LRR Fan MCU Ranking

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JackSlack
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LRR Fan MCU Ranking

Postby JackSlack » 29 Apr 2018, 15:44

Hey guys,

I suspect most people on this forum have seen this elsewhere, but if you haven't, we're doing a LRR fan ranking of the MCU films. If you've seen all 19 so far, please fill out the form and give us more data!
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Jamfalcon
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Re: LRR Fan MCU Ranking

Postby Jamfalcon » 30 Apr 2018, 10:29

I had not seen this elsewhere! I'll fill it out after I see Infinity War tonight. :)
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JackSlack
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Re: LRR Fan MCU Ranking

Postby JackSlack » 02 May 2018, 22:17

GlorySeer
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Re: LRR Fan MCU Ranking

Postby GlorySeer » 09 May 2018, 21:18

I finally finished watching the rest of the old movies again minus hulk. Saw Infinity War before Spider-Man or Thor: Ragnorok, which was a mistake. But I can finally give my opinion. When grading, I went from the bottom to the top, trying to think of which I enjoyed the most.

In the interest of discussion, I'll give my list here too. Though I will say the top 6 are very close and a lot of them could easily shift around. And past, like, 12 and over are all movies I really enjoyed. I liked the rest, but those twelve were where it got really tough to choose. Also, I will be mentioning spoilers for the movies. But I'll try to limit Infinity War spoilers with tags.

19: The Incredible Hulk
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I don't think this movie was bad. But I remember that it didn't really feel like a 'Marvel movie.' If not for the cameo at the end, I wouldn't even think this would be on the list. It was good, but not as fun as other Marvel movies have been.


18: Thor: The Dark World
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I actually really like the Thor movies. But this one felt really flat to me. There was a lot that felt really interesting about it. The relationship with Loki, the dark elves as villains, and all of the Earth stuff. But from the style to some of the content, this fell flat to me.


17: Iron Man 2
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A rather mediocre villain really hurt this one for me. Tony was on point. It just felt like this was kind of rushed out after Iron Man's success.


16: Ant-Man
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This one was a lot of fun. The characters were good. The action was sweet. And overall I think this movie gets less credit than it deserves. But I think it can't quite stand up to the others on the list. The pacing felt off to me. And there was too much of a focus on why the main character had to be in the suit rather than the more qualified woman. I felt the father made sense about it. He just couldn't bear to lose her even if it meant the safety of the world. But a deleted scene talking about the main character's skill in hacking and breaking in also helped legitimize it. (As a note, I apologize that I will not remember most names of non-main movie characters. I'm awful with names.)


15: Captain America: Civil War
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Honestly, I want to put this lower. The main thing this movie did was introduce Black Panther and Spider-Man to the MCU. And it did both of those jobs in an amazing way. It was also fun and had good fights. But beyond character introduction, the movie just felt like fluff to me.

Maybe we'll see more actual consequences of the movie later. As it stands, I'm unimpressed with what was supposed to be a major event. It isn't even that someone had to die. I think if they hadn't had everyone broken out of prison at the end, it would have at least felt like something had happened.


14: Iron Man 3
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Better than Iron Man 2, but this may be under Civil War actually. It was good. I loved seeing how New York had affected Tony. The entire section in the town felt off to me. It's made up for with a great twist though, which lead to one of the funniest characters in the MCU in my opinion.


13: Iron Man
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I'm a lot lower on the Iron Man movies than I expected to be. I like Iron Man. It does a great job of making Tony's character. And it was what made the MCU possible. But it still isn't a movie I enjoy rewatching as much as the others. The movies have come a long way since the start. And while I respect Iron Man, I think it's showing its age.


12: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
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I really liked this movie. I liked the message, I loved the climax. The story felt personal yet meaningful for the entire time. Rocket got the chance to shine despite it being Peter's movie. Same with Gamora and her sister. And Yandu is great.

But I really dislike what they did to Drax. He felt like he became the comic relief character in a bad way. Constantly insulting and just kind of being rude and clueless. I like Matt's (or was it Jame's?) take that he was learning about ribbing but was still awful at it. But it all felt very real.

Worse to me was how Mantis was treated. She was just the movie's punching bag. From her interactions with Drax to Gamora (understandably) attacking her, it felt like she was just there to get shit on. Hell, her badass moment it cut short by a random rock to the head with the others being unaffected. From there she's essentially out of the movie entirely.


11: Thor
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I quite like Thor. It's a really fun movie. And along the same lines as The First Avenger and Iron Man, it does an excellent job of having the character's beginning and their growth as a person. Thor starts as an asshole who is all about pissing contests where the loser dies. But he learns to care about people and humility. And you can see how much it changes him throughout the movies. Overall I just really think this movie stands up better than it might have otherwise. Also, it makes a great Rifftrax movie.


10: Captain America: The First Avenger

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I'm not sure if there's anything I really don't like about this movie. Maybe the whole 'double-Nazi' thing with HYDRA. But even that made sense and was used well later. It was a lot of fun with good action set pieces. The 'fast forward' through taking out most of HYDRA may have been its only real stumbling point. But it helped build for later movies very well.


9: Avengers: Age of Ultron
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I think Ultron didn't really click for me as a villain. And Thor felt like he was an afterthought for most of the second act. It's those issues that keep this from being higher. Because otherwise it was pretty great. All of it was really fun. Oh, and if you haven't seen this since Infinity War, go check it out. There's a good amount of foreshadowing, especially with a specific character.


8: Spider-Man: Homecoming
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This movie would be higher up, but I don't think they nailed Tony's role in Peter's life. Happy felt like he was an ass. Though I think that was more poor presentation on the movie's part. We see Peter's constant communication to the point of being annoying. Which after months can no doubt be frustrating to a busy man like Happy. But since we weren't shown him every trying, it just felt like he was being an asshole.

Tony was obviously paying attention to him, but never gave him feedback or the approval he was looking for. I really wanted to see Tony commanding Peter to stick with his club since he had to keep up his actual life. Because honestly, Tony was a father figure in this movie. He even compares himself to his father in dealing with Peter. Yet he didn't really take part in Peter's life. It may have helped had they dialed back on Tony's involvement in the advertisements. Even the cover art has Iron Man flying next to Spiderlad.

That said, everything else was great. Peter was amazing. The school characters were great. All of the dialogue was fun and quipey. The villains were excellent, even if I wish the Vulture had a 'he's just a kid' moment of doubt. It seemed like Vulture was a good guy doing his best, but the movie didn't play to that at all. No regret about killing a man even if he had to. No hesitation about killing a kid. Just seemed odd to me. Still very good.


7: Black Panther
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Saw this near release, so it's been a while. There were aspects I felt were obvious in the plot. But honestly, I really like the culture of Wakanda. It felt like a place steeped in its own unique tradition. The only time I really feel they did a good job of that was with Dark World, showing Thor watching his home as compared to the Earth he left. People smashing things, basically celebrating the battle.

I've seen some people complain that Black Panther was too close to Iron Man. But he still didn't feel as close as Doctor Strange (more on that later). Plus I'm just a sucker for different cultures and traditions like we saw.

But yeah. Villain, characters, events, just everything felt really fun to me.


6: Thor: Ragnorok
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Talking about a unique style, Ragnorok stands out even admist this crowd. I loved the style of the trash world. Most of the scenes on that world felt like they were straight from 70/80s sci-fi cheese with a modern budget. And I loved it. Also, seeing Hulk being able to speak and be his own character was amazing. I just really loved every part of this movie. This is where things kind of got rough to be honest.


5: Doctor Strange
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AKA Iron Man redux. Rich asshole goes through major trauma that changes his life and makes him a superhero. This movie was a visual treat. And I really liked Strange as a character. He stayed an ass, but still managed to show a lot of growth that movies had trouble capturing since the first few. I think Doctor Strange is what Iron Man would be if it were done today. It manages to be its own unique thing while still tying into the overall universe.


4: The Avengers
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It feels wrong to put this movie so low. It honestly may be worse than the last few movies. But it holds the spot in my heart that Iron Man seems to for others. It was when I really started to care about MCU. And it was able to push through the idea of four different movie series coming into one in a way that hadn't been done before. Maybe we're spoiled after two (kinda three) more Avengers movies. But I still think this is one of the best.


3: Guardians of the Galaxy
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This movie is the one I think is the strongest individual film in the MCU. This is the one I think is the best if you take out the context of the MCU entirely. It didn't need to tie into things at large. It was an excellent story of awful people finding one another and growing together. Finding friends in a universe that had felt so cold to them. Peter was around Ravegers he was always told would eat him growing up. Gamora had her sister who she competed with and Thanos. Rocket had Groot and vice versa. And Drax had lost everything he cared about before. And yet they were able to find one another. To find friendship and happiness.

And it does all that with a style and humor that I honestly think helped shape a lot of later MCU movies. I don't know if we would have gotten Ragnorok as it is without GotG for example. It managed to be a ton of fun while telling stories of loss and hatred. The soundtrack helped shaped this movie more than any other.


2: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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Until Infinity War, this was hands down my favorite MCU movies. In fact, it still is one of my favorite movies period. I think Infinity War may have the edge over this and GotG just due to recency. But regardless, Winter Soldier did a great job of turning the universe on it's head. It managed to take what had largely been fun movies and turn it into a serious thriller. Twisting SHIELD into villains, having Captain become a fugitive in a way I liked more than Civil War, the whole Fury aspect, I just loved every minute of this movie. I think the movie loses some punch on rewatches. But I remember how much it hit when I first saw this movie.


1: Avengers: Infinity War (WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS)
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Well here we are. At the beginning and at the end. I honestly went into this movie with tempered expectations. Trying to combine that many stories into one is very difficult. And yet, the movie did a great job with it. Of course groups essentially had to be lumped together. Teams handling different parts of the movie. And the jumps between them did feel jarring. Building the groups felt slightly clunky at first.

But when it turned the corner, it turned it hard. Total spoilers from this point on.

I hadn't seen Ragnorok before Infinity War. So the opening, to me, was insane. Killing Loki? All Asgardians are dead beyond Thor? And it was only prepping me for the rest of the movie. This movie helped make Doctor Strange feel like one of the strongest characters in the universe with his fight and resisting what seemed like the most OP character. It helped make Mantis feel relevant. Thor felt insanely powerful here compared to what he had the first two movies. Every other character had their moment of being a badass. The choice of having Banner be the fighter rather than Thor was also a very clever choice. It made him feel vulnerable after helping build Hulk up as invincible for so long.

But this movie isn't actually about the Avengers. It's about Thanos. His journey. We see how he really is. He isn't trying to be cruel. He isn't looking for power. He doesn't want to rule. And he doesn't want to kill everyone. Hell, he doesn't really want to kill anyone.

He feels he has to for the good of the universe. And honestly, the movie makes a pretty good case he might be right.

Seeing how he treats his beloved daughter so gently really helped humanize him. But the fact he was willing to torture his other daughter showed that he would do anything for his goal. He's willing to give up the person he loves the most for the good of the universe. And it makes sense. Because he wanted it to be fair. Gamora was just as likely to be erased anyways. That kind of character building really was important for what came next.

Because then he won.

I was watching in a very vocal theater. It was kind of annoying. People were shouting 'he has a beard!' when Cap showed up. That kind of thing. But when the credits hit, it felt like half the theater jumped to their feet with a loud 'WHAT!?'

I've got to hand it to Marvel. That was a ballsy ending for a movie. And I absolutely loved it. We get to see these characters we have fallen in love with dissolve into nothing. Almost all of the Guardians. Doctor Strange apologizing to Tony. The heartbreak as Rocket watches Groot dies. And the guard watch her king vanish into nothing. And oh god Peter. "I don't feel so good Mr. Stark..." It was a moment of heart break. Watching Tony see this kid who he was responsible for... who he basically considered a son... die in his arms. It felt like a punch to the gut. Everyone around Tony vanished. He had failed them and was now (essentially) alone.

I think if Infinity War hadn't ended like that, it'd likely be down in the three or four range. But I really love what they did with the ending. There was a sense of awe and sadness that we just don't get in movie endings anymore.

People say it ends on a cliffhanger. But I don't think it does. The ending could have been fleshed out more. Even without that, I think this could totally be the end of the MCU. The characters have to live in this new world. This new universe that they had to failed to save. Cap has to live with the fact that it is, at least in part, because he wanted to save Vision too much. The Guardians of the Galaxy failed and paid the ultimate price. We may not see what they do next, but I could easily see this as the end.

I think back to Thor's conversation with Rocket. He asks Rocket what he has left to lose. And Rocket talks about how he has a lot to lose... and he ends up losing it all.

And the last scene with Thanos was great. We see him alone and happy with himself. Because he fulfilled his quest. He isn't some all-powerful ruler. It looked like the Gauntlet was more or less destroyed anyways. But he saved the universe.

My only problem with the ending is that I know it won't last. I don't doubt there will be a high price in Avengers 4. But it's kind of disappointing when I love the ending so much to know it won't last.

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