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Marvel Cinematic Universe

Gaith

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^ That's hilarious. Myself, I'm hoping for The League of Women Voters to make their next appearance before August 2023... :D
 

Gaith

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It seems as though entry-specific general Movie threads for the MCU have really taken a dive the past few years around these parts. I mean, No Way Home promised to unite three different cinematic timelines in its previews alone, and didn't even inspire its own thread! Ergo, here is a thread for all things MCU movies, to complement the MCU Disney+ series thread.

(Check out my Black Widow thoughts here.)


Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Shang-Chi_and_the_Legend_of_the_Ten_Rings_poster.jpeg


After a pretty cool opening sequence set in China and relayed in Chinese, Shang-Chi heads into a bumpy first act, with a worryingly high amount of baldly and bad expository dialogue. (That, and its two leads are a good decade too old to have heard "Gangnam Style" in high school!) Fortunately, however, once the story kicks into gear, it becomes pretty great; overall, I liked it a bit more than Black Panther, with which it shares some notable themes of royalty and magical realms hidden from the Western world. I saw the movie blissfully unaware of the mid-movie cameo appearance, and was then delighted with how much that character stuck around. It's quite simply a delightful flick.

Grade: B+


Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man_No_Way_Home_poster.jpg


It's pretty damn impressive that No Way Home is as good as it is, what with its characters and story points taken from three (at least) cinematic timelines. But when one realizes it came out only just over two years after Far from Home, and was largely made during the pandemic, and that reshoots had to adjust the story's place in the timeline vis-a-vis Doctor Strange 2, the fact that it's genuinely great is perhaps downright miraculous. It's a testament to the movie's strengths that I didn't even realize until a day after I'd seen it that the fact that much of the movie taking place in an apartment, a classroom, and a deserted monument was likely a byproduct of covid-era filming. (The filmmakers smartly frontload several scenes of crowds, so as to not be too obvious about their restrictions.) In short, No Way Home is a fantastically entertaining romp that I look forward to seeing again. (Another thing to look forward to: Emma Stone's Spider-Gwen, surely?!)

Grade: A-
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Spoiler tags to save space.
Iron Man
A
decent superhero flick that tried to bring superheroes into the real world while still retaining their supernaturalness. 7/10

Iron Man 2
Lots of backstory that isn't really fleshed out until later, but still doesn't really connect enough dots for people to really care about the villain who could have been more relatable. 6.5/10

Iron Man 3
Just odd. The acting is odd and tired feeling. The bad guy is super creepy up to the point of theor reveal then it feels extremely odd. Weird storyline that doesn't really make any sense or have any real lasting impact. 4/10

Thor
Decent intro story for Thor, but the Earth scenes kind of drag on due to silly dialogue and characters. 6/10

Thor: The Dark World
A better story than the first Thor, but the story lacks cohesion. It also feels kind if gimmicky in how it approaches Jane Foster and the relationship between Asgard and Midgard. Loki and Thor's relationship is why you watch this one. 6.5/10

Thor: Ragnarok
This movie single handedly saved the MCU for me. Fun acting, story and execution. Quirky as all get out, but fantastic in its ability to develop characters. Dialogue was a bit silly here and there, but the freedom given to the actors to just act worked out here. As above, Loki and Thor's relationship is the real gem here. 8.5/10

Captain America: The First Avenger
Pretty ridiculous in its history rewriting storyline. Chris Evans does a fantastic job being Captain America. 6.5/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The first semi serious toned MCU film. Many have referred to it as The Dark Knight of the MCU. It's good, but not that level of good. 8/10

Captain America: Civil War
Extremely Dark. This is more of an Avengers movie than it is a Cap movie.....well let's be honest thia was just a movie to bring in Black Panther and Spidey 6/10

Black Panther
Fantastic movie with a multidimensional enemy and an incredible performance by all. Chadwick Boseman is everything the Black Panther embodies and elevates this movie with his presence and acting. Each moment has purpose and each visual immerses the viewer into the world of Wakanda to where you end up trying to find it in the map to wish it into existence. 9/10

Captain Marvel
Saved by nostalgia and the skrull storyline. Heavy on nostalgia, but lacking in story and execution. 6/10

Spiderman: Homecoming
A decent intro movie that brings Peter Oarker and Spiderman more fully into the MCU. The Vulture is an interesting baddie that is more accessible than some other over the top villains. A bit too teen disney in some of the characters dialogue and delivery for me. 6/10

Spiderman: Far From Home
Spidey saves the day on forgein soil. Again, more teen disney dialogue, but that's what is expected for their target audience and the actors chosen. Mysterio was intriguingly developed and handled here as was the cliffhanger ending. 7/10

Doctor Strange
I LOVED the visuals of the intro to thia film. It was the closest anyone has gotten to inception. The storyline itself is kind of meh, but i did like the Ancient One's character. Strange's character is a bit over the top in the annoying playboy realm and Rachel McAdams feels wasted here with her purely love interest role. Still, the visuals were fantastic.....besides the ending baddie. 7/10

Shang-Chi: Legend of the 10 Rings
Fantastic first 10-20 min, then a tired origin that continues the over reliance on over the top cgi battles. 5/10

Black Widow
Snore......I didn't care for any of this movie. It couldn't decide whether to go super dark and stay there or to be a comedy action flick. Not a fan of the family or Black widow for that matter. 4/10

Antman
Surprisingly decent, albeit feeling inconsequential and removed from the MCU. Some of the wardrobe choices and haircuts are just cringe in this though. 6/10

Antman & the Wasp
Better wardrobe and haircuts here ;) continues with the disjointed and removed feeling from the MCU. 6/10

Captain Marvel
Another origin story.....wait I already reviewed this one....man there are a lot of these movies.....

Avengers
Too much Whedon here. If it wasn't for the actors and their performances, this would have been a dud...Well I think it's a dud anyway. 5/10

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Lots going on here, but not much substance or understandable reasoning. This is more of an iron man movie than it is an Avengers movie. 5/10

Avengers: Infinity War
The best of the Avengers movies in that it has weight and consequence to action. Thanos is ruthless, but purposeful. The Avengers are disjointed, but have a clear purpose and direction. The ending at least shows us that the Avengers are not untouchable/infallible. 7/10

Avengers: Endgame
Too big for its own good. Time travel fixes everything......I did like the scenes of the Ancoent One and the Stark & Cap storyline was good and healing. Overly bombastic ending, but a decent wrap up....wait this isn't over with yet?.......6.5/10

Did I miss any?
 

Racerx1969

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I just watched Eternals and generally enjoyed it. To me it was interesting how they were going along with the story, then the "Oh wait! We're the BAD GUYS?! WTAF?" twist. Then the conflicts that caused. As usual, watch all the way through the credits; mid-credit and end-credit scenes.
 

addiesin

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I found Eternals boooring. I can only speculate why, as I've only seen it once and have only first impressions.

I think it's just too many main characters. There are ten Eternals. For comparison, there were six (most already introduced prior to the teamup) Avengers and five to six Guardians of the Galaxy depending if you're looking at GotG 1 or 2, and even in Justice League if you include Martian (you wouldn't, but if you did) it maxes out at seven leading protagonists.
Here we have ten, each is thousands of years old and none have been even hinted at prior, so there's lots to learn about them. For me, there was simply not enough time to care about anyone in particular, not enough context to worry about them when in trouble, and too much CGI big battle stuff for the emotions to resonate. I forgive it in most MCU things but this one might have been my breaking point. It doesn't help that the Deviants CGI quality is on par with the Brendan Frasier Mummy movies.

Feels bad to dislike it so much, I really wanted to like it. If you like it, that's cool. I wish I had that reaction too. I'm a big baby and easily emotionally manipulable with good editing and music, I'll cry watching anything. Yet to this, I was numb.
 

Jrzag42

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Did I miss any?
You missed Incredible Hulk. Also...

Antman
Surprisingly decent, albeit feeling inconsequential and removed from the MCU.
Is this a bad thing? I know a lot of people who would appreciate more stories set in this universe that don't rely too heavily on the other movies, but I guess if you're only interested in the movies based on how they further expand the universe then I get it.
 

matrixgrindhouse

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I hated Eternals. Up until now, the worst MCU movies were still average, suffering from lame villains and bad forced humor. This movie has that and more (less?). Unlikable and often un-heroic, selfish protagonists. We're told about thousands of years of history but are rarely given chances to really understand them and their relationships. We're told about love and betrayal and redemption and all that, but without any real context to the depth of their web of relationships, it all falls so horribly flat. As does their acting. So much awkward, unnatural sounding line deliveries, they often feel like they're in separate films that have been stitched together. I actively disliked the entire roster. The CGI and action scenes were lacking, though the finale wasn't too bad. Writing has lots of eye-rolling moments. They aren't allowed to interfere, but actively interfere all the damn time. There's no weight to anything despite the universe-affecting consequences of the main plot. And of course, I really didn't care for the part when

The evil alien space god reveals his deception and sinister plan to the new leader for no reason at all, needlessly jeopardizing thousands of years of work And that whole BS ethical debate about whether it was okay to kill billions of people to preserve hypothetical future worlds. And what kind of super heroes save the Earth and then say, 'I'm not sure if we made the right choice.' If this were Watchmen style cynicism, I'd understand - but these characters are treated like run of the mill good guy at the end. One was apathetic to genocide, one was complicit, and they are rewarded for it and treated as just part of the team or whatever.

Cinematography is nice, but not enough to save this one. The first complete MCU failure - and this is coming from someone that made it through both seasons of Iron Fist! In retrospect, maybe I bailed on The Inhumans too early. I'm just glad that I'm not familiar with the source material. If they had botched characters I had some investment in this much, I'd be livid. I hope we won't be seeing too much from these pathetic losers in the MCU down the line.
 
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DigModiFicaTion

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Is this a bad thing? I know a lot of people who would appreciate more stories set in this universe that don't rely too heavily on the other movies, but I guess if you're only interested in the movies based on how they further expand the universe then I get it.
Not at all. I don't really care about how they all merge together. It's a bit overkill if you ask me. I reviewed them based on the idea that this thread was MCU, so the comment was more that it didn't really feel like it was connected to that universe until it was forced to.
 

Jrzag42

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Not at all. I don't really care about how they all merge together. It's a bit overkill if you ask me. I reviewed them based on the idea that this thread was MCU, so the comment was more that it didn't really feel like it was connected to that universe until it was forced to.
Okay I totally get what you're saying then 👍
 

addiesin

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Eternals spoilers and possible contradiction that has been bugging me, but also possible resolution for that:
So the Celestials are (one of) the oldest and most powerful species... But to grow one seems to take a lot of effort and countless other species to exist prior. So... How did they start? If they're the oldest wouldn't that mean there was no intelligent life prior? Contradiction?

Possible explanation, Ego from GotG2 appears very different from the Celestials but calls himself one... Could he be the earliest? Could they have started as floating space brains like him? So the planet egg thing would only apply to fully formed, armored, 'modern' Celestials? Or is he lying in which case he offers no help to this problem.
 

Gaith

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Eternals (2021)

Eternals_%28film%29_poster.jpeg


I fired up Eternals on Disney+ out of a sense of obligation, not excitement. I'm not a comics guy, so I didn't know anything about the source material, and hadn't watched any previews, so, apart from a few stills, and the basic concept of immortal beings on Earth, I didn't know what to expect. All I knew is that I generally find the idea of immortal characters unrelatable and uninteresting - a bias seemingly confirmed by the relatively bad reviews and tepid box office.

I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to find that I quite enjoyed it. Watching it at home, with low expectations may have helped, and I guess I'm just a sucker for super-teams in general. A lot of stuff didn't make a ton of sense - most glaringly the go-nowhere plot of the main Deviant, and the Deviants' thematic ties to the story at large - but, given how old the characters are, I wasn't much bothered by it, and I was never bored, either. The natural locations and lighting, and general lack of tech stuff, was a nice change of pace for the MCU.

That said, I won't be sorry if there won't be an Eternals 2; if we're going to revisit these characters, they should probably be bouncing off mortals, so having them appear in other heroes' movies would seem a safer bet. It'll be interesting to see the extent to which Marvel Studios keeps their storyline around in coming projects.

Grade: B

(One complaint I do have, however, is that a CG character who appears towards the end struck me as particular bad-looking, and I'm generally pretty tolerant of effects others find questionable. Here's hoping their next appearance is technically improved.)
 

DigModiFicaTion

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So in Spider-man No Way Home, does Peter's final request that everyone forget who Peter Parker is extend to ALL of the multi-verse? I would have to think yes as that's the only way from keeping everyone else out that knew about him/Peter. If so, that's a ton of weight on his shoulders and an extended weight on all of the Peters.

Ps typing on a phone is pure madness....
 

Gaith

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^ Going by Occam's Razor, I don't think Strange's spell is strong enough to do that across all the (infinite?) universes, nor would the MCU want to commit to such a drastic action in every reality.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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I missed until fairly recently that the new Dr. Strange movie is directed by Sam Raimi. With that and Taika Waititi returning for another Thor, I’m more excited about Marvel movies than I have been in a long time. I’ll probably still wait and watch at home but I’m hopeful they will bring some personal stamp to the movies.
 

Canon Editor

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I second @moe szyslak 's growing interest. I too, after seeing Doctor Strange 2, feel a step up has been made. I found that for the first time in a long time they were trying to tell a story that takes in account all of previous events from other movies while still managing to tell one, self contained story all the same. You don't necessarily need to have seen Infinity War or WandaVision to keep focus: it's all in the story, in the editing or in the dialogue. I can't say I didn't love that... apart from the fact I actually found it well directed as a whole (not a surprise from Raimi).
 

Moe_Syzlak

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As much as I love the Russos from their Arrested Development days, their Marvel movies feel completely generic to me. I like when there’s a director’s stamp on a project.
 

Editzilla

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So MODOK is looking to have his live-action debut in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.

So with the MCU getting a little more outlandish, you would think they have the guts to go full comic-accurate now with the design.

Well, if this rumored design is true, the answer is a big fat "LOL NOPE!":

FZe5hbPXEAA9VAq.jpg


Seriously, why have MODOK in the first place if they're too chicken to embrace the absurdity? Why give him a Tiki mug design then?! It's embarrassing when DC, whose films are always catagorized as the "realistic" of the two, has no qualms about using the insane parts of comics (Starro in TSS).

Also, Ms Marvel and Shang-Chi are the best of the MCU while Eternals and Spider-Man NWH are the worst (especially NWH).
 
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