Yeah, I really can't see them destroying the F4's Earth at the end of First Steps, it would completely ruin the movie and make them look useless if they defeat Galactus and save their Earth just for it to be destroyed by something that probably has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. My theory right now is that their Earth is OK, but they learn about the incursions and see that 616 is in danger, so they're coming to warn them.
I just got back from seeing this and I really enjoyed it.
Yelena has been becoming one of my favorite characters since she was introduced in Black Widow and I really like what they did with her. They did a great job of showing her issues and having her deal with them. Alexi was another highlight, he's just such a fun character, but it was nice that the movie did give us a little more serious material with him too.
Valentina was a great villain, and it was kind of nice to see all her plot and scheming bite her in the ass. It will be interesting to see what they do with her now that The New Avengers "own" her.
The rest of the cast was great to, I thought they did a good job of giving everyone some attention. We got some nice stuff for Walker, but it would have been nice if we got a bit more with Ava. I can understand why they didn't do much of that with Bucky since we've already gotten of exploration of his character in his other appearance. I was shocked at just how quick they were to kill off Taskmaster, I was pretty sure she wasn't going to make it to the end, but I had at least expected her to last longer than she did.
I liked what they did with Bob/Sentry/The Void, he was interesting character, and his telepathic powers, which are actually not something he does in the comics, was a cool way to explore the characters' issues. I was hoping we'd get to see at least a little bit of a heroic Sentry after they dealt with The Void, but I understand that wouldn't have worked what they established about him. I actually thought the Sentry costume was kinda cool, but maybe I just have bad taste.
The origin of the Thunderbolts name was pretty funny, but I did like how they were set up as The New Avengers too.
I thought both post credits scenes were great. I didn't think the F4 one was a spoiler at all, it was just a nice little tease that has me very curious to see how close my theory about the end of First Steps is to what actually happens. For me the only way it would be a spoiler would be if actually showed us how they defeat Galactus or told us exactly how and why they jumped dimensions. We don't even know for sure this is from the end of the movie, for all we know this could be in the beginning or middle of it. Or maybe it's before the movie and it starts with them arriving back in their universe after visiting 616.
Interesting you're stating this. The other day, oktay posted the following from Kevin Feige, et al.:
The internal concerns of Marvel Studios creating a "new new fans club" with the films (for Feige's "homework" reason) plus productions that are just not in the "must see" category is a cold wave of under-performance the studio does not have the ability to avoid at this time. I'm still hoping the FF will be a self-contained (...well...) gem that does not beat the audience over the head with Easter Eggs and references to innumerable MCU productions from the past.
My mom never saw The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, and didn't remember the characters from the movies she did see, and she still followed the movie OK and enjoyed it. So I think some of this concern is a little overblown.
- Whether it was time travel or dimensional travel.
They specifically said in the scene that it was dimensional travel, and have said over and over again everywhere that they've talked about First Steps that it's not set on Earth 616.