Welcome dear friends, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is widely regarded as one of the best comic book film franchise around. And it is great. Today I'm going to take a look at all of the films they've released so far and attempt to nail down everything I found good and bad about each one. I'm also going to rank them from their worst film to their best. And in the end take a look at where they seem to be going. Thanks for reading!
Iron Man 2
Lapping up crumbs at the bottom of the list is the 2010 superhero sequel called Iron Man 2. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Gwenyth Paltrow and Sam Rockwell. Well yeah, what else would you expect? I mean this is the obvious shoe-in for the worst Marvel Studio movie so far. That's for good reason too. I mean how can Favreau get it so right with the first Iron Man movie and then turn around and get it so wrong with the sequel. I'm sure there are a few good things about it but as a whole it's a bad film and could be argued to be mediocrity but nothing more. I think I'd rather start with all the bad, and then move on to the good. For one thing the film suffered from high expectations as the first was brilliant. But even so it failed in many areas including the villains. Both Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell do their best in their roles but they are not written well, in fact it feels like they are barely even in the movie.
That's my main problem with Marvel Studios, and I'm not trying to start anything but they just don't put ANY effort into making good villains unless it's Loki. I mean outside of Loki, and to a much lesser extent Obadiah Stane, all of their villains suck. Regardless, at the start of the film Whiplash is GREAT, but after the Monaco scene you barely even see the guy until he gets beat down in 10 seconds at the end. Mickey Rourke pus off a great performance and an even better accent, but he still couldn't save the character. Sam Rockwell delivers a fun and entertaining performance as Justin Hammer but he's still written poorly and is uninteresting overall. The villains in the film are pretty lackluster and I'm not even going to get into how far off from the comics they are.
Moving on, the pacing of the film is really off. In the beginning it feels like everything is going steady and the plot is moving at a good pace. But as aforementioned the movie drops off after Monaco. After the race track scene the movie gets lazy and it feels like nothing happens until the final twenty minutes or so. I mean literally like the film loses all the momentum it had going. This is due to studio interference, instead of letting Favreau make his funner version of The Dark Knight. Feige decided to step in and shoe horn SHIELD, Black Widow and Avengers Initiative into the story line. This muddles up the plot, and overcrowds the story and pretty much screws up what Favreau was trying to accomplish. There is also the fact that Tony Stark pretty much repeats the same character arc from the first film, he gets cocky, he acts irresponsibly, people are put in harms way because of him, he "changes". It's really just poor storytelling.
Now, that all of the bad is out of the way I can address what I liked about the film. I like some of the action, although it feels like it's all been cut short. The Black Widow fighting scene was awesome, the Monaco scene was great but too short, the final fight again was great but still felt too short. I feel like the actors tried to make diamonds out of mud and they really did do a commendable job with what they were given. The first quarter of the film is excellence, the rest...meh. I think it originally started out great but it was lost for the supposedly "greater good" of advertising and expanding the universe. I admit it's not nearly as bad as a lot of other CBMs out there, but even though I'm a real sucker for the action in Iron Man 2. It's still merely a tolerable flick at best...
Rating: 5.5/10
Thor: The Dark World
Coming in at the next to last spot on the list is the 2013 superhero sequel called Thor: The Dark World. Directed by Alan Taylor and starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman and Chris Eccleston. Well, well, well just like Iron Man 2 Marvel Studios seems unable to produce a sequel as good as the original. (Although that looks to change in a few days) Thor: The Dark World isn't completely horrible, but as a whole it's just forgettable...just like Iron Man 2. There is just nothing about it that gives me a desire to watch it again. For one thing, I feel like it just didn't do anything to make Thor interesting. The first movie did a good job of making him an interesting character, but not in this film at all. I get that this was supposed to be another character piece, but you still don't feel like you get to know the guy any better than you already did. He's kinda just there, he exists, physically.
As with Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World suffers from a weak villain. Again Chris Eccleston is a great actor, but it feels like he's barely even in the film at all. I remember in the trailer he seemed like he would be so cool, but in the end he is added to the list of crappy MCU villains and wasted opportunities. Such a shame. You know that when the sidekick (all he does is grunt and smash stuff) is more interesting than the main villain you've got a problem. In fact Kurse, aside from Loki, is probably the best thing about this movie. I loved the action scene where Kurse and Thor battle and in the end Loki saves the day with a grenade. Didn't make any sense but I still liked it and thought it was really cool.
Another thing I think this film suffered from is straight up poor storytelling. I mean the plot makes no sense, WHY, WHY in Odin's name does the darkness machine only work when the planets align!! Also, WHY does Malekith have any reason or desire to cover Earth or the universe in darkness?? I mean I thought it was due to his quest for revenge, so why wouldn't he just attack Asgard? Or plunge Asgard into darkness?? The Aether is odd, and why did it choose to possess Jane Foster?? So many unanswered questions make this story a hell of a job to actually follow. I normally don't complain about plot holes but in this case, I find it hard to follow and actually comprehend whatever the hell is going on and why it's happening. The story itself is one of the weakest points of this film and it is the main reason why it's not all that great.
Moving on, I feel like I've trashed this one enough. It does have it's redeeming qualities, though not enough to make the movie great. I really loved Loki, in fact I think character wise the film was better for Loki than it was for Thor. I found it interesting his supposed progression from villain to hero to villain again. Loki was arguably the most interesting thing about Thor: The Dark World and one of it's greatest redeeming qualities. Action is another big one that kept this from being a true dud, I love the battle against Kurse. Just like I said before it was truly awesome. The final climax fight was a lot of fun as well. I also enjoyed how the film focused heavily on the relationships between characters. How their actions directly and indirectly affect one another, seeing it go down was pretty good. As a whole Thor: The Dark World isn't great, and it isn't going to change your life or leave you speechless. It has it's issues, and a lot of them at that. Humor is generally unfunny and cringeworthy in most places. Overall it's an enjoyable flick but it's still mediocre at best.
Rating: 6/10
Iron Man 3
Coming up at third worst on the list is the 2013 superhero sequel titled Iron Man 3. Directed by Shane Black, and starring everyone's favorite Robert Downey Jr along with Gwenyth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau and Don Cheadle. Frankly, one of the problems facing Iron Man 3 was the fact that it had a lot to live up to coming right off the tail end of The Avengers. But don't get the idea that I'm going to use that as an excuse for all of it's problems. Again, just like the last two it's not horrible or unwatchable just not memorable. Iron Man 3 suffers from what I like to call "Iron Repeat Syndrome." As I have named it....basically it means that in every film featuring Iron Man to date he repeats the exact same character arc he did in the first movie. Think about it, Iron Man 1, he is irresponsible and a jerk, people are put in harms way because of him, he decides to man up and change his ways. Iron Man 2, he gets cocky and starts acting like an irresponsible jerk again, people are put in harms way and he decides to grow up and change himself. The Avengers, he's irresponsible and acts like a jerk to Cap in the helicarrier, until the end he decides to "mature" and do the right thing. Iron Man 3, guess what?? Tony acts irresponsibly, people are put in harms way, in the end he matures and changes his ways. Good god put a {frick}ing end to it already....
Anyhow, Iron Man repeating the same arc he did in the last three movies is poor storytelling in a nutshell. But aside from that I think the plot itself is actually well written in most of it. It was interesting due to various twists and plot points. Personally, I think the story was great until the third act. The first act story wise is particularly awesome. Tony is still suffering from PTSD due to his experience in The Avengers, and he's grown paranoid and feels some inner urge to keep building more suits. Meanwhile a terrorist known as The Mandarin has been terrorizing (hehe, who woulda guessed?) the United States with the anti-America, anti-West vendetta. In one of his attacks, Tony's close friend Happy Hogan is nearly fatally injured in an explosion. Meanwhile, Pepper is being frequented by a demon from the past who makes himself known as Aldrich Killian. Tony decides to take up the search for The Mandarin and even challenges him to a fight. At which Tony's house is destroyed. The plot for the first half of the film is actually pretty good.
But other issues such as a horribly mediocre and redundant villain still plague this movie. Aldrich Killian is yet another failed attempt at bringing a great villain to the scene. I honestly felt like Killian was another repeat villain. He's just another tech rival like every single other Iron Man movie villain. Now before anyone gets all upset with me, let me say that I don't care about Mandarin from the comics, in fact I kinda hate the guy. But I really enjoyed the performance by Sir Ben Kingsley and the direction he seemed to be taking the character before the big twist. I really liked the idealist, anti-Western terrorist route the character was going. It was going to be something different, something interesting, something thought provoking. At least that's how it seemed to me at the time. I thought that all of the Mandarin broadcast scenes were easily the best parts of the film, because of many things. One being the pure mystery you feel from watching this guy, another being the truly excellent dialogue, but most importantly it's the performance from Sir Ben Kingsley that's makes those scenes so great. It really hurts that much more when you learn that all of great scenes are leading up to one thing: Another....JOKE.
That's the final area where this film utterly fails. In Iron Man 1 & 2, there was a lot of jokes and funny moments. But what the studio ultimately fails to realize is that this is because they hired witty actors, not by writing stupid dialogue and inserting cringe worthily bad jokes at every corner....overall Iron Man 3, like it's predecessor is a major disappointment. It has some great scenes, but as a film is not great, or even close to it. It has a sorry rehash of old crappy villains, it suffers from too many unfunny supposed to be funny but not moments. It does have a few good action pieces, those along with Ben Kingsley's performance are really the only reason I would put this above Thor 2 or Iron Man 2. They are also the only things that give me any desire to watch the film again.
Rating: 6.5/10
Thor
Coming in at fifth best on the list is the 2011 superhero fantasy called Thor. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman. Thor is a good film, but not without great fault. Even so it is significantly better then the last three installments on this list. Thor's cons include a poorly written romance, that features almost no chemistry between the two actors. It's not like either of them do a poor job in the context but they have zero chemistry on set and their love story is written very poorly if you ask me. In truth it makes little sense that she would stick so close to him, and stand up so much for him when she barely knows him. Or that Thor would give his life for these people when he barely knows or cares about them. Even so, it doesn't matter all that much because Thor's human relationships work well as a plot device but not so much as a tool for creating drama.
Another con for this film is the cheesiness of most of the characters. Now generally I'm a fan of camp, ham and cheese in my comic book movies. But it really doesn't work all that well in Thor. Like that moment when the warriors three come marching into the town in New Mexico. Good god, I had to turn my eyes away I just couldn't take it. Almost as bad as emo Spidey's dancing scenes...anyhow there are many positives to Thor and they do slightly outweigh the negatives. CGI for one thing is excellent for the most part. I really loved the sets and frankly the CGI world of Asgard is truly breathtaking as is Jotunheim. Action is sadly underwhelming outside of a bit where Thor, Loki, Sif and the warriors three take on an army of Frost Giants. That scene was awesome! Performances are excellent all around and there is a real breakout star in Tom Hiddleston's character Loki. Loki has turned out to be Marvel Studios' only truly good villain to date. Because he is written very well, and is a very interesting character if not a little overly fond of the soap opera.
Chris Hemsworth is another example of near perfect casting, I mean sure he's only like half the size of the comic book Thor but he does the acting quite well. Anthony Hopkins makes for a great father figure in this flick. Natalie Portman is obviously the weakest link in this film, she's not terrible by any means she's just OK. I didn't like that she was a scientist instead of a paramedic, but hey stuff happens. It's not that big of a deal. Overall, Thor suffers from some really poor writing as far as the romance goes, and basically it has scenes that are way too hammy for my tastes, the action is also very underwhelming. But the main story is very good, the villain was interesting and not dull like every other MCU villain and the acting was phenomenal. As a whole it's not a must see by any means, I'd describe it as a passable but enjoyable flick. Maybe if I was more of a Thor fan personally, I'd enjoy it more.
Rating: 7/10
Captain America: The First Avenger
Coming in at fourth best is the 2011 superhero origin film called Captain America: The First Avenger. Directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Sebastian Stan and Haylee Atwell. Now we can start separating the wheat from the chaff. What I mean by that is, that this is the first turning point of the list. Everything up to this point has been nothing but mediocre, but this where mediocrity is thrown away in exchange for goodness. (Not greatness, YET!) Anyhow, I have had a weird love and hate relationship with Captain America: The First Avenger. When I originally saw the film I thought it was like one of the best comic book films I had ever seen. But upon further viewing, I recognized it was not perfect as I had thought and I realized how many problems it had. I grew distasteful towards the film and hated it for a long time until in recent days, I realize that it's not perfect as I once thought. Though it is not terrible as I once thought. I can sit down, watch and enjoy the film from beginning to end without feeling any need to leave or turn it off.
One of the film's greatest flaws is the weak villain. Hugo Weaving is great in the role and he really does give a great performance, but he is seriously underutilized. This is coming from a fan of Captain America and his villains, I really do not like this portrayal of the Red Skull at all. He seems so...weak, he doesn't do anything all that threatening. In the comics he is evil incarnate, he is like the face of everything evil and nasty in the world. Like the Joker is to DC. This portrayal I thought was OK, but nothing like his inspiration. Even so the story and plot makes sense and even though it's nothing special it works for what it was trying to accomplish. I liked it, Skull's development of being a man who wants to be a god is interesting but untrue to the source. So yeah, I LIKE the character I just wish he had some sort of resemblance to the original outside of costume design. The casting of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is a great one, and even though he might seem a bit too Boy Scout-ish at times I think that's what they were going for and what Captain America is supposed to be.
The romance featured in this film is another high point for me personally. I felt like the two really connected on screen in a way few others in CBMs have. It's a real shame that it's now impossible for them to meet up again in the films. The action is also quite good if you ask me, while there is no particular standout scenes all of them are good in their own way and it's just a fan it's joy to see Cap riding around on his bike kicking the crap outta Nazis. A real treat...I don't like the ending of the film though. I felt that it was odd that in the middle of the fight Skull randomly decides to disintegrate himself. Also Steve had complete control of the plane, why couldn't he just wait and land it safely in a field somewhere?? Or turn it around and land it back in Germany?? They gave zero explanation WHY he had to put it in the water. Overall though, Captain America: The First Avengers suffers from a wasted opportunity at making a great villain, there's also a huge plot hole at the end. But even with the flaws the inner message still remains, that no matter what changes you go through, no matter the experiences you go through, you have got to hold on to the hero inside....throw in bad ass action, great performances, and a decent story and Captain America: The First Avenger is a great watch for any one whose a fan of the character.
Rating: 8/10
The Incredible Hulk
Coming in at third best is the 2008 superhero reboot called The Incredible Hulk. Directed by Louis Leterrier, and starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt. The Incredible Hulk, in my opinion is one of the most criminally underrated superhero films out there. I mean, even if I did like Ang Lee's HULK much better this movie is still a great watch especially for a huge Hulk fan like myself. The Incredible Hulk is an excellent film in every way except for one. One little problem that plagues this movie, and keeps many people from giving it it's due. That little problem is called special effects. The CGI in The Incredible Hulk gets really spotty in some places. It turns some fans off to the movie because it begins to look and feel like a video game at some point. But even so, even with the weird CGI it still manages to have some truly epic action pieces and those alone are enough for me to love this film. What's great is that there is actually much more to this movie than meets the eye. Edward Norton's character Bruce Banner, has been running and hiding and trying to find a way to rid himself of his Hulk condition. He has tried every kind of drug, or suppressant he can find. But he can't seem to shake the Hulk condition.
He is attacked in South America by Ross, Blonsky and the United States Military. He manages to escape back to the states to keep trying to find a way to become normal again. In the process he meets his old flame Betty Ross, who rekindles a sense of meaning and love within him. When he is attacked again here in the states he devotes his abilities fully to protecting Betty. This is where in my opinion he begins taking control of his anger and begins using it for good purposes. The story is a beautiful beauty and the beast styled love story and it really is interesting. The villain on the other hand though, is pretty underwhelming. He's alright, just not all that good. But acting is great from everyone here. Norton is the definitive Bruce Banner, Liv Tyler is hot and great in the role, William Hurt is good, Tim Roth is awesome. Add to all of this spectacular action sequences and it's a great watch for any Hulk fan.
Overall The Incredible Hulk is a great movie, one of Marvel Studios' best films yet. It suffers from a bland villain and poor special effects but it makes up for those with the dark time, the story and the great action. Edward Norton is the best Bruce Banner, yeah sorry Ruffalo fans. As a whole The Incredible Hulk is a flawed film yet still a worthwhile watch.
Rating: 8/10
The Avengers
Coming in at second best of all time is the 2012 superhero film called The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon and starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlet Johanssen, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Hiddleston. Well, I've been pretty outspoken about how much I feel this film has been overrated by fanboys. So you might ask "Why, if you feel it is so overrated. Do you rate it so highly?" Well, just because I think it is overrated doesn't mean I didn't love it. It means I don't think it's the best of all time like all of the Marvel fanboys do...I really did love it but I don't pretend it is without fault as many do. The foremost fault of the film is the lack of story line. I mean it has almost no story whatsoever...and what it does have is mediocre at best, but poorly written in most parts. Too many convenient plot contrivances. Like for instance the Hulk suddenly being able to control his rage even though like half a day before it ran uncontrollably. Or how Doc Selvig conveniently placed a kill switch in the scepter. Or how all of the aliens conveniently die Phantom Menace style without any explanation why this happened. But of course, all this is overlooked because fanboys loved the action.
And I did too, the action is easily the best thing about this movie. Joss Whedon really did pull through for the fans on this one. Black Widow taking on the Russian thugs is one of my favorites, as is the fights between Hulk/Thor and Black Widow/Hawkeye on the Helicarrier. The forest fight was really cool, as was seeing Captain America take on Loki by himself. But the film's greatest scenes, the best action in the film and the greatest action scene in any comic book movie is that moment when Hulk transforms and punches the space eel in the face. Then they circle up as a team for the first time with the music blaring, oh god it was so wonderful. The final action piece is nothing but a fan boy's wet dream. Seeing the Hulk punch a space alien in the face, seeing Hulk tear Loki a new one, seeing Iron Man's blasts reflecting off of Captain America's shield and cutting through aliens. Just the whole thing was a dream for any fan of comic book superheroes.
The actors are to be commended as well. The weakest link is obviously Jeremy Renner as he is wooden through out the whole movie. As for Robert Downey Jr, he did fine but I personally was just getting tired of Iron Man. Chris Evans plays a great Captain America but I HATE HATE HATE the costume change. He looks so dumb in it, he looks like a plastic toy I cannot stand the look. Scarlet Johanssen is also quite great and I loved her in this movie. But the three stars who really brought life to this movie were Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Mark Ruffalo may not be as good of a Banner as Ed Norton or even Eric Bane. But facts are he's a better Hulk than both of them. His Hulk was pretty much the saving grace of this movie. In fact if this movie didn't have his Hulk in it I'd probably call it close to crap. Tom Hiddleston was great in the first Thor but in my view he's even better here. Chris Hemsworth is as awesome as he was before and delivers a great performance along with great action.
Overall, I truly loved The Avengers. I find it overrated because I admit that it's not flawless in the way people pretend it is. I recognize everything wrong about it but I can still sit back and enjoy this damn good movie for what it is.
Rating: 9/10
Iron Man
Ahhhh....first place going out to the best of the best. The 2008 superhero origin film called Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwenyth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges. Iron Man is the first and still by FAR the best film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man is such an excellent film on so many levels. One such area is the area of casting, whoever chose to cast Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark should be awarded a medal. Terrence Howard is MUCH better than Don Cheadle and it's a shame we never got to see Terrence don the armor. Jeff Bridges brings an otherwise uninteresting character to life in a grand way, he is honestly the only good villain in the series besides Loki. The beautiful, sexy Gwenyth Paltrow brings a female presence to help balance out this testosterone party.
The story is also nothing to scoff at, the best story telling so far in the entire series. Because the plot is so well written, Tony is an irresponsible jerk. But he's also a technological genius. He builds an uber powerful missile called Jericho. But when he is fatally wounded and kidnapped he realizes the error of his ways. At the end of the day he decides to change who he is, and not to waste his life. (At least until Iron Man 2) Obadiah Stane's involvement in the plot is great, it was a great way to intertwine the two and give Stane a real reason to be opposing Tony Stark. The final act where Stane paralyzes Tony and steals his reactor was dark, and straight up mean. Then when he builds his own stronger version of Iron Man is awesome too.
Which leads me to my next point, the action. While it may not be technically as good as its successors, it still remains my favorite. The scene where Tony first suits up in Mark I and escapes the prison is freaking epic, the scene where he suits up in the classic red and gold and takes on the Ten Rings terrorists is a classic. The final battle against Obadiah Stane in the Iron Monger Mech is excellent and one of the best. The flight scenes around are good too.
As a whole, Iron Man is easily and by far the best Marvel Cinematic Universe film to date. And one of the best comic book movies of all time. In fact I'd say Iron Man is the only MCU film that holds up as a great movie outside the universe and outside the genre. And that's for good reason, and to be frank it's the only one that finds its way into my personal top 10 comic books movies.
Rating: 9.5/10
So basically, at the end of the day. I'd say I like around half of them. Iron Man 2 & 3 and Thor 1 & 2 are watchable but mediocre at best. But I can watch Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man or The Avengers at any time and be perfectly satisfied. As for the future, Captain America 2 is LITERALLY right around the corner and so far it looks awesome. Guardians of the Galaxy I never cared about and the trailer was pretty bad, but I'll still watch and if I like I'll say so. But beyond that after Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. I feel like they might start going too fast for their own good. I understand they want to milk everything that they can but the faster they churn out movies the faster they are going to wear out the genre. Anyhow, thanks for reading and express your opinions in the comments! Please, be civil!