 The Fantastic Four, a classic Marvel property, has always had trouble getting off the ground as a motion picture. For crying out loud, there was a '94 version that never got released because it was so bad, yet it was supposedly the most faithful to the source material. From that, one must wonder how it could ever be anything very successful. These characters are among the most delicate to work around in filmmaking because, at their core, they're downright cheesy and straight out of the '60s.
Much like 'Superman,' these heroes need to be of the more light and colourful variety instead of dark and brooding, which has its place in things like 'Batman' or 'Venom,' but not 'Fantastic Four,' as the 2015 film so brutally illustrated. I always thought the 2005 film was not quite as bad as people let on, but its sequel, 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' dropped the ball entirely with their horrendous take on Galactus. Most critics have the opposite view, but that's just another example of me "going against the grain." All in all, however, 'Fantastic Four' seems to be one of those things destined to fail, unless someone can get the right formula down; enter the MCU's 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' which I think is probably our best 'F4' movie to date because they finally found some filmmakers who thought outside of the box and bring baby Franklin (Ada Scott) into the mix. I'm not gonna get into detail about how that can change everything as we know it in the MCU, but he's a big deal. This story takes place on Earth 828, where the 60s are a little more advanced in technology, and things look like what a 60s-based future may look like to us. However, here, it's around 1964, and The Fantastic Four, consisting of genius scientist Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), his wife, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), best friend and pilot, Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and brother-in-law, Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) are a well-established Avengers-like group for this particular Earth. It's soon revealed that Sue is pregnant. Before we know it, the Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner), the Herald for Galactus (Ralph Ineson), shows up, and warns Earth that they've been targeted for extermination. Galactus is a powerful cosmic entity with an insatiable hunger for other planets, chosen by the Surfer. As Earth's protectors, the Fantastic Four head into space to make contact with Galactus and negotiate for the safety of their planet. However, Galactus asks for too high a cost; their son, Franklin, whom Galactus has his reasons for wanting, without giving too much away. What I appreciate about this chapter of the MCU is that nothing gets complicated, and it feels like the film brings things somewhat back to basics. This didn't require any prior TV or film viewings to work. It feels like a good beginning to the end of the Multiverse Saga, introducing us to a whole new yet classic team that we're bound to see fighting alongside our favourite MCU characters in the upcoming 'Avengers' back-to-back. All in all, this was a solid superhero movie, and it finally felt right when it comes to bringing Fantastic Four to the screen, namely with that '60s aesthetic. I enjoyed this for its incredible visual effects, which provided a lot of badass scenes, like, for example, the Silver Surfer riding on a wave of Johnny Storm's fire during a chase sequence. It combined that '60s feel with a powerful cosmic feel incredibly well. As far as the heroes go, they all showcase their abilities quite well, thanks to montages that don't require an extensive origin story. I will say this, however. I went in overhyped, imagining various possibilities and potential outcomes, but didn't quite get what I wanted. But that doesn't mean the film isn't a solid addition to the MCU's recent history. 4/5
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 Quickly becoming a personal favourite of mine in the "Multiverse Saga," 'Thunderbolts*' brings together a handful of underdog, second-fiddle anti-heroes in a way that not only refreshes our memories on things a bit but does so in a way that seems to advance things in the MCU finally, as well as making connections to upcoming MCU projects, which so many stingers have failed to do since the "Multiverse Saga" began, with a few exceptions. Thankfully, however, Marvel has listened to us again.
'Thunderbolts*' offered something slightly different for the MCU, although one could easily compare them to DC's 'Suicide Squad,' conceptually. Either way, it's nice to see some familiar, likeable faces again in their roles as mercenaries, working for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is involved with the O.X.E. Group's "Sentry" project. The film opens with one of Valentina's mercs, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), destroying a lab in Malaysia to cover up Valentina's involvement. Yelena, wanting change in her life, communicates this to Valentina, who, in turn, sends her on a final mission to take out a target. Here, however, Yelena runs into John Walker, a.k.a. U.S Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr, a.k.a. Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov, a.k.a. Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), all of whom find a new enemy in Valentina, as she sent them all there to destroy each other. They also meet a guy named Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman), who is hiding in the facility, and they take him with them while attempting to escape the facility. But some notice that there's something just a little strange about Bob. In the meantime, Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. Red Guardian (David Harbour), is living as a freelance chauffeur, who, one day, overhears Valentina's plans as he's driving her, realizing Yelena (his daughter) is in over her head, and he soon sets out to find her. Eventually, they all cross paths with Congressman Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. (ex-) Winter Soldier, who plans to use them to testify at Valentina's impeachment. But it's not long before this rag-tag team finds themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation that would regularly call for the Mighty Avengers, who are all preoccupied in one way or another. It's safe to say that when a teetering MCU fan watches a 'Thunderbolts*' trailer, they might wonder about some characters they may not have seen yet. But I feel there's enough here, either subtly mentioned or said outright, that gives a bit of a recap on things, at least as much as one would need to know. With a film like this, that's necessary because to play true "catch-up" with this, you're looking at a ton of viewing material. Not only does it do a good job of recapping things on a need-to-know basis, but it also fuels the desire to go back and watch some of these things again to see if we get more out of it. Something I always appreciate is the film's take on what could be considered dark mental health problems, not in a way that feels particularly "woke," but in a way that genuinely flows with the character(s) involved. It's a story about overcoming hopelessness and fighting to find the light in any dark situation. I must further give the movie kudos for the secret behind the astrix in the film's title, which IS revealed but will not be here. And to top it all off, the stinger here feels much closer to how things used to be, as it's simple, to the point, and doesn't provide a whole bunch of question marks with it as so many have since 'Endgame.' In many ways, I agree with other reviews I've read and seen online that something about 'Thunderbolts*' feels right again, as if they've gone back to basics. I have a bit of a bias towards the film and some of its subject matter, namely the good old underdog concept, but I can honestly say something about this movie felt more "at home." This movie has an all-around human relatability that hasn't felt quite present in a while - maybe that's just me. However, as far as the Multiverse Saga goes, this is easily one of the most pleasant surprises the MCU has to offer. 5/5 Edit Coming 08/24/26  Before we get into it, I will warn that while I will try to keep this completely spoiler-free, there may very well still be aspects to the plot that one might not want given to them. I would recommend that the reader sees the movie first, and then reads my review. Marvel and Disney have been doing a fantastic job of keeping things under their hat as far as things go, and in this review things will probably be revealed such as why we see a '20th Century Fox' logo that seems to have fallen into a desert. But I promise NO cameo spoilers, as that's kind of the big one.
This all kicks off with Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) back in 2018, using the time travelling device he got from Cable in the last film. Not only is he able to use it to travel back and forth in time, but he can also use it to jump timelines altogether, and thus, dimensions. This is illustrated as he leaves Earth-10005 (the Fox universe) to Earth-616 (the MCU), meeting Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and interviewing to become an Avenger, ultimately being rejected, but ultimately showing us exactly where this crosses over into MCU territory. Several years later, Wade has decided to hang up the costume. He has since broken up with his Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), although still on friendly terms, and gotten a job as a used car salesman with Peter (Rob Delaney). His now normal, if a bit depressing life, however, is quickly interrupted by the TVA (Time Variance Authority), made famous through the series 'Loki'. They kidnap him, and drag him to their base of operations where he meets Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who offers him a chance to become part of Earth-616. Although at first, Deadpool is ready to be a part of something much bigger, Paradox informs him that his wolrd is deteriorating due to the loss of what is referred to as its anchor being; the character that keeps it all together. In Earth-10005's case, that being is Logan (Hugh Jackman). Now, in order to try to save his world, Deadpool has to find a new Wolverine to bring to his world to re-establish an anchor being, and hopefully bring things back to normal. Unfortunately, however, Wade ends up with the "worst" Wolvie in the multiverse. This is where I'm gonna stop with explanation of the plot, because it takes us a while to get to where the fans watching will start going crazy, and that's pretty much the gist of the plot anyway. The only real thing to add is that we are eventually introduced to the film's villain, Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), who, when it comes right down to it, she's a pretty typical power-hungry villain, and I still feel like I'd be giving far too much away if I got into her motivations. She wants to take control of everything in the multiverse, let's put it that way. Understandably, my readers might be a little miffed at how much I actually have been holding back, but as I said from the get-go, despite my heads-up about it, I do want this to be spoiler-free, so I don't really want to give anyone more than the trailers already have. One thing I can say about it, however, is that if you've ever been a comic book/superhero movie fan of any calibre, I can highly recommend it. Not only are the cameos awesome and even somewhat unexpected, but there's some nostalgia to this in Easter egg form that reaches back to the 90s. This movie was a hell of a lot of fun, and it works very well as both a fond farewell to the Fox universe (yet again), and acts as a solid MCU bridge movie between 'The Marvels' and 'Cap: BNW'. This is the breather that MCU fans have needed for a while now. It steps outside of the typical, and like both 'DP' films before this, the filmmakers just kept an ear up to the fans, and there feels like a lot of "FINALLY!" to this movie, not the least of which involves Wolvie's yellow and blue, comic-accurate outfit. So if you've ever wanted to see a Marvel fan's dream come true with cameos and crossovers aplenty, definitely check it out! POST-CREDIT SCENE: Deadpool gives his audience video footage of what exactly Johnny Storm said about Cassandra Nova to prove he didn't make any of it up. 5/5 Edit Coming 06/29/26  It might be kind of lame, but I have a tendency to keep track of this Marvel franchise as far as interests are concerned. For example - trailer that successfully got me the most hyped, 'Guardians 2', or 'Black Widow' being the only MCU movie I've missed on the big screen (thanks, Covid, ya dink). 'Eternals' here holds a personal record as well - longest I've waited to watch an MCU movie. I mean, here I am finally getting around to it two weeks after its release.
Personally, this one never really grabbed me with its trailers. It certainly doesn't help that 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' released its trailers that overshadowed this so hard that it practically disappeared. You might think because it's new, unfamiliar territory, but 'Guardians' definitely pulled me in with it's trailer, and it was the same deal. It also didn't really help that the Eternals all seemed to have some sort of ability I've seen before. For example, Ikaris is so Superman that they even have a gag about it in the movie. The basic difference is that Ikaris doesn't wear a cape. Anyway, we open this up by getting to know who the Eternals are. In 5000 BC, ten of them are sent to Earth to exterminate the "Deviants" - an invasive species that the Eternals are meant to protect humankind from in order for them to advance. Among the Eternals are *deep breath* leader, Ajak (Salma Hayek), star of the show, Sersi (Gemma Chan), the super powerful, flight-enabled Ikaris (Richard Madden), our (sort of) comedy relief, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (Lia McHugh), who looks like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell's love child, Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), a technological helper for humankind, the super speedy and deaf Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), the mind-controlling Druig (Barry Keoghan), the super strong Gilgamesh (Don Lee), and master fighter, Thena (Angelina Jolie). Sent by a Celestial named Arishem (David Kaye), the Eternals eventually carry out their mission of elimination by the year 1521. After that, they await Arishem's return for the next 500 years, divided on what exactly their role is now, especially with humankind. They all separate over varying opinions, but we soon find Sersi and Sprite living together in London, Sersi dating a human named Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) who... well, no spoilers, but if you wanna know, hit up that Google. The trio end up getting attacked by a Deviant named Kro (Bill Skarsgård... eventually), which ultimately brings Ikaris back into play, saving the trio. Now that Sersi, Ikaris and Sprite all know about the Deviants returning, they spend a good chunk of the movie "getting the band back together". Eventually we learn about the purpose behind the Eternals and Deviants constantly battling. This ends up dividing the Eternals even further over their differing beliefs and morals. All in all, it really does end up being a bit of a repeat of... "Thanosism?" and I think that's where the film really falters. The threat of Thanos and what he was gonna do was built up over so many movies while this provides a threat that's almost as big, and it does have to do with "thinning the numbers for the greater good". I don't think I minded this one as much as others, seeing as it's basically the lowest rated MCU movie out there right now. But I'm not trying to be in the 1% either. I liked a lot about this, including some of the action sequences, and visuals. As a spectacle, it worked very nicely in IMAX 3D, and it provided a sort of feast for the eyes, giving us things we may not have ever thought possible. Ever wonder what Galactus SHOULD have looked like in 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' way back when? Well, doors are certainly opening up here, and things are getting way more comic book-like. There actually was something I appreciated about it. But for me, the characters and overall story were all kind of weak. Character-wise, there wasn't really anyone here I totally got behind. I can say that I wasn't a fan of Sprite at all, but to say who I DID like is a bit beyond me. All of the good from this movie, at least for yours truly, came visually. It's a movie that makes a lot of things look really cool. But there's something so stiff about the acting here, and, as mentioned, I think the story is almost too much for a one-off movie. This felt more like something that should have been built up to. But with that said, if this AND 'Spidey' are any indication, we're probably about to get into some real superhero overload... yeah, even more than we already are. But I do feel like we're shifting from stale to fresh again. MID-CREDIT SCENE: We, along with Eternals Thena, Makkari and Druig, are Introduced to Eros, aka "Star Fox" and Pip the Troll, who offer their services. POST-CREDIT SCENE: Dane Whitman discovers the Ebony Blade, which hints at the Black Knight coming soon. Off-screen, we hear an unfamiliar voice ask if he's "really ready for it". 2/5 Edit Coming 06/22/26  While 'Black Widow' is the film that officially launches "Phase 4" of the MCU, I tend to see it as a bit of a Prologue to Phase 4, just as 'Far From Home' was something I saw as an epilogue to 'End Game', which wrapped up what was pretty much a long, ten year-plus experiment where they kept coming out with history-making material for the cinema. It was a long journey, but it makes very little sense to stop when there's so much more to explore with Marvel's heroes.
'Shang-Chi' is where I would consider the official beginning of Phase 4, as 'Black Widow' acts as a flashback. Here again we have a wonderful example of Marvel introducing us to a pretty tertiary Marvel character, overall, and doing it really well. In my humble opinion, perhaps the best job they've done with an "unknown" since 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. Not to knock the others in the category, especially titles like 'Black Panther', but this is the most strongly I've felt personally about the introduction of a new hero (or group of heroes) in the MCU since then. I wasn't really hyped for this, due to unfamiliarity, and the trailers had me curious, but not chomping at the bit. This was especially due to the latest 'Spider-Man' trailer, which honestly made me want to skip over this and 'Eternals' and just get to it. Upon watching it, however, I am VERY happy that I didn't hold off. I can say with full confidence that this is easily one of my favourites of 2021, and it completely rinsed out any bad taste left behind by 'Black Widow' - a passable film, but perhaps too little too late, and underwhelming due to the overwhelming Covid problems surrounding it; including push-backs and, if you live where I live, it was Disney Plus only (for a cost) for quite a while. It now marks the only Marvel movie I have missed in theaters. By the way, if you have the means, and remain careful about it, this is definitely an experience for the big screen if you can manage it. Our story starts ages ago, a man named Xu Wenwu (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) happens upon the Ten Rings - ten bracelet-like rings that give their user Godly abilities, and immortality. He soon establishes the Ten Rings organization, who spend time throughout history toppling governments and kingdoms. Come 1996, Wenwu begins searching for a village of mythical beasts known as Ta Lo where he would have the potential to expand his powers. He is, however, held back by the village guardian, Ying Li (Fala Chen) and the pair fall for each other; Li running off with Wenwu upon his rejection from the village. They eventually have Shang-Chi (Jayden Zhang, as a child) together, and soon Wenwu raises him as a fighter to eventually do battle with the Iron Gang. However, with other plans at 14, Shang-Chi (Arnold Sun, as teenager) runs off to San Francisco to live an average life, adopting the name "Shaun" (Simu Liu, as adult). When we first meet "Shaun", he's working a job, parking cars with his friend, Katy (Awkwafina). I give a massive kudos to the film for not making these two a couple, or romantic item in any way - just best friends. We get hints that there might be something there, but it's only what our imagination allows. It's always a breath of fresh air to see a man and a woman play our main protagonists and not have to think about anything lovey-dovey. They simply work and hang out together. But I digress. The bottom line is that we see them get attacked by the Iron Gang on a bus (during an amazing fight sequence, by the way). It seems they are after a pendant, given to him by his mother in the past. What they want with it, Shang-Chi doesn't know, but his sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) has one too, so Shang-Chi and Katy travel to Macau in order to protect her. I already feel like I'm saying too much, so I'll cut to the chase. We do eventually learn what is wanted with these pendants, who exactly is after them and why. As things unfold, we are given some incredibly well-rendered mythical creatures, amazing fight sequences in interesting settings, a taste of Chinese culture, including a lot of use of the language. The whole thing is beautifully filmed, and things just sort of flow as it all unfolds. There was a certain sort of enchantment the film had on me. It really managed to "take me away" from my reality, and it was cool to be somewhat immersed in the culture. This was the most pleasant of surprises in recent film viewings, and I can only hope that 'Eternals' has some kind of similar effect... though for some reason I'm not holding my breath. MID-CREDIT SCENE: Shang-Chi and Katy follow Wong through a portal, in the middle of a meal out with friends. There, they are introduced to Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers who examine the Ten Rings' origin. Evidently, they act as some sort of beacon, but to what, remains a mystery. The pair are then told that their lives are about to be forever changed. POST-CREDIT SCENE: Xialing is shown as the new leader of the Ten Rings, despite having told Shang-Chi that she would disband the organization. Here, she treats men and women as equals in their training. 5/5 Edit Coming 06/15/26  After a long year of waiting, 'Black Widow' finally has her own movie. But is this too little too late? After all, Marvel seemed to reach its peak with 'Endgame', add a nice epilogue with 'Far from Home', and it feels a bit like it's time to move on. Not to mention, the idea of a 'Black Widow' movie has been on Marvel fans minds since her first appearance in 'Iron Man 2'. Personally, I was actually fine with the film's timing due to a few things in the film, but I can also see the point when people claim it should have come right after 'Civil War' - which is incidentally when it takes place.
That's not before we delve into the past, and the intro to the film is a slice of origin, taking us back to 1995. In Ohio, we meet a surrogate family, starting with two young girls, Natasha Romanov (Ever Anderson) and Yelena Belova (Violet McGraw) who are enjoying their lives, having fun etc. That is until super soldier father figure, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) enters the scene to warn his Black Widow wife, Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) that their time is short. The parental units take the girls on an "adventure" to escape the scene with some SHIELD intel successfully stolen. Arriving in Cuba, they rendezvous with their boss, General Dreykov (Ray Winstone) who then has Natasha and Yelena sent to the "Red Room" to be trained. The credits start, and the opening is actually pretty damn disturbing. As years pass, Romanoff eventually becomes an Avenger with a checkered history, as we all know, and we do get some answers as to what she did so wrong in her past. To add to that, the year is now 2016, and she is a fugitive on the run for violating the Sokovia Accords (see 'Civil War'). Meanwhile, Yelena stays a Black Widow, and discovers that the Red Room holds a pretty significant dark secret, while Shostakov is in a secluded Russian prison, and Vostokoff is living on a farm somewhere. Once discovering the Red Room's secret, Yelena attempts to coax Natasha to help in her own subtle way, which will ultimately mean helping other Widows and hopefully bringing down Dreykov and his Red Room antics. Meanwhile still, a villain known as the Taskmaster (uncredited) is sent onto the scene to retrieve something Natasha and Yelena are carrying. The idea for Taskmaster is really neat - he can simply mimic anything he sees. So for instance, watching a newsfeed of Captain America fighting allows him to use a shield as a weapon very efficiently. The thing is, if anyone has a problem with any part of the movie, it's probably going to be Taskmaster fans being wronged. From my perspective, I'm very unfamiliar with the character comic-wise, so didn't see a big problem with the character. But for fans? I can definitely seeing this being the equivalent of Deadpool showing up in 'Wolverine' looking like Baraka. All that aside, it's time to get down to my personal opinion on this. There was actually a lot I liked about it, but first let's mention the negatives. First, I find it a touch odd that they actually brought in a few horror elements to this with the opening credits. It's creepy enough, but soon you find out just what they did to these girls in the Red Room and it sounds like a living nightmare. To be fair, that is the point, but I wasn't sure I expected it to get that dark. I expected a bit more of a 'Dark Angel' scenario. But that's just being nit-picky on my part. Sometimes the action is a bit over the top for something you'd think would be more grounded, and going back to Taskmaster, I can see that being the biggest disappointment of the film. Like I said, however, I did like a lot about this. It's a solid girl power theme without being so in your face. I liked the introduction of some new characters, namely Yelena and Red Guardian. I thought that the performances were good, and despite some of the action being over the top, I enjoyed that it was a Marvel take on a bit more of a spy/espionage movie, which really hasn't been done yet. To me, this is Marvel's answer to the 'Mission: Impossible' films - very similar in style. In the end, I definitely liked it more than I disliked it, but I will admit that it's one of Marvel's lesser films. I might suggest continuing the wait and not feeding Disney that extra cash. POST-CREDIT SCENE: Set after Romanoff's death in 'Endgame', Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) shows Yuleena Belova her next target; Clint Barton, who she claims to be Natasha's killer. 3/5 Edit Coming 01/12/26  Remember in my 'Iron Man' review how I said the next movie might not hold up as well? That's because the next movie is 'The Incredible Hulk'. That's not at all to say that the movie is bad. In fact, I quite enjoy it's execution, and it was definitely a triumph above whatever that 2003 Ang Lee disaster was. But let's face it, the Hulk himself looks and acts differently than he does now, and Banner was played by Ed Norton here instead of Mark Ruffalo, who I think we all agree is the better portrayal of Banner altogether. Norton did a fine job, but now we KNOW Ruffalo as that dude.
To give this movie credit, however, it knew full well that we already knew what Hulks origin story was. Gamma radiation in an experiment gone awry, and it's all set up in the opening credits. The film actually starts while Banner is hiding in South America, chatting back and forth with someone named Mr. Blue, in search of a cure. In the meantime, General 'Thunderbolt' Ross (William Hurt) chases Banner with a desire to dissect him and use whatever it is that transforms Banner as a weapon. Eventually, the online chat between Banner and Blue results in Blue needing him to come back to his hometown in order to meet, and work on a cure together. During this time, Banner is also reunited with Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), who is our love interest in this story, the beauty who tames the beast, and of course the daughter of the crooked General Ross, complicating it all quite nicely. Meanwhile, again, Gen. Ross brings a war-hungry soldier into play named Blonsky (Tim Roth) using a super solider serum on him (hello 'Captain America' tease) in order to be able to fight the Hulk and attempt to bring him down. Of course, this leads to Blonsky craving a bit too much power, and I THINK we all know he eventually becomes The Abomination. The whole climactic scene of this is essentially a one-on-one monster fight in the middle of Manhattan (filmed largely in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario). It's cool if you're into that sort of thing, and frankly to be expected from a Hulk movie. The only reasons this hasn't aged well have to do with Norton's ultimate replacement, and the CG might look a little bit off here and there, although they still did great. However, this was a bit more of a serious story. There's not a hell of a lot of humor to this one, and it's more of a tragic tale. It's still a decent movie, and for me, it finds itself somewhere in the middle of my list when it comes to this universe. I appreciated it's execution, but it IS kinda difficult to keep the Hulk interesting while keeping him a dark figure. The "inner struggle" concept just gets old. What I am happy to see is the new Hulk where the studio has finally realized "hey, this is pretty goofy stuff" and they've since put some humor behind the character, realizing that what they have is essentially a giant, green gorilla with superhuman strength. Hulk still manages to be a tragic figure, but they have managed to balance things with the overall cartoonish concept of such a character. But, going back to this movie, 'The Incredible Hulk' is still very much technically a part of this particular universe, even though some consider it not to be. This is largely due to the differences in Edward Norton's Bruce Banner and Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, which is now pretty much the definitive portrayal. The only thing really keeping this on that list of movies, though, is the pre-credits scene. Otherwise, one COULD technically skip this movie, and just be introduced to the Hulk through 'The Avengers'. But I would still recommend keeping this one on the list, because as far as Hulk movies go, this one probably did the solo project the best with what it had to work with. 3/5 PRE-CREDIT SCENE: Thunderbolt Ross is in a bar taking shots and contemplating his newfound problems. Tony Stark enters and informs him that a team of special people is going to be put together, hinting once again at a possible 'Avengers' movie. |
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