promethia_tenk: (Default)
[personal profile] promethia_tenk
Attention internet: over the course of the last two weeks I have mainlined all of the Marvel movies, Iron Man through Infinity War, as if they were one massive TV season. Why did I do this? Still unclear. But suffice it to say I had only seen a handful of them previously, some people were talking about them, and I have a distractible attention span and a worryingly masochistic streak when it comes to my entertainment choices. My thoughts are below the cut, but if you choose to read, I feel I should disclose a few things to you up front:

1) I do not like superheroes. And plotlines that can be resolved by punching things.

2) I love television and think movies are a stunted and inferior medium.

3) As a fan of several of the Marvel tv shows, chief among them Agents of SHIELD, I have a massive and eternal chip on my shoulder about the way Marvel forces its tv shows to play second fiddle to the movie juggernaut.

Those caveats in place, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie juggernaut as a whole. But if you live, sleep, and breathe the MCU and will be put out by anything less than effusive praise, move along, nothing to see here . . .


I think the thing that worked best for me and which I did not properly anticipate ahead of time is how much I was going to like the crossover/mytharc-y aspects of these movies. It reached a point where I got quite annoyed every time I had to take a break from the 'real' story in order to sit through yet another freaking origin story. (Very few of the origin stories really justified their existence as their own thing, I thought.) But pretty much any time you had multiple super heroes interacting with each other, it made me happy. I'm an ensemble person at heart. I am mildly embarrassed by how much it thrilled me each time another member of the debilitatingly long cast list showed up in Infinity War. But if that's my reward for sitting through 19 movies I'm less than fully enthusiastic about, I'll take it.

I will say that marathoning these things was by far the best way to do it for me. Momentum kept things interesting that wouldn't be otherwise and made some of the weaker storytelling a lot easier to forgive. I'd never have made it through more than a few of these if I'd tried to watch them in theaters. I'll be interested to see how I fare now that I'm caught up.

Hot takes, movie by movie:

1) Iron Man: Tony Stark is a favorite, and I think his stand-alone movies basically stand up to scrutiny. I especially like them in light of the arc his character has taken into the later films. Surely one of the best character progressions of anybody in any of these movies.

2) The Incredible Hulk: listen, I like me some Edward Norton (mmmmm, Painted Veil, mmmmmmm), and I find the Hulk one of the more fundamentally interesting superhero set-ups (I mean, he's basically a warewolf, and I like warewolf stories), but nothing could make this watchable.

3) Iron Man 2: see Iron Man 1.

4) Thor: What incredible dreck, mitigated only by the extra servings of Phil Coulson (facing down the fire-spewing robot from outer space with all the bored bureaucratic disdain of a DMV clerk. Epic.) and that scene in the diner where Thor breaks the coffee mug. How did they con Natalie Portman into appearing in this turd?

5) Captain America: The First Avenger: Watchable. And to my tastes Steve Rogers generally stays on the endearing side of Too Noble for His Own Good. But, I'm sorry, Peggy Carter in this is a shallow, pale impression of the woman we get to know on her own show (Agent Carter: just watch it!) and that makes me sad.

6) The Avengers: Thoroughly enjoyable. Good humor. A+ popcorn fare. Plus the design of those alien spaceships: some of the best I've ever seen. They tapped into something primally frightening there. And I think I laughed for 30 seconds straight at the shawarma tag.

7) Thor: The Dark World:



8) Iron Man 3: see Iron Man 1 and 2.

9) Captain America: The Winter Soldier: This is the movie that made me sit up and want to know where this was all going. This was where the relationships between different people got interesting, where there was suddenly a story where before there was a bunch of disconnected bits and a crossover movie. Also, I am super easy for spy shit. I love spy shit, and this was basically a spy movie. Also the one where Natasha suddenly became my favorite. Go Nat. (N.B.: as a SHIELD fan, I had all the major plot points of this spoiled for me years ago. But still pretty good.)

10) Guardians of the Galaxy: I was less enthralled with this than the general fandom seemed to be. Epic soundtrack, shaky storyline. And while I like most of the characters, I don't think this one did great by any of them. Still, had some fun bits, and the opening credits scene of Chris Pratt dancing across an alien landscape and kicking space rats to Come and Get Your Love is one of my favorite beats in any of the films.

11) Avengers: Age of Ultron: I liked this more than I expected to because fandom seemed really down on it? But like I said, I just really liked anything that involved multiple superheroes interacting. I also found the argument over the creation of Ultron quite interesting in the 20 minutes before they managed to reduce him to a threat that could be defeated by punching it. Very pleasantly surprised by Wanda, who became a favorite despite an unpromising beginning. Very much approve killing off her much more boring brother for the sake of Wanda's manpain. Well done, movie. And I liked Natasha and Banner. Fight me.

12) Ant-Man: *sigh* I'm conflicted. Ant-Man has by far the most interesting mechanic of any of the superheroes. By which I mean, there are a set of rules you learn about how his powers work and then he wins by applying those rules creatively. (Reminded me of the Portal games, or of the ways that bending gets used in the Avatar shows.) And some of the ways this one sent up the conventions of action sequences was wonderful. And the main guy was . . . fine. But this is the point where I couldn't anymore with origin stories. The whole set-up of 'I made a thing and a bad person wants the thing' and so help me, I do not care.

13) Captain America: Civil War: this one blurs together a lot with Ultron in my head. There's a lot of things that I'm not sure which film they happened in, and my basic reaction is the same as Ultron: I think I liked this more than fandom did. Though the bits when they all actually start fighting each other were just laughable. Please, people.

14) Doctor Strange: Basically dreck, though I'd watch this over either of the first two Thor movies any day. Anybody else thoroughly distracted by how much Benedict Cumberbatch with an American accent sounds like Harrison Ford?

15) Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2: This had a bit of weight to it? I thought there was some surprising depth going on here, though as a movie I found it pretty ramshackle.

16) Spiderman: Homecoming: what an utterly unexpected delight. I'm gonna be honest here: my expectations for this one were not high (at least until Peter turned up in Civil War). Spiderman + high school? That could not sound less appealing to me. But, jeepers, they did basically everything right, and I am completely charmed. Also: Tony and Peter makes me all kinds of happy (see: Tony having the best character development of any of them.)

17) Thor: Ragnarok: when my sister told me this was one of her favorites, I was flabbergasted. You see, my sister and I are basically the same person, and I trust all of her opinions on these kinds of things implicitly. And yet, I think the first two Thor movies are basically the worst of any of them (barring The Incredible Hulk) and Thor himself is a hard meh. Impossibly, though, my sister was right. I don't know how they did it, but they figured out how to make a Thor movie . . . funny. And fun. And to feel like it had stakes I should care about. And while I thought the Doctor Strange movie awful, Steven Strange showing up in the mytharc fills me with a delight I cannot explain.

18) Black Panther: just as good as everybody says it is, and definitely the strongest of the origin stories. Drool-worthy world building, and more compelling women characters in one movie than we got in the whole rest of the franchise. I'd say my one gripe is that I would have liked to have gotten more of a sense of what makes T'Challa tick? The movie went deep on societal conflict and opposing ideas, which I don't think is any kind of mark against it, but in doing that I don't think we got as full of a picture of T'Challa himself as we did the other superheroes in their respective solo outings.

19) Avengers: Infinity War: so much more coherent than it had any right to be, given the sprawling setting and ludicrously large cast list. I was impressed with how much it invested me in it and how many genuine emotional beats it got in, given the ridiculous amounts of juggling it had to do. I do wonder how it played to people who aren't either foaming Marvel fans or stupid enough to mainline all of the movies in two weeks? I mean, that movie did no hand-holding. It didn't have the time to. I sort of . . . don't have an opinion on the big ending. Like Winter Soldier, being a SHIELD fan meant I had to be thoroughly spoiled for it ahead of time, so it lost a lot of impact. And being something that's obviously not going to stand, I'm not going to waste any time worrying about it.

Ok, going to bed now. Not sure if anybody cares about any of that *waves hand* But people seem to have opinions about Marvel movies, so I'll throw it out there.

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 05:13 am (UTC)
owlboy: (Default)
From: [personal profile] owlboy
All I can hear in my head when I see ''Ant Man'' is ''Ooh he can shRINK like Ant Man but is not Ant Man....''

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 06:33 am (UTC)
elisi: Rahul from Bake Off 2018 <3 (OMG!!!)
From: [personal profile] elisi
11thumbsup

I have no thoughts as I have just woken up and am running out the door to work. But am v impressed.

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 12:00 pm (UTC)
elisi: Edwin and Charles (Drama)
From: [personal profile] elisi
I don't have the time to be cool. Partly because I spend way too much time writing. (Just realised yesterday that the next chapter of my WIP clocks in at 6700+ words. *headdesk*)

And Deadpool is fab. Honestly couldn't care less about the plot, just give me snark.

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 12:16 pm (UTC)
elisi: Edwin and Charles (Default)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Damn, girl. Hey, whatever keeps you going.
It was a lot of fun, basically chronicling the fallout from Wolfram & Hart collapsing, and three million different things happening all at once. I as just on a roll.

Me, my brain just needs utterly constant feeding. This was a nice snack, basically.
*snerk* I create my own content.

I really enjoyed the first hour and then plot happened and I wish I'd just gone to bed.
Yeah, it should just be him doing asides to the camera throughout.

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 01:30 pm (UTC)
elisi: Edwin and Charles (Default)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Nice. That does sound interesting. Season five for the win, basically.
Kinda yes. But everything tail spinning. Trying to think of things like 'They have scorpions in the vending machines' and the guy who looks like a devil playing Racquetball with Angel. But like, the fallout.

it's like when Angel went from Buffy to AtS and suddenly the writers were willing to make fun of him constantly and all the themes got more interesting and deep and it made everything 100% better.
Cool.

Leave me by myself for a hot second and I'll be reading the cereal boxes. Though, don't leave me by myself and I might be reading the cereal boxes anyway . . .
My best friend when I was a teenager said that if she left me alone with nothing to read I'd start reading cereal boxes.

This. I'm not convinced the movie itself had any more to offer than YouTube clips of the movie would.
Have you seen all the ads for the 2nd movie? They're amazing.

(no subject)

Date: 15 Jun 2018 11:11 am (UTC)
elisi: River runs deep (Angel - river runs deep by miz_thang88)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Hahah. Awesome.
Since the overlap of people reading my story and people on your flist is probably zero, a few things I had fun with - an army from another dimension appearing out of a storage cupboard, a little old lady with levitating cats, a warlock who appears in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and the tourists think it's a movie promotion, a plague of locusts... :)

ETA: A snippet:

There was a loud scream, and Buffy tilted her head.

“I think that’s the exorcism of the Seers we found in Wolfram and Hart’s basement. Although it might be that evil centipede from another dimension which keeps clawing its way back through, no matter how often we banish it. Or maybe the sewer demon showed up again, one of the girls has a phobia…”

*clinks cereal boxes with you*
Trying to think back it may have been porridge recipes, but the principle holds.

Yeah, you showed me some of them.
I almost feel like I don't have to watch the movie. I mean, I probably will, once it turns up on Netflix.
Edited Date: 15 Jun 2018 06:50 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 16 Jun 2018 01:35 pm (UTC)
elisi: River runs deep (Angel - river runs deep by miz_thang88)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Wolfram and Hart was so great for that variety of jokes.
Aaaand that's probably the main reason the chapter ended up so long. Like, once you get going, it's difficult to stop.

Netflix is the answer. (#1 benefit of mainlining these things instead of seeing them in the movie theaters: being able to zone out and do other things during the dull bits.) ETA: also the substantial cost savings, obviously.
All of this.

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 10:42 am (UTC)
kass: Peggy Carter with Cap's shield (Peg-shield)
From: [personal profile] kass
I have only seen about half of these (I know, this makes me freakish in today's world) but i am absolutely with you on the ones I have seen. I was surprised and delighted by how much I like Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther filled me with joy.

(no subject)

Date: 14 Jun 2018 07:24 pm (UTC)
greensword: (our enemies are your enemies)
From: [personal profile] greensword
I've heard really good things about both Thor: Ragnarok and Spiderman: Homecoming - thank you for confirming their place on the top of my To Watch list. Thor: Ragnarok just got added to Netflix streaming, conveniently!

I kind of resent Tony Stark's character progression, not because it's not well done but because it seems to come at the cost of other characters who I like as much or more. Age of Ultron and Civil War could plausibly be Iron Man 4 and Iron Man 5, and from the sound of it he plays a big role in Spiderman: Homecoming as well. Meanwhile Sam Wilson gets like five minutes of screentime outside of Winter Soldier. Where is the justice? *weeps*

Anyway, at some point I will try to bury the hatchet against Tony and watch the Iron Man movies but I'm gonna do Thor 3 and Spidey and maybe some of the TV shows first.
Edited Date: 14 Jun 2018 07:24 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 16 Jun 2018 01:55 pm (UTC)
greensword: (Default)
From: [personal profile] greensword
I'm trying to decide what I think about the fact that Iron Man got sequels that are basically solely centered on him. As did Thor. And the second Guardians of the Galaxy is self-contained in their world. But the second and third 'Captain America' movies are really ensemble/crossover pieces. I mean, I think that speaks to Steve's role in the MCU, but it's also a bit unfair.

The second Cap movie is ensemble, but it still centers Steve - he's got a big character arc that drives the plot and the theme of the movie, and he's essential to the arcs of the other major characters. I'm not a big fan of the huge crossover films, it seems like they're too ensemble, and no one person has the chance to really grow or change, but I love Cap 2. If Cap 3 had given Steve the amount of development he had in Cap 2, I'd have been satisfied, but instead it was more like a big crossover film. I also really did resent that Tony got all of the extra screentime and development compared to Sam and Nat and even Bucky, who I got so attached to from Cap 2.

But as soon as the secret Avenger's base upstate was established and they created a team who basically hang around there, I just wanted a lot of movies about them.

Yeah, it turned out just to be a place to throw the spares and ignore them. Who was even at that base?

You've never seen the Iron Man movies?!?!

Like I said, I'm still getting over Tony taking over Cap 3. One day!
Edited Date: 16 Jun 2018 01:55 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 27 Aug 2018 12:19 pm (UTC)
elisi: Edwin and Charles (Drama)
From: [personal profile] elisi
5) Captain America: The First Avenger: Watchable. And to my tastes Steve Rogers generally stays on the endearing side of Too Noble for His Own Good. But, I'm sorry, Peggy Carter in this is a shallow, pale impression of the woman we get to know on her own show (Agent Carter: just watch it!) and that makes me sad.
So, I actually watched this the other night (well, most of it, from where he gets zapped with the magic juice that makes him super strong etc, and I have seen the very beginning before). Dunno if I have any thoughts, but at least the Bucky friendship thing is more fleshed out.

Figured as much wrt Peggy Carter. Kept telling the rest of the family that she had her own show and it was awesome and we should watch it.

Mind you, moments in this film (the Cap bringing back all the prisoners...) bit too American. (ETA: On the other hand, the 'shows' they put him in were beyond hilarious. Loved it.)

Although Stark Sr was a delight. I want a film with time travel with both Starks.
Edited Date: 27 Aug 2018 02:05 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 1 Sep 2018 07:54 pm (UTC)
elisi: (Shiny! Kaylee by eyesthatslay)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Lol. Well, you can't say they didn't warn you. It's kind of in the title. Full truth in advertising, there.
Oh I wasn't surprised, it was just 'Oh we have reached peak patriotism'...

*hands* Howard Stark is a major character on Agent Carter and it's fab.
!!!

About me:

Parapsychological librarian and friendly neighborhood heretic.