I stopped paying attention after Infinity Wars, the killing of Iron Man, killed MCU for me. I have no problem with their woman power push but obviously that’s not what my 4 boys and I will watch.
Punisher and Daredevil shouldn't be compared to the crap they've put on Disney+. They were made at a time when Netflix was trying to make "prestige television." These D+ shows are Arrowverse quality with slightly better effects and better acting (I feel like they cast the shows in the Arrowverse by walking into the local High School play and hiring the understudies). Those shows were all Netflix had and they put a lot into them. With these shows, Disney is trying to fill up their meager streaming service. They need A LOT of content and they need it fast. So they are now pumping out shows every month. You can't expect to maintain high levels of quality if you essentially have a gun pointed at your head forcing you to release hours of content a month as opposed to what used to be 2-3 movies in an entire year.
I think I’m done with Marvel for now. Most everything post-Endgame makes me wish they’d just stopped there. I haven’t been a fan of the tv shows, and if I was at the time they aren’t memorable, I can hardly recall them now, and the movies I’ve seen are mostly forgettable as well. I looked up what’s been released since Endgame just now, and I think the 2 Spider-Man movies have been my favorite. I forgot Shang-Chi happened until reading the marvel movies list, IMO Eternals is the worst Marvel movie of them all, and I’ve yet to see Dr Strange or Thor. The desire just isn’t there, what’s the overall story, what’s the point? Thanos was the point before, it all built to that, but now that it’s over these movies feel like they’re purely pumped out for cash. I know that’s the point of blockbusters, but the old Marvel movies felt like a saga, these movies and tv show feel like content, made solely for money.
Thought Thor 1 and 2 were some of the worst in the MCU, but I loved Ragnarok and all of his appearances in Avengers, so I was really excited when I first heard of a new Thor movie for Phase 4. But since then, I’ve gotten burnt out on MCU and have heard mixed (at best) things about the new Thor. People describing it as a mediocre romantic comedy, people defending it by saying you just need to turn your brain off and enjoy it for the humor. Not exactly too intriguing to me. So yeah, I think this might be my official jumping off point for MCU as well. Probably going to cancel my Disney+ subscription soon too.
Agreed with the both of you. There were great movies and even bad movies during the Infinity Saga but then it all came together in two amazing movies. Now in Phase 4, it feels like they keep throwing ideas at the wall and hope that one sticks. There's been a handful of movies and shows out but none of them really connect with each other. What is the big idea to tie these movies together, who's the big bad? I thought it was Kang after his introduction in Loki, but then in the movie about the multiverse theres no mention of him. It might be these ancient relics (Shang Chi's 10 rings, the Darkhold) or is it that giant godlike being that popped out of the Earth in The Eternals that nobody talks about. And then you have street level stuff with Hawkeye stuff... and whatever Moon Knight was...
Another big problem is you dont have Tony Stark or Steve Rodgers. They cast them perfectly and they were the obvious leaders of the Avengers. There are no actors CLOSE to them in terms of being the center of the universe. I think Thor could have been, but not being a human from Earth is against him as well as the ridiculous direction they've taken him in. He is getting dumber and dumber with every passing moment. At this rate, he'll be a drooling caveman in another movie or two. So not only is there no story connecting everything, you dont have any charismatic characters to build around.
It’s true, that’s a huge issue, those 2 were the heart and soul of the MCU, their stories were the core. I really think all the tv shows are hurting it too, I just can’t keep up nor do I care to. I kind of just take the infinity saga as the MCU, the one I’ll remember fondly and go back to over and over, and everything after is just like new Star Wars, maybe I’ll watch and get a kick out of some of it, but it’s really inconsequential. Also, Marvel can’t even keep their own story straight anymore, this multiverse thing is going to make it so anything can be explained away
Wow. That sounds like a comment I would have made...had I watched The Eternals and was aware of that dude (or is it a she...or they?) jettisoning out of the Earth.
I’m conflicted because the framework for Phase 5 and Phase 6 are much more intriguing to me… but that almost makes me more annoyed with how meandering Phase 4 has been. The outline for the next phases at least for now seems to reinforce the idea that Phase 4 is mostly just filler.
Phase 4 seems like they are trying a bunch of different things with the safety net of it being in “the multiverse”. Whatever doesn’t stick can be easily explained away.
Ended up caving and watching Thor. Very frustrating movie, there were a few really cool sequences and ideas but overall it was about as mediocre as you might expect. Christian Bale’s villain was awesome, but the tone felt inconsistent with the rest of the movie that tried forcing so much cringy humor. Didn’t really feel any build in the overall MCU saga. And for whatever reason there are moments where the VFX are distractingly bad. Been noticing more and more of these through Phase 4. Feels like they’ve stretched themselves thin, hard to have elite boundary pushing CGI when you have so much damn content. But again, a few sequences that were VERY cool. Wish this movie had the balls to tell a more grounded and gritty story with a lot more focus on Gorr.
I went in with no expectations, and enjoyed it as well. Hard to touch anything as legendary as the Avengers which was masterfully written, but this was fine as a standalone movie.
Although I initially had a lot of criticisms (and still do), I think a lot of my annoyance has moreso been about the lack of direction in MCU as a whole rather than hating any standalone entry in Phase 4. Because yeah, the day after watching Thor, I realized overall I still had a fun time watching it. So much so that soon after, I resubscribed to Disney Plus and re-watched the new Dr. Strange… and then watched What If for the first time… and then watched Hawkeye for the first time… and now will likely start Moonknight soon. Part of me just sees Disney as the “Evil Empire” and wants to stick it to them and vote with my wallet against them, but eh… it’s all mostly still been enjoyable content in a vacuum. Dr. Strange was weird and not as jam packed with action as you’d expect from a Marvel blockbuster, and it annoyed me that the scope of its multiverse stuff was pretty small (I had expected it to start planting more seeds for the Kang saga), but I still thought the overall plot was cool and really enjoyed Scarlet Witch as a villain. What If was a neat concept. I probably would have lost interest in Hawkeye if I was watching week to week, but when binging it’s a quick and easy watch that’s some decent light hearted fun.
^ I 100% get the "concerns" about the direction Disney will take these IP, but I also think it's important to see the individual works for what they are.
Without going back through the entire thread, I think Marvel's phase four suffered from a few things but expect things to pick back up in Phase five. Phase Four is the pandemic phase to me and I really think it threw everything out of wack. The shuffling of release dates, script rewrites, moving introductions of characters, etc etc really became obvious to me at a certain point and it did hurt the movies a bit. I still really liked No Way Home, Loki, Multiverse of Madness, Shang Chi, and Wandavision, but you can definitely tell that playing with the order of movies impacted those storylines a lot. Combine that with a natural letdown after end game and here we are. For the most part, I still think the films and shows have been okay with the exception of the eternals and black widow. But yeah, I expect things to pick back up with antman.
The friends I watched the new Black Panther with were thoroughly underwhelmed, but personally I thought it was fantastic. Phase 4 definitely cemented itself as the worst phase overall though.
