The Long( and sometimes painful) Road to Avengers Infinity War

 So it all comes down to this. An epic two part climax 10 years in the making. It certainly feels like Marvel has been going on forever, but is that a good or a bad thing? Despite a few brief up-swells ( Avengers and Guardians 1) that energized the franchise, Marvel movies really seem to be running on fumes. Don't get me wrong, most are not bad movies, they are just good enough to not be crap, but is that all we really want from our movies? Join me as we travel back to the beginning and trace the path of the MCU through a decade.

 The journey started a decade ago with the excellent movie Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. found the role he was born to play and threw himself in full force. The result is a funny, action packed ride with a deeper message about what can happen when your creations grow beyond your control. Though Iron Man began the trend of lackluster villains with "Ironmonger" the movie was good enough to look past that small weakness. This was a powerful revival of the Superhero genre that would catapult Marvel Studios onto center stage.

Next came the Incredible Hulk. Sadly I don't know if we will ever get a good live action hulk movie. This movie was just not very good. It was no where near as good as Iron Man and was cause for some critics to say the MCU might die before it even got started. Then we had Iron Man 2. Iron Man 2 was Iron Man with a new even less realized villain. Mickey Rourke is totally wasted in this movie and Whiplash just seems like pretty much a non threat. They attempt to recapture the good things about the first movie but everything has lost it's freshness. RDJ still carries the movie as Tony Stark but it is a marked decrease in quality from the original.

 Next came Thor. Thor is decidedly mediocre. Chris Hemsworth does a good job and it introduces one of the only even close to good MCU villains Loki but that is about it. The plot is forgettable, Natalie Portman is bland as ever and the only characters you even care about are Thor and Loki, everyone else is basically a prop. In a slight upturn next came Captain America: The First Avenger, the title hinting at things to come of course. I would say that this movie is the second best of the Phase One standalones. While it still suffers from bland villain syndrome even with a fantastic performance by Hugo Weaving, the other elements are all close to Iron Man quality. Chris Evans does a great job as Captain America and Sebastian Stan does well as Bucky.

 Phase One concluded with The Avengers, the first glimpse into what the MCU was capable of doing when handled well. Without a doubt the best movie of Phase One and maybe even the entire MCU Avengers brought together a great cast, a perfect balance of humor and action and featuring the best villain they could muster so far Loki Avengers was great. The only movie the would even come close was coming in Phase Two and even then it's largely a matter of personal preference which you like more.   

 We began Phase Two on another low note, Iron Man 3. Another marked decrease in quality and a decline in RDJ's passion for the character are evident. Iron Man 3 was not a bad movie but it fell far short of IronMan in every regard. Then came Thor: The Dark World. Featuring another throw-away villain Malekith, the real drama is the continuing story of Thor and Loki. Both get some time to develop and I actually like this one better than Thor. It is certainly no masterpiece but it was fun to watch once.

 Next we have Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Some people like , some hate it, I just thought it was more of the same. I think this is where Marvel Fatigue really set in for me. I just couldn't get into or care about this movie. Everyone is working for Hydra surprise! Honestly who cares? Oh and Bucky's back as a communist terminator so there is that. Then came the brightest spot in the MCU for me, Guardians of The Galaxy. I know some people prefer the Avengers but I am definitely firmly on the Guardians side. This movie was damn near perfect. It managed to not only introduce the entire team, something Avengers did with 5 prior movies but also tell a compelling story. The sacrifice of Groot and the ending scene with the Infinity stone actually had a real impact on me. I had faith in the MCU again and was excited for what would come next. They also show more of Thanos, who also had a small easter-egg at the end of Avengers and plant the seeds of the Infinity stones. The soundtrack was also great and the whole movie really spoke to the sci-fi lover in me which is why I rank it just a bit above Avengers.

 Then we got Avengers: Age of Ultron and my hopes began to sink again. It is a good movie but definitely suffers from diminishing returns. Ultron is very well done and one of the only stand-out villains Marvel has managed so far. Everything else is just a slightly weaker version of Avengers. While I began to fell fatigue with Winter Soldier  and was brought back with Guardians, Age of Ultron brought that MCU fatigue back with a vengeance. It felt like I was seeing the same movie again only done slightly worse. The final film of Phase Two was Ant-Man. Ant-Man was not bad. It was not great but it was fun to watch. Paul Rudd did a good job as did Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily. It was a fresh face and a fresh plot so it felt more bearable than the mountain of sequels in Phase Two.

 Phase Three kicks off with a sputter. Captain America: Civil War. Many say it's great but I ask why? First off, RDJ's portrayal of Tony Stark would never side with the Government. Honestly I don't think MCU Captain America would either. So did they just flip a coin to decide who went where? And they threw in that unnecessary sub-plot of Bucky killing Tony's parents for some cheap emotional stakes. This movie felt very lazy and was a huge drop in MCU quality for me. It also creates the huge plot hole of Black Panther having the panther powers before being king! This was definitely a sign of things to come. Doctor Strange came next and was much better than Civil War for me. The visuals were cool, Cumberbatch does a good job as do his supporting cast and it was a bit of a breath of fresh air into a quickly staling universe.

 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 came next and it was Age of Ultron all over again. While much better than say Civil War it drops slightly from it's parent movie and just doesn't resonate nearly as much. It was good enough but it could have been so much more. Next came Spider-Man: Homecoming. After a brief intro in Civil War Spider-Man gets his own movie and it's ok. The Vulture is a good and memorable villain for a change and Tom Holland is a good Peter Parker and is the first one to actually look like he could be in Highschool. Nothing amazing but not bad either.

 Then we got Thor: Ragnarok. This movie was painful to watch. Every single moment of tension was cut with a hackneyed joke or "witty" comeback. This movie was trying way too hard to be funny and way too hard to copy Guardians. It could have been much better with about half of the comedy cut. Can you believe a lot of the jokes were improv? Yes, because they sucked. And on a side note, I like Mark Ruffalo as Banner/Hulk but wtf was he doing in this movie? He looked like he was high through 90% of his screen time and his delivery was terrible. I really hope he gets back on track in Infinity War. Then we got Black Panther. God's gift to humanity if ask the critics. It was mediocre to the core. Just another Marvel movie that even goes as far as ignoring the events of Age of Ultron and Civil War. For some reason the CGI was bad( really Marvel, don't have enough money for special-effects in an effect driven action movie? Just plain laziness) and the villain was forgettable. The standard genocidal maniac( which some tried to paint as the real hero lol) Killmonger( yes Killmonger) with a brief appearance by the much more interesting Klaw played by Andy Serkis. While hailed by many as second coming of Christ it was realistically about Iron Man 2 level schlock.

 And there we have it, Infinity War comes this Friday. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious as to what ten years of  movies will amount to. I can't say I can muster up much excitement for it but I'll see it. But for all the rabid fans out there don't worry because it won't stop here, from the look of things we will be getting at least 3 MCU movies a year until we all die! I will say that though many of the MCU films are not great I am glad they exist. Without them we would never have had the Avengers or Guardians and I think suffering through some mediocrity for those was worth it. Maybe it will all turn around with Infinity War. I'll let you know what I thought this weekend on Is it Worth it?, though I doubt many people will miss this one regardless. Thanks for reading and have a great day.