The Marvel Thread (Spoilers, and language!)

[Mosh]

I have not seen a single Marvel movie that I've considered really great since Endgame. Two came close: Spider-Man No Way Home was great nostalgia bait and I was thrilled to see the old actors return, but the movie itself was pretty bland. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was OK but I thought it was really bloated. I only felt invested in Rocket's storyline and Chris Pratt's plot was just stupid I thought. And even though I thought the Rocket stuff was well done, I felt the movie got a lot darker than it really needed to be. Just wasn't a great tone for that series IMO. Every other Marvel movie I've seen recently has felt like a waste of time and pretty boring. The shows are a different story though, I don't really have the time or willpower to get into a lot of TV series but from watching episodes here and there of various seasons I have been more impressed with the TV side. Recent reviews suggest that even that has been rickety recently though.

IMO Marvel is falling into the same trap that plagued DC in that they are way too focused on building up to the big teamup at the end that they're failing to introduce new characters that people can connect with. In the first couple phases it was just cool seeing so many of these classic characters being brought to life and they all had their own plots and relationships to be invested in. The teamup movies at the end were more of a cherry on top, but we cared about those because the films proceeding those teamups were good. It has just gotten way too big for its own good.

 

[Edington]

I didn't love Guardians 3 but I really liked that it took a darker turn and took itself more seriously, though that's mainly because I thought Vol. 2 was crap, taking everything that made the first one great and unique and amping it up to the point it became really annoying. They still can't make me care about Kraglin, though, and I have no investment in this new team going forward.

Marvel are in a weird spot at the moment because I think they're losing what made them interesting. The first three phases were all building towards to Endgame (though they were clearly winging it in some places, let's not pretend they had it all figured out from day one) and it was exciting to see these characters come together and cross over. The "Marvel formula" was excusable because you knew it was just a piece of the puzzle and it was leading into something. By now we've seen everyone join forces in Infinity War/Endgame and the thrill of characters meeting and crossing over is wearing thin, also with no clear goal in mind, what is there to make you want to see each film or series?

 

[DJMayes]

I've completely fallen out of touch with Marvel in the past couple of years and there's basically three reasons:

1) Quantity: The number of Marvel projects is too much to keep up with since they added in the TV shows. It's a minor miracle Endgame worked given the amount they had to take for granted on the part of its viewers, but it's a whole new ball game now.

2) Characters: The balance has shifted and it feels like there's too many B-tier superheroes noone really cares about getting top billing now. Sure, Marvel have made this work in the past - GOTG is the prime example. But GOTG contrasted much more with the rest of marvels offerings back then, and was (and still is) one of the franchises best films.

3) Endgame: This film is the natural stopping point for the MCU. The people collecting the checks don't want it to be, but it is. It was a special moment, a culmination of all the films that came before it, and it's just difficult to get invested in anything that comes after it. The only one that's really managed to get me excited was the third Spider-Man film, and that was mostly due to the excitement of having the older actors on board.

I think Marvel are flogging a dead horse at the minute. Give us some time away from the MCU and let us miss it. Give us the space so that when they recast those big name characters (which they need to, because they're the draw) we can get excited again, especially with the previous Fox-owned properties joining the board. If they just keep crawling forward, I'm not sure even adding F4 and X-Men in can get me excited, because it's still in the current, stale iteration of the MCU.

 

[Jer]

Binged all the Netflix Marvel shows (now on Disney+) over the past couple of months, and Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and especially The Punisher are definitely the cream of that crop. (Iron Fist is really uneven and Luke Cage is pretty mediocre, and The Defenders was just OK, though it was important to the overall story.)

Nice to see that they're canonizing these shows and bringing some of the same actors forward to play their characters in new MCU movies and shows. So far it's just been Daredevil and Kingpin with minor appearances, but with Echo apparently featuring both of them, and the new Daredevil: Born Again starring both of them and having Jon Bernthal's Punisher getting #3 billing for the show, it sounds like they're getting serious on this front.

It's pretty amazing how effectively they rounded out and humanized Frank Castle in the Punisher series without losing any of his ferocity. The characterization of Billy Russo / Jigsaw was also top notch through both seasons, making him slick, creepy, and a sympathetic figure all at once. I'm glad they're bringing Castle back with one of his series' writers running the reworked Daredevil: Born Again show.