Board 8 > ITT I re-watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) (spoilers, obviously)

(+) Yeah! (+)

it still amazes me how stylized guardians of the galaxy is. you can really tell that this is a movie by an auteur filmmaker and disney mostly just let him do his thing.

as jay points out in redlettermedia's no way home review, the personal style of the director is often lacking in MCU movies. i think no way home is good but does it really matter that it was directed by jon watts?

Hot take I actually really hate Guardians of the Galaxy and still cannot understand how it reviewed well and why everyone likes it. Although tbf, I am one of the few that also actively dislikes space opera so there is that. Something about it just doesn't click with me.

Anyways, I firmly believe that the sequel is a full step above everything the first one had to offer.

Lets give a shoutout to this movies marketing campaign. Easily one of the best of any movie in my lifetime. Its incredible how easily they sold this concept to the general audience.

redrocket posted...

Lets give a shoutout to this movies marketing campaign. Easily one of the best of any movie in my lifetime. Its incredible how easily they sold this concept to the general audience.

And it needed it. Because noone but comic book geeks knew any of the characters and a cast that includes a pro wrestler. a talking raccoon, and a tree that says one sentence repeatedly doesn't exactly sell on its own. Plus a sitcom comedy guy as the action hero lead.

Oh wow, I missed all of this.

Iron Man best scene was "Actually, I am Iron Man" to me. That one line helped set the trajectory for everything the MCU would become.

We agree on Iron Man 2 best scene.

Hulk and Thor are better than people like to remember, yes. They're just quite different as movies than what we come to expect from the MCU.

It's interesting that you say Loki is the stand-out in Avengers because I think it's his worst film.

But then you point out how great he is in Thor 2 and that's great because I think it's his best film. Probably my favorite villain in MCU is Loki in Thor 2.

Yes, Winter Soldier is the best MCU movie. Step above the rest.

Maniac64 posted...

Because noone but comic book geeks knew any of the characters

video game geeks might have known rocket because he was in a marvel vs. capcom game but yeah.

That's true I did forget which came first there.

I wouldnt call Loki a villain in Thor 2. Hes the deuteragonist, or the antihero

I love GotG but my biggest gripe is that Gamora is underdeveloped. You could remove her from the plot and really not lose a lot. Honestly her biggest contribution is her effect on the much more interesting Nebula

Yeah, I've never found Gamora interesting in literally any medium ever. I think her appearance is also not great either when everyone else has a glow up (aside from maybe Drax which you can debate).

It's better than a lot of Gamora's early outfits, but the only positive is that I think red hair makes her stand out more than green hair on green skin, but then it probably clashes with the yellow around her eyes.

I dunno, Gamora is generally disappointing and she easily gets the least play in the movie since she needs to be the straight man in most scenes. Her being missing in most Guardians related stuff in the MCU since her death has kind of not been missed aside from the fact it's made Star-Lord a sad sap that just needs to move on already, but I guess we'll see in May how they resolve that finally.

Nothing this week! Hopefully next week! The girlfriend seems more excited to see Ant-Man and barely remembers them, so maybe we'll start plugging away at these faster.

Bump

Every time we think of what to watch I have to say that Avengers Age of Ultron is almost 2.5 hours long and that gets a loud groan from both of us and we watch something else.

curious what your girlfriend will think of age of ultron!

i still don't think it's THAT bad but i also haven't seen it in forever (which is telling in itself, i guess).

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

but I guess we'll see in May how they resolve that finally.

Hmm... how about another person made over to look exactly like them? What about a life model decoy? A virtual reality alternate persona? Resurrected from the dead with even fewer emotions but an empathic ability to read people?

Oh, wait, you meant the month and not the character.

We got halfway through Ultron before we needed a breather.

I don't love this one.

Good news once you get through this its straight bangers till the end of phase 3.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Release Date: May 1, 2015
Stand-Out Character: Hawkeye aka Clint Barton (played by Jeremy Renner)
Best Scene: Avengers vs. Ultron & Bots on Floating Sokovia

You know how a movie isn't really good? When I struggle to think of who the stand-out character is because everyone is just middling to bad in this movie.

Despite any complaints I had about the length before I watched this, I went into this movie telling myself I think I'll end up liking this a lot more. Even in movies like Thor: Dark World that I knew had a bad rep and ended up liking more on a revisit, I thought Age of Ultron would be solid on a re-watch. I was wrong.

I normally start with the good, but I seriously struggle to say what I thought was good in this movie. This movie is a slog that starts the moment that Ultron leaves the Avengers Tower and only picks back up when we get to the floating Sokovia stuff at the climax of the film. Everything in between is just rough.

The biggest credit I can give is that the action works... in few of the action scenes. It works in the chase for the Vision body while Cap fights Ultron and everything from floating Sokovia. Everything else just flat out sucks, is confusing to follow, or has some rough looking CGI. Everything on floating Sokovia is some of the best action the MCU and I actually really enjoyed it.

But I'm just going to come out and say my biggest issue with this movie is that it's not funny. There was an attempt made to make it as funny and quippy as the first movie but it's just not. Very rarely did I get any laughs from this film from Tony, Ultron's stand-up routine, or anything else. Oddly enough, the only laughs I ended up getting were from anything involving Mjolnir and the worthiness of it and Quicksilver.

So I guess we can start off with Quicksilver. Why was Quicksilver killed off? For what reason? I know Joss likes to just have a character die for whatever reason, but Quicksilver dies with literally zero stakes involved to save one child and Hawkeye. This isn't to build up Ultron as a big bad boy or anything, it's just... Quicksilver dies because they wanted to kill off someone and check a box. Which sucks because what little we get from Quicksilver's personality is great. His effects are extremely cool and feel very different than the one in the X-Men movies. But this is the only time we get it, which sucks.

Scarlet Witch is fine, but kind of a nothing character in this movie that only does mind voodoo. She has a couple other cool scenes, but I just really don't care at this point? Hilariously, I forgot she had an accent in this movie. That is GONE in the other films. Elizabeth Olsen was just not having anything with that accent after this one.

Banner and Natasha just drag this film down when they give them any focus on their frankly pathetic love plot. It doesn't work, doesn't feel natural at all, has cringe dialogue in every scene with it, and they kiss once and that's it. Why waste time on this? Also "I'm a monster too because of my barren womb." I'm not even getting into it past that.

Tony felt a little more annoying than anything in this movie, and I didn't really like any of his bickering with Cap in this one. It was just kind of grating and done a lot better in the following films. His humor is just more miss than hit in this as well.

Thor is just distracted with his own visions and bullshit that are frankly god damn irrelevant, especially with how they completely flipped gears in Ragnarok. What a weird, weird distraction all of that was. But he was a highlight with his humor. Probably the most consistently funny dude in this movie.

I liked Vision though. There's something delightful and comforting with how Paul Bettany plays him. I just enjoy his general vibe, and it's nice to see him in this movie get some good dialogues.

Maria Hill and Nick Fury are whatevers. Fury got a couple chuckles out of me with some good lines though. Rhodey is probably the only other significant role, and I really enjoyed him in this movie aside from the weird attempt at comedy at the party in the beginning. OH! And Andy Serkis is a delightful distraction with Ulysses Klaue.

And then there's Hawkeye, who I chose to have as the stand-out mostly by elimination. He gets to feel a lot more useful and insightful in this movie. He has some funny lines as well, and his feud with Quicksilver is cool. Him being a boss and just using that shock arrow on Wanda's head was a great moment too. One of the best parts of this movie was him rescuing Wanda in the final battle and giving her the pep talk about how crazy shit is and how he's not going to babysit her, but that if she steps out of this building then she's an Avenger and she has to fight. That's great, quality stuff. The scenes with his family were great too. It felt like a lot of making up for his lacking presence in the first Avengers movie, but I enjoyed him a lot in this one.

But then we need to talk about Ultron. I've always loved Ultron in the comics because he is a vicious, cold, heartless metal monster who cannot be spoken to with emotion. He's the epitome of a machine. He only understands facts, and nothing else. And then you get... this one. He's an emotional, simpering, robot comedian trying to do stand up. And yes, you can explain to me how "Well, he was made as a vision of Tony so of course he has goofy comedy" and I say that fucking sucks who cares don't do that. In a movie where everyone is trying to quip each other to death, Ultron being a no nonsense monster works much better. I don't need him whining about how Klaue is calling him a puppet. I don't need him talking about how he's alone and trying to keep the Maximoffs from running away. I don't need him going "Aw, come on man!" or singing Pinocchio songs. Just give me the cold, heartless creation who wants to end humanity because it's imperfect. We get there, kind of. But it takes us a long time and you still need to sit through bad comedy for it too. It's just a complete waste of a character who is far more fascinating in how calculating of a machine he is.

And that's kind of where this whole thing falls apart, is that Ultron isn't a compelling villain and they take entirely too long to get to his damn meteor plan. Just frustrating to spend all of this wasted time to get to something legitimately good. And everything in between feels like a mess and nothing feels cohesive.

I don't know that I was bored during it, but I was keenly aware of a lot of things I was watching that just weren't good, and that very well might be worse. So much wasted potential, and I'm glad this was ripped from Joss Whedon's perverted fingers. I do not care for Avengers: Age of Ultron, and I think I disliked it a lot more on a revisit.

Girlfriend Thoughts: I swear to god, the first thing she pointed out was that Wanda has an accent in this movie. I cackled. But she didn't have a ton of thoughts about this one, but I thought she'd at least like the Banner and Natasha stuff but even she thought it was all bad and just shriveled up at the "I'm a monster too cause of my barren womb" stuff. She continually called Vision JARVIS which I can't blame her, and she made me explain the difference in the comics and I swear her eyes glazed over. She laughed more than I did, but it was funny because in the middle of the Floating Sokovia stuff she said "This is a really good movie." And I was just shocked and just said that it didn't get good until this last part and she was like "Oh yeah, you're right." She only knows James Spader as Robert California but she was excited when I told her that. Strangely, she really likes Rhodey. I don't know why, but she was always really into it when Rhodey was around and shouted "It's War Machine!" Maybe just proud that she could immediately pick him out, I don't know. I also had to attempt to explain Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to her and die a little as she tried to understand who Magneto was, confusing him for Professor X. I showed her Vision's OG comics look and she did not care for his big ass manties.

I shit you not, and I have no idea how she just actively knows this, but when Captain America at the end of the movie goes "Avengers...!" She said "Assemble!" And she was apalled that they cut off after that. I do not know how she knew Avengers Assemble was a thing. But I did tell her that everyone hated that tease.

The monster comparison was more meant to refer to Natashas assassin training, but I get why people didnt quite get it.

I really enjoyed AoU.

Aside from infinity war it is my most rewatched Avengers movie.

AoU is okay. Had this debate with my coworkers few days ago. Guy said AoU was his favourite and everyone stopped and stared lmao. On yhe one hand, I get it was never, ever going to live up to the first one. On the other hand, some stuff that they did was dumb. I too, did not enjoy seeing an Ultron that was constantly talking shit instead of the no nonsense enemy he usually is. That being said this movie really started to make clear a problem that the MCU has struggled with for almost it's entire duration and that is that too many villains trace their origins back to Stark. If they really wanted to go down the"Tony created another villain again" would have been nice to see him open up an old research document or something that he thought was worthless and filed away before or a throwaway line that Pym was an idiot or something I dunno, just hated that this was just an evil, watered down robot Iron Man as a villain and that was lame.

yeah it's pretty bad

I enjoyed AoU but I have very low standards.

The trailers made it look like it was going to be a super dark no nonsense movie and then we got the biggest bait and switch in MCU history.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

The monster comparison was more meant to refer to Natashas assassin training, but I get why people didnt quite get it.

My guy, the conversation STARTS with Banner going "B-b-b-b-but I can't even have children!"

And then Natasha talks about her horrible assassin training and then ends with a monologue about how they sterilized her and says "So maybe I'm a monster too."

They bookend the whole scene with that terrible point. Obviously the intent was that the assassin training makes her a monster along with everything else, but they make sure to specifically point out the barren womb thing above anything else. It's awful writing.

most_games_r_ok posted...

AoU is okay. Had this debate with my coworkers few days ago. Guy said AoU was his favourite and everyone stopped and stared lmao. On yhe one hand, I get it was never, ever going to live up to the first one. On the other hand, some stuff that they did was dumb. I too, did not enjoy seeing an Ultron that was constantly talking shit instead of the no nonsense enemy he usually is. That being said this movie really started to make clear a problem that the MCU has struggled with for almost it's entire duration and that is that too many villains trace their origins back to Stark. If they really wanted to go down the"Tony created another villain again" would have been nice to see him open up an old research document or something that he thought was worthless and filed away before or a throwaway line that Pym was an idiot or something I dunno, just hated that this was just an evil, watered down robot Iron Man as a villain and that was lame.

It absolutely could have lived up to the first one! It just needed to be better than it was. I also agree with another Tony villain, because that isn't fun. Ultron was just lots of wasted potential.

redrocket posted...

The trailers made it look like it was going to be a super dark no nonsense movie and then we got the biggest bait and switch in MCU history.

I remember being so excited because of that trailer. Absolutely insane that we got Tony Stark stand up from Ultron after that.

AoU is a bottom 2 MCU movie, along with Iron Man 2.

It goes to show that all the effects, acting, all of that means nothing if your writing in garbage.

To me, the best character of the movie was Thor. Everything he did may have been a "distraction" as you said, but it was more interesting than everything else going on. And then Thor had the good notion to get out of a bad movie, and he just leaves. Love it.

I think hindsight hurts the Thor visions a lot more, because it seems like they completely shifted the direction of Ragnarok. So all of these visions are just so much more irrelevant and complete time wasters in a movie that could stand to have less time wasted.

I'll agree that this probably ends up towards the bottom for me too. While I love the majority of the final act, everything else just sucks.

I hate how they dont even bother to explain why Tony has suited up again after the end of Iron Man 3.

I get it, they HAVE to have Iron Man, but I think the movie works better if hes out of the hero game, just working with SHIELD to desperately brainstorm how to make the Iron Legion as viable as he was in the suit

Then the Avengers bring in Lokis staff and it proceeds from there

Or just completely redo the plot because we didnt need yet another film with Tony as the protagonist

There is no SHIELD anymore though!

It's Nick Fury's buddies he managed to pull that weren't busy on Floating Sokovia Saturday.

I think it's more egregious that he blew up all his armors and said he's not going to make any more, but clearly has a different armor and then has a giant Hulkbuster armor too.

Iron Man 3 is basically just entirely ignored which is fair because it's probably the worst MCU movie.

Theres two SHIELDs at that point according to Agents of SHIELD

in fact the Helicarrier Fury rides in on from a friend is actually from Coulson and unifies the two sides <_<

Jakyl, I'm sorry but someone needs to tell you this.

Agents of SHIELD isn't real, and it never was. It was just a show you invented in your mind to protect yourself from the trauma of losing Phil Coulson in Avengers 1.

Its a magical show

I've always biggest reason Age of Ultron's humor feels so flat is there isn't anyone in the movie taking anything seriously. Usually the villain is the one achieving that in Marvel movies but Ultron is trying to outjoke Iron Man and it sucks

You need a straight man SOMEWHERE.

100% Whedon trying too hard to be Whedon

I assume his Justice League is this problem but worse

Jakyl25 posted...

I assume his Justice League is this problem but worse

Well that has it's own set of issues that can't be remotely blamed on just Whedon. But the less we talk about that the better.

Lopen posted...

I've always biggest reason Age of Ultron's humor feels so flat is there isn't anyone in the movie taking anything seriously. Usually the villain is the one achieving that in Marvel movies but Ultron is trying to outjoke Iron Man and it sucks

You need a straight man SOMEWHERE.

I just really hate that Ultron is joking throughout the movie. That whole Klaue scene is just painful on a re-watch seeing him do Tony Stark schtick and then throwing a tantrum when Klaue says that Ultron is with Tony.

And then even Ultron getting beaten when he's hit with a wicked uppercut from Hulk at the end he's like "Aww, now guys, I don't suppose there's any chance--" And then he's trying to fly away in the Quinjet and says "Aw, come on man!" when he's thrown out. Just... what are we doing here? Why did Ultron of all people need to be cracking jokes? His best scenes are when he comes across as a soulless maniacal metal monster.

What's funny is that they actually do him a hell of a lot better in What If? He's actually vicious, feared, and everything.

I get what they were trying to do. Logically it makes some sense that some Tony should be in there but yeah they should probably only do it like once and then favor ruthless non-humor.

But yeah it's just not good. Bottom marvel movie for me personally-- only one that legit irritates me to watch. Like I don't care much for Iron Man 2 or 3 but they're watchable for me. I just would never bother beyond marathon settings cause there are several better movies out there even within the franchise, to say nothing of movies as a medium.

Jakyl25 posted...

Its a magical show

Heh

Ant-Man
Release Date: July 17, 2015
Stand-Out Character: Ant-Man aka Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd)
Best Scene: Ant-Man vs. Yellowjacket in Cassie's Bedroom

Alright, enough of a bad movie like Age of Ultron. THIS is the good stuff!

I love Ant-Man. I think it's an awesome film that's tons of fun and does so many interesting and fun things. This is the kind of wild stuff I really love to see from the MCU, and I think it really pushes the boundaries in such a fun way.

I guess I can try to talk about the negatives but... There's not a lot of negative here. Maybe Darren Cross, our villain, isn't developed enough. Darren Cross is still a solid villain though. He's an asshole who just isn't all there, he's petty, and he just wants power and money. And then when he's pushed far enough, he just absolutely loses his god damn mind. Perfectly fine. I would have liked to see more of him though.

Aside from that... I don't really have too many complaints. It's just such a solid film all around. I think what feels really good about this movie is just how different it feels than the rest of the MCU films so far. We have our generic action movie fair, and we have a couple spy action films thrown in. But Ant-Man? We got ourselves a trippy heist movie. It feels the most risky and daring of any movie so far, and that includes Guardians of the Galaxy too. Nobody cared about Ant-Man. They thought he was a dumb idea. But there's a vision here that really helps it stand out.

Fun with ants, shrinking, and just loads of scenes that take full advantage of the cool shrinking idea. The entire final act from the moment that Hank Pym escapes from Pym Technologies with his tank on his key chain turning huge, to Darren Cross losing his mind and using the Yellowjacket armor for pint-sized battles inside a suit case, to battling in a little girl's play room, to the quantum realm. This final act absolutely rules. It never lets up. I love the final battle between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket.

The script is great too. It gives us a lot of heart-warming moments, tons of fun, and then some really good comedy. I think pretty much all the humor lands here. Some actual laugh out loud moments are had here.

But hey, let's go over our characters. Because I like our major players here.

Hank Pym played by Michael Douglas is great in this film. He's a determined, intelligent scientist who feels really eccentric while also managing to feel really compelling. I really enjoy Michael Douglas in this movie as he navigates his relationship with Cross, with Scott, and his daughter Hope. As a mentor, he does great too. He just doesn't want his science in the hands of anyone else but himself, and he understand the danger of it all. Just a great anchor in this movie where everything circles around.

Hope Van Dyne played by Evangeline Lilly is a character I remember originally not liking very much, but liking her a ton on this re-watch. She's cold at first, but then naturally begins to break down her shell and becomes really likeable and playful, as well as quite a badass. Hope is great, and I loved watching her evolve through the movie and become pretty charming.

Luis is a stand out comedy character though, because Michael Pena has such good comedic timing. He got me laughing so many times. He's just such a weird, uncomfortable dude at all times. His other crew members, Dave and Kurt, also get some laughs but they're clearly not as much of a focus.

Cassie is great as a little girl character. Just a perfectly adorable little girl that you really root for Scott getting to re-unite with. They make her really fun and endearing, and I loved seeing her. Bobby Cannavale as her step-father and cop is really good too. He's fair, but also clearly cares a lot. And Judy Greer is a wonderful actress as Scott's ex, but doesn't get anything to really work with, which is a shame considering she's a hilarious actress.

And then there's a fun little bit with Anthony Mackie's Falcon and the fight with Ant-Man. Just a fun little bit and a cameo at the end. Not much to say there, but his presence is great.

And of course, the highlight of the movie and our main character, Scott Lang by Paul Rudd, is just a lot of fun here. He's a well-meaning crook and Paul Rudd does a great job showing he's always thinking and being resourceful. And he has enough charisma to make him instantly endearing in touching scenes with Hank, Hope, and Cassie. And watching Ant-Man move is so much fun too. Just loved it, especially once he has mastery of his powers.

Overall, Ant-Man is loads of fun. Completely love it. It's a fresh, fun idea, and it's not necessarily the best at anything, and the stakes aren't enormous by any stretch, but I will forever appreciate a creative and fun superhero movie. Quality stuff here.

Girlfriend Thoughts: She thought it was funny. She said at first that she didn't really want to watch it because she thought the idea was dumb because Ant-Man can just turn small. I told her she'll love it though and she did. She seemed to like Hope a lot and really wanted to see her as Wasp, which obviously we don't get here. She loved Luis as well. Any scene with Cassie got her going "Awww". She was dying laughing at the final act of stuff and was enamored by the Quantum Realm. She was appalled by Darren Cross killing that one dude in the bathroom by making him splat and then the one lamb. And then she was just yelling about how crazy he was when he was shooting and firing lasers on the plane. Darren Cross was a hit for her as a villain! She also loved the Falcon vs. Ant-Man fight. She was high on the movie as a whole.

And we're done with Phase 2! Here's a ranking.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Avengers
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man
Ant-Man
Thor
Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor: The Dark World
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Iron Man 3

Ant Man is great.

And Luis is the best minor character in the MCU. Disney+ should just have a series where Luis recaps every MCU movie.

Luis could have won save my MCU...

Paul Rudd is good as Ant-Man, but even better as Celery Man.

My only issue with Ant-Man is how they set up the internal logic of how you still have the same mass when shrunk but then completely disregard it half the time

I actually just watched them all for the first time this time last year.

This was my ranking

Captain America 2
Thor 3
Infinity war

Age of Ultron
Guardians 1
Captain American 3
Black Panther
Captain America 1
Spider man 2
Avengers 1

Endgame
Iron man 1
Captain Marvel
Spiderman 1
Dr. Strange
Ant Man

Thor 2
Thor 1
Guardians 2
Hulk
Ant man 2
Iron man 2
Iron man 3

I have not watched any of phase 4. Gaps indicated tiers

Ant Man was pretty cool. Definitely felt like they were trying something new here and I remember the hate going around that this would be Marvel's first real flop, cause who the hell cares about a guy called Ant Man. Villain was pretry fun, fights were fun, Luis is amazing and I get behind the idea of him recaping all things MCU in his own thing. Not too fond of Evangeline Lilly though. Also thought it was weird that we focused on Lang instead of Pym but we had Pym as a mentor so there was that.

pezzicle posted...

Captain America 2
Thor 3
Infinity war

Age of Ultron
Guardians 1
Captain American 3
Black Panther
Captain America 1
Spider man 2
Avengers 1

Endgame
Iron man 1
Captain Marvel
Spiderman 1
Dr. Strange
Ant Man

Thor 2
Thor 1
Guardians 2
Hulk
Ant man 2
Iron man 2
Iron man 3

Curious for your thoughts on these rankings. Some of these I think are pretty out there and certainly against the majority.

The top tier is good at least

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Avengers
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man
Ant-Man
Thor
Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor: The Dark World
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Iron Man 3

Very good ranking so far. I wouldn't move anything here more than 1 or 2 slots.

most_games_r_ok posted...

Curious for your thoughts on these rankings. Some of these I think are pretty out there and certainly against the majority.

Best place to start is probably to note that a lot of this ranking is because of expectation. I obviously knew all about the MCU, and had actually seen a few of them before (Iron Man 1 and 2 and Avengers) but never really was all that interested in them. I was a pretty big film buff around the time Phase 1 was happening and sort of pretentiously just dismissed them as a result. Always had heard all about them though as you would if you didn't live under a rock, and being a big movie person, I was dialed into the consensus but never interested in watching them.

So things that I had largely heard good things about that I thought were meh got penalized likely (avengers 1, Endgame, maybe Dr Strange or GotG 2) and vice versa (AoU, Captain Marvel). For example I found Age of Ultron to be really entertaining but I had been told by many that it was really bad so I had low expectations. I suspect that influenced my position.

Im interested in what else you are speaking to, as I don't think my list is all that wacky outside of a few ones. GotG 2 was very likely me just being very annoyed that it was a separate story and one that I also just wasn't interested in being a part of. At the point where it came to watch it, I was much more interested in the overarching story than I was anything else, so it literally felt like 2 hours of wasted time to me

pezzicle posted...

Im interested in what else you are speaking to, as I don't think my list is all that wacky outside of a few ones. GotG 2 was very likely me just being very annoyed that it was a separate story and one that I also just wasn't interested in being a part of. At the point where it came to watch it, I was much more interested in the overarching story than I was anything else, so it literally felt like 2 hours of wasted time to me

For someone who self-identifies as a pretentious film buff it seems weird you would penalize GotG 2 for daring to stand on its own instead of slavishly serving the needs of Disneys money prin err the overarching story.

redrocket posted...

For someone who self-identifies as a pretentious film buff it seems weird you would penalize GotG 2 for daring to stand on its own instead of slavishly serving the needs of Disneys money prin err the overarching story.

not entirely certain how those two things are correlated at all

i don't penalize GotG 2 for "daring to stand on its own". I penalize it because it was boring and uninteresting to me. The dialogue is pretty bad and the story takes forever to actually go anywhere. I find it funny that you think it tries to stand on its own when it serves no purpose at all other than to merchandise the characters and the MCU even more as GotG 1 was one of their biggest hits among non MCU people

GotG 2 has an interesting start and good end, but the middle like 70 minutes or so are very boring subplots mostly where everyone basically spins their own wheels in their own useless exposition. I didn't find it very good and found Black Panther (what I watched right after), another movie that didn't really push the narrative forward, to be much more compelling and interesting.