Iron Man (08) Dir. Jon Favreau Budget: $140 M Box office: $585.8 M
IMDb Rating: 7.9 Tomatometer: 94% Audience Score: 91%
The film that started the franchise. Even if you’re not familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you likely know who Iron Man is due to the character’s pervasiveness in pop culture through the past decade.
The film starts with Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (Terrance Howard) traveling to Afghanistan to demonstrate a new type of missile Stark Industries has manufactured.
After concluding the demonstration Stark is critically wounded by an ambush, spearheaded by a missile from his own industry.
He’s then caught and held captive in a cave by the Ten Rings, where a fellow captive named Yinsen implants Stark with an electromagnet to prevent shrapnel shards from reaching his heart.
They’re kept alive to build another prototype missile, and in secret they build a suit of powered armor and an arc reactor for the suit.
Once the captors see the almost finished suit, they go in for the assault. Yinsen sacrifices himself to give time for the suit to power up, which allows Stark to fight and flee from the cave.
After being rescued by Rhodes and returned to the U.S., Stark announces he will no longer be manufacturing weapons.
This does not bode well with Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), the company manager and Stark’s late father’s business partner.
Once home, Stark builds a more powerful arc reactor and powered armor set, and his assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) showcases the original reactor in a glass box.
Stark soon uses his new armor to fly back to Afghanistan, as the Ten Rings had recently received another shipment of Stark weapons and began using them against the late Yinsen’s village.
After saving the village, Iron Man is encountered by Rhodes flying an F-22 Raptor fighter jet, to whom he discloses his identity to stop the attack.
By this point the Ten Rings have obtained Stark’s first armor suit and met with Stane, who’s revealed to have been supplying weapons to the Ten Rings and is attempting to overthrow Stark as CEO.
Wanting to know where the illegal shipments have been going, Stark has Potts investigate the company database.
Potts learns the Ten Rings were hired by Stane to kill Tony Stark, and delivers this information to Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) of S.H.I.E.L.D..
After learning he cannot replicate the arc technology, Stane breaks into Stark’s house and forcefully takes the one from his chest.
While Stark is scrambling for the first reactor, Stane adorns his reverse-engineered suit and attacks Potts and the surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Stark flies in for the defense but is unable to stop Stane without a stronger reactor. The fight leads up to the roof of Stark Industries, where Potts overloads the arc reactor powering the facility.
The unleashed power surge knocks Stane off the building, landing in the exploding and fiery reactor. The following day, Tony Stark announces at a press conference that he is Iron Man.
The post-credits scene features Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) paying Stark a visit and wanting to talk about “The Avengers Initiative”.
Made strides for what a comic book movie could be. While not overly serious, it’s not campy like spiderman or cheesy like any of the live action shows from the 70s. It’s cut like a movie with comic influences, not a comic book movie.
The Incredible Hulk (08) Dir. Louis Leterrier Budget: $145 M Box office: $264.8 M
IMDb Rating: 6.6 Tomatometer: 67% Audience Score: 70%
The second film in the franchise, and hoo-boy was Marvel lucky they stepped out the door with Iron Man and not this. While it’s not a bad movie, it certainly leaves something to be desired in both visuals and storytelling.
The film starts with General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) going to Culver University at Virginia, where he meets with his daughter Betty’s (Liv Tyler) partner, Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton).
Ross wishes to enlist Dr. Banner’s expertise on an experiment pertaining to making humans immune to gamma radiation, Dr. Banner’s lifelong field of study.
He agrees to help and learns that the project was part of a World War II “Super Soldier” program.
The experiment goes awry and exposes Banner to a heavy dosage of gamma radiation, resulting in a strange mutation that transforms him into the Hulk whenever his heart beats faster than 200 bpm.
Banner does not have full cranial autonomy as Hulk, subsequently destroys the lab, and kills several while injuring many more, including Betty and her father.
Ross wants to weaponize that kind of power, while Banner wants no such part, resulting in Banner becoming a fugitive of the U.S. military.
Cut to five years later and Banner’s working at a bottling factory in Rio de Janeiro, while also trying to find a cure for the mutation.
It’s shown that he hasn’t had a transformation in over five months, in part by learning techniques to keep control.
He also doesn’t have much social contact, other than a Mr. Blue, with whom he chats on the internet with.
He accidently cuts his finger at work, resulting in a drop of blood contaminating a drink. That drink ends up in the stomach of an elderly individual in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which allows Ross to track Banner down to Brazil.
Ross sends his elite team, lead by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), to bring in the Hulk. Blonksy and his team fail, with him being the sole survivor.
After this Ross explains to Blonksy how Banner got his powers and offers the same option to Blonsky. He agrees and gains the same powers, but at the cost of deforming his skeleton and impairing his judgement.
Banner returns to Betty at Culver University, where he’s again attacked by the forces of Blonsky and Ross.
He transforms into the Hulk and makes quick work of Ross, who ends up retreating.
Blonsky’s mental state is going down the gutter at this point, so he taunts and fights Hulk, who in turn severely beats the crap out of Blonsky.
After reverting to normal, Banner takes Betty on the run to meet with Mr. Blue, who’s revealed to be cellular biologist Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) in New York City.
They test an antidote he’s been working on for Banner and informs him that it may not be exactly what they’re hoping for. He also reveals that he’s synthesized Banner’s blood samples into a large supply for its medicinal capabilities.
Banner seeks to destroy these samples as he does not want them falling into the hands of the military.
Blonsky and Ross again attempt to subdue Banner, and they succeed.
Ross takes him away in a helicopter while Blonsky stays behind and has Sterns inject him with Banner’s blood.
This transforms Blonsky into the Abomination, a larger and stronger version of Hulk.
After attacking Stern and causing Banner’s blood to enter his bloodstream, the Abomination wreaks havoc onto the streets of Harlem.
After both realizing there’s no one else to stop Abomination, Ross releases Banner from the helicopter, who transforms into Hulk before hitting the ground.
Hulk wins the fight, and nearly kills Abomination by strangulation. He’s only stopped by Betty, who begs him to stop and let him face the consequences of the military. He does, and promptly flees from the city.
The post-credits scene shows Banner in British Columbia, having more control over his transformations. Tony Stark is also shown talking to Ross about a team that’s being put together.
Different editing style and weird flow of story. Not bad but not great.
Iron Man 2 (10) Dir. Jon Favreau Budget: $185 M Box office: $623.9 M
IMDb Rating: 6.9 Tomatometer: 72% Audience Score: 71%
Third film in the franchise.
Tony Stark has just announced he is Iron Man at a press conference, which is being broadcast worldwide.
One individual who sees the broadcast is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), son of a former Stark Industries employee. He soon begins construction of his own mini arc reactor.
Cut to six months later, Stark has become a superstar and is receiving immense government pressure to surrender the suits.
And he said respectfully no and revitalized the Stark Expo in honor of his father, Howard.
Stark learns that the palladium used to power his reactor is slowly killing him and works to find an alternative to no avail.
He begins to spiral about his impending fate but doesn’t tell anyone about it. Rather he appoints Pepper Potts to CEO and hires Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) to be her assistant.
Chasing that impending death high, Stark races in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, where he’s attacked mid-race by Vanko.
Stark equips his newly portable suit and defeats Vanko, but at a great cost to the suit due to Vanko’s electric whips.
Vanko gets sent away but reveals he did not want to kill Iron Man, rather just show the world that he is not infallible.
This action gets noticed by Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Stark’s business rival.
Hammer fakes Vanko’s death and breaks him out of prison in exchange for a promise to build a line of suits better than Stark’s. Vanko agrees, but states that unmanned drones would be better.
Stark is shown celebrating what he believes to be his last birthday, getting drunk in one of the Iron Man suits.
Abhorred by the exhibited behavior, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (replaced by Don Cheadle) dons a prototype suit to detain Stark.
The fight end inconclusively and Rhodes confiscates the prototype on behalf of the U.S. Air Force.
Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury meets with Stark and explains that Natasha Rushman is Natasha Romanoff, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
Furthermore, he explains that Howard Stark was the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D., and that Howard and Vanko’s father Anton had invented the arc reactor together. After Anton tried to sell the design, Howard had him deported which led Anton straight to the Gulag.
During this conversation Stark finds a hidden message from his father, a diagram of the atomic structure of a new element.
Stark uses his A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S. to synthesize this new element, which in turn becomes the new power source for his arc reactor.
At the latest Stark Expo, Hammer showcases Vanko’s drones which is fronted by Rhodes in a heavily modified version of the prototype armor.
Unbeknownst to Rhodes, Vanko has full control of his and all the other suits off-site, which Vanko uses to attack Stark the moment he arrives.
As the conflict is escalating Hammer is arrested for breaking Vanko out of prison, and Romanoff and Stark’s bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) go to apprehend Vanko.
They aren’t able to do so but are able to relinquish control of Rhodes suit back to him.
Vanko launches a full assault against Stark and Rhodes, which leads to him blowing himself up, as well as all the other unmanned drones.
After the fight, Fury informs Stark that S.H.I.E.L.D. will only be using him as a consultant.
The post-credits scene features agent Phil Coulson in a desert in New Mexico, reporting his discovery of a large hammer at the bottom of a crater.
Thor (11) Dir. Kenneth Branagh Budget: $150 M Box office: $449.3 M
IMDb Rating: 7.0 Tomatometer: 77% Audience Score: 76%
The fourth film of the franchise, Thor introduces Norse mythology into the MCU.
The film starts with a flashback to Asgard in 965 AD, with King Odin obliterating the Frost Giants of Jotunheim in effort to steal their power source: The Casket of Ancient Winters.
Coming to the present, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is shown about to take the throne of Asgard.
The ceremony is interrupted by his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who grant entrance to the Frost Giants to take their power source back.
Despite his father’s demands, Thor takes his childhood friends Sif (Jamie Alexander), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Joshua Dallas), and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) (who’re followed by Loki) travel to Jotunheim to deal with the Giant leader, Laufey (Colm Feore).
The group is outmatched until Odin steps in, which breaks a delicate truce between the two tribes. Due to direct disobedience, Odin strips Thor of his powers, and casts him to New Mexico for time out.
Sent with nothing but the clothes on his back and the illustrious Mjolnir, he’s quickly encountered by a group of scientists: Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), assistant Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard).
The locals herd around Mjolnir, but no one can take it as only those deem worthy can wield the hammer which attracts the attention of agent Phil Coulson.
Coulson also confiscated the data the scientists have collected on Thor so far, including the wormhole that brought him to Earth.
During this encounter Thor learns S.H.I.E.L.D. had set up a makeshift facility around Mjolnir and sets out to retrieve it.
He breezes through the camp, but when he goes to lift the hammer, he finds himself unable to budge it.
After being quickly caught and released, he even quicker accepts his life of exile on Earth, and beings a romantic relationship with Foster.
During all this, Loki has discovered Laufey is his true father, and only adopted by Odin once the war between their people had ended.
In his wrath he confronts Odin, who’s unable to properly defend himself as he’s basically entering hibernation to recover his spent powers.
Loki takes the throne and offers Laufey the opportunity to take their power source and kill Odin.
While this is happening, Sif and the others go to Heimdall (Idris Elba), who is gatekeeper of the Bifrost.
They convince him to transport them to Earth and bring Thor back. Loki quickly catches wind of this plan and sends the Destroyer to hunt the five down.
The group finds Thor at the same time the Destroyer finds them all, and Thor must sacrifice himself to spare the others.
After being brutalized by the machine and on death’s door, Thor is deemed worthy to wield Mjolnir and the hammer comes flying to him.
With his hammer and his powers restored, Thor smites the Destroyer with ease. He kisses Foster goodbye and returns to Asgard to put an end to Loki’s reign.
As a showcase of his nature, Loki betrays and kills Laufey.
It’s revealed his real plan is to use this “attack” as reason to launch a full-scale assault against Jotunheim, which he believes will make him worthy in Odin’s eye.
Before he’s able to utilize the Bifrost to complete his plan, Thor arrives and destroys the Bifrost, cutting off Loki’s plans and chances of leaving for Thor.
Odin begins to awake and saves the two from falling into the pit caused by the destruction of the Bifrost.
This doesn’t stop Loki from jumping in after Odin doesn’t grant his approval of his actions.
Thor admits to Odin that he’s not ready to be king, and the scientists on Earth are shown trying to make a connection to Thor.
The post-credits scene includes Nick Fury interrogating the man who got Thor out of S.H.I.E.L.D. containment.
During the interrogation, he pulls out a suitcase containing a glowing, mysterious cube and explains how it contains untold power.
It’s shown that Loki is in the room and invisible, and encourages the man to agree with the power emanating from the cube.
Captain America: The First Avenger (11) Dir. Joe Johnston Budget: $190 M
Box office: $370.6 M IMDb Rating: 6.9 Tomatometer: 79% Audience Score: 75%
The film starts on a cold open of a frozen aircraft, then transitions to Spring of 1942 to give exposition about a Hydra Lieutenant General Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) (wasn’t Hydra yet but ifykyk) stealing an ancient relic of untold power called the Tesseract.
A small and frail Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is shown being rejected for WWII military recruitment due to his health and physical diagnosis.
To cheer up his best friend, Sgt. James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan) takes Rogers to a future technologies showcase.
There Rogers tells Barnes what it would mean to him if he were able to serve his country during these hard times, and the conversation is overheard by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci).
Dr. Erskine operates the Strategic Scientific Reserve and allows Rogers to enlist in his program.
He’s taken to base and meets several other candidates participating in the same experiment, in effort to become a super soldier.
He also meets MI6 agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), who is uncertain of Roger’s placement in the program.
That is until Carter inconspicuously tosses a grenade towards a training group, and Rogers believing it’s live, jumps onto the grenade to protect his fellow troops.
Rogers is selected for the super solider test for his action, and the night before the procedure Dr. Erskine warns him about Johann Schimdt.
Schmidt also had endured the super solider process, but his body wasn’t capable to handle it yet and it left permanent side effects.
Cut to Schmidt and Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) harnessing the power of the Tesseract to power Zola’s inventions and creations.
Schmidt also finds the location of Erskine’s whereabouts and sends an assassin to kill him. Cut back to Rogers undergoing the super solider experiment, being injected with a mysterious serum and bombarded with vita-rays.
Once the experiment is complete Rogers emerges from the chamber buffer and taller. While everyone’s ogling the shirtless man in the room, the undercover assassin kills Erskine, and flees with a vial of serum.
Rogers chases him down through the city, ending with him pulling the assassin out of a mini submarine. The assassin pops a cyanide tooth to avoid interrogation and dies with a “Heil Hydra”.
With Erskine’s death and the knowledge behind the super serum gone, Rogers is forced to don the moniker of Captain America.
He’s used as a puppet to promote war bonds by Senator Brandt, who also has him studied to reverse-engineer the serum sauce.
That is until he learns that Barnes and his unit has gone MIA and has Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) fly him past enemy lines for a rescue mission.
They find the Hydra base, Rogers breaks through the defenses and finds his fellow soldiers locked away. He frees them and they escape, and while Rogers is exiting, he encounters Schmidt, who takes the skin off his face to reveal he is Red Skull.
The base starts to explode between them, allowing both sides to escape.
Once back at home base, Rogers enlists Barnes and his crew to continue the storm on Hydra bases.
It’s during this time Howard Stark makes new gear for Captain, including his vibranium shield.
It’s also between these operations that a romantic relationship ensues between him and Peggy Carter.
After a string of successful missions, the unit finds a train transporting Zola.
They intercept Zola, but Bucky gets knocked from the train in the process and is presumed to be dead.
Not letting his friend’s death be in vain, Rogers extracts the location of the final Hydra base, and information that Red Skull is planning to unleash weapons of mass destruction onto major American cities.
Rogers launches an assault on the last base, where he clears through the crowd just to see Red Skull taking off in his aircraft to cause destruction.
He’s just barely able to jump aboard and starts pummeling Red Skull.
They start to go back and forth, and the Tesseract container that’s inconspicuously placed in the middle of the cabin get damaged, causing weird things to happen.
Red skull tries to grab the Tesseract to harness its power, which sucks him through a wormhole through space.
This leaves Rogers alone on the aircraft. Completely alone, in fact, as the Tesseract burned a hole through the ship and fell into the ocean.
Realizing there’s no other option, Rogers radios to Carter, wishing her the best and telling her goodbye before plummeting into the Arctic Ocean.
Howard Stark is later able to recover the Tesseract, but finds no trace of the ship or Steve Rogers, and is presumed dead.
Except to the audience, who’s shown Rogers waking up in a normal hospital room.
He sits and listens to the radio for a moment, where he hears the announcers of a baseball commentate on a “live” game that he went to in 1941.
He runs out of the hospital and pops out directly in downtown Manhattan, where Nick Fury tells him and the audience that he’s been in a coma for 70 years.
The post-credits scene follows up with Fury and Rogers, where Fury proposes a mission for him of worldwide importance.
The Avengers (12) Dir. Joss Whedon Budget: $220 M Box office: $1.519 B
IMDb Rating: 8.0 Tomatometer: 91% Audience Score: 91%
The sixth film in the franchise, and the first time the MCU characters are coming together.
The film starts with Loki making a deal with the Other (Alexis Denisof), he’s offering the Tesseract in exchange for a Chitauri army to invade Earth.
Back on Earth, Nick Fury is shown arriving at a secret research facility, where Dr. Erik Selvig and other scientists are experimenting on the Tesseract.
It suddenly rips open a wormhole, which allows Loki to come through. Once there he starts enslaving people with his mind-controlling scepter, including the eagle-eyed Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner).
He takes these people and the Tesseract with him to start his dastardly plans.
Due to this, Fury sees no other option than to activate the Avengers Initiative.
He sends agent Natasha Romanoff to bring back Dr. Bruce Banner (recast by Mark Ruffalo) for his extensive knowledge of gamma radiation, which the Tesseract happens to emit.
Fury then enlists the help of Steve Rogers, while agent Phil Coulson checks in with Tony Stark to examine the turned scientists’ research.
Then we cut to Loki and Barton in Germany, where they steal a piece of iridium to stabilize the Tesseract’s power.
This ends with a confrontation between them, and Rogers, Romanoff, and Stark.
They get Loki to surrender, and during transport Thor is heard cracking down through the sky. He intervenes to try and get his brother to turn a new leaf and live a different life.
This results in a quick spat of Thor against Rogers and Stark, which ends in Loki being taken to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier to be held indefinitely.
From his cell Loki can influence the thoughts of people on the ship, causing the crew to argue about their plans with Loki and the Tesseract.
During the argument, Loki has his agents infiltrate the ship, cause a mass confusion and panic throughout.
This panic pushes Banner over the edge, and he transforms into Hulk, which causes damage all around the ship.
Rogers and Stark go into rescue mode and start repairing the broken parts of the ship before they fall out of the sky.
It’s shown that Thor is fighting Hulk to subdue him, and Romanoff knocks out Barton, which frees him of mind control.
Loki manages to escape the ship, but not without first killing agent Coulson. Fury doesn’t let his friend’s death go to waste, as he promptly uses his death to motivate the heroes to come together as The Avengers.
Using the help of the Tesseract and the scientists, Loki opens a massive wormhole in New York City, allowing the Chitauri army to commence their invasion.
The Avengers make it to the city and start fighting off the invasion.
This is where we get this Hulks best line delivery to date “I’m always angry”, and we see about 10 minutes of them all kicking alien ass.
Stark makes it to Stark Towers where Loki is currently operating. They banter, and Stark sends in Hulk who literally wipes the floor with Loki.
While this is happening, Romanoff learns the scepter can be used to turn off the wormhole generator. While this is happening, Fury is receiving orders from his bosses that the threat is too dangerous, and they must nuke the entire city to ensure no where else is invaded.
They fire the missile, which Stark manages to intercept and fly through the wormhole.
It explodes, wiping out the Chitauri mothership, and sending Stark back through the wormhole as it’s closing.
His suit loses power in the process, sending him freefalling back to Earth.
He’s saved by Hulk, who catches him mid-air and slows his descent.
The film ends with The Avengers together, and Thor taking Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard to be locked away.
The mid-credits scene shows the Other groveling to his ruler Thanos for a failed mission.
The end-credits scene shows a burnt out and tired group of Avengers, eating shawarma.
