Board 8 > Han watches the MCU (digi)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've got a lot of MCU to catch up on, so I'm deciding to watch it all from the beginning. Sometimes with a girl I just started seeing!

Thanks to @digiiiiiiiii and his plex, I can watch just about all of it.

We started with Iron Man, then went to Captain America. I'll probably do little write-ups of those, throw them into a ranking, then move on.

That being said, Marvel's Agent Carter is apparently a thing, so I will watch that next?
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Sometimes with a girl I just started seeing!

Nice
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wait, you skipped three movies?

and if you're going to watch all the shows too this is going to take awhile >_>
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Agent Carter is pretty good. I think the general consensus was that Season 1 was better than 2, but I still liked both. Season 1 is more spy stuff while Season 2 gets more comic book-y.
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

wait, you skipped three movies?

and if you're going to watch all the shows too this is going to take awhile >_>

I didn't technically skip Iron Man 2, Thor, or Hulk.
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The three movies thst wouldn't be bad to skip.
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That's what I've come to understand, but I shan't skip.

Iron Man
Better than I remember it being. From the very beginning, I laugh a lot, and I'm immediately enamored by Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. This was the most important Marvel casting decision - they needed to reel people in from the beginning, and in minute 1, Tony is already cracking jokes and winning people over. I'm not checking how much they pay him, but the MCU owes a lot to this man.

The origin story is good. Tony's Dr. friend is fun, and the amount of time they spend in the cave seems appropriate to really establish all the important things - Tony has a thing next to his heart keeping him alive, and he's real smart and builds stuff. It also establishes early on that he IS a good person, which allows them to show him off to be the jerk he really is.

The building of the Iron Man suit is a fun little montage, but it feels like it jumps really quickly from him figuring out the boosting from the gauntlets and boots to the whole suit. But it's still fun. I missed the action scene in the middle of the movie, but it sounded like it was probably pretty good!

Peppering in SHIELD was pretty neat as well. Coulson really nailed it from the beginning.

The romance with Pepper was done solidly, but from the very beginning it was pretty obviously being pushed onto us. Even Tony's jerkiness wasn't going to be enough to stop it. And Obadiah... equally obvious. From the beginning, he seemed like he was pretty obviously going to be the villain (and I mean IMMEDIATELY, as soon as the magazine cover of "Obadiah takes over Stark Industries" was covered by "Tony takes over as a 21 year-old!"). Also, there's the fact that he's the villain in GotG 2. And dare I say... Infinity War?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelmovies/images/d/da/Obadiah_Stane.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080410015733
https://www.sideshowtoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/marvel-avengers-infinity-war-thanos-sixth-scale-figure-hot-toys-feature-903429-1.jpg

Even from the first movie were there references to Thanos! (Aislyn disagrees with me that they look alike but w/e)

The climax was... alright. Tony vs. Obadiah wasn't necessarily the coolest battle, and the suits icing up scene was pretty clearly telegraphed from early on. However, everything blowing up was cool.

Post-credits scene - Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury was maybe the 2nd most important casting decision in the MCU (I'd only argue Starlord over him, at the moment... Tom Holland could beat that later on). And letting the audience know from the beginning about the "Avengers Initiative" was brilliant. I don't know if Marvel expected to be as successful as they have been, but they were gunning for it.

Best moment of the film?

"Actually... I am Iron Man."

Movies
1. Iron Man

edit: Stan Lee's cameo was kinda dumb in this one. "Hey Hugh", then Stan Lee as Hugh Heffner. Silly, but lasted on him for 2 seconds too long.
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terrible movie.
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yay i live for this

I saw this in theatres, and i remember feeling just as blindsided as Tony was when Obie revealed to him that he was the one behind the board ousting him when they were in front of the press at that party. I couldn't believe it!
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In case it hasn't been made clear - NO SPOILERS for anything I haven't yet covered in my write-ups (I haven't seen Infinity War yet).

Captain America: The First Avenger
And we begin the pattern of Captain America movies having subtitles from the beginning.

Given that this movie was released at the end of Phase 1 before Avengers, it begins in the 'present', and acts as a flashback. Cap's origins are done well - we get to experience weak Steve Rogers. He's short and weak. Reminds me of myself, but with less charm. Also, we get to meet Bucky from the beginning! Fans are like 'omg, it's him'.

Anyway, Erskine is a total boss and was written well enough to make you upset when he gets canned. The buildup as we learn how good a dude Rogers is solid, and we get to see Nazi Elrond go super bad, which is a really effective way to get him introduced. Peggy Carter is also added in pretty well - well casted, well acted, and you get the feeling that she doesn't just want Steve for his future muscles. Speaking of which, he gets used to his new body really quickly.

The montage of him being the stage show is meh. It has some good moments, but it's more of a plot setter, and not particularly enrapturing. The plot really doesn't do a whole lot until Cap decides to go behind enemy lines, directly proving wrong the line about "you're just one man". This scene, while done well, has some bad moments. Cap meeting Skull is good, but the reveal of his face being... the Red Skull, is kinda lame. Simply because his Elrond face was too good that him taking it off felt odd because it wasn't telegraphed enough. Erskine talked about extra changes happening, but it felt more... odd that the guy just had a red head. Also, the stakes with him and Bucky escaping were a little too high for this point in the film.

Getting his new shield is kinda cool. Peggy getting mad at him is a little silly and unnecessary. Stan Lee's cameo was pretty solid... got a funny line out of it. Joining up with the Howling Commandos and Dum Dum is a fun nod to comics fans as well. The combat after Cap gets his shield is pretty great, and I wish they had a little more of it before the film ended, but oh well. And then Bucky dies! Oh no D: It's so sad when someone dies off screen.

The climax of the film was done pretty well, although the pacing was maybe a bit stunted. Everything occurring in the bomber was great, including Red Skull's defeat, as well as the <strikethrough>infinity stone</strikethrough> Tesseract falling into the water. Even though Cap's descent into the water was sad, it was mainly only sad for Peggy because we knew Cap would be alright. And I'm very glad they still kept the romance on the early stages - the two obviously cared a lot for each other, but didn't go so far as to "I love you". That could have been written poorly, and it luckily wasn't.

The ending to the film was done pretty solidly as well. Cap reappearing in the 21st century and running around Times Square was solid, and like with Iron Man, the film ended with a pretty good one-liner.

Overall, the villain was WAY better than Iron Man's, and it did a good job at introducing the Tesseract, but the film was a little long and dragged a bit at points. While very good... it just doesn't quite hold my attention well enough to be placed above Iron Man.

Movies
1. Iron Man
2. Captain America: The First Avenger
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

And Obadiah... equally obvious. From the beginning, he seemed like he was pretty obviously going to be the villain (and I mean IMMEDIATELY, as soon as the magazine cover of "Obadiah takes over Stark Industries" was covered by "Tony takes over as a 21 year-old!")

At 18 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QEi-c3x9Y" data-time="
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Exactly.

I'm enjoying Agent Carter so far. The main characters are really solid. That said, a lot of the side characters have some cringey moments. Especially in the first couple episodes.

I just finished ep. 4 and Stan Lee made a cameo appearance, asking for a paper. The humor was more "hey it's Stan Lee", which is often what these cameos boil down to.
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Agent Carter is very good! The first season at least. Very good use of Peggy, Howard, and Jarvis. Peggy really is excellent for a love interest, and she was a very good choice for a spinoff.

I haven't watched all of the second season but it doesn't seem quite on the level. You can totally watch it if you want, but don't feel compelled to watch it immediately
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For you to be borrowing his Plex, he pays a subscription for it then?
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Corrik posted...

For you to be borrowing his Plex, he pays a subscription for it then?

You don't necessarily need to pay for Plex Pass in order to share with others. I only use the free-features of Plex, but share my library with my family.
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tyder21 posted...

Corrik posted...

For you to be borrowing his Plex, he pays a subscription for it then?

You don't necessarily need to pay for Plex Pass in order to share with others. I only use the free-features of Plex, but share my library with my family.

I did not know you could do that. That is good to know. Thanks!
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A good bit of foreshadowing in Captain America was when Steve threw himself on the dummy grenade. Later on, he would sacrifice himself by piloting the bomber into the arctic.
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Steve jumping on the grenade is the moment where you realize his character is going to be a good one
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I saw a post on reddit recently where someone showed each scene that caused him to buy them as real heroes. It was interesting because some were late in the hero's movie and some were early.

Iron Man's was when he tells Pepper to blow the reactor while he's still clearly in the zone that will get vaporized, while Cap's is that grenade scene.
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I'm on the season finale of s1 for Agent Carter.

This was a really easy watch so far. I guess considering the tv-length episodes, that's no surprise. And only 8 episodes on the season, that's pretty short.
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Yeah it was just a filler show to air while Agents of SHIELD was on break.
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It really benefited a lot from telling a serialized story over a short season. Many shows suffer from having to fill 22 or even 13 episodes when their story doesn't quite extend that long.
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Agent Carter: Season 1

I alluded to it earlier, but some of the early writing for side characters was pretty cheesy. They really nailed it with Peggy, Howard, and Jarvis though. As the season went on, it strayed further away from that. There were still moments of cheese throughout, but it didn't pervade.

While I think Peggy's character was well-done, I am a little disappointed that the show took a "this is 1950's America" approach to their British woman who was a war hero. Not only does she get no respect, but nobody is even aware of a reason why she's an agent at the SSR. Her capabilities are basically nil. They answer this later with why she did her own investigation, but even still, it's a bit of a dumb situation.

I really liked the villain. His henchwoman was... eh, but the moment I realized that the guy was Dr. Faustus, I was pretty pleased. Good on Marvel to toss a bone with using an actual Captain America villain. Good use of hypnosis, and the intrigue and everything leading up to his reveal as the villain was well done.

Speaking of which, they managed to ramp up tension pretty well throughout the show. I mean, we know that Peggy, Stark, and Jarvis will turn up fine in the end, but they were cutting out agents left and right. They weren't afraid to kill other characters off, and that helped add some good tension throughout.

Stan Lee's cameo was ok. Nothing special.

One other little thing I thought interesting was how spy thrillers are accompanied by a main theme in an uneven meter. I blame Mission: Impossible for this, with its theme being in 5, but the credits theme for Agent Carter is in 7/8 and I just find it funny that that's a thematic similarity for spy thrillers.

Shows
1. Agent Carter (S1)
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Not only does she get no respect, but nobody is even aware of a reason why she's an agent at the SSR. Her capabilities are basically nil. They answer this later with why she did her own investigation, but even still, it's a bit of a dumb situation.

What exactly do you mean by this? Her superiors know her history, they just don't believe it or give her credit for it because in their minds it's impossible for a woman to do those kinds of things. It must just not be quite as true as it would be if it was a man's history. I thought this was really done well - Duley and Thompson were good characters with their own shit going on but were mostly just agents doing their job. Their bias is just inherent.

The idea that she's viewed as Cap's girlfriend minimizes her further - she was only on the frontlines because of her association with literal Captain America and now that association has had her placed in their division even though she probably doesn't actually deserve it. Obviously *we* know that she was in the war based entirely on her own merits but they don't really have that perspective. Not everyone is as open to the idea of a female soldier as Tommy Lee Jones.... but even then, we saw that hint of bias from him in the movie too (I took a chance on you).

And then obviously people who have seen her capabilities first hand like Dum Dum certainly respect her. Loved seeing the shift in how she can behave when surrounded by like minded colleagues when they went on that overseas mission, and how Thompson slid to the bottom of the totem pole.

Honestly this dynamic is, I think, the entire core of what made this show work so well.
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You've got some good points there. I guess I still feel like it's too much of a paradigm shift. I don't mind her fellow agents thinking less of her, but it's just odd for her to be at step 1 in this environment.
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Digiplex doesn't have MOST of the MCU ... Digiplex has ALL of the MCU, Ironman 1 just had some issues! The one-shots are on there as well, listed as movies.
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That said Agent Carter is the best
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But does Digiplex have Infinity War?
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

But does Digiplex have Infinity War?

There are more than watchable copies out there, but I tend to wait for a non-cam version. It could have Infinity War in about ... 90 seconds? But you have literally nine days of content to get through (no really, I made a playlist of the MCU chronology and it's nine days long)
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9 days
18 hours
53 minutes

I'm sure I won't get there for awhile.
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tyder21 posted...

Corrik posted...

For you to be borrowing his Plex, he pays a subscription for it then?

You don't necessarily need to pay for Plex Pass in order to share with others. I only use the free-features of Plex, but share my library with my family.

I pay for Plex Pass and share with a couple close friends and family. My library is around 35TB.
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digiiiiiiiii posted...

tyder21 posted...

Corrik posted...

For you to be borrowing his Plex, he pays a subscription for it then?

You don't necessarily need to pay for Plex Pass in order to share with others. I only use the free-features of Plex, but share my library with my family.

I pay for Plex Pass and share with a couple close friends and family. My library is around 35TB.

What is the difference between Plex pass and regular Plex?
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The best thing about watching Agent Carter is that every later mention of Jarvis just seems that much sweeter.
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bamp
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I watched Hulk. I'll try to get my thoughts down on it sometime today.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

I watched Hulk. I'll try to get my thoughts down on it sometime today.

I am sorry
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