Fans of the Marvel films, advice needed

[noblegiraffe]

The quality of the films objectively drops off a cliff post-Endgame.

If you were doing a watch-through with your kids would you stop at Endgame and let them go out on a high? Or would you watch selective post-Endgame ones? If so, which ones? Obviously not The Eternals or Quantumania. What about the TV series? I mean the ones rated 12, they are not old enough for Daredevil!

I know some people tell their kids that Star Wars is a trilogy, so there's a chance to curate here.

I disagree with the statement that after Endgame it was all shite. I think it was just different, Marvel gave its writers and directors a bit more freedom and there wasn't anything that I didn't like. As for all the fanboy go woke go broke bullshit that was sloshing around the internet, Marvel had been woke since the 60's.

You liked Quantumania??

Thor Love and Thunder, Guardians 3, Black Panther 2 were nowhere near as good as their predecessors either.

Yes I enjoyed Quantumania, it was a comedy and it delivered. Thor L&T wasn't as good as Ragnorok but it was better than the dark world, Guardians 3 was the best of them and I cried at Black Panther 2 at how well they honoured Chadwicks passing.

I found Guardians 3 enjoyable enough. (Nice to see Nathan Fillion enjoying himself.) Quantumania and Love and Thunder were both shite though. Which is a terrible shame, because Ragnarok managed to be both hilarious and hit just right on Thor's character arc.

The MCU isn't quite in the Star Wars doldrums yet, but it isn't far off, and Star Wars has also turned out a few fully-formed gems like Andor.

I haven't watched Andor because I got bogged down with some of the other stuff and felt a bit 'over it' with an extended Star Wars universe. Should I give it a go?

Then again, I liked The Last Jedi (especially Laura Dern slapping down Po Dameron because the grown ups were talking ) and as far as I can work out Rise Of Skywalker was an attempt to pretend it had never happened. So I quite possibly have very terrible taste.

Guardians 3 made me cry. Black Panther 2 wasn't any good as an actual movie, I thought, but it was a nice tribute.

Lots of people liked The Last Jedi, including me. It was uneven, but it had some genuinely compelling bits and it was ambitious. Then Rise of Skywalker was a fucking shit show. Sigh.

Andor is different from the rest of the shows. It's a Force-free zone; it's much more in the spirit of Rogue One, the sacrifices that ordinary people make to enable the Rebellion and the day-to-day banality of the Empire's evil. It's tight and beautifully executed from end to end, with some amazing performances. I absolutely recommend it, but it's not classic swashbuckling Star Wars in the vein of The Force Awakens. It is, however, generally regarded as the best thing Star Wars has turned out in a long time, possibly since Empire.

I couldn't remember what Black Panther 2 was about, just that I didn't like it. Just looked it up, it was the Aquaman under-sea one. Urgh.

I think my problem with Marvel is that there were a few crap or boring films before Endgame (e.g. Iron Man 3) but they were interspersed with really good ones. The most recent Marvel films have all been duff (although I liked the Marvels because of Ms Marvel, the film itself wasn't great).

The only ones I've enjoyed since endgame are

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The Marvels

I would bother with the rest.

Deadpool and wolverine is wonderful.

I think I am a Bad Nerd, because not only did I like She-Hulk and Iron Man 3, I hated Spider-Man 3, found Loki dull as shit, and I think The Last Jedi is brilliant (and utterly beautiful - the cinematography is stunning).

Agree that Rise of Skywalker was trying to ret-con it out of existence, which was one of the many reasons it was a massive failure.

I haven't liked any of the Star Wars series that I've tried, but I loved Rogue One, so I'm tempted to give Andor a go.

I also really like Phantom Menace, so I guess I should be burned at the stake, what with these things being so important.

Guardians 3 was the best of that franchise, but I can't watch it again as the animal torture had me crying from about 10 mins in, right to the end. Unbearable.

The Marvels was bad, but so insane that I actually came through the other side of "this is terrible" and started to really enjoy it. It's fucking bananas. I was crying with laughter during the Memory sequence - it wasn't particularly funny, but it went on way too long, they did the whole bloody song! The film felt like one big "ah fuck it, everyone's going to shit on this anyway", and I couldn't help but love that about it. I can see The Marvels becoming a cult hit - I bet it's amazing to watch stoned.

Wow @TheLeadbetterLife you really have different taste to me!

I'd forgotten about one of the best Marvel series of all time, that for some reason was really underrated. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. A really good ensemble piece with great female characters including the incomparable Ming Na Wen.

Ha ha, @noblegiraffe that's why it's good that Marvel is so broad. I just wish the Studios weren't so easily influenced by online whinging, because they often end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Same goes for Star Wars. Why are we all supposed to give a shit if some middle aged men feel their childhood has been ruined by a bloody film? They need to get a fucking grip - that's basically what The Last Jedi was all about, and instead of getting a grip they went so far the other way that they destroyed the franchise they loved. All very Greek.

With Marvel stories, I prefer the ones set on Earth, and that don't involve high-concept fictional settings like Space, time-travel or the multiverse. I find that too much bandwidth is taken up explaining everything, to the detriment of characters and compelling stories. It weakens the writing. When the setting is Earth, we already know what's what, and the stories can build on a more complex base. The planets are always so two-dimensional as well, which I find very distracting.

Time-travel is just bollocks and never makes any sense. The only time-travel stories I like are the daft ones, like Back to the Future, or Bill and Ted.

I think my favourites are in no particular order:
Avengers Assemble
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Thor: Ragnarok
Spiderman: Homecoming
Avengers: Infinity War
Guardians of the Galaxy

Not sure what the common thread is there. Kick-ass fight scenes?

@TheLeadbetterLife

The funny thing about these "fanboys" is that many of them are girls.

That's interesting OP, because my top five would be, in this order:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Spider-Man Homecoming
Avengers Assemble
Captain America Civil War
Avengers Infinity War

...which is more or less the same as your list.

They do have great fight choreography, especially Winter Soldier, but the reason these films rank highest for me is the great writing and characterisation. The fight scenes in Winter Soldier are integral to the character development and all reveal something we didn't know before.

I get bored when the fights are too long - we already know who's going to win, so unless the choreography is particularly well done, or something unexpected is revealed, they don't need to go on and on. The Daredevil series, as good as it is, was particularly guilty of this. I often heard Simon Pegg in my head, "skip to the end...".

Going back to my earlier heresy, the choreography of Kylo and Rey's battle with Snoke's guards in The Last Jedi is sublime.

I really enjoyed The Marvels. I think I was the only person actually looking forward to it coming to the cinema. I think Kamala Khan and her family are great, I loved the bonkers fight choreography of them swapping out, and being eaten by cats was suitably insane that I laughed most of the way through all that, and it was just fun. Silly fun.

The Eternals, on the other hand, was so boring I could feel myself aging while I sat there. (I suppose it could be worse, it could be Black Adam. I love The Rock, but even he couldn't rescue that)

So many good ones I forgot, like Spiderman - you may have to watch all 8 films (plus the 2 animated Spider verse ones) to get the payoff in the most recent one. 😅

I sort of agree with the X-Men films. I don't love the original trilogy, especially X-Men 3, but I loved the new cast and it all really pays off with Days of Future Past. And then I'd stop there! I feel like that's another really satisfying stopping point.

For me it ended with Endgame. I’ve tried Loki, I’ve tried other things and nope. I’m not desperate enough for a new marvel fix to watch any of them 😂