RDU Neil

Good point on Luke and Jessica. While the viewer knew that, ostensibly the entire city was at risk (that never actually seemed the case, and everything ultimately is about... dragon bones?  Whaaaaa?) there was no personal reason for Jessica and/or Luke to be involved, and they weren't together anymore, and Luke and Danny aren't friends, so...
 
Basically, where the MCU movies took the time to EARN the big team up (I'd argue that they failed in execution, but that's me) the Defenders felt forced together for a reason that wasn't clear to them until, maybe the end, and even then...

Oompa Loompa doompadee doo
I've got another puzzle for you
Oompa Loompa doompadah dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me  
What do you do when your truck, more or less,
Crashes and makes a chocolatey mess?
It's such a waste, losing cargo so sweet.
Leaving people to clean the street.
(It's like a giant candy bar.)
 
Oompa Loompa, doompadee dar If you drive well, then you will go far. You will live in happiness too Like the Oompa Loompa doompadee do

RE. the Netflix shows
 
(I haven't yet sat down to watch Jessica Jones 2 yet so  with that in mind...)
 
I'll rank Jessica Jones1 and Daredevil 1 as the two best. Both series are really solid all the way through to great climaxes. Good stories. Excellent characterisation. I enjoyed the central casts in both shows. And the supporting casts for that matter. Top notch telly.
 
Luke Cage has a great start but I'll agree with the folks above who've said the second half was kinda muddled and messy. But a great character, a great setting in Harlem. If they can focus on that more and the need for shoe horning in super villains the show will just get better.
 
Iron Fist was fine. Yeah, Danny Rand ain't that likeable ; he has major anger management issues that make him a bit of a douche. BUT that is kinda the point of this character. Madam Gao makes for a great villain and I was happy to see more of her. I loved Ward and, um, the rest of his family whose names I can't remember. ?  I gotta ask, what was wrong with the fight scenes? No they weren't wuxia. Nor were they the sort of exhausting, gut-wrenching realism of Daredevil's fight scenes. (I loved DD's fight scenes.) They were somewhere in the middle; that is they standard for action flick fight scenes. Okay, we coulda hoped for more. But they weren't bad.
 
Next I'll put DD season 2. Yep. After Iron Fist. Because there were two completely unrelated plots crammed in there. Not that there was anything bad in either of the two plots. But using the first half of the season as a prolonged trailer for Punisher was just a waste of time that could have been given over to the Hand plot. (Conversely the Hand just pushed the Punisher plot aside; your choice. But since Punisher was getting his own show anyway why cram him in here?)
 
Punisher didn't need to overlap with the other shows. You could still have had Karen Page in the show. And Foggy. And Jerry. But just have him have his own show.  I rate this show this low because I just don't like Punisher. But in truth it is a good show. Well written, well acted, well directed, well edited. Shame it's about the Punisher is all.
 
And last The Defenders. It wasn't good. Too much going on. Shoving in cameos by  Foggy, Karen, Patsy took up time that could have been used for the plot. For that matter Luke and Jessica just had no reason to be there and it felt like it. Still good performances by the cast. It looked good like all the shows. But it failed at story.
 
Cheers all.

Whereas Disney is cutting-edge evil, like Skynet, or the Borg.

Also, Comcast is evil.
 
Not mega-corporation evil.
 
Like, old testament evil.  Cthulhu evil.  Guy-who-doesn't-like-bacon-evil.

It is perfect-bound. First Printing November 1985

I do enjoy me some Luke Cage. This use of Bushmaster, and the scenes of Misty with her cybernetic arm look good. We'll see if Marvel can maintain a full season of amazing this time.
 
I rate the shows so far:
 
Daredevil Season One: Well done crime thriller that used the full season to introduce a deep cast and complex plot, with proper time spent developing Marvel's second best villain in Kingpin.
 
Jessica Jones Season One: Probably the best work by Marvel so far. An amazing performance by Ritter, best supporting cast and introduced Mike Colter who matched Ritter all along the way, truly gut wrenching personal character arc that drives the plot, and Marvel's single best villain on screen in Tennant's Killgrave. "What... Murdercorpse was taken?"  hah!
 
Daredevil Season Two: Almost as impressive as the first season, using the length of the series to flesh out two full stories... the Elektra/Hand war and the Punisher arc... introducing another powerful performance in Bernthal's Castle, giving Karen Page her own development, the proper Foggy/Murdock fallout, etc., and bringing the character of Elektra to life (and death) really effectively.
 
Luke Cage Season One: The first half of this show was the strongest work by Marvel, period. The Cage/Cottonmouth dichotomy, the rich cinematography and commitment to Harlem as a place/emotive setting, the musicality of the story telling... absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, the second half, after killing off Cottonmouth (which could have worked, because Mariah is just as compelling a villain) fell into a mess of unnecessary plot elements (have to bring in Striker, have to bring in the scientist, have to bring in the dead ex-lover who might have betrayed him) that made it lose focus. There were some brilliant moments in the second half, but the final showdown with Striker was badly filmed and left the series on a down note, which is too bad, because this could have been the best thing ever.
 
Iron Fist Season One: Less said, the better. A truly bad show that felt rushed to production, with a complete mis-cast of the title character and, for the first time, a lack of solid writing. The first of the Marvel series were slow paced with plenty of deep character moments, but the writers of Iron Fist just inserted "lots of pointless talking", a plot that made little sense and was clearly forced to setup the inevitable Defenders series, and ultimately failed in its one true mission, to bring a real flare for martial arts/wuxia style... lacking any real choreography, martial training, or commitment to fight scenes that Iron Fist demands. (Daredevil had way better fight scenes, and he is the crime series, Jones is the noir detective battling personal demons, Cage is the socially conscious everyman hero... Iron Fist needed to bring the Shaw bros./jet Li aspect/or go full tilt into the pulp legacy of Iron fist, but failed to do either.) Almost unwatchable by the end... which is too bad, as Iron Fist is one of my personal favorite characters since I was a kid.
 
Defenders Season One: Good that it was kept to 8 short episodes, but still felt too long... the same flaws from Iron Fist dragged down this... the Hand as a shadowy organization were misused and ultimately failed to be compelling as villains (though Sigourney Weaver tried)... Elektra was done well, but the show lacked focus on her... they took the hand out of their ninja costumes, which actually worked well in DD Season Two, so why make them generic thugs now? It was just generally a let down all around.
 
Punisher Season One: Both amazing and lacking at the same time. As a powerful action thriller with deep characterization and a straight forward plot fully enriched by a look at veterans, PTSD, and the price of violence, it was a great show. As a Marvel show... it wasn't anything. It completely lacked any reason to be tied to the Marvel universe, stripping out anything comic-like, and grounding the show much more in reality. It was "a version" of Frank Castle, but it didn't work as part of a larger Marvel Universe. Separate it from the rest of the shows and the MCU, it is great, but it otherwise is too human, too real to actually fit... which is head scratching. They clearly showed how to do Punisher with supers in DD Season 2, so not sure why they went this direction for the show.
 

I don't think I ever did this. This thread wasn't here when the boards first began... what was that... 2003 or so?
 
How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? RDU refers to my long running Champs campaign... begun in '87 and technically still has a game once or twice a year... ran pretty much weekly for 25 years. Neil refers to me. (Have used this handle online since '87 as well.)
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? AD&D... played the intro adventure from and early Dungeon Magazine (have to look in my collection, as I have the first 50 issues or so.) That original group moved to 1st Edition Champions (after trying Top Secret, Aftermath, Traveller...) and never looked back.
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Again, AD&D after having played a while, wanted to make my own dungeon... a magical pyramid in the middle of the desert with a Lich ruling over all the traps and terrors and a rainbow bridge from the top where you had to battle the Kobold god to escape. Whatever... I was 14...
What are you currently playing/GMing? Currently running a bi-weekly campaign I call Secret Worlds using Hero. Think a combination of the Bourne movies with the X-Files... lots of martial arts, shoot-outs, conspiracies, Russian mobsters, Yakuza, weird science, ancient cabals, etc. Looking forward to a yearly get-together in July of some of my long term friends who have spread out over the land, and have a blow-out weekend of gaming back in my original supers campaign, mentioned above. (Well... blow-out weekend, is usually pretty tame for those of us now at a certain age where staying awake past 11pm is a hardship, but you know...)

“This is my hammer, Bork Bork Bork.”

Who knew Red Skull was into cosplay? 

It's Gillian Anderson.

Death is not in the movie...go away until you've seen the movie, Tribble!

I don't understand everyone's issue with the Red Skull. I thought he was exactly like the Skull from the comics, and fit the pulp villain mold quite well.

Thanos was interesting, but his base motivation is so nonsensical that it undermines the excellent portrayal. I'd personally put Alexander Pierce much higher, and Zemo in the top five.  

Yes. As wacky as Lady Death obsession might be, at least "romantic obsession" is a motivation people can identify with. "In love with death" is a kind of loony that an audience can at least go with... having Thanos present his motivation as simply an extreme take on a logical problem is actually asking the audience to tyr and understand him, to think about what he says... and end up going, "Hey... wait a sec... whaaaa?"

I put Daredevil season 1 and Jessica Jones season 1 at the top spot together, and I agree with RDU Neil with his ranking of their villains. I also agree that the less said about Iron Fist the better. It is just too easy to imagine how it could have been infinitely better, and so it is infuriating we got what we did. Similarly, Defenders just felt perfunctory, and the villain motivation was lame. I put it ahead of Iron Fist just for the fun character interactions, but that's not saying much.
 
I differ from most people's views on Luke Cage in that the entire first season left me almost completely disinterested in what was going on, even though I liked the Misty Knight character quite a lot. Luke himself is quite charismatic despite his leave-me-alone vibe, but the show as a whole simply didn't connect with me. I felt the stakes were simply too small and inconsequential to make me care. If you're going to narrow the iris of dramatic scope that much, better I think to make the story a highly personal character study, like Punisher season 1, rather than an oh-noes-there-goes-the-neighborhood riff in which the incidental music is more entertaining than the plot.
 
As for Punisher season 1, I thought it was quite compelling and very well executed. And while I agree that it doesn't really feel like a superhero show, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I mean, I wouldn't want more than one show like this for the MCU, but having a show that explores the non-superpowered corners of the Marvel universe is a worthy thing if done well, which I feel Punisher was.
 
Daredevil season 2 wasn't bad, and in fact the Punisher arc was quite riveting. But the Elektra arc was a little disappointing, perhaps because the whole supernatural resurrection thing didn't fit into the overall architecture and tone of these Netflix shows. Jessica Jones season 2 was merely forgettable, which is a shame since I like its characters. What does it say about the series that I'm more excited to see where they go with Trish than Jessica for season 3 (assuming there is one)?

Was he wearing a parachute?!?!
 
No.  No, he wasn't.

Seriously... those same words came out of my mouth to my wife. I found myself closing my eyes during IW... not really engaged in the movie at all.
 
And I have seen Winter Soldier about 20 times, easily, and would watch it 20 times again.

Winter Soldier is definitely my favorite MCU movie and probably the best superhero movie ever IMO.

I watched the film with son and friend at the weekend.  I could easily have fallen asleep at almost any time in the first hour, the second hour was more entertaining but the film did not grab me and while it passed some time quite pleasantly, I cannot imagine ever wanting to watch it again.  Unlike Winter Soldier which I would re-watch any time it happened to be on.

Leaked scene from the sequel!
 
 

Sure thing.
 
Here are images from the boxset https://imgur.com/a/u1qGRfS

My opinion...
 
meh.
 
It was... too much. They did some things well, but as a movie it was too much like Age of Ultron, in that it was too much a comic book, not enough a good movie. Great moments, with a gutsy way to go at the end, but it ultimately failed at what the best Marvel movies do so well, make it personal and relatable. This cosmic stuff became pure sturm und drang and lacked real emotional impact.
 
They tried... certain things were well done (I love that they allowed Scarlet Witch to really kick ass, they did Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight really well. There were some good set-piece battles, and I really liked the chemistry between SW and Vision) But Cap's roll was barely there... same with Black Panther , Bucky, Black Widow. The Hulk deal was more head scratching than anything, and Ruffalo seemed to be phoning in his part. 

The GotG parts were too much, and too tonally off to really work. 
 
Red Skull appearance was well done, but ultimately all the "set piece to acquire a stone" was just not very suspenseful, nor was the big "sacrifice" emotionally resonant.
 
This was, IMO, one of the biggest "misses" in the Marvel line-up, because, like in the comics, when they build up to the "big thing" it never really pays off, and is more just "big happenings" rather than engaging and impacting developments. Nothing was a surprise, you could see it all coming, the inevitability of where the movie was going made all the set-pieces leading up to it kind of boring... like "just get on with it already."

They are going to have to really pull off a major job with Avengers 4 that is more than just "complex time travel undo" that generates some truly unexpected plot developments to make this work out.
 
I liked the expected call out to Captain Marvel at the end, so we'll see... but overall, I left head shaking and... well... "meh."

I have all of the Avatar Airbender series on my shelf. Consumer vote. That is maybe the finest kids show ever made in my opinion.
 
The next series - Legend of Korra was just as good.