A friend recently told me that she had never seen any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) movies. She asked me for the order in which she should watch them, and her eyes widened in horror as I pulled out the blu-rays for each of them, and laid out the order (needing to consult with Wikipedia to confirm the orders). I mean, I don’t hide my geekdom well, but this was on full display.
This raised an interesting question.
Is chronological order the best way to watch these movies?
For instance, I’m a big fan of introducing new viewers to the Star Wars series in the revised, preserve the Vader twist order. When I show my nephew the movies for the first time when he’s old enough, we’re going to do a marathon of Episode IV, V, I, II, III, VI, VII (and VIII and IX might be out by then – he is only 3). Some people suggest skipping I, II, and III altogether because, well, we all know why. But I’m a completist, so there.
Getting back to topic – is chronological order the best way to watch the MCU movies? I think the answer doesn’t have to be yes. That is, you can loosely switch around a few movies within the Phases, but the best way is probably to go chronologically. With that, here’s the list with my ranking and brief review, for what it’s worth.
It’s hard to rank when so many of these movies score a 10/10. That isn’t an accident by Marvel. What’s surprising is how well they pull it off.
PHASE ONE
Iron Man
If Richard Donner’s Superman is the granddaddy of all superhero movies, then Jon Favreau’s Iron Man is the proud patriarch of the next generation forming the Marvel side of the family tree.
Iron Man is frankly fantastic, and while the story and direction deserve a lot of the credit, the vast majority of the credit has gone to Robert Downey Jr. for his spot-on portrayal of Tony Stark. Rightfully so. Iron Man showed the world, really for the first time, that you could take the source material seriously, have true drama and conflict, and yet keep it light and fun in tone. Yes, a movie where the main character builds a virtually indestructible weapon of mass destruction and proceeds to blow up a shitload of what appear to be Taliban fighters is still light and fun. This is without a doubt where to start the movies. Score: 10/10
The Incredible Hulk
Maybe, despite being a great character, the Hulk isn’t meant for a solo movie.
I always loved the Incredible Hulk comics growing up, well, until they did the whole merged-Professor Hulk storyline with the Pantheon. The Ang Lee/Eric Bana Hulk just kind of missed the mark in just about all aspects. Really, the only thing that it got right was the size of the Hulk (which came as a pretty big surprise to people who only knew the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno version). So, I was pretty excited to see how the new one would pan out, given all the pre-movie press with Edward Norton talking about how much respect he had for the character. Even when the movie opened with the chase scenes in Brazil, I thought they might have gotten it right. Even the big fight at the university was a blast, but the end kind of fizzled out. It teased the development of the Leader, but the development of the Abomination and the final fight just didn’t seal the deal like the rest. It just wasn’t fun. Maybe, despite being a great character, the Hulk isn’t meant for a solo movie. Then again, maybe the problem was that Universal made the movie instead of Marvel. However, the post-credits sting in the bar, tying Tony Stark into this movie was the real exciting moment of the movie – the moment when everyone realized the Avengers was really going to happen. Score 7/10.
Iron Man 2
In 2010, after a two year absence from the end credit sting introducing Nick Fury, the MCU came back with Iron Man 2. The excitement for Downey’s return was palpable. Unfortunately, the story was a bit of a jumbled mess. This being Marvel’s first sequel, I think they tried to emulate the old formula from the prior Spider-Man and Batman movies of adding in more villains. It seemed to have started strong, Tony Stark standing up to the late Garry Shandling’s Senator Stern in Congress, showing that irresistible swagger. But the story just got strange with Whiplash and Justin Hammer, and the motivations weren’t entirely clear. The end fight with the Hammer Drones was just confusing. But, by far, the best part of this sequel was the introduction of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, even if the movie didn’t do much to develop her as a character beyond just being a kick ass spy. If the number of Marvel movies is too much to take, this movie can be skipped, and War Machine’s presence in Civil War and Iron Man 3 can be easily explained, as can Black Widow’s. Score 7/10.
Thor
Marvel here did what Marvel does best – tell an age-old story of jealousy and betrayal through the lens of a super hero epic. It just wasn’t an interesting story.
As much as I love Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, this movie missed, a lot. The opening narration was a lazy way of introducing the mythology instead of trusting the viewer to follow the story as it developed. Also, the special effects were good yes, but I did have the feeling that Asgard was too clearly a green screen, much like just about everything in the Star Wars prequels. That being said, Marvel here did what Marvel does best – tell an age-old story of jealousy and betrayal through the lens of a super hero epic. I just don’t know if they need to leave Thor without his powers through most of the movie, and the love story with Jane Foster was pretty undeveloped. Score 6.5/10.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Marvel got its mojo back. Origin stories can tend to be boring and overwrought. As many people have said about Batman, there are only so many times we need to see Thomas and Martha Wayne murdered. We get it. Here, however, Marvel hit a home run showing how scrawny Steve Rogers became the super soldier, and then went on to fight true evil in World War II. The movie established his values, powers, and his intelligence seamlessly. We got a truly outstanding character in Peggy Carter, and the action pieces were perfect. Moreover, the special effects (particularly in making Chris Evans look to be a sickly, short, skinny kid from Brooklyn) were fantastic. Johann Schmidt had clear motivation, power, and he was undisputedly evil. And as great as the movie was, the payoff really hits at the end when Steve Rogers escapes from the SHIELD recovery center after being thawed out and stumbles into Times Square 2011. Even though it seems like a period piece in WWII could be skipped, don’t. This movie absolutely sets the stage for both Winter Soldier and Civil War, and as we all know from Civil War, even more fallout directly attributable to this film is on its way. Score 10/10.
Marvel’s The Avengers
The threat is an organic escalation from the prior films, and each of the Avengers gets an opportunity to shine, while all must work as a team.
Ever since Nick Fury stepped on the scene at the end of Iron Man and dropped the “Avengers Initiative” bombshell, the pieces on the chessboard were all arranged for this movie, and it was amazing. Rather than develop a new threat out of the blue, writer/director Joss Whedon pulled pieces from the bad guy schemes from all the other movies (except for The Incredible Hulk) together for a major threat that would, in fact, pull all of these characters into the major conflict. One part Tesseract from Captain America: The First Avenger; one part Loki’s vengeance from Thor; one part Iron Man‘s arc reactor; and adding in mastery man Thanos pulling the strings equals one incredible movie. Each and every Avenger has the opportunity to shine in this movie, and they truly have to work together to defeat the Chitauri menace. That being said, I was disappointed to see the whole “defeat the big bad and all the little bad soldier drones stop fighting” trope reassert itself. That being said, this film fired on each and every cylinder. Score 10/10.
Phase Two
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 was the first of any of these movies to truly deal with the fallout from the prior adventures. We see a Tony Stark who isn’t the cocksure, aggressive egomaniac from the first two movies. The guy flew a nuclear bomb into space, and he barely made it back, and he’s suffering from some pretty serious PTSD as a result. He’s broken and he’s trying to find his way back. That was pretty interesting. Also, not having read the comics extensively, I wasn’t too upset about the way they handled the Mandarin, unlike much of the internet. I was, however, a little thrown off by how they handled the whole Extremis/Pepper Potts angle – something which it appears they might not be coming back to since it looks like the GOOP isn’t planning on returning. Looking back, though, the way he created all the autonomous drones powered by JARVIS really is sewing the seeds for things to come. Score 8/10.
Thor: The Dark World
I’ve watched this movie a few times, but I’m still not entirely sure what happened. I know it involved one of the Infinity Stones, but I’m still really not entirely clear on the motivations. The best part about this movie is how it captured the comics routine of how Loki and Thor could be enemies one minute and allies the next. Maybe I’ll watch it again and try and piece together what is really going on, but I don’t know if it would help.
Score 5/10.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
A political thriller told through the lens of a comic book movie.
Once again, Marvel put out a movie that fired on all cylinders. Just like Iron Man and Thor, dealing with the fallout from the Avengers, Cap is trying to find his place in the world. A man without friends or family, Cap works with SHIELD, taking down threats to the free world. That is, until he learns that SHIELD is the threat to the free world. It remains unclear to me how Fury wouldn’t have known about all this, but be that as it may, I loved how this movie takes Cap from Hero to Hunted, having to hide in plain sight with Romanoff, all the while rejecting the movie trope of having a romance interest bloom between the two. The action pieces are phenomenal, and you can feel Steve’s confusion, dread, and pain when he sees who the Winter Soldier is. Once again, looking in retrospect one can see how this movie is sewing the seeds for the later conflict. Indeed, the true miracle of the MCU is how all these movies work together, setting up their own sequels, the Avengers movies, and how small threads turn out to be major later. Score 10/10.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Part A-Team, part Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy builds a complex, entertaining, and fascinating world without wasting a moment on overwrought exposition. Just like in Avengers, each character gets an opportunity to shine, including Rocket’s escapades during the jail break, Drax’s betrayal, and, well, every scene featuring Peter Quill. This movie really spells it out for the audience what an Infinity Stone is, and why Thanos wants to gather them all, and thus, now we understand the real threat underlying all the Earthbound/Asgardian stories leading up to this. We all know that the Guardians will eventually meet up with the Avengers, we just don’t know when. But, whatever happens, we know there will be some wise-cracking, head-butting between Quill and Stark, even as it looks like the entire universe will come to an end. Score 10/10.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Although this film was written and directed by Joss Whedon, just as the first Avengers, following all of his talk in the press about how he was done with Marvel after this movie, I think it’s easy to see that his heart wasn’t exactly in this movie. It opens with the Avengers raiding a Hydra base to get Loki’s scepter back – which somehow they let slip after the first Avengers film. Given the events of the other Phase 2 movies, it is entirely unclear what circumstances warrant bringing the Avengers together. That aside, it’s really fascinating to me how this movie picks up on the thread from Iron Man 3 that Tony Stark can’t really deal with what happened after the first Avengers, and so he and Banner (why Banner?) are working on creating Ultron as a means to protect the earth. I suppose it is the natural progression of all the JARVIS drones. The twins were great introductions, even if licensing issues meant they had to get their powers from the Infinity Stone in Loki’s scepter. We get more of Romanoff’s back story, but the movie lacked some of the fun from the first film. The Hulk vs. Hulkbuster armor was a lot of fun, but the interesting concept is how the conflict between Stark and Cap is slowly boiling – something that will be explored in violent detail in Civil War. Score 8/10.
Ant-Man
Probably the only movie to really recreate the magic of the first Iron Man.
I remember being a kid when Tim Burton’s Batman was announced, and people being really unsure whether Michael Keaton – that zany guy from Mr. Mom and Night Shift could pull off Batman, only to see upon the film’s release that he nailed it. It felt the same way when Paul Rudd was announced as starring in this film, only to be stunned by how perfect he was in the role. This movie had the perfect intersection of action and humor. The pacing was perfect, and the explanation of the Quantum State is likely going to lead to some more interesting interplay in the future (and I’m guessing is going to be a major factor in the Infinity War). This is probably the only movie to restore the sense of fun, adventure, action, and excitement of the first Iron Man. Score 10/10.
PHASE 3
Captain America: Civil War
Where do we go from here?
Captain America: Civil War kicks off Marvel’s Phase 3 – where everything goes to shit. Robert Downey Jr. has described Civil War as Iron Man 4 in his mind, which makes sense. Yet, it’s ostensibly a Captain America sequel too, which it totally is. Whereas the two Avengers films had the conflict between Stark and Cap heating up, this film it really boils over into all out battle. As I mentioned in my straight review of this film, it has its issues, but it definitely holds the audience’s attention. As fun as this movie was on its own, the interesting question is what happens next? Where do we go from here? Score 9/10
The Ranking
As mentioned above, it’s hard to rank these movies, as so many of them are 10/10. But dammit, I decided to make this a list. And so, here goes:
- Marvel’s The Avengers (10/10)
- Iron Man (10/10)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (10/10)
- Ant-Man (10/10)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (10/10)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (10/10)
- Captain America: Civil War (9/10)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (8/10)
- Iron Man 3 (8/10)
- Iron Man 2 (7/10)
- The Incredible Hulk (7/10)
- Thor (6.5/10)
- Thor: The Dark World (5/10)
There you have it. Feel free to comment and disagree.
She Says: Wow, I had no idea that so much thought could go into the Marvel Universe as a whole. I have opinions on each of these movies, but I don’t really look at them as a whole universe. I do get excited when I see them all starting to come together. With that being said, I do feel that if one does not have the time to dedicate to watching all these movies or becoming invested in the MCU, there are a few that can stand along as enjoyable movies and can be watched in any order. These are my suggestions to watch individually: Iron Man, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor. My absolute favorites are Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. They have the action and comedy mix that makes me want to watch them again.
