So I met with some friends the other day over lunch to answer some questions about Captain Marvel, from the perspective of someone who’s watched all the MCU movies and is a huge comic book geek.
And I discovered that they had never watched an MCU movie before watching Captain Marvel. Which provide an interesting perspective, to be sure, on how self-contained a story it was (and wasn’t).
Thing is, they are now looking forward to Avengers: Endgame, and want to know what they actually have to watch before that happened. Which intrigues me, because while Captain Marvel was kind of a stand-alone film, Avengers: Endgame is going to be a lot more difficult to understand without some sort of MCU knowledge. It’s literally like coming into the final chapter of a story and starting with “Um, who’s that guy dressed up as a flag?”
I cannot realistically suggest that they watch all the previous MCU movies, and I don’t even think it’s necessary (though, certainly, it would be fun to do). So if I trim down the list, how much do I trim it down?
So here’s my answer, bounced off the Internet to see how people recoil. This is a list of all the MCU films, in chronological order. The letter grades are (definitely) not about quality, but about essentiality to the story, to figure out what’s what and who’s who in Avengers: Endgame. I.e., if you have only a minimal amount of time and opportunity to watch these, go for (in chronological order) just the A films (4 films). If you have more time to devote, go for the B films, too (3 more) . Even more binge-watching? Do all the C films as well (7 more). Etc.
- B Iron Man
- F Incredible Hulk
- F Iron Man 2
- C Thor
- C Captain America: The First Avenger
- A Avengers
- F Iron Man 3
- F Thor: Dark World
- C Guardians of the Galaxy
- C Captain America: Winter Soldier
- D Avengers: Age of Ultron
- D Ant-Man
- A Captain America: Civil War
- C Doctor Strange
- F Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
- C Spider-Man: Homecoming
- A Thor: Ragnarok
- B Black Panther
- A Avengers: Infinity War
- C Ant-Man and the Wasp
- B Captain Marvel
Thoughts?
I would agree with most of the list. I might say Captain America First Avenger get bumped up to a B just because it introduces the tesseract which is important throughout the other movies. I might also bump Guardians of the Galaxy to B as it is an infinity stone movie. Same reason for Doctor Strange moving to B. Avengers Age of Ultron to C only because it heavily impacts Captain America Civil War. The only reason I wouldn’t suggest Thor Ragnarok be a B is because it leads directly into Avengers Infinity War. Maybe bump Black Panther to C as it doesn’t have too large an impact on later films. It only, in terms of plot, has relevance in Infinity War taking place in Wakanda. Overall I agree with the list and think it could give people an overarching view of the Marvel Universe.
Yeah, I was trying to keep the top tiers as short as possible (to make them practical), but your comments are all thoughtful ones.
GotG does get into the origins of the Infinity Stones, and that’s not for nothing. I might do that a B.
Dr S gets into them as well, but it’s a bit redundant in that way, save for the role Strange plays in “Infinity War”. Still, it’s not essential to understand “Endgame” I suspect.
Age of Ultron … hmmmm … actually, perhaps of more value in terms of the origin of the stone in Vision’s forehead. So … C.
Black Panther … I feel like Wakanda and its denizens are important to Infinity War and, I suspect, Endgame, to still warrant a B. Maybe a B-.
I’ve watched 5 on the list. Okay, I’ll admit it, I’ve failed the MCU crowd. But, I really liked Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact, I’ll watch it when it’s on TV. Why only a C? Was it because the characters were too much of wisenhiemers?
As the post said, the ranking was not about quality, but about how essential the movie was leading up to Avengers: Endgame. I would rate it (the first one, in particular) higher on enjoyability.