What's up with Marvel these days?

So I've kind of been slacking on this blog in general, but I feel like I've really been slacking when its come to talking about upcoming Marvel movies. There's been a lot of Marvel news and I really haven't said too much about it.

Now there are a couple reasons for this.

1. Marvel is doing okay right now. I swear, this is a company that can really do no wrong. I don't remember Ant-man that much to be honest, but I do remember it being a hit film, despite the fact that it was a movie starring Paul Rudd as a guy who could shrink down to the size of an ant. I mean how do you make that successful.

I really think that Marvel could put out anything they wanted right now and people would still go and see it if it connected into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

2. There's a lot of stuff I don't usually talk about on this blog that came out. Something that I have found in writing this blog is that I cannot stay on top of everything. I want to write stuff that is going to be though provoking or just get you excited about what is happening in the world of movies, and if I don't feel like Ic an do that, I will usually not write something. So when news came out that the title for the new Spider-man movie is Spider-man: Homecoming, I did not write anything about that. I can do that on Twitter, or Facebook... or in my mind. Even though I think that is a dumb title for a movie, that doesn't tell me anything about the film. I haven't seen anything from the film, so what is there to talk about?

3. There is so much coming out. Captain America Civil War is a great example of a movie that has released so much stuff on it that its hard to really write anything productive on each and every thing. And it kind of ties into my first point in that Marvel seems to be doing everything right that its hard for me to put anything that is going to be very constructive. I think the reason I stopped doing a lot of fan theories about Batman v Superman was because I was sure the movie was going to be good no matter what came out. I just wanted to sit back and watch what I thought would be brilliance at the time unfold. A similar idea is happening with Captain America Civil War. Everything looks great from that movie that the only reason I would write something is to say, that looks awesome. I don't need to theorize because I'm pretty certain the movie is going to be awesome.

But all those reasons aside, I do feel like I haven't given the MCU enough typed words lately so I thought I'd do one big post to catch up on what I haven't been commenting on in the past few weeks. This all comes a few weeks before Captain America: Civil War, a movie I am looking forward to incredibly. So we might as well start with that.

Captain America Civil War: Right off the bat, everything I have seen from Captain America Civil War has been pure gold.

Yes, I will get to Spider-man, hold your horses.

One of the things about this trailer that makes me wish I had written an individual post when it first came out, was the fact that this is just a great trailer, even without Spider-man. I don't mind that they showed him, but if I was an executive with Marvel, I'd say, "No, let's keep Spider-man secret, let's have people enjoy him when he gets there.

But anyways, the trailer itself is just really well done. It paints a picture of a struggle between Captain America and Iron Man that is just down right awesome. I heard some people who were worried about this movie (the few that there are) who were concerned that this was just going to be a quick disagreement between these two and that all the fighting would be tongue and cheek.

But we see in this trailer that, in the words of Iron Man, this has started a war. And someone is going to die. I don't know if its going to be Rhodey (even though I kind of had that theory a while ago) I don't know who its going to be, but someone (if not multiple people) is not making it out of Captain America: Civil War alive.

The unfortunate part is that, if you're on top of the movie universe like I am when it comes to news, you know that Infinity War is coming up, you know a Black Panther movie is coming soon, you know certain people need to be in future movies and therefore they cannot die. Black Panther is one of them, Ant-man is another. Spider-man is another.

Now there are theories rolling around that Captain America might actually bite it in this film. I go back and forth with whether or not I think he will.

On one hand, Crossbones is being brought in and Crossbones killed Captain America in the past. (If I'm not correct on that, please let me know, I'm not 100% on that one) But on the other hand, when has continuity with the comics ever really mattered. On the other hand, it would be an insanely impactful blow to the franchise is Captain America died. On the other hand, Chris Evans has been known to be filming for Infinity War. On the other hand, they could bring him back. But on the other hand it kind of continues Marvel's record of Bullshit when it comes to characters dying.

So it really is up in the air at this point.

If you asked me to make my best guess, I will say neither Captain America or Tony Stark are going to die in this movie. But I will not be surprised if they die and are brought back in a later film.

But what is Civil War going to be about. Here are the things I know.

Bucky is coming back to the forefront and the government wants to bring him in. Furthermore, the government wants to curtail the activities of the Avengers, I'm assuming after the bombing of some sort of delegation for the Sokovia Accords on top of the attacks that have happened in the past, (New York, DC, and Sokovia). My theory is that Black Panther's father is killed in that bombing and since its blamed on The Winter Soldier, Black Panther is out to go get Bucky. Since the government's plans are in line with his, he aligns himself with Tony Stark to avenge his father.

Along the way, Captain America goes outside the wire to help clear Bucky's name, recruiting some of his fellow compatriots. However, lines are drawn and eventually it will lead to a fight of ideals where people are going to die. Maybe its Rhodes, maybe its someone else, but someone is going down.

Oh... and Spider-man will show up and fight for Tony Stark...

I'll be honest I have no idea where Spider-man fits into all of this.

The point is, this does not feel like a friendly brawl. This feels like it is going to have consequences and it is not going to have a happy ending. The Civil War does not stop with Captain America mentioning his mother's name is Martha, it goes on past this movie and will probably resolve only when they have a common enemy in Thanos. And this is exactly how we should want it to be.

The more I think about Batman v Superman, the more parts I like about it, but one of the biggest issues I had was that the fight between those two wasn't started because their ideals finally clashed violently. It was because Lex Luthor had Superman's mother and said either kill Batman or Martha dies. That defeated the entire purpose of all the questions that were brought up throughout the movie, it defeated the entire plot of Clark being frustrated he's not getting stories about Batman, it just wasn't that great.

The thing about Civil War is that there has already been so many great lines like Tony saying, "So was I," to Captain America after he justifies this fight by saying Bucky is his friend. Or the look on Tony's face when Bucky literally almost shoots his face off and is only stopped by Iron Man's iron glove or whatever the hell it is, or when Tony just sucker punches Captain America and says, "You just started a war".

There are more moments in the trailers I have seen that have just been down right good that it makes me believe they're doing this struggle correctly. They are giving both sides the right side and giving us, as the audience the ability to decide who they side with.

The point is this movie is unfolding to look better and better with each trailer. I don't think that they'll do any more, which I'm happy about. I'm ready for the full movie, and IT'S COMING SOON.

Just for one last taste of Civil War, Enjoy this!

Spider-man: And then there's the who news about Spider-man. Yes he was in the trailer for Civil War. Yes he looks a little bit different than Spider-man has looked in the past and what do I think about him?

He looks pretty awesome. He's got this rubbery looking suit but its definitely a suit that Tony Stark has helped him with because of the eyes and how they squint.

Now I'm a little bit cautious. I have written a post stating the reasons why Spider-man might still fail at Marvel. 

But the way I see it is, Spider-man is probably going to be utilized well in this movie and while his reception in this movie might help fuel people going to the movies that are coming out of Sony, I'm still hesitant to say that Spider-man is going to be good in the long run.

But the trailer confirmed exactly what we all knew what was going to happen, it confirmed all the news saying that Spider-man was going to be in Civil War, and I for one am very excited about it.

And I loved the way that they brought him in. Marvel has always had their moments of being tongue and cheek and its always kind of fun when they can give a wink to the audience and this was one big old wink to the audience.

When he says, "Hey Everyone." He's basically saying, Hey Everyone... Yeah... I'm in this movie. Just like you expected.

I still have no idea how he's going to be utilized but I am incredibly excited to see how they weave Spider-man into Captain America: Civil War.

I'm sure there are more things I can talk about when it comes to Civil War but the truth is, I'm just excited for this movie. I have really no doubt that its going to be good and I could theorize all day about it but at the end of the day, I have faith that its going to be pretty darn good.

Doctor Strange: Onto something totally different, Doctor Strange is a property that I can't say I've been overly excited for. Its not like I don't like the cast or the chance for Marvel to enter the realm of Magic for the first time, I just don't know Doctor Strange that well as a property and its not really the highest on my list of Superhero movies that are coming out this year.

Now the trailer does interest me. I think for a long time, I was hearing rumors that Doctor Strange was going to delve into the horror aspect more than other comic books have in the past. But after watching this, it looks more and more like Doctor Strange is going to be the Inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Now I might be saying that just because they have a similar shot of a city coming from different angles like inception did, but there are just other possible ideas that they could throw with Doctor Strange that could be really interesting.

The only thing I know about Doctor Strange is that Steven Strange was a surgeon who, after a horrible accident loses use of his hands. This is something that kind of confuses me because it makes it sound like he loses his hands but you can definitely see he can use his hands so he hasn't lost the ability to use his hands. But anyways, he eventually finds teachings in a group of "sorcerers"? and they teach him to be Sorcerer Supreme.

All the photos from this movie have looked awesome, as well as the images the trailer provides.

I guess my question is, how does Doctor Strange fit into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Doctor Strange is the MCU's change to delve into a totally different arena than they've gotten into before.

Iron Man and the Hulk are your pretty standard superheroes and its a good place to start the local superhero realm. Captain America is in that vein as well but he brought a historical element to the universe. Not only are superheroes a thing in the modern time but they cross time. Furthermore, Captain America has delved into the spy espionage genre as well as being a standard hero. Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy introduced the MCU to the cosmic elements of the Marvel universe, letting us know that there are aliens and other cosmic realms alongside Iron Man and everyone else on Earth.

Doctor Strange brings us into uncharted territory because Stephen Strange ends up using the realm of the mystic. It was introduced a little bit in Ant-man, but you start going into quantum realms, and now Doctor Strange is going to introduce magic. This is where things are going to get really really cool. If its done correctly.

Of course, Marvel is pretty much batting 1000 when it comes to profitable movies so I don't see this movie being bad. I just hope that it is actually good and not Marvel good.

What is the difference you might ask?

Marvel has been very good at knocking down a formula for a profitable movie. Create a likeable hero, give him a challenge and a journey, throw in a splash of humor for good measure, throw in some franchise creating easter eggs.

Yes there are variations to that formula and I think Marvel knows that they have to switch things up here soon or their formula is going to be noticed and it will no longer be profitable, but right now its working for them even if the movie isn’t that great.

Its been a while since I’ve seen Ant-man but as much as I like Paul Rudd in that role, I really don’t see that as a very memorable movie and I just have the feeling that if I went back to it, I’m not totally sure if its as great of a movie as I don’t remember it was. (I’m going to try and do a rewind review on Ant-man soon just to get that cleared up once and for all.

My point is, I’d like to see them branch off and try something different with Doctor Strange. Give us a compelling story for Stephen Strange but at the same time, develop Baron Mordoo (if he is even the villain). Give us a villain we can enjoy just as much as we’ve enjoyed Loki and the villains from the Netflix series.

The director of this movie is a pretty well known horror movie director, so give us something very different like the Russo brothers did with The Winter Soldier. 2016 is still turning out to be one of the best years for Superhero films so give us something insane and just a lot of fun. I don’t want Doctor Strange to just be a repeat of Ant-man as they set up just another character who is going to show up in a later film.

Don’t get me wrong, I want Doctor Strange to show up in a later film, I just want this movie to stand on its own and be great.

But how will he fit in? Well there’s a couple places he could fit in. I don’t know the lore of Doctor Strange and it doesn’t sound like a lot of people do. So use that and use him  in a place where we wouldn’t expect him.

Pit Doctor Strange up against Loki. Team him up with Hawkeye, I don’t care. Just find something fun to use him.

Overall, I’m excited for Doctor Strange.

Everything else: Everything else on this post will be smaller news and how they fit into the future of Phase 3 and the larger MCU.

There was news a while back that Thor: Ragnorak is going to feature Hulk and might be loosely based off Planet Hulk along with the Ragnorak storyline where Asgard and all the Gods die.

This is a movie that not a lot of people are talking about as much as I think people are going to when the movie comes out. Thor movies always seem to surprise people (myself included) so while we’re not talking about it, Thor Ragnorak could be a really great film.

Its obvious that Hulk is going to end up in space after the events of Age of Ultron and be romping around with Thor. I think this is going to fall into the plan of Thanos to get Hulk off of Earth when he finally comes to destroy the Avengers. Furthermore, Cate Blanchett was cast as Hella and I don’t know if Hella is or is connected to the character of Death, the ultimate courting goal of Thanos.

This is down the road a little bit, but the more I’m hearing about Thor: Ragnorak, the more I’m wondering if Thor is going to make it out of that movie alive.

I have no doubt that if Thor bites it in Ragnorak that he’ll be back in Infinity Wars, but I’ve heard theories that he’ll be resurrected as a female, or it’ll be the clone of Thor (Beta-Ray Bill?). While I don’t think they’re going to switch genders on us, I could be interested in either storylines.

But it really underlines what Infinity War is going to mean.

First off, like I’ve said before, the Civil War will not end with this upcoming Captain America film. Its going to carry on until a larger threat comes.

Now the obvious threat we think it will be is Thanos. But I’m wondering if it is actually Hulk being manipulated by Thanos into thinking humanity screwed him over (which they probably did). Infinity War Part 1 could be a World War Hulk vehicle. Something I am totally down for.

I’ve talked pretty extensively about who I think is going to die in the future films so I won’t beleaguer that point until I know more.

The last Marvel movie we saw was Ant-man. We are now officially in Phase 3 and its time for Marvel to raise the bar once again. I’m of the belief that Ant-man was the last time that formula will work. Luckily, I think this is the time Marvel has been waiting for to finally let loose. God knows they have had the time to build up to this moment, let’s see something different and bold with Civil War!

But what do you think? Where do you think the MCU is headed? Who do you think is going to die? What did you think of the trailers from the past few months? What did you think of Spider-man in the Civil War trailer and are you looking forward to Spider-man: Homecoming? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as your requests for movies I should review in the future or things I should discuss on this blog. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews. 

I'll leave you with this. Here is pretty much a guide for dummies on Doctor Strange as he is the next movie after Civil War. Enjoy!