Marvel Cinematic Universe

[deanb]

Only Obadiah Stone was an employee, Ivan was the son of a disgraced engineer (though I think his dad had worked for Stark's dad in the past), and Alrdirch was part of AIM, an almost competitor to Stark Industries (though more of a terrorist org at odds with most folks, but personally jilted by Stark).

[Thursday Next]

Only Obadiah Stone was an employee, Ivan was the son of a disgraced engineer (though I think his dad had worked for Stark's dad in the past), and Alrdirch was part of AIM, an almost competitor to Stark Industries (though more of a terrorist org at odds with most folks, but personally jilted by Stark).

 

Ah, I thought Ivan worked for Stark, didn't realise it was his dad, and the extremis guy was a fired researcher of his. Oh well, the explosions and stuff were pretty.

[madbassman39]

There was a lot of references to Marvel characters we haven't seen, one was clearly an Elektra reference, and I believe there was some stuff for Iron Fist as well. Plus, Stilt Man's legs. I'd like to see a compilation of all the easter eggs, hopefully someone can put something like that together soon.

 

I haven't watched Daredevil yet (going to after my gf and I catch up with Arrow), but I really hope Iron Fist becomes part of the Netflix series.

[deanb]

He's getting his own afaik

[TCP]

Daredevil, followed by AKA Jessica Jones, and then Iron Fist and Luke Cage will each get their own series, after that they'll all team up for a Defenders miniseries. 

[TheMightyEthan]

If they keep up this quality level I'm gonna be super psyched.

[TCP]

AoS / Daredevil connection:

 

Near the end of the first season, Coulson talks about Skye's orphanage, which had the same name of the one Matt went to.

 

[Hot Heart]

 

whatever stupid villains feature in the Iron Man movies.

 

Mostly current or former employees iirc.

 

 

Terrorists Businessmen.

[Hot Heart]

A couple of bits on the next "Defenders" show: AKA. Jessica Jones

 

http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/430217-first-look-at-david-tennant-and-mike-colter-in-marvels-a-k-a-jessica-jones

 

I actually don't know much about this part of the Marvel universe (and I kinda don't want to "spoil" any more), but the basic concept sounds very similar to Powers. Another series by Bendis... 

 

On the subject of the Netflix shows though, I finished Daredevil. Overall, it was really good and shows a lot of promise. In way more detail...

 

SPOILERS FOR BITS ALL OVER THE PLACE OF THE WHOLE THING

 

I think they nailed the tone, and the pacing was done really well. Episodes flowed together, and there wasn't any real bloat as such.

 

The supporting cast was given a good deal of attention, which was really neat. They all had significant parts and I think the Foggy stuff when discovering Matt's identity played out truthfully and wasn't just glossed over. Other places with compressed storytelling, it might just have been an exchange along the lines of, "I have to do this", "Okay, I don't like it, but I understand."

 

Charlie Cox was really good, because it's probably also really tricky to pretend to be blind against your instincts (like responding to nods). Also, he managed to do Daredevil without having to go over the top with a "Batman voice".

 

There was also some cool action in there. Some of it lacks the slickness of a big-budget action film (obviously) but the "story" of the scenes works well. Such as the one-take corridor fight/slugfest or the Nobu fight for his life thing, with the neat "twist" at the end.

 

I also actually really liked the "ninja" costume. I mean, I know that he's got to put on the daredevil costume, but the simple black get-up worked so well visually (or maybe that's just my Batman love). Though, there's that whole thing of calling him the The Man in Black/The (Man in the) Mask/The Devil of Hell's Kitchen/Daredevil which was a nice development.

 

The actual Daredevil costume itself was kinda goofy, but the saving grace is that it still isn't the final article (assuming that's what was meant with the tailor explaining its unfinished/vulnerable pieces) so I figure they can do more with it if they wish. I think it could at least go a little more red, maybe simplify the thing as a whole? I dunno. Didn't bother me that much, but I think it could be improved. All the other Marvel heroes have had rad costumes, so I have faith.

 

That said...

 

The finale felt a little underwhelming. The only thing I can really put it down to, is that they're trying to reconcile those two parts of Murdock having to do things by the law while still giving people what they want: Daredevil... punching people.

 

That's what kind of bothered me with the final showdown. Fisk has this speech about realising that he is the man of ill intent (which is neat) but then he's shouting at Daredevil not long after that he's the saviour figure he'd previously imagined himself to be. Felt off and unsatisfying. With Fisks child-like portrayal I would've expected him to have just been upset that he can't just be allowed to run away or something.

 

Which brings me onto the main thing I couldn't really get past: Fisk himself. I usually like D'Onofrio, and he can give delightfully idiosyncratic performances, but it didn't come together for me here (and the less said about Vanessa relationship stuff, the better). There are great moments, and I appreciate what seems like an attempt at a more nuanced take on the character, but he's a little too all over the place and his speech feels too forced.

 

It was also dumb that Evil Shawshank Warden was all, "You've been acting crazy and stuff, making bad decisions. Anyway, here's how I've betrayed you and am gonna steal half your shit and you probably won't do anything because of this feeble back-up plan. I totally expect to walk out of here."

 

Also dumb was the old "villain beats up hero and could kill him but then leaves his henchmen to finish the job... oh, look, he escaped" trope.

 

Gripes aside, it shows a lot of promise and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the stuff hinted at with Stick. With The Hand and Black Sky and all that.

 

[Hot Heart]

Haha. Wicked. The punch-by-punch narrator for Daredevil's fight scenes is crushing it.

[deanb]

 

Kinda amazing how large the scope is, only thing noted as being close is James Bond and that's really a massive string of sequels.

[TCP]

OH MAN!

OH MAN!!!!!

How rad was The Vision?! Ultron was great too. That ending with the New Avengers HYPE!!! 

 

RIP Quicksilver.

 

I guess I'm never going to get a Hawkeye movie/tv series based off Matt Fraction's run. Oh well. At least Hawkeye was awesome.

Over all I really, really liked this movie... in fact I might have liked it more than the original Avengers movie... time will tell It was just a rollercoaster of awesome things. The first Avengers film had some lows, and I don't really know if this one did... 

It also did a really great job of representing the size of the MCU, with War Machine (what happened to Iron Patriot?), Falcon, Maria Hill, all being represented, it was just missing Phil Coulson and his team but that might have been too much, I suppose.

So, The New Avengers... will they all be in Civil War or will they take the first Infinity War movie? 

Edited May 3, 2015 by The Cowboy Poet

[TheMightyEthan]

I just saw it today.  I think my favorite part was

the slightly worried expression on Thor's face when Cap was trying the hammer.

 

[TCP]

I now present my updated ranking of the Marvel films:

 

1) Guardians of the Galaxy

2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3) Avengers: Age of Ultron

4) The Avengers

5) Iron Man 3

6) Thor 

7) Captain America: The First Avenger

8) Thor: The Dark World

9) Iron Man

big drop off

10) Incredible Hulk

giant drop off

11) Iron Man 2

[Hot Heart]

I rewatched A: AoU the other night, having read this guy's "tweetnotes". He's a professional script reader/editor, so these are like proper scriptnotes, i.e. SPOILERS

 

It's actually a great watch when you look at it through that lens. In the way that Deus Ex: HR had everything, from its side missions to its main ones, connected to the transhumanism theme, everything in this is equally on point.

 

 

We're talking the main stuff, right down to Hawkeye's constant home renovations and the Bruce/Natasha talk about having children. Also cool is how Cap and Tony's viewpoints are informed by their own separate Phase 2 films that came beforehand.

 

Anyway, I see that there are some polarising views in some parts. Some of it misguided ("Why isn't Ultron a boring, straight-faced killer robot rather than something 'born' from Tony Stark?") and some of it clearly spawning from the theme being somewhat unpalatable to a mainsteam audience, and simply the fact that there is "too much" there. As well as the quieter moments never really getting a chance to breathe, equally, the action flies along at breakneck speed.

 

Take, for example, the Iron-Man bit with the missile at the end of The Avengers. There's a whole bit there with trying to contact Pepper, the guiding it up, the fall down, the waking up after... In AoU, they have that plan and suddenly they need to completely rip apart Sokovia, and that just happens so fast it's just... Iron Man goes in, starts zapping the thing, Thor smacks it really hard, big load of destruction, they get away. Job done.

 

Equally, there's Quicksilver rescuing the people in the tram's path or Haweye catching the "cradle" with Vision inside. Some films (and the earlier Marvel entries) would play up the tension, the struggle of pulling it off... here, it just happens. It's very comic book-y in that regard.

 

Either way, I'm glad it wasn't just another "team comes together to beat a big foe" story and that they did something a little different, safe in the knowledge that this film will make loads anyway. And I'm really hoping that rumour of a director's cut is true (Marvel have never done that before).

 

 

Oh, yeah. Guess it's our re-ranking time again.

 

Having rewatched Winter Soldier and GotG, I actually don't think I could pick between my top... three now.

 

My attempt:

1. The Avengers

2. Avengers: Age of Ultron

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

4. Guardians of the Galaxy

5. Thor: The Dark World

6. Iron Man

7. Thor

8. Iron Man 3

9. Captain America

10. Iron Man 2

 

Unseen: The Incredible Hulk.

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

I had a thought yesterday that if 4k bluray really hits later this year then this might be my first one.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I saw Avengers 2 twice and still think The Winter Soldier tops Marvel's list. It's something like Winter Soldier>Avengers 2=Guardians (completely different reasons as to why they're good)>Other stuff. TBH the first Avengers is a bit forgettable. It's just a super hero movie. This is a crew that needs a shitload of internal conflict or it just comes off as comic book stuff. Winter Soldier has that basically as its plot and it does so well because of it.

[Mr. GOH!]

Avengers 2 was fun, and I liked it more than 1, but I feel like 2 had a bunch of distracting problems. Chief among them is that the movie feels like a lot of dialogue and plot was cut in favor of keeping the fights long. I am convinced the "Thor goes to a pond in a cave" plot line was done in reshoots and that Thor was originally going to do something else more interesting than re experience the vision from Scarlet Witch, which I also think was changed significantly in editing.

 

I also feel like scenes depicting Ultron's reason for wanting to blow up the planet and scenes dealing with Hill and Fury getting non-Hydra SHIELD folks back together to fly the helicarrier were cut. 

 

I eagerly await seeing the New Avengers, along with (presumably) Ant-Man and Black Panther (and Danvers's Captain Marvel?), eventually, in action. 

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

^I'd be interested in a cut with a bit less fighting and more dialogue. At least the fighting was a lot better this time around.

[Mr. GOH!]

On an unrelated note, Daredevil is shockingly violent for a Disney TV series.

[deanb]

I'm ot understand Agents of Sheild covers the whole "rebuidling SHIELD, getting the old helicarrier in operation" stuff.

 

People have theorised he was meant to meet Death at the pool, since at the time it was assumed the lass in the pool in the trailers from Wakandan, it's now theorised it was Death. Just now cut from the film. However there is going to be a Director's Cut, with different ending, so I guess hang around n see what changes then. Pool wise as well folks think is a set-up for Thor: Ragnarok too.

 

I'm kinda curious on how Civil War will pan out now actually. We're starting to get enough heroes and it's starting to sound like it'll be almost as big as the Avengers films, though more grounded a la Winter Soldier. AoU didn't fully set-up the whole tension you'd figure it would between Stark n Rogers, but who knows.

 

Larger MCU wise now Thanos is up n about proper we're likely to see GotG2 have Xandar, home of one of hte infinity gems, go from:

(as we last sorta saw it in GotG) to:

As it is in the comics, and probs very quickly and abruptly. I'd say first 10 minutes. Boom, Thanos arrives, gets what he wants, blasts planet up (sets up a bit for Richard Ryder too maybe). Probs heads to Collector n gets the Ether too, n rest of plot is probs trying to get other newer gems and probs GotG getting together with Adam Warlock (who'll probs be a bit like how Vision arrived into AoU)

 

Then in Thor: Ragnork, Asgard, current home of the Space Gem/Tessarcat, is likely to also have Thanos pop up, though also might end up with things going south due to Loki's meddling too. Though Thor has a minor heads-up on all this now.

 

Then Infinity War, likely to see the final gem in place, GotG n Avengers team-up, and laid low. Oh n Vision likely killed too cos he has a gem in his head.

[TheMightyEthan]

Agents of Shield does deal with rebuilding Shield, although the helicarrier itself hasn't been mentioned yet.  It's possible it will pop up in tomorrow's episode, since if they do it like they did the Winter Soldier tie-in then this episode will take place during the events of Age of Ultron.

[TheMightyEthan]

I too want to update my list. Here's the original one I did:
 

The Avengers
Captain America 2
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man
Captain America
Thor 2
Thor
Iron Man 3
The Incredible Hulk  (rough estimate on placement, I've only seen it once and it was a long time ago)
Iron Man 2

1. The Avengers

-
2. Captain America: Winter Soldier

3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron

-

4. Guardians of the Galaxy

5. Captain America

-

6. Iron Man

-
7. Thor: The Dark World
8. Iron Man 3

-
9. Thor
10. Iron Man 2

-
11. The Incredible Hulk

 

The dashes indicate where I'm confident about the order.  The ones not divided by a dash means I'm not 100% sure about the order I put those in.  I re-watched all of them in the last month in preparation for Age of Ultron, so I no longer have the issue of trying to rate ones I haven't seen for a long time.

[Thursday Next]

I would bump both Cap films down that list, and push Thor and Iron man into the top 5.

[TheMightyEthan]

Well and the numbers make some of the lower ones look worse than they really are.  The only really big dropoff is before Hulk.  The rest of them, and especially the top 8, are all fairly close in quality.  Everything from 8 up would be at least an 8 out of 10, and Thor and IM2 would be like a 7.5/10.  Then Hulk's all alone at like a 5/10.