As almost everyone on the planet seems to be aware, the Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment will be coming to a head later this month with the release of Avengers: Endgame. While I realize that these films are certainly not for everyone (and quite the opposite in some cases), as a lifelong comic fan I am having a hard time keeping a cool head. The idea of a unified comic universe on the big screen was so far from anything I could have imagined in my high school or college days, and to now see it coming to some kind of conclusion over a decade later is a big moment for me. I’m invested, despite myself. On some level I’m still aware that I’m being manipulated by the Disney Corporate Machine (TM), but that won’t stop my inner child from squealing with glee.

So! I have decided to embark on something I’m fairly confident about a full quarter of the Internet is doing at this point, and rewatch the other movies in the Marvel canon in the run-up to the release of the new Avengers movie. In my country I’ve got until April 25th at 6 pm to watch and review 21 films, comprising about 45 hours of movie. I don’t know if I’ll make it, but I’m certainly going to try. As I go, I’ll be reviewing and rating all of the films on a traditional four-star rating system, as well as providing my personal definitive ranking of all of the movies I’ve seen.

In reviewing these movies, I will attempt to weigh multiple factors. It’s inevitable that some elements of the earlier movies won’t have aged well, and I’ll attempt to be as reasonable as possible about how my feelings have changed over the last decade. At the same time, it will be impossible for nostalgia to have no effect on how I feel about these films, and I won’t attempt to completely quash the feelings that make me want to pursue an insane project like this in the first place. My rankings will be an attempt to balance contemporary expectations, historical significance, and fanboy joy at the existence of these movies. I hope you’re as excited to read these as I am to write them, so roll on review number one!