Axe's Backlog

I've been rewatching all the MCU projects directly relevant to "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," which means, last on the list, was "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" (TFATWS). I'll be honest, going into this rewatch list, I was least excited to revisit TFATWS, despite having only seen it through once before. When I first watched it in spring of 2021, there were a couple negative impressions I took away with me that kept me from enjoying the project as a whole: Sam gets way more development than Bucky, despite sharing the show title. Sharon's arc is a bummer, and ruins a character we'd spent two movies learning to like and trust. Sam's big speech at the end misses the mark. I took just three days to watch all six episodes this time, and I really enjoyed myself this time, and after watching it, I've come to terms with two of these three negative impressions, and even feel that the show does a really nice job with each of them. First, some con...

Injustice 2 tickles the exact spot I want tickled with this type of game, and WHY MARVEL WHY CAN'T YOU MAKE ONE JUST LIKE IT? But I digress. I finished the campaign on medium in around 5 hours I'd estimate. It's really quick, but you're basically watching a 5-hour movie where you're personally responsible for winning all the fights, so 5 hours is a nice, merciful runtime here. Injustice 2 feels like such a clean fighter. My experience in the genre is pretty limited to MK, Injustice and Smash Bros, with MK tending to be my favorite, but this game feels even cleaner than MK11. It's so nice that I'm really tempted to keep playing it, dive into the towers and grind for a while, but that's not the exercise as we know. The story here manages to excite me even more than the actual DCEU, just as it did in the first one. It's not perfect. The Act 2 pivot where Batman releases Superman (right after Blue Beetle and Firestorm just worked so hard to keep Wond...