Marvel Cinematic Universe

Yes....?

I just finished watching WandaVision. That was just a Marvel film spread out (thinly) over a tv series. It was ok but I thought Loki was much better, as it actually had humour.

...the Phoenix Force arrived arrived to save the day. Unfortunately they arrived at the same time as the Omega Force and the Eternals and the Immortals and the Inhumans and no one could agree who should go first. 
Michael Keaton would like a word...  

I thought Wandavision was probably the most interesting and innovative piece of content Marvel Studios have made.

The *idea* of WandaVision was great, but those first three episodes were soooooo boring. I had to force myself to keep watching it in the hope that something would start happening.

Given that they were based on sitcoms, it would have helped a lot if any of them had been even slightly funny.

I can quite happily enjoy re-runs of Bewitched,Happy Days, etc... so I'm not quite sure why they failed so badly at making those first few sitcom parodies fun.

Agree on Wandavision being probably the best and most interesting of the D+ era Marvel shows so far.

Not only was it (mostly) a stylistic departure it also had an emotional journey deeper than most other MCU properties have had as well.

Agree. I thought it was great and by the best of the TV shows. Yes, the final episode did return to standard Marvel style, but that didn't take away from the rest of it.

I enjoyed Hawkeye quite a bit, but more in it being just solid good fun. It didn't do anything particularly interesting or different, but it was entertaining and I thought Haliee Steinfeld was a great new Hawkeye.

Loki certainly was different and I did enjoy it too. It is a slight victim of needing to do a lot of set up for the wider MCU and, again the final bits didn't hold up as well as the early parts. By the end, I felt it was just okay, but looking forward to more.

Captain Falcon and the Winter Soldier was the most prosaic of the bunch. It wasn't that interesting and mostly just washed over me. It just took itself too seriously and never really let its hair down to have some fun.

What If...? turned out to be fairly enjoyable, albeit the episodes being a bit hit and miss. The Dr. Strange one stood out as the best of them to me, but I enjoyed most of them. The Captain Britian one was probably the weakest, so I expect some were put off by that being the first episode (wasn't that fussed on the zombie one either, so surprised to see them doing more of that).

Ugh Marvel what the fuck why?

Totally agree re: Phoenix Force, it's some DC-type bullshit, it can stay the fuck out of Marvel.

Personally, it totally take away from the rest of it for me, especially as the return to "standard Marvel bullshit" started two episodes earlier, and there was always standard Marvel bullshit outside the bubble. The whole SWORD plot was corny in a bad, lazy, cheap feeling way, with a totally unconvincing not even one-dimensional baddie for that.

Really the only things keeping WV above water imho were the performances of the leads, specifically Olsen, Hahn and Bettany. Kat Dennings conspired with the outside baddie to actively make things worse, performance-wise (ugh, I know some people are super-hot for her but w/e, she's a terrible actress), and Teyonah Parris was only solid and dull as Rambeau/Quasar/Marvel, so it was just down to those three really acting their hearts out.

But it was a slog to get through at times, was far too pleased with itself ("Bohner lol"), and I see people praising the emotional journey, and whilst that was better than some Marvel stuff for sure (including Falcon no question), it wasn't exactly deep or meaningful compared to say, your average BBC drama (even genre stuff like crime drama).

And trust me when I say probably don't read any interviews with the showrunner because you will see that this was mostly luck and not judgement. The showrunner comes across as a complete numpty.

I feel like if anyone but Olsen/Bettany (who have absolutely great chemistry) were the leads, people would be trashing the hell out of it. And maybe that's fine, but I think it's a bit inaccurate to praise really anything but those performances (and Hahn obviously) and the astonishing set/costume design in the earlier episodes.

Falcon is undoubtedly the worst of the shows so far, and by some margin, and I think a lot of it is just down to cowardice (they drastically re-wrote it to make the "baddies" - i.e. the only sympathetic/relatable people in it, well except Bucky kinda - more bad, very late on, which is why parts of it make little sense and the emotional through-line is trash), and the rest because they crammed in a bunch of essentially needless setup for the Secret Wars plotline that's upcoming and which in the comics was utter dogshit (as almost everything involving the Skrulls is), and I suspect will be dogshit in the MCU too.

I actually thought Loki rather surprisingly had the strongest plotting and emotional through-line, but obviously it wasn't as intense/OTT/romantic as WV and was a bit Doctor Who at times. And no question that Hawkeye was by far the most competently put-together, directed, and written of the shows, but was so extremely safe that I can understand not being that impressed. All IMHO to be clear.

It really was. Shame.

Wow. The idea that Loki was worse than Falcon, which was both cowardly and incompetently written and directed is just completely and utterly wild to me. I don't even totally disagree with "Dr Who with a flashier effects budget", but "mid-tier"? Pfffft. Doctor Who hasn't been that good this side of 2010.

I was pleasantly surprised by Falcon & WS. I think because I quite like the dryer Bourne inspired action-thriller take on the MCU and probably because my expectations were lower. It just got on with doing its job and did it solidly enough.

Plus I liked the human aspect with the refugees and the racial politics around the Supersoldier programne.

All of the shows have had about 2 hours worth that is decent, the rest is either ok or shite.

It looks like they may be getting the hang of the tv shows with the likes of moon knight and getting their confidence in themselves and the audience so hopefully it improves.

I disliked Wandavision the most, I’m no fan of any of the main characters and the overall premise was a bit wanky with the first few shows just being pointless in terms of the actual story and character development. It could’ve, and possibly should’ve been covered in about 10 minutes.

Falcon had the stupid boat and a lack of charisma on screen. Loki has some charisma but not enough that was interesting happened apart from Kang.

Hawkeye was decent. Could’ve been a decent cheap(ish) film instead.

I wish they'd blown that shitty boat up in Falcon just to make that whole thread interesting.

Let's be honest, everything post End game has been _shite_

Apart from Shang-Chi, that was no bad.