Marvel Studios Countdown
As the days count down to Avengers: Age of Ultron and its hype keeps on growing and growing, it’s amazing that Marvel Studios has come this far. As we countdown to the May 1 release date, let’s take a look back and see how we got here, through both the good and the bad.
Iron Man 2
As the years tick by and the movies come more and more often, the more Iron Man 2 feels like the pointless sequel it actually is. This is the only Marvel film that I can call a bad film. The biggest complaint that some people have with the earlier Marvel films is that they all felt like two-hour advertisements for The Avengers—Iron Man 2 is the definitive example of this. The only reason to see it is if you want to know how Rhodey got the War Machine armor in part three, why Tony Stark has a triangle-shaped reactor in his chest instead of the original circle one, and how Tony knows Nick Fury and Black Widow in The Avengers. Besides knowing all that, just skip this one.
Thor: The Dark World
Thor: The Dark World isn’t a bad movie; it’s just a particularly weak one, especially when its phase-two companion films are so much stronger. Despite wanting to be bigger and more epic than the first Thor by going to multiple worlds and having more sci-fi elements instead of the smaller-scale first film, it somehow becomes weaker. This problem stems from several points: the story itself is rather generic, Thor himself is not a particularly strong character, as shown in this movie, and the villain is probably the blandest one they can find for a movie like this. Despite getting a great actor like Christopher Eccleston to play the villain Malekith, his character is so bland and his evil plan is so boring that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki would have been a better choice as the villain even though he was the villain twice before. In fact, when Loki comes in, he pretty much steals the show from everybody and makes the film worth watching. Not a bad film, just disappointing.
The Incredible Hulk
Again, not a bad film, just a weak one—ironic for a movie about The Hulk. I hope that one day there is a director’s cut of this film available because I feel like the one thing this film needed more than anything was more time. The Incredible Hulk is really just one big chase film. Bruce Banner goes here, gets attacked by military, Hulks out, beats up Army, runs to another place, repeat. Though the acting is strong, it’s really awkward seeing Edward Norton as Banner especially when Mark Ruffalo will play Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Not to mention none of the characters besides Banner ever appear again in any of the other Marvel Films. William Hurt was good as General Ross, Liv Tyler was great as Daughter Betty and Tim Roth was a solid Abomination but none of this really seems to matter in the end. Not to mention, what did happen to that doctor that Banner met? Was he supposed to be a future villain?
Iron Man
The first Iron Man isn’t great but it’s pretty good. In fact, it’s surprising how much it holds up seven years later. Everyone does a solid job with the roles they are given, especially Robert Downey Jr., who nails the role of Tony Stark so perfectly you can’t imagine a better choice. Especially when his career was so down-in-the-dumps by the time this film came out. But there are some aspects where the film fails: after Tony Stark returns to America, the films slows down considerably and goes through the classic superhero movie trope of testing his technology, trying to keep his identity hidden, and balancing his billionaire lifestyle with the idea of being a superhero. Also, Terrence Howard doesn’t leave that much of an impression as Rhodey Rhodes and it didn’t take Don Cheadle’s second outing in Iron Man 3 to finally get the character right. That said, the ending line shocked me as a kid so much that I was excited to see where these characters go next. I’m glad I stayed on that road.
Thor
Thor is a pretty solid movie overall. The idea of contrasting the grand scale of Asgard—where the action is genuinely thrilling—to the small sleepy New Mexican town Thor is banished to works so well. The comedy from Jane Foster and her friends is hilarious as is Chris Hemsworth as Thor (funny Thor is more interesting than serious Thor), Anthony Hopkins is epic as Odin as is the dialogue between Loki and the other Asgardians. Despite there not being that much action, the film has such a funny, light-hearted tone that when intense drama does start going down, it makes it all the more serious. The familial relationship between Thor, Loki and Odin is so intense that Kenneth Branagh was the perfect choice to direct. Just wished he stayed on with the sequel.
Captain America: The First Avenger
This is Marvel’s first genuinely-great film. For what it wants to be, it’s damn near perfect. Or perfect in the way a World War II Captain America could ever be. It has a really good, tight, screenplay that manages to be a sprawling, year-long, World War 2 epic as well as an intimate character-piece at the same time. It features a spectacular score by the underrated Alan Silvestri, it has some of the best hand-to-hand combat scenes of any superhero movie ever (the best belong to the sequel) and the production design is gorgeous. Chris Evans is a revelation as an actor and as a grown-up action hero; the rest of the cast, including Tommy-Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving put in some pretty great work; it’s the best film of director Joe Johnston’s career and Hayley Atwell is perfect as Agent Carter. I love this movie.
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 was controversial to many Marvel fans. Some love it and say it’s the best of the Marvel films, some hate it and say it’s the worst of the Iron Man series. Obviously, I think it’s the best because it did the one thing the other Iron Man movies didn’t: it stayed good all the way through. Whereas the first film was solid until Tony got back to America, took a dive and didn’t fully regain until the end and Iron Man 2 was simply a bad movie, director Shane Black finally decided what to do with this series and gave us the perfect way to end it. Tony Stark being outside of his comfort zone; i.e. most of the action scenes don’t involve him using his suit so when he does, its all the more special. What they did with the character of the Mandarin was a great solution to what was always going to be a problematic character and the whole thing just works like gangbusters.
The Avengers
It would be easy to write off The Avengers as one big victory celebration of its own existence. But, despite the minor nitpicks here and there and the fact that the story is pretty simple for a film of this scale, The Avengers is one hell-of-a-fun movie. It works despite its own simplicity. Making the central question of the film’s existence ‘Will all these characters be able to work together in one movie?’ was a genius move by director Joss Whedon. Not to mention the dialogue from the script by Whedon is also solid and funny and proves that when it comes to character conversations, he is the guy to go to. Even though the film kind of runs out of steam with 30 minutes left to go and they pretty much culminate in a large 30-minute ‘splosion fest of fireworks and collateral damage, the movie differs from films from directors like Michael Bay; the characters are solid enough and the film has been so good that by that point, they actually earned the right to end it like that.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America’s second outing isn’t just a great superhero movie, it’s just a great movie in general. It’s an interesting spy thriller that proves just how many diverse and unexpected things you can do with these characters and concepts. It’s a movie so good that it wasn’t until a recent viewing that I realized that the Winter Soldier isn’t in it that much. The action scenes are intense. The acting is all-around solid, especially from newcomers Anthony Mackie and veteran actor Robert Redford. The morals it brings up about questioning your own government, and the difference between wanting freedom and wanting safety and the sacrifice you will have to make between one and the other is something that most modern blockbusters fear to even speak about. And the twist with H.Y.D.R.A. is one of the few times in these movies where I can say I honestly did not see it coming.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel Studios has screwed over many great talents: from messing with Iron Man 2 to the point that director Jon Favreau and actor Mickey Rourke refused to return for the sequel, to firing Edward Norton from The Avengers and replacing him with Mark Ruffalo, to interfering with and eventually firing geek god Edgar Wright over his long-awaited Ant-Man project; this is a studio that deep down I feel I should hate. But why don’t I? Because if they are running the most methodical, producer-driven, auteur-resistant, top-down, old-school, studio mogul, factory system filmmaking operation in the business today and still manage to turn out a movie as confident, individual and idiosyncratic as Guardians of the Galaxy, that is how you build trust with your audience. Guardians of the Galaxy has the sharpest script, the most eclectic cast, and the nuttiest vibes of all the Marvel films to date. It is the perfect kind of off-beat blockbuster. It’s the modern-day successor to singular cult achievements to films like Big Trouble in Little China and The Fifth Element. Even if you were tired of or you never cared about the Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment, this is the one film you have to see in this film studio’s catalogue.
