Directed by Joss Whedon
Release Date: May 4th, 2012
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner
Box Office Worldwide: $1,518,812,988

I grew up with comic books, Spidey movies, X-Men movies and Fantastic Four movies. Then I was introduced to the MCU with the Iron Man’s, Hulk, Thor & Captain America. My love for Marvel superheroes was already pretty high… but then The Avengers happened… AND THE LOVE WENT SKY HIGH. The moment I watched The Avengers for the first time is when I sold my soul to Marvel Studios and said “I’m yours until the end of the time.” Here’s how The Avengers turned me into a full blown Marvel zombie. 

The Avengers (2012): If you know me at all, you know that I’m a psycho for Marvel and specifically the MCU. The Avengers is why. A movie where they pull these stars from different franchises together for one epic movie… sign me the F up!

I loved the first 5 movies made in the MCU, but Avengers took it to the next level.

I still remember the first time I saw Avengers when I was a freshman in high school. (*Enters flashback to 2012) It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and 5 of my closest friends took a trip to the movies. My good friend Logan Johnson was sitting to my left and Sam Barr was sitting to my right.

Full disclosure: that’s actually what happened. I can remember where I was when I watched any MCU movies for the first time.

It was the moment I took my Marvel fandom to full blown zombie action. The Avengers was filled with so many moments where I thought “holy shit, this feels like the action packed comics I read growing up but on the big screen.” It was perfection and my favorite movie for many, many years.

Fun fact: When I was dumped in high school by my ex-ex girlfriend, The Avengers is the movie I watched to take my mind off it and feel better… Yeah, that’s how much I love this f’ing movie!

The whole movie is a big ole positive for me, so it was difficult to find any negatives, and it was difficult to not list a billion bullet points for my positives.

Anyways, here are my positives/negatives on The Avengers:

Positives

• It’s a huge milestone for the superhero genre. Iron Man may have started the MCU, but The Avengers is what took it to a REAL shared cinematic universe by combining all these heroes into a movie, and it’s freaking iconic!
  • Even in a jam packed movie with a number of different main characters, the story never gets jumbled. All the characters have their side stories (Cap’s struggles with fitting in, Stark’s issues of following SHIELD or any leadership, Cap & Stark’s issues begin, Banner’s coming-to-terms with being Hulk, Loki’s quest for a throne, Black Widow’s shady past) and they fit together almost perfectly!
• There are so many geek out moments. Here are my favorites
  • Iron Man arriving to fight Loki to AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill”
  • The Helipad launch scene
  • Thor dropping the hammer onto Cap’s shield.
  • Thor hitting Hulk with an uppercut with Mjolnir
  • Iron Man using Cap’s shield as a deflector to kill some chitauri
  • Hulk smashing Loki
• Piggybacking off the last point, it gave me THE ULTIMATE GEEK OUT MOMENT. When Banner says “he’s always angry,” and then stops the Leviathan… WHOAAAA

• The movie does so much for many character arcs through the MCU.
  • Captain America going from an obedient soldier to a rogue vigilante starts here when he begins to distrust SHIELD.
  • Iron Man becoming a hero instead of someone who fights for himself.

• All the action battles are entertaining as hell. Iron Man VS Captain America VS Thor, Hawkeye’s attack on the Helicarrier, Hawkeye VS Black Widow and the Battle for New York are all soooo sick.
• Loki is, again, phenomenal. Tom Hiddleston plays the diabolical Loki to perfection.
• NO EDWARD NORTON!! Mark Ruffalo debuts as Hulk/Bruce Banner and it’s 100X better. Ruffalo actually brings charisma and intrigue to Banner! Thank you, Mark!!

• THANOS TEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we all know what that turned into!

Negatives

*I scraped the bottom of the barrel to come up with any negatives.

• Thor doesn’t get the meaningful moments that Iron Man, Cap and Hulk get. Thor doesn’t get the kick ass moments that he gets later in the MCU. Again, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel and nitpicking that one character out of 10 doesn’t get meaningful screen time that I wish he would’ve.
• How are the Avengers communicating during the Battle of New York? They don’t have earpieces in… or I don’t think they do. And if they do, how do they stay in when they’re running around and battling so much? Again, I’m scraping the bottom.
• My worst experience with this movie wasn’t even the movie itself. It was the people in the movie theater I watched it with the first time. When Hulk smashes Loki, there were so many obnoxious idiots that couldn’t control their laughter or clapping and I missed the part where Hulk says “Puny God.” Fricken’ clowns, man…

Overall Grade: A+

I can’t emphasize how much I love this movie. Like you saw, it was hard for me to come up with any negatives (so if you have any leave ’em in the comments because I’m interested to see what there is to not like about the movie). It’s such an important movie. It fleshed out the MCU that we know today and it’s been a format that’s been attempted to be copied by DC, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings  Avengers… I fricken’ love you!

MCU Ranking

1. The Avengers (Hands down #1 at this juncture.)
2. Iron Man
3. Captain America: The First Avenger
4. Thor
5. Iron Man 2
6. The Incredible Hulk

NEXT UP: Iron Man 3

Directed by Joe Johnston
Release Date: July 22, 2011
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones
Box Office Worldwide: $370,569,774

Captain America: The First Avenger: In our 5th installment of the MCU, we get to meet a character who is better than all of us combined: good ole, family friendly Captain America.

The movie follows nerdy virgin Steve Rogers as he tries to weasel his way into the U.S. Army, but he’s got like a 10 different health issues that prohibits him from joining. What a loser!

But we love him for that, and Marvel Studios does a great job to make him a marketable, family-friendly, inspirational character that can appeal to all ages. I would argue Captain America is the true soul of the MCU (even over Tony Stark, whom I adore!). He does stuff for the sake of good all the time. Marvel Studios hit a gold mine when they

Let’s dive into why Captain America is such a sweetheart with my positives/negatives.

Positives

• The first act and the exploration of Steve Rogers is sentimental, uplifting, inspirational and really well done! If I were just judging the movie through the moment when Steve Rogers gets transformed into Captain America then I would give the movie a solid “A-” grade. Like I said above, Marvel Studios does a phenomenal job to build up Steve Rogers as the lovable loser who never gives up. He’s a guy that doesn’t have a lot going for him but he displays courage, optimism and doesn’t back down from a fight (all that cheesiness). MCU knocked it out of the park with developing a character the audience can adore… and be willing to spend a lot of money on
• My favorite moment in the entire movie is the scene when Rogers gets transformed into Captain America. It’s intense and displays Rogers’ courage again as he fights through the pain of his freakin’ cells being ripped apart. Steve Rogers is worth all of us combined. He’s a damn national treasure.

• Even at the end of the movie, Rogers sacrifices his own life to save millions of others because that’s how good of a guy this specimen is!

• We get our first look at Captain America’s sworn enemy Red Skull and Hydra. It’s classic and was a smart villain in the first Captain America movie. Red Skull is played by SciFi legend Hugo Weaving and he does a solid job (which is not surprising at all since he played Elrond in Lord of The Rings, V in V For Vendetta and he voiced Megatron in Transformers).
• At the core of the movie, it’s a simple “Good VS Evil” story. It’s simple but good! They show the two routes of taking the Super Soldier Serum. Red Skull takes it, turns into big red Crayon and takes an evil path. Rogers takes it, turns into a buff superhero and goes down the good path. Simple but effective!

• I already touched on Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, but all the actors of main characters are really good. Chris Evans is a PERFECT Captain America, Haley Atwell plays a good Peggy Carter and Tommy Lee Jones is a mean Col. Phillips. Well done, crew!
• BONUS POSITIVE: Natalie Dormer (who plays Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones makes out with Captain America)

Negatives

• The biggest problem with the movie is everything after Steve Rogers becoming Captain America. It’s not that the rest of the movie is bad, but it fails to live up to the hype of Rogers becoming Captain America.
  • I’m not any expert critic AT ALL, but the problem lies within the pacing. The first hour is a slow buildup to becoming Captain America (and it’s great). The second hour hits and it’s sped up 40X. It goes from one fight scene to a montage of fight scenes to Bucky dying to the final battle in a snap of the fingers. The fight scenes aren’t THAT entertaining either. They’re decent…
  • I’d argue Bucky’s death doesn’t feel that big either because it’s slammed in the middle of the war montage and the final battle. He gets blasted off of a train, Captain America mourns for one scene and then were on to the final fight. A big F U to Bucky.
• The Howling Commandos (Captain America’s personal team) are blah. No one in the group is charismatic and they all of a sudden become good friends with Cpt. America for no reason? They’re just okay… don’t hate them…. certainly don’t like them.
• OK, I hate to be this curmudgeon but why are Germans talking in English? I usually look past this kind of stuff but I couldn’t look past Hitler’s officers speaking in English to Red Skull… why? Idk. I’m ashamed that it bothered me.  

Overall Grade: B

It’s a good introduction to Captain America. The audience fell in love with the character and it had some intense moments. The movie lost some steam at the end, similar to Iron Man, but overall the first half was so good that it earned a solid B and was one of the best Phase 1 movies… which doesn’t say a lot because Phase 1 is by far the weakest.

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. Captain America: The First Avenger (It’s easily ahead of the other 3 movies but easily behind Iron Man).
3. Thor
4. Iron Man 2
5. The Incredible Hulk

NEXT UP: The Avengers

Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Release Date: May 6th, 2011
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, 
Anthony Hopkins 
Box Office Worldwide: $449,326,618

Alright, so I’ve been behind in my MCU rewatch… I’ve tried to do one every 5 days but it’s been 10 days since Iron Man 2. Whoops

So to make up for it, here’s a bunch of shirtless gifs of Chris Hemsworth.

Anyways! This is the Thor review.

Thor (2011): The first installment of the Thor movies takes us to Asgard to find a douchebag called Thor. Seriously, he is an arrogant a-hole that always wants to fight and cock off… he would do well in a fraternity!

It was the MCU’s first movie to take place outside of Earth. Though Thor isn’t one of my favorite MCU movies, it’s definitely important because it was the first movie to take place in space and kick off a true extended UNIVERSE.

Plus, we get to look at Thor’s Hammer, Mjolnir, for 2 hours… okay here’s one more shirtless gif.

Yeah, maybe he’s my man-crush… sue me! Ok, what are we talking about again?

Right, right! Here’s my Thor positives/negatives.

Positives

• Tom Hiddleston as Loki is so freakin’ good. He plays the jealous, slighted younger brother role so well. The best villains are the ones that the audience can empathize with (Loki, Kilmonger, Thanos… kind of… in  a sick, twisted way), and Loki has a legit gripe. He’s been the lesser compared to Thor for years now, so the audience understands his pain and he resonates with the audience. I mean, he tries to commit genocide on an entire planet, so he might of lost us there but he’s got daddy issues… back off! Hiddleston=great. Loki=great.
• Loki & Thor’s relationship feels so real. Hemsworth and Hiddleston have great chemistry and it gets turned into an emotional story about two brothers fighting… really good stuff!
• Piggybacking off of point #2, all the family related emotions in this movie feel real. It feels like you’re watching a real family tear each other apart. Thor crying when he realizes he screwed up, Loki yelling at Odin when he found out he’s been lied to about his birth, Thor refusing to fight Loki… really good soap opera stuff!
• The introduction to Asgard is beautiful. Thor came out in 2011 and for being a movie of 8 years old, Asgard’s CGI still looks really good. The setting feels magical on Asgard… not so much on Earth.
• We don’t get a lot of badass fight scenes in Thor, but when he blows up Jotunheim with that lighting strike to the ground…

Negatives

• I cannot stand Jane Foster. A brilliant scientist who gets super cringey trying to talk to a demigod is not a lovable character for me. It comes off as annoying and the hopeless romantic in me wants Thor to be with a badass chick like Lady Sif! Not some scrubby mortal like Jane Foster.
  • In my The Incredible Hulk review, I said Edward Norton’s Hulk is in the bottom two for interesting characters in the MCU… Jane Foster takes the least interesting cake for me. I think she is the lamest character in the entire MCU. Sorry, Padme and Natalie Portman… I still love you!
• The movie doesn’t have enough weird sci-fi material to make it feel like a true Thor movie. It’s got Asgard looking beautiful, but then the movie cuts to Earth for a good majority of the 2nd and 3rd acts. I want outer space, bizarre, trippy shit (like Ragnorak but that’s a different review)! Marvel Studios played it too safe to appeal to mainstream audiences… in my opinion.
• The Destroyer is a slow metal clunker that was never a true combatant towards Thor but he wasn’t even the main villain so I’m fine with it.
• It’s not a big negative, but they tossed Hawkeye in a useless spot just for the sake of introducing Hawkeye… It’s whatever but kind of weird.

Overall Grade: C+

It was difficult for me to find a lot of negatives and positives for Thor. There isn’t a lot that I love about the movie but there isn’t much that I despise about this movie either. The worst thing about the movie is Jane Foster. The best thing is the emotional scenes within Thor’s family.  The movie is as average of an MCU movie you’ll find. Overall, I still really like it, because even an average MCU movie is a BANGER, so I gave it the C+ instead of a C.

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. Thor (Thor & Iron Man 2 are so tough to rank. IM2 is more aimed at entertainment when Thor was much more of a drama… I give the slight edge to Thor)
3. Iron Man 2
4. The Incredible Hulk

NEXT UP: Captain America: The First Avenger

P.S. with Game of Thrones 55 days away, expect some GOT material next Sunday…

Directed by Jon Favreau (Marvel Studios
Release date: May 7, 2010 
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell
Box office worldwide: $623,933,331

Iron Man 2 (2010): After Iron Man kicked off the MCU with a HUGE bang, Iron Man 2 (IM2) had a very steep battle to match Iron Man’s success from ’08.

SPOILER ALERT: it didn’t match the success (it actually made more money than the first film but still wasn’t as good).

A lot have argued that we could skip the events in IM2 without missing much. For the most part, that’s an accurate depiction of the movie, but it also gives us two important introductions: Natalie Rushman AKA Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow AKA my biggest crush in the entire world and Don Cheadle as Rhodey. It also gives us Rhodey’s first appearance in the War Machine suit.

I’ll argue IM2 is better than what people give it credit for. IM2 will never be seen as a cinematic icon but it’s got its got entertainment value and for a sequel, I’m okay with it!

Anways, here are my positives/negatives of Iron Man 2. 

Positives

• I can’t stress how much I love the Justin Hammer character in this film. Sam Rockwell is fantastic as the rich, arrogant, clueless, goofy goober. He’s such a dorky villain and I ate up every second of Justin Hammer.
  • Hammer and Tony Stark’s interactions are so awkward it’s beautiful. You can feel the disparity between Tony and Justin… GIVE ME MORE HAMMER!
• IM2 gives me one of my favorite scenes in the entire MCU. Five minutes into the film, Iron Man makes his grand entrance to the Stark Expo by skydiving out of a plane to the tune of “Shoot to Thrill” by AC/DC. He hits the stage and is surrounded by Iron Man cheerleaders… this is exactly what I want out of a superhero whose identity is known! Sooooo sick!

• Again, some will say the story is forgettable, but I enjoy the “dealing with death” angle. Stark realizes his arc reactor is poisoning him, so he starts living like it’s his last day (shoutout Tim McGraw). He hijacked a Formula One car, he got stupid drunk wearing the Iron Man suit and then urinated in said suit. He’s pretty much living every man’s dream! In all seriousness, it shows emotional/mental vulnerability to a god-like character.
• We get one of the sweetest suit-ups when Iron Man puts on the Mark IV briefcase in Monaco.

• The romantic softy in me finally got to see Tony & Pepper mack out. Power couple of the year.
• Elon Musk cameo FTW.

Negatives

• As much as I love Justin Hammer, IM2 completely whiffs on Whiplash/Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). They give the audience very little reason that we should be interested in this character. Ivan’s father was screwed over by Tony’s father, Ivan tried to kill Tony and then disappears… as a henchmen for Justin Hammer. He’s one of the most forgettable villains in the MCU, and frankly, Whiplash doesn’t know how to fight! He takes his sweet ass time trying to take out Tony in Monaco, and he gets killed in the end because he opens his armor to get blasted in the face. It doesn’t make sense! #Rattled
  • The Hammerdrones that Whiplash control in the last fight scenes of the movie were lame too. There’s no way those Hammerdrones posed any kind of a real threat against Iron Man & War Machine.
  • Also, he asks for his “biurd” a billion times. Shush

• The introduction to War Mache is important BUT the movie presents it poorly. Rhodey puts the suit on and has a discombobulated and bizarre boxing match with Iron Man. After the fight, Rhodey flies away with it… what the hell!? It was a lackluster introduction to the badass War Machine.
  • Also, Rhodes has been wearing the suit for, like, 5 minutes and already knows hot to fly it? I’m calling BS! It took Tony a week to learn how to fly it in the first movie. How did Rhodes learn how to fly it that quickly??
• I touched on it earlier, but the movie is definitely forgettable. Especially when you’re talking about Tony Stark’s character arc. The movie was a bridge to get from the other character intros (Captain America, Thor, Hulk) to The Avengers and it shows.

Overall Grade: C+

Overall, I like this movie more than most do. It’s entertaining! Even if it doesn’t add a lot of depth to the MCU, so what? It’s a fun watch that shows us a mentally tested superhero with weaknesses. Plus, it gives me one of my favorite characters in Justin Hammer. Even with another forgettable villain like Whiplash, we still get two huge intros in War Machine and Black Widow. IM2 is below average compared to the rest of the MCU films but still an average movie.

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. Iron Man 2 (It fell flat compared to the first IM, but I’ll take this over Edward Norton’s Hulk anyday).
3. The Incredible Hulk

NEXT UP: THOR

Directed by Louis Leterrier (Marvel Studios)
Release date: June 13th, 2008
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Roth
Box office worldwide: $263,427,551

The Incredible Hulk: If you are the forgotten child in your family then you’re probably The Incredible Hulk. Marvel Studios rarely references any of the events from the Hulk movie in future movies. It’s probably for good reason because Hulk is one of the lesser films in the MCU. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it, because I’m a Marvel slave and will pretty much like anything they produce. It’s just not nearly as good as other MCU movies.

The Incredible Hulk never feels like a superhero movie. The story is about Bruce Banner trying to cope with becoming the Hulk and trying to get rid of it. I think it’s a great story, but I also wanted to see more of Hulk smashing the shit out of everything in site.

Even though it’s one of my least favorite MCU films, it’s definitely the best Hulk film (out of two). The first one was Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003 and it sucked ass. Hulk looks like he was colored with an off-brand green highlighter, the story sucks and Hulk fights a bunch of dumbass Hulk dogs. I really, really despise that movie, so compared to that piece of trash, the MCU’s version of Hulk is the best flim of all time.

This was the only movie that Edward Norton portrayed Bruce Banner/Hulk because Marvel Studios needed an actor who was a team player and someone who could work in a team without being a creative dictator. Which is fine with me! Norton sucks compared to Mark Ruffalo.

Anyhow, here are my positives and negatives for The Incredible Hulk.

Positives

• It doesn’t add a lot of substance to the movie, but there are a TON of cool teases to other Marvel characters and movies.
  • Stark Enterprises blueprints are shown for weapons to combat Hulk.
  • Banner turns himself into The Hulk when he was trying to replicate the serum Captain America was made from.
  • Sam Sterns, AKA Mr. Blue, is teased to turning into The Leader (one of Hulk’s more popular villains in the comics).
  • Lou Ferrigno pops up in a cameo as a bodyguard (Ferrigno played Hulk on TV.)
• Hulk’s battle with the military at Culver University is a pretty fun showdown. Not the best battle we’ve seen but good nonetheless and a fun first taste of Hulk’s power.
• The final battle between Hulk & Abomination is really good! The two monsters beat the hell out of each other.
  • We also get to see Hulk using a cop car as boxing gloves! The inner nerd in me freaked out… holy shit that was cool!

• I really enjoy Thunderbolt Ross as one of the film’s villains. He is a diabolical, selfish, asshole, and I love it! He helps Banner & Betty Ross create the Hulk and he completely throws Banner under the table by making him a fugitive because he’s trying to save his own career. He even throws his own daughter under the bus. YOU BEAUTIFUL, ANGRY BASTARD!
• Though it never feels like a Hulk or superhero movie, it does a good job setting a sad tone of what Banner is going through. Banner’s stressed trying to find a cure and he hasn’t been happy or relaxed for months now. The movie does a good job portraying that.
• MY FAVORITE PART OF THE ENTIRE MOVIE: Banner and Betty Ross are about to have sex for the first time in months and Banner can’t get too excited because he’ll turn into the Hulk. BRUHHHHHHH. He can deal with getting infected with gamma poisoning. He can deal with turning into an enormous green rage monster, BUT HE’S A HUMAN DAMNIT! And the poor sap can barely make out for the rest of his life! That’s the real travesty.

Negatives

• Okay, there’s nothing wrong with the movie being a Bruce Banner story more than a Hulk story. That’s fine! What I can’t look past is that they cast Edward Norton as Hulk. He is so effing boring.
  • I know Bruce Banner is supposed to be a nerd, but Norton is a dweeb… which is much worse! He is stoic, quiet, uninteresting and utterly dry and he makes the movie more boring than it ever should have been. He is in the bottom two for interesting characters in the entire MCU.
  • Liv Tyler doesn’t help either. Tyler plays Betty Ross, and I like Liv Tyler as an actress, but combined with Norton they do very little to make it an intriguing film. The scenes when it’s dialogue heavy with Tyler and Norton are boring AF.
• As much as I enjoy Thunderbolt Ross as a villain, I’m not big on Abomination/Emil Blonsky. We only get to see Abomination for, like, five minutes at the end of the movie (it is a fun five minutes, however).
• Blonsky goes from a battle tested war veteran to a greedy villain that wants to turn into a monster after getting a taste of it… I guess. They do a poor job to show Blonsky changing. It just sort of happens and doesn’t give me a reason to care about this guy.

• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.
• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.
• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.
• I don’t like Edward Norton as Hulk.

Overall Grade: C

Overall, I enjoy the movie enough. It’s better than people give it credit for but still has flaws. The best parts of the film are cameos, easter eggs and Hulk using a cop car as a pair of boxing gloves. It’s more of a Bruce Banner story than it is a Hulk movie and Norton is a boring ass Banner. The story itself is a good one doused in a sad tone to reflect Banner coping with being Hulk… but Norton is sooooooooo boring. Have I told you I don’t like Edward Norton?

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. The Incredible Hulk (Definitely behind Iron Man. It’s going to end in the bottom tier of my rankings too… damn you Edward Norton. )

Directed by Jon Favreau (Marvel Studios)
Release Date: May 2, 2008
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Box Office Worldwide: $585,174,222

Marvel Studios is the GOAT. Why bother watching new movies when I can watch Marvel movies for the billionth time? I mean, it’s to the point where these movies mean more to me than half the people I know…

Holy shit I need help.

That’s why I decided to kick off my new website with a“Road to Endgame.” Every 5-ish days I’ll be re-watching a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie and writing reviews and ranking all the MCU movies leading up to Avengers: Endgame.

**NOTE: Watching order will be in the order of release dates.

Iron Man (2008): Iron Man was damn near a perfect movie to kick off the MCU. It could’ve kicked off with Hulk, a well known and extremely popular hero, but they went with Iron Man instead… kind of a ballsy pick. What makes it ballsier is that Robert Downey Jr. was selected to play Iron Man. Even though he was coming off a couple successful movies, this dude was a former drug addict and wasn’t too far off from some stints in prison.

I mean, the guy was pulled over for speeding and the cops found him butt-ass naked and tripping balls while driving a Porsche! Heroin, crack, booze and guns were his Avengers at one point in life, but Marvel Studios still took a very risky shot on him… and it worked out BIG TIME.
(BTW, RDJ was also the guy who played a black guy and got nominated for an Oscar, so he’s a damn good actor. I also don’t think 2019 would approve of that nomination)

Anyways, RDJ you’re the best. Here’s my Iron Man positives/negatives, overall grade and MCU rankings:

Positives

• As an origin story, this is a 10/10 movie. It’s such a badass way to introduce Iron Man to the audience. The audience is introduced to this cocky, intelligent playboy philanthropist Tony Stark who gets caught by a fictional Taliban (The Ten Rings) and is forced to build the suit in a cave to survive. Awesome!
  • Stark’s arc (reactor… lol… get it?) in the movie is great, too. Starts out as the arrogant, poon-driven partier and ends the movie as the arrogant, “possibly looking for a girlfriend” superhero. He grew up more in 2 hours of screenplay than I have in 22 years of life.
  • Also, we see a cute tease to Pepper & Tony’s future relationship. The RomCom fan in me loves to see it!
• I already mentioned it above, but RDJ kills it as Tony Stark. The line between reality and fiction is blurred with his performance and he knocks it out of the park! It’s unfair to ask, but can you picture anyone else portraying Tony Stark as well as RDJ does? Doubtful. He’s as Tony Stark as it gets.
• The movie gives us a couple of terrific moments: The “I am Iron Man” speech at the end and the clip of Stark holding his hands out in front of the Jericho missile exploding.
  • I can’t stress the “I am Iron Man” speech enough! It is the exact opposite of what we’ve seen in previous superhero movies (Batman: hidden identity, Superman: hidden identity, Spider-Man: hidden identity). That scene alone does so much for the MCU and superhero genre.

• It also gives us, arguably, the best chirp of the MCU. Pepper Potts says to the latest harlot, Christine Everhart, Tony brings home: “I do anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking the trash.” Go and get wrecked, Christine!
• Stark’s first time putting on the big Mark 1 suit is awesome. The entire sequence of his escape from the cave is very satisfying.
  • When he upgrades the suit to the fully-painted Mark III, then we get to see the famous red and yellow Iron Man suit and it kicks ass!

• The Nick Fury post-credit scene is a thrilling introduction to tease the Avengers and the entire MCU today!
• P.S. Stan Lee (EXCELSIOR) as Hugh Hefner is one of the best cameos in the MCU.

Negatives

• The last fight between Iron Man & Iron Monger is okay. It’s kind’ve a slow, sluggish battle. There are a couple awkward moments that makes it a disappointing end to the movie. It also hurts reviewing this 10 years after the movie since we’ve seen a lot bigger and better battles.
  • The whole 3rd act with Stane making his move against Stark to steal his arc reactor falls a bit flat. It’s a fine plan and sinister at times, but something about it just feels off. It’s nothing terribly detrimental for the movie, but not as good as the first couple acts.

• Villains are okay in the movie. Obadiah Stane is decent before he puts on the Iron Monger suit, but once he puts the suit on something, again, just feels off about him. The Ten Rings were the faux villains for most of the movie and they were treated as henchmen. I don’t think you hear what the Ten Rings’ leader’s name is in the movie… It’s Raza, BTW.
  • The part that REALLY bothers me the most about Stane is when Pepper finds out he tried to have Tony killed. Stane has a file on the COMPANY’S COMPUTER SERVER that contains a video from the Ten Rings saying “hey, guy, you didn’t tell us we were killing Tony Stark.” WTF? Why wouldn’t you delete it!? Or can’t you at least put the file on your personal laptop? I understand it’s on a ghost drive, or whatever that is, but why not keep it to yourself… or delete it? Ya big dumb idiot.

Overall Grade: A-

Overall, I love this movie. It’s a great way to kick off a shared cinematic universe with a bang, and it still holds up after 10 years. It’s a terrific story of someone growing as a human being and bettering themselves and because of that, the ending being average doesn’t hurt it enough to damage the grade for me.  The acting and character development is through the roof with RDJ, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges (even if I have some issues with Obadiah Stane). In terms of its impact, I think it’s obvious. It kicked off one of the greatest, if not THEE greatest, cinematic runs with 21 MCU movies and changed the superhero genre.

MCU Rankings

1. Iron Man (It’s the only movie I’ve ranked so far so it has to be #1… smitty werbenjagermanjensen would be proud)

NEXT UP: THE INCREDIBLE HULK