Canon-Strike VI: Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Asura]

I liked it, though [MENTION=16665]Blobcat[/MENTION] and I both thought while the martial arts choreography was good, much of it occurs in very green-screen-heavy situations which somehow takes away from it at times.

Decent origin story though and Marvel did a good job of circumnavigating how they've had to approach the whole concept of The Mandarin and Fu Manchu, i.e. transforming what were racist Chinese stereotypes into more positive depictions of Chinese & Americans of Chinese race.

[Dogg Thang]

I watched this today and thought it was superb. The whole opening sections sucked me right in so quickly and did a fantastic job at setting up the characters. The fights were great and generally really well shot. I felt it lost a bit of momentum with the Maurice section and a character from previous movies wasn’t quite as entertaining this time around but, from there, it kicked off the rest of the movie and I actually found it really powerful. I love the Marvel movies but it’s rare that one makes me feel and I felt this movie.

I’m so glad it mostly stood alone and could be it’s own thing (you hear that, Spider-Man? Take notes!). It was fun, funny and yet also emotional. I loved it.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 26 - Eternals
The most recent of the mainline entries, the new film might be the weakest recieved of the MCU but it looks set to be an important milestone in the canon due to its introduction of Celestials and their role in the MCU's past and very much its future in addition to several characters who are likely to eventually become Avengers.



Did Eternals feel like a critical expansion of the MCU?

[cutmymilk]

Top 6 for me. I loved it and that shot of the celestial looking down on London at the end was one of the best of all MCU.

[prinnysquad]

Yes. The critics are knobs. I loved its expansion of the cosmic threat and sense of scale.

[randombs]

Agreed.

The Infinity stuff was great but there are 23 of those bloody films.

Eternals was just the right amount of large-scale wtf to remind us there’s a lot more to Marvel than meets the Hawkeye

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 27 - Venom
Opening in a side-universe where Spider-Man doesn't exist, Venom see's Eddie Brock come into contact with an alien symbiote that needs his body to survive. As Eddie investigates a tech genius who is experiementing with other symbiotes and this puts them on a path against each other. The film is the one with the least connective tissue to the MCU at this point due to it being Sony's intention at the time of the films release to merge in Spider-Man but hedging its bets by keeping them apart as properties at launch, this despite the characters entwined histories in the comics and other media.



How did you find what has effectively become the first expansion film of the MCU?

[Neon Ignition]

Reviews and post thoughts from people have pretty much boxed Venom, it's a fun small film and the idea of it merging with the MCU has never been anywhere near as complicated a prospect as has often been made of it. The issue has largely always been that as fun as these films are they do a specific formula that isn't ambitious enough to gel completely with the MCU films we get. Essentially, Sony needs to dial up its scale.

[Dogg Thang]

I haven't seen this yet but I'm sure I will at some point. I like Tom Hardy but the trailers didn't sell me on the movie.

[prinnysquad]

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s a predictable, yet very watchable, flick. I’m not sure what some people expect from superhero stuff.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 28 - Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Following on from the first film, the sequel sees Eddie continue to interact with serial killer Cleetus with one exchange leading to the killer being infected with part of the symbiote. This unleashes Carnage, the spawn of Venom, at a time when Eddie and Venom are struggling to co-exist. The film is very much in the mould of the first, a very short and simple action comedy film with its main hook being that it see's Eddie and Venom be dragged across to the MCU and become first aware of the existence of Peter Parker.



There is a lot of speculation going on at the moment as to the manner that Venom will be integrated with the MCU ranging from direct appearances to setting up an alternate universe Venom. What this does mean regardless though is that the MCU has now expanded with its first 'outside' property, is this a good thing?

[Dogg Thang]

I saw Venom last night. The first one. I didn’t think it was great but it was entertaining enough. I didn’t find the main story very engaging and the stuff with Riz Ahmed and the lab I feel I have seen a million times before and probably much better so I struggled to buy into much of that and definitely didn’t buy his character. I thought the CG effects were pretty bad looking throughout and, overall, it just had a very middle of the road feel to everything. But Hardy played his character brilliantly and he carried the movie. He made it watchable. His interactions with the symbiote were usually always pretty entertaining. So the movie did okay.

I didn’t know much about the movie going in so was very surprised that what I saw in the trailer was the end of the movie. Also I didn’t know that…

->Open Spoiler<-

his enemy would be another symbiote. I figured that was the draw of the new movie and now I feel like I’ve already seen it. Why would I want to see that same thing?

[Neon Ignition]

I didn’t think it was great but it was entertaining enough

That's the sentence that sums up both Venom films in full

I didn’t know much about the movie going in so was very surprised that what I saw in the trailer was the end of the movie. Also I didn’t know that…

->Open Spoiler<-

his enemy would be another symbiote. I figured that was the draw of the new movie and now I feel like I’ve already seen it. Why would I want to see that same thing?

With the sequel

->Open Spoiler<-

The draw largely is that the symbiote in question is Carnage, who's effectively the most notable of Venom's foes. However, really the film is very similar tier to the first film so it's really still Hardy making the film hold together with his relationship to Venom

After two films Sony is already kind of reaching a wall in terms of getting what they can out of Eddie and Venom when their connection to Spider-Man isn't a thing. There really is a need to expand the scope of the franchise which seems to be the aim but I think there will be a burst bubble effect to an extent if when Venom 3 arrives it's more of the same as is.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 29 - Spider-Man
Regardless of whether Maguire and Garflied makes an appearance (....)or not it's been made clear now that we're going to witness the pre-existing live action Spider-Man films sewn into the MCU canon via the continued expansion of the multi-verse elements that Loki set up and Venom and Far From Home already nodded to. The original Spider-Man film established not only a lot of audience knowledge of the character in the modern-non comics audience but to a large extent the broad tone and structure of Marvel films, not surprising considering Kevin Feige's heavy hand in making the films. Here we are introduced to another high school aged Peter, one who is smart but socially at odds with most of his classmates and smitten with his neighbour Mary Jane. Bitten by an engineered spider, he becomes the only live action biological Spider-Man and faces off against Green Goblin. The film was a massive success and launched the first major post-X Men superhero franchise.





Other than villains, one of the canonical considerations would be that of the MCU Peter meeting a variant of himself who has led a long life as Spider-Man without a dependency on tech or the mentorship of other heroes. How much of a potential impact should the meeting of characters and world's have?

[QualityChimp]