Continuing my MCU rewatch

I found the Yondu character fairly unpleasant so his sacrifice didn't mean much to me, given his past behavior - I know it was supposed to show he wasn't really all that bad and was trying to be a good father figure to Peter, and had redeemed himself, but it just didn't work for me, which I think pulled down my enjoyment of the film.
 
I found the Yondu character fairly unpleasant so his sacrifice didn't mean much to me, given his past behavior - I know it was supposed to show he wasn't really all that bad and was trying to be a good father figure to Peter, and had redeemed himself, but it just didn't work for me, which I think pulled down my enjoyment of the film.
I get that, but I think for me all the emotion stems from Peter's reaction. It's like how Vader is STILL the biggest prick in the galaxy, but for Luke he is redeemed.
 
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I did ponder during the freezing in space scene if Yondu had already been presented as too much of a monster in the first movie to be redeemed now (that and how do they normally take off those bubble wrap space suits?)

Ultimately I think this movie did a lot of heavy lifting to both clarify that Yondu had only said bad things to Peter and not done them, but also to earn some sympathy by dropping the mask and showing his regrets.

In the end, I was convinced that he'd done more to protect Peter (from his crew AND from Ego) in the frankly really bad spot the kid was put in.
 
Spider-Man: Homecoming

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of mixing my Spider-Man in with my Avengers. I know by the early 2000s that line was broken by having Spider-Man join the team, but I've always considered his loner status/lack of resources/public perception issues to be part of his character. Add him to the Avengers, and all of that goes away. And that's really where we're starting with the character in the MCU. His first appearance was being invited by Iron Man to join them on a mission to Germany (!) and gifted a high-tech suit with AI companion. It just doesn't feel right to me.

But enough about me, let's talk about me watching a movie.

  1. Reconceptualizing Vulture as someone who picks over the "corpses" of superhero battles was a really inspired idea. When the character was first announced for this movie, my only idea was that he was somehow involved in the creation of Falcon's bird costume, so I'm really glad they didn't hire me for this one. Michael Keaton was a bit of a stunt cast, since he was just coming off of Birdman, which itself was a bit of a stunt cast as the former Batman, but he does a really good job of being an everyday workman type villain who crossed a line or two to support his family and then just got really comfortable on that side of the line. The Vulture costume is honestly amazing. He's so scary-looking in every scene he's in. Every single thing about Vulture is genius. Except, I'm not quite sure he's ever called the Vulture? That seems like an oversight. I wasn't really listening for it until past the halfway point, but the first vulture reference I can think of is the note Peter leaves for the authorities at the end calls him a "flying vulture guy."

  2. I'm a long way from high school, but I do like how they modernized Flash as Peter's bully. We're probably a little past where jocks were trying to fight you in the cafeteria and into more douchebags bullying you on social media. On the other hand, I can't say I'm crazy for Peter being in a science school. It seems to reduce him a bit if everybody around him is also a science nerd. Even his bully. Ned is a great best friend and Jacob Batalon has charisma for days. He has so much chemistry with Tom Holland in the scenes they share together. Laura Harrier as Liz is fine. She does have some really good scenes, but the movie itself fails to show me why Peter is so into her. Since she's supposed to represent what Peter is losing by choosing to be Spider-Man, I would've liked to understand more about why she's worth the choice. Finally, Zendaya somehow manages to pull off "plain," making her the greatest actress in the MCU. She's quirky and fun, but would otherwise be completely extraneous to the movie if they didn't drop the "my friends call me MJ" at the end.

  3. The montage of Spider-Man friendly neighborhooding it around New York is a lot of fun. He stops a bicycle thief, gives some directions... all pretty solid and shows that he's doing everything he can do so it doesn't feel unearned that he wants to do more. The scene with the ATM burglars is peak Spider-Man. The acrobatics, the quips, the webs, are all really spot on. Since a lot of this movie is about taking Peter out of his comfort zone into places we've never seen him before, I'm glad they included all of this just so we could get that scratch itched before moving out to the suburbs or into the harbor.

  4. Hold up. Now Tony's position is that "if Cap wanted to lay you out, he would have." He didn't really think Peter had a chance against Captain America? Was he just relying on Steve noticing that Peter was 15 years old and holding back? What a dick.

  5. Okay, I really need to vent on Spider-Man's high-tech suit. I really hate it. Like I said, Spider-Man should be resource poor, and having an AI-powered supersuit that gives him enhanced senses and a library of special webs is the wrong direction. It robbed Peter of the opportunity to be the one who develops those web shooter advancements. I guess it gives him someone to talk to when Ned can't be his guy in the chair, but it honestly just seems to be there to pad out a scene or two with web variance antics and to give Tony something to take away from him. By itself, the suit looks great. And if Tony's involvement were just to explain how it has slidey eye frames to mimic the comic mask's expressiveness, I would've been all-in. But everything beyond that just annoys me.

  6. Peter missing the decathlon should've been a bigger deal. Him choosing the Vulture's goons over the pool party was the first great scene with Liz that really showed the choice he was making. But then he doesn't show up for the event and nobody comments on it. Liz isn't even mad, she's just worried. But it's okay because the team wins anyway. And it's not even because Flash is on the team giving him something else to throw in Parker's face. All he gets is some detention that he walks out of. They really should be playing up the sacrifices he's making to be Spider-Man.

  7. I can see how, on paper, it would be exciting to see Spider-Man trying to race up the side of the Washington Monument to save his friends. But in execution, it really isn't. Is that really the highest he's ever been? It's like, half the height of an average skyscraper in New York City.

  8. What the shit? Detention is just Peter and some Black kids? Who did the casting for this scene, Stephen Miller?

  9. The sequence where Peter starts getting his life back together after getting fired by Stark is really good. It shows how happy he could be if he didn't have the burden of Spider-Man. I actually kind of wish it had gone on longer so we'd get a better feeling for what he's giving up by putting the suit back on.

  10. Normally I'd be a little scornful of the coincidence of Vulture being Liz's dad, but I remember it being such a wonderfully shocking moment that I let it slide. On rewatch, though, there are a very few, very minor hints about it, like when the Shocker (II) was all "Toomes would flip if he knew where we are" while they're stalking his daughter's school.

  11. The drive to Homecoming is an absolute masterclass. Harrier plays Liz as a total teenage girl, bragging about her new boyfriend and inadvertently digging Peter's grave. Keaton hit every note on the way to the realization that Peter was Spider-Man with just his expression and slight tonal shift as each piece of the puzzle falls into place. And then the traffic light changes color, turns his face from red to green, and marks the moment when he has all the proof he needs. A truly excellent scene. Well written and stunningly acted.

  12. The Vulture comes dangerously close to making some good points in the warehouse speech about how the rich and powerful don't care about guys like them.

  13. The bit where Peter is buried under the rubble doesn't really land with me. I know it's a reference to the very similar comic sequence when Peter is buried by Doc Ock, where he almost gives up before drawing strength from his loved ones to give it one last try. But the live action version fails me on a couple points. Firstly, we don't get a good sense of how deeply Peter's buried, seeing it only in close ups after the initial collapse. Something like a zoom in through the cracks and crevices to show how much rubble is on top of him would have helped show this is more than he's ever lifted before. The second point it misses is that the memories he draws strength from is just one line from Stark. Where are the "I believe in you" lines from May or Ned or Liz? Or even MJ? I did like the image of half his face reflected in the water over the mask, though. That was cool.
I feel like on some level this movie suffered from having to find its own voice separate from the two previous attempts at movie Spider-Men. So we get a young and healthy May and a lot of the action is outside the city. Much of the iconic Spider-tropes had already been seen in just the past 15 years, so we were denied them here.
 
Hold up. Now Tony's position is that "if Cap wanted to lay you out, he would have." He didn't really think Peter had a chance against Captain America? Was he just relying on Steve noticing that Peter was 15 years old and holding back? What a dick.
BINGO.
Absolutely fuck that guy.
I actually like to watch Homecoming in general, but holy shit Tony is just such a fucking asshole. Half his lines to Peter I literally yell “HOW DARE YOU?!?” at the screen. This is a child, you absolute monster.
 
Reconceptualizing Vulture as someone who picks over the "corpses" of superhero battles was a really inspired idea.
I never thought of it like this before.

I really enjoyed Homecoming but your nits are pretty accurate. Him calling Happy over and over is still quite enjoyable. And Pepper's appearance at the end felt so good to see her back in the MCU (even if she doesn't remember doing it ;) ) because Tony feels right again - and teed up for his endgame. And Peter says thanks - but I'll see you around.

I didn't hate the suit having all these interesting web designs - but you are right, it does rob Peter of some discovery. But he'll still have to figure out how to make the ones he likes on his own once the suit is gone. He won't port over Instant Kill.

Saw the teaser trailer for The Odyssey before Jurassic Park this weekend that is mostly Holland and Bernthal talking and my main thought was "I'd really rather it just be Peter and Frank" because that movie is holding up the movie I'm more excited about.
 
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Thor: Ragnarok

I have a real love/hate relationship with this movie. There are parts that are really beautiful and exciting, and there are parts that are juvenile and dumb, and there's almost nothing else in between. It does some really great character work and development between Thor and Loki (and Banner), but at the same time never misses an opportunity to undercut its own drama.

  1. I'm not usually a soundtrack guy, but the music is amazing. Mark Mothersbaugh really hits the alien space god adventures feel, and Immigrant Song was such a great get. It's so iconic I forget how little they use it. I'm also not much of a cinematography guy, but a lot of the set design is like a love letter to Jack Kirby, and there are just some stunningly beautiful shots throughout the whole thing.
    Ragnarok.jpg


  2. I was so excited about the idea of Karl Urban as Skurge, the Executioner. That excitement lasted right up until his first spoken line. He looks great, though. Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett as Hela is the complete package. She looks great and she's an absolute menace. There's a certain lightness to her, and she's a bit of a drama queen, but in this case it just highlights the menace. Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster is as charming as you'd expect, and provides a really good contrast with Hela as the "other" villain. While Hela would kill you in the name of conquest, Grandmaster would have you killed out of sheer fickleness. He's the Emperor Nero to Hela's Julius Caesar. Also, not technically a new character, but I like 2-year-old Hulk. He's such a petulant baby.

  3. We've probably all seen the original footage of Odin as a homeless bum in an alleyway where Hela appears. I'm assuming they did some reshoots specifically to add in the meeting with Dr. Strange. And I frankly have no problem with that. It's a good scene and helps tie the newcomer into the larger MCU. It makes me wonder what Odin was actually doing this whole time in that big empty field, but he does, perhaps unknowingly, set up New Asgard with his "this could be Asgard" line in Thor's vision later on.

  4. A truly lame death for the Warrior's Three. Might as well have been off-screen deaths for as much attention as was brought to it. At least Hogun got to fight back. Sif was so lucky that Jaimie Alexander wasn't available.

  5. Thor's arrival on Sakar is where Hemsworth just drops any pretense at being Thor. He's had some truly funny moments in the past, such as the "he's adopted?" in Avengers or quietly hanging his hammer on the coat hook in "Dark World." Those were even in character, so it can be done. I refuse to accept that the Thor we've seen through four movies already would yell "oh my god!" or literally scream in terror at the idea of getting a haircut. I used to praise Hemsworth for his ability to deliver Thor's pseudo-Shakespearean lines convincingly, but I guess those days are behind us.

  6. I'm annoyed at how easy it was to take down Thor with the little neck zappy thing. Especially as the Lord of Lightning. Plotwise, it's important to contain Thor and be able to rig the fight against Hulk, but I think the only reason it has to be so small is so he can slip it on Loki. I feel like there's a compromise somewhere.

  7. I also can't oversell how much Korg undermine's this movie too. "Didn't print enough pamphlets." WTF? Knowing it's a director insert character makes it even worse.

  8. Can you imagine if we didn't know ahead of time that Hulk was in this movie. I wish I could experience that.

  9. I'd forgotten (or missed) Banner's firm conviction that if he turns into the Hulk again, Banner's not coming back. It really changes how I view his decision to turn into the Hulk to save the Asgardians. He was basically sacrificing himself for them. But, because this movie can't let you feel anything, it's interrupted by the gag of him just splatting on the bridge.

  10. Backing up a bit, though, the whole middle bit of the movie, the escape from Sakar, has some great character work. Thor and Loki coming to an understanding and just what feels like some really great improv chemistry from the Revengers. This is really the most character I've seen from Ruffalo.

  11. Hela's powers started getting boring by the final act. Producing a bunch of swords (and one axe) is cool at first, but eventually just turns into her flinging her arms around. I'm also unclear by what "draws power from Asgard" actually means. Does Thor also draw power from Asgard? It doesn't seem like it, why specifically just the Goddess of Death? Clearly toward the end she was able to make bigger, ship- and Surtur-impaling spikes, and they came out of the ground of Asgard rather than from her hands. So there is a visual of her power growing, but there also never seemed to be a need for her to do it earlier so there's no evidence she wasn't this powerful all along. Kind of a nitpick, but really just illustrating how much more I wanted from her than just varying sizes of spikes.

  12. The final fight on Bifrost is crazy. Bunch of space gods and alien gladiators fighting skeleton knights while Hulk punches a giant zombie wolf off the edge of the planet. This is why comic movies exist.

  13. Poor Thor. A couple movies ago he didn't even want to be king. Now he's saddled with a hundred refugees who are just going to follow him wherever he goes. Loki being there feels like a backward step from the really good character resolution we had right before "get help." Realizing they were too different and should go separate ways to be their truest selves seemed like a real step forward, but I guess they need him on the ship to open Infinity War.
Like I said, the Thor we knew from before is gone, replaced by sitcom Thor. I've heard opinions that his personality didn't stand out enough in the Avengers between cocky Tony and noble Steve, and I think that's because he was just a mix of cocky and noble rather than being a third type of personality. But I can't believe audiences actually thought cheap laugh version was better. It's kind of funny to me that audiences hated on Love and Thunder for being too comedic, but this one gets a pass. Still, so much of this movie is amazing on so many levels. Great visuals, awesome music, and deep character moments. I could probably make a personal edit where he doesn't hit himself in the face with a ball or throw Loki at some guards, but that's kind of petty.
 
Thor: Ragnarok

but at the same time never misses an opportunity to undercut its own drama.....
But, because this movie can't let you feel anything, it's interrupted by the gag of him just splatting on the bridge.

I think this encapsulates my thoughts about this and Love and Thunder. You can have comedy in a serious film, but it is hard to have silly in a serious film, and if you use it to undermine the drama/emotion you are saying you don't value the character or situation. In two consecutive solo outings Thor loses his Father, many of his friends, his realm and then his true love, yet it almost always tonal shifts to "funny" just about immediately and almost feels like it is scoffing at the audience for taking the character seriously.
 
I feel like I exist in this weird space where I agree that the movie constantly undercuts its drama, but that this is also my favorite Thor and, in my opinion, the best Thor we could possibly get in this version of the MCU. He just fits in better than a Shakespearean serious Thor. I LOVE Coipel Thor reminding Tony what it means to be a god and not just a man in a metal suit. But that Thor feels like it's actually more of a tonal shift for the MCU than this Thor.

I also feel like goofy Thor is more in line with how gods are portrayed in mythology. The best explanation I've ever seen is that when we (humans in general) create stories of human-like gods, we suppose of them that they would be like humans, but MORE. And that's more everything. If you can be strong - they can be way stronger. If you can be somber - they can be so melancholic that the entire world darkens. If you can be goofy - they can be absolutely ridiculous. And if you can change moods fairly quickly - they can change moods between breaths. I think this Thor holds to that quite well, even if it's not everyone's preferred way to portray the character.

In the original mythology, Thor dresses up as a woman and marries a giant to get his hammer back. That problem -began- because the giant wanted to force himself on Freyja. Their (Loki and Thor) first idea was to just .. let him marry her. Her response to this idea was to almost literally go super saiyan at them. So instead they dress Thor up like a woman, ride back to the giant in Thor's goat-chariot, and have a wedding in which Thor is obviously Thor because he eats and drinks enough to kill 20 men and the giant is terrified to even look in Thor's eyes. But it's okay because they convince him that the eyes of the bride are only terrifying because, you know, she's a woman and women are scary when they're tired.
Then they bring out Thor's hammer and he kills people with it.

Dizzying tonal shift is a Norse tradition.

Also, taken completely out of context, Thor using his real lightning powers for the first time and coming down onto the bridge to Led Zeppelin? Peak cinema.
 
If I try really, really hard I can forgive Ragnarok. The tonal shift of Thor going off on a wacky adventure while at the same time Odin, The Warriors Three, and indeed all of Asgard being unceremoniously picked off one after another notwithstanding. Yeah, this is a flawed movie for sure. Had they skipped the weighty killings-off and stuck to the zany adventures, treat this like the stand-alone issues in comics that they used to do in the old days between bigger story lines where they had a guest creative team doing some more light hearted stuff, it would have been all good.

Then they brought Watiki back. Love and Thunder was the worst movie in the MCU.

The best depiction of Thor was in Infinity War. "BRING ME THANOS!!!!"
 
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I wish/hope we get more of Thor and Carol. Their brief interaction with Stormbreaker in Endgame was a great moment and I feel the two of them would be fun to watch play together. Or arm wrestle. "I like this one." I like these two!

Hela being Thor's sister never sits right and he *never* knew? No whispers, no oops-forgot-to-cover-that-stucco! moments? Visually and thematically, her being Loki's mom makes a hell of a lot more sense.

The haircut was comedy, but good long hair is hard to grow and if it's threatened against your will, my register would probably go up a few octaves as well.
 
Hela being Thor's sister never sits right and he *never* knew?
It's more of a personal feeling, so not really a criticism, but I always felt Hela should be Thor's aunt.

I guess i assume gods of equal generation should have equal power, and she is way more powerful than he is. I think it would've made sense if she were Odin's older sister who felt she was denied the throne due to male primogeniture.

It wouldn't change any of the movie; it's just a thought I had watching it.
 
That makes a ton more sense. And if she massacred all of the Valkyrie people would talk about her. She would be a ghost story, a mystery or even a myth- but not a surprise.
 
Black Panther

I little bit of Saga Fatigue as I close in on the end, but also there've been a lot of shows and movies released in the past month that I've wanted to watch more.

it doesn't help that I'm kind of meh on this movie. I feel like I'm *supposed* to like it, but I can't summon the energy to.
  1. I'm unclear on how language works here. I accept the convenience that English with an accent can be that they're speaking that language and they just want us to understand it, but then they also speak words in Xosa with subtitles, so I guess they do predominantly speak English in Wakanda?
  2. I like the martial arts T'challa uses in the challenge fight with M'baku. I'm no expert, but some of it looked like Brazilian Jujitsu, which I understand to have African roots. It feels appropriate and distinct, but not something we see a lot of when he's in costume, which is a shame.
  3. I really appreciate the Afro-futurism visuals of this movie. It's not a style I'm exposed to a lot so it really sets Wakanda apart and gives it a distinct feel.
  4. A lot of character motivation rides on Klaue's crimes against the Wakandans, but we never see them. I wish they could've added something immediate to help drive up hate for him.
  5. Back in Civil War, I mentioned how much I don't like a bulletproof Black Panther. It just doesn't seem his style. But now they've added explosion suit and the insta-mask I hate so much. It's the least Black Panther Black Panther I can imagine. And they knew it was too much because they had to invent sonic "vibranium deactivators" for the finale because raw vibranium is unstable or something.
  6. So which is it? Klaue's arm cannon can absolutely destroy a vibranium car or it only makes Black Panther flinch?
  7. T'challa's motivation comes way too late in the movie. For the first half he's just doing king stuff. It's not until he learns of his abandoned cousin that he seems to get any real interest in what's going on.
  8. There it is. The queen herself said she wanted Nakia to take the heart-shaped herb and become the Black Panther. That's going to come up again when I complain about Black Panther 2.
  9. I'm curious about the logistics of the mountain tribe finding T'challa in the river. I guess their fisherman go down the mountain, past Wakanda City, to fish?
  10. They either used Ross too much or not enough. I was skeptical that Martin Freeman was playing a CIA agent, but I did like that he took a bullet for Nakia and had some insight into Killmonger's techniques. But that insight was, like, a single line. If you're going to the effort of bringing him to Wakanda, I would've liked to have seen him used more as a window to how the outside world operates. I even think having him remote-pilot the craft at the end was weak. If he was a pilot, they should've had him actually give chase and been at some sort of risk.
  11. While I'm at it, the cast of Wakandans was generally excellent. Boseman was as smooth as ever and Winston Duke was more charismatic than I would've asked from "Man-Ape." I got mixed signals from Letitia Wright as Shuri between super genius and bratty sister, but they was surely the point. The rest were fine, nobody standing out either way.
  12. Michael B. Jordan has screen-presence for days, but knows how not to dominate his co-stars. He knows when to draw focus and when to share the screen. I think he's great. Andy Serkis is a national treasure (for England, I guess), but I've never clicked with him as a live-action performer. He's too cartoonish, I think.
  13. I think everyone agrees war-rhinos are why we're here. It's a shame the final battle winds up just a dull CG fight between two nearly identical figures with Chekhov's sonics serving as his clever plan. Whatever. Killmonger does get a pretty boss final line, though.
I honestly have no real complaints about this movie. The good stuff is really good and the bad stuff is really just personal preference. There are no bad performances (depending on your thoughts on Serkis), but the action scenes don't really try for much.
 
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