Winter Soldier stumbled into the perfect way to give a paragon of virtue an arc: placing that virtue in a time that virtue is outdated but needed the most. It’s the same technique Gunn seems to be trying with Superman
Something that George RR Martin can never do, because he doesn't believe in honor and virtue. He only believes in money, ambition and power. There is no good or evil in his story. That's why he cannot finish it.
I'm not sure I'd agree. If anything I feel like Civil War is when that issue was handled much, much better. People love to make Civil war a freedom vs tyranny issue but it just isn't. Tony isn't advocating for the accords unprompted, he's only doing it because "this is how we stay together". The world governments literally will not tolerate the avengers just showing up places and acting with impunity anymore, so Tony is advocating for the way to keep the Avengers operating above board as much as they can. (he even specifically notes that they will need revisions when cap says something along the lines of "what if there's somewhere we need to go and they won't let us", meaning Tony isn't actually wanting to give up their agency) I forget the exact words, but if I recall it was the speech Peggy Carter's daughter gave at her funeral that was basically saying to know what you can compromise on, and what you can't, don't. That, to me, is a much better deconstruction of Steve's idealism, and to be honest one of the only healthy deconstructions of idealism I've ever seen. Steve believes there is this ideal that he can't compromise on, that being the Avenger's agency. He believes any government involvement gives way to corruption that will, inevitably, affect them and how they operate. On the other hand you have Tony, who is the pragmatist and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the Avengers together. And yet both philosophies are given impossible problems. Tony will do whatever it takes to keep the Avengers together and fighting to help people, but he's in a situation where his insistence to do the thing to keep the group together IS the thing driving it apart. He can't NOT support the accords, otherwise the Avengers WILL shut down and they won't be able to help nearly as much. But, choosing to support the accords is causing the schizm tearing it apart. So, how do you challenge a pragmatist? Give them an unsolvable problem. (and to be clear again, no, Tony is not just pro-regulation here. Remember how he literally hacked the cameras in the prison to talk with I think it was Ant Man? He's fine working against the system, he just wanted to do what it took to keep the avengers going strong) Cap meanwhile is the idealist, with one value that he believes is uncompromisable. The issue, however, is that he also wants to help people and wants the avengers to stay together to do that. So his idealism *_is,_* from an objective perspective, causing more harm than if he just tolerate the accords and demanded changes. But, he refuses to compromise on his ideal, so he goes with it anyway on principle - not even necessarily because he believes it's better in the long run, but purely because it's an ideal he refuses to compromise on. This is, IMO, what makes Civil War work so well. All too often is "idealism" just an excuse for someone to keep their conscious squeaky clean and avoid getting their hands dirty, but Civil War showed that Steve recognized his idealism *_was_* harming people. (and it even showed the ways in which he didn't realize it as well. Steve just showed up and people worked with him, got involved in HIS fights, because, y'know, he's cap! Meanwhile Tony actually met with people and went over things with them and convinced them. Steve didn't realize that people were risking as much as they were just because, he's him.) The speech at the funeral made it very clear that this isn't a discussion of what the "best" option is, it's a matter of principle for Steve, even if that principle does result in more harm (or less good) being done. His hands *_are_* dirtied here, and yet he's choosing to go this route anyway. All too often idealism is rewarded and treated as right by writers who can literally bend the universe around their will to make it work out all okay in the end. (que Dr Strange MoM's ending for an example of this. You have the girl literally saying "it's okay, I get it, the entire multiverse is at stake, do it" and he just says "nah, actually, you can magically control this ability you've never been able to control before, just y'know, believe in yourself".) If Bucky *_had_* killed Steve at the end of Winter Soldier, the entire story wouldn't have worked nearly as well. And, sure, the writers obviously wouldn't make that happen, but in-universe, it definitely could have. There was no guarantee that Steve's idealism wouldn't have backfired. It didn't *_because_* that wasn't the story the writers wanted to tell. So the writers ignored the countless innocent shield agents that got caught in Steve's crossfire, the writers ignored the possibility that Bucky would have just killed him, etc. because that wasn't the story they wanted to be told. On the other hand, the division in Civil War is unsolvable. There wasn't any real bending of reality necessary by the writers to make it work. Anyone can write a story where someone's idealism pulls through in the end because they just wrote it so that it did and the main character never had to get their hands dirty. (at least in any way that the audience would find dirty of course, Steve DID still get countles innocent shield agents killed, and Strange DID still use forbidden magic to possess his own corpse, buuuut we'll just ignore that) What makes a really good story however is when genuine, unreconcilable clashes of perspective meet, and both parties are genuinely trying to do what they think is the best option. No-one's hands are entirely clean, you just have two, real, honest perspectives clashing; do you do whatever it takes to help people even it means compromising, or do you hold to your arbitrary ideals on the principal that they are uncompromisable?
I'm so annoyed by people trying to make paragons morally grey. There's plenty of things people can lack aside from morals. Cap's a good guy, but he's neither all knowing nor all powerful, the plot playing with those is much more fun than the plot changing a character. As that other dude who typed way to much kind of pointed out, you can also force idealism to contend with a situation where it causes pain for others. Is your ideal worth your pain or death? Sure, you decide. Is it worth an innocent childs death? That's a hard question.
What I liked the most about the controller who delayed the launch is that he is, logically, scared shitles. He's a real brave man that, despite being terryfied, stood his ground and did what had to be done.
Dude's probably the most relatable character and chose to stand in the face of evil and say, no. It's stuff like this that Marvel used to do beautifully.
To the point that we all know Steve had to survive the movie to be in the next one: Winter Soldier was written so well that it was easy to suspend practical knowledge about cinematic financial decisions and be impacted by the character's choice. People often criticize the lack of real stakes in movies or TV. But if a story is compelling, it doesn't really matter if we know the characters will be okay in the end.
And to be fair, Winter Soldier had stakes. I mean, SHIELD died! The consequences of Winter Solider directly feed into the start of Civil War. And the most ironically funny like at the start from Rumlow "This is for dropping a building on my face."
@@naosouumpatopoha7861 An end for one thing is a beginning for something else. A small change requires something small to end, and a large change requires a larger ending.
I can't believe its only been 5 years since Infinity War. Feels like a decade with how much sludge has come out recently. I barely remember the excitement of going to movie theaters anymore
This!!! I have not been excited to go to theatre's to see anything in half a decade. It's wild. I used to go at least once every couple of months, sometimes several times in one month.
My thought is they should've stopped 2-3 years, started with a new universe (new actors, etc.), and then at the end of that universe's "Infinity War Equivalent", tease the multiverse. Then they could do some really neat stuff after that.
They shot themselves in the foot with Endgame fr but they outright decapitated themselves when deciding to continue after that with a toxic “modern” agenda
Same, I finally abandoned all hope when three things happened. 1. Chloe zhao and marvel higher ups screwing with Earth X. 2. The Wandavision multiverse of madness debacle. 3. I realized we’re never gonna get a good adaptation of stories involving Adam warlock, Mar-vell, Nextwave, or the Great Lakes Avengers.
I know he’s been talked about but gotta say when you air controller refused to send the helicarriers not only was he showing immense courage for his fear but he was also accepting that he was going to die from this decision. Thankfully he did not but the fact remains that he was prepared to and we just don’t see secondary characters like that in anything anymore
4:35 If I may indulge myself with one of my favorite quotes: "But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself." - James Madison, The Federalist #51
I think the mistake was GotG performance being misunderstood. The mid 2000s GotG comic, while relatively unknown, was a very well loved cult classc. It makes sense that it succeeded as all the characters were already beloved by the few who read it. After it did well in movie form, some execs thought it meant, “well if these nobodies can do so well surely all the other poorly selling comics can!” The difference is stuff like Captan Marvel and Iron Heart didn’t do merely ok for a cosmic comic like GotG, they did abysmally for a heavily promoted mainline comic.
Oh, see, I feel like the worse lesson taken from GotG was the tone. After the success of that film, Marvel movies leaned way more heavily into undercutting sincerity with humor. The thing is, most of the humor in that first Guardians film actually emphasizes the sentiment. The sequel has, in my opinion, some glaring flaws in Quill's storyline (and not enough space for Gamorra and Nebula's storyline) but some of the highlight moments, (Like, "I'm Mary Poppins, ya'll!") use humor to feed sentiment, not undermine it. Starting with Ragnarok, however, we see humor misused, imo. Of course, Thor was always a character Marvel was deeply insecure about. There, I think, we see the shadow of the legacy of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The idea that in order for a comic book movie to be taken seriously, it has to feel grounded. Science fiction is seen as more respected than fantasy, even if the way science fiction is used is basically just fantasy.
I agree. I feel like 2025 will be a test to see if they've learnt from the fan response cuz they delayed stuff to rework and DD will be the first showcase of that.
@ I sincerely hope it does improve. When everything is so interconnected that you have to watch 4 miniseries and 2 movies to remotely understand another movie, one or two bad entries is a dealbreaker.
I think the beginning of the bad writing for Marvel was Endgame. Mainly surrounding Captain America. His decision to stay in the past was out of character. Also it causes problems in his own timeline and in the other timeline he went to. So many things didn’t make any sense.
I'd honestly forgotten what it was like to be excited for an MCU movie. I used to be such an avid fan, but now all that's been reduced to complete apathy over the series. This video is exactly what I've been feeling.
7:24 This is a brilliant observation that everyone can take to heart - the discovery of corruption in a system does not invalidate the system's pretended high ideals, it only underscores the desperate need for honesty and commitment to the highest good. The system is worthless when it abandons its principles but principles, if they are true and good , endure long after the hypocritical systems that abused them are ashes.
Why you gotta do that to me? I know I'm getting older; but I aint old yet!!! *stands up, and grabs lower back*...perhaps I stand er...um...hunch corrected.
I remember when my family watched Endgame in theaters, and the feeling I had was simply 'well, that's it.' Not in a 'there's nothing good coming out after this' way (though in most part that would be the case) but in a 'that's all folks!' way. While a few movies have been good afterwards, they all mainly felt like ending chapters for things that hadn't gotten wrapped up by Endgame. Partially because Spiderman 3, Guardians 3, and Deadpool 3 were precisely that! But it appears that the MCU is suffering in part one of the same ills that the comics they were based on suffered for decades- they just can't let the stories or characters end, because the very medium is necessitated by simply going on and on. If they had let the MCU end at Endgame and then have a few epilogues, it would have been remembered as a fulfilling, albeit flawed saga. But you can only keep a machine cranking and cranking for so long before it breaks down.
Me too. When “proof that Tony Stark has a heart” floated across the screen, it felt like the entire franchise was going into the ground with the character that started it all. Not in a crash and burn sense but in a ‘this is how the fairytale ends’ way. Tony’s funeral was the MCU’s funeral, bittersweet and heartbreaking, but still flooded with the memory of all those beautiful, exhilarating feelings it filled you with for the past 11 years. It was our final goodbye to a beloved friend, and we were ready to live on without them.
I think the best part of Winter Soldier is that it puts Steve Rogers, a 1940s American raised on the patriotic fervor of WW2, directly at odds with the modern state of America. He isn't just struggling with what is, but with what was. He's seen a different world, known it better than any of us ever could. It gives him a perspective on the issues that no one else has. It actually reminds me a bit of the second Dirty Harry movie, which put him directly in conflict with his own ideology. In my opinion, that movie was by far the best of the series
Dirty Harry and Magnum Force work great as companion pieces to each other. In Dirty Harry, the system is too impotent and weak-wristed to take care of genuine evil like Scorpio, so Harry has to handle it himself. But without any kind of restrictions or balances on law enforcement, you get a bunch of gun-toting psychos like Magnum Force, who make _themselves_ and _their_ perspective the law. Harry Callahan may be a loose cannon, but he understands right and wrong, and that, well... "A man's _got_ to know his limitations..."
Love the use of The Winter Soldier as the focus of Marvel Studios needing to take itself serious again. It is my favorite of the MCU due to exactly what you said: It took itself seriously and made the audience think. Just as Cap, Natasha, and Fury were reflecting on what their issues, the audience could empathize with each, understand and reflect what they believe. The MCU now (aside from GOTG 3 and maybe No Way Home) is we don't really have that moment where the characters are fleshed out and challenges aside from just defeating the villain. I hope the MCU goes back to taking itself serious again, these stories and characters are beyond levity for levity sake. Let the audience aspire to be like their hero rather than the hero be representative of their audience.
You know, now that Deadpool is officially part of the MCU, i gotta say - for a character who was just supposed to be an R rated comediannwho makes inappropriate jokes, his movies really have some deep moments and meaningful messages in them. Especially in Deadpool and Wolverine, but that's largely also because of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's performance
3:39 Also I don't think the issue is silliness. Comic books are inherently goofy and dark & gritty doesn't mean anything either. It's that the stories should take themselves seriously.
I think this pretty much nails it. Comics are absurd on their face when you think about them for a moment. An entire city is plagued by a clown or a crocodile man or a different clown or a guy who went mad when half his face got burnt and the only way to stop them is a guy dressed as a bat and his buddy who's dressed like a bird? Ironman somehow builds a fleet of the most advanced tactical weapons ever in his basement without pretty much anyone knowing about it? A man who can run so fast he breaks through time and dimensions somehow is constantly foiled by a regular dude with an ice super soaker? these are absurd, but the stories take themselves seriously so we can let the insanity slide and just enjoy the ride
My favorite MCU item post Endgame must be Guardians vol. 3. Gunn knows so well how to tell a story instead of push an ideology. While it may be the most comedic movie post Endgame, it is somehow the most serious as well, because the comedy gives the serious moments their time. The movie would be so much worse if a joke was made while Rocket flatlined or just after. Find your balance, MCU. Make us think, don't tell us to.
Winter Soldier is one of my favorite movies. I rewatched it a few months ago and am happy at how well it holds up. The Reveal of Hydra's Infiltration of SHEILD is done well with the visuals and breakdown. Plus, their plan (in an incredibly cold way) makes sence. Sacrifice 6 million to guarantee 7 billion lives (granted likely suppressed by fear and the Heli-Carriera). And of course the very relevant quote of "Humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it's freedom to gain it's security." Damn.
@IG88AAA That's how Arnin Zola phrased it and it's from the perspective of the people accepting these Heli-carriers and all the consequences they bring
I love you, man, hands down my favorite MCU movie. Considering that characters like Captain America and Black Widow (Hawkeye, too) don't fit in that well with a universe of gods and sorcerers, I had hoped that those more 'human' characters would get more Winter Soldier-esque content (Though I fully appreciate the ironic nature of them being in multiverse-scale battles)
I want to compare the MCU to the MAgic the Gathering situation: both draw parallels in that they originally had an engaging, and well written lore, their products came out sparcely (In the case of MTG a new set every few months), and it was designed by fans for fans, and then Corporatism (not capitalism) came in, saw it made money, and increased to frequency of turnout (more movies/spinoffs/junk) (in magics case more and more and more product leading to wallet fatigue) leading to a degeneration in the "special" factor, plus a constant pandering to people who will never watch or support your movie/product like the fans you alienated did before. Theres nothing special there anymore, its now "oh look a new Marvel show, oh look more MTG sets".
I got out of MTG around 2020 (for unrelated reasons) right before it got bad. 4 years out and it's nigh unrecognizable. (Not to mention all the random themed sets that are out now)
@@NakAlienEd its honestly horrible right now, and it was just confirmed that this year will be magic in space, in cars, and a spongebob/avatar/ other universes beyond. Its no longer magic the gathering, its fortnite the gathering. I sold most of my collection, foiled out my decks, and i play maybe once a month or so with my play group, but we got into Shadowverse evolve and Flesh and blood. I highly recommend Shadowverse Evolve: gloryfinder if you liked commander
People often forget that there's a difference between corporatism and capitalism. Capitalism is essentially the ideas of men like Adam Smith, that free exchange of goods and ideas will lead to a more prosperous and civilized society. Corporatism is about turning every item, every aspect of life imaginable, into a commodity to be bought and sold. Capitalism loves private farmers, for instance, because they are the embodiment of the ideal. Free people working their own land and selling their own products on their terms. Corporatism, on the other hand, hates them, because they generate minimal profit relative to the amount of land they use. No thought is given to how essential they are to the survival of a nation. That's why most of Europe is actively hostile to farmers these days, because they can't understand that there is more to life than just money. Carl Benjamin of the Lotus Eaters calls it managerialism, not corporatism, but it means the same thing overall
@@theonedraven8007 Honestly, I got out of it because it was my old coworkers who got me into it. I loved playing with them. Then I moved a bunch and tried playing at the local card shops, but I quickly realized the MTG player stereotypes existed for a reason, and that I really only liked the game because it provided a way to socialize with my old friends.
How to work out these scenes into the video: Chair guy - section on Cap as an inspiration to others, who start off cynical and burned out (Natasha, Falcon) and find their strength back because Cap needs them to join the fight Winter soldier scene - section on Bucky as the avatar of the corruption of something noble (ex soldier, shield) into something twisted (assassins, Hydra) and how Cap's idealism purges them
That's what I love about you Master Samwise. I love that you have a middle ground between having political messages that work within a story for artistic sake and having entertainment so the message isn't shoved in your face. You're neither a chud or an SJW so you avoid the annoyances of both extremes.
the aforementioned MCU installment along with the original Superman staring Christopher Reeves,The Dark Knight,Logan and Infinity War are my favorites of the genre 🧐
I remember… I gave a high school presentation on the MCU leading up to Infinity War and semi predicted the ending. The story had so much meaning behind the overarching argument between Tony and Steve. I remember Iron Man, Winter Solider, Age of Ultron, Civil War and Infinity War linking the some very heroic and worth while themes and ideas across a number of different movies and characters. It was inspiring.
Your quote from Civil War was interrupted by an ad from IRC. So what literally happened was "... Your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and say-" "Hello, I'm Patrick Stewart.... And I believe in helping people in crisis." 😂😂😂
Dude i was listening instead of watching and the way he says Bucky sounds more like BAKI and i was thinking what the hell does he have to do in avengers
I do like how Iron Man 1 was referenced in the video, at the end. The theme of heart is what changes Tony, it's what make Steve Steve, contrasting to his villains with a lack of good heart just as the serum does.
I firmly believe the MCU ended with Infinity War, and Endgame onwards was all a bad dream. Why? Because they broke Causality. (I did a short essay on that on Substack!)
Woo, first comment! Edit: Also, Sam, I really do love your content. They really inspire me further as a writer during college, and I think you make very very very good points regarding current movies and cinema. I especially love all of your LotR videos, they make my love for the movies even deeper. I know I've commented on this multiple times now, but I really think you could glean a lot from more video game character studies. Specifically what I would like to see is Xenoblade Chronicles, specifically a study on my favorite villain of all time, Moebius N. Regardless, do as you're led, and I love your content! God bless!
I can't lie, captain marvel was a bland movie but it brought the "turn off your brain and enjoy an overpowered hero" feeling all three times I watched it
"The MCU, not to mention Hollywood as a whole, has lost so much of what made it special and meaningful; because it is now far too preoccupied with whether or not its cast of characters *looks* like its audience instead of dreaming up stories of great heroism in which those characters inspire the audience to *want* to be like them." The prevailing opinion is that I, as a straight white male, cannot see myself in T'Challa, or Natasha Romanov, or Shuri, or Hope Pym; because a white straight male cannot truly know what it is like to live as a minority. (I might argue that Hope and Natasha are as much in the majority as a straight white female, but in the intersectional hierarchy of oppression women are more oppressed than men). And yet, each of these characters have made me want to be a better person. To stretch myself farther to help others. To improve society so that more people can live better lives; because as Thor says "Thats what heroes do." And we can find heroes EVERYWHERE. Michael Jordan for his athleticism. Michael Jackson for his musicality. Weird Al for his incredible lyrics. Simone Biles for her Olympic prowess. Agatha Christie for her twist endings that grip your attention so well. Steve Irwin for his love of nature. Fred Rogers for his neighborliness. Herman Boone for teaching a bunch of teenagers that they're not that different. The parent on public transit, that is entertaining their fussy child, and avoiding tantrums, to make the ride less wearisome for other travelers. The 3 year old who wants to learn the monkey bars SOOOO badly that despite falling 10 times, climbs back up to try again. Parents. Grandparents. Siblings. Aunts and Uncles...Heroes are everywhere if you look for them. From those powerful enough to challenge a balrog; to a lowly gardener, seeking to make the world a bit greener.
Damn, I miss gritty Marvel. Winter Soldier and Civil War were so great because they took themselves seriously and they didnt made fun of their core characters
I use to take off work just so my friends and family could go to the movies at midnight, watch the marvel movie and then go to Dennys to discuss it. Haven’t done that since Endgame.
It is the perfect storm of corporate approved activism that leads to so many people taking jobs they are a poor fit for to make movies and shows they have no real interest in for an audience they hate or at the very best find off putting and juvenile. I don't think it is damage you can fix and at this point I don't think I care. Great analysis of The Winter Soldier and the current MCU.
Tolkien's Galadriel, her virtue may be a video subject for you Master Samwise, if it isn't already in your mind. 🙂 Also, do focus on the Galadriel that Tolkien wrote if you make such a video.
I'd watch that, especially if it concerned a more considerate approach such as that of "HelloFutureMe" and not just the quickly read-through online article-isms and reductionism of most independent news/media channels.
This one’s always been my favorite. Even as a teen. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew that this one stood out among the others because I meant something more than just superheroes.
The decisions of Dinsey post Endgame are some of the worst they could have made in handling an IP, second only to what they have done to Star Wars. Instead of trying to squeeze the MCU for every last drop, a patient mouse would have reaped even greater reward. Imagine if they had hit the pause on the MCU for a few years. Now movies, no shows, nothing. Give the fans time to really feel the loss of Tony Stark and Natasha before picking up down the road with hereos who had to come to terms with that themselves. A wise Thor working to restore order theough the cosmos, but carrying the guilt of letting mere humans take the fatal blow instead of he. Bruce Banner dealing with the death of Natasha and what he sees as his failure to bring her back. Etc etc etc. We could have gotten to know some of our favorite characters all.over again, and joined them on new journies. Instead, they have laregly been sidlined for new ones, and in some cases disrespectfully trodden upon (looking at you Iron Heart!) We will never, ever get another run like the MCU to Endgame in cinema. No one has that sort of patience to do it right
MODOK’s death in Quantumania highlights this lack of seriousness. Nearly every line switched between serious and humorous - I couldn’t tell if I needed to laugh or cry, and by the end of the scene, I did neither.
They took the Guardians’ thing of undecutting everything while still being dark, dropped the being dark, and applied that logic to everything. What was once the expression if a kid lost far from home grown into a man lost in the stars with only a shred of his decency grasping for light… has barfed itself onto everything in an unwelcome way.
Across superheroes as a genre (and even action more generally), the most memorable scenes are not our protagonists being the best of the badasses, but our protagonists getting to act as heroes with other people -- with other heroes. The climactic moment of Endgame was not the heroes defeating Thanos; it was the moment all these disparate heroes came together in the first place to fight him. The most famous scene from Wonder Woman was the No Man's Land scene, which was an awesome action scene on Diana's part -- but also an example of her action enabling heroic action from her comrades as well. One of the most famous sequences from the first Spider-Man trilogy is the train scene -- not just Peter stopping the train, but also the moment after when the commuters come together to support him. While the next Spider-Man duology never grew popular, the most popular scene from them was when all the construction workers came together to give Spider-Man a swinging path to the villain. And circling back to this movie, one of the reasons Steve's Speech and the action scenes around it were so memorable was that it wasn't *just* the stars of the movie taking heroic action; all throughout SHIELD, every day workers and regular soldiers and spies with no suits and no powers were fighting alongside him. The guy at the computer fully expected to die and stood up for what was right anyway, and THAT moment is what made Steve's speech so powerful. I expanded beyond superheroes for a reason. The most memorable Lord of the Rings are of characters coming together, e.x. Gondor coming to aid, the army appearing on the horizon, and even just the fellowship of the ring being forged in the first place. The climactic scene of Rogue One was not just the characters from the movie posters working together; it was also unnamed pilots and soldiers passing the MacGuffin to each other down the hall, knowing full well they were about to die but doing it anyway for the greater good. One of the most popular scenes to come out of Arcane was the moment Zaun came to Piltover's aid against Noxus. Take a look at the most recent superhero movies, and action properties in general. I see a lot of badass moments for our favorite heroes...but *only* our favorite heroes. The other characters are motionless and action-less, little more than NPCs. We don't get to see our protagonists act as heroes with their friends or with strangers, and that makes their heroism feel empty and lackluster as a result.
I remember seeing Iron Man as a kid and I remember skipping it to the parts with the suit because as kids we couldn’t care less about the dialogue and only care about the cool action scenes. Iron Man was my favorite superhero growing up 🥹 I even had a helmet and iron man heart and everything
1) Only because Marvel was perfect between 2008 and 2019, it doesn't mean that it will always stay that way 2) Covid happened, Disney and Kevin Feige were too overconfident and mass scheduled series and movies and everything turned into chaos. 3) Compared to Kathleen Kennedy from Star Wars, Kevin Feige understood that something was wrong. That success isn't coming, so he mass canceled or delayed most projects post 2023. Explaining the low amount of movies and series in 2024. 4) If the MCU learned from it's mistakes, the next two years will be fantastic, although I can't guarantee the hype coming back. NB: I'm not a toxic hater. I totally aggree that many projects that came out between 2020 and 2023 were crap (The Marvels, Secret Invasion, Doctor Strange Mom...). I'm just saying that every masterpiece has it's up's and down's. Some never recover (Fortnite), some still don't realize they are lost (Star Wars), but the way the MCU is going after Deadpool & Wolverine and the way the MCU was treated before, I'm confident to say that it will come back. Someday. Please don't flood the comment section with negative comments.
The thing to remember about all the business about bathos in the MCU is that the MCU, in its heyday, was fathoms more light-hearted than its grim and nihilistic competitors over at DC. DC movies "meant something." The problem was that DC movies meant something morose, depressing, and paradoxically immature, mostly because Zack Snyder refused to play into the strengths of the characters he was instructed to bring to life because, by his own admission, he _didn't believe_ in those strengths. Much has been made of Snyder's many public remarks on the subject, nearly all of which proved that he shouldn't have been given the reigns to much of anything DC. Whether Snyder's message would have come out better from original characters is difficult to say in hindsight... or it least it was before _Rebel Moon_ came out and proved the answer was a comedically-protracted "NOOOOOOOOOO" worthy of Darth Vader. Still, it would be churlish to say that Snyder didn't have a point to make with his DC offerings, for better or worse. There are many ways to fail. The problem, and what I fear will be the _wrong_ lesson to take from this particular comedy of errors, is that superhero fare, particularly in the MCU, will divert back to Edgy Edgerton of Edgewood, Edgedelphia. Whenever a trend doesn't work out, Hollywood producers _love_ to inaccurately attribute the problem to an audience fatigue of motif. (If not brand. "Star Wars Fatigue," anyone?) In fact, the MCU was born from this very kind of course correction, becoming light-hearted in stark contrast to the overly dour Dark Knight Trilogy. Contrary to what the suits must think (not helped by social media broadcasting the most ignorant takes imaginable), changing trajectory isn't what made the MCU good. Effort is what made the MCU good. Winter Soldier. Guardians 1. Ant-Man. Doctor Strange. Spider-Man Homecoming. Civil War. Guardians 2. Ragnarok. _Infinity War._ Good films all, any one of which could viably be the favorite of someone I could envision respecting, and _Black Panther_ could've been a lot worse. The problem is directors don't want to hear anything complicated like that because "effort" isn't something you can buy, let alone promise. Everybody has "effort." Everybody promises the cash man a big sugary payday with the biggest critical hit since _Citizen Kane._ Nobody walks up to a bigshot media exec and promise to make them a steaming turd unless they're Leslye Headland. If you ask me, the big problem with the MCU right now isn't a problem of being too comedic, too edgy, or anything like that. I don't even think being well-written would fix much. (See _Andor_ for that case study.) The problem is _we hate them,_ though to be fair, we didn't start it. They took shots at their own fans with their thespian puppets, media sycophants, and useful idiots alike, repeatedly, and we noticed. It was hard to _not_ notice. You couldn't _pay_ Brie Larson to shut up. Everything Marvel Studios does now is tainted with the asterisk of "from the people who hate you," and the feeling is often mutual. Even a _good_ project from them is going to get skeptical people scanning it with a Geiger counter to make sure it's safe to consume. Just look at the reception _Deadpool and Wolverine_ got, the best of which echoed sentiments such as "amazingly not crap." It should not be a pleasant surprise that a Marvel project didn't pillage your hometown and you can't find your kid sister anymore. When you have that kind of reputation, you're never going to get a fair shake. What Marvel needs most right now is to close down for a good few years. Take a vacation. Do some soul searching. Broaden their actors' resumes. Spend some extra time punching up the finer details of the upcoming Doomsday saga. Double down on _Marvel Rivals._ Get embezzled by Lucasfilm. Break Nick Spencer's fingers. I don't care. Come back as a _new_ Marvel Studios, ready to put its moronic past behind it, just like it did way back in 2008. But all this undignified pandering? When you have to wheel out RDJ, it comes off like a wife beater trying to buy forgiveness with a luxury car. It's a waste of their time _and_ mine.
after endgame, i watched the next two spider-man movies, wandavision, the first season of loki, and then gave up. endgame WAS the end for me. spider-man was just a couple of fun little epilogues, and wandavision was very interesting, but i've gotten all i wanted. i've enjoyed the guardians and thor (especially since ragnarok) but i never bothered to see their next films. i didn't care enough. had my fill. they're just milking a dying cow now and it's sad as hell. eta: and my word, YES, winter soldier is still my favorite of the MCU. it is completely perfect.
Best Marvel movie by far. I know many will disagree but I freaking loved how grounded and real it in a way was. It perfectly makes super heroes fit our present world. Of course Superheroes would work for government agencies and go on countless missions. And of course villains would do all they can to infiltrate and manipulate these organizations to do their bidding.
Good analysis. Thinking about it, the first MCU movie that I felt started to badly mix comedy and seriousness was Thor: Ragnarok. There are too many moments in Thor: Ragnarok where the scene is serious, but they throw a joke in; Asgard being destroyed being a perfect example. Guardians of the Galaxy however is comedic, but even in that movie they have times they put the comedy aside to let the movie be serious. That allowing the comedy movie to be serious has the effect of actually making the serious moments stronger.
So I remember the moment I really started getting skeptical about if I would watch the next MCU movie coming out, and it was the climax of Captain Marvel, when after the repeated question of can you win without your powers had been posed throughout the movie she won the final conflict with her powers. Had the villain had a gizmo that would have shut off her powers via an implant or something or a temporary de-powering ray or something and actually forced her to win without those powers I think her charioteer arc would have been so much stronger than the nope I have powers ha ha you loose that we got.
The people making most projects coming from Disney are embarrassed by what they’re working on and don’t have the stones to take it seriously, so they make everything a joke.
The absolute worst part of not taking things seriously is that even something innately goofy can take itself seriously-take 60s Adam West Batman. It knows it is ridiculous, but doesn’t self satirize. It revels in the ridiculousness and enjoys the world it has created. Modern Marvel can’t even enjoy the candy colored costumes and quipy one liners.
Hot take: Endgame is overrated. I didn’t hate the movie but some things didn’t make any sense. Example: The main thing that irritated me was how they handled Captain America’s finale. Him staying in the past was out of character and it causes problems in both timelines. Plus I wasn’t crazy about Tom Hollands Spiderman movies. Some decisions from Peter and Tony were ridiculous. Ok sorry, rant over lol 😂.
@ I was paying attention to the character. Captain America has always been about responsibility and of course the constant theme of him having to “move on” due to him being a man out of time(which also explains the mindset of his creator Jack Kirby). Him staying in the past is irresponsible. Like I said before its supposed to have consequences and it goes against him moving on. Plus it felt out of left field and it wasn’t explained very well in the film. And of course Steve not rescuing his best friend in the past, leaving his younger self frozen, etc etc. Yeah like I said. Too many problems. Along with the fact that he’s ignoring future problems in his own timeline(a bit selfish). He’s only like what 38? Still in his prime and he can still help civilians and other heroes in his own timeline.
For me it was the length and the action, just the refusal to let Thanos be put down until everyone had their turn winning but getting blown away because Thanos clearly is stronger now cuz plot... I got tired. Action for actions sake, they could have let Thanos actually win the fights, leave them all scrambling about despite their best efforts, make Tony's sacrifice a much more desperate last ditch effort, that would've been a little better. Mostly it was just to long though. The whole roster had to have a turn
I used to love the MCU, I watched (with a few exceptions) all of the movies leading up to Endgame. If someone would have told me back then that I would lose interest in it, I probably would not have believed them. But with everything they have put out over the last years, that has been the case. Even for a hard-core MCU fan it is hard to keep up with all the movies and series. It makes me kind of sad and I still hope that at some point they will prioritize quality over quantity again, but I can't see that happening yet.
That is precisely the reason why the first Wonder Woman was so good. It allowed there to be character moments, wear its heart on its sleeve, be genuine and not hamstrung by quips like most Marvel movies
@ very true. As much as I loved that movie, the ending was ridiculous - Ares is real and all of a sudden soldiers are hugging each other? Definitely a frustrating ending
I think Hollywood doesn't have characters willing to stand up for their principles anymore because nobody writing these characters has any principles themselves.
I think the best example of this change is the hulk. He went from a morally gray hero who avoids fights because he hates what he has to become to win, to an ED joke.
The Hulk is a hero. The Hulk always can tell who is innocent and never intentionally harms innocent people. The problem is other people provoke the Hulk and cause collateral damage.
5:46 - Cap doesnt need to change, it is a less know storytelling for a character that is right, a flat character arc. Normal arcs are about a character changing throught the story, flat one is about them changing the characters or world around them
9:53 I actually enjoyed echo, and thought it was fairly well done, even though I'd never even heard of the source material for it. (Not talking accuracy, but content and intentions) I got very invested in the new daredevil and Jessica Jones, so perhaps that's why, but it was an interesting story, even if there were long waits between the active plot points.
It seems people are more concerned with looking diverse, instead of telling diverse stories. Am currently re-watching the Infinity Saga, can't believe it was only 5 years ago.
Your bookshelf has The Pacific on the left of Band of Brothers. This in not ordered alphabetically, chronologically by release date, or chronologically by topic. Why is it like this?
At the end you explained the problem, but this comes down to how the genders typically view characters on a story. (Not 100 percent of the time but enough to see the trend before anyone gets bent out of shape) Men want to aspire to become like their fictional heroes we will never be Aragorn but we wish it to be so (though anyone can become Sam and absolutely should) Women seek to relate directly with their heroes and how they already resemble them, this has been pushed in recent movies to a literal skin deep connection.
The problem with the MCU is that it overstayed its welcome after Endgame. Disney got greedy and because of it destroyed the MCU. I pray the same thing doesn't happen to the DCU.
Changed the thumbnail cause I took a long time making this one and I love it. I don't care if it performed worse.
Winter Soldier stumbled into the perfect way to give a paragon of virtue an arc: placing that virtue in a time that virtue is outdated but needed the most.
It’s the same technique Gunn seems to be trying with Superman
Hope so 🤞
Something that George RR Martin can never do, because he doesn't believe in honor and virtue. He only believes in money, ambition and power. There is no good or evil in his story. That's why he cannot finish it.
I'm not sure I'd agree. If anything I feel like Civil War is when that issue was handled much, much better. People love to make Civil war a freedom vs tyranny issue but it just isn't. Tony isn't advocating for the accords unprompted, he's only doing it because "this is how we stay together". The world governments literally will not tolerate the avengers just showing up places and acting with impunity anymore, so Tony is advocating for the way to keep the Avengers operating above board as much as they can. (he even specifically notes that they will need revisions when cap says something along the lines of "what if there's somewhere we need to go and they won't let us", meaning Tony isn't actually wanting to give up their agency)
I forget the exact words, but if I recall it was the speech Peggy Carter's daughter gave at her funeral that was basically saying to know what you can compromise on, and what you can't, don't. That, to me, is a much better deconstruction of Steve's idealism, and to be honest one of the only healthy deconstructions of idealism I've ever seen. Steve believes there is this ideal that he can't compromise on, that being the Avenger's agency. He believes any government involvement gives way to corruption that will, inevitably, affect them and how they operate. On the other hand you have Tony, who is the pragmatist and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the Avengers together. And yet both philosophies are given impossible problems.
Tony will do whatever it takes to keep the Avengers together and fighting to help people, but he's in a situation where his insistence to do the thing to keep the group together IS the thing driving it apart. He can't NOT support the accords, otherwise the Avengers WILL shut down and they won't be able to help nearly as much. But, choosing to support the accords is causing the schizm tearing it apart. So, how do you challenge a pragmatist? Give them an unsolvable problem. (and to be clear again, no, Tony is not just pro-regulation here. Remember how he literally hacked the cameras in the prison to talk with I think it was Ant Man? He's fine working against the system, he just wanted to do what it took to keep the avengers going strong)
Cap meanwhile is the idealist, with one value that he believes is uncompromisable. The issue, however, is that he also wants to help people and wants the avengers to stay together to do that. So his idealism *_is,_* from an objective perspective, causing more harm than if he just tolerate the accords and demanded changes. But, he refuses to compromise on his ideal, so he goes with it anyway on principle - not even necessarily because he believes it's better in the long run, but purely because it's an ideal he refuses to compromise on.
This is, IMO, what makes Civil War work so well. All too often is "idealism" just an excuse for someone to keep their conscious squeaky clean and avoid getting their hands dirty, but Civil War showed that Steve recognized his idealism *_was_* harming people. (and it even showed the ways in which he didn't realize it as well. Steve just showed up and people worked with him, got involved in HIS fights, because, y'know, he's cap! Meanwhile Tony actually met with people and went over things with them and convinced them. Steve didn't realize that people were risking as much as they were just because, he's him.) The speech at the funeral made it very clear that this isn't a discussion of what the "best" option is, it's a matter of principle for Steve, even if that principle does result in more harm (or less good) being done. His hands *_are_* dirtied here, and yet he's choosing to go this route anyway.
All too often idealism is rewarded and treated as right by writers who can literally bend the universe around their will to make it work out all okay in the end. (que Dr Strange MoM's ending for an example of this. You have the girl literally saying "it's okay, I get it, the entire multiverse is at stake, do it" and he just says "nah, actually, you can magically control this ability you've never been able to control before, just y'know, believe in yourself".) If Bucky *_had_* killed Steve at the end of Winter Soldier, the entire story wouldn't have worked nearly as well. And, sure, the writers obviously wouldn't make that happen, but in-universe, it definitely could have. There was no guarantee that Steve's idealism wouldn't have backfired. It didn't *_because_* that wasn't the story the writers wanted to tell. So the writers ignored the countless innocent shield agents that got caught in Steve's crossfire, the writers ignored the possibility that Bucky would have just killed him, etc. because that wasn't the story they wanted to be told. On the other hand, the division in Civil War is unsolvable. There wasn't any real bending of reality necessary by the writers to make it work. Anyone can write a story where someone's idealism pulls through in the end because they just wrote it so that it did and the main character never had to get their hands dirty. (at least in any way that the audience would find dirty of course, Steve DID still get countles innocent shield agents killed, and Strange DID still use forbidden magic to possess his own corpse, buuuut we'll just ignore that) What makes a really good story however is when genuine, unreconcilable clashes of perspective meet, and both parties are genuinely trying to do what they think is the best option.
No-one's hands are entirely clean, you just have two, real, honest perspectives clashing; do you do whatever it takes to help people even it means compromising, or do you hold to your arbitrary ideals on the principal that they are uncompromisable?
I'm so annoyed by people trying to make paragons morally grey. There's plenty of things people can lack aside from morals. Cap's a good guy, but he's neither all knowing nor all powerful, the plot playing with those is much more fun than the plot changing a character. As that other dude who typed way to much kind of pointed out, you can also force idealism to contend with a situation where it causes pain for others. Is your ideal worth your pain or death? Sure, you decide. Is it worth an innocent childs death? That's a hard question.
What I liked the most about the controller who delayed the launch is that he is, logically, scared shitles. He's a real brave man that, despite being terryfied, stood his ground and did what had to be done.
Dude's probably the most relatable character and chose to stand in the face of evil and say, no. It's stuff like this that Marvel used to do beautifully.
Captains Orders
To the point that we all know Steve had to survive the movie to be in the next one: Winter Soldier was written so well that it was easy to suspend practical knowledge about cinematic financial decisions and be impacted by the character's choice. People often criticize the lack of real stakes in movies or TV. But if a story is compelling, it doesn't really matter if we know the characters will be okay in the end.
And to be fair, Winter Soldier had stakes. I mean, SHIELD died! The consequences of Winter Solider directly feed into the start of Civil War. And the most ironically funny like at the start from Rumlow "This is for dropping a building on my face."
“A story that isn’t allowed to end isn’t a story at all, it’s a setting at best” Yahtzee Croshaw
i don't think a story necessarily needs to have an ending. the problem is when the story isn't allowed to change
A specific story can't last forever. There can be another of same world
@@naosouumpatopoha7861 An end for one thing is a beginning for something else. A small change requires something small to end, and a large change requires a larger ending.
I don't know what you're talking about. The MCU ended in Endgame. It's in the name.
One piece 🤢
Shoutout to the two guards at the dock to the airship who both drew on the hydra agents, knowing full well they weren't walking out alive if they did.
I can't believe its only been 5 years since Infinity War. Feels like a decade with how much sludge has come out recently. I barely remember the excitement of going to movie theaters anymore
This!!! I have not been excited to go to theatre's to see anything in half a decade. It's wild. I used to go at least once every couple of months, sometimes several times in one month.
At this point we're closing in on seven years since Infinity War.
The Winter Soldier was so good that it made what we taught was a boy scout character into one of our favorite superheroes on screen
The only thing I get from the whole MCU post-Endgame is they should’ve stepped back for a few years then come back with a completely fresh story line.
Yep.
My thought is they should've stopped 2-3 years, started with a new universe (new actors, etc.), and then at the end of that universe's "Infinity War Equivalent", tease the multiverse. Then they could do some really neat stuff after that.
They shot themselves in the foot with Endgame fr but they outright decapitated themselves when deciding to continue after that with a toxic “modern” agenda
The older I get, the more I'm disenchanted with the MCU. Even as an avid comic book geek
Same, but I think a lot of it is due to the fact that I’m getting older as the things coming out of the MCU keep getting worse
Same, I finally abandoned all hope when three things happened.
1. Chloe zhao and marvel higher ups screwing with Earth X.
2. The Wandavision multiverse of madness debacle.
3. I realized we’re never gonna get a good adaptation of stories involving Adam warlock, Mar-vell, Nextwave, or the Great Lakes Avengers.
I know he’s been talked about but gotta say when you air controller refused to send the helicarriers not only was he showing immense courage for his fear but he was also accepting that he was going to die from this decision. Thankfully he did not but the fact remains that he was prepared to and we just don’t see secondary characters like that in anything anymore
4:35 If I may indulge myself with one of my favorite quotes:
"But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself." - James Madison, The Federalist #51
Well said.
Dang, I need to read The Federalist Papers.
@@beksc9209 We all do, man. We all do.
I think the mistake was GotG performance being misunderstood. The mid 2000s GotG comic, while relatively unknown, was a very well loved cult classc. It makes sense that it succeeded as all the characters were already beloved by the few who read it. After it did well in movie form, some execs thought it meant, “well if these nobodies can do so well surely all the other poorly selling comics can!” The difference is stuff like Captan Marvel and Iron Heart didn’t do merely ok for a cosmic comic like GotG, they did abysmally for a heavily promoted mainline comic.
The Capt Marvel reception hurts cuz the Kelly Thompson run is really good.
@ She CAN be done well. I’ve heard she’s a great character in that Midnight Suns game too.
Oh, see, I feel like the worse lesson taken from GotG was the tone. After the success of that film, Marvel movies leaned way more heavily into undercutting sincerity with humor. The thing is, most of the humor in that first Guardians film actually emphasizes the sentiment. The sequel has, in my opinion, some glaring flaws in Quill's storyline (and not enough space for Gamorra and Nebula's storyline) but some of the highlight moments, (Like, "I'm Mary Poppins, ya'll!") use humor to feed sentiment, not undermine it. Starting with Ragnarok, however, we see humor misused, imo.
Of course, Thor was always a character Marvel was deeply insecure about. There, I think, we see the shadow of the legacy of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The idea that in order for a comic book movie to be taken seriously, it has to feel grounded. Science fiction is seen as more respected than fantasy, even if the way science fiction is used is basically just fantasy.
The old MCU had so many great moments, like when Black Panther refused to kill Zemo in Civil War. Exhalent video as always!
"...I am DONE letting it (vengeance) consume me."
And you could just feel the weight lifting off his shoulders
Best scene and character in the film
Now that you mention it, I DID forget that Echo ever existed......
I see. The old MCU had values which it was willing to explore and defend. The current one shouts out values but does not explore them or defend them.
There was a gem here and there after Endgame, but it’s mostly garbage nowadays. It sucks to see a franchise I liked so much go downhill this fast.
I agree. I feel like 2025 will be a test to see if they've learnt from the fan response cuz they delayed stuff to rework and DD will be the first showcase of that.
@ I sincerely hope it does improve. When everything is so interconnected that you have to watch 4 miniseries and 2 movies to remotely understand another movie, one or two bad entries is a dealbreaker.
@@_-Bane-_Main True. I like that DD will just be it's own street corner & the FF movie it's own universe.
I think the beginning of the bad writing for Marvel was Endgame. Mainly surrounding Captain America. His decision to stay in the past was out of character. Also it causes problems in his own timeline and in the other timeline he went to. So many things didn’t make any sense.
@@Steel-101 It's not that out of character. He saw an opportunity to be selfish for once & took it. Also Marvel had had bad writing before.
I'd honestly forgotten what it was like to be excited for an MCU movie. I used to be such an avid fan, but now all that's been reduced to complete apathy over the series. This video is exactly what I've been feeling.
7:24 This is a brilliant observation that everyone can take to heart - the discovery of corruption in a system does not invalidate the system's pretended high ideals, it only underscores the desperate need for honesty and commitment to the highest good. The system is worthless when it abandons its principles but principles, if they are true and good , endure long after the hypocritical systems that abused them are ashes.
0:22 crazy that I was 13 when this movie dropped. feels like a lifetime ago now
Why you gotta do that to me? I know I'm getting older; but I aint old yet!!! *stands up, and grabs lower back*...perhaps I stand er...um...hunch corrected.
And this is why Captain America: the Winter Soldier is my absolute FAVORITE moive in the entirety of the MCU and Infinity Saga!
The freedom vs safety debate is so universal it's one every parent goes through every day with their kids.
I remember when my family watched Endgame in theaters, and the feeling I had was simply 'well, that's it.' Not in a 'there's nothing good coming out after this' way (though in most part that would be the case) but in a 'that's all folks!' way. While a few movies have been good afterwards, they all mainly felt like ending chapters for things that hadn't gotten wrapped up by Endgame. Partially because Spiderman 3, Guardians 3, and Deadpool 3 were precisely that! But it appears that the MCU is suffering in part one of the same ills that the comics they were based on suffered for decades- they just can't let the stories or characters end, because the very medium is necessitated by simply going on and on. If they had let the MCU end at Endgame and then have a few epilogues, it would have been remembered as a fulfilling, albeit flawed saga. But you can only keep a machine cranking and cranking for so long before it breaks down.
Me too. When “proof that Tony Stark has a heart” floated across the screen, it felt like the entire franchise was going into the ground with the character that started it all. Not in a crash and burn sense but in a ‘this is how the fairytale ends’ way. Tony’s funeral was the MCU’s funeral, bittersweet and heartbreaking, but still flooded with the memory of all those beautiful, exhilarating feelings it filled you with for the past 11 years. It was our final goodbye to a beloved friend, and we were ready to live on without them.
I think the best part of Winter Soldier is that it puts Steve Rogers, a 1940s American raised on the patriotic fervor of WW2, directly at odds with the modern state of America. He isn't just struggling with what is, but with what was. He's seen a different world, known it better than any of us ever could. It gives him a perspective on the issues that no one else has. It actually reminds me a bit of the second Dirty Harry movie, which put him directly in conflict with his own ideology. In my opinion, that movie was by far the best of the series
Dirty Harry and Magnum Force work great as companion pieces to each other. In Dirty Harry, the system is too impotent and weak-wristed to take care of genuine evil like Scorpio, so Harry has to handle it himself. But without any kind of restrictions or balances on law enforcement, you get a bunch of gun-toting psychos like Magnum Force, who make _themselves_ and _their_ perspective the law. Harry Callahan may be a loose cannon, but he understands right and wrong, and that, well...
"A man's _got_ to know his limitations..."
Love the use of The Winter Soldier as the focus of Marvel Studios needing to take itself serious again. It is my favorite of the MCU due to exactly what you said: It took itself seriously and made the audience think. Just as Cap, Natasha, and Fury were reflecting on what their issues, the audience could empathize with each, understand and reflect what they believe. The MCU now (aside from GOTG 3 and maybe No Way Home) is we don't really have that moment where the characters are fleshed out and challenges aside from just defeating the villain. I hope the MCU goes back to taking itself serious again, these stories and characters are beyond levity for levity sake. Let the audience aspire to be like their hero rather than the hero be representative of their audience.
You know, now that Deadpool is officially part of the MCU, i gotta say - for a character who was just supposed to be an R rated comediannwho makes inappropriate jokes, his movies really have some deep moments and meaningful messages in them. Especially in Deadpool and Wolverine, but that's largely also because of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's performance
3:39 Also I don't think the issue is silliness. Comic books are inherently goofy and dark & gritty doesn't mean anything either. It's that the stories should take themselves seriously.
I think this pretty much nails it. Comics are absurd on their face when you think about them for a moment. An entire city is plagued by a clown or a crocodile man or a different clown or a guy who went mad when half his face got burnt and the only way to stop them is a guy dressed as a bat and his buddy who's dressed like a bird? Ironman somehow builds a fleet of the most advanced tactical weapons ever in his basement without pretty much anyone knowing about it? A man who can run so fast he breaks through time and dimensions somehow is constantly foiled by a regular dude with an ice super soaker? these are absurd, but the stories take themselves seriously so we can let the insanity slide and just enjoy the ride
What i love about this video the most is how it turned into a analysis of my favorite mcu movie XD
My favorite MCU item post Endgame must be Guardians vol. 3. Gunn knows so well how to tell a story instead of push an ideology. While it may be the most comedic movie post Endgame, it is somehow the most serious as well, because the comedy gives the serious moments their time. The movie would be so much worse if a joke was made while Rocket flatlined or just after. Find your balance, MCU. Make us think, don't tell us to.
Winter Soldier is one of my favorite movies. I rewatched it a few months ago and am happy at how well it holds up. The Reveal of Hydra's Infiltration of SHEILD is done well with the visuals and breakdown. Plus, their plan (in an incredibly cold way) makes sence. Sacrifice 6 million to guarantee 7 billion lives (granted likely suppressed by fear and the Heli-Carriera). And of course the very relevant quote of "Humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it's freedom to gain it's security." Damn.
I believe their plan was control. Not safety.
@IG88AAA That's how Arnin Zola phrased it and it's from the perspective of the people accepting these Heli-carriers and all the consequences they bring
I love you, man, hands down my favorite MCU movie. Considering that characters like Captain America and Black Widow (Hawkeye, too) don't fit in that well with a universe of gods and sorcerers, I had hoped that those more 'human' characters would get more Winter Soldier-esque content
(Though I fully appreciate the ironic nature of them being in multiverse-scale battles)
This video should have millions of views
I want to compare the MCU to the MAgic the Gathering situation: both draw parallels in that they originally had an engaging, and well written lore, their products came out sparcely (In the case of MTG a new set every few months), and it was designed by fans for fans, and then Corporatism (not capitalism) came in, saw it made money, and increased to frequency of turnout (more movies/spinoffs/junk) (in magics case more and more and more product leading to wallet fatigue) leading to a degeneration in the "special" factor, plus a constant pandering to people who will never watch or support your movie/product like the fans you alienated did before. Theres nothing special there anymore, its now "oh look a new Marvel show, oh look more MTG sets".
I got out of MTG around 2020 (for unrelated reasons) right before it got bad. 4 years out and it's nigh unrecognizable. (Not to mention all the random themed sets that are out now)
@@NakAlienEd its honestly horrible right now, and it was just confirmed that this year will be magic in space, in cars, and a spongebob/avatar/ other universes beyond. Its no longer magic the gathering, its fortnite the gathering. I sold most of my collection, foiled out my decks, and i play maybe once a month or so with my play group, but we got into Shadowverse evolve and Flesh and blood. I highly recommend Shadowverse Evolve: gloryfinder if you liked commander
People often forget that there's a difference between corporatism and capitalism. Capitalism is essentially the ideas of men like Adam Smith, that free exchange of goods and ideas will lead to a more prosperous and civilized society. Corporatism is about turning every item, every aspect of life imaginable, into a commodity to be bought and sold. Capitalism loves private farmers, for instance, because they are the embodiment of the ideal. Free people working their own land and selling their own products on their terms. Corporatism, on the other hand, hates them, because they generate minimal profit relative to the amount of land they use. No thought is given to how essential they are to the survival of a nation. That's why most of Europe is actively hostile to farmers these days, because they can't understand that there is more to life than just money. Carl Benjamin of the Lotus Eaters calls it managerialism, not corporatism, but it means the same thing overall
@@theonedraven8007 Honestly, I got out of it because it was my old coworkers who got me into it. I loved playing with them. Then I moved a bunch and tried playing at the local card shops, but I quickly realized the MTG player stereotypes existed for a reason, and that I really only liked the game because it provided a way to socialize with my old friends.
3:00 especially since guardians of the galaxy is already the share of comic relief
Winter Soldier was my favorite MCU movie and one of the rare sequels better than the first.
I've never been able to so adequately put into words why The Winter Soldier is my favorite MCU film. Thank you.
They peaked with Winter Soldier, which has only gotten more relevant.
How to work out these scenes into the video:
Chair guy - section on Cap as an inspiration to others, who start off cynical and burned out (Natasha, Falcon) and find their strength back because Cap needs them to join the fight
Winter soldier scene - section on Bucky as the avatar of the corruption of something noble (ex soldier, shield) into something twisted (assassins, Hydra) and how Cap's idealism purges them
That's what I love about you Master Samwise. I love that you have a middle ground between having political messages that work within a story for artistic sake and having entertainment so the message isn't shoved in your face. You're neither a chud or an SJW so you avoid the annoyances of both extremes.
Master Samwise better put out his Stormlight video next, or he’s an airsick lowlander.
the aforementioned MCU installment along with the original Superman staring Christopher Reeves,The Dark Knight,Logan and Infinity War are my favorites of the genre 🧐
I remember…
I gave a high school presentation on the MCU leading up to Infinity War and semi predicted the ending. The story had so much meaning behind the overarching argument between Tony and Steve. I remember Iron Man, Winter Solider, Age of Ultron, Civil War and Infinity War linking the some very heroic and worth while themes and ideas across a number of different movies and characters. It was inspiring.
I miss the days of well-written superhero films, but now everyone just wants to see character do/say the thing. It’s so empty.
The Winter Soldier has always been my favorite MCU film.
Your quote from Civil War was interrupted by an ad from IRC. So what literally happened was "... Your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and say-" "Hello, I'm Patrick Stewart.... And I believe in helping people in crisis." 😂😂😂
Dude i was listening instead of watching and the way he says Bucky sounds more like BAKI and i was thinking what the hell does he have to do in avengers
I do like how Iron Man 1 was referenced in the video, at the end. The theme of heart is what changes Tony, it's what make Steve Steve, contrasting to his villains with a lack of good heart just as the serum does.
And this is why I'm subscribed to you. Beautifully said my friend.
I firmly believe the MCU ended with Infinity War, and Endgame onwards was all a bad dream.
Why? Because they broke Causality. (I did a short essay on that on Substack!)
That’s an awful take. Endgame was phenomenal despite its flaws. Spider-Man No Way Home and GOTG3 also count. So does Loki.
Woo, first comment!
Edit: Also, Sam, I really do love your content. They really inspire me further as a writer during college, and I think you make very very very good points regarding current movies and cinema. I especially love all of your LotR videos, they make my love for the movies even deeper. I know I've commented on this multiple times now, but I really think you could glean a lot from more video game character studies. Specifically what I would like to see is Xenoblade Chronicles, specifically a study on my favorite villain of all time, Moebius N. Regardless, do as you're led, and I love your content! God bless!
Just missed when Marvel (not the just the MCU), was trying to be serious
I can't lie, captain marvel was a bland movie but it brought the "turn off your brain and enjoy an overpowered hero" feeling all three times I watched it
That you willingly chose to rewatch that sl0p and can still accurately admit that fact is worth noting.
In retrospect, I’d rather watch that film again over both its sequel and the absolute snore fest that was Eternals.
I've always said marvel peaked at winter soldier. Nice to have someone agree with me on that one. Great video.
"The MCU, not to mention Hollywood as a whole, has lost so much of what made it special and meaningful; because it is now far too preoccupied with whether or not its cast of characters *looks* like its audience instead of dreaming up stories of great heroism in which those characters inspire the audience to *want* to be like them."
The prevailing opinion is that I, as a straight white male, cannot see myself in T'Challa, or Natasha Romanov, or Shuri, or Hope Pym; because a white straight male cannot truly know what it is like to live as a minority. (I might argue that Hope and Natasha are as much in the majority as a straight white female, but in the intersectional hierarchy of oppression women are more oppressed than men). And yet, each of these characters have made me want to be a better person. To stretch myself farther to help others. To improve society so that more people can live better lives; because as Thor says "Thats what heroes do."
And we can find heroes EVERYWHERE. Michael Jordan for his athleticism. Michael Jackson for his musicality. Weird Al for his incredible lyrics. Simone Biles for her Olympic prowess. Agatha Christie for her twist endings that grip your attention so well. Steve Irwin for his love of nature. Fred Rogers for his neighborliness. Herman Boone for teaching a bunch of teenagers that they're not that different. The parent on public transit, that is entertaining their fussy child, and avoiding tantrums, to make the ride less wearisome for other travelers. The 3 year old who wants to learn the monkey bars SOOOO badly that despite falling 10 times, climbs back up to try again. Parents. Grandparents. Siblings. Aunts and Uncles...Heroes are everywhere if you look for them. From those powerful enough to challenge a balrog; to a lowly gardener, seeking to make the world a bit greener.
GREAT video. Happy you chose my absolute favourite MCU movie to make your point, I won't ever stop celebrating that movie. :)
Damn, I miss gritty Marvel. Winter Soldier and Civil War were so great because they took themselves seriously and they didnt made fun of their core characters
I use to take off work just so my friends and family could go to the movies at midnight, watch the marvel movie and then go to Dennys to discuss it. Haven’t done that since Endgame.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks Ant Man 1 and 2 ROCKED. them and Captain America were PEAK MCU for me
" why do you want to be a Avenger" ?
It is the perfect storm of corporate approved activism that leads to so many people taking jobs they are a poor fit for to make movies and shows they have no real interest in for an audience they hate or at the very best find off putting and juvenile. I don't think it is damage you can fix and at this point I don't think I care. Great analysis of The Winter Soldier and the current MCU.
Tolkien's Galadriel, her virtue may be a video subject for you Master Samwise, if it isn't already in your mind. 🙂
Also, do focus on the Galadriel that Tolkien wrote if you make such a video.
I'd watch that, especially if it concerned a more considerate approach such as that of "HelloFutureMe" and not just the quickly read-through online article-isms and reductionism of most independent news/media channels.
This one’s always been my favorite. Even as a teen. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew that this one stood out among the others because I meant something more than just superheroes.
The decisions of Dinsey post Endgame are some of the worst they could have made in handling an IP, second only to what they have done to Star Wars.
Instead of trying to squeeze the MCU for every last drop, a patient mouse would have reaped even greater reward.
Imagine if they had hit the pause on the MCU for a few years. Now movies, no shows, nothing. Give the fans time to really feel the loss of Tony Stark and Natasha before picking up down the road with hereos who had to come to terms with that themselves.
A wise Thor working to restore order theough the cosmos, but carrying the guilt of letting mere humans take the fatal blow instead of he. Bruce Banner dealing with the death of Natasha and what he sees as his failure to bring her back. Etc etc etc.
We could have gotten to know some of our favorite characters all.over again, and joined them on new journies. Instead, they have laregly been sidlined for new ones, and in some cases disrespectfully trodden upon (looking at you Iron Heart!)
We will never, ever get another run like the MCU to Endgame in cinema. No one has that sort of patience to do it right
MODOK’s death in Quantumania highlights this lack of seriousness. Nearly every line switched between serious and humorous - I couldn’t tell if I needed to laugh or cry, and by the end of the scene, I did neither.
They took the Guardians’ thing of undecutting everything while still being dark, dropped the being dark, and applied that logic to everything. What was once the expression if a kid lost far from home grown into a man lost in the stars with only a shred of his decency grasping for light… has barfed itself onto everything in an unwelcome way.
Across superheroes as a genre (and even action more generally), the most memorable scenes are not our protagonists being the best of the badasses, but our protagonists getting to act as heroes with other people -- with other heroes.
The climactic moment of Endgame was not the heroes defeating Thanos; it was the moment all these disparate heroes came together in the first place to fight him. The most famous scene from Wonder Woman was the No Man's Land scene, which was an awesome action scene on Diana's part -- but also an example of her action enabling heroic action from her comrades as well. One of the most famous sequences from the first Spider-Man trilogy is the train scene -- not just Peter stopping the train, but also the moment after when the commuters come together to support him. While the next Spider-Man duology never grew popular, the most popular scene from them was when all the construction workers came together to give Spider-Man a swinging path to the villain. And circling back to this movie, one of the reasons Steve's Speech and the action scenes around it were so memorable was that it wasn't *just* the stars of the movie taking heroic action; all throughout SHIELD, every day workers and regular soldiers and spies with no suits and no powers were fighting alongside him. The guy at the computer fully expected to die and stood up for what was right anyway, and THAT moment is what made Steve's speech so powerful.
I expanded beyond superheroes for a reason. The most memorable Lord of the Rings are of characters coming together, e.x. Gondor coming to aid, the army appearing on the horizon, and even just the fellowship of the ring being forged in the first place. The climactic scene of Rogue One was not just the characters from the movie posters working together; it was also unnamed pilots and soldiers passing the MacGuffin to each other down the hall, knowing full well they were about to die but doing it anyway for the greater good. One of the most popular scenes to come out of Arcane was the moment Zaun came to Piltover's aid against Noxus.
Take a look at the most recent superhero movies, and action properties in general. I see a lot of badass moments for our favorite heroes...but *only* our favorite heroes. The other characters are motionless and action-less, little more than NPCs. We don't get to see our protagonists act as heroes with their friends or with strangers, and that makes their heroism feel empty and lackluster as a result.
I remember seeing Iron Man as a kid and I remember skipping it to the parts with the suit because as kids we couldn’t care less about the dialogue and only care about the cool action scenes. Iron Man was my favorite superhero growing up 🥹 I even had a helmet and iron man heart and everything
1) Only because Marvel was perfect between 2008 and 2019, it doesn't mean that it will always stay that way
2) Covid happened, Disney and Kevin Feige were too overconfident and mass scheduled series and movies and everything turned into chaos.
3) Compared to Kathleen Kennedy from Star Wars, Kevin Feige understood that something was wrong. That success isn't coming, so he mass canceled or delayed most projects post 2023. Explaining the low amount of movies and series in 2024.
4) If the MCU learned from it's mistakes, the next two years will be fantastic, although I can't guarantee the hype coming back.
NB: I'm not a toxic hater. I totally aggree that many projects that came out between 2020 and 2023 were crap (The Marvels, Secret Invasion, Doctor Strange Mom...). I'm just saying that every masterpiece has it's up's and down's. Some never recover (Fortnite), some still don't realize they are lost (Star Wars), but the way the MCU is going after Deadpool & Wolverine and the way the MCU was treated before, I'm confident to say that it will come back.
Someday.
Please don't flood the comment section with negative comments.
Thanks for making me miss the days when Marvel Studios made fantastic movies by talking about one of my favorites. Fantastic 👏😄
The thing to remember about all the business about bathos in the MCU is that the MCU, in its heyday, was fathoms more light-hearted than its grim and nihilistic competitors over at DC. DC movies "meant something." The problem was that DC movies meant something morose, depressing, and paradoxically immature, mostly because Zack Snyder refused to play into the strengths of the characters he was instructed to bring to life because, by his own admission, he _didn't believe_ in those strengths. Much has been made of Snyder's many public remarks on the subject, nearly all of which proved that he shouldn't have been given the reigns to much of anything DC. Whether Snyder's message would have come out better from original characters is difficult to say in hindsight... or it least it was before _Rebel Moon_ came out and proved the answer was a comedically-protracted "NOOOOOOOOOO" worthy of Darth Vader. Still, it would be churlish to say that Snyder didn't have a point to make with his DC offerings, for better or worse.
There are many ways to fail. The problem, and what I fear will be the _wrong_ lesson to take from this particular comedy of errors, is that superhero fare, particularly in the MCU, will divert back to Edgy Edgerton of Edgewood, Edgedelphia. Whenever a trend doesn't work out, Hollywood producers _love_ to inaccurately attribute the problem to an audience fatigue of motif. (If not brand. "Star Wars Fatigue," anyone?) In fact, the MCU was born from this very kind of course correction, becoming light-hearted in stark contrast to the overly dour Dark Knight Trilogy. Contrary to what the suits must think (not helped by social media broadcasting the most ignorant takes imaginable), changing trajectory isn't what made the MCU good. Effort is what made the MCU good. Winter Soldier. Guardians 1. Ant-Man. Doctor Strange. Spider-Man Homecoming. Civil War. Guardians 2. Ragnarok. _Infinity War._ Good films all, any one of which could viably be the favorite of someone I could envision respecting, and _Black Panther_ could've been a lot worse. The problem is directors don't want to hear anything complicated like that because "effort" isn't something you can buy, let alone promise. Everybody has "effort." Everybody promises the cash man a big sugary payday with the biggest critical hit since _Citizen Kane._ Nobody walks up to a bigshot media exec and promise to make them a steaming turd unless they're Leslye Headland.
If you ask me, the big problem with the MCU right now isn't a problem of being too comedic, too edgy, or anything like that. I don't even think being well-written would fix much. (See _Andor_ for that case study.) The problem is _we hate them,_ though to be fair, we didn't start it. They took shots at their own fans with their thespian puppets, media sycophants, and useful idiots alike, repeatedly, and we noticed. It was hard to _not_ notice. You couldn't _pay_ Brie Larson to shut up. Everything Marvel Studios does now is tainted with the asterisk of "from the people who hate you," and the feeling is often mutual. Even a _good_ project from them is going to get skeptical people scanning it with a Geiger counter to make sure it's safe to consume. Just look at the reception _Deadpool and Wolverine_ got, the best of which echoed sentiments such as "amazingly not crap." It should not be a pleasant surprise that a Marvel project didn't pillage your hometown and you can't find your kid sister anymore. When you have that kind of reputation, you're never going to get a fair shake.
What Marvel needs most right now is to close down for a good few years. Take a vacation. Do some soul searching. Broaden their actors' resumes. Spend some extra time punching up the finer details of the upcoming Doomsday saga. Double down on _Marvel Rivals._ Get embezzled by Lucasfilm. Break Nick Spencer's fingers. I don't care. Come back as a _new_ Marvel Studios, ready to put its moronic past behind it, just like it did way back in 2008. But all this undignified pandering? When you have to wheel out RDJ, it comes off like a wife beater trying to buy forgiveness with a luxury car. It's a waste of their time _and_ mine.
Have you read the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett? The books in the series focusing on Sam Vimes are amazing and might even be worth a video.
A good idea. Maybe one for Granny Weatherwax as well?
I am glad to find some ant-man enjoyers XD
after endgame, i watched the next two spider-man movies, wandavision, the first season of loki, and then gave up. endgame WAS the end for me. spider-man was just a couple of fun little epilogues, and wandavision was very interesting, but i've gotten all i wanted. i've enjoyed the guardians and thor (especially since ragnarok) but i never bothered to see their next films. i didn't care enough. had my fill. they're just milking a dying cow now and it's sad as hell.
eta: and my word, YES, winter soldier is still my favorite of the MCU. it is completely perfect.
Best Marvel movie by far. I know many will disagree but I freaking loved how grounded and real it in a way was. It perfectly makes super heroes fit our present world. Of course Superheroes would work for government agencies and go on countless missions. And of course villains would do all they can to infiltrate and manipulate these organizations to do their bidding.
Every MCU movie directed by the Russo Brothers are in my top 10.
Good analysis. Thinking about it, the first MCU movie that I felt started to badly mix comedy and seriousness was Thor: Ragnarok. There are too many moments in Thor: Ragnarok where the scene is serious, but they throw a joke in; Asgard being destroyed being a perfect example. Guardians of the Galaxy however is comedic, but even in that movie they have times they put the comedy aside to let the movie be serious. That allowing the comedy movie to be serious has the effect of actually making the serious moments stronger.
So I remember the moment I really started getting skeptical about if I would watch the next MCU movie coming out, and it was the climax of Captain Marvel, when after the repeated question of can you win without your powers had been posed throughout the movie she won the final conflict with her powers. Had the villain had a gizmo that would have shut off her powers via an implant or something or a temporary de-powering ray or something and actually forced her to win without those powers I think her charioteer arc would have been so much stronger than the nope I have powers ha ha you loose that we got.
The people making most projects coming from Disney are embarrassed by what they’re working on and don’t have the stones to take it seriously, so they make everything a joke.
Man, I used to love the MCU. How the mighty has fallen.
The absolute worst part of not taking things seriously is that even something innately goofy can take itself seriously-take 60s Adam West Batman. It knows it is ridiculous, but doesn’t self satirize. It revels in the ridiculousness and enjoys the world it has created. Modern Marvel can’t even enjoy the candy colored costumes and quipy one liners.
You *didn't* know that show existed, did you?
Fixed that for you. Good vid.
9:26. What if she had just plugged her nose instead of smacking her head on the desk. Lmao
Hot take: Endgame is overrated. I didn’t hate the movie but some things didn’t make any sense. Example: The main thing that irritated me was how they handled Captain America’s finale. Him staying in the past was out of character and it causes problems in both timelines. Plus I wasn’t crazy about Tom Hollands Spiderman movies. Some decisions from Peter and Tony were ridiculous. Ok sorry, rant over lol 😂.
If you think Capt's decision to stay in the past was out of character, then you probably weren't paying attention to his character at all.
@
I was paying attention to the character. Captain America has always been about responsibility and of course the constant theme of him having to “move on” due to him being a man out of time(which also explains the mindset of his creator Jack Kirby). Him staying in the past is irresponsible. Like I said before its supposed to have consequences and it goes against him moving on. Plus it felt out of left field and it wasn’t explained very well in the film. And of course Steve not rescuing his best friend in the past, leaving his younger self frozen, etc etc. Yeah like I said. Too many problems. Along with the fact that he’s ignoring future problems in his own timeline(a bit selfish). He’s only like what 38? Still in his prime and he can still help civilians and other heroes in his own timeline.
That is a hot take but it’s understandable
I disagree with it but it is understandable
I agree that Endagame is overrated but I think Cap choosing to stay in the past is the least of its problems
For me it was the length and the action, just the refusal to let Thanos be put down until everyone had their turn winning but getting blown away because Thanos clearly is stronger now cuz plot... I got tired. Action for actions sake, they could have let Thanos actually win the fights, leave them all scrambling about despite their best efforts, make Tony's sacrifice a much more desperate last ditch effort, that would've been a little better. Mostly it was just to long though. The whole roster had to have a turn
I used to love the MCU, I watched (with a few exceptions) all of the movies leading up to Endgame. If someone would have told me back then that I would lose interest in it, I probably would not have believed them. But with everything they have put out over the last years, that has been the case. Even for a hard-core MCU fan it is hard to keep up with all the movies and series. It makes me kind of sad and I still hope that at some point they will prioritize quality over quantity again, but I can't see that happening yet.
That is precisely the reason why the first Wonder Woman was so good. It allowed there to be character moments, wear its heart on its sleeve, be genuine and not hamstrung by quips like most Marvel movies
The biggest flaw of Wonder Woman is that Ares was real.
@ very true. As much as I loved that movie, the ending was ridiculous - Ares is real and all of a sudden soldiers are hugging each other? Definitely a frustrating ending
I think Hollywood doesn't have characters willing to stand up for their principles anymore because nobody writing these characters has any principles themselves.
I think the best example of this change is the hulk. He went from a morally gray hero who avoids fights because he hates what he has to become to win, to an ED joke.
The Hulk is a hero. The Hulk always can tell who is innocent and never intentionally harms innocent people. The problem is other people provoke the Hulk and cause collateral damage.
5:46 - Cap doesnt need to change, it is a less know storytelling for a character that is right, a flat character arc.
Normal arcs are about a character changing throught the story, flat one is about them changing the characters or world around them
Would love to see you make a masculinity video about Captain America!
9:53
I actually enjoyed echo, and thought it was fairly well done, even though I'd never even heard of the source material for it. (Not talking accuracy, but content and intentions) I got very invested in the new daredevil and Jessica Jones, so perhaps that's why, but it was an interesting story, even if there were long waits between the active plot points.
So well said. 👏
It seems people are more concerned with looking diverse, instead of telling diverse stories.
Am currently re-watching the Infinity Saga, can't believe it was only 5 years ago.
Skillfully put. Nice work
Your bookshelf has The Pacific on the left of Band of Brothers. This in not ordered alphabetically, chronologically by release date, or chronologically by topic. Why is it like this?
I dig the Republic Commandos helmets!
another day another banger
At the end you explained the problem, but this comes down to how the genders typically view characters on a story. (Not 100 percent of the time but enough to see the trend before anyone gets bent out of shape)
Men want to aspire to become like their fictional heroes we will never be Aragorn but we wish it to be so (though anyone can become Sam and absolutely should)
Women seek to relate directly with their heroes and how they already resemble them, this has been pushed in recent movies to a literal skin deep connection.
It meant something two months ago before I finally decided to watch Arcane.
The problem with the MCU is that it overstayed its welcome after Endgame. Disney got greedy and because of it destroyed the MCU. I pray the same thing doesn't happen to the DCU.
Honestly the truth is they should have just stopped after endgame except for maybe some spider man movies.
0:02 oh yeah, the MCU is my favourite movie! I rewatch it every weekend actually! I just wonder when they're gonna get around to making MCU 2.