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By the Mystic Moons of the MCU, I conjure [Doctor Strange]!
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What I really liked was how tight the script was. It was like a machine, all the bits and pieces working together to build the story. Beats came along as expected and were given enough time to breathe, but not so much that they became stale. Impressively efficient. Like the intro of Strange. Bam, bam, bam, they quickly (but not rushed or anything) establish his job, personality, skill, name, and the fact he's played by Sherlock. Hell, they make this whole superhero tent pole movie thing look easy.
I bet the Marvel screenwriters rent BvS every weekend and laugh their asses off at the clumsy half-assedness of it.
Literally
I don't think any of the Marvel movies except Iron Man 1 and Cap 1 were up to snuff, and the former had issues.
I forgot Guardians of the Galaxy, that is my favourite favourite.
Iron Man 1 feels so far away compared to the other Marvel moves now adays. Not in quality but in specifc tone and style.
By Iron Man 2, the world had seen two giant green rage monsters in full rampage mode, they had time to digest the collateral damage of Iron Man (in the long run, we always lose sight of hypothetical lives saved in the face of actual lives lost), and the government had plenty of time to watch the entire world try to create Iron Man knockoffs. And even then, the Iron Man 1 tone didn't really die until Whiplash showed up and put the lie to Stark's "Nobody'll even be close for ten years," defense. And within a few months from there, Earth made first contact with three separate alien species, only one of which proved friendly, while another launched a full-on invasion of a major city led by a member of the third.
And since then, the world's already seen another hostile alien species, the robot apocalypse, the intelligence community going rogue against civilians, the UN terrorist attack, the Avengers consuming themselves with infighting, and now the world just found out that wizards are real and can destroy and rebuild cities in minutes. When the real world sees two paradigm shifts in the same generation, we've said the world has gone insane with change. The MCU has seen about eight of them and Iron Man hasn't even seen his tenth anniversary yet.
You liked Cap 1 but thought Cap 2 was garbage?
I... all I can do is squint at the screen in confusion
In terms of formula, Cap 2 is the most deviant of the Marvel movies. It's also a movie that would be impossible to seriously execute without having the background of a previously established setting. If it had come out by itself, the suspension of disbelief required for the plot would have been immense.
MWO: Adamski
Nah.
Alternative theory for Thor that involves Age of Ultron / Dark World spoilers:
MWO: Adamski
Definitely not.
The fight scenes did very little for me, though. Maybe they were too close in, or maybe it was the weird clear weapons, but a lot of it was very hard to follow.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
I kinda wish that Wong was the main character. A grumpy librarian is a lot more entertaining to me than "surgeon who plays god and gets his comeuppance. but not really."
I'm not sure whether Tony Stark in the first Iron Man movie was written more interestingly or whether RDJ was just better able to fill the gaps in the character. Really the only actors in Stephen Strange that exceeded their material were Tilda Swinton and perhaps Chiwetel Ejiofor, who brings an effective understated pathos to so many of his performances.
Come to think of it, though, I really liked Mads Mikkelsen and what he did with his part. He was underwritten like 95% of all MCU villains, but his performance had this underplayed, matter-of-fact thing going that worked much better for me than the villains in, say, Thor 2 or Guardians of the Galaxy.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Dr Strange always works well as a supporting character, but kind of boring as a main character (to me anyway)
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
I don't think Benidict has that ability (in the same way RDJ does) so that would lead to a much more genuine character in Stark than it would in Strange.
Plus, RDJ has said he never really does whats in the script anyway.
Edit: I guess one thing I didn't get from Strange was an actual motivation, once we get past the "Must heal my hands!" thing. He doesn't seem to have much of a reason to get involved, other than he's the protagonist and someone has to. The Ancient One's
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
My biggest criticism is that the story covers years of Strange's life, yet it doesn't feel at all like years have passed. As a result, his character growth feels rushed and unnatural. He has a long and desperate life-changing journey, but it feels like he just turned his life around in a few days.
The most striking example of that is when Palmer visits him in his apartment to bring him groceries and they have their final fight. He's still living in his luxurious downtown-London skyscraper apartment, with an expansive piano and all his possessions. Palmer does mention Strange is quickly spending money, but from the shot we're given he clearly has money to spare. Two scenes later, literally minutes for us, he's in Tibet and tells his attackers his watch is "all he has left". My first though hearing that was that he meant "all he has left on his person at this exact moment, because WTF he has a ton of luxurious shit in London worth a fortune." It was only long after the movie that it finally dawned on me that he had bankrupted himself looking for a treatment and that he had literally spent his last time on this long-shot chance. The movie did not make that clear -- even something as simple as having Strange recovering and skyping doctors and fighting with Palmer from increasingly spartan and low-rent apartments would have been a great visual cue to what's really happening.
Yep. i remember that. Its what drove the idea home he was spending everything
Palmer explicitly explains this:
"You always spent money as fast as it came in, but now you are spending money you dont even have"
MWO: Adamski
How long is the period of time from the accident and when the final battle happens.. the way it is portrayed it doesn't seem long at all as Richy mentioned earlier.
When does the story take place in the Marvel time line? There is a line that could be taken two ways
I think this was one of the weaker Marvel films, it was the standard template for the marvel origin film and I am getting sick of that, for such a weird comic series they really played it safe and I think the film suffered for it.
Yeah I mentioned that. She does say that line to Strange. While standing in his luxurious skyscraper apartment, next to his grand piano. It kinda deflated the "money you don't have" part of her argument. He looked like a man with plenty of money to me.
Apparently in the battle against the bad guys in NYC you can see the Avengers tower. Which means the ending of the movie at least is before Age of Ultron, and therefore spinal injury guy from the beginning cannot possibly be War Machine from Civil War.
But yeah, the events of Civil War were my first thought when I heard that line, too.