Board 8 > Han continues watching the MCU (digi)

(+) Yeah! (+)

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Are you asking me that? Or is that a reference to something? Hydra was in Cap 1, but most Marvel fans know about Hydra anyway.

I was wondering about these predictions - it sure sounds like you already knew about Hydra. How else would you randomly guess that Hydra, the Red Skulls WWII supernazi organization, had taken over SHIELD? =O

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Here are predictions: PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THESE UNTIL AFTER THEY COME TO PASS

1. f*** Centipede, it's always been HYDRA.
2. HYDRA has compromised SHIELD at one of the highest levels. Fury has been offgrid... to find the mole?
3. Winter Soldier is going to have a lot to do with this schism at SHIELD. Which is why I have to watch it first - before being spoiled on the events of the movie, which will have more of an effect on the show than anything before.
4. Skye is named Skye because she came from the sky? IS SHE AN ALIEN

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

They've really tried hard to say "Agent of SHIELD" this episode. Three times so far?

Four times. Five.

Six.

WE ARE THE SHIELD
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Cly... it's Marvel.

It's always Hydra.

Next episode of AoS...

Awwww Fitz cares about Simmons more than anyone.

Ward is gonna have to kill this guy, isn't he? :(

Oh shit, Marcus Daniels worked at a lab where they worked with Darkforce. That's the shit from Agent Carter!

This Coulson love story is the sweetest thing ever.

Ugh dammit Ward. May is saying she's leaving, but no chance. She's too good.

Glad Skye figured it out. Now it's just a thriller instead of a stupid "characters don't know what's up" moment.

Oh, May did leave. Had her MOM pick her up. "I always liked Maria" Hill? I guess my guess of May being onboard the bus to help out Skye was wrong... Skye is ON HER OWN.

Fitz listening to Coulson and deciding not to tell Simmons, in direct defiance of what Ward said to do, is good symbolism. Also sweet of him, but good symbolism as well.
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On a scale of 1-10, how surprised were you of Wards turn?
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Cly... it's Marvel.

It's always Hydra.

Sometimes its Skrulls

EDIT: BTW in case you were wondering, both MCU and Fox are allowed to use Skrulls, but only Fox is specifically allowed to use the Super Skrull
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9 before the episode. Probably a 6 as the episode was going on. They put enough hints in with the way that he acted during the whole deal that made it pretty clear that he was on the way to betraying them.

Are there any hints throughout the series from beforehand that point to this? That'd be pretty cool to do a watchback and see little things he does that are secretly "hail hydra".
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

I don't like when the audience knows something is up and the characters are oblivious

RIP every Greek playwright

that's the definition of dramatic irony
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There are a couple things they point to that have an extra meaning, like a scene at the academy where he's looking at the wall of the fallen kinda feels different when you know he's Hydra

But it's always from direction, and not from acting, because they didn't tell the actor he was Hydra until the episode of so that he'd play the season as genuine as possible as if he's part of the team
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Ugh that must have sucked for him.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

That Wonder Woman riff IMMEDIATELY conjures an image and sticks in your head. You don't really see that in Marvel ever.

i must be the only person in the world who doesn't love the wonder woman theme. it's fine, but nothing more than that. the avengers theme is way better.

neither the MCU movies nor the DCEU movies are particularly great for music, though. guardians 1 and suicide squad blow the other movies out of the water in this respect, but those are outliers for obvious reasons.
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Oh my god.

COULSON was behind Coulson's revival!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have two more episodes left in the season, but I have to go teach two lessons, then maybe catch the end of a drum corps show. I might finish the season tonight!

Hot predix: We learn why Skye is an 0-8-4 at the season finale.

Ugh.
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I honestly thought that Wonder Woman's theme was just so jarringly in your face that I ended up not liking it that much.

I guess that sounds weird, but it just seems so out of place compared to rest of the score of the DCEU. It's a good song on its own, but it's like "Oh hey, here's this rocking anime-power up theme song out of nowhere" that makes it so discordant.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Ugh that must have sucked for him.

He really seems to love playing evil though
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SHIELD theme is amazing. SHIELD has another really cool theme but it's Season 5 so I won't link it or say anything more about it.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Murphiroth posted...

The Avengers theme is great. So is the SHIELD theme. There's a few others that standout to me but yeah the scores are overall probably the weakest parts of the MCU.

Except in Ragnarok. Loved that one.

Ragnarok has a soundtrack, not a score. Like, don't get me wrong, it's fine to like the use of licensed music. Guardians and Ragnarok both do a great job with it. However, it's not like those songs will be inextricably linked with those movies forever. There's something special about an original score.

Not talking about the one licensed song, I'm talking about the synthy 80s sounding score which was fantastic.

Ragnarok 100% has a score! Guardians, on the other hand, yeah it relies on licensed music almost entirely.
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MCU music only stands out to me when they use actual songs.
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Hung out with a girl instead of finishing season
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Lame.
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I dunno if I mentioned it earlier, but I will admit it was a joy to watch the Avengers interact with each other. Probably what made the film worthwhile in the end.
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Fitz facing down Ward and Garrett is badass.

Oh man.

Onto the season finale. Fitzsimmons are in a box underwater, the rest of the team is surrounded by soldiers. I guess everyone is gonna die :(
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Garrett is going crazy. He's suffering the side-effects of the TAHITI project.

Fitz and Simmons are trapped underwater... they gonna boink? Nah they're just being nerds, as per usual.

Tripp is great. I was really on point with calling him as a recurring character xD

So Fitz finally confessed his feelings in a sacrificial bout. She got to the surface... and Fury was just waiting there. Kinda convenient.

The fakeout with Garrett surviving and Coulson blowing him up was excellent.

What the fuck, Koenig is alive? Is he... a clone? This guy is literally the exact same.

Stinger? Raina is obviously alive and... oh shit. Knows Skye's father.
And Coulson has the same crazy inspiration in his head as Garrett did... damn, Whedon really knows how to keep you hooked for the next season.

So Coulson is now the new Director of SHIELD, which will be a small underground operation. However, they have the bus, they have the Playground, and they have all the weapons they recovered. The Centipede super soldier program is dead, and that branch of HYDRA shut down. But Raina is alive, Ward is imprisoned, Mike Peterson is free and on the loose, Skye has a living father. HYDRA is, of course, still going big, but I'm sure that won't matter until we hit Age of Ultron. Next season has Coulson's craziness, Skye's father, and a whole lot of super-powered villains who were empowered by SHIELD on the loose.

Fitz is possibly out for the count. Probably not, guess they'll wait and see how contract deals turn out ;)
But damn, if his sacrifice moment with Simmons wasn't the sweetest thing.

Full write-up coming next post.
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Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 1

I didn't mind the episodic format for the first 12 or so episodes. There were a number of times that it popped back to the Centipede plotline, which was clearly set from the beginning. But it was enjoyable. I understand why people say it takes off though. It really took off in the latter half... by comparison, the first half of the season wasn't that great. But still, establishing the show and the baseline is important.

22 episodes is a little long, but I was so drawn into the intrigue when the shit hit the fan with HYDRA, which trumped how I ever felt in Agent Carter. I really liked Agent Carter a lot... but I think this just wins out. It was really good. I was so into it.

I wish they would have introduced John Garrett sooner. He was first introduced an episode or two before he was revealed to be the bad guy. Would've been nicer to have him be a little bit more of a recurring character, a la Hand.

Hand sucked, but I guess her ruthlessness is what made her effective? It's too bad she had to die. Would've been nice for Coulson to have a fellow high ranking Agent still around.

Garrett was effective - strong personality, contrasted with Coulson despite being on the "same side". When SHIELD imploded, he played everyone perfectly and brought all the recurring villains throughout the season together in a meaningful way. The pieces fit together... but like I said, would've been better if we knew the guy a little sooner. Still, he was a good evil dude, and his descent into madness was a telegraphed, strong way for him to be brought down. Deathlok taking him down was the obvious conclusion... but still so satisfying. Coulson getting the last shot was classic Whedon poetry, though.

Coulson had his ups and downs throughout the season. He was the leader, and had a lot of intrigue surrounding him, but like with the movies, it felt like it was hard to nail his character down at times. I think at core though, the little smirk he has on his face when noticing something. The way he nerds out about old things. His care for his team. All of those things are pretty clear, and Fury put it in the most succinct way when he explained why Coulson was worth bringing back to life. For him, Coulson WAS an Avenger... even though I have a feeling we won't see Coulson meet any of the Avengers again anytime soon. Still, Coulson had some of the best highs in the show, and those really shown through. When he gets to be his dry self, he is best. And he got a lot of that in the final showdown.

May was awesome. Presented as a badass who didn't want to be in the field who came to grips that she belonged there, slowly being revealed over the course of the season to be more and more human. Her character was established and unfolded so splendidly. When she was first introduced, I had no idea I was going to like her as much as I did. But I can't sing her praises enough. Her acting is so great, with the bits of personality that shine through the stoical front being subtle and effective. Her writing was great, and I don't know if they did a better job with any other character.

Skye was, as some said, peak Skye at the beginning. As she got pulled into the SHIELD fold, her backstory and motivations became more clear and she kinda got wrapped up into the team, not shining through as as much of an individual. Everything that followed her near-death experience did well in showing how far she had come since going in to the Quinn compound by herself. Her strength in confront Ward... both after she found out he was HYDRA, and the last time they saw each other, was just great development. This whole first season led from Skye in the van to Skye having no fear and securing Ace and Garrett's defeat, and that was awesome. Heck, if there were no further seasons, I'd be satisfied with where she ended up. But there's plenty more to come and that's awesome!

(cont. in next post)
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Fitz didn't have a lot to work with in the first part of the season. His turning point was when Simmons almost died and when he went on the suicide mission with Ward. His desire to prove himself was very clear, and even though he just seemed moody at first, the way his character was written to constantly push himself through, despite the awkwardness, really shown. Willing to stand up to others and get tougher, to the point where he stared down Garrett and popped the EMP in his face was tremendous progress. And even to end, doing everything he could to secure Simmons's safety. Some of the best moments of this season were the little things Fitz did... one standing out was Koenig's question of what is in the box on the deserted island.

Hell, that whole sequence was so great. Such a cheap way to explore characters, but so effective. The contrasts in there... Ward wanted a pistol, but May wanted a machete. Simmons wanted the TARDIS... the nerd side showing through, but still a suitable answer. But Fitz, who understands how effective he is and who he is with and without Simmons, said her name. That was maybe the sweetest or second sweetest moment on the show.

Simmons... almost died. Maybe it's the writing, maybe it's my perspective, but I feel like she hasn't really developed or been explored as much as the other characters. I feel that Simmons from episode 1 is pretty similar to Simmons from episode 22. She's been through a lot more shit, and is still a really solid character, but just hasn't been as interesting from a lack of things going on with her.

Tripp is new Ward. He has a different personality, which is pretty good at times. Problem is, at the moment, he has medical background which matches him with Simmons; nostalgia, which matches him with Coulson; the training background which matches him with May and Ward pretty well; and the earnestness which tries to earn goodwill through Fitz... he's a hodgepodge of characters and hasn't really had his chance to shine yet. I expect he'll get a lot more mileage in season 2, but to this point, he hasn't been much besides a series of great one-liners. His best moment was probably the soundless yelling at Garrett the first time he was taken in... the rage was very visceral and the actor did a great job. That was the clearest expression of character that I think we've gotten from him, to this date.

Ward is tough. The path the guy took was delicious... everything you were growing to learn about him and his character. I really liked exactly where he was before the Lorelei/Sif episode. I'm not a fan of SkyexWard. I think it was silly, though I did like the idea that May had some small feeling for Ward that he didn't reciprocate. Ward was annoying in episode 1... but quickly got better and better as he developed. Then they pulled the rug out from under you and said "haha that was all fake". Ward with the heel turn was... good. Somebody needed to do it, and thank goodness it wasn't May. But man, the guy turned from a well-developing character into a single-frame villain. His conflicts in the latter episodes weren't as believable, and his personality got absorbed into the conflict vs. Garrett. Who is he, now, without Garrett around? I guess we'll have to wait and see if he comes back in later seasons. I imagine he will.

Overall, this series feels like a Marvel series. I was worried that they would have to use a lot of Marvel property to keep the thing running, or else maybe it just wouldn't feel like it's part of the MCU and just a crime serial. But it felt like I was watching MCU the whole time, which was really appreciated.

Definitely worth watching, and I'm very excited to move on to the next season.

TV Shows
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. s1
Agent Carter s1
Agent Carter s2
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May > Coulson > Skye = Fitz > good Ward > Simmons > Tripp > bad Ward
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scarletspeed7 posted...

That's always been my biggest gripe about the MCU and the one thing I give the DCEU credit on. That Wonder Woman riff IMMEDIATELY conjures an image and sticks in your head. You don't really see that in Marvel ever.

I'd mostly agree, although the main Avengers theme now reminds me of uhh

something that happens in Infinity War
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I love this topic

It's like I'm rewatching stuff myself because most of the stuff you react to is stuff I reacted to, and it's fun to see a different perspective.
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I'm at the darkest part, guys.

The next three things chronologically are GotG, GotG2, and DD which I have all seen. I can probably pop off GotG easily because I haven't seen it in awhile, but GotG2 I'm in no hurry to rewatch, and I'm worried that the length of DD will halt me as well because I know what happens.

I feel fine leaving GotG2 for another day, but I'm not sure if I should skip over Daredevil.

All that being said, DD was VERY good.
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Honestly just skip Daredevil if you already watched it. The netflix shows, while good, really don't add anything to the MCU.
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I'd rewatch Guardians 1, but skip 2 and DD if you're not feeling them. Guardians KINDA has a tie-in with AoS season 2 so it might be good to refresh. Guardians 2 and DD have very few ties to the overall MCU though iirc.
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IIRC season 2 is when Simmons starts to get a lot of development, so look forward to that.
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Season 2 also has the best Agent of SHIELD so more hype for that as well.
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Guardians of the Galaxy

Saw this and GotG2, so y'all can keep that in mind while I watch.

Did Peter's mom get cancer from Ego? That's the shittiest STD in the galaxy. And then the kid just runs outside and gets abducted. What a childhood.

Starlord looks pretty creepy with his mask on. Something this movie did well was give Quill's backstory very quickly, then established the Marvel cosmos just as quickly. And then, immediately, endeared you to the main character by having him dance around to 70's music. They also jump right into the conflict, name dropping Ronan.

This opening scene reminds me of a part from Mass Effect 2. Unnecessary slow-mo sucks though.

The orb gets introduced, Ronan gets named dropped, Yondu gets introduced... then Ronan immediately gets introduced along with Gamora and Nebula. This movie moves really fast.

Endeared to Rocket and Groot right away. Stan Lee makes his cameo as a part of Rocket's intro... nothing special, just "old man, where's your wife".

"I don't learn. One of my problems." Gamora really tried to kill Groot there. And for being as skilled a combatant as she is, she really jobbed to Starlord/Groot and Rocket.

"Daughter of the mad titan, Thanos." Glad to know Thanos has a reputation. This movie really takes his cameo introduction in Avengers and pulls it out a lot.

Daaaaamn Thanos's introduction is so baller. It sucks that his speaker guy just gets killed like that, but Thanos doesn't give a single fuck. Do like that he's clear about Gamora being his favorite daughter though.

Rocket is so smart and dry. I love it. And fucking Groot grabbing the battery in the background is perfect. Wood is pretty effective at blocking bullets. "Creepy little beast!"

Collector scene! Let's see what he has... a Dark Elf, in the first cage, it appears.

Knowhere - the severed head of an ancient celestial being. So like... a Galactus?

They really get into backstories and motivations quickly and succinctly.

More Collector stuff! There's Cosmo, the space dog. And... a bunch of other things I can't identify.

"Before creation itself, there were 6 singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these singularities were forged into concentrated ingots... infinity stones." We immediately are shown Aether and the Tesseract. A giant construct uses an infinity stone to destroy a planet... is that a Galactus? Slave girl grabbed the stone and blew up the whole place. How rude. Poor Collector.

Drax got his ass kicked by Ronan. When Nebula blew up Gamora's ship, her eye twitched in such a way... even this early on, there are hints of Nebula's caring for her.

Speaking of Nebula, the way she moves and the slight movements of her face are amazing. So much is conveyed from her character with such little.

"I don't have a long lifespan anyway" I thought Rocket didn't know what a raccoon was.

Gamora is so sexy.

"He says he's an a-hole, but he's not 100% a dick." "Do you believe him?" "I don't believe anyone is 100% a dick."

"They got my dick message!"

The whole Nova Corps ship net is kinda lame. Who designed such a thing? Was it made to catch meteors? Also, Groot can do so much nonsense. "When did you learn to do that?" "Pretty sure the answer is 'I am Groot'."

"Peter Quill, you are my friend. Dumb tree, you are my friend. Green whore-"
"Gamora, you were always weak."
"Nobody speaks to my friends that way."

What is this race of pink women called?

This weapon Rocket made to kill Ronan isn't really all that effective. Even if it didn't hit Ronan, it didn't seem to have the power to take out a whole ship... should've been like a nuke.

(cont.)
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Part of me wants to re-watch GOTG, but there are a lot of other films I'd rather watch first.
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Rocket just flies the ship into Ronan anyway. A mini-nuke doesn't scratch him, but hitting him with a small fighter ship does? Hmm.

Once again - Groot's body is very durable. How does his physiology work anyway. He comes back as baby Groot... does he actually die, and just get reborn? Is baby Groot his son?

After they crash, a bunch of civilians just come out of nowhere to surround them... why? I thought everyone was supposed to be leaving. And why does Ronan call them the Guardians of the Galaxy anyway? Did he come up with that off the top of his head?

Not sure why Quill was so successful in distracting Ronan. Guy should've just not cared and destroyed the planet.

This whole sequence with him grabbing the stone, then everyone else slowly grabbing him took too long.

"Good thing we didn't deliver him to his dad like we was hired to do." "Yeah, that guy was a jackass." SPOILERS FOR GOTG2 jeez guys

Why are all of the civilians still standing around?

Awww the name Starlord came from his mom.

Dancing baby Groot. A meme for the ages.

Still a good movie... on rewatch, it's not as good, but I think that's because a lot of the greatness of the movie comes with meeting the characters. That's huge. This movie is what it is because the characters are done so amazingly well... all five of them. Avengers had a solid ensemble cast, and Whedon did well with showcasing them... but this movie had to introduce you to five main characters, give them backgrounds, give them development... and the movie did it splendidly.

Oh, Nathan Fillion was in this movie. Didn't even realize. I like some of the character names in the cast... "Sad Woman With Horns". Cosmo the Space Dog, of course, played by Fred.

Still, the plot was... ok. It moved fast, because there was a lot. While this was a strong movie in its own right, it really existed as a chapter of the MCU. That's... kinda a dumb thing to say, but yeah. Starlord discovers Infinity Stone. Gets embroiled in plot involving it. Meets fellow Guardians of the Galaxy. Ronan betrays Thanos. Ronan gets kill.

So at this point in the MCU... Collector still has Aether. HYDRA has Loki's Scepter. Asgard has the Tesseract. And the Nova Corps have the purple stone. I can only assume the purple stone is Thanos's favorite. It matches his skin.

So much of this movie is thanks to great writing. From the beginning (after Quill's mom's death), they made it clear that the movie was a comedy. Every other line int he movie was humorous. Most of the time, it wasn't cringe humor either. Drax's literal personality was designed to make the guy a joke. Rocket's personality is so dark and hilariously endearing. Groot is Groot. Quill is the asshole jokester, which is... kinda typical, but it's ok. Gamora gets stuck being the straight man, but even she has some good moments trying to interpret Quill's idioms.

Postcredits Scene: Don't fucking show us Howard the Duck. You haven't done anything with him. Cosmo is amazing though. When does Cosmo join the Guardians of the Galaxy? What wasted IP.

Weirdly, I'm putting this one behind Avengers for the moment. Characters were better in GotG, but I preferred Avengers on a rewatch.


Movies
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Avengers
Guardians of the Galaxy
Iron Man 3
Iron Man
Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor
Thor: The Dark World
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man 2
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

But man, the guy turned from a well-developing character into a single-frame villain. His conflicts in the latter episodes weren't as believable, and his personality got absorbed into the conflict vs. Garrett. Who is he, now, without Garrett around? I guess we'll have to wait and see if he comes back in later seasons. I imagine he will.

I dont think its a spoiler to post the promotional art for Season 2 to answer that question

http://media.comicbook.com/uploads1/2015/04/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d--130281.jpg
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Ah that's cool.

I can stop watching Daredevil when I want.

Child Matt sucks.
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gotg2 right away?

man i dont get the appeal for this chronological order thing

things are referenced out of order and it makes you watch things in weird positions

release order or bust imo
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CoolCly posted...

release order or bust imo

I read this as reverse order at first and thought that would be an insane journey
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And yeah I agree. Thats why I go to CMRO and their offshoots for various orders. They have a philosophy to start with release order, but group ongoing stories together for ease of consumption, and then re-arrange a little for any continuity conflicts.
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I think gotg2 is the only movie to be really off in terms of chronology and release. Kinda captain America as well
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Dr Strange is kinda hazy as to where it goes in the timeline also but it's pretty self-contained.
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skullbone posted...

Dr Strange is kinda hazy as to where it goes in the timeline also but it's pretty self-contained.

I have a feeling this is a joke
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It's not actually!
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

I have a feeling this is a joke

It's not

Galactus isn't a Celestial and there is only one Galactus but yeah the Celestials have similar power levels to Galactus
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We are galactus
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after rewatching guardians multiple times it still holds up perfectly for me and i'd put it above avengers. better music (you didn't praise this aspect of the movie enough in your writeup imho) and better jokes (though avengers does have some funny moments). still loved avengers on my second watch, but as other people have said, when the novelty value of having all the characters in one movie is gone it's not as great.

i'd put both guardians and avengers over winter soldier, though. winter soldier is a good movie, but i don't think it's this masterpiece of cinema that everyone else seems to think it is.
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Fillion is the big prisoner alien that gets groot's fingers shoved up his nose.

In case you were wondering.
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If this were first impressions only, guardians would be above avengers. It wasn't an easy decision, and I could've seen myself putting it on the other side depending on my mood.

The music was good but one dimensional. Great for developing Starlords character but not a soundtrack to write home about.

Winter Soldier > Guardians is an easy decision though
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The Night Nurse in Daredevil said her ex-boyfriend's name was Mike, but he had a lot of secrets.

Did Claire date Deathlok?!

I really love all the casting in this show. The punching sounds are kinda loud though. Maybe I don't know how to spot nationality, but the Russians look Irish to me.

My ex couldn't watch this show because it was too violent. I'm kinda missing Agents of SHIELD's milder violence... some of this gets to be a little intense. Maybe I just haven't watched Game of Thrones in awhile and it's having an effect on my violence tolerance.

I'm fine watching through DD. It's not long enough to really be too much of a bear.
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