The Marvel Cinematic Multiverse

[Neon Ignition]

*cough*secondbest*cough*
Seems a dead cert he'll get a hefty contract renewal as things are going that well and he's always seemed to be overly keen on the role, I think back at Homecoming he mentioned he liked the idea of growing older and continually doing the role so we'd see a Peter Parker live through college, uni, working, having a family, miles etc which would be good even if it's likely the third film will be the last directly linked into the main MCU line of films.

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.darkhorizons.com/millie-bobby-brown-joins-marvels-eternals/

Stranger Things Millie Bobby Brown has been cast in The Eternals

[Dogg Thang]

I went "out to a meeting" this morning and saw Spider-Man Far From Home. Really enjoyed it, although I preferred the first film by a considerable margin. The smaller, funnier story worked better for me in that one. But this was still a huge amount of fun.

->Open Spoiler<-

The Mysterio plot kind of went backwards for me though in the sense that it started off as a big interesting thing and was revealed to be a smaller much more mundane thing. And I find drones dull. Might be just me but I find the same in games - if your enemy is a chunky machine just acting out instructions, you may as well be shooting toasters. So yeah, that stuff got less interesting as the movie went on but the characters kept it all together and kept it interesting and fun. I did not see that end teaser casting coming at all - that's very cool. But the final end credits bit only seemed to undermine other stuff in the movie.

Anyway, a productive meeting overall.

Oh, one thing. I may have misread but I glanced up during the credits and thought I saw a copyright or trademark credit for He-Man. Did I see that? Was there anything related to He-Man in the movie?

Edit: I googled it and found that apparently there were toys in one room and a scene was to have him sell those figures but it got cut.

[Neon Ignition]

Me and the missus saw it today as well along with Annabelle Comes Home.

For me, I enjoyed it. It's kind of middle of the road stuff for the MCU. I think all my issues from Homecoming still persist; Aunt May is still poorly handled, Tony/Happy's presence is still overbearing, MJ doesn't work for me, Peters powers and development are still mostly unearned and it lacks weight.

This whole John Hughes vibe they're going for with these films is definitely not coming off either. I feel like Far From Home was like a a palate cleanser after Endgame. Something light and fun to give some wrap up on Phase 3 but no substance of any long lasting impression. The film is mostly Peter going to City A, having a setpiece, going to City B, having a setpiece, onto city C etc. That I can recall, the only thing this really brings extra to the table is some Endgame catch up and the Peter X MJ stuff that just doesn't click unless them talking awkwardly is an arc.

I'm kind of coming to terms with the set up of this Peter. He's 5 appearances in now so it looks settled that he's only really intelligent when a character or plot point requires him to be, he's only a nerd when another character has to draw attention to the fact and he has almost no Spider-powers, he almost literally is Iron Man in counter to the plot of the films.

->Open Spoiler<-

I don't care what anyone says, we're getting nothing close to the Maguire films output with these and the post-credits scene proves it.

So yeah, fun but forgettable but I did like some of the trippy visuals at times.

This also marks the first Spider-Man film to have my missus absolutely hate it. She can't really word why but for some reason she thought it was utter garbage

[Dogg Thang]

Re your spoiler - you mad, bruv. It did render the end credit stuff of the previous movie totally redundant and it kind of feels like Endgame may have thrown a spanner in the works of a normal sequel which, ultimately, I think I would have preferred. And as I suspected it only seems to be labelled the end of phase 3 on some numbers technicality, same as Ant-Man in phase 2, because Endgame is the obvious end and nothing in this film changes that. Anyway, most of your stated issues are things I like because the last thing I need is more of the same as the Maguire films and yet, yeah, I’d still find myself agreeing that it was fairly middle of the road.

[prinnysquad]

Your missus has been hanging around you too long, SF.

[Neon Ignition]

There's a definite audience marmite swing of some sort between favouring the MCU Spider-Man films or the Maguire ones. At least everyone is in agreement over one thing - no-one ever favours the Amazing Spider-Man films

[prinnysquad]

I’m not massively fussed about the Maguire films. They’re decent but I prefer the MCU output. Same with the X Men. It may be because they’re discreet and feel standalone. Frankly I’ve never experienced anything quite like the MCU. It’s both throwaway and yet utterly beguiling. Every entry is holistic. So many individual entries are enjoyable and yet not massively powerful. Yet, they are a piece of a bigger puzzle, a meta-narrative, and once you’ve invested in it, you fall hook, line and sinker.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Im not very fussed with this version of spiderman. As SF said, his powers don't seem earned or tested. He's just spiderman doing spider stuff. With most of the other MCU characters you understand the strengths and weaknesses of each character. But I don't think spiderman has ever been found wanting.

[Dogg Thang]

I saw some behind the scenes shots of the mocap stuff for the recent Avengers and, after having watched Spider-Man,...

->Open Spoiler<-

recognised the mocap suits right away because it’s what they had Gyllenhall wear in the new Spider-Man. Saved a few bob there.

[Brad]

Watched the first Captain America last night and I think it's probably my favourite Marvel movie to date.

[Neon Ignition]

Watched the first Captain America last night and I think it's probably my favourite Marvel movie to date.

[Neon Ignition]

Actually, the more I reflect on Spider-Man: Far From Home the worse the plot set up is, it's actually really-really poor

[prinnysquad]

Did your missus force you to post that?

[Neon Ignition]

She won't even talk about the film and I still can't get a clear answer on why it irritated her so badly

->Open Spoiler<-

There's a few fronts some less grating than others and I've noticed bits mentioned on other sites too that add to my puzzlement but basically:

The MCU timeline has it that Homecoming takes place in late 2016, just a couple of months after Stark and Peter first meet in Civil War. Infinity War takes place about 8 months later and that's when Peter dies. 5 years pass where Tony thinks that's it until Cap etc turn up at his door and persuade him to work on time travel to try and undo the snap. The whole plan moves quickly over the course of Endgames run time and against the odds, in those one or two days worth of events, Stark thinks 'this plan might work' and so we're led to believe effectively left something for Peter as though it were in his will - An entire spacial satellite installations worth of high tech military grade camouflage deadly drones... for a sixteen year old he's known intermittently for less than a year, has very questionable judgement regardless of his intent and has been dead for years - their reunion being no more than a few minutes before Tony himself died.

This isn't just a weapon of death being left for a teenager, it's a choice that tells us several things about Stark. The first is that he clearly has no understanding of Peter, nothing has indicated Parker is predisposed to want to kill enemies, also that the last act Tony does - the man who in the first MCU movie had an entire arc about learning about misuse of his weapons, the wrong in making them and swearing not to make them anymore - creates a literal death weapon and gives it to a child.

Now Tony, as stuff like Ultron showed, isn't a great judge of character but even Pepper and Happy sign off on this plan. Really it's once again undoing Tony's development and send off, putting him back in the prick area.

Others might be clearer on this but I'm unsure why Mysterio needed the drones too. He uses them and the hologram tech to create a huge monster that damages London but before Peter gives him the drone access he's doing exactly that plan without them anyway, he wants a bit of revenge on Tony but it feels pretty unnecessary to accomplishing his goal.

He sets Peter up at the end too, revealing his identity and making him look a villain. However Peter has the remaining Avengers, Nick Fury, Pepper, Happy etc all on his camp so is it going to be that hard to prove Peter's been framed?


There genuinely may be something that makes the motivations and events click cohesively that I've missed, none of this takes away the humour and fun of the set pieces etc but narratively looking back it currently feels like a bit of an 'up yours' to Stark and Peter.



Side note - When the film opens it has a comedy scene showing how people reappeared after 5 years where they had disappeared as shown by the band players appearing mid-basketball game. Brushing over the dark of that scenario there - given the millions who vanished mid-flight, drive, train etc who will therefore have reappeared only to die brutally instantly