Saturday, April 13, 2019

We're in the Endgame, now!

I'm not sure if you've heard, but there's a little movie coming out in a couple of weeks that should be pretty fun. 
It's called Avengers: Endgame
I've been doing a #CountdownToAvengersEndgame, watching all the MCU movies in chronological order, along with a few other bits and pieces (the One Shots, the Prelude comics, and even a few episodes of the TV shows, including finally finishing Agent Carter).
Well, it turns out that the Russo Brothers HAVE COPIED MY IDEA!! That's right, the directors of some of my favourite MCU movies have obviously been reading my Twitter feed, and blatantly ripped me off! 
Well, almost blatantly. They've been using the hashtag #ENDGAMECOUNTDOWN instead (nice try, Russo Brothers!) and also using the "T-minus" countdown method (actually, that's pretty good...)
As I write this, they're up to Thor: The Dark World. So it's actually time for us to put aside our differences, as I need to help them out. They are dangerously close to making a terrible decision here, and recommending (their own great movie) Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the next film to watch. Which it clearly is not, as this clever guy explains:

And to help the REST of you out, and because everyone loves it when I put things in order, I present below the ONE TRUE VIEWING ORDER for the MCU movies.
Note: I haven't included the comics and TV shows (yet...), but I have included the One-Shots, 'coz they're cool.  The links are to American Amazon, but at this late stage, you might want to try a streaming option - Amazon can help you there, obviously, but in Australia, I think Stan (the streaming service, not the Lee) currently has ALL of the MCU movies (but not sure about the One-Shots and other bits and pieces)). 

THE ONE TRUE VIEWING ORDER
Captain America: The First Avenger – I know that the start and ending are in the modern day, but it works best here, as The First Avenger Movie*! 
Agent Carter (One Shot, on Iron Man 3 blu-ray) 
Captain Marvel – Great introduction to Nick Fury and Phil Coulson (also brings back the Tesseract post-Captain America). 
Hulk – Yep, the Ang Lee one - fight me! (Interestingly, the Executive Producers include Stan Lee and Kevin Feige)! 
Iron Man – The MCU proper begins! 
The Incredible Hulk 
The Consultant (One Shot, on Thor blu-ray) 
Iron Man 2 (ends with Coulson finding Thor’s hammer) 
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer (One Shot, on Captain America: The First Avenger blu-ray) 
Thor – ending leads directly into the beginning of The Avengers
The Avengers 
Item 47 (One Shot, on The Avengers blu-ray). 
Iron Man 3 
All Hail the King (One Shot, on Thor: The Dark World blu-ray) 
Thor: The Dark World – post-credit scene with the Collector and Asgardians leads directly to Guardians, even though Winter Soldier was released next. 
Guardians of the Galaxy 
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – post-credit scene leads straight into Avengers: Age of Ultron 
Avengers: Age of Ultron – post-credit scene shows Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet... 
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Apparently this takes place only a few months after the first Guardians (so some people put it straight after), but I think it’s good to break up the two movies, and this is as good a place as any to put it, especially with the Thanos hint at the end of Ultron (and despite Stan Lee's post-Civil War comment to the Watchers...)
Ant-man (I also watch the WHIH Newsfront specials beforehand, on the blu-ray but also can be found online...)
Captain America: Civil War 
Spider-man: Homecoming – I know that the main events are a few months after Civil War, but since it begins with a recap of Civil War from Spidey’s perspective (plus it flashes back to immediately after Avengers, four years beforehand), I reckon it’s best here. You should, too!
Black Panther 
Ant-Man and the Wasp – Main story is 2 years after Civil War. Note: Ignore both post-credit sequences for now! 
Doctor Strange – Takes place over quite a while (a few years?), and the Avengers building can be seen in the New York skyline, but leads directly into Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarok – ending leads directly into Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War 
Ant-Man and the Wasp – Watch both post-credit scenes here! 
Aaaand then finally...Avengers: Endgame!

Happy viewing, y'all! 
See you in a couple of weeks!

* If you want to watch some movies before Captain America – how about the first three Indiana Jones movies? Hear me out!! In Captain America, Schmidt makes a snide remark about Hitler digging for relics in the desert … a la Raiders! The first three Indy movies take place in 1935, 1936 and 1938, and Captain America then kicks off in 1942 (even Crystal Skull still works in this universe…if you want… Like, really want…) WATCH MORE MOVIES!!!

1 comment:

  1. Quick update: I swapped Doctor Strange and Ant-Man and the Wasp (AMatW should be 2 years after Civil War, and there's no need to have Doctor Strange right before Thor: Ragnarok - gives Mister Doctor more time to bone up on his new Sanctorum, too). Also - Endgame makes it clear that the post-credits of Captain Marvel happen in between Infinity War and Endgame.
    Otherwise, I nailed it. So, so nailed it.
    Sorry Russo Brothers - better luck next time.

    ReplyDelete