Back in the day, there used to be this glorious thing called the Best Buy Gamer's Club. It was the most wonderful thing in the world, and it saved me literally hundreds and hundreds of dollars on video games. For some unthinkable reason, Best Buy decided to discontinue the program, much to the chagrin of people like me, who like saving money on their entertainment. The final thing that I did with my Best Buy discount was pre-order a highly anticipated game from Square Enix: "Marvel's Avengers" - a game that wouldn't even be released for a full calendar year.
Fast forward to the year of our Lord, 2020. Now, the "Avengers" game is less than a month away from commercial release (September 4, 2020), and is one of the few things in this world that have not been cancelled or delayed by coronavirus. Because I pre-ordered the game, I qualified to participate in beta testing on Playstation 4.
Certainly, there are some who poured hours and hours into this thing over the weekend; I've seen some people online saying that they basically did everything there was to do, including maxing out the characters' stats. That wasn't me. I played it maybe for a total of four hours over the three-day weekend, so my experience is somewhat "limited," compared to other reviews you might find on the internet right now, but I'm happy to share my thoughts, based on what I was able to experience.
All screenshots used in this blog were captured by me on my Playstation 4.
Note: For those who are looking forward to playing the game when it officially comes out and wish to do so completely "blind," not knowing anything about the story beforehand, I will warn that some minor spoilers will follow, although I believe that the folks at Square Enix and Marvel are only giving us a little sneak peek into the game and are not going to reveal any major plot twists during the beta phase.
A-Day
The beta kicks off with a series of events that have been no secret, surprisingly, for months. (Click here for an "Everything We Know So Far" article that was written by another website back in June.) A big community event is being held in San Francisco to celebrate the Avengers, but things take a turn for the worse when a deadly explosion derails the event. Casualties are plentiful, and among them are several notable individuals, including Captain America, himself. (Allegedly.) I, for one was shocked that this synopsis was made public knowledge months ago, but apparently the fact that Cap bites the big one early in the game is not intended to be a secret by the team that made this game. This catastrophe becomes known, in the game, as "A-Day," and these events set the main plot of the game into motion.
The game lets players jump right into the action, allowing the option to play as all of the main characters in the first 20 minutes of gameplay. First, I flew into the fracas as Thor and Iron Man, taking control of the God of Thunder as I beat back a squadron of dastardly henchmen. I harnessed the might of Mjolnir and beat the tar out of the baddies. After a couple minutes, I was automatically swapped over to Iron Man, in a sequence that had me flying at high speed and shooting my repulsors at airborne villains. While the gameplay controls between the two heroes remained similar (Square for light attacks, Triangle for heavy attacks), the fighting style felt immediately different. I transitioned from brawling with Thor to using mid-ranged attacks with Tony, and it felt natural and intuitive.
Moments later, the game introduced the Incredible Hulk and Black Widow, and I soon thereafter dropped out of the Quinjet as the green meanie, smashing into the wreckage below. Slow and overwhelmingly powerful, the angry Dr. Banner smacked bad guys around with ease, occasionally grabbing some poor sucker by the legs and whipping him left and right. While playing as Hulk, I galloped across a suspension bridge and bounded from billboards to overturned semi trucks, clearing enormous gaps with ease.
After spending some time as Banner, a pistol-toting, impressively agile Black Widow joined the fray to face off against Taskmaster, who appears to be one of the early antagonists in the game. In a challenging boss battle, I squared off against the iconic Marvel mastermind, attempting to break his shields with nimble attacks up close and gunfire from a distance. Ultimately, a special combo move proved to be too much for the masked maniac, and I completed that section of the level.
Meanwhile, Captain America was stuck aboard an airship, fending off attackers and dodging fire and explosions. One of the things I really enjoyed about playing as Steve Rogers was utilizing specialized heroic abilities, such as, in this case, the same move that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have seen dozens of times, where Cap hurls his shield and it proceeds to pinball off of several enemies before returning like a boomerang. It was beautiful. I fought my way through several areas of the ship, then watched as the rest of the Avengers plotted how to save the Star-spangled Man with a Plan. Eventually, Iron Man and Thor hastily decided to fly in and attempt to extract their team member, but it was too late. The ship was sent hurtling down in flames, leading to the aforementioned death of Captain America.
Not a bad way to kick things off. It was exciting, gripping and fun to play. But the after-effects of "A-Day" would soon send shock waves across America, causing a multitude of problems for those who were there to witness it.
The Aftermath and the First Few Missions
A series of cut scenes portrayed the consequences of A-Day, which included the bestowal of unwanted mutant powers to regular citizens and the introduction of an organization who promised to heal them - Advance Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). Now, the informed Marvel fan will immediately recognize A.I.M., and its head spokesman, George Tarleton, as iconic villains from the comics, so we know right away that these guys have nefarious purposes, but we'll have to wait to learn more about that in a couple weeks.
One of the individuals who received powers on A-Day is a young Avengers super-fan named Kamala Khan, who has unexpectedly gained superhuman elasticity in her body. The beta shows Kamala briefly during the opening sequence, then jumps ahead to a mission where she and Dr. Banner are searching for Iron Man, who appears to have gone missing in action. The beta actually provides several consecutive missions with this tandem, jumping between a jungle climate, a snowy tundra and a couple indoor facilities. Kamala is often tasked with tracking down objectives or completing certain tasks while Bruce runs research. Occasionally, I was able to switch to Hulk, where I was again given the chance to smash through windows, break a bunch of containers and throw chunks of concrete at my assailants.
At the conclusion of one quest, Hulk went one-on-one against an even bigger opponent: Abomination. The mega-slugfest was reminiscent of some fights in the "Batman: Arkham" video game series, with a ton of punching a lot of smashing and a handful of brutal combo attacks.
On the heels of completing several Banner/Khan missions, the beta introduces the War Table - an in-game hub where players can fast-travel to different locations (including one called "Utah Badlands") and access different types of missions. Two of the mission types offered in the beta phase are called Drop Zones and H.A.R.M. rooms. Drop Zones allowed me to fight off waves of enemies, including some that seemed just a bit above my skill level, and the first H.A.R.M. room mission I came across let Kamala enter an augmented reality training sequence, where she took on the form of Iron Man to compete against four waves of villains.
Leveling Up, Skills, Collectibles and Gear
As is typical of most action RPGs, characters gradually improve and attain new skills by defeating enemies. Such is the case in "Marvel's Avengers"; the heroes collect resources and experience points along the way, eventually earning enough XP to reach the next level. Leveling up grants a skill point that can be spent to buy new powers, such as new combo moves or improved defensive abilities. For instance, I was able to buy a couple new skills for Kamala that let me perform running attacks when fighting and one that improves the power of Iron Man's blasters.
Collectibles appear to be a large part of the game. While exploring the world, players can gather various items, like comicbooks. Each individual comic belongs to a collection, the completion of which will grant bonuses - none of which I have come close to finishing off (and I'm not even sure whether any collections can be completed during the beta phase). As far as I can tell, many of the bonuses will likely be cosmetic, such as different outfits or player name plates.
Similar to games like "Assassin's Creed," "Injustice 2" and "Destiny," characters in "Marvel's Avengers" can upgrade their "gear" in the game, which improves strength and defensive stats. However, unlike those other games, so far as I can tell, gear upgrades in "Avengers" did not physically alter the appearance of the character, which was a bit disappointing.
Beta users were given a chunk of in-game currency for free, which could be used to purchase cosmetic upgrades (like an outfit that made Kamala look like she was attending Comic Con or something) but chose not to do so. I have no doubt that I'll be buying as many of those outfits as I can, come full-release of the game.
First Impressions
My main takeaway from playing "Marvel's Avengers" during its first beta weekend on Playstation is that the game is a lot of fun. Being able to play as so many different heroes was a blast, and each character felt unique from the others. I immediately liked playing with Thor, brawling like I've done in so many Batman games in the past. Switching to Iron Man was fun, too, adding an improved set of mid-range attacks. I actually surprisingly like Black Widow's skills - particularly the ability to use quick-fire pistols. Wall-jumping with Hulk was innovative, and destroying everything in sight will never get old. Captain America definitely had my preferred "heroic" abilities, and I loved throwing the shield. The character I've quickly grown attached to is Kamala Khan. Listening to her gush over how cool it was to be involved with Avengers missions was funny, and she's got some really unique powers to play with.
One of the things I was most worried about with this game was the way that the characters look. They don't look like the heroes we've grown to love on the big-screen. Not even close, really. But that didn't bother me at all as I played. It's not meant to be an MCU spin-off. It's a different interpretation of stories using superheroes we're familiar with, and I'm cool with it.
My brother has asked a few times how "open-world" the game is. From my time playing over the weekend, I can most assuredly say that this game is not anywhere near as open as something like "Skyrim" or "Read Dead Redemption." It might not even be quite as expansive as Sony's hit "Spider-man" from a couple years ago. If I had to make a comparison right now, it seemed like it might end up being something like "Uncharted 4" with the ability to fast-travel... and that's not a bad thing.
I died a lot during this first beta weekend. Some of that may be due to me playing mid-game missions with Level 1 characters. I also didn't adjust the difficulty at all, so that might have been some of it, too. Or maybe I just sucked. Who knows?
"Marvel's Avengers" allows players to team up in co-operative missions online, which seems like it could be a lot of fun if you have a few gamer friends that also own a copy. I tried to join a co-op mission via online matchmaking a couple times, but got an error twice and decided to just forget about it, so I can't speak to how the online features worked thus far.
My biggest gripe right now is that it was sometimes just dang hard to tell which way I was supposed to go to complete objectives. After playing for about an hour, the game instructed me to press Up on the D-Pad to activate a power that indicated where some enemies were located, and I imagine that will become an often-used feature when I get my hands on the full game, but there were some stretches where I really had no idea where something was located (such as the instruction to head to the hangar bay of the Chimera ship... how was I supposed to know where that was??).
As far as the controls go, I had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to use the "swing" ability with Kamala, to help her traverse large gaps. I eventually figured that out, but it took me a second to get the hang of it (no pun intended). I'm not sure I quite understand the intricacies of Iron Man's flight ability yet. Like, I get the hovering stuff, and that's not the issue, but when it lets you actually zoom around at full speed, I had some difficulty being able to both fly and shoot accurately at the same time. I'm sure that is something that will come with time and practice, however, and that aspect was only a very small portion of my experience, anyway.
I always love a game with "Photo Mode," but I'd love to see some improvements to that feature to bring it up to par with the "Spider-man" game, which offered way more filters and lens options. Overall, the graphics looked really good, and I'm sure they'll look even better when I upgrade the game to PS5 for free. (Yes, that's a thing.)
Final Thoughts
I know there has been a lot of hype for this game, as well as a ton of haters that expect the game to suck, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the game, from the very beginning. Obviously, the story in the beta is choppy, and I'm sure tons of important beats are skipped over, for the sake of leaving some of the material fresh for when the game actually launches, but I'm really excited to experience the fallout of A-Day and the Avengers' return to full glory. September 4 can't come soon enough!
The next beta weekend for this game will be on August 14, when an "open" beta starts for Playstation and the first access for Xbox users who pre-ordered the game will start.
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Have you participated in the beta yet? Are you looking forward to playing "Marvel's Avengers"? Do you have any questions about my experience so far? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below, on Facebook or on Twitter (here and here).
Marvel movie release dates referred to as "the Super Bowl of pop culture." If that's the case, the release of "Avengers: Endgame" was the Super Bowl on steroids. It was legitimate worldwide phenomenon, making $1.2 billion dollars during its opening weekend without breaking a sweat. One-point-two BILLION DOLLARS. Not unlike Thanos himself, this movie is breaking records with no regard for human life.
There is a great chance that we, as a movie-going generation do not currently comprehend the magnitude of what we experienced nearly two weeks ago. We may well look back on these Marvel movies, years from now, and be amazed that we lived through it all. These shows have revolutionized Hollywood and has shaped our lives over the past 11 years. As such, we understood that people would want to talk about their feelings. There were a lot of feelings. And we tried our best to encapsulate those thoughts by way of two separate surveys.
First, we asked people to "power rank" the characters from the movie in two polls - one to determine the most powerful and important Marvel superheroes, and another to decide the most popular characters.
Secondly, we created an "exit survey" to ask how people felt about certain aspects of the film: what they liked, what made them sad, which scenes disappointed them, how they feel about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and many other questions.
Before we get to the results, let's go over a couple things that will help the rest of the blog make more sense:
What are power rankings?
We're so glad you asked! We discovered that this concept might be foreign to some of our readers, so we wrote up a quick post about it, which you can read here.
Who was surveyed?
Power Rankings: Twenty of our friends, family and co-workers took our power rankings survey, from ages in the mid-20s to mid-50s. Fifteen men and five women were polled.
Exit Survey: Forty people took the exit survey, including friends, family members, co-workers, referrals (e.g. a co-worker's significant other, etc.) and one random person from the Internet that found the survey on Twitter. The age range and gender ratio are therefore unknown, although we are certain that 25 men and 14 women were polled.
What do the columns mean in the power ranking charts?
Each ranking (1-25 for the "power" rankings and 1-28 for the "favorite" rankings) came with a designated number of points. That means that a first place vote for one's favorite character awarded 28 points to that character. A last place vote awarded one point. A perfect score (meaning that every voter ranked a character as the top superhero) would manifest itself as a maximum score of 25 points for the power/importance survey and a maximum score of 28 for the favorite survey. The average score given to each character is represented in the aptly named "Average Score" column.
This is not our first rodeo, as far as Marvel power rankings go. We did power rankings before "Infinity War" and a couple weeks ago, before "Endgame." The "Pre-EG Rank" and "Pre-I.W. Rank" columns will show movement over time, as an indication of how respondents feel about the characters now, post-Endgame, in comparison with those previous polls.
The "Popular Picks" column represents the ranking for which a superhero received the most votes, independent of any other characters. For instance, Spider-man received four 8th place votes, which was more than the amount of votes that he received for any other ranking.
"Highest Pick" shows the highest ranking that any voter gave to a particular character, with the amount of voters giving that rank in parenthesis. For instance, 10 voters believed that Captain Marvel is the strongest or most important character.
Conversely, the "Lowest Pick" column shows the lowest ranking given by any voters that took the survey. Thus, we see that five people indicated that Korg was the weakest or least important character.
Your percentages sometimes add up to more than 100%
Yeah, yeah. We know. Excel rounded up. Not our fault.
Why are most of the graphics typed up in Comic Sans font?
Because we wanted to be hilarious. Mission accomplished.
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Sound good? Clear as mud? Let's get to it! Oh, and by the way...
Please don't proceed past this point if you haven't seen "Avengers: Endgame." Thanks.
Most Important/Powerful Characters:
* This survey includes only characters that were shown as surviving and on active duty at the end of the movie.
Doctor Strange with the upset! The master of the mystic arts came through with the dark horse victory over Captain Marvel as our most important and powerful character, thanks no doubt in large part to his role in foreseeing the one scenario in which the Avengers could defeat Thanos. We didn't get to hear the full story during "Endgame," but if Spider-man is to be believed, Stephen Strange was instrumental in the resurrection of the "snapped" Avengers.
While undoubtedly one of the most powerful characters (and, as some have argued, the most overpowered Avenger), Captain Marvel fell to second place, perhaps due to her absence throughout most of the movie. Apparently, she had more important stuff going on elsewhere.
Thor, Black Panther and the Incredible Hulk round out the top five, followed by Ant-Man, Falcon, Spider-man, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye in the top ten.
The rankings were not kind to sidekicks. Slots 18 through 25 were filled with secondary characters, the likes of War Machine (18), Wong (20), Okoye (22) and our poor pal Korg (25). Also of note is the debuting and freshly armored Pepper Potts, who landed at #21.
Biggest Movers:
Sam Wilson deservedly showed the most improvement in power and importance from the time before "Infinity War" to the days following "Endgame." He's up 11 spots after taking on the mantle of Captain America. Another notable improvement was that of Scarlet Witch, who went from an afterthought to almost single-handedly making Thanos cry "uncle" in "Endgame." Additionally, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and, surprisingly, Drax the Destroyer are all up five spots two movies later.
Star-Lord took a back seat in the time between the two-part Thanos storyline, down five spots from his standing before the Mad Titan took control of the Infinity Stones.
The "Pre-Endgame" to "Post-Endgame" standings are a bit misleading, in that 16 characters were added to the "Post-Endgame" survey that were either "dead" or not included in previous surveys. We see the negative movement of War Machine, Nebula and Okoye more as a sign that they failed to maintain their rank than a sign of diminishing power or importance.
Favorite Characters:
Our old friend Steve Rogers claimed a two-point margin of victory in the "Favorite Characters" survey. He and his lifetime of contributions to the safety of the United States earned him the distinguished honor of being the most popular character in the Infinity Saga. Iron Man, Ant-Man and Thor also proved to be beloved amongst our voters, with Doctor Strange rounding out the top five.
Surprisingly, Peter Parker wound up in twelfth place, below less traditionally popular characters like Black Widow, the Incredible Hulk, Rocket Raccoon and Hawkeye. It doesn't appear that Carol Danvers' Other-Planets-Come-Before-Earth attitude won her many fans; despite having the most recent solo film (and its accompanying, somewhat polarizing marketing campaign), Captain Marvel ended in a tie with Clint Barton for tenth place.
With "Endgame" serving as an apparent send-off for the original six Avengers (Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye), it just feels right that none of them finished outside of the top ten.
Biggest Movers:
Rocket Raccoon showed the greatest positive change from pre-Infinity War to post-Endgame, sliding up five spots in the final results. A little screen time will do you good, won't it? Black Widow moved up four spots after her emotional farewell, and the wisecracking Scott Lang got even more popular by moving up four on his end. Other positive movers included Iron Man and Bucky Barnes, who improved by three spots each.
Groot's lack of visibility (literally) resulted in a six spot decline, the same amount experienced by War Machine, who is traditionally one of the least popular Avengers, according to our previous polls. And then there's Star-Lord. He dropped ten spots from the time before "Infinity War" to the present day. That's not good. Shouldn't have punched Thanos, man.
Despite 19 new or resurrected characters being added from pre-Infinity War to post-Endgame, three people somehow managed to improve their popularity - and they're exactly the three people you'd expect them to be: Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Again, keep in mind that, in this case, 16 characters that were not on the "Pre-Endgame" survey were added to the post-movie poll. Six characters dropped spots in popularity with our voters from the time before they saw "Endgame" to the time they walked out of the theater, including Captain Marvel, who dropped by four, and Okoye, who dropped a whopping 13 spots. We were surprised to see that Nebula, who was much improved from her role in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, fell by seven.
Who was the MVP?:
Iron Man - 65%, Captain America - 20%, Other - 8%, Ant-Man - 5%, Incredible Hulk - 2%
It's almost impossible not to give the MVP award to Tony Stark. He started the MCU with "Iron Man" back in 2008, and it was perfectly fitting for him to be the one to finish off Thanos in "Endgame." He also played an integral role in helping the team figure out how to make time travel possible and served as a mentor and father figure to many of the Avengers who lived to tell the tale.
It was also a strong finish for Steve Rogers, the man who was front and center for most of the final battle against the Mad Titan. Honorable mention goes to Scott Lang, who came up with the "time heist" concept that Bruce Banner and (ultimately) Stark would implement as a way of retrieving the Infinity Stones from alternate, past timelines.
Most Improved Character Since "Infinity War":
Nebula - 43%, Incredible Hulk - 33%, Black Widow - 20%
It was nice to see Nebula play an important role in a movie, after not having done much to move her popularity meter after two appearances in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. Also receiving some love were Hulk, who definitely redeemed himself after being a total waste of space in "Infinity War," and Black Widow, whose ultimate act of selflessness left a lasting impression on our voters.
Despite having arguably his best (and funniest) outing to date, War Machine did not receive any votes for "Most Improved."
Favorite Side Mission:
The Battle of New York: 73%, Vormir: 15%, Asgard - 13%
Starting the time travel sequences with the Battle of New York was a great choice; there is, perhaps, no more groundbreaking nor beloved moment in the entire MCU, and 73 percent of our voters liked the return to the climax of "Marvel's Avengers" the most. The heavy toll exacted by Black Widow and Hawkeye's trip to Vormir also received votes, and the visit to Asgard certainly made "Thor: The Dark World" feel more important than ever.
The side mission to Morag did not receive any votes.
Between Captain America fighting himself, Bruce Banner watching in awe as Past-Hulk overzealously pummeled the Chitauri, and Iron Man and Ant-Man's mission to retrieve the Tesseract, there was a lot to love about the New York team-up.
The gut-wrenching team-up between Black Widow and Hawkeye made its mark on 28 percent of voters, and 25 percent enjoyed the God of Thunder's time with "Rabbit."
Here, again, the War Machine/Nebula mission failed to receive any votes, despite a great cameo by Peter Quill.
Who Did You Want to be Sacrificed for the Soul Stone?:
No Preference: 50%, Black Widow - 33%, Hawkeye - 18%
It had to be one of them. And half of our voters didn't have a preference which one it was. Natasha did end up getting one-third of the votes, but we're not positive whether that should be seen as an honor or a way of saying that audiences wanted her to die. We may never know.
Best Captain America Moment:
Lifting/Fighting with Mjolnir - 55%, "I could do this all day." "Yeah, I know." - 13%, Reuniting with Peggy Carter - 10%, "America's a**" - 8%, "Hail H.Y.D.R.A." - 8%, Passing the Shield to Sam - 3%
There were so many great moments for Captain America in "Endgame," including a handful of witty lines, an unusual amount of mild profanity and some moments that moviegoers have been waiting almost a decade to see. But, unquestionably, those who took our survey were beyond thrilled to see Steve Rogers lift - and fight with - Thor's trusty weapon. This was a moment that was teased all the way back in "Age of Ultron," during a scene in which it appeared that Cap slightly budged Mjolnir while attempting to pick it up. Thor exclaimed what many of us were thinking, when he uttered those glorious words, "I knew it!"
Saddest Moment:
Tony Stark's Death - 75%, Black Widow's Sacrifice - 13%, Captain America Growing Old/Retiring - 8%, Hawkeye's Family Getting Snapped - 8%
Many, including the woman absolutely bawling her eyes out one row behind us, felt that the saddest moment in "Endgame" was the sacrifice and eventual death of Tony Stark - and rightfully so. Although it was heavily assumed that one (if not multiple) major characters would meet their demise at the metaphorical hands of the Infinity War, losing Iron Man was a devastating and somewhat unexpected blow.
The rest of the votes were relatively split between the death of Natasha Romanov, the retirement of Steve Rogers and that devastating opening scene featuring the Barton family.
Favorite Moments:
For the survey, we provided a list of many of the perceived top moments from the film and asked respondents to pick their favorite three. Here are the top vote-getters, led by Iron Man uttering his most famous line and using the Infinity Stones to give Thanos and his army what they deserved.
Most Disappointing Moment:
Ant-Man Getting Saved by a Rat - 28%, N/A - There Were No Disappointing Moments - 23%, Thanos Getting Killed (the First Time) Without Putting Up a Fight - 20%, Thor's PTSD Being Used for Laughs - 18%, Stan Lee's Final Cameo - 8%, Other - 5%
While nearly a quarter of respondents felt there were no disappointing moments in the entire movie, we'd like to vent quickly about a couple (minor) grievances:
Ant-Man got saved from the Quantum Realm by a rat. Not due to his own ingenuity or by any means of intelligence. A rat literally just walked across the dashboard of his car, unknowingly pressed a button and spat Scott Lang right out. So dumb.
After waiting a whole year to see the Avengers' rematch with Thanos, watching the Mad Titan get offed - half an hour into the movie - without really raising a finger to defend himself was certainly unexpected. At least they went for the head.
Clearly, Marvel had no idea that this would be Stan Lee's final cameo, and it was always fun to see him pop up in the most random of scenarios, but we can think of probably 15 other cameos that we liked better.
Which "Snapped" Character Were You Most Happy to See Again?:
Spider-man - 53%, Doctor Strange - 23%, The Guardians of the Galaxy - 10%, Black Panther/Shuri - 5%, Bucky Barnes - 5%, Scarlet Witch - 3%, The Wasp/Hank Pym/Janet Van Dyne - 3%
People love Spider-man. Or they love Tom Holland. Possibly even both. But whatever it is that people go bananas over, it sure seemed like the resurrection of Peter Parker got the loudest cheers of the entire night when we saw "Endgame" on opening night.
Doctor Strange received a respectable 23 percent of votes, with other votes coming in for the Guardians of the Galaxy (one voter specifically mentioned Groot), the Wakandans, the Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch (one girl in our theater LOST. HER. MIND. over Wanda) and the Pym-Van Dynes.
How Much Did You Hate Thanos?:
We gave our voters a scale from 1 (liked) to 5 (loathed), and it's a bit hard to draw any definite conclusions from the results. However, after a decidedly less sympathetic showing than his appearance in "Infinity War," most voters really didn't like Thanos in "Endgame."
Who Will You Miss the Most?:
Iron Man - 53%, Captain America - 38%, Black Widow - 10%
Tony Stark wins again, followed by Steve Rogers and a 10 percent clip for Natasha Romanov.
Fat Thor:
Yay - 45%, Meh - 30%, Nay - 25%
This and the "Most Disappointing Moment" results show that body shaming isn't always the most popular use of comedy, but Fat Thor did provide a few good laughs, even for a joke that would have gone over better for about 30 minutes, not three hours. Regardless, we've never felt better about ourselves while looking at Chris Hemsworth with his shirt off. We hope he takes his mama's advice and has a salad or two before "Guardians of the Galaxy 3," though.
Smart Hulk:
Yay - 60%, Meh - 23%, Nay -18%
Bruce Banner really needed to step it up in "Endgame" after subpar showings in "Infinity War" and "Thor: Ragnarok." In the five years since the Snap, the professor learned how to balance his brains and brawn, resulting in a cardigan-clad jolly green genius. Nearly two-thirds of voters approved.
Valkyrie as "King" of Asgard:
Yay - 60%, Meh - 33%, Nay - 8%
Thor passed the reins to the hard-drinking warrior woman at the end of the movie. Sixty percent liked it and one-third could take it or leave it. Time will tell what the future holds for New Asgard under the leadership of Valkyrie.
Falcon as the New Captain America:
Yay - 40%, Meh - 30%, Nay - 30%
Speculation has been rampant for years about whether the MCU would follow the comicbook storylines where Bucky Barnes or Sam Wilson took over as Captain America. One of the final scenes in "Endgame" answered those rumors as an elderly Steve Rogers presented his iconic shield to Falcon. Of all of the Yay/Nay questions we asked, this one was easily the most divisive, nearly being split evenly between approval, disapproval and indifference. Perhaps the ramifications of this decision will come to the forefront of the upcoming Disney+ show "Falcon and Winter Soldier."
Were You Satisfied with the Ending?:
Yes - 95%, Indifferent - 5%
Our voters overwhelmingly approved of the ending of "Avengers: Endgame." Only a couple people voted "indifferent," but did not have the option to clarify why they felt that way. (We'd love to hear, if any of you are reading this.)
Who Should Be the New "Face" of the MCU?:
Captain Marvel - 28%, Spider-man - 28%, Doctor Strange - 18%, Black Panther - 10%, Falcon (Captain America) - 10%, The Guardians of the Galaxy - 5%, Other - 3%
With no more Iron Man or Captain America, the time has come for a new hero to step to the front of the line. Popular votes included Captain Marvel and Spider-man (28 percent) and Doctor Strange (18 percent). Votes also fell to Black Panther, the new Captain America and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Describe "Avengers: Endgame" in One Word:
Rate "Avengers: Endgame":
On a scale from 1 to 10 stars, none of our voters went lower than a 7, with half of all votes being cast for "9 out of 10."
An average of all 40 votes came out to a score of 8.95 out of 10 stars. On the date of publishing, "Avengers: Endgame" sat at a rating of 8.9 out of 10 stars on IMDb and an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which validates everything we've known all along - that we and our voters aren't totally crazy, after all.
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Have you seen "Avengers: Endgame"? What did you think of our survey results? Have any burning questions or feedback? We'd love to hear your opinion in the comments section below, on Facebook, Twitter or any other method of modern communication. As always, thanks for reading.
In preparation for "Avengers: Endgame," I spent several weeks re-watching movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While doing so, I re-ranked the films, in order from worst to best. Before we get into that, let me explain a couple things:
Out of the blue, I thought it would be a good idea to watch "Avengers: Age of Ultron" because I hadn't seen it in years. After that, I wanted to watch "Ant-Man" again. Then, a few days later, I re-watched "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." At that point, I figured that I may as well continue to watch the rest of the existing movies to get ready for the re-match with Thanos. One by one, I knocked out the movies in a sporadic, completely illogical order. Looking back on it now, I cannot recall nor explain the logic behind the way I did it. No one may ever know, and for that, I apologize.
I watched or re-watched 18 of the 21 movies that were released before "Endgame," with the following exceptions:
I didn't watch "The Incredible Hulk" for reasons that will be explained later in the blog.
I didn't re-watch "Ant-Man and the Wasp" because I watched it a couple months ago and didn't feel like another viewing would be necessary before "Endgame."
I didn't re-watch "Iron Man 3" because I ran out of time. Also because I hate it. I did, however, watch a nine-minute recap on YouTube, which I consider sufficient to justify its ranking.
Finally, let me point out a couple other things:
Just because I gave a movie a low ranking doesn't mean it's not good. Marvel put out 21 movies prior to "Endgame" and there literally isn't room for all of them in the top five.
Just because a movie is funny doesn't mean it's good. If humor was a major factor in my rankings, "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Ant-Man" would be at the top of the list, but comedy alone was not justification for me to move a film up on the list.
I considered the films' overall impact on the "big picture" of the MCU as an indication of how highly they should be ranked. Look no further than "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and "Spider-man Homecoming," which are both "good" movies but just aren't that important in relation to the "big picture." More on that later.
Social and cultural pressures did not sway my rankings. In particular, "Black Panther" and "Captain Marvel" both came with overwhelming, considerably divisive baggage regarding diversity in film making (i.e., "If you don't like this movie, you're a racist/sexist," etc.). The race and/or gender of the characters in all of these movies did not affect where I ranked them.
If you have any additional questions about how or why I decided upon these final rankings the way that I did, I'd be glad to discuss them with you. In the end, I feel confident in my choices and believe that I have valid reasoning behind all of them.
Finally, it is presumed that by continuing to read past this point in the post, you have either seen all of the Marvel movies or do not care about major details and plot twists. Consider this your SPOILER ALERT.
With no further ado, I present to you my definitive list of MCU movies, from worst to best, along with a brief explanation of my thought process:
Technically, this movie is included in the chronological timeline of the MCU. However, it was released right around the time I was getting home from a two-year mission and I never got around to seeing it in theaters. In fact, I never got around to seeing it at all. Why, you ask?
Because this movie starred Edward Norton, who Marvel subsequently replaced by casting Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, never addressing the fact that a different actor previously played the same character ever again, which, in my mind, makes Norton's Hulk seem totally obsolete.
I treat this movie as if it doesn't exist, have ranked it accordingly and believe that I'm better off for it. Next!
At the time of its theatrical release, I was really excited to see "Iron Man 3." To say that the movie was a complete and utter disaster would... well, I don't think it would be an exaggeration.
I've got a couple major issues with this movie - not the least of which was that it was a Christmas movie that was released in May. Secondly, there is a huge continuity error called the "Clean Slate Protocol." Remember that - where, at the end of the movie, Tony Stark commands JARVIS to destroy all of his Iron Man suits? Other than a fleeting instance when Tony mentions it in "Civil War," that whole thing appears to have been retconned.
And then there's the biggest problem of all - the most grievous of MCU sins: the Mandarin, as portrayed (or so we thought) by Ben Kingsley. The trailer made him seem AWESOME! Unfortunately, as the movie rolls on, it is revealed that the man we believed to be the Mandarin was some stupid, drunk, soccer-loving actor named Trevor Slattery. Sooooo dumb!!! I don't often get upset in the movie theater, but this swerve was one of the most atrocious things I have ever experienced. Never before had I seen something that not only disappointed me so deeply but also left such a long-lasting stain on a film. To me, this was a completely unforgivable mistake, and I've never been able to get over it.
Everything that happens after that plot twist is just a blur to me. Aldrich Killian (played by Guy Pierce) turns out to be the real Mandarin, War Machine becomes the Iron Patriot, there's a pretty decent scene where Iron Man saves a bunch of people from a plane crash, and Tony initiates the "House Party Protocol" to bring dozens of automated Iron Man suits to defeat Killian. Tony feels that his fascination with being Iron Man is destroying his relationship with Pepper, so, after replacing his internal arc reactor, he wipes the slate clean by destroying most of his equipment.
The largest takeaway here is that the Great Mandarin Debacle of 2013 completely, irreversibly ruined this movie for me, cementing itself as the worst Marvel movie that I actually count as "canon."
By the way, I had forgotten about this post-credits scene, but - my, is it relatable?
Aside from a great story arc for Yondu (including one of the best quotes ever), the introduction of mind-reading Mantis, and another incredible soundtrack, "Guardians 2" feels like two hours of insults, unnecessary commentary about male anatomy, a shocking amount of truly aggressive laughter and a touch of lighthearted murder; the scene where Rocket Raccoon, Yondu and Baby Groot nonchalantly slaughter an entire ship of minions with smiles on their faces is particularly distressing. This was the first Marvel movie where I thought to myself, "I'm sure glad I didn't bring my little nephews to the theater."
Baby Groot is the major takeaway from this movie. Story-wise, we find out a lot about Peter Quill's family - that is, we learn that his father is a sex-crazed alien who put a tumor in his mother's head. That's pretty messed up. Perhaps the only noteworthy thing that occurs during this entire film is that we see some development in the sibling rivalry between Gamora and Nebula. Nebula eventually decides to join the Guardians in the fight against Thanos. Woo hoo.
By and large, we've got ourselves a pretty unremarkable and inconsequential sequel.
The first true sequel of the MCU can be summed up thusly: Tony upgrades his arc reactor, we meet Black Widow and War Machine suits up for the first time. The villain, Whiplash, looks like a boss in that Indy car race scene, but ultimately devolves into an upgraded version of Iron Monger from "Iron Man 1."
Seeing Don Cheadle replace Terrence Howard (the original James Rhodes) is visually jarring; they look nothing alike, but viewers are tasked with accepting the switch at face value, which is exactly what Marvel did with the Bruce Banner character. Very strange. Another nit-pick about Early-MCU casting: after you've seen a couple other movies, realizing that Howard Stark has been portrayed by three separate, very different-looking actors (Dominic Cooper, John Slattery and Gerard Sanders) is mind-boggling. Other observations: Black Widow and War Machine each have their best fight scenes of any MCU movie. One thing that I didn't remember is that the senator who infamously whispers, "Hail HYDRA," in "Civil War" is extremely prominent in this movie. Those guys infiltrated the government early on and we had no idea until years later.
I saw "Thor" reluctantly - in the dollar theater, no less - after weeks and weeks of hearing grown women gush about how attractive Chris Hemsworth was with his shirt off. (Don't get me started about that double-standard.) The movie wasn't terrible, and the otherworldly scenes in Asgard were definitely a change of pace, compared to the earlier, Earth-bound Marvel films, but the Thor origin... the... "Thorigin"... didn't quite live up to the hype that surrounded it. Thanks, ladies.
"Thor" succeeds as a sort of fish-out-of-water tale, with the banished God of Thunder struggling to understand life (and manners) on Earth. It also gives us the tragic backstory of the Asgardian Trickster, Loki, who still stands as one of the top two or three villains in the entire MCU. Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston (who look like little babies in this movie!!) have great chemistry together, but Thor is an unlikable jerk for half of the film and, aside from that duo, character development falls flat across the board. The "Warriors Three" (who? - exactly) and Sif feel completely irrelevant, Natalie Portman does nothing for me as Jane Foster, Agent Coulson still feels like little more than an irritant, and Hawkeye's MCU debut is so minuscule that I completely forgot that it happened in this movie.
If all you can remember about "Thor" is a bunch of people trying to pull Mjolnir out of a crater, and something about a gigantic robotic furnace monster in the middle of New Mexico, well... yeah, that sounds about right.
The first post-"Infinity War" film brought with it one massive question: how did Thanos' snap affect Scott Lang and company? The answer doesn't come until the mid-credits stinger, during which, Hank Pym and Janet and Hope Van Dyne turn to dust, leaving Ant-Man adrift in the Quantum Realm without viable means of rescue.
That's pretty much all you need to know (for now). Whether the villain, Ghost, or Lawrence Fishburn's Bill Foster come back into play in the future remains to be seen. Paul Rudd is still hilarious and Evangeline Lilly is a better fit for The Wasp than I initially thought she'd be. Luis and his pals are back, and just as funny as they were in "Ant-Man."
This is a fun movie, certainly, giving us another comedy-fueled heist and presenting a couple new characters, but it's a movie I wouldn't recommend sitting down to re-watch before "Endgame."
Let's get the important things out of the way: Thor gets awesome, totally incredible new powers.The Hulk is back. Thor loses an eye. Mjolnir gets obliterated. Korg was hilarious. The Matt Damon cameo was a funny. Asgard gets destroyed. Loki becomes a good guy (again, sort of) for like 15 minutes, although it is heavily implied that he steals the Tesseract (spoiler: he does). We get Jeff Goldblum in glorious eyeliner.
But since when did Thor turn into an aspiring comedian? Although there are a couple scenes that elicit a laugh, the God of Thunder was way funnier when he stuck to smashing coffee mugs. It is such a sharp departure from his personality in his previous MCU appearances. Is he funny? Yes. Does it feel natural? Not hardly.
So many of the jokes in "Ragnarok" feel forced. The two main offenders are the scene where Thor throws a ball and it bounces off the wall and hits him in the face, and that part toward the end where Bruce Banner jumps out of the spaceship and belly flops on the Bifrost. Slapstick comedy just doesn't feel like a good fit for the "Thor" movies. We've already got the Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. We don't need any more goofballs.
Plus, all the anatomy jokes about were cheap and unfunny. Stranger still is the notion that anytime anyone says something dirty, the other characters feel the need to repeat the line back multiple times. (Go back and watch for yourselves. It's true.) We heard you the first time, guys.
My biggest problem with this movie is that the trailer gave away a couple really big surprises. Namely, the preview shows that Hela crushes Mjolnir and that entire scene where Thor fights Hulk in the Grandmaster's arena was completely given away. Both of those scenes would have been major shockers if Marvel could have kept them secret.
"YES! We know each other! He's a friend from work!" That part should have been hilarious in theaters. Because I'd already seen it online 20 times, it wasn't funny at all.
I can count the number of people who have told me that they like "Thor 2" on both hands. But I'm here to contend that it is actually the best installment of the "Thor" trilogy.
Sure, the Dark Elves are lame. Yeah, it features way too much Jane Foster. Of course, there are those awkward scenes with Dr. Selvig running around at Stonehenge. Admittedly, that stuff isn't great.
But "The Dark World" is, far and away, Tom Hiddleston's best performance as Loki. It's also genuinely and casually funny, without willfully beating viewers over the head with humor like "Ragnarok." Plus, that Captain America cameo is legitimately hilarious.
There's some good, old fashioned family drama - most notably the death of Thor's mother. The cosmic "Convergence" and the looming threat of a powerful weapon called the Aether give us our first knowledge of the Infinity Stones.
The mid-credits scene introduces Benecio Del Toro's wacky portrayal of the Collector, who, for the first time in the MCU discusses the existence of , which would (obviously) become central to Thanos' quest in the Infinity Saga.
I was hesitant to get yet another Spider-man reboot. Heaven only knows what I would have done if I had to suffer through a third origin story or watch Uncle Ben die again. Thankfully, "Homecoming" spared us the spider bite and pumped out a pretty good story without having to hold our hand along the way. Tom Holland isn't Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield - and there are pros and cons to that - but he does a good job of giving us a similar but unique take on Peter Parker. If nothing else, he proved that Spider-man movies can still be enjoyable.
After putting a surprisingly cool spin on a classic character, Michael Keaton's take on Vulture winds up settling in as, arguably, one of the top three or four villains in the entire MCU (along with Loki, Thanos and Killmonger).
The Spider-man stand-alone film another movie that I wouldn't deem "essential viewing" when ramping up for movies like "Infinity War" or "Endgame." All you really need to know is that Peter and Tony Stark have a really close relationship. Other than that, what did we get? Ned, who was kind of funny. A young Aunt May, who Marvel really, really wants us to think is hot. A lame revelation at the end of the movie that the rude Hispanic girl is apparently the MCU's "MJ." And a lot of crude references to male anatomy (again, totally unnecessary).
Set to one of the more underrated musical scores of the MCU, this is the underdog tale of Skinny Steve, a true American hero. And what makes Captain America's origin story so special? Well, he "knocked out Adolf Hitler over 200 times," for one. You can never go wrong with beating up Nazis. Indeed, he is the "Star-Spangled Man with a Plan," going from lovable loser to movie star to bonafide super-stud, all in the span of two hours and four minutes.
Because it was set 70 years prior to the Iron Man origin story, this movie feels largely disconnected from current-day MCU movies. It's intentionally old-fashioned - one of Marvel's only true period pieces - and Young Steve Rogers has come a long way to develop into the man who stood toe-to-toe with Thanos.
'Twas the beginning of a will-they/won't-they romance between Cap and Peggy Carter and a bromance with Bucky Barnes... But the Steve-and-Peggy thing literally gets lost in time, and Bucky never truly fells important until he returns - presumably from the dead - in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."
Back in 2011, I didn't totally understand what Marvel was building with the MCU. Now, I realize that "The First Avenger" has its fingerprints all over the Avengers saga. For instance, HYDRA's infiltration of SHIELD was the basis for "Winter Soldier" and totally re-shaped (and vastly improved) the TV series "Agents of SHIELD." It has also been nice to see Cap-1 Easter eggs like Red Skull's surprising appearance in "Infinity War" paying dividends nearly a decade later.
All in all, this isn't a movie that many people look back on as being one of the bright spots in the MUC, but it was a decent way to kick off (unquestionably) the best Marvel trilogy.
Though overshadowed by the other "Avengers" movies, closer analysis and a fresh reassessment of "Age of Ultron" confirms that it is a pivotal piece of storytelling in the broader spectrum of the MCU.
After re-watching "Ultron," I realized how much important stuff happens during its two hour, 21-minute run time, and I've bumped this movie up five spots from my initial rough draft. Most importantly, it introduces Vision, lays the groundwork for "Civil War" and gives us a clearer understanding of the Infinity Stones. But it also produces the hilarious hammer-lifting scene, the Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight and the Battle of Sokovia (which is actually quite good). Looking back, this movie stands as a "mile marker" for the Infinity War arc, several movies down the road.
Other memorable moments: We learn about Captain America's affinity for clean language, get an adorable look into Hawkeye's personal life and are left with cliffhangers regarding the whereabouts of Thor and the Incredible Hulk, whose absence would be felt for the next couple team-up movies before being reunited in "Thor: Ragnarok."
On the other hand, the movie was marred by a couple notable criticisms: two absolutely terrible Russian accents; the dumb, out-of-the-blue romance between Hulk and Black Widow; and the inclusion a less-cool version of a character (Quicksilver) that had been introduced to the X-Men franchise in "Days of Future Past" just a year earlier. Ultron is a sleek-looking and physically imposing villain, but his sarcasm is a bit grating, and much of the dialogue (by Ultron and others) during the final 30 minutes gets really corny. Really bad.
From a big-picture standpoint, there is just so much going on in "Age of Ultron" that it's hard to keep everything straight, which is likely why I ranked it so much lower before watching it again recently. (For instance, I was surprised that other storylines kept us from meeting Vision until an hour and a half into the film.)
"Black Panther" is, tonally and stylistically, a much different movie than any of its predecessors. Set primarily in the hidden jungles of Wakanda, the movie provides more insight into T'Challa's reluctant rise to power, after he was vaguely and hurriedly introduced in "Civil War." Highlights include the gladiatorial fight scenes, Shuri's James Bond-like gadgets and Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger. The movie also catapulted Chadwick Boseman to "cultural icon" status. Finding out that Killmonger was a potential heir to the throne - and the ramifications of that knowledge - was a good twist. "Hey, Auntie."
A relatively popular (and legitimate) complaint about "Black Panther" is that the final fight between T'Challa and Killmonger looks like a cut scene from a video game. Upon further review, I can validate these concerns; there is a lot of CGI in the final 25 minutes. Not all of it looks believable.
Along with being Marvel's most overtly political movie - almost distractingly so - it is also the most polarizing; it brought with it a lot of positive hype (including a "Best Picture" nomination) and a lot of baggage (Rotten Tomatoes review bombing, debates about racism, etc.). Such radical reception on both ends of the spectrum was an unfortunate annoyance and, in the end, besmirched the film's lasting legacy, which is too bad.
"Black Panther" was a perfectly good movie. I enjoyed it and I understand why it was such a massive hit with certain demographics. But, in my opinion, it wasn't even the best Marvel movie of the 2018, let alone a contender for the Oscar for "Best Picture." (For the record, I think "Infinity War" and [the non-MCU] "Into the Spider-verse" were better.)
Another polarizing MCU movie was 2019's "Captain Marvel," which drew heavy praise from women and feminists but was much maligned on the Internet by ignorant sexists and mindless idiots. The introduction of Carol Danvers answered a handful of lingering questions following "Infinity War" and was a big step forward toward gender equality in the superhero wing in Hollywood. It featured some good action, was surprisingly funny and (in spite of a couple heavy-handed choices) had a nostalgic '90s-inspired soundtrack.
Brie Larson was terrific in the lead role and this is the most fun Samuel L. Jackson appears to have ever had throughout his numerous appearances as Nick Fury. A surprise twist involving the true motives of the Skrulls, who are typically villains in the comics, was unexpected for many fans who expected an eventual "Secret Wars" storyline, and Ben Mendelsohn seemed to be having a blast playing Talos.
While Captain Marvel and her superpowers will undoubtedly play an integral part in "Endgame," it does kind of feel like odd timing to release her origin story. The first act is a bit confusing as the audience (along with Danvers) struggle to understand who she truly is and what happened to her. There is a lot of stage-setting going on throughout, as well, but this shouldn't be a huge issue in any future "Captain Marvel" sequels.
I have a couple nitpicks about Goose the Flurken (cat): 1) Its fighting style seems almost identical to the way Groot fights in "Guardians 1" - copy-and-paste, almost, and 2) The way Fury loses his eye felt a little pathetic, and it doesn't appear to fit into the continuity of "Winter Soldier," when Fury says, "The last time I trusted somebody, I lost an eye."
Those didn't have any real impact on my enjoyment of the movie. Just observations. Also, Ronan the Accuser is just as lame as I remembered him being.
The mid-credits scene where Carol meets some of the surviving Avengers is awesome. That alone got me the most excited to watch "Endgame."
"Doctor Strange" may be the most underrated movie in the MCU, and is possibly my favorite stand-alone origin story so far. It managed to simplify the mystic arts in a way that came off less like an anime adaptation or martial arts movie and more like a blockbuster superhero movie. Benedict Cumberbatch was a big name for Marvel to snag, and he does a tremendous job as the narcissist-turned-sorcerer Stephen Strange, blending the right amount of sarcasm and smarts to go along with the comedic relief provided by his two sidekicks, Wong and his magical cape. Visually, the movie is stunning; the "Inception"-style fights and time-altering CGI provide some of the best special effects of the franchise. The repeated emphasis and close-ups on characters' hands and watches are also a nice touch.
From a religious standpoint, "Doctor Strange" is the most doctrinally accurate film in the MCU, and is the only movie of the bunch that taught me actual life lessons. "Silence your ego and your power will rise." "Death is what gives life meaning." "Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the simplest and most significant lesson of all[:]... It's not about you." There is some powerful stuff in this dialogue. In fact, I based an entire Elders Quorum lesson around it on the Sunday of opening weekend.
There isn't much wrong with "Doctor Strange," but if I had to nit-pick for flaws, that sequence with Dormammu could come off as confusing and Benedict Cumberbatch's American accent is a bit unnatural. Other than that, it's all pretty good stuff.
I didn't want to see this movie. I have no shame in admitting that. I thought it sounded utterly stupid. But in some Pavlovian way, Marvel has conditioned many people (myself included) to go out to the movies, regardless of how dumb the premise may seem. I went. I loved it.
I really have to give Marvel props here: they actually got me to believe that miniature super-soldiers would be a viable means of national security. Perhaps even more surprisingly, I liked "Ant-Man" even better the second time I saw it. Because of its relative "stand-alone" nature, this origin story is one that you can watch over and over without having to make a marathon out of it.
"Ant-Man" exceeded my expectations in practically every way. Along with being one of the funniest films in the MCU (rivaled only by "Guardians 1"), I love that it is a heist movie - totally different than any of the MCU movies before it - with a fun original score and the best training montages of any Marvel film to date. The concept of size manipulation made this one of the most imaginative ideas to watch on screen in ages. In many aspects, this is "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" on steroids. That Thomas the Tank engine stuff is hilarious.
Paul Rudd is tremendous as Scott Lang and Michael Peña slays his scenes as Lang's hysterical sidekick, Luis. Just as surely as the fact that Baskin Robbins always finds out, everybody loves Luis. This also features a nice little (albeit a bit robotic-sounding) cameo from Anthony Mackie's Falcon, who I never mind getting a little extra love, and the post-credits scene foreshadowed the division between Captain America and Iron Man, which would come to fruition in "Civil War."
I don't believe it would be a stretch to call "Iron Man" one of the most important movies made in the past 20 years. At the time, I (and many other moviegoers) knew next-to-nothing about Tony Stark. But this 2008 blockbuster changed the landscape of Hollywood forever. Although the initial Captain America movie was called "The First Avenger," it was really Stark's origin story that set the ball in motion for an entire universe of films - something that had never before been done so successfully. And, as far as origin stories are concerned, this is one of the best ones I can ever remember seeing.
The combination of superhero action and Robert Downey Jr.'s snarky, career-resurrecting performance as the titular character is a blast to watch. Let's face it: Tony Stark is a jerk. But he was a funny, cool jerk with a really cool suit. Over the last decade, RDJ has owned that character so much that it has become impossible to imagine any other actor in that role, similar to what Hugh Jackman did with Wolverine in the X-Men franchise.
I'm not sure whether this is a terribly unpopular take, but I actually liked Terrence Howard as James Rhodes. I had also forgotten that Jeff Bridges plays the partner-turned-villain, Obadiah Stane, which is cool.
Looking back all these years later, it's interesting to see how well the story has aged (and the CGI, for the most part, holds up pretty well until some parts of the final act). Tony and his technology have come a long way.
A tree. A talking raccoon. I didn't think it would work. But, somehow, it did. And it turned out to be one of the best movies of the entire MCU.
"Guardians of the Galaxy" takes Marvel movies deeper into outer space, with a more "alien" feel than the "Thor" trilogy. Set to a rocking soundtrack dubbed, lovingly, "Awesome Mix Vol. 1," "Guardians" manages to string together the origin stories of five ragtag scoundrels in a relatively "brief" two-hour run time. I was hooked from the second Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" hit.
This movie turned Chris Pratt into a legitimate movie star, successfully integrated a professional wrestler (Dave Bautista) into a major movie (which is not an easy task), and got some viewers to cry using dialogue from a character that literally only knows how to say four words. Pretty great stuff. We learn quite a bit about the Infinity Stones as the Guardians meet the Collector for the first time, which sets up almost every subsequent film in the Thanos storyline. On top of that, "Guardians" is one of the two funniest, most re-watchable movies in the MCU (along with "Ant-Man"). It also produced one of the most memorable scenes of any Marvel movie to date - Star-Lord's "dance-off."
The only major knock on "Guardians" is that Ronan the Accuser ended up being super lame, despite having the name and physical appearance of a kick-butt villain. (He was confirmed to be as bland as I feared him to be after his appearance in "Captain Marvel." Very disappointing.)
"Civil War," which is essentially "Avengers 2.5," was one of the most anticipated Marvel movies in the MCU. Thankfully, the third installment in the Captain America trilogy lived up to all the hype.
I only have a couple nitpicks. First of all, this is a very long movie. However, it never feels that way because the of the consistent action and thought-provoking plot. "Civil War" was tasked with trying to cram two brand new heroes into an already jam-packed movie, and I'm afraid that Black Panther and Spider-man didn't quite make the impression I was hoping for. It felt like those two were pretty much plopped into the movie and we were expected to fall in love at first sight. For me, it's been a bit slower of a journey with those two, and my stance has softened a quite a bit after seeing "Black Panther" and "Spider-man: Homecoming."
On the positive side, the airport battle scene is so great. I didn't think they'd be able to fully incorporate so many characters into one movie, but I think they did a good job, even when characters like Ant-Man and Peter Parker are really only in the movie for about 15 or 20 minutes.
The "Pick a Side" marketing campaign for this movie was terrific. I was always #TeamCap, all the way, but both sides had valid arguments for their side of the Sokovia Accords debate. Tony did come off as a jerk through most of the movie (what else is new?), so seeing him realize that he was (at least partially) wrong was gratifying. But boy, does that shocking reveal that Bucky killed the Starks pack a punch?
Three final notes: 1) They should have killed off War Machine; it would have really raised the stakes for the in-fighting between characters. 2) In retrospect, this movie is a bit less re-watchable than it used to be, now that we know that all the Avengers are back on the same side. (I realized that I haven't watched "Civil War" in several years.) 3) And finally... God bless Captain America for that helicopter scene.
If ever there were one piece of cinema that gave me undeniable chills, it would have to be the iconic "money shot" (shown above). The triumphant theme by Alan Silvestri swells in the background as the camera rotates around the six original heroes, standing in the rubble of New York City streets. The original Avengers had finally assembled. Awesome.
That scene - and this movie, as a whole - changed the future of filmmaking (for better or worse) in many ways. The greatest thing "The Avengers" did back in 2012 was confirm to us that putting that many characters on the screen at the same time was not only possible but that it was indeed as glorious as we hoped. It's a marvel (pun intended) to see what has become possible in the years that followed. Growing up, I never would have thought movies with the magnitude of "Civil War," "Infinity War" and "Endgame" would have been possible back then, but today they are, thanks to the "Avengers 1."
The Battle of New York is a jaw-dropping spectacle. Everywhere you look, there's something going on - a different hero stepping to the plate, with action on the ground, up the buildings and in the sky. It's an all-out brawl on the grandest of scales and it works magnificently. The build-up from start to finish is also tremendous, as we watch Iron Man and Captain America recruit Thor, later to be joined by Black Widow, Hawkeye and the Incredible Hulk.
One side effect of the final fight is that it gave birth to a string of movies (like the second rebooted "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie and "Suicide Squad," to name only a couple) that involved aliens fighting out of a giant portal in space. It also urged the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) to rush the production of their "Justice League" franchise, which (as much as I hate to admit) stumbled considerably through its first several installments.
Although the Chitauri are another of Marvel's infamous generic, faceless armies, they presented the notion that superhuman threats lurked not only on Earth, but throughout the galaxy, as well. Loki gave the movie a true villain who, despite his utterly non-intimidating physical presence, would go on to establish a long-standing rivalry not just with Thor, but with all of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes for years to come.
After re-watching "The Winter Soldier," I found only one tiny thing to complain about: Marvel has a real problem with killing off major characters. They did it for Agent Coulson in "The Avengers." They've done it with Loki numerous times. And they did it in "Winter Soldier" with Nick Fury. Offing Samuel L. Jackson here would have been completely unexpected and really felt profound, but after a couple white-knuckle shootouts, they had Fury revived by SHIELD two-thirds of the way through the movie.
This was a bonafide political thriller, and its consequences were far-reaching; the re-emergence of HYDRA completely altered the course of the TV show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." The relationship between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes is deep, complicated and adds an extra layer of complexity to an already solid story. The set pieces are sprawling - from a naval ship to an underground bunker, from a highway chase scene to a fistfight in the sky. Plus, what's not to love about that elevator fight scene? Awesome.
It's far and away Black Widow's best movie. It's not only Falcon's first film but also his strongest outing. The Winter Soldier is one of the best-looking villains of the MCU. And Cap proved himself to be both the hero we all aspire to be and the tough guy we wouldn't want to mess with. The movie, not unlike its main protagonist, stands confidently with the posture and composure of an all-time great, among the best superhero movies ever made.
Particularly after having re-watched basically all of the previous MCU films, it is clear within 35 minutes that "Infinity War" tops all the movies that came before it. There are, clearly, some really good Marvel movies that pre-dated "Infinity War," but, as the culmination of 10 years of superhero blockbusters, seeing them all come together on the same screen at the same time with one common goal is incredibly impressive. I remember fearing that they wouldn't be able to fit 20 heroes into the same movie, but "Infinity War" does it in such a way the everybody feels included and nobody really seems to be getting the short end of the stick.
The story puts the pedal to the medal from the get-go, with two major character deaths (Heimdall and Loki) in the very first scene. Thanos is clearly not messing around. And if anyone thought that losing two familiar faces was something to shake a stick at, there were literally FIFTEEN OTHER DEATHS by the time everything was said and done. The conclusion to the Battle of Wakanda is a jaw-dropping twist of epic proportions. Other than "Civil War," this may have been the only movie where audiences can't have felt sure that any characters were safe. Two and a half hours later, against all odds, almost all of the new characters are turned to dust by the Infinity Gauntlet. I am not sure anybody saw that coming.
...which leads me to my only real complaint about this movie.
Prior to "Infinity War," Marvel had been so public about its upcoming movie schedule and the contract negotiations of the actors that the initial shock of Thanos' "Snap" wore off even before the lights came back up in the theater. I was completely stunned - for about two minutes, at which time I realized that Marvel had already verbally confirmed their intended production for sequels to "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Black Panther," "Doctor Strange" and "Spider-man." It was perfectly safe to assume at the time that these characters would all somehow get resurrected during "Endgame."
But with that gripe set aside, there are many really great things about this movie. Thanos, who we had never really gotten a great, extended look at, improved by leaps and bounds. He's a sympathetic character, but he's also so easy to hate. He just sucks - not because he's lame, but because he's so powerful that he wiped out half the population - and half of our beloved heroes - with a snap of his fingers. His possession of all six Infinity Stones makes the odds seem truly insurmountable - a feeling that Avengers fans were not accustomed to in any of the movies leading up to this confrontation.
The Red Skull reveal is brilliant. We'd all long since forgotten about Captain America's old nemesis, so seeing him show up half way through the movie is indeed a surprise.
The fight scenes are great. The set pieces are wonderful, from the Sanctum Sanctorum to that train station in Scotland, and from the battlefield in Wakanda to the far reaches of space. Such a variety of locales further impress the vast reaches of the Infinity War. Truly, this feels like a global event with universal consequences.
Finally, the development and character progression of the Avengers is on full display in "Infinity War." I don't believe there is a cooler version of Tony Stark than the one we get here. Thor goes from a babyfaced demigod to a thunder-toting baller. Captain America has a beard. Black Panther is finally fighting on the right side. Spider-man has had a movie and a half to figure out his abilities. And is there anybody who improved more greatly than Doctor Strange? Seeing so many of these characters in their prime, teaming up with each other, is an absolute blast from start to devastating finish.
Loki Death Tracker: 3
Groot Death Tracker: 2
***
There you have it! What did I get right? What did I get wrong? Surely, I've offended a few people in this process. I'd love to debate you.
Keep in mind that I saw "Endgame" on opening night, but I'm not quite ready to put that in my rankings yet. I'll need to watch it again before I decide where to place it.
Let me know how your own rankings stack up to mine in the comments section below.
