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Issue 18; Now What A Marvel, Film Thought

by T W Coombs esq.

11 years, 22 films, 1 ultimate story and for me my story has been told and ended.


After what was a very nerdy and incredible journey of entertainment I am done with Marvel films.  I have been slowly getting more and more disillusioned with superhero films in the Marvel universe.  Not because they are bad films but they are just all very much similar in the way they work, the big battle at the end, except Captain Marvel but they are, still, all very much the same film with different characters and I am enjoying them less and less.  This is hugely due to my nerd part on film is about that, film. So I love cinema, movies, films whatever you want to call it, so when you have 22 films all with a similar story telling, even with great CGI which are mostly well filmed, with humour, sadness and action, it gets boring.

Now I have explained, I now want to just say I have had a fantastic ride and have seen something that has never been done before.  The MCU was a first in film and even though just a thought to start with, has become one of the most epic things on screens in our universe.  Not because of the money, but because it is a story that has had small stories in the middle but came to one of the best ends I have seen. We know that it will continue with some characters where others have gone but you wouldn’t need to see more this is the first film in the series to have an ending, there is no credit sting, except a noise which is from the past, the only other sting is the new Spiderman film’s trailer is played after the credits. But I am not bothered.

I have been following this story for 11 years.  Iron Man and The Incredible hulk both came out in 2008, linked only slightly but it all grew I think largely because of Robert Downey Jr and his portrayal of Tony Stark.  From here I was hooked through Captain America even though not a great film it was okay and Thor with it’s humour on top and the growing of a character. With all these films I couldn’t get enough.

As more and more films were released leading up to the first Avengers film, which was great and still is, this was the first in a large story arc in phase one of the Marvel plan but could have all ended there but continued through phase two and the second and third films for others.  Then Avengers Age of Ultron came out, again really good but the cracks started to appear with the Captain America Civil War film which was a mid Avengers film. I hated this film, it made no sense, the whole Stark versus Rogers argument and anger didn’t make sense to me and what the bad guy was doing never made any sense and the whole plan was built on luck and was pointless.  Sadly it is required to make sense of Avengers Infinity War where they have to come together and why they are still hating each other at the beginning. But the films slipped from Civil War, yes Doctor Strange was good and Black Panther was okay, yes I am supposed to love it due to the whole race card but they were all starting to blur by this point. This is mostly because the Disney machine was getting two to three films out a year and superhero fatigue was setting in, especially with Star Wars and DC making moves, the summer blockbuster was no more and it is Blockbusters only.  I saw them at home as didn’t care to go to the cinema, I was just watching them so I didn’t miss anything in the main arc. I still, at time of writing, have not seen Ant Man & Wasp but I didn’t really need to. I saw Captain Marvel, which was the only one without an actual big bad and had a lovely twist within it.

Between these films you had Ant Man, Guardians, Spiderman etc, but they never really brought any great thought and I was less inclined to care.  I have now started the process of owning digital copies of the all the films in the Infinity Stone story. It is epic when taken as a whole, even with the lesser films.

I have however missed so many other films due to Marvel dominating the cinematic landscape and now must watch many on the small screen only as it is not cheap to go to Cinema that often.  So I blame Marvel a little. So now it is done, the time has come for me to step back and let the Marvel universe continue without me for the next generation to tell another story. I may catch one here and there when free on a streaming service but with Disney making their own, it will probably never happen. So thanks to Marvel and Disney for putting on one of the greatest stories told over such a stretch of time.  You created a Universe of wonder and excitement and thanks for ending it all with a huge bag, or more a click of an Iron finger.

TWC x