Movie Moments XL: August 2020 (MCU Phase 2 Edition)

MCU Phase Two! Things are about to get teamish!

Iron Man 3, 05 August 2020, streamed via Disney+

• Oh hey, Tony Stark was a selfish dick in the past, and now it’s coming back to haunt him. Also, his reaction to traumatic violent experiences is harmful to himself AND others. (Did we need a THIRD movie about this?)
• On a meta level, it’s somewhat awesome that they cast Ben Kingsley, go-to actor for pretending to be other ethnicities, as the Mandarin, an intensely racist villain. But given that he ended up being “the Mandarin,” it ends up being kind of funny? It’s the reverse of Ra’ al Ghul in Nolan’s Batman. I find this preferable.
• Tony just telling Pepper about his hot messiness is a nice relationship beat.
• First time a movie has crashed a helicopter using a piano?
• ”Dads leave; no need to be a pussy about it.” Good Lord, Tony. Pull it together.
• Tony’s inability to go without an audience for even one second is pretty goddamn impressive. You’re being chased by an explodey woman and you’re wearing handcuffs. Not the time to ask some random to watch you jump through a window.
• A superpowered dude getting a phone call in the middle of a standoff is never going to be not funny.
• Rhodey launching himself into a fistfight out of the suit is GREAT.
• That aerial rescue of thirteen people is about a million times more interesting than any shooting of bad guys that happens in this movie.
• I’m giving shit to this movie because it’s purposeless, but the banter remains spot-on and delightful.
• Also: Tony being almost completely useless in a fight without any of his gadgets.
• I am SO MAD Pepper didn’t get to keep her Extremis powers.
• Oh yay, he got the shrapnel out!
• As wonderful as the garage full o’ gadgets is for Harley, I hope you also put aside a large chunk of money to get him through college, Tony.
• Having Bruce be Tony’s reluctant confessor in the stinger is just *chef finger kiss.*

Thor: The Dark World, 06 August 2020, streamed via Disney+

• I’m not as down on this movie as most of, it seems, the world, but this is definitely the least interesting set of villains. Dark Elves? (I know it’s not likely, but how great would it be if these villains spoke Tolkien’s Elvish?) This is a waste of Christopher Eccleston, people.
• Every flashback battle of Asgardians is secretly a battle led by Hela. GIVE US HELA. Also, I feel like we did not get enough Loki bitterness in Ragnarok re: Hela. Odin has a habit of raising his kids one way and then telling them they’ve turned out all wrong. (I know the battle is supposed to be Odin’s father, not Odin, but I feel my point stands.)
• It is difficult to believe Sif/Thor is a thing we’re supposed to take seriously. (I do need to investigate further into the Sif/Loki segment of fandom, though.)
• I want more Darcy, y’all. Darcy in every movie.
• The Loki Paradox: Too dangerous to let out of a cage; dangerous because they want to put him into a cage. (Him reading while there’s a prison riot all around him is delightful.)
• Those black hole grenades are the most interesting weapon we’ve seen in the MCU.
• Nooooo FRIGGA you deserved better. Way to go out like a badass, though.
• Loki’s illusion of nonchalance dispelled to show Loki in his cell ragged in mourning is one of the best character beats they’ve given him.
• Those few seconds of Chris Evans playing Loki-as-Captain-America were a great reminder that hey, Chris Evans used to be cast exclusively as smarmy, rich bros.
• Thor and Loki’s first illusion totally got me the first time. On rewatch, I realize I should have clocked the trick because of the lack of extremely dramatic music.
• I actually really love the Thor & Loki dynamic, given they constantly try to kill each other, but will go brotherly again given the slightest opportunity.
• I think this particular movie suffers because it’s trying to take on too much. Not just saving the world, but also saving ALL THE UNIVERSES. It’s a scale too grand to actually mean anything. They could have just as easily done this with “Jane is possessed by the Aether, some Dark Elves want it,” and left the convergence completely out of it.
• There’s something beautiful about Thor telling Loki-as-Odin that Loki understood being a king better than he did himself. This family, man.

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 07 August 2020, streamed via Disney+
This movie ties with Ragnarok as my favorite movie in the MCU.

• Steve’s list of things to catch up on: I Love Lucy (television), moon landing, Berlin Wall (up + down), Steve Jobs (Apple), disco, Thai Food, Star Wars/Trek, Nirvana (band), Rocky (Rocky II?), Troubleman (soundtrack)
• ”Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.” Uh, thanks to #CaptainMarvel, we all know it was a pet alien cat that got you, Fury.
• How weird is it when Steve is feeling nostalgic, he goes to visit a museum exhibit about himself? If it was anybody but him, it would look like vanity.
• Steve being able to visit elderly Peggy is wonderful. It’s nice he still has a friend from before. And heartbreaking that she’s suffering from a bit of dementia. (And excellent work by Evans in that scene, ooooof.)
• ”The world has changed, and none of us can go back.” LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, Peggy.
• ”What makes you happy?” “I don’t know.” Okay, Avengers, why are none of you hanging out with Steve?
• Another tiny detail, but a couple of white cops eyeing Fury as he drives is some good social commentary. I mean, until it turns out they’re all after him. But it sure as hell looked like some racial profiling.
• I love how the movie sharply turns into a paranoid spy film as the second act begins. Steve Rogers in the Manchurian Candidate or something.
• Steve clocking the attack in the elevator and knowing he would win is allllmost as awesome as him actually winning the fight. And once again, great work by Evans: His expression is equal parts disappointed and offended.
  
  
  I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.
  
  
• Remember when #AgentsOfSHIELD started and the early episodes were kind of blah, and then #WinterSoldier happened and then the show was suddenly amazing? Good times.
• Steve and Nat have decent chemistry, which makes it extra great that he never does anything that could be read as hitting on her, except once in a while as a riposte to her auto-flirting.
• Cap and Widow just shrugging off breaking into Fort Meade to get the falcon tech is funny; the fact that we don’t even see any of that heist is even funnier.
• How can Winter Soldier’s handlers take such precise care of everything about him EXCEPT for that hair?
• Maria Hill, queen of my heart, blade of the righteous. Never leave us.
• Having Bucky and the dissolution of SHIELD in the same film seems like a lot, but the juxtaposition of Steve’s internal conflict--a friend turned enemy--and external--those he mistrusts the most are the only ones he can trust--is pretty crunchy.

Guardians of the Galaxy, 08 August 2020, streamed via Disney+
Remember when most of us didn’t know what this was about and then it turned out it was a delightfully goofy space opera with a killer soundtrack? Good times.

• Watching a kid watch his mother die of cancer is a mean, mean way to start this movie. (Also, when she says he’s so like his daddy for avenging a frog, and I’m like, oh, honey.) Also, DANG, that poor family, losing Peter’s mom and then Peter disappearing almost immediately? Now there’s a tragedy we never talk about.
• Quill has compartmentalized his emotions so much--he’s on par with Tony Stark here, except he doesn’t have genius to back up his bravado. Instead, he’s got a boatload of excellent survival instincts. (You know who doesn’t have good survival instincts? Tony Stark.)
• You guys, I have no idea what Gamora sees in Peter. I mean, maybe after time and developing some sort of relationship? But after a day of being prison escapees? Nah.
• Okay, maybe after he saved her from freezing in the emptiness of space.
• It’s easy to avoid taking Yondu seriously because of, well, everything. But he took out a whole troop of enemy troops with a couple of whistles, and that sort of explains why he’s in charge.
• Groot in berserker rage mode is still adorable, guys. Totally unfair.
• ”We are Groot.” HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME YOU MONSTERS.
• Quill challenging Ronan to a dance contest is, in fact, the perfect way to break Ronan’s megalomaniac halo. “What are you doing?” Good delivery, Lee Pace. LOL.
• I legit got chills from the two seconds of Peter seeing his mother against the background of the galaxy.
• ”No raccoons or tree creatures were harmed in the making of this film.” What about the cosmonaut dog, people?

Avengers: Age of Ultron, 09 August 2020, streamed via Disney+

• Given what we’ve seen each of these dudes do individually or in pairs, it seems like overkill to send ALL of the Avengers on a frontal attack Baron von Strucker’s compound.
• Then again, Wanda Maximoff, WORLD BREAKER. (I am never going to let it go, friends.) And Pietro ain’t anything to sneeze at, either.
• The lullaby thing is sweet, except Widow is still clearly terrified of the Hulk, which makes it awful. (No, I will never be sold on Bruce and Nat as a couple.)
• Tony. Bruce. Y’all are proof positive that scientists need a boatload of ethics classes before they’re released in the wild. Also, anybody who’s read speculative fiction in the past CENTURY could tell you why Ultron is a bad idea.
• Is the party scene enough to warrant this entire movie’s existence? Honestly, I haven’t decided yet.
  
  
  
• I need, like, four more scenes establishing Helen Cho’s character. She’s written like she’s one of the gang, but this is the only time we see her.
• It’s weird to see Andy Serkis as a human--given he’s best known for his motion capture work, it’s easy to forget he’s not a scrawny little dude.
• PEGGY.
• I really hope Bruce doesn’t know that Tony named his Hulk-buster Veronica. I can’t even imagine what his reaction to that would be, but surely it would involve sad puppy eyes.
• I don’t care a ton about Hawkeye having a family, but 1) it’s adorable that Nat is “Auntie Nat,” and 2) it’s hilarious that everybody else is so freaked out about Clint as a family man.
• So, like, I know when Nat called herself a monster, they probably meant to indicate that her programming as an assassin is the monstrous thing. But wow, yeah, they did in fact make it sound like she thought being unable to have kids made her a monster, and wow, guys. You needed a serious editor.
• ”You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me.”
• The entire process of his making was based on incredibly nonsense assumptions, but I do love Vision a lot. Also, that casual picking up of Mjolnir was brilliant.
• Poor Sokovia, man. None of any of that made any sense. Also, most inefficient plan to destroy the world EVER.
• That speech he gave to Wanda is the most useful Hawkeye has ever been.
• ”Avengers--”

Ant-Man, 10 August 2020, streamed via Disney+
I’m not the only one who thinks this is a weird way to end Phase 2, right? I mean, it’s fine, it’s just a remarkably light way to tie everything up.

• PEGGY.
• Y’know, I like the idea that Scott has an MA in electrical engineering, mostly because I like nods to the fact that some of the stuff these folks do requires intense study, BUT. Lang does not seem the type to, like, write a thesis. Or would engineers have more of a practical/qualifying exam thing for the MA?
• You think Baskin-Robbins kicked in some money to be recognized as the most hardcore ice cream parlor in the business?
• Evangeline Lilly’s hair is disturbing. That cut is way too sharp for the person she’s supposed to be. But I guess it makes sense if she’s technically undercover.
• Why would you take a burglary job if you have no idea what you’re stealing? And all you know about the security is that there’s a safe of unknown origin? That’s what you call an airtight tip? No wonder you ended up in prison, Scott.
• Hank, this is a pretty solid case of entrapment.
• Scott apologizing as he fights Falcon is adorable.
• ”Then why’d you push me away?” Lord, yet another billionaire villain with daddy issues.
• I have an ant phobia, y’all, so there were many scenes in this movie that I honestly could not watch.
• Maybe if your primary business is breaking and entering, you shouldn’t have a getaway vehicle with a distinctive horn?
• I wish this movie was just, like, a heist movie to thwart HYDRA, because the whole Yellowjacket business is pretty uninteresting. (It’s possible I’m just generally not interested in the villains of most superhero movies. Like, Loki and Killmonger are the only ones that really make an impression. Oh, and that dude that Goldblum played.)
• I honestly can’t accept that a dude who shoots a gun at an ant swarm from inside a helicopter is also a genius.
• I loooooove the filming they do to accompany Luis’s storytelling. Like can you imagine all these actors having to over-enunciate to match up with Pena’s hyper-fast chatter?

A’ight, that’s it for Phase 2! I hope everybody savored this short period of time when superheroes weren’t constantly clashing with multinational bureaucratic entities!