Quote from: KiramidHead on Aug 31, 2022, 12:53:13 AMCaptain Marvel has maybe my favorite Stan Lee cameo.
Yeah, it was a good one
Avengers: EndgameGoing into this, the general consensus I'd seen from friends and online reviews was that this wasn't nearly as good as
Infinity War, but to be honest I wound up liking it quite a bit more. I definitely didn't expect the bulk of it to be a relatively low-key time travel caper. Great to see Paul Rudd finally get the chance to flex his serious acting muscles in the MCU. It definitely had faults - it manged to feel very long whilst also feeling occasionally rushed; the final battle was a bit of a mess (not terribly surprising given just how many characters weigh in); the random "girl power" moment where all the female heroes line up for a glory shot felt terribly artificial, coming out of nowhere for no real reason; for the first time in an Avengers movie the balancing of the cast felt a little off and some characters seemed to get sidelined; and what the hell was the deal with Pepper Potts suddenly being a combat expert in the Iron Man suit Tony had only just made for her five minutes earlier? - but overall the pros far outweighed the cons and as a conclusion to everything that's come thus far it was remarkable. A truly staggering number of cameos from practically every previous movie.
Spoiler
I admit I'd already had Tony's death at the end spoiled by watching
Far from Home on TV as little while back, but it still packed a punch and his funeral scene was wonderful - especially appreciated the cameo by the kid from
Iron Man 3 (even if I had to look up who he was
Children age a lot in six years!) The wrapping up of Captain America's arc was also really touching and felt like the perfect conclusion for him.
So yeah, I really dug this. And whatever negatives I might have taken away, I just gotta say - kudos to Marvel for constructing a conclusion in the face of such rampant anticipation that actually winds up being satisfying.
Spider-Man: Far from HomeA bit like
Ant-Man at the end of phase two, this felt like a slightly clunky afterthought to phase three, but I guess it makes sense that they'd wanna deal with the aftermath of the Blip straight away. That aside, I was surprised just how much I enjoyed this, despite a plot twist that really doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I think a big part of getting past that was thanks to Jake Gyllenaal's character, who was one of the more interesting to crop up in the MCU.
So that's phase three, and the Infinity Saga, done. On the whole I thought this round had probably the biggest gulf between the good films and the not-so-good.
Civil War,
Ragnarok and the two-part Avengers finale were the highlights and up there with the best of the MCU, while
Doctor Strange,
Black Panther and
Ant-Man and the Wasp felt pretty throwaway.
I wasn't sure whether I'd continue past this, but as I've got the best part of a month of Disney+ left, I think I will.
