The Marvel Cinematic Universe

I'm not a huge fan of comic books or anything, but I have occasionally enjoyed reading through some of them. Mostly the comics I've read have been from Marvel, most often the X-Men but some other stuff too. I never got much into DC, though I am a fan of Batman.

In recent years Marvel Studios (and various groups associated with them) have been releasing films as part of what they call the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first film categorized in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was Iron Man back in 2008. Since then they've released seven other films, most recently Thor: The Dark World (which came out last weekend). I've been thoroughly impressed with the movies. I've enjoyed all of them at least reasonably, but what is more impressive is the way they are tying everything together into one universe.

One of the coolest things about comics in the DC or Marvel universes is how everything is connected and events that happen to one character or team can affect another character or team. That gives Marvel the ability to do overarching story lines. One good example that I loved in recent years was the Civil War story line which ran in Marvel comics from 2006-2007. I would love to see Marvel be able to do some sort of story line like that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, the Civil War story line would be awesome in film! I actually have some hope after watching the trailer for Captain America 2 that they will be using a lot of the same themes.

As a side note, the X-Men are definitely my favorite team in the Marvel universe, but Marvel Studios does not have the rights to the X-Men. That being said, the X-Men movies are excellent as well (even X-3), though I haven't seen the Wolverine movie. I'm very much looking forward to X-Men: Days of Future Past as well, which is going to tie together the original trilogy with the recent X-Men: First Class.


Here are some of my thoughts on each of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, in order of my least favorite to favorite. Some small spoilers may be present, nothing too big.

8. Captain America: The First Avenger
The Captain America movie was the last film before The Avengers, and it almost feels as if they were just making the movie so they didn't have to introduce Cap in The Avengers. Most of the movie is set in WWII, but they soon forget about the whole "World War" thing and focus on a small team that is set against a big baddie who one could call a NINO (Nazi in Name Only). I really think the movie would have made more sense had they kept the focus on the Nazis as the bad guys. Also, Captain America is not that interesting to me. The most interesting thing about him is the fact that he gets thrown into modern-day America after fighting a war in the '40s. The whole fish-out-of-water thing really works for him and I liked him a lot better in The Avengers when they could show that. Also, the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier looks really excellent. It'll be the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film coming out, in April of next year.

7. The Incredible Hulk
Oh the Hulk. The problem with the Hulk is that he is not interesting. Bruce Banner is interesting! The Hulk... not so much. The Hulk is invincible. He cannot be killed except by some sort of semi-omnipotent being (or the many theories of launching him into the sun or something). Superheroes need weaknesses to be interesting. Also, superheroes need personality to be interesting. The Hulk does not have personality beyond a desire to smash things. Because of this, any movie about the Hulk is only interesting when he's not in Hulk form. The Incredible Hulk actually did a very nice job of making me care about Bruce Banner (played by Ed Norton in this film, not Mark Ruffalo). In the end though, you can't make a movie about someone trying not to get angry or excited. I actually do think the Hulk was handled better here than in The Avengers (where he consciously decided to become the Hulk at one point). In the end though, the Hulk doesn't work as a protagonist. I don't even think he works well as a member of an ensemble. Where the Hulk shines is as an antagonist. Maybe we could see that develop in later movies, we'll see.

6. Thor
Thor was a good movie, but not a great one. Thor isn't all that interesting of a character to me in general. I think he's interesting in Asgard (or one of the other realms except Midgard), he's just a little out of place on Earth. I know, that's the whole point, but it just feels a little off to me. The movie did a very good job of introduction with everyone, but the execution just wasn't that great. The sequence of events on Earth could've happened anywhere, it basically just happened to be on Earth. All in all, a nice set-up but a lackluster execution.

5. Iron Man 2
4. Iron Man
3. Iron Man 3
I feel like I should talk about all three of these at the same time. The first Iron Man was groundbreaking. At the time it was the best superhero movie ever made (eclipsed later that same year by The Dark Knight). See, Iron Man is interesting. He (as a hero) is defeatable. There are many different ways he can be beaten, but he can also use both intelligence and the physical power of his suit to overcome obstacles. As a man, Tony Stark is also very interesting. He is clearly flawed in many ways. Over the course of the three movies he goes through some very compelling character development. The third movie in particular has some very humanizing parts (in particular his anxiety attacks). That and the fact that it has the best villain of the three (and the best climax) gives it the edge over the other two.
The original Iron Man was an excellent origin story. The parts in the cave and the break-out are awesome, as is just the whole concept of Jarvis and developing the suit. The final showdown is a little standard, not bad but not great. It certainly does end with a great line that really sets Iron Man apart from many superheroes. Iron Man 2 was good, but it did too many things that they had already done in the first movie. The villain was just another guy in a suit, and they had already done that in the first one. There certainly were some interesting things (like the Expo), but it just isn't as good when compared to the other two movies.

2. Thor: The Dark World
Thor 2 was awesome. I realize it just came out so I won't spoil anything. I saw it last Thursday evening and it reminded me how awesome these Marvel movies are in general. In fact, that's what led the wife and I to borrow Iron Man 3 and watch it (since we somehow didn't go see it in theaters). Thor 2 was able to build very well on all the characters from the original. Not needing to do exposition on the characters and on Asgard itself left plenty of time for actual character development (not just introduction, which is most of what we saw in the first Thor). In addition, earth was actually important in this movie, and what the human characters did had meaning and repercussion! Great characters, good action, and great humor. Go see it if you haven't, though make sure you've seen Thor first (and The Avengers).

1. The Avengers
The Avengers is what the first five Marvel Cinematic Universe movies were leading up to, and man did they deliver. Again, because it wasn't an introduction of any characters (maybe Hawkeye a little, but he was in Thor briefly) they were able to go straight into the meat of the story. Character development just pours off of the screen when you have all of these larger-than-life characters interacting. The final battle is simply epic. Great characters, great drama (Agent Coulson for example), a great villain, great humor, and great action make this simply a great movie. This is the kind of thing that until this movie people would think could only be done in a comic book.