My Ranking of the Marvel Films

Here is my ranking of Marvel films that have been released over the last 15 years.  Remember this is just my personal opinion. I'm curious to see how others would rank these films. I didn't include anything from Fox or Sony. Bravo Disney for acquiring the rights to the X-Men and I guess The Fantastic Four.    

20. Hulk, 2003: I don't know if this can count? I only saw it on cable, once, and I don't think this is considered a part of the MCU, whereas Edward Norton's version is.

19. Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011:  This was a snooze fest. I've watched it only twice, the first time, not really watching but more along the lines of napping. We did not see this in theaters, it was a rental at home. 

18. The Incredible Hulk, 2008: Better than the 2003 version, but I get annoyed at reboots. I can remember when and where I saw this film. My husband and I had just gotten married. We waited until the 4th of July holiday to watch it. 

17. Thor: The Dark World, 2013: This was bad, definitely worse than the original. It felt very rushed. 

16. Iron Man 3, 2013: I wish Iron Man's final solo outing could have been better. 

15. Thor, 2011: Thor's first outing was really bad, sorry Kenneth Branagh, nice try though. There were some funny parts to it, but I just didn't care for the character, The God of Thunder with long hair and a hammer. He was nice to look at though.

14. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017: I thought it was ok, not a favorite, but not bad enough to be at the bottom. Mantis was a great addition. The scenes with Drax and Mantis are the best. 

13. Iron Man 2, 2010: Just ok.

12. Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015: I felt it was just another rushed film and I was a little lost. Those damn infinity stones!!

11. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2014: This was a much better movie!

10. Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017: I hope Marvel gets to keep the rights for this film. Sony did a horrible job with the reboot and should have left the films alone. He should be called Spider-Boy, not Spider-Man.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy, 2014: Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista are really funny, the end. 

8. Iron Man, 2008: The movie that started it all.  

7. The Avengers, 2012: I really enjoyed this movie, but there are so many more that I love. It was a fun.

6. Ant-Man, 2015: I love Paul Rudd. I really thought the movie was going to be stupid, but I was wrong. It was good. 

5. The Avengers: Infinity War, 2018: I can't wait to see how this ends and bravo for bringing Nick Fury back! P.S. I saw him at LAX on my way to Chicago. I forbade my husband from yelling something out to him. We had to keep our cool. 

4. Doctor Strange, 2016: Come on guys, I'm waiting patiently for a sequel. I LOVED the special effects!! 

3. Black Panther, 2018: I think the hype ruined it for me. Sorry, as much as I LOVE Chadwick Boseman, and I think Black Panther is awesome, I didn't love the movie. 

2. Captain America: Civil War, 2016: I loved this movie!! It was like The Avengers: Infinity War Jr. This was the best of the three and one of my favorite Marvel films! Captain America Civil War

1. Thor: Ragnarok, 2017: This is still my favorite Marvel movie!! I wrote a review a few months back, so I won't say anything more here. Thor Ragnarok

So here is my ranking of the MCU. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next!





  

Avengers: Infinity War

I love Thor, I love Black Panther, I love Captain America, I love The Avengers. For years now, we have been awaiting the arrival of the "big bad" Thanos. It's no secret that he is the baddie in The Avengers: Infinity War. With that being said, this review comes to you with spoilers. If you haven't yet seen Infinity War and you don't want to be spoiled, turn back now. You've been warned.

At the end of Thor Ragnarok, doesn't Thor meet up with the Guardians of the Galaxy? It was the last "end credit" scene, I mean, am I wrong about that? So here's my idea of a plot hole.  Infinity Wars opens up with Thor and Loki being attacked by Thanos. He wants the infinity stone in the Tesseract. He kills most of the inhabitants of Asgard who were saved in Ragnarok. Loki gets killed again. I hope that this time he stays that way, but more on that later. Thor is flying in space (why does Disney continue to this??  It's lame) and lands on the Guardians spaceship. There is a hilarious exchange between, Thor and the Guardians. Chris and Chris nail it. What a great comedic duo. Drax and Mantis are amazing! But again, why are Thor and the Guardians being reintroduced? Someone please explain this to me, seriously.

The setting takes place in various locations, with various members of Team Avengers working together to try and stop Thanos from collecting all of the Infinity Stones. The purpose to have all the stones is to rid the universe (not just the world) of half the population, so that those who do make the cut, can live happy lives without the fear of starvation and poverty. He succeeds in collecting all six infinity stones, even the Soul stone which is being watched over by Red Skull from Captain America. In order to do this he must trade a soul for a soul, so he kills the only thing he ever loved, his "daughter" Gamora. This annoys me, but more on that later.  Apparently, Thanos is a kidnapper who abducts Gamora from her home planet, after he nearly destroys it.

In the end Thanos, with the snap of his finger, kills almost everyone in the universe, except for all of the ORIGINAL AVENGERS, oh and Rocket.  So, we are left with: Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, and Bruce Banner. All of the characters who only have one movie left in their Marvel contracts, which means, something will happen and everyone will be resurrected again, a la Justice League's Superman.

Now this is where I have the problem. We know contractually the recently obliterated Avengers will be back. I think that Vision and Loki are truly dead. I hope they are, not because I didn't like their characters, but because we need to have some loss.  They didn't turn to dust like the others. Vision's body was still intact. Loki, we just didn't see again. Thor even states, "He's been dead before." Gamora we know is already coming back. She'll be in Guardians 3. I'm really over the "resurrection" story-line. It's been played out, it doesn't work.

Overall, the movie was wildly entertaining. It kept my attention from start to finish. When Captain America and Thor showed up to the fight, the audience went wild. My husband took a nap, but that's typical. Ragnarok is still my favorite film in the MCU. I definitely liked this movie better than Black Panther, and would recommend it if you're already a fan and have seen the previous films. Newbies would be lost. Articles I've read, stated how connected the Avengers were when they got together to fight, I would have to disagree. My dream is to see everyone working together. I would have LOVED to see an Iron Man and Captain America reconciliation, is that too much to ask? I wish I watched all of the previous films leading up to this one. That would have been helpful. I mean we're talking a ten year span of movies.

This movie only had one end credit scene. Nick Fury calls on Captain Marvel right before he turns to dust. So chances are, she'll be in the next one. Pay close attention to Chris Hemsworth's eyes. Rocket gives him a new eyeball, so no more patch. I was disappointed to not see Ant-Man. I love Paul Rudd so much! I'm thinking, he might be in round two.

Overall, Avengers Infinity War gets 4 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention that really irked me, why didn't they just cut off Thanos's arm when they had the chance??? 

Black Panther Review

****For some reason, the coloring is off on this blog. I tried to fix it the best I could. Sorry in advance. 

How can I come across in this review and not sound like a Debbie Downer? I had super high expectations for Black Panther and while my expectations weren't quite met, I still enjoyed the movie.

First off, the last Marvel outing, Thor Ragnarok, blew my mind. Every other Marvel film will now be set to that standard. It took Thor, three outings before they finally succeed in making a cool film. Even Kenneth Branagh couldn't get it right. 

Black Panther is such a multi-faceted character, he's a king and a superhero. He must protect the people of Wakanda, and yet also be a part of regular society. I loved his (Black Panther's) first outing in Captain America: Civil War. I love Chadwick Boseman! He's very nice too look at, especially on the cover of Rolling Stones Magazine. On that note, here's what I thought about the characters/actors.  

I've loved Chadwick Boseman since 42 and he was great in Marshall too. He is amazing as T'Challa. Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia is great too, but I couldn't help but hear the voice of Maz Canata (I wonder why?). My favorite character by far was Letitia Wright as T'Challa's sister, Shuri. She was funny and strong willed and kicked some butt on her own. I couldn't help but feel annoyed at Michael B. Jordan's, Erik Killmonger. I get that he's upset about being left behind, but what about his mother? She isn't mentioned except for once, when they say that his father, Sterling K. Brown (Randall from This Is Us, the BEST show on the planet) fell in love with an American. We don't know much about his life growing up. T'Challa had no idea that this man existed. Why must T'Challa pay for the sins of his father, who wasn't a bad guy to begin with. I don't clearly understand why T'Challa's dad didn't take Erik with him in the end anyway. This is the problem I had with the movie. The fact that Michael B. Jordan's character felt to entitled to a throne that didn't belong to him.  In the end there was no redemption in his character either, and that annoyed me. 

The action was just ok. There weren't too many on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. I thought those  very few moments, were what we were given in the promos/commercials for the movie. There were a few fight scenes, but nothing to wow me the way Captain America: Civil War did. My husband fell asleep in this movie and he didn't fall asleep when we watched Fifty Shades Freed. What does that tell me. This couldn't hold his interest.  He did say he wanted to see Black Panther again, probably to watch all that he missed when his eyes were closed and his snoring got too loud. 

The visual effects were great, except the spaceship in the sky. I didn't like that. I thought it was silly. Why would no one mention this fancy spaceship in the 80's or question why it was flying overhead? I love how Wakanda is so exotic. 

I'm not all too familiar with the Black Panther mythos. In fact, I'm not too familiar with much of the Marvel mythology, just what I've read and learned in the more recent years. I think that because I heard so many amazing things about this movie before I went to see it, my expectations were just too high. As I mentioned Thor earlier, I had low expectations for that movie. Thor and Thor: The Dark World weren't that great, then they released Ragnarok, which was a super fun ride. The opposite could be said about Iron Man. I thought the first in the trilogy far surpassed the two sequels. Anyway I digress (as per my usual). 

I liked the acting, that wasn't the problem. The storyline wasn't as great as I thought it could be. I  feel a bit burned out by the amount of Marvel/DC action films being released, and yet I feel the need to watch them all. 

I would give Black Panther 3.5 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies. 

On a side note someone I know asked me if this film was about the rise of the Black Panther movement of the sixties. I had no words.