Current Events > Biscuit watches, briefly reviews, and eventually ranks the MCU *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Spiderman 2 and Guardians 3 are the only confirmed ones. I imagine Dr Strange and Black Panther sequels will be on the way too.
---

And those are obviously coming out after IG, at least I'd imagine.
---

You mean to tell me they didnt permanently kill off Spider Man and Black Panther after one movie each?!
---

IfGodCouldDie posted...

And those are obviously coming out after IG, at least I'd imagine.

Which is really fucking annoying that they couldn't keep their damn mouths shut because now we fucking now that people are coming back to life in IG. I mean unless the Spiderman sequel has no Spiderman (or takes place between Homecoming and IW) and GotG3 only has Rocket (or takes place between GotG2 and IW).

So, yeah, I'm pretty bitter about that.
---

Nuffinz0rz posted...

IfGodCouldDie posted...

And those are obviously coming out after IG, at least I'd imagine.

Which is really fucking annoying that they couldn't keep their damn mouths shut because now we fucking now that people are coming back to life in IG. I mean unless the Spiderman sequel has no Spiderman (or takes place between Homecoming and IW) and GotG3 only has Rocket (or takes place between GotG2 and IW).

So, yeah, I'm pretty bitter about that.

Yea, it was pretty brutal. I had heard rumours but didn't know they were confirmed.

Granted it would be hard to imagine any of those three not getting a sequel.
---

Honestly I thought common sense would dictate the Guardians, Spider Man, and Black Panther at minimum will all be okay.

Id be more irritated if the guys who got dusted and then revealed by production news to be alive were, like... Thor, Cap, Tony, Natasha, etc where the simple reality of contracts and actors being ready to move on gave them a real chance at being dead. I think the snap being undone is a foregone conclusion, but the ones who died before that, maybe not.

Though I suppose if you view it as confirmation that not only will they be brought back, but that theyll also then survive IW2, then yeah, thats kinda annoying.
---

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Id be more irritated if the guys who got dusted and then revealed by production news to be alive were, like... Thor, Cap, Tony, Natasha, etc where the simple reality of contracts and actors being ready to move on gave them a real chance at being dead.

Yeah this

Why kill people off if death has no consequence
---

Nuffinz0rz posted...

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Id be more irritated if the guys who got dusted and then revealed by production news to be alive were, like... Thor, Cap, Tony, Natasha, etc where the simple reality of contracts and actors being ready to move on gave them a real chance at being dead.

Yeah this

Why kill people off if death has no consequence

Thats why I think the pre-snap fatalities have to stick. Im fine with undoing the snap, though, sometimes you gotta suspend disbelief and remember how much gravity this still carries in-universe.

Yes, we know from a business and logistical standpoint that there is a 0% chance Black Panther stays dead, even without having a confirmed sequel, but even if Tony pieces together that the snap was part of Stranges 1/14,000,000 victory, those are still for story purposes absolutely insane odds.

If they undo literally everything from IW but Cap is dead or something though that could be lame.
---

I didn't have a huge issue with sequels being announced for people who got snapped away. Its not supposed to be about us. Its about the people who are alive. The agony and despair that the survivors have, this is rock bottom. Thanos won. In the world of the film itself, it was absolutely devastating.
---

Mr_Biscuit posted...

I think the pre-snap fatalities have to stick.

this
---

They should all stay dead. Let death have some god damn meaning in movies again. I know I would have felt more of an emotional impact, if there was a sense of permanence to what Thanos did. Instead, meh.
---

Lorenzo_2003 posted...

They should all stay dead. Let death have some god damn meaning in movies again. I know I would have felt more of an emotional impact, if there was a sense of permanence to what Thanos did. Instead, meh.

I almost agree, but the narrative premise of the snap demands it be undone even from a fan perspective. Death having permanence is great but it cant be at the cost of half the cast.

Loki, Gamora, Vision, and Heimdall had true death scenes unrelated to the snap and I think they oughtta be permanent. I love Loki, but especially if HES still alive I will never feel anything again when something happens to him because I just wont buy it.
---

Gamora's soul is in the Soul Gem, I doubt she's dead for good.
---

Not to be cynical, but I don't see Gamora staying dead. It seems to me that GotG draws in a lot of people who otherwise don't care about the MCU and comic book movies in general. Having one of the main characters permanently iced 'offscreen' in a movie that's not mainline to the GotG arm of the franchise would not sit well with a lot of those fans.

I honestly think there's a good chance that all six OG Avengers sacrifice themselves to undo the snap. At the very least, I predict there'll be enough permanent character death in IW2 to placate even the harshest critics of the inevitable snap-reversal.
---

I expect vision to come back as Jarvis again at least and Gamora to come back somehow.
---

masterpug53 posted...

I honestly think there's a good chance that all six OG Avengers sacrifice themselves to undo the snap.

Hmm one life for each stone
---

I at the very least hope that Loki stays dead, even though he is a great character. He's cheated death enough already.

Even Thanos says something about no resurrections anymore, so to me that means he's dead for real this time.
---

Excellent.

You've gotta give your thoughts on the movie other than the snap though.
---

DarkChozoGhost posted...

Excellent.

You've gotta give your thoughts on the movie other than the snap though.

Oh I will. Just processing
---

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Oh I will

---

dave_is_slick posted...

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Im still processing. Not even sure where to begin outside of safely saying it somehow exceeded expectations. Just a remarkable achievement in film

Take your time. I was shaking when I walked out the theater so I understand.

Yeah.

I was absolutely wrecked by the end.
---

why is biscuit loved
---

masterpug53 posted...

Not to be cynical, but I don't see Gamora staying dead. It seems to me that GotG draws in a lot of people who otherwise don't care about the MCU and comic book movies in general. Having one of the main characters permanently iced 'offscreen' in a movie that's not mainline to the GotG arm of the franchise would not sit well with a lot of those fans.

I honestly think there's a good chance that all six OG Avengers sacrifice themselves to undo the snap. At the very least, I predict there'll be enough permanent character death in IW2 to placate even the harshest critics of the inevitable snap-reversal.

Yeah. I would be very disappointed if we didnt have at least a few avengers legitoffed for good.

Aside from helping the story have more lasting impact on the MCU it could also help freshen things up, open up new character arcs for survivors and give some room to shine for some of the B-list, less focused on and newer characters,
---

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/ant-man-and-the-wasp

Ant man and the wasp is holding up fairly well in the reviews
---

Makeveli_lives posted...

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/ant-man-and-the-wasp

Ant man and the wasp is holding up fairly well in the reviews

Nice! Excited to see it.

I promise Ill review IW first...
---

Did you already review BP? I remember you watched it before all this...

Bump. IW review when?
---

Relient_K posted...

Bump. IW review when?

Ill give you a one word Infinity War review:

Fistfight.

If you want a slightly longer review:

Infinity War is a series of fistfights. Thanos can shatter planets and reality itself with his Infinity Stones, but he mostly punches people and gets punched by those same heroes. Some of them dont survive. The end.
---

Relient_K posted...

Bump. IW review when?

now
---

Avengers: Infinity War

It was going to take a lot for this movie to live up to the hype of watching 18 films in the span of a month and a half, but if possible, Marvel managed to exceed my expectations. This was truly an insane moment in the history of cinema, and I say that without hyperbole -- not because it was the greatest movie of all time, but because they actually managed to successfully pull off an "it has all come down to this" film with ten years of buildup. That's completely unprecedented and I'm so thrilled they nailed it.

Much discussion of the snap has already taken place in this topic immediately following my viewing, but I'll touch on it again here... it really says something about the quality of the cast and the characters you've assembled when deaths that you know damn well won't stick still shake you to your core. Hell, not only do I know Spider Man, Black Panther, et al won't stay dead, I even already knew they died before seeing it and I was still just absolutely aghast. It's an incredibly strong scene and I can't wait for the sequel, even though it's kind of a foregone conclusion that we'll be seeing some sort of snap-undoing with Strange's one-in-a-jillion chance strategy.

I don't wanna dwell on that, though, and want to instead put emphasis on how well they managed to handle character balance overall. It wasn't flawlessly split, but I mean, how many goddamn characters do we have by now? The fact that we got real character moments at all in this film is a miracle, despite the necessity of rushing things like the Bruce/Natasha reunion to keep the movie under three hours. They also did a phenomenal job establishing Thanos as a villain I cared about after being somewhat underwhelmed by his lack of tangible build-up over the first three phases. I wouldn't say he's "relatable," but he has a motive you can wrap your head around. Similar to how I compared Vulture to a supervillain version of Walter White, I felt Thanos was a bit of a supervillain version of Stannis Baratheon. Truly convicted in his beliefs and has completely deluded himself into thinking the end justifies even the worst means; heck, the comparison holds right down to sacrificing his daughter.

The best sequence in the film, for my money, was the fight on Titan. The choreography was just absolutely stunning, and maybe the low-key most impressive part of the whole MCU is the creative knack the folks in charge have for superhero synergy. I will never get tired of stuff like Spider Man jumping through Dr. Strange's portals -- it gets the nerd-juices flowing without fail every single time. But not only was the fight itself incredible, right down to him shattering a freaking moon, the emotion was thick too. The moment when they have him on his knees, trying to pry the gauntlet off, and he's mourning for Gamora, devastated that it might all have been for nothing... man, I felt that. Again, a great villain with a lot of nuance that made him extremely compelling to watch.

It's also a testament to the mastery they have of the genre that Infinity War also still manages to be, at times, downright hilarious. I'm not a "NO COMEDY GRRR" guy, but as you could piece together from my Ragnarok review, I think there's a bit of a time and a place and this film struck a nearly perfect balance. This is especially true with Thor, who was both the primary comic relief but also kicked dramatic amounts of ass without them feeling like they need to play "Thunderstruck" when he enters Wakanda (which was fucking awesome, by the way).

I feel like I could see it again and write a whole separate review because there was just SO much here. It was in my opinion a perfect capstone to this journey through the MCU, and thank you guys so much for being my sounding board through the process. Here's to the next ten years.
---

(Black Panther rewatch is on my to-do list but I cannot promise when I'll get to that, and I don't feel right typing up a review for a movie I saw once half a year ago. I do feel that it lived up to the hype, however, and it was honestly a large part of what got me thinking about doing the whole MCU in the first place, so that should tell you the esteem I hold it in. That said, having seen them all now, I'm not sure I'd say it was the best one necessarily, but it was really, really good)
---

This was difficult.

FINAL RANKINGS

Avengers: Infinity War
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Black Panther
The Avengers
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Iron Man
Captain America: Civil War
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The First Avenger
Spider Man: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnarok
Doctor Strange
Iron Man 3
Ant Man
Thor: The Dark World
Thor
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2

I agonized over this, so perhaps a less painful way to do it is in groupings of no-particular order:

Tier 1 = Infinity War, Guardians 2, Winter Soldier, Black Panther
Tier 2 = Avengers, Ultron, Iron Man
Tier 3 = Civil War, Guardians, Captain America, Spider Man
Tier 4 = Ragnarok, Dr. Strange, Iron Man 3, Ant Man
Tier 5 = Dark World, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man 2

without an actual bad movie in the bunch. As I've said, even Iron Man 2's biggest sin is just that the best parts of it are present in every other movie Iron Man is in, so it makes those less valuable in comparison to the weak aspects. They're all at worst "fun."
---

Mr_Biscuit posted...

Iron Man 2

all is right in the world
---

The thors are the only ones that you seem to stray from the consensus opinion. Can't tell you how many people have Thor 1 and Dark World at the absolute bottom and have Ragnarok as top 5 or top 3.

Fwiw, I rank the first two Thor's right about where you have em and Ragnarok is in the top 5
---

mew4ever posted...

The thors are the only ones that you seem to stray from the consensus opinion. Can't tell you how many people have Thor 1 and Dark World at the absolute bottom and have Ragnarok as top 5 or top 3.

Fwiw, I rank the first two Thor's right about where you have em and Ragnarok is in the top 5

To be fair, its mostly just Ragnarok then, where I had it Top 10ish instead of Top 5. The other Thors I have at 3rd/4th from last, so not far off.
---

My own ranking looks something like:

Avengers 3
Cap 2
Thor 3
Ant man
Cap 3
Spiderman
Guardians 1
Avengers 1
Cap 1
Iron man 1
Black panther
Dr. Strange
Guradians 2
Incredible Hulk
Thor 1
Avengers 2
Iron man 2
Iron man 3
Thor 2

This is pretty close. Only seen IW once but I am pretty confident putting it top 3 and that it would be just as good on rewatch. A lot of my rankings have to do with how enthusiastic I'd be about rewatching any given movie.

I'm so excited for antman and wasp.
---

Your list is alright. We have a few disagreements but that's ok. It was fun watching you review them all as you saw them for the first time. I did the same thing 2 years ago, going from having watched 1 MCU movie to watching all of them in 2 weeks to prepare for Civil War in theaters.
---