I think recent Marvel projects have suffered a lot because so many of them are tasked with setting up for a later project... which will then in its turn have to set up the next project... which will be a blockbuster extravaganza so overstuffed with characters that none of the individual characters get sufficient screen time for any real character development. It's the worst of all possible worlds: none of the individual projects are fully satisfying because they're only tributaries to the greater whole, but in the end that greater whole is also unsatisfying and less than the sum of its parts.
YES, wow, that's one of the best formulations I've seen of that problem (other than the rather glib "Feige turned movies into comic book events"). Arguably that started way back, as far as Age of Ultron, and was part of why Whedon flounced, and the Russo Bros' apparent eagerness to get with the program and fit in whatever Feige wanted ("He walked in, said 'Civil War,' and walked out") was why they basically got the job dealing with the whole rest of the MCU overstory. Then, essentially we wind up watching three-hour-long ads for the next part of the series. I was hopeful (especially after Wandavision) that the shows weren't going to follow that pattern, but unfortunately what "this is a six-hour-long movie" apparently meant was, the show wound up being a six-hour-long ad for a bunch of other movies. (It BOGGLES me, for instance, why we didn't see more of Eli, unless they're saving Eli for Cap 4, or probably Young Avengers.)
actually beheads a guy with his shield (which is a great image!)... and then the show gives him a slap on the wrist and lets him join Sam & Bucky in their final battle and then walk free, because it has to set up his part in some other project
Yeah, he is obviously going to show up somewhere else (Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, wherever) and it's also part of MCU's villain problem -- they very rarely have serious villains who survive and also don't show systemic injustice. TWS was all about the infiltration of the Not!CIA and becoming the enemy you're fighting, only literally, and at the end, Robert Redford is dead and SHIELD is apparently totally gone, only not really? It's so murky. Walker getting to fight with Sam and Bucky in the final fight was really disorienting (in the comics, Sam and US Agent go at it, and I really missed seeing that, the symbolism was so great).
The Blip worldbuilding is awful, isn't it?
It's SO BAD, and all the future MCU shows and movies are stuck with it! And they kind of went and made it extra bad with the "okay, bring everyone back, BUT ALSO keep everything the way it has been the past five years" clause, which was basically to save Tony's daughter (and also maybe part of some weird right-to-life agenda on Disney's part? I've always wondered). They've saddled themselves with a really heavy topic, and to do it justice, they'd have to go all Walking Dead, but if they just handwave it like in Far From Home, it feels very off. I was fully expecting them in Endgame to just rewind it to the moment before Thanos does the original snap, which I think is what happens in the comics? I don't remember.
Would Sharon as head Flag Smasher have been a better choice? At least it would have made it easier to sell Sam's sense of connection/responsibility for her: he knows her, and, like him, she got screwed over by Civil War. Plus, of course, it would have made much more sense to have Sharon screw over the Power Broker if she was not the Power Broker.
Ohhh yeah, I was longing for something like that. Or even have Sharon working with Bucky and Sam from a much earlier point, only for them to find out she was betraying them, only they can't do anything about it because she's hooked up with Val or whatever. Sharon also actively helped Sam and Steve during CW, at the cost of her own job, and she's a final link with Steve and Peggy and that kind of moral righteousness. Having her decide to turn her back on that is potentially really powerful, only they really squandered it. Sharon going "that shield should be destroyed in this new world" could've been something. Only what we got was not only a tenuous connection between Sam and Karli, but an even more tenuous last-minute mentorship between Karli and Sharon?? Why not show at least some of that? -- And if the audience knows Sharon is leading the Flag Smashers before Sam and Bucky do, that's a classic bit of suspense the show really could have used to tighten that storyline up.
Also I totally admit I'm a sucker for scenes where an ally or someone mysterious promises to set up a meeting with Some Bigwig, the heroes get led to a deserted place, and they find out the ally really is Some Bigwig and ohshit now they're in trouble. It's a bit of a cliche but classic for a reason.
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YES, wow, that's one of the best formulations I've seen of that problem (other than the rather glib "Feige turned movies into comic book events"). Arguably that started way back, as far as Age of Ultron, and was part of why Whedon flounced, and the Russo Bros' apparent eagerness to get with the program and fit in whatever Feige wanted ("He walked in, said 'Civil War,' and walked out") was why they basically got the job dealing with the whole rest of the MCU overstory. Then, essentially we wind up watching three-hour-long ads for the next part of the series. I was hopeful (especially after Wandavision) that the shows weren't going to follow that pattern, but unfortunately what "this is a six-hour-long movie" apparently meant was, the show wound up being a six-hour-long ad for a bunch of other movies. (It BOGGLES me, for instance, why we didn't see more of Eli, unless they're saving Eli for Cap 4, or probably Young Avengers.)
actually beheads a guy with his shield (which is a great image!)... and then the show gives him a slap on the wrist and lets him join Sam & Bucky in their final battle and then walk free, because it has to set up his part in some other project
Yeah, he is obviously going to show up somewhere else (Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, wherever) and it's also part of MCU's villain problem -- they very rarely have serious villains who survive and also don't show systemic injustice. TWS was all about the infiltration of the Not!CIA and becoming the enemy you're fighting, only literally, and at the end, Robert Redford is dead and SHIELD is apparently totally gone, only not really? It's so murky. Walker getting to fight with Sam and Bucky in the final fight was really disorienting (in the comics, Sam and US Agent go at it, and I really missed seeing that, the symbolism was so great).
The Blip worldbuilding is awful, isn't it?
It's SO BAD, and all the future MCU shows and movies are stuck with it! And they kind of went and made it extra bad with the "okay, bring everyone back, BUT ALSO keep everything the way it has been the past five years" clause, which was basically to save Tony's daughter (and also maybe part of some weird right-to-life agenda on Disney's part? I've always wondered). They've saddled themselves with a really heavy topic, and to do it justice, they'd have to go all Walking Dead, but if they just handwave it like in Far From Home, it feels very off. I was fully expecting them in Endgame to just rewind it to the moment before Thanos does the original snap, which I think is what happens in the comics? I don't remember.
Would Sharon as head Flag Smasher have been a better choice? At least it would have made it easier to sell Sam's sense of connection/responsibility for her: he knows her, and, like him, she got screwed over by Civil War. Plus, of course, it would have made much more sense to have Sharon screw over the Power Broker if she was not the Power Broker.
Ohhh yeah, I was longing for something like that. Or even have Sharon working with Bucky and Sam from a much earlier point, only for them to find out she was betraying them, only they can't do anything about it because she's hooked up with Val or whatever. Sharon also actively helped Sam and Steve during CW, at the cost of her own job, and she's a final link with Steve and Peggy and that kind of moral righteousness. Having her decide to turn her back on that is potentially really powerful, only they really squandered it. Sharon going "that shield should be destroyed in this new world" could've been something. Only what we got was not only a tenuous connection between Sam and Karli, but an even more tenuous last-minute mentorship between Karli and Sharon?? Why not show at least some of that? -- And if the audience knows Sharon is leading the Flag Smashers before Sam and Bucky do, that's a classic bit of suspense the show really could have used to tighten that storyline up.
Also I totally admit I'm a sucker for scenes where an ally or someone mysterious promises to set up a meeting with Some Bigwig, the heroes get led to a deserted place, and they find out the ally really is Some Bigwig and ohshit now they're in trouble. It's a bit of a cliche but classic for a reason.