Reviewing - The Marvel One-Shots
The Marvel One-Shots were a series of short films originally released as bonus features for MCU DVDs and Blu-Rays. Ranging from competently fun to dishearteningly bland, they were a short-lived experiment that we haven't heard from in quite a while. That said, not all of these deserve to be forgotten.
The Consultant (**)
In which two guys sit at a table and that's literally it
This isn’t much of anything apart from a simple way to explain why Tony Stark was talking to General Ross about ‘putting a team together’ at the end of The Incredible Hulk. It’s always nice to see Coulson, but he’s really just sitting at a table talking with Agent Sitwell. Interspersed with clips we’ve already seen, this barely counts as a short film of its own. And if Marvel was so concerned with filling in gaps, I would’ve much rather heard an explanation for what happened to Dr. Samuel Sterns after getting Hulk blood mixed into an open wound on his head towards the end of the Hulk movie. Or maybe figuring out whatever happened to Banner’s girlfriend.
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer (***1/2)
In which a government agent struggles to decide between powdered or frosted donuts
This is probably the best One-Shot out of all of them just because it’s fun, simple, and self-contained. The Consultant and All Hail The King both try to resolve lingering problems from their respective films, but as a result their own narratives kind of fall flat. What I like about this short is that you don’t really need to know any background in order to enjoy the story. If anything, this could be an introduction to the character of Coulson for a lot of people. It shows him off as both a funny everyman and as a kick-butt superspy. If you only watched one One-Shot, this is the one to pick!
Item 47 (***)
In which we learn that a top-secret government agency has ridiculously low standards for job entry
What’s fun about Item 47 is that it builds on the world of the MCU by following up on the fallout from The Avengers. We rarely walk away from a superhero movie thinking about what the repairs to the city are gonna cost, but this short explores a very natural avenue of thought. If aliens really did invade the planet, what would happen with all the stuff they left behind after getting beaten?
It was nice to see Mean Girls’ Lizzy Caplan again, and Sitwell came back again to represent SHIELD for us. There may not be anything revolutionary about this short, but it was fun enough to merit its runtime.
Agent Carter (***)
In which we learn the difference between four and five
In many ways the pilot episode for what would eventually become the Agent Carter series, this short is simple and fun. Peggy is dealing with a male-dominated workforce that doesn’t understand her inherent value while trying to recover some weird science thing. Like the Thor’s Hammer short, it’s a self-contained story that doesn’t really require outside knowledge for us to understand or enjoy it. Hayley Atwell does a great job as Peggy – she’s sassy and a total kick-butt agent. It was also cool seeing Howard Stark again. If you like this, then try out her show on Disney+. Season One is basically this storyline stretched into more episodes.
All Hail The King (*)
In which one of the worst villains of the MCU inexplicably gets an encore
This was a total waste of time. The Mandarin turning out to be just an actor in Iron Man 3 was probably one of the worst aspects of any Iron Man film, and they decided to give us a short film about the guy. Sure, they’re trying to make amends in a weird way by implying that the real Mandarin is still out there, but the result is that I had to sit and watch more of the fake Mandarin. There’s virtually no narrative here – it’s more of a mashup of thirty-second bits all featuring ‘Trevor Slattery’ in various would-be-comical scenarios. The only part of this that was any fun was seeing Justin Hammer again. Why couldn’t we get more of that guy?
Comments