The Marvel Cinematic Universe is enormous.
It’s scope ranges from gods with hammers to men in iron suits to talking raccoons to
a dude with an...arrow?
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there.
Today I’m talking about all of the MCU movies from Iron Man right up to Age of Ultron.
Consider these my mini-reviews for all the films.
At the end I’ll decide what it the best MCU movie and what is the worst.
Also, if some of my out of 10 ratings conflict with other ratings I’ve already given certain
movies, it’s because over time when I see a movie more my opinion might change a bit.
Alright, got all that?
Let’s start.
Iron Man.
First up is Iron Man, the one that started it all.
I'm pretty sure this movie took most of the movie going public by surprise because of
how great it was.
Most people at the time didn't know who Iron Man was, with the exception of comic book
fans.
This movie changed that drastically.
It has everything you'd want from a superhero action movie, or just a summer blockbuster
in general.
Charismatic lead characters, awesome action, great visual effects, and ACDC.
The thing that makes it more than just a generic summer action movie is that it's a really
smart and really well written movie.
For the most part.
Firstly, all the performances are great, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, but
the obvious stand out is Robert Downey Jr.
After his really dark drug and jail period in the 90s, this was really his big comeback
along with Tropic Thunder.
This is what put him on the map and put him on the road to becoming the most paid and
one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood.
Secondly, the action in this movie is so great.
It’s just so...cool.
I know when you say the action is cool it’s usually not that big of a positive, like yeah,
the movie sucked but the action was...cool.
But no, this action is amazing.
When Iron Man is taking out those terrorists, it’s spectacular.
And the Iron Man suits feel real and like they have weight to them.
Something that later movies, especially Age of Ultron, kind of failed at.
The only negative I can think of for this movie is that the last action scene feels
very tacked on, and the villain just goes insane for no reason, but that’s not such
a big thing.
Overall, this movie was a great way to start off the cinematic universe, in fact, I’d
give it a 9.2/10.
And that end credits scene man, too good.
The Incredible Hulk.
So then we got...a hulk movie.
And it’s...it’s good.
It’s just kind of a bland movie.
I mean, everyone in it is good, Liv Tyler’s good, Tim Roth is good, Edward Norton isn’t
the best Hulk but he’s good.
Everything’s just good or fine.
The first couple of times Bruce Banner hulks out it was really cool, because he was in
the shadows and you don’t really see him much.
But then he shows up in full daylight and that was a pretty good scene.
And then the end fight in Harlem between Hulk and Abomination, that was good.
That was probably the best part of the movie, but if I’m being completely honest, which
I always am on this channel anyway, the special effects aren’t that great.
I really like this scene, it’s what we’d been waiting for for the whole movie.
But the two characters look like two video game characters fighting each other.
And it sort of takes you out of it.
Whenever Bruce Banner and Betty Ross are together, those scenes are kind of touching, but whenever
Bruce Banner is by himself and/or texting a scientist for an entire scene, the movie’s
kind of boring.
There’s not much to say about this thing, it’s a serviceable movie.
It’s the best Hulk solo movie we’ve seen so far, but that isn’t really saying much,
since there are only two and the other the one is garbage.
Sorry to any Hulk fanatics out there who’d like me to get more indepth with this movie,
but I saw it and I was like, ok, that was good, uh...moving on to another movie.
In the end, I’ll give it a 7/10, mainly for the Hulk scenes, and the performances,
and some touching moments.
Otherwise, you don’t really have to see this.
It’s good, but it’s also just kind of bland.
Iron Man 2.
So then before moving on to any new properties, Marvel went ahead and made a sequel to their
most successful movie.
And so, Iron Man 2 came to be.
And this film has gotten a lot of hate.
But personally, I like it.
I don’t love it, I don’t think it’s great, it’s definitely not as good as the
first Iron Man, it doesn’t have a great plot, it doesn’t feel like an Iron Man film
as much as it does an Avengers prequel, but it’s still a fun action movie.
The main thing I judge a movie on, before getting into plot and characters and action,
was I entertained.
And I was entertained in Iron Man 2.
That’s also one of the reasons I wouldn’t give Batman and Robin, like a 0/10.
As a movie, it’s terrible, but sitting down and watching it, it’s actually pretty fun
so bad it’s good movie.
Anyway, back to Iron Man 2.
What was good about it?
First off, it has great action once again.
The fight on the Grand Prix track is amazing.
And I’m going to say it, the coolest Iron Man armor is that briefcase armor.
Just the whole sequence where he put it on was jaw dropping.
The dialogue is also good, not as good as the first, but still good.
The ending doesn’t feel tacked on at all like the first movie.
And the cast is great, Robert Downey Jr. of course returns in the role he was born for,
but Don Cheadle and Sam Rockwell are also great new additions.
As for what does not work?
The plot is all over the place, with conveniences that are sort of ridiculous and subplots that
don’t really lead anywhere.
Like, Tony Stark’s dying of arc reactor poisoning, but now he isn’t, cuz he made
a new element even though it was impossible to make but his dad hid the formula to it
in a map of the Stark Expo.
Stuff like that.
It also does feel a lot like a commercial for the Avengers.
Black Widow, while she’s great in the movie, it does feel like they put her in not for
creative integrity but because he she’s gonna be the Avengers!
The villain is also not that intimidating, and the entire sequence where Tony Stark was
throwing his drunk birthday party didn’t seem that necessary or interesting.
At the end of the day, Iron Man 2 isn’t a great film, but it’s a fun movie, if you
just kind of turn off your brain for most of the plot.
I’ll give it a 7.2/10.
I won’t say you should go out of your way to find it, but if it’s on TV, I’d recommend
you watch it.
Thor.
So then Thor happened.
And it’s pretty great.
First off, I don’t really like Thor in the comics.
He’s just not my cup of tea.
But this movie made me like the character.
You see his growth as a person over the course of the movie, which is kind of ironic, since
he isn’t a person.
The casting is also perfect in this movie.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, these are some of the best casting choices
ever.
Even little roles, like Anthony Hopkins as Odin.
All of the performances are great.
I also love the visual style of Asgard in this movie.
Everything looks sleek and really cool.
Props to Kenneth Branagh for that.
The action is great especially because it was different from what we’d seen in the
MCU.
It wasn’t a bunch of robots hitting each other or two big Shrek-like creatures hitting
each other.
It was unique.
It also is surprisingly a really funny movie, because of the scenarios that come from putting
this god on Earth.
There wasn’t much in this movie I didn’t like.
The romance, yeah, it was kind of cliched.
The story as well, the fish out of water premise.
My only big complaint with it is that it’s a little bit forgettable.
I might have just been me, but I saw it, and I was like, yeah, that was cool.
And then the next day I sort of just forgot about it.
I don’t know maybe I just have amnesia.
But in the end, I really enjoyed this one.
I’d give it an 8.7/10.
If you think my rating system is a little bit specific, I’m sorry, but that’s just
how I roll.
Captain America: The First Avenger.
And then we got a Captain ‘Merica movie.
And again with this one, quite a few people do not like it.
But I kind of love it.
It was also one of the first superhero movies I ever saw, so it holds a special place in
my heart.
Chris Evans is a great choice for Steve Rogers.
He’s also just a great actor in general, he can be cocky, he can be kind of nerdy,
he can be hardcore, and he can be super boy scout patriot.
The first 40 minutes or so of this movie, when Steve Rogers is the little wimp, the
special effects are incredible.
They put Chris Evans’ head, this huge, muscular man on to this little guy’s body, and it
looks just so realistic.
It doesn’t take you out of the movie at all.
Then he becomes actual Chris Evans muscle guy and that first scene, when Cap is chasing
the Nazi through the streets of Brooklyn, that’s a great scene.
Then the rest of the movie is really just action scene after action scene of Captain
America punching Nazis, and that’s something that a lot of people hate about this movie,
but I’m fine with it.
It’s cool action.
Yes, the movie is pretty unevenly paced and yes the special effects aren’t that great
towards the end and yes the tone does change a bit too much with it starting out as a realistic-ish
war movie and then turning into a superhero vs. Nazis with laser guns movie and yes the
ending is really just a set up for the Avengers, but in the end, it’s a fun, cool, exciting,
engaging film.
I can understand why people hate it, I love it.
I’m also a total down to Earth Merican patriot, so that might have something to do with it.
In the end, I’m gonna give The First Avenger a 9/10.
Sue me, I enjoyed the movie.
The Avengers.
And so then we finally got the giant culmination superhero fest that all these movies had led
up to.
And this was a pretty big risk for Marvel: if you have all of these movies building up
to something, that something better be pretty freaking great.
And the Avengers is pretty freaking great.
Not just great, amazing.
When I walked out of the Avengers, it was my favorite movie of all time.
And it was for a while.
Now, I’ve seen a couple of movies that I think are a bit better, but the Avengers is
still so awesome.
If you ask me, it’s the best superhero movie.
Is the Dark Knight amazing, yes.
But as far as a really fun film that I can just sit down and love every time I watch,
the prize goes to the Avengers.
This could have been a really messy movie, with all of these characters pulling for the
spotlight.
And everyone still is pulling for the spotlight, but Joss Whedon did the movie in a way so
that everyone got a decent amount of attention.
Except for Hawkeye, because, well, that’s Hawkeye.
Every single joke lands and makes this movie a great action comedy.
And the action, the action is so great.
The Battle of Manhattan is fast paced, intense, fun, larger than life, I could go on for hours.
And just seeing all of these characters together for the first time, fighting the best MCU
bad guy, it’s...uehh.
I could seriously make a whole review for this movie, which I probably will at some
point, but in the end, I absolutely love the Avengers, and I’m gonna go ahead and say
it, I give the Avengers a 10/10.
Iron Man 3.
So then we got another Iron Man movie.
This movie had to fight a pretty steep uphill battle, because it had to follow up the epicness
of the Avengers.
And did it succeed?
Uh...sort of.
Is it as good as the Avengers?
No.
Is it as good as the first Iron Man?
No.
But is it still a really fun blockbuster and a good superhero movie?
Yeah, definitely.
I know a lot of people did not care for this movie, and you know what, I can understand
that.
It’s one of those movies that I really liked but if someone else didn’t, I totally get
it.
So what did I like about it?
Well first off, Robert Downey Jr. gives a great, funny, charismatic performance as always,
and he and Don Cheadle have great chemistry.
Secondly, the action is great.
That Iron Man Air Force One rescue is one of the best Marvel action scenes.
And that last action scene in the dockyard with all the Iron Men, that was pretty great.
Oh, and this might seem like an odd thing to mention, but the theme song is really great.
The only reason I mention this is because it was in Age of Ultron briefly so it’s
fresh in my mind, and when Iron Man 3 first came out, that theme was my life.
Listen to this.
*CLIP* As far as what doesn’t work?
Well, there are a couple of plot holes, and normally I really don’t care about plot
holes in movies, like The Avengers has tons, but it doesn’t take me out of it.
In this movie, there are just scenes that are illogical.
One of the smartest guys on the planet tells a terrorist to come and kill him, then, out
of the 42 Iron Man suits he has, he puts on the one that doesn’t work fully, and then
is surprised when the terrorist comes and tries to kill him.
And really, the main complaint is the villain, which *MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR IRON MAN 3*
The Mandarin isn’t really the Mandarin and Aldrich Killian is the villain.
I thought this wasn’t an amazing idea on Marvel’s part, but being a guy who isn’t
a huge Iron Man comic reader, I wasn’t really attached to The Mandarin character.
But if I was really attached to him, then yeah, I wouldn’t really like this movie
that much either.
In the end, Iron Man 3 is a fun romp with lots of humor, good acting, and some great
action.
It does have a couple of dumb moments and a disappointing villain, but in the end I’ll
give it an 8.5/10.
Thor: The Dark World.
Then people were like, hey Thor made a lot of money, let’s give him a sequel.
And so we got this movie.
This is what I’d say is generally speaking what people would think of when they hear
superhero movie.
A big, buff hero has to stop the destruction of the universe and in the end he gets the
girl.
And in that the movie is pretty cliched and predictable.
Also, the villain in the movie is the most generic, forgettable villain ever.
But the negatives are definitely outweighed by the positives.
I mean, Chris Hemsworth is still great as Thor, but of course Loki stole the show.
Whenever he was on, the movie was great.
The action is really cool, especially the last fight with the portals.
It looks great too, even though I do prefer the style of the first Thor.
The supporting characters are generally speaking pretty good.
One of the coolest parts of the film is when Heimdall turns around and takes out this giant
alien ship.
The other supporting characters are fine, but I can understand when people say there
was too much comic relief.
I mean, you have comic relief whacky guy, his comic relief whacky girl, and the comic
relief whacky girl’s comic relief whacky guy.
Nothing against Kat Dennings, but her character’s role could have been toned down a bit.
Overall, this is a good, fun, enjoyable movie, with some flaws, but still I’d recommend
it.
I’ll give an 8/10.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
So this is one of the greats.
The Winter Soldier is a fantastic movie.
I’m not even sure where to start.
First of all, the characters.
Captain America is great again, but the team in this movie is great.
Black Widow, Falcon, and Nick Fury.
They don’t feel shoehorned in at all.
So here’s the thing.
I’ve said about these movies, yeah, the action is really cool.
Lots of robots and gods and monsters and aliens and stuff.
But the action is this movie is just phenomenal.
All of it is great, especially Nick Fury’s epic car machine gun fight, but the best scene
is the Winter Soldier vs Captain America knife fight.
It’s so intense and immersively shot and just so amazing.
The story in this movie is also really interesting, and it has one of the best plot twists in
the MCU.
Which if you think about it isn’t saying that much, because the other one is the Mandarin
twist.
The only complaint that I can think of is that The Winter Soldier isn’t really in
the movie as much as you’d expect.
Don’t worry, when he’s there, he’s awesome, but he isn’t really there enough to have
the movie named after him.
So I love this movie, I’ve seen it quite a few times now, it’s gritty, it’s intense,
it’s more of a spy movie than a superhero movie.
And that’s what I love about these Marvel movies, they stretch the bounds of what people
consider the superhero movie genre.
From me, it gets a 9.5/10.
Guardians of the Galaxy.
So then Marvel’s big risk came: Guardians of the Galaxy.
Which is now known as Marvel’s big risk that paid off huge.
Not just financially but also critically.
And I love this movie.
Seriously, it is just so much fun.
The best parts of it really come from the characters.
All of the actors, even the ones that aren’t professionals, are great and hilarious when
they need to be.
In the actual Guardians team, there was no one I didn’t like.
I might actually say that I like this team as an assemble more than the Avengers.
Also, on that note, I’m not saying this movie is better than the Avengers, but it
had characters that were as great without the benefit of a couple of solo movies leading
up to it.
The action is cool and is what I hope the new Star Wars movie looks like.
That prison fight alone is so awesome.
And of course, there is Awesome Mix Vol 1, which fits in so well with this and has been
what I listen to everyday ever since the movie came out.
THe only complaint is the same with Thor: The Dark World, as in the villain is kind
of generic.
But he still served his purpose.
I gotta also say, this movie is hilarious.
I haven’t laughed this much in a superhero movie pretty much ever.
And really, it’s just so much fun.
All of these Marvel movies are pretty fun, but by the end of this, you just have a smile
on your face.
Kind of like how I felt after seeing Kingsman.
When I was watching this movie, and everyone in the cinema is laughing and grinning, I
just thought, “This is what superhero movies, hell, this is what summer movies should be
like.
I’m not saying you can’t have a dark and serious superhero movie be awesome, but as
for something dealing with talking raccoons and green alien assassins, this has the perfect
awesome vibe.
So overall, this movie has great action, great characters, great humor, great music, great
everything.
Sure the villain could be a bit better, but him being underdeveloped does give us more
time with the Guardians.
I might get some hate for giving this movie a rating this high, but I’m gonna give it
a 9.9/10.
If you haven’ts een it, then you seriously are missing out.
Avengers: Age of Ultron.
And finally, we’ve arrived at Avengers: Age of Ultron.
I’m not gonna spend a lot of time on this, because I literally just made my review for
it, so you can check that out by clicking here or the link in the description.
Overall, I liked it a lot, but I was slightly disappointed by a couple of things.
I am excited to see it again, but I feel like it was a bit of step down from Guardians of
the Galaxy.
I give it a 9/10, although the more I think about it, the score kind of decreases to an
8.5.
Oh well.
The main gist is, it’s good, and you should go see it.
Remember, for more thoughts, watch my review.
So, those are my thoughts on all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
I’m gonna be completely honest, along with Harry Potter, this is my favorite movie franchise
of all time.
Anyway, I’m going to ask the obvious question: what is your favorite Marvel movie and least
favorite Marvel movie?
Or if you want, rank the movies from best to worst.
While you’re at it, you can hit the like button and subscribe for more videos like
the one you just watched.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.