I Watched All of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Films as a Noob and Lived to Tell the Tale

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Despite someone who had at one point proclaimed herself to be decidedly “not into superhero movies,” I recently endeavored to watch all of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The main reason for this is because, in coronavirus times, I happen to also be a recent graduate with two master’s degrees, and I’ve got time to kill before I start my full-time job. That being said, I’ve also always been a bit curious about the allure of this universe. I know there are super-fans out there, and I’ve never quite understood the hype, but I figured there must be something to it.

My reason for not being into superhero movies was never because I thought they were bad or somehow unenjoyable. Rather, it was mostly because I always felt like these kinds of movies were all fan service, such that someone without prior knowledge of the comics or other films could never fully understand what’s going on. But it’s probably not fair to judge the individual movies based on my lack of knowledge and experience of the universe. Plus, I’m a researcher at heart, so I figured if I’m going to pass judgment, I should be fully informed.

So, armed with a whole bunch of free time, a Disney+ subscription, and a cinephile boyfriend who owns many of the titles on Blu-ray or DVD, into the MCU I went. Ya know, for research. Our friends at GamesRadar+ provided this handy guide to watching all of the films in the MCU for newcomers and veterans. As a newcomer, I went with chronological order by release date. Moe, the aforementioned cinephile boyfriend and editor of this here website, is certainly a veteran, but he so kindly came along for this ride with me in the order recommended for newcomers.

In this report, I’m providing bite-sized reviews of each of the films in the MCU from the newbie perspective. I’ll include star ratings for my overall enjoyment of each film. I will say that, overall, I found all of these movies to be pretty enjoyable, and I didn’t dislike any of them. Therefore, a lower enjoyment rating just means I found it generally less great, but it by no means indicates that I think the movie is actually bad. I’ll also be employing another very scientific rating that I’ll call the Confusion Quotient™ — the Confusion Quotient will be a score on a scale of 0 to 5, with 5 indicating that it is the most confusing possible (i.e., difficult to keep track of and understand everything going on, high frequency of having to make Moe pause the movie so that I could ask questions of the clarification and or ‘WTF’ variety). So in the case of the Confusion Quotient, a lower score is better.

Ready? Let’s go. [Warning: This report contains some spoilers.]

PHASE 1

Iron Man (2008)

Overall: 4/5

Confusion Quotient: 0

As the first entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Iron Man” does a great job of portraying the evolution of Tony Stark as a person overall (i.e., from weapons manufacturing executive to do-gooder) and as a superhero. Further, as someone with little background knowledge on superheroes, it was interesting to see the take on a superhero as not someone who has some sort of genetically or physically enhanced abilities, but rather as someone who uses their smarts to manufacture himself into a superhero. Maybe this is an obvious point, but I feel it’s worth noting, particularly for the other superhero newbies out there. We also see important character development with Pepper Potts, who is endearingly a little bit scattered but also clearly crucial to Stark Industries and Stark himself, as well as Tony’s best friend Rhodey. “Iron Man” also introduces us to the importance of artificial intelligence for Tony Stark with his creation of Jarvis, which also becomes important for the Avengers as a whole later. Thoroughly enjoyable and eye-opening, and a great introduction to the MCU.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Overall: 4/5

Confusion Quotient: 3

“The Incredible Hulk” is technically an origin story, but, interestingly, it presents the whole actual origin story through the opening credits and with no dialogue. This made the film a bit confusing for me at first, because if you blink during those opening credits, you’ll miss key information necessary for the entire film. Despite that, once I understood that those opening credit scenes were all we’d be getting for the actual origin of The Hulk, I enjoyed jumping into Bruce Banner’s story in his present day. I enjoyed the interplay between Bruce Banner and The Hulk, as well as between The Hulk and General Ross (and his soldiers). The villain in this story is not an obvious character at first, but rather develops as Blonsky gets power-hungry and wants to be a ‘super soldier’ himself. This climax of this one was a real nail-biter — and I mean that literally, because during the big fight scene between The Hulk and Blonsky, I was actually biting my nails (nervous habit, what can I say). I will say that the fight scenes were perhaps a bit long, and I’m not sure how believable it is that Elizabeth Ross up and leaves her current boyfriend in favor of the returned Banner, but despite these elements, I really liked getting to know The Hulk.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Overall: 2.4/5 (This is clearly a very scientific rating system.)

Confusion Quotient: 1.5

“Iron Man 2” was essentially a re-hash of the first “Iron Man.” I liked that we got to know the characters more, especially in the form of the development of the relationship between Pepper Potts and Tony, and that we got to see Tony Stark aka Iron Man in a new setting, but ultimately the idea is the same as the first film: bad guy (Ivan Vanko) wants revenge, another greedy bad guy (Justin Hammer) wants to profit off of war weapons, things go bad and Iron Man has to step in to help fix everything. Perhaps I’m over-simplifying, but I just didn’t think there was enough to substantially differentiate this film from the first and to really keep me guessing. However, I will give credit where credit is due, as there are some great parts of this movie. This movie shows us that Tony Stark is indeed not invincible, as the arc reactor in his chest is not only keeping him alive, but also poisoning and slowly killing him at the same time. I appreciated the sort of inside joke when Don Cheadle appears as Rhodey in place of the original actor, Terrance Howard — Rhodes appears at Tony’s testimony, Tony says, “I didn’t expect to see you here,” and Cheadle replies, “Look, it’s me. I’m here. Deal with it. Let’s move on.” Also, this movie gives us the gift of Natasha Romanov, soon to be known as Black Widow, and put simply, she is great. Another one of the gifts from this film is the line, “I want my bird,” (said with a very heavy Russian accent). Because now every time Moe and I are outside and we see a bird, one of us feels compelled to say “I want my bird.” So there are some choice pieces of “Iron Man 2” that I love, but overall I wasn’t totally enthused.

Thor (2011)

Overall: 5/5

Confusion Quotient: 1.5

“Thor” seriously stands out from all of the prior MCU films in terms of its world-building. We’re introduced to the worlds of Asgard and Jotunheim, and all the peoples and characters that come with them, that as of yet we were totally unaware of. It develops a lot of lore that is not only crucial to the world of Thor, but also to the world of the Avengers more broadly. We see Thor appear initially as an arrogant demigod who then gets punished by his father Odin for said arrogance, and apparently his punishment is to be banished to New Mexico, of all places. The relationship that develops between Thor and Jane Foster is endearing, and we get Jane’s intern/assistant Darcy along the way for additional comedic effect. This movie also introduces us to the wonderful Heimdall, gatekeeper of the Bifröst — and the vividness with which these galaxies and the connection between them is portrayed is really pretty amazing. We also meet the very complicated Loki, who is a sometimes-sympathetic but also sometimes-terrible villain of sorts. Ultimately, Thor grows to understand not only his strengths but also his weaknesses, and thus where he has more room to grow as a person and a soon-to-be king. Put simply: I love “Thor.”

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Overall: 4.5/5

Confusion Quotient: 1

Taking place primarily in the 1940s, this movie is a period piece, which was pleasantly unexpected for a superhero movie. It’s also an interesting interpretation for a period piece, presenting the 1940s with a significant degree of retro-futurism. It’s also a bit of an underdog story, which, again, was pleasantly unexpected. Steve Rogers is very earnest but likable, and as Captain America, he ultimately becomes a sort of quintessential hero, but he manages not to be too much of a cliche along the way. This film serves as an origin story not only for Captain America, but also for Bucky Barnes and Hydra, both major players in a number of the subsequent films, and largely as an intro to the Avengers more broadly (even though the concept was technically already introduced in “Iron Man”). It does a good job of conveying the need-to-know information in a clear and entertaining way.

The Avengers (2012)

Overall: 4/5

Confusion Quotient: 3.5

Alas, the Avengers now come together as a unified group (hooray!) to face down the threat brought on by Loki and his evil minions and colleagues, particularly the Chitauri. We also finally see the Tesseract really in action and why Loki and so many others before have coveted its power. This film also brings us the revelation that not all good things are as they seem, since SHIELD apparently plans to harness the power of the Tesseract to develop weapons as a deterrent against hostile extraterrestrials, and we (and the Avengers) have mixed feelings about such plans. I had really been anticipating this film since I was excited to see how all the individual heroes start to come together, and “The Avengers” did not disappoint. It does require keeping track of a lot of things, since not only do we have to remember all of the details and characters of the prior films, but we also need to take note of all of the new things that we learn about throughout this film. Once I got a handle on all these things (and continued to ask questions throughout), I was able to keep up. This film introduces us to Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye), who I think is a crucial addition to the crew of Avengers. I love that Agent Phil Coulson gets more screen time in this film, and he becomes the unifying force around which the Avengers can rally together after his death (which made me very sad, by the way). I also appreciate that although there’s a positive resolution to the battle in New York City at the end, it’s not an entirely “happily ever after” kind of vibe, which both sets up the subsequent films well, and provides some sort of sense of reality or down-to-earth-ness that even though the Avengers are superheroes, they are not necessarily capable of anything and everything.

PHASE 2

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Overall: 2.8/5

Confusion Quotient: 2

Don’t get me wrong — I love Tony Stark and I love “Iron Man.” But the overall idea behind this installment felt just a little bit too cliche. The arrogant Tony Stark of the past rejected and embarrassed the nerdy and bumbling scientist Aldrich Killian, then surprise this comes back to bite him later because, fast forward many years, Killian is an evil genius sort of villain who wants to take over the world, and oh, also, he’s going to kidnap and threaten Tony Stark’s partner/love interest Pepper Potts. And bringing the President into the mix felt like a hail mary to bring everything together at the end. What I did find pleasantly not-cliche is the plot line about The Mandarin, the so-called “terrorist.” It was creative and surprising that The Mandarin character turns out to be just that: a character. He’s not a terrorist at all, but rather just an actor serving as a pawn in Killian’s bigger plot to take over the world and cover up his mistakes along the way. The partnership between Tony and Harley, the young kid in Tennessee, was fun and refreshing — I wouldn’t have expected Tony to be willing or able to seek help from someone in that position, and it was nice to see how Harley played a crucial role in Tony being able to handle the whole situation and ultimately triumph over the bad guys.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Overall: 3/5

Confusion Quotient: 2.5

I had high hopes for “Thor: The Dark World,” given how much I enjoyed the first “Thor” film. However, this one didn’t deliver on my expectations as much as I would have liked it to. Granted, the first film set a pretty high bar, so it’d be difficult for the subsequent one to clear that bar. I felt like this one was perhaps trying a little bit too hard. Also, this is a lot to digest, as we’re introduced to yet another universe with the Dark Elves, the Aether, and the concept of the Convergence of the Nine Realms — each of which is individually a lot to take in, so taking it in all together is slightly challenging and confusing. And while, post factum, I understand the concept of the Convergence, it felt like a lot to ask of the audience, or at least of the audience who may be less willing and/or capable of suspending disbelief and accepting these kinds of metaphysical concepts.
Anyway, we do get some great development of other concepts and characters. Loki, in particular, reveals himself as a yet even more complicated character. Throughout the film I was asking myself all these questions, like…Is he good? Is he bad? Is he both? Is he neither? Do we hate him? Should we forgive him? And then at the end it appears he’s a villain again as he impersonates Odin when Thor comes to him to decline the throne of Asgard. We see a stark juxtaposition of Thor’s developing maturity and strength with Loki’s backsliding into a sneaky and selfish villain. So although this one wasn’t my favorite, it does set up some concepts and characters that are important to the MCU overall.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Overall: 4.5/5

Confusion Quotient: 2

It is in this movie that we learn a lot more about the inner-workings of SHIELD, and thus about the complexities of SHIELD and its leaders and agents. Also significant: the return of Hydra. Or rather, not the return of Hydra, but the revelation that Hydra had never really gone away, but instead has been secretly operating as a faction within SHIELD. Is nothing sacred?? And we learn that Zola somehow preserved his consciousness and his smarts so that Hydra could persist even after his death — which is just a little bit creepy, but in the kind of way that it pulls you in and makes you think, “What?? How??”
Also, this film gives us the gift of the friendship (bromance?) between Captain America and US Air Force veteran Sam Wilson, which I love, because I really love Sam, and I love this friendship, and I love that there’s finally some racial/ethnic diversity among the Avengers. Then it gets even better when we learn that Sam is actually some kind of badass stealth flying master, aka Falcon, and he teams up with Cap and Romanoff to take down the assassin known as the Winter Soldier, who turns out to be the return of Bucky Barnes!! Let me pause to catch my breath from all this excitement.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Overall: 4/5

Confusion Quotient: 3.75

Despite the slightly higher Confusion Quotient, I did thoroughly enjoy this movie, largely thanks to the great soundtrack and the humor. The higher degree of confusion comes from the fact that there’s just a lot going on, with multiple hero characters (i.e., Quill, Rocket, Groot, Drax, and Gamora), multiple villains as well (i.e., Ronan and Thanos, and maybe The Collector and Nebula, too), and even multiple planets. So there’s a lot of information to take in about who all these people are and their backstories and where they are at any given moment. That said, it’s hilarious. I love that the heroes are a rag-tag group of misfits who get thrown together essentially by happenstance, and their interactions as they reluctantly become a cohesive group. They’re all lovable in their own way, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts when they come together as a group. Plus, this film is the first time we learn about the concept and definition of the infinity stones — we see the Tesseract and the Aether in prior films, but this is the first time we learn the background of the infinity stones as a whole. So although I was highly confused at some points, the film ultimately all comes together to make sense in a delightful way.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Overall: 4.1/5

Confusion Quotient: 1

From my discussions with other MCU fans, I’ve learned that my relatively high rating of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” may be a slightly controversial choice. Perhaps I have a skewed perspective because simply the fact that I was able to fully follow along with this movie with minimal pauses for questions made me enjoy it more. But I was also just really enthralled by the story line, the characters, and all of the action that came with it. We see Tony Stark and Bruce Banner join up and somewhat unintentionally go a little bit rogue as they work together using the artificial intelligence that they find in the gem from Loki’s scepter to complete their Ultron project. And we see how each of them wrestles with the potential implications of what they’re doing, in terms of both doing something in secret from their fellow Avengers, and creating the super artificial intelligence. Turns out, Banner doesn’t feel totally great about what they’re doing, and Stark’s arrogance gets the best of him as he pursues his apparently insatiable desire to advance artificial intelligence and pursue “peace in our time.” Because, woops, now this pursuit of harnessing the powers of the gem in Loki’s scepter has created the unexpectedly sentient and sinister Ultron, who interprets Stark’s directive to pursue peace as a call to eradicate much of humanity. This turn of events with Tony’s narcissism wasn’t exactly surprising, but I enjoyed how the whole thing was portrayed and how it played out. Throughout this film, we also meet new characters. Like twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, who start out as evil instruments of Hydra but later see the error of their ways and join up with the Avengers. And Vision, who Ultron originally conceived as his next incarnation in near-human form, but who Stark and Banner, with the help of Thor, then turn into a new ultra-smart Avenger, which helps redeem them (though not entirely) from their mistakes of creating Ultron in the first place. But before they get true redemption, the Avengers have to step in to save Sokovia from the wrath of Ultron, and although they do end up vanquishing the evil Ultron, we see how much death and destruction they wreak in the process. I found this plot and the character development, along with all the visuals and special effects, highly effective and gratifying.

Ant-Man (2015)

Overall: 5/5

Confusion Quotient: 1

Ant-Man is just thoroughly enjoyable. Scott Lang is a Robin Hood type of criminal, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, looking out for the little guy. So I already liked him from the beginning. His friendship with Luis and the rest of his crew is delightful — special shout-out to Luis, whose long-winded and slightly distracted storytelling style really adds a lot to the humor of this movie. Darren Cross is a quintessential villain — a former protégé gone rogue and greedy — but the straightforwardness works really well here. We see the emotional struggle between Hank Pym and his daughter Hope van Dyne, and we see them heal with the hilariously unexpected help of Lang as Ant-Man. And there’s a happy ending to boot. I felt all of the actors (and their characters) had great chemistry, and it shows in the script and in their interactions. Ant-Man is easy to follow, the casting is great, the acting is great. Truly, an A+ film.

PHASE 3Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Overall: 2.8/5

Confusion Quotient: 3

My main issue with this film is that it really should be called “Avengers: Civil War” instead of the primary Captain America title, because it really doesn’t feel like it’s actually focused primarily on Captain America. Which is a shame, because I’m a fan of Cap, so if there’s going to be a movie that’s supposed to be about him, I want the content of the movie to deliver on that promise. Also, maybe this is just me and my rose-colored glasses, but I didn’t love the whole schism among The Avengers — I want them to be united as a team all the time, defending the universe against all the evil villains, together. However, I did really enjoy certain aspects of this movie. First of all, I love Ant-Man, and he really comes into his own as a contributor to the larger group of heroes here, and I love the running joke about no one really knowing who he is. I also did appreciate how this movie delves into the issue of all the collateral damage that The Avengers have contributed to in their pursuits to protect the world. Because in all the movies before this, I always had something in the back of my mind like, “What about the whole city that they’re damaging in the process?” So this film deals with that concept, and although I don’t love the rift within the group, I did like seeing how each of the individual Avengers grappled with this issue and how the connection among the group, or perhaps lack thereof, plays out.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Overall: 4.5/5

Confusion Quotient: 1.4

I had to let this one soak in a little more than the others — at first, I wasn’t sure if or how much I liked it, but upon further reflection, I realized I did indeed like it a lot. It’s a little more ‘woo-woo’ than what I think of as traditional superhero movies, in the sense that it focuses on spiritual development and frankly is a little bit psychedelic and trippy. It looks at how the mind and the spirit can be just as powerful as, if not more powerful than, physical capabilities, and how one can overcome both figurative and physical challenges if you really focus on the core of the issue at hand and the power within you. (Look at me waxing all philosophical now.) We see Dr. Stephen Strange transform from a narcissistic, materialistic, big-shot doctor to a spiritual warrior in the service of something much bigger than himself, namely, protecting the Sanctum Santorum and thus the universe as a whole. I also appreciate how he ends up defeating the big villain, Dormammu, not in a physical altercation, but rather by using his ability to manipulate time and win effectively through a conversation and perseverance. The film also touches on the complexity of leadership through The Ancient One’s dabbling in power drawn from the Dark Dimension, and how it’s not always black and what when it comes to what’s right and wrong. Even as I’m writing this, I realize even more the complex layers to this film. It’s almost a philosophical thought exercise, but it does still have those core elements of a Marvel superhero film that we all know and love, plus some good comedic relief thrown in there, too.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2017)

Overall: 1.75/5

Confusion Quotient: 2

Although I loved the first “Guardians of the Galaxy,” this second movie didn’t deliver anywhere near the same level of enjoyment. I thought the plotline about Quill’s father, Ego, was a bit predictable — he first appears as a benevolent and loving parent who has deeply missed his son, but then turns out that, shock of all shocks, he’s actually not such a good guy after all, and he’s just trying to use Quill for his own personal gain. However, there are certainly some aspects that I loved. For instance, when we meet Ego, we also meet Mantis, and Mantis is great. I love that her power is that she’s an empath. She’s endearing and unintentionally hilarious, and I love the conversations between her and Drax. This film also gifted us with the exchange between Rocket and Groot about hats, which I found truly hilarious, and I’m going to include it here for kicks.

Rocket: He thinks you want him to wear it as a hat.

Yondu: That’s not what I said!

Groot: I am Groot.

Rocket: He’s relieved that you don’t want him to.

Groot: I am Groot.

Rocket: He hates hats.

Groot: I am Groot.

Rocket: On anyone, not just himself.

Groot: I am Groot.

Rocket: You see someone and think they have a weird head and then it just turns out part of their head is a hat. Wait, that’s why you don’t like hats? I also did appreciate that the love connection between Quill and Gamora was not a primary plot point but rather just a side note, because otherwise it would have been too cliche. Despite these positive elements, this second volume felt like it was trying too hard to match the excellence and humor of the first edition, and didn’t do enough to really stand on its own.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Overall: 4/5

Confusion Quotient: 2.5

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is like if the whole concept of the Avengers goes back to high school, but in a good way. Peter Parker is eager to be an Avenger and to help in any way that he can as Spider-Man, but his desires and skills must be contained to his local neighborhood since Tony Stark has deemed him not yet ready to be a full Avenger. Teenage angst and secrecy ensues, along with a good ol’ nervous teenage crush on Liz. Local crime then becomes a big deal once Spider-Man comes across some criminals with clearly advanced, other-worldly weapons, so he tracks down the creator and dealer and, lo and behold, this guy is the villain of the day! Also, turns out he’s Liz’s dad, which doesn’t bode well for either Peter Parker himself or for Spider-Man (and it’s not so great for Liz, either). Overall, this movie takes us back to our high school days without feeling at all juvenile. We get to experience the friendship between Peter and his buddy Ned, both of whom are eager to grow up and save the world. We also see what Spider-Man is really capable of, with him saving his high school academic decathlon team from falling to their death in the elevator of the Washington Monument. The action had me on the edge of my seat, the teenage elements are charming, and the visuals are captivating.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Overall: 4.9/5

Confusion Quotient: 2

I had heard before watching “Thor: Ragnarok” that this was a very popular film, and as soon as we finished watching it, I understood why. We’ve got Thor’s humor front and center, a new villain who happens to be a long-lost sister, Heimdall playing a major role in saving Asgard, and so much more. We also meet Scrapper 142 aka Valkyrie, who is a welcome addition to the Avengers world. We even get cameos from Dr. Strange and Hulk, and a big contributor to my high rating for this film is the bromance between Thor and Banner, because they are adorable together. Although this film is not technically a comedy in whole, the comedy throughout is great. From Jeff Goldblum as the kooky Grandmaster of Sakaar, to the other captured gladiators in the arena with Thor (especially the highly agreeable Korg), to the aforementioned bromance between Thor and Hulk, this movie is pretty hilarious. But it also manages to still effectively convey the gravity of the situation with Hela and Ragnarok, and all the action that comes along with that. I will say that some of the order of events was a little confusing — opening the film with Surtur and learning about Ragnarok, so we think Surtur is the primary villain, but then we don’t really hear about Surtur or Ragnarok for awhile, the long-lost sister Hela becomes the primary villain, and so on. But it does all come full circle in a way that made a lot of sense, so I’m very willing to forgive or overlook the confusion that I experienced along the way.

I docked one-tenth of a point on my enjoyment rating because I think it is a crime that they cut Thor’s beautiful long hair. This just has to be said.

Black Panther (2018)

Overall: 5/5

Confusion Quotient: 0

Full disclosure: I actually saw “Black Panther” in theaters when it came out because I had heard so much about how great it was that I couldn’t resist; and I’ve also seen it multiple times since then…so I may be a bit biased here. That said, part of the reason I love this one is because it’s largely self-contained, so even coming into this movie cold with no real background knowledge, I was able to 100% keep track and thoroughly enjoy it. The way Wakanda is portrayed with all the Afro-futurism is really well done, and the visuals are stunning. The storyline is engaging and keeps you on the edge of your seat, but it never feels over-played or too drawn out. Erik Killmonger is a great villain, not because he’s so purely bad and evil, but rather because he garners our sympathy and has solid logic for what he wants to accomplish, albeit perhaps misguided and inevitably violent. The acting is great, and I think all of the actors were really well cast. Also, literally everyone in this movie is attractive; I say this not as an opinion, but rather as a matter of objective fact, which is why I think it is worth mentioning. All of this is to say that I LOVED “Black Panther,” and I will be waiting with bated breath for the second installment to come out in 2022.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Overall: 3.5

Confusion Quotient: 3.5

This movie had a lot going for it since it’s the (first part) of the culmination of pretty much everything that happened in the prior movies, plus it has a HUGE all-star cast. And with that huge cast, there’s a lot going on, hence my higher degree of confusion. There’s Hulk crash-landing at the Sanctum Santorum, where he meets Dr. Strange and Wong and they get Iron Man and Spiderman involved. Then there’s Wanda and Vision in Scotland, off having a kind of weird love affair. And there’s the Guardians of the Galaxy, who adopt Thor, who then splits off with Rocket and Groot (what a team, am I right?). Meanwhile, Thanos is anywhere and everywhere in pursuit of all of the Infinity Stones, basically killing and destroying everything in his path. It’s a lot to keep track of, and I don’t think this film did the best possible job of helping the audience keep track of it all. Also, maybe I’m being pedantic here, but Thanos’ snap is supposed to eliminate 50% of all living beings in the universe, but it does seem like the Avengers and related parties are disproportionately eliminated…All that aside, this film does serve to bring a lot of things together and help us to learn the real power of all of the infinity stones. By nature of this being essentially Part 1 of a two-part installment, it is sort of doomed to start with, in the sense that it leaves a lot unanswered at the end, which feels a bit unsatisfactory. Since the audience knows that there will be a Part 2 (as well as other installments in the MCU) coming, we know that the emotions they’re feeling at the end are inevitably temporary, because of course we already know that those who disappeared with Thanos’ snap will have to make some sort of triumphant return later. So in that way, the ending is a little underwhelming, and doesn’t deliver on the emotions that I think we’re supposed to be feeling about so many of the heroes we know and love suddenly disappearing. But stay tuned for more in Avengers: Endgame!

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Overall: 2

Confusion Quotient: 2.75

Although I loved the first installment of “Ant-Man,” and although I loved his appearance in “Civil War,” this second “Ant-Man” film fell a little flat for me. There are kind of multiple villains with black market tech dealer Sonny Burch and his crew as well as Bill Foster and Ava aka “Ghost,” but none of them is really a full-on villain. So I’m left feeling a little bit like, what exactly are we rooting for? Yes, we want Hank and Hope to find Janet in the quantum realm and bring her back home. And we want them to keep their technology. And first we want them to defeat Ghost, but then we also feel a little bad for her because it’s not her fault that she is the way she is. But then even as we start to feel sympathy for Ava, she wants to over-step Bill, who has been helping her for years, just for her own needs. Basically, it’s all very back-and-forth about who are the villains and how we’re supposed to feel about all the who’s who. The multiple plot lines felt a little gratuitous. The saving graces in this movie are Scott’s comical team at X-CON Security Consultants, the development of Scott’s relationship with his daughter Cassie, and the addition of Hope as a new superhero by her own accord as she now has her own suit as The Wasp. But ultimately I felt like this film under-delivered a bit.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Overall: 4.2

Confusion Quotient: 3

Before even seeing this movie, I knew it stood a good chance of getting a high rating from me because it’s the first solo female hero movie in the MCU — which is great, but also why did it take 11 years from the first installment of the MCU in 2008 to make this happen? Anyway, I digress. The movie starts out a little bit confusing, as it’s unclear whether Vers is human or Kree or something else altogether. My sense is that this confusion was at least somewhat on purpose, as Vers herself is supposed to be a bit disoriented and unclear about her own past. Still, I think it was perhaps a bit more confusing than necessary. Once you get past the confusing bits at the beginning and things start to become clearer, it’s a fun adventure. I like learning more about Vers, or rather Carol Danvers, and all the things that made her who she is today. I like how the movie flipped the switch on who are the villains versus the good guys — first we think the Kree soldiers are the good ones and the Skrulls are bad, but then we learn it’s actually the other way around, and I liked seeing how Vers and Fury each managed their perspectives on this. In terms of Vers’ powers, her Kree colleagues initially have her convinced that they were the ones who bestowed her powers upon her, and she must learn to control her emotions in order to control her powers. But then it turns out her powers have really nothing to do with the Kree soldiers, and it is in fact her emotions that help her control her powers and allow her to reach her full potential. What a ride.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Overall: 4/5

Confusion Quotient: 3.6

This film gets a high rating mainly for the extent to which it subverts audience expectations (or at least my personal expectations). As I mentioned in my review of Avengers: Infinity War, it was fairly obvious that the people who got snapped away at the end would have to come back in this second part of the story somehow. But I was definitely very surprised to find out that they don’t come back until a whole FIVE YEARS later! And apparently during that five years, all of the remaining Avengers, and basically everyone else in the world, too, has just been miserable and wasting away. Talk about a downer, man. But then there’s Scott Lang, who triumphantly returns from being stuck in the quantum realm for the whole five years that have gone by. As we’ve already established, I love Ant-Man, so I was pleased to see that he was the one to come up with the brilliant idea of time travel as the mechanism by which the Avengers can bring back all of the people who got snapped away by Thanos. Although Bruce/Hulk (I love the new hipster nerdy version of Hulk, by the way) and Tony Stark explain it multiple times throughout the movie, the whole concept of time travel remains confusing to me. I just cannot wrap my mind around how them going back in time to before Thanos’ snap doesn’t affect the future except for bringing people back… Something about there’s one past but there’s the present which is no longer the future, and the future is the present, and the past is the present, and… See, it’s confusing. But I decided to just accept that I’d probably never quite understand how they’re conceptualizing the time travel, and just take their word for it that this is how it works ¯_(ツ)_/¯

“Endgame” is ultimately a very emotional film, as we see the deaths of Romanoff and Stark, and we effectively part ways with Steve Rogers as Captain America after he chose to go back in time then return as his actual elderly age. I’m certainly sad to see these Avengers go, but I think this emotional turn was a refreshing and necessary move for the MCU. And it serves to remind us that although the Avengers are superheroes, they are not completely invincible. They’re (mostly) humans, or at least somewhat like humans, kind of almost just like us.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Overall: 4

Confusion Quotient: 1.2

As the first film after “Endgame,” this movie had a lot to live up to. How would the film address the death of Tony Stark? There was likely a lot of pressure to strike the right balance between expressing sadness for the death of Stark — especially since he played a major role in Peter Parker aka Spider-Man’s life — and moving forward with a new story. I think this movie was really successful in achieving that balance. Plus, it provided more insight into life during the five years that had gone by since Thanos’ snap, and what is now happening now that the Avengers successfully brought people back. We learn that the world now refers to those five years as ‘the blip,’ and the people who got snapped away have returned five years later without having aged at all. Which, in a high school setting, is tragically hilarious — case in point: Peter and Ned lament how their peer Brad Davis, who used to be a scrawny middle school kid five years younger than them, is now their same age and he’s had a serious glow-up. Even worse, it appears that Brad is Peter’s direct competition for the heart of his crush MJ! GASP

Aside from the success in achieving the emotional balance, “Spider-Man: Far from Home” also achieves the feat of delivering on a villain concept that feels really new and different. At first we think the villain is the Elementals, and a new hero from an alternate dimension, Quentin Beck aka Mysterio, arrives to both help defeat the Elementals and serve as a sort of big brother figure for Peter. Aw, how sweet! But not so fast, because we soon learn that Beck is a jilted former Stark Industries employee, and he is the real villain after all. The premise of this movie is probably a dream for advanced technology lovers because Beck and his other jilted minions aren’t somehow physically blessed or enhanced, but rather are using advanced technology to manufacture the Elemental monsters via drones, projectors, and holographic images. It’s all very complex, but totally understandable and easy to follow at the same time. So in the end, the MCU delivered another great Spider-Man movie.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Retrospective Final Thoughts

Phew. What a trip, am I right? I want to give another shout-out to the lovely Moe for being my source for all things MCU, for answering my many questions throughout this experience, and for sharing his popcorn with me. The MCU has a lot of details and storylines to keep track of and to remember from one film to the next, but it does a great job of weaving together all of its different characters and worlds. Plus, it does get a bit easier to understand and follow as you watch more of the films, since you start to get the hang of who’s who and what has happened when. There’s some seriously amazing world-building, and I’ve been totally impressed by how engaging all of these films are.

The final question here: was it a worthy endeavor to watch all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in chronological order? Absolutely, yes.