Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant

Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant

During the first phase of the MCU, Marvel released these very short pieces to help bridge some of the other gaps, or connect characters that might have been forgotten about. In the Consultant, there is talk that the Abomination from The Incredible Hulk (2008) was being considered to be an Avenger. Obviously that doesn't happen, but it's cute to see a rerun of Tony Stark's talk with General Ross in the bar from the end of that movie. Comic books are well known for telling vast stories that can last decades, but every once in a while a "one-shot" book will be released just to paint a fuller picture. There are others, and I will review them in the order that they were shown to audiences. This one took place between Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

So Agent Coulson and Agent Of Shields Agent Sitwell are in a diner discussing General Ross, we have a 2 minute chat followed by some stock footage featuring Ross & Stark and the credits role.

This is a Marvel One-Shot? It serves no purpose, where is the entertainment value in this? These shorts are supposed to be tiny stories, there is no story here whatsoever.

The casts performances save it to an extent but what the hell was that meant to be?

And furthermore how did this cost half a million dollars to make? It's less than 3 minutes long and is two people chatting + already paid for stock footage. Beyond belief, I can only assume their catering was the stuff of legends.

One for Marvel obsessives and nobody else.

The Good:

Strong performances as always

The Bad:

What was that even meant to be?

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

They wanted arrogant and abrasive yet they didn't call me? Weird.

Agents Coulson and Sitwell meet in a diner to figure out a Level 6 clearance issue.

So this almost definitely started out as course correction. They didn't know exactly how to tie the Cinematic Universe together yet, so when they were doing the post credit scene for The Incredible Hulk, they tried to set up a very straightforward way for the Hulk to end up on the team, and later decided to handle that within the first Avengers movie instead. Well, that leaves this to tie up the loose end. And considering that, it actually is a lot better than you might think. It's essentially mostly people talking, but even this early on the mcu were excellent at dialogue and character interactions. This is 3 and a half minutes long, or three if you don't count the end credits.

This is currently available on the Disney plus streaming service. I recommend it to any fan of the franchise. 7/10.

This Marvel One-Shot features almost nothing other than banter wrapped around a post-credits scene, and it makes me wonder why it wasn't just shot as a post-credits scene itself since it's so short. The aforementioned banter, constrained by its low budget, gives some context to the post-credits scene and pokes fun at Tony Stark's arrogance. For what it is, this (very) short film is an effective way to add some filler to the MCU in the time it's given. It just doesn't amount to much.

These One Shots are really fan bait. Often understated, single concept and great character pieces, these are delightful. I give this short film a 7 (delightful) out of 10. {Marvel Segue}