Marvel Movie Summary 2019
For the last several years I've warmed up for my cinema year in review with my Marvel Movie yearly review. The summary for 2019 will be brief, as so far as I know there were only four Marvel movies released, of which I saw the three MCU movies and skipped the other. Given the sheer volume of movies being released and the purchase of Fox by Disney, paving the way for the X-Men, Fantastic Four and others into the MCU, I may well decide to go MCU only in the future.
However, that's the future. Here's the summary. I've also included the historical rankings, although at this point they are more or less useless as I've rewatched virtually none of them, and in many cases they were ranked so long ago that they've been polished by nostalgia (for the mediocre to good ones) or doomed by bad memories (for the terrible ones).
1. Captain Marvel (MCU) - Look, Wonder Woman got all sorts of props as a milestone in having a female super hero, but Captain Marvel is a much, much better movie in every way. I (and the woman I saw the movie with) really liked how she handled the gas-lighting villain in particular.
2. Avengers: Endgame (MCU) - Somehow the capstone to the all the MCU movies thus far managed to:
- successfully close out Avengers: Infinity War and the arcs of several now beloved characters
- be more like a comic book in visual appeal and story telling than any of the prior MCU films
- managed to handle time travel reasonably intelligently
- to provide all the fan service you could possibly want
Given how many places this could have failed, it's truly remarkable how good it is. I'm not sure it can be ranked separately from Infinity War. It's not quite as good to me as the first Avengers film, but it's very close.
3. Spider-Man: Far From Home (MCU) - Let's be real clear, the Tom Holland Spider-Man is great, and honestly I think Zendaya as MJ is even better. And I admire how in the post Endgame world they just rolled with everybody coming back and went straight to the next adventure. With that said, this film is a very tiny step back from Spider-Man: Homecoming. I liked the villain premise here, but it wasn't as good as the Vulture premise in the prior movie, and I really hate when really smart (albeit insecure) people do obviously stupid things like handing over the keys to the greatest weapon system ever, even when they were tricked. It bothered me during the movie, which is a problem.
4. Dark Phoenix - I assume somebody must have seen this, but I certainly didn't given the dubious previews and terrible reviews, and none of my friends mentioned going. Maybe the presumably inevitable MCU redoing of the iconic X-Men storyline will get it right where the first two attempts failed.
Would Watch Again Without Hesitation
Black Panther (MCU)
Thor: Ragnarok (MCU)
The Avengers (MCU)
X-Men & X2: X-Men United (listed together because I consider them to be inseparable)
Avengers: Infinity War (MCU) and Avengers: Endgame (MCU) (also inseparable)
Logan
Blade
Avengers: Age of Ultron (MCU)
Iron Man (MCU)
Ant-Man (MCU)
Guardians of the Galaxy (MCU)
Would Watch Again
Captain America: Civil War (MCU)
Captain Marvel (MCU)
X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: First Class
Ant-man and the Wasp (MCU)
Spider-Man 2
Doctor Strange (MCU)
Iron Man 3 (MCU)
Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
I Probably Would Watch It at the Gym
Guardians of the Galaxy, v.2 (MCU)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (MCU)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (MCU)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Deadpool
Deadpool 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Thor: The Dark World (MCU)
Captain America: The First Avenger (MCU)
Iron Man 2 (MCU)
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Thor (MCU)
Would Watch Again if I Was Drinking And the TV Was On
Spider-Man 3
The Punisher (saw on video)
DareDevil
Blade II
Fantastic Four
Would Not Watch Again Even If I Was Working Out Drunk
The Wolverine
Blade: Trinity
X-Men: Apocalypse
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Hulk
Let's Pretend I Never Saw It
Elektra (saw on video)
Have Not Seen And Want To
The Incredible Hulk (MCU)
Punisher: War Zone
Have Not Seen And That's Fine With Me
Venom
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Dark Phoenix
Fantastic Four (2015)
I still haven't watched any Marvel TV. Maybe one day.
There are five Marvel movies slated for 2020, assuming that they don't get rescheduled due to the ongoing pandemic, which seems probable. Of those, I'm all in for Black Widow even if it is a MCU prequel. The Eternals is also MCU, so I'll give it a shot although those characters have never done much for me.
As for the non-MCU 2020 films, I have little interest in The New Mutants and less interest in Venom 2, given that I didn't even see the first one. I have some very minor interest in Morbius, but probably wouldn't go out of my way to see it. All of which means that next year I might need to convert this to the MCU summary instead of the Marvel summary.
However, that's the future. Here's the summary. I've also included the historical rankings, although at this point they are more or less useless as I've rewatched virtually none of them, and in many cases they were ranked so long ago that they've been polished by nostalgia (for the mediocre to good ones) or doomed by bad memories (for the terrible ones).
1. Captain Marvel (MCU) - Look, Wonder Woman got all sorts of props as a milestone in having a female super hero, but Captain Marvel is a much, much better movie in every way. I (and the woman I saw the movie with) really liked how she handled the gas-lighting villain in particular.
2. Avengers: Endgame (MCU) - Somehow the capstone to the all the MCU movies thus far managed to:
- successfully close out Avengers: Infinity War and the arcs of several now beloved characters
- be more like a comic book in visual appeal and story telling than any of the prior MCU films
- managed to handle time travel reasonably intelligently
- to provide all the fan service you could possibly want
Given how many places this could have failed, it's truly remarkable how good it is. I'm not sure it can be ranked separately from Infinity War. It's not quite as good to me as the first Avengers film, but it's very close.
3. Spider-Man: Far From Home (MCU) - Let's be real clear, the Tom Holland Spider-Man is great, and honestly I think Zendaya as MJ is even better. And I admire how in the post Endgame world they just rolled with everybody coming back and went straight to the next adventure. With that said, this film is a very tiny step back from Spider-Man: Homecoming. I liked the villain premise here, but it wasn't as good as the Vulture premise in the prior movie, and I really hate when really smart (albeit insecure) people do obviously stupid things like handing over the keys to the greatest weapon system ever, even when they were tricked. It bothered me during the movie, which is a problem.
4. Dark Phoenix - I assume somebody must have seen this, but I certainly didn't given the dubious previews and terrible reviews, and none of my friends mentioned going. Maybe the presumably inevitable MCU redoing of the iconic X-Men storyline will get it right where the first two attempts failed.
Would Watch Again Without Hesitation
Black Panther (MCU)
Thor: Ragnarok (MCU)
The Avengers (MCU)
X-Men & X2: X-Men United (listed together because I consider them to be inseparable)
Avengers: Infinity War (MCU) and Avengers: Endgame (MCU) (also inseparable)
Logan
Blade
Avengers: Age of Ultron (MCU)
Iron Man (MCU)
Ant-Man (MCU)
Guardians of the Galaxy (MCU)
Would Watch Again
Captain America: Civil War (MCU)
Captain Marvel (MCU)
X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: First Class
Ant-man and the Wasp (MCU)
Spider-Man 2
Doctor Strange (MCU)
Iron Man 3 (MCU)
Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
I Probably Would Watch It at the Gym
Guardians of the Galaxy, v.2 (MCU)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (MCU)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (MCU)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Deadpool
Deadpool 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Thor: The Dark World (MCU)
Captain America: The First Avenger (MCU)
Iron Man 2 (MCU)
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Thor (MCU)
Would Watch Again if I Was Drinking And the TV Was On
Spider-Man 3
The Punisher (saw on video)
DareDevil
Blade II
Fantastic Four
Would Not Watch Again Even If I Was Working Out Drunk
The Wolverine
Blade: Trinity
X-Men: Apocalypse
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Hulk
Let's Pretend I Never Saw It
Elektra (saw on video)
Have Not Seen And Want To
The Incredible Hulk (MCU)
Punisher: War Zone
Have Not Seen And That's Fine With Me
Venom
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Dark Phoenix
Fantastic Four (2015)
I still haven't watched any Marvel TV. Maybe one day.
There are five Marvel movies slated for 2020, assuming that they don't get rescheduled due to the ongoing pandemic, which seems probable. Of those, I'm all in for Black Widow even if it is a MCU prequel. The Eternals is also MCU, so I'll give it a shot although those characters have never done much for me.
As for the non-MCU 2020 films, I have little interest in The New Mutants and less interest in Venom 2, given that I didn't even see the first one. I have some very minor interest in Morbius, but probably wouldn't go out of my way to see it. All of which means that next year I might need to convert this to the MCU summary instead of the Marvel summary.