Jason's Movie Blog

Well, folks. Here’s another editorial for you all. Welcome the first “Jason and Adam’s Editorial Debate”, an on-going series that me and my good friend Adam Lydard are going to be having with various movie topics. As it goes, either him or I will start one topic and then the other will counteract it with a rebuttal. Its simple, effective, and you guys decided who wins. Our first topic to debate about is on which is our favorite MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) so far.

For those who don’t know (if you have been living under a rock), the MCU is a shared cinematic universe of Marvel characters, villains, and superheroes. Since it began in 2008 with film Iron Man, the MCU has become a dominant and juggernaut powerhouse, raking in millions and the box offices and gaining movie followers from longtime comic books fans to causal moviegoers. As of June 2016, Marvel has released 13 movies under the MCU brand name, which are listed below:

Phase 1

Iron Man (2008)

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Thor (2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Avengers (2012)

Phase 2

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Ant-Man (2015)

Phase 3 (So Far)

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Adam has written his part already (I still got to do mine). So….without further ado….here’s Adam’s thought his favorite MCU Movie (So Far).

First, I wanted to say thank you to anyone who reading my Deadpool post (Post-Deadpool: Where do Comic Book Movies Go From Here?).  I really appreciated that. It was my first post I wrote about anything and I would like to thank my friend Jason for asking me to write something about the movie. It was an honor that he asked me.  So thank you all for that.

Anyway, let’s get to the point shall we. I like having this conversation with my friends so I figured why not try it as an article. I can’t tell you how many times Jason and I have had this debate and our opinion couldn’t be further apart. That is the beauty of this debate. Finding out which moving is better is interesting because the movie you find your favorite is not always the character you like the best. My favorite is an interesting one, because I didn’t read the comics on him. I wasn’t really a huge fan of him before the movie came out. I’ll admit that. Some of the characters we are getting, I have not read the marvel comics on. For example, Doctor Strange was not a character that I read. I couldn’t care less about him. He was not interesting to me. But that is the beauty because some of us, if you are like me, do not go to see these movies just for the characters. Some I do, but most of them I do not. So without further ado, my favorite movie (and by proximity its sequels) has been the original Iron Man and he is why.

The first reason is because I think they took a guy who wasn’t really interesting to me and made him interesting and intriguing. From the little I read about him, he sounded like Batman and I thought Batman was boring. (Still do. I don’t care how much iterations they do of him. Won’t change my mind). A guy in a suit doesn’t intrigue me at all. To me, a hero was supposed to have cool powers. That is what I took out of comic book heroes when I was a kid. I am 31 now and I know there is a little more that makes a hero then their powers. But anyway, Iron Man didn’t have powers. I take that back, he did have powers. His money. I didn’t like that idea at all. A guy with all the money he had/has, he decided to build a suit. Wasn’t interested. Now, when I went to see the movie that all changed. They really didn’t any new dimensions to the character, but what the movie did for me was that it made me look at Tony Stark in a totally different way than when I was a kid reading the comics. The struggle he had to become Iron Man was better known on film. Pepper Potts was way more interesting to me (and not just because of Gwyneth Paltrow). What also helped was getting Robert Downey Jr. to play Tony Stark. Downey Jr. is a tremendous gifted actor and its clear in the movie that he has “goods” to be a leading man as well as a superhero character that’s both playful with witty banter and serious when his character needs to be. While several actors have been casted in in single superhero role in various film iterations (the character of Bruce Banner / Hulk that’s been played by Erica Bana, Edward Norton, and now Mark Ruffalo), Robert Downey Jr. completely owns the role of Tony Stark. As he says at the end of the movie “I am Iron Man”. And I couldn’t agree more!

The movie was also done well. It didn’t drag on or even over populate the movie, not until they got to Iron Man 3. For the most part, the movie stood as a proper origin story for such a impactful character in the MCU, which is true if you think about. The first 2 movie had a simple plot that was solid in my opinion, but it also made it clear that this is about Iron Man and his direction to get to The Avengers. Unlike the other that try to develop The Avengers story as well as the main plot of the standalone movie. Don’t get me wrong, others have been done well like Captain America and a few others, but I still pick Iron Man as my favorite. To this day I say it is still the best movie in the Marvel Universe. Again, some of you may disagree and that’s fine. No one can change my mind on that one (not even Jason). No matter how hard he tries.

So there you have guys…Adam’s favorite MCU movie (so far) is the original Iron Man movie, the one that started it all. What will I decided and the reasons behind that decision? You’ll find out in my next post (which should be out in a week). What do you guys think? Do you agree or disagree with Adam?