Given how un-busy my summer is going to be this year, I've planned out a massive MCU re-watch starting in late June, to coincide with the release of Black Widow. Assuming the film has Thursday night preview showings on July 8th, here's what my schedule will be for the MCU re-watch, featuring just the films at the Disney+ shows:
6/24 - Iron Man
6/25 - The Incredible Hulk
6/26 - Iron Man 2
6/27 - Thor
6/28 - Captain America: The First Avenger
6/29 - Avengers
6/30 - Iron Man 3
7/1 - Thor: The Dark World
7/2 - Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1
7/3 - Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
7/4 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Happy Independence Day!!!)
7/5 - Avengers: Age Of Ultron
7/6 - Ant-Man
7/7 - Captain America: Civil War
7/8 - Black Widow
7/9 - Black Panther
7/10 - Spider-Man: Homecoming
7/11 - Doctor Strange
7/12 - Thor: Ragnarok
7/13 - Avengers: Infinity War
7/14 - And-Man & The Wasp
7/15 - Captain Marvel
7/16 - Avengers: Endgame
7/17 - WandaVision (Episodes 1-5)
7/18 - WandaVision (Episodes 6-9)
7/19 - The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (Episodes 1-3)
7/20 - The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (Episodes 4-6)
7/21 - Spider-Man: Far From Home
And depending on the timeline of the show (which might be irrelevant), Loki might come before WandaVision, or after Spider-Man: FFH. Either way, it'll get a re-watch later this summer, definitely before What If...? starts airing, which is supposedly in August at some point.
It's been a couple of years since I've watched most of these films, back when I rewatched them all after Endgame came out, but before/during the release of Far From Home. I think I timed my rewatch schedule around the BD release of Endgame (which would've been around August 2019 I think). Of course, if I happened to have work or am busy otherwise, all dates are subject to change and shuffling, though I do want to try and catch up to Civil War by July 7th so I can be fresh for Black Widow that weekend. And if I am up for it, I'll be sure to post my thoughts on these films as I revisit them!
-Marc.
So I've gotten through the first eight films on my rewatch schedule, and so far so good! After each film, I've been working on giving them a letter-tier ranking, from S-Tier to D-Tier (though I can't really think of any film I would dislike as much, but there might be a couple of C-Tier films). Here are my rankings for the first eight I've rewatched thus far:
S-Tier: Avengers
A-Tier: Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 2
B-Tier: Iron Man 3, Thor, The Incredible Hulk
C-Tier: Thor: The Dark World
Avengers will always be a gold-standard MCU for me, and one that is easily always rewatchable and enjoyable. I also found myself loving CA:TFA more and more with every watch, and recognizing just how great Silvestri's score for that film is, and is probably my favorite score of all of the Phase 1 films (with Avengers closely behind it).
Thor is a pretty fun film, despite it's infinite Dutch angles and Hemsworth's dyed eyebrows, both of which I was glad to see disappear for The Dark World, but the sequel just didn't have as good of a plot or villain as the first Thor. The Dark World gets a *little* better each time I watch it, but its only saving graces are Loki and Frigga. The script just didn't seem to really serve anyone else, even Thor himself, though you can sort of feel there are moments where his humorous side starts to eek out (especially him hanging Mjolnir on the coathanger, which cracks me up every time).
The Iron Man Trilogy, being the first complete trilogy in the MCU, kind of works, but given that Tony was always going to continue in the MCU, being a complete trilogy doesn't really feel right, unless you count his own personal journey of becoming more self-aware and less selfish. They tried to tie up some plot points by the end of IM3, and I like that final scene as a sort of "send off" to that as he tosses his chest arc reactor into the ocean from his destroy mansion remnants, but the trilogy just sort of feels like the first act of Tony's arc (with Age Of Ultron, Civil War, and Homecoming being the second act, and Infinity War and Endgame being his third act).
And as for The Incredible Hulk, watching it again the day after the Shang-Chi trailer dropped felt serendipitous given the reappearance of The Abomination. This Hulk film isn't AWFUL, and many fans might be surprised at how many references and revisits were made to this film later in the MCU, like how Peter Parker's teacher, played by Martin Starr, is the same kid at Culver University that Bruce Banner gives pizza to in the lab, or posters of the green soda later seen in Ant-Man, and of course, the return of Thunderbolt Ross in Civil War. It's wild to me that Ross will also be in Black Widow, and that the next MCU film is Shang-Chi, featuring Blonsky's Abomination - this doesn't feel like a coincidence AT ALL, and I feel like they're gearing it all up for She-Hulk.
Coming up this weekend will be both GOTG films, which I'm watching back to back because Volume 2 takes place only six months after Volume 1, so I'm going pseudo-chronologically (since I can't really go about watching Captain Marvel before most of these films since her tease at the end of Infinity War feels like a better set-up, and watching her film just before Endgame feels more appropriate). And ironically, my schedule allowed watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier on Independence Day, so what better way to celebrate than to watch a film about how a shadowy organization is being undermined by a terrorist group using its technology to target citizens. Woohoo!
-Marc.