Anyone watching Loki? I haven't had any desire to after the first two Marvel shows left me so disappointed. And I read it sort of undercuts the entire Infinity War saga making it seem almost trivial.
I have watched the first 3 episodes. Haven't seen #4 yet. It's mixed for me. I love Hiddleston as Loki. So, there's that. But the story is muddled and they've chosen this kind of dark murky look to go with it. The TVA is an interesting idea which allows them to Retcon whatever they want, but I'm not impressed with what they have done in the first three episodes so far. My biggest beef though is they have kind of powered Loki down. He seems barely above human ability now. Not even close to world conquering threat in Avengers, or Asgard conquering threat in Thor.
Does it undercut the Infinity Saga? I read that due to the powers of the Time Whatever They're Called, and the way they act towards it, it almost makes the Infinity Saga seem insignificant. I don't like to be told by movies that you really need to care about all this and it's a really big deal, only for them to undercut it's importance after the fact so they can keep milking the story (ie Star Wars making the Rebellion pointless by making The First Order rise 20 something years later)
I heard Episode 4 does, but I haven't seen it yet. But the TVA = Time Variance Authority {?} is all about the alternate time lines from that Hulk / Ancient One scene in Avengers, or Strange seeing 14 million different timelines, so there are now infinite possibilities.
I binged Loki after it finished. Thought the first several episodes were okay, but the finale was great to me. I don’t know much about the comics, but I thought it was pretty cool stuff that has me much more intrigued for the future of MCU than anything else since Endgame. I didn’t see anything in Loki as undercutting Infinity War, I would actually argue that it tries to increase its significance. Black Widow was an enjoyable theater experience, just being back in the theaters for a blockbuster MCU film… but the movie was thoroughly mediocre. I was hoping for more of a prequel, not a side quest in between Civil War and Infinity War.
Now I really want to see the Punisher series. Daredevil Season 1 was amazeballs. Fisk was my favorite Big Bad of everything in Marvel except for Thanos. But, I'm still going to go with Infinity War + End Game as the pinnacle of Marvel so far.
Disclaimer: I’m nowhere close to having watched every Marvel production, but I think I agree with you. I had a blast watching the whole series with my 16 year-old. My wife generally doesn’t care about these productions, but she also watched it, and only turned away when the gore went over the top.
If End Game was as good as Infinity War, I'd agree. But I wasnt a huge fan of End Game when Insaw it, and with the logistical problems it created in the MCU, I like it even less now.
I’m surprised I liked Punisher as much as I did. Except for the over the top gallons of fake blood spilled during every physical encounter, it was fun. I’ll probably rewatch somewhere down the road
Nobody commenting on Black Widow and Shang Chi? Just came back from cinema and I loved Shang Chi, I would put it on par with the Black Panther. I liked the story and acting - Awkwafina was fantastic, as expected, but I didn't have any expectations for Simu Liu as I haven't seen him in any movie before and he was great as well. Overall a very enjoyable experience. Black Widow was... ok. It had some good moments (mostly thanks to Yelena), but overall I would like them to "give" Scarlet a better solo movie. She deserved it.
End game is an instant classic if only for the Cap wielding Mjolnir scene, and "On your left" as the portals opened.
Spoiler Looking back, the thing that bothered me a little is Shang Chi is sort of dragged along throughout the story. He never really drives the action. He sort of seems to be ending up in places due to other's actions as opposed to him really grabbing the action by the scruff of the neck and imposing his will. Iron Man 1 was a perfect origin story to me. He is dragged into a conflict that becomes the catalyst for him to start taking it to the villains. SC wasn't the worst Marvel origin movie by any stretch, but I would have liked to see a little more agency come out of Shang Chi. You have a guy like Cap who has zero powers in the beginning. You could argue he has negative powers. But he refuses to let that stop him from making a difference.
Will. Not. Hit spoiler button. (Freaked me out when I hit reply, and all the spoiler stuff showed. Lesson learned.)
