Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Triggermv]

While I’ve been a casual viewer of most the MCU movies since they started coming out in 2008, up until lately, it has been just that… casual entertainment. Well, a few months ago, I decided to give the whole MCU a big chance to fully engage me and wow, it has been a fun ride ever since. What I wanted to do was to watch everything in chronological order, and by everything, I mean the movies, TV shows and even the official tie-in comics. Most of the comics are just some type of prelude to the movies. Took me a few months to pull this off. To get a good chronological order, I found this website and I followed it to a “T”, which turned out to be a great way to go:

http://www.storyhobby.com/timelines/marvel-multiverse-chronology/marvel-cinematic-universe-timeline/

Anyway, now that I’m caught-up, I thought it would be fun to rank and debate what I just watched, so feel free to rank and chime in yourself. Also, I figured it would be good to start an ongoing thread where people can post any new news items related to the MCU as they come out. So, here is my ranking of the entire MCU, minus the comics.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Thought this movie had the best drama and best action scenes of all the movies
2. Marvel’s The Avengers – Iconic way to pull everything together with the best villain in the MCU
3. Iron Man – Epic way to start the Universe with an unbelievable star for a headliner. Never got into the Iron Monger villain though.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy – Best space epic since the original Star Wars movies. Also was probably the funniest movie of the MCU so far.
5. Marvel’s Daredevil: Season 1 – Loved the street-level more-adult-themed tone of this show. Also contains probably the second best villain in the MCU. Being on Netflix is a great way to un-cuff all the normal problems of making a TV show for network viewing.
6. Ant-Man - Had super-low expectations, but walked away pleasantly surprised. Yet another weak villain, but contained some great comedy with some great actors. Paul Rudd won me over when I once was really skeptical of him.
7. Captain America: The First Avenger – Epic first-half of the movie with Cap’s origin story, but believe it or not, I found Red Skull a little underdeveloped. Loved the WWII time period aspect of this one.
8. Iron Man 2 – Many will mock me, but I actually really enjoyed this movie and actually enjoyed it more than Iron Man 3. Make fun of me all you want, but I didn’t think Whiplash was that bad. I think this movie gets unfairly criticized.
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Fun movie, but suffered from too much CGI action, too many characters, and too many storylines.
10. Thor: The Dark World – Criticize me if you will, but I actually liked this movie and thought it got an unfair bad wrap. I didn’t find Malekith that bad and I actually liked this movie more than the original Thor.
11. Iron Man 3 – Don’t know what it is, but I just never really got into this one, and it probably had something to do with the big Mandarin villain twist towards the end. Also never really liked Killian either. Again, I surprisingly like Iron Man 2 better
12. Marvel’s Agents of Shield: Season 2 – Liked the less cheese and more serious tone than the first season. Also, loved the Inhuman’s storyline. Used to hate Skye, but now don’t mind her.
13. Marvel’s Agent Carter – Loved the period timepiece aspect of this. Great show.
14. Thor – Don’t know what it is, but I just never got into this storyline or villains as much as the others. Again, I surprisingly liked Thor: Dark World more.
15. The Incredible Hulk – Good movie, but not great. Never was into Norton for the role, so was glad when the switch was made.
16. Marvel’s Agents of Shield: Season 1 – Struggled hardcore in the first half-dozen episodes, but then finally picked up when Winter Soldier storyline set in and the cheese started to fade. Overall, ended up really enjoying this.

It is also worth noting that I haven't actually disliked anything so far, while the first half-dozen episodes of Agents of Shield Season 1 came close. But again, even that got better. Overall, I've just found entertainment and merit in all of them, which is really pretty impressive, but of course, I definitely like some more than others.

 

[The_Architect]

Jessica Jones coming soon too!

 

[Triggermv]

Jessica Jones coming soon too!

After seeing what Marvel writers can do through Netflix once they are no longer strapped with all the limitations of network TV, I can't wait to see what they will do with Jessica Jones. The emergence of streaming services might be the best thing to ever happen to creative TV. If you haven't seen the new full trailer of Jessica Jones, you should. It looks awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWHUjuJ8zxE

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I haven't viewed everything on your list, but I am on the same page as you based on what I have seen. I'll also back you up on your critique of Iron Man 2. I never understood why it was so harshly criticized.

Overall, I think MCU does a great job mixing their darker-themed stories with some well-timed humor. I was really skeptical of GOTG at first, but it's solidly up there near the top.

 

[Triggermv]

I haven't viewed everything on your list, but I am on the same page as you based on what I have seen. I'll also back you up on your critique of Iron Man 2. I never understood why it was so harshly criticized.

Overall, I think MCU does a great job mixing their darker-themed stories with some well-timed humor. I was really skeptical of GOTG at first, but it's solidly up there near the top.

For sure. Something I found interesting was comparing my list to the composite critic ratings on Rotten Tomatos which go as follows:

1. Marvel's The Avengers
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Iron Man
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. Iron Man 3
6. Captain America: The First Avenger
7. Ant-Man
8. Thor
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron
10. Iron Man 2
11. The Incredible Hulk
12. Thor: The Dark World

As you can see, mine don't stray super far from theirs, but overall, I think they underrate Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World, but overrate Iron Man 3 and Thor.

 

[Wesley]

Guardians was the best movie.

 

[Triggermv]

Guardians was the best movie.

I can respect that. Another movie I had not very high expectations for that exceeded those expectations by a lot. My only complaint with Guardians was its featuring of yet another weak villain, but then again, which one isn't outside of Loki and Kingpin. There isn't exactly an excess of Heath Ledger's Joker in the MCU.

 

[Rural]

Thor is better than credited.

Hulk movies-garbage.

The Fantastic Four-the flagship-total failure every attempt.

So, is it because of the MCU thing that there's no mention of X-Men or Spiderman?

 

[laminak]

So, is it because of the MCU thing that there's no mention of X-Men or Spiderman?

I think the point was that they're all "connected" where as X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic 4, Blade, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, Daredevil (film), etc, were not "connected" to MCU.

 

[Triggermv]

Thor is better than credited.

Hulk movies-garbage.

The Fantastic Four-the flagship-total failure every attempt.

So, is it because of the MCU thing that there's no mention of X-Men or Spiderman?

Yeah, that is the difference between the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and all the other Marvel movies, which are in a complete different category. Long story short, Marvel was going bankrupt back in the 90's and to stay afloat, they started selling off the film rights to many of their major characters. Spider-Man went to Sony, Hulk to Universal, X-Men and Fantastic 4 to Fox and so on and so on. However, in the 2000s, Marvel decided they wanted to create their own studio and make their own movies. They then started this with the few characters they had rights to left and a few that they had reacquired rights back to. The first actual Marvel Studios film to come out was Iron Man back in 2008 and then by taking a look at my rankings list, you can see all the others. The special and new thing about all the Marvel Studios produced films is that they would all take place in one same universe and play off of one another, whereas all the other non-marvel studios films coming out (X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man... etc.) would still remain completely separate. Essentially, this is why my list is lacking some other Marvel entries.

Also, as you can see, Marvel has since expanded this "MCU" into both broadcast TV, streaming TV, and comics. These too are all produced by Marvel themselves rather than outside studios and all play together in the same world as the movies. Also keep in mind that when I say Marvel, also know that Marvel got bought out by Disney early on as well, which is the reason why multiple TV shows are shown through Disney-owned ABC. The Netflix shows are also still made through Marvel, but just exclusively shown through Netflix.

Last side note: Many of these other Marvel films that have been listed which have turned out to be garbage (Fantastic Four, Daredevil Movie, Ghost Rider... etc.) are not owned by Marvel and likely would have been lots better had they been owned and produced by Marvel Studios.

 

[Triggermv]

Here is a quick diagram showing who owns the rights to who for characters:

https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y1...t/file/3395286/marvel-rights-1334x1067.0.jpeg

Keep in mind too that many character rights who were once owned by others have since either by non-use been reverted back to Marvel (Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Blade, Punisher), have been reacquired by Marvel, or have had special deals worked out for Marvel to share or use them again (Hulk, future Spider-Man film). However, many still just remain with others (X-Men, Wolverine... etc.) and Marvel can't do anything about it. This whole thing is a testament to Marvel Studios though as Marvel essentially built their entire "MCU" universe on "B" or "C" list characters (all they owned rights to at the time) which they essentially turned into "A" list ones. Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy are some of the best examples.

 

[Triggermv]

For those interested, the following is a list of the official tie-in comics that are canon and part of the MCU:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe_tie-in_comics

Within this page, if you click on each comic and go to the bottom, you will see a youtube link where you can read each of these without having to go out and purchase them. If you are looking for a little further backstory to each movie, these are the places to go and none of them are very long.

 

[HoopsTournament]

Thor is better than credited.

Hulk movies-garbage.

The Fantastic Four-the flagship-total failure every attempt.

So, is it because of the MCU thing that there's no mention of X-Men or Spiderman?

Fantastic 4 and X-Men are not MCU. Only last Hulk movie is MCU. None of the Spiderman movies so far have been MCU, but the next one will be.

I have seen every movie but Ant-Man. I have seen every episode of the first two seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and all of the first season of Agent Carter and Daredevil.

Here is how I would rank them:

1. Daredevil Season 1 - I can't wait for season 2. This is one of the best shows I have ever seen.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Captain America: The First Avenger
5. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 2
6. Thor: The Dark World
7. The Avengers
8. Thor
9. Agent Carter
10. Iron Man
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 1
13. Iron Man 3
14. Iron Man 2
15. The Incredible Hulk

I have liked every single one of them. There hasn’t been a bad show or movie. The Incredible Hulk was the weakest, but still better than a lot of movies.

 

[SCNCY]

Off topic, but the universe that you are seeing from Marvel right now is going to happen to Star Wars. I think I remember reading that when Disney purchased Star Wars, they outlined multiple story lines, similar to the MArvel Universe. So while the Marvel Universe is slowing down, Star Wars is starting up!

 

[Triggermv]

Off topic, but the universe that you are seeing from Marvel right now is going to happen to Star Wars. I think I remember reading that when Disney purchased Star Wars, they outlined multiple story lines, similar to the MArvel Universe. So while the Marvel Universe is slowing down, Star Wars is starting up!

Yeah, there is no doubt that shared universes are kind of the relatively new hot phenomenon right now, and Marvel was the one who significantly paved the way. It isn't that they never existed in the past (Dr. Who, Buffyverse), but they surely never have existed on any level even close to what the MCU has done. Again, with Disney owning both Lucasfilm (Star Wars) and Marvel now, it shouldn't be surprising that they are trying to translate the success of one of their properties to another.

It is also worth noting that DC Comics/Warner Brothers is also trying to get on this bandwagon too, but in a slightly different way. Rather than mixing together their movies and tv shows into one shared universe like Marvel, they've opted to create two different shared universes and keep them separate... a tv one and a movie one. The first and only movie out so far in the shared movie universe is Man of Steel (Batman vs Superman is next up), whereas the TV one has been going for a while now with Arrow, The Flash, Constantine (retroactively), and possibly Supergirl (yet to be determined) all crossing over. I'm pretty sure there is some official tie-in comics as well for the movie universe similar to what Marvel has done.

 

[Triggermv]

Olivia Wilde as Captain Marvel anyone??? Personally, I'm hoping for Rebecca Ferguson or Emily Blunt.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/olivia-wilde-female-superheroes_562f812fe4b00aa54a4b1ec4

 

[CloniesForLife]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837/

Looking forward to this one. Benedict Cumberbatch is awesome.

 

[Triggermv]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837/

Looking forward to this one. Benedict Cumberbatch is awesome.

Definitely not my #1 favorite movie I'm looking forward to in the Phase 3 slate, but I'm still looking forward to it. All said and done, I'm excited about pretty much all of the Phase 3 movies and they all have the potential to be fairly new and fresh, including Dr. Strange.

 

[Triggermv]

New Jessica Jones trailer is out. Series set to be released in its entirety November 20th on Netflix.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/10/9703962/marvel-jessica-jones-trailer-netflix

Not gonna lie. I think this series looks awesome, and I was less than excited when things were originally announced.

 

[Triggermv]

FYI... Jessica Jones just debuted on Netflix last night at midnight. Anyone get a chance to see any of it yet? I haven't, but hope to get started on it sometime in the next week. According to rotten tomatoes, reviews are coming in pretty good so far with many saying it is the MCU's best production yet, but on an overall scale, it is getting ratings coming in a little below Daredevil. Those could change though as it gets more reviews.