Iron Man - Reflecting the Start to the Marvel Cinematic Universe 10 years later

 
With Avengers: Infinity War only a little over a month and a half away, I realized it was time to start going through all the previous movies to prepare for the big massive event on April 27, and in case you didn’t hear, Avengers: Infinity War’s release date was moved from May 4 to April 27. That means I need to start watching all the movies sooner, and since I don’t like to binge watch a ton of stuff in one sitting (17 movies would be way too much), I wanted to spread them out.

Anyway, I obviously started with Iron Man. What really sticks out is that this came out 10 years ago in May, and just reflecting on how much everything has changed since. I remember first seeing the trailer late 2007, and I was just not that impressed. We had a lot of not so great superhero movies before that. I really liked X-Men and Spider Man, but many of the others just were not impressive, anyone remember (get your barf bags ready) Daredevil with Ben Affleck. I saw this trailer and did not think much of it. I wasn’t thinking much about it, not even until a few days before it was released.

There was something very unique about that weekend as well, I got a job at a movie theater and my first weekend was when Iron Man was released, that’s right, I started on May 2, 2008, and during that time, our theater was allowed to see movies before they were released, this was called previewing a movie, I am pretty sure the rules have changed since and only certain managers can see it now, if that. Anyway, I was invited to preview this movie with the crew I was about to work with, this was a Thursday morning, and for some reason, my excitement for the movie started to grow. I watched the movie and was just really impressed with it, more so than I thought I would be, this was a great superhero movie.

The biggest shock was when Tony Stark revealed that he was Iron Man, I just sat there and was stunned, I never thought I would see that in a super hero movie, I mean we saw people find out that Peter Parker was Spider Man, but I just didn’t think that would happen, and that changed everything.

Credits rolled and I walked out the theater and went back to my daily things……yes, that’s right, I didn’t stay till the end of the credits, because this was the first official movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I was not aware that anything would be at the end of the credits, honestly I really didn’t have any movies before this that would have end credit scenes. Anyway, after the movie, I walked out and thought we would see a sequel in a couple of years and it would still be fun. I found out a couple of weeks later when I was talking with an employee at the theater and he mentioned that there was an end credit scene, at that moment I was stunned, and he agreed to bring me into a theater during the credits, and at that time I don’t recall anyone being in the theater during the credits, and this was during the day too, so I got to see the sequence, and it was cool, since I was not an avid comic book reader, I did not know the significance of this scene, it was explained to me about all these superheroes and that they were working to create the Avengers. I was not familiar with all these superheroes since I was not a comic book reader, but I was getting the idea of what they were trying to build towards, and that changed everything.

This was a great movie that simply had a key at the end that unlocked a universe that I was not even thinking was possible. Honestly, I am shocked by how big this universe really is, and I thought the first Avengers movie was big back in 2012, now forward to today, and those words that Nick Fury says, “you just became part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.” I heard from someone that they were working towards releasing The Avengers in 2012 (which of course became the release date), so I was very intrigued in where this was going. We also got The Incredible Hulk, which featured a scene before the end of the credits with Tony Stark, but nothing after the credits, and I actually stayed that time.

Iron Man was the starting point to the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe, and not many of us really knew it at the time. After 10 years, I feel this movie really holds up, and can be enjoyed as the entry point into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even as a standalone superhero movie. Even after 10 years, I still consider this movie within my top 5 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I am going to try to rank all the movies after I watch all of them before Avengers: Infinity War. Until then, I hope you enjoyed my brief reflections, and you have a great night.