my mom-in-law is visiting every month and she's gonna watch the mcu with us right from the start

tonight it's iron man

besides the last 4 movies in theaters, i haven't watched the mcu since our pre-infinity war marathon two years ago

i saw iron man in theaters 12 years ago and i've seen it since a handful of times. my verdict: it really holds up. great origin story, great performances, and much bolder plot choices than a lot of the subsequent mcu installments.

the movie pulls it punches a bit with its critique of the military industrial complex when it's revealed that stark weapons got into the wrong hands through conscious bad actors rather than the more systemic explanation put forth in the first act

this also undercuts the villain by making him a bit too cartoonish in the third act, rather than someone who truly wanted to be a surrogate father figure to tony

the whole mcu (and its success) must be understood in the context of post 9/11 america. the first iron man makes this the most clear, situating the whole story in the broader issue of american imperialism in the middle east.

the other thing the mcu must be understood in the context of is the increasing tendency for movie studios to rely on safe, established intellectual properties combined with access to cheaper and cheaper CGI. the 2010s was a perfect storm for superhero movie domination.

ironically this doesn't describe the initial mcu movie whatsoever. iron man was an insane risk by a tiny studio that never made a single movie before and which had to rely on b-list source material that wasn't sold off by marvel in the 90s. and the reliance on CGI is very minimal

anyway you can read more about my thoughts on the philosophical and sociological significance of marvel superheroes in the obituary i wrote for stan lee https://c4ss.org/content/51434 

Tonight we skipped ahead in terms of release date but backwards in terms of chronology (since the former doesn't matter much in Phase 1) with Captain America: The First Avenger, the second best and second most underrated MCU movie of all (behind Doctor Strange on both counts).

It's easily in my top 10 superhero flicks. It's action-adventure at its finest. Perfect casting. A simple but compelling script. Subtle humor (some MCU movies try too hard). And an appropriate amount of coherently shot action sequences -- two things its sequels struggled with.

It's also much more interesting visually (with period piece production design and even noir-ish lighting at times) and musically (with a thoughtful score that was retained throughout the MCU) than many of the subsequent MCU installments.

It particularly stands out in the way it approaches the source material's propagandistic origins by incorporating the real life comic itself. The decision to make Cap a sort of lame PR mascot for the US military was brilliant and the montage that chronicles it is glorious.

This movie could've been shallow jingoist garbage. But the writers went out of their way to avoid the nationalism, militarism, and bloodthirstiness so often seen in war movies, especially ones about WW2, the war considered most obviously justified in the public sphere.

Instead of some unthinking soldier being used to serve the aims of the US military, he's just a "kid from Brooklyn" who "doesn't like bullies" and wants to, in effect, *use the military* to his own ends of saving people from dying in war.

When the military chain of command stands in the way of this goal, Cap simply routes around it and does the saving himself. He's not some arrogant maverick like Stark, but he knows *when* to rebel. And note the inherently defensive nature of his first mission: rescuing POWs.

Part and parcel of this attitude towards the source material is completely repudiating any conception of Cap as some harsh, strategically-minded military general who values ruthlessness and power. Instead, his values are first and foremost: compassion, empathy, and bravery.

Starting here, Captain America was launched into a new stratosphere of global popularity. @chrisevans is this generation's Christopher Reeve, giving us an ideal to strive towards in the form of a moral exemplar that inspires us to do our best and be kind towards others.

Of course, Cap doesn't seem to value truth quite as much as Superman since he repeatedly lies to try and get enlisted. But the value of justice, understood along the lines of universal compassion and enduring hope, is central to both.

Related to the way they nailed Cap's character is how they nailed Red Skull's character (he was actually German this time!). They make for *perfect* foils. The narcissistic authoritarian with literal delusions of grandeur vs the humble rebel with an infinite supply of kindness.