I think Phase 2 is maybe the weakest? I think the top three films are Ironman, Civil War, and Infinity War, and Phase 2 is the only one without one of those.
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Was Phase 1 of the MCU pretty weak until you get to Avengers?
- Thread starter Uzumaki Goku
- Start date
I feel like I'm in the minority of people who found The First Avenger absolutely boring.
Iron Man 1 was great and I enjoyed Thor 1 for the most part but yeah, I think Phase 2 is where it kicked off for me.
Iron Man 1: Fantastic
Hulk: Meh
Iron Man 2: Hated it
Thor: Fun
First Avenger: Meh (better than Hulk though)
Avengers: Great
Phase 3 is definitely the strongest for me with only one real miss (Ant Man and The Wasp). I could watch any of the Phase 3 films over and over again.
Iron Man 1 was great and I enjoyed Thor 1 for the most part but yeah, I think Phase 2 is where it kicked off for me.
Iron Man 1: Fantastic
Hulk: Meh
Iron Man 2: Hated it
Thor: Fun
First Avenger: Meh (better than Hulk though)
Avengers: Great
Phase 3 is definitely the strongest for me with only one real miss (Ant Man and The Wasp). I could watch any of the Phase 3 films over and over again.
Iron Man 1 is fantastic, everything went downhill from there until captain america the winter soldier, best marvel movie ever.
Captain America The First Avenger is a nearly great movie that was forced to be merely a good movie because Cap had to get frozen in time for The Avengers.
Seriously, it is paced perfectly until suddenly there's a montage that fast forwards things to fit the corporate grand plan.
Seriously, it is paced perfectly until suddenly there's a montage that fast forwards things to fit the corporate grand plan.
No. Winter Soldier is better than Civil War and in phase 2. Iron Man 3 is underrated/needlessly shat on because of the Mandarin twist. Ant Man is good fun. And Guardians of the Galaxy rocks.
Yeah.... Ironman was the best, the first Cap is better in hindsight than it was at the time of its debut... So yeah, Avengers being done so damn well and sticking the landing was what really set fire to things. That turned a lot of casual moviegoers into literal "Im gonna go see all the connecting MCU movies" people for sure.
Yep.
I like Cap 1 slightly more than I used to, under the lens of a campy Rocketeer-style family action movie. But it's the weakest of his movies and still has bad pacing. Kind of wasted an awesome actor playing an awesome comic book villain.
Iron Man 2 and Thor 1 are pretty bad. I used to defend them but my rewatch earlier this year exposed a lot of warts.
They all feel exactly the same.
Winter Soldier/GotG were first greats post Iron Man and glimpse of what the MCU could be without Perlmutter.
Now it's getting weird and fantastical. I love it. The Raimi-directed Multiverse of Madness, Wandavision, fucking Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Devil Dinosaur, Blade, the Eternals and another Taika-directed Thor movie are coming. I'm excited.
Ugh, exactly!! After that montage, the rest of the movie is on fast-forward and fits the same stupid mold as Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and Thor. It sucks.
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Absolutely not
Iron Man kicked things off well
Captain America TFA is one of the secret best MCU films
Hulk is fun
Thor is a lot of fun.
Iron Man 2 is better than it's remembered to be
Iron Man kicked things off well
Captain America TFA is one of the secret best MCU films
Hulk is fun
Thor is a lot of fun.
Iron Man 2 is better than it's remembered to be
I would say less "weak" and more "unsure."
If I'm not mistaken, prior to Avengers it wasn't a sure thing that it ould even happen (especially with Iron Man and Hulk). So I'd say "less focused," but I only didn't like Iron Man 2 (that was phase one, right?)
If I'm not mistaken, prior to Avengers it wasn't a sure thing that it ould even happen (especially with Iron Man and Hulk). So I'd say "less focused," but I only didn't like Iron Man 2 (that was phase one, right?)
the only movie in phase 1 I watched more than once was Iron Man.
*slowly raises hand*
*slowly raises hand*
I feel like the quality of the movies elevated at the same rate as the stakes and the world building, which was pretty great. Going back and rewatching the early movies to see the little clues that tied into what was coming as far as infinity stones.
Answers are far more diverse than I expected.
There is no better movie, in any phase than Iron Man. There are equal movies but none better. Cap 1 is just a hair short of being great but it gets better in hindsight, especially after to watching the entire saga. Thor comes in next, solid watch every time and the best music in the phase. Hulk has its moments as does the weakest link known as Iron Man 2.
There is no better movie, in any phase than Iron Man. There are equal movies but none better. Cap 1 is just a hair short of being great but it gets better in hindsight, especially after to watching the entire saga. Thor comes in next, solid watch every time and the best music in the phase. Hulk has its moments as does the weakest link known as Iron Man 2.
Iron Man 1 is a great film.
Captain America and to a lesser degree Iron Man 2 are underrated.
Thor is mostly forgettable.
Hulk is mostly forgotten in the MCU outside of General Ross.
I can understand why some are underwhelmed by the MCU Phase 1 but I think it is a case where the sum is greater than the parts.
Captain America and to a lesser degree Iron Man 2 are underrated.
Thor is mostly forgettable.
Hulk is mostly forgotten in the MCU outside of General Ross.
I can understand why some are underwhelmed by the MCU Phase 1 but I think it is a case where the sum is greater than the parts.
No. But I think it's easy to look back at it now and think this given how much higher the quality became after.
Iron Man and Captain America are great.
Thor and Incredible Hulk are fun/solid.
Avengers just took it all to another level and Marvel Studios wisely stepped their game up with the solo films in reaction to that.
Iron Man and Captain America are great.
Thor and Incredible Hulk are fun/solid.
Avengers just took it all to another level and Marvel Studios wisely stepped their game up with the solo films in reaction to that.
I'd disagree about the First Avenger, but everything else you say here rings true to me.
Iron Man - Incredible
The Incredible Hulk- Solid (As a Hulk fan, shame what became of him post Ragnarok)
Iron Man 2 - Alright
Thor - Okay
Captain America - Amazing
The Incredible Hulk- Solid (As a Hulk fan, shame what became of him post Ragnarok)
Iron Man 2 - Alright
Thor - Okay
Captain America - Amazing
Iron Man, Thor, and the first half of Captain America are fun as hell. I really enjoyed Avengers at the time, but I almost immediately found myself still wanting to revisit the standalones more.
Thor is still probably in my top 3 MCU movies. Something about its tone, Shakespeare-by-numbers family dynamics, breezy (if weightless) romance, and relatively low stakes strike me as infinitely rewatchable; it never ceases to put a smile on my face.
Thor is still probably in my top 3 MCU movies. Something about its tone, Shakespeare-by-numbers family dynamics, breezy (if weightless) romance, and relatively low stakes strike me as infinitely rewatchable; it never ceases to put a smile on my face.
Iron Man was the best of the bunch. The second movie did nothing but feel like a reminder "We are making an Avengers movie, just hold tight, okay?"
Thor had a simple enough charm to sell the premise, people liked Loki (though weren't infatuated the way Avengers evolved that fandom), and Hemsworth's hotness helped keep eyes on it.
Captain America was very good, but it was only a modest success that worked mostly to prime people further on the Avengers build-up.
Avengers completely sold these characters working together, with the big and small dynamics that came out of that. According to Whedon, the previous Zak Penn script basically had nothing to it. No meat on its bones, none of that character that sells people on that team. Avengers was the promise of dessert that pays off by making you forget about the decent-enough meal preceding it.
Thor had a simple enough charm to sell the premise, people liked Loki (though weren't infatuated the way Avengers evolved that fandom), and Hemsworth's hotness helped keep eyes on it.
Captain America was very good, but it was only a modest success that worked mostly to prime people further on the Avengers build-up.
Avengers completely sold these characters working together, with the big and small dynamics that came out of that. According to Whedon, the previous Zak Penn script basically had nothing to it. No meat on its bones, none of that character that sells people on that team. Avengers was the promise of dessert that pays off by making you forget about the decent-enough meal preceding it.
First Avenger is friggin phenomenal. The first Superman movie in a long time. Many good things in IM1 as well. That said, half of phase 1 is bad, and A1 has great beats but spotty action. IM3 raised the bar higher than it for setpiece stuff, and the MCU didn't realize its full potential until Winter Soldier, which is still the peak of the continuity IMO (though Infinity War comes close).
Still one of my favourite scenes in movies just because it just connects. If people don't "get" Captain America, this should help:
Tucci was awesome, Erskine doesn't get enough praise. As well, Silvestri's OST was just rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrridiculously good in this flick. Captain America March was the first standout solo theme in the series since IM3's banger didn't come until afterwards.
Since Winter Soldier though, it's been banger after banger save some of the solo origin movies (Strange, CM, AM1 -- all of which have good spots and their diehard fans).
Still one of my favourite scenes in movies just because it just connects. If people don't "get" Captain America, this should help:
Tucci was awesome, Erskine doesn't get enough praise. As well, Silvestri's OST was just rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrridiculously good in this flick. Captain America March was the first standout solo theme in the series since IM3's banger didn't come until afterwards.
Since Winter Soldier though, it's been banger after banger save some of the solo origin movies (Strange, CM, AM1 -- all of which have good spots and their diehard fans).
Only by a month. They were developed along side each other. Iron Man was Marvel Studios first film, and Incredible Hulk was Universal. They weren't intentionally made to sit in the same universe at the time.
Yep, IM3, Winter Soldier, Guardians (even though I don't like it) and the hyped return and follow up to Loki made Thor 2 at least desirable to see back in the day. Frankly TDW isn't that much worse than Thor 1 and was more interesting to see what happens to the characters than the original. AoU while not great was fun, and it has... ant man too?
Phase 1 definitely suffers from a lot of films that seem to be searching for a style and contains what are arguably the two worst MCU films in Hulk and IM2. Phase 1 felt like a prototype that really didn't take off until the Avengers and then off into Phase 2.
That said, at the time, it was a joy for me to just see really comic accurate interpretations of that core Avengers team. Besides Sam Raimi's Spiderman, comic book movies rarely actually embraced their source material.
That said, at the time, it was a joy for me to just see really comic accurate interpretations of that core Avengers team. Besides Sam Raimi's Spiderman, comic book movies rarely actually embraced their source material.
You have to remember that Kevin Feige just wanted to make an Avengers team-up movie a reality back then. Disney acquiring Marvel Entertainment wasn't even considered for the initial plans of Phase 1.
Iron Man 1 and Cap America 1 are great, Phase 1 is good.
Phase 2 might be weaker in average, it was the peak of the Ike Perlmutter intromission, and it kinda shows (great films in there, though, but some really low ones).
Phase 3 is fantastic from beginning to end.
Phase 2 might be weaker in average, it was the peak of the Ike Perlmutter intromission, and it kinda shows (great films in there, though, but some really low ones).
Phase 3 is fantastic from beginning to end.
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Honestly, it wasn't before Taika Waititi that Thor started become really entertaining. There's a reason "Thor 2: The Dark World" turned into a meme for a dumb option in polls.
I hope not. That was the reason why I never bothered with watching more, because I thought that movie was okay. Not bad, but not good enough to watch the sequel.
Well, the rest is on me, since I was not interested in Hulk, Thor or Captain America. I did catch up a few years later up to Avengers 1, which was the first good movie till then. The others were meh or okay at best.
Id say the films actually get better as time goes on, and many of the issues people had with some of the phase 1 films have kinda become strengths to me. They have done such an incredible job at building the world and history, that kinda elevates their weaker films.
Never seen Hulk. Just watched the entire rest of the MCU in a row across two weeks and have to say, absolutely not. The other few are great too, not just Avengers.
While I'm at it, I also think Dark World gets a really bad rap for no good reason!
While I'm at it, I also think Dark World gets a really bad rap for no good reason!
