Marvel Phase III Movie Discussion Thread

[odessasteps]

"Today the cast has to  watch Less Than Zero. Uh, unless you were in it already." 

[Niners Fan in CT]

I liked Spider-Man Homecoming quite a bit and I'll add my thoughts on that later but one thing that bothered me is the lack of 

Spidey sense? I don't know about that.

 

I didn't like Feige's comments about the lack of it either.  It sounded like "uh, it's there but we'll uh explore that later"  

[Eivion]

Caught the film a little earlier tonight. I loved it. Its easily the best Spider-man film since 2. Loved Keaton's Vulture and hope we see more of him in future films.

[odessasteps]

I was talking to one of my friends who is generally even more negative than me (shocking, i know) and he said this picture was great and the "dad talk" was one of the best 4 or 5 scenes in any super hero movie. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

That was a great scene.  All of the high school interactions and Spidey being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was great stuff.  I did not mind how a lot of the without spoiling it "MCU related stuff" played into the plot,  it was well done.  However,  some of the scenes with Iron Man I was like "Stark, just shut up and go away".   I could not watch an Iron Man 4 if they made one. I'm over it. But I'm all in on this Spider-Man.  Holland was very good.  I hope they bring Laura Harrier back for the sequel, she's great.  Ned was good.  Flash kind of sucked.  

Oh and THIS was awesome.  

NACHO!!!!!!!!!!

 

[J.T.]

9 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I was talking to one of my friends who is generally even more negative than me (shocking, i know) and he said this picture was great and the "dad talk" was one of the best 4 or 5 scenes in any super hero movie. 

And that scene was wonderfully prefaced by the brilliant "what the fuck do I do?" scene where Peter picks up Liz for the dance and totally fails to hide his feelings of awkwardness while being in the same house with the supervillain he's been trying to catch for days.

You can see the wheels turning in Pete's head and the panic slowly taking root.

The awesome thing is that Mr. and Mrs. Vulture probably chalked it up to date night nerves.

[J.T.]

9 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Flash kind of sucked.  

I disagree.  I think that it is totally awesome that the movie stayed relevant to the present day and made Flash a snooty rich kid that tormented Peter via social media bullying and status mocking.

What was missing was the negative chemistry between Peter and Flash.  No rivalry between Flash and Pete over Liz.  No scenes of Pete secretly knowing that he could beat the living shit out of Flash if he felt like it and consciously choosing not to do it.

There were not enough subtle "great power / great responsibility" moments in Homecoming for my liking. 

The whole point of being a superhero is knowing when not to be super.

9 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

However,  some of the scenes with Iron Man I was like "Stark, just shut up and go away".  

Eh, I'd like to see the effects of the Sokovian Accords on Stark's "mentorship" of Peter. 

Peter is so star struck by the idea of being an Avenger and having Tony as sponsor, that he really hasn't really dwelled on the consequences. 

Is Tony teaching Peter how to be responsible, or is he teaching Peter how to restrict himself? 

What is the function of the Training Wheels protocol?  Does it measure Peter's superhero maturity?  Is it a means of control?

This goes back to my "point of being a superhero" deal. 

Peter should be the one choosing when not to be super; not Tony or SHIELD or the UN.

Peter should also be the one to chose how to be super. 

If Tony wants Peter to be better than him, why does the Spider suit have settings reflecting how Tony would deal with a situation?  Shouldn't Peter get the opportunity to decide what sort of hero he should be? 

Why in the world does the Spidey suit need a Kill Mode and an Enhanced Interrogation Mode? 

9 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I could not watch an Iron Man 4 if they made one.  

If KF follows up on All Hail The King, you can bet your ass I will be there for Iron Man 4 and a proper Mandarin terrorizing the world and seeing how Tony deals with being a subject party of the Sokovian Accords instead of an enforcer.

Rules are only fun if a) they don't apply to you or b) they work to your benefit.

Homecoming even lays the MCU foundation for the origin of the Mandarin's rings with the new Chitauri illegal arms trade plotline.

[(BP)]

RDJ looked like he showed up, was given his sides right before they shot, and only gave them one take. It didn't ruin the movie or anything, but he's on autopilot. 

I liked the more realistic take of Peter, Flash, Liz, and Ned all sort of being in the same social stratosphere with bullying and pecking order angst amongst them. That's much more what high school is like. 

Keaton is dynamite. He's always been an actor that knows how to show a character thinking, processing information, and adjusting. That car ride...whoa. 

I thought outside of the Stones/Ramones most of the music was more deep cut 80s stuff so it wasn't too jarring, but needle drops are here to stay I guess. 

[J.T.]

19 hours ago, caley said:

The soundtrack also ties into the director believing it was as much an 80s-style coming-of-age film as a superhero film.

This is the ingredient that was missing from the Spider Man:  Homecoming coming-of-age formula.

Jonathan Kent's mentorship > Tony Stark's mentorship.

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

7 hours ago, J.T. said:

If KF follows up on All Hail The King, you can bet your ass I will be there for Iron Man 4 and a proper Mandarin terrorizing the world and seeing how Tony deals with being a subject party of the Sokovian Accords instead of an enforcer.

Rules are only fun if a) they don't apply to you or b) they work to your benefit.

Homecoming even lays the MCU foundation for the origin of the Mandarin's rings with the new Chitauri illegal arms trade plotline.

That's true and I would like that very much but fool me once cool,  fool me twice and that's it for me.  Iron Man (2008) was spectacular but the two sequels that followed, I've watched Iron Man 2 twice and I've watched Iron Man 3 twice.  I feel they both needed a rewatch and it didn't make them any better to me.  I did like some aspects of both movies and there's some good scenes in there but what they did with the generic villains and such and the twist on Mandarin, I mean they knew they made a mistake. That's why All Hail The King exists.  

But back to Spider-Man Homecoming.  I was pleased that Stark isn't in this TOO much but the scenes he was in were taking me out of the movie.  

Everything with Peter in school and interacting with his neighborhood was so good,  I wanted more of that.  I don't want to go into the ending of the movie I'll just say that I am happy with the direction they are taking it.  

[Brian Fowler]

It was nice that Keaton was actually given stuff to do. Far too often, Marvel casts legit great actors as villains, and then gives them almost nothing interesting in the script. That car ride scene, and the explanation/stalling scene... Just perfect. He was a good husband, a good dad, he wasn't trying to conquer the world... But he wasn't good person in a bad situation, he was an asshole who stumbled into a big opportunity.

I absolutely loved the end of the car ride, when he slipped into the actual dad speech you'd normally give your daughter's date. 

It wasn't a patch on Spider-Man 2.1 (the more time that passes, the more convinced I get we'll never have a better superhero movie) but it's right there with Spider-Man for the second best, and Keaton gives Molina a run for best villain.

The timeline has me completely lost though. Did this take place in 2020, or did we retroactively move The Avengers back to 2009?

Otherwise, I think at times it tried a bit too hard to push "look, Spidey is in the MCU now for real!" especially early on.

But it was a blast

[Brian Fowler]

Oh, and the swerve totally got me. I think being a comic reader actually makes you more susceptible to it.

[Dolfan in NYC]

14 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

It wasn't a patch on Spider-Man 2.1 (the more time that passes, the more convinced I get we'll never have a better superhero movie) but it's right there with Spider-Man for the second best, and Keaton gives Molina a run for best villain.

The Dark Knight does exist, you know. 

But on Marvel's side, yes Spidey 2 and X-Men 2 are as good as it gets. 

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah, it exists. And it's not nearly as good as Spider-Man 2. I recently had it seventh on my top ten superheroes movies list.

It's a good movie, but holy God is it overrated.

[Dolfan in NYC]

[(BP)]

My first guess was that they moved the events of the other movies back so there's considerably less time between Iron Man and The Avengers, but that still messes up the time frame for everything that followed so I'm not sure where they got 8 years from. 

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

Nah, The Dark Knight is the only super hero movie I'd legit have among the best pictures of that year. 

[Brian Fowler]

No Country For Old Men, Juno, There Will Be Blood, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Children of Men, Atonement, Michael Clayton... Yeah, Dark Knight isn't in that discussion.

[odessasteps]

I would put mask of the phantasm over the piano when looking at the 1993 Oscar nominees.

Admittedly, there are other films also more deserving in that year than things that won awards. (Insert anti Spielberg bias here)

[Casey]

1 hour ago, Brian Fowler said:

No Country For Old Men, Juno, There Will Be Blood, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Children of Men, Atonement, Michael Clayton... Yeah, Dark Knight isn't in that discussion.

It's almost like you don't accept other people's opinions. @Niners Fan in CT was saying HE considers it one of the best movies of that year, he wasn't speaking for you. Rattling off good movies the same year The Dark Knight was released doesn't make his opinion less valid.

Oh, and Children of Men was fucking horrible.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I don't have much love for Children of Men but man Juno now that is a terrible movie.  I hated Juno. Nobody talks like that much less a teen.  

 

[The Unholy Dragon]

I hated Spider-man 2 to the point of it being my least favourite Spider-man film overall until Amazing 2 came out.

 

Love Doc Ock and that business but too many dumb convoluted action scenes, yet lacking in any dynamic use of Ock's power set, too much Peter without his mask and the whole train Jesus bit...nah.

 

The film basically lost me when they did that scene where Spidey fights Ock on the building side while Aunt May dangles by her umbrella. Firstly, you have a guy whose whole thing in comics is being able to out-speed Spidey by having four lightning quick tentacles using those...to climb. While trading normal ass punches with a dude who as we see later is strong enough to stop a train. Ock should have been KO'ed right there but whatever. Aunt May is in danger! Except Peter NEVER ACTUALLY SAVES HER because she falls only to realize she was HANGING OVER A LEDGE AND WAS NEVER IN ACTUAL DANGER FIEIFJFJDHDNDJJ. So basically the only reason she survives is because she was never in real danger. 

 

God I hate that stupid movie.

[Casey]

Text of the Infinity War footage shown at D23 today. So, uh, obviously some massive spoilers here.

EDIT: Found a more detailed description.

 

Spoiler

The footage began with probably a two-minute intro of footage from the first several movies, all focusing on the Infinity Stones we’ve seen so far. Then, the Marvel Studios logo, and on to the new stuff.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are flying around. “Put on your mean faces,” Star-Lord says, because he expects something nasty. There has been crazy destruction, and then a body smashes up against their ship. “Get it away,” Rocket says. They bring the body in and it’s Thor. (Spoilers for Ragnarok, we guess?) Mantis wakes him up and Thor jumps up and exclaims “Who the hell are you guys?”

Next we see the Guardians with Thor, flying to another planet, and when they arrive—again, it’s just massive destruction again. They all know something is very wrong.

Cut to Earth. Scarlet Witch is moving around some cars or something and a female voiceover says “Death follows him like a shadow.” Loki emerges and presents the Tesseract to someone who is taller than him.

 

Cut to Queens and the hairs on the arm of a young Peter Parker stand up on end. He turns around in fear and we see a ship flying toward a planet we assume is Earth. “We have one advantage,” Tony Stark says. “He’s coming to us.” As the ship crashes, we see Mantis, Iron Man, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, and a few others characters in total shock.

“Fun really isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe,” a voice says. Gamora turns around in total horror. “But this puts a smile on my face.” Star-Lord: “Oh no.” And out of a black hole emerges the purple madman, Thanos.

A fight begins. Doctor Strange is putting down platforms and Star-Lord is jumping off them, shooting his guns. Cut to Spider-Man, in his new suit revealed at the end of Homecoming, jumping through the air. A shot of Vision behind bars. A shot of a Wakandan army which includes Bucky. Captain America comes out of shadows with a full beard. Black Widow is shown with blonde hair. Iron Man has new, very sleek armor. Someone is using the Hulkbuster armor. Just a huge montage of shots.

Peter Parker is on the ground very hurt. “I’m sorry Tony,” he says behind tears with Iron Man holding his head. Thanos grabs Thor’s head and squeezes. Then Thanos, in the heat of battle with the Infinity Gauntlet on his hand, uses the power of the two stones he has (Purple and Blue, I think) to grab a moon. He starts to drag it toward whatever planet everyone is standing on. The debris starts to fly and... cut to title card.

FUCK ME.

[The Unholy Dragon]

Man. Spider-man Homecoming was basically the exact Spidey movie I wanted. Loved Keaton, thought Holland was great, and basically really liked all the featured classmates.

 

Sitting in the theatre in a Miles Morales shirt, I extra appreciated Donald Glover's character.

[Bustronaut]

Ugh, that Press Conference Spidey suit was ugly af