Recently Watched Films

Well, I don't think it's the worst MCU movie, but that's only because the two Ant-Man movies exist 

I can easily see why it's widely considered the worst, though, because oh boy is it ever one hell of a mess. I've seen people say a more fleshed out Disney+ series could have worked better, but I'm honestly not convinced there's much of a story or memorable enough characters here in the first place. There was nothing outrageously bad for the most part (one late movie "twist" had me laughing my ass off like a maniac at how stupid and predictable it was, lol) but it somehow felt rushed and poorly paced at the same time, like it managed to drag while also feeling like it was randomly jumping between scenes and different times periods for no reason. There were a few interesting parts here and there, but overall it was definitely not a good movie, and the whole "Eternals will return" definitely feels more like a threat than a promise, lol

The characters from it were previously announced to appear in Doctor Strange 2, but that doesn't seem to have happened in the end. 

The first Lerner and Loewe musical since My Fair Lady, and what do they do with it? Why, it's My Fair Lady II: The Paris Edition! Looks incredible (costuming and direction both rightly praised), but the story is weak as is often the case in musicals, and it's just not as memorable as it's predecessor.

This one was pretty solid. Early on I was a bit afraid it would turn into a cringey comedy, and I found Katy annoying most of the time, but otherwise it was mostly quite fun, and I did like both the MC and the villain quite a bit (this is definitely NOT one of those MCU movies where the females upstage the males, lol) I thought the middle stretch was the most enjoyable, though the ending was still mostly fun, aside from some extreme "WTF" levels of CGI 

Okay that was actually a lot better than I was expecting. A really good action sci-fi that was harmed a lot less by the removal of Linda Hamilton than expected. It's not a patch on either of the first two of course and I still kinda prefer the alternate ending I saw yesterday for Terminator 2 (which again removes the possibility of any sequels), but this was quite a satisfying conclusion to the original trilogy. It seems like this franchise really gets fucked up after this point with the next trilogy stalling after one film, a reboot, then Dark fate overwriting this. I'm not sure I want to continue with them from here.

I can definitely see how they screwed up big time on the release scheduling for this one. It feels like traveling back in time to a couple years ago from where I was in the timeline, despite being the start of Phase 4 

I actually had a lot of fun with it, though. It's definitely a bit cheesy, and some of the CGI usage is ridiculous (that ending sequence is insanely fake looking even by MCU standards, LOL) but I guess I love Nat as a character too much to not get some enjoyment out of this, plus it was cool learning more of her backstory, and I liked most of the other major characters a lot as well. Having David Harbor as comic relief was also great, though if having him play a Russian specifically named Alexei wasn't an intended in-joke, then that is one of the craziest coincidences ever 

For the first 30 minutes or so this was looking like an Ant-Man level cringey comedy, but somehow it ended up winning me over fairly quickly, and then it got better as it went on. There were some dumb parts here and there, but it's pretty telling that by the end I was finding the comedy more fun and charming than annoying, and I really enjoyed Mysterio a lot as the villain, as well as the overall story, and I think this version of MJ is pretty solid, after not really getting to see much of her in Homecoming.

Oh, and I had a certain returning actor from a previous incarnation of Spider-Man spoiled, but even in just 30 seconds or so at the end, he was absolutely glorious 

Obviously you´ll have to have watched all seasons and episodes of the Ray Donovan tv-series before watching this concluding movie. It ties up a couple of loose ends and wraps up the series, which unfortunately ended a little abruptly, as it was cancelled.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14124268/

Now you've watched it I can freely address the two problems I had with this film. Anyone else who cares may want to flick off of this post now if they've not seen it...

1. Nat's death. It was obvious that some characters weren't going to survive Endgame, but there was one character out of a huge cast I thought it would have been a massive mistake to kill. And they killed her. 

There are two main reasons for this. The first reason was at this point we already knew a Black Widow solo film was finally coming. Even knowing it takes place after Civil War, it harmed that film by killing off the character, because suddenly the first Phase 4 movie has no stakes going forward for its star, who is already dead. 

The second reason happens in Endgame itself. During the final battle, they line up a shot of the women of the MCU. And the First Lady of the MCU is missing, because they decided to kill her early. 

A third lesser reason is that they wrote it in a way that it was either her or Hawkeye not getting out alive. And hardly anyone gives a crap about Hawkeye. He's the permanently upstaged Avenger, even in his own Disney+ series. 

Over time I've become more accepting of them killing Nat off, even if I still think it was a colossal mistake (to me, she should have remained a central figure of the Avengers in Phase 4, possibly even taking more of a Nick Fury type role). But if they were going to do it, they should have done it much later in the movie than they did. 

What's more, she doesn't even get a heroes send off, unlike Tony Stark. 

2. This has to do with another female character actually. But this one survives. Captain Marvel. A really big fucking deal was made out of the impending arrival of Captain Marvel in the MCU in the wake of Infinity War. The mid-credits scene of her own movie seemed to only add to this anticipation. 

Captain Marvel was touted in marketing as being the most powerful hero in the MCU, pretty much made out to be the one who was going to swoop in and save the day, getting set up as the new lead Avenger in the aftermath of losing both Iron Man and OG Captain America, which we all knew was coming in some form in this movie due to contracts expiring and actors wanting to move on.

And then she buggers off for most of the movie, not even taking part in the time heist. And who is it who actually saves the day? Or at least gets the ball rolling to save the day? Fucking Ant-Man. 

I don't dislike Ant-Man the way you do Travis, but the misdirection with the marketing really pissed me off. The MCU is by a large a sausage fest, and it was exciting to see them finally giving their female characters more spotlight, since I tend to find female characters more interesting in genres like this, due to the general assumption of 'dude needed to save the day'.

Endgame managed to throw both of them, the female character who got a solo film already and the female character who had a solo film coming after just one movie after this, under the bus. 

This is still an epic movie and overall a massive payoff of over twenty films to get to that point, but it contains the only two times the MCU has managed to actually piss me off. In the end, once again it was a dude needed to save the day...imagine just how much more impactful Nat's death would have been if against expectations it was her to give Thanos a taste of his own Snap and die as a result of it instead of Tony? Tony was one of two incredibly obvious choices for that moment (the other being Steve). Though I do acknowledge that getting to say I Am Iron Man again was hell of a moment, I'd have rather the battle was ended by an unexpected character. If they'd done this, I'd have said that killing Nat was much less of a mistake. In fact I tell myself that now the MCU is moving into the multiverse (I actively call it the MCM now), that there's some universes in the MCM where this exact thing happened.