The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Premieres this Friday on Disney+)

[Tom4784]

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I'm nowhere as enthused about this as I was about Wandavision, but I'll still give it a watch, it looks a lot more typical of an MCU thing than WV was.

[Tom4784]

The first episode was.... okay?

[Marsh.]

Oh I was expecting a "buddy comedy" type thing. Looks more interesting than that at least.

[Smithy]

I perched wandavision bc it looked like more than the standard marvel action schpeal; but this looks exactly like that?

[Tony Montana]

I'll watch tomorrow.

Hopefully the quality and vibe will be similar to The Winter Soldier.

[Jordan.]

Oh I was expecting a "buddy comedy" type thing. Looks more interesting than that at least.

I thought this too. Enjoyed the first episode more than expected.

[Tony Montana]

Amazing first episode. I had a smile on my face throughout it. It went by really fast. It had major TWS vibes. The action was amazing, especially the first 10 minutes. I do hope we see more of Batroc seeing as how he wasn't killed. I'm really glad they brought him back. He's got potential to be a great villain. A very strong start. :clap1:

Looking forward to the next episode.

[Toy Soldier]

it looks a lot more typical of an MCU thing than WV was.

Worth remembering, I think, is that Falcon Winter Soldier was supposed to be the FIRST disney+ MCU show, airing before WandaVision not after. The scheduling got messed around because of Covid, meaning WV aired first. I think that probably explains why WV seems to have a vastly different tone and be very much an "entry point" to phase 4, whereas F+WS might seem like a "step backwards" into phase 3. It doesn't seem so much that way if you put it in the "correct" context of preceding WV.

[Oliver_W]

How is this show? I'm more interested in this than WandaVision, might have to check it out?

I heard that the guy who played the new Cap was getting hate online from the toxic fandom, but that's social media for ya...

[Tom4784]

It's fine, it's getting a bit more interesting now, but it hasn't grabbed me like Wandavision did. I was looking forward to Wandavision every Friday but with this one it's more like 'Oh yeah, a new episode's out. Gotta remember to watch it at some point.'

There's nothing really wrong with the show itself, the writing is good, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan and a certain returning character are excellent, but I'm just not as engrossed. I enjoy it when I'm watching it, but I'm not like 'Ah! I can't wait for the next episode!'

It's a solid 7/10 so far although last week's episode ended on a point that made me intrigued to see where it'll go, but not excited about it.

[Toy Soldier]

It's essentially a 3rd part in a trilogy of Winter Soldier - Civil War - This, so if you like those movies you'll probably like it. I'd say you do sort of have to have seen those movies though, a lot of the backstory for this series is in those. However unlike WandaVision (where I felt like you really needed to have seen MOST of the MCU to fully understand it all) I think you basically only need to have followed the Captain America movies to follow F+WS (plus have a basic knowledge of what happened in Infinity War/Endgame, i.e. 50% of people disappearing for 5 years then being brought back).

I agree that it's good but not as immediately compelling as WandaVision, but I think that's more about what WandaVision itself was - a "mystery" that constantly left you wanting to know wtf was actually happening. This is more of a straight down the line political/action narrative.

But yeah both leads are great, action is well choreographed, Supersoldier storyline is interesting enough.

[James]

I've found it alright. I liked watching Wandavision more.

I was thinking after the first 3 episodes that the storyline was convoluted but it seems to have become more focused after watching the fourth.

The ending of episode 4 was little dark for me really.

You can see the influence of recent American politics in the writing of the series. The contrast between this and something like the first Captain America film is interesting.

[Toy Soldier]

I watched Ep 4 last night and thought it was excellent :joker:. But then I like it when things get a bit dark. I liked the nod to Civil War (when Cap raises the shield in the same way over Tony Stark, but then just smashes the arc reactor powering the suit).

I also don’t know that there’s a lot there that wasn’t present or at least an undercurrent even if the first Captain America. A large part of that film, really, spoke to the same thing - that power corrupts (both the individual, and on a wider scale) - the first film suggested how hard it was to find someone who was good enough to take it on and not be corrupted, with Erskine rejecting all of the suggested “great soldiers and recruits” who would have gone the same way as John Walker and finding tiny scrawny Steve, who had an uncommonly solid moral compass. Bucky points out that The Real Cap was never corrupted and Zemo counters “but there’s only one Steve Rogers”.

But yeah the same theme runs through all of the Captain America films, so I don’t think it’s necessarily a knee jerk to SUPER current US politics. First Avenger has a theme of how easily the individual can be corrupted (the selection of Steve, the contrast with Schmidt), Winter Soldier has the fall of SHIELD and the unveiling of Hydra’s corruption from within, Civil Was has the moral dilemma of the Sokovia Accords and Zemo’s deliberate corruption of the Avengers themselves. Winter Soldier and Civil War are both dark-ish and very political movies. Like I said before, I feel like this series is essentially “Captain America 4”.

[Tom4784]

The last episode was decent, it did what it needed to although I don't think it really capitalised on the momentum of the last two or so episodes. It was enjoyable for what it was.