It's MARVELous! - Reaction Shots Discussion Topic

Hello movie lovers!  

Just so we can get all that sweet sweet SEO and whatnot we're going to do Marvel movies for this month and bump our good buddy Wes to next month, hope that's ok with all of you!

BE ADVISED, TRY NOT TO WRITE ANY SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW WITHOUT CLEARLY NOTING IT FIRST AND GIVING SOME SPACE.  ALSO, IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF BEING SPOILED, MAYBE ABSTAIN FROM THESE COMMENTS UNTIL YOU'VE CAUGHT UP ON THE FILMS.  THANKS!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe consists of the following:

Phase One

Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Marvel's The Avengers (2012)

Phase Two

Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man (2015)

Phase Three

Captain America: Civil War (2016), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Films we know about more or less in the future are: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Untitled Avengers film (2019), Untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel (2019), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2020)

We've done a spoiler mode on Avengers: Infinity War, so if you're interested in that, please check that out.  What this Reaction Shots will focus on mostly is the cinematic craft in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe.)

What's your favorite MCU film?

What's your least favorite?

The MCU really seems to have evolved over the years, what have they improved on that they weren't so strong with at first?

What are the shared qualities of the weaker MCU films?  And the shared qualities of the stronger ones?

Kevin Feige was appointed president of production for Marvel Studios in 2007 and is often credited as responsible for the MCU at large, what do you think of this?

What is it about superhero movies, specifically Marvel, that is such box-office gold?  Why do people love these movies?

As the MCU has matured it's begun to take bigger chances, and we've seen, with Guardians, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, and Infinity War that these chances have really paid off.  Why do you think that is?

Talking about Infinity War, again let's be careful about spoilers, but this film succeeds in blending the very disparate styles of several separate franchises, how does it do this?

It seems like the MCU is learning to subvert audiences' expectations, not only with regard to film and narrative in general but with the very tropes of Marvel itself, will it always be possible to surprise us, to keep things fresh, or do you think this well may some day run dry?

Along similar lines, many assumed the superhero movie craze to be just that, a craze, a fad, but here we are many years in and it seems better, and more popular, than ever before, why is that, and similar to the previous question, do you think it will be possible for Marvel to adapt and keep these movies going forever, or will it someday run out of steam?

Let's take a moment to acknowledge the incredible record breaking Black Panther, which has seen global success unlike any previous Marvel film, or in some cases any American film (having been screened in countries where American films rarely, if ever, show.)  What was the magic in Black Panther?

Thanks everyone, glad to be back!