Yesterday I ranked Marvel movies #18-21. Today I’m back to do 15 through 17. Let’s jump right into it:

17. Iron Man 3

There is one thing I love about Iron Man 3: Tony’s PTSD. This is what, in my opinion, separates the MCU from your standard comic book movies. It’s not just his PTSD – it’s the fact that story arcs can develop across movies. Actions in one movie can have consequences in another. The events that took place during the first Avengers movie resulted in Tony’s PTSD.

Aside from that, this movie kinda stunk. The Mandarin was fake. The bad guys are like human furnaces. Pepper Potts turns into a human furnace. It’s not great.

 

16. Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel was just okay. I think Brie Larson is a fantastic actress but I didn’t think she was a great Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel. She was a little too cold throughout the movie. Even after she remembers more of her backstory, she never really warms up.

I also don’t think the Skrulls look great. Just think about how Thanos looked in Infinity War and then look at a Skrull again.

Shout out to the milkshake.

Few other quick notes:

• I thought the action was kind of poor – especially the showdown on the space station
• The movie focused on Carol Danvers backstory and trying to piece it together but glossed over significant plot points like  the war between the Krees and the Skrulls, that intelligent thing that governs the Krees, the relationship between Jude Law and Brie Larson.
• Loved the throwback 90s themes, including the music. Although I did think they paced the music in an odd way. They’d play a couple songs pretty close together and then have really long stretches without a song.
• The Samuel L. de-aging CGI was pretty awesome!
• I love Goose.

15. Iron Man 2

This movie gets a ton of hate, some of which is justified, but I still find it entertaining on the whole. 

Whiplash catches a lot of the flak but I find him to be one of the more compelling villains in the early MCU. Obviously he doesn’t hold a candle to the more recent slate of bad guys but he at least had a backstory that provided motivation for his actions. He also didn’t fall into the classic villain trap of trying to take over the world. He was just an engineer who was trying to get revenge against a rival family. It’s simple. 

We also get introduced to Natasha Romonov A.K.A. Black Widow. To be honest, I remember watching this for the first time and not liking her in this role. As the MCU has progressed, however, she’s essentially come to define the character and, at this point, it’s hard to picture anyone else playing Black Widow.

Most important of all, though, we get Justin Hammer.

Hell yeah. I love Sam Rockwell.