By Charles Pugh
For nearly two decades, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has left one of the biggest impacts on modern cinema, along with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and James Cameron’s Avatar films. Although some could argue that the series has fallen out of favours during the divisive Multiverse Saga era, one cannot deny that people are still excited for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
Although shared universe franchises had been done before with small crossover films like Freddy vs. Jason and several times in both the Universal Monsters series and overseas with Toho’s Godzilla, ever since the film division of Marvel Entertainment received a loan in 2005 from Merrill Lynch to make films based on the characters they owned that were not Spider-Man, The X-Men or the Fantastic Four, the impact that this franchise has had, cannot be underestimated.
In the weeks leading up to the release of Avengers: Doomsday, this ranking series will rank all the films, television shows, shorts and TV specials in each Phase of both The Infinity and Multiverse Sagas, with the Netflix and ABC shows included, along with a couple of other projects. From the worst lows to the highest highs, let’s start this series with ranking the worst to best Phase One projects, consisting of six films and three shorts.
9. Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant (2011)
Directed by: Leythum
Written by: Eric Pearson
Starring: Clark Gregg and Maximiliano Hernández
Music by: Howard Drossim and Paul Oakenfold
Rated: 12A
Shortly after his very busy week with Iron Man and Thor, SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), along with fellow Agent Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández), must find a way to stop The World Security Council from choosing the recently imprisoned Abomination (Tim Roth via archive footage), as a future Avengers member…
Before branching out to television in 2013, Marvel Studios, still a young studio working their way up to The Avengers, decided to test the waters for potential tv ideas with their short-lived One Shots series.
The first of these, The Consultant, attached to the home media release of Thor, is the first of two amusing little adventures for the character that was quickly becoming a fan favourite, Agent Coulson, and Clark Gregg is once again, fantastic.
However, aside from clearing up a few plot holes from The Incredible Hulk, (even though due to the departure of Edward Norton from the franchise, Marvel was even back then, trying to pretend they never made it), The Consultant feels like a post-credit scene that never found its place, rather than a complete story. This is ironic, given that it does change the final scene of Incredible Hulk, to a very funny payoff.
Rating: 3/5
8. Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011)
Directed by: Leythum
Written by: Eric Pearson
Starring: Clark Gregg, Jessica Manuel, Zach Hudson and Jeff Prewett
Music by: Howard Drossin and Paul Oakenfold
Rated: 12A
Set between the events of Iron Man 2 and Thor, SHIELD Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), on his way to New Mexico, foils a robbery during his usual snack stop….
The second of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s One-Shots series, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer does exactly what it says on the title, giving the fan favourite character, Agent Coulson, a fun little adventure before his major role in Thor.
Despite not being much, the second of the two shorts that focused on Clark Gregg’s character and his lovable personality, played a big part in how people would react to his defining moments in The Avengers and helped him get his own television series as well!
Overall, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer is a fun little bit of filler before the franchise would change forever in 2012!
Rating: 3/5
7. Iron Man 2 (2010)
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Justin Theroux
Starring: Robert Downey Jr.,Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Clark Gregg, Mickey Rourke and Samuel L. Jackson
Music by: John Debney
Rated: 12A
Six months after publicly revealing himself as Iron Man, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is living life to the full as a celebrity superhero, while fending off the government’s orders to hand his suits over for military purposes. Their fears over terrorists recreating Stark’s creations are proven right, however, when Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the son of a disgraced former ally of the Stark family, wreaks havoc on the Monaco Grand Prix as the powerful Whiplash. Now, along with an additional crisis revolving around his own arc reactor seemingly poisoning him to death unless a suitable replacement element can be found to power it permanently, Tony must put aside his issues and learn to work with the SHIELD spy organisation , his new mysterious assistant, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and his best friend, Rhodey (Don Cheadle), now given his own suit as the mighty War Machine, if he ever hopes to stop Ivan from destroying his legacy….
After the major success of the first film, plans were confirmed by Marvel in early 2009, that a sequel was in development, with Jon Favreau back as director, Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow returning as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts and Industrial Light and Magic also returning to do the visual effects. However, the production was over-loomed with numerous problems, such as Terrence Howard falling out with the studio, which resulted in the role of Rhodey getting recast to Don Cheadle, Marvel executives forcing Jon to include numerous references to the SHIELD organisation in an already overloaded screenplay, and cutting large amounts of footage that went into more detail of Tony’s alcoholism, removing the intended Demon in a Bottle angle, Favreau was trying to get across.
Other notable people who contributed to this film were Dexter’s Laboratory’s creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, who did several storyboards for the film, former respected billionaires (who are now irredeemable monsters) made cameos, and The Sherman Brothers of The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins, even fittingly wrote the main theme for the Disneyland-themed Stark Expo. After a year of absence on the big screen, the third Marvel Cinematic Universe film was released on April 2010.
The main problem people have with this film, is that there is simply too much stuff in it. I’ve already mentioned the Demon in a Bottle stuff, but there also numerous subplots, with Tony believing his father never loved him, Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer causing trouble by funding Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko to build a drone army, War Machine’s origin story, and an introduction to both Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury after his iconic cameo in the first film, and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow. All of these plots, although Jon Favreau tried to get them together to one coherent story, feature a lot of elements could have been dropped for character development, as shown with some of the deleted scenes.
The characters are also a mixed bag. On the one hand, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mickey Rourke, do excellent jobs with their characters, with the former giving off a more believable appearance of a military soldier, then what Howard did in the first film and the latter, serving as a pretty entertaining villain, with his Russian accent and the methods of how he plays everyone against each other, even Justin Hammer, has gotten surprisingly timely with these troubled times.
On the other hand, Tony in this movie is a bit too stupid and unlikable in this movie and Justin Hammer is really annoying (though, by today’s standards, is actually fantastic at portraying an idiot billionaire). As for Widow and Fury, although their introductions are a bit weak, they thankfully got more interesting as the series progressed on.
Overall, despite having amazing visuals and set-pieces such as the Stark Expo, a few interesting characters and a catchy jingle from the legendary Sherman Brothers, Iron Man 2 is overall, the weakest Infinity Saga MCU film, due to an overstuffed plot and several annoying characters.
Rating: 3/5
6. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Written by: Zak Penn
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell and Christina Cabot
Music by: Craig Armstrong
Rated: 12A
Life is a living hell for Bruce Banner (Edward Norton), a mild-mannered scientist who has spent the last five years on the run from the ruthless General, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt). This is because, four years ago, a side effect of a lab accident designed to recreate an super-soldier serum from World War II, ended up turning Bruce into The Hulk, a rage-filled green monster, whenever he gets angry or stressed. When Bruce finally discovers a possible cure to his condition, he reunites with the General’s sympathetic daughter, Betty (Liv Tyler) and they must now journey across America to get the cure. But Ross’s new soldier, a Royal Marine Commando named Emil Blonsky, (Tim Roth), slowly starts getting drawn towards the dangerous experiments as well…
Of all the Avengers that have gained massive popularity over the years after decades of obscurity, The Hulk was the only member of the team who had the most success and fame at the time of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first era. One of the most recognizable characters within the Marvel family alongside Spider-Man and the X-Men, the angry green radioactive giant found success with numerous TV shows, video games and even a 2003 movie directed by Ang Lee. However, when Hulk crashed both critically and financially, Marvel were unsure about the character’s future in the big-screen. A sequel featuring Hulk’s other most famous villains, The Leader and The Abomination, was considered for 2005, before Marvel Studios got the rights back in 2006 and announced that the character would be rebooted, with only Abomination making it into the final cut.
Speaking of cuts, one of the main goals for this movie was to go back to the visual style and theme of the 1978 TV show, which is why the plot has Bruce Banner travel from place to place, to escape the armed forces with his girlfriend, Betty Ross. However numerous changes were made against both the director Louis Leterrier and star and uncredited co-writer, Edward Norton’s wishes, to whittle the running time down to just under 2 hours from the proposed 2 hour and 20 minute cut. This involved eliminating a majority of Ty Burrell’s scenes as Betty’s other love interest Leonard Samson, an alternate opening in a snowy land space which had a tie-in for the upcoming Captain America film at the time, and scenes that further explained General Ross’s motivations for capturing Bruce. After undergoing that, the film was released just one month after Iron Man, in June 2008.
Of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, this one seems to be the most forgotten, due to no one other than Bruce himself appearing in any other media or films, until Phase Three with Ross, Phase Four with the Abomination and Phase Five with Betty and Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns. However this film does manage to use numerous techniques in order to set itself apart from other origin stories, by having the origin story happen as flashbacks in the opening sequence.
The intention to make it like the 70s-80s show, does work from a newcomer’s perspective, as the road trip that both Bruce and Betty are forced to undergo throughout the film, does make it visually interesting as they travel through Brazil, Culver University, and finally, New York City, making him the only Avenger to have had New York experience before The Avengers.
The acting is overall OK, with both Edward Norton and Liv Tyler doing well as Bruce and Betty, but the big stand-outs come from the two antagonists, the late William Hurt’s Captain Ahab-esqe General Ross, and Tim Roth’s crazy Abomination, with the latter serving as a set-up for an epic monster brawl at the climax against the unjolly green giant. As for Tim Blake Nelson’s Sterns and Ty Burrell’s Samson, despite only having small appearances, they both do well with the roles they are given.
The only two problems I have with this movie is the pacing and the unresolved plotlines. The former, due to the massive cuts and several character’s motivations not being explained very well and the latter, because this film was the least successful of the Marvel Cinematic Universe financially until 2023’s The Marvels, there are, as of 2026, no plans to make more solo Hulk movies, although Betty Ross and the Abomination would eventually return in Captain America: Brave New World and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Overall, The Incredible Hulk is a good movie with a global theme, epic fight scenes, great motion capture on both Hulk and Abomination and fine acting, but I wish it could have been a bit longer.
Rating: 3/5
5. Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 (2012)
Directed by: Louis D’Esposito
Written by: Eric Pearson
Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Bradford, Maximiliano Hernández and Titus Welliver
Music by: Christopher Lennertz
Rated: 12A
Shortly after the Battle of New York, a young criminal couple named Claire Wise (Lizzy Caplan) and Bernie Pollack (Jesse Bradford), have been using one of the Chitauri‘s weapons, in order to steal enough money for a new life together. But SHIELD has other ideas…
This amusing little epilogue to The Avengers and the MCU’s Phased One in general, Item 47, the third of the short-lived Marvel One-Shot series, along with the two previous ones that focused on Agent Coulson, ended being popular enough to convince Disney to expand the franchise to television with Agents of SHIELD.
Being a bit longer than the Coulson shorts, Item 47’s biggest charms come from being the first MCU project to focus on the regular people that live in the world, which is made better by Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Bradford’s great performances, even if they never appeared in the show that came from this.
Overall, despite the horrific implications of this short’s ending, knowing the dark secrets about SHIELD a few films later, Item 47 is a fun little caper before the franchise moved on to Phase Two.
Rating: 3.5/5
4. Thor (2011)
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Written by: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Josh Dallas, Tadanobu Asano, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins
Music by: Patrick Doyle
Rated: 12A
When Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the young arrogant Prince of Asgard, reignites a centuries-long conflict between the Norse Gods and the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, his father, King Odin (Anthony Hopkins), finally loses patience with his son and exiles him to Earth. Stripped of his powers, with only an astrophysicist named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) willing to help him, the young god must learn humility and wisdom, if he ever hopes to get back home…
Created as a deity who would be able to hold his own against the Hulk in the comics in 1963, Thor, like Iron Man before him, has had a long development hell process leading up to his film debut. Spider-Man director Sam Raimi tried to make an adaption that got canned in 1997, UPN proposed a straight-to TV version which had X-Men’s Sabretooth actor, Tyler Raine, playing the God of Thunder in the early 2000’s, David S. Goyer was in talks in 2004 before leaving for DC to reboot Batman, and not even Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn could do it due his commitment to X-Men: First Class. After finally securing Kenneth Branagh after Guillermo Del Toro rejected the project for The Hobbit, production finally began in 2010 and was released in 2011 to positive reviews
As mentioned before , Thor was a landmark film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe due it being the first one to introduce the concepts of other worlds, fantasy, planets and alien creatures, to a franchise that had mostly relied on science and technology up to this point. As such, the best thing that one can say about the movie is its production design and visual effects. Bo Welch, a production designer on numerous Tim Burton films, did an amazing job, with the world of Asgard looking like a mix between a Greek-like ancient city, and steampunk with the gadgets and the Bifrost Bridge. The world of Jotunheim featured in the first act, is a cool looking location as well (literally, as it’s made of ice) , from the orc-like Frost Giants to the giant beasts that Thor and his friends fight. However, the two Earth set-pieces of the SHIELD break-in and the battle with the Destroyer, are also quite exciting, with the latter being filmed in a similar style to a western.
The acting is also really good, with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston being the stand-outs. Their breakout performances as Norse God Brothers are excellent, with the latter being the most fleshed out villain of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point, due to his past and his relationships with his brother and his real father, the king of the Frost Giants, Laufey (Colm Feore). The Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano and Josh Dallas) and the Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), are also really fun to watch, Stellan Skarsgård does a good job as Dr Erik Selvig, Agent Coulson gets a much more important role then in the two Iron Man movies and we get our first glimpse of future Avenger, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), However, I wish the same could be said for the two female companions of Thor. Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). Jane is OK, but not very interesting as the love interest and Darcy’s annoying snark makes her the worst character of the Infinity Saga due to her constant complaining and whining.
Overall, Thor is an really entertaining movie, with an intriguing mythology, more colourful and abstract characters than what one could find in a super-hero movie at the time and a touching story about forgiveness and redemption, that opened the door for this franchise’s biggest step forward after Iron Man.
Rating: 4/5
3. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, Bruno Ricci, JJ Feild, Richard Armitage and Stanley Tucci
Music by: Alan Silvestri
Rated: 12A
At the height of World War II, young Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) wants nothing more than to serve his country and to protect people from the Nazis, in spite of his poor physical health. After being given a serum that transforms him into the super-soldier, Captain America, Steve must prove himself to his generals, his fellow soldiers and a sympathetic MI6 Agent named Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), by facing off against the evil Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), and the sinister science division of the Nazis, the HYDRA organisation…
Unlike the other Avengers who were created in Marvel’s Golden Age throughout the early to mid 1960s, Captain America was only the third major superhero figure created by Marvel (or Timely Comics, as it was known as back then) after Namor the Submariner and the original android Human Torch, for the purpose of World War II propaganda in 1941.
Although this aspect of the character was toned down when he was brought back in the fourth issue of The Avengers in 1964, he had a difficult life on the big screen. Like the Hulk, he had previously appeared on the big screen in two film serials in the 40s, and a fiftieth anniversary movie in 1990, Captain America, that was panned by critics and was a major bomb at the box office.
After a failed attempt in 2000 to launch another movie with Artisan Entertainment, Marvel Studios eventually got the rights back for the character a year before green-lighting Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Jumanji director, Joe Johnston, was attached to direct. After it was finished, despite being the second-lowest grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the time, with only $370 million worldwide, the positive reviews were enough to convince Marvel Studios to keep making solo films based on him. Like Thor before it, this film has a completely different production design approach and visual style from other Marvel films, as it is set in the 1940s during the onslaught of World War II.
Apart from the usual rundown American streets, 1940s taxis and soldier uniform and equipment one would expect to see from a period piece, there’s also a lot of CGI used to bring most of the more fantastical elements to life such as HYDRA’s Tesseract-powered weapons, their heli-planes, the Red Skull’s Cruella De Vil-inspired car and the World Fair shown at the beginning, just to name a few. The best effects, however are both the make-up work of the Red Skull’s face and the stunt work used to convince audiences that the muscular version of Steve Rogers and the thin version were both real, while the latter was CGI.
One problem with the visual style however, is that the amount of green-screen effects used in The First Avenger, is really overdone. I could understand Thor using a lot of this as those films are more fantasy-based. In a period piece like this one however , although I get where they were going for in the production design with a more whimsical version of 1940s wartime America, they could have toned down the CGI when it wasn’t necessary.
One of the best aspects of this movie is that it’s willing to address the absurdity of how non-readers would react to the patriotic aspects of the character by having Steve being forced to act in stage shows across America, while getting mocked by his peers as a result, but after he leads a daring rescue from a Hydra base, he is eventually accepted as a hero.
Another thing to mention about the story is that this is the only Phase One movie that has the most heavy references to the other films than before, such as the Tesseract being mentioned by the Skull as an item from Asgard, the super soldier formula getting lost sets up the poor attempts to recreate it in The Incredible Hulk. and one of the major supporting characters is a younger version of Tony Stark’s father, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), making this most deserving candidate as an Avengers prequel.
As for the characters, Chris Evans, after years of playing cynical characters in the likes of Scott Pilgrim and the Tim Story Fantastic Four movies, surprisingly does extremely well as the wisest and kindest of the Avengers, only signing up for the war because of his zero-tolerance for bullies. Hayley Atwell is great as the best MCU love-interest so far, Peggy Carter, Tommy Lee Jones is perfect in his usual tough guy role of Col. Phillips, Dominic Cooper’s appearance of Howard Stark really gives off the impression of an earlier version of his son and Stanley Tucci is heartwarming in the first act as Dr Erksine.
However, Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull and Toby Jones’s Dr. Zola, could have been given a bit more development as these two characters don’t get enough screen-time to make them memorable with the former coming off the worst, as in the comics he was one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe.
Overall, despite not having memorable villains and a bit too much CGI in the production design, Captain America: The First Avenger is a fun action-adventure period piece that deserves a medal of honor for old fashioned adventure, but it would be nothing compared to what came next….
Rating: 4/5
2. The Avengers (2012)
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Written by: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Gwyneth Paltrow, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson
Music by: Alan Silvestri
Rated: 12A
Disaster strikes when Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the banished Asgardian prince once thought lost forever in space, ends up on Earth with a powerful sceptre that can control minds and steals the Tesseract from SHIELD, with the intention of bringing an alien army to Earth. With no other options left, Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) finally activates his “Avengers” initiative, a secret plan designed to bring together the likes of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), along with two of his most trusted agents, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), in order to defend the planet from the likes of evildoers and invaders alike. But can the heroes work together to stop Loki and his army….
Ever since Marvel Studios decided to produce their own films, after years of having their characters being distributed by other studios, the idea of making several films to serve as prequels to one big film had been development since 2005.
After publicly announcing their plan in 2008 shortly after the release of Iron Man, Marvel Studios hired The Incredible Hulk writer Zak Penn to write the screenplay and said that the film would be released in 2011. Although most of the actors from the first five films came back to reprise their roles, Edward Norton, who played Bruce Banner in Incredible Hulk, proved too difficult to work with in that film, and was replaced by Mark Ruffalo. Although the guy who started the films, Jon Favreau was considered to direct, a young director (and secret misogynistic liar), who was (seemingly)used to handling really large casts in his TV shows such as the Buffy franchise and Firefly , Joss Whedon, was announced to not only direct, but to also rewrite the screenplay. His contributions included removing the Wasp from the film and replacing her with Iron Man 2’s Black Widow, making the screenplay more humorous and deciding to shoot the film in regular widescreen instead of the usual CinemaScope widescreen process to make the battle scenes even larger. After being released in 2012, The Avengers became the highest grossing film of that year, and won loads of awards including one Annie, five Saturn Awards and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
The best thing about The Avengers, is how the story manages to tie up every character’s story from each of their films (The Tesseract being from Asgard, The Hulk’s creation being a botched attempt at recreating Steve Roger’s super solider serum and Steve having a connection with Tony Stark’s father). Their interactions with each other such as Cap’s disagreements with Tony, Tony’s friendship with Bruce Banner, seeing a softer side to characters such as Black Widow and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), learning more about previously minor character’s back-stories and Tom Hiddleston finally earning his status as the most menacing villain of recent times, also help in making this story feel very satisfying. While some of the other supporting characters from the five previous films such as Jane Foster, the entire cast from The Incredible Hulk and War Machine are left out here, as this film features a huge cast already, I can let it pass.
Although most of the plot is confined to the large heli-carrier, the built-up battle of New York against the Chitauri aliens is one of the best battle setpieces ever seen on screen, with buildings blowing up, all the Avengers working together to stop the threat, and Alan Silvestri’s score lifting the movie to Star Wars levels of entertainment, the final hour of this film, can make anyone feel like a kid again.
Although all the actors do amazing jobs as usual with Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson leaving the biggest impact, the new faces such as Cobie Summers’s no-nonsense Maria Hill, Mark Ruffalo’s more confident and darker take on Bruce Banner and after his brief cameo in Thor, Jeremy Renner also manages to work well as Hawkeye, despite only really shining in the last act.
Overall after years of being built up, The Avengers truly delivers what fans were hoping for, by breaking new grounds in visual effects, character performances and the opportunity to see numerous superheroes fighting together for the first time was finally brought to life. But could Marvel Studios keep up the quality after such a gigantic hit?
Rating: 5/5
1. Iron Man (2008)
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clark Gregg, Leslie Bibb and Shaun Toub
Music by: Ramin Djawadi
Rated: 12A
Billionaire, playboy and industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) lives an awesome life filled with parties, booze and developing weapons to defend the world as the head of Stark Industries. However, after being almost killed by exploding shrapnel and escaping captivity from a group of terrorists known as the “Ten Rings”, who have somehow gained hold of his weapons. With a self-built suit of armour, Stark escapes captivity and decides to shut down all production of his companies’s weapons and to take defending the world in his own hands as the Iron Man, much to the annoyance of his friends, personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), his best friend, Air Force liason and childhood friend, James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Terrance Howard), and his business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who has his own plans for Tony’s discoveries…
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963 in response to the cold war, Tony Stark’s adventures in the comics were popular, but not as popular as the likes of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or the X-Men, mostly due to the character’s odd nature, his alcoholism, and the fact that most of the villains he faced were extremely stereotypical. His road to the big screen was a really rocky one as well. Starting from 1990, a film adaptation spent almost 15 years in development hell, with Universal, Fox and New Line Cinema all failing to get this project off the ground, with the likes of Nicholas Cage and Tom Cruise all being considered for Tony and directors such as Nick Cassatventes and even Quentin Tarantino all considered for directing.
Finally on April 2006, when Marvel decided to started to go into the film-making business themselves picked up the project with Elf director Jon Favreau, put on the directors chair and at that year’s Comic-Con, it was announced as their first film. After undergoing numerous story treatments such as Howard Stark being an evil version of War Machine, with Obadiah Stane not becoming a villain until the second film and The Ten Rings having a much larger role in the plot, the film was finally released on April 2008 to become a modest success at the box office with over $585 million worldwide and massive critical acclaim.
As for my thoughts, I think that this is my personal favourite film of the Phase One saga. Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as the jerk with a literal heart of gold who despite knowing when to be serious, is willing to bend to the rules depending on the situation. Jeff Bridges, despite not having clear motivations on his actions, is really menacing as Obadiah Stane and Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard and Paul Bettany all give great performances while serving the roles as love-interest Pepper Potts, responsible best-friend Rhodey and the lovable AI butler, JARVIS, respectfully. Special mention should go to Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, who despite only having a minor role, that becomes a bit more significant in the third act, gives one of the best performances which would later lead to him becoming essentially the next “Harley Quinn” of the superhero genre, by being added to the comics canon and getting his own TV spin-off.
The visual effects are amazing, as to be expected from Industrial Light and Magic. From the tense escape from the Ten Rings Base at the beginning, to the final street battle between two differently sized suits on the streets of Miami, all of the action scenes serves as mix between gun battles with terrorists and science fiction, with the over-the top flight sequences and repulser battles taking place after Tony becomes Iron Man, which are designed to give the audience the idea that as Tony changes, the world changes with him.
Overall, Iron Man is an excellent start to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a familiar,yet fresh origin story with themes of anti-terrorism and redemption, amazing visual effects which serve as not only amazing, but also serve as a fitting farewell to legendary visual effects artist Stan Winston, and really well-written characters. After this film’s ending, people were overall satisfied with this movie at finally bringing a popular character to the big screen, but the last thing people were expecting was this little scene at the end of the credits ,which gave the idea that superhero movies were about to undergo an evolution unlike any other..
Rating: 5/5
Charles Pugh will Return for Phase Two.
Chaz’s Cinematic Odyssey 