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Post by Martin Stett on Aug 29, 2020 20:32:59 GMT
So my sister wanted to watch through the Marvel movies from the beginning, because she's totally lost on how all of the characters fit together anymore. I decided to join her because she wants someone to talk to afterwards. I'm dreading continuing this because I sort of hate Marvel, but maybe I can get other opinions and thoughts and enjoy this more with interaction. Some of these will be first time watches, but most I've seen before.
Iron Man - Exactly as I remembered it. A pretty standard action movie in every way, but decent enough at what it does. Tony's redemption arc is shallow and pretty dull, but RDJ has charisma to make it watchable. Bridges is leaden and Paltrow does as much as she can with an impossible character. Clark Gregg should have been in much more of this, because he's the surprise jewel. Thankfully, none of the Marvel humor I would come to hate so much rears its head here, and the comedy is actually a fit for the characters. 6/10
The Incredible Hulk - First time watch. I understand that this has a reputation as the worst Marvel movie, yes? If so, that reputation is completely unearned. The first forty minutes or so are really solid stuff. This is a well paced and intense (if infinitely derivative) fugitive on the run movie until the second fight scene, at which point the movie begins leaning too much into action and the soggy paper bag that passes for character development. And that's where we get into the negatives. The CGI is terrible, truly atrocious stuff that is on par with Spider-Man or the worst parts of Black Panther. And it covers the full screen pretty much every time Hulk shows up, suddenly switching from real sets to a computer cartoon world between shots, and it is never anything less than frustrating. The less said about the laughably by the book characters, the better. But you know what? This is still a cool fugitive spy type movie and probably in the top five Marvel films. Oh, and unlike every other Marvel movie bar GotG, it's actually pretty funny at times. 6/10
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Post by ibbi on Aug 29, 2020 20:43:35 GMT
How can you give these two movies the same score? JUST REREAD WHAT YOU WROTE FOR HULK! Also, I'm not sure any laughs in that movie were intentional...
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Post by Martin Stett on Aug 29, 2020 21:39:04 GMT
How can you give these two movies the same score? JUST REREAD WHAT YOU WROTE FOR HULK! Also, I'm not sure any laughs in that movie were intentional... Both are watchable. Hulk has an incredible first act and then becomes a mediocre action film, and Iron Man is just... average. Completely standard and predictable and average in every way. Hulk at least had real excitement before it fell apart.
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Post by countjohn on Aug 31, 2020 18:05:58 GMT
I am on the record as not liking Marvel but the first Iron Man is the only one I would call good without caveat. RDJ sells the huge arc and has good chemistry with Paltrow, Bridges is one of their better villains, and the action (the initial escape, his first flying around in his suit, the last fight) is actually fun unlike the endless CGI rock em' sock em' robot fights in their later movies. Not a masterpiece or anything but it's a rock solid summer blockbuster.
I also don't think Incredible Hulk is so bad. Like you said it has a low key, suspenseful "man on the run" type feel to it and Norton gives a really interesting performance. It does have some problems but is still a decent movie. Hulk is one of the few superheroes where it feels like you could make a really great movie with him but it has not materialized in any of the attempts. But this one was on the right track: a fugitive movie that focuses on the tragic nature of the character. Hulk is interesting because he's the only superhero where you 100% know he would give up his powers if he had the chance. His gift actually is a curse. Superman, Spiderman et al might whine about being "different" occasionally but you know they really like their powers and don't really want to be normal again.
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Post by Martin Stett on Aug 31, 2020 18:51:35 GMT
I am on the record as not liking Marvel but the first Iron Man is the only one I would call good without caveat. RDJ sells the huge arc and has good chemistry with Paltrow, Bridges is one of their better villains, and the action (the initial escape, his first flying around in his suit, the last fight) is actually fun unlike the endless CGI rock em' sock em' robot fights in their later movies. Not a masterpiece or anything but it's a rock solid summer blockbuster. I also don't think Incredible Hulk is so bad. Like you said it has a low key, suspenseful "man on the run" type feel to it and Norton gives a really interesting performance. It does have some problems but is still a decent movie. Hulk is one of the few superheroes where it feels like you could make a really great movie with him but it has not materialized in any of the attempts. But this one was on the right track: a fugitive movie that focuses on the tragic nature of the character. Hulk is interesting because he's the only superhero where you 100% know he would give up his powers if he had the chance. His gift actually is a curse. Superman, Spiderman et al might whine about being "different" occasionally but you know they really like their powers and don't really want to be normal again. When Bridges is one of the better villains in a superhero franchise, you're doing it wrong. The only cool thing about Obadiah Stain is his name. He freezes Tony out of the company and proceeds to just fail at everything because he's dumb. Why did he hire such dumb goons to kill Tony in the first place? It all seems pretty silly to hire terrorists to kill Tony. If any part of that got out, it would be the end of him and Stark Industries. Why not just hire a normal hitman like everyone else? And of course the hit squad is absolutely terrible at everything (what, nobody was checking in to see if Tony WAS BUILDING A SUPERSUIT?). After that, Obadiah tries to build a supersuit of his own but he can't because he's too busy firing scientists, he then tries to kill Tony (and does that horrible supervillain thing of not making sure he's dead) and just tries to stick Tony's generator thing inside of a different suit (how does he even know that it will fit?) and then proceeds to just kill people while ranting about "POWER" instead of doing anything at all intelligent. But then, he was boned by that point because he was an idiot for the whole film. Tony is a relatively fun character, but his ego was annoying. The action was... fine. I mean, it was fine. Too many CGI explosions for me, but it had some semblance of choreography. I agree that Hulk has a good basis for a story, and that basis served it well. Bruce's weariness was palpable, and seeing him on the college campus and avoid his love really pulled at the heartstrings. I'd have liked to have seen Norton continue the role, as I think the character would have been written more seriously as a necessity (I couldn't stand Mark Ruffalo or the goofy take that Whedon and all later writers stuck on him).
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 4, 2020 0:32:58 GMT
Iron Man 2 - I hated so much about this, but I was actually enjoying myself at first. Paltrow does a great job as Pepper, making her exasperation with Tony really authentic as she tries to run his company (too bad the movie straight up takes a dump on her at the end: it seems that a woman's place is in Tony's pants and not actually being productive or intelligent). Mickey Rourke is pretty bad, but the character of Ivan Vanko is interesting. His whole plan is basically "show that any idiot can make a suit" and watch Tony get torn apart by public opinion, which is pretty much just a rehash of the Joker in TDK but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Speaking of public opinion, I was completely on the side of that politician and Hammer demanding accountability for Iron Man and would have found a movie dealing with that topic to be really cool.
But we don't get that movie. We get some nonsense about Tony facing imminent death unless he follows a secret treasure map left over by his father (ugh, is this where Hackjob Abrams got that horrible idea?), we get Hammer faking a terrorist's death so that he can leave him completely unsupervised to make a suit, we get Rhodes stealing an Iron Man suit AND USING IT AT A HAMMER EXHIBITION WHEN IT IS CLEARLY STARK TECH because his superiors demand that he... pose for Hammer? WHAT? He publicly took it! And how did Vanko manage to program that suit without having access to it?
We also get sexualized Natasha Romanoff, and I hated it. Can't a woman be smart and strong and sexy without being a fetishized piece of meat? And the choreography in her fights made no sense. Can George Miller get into the MCU and show them what a real writer/director can do?
What was Vanko's endgame anyway? His original plan was fine, he wanted to watch Tony suffer and was willing to go to prison for it. But why just create a robot army to attack civilians?
Everything the movie could and should have been about (Tony's legacy and defending his position as a war deterrent) gets thrown out the window.
There were just so many plot and logic holes, and I haven't even gotten into the lame, lame Marvel jokes. This is the first real appearance of the gag humor I would come to hate so, and it is an unwelcome blotch on a terrible, terrible movie. 3/10
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Sept 4, 2020 0:46:51 GMT
Iron Man 2 - I hated so much about this, but I was actually enjoying myself at first. Paltrow does a great job as Pepper, making her exasperation with Tony really authentic as she tries to run his company (too bad the movie straight up takes a dump on her at the end: it seems that a woman's place is in Tony's pants and not actually being productive or intelligent). Mickey Rourke is pretty bad, but the character of Ivan Vanko is interesting. His whole plan is basically "show that any idiot can make a suit" and watch Tony get torn apart by public opinion, which is pretty much just a rehash of the Joker in TDK but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Speaking of public opinion, I was completely on the side of that politician and Hammer demanding accountability for Iron Man and would have found a movie dealing with that topic to be really cool. But we don't get that movie. We get some nonsense about Tony facing imminent death unless he follows a secret treasure map left over by his father (ugh, is this where Hackjob Abrams got that horrible idea?), we get Hammer faking a terrorist's death so that he can leave him completely unsupervised to make a suit, we get Rhodes stealing an Iron Man suit AND USING IT AT A HAMMER EXHIBITION WHEN IT IS CLEARLY STARK TECH because his superiors demand that he... pose for Hammer? WHAT? He publicly took it! And how did Vanko manage to program that suit without having access to it? We also get sexualized Natasha Romanoff, and I hated it. Can't a woman be smart and strong and sexy without being a fetishized piece of meat? And the choreography in her fights made no sense. Can George Miller get into the MCU and show them what a real writer/director can do? What was Vanko's endgame anyway? His original plan was fine, he wanted to watch Tony suffer and was willing to go to prison for it. But why just create a robot army to attack civilians? Everything the movie could and should have been about (Tony's legacy and defending his position as a war deterrent) gets thrown out the window. There were just so many plot and logic holes, and I haven't even gotten into the lame, lame Marvel jokes. This is the first real appearance of the gag humor I would come to hate so, and it is an unwelcome blotch on a terrible, terrible movie. 3/10 The thing that really kills me is that this piece of shit still has something in the 70's on RT.
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 4, 2020 0:48:22 GMT
Iron Man 2 - I hated so much about this, but I was actually enjoying myself at first. Paltrow does a great job as Pepper, making her exasperation with Tony really authentic as she tries to run his company (too bad the movie straight up takes a dump on her at the end: it seems that a woman's place is in Tony's pants and not actually being productive or intelligent). Mickey Rourke is pretty bad, but the character of Ivan Vanko is interesting. His whole plan is basically "show that any idiot can make a suit" and watch Tony get torn apart by public opinion, which is pretty much just a rehash of the Joker in TDK but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Speaking of public opinion, I was completely on the side of that politician and Hammer demanding accountability for Iron Man and would have found a movie dealing with that topic to be really cool. But we don't get that movie. We get some nonsense about Tony facing imminent death unless he follows a secret treasure map left over by his father (ugh, is this where Hackjob Abrams got that horrible idea?), we get Hammer faking a terrorist's death so that he can leave him completely unsupervised to make a suit, we get Rhodes stealing an Iron Man suit AND USING IT AT A HAMMER EXHIBITION WHEN IT IS CLEARLY STARK TECH because his superiors demand that he... pose for Hammer? WHAT? He publicly took it! And how did Vanko manage to program that suit without having access to it? We also get sexualized Natasha Romanoff, and I hated it. Can't a woman be smart and strong and sexy without being a fetishized piece of meat? And the choreography in her fights made no sense. Can George Miller get into the MCU and show them what a real writer/director can do? What was Vanko's endgame anyway? His original plan was fine, he wanted to watch Tony suffer and was willing to go to prison for it. But why just create a robot army to attack civilians? Everything the movie could and should have been about (Tony's legacy and defending his position as a war deterrent) gets thrown out the window. There were just so many plot and logic holes, and I haven't even gotten into the lame, lame Marvel jokes. This is the first real appearance of the gag humor I would come to hate so, and it is an unwelcome blotch on a terrible, terrible movie. 3/10 The thing that really kills me is that this piece of shit still has something in the 70's on RT. RT is a joke. For popular stuff, their audience rating is much more useful. For artsy stuff, just use Letterboxd. Actually, just use Letterboxd anyway...
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Post by jakesully on Sept 4, 2020 17:24:58 GMT
These MCU films don't really hold up that well with the exception of a few (The Winter Soldier is great though because it plays out like a political thriller & features an evil Robert Redford that offs his cleaning lady haha)
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 4, 2020 22:56:04 GMT
These MCU films don't really hold up that well with the exception of a few (The Winter Soldier is great though because it plays out like a political thriller & features an evil Robert Redford that offs his cleaning lady haha) Best villain of the series, hands down. I wasn't big on the movie - its examination of politics is basically "some people are bad" and the action scenes were just as pointless and even more joyless than usual - but Redford showed why he's STAR material and that they don't make actors like him anymore.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2020 0:49:20 GMT
Iron Man 2 - I hated so much about this, but I was actually enjoying myself at first. Paltrow does a great job as Pepper, making her exasperation with Tony really authentic as she tries to run his company (too bad the movie straight up takes a dump on her at the end: it seems that a woman's place is in Tony's pants and not actually being productive or intelligent). Mickey Rourke is pretty bad, but the character of Ivan Vanko is interesting. His whole plan is basically "show that any idiot can make a suit" and watch Tony get torn apart by public opinion, which is pretty much just a rehash of the Joker in TDK but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Speaking of public opinion, I was completely on the side of that politician and Hammer demanding accountability for Iron Man and would have found a movie dealing with that topic to be really cool. But we don't get that movie. We get some nonsense about Tony facing imminent death unless he follows a secret treasure map left over by his father (ugh, is this where Hackjob Abrams got that horrible idea?), we get Hammer faking a terrorist's death so that he can leave him completely unsupervised to make a suit, we get Rhodes stealing an Iron Man suit AND USING IT AT A HAMMER EXHIBITION WHEN IT IS CLEARLY STARK TECH because his superiors demand that he... pose for Hammer? WHAT? He publicly took it! And how did Vanko manage to program that suit without having access to it? We also get sexualized Natasha Romanoff, and I hated it. Can't a woman be smart and strong and sexy without being a fetishized piece of meat? And the choreography in her fights made no sense. Can George Miller get into the MCU and show them what a real writer/director can do? What was Vanko's endgame anyway? His original plan was fine, he wanted to watch Tony suffer and was willing to go to prison for it. But why just create a robot army to attack civilians? Everything the movie could and should have been about (Tony's legacy and defending his position as a war deterrent) gets thrown out the window. There were just so many plot and logic holes, and I haven't even gotten into the lame, lame Marvel jokes. This is the first real appearance of the gag humor I would come to hate so, and it is an unwelcome blotch on a terrible, terrible movie. 3/10 The thing that really kills me is that this piece of shit still has something in the 70's on RT. The thing that really kills me is that people even look at RT But yeah, Iron Man 2 is horrible even by the standards of these new Marvel movies.
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 22, 2020 0:15:00 GMT
Thor - This is actually better than I remembered. Still bad though. As my sister pointed out, Odin does nothing right as a father the whole movie, and Loki is the real hero until he loses his mind over his daddy issues. Loki's development would be really intriguing if the movie ever actually focused on him. Instead, we're given Thor, who's like Iron Man but even more arrogant and objectively a dick. The whole subplot of Thor in exile is some of the worst stuff to come out of this franchise and it ALL needs to be cut. The romance is inconsequential because Thor and Jane never *interact.* They have... two conversations? In the first, he tells her that he'll tell her everything later... and then he doesn't. In the second... I can't even remember the second. I just watched the movie and I can't remember what happened.
This whole thing is just a bland, pointless bit of backstory. The action scenes are just... there, and not interesting at all. So meh. Slightly better than I recall. Still crap. 4/10
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 26, 2020 0:18:02 GMT
Captain America: The First Avenger - One of two MCU movies I remember really enjoying, and I haven't cooled on this rewatch. I love almost everything about this. It sets up its good vs. evil conflict better than all previous MCU instalments in this franchise. Red Skull is a "bully" and fights for ruling the world (a simple but effective characterization that paints him as a surrogate Hitler). Captain America fights for those who can't. Unlike Iron Man (an asshole that has to overcome his own hubris), Thor (an asshole that has to overcome his own hubris) or Hulk (a hunted fugitive wanting to be left alone), Cap is a beacon of goodness, and I dug that there is no subversion of that persona. He really is truly good.
And because of that, we're free to see this as a clash of goodness fighting for the oppressed vs. evil fighting for power. Just as we would see America fighting Germany in any Captain America serial from the 40s. Okay, I haven't seen any of those, but I'm not wrong, am I?
The cast is uniformly great, with Weaving, Toby Jones and Tucci doing their best outrageous German accents, Tommy Lee Jones doing what he does best (and doing it even better than normal!), Atwell supplying spunk, and Neal McDonough sporting the most badass facial hair in recent memory. Stan isn't given much to do and Bucky is by far the weakest part of the script - and this does get a bit long, making me wish that he had been removed completely.
The production design does that retro-future thing I love so much, kudos there. The montage sequences are pretty much perfect, showing us what we need to know without feeling like pure exposition. The action is fun and fitting for the old fashioned pulp serial this is emulating. It's all wonderful. Hands down the best movie so far. 8/10
P.S. "I had a date" is a heartbreaking ending and a demonstration of how much these movies could do if they followed characters that aren't self-serving asshats.
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 29, 2020 1:00:35 GMT
The Avengers - Ugh. There are three modes here. The first is crappy exposition and technobabble. The second is arguing (and arguing and arguing and please just get a hammer to the face and shut up). The third is terribly edited fight scenes that split between 4-6 different locations simultaneously, with the result that none of them have any impact. On characters: Loki wasn't a power hungry wannabe despot (he was a cunning agent in the shadows, but then he lost his mind over daddy issues and became an imbecile - point is, he wasn't begging to be king), but hey we needed a villain. Iron Man, Cap, Hulk and Thor are all given such paper thin "go here, do this" crap by the plot that it's hard to even work out what their arcs are supposed to be. Tasha and Barton would maybe be interesting if the movie treated them like professionals instead of lovestruck teenagers. Why did the bit in Germany exist? Why did Barton need that guy's eye? Gosh, could they have made aliens any more boring. A wild Harry Dean Stanton appears! Always welcome, but why cast him for that role? If there is any good to this movie, it is that I enjoyed some of Banner's scenes when he isn't engaged in an argument. And his Hulk smashing was the only fun part of the finale, because at least I knew what the hell he was doing. Ruffalo is a major downgrade from Norton, but the character is the least damaged by Whedon's very formula driven thinking. 4/10... maybe. I'm hovering over a 3 right now. Edit: 3/10. This movie blows.
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Post by Pavan on Sept 29, 2020 8:37:37 GMT
The Avengers - Ugh. There are three modes here. The first is crappy exposition and technobabble. The second is arguing (and arguing and arguing and please just get a hammer to the face and shut up). The third is terribly edited fight scenes that split between 4-6 different locations simultaneously, with the result that none of them have any impact. On characters: Loki wasn't a power hungry wannabe despot (he was a cunning agent in the shadows, but then he lost his mind over daddy issues and became an imbecile - point is, he wasn't begging to be king), but hey we needed a villain. Iron Man, Cap, Hulk and Thor are all given such paper thin "go here, do this" crap by the plot that it's hard to even work out what their arcs are supposed to be. Tasha and Barton would maybe be interesting if the movie treated them like professionals instead of lovestruck teenagers. Why did the bit in Germany exist? Why did Barton need that guy's eye?
Gosh, could they have made aliens any more boring. A wild Harry Dean Stanton appears! Always welcome, but why cast him for that role? If there is any good to this movie, it is that I enjoyed some of Banner's scenes when he isn't engaged in an argument. And his Hulk smashing was the only fun part of the finale, because at least I knew what the hell he was doing. Ruffalo is a major downgrade from Norton, but the character is the least damaged by Whedon's very formula driven thinking. 4/10... maybe. I'm hovering over a 3 right now. For Iridium. Acts as a stabilizing agent for the Tesseract.
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 29, 2020 11:54:24 GMT
For Iridium. Acts as a stabilizing agent for the Tesseract. Right. Something was mentioned in one of the many, many info dumps. So the vault had iridium? Why would a guy store one of the most precious and rarest metals on earth in a (personal?) vault? Who was that guy, is he important? Or am I just totally lost because my mind turned off twenty minutes in?
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Post by Pavan on Sept 29, 2020 14:48:12 GMT
For Iridium. Acts as a stabilizing agent for the Tesseract. Right. Something was mentioned in one of the many, many info dumps. So the vault had iridium? Why would a guy store one of the most precious and rarest metals on earth in a (personal?) vault? Who was that guy, is he important? Or am I just totally lost because my mind turned off twenty minutes in? Some scientist guy i think. Need to watch it again.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Sept 30, 2020 6:41:38 GMT
Man, if you are rating Thor a 4... I imagine something in the negatives for The Dark World.
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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 30, 2020 14:02:41 GMT
Man, if you are rating Thor a 4... I imagine something in the negatives for The Dark World. Well, I remember what I thought of it my first time, but we'll see how it goes once I get there.
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 2, 2020 1:05:31 GMT
Iron Man 3 - First time watch. Below is my face through this whole movie: Uh, Tech Sergeant Chen's face, not Tawny Madison. This was a blast. Didn't feel like Marvel at all. It starts with Shane Black: This is much more of a 90s buddy action movie than a sanitized toy factory, and that is true all the way down the line. Tony actually has real personal issues he has to wrestle with, first off. Although I felt that the panic attacks were not handled very well, I appreciate that he isn't just "wisecracking Tony Stark" in this film. I hated "wisecracking Tony Stark." Having him struggle with his perceived inferiority without the suit was a good characterization move and also allowed for more dynamic fight scenes that weren't just CGI punching and shooting. The buddy stuff with the kid and Rhodes and even Pepper were all handled with much better comedic flair than Favreau could dream of, so kudos for that. And finally, I just really dug this villain. No over-serious bad guy out to take over the world or wreak revenge for his daddy issues, just a guy trying to hide his mistakes. It's a novel approach. Ben Kingsley is brilliant in his role - and Guy Pearce was pretty good in what he was given, which was higher quality material than any other Marvel villain so far, that's certain. And you know what? The ending with Tony finally giving up the Iron Man suit actually felt like an earned character arc. A shame that he will get forced back into the suit somehow in the future. I would have liked a movie with Tony in a supporting role. It isn't perfect - it is very dependent on coincidence, the action is occasionally dodgy (still better than most of the MCU), Pepper gets reduced too much... which pains me, because she's the best part of the Iron Man character. But this is still *good.* Which is a surprise, because I hate Tony. I guess we just needed him to do something a bit different. 7/10Oh, and the post credits scene is easily the best so far.
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 3, 2020 0:31:11 GMT
Thor: The Dark World - Bland and forgettable. But it isn't terrible. Loki is loads of fun here and definitely the highlight of the movie. And the rest of it is just... meh. It isn't aggressively terrible like Iron Man 2 or The Avengers. It's just... there. It exists and is mildly amusing from time to time. Could be worse. 5/10, ranked 5th out of 8
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 6, 2020 1:05:09 GMT
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - There are a lot of really good things about this, but a lot of crap also brings it down. I enjoyed the conspiracy thriller spy elements and liked all of the double crossing. Black Widow is actually kind of a person this time instead of an object, so that's nice. Falcon is a cool character, and the assassination attempt on Nick Fury was really cool. The spy stuff for the first two acts is really solid (this begins losing its way with the introduction of Zola - more on that later). Robert Redford is perfect casting (he usually is) and his character was interesting... to a point.
But the negatives are just as heavy, and they're persistent. The action sequences are almost always photographed in close-up and shaky cam with rapid editing, making it impossible to tell what's going on - even by Marvel standards, this stood out in how incomprehensible the cinematography and editing made the fights. The conspiracy itself is... well, in theory it's pretty cool. Pierce's motivations are sufficiently understandable to get where he's coming from, but it all falls apart away from him. Hydra has been secretly planning this for decades, seeding hundreds upon hundreds of covert agents for this one checkmate move... and that is where my suspension of disbelief snaps.
Brainwashing as a public thing, teaching the masses what to believe, that's a tried and true formula. That would have made Hydra scary. But this is somehow creating a whole shadow organization from (I assume) previously brainwashed people to take part in a worldwide mass murder. That just makes the bad guys into "the other" without showing how the rank and file truly come to believe this message, and it cuts the menace off at the knees. This isn't a scary puppet faction controlling the world, it's just a group of bad guys who do bad things for bad reasons.
And because the movie is so serious about its conspiracy threat, this breaks what I can buy. If they were portrayed as silly Nazi goons like in the first Cap America, I'd have no problem. But when you try to pretend that this is intelligent, you have to back it up with something. And the writers try, heavens bless them: Alexander Pierce is an excellent figurehead for the stench of evil. But I don't see how his mindset infects the lower members of Hydra.
This is still enjoyable. It is ultimately hindered by its nature as a superhero movie, and melds the two halves poorly. The clear good vs. evil nature of superheroes doesn't mesh with the grey morality of the spy narrative, the suspenseful assassinations and testing of who can be trusted is undermined by the refusal to let any of the "heroes" actually be tempted by evil, the OTT CGI fights don't belong in the same film as the narrative of searching for somebody to trust. But individually, the scenes mostly work. And even taken as a whole, this is really solid until the mess of a third act becoming overly didactic (and also full of confusing action scenes). 6/10, ranked 3rd out of 9
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 9, 2020 2:59:22 GMT
Guardians of the GalaxyThis was even more fun a second time around. It has a vibrancy and wonder to it that is totally lacking in the other films, in which superheroes are just taken for granted. Here, the galaxy is teeming with life, *bursting* with imagination and goofy fun, all the way down to bit roles. The behind the scenes threat of Thanos is handled superbly, keeping a tension of a greater evil but never losing focus of the story at hand. Great sequel hook material. I think the big reason this succeeds is that it isn't a superhero movie. This is more akin to Firefly than The Avengers, with its band of misfit ruffians all working together with teeth clenched because there's nowhere else to go (and there's a handy payday at journey's end). I am in love with the change. I am in love with everything about this. I don't even have negatives. The final fight is even engaging, showing all of the Xandarians banding together to stop the Dark Aster from destroying the planet. Not gonna lie, it pulled at the heartstrings watching those fellas hold. *sniff* Yeah. This is awesome. 9 or 10/10, ranked 1st out of 10
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 15, 2020 3:08:31 GMT
Avengers: Age of Ultron - First time watch. This is messy, but pretty fun once it gets past the atrocious first act.
I'll start with what I hate. I hate the retconning of Hulk (uh, he has a girlfriend... and a whole movie that you're ignoring even though it's one of your better efforts), the retconning of Iron Man (HE RETIRED!!!), the existence of Thor, the awful opening action sequence, the weird second act twist of Vision just suddenly coming into being, and of course the standard crap editing that makes it impossible to know what is going on. The Natasha/Bruce romance is gag inducing (even ignoring the retcon) and takes far too much time, the entire plot happens because Tony and Bruce lose their minds despite Tony's change towards responsibility in IM3 and Bruce always appearing to be... uh, reasonable and not crazy.
But there's a lot to like here. Ultron wants to destroy the world (*yawn*), but he's a funny guy and I like his ego and anger issues. The latter makes him more relatable and understandable, and the former helps sell his grandiose plans of destruction. James Spader is one of the more reliable actors out there, and he does a great job of selling every moment. Barton is tons of fun and I like that he has a bigger role here, actually doing something. The middle action sequences are a lot of fun, especially the pirate ship (Pietro attempting to grab Mjolnir is a comedic highlight) and the transporting of the Cradle. But even then, wonky editing sometimes gets in the way (Wanda seemingly teleporting to each of the Avengers and feeding them mushrooms).
The twins are... fine, I guess. It's clear that Wanda and Vision are roster padding in this movie and any development of their characters will happen later (much like Barton finally shining here). Most of the Avengers are just themselves and that isn't really my thing. But the newer characters are either fully formed (Ultron) or show a lot of promise (Wanda/Vision/Andy Serkis's pirate), and a bright future is ahead.
Oh, what's that? I don't remember truly liking any of the movies from here on out (a couple of them were okay)? Bummer. 6/10, ranked 5th out of 11
EDIT: Spader should have been in our poll of greatest voice acting performances. He brings so much to the table.
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Post by Martin Stett on Oct 16, 2020 2:57:20 GMT
Ant-Man - Hoo boy, this is not my cup of tea. Even if this movie isn't all that bad, it is custom made to grate on my nerves. There are so many things about this that I despise. There is no earthly reason for Pym to recruit Lang for this mission, and the silly training montages are so "wacky" that the threat is impossible to take seriously. Lang's team is easily the most punchable assortment of personality quirks in any Marvel movie - which is quite an accomplishment when the Avengers exist. The subplot of Lang's daughter and ex-wife would be a nice touch if his daughter wasn't a factory made fountain of "cute" tropes. I wanted to murder that little girl (I had the same reaction to DC's Shazam). The Pym family's issues are forced upon us through the most unnatural exposition that I have seen in a LONG time, and resolves itself so quickly that there is absolutely no reason to care that it happened at all. It's forced drama.
Seriously, have the writers ever spoken to a human being before? There is no subtlety here.
Whatever, there's still the action, right? I would give credit for this not being the normal massive city in peril thing that this franchise does, but I don't give points for effort. I get that Ant-Man is meant to be silly, but the gags are so obvious and so devoid of any kind of unexpected, clever play. The villain says "I'm going to disintegrate you!" (the worst line a movie filled with godawful writing) and haha, a phone begins playing Disintegration. Ant-Man throws Thomas the Tank Engine and it gets big... get it? Because it's a TOY and now it's LIKE A REAL TRAIN! WE'RE SO SMART!
....I hate this. I hate this so much. 3/10, ranked 12th out of 12
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