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

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Shoot, I forgot about those. lol

Girlfriend Thoughts on Daredevil Season 1: She thought Matt Murdock was a charming SOB and loved him when he wasn't brooding. The story with Matt's dad hit her hard and she thought it was so sad. She thought Kingpin was a total asshole and she outwardly expressed he's bad when people were acting like he was good. The second he appeared in Ben Urich's home, she immediately said "He's dead." She was blown away by the car door scene and was like "Okay, he's beaten up now. Is he going to kill him? OH!" She was always cracked up by Leland as well. She didn't care for Vanessa because she was in love with Kingpin who she hated. She adored Foggy though. Positively loved him, was rooting for him every step, and thought he was the sweetest. The action was getting extremely brutal for her and she didn't really expect it. The Nobu fight in particular got her cringing quite a bit, especially Kingpin beating Daredevil's ass after it. Overall, she loved it. Thought it was great stuff and is now excited for Daredevil returning in the MCU.

Girlfriend Thoughts on Doctor Strange: She claims to have seen this movie before but she did not remember any of it. I don't think she saw it before. She thought Strange was quite a dick a lot of the time, especially during the scene with the rehab coach. She also loved the "Open Your Eye" scene and thought it was extremely cool, and really liked the mirror world stuff. I kept giving her shit about mispronouncing all of the silly magic names like "How did you not remember the Eye of Agamatto?" She thought the reverse time stuff was cool, and really enjoyed the face off with Dormammu as well. She outright laughed when I showed her a picture of Baron Mordo from the comics.

She also greatly enjoyed this video I showed her even though she doesn't know anything about Marvel vs. Capcom outside of the concept:

https://youtu.be/ScIu5qrMaxQ

Never a big fan Dr. Strange. I stand by that his best appearances have been whenever he's teamed up with Spider-Man.

I liked the new Doctor Strange movie, haven't seen the original since it came out.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

To be honest, what they set up seemed like a far more interesting direction, but that's another conversation

Agreed. I definitely would have preferred a Mordo movie before multiverse of madness.

Dr. Strange had a soundtrack I really liked and great effects.

OH SHOOT! I forgot to mention the soundtrack!

Yeah, Doctor Strange's soundtrack may be my actual favorite. It has one of four individual MCU songs I actually remember. Avenger's Theme, Winter Soldier theme, Black Widow IM2 theme, and Doctor Strange theme. I also remembered other music beats too in this one. His theme seriously feels completely perfect for the character and I wish they used it more in the second Doctor Strange. Just such a triumph of a theme that really feels like it's taking you on a wild, magical adventure.

https://youtu.be/O6Gkdme2bck

Best soundtracks off the top of my head in MCU are

Doctor Strange
Winter Soldier
Black Panther

in that order. But I've not aggressively tried to rank them or anything

Vacation bump

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So uh, we'll be going out of order a little bit but it's not a big deal because it's just Ant-Man & Wasp we'll be watching next because the girlfriend hasn't seen it yet ahead of Quantumania next week.

And because we had lofty goals to get through the rest of the MCU movies to Ant-Man & Wasp first but you know.

Life has been hectic. But we will watch silly Ant Movie the Second soon.

Ant-Man and the Wasp
Release Date: July 6, 2018
Stand-Out Character: Wasp aka Hope Van Dyne (played by Evangeline Lilly)
Best Scene: Laboratory Car Chase

So yes, this is out of order but the girlfriend never saw Ant-Man 2 and we're looking to see Quantumania here soon. We'll go back in order after this!

I actually really enjoy this movie. I think it's extremely fun and does a lot of cool things. I think all of the humor works extremely well too. It's a light-hearted, simple movie with a lot of heart infused into it. In a series of movies that are dramatic action movies, it's a really nice change of pace. That said, it's not the best movie. I don't expect it to be though. It doesn't need to be.

I personally love everything that they do with the size manipulation stuff. I'm going in a different order than I usually do discussing these, but I think the action and effects really deserve to have a lot of focus. The choreography in this is actually pretty outstanding. The creative things they do with the shrinking in these action scenes rules. There's so much creativity involved and there's a lot of blink and you'll miss it awesome tricks they do too. Watching Ant-Man and Wasp just shrink in a blink and then re-size and smash people kicks ass. I'll watch that stuff all day every day if they can keep it fresh. It's so awesome to watch and such a nice change of pace from the action we get in other MCU films.

I think the best part is Wasp, played by Evangeline Lilly. I think she continues to do a great job with this character. She's a hell of a lot more endearing in this one and you really get to see her heart and badassery in this. She's still no-nonsense, but they let her have some fun here when the stakes aren't huge. Her and Scott are a cute couple and work out well, which is frankly what I love about those two. They are able to laugh and joke around and just seem to really be into one another. But man, the stuff they do with Wasp in these action scenes, she really comes across as a huge badass. She's an amazing fighter, has a mastery of shrinking and de-shrinking. The stingers look great. Her added flight is a great way to give her more mobility for fighting. Every single thing about Wasp works in this movie and it's by far my favorite thing about it.

But of course Paul Rudd's Ant-Man rules too. He gets a lot of great action scenes by virtue of being able to use his growing powers too as well as shrinking. It's a nice change of pace and ramps things up. You can really tell that he's a hell of a lot better with his powers now. And probably most notably, he's just funny. Paul Rudd is an outstanding comedic actor with so much charm and he's just a complete delight to watch. And he also has so much heart that helps carry this movie too. He just wants to do the right thing and help out the people he cares for.

Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, has a lot of good stuff in this movie too. He's really funny, still bitter, but he also provides a lot of heart here. He cares about Hope, he cares about Janet, and you can tell how much love he has for them. I think his more emotional scenes play really well.

Such as his reunion with Michelle Pfeiffer, playing Janet Van Dyne! Janet rules in this and she's pretty perfect. She balances out that bitter part of Hank and even though she's not in it a lot, you get a ton of her personality. She's the glass half full to Hank's glass half empty. Her lines just bring a smile to my face, and her delivery is perfect. She comes across as smart, confident, and caring. She's great.

The X-Con crew, specifically Luis played by Michael Pena, is tons of fun here too, even in their limited role. Luis is still funny as hell. I love Michael Pena so much. Whatever he does is just always hilarious. The dude is just a master of comedic acting. The other two guys are good too, just... with a lot less of a focus. Baba Yaga jokes always landed though.

Cassie is great too in this. The child actor they had, Abby Ryder Fortson, is actually really good. She's fun and plays off of Paul Rudd very well. You really get a sense they are father and daughter here, and she has a lot of emotional moments as well you might not expect. Just good stuff from her all around. Tragically, her parents are very minimal but play their roles fine. Shout outs to Judy Greer.

And Randall Park is great as Jimmy Woo. Just a funny ass dude who really manages to make for some hilarious stuff out of what he has. I just really enjoyed his presence in the film and the casting was awesome.

But then there's the weakest part of the movie, with the villains. Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, is... well, she's kind of here. I'm going to be a comic snob and say I like Ghost in the comics so many more times more than this character. She gets barely any time to develop and she's not particularly interesting. She's a great actress though, and the best part is that they do the effects of Ghost's powers perfectly. I'm actually disappointed we didn't get to see more crazy Ghost action scenes because it's really just so damn cool. I think if you're going to have Ghost play such a little part, having the character be more like the comics is better. Just an unsettling creep who really hates capitalism, but plays a great goon for hire. I know they tried to use the character to inject more heart into it, but it's just not interesting.

And despite Laurence Fishburne being outstanding too, Bill Foster is also not very interesting. He's a sort of villain but... man, who cares? He just tries to reign in Ghost a bit but it's not really interesting. I enjoyed him, because who doesn't like to see Laurence Fishburne on your screen? But it's not like it lit my world on fire.

Walter Goggins also plays Sonny Burch, who is a more traditional villain. He's just a shitty low level crime lord and it's a vibe I kinda like in this sort of movie. I really enjoy the actor as well, but he's a character who is... you know, fine for what he is. I would've like a different story to maybe utilize him a bit better. But I mean, he is just a leader of goons and does a good job of it.

The best parts of this movie are the action and comedy and personal relationships from our heroes. The worst part are the villains and a weaker story overall. This movie doesn't feel as crisp as Ant-Man 1, but it's still a really enjoyable film that you can just sit back and enjoy casually without investing a lot of emotion. And I kind of wish that more MCU movies could give us something like this. A much lower stakes adventure. Just a slice of these heroes' lives. I know a lot of people seem to really dislike this movie for some reason, but I can't find myself disliking it at all. It's all good fun.

Girlfriend Thoughts: She practically melted at any Scott and Hope scenes, and the Janet and Hank/Hope reunions. They hooked her with that stuff. She also thought Jimmy Woo was hilarious and loved that guy. Basically, all of the humor seemed to land with her from Woo, Luis, Baba Yaga, and Lang. We live in San Fransisco area, so it was really fun being able to point out places we knew. She loved the car chase scene and when it seemed like it was over, she was excited all over again when it continued after a Hank Pym interlude. She thought Cassie was completely adorable as well.

Gonna be honest I absolutely remember none of Ant Man 2 except for the ending. Pretty forgettable to me tbh.

I also think I remembered the least of this movie. It's a lot like Thor 2 in that way. But I would rather have a fun time and remember very little than remember awful stuff about a film!

Stan Lee had possibly his best cameo here.

I always love the idea that Hank Pym made some architecture company design a giant functional suitcase handle and giant wheels to his building.

They must have thought he was completely insane.

Also, I just came up with some head canon to fix the biggest plot hole in the MCU. There are different types of Pym particles, and wheter an object retains its original mass when it shrinks/grows depends on the type of Pym particle used.

Ant-Man 2 is bottom of the barrel.

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Bump!

We will watch Guardians 2. Eventually.

Edit: We also began watching Jessica Jones, which my girlfriend swears she watched but remembers absolutely nothing about it.

Another thing I want to ask since I can't post in the main MCU topic, but did people honestly have problems with the Hawkeye series not being about Clint in particular? I honestly thought it was fascinating to see him through the eyes of a fangirl, especially given he wasn't used to having people admire him.

Rescue post

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Vacation bump

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Guardians 2.

Soon

Ish

Probably not the best thing to bring up, but I have a harder and harder time wrapping my head around why certain people thought Captain Marvel would flop before it came out, to say nothing of some of them insisting that it actually did and that Disney somehow covered it up. It was only yesterday when I realized that, considering the domestic viewing audience skewed more towards women than most comic book movies do, that said insistence comes across as horrifically sexist gatekeeping to boot. Dunces can't fathom the idea people other than them could possibly make something a hit.

I'd ask how Wonder Woman was largely able to avoid this kind of backlash, but I guess the DCEU wasn't on their radars at the time.

Not hard to see why people wanted it to flop man. But this is nothing to do with this topic again and won't until we actually get to Captain Marvel. I know I shouldn't bite but you need to stop endlessly talking about this shit all the time man.

That's fair, it's just only yesterday I realized it was even worse than I thought. You see, the problem is I got in tight with the alt right crowd between 2016 and 2020, although I didn't realize their politics at the time.

Thanks LMS

Also because The Marvels is the next movie to be released.

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To be also fair, most of the time I hear criticism of Phase 4 it's genuine and not ideologically-driven like a certain other Disney-owned property.

Guys.

I'm finally watching it right now.

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So last week I said we were finally watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I went to the bathroom and then the girlfriend said naaaah let's watch a show instead.

BUT WE WATCHED IT TODAY!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Release Date: May 5, 2017
Stand-Out Character: Yondu Udonta (played by Michael Rooker)
Best Scene: Yondu's Funeral

Back to it with an excellent sequel to the Guardians of the Galaxy, and I don't think it's quite as good as the first movie, but it's completely excellent. It has everything you want from the movie. Tons of heart. Great humor. Awesome action. It does everything extremely well. I have minimal complaints.

So I guess I'll get those complaints out of the way. Some of the CGI looks... not great? The skeleton of the human-form Ego is one thing that just looks dated, along with a couple other things that jumped out at me. It's very rare, but it did feel a little out of place when it wasn't excellent CGI.

And I think this movie is a little slower, and it doesn't have as many cool set pieces as the original had. It also doesn't feel nearly as high stakes. Then some characters get a lot, and then some... well, don't. Let's talk about those that don't get a lot.

Drax, played by Dave Bautista, is a complete non-factor in this movie, and it's a shame. He does nothing, barely fights, gets some good moments of great character work, but he's just not in the mix at all, which is a shame because he was the stand-out character in the first movie. He's hilarious when he gets time though, but it's just minimal compared to the others.

Baby Groot, played by Vin Diesel, is also just there for comedy and nothing else. I mean, I guess I get it, but it really doesn't feel like he's involved, and there's no real big moments. He's a mascot in this film, essentially.

And then Ayesha, played by Elizabeth Debicki, is kind of not a huge thing. She has a couple good gags, but she's otherwise not too interesting. So it's not horrible for a secondary villain though. I think Debicki does a good job with conveying her, and I feel that more in the end credits scene more than anything else.

I also feel like Mantis, played by Pom Klementieff, is pretty underutilized as well. She is positively hilarious, and she becomes my favorite member of the Guardians, but oddly enough it's in every appearance after this one that I think she really gets better. Here, she's pretty muted. She gets some funny and good scenes, but she's otherwise not particularly useful or interesting? She tries to offer Drax some more character as a foil but it's really just not as good.

Anyway, all of the awesome characters.

Kurt Russell positively kills it as Ego. Just completely excellent, start to finish, as this friendly father type that you can really feel comfortable with. And then when you hear his plan, he does it in such an off-putting and positive way. He really seems like an egomaniacal psycho there, and I love the way his big evil monologue go. Peppering in the comment about giving the tumor to Peter's mom, and then casually trying to explain it away, and then his final moments begging Peter to help stop the bomb are all just outstanding acting. Ego is the easy runner-up for the Stand-Out Character for me.

But that brings us to Star-Lord aka Peter Quill, played by Chris Pratt. I kind of find him annoying sometimes in this movie, and he's not nearly as entertaining in this one. Like he comes across as a little dumb to a fault, and less crafty than I am used to. A re-watch does kind of make more sense of his Infinity War moment though. I think Pratt does a great job here going through all the emotions, and when he gets serious he just does great. Pratt needs more appreciation for his acting in this film because it is just aces.

I do think they don't do enough in this story with the love between Peter and Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana. It feels like such a nothing thing aside from like one scene. That's my only real complaint about Gamora in this movie, because I do find the story between Gamora and Nebula more valuable. But when we're in Infinity War, I do feel like they could've done more to build up their relationship. But her story with Nebula? Great. You see her in this movie being a lot more thoughtful and kind, and it's done in just little actions for the most part. Nothing that screams in your face about it, but it's really just small stuff like being kind to Baby Groot, or the way she speaks to Rocket or Drax. And her talking to Nebula and showing more humanity. These things are great, but she also kind of does not a lot of fighting in this movie. I forget if she even does anything in the final fight in Ego's core if I'm being honest.

Nebula, by Karen Gillen, is a stand-out too though with her portrayal of Nebula. She's funny, but in a deadpan way. All of her action scenes are outstanding. And her emotional scenes with Gamora have all of the awkwardness of someone who has never actually had to express emotions. Her going "I win" after her fight with Gamora is great, and it's done so well. Just a subtle way to show how meaningful that stupid fight was for her to win, and how extra it was. All she wanted to do was win, and every interaction stems from that with Gamora and is done so damn well.

Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper, really kills it in this movie. His development is basic, but it's effective. They give him a ton to do in terms of fighting, comedy, everything. He's a little asshole, but he learns to be less of a little asshole with his connection with Yondu, who wants to just help him. He takes it all to heart though, and we do feel like he went on an emotional journey through this thing.

Sean Gunn plays Kraglin, who I think is underappreciated in this movie. He has an emotional throughline that we can all follow. Kraglin is a well-meaning member of Yondu's crew, and he inadvertantly helps stoke the mutiny by simply disagreeing. But he just has heartbreaking lines he delivers to perfection like "...They killed my friends" and helping Yondu escape. He never meant for any of this to happen, but it did. He knows he screwed up. And he's a valuable member commanding the ship.

But... this is a movie about Yondu, at the end of the day for me. Michael Rooker puts everything he's got into this performance. We start when Sylvester Stallone's Stakar tells him off for what he did and really sets the pace of why Yondu is the way he is. He used to be a part of a family of his own, and he pushed them away. Stallone does great in his small role. He gets turned on by his crew, and it just shatters him. He sees the path he's been on that led to this and he confides in Rocket and is determined to have him not make the same mistakes as him. And he exacts unholy revenge on these fucking Ravagers, like Taserface who is hilariously played by Chris Sullivan. The scene on the Ravager ship is probably my favorite action scene because of how cool his arrow is. They do so many cool things.

Where this all culminates to is Yondu's reflection that he just acknowledges he fucked his life up, regardless of what excuses he can make. It's his fault. He doesn't feel like he did a lot right--but the one right thing he did was save Peter and raise him as his own. And he begs Rocket to let him save Peter one last time. He wants to be able to go out taking care of the one thing that he covets in this world, even though he knows he won't survive. It's his choice. He'd rather die than let anything happen to Peter. "He may have been your father, but he weren't your daddy." Kills me every time I see it. And Pratt's acting when Yondu passes, using the last of his life to frame Peter's face... it just hits me hard.

The funeral scene is my absolute favorite scene though. You can have all the action and everything, but nothing makes me feel more than this scene where Yondu is laid to rest. Peter eulogizes him in his clumsy way because he doesn't know how to deal with it. Baby Groot tries to comfort him. Gamora and Nebula have a touching finale to their story in the movie. And then we see al of the Ravagers come to send Yondu off. He never asked to be accepted by them, but he would have loved it. Rocket did one thing to repay Yondu that would have meant everything: let the Ravagers know he died a hero and not a scumbag they thought he was. They celebrate with a beautiful light show, cheer him on, talk about how he died a proper Ravager. Kraglin sees all of this, for the captain he respected and loved, and he stares in awe before screaming and pounding his chest. No words needed. It's perfect. And we close the movie here, celebrating Yondu as a family, allowing these guarded people to express they care for one another in different ways. I'm not ashamed to admit I cry every time I see it. I rarely ever cry at media, but this hits different, and I think it's just because of how perfect it all is, and how well it's built up through the movie. No other MCU moment is as emotional as this one.

But. I'd be remiss to not mention to action sequences still. The battle during the opening scenes against the giant monster is cut so well with the Baby Groot dancing. It's a fun sequence to remind us all of the team. The giant space battle against the Sovereign is also great, with so many fun and dramatic scenes. Just really great stuff with humor tacked on. And I mentioned it before, but Yondu single-handedly massacring the betraying Ravagers rules. It's so creative and fun and it's set to Come A Little Bit Closer. I love when the scene pauses as we see him surveying the security screens... and then picks up with him just whizzing his arrow through everyone. It's probably my favorite action scene.

I think the climax is... not great? It comes across as a bit confusing sometimes, we miss a lot of the action, it feels clunky with the addition of the Sovereign ships again, and I feel like most of the characters don't really get to do much during it. It's a bit disappointing as a finale that I really wanted to enjoy but found underwhelming. Mantis getting hit by a piece of debris during the big dramatic team pose moment is great though--it's a shame she does nothing else though.

I talked a ton about this movie, and I think it's an excellent one. Probably some of Marvel's best. I just don't think I like it as much as Guardians 1, which feels like a more better paced movie with more to do for everyone.

Girlfriend Thoughts: She found it funny, not shocking. She found all of the emotional scenes... well, emotional. It hit with her. Particularly the Gamora/Nebula stuff. She was shocked by the Ego tumor reveal though and did a whole gasp and everything. Baby Groot was adorable to her too. She laughed, but she thought Drax was so mean with how he talked to Mantis. She also swore that Yondu wasn't going to die there and then when it was clear, she got extremely sad. She teased me for crying at the funeral because I never cry at this stuff, but she thought it was really emotional too. It didn't hit her as hard as it hit me though.

yeah the climax / final battles bring GoTG 2 down for me too

anyway, this one went full comedy to mixed results. still better than most I think.

Have you watched endgame? If so you should watch the holiday special to continue the Guardians fun.

Don't remember too much about Guardians 2. Just remembered that I liked it far more than Guardians 1. Thought Ego was fantastic though

Maniac64 posted...

Have you watched endgame? If so you should watch the holiday special to continue the Guardians fun.

Yeah I've watched everything. lol It's my girlfriend's first time watching some of these though.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem compared to Guardians 1 is that the Guardians aren't all together and by each other for the majority of the movie. I think the Guardians are best when they're all together, and that was the charm of the first movie for me. Splitting them up was a mistake in the second film.

Oh duh, I forgot you had watched more. Sorry about that.

Bump

I hate them for putting this behind a $20 pay wall

https://twitter.com/MarvelSnapZone/status/1675661890683547649?t=Rxf4E0vfKFk5I7ODlNy1bw&s=19

Why would they not?

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