MCU Good Parts

Captain America: Civil War

Current rank: 2 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: So much of this movie is good.  The Bucky chase scene.  The ultimate hero-vs-hero throwdown.  This is number 2 for a reason.

• Expectations: I don’t imagine my feelings for this movie are going to change.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 52:00

• Length of cut scenes: 15:28

• Length of iffy scenes: 7:08

• Length of total movie: 2:27:25

• % with cut scenes: 90%

• % with iffy scenes: 85%

• Hero scenes kept: 97%

• Villain scenes kept: 44%

• Action scenes kept: 100%

• Time of scenes I love: 23:41

After rewatch:  So nice to not have a third act that’s a massive CG-fest.  The fights have emotional stakes here, which counts for so much.  Most of the cut scenes are for Baron Zemo on his quest.  Love this movie.

Dr Strange

Current rank: 22 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: Hmm.  Some of the training scenes?  This movie gets better and better as Dr Strange and Wong continue to play bigger roles in the MCU, but a boring villain keeps this from getting much higher in the rankings, I think.

• Expectations: The fight scenes are imaginative and different, but most of the Kaecilius scenes won’t survive.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 37:00

• Length of cut scenes: 11:25

• Length of iffy scenes: 3:42

• Length of total movie: 1:54:40

• % with cut scenes: 90%

• % with iffy scenes: 87%

• Hero scenes kept: 93%

• Villain scenes kept: 73%

• Action scenes kept: 100%

• Time of scenes I love: 0:00

After rewatch: Wow, this is the epitome of “Nothing in the movies was really bad, but nothing really stands out, either.”  So little cut, but nothing that makes it stand out.  Expectations not changed a whit.  The action really is neat to watch, though.  Lots of creativity at play there.  

It does jump over Iron Man 3 in my rankings, a nominal jump of three spots in the overall rankings.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2

Current rank: 28 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: Not much that I can think of right now.  Everyone discovering that Peter loves Gamora?  Oh, in the bomb detonation scene: “I am Groot?  I am Groot?  I am Groot!”  Watching Nebula reluctantly become a member of the team is kinda cool.  Karen Gillen’s the unsung hero of this trilogy.

• Expectations: All the Guardians movies are lumped together in my mind rankings-wise.  It’s just a matter of where they are relative to each other.  Expecting to cut a lot of the Ego stuff, especially the final CGI-fest of a battle.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 49:00

• Length of cut scenes: 7:32

• Length of iffy scenes: 1:20:13

• Length of total movie: 2:15:34

• % with cut scenes: 94%

• % with iffy scenes: 35%

• Hero scenes kept: 39%

• Villain scenes kept: 6%

• Action scenes kept: 25%

• Time of scenes I love: 4:41

After rewatch: By far the most iffy time so far.  I don’t care about so much of this movie.  I mean, I’ll watch it, I guess.  I just care so little about these characters.  The Nebula/Gamora relationship is the best part of the movie.  Definitely not as good as the first Guardians.

1. Captain America: Civil War

2. Captain America: Winter Soldier

3. Avengers: Age of Ultron

4. Avengers

5. Captain America

6. Iron Man 2

7. Iron Man

8. Ant-Man

9. Dr Strange

10. Iron Man 3

11. Thor

12. Thor 2

13. Guardians of the Galaxy

14. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

15. Hulk

Aaron/Bachalo Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange 1-14, Last Days of Magic 1

Lots of pictures today.  This title is just about as perfect a fit as you can find for Chris Bachalo - A chance to draw absolutely fantastical creatures with page layouts to match.  Gorgeous.

His depiction of the magic world is spectacular as well - a universe of color in an otherwise bleak existence.  

And the visual of Doctor Strange wielding weapons is awesome in its incongruity.

Jason Aaron shines just as brightly.  He’s a word painter, and the images he creates are no less vivid than Bachalo’s.  "Once your soulmeat has been blessed by Spurrgog the Hell-Breather, you will be a candle that lights the way through the winding darkness." Delicious.

His ideas are just as batshit crazy as those of someone like Jonathan Hickman, but he employs them in a way that enhances, rather than confuses, the story.  Take, for example, the panels below.  There’s no shortage of whacked out concepts, but he uses them as throwaway one-offs.  This way, the reader isn’t forced to parse everything in order to follow the plot, but can absorb as much of the insanity as they please, and move on.  

Similarly here with Zelma’s secrets, Aaron has a particular skill when it comes to creating little nuggets of verbal gold.  It’s something that he displays throughout the run.  

Books can die.  There’s something deeply sad about those words.  

Aaron also introduces the concept that Doctor Strange’s use of magic has a price.  A literally gut-wrenching price.  It adds a whole new dimension to Doctor Strange’s heroism - What used to appear as an effortless wiggling of fingers can never been treated so cavalierly again.  The consequences of his endeavors are rather horrifying, and they’re compounded by the solutions Wong and Strange come up with to alleviate the Doctor’s pain.  Both Wong’s secret disciples and the thing that becomes Mister Misery are truly dark means that barely justify the ends.

Getting to the actual Last Days of Magic arc: Aaron builds up to it slowly and effectively over the five preceding issues.  By the time the Empirikul finally show up, there’s a truly foreboding sense that the magicians of Earth are completely outclassed.  The ensuing battles bear this out, and it’s got an impressive last stand vibe to it.  The ending’s a little too easy after Aaron writes himself into a bit of a corner.  (That and the “we can’t call the Avengers because this is our problem” excuse are my two nitpicks with the arc.)  But overall, a lot of fun.

The arc after that lost me - Aaron makes the weird the main part of the story, and like with Hickman’s stories, I lost my patience with it.  Stopped buying with issue 14.  

I end with a final Aaron word poem:

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Good (Nice for 12-14)

Doom, Doctor Strange: The Oath

Doom 1-3

I’m struggling to remember why I bought this random Doom miniseries.  I’m guessing that I purchased it as an on-sale set when I saw the Manco credit on the cover.  He does art so rarely that I grab it when I see it.  

Chuck Dixon really is the master of the get-in-get-out action story.  Look at how he begins: A naked Doom is stranded on an alien world.  He kills a lion in single combat with his bare hands, fashions an outfit out of it, and sets out to conquer the planet in the span of six pages.  I don’t know why he’s on the mirror Earth planet.  I don’t know why it’s populated by Mad Max rejects.  And I don’t care at all.  Doom is here to kick ass, and I’m completely on board.

Under Dixon’s pen, Doom is basically Batman.  Supremely confident, implacable, and nothing stands between him and his goal.  Plus, there’s the added bonus of the best inner monologues ever.

 

The only time in the history of the world that this wasn't sour grapes and the speaker actually meant it.

Everything he thinks (and says) is another testament to his certainty that the universe is his birthright.  I appreciate that he’s also more than happy to do the work necessary to claim it.  He doesn’t expect it to appear on a silver platter.

Everything he says is a bumper sticker.

Doom doesn't think small.

The story itself takes a complete back seat to Doom’s magnificent, superior opinion of himself.  I was grateful just to have a glimpse into his worldview, and I would have stayed for more if it were available.  (The plot is actually batshit crazy, with post-apocalyptic slavers and giant sea creatures.  Judged on its own merits, it’s really not that good.  But the presence of Doom elevates it to greater heights.  In fact, Dixon’s Doom should show up in all horrible plots.  The world would be a better place for it.)

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Doctor Strange: The Oath 1-5

Things I liked:

The opening page is perfect in its stillness.  Iron Fist casually icing his knee in Night Nurse’s waiting room immediately sets the mood.  Marcos Martin is amazing as usual in this series.  

Simply charming.

Love.  That.  Cape.

The existence of a magical panacea that literally cures all disease provides Brian K Vaughan with the opportunity to raise some interesting questions - Would pharmaceutical companies really destroy such a thing to protect their interests?  Would a wonder drug cause more harm than good (overpopulation, abuse of drugs and sex with no health consequences, etc)?  Given the opportunity to synthesize the drug for the world in exchange for the life of a friend dying in front of you, which do you choose?

It’s unreasonable to expect Vaughan to tackle those issues with any depth in the span of five issues.  There’s an adventure to get on with, after all.  But it was enough for him to bring them up, and it made me think for a couple minutes, which is more than most comics achieve.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty good