Eh.
Phase four was like watching dragon ball z waiting for the eventual battle, and then the episode ended with them still "powering up" as random background noise happened that you thought would initiate something that would propel the story forward, only for it to end with them still getting ready to fight... Or something like that... And then the "powering up" went on for 5 more episodes, and then the big fight got delayed til next season because something else happened.
Wanda's arc was heartbreaking, and perhaps the way she made her exit, while somewhat deserved, felt too soon as her villainy was too easy to empathize with, and despite slaying other heroes, the quantum realm hijinks makes their intros and deaths feel cheap compared to the price she paid all throughout her story. Her tragedy almost goes unfelt, because she never became a "true" monster. Also, any kind of potential resurrection would feel cheap as well. She probably needed to kill another character that people were more attached to, for her death to feel more "earned", if she's out of the mcu, forreal. I.e, she kills Dr. Strange or something.
Loki started off the phase strong by introducing Kang, Introducing or expanding upon the interdimensional lore, further developed Loki as a character and resolved an outstanding plotline from the first trilogy of phases. It's concepts were then completely ignored for the rest of the phase, aside from teasers and a bit of Doctor Strange 2 and how it connected with What if...? and I really think this might be at the core of the problem.
Wandavision was cool, but then they made an event film about her becoming the ultimate evil, had her kill a bunch of unimportant and previously unintroduced characters then (probably) killed her.
There were way too many teases and not enough advancements made to the interconnected stories. They introduced umpteen characters and concepts and plotlines that have been left so wide open, upon my viewing of BP2 I can't say I have the capacity to continue to care for a majority of the characters or possible plotlines we've been introduced to, apart from this Kang, only because it's assumed he will be enough of a threat to bring the characters back together and have them establish more interconnected relationships... And because we know he's coming. Everything is so connected while being simultaneously disconnected, and so much has been stuffed between the character's separate outings, how will these things work out when they come together?
Ant-Man 3, to me, and anecdotally, has all this weight of a lack of meaningful advancement to the overall story over time resting on it's shoulders, and absolutely must deliver a payoff to the viewers for sitting there and absorbing all these character introductions, plotline teases, etc. over the whole of the mcu. These aren't comic books, they've branded the shows and the movies into one of giant interconnected stories. We see now you just can't put that much "filler" across so many
shows and movies. Now, it makes sense if Antman kicks things off with Kang etc. He's a less popular character and Paul Rudd has some forward momentum in "star power" right now, bringing him up by making him very important (and delivering a damn good movie) could be the play, imo... And really, I hope that's the case because there's just not enough payoff for enduring these stories right now, imo... And more importantly, the story about these relationships between them just aren't adding up. Why do we care about them, collectively? There was an initial chemistry built between characters that would become important in the first phase trilogy as early as Iron Man 1, and we saw more and more of each interaction. We had Coulson, We had Black Widow, We had Nick fury. We had standalone outings, yes, but without 10 hours of pictures between them, we saw the Standalone characters introduced to the "world" of the MCU. And then, they slowly began coming together. The earth's mightiest heroes defeated Loki, Ultron and Thanos (and as a plot teaser, it was established early that Loki was essentially working for Thanos) and not one of them has each other on speeddial while all these crazy things are happening. Where is the point of centralization? How can they introduce a threat large enough and introduce
reasons these team ups or relationships haven't been built yet prior to the next "Avengers" tentpole? And, they are going to have to begin rebuilding these relationships and interconnecting these stories more or, from personal experience and from much of the feedback I read online, I'm not too sure I or the audience is going to be willing to indulge all these plotlines well into phase 6. It's been so dry of unity or connectedness across stories, it feels like they can't not, not deliver for the rest of the announced slate.
The rest of the slate for phase 5 seems like it
can start to deliver. It's just hard to get excited about right now because of a lot of the storytelling choices. Keeping up with everything feels like a chore. This is the task of phase 5, to rectify this. And I've enjoyed my time with the MCU thus far and haven't regretted one viewing... But, my god... They have to deliver.
All that being said,
BP2 was great. Some conflicting thoughts about Ironheart. That whole thing was a bit rushed and Riri didn't get enough screen time. Perhaps her show should've coincided with the release of the film, Even as a prequel to her appearance in the film, rather than using this as her launch vehicle. Using the movie to set her up feels wrong. Ironheart armor kind of felt unearned in some respect... She was more of a comedic relief and her introduction was rushed. And then they cheaped out on/and or rushed the CGI for her armor... I hate to say it but the whole of her story could have been left out the movie, and it probably would've been for the better. She felt placed in the story, rather than needed in the story. It came off as a cheap introduction rather than an inspired portion of the plot. Namor was enough of a villain ( outstanding performance, Love what they did with the character.) Without the whole "Riri" thing, This story could've been top tier marvel. Random scientist who perhaps gets killed off discovers a way to detect vibranium. Maybe this non-Riri character could've been an interdimensional travel participant or gatekeeper later on... Battle between 3 factions to protect or procure the secret/scientist, a secret war between a secret race of mutants, U.S government and Wakanda. With the way the world is right now, it could have been a more spicy political thriller and better commentary on society and the times we live in, and of course, loss. And it felt almost like what it was trying to be at times, then veered off towards a lighter story, then just plunged into darkness back and forth.
Instead of leaning into the merits of the plot, it's "hey look guys, there's the girl iron man character, she's going to be important and has her own show coming soon on Disney+, don't forget about Disney+! Oh yeah, here's an arc for Shuri and the new black panther btw, don't forget to keep giving us your money! luv u thanx,
lol!". It just felt like she was a cheap plot device, rather than a NEEDED character. With the Midnight Angels, she is a redundancy to Shuri and Wakanda, other than figuring out how to detect vibranium... She didn't need to be a gatekeeper.
Really, she's my only problem with the film. Any problem I do have could be resolved by just... Not doing Riri. It was the wrong time for that introduction with the seriousness of the subject matter I believe the character, and not the performance weighed it down, and it just smelled like corporate mandate stuck into the film. I liked the character, Dominique Thorne was great... But it just added so much extra noise to the film and made it feel unfocused. I can see how it might have worked, and I'm curious about what was left on the cutting room floor. But, we got what we got.
I still think it's a great movie for the genre, it still delivers its core message in adequate fashion... But, if they are doing standalone stories (which this one absolutely deserves to be), they need to lay off adding so many more layers and focus on reoccurring characters, or other characters from the umpteen introductions they've made the past few years that they want us to care about, Because, to summarize the problem, much of what they've alluded to, I simply don't care because it hasn't gone anywhere. yet. hopefully. soon.
7.2/10
Phase 4 Rankings:
1.Loki 10/10
2.Spiderman NWH 9.2/10
3.Dr. Strange 2. 8.8/10
4. Shang- Chi 8/10
5.Wandavision. 8/10
6. Falcon + Winter Soldier 7.9/10
7. Hawkeye 7.6/10
8. What if...? 7.5/10
9. Black Panther 2. 7.2/10
10. Love and Thunder 7.1/10
11. She Hulk 7/10
12. Eternals 6.5/10
13.Black Widow 6.2/10
14.Moon Knight 6/10 (Show just doesn't do it for me, though it has it's merits... acting is great, just can't get into it)
TBR: Ms. Marvel, Werewolf by night
Mostly perfectly watchable... But just that. Perfectly watchable. More content than phase 1, 2 and 3 combined. 50 hours of content, Very little meaningful(impactful) central story movement.
Here's to Phase 5. A lot rest on it's shoulders.
