Marvel Month - Mini Review - Ant-man

Being the first movie to follow up an Avengers movie is a big deal, Iron Man 3 rode the Avengers Wave and grossed over $1bn, despite not being as big a critical hit as a lot of previous movies. Ant-man wasn’t as big a hit, but it was another Marvel gamble. With $142m in its budget, it managed to gross $512m, whilst on the lower end of Marvel movies, it was enough to be considered a success and green-light a sequel. Critically, it’s well liked with an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

So why am I not exactly excited on this one… well, let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Guardians of the Galaxy

Next up in Marvel Month was one of Marvel’s biggest risks, Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy featured 5 relatively unknown characters forming a team in a single movie without any movies building up to it like the Avengers has, it also features 2 prominently CGI characters in an environment that lent itself to the use of a lot of CGI backgrounds, so doing it on the cheap would be difficult at best, the budget was as close as makes no difference $200m. They put less money into Spider-man Homecoming or any of the first Avengers solo movies.

But the gamble paid with a movie rated 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and making over $750m at the box office. But that was Summer 2014, how does it hold up 3 years later? Here are my thoughts

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

May I introduce the 2 best directors in the MCU right now: The Russo Brothers

And next up is their debut in the MCU. Captain America: Winter Soldier

Released in early 2014, Captain America: Winter Soldier was very successful, earning $700m on the $177m budget and an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Does it still work? Here are my thoughts:

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor: The Dark World

Ah, we return with another Thor movie and it’s the worst rated movie of all of them. By the time of this review coming out Thor: Ragnarok would be in cinemas, given the trailers it looks to be quite a substantial change in direction for it with more of a Guardians of the Galaxy-eque feel, and yes, we’ll get to those movies. And also, a notable absence of Jane Foster and her cronies and we’ll definitely be getting to that. Still, the movie was financially successful enough that a sequel was green-lit and ultimately the reviews aren’t that bad. It’s still better rated than Batman v Superman… I’m just rambling, let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - The Avengers/Avengers Assemble

Next up in Marvel Month, it’s Time for Avengers assemble

I’ve already done a review of that, and a lot of my complaints still stand is it goes into *sigh* its 4^th season, that said I have seen improvements. But this time we’re looking at the other Avengers Assemble

Known as The Avengers in the US, the title was changed to not be mistaken for the British The Avengers, the Nostalgia Critic did his review on that and I have no unique perspective to cover it as I’ve never seen it, it’s a little before my time.

But Avengers Assemble was a massive gamble for Marvel, with a hefty $220m budget, a large cast and the pressure of being that movie everything was all building up to, this movie blew everyone away, meeting their expectations and of course, for Disney, who had recently acquired Marvel, made over $1bn at the box office, $1.5bn to be more precise. This is also the first Marvel movie I ever watched, at the cinema with my soon-to-be uni housemates.

But 2012 was a way away, does it still hold up, let’s take a closer look.

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 episodes 7-9 review - Kindred/Crawler Commanders/Rebel Assault

Marvel Month - Mini Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America is my favourite Marvel character, there, I said it, happy? I suppose this is mostly down to Brian Bloom in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes who gave the character exactly what he needed, to say cheesy lines, but in a way that is inspiring. Chris Evans also helped with that appeal. I will say that his portrayal of the Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 movies is cringe-worthy at best, but I’d chock that down to the writer.

So, how does his first movie hold up? Let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor

Well, it’s time for another movie that isn’t an Iron Man one, and who better than the God of Thunder himself, Thor. Released in 2011 this movie earned nearly $450m on a $150m budget and has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes But let’s just dive straight in shall we?

After a series of rash decisions lead Thor to reigniting a war with the frost giants, Thor is banished to Midgard, Earth, to relearn what it is to be worthy. But with S.H.I.E.L.D. laying claim to his hammer and Loki making claim to the throne of Asgard, it will not be easy for Thor.

Marvel Month - Mini Review: Iron Man 2

Well, Iron Man 1 was a success, so a sequel was inevitable. Iron Man 2 came out in 2010 to critical acclaim at the time, however looking back on it people’s tastes seem to have soured towards it. Still it made $623m on a $200m budget so it was successful enough for Marvel as they continued to build momentum towards the Avengers. Here’s how I see it

Marvel Month - Mini review: The Incredible Hulk

So, the Hulk. A classic Jekyll and Hyde story. You’d think there’s potential for great movies with that concept but with Aang Lee’s introspective but ultimately incredibly boring adaptation was a colossal failure and the less said about the Incredible Bulk the better. But neither of those are part of the Marvel cinematic universe, this is, despite the Hulk being played by Edward Norton in this movie and Mark Ruffalo in the others.

This movie was very much overshadowed by Iron Man, making only $260m on its $150m budget but that was enough and met Marvel’s expectations. Critics marked this with a 67% Rotten Tomatoes rating, only one film in the entire MCU has a lower rating than that, but we’ll get to that in due course, for now, here’s what I think.

Marvel Month - Mini Review: Iron Man

So, it’s been a while since I did a theme month in November, but here’s one

It’s Marvel Month

So, for this month I’ll be covering all the Marvel movies in the MCU that I haven’t already covered. Iron Man 3, Age of Ultron and Civil War have already been done, so I’m not doing them again. I also won’t be doing Spider-man Homecoming since that’s still a Sony product, just in the MCU (plus I don’t have any space for it) Logan and Deadpool I’ll try and cover sometime next year. Also, because since most Marvel movies haven’t been critically slammed and I don’t dislike them personally, this will be entirely mini reviews.

So, with that said, let’s get to where it all started with Iron Man.

2008 was when Marvel struck it lucky with the beginning of their cinematic universe, with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes it remains one of their most critically acclaimed movies but not their most successful, it made $585m on a $140m budget, which was a good enough starting brick for the towering behemoth the Marvel Cinematic Universe would come to be. Does it hold up nearly 10 years later? Let’s take a look. And spoilers for a 9-year old movie will follow

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 episodes 5-6 review - The Occupation/Flight of the Defender

In a slight change of schedule, we're doing Rebels now, and starting Marvel Month on Sunday, there will be no rebels review next week, just 3 Marvel Month reviews