Endgame promises to be the superhero movie to end all superhero movies, an epic and climactic finale to a revolutionary brand of filmmaking which has stretched across ten years, more than twenty movies and streaming shows, and billions, billions, billions of dollars.
For a lot of people, prepping for Endgame might feel a bit like cramming for a final exam, especially if they're unfamiliar with the 20+ individual puzzle pieces that have brought us all collectively to this point.
So, to help those people out, as well as to provide a refresher to others who are looking for an abbreviated SparkNotes-esque recap of pop culture's hottest franchise before we're all left collectively traumatized on April 25, here now is a self-professed comic aficionado's run-through of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
For each of the twenty-one films released to date, I'll provide a quick synopsis, an analysis of why the movie's worth your hard-earned time, and a "re-watch grade" to help prioritize whether or not you should give it a second (or third or fourth or twenty ninth...) viewing before Endgame. Got it? Alright then.
Since coverage of all twenty-one films would call for a post near novel-length in its size, I've borrowed a page from the MCU's playbook and broken everything up into more digestible "phases."
Here, then, without any further ado, let's start our recap of Phase 1. In the beginning, there was...
IRON MAN
THE GIST: Tony Stark is a genius, billionaire playboy with no responsibilities or qualms about who gets their hands on the mass-destructive weapons created by his father's defense company - until he finds himself with a chestful of shrapnel while in the captivity of a Taliban-esque splinter group.
Now vowing to devote his life towards a higher purpose of accountability, Stark uses his smarts to create a technologically advanced suit of armor that lets him escape his captors while keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart. He refines the armor's design to become Iron Man, and later reveals his secret identity to the world press.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: This is the movie that started this whole grand Marvel project. It's doubtful if any role has ever fit an actor as well as the quip-spewing, in-love-with-his-fame Tony Stark fits Robert Downey Jr. It's a match made in movie heaven, and to this day, RDJ's performance is a central tent pole of the whole MCU. Throw in some timely commentary on the U.S.'s War on Terror in the Middle East, a truly funny script, and some of the silver screen's niftiest hardware, and you've got yourself a sky-high bar that has proved difficult to reach again for a lot of what has since followed.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5
THE INCREDIBLE HULK
THE GIST: After a failed experiment exposes timid scientist Bruce Banner to critical levels of gamma radiation, he morphs into a hulking green behemoth with impossible levels of strength and "breathtaking anger management issues" whenever he becomes stressed or threatened.
Banner must elude U.S. government forces who seek to imprison or even weaponize his less-than-jolly green giant counterpart, all while trying to suppress the Hulk's violent and destructive tendencies.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: A fine smash-em-up film all on its own, this nevertheless might be the most throwaway of all the MCU fare. Actor Ed Norton does a decent job as the skittish Banner, and there's a fun fight scene at the end that breaks... well, the whole neighborhood of Harlem, but there's nothing here that won't be covered, and covered better, when Mark Ruffalo takes over the role in the following Avengers films.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 2/5
IRON MAN 2
THE GIST: While publicly reveling in his celebrity status as Iron Man, Stark is now desperately seeking a cure in private for the toxic effects which the armor's technology is having on his body.
At the same time, he must deal with a rival weapons manufacturer, face off with the disgruntled son of one of his father's forgotten business partners, and entertain the joint efforts of the eyepatch-toting badass Nick Fury and the kickboxing super-spy Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) to recruit him into SHIELD, a peacekeeping intelligence organization, and their classified "Avengers Initiative."
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Once again, RDJ owns every minute of screen time he's in, and there are some fantastic action sequences - but this is a case where a sequel packs in too much, too soon, and so ironically becomes a case of diminishing returns. You can skip this one and never miss a beat.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 2/5
THOR
THE GIST: The arrogant and belligerent Norse God of Thunder is exiled from his native realm of Asgard to modern-day New Mexico, where he must prove himself "worthy" in order to once again wield his enchanted hammer Mjolnir and regain his godlike powers.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Chris Hemsworth debuts his star-making turn here as maybe the number one reason male audience members have developed insecurity complexes watching these movies - the only thing bigger than his biceps and ab muscles are the laughs he draws through his fish-out-of-water predicament in New Mexico. He regally strolls into a bargain pet store at one point, demanding in high Shakespearean tones "I need a horse!" only to have the sweater-vest wearing cashier inform him that he won't have any luck finding anything here much larger than a dog.
But threatening to steal this movie away from Thor - in truth, the whole Thor franchise, both in front of and behind the camera - is Tom Hiddleston's silver-tongued, malicious, and tragically misunderstood Loki, the trickster God of Mischief and Thor's adoptive brother. He turns in a truly great villain performance that went unchallenged as the MCU's best baddie until only the most recent offerings came around.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
THE GIST: Steve Rogers is a scrawny weakling from Brooklyn who spends his days getting beaten up in alleys behind movie theaters and his nights trying to unsuccessfully sneak his way into the U.S. draft for WWII. His mindset is the same on both fronts: "I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from." But when Rogers volunteers for and receives an experimental "super-soldier" serum that transforms his body to the pinnacle of human ability, he can finally do something about those bullies.
Dubbed "Captain America" and wielding an unbreakable shield, Rogers is dispatched to eliminate various advanced-level threats facing the Allied war effort. In the last of these missions, Rogers sacrifices himself to down a plane carrying a payload of explosives to his native New York; the craft plunges into the ice of the North Atlantic, but Rogers survives, frozen solid and preserved. He remains in suspended animation for nearly seventy years, finally resuscitating in New York in 2011 under the care of Nick Fury and SHIELD.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The chronological granddaddy of the MCU, The First Avenger is the most pure pulp escapism you can get from watching these flicks. Like the Indiana Jones movies or Saturday morning cartoons, it's a totally immersive 1940s period piece that blends history's most natural villains, the Nazis, with scientific and occult mumbo-jumbo, and lets Chris Evans (a Captain America-like figure of goodness both on and off screen) shine as he gets in some good old fashioned socks-to-the-jaw. There's even a winkingly playful propaganda montage thrown in for good measure, complete with its own catchy show tune.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5
THE AVENGERS
THE GIST: When an embittered Loki invades Earth with a marauding alien force at his command, Nick Fury and SHIELD bring together Rogers, Stark, Thor, Banner, and Romanoff, along with expert archer Clint Barton - aka Hawkeye - to stop him.
It's not an instant match made in heaven - the egos and insecurities of each individual hero are sizable enough when taken on their own, let alone in a group. The team manages to cohere just in time, however, for a jaw-dropping battle across New York City that weaves these multiple franchise threads together for the first time in movie history - and attracts the attention of one purple Mad Titan.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It was an unprecedented idea at the time: take headliners from four lucrative but separate film series, and make them play nice together in the same sandbox. It would have been impossible not too long ago, but as written and directed by nerd guru Joss Whedon, it's cinema history. The quips are electric, the story makes sense and yet gives each hero his or her place to shine, and there are at least three scenes in the last half hour that made whole theaters rise to their feet in roaring applause. Once a comic nerd's pipe dream, it's become the golden standard for cinematic events, with more than a few rival studios trying and failing spectacularly to capture the same genie in a different bottle.
Avengers, assemble.
RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5
PHASE 1 FINAL TALLY
"Stop whatever it is you're doing right now and watch this" - Iron Man, The Avengers
"Will this be on the test?" "Maybe..." - Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger
"Sorry, Next" - The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2
The MCU has gotten much, much bigger in its scope, tone, diversity, and ambition than fans from these early days would ever have dared believe - but all empires start somewhere, and the foundation laid here by Phase 1 for future endeavors remains as unbreakably sturdy as Cap's vibranium shield.
Next up, it's "Hail Hydra," shrinking suits, and "I am Groot..."
We're on to Phase 2!
