With the Marvel Cinematic Universe already at the halfway point in Phase 4, it’s time to reflect on the 10 years we’ve had of cinematic flavor. Not all of the movies have been amazing (I’m saving that for the next post), but there have been a lot that I love to turn on nowadays and just sit through in the same amazement. This list is not in any order and is not a definitive list meant to demean you or anyone else. (Gotta warn the nerds who don’t touch grass. It’s just a list, be cool.)

Starting it off now with the first movie to start the entire MCU that we all know and love, Blade The Incredible Hulk Iron Man!

This movie cleverly depicted the exact tone and quality going forward that they’ve stayed true on. From Robert Downey Jr’s depiction of the playboy machinist to the wall-shattering action scenes and story, we were treated very well during this movie. Disney made the right choice starting with this movie and I’m glad to have been able to experience this when I could.

Wait, I’m gonna need a minute seeing Chadwick Boseman again.

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…Okay, I’ll type the rest of this with the tears still falling.

This is the movie I didn’t know they could do so well. It was EVERYTHING I needed to the symbolism of the African dialect coming together to the AfroPunk culture with Wakanda’s tech to even the message between the antagonist, Killmonger, and his people who he had been displaced from forcefully. Culturally an amazing movie, a great cast, and such a dope soundtrack from Kendrick Lamar. We’ll never get this caliber again.

An amazing culmination of 10 years of Marvel movies made the ending sting all the more as the villain proved to be way too resourceful as the build-up of characters worked in and out of sync to thwart his plans. Josh Brolin, who got a bag playing the alternative NOT-Disney Marvel movie character Cable, was the key component for this. This movie being a leg-up from its own sequel, Endgame, means they had the formula right the whole time.

I lied earlier, THIS is my favorite Marvel movie of all time! I love the introduction of The Black Falcon, the effects of blind patriotism, the Marvin Gaye theme, and how much Bucky was literally torn off the comic pages versus ANY other character adaptation! This is my go-to movie if I want to immerse myself and trust me, you’ll want to as well. The shame in this movie is that we went from this mature, fleshed-out Captain America to WHATEVER Joss Whedon did to him in Avengers 2 (more on that later). It’s a damn shame Disney isn’t going more this route as of late. Enjoy this movie with a Jack and Coke at the latest! (No underage drinking!)

And finally: The movie we couldn’t get off of for years! Released the same year as the Dark Knight Rises (and for some reason, was in direct competition) Avengers was the direct efforts of the past three Avenger-lite introduction movies of Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, with Hulk being a continuation from the previous Hulk movie so no solo for him. An amazing sequence leading up to the team efforts against Loki as each member must learn to work with one another in the Nick Fury directed team. Also, Chris Cornell on the credits was such a nice touch (I love Soundgarden!)

And there you go, my 5 favorites! Which ones did you like the most in your list? I love to do these positive lists, but I never get to do any negative ones.

So next post will fix that! Enjoy!