There were only two ways people Chornologial & Release Order but now Mike has found a new way that he thinks you should try. The new order is watching them character by character. So all the Iron Man movies, Captain American, Thor, Spider-man and so on! Mike gives his spoiler-free review of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and his thoughts on it being the first MCU entry of Phase 5, the introduction of a new villain and how it compares to the other Ant-Man movies. In the Trailer Park, we dive into all the cameos and expectations set by the new trailer for DC’s The Flash.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mics Movie Podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike, and we are super hero
heavy today. I'm gonna give you the order how I
watched all thirty one Marvel movies by character order. I'll
explain exactly what that means in the movie review. I'll
keep it spoiler free when talking about a Man in
the Wasp, Quantum Mania, and in the Trailer Park we'll
(00:20):
talk about all the cameos in the flash trailer. So
thank you for being here. If you're listening on a Monday,
shout out to the Monday Morning Movie Crew. And now
my favorite thing to do every week, let's talk movies.
In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
(00:43):
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking audimtvite with
classes from the Nashville Podcast Networks, Movie mis Movie Podcast.
There are now thirty one Marvel movies out and there
are different ways that you can experience and watch all
these movies. This is actually a question I get a
(01:04):
lot for people diving into Marvel for the first time.
You want to know what is the best way to
watch them. I often recommend that you watch them in
chronological order, and that means just in the order they
came out, starting with Iron Man in two thousand and
eight and then going through every single year, just the
way they came out in theaters. I always felt that
was the most enjoyable. It made the most sense. There's
(01:26):
also the chronological way that I tried out, and I
wasn't really the biggest fan of I don't really have
to have everything happened in the order that it did
on the timeline. For me personally, I don't think that
enhanced the viewing experience. It just felt a little bit JANKI.
But I had this new idea occurred to me when
I wanted to start rewatching all of the Avengers movies,
(01:47):
and I started to think about the m c U
a little bit differently, and the way we watched them.
We consume them in the order they come out in
and they all kind of interconnect. But it's unlike how
you normally watch any other kind of movie. If you
were going to watch a trilogy, you would watch part one,
Part two, in part three, and that would give you
the overall scope on the story, the entire significance of
(02:09):
that character on how their story progresses, how each movie
embodies of the character, and you form a relationship with
that character over those movies, and that's how you watch
them one, two, three. But I had never heard of
anybody watching the Marvel movies like that, so I decided
to do it for myself. And here is the order
that I watched them in, and I'll give you my
(02:29):
experience doing it this way. I really liked it. I
think it actually works really well, and I think the
concern with that is some things won't make sense you
haven't seen some things later. But I feel like for
the most part, after taking this on, you can fill
in the gaps with your mind, and the ones that
do it the best they keep that storyline continue through
(02:50):
parts one, two, three, and sometimes four that as long
as you watch all these movies together, they actually make sense.
So that is really what I wanted to learn, and
this experiment do the work in this sequential order. So
this is the order I watched them in, by character
or franchise, however you want to put it. I started
with the Avengers movie, so from twelve I did Avengers one,
(03:10):
first age of Old Tron from Avengers, Infinity War from
and then Endgame in twenty nineteen. Why I decided to
do it this way is because I felt like this
is the big overarching story that we follow along to.
It's what all the other movies built up too. And
I think one of the most important things is that
a lot of the other m CU movies reference New York.
(03:33):
It's a constant thing throughout the entire m c U,
especially early on in the first three phases, everything kind
of goes back to New York. So I think you
need to experience that right off the bat Avengers works
without seeing any Iron Man, Captain America or Thor which
came out before this, and then as a whole, the
Avengers movies just carry that thread that keeps the entire
(03:54):
EMCU together. So I just feel like these are the
best ones to start with. They are the best of
the best of all these movies. So it actually really
works to start with these movies first. It also kicks
you off on a really big high note and makes
you excited to learn all about all these other individual
characters and dive into their individual movies. You might not
(04:14):
know every single reference, but it would be no different
than when you watch the TV show they introduced characters
and then later on in the season you learned the
backstory on that character through flashbacks. So I say start
with Avengers, Avengers, Age of Old Tron, Infinity War, and
then Endgame. I think all these Avengers movies still really
hold up. Rewatching this, I reminded myself how Age of
(04:37):
Old Tron got a lot of bad reviews when it
first came out in and I almost appreciate that movie
a lot more now than I did then. It has
a really great opening sequence that I felt showcase what
the m CU was becoming, how they were really becoming
this juggernaut in with all these movies. So it is
the weakest of the four in that group, but a
really strong m c U movie. After that, move on
(05:00):
to the three iron Man movies. So iron Man from
two thousand and eight, iron Man from and then iron
Man three from iron Man is a classic. I almost
forgot how much that first movie in particular was associated
with war really as a reoccurring themes throughout the entire
Iron Man movies, given that Tony Stark started out building
(05:23):
weapons for the military and him being taken hostage in
that movie. I felt like iron Man was very much
a reflection of America in the two thousands, so it
almost set like a darker, more warlike tone early on
that I didn't really pick up on when these movies
first came out because I was just like, this is
a superhero movie. This is amazing. But looking back on that,
(05:45):
I felt like, that's a very bold thing to make
a movie about, especially when it comes to superheroes. Iron Man, too,
I felt was a little bit forgettable. I had to
be reminded as I watched that movie, like, oh yeah,
Mickey Rourke is in this movie. So in my head,
I always thought that iron Man two was better than
iron Man three. But I do have a new found
respect for iron Man three, much like I did Age
(06:06):
of Old Tron. Iron Man three is a really great
character study on Tony Start as he is dealing with
this anxiety and this PTSD after the events that have
folded in Avengers in New York. So now I also
feel like that one, that's a pretty bold thing to
make an iron Man movie about. I know that overall
the movie didn't really resonate with audiences as much as
(06:26):
iron Man one and two, but I would now put
that in my number two slot. When it comes to
iron Man movies, I'm only wish that at some point
would have got an iron Man four because I didn't
really feel like that one completely closed out Tony Stark story.
So overall, iron Man one, two, and three very strong
when it comes to the progression of his character. But
(06:47):
I think to really nail it and bring this entire
thing home for me, we needed an iron Man for
give Robert Downey Jr. Those millions of dollars that he
wants to return in the Avengers movies. And I will
do a full recap of this list at the very end,
and I'll also put this in the podcast notes so
you don't have to write this down as I'm doing
this episode. I just wanted to go through all these
and share these with you. So after iron Man, I
(07:08):
moved on to the Captain America movies. And the way
I did this I started just watching and throwing on
these movies at night when I was going to sleep,
So it did take me a while. This was probably
at least a three or four months endeavor because I
was just watching them as a part of my nighttime
routine and in the mix of all the other things
I watched for this podcast. So then I moved on
to the Captain American movie. So the First Avenger in eleven,
(07:32):
the Winter Soldier in and then Civil War in twenty sixteen,
so we have three Captain America movies. And I always
viewed Captain America as like, if you told me he
was your favorite Avenger, I would think a little bit
less of you. I always thought he was kind of
a boring character to do solo movies on. I was
never the biggest fan of them, and revisiting the movies
(07:54):
this way, I still felt like the First Adventure had
a bit of a slow start, but I started to
realize a little bit more why everybody had a really
great view on Chris Evans as Captain America. And it's
a pretty good origin story. It's the start of him
saying I could do this all day. It's also a
great history lesson on how Marvel Comics had a lot
(08:17):
to do again with war, this one focusing on World
War Two. The first cover of a Captain America comic
book was him punching Hitler in the face, and I
felt like that is also what this movie was associated
with a lot, being so focused in World War Two. Again,
looking at Marvel movies having so much emphasis on war,
even looking back at that first Captain America that came
(08:38):
out in nineteen forty one, I wish I could find
me a copy of Captain America's comic number one. It
also made me see the progression of Steve Rogers uniform
as Captain America between all the movies, going from having
that classic Captain America look from the comic books back
in the forties and then moving on to his look
in Winter Soldier, which I realized there was something weird
(09:00):
going on with Chris Evans hair in this movie, but
I love the development between him and Falcon's relationship in
this movie, the birth of On Your Left. So I
definitely think that Winter Soldier was a lot better than
I remember it being, and it having one of the
best Marvel endings out of the entire m c U.
And then when you get to Captain America Civil War,
(09:22):
this is the one that feels a little bit out
of place to me. I know, it's still focused on
Steve Rogers and him wanting to do the good thing.
That is what he's all about, is doing the moral
good thing. He goes against Tony Stark and that's why
they are fighting in this movie. So it is a
reflection on his character in that aspect, but I don't
really feel like it matches along with his entire character
(09:44):
arc from the First Avenger to the Winter Soldier. It
just feels like it's a compilation of all the other
superheroes as well, and Captain America is just they're leading
one side. So to me, it just feels like what
the poster looks like, half Iron Man movie, half Captain
America movie, but overall still a really great trilogy. After that,
(10:04):
I moved on to the Thorn movies, mainly because there
are four of them, So Thor from eleven, Thor the
Dark World in Thor Ragnarok, in and Thor Love and
Thunder two. How I feel about watching him this way
about the character of Thor is they never really got
him right. He has been kind of different in all
(10:26):
of these movies. Chris Evans really kind of came into
the Thor character through the Avengers movies, and I think
he had the best embodiment of what Thor is in
Thor Ragnarok. I think the first Thor was a great
introduction of the character, but it didn't really make me
love him yet. And then in the Dark World, which
was a little bit convoluted and pretty forgettable in the
(10:49):
timeline of Thor movies, that one really took his character
down a little bit. But then he had such a
big moment with him and Ragnarok and it being fun.
You have the incredible Hupe there. The movie visually was
a lot more stunning and had this real recognizable look
to it, and it tried to carry over into Thor
Love and Thunder, which I feel like that movie hasn't
(11:10):
really aged the best, and it only came out last year.
I just feel like, as a whole, the Thor character
just hasn't really been one thing. And maybe that's okay,
but when it comes to studying the Thor movies like this,
I feel like it gets kind of a low score
as far as being a good part one to four
part series. If only the Thor movies existed, I'm not
(11:34):
sure that I would love them. I love Thor in
the Avengers movies and showing up in Guardians of the Galaxy,
but when it comes to just his solo movies. For
as big of a character he is in all the
other movies, they're just not the strongest and you can
see that watching him this way. So after that, I
moved on to the Spider Man movies, also because you
have a trilogy to watch here, Spider Man, Homecoming from
(11:59):
Far from Home from twenty nineteen and No Way Home
in In. My main goal in watching the Spider Man
movies this way is I wanted to see how this
trilogy compared to the Toby maguire trilogy, which I feel
is the perfect character arc for Spider Man, his origin story,
going from that to him struggling between life as Spider
(12:22):
Man and life as Peter Parker, wanting to be with
Mary Jane and just be a normal person who can
be in love, and then realizing that he can't have that.
And even though the third one has a lot of
questionable moments, it's still a really good ending and ties
up the entire story of Peter Parker and Spider Man.
I wanted to see how that would transfer over into
(12:44):
watching the Tom Holland Spider Man movies, and it's a
lot different. I learned that by watching the movies this way,
because you have all the other things going on at
the same time. But I still think Tom Holland Spider
Man does establish his character and similar or to how
it did Toby McGuire. The key difference being that Homecoming
completely takes away the entire origin story, which was important
(13:08):
that they did that because you already had the Toby
McGuire version origin story, You had that Andrew Garfield origin story.
You didn't need to do that again. We've already seen it.
We get it. He gets bit by a Spider, he
becomes Spider Man. Take that out of the movie and
get right into it. So I love that they started
it this way, and you can see the development of
his character being really fresh and new. And Homecoming, which
(13:29):
took place in the timeline after Captain America Civil War,
it's him, am I an Avenger? Am I Not? Am
I just gonna be a friendly neighborhood Spider Man. So
it's him getting his first chance to prove that he
can be Spider Man, proving to Tony Stark that he's
not just some kid who kind of got lucky with
falling into these powers. And then you have Far from
(13:50):
Home where he starts to have that battle as well
of wanting to be Peter Parker, a normal kid just
going on a school trip, but also when they're things
is happening around him that Spider Man has to take
care of and be a part of. He asked us
bring into action, even though he ends up missing out
on a lot of things, which causes him to let
down MJ. But it is that struggle and it is there,
(14:12):
and he reaches a pretty low moment in Far From Home,
But where you really get the best encompassment of what
it means to be Spider Man is in no way home.
He suffers devastation, he suffers loss, he suffers anger. All
these emotions come running through him and it shows him
what he needs to do in the life he needs
(14:34):
to take on in order to be Spider Man. So
obviously I have a little bias here because Spider Man
is my favorite Marvel character, but I felt like this
was one of the best to watch this way because
it really gives you the grasp on the character, unlike
any of the other individual character stories did. So then
we get to a point where we only have about
(14:54):
two movies on each of the other characters and a
few more coming soon. So after Spider Man, I decided
to hop to the Doctor Strange movies mainly because of
how they have a little bit of parallels. So I
watched Doctor Strange from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of
Madness in two, just because of the connection that that
(15:14):
movie has with Spider Man No Way Home. I kind
of wanted to go ahead and get into the Doctor
Strange movies. Those still just aren't my favorite, and I
didn't really feel like going from one to two and
Doctor Strange that you get to grasp more on his character.
He's just still unlikable to me, and after watching Doctor
Strange two, I really don't see where they could take
(15:37):
his story in the third one. They'll probably make one
down the line, but I feel like his character is
good at a two parter. After that, I moved on
to the Black Panther movies, mainly in anticipation to Black Panther,
wikondor Forever. So you start with the one from seventeen,
and I forgot how visually stunning this movie was, and
how intricate the story is, how emotionally driven it is,
(15:58):
how it felt more like a five movie than it
did a superhero movie, and really distinguished itself from anything
in the m c U. And kill Monger became one
of the best villains just right out of the gate,
and why because he had such a great backstory, which
proves that you can give a villain a great backstory
in just one movie. And the interesting thing about watching
(16:20):
them this way now, going from Black Panther to Wakonda
Forever is obviously the tonal shift, and unlike what any
other franchise in the m c U has to deal with,
is losing their lead character. So I can only imagine
what this would have been like if Chadwick Boseman was
still alive in part two. But it goes from this
really big, great inspiring story to pure devastations starting with mornings,
(16:47):
starting with loss, but then also building itself back up
to showing people that Wakanda is still a force to
be reckoned with. So this gives you a viewing experience
unlike anything else in the m c U because of
what happened in real world. So that's why I decided
to put these two movies here in the viewing order.
It's kind of a palate cleanser. And then I moved
on to the ant Man movie, So ant Man from
(17:10):
ant Man in the Wash from eighteen and I'll leave
a place holder for ant Man in the wast Quantum Mania.
Now that it's out in theaters at the time of
recording this, maybe it's on Disney Plus by the time
you're listening to this episode, but you'd be able to
watch all three of these movies, and looking back at
ant Man from the movie had some really great writing.
Looking back on it now, I feel it's what people
(17:32):
poke fun at for having this superhero style humor. I
think ant Man was the birth of that, but I
think given his character, given Paul Rudd and t I
and Michael Pnia, I think all those actors together really
made that movie something special, or at least something different
that was going on in the m c U. I
wish they would have brought them back for the new
(17:54):
ant Man movie, but obviously I'll talk about that movie
later in the review. And then watching ant Man in
the Wall Us, I almost felt like that story wasn't
enough to be an entire movie, but it did explain
and get into talking about the quantum realm and talk
about the tech that ended up being used in Endgame,
so it kind of puts that piece together later for you.
(18:15):
That's not completely necessary when you watch Endgame. It's kind
of like, Oh, that's where they got it from. So
I think that's why these ant Man movies work here.
So Aunt Man and Man and the Wasp, and then
Quantum Mania, whether you watch it in theaters or later
on Disney Plus. Then I moved on to the Guardians
of the Galaxy movies from then Guardians of the Galaxy
Volume two from seventeen, and then at the time of
(18:37):
recording this, Guardians Volume three will be coming out on
May five. Three. This is good to put in the
viewing order here because Guardians of the Galaxy movies feel
a little bit isolated from all the other movies, aside
from Thor popping in. In these movies, they really are
in their own world, being out in space. And this
is a set of movies given at the time right now,
(18:59):
I haven't seen part three yet, but it could be
the best trilogy in the entire em CU because one
is so strong too, not as good, but still a
really strong addition to the franchise, and then three looks
like it's going to take everything on a bigger, more
emotional level. I feel like this one, when all is
said and done, we'll have the great arc with all
(19:21):
of these characters and that is credit to James Gunn.
I felt like he sat down to write these movies
and had the entire plan out from the beginning. They
don't really connect into all the other m CU movies
as much as some of the other titles, So one, two,
and three, I feel like we'll work really well just
on their own, and that is what I was trying
to figure out while doing this experiment. So on that level,
(19:43):
Guardians of the Galaxy movies get a really high score,
and that's even without seeing part three yet. And then
we start to run out of really good m CU
movies and everything from here on out only has a
one parter as of now, and only one movie will
have two parts by the end of this year. So
after the Guardians movies, I moved on to Captain Marvel
(20:03):
from twenty nineteen, mainly because The Marvels is coming out
later this year on November, so I'll be able to
judge it a little bit better once I have at
least two movies to work with. But rewatching Captain Marvel,
which I liked at the time. When I saw it
in theaters. It got a lot of criticism, but I
felt like it was a really fun entertaining movie. I
(20:24):
like bre Larson, but rewatching it, I did feel like
that entire story was a little bit rushed. It almost
felt like they were trying to get this movie out
now just for the sake of having Captain Marvel be
established before endgame him out. And I realized that a
little bit more while watching this movie and paying attention
to some of the characters, some of the special effects,
(20:44):
I felt like if they would have given this movie
a little bit more time to breathe, it would have
been a much better movie. Overall, the backstory wasn't as
good as I remembered. I found the first twenty minutes
of this very slow and kind of boring, so really
rewatching this movie, it made me kind of glad that
Marvel isn't on that big time crunch to work towards
an Avengers movie all the time. I think this movie
(21:07):
in particular proves that they need to let their timeline
breathe a little bit. So after that, I moved on
to Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,
which is a really great origin story. It kind of
brings you back to some of those original early on
m c U origin stories. A really strong and fun movie.
Almost in bodies everything that I look for in an
(21:28):
m c U movie. Fun character, some good jokes, great visuals,
and a lot of action. That is what Shane Chi is.
I think it's one of the most underrated Marvel movies
out of all thirty one. After that, I moved on
to the Eternals. The only reason I put this one
above the last other two is because they may make
another one, and out of thirty one Marvel movies, this
(21:49):
is the only one that I would say is a
bad movie. I didn't enjoy this movie whatsoever. It was
a movie I went into seeing and was curious about it.
It had a great director, a great cast, but it
just didn't do it for me. It's the only m
c U movie that I've watched that I was just
waiting for it to end. And this was the first
time I revisited it since watching it in theaters, and
(22:12):
I felt the same way. So I put it here
in case they make an Eternals two and I'll get
to see how it goes from one to two. But
aside from that, this is not one I was looking
forward to getting to during this experiment. So that's where
I put the Eternals. After that, I went with The
Incredible Hulk from two thousand and eight, which I just
(22:33):
loved The Incredible Hulk. They've just never got his solo
movies right. Even though I really enjoyed this movie, It's
probably one of the m c U movies I've rewatched
the most because of how much I love Ed Norton
as the Hulk. Of course, now everybody loves Mark Ruffalo
a lot more. I just don't think he'll ever get
his own solo Hulk movie. We got to see him
(22:53):
more in She Hulk, but I feel like that doesn't
really add to the case that people want a solo
Hulk movie. But it's such a great, dynamic character, it
was such an awesome backstory that that is a shame.
So there's only one of them, with no hopes of
there being a sequel to So that's why I put
it here towards the end, although I still think it
is a great m CU movie. And then at the
(23:16):
very end, I watched Black Widow from which was another
movie that I hadn't watched since I've seen it in
theaters back and I felt really excited going into watching
this movie because it was the first Marvel movie I
had seen and almost a year and a half because
of the pandemic pushing everything back and delaying things that
(23:36):
I kind of watched this movie with rose colored glasses.
I was just happy to get another MCU movie, and
I was excited that Scarlett Johansson finally got her solo movie.
But this is probably one I would deduct a little
bit more from my original rating, but I put it
at the end because much like the other ones, here
at the bottom, there is no promise for a sequel.
It was a prequel to begin with. I felt like
(23:59):
it came out at a weird time. This one should
have came out in Phase one or Phase two when
all the other solo movies are the Avengers were coming out.
So I feel like timing wise, it just wasn't the
best time for the Black Widow movie. But that is it.
That is the viewing order I did by character. I'll
run through it again here one more time. At number
one is The Avengers. At number two is Age of Voltron.
(24:20):
At number three is Infinity War. At number four is Endgame.
At number five is iron Man six, iron Man two
at seven is iron Man three. At eight is Captain America,
The First Avenger at nine is The Winter Soldier, at
ten is Civil War. At number eleven you kick off
the Thor movies, so you have thour At twelve is
(24:40):
The Dark World, at thirteen is Ragnarok, at fourteen is
Loving Thunder. At fifteen kicks off the Spider Man movies
with Homecoming, then at sixteen Far From Home at seventeen
No Way Home. Then you move on to eighteen Doctor Strange,
nineteen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, twenty Black
Panther twenty one, Conda Forever twenty two, ant Man twenty three,
(25:03):
A Man in the losp twenty four, ant Man in
the Lost Quantum Mania which just came out, twenty five,
Guardians of the Galaxy, twenty six, Guardians of the Galaxy,
Volume two, and then you hold that placeholder for volume three.
Captain Marvel Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten
Rings twenty nine, Eternals thirty, The Incredible Hulk in thirty
(25:24):
one Black Widow. So that is my viewing order. You
can check that out in the episode notes of this podcast.
I'll come back and give my review of ant Man
and the Wasp Quantum Media. Let's get into a spoiler
free review, I want to talk about ant Man and
the Wasp Quantum Mania. I didn't really have big expectations
(25:47):
going into this. It's an ant Man movie, of all things.
I just wanted something to kick off Phase five, introduce
King the Conqueror, and let me know in what direction
that Marvel is planning to post Endgame and this movie
takes place. In the movie, Scott Lang refers to the
timeline as being a few years after the defeat of Thanos.
(26:10):
So he's kind of in this part of his life
where he just saved the world, but now he's kind
of questioning his worth. He writes a book about everything
he's gone through with the Avengers, or he's just trying
to build out his relationship with his daughter, earned back
some of the time that he missed being away from her.
She was a kid, now she's grown up and then
(26:30):
still doing his duties as needed as aunt Man. So
before I get into my full review of aunt Man
and the Wass Quantum Mania, here's just a little bit
of the trailer. If you haven't heard or seen it
by now, He will bring me what I need or
everything you call a life who had you may not
(26:50):
want her to watch this. We had a deal. You
thought you good with me. I don't have to win.
We both do that to lose. So let me start
by saying, I've always been a fan of the ant
(27:11):
Man movies. When you compare them to all the other
films in the m c U, are they the best? No,
But I don't think they ever really have to be.
They never really set out to be. What I always
liked about the ant Man movies is they always had
this fresh comedic approach, and in the m c U,
I feel like there are all these different characters that
all resemble different genres in film, and aunt Man was
(27:32):
always the comedy to me. Maybe it's because it's Paul
Rudd and sometimes I associate him with Judd Apataw. It
always felt like the Judd Apatow style of movie in
the m c U. So that is what I looked
for going into an ant Man movie. I think they
nailed it in the first one, maybe went a little
bit down in the second one, but this one doesn't
(27:53):
really feel like an ant Man movie whatsoever. I think
the reason behind that is because because this is Marvel
kicking off Phase five and showing us that there's this
tonal shift now in their movies. I think the reason
I found it hard to get into this movie, and
I never really thought it was a bad movie. I
just never really thought it was a great movie is
(28:15):
because it was so different than every other ant Man movie,
and for what I know his movies to be, it
was almost like his character was a little bit out
of place. It was on such a large scale. I
know there's gonna be a lot of puns to him
being a small superhero, but we'll get through those. But
it was such a big scale adventure and such a
(28:38):
big villain to take on. I found myself saying a
lot good a man really do this by himself? Is
this really an ant Man movie? Or is he the
only character around now to carry out this story? When
you get into more of the plot details, yes, they
do work in his character pretty well. But when I
go into an m c U movie, I always want
(28:59):
to find the can sinuation of our character's story. And
Scott Lang is a very interesting character. He is a
reformed criminal and the thing he's always hold the closest
to his heart is his relationship with his daughter Cassie.
Above anything that he does. He always wants to make
sure that he's doing right by her and getting to
make up the time he's lost with her after being
(29:20):
gone for five years in the Blip. So that is
what I was looking forward to seeing more of in
this movie. I think the trailer hinted at it a
little bit more, but I felt like it was just
lacking something a little bit emotionally for me. And maybe
that's also due to the large scale of this movie.
There's so much special effects and c G. I I
wonder if it was just hard for our actors here
(29:41):
to interact with one another, interact with some of the
other characters, and really give a full, fleshed out performance.
A lot of this movie was carried by Paul Rudd,
but I would say, hands down the best performance was
Jonathan Majors as King. This movie really should have just
been called King the Conqueror. That's what this movie should
have been. And they couldn't have made that movie because
(30:02):
people would have been less interested in seeing it. It
wouldn't have done what it did at the box office
this weekend. But if it would have just been called
Came the Conqueror, this would have served so much better
as a villain origin store, because that is really what
this movie ended up being. It is what I enjoyed
the most about this movie. Jonathan Majors gave the best performance.
(30:22):
I love just the cadence in the way that he spoke.
And there were times in this movie where it got
very quiet and the movie had some time to breathe,
which I've never really seen in a Marvel movie. It
was really committed to fleshing out this villain and making
them seem very dark and mysterious, and attention just kind
of grow and him getting a little bit more evil
(30:43):
and evil as it went along. So shout out to
Peyton Reid, who directed not only this movie but the
other two aunt Man movies, to really show a different
side of aunt Man and make this one be completely
different than the other two. I just don't know if
I fully bought into it, because, like I said, it's
not that this is a bad movie whatsoever. There's just
(31:04):
kind of um flacking while you watch this movie, and
I didn't find myself as fully engaged as I normally
am in an m c U movie. And I would
hate to say it's because aunt Man isn't that great
of a character. I kind of relate to aunt Man
in a way that you have all these other big
superheroes that people love and want to see more movies
of Iron Man, Captain America, Spider Man, and aunt Man
(31:25):
is just kind of seen as like the laughing stock.
And there's even a lot of references throughout this movie
of him just not being known by people. He goes
to the coffee shop and they think he's Spider Man.
I get that sometimes when I go out in public
and people will recognize me from the Bobby Bones Show,
but they don't entirely know my name. They just kind
of know my face and they're like, are you Raymundo?
(31:47):
Are you Eddie? So I did like the message this
movie had of rooting for the little guy. So aside
from Paul Rudd, aside from Jonathan Major's, there weren't any
other real standout performances. I love Evangeline Lily, but she
didn't really add much as the Wasp. Michelle Peiffer as
a National Treasure, hands down the best catwoman ever, but
I found her character a little bit off putting in
(32:08):
this movie. And Michael Douglas is okay. I've just never
been the biggest fan of him in the m c U,
So I do like the ambition in the scale that
this movie took on. It almost felt a little bit
Star Wars like at times. I'm gonna make a reference here,
and I'm not saying in any way this movie is
like the best Star Wars movie of all time, But
there are some similarities in the beginning of this movie
(32:30):
and in a Star Wars A New Hope. You're kind
of thrown in this entirely new world. You have all
these weird characters and creatures speaking this weird language. They
go to a bar. So I really liked the vibe
of the movie in the first twenty minutes you were
really just thrown into this entire new world. You didn't
really ask questions. Everything just kind of existed in the
(32:51):
quantum realm. So that part I really did enjoy. I
wish it would have kept that same energy and style
throughout the entire movie. But with this movie being the
first movie in Phase five five, I feel like they
got the character wrong, and I think aunt Man would
have been better in Phase four. And you take the
energy of this movie and put it into the Thor character.
(33:12):
So eliminate Thord, Love and Thunder and put aunt Man
there and make it a comedy like the other two,
and then take Thor and put him in this movie
with Came the Conqueror, and I think we would have
had a much better movie and a much better kickoff
to the m c U Phase five, because as much
as I loved comedic Thor and Ragnarok, I think Thor
(33:33):
at his best is when he is angry, when he
is piste off, when he wants to defeat a big villain,
him dropping in and saying bring me Thanos, like that
is the Thor that I like, and we lost that
after Endgame, and then instead of Thor Love and Thunder,
we get this really goofy, jolly Thor in a romantic comedy.
But if we put him in this same situation of
(33:55):
having to take on Came the Conqueror, I feel like
that fight would have been a lot more epic. And
even the similarities in the villains between those two movies,
I think King the Conqueror is what I thought Gore
the God Butcher was going to be in Thor, Love
and Thunder, and I don't really think yet that King
is that Thanos level of villain. I don't think he
(34:16):
has to be that, right, now, which is what everybody
is always going to compare the new villain to. But
he has so much great potential and this was a
very good origin story for him. Above everything else in
this movie, I love the establishment of the character, but
there was nothing that really stood out about this movie.
So I think on its own probably a two point five,
(34:38):
but I love King the Conqueror so much that I'm
gonna bump it up to about a three point five
out of five. Just that character alone, I think is
what the m c you needs right now. And even
though it's not the best m CU movie of all time,
it's not top ten, probably not even top twenty, I
think it did exactly what it needed to do be
a pretty good mid em CU movie, do well the
(35:00):
box office, not really make m c U fans mad,
and instead really give us a look at the direction
that they're going in and set that tone. I think
that was important for this movie. So even though it
wasn't my favorite, I didn't leave the theater completely excited
ready for the next one. Even the end credit scenes
were all right, So I said, go into it with
a little bit lower expectations and you'll still have a
(35:23):
good time at the movies. I give ant Man in
the Wasp Quantum Mania at three point five out of
five Quantum Realms. It's time to head down to movie Mike, Well,
it looks like we are actually gonna get this movie.
The Flash comes out on June three, and I gotta
(35:45):
say this trailer looks super, super slick. The flash Suit
looks amazing, all the Batman running around. Of all the
DC movies coming out this year, I thought this one
had the most potential, but I'm still hesitant towards anything
DC right now. And I felt like this was a
(36:06):
movie they were putting out because they had already spent
all the money on it. They had all the issues
with Ezra Miller and the last couple of years, all
the things that they have been through. So the entire
future of The Flash, I always felt, has been hanging
in the balance. And even with James Gunn hyping this
movie up, saying it's one of the best superhero films
(36:29):
he has seen ever, I was like, I'm not really
buying into that hype yet, but after watching this trailer,
they have my curiosity. I'm not gonna say it. I
won't say it again. I've been burned by black Adam.
I'm not saying I'm excited. I'm not. I'm not excited. Nope,
I am not. Before I get into more of my thoughts,
(36:50):
here is just a little bit of the trailer. I
could fix things. You can also destroy every second, just
keep me happening. I completely broke the universe we've been waiting.
I created a world with no meta humans, and now
(37:12):
there's no one to defend us. You are, Yeah, I'm
bad man. It's that line right there that got me,
so I'm not gonna say it. But before we get
into talking about that, let's talk about The Flash. I
(37:33):
always thought he was the best part of the Justice
League and the chaotic Nous and all the mess that
that movie was. The introduction of his character was great.
The Flash is fresh and fun. He is kind of
like the Spider Man of the d C universe as
far as the movies and the embodiment of the character
being the younger one, everything being new and fun to them,
(37:55):
looking up to the other superheroes. That is what Barry
is in the Justice League and in the Flash solo film,
Barry Allen is trying to change the past in order
to save his mom from dying. And then doing so
he's messing with timeline. So it's kind of like d
C getting into the whole multiverse space, which you find
that is really appeasing to comic book and superhero movie
(38:18):
fans because you can reintroduce characters from other timelines. It
gets people hype, it gets people excited. So I feel
like that is them trying to cash in on what
is working so well right now over in Marvels. But
in doing all these things of changing the past, you
change the future. So in this movie you find not
only multiple Batman, you also find multiple Flashes they're Supergirl
(38:42):
in this movie, and maybe even some more surprises that
they aren't saying yet, which I would find really surprising
for DC to keep anything under wraps, because I think
if they have any kind of star power, they're letting
everybody know, just like they did with Black Adam, and
they quickly let people know that Henry cavill was back
as Superman. They really spoiled the ending to that pretty quick.
And there are some glimpses in this trailer of a
(39:05):
dark night looking Batman motorcycle, you know, the one with
the big wheel. It looks like it's still been afflex
Batman driving it. But I just had a little glimpse
of a Christian Bale Dark Knight era Batman. I don't
think they would do that. I don't think they would
keep that under wraps. But if they did bring that
moment to life on screen, didn't spoil that and that
(39:27):
was a surprise. I think that would be a pretty
big win, especially after taking away Henry cavill as Superman.
And maybe that is what James Gunn is hinting at
as it being one of the best superhero movies of
all time, Like that is a big claim to make.
I feel like there has to be something really big
in this movie to earn that statement. But you do
(39:47):
have Michael Keaton finally returning as Batman. There's been so
much talk about this surrounding, you know, the Batgirl movie,
but now we get the first glimpse of him in
this trailer. And I've always said that my le Keaton
is my favorite Batman because I think he embodies the
character to its fullest, whether he's in the Batman iconic
suit with a yellow logo. Michael Keaton as Batman were
(40:10):
one of the first real superhero movies that I remember
watching so I think between him as Batman, but also
him as Bruce Wayne, altogether, I just think he fully
embodies what it means to be Batman. And I love
Christian Bales Batman in action, but when it comes to
his Bruce Wayne, I'm not entirely in love with it.
I don't feel like his performance there is what made
(40:31):
those movies great. And as much as I love Robert
Pattinson's tag being so different, he's a reclusive, he's weird,
he's a great detective, and he is not a playboy
whatsoever like all the other Bruce Wayne's have been, I
just feel like he's a little bit more of an
alternative Batman, which I really enjoy. But when you talk
about who is the best Batman of all time, I'm
gonna say Michael Keaton ten at at ten times. And
(40:54):
then you also have Ben Affleck returning as Batman, and
I think he gets a little bit more hate than
he deserves as Batman. I think it's a fine Batman,
a good Batman. Even I like him as Bruce Wayne
with a little hints of gray in his hair. I
like the big, bulky Batman, very comic book style looking.
So I've always been a big fan of his suits.
(41:15):
I just think when it comes to him having a
chance to give a great performance, have a really great
script to work with, none of the movies have really
done that for him, so we all just kind of
see and associate with him being a bad Batman. I
don't think that's the case. I just think he hasn't
had the tea up to really give a great performances Batman.
Maybe this movie could be it for him. I also
(41:37):
love the scene with Supergirl in this trailer, So this
movie has a lot of things going for it. I
think the big part is bringing Michael Keaton back because
that will get some old school Batman fans back interested
in wanting to see this movie. I think that will
have a big impact when it comes to the box
office numbers in this movie banking on that nostalgia and
that is the moment everybody was talking about online and
(42:00):
once this trailer dropped. So this movie does have a
lot of promise. And I am mixed, nope, I am
ex side, I am excite. I'm really looking forward to
seeing this movie in theaters again. It comes out on June.
This makes edition of movie, and that's gonna do it.
(42:24):
For another episode here of the podcast, but before I go,
I gotta get my listeners shout out of the week.
How do you do that? All you have to do
is send me an email movie Mike d at gmail
dot com, tweet me, tag me in your Instagram story.
But today's shout out comes from my Instagram and the
comments on my review of You People. So this week's
listener of the week is find your Sales a k
(42:46):
a Alyssa on Instagram, who commented and said, couldn't agree more.
I'm not fully convinced that the writers wanted the audience
to focus on the love story as much as the
dynamic between the parents how it affected the couple's relationship,
but building out that the love story and making sure
they had chemistry was a vital part that was missing
for a lot of us. So a lot of people
had a lot of things to say about You People
(43:08):
and why they didn't enjoy that movie. And this is
the part I really enjoy about doing this podcast is
also seeing what you thought about movies, letting me know
if I was completely off. But I feel like we
all felt collectively about the same about You People. So
shout out to Alyssa and everybody who commented on that video.
You can always check out clips of the show on
my Instagram at TikTok at Mike Destro or watch full
(43:29):
movie reviews on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash
Mike Destro. And until next time, go out and watch
good movies and I will talk to you later
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mics Movie Podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike, and we are super hero
heavy today. I'm gonna give you the order how I
watched all thirty one Marvel movies by character order. I'll
explain exactly what that means in the movie review. I'll
keep it spoiler free when talking about a Man in
the Wasp, Quantum Mania, and in the Trailer Park we'll
(00:20):
talk about all the cameos in the flash trailer. So
thank you for being here. If you're listening on a Monday,
shout out to the Monday Morning Movie Crew. And now
my favorite thing to do every week, let's talk movies.
In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
(00:43):
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking audimtvite with
classes from the Nashville Podcast Networks, Movie mis Movie Podcast.
There are now thirty one Marvel movies out and there
are different ways that you can experience and watch all
these movies. This is actually a question I get a
(01:04):
lot for people diving into Marvel for the first time.
You want to know what is the best way to
watch them. I often recommend that you watch them in
chronological order, and that means just in the order they
came out, starting with Iron Man in two thousand and
eight and then going through every single year, just the
way they came out in theaters. I always felt that
was the most enjoyable. It made the most sense. There's
(01:26):
also the chronological way that I tried out, and I
wasn't really the biggest fan of I don't really have
to have everything happened in the order that it did
on the timeline. For me personally, I don't think that
enhanced the viewing experience. It just felt a little bit JANKI.
But I had this new idea occurred to me when
I wanted to start rewatching all of the Avengers movies,
(01:47):
and I started to think about the m c U
a little bit differently, and the way we watched them.
We consume them in the order they come out in
and they all kind of interconnect. But it's unlike how
you normally watch any other kind of movie. If you
were going to watch a trilogy, you would watch part one,
Part two, in part three, and that would give you
the overall scope on the story, the entire significance of
(02:09):
that character on how their story progresses, how each movie
embodies of the character, and you form a relationship with
that character over those movies, and that's how you watch
them one, two, three. But I had never heard of
anybody watching the Marvel movies like that, so I decided
to do it for myself. And here is the order
that I watched them in, and I'll give you my
(02:29):
experience doing it this way. I really liked it. I
think it actually works really well, and I think the
concern with that is some things won't make sense you
haven't seen some things later. But I feel like for
the most part, after taking this on, you can fill
in the gaps with your mind, and the ones that
do it the best they keep that storyline continue through
(02:50):
parts one, two, three, and sometimes four that as long
as you watch all these movies together, they actually make sense.
So that is really what I wanted to learn, and
this experiment do the work in this sequential order. So
this is the order I watched them in, by character
or franchise, however you want to put it. I started
with the Avengers movie, so from twelve I did Avengers one,
(03:10):
first age of Old Tron from Avengers, Infinity War from
and then Endgame in twenty nineteen. Why I decided to
do it this way is because I felt like this
is the big overarching story that we follow along to.
It's what all the other movies built up too. And
I think one of the most important things is that
a lot of the other m CU movies reference New York.
(03:33):
It's a constant thing throughout the entire m c U,
especially early on in the first three phases, everything kind
of goes back to New York. So I think you
need to experience that right off the bat Avengers works
without seeing any Iron Man, Captain America or Thor which
came out before this, and then as a whole, the
Avengers movies just carry that thread that keeps the entire
(03:54):
EMCU together. So I just feel like these are the
best ones to start with. They are the best of
the best of all these movies. So it actually really
works to start with these movies first. It also kicks
you off on a really big high note and makes
you excited to learn all about all these other individual
characters and dive into their individual movies. You might not
(04:14):
know every single reference, but it would be no different
than when you watch the TV show they introduced characters
and then later on in the season you learned the
backstory on that character through flashbacks. So I say start
with Avengers, Avengers, Age of Old Tron, Infinity War, and
then Endgame. I think all these Avengers movies still really
hold up. Rewatching this, I reminded myself how Age of
(04:37):
Old Tron got a lot of bad reviews when it
first came out in and I almost appreciate that movie
a lot more now than I did then. It has
a really great opening sequence that I felt showcase what
the m CU was becoming, how they were really becoming
this juggernaut in with all these movies. So it is
the weakest of the four in that group, but a
really strong m c U movie. After that, move on
(05:00):
to the three iron Man movies. So iron Man from
two thousand and eight, iron Man from and then iron
Man three from iron Man is a classic. I almost
forgot how much that first movie in particular was associated
with war really as a reoccurring themes throughout the entire
Iron Man movies, given that Tony Stark started out building
(05:23):
weapons for the military and him being taken hostage in
that movie. I felt like iron Man was very much
a reflection of America in the two thousands, so it
almost set like a darker, more warlike tone early on
that I didn't really pick up on when these movies
first came out because I was just like, this is
a superhero movie. This is amazing. But looking back on that,
(05:45):
I felt like, that's a very bold thing to make
a movie about, especially when it comes to superheroes. Iron Man, too,
I felt was a little bit forgettable. I had to
be reminded as I watched that movie, like, oh yeah,
Mickey Rourke is in this movie. So in my head,
I always thought that iron Man two was better than
iron Man three. But I do have a new found
respect for iron Man three, much like I did Age
(06:06):
of Old Tron. Iron Man three is a really great
character study on Tony Start as he is dealing with
this anxiety and this PTSD after the events that have
folded in Avengers in New York. So now I also
feel like that one, that's a pretty bold thing to
make an iron Man movie about. I know that overall
the movie didn't really resonate with audiences as much as
(06:26):
iron Man one and two, but I would now put
that in my number two slot. When it comes to
iron Man movies, I'm only wish that at some point
would have got an iron Man four because I didn't
really feel like that one completely closed out Tony Stark story.
So overall, iron Man one, two, and three very strong
when it comes to the progression of his character. But
(06:47):
I think to really nail it and bring this entire
thing home for me, we needed an iron Man for
give Robert Downey Jr. Those millions of dollars that he
wants to return in the Avengers movies. And I will
do a full recap of this list at the very end,
and I'll also put this in the podcast notes so
you don't have to write this down as I'm doing
this episode. I just wanted to go through all these
and share these with you. So after iron Man, I
(07:08):
moved on to the Captain America movies. And the way
I did this I started just watching and throwing on
these movies at night when I was going to sleep,
So it did take me a while. This was probably
at least a three or four months endeavor because I
was just watching them as a part of my nighttime
routine and in the mix of all the other things
I watched for this podcast. So then I moved on
to the Captain American movie. So the First Avenger in eleven,
(07:32):
the Winter Soldier in and then Civil War in twenty sixteen,
so we have three Captain America movies. And I always
viewed Captain America as like, if you told me he
was your favorite Avenger, I would think a little bit
less of you. I always thought he was kind of
a boring character to do solo movies on. I was
never the biggest fan of them, and revisiting the movies
(07:54):
this way, I still felt like the First Adventure had
a bit of a slow start, but I started to
realize a little bit more why everybody had a really
great view on Chris Evans as Captain America. And it's
a pretty good origin story. It's the start of him
saying I could do this all day. It's also a
great history lesson on how Marvel Comics had a lot
(08:17):
to do again with war, this one focusing on World
War Two. The first cover of a Captain America comic
book was him punching Hitler in the face, and I
felt like that is also what this movie was associated
with a lot, being so focused in World War Two. Again,
looking at Marvel movies having so much emphasis on war,
even looking back at that first Captain America that came
(08:38):
out in nineteen forty one, I wish I could find
me a copy of Captain America's comic number one. It
also made me see the progression of Steve Rogers uniform
as Captain America between all the movies, going from having
that classic Captain America look from the comic books back
in the forties and then moving on to his look
in Winter Soldier, which I realized there was something weird
(09:00):
going on with Chris Evans hair in this movie, but
I love the development between him and Falcon's relationship in
this movie, the birth of On Your Left. So I
definitely think that Winter Soldier was a lot better than
I remember it being, and it having one of the
best Marvel endings out of the entire m c U.
And then when you get to Captain America Civil War,
(09:22):
this is the one that feels a little bit out
of place to me. I know, it's still focused on
Steve Rogers and him wanting to do the good thing.
That is what he's all about, is doing the moral
good thing. He goes against Tony Stark and that's why
they are fighting in this movie. So it is a
reflection on his character in that aspect, but I don't
really feel like it matches along with his entire character
(09:44):
arc from the First Avenger to the Winter Soldier. It
just feels like it's a compilation of all the other
superheroes as well, and Captain America is just they're leading
one side. So to me, it just feels like what
the poster looks like, half Iron Man movie, half Captain
America movie, but overall still a really great trilogy. After that,
(10:04):
I moved on to the Thorn movies, mainly because there
are four of them, So Thor from eleven, Thor the
Dark World in Thor Ragnarok, in and Thor Love and
Thunder two. How I feel about watching him this way
about the character of Thor is they never really got
him right. He has been kind of different in all
(10:26):
of these movies. Chris Evans really kind of came into
the Thor character through the Avengers movies, and I think
he had the best embodiment of what Thor is in
Thor Ragnarok. I think the first Thor was a great
introduction of the character, but it didn't really make me
love him yet. And then in the Dark World, which
was a little bit convoluted and pretty forgettable in the
(10:49):
timeline of Thor movies, that one really took his character
down a little bit. But then he had such a
big moment with him and Ragnarok and it being fun.
You have the incredible Hupe there. The movie visually was
a lot more stunning and had this real recognizable look
to it, and it tried to carry over into Thor
Love and Thunder, which I feel like that movie hasn't
(11:10):
really aged the best, and it only came out last year.
I just feel like, as a whole, the Thor character
just hasn't really been one thing. And maybe that's okay,
but when it comes to studying the Thor movies like this,
I feel like it gets kind of a low score
as far as being a good part one to four
part series. If only the Thor movies existed, I'm not
(11:34):
sure that I would love them. I love Thor in
the Avengers movies and showing up in Guardians of the Galaxy,
but when it comes to just his solo movies. For
as big of a character he is in all the
other movies, they're just not the strongest and you can
see that watching him this way. So after that, I
moved on to the Spider Man movies, also because you
have a trilogy to watch here, Spider Man, Homecoming from
(11:59):
Far from Home from twenty nineteen and No Way Home
in In. My main goal in watching the Spider Man
movies this way is I wanted to see how this
trilogy compared to the Toby maguire trilogy, which I feel
is the perfect character arc for Spider Man, his origin story,
going from that to him struggling between life as Spider
(12:22):
Man and life as Peter Parker, wanting to be with
Mary Jane and just be a normal person who can
be in love, and then realizing that he can't have that.
And even though the third one has a lot of
questionable moments, it's still a really good ending and ties
up the entire story of Peter Parker and Spider Man.
I wanted to see how that would transfer over into
(12:44):
watching the Tom Holland Spider Man movies, and it's a
lot different. I learned that by watching the movies this way,
because you have all the other things going on at
the same time. But I still think Tom Holland Spider
Man does establish his character and similar or to how
it did Toby McGuire. The key difference being that Homecoming
completely takes away the entire origin story, which was important
(13:08):
that they did that because you already had the Toby
McGuire version origin story, You had that Andrew Garfield origin story.
You didn't need to do that again. We've already seen it.
We get it. He gets bit by a Spider, he
becomes Spider Man. Take that out of the movie and
get right into it. So I love that they started
it this way, and you can see the development of
his character being really fresh and new. And Homecoming, which
(13:29):
took place in the timeline after Captain America Civil War,
it's him, am I an Avenger? Am I Not? Am
I just gonna be a friendly neighborhood Spider Man. So
it's him getting his first chance to prove that he
can be Spider Man, proving to Tony Stark that he's
not just some kid who kind of got lucky with
falling into these powers. And then you have Far from
(13:50):
Home where he starts to have that battle as well
of wanting to be Peter Parker, a normal kid just
going on a school trip, but also when they're things
is happening around him that Spider Man has to take
care of and be a part of. He asked us
bring into action, even though he ends up missing out
on a lot of things, which causes him to let
down MJ. But it is that struggle and it is there,
(14:12):
and he reaches a pretty low moment in Far From Home,
But where you really get the best encompassment of what
it means to be Spider Man is in no way home.
He suffers devastation, he suffers loss, he suffers anger. All
these emotions come running through him and it shows him
what he needs to do in the life he needs
(14:34):
to take on in order to be Spider Man. So
obviously I have a little bias here because Spider Man
is my favorite Marvel character, but I felt like this
was one of the best to watch this way because
it really gives you the grasp on the character, unlike
any of the other individual character stories did. So then
we get to a point where we only have about
(14:54):
two movies on each of the other characters and a
few more coming soon. So after Spider Man, I decided
to hop to the Doctor Strange movies mainly because of
how they have a little bit of parallels. So I
watched Doctor Strange from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of
Madness in two, just because of the connection that that
(15:14):
movie has with Spider Man No Way Home. I kind
of wanted to go ahead and get into the Doctor
Strange movies. Those still just aren't my favorite, and I
didn't really feel like going from one to two and
Doctor Strange that you get to grasp more on his character.
He's just still unlikable to me, and after watching Doctor
Strange two, I really don't see where they could take
(15:37):
his story in the third one. They'll probably make one
down the line, but I feel like his character is
good at a two parter. After that, I moved on
to the Black Panther movies, mainly in anticipation to Black Panther,
wikondor Forever. So you start with the one from seventeen,
and I forgot how visually stunning this movie was, and
how intricate the story is, how emotionally driven it is,
(15:58):
how it felt more like a five movie than it
did a superhero movie, and really distinguished itself from anything
in the m c U. And kill Monger became one
of the best villains just right out of the gate,
and why because he had such a great backstory, which
proves that you can give a villain a great backstory
in just one movie. And the interesting thing about watching
(16:20):
them this way now, going from Black Panther to Wakonda
Forever is obviously the tonal shift, and unlike what any
other franchise in the m c U has to deal with,
is losing their lead character. So I can only imagine
what this would have been like if Chadwick Boseman was
still alive in part two. But it goes from this
really big, great inspiring story to pure devastations starting with mornings,
(16:47):
starting with loss, but then also building itself back up
to showing people that Wakanda is still a force to
be reckoned with. So this gives you a viewing experience
unlike anything else in the m c U because of
what happened in real world. So that's why I decided
to put these two movies here in the viewing order.
It's kind of a palate cleanser. And then I moved
on to the ant Man movie, So ant Man from
(17:10):
ant Man in the Wash from eighteen and I'll leave
a place holder for ant Man in the wast Quantum Mania.
Now that it's out in theaters at the time of
recording this, maybe it's on Disney Plus by the time
you're listening to this episode, but you'd be able to
watch all three of these movies, and looking back at
ant Man from the movie had some really great writing.
Looking back on it now, I feel it's what people
(17:32):
poke fun at for having this superhero style humor. I
think ant Man was the birth of that, but I
think given his character, given Paul Rudd and t I
and Michael Pnia, I think all those actors together really
made that movie something special, or at least something different
that was going on in the m c U. I
wish they would have brought them back for the new
(17:54):
ant Man movie, but obviously I'll talk about that movie
later in the review. And then watching ant Man in
the Wall Us, I almost felt like that story wasn't
enough to be an entire movie, but it did explain
and get into talking about the quantum realm and talk
about the tech that ended up being used in Endgame,
so it kind of puts that piece together later for you.
(18:15):
That's not completely necessary when you watch Endgame. It's kind
of like, Oh, that's where they got it from. So
I think that's why these ant Man movies work here.
So Aunt Man and Man and the Wasp, and then
Quantum Mania, whether you watch it in theaters or later
on Disney Plus. Then I moved on to the Guardians
of the Galaxy movies from then Guardians of the Galaxy
Volume two from seventeen, and then at the time of
(18:37):
recording this, Guardians Volume three will be coming out on
May five. Three. This is good to put in the
viewing order here because Guardians of the Galaxy movies feel
a little bit isolated from all the other movies, aside
from Thor popping in. In these movies, they really are
in their own world, being out in space. And this
is a set of movies given at the time right now,
(18:59):
I haven't seen part three yet, but it could be
the best trilogy in the entire em CU because one
is so strong too, not as good, but still a
really strong addition to the franchise, and then three looks
like it's going to take everything on a bigger, more
emotional level. I feel like this one, when all is
said and done, we'll have the great arc with all
(19:21):
of these characters and that is credit to James Gunn.
I felt like he sat down to write these movies
and had the entire plan out from the beginning. They
don't really connect into all the other m CU movies
as much as some of the other titles, So one, two,
and three, I feel like we'll work really well just
on their own, and that is what I was trying
to figure out while doing this experiment. So on that level,
(19:43):
Guardians of the Galaxy movies get a really high score,
and that's even without seeing part three yet. And then
we start to run out of really good m CU
movies and everything from here on out only has a
one parter as of now, and only one movie will
have two parts by the end of this year. So
after the Guardians movies, I moved on to Captain Marvel
(20:03):
from twenty nineteen, mainly because The Marvels is coming out
later this year on November, so I'll be able to
judge it a little bit better once I have at
least two movies to work with. But rewatching Captain Marvel,
which I liked at the time. When I saw it
in theaters. It got a lot of criticism, but I
felt like it was a really fun entertaining movie. I
(20:24):
like bre Larson, but rewatching it, I did feel like
that entire story was a little bit rushed. It almost
felt like they were trying to get this movie out
now just for the sake of having Captain Marvel be
established before endgame him out. And I realized that a
little bit more while watching this movie and paying attention
to some of the characters, some of the special effects,
(20:44):
I felt like if they would have given this movie
a little bit more time to breathe, it would have
been a much better movie. Overall, the backstory wasn't as
good as I remembered. I found the first twenty minutes
of this very slow and kind of boring, so really
rewatching this movie, it made me kind of glad that
Marvel isn't on that big time crunch to work towards
an Avengers movie all the time. I think this movie
(21:07):
in particular proves that they need to let their timeline
breathe a little bit. So after that, I moved on
to Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,
which is a really great origin story. It kind of
brings you back to some of those original early on
m c U origin stories. A really strong and fun movie.
Almost in bodies everything that I look for in an
(21:28):
m c U movie. Fun character, some good jokes, great visuals,
and a lot of action. That is what Shane Chi is.
I think it's one of the most underrated Marvel movies
out of all thirty one. After that, I moved on
to the Eternals. The only reason I put this one
above the last other two is because they may make
another one, and out of thirty one Marvel movies, this
(21:49):
is the only one that I would say is a
bad movie. I didn't enjoy this movie whatsoever. It was
a movie I went into seeing and was curious about it.
It had a great director, a great cast, but it
just didn't do it for me. It's the only m
c U movie that I've watched that I was just
waiting for it to end. And this was the first
time I revisited it since watching it in theaters, and
(22:12):
I felt the same way. So I put it here
in case they make an Eternals two and I'll get
to see how it goes from one to two. But
aside from that, this is not one I was looking
forward to getting to during this experiment. So that's where
I put the Eternals. After that, I went with The
Incredible Hulk from two thousand and eight, which I just
(22:33):
loved The Incredible Hulk. They've just never got his solo
movies right. Even though I really enjoyed this movie, It's
probably one of the m c U movies I've rewatched
the most because of how much I love Ed Norton
as the Hulk. Of course, now everybody loves Mark Ruffalo
a lot more. I just don't think he'll ever get
his own solo Hulk movie. We got to see him
(22:53):
more in She Hulk, but I feel like that doesn't
really add to the case that people want a solo
Hulk movie. But it's such a great, dynamic character, it
was such an awesome backstory that that is a shame.
So there's only one of them, with no hopes of
there being a sequel to So that's why I put
it here towards the end, although I still think it
is a great m CU movie. And then at the
(23:16):
very end, I watched Black Widow from which was another
movie that I hadn't watched since I've seen it in
theaters back and I felt really excited going into watching
this movie because it was the first Marvel movie I
had seen and almost a year and a half because
of the pandemic pushing everything back and delaying things that
(23:36):
I kind of watched this movie with rose colored glasses.
I was just happy to get another MCU movie, and
I was excited that Scarlett Johansson finally got her solo movie.
But this is probably one I would deduct a little
bit more from my original rating, but I put it
at the end because much like the other ones, here
at the bottom, there is no promise for a sequel.
It was a prequel to begin with. I felt like
(23:59):
it came out at a weird time. This one should
have came out in Phase one or Phase two when
all the other solo movies are the Avengers were coming out.
So I feel like timing wise, it just wasn't the
best time for the Black Widow movie. But that is it.
That is the viewing order I did by character. I'll
run through it again here one more time. At number
one is The Avengers. At number two is Age of Voltron.
(24:20):
At number three is Infinity War. At number four is Endgame.
At number five is iron Man six, iron Man two
at seven is iron Man three. At eight is Captain America,
The First Avenger at nine is The Winter Soldier, at
ten is Civil War. At number eleven you kick off
the Thor movies, so you have thour At twelve is
(24:40):
The Dark World, at thirteen is Ragnarok, at fourteen is
Loving Thunder. At fifteen kicks off the Spider Man movies
with Homecoming, then at sixteen Far From Home at seventeen
No Way Home. Then you move on to eighteen Doctor Strange,
nineteen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, twenty Black
Panther twenty one, Conda Forever twenty two, ant Man twenty three,
(25:03):
A Man in the losp twenty four, ant Man in
the Lost Quantum Mania which just came out, twenty five,
Guardians of the Galaxy, twenty six, Guardians of the Galaxy,
Volume two, and then you hold that placeholder for volume three.
Captain Marvel Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten
Rings twenty nine, Eternals thirty, The Incredible Hulk in thirty
(25:24):
one Black Widow. So that is my viewing order. You
can check that out in the episode notes of this podcast.
I'll come back and give my review of ant Man
and the Wasp Quantum Media. Let's get into a spoiler
free review, I want to talk about ant Man and
the Wasp Quantum Mania. I didn't really have big expectations
(25:47):
going into this. It's an ant Man movie, of all things.
I just wanted something to kick off Phase five, introduce
King the Conqueror, and let me know in what direction
that Marvel is planning to post Endgame and this movie
takes place. In the movie, Scott Lang refers to the
timeline as being a few years after the defeat of Thanos.
(26:10):
So he's kind of in this part of his life
where he just saved the world, but now he's kind
of questioning his worth. He writes a book about everything
he's gone through with the Avengers, or he's just trying
to build out his relationship with his daughter, earned back
some of the time that he missed being away from her.
She was a kid, now she's grown up and then
(26:30):
still doing his duties as needed as aunt Man. So
before I get into my full review of aunt Man
and the Wass Quantum Mania, here's just a little bit
of the trailer. If you haven't heard or seen it
by now, He will bring me what I need or
everything you call a life who had you may not
(26:50):
want her to watch this. We had a deal. You
thought you good with me. I don't have to win.
We both do that to lose. So let me start
by saying, I've always been a fan of the ant
(27:11):
Man movies. When you compare them to all the other
films in the m c U, are they the best? No,
But I don't think they ever really have to be.
They never really set out to be. What I always
liked about the ant Man movies is they always had
this fresh comedic approach, and in the m c U,
I feel like there are all these different characters that
all resemble different genres in film, and aunt Man was
(27:32):
always the comedy to me. Maybe it's because it's Paul
Rudd and sometimes I associate him with Judd Apataw. It
always felt like the Judd Apatow style of movie in
the m c U. So that is what I looked
for going into an ant Man movie. I think they
nailed it in the first one, maybe went a little
bit down in the second one, but this one doesn't
(27:53):
really feel like an ant Man movie whatsoever. I think
the reason behind that is because because this is Marvel
kicking off Phase five and showing us that there's this
tonal shift now in their movies. I think the reason
I found it hard to get into this movie, and
I never really thought it was a bad movie. I
just never really thought it was a great movie is
(28:15):
because it was so different than every other ant Man movie,
and for what I know his movies to be, it
was almost like his character was a little bit out
of place. It was on such a large scale. I
know there's gonna be a lot of puns to him
being a small superhero, but we'll get through those. But
it was such a big scale adventure and such a
(28:38):
big villain to take on. I found myself saying a
lot good a man really do this by himself? Is
this really an ant Man movie? Or is he the
only character around now to carry out this story? When
you get into more of the plot details, yes, they
do work in his character pretty well. But when I
go into an m c U movie, I always want
(28:59):
to find the can sinuation of our character's story. And
Scott Lang is a very interesting character. He is a
reformed criminal and the thing he's always hold the closest
to his heart is his relationship with his daughter Cassie.
Above anything that he does. He always wants to make
sure that he's doing right by her and getting to
make up the time he's lost with her after being
(29:20):
gone for five years in the Blip. So that is
what I was looking forward to seeing more of in
this movie. I think the trailer hinted at it a
little bit more, but I felt like it was just
lacking something a little bit emotionally for me. And maybe
that's also due to the large scale of this movie.
There's so much special effects and c G. I I
wonder if it was just hard for our actors here
(29:41):
to interact with one another, interact with some of the
other characters, and really give a full, fleshed out performance.
A lot of this movie was carried by Paul Rudd,
but I would say, hands down the best performance was
Jonathan Majors as King. This movie really should have just
been called King the Conqueror. That's what this movie should
have been. And they couldn't have made that movie because
(30:02):
people would have been less interested in seeing it. It
wouldn't have done what it did at the box office
this weekend. But if it would have just been called
Came the Conqueror, this would have served so much better
as a villain origin store, because that is really what
this movie ended up being. It is what I enjoyed
the most about this movie. Jonathan Majors gave the best performance.
(30:22):
I love just the cadence in the way that he spoke.
And there were times in this movie where it got
very quiet and the movie had some time to breathe,
which I've never really seen in a Marvel movie. It
was really committed to fleshing out this villain and making
them seem very dark and mysterious, and attention just kind
of grow and him getting a little bit more evil
(30:43):
and evil as it went along. So shout out to
Peyton Reid, who directed not only this movie but the
other two aunt Man movies, to really show a different
side of aunt Man and make this one be completely
different than the other two. I just don't know if
I fully bought into it, because, like I said, it's
not that this is a bad movie whatsoever. There's just
(31:04):
kind of um flacking while you watch this movie, and
I didn't find myself as fully engaged as I normally
am in an m c U movie. And I would
hate to say it's because aunt Man isn't that great
of a character. I kind of relate to aunt Man
in a way that you have all these other big
superheroes that people love and want to see more movies
of Iron Man, Captain America, Spider Man, and aunt Man
(31:25):
is just kind of seen as like the laughing stock.
And there's even a lot of references throughout this movie
of him just not being known by people. He goes
to the coffee shop and they think he's Spider Man.
I get that sometimes when I go out in public
and people will recognize me from the Bobby Bones Show,
but they don't entirely know my name. They just kind
of know my face and they're like, are you Raymundo?
(31:47):
Are you Eddie? So I did like the message this
movie had of rooting for the little guy. So aside
from Paul Rudd, aside from Jonathan Major's, there weren't any
other real standout performances. I love Evangeline Lily, but she
didn't really add much as the Wasp. Michelle Peiffer as
a National Treasure, hands down the best catwoman ever, but
I found her character a little bit off putting in
(32:08):
this movie. And Michael Douglas is okay. I've just never
been the biggest fan of him in the m c U,
So I do like the ambition in the scale that
this movie took on. It almost felt a little bit
Star Wars like at times. I'm gonna make a reference here,
and I'm not saying in any way this movie is
like the best Star Wars movie of all time, But
there are some similarities in the beginning of this movie
(32:30):
and in a Star Wars A New Hope. You're kind
of thrown in this entirely new world. You have all
these weird characters and creatures speaking this weird language. They
go to a bar. So I really liked the vibe
of the movie in the first twenty minutes you were
really just thrown into this entire new world. You didn't
really ask questions. Everything just kind of existed in the
(32:51):
quantum realm. So that part I really did enjoy. I
wish it would have kept that same energy and style
throughout the entire movie. But with this movie being the
first movie in Phase five five, I feel like they
got the character wrong, and I think aunt Man would
have been better in Phase four. And you take the
energy of this movie and put it into the Thor character.
(33:12):
So eliminate Thord, Love and Thunder and put aunt Man
there and make it a comedy like the other two,
and then take Thor and put him in this movie
with Came the Conqueror, and I think we would have
had a much better movie and a much better kickoff
to the m c U Phase five, because as much
as I loved comedic Thor and Ragnarok, I think Thor
(33:33):
at his best is when he is angry, when he
is piste off, when he wants to defeat a big villain,
him dropping in and saying bring me Thanos, like that
is the Thor that I like, and we lost that
after Endgame, and then instead of Thor Love and Thunder,
we get this really goofy, jolly Thor in a romantic comedy.
But if we put him in this same situation of
(33:55):
having to take on Came the Conqueror, I feel like
that fight would have been a lot more epic. And
even the similarities in the villains between those two movies,
I think King the Conqueror is what I thought Gore
the God Butcher was going to be in Thor, Love
and Thunder, and I don't really think yet that King
is that Thanos level of villain. I don't think he
(34:16):
has to be that, right, now, which is what everybody
is always going to compare the new villain to. But
he has so much great potential and this was a
very good origin story for him. Above everything else in
this movie, I love the establishment of the character, but
there was nothing that really stood out about this movie.
So I think on its own probably a two point five,
(34:38):
but I love King the Conqueror so much that I'm
gonna bump it up to about a three point five
out of five. Just that character alone, I think is
what the m c you needs right now. And even
though it's not the best m CU movie of all time,
it's not top ten, probably not even top twenty, I
think it did exactly what it needed to do be
a pretty good mid em CU movie, do well the
(35:00):
box office, not really make m c U fans mad,
and instead really give us a look at the direction
that they're going in and set that tone. I think
that was important for this movie. So even though it
wasn't my favorite, I didn't leave the theater completely excited
ready for the next one. Even the end credit scenes
were all right, So I said, go into it with
a little bit lower expectations and you'll still have a
(35:23):
good time at the movies. I give ant Man in
the Wasp Quantum Mania at three point five out of
five Quantum Realms. It's time to head down to movie Mike, Well,
it looks like we are actually gonna get this movie.
The Flash comes out on June three, and I gotta
(35:45):
say this trailer looks super, super slick. The flash Suit
looks amazing, all the Batman running around. Of all the
DC movies coming out this year, I thought this one
had the most potential, but I'm still hesitant towards anything
DC right now. And I felt like this was a
(36:06):
movie they were putting out because they had already spent
all the money on it. They had all the issues
with Ezra Miller and the last couple of years, all
the things that they have been through. So the entire
future of The Flash, I always felt, has been hanging
in the balance. And even with James Gunn hyping this
movie up, saying it's one of the best superhero films
(36:29):
he has seen ever, I was like, I'm not really
buying into that hype yet, but after watching this trailer,
they have my curiosity. I'm not gonna say it. I
won't say it again. I've been burned by black Adam.
I'm not saying I'm excited. I'm not. I'm not excited. Nope,
I am not. Before I get into more of my thoughts,
(36:50):
here is just a little bit of the trailer. I
could fix things. You can also destroy every second, just
keep me happening. I completely broke the universe we've been waiting.
I created a world with no meta humans, and now
(37:12):
there's no one to defend us. You are, Yeah, I'm
bad man. It's that line right there that got me,
so I'm not gonna say it. But before we get
into talking about that, let's talk about The Flash. I
(37:33):
always thought he was the best part of the Justice
League and the chaotic Nous and all the mess that
that movie was. The introduction of his character was great.
The Flash is fresh and fun. He is kind of
like the Spider Man of the d C universe as
far as the movies and the embodiment of the character
being the younger one, everything being new and fun to them,
(37:55):
looking up to the other superheroes. That is what Barry
is in the Justice League and in the Flash solo film,
Barry Allen is trying to change the past in order
to save his mom from dying. And then doing so
he's messing with timeline. So it's kind of like d
C getting into the whole multiverse space, which you find
that is really appeasing to comic book and superhero movie
(38:18):
fans because you can reintroduce characters from other timelines. It
gets people hype, it gets people excited. So I feel
like that is them trying to cash in on what
is working so well right now over in Marvels. But
in doing all these things of changing the past, you
change the future. So in this movie you find not
only multiple Batman, you also find multiple Flashes they're Supergirl
(38:42):
in this movie, and maybe even some more surprises that
they aren't saying yet, which I would find really surprising
for DC to keep anything under wraps, because I think
if they have any kind of star power, they're letting
everybody know, just like they did with Black Adam, and
they quickly let people know that Henry cavill was back
as Superman. They really spoiled the ending to that pretty quick.
And there are some glimpses in this trailer of a
(39:05):
dark night looking Batman motorcycle, you know, the one with
the big wheel. It looks like it's still been afflex
Batman driving it. But I just had a little glimpse
of a Christian Bale Dark Knight era Batman. I don't
think they would do that. I don't think they would
keep that under wraps. But if they did bring that
moment to life on screen, didn't spoil that and that
(39:27):
was a surprise. I think that would be a pretty
big win, especially after taking away Henry cavill as Superman.
And maybe that is what James Gunn is hinting at
as it being one of the best superhero movies of
all time, Like that is a big claim to make.
I feel like there has to be something really big
in this movie to earn that statement. But you do
(39:47):
have Michael Keaton finally returning as Batman. There's been so
much talk about this surrounding, you know, the Batgirl movie,
but now we get the first glimpse of him in
this trailer. And I've always said that my le Keaton
is my favorite Batman because I think he embodies the
character to its fullest, whether he's in the Batman iconic
suit with a yellow logo. Michael Keaton as Batman were
(40:10):
one of the first real superhero movies that I remember
watching so I think between him as Batman, but also
him as Bruce Wayne, altogether, I just think he fully
embodies what it means to be Batman. And I love
Christian Bales Batman in action, but when it comes to
his Bruce Wayne, I'm not entirely in love with it.
I don't feel like his performance there is what made
(40:31):
those movies great. And as much as I love Robert
Pattinson's tag being so different, he's a reclusive, he's weird,
he's a great detective, and he is not a playboy
whatsoever like all the other Bruce Wayne's have been, I
just feel like he's a little bit more of an
alternative Batman, which I really enjoy. But when you talk
about who is the best Batman of all time, I'm
gonna say Michael Keaton ten at at ten times. And
(40:54):
then you also have Ben Affleck returning as Batman, and
I think he gets a little bit more hate than
he deserves as Batman. I think it's a fine Batman,
a good Batman. Even I like him as Bruce Wayne
with a little hints of gray in his hair. I
like the big, bulky Batman, very comic book style looking.
So I've always been a big fan of his suits.
(41:15):
I just think when it comes to him having a
chance to give a great performance, have a really great
script to work with, none of the movies have really
done that for him, so we all just kind of
see and associate with him being a bad Batman. I
don't think that's the case. I just think he hasn't
had the tea up to really give a great performances Batman.
Maybe this movie could be it for him. I also
(41:37):
love the scene with Supergirl in this trailer, So this
movie has a lot of things going for it. I
think the big part is bringing Michael Keaton back because
that will get some old school Batman fans back interested
in wanting to see this movie. I think that will
have a big impact when it comes to the box
office numbers in this movie banking on that nostalgia and
that is the moment everybody was talking about online and
(42:00):
once this trailer dropped. So this movie does have a
lot of promise. And I am mixed, nope, I am
ex side, I am excite. I'm really looking forward to
seeing this movie in theaters again. It comes out on June.
This makes edition of movie, and that's gonna do it.
(42:24):
For another episode here of the podcast, but before I go,
I gotta get my listeners shout out of the week.
How do you do that? All you have to do
is send me an email movie Mike d at gmail
dot com, tweet me, tag me in your Instagram story.
But today's shout out comes from my Instagram and the
comments on my review of You People. So this week's
listener of the week is find your Sales a k
(42:46):
a Alyssa on Instagram, who commented and said, couldn't agree more.
I'm not fully convinced that the writers wanted the audience
to focus on the love story as much as the
dynamic between the parents how it affected the couple's relationship,
but building out that the love story and making sure
they had chemistry was a vital part that was missing
for a lot of us. So a lot of people
had a lot of things to say about You People
(43:08):
and why they didn't enjoy that movie. And this is
the part I really enjoy about doing this podcast is
also seeing what you thought about movies, letting me know
if I was completely off. But I feel like we
all felt collectively about the same about You People. So
shout out to Alyssa and everybody who commented on that video.
You can always check out clips of the show on
my Instagram at TikTok at Mike Destro or watch full
(43:29):
movie reviews on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash
Mike Destro. And until next time, go out and watch
good movies and I will talk to you later
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