The Road to Endgame

This is it, we have made it to the concluding chapter of this era in the MCU. I will be seeing Avengers Endgame on tonight at 6:00 PM, and I am so excited, this is like waiting for Christmas to come. It continues to get harder to wait, but I can't wait to see what happens. Anyway, in preparation for the final chapter of the Infinity Saga (as Kevin Feige has called it), I went back and rewatched all the movies, including seeing Captain Marvel in theaters. I felt it was time to take the list I made last year and update it, including adding Avengers Infinity War, Ant Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel into the list.

21. Thor: The Dark World – This and Iron Man 2 kind of switch out between one another, but I went ahead and put this one at the bottom because this had aspects that just did not work for me. I find Darci to be pretty annoying, a villain that was forgettable (yeah, I am aware of the criticism of the villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be the weaker aspect of the movies, but this one could have been way better), and a romance that was fell flat. I have to admit, I did not mind the romance between Thor and Jane Foster in the first one, but this one just made me wish that they would split the couple apart, which thankfully they did. I also felt there were issues with the pacing. That said, I still like the visuals and the moments between Thor and Loki were great, I also like what we get when we explore Asgard.

20. Iron Man 2 – The sequel to the one that started it all, unfortunately it was not the movie that we were hoping for. There were a ton of pacing issues, much like Thor The Dark World. As well, a villain that could have been really cool, and just seem to lose his momentum as the movie progressed. This became a movie that was focused more on world building instead of focusing on the main story, but at the same time, it was understandable and I can still forgive them for that, plus we got a cool introduction to Black Widow, and Justin Hammer by Sam Rockwell was a fun addition to the cast. So yeah, there were a ton of problems, but I had more fun with it this time around then when I tried to watch it again three years ago.

19. The Incredible Hulk – I don’t mind this one as much as other people do. I have seen lists on Facebook where people are gearing for Infinity War and this has become the entry that has been neglected or disregarded, and the reasons I completely understand. I got to admit though, this was still an entertaining movie when it came out, and Edward Norton’s take on Bruce Banner was pretty solid. The final fight between Hulk and Abomination were pretty cool, and some of the moments of humor were nice, obviously there has been much better use of humor in later movies, but the jokes they used were pretty good here. I don’t consider this a complete misfire at all.

18. Iron Man 3 – We could totally go into the biggest pet peeve of the movie, the villain, the one that actually came off as amazing in the trailer, and then…..yeah, if you have seen the movie, you know the reveal, but in case you haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin it here. With that out of the way, watching this again was nice to see the character of Tony Stark develop in this one. His experience of saving the world in The Avengers left him with PTSD. Maybe the fault was that expectations were high after the first Avengers movie and also the fact we were hoping this would make up for Iron Man 2. 

17. Thor – Until 2011, the only superheroes we got for the still small Marvel Cinematic Universe was Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. I was not familiar with Thor as I never read the comics growing up, or new much about any of the superheroes unless a movie came out of them, so going into this I wasn’t too sure what to expect. It was a solid movie, I really liked the production design and also the score that accompanied the movie. It was a solid entry.

16. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Following up on the first Avengers has to be a difficult task to complete, as you can tell, this didn’t make my top 10 in Marvel movies, but honkestly, I wouldn’t scratch this off in any way, it was very entertaining and I actually enjoyed the villain in this. This has a ton of aspects that I thrillingly enjoyed. Also featured one of my blink and you’ll miss moments that made me laugh. So yes, this is flawed, but ton of great moments that make this one that I can put on and just watch for fun. 

15. Captain America: The First Avenger – This was not anticipated at all by me, but the trailers did kind of spark my interest, but I wasn’t too sure what to make of it going in, but this was a movie that really surprised me. I really enjoyed the World War 2 setting with sci-fi elements thrown into the mix, kind of had that vibe of The Rocketeer. Also features one of my favorite villains, not because of motives, but just because of the design and the performance.

14. Captain Marvel - One of the newest heroes to be introduced into the MCU. I have heard much about the character and how awesome she is, so I was looking forward to her solo movie, and I really enjoyed it. The big highlights were the 90s setting, I have very fond memories of the 90s, as that was where I did a lot of my growing up. Also, it was fun seeing all these little Easter eggs that connected throughout the MCU, and of course Goose the Cat (or Flirkin). I am also impressed with how they de-aged Samuel L Jackson and it really looked like they took him from the 90s and brought him here to film the movie. This movie is a ton of fun to watch. 

13. Spider Man Homecoming – Andrew Garfield’s turn as Spider Man kind of decreased my interest in another Spider Man movie, not because I thought he was a bad actor, but just the direction and everything about that reboot series, so yet we got another reboot, but they made the right choices with the rebooted character, in particular Spidey’s story in his first solo movie, which is to ditch the origin story and focus on his growth in this Avengers world. Also, this movie featured a twist that shocked me and the rest of the theater when we all first saw it. The approach to this movie was very entertaining, and still holds up now.

12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – This features one of my favorite opening credit sequences. Seriously, if you aren’t at least smiling at that sequence, then I don’t know what to say. I have talked much about this already so I won’t go too much into it, but this movie was a ton of fun to watch and re-watching it in preparation for Endgame, I found myself just having a blast. Also, when I first watched the movie in the theater, during the first 20 minutes I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to pass out.

11. Ant Man and the Wasp - After the release of Infinity War, I was looking forward to this, one of the reasons was to see what Ant Man was up to, but mainly because I recalled that article I read that featured Evangeline Lilly back in late 2017 where she talked about the role this movie would play in the MCU moving forward, and I figured this would help shed light on potential solutions for the next Avengers movie, so yes I was anticipating this, read my post on thoughts after Infinity War for more on my theories regarding this. I got a very fun movie with plenty of laughs, and also had some really cool tech and gave us more of a look into the Quantum Realm and the possibilities it gave us. Also, Luis and the truth serum.

10. Doctor Strange – I remember everyone talking about how excited they were for Doctor Strange, and once again, someone that doesn’t read comic book, I didn’t get the fascination when hearing about the character, that was until I saw the trailer, and what this would introduce to the MCU. This has the most inventive special effects for a movie, yeah we have The Matrix and Inception with similar effects, but that doesn’t diminish the wonder I feel when seeing these things on the screen. Actually, this featured the best use of 3D in a very long time. 

9. Ant Man – This movie ended up on my top 10 of 2015, it was a surprise to me as I wasn’t thinking there would be much out of it. My mind was still gearing towards Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. They introduced Guardians of the Galaxy, but I felt this was when they really started to crank out the more obscure characters and try to see how they would be received. This really delivered in so many ways. I really enjoyed the concept of the film, which was a heist movie with superhero elements. You can never go wrong with the use of Michael Pena’s character.

8. Captain America: Civil War – I don’t know where to start with this, this was a movie that featured so much, and the buildup of the universe is what made this entry worth it, and featured many things that made me think, like which side would I put myself on. Also, it introduced me to a character that I immediately became excited to see a solo movie for, that was Black Panther. What came before it is what made me emotionally invested, how were these characters going to come out of this, what would result. Yes, this featured the most forgettable villain, but for this movie I feel that was okay because the movie wasn’t about the villain but about the conflict and how everyone became challenged because of this conflict. Yeah, I have another Captain America movie that beat this even though this was excellent.

7. Black Panther – I already said it, I was looking forward to Black Panther’s solo movie after his debut in Captain America: Civil War. The world of Wakanda was breathtaking, and just awesome to look at, and is another example of how amazing the world building for the MCU really was. It also featured very intriguing characters that you would like to see solo movies for. This features a very good music score and a very good message. This felt like a very unique solo movie. If you asked me if I thought this would become so popular that it would become number three in the all time box office in the US, I wouldn’t have believed you. 

6. Thor Ragnarok – As you can tell, the Thor movies weren’t among my favorites in the MCU, at least until this one came out. This was the movie that got me more invested in the character and really enjoyed the adventure that he was on. Everything about this felt very fresh thanks to the director. Everything about this movie was very unique. Also, the ending was a bit of a surprise for me as I didn’t think it was going to end the way it did. But everything about this movie was just a blast to watch. A part of me wants to find the original script and read it to see what was scripted and what was improvised. 

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – After Iron Man 3 and Thor The Dark World in 2013, I figured I had the direction on where everything was going heading into Avengers Age of Ultron. Not only did this prove me wrong, but it managed to destroy any possible idea I may have had. This was a movie that really surprised me in so many ways, first off by the action, by the direction and by the story. I never thought about the idea of SHIELD becoming corrupt from the inside. The first Captain America movie was a solid entry, but the sequel went from a fun adventure movie to a political thriller, even made me think about what I would do in these kind of situations. Yes, Civil War was excellent, and I juggled as to which one I liked more between this and Civil War, but in the end I liked this one more as this one surprised me way more as to what to expect.

4. Iron Man – The one that started it all, still among one of my favorites. I went in not expecting anything, and walking out being blown away. As you can read in my last post, I did not find out about the end credit sequence till about a couple of weeks later. Here is a question for everyone, when and how did you discover the end credit sequence? This movie had great action, and gave us a lot of cool attitude, and I also really enjoyed the soundtrack to this. This was a great set up and we didn’t even know how big things would go from there, but the fact they started off right is what makes this excellent.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy – Up to this point, the only Marvel movies we had were about Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. This was the first time that they featured any other Marvel characters, and there were probably many that didn’t know what to expect going in. I went in the first weekend because it was a Marvel movie but also the idea behind it really caught my eye, kind of reminded me of a Star Wars movie. Did they expect this to be the hit that it became to be? So many questions, but this was the first time we were introduced to new characters and were not featured any of the bigger known characters. Actually, this was a group of heroes that were not very well known, but I don’t count as I said many times before, I didn’t read the comics growing up. But this became a big hit and blew many away, myself included, and not only that, it is one of those that you can rewatch again and again just because.

2. Avengers Infinity War - This was my most anticipated movie last year and I even wondered at times if they would pull it off, let alone it be something that I would want to rewatch quite a bit. This is one of those movies, despite the dark ending, that I can rewatch quite a bit. Seeing all the characters come together (minus a few) and see them interact with one another was like a dream come true. I also keep thinking how gorgeous the visuals of the movie look, obviously from the CG work on the movie, but also the colors of many of the shots in space, especially when they go to Nidavellir to make Thor's new weapon, the colors and the scope of the place are just amazing. All the locations in space they go to are just amazing. This movie features many awesome action sequences and many moments where you want to cheer, I still remember the moment where Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive in Wakanda, and just getting very excited at that moment. This is a movie that I find many awesome things each time I rewatch it.

1. The Avengers – This is my favorite Marvel movie at this moment, but of course we will have to see where Endgame falls on this list after the movie comes out. We had many superhero movies before, but this was the first time that we had this kind of movie where you combined superheroes from other movies. This was something that was not done before, and that was what made this exciting. Not only that, it was an incredibly entertaining movie, with tons of laughs. I was among those that was concerned with them replacing Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo, as I enjoyed Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, but Mark Ruffalo did a great job. What made this work was we had a director that knew how to make each character interaction work, every laugh worked because of this. I enjoyed coming back to the theater each time I could to see this because of how entertaining it was. I still enjoy going back to rewatch it. Yes, the MCU has gotten so much bigger and has grown so much since the Avengers first assembled here, but there is something so perfect about this outing that it still stays on the top of my list after all these years. And this is something I can rewatch quite a bit.

I am stoked to see Avengers Endgame tonight. Once I see it, I will share brief thoughts on the movie that night, but I will keep it spoiler free, and then will go into more details on the movie a week or two later.