Movies: Marvel Cinematic Universe Discussion - Part 4

KallioWeHardlyKnewYe

Hey! We won!
May 30, 2003
15,766
3,804
Shang-Chi
Wakanda Forever
Black Widow
Multiverse of Madness
Eternals
No Way Home

Love and Thunder


I know I'm in the minority, here, but I thought No Way Home wasn't good. Other than the awesomeness of seeing the 3 Spiderman's in the same movie, the actual movie was a mess. And having Doc Oc and eventually Green Goblin turn good is as bad of an idea as introducing Reed Richards and killing him off in 3 minutes.
I think it's fine, but I definitely don't love it as much as most.

It's the Love Actually of superhero movies. It's about as cynically manipulative as it gets (and like Love Actually, some of it actually works largely to the charm of Andrew Garfield). But it's hard not to feel a little dirty and used by the end of it.
 

Holden Caulfield

He's guilty
Feb 15, 2006
23,335
6,160
Winnipeg
Shang-Chi
Wakanda Forever
Black Widow
Multiverse of Madness
Eternals
No Way Home

Love and Thunder


I know I'm in the minority, here, but I thought No Way Home wasn't good. Other than the awesomeness of seeing the 3 Spiderman's in the same movie, the actual movie was a mess. And having Doc Oc and eventually Green Goblin turn good is as bad of an idea as introducing Reed Richards and killing him off in 3 minutes.

I agree. To be honest I think No Way Home was easily my least favourite of phase 4.

Love and Thunder got slightly better upon rewatching on D+. Christian Bale's Gorr I'd a surprisingly effective villain. Yeah they lean into the campiness to much, and somehow feels too slow and yet oddly jumpy in places. But it's not as bad as the rep it's starting to get IMO. Still not a high point of MCU or even phase 4, but not as bad as people say. I have Love and Thunder above No Way Home.

1. Shang-Chi
2. Eternal
3. Black Widow
4. MultiVerse of Madness
5. Love and Thunder
6. Wakanda Forever
7. No Way Home

would be my phase 4 rankings
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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I'll still say that both Taika Waititi and James Gunn are better when there's some form of control over them. Gunn tends to lean too much into dick jokes where as Taika's writing can lean into silliness too much.
 
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Pranzo Oltranzista

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Oct 18, 2017
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Multiverse is the only one I thoroughly enjoyed. Shang-Chi is solid. Everything after that is a big jumble of flawed, bad and/or forgettable.

Really don't get the hype around Shang-Chi. I thought it was a slightly better variation on Wu Assassins, which was terrible. At least we agree about Black Widow being the worst thing MCU apart from She-Hulk.

(I'm joking, I know you don't agree on She-Hulk!)

I know I'm in the minority, here, but I thought No Way Home wasn't good.
I'm always in the minority, and always right, so no worry. It sucked. :nod:
 

Pierce Hawthorne

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Apr 29, 2012
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Just reading that list of titles is… oof. No matter how you order them, this is bottom-tier stuff relative to the earlier phases.

I dont think that's true at all.

Wakanda forever and Shang Chi were both great movies on level with a lot of the Phase 1, 2 and 3 MCU movies that weren't Avrngers stuff.


I also think Eternals is way better than its perceived. Love & Thunder and Black Widow were pretty bad however.
 

Big Poppa Puck

HF's Villain
Dec 8, 2009
20,743
1,051
D-Boss' Dungeon
No Way Home

Shang Chi
Multiverse of Madness
Wakanda Forever
Love and Thunder
Black Widow
Eternals

No Way Home is the only one in my MCU Top 10. The rest fall in that jumble mess in the middle that probably changes every time I rank them. With Hulk and Iron Man 3 always being at the bottom.
 

tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
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I dont think that's true at all.

Wakanda forever and Shang Chi were both great movies on level with a lot of the Phase 1, 2 and 3 MCU movies that weren't Avrngers stuff.


I also think Eternals is way better than its perceived. Love & Thunder and Black Widow were pretty bad however.

I didn't watch Shang Chi so can't comment.

Wakanda Forever was about as good as an Iron Man 3 type movie. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely not in the upper half of the Phase 1-3 entries. Which I guess makes your statement true, it is indeed on level with some of the earlier movies... but it also represents the upside of this phase, whereas those comparables were more like the 40% range.
 

x Tame Impala

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No Way Home was such a spectacle. It doesn’t matter if it’s not as good the second time bedside the first time around it was objectively COOL AF. I haven’t liked anything since Endgame really. “What If” was pretty cool as was Spider Verse but otherwise very mediocre across the board.

No Way Home captured the scale of the Avengers movies because so much was happening all at once from combining the three universes. It was a ton of fun.
 

blueandgoldguy

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Oct 8, 2010
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The choice of Shuri as the Black Panther was very underwhelming and one of several things wrong with that movie. The actress playing is not charismatic and has no physical presence whatsoever as she looks like she is 105 lbs. Not only that, but she is the nerdy scientist - how is that an appropriate replacement for the original Black Panther?! It would be like if James Bond died and M16 decided to promote Q (the one who creates all the interesting gadgets for Bond) as the new 007.:laugh: You can see ridiculous that would be!

As a kid I used to watch the original Smokey and the Bandit and Smokey and the Bandit 2 on tv on a regular basis. The first movie was a massive blockbuster hit and the second one was a fairly big hit as well although an essentially regurgitated plot from the first one, only this time featuring an elephant. Both movies featured Burt Reynolds, one of the biggest and coolest movie stars of the time. Burt decided not to come back for the third movie, so they decided to promote his sidekick from the previous movies "The Snowman" to the role of the bandit. He even says "I get to be the bandit!" in the movie.

Predictably, the movie bombed as the actor did not have the charisma or star power of Burt. Rest assured, if Kevin Feige and Disney decide to create a solo Black Panther movie in the Marvel Universe with Shuri as the Black Panther, it will suffer the same fate and will be a commercial failure.
 
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beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
59,646
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Ottawa
The choice of Shuri as the Black Panther was very underwhelming and one of several things wrong with that movie. The actress playing is not charismatic and has no physical presence whatsoever as she looks like she is 105 lbs. Not only that, but she is the nerdy scientist - how is that an appropriate replacement for the original Black Panther?! It would be like if James Bond died and M16 decided to promote Q (the one who creates all the interesting gadgets for Bond) as the new 007.:laugh: You can see ridiculous that would be!

As a kid I used to watch the original Smokey and the Bandit and Smokey and the Bandit 2 on tv on a regular basis. The first movie was a massive blockbuster hit and the second one was a fairly big hit as well although an essentially regurgitated plot from the first one, only this time featuring an elephant. Both movies featured Burt Reynolds, one of the biggest and coolest movie stars of the time. Burt decided not to come back for the third movie, so they decided to promote his sidekick from the previous movies "The Snowman" to the role of the bandit. He even says "I get to be the bandit!" in the movie.

Predictably, the movie bombed as the actor did not have the charisma or star power of Burt. Rest assured, if Kevin Feige and Disney decide to create a solo Black Panther movie in the Marvel Universe with Shuri as the Black Panther, it will suffer the same fate and will be a commercial failure.
Well it just follows the comics....
1684707598939.png
 

blueandgoldguy

Registered User
Oct 8, 2010
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Greg's River Heights
Are you one of those people who thinks everything in the source material is shit?
No, but there is plenty of comic book material that is of questionable quality. There are also cases in which the source material may be just not be suitable to on-screen adaptation regardless of the director or actors. There are also cases in which the source material may not be suitable to an on-screen adaptation if the actors are not suited for it ie) not bankable or not actually good actors.
 

NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
98,993
65,173
Ottawa, ON
GotG3
Spider-Man 3
Wakanda Forever
Black Widow



Shang Chi
Eternals
Antman 3
Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
Thor: Love and Thunder

I didn’t mind Black Widow but apparently I’m in the minority.
 

beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
59,646
9,177
Ottawa
GotG3
Spider-Man 3
Wakanda Forever
Black Widow



Shang Chi
Eternals
Antman 3
Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
Thor: Love and Thunder

I didn’t mind Black Widow but apparently I’m in the minority.
not a bad list, to me they all had good moments but some didn't have enough of them. Also think in some cases scenes that were deleted would have made some of them better or added more to the story. Like for Thor, the scene that Zeus explains the thunderbolt and power to Thor. Harkens back to when his own dad was trying to teach him about his powers not being a hammer but part of him etc.

 
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NyQuil

Big F$&*in Q
Jan 5, 2005
98,993
65,173
Ottawa, ON
not a bad list, to me they all had good moments but some didn't have enough of them. Also think in some cases scenes that were deleted would have made some of them better or added more to the story. Like for Thor, the scene that Zeus explains the thunderbolt and power to Thor. Harkens back to when his own dad was trying to teach him about his powers not being a hammer but part of him etc.

Usually I miss the deleted scenes because the latest crop of films are in a big hurry to get on to the next big scene and it's the little moments that make the big ones that much more noteworthy.

Part of what I liked about Wakanda Forever was that there was enough room for some introspection.

Meanwhile, in Thor: Love and Thunder, Jane just shows up as Thor without any real explanation or depiction of the transformation.
 

Jussi

Registered User
Feb 28, 2002
94,762
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Mojo Dojo Casa House
not a bad list, to me they all had good moments but some didn't have enough of them. Also think in some cases scenes that were deleted would have made some of them better or added more to the story. Like for Thor, the scene that Zeus explains the thunderbolt and power to Thor. Harkens back to when his own dad was trying to teach him about his powers not being a hammer but part of him etc.


I liked that deleted scene, but it would've made the second post-credit scene feel very weird. They would've had to introduce Roy Kentules in a different way.
 

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