Movies and TV Shows

I've missed the TV shows and a bunch of the movies after endgame, at a certain point I was too far behind and couldn't be bothered going through them all to get all the interconnected lore so just stopped watching all new content, it's just too much effort to even try to care about it at this point.

I just don't see a way to top the build up and ending to Endgame. A decade of movies with great actors, fun action all leading up to the huge gut punch of Infinity War and the absolute spectacle of Endgame.

After you reach that high, building up again from step one is extremely difficult. And the movies just aren't of the same quality. Besides a few good movies like No Way Home and Black Panther 2 and a few shows with strong starts or premises like Wandavision and Loki, they've all been very mid.

I'm not a comic book reader, but from what I've heard the characters never dying permanently is a common theme, so at least there's a precedent

The overuse of death tropes was exactly why I left.

Infinity War

I feel like even if a comic got away with such things, it’s almost better to ask if the movies are a time to revisit those tropes.

Yeh the multiverse completely ruined the marvel cinematic universe. I get why they did it, but I think it was a terrible decision. It’s not really a coincidence that almost every movie since they introduced it has flopped.

As you said, it just takes away any and all shock and drama. Oh spider man got turned to dust and died? Strange because we know he has a solo movie set after endgame coming out a few months after it, so I guess he isn’t dead.

Not to mention that the movies are all now just basically filmed entirely on a green screen, while having worse and worse CGI.

Good bot

I thought Ms. Marvel was one of the better things that they've done post-Endgame. I liked the Spider-man "neighborhood superhero" vibes in the first half, I liked the themes of a child of diaspora reconnecting with their heritage but still needing to recontextualize it, and Iman Vellani is a god-damn treasure when, as here, she's properly cast. The "hard-light" powers and visuals were a decent enough riff on the "embiggening" power from the comics without asking the audience to accept Stretch Armstrong as a major superhero (Good luck, Mr. Fantastic).

Still had underbaked villains, needless save-the-universe brinksmanship, and some of the flair from the first couple of episodes eroded into Marvel formulas, but overall I enjoyed it.

I really loved all of the MCU content and was extremely satisfied when Thanos was defeated in Endgame. Since then, I have enjoyed watching the movies that tie up the loose ends from Endgame; I.E. Loki, GOTG 2, and the Spidermans. Everything other than that has made me feel like Marvel is struggling for air.

I don't care for the heroes they are making shows and movies about. There's none of that gritty, high stakes feel or compelling character development.

The Cap Marvel film felt like a phase 1 film, like if Thor didn't have Loki. Yeah, they laid the groundwork and all, but other than Iron Man 1 and maybe Cap America they were pretty eh.

Something about her grandmother in a parallel universe, i think? it's been a while since I watched the show.

Not serious answer: All of it. Including both Hulks.

Serious answer: Ms Marvel is probably all you need. The characters are not too deep and if you hate Ms Marvel you probably wont like this.

The trailer explains pretty much the whole premise right there. Each of them has powers (who cares where they came from?), and they're all entangled so they swap places when they use them.

If you want deeper backstory, the upside is that the two shows that contain it are among the best shows Marvel has done so far.

Her powers were supposed to be really different I was so bummed that they changed it to some weird light power thing and I guess it was neat that it was connected to her culture but personally I liked the alien origin more. I feel like there needs to be a balance between using a characters culture and using pop culture and I feel like they did too much. The comic books did it much better imo.

I absolutely love the actress who plays her though she's great and her energy and enthusiasm is infectious.

I remember when trailers had the entire movie in them, Air Force One comes to mind.

As a big fan of the Marvel Cosmic comics, I am really sad we didn't get to see Nova Prime - though Fillion being in Guardians 3 was supposedly a nod to that

I've heard it's been through two rounds of test screenings that both went really well, which is why I have some hope. The versions played in the test screenings aren't the final version though...

The Ms Marvel show was a fun watch, but like all things Marvel its all played very safe. If you have time to kill, you could do worse.

We are actually growing!

I don't think the rehashing is the problem, but the world building. When MCU started out it was just a bunch of dudes who can punch a little stronger than the average guy or wore a special suit. Nowadays the MCU is three layers deep into multiverse, quantum realms and time travel magic and has heroes that can reshape reality. It's very hard to care about anything when literally anything can happen and nothing follows even remotely consistent rules. Even within the same series they f' things up beyond believe. Remember when quantum realm was this spooky thing of indeterminism? Nowadays it's full of regular people, cities and looks no different than any other alien planet.

When the MCU stays more grounded it is still watchable, e.g. No Way Home had plenty of good or even great moments, but if you try to figure out how the multiverse logic of that movie works or how to reconcile it with everything that came after, it's a complete unfixable mess. Also doesn't help that they can't follow their own setups (Thor joins the Guardians... for 5mins).

The general reaction to the eternals turned me off Marvel. I was down for the tone shift, the slightly more mythical aspect as well as cosmic all through a more subtle family style drama.

Even if it wasn’t for you, it was a different tone and a different kind of story, made well. And the mainstream reaction was something like “that’s not Marvel” or “that’s boring, what’s the point”, all while beginning to bemoan Marvel fatigue and repetitiveness else where. I realised Marvel was somewhat destined to be monotone and shallow, as it has been probably from the start TBH.

I don’t pay to much attention to the franchise and it’s fans, but I suspect retrospectives in the future won’t be glowing.