Join us for a whirlwind Marvel movie marathon
Columnist Kelly Lawler prepares for Avengers: Infinity War by binge-watching all 18 Marvel films.
I’ve been watching Marvel movies for what feels like Infinity.
In preparation for Avengers: Infinity War (officially opening Friday, though theaters will show it Thursday night), my fiancé thought it would be a grand old idea to spend what little free time we have rewatching every single Marvel movie, from Iron Man to Black Panther. And although we did spend one Saturday watching four in a row, we made it through all 18 with our sanity and relationship intact.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is 10 years old at this point, and taking a journey back through the franchise is actually a wild and educational experience. You forget just how magical Iron Man was in 2008, or how cool it was to meet the Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. So after watching upward of 36 hours of superheroic deeds, here are 18 thoughts I had about the MCU. Long may it reign.
1. Wow, Iron Man mentions MySpace.
The MCU feels a century old, in a lot of ways. 2. The Incredible Hulk is fine, really.
Usually derided by fans, this Hulk film starring Edward Norton isn’t groundbreaking in any way, but it’s a fine movie to watch while you’re folding laundry.
3. Iron Man 2’ s version of Black Widow is a nightmare.
It’s an open secret that Scarlett Johansson’s superspy is one of the worst-served characters in the MCU. But goodness, in Iron Man 2 she can’t even be recognized as the Natasha fans will come to love.
By the way, the official ranking of her wigs goes, from best to worst: Avengers, Age of Ultron, Iron Man 2, Winter Soldier, Civil War. Please burn the Civil War Farrah wig.
4. Thor is good only in that one scene where he smashes the coffee mug and screams “Another!”
I could skip the entire rest of the movie, to be honest.
5. Captain America: The First Avenger is so much stronger than I remembered.
I wrote off Cap’s first outing as a setup for The Avengers because it uses the same McGuffin (the portal-opening Infinity Stone called the Tesseract, which Loki later uses to bring his alien army to New York) as its driving force. But the way this film establishes Captain America as the heart of the franchise is really quite beautiful.
6. The Avengers seems a little slight now.
Long my favorite from the entire franchise, the original team-up film has lost some of its magic. Sure, it’s still a fun and funny film, but the joy you got just from seeing all six OG Avengers together is a bit lessened after they’ve hung out in so many subsequent films.
7. Iron Man 3 might be one of my favorites, actually?
Director Shane Black’s third installment in the solo Iron Man franchise is polarizing among fans, and I used to think it was fine. But on a rewatch it’s actually one of the more inventive films and one of the best uses of Tony Stark. 8. Thor: The Dark World is still trash.
With too much CGI, a terrible villain and no chemistry between the leads, this remains my most hated Marvel film, but at least I got through a rewatch.
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier feels more like its own movie than any of the rest.
Put Winter Soldier up against any spy thriller and it will hold its own. Widely considered to be the best film to come out of the MCU, it is the easiest and most exciting to rewatch.
10. Guardians of the Galaxy felt so refreshing in 2014, but the formula has been used too much.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: Our heroes are looking for a magic thing. An evil villain gets the magic thing. They have to stop the villain from using the magic thing. 11. Avengers: Age of Ultron is still groan-worthy.
The second Avengers film wasn’t exactly warmly received when it hit theaters, but watching it so close to strong films like Winter Soldier and Guardians makes its flaws all the more glaring. Sun’s getting real low on it.
12. But the Falcon cameo in Ant-Man feels way more natural when you just saw him in Age of Ultron two hours earlier.
What felt like a gimmick when the movie was in theaters doesn’t seem out of place when you’ve been mainlining Marvel for eight straight hours. (I’m OK, I swear.)
13. Captain America: Civil War is super-fun but inevitably kind of shallow.
Perhaps the movie on this list that most shamelessly exists to bridge the gap between other films, Civil War has that one cool fight scene with all the heroes but really is more about introducing the audience to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther. (I’m not overly mad about that, though.) 14. Doctor Strange is way, way worse than I remembered.
Did I hit my head before I saw Doctor Strange in theaters? Because I remember at least mildly enjoying it, but this time around it was almost unwatchable. From the dizzyingly messy CGI to the lame villain to the rote origin story, none of it holds up for me. At least it gave me time to cook dinner, since I couldn’t sit still and watch it.
15. Baby Groot is the
Tom Holland suited up solo for 2017’s “Homecoming.” biggest problem in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
The second Guardians film isn’t as strong as the first in many ways, but Baby Groot is more annoying the second time around, as cute as he is.
16. I kept forgetting Spider-Man: Homecoming existed.
Running down the list of MCU movies we had yet to watch, I forgot to mention Holland’s first solo film, every time. It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s more that in the grand scheme of things, SpiderMan feels like a footnote in the MCU.
17. Thor: Ragnarok is better on a second watch.
In theaters, the uproarious space adventure could often get drowned out by laughter, but on a rewatch, the nuances and subtleties are much more apparent.
18. It was really nice to have an excuse to see Black Panther for a third time in theaters.
I highly recommend this.