Marvel Cinematic Universe Discussion Thread

[Mattias]

Marathoned the Ms Marvel series this afternoon. It started off great. They nailed the characters, put a bunch of style on it, and just enough 'these are stupid teenagers' cringe. Sure the villains are made for the story, but the character really has no outstanding villain in the comics, which is the joke. The action scenes look god awful but it feels like that's because Kamala isn't an action star. Later there are characters who actually do know how to fight and while the choreograpghy is better, the camera work just feels bad. The show feels like it drops the ball when they go to Pakistan for a few episodes in the middle for what's basically an exposition dump. Most of the cast disappears the show loses all it's flourishes and the end result is "that thing you thought might happen if the villains win? It will happen for sure." There's some interesting family stuff resolved there that has no impact on the plot, but that could have just as easily be done when the whole family gets together for the giant wedding the have in middle of the show rather than the crucial member sitting it out and then having the MC travel halfway around the world at the drop of a hat.

Still even with how bad it stumbles at the halfway mark the main cast is so endearing that I can't dislike it, the first half being that strong. I'd probably give it a solid 7/10. About on par with the majority of the mini's so far, with Wandavision as the peak and Falcon as the valley.

[Spartacus]

I extremely enjoy Wakanda Forever. This is coming from someone that finds Black Panther 1 is not that great.

[Skull]

Imagine being a special effects artist who was hired by Disney to digitally erase Namor's dick frame by frame because it's too big...

#ReleaseTheSchlongCut.

[Mattias]

Saw Guardians 3 last night. Hot damn is that a great movie. Walking out of the theatre at the end I realized just how long it had been since a MCU movie was just fun. Thor 4 and Strange 2 had their moments, but both had big lulls in their stories where the movie just grinds to a halt, but everything in Guardians keeps moving forwards. Maybe it's because the plot is rather basic and the real story is about how the characters are working through their various issues while on what is a basic fetch quest. It's a great wrap up to the group with everyone having a fitting ending to their arcs, but still some room to grow further from whatever role they've found themselves if someone decides to use them in the future.

It's probably my favourite Marvel movie since maybe Thor 3. I really missed these movies being fun.

[ResidentSeagull]

Watched it myself yesterday.
Yeah, movie was very good. As Mattias said, pure fun, but also earnestly emotional.
The kind of movie that you can just go watch multiple times.
Just go watch it if you're on the fence.

[Mattias]

Earnestly emotional is a great way to describe it. Nothing is really surprising in it, but it's so well done and sincere that you don't care. It reminds me of a Falcom game in that way.

[rxrx]

Personally, GOTG3 is the best Marvel movie after Avengers End Game.

[Mattias]

Pretty easily too.

[BladeOfEden]

Apparently some people are complaining that GOTG 3 was too disturbing and should have been given a higher age rating…

What? Did you take your young child to a movie rated for teenagers and they became mentally disturbed?

Bunch of jackasses…

[Mattias]

Animal cruelty is an integral part of the story, and some people take that way harder than similar things happening to humans. Honestly, I thought it was pretty tame, almost none of it was on screen, just post torture coping, and even the onscreen stuff is obscured by the doctors bodies so you just have the whir of tools.

[rxrx]

Maybe the only issue I have is how stupid the main villain is

[BladeOfEden]

Maybe the only issue I have is how stupid the main villain is

Modern MCU has a way of making near unrecognizable variants of the original sources’ characters…

[rxrx]

Modern MCU has a way of making near unrecognizable variants of the original sources’ characters…

I mean even if we ignore the original source, the main villain is still stupid

[Mattias]

A lot of his stupidity is a key part of his character's narcissism though. He needs to be the smartest person in the room. If he fucks up he'd rather scrap an accidental success, then use it.

[Skull]

Is the reason why it's called "Secret Invasion" because no one else watched it from the viewing figures?

Anyways, I decided to check it out to see if it really was as bad as people were saying. A spy thriller is always a cerebral ordeal, which is certainly a challenge when you have an IQ that is below room temperature. Especially since it becomes quickly apparent upon watching the show that it bears extremely little in common with its namesake and is only using the title for clout. Yet despite that, the show has singlehandedly managed to destroy both its main characters and the universe as a whole which is an incredibly impressive feat. Needless to say, I would not be surprised if any future MCU entries just completely ignore this show going forward.

[Mattias]

So it's actually that bad?

[Skull]

So it's actually that bad?

It'd be one thing if it were *just* bad, but it retroactively damages the previous movies. One example would be the fact that a certain superhero is revealed to have been a Skrull since the events of Civil War which means that around 80-90% of their screentime and practically all of their emotional beats and character arc has been not them but actually an imposter pretending to be them.

And for what? The only two outcomes of this show are SPOILERMaria Hill and Talos' death, plus Gaia gaining the powers of literally every superhero and several villains. The former being ultimately pointless and the latter being both completly nonsensical and extremely damaging to the stakes of any future projects.

[pinetree]

Needless to say, I would not be surprised if any future MCU entries just completely ignore this show going forward.

That's all they do nowadays anyway. The last thing to actually impact the universe was Infinity War, since then we only get mediocre productions with supposedly world altering events that don't affect anything with a different title.

[Mattias]

There's been plenty of good things since Infinity War, and I'd still argue that the only mediocre entry is Eternals. Most have been good with flaws, some have been great. Granted I still haven't seen She-Hulk or Secret War, so they could be Eternals tier and I wouldn't know.

[pinetree]

I only really liked Wandavision, Loki and GoG 3.
My point wasn't that there's zero good stuff, just that the connected cinematic universe thing is kinda dead and has been for a while.