Special Movie Debate: Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Reed Rothchild | 9,817]

[Reed Rothchild | 9,817]

I was capped at 30 choices, so I had to cut off at 2022.  So there's no option for Ant-Man 3 or Guardians of the Galaxy 3

[Tulpa | 3,632]

Second Infinity War should be retitled as Endgame.

[Link | 2,856]

Thor and Captain America were never very interesting characters to me. I watched the first movie for each and wasn't into them. So I've saved a lot of money by not seeing their sequels and the Avengers movies. I never read those comics either. 

Hard to choose a favorite. They've done a lot of fun rides. They were smart to (re)start with Iron Man. I voted for Guardians 1. I probably would have voted for 3, it's still fresh in my mind. And I think it would work to see it before the first one. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,817]

29 minutes ago, Link said:

Thor and Captain America were never very interesting characters to me. I watched the first movie for each and wasn't into them. So I've saved a lot of money by not seeing their sequels and the Avengers movies. I never read those comics either. 

Hard to choose a favorite. They've done a lot of fun rides. They were smart to (re)start with Iron Man. I voted for Guardians 1. I probably would have voted for 3, it's still fresh in my mind. And I think it would work to see it before the first one. 

They changed Thor's character for the 3rd and 4th movies.  Think What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit.

Winter Soldier is also one of the best movies due to the plot.

[Gloves | 12,078]

I've not seen the majority of these.

[Hammerfestus | 4,028]

She likes the marvel stuff.  I’m pretty meh on the whole thing.  Needless to say I’ve seen most of them.  Most recently watched black panther 2 and that was laughably bad.  I probably liked the guardians of the galaxys the best.  I haven’t seen the new one though.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Things have definitely taken a turn for the worse since Endgame, but the early phases of the MCU were so damn fun. In fact, the first phase buildup and subsequent payoff with The Avengers remains one of my all-time favorite movie moments, so that's where I put my vote for best movie. There are plenty of other MCU films that I truly enjoy, but none of them felt quite so impactful (Endgame was such a terrible disappointment after the otherwise stellar Infinity War). 

The only movies I haven't seen are Black Panther 2, Ant-Man 3, and GoG 3. I'll catch them on Disney+ at some point, but it's hard to care about the overarching story anymore. Honestly, I think many of the Disney+ series are significantly better than the movies. There are some real stinkers like Falcon and Winter Soldier, but Loki and WandaVision were both excellent and I really enjoyed the much maligned She-Hulk. I'll probably keep watching, but they're going to have to do something drastic to get me into a movie theater. I don't think any character outside of Spider-Man really has the early MCU starpower anymore.

Other Favorites from the MCU:

Spoiler

• Iron Man
• Incredible Hulk
• Thor
• Captain America: Winter Soldier
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Captain America: Civil War
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Infinity War
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• Doctor Strange 2 (love me some Sam Raimi)

 

[RH | 5,121]

1 hour ago, Link said:

Thor and Captain America were never very interesting characters to me. I watched the first movie for each and wasn't into them. So I've saved a lot of money by not seeing their sequels and the Avengers movies. I never read those comics either. 

Hard to choose a favorite. They've done a lot of fun rides. They were smart to (re)start with Iron Man. I voted for Guardians 1. I probably would have voted for 3, it's still fresh in my mind. And I think it would work to see it before the first one. 

I highly recommend Thor: Ragnarok.  The Thor storyline doesn’t interest my wife and I much but that one film is our favorite and we’ve seen it probably 4 times.  The runner up to that Guardians of the Galaxy and we’ve seen it twice.  If you can enjoy a Jeff Goldblum comedy, then I highly recommend that one.

We enjoyed watching through most of the MCU movies up too End Game and then gave up.  The Loki series was fun, but that’s about all we got into since End Game.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,817]

I just finished watching Eternals a few minutes ago, after owning it for quite awhile.  That catches me up through Guardians 3.

I will agree with basically everyone else saying that the MCU isn't as... exciting as it originally was.  A big part of that is the original group of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Guardians being a pretty perfectly cast lightning in a bottle sort of thing.  Hell, you could say the entire thing owes a complete debt to Robert Downey Jr. for making it all possible.  Now that he's gone it doesn't have that core nucleus anymore.

But I'd still say I've enjoyed every movie, and wouldn't call any of them bad.

Favorite is either Iron Man or Thor Ragnarok.  And I was very pleasantly surprised by Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness recently.  I didn't know it was a Sam Raimi film until some of the shots mid-film immediately tipped me off.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,817]

Also, I've started watching the whole series with my oldest.  These are a ton of fun to watch with a child, and kind of reignited my interest in the stuff, as historically I am not a comic book guy (at all).  So far we're only on Captain America, and at this rate it will take us 2 years to get through the whole thing.  But it's a fun ride.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I just finished watching Eternals a few minutes ago, after owning it for quite awhile.  That catches me up through Guardians 3.

I will agree with basically everyone else saying that the MCU isn't as... exciting as it originally was.  A big part of that is the original group of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Guardians being a pretty perfectly cast lightning in a bottle sort of thing.  Hell, you could say the entire thing owes a complete debt to Robert Downey Jr. for making it all possible.  Now that he's gone it doesn't have that core nucleus anymore.

But I'd still say I've enjoyed every movie, and wouldn't call any of them bad.

Favorite is either Iron Man or Thor Ragnarok.  And I was very pleasantly surprised by Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness recently.  I didn't know it was a Sam Raimi film until some of the shots mid-film immediately tipped me off.

Sounds like we have a lot of similar thoughts on the MCU. I enjoy almost all of them, even if they can get pretty predictable. Also, I think Multiverse of Madness is crazy underrated. Raimi is perhaps the only MCU filmmaker who actually retained his own style and it's extremely obvious if you're familiar with his filmography. There are some great nods to his past in that movie and I think the horror tilt plays much better than you'd expect.

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Also, I've started watching the whole series with my oldest.  These are a ton of fun to watch with a child, and kind of reignited my interest in the stuff, as historically I am not a comic book guy (at all).  So far we're only on Captain America, and at this rate it will take us 2 years to get through the whole thing.  But it's a fun ride.

I can't wait to start the MCU with my son. If he's half as excited for the first Avengers movie as I was, then I will consider it a success. We watched the original Star Wars trilogy this Summer as his introduction to more adult, PG movies and I'm already working on a list for next summer.

[The Count | 577]

The Punisher movies are my favorite, but I realize why he's not included in the general MCU. A cross-over would be sweet though. Anybody else read The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe or The Punisher Meets Archie?

[Sumez | 3,109]

It's embarassing how many of these I've seen compared to how few are really good.

The overarching series hit a bit of a hotspot between the first Avengers movie and Endgame, where the familiarity with the characters and their movie versions ensured a certain bit of enjoyment just by spending time with them, even when the movies weren't fantastic. I guess that should be the ultimate goal of such a "shared movie universe" like this.

But even though I did like the first Iron Man, I don't think any Marvel movie really felt genuinely good to me until Guardians of the Galaxy, which I found to be one of the most entertaining comedy/adventure movies I'd seen in ages. By the time the sequel to that rolled around, the style of humor already felt a bit played out however.

Spider-Man Homecoming is one of the closest things a MCU movie, to me, has come to being a "real movie" that works entirely as a standalone thing, with a fun and somewhat relatable plot, that doesn't just boil down to another pointless villain-of-the-week who needs to get beaten up by the third act. In general that third act is by far the weakest aspect of... pretty much every other MCU movie I've seen, outside of Infinity War, which I guess makes that one the second best in the series.

I'm also one of the people who found Thor Ragnarok incredibly funny.

[JamesRobot | 5,927]

Love the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general.  I could probably give the franchise a 10 as a whole but it's not shaping up the way I'd like it to lately.  Was really invested in Kang as the next big bad, but it seems likely he'll get tabled thanks to his real life bullshit.  Really hoping the next season of Loki maintains the magic but not holding my breath.

Age of Ultron is my favorite MCU movie.  James Spader was fantastic as Ultron.  Probably my favorite villain so far.  

Josh Brolin's Thanos is also great, of course.  That first Infinity War was the MCU's masterpiece.  Marvel's  Empire Strikes Back.

There's so many good movies really.  I was going to give shout outs and realized I was going to list 10 more movies and a few TV shows.

[JamesRobot | 5,927]

3 hours ago, The Count said:

The Punisher movies are my favorite, but I realize why he's not included in the general MCU. A cross-over would be sweet though. Anybody else read The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe or The Punisher Meets Archie?

Punisher is my favorite superhero.  Such a great character.  The TV show was amazing.  

I've read Punisher Kills but not the Archie book.  I really dig Frank as the Cosmic Ghost Rider if you're keeping up with any of those.

[Tulpa | 3,632]

I also got MCU fatigue. After Endgame, I really didn't have much desire to see anything else.

 

[TDIRunner | 2,841]

I watched the original Iron Man in theaters when it first came out while I was still in college.  However, by the time End Game was released, I had only seen about 4 of the MCU movies in total.  About a year ago, I binged the entire Infinity Saga.  Overall, a great set of movies.  Not very many "bad" movies, but if I were to binge it again, there are a hand full of movies I would skip (like Iron Man 3).  I was never very interested in Thor, so I wasn't really looking forward to those movies, but the third Thor was one of my favorites in the Saga.  I also had little interest in Ant Man, but the first two were also amongst my favorites.  I definitely liked the Captain America movies, although I've always felt that Civil War seemed more of an Avengers movie instead of a Cap movie.  

When I binged the Infinity Saga, I watched the movies in chronological order, including Black Widow, even though it was released in Phase 4.  

[Sumez | 3,109]

Here's my ranking of all the movies I've seen (which happen to be all the movies in the poll aside from the new Black Panther)

I imagine it probably reflects popular opinion to some extent, with the exception of Winter Soldier which seems to be very well liked for some reason. For me, that movie hit right the point where fatigue really started setting in for me, and it falls into the generic "MCU blob" for me with no identity of its own. It's not terrible like many of the other movies, but also doesn't stand out. Ultron, by comparison, is also a generic and often messy movie, but it also has some of the best individual character moments of the series IMO, I really enjoyed that whole part at the farm house.

It's kind of funny, with the exception of maybe Guardians of the Galaxy, my appreciation for these movies seem to be directly tied to how little they rely on action scenes. Infinity War has a bunch, but really stands out for its character scenes, and Endgame has almost no action until that mess at the end. I guess they were contractually obligated to end it that way, but everything that happened before that what was made the movie good to me.

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
2. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
4. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
5. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
6. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
7. The Avengers (2012)
8. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
9. Iron Man (2008)
10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
12. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
13. Ant-Man (2015)
14. Doctor Strange (2016)
15. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
16. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
17. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
18. Iron Man 3 (2013)
19. Iron Man 2 (2010)
20. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Five Rings (2021)
21. Black Panther (2018)
22. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
23. Eternals (2021)
24. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
25. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
26. Thor (2011)
27. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
28. Captain Marvel (2019)
29. Black Widow (2021)
     

[AirVillain | 518]

Fine and all, but I thought it was really lame when they started to do the standalone movies for characters JUST to get them into the Avengers movie.

Like... you get a movie, you get a movie, you ALL get movies!!!!



Also, they made Spider Man into a whiny, clingy, baby. Parker just wants to be cool to Iron Man for like the whole first movie. Again.... get this kid Tom Holland his own movies so that he can be in the Avengers movies. 

The Spider-Man movies are shitty, I think. And Thor.... and Captain America. I don't have time to bother with them.

I did like a couple of them on their own, though. Ant-Man I went and saw not knowing it was part of the MCU, enjoyed it. Dr. Strange was good on its own. And Captain Marvel as well. 

Haha, I guess those are all three standalone movies just to get those characters in the Avengers movies, but STILL.... they were good on their own and they didn't involve any stupid tie in to the Avengers. 

Edited August 7, 2023 by AirVillain

[Sumez | 3,109]

If Captain Marvel is a "good movie on its own" I don't think any of the other "standalone movies just so they can be Avengers" are really worth criticizing.

It really felt like no one involved were interested in making that movie.  

Meanwhile, the Spider-Man movies never felt connected to the Avengers movies at all. and are much better as standalone movies, than what little role the character ever played in the ensemble ones. Honestly, I thought the Avengers movies felt way more forced than any character's own movies. It's a bit of a miracle that Infinity War didn't turn out a train wreck.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Sumez

[doner24 | 1,212]

I’m not a comic book movie guy, have only seen Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy of these. I’ve started a few others and turned them off as I couldn’t get into them. Guardians of the Galaxy is my favorite of the 3, but I probably will never rewatch it. Tried the 2nd GotG and couldn’t finish it. 

[Kguillemette | 1,587]

The best MCU movies were the ones that diddnt take themselves too seriously with lots of campy slapsticky humor mixed in. Seems much of VGS agrees with me as my favorites are GOTG and Thor Ragnarok. 

The more "serious" movies were all pretty much snoozers in my opinion.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,817]

Final bump

[Brickman | 4,138]

Most of these range from meh to horrible Hollywood junk for me. I enjoyed Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy because they felt different and tried something against the norm. Iron Man was great because of Robert Downey Jr and how different it felt from the rather average superhero movies at the time. 

Guardians was great because the MCU was getting stale and the writers flipped it around a bit and didn’t take it as seriously which felt fun and different.

A lot of these movies feel like they have been ran through a dozen focus groups to get some formula that they then apply to each one. *insert action scene here* *pause action for joke here* *sweep camera here*.

Having said that, I’m happy people get enjoyment out of them because at the end of the day if people see a movie and it helps them escape just for a bit then the director has done their job.