Marvel's Phase 5

[Eddage]

Have to completely disagree with MindFreak, just got back from seeing Ant-Man and enjoyed it.

Not the funniest of the Ant-Man movies but when dealing with Kang it definitely shouldn't be. Rather than Love and Thunder which was way over the top with the (attempted) comedy when it should have been much more serious considering the villain, I thought the tone was fine for the subject and to kick off Phase 5.

Also, you're really going to question how shit works in the Quantum Realm, as far as I'm aware there isn't much real life knowledge of how physics in such a place might work . Also, the whole Ant-Man mass thing has been the same in all the movies, so at least it's remained consistent within the MCU.

MODOK was the one thing I didn't really enjoy and actually thought most of his stuff fell flat.

I would definitely recommend going to see it if you're an MCU fan, just don't expect it to be a comedy. I expected it to be more serious than the other Ant-Man films so maybe that was why I enjoyed it - it didn't go against what I was expecting.

[MindFreak]

I didn't expect it to be hilarious just to be the same level of funny as other Marvel movies. It wasn't. At all. But that's fine, that's not why I watch this stuff, but the story and setting was just not interesting, there was no character development, and

Spoiler

the story didn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things. At all. One version of Kang is dead, sure, and Ant-Man has now met him but as everything just happened within the quantum realm, nothing made an impact.

And yes, I know about quantum physics but there was nothing wonky about the physics in the quantum realm. I just think the whole thing is a bit too weird - quantum level universes don't feel natural but that's on me. I just really don't enjoy how the physics work with Ant-Man and it throws me out of the movie. Again, that's on me.

I even think this was worse than Captain Marvel which was completely mediocre and didn't matter at all. 

[Eddage]

6 hours ago, MindFreak said:

 

  and story (Hide contents)

the story didn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things. At all. One version of Kang is dead, sure, and Ant-Man has now met him but as everything just happened within the quantum realm, nothing made an impact.

 

Spoiler

But it did matter. The mid credit scene showed that other Kang variants had been keeping an eye on the exiled one and as he was killed by an Avenger, rather than another Kang, that led to all the Kangs being summoned. "They're beginning to touch the Multiverse. And if we let them, they will take everything we have built. So lets stop wasting time."

Sure, a few Avengers films have dealt with the Multiverse, No Way Home and obviously Multiverse of Madness. As well as Loki which even featured a Kang variant. But it seems that the fact that one of the strongest Kang's, one they had to exile to stop him destroying everything, is dead at the hands of an Avenger has finally led them to take action.

It's essentially the phase 5/6 equivalent of Thanos saying "Fine, I'll do it myself" after Age of Ultron.

 

[MindFreak]

On 18.2.2023 at 12:12 AM, Eddage said:

  Consequences (Reveal hidden contents)

But it did matter. The mid credit scene showed that other Kang variants had been keeping an eye on the exiled one and as he was killed by an Avenger, rather than another Kang, that led to all the Kangs being summoned. "They're beginning to touch the Multiverse. And if we let them, they will take everything we have built. So lets stop wasting time."

Sure, a few Avengers films have dealt with the Multiverse, No Way Home and obviously Multiverse of Madness. As well as Loki which even featured a Kang variant. But it seems that the fact that one of the strongest Kang's, one they had to exile to stop him destroying everything, is dead at the hands of an Avenger has finally led them to take action.

It's essentially the phase 5/6 equivalent of Thanos saying "Fine, I'll do it myself" after Age of Ultron.

 

True but there's something wrong when the post-credits are what make a movie matter... 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/02/20/ant-man-quantumanias-post-credit-scenes-are-more-important-to-the-mcu-than-the-whole-movie/

Edited February 20, 2023 by MindFreak

[Eddage]

I mean that's kind of a staple with the MCU...

Lots of the films themselves do not necessarily impact the wider Universe but will hint to other things in the credit scenes, or have aspects that are tied together and called back to in future movies.

Spoiler

This film properly introduced Kang (Jonathan Majors was awesome), expanded further on the multiverse stuff from Loki and Multiverse of Madness. The flashbacks when Janet touched the ship showed how powerful a Kang can be when he actually has access to all his tech (they could only beat him because he was exiled and didn't have it, only what he had built up over the years he was exiled). Then the post credits scene really made it clear how big a threat this can turn into by introducing the council of Kangs. I don't feel the credits scene was the only thing that mattered, I think it emphasised and increased the stakes of what we saw in the movie.

In terms of post credit scene I can liken it to the first Avengers film. They defeated Loki (Kang equivalent) and the Chitari (Kang's army equivalent), great job done. Then in the post credit scene we are shown that Loki was just a Thanos pawn and he would be a bigger looming threat, just like the Council of Kangs.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying this film was as enjoyable as Avengers. That was the first time they teamed up which was awesome and obviously meant a lot in terms of the future and the real world destruction in New York played a part in other films. But it followed the same pattern in terms of post credit scene importance so I don't agree with the argument that the post credit scene is the only thing that matters.

I'm not saying this film is top tier MCU, of course it isn't. But it's also no where near the bottom and I still think it's worth seeing in the cinema.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Eddage

[Sméagol]

I really enjoyed it. The film had an 80s sci-fi/fantasy vibe at times. Kang was cool, I liked the action, and big Ant-man. Oh and the robot guy!

[Julius]

First trailer for Secret Invasion, which is still scheduled for 21st June. 

[MindFreak]

Oh, that looks good!

[Happenstance]

 

[bob]

Anybody watched the first episode of Secret Invasion?

Thought it was ok. Seemed a bit by-the-numbers and generic to start with. The bad guys are giving me a Flag Smashers vibe, which isn't great tbh.

The thing that massively annoys me though, is the bad guy's current plan:

You have a large group of alien bad guys who can pretend to be anyone on earth, and they want to bring about the end of the world so they can take over.

The ideal way to do this surely would be to impersonate the leaders of the world, and use them to bring about global instability and war.

Instead, they sit about in a terrorist camp, making dirty bombs to try and provoke countries into waging war against each other. That surely isn't playing to their strengths...

 

[Eddage]

1 hour ago, bob said:

Anybody watched the first episode of Secret Invasion?
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Thought it was ok. Seemed a bit by-the-numbers and generic to start with. The bad guys are giving me a Flag Smashers vibe, which isn't great tbh.

The thing that massively annoys me though, is the bad guy's current plan:

You have a large group of alien bad guys who can pretend to be anyone on earth, and they want to bring about the end of the world so they can take over.

The ideal way to do this surely would be to impersonate the leaders of the world, and use them to bring about global instability and war.

Instead, they sit about in a terrorist camp, making dirty bombs to try and provoke countries into waging war against each other. That surely isn't playing to their strengths...

 

Spoiler

I reckon it will be revealed that some world leaders/their advisers are already Skrull.

My guess would be that the terrorist attacks are just so those Skrull leaders have an 'excuse' to start the wars you talk about. If they just randomly started to declare wars on other countries with seemingly no reason then it would seem a bit sus.

In Wakanda Forever the US wanted to try and destabilise Wakanda as a way of getting Vibranium. It wouldn't surprise me if those we saw discussing this are revealed to be Skrull, for example Val, the head of the CIA.

 

[bob]

Secret Invasion Ep 2

Spoiler

Fair enough, they revealed that many of the world leaders are already Skrulls, as Eddage said, so that makes my point moot.

I'm still not on board with the actor playing Gravik though - he just seems to lack any sort of menace or screen presence. He weirdly seems to have a faint Welsh accent coming through, but i checked his wiki page, and he's not Welsh at all, so that's odd.

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

With The Marvels hitting D+ tomorrow, I figured it was about time I caught up with both Loki Season 2 and Secret Invasion. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed both of them. Loki was definitely the slower of the 2 and it wasn't until the second half of the season where things came together. 

On 29/06/2023 at 8:24 AM, bob said:

Secret Invasion Ep 2

  Oh ok (Reveal hidden contents)

Fair enough, they revealed that many of the world leaders are already Skrulls, as Eddage said, so that makes my point moot.

I'm still not on board with the actor playing Gravik though - he just seems to lack any sort of menace or screen presence. He weirdly seems to have a faint Welsh accent coming through, but i checked his wiki page, and he's not Welsh at all, so that's odd.

 

 

I definitely agree with this. Dude wasn't menacing at all and just came off as a spoilt brat. Pretty shoddy actor if I'm honest.

Seeing a tired, beaten and worn out Nick Fury was great and I liked his redemption arc. I also loved Talos, both the character and the actor playing him. Wasn't keen on Emilia Clarke's performance but other than Me Before You, I've never really rated her.

Spoiler

Her as a Super Skrull was hilariously bad. The CGI arms they gave her looked completely off. 

With Loki, it was interesting that Kang was still part of the storyline and I'm still not sure how they are going to deal with him going forward. With the actor now being fired, I would probably write the character off and pivot to something better. As a villain, Kang just feels very flat and unfocused when compared to Thanos. When Antman can bring you down then it's probably time to pack it up. Plus, I hate the idea that you could defeat one but there are thousands of other variants waiting to take his place. Feels a bit cheap. They should just give him the boot and bring in Doom. 

[Hero-of-Time]

The Marvels was fine but that's about it. Kamala does a lot of the heavy lifting due to how funny and charming she is but the main plot is pretty throwaway and the villain is straight up garbage.

Spoiler

I wasn't expecting the X-Men/Beast to show up! Amazing. 

 

[lostmario]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The Marvels was fine but that's about it. Kamala does a lot of the heavy lifting due to how funny and charming she is but the main plot is pretty throwaway and the villain is straight up garbage.

  Credits Scene (Reveal hidden contents)

I wasn't expecting the X-Men/Beast to show up! Amazing. 

 

Yeah, it was just OK. Quite forgettable with the post credit scenes being the only interesting part of the film. One which I imagine is dead in the water with the way Marvel have pushed everything back apart from Deadpool 3.

Brie Larson just seemed to sleepwalk through the film with the other 2 leads carrying the film. Seemed like a completely different character to the one in Captain Marvel and Endgame.

[bob]

Watched the 'finale' of Echo last night.

What utter rubbish the whole show was from start to finish.

Just dull moments and boring, less-than-one-dimensional characters all the way through.

Thank god it was only 5 episodes, because I don't think I would have watched a 6th.

[lostmario]

On 2/8/2024 at 1:16 PM, bob said:

Watched the 'finale' of Echo last night.

What utter rubbish the whole show was from start to finish.

Just dull moments and boring, less-than-one-dimensional characters all the way through.

Thank god it was only 5 episodes, because I don't think I would have watched a 6th.

I gave up on it half way through the first episode. Just found it incredibly boring.

With it only being 5 episodes, I might have to just get it watched.

[bob]

I gave up on it half way through the first episode. Just found it incredibly boring.
With it only being 5 episodes, I might have to just get it watched.

I honestly wouldn't bother. I've watched all the MCU stuff up until now, and it's the first one I wish I hadn't bothered.

(I'm not saying it's the only bad one, only that it doesn't seem to add anything to the universe at all)

[Julius]

First teaser for Deadpool & Wolverine:

Spoiler

...is that a the decaying husk of the 20th Century Fox logo? Love it 

Poster:

"A Hugh Hope", "Come Together", safe to say the tone has been set and thankfully nothing's changed 

Edited February 12 by Julius

[bob]

Well that looks fantastic.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I was more excited before I saw the TVA guys... now I'm lowering my hopes.

[Hero-of-Time]

Not a fan of some of these choices. I really cant see Pedro as playing a good Reed Richards.

[Hero-of-Time]

My Disney+ is ending next month and this being the case, over the past two weeks I've been watching the MCU films from the very start and today I reached and finished Endgame. It's been a hell of a ride.

Watching all of these back to back highlighted just what a mess everything post Endgame has been. The original phases had a core group of characters (Cap, Thor and Iron Man) that the stories really centered around. You then had the other characters come into the franchise in what felt like an organic and not forced way. Every film and post credit scene seemed to be made with purpose that pushed the main narrative forward.

Fast forward to where they are at now and the difference between the phases is night and day. For example, just how many post credit scenes have we got that have yet to land anywhere? Very few of the films seem to connect in any meaningful way. Also, the main characters I mentioned from the original phases popped up numerous times across multiple films. This allowed the audience to get to know them and keep them in their minds. This hasn't been the case with the newer phases.

The one thing I disliked about the original run of films was the inclusion of Captain Marvel. This was true when they first released and it remains the same now. She's too OP and didn't really fit with the rest of the characters that had been built up well over the years.

Thor was the MVP of the whole thing. Dude is absolutely hilarious but is also involved in my favorite epic moments in the franchise. Him becoming worthy in the original Thor film, his arrival on Earth with Stormbreaker, his hammer going to Cap, his awakening during the end battle of Ragnarok...fantastic stuff.

I'm still amazed that Marvel pulled off what they did with these films. 10 years of build up, with very few of the films being a miss, but also bringing everything to a satisfying ending. I honestly can't see me seeing something like this happen again in my lifetime. So many movie studios have tried and failed to copy this formula, Marvel included, and none of them have been able to recapture the magic.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Watched The Marvels last night, it wasn't that bad. I've not seen the Ms Marvel series, so watching her froth at the gash at seeing Captain Marvel was most humourous. Brie wasn't that bad either, don't think she deserves the flack she got here. Rambeau Jnr was the worst, just being a crybaby bitch throughout about how Carol flew off and didn't come back quick enough for her satisfaction.

Villain was boring, turned into female Ronan but somehow able to hold her own against these three broads, one of which could've fucked over Thanos several times over, but give a girl a bracelet and they're nigh unstoppable.

Main highlight was Goose and all the lil kitties.

 

[Julius]

Trailer for what is still slated as the Phase 5 closer, Thunderbolts*:

 

Edited September 23 by Julius