The Marvel Cinematic Universe - Bracket Style (Part 1)
Today marks one month until the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the latest jewel added to the crown of the greatest superhero franchise of films we have ever known, the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU for short. In honor of this crowning achievement I am unveiling a bracket breakdown of the eighteen films that currently make up the MCU and have shaped our journey to meet the purple headed, long forgotten California raisin known as Thanos.
SEEDING
I struggled mightily with the best way to seed this bracket, the "best way" equating to the most fair process possible. At first I thought I'd rank them in order of my favorites but that is highly subjective and since the rest of the bracket was going to take care of that I wanted the seeding to be more objective. My next option was following the timeline of their release. Seemed like a half decent idea. Knowing with the 18 total films currently making up the MCU there would need to be two play in games, so I could group the years with multiple films together but since almost every year has multiple films that would be rather arbitrary and I'd rather not dilute this prestigious evaluation system of mine with a bias seeding process. Finally, the best solution presented itself. The films have been seeded based on their box office performance as of March 20, 2018. I understand this is slightly unfair to Black Panther as it will undoubtedly overtake the #1 spot by the time it departs theaters but for now its #2. The list also shows three pairs of films separated by less than 1.2 million dollars so I paired the lower two pair together for play in games at the seven and fourteen seeds. The results for the bracket seeding are:
1) The Avengers
2) Black Panther
3) Avengers: Age of Ultron
4) Iron Man 3
5) Captain America: Civil War
6) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
7A) Spider-Man: Homecoming
7B) Guardians of the Galaxy
8) Iron Man
9) Thor: Ragnarok
10) Iron Man 2
11) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
12) Doctor Strange
13) Thor: The Dark World
14A) Thor
14B) Ant-Man
15) Captain America: The First Avenger
16) The Incredible Hulk
Obviously there are some flaws in this structure, such as, Guardians Vol. 2 being seeded higher than the original which was clearly the better film. Similarly surprising is Cap's first film settling just above the wasteland that was The Incredible Hulk (it only seemed like it wasn't that bad because of the Eric Bana backfire edition of Hulk in 2003). Ed Norton likely redeemed the entire Hulk character, for the Avengers series, as Marvel had whiffed once and there was no coming back from a second miss on the big guy. Norton delivered a hell of a performance as Dr. Bruce Banner, only to later be replaced by Mark Ruffalo for the Avengers run, who has certainly earned merit as the best Hulk thus far. One of the other issues is Spider-Man: Homecoming being so high while Thor: Ragnarok barely beat out its two prequels. Ragnarok is far and away the most successful Thor film and Spider-Man's third reboot edition I have to think merely received the success it did due to popularity and name recognition. After all, Spidey is easily the third most notable super hero for current majority generations of MCU viewers after Batman and Superman. Overall, one's preference of the various Spider-man franchises depends on the spider-man you most identify with, are you of the 90's Fox cartoon fandom or comics. If it's the latter which spidey universe (Ultimate, Amazing, Sensational, Spectacular, Fantastic, just to name several) do you prefer? This question likely lines up with your preference of Maguire, Garfield or Holland. Personally I'm still a fan of Sam Raimi's work with Maguire for the first two films anyway, the third one is Rocky 5 material (we don't talk about it). Speaking of Rocky this is the best advice he could provide to the Avengers for their upcoming bout with Thanos and the Black Order:
Iron Man especially seems in need of this advice from the direct hit he takes in the trailer.
Bracket & Play-in Games
Once the bracket was seeded I got to the fun part, evaluating matchup by matchup which film is superior until one overall best film of the MCU was named current champion. I evaluated each film with three weighted criteria to determine who moved on from each matchup:
1) Quality as a stand alone film (35%) - How entertaining is the story outside of the Marvel Universe? Do viewers care about what the characters are doing/experiencing?
2) Character development (35%) - Pretty obvious but you can't build a universe of films if no one cares or is invested in the characters at the heart of it. In order to really get fans invested the characters have to have a rich and relatable backstory and must experience growth through accessible challenges.
3) Contributions to and advancement of the MCU storyline (30%) - how essential and important is the film in the overall framework of the MCU?
Grading Scale for each criteria is A-F.
A range = completely exceeds the needs of the criteria
B range = somewhat exceeds the needs of the criteria
C range = meets the minimal needs of the criteria but leaves some improvement to be desired
D range = fails to meet the minimal needs of the criteria
F range = not only fails to meet the needs of the criteria but what it does do is actually counter productive to the criteria
Seven Seed Play-in
7A) Spider-Man: Homecoming v. 7B) Guardians of the Galaxy
Stand Alone Quality (SAQ): Spider-Man = B; Guardians = A
Character Development (CD): Spider-Man = A; Guardians = B+
MCU Story Arc (MSA): Spider-Man = C-; Guardians = A+
Guardians of the Galaxy was hands down one of the best stand alone films of the entire MCU. Crucial to the core of the Avengers storyline the Guardians integration was a make or break moment for the franchise and this was not just a home run but a grand slam. Handled incorrectly it could have been an unmitigated disaster from which it would have been difficult to recover. Instead James Gunn and his band of screenwriters took the ragtag group made up of a tree, raccoon, green and blue alien respectively led by a terran and packaged them for the common non-comic educated superhero fan. They packaged and wrote their story and characters so well its many a fan's favorite film. Spider-Man: Homecoming also offered a surprisingly strong stand alone performance but at this point with the number of relaunches it should be hard to get the formula for Spidey success wrong. Homecoming gets a slight edge on character development too; thanks to inclusion of the origin and strengthening bond between Stark and Parker. They showcased the nerd side of Peter Parker that is typically the fan favored version. They also overachieved by already delving deep into his moral compass and showing Peter weighing himself down with the power of responsibility and higher purpose by turning down the Avengers role.
Guardians wraps up this victory thanks to its strong and layered contributions to the MCU story arc. From the Kree legions introduction with ties to Vision and Marvel's Agents of Shield to the Collector's role with and explanation of infinity stones. Not to mention alluding to Star-Lord's impactful origin this film far and away outperformed Spidey in this category.
Fourteen Seed Play-in
14A) Thor v. 14B) Ant-Man
SAQ: Thor = D; Ant-Man = C
CD: Thor = C-; Ant-Man = B-
MSA: Thor = B-; Ant-Man = B
Thor's script spent too much time caring about googly eye chemistry between Hemsworth and Portman to truly create a strong stand-alone film. Frankly, Hiddelston's ferocity and depth in his portrayal of Loki is the most redeemable part of this film. At least at it's basest existence they did not make any massive departures in content so it could have been worse. Conversely, Ant-man spends too much time making sure we understand Scott Lang's tried doing the right thing the wrong way, down on his luck, needs a second chance, good at heart, untapped potential persona. I like Paul Rudd's portrayal of Lang and I absolutely think he does the role justice without solely relying on a constant comic relief stream. I will grant you that the comedic fillers were likely meant as a support system for him throughout but I don't think he even needed it to succeed. He knows when to rely on his comedy, this interview with Conan O'Brien proves it, do yourself a favor and watch this and then book mark it for future times when you need a laugh.
No need to drag this out further since its unlikely the winner of this match makes it any further in the bracket. Ant-Man opens the pandora's box that is the multi-verse and spills the can of worms all over the MCU via it's Quantum realm. This inclusion itself merits a C grade minimum as the multi-verse is a huge stepping stone for the future Avengers story lines. On top of that the Captain America and Falcon crossover build an important bridge for Civil War and the Avengers moving forward. Thanks to Thor's fumbling and Ant-Man's major MCU contributions Ant-Man moves on to the opening round.
Make Your Picks on the Poll
(If poll does not appear on mobile device or is not displaying results when you submit please click here to make your picks - sorry for the inconvenience.)
Want to complete your own bracket? You can let me know your winners from each matchup in the poll below. I'll be sure to report back the fan results as I work through each future round. Get your choices in before April 2nd when I post the results of the opening round.
Timeline for remaining rounds
Check back for the future posts breaking down the MCU bracket.
Opening round results - will be posted on April 5
Elite Eight results - will be posted April 11
Final Four results - will be posted April 18
Championship result & Predictions for Infinity War - will be posted on April 24