Weekly MCU Review for 9/10

Another week, and more MCU news!  Not a whole lot of new stuff to talk about, but at least we're getting close to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage, and Doctor Strange!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up on your Marvel news!

Avengers: Age of Ultron RETRO-REVIEW

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Now that I’ve worked my way through all the movies that came out before I started blogging, it’s time to start in on the two that I have already reviewed.  Rather than re-review the entire movie, my goal with these two “Retro-Reviews” (Age of Ultron and Ant-Man) is to revisit what I wrote the first time, see if it still holds up, and—particularly with Age of Ultron—see if the deleted scenes help clarify the issues I had with the movie’s theatrical cut.

First up is Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is big team-up #2 for the MCU.  But before getting into that, let’s talk about “ambitious projects.”

How Do We Define a "Tie-In"?

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In talking about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its connections with other media (particularly the movies), it has occurred to me that I use the words “tie-in” and “crossover” without really defining them.  And considering how frequently we talk about “tie-ins” and “crossovers” between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the movies, it’s a pretty good bet that I’m not the only one who uses them in a number of different ways.  This can be confusing!

So partly to help myself out—and partly to help everyone else out—let’s take some time to define some terms when it comes to “tie-ins” and “crossovers.”  Next week I will apply these terms in talking about possible tie-ins/crossovers with the movies coming out during season 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:  Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Before we get started, remember that these are the definitions I’m using; I’m not saying this is what we have to use.  Though you’re welcome to adopt them for yourself!

Captain America: Civil War TL;DW

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Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War opens in U.S. theaters just over a week from today on Friday, May 6.  This will be the 13^th movie released as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which also includes a number of tie-in comics as well as four TV series (and counting).  It’s almost certain that just about everyone in the world will go to see this movie, but they will not all have seen everything that came before it in the MCU.  And there is the chance that at least some of these will be completely new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  So to help these people out, here is a “Too Long; Didn’t Watch” summary of the MCU to date, focusing especially on what is relevant to Captain America: Civil War.  At the end I will offer my three suggestions for movies that you should watch (or rewatch) before going to see Captain America: Civil War, and why those three.  We’ll start from the beginning, with Iron Man.

Note:  There will (obviously) be spoilers.  Also, these TL;DW articles are starting to get loooong!

Marvel's Civil War Interconnectivity: A Case Study from the Hydra Uprising

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When I was planning out this series, it was just two articles:  one explaining why I think Marvel’s Civil War needs to be more than just Captain America: Civil War, and one outlining how it could be more than just Captain America: Civil War.  That only lasted until I finished writing up possible connections with the Phase 3 movies, realized how long that section was, and decided to split the second half into 2 articles (I know, how very Harry Potter/Hunger Games/Twilight of me!).  Now, here I am adding yet another article to this series, which will lay out an example of exactly what I’m talking about, using a specific example from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a template.

This article is actually coming as a response to some of the feedback on the first article that I received on Reddit.  Specifically, there was some confusion as to exactly what I mean by “Civil War Needs to be BIG”—I realize now a better title would have been “Why Marvel’s Civil War Needs to be BIGger than Captain America: Civil War.”

Regardless, to answer those questions, I am going to look at Marvel’s Phase 2—specifically from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1 through the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 premiere—to understand the interconnectivity of that series and 3 of the movies that came out during that time (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man).

Weekly MCU Review for 9/26

Another week, and more MCU news!  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 starts in 84 hours, Marvel is announcing new comics, and actors are opening up about their MCU future.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

Weekly MCU Review for 9/12

Another week, and more MCU news!  A Jessica Jones release date, S.H.I.E.L.D. promotions, and some more news about upcoming movies.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

Looking Back at MCU Phase 2

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Now that Ant-Man is over and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to start its third season at the end of next month (thus kicking off Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), this seems like as good a time as any to look back at MCU Phase 2 and see just what happened.  Next week I will have another article looking ahead to Phase 3, but before we get there, let’s take a look at Phase 2 and see what themes it explored.

Weekly MCU Review for 7/25

Another week, and more MCU news!  Ant-Man premiered last weekend, Civil War news is coming out, and Jurassic World has beaten The Avengers at the box office.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

The Weekly MCU Review for June 13

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Another week, and more MCU news!  Captain America: Civil War rumors, Netflix news, and castings galore!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

The Weekly MCU Review for May 30

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Another week, and more MCU news!  Daredevil casting Elektra, Ant-Man advertising ramping up, and tons of other non-MCU news.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

Is There a War going on between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV? A Response to ScreenRant

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Note:  This isn't intended as troll-fodder and clickbait; it's intended as a response to troll-fodder and clickbait.  That is kind of is troll-fodder and clickbait is a mostly-unintended side effect!

Is there a war going on between Marvel Television and Marvel Studios, as ScreenRant’s Anthony Ocasio suggests?  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say “no,” because among other things Marvel Television is a division of Marvel Studios!  To say that there’s a war going on between Marvel TV and Marvel Studios would be like saying that there’s a war going on between the United States and Florida because they don’t agree on everything.  The people at the one might not like the way that the parent company is handling their department, but that is far from a “war.”  If Marvel Studios had a problem with their Marvel TV division, they would really only have themselves to blame.

But if that’s the case, why aren’t there any references to the TV shows in the movies?  That’s a very good question, but there is no simple answer.  I have a couple of thoughts to share, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter, as well.

Team Compositions in the MCU

A not-so-effective team!
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I read a quote from a comic book creator recently about the importance of not making a character too powerful:  the stronger the character is, the greater its weakness must be to compensate.  Think of it like an MMORPG (“Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”):  certain types of players have certain stats elevated and other stats weakened.  In combat, no one character type is naturally stronger against all the others.  Here’s an example:

The game I know best is Runescape.  When I played there were three standard character types in terms of combat:  Warrior, Archer, and Mage.  The Warrior’s armor is naturally stronger against the Archer’s arrows but provides very little protection against magical attacks.  The Archer’s armor is naturally stronger against magic but weak against melee weapons, particularly blunt instruments.  The Mage can immobilize the Warrior, but the Archer’s arrows cut right through the Mage’s robes.  That is why smart players do not take on major threats by themselves; they join teams consisting of multiple players whose weaknesses are nullified by each other’s strengths.  No one character can do it all by himself.

This is a long way around to saying that when you look at the various teams in the MCU, you begin to recognize patterns.  Every team we have seen already or know we will see in the future has at least one character that fits most of the “character types” below.  Here are the types of characters I’ve identified, along with a brief description and list of MCU characters that fit the description on the teams we’ve met already or will meet soon.  In terms of teams, I will be using the original Avengers, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. team from season 1, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Defenders (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist).

At the end I’m also going to talk about a prospective team for the “Secret Warriors” teased in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season finale as well as about the Avengers team following Avengers: Age of Ultron.  There will be a spoiler warning before the Age of Ultron discussion.  Don’t look if you haven’t seen the movie, because it may spoil the ending!

The Weekly MCU Review for May 16

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Another week, and more MCU news!  Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and the TV up-fronts.  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

Is [SPOILER]? Should [SPOILER]?

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Warning:  This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Avengers: Age of Ultron.  As in:  this could totally ruin the ending for you if you haven’t seen it yet.  Don’t continue reading unless you’ve already watched the movie.

How Long Should Age of Ultron Have Been?

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Avengers: Age of Ultron came out this past Friday, and it was an incredible movie.  There are a lot of good things to say about it—most of which I said in my spoiler review—and no matter how much I say, I always think of more.  I loved how much of Hawkeye we got to see.  All of the new heroes were interesting and compelling.  Ultron wasn’t quite the villain Loki is, but he was still very unforgettable.  The team dynamics were fun to see—especially getting to see the Avengers in battle together at the beginning of the movie.  The final fight scene with all of the Avengers was amazing!

However, with all of the good things this movie had going for it, there was one significant drawback:  the length of the movie.  Avengers: Age of Ultron is 2 hours and 21 minutes long.  And it should have been LONGER!

That’s not the kind of thing that you hear very often:  “This movie should have been longer.”  A lot of times people walk out of a movie complaining that “that was 2 hours of my life I’m never getting back.”  And with some movies that is correct.  However, some movies feel like they need to be longer so that there is more time for character development and for all of the different—and important (that’s the key here)—plots.  Age of Ultron is one of those.  There are so many characters and so many different vital subplots (both for the movie and the future of the shared universe) running around that it feels like we needed more time for the movie to really delve into them and give them their due.

In other words, #AoUDirectorsCut

Warning:  SPOILERS ahead.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 20, "Scars" REVIEW (SPOILERS)

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All I can say about last night’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is “wow.”  This show is absolutely living up to its “spy-thriller” billing as the twists and turns continue to come.  Because this episode came right after the Avengers: Age of Ultron U.S. premiere—and considering how much of a lead-in last week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode provided for the movie—I was expecting the episode to tie in a lot more to the events of the movie.  While that was the case to some degree (and if you haven’t seen the movie yet, there are a couple of minor spoilers in “Scars”), in reality the episode really separated itself from Avengers: Age of Ultron.  In fact, I almost wonder if we aren’t seeing the actual first shots of the Marvel Civil War right here.  This week’s episode is the last one before the season finale, and after this episode it is clear that the Marvel Universe—or at least this section of the Marvel Universe—is going to be changed forever by the season finale.  Whether it will be good change or bad remains to be seen.

As a heads up, this review will contain spoilers for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode “Scars” (duh) as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron.  You have been warned.

The AoU Lead-In to AoS

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. provided a solid lead-in to Avengers: Age of Ultron with its episode last Tuesday, “The Dirty Half Dozen” (2x19).   In that episode, Coulson’s original team went on a mission to infiltrate Dr. List’s Arctic Hydra base.  While there, Coulson downloaded information on Loki’s Scepter, Strucker’s base, and the Maximoff Twins from the Hydra computers.  After the mission, Coulson contacted Maria Hill and sent all of his information to her, telling her that it is “Time to send in the Avengers.”  Conveniently, this leads almost directly into the events of Age of Ultron (and explains how Hill conveniently had all that information about the Twins!).  That is one of the benefits of a cross-platform, interconnected, shared universe:  one medium can lead into another, providing background information and showing events which would only be told in the other.  When you think about it, without “The Dirty Half Dozen,” Age of Ultron would have needed at least a couple minutes of (less interesting) exposition to explain how they knew where to find Loki’s Scepter!

Of course, one of the challenges of a cross-platform interconnected shared universe is that what happens in one medium can have serious ramifications for the others.  We saw this last year when the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. team had to clean up the results of the Convergence (Thor: The Dark World) in what was the least-interesting Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tie-in episode yet.  More to the point, the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier after it was revealed that the organization had been infiltrated by Hydra had a massive affect on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  The show couldn’t possibly ignore the fact that the movie had done away with its very organization.  This changed the course of the series permanently.

Caution:  SPOILERS Ahead!

Avengers: Age of Ultron SPOILERS Review

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This weekend—at long last—saw the American premiere of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Earth’s Mightiest Heroes teamed up again, first to finally end the Hydra threat by cutting off the (as of now) top Head of Hydra, Baron Strucker, and then to combat the “mad A.I.,” Ultron.  Along the way, the heroes are pulled apart and forced to reunite.  They are tested and tried, and eventually come out on top, but not without great personal costs.  Having seen it twice now, here is my (spoiler) review.

The Weekly MCU Review - 5/2/2015

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This is something new that I'm going to start this week:  a recap of the past week, including links to my articles, along with other articles that I found interesting.  Check it out, and leave a comment!

Here it is:  The Weekly MCU Review!  Put some ketchup on your eggs, and catch-up (*ducks*) on your Marvel news!

Mostly MCU Reviews

My articles from the week

First up, my list of all the players for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D./Age of Ultrontie-in episode, “The Dirty Half Dozen”.  How did you think my analysis jived with what happened in the episode?

Daredevil episode 1x03, “Rabbit in a Snowstorm” review.  What do you think of the news that Daredevil has been renewed?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode 2x19, “The Dirty Half Dozen” expectations and review.  What did you think of the episode?

They are going to be deciding whether or not to renew Agent Carter for season two very soon, and here’s why I think they should renew it.  What are your reasons for renewing it (or not renewing it)?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did a lot to lead into the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Here is my analysis.  Did you like how they used Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to set up Age of Ultron?

Avengers: Age of Ultron expectations and reviews—non-spoiler and spoiler (pending).