I had a marathon of Marvel movies like 2 weeks ago and allowed myself to think about what I truly thought about them.
Civil War: 7/10
I was contemplating over the time period whether I gave this a 6 or a 7. This movie has a lot of problems. The overall look of the film is incredibly bland and kinda just makes me bored looking at it. I assume this movie was shot on a digital camera and no one was given the task to color correct the flat image that came out of the camera. I put the trailer through Hitfilm and tried to make the colors more vivid, but ended up making a saturated mess. I really don't know what they could have done to make the movie look more visually interesting, but I know that I have seen movies that look better than this. The CGI is also questionable in certain areas and stands out against the ultra-realistic environments the movie has. I enjoyed the fact that the villain was just a random pedestrian that had to deal with the repercussions of the actions of the Avengers, but I found his plan to be horribly convoluted. I don't appreciate that Marvel didn't have the balls to kill any of the characters off and give them a real motivation to be mad at each other. Hopefully I see it in Infinity War. Other than these prominent issues and some other nitpicks, the movie is very enjoyable. All of the characters seem to work well together and you can tell that they all have a personal relationship to each other. Everyone has clear motivations as to why they are taking the actions they take. Neither side is inherently wrong, but the movie does its best to show that characters have personal biases affecting their decisions. I thought Black Panther in this movie was a much stronger character than in his own movie, since they actually took time to develop a character arc that saw him reject his initial idea of revenge. Its nothing mindblowing, but I appreciate that it is included. As a humongous Spider-Man fan, I was very pleased with his portrayal and thought that he was an incredibly fresh interpretation of the character in terms of movies. All the other characters are also solid. The action is really good and feels less mechanical than Age of Ultron. The music was decent. The movie was paced very well. Pretty solid movie.
Dr. Strange: 6/10 (leaning towards 5/10)
This has some of the best visual design and effects that I have ever seen in a Marvel movie. They're not particularly original, but the set pieces and overall design of the landscape is incredibly detailed and pleasing to look at. The music is better than most Marvel movies. Some of the humor is funny. The acting is very good. Other than that, this movie is generic. It's the typical origin story where a cocky douchebag has to go through difficult circumstances and become something better than they previously were. Dr. Strange's character development feels incredibly rushed and he doesn't become a likable hero until the last 30 minutes of the movie. He continuously makes life worse for other people and he's not particularly charming. He feels like Tony Stark, but with none of the charisma. The villain isn't the worst since you can tell he has a personal connection to the Ancient One and has understandable motivations. He kinda just ends up being throw away though. I recall one instance where the movie made me mad. Right after seeing the Ancient One die, Dr. Strange suits up and gets ready to stop the bad guy. Instead of making it a reflective moment that inspires the hero to accomplish his objective like in The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2, the screenwriters throw in a cheap joke that completely takes away any emotional resonance the audience could feel during the moment. It feels insulting. This one was just above average. I really enjoyed it when I saw it in theatres, but my liking for the movie dropped significantly after watching it on Netflix. Still a decent movie, but nothing special.
I'll have my thoughts for the rest of the movies up soon.
