The Marvel Thread (Spoilers, and language!)

Spider-Man was awesome. Possibly the best MCU movie and a reminder of why he's their best character. He has the most interesting story, the most interesting side characters (although there were several characters not from the comics, they were just as good as the classics), and the best villains in the universe. I was skeptical about them using Vulture because I didn't think he could carry a whole movie as the main villain, but they reworked the character to make it work.

Marvel and DC have both raised the bar this year after a very underwhelming 2016.
 
My thoughts on Spider-Man: Homecoming:
One thing that Marvel Studios managed to pull off flawlessly is that they didn't repeat stuff from the first 5 Sony movies.

- No Osborns of any kind
- No villains that already appeared
- No origin story, no Uncle Ben
- No Mary Jane (well, mostly), no Gwen Stacy
- No Daily Bugle, no JJJ
- Aunt May (for some reason I always type this as Ant-May :P) is totally different than before (the one from Raimi's movies was way too old to be his aunt)
- No "with great power and blablabla"
- No mention of his parents
- Flash Thompson isn't a jock, rather a rich douche; Peter probably would've been able to kick his ass even before getting powers
- I also don't think they didn't have Spidey swing across Times Square once

All of this made the movie so much refreshing. At last he actually had some school friends other than love interests or Harry Osborn. Marketing fooled us into thinking Tony Stark was in the movie much more than he actually was, which is fine by me.

They also struck gold with the casting of Tom Holland. Tobey was way too uncool and wimpy. Garfield was mostly OK but was a bit too cool and also too old to play a teenager. Holland struck the perfect balance between the two of them.

The only problem is the "8 years later" thingy which complicates the timeline, but after so many movies it's a blimp in the radar compared to continuity errors of X-Men movies, for example.
 
Here is where you get a glimpse into the dark way I think:

Spider-Man: Homecoming -

The scene that stays with me is when Toomes dropped off Peter and told him "I just saved your life". In a "What If..." version of the film... Peter could have said "Mr. Stark pretty much fired me. Guess I need a new mentor now. I like the house you and your family live in. Beats the apartment me an my aunt live in. Since Mr. Stark does not believe in me and you seem threatened by me, which I will take as a compliment, how about you take the reins from Mr. Stark and show me the ropes. I could be a great asset to you and this way, you keep my secret, I keep yours, and we don't break Liz's heart." Down the road he could turn out as Spider-Man; the leader of the Sinister Six
 
I saw Spider-Man today and loved it. They've made this coming-of-age premise work so freaking well. The story, tone and humour were spot-on. When they announced it, I thought a 15-year-old Spider-Man (and focus on his school life) could end up being super annoying, but luckily the casting was great - Holland nailed the part. He was not only likable but also gave a great performance. Huge props for making Vulture cool. I love his design, the costume looked brilliant. It was clearly the hero's film so the villain was kind of a throwaway, but Keaton's charisma elevated the character tremendously and it was a real pleasure to watch him in this role. Such a great actor.

It's definitely one of MCU's best. Maybe even the best. It makes the Garfield ones look like total garbage. It's really impressive that they managed to pull off something this fresh after 5 other Spider-Man films.

On a side note: screw 3D! It's so dark and blurry... Unfortunately I had no choice this time. I've tried to give 3D a chance a couple of times but nope - always fails to win me over. Such a gimmick. I'm yet to check out IMAX 3D, I hope it's better, because from what I gather it's the only IMAX format available for majority of blockbusters.
 
Yeah, that's really weird. I kinda assumed Sam Jackson got tired of the role, but then I thought, "Nah, he's Sam Jackson getting the biggest pay day of his life. He'll take it." Surely, his comments show that it's Marvel's doing and not his.
 
Can't believe no-one has reviewed The Defenders yet...

Slower build-up to all 4 meeting for the first time than I expected (halfway into the season; really?). Sure it was interesting to see the different minor (and major) characters interacting for the first time, but still...Wish we had seen more of DD in costume. Did anyone else find it comical that almost everytime Luke walked on screen the rap music started playing? Despite how much of a mess the IF series was, he and his back story were an important part of this series. Season 2 of IF has been announced. Finn Jones says he expects us to finally see the costume then. It would be interesting to finally see Danny go through his trial and face the dragon to earn the IF, but I don't know if Marvel Netflix has the budget to do it right. Otherwise, it would be too cheesy. They obviously did not have it in the budget to do the building demolition at the end of the series correctly. No dust flying onto our characters in the street? No-one in that production remember 9/11?

Anyway, now that we have Misty missing her arm, and Colleen dropping the hint about Danny's resources to help her, there is a setup for her and Colleen to team up as the Daughters of the Dragon. Love the end of the series with the nun taking care of Matt. Helps set up the Born Again DD storyline for the next season of DD. Another complaint I have is that during the fight scenes that involved all 4 characters, it was too dark or too close up to tell who was fighting sometimes. I also felt that even though we saw Jessica in action a few times, she still is under utilized as far as her powers go. Curious that not once (that I remember) did Jessica ask Luke about Claire. It is obvious Jessica is still interested in Luke. Something else that bothered me was when Danny was trying to explain to Luke about K'un L'un. How is it that Luke knows aliens attacked NYC, but a dragon he has a hard time believing in? How about seeing Madame Gao use powers? That was strange...

Sigourney Weaver was too weak and nice for her part I thought (similar to Will Smith as Deadshot). Though I was surprised by her fate. I did not expect that.


Overall I would rate The Defenders better than IF, but was it worth the wait and build-up? Not sure. Will have to view again to decide
 
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Haven't watched it yet. Iron Fist kind of took the wind out of the sails for me. I might start tonight. I also might just play Stardew Valley.
 
Just finished episode 2. Interesting so far, but whoever directed this is an idiot. So many out of focus, over-the-shoulder shots with half the screen empty...
 
Man, that'll be great. Drew Goddard (former Buffy/Angel writer, writer of The Martian, creator of Daredevil, the writer/director of Cabin in the Woods) is a perfect fit.
 
Do I need to have seen other Marvel films and spinoffs in order to be able to follow the plot properly? I wouldn't mind seeing this, but I missed the boat completely with Marvel movies.
 
Both seasons of DD are awesome and worth watching anyway.

I fell behind the tv shows, currently watching Stranger Things but then I’ll try Luke Cage and Defenders hopefully before Punisher (not gonna bother with iron fist).
 
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