Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Thread

[Benjamin]

3 hours ago, Ruki Returns said:

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit!

But the first post credits scene....

  Hide contents

Who Dat??

 

Spoiler

Charlize Theron 

 

[DFF]

1 hour ago, Colly said:

Do I need to have seen Moon Knight for anything? Bloody timelines.

Having seen Moon Knight, it feels very self-contained. Admittedly, I've not seen Doc Strange yet. 

[tristy]

3 hours ago, Ruki Returns said:

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit!

But the first post credits scene....

  Hide contents

Who Dat??

 

Spoiler

Clea, aka Dormammu's niece and eventual lover and wife of Strange

Also, no, you don't need to see Moon Knight for this. That has no connection to anything (yet). I'd suggest watching No Way Home before this, to understand the consequences of the multiverse and whatnot, but the only stuff I'd suggest is necessary is WandaVision. If the last time you saw Wanda was Endgame, her whole thing here isn't going to make much sense to you.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

3 hours ago, DFF said:

Seeing it tonight. How many post-creds scenes are we getting? 2? 

There are two but the second is completely missable if you wanna beat the crowd.

And yeah, WandaVision and NWH are probably the only essential precursor viewing.

[DFF]

8 minutes ago, Brandon Cutler Fan Account said:

There are two but the second is completely missable if you wanna beat the crowd.

And yeah, WandaVision and NWH are probably the only essential precursor viewing.

What about What If? (specifically the Strange centric episode)? 

[Szumi]

8 minutes ago, DFF said:

What about What If? (specifically the Strange centric episode)? 

There's definitely a few nods to What If, but nothing from the show is needed to watch the movie. If you watched the show, you'll maybe appreciate the moments more, but it's wholly unneeded to watch the show.

[tristy]

What were the nods to What If (that episode, anyway)? I can only remember one specific instance, which was

Spoiler

616 Strange (I believe?) having the tentacle monster arms when he attacks someone, like Strange Supreme did after he absorbed all of these monsters in that episode.

A lot of people say the destroyed universe Strange with the third eye was Strange Supreme, but he was corrupted by the Darkhold, while Strange Supreme was corrupted by the books of Cagliostro (like Kaecilius)

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by tristy

[Colly]

Thanks all, I've seen everything bar Moon Knight including What If, so I feel well prepared. I am however in an annoying queue behind my kids who still want to see Sonic 2 and Fantastic Beasts so it'll still be weeks away...

[Pooker]

Loved the movie. Definitely lived up to the hype for me. Some random thoughts...

Spoiler

I was hoping got more multiverse moments and a few more cameos but once I saw where the movie was heading plot line wise, I was pulled in.

The scene of Wanda chasing them through the sewers was terrifying.

Captain Carter was a call back to What If? My wife had no clue who she was because she didn't watch What If?

Didn't know much about Amercia Chavez before the movie but felt she was cast perfectly.

We took my ten week old daughter with us. She slept through 99% of the movie, only waking up for the very end, when Dr Strange screams and his third eye comes out. She screamed right along with him and it cracked me up.

No idea where they go from here with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, but I'm guessing it's going to be awesome.

 

[Maxx]

Well that was wild, glad they let Raimi go a bit crazy with it.

Spoiler

I’m sold on Krasinski being Reed Richards in the MCU, love that they used any version of the character in this.  I do with the Tom Cruise as Tony Stark rumors were true though

 

[DFF]

15 hours ago, Ruki Returns said:

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit!

But the first post credits scene....

  Hide contents

Who Dat??

 

Spoiler

Clea Strange

I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Tbh, I don't think Spiderman: NWH is that much of a pre-requisite as WandaVision is. 

[GoGo Yubari]

Enjoyed it. Echoing Jimmy's thoughts re: WandaVision

Spoiler

It's very funny that the thing that much of us generally speculated WandaVision would be did in fact end up being true but it didn't feel like the actual people making WandaVision truly committed to it, like they were hedging their bets on how Multiverse of Madness was going to end up using her. Also obviously it's film vs. TV but this movie was a reminder that MCU magic characters floating around and shooting CGI at each other can actually look pretty cool and inventive, which it did not in that show. 

But the movie was good, especially once it could get past all of the tablesetting it needed to do. They did live up to the fact that even before Raimi was on board they were implying that this one was going to be some real cosmic horror stuff, though I'm sure Raimi being there helped a lot on the execution. Those Illuminati death scenes were very effective, there were some real collective gasps/winces at some of them.

 

[Chris2K]

Just been to see it and enjoyed it as well. Could have done without the vast number of jump scares personally, but Sam Raimi gonna Sam Raimi.

Spoiler

I squealed when John Kransinski made his appearance, I really hope he is considered the MCU Reed Richards (with Emily Blunt as Sue Storm please). I was also really glad that Anson Mount got a chance to play a fully-suited Black Bolt, even if very briefly. The Inhumans show was a mess, but he was great in it. Captain Carter annoys me for some reason so that wasn't ideal. I really wish they'd left the Patrick Stewart cameo as a surprise because that would have been such a great reveal in the movie.

I thought they did the character of America Chavez justice, but yeah, Wanda's story arc is more like a rollercoaster at the moment. I assume that's not the last we see of her, probably the last of her as a villain though.

I'll complain about this again; they really need to stop screwing people around with the end credits scenes. Make the joke one the mid-credits, and the storyline-advancing one the post-credits. As much as I love Bruce Campbell, sitting around that long for one joke is a waste of our finite time on this Earth.

 

 

[Kaney]

Dr Strange 2 stuff:
 

Spoiler

 

I echo Jimmy and others thoughts that it felt very different from the usual MCU fare, but it still very much was an MCU film if that makes sense? I recently rewatched Eternals and yeah, it wasn't quite as bad as I first thought but it really, really doesn't feel like a Marvel film, for better or worse. This was the first time in a long time I think that I've seen a Marvel film and think it does genuinely feel like a different kind of MCU rather than feeling disconnected entirely. If that makes sense.

I loved the horror aspects of it, Wanda was like a fuckin terminator at some points, but it didn't feel like it was natural, the whole Wandavision thing felt like it missed the point. For all the fan service and nostalgia, cameos etc I found myself constantly expecting to see Vision at some point, especially in the Illuminati universe. Felt a bit bizarre they made such a big deal about her kids, but only referenced Vision in one offhand comment. And surely they haven't killed Wanda off at the end there?

The Illuminati was cool as fuck, for the most part. I think someone said Marvel had admitted they put too much stuff in the trailers. They even had the ending in the trailer ffs. If they kept Patrick Stewart a secret the way they did with Krasinski I would have marked out even more, the X-Men theme song was an amazing touch. I don't really care for Krasinski as Reed Richards, but it was a nice touch I didn't expect. Hopefully they recast the part for the F4 film now they've gotten the fan service out the way. What I want to know is where the fuck is Tom Cruise Iron Man god damn it.

The way Wanda slaughtered the illuminati was mental, did not expect that level of violence at all, was very well done. The scene with the 2 Stranges fighting via magical music notes was also cool as fuck except I think it went on a tiny touch too long. America Chavez was mostly great overall, I liked how the scene with the bit squid-eye chasing her up a building was reacted to with citizens either filming on their phones or actively sighing in despair. Good to show people are getting used to all this crazy shit these days.

I went into this expecting a lot more tie ins, they sort of set up Mordo at the end of the first one to be a major thorn in Stranges side going ahead but he's not resurfaced at all, in the main MCU universe, Wong grabbed Shang-Chi for some major mission at the end of his film but he doesn't even mention the new heroes he's met in this one, they set up Kang to be the new Thanos etc etc. But I think after watching it I don't mind them going a different route these days and not feeling the need to tie everything into everything else, for a while at least. It's nice to let them breathe on their own a little.

I disagree with the Bruce Campbell stinger at the end, I thought that was the funniest bit of the whole film.

 

 

[Benjamin]

Dr. Strange 2:

Spoiler

Isn't White Vision still around? I 100% expected him to show up somehow in Dr. Strange. 

 

[GoGo Yubari]

Spoiler

The Bruce Campbell stinger was wonderful. At some point I'm going to do a ranking of every MCU post-credits scene and if I broke them out between lore post-credits scenes and gag post-credits scenes, the only gag post-credits scenes I'd immediately say I rank above it are the Captain America educational video one from Homecoming and Stan Lee being ditched by the Watchers in GotG2.

And yeah, to echo Kaney's thought I definitely was thinking about how Shang-Chi also used Wong and it didn't feel like that movie's use of Wong and this movie's use of Wong had any correlation. It's pretty easy to handwave away and not the end of the world but it's the kind of thing one takes stock of, just very "oh, I guess if we want to know what the deal with the Abomination scene or Wong reaching out to Shang-Chi and Katy we'll have to wait for Shang-Chi 2." You notice the seams more now.

In the grand scheme of things I don't think it's the worst thing for the MCU to feel a little less intertwined for a while, a nice thing right now is I hope they keep going forward with these corners of the MCU being the playgrounds of various solid filmmakers with a real distinct sense to them, like GotG belonging mostly to James Gunn and Thor mostly belonging to Taika Waititi. Doctor Strange potentially becoming the place you go for Sam Raimi splitting the difference between his superhero films and his horror films is a much better status quo than I'd have ever expected given how not into anything but the visuals I was for the first one.

 

[Dang117]

Without going into spoilers I really enjoyed multiverse of madness

[Rocky]

Everyone has already covered thoughts on the movie, I’ll join Dang in saying I really enjoyed it without adding extra spoilers 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Rocky

[King Ellis]

Doc Strange 2 Spoileroos

Spoiler

I'm echoing much of the same here, and I know it pretty much is the equivalent of someone jingling some keys in your face, but I was grinning ear to ear at the Illuminati scene. Obviously we'll have to wait and see how everything gets tied into the 616 universe but it's still cool to final have that acknowledgement of The Fantastic 4 and X-Men. And with the whole musical cue harkening back to the 90's animated show? *Chefs kiss* It's nice that they're not afraid to lean into stuff that's come before with re-using actors here like Sir Patrick or everyone from the previous Sony Spideys, rather than putting their foot down and wanting to break off and do their own versions. Gotta love some Bruce Campbell cameo too. Just would have been nice if they hadn't spoiled the goddman Xavier thing ahead of time. Sure people are going to want to leak stuff for internet cool points but going from some posts here, some of that was official? I specifically avoid trailers and the like since they like to just show you most of the movie anyway but I gather he was in one and I caught wind of it somewhere down the line. I don't get it, MCU movies are appointment viewing at this point and make umpteen hundreds of millions of dollars. Just look at that post doing the round about cinemas having showings starting every 30 minutes across multiple screens. So what are you afraid of that you've got to try and sell to the last batch of untapped moviegoers by saying 'HEY LOOK IT'S THE PROFESSOR XMAN THAT YOU LIKE, COME WATCH!' and ruin the surprise for everyone else.

But yeah, the whole pivot into a more horror based tone is something I'd be looking forward to since that came out all those years ago and it certainly gave it a different edge than it's brethren in the universe. And with a body count too. I know it's not usual to lose some people along the way but that whole fight with the Illuminati was very immediate and visceral compared to the prolonged eulogising we got upon Tony Stark's demise. Looking back at the earlier posts, I saw Kaney use the term Terminator in connection with Wonda and that scene in the underground tunnels and that is the exact thought I had going through my head too. The red eyes obviously help with that but the limp has parralells too, maybe I'm thinking of when the Terminator is damaged in the first one or the T-1000 in 2 has a bit of that when he gets frozen and his leg breaks off. But that overall sense of well that Wonda is just this unstoppable force that isn't going to stop for anything, even after walking through broken glass John McClane style.

Though, that whole musical fight between the two Strange's near the end came across kinda silly. I know it's not outside Raimi's sphere to delve into the comedy horror on occasion but it's not something that really came across to me anywhere else in the movie so it just seemed a bit odd given that it was coming up at quite an important moment and when the movie had been pretty serious through. I mean, outside the usual MCU level snarkiness that you get in the dialogue.

What's the deal with all the water in the movie? Just seems that it came up a lot throughout in some form; whether that be waves, oceans, streams or even like puddle type things like in the inner sanctum where America was being hidden. My immediate and small brain level thought was waves and ripples being analgous to like ripples across the multiverse, both with the characters moving across the different universes or the wider impact of these two universes then colliding.

 

[The Kraig]

Going with good, and not  great. It feels like they might have cut a lot of stuff to focus more on the main characters, which is fair enough. I saw this in IMAX 3D, which I wasn't expecting (friend booked it).

Spoiler

This was a disappointment for me. However, it definitely provided boosts of excitement. That mostly came from a "OH MY GOD WHAT" feeling, which was quickly over or never expanded on. Specifically Strange contorting the demons into a mangled set of wings, Wanda namedropping America before being told her name, The Illuminati making it's debut, those were the big moments for me but were all quickly over.

Strange is probably my favourite Avenger/MCU hero, so I was always going to see this. I was told Patrick Stewart made a cameo, so it ruined the surprise, but I was very pleased to see the extent of his role. Not massively pleased with how he was snuffed out so easily, but I mention that down below. Captain Carter was a fun surprise. Reed Richards was a HUGE surprise, but again just short-lived excitement.

Obvious gripe: Wanda's fall to madness is never explained and it feels like we are missing an entire WandaVision season two to explain this shit. This is the biggest issue I have with this film. I enjoyed WandaVision, she is a highly sympathetic character. In this film she just comes across as a total ass, with no transition, which is kept off camera with the dark tome or whatever it was called. Massive dislike.

The battle between The Illuminati and Wanda should have been much more epic. I'd gladly have Wanda obliterate Kamar Taj quickly and set up a much longer battle scene with the Iluminati later. I'm aware it's an alternate universe, but it made them all seem quite dumber and weaker than their traditional counterparts. Even Xavier is easily dealt with. Just felt like a huge mistake to me, this is how you build Wanda up, she just steamrolled them because they don't appear to be a threat to her, which should be untrue. I even feel like the Shuma-Gorath style demon was a disappointment - why use the character's likeness but none of it's character? Killed by a streetlamp? C'mon.

America feels like a bit of a prop in this film, for obvious reasons. Her sudden "you're a good Strange" seemed a bit random. I can't think of anything he really did before this that caused her to feel that way, his differentiating/good actions came after that scene.

I was hoping Wong had a bigger role. His character's decision to show Wanda the shrine kind of negated his friend's sacrifice in destroying the book. Almost got himself killed as well. He just looks like a total chump, especially after implying he would rather die.

The Bruce Campbell stuff was silly, I laughed, but I'm probably one of ten people in the packed theatre who did.

No Visions, whatsoever. Very weird, and feels like a major oversight. Especially if this is Scarlet Witch done.

Loved the soundtrack, was not shocked to see Danny Elfman on the credits.

Final thing...not sure why people are saying there is a horror element to this film. There is some gore (Shuma, Reed) and a couple of hugely telegraphed jump scares.

I wish I could be a bit more positive, maybe watching it in 2D will make me feel a bit different, but I doubt it.