Topic: The Marvel Thread

Got around to Shang-Chi and... well, I enjoyed its runtime immensely, buoyed by the hype and impressed by its spectacular visuals and choreography, but afterwards I thought about it a little, let it sink in, and ended up on the lower end of the "yeah, it was good" scale. Were I to fold it into my MCU rankings, it'd probably be bottom of the top tier, or top of the middle. Somewhere around there.

Weren't all the Netflix shows already part of the MCU? I know the references kinda went one way (the shows referenced the movies a ton, but not the other way) & that they're not likely to continue any of the storylines because they're transitioning all Marvel content to Disney +, but it seems kind of odd to hire the same actor who was already playing him but then retcon everything he's already been in.

Didn't realise we had a Marvel thread until a couple of days ago, so I thought it'd be more fitting to write this post here.

So it took a couple of weeks but I've finally watched through all the MCU movies except for Spider-Man:

Iron Man
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor
Captain America: The First Avenger
Iron Man 3
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Ant-Man
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Thor: Ragnarok
Black Panther
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Captain Marvel
Avengers: Endgame

(On a side note, I've already watched the first three Avengers movies earlier this year but I held off on watching Endgame because people were telling me that I really need to watch the other movies first)

It's been an incredible ride! I've been mostly a DC guy throughout the years, watching shows like Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and so on, so I completely missed out on the MCU movies. So to have experienced (mostly) all of them during the past few weeks has been absolutely amazing. I genuinely love these franchises now and I'm so excited for all the upcoming movies and TV shows.

I thought that it'd be fun to rank these series now. I won't be ranking each individual movie (save for a few exceptions) since most of them have been consistently good in each of their respective franchise. So what I'm going to do is simply to put them in the categories: "Really liked", "Liked", "Meh" and "Disliked".

Really liked: Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Avengers

Liked: Thor (the first two movies), Black Panther, Captain Marvel

Meh: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk

Disliked: Thor: Ragnarok

So as you can see, I pretty much enjoyed all movies except for Thor: Ragnarok, which I've already gone into great details about but in short, it was just a very disappointing movie compared to the previous two.

In terms of the Iron Man movies, I just feel like there's way too much talking in all three movies, not to mention that you barely see Iron Man throughout the movies. They could've definitely done a lot more with this franchise.

The first two Thor movies were pretty good, I just liked the grander scope compared to the other MCU movies as well as the more epic battles. I also liked Captain Marvel but it took some time to get to the good part of the movie so to speak. I enjoyed the 90s setting though and seeing familiar characters but younger. Black Panther was also a really cool movie and I can't wait to see the sequel next year.

Now, the movies I really liked had aspects of them that I tend to love in media. The Captain America movies were phenomenal simply because they had great and intense fighting scenes in them, which the other MCU movies don't have. I did however also enjoy the 40s setting of the first Captain America. In terms of Civil War though, I just have to say that that movie felt more like an Avengers movie than a Captain America one. Too many other Marvel characters were there. If I had to summarise the movie in one sentence, I would say: "Worst Captain America movie, good Avengers movie and best Iron Man movie". Because seriously, we saw Iron Man fight in that movie more than he did in any of his own movies!

I really liked the Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man movies for pretty much the same reason: they were very funny and entertaining to watch. I also really liked the characters in both series, especially in GotG. I have a soft spot for space-based media with a lot of unique and memorable characters (Mass Effect comes to mind), so naturally GotG appealed to me right away. Now I really want to play the game!

Doctor Strange was the movie with the coolest and trippiest scenes of all the MCU movies, with only Ant-Man rivaling it. How they managed to put together a movie like that is beyond me, it was seriously really cool to watch. Not to mention that I love Benedict Cumberbatch and Mads Mikkelsen, so of course it would be an instant win for that alone.

Lastly, I thought the Avengers movies were great and each one surpassed the previous one except for Endgame. Even though it's been quite some time, I do remember Infinity War having many more battles and cool moments compared to Endgame. They spend way too much time putting together the team in Endgame, but at least the final battle was awesome.

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed my time with the MCU movies and considering how much I don't like to watch movies in general, I think that speaks volumes for how good these movies are. The most important part of them though is that they take place in a shared universe and I just love continuity in media. That's why I love TV shows, that's why I love JRPGs like Trails of Cold Steel that span across multiple titles and that's why I like the MCU movies. After all, it's because of this reason that I wanted to watch the movies to begin with because I've noticed that Marvel is putting out a lot more TV shows based on Marvel franchises. So I'm really excited that I'm finally able to watch all of them now, not to mention all upcoming shows like I Am Groot, Wakanda, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel and so on.

So what's next? While I was watching the MCU movies, I noticed that there are a LOT of X-Men movies on Disney+ and I haven't watched any of them. So I think I'll be doing that as well as watch the Marvel shows.

@LtSarge Great summary there! Glad you enjoyed the MCU Infinity Arc, and I think you’ll like the two Spider-Man movies when you get ahold of them. I highly recommend the first one (Homecoming) especially. Far From Home is fine too, but not quite as good.

And actually, my opinion would be your A, Number 1 priority should be to track down and watch Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. It’s not part of the MCU per se, but it was so fantastic and well received that it has influenced the direction that the video games and the MCU has gone with the multiverse angle things are going. It might be my very favorite Marvel movie. Just plain fun.

For X-Men, I’d recommend them, but the quality is much lower in general, and less consistent than the MCU movies. Probably watch X-Men, X-Men 2, then X-Men First Class, then X-Men Days of Future Past, then X-Men: Apocalypse. And then add in The Wolverine and Logan. (So imho you can skip XM 3: The Last Stand, XM Origins: Wolverine, and Dark Phoenix)

Definitely shift over to the Marvel TV shows now (the Disney ones, I can’t comment on the Netflix ones too much). WandaVision is probably my favorite, but I’m not sure if you’ll enjoy it since it has a distinct American Sit-Com vibe for the first several episodes. If you can stick with it, then you’ll like it though because it is a sequel to the movies you just watched and has some great follow up and hints toward future movies.

Same for Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It’s a nice continuation of those characters arcs. It’s also a little slow at times, but in my opinion it’s well worth it for the narrative beats it hits with regard to those two characters.

Loki is also really great and if you liked the Thor movies then you’ll probably enjoy it. It’s important narratively speaking, but be a little careful because it has some of the light-hearted tone like Thor: Ragnarok, but not nearly as overt or slapstick.

You’ll enjoy What If…? I think, because these movies are fresh in your mind you’ll get a kick out of how they have all these call-backs to the movies and present alternate versions. You can drop in and out of these What If..? episodes at your leisure if you’d like right away, because there is nothing (that I know of) to spoil or be spoiled based on this series, whereas the other shows definitely seem to be part of the canon of the MCU so narrative threads are kept intact with all the movies you’ve watched.

Oh, and Black Widow is definitely worth watching and especially Shang-Chi. Along with Far From Home, these are technically part of the next MCU phase, but can be watched independently from the TV shows, although there is a tiny amount of bleed over from the TV shows to the movies so if you want the fullest experience then maybe hit the TV stuff first.

@Th3solution Well I would watch the MCU Spider-Man movies if they were available on a streaming service. They're not on Disney+, HBO Max or Netflix here in Sweden, so I genuinely have no clu what the best way is to watch them here.

In terms of Into the Spiderverse and What if..?, I think I'll hold off on watching them because I'm not really into cartoons right now. I'm open to watching them eventually, but they're not high up on my priority list.

I just find X-Men so interesting in general, so I'll probably watch all of the movies in all honesty, including the Deadpool movies. I took some inspiration from you and decided to look up a list of how to watch them in release order so now I've got them all set to watch!

Yeah I'm definitely going to watch all the new Marvel TV shows and movies eventually. My friend's Disney+ is running out in a couple of days so I think I'm just going to subscribe for a month myself and continue watching from my account so that I can keep track of which episodes I've watched. I've already watched the Netflix ones such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist so no worries there. I also noticed that Agent Carter is on Disney+ now, which I've also watched and I highly recommend watching it. Wish I would've waited to watch it until after I've seen the Captain America movies, but oh well. It's still a good show regardless and I really like Agent Carter as a character.

@LtSarge Dude, honestly Into the Spider-verse is the best of the recent movies imo. I put off watching it for ages for it being an animated film, and immediately regretted leaving it for so long to watch it when I saw it. It is a genuinely great film, and that is without how cool some of the animation is. I reccomend bumping it up your list if you can!

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, Into the Spider-Verse is probably better than 99% of the Disney output, might be the best of all of them. Really really great movie.

@JohnnyShoulder Well I just searched for it on Disney+ and it's not available there so I don't know what to do. It's genuinely annoying that Spider-Man is the only major Marvel franchise that's not available on Disney+.

@LtSarge It's because Sony has the rights to Spiderman movies not Disney, that's why they aren't on Disney+.

You can always use a VPN and check other regions Netflix and such.

@JohnnyShoulder @nessisonett Not sure if you’ve seen the trailer for Across the Spiderverse Part 1 but it looks to keep the same sharp humor and dazzling art style. Miles is a little older as is Spider-Gwen. The movie isn’t due out until Oct 2022, so I’m not sure why in the world they already have a trailer, but it looks brilliant still. I own a BD and digital copy of Into the Spiderverse ; maybe I’ll watch it this weekend. I’ve only seen it about 4 times, and it’s been about a year. 😄

@Th3solution I have it on 4K Blu-Ray and it looks stunning! And yeah, I’ve seen the trailer and I’m very much excited for the sequels.

@LtSarge @nessisonett I got a 4K digital copy with free with my TV when I bought it. It was on Netflix here in the UK, but not anymore. I've got a feeling Sony will have it for that movie PS plus thing that they trialled in some countries earlier in the year, but not heard anything about it since. Possibly for one of the new tiers that may or may not be a thing.

@Th3solution I think it is quite normal for trailers for films to come out this far out from the films release. Teaser trailers are known to be even earlier, but don't think they are bad as some games which are quite ridiculous is some cases.

@Tasuki I've always wondered about that. Does Sony have the rights to Spider-Man like forever or will they run out eventually? Because it's crazy that Disney wouldn't do anything to get them back so they can add all the Spider-Man movies to Disney+. He's a very popular Marvel character after all.

@JohnnyShoulder I actually do remember seeing some Spider-Man stuff on Netflix earlier this year. It's too bad that I didn't start watching the MCU movies much earlier, probably would've watched the Spider-Man movies there otherwise.

I just finished watching the first X-Men and I quite liked it! I'm definitely hooked on this franchise now, so I'll definitely be going through all the X-Men movies.

@LtSarge I imagine the licence runs out eventually for Spider-man with Sony. Like with the rest of Marvel’s property, Disney did try to buy Spider-man from Sony but I think I remember they were asking for too much money. Which is why Spider-man is in this weird place right now where he is still part of the MCU but not owned by Disney. It is a massive money spinner for Sony, so no wonder they are reluctant to let him go.

@LtSarge I am not sure on the deal Sony has. I know along Spiderman in the MCU was a deal Sony worked out with Marvel which gave rights to Sony for the video game. Basically for Spider-man being part of the MCU Sony got exclusive rights to make a video game. It's a weird thing the rights.

@LtSarge @JohnnyShoulder from what I gather Sony bought the movie rights to Spidey outright. The only way they’d revert is if Sony was bought out (by Disney or otherwise). Even if just the movie side of Sony was sold (which seemed reasonably likely a few years back), the rights would revert.

@JohnnyShoulder @Tasuki @colonelkilgore Thanks for the replies guys. I guess I shouldn't hold out hope for the movies being added anytime soon to Disney+. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for them should they become available on another service.

@colonelkilgore I've also heard Sony will also lose the Spider-Man movie rights if they don't release a Spider-Man movie every few years. That's why they had to do those terrible Amazing Spider-Man movies. Marvel basically ruined any chance of them getting the Spider-Man movie rights back by making the MCU so successful, so now Spider-verse movies are also pretty much guaranteed to be hits.

Not sure how true this requirement to keep the rights is. It also explains why Fox was churning out X-Men and Fantastic Four movies regardless of the quality, but doesn't explain how Universal keeps the movie rights to Hulk without (unless only they had a different deal).

@Milktastrophe yeah that is also a thing... its why Roger Corman made a really low budget Fantastic 4 movie in the early 80's... so that the then licence holder could hang on to the rights.

You're right about the MCU adding value to the Spidey licence too... if Marvel went sniffing around for it these days, I honestly think Sony would ask something outrageous like $10billion (and I understand how absurd that sounds what with Marvel and Star Wars going for around $4billion a piece).