So comics are important to me. And as such, what Marvel is doing with their "Cinematic Universe" is particularly happy making. It is the kind of thing nerds like me dreamed about as a child. The kind of thing I used to talk about with my friends on the playground, and then with my friends in the kitchen, because everybody ends up in the kitchen for some reason. We would talk about who would beat him, how broken Thanos is, what hulk would do with the mind gem. I now live in a reality where some of the craziest theories will come to fruition on screen. I live in a world where Guardians of the Galaxy movie is a thing. A popular thing, one that lots of people have paid money to see. A year ago, these were obscure characters, and it's only a matter of time before we have a dancing baby Groot toy.
Which I will buy.
Immediately.
I mean, look. How could you resist?
Anyway, I started this blog because my fiance said, "You should put your thoughts about the Marvel movies into the universe," and I thought it would be fun to not-review them. That is, to blather about them in a particular order because it's my blog and I want to, and also because I haven't posted anything here in almost a year. Again.
Soooo....
#10
Iron Man 2
By far the worst and most disappointing movie to come from the MCU. The premise was there, Mickey Rourke as a villain should have been awesome. RDJ had already cemented his place as awesome in the role of Tony Stark. The addition of Justin Hammer and Hammer Tech as a rival to Stark Industries could have been pretty cool. The payoff was just a generic war machine and some Iron Man suit wannabes that looked like the Go-Bots to Stark's Transformers. Many elements were obviously shoehorned in by Marvel to build their cinematic universe. The "key to unlocking Stark's heart" and Fury's appearance in the movies were unnecessary and added far too much fluff in a movie already way too long. Stark spends a lot of the time sitting and looking at things. I remember him sitting on top of a donut staring off into space. There was a fight scene at a party that lasted longer than the anticlimactic battle with Whiplash (that was the villain's name, right?) for the end of the movie. The movie lacked focus and was obviously more concerned with setting up future events in other movies than dealing with Tony Stark and being Iron Man.
RDJ is always awesome, so I still enjoyed the movie, but I don't felt it added anything to the character. If I were to watch the MCU movies over again, I'd definitely skip this one.
#9
Thor
I thought the movie did a wonderful job introducing the Asgardians. Tom Hiddleston as Loki is the 2nd best villain (anti-hero?) in the series. Hemsworth's Thor does an excellent job of being handsome and yelling things. He also smashes mugs really well: a true asgardian. Also, Idris Elba is in the movie, so that's awesome. I love the mythology the movie sets up. I read somewhere that, "Magic is only technology we don't yet understand," or something like that, and I thought the MCU Asgard was the perfect example. But once we get past that and see Thor get expelled for being too cocky and the viewer is given a basic heroe's journey. My issue is that I don't buy the redemption. Thor is going to sacfrice himself for his friends. It's a very touching scene, yes, and it's sad that he almost dies, but Thor always would have sacrificed himself for his friends. He would have put his life before others in an instant. I know that the point is he learned humility, he attacked the huge thing without his powers, etc., but we rush through the entire movie to get to this point. There's no time taken to explore Thor's character. What must it have been like to be, literally, a god, and banished to Earth, basically powerless? Why no interactions with the humans he finds wondering how they live without the technology they possess in Asgard? Thor adjusts incredibly well to his sudden affliction and then does what he pretty much would have done regardless of the circumstances because, you know, he's a warrior, and is given back his powers. The movie didn't offer any breathing room for reflection. He ends up a hero again and it makes sense because that was the obvious conclusion, but the journey there isn't fleshed out nearly well enough.
Hiddleston is the the bomb, though.
#8
Thor: The Dark World
I don't much to say about this one. Loki is still awesome. Thor is pretty cool, but here I remember beginning to feel like I don't really know how powerful these characters are. There aren't many moments that show that. I thought the villain was really one note. Far I LIKE BEING EVIL, not relateable at all. It's always better when you can understand and sympathize with the villain's motivations, but there was none of that with Malekith. The ending with Loki on the throne has me excited for whatever movie that particular plot thread will continue.
Thor's mom showed how awesome Asgardian women. That was an awesome scene.
#7
Captain America: The First Avenger
Origin stories are always rough to do. I understand that some people might not know that Steve Rogers was a scrawny dude who got injected with a serum and turned into Mr. America, but I don't really want to see it, or read it. So we do that, and then get to the middle of the movie where Captain America is actually doing stuff and instead of showing us him actually doing stuff, we get news reals and spinning newspapers that give headlines of the cool shit he just did. Boo urns on that. There was nowhere near enough Captain America being a Super Soldier in this movie. Red Skull wasn't utilized anywhere near enough. It did give us Stark's dad, which was cool.
I dunno, maybe I'd rate this one lower. Those newspaper reels were dumb.
#6
The Incredible Hulk
Maybe you could swap this and Cap. The problem with Hulk movies is most people only care about the green guy and smashing. That's cool, but I prefer the struggle of Bruce Banner. I'm one of the few people in the world that liked the Aang Lee Hulk. I felt like they really nailed the struggle (it's real). Hulk was well done in that movie, but so was Bruce. I liked that more than this movie, but anything with Ed Norton is going to be pretty good.
The villain, Blonsky (I think), was pretty cool. I did not like that he took a full Hulk Foot to the chest and lived to tell about it.
On the whole, I enjoyed watching this more than everything I've listed before it, but don't think it added much to the overall MCU.
#5
Iron Man 3
I've seen a lot of people say they hated this movie. Similar to Hulk, a lot of people seem to just want Stark to suit up and go blow stuff up. That's fun for about 3 minutes, and then I get bored. RDJ is a phenomenal actor, and so I appreciated this more intimate take on the character. Tony Stark is a scientist, and after the events of Avengers, has to come face to face with the fact that their are aliens, potentially other dimensions, that the norse pantheon exists, is real, and has what he can only understand as magic. I loved that he was emotionally and psychologically fucked up. It's the first movie to show me how the interconnected-ness of the MCU. The others haven't really shown any cause and effect, but this one did.
I think a running problem with the majority of these movies is a terrible villain. They aren't really characters at all. They're put in the movie because writers know that the hero needs an obstacle to overcome. Mandarin reveal was cool, but overall there wasn't much more to deal with after that. I did enjoy the interpretation of the Extremis arc from the comics and wonder if it will have any effect in Avengers 2 when that comes out next summer.
On the whole, I enjoyed that this wasn't just Tony Stark suiting up and taking out bad guys. Dude obviously has a problem he needs to deal with and the suits are part of it. This felt like a journey to overcome an addiction. Instead of alcohol, he started building suits.
#4
Iron Man 1
I hate origin stories. I've read them before. Usually more than once. I've seen them on TV, in cartoons or whatever. This, though, was awesome. RDJ as Stark was as perfectly cast as Patrick Stewart as Prof. X. Again, the villain was anticlimactic, but the build up to that point was sharp and well written. I loved the dynamic between Penny and Stark. Jarvis, who I suspect will become something more in Avengers 2, was awesome. The scene where Iron Man takes out the village of terrorists is one of my favorites in any of the Marvel movies. Iron Man 2 is a shorter movie by about two minutes but feels like it's 20 minutes longer. There are few wasted scenes in this movie. So good.
#3
Avengers
Hiddleston as Loki is always great to watch, but they managed to make him a type of mindless minion in this. His goal, in stereotypical fashion, brought an army to a large city, caused tons of destruction and collateral damage, and was ultimately defeated. Between Avengers, Winter Soldier, Man of Steel and others, it would really suck to live in a world with superheroes. Anyway, there was nothing really special about the story. So why rank it so high? For what the movie accompished. It brought together all of these disparate strands between several movies and put them on screen. It built a superhero team movie. Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow. All together, all showing awesome teamwork. My comic nerd cannot contain its glee at this fact. There is now a movie universe with Marvel characters. The movie had some of my favorite character moments in comic movies as well. Black Widow running from Hulk; terrified. The moment of silence before Hulk finds her. It was so cool to see how absolutely helpless a normal human would be when Hulk does his thing. Hulk doing the Droopy to Loki. The scene showing Captain America and Iron Man fighting side by side, using shields and beams together.
It wasn't the best story, but I like it more for what it accomplished. I enjoyed watching it from beginning to end (a couple times), but I expect Avengers 2 to make this look like a very amateur attempt if Winter Soldier is anything to go by.
#2
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
A comic movie that majorly shakes up the status quo. A good villain (finally). Captain America looking more like a super soldieer and less like a guy that just knows how to fight. The opening scene on the tanker made me realize how relatively weak Cap had been in the other movies. The shield, strength, and speed were all on display; things I didn't even realize I'd missed. When Winter Soldier stood in front of Fury's SUV, unafraid, I thought he was badass. When he turned around and caught Cap's shield, I knew he was a threat. Because I read comics, I knew who he was, but for the first time in one of these comic movies, I didn't know exactly what was going to happen. The revelation of Hydra, the fall of SHIELD, the repercussions this will yield for both the MCU (I hear that the Agents of SHIELD starts to get good after the Winters Soldier) is awesome. In comics, all too often do we see some major event or character death, only to have it reversed about a year later (and more recently, around the time a new movie starring these characters is due to release). The nature of movies means that the downfall of SHIELD should have longlasting effects.
The end of the movie was pretty ridiculous; taking out these flying death machines is as simple as putting random cards into special slots. We have more wanton destruction of cities. But I'm willing to overlook these things since the rest of the movie was so solid.
#1
Guardians of the Galaxy
This movie was pure fun. From the opening scene with James Pratt dancing through ruins, to the introduction of Starlord. All of the characters were good. Even Bautista as Drax. I think Groot is Vin Diesel's best role to date. The movie introduced a lot of people to the Guardians for the first time, and it did it without any of the trappings of an origin story. It didn't retread old stories. We were placed in an active universe and the characters were allowed to tell their origins more organically. Gamora is the weakest link in the group. I don't feel like she was given enough to become an actual character. It's weird when Bautista is more memorable. The movie managed to introduce the Cosmic Marvel universe, complete with Celestials, and it didn't feel too long or too short. I never got bored, or felt anything was rushed.
The villain was weak, as usual. We had another starship fall and destroy a city, as usual. I'm hoping for a hero movie without this one day. But the rest of the characters, the movie, and THANOS, was so good. So fun. I went in knowing nothing about these characters or the series and left with a desire to read every Guardians of the Galaxy comic. It is INSANE to me that Marvel is able to make a movie as high quality as this with characters people don't know and yet DC with some of the most iconic characters in the business is unable to get a Justice League movie off of the ground. I think that says tons about the strength of this movie. I can't wait for part 2.
And more Thanos.
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