21 Days – 21 Marvel Movies

With all the hype about Avenger’s Endgame coming out, I thought I should check out what this whole Marvel Universe is really about. Over the past decade, my movie viewing habits have been very limited, so it is no surprise that I had only seen one of the 21 movies currently making up the MCU. 

But, not to be discouraged, I figured I could watch one movie a day and eventually get caught up with what this movie craze is all about. With that task in hand, I used this article to figure out where I could watch each movie and followed Wikipedia’s order of how the movies were released.

I easily accomplished this task and here are some of my thoughts. 

DC Girl watching the Marvel World

First off, I should preface my opinions by saying that I have never been a big fan of Marvel. Growing up I was a diehard Batman fan – he is, by far, my favorite superhero – I had a batman jacket (which my daughter now wears), a batman wallet (thanks dad!), a batman skateboard – yes, I loved batman.  

In general, I tend towards DC superheroes (the Flash, Supergirl, Arrow, Constantine, Batgirl, Superman – you get the idea). The only Marvel characters I have any familiarity with are Spiderman and the X-men. 

So, basically, most of these Marvel movies contain characters that I have no familiarity with. But, I will say, throughout these 21 movies, I came to start to like these characters and the way they are portrayed in the MCU. I like how these movies really focused on character development and some of the flaws that they possess. A lot of the movies are origin stories, and surprisingly, I did not get tired of learning how new characters grew to become superheroes. 

Movie Theaters are not my Style

Another thing I learned through this process is that I much prefer to watch movies at home versus in the movie theaters. Being an empath, I know that I have to be careful with what movies I watch and with the violent nature of some (most) of these movies can really throw off my energy.

The only one of the movies I watched in the theaters is the most recent Captain Marvel – and really, out of all the movies, this was my absolute least favorite. I think a large part of me not liking the movie comes from the actual story and writing (I didn’t feel any emotional connection to this character), but watching it in the movie theater didn’t help either. 

Streaming movies at home on the computer with earphones in gives the viewer a much more personal connection with what is going on on screen. It is easy to become engrossed when there are not other people (and their energy) around. In general, I also found my movie theater uncomfortable to the senses – the chairs were uncomfortable, the smell was stale, and the teenagers checking their Instagram account in the front rows were very distracting. 

I understand why movie theaters are going out of style. If I could have streamed Captain Marvel on my computer, I would have, and I may have enjoyed the experience more. I think my lack of enjoyment for the movie theater may also come from the fact that I was spoiled by living for almost ten years in a college town with an independent movie theater which had the best character (torn couches and chairs from the 1970s to sit on) and then another three years in a town with a Sundance theater – anywhere you can get plain popcorn that you can then add Nutritional yeast to is a thumbs up in my book.

Meeting New Heroes

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed all the origin stories is that I got to meet a lot of new characters that I had never known of before.  I know of the Norse god Thor, but the character portrayed in the movies is a little different and with relationships that do not actually exist in Norse mythology, but were fun to watch being played out on screen. I also had no knowledge of Captain American, but it was fun to get to know him as a character as well.

Perhaps my favorite new character to learn about was Dr. Strange – but, you could probably guess that a mystical superhero may attract a psychic. His brand and the whole Marvel’s brand of magic is very different from traditional magic, but it was interesting to see develop on screen nonetheless. However, I wouldn’t say that I like the character of Dr. Strange more than DC’s Master of the Dark Arts Constantine – who still is one of my favorite characters across the genre (but Batman is my ultimate favorite). 

In terms of the character I did know something about, Spiderman, I thought the MCU’s Spiderman: Homecoming was actually a great depiction and realistic origin story for a character whose story has been told multiple times.  This movie was one of my top 5 in the 21 released MCU movies so far. 

Overall Impression of the Experience 

Overall, I generally enjoyed watching these 21 movies in 21 days. It was an experience in itself and watching them one after the other let me remember details that I likely would have forgotten. 

I am now thoroughly excited to see Avengers: Endgame and, although I know it won’t be my preference, I plan to go see it in the theater in a few weeks. 

Have you seen the Marvel Movies? What are your thoughts? Are you excited for Endgame?