The Marvel Films - Spoilers up to Cap'n murica TWS

[Yevrah]

Afternoon.

So after all the hype and legions of (what I suspect to be) man children claiming how great Endgame was, I've decided to run through all the Marvel films, from the beginning and in full. I've seen a few before, but none outside of phase 1 bar Ant-Man. For those not familiar, here's the list up to the end of phase 3:



I'll be reviewing each of them as I go so there will be spoilers, but please no spoilers for any film later than the last film I've seen (which I'll list in the thread title).

Got it? Good.

EDIT: Clearly not got it, so no discussion of any films after the one listed in the thread title please, even in spoiler tags. Imagine any film beyond that listed in the thread title doesn't yet exist.

[Yevrah]

Iron Man (2008)

I'd seen this before and remembered it being bang average, but on second viewing.... it's actually pretty good.

Robert Downey Junior is great in the role and Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges provide the eye candy - Jeff's beard and shaved head combo is marvellous. The opening in an Afghan (is it?) cave is great as Stark builds his prototype suit to escape in and with so much of the film taken up with that and him then getting the finished version to work there's little time for protracted scenes of robots hitting each other, which is nice.

A solid 7/10 overall.

[Ian]

Maybe get the notion that they're only enjoyed by whatever you deem to be man-children out of your head first. They range from genuinely excellent to a bit crap. I don't personally think there's a proper shitfest among them.

Iron Man is a decent film held together by an excellent performance from Downey Jr.

[Mike]

Having watched them all, they go from being bang average to 100% deserving of the hype around them.
How much time are you leaving between each?


@Baz needs to do this too. Get involved lad.

[mugbull]

Why would you do this to yourself

[Gray Fox]

I think the first Iron Man is good, then there's a bit of a lull as you go through with them being okay right up to about The Winter Soldier. That film is a turning point and they become properly good after that.

The only one I've not seen is Captain Marvel, which seems to be taking ages to come out.

[Pleb]

According to the purists Thor: Dark World, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 are shit.

I can't really comment as I started with Guardians then Captain America before realising how brave and bold Disney Marvel were with their MCU storyline.

[Yevrah]

How much time are you leaving between each?

As little as possible, but am watching them with a friend so it'll take longer than if it were on my own where realistically I'd knock through them in a week.

[Yevrah]

Why would you do this to yourself

Because they're supposed to get really good, so let's see.

[Giggles]

That's a great list, never even thought of Wikipedia having it. I've seen IM1, IM2, Thor 1, bits of Captain America 1, and bits of IM3. I think I asked before but I can't find it, so what are the ones that need to be seen to get to the end with the story relatively intact?

[Pleb]

All of them.

[Yevrah]

The Incredible Hulk 2008

Fuck me, where do I start with this one - A complete mess of a film.

Firstly, it takes the inexplicable decision to remove any suspense in the build up to Edward Norton becoming the Hulk by just showing you the highlights reel of that in the opening credits, with the film actually starting with him hidden away in Brazil, part time bottler, part time scientist trying to cure himself.

Secondly, the casting is terrible. Liv Tyler can't act, Ed Norton is a shit Hulk (not that you can see much of him when he turns mind, due to the dreadful CGI) and Tim Roth still thinks he's in a Tarantino movie. There's one reasonably intriguing thread where Norton is getting help from a mysterious scientist, which sets you up to thinking "well at least he'll be good when he turns up". He isn't. But not only is he not good, he's a monstrously irritating twat. Now I think about it there wasn't a single character I was sympathetic to in the entire film.

The action sequences are terrible and have no jeopardy or pain whatsoever, a million bullets fly around the set but they can't hurt Hulk so you end up just wanting to shout at the screen "stop shooting you fucking morons", anything to stop the headache. Then because the film is so shit, you end up picking holes in minor plot points. They only have $40 to catch a bus, which is a problem at that point, but when he goes angry and wakes up in Guatemala it wasn't? Characters find each other in seconds in huge cities. There's just absolutely no continuity, presumably from the bloated mess they ended up with originally being edited to within an inch of its life.

Despite also being no longer than the other films, it drags and drags, taking an eternity to come to an end. I can't remember what the much criticised Ang Lee Hulk was like, but it must have been going some to be as bad as this.

A generous 3/10.

[SincereTheRebel]

I wanted to do something similar but it takes up so much fucking time. Ill just take your review as fact and claim ive watched them.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think I skipped all of the Hulk films and I didn't miss a thing.

[Yevrah]

How do you mean all of them? There's only one.

[Mike]

As little as possible, but am watching them with a friend so it'll take longer than if it were on my own where realistically I'd knock through them in a week.

See I'd give a little time between, so you don't get burnt out on the super hero good times.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

How do you mean all of them? There's only one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_(film)

Didn't realise that the Eric Bana one wasn't part of the MCU and I thought there was a third somewhere but I seem to have made that up.

[Yevrah]

See I'd give a little time between, so you don't get burnt out on the super hero good times.

Watching them at my friend's pace will hopefully help with that.

[Gray Fox]

Both Hulk films need ignoring and were considered non-canon to the MCU, but then a character from the Norton Hulk film comes back in phase 2/3 so we have to accept it.

Ruffalo is a much better guy for the job that Norton though.

[Yevrah]

It's definitely canon no? Tony Stark turns up in the bar to meet the general at the end.

And no spoilers please.

[Gray Fox]

Norton Hulk is canon. Just pretend he was Ruffalo all along and everyone has amnesia about the events of the film.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, when I was rooting through the cupboard to find the films I already owned I wasn't immediately sure it was part of anything.

[Yevrah]

That's a great list, never even thought of Wikipedia having it. I've seen IM1, IM2, Thor 1, bits of Captain America 1, and bits of IM3. I think I asked before but I can't find it, so what are the ones that need to be seen to get to the end with the story relatively intact?

Just watch them all or don't bother.

That sort of comment reminds me of a mate of mine who I otherwise dearly love, who is always on about just watching the last series of something if he's not that motivated to watch it. Which has always struck me as a dreadful idea.

[Baz]

Is it a female friend?

[Yevrah]

Is it a female friend?

That I'm watching them with? Yes Barry, it is.

[Giggles]

Just watch them all or don't bother.

That sort of comment reminds me of a mate of mine who I otherwise dearly love, who is always on about just watching the last series of something if he's not that motivated to watch it. Which has always struck me as a dreadful idea.

I wouldn't have anywhere near the time on my own to watch them. Would take me 3 years at least. Though you're probably right, I'd be better with a summary and then just watch the endgame one.

I'd be with your mate on not having the will to go back if a TV series is well into it's life but I wouldn't bother with the end either. It's a very very rare occasion that I wouldn't just skip any TV series once it's got to series 2 and I've missed 1.

EDIT: I've also seen one of the avengers ones, I remember after someone mentioned Ruffalo. Probably the first one.

Toggle Spoiler

He changes into the hulk midway through punching some big metal beast thing and making it go up in the air. Logi is the main 'villain' in that one.

[Ian]

Norton Hulk has its moments. The reason it doesn't have the origin is because it's a confused sequel to the Ang Lee one I think? Even though that's not canon.

Alternatively they just did what they'd later do with Spider-Man and go "Right lads, you know the drill, let's not piss about with the radioactive spider again."

The very last Norton scene 100% ties into Ruffalo though. Of the next few Yev has I am most curious how he sees the first Captain America because I have very different views of that from watching it the first time to a recent rewatch.

[Lewis]

I always figured the Hulk film was a rush job to re-boot the character before the first Avengers film. It is also a bit of a shit character as far as having its own film goes.

[Byron]

As someone who has already watched every MCU film, I can spare you the trouble Yev;

Ignore - Brings very little to the MCU universe and can be skipped

Incredible Hulk
Thor: The Dark World

Mediocre - Should be watched for some context but otherwise okay at best

Ant Man and the Wasp
Iron Man 2
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Age of Ultron

Decent - Brings a lot of context or just solid mindless fun in general

Ant Man
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Thor
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Captain Marvel
Iron Man 1
Iron Man 3

Good - Stands on its own feet

Captain America: The First Avenger
Guardians of the Galaxy 1
Doctor Strange
The Avengers
Avengers: Infinity War

Outstanding

Thor: Ragnarok
Black Panther
Captain America: Civil War
Avengers: Endgame

[Ian]

I was about to post a small defence of Ant Man because it's good fun and Rudd is great and then I saw you've got Winter Soldier in your mediocre category.

Get your head read you lunatic, it's still probably the best thing they've done.

[Byron]

Oh don't get me wrong, Paul Rudd carries Ant-Man, anyone else and it would likely be a forgettable movie.

Winter Solder spoiler below

Toggle Spoiler

Winter Soldier might need a re-watch, but it left precisely no impression on me besides 'Hey it's Bucky! Now he's trying to kill everyone!' I'm aware I may be very much in the minority, but the fact that I remember more about every other movie is telling.

[John]

That's a pretty egregious spoiler.

[Yevrah]

I fucking knew this would happen, thank fuck I didn't see it.

Right, no discussion of any films beyond the one listed in the thread title from this point on.

[Byron]

Whoops, typical that I wouldn't read the one rule of this thread.

[Yevrah]

It was only a matter of time Byron.

[Ian]

"Reason: Literally the only rule in the thread is no spoilers "

[Mike]

The only one I've not seen is Captain Marvel, which seems to be taking ages to come out.

It's out now

[Smjffy]

Cheers Yev. I planned on doing exactly this but didn't know the order.

[Pleb]

You lot are making me rewatching the whole MCU

[Gray Fox]

It's out now

Thanks babe <3

[Yevrah]

Iron Man 2 (2010)

After the shambles of Hulk it was nice to get back to familiar and comfy RDJ company. Not so much a film this one, more how one might imagine a propaganda piece for Tony Stark would be if he actually existed, interspersed with Mickey Rourke, who one can only imagine was in it due to him being flavour of the month at the time. Was the character he played even in the comics?

As for the rest of the cast, Sam Rockwell was irritating (as he is in almost everything he's in) and Scarlett Johansson seemed to exist primarily to be leered at (I mean seriously, some of it just wasn't on for a kids film), albeit it was nice to expand the characters in the world a bit with her introduction as Black Widow.

The end (with robots hitting each other) is shit, but on the whole it passed the time and was relatively watchable to that point.

I'll go for a 5/10, but on a different day it probably could have been a 4, with Mickey Rourke and RDJ elevating a flimsy script and plot somewhat.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Whiplash is indeed in the comics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiplash_(comics)

[Yevrah]

Ah, fair play. Well Rourke played him well.

And now I think about it, the scene in Monaco was excellent.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

IIRC the Rourke version is slightly different to the comics and also takes a bit of inspiration from another Russian villain too.

[Yevrah]

Thor (2011)

I should probably start by saying I liked this film, but there were a number of things that stopped it being that good. While it's alright to have nods to the real world and highlight how ridiculous superheroes are, Branagh decided to do it so often that it somewhat undermined the piece and continually takes you out of the world you're supposed to be inhabiting.

I stand to be corrected on this one too (please, no spoilers,) but I just don't like Loki as a character, he doesn't feel anywhere near threatening enough and his redemptive play at the end of the film just hammered that home.

Chris Hesworth as Thor is very swoon and I can't think of how they could have cast him any better, but wasn't overly convinced about the rest of the cast or characters. Another nod to the marvel universe with bow and arrow man was nice, but (as I've long said) when you have a Norse God it's hard to see how they'll get round every needing any of the other characters to well, do anything.

Overall there just doesn't feel as if there's enough meat on the bones for this to stand as a properly good standalone film, but on the plus side at this point (4 films in) you can really see the world take shape and the nods to the other films/characters are great.

6/10, enjoyed it.

[Lewis]

Thor gets more powerful as the films go on, but Hulk always seems a bit under-powered when (from what I understand) in the comics he can seemingly do whatever he wants. And Loki is a bit shit and gay. I think people just like Tom Hiddleston playing him a bit camp.

[Yevrah]

Captain America (2011)

Now we're talking, the best film so far and the first one that might actually be properly good.

The lead in to him becoming Captain America was great and he's a character you can really root for as a result. A proper ensemble cast as well, and the film while being good on its own also fitted excellently into the marvel universe with all the Howard Stark stuff.

First proper bit of feeling with the ending being very well done and almost tugging at the heart strings with him missing his date.

7/10. Very close to an 8 and for the first time I can see how these films might actually live up to the hype.

Looking forward to rounding off phase 1, with the Avengers, hopefully tomorrow.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Thor gets more powerful as the films go on, but Hulk always seems a bit under-powered when (from what I understand) in the comics he can seemingly do whatever he wants. And Loki is a bit shit and gay. I think people just like Tom Hiddleston playing him a bit camp.

I believe he's meant to be the second strongest Avenger in the comics behind Thor.

I found Loki takes a bit to warm up, maybe it is down to Hiddleston but I did find the character to get better after the first Thor film.

[Lewis]

He survives nuclear blasts and all sorts of mad shit in the comics. Plus he gets stronger the more wound up he gets, so technically has no limit to his power.

[Lewis]