While Phases 1 & 2 had incredible highlights of their own, and laid the groundwork for everything that was to come, many people agree that Phase 3 - which we're still technically in the throes of - is where the Marvel Cinematic Universe fires on all cylinders, all the time. Every installment here swings for the fence: some clear it, some fall only just short, landing in warning-track territory, and some go over the fence, over the street beyond, and clear to the other side of the block. This truly is where we separate the ladies and gents from the boys and girls.
Phase 3 is also twice the size of its earlier counterparts, so for the sake of digestion, I've halved this portion of our tour into parts I & II. This splitting happens to be a fitting parallel to the opening salvo of this chapter in the MCU, kicking things off with a bang in...
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
THE GIST: A vengeful Sokovia survivor manipulates the recovering Winter Soldier's brainwashing as a murderous HYDRA agent to bring about controversial United Nations legislation, which splits the Avengers down the middle: one faction, led by Rogers, resists the legislation out of skepticism about corrupt government oversight; another, led by Stark, favors the restrictive measures as the most responsible approach given the group's unintentionally destructive history.
Through further staging and manipulation of events, the ideological debate comes to blows, and the Avengers are left effectively disbanded.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It does not get better than this, the strong contender for my personal favorite of all the MCU offerings to date. The plot here unfolds a complex narrative that reckons with the mistakes of previous movies and gives them real, friendship-ending consequences. There's no "bad guys" here, just heroes with differing, valid, faithfully-characterized points of view that place them in opposition to each other, leaving wounds that have yet to be healed.
On top of all this, the film still manages to squeeze in some fantastic moments of humor, stages what might be the greatest superhero action sequence of all time (good luck ever looking at an airport tarmac the same way again), and masterfully introduces two MAJOR A-listers into the MCU's proceedings. Rounding out #TeamIronMan, we meet the regal, vibranium-clawed Prince T'Challa of Wakanda, aka the Black Panther, and also the world's favorite wisecracking webhead, Spider-Man, finally at home and among friends in the MCU where he belongs after some hit-and-miss reboot attempts.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5
DOCTOR STRANGE
THE GIST: As gifted as he is arrogant, Stephen Strange's career as an eminent neurosurgeon is cut short when a car accident causes permanent nerve damage in his hands. Seeking a cure, he winds up at a remote monastery in Nepal - where instead of a medical miracle, he discovers practitioners of sorcery and dimensional-spanning magic.
Strange studies and eventually masters these powerful newfound skills, becoming Earth's new Sorcerer Supreme after thwarting a band of fanatics from summoning a lethal interdimensional entity.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The ingredients were all here for this to potentially become Marvel's first flop: Doctor Strange simply doesn't have the kind of fan following or name recognition as the Captain Americas of the world, and worse, his "brilliant white man goes to the uncharted Orient and masters its secrets" narrative could've left a bad taste in audience's mouths.
Fortunately, things turned out entirely for the opposite.
Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch slides into Strange's Cloak of Levitation like a surgical glove, flexing some serious acting chops while the movie around him conjures up what might be the MCU's most impressive special effects to date (if not, then certainly the most trippy). Whole city blocks furl and unfurl like an M.C. Escher painting on acid, and the film's creatively brilliant use of time manipulation in the final act elevates it into something special among superhero flicks.
Rumors abound of the MCU's old guard heading off into the sunset after Endgame; hopefully not, but if so, Strange is the one standing poised to receive the "brilliant goatee'd leader" baton from Iron Man.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 2
THE GIST: Gamora's murderous adoptive sister/cyborg (and fellow abuse survivor) Nebula, and the naive empath Mantis (she can feel others' emotions and lull people into sleep) join the Guardians' lineup while Star Lord confronts some major daddy issues, and the grooves get groovier.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Like riding a roller coaster a second time, this one isn't quite as unexpectedly thrilling or fun as Vol. 1, but it still gets the job done in spades. An opening tracking shot of Groot (now a baby) innocently dancing his way to Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" through a battle scene of absolute carnage is better in and of itself than whole other franchises.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
THE GIST: Bored with his return to ordinary high school life after being handpicked by Stark to participate in the events of Civil War, Peter Parker seeks out ways to prove himself as a superhero by being "a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," around his native Queens.
His heroics frequently cause more problems than they solve, however, and Parker must learn to responsibly balance his high school commitments, his mentoring under Stark, and his web-spinning superpowers in enough time to stop a high-tech weapons thief known as the Vulture, who is scavenging wreckage from Avengers battles to create dangerous black market items.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It's no secret: I love Spider-Man. Yours Truly learned to read in the pages of the webhead's comics, and of anyone in the entire comics pantheon, there's no-one I relate to more on a personal level than the bill-fretting, pop culture obsessed Peter Parker, who uses humor and kindness to make his way through family health crises and supervillain threats alike.
While not an essential MCU pillar, I can point outsiders to this one movie and say, "This, right here, is what I love about the character." Note-perfect mastery of Spidey's tone, his Breakfast Club dynamic with his high school classmates, his street-level heroism (which includes things as simple as providing directions to tourists), and a great bad guy make this one charmingly endearing.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5
THOR: RAGNAROK
THE GIST: Hela, the Norse Goddess of Death and Thor's previously-unknown sister, is released from her imprisonment by the death of Odin. She overpowers Thor and Loki, destroying Mjolnir in the process, and afterwards invades Asgard to become its new ruler. Thor, with Loki in tow, finds himself stranded on a desolate waste planet, where he is forced to become a gladiator to fight for his survival. During the fights, he is reunited with Hulk, who has risen through the gladiatorial ranks to become the reigning champion after his last appearance in Age of Ultron.
Thor, Loki, Hulk, and one of the legendary Valkyries (a gladiatorial champion herself) escape back to Asgard, where they cause Ragnarok - the destruction of Asgard - to destroy Hela and save Asgard's people.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: New Zealand comedy director Taika Waititi takes the reins of Thor's "Vikings... in space" saga, and immediately gets to work trimming away almost all the franchise's window dressing with glee: Thor loses his father, his friends, his hammer, his homeworld, his hair, and even an eye over the course of his misadventures here. But bizarrely, despite all these hardships, Ragnarok is one of the most playful, quirky, and frequently hilarious offerings in the MCU.
It expertly inserts Hulk back into the fold, introduces the hard-drinking and head-slashing Valkyrie, and establishes Thor as an even more powerful hero because of his ability to overcome each of his never-ending losses. It also has a sequence of Thor blasting down from the heavens in a blaze of lightning into a crowd of zombies on Asgard's Rainbow Bridge, all to the deafening musical accompaniment of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." If your head doesn't explode from sheer hard-rock awesomeness of that sentence, check your pulse.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 4.5/5
PHASE 3 (Part I) FINAL TALLY
Academic Decathlon champs: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok
First Alternate team: Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming
Detention: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol.2
Comic fans who survived the Dark Ages of the direct-to-home-release atrocities trying to pass as superhero adaptations in the '90s know: we are well and truly in the middle of a Golden Age. Spider-Man now swings through the same city blocks as Doctor Strange's Greenwich Village digs, all watched over from above by Thor and the Asgardians.
But a certain Mad Titan has been looming on the periphery of this happy interconnectedness, plotting to decimate it all by half. And he's about to step out into the spotlight.
Next up: Wakanda Forever, a new kind of HERo... and the Snap heard round the world.
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