Iron Man (2008)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has come a long way since 2008's Iron Man. Phase 4 started out strong, finally giving Black Widow her own solo film and introducing their very first Asian lead in Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings. It was a fantastic introduction, before now giving us a look into this universe's past with Eternals. Unfortunately, this film may not have been the best showing. [embed]https://youtu.be/0WVDKZJkGlY[/embed]

Eternals follows a race of immortal beings who have influenced Earth's history by forming the identities of gods and other mythological beings throughout history while protecting humanity from a race of apex predators, known as the Deviants. After the last Deviant is defeated, the Eternals decide to disband and live amongst humanity until the Celestials, giant beings who originally sent them on their quest, give them permission to return to their home planet of Olympia.

The Eternals' peace on Earth is disrupted when the Deviants return. Now there is a race to reunite the Eternals and finally defeat the Deviants once and for all. They discover many secrets along the way that will change their lives forever. A premise such as this has the potential to tell a grand story. 

Unfortunately, the movie has mixed results. The film has a lot of characters with a lot of prerequisite backstories. It is longer than most MCU films and is filled with a lot of exposition and long flashbacks abruptly inter-spliced. As a result, the pacing is inconsistent. Slow and tedious in certain parts. On the other hand, character introductions can feel very rushed since there are ten leads, and the film itself doesn't have time to give them proper character development. With each Eternal introduced, the audience is given their powerset and a backstory on what they have been doing for the past 7,000 years.

It’s not often in America that you turn on the TV and see a show or a movie with a Muslim protagonist. While Muslims make up about 24% of the world’s population, they only make up 1.1% of characters in American films according to a USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study. In their rare appearances, Muslim characters have historically been portrayed as foreigners, terrorists, and threats. Their religion has sadly been reduced to dangerous extremism in most movies and TV shows. 

Marvel has not helped with this stereotyping. The MCU’s first movie, Iron Man, set a precedent for negative Muslim and SWANA representation in the franchise. The villains are a group of Afghan terrorists who kidnap billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark to make him build them a missile. The writing for this movie was military propaganda at its finest. 

14 years later, Ms. Marvel has hit our screens via Disney+ and it couldn’t be more different. It’s a coming-of-age story about a Pakistani American teenage girl named Kamala Khan obsessed with superheroes who discovers that she has her own superpowers. This show is changing the game when it comes to Muslim representation in mainstream American media. Ms. Marvel is quirky, cute, and hilarious. It tackles serious topics surrounding the Muslim and Pakistani communities. If you haven’t seen it already, you should be watching it because it’s one of the best shows streaming right now.

Everything about this show is charming, from the acting to the music to the visuals. Iman Vellani is the perfect casting, embodying Kamala’s geeky superhero obsession, teenage awkwardness, and relentless optimism. She’s a treat to watch onscreen. Elements like the Indian and Pakistani music; casual usage of Urdu; title cards in Urdu, Hindi, and more South Asian languages; and multiple cultural jokes make this show feel distinctly Muslim and Desi. The visuals throughout make this show look so unique. Kamala’s imaginary sequences are incorporated as animated drawings that interact with her surroundings. This show also integrates texting in the most creative way by making text conversations a part of the physical setting. The bright colors and fast-paced editing make for an engaging feast for the eyes when watching. 

The year is 2002. The anticipation is high. All Marvel fans are dying of excitement. Their favourite webslinger is coming to silver screens. He’s been the subject of many animated shows over the years, and now Tobey Maguire is set to don the blue and red costume and swing through New York as he rescues his crush Mary Jane, to be played by Kirsten Dunst. Sam Raimi’s film releases and exceeds all expectations. Fans are already sure this will go down in the hall of fame of comic book films. And what’s more, it becomes a trilogy! By the third one, it’s understandable why there can’t be any more, because it’s run its ground and it’s impossible to return after the Bully Maguire memes made a mockery of the third installment. And a decade after the first Spider-Man, another up-and-coming actor, who’s just starred in Oscar-winning film The Social Network, comes back as the beloved hero. He’s naturally broody, lanky, and has the perfect athleticism for the character, but this time there’s mixed anticipation because some won’t move on from the trilogy, and some feel this could be even better. Unfortunately, there’s a pacing issue and a darkness issue, and Spider-Man's essence is lost in the tragedy, which is, to be honest, the biggest tragedy, because Garfield’s vibe is much closer to Spider-Man, and his Peter is just the right balance between nerd and dork. After two movies, it’s shelved, and fans are starting to give up on the idea of a good closure for Spidey. But then the biggest phenomenon in comic book cinema happens, and in Captain America: Civil War, we meet the latest man to play the character. He fits the bill in every way. He’s just as comic and awkward and funky and nerdy and charming as Peter Parker, and he looks like a sixteen-year-old. And five years after his introduction, near Christmas, comes the most ambitious Spider-Man live-action project, the film that’ll hopefully provide the closure fans needed. But unlike its predecessors, it lacks heart, so forget about closure, you won’t even remember the film beyond the unforgettable fan service that Spiderman: No Way Home does for the fans, as pointed out by Daleyna in her review. It's chock full of dream-come-true moments for Spidey fans, but its lack of substance reeks of a self-indulgence that is rare even in fan fiction.

So why did I just revisit the journey? Because that’s what Spider-Man: No Way Home wants me to do! It even alludes to the film I left out, the only film based on Marvel Comics to win a Best Picture Academy Award, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but we’ll come to that one later. The weight of the entire emotional journey of 19 years is unnecessarily taken on its shoulders by the latest MCU film, and as expected, it can’t carry it. Firstly, just to get this out of the way, Uncle Ben from the original trilogy owns that line, and you either quote it, or don’t say it, but making Aunt May say a modified version of the great responsibility line, is extremely tacky, especially once you realize they’re trying to recreate the original scene by making her die right after. Uncle Ben has died in both of the previous movies' series, and in both, an expected response was elicited from the characters, but Tom’s Spider-Man isn’t sure what to feel! Yes, he’s always had issues with articulation as seen in the adorable conversation with Zendaya’s Michelle on the bridge, but he’s at least had a fleshed-out personality. Here, he seems to need to unravel but is somehow not allowed to. You can feel a certain tension in his character development, in the sense that its lack is hampering his accessibility. He’s angry, but absolutely reserved about it, he goes from crying on a rooftop to geeking out with his counterparts from the previous installments as if we can just shelf the tragedy for the moment to give the audience the fun it’s been waiting for, and altogether, his characterization is simply messy. Even the sacrifice at the end seems to come from a need from the storytellers to have him lose everything, to bring him up to speed with the tragic atmosphere from the previous films, and though it does succeed in crushing the soul, it doesn’t offer enough explanation. Whenever Dr. Strange is involved, only unbelievably ruinous consequences are on the table, it seems, that are supposed to be accepted because magic is an unknown realm we shouldn’t try to comprehend beyond the minimum information that’s offered.

The introduction of every Spider-Man villain ever, is an unnecessary move to appease the fans. Of course, we want our buddy cop moment of Garfield and Maguire and Holland all fighting Green Goblin, Doc Oc, Lizard, Electro, and Sandman, but does that really justify doing it? The Spider-Men themselves had messy arcs but that reflects on their essence of being a very common person, representing the regular making-do, despite having superpowers, and yet they did have some conclusion. Letting Andrew's Peter catch Zendaya is an absolute joke, and no one even takes it as a sincere attempt at closure, so it's again a crowd-pleasing tactic, which this movie doesn't seem to lack. The same argument about conclusions goes for the supervillains as well. All of them had properly concluded stories, whether the conclusions felt organic or not. And reviving the old lore, to make Spider-Man into his Mother Theresa version we all knew was lurking under the surface, couldn’t have been done worse. There’s no emotional journey for the characters. And that’s primarily because they aren’t at junctures, they’re literally reappearing after their stories have ended. None of them seem to need to be cured, and even after they are, there’s no honest reconciliation, and it’s just an end to another Avengers: Endgame-scale affair. This is where Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse comes into play. There are 6 versions of Spider-Man in that film, a black kid, a white man, a young woman, a little girl from the future, a black and white Nic Cage voiceover, and a pig. Why does this ragtag team make a more compelling case? Simple. They’re all at transition points or stuck, and their role in the life of Miles Morales actually reflects on themselves and helps them grow. It’s an emotional journey on top of a cosmic scale plot. In fact, despite being decidedly more lighthearted than Sony’s other Spider-Man ventures, the animated feature actually justified making such a big deal about the characters, and that’s the kind of satisfaction you’d hope for, from Spider-Man: No Way Home. Unfortunately, the latter is only a bunch of dream-come-true moments with barely anything real to say about the world or about the characters. It’s just there as 'a love-letter to the fans', to quote Daleyna’s review I cited earlier.

Author: Nathanael Molnár, originally published [4/26/2020]

It was Friday, April 26th, 2019. I was sitting in the AMC Dolby Theater, my friends on either side of me. Everyone in the theater was buzzing, excited. A couple of people walked in with light-up arc reactors pinned to their chests. The lights came down, and the iconic Marvel Studios theme blasted through the theater. The audience cheered; everyone was giddy and ready for what we had all been patiently waiting for since May 2nd, 2008. Avengers: Endgame, the fulfillment of the promise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s strange to think that Endgame came out a full year ago. I’ve been a fan of the MCU from the very beginning. As a life-long comic book fan, following the unfolding and the blossoming of this entire cinematic universe has been truly magical. It’s something that I’m still surprised we get to see and enjoy. I believe the MCU redefined the comic book movie genre. Comic book movies existed before the MCU and were successful before it. However, under the meticulous leadership of Kevin Feige, the MCU gave us something radically different (current list of all MCU films 2021).

It brought to life the long-form storytelling of comic books, the character arcs that span years, and the meshing of different worlds. In the medium of film, the MCU captured the feeling of reading comic books spanning decades, following characters in their own stories, and then following them into their larger team-ups. Sure, there were the X-Men movies that revitalized the genre when Batman & Robin had essentially killed it. Spider-Man brought whimsy back into the genre, and Batman Begins established realism. It was the MCU that brought consistent continuity, long-form story arcs, and a balance of bombastic spectacle action and genuine character growth and development.

As successful as the MCU became, as popular as The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy or Black Panther became, the entirety of this 22 movie experiment hinged on its conclusion. If the MCU didn’t deliver a satisfying conclusion to what this entire thing had been building towards, everyone would have walked away disappointed. Sure, we would still revere the individual films we loved, but the MCU as a whole would have far less significance if Endgame had dropped the ball. On April 26th, 2019, Endgame not only did not drop the ball, but it delivered for fans so much that it went on to become the highest grossing movie of all time!

Ant-Man is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics characters from the comic series of the same name. Two characters from the comics, Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Hank Pym, get their lead roles in this film. Other characters in the film are within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Ant-Man is about Hank Pym, a scientist who is the creator of the Ant-Man shrinking technology, and Scott Lang, the protagonist, who is infamous for his criminal record. Hank Pym is the creator of the special suit that allows Lang to shrink down to ant size and to control an army of ants.

The main protagonist, Scott Lang, is very interesting. In the beginning of Ant-Man, he turns to a life of crime and loses his wife Maggie after ending up in prison. After being released from jail, Lang is unable to hold down a job because of his criminal record. Despite these drawbacks, Lang breaks into a house during a burglary and finds an old motorcycle suit, unaware that the suit allows him to shrink down to ant size. After finding out that Hank Pym manipulated him into stealing the old motorcycle suit, Lang goes on the adventure of his lifetime. What the viewers find compelling about Lang's character is how he transforms from an unwanted criminal who lost his wife to a superhero who has the ability to control ants and to shrink down to ant size. Even more exciting is that Lang discovers he has more strength while wearing the suit despite his shrunken size.

Compared to other Marvel Comics films such as Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man stands out by showing the viewers a perspective from somebody shrunken down to the size of an insect.  The message of this film is that even heroes who are small in size can save the day. This is shown throughout many fighting scenes in the film when Lang goes through training to fight and control ants. A reference to this film in real life is how powerful ants can be despite their small size. Other heroes in the Marvel Comics films are usually shown to be big and strong. Ant-Man takes the viewers through a close-up lens of Lang wearing the suit and interacting with the ant colony. Several stunts Lang performs while wearing the suit are seen in close-up shots of him climbing on top of objects while shrunk.

Hank Pym's daughter, Hope van Dyne, is a supporting character who makes her debut appearance in this film. Compared to other female leads, Hope stands out as a supporting heroine to Lang, defying the gender stereotypes portrayed in other Marvel Comics films. Other Marvel Comics films depict men as stronger than women and show women as the "damsels-in-distress". Hope's mother, Janet, died prior to the film's introduction, which is later revealed that Janet shrank herself and became trapped in the subatomic Quantum Realm during a mission with S.H.I.E.L.D. as the Wasp. Since her mother's death, Hope has a strained relationship with Hank Pym. Throughout the film, Hope is seen as a girl with a tough attitude.

There are so many interwoven stories, themes, character arcs, timelines, and dimensions! In order to keep track of the MCU films and figure out what to watch when, here’s a list of those that have come out – 29 as of now — as well as what's coming up in the next few years. Included are related articles and Incluvie score (and a fun 1.5 minute TikTok).

First is the release order of the MCU films. This is the way Marvel intended the audience to take in the characters and story arcs. After the release list is Incluvie’s own note and style on how to watch!

1. Iron Man (2008)

2. The Incredible Hulk (2008)