TL;DR: watching all MCU movies for 1st time finally with family. Got done with Phase 1. Call back to nostalgia for y'all. Here's my rankings:

6. Captain America
5. Iron Man 2
4. Thor
3. The Incredible Hulk
2. Iron Man
1. The Avengers

Long version:

So over the years I've gotten some crap here and there because I've NEVER seen any of the MCU movies outside of the first Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and the first Captain America. So, finally as a family we're taking time to actually watch each one in RELEASE DATE order because I would never tell anyone to watch Rogue One before A New Hope. Fight me.

Since I know so many people on this board have seen all of them and thoroughly enjoyed them, but maybe haven't revisited any of these films in a while, thought I'd share my thoughts and rankings as we've just finished Phase 1. And maybe bring back some of the nostalgia feels for you as well. Here we go.

6th Captain America
I want to start by saying I didn't dislike any of these films. They were all "meh" - "holy balls amazing". And this was just…meh. There was just a lot of back-story building with this one and it just wasn't that interesting. If they'd shortened it a bit (like Hulk but we'll get to that) and gotten to the action a little quicker I probably would rate it a bit higher. But other than a few cool scenes and lines ("I had a date" was a nice way to end it) it was pretty bland….and corny as hell.

5th Iron Man 2
As soon as I saw Sam Rockwell I thought YES! And then I saw him again and thought, oh crap he's not the fun cool bad guy Sam Rockwell (See Charlie's Angels 2000 version). And that was the main issue with me on this one, the villians sucked. Robert was/is always fun to see and the action was great….the whole create a new element thing was a little forced but he's super genius so I'll allow it. Overall this one was a lot better than Captain America but that's about all I can say about it.

4th Thor
Ok…NOW we're getting to the fun ones! I loved the uniqueness of this movie. It was a lot of fun seeing this big new world and how the rules and interactions played out. Plenty of fun characters here! And some good humor as well. Again with the villain Loki I was a little disappoining at first just because I thought he seemed kind of weak and whiny, but man they fixed that later on in the film (and WAY more in Avengers but I need to pace myself) so he was fun too. Only complaint was the love story was about the worst one out of all these. For crying out loud Chris Hemsworth is so gorgeous he could make a woman's uteries explode by giving a smile and a wink so could we maybe have circumvented expectations a bit here? Good flick.

3rd The Incredible Hulk
Ok hear me out….this movie got my attention right from the start for one reason. It knew we weren't stupid. This was the only film that said, "You know what…this character isn't complicated. We can give the whole dang backstory through the opening credits and jump right into the story we want to tell." And I loved it! Here's Bruce but he's in Panama in hiding. Why? He's been working on suppressing the beast so he's learned to control it. Neat. He's communicating with someone to try and cure himself. Interesting! Who's Mr. Blue? He's already being pursued by the military and we already know why. Great! The whole thing is a story and we immediately know every main characters motivations and can sit back and watch it play out without having to get through a bunch of pointless exposition. And when we get the Hulk, he's awesome! He's fun! He beats the hell out of everything he sees and it works.

In fact I honestly thought this was a sequel to the Ang Lee 2003 Hulk at first because that movie ends with Bruce being in Central America or South America which is where this film picks up but quickly discovered that was not the case.

The only thing that confused me was how this film ended, showing Bruce seemingly gaining control over when he turns with a smirk on his face right before he does it, and how this character is handled in The Avengers.

2nd Iron Man
So I had seen this years ago as one of the very few flicks of this whole deal I took the time for ways back. And even watching it again years later it still holds up. Tony Stark is this generations James Bond and just way cooler in every single aspect. His character development was a lot of fun. The jokes are still funny. The action is great. Yes there's a corny line here and there but this was the first dang film so I'll forgive it for that. The Dude as the bad guy while it seemed obvious was still great to see. And I don't know why….I really don't….but even though I knew exactly what was about to happen at the end of the film, I got all giddy and finally when I heard, "I am Iron Man." I just had the biggest grin on my face. Great flick.

1st The Avengers
"And Hulk? Smash."
"Better clench up Legolas."
"Puny God."
"That's my secret…I'm always angry."
"He's adopted."
"Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"
"There's only one God ma'am. And he doesn't dress like that."

Good grief I could go on and on about how awesome this was. The character interactions were all great. Tony Stark is now a PG-13, non 4th-wall breaking version of Deadpool and I love it. Loki was WAY better in this and a great bad guy. The interrogation scene between him and Black Widow was great to watch! And I was surprised how much it sucked watching Agent Coulson (Phil!) get axed in this. His character was a fun one to watch with expecting him to be this all-knowing 2nd hand of Nick Fury who was key in putting all our heroes together. Yeah that sucked.

The one thing I don't seem to understand though in this is Hulk. The end of his movie showed him seemingly gaining control over when he turned and being able to influence his actions when he became Hulk. Hell there's a scene with him and his sorta girlfriend hanging out in a cave while he's the Hulk and he's just chilling there with her as if it was King Kong and Ann Darrow. But now years later he can't control it, becomes Hulk at first and goes nuts trying to kill Black Widow? That didn't make sense to me.

But whatever this was an amazing movie! And to add on, yes I am making sure that we watch every end credits scene for these movies. What shocked me on this one, was that while I knew Thanos was going to be in the later films, I didn't realize this was shown THIS EARLY! Holy crap in the theatre y'all must have been going nuts when this was revealed.

On to Phase 2 starting with Iron Man 3.

what are you talking about? altered reality much?

That really helps actually.

C@LAg said:

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OP. There are also some additional shorts and things that were also released during each phase that you might want to google to find.

maybe search for "full MCU chronological order" or "release order" for all of them.

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if you're referring to the shorts that are: "Something weird happened on the way to Thors Hammer," "Item 47," and "The Consultant" ...... um..... yeah I watched those.

Those didn't do anything for me. The Consultant at least had a point so that was interesting.....but the other two were just....just terrible.

The Hulk intro really is great. I have issues later in the film though. The characterization of Banner isn't as strong as it is for Cap, Thor or Iron Man (who is he other than someone who is scared of letting the Hulk out? Seems like a pretty normal dude!). Blonsky's arc is kinda generic. Liv Tyler kinda sucks. There are also some real cheesy moments like at the university when the General screams "nooooo!!" and runs up to the camera, but I think you see him 30 seconds later and he's standing there just fine.

But I'm not really a fan of the Banner character in general. I think Whedon understood him but the directors since haven't really done much there. They do some cool stuff, sure, but it's not really Hulk. I think the main issue is forcing him onto teams again and again. He was a founding comics Avenger but he was off the team by issue #3 and stayed off the team for 50 years.

I guess at this point in the MCU, the other main characters have all been better written or handled. Not being able to do a solo film has probably had a lot to do with that.

rhutton125 said:

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I guess at this point in the MCU, the other main characters have all been better written or handled. Not being able to do a solo film has probably had a lot to do with that.

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Agreed. Also I don't remember what the issue was with Ed Norton (I liked him as Banner) but having to switch actors probably played a role. And since there have been 3 each of Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America at this point I'd say it's pretty much impossible that we'll get another solo Hulk movie.

I'd probably have the first Cap last on my phase one list too, or at least close to it. It was fine, but pretty forgettable without any of the later CA movies.

I think gatekeeping is the term you were looking for.

But I think Spilner was just trying to pitch a discussion point...

Yeah. Unfortunately it's because Universal has the distribution rights to Hulk and for whatever reason they just don't want to play ball. So Hulk can appear in team-ups and other movies and make cameos and be on TV shows even but solo films aren't happening until they either come to terms or sell the rights.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Stop trying to force conflict where there isn't any. It's no surprise the two F16 posters are trying to paint me as a pretentious elitist.

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I'm sorry

I've seen bits and pieces of these and all I can think of is the many good movies that used to get made and why there is so little talent left in Hollywood anymore. They can't even make decent movies out of EPIC original stories.

Something decent comes out every now and then.

Now, I would say it is a golden age of pretty good tv miniseries.

why do yall keep saying i have hulk ranked higher than iron man?

this is weird.....

I've heard the Cap movies get a lot better and with seeing what's in phase 2 definitely excited.

What's really neat though is seeing my kids reactions. I have 3 boys (10,8,4) and they are really getting in to these movies. Even my 4 year old is loving it and during Avengers he kept asking, "Is Hulk in this one too?"

Not to up your expectations too much but Cap 2 is widely considered one of the best in the series and in all comic book movies. It's fantastic.

I actually enjoyed Hulk a lot more than just, it had some issues but also some great moments.

And I'm jealous you'll be able to watch Winter Soldier for the first time. Enjoy.