TL;DR: Some much potential with Black Widow holy crap……and What If……hurt my brain….
But I did like it!
Alright here we go!
Black Widow
The first 1/3 of this movie had me honestly thinking, "Holy crap this is amazing!!" Course it helps that this is what set the tone for the film before a really good opening leading up to the credits….
I remember sitting on my couch watching the intro showing this family escaping that we think are good guys…even when we see the SHIELD vehicles chasing them I'm thinking is this the good SHIELD or is this the Winter Soldier idiotic super fortress SHIELD? Then we see the full intro and by the end I'm leaning forward hand over my mouth thinking, "This is dark as hell!"
And straight up got to give the kid actors in this opening sequence some mad props especially the actress playing young Natasha….who I was shocked to see this is her only 2nd acting credit on IMDB! The only other credit she shows prior to this movie is the 2016 Resident Evil playing the Red Queen. Dang get her some work people!!
And it keeps going after the opening! I thought this was going to be mainly a backstory movie taking place before she joined SHIELD, and to my surprise it picks up after Civil War but we still get her backstory which was pretty cool….and it was action sequence after action sequence and this whole movie up to this point had a strong Bourne Identity vibe going on. Crazy awesome I loved it……until…..the Russian prison escape sequence.
So Captain America can not only escape any situation but he can break free other heroes from a high security water prison…..and the Red-Russian-Cap-Whatever can't escape a snow mountain prison? Except when he can and decides to kick the door down and run? Seriously?
Up to this point I was watching this flick thinking to myself, "How can anyone be down on this movie?????" And once this scene took place it was like, "Oooooooooooooh….right this is PG-13 and still Disney…..dangit!"
If there was ever a time for there to be a R-rated MCU movie this was it!!! This could have been the MCU version of Logan. Not kidding. They blow up a child in the first 20 minutes of the movie…show kids being abducted and even killed in the opening credits…and….Just look at the villain for crying out loud!
People like this actually exist!! Ok…there's no floating fortress in the clouds and a red room with female assassins running around….probably…..
But this is the perfect analogy for the horrors and realities of sex trafficking and how the victims of this (which is mostly girls) get abducted and brainwashed. Look at this quote:
Man I hated this guy. He was evil. He was creepy. And worst of all, he was believable.
But back to where it all went wrong….
From here on out they dedicate a surprising amount of time to this fake family that spent only 3 years together (21 years ago!) somehow trying to…..fix their relationship? I get what they were trying to do and if they were able to go all the way with it then it could've worked….
But the opening sequence shows Communist Cap as a true villain and buddy buddy with our main bad guy….but now…."Grrrrr he's not my friend anymore and I'm a good dude now cause I said so."
K…..
If they had taken the whole family dynamic a different direction then that could've been really interesting but unfortunately it brought everything to a screeching halt after the goofy prison break scene.
And then….surprise! Y'all must've forgot this was Disney cause that little girl that was blown up at the beginning? Turns out she's still alive and somehow now has super human strength + cyborg stuff with the only side effect being a scar on her face and a bug eyed look because that's how explosions work.
Hey Disney:
Don't get me wrong I'm still glad I saw this and overall it was better than what I was expecting but I feel like this film was originally written to be this crazy, deep, near R-rated tragic story and then got the Disney treatment.
Also….end credits….so I don't want to look up anything but is Seinfeld chick putting another team together at this point? But a team of baddies?
What If?
Cap America is now Peggy
You can literally do anything and this is what you lead off with?
T'Challa is now Star Lord
Okay. Okay. Lot's of different things going on here this was cool. Also this episode must've just come out when the knews of Chadwick's death came out cause the little tribute at the end of this was unexpected.
Original Ant-Man's a dick
Another cool one cause that reveal was a legit surprise. The way Thor died though was pretty weak.
Dr. Strange is love sick
Ok….I couldn't have been the only one thinking about The Time Machine remake from 2002. If you know you know.
Anyways first dark ending in a while to anything MCU related and overall it was dang awesome!
Zombies….
Yeah…..no……Vision is not capturing humans to feed zombie Wanda to keep his "true love" alive. That was dumb. Sorry.
What if Tony Stark and military generals were complete idiots?
The guys name is KILLMONGER!!!!! KILL-MONGER!!!! And….*gasp*….people start getting killed around him and no one's suspicious except Pepper?
Thor: Ultimate Frat Bro
You guys….I think I enjoyed this one way more than I should have. Don't get me wrong…it was incredibly stupid. But the difference between this episode and the Killmonger episode is that it's very clear they were just having fun writing this one and going over the top goofy not taking any of what they were doing seriously. And I can appreciate that…..good dumb cartoony fun.
Okay it's getting real
Did not expect these episodes to be connected…and the way they brought The Watcher into this was definitely awesome and also unexpected. Kept building and building until the very end reveals Strange from the 4th episode and that's when I figured out all of these were going to be connected somehow.
Multiverse Avengers Assemble
Again. Awesome! And I guess everything in this is canon? Cause I honestly thought this was all for fun and not actually connected in anyway…..but after getting into this first season I'm guessing all of this technically happens? But since none of this happens in the main universe we've been seeing then it technically has had no affect on our main story.
But this brings up the question (no spoilers)….What's the difference between the Timeline (Loki) and the Multiverse (What If?). Is all of Loki….the Timeline…..Kang…..all of that stuff still taking place in just the one Universe we know? Meaning our one universe has multiple potential timeline branches which is where the other Loki's (and people) come from in that show? Or are the "timelines" and "mulitverses" synonymous?
I got way more out of this What If the way it ended than what I expected but dang I got some questions now on how all this works…..
Shang Chi is next! BTW we've already watched the first Andrew Garfield Spiderman and we plan on watching the second after Shang Chi so by the time we are supposed to watch No Way Home we've been caught up for a bit.
Past Threads:
Phase 1 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3278723
Phase 2 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3285463
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 1): Dr. Strange / GotG Vol 2 / Civil War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3287952
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 2): Ragnarok / Black Panther / Homecoming
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3290581
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 3): Infinity War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3291814
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 4): Ant Man & The Wasp / Captain Marvel
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3294976
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 5): Endgame
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3297903
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 1): No Way Home / WandaVision
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3300455
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 2): Falcon & Winter Soldier / Loki
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3301758
But I did like it!
Alright here we go!
Black Widow
The first 1/3 of this movie had me honestly thinking, "Holy crap this is amazing!!" Course it helps that this is what set the tone for the film before a really good opening leading up to the credits….
I remember sitting on my couch watching the intro showing this family escaping that we think are good guys…even when we see the SHIELD vehicles chasing them I'm thinking is this the good SHIELD or is this the Winter Soldier idiotic super fortress SHIELD? Then we see the full intro and by the end I'm leaning forward hand over my mouth thinking, "This is dark as hell!"
And straight up got to give the kid actors in this opening sequence some mad props especially the actress playing young Natasha….who I was shocked to see this is her only 2nd acting credit on IMDB! The only other credit she shows prior to this movie is the 2016 Resident Evil playing the Red Queen. Dang get her some work people!!
And it keeps going after the opening! I thought this was going to be mainly a backstory movie taking place before she joined SHIELD, and to my surprise it picks up after Civil War but we still get her backstory which was pretty cool….and it was action sequence after action sequence and this whole movie up to this point had a strong Bourne Identity vibe going on. Crazy awesome I loved it……until…..the Russian prison escape sequence.
So Captain America can not only escape any situation but he can break free other heroes from a high security water prison…..and the Red-Russian-Cap-Whatever can't escape a snow mountain prison? Except when he can and decides to kick the door down and run? Seriously?
Up to this point I was watching this flick thinking to myself, "How can anyone be down on this movie?????" And once this scene took place it was like, "Oooooooooooooh….right this is PG-13 and still Disney…..dangit!"
If there was ever a time for there to be a R-rated MCU movie this was it!!! This could have been the MCU version of Logan. Not kidding. They blow up a child in the first 20 minutes of the movie…show kids being abducted and even killed in the opening credits…and….Just look at the villain for crying out loud!
People like this actually exist!! Ok…there's no floating fortress in the clouds and a red room with female assassins running around….probably…..
But this is the perfect analogy for the horrors and realities of sex trafficking and how the victims of this (which is mostly girls) get abducted and brainwashed. Look at this quote:
Man I hated this guy. He was evil. He was creepy. And worst of all, he was believable.
But back to where it all went wrong….
From here on out they dedicate a surprising amount of time to this fake family that spent only 3 years together (21 years ago!) somehow trying to…..fix their relationship? I get what they were trying to do and if they were able to go all the way with it then it could've worked….
But the opening sequence shows Communist Cap as a true villain and buddy buddy with our main bad guy….but now…."Grrrrr he's not my friend anymore and I'm a good dude now cause I said so."
K…..
If they had taken the whole family dynamic a different direction then that could've been really interesting but unfortunately it brought everything to a screeching halt after the goofy prison break scene.
And then….surprise! Y'all must've forgot this was Disney cause that little girl that was blown up at the beginning? Turns out she's still alive and somehow now has super human strength + cyborg stuff with the only side effect being a scar on her face and a bug eyed look because that's how explosions work.
Hey Disney:
Don't get me wrong I'm still glad I saw this and overall it was better than what I was expecting but I feel like this film was originally written to be this crazy, deep, near R-rated tragic story and then got the Disney treatment.
Also….end credits….so I don't want to look up anything but is Seinfeld chick putting another team together at this point? But a team of baddies?
What If?
Cap America is now Peggy
You can literally do anything and this is what you lead off with?
T'Challa is now Star Lord
Okay. Okay. Lot's of different things going on here this was cool. Also this episode must've just come out when the knews of Chadwick's death came out cause the little tribute at the end of this was unexpected.
Original Ant-Man's a dick
Another cool one cause that reveal was a legit surprise. The way Thor died though was pretty weak.
Dr. Strange is love sick
Ok….I couldn't have been the only one thinking about The Time Machine remake from 2002. If you know you know.
Anyways first dark ending in a while to anything MCU related and overall it was dang awesome!
Zombies….
Yeah…..no……Vision is not capturing humans to feed zombie Wanda to keep his "true love" alive. That was dumb. Sorry.
What if Tony Stark and military generals were complete idiots?
The guys name is KILLMONGER!!!!! KILL-MONGER!!!! And….*gasp*….people start getting killed around him and no one's suspicious except Pepper?
Thor: Ultimate Frat Bro
You guys….I think I enjoyed this one way more than I should have. Don't get me wrong…it was incredibly stupid. But the difference between this episode and the Killmonger episode is that it's very clear they were just having fun writing this one and going over the top goofy not taking any of what they were doing seriously. And I can appreciate that…..good dumb cartoony fun.
Okay it's getting real
Did not expect these episodes to be connected…and the way they brought The Watcher into this was definitely awesome and also unexpected. Kept building and building until the very end reveals Strange from the 4th episode and that's when I figured out all of these were going to be connected somehow.
Multiverse Avengers Assemble
Again. Awesome! And I guess everything in this is canon? Cause I honestly thought this was all for fun and not actually connected in anyway…..but after getting into this first season I'm guessing all of this technically happens? But since none of this happens in the main universe we've been seeing then it technically has had no affect on our main story.
But this brings up the question (no spoilers)….What's the difference between the Timeline (Loki) and the Multiverse (What If?). Is all of Loki….the Timeline…..Kang…..all of that stuff still taking place in just the one Universe we know? Meaning our one universe has multiple potential timeline branches which is where the other Loki's (and people) come from in that show? Or are the "timelines" and "mulitverses" synonymous?
I got way more out of this What If the way it ended than what I expected but dang I got some questions now on how all this works…..
Shang Chi is next! BTW we've already watched the first Andrew Garfield Spiderman and we plan on watching the second after Shang Chi so by the time we are supposed to watch No Way Home we've been caught up for a bit.
Past Threads:
Phase 1 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3278723
Phase 2 Reaction:
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3285463
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 1): Dr. Strange / GotG Vol 2 / Civil War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3287952
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 2): Ragnarok / Black Panther / Homecoming
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3290581
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 3): Infinity War
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3291814
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 4): Ant Man & The Wasp / Captain Marvel
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3294976
Phase 3 Reaction (Part 5): Endgame
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3297903
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 1): No Way Home / WandaVision
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3300455
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 2): Falcon & Winter Soldier / Loki
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3301758
