Mercurius
Legend
So I decided to re-watch the entire run of MCU movies, almost all of which I've seen before - except Age of Ultron and the various TV spin-offs. But I'm going to throw in Agents of Shield and of course watch Age of Ultron when it comes out on blu-ray.
Anyhow, I just finished up Phase One. My first thought is that even though I was more of an X-Men fan growing up, as a group the MCU movies hold together much better than the X-movies. My all-time favorite comic movie remains X2, and Days of Future Past, X-Men, and First Class are all probably top ten, but I love how they build up to The Avengers with Phase One. It really works.
Best of all, there isn't really a dud in the batch...well, not quite. I found The Incredible Hulk and Thor to be mediocre. The former lacked an origin story, which to me is my favorite part of comic movies. And to be honest I thought Ang Lee's Hulk is a bit underrated and a better movie overall, but perhaps not well received because of how dark it was. Back to MCU, Thor was just OK, nothing terrible or special about it. But both are quite watchable.
The two Iron Man movies are quite good. Actually, I remember being under-whelmed by Iron Man 2, but it was much better on a re-watch. I realized that part of the issue with it is that the pacing is different, slower even. It doesn't have the usual rising and then climaxing story arc, but feels like a sequence of episodes. In a way it is more cerebral than the others. And there's just no getting around the fact that Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark has to be the best rendition of a comic hero in any movie. He's just fun.
I wasn't much of a fan of Captain America growing up, always finding him a bit hokey. But the movie really makes him work and Chris Evans is very good. I would have liked to see more of the present, but that comes in the next film. Overall it is a very satisfying movie.
The jewel of the group is The Avengers. I'd say that Iron Man and Captain America are probably better films, but The Avengers is just plain old fun. That said, I found the Chitauri invasion a bit underwhelming - too much spectacle, too contrived. The big whale things were kinda cool, though. Oh yeah, what's not to like about Agent Coulson?
So that ends Phase One. Up next is Phase two, but first I'd like to open up conversation of Phase One. I probably won't watch the one-shots, unless someone really recommends them. I did watch the pilot of Agents of Shield when it came out and was underwhelmed, but my brother loves it and says it gets much better by the end of the first season, so will be watching it in the recommended viewing order - starting after Iron Man 3.
Anyhow, I just finished up Phase One. My first thought is that even though I was more of an X-Men fan growing up, as a group the MCU movies hold together much better than the X-movies. My all-time favorite comic movie remains X2, and Days of Future Past, X-Men, and First Class are all probably top ten, but I love how they build up to The Avengers with Phase One. It really works.
Best of all, there isn't really a dud in the batch...well, not quite. I found The Incredible Hulk and Thor to be mediocre. The former lacked an origin story, which to me is my favorite part of comic movies. And to be honest I thought Ang Lee's Hulk is a bit underrated and a better movie overall, but perhaps not well received because of how dark it was. Back to MCU, Thor was just OK, nothing terrible or special about it. But both are quite watchable.
The two Iron Man movies are quite good. Actually, I remember being under-whelmed by Iron Man 2, but it was much better on a re-watch. I realized that part of the issue with it is that the pacing is different, slower even. It doesn't have the usual rising and then climaxing story arc, but feels like a sequence of episodes. In a way it is more cerebral than the others. And there's just no getting around the fact that Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark has to be the best rendition of a comic hero in any movie. He's just fun.
I wasn't much of a fan of Captain America growing up, always finding him a bit hokey. But the movie really makes him work and Chris Evans is very good. I would have liked to see more of the present, but that comes in the next film. Overall it is a very satisfying movie.
The jewel of the group is The Avengers. I'd say that Iron Man and Captain America are probably better films, but The Avengers is just plain old fun. That said, I found the Chitauri invasion a bit underwhelming - too much spectacle, too contrived. The big whale things were kinda cool, though. Oh yeah, what's not to like about Agent Coulson?
So that ends Phase One. Up next is Phase two, but first I'd like to open up conversation of Phase One. I probably won't watch the one-shots, unless someone really recommends them. I did watch the pilot of Agents of Shield when it came out and was underwhelmed, but my brother loves it and says it gets much better by the end of the first season, so will be watching it in the recommended viewing order - starting after Iron Man 3.
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