The Proper Re-Watching Order for MCU Movies Prior to the Next "Avengers" Film.

We've seen several lists online supposedly giving people the best watching list for those MCU movies that lead up to the events of "Avengers Infinity War" and it's upcoming sequel. Frankly, they're all terrible. They either omit films with direct references in them or basically list nearly every film released in some bizarre "learn who the characters are" approach.

We realized after looking at those other lists that the authors of them seemed to be stuck in introductory mode. Instead, ours presumes you have seen most of the films and are interested in just re-watching those that connect to the main thread of the first three Phases.

Below, we attempt to list the actual relevant films in order:


Captain America: The First Avenger- Five movies in, this is literally the first MCU film that directly references the Infinity Stones. It also serves as a beginning point for the entire series as it takes place earlier than any other film so far. The Tesseract, as it's referred to in the movies, is the Soul Stone and the main quest of the movie's protagonist.

Thor: This one can also be watched first, but the events of Loki's fall from false grace lead directly into the first Avengers film.

The Avengers- This one's a no-brainer because it is centered around the moment an Infinity Stone is being used to try and subjugate all of humanity. We also catch a glimpse of Thanos, albeit in slightly different form.

Iron Man 3- There's no real Infinity War connection in this one but it deals with Tony Stark's/Iron Man's PTSD following the events of the Battle of New York in "The Avengers" and sets up his lack of sound judgment by the time the second Avengers rolls around.

Captain America: Civil War- Easily in the top three MCU movies, this one sets up the eventual conflict between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, introduces us to the modern-day Hydra, the Winter Soldier, Black Panther and Wakanda and The Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D

Guardians of the Galaxy- Not a beloved movie by at least one of this blog's authors, it can't be denied that is sets up the whole "cosmic" angle of the MCU, gives us a history lesson on Infinity Stones and shows us Thanos in a speaking role for the first time. That makes it essential viewing.

Avengers: Age of Ultron- This is the movie that ramps up the bad decisions Tony Stark starts making. It features the Infinity Stone from the first movie, Stark's attempt to create an Earthly defense system that morphs into a psychotic, egocentric android, and the creation of the Vision.

Doctor Strange- Probably the most Infinity Stone-connected film in the series, this one shows us there's another Infinity Stone on Earth, that there are magic wielders, that time travel is a definite option and that there are not just other planets but other dimensions.

Black Panther- This one has a tenuous connection to the Infinity Stone storyline, but it does expand on Wakanda, the Earthly showdown location in "Infinity War" and gives us a better idea of why and how they're so much more advanced than the rest of the world.

Thor: Ragnarok- We find out where Thor has been during all the tumult on Earth as well as what happened to Loki after he pretended to be Odin in the second Thor film (that one wasn't included because of its storyline). We also get an even larger view of the cosmic side of the MCU and, most importantly, it ends mere minutes before the events of "Infinity War."

Happy re-watching!

A Discussion on the apparent Oscar-worthiness of "Black Panther"

Most of us remember a time when genre films, i.e. science fiction, horror, fantasy, were regularly dismissed by the Academy Awards as disposable, silly kiddie fare. Those days appear to be at an end, however, as generations of people who grew up on genre movies and books have started influencing the box office in a very different direction. Plus, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done a pretty good job of establishing the comics medium as not only a popular format for adapting to the big screen, it has also proven that quality writing and film making and acting can "elevate" the medium. That word is in quotes because the presumption that comic books needed to be elevated at all is a debatable one.

After nineteen successful movies in its ongoing franchise, the MCU has finally achieved an Oscar nomination with "Black Panther," the massive hit about a secret African nation called Wakanda that was only pretending to be an agro-economy but is actually the most advanced nation on Earth. The Black Panther is the nation's king and he...you know what? If you're clueless enough not to know about this shit a year after it came out, do your own damn research.

Below is the conversation that took place between T&C. We agreed to make this our first discussion post because we disagree about this movie's Oscar worthiness.

T: Did you hear about "Black Panther" being nominated for Oscars?
C: Ridiculous.
T: WHAT!?
C: Ri-cock-ulous?
T: "Black Panther" was awesome. I do believe "Logan" warranted a few nominations but I think "Black Panther" earned the ones listed. I would have a problem if it got nominated for best special effects.
C: Because the effects often looked fake and unfinished or because that's the award they throw at every genre film?
T: The first part.
C: The third act was where that movie's effects really started to shine. Up until then the effects work was very uneven.
T: But the actual nominations are well-deserved.
C: The acting was sub-par,.The writing was uneven. The direction was amateurish. It was an enjoyable movie at best but certainly nowhere near Oscar caliber.
T: Wow.
C: Why are you acting like this is a surprise? We saw it together. I'm sure you could tell how unimpressed I was.
T: True.
C: I didn't want to say anything when we saw it but much of the time I was bored out of my mind even more than I was during "Civil War." This type of film is not Ryan Coogler's thing. Maybe Ridley Scott was right.
*Ridley Scott recently criticized movie studios for giving huge movies to directors with no experience and, in his view, it shows.
T: As far as the acting, I did find Forrest Whitaker annoying and was glad when Kilmonger killed him but I was fine with everybody else. He had the worst accent.
C: Yeah, when the hell did he become such a bad actor? He was one of the greats! I'm thinking of his scenery chewing in "Rogue One."
T: He was annoying in that, too! I was glad glad to see him him die in that as well.
C: Me too.
T: I don't think he's a bad actor, I just believe his acting has a limited range of versatility and both movies were WAAAYYYY beyond his range.
C: If he were here, he'd give you Forrest Whitaker eye.
T: He wouldn't be able to help himself.
C: Getting back to "Black Panther," I felt the movie fell into the same category as "Captain America Civil War" and "Spider-Man: Homecoming." Over-hyped movies that fell short and were a mess on most levels until their respective third acts. Marvel really knows how to make a third act pay off.
T: What!? No.
C:

T: LOL!!!
C: Discussion over?
T: Okay, "Civil War" definitely matches that description. "Spider-Man: Homecoming" gets a borderline "yes" and "Justice League" gets a "hell yes!" Oh, and the theatrical cut of "Batman vs. Superman."
C: Don't bring DC into this, you Marvel Zombie! Although you have a point with Spidey. It would have needed a plot to qualify for that description.
T; I agree. I believe what they were trying to do was get straight to the point and spend as little time on the origin story as possible. It's been told enough times.
C: His and Batman's...and that one guy they names Xmas after.
T: Heathen.
C: Look, "Black Panther: is definitely a film that belongs in the Smithsonian for its cultural significance and all the records it set and having the character as part of the MCU opens up a lot of possibilities. But if I have to judge the award merits based on the film as conceived and produced, I don't feel it deserves a Best picture nomination. "Logan," on the other hand, did and was robbed. Actually, the acting in the X-Men franchise is often vastly superior to the MCU. "Days of Future Past" might be the best acted comic book team movie of all time. Here come the hate comments.
T: Actually, I can't hate you for that one.
C: I didn't mean you.
T: I know.
C: Again, I didn't hate the movie. I enjoyed it overall. Maybe if it had come out ten years earlier, I would've been right there praising it as some cinematic revelation but there's been a lot of competition. I still consider "Winter Solder" the gold standard for MCU films.
T: That's a great choice.
C: You're starting to agree with me, aren't you?
T: Nope!
C: Don't you want to yell, "Wakanda Forever"?
T: I'll wait until it takes home the Best Picture Oscar.
C: That would be amazing. An actual high quality superhero movie could win next time.
T: Dick.

...AND THEN THESE MFs SHOWED UP....

...and everything went to hell.

To be fair, this blog has been in the works for at least five years. With all the chatter and cross-chatter and unbearable horseshit occurring in the world of genre film, how could we not add a bit of our own? One thing we can guarantee you we won't be adding, however, is hatefulness just for its own hipster-infested sake. That's not what we're about.

Sure, there will be hostile reviews from time-to-time but they won't be presented in some insular, basement-dwelling fashion for no other reason than to troll web pages and sites that have the nerve to provide a discussion format. So, this is probably a good place to introduce ourselves, first individuals and then as a duo:

Christopher Nadeau is a published author of two novels and over three dozen short stories as well as many articles on subjects ranging from museums to politics to film news and reviews and even local events. He has been a comic book fan all of his life and saw the original "Star Wars" during its original release when he was young enough to be brainwashed for life. His writing was once compared to Ray Bradybury's by English horror author Ramsey Campbell and he has studied science fiction writing with Professor James Gunn and Frederik Pohl. He is also highly critical of himself, which means he's just as critical of hacks and filmmakers, writers and artists who take the easy way out. To know him is to love him but since you won't ever really know him, you'll probably hate him. He's fine with that as long as you don't try to get him to watch the second and third "Matrix" movies.

T.E. Johnson is a lifelong comics fan as well as a union man who has embarrassed many a corporate weasel in his time. He understands that it's okay to like two competing franchises, sometimes equally, and has little patience for trolling fanboys/girls who want to start keyboard wars over ridiculous nonsense. His background in Labor Relations has afforded him a unique perspective on the human mind and how group-think influences people. He uses this knowledge to try and make people who aren't used to using logic think logically. He lives in America so his efforts have borne little fruit. Now he's here, on a blog with his childhood friend with whom he has discussed the types of movies they will be reviewing for longer than either of them would care to admit.

Now that you know us intimately, we're ready to get this bad boy rolling. Check back in the next day or more for our first film review. We chose to start with "Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse" because it's animated, it's playing now, and the title is dumb enough to necessitate a great movie. Or is it?

Return to this page soon to find out!