Iron Man 3
Dir. Shane Black Budget: $200 M Box Office: $1.215 M IMDb Rating: 7.1 Tomatometer: 79% Audience Score: 78%
The seventh films in the franchise and the first solo film that surpassed 1 billion dollars.
What this film lacks in expanding the overarching story, it makes up for in showing depths of characters and realizing that there’s a toll for being a hero.
Tony Stark has severe anxiety and PTSD from the attack on New York City and almost dying, and this film shows the serious ramifications of that throughout.
War Machine gets rebranded by the U.S. Government as Iron Patriot, which the government secretly installed tech to control the suit autonomously.
Harvey Keeler (Ty Simpkins) is introduced to help Stark once he crashes in rural Tennessee.
Stark also gets surgery to remove the shrapnel near his heart, making him no longer dependent on an arc reactor to survive.
There’s the twist with the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), who’s revealed to not be connected to any of the attacks that have transpired so far.
Rather, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) of Advanced Idea Mechanics hired him to star in the fear-mongering videos to cover up the Extremis experiments.
This didn’t go over well with some audience members as some thought it was an interesting and added a layer of depth to the character, while others thought it wasted an hour that they could have used to develop the real Mandarin directly.
Beyond adding that extra layer of depth to Stark, this film didn’t add much to the universe.
Thor: The Dark World
Dir. Alan Taylor Budget: $160 M Box Office: $644.8 M IMDb Rating: 6.8 Tomatometer: 66% Audience Score: 75%
Eighth Dr. Jane Foster is contaminated with the Aether, which is what the Reality Stone is made of (the essence of the stone).
Thor takes her to Asgard to have Loki remove it from her, where the two brothers foster a genuine care and connection towards one another.
This film also notes the loss of Thor’s mother Frigga (Rene Russo), and Loki seemingly sacrificing himself to help save his brother and Asgard.
And that’s really about it.
Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) is one-note, not given the time or depth to feel like a solid character.
By the end of the film Loki is shown to be alive and taking the throne as Odin fell into Odinsleep.
This film introduces the Reality Stone, and in turn the idea of the Infinity Stones being a collective danger.
During the mid-credits scene, it’s taken to the Collector (Benicio del Toro). Establishing that there’s people collecting these stones of power.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dir. Anthony and Joe Russo Budget: $175 M Box Office: $714.4 M IMDb Rating: 7.8 Tomatometer: 90% Audience Score: 92%
Ninth Marvel film, this film is a major plot point for the timeline as Steve Rogers learns S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by Hydra, and fights to cut the heads from the beast.
During the process, he learns his best friend from the past, Bucky Barnes, survived the fall off the train and been turned into a controlled assassin; dubbed The Winter Soldier.
While most people knew they weren’t going to kill off Fury, it wasn’t played out, so it was a good excuse to get him where he needed to be for the third act.
The drama and tension between the titular characters was rock solid, and the spy-thriller feeler keeps the audience engaged for most of the runtime.
Furthermore, the film established that even institutions such as S.H.I.E.L.D. could be infiltrated – and even operated – by the enemy.
Beyond that, with Barnes saving Rogers from drowning, it showed that The Winter Soldier was able to gain some level of autonomy.
Finally, it set up the next film by showing two powered teenagers locked away – one with super speed, and the other telekinesis.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Dir. James Gunn Budget: $200 M Box Office: $772.8 M IMDb Rating: 8.0 Tomatometer: 92% Audience Score: 92%
Tenth film introduces a new cast of characters and provides the first set of non-humanoid hero characters, Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel).
This film also set a new tone of comedy for the franchise, while maintaining a mostly serious tone throughout. Starts to widen the scope of threats involved in the MCU.
The story starts with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) stealing an orb from an abandoned planet (is it really stealing?).
This news quickly reaches an underling of Thanos, Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace).
He sends Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Thanos’ adopted daughter, to hunt him down.
Rocket and Groot encounter the encounter and are all sent to space jail where they meet Drax (Dave Bautista).
The group becomes a found family as the chemistry between the actors is great and everyone plays their part straight for what is the wildest concept in the MCU to this point.
The first act establishes how the group gets together and has them escape from intergalactic prison together.
This film also introduces the Power Stone, the fourth stone to be revealed in the series, which is shown to cause explosions upon direct contact.
After losing the Power Stone to Ronan and an assault by Gamora’s sister Nebula (Karen Gillian), there’s an emotional scene where Quill floats into space to give Gamora his space helmet so she can live.
His sacrifice is quickly undercut by them being rescued by Yondu (Michael Rooker), Quill’s adoptive hostile space dad, but it shows that Quill was willing to die for Gamora.
Once the gang reconciles, they gear up to fight Ronan, who’s infused the Power Stone with his Warhammer.
There’s the arial assault scene on Xandar, and when the ship they’re on starts going down Groot sacrifices himself in what I think is still one of the best scenes we’ve had in the MCU so far.
Once on the ground, the group has a dance off with Ronan, where’s its shown Quill can hold the Power Stone without exploding, and with the help of his friends he was able to harness its powers to defeat Ronan.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Dir. Joss Whedon Budget: $475 M Box Office: $1.403 B IMDb Rating: 7.3 Tomatometer: 76% Audience Score: 82%
Eleventh film in the franchise and fifth highest grossing film of all time during its peak.
This film starts with the Avengers storming a Hydra base in Sokovia to take back Loki’s scepter, where they encounter Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), the twins shown at the end of Winter Soldier.
The heroes take the scepter back to New York, where they learn there’s an A.I. within the Mind Stone on the scepter.
They try to ultilize it for a defense program, but accidently give rise to Ultron, who almost immediately sets to wipe out humanity, and destroys J.A.R.V.I.S..
He quickly builds a drone army, recruits the Maximoffs, and goes to Johannesburg to acquire more vibranium to build a stronger body.
The Avengers arrive to stop Ultron, but Wanda puts them into individual nightmare states, where they’re seeing horrific visions from the future of people from their past.
This causes Banner to become Hulk and start rampaging the local town until Stark calls in his Hulkbuster armor.
While this scene was super cool when I saw it in theaters and still is today, it doesn’t sit right with certain audiences.
Many understood there’s only so much that can be done due to time and plot constraints, some were unhappy with how easy it was for Stark to take down Hulk.
While I’m not a stickler for the comics by any means, it does set a bad precedent for Hulk as we’ll see much later down the line.
The Avengers recoup at Barton’s farmhouse, while Ultron obtains his new body. Wanda reads Ultron’s mind during the transfer, and once she sees his horrific plan the twins turn against Ultron.
Meanwhile, Stark and Banner discover J.A.R.V.I.S. is still alive, and transfer him into a synthetic body.
With a jolt from Thor, Vision (Paul Bettany) arises with the Mind Stone encased in his head, and the ability to lift Mjölnir.
They all fly out to Sokovia, where Ultron has started lifting the city in his plan to end humanity in one large extinction event.
Civilians are evacuated while the Avengers fight off the robot hoard, and Pietro sacrifices himself to save Barton and a child.
This sends Wanda into a rage, and she destroys the core in Ultron’s upgraded body. Her absence allows a drone to start the machine, which makes the city begin plummeting back to Earth.
Thor and Iron Man the faux asteroid before it decimates the world, and Vison destroys the last body Ultron has access to.
While that’s happening, Hulk makes a conscious choice to fly off into space, rather than risk hurting the people he cares about again.
The film ends with Thor returning to Asgard, and Rogers and Romanoff training their new recruits.
The mid-credits scene features Thanos (Josh Brolin) putting on his empty gauntlet and says, “I’ll do it myself”.
I think a big reason a lot of people enjoy the ensemble films is the plot always seems to be moving forward.
Every scene naturally leads into the next, and most every character feels like they get a fair share of screentime.
Furthermore, every plot point is contributing to the overarching story in some way.
Ant-Man
Dir. Peyton Reed Budget: $145 M Box Office: $519.3 M IMDb Rating: 7.3 Tomatometer: 83% Audience Score: 85%
Twelfth film, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) stumbles across the Ant-Man suit and steals it because he thinks it’s a motorcycle suit.
He soon becomes the new Ant-Man under the guidance of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, to stop Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) from perfecting his version of the Yellowjacket suit.
During training Pym reveals to his daughter Hope van Dyne that her mother Janet used to be the Wasp, and she got lost in the Quantum Realm.
During the fight between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket, Lang shrinks them both down into the Quantum Realm. Lang somehow gets out, and leaves Cross in the Quantum Realm.
In the mid-credits it’s shown Hope being offered a new Wasp prototype suit.
The post-credits show Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson interrogating Bucky Barnes. They mention the accords and make a reference to when Ant-Man encountered Falcon during training.
