Marvel Live Action

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually feel like they worked the mask in organically enough. The problem is just that it kind of looks silly on him, but I also kind of don't mind that too much. Even the more serious Marvel fare can stand to have a bit if ridiculousness in the mix and still be taken seriously on the whole.

I will say, though, that I'm among the few who loved Daniel Brühl's performance as Zemo in Civil War and felt that he was actually beneficial to the movie's story, contrary to many criticisms. So far I like how they've handled him in TF&TWS as well. He's easily my favorite character in the show thus far and works fantastically as a wild card neutral party between the main protagonists and antagonists of the show.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Halfway in the latest episode, and I'm noticing a lot of Bullseye from the Daredevil show in US Agent. Specifically him from early in the third season where he's still pretending to be a normal person. The stilted attempts to play an honest soldier when there's an unhinged part of his mind craving for approval at the cost of others. He obviously won't be as monstrous or sociopathic as Bullseye was, but he makes for a funny analogue. And yeah, I already know Bullseye's actor auditioned to play Steve long ago.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I got similar vibes from him as well. A shame that Feige has kind of gone out of his way to de-canonize the Netflix shows without officially saying so.

This episode finally managed to make me give a bit more of a shit about the Flag-Smashers, though I was a bit annoyed by the cliche of Sam talking the bad guy down only for US Agent to come in and ruin it at the last moment leading to the "misunderstanding" trope.

Really like how they've handled US Agent overall, though. He's an ass-hole but they give him just enough nuance that he at least feels like a real person rather than a standard foil for the protagonists that only serves a story roll. The ending of the episode was also fairly ballsy for a Disney show, and I feel like that shot of the blood-stained shield will become an iconic MCU moment in it's own right.

Also gotta love how nobody was paying attention to Zemo when the Wakandans and US Agent started fighting, despite him being the very person they were fighting about.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I was expecting the final shot to be the conversation piece of the episode, but instead it's the scene where Ayo and the Dora Milaje shut down Bucky's arm and everyone arguing whether it's right or not to put a failsafe or to keep Bucky in the dark. I figured no matter how much Bucky became a friend to Wakanda, they were never sure if he was one HYDRA remnant away from becoming brainwashed again, so they built a shutdown protocol in case. And in this case, they were right since from their point of view, he was helping out the man who killed their king.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This was a pretty damn good episode. Really love how they tied back in the early plot-threads from episode one, and the stuff with Isaiah Bradley really struck home with it's message. This definitely helped make both Sam Wilson and Bucky feel like fully realized characters stepping out of the shadows of just being Steve's sidekicks.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I wasn't expecting Elaine from Seinfeld to start her own villain team.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So, Falcon Captain America and Winter Soldier...

it needed 2 more episodes. One from Karli's POV, and another from Isaiah's. The show was riding a thin line with the Flag Smashers, never knowing when to make them sympathetic and when to make them villainous while only rarely knowing when to fuse those together into tragic villainy. They were frustrating characters to watch because the show never fully examined why they're on their path. Reminded me a little of the Legend of Korra villains, like when Kuvira had pretty valid reasons for stabilizing and uniting the Earth Kingdom but she had to commit a few war crimes because the show needed to remind us she's the villain. If they had a whole extra 40 minutes to space out Karli's life during the last 5 years and built a more compelling reason for why she thinks murder is the only language the world will listen, she could've been this show's equivalent to Killmonger. (As an aside, it's so weird that Killmonger and Karli have effectively shifted the criticism of MCU villains from "too one-note evil" to "why do these people who make reasonable points and challenges to the status quo also commit mass murder?") And for Isaiah, they should've done a flashback episode on his end. Hearing him describe what happened in his life was one thing, but I think having a full episode detail all that would've given a lot more dramatic weight to his character, while taking advantage of the episode a week format a little more.

Don't like what they did with Walker in the end. Seeing him find his moral compass in the climax I can understand, but wasn't it jarring seeing him playfully banter with Bucky when he tried to kill him in the last episode? Especially hearing the director say we were meant to like him in the end. I thought we were supposed to see him grow even worse, and killing that one Flag Smasher was just the start, to allude back to what Erskine said in the first Cap movie that being a good man is more important than being a good soldier. Before watching the finale, I assumed he was going to be the real final villain because of that. I suppose the MCU still needs him for a Thunderbolts movie or a Dark Avengers movie or something, but it's a little screwy the show decided Karli was too far gone but Walker wasn't.

But there were parts I liked. I love Sam's Captain America costume. Just watching him in action was so much fun. Nice to see Bucky get some peace of mind. And Sharon... I'm confused why the plot acts like her being the Power Broker was supposed to be a twist, but she was an interesting third party and it'll be cool to see what she's up to in Cap 4.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This whole season was a wild mixed bag. I really liked some stuff and was either indifferent to or outright disliked other stuff.

Karli doesn't work as a villain. She is left incredibly under-developed with her overall plan feeling very unclear throughout. John Walker was actually done very well....until the season finale absolutely botched his character arc. Someone gave the criticism that Marvel was making the mistake of treating this and WandaVision like long movies and trying to wrap everything up by the end rather than allowing certain plot threads to dangle for later, and that absolutely seems to be the case here. John Walker's character redemption arc could absolutely work if given proper time to develop, but you can't go from him brutally murdering a guy and viciously fighting Sam and Bucky to being all buddy-buddy with them in the span of an episode and a half.

That said, Sam and Bucky were fleshed out really well in this show and their chemistry was great. I also enjoyed Zemo. It's a heavily flawed season but there is groundwork to build something better off of it in the future.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I'd consider Falcon and Winter Soldier to be a step down from WandaVision, never mind the Captain America films. I agree that the pacing was arguably the biggest issue, and particularly on both sides- it needed another episode or two to fully develop its story, but it also felt too padded at the same time.

It's not surprising that the series had a much more muted reception than WV did. I do think it would have garnered a little more interest if it was pushed back a little, but there's a reason that the only thing I've seen brought up from the series online is how most people don't like Walker. Which to be fair, he mostly succeeds at what the story aims for.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Wandavision had a larger reception because it was the relatively weird show, and it kept fans guessing what would happen next. What kind of sitcom are they spoofing next? What's the deal with the Evan Peters Quicksilver? What's the deal with Vision? While for F&TWS, it mostly serves as an extended epilogue to Endgame's final scene, and we already know Sam becomes Cap.

Not sure about Walker though. The director said in an interview that we were supposed to like him, and if that's the case, I'm confused.

[Dr. Insomniac]

As recently as a week ago, I was talking to somebody about how much film synergy's affected Loki that any post-2011 adaptation or even comic art of him looks like a drawing of Tom Hiddleston than his middle-aged, goblin-like appearance. So of course, the show did this.

Spoiler

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I haven't posted my thoughts on this show yet since I was going to wait until it was over, but so far it has been my favorite Disney+ MCU show by far. It reminds me a lot of Journey Into Mystery and Agent of Asgard with their combination of wit and humor. That said, I'm still weary of a disappointing ending like the last two shows had.

As usual, though, I love Tom Hiddleston's interpretation of Loki. It's refreshing to have an actor who is actually genuinely a fan of his character and has even read some actual comic books.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Weird that I had opposite reactions to WV and FatWS' endings. Wandavision's I had trouble with, but appreciated the more I thought and read about it, while I steadily enjoyed Falcon and Winter Soldier's ending less the days after it premiered.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So let me guess: All the Kang the Conqueror hints are just a red herring and the final villain is a King Loki or something?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I like over-the-top, but this version of Kang was a bit too awkward even by MCU standards. I get that there will be a more traditional version of him down the road, but I think what they were going for with the less evil version could have worked if they handled it somewhat differently.

I'm kind of conflicted on Loki as a whole. The first two episodes are the show that I thought I would get and honestly really wanted. It's Loki being an anti-hero scheming his way around much bigger threats than himself. I was expecting some level of a redemptive arc, of course, but thought it would play out a bit more gradually (and considering that a season 2 was already in the works, that makes it all the more strange that it happened so quickly). That said, I do like the layers that they added to Loki's character, and Sylvie ended up being a more interesting character than I thought she would, albeit the romance between them just felt weird to me. Mobius was easily the stand-out new character of this entire show, though, and I genuinely wish we got more between him and Loki since their chemistry was easily the best aspect of the entire show (maybe in season 2, hopefully). That said, with the final episode it's clear that this was more about setting up the next Doctor Strange movie, which I'm excited for, but it also reeks of that same Age of Ultron mistake where Marvel seems to underestimate people's focus on the here and now instead of what's to come. Even if there was another season planned, they should have committed more to giving at least some sense of closure to the broader plot threads and themes presented in the beginning of the show.

Of the three Disney+ shows so far, I still easily feel that WandaVision was the best one since it had the most interesting style and was pretty committed to it's premise almost the entire way through. The ending was weak, but not in a way that took anything away from the episodes leading up to it. I can still go back and re-watch individual episodes for fun and notice new things about each one. Falcon and the Winter Soldier felt a bit too much like it was trying to be the next Winter Soldier (and I mean aside from the fact that it had that character in it), but felt a bit too basic in it's execution and very muddled in it's message to really hit as hard as it wanted to. I don't really feel any need to revisit it after my initial watch. Loki I still think I would re-watch some of the early episodes and revisit some good moments from later ones, but it does feel like it squandered quite a bit of it's initial potential by the end of the season. I'd still watch season 2, with the hope that it would focus more on the aspects that worked the best in the first season and expand on those in interesting and creative ways.