Eternals faced an uphill battle, as it was one of the first movies to get caught up in Covid-19 delays. While it originally completed shooting in February 2020, the bulk of its post-production was handled remotely, and reshoots had to be done nearly 10 months later. Add several delays due to movie theater closures, and fans ended up waiting about three years to see it. But rather than an easy slide into this new world of the Eternals—an alien race of immortal superheroes who have been living in secrecy for thousands of years—audiences got a full-on, Avengers-style epic they weren’t quite ready for. While the film garnered praise for its sumptuous visuals and innovative direction by Chloé Zhao, and for bringing a whole new philosophical bent to the MCU, it ultimately felt like a futile exercise.
The largely forgotten Marvel movie, The Incredible Hulk, followed closely on the heels of Iron Man’s success but was a critical and commercial flop relative to the other films in the series. Edward Norton did a perfectly fine job as Bruce Banner, but the story goes that he wanted more creative control than a tightly related web of movies would allow, so he was replaced by Mark Ruffalo before The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble) four years later. The film feels very dark and gloomy compared to the brightness of Marvel’s later efforts, and the CGI has not aged well. Most importantly, recasting with such a different actor meant that the events of this film have largely been ignored ever since. A number of seeds were planted that never bore fruit, and Banner’s emotional backstory and relationship with Betty Ross were never mentioned again. In March 2023, it was announced that Tyler would reprise her role in the upcoming Captain America: New World Order, which is set to be released on July 26, 2024.
Iron Man 2 was certainly not up to the task of matching or surpassing the success of its cinematic predecessor. Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the titular superhero, going head-to-head with the US government, which is worried about what could happen if Tony Stark’s tech falls into the wrong hands. Officials spend so much time pestering Stark that a new threat escapes their notice—in the form of Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, a Russian physicist who’s got a bone to pick with Stark. Mickey Rourke, fresh off his Oscar-nominated role in The Wrestler, has spent the past decade-plus trashing the movie and the MCU’s “crap acting,” which hasn’t helped the film’s legacy.
Thor: The Dark World, one of the few genuinely bad entries in the MCU series, was beset by problems from the start, including extensive rewrites and even director changes. Despite all that work put into making the best picture possible, the plot, which features Dark Elves, frost monsters, and a malicious substance called the Aether, feels a bit distant. Fortunately, Thor managed to rebound with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.
If Downey’s final solo outing as Iron Man marked the end of an era, it would best be summed up as an era of mediocre movies starring a massive talent, making the end of them far less sad for filmgoers. The plot of the third film revolves around Tony Stark’s PTSD in the wake of the Battle of New York as he takes on The Mandarin, a mysterious figure who turns out to be a debauched actor in a television studio. The Avengers’ second group outing, Avengers: Age of Ultron, is a joyous jumble of a movie in which the superheroes start to really click as a team. Stark’s mad-scientist-playing-God routine spirals out of control in a good way when he blends Asgardian heirlooms with AI and advanced robotics. The Avengers end up having to battle Ultron, a Terminator-esque abomination with some unsurprising designs on the future of humankind. After the monster bot is obliterated, a glimpse of Thanos’ purple mug reminds us that this was likely all part of a wider plot. The Rogue superheroes doing Ultron’s bidding provide extra fun.
Thor: Love and Thunder feels a little too familiar to its predecessor to fully stand out on its own. Chris Hemsworth is charming as the flawed and vulnerable God of Thunder, forced out of retirement to stop a new enemy, Gorr the God Butcher, from achieving his destructive goals. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness feels like it exists just outside of the MCU or as connective tissue between segments of the MCU rather than a full-fledged solo effort. The movie does, however, feature some of the franchise’s most notable talents and brings director Sam Raimi back to his Evil Dead roots, appealing to superhero aficionados and horror movie fans alike.
While there are some duds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and his colleagues have done an incredible job of turning out some solid films. As the MCU continues to grow, fans are eagerly anticipating the releases of upcoming films like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which kicked off Phase Five of the MCU. This solo outing is decidedly darker and is set to see Paul Rudd step into a role as the face of the future of the MCU much in the same way that Robert Downey Jr. did for Phase One. Despite some films falling short of expectations, the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains a beloved and culturally significant entertainment juggernaut that has captured the imaginations of viewers for more than a decade.
