the reawakening of my marvel inclination (reviews of the last four movies)

[yestoday]

Alright, just bear with me if none of this is coherent because my brain is in so much pain from being awoken earlier than necessary for a Zoom call and bingeing two movies in a row from my laptop. (This situation seems to be a reoccurring theme, doesn't it?)

A little background on my current placement in the Marvel and MCU fandom: ever since the release of Hawkeye, I spontaneously dropped out entirely from this interest… for a reason unbeknownst to me. (Okay, maybe that reason can be dug up if I do some further introspection, but that's not what I want to use this time for right now.) It was kind of concerning, though. Like, I was a crazy Marvel fanatic up until the run of their first Disney Plus shows. I lost the draw and immersion almost out of the blue, and my previously prevailing interest was just gone in the blink of an eye. There was no motivation to pick up on the shows, and eventually, several movies were released, and I didn't go see any of them—Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all passed by just like that. I kept promising myself that I would catch up, that I can't just let this franchise go so easily, especially since it had grown to be such an integral part of my passion. I never did it, though. My mom ended up watching a couple of these movies without me because I kept stalling on my vow to watch it with her.

It was halfway through the summer, and I still haven't made any efforts in starting my grand comeback. Alas, my saviors came in the form of Janet and Kate dragging me to see Thor: Love and Thunder yesterday, when they and my sister returned from summer camp. I almost declined, to be honest, because I would feel so guilty about not watching these in order. I did end up going. I felt fine afterwards. The movie was cute, and Tessa Thompson is so fine. Then, I began to feel the flare spark again—maybe, not all is lost; maybe, it's coming back.

So it did: I got home and pulled up Eternals on oomf's Disney Plus account that I'm using and watched it with my mom—that was the only one she didn't watch on her own. The next day (today), I found the remaining two films on some 123movies bootleg in fantastic quality, and I binged both of those in one go earlier. (As I'm typing this, I am now realizing that I could've just watched Multiverse on Disney Plus, and I'm not sure why I didn't think of switching back.) Either way, the result is the massive headache and eye strain that I have going on right now. I would go to sleep, but it's not even 11 P.M. yet, so that won't do! I'm here to release my final thoughts on these four films now. It'll be a good way to organize my thoughts before I—hopefully am able to—plunge back into catching up on the new shows, as well as some of the older ones. (Is Daredevil still on Netflix?)

I'll go in order of release, then.

Eternals

Alright, so we've all heard of the disappointing reviews this received when it was released. I never took them to heart; I was more influenced by the oomf who had been excited and anticipating this movie for months, dedicating their whole layout to it. Yes… that, and the sheer amount of Barry Keoghan edits I saw on the timeline during that time period.

After watching, I can actually totally understand the shit Rotten Tomatoes score. I, myself, really liked it, however! Sure, it was corny at times (Ikaris flying into the sun… no… you're so sexy; don't commit suicide by a cheesy cliché…), but the movie satisfied the epic superhero found-family needs of my little boy brain well enough.

The beginning was definitely questionable in terms of storytelling. There's been criticism on the pacing and the flow, and that I can pretty solidly agree with—particularly in the introductory phase. It was… ungracefully straightforward; there was a whole lot more of telling rather than showing, and that was annoying. The dialogue was not that well written. Those one-liners were not hitting like they thought they were… but the sentiment of an attempt was palpably there. At first, I thought it would received negatively because of the preposterousness and ridiculous scale of the plot, but I found out that the plot felt just fine—suitably in place—and it was just the writing that was awkward.

Another issue that arose was the amount of new characters introduced and that they simply couldn't juggle them all and make the audience sympathize fully with them in the span of a single movie. This, I do not agree with, personally! Perhaps, I just grow attached to people too quickly, because I loved them all by the end of it. I don't think they needed equal screen time or even balanced importance in this movie alone. They each were distinct and had their own ambitions, priorities, and separate lives that made them feel realistic. Their type of bond with each other was also very touching to me. I love their relationships and idiosyncrasies so much, man. They're just a long-living family that are frayed around the edges, but in the end they managed to find their own places in the world and with each other—minus Ikaris. Sorry to that man. I did like him, too. (Maybe, I still do…) See, I told you I get attached to personas way too rapidly.

On that topic, Richard Madden is really kind of hot. I get it, now.

Anyway, Harry Styles threw me off; I had completely forgotten about that. And… Blade, is it, at the end? Speaking of the end, the end credits animation was so cool to me—like how they tied the ancient gods of different civilizations to the gang. That sequence was one of the most memorable parts of the film to me.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

This was sweet, but I will cautiously admit I liked Eternals more. I will not and can not elaborate on the reasons. They are just my babies.

But so is Peter, I swear! This movie as a whole product was just fine, but I have to admit that Peter did annoy me a bit with his shenanigans—because Norman Osborn was totally correct: this is literally all Peter's fault and no amount of redemption could make up for that fact. I was on Strange's side from the beginning; it shouldn't have been Peter's business to mess with their fates and what was going on in their universes. Even if he managed to 'fix' them, wouldn't that… fuck up their timelines, then? They weren't meant to be fixed! These villains I know and love have just been killed! Okay, I'm being dramatic here. I simply feel that the motif that carried this movie's plot was very childish and stubborn, even if it 'worked out' in the finale. Aunt May can tell Peter that he was doing the right thing however much she wanted, but she is not convincing me! Not from her grave!

Irksome plot aside, these guys at least brought us some badass fight scenes. I was loving Otto—my sweet, modern day Doctor Octopus arms CGI! Willem Dafoe was also showing everyone up; god, the actors all ate. Jamie Foxx is so hot. It was really, really lovely that they managed to get the original actors to return for this. I had never thought about appreciating the effort for this fully until now—just imagine how much they paid for the cast alone, damn.

(Eddie Brock at the end, too, damn… Disney, I'll get you those Sony rights myself.)

I could actually hear the echoes of the cheers in the theater when Andrew Garfield showed up; like, I could hear it so vividly, as if I wasn't watching this in my grandma's bedroom. I've seen a million edits of the scene of 'Peter 3' saving MJ on Twitter beforehand, but that whole incident was just so deep. They knew exactly what they were doing writing that scene in—of him tearing up at MJ, of the unspoken notion of "not this time"—and that was perhaps the singular smartest move of the entire script.

In conclusion, I think the 93% on Rotten Tomatoes was purely a result of pulling the strings of the viewers' nostalgia gland and the delicious cinematic parallels and references that made this film feel a lot more clever than it really was.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

My mom watched this before me, and she said she did not like it—this is a shock to hear from her, considering that I know damn well that Stephen is her favorite character and that she adored his first movie. I watched it with that in mind. It was not as bad as I anticipated. It was fine, actually. A fuck ton of shit beyond comprehension went down, but I do not have any majorly ill opinions on it, surprisingly.

This movie felt really long for no reason—my mom agreed, but I thought that might have been because she hated it, so it felt like she had to reluctantly trudge through the whole thing. I thought it felt long probably because of the choppiness of the settings, you know, jumping around different universes and all. It felt like there were a ton of new subplots and worlds to learn about at every turn. I can't decide if I enjoyed that feeling or not. A lot of things were being thrown at us, and by the end of it, the only thought I could formulate was "woah."

The ending was definitely abrupt. Just a brief speech of "trust yourself" from a reanimated rotting corpse was enough for America to spontaneously master her power? Just a view of her kids and a sentence from an alternate version of herself was enough for Wanda to instantly make the decision to destroy every Darkhold in the universe and entrap herself? I don't believe that. Though I know the real soul of Wanda Maximoff herself would make that choice to save lives in a heartbeat, we know that the Darkhold had already corrupted her mind, and whatever corruption that had infiltrated couldn't be erased that effortlessly, could it? There's no way it would let her destroy every copy of itself just like that. The Darkhold can't be ridded of that easily… I've seen the rounds it's made through the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seasons.

On another note, I smiled like a maniac when Peggy said "I could do this all day." She is so hot. (Sorry, this phrase is becoming reoccurring, isn't it…)

I'm glad there was a mention of Inhumans, though (or, at least, a mention of a Inhuman). It's indescribably relieving to see their kind acknowledged in one of the unarguably canon movies, even if it was in a universe apart from the main timeline. They didn't mention mutants, but Professor X was there, and there's literally no way they can strip him of his mutant background, so I think it's safe to say they're secured, too. (Disney, I'll get you those FOX rights myself.)

Speaking of the main timeline, something that is going to bother me for eternity now is Dr. Palmer officially declaring the main MCU timeline as Earth-616. Bitch, no, that's Earth-199999! Is the main comic continuum just not a thing anymore then? Is it possible to prove her incorrect, because I have been addressing the MCU as Earth-199999 the entire time and accepting that as something that's different than the comic Earth-616 timeline, with both of those coexisting in one omniverse. What the hell am I supposed to do now! This leads me to question where the number 199999 came from in the first place… hold on, let me do some research.

Ah:

The Christine Palmer of Earth-838 assigning the number "616" to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be considered by the Marvel Database as an Easter egg and not this reality's true official designation.

I can accept this. I'm at peace with this.

Thor: Love and Thunder

Oh, wow, I suddenly can't remember most of the thoughts I had on this. I just remember being whipped so fucking bad for Valkyrie. It was terrible I was getting ready to swoon in my seat every time she appeared. But, uh… moving on.

I definitely liked this, as it had the power to drag me back into this Marvel pit. The narrations by Korg were quite a pleasure. It was funny, although some of the jokes felt a little forced into the landing and some tropes were corny. I still hold an unpopular opinion of… possibly preferring the pre-Taika-Waititi Thor, so inherently I'm not going to feel as much sentiment to this as I should, but still, I loved it well enough. (Don't get me wrong: it's not that I dislike Taika's take on Thor. Ragnarok was simply not my ideal turn in events. Call me a fun-hater, but at some point, I have noticed that I tend to lean naturally closer to the more somber, serious tones in Marvel movies. Now, I know how hypocritical this sounds, considering that I am an Ant-Man stan, but just hear me out for this one…)

I love Jane. I missed her so much. I didn't understand what was so bad about her picking up Mjølnir to fight her cancer. It was in stage four, so she had little chance of recovering on her own anyway; why not just stay as Mighty Thor forever? I don't see a reason for her to need to ever revert to human form. It's not like she can't do her scientist job in Mighty Thor form, anyway. By "Thor will return," they better mean Jane is included.

The ending was predictable as hell, but that has never been something that bothered me. (I literally whispered into Janet's ear beside me that Thor was going to tell Gorr "You seek love," and voila, he said it not two seconds later.)