What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Newer Films)

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yeah, Infinity War often feels piecemeal, but it does have a center in the form of Thanos. He's clearly the film's driving force.

 

Endgame does work much better, until that last hour, and than it goes downhill like no movie I recall from recent memory. The setting's bland, the setpice too overstuffed, the action too long (with no reprieve), some of the characters really devolve in terms of motivations and goals (especially Thanos) and their forces are inconsistent. Some lines and development undercut the sense of stakes. I couldn't believe what I was watching. I wanted it to be good...but it just wasn't.

 

I prefer Age of Ultron.

[Fancyarcher 350]

Avengers: Endgame - Loved it. By the end I was in tears, It was like following a 10 years saga, and seeing it progress as much as it did was fantastic. I really enjoyed Hulk's comedic beats, and while the film was three hours, it never felt like it was too overlong for its own good. - 9 / 10

[Quintus 5,399]

I suppose I should probably pull my finger out and watch those other sequels then and catch up.

[crocodile 8,012]

14 minutes ago, Quintus said:

I suppose I should probably pull my finger out and watch those other sequels then and catch up.

There would be no point of watching just this. I think it references almost 20 films without explaining much. It assumes you already know all of this.

 

Karol

[Quintus 5,399]

20 films?? Christ!

 

What if I just watch the other Avengers movies though? Which is what I meant. Also, could I skip the first sequel? I seem to recall that one was supposed to be bad.

[Chen G. 3,949]

The main films it relies on referencing are the original The Avengers and, for some odd reason, Thor 2. If you really want to go the extra mile, watch Captain America: The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier

[Quintus 5,399]

Gah, I heard Thor 2 was rubbish too though.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yeah, its not a good film in any way, shape or form.

[Quintus 5,399]

Between that and Avengers 2, these prerequisites aren't helpful in motivating me to find out what all the fuss is about with this latest one.

[crocodile 8,012]

The thing is this film is, more than anything, a culmination and a nostalgic love letter all those films. So you see characters from different films that, they reference quotes and moments from various films. Sometimes they are not important, sometimes they are. It's sort of like a final episode to a TV series where the final episode comes full circle.

 

Karol

[Chen G. 3,949]

52 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Avengers 2

 

I don't recall Age of Ultron being too meaningfuly referenced in this film. Watching it is hardly a prerequisite.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

40 minutes ago, crocodile said:

The thing is this film is, more than anything, a culmination and a nostalgic love letter all those films. So you see characters from different films that, they reference quotes and moments from various films. Sometimes they are not important, sometimes they are. It's sort of like a final episode to a TV series where the final episode comes full circle.

 

Karol

 

And apparently _we've_ come full circle, with the return of episodic serials in the theaters dominating the world! 

[Hurmm 91]

I think the one real prerequisite is Infinity War. The rest are not really needed but do help I suppose, especially in the middle section. 

 

Edit: oh and definitely the first Captain America too. 

[Quintus 5,399]

I don't care about the references and winks to every obscure Marvel character who has been given a movie these last few years (Christ no), I just want to know if the Avengers 1-4 would be a coherent storyline and watch experience.

 

The last movie I saw featuring any of these characters was Avengers 1, which feels like about five years ago.

[Chen G. 3,949]

These movies aren't one story in the sense that, say, The Lord of the Rings is one story. They're more anthological than that. Outside of two references, Age of Ultron doesn't figure into this film. The original The Avengers and Thor 2, however, do. You could probably still watch the film without having see them and enjoy it, but it'll be very diminished, I think.

[Quintus 5,399]

I'm not that bothered about missing out on in-jokes or minor threads; Avengers is family popcorn fair, high art it ain't. Just as long as the main storyline is coherent, I'll be good. I might give Avengers 2 a go. I don't think my assuming The Avengers 1 through to 4 has a main thread which I can follow is a particularly unfair expectation, right?

[Hurmm 91]

The thing is the whole middle section of Endgame makes reference to bits and pieces from many other Marvel movies. You don't need to have watched them to understand the general plotline, but it does help contextual enjoyment during these scenes. 

 

The first hour absolutely requires you to have seen Infinity War. 

 

The last hour stands on its own mostly, but has a major callback to the first Captain America, so much so that I would say it's required viewing. 

 

I don't remember Avengers 2 being outwardly referenced at all. But then again I don't recall much of that movie other than it being quite terrible.

[Chen G. 3,949]

5 minutes ago, Quintus said:

I'm not that bothered about missing out on in-jokes or minor threads; Avengers is family popcorn fair, high art it ain't. Just as long as the main storyline is coherent, I'll be good. I might give Avengers 2 a go.

 

I'm not talking about occasional references: the movie's littered with those.

 

However, Specific sequences from Thor 2 and The Avengers are significant to the main plot of this film. Avengers 2 - not so much. You can skip it.

[Quintus 5,399]

9 minutes ago, Hurmm said:

 

The last hour stands on its own mostly, but has a major callback to the first Captain America, so much so that I would say it's required viewing. 

 

I have seen the first Capt America movie, it was good! But I can barely remember what went down in it now, it's years ago.

 

8 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

I'm not talking about occasional references. Sequences from Thor 2 and The Avengers are significant to the main plot of this film. Avengers 2 - not so much.

 

So you're telling me, a big movie series (The Avengers) can't even manage to pull off a cohesive and coherent central storyline within the confines of its own series from one movie to the next and even with the benefit of the lengthy runtimes enjoyed in by installment? Wow, that's poor!

 

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

[Quintus 5,399]

That's got to be a first. Even the shittest movie sagas out there manage the basic continuing storyline bare minimums expected of them from one sequel to the next.

[Chen G. 3,949]

That's what people are forgetting about the MCU, though: its not really one continuous story. It has more in common with Indiana Jones than it does Star Wars. Each film is its own story. Its only the odd plot-point here and there that connect the different vignettes.

 

Its an anthology - not a cycle.

[Holko 9,526]

Well The Avengers isn't its own series at all but the culminations of the "phases" of Marvel movies where everyone comes together and what they achieved in that phase factors in somewhat. Roughly. Kinda.

[Quintus 5,399]

When I watch Indiana Jones, I know exactly what's going on and why. I know everyone's motivations in the story.

 

Poor comparison?

[Holko 9,526]

Yeah, they're not standalone at all but not a straightforward single narrative either.

 

Pretty much like the comics where many different storylines run in parallel and cross over at specific points, affecting all.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yeah, its not the best comparison, but its still closer to that than it is to, say, The Lord of the Rings, where all three/six films are genuinely telling the same story.

 

The MCU doesn't really do that, and so to say - as Marvel fanboys would - that this is a culmination of a single story that has been 11 years in the making is praise which the movie (and the MCU as a whole) doesn't quite merit.

 

Its a culmination of various plot points scattered across movies that have been coming out over 11 years, NOT a culmination of the plots of all those films as a whole.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Doesn't sound like a very compelling buy-in if you haven't dived into the pool, Lee.

 

16 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Yeah, its not the best comparison, but its still closer to that than it is to, say, The Lord of the Rings, where all three films are genuinely telling the same story.

 

 

Chen, how does the single-line narrative of Avengers compare with Braveheart? 

[Quintus 5,399]

2 minutes ago, Holko said:

Yeah, they're not standalone at all but not a straightforward single narrative either.

 

 

 

I'm just amazed that for the first time ever Disney didn't make an accessible to all movie series (The Avengers). I've never known it to happen with broad entertainment before, and it doesn't get any broader than this, I'd have thought. It's shocking, really.

[Hurmm 91]

I don't think the plot necessarily references the other movies. You will still understand the whole middle section, plot-wise, without watching them. But you will lose some context that diminishes the impact of those scenes. There will be one or two scenes that may not make sense. But you should still be able to make sense of the general plot. 

 

Just watch Infinity War. 

 

I'm actually watching IW as I type as it's really quite a blast. Stands up even on a rewatch. I mean, it's bonkers. Peter Dinklage is cast as a giant. Thor restarts a sun. A reference to Aliens, of all movies...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The whole point of the MCU is that each movie is connected. This has been going on for 11 years, not sure why it’s a surprise all of a sudden. 

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

6 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

Popular entertainment assumes nowadays that people will discuss everything, speculate, ask more nerdy friends, watch "reaction" or "explained" videos, read some pop articles...---a very weird trend indeed

 

I speak for most everyone here when I say:

 

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Yo here's my review of the movie currently showing in theaters titled Avengers: Endgame.

 

[Bilbo 3,709]

5 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Yo here's my review of the movie currently showing in theaters titled Avengers: Endgame.

 

 

I too would prefer to re-watch the Lord of the Rings 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

5 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

 

I too would prefer to re-watch the Lord of the Rings 

 

Like the greatest writers I leave my review open to interpretation 

[Bilbo 3,709]

7 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Like the greatest writers I leave my review open to interpretation 

 

Well I drink and I know things. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

The whole point of the MCU is that each movie is connected. This has been going on for 11 years, not sure why it’s a surprise all of a sudden. 

 

Indeed.

[Quintus 5,399]

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

The whole point of the MCU is that each movie is connected. This has been going on for 11 years, not sure why it’s a surprise all of a sudden. 

 

I had no idea actually, but then I haven't been following the superhero cinema trend whatsoever and I disengaged from Marvel movies immediately after Guardians of the Galaxy, which I also enjoyed. But my understanding is that once you've seen one Marvel superhero movie, you've seen them all, and at the time I felt I'd had my fill of them.

 

But I still don't think it's especially unfair of a none participant in all this to assume THE AVENGERS SERIES (not THE MARVEL SERIES) would at least be a coherent and cohesive tetralogy of movies in their own right. And I still think it's pretty undexterous and poor that the producers of The Avengers series of movies apparently didn't manage even that basic requisite of franchise movies. The rule of thumb being that a newcomer can generally get along with a movie sequel, and make sense of it enough, without ever having an intimate understanding of what happened in the previous movie. It'll have a degree of accessibility for newbies but hopefully the depth too for those already invested in the grander sweep. This stuff is basic movie writing class really.

[Glóin the Dark 1,220]

The only rule should be that it is made clear to potential customers whether the film can be appreciated in its own right or not.

[Quintus 5,399]

8 minutes ago, Glóin the Dark said:

The only rule should be that it is made clear to potential customers whether the film can be appreciated in its own right or not.

 

I wasn't talking about an actual enforceable rule though, which wouldn't only be a bit daft, but is also quite different to the term I used above. The phrase rule of thumb refers to a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It refers to an easily learned and easily applied procedure or standard, based on practical experience rather than theory.

 

-- credit to Wikipedia for the eloquent wording of the last part

[Chen G. 3,949]

21 minutes ago, Quintus said:

my understanding is that once you've seen one Marvel superhero movie, you've seen them all

 

You're not wrong.

[John 2,032]

See, I don’t agree with that statement. They have some similarities, yes, but they’re different in many ways.

 

 Winter Soldier is a Bourne-esque thriller. The Ant-mans are wacky heist movies. Guardians of the Galaxy and Ragnarok are comedies with bits of Star Wars mixed in. 

[Chen G. 3,949]

Also true.

 

But the MCU also has a certain aesthetic: the use of bathos, the style of cinematography and scoring (bland on both accounts), generally low stakes ('cause nobody dies), etcetra. If it were a mere trilogy, a hexalogy, or even a octalogy like Harry Potter, it wouldn't be too repetitive. But when its 22 movies?

 

I like bits of the MCU. I friggin' love The Avengers. But as a whole? Meh.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

There a couple of really strong ones, and quite a few that work best as Netflix fodder.

All in all quite a remarkable little project from Disney/Marvel, and it really captured the zeitgeist.

 

It's all post 9-11 wish fulfilment of course.

[Quintus 5,399]

I suppose it's pointless my asking for an "Endgame Essentials" prerequisite movies list here? It'll probably just open a can of worms where you guys will disagree about what is an essential movie and what isn't.

 

Ffs sake, I just thought I'd have to see the last two Avengers movies and I'd be all set, but this all sounds like a fucking nightmare tbh. I dunno, maybe the answer to this question has already been answered correctly on Reddit or something.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Anvengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: Ragnarok, Captain America: Civil War: Guardians Of The Galaxy.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Essential:

 

Iron Man

The Avengers

Thor 2

 Avengers: Infinity War

 

You can also add Captain America 1 and 2, if you really feel like it.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thor Ragnarok is ESSENTIAL in my opinion, because it's great!

[Holko 9,526]

Or just don't bother.