Reflecting on the MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is far from done, but it passed a significant chapter in its history after Avengers: Endgame.  That film ended not only phase 3, but some main characters' involvement in the franchise, and clearly marked the end of an era. Thus, it's time to reflect.

It's astonishing that Marvel could put together a 22-film run that was, largely, interesting and well done.  Not every movie was gold, but many were, and almost all were at least entertaining.
The below titles link to my reviews of each film, are presented in order of release, and broken into the three phases.

Phase 1:
Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers

This phase, understandably, introduced us to the 'main' avengers- Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America.  Each (except Hulk) got an origin film; only Iron Man had more than one film before the first group film, The Avengers.  From this lot, I liked Iron Man and The Avengers best; The Incredible Hulk was terrible, and the remainder okay.

Phase 2:
Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, 
Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-man

Phase two kicked off with more films from main characters before introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy crew (though it was back to the mains in Avengers: Age of Ultron).  Ant-man rounded out the group.  The two newcomers introduced a more playful flavor into the universe and were my favorites from this block.  I remain impressed that Marvel could pull off an Ant-man film.

Phase 3:
Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-man and the Wasp, 
Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

By this point, the films were a well-oiled machine.  Civil War felt like another Avengers movie, new characters (Dr. Strange, Spider-man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel) joined the scene and blended in well [mostly . . . more on that in a minute], and the series concluded masterfully with the two Avengers flicks.  I liked almost all from this block, with Spider-man being a slight favorite.

Tiering the movies
I started my reviews in 2013, a year after I started blogging.  Looking back, I got nicer over time with my grading, or I was too harsh initially.  This is how I ranked them:

Movie	Rating	Numerical
Spider-man: Homecoming	A	96
Guardians of the Galaxy	A	95
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	A	95
Iron Man	A	94
The Avengers	A	94
Captain America: Civil War	A-	93
Avengers: Endgame	A-	93
Ant-man	A-	92
Doctor Strange	A-	92
Avengers: Infinity War	A-	92
Iron Man 3	A-	90
Black Panther	A-	90
Thor: Ragnarok	B+	89
Ant-man and the Wasp	B+	88
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	B+	87
Thor	B+	86
Avengers: Age of Ultron	B	85
Iron Man 2	B-	82
Thor: The Dark World	B-	80
Captain America	C+	79
Captain Marvel	C+	78
The Incredible Hulk	D	65

Again, those were assigned over a 6-year period.  Would I grade them the same?  I'd change only two, making:
- Captain America higher (B or B-)
- Thor: Ragnarok higher (A-)

I'd put the movies in three tiers: excellent, good, and poor.  Adjusting for two films as I state above, I'd rate 13 films "excellent," 6 "good," and 3 "poor."  Not bad overall; good job, Marvel.

Overall Observations
I was impressed with the way they wove 22 films together, and managed the 'overall' suspense levels.  They did a good job spacing climactic movies (like the Avengers films) with other titles that contributed to the overall story but gave the audience a 'breather.'

My main beef with the franchise centers around Captain Marvel.  She's an (apparently) invincible being that thankfully only shows up at the end of the series, in her self-titled film and Endgame.  They say she's the Marvel equivalent of Superman.  That's fine, but unlike Superman, we never saw any weakness- no kryptonite.  To solve that problem, the writers had her come and go in the movies, dismissing the pattern as necessary since she has to protect many worlds.  Not convincing enough for me; I would have liked better.  Why can't she just show up and kill all the enemies?  Why involve the others?  That was disappointing.

Consistent Themes
Most people don't go to Marvel films for their messages; they want action, suspense, and humor.  You get that in each film, yet there are always messages.  In the MCU, many films deal with some aspect of responsibility or authority, looking at questions like:

If you have a superhero gift or develop amazing technology, must you use it for good?  And does the government have the right to control that tech (or person)?  To whom do superheroes answer?  How should they handle collateral damage?  And what happens when things go wrong- when technology or gifts are used poorly?  How do we respond?

Final Thoughts
When my kids are a bit older, I'd like to sit down with them and watch through the MCU, start to finish.  Perhaps I'll have a different take on them.  But for now, it was a great ride.