Marvel Cinematic Universe Thread - Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She Hulk shows announced for Disney+

[SerialCeler]

So, in preparation for Civil War I am going to re-watch the whole of the Marvel cinematic universe (well, except for Age of Ultron and Ant-Man as I don't have those). Some of them I haven't seen since watching them at the cinema so it'll be good to go back and review them with the benefit of hindsight. I'll be watching them in MCU chronological order.

First up was Captain America: The First Avenger, which I watched last night. Here are some thoughts (spoiler alert if you haven't seen any of the MCU so far) .

• This is Marvel's most underrated movie. It doesn't get the hype of some of the later entries, but it's got a great tone, some great performances with decent characters and a good story. Joe Johnston did a good job as director.

• When the SHIELD agents show up at the start to find Cap in the ice, I'm surprised one of them wasn't Coulson. That would have been a good tie in to the other phase one movies. Perhaps Clark Gregg wasn't available.

• I didn't notice Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald from Doctor Who) was one of the dates Cap and Bucky take to the fair first time around. After watching last night, it turns out the other date was Sophie Colquhoun, who plays Cynthia in one of my favourite sitcoms, Plebs.

• Another thing I missed at the cinema in the fair scene was Phineas Horton's Synthetic Man on display – the original Jim Hammond Human Torch. That was a nice touch.

• Bucky is in this film a lot more than I remember when I watched it the first time. I could barely remember him being in it. Perhaps I was just more attuned to noticing him now.

• What a waste of Natalie Dormer ( ) in an absolutely nothing role. I suppose it doesn't preclude her taking a bigger role as a different character in the future. (Note to self: Cast Natalie Dormer when Marvel gives me green light and $200 million dollars to make Captain Britain movie (possibly as Meggan?), get to know her, then marry her )

• I've got to talk about Bucky's death. What were they thinking, making it so clear? You see him slip off the train, falling hundreds of metres into the gorge and icy river. And in Winter Soldier we find out he was fine, and Hydra just went and picked him up (despite the Hydra operatives on the train who might have known he fell off presumably being arrested at the same time as Arnim Zola was). This is going to sound stupid – given I'm happy to believe a scrawny weakling can be injected with some serum and zapped in a little chamber and become a super soldier – but I find it hard to get to grips with. Having thought about it a bit more (probably too much), I get that Cap has to believe he was dead or he would never have stopped trying to rescue him (if it had been presented that Hydra had captured him instead, for example). Perhaps they just didn't need the shot of him falling into the ravine and could have left it a bit more ambiguous. Of course, I am presuming Marvel knew they were going to bring Bucky back at some point (they must have, I mean, everyone knows he became the Winter Soldier in the comics. But maybe they hadn't decided to do the Winter Soldier storyline. Although Sebastian Stan was contracted for multiple films already.

• Another bit of the story I was less keen on was Cap flying the small plane back into the plane. Leaving aside the fact he hangs on, etc before hand, suddenly he is a trained pilot (with no seat), fully capable of avoiding gunfire and piloting back into the other ship. Not convinced by that, even though I am able to accept a man was given a red face by a super serum that went wrong.

• Also what happened to that bomb-plane that got dropped by accident? Presumably just blew up part of France, but don't mind that.

• It's not exactly clear what Hydra's goals actually are. So they split from the Nazis, and the Red Skull wants to bomb a load of major cities, but why? I don't think they really explained this that well.

• Ironically, in comparison with Bucky's death, they left the Red Skull's deliberately ambiguous. He just got zapped up by the cosmic cube somewhere in the galaxy, leaving it open for him to return (once he gets back to Earth). Hugo Weaving has not ruled out returning completely, even though he's not enthusiastic. But even if he doesn't want to, just recast him. If they can do it for other major and minor characters, why not if they want to bring him back (blame the difference on travelling through the cosmic cube). I mean, that role is mostly prosthetics anyway!

• That plane was fast wasn't it. It only took about 15 minutes to get more than halfway across the Atlantic. I guess the tesseract is a powerful fuel!

• Hayley Atwell gives an great performance in this. I can now see why Marvel wanted to give her more to do.

• I read that Amanda Righetti (who plays the SHIELD agent when Cap wakes up) was initially cast in Avengers Assemble. And there was some suggestion (although can't find any proof) that she was playing Sharon Carter (before Emily van Camp was cast for Winter Soldier). They clearly changed their mind. But Van Camp is going to have to blow me away in Civil War, now I know I could have been watching Righetti instead (Note to self: If Natalie Dormer turns down Captain Britain, possibly cast Righetti and marry her instead.)

Tomorrow: Iron Man

[Buffalo]

Some interesting thoughts there, most of which I agree completely with. I've always said that the first CA movie is underrated.
No mention of the mighty Tommy Lee Jones hamming it up?! He was great in it.

[SerialCeler]

Some interesting thoughts there, most of which I agree completely with. I've always said that the first CA movie is underrated.
No mention of the mighty Tommy Lee Jones hamming it up?! He was great in it.

He's great too. It's a shame because of the time period many of these characters will only appear once (unless they do an Invaders movie, but you can't really have the Invaders without Cap).

Speaking of the Invaders, it was great they added Falsworth to the Howling Commandos but it would have been cool if they could have slipped in some kind of nod to Union Jack with his costume. Perhaps when the British government saw the success of America's costumed hero, they decided they needed one of their own.

Just on the Bucky thing also forgot to mention. Perhaps Zola had already been experimenting on him when he was captured before Cap rescued him, giving him some kind of extra durability to survive the fall.

[That's not a growth]

Just on the Bucky thing also forgot to mention. Perhaps Zola had already been experimenting on him when he was captured before Cap rescued him, giving him some kind of extra durability to survive the fall.

I always assumed that, actually.

[Memento Mori]

Just on the Bucky thing also forgot to mention. Perhaps Zola had already been experimenting on him when he was captured before Cap rescued him, giving him some kind of extra durability to survive the fall.

I always assumed that, actually.

I'm sure it's confirmed in Winter Soldier that's exactly what happened.

[BID0]

It is, didn't Cap rescue him from an operating theatre? Where as everyone else were locked up in cages.

Agent Carter Season 1 also touches upon
how Bucky was Brainwashed in to becoming The Winter Soldier.

And I think Natalie Dormer is a fan favourite for Captain Marvel. Although I hope it's Emily Blunt myself

[Cuttooth]

Watched Winter Soldier last night in preparation for Civil War and was pleasantly surprised at just how good a film it is. Something about the sheer saturation of Marvel films and TV series has kept me from really jumping into the whole Marvel Universe thing, however I realised I've only actually seen four films before yesterday: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and the two Avengers films (Age of Ultron being the most boring film I've seen in the cinema).

Watching Winter Soldier made me realise I enjoyed it more because it lacked Tony Stark, which makes me wonder if I should take the time and effort to go through the rest of the movies (or at least the ones that don't prominently feature Robert Downey Jr.), particularly since the stuff within Thor seems so central to the rest of the films?

Decided to watch the first Captain America anyway, and had to laugh at the choice of casting JJ Feild, who is the spitting image of Tom Hiddleston. Thought it was Hiddleston for a second and it was meant to be a bit of an in-joke.

[Irene Demova]

Watching Winter Soldier made me realise I enjoyed it more because it lacked Tony Stark, which makes me wonder if I should take the time and effort to go through the rest of the movies (or at least the ones that don't prominently feature Robert Downey Jr.), particularly since the stuff within Thor seems so central to the rest of the films?

Thor films are pretty bad
Cap 1's okay
Guardians is really fun
Ant man is fun
Iron Man 3 is THE WORST

Basically the further you get away from the big overarching plot of the Marvel Universe™ the more fun the film, so that supports your idea of not liking the films with Downey.

[Corazon de Leon]

I don't get the hate for Iron Man 3. As much as Downey is over-saturated it's still a good film.

[CitizenErased]

I don't get the hate for Iron Man 3. As much as Downey is over-saturated it's still a good film.

Agreed, I thought it was decent too.

[HSH28]

I don't get the hate for Iron Man 3. As much as Downey is over-saturated it's still a good film.

Agreed, I thought it was decent too.

Its a lot better than Iron Man 2, that's for sure.

So far the only Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel that's improved on the original is Winter Soldier.

[Memento Mori]

Watched Winter Soldier last night in preparation for Civil War and was pleasantly surprised at just how good a film it is. Something about the sheer saturation of Marvel films and TV series has kept me from really jumping into the whole Marvel Universe thing, however I realised I've only actually seen four films before yesterday: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and the two Avengers films (Age of Ultron being the most boring film I've seen in the cinema).

Watching Winter Soldier made me realise I enjoyed it more because it lacked Tony Stark, which makes me wonder if I should take the time and effort to go through the rest of the movies (or at least the ones that don't prominently feature Robert Downey Jr.), particularly since the stuff within Thor seems so central to the rest of the films?

Decided to watch the first Captain America anyway, and had to laugh at the choice of casting JJ Feild, who is the spitting image of Tom Hiddleston. Thought it was Hiddleston for a second and it was meant to be a bit of an in-joke.

Winter Soldier and Guardians are two of the best MCU films so you started well. Ant-Man is a more minor piece of work compared to those two but it was really enjoyable. Leads into Civl War as well so I'd recommend it.

I like the original Thor but Thor 2 was completely forgettable with one of the worst villains in the MCU. They originally wanted Mads Mikkelsen for it which would have been an utter waste.

[BID0]

Age of Ultron is the worst one too so you should definitely watch a few more if that has been one of the barometers thus far.

[Denster]

This will be the first Cap film I've seen at the Cinema. Looks really great actually.
I liked the Thor films but they could have been great and weren't.
Still haven't seen Ant Man and need to watch that and Winter soldier again prior to seeing this.

[Mafro]

Iron Man 3 was ace. Age of Ultron is nowhere near the worst

[Denster]

It's just not as good as the first Avengers film.
I liked it on first viewing. On second it isn't as good but has enough to recommend. Not anywhere near the worst Marvel film, though. That's utter gooseberry fool whoever said that.

Also since when has IM3 been gooseberry fool. The second one struggled a lot but I liked the third.

[Garth]

IM3 was great

Watched Ant-Man the other night and I've just finished watching The Winter Soldier again tonight, it's oh so good

[Skippy]

Iron Man 3 was ace. Age of Ultron is nowhere near the worst

Maf gets it

IM3 is hated by some comic fans purely for "ruining" Mandarin, but it was absolutely worth it for the great twist and how it played on genre-convention. Age of Ultron gets hate mostly for not feeling as special as the first Avengers, which it was never going to. Whedon was never going to recapture the magic of assembling the Avengers for the first time.

Personally I've enjoyed each of the MCU films, at least first time round. Thor 2 is the worst of them easily, followed by Hulk and IM2.

[SerialCeler]

Here's my thoughts on Iron Man.

• Great characters and great tone in this movie, but Robert Downey Jr's performance as Stark is fantastic. He dominates the first half of the movie (as he should) and has a great character arc. Apparently they started filming this without a finished script, but I think that was a benefit as RDJ's ad-libs make it seem much more natural.
• I'm not usually a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, but her chemistry with RDJ is great in this. What's going on with her hair though? A different style (and colour) in almost every scene. I presume this was to do with reshoots, as the wig looks totally different.
• Just a note on the friendship between Stark and Rhodes. Stark treats Rhodes like dirt to begin with (in keeping with his arsehole character), but when he offers Rhodes an olive branch to help him work on the Iron Man project, Rhodes just blows him off and essentially tells him to go back to making weapons for the airforce. What a jerk!
• Lots of Howard Stark pictures at the start. Perhaps they could go back are insert John Slattery into these, Star Wars special edition-style.
• The Tony Stark benefit takes place at the Disney Concert Hall, I thought that was ironic. Also, why is Coulson even at the benefit? Stark only attended on the spur of the moment, so he didn't know he would meet Tony.
• When Rhodes phone rings, Tony comes up as "The Starkster", I thought that was amusing.
• Another reason this film works so well is how cool it all seems. Tony Stark is cool. The Iron Man suit is cool. As Rhodes says when he sees the suit in the movie "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen".
• I also laughed when Rhodes looks at the War Machine armour and says "Next time, baby". Not for you Howard.

Next up: The Incredible Hulk

[chalkitdown]

Imagine hating Iron Man 3. Great movie and a lot of fun, also a great Shane Black movie. The guy can do no wrong for me.

MCU movies in order of excellence because everybody loves lists.

Captain America Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers
Iron Man
Iron Man 3
Ant-Man
Captain America
Thor
Avengers Age of Ultron
Incredible Hulk
Thor 2
Iron Man 2


I wouldn't say any of them are outright bad, just forgettable and bland towards the bottom of the list.