Marvel Universe (Thar be spoilers ahead.)

[Evildrider]

I think no one wants to address the elephant in the room. How is one movie suppose to cover the civil war? I mean your kinda already pushing it with Ultron being just one movie. I mean granted I think there's a better story in a one hour and a half debate between cap and tony but if there going to delve into other stories, especially the more recent events, a one part movie may not do it.

They have stated this is Civil War in name only.  The same as Age of Ultron actually has no relation to the last AoU comic storyline.  There may be elements taken from it, but that's about it.

[Ironwood]

Once again, you're falling into that Comic Reading Guy trap of thinking the movie will even have any resemblance beyond the title.  It says 'Age of Ultron', but really, all that comic shit is beside the point, it may as well be called 'Avengers Vs Ultron'.

Civil War will be the same.  'Avengers Vs Avengers for a bit, then back home for crumpets'

Stop doing the comic book guy thing.  We already have one of those.


EDIT: Shit, beaten.

[MediumHigh]

We say that now. This is coming from someone who dropped Marvel and DC buttfuckery for graphic novels a while ago. I just think some themes can warrant more than an more than an hour worth of screen time or may have to. Keep in mind these moves can at any time suck major donkey balls, Thor the Dark World, Iron Man 2.... 

[Ironwood]

I'm really not sure what your point is.

And both of those films did rather well, despite our opinions.  (Though for what it's worth I liked Thor 2, just not as much as Thor and while Iron Man 2 was a letdown, not as much as Iron Man 3 was...sooooo.... different strokes.)

[eldaec]

I don't see what is so difficult.

Cold open has some kind of super powered disaster, then Senator Shandling pops up to tell us that the government needs to do something.

Captain  America realises this is bad, Iron Man is still grumpy about Ultron, so thinks this is good. They stare at each other a bit, bad stuff happens which RDJ takes advantage of to be popular. Human Torch maintains stick up ass, refuses to play to gallery.

There is a twist, turns out Hydra is behind the whole thing.

Action  sequence. Captain America appeals to audience proxy Bucky Barnes' better nature to swing balance to the good guys. Iron Man sees the light, or doesn't, maybe becomes head of new-shield. Punching happens. Steve Rogers gets shot, or doesn't.

Fin.


Maybe I should write for Latino Review.

[Ironwood]

Sometimes you all sound like this guy.

Stop it.  It's just silly.

[Lakov_Sanite]

We say that now. This is coming from someone who dropped Marvel and DC buttfuckery for graphic novels a while ago. I just think some themes can warrant more than an more than an hour worth of screen time or may have to. Keep in mind these moves can at any time suck major donkey balls, Thor the Dark World, Iron Man 2.... 

AV2 is 2:30 hours

[Pennilenko]

There is literally nothing wrong with very long movies. As long as they don't suck balls, nobody will complain about run time.

[Lakov_Sanite]

No no, he was commenting that you can't tell such a deep...epic...sweeping...poignant story about the avengers beating up a big robot like "The age of Ultron" in a mere hour.  I was pointing out that is was two and a half hours long.

[jgsugden]

I do not think the Civil War story will be contained in Cap III.  It seems likely that it begins in Avengers II and the impacts of the storyline will extend beyond the end of Cap III.  I'm betting all of Season 3 of MAoS will be aimed at bridging AoU and Civil War.  I would not be surprised to see AoU end with the Superhuman Registration Act being passed...

[MahrinSkel]

We say that now. This is coming from someone who dropped Marvel and DC buttfuckery for graphic novels a while ago. I just think some themes can warrant more than an more than an hour worth of screen time or may have to. Keep in mind these moves can at any time suck major donkey balls, Thor the Dark World, Iron Man 2.... 

They already have the Infinity Gauntlet arc that crosses all of the continuity, and cross-connection between the TV series and movies, as well as separate arcs for three separate franchises (Cap, Thor, IM), and interplay between those and the Avengers arc. I think they're already doing a pretty good job of developing arcs across multiple sections. Considering that each individual product in the MCU has to stand on its own both financially and in narrative, it's pretty damned impressive, an unprecedented example of collaborative storytelling.

Really, GotG is an outlier, with no connections to anything else except through Infinity Gauntlet (which it moved forward more than any of the others). So although Civil War has to stand alone, I think there's a good chance that it can also be tying up plot threads that were left hanging in other bits of the MCU.

--Dave

[Khaldun]

Newest rumor is that the next Spider-Man film will spin out straight from Cap 3, and that Iron Man will be the main villain for the first act of the movie, chasing down the new high-school aged superhero Spider-Man to get him to register. If this goes according to the usual trope, I would guess that by the third act, Iron Man and Spider-Man have to work together to deal with more conventional super-villains of some kind (probably some or all of the Sinister Six).

[Maven]

Stark as well-meaning antagonist in the MCU will be great. Suppose Avengers 3 will be getting the band back together for Thanos.

[Evildrider]

Stark as well-meaning antagonist in the MCU will be great. Suppose Avengers 3 will be getting the band back together for Thanos.

It would be kind of silly of them to have said that the Avengers will look different after Avengers 2 then bring them all back for 3.  Not that I assume they won't, but I think the new team will be supported by the others just showing up.  There is going to be some hero bloat if they finally drag everyone in.

I mean we will have:

Captain America (possibly Bucky'd or Falcon'd if they "kill" him off in Cap 3)
Thor
Black Widow
Hawkeye
Hulk
Iron Man
Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver
Captain Marvel
Spidey
Black Panther
Doctor Strange
Ant-man
War Machine
Falcon
Winter Soldier
StarLord
Groot
Drax
Gamora
Rocket

I doubt they are using them all but they have quite a list.  This isn't even counting the possibility of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Power Man, Iron Fist, or even Quake/Skye from Agents of Shield.  Oh ya and if the Inhumans show up as well before their movie.

[Khaldun]

The rumor post the announcement of all the films going forward was that Avengers: Infinity War I would basically be "New Avengers": folks who haven't been together in a film before. My guess is that's Dr. Strange, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Spider-Man, maybe Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Ant-Man, War Machine. Now I doubt they have more than an outline, but if I were in charge, I'd make Avengers Infinity War 2 basically the triumphal return of the originals plus the newbies--getting the band back together for one more big megaconcert. After that they cull based on "who is popular? and who is still affordable and bankable?"

[jgsugden]

It may or may not be New Avengers - but it will be new directors: http://badassdigest.com/2015/03/23/the-russo-brothers-will-definitely-direct-avengers-infinity-war/

The Russo Brothers, after directly the 'Avengers lite' Cap III, will be taking on the Infinity War movies.  I'm really curious how they'll handle such a cosmic tale with a basically indestructible enemy.  

More: Marvel may be interviewing young white guys for Spider-man, meaning no Miles Morales (which I maintain is smart - that allows them to go to Miles Morales down the road)... http://badassdigest.com/2015/03/23/marvel-auditioned-16-year-old-mateus-ward-for-spider-man/

[Evildrider]

As a huge fan of Winter Soldier, I have no problem with the Russo's doing Infinity War.  I would like to see Whedon do Captain Marvel though.

[jgsugden]

I'm betting Whedon doesn't do a Marvel film in the next 5 years - but is an advisor on every film through the end of Infinity War (at least).

[HaemishM]

As a huge fan of Winter Soldier, I have no problem with the Russo's doing Infinity War.

This. Winter Soldier earned them a SHITLOAD of leeway in my book. It has been my favorite Marvel movie to date.

[eldaec]

Most of all I have faith they won't disappear up their own asshole trying to go "darker" or "explore new genres and ideas". CA2 was full of opportunities to go off message which were skillfully ignored in favour of punching and explosions.

[Evildrider]

Interesting news from Ruffalo.  According to him the reason Marvel isn't doing another solo Hulk movie right now is because Universal holds the rights to that.  If a movie was made they'd have to give all money from distribution to them.  A good thing to note though, as of right now he still is under contract for at least 4 more movies and is open to more.

[Ironwood]

This whole Marvel Rights thing is a cluster of the highest proportion.

For the first time ever, I feel a solo Hulk movie might actually work.

[eldaec]

Meh, maybe.

I think there is more stuff to do with crossover movies that have fewer than 8 superheroes.

Hulk plus 1 sounds more fun than just Hulk, and more fun than cramming everyone into an Avengers film.

As much as the theme of Civil War is tired and trite, the concept of exactly 2 heroes in lead roles actually seems like a pretty good idea. Much better than having 2 supervillians for instance.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, when I said 'Solo' I wasn't really being literal.  I consider Winter Soldier to be a Solo Captain America story, for example, and it's got a fuckton of other chaps in it.

[jgsugden]

I thought it might be time for people to rank their Marvel efforts from best/favorite to worst again now that we have some new entries....

Cap II > GotG > IM > Daredevil > Avengers > Captain America > Thor > Thor II > Agents of Shield > Iron Man II > the Shorts > Agent Carter > Incredible Hulk > Iron Man III 

I have not seen Avengers II yet, but from what I hear I expect it to drop in above Agents of Shield and below Avengers (I).  On a scale of 1 to 10 where 5 is rewatchable, IM III is a 6. 

[MediumHigh]

Tier 1 CAP 2, GOTG, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk
Tier 2 Iroman 3
Tier 3 Thor, Avengers, Captain America
Tier 4
Tier 5
Tier 6
Tier 7
Tier 8 Thor 2, Iron Man 2

[Velorath]

I pretty much just divide them up between the top tier movies (Avengers, Cap 2, GOTG, and Iron Man) and everything else. It doesn't really matter enough to me to decide if Incredible Hulk is better than Thor 2. Aside from those four top tier movies, the other ones I'd probably only watch again if I'm marathoning through all the Marvel movies. There's non-MCU stuff like First Class I'd rank above a lot the MCU movies.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Iron man 3 ranking

 

[Evildrider]

Iron man 3 ranking

 

Well, I know who not to take recommendations from.   

[MediumHigh]

If I close my eyes and pretend the ending didn't happen, I actually like Iron Man 3 and saw it twice.

[Evildrider]

If I was going to rank them it would be:

My favorites: Cap 2 and GotG.

Great but not as good as above: Avengers, Cap 1, Thor, and Iron Man.

and these I just consider ok:  Hulk, Thor 2, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man 3


But hell, outside of MCU the only other superhero movies I've enjoyed are probably X-Men: First Class and DoFP and almost nothing from DC since Dark Knight.

[Lakov_Sanite]

If I close my eyes and pretend the ending didn't happen, I actually like Iron Man 3 and saw it twice.

It's a fair point in a perfect world but...man talk about an ending shitting all over a movie, iron man 3 is one of the worst cases I've ever seen.

[MahrinSkel]

To me, IM2, Cap 2, and GotG are the 'top tier' that everything else is compared to, the ones that represent the payoff that makes the others worth seeing. Both Thors and Hulk are the bottom, everything else is 'good but not great'. Avengers...is impossible to categorize, it would merely be 'good', but since none of the others really hold together without it, it kind of needs to be in the top tier.

Even the bottom tier, they just don't quite make my 'gotta see it in theaters' list, everything in the middle I did (and for my sins, I saw Hulk in the theater, but at the time there was just nothing to compare to).

--Dave

[HaemishM]

Cap 2, GotG and Avengers in that order.

IM 1 and IM 2, Cap 1

All the rest.

[eldaec]

My view on the exact order of the 6 good films probably changes everything we do this, but...

GotG > A1/T1/IM1/CA1 > CA2 >>>> IM2/IM3 > T2/Hulk

Daredevil would probably rank alongside that big group of 4 films, Shield is at least better than Thor 2.