Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Doctor Strange: Strange, isn't it?

Remember when there was no magic in the MCU? When all magic was just more advanced science? Well, now its time to backpedal on that, because we have a movie all about alternate dimensions, spirits exiting the body, cities being bent around themselves to the point where it looks like a Bayonetta arena is in between what could either be the same building 20 times or 20 buildings so close to each other that it looks like walls. Many have given this movie a somewhat valid comparison of "What if Iron Man was on a s@&* ton of drugs", but where are they coming from? One way to find out.

Star Wars; The Last Jedi: Is this better or worse then Ghostbusters 2016?

I mean that in terms of the political discussion around this film. No joke, the talk around this one has been extremely hostile ever since the movie came out. What makes it feel worse is the complete split of opinions. Critics love it, general audience members are overall mixed (unlike some people I see 50% as "meh, middle of the road", so 47% is "more people hated it, but its almost a 50/50 split"). I even know people who hated the movie, and some are calling the entire franchise dead because of this film. I think some people are even blaming these new films for the death of Toys R Us (that last one I completely disagree with for the record). Is it as bad as people say though?

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Captain America; Civil War: You can't run away from your problems Marvel!

One of the biggest problems leveled at Marvel has been the villains. From killing off a lot of the iconic villains in their debut movies to many of the villains being rather boring compared to the heroes. If I asked you to name three MCU villains that aren't named Loki, Thanos or Killmonger, would you be able to? In order to combat this, Marvel decided to turn a chunk of their heroes into villains for a story that really went to show how bad Batman in Black vs. Batman in Blue: Dawn of the Jesus Symbolism... yes I am still calling that movie Dawn of the Jesus Symbolism. It's friend against friend for this film though. To quote the marketing material for the film, are you Team Cap or Team Iron Man?

Operation M.A.Y.V.E.L Phase 1; Ant-Man: Ants, lots, and lots, of ants.

Look, if I'm doing this, I'm going all the way with it. And before you ask, yes I am working on an acronym for it. While calling it phase 1 is a small lie, as this is basically the Marvel Movie Marathon version 2.0, this is basically a reboot of it so Phase 1 it is. As for why MAYvel content is starting in April? I'm doing one a week, and Infinity War launches the day this post gets released (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing as today is also ANZAC day...). Anyway, Ant-Man, the (depending on who you ask) final movie of the MCU's Phase 2, or first film of Phase 3, and the Marvel movie that suffered the most in production hell. Shall we delve into one of the Marvel movies from the mindset of "we can do whatever the f!@$ we want and still make s@$( tons of money!"?

X Men; The Last Stand: Didn’t Eric ever learn to not play with fire in the camps?... oh… wait…

WARNING! This review does tackle a topic not suitable for children, and not suitable for work. The purpose of this is for an explanation of a particular matter of the film and isn’t meant to depict the action. The writer recommends having someone over 18 look over the review first in order to judge suitability. You have been warned.

I would like to take this chance to clarify that this joke is intended to take a stab at a fictional character with strong magnetic abilities, and the potentially distasteful joke isn’t aimed at any real person or culture. If someone can show me that Mutants are real and one with control over magnetism is Jewish and was in a concentration camp, I will take the joke back.

The problem with iconic stories is that a lot of people try to get them in adaptions of the source as soon as possible. Fox had a really bad problem… actually, it hasn’t gone away, has it? Fox has a really bad problem with doing this with the Marvel properties that they own, leading to a large number of problems. We saw it with their desire to have Galactus, a planet-eating villain from the comics, be the main villain in the second Fantastic 4 movie (and for some reason he was a space cloud?) and the signs of it happening again with the Dark Phoenix storyline is happening again with the next X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix. According to many though, this was not the first time they rushed the Phoenix force, for X-Men: The Last Stand, tried that too. How did it go? Well…

Spider-Man 3: A spider’s greatest villain isn't within, it's corporate greed

We come to the end of a time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe stole the talk when it comes to Marvel movies, and (at least at times), superhero movies in general. Unfortunately, many see it ending more with a whimper than a bang. Views on both Spider-Man 3 and X-Men 3 are mixed at best, but do they still deserve it? You’ll have to wait until Sunday for X-Men’s chance, but for now, let’s see how Sam’s Spider-Man trilogy ended, with Spider-Man 3.

X2: And thus, the dominos fall

I hope you're a fan of leather because they're back to try and keep a war from happening to absolutely no success. Because one extremist group often makes another, let's take a look at a film where the extremist is a regular human who knows how to get his way when it comes to politics. Let's look at X2...

Spider-Man 2: Guilt be a two way street dear spider.

Fun fact, one of my earliest Spider-Man experiences was one of the Lego Sets for this movie (aside from watching… I’m not sure if it was the DVD or VCR, of Spider-Man 1 at my grandparents’ house with my cousins. You can blame them (or at least one in particular) for exposing me to superheroes). If anyone is curious as to the set, 4857 Doc Ock’s Fusion Lab. Doubt it will get a review cause I’ll probably have to replace parts (if I can find them), but it’s still a fun fact.

With a hit in the form of the original Spider-Man, it only makes sense that a sequel would be made, not to mention this was a point in time where the number 2 didn’t have negative views if it was attached to a Marvel movie, though Marvel did have a mixed reception at this time. People were still excited for Spider-Man 2, so how well does it hold up over a decade later? (Yeah, the first Spider-Man movie is going to be 20 years old in 2022, and the first X-Men movie is going to be 20 in 2020).

X-Men: #ISupportMutantRights #VoteYesForEquality

Everyone know why that's the title? We're all up to speed with what the X-Men are a metaphor for? Yes? Good. Moving on.

Many would say that the return of superhero movies can come down to two trillogies, potentially more, but most argue at least two. The Spider-Man trillogy, and the first three X-Men movies... even though many like to forget X-Men 3 even exists... along with Spider-Man 3.... could someone give me a list of every movie the internet wants to forget exists, I feel like there's a lot. Regardless of that, the point of these three weeks is to look at where Marvel has been with their movies before getting to the MCU, and what better way then Kevin Feige's first attempts at a crossover between two of Marvel's IP's on the big screen. While yes, the attempt was in Spider-Man, Wolverine had to come from somewhere right? Welcome to the start of the Mutant Revolution.

Spider-Man: No, I won't go into 9/11 here

That's not me saying that the 9/11 attacks don't play a role in how this movie was received, far from it actually. It's more that I am not the right person to go into something like that, the attacks happened when I was 5 after all. There are many, many, many other people who delve into how media has been affected, either in their creation or reception due to the attacks. Me? I'm going to do what I do, review the movie, but look at one other bit of the cultural landscape that this movie helped change. Because this was one of the movies that revived the superhero genre after Batman and Robbin almost killed it. You can trace back the Marvel Cinematic Universe if not many other superhero movies to this trilogy and the other trilogy of films this month taking up the Sunday slots, the X-Men. How well do they hold up by today's standards? One way to find out, starting with Spider-Man.