The Marvel Cinematic Universe Thread

[silkyman]

I enjoyed guardians 2.

The huge battle sequence that is delivered almost entirely by someone off camera asking if anyone had some tape... Up there with the opening scene of Deadpool as the best in the MCU.

 

[Craig]

I enjoyed it, just not as much as the first.

Anyone started Punisher on Netflix yet? Will be giving it a go sometime soon, been looking forward to it.

 

[JJ1532]

Will read the reviews before checking it out, the Defenders universe has become a bit of a mess for me, been heading downhill since Daredevil Season 1. Season 2 was ok and Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were watchable but Iron Fist was bloody awful and I didn't like the Defenders series either. So many issues and problems with these 4 series at the moment, not sure how a Frank Castle series is going to fit in.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

I would say The Punisher is on par with Daredevil, or at least as close as they've come to it in the Netflix shows. What negative reviews there are almost all focus on the politics of the gun debate and the appropriateness of a series like this rather than the actual quality of the show.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[silkyman]

That's a great trailer....

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Disney just acquired most of Fox's entertainment assets, X-Men in the MCU incoming...

 

[KevinMcallister]

surely Spider-Man will be a tv-show soon?

anyway DC is better

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Their shareholders wish they agreed.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[Darlo On Tour]

I thought Black Panther at best is an average Marvel movie, while the cast is pretty impressive, and the setting of the movie is beautiful, unfortunately relies too heavily on special effects. And the plot was mediocre at best, and for me just did not live up to all the hype the film was given with media attention.

Black Panther is not a bad movie, just one of the weaker Marvel movies. All in all, if you like superhero movies i would still recommend seeing the film.

 

[JJ1532]

Wow, wow wow wow. Just got back from the Infinity War and I am struggling to take everything in. I am utterly blown away by how they managed to do all that juggling and still come out with a fantastic film. Is it perfect? No, but my god does it tick every box I was hoping for.

Spoiler

What a villian Thanos is. They say it's his movie and it is. Such a complex layered character that does justice to all the hype and build up. What I like about him is that he has an emotional edge and despite being almost invulnerable, he can still be got at. Man, Iron Man's group got so close, but they just couldn't get it done. Was a bit disappointed in how they developed Quill, turned him into such a punch line that his emotional loss of control just felt at odds with his previous actions, especially when he'd only sealed the deal with Gamora shortly before she was taken. I wish we'd seen Thanos destroy Xandar and not have it glossed over at the start.

I was going to criticise Doctor Strange for giving up the time stone, but he knew it needed to happen to win in the only scenario in which the Avenger come out on top.

The only criticisms I would have are that some characters are a bit pointless. The Black Order are totally dispensable, loads of cliched dialogue from them, yet they all get killed, some in pretty weak ways(Ebony Maw for example). I get why people didn't like some characters not getting a lot of development time. Felt like it was half the cast. Only Quill, Stark, Gamora and Thor got the fullest of screen time out of the heroes, the rest are just supporting cast members. Shame to see such a big character like Loki go out so quickly, even if I did know it was coming. RIP Heimdall, Loki and Vision, you'll be missed in varying degrees.

It does feel like the stakes have been cut from underneath some of the 'deaths' at the end. We all know Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther, the Guardians who all 'died' will be back by the end of the 2nd Avengers film. I get why they had to cut it into 2 parts, but this film feels like all the other end to franchises/trilogies that split the final story into 2 parts. It was necessary in this case I suppose, but it meant the legs got taken out from under this film in the process. As did Marvel announcing their Stage Four slate of films with sequels for the Guardians and Spider-Man.

It doesn't really detract from what is a fascinating storyline though, so utterly watchable. Thanos and his plan do have you engaged, not just a bad guy for bad guys sake. He steals every scene he's in, utterly dominating. I can't wait to see what happens in the 2nd Infinity War film. I wonder what the title is going to be that would have given so much away? What are the remaining Avengers going to do now? Who's even left? Stark, Rogers, Thor and Banner/Hulk, plus the supporting cast like Black Widow, Hawkeye(maybe), Ant-Man(maybe). I just can't for the life of me work out how they are going to undo what Thanos did and not have this film rendered completed pointless.

But boy does it hit you hard to see so many just disappear. We know some characters are done come the end of the next one, wasn't expecting some the big hitters like Stark and Cap to go in this one. So I have no problem with them surviving in this one. I suspect Cap, Iron Man, Hulk/Banner(once they've sorted their personality differences out) and Thor will all go in the next film. Would wrap up the original roster(excluding Black Widow and Hawkeye) and give them some nice closure, given they originally came together to fight one of Thanos' minions.

One thing I really didn't like was the marketing campaign. There were so many shots from the trailers that didn't make it into the film. Just going through the trailers, there is: Thor in front of a window in the Milano, Banner in front of the glove of the Hulkbuster, Thanos on Titan with only 2 stones. Thats the first trailer. In the 2nd there is: Black Widow, Banner and Rhodey all looking into the sky, Thor with his cape on Nidavellir and summoning the lightning, Quill jumping on pads projected by Strange. The last Star Wars movie did the same, as have a few films. Don't like what basically feels like false advertising.

In trying to sum up all of that jumbled mess above, I'll say this. This is a brilliant film. It's 2 hours of excellence. It's funny in the right places, it allows for character development in the right places. It's packed with action, great dialogue, battle sequences and shocks. Yes, there is the odd plot hole and contrivance

Spoiler

Like Banner being transported directly to Sanctum, the Guardians showing up at the same time as Tony, Spider-Man and Strange on Titan etc

but nothing more than minor. Thanos is a superb villian, the main heroes of the piece really shine in the roles they are given, whilst the supporting cast chip in ably. If you haven't seen the previous Marvel movies, they'll be plenty of jokes and moments that pass you by, but I think even a newbie could go along and enjoy this film.

Roll on Captain Marvel and then the finale to this whole thing.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Just broke The Force Awakens' opening weekend record and made more domestically in three days than Justice League did in it's entire run. Black Panther just passed The Last Jedi's overall total too.

I thought the Russos did exceptionally well with the remit they had, and probably did more to flesh out Thor and explain his personality transplant in one scene than Taika managed in an entire movie. I wondered whether it would struggle with re-watch value immediately after seeing it, but to be honest the next day I wanted to watch it again so maybe it'll have better legs than I thought. A lot of competition starting in three weeks or so though...

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[Darlo On Tour]

This will probably raise an eyebrow or two, but the fourth season of Agents of SHIELD was genuinely very, very good. It gets better every season, which would be great had they not lost most of their audience after the first season - which was fucking dire.

I couldn't agree more, also just a few months after renewing Agents of SHIELD for a sixth season, and well before that season hit the air, ABC announced it had renewed the Marvel series for a seventh season. I wasn't that crazy about Season 5. There was stuff i liked, but some things just dragged on - but the show continues to deliver.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

James Gunn has been reinstated as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director by Disney.

 

[JJ1532]

Just got back from watching Avengers: Endgame and my word what a movie. So many awesome moments. It's up there with the funniest, most emotional, most entertaining movies I think I've ever seen. It's got so many highs and lows, so many incredible set pieces, arcs etc. Fantastic movie, anyone who is even half a fan of this universe should go and see it.

Now for spoiler talk:

Spoiler

I'm going to start with the bits I found confusing or I just don't think worked. First is the major one at the end, Steve staying in the past to be with Peggy. Kinda left that one open, but when does he stay exactly? Does he return to 1945 and stay there? Because if he does, doesn't that open up a whole bucket load of story issues. Like, doesn't it totally change the Winter Soldier, all the SHIELD stuff, given Cap is now, from a story point of view, part of the MCU timeline from 1945 onwards? I'd like to hear some other explanations on this, because it confused the hell out of me.

Also, I'm kinda confused as to the movies timeline. The events in Infinity War took place in 2018 right? Then we advanced 5 years into the future, which takes us to 2023. So now, with everyone back, is the MCU going to pick things up in 2023 with Spider-Man: Far From Home and all the other sequels? Because that is going to be really weird, given half of humanity is now 5 years older than those brought back in the 2nd snap. Good luck to whoever has to write stories for the sequels, trying to figure out timelines and all.

Then we have the actual stealing and then replacing of the infinity stones. How does this work exactly? Ok, they steal the sceptre and tesseract, but they were in those forms and then smashed into their stone forms to complete the gaunlet. How exactly did Steve turn them back into a cube and sceptre and put them back where they found them? And how did he return the soul stone on Vormir? And how did he get the Aether back into Jane Foster on Asgard?

And as for the stealing parts, aren't each of those acts now ruining the various movies they took them from? Like, the part which takes place after the 2012 Avengers film. What happened to Loki stealing the Tesseract and disappearing? What happened with 2012 Cap fighting 2019 Cap? What about Quill getting knocked out in the first part of the 2014 Guardians movie? And what about 2019 Thor stealing his hammer from 2013 The Dark World Thor? How does that work? I just don't think any of this really holds up.

And then we come to Thanos. Ok, I buy the Nebula stuff. But him bringing his entire ship through the Quantum Tunnel with only one vial of Pym Particle, and no vessel in which to contain it? How does that work? And now that 2014 Thanos, Gamora, Nebula, the Black Order etc all go into the future, how are they even around to do the things they do between 2014 and 2019?

Then we have the Gaunlet. Thanos used it in Infinity War to snap away all life at random. Now in this movie, we're saying Banner used it to snap all of that life back into existence. Fine. But then somehow, Stark is able to use the stones to snap away all the bad guys? Like, he can choose who he gets rid of? How does that work?

This is the worry I had when they said time travel would be involved. I think it creates a lot of issues and leads to a lot of confusion. I do wish they'd handled Black Widow's death better. Her and Hawkeye trying to one up each other got ridiculous and kinda spoiled that meaningful moment.

I do also find it odd that they were willing to kill of Widow and Stark, but not Thor or Steve. They could have found ways for both of those 2 characters to die, but instead we have this weird 'staying in the past' thing with Steve that we've got to try and workout. And with Thor, does that mean he's going to be in Guardians 3? They were setting him up to end his story in this film I thought, so I find it odd that they said 'nah, there's still more we can do with this character'. We'll see where he goes from here.

However, these all sound like major criticisms and they aren't. All movies suffer under scrutiny, it's damn hard to write a coherent story, especially juggling this many characters, arcs, films. Overall, they nailed it I think. So many funny moments, especially fat Thor, Rocket as per. The emotional moments with Hawkeye, Stark and Scott's families was lovely. They utterly nailed Stark's death, god that had me going.

The team up with them all coming in against Thanos was unbelievable, I was like a little kid watching that happen. Same when Steve picked up Thor's hammer as they alluded to back in Age of Ultron, incredible. The fight scenes were incredible, the dialogue on point, the way the story flows, outside of some confusing time travel elements, worked really well.

How they carry things on from here will be very interesting. They won't ever be able to top this though. Incredible, can't wait to watch it again.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

I found it really disappointing.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

01.05.2020 - Black Widow
09.11.2020 - The Eternals
12.02.2021 - Shang-Chi and the Legand of the Ten Rings
07.05.2021 - Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
05.11.2021 - Thor: Love and Thunder
??.??.???? - Blade
??.??.???? - Black Panther 2
??.??.???? - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
??.??.???? - Captain Marvel 2
??.??.???? - Fantastic Four
??.??.???? - Mutants

 

[JoeyVimsanteTjePoet]

Marvel is a very creative World.