MCU completism

I wasn't always that into the MCU. I used to greet new releases with forehead slaps, sometimes. How many of these movies did we need?

As the Captain America movies kept getting better and better, though, I kept getting more and more interested, and now I'm fully on board. Although I think plenty of the earlier movies are duds, there's only been one movie released in the past four years that I haven't liked, which was 2016's Doctor Strange. Heck, even that one I'd probably like a lot better now that I've drunk the Marvel-flavored Kool Aid, and now that I enjoyed the character in both Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War.

In fact, I'm turning into such an MCU nerd that I watched Infinity War again on Friday night. It's my advanced preparation for the release of Avengers: Endgame at the end of this month. I'm not one of those people who is re-watching all the previous movies, but re-watching this one seemed appropriate.

Besides, you can't "re-watch" all the movies in a series if you haven't watched them all once.

That's right, lo these six years since its release, Iron Man 3 had remained unwatched by me. In looking back at a post I wrote on the day of its release, I noticed I finished with the following comment about it: "I'm not saying I might wait until DVD, but ... I might wait until DVD."

Boy did I ever. Actually, I waited for an Australian streaming service called Stan, which I hadn't even heard of back in 2013. In fact, I was still about three months away from even moving to Australia.

It wasn't unusual for me to "wait for DVD" on an MCU movie back then. I didn't see either of the Marvel 2013 releases in the theater, though I did catch up with Thor: The Dark World in 2017 in preparation for the release of Ragnarok. I was 2-for-2 in 2014 (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy), but again I skipped Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015 until the end of my ranking season, in January the following year.

Since then I've been loyal to Marvel, though I can't really say I've been loyal with my wallet, as all of those movies have been available to me for free through my critics card. Still, a viewer is a viewer, and though I only actually reviewed one of those films (Ant-Man and the Wasp), I reviewed it very favorably, helping spread the Marvel love.

So the night after I watched Infinity War the second time, I decided I'd erase my last MCU blind spot. I'm 21-for-21 at long last, just in time for #22 to come out.

I sort of liked Iron Man 3. Again, this could be a bias based on my newfound appreciation for this cinematic behemoth on the whole, but I thought it was enjoyable. It's definitely an eccentric movie, spending a significant amount of its time in winter in Tennessee, of all places. Add Shane Black to the list of Marvel directors who were, indeed, able to put their own stamp on one of the MCU movies. There's a lot of Black banter in there, and though not all of it works, it does give the movie a bit of distinctiveness.

I also loved the twist with this film's villain, Ben Kingsley's The Mandarin. I won't spoil the twist in case you haven't seen it. I mean, there must be someone out there other than me who hadn't seen it.

And now to go watch Tony Stark's farewell at the end of this month. I'm not the kind of MCU nerd who reads up on rumors, but I think pretty much everyone knows that Robert Downey Jr. is leaving the MCU, along with Chris Evans (and Chris Hemsworth?). Anyway, some of these guys are going to die, and that's going to be a bit sad.

And now I can officially say I was with them every step of the way.