With lower stakes and a lighter touch, Ant-Man is largely successful when it sticks to this approach (and somewhat less so when it doesn’t), adding more dimension and flavor — sometimes quite literally — to the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Age of Ultron is certainly a success (and an improvement on the first Avengers film), but the whole is less than the sum of its absurdly expensive parts.
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Guardians of the Galaxy expands the potential of the MCU pretty vastly, properly introducing not just the Infinity Stones and Thanos, but also a cast of characters and deep-space locations that greatly stretch the scope of what can be included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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A near-masterpiece of modern blockbuster cinema, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the best action movies of its era and is as good as Marvel movies get.
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The Dark World‘s reputation as one of the weaker chapters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is deserved, but it’s still fun and above average in quality, with the cast being more than game for the adventure.
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Iron Man 3 is certainly decent enough with terrific action, but it’s a forgettable entry into the MCU canon without much of a reason to exist. Although it’s the first movie in the MCU’s Phase Two, the truth is it represents more of a dead end than the beginning of something new.
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A fun but somewhat frustrating film, The Avengers is an A+ production with a C+ story that is entirely forgettable.
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The best MCU Phase One movie, Captain America: The First Avenger may be yet another superhero origin story film, but it fuses elements of Indiana Jones into the narrative in a way that continues to feel fresh years later.
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Thor is another fun-but-flawed entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, possessing a stellar cast that makes do with a story that isn’t the strongest.
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While not an outright bad movie by any means, Iron Man 2 is certainly a misfire by MCU standards. Though it’s suitably spectacular, Iron Man 2 is noticeably less than the sum of its parts and is inferior to its predecessor.
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