I prepared my ass off for Endgame. If that was a programmer test to get into some AAA company, it would be the equivalent of going on KhanAcademy and watching the whole 3D math series, doing all the C++ programmer tests on the first search page of google, and doing a programmer test for a little indie company that you’re actually not interested in getting a job at. I’m of course referring to watching 19 of the 21 Marvel films that came out before Endgame.
It wasn’t originally supposed to be like that though. Two weeks before Endgame came out, I told Cali that we should start watching some Marvel films to prepare ourselves for it. So I started with one of the best in the MCU: Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Then we watched Guardians of the Galaxy the next day. And then Age of Ultron. And then Ant-Man. And then Iron Man.
Wait, what. How’d I go from Ant-Man, the 11th entry in the franchise, to Iron Man, the first entry? Well, watching all of those films showed me how great they were. And I thought to myself, “Endgame is literally the end”. And that made me sad. It felt like it’d be the end of all the films before it. Something new would emerge on the other side after Endgame is over. Shouldn’t I do everything to make the viewing of Endgame the purest there was? Shouldn’t I pay respect to the films that made it possible? So the day after viewing Ant-Man, I went on Amazon Video and rented Iron-Man with no warning to my girlfriend.
There was a lot to be excited about watching all the films before Endgame. Cali had never seen the original Iron Man! I hadn’t even seen the sequels to it either. We both hadn’t seen many of the phase one films, and we hadn’t seen a couple phase two films. Not only this though, but watching all the films in the correct order would really allow us to appreciate the later films even more. Because of this, a lot of films that I had thought were OK turned out be really damn good.
And lastly, why only 19 of the 21 films? Well, we had just seen Captain America in theatres, so we didn’t need to see that. And while we had seen Ant-Man and the Wasp last year, we would’ve liked to have watched it again. But we decided that time wise—we had to watch 19 fucking films in 14 days—it’d be best if we sat that one out given it was still pretty fresh.
Anyways, here’s the list. It’s much better than the one from AV Club and Polygon.
22) The Incredible Hulk
Is there a coincidence that a decade later that the most insignificant film in the MCU is also the worst one? They got rid of Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo (great decision), and nothing from the film was ever referenced on later. Even when we see Bruce Banner for the first time in Avengers, his whole lifestyle seems completely opposite of where he was when The Incredible Hulk ended. And not only is this film insignificant, but it’s a whole can of nothing. Packed full of crap action scenes with no character development whatsoever, this film truly sucks.
21) Thor
You know there’s something wrong with the film when they take a sexy piece of meat like Chris Hemsworth and make him look like he has down syndrome. But if that were the only problem, I might be able to overlook that. Instead, we get the additional problem of the director turning this into some Shakespearean play. We have terrible and unfunny dialogue, boring characters, and a meh villain. What a terrible introduction to Thor.
20) Thor: The Dark World
The eyebrows are fixed! They managed to make a sexy man look sexy! Isn’t that some great film making? And they got rid of those Shakespearean undertones. Still though, this film was pretty damn mediocre. We get those terrible humans again—Kat Denning and Natalie Portman, ugh. The script is too serious but not in a good way. And any attempt at fun falls straight on its face. It’s a sequel that’s better than the predecessor, but that’s not saying much here.
19) Avengers: Age of Ultron
This film isn’t terrible. Getting to see the gang get back together can’t be that bad because they obviously all have a great chemistry. And besides, we’ll always have Tony Stark’s sassy ass bringing my mood up. And if the film had focused on the social interactions between the characters, this film would’ve been much better. But instead, it brings uninspired fight scenes that take up way too much of the film.
18) Black Panther
This is the only film that I watched the second time around that made me not like it as much. The first time I watched it I remember being happy that black people were having their moment. Being able to see the cool culture things that Marvel did with Wakanda was great. And I really enjoyed the villain and the characters. But the second time around, the cool culture things weren’t as cool the first time in a theatre, and the villain was actually pretty stupid. He’s almost a great villain, but he’s so disingenuous about his motives. He has reasons to be mad, but when you look at those reasons with the information you have, they’re actually terrible. I’ll grant it that Michael B. Jordan looks phenomenal as Killmonger, and he’s incredibly woke, but the substance isn’t there. Add to this some “funny” lines that don’t quite hit and only a decent performance from Chadwick, and it becomes clear that the hype shouldn’t be bought into. Black Panther isn’t a great film, but it’s definitely a good film.
17) Iron Man 2
I know this one is actually well disliked for some reason. I don’t really understand that. The villains are the only problem I can see with the film, and I even enjoyed those. For me, Robert Downey Jr. just doing Tony Stark will never not be great to me. And him doing that in the film makes up for the meh villains. Also, we get to see some cool shit between Iron Man and War Machine. Ultimately though, just seeing Stark’s cocky, downward spiral makes this a film worth watching.
16) Doctor Strange
Talking about cocky people (literally) spiraling out of control, there’s Stephen Strange. We get to see this badass surgeon get what’s coming to him, and on his adventure to heal his hands, he gets to see a new side of the MCU: magic. Through all of this, we get the brilliant casting choice of Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange, Mads Mikkelsen delivering a good performance for an okay character, some good special FX (Inception-lite though), some time travelling fun, and Wong. Ultimately, that’s pretty damn good for a film.
15) Captain America: The First Avengers
I’ve seen this one several times so far because it’s one I would watch to prepare for the Captain America films. And every time I watch it, it surprises me because I like it more and more each time I catch it. And that’s weird to me because this film screams of some campy ass war film. But it believes in itself. And even though Steve Rogers is hokey as hell, I really like him. While normally a film like this would just be laughed off by me, it works in the context of itself really well. And it sets up a more superior movie with the great relationship between Bucky and Rogers.
14) Captain Marvel
When I watched this film in theatre, I left feeling great. Brie Larson kicked ass as Captain Marvel, and there are some legitimately great moments in the movie where she tries to figure out who she is. But seeing Samuel L. Jackson looking 20 years younger and reprising his character known as Samuel “Motherfucking” Jackson is so good. Add to the equation a cat, and this film is such a blast.
13) Guardians of the Galaxy
This was a film I rented before I became a Marvelhead, and I remember feeling like it was good. Not great. Not very good. Just good. But something about this viewing really showed me why it was so hyped when it came out. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve really grown fond of the Guardians, so seeing their origin story this time around is something special? Was it that I understood that Thanos in this film was a huge deal even though he wasn’t the villain? I’m not sure. All I know is that getting to see the circumstances of their meeting and seeing the hilarity ensue was so much better this time. And it really helps you appreciate the cast. Everyone is so good at what they do. From the immense physicality to Batista to the boyish attitude of Chris Pratt to the over the topness of Bradley Cooper as Rocket, every character really comes together here for a fun ass time.
12) Ant-Man
Speaking of great casting choices, let’s give a round of applause for Edgar Wright casting Paul Rudd as Ant-Man. They might’ve butchered Edgar’s script and gotten rid of him as the director, but a lot of his choices kept. And what a great choice. He’s just one of those actors you love seeing in stuff, and seeing him get to make it in a big way into mainstream films makes me super happy. Not only that, but he kills it as Ant-Man. His comedic talent from all of his other films transfers over to this one with ease. It just allows this film to be a funny little film in the MCU. Also, I gotta give a huge shot out to Peyton Reed for adding the hilarious Michael Pena flashback scene. Because even though I know that bad boy is coming, I still laugh my ass off as he recounts the flashbacks.
11) Ant-Man and the Wasp
While the first Ant-Man was great, I felt like some added higher stakes, going all in on the original idea of shrinking stuff, a longer (and funnier) flashback scene, and the quantum realm really help make this movie even more fun than the original. It basically does everything the first one did, but on a bigger scale. And that’s great because the original formula was great. But I’d really like to point out the biggest difference: they corrected one major flaw with the first Ant-Man. The first film featured a cameo from Gregg Turkington. You’ve probably never heard of him: he’s a washed up film expert/critic who’s career is only noteworthy because he got the chance to appear on Tim Heidecker’s On Cinema: At the Cinema. He got to play the Orange Julius manager in the first Ant-Man—that should be his job in real life as he’s an untalented hack. You can tell that seeing him in the movie triggered me. But I feel like the director made a huge gamechanger for his second film: he got Tim Heidecker to cameo in it. Tim plays a very handsome boat captain in this film. I broke out in applause when I seen him. A single tear rolled down my face. This is why Ant-Man and the Wasp is that much better than the first.
10) Spider-Man: Homecoming
It was interesting to see Marvel not do another R.I.P. Uncle Ben moment. As a kid, that moment was everything to me. It tore me apart. It was the moment that changed Peter Parker into Spider-Man. But it’s tiring to see Benny just heeling over and dying so many damn times. And this is a different Peter Parker anyways. He doesn’t just look like a nerd; he is one. His friend is such a big dork that the way he finds out about Peter’s secret is because he came over to build a Lego death star! It’s this friendship in particular that really gets to me as I’m such a huge nerd. Just seeing two big nerds having fun with each other, teasing each other, and just dorking out is awesome. Add to that a pretty decent villain, phenomenal performances from Stark and Holland, and an invigorating return to form for Spider-Man, and we’ve got a great film here.
9) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Now this was a film that had my attention when I seen it. I immediately liked it way better than the first, which at the time made sense because I didn’t respect Vol. 1 as much as I do now. But it just grabbed me right away. The opener was bigger and better in every way in this one. It barely even cared about the big alien action scene. It cared about Little Groot, the star of the whole damn film. Watch as Little Groot just dances around minding his own business while the rest of the gang is fighting for their lives. It’s this scene that really sets up the rest of the movie for me: this film is about laughing your ass off and having a good time. Batista doubled up on his deadpan, dry humor to huge payoff in this one. Little Groot constantly steals the show with his cute face. And we get to see some real development for the Guardians. We get to understand how Star Lord came to be, we get to feel sad for the test raccoon, and we feel affection for Michael Rooker’s character only to see him be killed off right after that. This is a film that pulls all the stops for the audience.
8) The Avengers
This was the biggest change from me. This movie went from “meh” to “damn that was amazing”. This was a film that I thought was much worse than Age of Ultron! How sad is that? I don’t know what changed though. The only thing that changed was that I got to see this film in the order it was intended. I got to see the first moment all of these character have met, and it made much more sense to me this time. Everything, that was intended to work on me the first time that didn’t, worked on me this time. But the moments that really made me appreciate this bad boy were the moments the Avengers just hung out. Seeing Stark try to get the green man out was hysterical, seeing everyone start to turn on Banner was tense, and seeing some of the biggest egos ever clash was a true treat to see. And while these were little moments, they were important. Because once the Avengers combined forces to kick some ass, the ass kicking was that much tastier.
7) Thor: Ragnarok
When the trailers were showing for this film, I was like, “Alright, this is gonna be a funny film like Guardians. We get it!” And while I had only seen the very bad Thor at this time, it looked like Ragnarok would be the film to put Thor back on the damn map. I wasn’t expecting it to be this damn goofy though. I’m so glad that the quirkiness shined through because it truly makes this film stand on its own in the comedy realm of the MCU. We get Chris Hemsworth getting to show his comedy chops, which Ghostbusters briefly showed in its own incompetent way. But the best thing about this film is the side characters. They’re tremendous! I mean we get Jeff Goldblum just being Goldblum. We get Karl Urban playing a survivor. We get the Hulk just pouting about. And we get Korg. Bless you Taika. Not only did you allow this film to be the goofiest and loosest version of itself with so much improv , but you also voiced the best side character in the whole MCU. Korg is so damn funny. When he first showed up, I couldn’t get enough. This big pile of blue rocks just shows that every single aspect of the film was considered and done so well. It scrapped the two terrible films before it and actually came up with the funniest MCU film of the whole bunch.
6) Iron Man
This is where it all started. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was my one of my first superhero movies, and it will always be one of my favorites. While I loved X-Men as well at the time, there was just something truly great about Spidey. With the success of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, it was only a matter of time until another studio nailed it just like that. There were a few that tried, but they weren’t there. Thank goodness that Marvel managed to pull Iron Man out of its hat. Rewatching this, after having not seen it for probably eight or so years, was such a pleasure because it still was just as good as it was when I was a kid. Robert Downey Jr. put so much into making Tony Stark one of the best superheroes ever. His unpredictability, his uncanny assholery, and his constant quips were completely uncommon for a superhero. Here was someone trying his damn hardest to not be anyone’s superhero. He just cared too damn much for him to not be anyone’s superhero. But if he was going to be their superhero, he was still going to be himself. And lucky for us, his version of himself is entertainingly douchey.
5) Iron Man 3
This film takes my last sentence, “entertainingly douchey” and doubles down on that. Wouldn’t it be funny if Tony was douchey to a child? Hell yes it would. The scenes where Tony gives pep talks to his new “buddy” are some of the funniest scenes in the MCU. It’s so uncharacteristic for the hero to just tease a kid like this. But every word had me keeling over with laughter. But there’s more to this film. It’s the sense of what’s to lose if Tony loses this fight. We see his whole house get absolutely torn to shreds, and we feel like we are going to indeed lose him. We get scared that he’ll lose Pepper or even Iron Patriot. And seeing Tony so close to losing it all is a tough watch, but that’s why having these moments of down time where he just absolutely shreds a kid to pieces is so great. It’s the balance MCU has strived to maintain throughout its run: try to put some stakes on the line for the superheroes while also making every moment in between as fun as possible.
4) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Once upon a time, this was my favorite Marvel film. But then Civil War happened. And then Infinity War. And then Endgame. Basically, the Russo brothers kept on making bigger and better films, thereby showing that The Winter Soldier wasn’t a one time success. But boy, even if it was a one time success, that would’ve been fine because this film is exceptional. It builds off the great cliffhanger left at the end of The First Avenger, and it completely goes all the way with it. And there’s more that TWS takes from TFA. It takes Steve’s best friend who died and resurrects him into one of the baddest villains in the whole MCU. Not only that, but there are legitimate stakes here. Steve’s only friend from his childhood and from the old times is the bad guy. What does he do? It’s dilemmas like this that make this film so great. We get a political conspiracy thriller in a MCU film where Captain has to put personal ethics above government. And we get a heaping scoop of Samuel L. Jackson on the side. This film is so good it even elevates TFA up a notch or two. It takes a special film for a sequel to make its predecessor even better.
3) Captain America: Civil War
I was so pumped for this film. We’re getting the Russo brothers back to direct basically an Avengers film? There’s a fight between the Avengers? Bucky is back? And boy did this film deliver on those expectations. And it does so in some truly ingenious ways. This is the first film to deal with the damage that these superheroes do to the world around them. While they’re obviously doing this to save a lot of people, there are always going to be causalities. And seeing Tony Stark wanting to repent for this is devastating. He has so much built up guilt that he’s willing to infringe on the freedoms he’s enjoyed for so long. This might be a Captain film, but that doesn’t mean that Tony doesn’t shine here. He’s probably of the main reasons it’s so damn good. Sure, the airport fight scene is absolutely tremendous, but the end fight scene is just as good. That’s because there are real consequences here. There is no villain in this film. Just people who are desperately hurt and want to hurt others. And seeing two people on the same side savagely fight for their lives is hard to watch. It’s easy to watch Captain beat the shit out of hydra because they’re scum. But it’s hard to see Captain beat the crap out of Iron-Man. It’s with stakes like this that make this film one of the best in the MCU.
2) Avengers: Infinity War
Civil War: Tony getting beat the crap out of by Captain will be the hardest moment to watch in the MCU.
Thanos: Hold my infinity stones.
Thanos holds the throne for being the best villain in the whole MCU. He reminds me a lot of Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Kingsmen. Samuel wanted to kill off 99% of the world’s population to save the earth from climate change. But he included himself and other rich people in that 1%. It’s obvious that Samuel is incredibly selfish for doing this. Thanos on the other hand… He holds these things to himself that he believes to be true. He believes he’s doing it for the good of the people. And he’s willing to do anything to wipe out 50% of all living organisms in the world to fight for what he thinks is right. That’s including putting himself in the equation of the snap. That’s including sacrificing the only thing he’s loved. Being able to see this things that are transparent for Thanos, makes us understand Thanos’s plight and get us to empathize with him.
Still though, this is an Avengers film. And it was the biggest one ever. We get to see all combinations of heroes we never thought we’d see before. Doctor Strange with Iron-Man? Thor with the Guardians of the Galaxy? And an incredibly epic fight between some of the biggest superheroes of all time against Thanos’s army? This film is so funny when it focuses on the little things like characters interacting with each other, and the film is so epic and badass with its fight scenes. But those things get overshadowed by the second hardest thing to ever see in the MCU. The snap wiped away dozens of the superheroes we have grown to love. When I think about Peter Parker’s whimpers as he leaves this place, I get chills. It’s a film that put all the stakes on the table, and it’s the first film where the heroes failed to retrieve those stakes off of the table. It’s a film where we should leave happy because we got to see all of our superheroes meet and kick ass with each other; instead, we’re left feeling incredibly sad.
1) Avengers: Endgame
Infinity War: The snap will be the most devastating moment in the MCU.
Russo Brothers: Hold my Fortnite pickaxe.
This film starts off incredibly. It starts off way too happy. Hawkeye and his family. Could this be after the snap? Maybe. But it isn’t. This film wants to remind you of where it left off. It wants to show you how unsuspecting people felt. Then it wants to show you the aftermath of this film. It goes into the future by a few years to show you how Earth has dealt with this travesty. Not well. But they’ve moved on from trying to do anything. They’ve accepted their fate. It’s incredibly disheartening to see.
But leave it to Marvel to counter those disheartening scenes with some of the funniest scenes in the whole MCU. I mean of course there’s the new and improved Thor. There’s that Fortnite scene that had me laughing hysterically. There’s Ant-Man’s great comeback. And then there’s the insanely ambitious time travel stuff. Time travelling back to landmark scenes from the MCU and showing them from a different angle blew me away. It’s absolutely thrilling seeing this stuff happen in the MCU. Every single stake is actually on the table this time, and we have to rely on time travel to save everyone. It’s soooooo good! But again, as with IW, the lighthearted moments aren’t what you leave the theatre with.
This film is the reason I’ve even seen all of the films on this list. I knew that Endgame would literally be the end of something, but I didn’t know what it would be ending. But I can say that I was a fool for not seeing some of this stuff happen. I was a fool for feeling so sad at the end of Infinity War. The stakes that were lost on the table would be returned. There’s no way they’d leave the MCU in that sort of mess. Maybe that’s why I didn’t leave the theatre as sad as I did when I seen Endgame. Because I knew the next film after IW would give us everything back. But I was wrong in assuming everything.
When Tony Stark seemed so hesitant to join the time traveling squad, I knew why. He was afraid he’d lose what he gained in the past few years. So the moment he joined, I was nervous. He knew not everyone would be able to make it, but he’d be mad if he didn’t put his life on the line to try and get everyone from the snap back. But I brushed my concerns aside for the rest of the film. I even brushed it aside when Tony laid there at the end. I thought when Pepper told him, “We’ll be okay. You can rest now” that help was on the way and that was the reason he could rest. So the emotions didn’t hit me too fully at first. But once I realized what rest meant, I was a mess.
It’s so sad to see something like Iron-Man come to an end. I seen the first one when I was 11 or 12, and I fell in love with Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Iron-Man. He will forever be the greatest superhero of all time thanks to Robert. But seeing an end of the MCU that I first fell in love with is hard. Who knows how many more of this incredibly ambitious sagas will be told in my lifetime? I don’t know. But I’m happy that Robert gave this to us all. “You can rest now” Robert Downey Jr. You’ve done enough for us all.