Wow, pain. Thor, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (and 1, but I love 2 more), Ant-Man and Black Panther are among my favorite MCUs, along with Captain America: Civil War. I adore beyond reason ALL the MCU movies, but those especially. Plus Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame.
I’m useless, but I do get it. I’ve never seen one episode of Game of Thrones, and it’d probably be like asking, what episodes should I watch to be fairly up speed for watching the final episode next week. I’d imagine I’d get all kinds of different answers from fans who have followed the show from the beginning, and one person would leave out episodes that others love.
The great thing is, if you find, with whatever you watch, that you’re interested in the world/characters, you can always go back at some point (even after watching Endgame, if you do) and watch them all in order. Even the “lesser” movies have great moments and interesting information. If you’re not interested, no big deal.
I’d be interested in knowing what you watched, if anything, beond Iron Man.
Btw, nobody needs to tell me about Game of Thrones episodes to watch. I wasn’t really asking. I figure I’ll binge watch at some point in the far future, and I’ll start with episode one.
It’s not very interesting to rank movies without adjusting for inflation. I am a modest fan of Cameron’s but I have to admit he’s done a bunch of 1-offs that don’t have anything like the emotional combined weight of the MCU. Avatar is mostly spectacle with a small serving of plot, less than any of the better MCU films. Titanic is similar, the plot can be summed up on a napkin. (two teenagers meet up and predictably fuck and then one of them drowns during a nautical disaster. The end)
Frankly, Terminator is way better than anything else Cameron has done, simply because it takes place in a story universe that is more interesting. Shame no one but Cameron has made a decent film. Also, the AI and robotics elements were extremely well researched and seem ever more plausible to this day. (even the “liquid metal” terminators look like actually plausible applications of nanotechnology…)
Though, admittedly, this creates the problem of adjusting for movies released during completely different eras when there were years of re-releases, and no competition. No home video or even TV. (Gone with the Wind)
There’s also the question of whether you adjust for inflation as measured by the CPI, or as measured by the value of a movie ticket at a certain theater. Then you should wonder whether you should be considering the size of the population. Then you should think about whether foreign box office results matter. And then…
Or, if you want, you can get a video synopsis of the franchise by watching this. It is what I had my children watch (who had seen some, but not all of the films) before watching End Game. Although it is more enjoyable to watch the movies, it is made up of film clips, so you would be able to recognize the characters whenever they appear in film.
There’s a tall, muscular white guy. He’s got super strength for some reason (science experiment, born a Norse God, whatever) He’s got a girlfriend who he chastely kisses, but nothing more than that. He’s got a minority sidekick. Maybe he has a piece of medieval weaponry. He fights, but for some unexplained reason he can’t just use a gun and shoot people. Mostly he just hits people and things.
There’s some bad guy (terrorist, Nazi, killer robot, space alien, whatever) who wants to either take over or destroy the world. There are several minor conflicts between the hero and the villain(s). Finally there’s a big punching match at the end and the good guys win.
Repeat 22 times, with minor variations. Start having multiple heroes in the same movie. Make fight scenes bigger and bigger with each successive movie. Eventually let a black guy and a woman be lead characters. Do not ask annoying questions such as “Why does everyone agree to punching matches when they could be using guns?” or “Since the fate of the world is being determined here, why not send in a platoon of Marines rather than relying on a last stand by a tiny group of people?”
You just threw down a gauntlet in front of 30 nerds and took a pee on it.
Most of the important marvel superheroes (but not all) are bulletproof. Thor is bulletproof, his melee hammer is supernaturally powerful and lesser weapons won’t harm him. The iron man armor is not only bullet proof, it’s resistant to antitank weapons. The hulk takes minor damage from bullets but is able to regenerate in mere moments. Captain America’s shield is bulletproof and presumably he’s able to wear substantial body armor with his superhuman strength, though to be fair, in his movies he tends to fight with his head exposed. The guardians of the galaxy are sorta the comedy team and not particularly powerful. Ant man is too small to be targeted with bullets. Doctor Strange has a bulletproof cloak and is also wielding numerous magical powers that make shooting him difficult. Captain marvel is 100% bulletproof and is also spaceship mounted energy weapon resistant. Spiderman is bulletproof if he’s wearing a suit made by Tony Stark. Black Panther wears a bulletproof suit and is shot many times in his movie.
Also in the iron man movies, the fights do happen using guns. The iron man armor has numerous forms of gun installed in it, from missiles to a laser weapon to “repulsor blasts” that are an energy weapon.
Marines with available loadouts in our world would generally not be able to deal with the level of threats seen in the MCU. However, yes, I do agree in general - in a realistic universe, not just costumed vigilantes would have access to weapons and superpowers. Governments would have found ways to replicate the various mechanisms that give individuals superpowers and would equip their elite, trusted forces with the powers. There is no rational world that would lose and never be able to replicate the serum and radiation that created Captain America. Tony Stark would not be able to develop such radically advanced armor by himself and even if his personal armor were superior to mainstream tech, the mainstream would have lesser versions of it in large quantities.
The Guardians of the Galaxy use guns all the time. Rocket’s whole schtick is pulling out some big-ass weapon. Black Widow uses guns in addition to her other tricks. Others, frankly, wouldn’t really benefit from guns. What could the Hulk do with an assault rifle that he can’t do as the Hulk? What is Ant-Man going to do with a teeny-tiny pistol? Thor can throw his hammer with unerring precision around corners and smashing through barriers to hit multiple targets – sure, let’s give him a shotgun instead. Spider-Man’s Stark suit(s) can kill people in various ways but movies about a nerdy teenager who murders bank robbers probably won’t sell well. Hawkeye, there’s no excuse for, which even Hawkeye admits
Isn’t that the supposed point of SHIELD? And we do see people trying to copy Stark’s gear (although part of Stark’s superherosim is his exceptional intelligence and inventing skills) with varying degrees of success.
But part of the stories is that something big happens fast. Six people can respond to an alien invasion in the heart of New York long before a Marine battalion can be deployed and set up (and subsequently slaughtered, most likely).
All that said, it’s a superhero movie. Flying dudes and throwing cars and weird powers and shit. You need to buy into it. If someone thinks they’ll have more fun by crossing their arms and glowering at the screen then more power to them, I guess.
Of course, Bucky has a superstrong bionic arm, and Falcon has a costume that lets him fly around, and both of them — use guns, because, hey, that other stuff might be real useful during a rescue mission or whatever, but there’s a fight to be had so how about each of you go grab a gun and make yourselves useful?
And there’s a scene in Thor with Thor and Jane Foster eating breakfast together in the camper she’s living in at the time. That’s about as explicit as you can get in a PG-13 movie.
IIRC, there’s also confirmation that Dr. Strange and his love interest have slept together (in a broom closet at work, no less).
I always found the fighting in the superhero movies to be repetitive and somewhat boring. Every hero deals a lot of blunt force trauma (fists or weapon of choice) to other heroes/antiheroes who are impervious to blunt force trauma. Hulk has fists, Cap has his shield, Thor hammer, IronMan ion blasters, etc.
It’s like a pillow fight. Sure you might knock someone down but no ones going to get hurt.
My son and I are about to do this. We watched “Vikings” together recently and bonded over that. I’ve seen season 1 of GoT and have read all the books and knowing my son, he’ll love GoT as much as I will.
