The Marvel Films - Spoilers up to Cap'n murica TWS

[Smjffy]

Iron Man (2008)

I'd seen this before and remembered it being bang average, but on second viewing.... it's actually pretty good.

Robert Downey Junior is great in the role and Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges provide the eye candy - Jeff's beard and shaved head combo is marvellous. The opening in an Afghan (is it?) cave is great as Stark builds his prototype suit to escape in and with so much of the film taken up with that and him then getting the finished version to work there's little time for protracted scenes of robots hitting each other, which is nice.

A solid 7/10 overall.

Iron Man (2008)

I disagree. I still think it was average and probably would have been a flop without Robert Downey Junior. Jeff Bridges I thought was a cameo from HHH but yes, a marvellous combination but I think it was a bit of a rubbish todo between him and RBJ given he put the hit out on him. I don't know....I struggled to suspend the belief at times. Most notably the explosion near the end when they were on the roof. Bit of a meh film in my opinion.

5.5/10 overall. Failed to keep me interested. To think Nicolas Cage or Tom Cruise could have played the role....fuck ha.

[Yevrah]

I think the biggest problem these films have (at least to the point I've reached) is something that plagues all 12A's, in that when making a film with a suggested lower age limit of 8 it's hard to deal with adult themes within that restriction.

Not impossible obviously, but it naturally means that so much of the violence has no jeopardy or pain, which (like all the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon nonsense) is just boring.

No need for anyone to post how that might change in the future as those films don't exist yet in this thread.

[Henry]

Meh. They're reasonably diverting junk food, often a decent spectacle but there's no depth or real quality to any of it. It exists to perpetuate itself.

[Raoul Duke]

This would have been mega:

Toggle Spoiler

https://i.redd.it/ysb2t5g2arr01.jpg

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudi...de_in_the_90s/

Some great calls in there.

[Yevrah]

Avengers Assemble (2012)

Thought the start was really good as they all came together, but it then hit a monstrous lull during the incredibly dull fight sequence in the Air Base, which bored the shit out of me. It did however serve one purpose in I think that it made for a good lead up to the final battle, which is the most I've enjoyed a 'robots hitting each other' 30 minute scene ever.

Loki remains rubbish and looked like a naughty schoolboy being taken away at the end rather than a destroyer of worlds.

6/10.

[Ian]

Yeah I don't think Loki's built up enough for his Xanatos gambit thing to be convincing so it just seems like he spends a lot of the film losing after the opening sequence.

[Giggles]

How do you edit the thread titles?

[John]

How do you edit the thread titles?

Double click beside them. It's computer only.

[Ian]

I thought that was how it worked but it doesn't work for me. Is it permissions-based?

[John]

I thought that was how it worked but it doesn't work for me. Is it permissions-based?

It could be. On the old board you could edit your own thread titles but I don't know if that's changed.

[Ian]

I'll go into the "How to use the board" thread instead of here.

[Yevrah]

Iron Man 3 (2013)

I can see why they haven't made any more of these since this one. Not a bad film, but not particularly good. A ptsd Tony unless penned by David Lynch only works for so long and it outstayed its welcome here. Guy Pearce was good as always, the actors villain if you will, and Rebecca Hall was alright, but by the mid-point in the film it just felt like there was nowhere left for the Tony Stark story to go in isolation and it didn't.

Didn't like how the Iron Man suit was so easily fucked by heat and the way Pepper survived was lame, as was the acting from RDJ when presumably he thought she'd died. It was as if he knew what was coming and responded accordingly.

5/10. Not the worst film so far, but far from good too.

[Yevrah]

Phase 1 Summary

So up to the end of Phase 1 I'd rank the films in the following order of preference:

Captain America (2011) 7
Iron Man (2008) 7
Avengers Assemble 6
Thor (2011) 6
Iron Man 2 (2010) 5
The Incredible Hulk (2008) 3

For an average score of 5.7, putting the series so far somewhere between mediocre and good on average.

I can see how the world building is reeling me in though, so I'm confident that rating should improve into phase 2, albeit it hasn't with Iron Man 3.

Not expecting much from Thor The Dark World, but should be at least two, maybe three bankers after that as phase 2 is finished.

[Lewis]

Dark World is a bit wank, but you get a lot more Anthony Hopkins phoning it in, so it evens out.

[Henry]

I can't remember so well but you might be a little harsh on The Incredible Hulk. Otherwise I basically agree with that overview.

[phonics]

Captain America getting a 7 means your scale is way off or you'll think the rest of them are masterpieces. It was fucking awful.

edit: I remember writing out a few things on Facebook nearly a decade ago when posting on Facebook was still normal. Turns out, I really didn't enjoy it.

[hfswjyr]

The biggest surprise for me in this thread is that Lewis follows the Marvel movies. Who would have thunk it?

[Ian]

I'm sure he's talked about them quite a bit in the film thread when the conversation comes up.

[Smjffy]

The Incredible Hulk 2008

Fuck me, where do I start with this one - A complete mess of a film.

Firstly, it takes the inexplicable decision to remove any suspense in the build up to Edward Norton becoming the Hulk by just showing you the highlights reel of that in the opening credits, with the film actually starting with him hidden away in Brazil, part time bottler, part time scientist trying to cure himself.

Secondly, the casting is terrible. Liv Tyler can't act, Ed Norton is a shit Hulk (not that you can see much of him when he turns mind, due to the dreadful CGI) and Tim Roth still thinks he's in a Tarantino movie. There's one reasonably intriguing thread where Norton is getting help from a mysterious scientist, which sets you up to thinking "well at least he'll be good when he turns up". He isn't. But not only is he not good, he's a monstrously irritating twat. Now I think about it there wasn't a single character I was sympathetic to in the entire film.

The action sequences are terrible and have no jeopardy or pain whatsoever, a million bullets fly around the set but they can't hurt Hulk so you end up just wanting to shout at the screen "stop shooting you fucking morons", anything to stop the headache. Then because the film is so shit, you end up picking holes in minor plot points. They only have $40 to catch a bus, which is a problem at that point, but when he goes angry and wakes up in Guatemala it wasn't? Characters find each other in seconds in huge cities. There's just absolutely no continuity, presumably from the bloated mess they ended up with originally being edited to within an inch of its life.

Despite also being no longer than the other films, it drags and drags, taking an eternity to come to an end. I can't remember what the much criticised Ang Lee Hulk was like, but it must have been going some to be as bad as this.

A generous 3/10.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Edward Norton as Hulk so I was expecting something good but it just never happened. I actually preferred him as Banner than Hulk. The rest however left me wondering this is really the right thing for me. Iron Man wasn't anything special, a bit average and this was worse. It did drag too, there was a point in the film where I thought it was coming to an end and sat there thinking "Hmm, that was short" only to realise I was barely half way in. It probably should have ended there tbh. 2/10.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

After the shambles of Hulk it was nice to get back to familiar and comfy RDJ company. Not so much a film this one, more how one might imagine a propaganda piece for Tony Stark would be if he actually existed, interspersed with Mickey Rourke, who one can only imagine was in it due to him being flavour of the month at the time. Was the character he played even in the comics?

As for the rest of the cast, Sam Rockwell was irritating (as he is in almost everything he's in) and Scarlett Johansson seemed to exist primarily to be leered at (I mean seriously, some of it just wasn't on for a kids film), albeit it was nice to expand the characters in the world a bit with her introduction as Black Widow.

The end (with robots hitting each other) is shit, but on the whole it passed the time and was relatively watchable to that point.

I'll go for a 5/10, but on a different day it probably could have been a 4, with Mickey Rourke and RDJ elevating a flimsy script and plot somewhat.

Yes! I said I'll fuck it off Iron Man 2 was crap but I think it just about did enough to continue. I didn't like Rourke in this, nor his character but at least I got the story as to why he was attacking Stark/Iron Man, a better reason than Obadiah in the first movie. I reckon you could have condensed both Iron Man 1 & 2 into one film, mind. Fuck the Hulk one off (I don't know if he late becomes important or not)

Overall, Iron Man 2 gets a 6/10 but doesn't make me overly excited for whatever follows. Thor next but I think I've seen it without realising.

[Yevrah]

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

For quite some time this ambled along and I was bored shitless, but bizarrely it was actually redeemed by Loki somewhat in the final acts of it. Nice twist at the end as well.

5/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Very good. Very good indeed. A film that both stands alone and compliments the series very well. They need to stop pretending people have died though, it's happening almost once a film now and enough is enough.

8/10

[Ian]

I think, to that point, The Dark World is comfortably Loki's best film. It's also a complete waste of however much they paid Christopher Ecclestone.

I do love Winter Soldier though. I think it's the first one since The First Avenger where I really felt they'd done the comic book movie vs. [genre] thing and absolutely nailed it.

[Pleb]

Endgame is getting rereleased in theatres with a post credit scene thrown in for good measure.

[Henry]

Endgame is getting rereleased in theatres with a post credit scene thrown in for good measure.

Nakedly an attempt to catch up with the Avatar box-office record, which they're currently just a bit short of.

[Smjffy]

I gave up on it. I got to Captain America TWS but I don't know.....I find him incredibly dull, perhaps one of the shittest heroes and then because I had seen Guardians of the Galaxy before I just fucked it off.

[Yevrah]

I’ve paused for a bit but will be back on it soon.

[Pleb]

Age of Ultron is shit. Ant Man is alright but then again it picks up roughly when phase 3 kicks off.

[Giggles]

I thought that Endgame ended all this, so why am I seeing a trailer for a new Spider Man?

[Yevrah]

That’s not for discussion in here.

[Giggles]

That’s not for discussion in here.

Go and lie in your piss, it's a simple question. Everyone knows that Endgame was billed as the last in the series without giving away any spoilers.

[Yevrah]

It’s fucking clear as day as to what this thread is for and what it’s not for. Why be a dick about it?

[Limoutsonik]

Go and lie in your piss, it's a simple question. Everyone knows that Endgame was billed as the last in the series without giving away any spoilers.

There is no "last in series" in the same vain that comics have never "ended" in real life either. Spiderman:Far From Home ends the so called "Phase 3" which is called the "The Infinity Saga". The next movie after Spiderman whichever one that is,kicks off Phase 4 where the new newly acquired film rights for the X-Men and Fantastic four are going to be put into use.

[Giggles]

There is no "last in series" in the same vain that comics have never "ended" in real life either. Spiderman:Far From Home ends the so called "Phase 3" which is called the "The Infinity Saga". The next movie after Spiderman whichever one that is,kicks off Phase 4 where the new newly acquired film rights for the X-Men and Fantastic four are going to be put into use.

That makes sense. I didn't know there were actual phases of these.

[Giggles]

It’s fucking clear as day as to what this thread is for and what it’s not for. Why be a dick about it?

You don't own and moderate a thread just because you started it you big baby.

[Disco]

The point is to keep making money so until people stop going to watch them they're going to keep making/re-making them.

[Yevrah]

You don't own and moderate a thread just because you started it you big baby.

I mean, I do.

[Kikó]

He's such a bellend.

[Giggles]

I'll take that as a compliment coming from King Bellend. Nice of you to take a break from blowing yourself to chime in though.

[Giggles]

Also, can someone quote that seeing as he's an even bigger fucking baby.

[Pepe]

Giggles.

[Disco]

"Lie in your piss" is a new one on me.

[Giggles]

Captain America is on E4. I forgot how lol the cgi to make him look small and young was. The scene in the back of the car with yer one is horrendous.

[Adamski]

"Lie in your piss" is a new one on me.

Enjoy.

[Pleb]

Wondering if Yevrah ever attempted to carry on with this

#shamelessthreadbump

[Yevrah]

Wondering if Yevrah ever attempted to carry on with this

#shamelessthreadbump

I did over the last week as it happens.

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy tonight, which was just lovely. Not as good a story as Winter Soldier for me, but the characters were great.

[Yevrah]

I'd probably rank the first ten thusly:

Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man
Captain America
The Avengers
Thor
Thor The Dark World
Iron Man 2
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 3

Onto Age of Ultron (which I haven't seen) and then Ant-Man (which I have) and that'll be phase two done. Haven't seen anything else yet from that point onwards.

[Pleb]

Was not a fan of AntMan when I watched it back but it's a good movie.

Winter Soldier is top 10 for definite. It properly picks up when Phase 3 starts naturally.

[Yevrah]

Jesus, Age of Ultron is toilet and looong toilet at that.

Maybe not quite as bad as Iron Man 3, but certainly down there.

[Ian]

Winter Soldier is great.

[Yevrah]

Some more today:

Ant-Man - I quite like this one. It's not top tier, but the cast is good and the story half decent.

Captain America Civil War - Bit average and I don't know why it wasn't an Avengers title.

Doctor Strange - Started very strongly and then went a bit wanky. Poor ensemble cast and characters, albeit Cumberbatch was good.

[Lofty]

Ant-Man is good because it is a lot more comic than the other MCU films, and even when being heroic Laing is hapless. The train set fight is brilliant at encapsulating everything that makes it good.

Civil War is a Captain America film purely because the comic had the same name. It is definitely more of a sequel to Ultron than TWS. TWS really is top tier stuff, plenty of Nick Fury actually doing things, annoying they have seemingly binned a winning formula in favour of the paint by numbers stuff of later films.