For someone with a film blog who writes reviews and likes to think of himself as an authority on the current state of things in cinema, I had a shamefully huge, Marvel-sized hole in my knowledge. I had seen the first Iron Man and the first Captain America back in the day, but that was it. When The Avengers rolled around, I declined to see it (despite my eternal love for Joss Whedon), having missed most of the films leading up to it. It was always a matter of thinking that I’d catch up soon... but I eventually fell so far behind that catching up started to feel so daunting, and — with a deepening sense of fatigue at the era of Too Many Superheroes — I started to see the process as more of a chore than anything.
Well, I recently took the time and, for better or for worse, I caught up on all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in order, to the end of 2014. And I’ll say this first: This is undeniably one of the most ambitious, audacious exercises in the history of cinema. To establish a series of interconnected superhero franchises, each with its own mythology and supporting cast, that exist in a shared universe where story elements in one franchise impact those in another and where certain characters show up as needed in whichever franchise requires them, that allow their heroes to occasionally team up all in one film, and that feature films that (theoretically) succeed on their own terms while simultaneously building towards an ultimate end game that will be the culmination of story threads from each of the franchises — that’s a crazy risk for a studio to take, one for which Marvel has rightly been celebrated.
But all the ambition in the world is no excuse for lazy filmmaking, and there are really only two films in the MCU to date (out of ten) that I would recommend without reservation — and even one of those has obvious flaws.
As I see it, there are two major recurring problems that plague these films. The first problem is also the most fundamentally troubling, and that’s the Universe’s overreliance on the Infinity Stones. I understand that these Stones are of enormous importance — they’re in fact the entire point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least for its first ten years — but, man, are they boring. What it comes down to is that a good chunk of the films in this Universe involve nothing more than the good guys trying to get the mystical object out of the hands of the bad guys, who would use the mystical object to destroy the world. And that’s just not an interesting enough device to hang an entire multi-billion-dollar series of franchises on (though audiences appear to disagree). All of this Infinity Stone setup will apparently culminate in next year’s Avengers film, but to be honest I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
The second recurring problem is the MCU’s difficulty in creating good villains (aside from Loki, of course). The great majority of the villains in this Universe are poorly written one-dimensional non-characters, whose only personality trait is Pure Evil and whose only goal is World Domination and/or Destruction. Even in a good superhero film, no matter how invested I am in the characters and storytelling, I always tend to lose interest once we get to the Epic Battle (an inherent flaw in the structure of the superhero medium), which always goes on far too long and can easily become a mess if the film’s director is not good at action scenes. When you combine the MCU’s obsession with the Infinity Stones, its lack of interesting villains, and the obligatory Epic Battle, what you get is a series of huge-grossing films that are nevertheless exceptionally repetitive — the feeling I’m left with is that most of the installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe don’t ultimately succeed as stand-alone films but rather are simply cogs in the machine, carefully produced chapters in the corporate masterplan. The MCU is ambitious as hell, but commerce and corporate branding seem to take precedence over art in its films.
That’s not to say that there aren’t any pleasures to be found in these films. Iron Man benefits from excellent casting — not just Robert Downey Jr. (reinventing his career), so confident and douchily charming, but also Gwyneth Paltrow, so winning as Tony Stark’s clever and resourceful Girl Friday, Pepper Potts. The MCU villain problems start right from the beginning, however — Jeff Bridges (pre-Oscar win) seems like a great villain on paper, but his Obadiah Stane is so underwhelming and inadequately developed. Iron Man 2 fares even worse, as Sam Rockwell’s corporate rival Justin Hammer and Mickey Rourke’s mad Russian terrorist Ivan Vanko are somehow even more one-dimensional, inconsequential villains, sandwiched between scenes with Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson that do nothing more than set up S.H.I.E.L.D.-related backstory for future movies. Iron Man Three, though, despite yet another weak villain in Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian, at least has something meaningful (and ballsy) on its mind, suggesting that “celebrity” terrorists are mere puppets distracting from the corporate benefits of fear — and also giving Pepper a most-welcome hero moment. I’m also continually amused by Paul Bettany’s dry sarcasm as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. This franchise is blessedly free of any Infinity Stones, which makes sense, since Stark is the only Avenger without any superhuman abilities, making his films more grounded in reality. Perhaps due to the relative realism of this franchise, these films also have some of the most impressive visual effects in the MCU, especially in the clever ways the filmmakers keep finding for getting Stark in and out of his Iron Man suit.
The Incredible Hulk is by far the worst film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and quite honestly one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. A kinda-maybe-but-not-really sequel to Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk, this one skips an origin story altogether, resulting in a confusing mess that goes nowhere narratively, has terrible visual effects, features Liv Tyler as a useless damsel in distress, and contains a villain in Tim Roth who could not possibly be less interesting. Marvel wisely has not revisited this franchise, recognizing that the Hulk works best in a supporting role.
I found a lot to like in Thor, despite its many flaws. For one, Loki is an excellent villain, with Tom Hiddleston’s sly performance making the most of the MCU’s most meaningful, emotionally invested bad guy — the backstory of the rivalry between brothers leading to betrayal in the fight for the Asgardian throne leads to the first bad guy and Epic Battle that I actually cared about. But the love story between Thor and Jane Foster is so contrived and ridiculous, and Thor’s warrior sidekicks are woefully underwritten. The CGI world-building and visual effects are surprisingly ugly too, and all the battle scenes shot in such darkness with excessive editing to the point where it’s impossible to understand what’s going on. All of these flaws get even worse in Thor: The Dark World, where Loki is supplanted as main villain by some Dark Elf trying to get his hands on one of those mystical objects (the Aether!). The Thor sequel truly serves no purpose other than to introduce this Infinity Stone for future use. In addition to that, there’s the basic flaw in the character of Thor becoming ever more apparent, which is that Thor himself is just not that interesting, though Chris Hemsworth plays him with a braggadocio that is often amusing. In the first film and in The Avengers (which I’ll get to soon), he spends most of his time being a fish out of water on Earth, where the films find humour in having him look and sound ridiculous in a place where he just doesn’t belong. But in The Dark World, Thor spends nearly the entire film in his homeland, where there is nothing at all funny about him.
The best individual superhero within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is without question Captain America. The first film has several of the previously discussed major flaws — yet another dull, one-dimensional villain in Red Skull, a plot built around the fight over an Infinity Stone (the Tesseract!) — but aside from these it’s a really exciting World War II thriller. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is a fantastic hero, super strong and super handsome, but also a man with a deep inner life. As a former sickly weakling transformed into a super-soldier, Rogers has the body of a superhero but retains the kindness and innocence of his former self — and Evans plays him with a lovable earnestness that makes for such a refreshing change from his arrogant colleagues Thor and Tony Stark. The first film also has astonishing visual effects, especially in scenes featuring Chris Evans’s head on Steve Rogers’s scrawny, pre-transformation body. The promise of the first film is fulfilled in The Winter Soldier, which is the best film to date in the MCU and the very best superhero film since The Dark Knight. Refreshingly Infinity Stone-free, this sequel offers nifty ‘70s-style espionage thrills as it leads to the Universe-redefining reveal that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been secretly infiltrated by H.Y.D.R.A. right from its very beginning. The Epic Battle is the MCU’s best yet, with Rogers’s history with Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier providing emotional stakes, and excellent direction (by Anthony and Joe Russo) and visual effects making this a coherent and enthralling action sequence. In addition to giving Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff a wonderful leading role, playing hilariously off the decidedly old-fashioned Rogers, the film also has meaningful things to say about our current state of government surveillance, and the degree of privacy our society has become willing to sacrifice in the name of security.
Prior to The Winter Soldier, the MCU’s best film had been The Avengers. Not only was it a thrill to see all of the heroes teamed up together in one film after years of set-up and anticipation, but the great storytelling and snappy, funny dialogue by the great Joss Whedon made this really delightful to watch. Whedon also solved a couple of character problems inherited from previous films, figuring out how to use the Hulk in an interesting way and turning Natasha Romanoff from a humourless corporate lackey into a real person with a heart and a personality, setting the stage for her co-lead turn in the aforementioned Winter Soldier. The Avengers, however, also manages to turn Loki from a great villain into yet another dull megalomaniac obsessed with Infinity Stones, which is this film’s great weakness. Well, that and the fact that the army of anonymous aliens that he brings to attack New York is about as boring as an enemy can get. Nevertheless, the sheer pleasure of seeing all of these characters interacting and working together while speaking in witty Whedonisms makes up for the film’s flaws.
And this brings us to the most recent film in the MCU (from my vantage point) and a sparkly new franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy. I seem to be firmly in the minority with this one, but I find this one to be entirely mundane. Sure, Chris Pratt is hunky and charming and funny… but the film overall is just not interesting. Same problems as usual — Infinity Stone gibberish, unmemorable villains. Plus, as Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience pointed out, for an entirely new group of heroes… the Guardians of the Galaxy are basically just poor-man versions of the Avengers. Peter Quill is Tony Stark, cocky and womanizing and sarcastic. Gamora is Natasha Romanoff, the initially humourless assassin with the tragic past who flips sides. Drax is Thor, strong and stubborn and unintentionally funny. I do agree with Rogers, though, that Groot and Rocket are absolutely delightful in every way, and by far the best part of the film. The visual effects are fantastic as well, much better than in the Thor films, another franchise depending entirely on CGI for its world-building.
So that’s where I stand thus far on the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On the whole, I do wish that the individual films were better, though I have found many things to enjoy along the way. Starting with 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, I will be writing capsule reviews of each Marvel film moving forward as part of my ongoing Catch-Up Series, which I will post on the Flickophile.com Facebook page before eventually compiling in a month-by-month round-up on the site.
Has your experience with the MCU films been similar to mine? Or are you head over heels for each one of these? I’m genuinely curious what you have to say.
Grades:
Iron Man: B-
The Incredible Hulk: D-
Iron Man 2: D+
Thor: C+
Captain America: The First Avenger: B-
Marvel’s The Avengers: B-
Iron Man Three: C+
Thor: The Dark World: C
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: B+
Guardians of the Galaxy: B-
