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Kim Hollis: Out of the major Avengers characters, the next planned movie is Avengers 2. How do you think Disney/Marvel have done with "Phase 2" of the Avengers plan? (We are not factoring in Guardians of the Galaxy yet since it's such an unknown, but you can offer your opinions on it as well.)

Edwin Davies: Commercially, they've done an amazing job. The Avengers gave each member a bump, and while that bump has varied in size from from character to character, it's safe to say that each of them is now a much bigger draw than any one of them was prior to May 2012. They've managed to keep the Avengers audience engaged with each release, and excitement for Avengers 2 has only grown, not diminished, as a result.

In terms of quality, I think that Phase Two has been about on a par with Phase One. I thought that Iron Man 3 was a huge step up from Iron Man 2, and may have enjoyed it more than Iron Man 1; Thor 2 was a slightly worse film than the first, though it was by no means a disaster; and The Winter Soldier is an improvement on the first (which I thought was pretty good to begin with anyway); the only blip is Agents of S.H.I.E..L.D., but I think we can safely ignore that for the purposes of this discussion, and all discussions, even those about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There are fewer films to judge (three [and one unseen] in Phase Two versus five in Phase One) so it's not a direct comparison, but they've not let the quality dip by any significant degree. If Guardians of the Galaxy is good - and at the very least it looks promising, not to mention nuts - that might put Phase Two over the top, for me.

Bruce Hall: Yes, commercially they couldn't be doing better. That's impossible to argue. Creatively I find them somewhat lacking, for the most part. I get tired of seeing the same themes presented over and over and over again, but I am clearly in the minority. And of course despite this, nothing will stop me from gladly handing over my hard earned money to see every superhero movie ever.

And at the end of the day this IS all about the money, and as I said in the first topic- Marvel/Disney have found that sweet spot somewhere between Lowest Common Denominator and Best Amusement Park Ride Ever that guarantees almost everyone in the world will love your movie the first week it comes out, regardless of how they may come to feel about it later.

Some of the Marvel films I can easily re-watch. Many of the other others I still consider harmless fun, but considerably less enjoyable now that I've had time to reflect. But despite my nitpicky creative misgivings I will freely admit that by and large these ARE entertaining movies that do the characters, and their audience ample justice. And after snickering as much as anyone at all that pompous sounding "Phase One, Phase Two" crap, I'm ready to quote just about every Marvel villain ever and say:

"EVERYTHING IS PROCEEDING ACCORDING TO PLAN. COMMENCE PHASE THREE. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!"

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