2047 - Guardians of the Galaxy

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting to the point, for me, where it’s akin to the work done in the heyday of Pixar.  And given that Disney owns both them and now Star Wars, anyone who owns stocks in the Mouse are certainly going to be happy in the upcoming years.

Like most people I didn’t know ANYTHING about Guardians of the Galaxy going into this.  And I came out wondering if this was my favourite of the Marvel side-franchises.  It is so goddamn good.  It’s the most fun I’ve had in a Marvel film, including Avengers.  It starts off with a huge gut-punch - which hit me especially hard because of personal reasons - and then it involved into something that was sweet and funny and grand.  Chris Pine is an all-star, and Bradley Cooper makes Rocket more than just a wise-talking side-kick.  

My only complaint, and this is more a big-world question than anything else.  The villain’s lair/world(?) just feels so small and empty.  He wants to destroy things, a planet, but I never really got a strong sense of why - outside of the fact that it was evil and he’s evil.  If I have a complaint with this film it’s that the villain was a pretty weak cardboard cut-out - zero personality besides ‘bad’.  So that was the weak part of the film for me - that said the rest of the ensemble is so delightfully entertaining that it doesn’t hurt the overall movie like it should.  

Keep up the good work, Marvel.  The way you weave all your properties together is such a clever way of insuring viewership - but it’s also rewarding for the audience.  Keep up the quality and I’ll keep showing up.  

1977 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It's quite something to take a character that's uninteresting on paper as Captain America, and have him be one of the better film franchise's in the Marvel universe.  I was surprised how much I liked this first one, and I have to say this newest entry blew my mind a little.  First, it's just a solid film - it's funny, it's smart, and it's got some kick-ass action sequences going on inside of here.  But secondly, and this is a MASSIVE SPOILER.  I couldn't help but watch the whole time thinking "Man, are they just destroying the world of their new TV series with where they're going with this story???".

What I love about the Marvel universe is how each film builds upon the last.  It's smart from a branding position because you feel like you can't miss anything (though I have to admit I'm not big on the series - I'll check in now that I see how they cross-over.).  The series working how it does is almost like a huge budget TV series in a way - where you've for Scarlet Johanson playing support in several different films, building upon previous outings.  I love it.  I for one am super excited to see where this team takes us next.

1939 - Thor: The Dark World

I have to be deadly honest here.  This is the first of the Marvel films that I've been 'meh' on.  And it was especially disappointing because the first Thor was so goddamn good, and I expected very little from it (maybe why I liked it so much).  In some ways I think that they just attempted to do too much, be too big.  We don't need every single Marvel film to be about saving the entire world - do the stakes really need to be THAT high every single time?  The more sci-fi the films get the less interesting they are.  And I'm not down on sci-fi films, I think the problem is that they found a way to really ground the early films in this series, but now that all the fantasy elements are in place it just muddles it a bit.  I liked that Iron Man had to deal with that to some extent though.  I don't know, I guess, for me, I just think they can do so much more with simplicity and don't give themselves enough credit for that.  It's the small moments in these kinds of films that really speak volumes - and this one had no small moments.  Shame, really.  It was nice to have Portman integrated into the plot in a much stronger way though.  I should end with saying that I didn't hate the film - I just didn't really enjoy it all that much, and it's one that I likely won't find myself revisiting.

1836 - Iron Man 3

Marvel has really done something quite amazing with the Marvel cinematic universe.  If you're a fan of the DC superheroes you can bow in and out of them as you please - like Batman but not Superman - fine - watch one and not the other.  But with Marvel, to get the full experience and all the references, you really need to show up each time - especially to get the benefits of the Avengers when they all team up.  It turns it into a really interesting and integrated series. 
So that brings us to the third (or I suppose 4th) outing for Tony Stark.  Tony easily has the most interesting arc of his entire series here.  The events of the Avengers fucked him up.  Iron Man started off as something very grounded in reality, and so it works nicely that as we expand the Marvel universe we discover other heroes with different powers - Tony is merely a human being, and intelligent one, but just a human.  Up to this point he's truly believed that he needs his armour.  And that's not untrue.  So what's really great about this storyline is that just when Tony needs all his toys the most, he's stripped of them and forced to be enough just as he is.  Much like Thor not being able to use his hammer for the majority of that film, Tony doesn't really get his powers back here until he's worthy of them.  It's great storytelling.  Add to that Shane Black's trademark jaded humour and you've got the kind of summer flick that most should aspire to. 
It's hard to imagine and fan of this franchise didn't run out to see this opening weekend, but if not then do so - this could be the best so far - and if you're new to the Marvel universe - start from the beginning.  It really is a ride worth taking.

1727 - The Avengers

I was getting pretty excited about this film the days leading up to its release.  I've been following all the lead-up and previous films.  I mean, it's a tremendous plan and very smart the way that Marvel has gone about building their universe.  You can only imagine what they'd be doing if they still retained the film rights to all of their characters.  It becomes slightly difficult to combine the reality-based world of Iron Man where regular people use machines to be super, and then something like Thor where it's something else entirely.  That said, I think this worked and the tones blended together nicely.  It's hard to juggle that many stories and characters, but Whedon does it and with grace and style.  Each character works very very well and builds on what we've seen before.  It's nice seeing Tony Stark comfortable with Pepper Potts, and cracking wise on the side.  It's awesome to watch Captain America turn into an actual leader of his dysfunctional group.  It could be that Hulk was my favorite of the whole bunch though.  I loved Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, but I thought that the choices they made with Hulk were inspired. Lots of great stuff there (although his shift wasn't well explained...)
If I have a complaint it's that I felt like waaaay too much time was spent on that ship in the sky.  I swear we spent well over half the film in that location and it made the film feel a bit small because of it.  I don't envy the Marvel team as they go back to the stand-alone films to lead up to an Avengers sequel.  Once you've put the bar so high, how do you do a stand-alone justice?  And how do you explain why these guys (or some of them) aren't just always helping the others out?
Of all the solo films coming up, the one I'm hoping for most is a Hulk film starring Ruffalo.  I'd line up for that one.

1723 - Thor

Decided to re-watch this 'cause it was on Netflix (Huzzah!), and since I believe that Loki is to be the big-bag in Avengers, I figured this was probably the most relevant of the Marvel Universe films to revisit.  This was just as fun as the first time.  I love the set-up to the character and then as soon as he enters our world it becomes a bit of a fish-out-of-water comedy for a little bit.  What a great choice by the filmmakers.  I think that Thor probably has the strongest character arc of any of these films so far.  When he gets his powers back you REALLY believe that he's earned them.  Love it.  Portman is lovely as always, even if she isn't given enough of a range of things to do with her character.  Kat Dennings… well…. I've lost my enjoyment of her ever since I saw that pilot of 2 Broke Girls.  Amazing how one little thing can kind of turn you off of someone.
I'm getting pretty excited about the Avengers this Friday.  All of these films leading up to it have been pretty well done, so it'll be nice to see what happens when they throw them all together.  Trying to keep the expectations low.

1715 - Captain America: The First Avenger

I had to finally see this before Avengers launches into theatres in a few weeks.  I'm not sure why I missed this when it first came out.  It's a fun adventure flick and it hits all the right notes.  As much as it's a superhero film, it never felt like it was gimmicky or shlock - which it easily could have been.  I like how it lampooned the iconic image a bit.  I love how this one, more than any of the other Marvel Studios films, felt really integrated into the rest of that world. 
I guess my only thought on this is I'm not sure what a sequel to this film would be… It's hard to think of a better foe for him than Red Skull - the next logical step is The Avengers, but how do you continue the franchise after that… will be interesting to see what they've got up their sleeves. 
So far I've been pretty impressed by the lead up to the Avengers with this, Thor, and the Iron Man films (does the latest Hulk film count?  Is that just a re-casting - or are they rethinking the backstory as well?).  I'll do my best to be there opening weekend.  The comic nerd in me is kind of excited.