I'll admit it...when I first saw the teaser trailer to Iron Man, I thought it would be complete and utter shit. I mean, that's one thing these Avengers movies simply cannot do-pull people in with teaser trailers. Its the theatrical ones that change everybody's minds. Iron Man's teaser had my hopes down for the movie, but the theatrical trailer brought them up. Iron Man was a turning point for Marvel movies today. Simply because the previous two years were plagued with 3 duds-X-men 3, Spider-man 3, That one Fantastic Four movie that never happened...so Iron Man really shined some life into Marvel comics being translated onto the big screen and kick started a series of movies that lead up to this year's Avengers. Here I list those movies from Worst to best. Enjoy!
5. Iron Man 2.
Let's face it...this was the weakest Avenger movie. I for one was extremely disappointed with the effort the filmmakers put into this. I guess, you could blame the studios for rushing the director to make this movie and get it out of the way and thats probably why it felt out of place and unnecessary. Truly, all it was was a two hour long preview for 2011's Thor. While Mickey Rourke did a good job portraying the villain, he wasn't in enough for the audience to really connect and feel like the heroes were threatened by him. RDJ was spot on once again, but there were moments in this movie where the direction got in the way of his spotlight. The movie had a slow and boring middle, characters that you didn't care about or forgot, and extremely short action sequences. Wasn't the point of the Iron Man movies to shine light on a billionaire playboy asshole's lifechange into a world saving superhero? Iron Man 2 tries to show you Tony Stark's dark side but it doesn't quite connect with you. Yeah Robert did awesome, just as good as he did in the first film I can say that but when the credits started to role, you felt empty inside. The theatrical trailer for Iron Man 2 made it look like a movie that would be up to par with its predecessor. Sadly, it wasn't. Whats' even worse is that the best thing about this movie really had nothing to do with the actual plot at all and that was the 30 second long clip after the credits. Like I said, all it was was an extended Avengers preview.
My Grade:
C
4. Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America was a pretty good movie. I loved the tone and feel of the atmosphere this film projected. Director Joe Johnston's strengths deal with movies that take place back in the 1940s-1950s. Captain America started out very strong and had even pacing. However, once it got to the middle point, that even pacing dropped off. All the action where we saw Steve kicking whole-sale ass on hydra officers in the trailer was nothing more than a minute long montage in the movie. WTF? I wish they could have spent a little more time on his missions in the film, giving us a better sense that Captain America is a true patriot. Instead all we got was a minute long montage of action clips that we saw in the trailer. While that was disappointing to see, I also wished the filmmakers would have touched more on Bucky's death a little more, had more emotion put into it. Yes, there was emotion and it was a little sad, five minutes later most of the audience didn't care or moved on. Bucky was a pretty big character to the movie and if you are going to kill him off, at least have the other characters react more. Killing off main characters needs to be done effectively and with careful precision. When one of them dies, you're supposed to feel some great emotion towards it, whether its hatred, sadness, or excitement. Bucky's death was supposed to provoke sadness and it did for a short span of time. Joe Johnston isn't the best director for this type of stuff, he likes his movies with old fashioned feel with them, and Captain America had that right spot on. With that aside, the movie's conclusion wasn't as strong as the movie had started out. It was cool to see the defeat of the Red Skull, and I liked how Johnston redeemed himself from lacking emotion in Bucky's death by putting it into Steve's crashing into the ice. He even did a very nice job tying everything off in the end and setting us up for the Avengers. In the end the movie wasn't great, but it had that good ol' fashioned Spielbergian feel to it that made it truly exciting.
My Grade:
B+
3. The Incredible Hulk
I think we can mutally agree that the Ang Lee Hulk was the biggest CBM disappointment. THe previews for it painted an exciting motion picture-I mean, Ang Lee, Eric Bana, come on! What went wrong was that the studio grabbed the wrong people behind the camera for this movie. Ang Lee is a very good director, he's just not the right guy for the Hulk. Certain directors have certain types of film that work well with them. Ang Lee is just not an action/superhero type of guy. And with that, he pumped out a 145 minute boring, dull superhero movie that everyone hated. (except the critics, since I heard a lot of them like his version over the 2008 one) Ang Lee is more of an Arthouse director; he's not cut out for a big green superhero. With that said, The Incredible Hulk was a very good movie. It improved on what Ang Lee's version brought to the big screen. It gave us a plot that didn't bore us, characters that we actually cared about, some good pay off and a decent running time. Director Lois Leterrier isn't better than Ang Lee by any means. Lee is by far the better director. But Leterrier was cut out for the Hulk, and that's why the 2008 version worked. Honestly, I can't say that Edward Nortan was the better Bruce Banner. I felt that Nortan and Bana did an incredible job (no pun intended). Its just that Bana's director didn't have a clue how to really make an action picture and instead gave us 2 hours of a guy with anger problems staring at himself in the mirror. The Incredible Hulk is a sweeping epic, and this time around he's not fighting mutated poodles. I loved the fight between the Hulk and the Abomination. The build up to it was very well done, and it was a thrilling action sequence. The pacing in this film was even throughout, not like Captain America. I prefered the look of this hulk because it wasn't as cheesy looking as the Ang Lee version. Hulk is now grittier, meaner and more badass looking. Overrall, it made audiences forget the Ang Lee version and made them fall in love with Hulk all over again.
My Grade:
A-
2. Thor
Thor was another movie where from the early set pictures and stills I thought it was going to be a huge stinker. But once again the first theatrical trailer changed my mind. This movie has launched Chris Hemsworth's career and now he's lined up for several different titles in Hollywood today. Thor isn't the best superhero movie I've ever seen, but its still a very memorable one. I gotta say though, that as the movie played out, the plot was somewhat predictable. I knew from the get go that Thor was gonna do something stupid, get banished, Loki, the jealous one was gonna attempt to take the thrown, Thor would redeem himself, get the girl, go back and fight loki. When ya say it like that, Thor doesn't sound like a good movie, don't it? But Kenneth Branagh does a fantastic job of adding humor, as well as some down right awesome action scenes. I do, however, wish that the fight between Thor and the Destroyer would've been a tad bit longer. But by no means was it as brief as the duel between Iron Man and whiplash in Iron man 2. Chris Hemsworth pulled it off. He really did. Tom Hiddleson stole the show for me in my opinion. He, I felt, was the more interesting character and one of the better CBM Villains to appear on screen since Heath Ledger's joker. All n All, Loki was the best villain out of all the foes last summer that challenged the superheroes. Even though I felt that the Incredible Hulk had a better plot, Thor beat it out simply because it entertained me more passed the story. And for that, I tip my hat off to Branagh for keeping me, as well as audiences the world over, thoroughly entertained.
My Grade:
A
1. Iron Man
Yeah, you probably saw this one coming. 2008's Iron Man was (as I said earlier) a turning point. It revived Robert Dowey Jr's career and now he's a household name. Jon Favearu did a near perfect job with this film. Simply brilliant! This one super hero movie where its crafted so well that you really can't predict what's going on. Watching Iron Man 2 really made me appreciate this one more. The Studio gave Faverau more control with this project and didn't rush him through his work. I really have nothing bad to say about this movie since by the end of the day Iron Man is a groundbreaking, cinematic achievement.
My Grade:
A+
With that all said and off my chest, I am very excited for the new Avengers movie to come out. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be some dumb, downer action movie with no plot and mindless action. In conclusion Iron Man 2 Sucked, Captain America needed some better pacing in the middle but it was still pretty good, The Incredible Hulk made us forget that Ang Lee piece of shit, Thor may have had a weak story to it but it still had much more deliver and Iron Man was great all the way around. While The Avengers is not my most anticipated movie of 2012, I honestly can tell you that there will be a lot to entertain us. That's it for me, but please do tell:
How would you rank the Avengers movies?