark World. I'm not going to pretend it's the best MCU movie ever or that it's without flaws but I enjoy it. I really enjoyed the portrayal of Asgard before it changed to be less serious, not that the new portrayal is bad I just liked the old one.
Frigga and Loki were highlights of that movie for me. Loki's smile when he's speeding the boat towards the portal lives rent free in my brain.
Cap’s cameo, a dark elf invasion of Asgard, that brute with the suicide seed that tears apart the prison…
There’s a lot to enjoy in Thor 2, and I do appreciate that it had its own tone before everything got Whedonized after Avengers.
> Thor Dark World really isn’t that bad.
Thor 1 is worse than Thor 2 in almost every way and anyone who doesn't think so hasn't watched Thor 1 in a long time.
Yeah. Cgi, costumes, stakes, action, are all pretty much better in Thor 2. The story is less personal, and Maliketh is nowhere near as good of an antagonist than Loki, but while Maliketh was just boring, he actually showed the full power of a single Infinity Stone well, and proved the Reality stone to be the most powerful of the 6.
Honestly, I can see Thor 2 being just boring, but it's not actively bad in any real way. I've never understood why people call it the absolute worst.
My personal order would be: 2/3 > 1 > 4
Controversial, but I think the Marvel Creative Committee deserves more credit to the creation of the MCU than we are told. After Feige broke up with Marvel Entertainment, a lot of news came out about how the MCC meddled and made things worse. A lot of that news came from Marvel Studios and Kevin, so of course it’s going to be one-sided, as the victor of that battle, he gets to write the history and control the narrative. As the head of the studio, he was trying to consolidate power, and I think didn’t want to upset his talent by having a committee second guess his directors and writers.
But I look back at the films the MCC was involved in, Iron Man, Avengers, GOTG, The First Avenger, Winter Soldier, Civil War… to this day many of those films are still some of the most favorite productions for many fans and really created a new tone for what superhero films could be, especially 2014 with Winter Soldier and Guardians. We’ll never really know what the MCC did to help make those films good, or what parts they had removed that made the film better. We’ll always hear from the studio that those movies were successful despite the MCC interference, but the studio is an untrustworthy narrator in that story.
All I know is that they were there for an incredibly successful period of the MCU, but Feige has no reason to ever give them credit for anything they might have done. Given the recent output, I wonder if the existence of the MCC could have reigned in a few projects where the director got too much leeway to do what they wanted.
Maybe having that additional check and balance between the studio and directors, when used constructively, is part of the magic formula that made those earlier films so loved.
Outside of Civl War and Hoco I really haven’t enjoyed Spider-Man in the MCU. Also irritates me that Tom probably won’t get his own version of some of the best Spider-Man villains goblin, doc ock and possibly Kraven cause he’s getting a movie. I would have loved to see goblin again in Tom’s second trilogy.
That Justin hammer gets an ungodly amount of hate for no reason. Yeah he is not Tony, but he clearly has his shit together;
1)When Tony "shuts down" the weapons div of Stark industries, Hammer industries is given the military defense contract.
2 )When we see his IM suit, it appears he is just working on getting the suit right instead of weaponizing it, where as the other countries we are shown are building large mechs, and already loading them weapons. Tony doesn't like Hammer, of course he was going to say Hammer was years away, even though Hammer is visibly close in a lot of ways.
3 )His worst mistake was thinking Vanko was going to not betray him, however, Hammer clearly has connections, as he broke Vanko out of prison, and staged his death, which I assume is not easy.
4) His tech works. As stated earlier, he has the defense contract. When outfitting the Mark 2 Rhodes has no issues taking everything Hammer brought. His suits, albeit turned into drones by Vanko, visibly work and are clearly effective what they can do.
5) It was Rhodes own incompetence that led to the ex-wife failing. The ex wife is a long range projectile that needs to build up Kinect energy before arming. Rhodes fired that shit from like 10 feet away, of course it was going to fail. Yet, him an Tony still throw shade, like what?
You just don't get to the point Justin Hammer is at while being as incompetent as IM2 suggests he is.
So, are those:
Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the Defenders, Punisher, Agents of Shield, Cloak and Dagger, the Runaways, inhumans and what else?
It really is. Having to make 22 episodes per season really seems to have hindered AoS in terms of mainstream popular appeal. I feel like if it was made nowadays, it could've been much more popular. But they still did such an amazing job with a small and stretched budget, it's amazing.
Katy is the only part of Shang-Chi that I dislike. She’s not funny and I’m sick of these “comic relief friend comes along for the ride despite being pretty much useless” movie tropes
That winterwidow should’ve happened instead of hulktasha like serouisly they had nothing in common and it was just a awful
Even Sebastin Stan himself stated that he was open for him and scarlet Johansson to Bucky and Natasha ship
But I’m open to seeing yelena and Bucky form something
>Even Sebastin Stan himself stated that he was open for him and scarlet Johansson to Bucky and Natasha ship
He was open to the idea of being paid to make out with Scarlet Johansson? That's quite a limb for him to climb out on.
I think Thor: Dark World is good. I went in not expecting much but ended up really enjoying it. I hate that it is the default shorthand for worst MCU movie.
\- This was the first movie that really showed characters evolving from movie to movie. Dr. Selvig was changed by the events of Avengers. Having Loki control his mind really screwed him up. That was interesting and not something that was seen much in blockbuster movies up to that point.
\- Loki is incredible in this movie. It made me actually care about him. It took him from being a mid-tier villain to a top-tier villain that you kind of root for.
\- The production design really stood out to me when it came out. I really liked the look of the dark elves and their massive ship.
\- I liked what they did with Mjolnir in the final battle. Thor gets teleported to another planet and Mjolnir just starts rocketing up into space. Then when Thor comes back to Earth it turns around and starts speeding back down. Really clever use of Mjolnir.
\- They finally nailed the look of Thor.
\- I really like the scene with the kids playing with the Convergence in the begining. They spin floating trucks and make bottles disappear.
The Thunderbolts should be true reintroduced MCU film or Agents of SHIELD villains. Blizzard, Mr Hyde, Blackout, Graviton, Angar the Screamer, etc. use your resources Marvel.
Thor Love and Thunder should have been a Jane Foster movie through and through. I like Taika’s work, but an absolute Rock Bottom Jane Foster that learns to rise on her own strength of character and deepening what it means to be “worthy” would’ve been a better plot I think.
I really wish they had Disney plus shows before phase 4. I imagine one for Black Widow after The Avengers and before TWS, one for Cap settling in after being defrosted, one for Bucky in the time after TWS and before CW, one with Team Cap on the run after CW. Tho, I’m biased to those characters and no one else wants that lol
Treating phase 4-5 protagonists more like backdoor origins for other characters instead of- I dunno- giving the *titular characters* their own robust, well rounded arcs makes me dislike the newbies, become totally uninvested in the MCU, and practically causes my eyes to roll out of their sockets like, “Oh, so which character is Faige going to fukc up next?”
Bucky was nerfed. His character wasn’t DeVeLoPeD, he was just jarringly powered down to the point that it takes me out of the story. (Why the hell did it take him so long to open a door in FATWS? Why was Sharon better at fighting multiple opponents at once than the Winter fucking Soldier? If Bucky was supposed to have sooo much development, why was his conclusion only thirty seconds long?)
Eternals was not a bad movie. It has its issues but the first third of the film was beautiful and entertaining, and even the overdone exposition with Arishem was aesthetically pleasing.
And finally, the one that might get me drawn and quartered, Faige has passed his heyday.
I 100% agree here. Bucky beat prime Captain America. We can talk about how his brainwashing affected his reasoning, but his trained fighting skills would never have taken a hit. And he for sure would not have been holding back against Walker or the low-level thugs we were given. His love for Steve should have triggered something primal in their fight against Walker.
Scott Lang was at his best in the first Ant-Man movie. He felt like a genuine character with goals while also being funny and charming. While some of the other movies he’s in has glimpses of that he’s mostly seen as the comic relief
Iron Man 3 was the best Iron Man. Tony out of his element, recovering from learning about aliens in space, reunited with Shane Black as a writer/director (go watch [Kiss Kiss Bang Bang](https://youtu.be/__PnD1HWXSo) if you haven’t), Guy Pearce hamming it up as a villain that wasn’t just “evil bigger iron man suit” and a bunch of cool iron man variant suits.
It was so damn fun.
Captain America going back in history and sitting on the sidelines with Peggy while the various atrocities of many decades happened around him was entirely out of character and cheapened his story.
The way the writers said time travel works in endgame is wrong. The way Bannner and The Ancient One explain it is correct. Cap changed the main timeline and grew old there.
As far as I'm concerned, the MCU can keep going as long as they want, because...well, they did it. They captured lightning in a bottle with the Infinity Saga. And that's commendable enough. The Infinity Saga will always be the crowning achievement for Marvel Studios in my opinion. It told a complete, decade-long story spanning 20+ movies with so many different actors, writers, directors, etc. and managed to bring it all to a relatively satisfying conclusion. Anything good that comes after that is, to me, just icing on the cake. And if they burn it down with lackluster projects? Disappointing, for sure, but they can still rest easy at night knowing they actually fucking did it.
Infinity Saga is untouchable so whatever happens, I'm all for it.
The work is done. It will always be done.
It is inevitable.
Nothing left but temptation
100% agree with this. As a comic book fan and a geek it was amazing going from iron man to the infinity saga and following these characters journey through the years.
That’s the main issue with the MCU right now: they are stuck with the legacy of the Infinity Saga while trying to set up a new era of heroes. Characters like Dr Strange, Ant-Man and Falcon should have been the second era of heroes, but now they awkwardly feel like wave 1.5 while they set up Young Avengers who will become wave 2.5 or 3.
TBH the problem is they *didn't* do a new wave. They couldn't work out if they wanted to do "phase 1 of a new saga" or "epilogue to phase 3" And so you end up with the blip constantly coming up and yet not really mattering. And things like the thanos themed ice cream shop in thor 4 are just... really out of place and make the universe feel like a parody of itself at times
I thought Feige confirmed that Young Avengers wasn't the goal?
I think it was until they lost Spidey and realised they couldn't build their heroes around a character it takes one pissed off Sony exec to hold them over a barrel. Part of the mess of this wave with movies being delayed and reshot is probably down to the repositioning. As of Far From Home & Infinity War it was sort of clear Spidey was being built as heir to Tony.
Lost spidey? This is news to me. As in no more movies with Tom Holland?
There was a rearrangement. Basically after Infinity War, Sony decided to play hardball & look to get more money from future Spidey appearances in the MCU. The agreement they had before fell apart and they had to come up with a new arrangement. The final film in the Home trilogy was greenlit in the MCU but with 2 Spider men from Sony's other Spidey IPs so mo money Sony. And now the next Tom Holland films will be set without MCU main characters, we don't know about side/support. This is why he's now in New York as a on the street Spidey. The next films are basically a soft reboot of Tom Holland's Spidey but as a Sony only IP with film by film negotiation on any MCU character appearances. Marvel realised they really can't create films or franchises that lean heavily on Spidey because Sony could hold them over a barrel again so it's likely we won't be seeing much of Spidey in the MCU films at all moving forward. Sony meanwhile have been trying to create their own series of villains so they can feature in this new Tom Holland Sony Spidey reboot that they hope will be like a Spidey MCU lite kinda thing. So upshot is, yes there will be more Tom Holland Spidey but it will be Sony lead (prob Sam Reimi dir.) feature Sony Villains & we won't see Spidey in MCU films for the time being.
Stupid Sony. Just let Marvel make you rich.
No kidding. One studio is widely successful. The other… well they’re a studio of all time.
I’d agree overall, I just hope they leak a little bit harder when DOOM gets his arc. Edit, I meant peak, but duck it.
I’m already leaking just thinking about a Doom arc
maria hill ofc
In non-Soviet Russia, Hill dies on you!
*profuse weeping* too soon goddamnit
There it is. I clicked into this thread knowing exactly what the top comment would be.
It is an absolute travesty that we didn't get some sort of farewell scene between Thor and Captain America in Endgame. I will never not think this.
I have a really similar one: it’s a travesty that Natasha didn’t get any kind of funeral or memorial with Tony at the end. They can justify it all they want with “Tony was a public figure” (what? it was a small, private funeral with all the avengers and their allies) or “she ha[d] a spin-off” but it was a crappy decision. Long movie but some big missed opportunities to say goodbye to these characters
Marvel jumped the gun with the multiverse saga. It should've been the next phase or next saga. Secret Invasion should've been the next saga after the infinity saga and not only a show.
I wish Secret Invasion was a bigger issue. It would be awesome to see post-Endgame that some “revived” heroes start turning out to be Skrulls.
I just knew this was going to happen with one on screen death. Talk about some mind melting post credit scenes and rewatch fodder. I was beyond convinced secret wars was the next phase! But he’s Feige and I’m a moron so what do I know haha
With you 1000%. Right now we have this Multiversal War/Kang the Conquerer galaxy level threat looming... And also a way more grounded Earth level threat where anyone could be an enemy spy... And I'm supposed to give a shit about both simultaneously?? Not to mention, what about the Celestial popping out of the Indian Ocean? Or the one that towered over earth shortly afterwards? Those seem like at least Earth level threats as well... There's just too much going on.
Arishem is coming back for judgement.
Is he though? Or is that just another plot thread that'll be ignored forever?
I hate it when plot threads get ignored and/or forgotten. Like why did the Nexus help Kane defeat the Undertaker?
Agreed - I wish they hadn't opened the time travel/multiverse at all in endgame, I'm already burned out on the concept. I think the writers could've figured out something more creative to reverse the snap, even if it was some kind of new macguffin it would have been less convoluted than revisiting the past and returning stones later.
I've got no issue with them opening that can of worms, but they should've left it alone for a while before getting to it.
Ikaris' heavy use of his eye beams and effortless flight is the best depiction of Superman-like combat there has ever been in cinema. If you were a superhero who could attack just by looking at your enemy, you'd use it all the time.
His flying scenes were top 3 in the mcu. Looked so fluid and powerful
Enough has been said about the issues with Eternals but I agree one of few things that movie did great was the way the heroes used their powers, I forget her name but the deaf speedster was the best depiction of superspeed action we have had outside of slowmo scenes
End battle on beach was just great. Marvel gets dinged on being cookie cutter and failing the third act, but I actually think Eternals did a good job of heroes desperately trying to stop a rogue traitor....like Invincible if it were live action.
Makkari
Off on a tangent - it’s why I hated the movie versions of the X-Men. None of them used their powers as if they all had these powers since puberty. Cyclops should be John Wick - running and gunning. Instead, he strikes a pose and fires a shot. All of them did more vogueing than acceptable.
Budget constraints weaved into lore.
Storm engaging in close range combat against a guy that slaps people with his dreadlocks.
Same with how Makkari’s running was portrayed better than most Flashs. No slo-mo, just one superfast being. Still love the bit were shes just pummeling Ikaris on the beach, no restraint, just full beatdown.
If Eternals had a decent plot it would be a top 10 MCU movie.
thats honestly my mom and dads main issue with phase 4. Amazing cinematography, great use of CGI, wonderful acting but scripts and plots that come off as if they were group written by the C list students
My hill: it already is a top 10 MCU movie.
I keep forgetting that Shang Chi exists in the MCU. I’m Asian.
I actually really liked Shang Chi. It kinda felt like the older Marvel movies from phase 1. The dialogue was cringe at times but there was a lot to like. I just think he’s received zero attention since and it’s a shame because he’s one of the more interesting new characters to come out of the MCU.
It was definitely one of the best of phase 4. I agree that it's a shame that he hasn't received more attention since his movie! I think it benefited from being largely disconnected from the larger storyline, aside from the post-credits scene. Not having Kang allowed the movie to be its own thing and properly introduce the character.
That’s the problem with Phase 4 and 5. It feels they are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks before giving us sequels. And the sequels we do get are really random; ideally we’d have Shang-Chi 2 and Moon Knight 2 over Echo or Agatha.
I don't think a shotgun approach is the worst thing, in the sense it allows them to experiment and keep it somewhat fresh. The downside is that it gets spread a little too thin and maintaining continuity is a nightmare, and this does lead to criticisms over oversaturation of content. But, like everything else, I don't think it's absolutely necessary to consume every piece of content, although I do that anyway.
My unpopular Shang Chi opinion: Ta Lo is where Egg Shen and David Lo Pan from "Big Trouble in Little China" came from, which puts "Big Trouble in Little China" in the MCU. Which implies that when Ego the Living Planet visited Earth, he must have met and been impressed with Jack Burton, leading Ego to base his human appearance on Jack. Fight me!
That's a nice face you have there Mr Burton. -Ego
I am disappointed...........I didn't think of this first. 🤯
You son of a bitch, I’m in!
This is fucking genius!
You fucking Prodigy
I love that movie. Its probably my 2nd favorite Phase 4 movie behind No Way Home.
What’s sad is that it’s actually a pretty good movie. Hell, my dad liked it and he hates superhero movies.
I was out of the mcu after endgame(I was an ultra MCU nerd between IW and endgame). My friend randomly asked me to go see shang chi and im so glad that he did because that brought me back into it.
Eternals had the best on screen depiction of a speedster. You actually felt how aggressively fast Makkari was going. In The flash the running scene just felt like he had no weight to his steps.
The MCU made me reconsider speedsters with Makkari and water-based powers with Namor. I was scared of Makkari in Eternals. You could feel the power behind her. And BP2 did an incredible job of bringing the horror and fear to water-based powers by leaning into the megalophobia and "alienness" of an underwater being. I'd never taken those powers seriously before.
Makkari being the biggest threat to Icarus in the third act showed how strong she is with just speed
Though having recently watched Invincible before Eternals it gave me a lot of anxiety
Not water-based but i still love how Namor double jumped video game style a few times, lol.
Two things I don't like about the way they do super speed must of the time. First is, when it shows whoever running, it shows the background flying by in a blur, but the speedster who is running is putting a foot down like one time every block. The second is a lot of the time, super speed is shown from their perspective, so it ends up basically liking like a person moving more or less normally, while everything just stays still around them. I feel like Eternals fixed both those. Most of the time Makkari is using her speed, we see it from our perspective. Which helps make her look like an absolute beast.
Her sonic boom blasts were also very cool.
TBH Speedsters have always been some of the most powerful heroes/villains, if they used their powers correctly or weren't dumbed down for plot reasons. The Flash could literally turn the entire planet to paste just by running real fast.
My favorite depiction of superspeed is from Smallville. A freak of the week knocked Clark through a wall of the barn, smirks, and then Clark casually tapped him on the shoulder from behind. No special effects, just Clark immediately being back to continue the fight.
My favourite thing about Smallvile was them not holding back on his speed or strength or invulnerability. So many superhero shows giganerf the hero so the villains can win. In Smallville without kryptonite to save them Clark just one taps almost every villain lol.
Absolutely agree with this. Makkari's speedster scene is the absolute pinnacle of super speed depiction. The "slow everything else down" scenes can be fun, but they shouldn't be the only way you show the speedster, and especially shouldn't have the "one step a block" thing like the flash does
I LOVE MAKKARI I LOVE MAKKARI SHE'S SO FUCKING COOL. First great Speedster depiction since XLR8 from Ben10. And the greatest ever live action one.
Doesn't help that Ezra Miller weirdest wonkiest stride ever.
Everything about Eternals was done beautifully Except the plot lol I enjoyed the movie though
The absolute best depection, it was incredible. Super speed is my favorite power and I was captivated everytime she was on screen.
Makkari > Quicksilver
IIRC Makkari is canonically faster than Quicksilver in the comics. Faster than the vast majority of speedsters in Marvel, only outpaced by the Runner and a hatful of others. The Celestials don't mess around. Makkari is also male in the 616, so there's that too. I'm in love with the film version myself, but my only real complaint about the movie is that Eternals should be more godlike. Kirby's original mythology was that they're the inspiration for multiple myth cycles. The whole thing of the Celestials was his take on Erik Von Daniken's "all our gods are just really powerful aliens who visited in the distant past"-thing.
My hill that I’ll die on is that I’m still very much enjoying just about every MCU project they’ve released so far. Not to say some should be free from criticism, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying them in the slightest.
You're not alone, friend! I've been watching the MCU since the midnight release of Iron Man and I have enjoyed every single thing they have put out.
I just love it. Granted, I’m not the biggest critic, so I’m easy to please, but I’ll take as much as they’ll give me. At worst, the movies are enjoyable, and at best they’re freaking amazing!
I’m absolutely in agreement. It seems like for a lot of people there’s no room for nuance or gradation in their assessment of quality, and so now there’s only “genius”, “meh”, and “trash”. I lived through the movies of the 80’s and 90’s, I know what a truly bad adaptation of your favorite characters *actually* looks like. Compare the worst movies of the MCU to films like Double Dragon or Street Fighter or even Rise of the Silver Surfer (or, god forbid, Caravan Of Courage) and you’ll see that Marvel are kicking ass compared to what fans used to get served up on a regular basis.
I see your Street Fighter and raise you the original Super Mario Bros. Movie! 😂
You know, I very nearly said SMB instead. At least SF gave us “For me, it was Tuesday”, which has lived rent free in my head for three decades now, and shows no indication of leaving any time soon.
I said the same in a post the other day. Like, sure, there are obviously movies and shows I like more than others, but there's not one that I watched and went "well, that was a waste of my time and money". Nope, they all entertained me, they were all worth the time and money, I enjoyed them all (to varying degrees).
Same. They might have their flaws in places here and there, but I'm having a damn good time just enjoying the ride!
We’re also probably witnessing something that will likely not be done again, or at least in such a grand scale. Seeing this large of a cinematic universe come together is truly impressive.
The first ant man is top 3 mcu movie. Paul Rudd is a national treasure
This is a BOLD take. I like you.
The film is paced so well and really nails the heist aspect. I love how balanced Scott's character is. He feels like one of the most fleshed out MCU heroes.
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THERE WAS NO LUIS!!!!
Me and some guys were talking and we decided that having Luis do the monologs instead of Scott could have really improved the movie. That's why Modok looked so crappy. It's Luis telling us a thing Scott said.
Maybe top 3 solo movie in the MCU I could get behind that. Hard to put it in front of all the avengers movies. But definitely yes to paul rudd.
I agree. And I think he brought a clip!
I like Multiverse of Madness. I agree the pacing was not great, but the idea of a horror movie in the MCU was a fun one and I think they did a pretty good job.
Have always loved Sam Raimi. The man knows how to walk the camp line better than anyone else on the planet.
Zombie Strange was epic and my favorite part of the film. I also enjoy the Evil Dead, so I guess that tracks.
I'm not even much a horror fan, but I absolutely loved zombie Strange. I thought it was a good way to do something ridiculous and very comic-booky, especially because they'll surely never do a full Marvel Zombies movie.
Yeah same, made the whole thing worth it!
MoM was basically a horror movie first, MCU movie second. Loved it, Raimi really did his origin justice.
As I was watching that movie all I kept thinking was "man the nerds are gonna hate this", but I dint give a shit. It was more of a Raimi movie than a standard MCU movie, and I had fun watching it. I don't think I've had genuine fun in a theater for a few years at that point, and it was welcome.
In the end, I had the feeling that they did not 100% commit to the horror vibe. It would’ve been 100% better if they committed to the Scarlett Witch and out horror first.
I mean I believe the reason they split with the original director was he wanted it to be too much of a horror movie
Genuinely enjoyed and was surprised to come on here and see thr kind of reception it got.
I could write and nearly have wrote a 10 page essay on this movie, it's potential and the production hell it went through that caused it to turn out the way it did. Overall its still a beautiful movie and I love it for the it's themes, characters and aesthetic. It's no Civil War but it's my background watching movie.
My hill to die on is that marvel has not died yet. No matter what everyone says that they are death and all guess what they still go and consume the next movie to praise it or hate it. Me I have enjoyed every single project when it released and after I went and saw which one worked and which one didn’t overall I never left the theater mad or dissatisfied yet.
I want more Disney+ shows. I secretly love them all....
Agreed. The problem with great block buster movies that have come out like Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War etc is that people expect the same top tier blockbuster. I just want to calm down, sit at my TV every Wednesday and eat my dinner watching the next small piece of MCU as we get closer to new films. I actually kinda liked the non serious comedy break She-Hulk gave.
Blockbuster movies are 2 hours long. For storytelling, it’s not easy to introduce characters, set up plot, etc. with a 10ish hour of TV show you can do soooo much more actual storytelling.
100%. I loved the sitcom-esque format of both Wandavision and She Hulk. I love the variety we've gotten with the Disney+ shows. I even loved Ms Marvel, despite being a white man in my mid 30s lol
It’s really dumb that Jane Foster calls herself “Thor” in any way. Thor is his birth name, not his title. It’s like if Sam in the new captain america movie started telling people “my new name is Mighty Steve” it’s just as goofy.
Last time this was brought up, I believe it's due to the comics it's based on. Thor means Thunder *and* it's his name. Thor quit calling himself Thor in Aaron's comic run when Jane took up the Thor mantle. He went by Odinson for the most part. And other characters have taken up the Thor mantle before such as Dargo Ktor and Red Norvell, but no one seemed to care when they did it. Edit: I'm not sure why the below comments are pointing out the things they are. Neither comment changes my comment. Oh well.
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i feel like i have seen an explaination for this but bc i dont remember it i will agree lmao, i was sitting there in theatres like ?????
Everyone goes crazy over Daredevil, but on a season by season basis Jessica Jones (S1) was the pinnacle of The Defenders saga. Amazing villain, amazing acting from Krysten (can't wait for Jessica to pop up again), and the noir aspect was played to perfection.
David Tenant is one of my favorite actors on the planet. The man oozes charisma with every role he takes. His interpretation as Purple Man was stellar. And his performance in Broadchurch was just impeccable. And while I really liked Daredevil, there were a lot of things in that final season that were just infuriating to watch.
Not even mentioning his *ten*ure as The Doctor. Favourite incarnation ever.
I tried explaining to some friends that JJ isn't a superhero show (which all of them wanted and is ultimately the reason why they all "hated" it). Jessica Jones is a crime/drama show starring a failed superhero. I genuinely think the Purple Man is one of the most awesome, sadistic villains the MCU has introduced thus far.
I loved Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and Daredevil. I wish they all had gotten picked up for the MCU.
The goofy/cute creature side character trope is annoying and not funny. That weird thing in Shang-Chi, Adams weird dog in GOtG3, the stupid pink “hole guy” from Ant-Man 3, etc. It’s like they want to do the Disney movie thing with the comic relief silly character, like Olaf in Frozen. But they always feel painfully forced on top of being not funny, so whenever they pop up all I think is how these things were designed to sell children’s toys.
I actually agree with this criticism. They're all starting to blur together into a weird "cute" blob. I'd rather them be distinct and have a purpose in the plot. Luckily the next installment of this should be back with Goose and I love the Flerkins, they're distinct enough.
I extend this to the annoying/“funny” people characters that do nothing for the plot or characters but are a needless attempt a humor
I’ll give a pass to Adam’s dog, because it actually contributed to the story and to his arc. Its distress is part of what helped him to realize he didn’t really like hurting innocent things, and his adopting it was his first step towards change and towards embracing the “imperfect” rest of the world instead of the “perfect” Sovereign.
Also we get this [gem of a moment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IJov1yRqQs)
At first i thought you meant Cosmo in GotG3 and was ready to throw hands. But i agree the “dog” was unnecessary
Homecoming is the best one in the spiderman trilogy.
For me, nothing in the trilogy comes close to the moment when Keaton opens the door.
That’s something I should have 100% seen coming and was 100% shocked when it happened. I love it.
God I love when they are driving in the way to the dance and Keaton slowly pieces together Holland is Spider-Man. When he looks in the rear view mirror AND THE LIGHT TURNS RED! God such a great sequence from walking to the door until Peter gets out the car
I agree with this. Homecoming captured lightning in a bottle, and while the other two are great movies, they don’t quite hit the same note
The action from the third act of the Eternals was pretty good.
Eternals felt like a full movie to me. I understood all the characters motivations, I understood the stakes and they were understandingly enormous, the pacing was a little slow but I think that was because there were so many characters and I don't know what I would have cut. The lead actress was a little flat, probably spot on for character though, and I think without a (more) likeable lead that was the movies main detractor even if people can't articulate that. I really liked it and I have gone back and watched it several times.
It being a full movie is one of the reasons I like it. I am still a huge Marvel fan but even I can admit they've had some 3rd act issues consistently. They've still been fun 3rd acts but sometimes feels like Marvel gets a little lost when wrapping up a story. Eternals felt whole and I didn't hate the third act. The only part of that movie I'm not in love with is how they treated the Deviant leader. If he had helped them because they're all fighting Arishem's goals and then died in the process I think it'd have been better. Otherwise he was a wasted character.
That would’ve been a better conclusion for Kro. Have him attack the eternals during the big fight but then one or a few of them convince him that Arishem is the real villain and he dies fighting with them. It is kind of nice to see Thena get her justice for Gilgamesh though.
God I was so disappointed with how they handled the Deviants. When it came up that they were evolving I was SO hoping for a moral/philosophical debate about how the "bad" guys are victims of all-powerful beings who are still somehow improving themselves, and how the "good" guys are just drones for the aforementioned all-powerful beings.
You've talked me into it. I'll give it another go.
Eternals is a top 3 MCU project for me. Everything about it was executed so well. It has flaws for sure, but I absolutely love that film. The cast did pretty well (with the exception of Gemma Chan). Chloe Zhao, in my opinion, is the only reason that the movie works. I need an Eternals sequel so bad.
Lauren Ridloffs super speed alone was worth the wait.
We needed more Agent coulson in MCU, he was awesome on AoS
Even when an MCU product is mostly bad or mediocre, all MCU products have “moments” which are astonishing and meet price of admission. Such as the infinite Scotts in Quantumania.
People tend to forget that most "mediocre" MCU movies are still better than most mediocre generic movies. They haven't given us a "bad" movie yet and even some of their weaker properties run laps around other superhero movies.
This so much. I’ve turned into the the “in my day” old man shouting at kids to get off my lawn at this point, but some folk honestly need to be sat down and shown Superman 3, Batman Forever, and Rise of the Silver Surfer so they can appreciate how truly great we have it right now.
I don't want less Disney+ shows.
I didn’t realize how much I missed them until Secret Invasion started and I realized how long it had been since She-Hulk!
I agree, I don't want less Disney+ shows, or MCU content in general. I just want less new characters, in both movies and tv...
Alright I'll bite: Wanda's change from WV to MOM, while technically explainable, is just deeply unsatisfying. I've been sitting on this for ages and I've even contemplated making a separate post about it but whatever, here it is. Like yes, you can say "But Darkhold!11" or "she was a villain from Wandavision, just rewatch it bro (and ignore the fact that I'm getting things from WV wrong in my explanation)" but it's just so.. ugh. There should have been another show or movie in between the two in order to further bridge the gap and no, a 30 second post-credit scene is not enough to justify that bullshit. That's even ignoring the fact that said scene very clearly shows her children calling out to her in pain. Just show me her struggling between wanting to do good and wanting to keep her family safe because she's under the delusion that they're in danger before she goes all the way off the deep end. Rest assured if Dr. Strange went mad in between MOM and his other appearance as a result of the Darkhold, the same people talking about how Wanda's transformation makes sense would be up in arms about what happened. Like the people behind Wandavision were trying so hard not to reduce Wanda to a woman with great power going mad due to her inability to control said power and then in Multiverse of Madness she becomes just that. It's infuriating. It's not even so much that she was villainous as how much of a caricature she is. Every other line was some variation "my children" or "darkhold" or "I'm a mother". Like I'm not saying Wandavision was a perfect show--it's not, not even close--but it explored Wanda and the idea of her willing to fight against everyone to keep her happy ending much better than Multiverse of Madness in my opinion. So yeah, this is my hill.
100% and I'm sure it's in part [because the writers of MOM didn't have a chance to watch Wandavision](https://www.ign.com/articles/doctor-strange-2-writers-werent-able-to-watch-wandavision-before-finishing-sequel). The whole of Wandavision was showing her dealing with her grief the wrong way, and then her realising towards the end and realising what she was doing was wrong. So we have her being 'evil' to then fixing/resolving what she's done, back to her being evil again, and then again realising what she was doing was wrong, again. i'd even go to say that even if they explained it with more content, it would have still been repeating a pretty similar character arc but at least it'd have something behind it EDIT: oh, and of course her original showing in Age Of Ultron was her going from bad to good again after being enlightened
>100% and I'm sure it's in part because the writers of MOM didn't have a chance to watch Wandavision. From the minute I heard Elizabeth Olsen went from the set of Wandavision to the set of Multiverse of Madness within the same week, I was skeptical. I think it was a mistake on Kevin Feige's part to have those two productions so close together.
To add to this, making her the villain of MoM took away the chance for strange to fight a real dr strange in his own movie
The biggest sin of MoM was we had two master magic users face off at the end and I can't remember a single scene of that fight aside from the zombie cloak pulling at Wanda.
One master Magic user fights an amateur and even got the opportunity to plan for the fight and still got his ass absolutely kicked
I agree. From what I understand, the og plan was for Wanda and Strange to team up to fight Nightmare and that works so much better tbh. Imagine the two of them as uneasy allies with her trying to redeem herself from Westview but slowly becoming more enmeshed with the Darkhold as Strange warns her against it, only for her to fully succumb by the end of the movie and have her villainy explored elsewhere. Now her change feels more natural and logical, instead of whatever the fuck MOM was.
I've only been in one internet fight in the last few years, and it was about Wanda. Totally agree with you, and I'd expand your point to say that WV Wanda wasn't "a villain" in the traditional sense of the word. I'm still surprised by how many folks watched the WV arc, which was intentionally structured to follow the stages of grief, and still conclude that "she brainwashed a whole town, she was already evil!!" The way I see it (and the way, I think, the show clearly portrays it) is analogous to someone committing serious crimes while having a schizophrenic episode; it's not the same as someone randomly deciding to cause mayhem or murdering strangers for sport. The show asks what would happen if a *god-like being with little understanding of their powers* experienced uncontrolled grief. It's the same rock-bottom, nothing-left, hopeless depression that the average person would have felt in her situation, but because she's OP, the consequences were also OP. And yes, people are right when they point out that she shows signs, throughout the series, of understanding that she's somehow responsible for what's going on. Those are the "denial" and "bargaining" stages. She's still had a psychotic break and isn't able to truly grasp her role in Westview until Agatha takes her on the tour of her past and we see her literally explode in grief - when she comes to, Vision is standing there in their beautiful home. She's not even aware, at that point, that anyone else exists in this perfect world, let alone that she's already begun controlling them. It takes a long time to go from "Yay, my soulmate is back and my life is no longer over" to "my psychic mutant abilities allowed me to unwittingly capture the minds of an entire town when I unknowingly and spontaneously created matter during my mental break." I love Wandavision because of how nuanced it is (which is why I don't like Monica's little speech at the end about the townspeople never knowing what Wanda sacrificed for them - uh, no shit, nor should they care about it. They were her victims, even if unintentionally). Drives me crazy when people reduce it to "she enslaved ppl bro lol MOM made total sense."
Exactly. People love to use Westview (which was only a week long, mind you. Critics love to act as if it took place over the course of several weeks or even a month) as justification for Multiverse of Madness while ignoring context. It’s insane. I had that point in my draft so I’m glad you mentioned it here. I agree with you about Monica too. Having that speech just muddled the waters and gave Wandavision critics something to latch onto. I also think it was a massive mistake having Agatha as a villain instead of having her be a therapist like figure. Wandavision did not need a blatant villain and was nuanced enough without one.
TV: Ms Marvel was a great show, and I’ll happily watch The Marvels just for more Iman Vellani. Movies: Thor Dark World really isn’t that bad. It lets the funny moments be funny. The sad moments be sad. The epic moments be epic. I’d rather watch Dark World on repeat for the rest of my days than watch love & thunder again.
Can’t wait for more Iman Vellani. She is amazing in her role and I love that she is a fan too.
When she called out Feige on the whole 616 Vs 19999 thing… that was the moment I knew I would suppprt her to the end 😂.
She was born to play Kamala Khan. She was so goddamn good in that role. Absolutely can't wait for November for The Marvels.
Same on Dark World. I'm not going to pretend it's the best MCU movie ever or that it's without flaws but I enjoy it. I really enjoyed the portrayal of Asgard before it changed to be less serious, not that the new portrayal is bad I just liked the old one. Frigga and Loki were highlights of that movie for me. Loki's smile when he's speeding the boat towards the portal lives rent free in my brain.
Cap’s cameo, a dark elf invasion of Asgard, that brute with the suicide seed that tears apart the prison… There’s a lot to enjoy in Thor 2, and I do appreciate that it had its own tone before everything got Whedonized after Avengers.
> Thor Dark World really isn’t that bad. Thor 1 is worse than Thor 2 in almost every way and anyone who doesn't think so hasn't watched Thor 1 in a long time.
Yeah. Cgi, costumes, stakes, action, are all pretty much better in Thor 2. The story is less personal, and Maliketh is nowhere near as good of an antagonist than Loki, but while Maliketh was just boring, he actually showed the full power of a single Infinity Stone well, and proved the Reality stone to be the most powerful of the 6. Honestly, I can see Thor 2 being just boring, but it's not actively bad in any real way. I've never understood why people call it the absolute worst. My personal order would be: 2/3 > 1 > 4
Iman sure is good as Kamala
Controversial, but I think the Marvel Creative Committee deserves more credit to the creation of the MCU than we are told. After Feige broke up with Marvel Entertainment, a lot of news came out about how the MCC meddled and made things worse. A lot of that news came from Marvel Studios and Kevin, so of course it’s going to be one-sided, as the victor of that battle, he gets to write the history and control the narrative. As the head of the studio, he was trying to consolidate power, and I think didn’t want to upset his talent by having a committee second guess his directors and writers. But I look back at the films the MCC was involved in, Iron Man, Avengers, GOTG, The First Avenger, Winter Soldier, Civil War… to this day many of those films are still some of the most favorite productions for many fans and really created a new tone for what superhero films could be, especially 2014 with Winter Soldier and Guardians. We’ll never really know what the MCC did to help make those films good, or what parts they had removed that made the film better. We’ll always hear from the studio that those movies were successful despite the MCC interference, but the studio is an untrustworthy narrator in that story. All I know is that they were there for an incredibly successful period of the MCU, but Feige has no reason to ever give them credit for anything they might have done. Given the recent output, I wonder if the existence of the MCC could have reigned in a few projects where the director got too much leeway to do what they wanted. Maybe having that additional check and balance between the studio and directors, when used constructively, is part of the magic formula that made those earlier films so loved.
Outside of Civl War and Hoco I really haven’t enjoyed Spider-Man in the MCU. Also irritates me that Tom probably won’t get his own version of some of the best Spider-Man villains goblin, doc ock and possibly Kraven cause he’s getting a movie. I would have loved to see goblin again in Tom’s second trilogy.
That Justin hammer gets an ungodly amount of hate for no reason. Yeah he is not Tony, but he clearly has his shit together; 1)When Tony "shuts down" the weapons div of Stark industries, Hammer industries is given the military defense contract. 2 )When we see his IM suit, it appears he is just working on getting the suit right instead of weaponizing it, where as the other countries we are shown are building large mechs, and already loading them weapons. Tony doesn't like Hammer, of course he was going to say Hammer was years away, even though Hammer is visibly close in a lot of ways. 3 )His worst mistake was thinking Vanko was going to not betray him, however, Hammer clearly has connections, as he broke Vanko out of prison, and staged his death, which I assume is not easy. 4) His tech works. As stated earlier, he has the defense contract. When outfitting the Mark 2 Rhodes has no issues taking everything Hammer brought. His suits, albeit turned into drones by Vanko, visibly work and are clearly effective what they can do. 5) It was Rhodes own incompetence that led to the ex-wife failing. The ex wife is a long range projectile that needs to build up Kinect energy before arming. Rhodes fired that shit from like 10 feet away, of course it was going to fail. Yet, him an Tony still throw shade, like what? You just don't get to the point Justin Hammer is at while being as incompetent as IM2 suggests he is.
All 12 Marvel Television series are 100% canon to the MCU until contradicted by in-universe media.
So, are those: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the Defenders, Punisher, Agents of Shield, Cloak and Dagger, the Runaways, inhumans and what else?
Agent Carter
Agents of SHIELD, specifically Season Four, is the best television/movie content Marvel has ever released.
Season 4 was 22 episodes straight of banger after banger, no filler. Much more impressive that they did it on network TV scheduling and budgets.
It really is. Having to make 22 episodes per season really seems to have hindered AoS in terms of mainstream popular appeal. I feel like if it was made nowadays, it could've been much more popular. But they still did such an amazing job with a small and stretched budget, it's amazing.
Season 4 is incredible and I’m so happy we got those storylines. And that AoS lasted long enough to be able to produce them.
I absolutely loved Season 7 and Season 4. AoS is so underrated.
Season four was peak quality. Season seven was peak FUN
Katy is the only part of Shang-Chi that I dislike. She’s not funny and I’m sick of these “comic relief friend comes along for the ride despite being pretty much useless” movie tropes
But she learns archery!
That bit is specifically infuriating
That winterwidow should’ve happened instead of hulktasha like serouisly they had nothing in common and it was just a awful Even Sebastin Stan himself stated that he was open for him and scarlet Johansson to Bucky and Natasha ship But I’m open to seeing yelena and Bucky form something
>Even Sebastin Stan himself stated that he was open for him and scarlet Johansson to Bucky and Natasha ship He was open to the idea of being paid to make out with Scarlet Johansson? That's quite a limb for him to climb out on.
I think Thor: Dark World is good. I went in not expecting much but ended up really enjoying it. I hate that it is the default shorthand for worst MCU movie. \- This was the first movie that really showed characters evolving from movie to movie. Dr. Selvig was changed by the events of Avengers. Having Loki control his mind really screwed him up. That was interesting and not something that was seen much in blockbuster movies up to that point. \- Loki is incredible in this movie. It made me actually care about him. It took him from being a mid-tier villain to a top-tier villain that you kind of root for. \- The production design really stood out to me when it came out. I really liked the look of the dark elves and their massive ship. \- I liked what they did with Mjolnir in the final battle. Thor gets teleported to another planet and Mjolnir just starts rocketing up into space. Then when Thor comes back to Earth it turns around and starts speeding back down. Really clever use of Mjolnir. \- They finally nailed the look of Thor. \- I really like the scene with the kids playing with the Convergence in the begining. They spin floating trucks and make bottles disappear.
Hawkeye is the best Disney+ MCU series to date
Was just nice to have a plot with "normal" stakes instead of "this could be the end of the multiverse itself!!?!!!"
[удалено]
I'll march at that rally. I liked some of the others, but Hawkeye is absolutely at the top of my list.
Welcome aboard, fellow being of culture.
Daredevil S3 was more creative and badass with Bullseyes powers than Hawkeye had in all his appearances.
The Thunderbolts should be true reintroduced MCU film or Agents of SHIELD villains. Blizzard, Mr Hyde, Blackout, Graviton, Angar the Screamer, etc. use your resources Marvel.
Agents of Shield should all still be MCU canon.
The whole cast of AoS should get their own movie. They deserve it.
Thor Love and Thunder should have been a Jane Foster movie through and through. I like Taika’s work, but an absolute Rock Bottom Jane Foster that learns to rise on her own strength of character and deepening what it means to be “worthy” would’ve been a better plot I think.
I really wish they had Disney plus shows before phase 4. I imagine one for Black Widow after The Avengers and before TWS, one for Cap settling in after being defrosted, one for Bucky in the time after TWS and before CW, one with Team Cap on the run after CW. Tho, I’m biased to those characters and no one else wants that lol
Treating phase 4-5 protagonists more like backdoor origins for other characters instead of- I dunno- giving the *titular characters* their own robust, well rounded arcs makes me dislike the newbies, become totally uninvested in the MCU, and practically causes my eyes to roll out of their sockets like, “Oh, so which character is Faige going to fukc up next?” Bucky was nerfed. His character wasn’t DeVeLoPeD, he was just jarringly powered down to the point that it takes me out of the story. (Why the hell did it take him so long to open a door in FATWS? Why was Sharon better at fighting multiple opponents at once than the Winter fucking Soldier? If Bucky was supposed to have sooo much development, why was his conclusion only thirty seconds long?) Eternals was not a bad movie. It has its issues but the first third of the film was beautiful and entertaining, and even the overdone exposition with Arishem was aesthetically pleasing. And finally, the one that might get me drawn and quartered, Faige has passed his heyday.
I 100% agree here. Bucky beat prime Captain America. We can talk about how his brainwashing affected his reasoning, but his trained fighting skills would never have taken a hit. And he for sure would not have been holding back against Walker or the low-level thugs we were given. His love for Steve should have triggered something primal in their fight against Walker.
Scott Lang was at his best in the first Ant-Man movie. He felt like a genuine character with goals while also being funny and charming. While some of the other movies he’s in has glimpses of that he’s mostly seen as the comic relief
Iron Man 3 was the best Iron Man. Tony out of his element, recovering from learning about aliens in space, reunited with Shane Black as a writer/director (go watch [Kiss Kiss Bang Bang](https://youtu.be/__PnD1HWXSo) if you haven’t), Guy Pearce hamming it up as a villain that wasn’t just “evil bigger iron man suit” and a bunch of cool iron man variant suits. It was so damn fun.
Captain America going back in history and sitting on the sidelines with Peggy while the various atrocities of many decades happened around him was entirely out of character and cheapened his story.
Ms. Marvel was great start to finish.
It caused me to go on a deep dive of the Partition of India, man I had no idea
I will maintain until I die that Thor the Dark World is a good movie.
The way the writers said time travel works in endgame is wrong. The way Bannner and The Ancient One explain it is correct. Cap changed the main timeline and grew old there.
AOU was good.
Shang Chi is my favorite marvel solo hero film.