Your Guide to Telling The Marvel Movies Apart

In the years since Marvel started its reign over the box office one of the most common criticisms against their films has been that they're too similar to each other.  There are not enough words in this sentence to link to all the times I've proven my love for superheroes but even I have to admit there's a problem.  It's not a very big problem because even the Marvel movies that stand out the least from the rest tend to be mediocre at worst, but it's a problem nonetheless and one that can certainly be fixed. Fortunately there are several entries in the Marvel canon that prove the studio is capable of branching out and there have been since the beginning.

Iron Man was the movie that started it all and set the tone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a lot of ways.  It was also a huge gamble and they couldn't be sure that it would pay off so it absolutely had to stand on it's on.  Director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. did a terrific job of crafting a fun, grounded, vaguely political action movie.  The MCU would never again be as realistic as that first film about a billionaire in a metal suit with rocket boots and gloves.  Iron Man 2 was the first to really hone the Marvel formula.  It's flashier and more lighthearted than its predecessor with more quips and bigger action sequences.  It was the first Marvel movie to really look and feel like a Marvel movie.

In between those two there was The Incredible Hulk.  I went over that one pretty extensively a while back, but the Reader's Digest version is that it's too different for its own good.  The look and tone is noticeably distinct from the rest of the MCU and a different actor played the titular Hulk than the one in The Avengers.  As a result it tends to be swept under the rug by the studio and fans alike, even though it is a pretty solid movie.

After Iron Man 2 came Thor.  Despite a host of Shakespearean dialogue and cosmic/mythological characters and settings, Thor is very recognizable as a Marvel movie.  Surprisingly, it's a little lacking in action but it still has the standard tone and humor.  Captain America: The First Avenger followed Thor.  Aside from it's spin-off TV show Agent Carter, The First Avenger is the only period piece in the MCU.  It tells of Captain America's origins and adventures during World War II.  As such, it looks more like Raiders of the Lost Ark than a modern superhero movie.  Director Joe Johnston excels at this kind of period piece and it shows.

Then there's The Avengers; the Marvel formula finally perfected.  A flawless comic book action movie.  Every joke, punch, and teardrop lands with the precision of an Olympic archer, which is ironic since the biggest flaw is the handling of Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye.  The stakes are high and the final battle is appropriately epic.  It's everything anyone could have asked for from the meeting of Marvel's heroes and the centerpiece of their universe.

The next year Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World were released.  Neither one ventures very far from the formula but the former is executed much better than the latter.  Iron Man 3 is one of the more lighthearted and comedy-heavy MCU movies while The Dark World is mostly just dull and attempts to be as dark as promised without any real losses.

The year after that Marvel tried to take some more risks with Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of The Galaxy.  Of the two, Guardians is surprisingly the one that plays it safest.  Winter Soldier is a political espionage thriller that happens to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe while Guardians is simply an MCU movie set in space.  There's a bit of director James Gunn's offbeat sensibilities in Guardians but by and large it looks and feels like a standard outing for Marvel.

Then everyone came together again for Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Where The Avengers was perfectly crafted and almost universally beloved, Age of Ultron is much more divisive.  It's darker, stranger, and more operatic than all of its predecessors, not just The Avengers.  All problems aside, few could honestly say that Age of Ultron was exactly what they expected.

Finally, there's Ant-Man, which is oddly like The Avengers in that it is the Marvel formula perfected, but also condensed.  Thanks to a brisk pace and short run time, Ant-Man is exceptionally fun and over before you know it, leaving you wanting more.

Next year Marvel is releasing the third Captain America movie, Civil War and their first Doctor Strange.  Civil War is directed by the Russo brothers who also directed Winter Soldier, so it will hopefully be as different as its predecessor, but not too different from its predecessor.  Doctor Strange presents the best opportunity yet for Marvel to get away from themselves.  The title character operates in the world of mysticism and the occult, quite different from the science fiction of their usual fare, with the questionable exception of Thor.  One can only hope they'll take advantage of the opportunity.