Has your enjoyment level changed as the MCU has grown?

[JtheDreamer]

I decided to make this thread on the eve of seeing CA: Civil War for my second time to firmly cement my thoughts. I originally saw it during the fan screenings in early April. I came away from the movie feeling as if it was fun to watch, but something was missing. Some of the magic I felt in earlier MCU films just wasn't there.

I'm at a point where it's a combination of issues:

- Being OCD about following production every step of the way (from pre- to post, marketing blitz, trailers, etc etc) has really taken away the element of surprise away from me. Mind you I am not a comic book purist. I read a little bit of them when I was a tyke, so my fanhood was reversed engineered from the movies, which then tickled my interest to get caught up in the actual comics.

- The formula. It's clearly a successful one and there's no denying that. I'm getting to the point where I feel I'm watching the same beats throughout every film. I'm dying for a legitimate antagonist to really bring out the best in the heroes and not just pay them lip service because they need someone to whip in the final act.

- Each film is almost like a trailer for another MCU event. Essentially there's just a constant stream of loose ends and marketing for other solo adventures or future stories that are brewing. This tends to restrict the stakes involved when I'm watching these films.

- The bloating. This is ironic because my greatest MCU experience was seeing The Avengers for the first time at its fan screening. What could be cooler than seeing the universe fleshed out and characters popping up in other adventures? There's an upside and a downside to that. More characters = more spectacle. Yet more characters also = mostly less of a layered narrative. Stories become more "convenience" focused instead of being fleshed out appropriately within the current film. I attribute this to the fan service directors and screenwriters are trying to pay to the heroes.

I dunno. This is a weird place for me given how quickly my fanhood grew to extreme levels after The Avengers - but it's steadily gotten less and less exciting for me outside of CA: The Winter Soldier. I thought it was being recaptured in A:AOU (especially after the opening sequence with the team raiding the castle in Sokovia), but then the third act happened.

Anyone else having this issue?

 

[ThePhantasm]

I find the MCU more exciting now than I ever have. I've mostly found the past films to be passable but overall mediocre productions that are worth seeing maybe only once or twice. Now that the Russos have been given a more prominent role however I'm eager to see what will happen. The latest Cap movies + Guardians have injected some new life into the MCU from my perspective.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

My enjoyment has only grown with time. Aside from Iron Man 1, I thought Phase 1 (while still enjoyable) was significantly weaker than what has come since overall. IM2, TIH, and Thor all rank near the bottom of the MCU and TFA was easily the weakest Captain America film. Meanwhile, my three favorite MCU films (TWS, GOTG, and CW) all came out in the last three years.

 

[TeeKay]

My excitement grows with each film. They might not hit it out of the park all the time but I'm always excited for what's coming next. Dr Strange,Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Hnnnnggggh

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

I decided to make this thread on the eve of seeing CA: Civil War for my second time to firmly cement my thoughts. I originally saw it during the fan screenings in early April. I came away from the movie feeling as if it was fun to watch, but something was missing. Some of the magic I felt in earlier MCU films just wasn't there.

I'm at a point where it's a combination of issues:

- Being OCD about following production every step of the way (from pre- to post, marketing blitz, trailers, etc etc) has really taken away the element of surprise away from me. Mind you I am not a comic book purist. I read a little bit of them when I was a tyke, so my fanhood was reversed engineered from the movies, which then tickled my interest to get caught up in the actual comics.

- The formula. It's clearly a successful one and there's no denying that. I'm getting to the point where I feel I'm watching the same beats throughout every film. I'm dying for a legitimate antagonist to really bring out the best in the heroes and not just pay them lip service because they need someone to whip in the final act.

- Each film is almost like a trailer for another MCU event. Essentially there's just a constant stream of loose ends and marketing for other solo adventures or future stories that are brewing. This tends to restrict the stakes involved when I'm watching these films.

- The bloating. This is ironic because my greatest MCU experience was seeing The Avengers for the first time at its fan screening. What could be cooler than seeing the universe fleshed out and characters popping up in other adventures? There's an upside and a downside to that. More characters = more spectacle. Yet more characters also = mostly less of a layered narrative. Stories become more "convenience" focused instead of being fleshed out appropriately within the current film. I attribute this to the fan service directors and screenwriters are trying to pay to the heroes.

I dunno. This is a weird place for me given how quickly my fanhood grew to extreme levels after The Avengers - but it's steadily gotten less and less exciting for me outside of CA: The Winter Soldier. I thought it was being recaptured in A:AOU (especially after the opening sequence with the team raiding the castle in Sokovia), but then the third act happened.

Anyone else having this issue?

Perhaps you feel this way because there no end to the overall story in sight and its ongoing and going and going and you don't have the desire to keep on going. Too much of a good thing and all that. Sex is great but would it be great if it never ended?

I agree fully about the 24/7 media blitz. That's become in essence more important than the movie, we now invest months of attention on the film then see the actual film for less time even with multiple viewings, then it's on to the next episode in the chain and repeat. There's also the attention given to the next movie long before the current one is even released. I think the build-up has become the thing moreso ever than the actual movie.

I've lessened my time on the hype train because it started ruining the movies for me seeing too much and knowing too much.

I think the movies can be restrictive in some ways too as certain things have to be present and line-up with other movies so the stakes are lowered in that sense. I mean it's not like i expected iron man to be killed off in Iron Man 3 but knowing 100% he's in AOU is to know 100% he'll survive Iron Man 3 and knowing ruins even the slightest chance of him having been killed off. I mean in IM3 he essentially retired at the end but I knew after seeing it that it wouldn't last as he was in armour in the AOU news so it kinda undermined that for me.

With the MCU, which I hope the DCEU avoids, I find that rather than six degrees of separation it's like 1-2 max, all the heroes seem to interact and know each other, even Guardians which is set in a different galaxy will have Starlord one step away from Stark since he's gonna be interacting with Thor. It limits the scope to have pretty much all of them only a stones throw from another. It's more Marvel Cinematic Neighborhood than Universe since even characters in a different Galaxy have to bump into an Avenger at some point.

I enjoyed Phase 1 more than the others as not as much was known about the details and it wasn't so in your face everywhere you go in the Internet and you didn't need to watch other movies to know what's going on in this particular movie. And it's building to Avengers wasn't as drawn out as the building to IW has been.

I'm the kinda person who likes self-contained stories and hasn't got the energy or character interest to follow a bunch of different franchises to understand what's going on in a particular characters movie franchise. I just want to put on a Spidey movie for example and watch him do his thing with his villains and his supporting characters and enjoy that, not see other movies to know why this other non-Spidey character is here and why this place is different than it was in the last movie, because it changed in another movie and so forth and for in essence it to be just another episode in a bigger thing rather than its own unique thing ect...

 

[Set]

I was getting leery of how stingily Marvel was being with their characters outside of their core films, that nothing significant could occur with characters like Spider-Man or Ant-Man or the Black Panther in the Civil War movie, since they had their own movies in which such things would be shown, such as the 'big' development with Ant-Man, or the 'origin stories' of Spider-Man and the Black Panther, both of which dove straight into action and bypassed any need for an origin story (which, in the case of Spider-Man in particular, was very welcome, since we've seen his origin twice in the last decade or so anyway). Black Panther had some pretty big character development as well, in advance of his own movie, which was a welcome surprise, since I was afraid they'd milk that out for his own movie, and we'd only see a glorified cameo.

Marvel, IMO, is getting pretty darn brave. A big development for Iron Man or War Machine isn't as out of line, since they don't (necessarily...) have an Iron Man 4 in which further character development could occur, or for Hawkeye or Black Widow, who generally get development in other people's movies, or Avengers movies, anyway, lacking their own solo films (at least, as of yet). What we saw in the way of development for Ant-Man, Black Panther and Spider-Man could easily have been dramatic or 'oh yeah' moments in their own films, and the decision to work these beats into Civil War was pretty ballsy and suggests that Marvel is pretty darn confident that they've got plenty of *other* beats to reveal during those solo movies.

After the huge disappointment (for me) that was Age of Ultron, which felt all rushed and overly-busy, like the superhero equivalent of a Michael Bay movie, all flash and no substance, Civil War has brought my enthusiasm back. I'm still probably going to be more of a fan of the smaller character-focused films, like Ant-Man and the Wasp, Black Panther and Dr. Strange, than big ensemble pieces, like the upcoming Infinity War (I've never been a fan of Thanos, so that's kind of a strike against it).

 

[Zarex]

The enjoyment has increased for me. I planned to see CW with a friend yesterday, and I was counting down the days since the opening. The film was a celebration of Marvel and the MCU films that had come before. I absolutely loved it.

My friend had a decidedly "meh" response, which is understandable given that this was his first MCU film. It's like starting the Harry Potter series by watching Order of the Phoenix. I think that's a problem, which should be helped by continuing to explore the universe outside the Avengers in films like Strange, Guardians, etc.

 

[Mjölnir]

My enjoyment has increased since not only do we get a richer world with every movie, they are also both learning in filmmaking as a studio and trying new things within the context of the shared universe so it's stayed fresh.

 

[Flint Marko]

My enjoyment has increased since not only do we get a richer world with every movie, they are also both learning in filmmaking as a studio and trying new things within the context of the shared universe so it's stayed fresh.

 

[Spiderine]

My excitement grew as phase one culminated with the Avengers teaming up. I dunno if that level can ever be duplicated because that was something I experienced for the first time watching something like this unfold. Then I was psyched when we got that Thanos cameo at the end of Avengers. I still look forward to each film that comes out but its more so because I have become so invested in where they go as IW draws near.

Ultron was a slight disappointment for me because I envisioned a classic villain similar to his robotic portrayal on Earth's Mightiest Heroes. And the end felt like a rehash but they continue to be innovative with their other films.

 

[Thegeekfreax]

My excitement has grown as the mcu has gotten bigger, I love seeing the new characters, I think it is awesome that we have a guardians of the galaxy film and ant-man , can't wait for dr.strange, black panther, and captain marvel.

 

[Abudefduf]

I went from being annoyed by people constantly showering them with what I felt was undeserved praise during Phase 1 (which, I still stand by my opinion, is actually pretty mediocre) to, thanks to The Avengers and Phase 2, being ridiculously excited about anything they put out.

I mean, I know next to nothing about Black Panther or Doctor Strange and yet here I am, looking forward to their movies as if I was these characters' worst fanboy.
Plus, my #2 favorite superhero (Spider-Man) has now officially joined the shared universe (can't wait to watch Civil War, dammit), and my #3 one (Captain Marvel) is hopefully doing the same very soon. How could I possibly hate them?

That doesn't mean that I like everything they do or I consider them perfect, far from it. There's a lot of room for improvement, especially when it comes to the lame villains or their over-reliance on the now infamous "Marvel formula".

But overall, yeah, I've got to admit that they gradually won me over.

 

[smallville fan]

I decided to make this thread on the eve of seeing CA: Civil War for my second time to firmly cement my thoughts. I originally saw it during the fan screenings in early April. I came away from the movie feeling as if it was fun to watch, but something was missing. Some of the magic I felt in earlier MCU films just wasn't there.

I'm at a point where it's a combination of issues:

- Being OCD about following production every step of the way (from pre- to post, marketing blitz, trailers, etc etc) has really taken away the element of surprise away from me. Mind you I am not a comic book purist. I read a little bit of them when I was a tyke, so my fanhood was reversed engineered from the movies, which then tickled my interest to get caught up in the actual comics.

- The formula. It's clearly a successful one and there's no denying that. I'm getting to the point where I feel I'm watching the same beats throughout every film. I'm dying for a legitimate antagonist to really bring out the best in the heroes and not just pay them lip service because they need someone to whip in the final act.

- Each film is almost like a trailer for another MCU event. Essentially there's just a constant stream of loose ends and marketing for other solo adventures or future stories that are brewing. This tends to restrict the stakes involved when I'm watching these films.

- The bloating. This is ironic because my greatest MCU experience was seeing The Avengers for the first time at its fan screening. What could be cooler than seeing the universe fleshed out and characters popping up in other adventures? There's an upside and a downside to that. More characters = more spectacle. Yet more characters also = mostly less of a layered narrative. Stories become more "convenience" focused instead of being fleshed out appropriately within the current film. I attribute this to the fan service directors and screenwriters are trying to pay to the heroes.

I dunno. This is a weird place for me given how quickly my fanhood grew to extreme levels after The Avengers - but it's steadily gotten less and less exciting for me outside of CA: The Winter Soldier. I thought it was being recaptured in A:AOU (especially after the opening sequence with the team raiding the castle in Sokovia), but then the third act happened.

Anyone else having this issue?

You should've put a poll for this thread. But yes it has changed as I've become more and more of a Marvel fan as the movies go on.

I don't usually follow the production as I did before because I know the movie is in great hands. As for that "legitimate antagonist", pretty sure it'll be Thanos. And I see all those "trailers" as the road to Infinity War as the main event. The "bloating" here really doesn't feel bad when you compare it to X-Men 3 or Amazing Spider-Man 2.

 

[Erzengel]

Without the MCU, the only movies I would have really enjoyed since Spider-Man 2 would have been the Nolan Trilogy, and First Class and DOFP.

I think I added at least 5 of the MCU movies to my Top 10 and I love the expanded universe. Especially with all the reboots, it's nice to see something different.

 

[KINGTHANOS]

It's only increased for me. Each phase seems to improve on the previous one, in quality, we now have Black Panther, Strange and Spidey in the MCU, and Thanos, my favourite character, about to be realized in all his Starlin characterization.

 

[Hellion]

My enjoyment level increases with each film. I remember back when X-Men came out as a teen...and I was like, when I'm thirty, will I still be into this stuff...and here I am now, thirty, and more excited than ever...it's a great time to be a fan...

 

[Rorschach2012]

I was a DC guy but the unrelenting success of the MCU (culminating in Civil War, arguably the greatest cbm) and the failure of the DCEU has just made me such a Marvel fanboy. I'm more excited about these movies than I've ever been. They keep getting better because they listen to their fans and learn from their mistakes. Thor 3 is the perfect example of this. Thor is considered the worst Marvel franchise mainly because of the rom com aspects and they're ditching Natalie Portman and hopefully Darcy too.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

Yes. My enjoyment goes up and down depending on the films released.

I started off not very excited. I thought Iron Man 1/2 were cool enough. Incredible Hulk dissapointed. I couldn't take the Thor movie seriously, and I thought Cap was boring.

Then Avengers blew my mind. It made the MCU a force to be reckoned with. I ended re-watching Thor a bunch of times and falling in love with it, geeking over the Phase 1 box set, and I got really excited for what was coming next.

Then IM3 and Thor 2 disappointed. And I started to view the MCU as quite stale. Not to mention Agents of Shield, the few episodes I tried.

Then Winter Soldier, Guardians, and Daredevil season 1 impressed, offering more fresh experiences in the MCU.

But 2015 brought back the staleness with AOU and Ant-Man. Jessica Jones was a chore (put me off starting Daredevil season 2) and I though Civil War was underwhelming.

Not really excited for what's on the horizon (partly because I'm unfamiliar with so many of the characters). However, I know that a fresh well-done movie will could get me excited again.

 

[PelvicSorcery]

I wasn't really attached to most of the MCU characters before, but now I love them so my excitement has increased dramatically.

I thought the Phase 1 films were good but nothing spectacular. While the others have grown on me now that I've gotten to know the characters more, Thor actually stood out as the most unique to me at the time. The cosmic otherworlds and Shakespearean drama elevated it above the others, which, while enjoyable, were just more generic origin stories.

I also didn't really get the sense of direction for the universe, and I thought it was a little too ambitious and convoluted to really work. Characters like Iron Man and Thor just seemed too different and far removed from each other to come together as a team in a way that worked on film.

Then The Avengers happened and I was blown away by how they managed to make it all come together and be so much more enjoyable than any of the preceding films. I also liked seeing more of Loki as the villain considering he was by far the most engaging from the films leading up to The Avengers and I enjoyed Thor the most. I was suddenly in love with the Avengers characters and was ready to see what was next!

Then Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World were just more of the same from before, so my excitement was dampened a little bit. Their films seemed weirdly isolated after the events of The Avengers and I figured this would be the status quo - the excitement being in the team ups every few years, while the solo films were merely just good and mainly there to service individual stories for the characters and not the universe as a whole.

The Winter Soldier changed everything yet again and my excitement reached a whole new level. Stellar action sequences, gripping characterizations and relationships, a thrilling and politically relevant plot, and the game changing twist with repercussions for the entire cinematic universe sucked me in completely. I was finally in love with the MCU.

Every film since then has been a huge event I looked forward to, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Guardians was a completely unique and hilarious space adventure that made me even more faithful in the MCU. I happened to like Age of Ultron as much as the first Avengers film, particularly with the introduction of some of my favorite characters like Vision and Wanda. Ant Man was another unique and fun adventure that proved to me that Marvel finally knew how to make a typical origin story work. And Civil War has set the bar even higher in every regard. The introduction of so many new characters has only made me more excited, particularly because Spider-Man and Black Panther were fantastic in the film, and with so many more characters to come, I'm very eager to see how they're all going to fit into this growing universe.

I really didn't expect to be this in to these films during the Phase 1 era, but this is really an unprecedented and fascinating level of ambition from Marvel. Before I just saw the films as they came out without much knowledge going into them, but now I'm fully on board the hype train, reading every news item about the development of these films, looking forward to the trailers, reading more about potential characters and plotlines. It's just been an incredible series, particularly over the last few years.

 

[Silvermoth]

Oh my yes. I feel like the marvel u started off very cheesy and shallow but now it's getting quite deep and thoughtful

 

[PelvicSorcery]

They've definitely hit a certain groove creatively over the last several years.

It helps that with the more success they achieve, the more potential talent they can welcome on board, both behind and in front of the camera. Just look at that Dr. Strange cast and how that Black Panther cast is shaping up.

The Russos have been a tremendous addition to the franchise as well. Winter Soldier and Civil War elevated the film universe to new heights.

 

[StormC]

I immediately fell in love with Iron Man the first time I saw it. I saw it twice in theaters and bought it instantly on DVD. The other MCU movies were fun but didn't really light a fire under me. It wasn't until the hype for the Avengers that I started to revisit the movies in preparation, and really got excited at the idea of all of these characters meeting, with the Avengers acting like a season finale for a TV show.

Once the Avengers came out, I truly felt myself invested in this cast and world, and considered myself a diehard fan of the franchise, and that hasn't really wavered since. Although Phase 2 started off rocky with Iron Man 3 (which I've grown to love on rewatch but initially felt somewhat disappointed by) and Dark World (the only MCU movie I've yet to rewatch - not bad, but just sorta there), The Winter Soldier was a gamechanger that in addition to being a fantastic movie, really made me fall in love with Captain America. Since then I've always had a great time watching the movies (even AOU which isn't a particularly great movie lets me enjoy seeing the characters interact on screen) and now that I've followed these characters for so long, every time an MCU film comes out it's a special event to me.

Phase 3 has really hit the ground running by starting with the best movie in the franchise yet. With movies like Homecoming, Black Panther, and Infinity War due for release, I fully believe this could be the best Phase yet.

In the MCU, characters are king. It's one of my favorite media franchises (though the only television series I've watched so far is Daredevil, which is great) and I'm sure someday the empire will crumble under its own weight, but today is not that day.

 

[Gr0oT]

My enjoyment is growing, especially as the quality is improving and the cohesiveness of the universe remains and keeps branching out.

My biggest letdown has been the syndicated t.v. portion of the MCU because they got bigger than their britches story telling wise which effectively, in my eyes, messes with the cohesiveness of this attempted shared universe to the point that I now view AoS as part of it's own universe. It also looks like dogcrap, some of the CG is decent but the practical effects are embarrassing garbage that might have looked good had it been featured in the original Star Trek series.

Thankfully we have the Netflix side of things.

 

[weezerspider]

I decided to make this thread on the eve of seeing CA: Civil War for my second time to firmly cement my thoughts. I originally saw it during the fan screenings in early April. I came away from the movie feeling as if it was fun to watch, but something was missing. Some of the magic I felt in earlier MCU films just wasn't there.

I'm at a point where it's a combination of issues:

- Being OCD about following production every step of the way (from pre- to post, marketing blitz, trailers, etc etc) has really taken away the element of surprise away from me. Mind you I am not a comic book purist. I read a little bit of them when I was a tyke, so my fanhood was reversed engineered from the movies, which then tickled my interest to get caught up in the actual comics.

- The formula. It's clearly a successful one and there's no denying that. I'm getting to the point where I feel I'm watching the same beats throughout every film. I'm dying for a legitimate antagonist to really bring out the best in the heroes and not just pay them lip service because they need someone to whip in the final act.

- Each film is almost like a trailer for another MCU event. Essentially there's just a constant stream of loose ends and marketing for other solo adventures or future stories that are brewing. This tends to restrict the stakes involved when I'm watching these films.

- The bloating. This is ironic because my greatest MCU experience was seeing The Avengers for the first time at its fan screening. What could be cooler than seeing the universe fleshed out and characters popping up in other adventures? There's an upside and a downside to that. More characters = more spectacle. Yet more characters also = mostly less of a layered narrative. Stories become more "convenience" focused instead of being fleshed out appropriately within the current film. I attribute this to the fan service directors and screenwriters are trying to pay to the heroes.

I dunno. This is a weird place for me given how quickly my fanhood grew to extreme levels after The Avengers - but it's steadily gotten less and less exciting for me outside of CA: The Winter Soldier. I thought it was being recaptured in A:AOU (especially after the opening sequence with the team raiding the castle in Sokovia), but then the third act happened.

Anyone else having this issue?

I agree with this all pretty much, but I did grow up reading comics, unlike you. I think the films are fine, but I'm still not convinced Marvel's ever released a great film and I don't think it's possible for them to do so with their process. The MCU is like the film equivalent to McDonalds: it's not very good, but it tastes good and I consistently know what I'm going to get, which is fine. There are a lot worse and a lot better films out there. Turning off my brain and enjoying myself for two hours is perfectly fine.

 

[gildedmuse]

I agree with this all pretty much, but I did grow up reading comics, unlike you. I think the films are fine, but I'm still not convinced Marvel's ever released a great film and I don't think it's possible for them to do so with their process. The MCU is like the film equivalent to McDonalds: it's not very good, but it tastes good and I consistently know what I'm going to get, which is fine. There are a lot worse and a lot better films out there. Turning off my brain and enjoying myself for two hours is perfectly fine.

I think that really depends on how you qualify great films. I think, for instance, The Avengers was a great film in that it achieved what it set out to do, and it excelled at doing so. Now, obviously, the film never set out to be a think piece, but then not every film should be, and great films shouldn't be limited to those that make us think or make us cry, because how are those things objectively any greater than films that entertain us or make us laugh? The Avengers wanted to be entertaining and it more than hit that mark. It managed to combine a bunch of seemingly unrelated characters but also introduce them to a good chunk of the audience who missed them the first time around. The Avengers film is about 70% exposition, 30% fight scene but you never feel it because they did such a good job at making even the exposition fun.

So while it's no Godfather, Avengers is certainly a great film the same way Jaws is considered a great film. With the major difference being that Avengers won't cause nine year old me to be freaked out about being left alone in swimming pools.