I was never an Iron Man fan. So when they started with him I was not as excited. Also, the idea that they would do a movie for each hero and then bring it all together into the Avengers was an interesting idea but I was not expecting it to work.
I was never an Iron Man fan at all, which is why Downey is so good - he makes the movies so enjoyable, even if you're not an Iron Man fan.
When comparing these to the X-men movies MCU does look better I think because they don't have any that are as bad as X3. But the X-men movies have mostly been just as good and doing some as period pieces in the past has been a great idea. I'd love to see MCU do that as well.
Two things. I think MCU works better as a whole because they planned it as a whole - with the phases and such. X-Men was planned more like the comics were written, with lots of retconning and craziness.
I sometimes wonder if The Last Stand was so bad because of folks like myself (and presumably you) that were imprinted by the Dark Phoenix saga, which in my mind is one of the greatest comic story arcs ever. That and the fact that X2 was so damn good. But yeah, X-Men 3 was one of the great nerd disappointments in media history, imo, perhaps only equalled by the horror that was Phantom Menace.
Agents of Shield is okay. Sure it gets better after the events of Winter Soldier but still it can only do so much because they restrict what can be on the show. I much preferred Agent Carter which was great and then of course Daredevil which was amazing.
I watched the first few episodes of Daredevil and thought it was OK, but don't love it. I'm leery of Agent Carter because I generally don't like stories set in the past of a main story line...it feels too much like you know how things are going to turn out.
Phase one was fun. They really got to the essence of each main character and allowed them to shine. Sadly the only villain of any note is Loki. If the MCU has failed at anything it is in establishing villains.
Yeah, I hear that.
Too much talking not enough smashing basically sums up the issues with Ang Lee's Hulk. It focused way too much on the daddy issues.
Which is probably why I liked it - more psychological depth, more origin story stuff, less all-out smashing. Smashing is fun, but gets a bit boring after awhile.
Thor, although one of the weaker entries in the MCU, was also pretty good. There's something almost Shakespearean about the relationships between Odin, Thor, and Loki. I will say that while Thor's buddy relationship with the male scientist (whose name escapes me right now) was good, I think the Jane character could have used a rewrite.
Totally agree - she was just too googly-eyed over Thor the whole time, with little agency of her own.
I greatly enjoyed the Avengers. It did have moments where it felt like it was too slow or where I just didn't care. I don't like Hawkeye in this movie. Before Age of Ulton, the only time I ever felt that I liked the Hawkeye character was during his appearance in Thor. They could have cut nearly every scene he's in out of the Avengers and it would have either been just as good or better than what we got.
Yeah, I also agree that Hawkeye was a bit bland or lacking something. Maybe it was the whole possession thing.
I'm giving this a separate line because it relates to both Avengers films. I'm really sick of films where the evil army can be entirely shut down by destroying a single ship or satellite or robot. Tony sets off the bomb, and the Chitauri all shut down. Kill Ultron, and all his drones shut down. And I know this isn't an MCU film and that Disney didn't own the property at the time, but the same thing happened with the droid army in the Phantom Menace. I'm sick of the evil army having a self-destruct button the heroes can punch to tie up all the loose ends.
I agree - it is a variation, or thinly-veiled version of Deux Ex Machina. I mean, even the Chitauri army wasn't quite as all-powerful as it could have been and just too easily defeated. Iron Man just pushes a nuke into that ship? Too easy.
Isn't Coulson kind of a dick? (Hear me out first)
Haha, well I'd have to watch Agents of Shield to form a judgment on that. But we can assume that he went and got nachos with Captain America off screen, no?
Tough crowd, Morrus! You use some strong words, like "awful" and such. I'm wondering if you are holding too high of a standard to these movies, or is it that you just aren't crazy about comic book movies, or comparing them to your own idea of the characters? Etc.
That said, I agree with a lot of what you said, just with a milder feeling about them. Oh yeah, I think Guardians of the Galaxy was overrated. It was pretty good, but I don't get the complete love people have for it.