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- Sony Pictures Releasing/Spider-Man: Far From Home, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Doctor Strange
14 Times The MCU Made Memorable Moments Out Of Exposition Dumps
The most memorable Marvel scenes typically feature intense fights or large set pieces. But occasionally, in their best moments, the minds behind the MCU can take the typically boring exposition dumps prominent in action movies and turn them into insanely entertaining pieces of cinema.Â
A common trick to make a long piece of exposition more interesting is to have the lines delivered by any one of the MCU's incredibly overqualified actors. MCU montages of clips that help visualize the idea being described are another way the filmmakers keep things interesting. Whatever methods they choose to employ, the minds behind the MCU have proven time and time again that they can make even the most boring of explanations entertaining.
Scott Lang's friend from prison, Luis, was a breakout character in Ant-Man. Luis is funny in every scene he's in, but his most memorable scenes (and the most memorable scenes in the film) are when he's excitedly telling stories. So, it only makes sense that Ant-Man and the Wasp would choose to use him to recount the events of the first film.
Luis is injected with truth serum by Sonny Burch, which makes him even more talkative than normal. He's then asked about Scott Lang, which prompts him to launch into a story about meeting Lang, what happened in Ant-Man, and what has happened since. What's so entertaining about these Luis scenes is that as he tells the story, the audience is shown clips of the characters acting out what he's saying, except Luis speaks for all the characters.
Entertaining exposition?Jeff Goldblum delivers what is quite possibly the most entertaining performance in the MCU as the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok.
The explanation of Sakaar begins while Thor is riding along a track in a chair while being lectured in a monotone robot voice about the creation of Sakaar. As he goes along, the chair gains speed and frightens Thor to such a degree that he begins to scream before realizing he's sitting in a room. Then, Goldblum, the exact opposite of a monotone robotic voice, takes over. Goldblum finishes the explanation as to what is going on, and Thor realizes he's going to be trapped on Sakaar for a while.
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Since the MCU is a serialized universe, Spider-Man: Far From Home has the unenviable job of making sure its viewers are up to date on the events of Avengers: Endgame. To do so, the film uses an in-universe school broadcast that begins as a humorous and clearly-made-by-a-student in memoriam to the fallen Avengers.
This switches to two high school student reporters arguing with each other while explaining what happened to their fellow students, and it even includes footage of the blip happening during a marching band performance.
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Hela Informing Skurge Of Asgard's Real History In 'Thor: Ragnarok'
After conquering Asgard, Hela takes a walk down memory lane with her new pet Skurge. In the throne room, Hela destroys a mural on the ceiling depicting the happy foundation of Asgard. This reveals the true founding of the kingdom, in which Hela and Odin viciously fought to conquer the other realms. Hela explains to Skurge that she was imprisoned after Odin decided to change his ways.
Hela then takes Skurge to Odin's treasure room, where she reveals that most of the items there are completely fake.
Entertaining exposition? The time heist in Endgame not only allows the Avengers to gather the stones they need to defeat Thanos, but it allows fans and the characters themselves to take a stroll down the MCU memory lane. Along the way, the Avengers are able to interact with characters that have since perished, which makes for some pretty interesting scenes, even if it's just two characters having a conversation.
For example, to retrieve the Time Stone, Bruce Banner meets the Ancient One for the first time - two characters who fans never thought would ever meet. Tilda Swinton is exceptional in the role, and it's fun to see her take charge in such an unfamiliar situation. Even though the Ancient One is explaining complicated timeline information, Swinton's acting and the visual of the timeline makes it fun. The exposition also serves to add even greater stakes to what the characters are doing, which adds greatly to its watchability.
Entertaining exposition?After searching the world over for a cure for his damaged hands, Stephen Strange makes his way to Kamar-Taj where he meets the Ancient One. After being served a cup of tea, the always entertaining Tilda Swinton keeps Strange on his toes as she explains how she "healed" Pangborn. While Strange tries to guess what medical technique the Ancient One is using to heal those who come to her, she keeps offering up vague pieces of exposition as to how she actually does it.
But, of course, Strange doesn't catch on until she flat out shows him by punching his astral form out of his body.
Entertaining exposition?Benicio del Toro's big acting choices ensure that the Collector is one of the most interesting characters to watch in the MCU. In Guardians of the Galaxy, the Collector is tasked with pulling off the first real explanation of the Infinity Stones, and del Toro does it with flying colors.
The scene is enriched with visual aids showcasing what the Collector is describing. These screens give audiences their first-ever look at a Celestial in action, which is a hard sight to make boring. The scene is then ended with a demonstration of one of the Infinity Stone's powers close up, with one of the Collector's girls grabbing the Stone and inadvertently causing her own demise. A very sad moment to watch, but it serves the purpose of stimulating the audience even further after sitting through an exposition dump (even though by nature of showing the stone's power, even that moment is technically still part of the dump).
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Like any show about time travel, Loki is burdened with explaining a lot of sci-fi jargon to its audience so the show can make some amount of sense. Luckily, Loki has Miss Minutes, whose job it is to "catch you up before you stand trial for your crimes."
Miss Minutes tells her story of the sacred timeline over retro cartoon visuals. Both the visuals and Miss Minutes's voice (voiced by the prolific Tara Strong) are light and fun, which make for an immensely entertaining watch, and also provide an intriguing contrast to the dark subject matter.
Entertaining exposition?An info dump is a lot easier to sit through when the character delivering the exposition was long thought to be dead before that moment and has instead had their consciousness uploaded into a computer. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while investigating Hydra's involvement in S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America is surprised to learn that his old foe Arnim Zola is still alive inside a computer and has been involved with infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades.
The exposition being delivered in the scene is shocking, to say the least, seeing as two characters are learning that everything they know about S.H.I.E.L.D. is wrong. Everyone loves a good conspiracy, and there's no conspiracy more terrifying than Third Reich scientists infiltrating a US intelligence agency and influencing world events.
To keep the scene moving, Steve tries to cut it off early by shooting one of Zola's computers, to no avail. The scene then ends with the revelation that Zola is stalling and biding time for the missile launch he ordered to finally strike.
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No better way to hide exposition than to conceal it within an emotional confrontation. That's exactly what happens in Thor when Odin catches Loki in his treasure room, and the young prince questions his father on what he really is. Odin finally admits that the casket isn't the only thing he took from Jotunheim.
From this scene, the audience learns Loki is a Frost Giant, and Odin took him to hopefully one day achieve peace between the realms. Still, the audience barely realizes it's a scene intended to teach them anything because the emotional distress radiating off Tom Hiddleston's performance is just too powerful.
Entertaining exposition?Ever since Avengers, one prominent comic book character has been nowhere to be seen. This character is, of course, a founding Avenger and the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne.
When Hank finally tells Hope about what really happened to Janet, it's not just her that's finally learning the truth, it's comic fans everywhere finally learning where Janet is in the MCU. Hank's story, accompanied by a visual flashback, is an interesting and emotional look at what really happened to his wife when she decided to shrink between the molecules of a rocket to avert a national crisis.
Entertaining exposition?Peter Quill learns a lot about himself in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, namely that his father is one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Throughout the film, Peter's father, Ego, has the tricky job of convincing his son to trust him. In one scene, Ego explains to his son that he really did love his mother, and he only left because he needed to in order to survive. This is enough to pacify Peter, and the two bond by playing catch with a ball of energy.
In a later (and runner-up for best exposition from Guardians) scene, Ego gives Quill a little more information and ends up sharing too much by revealing he implanted the tumor into Peter's mom. This results in Peter pumping Ego full of laser blasts, to no avail.
Entertaining exposition?T'Challa confronting Zuri about his family's real history is one of the most emotionally charged scenes in the MCU. T'Challa's worldview is starting to crack, and he seeks out Zuri to finally get answers to the accusations raised by Killmonger.
This scene turns exposition into a meaningful story. As it turns out, T'Challa's father terminated his own brother after the latter attempted to stage a rebellion. Chadwick Boseman's acting adds incredible depth to the scene, as he's incredibly distressed by the information. What could have been boring information is instead turned into a showcase for one of the MCU's best actors.
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Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors delivers a dynamic performance to close out Loki. Part of the appeal of this scene is that structurally, it serves as the payoff to an entire series' worth of build-up as to what's really happening behind the scenes at the TVA. In one sense, by nature of Jonathan Majors being an ordinary man, the series is underplaying his abilities and powers and creating an interesting contrast. But, on the flip side of that same token, Majors is over-delivering his every line and making it impossible to look away from his character.
Acting aside for a moment, the scene delivers on visuals by way of a strange device possessed by He Who Remains. He Who Remains is able to generate a small moving statue made of gold that serves to illustrate his story.
The final aspect of the scene that can't be ignored is how the information being delivered affects Loki and Sylvie and their view of the universe. The scene has massive repercussions for them, and it's fun to watch them receive the information and wrestle with their thoughts and emotions in real-time.
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