It's been since July that I've been able to get caught up to this point with the family due to August being an always crazy month with 2 birthdays and back to school starting…just lots of dad stuff.
On top of that we had to make sure we had seen both Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield well enough before No Way Home so it wasn't too much Spiderman all at once.
What's been great about all this so far is there's a clear trend I've been seeing with these posts being viewed/responded to that is the perfect example of everyone's thoughts and feelings towards the MCU since Endgame and I think it's hilarious. So the plan after this is 3 more posts:
1. No Way Home gets its own thread cause dangit I'm excited as hell for this one cause it's 2 of my favorite MCU characters in the same movie (Spidey and Doc)
2. Moon Knight / Multiverse of Madness / Ms Marvel will wrap it up on being caught up
3. Got something fun in mind that hopefully y'all will like on a last post that I'm going to start slowing working on as it'll take a good bit of time….consider it the "end credits" scene of this series I suppose you could call it
Ok here we go!
Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Bracelets
Man…it's been over a month since I watched this so it's probably best to hit on what I remember best/most…starting with this:
I could NOT SIT STILL the entire time this scene played out. How in the hell did it take this long to get some awesome martial arts in the MCU??? Yes there's always been kicks and punches and all that but nothing like this and man it was fun! By the time the scene was over I was sitting up and forward with my cheeks clenched like crazy. And if I remember correctly, it's not long afterwards where we get this scene which might as well have been lifted right out of Crouching Tiger in terms of the choreography and the love story:
But now…gotta address this character…
Oh boy…I'll admit there were more than a few times that she was pretty funny and would drop a line that got some audible laughs out of me. But it was either a good laugh or an "omg would you just stop talking" reaction out of me. Which is pretty amazing because usually characters half way through a film and definitely towards the end you'll either like them or not…but right up until the end I still couldn't decide if she was a good comic relief or an overly annoying buddy to our main character.
What was at least refreshing, is that I definitely believed that her and Shang-Chi were just good friends and was so happy they didn't go with the overused trope of them falling in love at the end. It made both of these characters a lot more interesting every time they were on screen together the further into the film that you got.
Then there's this guy:
While he didn't add much to the film after he showed up it was a nice surprise for the call backs to Iron Man 3 and tying those items up. Because other than Iron Man 3 the last time we saw this guy was a quick clip of him in prison getting interviewed in a Disney + extra scene that left things wide open to what was going on with him. So now all of that makes a lot more sense with the exposition he threw out there in his reappearance in this film.
Overall it feels SO GOOD to have some martial arts in the MCU and going to enjoy seeing this guy again. I just hope it's "real fighting" and not a cluster of pixels doing martial arts or a giant CGI dragon fighting another giant CGI evil thing. More bus type fights please!!!
Eternals
30 minutes in:
1 hour in:
2 hours in:
2 hours and holy crap it's still going:
Even my kids which are pretty easily entertained suffered through this one. When you're suffering through a movie about 8 super heroes (was it 8? Who am I kidding no one cares with this movie) and supposedly super deadly monsters then something is very very wrong. On top of that you have Robb Stark and Jon Snow in this….and it still sucks???
Don't do a sequel….if there's a need to expand on these characters then do a dang series on Disney + which is what this should have been from the get go.
Can't decide if this was worse than Captain Marvel but it's close at least. No need to make this section any longer than it deserves to be moving on.
Hawkeye
Man I love the Hawkeye character so much more now. Main reason being they did such a good job making him relatable. Seriously every other Avenger is either a super rich/smart dude, super roided up dude(s), super God-type dude, or a chick who's supposed to be human but after watching Black Widow…nah she's got super fall from any height powers at least.
But this show turns around and gives us moments like this:
I knew from the start with showing Clint hanging out with his kids at the beginning and them making plans on what to do for Christmas in the first episode…that it was going to go south. But this moment here as a dad really hit me in the feels. Especially when you take this whole setup a step further, and realize he's already lost 5 years with his kids and wife considering none of them aged from the blip…and he's still sacrificing the time he has left.
Then moments like this made it even better (couldn't find the whole scene but you know the one):
Honestly the baddies in this series didn't matter to me at all. I cared so much more about the human aspect of Clint and his struggle being the most normal Avenger and trying to have a normal life (at Christmas of all things) that the track suit gang or whoever they were was just background noise to me. Kinda like the first Incredibles movie…bad dude was only there to give conflict for the struggling family of super heroes trying to cope in the real world which was where the heart of the story was.
I could probably re-watch this whole series around Christmas time and make it part of the regular rotation of Christmas stuff that we watch every year. Very enjoyable.
And let's also talk about Yelena. Man I love that character! Maybe it's cause she's a believable butt kicker who's also gorgeous and has a really cool accent? It's probably that actually…..it is that….
And while I can't necessarily say she steals the show because she's really not in it that much anyways, but when she's there she's friekin gold! She's the most casual, likeable, kinda bad guy ever. I mean hell, even after she admits that she's there to kill Clint I still like her. Then when you combine her with Kate they work off each other so amazingly well! Found this 5 minute clip of all their best interactions and it's great! Yelena in terms of the "newer" MCU characters is definitely one of my favorites.
The unfortunate part for me about this show is unlike most people I hadn't seen any of the Daredevil series on Netflix. So I know having the big guy show up with the same actor that portrayed him in that Daredevil show was a pretty big deal for a lot of fans that just didn't hit me the same way because this was the first time for me to see him on screen.
And I'm still a little confused on the watch. So was Clint's wife an Avenger at some point or she did some sort of assassin type work? Cause I remember them speaking a different language to one another in the last episode then he gives her that watch so I'm assuming it's alluding to something from the comics.
Biggest complaint…from the 3rd episode on it was obvious Kate's mom was bad. Zero surprise on that one.
But overall that was a very enjoyable watch and there's at least a few episodes that'll get re-watched on Christmas this year!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKAY……
Bring on NO WAY HOME!!!
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
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 3): Black Widow & What If?
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3303765
On top of that we had to make sure we had seen both Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield well enough before No Way Home so it wasn't too much Spiderman all at once.
What's been great about all this so far is there's a clear trend I've been seeing with these posts being viewed/responded to that is the perfect example of everyone's thoughts and feelings towards the MCU since Endgame and I think it's hilarious. So the plan after this is 3 more posts:
1. No Way Home gets its own thread cause dangit I'm excited as hell for this one cause it's 2 of my favorite MCU characters in the same movie (Spidey and Doc)
2. Moon Knight / Multiverse of Madness / Ms Marvel will wrap it up on being caught up
3. Got something fun in mind that hopefully y'all will like on a last post that I'm going to start slowing working on as it'll take a good bit of time….consider it the "end credits" scene of this series I suppose you could call it
Ok here we go!
Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Bracelets
Man…it's been over a month since I watched this so it's probably best to hit on what I remember best/most…starting with this:
I could NOT SIT STILL the entire time this scene played out. How in the hell did it take this long to get some awesome martial arts in the MCU??? Yes there's always been kicks and punches and all that but nothing like this and man it was fun! By the time the scene was over I was sitting up and forward with my cheeks clenched like crazy. And if I remember correctly, it's not long afterwards where we get this scene which might as well have been lifted right out of Crouching Tiger in terms of the choreography and the love story:
But now…gotta address this character…
Oh boy…I'll admit there were more than a few times that she was pretty funny and would drop a line that got some audible laughs out of me. But it was either a good laugh or an "omg would you just stop talking" reaction out of me. Which is pretty amazing because usually characters half way through a film and definitely towards the end you'll either like them or not…but right up until the end I still couldn't decide if she was a good comic relief or an overly annoying buddy to our main character.
What was at least refreshing, is that I definitely believed that her and Shang-Chi were just good friends and was so happy they didn't go with the overused trope of them falling in love at the end. It made both of these characters a lot more interesting every time they were on screen together the further into the film that you got.
Then there's this guy:
While he didn't add much to the film after he showed up it was a nice surprise for the call backs to Iron Man 3 and tying those items up. Because other than Iron Man 3 the last time we saw this guy was a quick clip of him in prison getting interviewed in a Disney + extra scene that left things wide open to what was going on with him. So now all of that makes a lot more sense with the exposition he threw out there in his reappearance in this film.
Overall it feels SO GOOD to have some martial arts in the MCU and going to enjoy seeing this guy again. I just hope it's "real fighting" and not a cluster of pixels doing martial arts or a giant CGI dragon fighting another giant CGI evil thing. More bus type fights please!!!
Eternals
30 minutes in:
1 hour in:
2 hours in:
2 hours and holy crap it's still going:
Even my kids which are pretty easily entertained suffered through this one. When you're suffering through a movie about 8 super heroes (was it 8? Who am I kidding no one cares with this movie) and supposedly super deadly monsters then something is very very wrong. On top of that you have Robb Stark and Jon Snow in this….and it still sucks???
Don't do a sequel….if there's a need to expand on these characters then do a dang series on Disney + which is what this should have been from the get go.
Can't decide if this was worse than Captain Marvel but it's close at least. No need to make this section any longer than it deserves to be moving on.
Hawkeye
Man I love the Hawkeye character so much more now. Main reason being they did such a good job making him relatable. Seriously every other Avenger is either a super rich/smart dude, super roided up dude(s), super God-type dude, or a chick who's supposed to be human but after watching Black Widow…nah she's got super fall from any height powers at least.
But this show turns around and gives us moments like this:
I knew from the start with showing Clint hanging out with his kids at the beginning and them making plans on what to do for Christmas in the first episode…that it was going to go south. But this moment here as a dad really hit me in the feels. Especially when you take this whole setup a step further, and realize he's already lost 5 years with his kids and wife considering none of them aged from the blip…and he's still sacrificing the time he has left.
Then moments like this made it even better (couldn't find the whole scene but you know the one):
Honestly the baddies in this series didn't matter to me at all. I cared so much more about the human aspect of Clint and his struggle being the most normal Avenger and trying to have a normal life (at Christmas of all things) that the track suit gang or whoever they were was just background noise to me. Kinda like the first Incredibles movie…bad dude was only there to give conflict for the struggling family of super heroes trying to cope in the real world which was where the heart of the story was.
I could probably re-watch this whole series around Christmas time and make it part of the regular rotation of Christmas stuff that we watch every year. Very enjoyable.
And let's also talk about Yelena. Man I love that character! Maybe it's cause she's a believable butt kicker who's also gorgeous and has a really cool accent? It's probably that actually…..it is that….
And while I can't necessarily say she steals the show because she's really not in it that much anyways, but when she's there she's friekin gold! She's the most casual, likeable, kinda bad guy ever. I mean hell, even after she admits that she's there to kill Clint I still like her. Then when you combine her with Kate they work off each other so amazingly well! Found this 5 minute clip of all their best interactions and it's great! Yelena in terms of the "newer" MCU characters is definitely one of my favorites.
The unfortunate part for me about this show is unlike most people I hadn't seen any of the Daredevil series on Netflix. So I know having the big guy show up with the same actor that portrayed him in that Daredevil show was a pretty big deal for a lot of fans that just didn't hit me the same way because this was the first time for me to see him on screen.
And I'm still a little confused on the watch. So was Clint's wife an Avenger at some point or she did some sort of assassin type work? Cause I remember them speaking a different language to one another in the last episode then he gives her that watch so I'm assuming it's alluding to something from the comics.
Biggest complaint…from the 3rd episode on it was obvious Kate's mom was bad. Zero surprise on that one.
But overall that was a very enjoyable watch and there's at least a few episodes that'll get re-watched on Christmas this year!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKAY……
Bring on NO WAY HOME!!!
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
Phase 4 Reaction (Part 3): Black Widow & What If?
https://texags.com/forums/13/topics/3303765
