So now that Marvel’s Phase 3 has officially kicked off, I thought it would be interesting
to look back and compare Phase 1 and Phase 2 and see which is better.
For those who don’t know, Phase 1 marks the MCU movies from Iron Man to the Avengers,
and Phase 2 marks the MCU movies from Iron Man 3 to Ant-Man.
So, let’s see which one holds up more.
Marvel Phase 1 really had one specific job: set up the Avengers and this entire universe.
These movies were for the most part made to introduce us to the characters so we didn’t
have to do that in the Avengers.
And that is one of very few negatives for this phase, a couple of these movies are a
bit of Avengers set ups.
Some more than others, but a couple of them do have elements and scenes in there that
might have just been there to set up the next film.
That being said, this phase still did a very good job of setting up the Avengers while
telling interesting individual stories.
It introduced all of these characters who are now classic, and it gave me at least one
of my favorite movies of all time.
*clip* Overall, I like these movies a lot, especially Iron Man, Captain America: The
First Avenger, and The Avengers.
It isn’t often that quite a few movies all build up to something epic and then it actually
delivers on the promise, but this phase managed to do that, which is really impressive.
And another thing I have to give props for, these characters weren’t household names.
Comic book fans knew them, but not a ton of people knew about Iron Man, or Captain America,
and these movies changed that and made them some of the most famous superheroes in the
world, which I really have to commend.
Now let’s talk about Phase 2.
The main thing I took away from Phase 2 was that it brought new things to the table.
The Phase 1 films, while they had unique characters and unique-ish storylines, they all had very
similar styles.
In this Phase, it was switched up a bit.
It expanded the superhero movie genre.
This gave us a space opera, a spy movie, a heist comedy, and a Lord of the Rings-ish
type thing.
And I thought that was really interesting.
It’s what I’ve said time and time again, I love seeing superhero movies that push what
can be defined as a superhero movie, and I think Phase 2 did that fantastically.
Now while Phase 1 kind of had to set up for The Avengers, Phase 2 didn’t have a huge
movie to build up to.
Sure there was Ultron, but that was only a nod here and there.
Now these movies let us explore these characters further, like good follow ups should.
We get more of Tony Stark’s more vulnerable side and we get to see him having to use his
intellect again.
*break in scene* We get to see Captain America completely out of his element, where the world
he knew to be black and white, good and bad is now filled with grey areas that he has
to navigate through.
And we got introduced to a new team of superheroes that are arguably as likeable and charismatic
as The Avengers, which is really impressive considering these guys didn’t have any movies
leading up to their team movie.
Now, let’s just look at these two phases in terms of overall quality.
I’ve divided these up into fine, good, and awesome.
And remember, these are just my opinions.
Phase 1, we had awesome, fine, good, good, awesome.
Phase 2, we had good, good, awesome, awesome, good, good.
So while Phase 1 is great and we have to thank it for setting up this universe in a way that
no other franchise has done before, I’d probably have to say as a whole I like Phase
2 more.
Phase 1 has my favorite MCU movie in it, but it also has my least favorite.
I wouldn’t say Incredible Hulk is bad, it’s just qutie bland.
And while some people might disagree with me, I don’t think there’s anything subpar
in Phase 2.
In fact, a lot of these are pretty fantastic, and even the movies in this phase that I don’t
love, every single one of these films has some awesome moments.
*clips* So those were my thoughts on Marvel’s Phase
1 vs Phase 2.
Which one do you prefer?
I hope this video didn’t make it sound like I don’t like Phase 1, I love it!
That’s what got me into superhero movies in the first place.
I just think all together Phase 2 is a little more consistent quality wise.
Anyway, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.