#the actor who plays Loki on Ragnarok is AMAZING

[uniiiquehecrt]

Just wanted to say your knowledge of movies in general and Thor lore in specific in amazing!

Realistically speaking, can we expect to see Fosterson together again? I still have hope in my heart that we will.

Thank you, Nonny ❤ Your words are very kind! I'm lucky enough to have had some amazing teachers who were able to help me understand story fundamentals... so it's a topic very near and dear to my heart.

And my friend I have a twofold answer. Speaking optimistically, and betting on Thor's success as a standalone franchise, and as an avengers franchise, I do think it's possible. Or in the very least, it's surely possible to at least see Thor again for a fifth (and preferably final) standalone installment.

He's a consistent money-maker. Even Love and Thunder made about as much as the other films in the THOR franchise, with each film grossing about 3.75 times the production budget of each film. (Fun fact: Thor (2011) and Thor: Love and Thunder both made ~3.0 times the production budget, versus Dark World that did 4.3 times better, and Ragnarok that did 4.7.) Critically, his worst film is L+T at 63%. This is actually worse than Dark World which sits ~67%, and between the two it's pretty clear that L+T is not a fan-favorite, but he DOES make money, and continues to be incredibly well-liked regardless. Something that I'd wager Marvel's Phase 4+ needs. Thor has prestige, and people like him and his actor. He's consistently made profits for Marvel in ALL of his films, so Marvel would be pretty stupid not to double down for a fifth movie and the promise of "thor will return". (And as much as I loathe the film, L+T might have gotten some of the mcu normies to actually bother at least paying attention to Jane, whether it's for good reason or not.) So it's a bit of a no-brainer to bring back a character, and one of the last mcu couples, that is reliable. People like heroes and they like romance. Fosterson is both rolled into one.

Within this thought process, I do think that if Marvel knew what was good for it (...debatable... but again being optimistic) then they would reunite Thor with Jane and the rest of his family where he belongs. Give him that happy ending he so deserves as the final survivor of his original cast (discounting Sif), and of the Avengers' Big Three. No one in the whole of the Avengers franchise deserves a happy ending more than Thor does.

So with that in mind, for Thor's next appearance, either it's bring back Jane similarly to the end of the Mighty Thor comic arc, or have Thor end up in Valhalla where the whole rest of his cast is. Either way, Fosterston fans like you and me would ultimately get what we want (the two reunited). Then it's a matter of "but would it feel earned to the audience who's kept with Thor for the past decade"?

As it stands: Thor is in an odd position where his options are limited, but still technically open as a character. Narratively his story simply will not be finished until he's been put to rest one way or another... Ultimately he needs to find peace, and I think anyone in the MCU fanbase can at least agree that MCU!Thor won't be able to for as long as all of his castmates are dead or otherwise written out of the picture. (Thanks to the decision to write Thor out of Asgard by revoking his birthright he can't even at least have THAT as a reason to keep going.) Even Hemsworth feels as much, whether he'll say it so explicitly or not. ("Thor lost his mind that last one. He’s got to figure it out now.")

Really a reunion should be in a 5th installment, but if they wanted to play it cheap they could maybe wrap up Thor's story in a B Plot or a cameo in whatever they have lined up for Avengers: Secret Wars. Were it up to me I would argue ostensibly that it's a "pick one" situation at this point in time. (and given they might attempt to shoehorn TVA!Loki into meeting MCU!Thor at some point to call that a day, the most profitable answer seems pretty cut and dry.)

Realistically speaking within that...? I think that all depends on Marvel/Disney's budget, and ...honestly, probably Chris Hemsworth on the whole.

There are many shifting variables in Hollywood right now. Lots of budget cuts, cancelled tv shows and films, job losses, etc. While I think the big names and upper league of the industry are going to come out relatively unscathed, I do think that Disney/Marvel may need to slow its productions down, and greatly decrease the quality and quantity in order to survive. That, and, again, the fact of the matter is that the quality of Marvel's Phase 4+ has been pretty hot garbage.

Which then leads me back to the point that: Thor is a decent money maker. He's still got material to work with if they wanted to wrap him/Chris' iteration of him up as they did with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. And this is keeping in mind that Chris Evans, despite Steve's story definitely being wrapped, is willing to come back for cameos in future appearances out of respect and love for his character.

....That said, you'll notice that I mention "respect and love for his character" when mentioning Chris Evans. Frankly, Chris Hemsworth is a bit more of a wild card. I've mentioned it (here), but it seems as though Hemsworth has largely fallen out of love with Thor. Now, when I say that I don't mean that he hates Thor. Thor is a very special character to him. Something he has stated multiple times in interviews — especially since becoming Thor really helped launch his career forward.

... The GOOD news is Chris has commented on coming back for future Thor films.

“Yeah, I think [Marvel] always [teases the characters return in films]. Look, I’m completely open to it, [...] I’ve always loved the experience. I’ve been very thankful I’ve been able to do something different each time.”

The ... BAD news is he's also commented on being largely contented with the character as is (albeit wanting to move on from Taika's take) and otherwise finding him "boring", and that there is not a lot he'd want to do with Thor now that they've spanned the course of ... mostly everything.

“You look at Thor 1 and 2, they were quite similar. Ragnarok and Love and Thunder are similar. I think it’s about reinventing it. I’ve had such a unique opportunity with Infinity War and Endgame to do very drastic things with the character. I enjoy that, I like keeping people on their toes. It keeps me on my toes. It keeps me invested. I’ve said this before but when it becomes too familiar, I think there’s a risk in getting lazy then because I know what I’m doing. So I don’t know."

He, like Evans and Downey Jr. I'm sure, wants a happy ending for his character — and I would argue that absolutely includes Jane, but the course of Disney/Marvel's Phase 4 is uncertain, because they seem to have no plan. Or at least not one beyond "insert cool cameo here"

...And Chris' faith in the character that kickstarted a large portion of his career has seemed to have utterly tanked in recent years especially. (Particularly since it's been rather hot and cold for him. If a film does well and is written wonderfully, then there isn't enough Loki in it so the MCU fanbase decides to go nutty. If it's written poorly with an ill-cast director, it does well. But then when they double down on that ill-casted director people get fed up with it because the Russo Bros. did it better in Infinity War and rightfully so. Though Chris seems to favor the IW depiction too so even he isn't immune.) So it's hard to say whether or not Chris will actually take up another contract, fulfill any that he's (allegedly) previously made or make so much as a cameo appearance to fulfill that "Thor Will Return" we were promised at the end of L+T.

"I have no idea. I've said it before, it all depends on the type of story. It has to be something unique. What I don't want is to do the same with the character until the end, until there is a feeling of exhaustion in the audience. But if there is excitement for it, I am always willing to return. If there is a new story, it has to be something very special. I'm sure there's something exciting to tell, so we'll have to wait and see. You have to wait to find it." "Again, I don’t know if I’m even invited back. But if I was, I think it would have to be a drastically different version in tone, everything, just for my own sanity… (laughs) … Thor lost his mind that last one. He’s got to figure it out now."

I'm afraid that sounds rather dour... but unless we actually get confirmation of a Thor 5, or Thor appearance in the inevitable Avengers movies down the line, it's really just... hard to say. As ever this is all simply hypothetical conjecture based on sheer observation. Though of course, I don't work for Marvel. And even if I did, NDAs exist, so it's not as if I could confirm or deny anything anyways. We simply have to wait and see.

PERSONALLY if I were to take a crack at it, I'd at least give Thor a 5th movie, completely wrap him up in a way that is respectful to his character while also ... attempting to acknowledge and semi-respect what Marvel has already done thus far ... and then leave the rest up to cameo and side character appearances, like what they're doing with Evans and Steve Rogers.

#(though then if it were me i'd have written ragnarok completely differently.... and would /slightly/ tweak-) #(-a few details about dark world but honestly that film is like 95% perfect in my eyes) #(watch me slowly put together a 'thor arc rewritten' hypothetical at this point ansjkfsabkdsabk fix-it fics my beloved) #anyways is this the answer you were looking for nonny? lord if i know #but alas it is what it is from where i'm standing and where it is... is all over the place #we're living in the timeline where everything is a mess. do i think fosterson will get back together? personally? yes. #i think it'd be short-sighted of them to refrain from reuniting them + giving Thor especially one last hurrah. #do i think it's /realistically/ going to happen? debatable. Marvel/Disney has done nothing to make me have faith in them #as a studio and with all of their writers and directors they've hired on ever since phase 3 ended >>;; #thor also unfortunately puts butts in the seats because we all know him and like him and chris is a phenomenal actor #....so ... who knows when they'll actually retire him as they did with steve/chris evans and tony/rdj #&&. whispers #&&. | marvel. | #&&. thor.

[iamanartichoke]

So I've been working on a Loki music video for a couple of days, and my intent is for it to be a sort of tribute to Prime Loki's life, past the divergent point of the series, but from the reflection/pov of TVA Loki. Therefore, I've been playing with Ragnarok and TDW clips -

- and it really is quite amazing how Tom manages to, like, I don't know - tap into this intangible energy that embodies both Lokis (Prime and TVA, I mean) and make it different. They really do seem like two different people, and it's not just the clothes or the age difference or the setting. It's something, like I said, intangible about the energy he's bringing to his portrayal of the character(s).

In retrospect, it's sort of a shame that we didn't get to see more Tom!Lokis, aside from President Loki (who also seemed like a totally different person, btw), bc I don't know, there's just this kind of subtle nuance in the way he physically wears each different version of Loki. Like, what a damn fine actor, yknow?

#just an observation #loki pokey artichokey #tom hiddleston is my favorite unicorn #idk if this makes sense or if i explained it well but #going from ragnarok clips to tva clips just made it feel #really jarring - that energy difference #like 'we're officially two people now' #fic idea - tva loki meets up with prime loki somewhere down the line #which of course would require prime loki to be Not Dead but #that's the easy part

[therealraeweber]

I finally got to see Thor: Love and Thunder last night! Here are my thoughts: ***SPOILERS AHEAD***

It was a really good movie! I really enjoyed it! I genuinely think it is the funniest marvel movie ever made, as I was laughing through the whole thing. Taika absolutely knocked it out of the park. Of course, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as Ragnarok, but that was a pretty hard movie to beat.

That being said, I was also a bit underwhelmed by the plot. It was very simple, with no twists or surprises, which isn't really Marvel standard these days. Now, that being said, maybe that is a good thing for Marvel. So many of their recent projects have been such huge stories to tell, with 15 different sub plots going on and plenty of surprise twists or celebrity cameos. While I absolutely love those movies, it is good to know Marvel can still make a basic (relative to their other projects) movie, and make it entertaining to watch.

All of that aside, my absolute favourite part of this movie? Matt Damon reprising his role as the Loki actor in the Asgard plays. When I say I cackled when he came on screen. I was absolutely not expecting it, but man was that a brilliant decision. That whole scene was so hilarious, and a beautiful callback to Ragnarok.

Speaking of that scene, as soon as the actor playing Hela came out (which, by the way, Melissa McCarthy was the perfect choice omg), I immediately recognized that they were playing off of one of my all time favourite YouTube videos, Thor 4D. I can't believe they used that! And they did it so well! If you haven't seen Thor 4D, it's a segment that James Cordon did on his talk show right when Ragnarok was coming out, where he got the actual actors from the movie to act out a very low-budget, discount version of the movie, and it is one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen. I remember watching that YouTube video right when it came out, thinking it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, and immediately showing it to everyone I know. I have since watched it a ridiculous number of times, and it is still funny every time. In fact, I actually have it saved on my private playlist called "Videos I have watched too many times". So, to see this random little YouTube video, which was joking about the MCU, has now become canon in the MCU? *chef's kiss* Obviously, I don't know for sure that this was Taika's intention for this scene, but it just so closely resembles it that it had to be a conscious decision. I mean, the way Thor's hammer slowly travels over to Hela, and the way she crushes it? Exactly the same. Yep... this was the best part of the movie for me. Amazing.

Aside from this, I don't really have a lot of thoughts on the movie. It was a pretty simple plot, and it got the job done. I do have one major complaint and one major compliment, however. Both of them are related to Jane's cancer. My complaint, which my friend and I were both a bit peeved about after watching this movie, is that Jane had Stage 4 cancer for 6 months and was going through chemotherapy, but still had all her hair. What? Imagine how amazing it would have been for cancer awareness if Jane had shaved her head! Imagine all the kids going to watch this movie who have caner, or know someone who has cancer and had to shave their head, seeing a superhero going through their same battle. That would have been great. But no, having her be bald was just... to much? I guess? Maybe Natalie Portman just didn't want to shave but I mean... look at 11 in this season of stranger things! There are good short hair wigs nowadays! And good bald caps! They could have done something. My big compliment, however, is that Jane made it into Valhalla. Earlier in the film they made it abundantly clear that a person must die IN the battle to make it into Valhalla. Sif wouldn't have made it in, because she was dying from complications AFTER the battle had ended. Since we saw Jane die after the battle had ended, this means she made it into Valhalla because she was actively battling cancer. I think that is a really beautiful message for this movie to give, that all people fighting cancer are brave warriors. That was really touching.

One other thing that I thought was really cute is that they cast Chris Hemsworth's daughter to play Thor's (adopted) daughter! I can't imagine how much fun they must have had working together.

Anyways, those are my main thoughts on the film! Aside from some questions that are now raised, like what movie were they setting up with that post credit scene? Who's going to be fighting Hercules? The guardians? The eternals? I'm really not sure where they are going with that one. Another question being whY DID THEY CUT OUT THAT SCENE WITH VALKYRIE LICKING THE SWORD? HUH? Absolutely criminal. How dare they. I'm also a bit bummed we didn't get a Loki appearance, but not really surprised. I know they didn't want to use him because he's so popular and it would just be fanservice.... but I am that fan! I want my service! At least show the OG Loki in the scene in Valhalla? Please? I was really hoping the Loki variant and Sylvie would make at least a short appearance, but oh well. Now we just have to hope that they make Loki season 2 better than the first one, with much less self-cest.

Okie dokie. That's my sort of unhinged review of Thor: Love and Thunder. That was kind of the last of the upcoming Marvel projects I was really excited for (aside from Ms. Marvel which I am absolutely LOVING! IT'S SO GOOD!!!), so I'm hoping the next projects will pleasantly surprise me. I'm not particularly excited for She-Hulk or the next Black Panther (I really don't see how they can do it without Chadwick). I guess I'm excited for the next Ant-Man, but only because I love Paul Rudd. The last Ant-Man was pretty average. And I really don't know much about the other upcoming projects.

That's all for now! I'll leave you with my favourite line from the film: "Go to hell, Demon" - Thor's adopted daughter to Thor, upon him making her pancakes.

#thor #thor love and thunder #marvel #movie review #my marvel thoughts

[katherynefromphilly]

Marvel’s ‘Loki’: “Let’s put ‘Gender: FLUID’ on Loki’s arrest form, that will show the canonical genderfluid aspect of this mythical figure.”

Meanwhile, in Norway’s ‘Ragnarok’ version of Loki, Loki actually says in dialogue: “I don’t believe in gender, I don’t like labels, I’m just me.” (Goes on to wear whatever clothes and be attracted to whomever person they want and in season 2 they take it up a notch by [redacted - spoilers])”

Also meanwhile on Norway’s ‘Ragnarok’, Loki’s friends and family: “We know and respect you are genderfluid and unique and we love you as you are and will die for you.”

#Loki #Ragnarok #the actor who plays Loki on Ragnarok is AMAZING #genderfluid #netflix ragnarok #trans character #Loki spoilers

[handsomelyhiddleston]

Sticky Notes - Tom Hiddleston x Reader

It all started on the set of Ragnarok. They hadn’t even started filming yet. Table reads, choreography, costume fittings, set development…The cast, crew, and even Taika started finding little notes.

Some were specifically to certain people…

“Your laugh is contagious. Thank you for making this set so down to earth and inviting.” You slipped that into Taika’s (the director’s) fanny pack when he left it on his director’s chair.

“I know how hard you’ve been working on your fight choreography, and I just wanted to let you know you absolutely killed it today!” You left that stuck to Tessa’s (Valkyrie’s) water bottle.  

Some you posted for everyone, like “I know that you all put such amazing effort and time into bringing this movie to life and I just want you all to know that it doesn’t go unnoticed.” That note was posted above a table full of ‘easy to grab’ snacks you laid out such as protein bars, fruit snacks, pretzels, and dried fruit.

This continued well into filming. Everyone had tried to figure out who was leaving these little daily encouragements. It got to the point that Taika started calling you Casper, as in “Casper the Friendly Ghost.” Every day at the start of filming he would say. “Come on guys. Let’s make Casper proud.”

Everyone had a theory. Most thought that it was actually Taika just trying to keep morale up. Taika accused Tom but took it back after some comment about the notes not sounding very British.

Your job on set was to cast extras. While you were present daily, you honestly only had to meet with Taika once or twice a day to make sure the next day’s cast extras were ready. You two fell into an easy rhythm working together and he started asking for your opinion on some other aspects of the set. One late afternoon, after an incredibly chaotic day of filming, Taika decided that he was going to scrap the entire scene and start it over.

He pulled out his phone and sent a text to you, Tom, and Chris. “Today can suck it. I’ve just watched the dailies, and something just isn’t right about that scene. Meet at mine in 30 so we can get ahead of it.” A few seconds later he added, “And for the love of God, someone bring some tequila.”

You laughed at his text, jogging to the trailer you shared with the other casting director. You changed into a pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt and grabbed your keys and wallet. You jumped in your car so you could make a quick trip to the Starbucks down the street since it appeared it was going to be a long night.

“One Venti iced coffee with milk and 1 sugar, one Grande Americano hot with cream and 2 sugars, one Venti hot latte with vanilla, and one Venti hot water with two earl gray tea bags and four sugars on the side. Can I also get one of the small kid’s milk boxes?” You heard the barista repeat your order back and pulled forward and paid.

When you got to Taika’s trailer, Tom and Chris were already there.

“Oh, bless you” Taika thanked you, taking the Latte from you.

“You’re the best” Chris said, taking the lid off of the Americano so it would cool off a bit.  

“Tom, I grabbed you tea.” You handed him the hot water and two tea bags, setting the sugars and milk next to him so he could make it to his liking.

“You’re too kind” Tom graciously took the hot water from you, noting that you grabbed his favorite kind of tea.

In Taika’s trailer there was a table with a bench on each side. Chris and Tom were sat on one side, leaving a space for you to sit next to Taika.

“Anyone grab the tequila?” you laughed, dropping your keys and wallet on Taika’s counter and sitting at the table with your iced coffee.

Taika grabbed the bottle and sat it down in front of you. “You’re already two swigs behind, love.”

“Bullshit” you laughed. “Prove it. Where are the shot glasses?”

“I said swigs, not shots” Taika smirked. “We don’t have shot glasses.”

“Look at how much is missing from that bottle. I just bought it.” Hemsworth backed Taika up.

You looked at Tom, knowing he would be honest with you.

“Hey, you trust Tom more than me?” Taika pretended to be offended.

“Tom always looks out for everybody. I don’t think he’d let me get two shots drunker than you fools.” You teased Taika, poking his side and sticking your tongue out at him.

“Watch” Taika said, putting his arm around your shoulders and looking towards Tom. “How many swigs did we all take?”

Tom laughed, “I’m sorry darling, but he’s telling you the truth.”  

“Fine, fine.” You opened the bottle and took three swigs, handing it to Taika. “Catch up, then.”

Tom started thinking about the compliment you had given him as he took his third swig of Tequila. He felt flattered that you felt that way, but it also reminded him of one of the notes he had found stuck to his trailer door.

“Okay, we need to re-block this whole scene. It just did not translate from script to screen…” The four of you worked on a few line changes and mapped out a better way to execute the scene for over two hours.

There was a bit of dialogue that Taika felt was getting lost that he really just didn’t want to let go of. “We may just have to mess with this tomorrow while we’re filming.”

“Or you could have Loki say it instead of Thor.” You suggested.

“Could do.” You could tell that Taika was thinking it over.

“Here you have Thor immediately going into another hard-hitting line” you explained. “If that line comes from Loki, it makes it less likely to get lost.”

“I think that will fix this problem too” Chris started underlining other parts of the dialogue.

“What do you think?” Taika looked at Tom.

“I mean, I personally think Loki has already evolved enough at that point in the script that it suits him quite nicely.” Tom explained in a way only Tom can explain.

“I agree” you said. “You guys make Loki grow quite a bit in this film and as usual, Tom is hitting it out of the park. I’m 100% confident he will have conveyed that message to the audience by this point.”

“Thank you for your vote of confidence.” Again, Tom was flattered. However, he was growing more and more suspicious that you were Casper.

“Always” you replied, smiling at Tom as you finished your coffee.

“Let me type this up and we can table read it.” Taika grabbed the papers and went to the other side of the trailer where his computer was set up.

“While you do that, I’m going to steal your restroom for a moment.” Chris stood, throwing his empty coffee cup away and closing the bathroom door. Chris joined Taika a moment later.

“Y/n?” Tom said, kind of quietly.

“What’s up?” Your elbows were resting on the table with your chin sat on your hands.

“Can I ask you something?” Tom didn’t want to bring it up in front of anyone. He didn’t want the notes to stop, but he had to know.

Tom looked a bit serious, but you didn’t know why. “Of course.”

“Are you…” He stopped, reaching his hand into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet. “Is this you?”

Your eyes went wide as Tom pulled a small stack of pink sticky notes out of his wallet, laying them down next to each other. There must have been 10 of them in total. You were touched that he actually kept them. Sometimes you felt silly leaving them for people not knowing if they appreciated them. You tried to play it off, laughing. “I thought those were from Taika?”

He pointed at one of them, reading it quietly. “I tried the tea you always drink. I don’t think it could ever replace my love of coffee, but I wanted you to know it pairs well with a good book.” He pointed to another note. “I know you paid for everyone to Uber home after our last night out. I just wanted to tell you I appreciate you. Thank you for always looking out for us.” You could feel his eyes on you as he moved his hand to a third note. “I envy your ability to capture a room. You’ve got an amazing knack for making those watching you feel whatever emotion you’re trying to convey.” When Tom’s hand moved to the fourth note, you heard Taika’s printer turn on.

“Put them away” you said, trying to stack them quickly. Chris started walking towards you and you grabbed the small stack you had gathered and put them in your pocket.

Tom put the rest back in his wallet. “What do you think?” he asked Taika about the changes he had made.

“I think tomorrow is going to be a lot fuckin’ better.” He passed the printed copies around after joining the two of you back at the table.

Tom’s line went over great, and the dialogue flowed much more smoothly. All of the other changes made the scene feel more natural. When Taika called it a night, Chris laid down on the couch refusing to go back to his own trailer.

“Can I walk you to yours?” Tom asked as you stepped out of Taika’s trailer.

The two of you walked back to your trailer in comfortable silence, tired and a little drunk. When you got to the door, you turned around and pulled the pink notes out of your pocket.

“Please don’t tell anyone?” You placed the notes in Tom’s hand.

“I didn’t plan on it” he replied, tucking them neatly back into his wallet.

“I feel silly now that someone knows it was me. Why did you keep them?” You had to ask. You assumed, at most, that people read them, smiled, and threw them away.

“Hmm…” Tom laughed humorlessly, his eyes focused on his wallet. “I think you’re doing a lot more than you realize when you leave your ‘silly’ little notes.”

His response caught you off guard. He almost sounded…sad? Serious?

“Y/n, I’ve had to work with actors and crew that have made filming a project miserable. Whether they were rude or critical or just an absolute diva, there is always someone to bring the room down.” He put his wallet away and looked you in the eyes. “I wish you knew how many of us have kept these notes. Taika has them in the glovebox of his car. The catwalk above the set is covered in notes you’ve left the crew. They’re stuck all over the mirrors in the make-up trailer so that the cast sees them first thing in the morning.”

Your eyes went wide. “What?”

Tom put his hands on each of your arms as if to ensure you were paying attention. “An encouraging word or a genuine compliment can change someone’s entire day, y/n. You have no way of knowing what life has dealt any of these people. They could be depressed or stressed out or wishing they hadn’t woken up that morning…and all of a sudden they receive a tiny bit of kindness from someone and it makes it that much easier to get through another day. Maybe even with a smile on their face.”

Tom wore a soft smile and even though you felt a bit overwhelmed, you couldn’t help but smile back. “Thank you for telling me that.” You moved towards him, pulling him into a tight hug.

“Please don’t forget it.” Tom pulled back a bit and pressed a quick kiss to your cheek. “I hope you get a good night’s sleep.”

“You, too.” You watched Tom walk away before slipping into your shared trailer.

Over the next few weeks, Tom had left you multiple green sticky notes with compliments written on them.

“You looked stunning yesterday”

“Thank you for still being a good listener when I go on rants about things you couldn’t care less about”

“Taika was bragging about you to someone on the phone. I just wanted you to know. I know sometimes you hesitate to suggest your ideas, but you shouldn’t.”

“I appreciate how much time you spend making this a better set to work on.”

“You are an incredible friend.”

You’d find at least one note a day and for every note he left you, you’d leave one for him. The two of you got quite a bit closer after he found out about your secret. You’d spend breaks on set together and often times wound up back in Taika’s trailer with him and Chris. You cuddled and flirted and shared more than a few loving glances, but you never went any further. It felt like it was turning into something more, but Tom was such a gentleman you couldn’t tell.

The note you found this morning, however, completely caught you off guard. The filming was almost done and everyone’s time on set was almost over. You had just sat down next to the director’s chair and opened your laptop. There, stuck to the screen, was a green sticky note. “Darling, would you please be mine?”

You looked up at Tom on stage only to find him already looking at you. He lifted his brow and tilted his head, waiting for your response. You couldn’t help but smile as you nodded ‘yes’.

Taika looked between you, noticing the interaction and intentionally teasing you. “Oi, what’s this then?”

Tom turned, trying to hide his grin by talking to Chris. You closed your laptop to hide the sticky note.

“Nah, I saw you two. Don’t pretend like I’m crazy.” Taika was still looking back and forth between you and Tom.

“Maybe you’re still drunk from last night” you teased, putting your laptop in its bag so you could retrieve the note later.

“Oh, sure.” He dropped it, knowing he’d bring it up tonight when you all gathered in his trailer.

The rest of the filming flew by crazy fast. You and Tom had decided that you would go stay with him in New York until the press junkets and interviews started. When the premier rolled around, you two were already publicly dating so you got to escort him down the red carpet. It had been just over a year since the two of you had started dating.

As the credits for the film started rolling, you felt like you were walking down memory lane. So many people go into making movies of this scale and watching all of the names roll by, one by one, really puts that into perspective. You’d met almost all of these people and worked closely with quite a few of them. As the credits came to an end, you saw that Taika had added an extra credit.

The last few “SPECIAL THANKS” credits were in order as listed…

“The filmmakers acknowledge the assistance of the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Grant”

“The filmmakers would like to acknowledge the Yugambeh and Bundjalung Peoples of Australia”

“The director would like to thank ‘Casper’, Ragnarok’s own personal friendly ghost”

It had been a year since you’d written one of those notes and it caught you off guard. Tom put his arm around your shoulders, pressing a kiss to your temple. “I told you.”

You and Tom mingled amongst your friends at the after party. Taika was flying. He was so happy with how it turned out and grateful for such a positive response. Everyone in the cast was telling stories from filming and catching up with their friends. By the time you two got back to your hotel room, you were blissfully tipsy and exhausted. You slipped out of your dress and threw on a baggy t-shirt before washing your face and getting ready for bed. When you left the bathroom, you saw Tom sitting on the edge of the bed in his pajamas with a soft, warm smile gracing his beautiful face. He was wearing his glasses and his hair was a mess and he could not have been more attractive if he tried.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, pulling you to stand between his legs.

“Pretty good. How about yourself?” you put your arms around his neck and pressed your lips to his.

“I think there’s only one thing that could make me happier in this moment.” He answered.

You thought he was being a bit cheeky, so you replied with, “oh, yeah? I wonder what that could be.”

Tom reached behind him on the bed and pulled out a small box with a worn, green sticky note on top of it. He didn’t say anything, letting you read it. It was the same note he had left stuck to your laptop screen. “Darling, would you please be mine?” Only now the word “forever” was written at the bottom.

#Tom Hiddleston #Tom Hiddleston x reader #Tom Hiddleston imagine #loki

[meljane7]

I know everyone is all pumped about Disney's latest first LGBT+ character and I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't be excited about it if you are, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to plug another series about Norse mythology that I think deserves a hell of a lot more attention than it's getting

Netflix's Ragnarok:

It's Norwegian and I think it has a really interesting way of incorporating gods and giants into a modern setting. The main character Magne is basically a reincarnation of Thor, and I don't think it says it explicitly but he's very clearly autistic!!

He can't read or write and the show explicitly shows him using voice-to-text and his school giving him accomodations. It's also very clear that even though he struggles academically, he's not stupid. He's super socially awkward and while he gets made fun of a little he's very loveable and most people genuinely like him and don't bully him. He even has multiple love interests!

His brother Laurits is a reincarnation of Loki and is canonically queer!

He explicitly talks about how he doesn't see the world in terms of a gender binary. He doesn't use any specific label, but he's definitely bi/pan and genderfluid. He constantly steals his mom's old clothes and looks amazing in them. His mom is super supportive even though she says she doesn't understand his identity, she just acknowledges that the world has changed since she was a teenager and she loves him no matter what.

The cast is mostly white, but there are a few side characters of color.

There's a Sri Lankan girl who's the reincarnation of Freya. She's also queer and she and Magne treat each other with so much respect it's amazing. There's another side character who is a dwarf both in the modern literal sense and kind of in the mythological sense? It's hard to explain but it's really interesting and really well done. The show also focuses on climate change and the role corporations play in that and incorporates that with the gods/giants storyline really well.

There's currently two seasons on Netflix. Most of the actors have only been in a few other things if anything and it's great to see the fresh faces. It's genuinely enjoyable and really well written and has a banging soundtrack. It's definitely lighter in tone than Dark but if you enjoyed that show you'll definitely like this. There's at least one more season coming and I'm not sure if it's going to be the last one.

#netflix ragnarok #netflix original #ragnarok #magne ragnarok #laurits ragnarok #this is where it all begins

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Loki

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

In the early years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, great villains were… well, they were less hard to come by than some would lead you to believe, but most of them were only good based on their actors and the performances they gave. Red Skull and Obadiah Stane are awesome villains, but they’re also rather simple ones, ones which have really simple goals and personalities that leave enough wiggle room for the actors to give a fun interpretation. We didn’t have complex, rich, and thematic villains like Ego or Killmonger or Thanos.

At least, that is, until Thor. Then we got Loki.

Loki was the big breakout star of the early MCU, and it’s not hard to see why. Pretty much every later villain that became beloved by fans has at least some sort of genesis in how Loki is portrayed here. The familial drama of Ego and Hela, the noble qualities of Vulture, the inherent tragedy of the backstory of Thanos… everything later villains were praised for got their start in everyone’s favorite trickster Asgardian. Praised by critics, loved by audiences, and so good he almost manages to make Thor: The Dark World watchable for about half an hour, Loki is one of the most fantastic characters in the entire MCU.

Too bad I’m not here to talk about how good he is as a character. I’m here to talk about him as a villain, and in that regard… Loki kinda sucks.

Motivation/Goals: Loki is, in short, an attention whore. But I say that with affection; Loki probably should have gotten some more appreciation from his dad Odin, but Odin blew him off a lot in favor of Thor. His drive to get some respect is what leads to his schemes in the first film, and his scheming carries through into the second and third Thor movies.

The real issue is with The Avengers where Loki, after falling through a wormhole, becomes essentially a generic doomsday villain. Or, he would be if he didn’t have so much pre-existing character development. He honestly suffers the same fate as Endgame!Thanos in this regard, where a complex and interesting villain gets watered down to be more blockbuster-friendly despite having tons of interesting characterization.

Performance: One thing that’s true for all of the films: Tom Hiddleston kills it. His Loki is exactly as he should be – cunning, slippery, underhanded, snarky, and just an absolute blast. He really sells Loki as an engaging and complex character. Even in the weaker films he features in, he tends to steal the show and make even dreadful slogs like The Dark World slightly watchable for short times.

Final Fate: In Infinity War, Loki sacrifices himself to save Thor from Thanos, which only somewhat works. He’s getting his own Disney+ spinoff so either he survived or the show’s about the continuing adventures of the Loki who escaped captivity in Endgame. Whatever the case may be, we thankfully haven’t seen the last of Loki.

Best Scene: Despite The Avengers aging rather poorly, I think most can agree that the “Puny god” scene is still one of the funniest and most awesome villain takedowns in the MCU. It also gets some hilarious callbacks in Ragnarok, which also features a legendary little moment that implies Loki bottomed for The Grandmaster. Oh, and there’s the three seconds in The Dark World where he turns into Cap, which is maybe the only good part of the film.

Best Quote: As always, the best bits of Loki come from Ragnarok, including his best line:

Worst Quote: As always, the worst bits of Loki come from The Avengers. Remember when he called Black Widow a whiny cunt?

Final Thoughts & Score: Time to be controversial! As a villain, I find Loki to be exceptionally underwhelming.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Tom Hiddleston’s performance is amazing across the board, even in the god-awful Thor: The Dark World, where he actually made the film slightly fun and watchable. And Loki is a fantastic character with an incredibly consistent arc across several movies which culminates in a heroic sacrifice that also utilizes his trademark craftiness and backstabbing. Loki is amazing in those regards, and there’s no denying the impact he had on the franchise as a whole, so if I was rating him as a character he’d easily be a 10/10.

But here on Psycho Analysis beeing a good character is an entirely different thing from being a good villain. Similar to the case with Kronk, Loki isn’t really all that evil outside of The Avengers. He’s a dick, sure, but this series isn’t called Dick Analysis. I’m trying to determine how effective, cool, and influential a character is as a villain, and Loki just… isn’t. Sure, he has good quips and a funny defeat, but that doesn’t make his showing in The Avengers any less of a waste of his skills, which are put to much better use in anti-heroic roles like in the latter two Thor films, where he is constantly swapping sides and backstabbing his brother and everyone else. In fact, in terms of everything Loki is about, Ragnarok is easily his best outing, showcasing his anti-heroic side to the extreme.

If it was only his outing in Thor that we were talking about, I’d easily give him an 8, but his showing in The Avengers is so bad and basic that I’m subtracting a whole number grade and giving Loki as a villain a 7/10. This is a different situation than the one with Thanos, were his Endgame counterpart is so radically different but is also from another timeline and doesn’t detract from the original Thanos, this is the same Loki across all these movies, and funny moments aside his portrayal in the original Marvel crossover event was really lackluster. I can’t stress enough that Loki is a fantastic character, but his best strengths are when he’s stabbing everyone in the back or when he’s actually getting along with Thor to some degree.

 As a villain, everything Loki did was done way better by many other villains. Is he going to be a villain in the Loki show on Disney+? Who can say. But whatever the case may be, it’s pretty doubtful Loki could ever hope to catch up to the rich villains we’ve gotten as of late. Loki plays much better as a tricky, sneaky anti-hero/villain than as an outright villain, and those are the strengths they need to play to, because Loki as a straight bad guy just does not work at all.

#Psycho Analysis #Loki #Tom Hiddleston #Thor #MCU #The Avengers

[theotherodinson]

I’m someone who didn’t really enjoy Thor 3 for characterization reasons and found IW much more fitting to my tastes. As someone who’s sort of on that same spectrum would you say the Loki series is worth watching?

Yes, I would. I didn't like Ragnarok. I didn't like the characterization, the writing, or the performances. And I'm sorry to say that, I really, really dislike criticizing actors, but the performances in this movie were terrible, except for Anthony Hopkins and Idris Elba.

Infinity War, I'm a bit more on the fence as I didn't care for the storyline too much, but found most of the performances very good with bright spots of writing throughout. Honestly, it was really Thanos' storyline that dragged the whole movie down. But Thor - wonderful, amazing, heartbroken Thor - performance wise and narrative he was *chef's kiss* exceptional. Loki was nerfed obviously, but Loki has been nerfed steadily since the Avengers 1 so I guess I'd gotten used to it and wasn't surprised here either.

The Loki series, jumping off from Avengers 1, is thus far good. The performances are excellent. The writing is pretty solid, save for some exposition dumps here and there. But they exist for setting the stage for the series and characters, so it's forgivable.

Overall, I think the series is very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out over the last three episodes.

#ask answered

[justfandomwritings]

Oh my goshhh!!! Loyalty is frigging amazing!!!! That fic is so beautiful.. I just... there's no words, man. What happens next? How do they plot? Does he kill Odin and Thor? Can you please tag me when you write the spin off (not to be rude but how long will that take? I am just soooo excited) ❤❤

Gather round children! I am not going to write any story of how Loki’s story matches up with the MCU, and while the sequel I’ve plotted will feature bits of this, it will really only hint at what happened to Loki. So, because I think everyone deserves an explanation, here is how Loyalty!Loki progressed through the movies.

Loyalty post-story explanation:

The plot continues up to Thor as you’d imagine.

Brilliant actor that he would be, Loki pretends to be absolutely fine with all slights and fakes that he has gotten over his lost love. Because no one in his family pays attention to him, no one at court notices anything is wrong with Loki or that it’s odd that he got over losing his soulmate so quickly. 

Loki spends more and more time in the lower districts of Asgard, doing everything in his power to support the people and keep (Y/n)’s memory alive.

The people loved her, were loyal to her, and still are. Naturally, Loki receives much of this loyalty through his relationship with (Y/n) and more importantly through his insistence on keeping her memory alive.

All the while, Loki is plotting Thor and Odin’s demise. He knows he wants it to be at the hands of the Frost Giants who killed (Y/n), and it’s Narfi who gives him the chance.

Now on the Council for himself, Narfi is ordered to plan Thor’s coronation, and he and Loki plan out how the Frost Giants might ruin his big day.

They use (Y/n)’s old family home for their preparations. Most nobles consider the outer rim of fishers near (Y/n)’s childhood to be insignificant. So as long as Heimdall doesn’t watch Loki enter the house or know he’s going there, no one cares to look at what’s happening in (Y/n)’s old room.

Thor movie

On the day of the coronation, Loki has doubts. He knows this is not what (Y/n) would want him to become, and he questions whether they should follow through.

Then, one last time, Thor slights him before the coronation by talking about Loki’s conquests as though they were his own and by mentioning the attack by the Frost Giants as if it were a success even though (Y/n) died. 

(Insert the deleted scene of Thor and Loki together waiting to enter the throne room)

Loki makes up his mind then and there that Thor must lose everything, as he once did.

The Frost Giants come and Thor shows his true colors.

He demands a raid on Jotunheim, and though Loki publicly denies it, he is seething inside. 

Thor demanded justice for a stupid ceremony and thought that was worthy of Laufey’s head, but Laufey killing (Y/n) wasn’t even worth a second thought to Thor.

 After Jotunheim, even Odin can’t deny what Thor has done, and Loki relishes watching Thor cast away from everything he’s ever known.

In the vaults beneath Asgard, Loki argues with Odin on the steps only for Odin to tell him the reason Frost Giant’s don’t affect him is because he is one.

Loki watches Odin collapse and the guards take him away, leaving Loki to think.

Loki is horrified. This whole time he’s been on a quest of vengeance against the Frost Giants, and he is one of the monsters who killed (Y/n). 

He determines that his best plan would be to kill them all, take Thor and Odin’s life himself. 

He sends the Destroyer for Thor and is only incensed more when Thor appeals to him for mercy for Midgard. After everything, Thor still doesn’t understand why Loki is in a rage. 

The fight happens as it did, and Thor destroys the Bifrost to save whatever is left of Jotunheim.

Odin is holding Thor who is holding the spear with Loki. 

Loki: “Vengeance, that’s all I wanted for her, but you wouldn’t even give her dignity.” 

Thor looks confused for a moment before he realizes who Loki’s talking about.

Odin just stares on emotionless as always. 

Loki: “We’ll see.” 

Loki falls.

Between movies

Loki falls to Thanos.

Loki is worried over what Thanos’ plans to do, to destroy half the known universe. 

He wouldn’t mind watching half of Asgard burn or all of Jotunheim or even parts of Midgard which Thor had come to care about, but he knows that isn’t what (Y/n) would have wanted, that many innocents would die in the crossfire, that some of those may even be his own, his real, family.

Using the mind stone, Thanos finds the rage and anger within Loki, and there’s a great deal of it after millennia of being slighted by his father and brother and pitied by his mother, and after a century of suffering the loss of the only person he ever loved. 

Thanos exploits this and draws it out, sending the mind-controlled Loki to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract for him. 

Avengers movie

Everything happens as made, save that one conversation between Thor and Loki.

Thor: “I thought you dead.”

Loki: “Did you mourn?”

Thor: “We all did. Our father...” 

Loki: “Your father. He did tell you my true parentage did he not?”

Thor: “We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?”

Loki: “I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. You speak of togetherness because every time you needed me I was there, but every time I needed you I was alone. I remember studying magic, alone. I remember defending myself against the Warriors Three, alone. I remember standing up to Father, alone. I remember being punished for our tricks, alone.”

Loki: “I was alone until (Y/n) came, and then you took her from me. You made me alone again. Not just for being the cause of her death, but for not caring that you caused it at all. I was back where I began. I mourned her, alone. And when I finally came out of my chambers, I sat, alone, robbed of the only real family I ever knew. And you’re surprised that after millennia of suffering your destruction, I plotted vengeance alone?”

Thor: The Dark World

Loki faces Odin’s punishment for Midgard alone.

He rots in the dungeon until someone tells him Frigga has been killed.

Loki wants to hate her like he hates the rest of them. She was never a good mother. She clearly preferred Thor and pitied Loki. She let Odin run rampant over Asgard and his sons, and she never once defended Loki. 

But Loki can’t bring himself to hate her because: for one at least she tried, but more importantly she gave him (Y/n).

Loki goes with Thor because if he can’t avenge (Y/n) then at least he can avenge his mother. 

He watches Thor’s love for Jane and can’t decide if he despises it or not. He wants desperately, to watch Thor suffer; but he isn’t sure if that is how. His pain is the sort of pain he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy, and his worst enemy was his brother. 

In the ship, they talk about it.

Loki: “The only woman who’s love you prize will be snatched from you.”

Thor: “And will that satisfy you brother?” 

Loki: “No, but perhaps in a few years, when I get to watch you become me; perhaps that will satisfy me.”

Thor: “This was all about (Y/n)?”

Loki: “That feeling you have for Jane, that love; imagine if it were the only love you’d ever felt. Imagine if Odin despised you and Mother ignored your suffering. Imagine if I spent my life beating you into submission. Imagine if the Warriors Three and all your friends didn’t care about you. And imagine if the Nine Realms never noticed you existed. Imagine the only person you love being the only person who loved you, then imagine my arrogance, after years of cruelty and incompetence, finally ripped it away.” 

Loki retreats and sits back down. Loki: “It was always about her. It will always be about her.” 

Between Movies

Loki avenges his mother and fakes his own death to rule Asgard as the King they always deserved. 

He puts the people first, shares his wealth and power, he rules with a firm, justice hand and doesn’t play favorites like his father.

The people all begin to realize that it isn’t Odin, that Loki has replaced him, when Loki orders a giant statue to  his soulmate built in front of his extension to the palace.

No one says anything. They prefer this happy peaceful life Loki’s given them. It’s the life Frigga promised they would get with soulmates, but the life Odin was too warlike to let anyone actually have.

Thor: The Dark World

The movies plot passes pretty much the same, but Loki’s character is more in keeping with his development and style. It isn’t the sort of sniveling, whiny, weak creation Taika came up with.

Loki comes at the end of the movie, not to help Thor, but because he realized Thor was going to have it out with Hel on Asgard and put the people in grave danger, including his real family.

He arrives and sees Delling and Dysis helping their daughters and grandchildren onto the ship he brought.

Loki: “Where are the others?”

Delling, heartbroken: “Gone. They died with the army.”

Loki, discouraged: “And Narfi?”

Delling just shakes his head.

Loki roars out into the battle and ends up fighting side by side with Thor and the Valkyrie.

As he brings about Ragnarok, Loki takes the Tesseract. He knows that even the blast of Ragnarok won’t destroy the Space Gem, and he can’t very well leave it floating in space for Thanos to just casually pick up, so he determines to find somewhere to hide it forever. 

As the battle rages on between Surtur and Hel, Loki heads for the Royal Family’s tomb and takes (Y/n)’s crypt, using the Tesseract to port it onto the ship. Everything else is going to go up in flames, and Loki refuses to let that be her legacy. 

The end of the movie, onboard the ship, Thor throws a thing at Loki to prove he isn’t there. 

Loki catches it. Loki: “I’m here, brother.” 

Loki turns and leaves the room, finding (Y/n)’s family and sitting with them. He’s given up vengeance on Thor because he’s finally realized (Y/n) died to save his brother, not so Loki could kill him later. But he knows now that this is his real family. 

Thor is off to the side, watching them. This time he’s the one standing alone. 

Seeing their interactions, their mourning Narfi and his brothers, their talking with Loki, Thor realizes that Loki was right. They never really treated him like family

He realizes that Odin, with his help, robbed Loki of everything. A normal family, a happy life, his one true love. They even took the family he made for himself. 

Thor decides to leave Loki in peace with his family and leave on his own. 

Avengers: Infinity War

Loki watches Thanos ready to kill Thor and realizes what Thanos means by half. He’s going to kill half of each group, and that means half of the sons of Odin.

Loki knows that Thor with his Avengers stands a better chance than Loki, and if Thor dies Thanos may well succeed. 

More importantly to Loki, if Thor dies, then (Y/n) died in vain.

Loki rushes Thanos and dies so that he is the half of the sons of Odin that Thanos kills. He dies for Thor the same way (Y/n) did.

The rest of the movie happens.

Avengers: Endgame

Finally understanding what Loki felt, finally understanding what it’s like to lose everything, Thor picks up Loki’s quest for vengeance and takes off Thanos’ head.

Then, with no real purpose, Thor mourns, alone, like his brother did.

Movie goes as planned mostly.

When Hulk snaps, he doesn’t just bring back the half of humanity that Thanos snapped out of existence. Thanos had been roaming the galaxy slaughtering half of every inhabited world he encountered, and Hulk (knowing this from watching on the ship) thinks of them too and brings back the millions who died before the snap.

Asgard’s army was killed by Hel before Thanos ever touched them, but Loki is brought back in space and roars into battle to help protect his family. 

When the war is finally won, Loki watches Cap disassemble the infinity gauntlet with envy.

The rest of the Avengers are wary that he will try to steal it, but Thor knows what he’s thinking.

Thor: “Perhaps the soul stone might bring her back.”

Loki: “Let her rest brother. I have kept her alive through death for far too long. She deserves peace.” 

Loki leaves. No one knows where he’s gone, and no one ever sees him again.

Loki returns to the wreckage, retrieves (Y/n)’s crypt and disappears forever. 

I plotted this out when I plotted out the series, because I believe you have to know the whole story to write a story well. 

But as you can see, there are huge chunks where the story just overlaps with the movies, so I didn’t think it would make for very good reading.

#loyalty

[fandumbstuff]

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ranked Best to Worst.

Why watch a movie when you can experience it? And that’s what the MCU demands you do. These films are less about settling in to watch a movie. It’s about getting together your family, your friends and making an entire event of them. Marvel Studios has forever changed cinema going, and boy am I eager to get back to them. So with that, let me break down the franchise and my take on the best and worst it has to offer.

1. Iron Man 3 Directed by Shane Black

Iron Man 3 still holds up as one of the MCU’s strongest screenplays. It’s their first (and one of their only) real character study of a superhero, and the psychology behind being one. Tony Stark suffers from PTSD and struggles to understand his relationship with Iron Man. He is forced to contend with human issues and find what it is that truly makes him a hero. It’s also a movie chock full of incredible action set pieces- the Air Force One scene still holding up as one of my favourites- and wickedly funny dialogue. It continues to be my most satisfying re-watch out of the MCU.

2. Black Panther Directed by Ryan Coogler

Marvel’s best villain, best score, best production design, and best picture candidate. It’s the movie that forced Hollywood to take them seriously. Ryan Coogler showed the world that he can perform even within a studio system that had largely been criticised for being too overbearing. The world may have always known that Black Panther existed, but Coogler showed us why he matters so much. The story is the MCU’s most inspiring yet. Killmonger forces not just T'Challa, but every audience member to consider his motivations seriously. It shows humanity that heroism doesn’t come from superficial acts, but from overcoming our own flaws and learning hard lessons from our history.

3. Thor: Ragnarok Directed by Taika Waititi

In letting Taika Waititi have free reign over Ragnarok, Marvel is given their most unique film yet. The movie feels very much like Waititi’s own vision, chock full of his signature wit and charm. And its within this vision that we finally see Chris Hemsworth come into his own as Thor. Finally at ease, he’s allowed to be funny, and absurd, and play the emotional scenes without any melodrama. Waititi really makes the character dynamics in this film memorable, introducing us to the Grandmaster and Valkyrie, and fleshing out Banner and Loki. It’s a cast that charms us enough to consider staying with the MCU and seeing where they go.

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Chris Evans finally comes into his own as Captain America, as Winter Soldier gives him a captivating character arc to work through. Steve Rogers is placed in a conflict that makes him question his own motivations. The morality that he stands for is in direct opposition to the authority he serves, leaving him to question what it means to be Captain America. We also see him learn from his relationships with the supporting cast- with a franchise best portrayal of Nick Fury and Black Widow and a particularly strong introduction of Falcon. The Russos create something truly remarkable by taking a character that has been criticized for being too traditional and show him learn and change significantly. But in addition to all this they direct what is easily the MCU’s best pure action movie yet, showcasing the franchise’s best car chase (Fury vs Cops) and its best fight scene (THAT knife scene).

5. Avengers: Endgame Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Stunning, momentous and joyous, Endgame is the theatrical experience that Marvel has spent over 10 years honing to perfection. Just one year after Infinity War, the MCU brings together their iconic, colossal cast for their grandest, most ambitious adventure yet. And while Endgame is chock-full of some stunning action sequences and gleeful references, it carries a genuine heart to it. These heroes struggle with PTSD from the events of Infinity War. We see them at their very lowest, and watch their desperation mount and grow to determination. This epic struggle is what has made superheroes so compelling for so many years. By breaking these characters down, the Russos show us just what makes them great. We’ve witnessed writers, directors and certainly the actors take these characters on journeys that have seemed at times thrilling, at time out of touch, but in Endgame, they’re at their very best. The moments of reprieve in the action where we simply sit with them to listen in on their banter are the best. Building to it’s inevitably emotional ending, Endgame winds up being one of the most wholly cathartic experience I have had with a film.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy Directed by James Gunn

At the time of it’s release, Guardians was the franchise’s best-looking movie yet, and it still holds up. The slick space opera designs set to the now iconic soundtrack made the first Guardians an aesthetic marvel. It’s the substance that comes with this that makes the movie one of the MCU’s best. The ragtag group are misfits who find their purpose by banding together, and while the sequel may have drawn this out to nauseating lengths, the first movie made it succinctly effective. It found the right balance of humour and sentiment, endearing us to a cast of characters that seemed too obscure to be popular- and guaran-damn-teeing that Marvel can do whatever the hell it pleases moving forward.

7. Avengers: Infinity War Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

To handle ten years of storytelling and world building and bring it to such a satisfying crescendo is commendable. The Russo brothers handle each character well- each new introduction is a pleasing moment of familiarity and excitement to the fans that have stuck with this franchise. It’s a perfect match to the comic book format. And ultimately Infinity War is as good as any major comic book event. A chance to see our favourite characters interact with each other with conceivable motivations, and face a threat that is alarmingly critical. Its in this respect that Infinity War outshines its predecessors. For the first time, the Avengers face real emotional consequences if they fail. The Russo’s pull no punches to make this clear and despite a fair amount of signature MCU levity, Infinity War winds up being their darkest film yet.

8. The Avengers Directed by Joss Whedon

There’s no questioning the milestone achievement that The Avengers accomplished. As a superhero ensemble, it never once feels congested or jarring-something that most blockbusters consistently suffer from. Instead the protagonists are given clear goals, and their obstacles make real sense. Their hostility towards each other stems from their innate character flaws that they need to address to face the true antagonist in Loki. It highlights what Marvel does so well- offer us adventures that don’t tie up all their loose ends but rather leave them dangling to set up more ambitious stories.

9. Spiderman: Homecoming Directed by Jon Watts

I’ve long considered Spider-Man an uninteresting superhero, so it is highly commendable that Homecoming manages to change that. We skip the origin story and meet a Peter Parker that is inexperienced and has a lot of growing up to do. He contends with Michael Keaton’s Vulture- a villain that is simultaneously charismatic, intimidating, and relatable. Supported by what is probably the best supporting cast in any MCU film. Martin Starr, Hannibal Burress, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau and Marisa Tomei flesh out Spidey’s own universe of Queens- wholly believable and charming.

10. Captain America: Civil War Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

In all respects, this should have been the second Avengers film. The Russo brothers do what Joss Whedon couldn’t. They show these characters change and clarify their motivations based on the 8 years that we’ve been watching them. They introduce new characters like Spider-Man and Black Panther in seamless fashion. They provide exciting action set pieces and compelling moments of drama. The payoff at the end truly shows us how much of a battering these heroes take- emotionally and physically. We see their vulnerability more clearly than any other MCU film, forcing us to address the question that they can’t keep doing this forever.

11. Captain Marvel Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

The biggest issue that this movie suffers from is that it seems very episodic to a larger MCU. Its hard to get around this though, with it’s release date being less than 2 months away from Endgame. It feels like there are some key world building details that had to be gotten across. Had this not been the case, perhaps they could have explored Carol’s character a bit more. She does seem interesting, and Brie Larson does an expectedly great job, but it seems like we’re only getting a taste of a much larger character study. From what we see though, it is refreshing to see a female character who simply goes out and kicks ass without ever being sexualised, even in terms of costume design. The highlight of the film though, is undoubtedly Samuel L. Jackson’s incredible portrayal of a young Nick Fury, through the most magical of magic tricks in VFX.

12. Iron Man Directed by Jon Favreau

While I do feel like the movie has lost some of it’s lustre since it’s release, there’s no denying that Jon Favreau achieved something remarkable with Iron Man. Forever considered one of Marvel’s B-characters, Favreau brings Tony Stark into a modern era and instantly relevant setting. This is obviously due in large part to his gamble of casting the debilitated Robert Downey Jr. in the lead. Downey Jr. pays off in spades, revitalising his career and sadly typecasting himself forever with a roguishly charming performance.

13. Doctor Strange Directed Scott Derrickson

Doctor Strange is proof of the amazing world-building prowess the MCU has. They introduce key elements to the universe that seem incredibly important, without ever overwhelming the story. Benedict Cumberbatch puts on his best American accent yet and capably sells Stephen Strange as one of the MCU’s more level-headed heroes. The rich mythos of Doctor Strange fits immediately into the greater MCU framework while telling it’s own compelling narrative culminating in my favourite climax to any MCU film- “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

14. Spider-Man: Far From Home Directed by Jon Watts

The real standout from this film is Jake Gyllenhaal with his pitch-perfect performance as Quentin Beck/Mysterio. He threads that line of MCU humour extremely well, but also manages to come off as wholly and realistically threatening when he needs to. Far From Home had the tough task of following the monumental Endgame,  but it fulfills its purpose of truly setting the tone for the future. A lot rests on Peter Parker’s shoulders and Far From Home shows him having to deal with it responsibly, maturing and growing to fill a greater role in the MCU. 

15. Ant-Man Directed by Peyton Reed

If you ignore the fact that this movie was almost directed by Edgar Wright and how amazing that could have been, Ant-Man still delivers as a very entertaining movie and one of the franchises strongest origin stories. Scott Lang is instantly the MCU’s most relatable character- not a god, not a spy, just a thief with no powers and no resources (initially). And there is no one who could have played this character better than Paul Rudd. Bringing his signature charm and impeccable comedic timing to the franchise is a breath of fresh air and a brand-new dynamic. 

16. Captain America: The First Avenger Directed by Joe Johnston

Ultimately my biggest problem with Captain America has always been his origin story, so I have some natural issues with this film. It is also bogged down with some cliched romantic drama between Steve and Peggy which takes away from its otherwise engrossing plot. Hugo Weaving proves to be an effective Red Skull, showing us a deeply disturbing quest for power. The movie excels in its WW2 setting, laying down real consequences and motives behind Captain America’s heroism. It takes a few movies for Chris Evans to settle into the role, but this is a strong start.

17. Iron Man 2. Directed by Jon Favreau

Iron Man 2 consistently threads the line of poignant storytelling. Ivan Vanko’s vengeful motives, Tony Stark’s descent into alcoholism and the nature of war profiteering. It’s especially unfortunate then that the movie gets bogged down with a persistent need for levity. More than any other film in MCU, the humour in Iron Man 2 seems particularly cumbersome- taking away from what would surely be strong performances from Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell. As a result, we’re left with villains who don’t seem to be a threat at all- mere caricatures for Iron Man to dispatch without ever really pondering their motivations.

18. Ant-Man and the Wasp Directed by Peyton Reed

My initial reaction to this movie was pretty positive, but given time I realise it’s totally forgettable. While it does feature some integral world building to the larger MCU, there’s very little done to explore some of their characters, particularly the Pym/van Dynes. There are still a lot of great aspects, including some clever action set pieces that explore Ant-Man’s powers more. Scott’s relationship with Cassie is expanded on and Paul Rudd and Abby Ryder Fortson do a great job selling this, making it seem truly endearing without ever being corny. Also Randall Park is in it and he might be the greatest actor of his generation.

19. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Directed by James Gunn

More of the same, but not nearly as fresh is what Guardians 2 serves up. It rehashes a lot of its predecessors joke formulas, action montages and even the basic emotional tone. It’s hard for any of this to seem anything other than repetitive and I’m left wanting these characters to go on real adventures rather than wallow in their own angst. Without offering any new developments to these characters and a rather uninteresting plot, the movie is another totally dismissible filler episode in the MCU.

20. Thor Directed by Kenneth Branagh

It’s really baffling that with as big of a name as Kenneth Branagh attached to it, Thor winds up being one of the MCU’s most poorly directed films. Poorly constructed shots framed on a dutch tilt and coloured with a gaudy high contrast palette make this movie a downright eyesore. It’s especially unfortunate because it’s got some great moments of storytelling in it. While the first three quarters of the movie seem tedious, it pays off in the last 30 minutes- exposing a complex family drama that drives most of the film. While Chris Hemsworth took a few films to polish his acting chops, Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins provide strong performances to really sell their characters and make us care.

21. The Incredible Hulk Directed by Louis Leterrier

This movie has easily become the sore thumb in Marvel’s formula. It seems entirely different from the rest of the movies. This is due in large part I believe to make it similar to the original TV series. None of this is a good thing. The movie has a largely meandering plotline, with no sensible character development. Bruce Banner goes back and forth between being tortured by the Hulk and accepting him. In a world populated by poor villains, Tim Roth’s Abomination might be the worst one. At no point do his motivations make sense or seem clear at all.

22. Avengers: Age of Ultron Directed by Joss Whedon

It seems like Joss Whedon decided to make a sequel to The Avengers without taking into consideration the four other movies that came out after it. Ignoring most of the character development and brushing aside key plot points, Whedon instead tries to explore their team dynamic by sewing seeds of hostility and testing them against a new villain. However, as good as James Spader is, Ultron never feels like a real threat. The real antagonist for the Avengers winds up being themselves, constantly bickering over right and wrong- and while this isn’t necessarily bad, Civil War would do a much better job of this just a year later. This makes Age of Ultron a dispensable entry in the MCU, and Whedon’s extremely poor handling of Natasha and Bruce’s relationship make it an arduous rewatch.

23. Thor: The Dark World Directed by Alan Taylor

The Dark World suffers from some bizarre shifts in tone and horribly forced humour. They reduce Jane Foster and Thor’s relationship to a cliched romantic comedy and then use it to add unnecessary comedy to the family dynamic established in the first Thor. Even the performances seem poor here- as if the actors never truly felt comfortable in their role. They posture and exaggerate to sell a script that offers them very little to work with. With a caricature of an evil villain and a generic McGuffin to chase, The Dark World is everything you could criticize the MCU of, rolled into one movie.

#MCU #marvel #marvel studios #marvel cinematic universe #marvel comics #stan lee #excelsior #film #film review #film list #yyc #yyc blogger #yyc film #iron man #captain america #thor #hulk #captain marvel #black panther #spider man #ant man #doctor strange #black widow #guardians of the galaxy #the winter soldier #avengers

[enchantedbyhiddles]

Tom Hiddleston smells amazing—overwhelmingly so—as I walk into his hotel room on the 10th floor of the Crosby Hotel in New York City. I can't quite pick out his cologne, but I later described it as "heaven" to everyone I know. "Hello! Tea?" he chirps in his charming British accent as he opens the door for me. Hiddleston has that kind of presence where it's hard to formulate words around him. "Ha ha, it's 4:20 on 4/20 and your fans are called Hiddlestoners," is the first thing I blurt out. I've been waiting to make that joke to him all day, but it falls flatter than I expected. He laughs to be polite, or maybe just out of pity.

The 35-year-old actor is wearing an exceptionally well-fitted blue suit that Wednesday afternoon and gray-framed glasses that add even more allure. Most actors turn out to be smaller in person, but Hiddleston's 6'2" frame—with seemingly mile-long legs—looks even more slender in person. While he's the epitome of dashing, his room is kind of a mess. Fed-Ex boxes are littered all over the place, suitcases are scattered, open, and half-stuffed with half-folded clothes. "Sorry, it's a mess," he apologizes as I navigate my way to the couch. "I'm packing up. I've been traveling for about 10 years." Hiddleston really has been all over the place lately. He's solidified himself in the Marvel Universe as Thor villain Loki (a role he will reprise in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok), just starred as Hank Williams in the biopic I Saw the Light, starred opposite Jessica Chastain in Guillermo del Toro's fantastical period horror Crimson Peak last year, plays a hotel manager-turned-spy in AMC's new TV series The Night Manager, and next year will appear in the new King Kong movie (Kong: Skull Island) with Oscar-winner Brie Larson. So yeah, he's got a lot on his plate.

When we talked, he was floating through Tribeca Film Festival to promote yet another new film of his, High-Rise, director Ben Wheatley's stylish dystopian adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1975 novel. In the film, Hiddleston plays the middle-class Dr. Robert Laing, who lives in a society where the poor live on the lower levels of a high-rise building while the rich live on top. Laing gets caught in the middle of a class war with his neighbors, played by Sienna Miller, Elisabeth Moss, Luke Evans, and Jeremy Irons, who portrays the building's rich architect and penthouse resident. We talked plenty about High-Rise, but also about his famous Hiddlebum (which serves a symbolic purpose in High-Rise), his love for dancing, and the stomach-churning preparation he had to do for the movie.

You play a doctor in the film. The scene where you tear apart flesh from a skull was kind of hard to watch. You had some horrifying scenes in Crimson Peak as well. Do you get squeamish watching those scenes? No, but I got squeamish when I was doing my research. I actually attended an autopsy because I knew I was going to have to perform a dissection. I simply had no frame of reference and I wanted to do it properly. I didn't know how to make incisions, so I went to see a forensic pathologist who showed me how to do it, which was quite stomach-churning. But it was fascinating, listening to him talk about the biomechanics of our engineering. As human beings, we often forget that we are machines, made up of machine parts, and if certain things are broken then that will have an effect on our behavior.

I think that scene's a declaration of intent by Ben [Wheatley]. You see Dr. Laing peeling the facial tissue off her head to reveal the blood and the bones beneath. I think that's sort of what Ballard is doing to society. He's saying, "Let me take away the surface and show you the flesh and blood beneath."

Speaking of this movie and Crimson Peak, directors seem to love shooting your bare butt. I'm sure you know the nickname you've been given: Hiddlebum. It's there. [Points to butt.] And there it is.

It's an Internet sensation. It's one of those things that I've never really thought about because the nudity has always been part of the story and it's never felt gratuitous. It's always felt as if it's in service of something. In High-Rise, it's quite symbolic. Laing moves into the building to get away from the entanglements of real life. And the first thing he does in this new clean, clinical space is take all his clothes off and sunbathe. And within seconds, that peace and freedom is interrupted. And then he never takes his clothes off again. And that's in the novel. I felt it was kind of important, and honestly, you don't see anything more than you would see if I was just walking down the beach, so I didn't have a problem with it.

The party scenes in this movie are so intoxicating. Did the parties ever go on after the cameras stopped rolling? The parties were so fun because we would set them up and, of course, there's no real alcohol, but there is real music and Ben would put on music and we'd start dancing. The camera would stay rolling, and he would say, "Crazy, go crazy, dance more crazy, more crazy dancing." He would gently encourage everybody to get a little more wild, but there was something very safe about it.

We're all familiar with your amazing dancing skills. I've got to know if that dream sequence where you're dancing with those flight attendants was your idea. It actually was my idea. But it wasn't my idea to dance. We shot it at the end of our first day. We were due to wrap at 6 p.m. and at 5:45 they started doing that scene. These flight attendants were walking down the corridor and I was watching it and I said to Ben, "Do you think that Laing should be a participant in his own dream?" And he said, "Well, yeah, it'd be nice to have the option." I asked, "What do you think he should be doing? Is he walking in front of them or behind them?" And then he said, "He should be dancing with them." So we did it, and we did it once. We put on Sister Sledge's "Lost in Music" and we danced down the corridor. It was great.

Do you remember the first moment you fell in love with dancing? When I first danced ever?

Yeah, when did you discover the rhythm of your body? [Laughs.] I don't know, actually. I have a very happy memory. My mom used to play the piano for me and my older sister when we were very, very small, about 3 or 4. There was no furniture in the living room of the new house that we had moved into so my sister and I would dance around the living room. It's one of my earliest memories and it's a very happy one. I was just dancing to my mom playing the piano and she had these three things she used to play. And then beyond that, I don't remember dancing or enjoying dancing until I was about 15. I started to go out to parties and playing music and being introduced to girls and wanting to impress them.

If you're a good dancer, it's much easier to get girls... I couldn't possibly attest to that.

Please. [Laughs].

You do these stylistic British films and then you're Loki from the Marvel movies. Do you notice the different ways people receive you in different places? The Marvel films have an extraordinary reach. Loki is the most well-known character I've ever played. But when I was in Louisiana, people had seen me in Coriolauns onstage in London and people have already seen my new TV show, The Night Manager.

You're such a unique chameleon of an actor.   I get huge pleasure from challenging myself and surprising an audience by doing different things. But that's partly because I think all human beings contain enormous range and complexity. We're capable of huge courage, and love, and kindness, but we're also capable of cruelty and inconsistency, and solitude and loneliness, and all these things that we all suffer as much as the next person.​ My pleasure is trying to express that.

Have you seen that Reductress article about yourself? It's a satirical women's site. I have to show you this article: "9 Times Tom Hiddleston Left You Breathless and Alone in the Woods." [Scrolls through phone, laughs.] Wow, is it good to leave someone breathless and alone in the woods? I feel like that's a very unkind thing to do to somebody.

#link #tom hiddleston #high rise #interview #high rise promo #can't remember seeing this #oldie but goldie

[phynali]

If given the chance, how would you rewrite the MCU?

Anon. Anon. Anon.

How wouldn’t I?

I mean - okay, there’s a lot you have to keep the same just for the sake of like, continuity, clarity, and keeping the bones there.

I’d probably keep all the original movies in Phase 1 as they are with only minor tweaks. I’d fix the mess that was Iron Man 2. I’d give Black Widow and Hawkeye a movie of their own to establish their characters. Hmm, I can see that coming after the first Avengers, possibly.

The first Avengers film though, that’s where I would make the first major changes. 

Loki’s characterization is a mess and not properly explained in canon. I’d put him more obviously under Thanos’s thumb. I’d fix Cap’s messed up characterization. I wouldn’t have Thor show up when he does because, hey - bifrost issues. We’d see him and Heimdall from Asgard trying to work on that problem and let them find a cogent way to get Thor to earth. So, he’d show up for the final battle and to take Loki home. He’d be the ace in the hole that helps allow the Avengers to assemble and overtake Loki.

Okay, so fix Iron Man 2. I can barely remember it but I know it needs fixing.

Cap 2 I’d leave intact. I might give Hulk a follow-up movie tbh, or rather, probably tie him in to the Black Widow and Hawkeye movie that would follow the first Avengers.

Also put more female heroes front and centre earlier on. And especially WoC. 

Big issues arise by the time we get to Age of Ultron. Fix that hot mess of a movie.

Hawkeye doesn’t have a family and a farm. That was weird. Erase that shit. Don’t set up a romance between Nat and Bruce. Don’t - 

Look, I mean no disrespect to Tony stans - 

Don’t make every problem in the MCU something that was inadvertently caused by Tony. Because like every Iron Man movie involves a villain who felt scorned by him, and then AoU was caused by him messing with the Mind Stone (Bruce too, okay, but Bruce isn’t the one with the narrative trend here) and all the villains in the Spider-Man movies, and then there’s how shit played out in Civil War and - 

Okay so fix AoU. Have the Mind Stone literally take on a life of it’s own and don’t fucking make it the fault of Tony’s hubris, okay. Make it more accidental and incidental than it was. Don’t make it something that happened overnight from tinkering. 

And for the love of god, make it so that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver did not sign up to be experimented on, but rather keep their comic origins. They’re Jewish Romani PoC. Give them a narrative that’s authentic to those identities.

I also would not fucking kill off Quicksilver, what the honest fuck?

Actually also don’t just make up a random country and code it a given way and then destroy it. I know it’s an MCU movie and therefore actually needs a giant CGI battle at the end, but okay - Age of Ultron. Stretch that shit out. Make it more clever. Show some more subtle and almost… guerilla tactics from the Avengers, taking down Ultron’s armies? Instead of a single battle in a country we don’t know about and haven’t been told to care about from a narrative standpoint, have Ultron go after their friends and families, have them fight smart and mean but no less visually pleasing to watch. The Avengers don’t have the numbers on Ultron’s army, but they can (and do) recruit Wanda and Maximo and they fight their fight using all their resources - not just their fists.

Okay so let’s move on.

iron Man 3 was great, but the whole bit with Pepper being kidnapped? Not that into it, personally. Also not into her getting powers and then getting them taken away. There was a lot to love about that movie, but so many Iron Man movies tease at this idea of Tony wanting to retire, or getting out, and they need to just back off that and let him own his heroism. That movie navigates so much so well so let it be.

Okay - 

Thor 2? Don’t fucking kill Thor’s mom. Friga deserves better. Stop motivating male characters by killing women. Let Loki and Thor come together by Friga being injured, by their dad dying, by a desire to bring their mother joy - whatever. Just - don’t kill her. I’m still pissed about how much they take from Thor over time.

I’d keep Cap 2 the same, and the only changes I’d make to GotG would be - 

Okay wait actually. There are huge glaring issues with that movie. Gamora is poised to be the hero of these movies and finds herself as the damsel in distress or incapable whenever the narrative needs her to be. I fucking hate it. Let her shine more. Show instead of tell. Let each character develop in their own right rather than dropping some random backstory notes in expository dialogue. Build up to the notion that it’s super weird Quill can hold the Stone and actually like… acknowledge it in the movie. You can keep the story basically the same but fix things with Gamora’s narrative, please please please.

Okay Ant-Man is great. There’s a huge narrative issue within the entire MCU with how they exclude Janet Van-Dyne though, and how she isn’t introduced until now even though she should be a fundamental member of the Avengers. I would almost like, at some point in Phase 1-3, a movie with Janet at the helm, possibly (to keep their timeline intact), her working with Peggy, working with SHIELD, with a young Fury or something, and laying the groundwork for the Avengers. A lot of what Captain Marvel eventually did, but situated fully on earth, and coming much sooner in the MCU itself.

Civil War was a hot mess. They needed to actually explain and detail both sides and the problems with them. It functioned amazing as an introduction to Black Panther and I love it for that, but it wasn’t a Cap movie, not really, and I’m bitter about it. This movie should have focused around the Black Panther, Cap, Bucky narrative, and dropped the whole Civil War with the other Avengers stuff entirely. 

Actually - Civil War needs to be either an entirely separate movie on its own or else… drop it. Deal with it differently. That airport fight was an embarrassment. Let the Avengers break down during Cap 3 if you need do, but make it more interpersonal and tense, and less throwing punches and locking each other up. Make it more human, more relatable, because those were the best parts of that whole divide. Make it real for the viewer, for fuck’s sake. Don’t have Tony (seriously what’s with them making him do villainous things and painting them as heroic) blackmail a literal child into a battlezone???? 

Okay - and Cap issues, they need to either set up Agent 13 aka Sharon Carter as a proper love interest sooner, or else drop that. They drop breadcrumbs of her in a few movies but that’s it. It feels hollow between them by the time they actually kiss. They should either keep their dynamic as “could have been but whoops, nope” or have done more to set them up together in Cap 2. 

(Totally honest, total bias here - take out love interests altogether or let Cap be the bi icon that he should be and let him and Falcon hook up in Cap 2. Let the fact that he was in love with Bucky be canon but you don’t need to set them up as a couple. Let it be recognized that they love each other but god there’s too much there, too much mess, they don’t need to be together in the present to acknowledge that history. Either way keep the Bucky and Sam dynamic because it’s amazing).

Doctor Strange - fix the casting. The racism, appropriation - just - wow. Use this as an opportunity to introduce more Asian and East Asian characters and actors into the MCU rather than it being the appropriative mess that it is. Keep the cool visuals though, and the cape. The narrative itself isn’t bad, but spend less time establishing this asshole character and more time establishing the side characters and the dynamics between them because those are far more interesting.

GotG 2 - uhhhh… okay what was this? Peter Quill is Ego’s son, but how does that really advance anything in the MCU or about the character or … ? Just fix the whole goddamn plot, I don’t even know. Tie this shit into Thanos way better. Introduce that better. Make this movie more interesting, make Nebula the Big Bad of it, honestly. Dive into the other members of the Guardians and give them their backstories and plots that they deserve. Is this the Guardians or the Peter Quill show? I don’t know I just - just fix this, okay?

Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther need no fixing. Remember that in this version of the MCU, Thor’s mom is alive, so that’s there. She’s still on Asgard and with Heimdall and being awesome, and we get some awesome interactions between her and Hel because we fucking deserve that, okay? Also Valkyrie’s bi scenes aren’t deleted (fuck you, Marvel execs). I would love love love for Killmonger not to die at the end of Black Panther, personally, but I wouldn’t change much more than that.

Oh wait I forgot - with the whole Bucky in Wakanda thing? Fucking take that out or do something narratively with it. It’s the weirdest brushed-aside thing that serves no genuine narrative purpose. I’d err on the side of taking it out entirely, personally. 

Infinity War is fine, leave it as-is more or less, except for - 

Okay, so we need textual discussion and canonical pushback against Thanos’s ideals. Because so many people came out of that movie all “oh but he’s got a point - population is expanding blah blah blah” and it was such fucking bullshit. We needed Gamora to point out why Thanos was fucking wrong - why her people were not actually better off after he killed half of them, thank you very much. We needed Tony to point out “population doesn’t work that way, it’ll bounce back in 50 years - do you plan to keep doing this each time? why not double resources?”. We needed people to tell the audience not just that Thanos was bad, but why he was bad, and that there is no ‘random’ and he needed to be a monster and selfish and it needed to be way more clear that his was not a sublime ideal of a detached idol, but rather the ravings of an entitled man whose gone unhinged and hateful.

Okay. So that. And don’t make the final battle just decimate Wakandan soil and its army? Why do they have to fight Earth’s battles for it? Let that be a joint effort and not just a Wakandan one, jfc. I get that you had the set ready and all, but no, don’t treat Wakanda like that, it deserves better. If ever there was a time to blow the budget on a final fight, this would be it, so freaking do it and have that battle be in space and over earth and at many different locations but then zeroing in on where Vision is (which itself can be in Wakanda because it’s safest but yeah).

And honestly I wouldn’t make it so Gamora died, like wtf. I hated that. I hated the whole bit with the Soul Stone. I could swallow it if what they did was have Gamora turn into the Soul Stone - so that she could, as the stone, set up a sabotage to Thanos.

Okay - more on that. Let’s talk about Endgame. Endgame needs so much goddamn fixing. Holy fuck does it need fixing.

Okay - okay where do I even start. I make myself mad whenever I think about it. 

Five years? Five fucking years? What the fuck is wrong with you, Russo brothers? Time travel? What - just - 

I hated that movie with a passion.

Okay - so the Snap happened. Pick up right after. Give us the fucking shock and horror. Give us the attempt to regroup, just quick, the intense emotions - people punching walls. Show us snippets of the world quickly, news casts etc. This is a horror, let it be one. Own the shit that you did.

Give us a time skip-montage. A month out, the pressure is on to the Avengers to fix this. The Avengers are all traumatized. Clint doesn’t have a family in this version, and doesn’t go all terminator. Thor - he wouldn’t have as much time to spiral but let him get there, let him be unwell, unkempt, let him own his suffering because goddamn he’s lost so much. (oh I forgot, I actually wouldn’t kill Loki and Heimdall because wtf wtf I hate you Infinity War, but let’s move on - )

Five months - people are losing hope. There are therapy sessions. Cap is a mess. Everyone blames themselves. Tony “if I’d only made the call to Cap sooner, we could have worked together” (also he and Nebula make it to earth fast, none of that lost in space and starving stuff), Cap “if only I hadn’t been so arrogant as to not trade lives”, Thor “if only I’d gone for the head”, etc etc. let it be clear that it’s not just Thor’s fault and not just Peter Quill’s fault - that all of those in charge of decision making fucked up.

Ant-Man isn’t freaking saved by a rat, thank you. He comes out of the quantum realm on his own merits, some safeguard, only to realize shit’s messed up. He and Janet work together with the remaining Avengers. maybe Janet saved him from the quantum realm this time? what a nice parallel to him saving her. anyway, they use the quantum realm to find thanos. Or - fuck that, they use Nebula to find Thanos. She knows shit. What they use the quantum realm for is to realize that all the souls that were lost in the snap aren’t ‘dead’ dead, they’re in stasis. They’re in a liminal space - they’re in the Soul Stone. Because Gamora is the stone and she sucked up all those lives and is holding them, holding for dear life but she can’t hold on forever (make sure the stakes are high, they feel real, the clock is ticking). Captain Marvel teams up with them of course. they track down thanos.

“but Phyn” you say, “thanos still has all the stones? how can they defeat him?” great question! difficult to answer! i’m not sure! with the power of love! 

okay but really - they have an awesome team. they need to work smarter than the enemy, not harder. they can take out thanos’s generals. they can use nebula to slip past defenses. if loki were alive, which he should be, they can use his magic. if friga were alive, which she should be, they can use hers. if heimdall were alive, which he should be, they can use his eyes. they can use the magic of all the magicians in the doctor strange films. they have captain marvel.

but they will never win on might alone, or magic alone - not against a full complement of infinity stones. not unless - 

have you seen Avatar: The Last Airbender? if so - you know how Azula gets a little unhinged toward the end? she’s just a kid, i feel for her, but the point for here is that she does enough shit and gets what she (thinks she) wants and it takes a devastating toll on her. using the stones, clearing half the life in the universe - that took a toll on thanos. it was a terrible choice. he’s in denial, in self-deception about that. he’s coming apart at the seams. he’s not all chill about it, he’s spiralling hard. he lost half his army too, after all. and life doesn’t seem improved. he can hear the cries of the souls locked in the soul stone (not that he realizes what he’s hearing nor acknowledges it) and it’s like the beating heart under the floorboards. his crimes have left scars. he’s not well. physically, from the toll of the Snap, nor mentally, from everything else it took out of him.

let gamora save the fucking day. let her and Vision and their stones - hell, let Loki (maybe he’s fused with the tesseract and maybe thanos did kill him to acheive that, or maybe something else) - let the stones respond to people. to quill. to freaking Jane Goddamn Foster. let the stones’ connections to life undermine and corrupt thanos and his connection to death.

is it cheesy? maybe. is it better than time travel bullshit? definitely. because it uplifts. because it draws from heroes in all the movies, even unlikely ones. people who’ve touched the stones, held them, melded with them. it assumes that the stones aren’t static entities, that they are just as alive as us, in a way we can’t comprehend, and so much more. they resonate with the universe, and thanos has done something that scarred the universe. let this be rectified, not through the actions of a man’s sacrifice, but through the actions, big and small, of a ton of people, of unlikely heroes, of those who suffered personally at his hand, at the hands of the stones - let it be the will of half the goddamn universe to see thanos fall.

let the snap-back happen when thanos loses control over the stones (he’s been holding on tight this whole time, can’t let it slip, the stones have a ‘mind’ of their onw). let it happen again right before the final battle against his armies. let him not have the power to immediately re-snap, hand burnt by the force of the snap-back, and let thor take off his fucking arm this time. let nebula take off his fucking head. let there be a huge final battle with everyone alive and ready to go down swinging once again.

and okay, i’m okay with tony dying. i’d be game for him to die by destroying the stones, tbh - taking them out of existence henceforth so they can never be used like this again, even though it kills him. i think that would honestly be a really fulfilling conclusion to the narrative set up in the first Iron Man film - the reformed arms dealer destroying the ultimate weapons in the universe.

by this way - there’s been 5-8 months or something like that, not 5 years, but why not have Pepper be pregnant, why not have a little child who’ll get to live on after he’s gone, even if that kid won’t remember him? she’ll get to live in a universe that exists and is safe because of him.

i’d be okay with cap dying in this movie too (much better than him going back and stealing peggy’s life from her by changing her history, wtf wtf wtf). i refuse to accept nat dying in clint’s place, that was bullshit and totally not necessary in this version. gamora is also back, not from the past but from the present, and with her sister again. this time nebula got to save gamora, isn’t there some poetic justice in that?

okay okay that’s all that. whew.

I forgot about Captain Marvel. It was decent, I liked it. It wasn’t my favorite in the sense that it was laid out odd when it came to falling in love with this character. Like I wouldn’t change much of the plot but I’d change the… storytelling? The emotions used to connect us to Carol. Give us more of her past from the start, before you introduce her. Give us her childhood. And let Maria be her girlfriend, fucking please.

Okay - now we’re at Far From Home. I didn’t mention Homecoming before but the problem with both of these movies is one I mentioned earlier - that the villains are byproducts of choices made by Tony Stark. That’s a problem. There’s just so many goddamn movies in which that’s the ultimate villain and it fucks with Tony’s characterization so much. How am I supposed to love Tony (which I want to?) when he’s got satellites with drones that can attack anyone he names, tech not that unlike the tech Hydra was aiming to make. Sure, he won’t use it the same, but why the fuck does he have it? Giving it to Peter is all well and good, but - they have interacted maybe a grand total of 5 times? 

The relationship between Peter and Tony is cute but if you stop for a second, it’s annoying as hell that it’s built up to what it is. Peter gets recruited by Tony, mostly works with Happy and not Tony in Civil War, and then gets ignored by Tony for months and months on end, then Tony shows up and scolds him and takes his suit, and then invites him to be an Avenger when he doesn’t fuck up, and then they go off to space and Peter dies, and then everyone comes back to life and Tony dies. Why the fuck would Tony entrust Peter with this Edith system that allows him to kill anyone on Earth? Actually, fuck that, entrust is the wrong word - why the fuck would Tony put that weight on the shoulders of a child?

Far From Home is great but Tony’s post-mortem role in it makes almost no sense. Let Peter’s movies be about Peter and not about the shadow and then the ghost of Tony Stark. Please. I love Tony, I do, but if you stop and think for one second, you have to jump mental hoops to absolve the shit Tony does in Peter’s movies, and for many of us, it leaves a really awful taste in our mouths.

anyway - i probably missed stuff. that’s just what’s currently top of mind. #whoops

#i spent too many hours of my life on this #marvel #mcu #walrus #you said you wanted to read this when i got around to answering... #here you go #marvel critical #mcu critical #ask to tag #comics etc #Anonymous #long post #long post for ts

[prettygraceful]

downfall of 2 dyamics: part 3

ok, here’s a continuation of this topic, just broken up for easier reading. so let’s start with how the showrunners changed jace from the minute they took over. they realized they had to do 2 things to try to make the alec stans- aka most of this fandom- fully love jace. ok, so let’s break down 1 of those things at a time.

1) they altered jace’s personality. in s1, jace started out as your typical fantasy male lead- a cocky, jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold, jock type. now this suits dom’s acting abilities, and he performed that part well. but the sad emo type of guy- alec- was more appealing to the fandom at large. (very similar to how loki was favored over thor for years in the marvel fandom, until recently with ragnarok, when taika reversed that by turning loki into a joke and thor into peter quill 2.0).

however the SH showrunners tried a different method- they tried to turn jace into alec #2. but that emo type only works when played by certain actors! and it has nothing to do with talent, but is due to the fact that actors are better suited for some roles over others. (for example in GOT, nikolaj was well suited to play jaime as that emo type post s1. but when they tried to turn tyrion into that too, peter couldn’t make it work- and he is an amazing actor!) and out of our cast, matt is the only 1 who is just naturally suited to play that type and have it come off as authentic and sympathetic to the fans. so they set dom up to fail. and all cuz they tried to make jace be alec’s replicant instead of just letting him be jace.

and now for the other change: 2) they never let jalec have any internal conflicts between them, cuz they knew that the fandom would always take alec’s side. and they didn’t want that cuz jace is their main male lead. so they instead wrote jalec to just constantly be dealing with external conflicts. they knew lots of fans could be easily manipulated to viewing the parabatai bond as “sweet” (instead of a lot of the fandom saying jace was a bad parabatai to alec, as was said during s1), if the only things jalec did was: be in mortal danger, rescue each other, do the “dying/ can’t live without you cuz of the rune™” routine regularly (cuz being parabatai matters more than being brothers apparently), and talk about shadowhunter business with the squad. i mean- aside from that 1 brief scene in 3x04- there were absolutely no personal conflicts between them at all?

and that is why jalec’s dynamic was so flat in all of s2 and s3. (for example, let’s look at the difference in some sibling dynamics on GOT. tyrion/ cersei had such a complicated dynamic which evolved so much over the course of the show. whereas as tyrion/ jaime had a mutually sympathetic dynamic from the start... and there it stayed with no further depth nor any real development). now irl, that kind of bond might matter. but this is a tv show, and an onscreen dynamic that never moves past the point where it starts from just isn’t compelling. and yes, that fandom did love that duo, but that’s just cuz of the popularity of white-on-white bromance. i mean, if we’re being honest, that’s a majority of the reason why the ~parabatai~ are so popular with this fandom. the aesthetic appeal...

ok, i’m done for now. there will 1 last post on this later. thank you for reading :)

#shadowhuntersedit #aleclightwoodedit #jaceherondaleedit #meta #tagged to reach a larger audience #positive feedback is always nice :)

[darthspideys]

My thoughts on Phase 4

I AM SO EXCITED FOR PHASE 4 let me just start with that. Just generally, without knowing much about the movies or trailers or anything I am pumped. It looks so cool and there are going to be so many more heroes in the universe and that makes me so happy. I know some people want more focus on like the characters from previous phases but I love that they're staring out with new stuff because its the end of the infinity saga and they want to showcase that before immediately going into sequels and threequels. 

Before I get into specific series and movies I want to talk about a couple of general things:

Disney + : I don’t like that “phase 4″ also includes the series(s). don’t get me wrong, I love them like series(s) were my favorite announcements of the night but like it’s weird that they're technically counted in the phase. It makes me feel like if you don’t watch the series you're going to be missing a plot point from a movie which would irk because its a lot easier to buy a movie ticket once or twice a year than to pay for a streaming service every month (though I’ll give Disney this 6.99 isn’t a bad price that's only like a dollar more than Hulu with commercials) . 

The logos: Look I know logos aren’t everything but like some of those were... how you say garbage? terrible? a crime? Like some of them were spiderman far from home advertizements bad in terms of graphic design (I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of people using the ‘graphic design is my passion’ meme and it's totally appropriate). Not all of them we’re bad though, like The Eternals one was soo good, I liked how the background was kind of like a starry night, and the Shang Chi one good and the Doctor Strange one was okay. The Hawkeye logo was *chefs kiss* perfect, I love how they took the Fractions Hawkeye logo and updated it a bit because wow yes. The Loki logo was so bad I can’t even look at it, the fan made ones were so much better, loki I’m sorry you deserved better than some clip art that I think makes a word.... and the wandavision one was just werid but then again everything about them is werid so

The casts: MARVEL HAS THE BEST CASTS EVER that’s it im saying it, no I do not take constructive criticism. Say what you will about the movie but like the amount of talent that has been and will be in the mcu is astounding I mean we had RDJ and Chris Evans, who are amazing and Brie Larson (who by the way has a freaking oscar) and now we’re going to have Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Kumal Nanjani, Natalie Portman is back, MAHERSHA ALI IS BLADE LIKE WOW (I think he has an oscar too correct me if I’m wrong), Awkafina is gonna be in chang chi (I love her sm), and so many others just the amount of talent is astounding. 

The diversity: SO MANY WOMEN. AHHH JAne foster as female thor??? Our first LGBTQ character (confirmed at least) is going to be a bi black woman??? AMazing??? Another headlining black superhero with blade?? 

Moving on to the actual movies and shows. I’m putting a read more because idk if I’m going to talk about every individual announcement but I might so-

My favorite announcement by far had to be the Hawkeye series, because KATE BISHOP BABEY. She is my favorite marvel comics character and soon to be mcu character :) and now she’s going to get the love she deserves and more people will know about her which makes me so happy. Also it’s interesting that they didn’t announce her casting, so I have hope that maybe they will cast someone asian since that’s always been my headcanon for her even though she’s white in the comics. I’m trying not to use a lot of screaming in caps sentences but just know when I think about Kate being on my screen I AM SCREAMING. When I first saw the post about the series I cried because I was so so happy. And fingers crossed this series is taking cues from the fractions hawkeye comics because that really encapsulated Clint’s character in a way the mcu... hasnt (I really hate mcu clint but that’s a story for another time) so I hope that while they introduce Kate they also fix mcu’s clint and make him actually likable.  (if you couldn't tell I really really don’t like MCU clint.) or at the very least not screw up Kate like they did mcu clint. 

Next up THE SAMBUCKY SERIES. (I know it has a real title but like thats long and I can’t spell soildier to save my life sooo yeah I’m gonna call it the sambucky series in tags and stuff). I know not alot of people are talking about this because we already knew that it was happening, so it’s like yeah we already saw that but seeing Mackie and Stan up on stage together just made it feel so real and it made me so excited. And then Mackie was holidng the shield and I was like ahhhhhhhhhh hes freaking captain America!!! I could write a million essays about why its so important that hes cap and why it means to much to me and a lot of people but,,, another post for another time. But anyway these characters and the actors who play them have so much good chemistry that I can’t wait to really see it. One thing I’m not so excited about... the logo. There was a totally different logo when Disney + originally announced it and I liked that one so much better, this one is just... clunky?? idk but it’s not having that big an impact on my life lol its more of an annoyance then anything. 

I feel like now I should mention an actual movie.. 

THE ETERNALS. I’m going to admit I don’t know that much about the characters or the team (which I will soon fix when I do my wiki deep dive to find out everything) but if your judging just by the cast, this movie is going to be great. I mean the amount of talent in this movie is outstanding and I really have high hopes for what it could be. 

Doctor Strange: The multiverse of madness intrigues me more than I thought it would. Like for starters the name is pretty ominous, and the fact that we’re getting an actual confirmation/movie about the multiverse (far from home really let me down in that regard) is really exciting. Also it’s supposed to be the first “scary” mcu movie, I don’t know how scary they can get with a PG-13 rating (which I’m going to guess there going to try to keep because there’s a big chunk of the fanbase that’s young) but that really made me interesting. ALSO WANDA MAXIMOFF IS GOING TO BE IN IT, so that makes me so excited for it because although I’m not the biggest fan of Wanda's character (which I blame J*ss Wh*don for completely and her lack of characterization in the rest of the mcu and the complete nerfing of her powers.... another post for another time.) I’ve always wanted to see her and Steven use magic togther and I’ve seen a few panels where Wanda, Strange and Loki form a little magic squad which I WOULD VERY MUCH LOVE to see put on screen (minus Loki I’m guessing), also maybe this movie will fix a little bit of her characterization? One thing that makes me nervous about this though is the teaser that it “directly connects” to the wandavision series, if I’m not able to get Disney plus and watch the show I don’t want to have missed out on plot points for the movie but I guess we’ll see. 

since I mentioned it already, lets talk WandaVision. The logo as a mentioned earlier is so very bad, but- yeah idk it’s just very bad. Also the name is really werid? like wandavision with no space? It’s like they went to tumblr, found thier ship name and was like ‘that sounds like a great name for a show’ (that is their ship name right?). I was not planning on watching this show at all UNTIL I found out that FREAKING GROWN UP MONICA RAMBEAU is going to be in it. I didn’t think they would ever bring her up again in the mcu so I’m so happy that she is going to be in this show and I hadn’t even heard any rumors about this so it was a really fun suprise. Am I sure that they are only putting her in the show so that people will watch the trainwreck that is wanda and visions relationship? Yes. But will I fall into the trap because of Monica? YES. But I think this show could be good if your willing to get past the obvious weridness of human girl is in love with basically a robot, a human looking robot sure if your being generous and maybe not fully a robot (a synthoid?) but it’s still werird because he's not human.  I’m curious to see what timeline they use for this, because vision is still dead at the end of endgame. I guess they could use the 2 years between civil war and infinity war but that’s just not a lot of time for a complete story (and if this show “directly connects” the doctor strange 2 then that means that movie takes place pre-thanos as well which would be werid) 

That all being said, I am really excited to see Wanda’s character done by someone who isn’t J*ss Wh*don or the R*ssos because they screwed her up so bad and she was such a badass and powerful character in the comics (my personal theory is that all of these men saw that and went ‘a powerful woman? more powerful then men? we can’t have that around here’ like what was done with Carol in endgame). 

BLADE. We don’t know much about this movie and I don’t know much about the character but I AM PUMPED even though we don’t have a release date for it yet. I just think Mahersha Ali is so talented and I love Black lead heros so yeah. 

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER am I a little sad they didn't use Thor Four: More thor as our queen Gina Linetti suggested? Yes. But I love this title and it’s just crackhead enough to be acceptable. I’m so happy that this movie is being made, because  1) someone has to make up for the first two thor movies somehow, 2) someone has to fix the mess the R*ssos made of thors character and 3) Thor Ragnarok made me actually like thor as a character, so I want to see more of that Thor. ALSO JANE FOSTER AKA NATALIE PORTMAN IS BACK??? AND SHES GONNA BE FREAKING FEMALE THOR YES YES YES (that picture of her holding the hammer? wow. powerful. showstopping. amazing) I can hear all the dudebros screaming about how much they hate it but 1) who cares what they think? and 2) its completely comics accurate which is thier usual lame excuse for misogyny so they can suck it. ALSO VAL IS THE QUEEN OF ASGARD AND TESSA SAYS SHES GONNA FIND HER QUEEN so we’re gonna get REAL CANON BI VAL (aka out first lgbtq mcu character who is also a woman of color which is so amazing and important!!!!) ANYWAYS THOR IS GOING TO BE AMAZING, its the movie I’m most pumped for AND THE LOGO IS AMAZING and thank you takia watiti for coming to save us. 

Black Widow... hmmm... I’m not as excited for this because one it’s not that much of a surprise since we’ve even seen set photos for it and because Scarlett Johanssen, I just don’t like her. I like Nat as a character even though Scarlett has the acting range of a celerity among many other issues but yeah. I’ll still go see the movie because girl power, and the more female led movies are successful the more they’ll make and more it’ll make the stupid dudebros and misogynists in training at my school mad. Also Rachel Wietz is talented and I liked David Harbour in Stranger things (or you know the 5 total episodes I’ve watched) 

Shang Chi looks like it’s gonna be good, and idk what the ten rings is but uhh I like it. And I love that we’re getting the actual modern and hopefully they’ll do a little flashback or callback to iron man 3. ALSO AWKAFINA 

What if? I love what if comics just because it’s a cool concept and it’s nice to see what if but this feels kind of pointless almost??? Idk I just don’t know why its here (also I originally thought this was going to be on hulu so I’m bitter about that). But I’m interested to see what kind of animation style they’ll go with (which honestly is a huge factor in whether or not I’ll watch it), and depending on what stories they do, if I watch it I’ll probably just end up skipping around and only looking at certain ones. 

Spiderman 3, Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2: I’m super pumped for all of these!!! I mean especially after that cliffhanger at the end of spidey (which I’m still shook about). I cannot wait to see my girl carol again, and hopefully her movie will explain what’s going on with the “kree sleeper cells” that skrull maria hill talked about in ffh along with what the heck talos and his wife were doing on earth while fury is in space? (also a cute little reuinion scene between fury and carol?) (also also what the heck has carol been doing since captain marvel and before endgame) (also also also plz give me carol rhodey and intoduce jessica drew thanks) okay so maybe I’m asking a lot of this movie but yknow..and I’m always up to see more Okoye because she is iconic and I love her. 

Fantastic 4, Look I know there's been a bajillion fantastic four movies and they were all bad ( I personally liked the one With Micheal B Jordan, Miles Teller and Kate Mara)  but I have faith in marvel studios. I mean they did take a basically unknown hero and turn him into one of the most beloved heroes and launched that single movie into a cash cow 23 movie freaking franchise (I’m talking tony stark and the tony stark cinematic universe by the way)  so I think they can pull off the biggest miracle of all time and make a good fantastic four movie. 

Mutants... I don’t really know what they mean by this? Like do they mean X men? Or a new movie called mutants? Or mutants themselves will be peppered into the mcu? I think that it shoud be one of the last two options. Just because even if the x men don’t show up for another 2-3 years its still kinda soon to just reboot the whole thing? (also I don’t think that Jean Gray should be recasted because Sophie Turner slayed that role despite the writing being terrible), even the fantastic 4 movie the lastest one will be 6-7 years old by the time marvel reboots it so- also the x men have just been so overdone by fox in bad ways that I feel like if theyre going to use mutants which they should they should do a new team and pull out some lesser known characters and or just put mutant heros in the mcu which I would love to see. 

annnnd an hour later.. here we are. If you made it to the end, thank you because I had a lot to say. 

#phase 4 #marvel #marvel sdcc #sdcc #mcu #mcu phase 4 #thor #thor love and thunder #love and thunder #shang chi #mutants #fantastic 4 #black widow #spiderman 3 #captain marvel 3 #black panther 2 #what if? #blade #wandavision #sambucky #sam wilson #bucky barnes #hawkeye #kate bishop #clint barton #gabby says

[pepperony3000-archive]

Wait Endgame is your second favorite? That's surprising! No judgement though, but now I want to know how you rank all of them

Oh goodness… that is TWENTY-THREE MOVIES to rank! That’s hard! This might get very jumbly at around the midway point…

1) Iron Man 3 - Everything about it is so perfect. The Iron Fam being chaotic but also 100% supportive of each other? Tony being the first superhero in history to deal with mental disorders blatantly!!! onscreen!!! The action is top notch. The final battle needs to be taught in film school because it’s literally a metaphor for Tony’s main personal theme of feeling like he’s nothing without his armor, but then at the end he’s able to leap from one to the other because it’s not the armor itself that makes him powerful, it’s that he has the powerbravery/will to leap from one to the other.

2) Avengers: Endgame - Y’all are looking at it wrong. Pretend the Infinity Saga is a TV show and it just ended, and now the rest of the MCU is a spinoff show featuring some of the newer/recently introduced characters, but without the core group of the original show.Suddenly the most important characters getting to leave with a bang isn’t as frustrating.But I also love it because it got my two favorite characters so beautifully right! Tony and Natasha, because they are the two who are deemed worthy enough to be turned into the big talking points of the movies, got to end their TV show finale with a huge glorious heroic sacrifice that will make them remembered forever!The time travel is also REALLY clever. And this is coming from someone who has watched a LOT of time travel shows/movies. There is literally only one movie I’ve ever seen that handled time travel better, and that was Arrival. They did away with the time travel paradox by having every past even just create an alternate timeline. And really? They only asked for suspension of disbelief in service of a joke that was not even that funny and I sort of hated and because they wanted the old Steve scene to have a particular emotional resonance, and having him come back through the portal old… wouldn’t have done that. 

3) Iron Man - I firmly believe that this is the best movie in the entirety of the MCU. It was the first, and yet it has never been topped. (and yet it’s #3 on my list rofl)It gave us a very complex lead character with a supporting cast that had a lot more depth in their first outing than some of the OG6 had after four movies (*cough*Clint*cough*Thor*cough* - Thor only got good development after Ragnarok). There was also subtlety to the story that it seems hollywood writers in general (and MCU specifically) is incapable of anymore.

4) The Avengers - the very first time in history we get a massive teamup of superheroes? sign me the FUCK up!Loki was a fantastic villain, the characterization of all of them (except for Clint… sorry, pal) was absolutely amazing, and it’s just pure unadulterated fun. Not much more to say than that.

5) Black Panther - Live Action Lion King (2019) WHOMST? There was a live action Lion King in 2018 and it was called Black Panther!I have a few issues with it fuck YOU vibranium! but it’s SUCH a good movie. T’Challa is quite possibly the noblest MCU character/lead, and the supporting cast are all incredible. I also loved the idea that the villain was… actually… right? Oh he was wrong a FUCK in deciding that the way to go about getting it was through violence, but his end goal was correct.Which is actually very subtle (and again… one of the very few MCU movies to do that) and very important message - because so often people seem to think that violence is the answer. Because the cause is “right” and “just”, excessive violence or threats of violence are considered the proper course of action. But as Killmonger proved, that wasn’t the way. Instead we all need to be like Nakia - who wanted the same thing, but worked for it through kindness, sacrificing her own desires, and making the first tiny hole in the dam.

6) Captain America: The Winter Soldier - I firmly hold that this is one of the most overrated MCU movies, and it’s what started Steve Rogers down his path to… the character he ended up becoming… but it is an excellent movie!Natasha gets amazing development, Sam Wilson is better in this movie than he has been since, and the emotional stakes are very high and very well thought out. Also I’m sorry but the bold political statement of “nazis torturing people is bad” is… not all that subtle? or bold? I don’t know why people are saying that this is the movie that addresses difficult political questions because… it doesn’t?

7) Spiderman: Far From Home - I’m sorry y’all, but I love my boy Peter Parker and if you don’t like this movie then I might just fight you.It was a terrific followup to Endgame, and Peter’s trauma was dealt with in a very realistic and unbearably painful way. Mysterio was the perfect villain for Peter to face, because he forces him to confront his trauma… even though he forces it by first torturing Peter with it, but Peter is forced to find a way to cope with his fears, his grief, and his feelings of inadequacy. Also Peter/MJ is the literal cutest and I love them so much.

8) Avengers: Infinity War - ngl this was a VERY tough battle between this and FFH, but FFH won by just a hair.Thanos is the greatest villain of our generation, quite possibly of the past 2-3 generations. The characters they chose to pair up together worked extremely well - I didn’t know how much I needed the Thor/tree/rabbit teamup until it happened. And then that ending… never before has the world held its breath together in such shared anguish as when we watched Spiderman all the characters we love so much fade away into dust. And there was a great cry in all  the world, such as never has been or ever shall be again!

9) Captain America: The First Avenger - Steve Rogers has never been better than he was in this film. Unfortunately it was all downhill after that, but it’s because of this film that he was my second favorite character for a good five years. There is a gentleness to this Steve that is utterly lacking starting in The Winter Soldier, where he becomes this machismo who obsesses far too much over anything he has one (1) emotion about because he doesn’t know how to handle it.This Steve Rogers is emotionally very intelligent, and is genuinely willing to do whatever it takes to do what is right.And I will say, I can understand why he made the decision he made in Endgame, because Peggy is such a brilliant and dynamic and interesting person, I don’t think anybody could have resisted staying with her (if she agreed to have him). @Marvel please bring back Agent Carter, because I need more Peggy.

10) Captain America: Civil War - This movie did a lot of studio mandated things, and because of that was weaker than it might have been, but I hold that it is a very good and very solid movie. Unfortunately, a big fault of the movie is that I don’t think Chris Evans believed in what he was performing, and so couldn’t give it the complexity that it needed (particularly as the Russo’s take input of their cast into consideration when making their movies… actors get to choose a lot of their own character beats unless it’s a plot-mandated beat). And unfortunately, Steve Rogers suffered for this.If The Winter Soldier is the one where he began obsessing over anything that gave him one (1) emotion, this is the movie where that tendency grew two extra heads and turned into a monster. Steve sees this argument the way a soldier who is used to following orders during wartime would, whereas Tony sees this argument the way a strategist during peacetime might. Steve thinks Tony is “trying to win a war before it starts”, while Tony thinks he’s deescalating rising tensions. And unfortunately, Steve is too blinded by his one (1) emotion to see the complexities in the situation.Which, while it frustrates me how poorly this movie did Steve’s personality, those dynamics are very interesting to watch play out onscreen. Plus, the dialogue is sharp and witty, and the emotional beats - particularly everything that has to do with Tony, is some of the most beautifully written and performed drama I’ve seen in a while.

11) Spiderman: Homecoming - This movie did such a good job of giving us a teenaged Peter Parker. All the other movies, Peter didn’t feel like a teenager. He felt like a grownup. This Pete is definitely a teenager - he’s a young kid in a big world trying to be a superhero, and because of that trying to take on problems that he is not experienced enough to take on.The journey he takes on this movie is to learn just exactly that, and by the end he probably is experienced enough now  to take on those bigger threats, but he makes the mature decision not to do that quite yet - proving exactly the kind of man he will eventually grow up to be.

12) Thor: Ragnarok - Finally Thor gets developed. Hemsworth really shows off his acting chops in this movie. He’s always been very charming as Thor, but this is the movie where we learned that he’s not just charming, but also a very talented actor. I personally found some of the clumsiness/slapstick around his character a bit much, but Hemsworth performed it perfectly.This is a movie where the story doesn’t actually matter. Honestly… who even remembers the story? The important thing about this movie are the characters, and they are all done incredibly well, except possibly Loki, and even he got some good development at the very end of it. Thor is finally an interesting character, Hela is an amazing villain, Bruce got some fun development, and Valkyrie should have been introduced five movies ago (@Marvel give me a Valkyrie movie! Why the FUCK are we reportedly getting Thor 4 when you could have had Thor stay behind as king of Asgard and giving Val her own  movie instead? Especially since all of Thor’s important relationships are dead or in the gotg movie, so he has nowhere to move on to! If we don’t have good characters/dynamics, Thor 4 will suck! It will also suck because the heart of his movies have been his relationship with his brother, and that’s gone now).

13/14) Ant Man and the Wasp/Ant Man - Honestly these movies can just be grouped together, because they’re very very similar, and all I would have to say about one I’d say about the other.

The Antman movies are very light hearted and comical, and the important thing here (like Ragnarok) is not the story, but the characters. The family relationships explored here honestly feel like real families - they just happen to live in a world with superheroes. I think AMaTW is the better of the two, but only by a little bit.

15) Iron Man 2 - This is another movie that was made lesser than it could have been due to executive meddling. Honestly, if you re-cut the movie and just take out all of Coulson’s scenes it becomes a much better movie (and would have gone higher on the list).As it is, Coulson dumps expositional world building that doesn’t really work in the context of the movie.What does work is the chaotic-yet-supportive Iron Fam (once again), and the introduction of Black Widow. I think Natasha might have had the best introduction in the MCU, because the audience was who she was fooling. Her job is to manipulate people and fool them into thinking she’s what she wants us to think she is, and only reveals the truth when she’s ready for it. And that is exactly how we were introduced to her. The underlying plot of Tony struggling with his imminent death was also incredibly well done. He wanted so desperately to not be dying, but there wasn’t anything that he could do. And when he ran out of options, he behaved in such a way to make things worse for him (health wise), because nothing was worse than sitting back and waiting for death to come. Better for it to come quickly and for the agony of just waiting for it to pass. Unfortunately Coulson takes away some of the gravitas of that by forgetting Tony was dying and threatening to taze him…All in all, a weak story but fleshed out by some of the best characters the MCU has ever created and introduced.

16) Doctor Strange - A decent movie with decent characters. There is nothing particularly memorable about it, but also nothing particularly bad about it either (beyond casting a non-Asian actress as the Ancient One).

17) Thor - Sort of like Doctor Strange, a decent movie with a charming lead but mostly terrible supporting cast. I will hold that none of the human characters are actually very good. At all. The best thing Ragnarok did was drop them all like the movie ruining load that they are.Once again, Loki is a good villain and an interesting character, and while Thor is underdeveloped he’s incredibly charming and likable in spite of that.

18) Captain Marvel - Yes I am a woman. Yes I disliked Captain Marvel. Can we move on from that please.If Thor is a decent movie with a charming lead, Captain Marvel is a decent movie with a terrible lead. I do not find Carol to be particularly interesting, and will hold that Brie Larson was incredibly miscast in the role. (if you want to hear why, you can peruse this). In general, it’s also a movie that relies a little bit too much on 90s nostalgia, and as somebody who personally hates when a movie relies on nostalgia to be considered “good”, all of that rubbed me the wrong way. The same applies to Ragnarok tbh, but I didn’t mention it up there because I wanted to rant about wanting a Valkyrie movie. (@Marvel please)Unfortunately, this movie is also not one bit subtle with it’s message. And as a woman, I do not relate to a woman whose only personality trait is “stand up to men”. Every other female character in the MCU is quite capable of standing up to men, and they all have a lot of character outside of that. And I will stop there because even saying that much risks me getting blocked right off of this hellsite…

19) Guardians of the Galaxy - I am definitely in the minority for this one, but I never liked this movie. If the 90s nostalgia in Captain Marvel rubbed me the wrong way, the 80s nostalgia in this movie was rubbing me the wrong way. with sandpaper.But my biggest problem with this movie is that Quill is not interesting enough (in my opinion) to be the central character. These characters all feel like sidekicks, and without a strong central lead for them to be sidekicks to, everything just feels very underdeveloped. I also find the humor in these movies to be very cheap and childish.However, I love that the team very much became a family. I believe in their relationships with each other even if each person as an individual character feels very weak.

20) Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - If you took GOTG1 and flipped it on it’s head, you’d get GOTG2. This is quite possibly the worst MCU movie ever, except that… somehow… it has some of the most heartfelt and meaningful emotional beats out of all of them.I felt every single emotional beat, and the fact that the characters were all sidekicks… actually worked well for this movie. They didn’t need to be more than sidekicks, because the “kick” part of sidekick stands for “kick ass”.However, the story was atrociously bad, and one of the worst the MCU has ever done, which is why it’s below GOTG1. But only slightly.

21) The Incredible Hulk - Does anybody even remember this movie? It was boring, uneventful, had the wrong guy playing Bruce Banner, and was just poorly written throughout. 

22) Thor: The Dark World - This movie is a boring, dreary, horribly written, badly directed mess. Some of the stuff up on Asgard was decent except for the fact that they fridged Frigga for no goddamn reason, and everything that happened on earth was goddamn awful, verging on embarrassing. And don’t even get me started on the dark elves. They were rightfully dropped from the MCU and never mentioned again because they are just That. Bad.

23) The Avengers: Age of Ultron - the movie where Joss Whedon fucked up Natasha’s backstory for the sake of his self-insert ship, infantilized Wanda Maximoff by insisting the woman with cleverly displayed cleavage who was clearly in her 20s was actually only 15, did not solidify the team as a family (THIS IS THE MOVIE WHERE THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN GODDAMMIT), and disrespected literally every movie that came before (including his own goddamn flick).Wow I just realized that most of the awful shit he did was done to the female characters. Can you believe this disgusting asshole has the audacity to call himself a feminist? Fucking disgraceful…Fuck Whedon. He doesn’t deserve to come within a thousand yards of a woman.

#ranking mcu movies #Anonymous #Ask me a question #long post

[chasedinblack]

Marvel Rewatch and Disney Influence

So rewatched X-Men Days of Future Past, and now that Disney owns the franchise, they seriously need to fucking condemn the bullshit writing of the Russos and scrap Endgame all together because of its “time is immutable” time travel bullshit alone. The Russos destroyed the Marvel cinematic universe with their bullshit entries that ended the best plot line of all time.

While Endgame was decent and did a good job of ending the storyline, it’s stupid as all shit plot devices were a major killer of what could have been a good story. The Russos refused to use the character development from past films in both of their entries, chose the easy way out to keep their stupid ass plot holes “secure” and completely destroyed characters for nothing more than comic relief.

While it was known that infinity wars and Endgame were supposed to be very dark films, it could have been dark without being stupid. Had they gone with the X-Men approach of time travel, things would be much different in the end. The stupidity of them saying time can’t be changed was a cheap and easy way for them to destroy characters they personally didn’t like.

The Russo brothers destroyed the series and should pay for it, not profit from it. Their careers should be destroyed for having hurt fans in that way and taking the easy way out in writing scripts.

They’re always going to be villains to me especially with what they’ve said about the actors themselves. How they disrespected Thor by making him a laughing stock and a fat joke. How they said Tom Hiddleston was “too old” to play Loki, and killed Loki off because of said comment. (FYI guy is in his late 30s and is aging like fine wine) they ignored the fact that Thor has powers outside of using a weapon but they still insisted on reversing every part of character development from Ragnarok. How they killed off Hawkeyes family just to make the audience cry even though they could have easily done without it. They refused to use Captain Marvel, even though she could have easily assisted in the destruction of Thanos, being the strongest person in the movie. No she just had to be off in the ass end of the universe doing nothing of actual productive value (probably because she’s a strong queer woman with amazing character, do not fight me on the queer thing, it’s fucking obvious as all hell).

TL;DR

The Russo Brothers are assholes who shouldn’t have the jobs they do and Marvel needs to fix their shit.

#russo brothers #avengers endgame #endgame spoilers #infinity wars #xmen #disney #ranting #captain marvel #loki laufeyson #thor odinson #hawkeye