Caught up on some Marvel movies

I finally had a chance to watch Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four. I really enjoyed both, a welcome change after years of forgettable turkeys on both the big and small screens. I would put both in the top half of my ranking of MCU installments to date.

First up was Thunderbolts. I had high hopes for this one as it's totally up my alley with regards to the anti-heroes who made up the team. 

Though I am aggravated that they wasted time putting Taskmaster on the poster for the whole 60 seconds or so she was on screen. At the same time, changing the character so much from the comic was one of the lowlights from Black Widow, so I guess writing her out so unceremoniously was alright by me. Doing such a great character justice would have been a better call.

Florence Pugh was, unsurprisingly, the highlight of the film. It had a solid story, and all of the characters had great moments. There were great action sequences and healthy doses of humor that never resorted to gags. 

When I saw who the Big Bad was going to be, I got a little worried. It made me think of Suicide Squad, which pitted a bunch of street-level thugs up against a cosmic JLA-sized force of nature they had NO business battling. The contrived ending of that one ruined an otherwise decent flick.

But here, the fight with this lineup vs Sentry went exactly how it should have gone, and the way they ultimately triumphed was well done. I liked how they worked in positive messaging about mental health issues without getting preachy or navel-gazing. If you've read Prodigal, you'll know that I am a sucker for the redeemed bad guy theme, and this story knocked it out of the park.

So... I was never a ginormous fan of the Fantastic Four comics. I don't dislike them, but for whatever reason, the comics never clicked with me for very long. That said, I always enjoyed the cartoons, and I thought the 2005 Fox version wasn't half bad. 

I was pleasantly surprised by this version. The tone stood in sharp contrast to Thunderbolts, with an old-school campy/classic sci-fi feel. Not normally my cup of tea, but I found myself hooked.

It hit all the marks for fans better than the past Fox films--Ben on Yancy Street, the bickering/banter between Ben and Johnny, Reed's tendency to get too cold and scientific, and the marital problems that creates. Stuff like that. 

I went into this with fairly low expectations because of some of the pre-release promotion. Many of the comments from Disney and the actors made people think it would have nothing but the same crap as recent Marvel movies. 

Namely, fans are SICK of "girl bosses" dominating the story. But that turned out not to be the case. Gender bending the Silver Surfer proved to be no big deal. Julia Garner was spot on in the role. And despite Vanessa Kirby's claim, Sue was not such a force in the film that she could be thought of as the real leader. She had some standout moments, but never drowned out the others.

It had more than a few plot quibbles that you can argue over, but all in all, I'd watch it again. It was fun, and despite being a lot lower on the action-packed spectrum compared to other Marvel installments, it never got boring; the story kept me engaged, and it still had plenty of excitement.

Until next time, true believers.