Marvel Media (Spoiler Thread)

The only thing I disliked about Avengers was Caps outfit. And at least it was in story why it was goofy.
His earlier and later uniforms were so good.

I can’t stand any of the film depictions of Wolverine. Logan was okay but doesn’t redeem this deficiency for me.

In the comics I read, Wolverine was a furious ball of lethal energy. Yes his healing factor was a part of his whole thing in the comics too but it didn’t overshadow his other skills.

In the movies Wolverine is not so much a dangerous fighter for his fighting skills, as much as he is willing to jump into a fray and outlast everyone by healing from his poor decisions and lackluster fighting mechanics. And the movies lean really hard on showing you how he heals, like the fighting is included only as a setup. I never get the sense that he’s actually dangerous.

I think it might be that the choreography in the Singer movies was so bad and it set the format for Wolverine’s fighting that all the other movies inherited the crap. It’s plodding and dull, like they’re rehearsing at reduced speed. Imagine the fight choreographer(s) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier doing Wolverine. Ouch.

I mention this because I find all the X-Men movies fail in a similar way: they’re plodding and dull. Some of it is due to the comparative improvements in film-making skill, maybe (e.g., comparing any of the earlier set to Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a little unfair), but they didn’t seem to really dare.

And my god, for all the deviations in their adaptations they chose to keep Logan’s hair?

muraii wrote:

I can’t stand any of the film depictions of Wolverine. Logan was okay but doesn’t redeem this deficiency for me.

In the comics I read, Wolverine was a furious ball of lethal energy. Yes his healing factor was a part of his whole thing in the comics too but it didn’t overshadow his other skills.

In the movies Wolverine is not so much a dangerous fighter for his fighting skills, as much as he is willing to jump into a fray and outlast everyone by healing from his poor decisions and lackluster fighting mechanics. And the movies lean really hard on showing you how he heals, like the fighting is included only as a setup. I never get the sense that he’s actually dangerous.

I think it might be that the choreography in the Singer movies was so bad and it set the format for Wolverine’s fighting that all the other movies inherited the crap. It’s plodding and dull, like they’re rehearsing at reduced speed. Imagine the fight choreographer(s) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier doing Wolverine. Ouch.

I mention this because I find all the X-Men movies fail in a similar way: they’re plodding and dull. Some of it is due to the comparative improvements in film-making skill, maybe (e.g., comparing any of the earlier set to Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a little unfair), but they didn’t seem to really dare.

And my god, for all the deviations in their adaptations they chose to keep Logan’s hair?

That's why X2 is my favorite X movie (other than Logan). The opening with NC and then the attack on the mansion are some of the best action scenes in all of the X movies (not including Deadpool).

The best thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not the movie itself, it's the callbacks we get in Deadpool 2.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

The best thing only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not the movie itself, it's the callbacks we get in Deadpool 2.

FTFY.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

The best thing only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not the movie itself, it's the callbacks we get in Deadpool 2.

FTFY.

Nope, still the best thing is the game based, loosely, on Origins. The storyline was better too.
Totally critical story spoiler:

Spoiler:

Nightcrawler is the son of Mystique and Will.I.Am

Top_Shelf wrote:

I mean, all the rest of my media is going digital and comics just can't seem to hit the right price-to-value for me.

If you read fast, you are literally done in 10-15min for a single comic that might have cost you what, $4?

Every other media is giving me so much content for pennies on the hour. Not even theater movies are that cost inefficient!

I want to get some old TPBs but I keep balking at spending a hundred dollars on something that I'm going to rip through in may 1 or 2 days. And then I've got to store it on a shelf?

Anyways, sorry for the derail. I'm going to try out the Black Panther books (for free!) digitally and see if I can't figure this out.

Hoopla, Libbey & Marvel Unlimited entirely solve this issue!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

The best thing only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not the movie itself, it's the callbacks we get in Deadpool 2.

FTFY.

The war montage was pretty good. It was once they started talking that it all went downhill.

Now I recall I didn’t see that one, and for predictable reasons, but now all of a sudden I want to subject myself.

Malor wrote:

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the first Avengers movie as being good. I enjoyed the hell out of that one. I was never a huge comic reader, but it felt to me that it captured their flavor pretty well.

edit: I was pretty meh about the later Avengers movies, didn't like the whole Thanos thing at all, but I thought the first one was just about perfect.

The first one is by far my favorite. It was smaller in scope which felt great. The huge world shaking battles in the other Avengers movies are great popcorn events but they don't have the same intimacy for me

If I had to rank the Avengers movies, the first one, Infinity War, and Endgame are all pretty close to me; all excellent, all for their own ways. So . . .

1. Endgame
2. Avengers
3. Infinity War

(insert very long gap here)

4. Age of Ultron

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

If I had to rank the Avengers movies, the first one, Infinity War, and Endgame are all pretty close to me; all excellent, all for their own ways. So . . .

1. Endgame
2. Avengers
3. Infinity War

(insert very long gap here)

4. Age of Ultron

I concur

farley3k wrote:

The first one is by far my favorite. It was smaller in scope which felt great. The huge world shaking battles in the other Avengers movies are great popcorn events but they don't have the same intimacy for me

The small, intimate scope of [checks notes] an entire army of intergalactic invaders doing battle across the second-largest city in the world.

In the context of where the movies ultimately go, I get it. But it's still funny.

It's really too bad Age of Ultron suffered from too-many-cooks syndrome. Whedon didn't get to make the movie he wrote because there was a lot of big MCU string-pulling going on behind the scenes. I think if he had been given free rein and his creative team had been permitted to work with him like on the first movie, Ultron would have ended up at least as good as the first movie.

To be fair to Kevin Feige, he had a LOT of balls in the air at the time, so he is not entirely to blame. The bottom line was that Whedon wanted to make a more character-driven movie, and his bosses wanted a more action-driven movie like the first one.

This is all based on various "behind the scenes" articles I have read over the years. I would kill to hear Whedon's Age of Ultron directors commentary. I have read there's a lot of interesting production info in there.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

If I had to rank the Avengers movies, the first one, Infinity War, and Endgame are all pretty close to me; all excellent, all for their own ways. So . . .

1. Endgame
2. Avengers
3. Infinity War

(insert very long gap here)

4. Age of Ultron

You forgot Civil War. Because let's be honest, it was an Avengers movie.

I still liked Age of Ultron.

SallyNasty wrote:

I still liked Age of Ultron.

I recently rewatched it with my 9yo and I liked it a lot better than previously. I think it helped to see how it fit into the larger MCU. Still some flaws, but fun overall.

Yes, it is definitely better on the rewatch, as was gotg2.

Winter Soldier still is probably my favorite of the MVU, that or Black Panther.

If Homecoming counts, yes Spidey is great and Keaton is fantastic.

From Marvel only MCU, Captain Marvel wins for me.

Just did a complete rewatch with the wife in July. Yes, even Thor 2. As we watched it she was like "WTF, I have never seen this movie" which could be true. I may have went without her back then. Anyway I should probably have ranked them all again while fresh in my mind. Norton Hulk is still the worst with Thor 2 down there. But Thor isn't a terrible movie. Just all the rest are so good to great.

SallyNasty wrote:

Yes, it is definitely better on the rewatch, as was gotg2.

Winter Soldier still is probably my favorite of the MVU, that or Black Panther.

I love me some Marvel Video Universe.

Winter Soldier is the best of the franchise, it's just so tight and focused and depressingly relevant. Other contenders are Black Panther, Iron Man, Endgame, Avengers, Civil War, GotG, or Ragnarok. Not sure if I can really decide between the top seven all that closely.

The only genuinely disappointing ones to me are Dark World, Age of Ultron, and Iron Man 2 and 3. I know some people like IM3, but I watch Iron Man movies to see Iron Man, not to see Tony Stark have PTSD for 90 minutes.

I lllllllooooooovvvvveeeeee IM3.

But you love everything, SallyNasty. You're the anti-Clock.

Sally is my Anti-Clock Superstar.

That should be on a shirt. No context given.

SallyNasty wrote:

I still liked Age of Ultron.

I vote in the affirmative.

SallyNasty wrote:

Yes, it is definitely better on the rewatch, as was gotg2.

Winter Soldier still is probably my favorite of the MVU, that or Black Panther.

Right along with you, except I can't stand the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Well, "can't stand" is a bit strong; there are moments of joy in them. But it's a little too close to Fast Times at Ridgemont High: In Space for me to really dig.

My wife and I rewatched the whole series recently and Age of Ultron was much better than when I first saw it. I think it's a movie that benefits a lot from being watched in close proximity with the other movies.

AoU had some truly great things about it, like the party and James Spader.

And how the hammer moved a little bit when Steve tried. And then in Endgame, when Thor yelled "I knew it" as the callback to that.

Stele wrote:

And how the hammer moved a little bit when Steve tried. And then in Endgame, when Thor yelled "I knew it" as the callback to that.

That "I knew it" may have made me like Thor more than anything that had happened in the three solo movies and three Avengers movies that came before it. Not the slightest hint of jealousy that somebody else can suddenly do something that used to make him special and unique, just pure unbridled joy at seeing his buddy get a new toy.

They were improving Thor as a relatable, human character for some time. His “I knew it” was similar to his reaction to seeing Hulk in Ragnarok. He’s got friends and he’s happy to see them / see them worthy. Good stuff.