Captain America Civil War
Captain America 3 is basically also Iron Man 4 and Avengers 2.5. Almost all the major Avengers are present with just Hulk and Thor missing from the line up at the time. Not only that but this was the film which gave us Black Panther and the MCU Spider-Man for the first time.
Baron Zemo was an unfortunately underused character who would later get more time to shine in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but was still central to keeping this more grounded and gritty as The Winter Soldier had been before it. The focus on the relationship between the Avengers themselves is perfect in this film and their family feud sets up so many interactions for many of the films to follow.
Thor Ragnarok
After a fairly serious first film and a sequel that had let many down, the third Thor film benefits from Chris Hemsworth’s new found comedy chops that he discovered on the set of Ghostbusters. This film is so filled with improv and comedy and an 80s inspired soundtrack that is was one of the most stand out MCU films by this point.
The highlights are without doubt Jeff Goldblum stealing every scene and the Hulk being an intergalactic Gladiator.
Black Panther
After things in the MCU started to lean more and more towards humour they delivered this epic about tradition and family, betrayal and was grounded and serious. Black Panther gave us the late great Chadwick Boseman in an incredible turn as a new king following his father’s footsteps as the ruler and defender of Wakanda.
Captain America The Winter Soldier
A huge leap over the first Captain America film this is one of the great movies about a hero on the run with spies and double agents aplenty. The development of the Bucky storyline from the first film gave this movie high stakes and the action and fight sequences are some of the very best in the MCU.
The Avengers
A film that so easily could have failed, but was awesome beyond our wildest dreams. Fears that having the big stars teaming after having their own individual movies would lead to clashes and politicking turned out not to happen and the Avengers were as much a team off screen as they were on it.
In what seems common place now, the dream cross overs of these characters meeting each other for the first time was something fans had never seen in live action before and their screen time was perfectly shared with smart dialogue and some of the best action ever on film.
Loki stole the show here as the villain and any concerns people had about Mark Ruffalo replacing Ed Norton disappeared the instant the big green dude smashed Loki back and forth into the ground.
Avengers Infinity War
Avengers Infinity War is by far the biggest movie Marvel have ever produced and its hard to see how they will top it in either phase 4 or 5. The way they manage to cram so many chaarcters into the film is so impressive and although a couple of characters such as Captain America and Hulk are somewhat underused in this film, and Ant Man and Hawkeye are missing entirely, the film did the impossible and brought everyone else together for the first time. Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy join the rest of the Avengers to battle Thanos who dominates the film as the biggest threat in the MCU ever.
This film also pulls out the genuine emotion in the audience with it’s shocking conclusion and sets the stakes as high as ever for the Avengers. Epic in every sense this is the film which even years after it’s release is still a deeply engaging watch.
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