#mcu rewatch

[rocinantescoffeestop]

I’m eating a dessert with blueberries. Tony’s eating blueberries in this scene. It’s like we’re connected. :)

[cloudbells]

Also, I can buy Pepper being incredibly into Tony (I actually think it's very in character and cute and matchy), I can buy Maya also being into Tony for a night (it makes sense if you think about it!), but in no universe do I see Christine Everheart wanting to be on IM1 Tony's roster #sawry.

[rocksrntpeople]

MCU Rewatch - Iron Man 2

So, turns out I did know what Iron Man 2 is about and just thought that it was Iron Man 3. What the hell is Iron Man 3 then? Something, something, annoying little kid, something, something, Iron Man? Idk, but at the very least this is the last one that makes me go, “what the hell was this about again?”

Granted, Iron Man 2 was a lesson in cinematic dichotomy and I had a hard time feeling engaged with the Ivan Vanko plotline. It seemed super shallow and just generally less interesting than what Stark was dealing with.

So, the main plot of this movie is actually tri-fold. Firstly, we have Tony Stark dealing with palladium poisoning. He’s dying because of the device that’s keeping him alive and it’s the first time he’s dealing with failure somehow, and there’s just a lot of internal strife going on. 

Alongside this is the much more public battle of Iron Man’s identity. The U.S. government wants the Iron Man suit to be a symbol of the US military, to represent power and glory over all through violence, but that’s not who or what Iron Man is. Up against Stark is a bloated (literally) politician and a weapons contractor who may be one of the most annoying characters in the MCU.

And this leads us into the third, kind of shoe-horned-in plot of Anton and Ivan Vanko. When Anton dies at the beginning of the movie, his son Ivan decides that now is the time to take revenge on Stark, as opposed to a few years earlier before he had the Iron Man suit and before Ivan’s dad bit the dust. But okay. And what is he mad about? That Tony Stark’s dad “stole” the arc reactor idea from Anton and then decades later Tony actually made it somewhat useful.

I’m sorry but that is just a stupid plot. So this guy, who’s been trapped in Siberia for decades, finally decides to leave and his motivation is that some guy whose dad used to work with his dad used old technology to create new technology? And he’s going to combat him with…whips? Powered by technology that, not only was totally available to this villain since well before Tony “stole” it, but is also literally impossible for some of the world’s best scientists in top facilities to create?

(Do you remember this, Marvel? It was two movies earlier.)

Meanwhile, the other two plots are doing great work with the whole dueling egos and themes of identity crises between private and public personas. Plus there’s a whole overarching moral lesson of friendship is power!

Once again, chef’s kiss; perfect. It’s clear that Favreau loves Iron Man; it’s where he started and it’s where he thrives. Despite having to shove in a fairly generic action plot, he manages to tie together the rest of the movie to create seriously humanizing moments that endear us to Iron Man.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, but it’s mostly in the quiet moments, the atmosphere, the snappy comebacks Stark tosses out like nothing. The cuts to the Vanko story were often jarring and felt like commercial breaks cutting into what I really wanted to watch.

And to be completely honest, what I wanted to watch was a lot of world and character building. We’re still in the dawn of the MCU here, and Iron Man 2 and 3 do a lot of heavy lifting as far as establishing new characters and letting viewers see how the rest of the world responds to superheroes.

I was more excited to see Black Widow than I thought I would be. I don’t dislike her or anything, but when she came on screen it was electric, like this is it, the world is expanding. She doesn’t belong here; she’s not part of the Iron Man team. Yet here she is, meddling.

Along with Romanov, we also get Coulson on the scene again and of course, Nick Fury. The little nods to Thor throughout the film were shockingly enjoyable. I didn’t know shit about Thor when this came out, so going back knowing everything that will happen…it’s a whole new kind of tension. This is gonna be a theme for a while, I think. The MCU ball doesn’t really start rolling until after Captain America shows up.

While SHIELD is basically only in the movie to give Iron Man some much needed pep talks, the rest of the cast does a great job supporting Tony Stark. He doesn’t make it easy, but by the end he’s friends with Rhodey again (after getting into a mech fight and having Rhodey steal one of the suits), he saved the public from US military contractors, he gets together with Pepper finally, and he even gets a message from his father validating his love for him! Come on! Everyone is in Iron Man’s corner!

Except, obviously, the main bad dude Vanko (and also that idiot Hammer). This guy kept saying “you lose” like he didn’t waste his life in Siberia being evil, and then just…explodes. Okay; girl, bye.

Can we talk about how cool this movie is for a second? As time goes on, the movies begin to rush the action a bit, especially as the battlefields become more complex, but in Iron Man 2 the actions make sense.

For example, Tony Stark’s germ thing. There are many possible reasons why he might have an anti-germ thing, primarily the fact that he’s dying throughout most of the movie, but what’s awesome is how he asks Pepper to put on a mask when she’s coughing, how he refuses to take things handed to him, how he shirks away from people trying to touch him. Those little continuity details make a big difference.

I especially loved when Black Widow and Happy are fighting at Hammer Industries and you can literally see Happy fighting in the background while Black Widow has a whole long fight scene.

(And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it’s a little ridiculous that she got changed and moussed her hair in the car. I don’t care; I overlooked Vanko and I’ll overlook the little Black Widow gaffes too.)

Then, there are so many awesome shots done for no reason other than Iron Man is cool as fuck. 

Whereas Iron Man established Tony Stark’s character, Iron Man 2 established his new personality, the one that can just barely handle failure and needing help and overall considering the impact of his actions beyond his immediate circle.

Most of the MCU characters have this type of personality evolution, and it’s one of my favorite elements of the franchise. Stark will undergo a few personality shifts throughout the series, as you’d expect since he was the first one in. I’m very excited!

Speaking of personality shifts, I’m so excited for Thor! I have just a bit of hatred for the original Thor characterization, but the other characters are great, the plot is decent, and it’s just really amusing to see this fancy, stuck-up Thor, knowing what’s to come for the character.

Iron Man 2 gets a 6/10 for me overall. Definitely one of the weakest MCU movie, but it had plenty of redeeming qualities.

[patwrites]

God I forgot what an asshole Stephen was in the first movie

[theamazingmarvelblog]

Ant-Man and The Wasp Review

Our heroes might be small, but this review isn't! Our review of Ant-Man and The Wasp is here!

This is it: our last review before we close out the Infinity Saga with Infinity War and Endgame.  If you haven’t done so, go back and check out our Musical Monday post before you continue reading this one.  As always there are spoilers down below. Ant-Man and The Wasp was released on July 6, 2018.  It was the twentieth Marvel movie released and is a part of Phase 3.  It was directed by Peyton…

[kiestrokes]

the setting: sixish months ago, my mom and I while watching Secret Invasion...

mom: is this where the blip happens?

me:

also me: uhm...it would take a lot of movies to explain how the blip happened.

mom: ok, lets watch them.

me after calculating the movies she has and hasn't seen: that's fifteen movies, but I guess we have watched longer series.

[pebbles-in-ink]

Rewatching The Marvel MCU

I didn't know I could love more than a handful of characters, then I got more Agent Carter content

[lostintranslaation]

Natasha romanoff I am so sorry that the Russo brothers have never spoken with a woman in their lives im so sorry they did that to you

[mobius-m-mobius]

#he's actually a comedian

HUGH JACKMAN as LOGAN HOWLETT // WOLVERINE

[xxplastic-cubexx]

YOUR APOCALYPSE CHARLES IS SO CUTE!!!!HIS LONG HAIR AHHH IM OBSESSED

thank you so much !!!!! it's twisted irony that his hair looks the best in the movie he loses it in ......

[rocinantescoffeestop]

I want a fic about Tony and Erik Selvig doing nerd shit or just talking about nerd shit.

[cloudbells]

You won't believe what I'm about to do right now

[rocksrntpeople]

MCU Rewatch - Thor

In medias res has legitimately gotta be the best way to start a movie, right? I mean, is that a fact yet?

While Thor begins in the silent darkness of night, it picks up speed in no time and you’re left wondering where the hell the Marvel movie went. But of course, there are signature justMCUthings that grounds everything in the ever-expanding Marvel world. 

Overall, Thor was pretty good, 

but my main takeaway from the movie is just what a good job it does at seamlessly expanding the MCU to include the surrounding universe, and gathering various threads to begin pulling them all together. I mean,

AHHHH!!! THEY’RE MAKING AN AVENGERS MOVIE?!

(This is what your heart screams when you see this.)

.

But really, it’s a hype movie. The main goal of this movie is to hype up the audience for what’s next, and it was a super fun ride! Like when the DJ won’t drop the beat; non-stop fun! So let’s get into it.

Obviously, I have to start with the intro. What a solemn affair that was! Holy hell, are we about to watch this woman get fired? lol rip?

And then wham, bam, thank you ma’am; get this norse god in my van!

BUT! Before that…

.

EXPOSITION!

Yay! We finally meet Thor!

Good god, he could kill with that look…literally! I actually can’t decide whether Odin is a good dad or not, but I liked how he recognized the sourness in Thor and wanted to fix him rather than just let him continue on.

Now let’s get to a lot of people’s favorite: Loki. 

God damn, this man is so young!! I feel older just looking at him, like he’s related to Dorian Gray or something. Not that Tom Hiddleston has aged poorly, more that he just looks like a fresh daisy here!

Loki the character was also doing better than I remembered; he’s so cunning! No wonder he’s the god of tricks! I mean, of course I knew he was good, but he had this whole plan to square away everything and I was a little impressed…Too bad he’s also kind of a Hitler?! 

Like, “Ooo, Loki you were so close to becoming King but you forgot to not attempt to commit genocide! Better luck next time, pal.”

I do love that he fucking sticks by it and doesn’t even seem to understand why what he did was wrong. It adds a depth to the character that not a lot of villains get: he’s not a totally evil guy, but he’ll do evil things to make his life better. Truth be told though, we don’t get to see a lot of that depth until after he gets beat by the Avengers, and in Thor there aren’t a ton of reasons given for why Loki is taking a shot at the throne now of all times. Ostensibly, we’re just seeing the tail end of him getting fed up with Thor being the star all the time combined with finding out that he was actually a frost giant.

And it was implied multiple times that Thor’s friends didn’t really like Loki and just hung out with him because he’s their friend’s brother. I wish I could say more about that, but we get almost no information about these people or about life in Asgard at all. It looks beautiful and mysterious though!

It’s so funny to me that there are four extremely colorful and distinct characters in the background of Thor. I really, truly wish we could see more of them in movies, but it still cracks me up that they’re so criminally underused.

I really don’t get it, and I love when we get to see more of them later (although, still hardly anything at all). I guess Thor is so mighty that they don’t even really matter…at least they know they’re true friends of Thor? (Supposing he doesn’t like them for their power?)

So then we’re finally reunited with Jane Foster and friends! And Coulson…is it just this movie that he acts like a departmental son of a bitch? I think not because before his TV show I remember not really caring for the character. 

I did enjoy how Jane doesn’t automatically take to Thor, and it seems like that’s going to be a thing throughout the Earth plotline…until he takes a shower. (God, what do incels even complain about?!) And of course it’s fun to see Thor act like a weird dumbass on Earth.

But since the meat of the movie already happened, most of the Earth stuff was just there for fun. Oh, and showing off this thing again. It’s fucking awesome.

One last thing I noticed in this movie is that the stones are starting to appear in concept. Since my last rewatch a few years ago, I’d heard that the themes of the stones appear super early on in the series and that you can see the planning for the whole shebang right from the start. While Thor isn’t exactly "right from the start", it definitely does things a little more in-your-face than previously, though still with perfect subtlety for those who aren't looking for easter eggs.

So Tony Stark has been working with expanding his mind to create new things, and we know eventually he uses the mind stone to create Vision. Thor introduces us to space, the tesseract, and the space stone, then he and the humans start working on expanding their reach of space through wormhole tech, which will definitely open us up to the whole universe.

I won’t look ahead, but we’ll see if this trend continues or if I’ll have to stretch it more and more as I go…

All in all, Thor was good and gets a solid 7.5/10. I’m not in a rush to watch it again, but if someone asked me to join them I’d have a good time!

With the first four movies down, we’re hitting a significant turning point: Mr. Business is here to get this superhero world in ship-shape! At least, that’s how I felt when Captain America: The First Avenger was announced. I knew nothing about him and was pleasantly surprised; this time I know everything, so there’s a chance for a repeat performance!

[patwrites]

I really do love the first Thor. I know I’m probably in the minority. Though I will say the Asgard portions of the film are stronger than the Earth storyline.

[cloudinterlude]

I think it's time for a MCU re-watch for a lot of reasons but mainly:

1) I want to get all the facts and characterization down before I post any ff.

2) I miss seeing the Avengers on screen. I'm never going to get over the OGs! 💞

2) There are some very common takes and opinions that make me think a lot of people in the fandom could also benefit from a re-watch and I want to count myself out.

[softestaries]

if James McAvoy isn't there to flash Michael Fassbender his big blue eyes in the x-men reboot then what's the point