What have you been watching?

[HermitoftheNorthernMarch]

I am a Spider-man fan so I think I can rate the movies (although, I do like the comics better).

Spider-man 1: This is very much a coming of age story. Peter Parker (Spider-man) gets his powers and gains a secret identity. This movie was pretty well done and has a lot of humor.
Spider-man 2: In this movie, Spider-man questions if being a superhero is really best for his life. It also has Peter being jealous of his best friend over a girl, which can be rather sappy.
Spider-man 3: This movie is where Spider-man comes in contact with strange goo that brings out all the evil things inside of him. There is a little Christian symbolism in this movie, actually. The main reason it didn't work as well is that there are three separate villains which kept the plot from being as streamlined.

Amazing Spider-man 1: A grittier depiction of Peter Parker getting his powers, this one was aiming to be more faithful to the comic story in certain details but also have a more realistic to life feel. Peter Parker is the kind of kid who is a wallflower and is extremely tech savvy in this one, compared to the more everyman feel of the original movies.
Amazing Spider-man 2: This movie is about getting back on your feet after loss. It follows Spider-man as he deals with his failure to be able to save everyone. All the Spider-man movies have deaths in them, but this one tries to deal with Peter's feelings and emotions more in some ways. However, the tragedy keeps it from being the classic American movie that movie-goers usually spend large amounts of money on.

If you want humor and everyman heroism; go with the first movie series. If you want a more realistic story or feel marginalized by society; go with Amazing S.M. But both series are good.

Overall, I'd say the violence in the Spider-man movies doesn't have quite the scale of destruction that is in Avengers 2 or Man of Steel. But then, Spider-man goes after individual villains rather than after large scale armies. In the one-on-one combat, though, it can well deserve the PG-13 rating. Then, there are also kissing scenes in the movies (if these bother you). And some language (but not as bad as, say, Avengers).

I haven't seen X-men because of the content (they have a character that doesn't wear much), but the original idea from the comics is pretty good and I sometimes pick up some of the comics. I haven't seen Ironman because of his live-in girlfriends.

Man of Steel: I watched it, but it had large scale destruction and had the realism trend without as much humor. If you like things with aliens and sci-fi that isn't Doctor Who, this might be okay.

Superman Returns: not really that great. In it, Superman actually has a child that he doesn't acknowledge as his own. Not great morally speaking and a very bad example, etc.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Thanks for filling in the Spidey gap!

[Lucy Took]

Personally I find super hero tv shows better than movies, I'm a fan of "The Flash", and I liked what I saw of Supergirl, I just was annoyed at how preachy it was (Yes Kara, we get that you can do just as much stuff as the male superheros. Now stop talking about it and just do your thing) and didn't want to tune in weekly, though now that the season's over I'll probably finish it at some point. I find that TV just gives characters a lot longer to develop and be fleshed out.

I watched half of Civil War. And then I got bored with an action scene and wandered off and watched the ending of FMA, which was SO. MUCH. BETTER.

I'll finish Civil War, I had just pirated it for my recovering from wisdom teeth extraction Sister and I missed a lot of the plot getting her ice cream and stuff. I also missed part of the plot debating with my brother over if Vision was a homunculus or not. (He is. He totally is) I have a feeling I'll like it better when I can pay attention and follow the plot.

[Lil]

I'm going to stick my two cents in and say I really liked X-Men Days of Future Past. I'd only seen bits and pieces of the other when family was watching them so I wasn't really a fan. I liked that it dealt in a way with failure and hope. Especially in this one scene with Xavier and Older Xavier, that was my favorite part. (though Quicksilver/Peter Maximoff is funny.)

However it can be somewhat violent at times. (There is a some violence and death at the beginning which is a bit too much for me.) and there are some iffy parts (wolverine waking up the first time(at a past time in his life) and Mystique's "Natural" Mutant form. I wouldn't recommend younger viewers as it is PG-13 and there is a various levels of violence (imdb says some language.) and Anyone who wants to watch should be aware of any possible content before watching.

Ant Man, I really liked as well. It has some language, but I usually use the site Vidangel to filter stuff for me. The only thing I have to add is that the scientist Villain does two things that really made me squirm so if I saw it again I would probably watch on Vidangel.

[anunknownpevensie]

@Ariel Sadly, I might swear too, if I was an ant. I am not a thing interested in Ant Man (though it is weird that one of my friends said ant-man was probably the best). However, I think I might try out Avengers, just to see what it's like. If I don't really like it, I am never getting into marvel again. Thanks for the heads up, all, on these. I can guarantee that I will not be watching directly a batman, superman, spiderman, antman, hulk, ironman, or other hereby un-named character movie. Thor does seem rather interesting as a character. And he is probably the one of the only ones that actually looks cool. Anyways, Thanks!

[Shield Maiden]

I actually was the most uncomfortable with the Thor franchise on a conceptual level out of the entire MCU - largely because it's completely based on Norse mythology and flies in the face of Christianity. But Thor is still a cool Avenger and I do like watching the whole group interact with each other.

If you're concerned about violence, stay away from the Batman series - the whole Dark Knight trilogy is very violent.

(Side note: I actually am kind of okay with watching fight scenes. In my drama class at school we learned how to choreograph hand-to-hand combat, so I enjoy watching fight scenes to see how they hit the moves and how it's put together. It distances me from the nature of it and I tend to see it as a dance instead of a brawl. We also learned how to do gore makeup, so seeing injuries on screen is more of an "oh I know how they made it look like that" thing instead of a "ew that is so gross" thing.)

[Lil]

@Ariel Sadly, I might swear too, if I was an ant. I am not a thing interested in Ant Man (though it is weird that one of my friends said ant-man was probably the best). However, I think I might try out Avengers, just to see what it's like. If I don't really like it, I am never getting into marvel again. Thanks for the heads up, all, on these. I can guarantee that I will not be watching directly a batman, superman, spiderman, antman, hulk, ironman, or other hereby un-named character movie. Thor does seem rather interesting as a character. And he is probably the one of the only ones that actually looks cool. Anyways, Thanks!

I heard that Hawkeye is really good in Captain America: Civil War, but I haven't sen it yet.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

@Pev: Trust me, Ant-Man sounds pretty stupid and has often been mocked over the years. What makes the movie one of the better Marvel films is the work on the characters. (Plus they went with the second Ant-Man (Scott), rather than the first (Hank), since Ant-Man 2.0 is a more relatable and interesting character.)
Again, totally your choice.

Also, if you want relevant pre-Avengers basics to help you grasp the film, a number of us can help you fill in the gaps (and without spoiling Avengers for you).

[hobbit_of_narnia]

I forgot to mention I've watched most of Man of Steel and that what I saw I actually liked, against my expectations. There was a lot of destruction (like, a lot because it's Superman and all that) with surprisingly few on-screen deaths, but the characters were interesting and relatable for me. I can't give much of my opinion on the storyline without revealing major plot points, but I will say that I liked the Christian undertones, and I felt like the parallels between Jesus and Superman weren't so frequent that they became heretical, which was a relief for me because that is what I was mostly afraid of going into it.
So I don't exactly know what your family's standards are, Pev, though mine are fairly strict and yet my dad was fine with us seeing Man of Steel.

[elanorelle]

Season Finale of Agents of SHIELD. It was intense, and the death that has been promoted to death, please excuse the pun, was well crafted and touching, very touching, I will say that. (Even if it did feel like another scene at one point...)