Countdown To Avengers and Ant-Man

[The Old Mixer]

Avengers also contributes a new piece to Banner's situation, that he's been keeping his changes in check by maintaining his anger. One could reason that the end of TIH shows him taking a step in that direction...in order to learn to channel his anger--to desensitize himself to anger--he has to be willing to cross the line and make himself angry.

The Skull could be a cardboard villain in the wrong hands, but I think Weaving makes him work.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

#4

Rating 10/10

Ya know, I don't consider this a good Marvel movie, as much as I consider it a great space scifi movie. The action was good, the comedy was funny and the ensemble cast all geled together. Although the amount of exposition in the film did irk me as I was watching. GOTG pulled off something other scifi franchises not Star Wars and Star Trek have pulled off. Make a solid and profitable scifi film that the whole family can enjoy.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Rewatched The Avengers yesterday.

I'm not going to pretend that it's the perfect film, or even the perfect superhero film. It has its flaws, but they're outweighed by the sheer awesomeness of those characters coming together.

Also, though I question how they chose to open the movie (If the first action scene has to be a car chase, why not at least start the action in media res and give us the setup as an infodump later?), the overall film really has great momentum...once it gets rolling, it's hard to stop the movie, and these days I don't tend to watch a movie at home in one sitting.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Also note the continuity issues with SHIELD clearly being a new organisation in this one.

Something I did notice in "Melinda" was that in the flashbacks Coulson used the long-form name rather than the abbreviation.

I'll never understand what SHIELD is in the MCU. There's a bit in Thor: The Dark World where this exchange happens-
DARCY: Jane isn’t calling me back, Erik isn’t calling me back, stupid SHIELD isn’t calling me back!
IAN: What’s SHIELD?
DARCY: It’s a secret.

Right... I know he's not American, but he doesn't know what Shield is?? That would be like someone in real life going "The FBI? Who?" or "The CIA? Who?"

Except most people don't seem to know what SHIELD is in the MCU (at least, prior to the Avengers). I don't think the FBI or the CIA is really a valid analogy. SHIELD doesn't even answer to a govt. hierarchy, they report to a shadowy 'council' who seem to be both international and anonymous. I'd say it's exactly the intention that the organization is literally secret, until escalating events force it out into the open.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Something I did notice in "Melinda" was that in the flashbacks Coulson used the long-form name rather than the abbreviation.

I'll never understand what SHIELD is in the MCU. There's a bit in Thor: The Dark World where this exchange happens-
DARCY: Jane isn’t calling me back, Erik isn’t calling me back, stupid SHIELD isn’t calling me back!
IAN: What’s SHIELD?
DARCY: It’s a secret.

Right... I know he's not American, but he doesn't know what Shield is?? That would be like someone in real life going "The FBI? Who?" or "The CIA? Who?"

Except most people don't seem to know what SHIELD is in the MCU (at least, prior to the Avengers). I don't think the FBI or the CIA is really a valid analogy. SHIELD doesn't even answer to a govt. hierarchy, they report to a shadowy 'council' who seem to be both international and anonymous. I'd say it's exactly the intention that the organization is literally secret, until escalating events force it out into the open.

SHIELD presumably answers to a government. They do/did have that large office building with their logo in the lobby in Washington DC.

Also the name (in the MCU) is Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. In the comics it's Supreme Headquarters International, Espionage, Law-Enforcement Department. Comic SHIELD always seemed more autonomous than MCU SHIELD.

 

[Turtletrekker]

And yet, SHIELD was openly building the very hard to hide Triskelion to use as a headquarters six years before current events.

And there were people who knew about SHIELD's existence, such as Selvig. Banner seemed to recognize the names "SHIELD" and "Fury" in Avengers, although there was no mention of such in TIH. They certainly weren't hiding their existence from Pepper. Skye and "The Rising Tide" knew about them.

And an organization with such a huge infrastructure, a series of Academys, and such international authority couldn't have literally been kept a secret. Far too many people know about it. I seem to remember one of the AoS producers, I want to say Jed, who said that, that SHIELD existed wasn't the secret, it was everything that they did.

 

[Mage]

Iron Man 3 is, for me personally, one of the more character-driven movies in the MCU. Tony is really trying hard to deal with his mortality. I mean, this guy thought he was unbeatable after NOT duying in a cave and beating a poison that was slowly killing him, thanks the device that's saving him. Thinking that there's nothing he can't beat, he's almost taken out by something he could not have fathomed. Not only that, it appears that, even though he has all his gadgets, they can't protect the ones he loves. So he goes overboard.
I love how all of that is still a part in AoU.

 

[Marsden]

You are much faster at movie watching than I am.


I watched Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk and I was impressed at how well the "shared universe" is already there. I think Iron Man 2 is where it's really obvious, but it's really there in the first two movies.

So I was wondering which one to watch after Hulk, Thor or IM2, I couldn't remember, but then I watched IM2.


I think Hulk and IM2 are much better on repeat viewings. I remember not enjoying IM2 as much when it first came out, but I really can't point to exactly why now.

One stand out for me is Nick Fury in the donut shop, he was great in that scene. He was great in all of his scenes, really.



So I have Thor queued up for next time. I'm slow, but I'm enjoying rewatching the movies. Also, judging by past experience, I won't be going to see Avengers until June, so I've got lots of time.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

^ As for which one to watch first. I noticed during my rewatch, that IM2 has scenes of Banner's college field battle with Ross.

I think it's safe to assume that, IM2, TIH, and Thor all happened within the same week.

 

[Marsden]

Good point. Also, Hulk actually spans quite a bit of time, over 2 years, maybe 5, from the initial accident to the final scene, I think. So some of it is before and after.

And IM2 ends with Coulson finding Thor's hammer, but during the middle Nick says "I have problems in the southwest sector" I always assumed he was just saying that to tell Stark he isn't the most important thing in his life but now I think it might be refering to that directly, also.

 

[lurok]

Top tier
Age of Ultron
The Winter Soldier
Iron Man (though I found the Stane climax tedious)
First Avenger
IM3

Middle tier
Avengers
Thor
GoTG

Bottom
Thor2 (have no desire to ever see again)
IM2 (has some good moments but underwhelming)

 

[M.A.C.O.]

#3

Rating 8/10


Just got out of the theater. I can say that I enjoyed the film but I can't say that I thought it was anything special. Ok, is the right word I think.

Having read spoilers and prelinmary reviews, I was expecting something akin to Battle of the Five Armies. Basically a long protracted action scene. While there was a lot of action, there was still a story in this film.

It did lack in some areas. Maybe a lack of cohesiveness among the Avengers storylines and they just didn't convergence in the end.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Since I had such a good time with my MCU marathon. I have decided to extend it, rather than wait for Ant-Man.

Now adding to the countdown, all the non MCU Marvel movies. The 5 Spider-Man films and the 7 X-Men films.

Feel free to add your thoughts and ratings!

Happy viewing!

 

[Ethros]

all the non MCU Marvel movies. The 5 Spider-Man films and the 7 X-Men films.

Well, there's more than those to be fair. If you really want to watch the likes of Ghost Rider 2 and Elektra that is.

 

[Magellan]

Just finished up pretty much everything I can watch at this time.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 9/10
I'm pretty much in line with the nerd consensus on this one. It's fantastic. Real, huge repercussions for the MCU, interesting villains, and action packed. It's so much fun to see the more grounded side of the MCU with Earth based stories, politics and spy vs spy. Really not much I can say that hasn't already been said.

Agents of SHIELD season 1 - 5/10
Kinda pains me to rate it so low becasue the show got SOOOO much better. If I was only rating episode 10 - the end I'd probably go 8/10(The episode with Sif is still beyond awful) but the early episodes are just like watching the A-Team. They're silly, dumb and pointless. It's too bad really, if the show had come out as strong as it ended up it would have kept most of those 12 million initial viewers. Oh and Skye. Ugh Skye. Why? Why did anyone think she was a good idea? Girl who looks like a model and sounds like an airhead is a super hacker who lives in her van. She wouldn't even be as insufferable if every other character could just shut up about how "special" she is.

Guardians of the Galaxy - 7/10
Most people love this movie but for me it's just good. The movie is fun but every time I see I wish there was more "meat" to it. I love the music, a lot of the humor and Chris Pratt, just like everyone else, but there are just too many things holding it back for me. There is too much dialogue literally introducing the characters(show don't tell). Ronan is another crappy villain. I admit he gets more to do than most MCU villains but the actor plays him just too over the top. Actually, a lot of the acting is that way in this movie. The space pirates, the prisoners, prison guards everybody just comes off as too goofy for me.

Agent Carter season 1 - 9/10
Really, really enjoyed this. I love Atwell, and she just keeps getting better. I love that she's able to be tough, without giving up that human sensitivity essential to an interesting character. The sexism is surprisingly well handled as well. It would be so easy to just make all her co-workers stupid jerks but actually they turn out to be interesting characters in their own right. The period atmosphere is captured wonderfully(My father loved it, and he was there around this time so it can't be too far off).

Avengers: Age of Ultron - 7/10
Really just a preliminary rating. Definitely a lot going on here, so I need to watch it again at home before I can really get a good handle on it. I don't wanna spoil anything for people who haven't watched it yet so I won't get into specifics but the movie felt unfocused. Some of the characters also felt very out of character to me. Spader makes a good villain but I wish he'd gotten some more screen time.


Miscellaneous thoughts:
I think one of the strongest pillar of the Marvel machine is their continuous ability to cast awesome and charismatic actors. I don't know how they do it because they are notoriously stingy but I hope they keep it up.