MCU Good Parts

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Current rank: 25 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: The grief of dealing w/ T’Challa’s (and really, Chadwick Boseman’s) death.

• Expectations: This movie largely doesn’t work for me because Namor and the Atlanteans fail to resonate with me on pretty much any level.  And while Riri is very well cast, she doesn’t fit in this movie.  And Okoye is too badass to require armor assistance.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 57:00

• Length of cut scenes: 46:37

• Length of iffy scenes: 43:07

• Length of total movie: 2:41:09 

• % with cut scenes: 71%

• % with iffy scenes: 44%

• Hero scenes kept: 61%

• Villain scenes kept: 13%

• Action scenes kept: 29%

• Time of scenes I love: 6:34

After rewatch: There’s a legit 40 minute gap in the middle, basically Shuri’s captivity in Atlantis, that’s completely skippable.  Everything around it is pretty questionable as well.  My estimation of this movie has not changed; Namor is as unfun to watch as I remember.

Ant-Man: Quantumania

Current rank: 33 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: I love nothing about this movie.  It’s the worst.

• Expectations: It will stay the worst.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 25:00

• Length of cut scenes: 1:50:09

• Length of iffy scenes: 2:41

• Length of total movie: 2:04:17

• % with cut scenes: 11%

• % with iffy scenes: 9%

• Hero scenes kept: 32%

• Villain scenes kept: 0%

• Action scenes kept: 0%

• Time of scenes I love: 0:00 

After rewatch: Hahahahahhaa! 9% of this thing is watchable…

Guardians 3

Current rank: 26 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: Nothing comes to mind.  The one-take hallway fight scene isn’t bad…

• Expectations: Meh.  While the animal experimentation message is a commendable one, it doesn’t make for an enjoyable watching experience.  Each viewing of a Guardians movie does nothing to make the characters more likable for me. 

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 1:30:00

• Length of cut scenes: 53:02

• Length of iffy scenes: 54:42

• Length of total movie: 2:29:45

• % with cut scenes: 65%

• % with iffy scenes: 28%

• Hero scenes kept: 37%

• Villain scenes kept: 23%

• Action scenes kept: 23%

• Time of scenes I love: 3:01

After rewatch: As I went through this movie, I just...didn’t care at all about what was going on.  There are definitely some sweet character moments between these people.  (I finally care about this gang of misfits, for the most part.)  But the plot, the flashbacks, the High Evolutionary, the action…nope.  

1. Avengers: Endgame

2. Captain America: Civil War

3. Captain America: Winter Soldier

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home

5. Avengers: Infinity War

6. Shang-Chi

7. Avengers: Age of Ultron

8. Ant-Man/Wasp

9. Avengers

10. Spider-Man: Homecoming

11. Captain America

12. Dr Strange 2

13. Thor: Love and Thunder

14. Spider-Man: Far From Home

15. Iron Man 2

16. Black Widow

17. Black Panther

18. Iron Man

19. Ant-Man

20. Dr Strange

21. Iron Man 3

22. Thor 3

23. Captain Marvel

24. Thor

25. Thor 2

26. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

27. Guardians of the Galaxy

28. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

29. Guardians of the Galaxy 3

30. Hulk

31. Eternals

32. Ant-Man/Wasp: Quantumania

She-Hulk, Black Panther 2

She-Hulk

This is such a fun show.  It’s unlike anything else Marvel has done, which is really welcome.  Even better, it’s done really well.  This is a flat out comedy that doesn’t skimp on the character exploration of Jennifer Walters, perfectly portrayed by the delightful Tatiany Maslany.  

Things I liked:

• Tatiana Maslany.  Her depiction of Jennifer’s insecurities is absolutely winning, along with every other aspect of her personality.  This show succeeds because of her.

• “Captain America fuuuuuuuuu-”

• Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky.  I’m so impressed that the unmemorable villain from the unmemorable Hulk movie has undergone a complete rehabilitation both as a character and creatively.

• The sharing circle.  What a supportive group of people!

• Daredevil’s back!  And like the comic version, Charlie Cox shows here that he can be played both dark/broody and with tons of charm and humor.  I want more of him and Jennifer.  Power couple!

• Wong is always welcome.  He’s the Agent Coulson everyman of Phase 4.

• Patty Guggenheim as Madisynn.  She takes someone who could very easily be annoying and repulsive and makes her hilarious and endearing instead.  

• The fridging joke.  (Not the concept of fridging, but that they made a reference to it at all.)

• The fourth wall breaking as a whole, that entire final episode in specific.  I can’t believe they went there, and I love that they did.

Things I didn’t like

• Jameela Jamil as Tahani is my favorite person on Good Place, so it crushed me when her character did nothing for me.  

• Intelligencia.  People like that suck in real life and they suck on screen.

Regret watching: No

Would watch again: Yes

Would buy on DVD: Yes

Rating: Really good

Updated TV rankings:

1. She-Hulk

2. Hawkeye

3. Wandavision

4. Ms Marvel

5. Loki

6. Falcon/Winter Soldier

7. Moon Knight

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

I didn’t like this as much as I wanted to.  Let’s get down to it:

Things I liked:

• I really wish Letitia Wright wasn’t an anti-vaxxer.  It puts such a damper on her performance, which is really, really good.  Shuri has to deal with so much grief in this film, and Wright portrays all of it brilliantly, along with her anger, joy, and everything in between.

• Handling Chadwick Boseman’s death and incorporating T’Challa’s passing into the story.  Tastefully done, and I really felt his presence throughout the film.  (Not in a bad way.)  The opening funeral and Shuri’s quiet remembrance at the end, along with the end credits reveal, were all beautiful and truly touching.

• M’Baku continues to rule, and he shows unexpected depth here as he provides counsel to Riri.

• Angela Bassett is a force of nature.

• The costumes.  Gorgeous.  And Shuri’s Black Panther costume is totally sick.  

Things I’m undecided on:

• I like the casting of Dominique Thorne as Riri Wiliams.  I loved watching Riri science geeking out with Shuri, definitely more of that, please.  But the Ironheart aspect of it was surprisingly underwhelming.  It didn’t really fit with the tone of the film.

• Namor.  He’s got valid points, and while I find him to be one of the MCU’s more three-dimensional characters, I never found myself caring about him at all.

• Related to that, I found most of the underwater scenes meh.

• All the fight scenes.  Nothing memorable.

Things I didn’t like:

• Rarely do I ever complain about the length of an MCU movie.  As far as I’m concerned, the longer the better.  But this movie was way too long.  Things that could have gone:

• All the Martin Freeman/Julia Louis-Dreyfus stuff.  Obviously included to set up Thunderbolts and whatnot, it didn’t add anything to the movie.  

• Okoye’s armor at the end.  Completely unnecessary.  Okoye doesn’t need that shit.

Regret watching: No

Would watch again: Yes 

Would buy on DVD: No

Rating: Nice

1. Avengers: Endgame

2. Captain America: Civil War

3. Captain America: Winter Soldier

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home

5. Ant Man/Wasp

6. Avengers: Infinity War

7. Shang-Chi

8. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

9. Captain America: First Avenger

10. Spider-Man: Homecoming

11. Avengers

12. Thor: Love and Thunder

13. Avengers: Age of Ultron

14. Black Panther

15. Spider-Man: Far From Home

16. Thor: Ragnarok

17. Iron Man 2

18. Captain Marvel

19. Black Widow

20. Ant-Man

21. Iron Man 1

22. Iron Man 3

23. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

24. Doctor Strange

25. Guardians 1

26. Guardians 2

27. Eternals

28. Thor

29. Hulk

30. Thor 2