I’ve caught some, maybe most of the movies. If you were going to assemble all of the films in a narrative order, what would it be? Are there any films you would leave out? Thinking about doing a movie marathon with the family this summer.
Thanks for your suggestions.
You can skip Iron Man 2 and not lose much. If you’re starting generally familiar with who Captain America is you can get away with skipping CA: First Avenger. I don’t think Thor: Dark World accomplished much, and I assume we’re denying the Hulk films…
Let’s say Iron Man, Thor, Avengers, CA 2, Iron Man 3, Age of Ultron, CA 3. And mix in Guardians of the Galaxy in there really whenever.
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Predictably, Wikipedia has a List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, from Iron Man all the way to Avengers: Infinity War Part 2.
While you can skip the first Captain America, I wouldn’t. It’s not the best of them, but it’s still pretty good.
Thor 2, though, you’re not missing much.
Dude! Thank you! I was just coming online to see if anyone had done a movie/tv viewing order and I saw this thread. I was gonna post the question here and you answered it before I could ask.
Much appreciated. 
My pleasure. I’ve had that bookmarked for some time. He says he’ll be updating it in the next few weeks, presumably with new SHIELD, Captain America, JJ, DD, etc.
Agreed with both, but I think The Incredible Hulk (the one with Ed Norton) is still worth a watch. It isn’t a great film but does establish the character (and is at least subtly referenced in The Avengers), as well as highlighting the difference good casting can make; Norton isn’t bad in the role, but Ruffalo’s take knocks it out of the park. Agree on skipping Iron Man 2, although it does introduce Black Widow to the mix, and if pressed, you could skip Iron Man 3 which is largely standalone, although a personally really like the film as a 'Seventies roadtrip throwback complete with preteen sidekick by writer/director Shane Black (who’s previous collaboration with Robert Downey, Jr., the underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the current The Nice Guys) with excellent humor that has been missing from the Iron Man character ever since.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is worth watching (else there will be characters and references in Civil War that won’t make sense) but prepare to be mildly underwhelmed. Joss Whedon was clearly kind of burned out by the time he got to writing the script, and while it has occasional flashes of Whedon humor, it is more miss than hit.
Stranger
I didn’t like Iron Man 3 as well as some of the others, but I’d still say that it’s essential viewing, for Tony’s PTSD and how he’s dealing with it. Manhattan was some serious shit, man.
It’s easy to overlook Ant Man, but don’t. It’s a fun little caper movie and a nice lead in to CA:Civil War.
Here’s the complete list:
Phase One
[ul]
[li]1.1 Iron Man (2008)[/li][li]1.2 The Incredible Hulk (2008)[/li][li]1.3 Iron Man 2 (2010)[/li][li]1.4 Thor (2011)[/li][li]1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)[/li][li]1.6 Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)[/li][/ul]
Phase Two
[ul]
[li]2.1 Iron Man 3 (2013)[/li][li]2.2 Thor: The Dark World (2013)[/li][li]2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)[/li][li]2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)[/li][li]2.5 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)[/li][li]2.6 Ant-Man (2015)[/li][/ul]
Phase Three
[ul]
[li]3.1 Captain America: Civil War (2016)[/li][/ul]
They’re all good, but the ones that are truly skippable for unimportant plots and general lacklustreness are:
[ul]
[li]1.3 Iron Man 2 (2010)[/li][li]2.2 Thor: The Dark World (2013)[/li][/ul]…though even these have their good points. There’s a new Thor coming soon (called Thor: Ragnarok) that may require the watching of Thor 2.
There is only one Hulk film. The Ang Lee one is not MCU and therefore is in the same category as X-Men etc.
I agree that Iron Man 2 is the least good one. It’s decent, but I wouldn’t skip it in the same way that I might Star Wars episode 1. Dark World I just don’t remember. First Avenger has some flaws but it’s very enjoyable.
I think Iron Man is very important- introduced Black Widow, Nick Fury (sure he had one line in IM1 in the credits scene–big whoop) and gives you more Coulson and gives Rhodes his own suit. It does alot more relevant MU world building.
Im3 is a cool character piece but can be skipped in the larger scheme of things.
Captain America: The First Avenger does introduce The Tesseract, which is the first of the Infinity Stones, as well as explaining why the efforts to reproduce the supersoldier formula that turned the 98 pound weakling Steve Rogers into the heroic Captain America hasn’t worked out so well for others, and gives a solid grounding for understanding Roger’s morals and mentality. While not as consistently entertaining as The Avengers or Captain America: The Winter Soldier it has its selling points, including the hilarious “War Bond tour” sequences with a clearly uncomfortable Rogers fake punching Hitler, and of course the talented and beautiful Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter (one of the founders of what would become S.H.I.E.L.D.), who frankly deserved a better followup than the watery Agent Carter ABC show, and who is a constant reminder on Rogers as to the impact of his sacrifices all the way through Civil War.
The only really notable thing about Iron Man 2 is Tony Stark synthesizing a new element in his basement in a cyclotron-esque thing made from parts he ordered off of Amazon.com, and it isn’t as if that really has much impact on the greater MCU storyline. The Anton Vanko conspiracy angle was really mishandled and pretty much splattered, as was the regrettable wastage of Sam Rockwell as Stark’s should-be industrial nemesis, Justin Hammer. Even the introduction of Natasha Romanoff is essentially tacked on and can be skipped; her introduction into The Avengers (“I’m in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything.”) is some much more indicative of her particular talents than the poorly edited fight scene in Iron Man 2.
The only thing you really need to know about Thor: The Dark World is that they’ve found a new Infinity Stone that messes with reality and Loki is still as amusingly puckish as ever. Casting Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s personal nemesis was a brilliant stroke by Kenneth Branagh which has well served the subsequent films. You could totally skip Guardians of the Galaxy as it has no bearing on the current mainline Avengers-centered MCU story (although the Guardians will presumably meet up with the Avengers at some point to take on Thanos), but you shouldn’t because while the story isn’t terribly original and has a lot of plot holes, everything else about the movie is too much fun to pass up; the visuals, the music, the interactions of the characters (“You have a plan?” “I have part of a plan.” “What percentage?” “Twelve percent.”). Honestly, while The Avengers is probably the best constructed film in the MCU, and the Captain America films have thus far advanced the main arc of the overarching story, Guardians is the film I’ll turn on if I just want to be purely entertained.
And yes, don’t pass on Ant-Man; while the character has been given short shrift by some for just being some guy in a suit who can get tiny, I’m morally convinced that Scott Lang is going to have a critical role in the ultimate story arc of Infinity Wars. The fact that his powers are not really combat oriented, and that he is such an unassuming character works to that advantage; while the rest of the Avengers/Guardians are fighting Thanos directly, Lang (with help from some of the other minor characters) is going to be the key to defeating the galaxy-destroying Thanos. Also, Michael Pena is hilarious every time he starts to tell a shaggy dog story or whistle on screen. (“Thank you for the coffee ma’am. It’s not too often that you rob a place, and then get welcomed back. Because we just robbed you!”) It’s a totally ridiculous character, and he sells it completely.
Stranger
Besides, a big part of the buy-in for both CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER and CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is that you kinda sorta haveta believe everything that Steve would put himself out there on Bucky’s behalf, right?
Sure. Without the first Captain America film, Bucky Barnes is just a war buddy from the old neighborhood that he lost. With it, you realize that Barnes was everything Rogers wanted to be–his childhood idol as well as best friend–and in losing him he’s lost a bit of himself. “This job…we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn’t mean everybody. But if we can’t find a way to live with that, next time, maybe nobody gets saved.” That isn’t just Rogers consoling Maximoff; he’s giving the same pep talk to himself and presaging his own decision to go rogue in service of his beliefs, including that Barnes can and should be saved. Sharon Carter’s later eulogy just nailed that plank down solidly.
Stranger
I disagree - my wife and I thought was a very enjoyable movie on its own, and the action sequences were a lot of fun to watch. The fight that phased through different worlds was well done. The dialogue and pacing was also above your average popcorn flick as well.
I would like to thank you all very much for the input, I enjoy the insights. Maybe I’ll pass a few of them off as my own during the movie marathon.
Except Whedon deflated all of the menace that the character had and chucked it into space, at the end of The Avengers.
Unless Marvel can somehow get Ian McClellan’s Magneto into the MCU, they’re currently lacking any good villains. Hiddleston had the only good one, and they crapped on it.
To a lesser extent, it also helps set up Iron Man mentioning in movie after movie that his dad simply wouldn’t shut up about how awesome Captain America was. If you’ve seen Cap’s first movie, that’s a callback to their various scenes together during WWII; if you haven’t, it’s just – something that Tony says that Howard said.