Copyright © 2023 Rick and Ruth Coy
When I did this origianlly the MCU had started, but was not called the MCU. Marvel studio were not part of Disney (although Disney did own Marvel then)So unlike the other reviews which were an easy cut and paste with maybe addtion - this is all new.
As much as I hate to say it as a DC Fan - on a whole Marvel has better movies. Now they have had their share of mad movies - but with the start of the MCU - the show within this have been really good. With over 60 years on some of the charters, they may not be exactly like you remembered - but close enough. They have done one thing that some of the other Super-Hero films including other Marvel films haven’t done. They have a bible that the director must go by. He can’t make “his” version of Iron Man, he must make the MCU version of Iron Man. This has hurt so many Superhero movies - we get a director or screenwriter who feels they know more about the charters than the creators and fans, and we end up with something that may be good, but it isn’t about who it says in the title, which can turn you off from liking an other wise good film. Some are close enough that you can forgive them for trying their own thing - but some are so far off we can not forgive them. (And the money will reflect this).
Now I’m going to do this a little different - we may not go into some of the films at except for listing them and we will be dividing this up into sections.
1944: Captain America - this was a serial and I’m sure the comic readers of the time got ready to see their Hero on the silver screen….But, yeah it was Capt. America - but he wasn’t Steve Rodgers, He wasn’t in the war, and he used a gun and didn’t have the shield. The costume is close.
The “B” list
These are film the went straight to video or were made for Television. Some were good some were not.
1977 Spider-Man This was pilot for the 1978 Spider-man TV show. Nothing compare to latter Spider-Man movies
1978 Dr. Strange again a pilot of a series that didn’t make it.
1979 Captain America and Captain America II: both made for TV. BAD scripts acting costumes
1989 The Punisher Another TV movie
1990 Captain America - much better than the other two. It was at least true to capt in looks.
1994 Fantastic four - Never released. The best FF film so far. All copies I’ve seen are crap - but it follows the comics.
1996 Generation X (TV Movie) I hate say it, but I can’t remember this - .
1998 Nick Fury Agent of Shield Made for TV - I like this one. It was a long time ago and don’t remember it too much.
2005 Man- Thing - Syfy channel made for cable and again didn’t see this
1986: HOWARD THE DUCK - I was a big Howard the Duck fan - the movie I felt was OK. I didn’t think it was as bad as some of the fans say. I would love a new Howard movie, but this time it needs an “R” to make it more like the Howard we loved.
1998: Blade - I was never a fan of the comic and felt the same about the movies.
2000: X-Men - This surprised me, a really good Superhero movie! Best Prof. X. Now it could be nitpicked to death over little things - but all in all a good version of the X-Men.
2002: Blade II
2002: Spider-man - Sam Raimi version of Spider-Man wasn’t bad, except for the web. Tobey Maguire was an Ok Spider-man. I enjoyed all three movies - again this was something that could be nitpicked for a lot of little things.
2003: DareDevil. Affleck wasn’t a bad Daredevil - the script sucked. This is something I notice a lot with fans - bad script and they for some reason blame it on the actor. I have seen this a lot.
2003: X-Men 2. The same as the first. A good version of the X-Men - Patrick Stewart great Prof X and Hugh Jackman a great Wolverine, Halle Berry’s storm right on.
2003: Hulk - like to forget it, thinks marvel would too. Hulk makes a great supporting character. Change origin around too much.
2004 The Punisher - not bad
2004 Spider-man 2 Again not a bad Spider-Man
2004: Blade Trinity
2005: Elektra - would have been better with DareDevil in it.
2005 Fantastic Four. Been excited about an FF film since 1994 - had watched a blurry version of it - so I had my hopes up. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good FF. If they had used 1994 script it would have been better. Changed origin - it wasn’t a hard origin to do it correctly, but…made Johnny older… change Sue around. And Doctor Doom - again should have been easy villain to do, but they screwed it up.
2006: X-Men Last Stand - After two very good X-Men we get this. It’s only forgiving factor was the Beast played by Kelsey Grammer. He had the Beast down right! The story just didn’t fit.
2007: Ghost Rider - Nicolas Cage made a good Johnny Blaze. It wasn’t too bad.
2007: Spider-Man 3 Sam Raimi last outing with Spider-Man, there was a talk about a number 4.
2007: Fantastic Four: Rise fo the Silver Surfer. Not bad, but not the FF I remember - Silver Surfer was done well, Galactus was not - seemed they had a lot of trouble with FF villains.
WELCOME TO THE MCU ERA
Not all the films in this section are part of MCU
2008: Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark!!! Jon Favreau directed and played Happy. They updated the origin, but they kept pretty close - even nitpicker would have problem nitpicking this. A great start for the MCU.
2008: Incredible Hulk: Better than Hulk, but I still say the Hulk is better off as a supporting hero.
2008: Punisher: War Zone: Have not seen, am a fan of Punisher. As I’m putting this together I’m seeing a lot of films I want to find and watch - so I may have an update on this in the future.
2009: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Wasn’t too bad, but he is better as part of the team.
2010: Iron Man 2: Not as good as the first, but still good.
2011: X-Men first class: I enjoyed this, it was sort of something that was talked about in the comics, but was never shown. As with the other x-men films the timeline of some of the characters are off.
2011: Captain America: First Avenger: Ok, after seeing trailers I had decided I wasn’t going to like it that much, well I was wrong! Although Captain America and his Howling commandos would have been a better title. My dislikes were Bucky was too old. And I would have liked to see Sgt. Fury, the white grandfather of our current Fury. They lost what could have been one of the best scenes in the show, when caps waking up in the current period and Nick there, Cap says”Who are you” Nick says “Nick Fury” Cap goes “I don’t think so” or “Nick what happened to you” or any number of come backs. But I guess in the MCU the WWII Sgt. Fury doesn’t exist.
2011: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance: Another I didn’t get to see. Where we lived we had at that time only one movie theatre, so not all movies were shown in our area.
2011: THOR: It was an interesting twist on Thor. I enjoyed it, but would have loved to see Thor as he was in Journey into Mystery 83 - Donald Blake who finds a hammer that gives him the power of Thor, and then finds out he really is Thor, who is being punished by Odin.
2012: The Avengers: Ok - we had been building up to this for some time. Yeah the origin was no where like in the comic, but they started building up to it since Iron Man, which made it ok. This is the first Marvel Studio movie released by Disney. Disney had owned Marvel for several years now, but now Marvel Studios was a real studio - part of the Walt Disney Company.
2012: The Amazing Spider-man - We see Spider-man rebooted with Andrew Garfield as the web spinner. He more like the comic book version than Tobey was. Enjoyed both of the Amazing.
2013: Iron Man 3. Again not bad, but would have liked to see the “real” Mandarin. But besides that it was a good film.
2013: The Wolverine - Much better than the X-Men origin tale.
2013: Thor: The Dark World - not a bad Thor. I liked first movie better and third best of all.
2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Liked this one least of the Cap movies, but still a good film.
2014: Amazing Spider-man 2- Last film of the Garfield Spider-man.
2014: X-Men: Days of Future Past - lets try and take care of X-Men last stand and make it no longer part of the X-history. As a bonus we have both sets of actors in this time traveling story.
2014: Guardians of the Galaxy - This has got to be one of the most fun Marvel films to watch. And the sound track - great!.
2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron - Since we will not see Hank Pym until latter this year - Tony creates Ultron. Also we get Vision - this Vision is made with the Jarvis AI - so we get the actor who has been Jarvis voice since Iron Man 1, become the Vision. We get more here from the comic added to the MCU.
2015: Ant Man - but we get the Scott Lang Ant-Man, although we get flash back of Pym as Ant-man. In the MCU Pym’s Ant-Man and Janet’s Wasp had been members of S.H.I.E.L.D. Before the Avengers were created and were not very happy with Shield.
2015: Fantastic Four - This is a reboot I will never understand. Remember the problems with the 2005 FF - origin was wrong, Johnny too old, and Doom sucked… In doing a reboot you would think they would try and correct what was wrong with the first. (Now remember this is not part of the MCU) Let see how bad we can screw up the origin - the first was close - so lets get as far from what the origin was…. Now johnny age didn’t seem to change much from the first, but he is now black - but his sister Sue isn’t - She is adopted. Now they asked Stan if he minded the Torch being black, Stan said No - Now we have seen the race of a character change in other movies, and done right, this wasn’t. Now lets get to Dr. Doom, lets not… it was that bad. Now the trailers were so bad I didn’t spend my money on seeing in the movies - but I did watch it on TV and I’m very glad I didn’t see it in the theatre. Ok four FF movies, only three that were released - the first being mothballed - and it being the best… The $$$ showed that a lot more people didn’t like it also. I did pick it up on disc, it was $1.00.
2016: Deadpool - Loved it. A fun movie. R rated more for all the blood and guts in it and language. But it was Deadpool!!
2016 Captain America: Civil War - guest starring almost every Marvel Superhero in the MCU including “Spider-Man!!!!! Best Avengers movie to date! And we get Team Tony and Team Steve. The fun!!!
2016: X-men Apocalypse - Once again we have the first class X-Men. A good x film.
2016: Doctor Strange - Benedict Cumberbatch as Steven Strange is as good as Robert Downey Jr. As Tony Stark. He looks the part. Wonderful film - close to the comic. The Ancient One is female - she makes it work.
2017: LOGAN - lets jump to the future and we have Jackman and Steward as Logan and Prof X. It is an interesting journey - I had not read the old man Logan in the comic, so I have no idea how faithful the film is.
2017: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Another fun rump with the Guardians, we get meet Star Lords Dad. Once again we have a wonderful sound track.
2017: Spider-Man Home Coming - Tom Holland is the MCU Spider-Man, his first film after being introduced in Civil War. This one in many ways is the closest Spider-Man to the comics - he the a high school student. A few changes are his MJ is not Mary Jane and Aunt May is really young. In the comics Aunt May had to be Great Aunt May or his father was a late in life child and so was Peter. Other friends of Peter are different from the comic.
2017: Thor Ragnarok. The Best of the Thor. It guest stars Hulk. It has humor in it. A great film.
2018 Black Panther - A very good adapting of the Black Panther story. Chadwick Boseman made a great T’Challa. It is so sad that he passed away before doing more. Marvel decided not to recast it for Black Panther 2. Black Panther like many others in the MCU it’s not the person behind the mask, but the wearer of the mask. Looking forward to Black Panther 2.
2018: Avengers: Infinity War - A lot of heroes - a fan dream. It was done well with all the heroes working together to fight Thanos. And by now I’m sure you know they lost. What a way to end a movie!!!
2018: Deadpool 2: An interesting X-Force tale, done in Deadpool dark humor. This is another R rated tale, but they did a second version that PG-13 and a Princess Bride homage. This version you can only get on Disc at this time. It has as many scenes added as it does removed - and a few are not removed but censored and some dialog is beeped.
2018: Ant-man and the Wasp - The whole MCU Ant-man is about the second Ant-man and now the second Wasp. With flashback telling about the first. Ant-man was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. The problem I had was the only Marvel comics we got in our county was Strange Tales and Amazing Spider-man for the longest times. So could only get Tales to Astonish when on vacation or trip to another county. We started getting all Marvel at the time of Avengers 4.
2018: Venom - Another film I didn’t think I would like. Didn’t care for Venom in the comics. But Sony version of Venom is really good. When I finally saw it on streaming I really like it.
2019: Captain Marvel - Should have been titled Nick Fury and Captain Marvel… They made a few major changes, like how she got her power - complely doing away with the original Marvel Comics Captain Mar-vel. (Ok being a BIG DC fan and Big Shazam Captain Marvel - this name always rubbed me the wrong way - even having Rick trade place with Mar-vel another dimension -acting much like Billy Shazaming into Captain Marvel. And then the spelling of Mar-vel much like Jor-el. But back to the movie - it was a lot of fun - can’t wait to see the Marvels coming out latter this year.
2019: Avengers:Endgame - or Infinity Wars part 2. What a comeback and setting up how things are going to be in the other films and Disney Plus tie in series going out from this point. It changes the MCU a lot. Again we get to see a lot of heroes working together and we get time travel in the MCU. (Something the comics had from the silver age)(X-Men Days of Furture past were not part of the MCU - although it may become) SPOILER
SPOILER
I would love to see a Cap film of the time he is with Carter in the past - it could expalin the 1950’s Cap that Marvel in the comic say was just someone hired by government to be cap, but what if that person they hired was cap and the agency that hired him was the newly created S.H.I.E.L.D.
SPOILER
Now back to 2019
2019: Dark Phoenix (Non-MCU) It was an ok film, but it could have been a lot better. It may have worked better in the MCU after they gain the X-Men - since some of the problem was they had to work with who they had.
2019: Spider-man Far From Home - second feature film of the MCU Spider-man. Again loved it. Had some nice touches to it. Best Spider-Man so far.
2020: The New Mutants - OK I almost missed this - found it on streaming. And it was good,but had a lot of changes from the comics . I feel it may be a victim of Covid - It theatrical release was a failure. (No one was going to the movies in 2020) They didn’t seem to do much advertising - it was the last of the FOX X-men movies (it was finished after Disney owned 20th century studios) It was to be the first of three films. It was more of a horror film than Superhero, which was another big mistake. Maybe we will see a better version of the New Mutants as part of the MCU.
2021: Black Widow - Not bad for a hero that got killed in a film out before it. But if you watched “What If” on Disney Plus - we may have the answer. It was a very good origin story.
2021: Shang-Chi and the legends of the Ten Rings - Didn’t think I was going to like this, since I didn’t like the comics (they really didn’t seem to be part of the Marvel Universe back then) But again I was wrong - it was good and has it place in the MCU.
2021: Venom: Let there be Carnage - Have not seen yet, want to and will change this once I have.
2021: Eternals- Not very much like the books or at least the early Jack Kirby version, but that said it was still a good film and does fit nicely into the MCU and hints to heroes to come.
2021: Spider-Man No Way Home - this is the first movie that I have bought the digital version - I like having my film on something other than the clouds. But I would have to wait almost another month to see it, if I waited for the Disc. The movie was by far the BEST Spider-Man movie made to date - regardless which one of the three actors you like best in the role - since they are all in it. This introduced the multi-verse that was talked about in several of the Disney Plus tie ins. (The What If tie in was about the Multi-verse, but you don’t know that till the end of the series).
2022: Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness - This takes place just after Spider-Man No Way Home. Once again we are in Multi-verse and get to see some Marvel Heroes for the first time in the MCU.
2022: Morbius - have yet to see it
2022: Thor: Love and Thunder - Another good Thor. This time with Jane Foster as Thor.
With the MCU, Marvel has done what most fans wanted to see with their comic book heroes appearing on the big screen. There are changes, but most to fit the current era we are in. Some of these hero have been around sixty years are more. We look forward to how they will do the Fantastic Four and X-men. It will be nice to have them added to the MCU, as in the past story lines had to be changed because the people in the comics were part of the Fantastic Four or the X-men.
COMING
2022: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2023: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
2023: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3
2023: The Marvels
TBA : Blade
TBA : Spider-Woman
TBA : Madame Web
TBA : Jackpot
TBA : New Tom Holland Spider-man Trilogy
NOTE: This article only covered live action films. We may do a future article on Animated Heroes. And was written in 2022. Will update soon.
