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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
How ~dare~ you. Yeah, RDJ is great, but Chris Evans f*cking NAILED it as Cap. It’s such a hard character to sell, and in CA: TFA, he gets it down perfectly. (I’ll give you Avengers being not as great; I blame Whedon not being great at writing Cap, whereas the Russos have done a fantastic job).
edited 30th Mar '18 9:47:24 AM by wisewillow
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Mostly because I found Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke fun to watch, even if they weren't used particularly well narratively. Meanwhile, Chris Evans and the Howling Commandos were good but not great, and the rest of the cast was largely meh.
Eh, Evans may have nailed Cap, but Steve Rogers can't singlehandedly carry a movie like Tony Stark can.
edited 30th Mar '18 9:50:36 AM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.I view Phase 1 as a sort of "superhero year one" type of story where we slowly see a more mundane world drift more into weirdness. The MCU's equivalent of Batman: The Long Halloween, maybe. That's why it starts with Iron Man, during which the only specific fantastic element is something created by Tony Stark and how it changes the world and the movie lasers on how invention cannot be reproduced or matched and how it changes the status quo.
Then there's the Hulk resurfacing after a long period dormant in Brazil plus things like the Abomination and we see all the weirdness hiding under the surface of our world coming more to the forefront. Iron Man 2 shifts focus (before promptly squandering said focus) on how the world is changing and reacting to Stark's new technology and there's a subplot of how Iron Man itself is changing the world.
With Thor we have mankind's first contact with gods in centuries and as Nick Fury points out in The Avengers, also a "first blood" type of situation with the climax of that film being technically an act of war by a interdimensional sovereign (Thor just solves the situation before it can get out of hand). Then, finally, First Avenger following the old pattern of TLA by showing us the world was kind of always weird, we're just seeing said weirdness explode to the surface now.
Thus what begins with a guy creating an amazing invention ends with a alien invasion and elder entities from space declaring earth is something to watch out for. the Battle of New York is the weirdness of this universe finally bursting to an extreme, leveling a major american city in a intergalactic battle between aliens working for a norse god (who subsequently works for a elder alien overlord who seeks fragments of the metaphysical force of creation) and a team composed of superhumans and gods. It's the culmination of weirdness, it's the "point of no return" of the MCU. From that point on, the MCU world is irreparably weird.
S.H.I.E.L.D is kind of the face of that arc of weird. By IM 1 they're a passive agent lurking in the shadows, with TIH they make their first move (sending Stark to talk with Ross and such), IM 2 has Fury and Coulson playing a supporting role in the weirdness, by Thor SHIELD is directly involved in the bizarre events unfolding and when we get to The Avengers they're answering to a council of world governments as they're trying to save humanity.
edited 30th Mar '18 9:59:15 AM by Gaon
"All you Fascists bound to lose."I think Phase 2's theme is supposed to be something like "the heroes reaffirm their identities" or "the heroes face threats greater than they ever have" or something like that. Phase 1 is definitely focused on beginnings. Actually, I'm not sure what Phase 3 is supposed to be about. Maybe the whole Phase thing is just supposed to represent what happens in-between the Avengers films, not actually something with an underlying narrative structure and theme.
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Phase 3's theme is parents and their children. Specifically, imperfections in the parents, and a sense of passing the torch.
Civil War concerned Bucky's relation to Tony Stark's parents as well as T'challa inheriting his father's position, Doctor Strange had some "mother who raised but deceived her children" vibes with the Ancient One, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has Ego and Yondu to emphasize that blood doesn't automatically make or break you as a parent, as well as Gamora and Nebula's daddy issues driving a wedge between them, Homecoming has Toomes betraying his family by turning to crime even though he did it FOR them, plus Tony Stark kinda awkwardly being a father figure for Peter, Ragnarok deals with some sins-of-the-father stuff regarding Odin's past coming to haunt his son, and Black Panther's obviously got some father-son themes for both T'challa himself and Killmonger.
And now we have Infinity War, which besides obviously exploring the paternal nature of Thanos's relation to Gamora and Nebula some more, is almost certainly going to have some character deaths and subsequent torch-passing, likely involving Captain America and/or Iron Man.
edited 30th Mar '18 10:58:26 AM by Anomalocaris20
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!I mean, there's been elements of it before; Iron Man 2, when it manages to be focused, is pretty obviously focused on fathers and sons, the eponymous villain of Age of Ultron obviously has severe daddy issues, and then there's Ant-Man and its father-daughter themes with Scott, Cassie, Hank, and Hope (and Cross feeling neglected off to the side).
But I think Phase 3 is where it graduates from undercurrent to primary focus.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Overly ambitious phase ones is why so many other cinematic universes fall apart
Vaguely connected random events is clearly how you build audience interest
Forever liveblogging the AvengersCaptain America is the first phase film that leans the least heavily on quips and Deadpan Snarker humor, for what it's worth.
edited 30th Mar '18 2:52:12 PM by AlleyOop
Black Panther's merchandise has been selling well
, no surprise.
edited 30th Mar '18 2:56:24 PM by comicwriter

Like, I agree RDJ is a good actor, but I struggle to see how that would put IM 2 above The First Avenger. IM 2 just has no structure and beyond the first act just completely runs out of juice, as well as suffering possibly the worst from the MCU's shitty villain syndrome.
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"