While its animation may be stellar and its style consistently beautiful, the plots and subsequent attempts at tying together said plots just didn’t always work. It’s funny, dramatic, emotional, has great action, great characters, great conversations between said characters and has far-reaching consequences for the future of the MCU what more could you want?Īugust gave us the beginning of What If…?, the MCU’s first anthology series and also its first animated entry. I loved every second of Loki, it’s one of my top-five favorite MCU projects, and it just ticks all the boxes. Its six-episode run featured only one weak episode, which was only really weak because of the week-long wait that followed its slow, but necessary character development. Loki followed after an almost two-month hiatus from Marvel content and instantly cemented itself as the best of the Marvel Disney+ series this year, without question. The finale is a mess and really made it seem like Marvel didn’t know how to end any of its new series strongly. It has great stand-out moments, especially Anthony Mackie taking up the Captain America mantle and the bloody shield Wyatt Russell wields in its fourth episode, but it’s not great as a whole. I consider it to be a solid show, though not amazing. Two weeks after WandaVision ended its run, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier began. Once that framing device ended, it went off the rails. It felt wholly unique from other Marvel projects because of it being presented as different styles and eras of TV sitcoms from week to week. The series was mostly good, but it struggled to provide a satisfying conclusion in its finale. The year started out with WandaVision, which both introduced the world to phase four and to how Marvel would handle this new, longer-form medium for storytelling. This new medium of storytelling definitely had growing pains for Marvel to overcome and still does, but some of their small-screen projects stand out as truly great. Marvel has heavily relied on Disney+ shows to introduce the world to phase four of the MCU, whether it be WandaVision or What If…?. It can currently be streamed on Disney+ along with Black Widow. Shang-Chi is seriously one of the better MCU films out there and easily the best released this year. It’s one of the best MCU origin films ever made, on par with Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man and Spider-Man: Homecoming. It also adapts portions of Chinese folklore and mythology, setting it apart from other MCU films and making it feel fresh in the process, which is something that needs to keep happening if Marvel wants to keep audiences interested and, in turn, keep the cash flowing. There is intention and purpose behind every shot, not just showing the action but giving it more meaning through its motion. This film features the best fight scenes and fight choreography in the MCU bar none. Since this is a best-of list, we must focus on the absolutely fantastic Shang-Chi. There’s just not much to say about either of them. On the opposite side of the quality spectrum, both the recently released Eternals and not so recently released Black Widow are among some of the weakest MCU films released in its over 13-year history. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the only Marvel movie released (so far) this year that I can honestly say is worthy of a best-of list. It’s best this year is neither of those things. Three MCU films have been released this year so far, ranging from the return of an original Avenger to the introduction of ancient, superpowered aliens living among us. Marvel movies came back to theaters with a vengeance (for better or worse) after having to take a longer than expected two-year hiatus following the end of phase three and then the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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