Thread:Marvelous 345678/@comment-26838855-20170701032609/@comment-26838855-20170803222205

I've definitely enjoyed Phase Three a lot so far. While the other three films don't quite crack my top 5 MCU films (Spider-Man's my #6, Doctor Strange #7, GotGV2 #8), there has been a general increase in quality, and I only think that will continue moving forward. The critics of the MCU who say the films can sometimes get too formulaic, that the colouring is sometimes too flat, or the films aren't daring enough, just wait and see (I mean first, watch Civil War, because that breaks the formula, the colouring is vibrant in scenes like Lagos and washed out in scenes like Rhodey's crash and Siberia, always to match the tone, and it is so daring, it dares to go deep and heavy and not be all funny and that's what makes it so great). Thor: Ragnarok is directed by a wonderful director, has an amazing cast, and looks to be so quirky and out-there and so so colourful - seriously, the Comic-Con trailer was just brimming with dazzling colours! And Black Panther looks beyond awesome, a darker, more Dark Knight-esque in tone espionage thriller, sort of Game of Thrones-like in the themes of competition for power and dominion, with again a fantastic director and cast, a more serious outlook, an incredibly badass hero and, of course, breaking ground in being the first black superhero film since the Blade films and the first major superhero film, and indeed one of the first major blockbusters, to feature a predominantly black cast and a main setting in Africa. I can't wait for both of these films, they both look to potentially be some of Marvel's best, and then of course we have a tiny film called Avengers: Infinity War...

Plus after that we get two female-led (one partially, one fully) Marvel films, as well as Captain Marvel being set in the early '90s, and then Avengers 4 as well! The "Marvel formula" might be a little prevalent in some earlier films, but from here on out it's only going to get more diverse and exciting, and I really feel like Marvel have latched onto and addressed the main criticisms thrown their way.

My only concerns moving forward are some of the TV shows. 5 months ago I would have been super-confident about anything Marvel TV were going to produce, having very firmly found their footing with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and delivering huge success with their Netflix shows (even if Daredevil: Season 2 and Luke Cage: Season 1 showed a number of problems, they were still both good and were overall hits). But with Iron Fist and its reception (and I personally also, while definitely not disliking it, did not particularly like it), the hate there seems to be online in the leadup to Inhumans, the not-as-overwhelmingly-positive-as-I-would-have-hoped early reviews for Defenders, the reports that Marvel Netflix are still continuing to rush out three seasons a year instead of, maybe, taking some more time to get them all right first, and then Runaways and New Warriors also around the corner and nothing to indicate they are surefire hits, I am definitely worried... but I hope that they can learn and improve and get things back on track. It's strange to think now that the show that got the most stick to begin with, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., now feels like the most reliably consistent MCU show in quality, and the ones with massive critical praise, the Netflix shows, are much less reliable.