RDJ deserved every red cent he's gotten.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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RDJ deserved every red cent he's gotten.

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The greatest hire in film history... and there's probably an argument greatest for any industry

Farmer1906 said:

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Quote:

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#2 Avengers: Infinity War 54%, #7 Captain American: The Winter Soldier: 46%

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I'm proud the Winter Soldier gave IF a fight.

Quote:

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#6 Thor:Ragnarok 66%, #3 Marvel's The Avengers 34%
#4 Guardians of the Galaxy 63%, #5 Iron Man 37%

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Both these surprise me, especially Thor.

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I am not surprised that Ragnorak knoked off The Avengers. We have all just seen The Avengers so many times now. It's an absolute classic but I've probably watched the third act 15 times since 2012. Ragnorak is still relatively fresh and frankly, IMO, it's simply the most "fun" movie in the MCU.

I think the same is probably true to a degree with Iron Man. Absolute classic film but man we've all seen it so many times in the last 12 years. Guardians is probably my #2 "fun" MCU film. When my wife is rolling laughing (couldn't care less about this stuff) you know they are knocking it out of the park.

CowtownAg06 said:

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This is so interesting of a final 4. Do you prefer epic story or fun? What's' great about the MCU is you don't have to sacrifice one for the other, but these 4 fall in different categories of emphasis. I'll be taking the fun route personally as GOTG and Ragnarok have always been my top 2.

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You made my point better than I did. Agree 100% with this take.

Sex Panther said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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RDJ deserved every red cent he's gotten.

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The greatest hire in film history... and there's probably an argument greatest for any industry

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Pretty hard to argue that. Childhood nostalgia puts Harrison Ford's Han Solo and Indiana Jones at the top of my list but I'd be lying if I said RDJ's Iron Man couldn't edge him out. It's just that good.

I think Hemsworth hit his stride on Thor in Ragnorak and that carried over right in to IF and EG. Had he hit it earlier he'd be in the running too.

Of any industry (at least entertainment), Nintendo hiring the dude that created Mario and Zelda.

George Lucas hiring John Williams.

No doubt, and it is certainly kind of a weird/pointless argument. My take being its the greatest hire based on the financial returns. They had to get that hire right (imagine if Iron Man underperformed) and RDJ undoubtedly carried the movies into their current popularity.


Imagine anyone else playing Tony Stark, you just can't do it. And it was a huge risk at the time. RDJ was not a big draw, not an action star, and still had a lot of question marks around him from his previous issues. However, Marvel rolled the dice, and have made several billion dollars because of that gamble.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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George Lucas hiring John Williams.

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That's a good one

I could kinda see it with Tom Cruise, honestly.

The biggest thing I just can't see is Tom Cruise with the Stark goatee. (Random, I know.)

MuckRaker96 said:

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This has been a lot more fun than the SW contests or the 1980s movies because everything is so recent, there aren't the inherent cultural favorites. I was really surprised that GOTG and Ragnarok won yesterday.
I love Endgame to death, but GOTG and WInter Soldier are my 1-2, and Black Panther is probably 4th. It's great to see such a variety of opinions about something. Will probably do a Marvel moments tourney after the SW one I'm about to start although I'm fearful it could have 256 seeds to be fair. Four regions - comedy, drama, fights, and ... reveals perhaps - cuz when bearded Cap showed up in Infinity War, you better believe 44-year-old Muckity Muck yelled out "YEAH MOTHER EFFER!" in a theater full of children, although gratefully not my own.

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Black Panther is your #4? Wow. I have it in the lower levels with the first 2 Thors and Iron Man 2

Same here.

I watched Dr. Strange last night, and I probably have it in my bottom 5.

That's a helluva point and I admit I wasn't looking at it from that perspective at all. Prior to Iron Man/Avengers, I barely knew anything about the guy other than he was an 80's pretty boy drug addict. Seen very little of his previous work. Geez, Marvel/Disney caught lightening in a bottle with the ROI on this guy.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I could kinda see it with Tom Cruise, honestly.

The biggest thing I just can't see is Tom Cruise with the Stark goatee. (Random, I know.)

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I don't know. Tom Cruise is TOO much of a good guy...he even looks like a good guy. And yes, I know he's played bad a few times. But Stark has to be good, but also be a ******bag and sell that with his looks, his facial expressions, his nuances. What sells Stark so well in these movies and why we fell in love with him (even when kinda rooting against him at times) is actually all RDJ. No one else could have been Stark so perfectly because Stark actually became the character that RDJ has been perfecting his whole career.

Have you watched Magnolia?

Cstrickland05 said:

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MuckRaker96 said:

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This has been a lot more fun than the SW contests or the 1980s movies because everything is so recent, there aren't the inherent cultural favorites. I was really surprised that GOTG and Ragnarok won yesterday.
I love Endgame to death, but GOTG and WInter Soldier are my 1-2, and Black Panther is probably 4th. It's great to see such a variety of opinions about something. Will probably do a Marvel moments tourney after the SW one I'm about to start although I'm fearful it could have 256 seeds to be fair. Four regions - comedy, drama, fights, and ... reveals perhaps - cuz when bearded Cap showed up in Infinity War, you better believe 44-year-old Muckity Muck yelled out "YEAH MOTHER EFFER!" in a theater full of children, although gratefully not my own.

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Black Panther is your #4? Wow. I have it in the lower levels with the first 2 Thors and Iron Man 2

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I think Black Panther is an incredible triumph of a completely different style of art and characters and culture. Fantastic technology, really great performances, girl power without being IN YOUR FACE GIRL POWER, and Michael B. Jordan as the most compelling villain in the MCU movies. You could change a few details and he's the hero of that film.

I'll never watch Thor 2 again unless I've lost the remote. Iron Man 2 only endures for the fight at the car track and Sam Rockwell,. Thor 1 I don't know that I could say what happens at all in that movie except the hotness of Portman.

I think Black Panther is really solid. It was overrated by the mainstream (BP nominee) which caused backlash to be underrated by MCU fans.

I've still never seen Thor 1 and 2 all the way through. I tried watching Thor 2 on a flight one time and fell asleep.

we were on an Alaskan cruise in the summer of 2014 for a week, stuck in a cabin with my whole family, nearly threw them all overboard a dozen times, and Thor 2 was on the looped movie channel. My kids probably played 10 times. It sucked just as bad with the 10th viewing as the first.

I listened to podcast that said when they cast RDJ as Iron Man he was uninsurable. The studios have to take out insurance on the actors and no company would touch RDJ. Now I can't imagine anyone else being Iron Man.

Thor 1, imo, suffers from origin story fatigue + being fairly limited in scope/setting. Almost all of the action takes place what appears to be a tiny town with one main street. Also, another thing about that movie is that I think a lot of people have caught it on TNT or whatever cable channel, rather than theater or bluray. The effects and use of slow motion always look cheap and crappy on cable channels.

Thor 2 is where things start to get out there in terms of fantasy/cosmic material, and doesn't have quite enough "fun" to overcome it like Guardians did. Think about it, the movies basically deal in the same kind of stuff, but Guardians pulls it off a lot better. Even Ronan, who is single minded and without depth of character, is more interesting than Malaketh, or whatever his name is. Finally, I think the "love triangle" aspect is completely forced and unnecessary. We don't have time for a jealousy that kind of pops up out of nowhere. This isn't Wolverine/Jean/Cyclops.

I personally think I might prefer Thor 2 over Thor 1, at this point...but that's b/c I like the interactions in that movie b/w Thor and Loki. Also, neither of these movies had quite figured out that Thor could be a really funny character, yet.

Black Panther ranks higher than both for me, but doesn't make it out of the lower-middle. I appreciate a lot of the same things about it that Muck listed, but something about Killmonger never quite hits with me.

The final is looking pretty inevitable at this point.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Have you watched Magnolia?

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Yeah, but only once, right when it came out.

MuckRaker96 said:

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The final is looking pretty inevitable at this point.

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He said it himself

Missed another voting thread. Dammit.

BTW, since y'all were talking about it, it dawned on me after watching an arc in Season 4 of Clone Wars that the recent Aquaman movie completely ripped off that story arc. Probably been noticed and covered before.

I love Thor 1. The strength of the MCU is the variety in genre and style and a Kenneth Branagh-directed Shakespearean spat between brothers is a nice addition

Sorry to see the best MCU movie out in round 2

Think we'll have a third-place vote tomorrow too. interested to see how those two do against each other.

In the semifinals that surprised no one, Avengers: Endgame and Avengers; Infinity War have emerged for the final, promoted below with many hilarious Thanos gifs.

Results
#1 Avengers Endgame 70%, #4 Guardians of the Galaxy 30%
#2 Avengers Infinity War 64%, #6 Thor Ragnaork 36%

VOTE FOR THE FINAL AND THIRD PLACE TOO

Went with Endgame, as the narrowing the focus to fewer characters allows for more character moments which I think makes it a better movie over all. iW as good as it is was just too broad at times, and I didn't really get an emotional impact from the snap because it obviously wasn't going to last

My third place vote for Ragnarok surprised me. There was a time I would rate GotG as my 2nd favorite Marvel movie after Winter Soldier, but I rewatched it recently and I realized so much of its greatness is due to how fresh and surprising it was, and it loses some of that with every viewing

Sex Panther said:

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No doubt, and it is certainly kind of a weird/pointless argument. My take being its the greatest hire based on the financial returns. They had to get that hire right (imagine if Iron Man underperformed) and RDJ undoubtedly carried the movies into their current popularity.


Imagine anyone else playing Tony Stark, you just can't do it. And it was a huge risk at the time. RDJ was not a big draw, not an action star, and still had a lot of question marks around him from his previous issues. However, Marvel rolled the dice, and have made several billion dollars because of that gamble.

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and it's not like Iron Man was a clear choice to be the first hero featured either. he was one of the lesser known Avengers too. so it was indeed a huge risk. if iron man had bombed, i'm not sure we even get to iron man 2, much less thor or cap.

as far as anybody else playing Tony, there just aren't any good answers. i think sam rockwell has that same vibe about him, which Marvel obviously picked up on in casting him as Justin Hammer.

but it's not just Tony. marvel cast hemsworth and evans, neither of whom were clear or obvious choices. i didn't see pratt, ruffalo or rudd as obvious choices either and didn't even know who boseman or holland were, but marvel did. there's been very few "misses" along the way.

The GotG, in general, was a huge risk. If a few years ago someone said Star Lord, we'd all be like...

It's really hard to separate Infinity War from Endgame. I think they both elevate the other, and I really see it as a single movie.

That said, I actually enjoy Infinity War more, as an individual film, than I do Endgame, I think because Endgame is more of a greatest hits album that caps with an amazing last act, more than its own story like Infinity War.

But, I voted for Endgame because it is the culmination that everything was leading towards. It's just really hard to put one over the other. It's sort of like LOTR for me.

Infinity War is the better individual movie, but I picked Endgame because I think its the better accomplishment.

I went with IW. More laughs and less confusing time travel. Love them both, but basically I thought what would I rather watch right now, and it was IW.

So this thing is almost done. Part 5 of my entertain TexAgs and avoid work marathon of tournaments. From a Marvel standpoint, would you prefer a "moments" tournament of a "quotes" tournament next?

I would do characters, but I can't see the final not being Tony vs. Steve. I figured this final from be the last two Avengers movies, but it's been a lot of fun anyways. Actually I guess characters would be fun too. Thoughts?