Friday, October 17, 2014

Marvel Movie Line-Up

Marvel Movie Line-Up

Assembling the films of Phase One and Two in preparation for a new Age

As we close in on the end of Phase Two of Marvel's Cinematic Universe, and I fell completely short of my planned reviews of each of the Phase Two films (in fact, I think the only film I actually wrote a full review of from the MCU was the original Thor, simply because it surprised me with its quality). So, in an effort to give some sort of recap, now that we've seen everything leading up to Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, I'll grant you an overall round-up of the MCU, arranged in the order that I enjoyed them, from least to most.

Please note that this does not mean that the film listed first is the one I hated. Far from it, all of these films I found incredibly entertaining in their own degree. Those who know me well know that I often judge a film by how well it accomplished what it set out to accomplish first and foremost, since that is the culmination of the visions of the writer, the director, and the actors, not to mention everyone else involved.

Thor (2011)


Total Gross: $181,015,141 (USA)

The fourth film of Marvel's Phase One releases (after Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2), Thor was Marvel's first real risky foray into film. Iron Man struck gold, and was much more approachable for movie-going audiences, and Hulk was a character that at least the general public was well aware of, so both had some sort of foundation to build off of. Thor, however, is an outlandish character that already exists in an outlandish universe. His very presence brings the Marvel universe to strange new levels, involving dragons, elves, and other aspects more readily attributed to high fantasy than the science-fiction/action genre Marvel had been inhabiting thus far.

And they did everything they needed to and more. Thor (2011) was much more enjoyable than I originally expected. I never got into the character via the comics, and so I had very little investment in this film other than the fact that it was another thread holding the MCU together. This one also tends to be one of the favorites by those who came into the greater Marvel mythos with very little prior experience, at least as far as I've seen. Bringing a character to screen and pleasing both the hardcore fans, the new audience, and the semi-fans, was a very difficult task to undertake, and Marvel Studios did it and then some.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)


Total Gross: $206,360,018 (USA)

Following Iron Man 3 in our post-Avengers MCU, Thor: The Dark World followed much in the same vein, for me, as it's character's previous film. With a darker tone and more of an emphasis on battling a much more powerful foe, this film drops character development in favor of action, action and more action (much to my delight). In seeing this film, I even whispered to my girlfriend in the theater that The Dark World "had better starship battles than the entire new Star Wars trilogy combined". And I meant it. Malekith was a cool, if fairly flat, villain, and the fights were heavy but not crazy. All in all it was a good step to see for Thor as a character, and it leaves some interesting questions for Thor 3, however I'm not exactly on the edge of my seat to see those questions answered.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)


Total Gross: $134,518,390 (USA)

Sort of the MCU's silent step-brother, The Incredible Hulk is easily forgotten for a number of reasons. While considered a success at the box office, it didn't hit nearly as big as the other Marvel films, and the lead actor was replaced for the character's reappearance in The Avengers. Even now, for a lot of people, if you say 'The Hulk movie', many still think you're talking about Hulk (2003) with Eric Bana (an even more forgettable film that had some decent moments but, overall, brought nothing to the table).

This film, however, I still greatly enjoyed. I liked the action, which was darker, heavier, and had more tension to it than that of the original Thor. For as little as I cared about the Hulk as a character, seeing him use two halves of a police squad-car as boxing gloves will always stick with me. Conversely, seeing the antagonist's descent as the film went on was a journey that resonated with me, and is a story-arc that I loved watching far more than the seemingly sudden turn of the villain from Iron Man, or the conniving trickster of the villain from Thor.

Iron Man (2008)


Total Gross: $318,298,180 (USA)

The one that started it all, I, like many others, felt the burn of Iron Man's thrusters immediately. The casting was near perfect, as Robert Downey Jr. brought star power, class and acting chops to the table, and even though he played Tony Stark far differently than the one I knew from the comics (who was more suave, high-society, smooth-as-silk and less a smarmy chatterbox), the character was endearing, one that audiences around the world just wanted to share a drink with.

There is little I need to say about this, other than maybe justification for why it sits so low on the list. Iron Man, when it comes down to it, is an origin story. While my love for Jeff Bridges on the big screen is no secret, and heavy, industrial action, with turning gears and flashing lights, is a strong holdover from the 90's action films of my youth, Iron Man still has to go through the paces of following the origin archetype. And, in all honesty, it is a boring archetype, yet this film, and most of those in the MCU, did wonderful jobs of taking that boring story arc and turning it into something spell-binding (something that Marc Webb could have tried harder at with The Amazing Spider-Man, but that's a topic for another post).

Iron Man 2 (2010)


Total Gross: $312,057,433 (USA)

Not much needs to be said of this one. I still feel this is the unsung hero of Phase One. While The Incredible Hulk was far less successful, Thor was breaking new ground in the blending of science-fiction and fantasy, and Captain America: The First Avenger was trying to remind us what good, old fashioned patriotism felt like, Iron Man 2 proved a much more important point to the longevity of the MCU. It proved that Marvel Studios could crank out a sequel to a smash hit and still know how to tell a story. A lesson they would need to keep in mind as they progressed into Phase Two and beyond.

Iron Man 2 saw an increase in action from the first, as well as Sam Rockwell stepping in to play the counterpart to RDJ. Rockwell will always shine like gold to me on-screen, and I think he's one of those actors that everyone enjoys even if they don't know his name. Whiplash was fun, but not a very interesting character to watch, and War Machine came into his own, with the three heavy metal suits trading shots in the very end that had me squealing for joy.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)


Total Gross: $176,636,816 (USA)

For the longest time, this film was at the top of my list out of all of the MCU. It combined two of my favorite genres - war movies and superhero movies - and it gave us something that we so desperately needed: A hero who was good for good's sake. Whenever anybody asks me what I think of the new Superman movies, I just point to the MCU version of Captain America and say "I wish he were more like that".

Chris Evans was perfect for the role, Hugo Weaving played a frightening Red Skull that still sends shivers down my spine, they laid the groundwork for Bucky in later films, and even the Howling Commandos got their moment to shine. Yet the American public didn't gravitate towards this movie like I did, as the box office numbers were some of the lowest we'd seen from the MCU. This film did the impossible - it brought forth a version of Steve Rogers that was genuine and just without seeming cheesy or campy. This film could've easily fallen apart at the seams, and it would've spelled the doom of the MCU right then and there. But it didn't.

The Avengers (2012)


Total Gross: $623,279,547 (USA)

The big one, the record-breaker, the bar-setter, and the one that sent DC and Warner Brothers scrambling to produce something, ANYTHING, that could compare, The Avengers takes all that was great about the previous films and presents it in nice, tight little package. And it's even under three hours long! Years ago, if you had asked me if they could make a film like this in less than 180 minutes, I would've called you a liar. But it hit the sweet spot in length, we got all the characters we wanted in a conflict that, while pretty cut-and-dry, still showed us that the minds at Marvel Studios knew how to write, direct and produce a film with an ensemble cast.

And boy do I love an ensemble cast. Some people complain about the build-up in this film, but it's what I watch it for. The action is the exciting release of all of the earlier scenes, and to expect it to move any quicker is unreasonable in my eyes.  After all, a story with so many moving parts needs the proper momentum, and that takes time. But probably its greatest achievement, from a story-telling point of view, is that it made people care about the Hulk again.

Iron Man 3 (2013)


Total Gross:  $408,992,272 (USA)

Yeah. That's right. I loved this one. So many movie-goers rate this one much lower on the Marvel Totem Pole than I do, claiming that they 'wanted to see Tony in the suit more', or 'they didn't like the twist', or 'the PTSD was a stretch'. Well, in all honesty, everything that those people hate about Iron Man 3, I loved.

We already had three films of Iron Man being Iron Man. We need to take another step. What step is that? How about remote Iron Man? We saw the start of that in Iron Man 2 with Hammer Technologies military drones. To not follow that up with Tony controlling suits remotely would've been a major oversight on Marvel's part. As for the PTSD, which many claimed to simply be a new replacement for alcoholism, I shrug it off. It didn't play a huge role in the film, and when it did come up it was handled with care and realism. Going through an otherworldly portal, fighting against thousands of aliens, and falling back to Earth nearly dead is going to have SOME sort of effect on someone, even someone as larger-than-life as Tony Stark.

And as for the twist, well, I thought it was brilliant. I'm sure Ben Kingsly had a lot of fun with it as well, and while I'd love for the Mandarin to exist wholesale in the MCU, I simply don't think there's any room for him. Not yet, anyway.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)


Total Gross:  $326,094,767 (USA)

I know, you're already upset or shocked that this isn't number 1. We all know that there is little for me to say about this film that isn't already being said. It's amazing. It's sheer existence is a blessing to Hollywood, especially in a time when films about grim-dark realism are coming out of the woodwork. How better for Marvel to prove that they know their material than to bring a talking tree, a trigger-happy raccoon, two aliens and the guy from Parks and Recreation to the big screen, and do it SUCCESSFULLY? The fact that Rocket Raccoon made it to the theaters before Wonder Woman (and will probably be much more widely accepted than Wonder Woman, I'd guess) completely shocks me, and just goes to support the fact that DC and Warner Brothers needs to stop floundering around with their IPs and give them the treatment they deserve.

So why is this number 2? Why isn't it number 1? Well, I had a few minor issues with some small plot holes, and Ronin was as forgettable a villain as Malekith from Thor: The Dark World, which was all fine for the film, honestly, it was just incredibly minor nitpicks that I had.

Captain America: The Winder Soldier (2014)


Total Gross:   $259,746,958 (USA)

The mere fact that I need to explain why Captain America: The Winter Soldier is at the top of my list is astonishing, especially given the adequate preface I made with The First Avenger. The Winter Soldier has everything I want in an action movie, a comic book movie, AND a Captain America movie, short of a tyrannosaurus rex. It deals with mind control, old friends-turned-foes-maybe-turned-friends-again, extremely fast and impacting hand-to-hand combat, explosions, car chases, fake deaths, powerful women, electronic suits, cybernetic-mental-preservation, gigantic airships, a scene aboard an oil tanker ripper straight out of Metal Gear, and secret organizations. It spawned a hilarious internet meme (hail Hydra), it was basically The Avengers 1.5, it was tense, it kept the ball rolling from start to finish, it had a wonderful kind-of-Easter-egg about Steve Rogers's notebook, and it once again proved to us that Chris Evans as Captain America is the leader that this ever-growing roster of heroes can rally behind.

Seriously. What more can you ask for?



Other than a tyrannosaurus rex.

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