Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 2 General Discussion (Spoilers discussed for All Films -- Please Read First Post) (1 Viewer)

[Josh Dial]

HTF Moderating Staff to HTF Members:

This thread will contain spoilers so if there is any MCU film you haven't seen yet, the reading of this thread is at your own peril. Again, MCU spoilers will be discussed in this thread without any warnings.

Robert Crawford
HTF Moderator

This thread will hopefully be a good place for members to discuss the entire (ongoing) MCU film catalogue.

Spoilers won't be needed for any MCU film, including new movies as soon as they release in North America. For example, when Endgame releases at midnight on the East Coast in North America, it will be fair game for discussion in the larger context of the MCU (as opposed to the Endgame thread which will be where you want to go to discuss just that movie--hopefully this jibes with the forum's rules against duplicate threads).

However, unless the owners/mobs/members think otherwise, I think it's best to keep the thread to the MCU films only. For now, spoiler discussion about the TV shows (e.g. for Daredevil or Agents of SHIELD) and their place in the MCU should use the spoiler tag. In the future, if Disney/Marvel creates a truly seamless link between the films and the television shows, perhaps the owners/mods/members will consider expanding the discussion to everything.

I'm looking forward to reading everyone's posts--there is some really great discussion happening these days in all the Marvel threads!

 

[Josh Dial]

As my first post in this thread, here's my personal ranking of the MCU films pre-Endgame, in March 2019 (I'm sure the ranking will change as the years tick by...):

(number 1=favourite)

1. Avengers: Infinity War
   
2. Captain America: Civil War
   
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
   
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
   
5. Thor: Ragnarok
   
6. Iron Man
7. Iron Man 2
8. The Avengers
   
9. Iron Man 3
10. Ant-Man
    
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
    
12. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
    
13. Doctor Strange
    
14. Spider-Man: Homecoming
    
15. Captain Marvel
    
16. Ant-Man and the Wasp
    
17. Thor
18. Black Panther
    
19. Thor: The Dark World
    
20. Captain America: The First Avenger
21. The Incredible Hulk

This was a difficult task. I really like every single MCU film--in fact the MCU has ousted the Star Wars films as my favourite franchise ever (something 10-year old Josh would have never thought possible). I would gladly re-watch any of the films

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Good idea to have a MCU catch-all thread! Yes, it's very difficult to rank the Marvel films...of course, the following list is completely subjective. Most of them I am very fond of. The top and bottom tiers are pretty easy for me to rank, but the rest are all basically in a group of entertaining, fun films that I would happily watch again. Please note the absence of Iron Man 3, the only Marvel film I've not seen. All the rest I saw in the cinema upon original release, and many of the higher-ranked ones I own on Blu-Ray.

Top Tier:
1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Great:
3. The Avengers: Infinity War
4. Captain America: Civil War
5. Iron Man

Very Good:
6. Thor: Ragnorak
7. Avengers: Age of Ultron
8. Doctor Strange
9. Thor
10. Ant-Man
11. Spider-Man: Homecoming

Good:
12. The Avengers
13. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
14. Captain Marvel
15. Ant-Man and the Wasp
16. Captain America: The First Avenger

Bottom Tier: (Watchable, but disappointing)
17. Iron Man 2
18. Black Panther
19. Thor: The Dark World
20. The Incredible Hulk

 

[Sam Favate]

I couldn't rank the films. It'd change tomorrow.

Last summer, after Infinity War's theatrical release and up to its blu-ray release, I rewatched all 19 films in order with my kids. It was great. There's so much that's connected that you don't see when you see the films years apart. It's a great experience, which I recommend to anyone.

At the time, I posted my thoughts on each film. Here they are, collected in one place, and updated to include Ant-Man & the Wasp and Captain Marvel:



May 12, 2018:

Today, the kids and I started our re-watch of the MCU films, in order this time. So we started with Iron Man (I know some people say to start with Captain America: The First Avenger, but I wanted to do it in release order). It's a great film, obviously, but what struck me is how much of its story has been used in all the subsequent movies. For example, there is a newspaper clipping about the death of Howard Stark and his wife, dated 1991. (BTW, Howard had to be about 80 around '91, assuming he was near 30 in 1942.) Obviously, they couldn't have know where they'd be 10 years later, but this really is the one where it all begins.


Twenty films (counting Ant-Man and the Wasp) in 10 years is very impressive. There's never been anything like it. Even the James Bond films, previously the most prolific, only managed 7 films in its first 10 years.


June 3, 2018:

Continuing my summer project with the kids to re-watch all the films in the MCU, today we watched The Incredible Hulk (its 10 year anniversary is in 10 days). It was much better than I remembered. Norton was very effective as Banner and Liv Tyler and William Hurt were terrific. Yes, the CGI isn't what we're used to seeing today, but so what? I really liked how it took many cues from the TV show, including having Bruce and Betty as fugitives (the TV show was essentially a remake of the David Janssen show The Fugitive). Tony Stark's cameo at the end was really very significant. I remember thinking at the time I first saw it in the theater that this was a dicey proposition - making a shared movie universe. I couldn't have imagined it turning out better.


It really is a shame that Marvel isn't going to make any more Hulk movies, especially now that Ruffalo has nailed the role so well. They chalk it up to problems with Universal (I guess Universal would have to sign off in some way; they have had the rights since the 70s) but whatever the reason, audiences lose.


June 10, 2018:

Iron Man 2 today with the kids in our viewing of all the MCU movies this summer, in advance of the Infinity War blu-ray.


Iron Man 2 is my least favorite MCU movie, and as such, I have seen it the least. So watching it again is always good to see things I had forgotten, like the Howard Stark films and the appearance of Agent Coulson. The Black Widow/Nick Fury stuff works well, but a lot of the rest of the film doesn't. The kids were bored in the Senate hearing scene (as if they were watching real Senate hearings), although I thought Downey did a good job of keeping it lively.


This is the worst appearance of Pepper Potts, who tells Tony she is resigning after a week or so on the job. If anyone knew what they were getting into, it's her, so she should have been okay with it. Whiplash doesn't really work as a villain. Just another you-wronged-my-family villain, which we've seen a hundred times. Tattoos to make him scary, seen it. Russian accent, check. I did like Sam Rockwell as Hammer, although his springing of Whiplash to help his company is a bit too mustache-twirling for a corporate villain.


My other complaint is that the first third of the movie takes place at such a frenetic pace and the dialogue is so rapid-fire, that it is easy to miss a lot of it. I've probably seen the movie 4 times in 8 years now, and I'm sure I've missed some. There's a part of the movie, about an hour+ in, where I can never manage to stay awake, and that's not a sign of a good film.


That said, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would. It's by no means a terrible film; there are just some things that don't work, and now that we're used to such a high level in Marvel films, they're very apparent.


June 20, 2018:

Hope I'm not boring anyone with these recaps, but the kids and I rewatched Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger this week, along with the related one-shots (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer and Agent Carter, respectively). You could argue that 2011 is when the Marvel films became more sure of themselves and really laid the groundwork for the broad narrative to come.


Thor really works. It has a great cast and provides great introductions to the characters. I wish the later Thor films had used the Warriors Three and Lady Sif as much and as well as this one did. I like that Jane Foster is a scientist instead of a nurse (in the comics) but what is it about Natalie Portman and these big-budget movies? It's like she doesn't show up. Sorry, but she's the weak link here. The after-credit scene where Fury shows off the Tesseract and Loki sees it pretty much sets up everything up to and including Infinity War.


Captain America: The First Avenger has long been one of my favorites. I liked it even more this time, because the first time I saw it, the blue energy beams from Hydra took me out of the movie a bit. Why would they have this technology in WWII? But now I understand. If they truly understood then that that's what they were doing with the Infinity Stones, then hats off to them. That's impressive. Steve Rogers is one of the best characters in the Marvel Universe. Him saying "I don't like bullies" might as well apply to that scene where he holds off Thanos. This movie also has the best romantic relationship in the entire MCU. Peggy Carter (also a great character and played so well by Hayley Atwell) is completely believable as she hears Steve's voice disappear and grieves for him. She deserved the two seasons of that show she got and much more. Howard Stark is also a terrific addition - another "coincidence" that I didn't think worked the first time.


The one-shots are also a joy. We saw The Consultant after Iron Man 2, and it was a nice enough way to explain the ending of Incredible Hulk, but A Funny Thing... is just terrific fun and lets us see Agent Coulson in action for the first time. Agent Carter, the short, is the best of the bunch, even if the show it spawned did ultimately contradict the timing of the one-shot. Atwell is so commanding in her performance that it genuinely seems the only thing holding her back was the gender stereotypes of her time. Marvel needs to do more with her. I hope we see her in Captain Marvel, or, better yet, a third season of her own show.


Next up is The Avengers. I can't believe we got here so quickly.


One other thing about CA:TFA -- did Joe Johnston (an underrated director IMO) try to make a lot of the scenes colored in a sepia tone? Obviously, it was in color, but it was so muted in many places that it gave the impression of sepia. In particular, the scenes in which Steve chases the Hydra agent through Brooklyn and the scenes in the bar when the team is being assembled and when Peggy is annoyed with Steve for kissing Natalie Dormer all seem very muted. Incidentally, it was during the promotion of this film in 2011 that Johnston said he'd love to direct a Boba Fett movie, which lead me to believe he knew of Lucasfilm's plans to make more movies more than a year before the sale to Disney.


BTW, Wonder Woman (2017), a film I also loved, borrowed a lot from this one.


June 22, 2018:

The kids and I watched Avengers. Great film, which they had seen before (we're watching them in order for the first time). They clapped and cheered throughout.


I know nothing about Avengers 4, except what everyone keeps saying, which is that main characters could die. If that's so, Cap's line to Stark "you're not the one to make a sacrifice" could be relevant. (Although, I suspect it was meant to tie into the end of the film, in which Iron Man appears to be sacrificing himself to save New York.)


None of the Avengers (except maybe Natasha) trust Fury. I don't recall specifics, but I think this was lost in other films. Coulson's death is handled very well, but I also think Agents of Shield brought him back in a plausible way.


Fury comments that Shield is making weapons to fight people of other worlds, and mentions the Asgardians who came to Earth in Thor. But he seems to know more than he is saying, which makes sense since we know he's going to meet some aliens in Captain Marvel.


A very enjoyable movie in pretty much every way.


June 29, 2018:
This past week we've watched Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.


Iron Man 3 shows some very confident filmmaking. The writing is sharp, the performances manage to wink at the audience without actually winking at the audience and the film moves at a brisk pace. Here you can see the elements of change starting in the MCU. Tony Stark destroys all his suits (Operation Clean Slate) and his home is gone, meaning he's going to start over. His relationship with Pepper deepens and we get to see some villains with a twist - the Mandarin/Trevor Slattery/Aldrich Killian. This is a huge improvement over Iron Man 2, and rivals the first film as the best Iron Man movie.


The short Hail To The King goes with IM3, and sets up the real menace of the Mandarin, which the MCU will hopefully get to one of these days.


Thor: The Dark World is not nearly the bad film many make it out to be. (It's often on critics' lists as the lowest point in the MCU.) It starts out wonderfully, with a bit of history about the Dark Elves and then we Thor, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three in action on Vanaheim, in one of the best action sequences in any of the Thor films. It's a pleasure to see the interactions between Sif and Thor and the Three; they are a vital part of the Thor mythology and it's a shame more hasn't been done with them. We get to spend a lot of time in Asgard, which is terrific. My biggest complaint is that the scenes with Malekith and the Elves are incredibly dark, which often doesn't translate well to blu-ray (especially projected blu-ray). Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is better here than she was in the first Thor, but Portman doesn't seem to want to be here. (She was famously annoyed that she was promised a female director - Patty Jenkins - for this film and it didn't work out that way. BTW, Jenkins' ideas for the film sound very good: http://collider.com/patty-jenkins-thor-2-idea/.) I found The Dark World to be a very good installment in the series.


July 2, 2018
Oh, boy. This was the one I have been waiting for. The kids and I rewatched Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which I have said for four years now is my favorite Marvel movie. I just confirmed it.


The kids loved it. What's not to like? Cap in action in the present for the first time (not counting Avengers), the introduction of The Falcon, the biggest roles yet for Nick Fury and Black Widow, the unveiling of the modern Hydra, which has been at work for all these years, and the introduction of The Winter Soldier, a fascinating character if ever there was one. Let's not forget Agent 13, who deserves more attention. (Attention, Agents of SHIELD writers!) Plenty of spectacle too - those three giant helicarriers shooting the hell out of each other and then crashing! Into SHIELD headquarters!


The movie had some really amazing stunts too. Several times one of us said "Whoa!" at something a real stuntman did. With CGI, I'm afraid stunts are becoming a lost art. And speaking of lost arts, the political thrills in this one really gives it a maturity over the other films and make it seem more present. BTW, the movie's plot device of dumping intelligence secrets on the Internet seems prescient.


The movie also has a number of ways it could relate to the rest of the Marvel films. Black Widow certainly seems to know Bucky. Hopefully (as rumored) this gets addressed in her solo film. It makes both of them more interesting. Nick Fury said "I trusted someone once; it cost me an eye." I wonder if that will turn up in Captain Marvel. Steve continues to long for Peggy, and you sense the deep regret both of them have at the way their lives kept them apart. (Could that pop up in Avengers 4?) This is Chris Evans' best performance as Steve.


I remember thinking in 2014 that this was the moment the Marvel films really arrived. If you ask me, they've been on an incredible roll since this one that hasn't let up.


July 4, 2018:
What do you do after you've been to your Fourth of July parade and it's just too hot to stay outside? You get the kids into the basement theater and watch the next Marvel movie!


It was Guardians of the Galaxy today, and it's one of our favorites. The kids have seen this one a few times, and so have I. We love it. I remember when it was coming out, it was anything but a sure thing (I'll never forget Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers trashing it months before it came out (and before he saw it) in his summer preview list. Nice to see him eat crow a few months later.)


Everything about the movie works. It sets up the characters and their intros nicely, makes their first meetings memorable, puts them in action scene after action scene, shows us more characters from deep within the Marvel Universe (Ronan, Nova Corp., the Ravagers, and our second look at Thanos) and more than anything, it expands the scope of the MCU tremendously. Guardians is the essential ingredient that got the MCU to Infinity War.


But what really makes it work is how much we care about the characters. For all the jokes (there are plenty), fights (ditto), chases and things blowing up, the movie has a heart, more than the other MCU films - so much so that I'd say subsequent films have done their best to imitate it. The music also takes the movie to new heights. This is the rarest of pop soundtracks that really works, in part because the music is well chosen and also because the songs haven't been used over and over in films before (a big mistake that Suicide Squad made, hoping to be DC's answer to Guardians).


The result is a movie that's an absolute joy from beginning to end. Watching it with your kids and hearing them laugh constantly is something everyone should experience.


July 6, 2018:
Bad weather gave us another movie day today. Age of Ultron it was.


The kids only saw this one once before, but are overly familiar with it because of the Lego Avengers video game, which they've played a thousand times. So they knew every beat, but were enthralled by seeing real actors (and CGI actors) playing the parts.


It's a fun movie, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the previous Avengers movie. I liked seeing the camaraderie of the team in the first half, only to witness the destruction of the team later on. Sure, they come back together to work to resolve the conflict of the film, but the damage is done. We can clearly see where the Civil War battle lines are drawn.


The introductions of Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision are all done nicely. The Vision in particular is a strong presence in the movie. Since our main concern in rewatching these is the connections to Infinity War, this one had a lot. The Mind Stone is the central element in this film, responsible for Ultron, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision. Tony Stark messing around with it to create Ultron showed very clearly that he had no idea what he was playing with.


Each character gets their moments to shine, as it should be in a big ensemble piece like this. Cap's vision of Peggy echoes the longing we saw in Winter Soldier (and which we'll see in Avengers 4? Just a guess). Banner and Black Widow's relationship gives the movie a wistful feeling (and the CGI on the Hulk is at its best; you can see Ruffalo's sad eyes several times).


Ultimately, this will be seen as the weakest of the three Avengers films, but for a movie with this much going on, this much fun being had to be the "weakest" is really elevating the series to a new height.


July 12, 2018:

We're now exactly two months in our MCU re-watch project, in advance of the blu-ray for Avengers: Infinity War. It was the original Ant-Man film for us yesterday, after a few days away from the films. This was the first MCU movie the kids ever saw and yesterday was only their second time seeing it. They didn't remember a lot of it.


It's terrific fun throughout. Marvel took a potentially silly concept - a shrinking man - and not only had fun with it, but showed the audience how it could be a real threat in the wrong hands.


Marvel's casting is one of their strongest characteristics. Paul Rudd is great, as are Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, and Michael Douglas. I like that they avoided using Douglas as the "old man" who gets sacrificed, etc. He had a lot to contribute. Also loved the flashback to Shield with Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Hank Pym. How did the other guy (that Hank punched) get out of Shield - or was he Hydra? I wasn't clear.


Loved the heist movie angle, and that they strive to make each film in the series different. We also loved the use of the Thomas trains at the end; my kids were about Thomas & Friends age when the movie came out, and I remember my wife and I laughed a lot at the sight of those trains.


July 17, 2018:
The kids and I watched Captain America: Civil War yesterday. This was the first Marvel film they saw in the movie theater (in 2016). I remarked at the time how great it was to see the movie with them and hear them laugh (sometimes uproariously). Fortunately, that has not changed with a couple of years.


I love the movie (although Winter Soldier is my favorite) but to me, Civil War feels like an issue of the Avengers that primarily features Cap, instead of an issue of Cap that happens to feature the Avengers. However, following the narrative of the first two films, this is the resolution of the trilogy, as Cap searches for, finds and saves his friend.


This might be Scarlett Johansson's best appearance as Black Widow. She's both fierce and tender, conflicted and resolute. It's the most complex we've seen her yet, and Johansson is terrific.


The movie is essentially the end of the Avengers. There's barely any way they can work together again -- there certainly cannot be any more party scenes like in Age of Ultron where they are laughing and drinking together.


The addition of Ant-Man, Spider-Man and Black Panther all work so well that you can't help but think they belong on the team. Ant-Man and Spider-Man got the biggest laughs and brought some much-needed levity to the movie.


The villain, Zemo, is certainly brilliant but he seems a bit anticlimactic after the threats we've seen Cap and the Avengers face before. That said, his plan of destroying his enemy by making its members turn on each other was prescient, to say the least, of our modern politics.


Having seen the Black Panther movie, it's very interesting to follow T'Challa's path in this movie. Either the BP writers really picked up the gauntlet from this movie or the MCU films are so well thought-out and planned-out that it's scary.


I hope Civil War will not be the last Captain America film. Chris Evans is so good in the role, and the character is as good a window through which to view American history and politics as we have seen.


July 20, 2018:
The other day the kids and I watched Doctor Strange. They said it was "awesome." They'd seen in it the theater when it came out, but as kids do, they forgot a lot of it.


It's the least "superhero" of the superhero movies and that makes it refreshing in its own way. I disagree with the criticism from the time of its release that said it was an origin story very similar to Iron Man. Origin, yes. Similar, no. In fact, if I had to compare it to any other property, it would be Marvel's Daredevil and Iron Fist shows on Netflix. Much of Strange's training is similar to martial arts, which are in abundance in Daredevil and Iron Fist.


Benedict Cumberbatch is ideal as Strange, just as arrogant as Tony Stark but without his playful side. It's no wonder he doesn't have friends. The rest of the cast was admirable too, although I think Rachel McAdams was wasted in a pretty thankless role. If Strange is ever to find his Clea in the films, McAdams will have an even less relevant role, assuming she comes back at all.


Of course, where this ties to the larger MCU is the infinity stone in Strange's arsenal and the cosmic implications of the mystical side of the Marvel Universe. I contend that the mystical whammy Strange put on the time stone in this film to defeat Dormmamu is very close to what he did in Infinity War to defeat Thanos, but we'll have to wait until Avengers 4 to find out.


July 24, 2018:
As fate would have it, the next film the kids and I watched yesterday was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It's hard not to think about the film in the context of the news, but my kids' reactions are pure, since they know nothing about the news.


They loved it. This was the fourth time they've seen this one, and none of it gets old for them. They howled with laughter many times and were also on the edges of their seats several times. One of the kids said this one and Infinity War are tied for his favorite Marvel movie. My kids have plenty of Guardians toys, and plush versions of Rocket, Groot and Cosmo adorn their room. Every few days, they're wearing a Guardians t-shirt. We went across the country back in the spring to visit Disneyland's Guardians ride and they got to meet Groot.


My reaction hasn't changed since I first saw it. I think it's terrific. We watched the blu-ray with James Gunn's intro (a nice thing they also did with Scott Derrickson on Doctor Strange), and he said this was a very personal film for him and that Marvel gave him "absolute freedom" to make the film he wanted. There's a great scene late in the film where Rocket and Yondu are yelling at each other, and Yondu says he knows who Rocket is, and why he pretends to be so tough and how he's empty inside, and it's because Yondu is the same way. I suspect there's more than a bit of Gunn in there.


I think great writing first gives you characters to care about and puts them in situations that tell a story and let them grow. The characters in Guardians do that very well. In many ways, these are the most well-developed characters in the MCU, with the most pathos, which is why they're so beloved. It doesn't hurt either that the script is one of the funniest out of 20 movies. The humor plays a huge part in endearing the characters to us, and it works.


I think everything about the movie works. The visuals - particularly of Ego's planet - are among some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in a film. (Inspiration was taken from the artwork of Al Williamson, one of my favorites.) Much has been made of the movie's soundtrack, and it's one of the best things about the movie. All too often, popular music in films can seem trite; so much of it has been used before and it sounds so familiar. Gunn changed that by using songs that we haven't heard in movies a lot, and unearthing tracks that might have been a hit for 5 minutes 40 years ago, but which haven't gotten a lot of airplay in years. And he follows the rule that I heard best explained by David Chase of Sopranos fame: As long as the song connects to something that's going on emotionally in your scene, it will work. Put all that together, and you have a thrilling soundtrack to take you through the film.


This is some of the best work Michael Rooker has ever done, and that's saying something. The guy's had an outstanding career for 30 years.


To touch on the news for a second, I will just say it will be a great injustice for movie fans if this is Gunn's last Guardians movie.


July 28, 2018:

We're moving right along with our MCU rewatch. We will finish this week with the last two films before Infinity War, which will have to wait until mid-August (we are only doing blu-rays).


The other day we watched Spider-Man: Homecoming. Spider-Man was the character that got the biggest laughs from the kids in Civil War, so they were eager to see (this) Spider-Man in his own movie. This is the second or third time they saw this film, having first seen it in the theater last summer. They love it.


What's not to love? Tom Holland is great in the role (that Marvel casting is spot on, as always), and he really makes it his own. I loved the first two Sam Raimi movies with Tobey Maguire, but where Maguire played Spider-Man as an essentially depressed, sad character, and Andrew Garfield played him as a bit of an angry punk with a skateboard, Holland plays him as a sweet kid in awe of his powers and who, above all, is having fun doing what he does. That fun is infectious.


Spider-Man is also very much a kid. There's no serious love interest here, as there was with Mary Jane in the Maguire movies and Gwen in the Garfield movies. Holland's Peter Parker is very much a kid with puppy dog eyes for the pretty girl in school. Meanwhile, he and his best friend build Star Wars legos and do other things that normal 15-year olds do.


By featuring Iron Man to great effect, this Spider-Man movie is like of the cinematic equivalent of the Marvel Team-Up comic book, which featured Spidey and a different guest star every issue (rumor for Spider-Man 2: Nick Fury). Robert Downey Jr. also ties this movie to the larger MCU, as does the opening sequence that takes place after the Battle of New York in the first Avengers film. Indeed, all the technology that allows the villains to do their thing in this movie comes from the aliens in Avengers. The movie famously got the time wrong by setting the main film eight years after Avengers, but if you're paying attention, most of it takes place in the months immediately following Civil War.


The movie has great appearances by Michael Keaton, who helped invent the modern movie superhero (nearly - wow - 30 years ago) who is both menacing and very human as the Vulture, and Jon Favreau, one of the architects of the MCU, as Happy Hogan, in what is probably his biggest role since the first Iron Man.


I love the scenes of Spider-Man hanging around Queens, stopping bicycle thieves and accidentally beating on someone who left their keys in their car. It shows the scale of the character, compared to the world-ending battles of the Avengers. It's that scale that the movie gets right throughout, and what makes it fresh, even though this is the sixth Spider-Man movie in 15 years. Also, use of the great Queens-born band The Ramones is genius. The burst of their song at the end, cutting off Aunt May's expletive, is one of the funniest moments in a movie full of laughs.


One complaint: Many of the night scenes are too dark and edited so quickly that it's impossible to really see what's going on. I have a brand-new bulb in my projector, so it's not me. I remember it being that way in the theater too.


July 30, 2018:
Thor: Ragnarok for us today. This is such a fun film, which pushes the boundaries of what a Thor movie could be, incorporates the alien worlds of the Guardians film, and still manages to advance the story of the larger MCU. The kids loved it, with one of them saying "That was so awesome" several times after the movie. (They'd only seen this once before, the the theater.)


The boys also couldn't stop singing Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, which is used to such great effect twice in the movie. I loved those sequences, especially when the camera changed to slo-mo, and the imagery recreated all those heavy metal album covers from the 70s, while the greatest heavy metal band in history played.



Cate Blanchett is a great addition to the cast (and the MCU). Hela is like Galadriel's twisted, evil sister. It's only a shame she didn't get to have a scene with Anthony Hopkins (what is it about the Thor movies that attracts the best actors?). Tessa Thompson adds a lot too. Her Valkyrie is another welcome addition to the cast, and we need to see her again. Ditto with Korg, who's a joy to watch (and a kid favorite).


This is Chris Hemsworth's best appearance as Thor so far. We see more sides of him that we did before, and it's great that they finally found a way to let Hemsworth cut loose with more comedy, which he excels at.


I love the use of color (if I had one complaint of the earlier Thor movies, it was that their palate was bland). It obviously fits with what we've seen in Guardians, and it makes the cosmic side of the MCU a more interesting place to see.


Ragnarok is not without its faults. Leaving out Lady Sif is a big one. She's an important part of the Thor mythology and her absence is missed, even more than Jane Foster. But the movie's biggest sin is the casual way with which the Warriors Three are dispatched. They, too, are essential to the Thor myth, and they deserved better. I can only hope Avengers 4 undoes this somehow.


Thor was also a highlight of Infinity War. Ragnarok proves the character has a lot more to offer, so here's hoping we get another Thor film. Oh, and I forgot to add how great Mark Ruffalo was as the Hulk. Since the damned legalities will prevent us from getting a proper Hulk movie, it's great to see the character shine in this one.


Aug. 1, 2018:

Today we finished the MCU through February 2018. Black Panther is a thrilling film, and it's even more amazing that it made a superstar out of one of Marvel's lesser known heroes. My kids have loved Black Panther since they were toddlers watching Super Hero Squad, and later, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. When they heard he was getting his own film, there were hoots and hollers. They, of course, loved it.


I did too. The cast was great, especially Chadwick Boseman, on whose shoulders the whole thing rests, and Michael B. Jordan, who helps ground the film in the real world. I've said before (in the BP movie thread) that I will always respect the writers for taking the elephant in the room - which is why hasn't Wakanda with its awesome technology helped Africans throughout the world and throughout history - and they not only addressed it, but they made it the central conflict of the movie!


The look of Wakanda and its technological cities is really visionary. The movie brings the MCU to another level of artistry, the same way the first Thor movie did by showing Asgard and the first Guardians film did by showing the universe beyond Earth, and the way Doctor Strange did by showing the mystical side of the MCU. This is why the films are so successful - they keep branching out, covering new ground and expanding the footprint of their universe.


There's a genuine possibility that this film will be nominated for several Oscars, which will bring Marvel yet another kind of notoriety. It would be well deserved.


We watched 18 films in 2 1/2 months. Now we'll take two weeks off before watching Infinity War when it comes to UHD/blu-ray in mid-August. It's been a tremendous experience, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has the chance. Instead of seeing the films years apart, it's really something to see them all relatively close together and watch how they connect and expand. I'm just sorry we have to wait two weeks for the grand finale (which is only part 1 of the damn thing!).


August 18, 2018:
Yesterday we completed our MCU rewatch project for Summer 2018 with Avengers: Infinity War. The kids were thrilled with it again, as they were the first time, which is what set us off on this 19-film journey. They cheered loudly when Captain America, The Falcon and Black Widow appeared for the first time, and even louder when Thor came to save the day.


What struck me this time (my third) is how good the script is. It moves along at a face pace, so by the end, you never realize it's been 2 1/2 hours. Most importantly, it gives everyone a chance to shine, even if only for a moment or two. I never felt like there were characters that were just background dressing (unlike, say, some of the Star Trek films, where the supporting characters would only sometimes have a line or two of dialogue and nothing to really do).


The movie really ties the last 10 years of films together nicely, and whether it was planned that way or whether it was crafted from the films that had been made, it's an impressive feat. It also ties together things that are quintessentially Marvel, from 57 years of comics (starting with Fantastic Four #1). When Iron Man flies off in the beginning, leaving Wong and yells "Wong! You're invited to my wedding!" it's the kind of light-hearted quip that is central to the Marvel style. The Guardians also excel at this kind of humor and that's present throughout.


One of the more recent seasons of Game of Thrones had a lot of the characters we'd followed for years finally meet one another, and it was very satisfying for the audience to see them know each other the way we know them. It made the show more interesting. Infinity War ties together the Marvel Universe of films in a similar way.


It's not a perfect movie. They lose points for not having an ending that's very satisfying. It's clear that this was part one of two films as originally conceived, even if they dropped the part one/part two designations.


The kids and I saw Ant-Man and the Wasp this summer, which we enjoyed a lot, and we'll get the blu-ray when it comes out in October, but it's not part of our summer rewatch project for obvious reasons. As I have said before, I really recommend doing this if you have the chance. There is so much that you forget watching these films over ten years, as opposed to three months as we did. For the record, we watched all the films on blu-ray, projected on a 108" screen. I replaced the bulb in the projector about halfway through (it had been a long time!). We consumed a lot of popcorn. They've expressed interest in seeing the Harry Potter films (for the first time) and putting together a new viewing order of the Star Wars films (including the Clone Wars movie, the micro-series, Rogue One and Solo), so we'll be busy into the fall.


July 7, 2018:

Ant-Man & The Wasp:

I liked it a lot. It may have lacked the novelty of the first one, but that aside, it was fun throughout, particularly with The Wasp doing her thing and the strong supporting cast keeping things moving along. If the first film was a heist movie, this one was a chase/rescue movie. They were constantly on the run in one way or another. Rudd was again terrific, bringing both laughs and a sense of his personal stakes. Lilly was great, and finally got her chance to shine in action scenes. I liked Pfeiffer in her small role and did not think she look disinterested as others have suggested. Pena was again the MVP of the whole thing. I could watch a whole movie of him narrating the action. I liked Laurence Fishburne and was very glad they didn't make him into a villain, as it seemed they could for a minute. When he drew the line with Eva, it was a sensible place for his character to be. I enjoyed the flashbacks (that de-aging tech works very nicely), and all the big/small gags (my favorites were the salt shaker and Giant Man using the flatbed truck as a scooter). There were several moments in the trailer missing from the movie, which isn't unusual, but they were some of the best lines in the trailer (Pena saying "We were tiny! But now we're not;" Lilly saying "I have wings, why would I go low?"; and Pena telling Hank "that was us" who robbed him). Hopefully this means there will be deleted scenes on the blu-ray.The after-credit scenes were different - most of the time these scenes have a joke or set up something for another movie, but these were straight-up cliffhangers, after the end of the film. Like the rest of you, I can't wait to see what happens.


March 8, 2019:

Captain Marvel:

I loved it. I had pretty high expectations and it exceeded them.


My 10:15 am showing was pretty crowded, men and women, young and old. I think this movie is going to do very well, despite the efforts of the pathetic crowd that's using bots to review bomb it on RT.


Brie Larson was great. She gave us a thorough performance and a well-rounded character. Carol should be a somewhat tortured soul, and she should also be a tough-as-nails warrior. I loved that she showed many sides of Carol. She made the friendships with Maria and Monica real. When Monica sees Carol zoom off into the sky, it's like the moment when Picard's nephew dreams of captaining a starship in The Next Generation. Thrilling.


Samuel L. Jackson has never really been better as Nick Fury. He's never had as much to do, for one thing. He really gave us insight into Fury, as we see where he came from and how he got where we know him. Fury's friendship with Carol was real.


Loved Ben Mendleson. Everything that's been said about him stealing his scenes is true. So nice not to have a mustache-twirling villain. Always glad to see more of Clark Gregg.


The script was great. It kept the surprises coming and it honored Carol's story, with elements from the comics followed nicely. The vibe of the movie was great. It really was a 90s buddy action picture, complete with cars chasing a train. Nice soundtrack too (now, release it, Disney!).


I'll be seeing this again tomorrow with the wife and kids. I predict they will love it. Especially the cat. Oh, and regarding the cat:

the scene at the very end is definitely in the 90s. All you have to do is look at the size of the monitor on Fury's desk. No one had a monitor like that after about 2004. Also, does anyone think Fury was in the same office as director, with a nameplate on the desk that said "N Fury"?


Absolutely loved

Carol's appearance with the Avengers, and her line "Where's Fury?" Those 2 seconds can get anyone excited for Endgame.

Also loved Fury's scene when

he notices that Carol's callsign was "Avenger." Just brilliant.


The visuals were beautiful, although I found some of them - especially on that Kree border planet in the beginning - to be a bit dark, so I was really glad when Carol got to Earth and was having fights in the daytime.


I hope every little girl - and little boy - sees this and remembers that small montage of scenes where Carol keeps getting up and doesn't quit.

----

 

[Jake Lipson]

As fate would have it, the next film the kids and I watched yesterday was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It's hard not to think about the film in the context of the news, but my kids' reactions are pure, since they know nothing about the news.

]To touch on the news for a second, I will just say it will be a great injustice for movie fans if this is Gunn's last Guardians movie.

Isn't it wonderful that these quotes you wrote in July are now irrelevant?

 

[TonyD]

So whats the viewing order?
I need to rewatch all of them and still need to see Thor dark World for the first time.
Only one I havent seen.

 

[Jake Lipson]

So whats the viewing order?

If you want to watch them chronologically by the order of their theatrical release, it would be as follows:

1) Iron Man (May 2008)
2) The Incredible Hulk (June 2008)
3) Iron Man 2 (May 2010)
4) Thor (May 2011)
5) Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011)
6) The Avengers (May 2012)
7) Iron Man 3 (May 2013)
8) Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)
9) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 2014)
10) Guardians of the Galaxy (August 2014)
11) Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 2015)
12) Ant-Man (July 2015)
13) Captain America: Civil War (May 2016)
14) Doctor Strange (November 2016)
15) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 2017)
16) Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 2017)
17) Thor: Ragnarok (November 2017)
18) Black Panther (February 2018)
19) Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018)
20) Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 2018)
21) Captain Marvel (March 2019)
22) Avengers; Endgame (April 2019)
23) Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019)

Chronologically based on when events occur is a whole other can of worms (example: Guardians 2 takes place only six months after the first film, so those two would probably be back-to-back in an in-universe chronological viewing. First Avenger and Captain Marvel are both prequels set in the '40s and '90s respectively, so they would be first if you're going by the order in which events occur.)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Chronological order would be something like (and keep in mind, this isn’t perfect because of overlap between films, post credits scenes taking place in different time periods, story flashbacks, etc)

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. Captain Marvel
3. Iron Man
4. Iron Man 2
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. Thor
7. Marvel’s The Avengers
8. Iron Man 3
9. Thor: The Dark World
10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
11. Guardians Of The Galaxy
12. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
13. Avengers: Age Of Ultron
14. Ant-Man
15. Doctor Strange
16. Captain America: Civil War
17. Black Panther
18. Spider-Man: Homecoming
19. Ant-Man and the Wasp
20. Thor: Ragnarok
21. Avengers: Infinity War
22. Avengers: Endgame


I’m thinking about watching in basically that order but moving the Guardians films to after Ant-Man, so that the dissolution of SHIELD at the end of Winter Soldier leads directly into the Avengers playing cleanup in Ultron. And I think you could make a decent argument either way about flipping Spider-Man and Black Panther. Doctor Strange takes place over a longer time period than most of the films; that technically could come later but I’d watch it before Civil War, so that Civil War can be directly followed by the films with the characters spun off from it. And Marvel Studios retconned Incredible Hulk to take place after Iron Man 2. I don’t think it really makes a difference if Incredible Hulk comes in production order or Marvel’s preferred story order.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Carol looked pissed at the end of Captain Marvel when she asked Where's Fury? I do wonder if they (Carol and Fury) had any interaction between that moment and time she left earth with the Skrulls?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Carol looked pissed at the end of Captain Marvel when she asked Where's Fury?

Yeah, I would imagine she wasn't thrilled about receiving his page. She was probably off living her life doing whatever she was doing, and having to come back to Earth to bail him out wasn't on her agenda. And/or she expected to see him using the pager and not these people she doesn't know.

I do wonder if they (Carol and Fury) had any interaction between that moment and time she left earth with the Skrulls?

I suspect that's something they'll have to address in Endgame.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The one thing I didn't like about "Captain Marvel" is that they didn't talk enough about her family. It appears she didn't get along with her father or we're led down that path by what happens in the film. Furthermore, it appears she has an older brother that they show in the film when she's gazing at the night sky while he lays next to her in some field. Both of those relationships will have to be further explained and whatever happened to those men in her life. I expect that to be addressed in the next "Captain Marvel" as I think she recovers more of her memories.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

You gotta figure that if half of all life in the universe vanished, that has to include people Carol knows at wherever she was coming from, and that would be a pretty unnerving experience. She might even know that you’d need the Infinity Stones to do that, and if so, maybe by this point she knows she left one with Fury, and he was supposed to keep it safe, so...lots of reasons for her to be anywhere from alarmed to pissed to just moving with a whole lot of urgency.

 

[TonyD]

Yeah, I would imagine she wasn't thrilled about receiving his page. She was probably off living her life doing whatever she was doing, and having to come back to Earth to bail him out wasn't on her agenda

I doubt very very much that she’d be angry that she was paged as that would seem to be extremely selfish of a SuperHero.
It looked more like a deep concern that Fury wasn’t there to me.

I’m sure she’s not thrilled but the reason for the device was what it ended up being used for.
Dire emergency.

So I’d go with alarmed or deep concern as opposed to pissed.

 

[Robert Crawford]

You gotta figure that if half of all life in the universe vanished, that has to include people Carol knows at wherever she was coming from, and that would be a pretty unnerving experience. She might even know that you’d need the Infinity Stones to do that, and if so, maybe by this point she knows she left one with Fury, and he was supposed to keep it safe, so...lots of reasons for her to be anywhere from alarmed to pissed to just moving with a whole lot of urgency.

I think she's concern and perhaps pissed off. I wonder if wherever she's been, half of life has also vanished and wonders what happened?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

According to what the Marvel people confirmed, half of all life in all the universe vanished everywhere - so by definition, that’s half of everyone that’s living wherever Carol is.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I've seen every MCU film at least once -- including everything since The Avengers in a theater -- but unlike some people here, I don't automatically purchase every single one. I currently own the following on physical disc:

1) The Avengers
2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3) Guardians of the Galaxy
4) Captain America: Civil War
5) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
6) Spider-Man: Homecoming
7) Black Panther
8) Avengers: Infinity War

So these are the ones I am the most familiar with from having done repeat viewings with my discs.

So I couldn't begin to rank all of them because there are some that I haven't seen in years, particularly the pre-Avengers Phase 1 films which I've only seen once each. I'd very much like to expand my MCU collection to include more of the back catalog titles, but they're so overpriced. When I was in Target a few weeks ago buying Ralph Breaks the Internet, I wandered by an aisle where they had several of the older MCU titles next to each other. They were $24.99 each for single-disc editions with their usual smattering of bonus content. Disney's refusal to allow their top-tier product to undergo normal price reductions once it ages is keeping me from buying a lot of these that I would buy if they were less of an investment to do so. It's like if you don't buy them on the first week of their release -- which I often do but can't always -- good luck ever finding them for a decent price again.

That being said, in terms of ranking the films, I would put the two Guardians films at the very top in terms of my favorites. I'm not sure what it is, but something about those really connected with me. I also like that James Gunn is building a true trilogy where each film leads into the next one and builds upon themes and ideas previously presented; for all the talk about the MCU being connected, the Iron Man and Thor trilogies in particular, for example, feel disconnected, like each one of them is a separate adventure with that character but they don't really seem to have very much to do with each other. I'm glad that Gunn is making something with more of a through-line for these characters, and that's why I was especially distressed when he was temporarily removed from the third film. I'm glad he's going to be able to finish what he started.

But really, all of the films that I own -- and several of them that I don't -- are terrific. Although they're not totally perfect in this regard, the quality control has been remarkably good considering the variety of different people working on these movies. So ranking them would be hard. But for me, the Guardians are top of the pack.

 

[Robert Crawford]

According to what the Marvel people confirmed, half of all life in all the universe vanished everywhere - so by definition, that’s half of everyone that’s living wherever Carol is.

Then she should be concern and pissed.

 

[Sam Favate]

I had a passing thought about Captain Marvel: If, as Kevin Feige says, she's the most powerful person in the Marvel Universe, how is that so? Her power derives from one infinity stone (which was in the Tesseract), while Thanos' power comes from all six infinity stones. So, of course, she's a tremendous asset against him, but more powerful?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

We've seen, through the example of Wanda/Scarlet Witch, that people who derive their powers from an encounter/infusion with an Infinity Stone, have great power. Thanos is able to wield the stones, but none of that power is inherent to him; take them away from him, and he has no power (other than being a big strong dude).

So I think technically that statement could be correct. Captain Marvel is the most powerful *person*, but Thanos has the most powerful *weapon*.

 

[TonyD]

Yep the power is infused into Captain Marvel. She is the power.