PsychedelicDiamond said:
It was a bit shit, wasn't it?
Pretty much.
Civil War was a poor mans Batman v Superman.
Yeah...no.
Civil War isn't that special, but it has the advantage of actually being coherent.
The visuals in general were mostly good, especially all the stuff set on alien worlds hat a beautiful space opera look to it which... well, mostly called attention to how bad all the stuff on earth looked but at least they knew where their focus should be.
That's another thing I disagree with, and not just with Infinity War. The "cosmic MCU" films look terrible on the aesthetic level to me. Either everything's a turgid brown/grey (see Ronan's lackies, the chitauri), or garish, in your face colours (Thor: Ragnarok, the Guardians, etc.). I do like Thanos's legionaries (the ones in the golden armour), but that aside, everything looks so ugly. In Infinity War itself, we have the same grey/black schemes for his lackies and cannon fodder, and the donut ships look terrible.
Gethsemani said:
Actually, this is what makes Thanos work for me. He has identified a serious problem that he intends to solve, only his solution is faulty. The logic and reasoning he used to reach his solution are flawed and so is the solution. Yet he will go through with it, because he so ardently believes that he's right, even as people tell him that he's insane. The best part is that this is intentional, Thanos is meant to be an extremely capable villain with a very flawed plan. It makes him a lot more human (for lack of a better word), because he so closely resembles some of the worst tyrants of the 20th century, who also identified problems and proceeded to use terrible, terrible plans to try and solve them (Pol Pot, Mao, Hitler, Mugabe etc.).
We only have Thanos's word that it's a serious problem. Even if we accept that MCU Earth is the same as our Earth in regards to population/consumption, we've seen no evidence that this is a problem shared on other worlds. Thanos claims that Gamora's people were having such a problem, but Thanos is hardly an unbiased source of info. And apparently he just knows that this is a problem shared by every species in not just the galaxy, but the UNIVERSE. Oh, and not only does he wipe out half of all humanoid life, he wipes out half of all animal and plant life. So either Thanos is insane, or an idiot, or both.
Also, apart from Mugabe, I think the idea that Pol Pot, Hitler, and Mao were "reacting to problems" is a bit generous.
TheVampwizimp said:
So, am I allowed to like it?
I guess - who am I to say no to Picard?
Johnny Novgorod said:
And I did mention lack of stakes. I didn't buy Infinity War's ready-made "downer ending" for a second. In a universe populated no less by superheroes that has already established magic, time-travelling, interdimensional shenanigans and deus ex machina reality-bending it's impossible to take the MCU's "oh no look at all these secondary characters we killed off" ploy seriously.
This. Also, Marvel hasn't even tried to hide that the effects will be reversed to at least some extent.
If it was up to me, I'd have Thanos win, and leave it at that. Have the villain win. Good guys don't get to win all the time, and nothing in Infinity War would prevent future MCU movies from being produced, just certain characters.
trunkage said:
Yeah I don't know if MCU is completely devoid of political commentary as you make out. Eg. Tony realising arms dealing is bad,
While Iron Man is one of the better MCU movies, "arms dealing is bad" is a pretty easy theme. No-one is going to be offended by saying "selling weapons without accountability is bad, m'kay?"
Thanos exploring Malthouse,
Poorly.
Ultron was about entrepreneurial spirit and its dangers.
Can't really say "entreprenurial spirit" when Tony's motivation is for protection rather than commercialism.
But that aside, I don't think Ultron really has any theme behind it. It's your stock "AI gets out of control, AI wants to wipe out humanity because said AI is a dick." This can be done well, even in pop sci-fi (Terminator, Matrix, etc.) Ultron? Not so much.
Civil War was the continuance of Stark's self regulation from Iron Man 1 but then him using the government to apply it to others.
Eh...I guess?
Spider-Man was about an idealists that needs to be shackled before he hurt someone and his terrible mentor.
Not sure where that's coming from.
Now... whether they did it well is a totally different thing
The only MCU film I've seen have a clear theme and pull it off well is Iron Man 3, which touches on the nature of perception in media in regards to terrorism, and how easy it is to conjure an enemy for the public. And even then it isn't fully explored. That said, while Iron Man 3 is another one of my top MCU films, I know that this is a rare opinion, so I'm not counting on the MCU doing anything like it again.
As to Logan making a commentary, the biggest thing I learnt was that mutants weren't necessary to help or hinder humanity. Them dying or surviving is irrelevant to most of the world.
That's an interesting idea. That said, I saw Logan mostly as allusion to the state of America - minorities, refugees, etc. However, this is only allusion. It's a damn solid film all around regardless of how one reads into it (or doesn't).
BvS? I found it had less commentary that Infinity War.
That's...kinda true.
The sad thing about BvS is that I can see what Snyder was going for, but it never really comes to a head with its themes. There's no real clash of ideals between the titular characters, they have to be manipulated into fighting, while all this..."stuff" is also going on. It's a film with simultaniously too much plot, and too little.
Also, Thanos > Steppenwolf and Enchantress and maybe equal with Aries. I don't know if that says much becuase... of all the rest of the bad guys in the MCU.
If I'm comparing Thanos to DCEU villains, he trumps all of them bar Zod (maybe). MCU? That's harder to say. He's not the most fleshed out villain, but he's at least memorable.
