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Ben X

Marvel movies

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I've started binging Agents of SHIELD. I skipped most of the first 10 episodes, then pretty much watched everything once it got to the Winter Soldier tie-in. The first few episodes were pretty ropey, but it definitely keeps improving. It's never really got beyond Buffy seasons 1&2 levels of quality for me, though.
Season 3 was definitely the strongest so far. It's not mind-blowingly great, and I still wish I could have gone through every script with a red pen to clean up grammatical errors, clunky wording and terrible quips before filming, but it's consistently solid with lots of good moments sprinkled on top.
I like what they did with

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Ward (committing to him being unredeemable then flipping him to an alien big bad before he gets dull) that they brought in Powers Boothe (that's a really cool way of expanding a minor character from the movies and even explaining the quirk of him not showing up in Pierce's office in Winter Soldier, which I'm guessing in real life was a scheduling issue) and what they've done with Hydra being an ancient cult (so clever how they show that rams head design both disguised as a NASA badge and evolving into the Hydra logo, and all the Maveth stuff is dope).

The action is a lot better, the effects work is impressive, and the narrative is more propulsive.

It still needs a lot more character work (FitzSimmons have never ceased to be annoying as fuck, there are a lot of two-dimensional/cipher background cast, and even the leads don't have that much to them - compare the Firefly crew characterisation after 6 episodes to this lot after 2.5 seasons) and more narrative experimentation (the occasional flashforward bookend does not cut it! Episodes like "4,722 Hours" are a good start, but they really need to play with the format like, say, Buffy or Person Of Interest would).

I was looking forward to S4 because I'd heard here and elsewhere that that's where it gets really strong, but I'm 8 episodes in and I'm a little frustrated because so far it's at best on the same level as S3 but if anything it's worse. I was also told that they did a (ugh) 'soft reboot' here, but so far all they've done is shuffled some pieces around so there's more frustrating bureaucracy to deal with, and replaced the strong 3-seasons-build-up villains with some boring

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ghost scientists.

They've even managed to make

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Ghost Rider

dull. Brannigan mentioned that here they moved from season-long arcs to three or four mini-arcs, but I'm 8 episodes in and it all feels like wheel-spinning for future stuff so far.

I'm going to keep watching it, because there's still good stuff in there, it got a proper ending apparently, and, well, it's the COVID quarantine what else am I going to do. But I really hope this season picks up in the second half and lives up to the hype!

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16 hours ago, Ben X said:

I really hope this season picks up in the second half and lives up to the hype!

 

I have been told that this is in fact the case, and actually now I'm on the second mini-arc it has immediately picked up!

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s4 is the highlight! from what i've seen! I stopped on season 5, just haven't mustered myself to watch s6 and on

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Just finished S4. So, from episode 9 onwards, it gets AMAZING. They perhaps weren't playing with the most original ideas -

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evil doppelgangers, evil robots, a dark timeline where the Nazis won

- but they made them their own and made them sing. Consistently clever, exciting, funny and touching. Wow. If S5+ can at least stay in a place between S3 and this, I'll be happy.

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2 hours ago, Ben X said:

Just finished S4. So, from episode 9 onwards, it gets AMAZING. They perhaps weren't playing with the most original ideas -

  Hide contents

evil doppelgangers, evil robots, a dark timeline where the Nazis won

- but they made them their own and made them sing. Consistently clever, exciting, funny and touching. Wow. If S5+ can at least stay in a place between S3 and this, I'll be happy.

I'd say it does? I feel like it goes too big and loses sight a little of what made s4 good. Certainly better than the first 3 seasons though.

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I just had a crazy Marvel week:

image.thumb.png.4c0a82d46c313881de1c747ccaa86550.png

 

As you can see from my ratings, I don't think any of them are great, but I still enjoyed it, at least most of the actors are good. I have seen some of the ones missing from this list, this was mainly for filling in gaps in my movie watching because almost everyone has seen these and they also featured in several lists I was following. I'm glad it's over with, I don't know what my future approach is to future Marvel movies... obviously I'm not a fan, but will I keep watching them more regularly now just to avoid having to do a similar marathon in 10 years? I don't know.

 

But now I'm also starting to doubt myself a little bit. Would I maybe have thought more highly of some of these movies (e.g. Thor: Ragnarök), if I hadn't watched them as part of a crazy marathon, but for example as a single Marvel movie that I've seen all year? It's possible, because I remember I enjoyed Dr. Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy way more than any of these ones, when I saw them out of the blue because friends invited me.

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You should definitely doubt yourself with regards to that Ragnarok rating.

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I love Marvel movies. I'm always waiting for new movies about superheroes. They are always dynamic, exciting and with very cool special effects. Recently I watched the movie Avengers: Endgame. After watching Infinity War, I was looking forward to the release of the Endgame. The film is filled with funny moments, irony in relation to oneself. And I just love it. In general, the creators of the Final do not let us relax, they prepare us for the denouement. So inevitable, so logical and at the same moment so terrible! Two and a half hours in front of us is just an unrealistically cool and positive picture, and then thirty minutes of pain and fear. A film with a logical but unpleasant ending.

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