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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
  • While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
  • Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.

If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.

    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#79451: Jan 29th 2018 at 4:31:55 PM

The only actual great Marvel films are:

Iron Man, The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Avengers too for actually pulling off the MCU but it's aged poorly imo.

The rest are mediocre to above average with Thor:Ragnarok and Captain America:Civil War being the closest to great.

Punisher286 Since: Jan, 2016
#79452: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:05:02 PM

For me its:

The Great/Very Good:

-Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

-Iron Man.

-The Avengers.

-Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Good:

-Captain America: Civil War.

-Captain America: The First Avenger.

-Spider-Man: Homecoming.

-Avengers: Age of Ultron.

-Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2.

The Decent/Alright:

-Ant Man.

-Dr. Strange.

-The Incredible Hulk.

-Thor.

-Thor: Ragnarok.

The Meh:

-Iron Man 2.

-Iron Man 3.

-Thor: The Dark World. -

edited 29th Jan '18 5:06:01 PM by Punisher286

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#79453: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:14:46 PM

GREAT/EPIC

•Thor: Ragnarok

•Captain America: The Winter Soldier

•Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

•Captain America: The First Avenger

•Captain America: Civil War

ENTERTAINING AND GOOD

•Iron Man

•Iron Man 3

•Thor

•Spider-Man: Homecoming

•Guardians of the Galaxy

ENTERTAINING BUT DUMB/FLAWED

•Thor: The Dark World

•The Avengers

•Iron Man 2

MEDIOCRE

•Ant-Man

NO

•Avengers: Age of Ultron

•Dr. Strange (I refuse to see it)

•The Incredible Hulk (Haven’t bothered yet)

edited 29th Jan '18 5:18:00 PM by wisewillow

Sigilbreaker26 Serial Procrastinator Since: Nov, 2017
Serial Procrastinator
#79454: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:19:02 PM

-Great:

Winter Soldier

Iron Man

Avengers

Guardians of the Galaxy

-Good

The First Avenger

Civil War

-Decent

Iron Man 3

Doctor Strange

Ant Man

-Meh

Incredible Hulk

The Dark World

Age of Ultron

Iron Man 2

-Bad

Thor

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#79455: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:26:02 PM

Okay how is Thor worse than Age of Ultron. How.

Sigilbreaker26 Serial Procrastinator Since: Nov, 2017
Serial Procrastinator
#79456: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:34:39 PM

Age of Ultron has redeeming features for me. Thor doesn't have lower lows but it hasn't really got higher highs either. It's so... bland. And bland is the one thing I can't stand.

edited 29th Jan '18 5:35:06 PM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#79457: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:38:41 PM

Huh. I can understand that reasoning, though I disagree. Thor was a big fun dumb puppy; Age of Ultron just pissed me off.

I’m watching First Avenger and MY GOD is everyone charismatic. Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell... the awkward charm is off the charts.

“So, do you... fondue?”

“What happened to you?” “I joined the army.”

“You’re late” Steve smirk: “couldn’t call my ride.”

Peggy’s red dress, my god. Also, that blonde secretary (Natalie Dormer) oh nooooo Steve is so awkwaaaaard. God bless him.

edited 29th Jan '18 5:56:12 PM by wisewillow

AdricDePsycho Rock on, Gold Dust Woman from Never Going Back Again Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
#79458: Jan 29th 2018 at 5:56:06 PM

Okay if I'm gonna rate the films, it'd be:

1. Civil War

2. Ragnarok

3. Guardians Vol. 2

4. Winter Soldier

5. Guardians

6. Iron Man

7. The Avengers

8. Ant-Man

9. Spider-Man: Homecoming

10. First Avenger

11. Thor

12. Age of Ultron

13. Iron Man 2

14. Iron Man 3

15. The Dark World

16. The Incredible Hulk

17. Doctor Strange

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
LordVatek Not really a lord of anything Since: Sep, 2014
Not really a lord of anything
#79459: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:03:57 PM

1. Civil War

2. Ragnarok

3. Avengers

4. Winter Soldier

5. Guardians

6. Guardians 2

7. Infinity War Trailer

8. Homecoming

9. Iron Man

10. Captain America

11. Thor

12. Age of Ultron

13. Ant-Man

14-18: Doctor Strange, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Hulk, Dark World. I don't care about any of these movies enough to rank them from here.

edited 29th Jan '18 6:05:53 PM by LordVatek

This song needs more love.
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#79460: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:08:49 PM

Dammit. I started a ranking discussion. I hate those.

But yeah, I'd rather watch something awful than something bland.

So in a sense for me, the Room > Thor 2.

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#79461: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:10:38 PM

[up]Same. At least something truly horrendous either has something to laugh at or something to learn from. Whereas something mediocre... doesn't.

Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#79462: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:22:06 PM

My rankings:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2: Captain America: Civil War

3: The Avengers

4 - X: A whole bunch of average-to-mediocre movies, followed by:

Low-quality movies:

Age of Ultron

Ant-Man

Doctor Strange

Thor 2

Iron Man 2

The middling movies can be roughly divided into those that are just middling throughout, and those that are a mix of some bad elements and some genuinely good ones. Thor, for example, is a mix between a crappy rom-com; a fairly amusing situational comedy; an overblown drama about an arrogant crown prince; and The Tragedy of Loki Laufeyson, which is genuinely good. Iron Man 3 is mostly mediocre-to-bad, but Trevor is hilarious (and a great send-up of evil-foreigner stereotypes) and the stinger alone is better than half the MCU.

I'm expecting Infinity War will be another middling one (unimpressed by Thanos), and hoping that Black Panther will be another good one.

edited 29th Jan '18 6:27:54 PM by Galadriel

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#79463: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:25:00 PM

Black Panther will likely be visually interesting, at least.

Sigilbreaker26 Serial Procrastinator Since: Nov, 2017
Serial Procrastinator
#79464: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:25:38 PM

Yeah, Thanos is basically just the poor man's Darkseid.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"
SonOfSharknado Love is Love is Love Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Love is Love is Love
#79465: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:28:28 PM

Thanos is "What if Darkseid was an incel?"

My various fanfics.
Sigilbreaker26 Serial Procrastinator Since: Nov, 2017
Serial Procrastinator
#79466: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:32:32 PM

Incel's a pretty extreme term to just throw around. He's just got a massive crush on the anthropomorphism of death.

Not sure if that's really any worse than Darkseid's obsession with the Anti-Life Equation, but in terms of intimidation Darkseid is much better.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"
Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#79467: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:32:40 PM

For Black Panther: the title character is my favourite Avenger, the side characters sound good, I loved TNC's run on the comic (which has had a couple shout-outs to and from the movies), and the visuals look great.

My one reservation is that I'm concerned that it will follow Marvel's trend of disappointing villains, and this will weaken the plot. A strong movie will generally have a villain who is strong enough to be a serious danger to the hero - whether a physical, mental, emotional, or ideological danger, or a combination of those. Black Panther has the superpowered king of the world's most advanced nation versus some punk kid. I'm not feeling it. There's nothing about Killmonger (dumb edgelord name) in the trailers that gives me the impression he should be able to go toe-to-toe with T'Challa plus Wakandan military plus Wakandan national security plus Shuri plus the Dora Milaje plus...etc.

Wakanda vs. Thanos at least counts as a genuine battle, however uninteresting Thanos may be.

So I'm waiting to see if BP surprises me with its villains.

edited 29th Jan '18 6:45:34 PM by Galadriel

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#79468: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:52:47 PM

I trust Michael B. Jordan, is all I’m saying.

Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#79469: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:57:27 PM

I've no problem with the actor, just unconvinced by the character.

unexplainedEnemy from hell pit Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#79470: Jan 29th 2018 at 6:57:32 PM

If we're still doing rankings...gracious, I still haven't watched a lot of these. I need to get on that.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2

3. Thor: Ragnarok

4. Spider-Man: Homecoming

5. The Avengers

6. Captain America: The First Avenger

7. Guardians of the Galaxy

8. Captain America: Civil War (I felt like this one had too much going on all at once, but the final confrontation worked really well.)

9. Doctor Strange (not gonna sugarcoat it: the racism and the weakness of the characters really dragged this one down. At least it looked pretty.)

10. Iron Man 2 (it feels like a cheat to rank this lower than Doctor Strange, but I genuinely can't remember anything about it. Maybe it's because I haven't watched it since it was in theaters, but then again, if I never felt the need to watch it again, it probably deserves to be this low.)

edited 29th Jan '18 6:57:50 PM by unexplainedEnemy

they're gonna find intelligent life up there on the moon/and the canterbury tales will shoot up to the top of the best-seller list
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#79471: Jan 29th 2018 at 7:14:18 PM

[up][up]Correction, then: I trust Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler to bring Erik to life as a fully realized and credible villain.

SonOfSharknado Love is Love is Love Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Love is Love is Love
#79472: Jan 29th 2018 at 7:32:27 PM

Darkseid wants the Anti-Life Equation for himself, because his power is supreme and it is his right to be master of all creation.

Everything, every single solitary thing that Thanos has done for like fifty years has been to try and get his dick wet.

My various fanfics.
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#79473: Jan 29th 2018 at 7:35:05 PM

I find Thanos to be a far more compelling character than Darkseid could ever hope to be.

Thanos's Mad Love for the anthropomorphic personification of Death is far more engaging than Darkseid's (usually very entertaining, but one-note as it gets) Evil Overlord shtick.

edited 29th Jan '18 7:35:49 PM by Gaon

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#79474: Jan 29th 2018 at 7:48:13 PM

Thanos has a more personal touch, and is interesting in his own right, army or no. Darkseid's the opposite, where his minions are what make the character. Deliberately playing up the generically villainous, alien qualities of Steppenwolf, rather than bringing in, say, Granny Goodness kind of sums up my problems with DCU all at once. If you're not willing to put a big CG ogre man on screen because you're that self-conscious about what people are going to think, you're not really getting into the spirit of making superhero movies.

edited 29th Jan '18 7:58:37 PM by Unsung

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#79475: Jan 29th 2018 at 7:57:30 PM

Darkseid starts off as a god of evil

Thanos manages to achieve godhood several times and yeah he fucks it up but he'll always scrabble back up for another try

No matter how much Darkseid fucks up he can just go back home and be a god of evil

And in fairness, there was a point sometime before Annihilation where Thanos stopped trying to woo Death and was just fucking around for the lols, like turning Galactus into a planet busting gun for Annihilus

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

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