Tag: marvel cinematic universe

Doctor Strange: Musings of the Multiverse

This should go without saying, but this will have lots of spoilers for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. You have been warned!

I know a lot of people who have some opinions about the new Doctor Strange movie, but I am here to tell you I loved it. At first I was concerned about how short the runtime was, but they managed to pack a lot into those two hours. I think my only complaint is you kinda get thrown right into things, but it’s a very minor complaint that I’m not all that mad about. Otherwise it was a great story with a rollercoaster of emotions. I wish Wanda/Scarlet Witch wasn’t the main antagonist and/or that her story didn’t end the way it did, but we’ll get there. 

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

First of all, with how quickly and often Dr Strange was asked “are you happy?” I knew that was going to come into play at some point in the movie. For a second when he and the Christine from the other universe (sorry I cannot remember numbers other than we are confirmed 616) were talking about “I wish you could see where I’m from, it’s beautiful” that one of them would be going with the other, but Strange knows he has more work to do, and I think he’s become content with that by the end of the movie. 

Now about that other universe Christine was from – I (and a good portion of the theater) cheered seeing the Illuminati slowly introduce themselves. In a few short moments we got to see Black Bolt, Captain Marvel, Captain Carter, Reed Richards, and Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Professor Charles Xavier with the classic 90s X-Men theme playing during his entrance. My nerd heart sings!

If that weren’t good enough, we also got to see Clea make an appearance during the after credits scene, teasing a visit to the Dark Dimension? I’m really looking forward to seeing where the universe takes Strange, especially if it lets him move on from Christine and we see him and Clea more. 

Now let’s talk about Sam Raimi. He’s one of my favorite directors of all time. If you never saw Evil Dead, do yourself a favor and fix that right now. 

Go on. I’ll wait.

Seriously though, there were quite a few moments where Raimi’s signature really shined through. The best examples are the cameos – Bruce Campbell as Pizza Poppa and The Classic (the Oldsmobile Delta that is in almost every movie of his). It’s become a game with me to spot the car as an easter egg. And of course it’s fun seeing Bruce Campbell pop up in random small roles. Almost like back in the old Marvels days where we’d wait to see where Stan Lee would appear. 

Finally, let’s talk about the actual story. We got a look at how Wanda is coping after the events of WandaVision. (Spoiler: she’s doing poorly). I’m happy she’s got a moment of clarity and redemption, but I have mixed feelings about her final moments in the movie. It’s poetic to see the space we mistook for a tomb become her actual tomb, but I also would rather see her get to move on and be happy rather than sacrifice herself to protect the world from her potential for chaos and catastrophe. And yes, people have pointed out to me that we never saw a body so she might not be dead, but it felt like her story was concluding there. 

Overall I continue to be excited about what the MCU potentially has coming up. My big question after the movie ended was the potential for a Young Avengers in our future. I originally figured Wanda’s kids would be involved. True, the multiverse versions of them exist, but how much are they going to be featured versus our universe? I guess that’s something else I’m curious about is how much we’ll be visiting other universes now that we confirmed their existence. That is one way we might see Wanda again. I think we’re definitely going to see more of America Chavez, and her power is teleporting amongst the universes. Whatever happens, I’m excited for the MCU to get weird and make some bold choices in the future.

What about you? What are you most excited about? Is it the Fantastic Four becoming part of our universe finally? Or maybe getting to finally add some mutants to the mix? Let me know in the comments below. 

MCU First Time View

I’ve noticed now that we’re well into the MCU, many people like to recommend to first time viewers that they watch the films in timeline order – meaning start with Captain America, then Captain Marvel, and so on and so forth. Normally I’m not one to gatekeep or tell others how to consume media, but in the following essay I will tell you why this opinion is WRONG and ruins the experience. (Everything that follows is my opinion, so calm down. Also, there be lots of spoilers ahead. Consider yourself warned.)

First, let’s focus on the after credits scenes. Each one gives a hint at either the next movie or the next big team-up event. If you watch the movies out of order, the after credits scenes become confusing and irrelevant to new viewers. Let’s focus on the first phase. Each after credits scene showed Nick Fury basically assembling the Avengers. Throwing Captain Marvel in the middle of this disrupts the flow of things. It also brings me to my next point, which is specifically regarding Captain Marvel.

If you recall, CM was released in between Infinity War and Endgame. Yes, it takes place well before either, but watching in release order it plays out thusly:  End of Infinity War, as everything is falling apart (in some ways literally) you see Nick Fury with the beeper that is supposed to signal to our girl Carol that there’s big trouble – her kind of trouble. We then flashback to see her whole backstory and how she and Fury met, then move onto Engame, where you anticipate when she will show up to save the day. Now, if you instead watch it after Captain America, you get no context or connection to her story, and then have to wait a very long time before you see her again, at which point you’ve probably forgotten she even existed. You’re completely underwhelmed by her movie, whereas some of us anxiously awaited her arrival because of a dang beeper. (As a side note, I’d love to do a poll broken down by gender and enjoyment of that film, because I suspect another big part of it is that I, as a woman, was very excited for myself and a bunch of young girls who had someone to look up to who looked like them.)

My final point regards the general flow of things. Everything in the MCU was constantly building and getting bigger until we hit the big culmination of 10 years of work: Endgame. Changing the order of things changes the flow. We started with a handful of smaller solo movies and built to the formation of the Avengers. The next phase builds a little more, and a little more, until we get a giant teamup event where the fate of everything is at stake. I can’t imagine what changing the order of movies does to that.

In conclusion, I’m all for doing a chronological rewatch after you’ve experienced the MCU for the first time as intended, but please stop recommending to all your friends that that be their starting point. I’m usually very chill about these things, but I will die on this hill.

Thus concludes another Monday Musings. Next week we’ll go back to gushing about Dragon Age, and looking ahead to Dragon Age Day 2021. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home -Wild Theory Time!

Sitting in my kitchen drinking my coffee this morning, I was thinking about the announcement that the new Spider-Man movie would be titled No Way Home (while also having a tweet Coy Jandreau posted bouncing in my head) and suddenly I had an ever expanding theory that I think is extensive enough to share. We already suspect the multiverse will play a big part in this phase between WandaVision (don’t worry, no spoilers on that here from me) and the Doctor Strange film being titled Multiverse of Madness. What if Peter (and possibly some Spidey villains) end up being pulled into the multiverse and leave the MCU to become part of the Sony-verse we seem to be building. It would be an interesting way to build their sinister six and keep Tom Holland as Spider-Man for a different studio. Maybe it’s not even an accident. Maybe Peter needs to escape (we know the last movie ended with him being hunted) and sees this as the only way to protect his family and continue being a hero. Maybe we get a new Spider-Man (Miles Morales even?) also via the Multiverse. In which case any planned Spider-man 4 would be introducing Miles (or Gwen or whoever) into our universe. The MCU has already changed how storytelling works. I would not be surprised to see them have a big surprise like this up their sleeve. They have shown us there are no limits other than your imagination. 

What do you think? Any other wild theories about the future of our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? Just looking forward to seeing movies in theaters again? Let’s keep the convo going in the comments. 

The Movie Industry’s Glorious Return: or How Will Marvel Sustain Their New Schedule?

I’ve been thinking about how different industries are going to be able to shift with the times as the country slowly reopens, and one of my top concerns is movie theaters and shifting release schedules. Some movies can and have been given online releases, but others have to be seen for the first time on the big screen. Not only does it contribute to our enjoyment of the films, it also keeps movie theaters going. If it weren’t for Endgame, independent films wouldn’t have a chance. They don’t make enough to keep a  movie theater open, but they can take a chance on one for a few weeks while Endgame rakes in the billions. Marvel always schedules their movies in phases, and phase 4 would have been starting up right around now if we were living in normal times. They recently released their new schedule (which is obviously subject to change), and I have some thoughts. First, let’s look at the new dates. (This will include some Sony movies since the Spider-verse or whatever we’re calling it loosely ties in to everything)

Black Widow: Nov 6, 2020

Eternals: Feb 21, 2021

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings: March 7, 2021

Morbius: March 19, 2021

Venom 2: June 25, 2021

Spider-Man 3: Nov 5, 2021

Thor Love and Thunder: Feb 11, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: March 25, 2022

Black Panther 2: May 6, 2022

Captain Marvel 2: July 8, 2022

Spider Man Into the Spider-Verse Sequel: October 7, 2022

There’s also Ant-Man 3, Blade, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and an untitled movie that was scheduled for the new Spider-Verse date. Plus we assume that they had plans to eventually bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the universe (probably in 2023) and assumedly there will be a Deadpool 3. That’s a lot of movies to look forward to in the next 2-3 years. 

If you look closely at the above release dates, they’re all pretty damn close together. There’s two movies in March of next year alone and the rest are anywhere between 3-5 months apart. Some of them are even less than that! Plus Marvel plans on tying in the Disney Plus shows and probably will have a different one out pretty regularly over the course of the next year or two. We’re gonna be eating, sleeping, and breathing comic adaptations for the next couple years! 

All this sounds exciting, but I’m also worried that people don’t have the money to afford going to the movies more than a couple times a year. Or maybe it’s not a money issue, but where do we find the time to watch the Disney shows in time for the next movie? I hope all this content is the thing that keeps movie theaters from closing after having to probably shut down most if not all of the summer, but people are going to still be recovering from an economy that hasn’t just slowed, it’s come screeching to a halt. If anyone can survive and make this crazy schedule work, I believe it’s Marvel. I just hope their gamble pays off. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Do you plan to watch all these movies in theaters? Which ones will you prioritize? Shout it in the comments, and let’s keep the conversation going both here and on Twitter. (@News_on_Shuffle)