That’s right. I’m reviewing all the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in one post. Well, except the two most recent ones which I haven’t seen yet. And I’m doing it all in under 500 words.

Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (2011), Captain American: The First Avenger (2011), Ant-Man (2015), Doctor Strange (2016): These movies all had the same basic plot. A white guy gets superpowers and has to defeat another white guy with the same (or very similar) superpowers in order to save the world. There’s a lot of action scenes brimming with special effects, a romantic interest is usually tacked on, and there’s usually a few half-hearted attempts at humor. The only stand out in this bunch is Doctor Strange because it’s so trippy. It’s probably a good movie to get high to. Ultimately, if you haven’t seen these, you haven’t missed out on anything.

Iron Man 2 (2010), Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014): These sequels give us more of the same things we saw in the first movie. Amongst this batch, I’d say Iron Man 3 stands out because it’s funnier than the rest. Otherwise, if you haven’t seen these, you haven’t missed much.

Marvel’s The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016): In these movies, the superheroes team up and the villain isn’t just an evil version of themselves for once. It’s been a while since I’ve seen The Avengers, but I remember laughing a lot and it being a lot of fun to watch. Age of Ultron had some funny moments, but ultimately, it was rather forgettable. I also didn’t get why the vibranium Ultron was made out of was so much easier to destroy than the vibranium Captain American’s shield was made out of.

Civil War (which, let’s be honest, is really Avengers 3) is the best of the Avengers movies in my opinion. The Avengers have to deal with all the collateral damage they’ve caused. They can’t just ignore the countless innocent people who die when they knock down buildings anymore. The villain isn’t just evil for the sake of being evil; you actually feel sorry for him and understand why he did what he did. Watching the Avengers fight each other was a lot more fun than watching them destroy hoards of robots. It felt like there was more variation in the fight scenes. Also, we learn how Iron Man’s parents died and we actually feel emotion whereas the previous movies only gave us adrenaline and the occasional laugh.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017): In my opinion, these are best movies in the MCU. These have the cool special effects and action sequences of the others, but they’re also a lot more fun, bring more laughs, and are a lot more emotional. The “You killed my mom” moment in Vol. 2 echoed a similar moment in Civil War, but it still packed an emotional punch anyway.

I haven’t seen Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) or Thor: Ragnarok (2017) yet.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.