Since hitting theaters on April 26th, Marvel's new movie, Avengers Endgame has shattered every box office record. It also seems to be the most successful movie in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After seeing Avengers Infinity Wars last year, I've started becoming more and more interested in seeing the original Marvel movies. My friend put together a Marvel movie marathon, however, due to timing as well as my inability to sit and watch a movie, we only got through the first three movies in release order. With our schedules rarely matching up, it was difficult to find time to continue.
After seeing Captain Marvel (this was a game changer for me to be honest) and Endgame's release on the horizon, I decided to take it upon myself to watch the rest of the Marvel movies.
What I didn't expect were all the questions I'd have afterward. What is the Tesseract? Where did it go? How did S. H. I. E. L. D get possession of it? Why have they mentioned characters (or relatives of current characters) from other movies?
There are a million different ways in which you can watch the movies. You can go by the release date or how the movies match up chronologically. At first, I started with the release dates and only got as far as Iron Man 2 before switching to chronological order.
Going into my binge, I'd only seen five movies: Infinity Wars, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, The Hulk and Iron Man 2 (with Iron Man 2 being the only movie I had to rewatch (I may have fallen asleep during it the first time). After that, I saw Captain America: The First Avenger followed by Thor.
I started my marathon the Wednesday night before Endgame's release and managed to finish Phase One (Captain America through the first Avengers) in the early morning before it officially hit theatres. Four movies in roughly two to three nights aren't bad.
I started watching somewhere between two and three movies a day so I had some sort of shot at being able to catch up. As I moved further into the series, not only did I get some of my answers, but I started to become more attached to some of the characters.
Fast forward five days and of the twenty-one movies (not including Endgame), I only had six left. My guess is I'll finish within the next day or two.
I'm proud of myself. Not in a cocky way, but Marvel movies are long and are full of details that you don't always pick up on until later. Something that happened in the first Thor movie may not be relevant until you get to Captain America: Civil War. They're all connected, even if it doesn't seem like it.
I recommend watching them chronologically as opposed to by release because the universe timeline will make more sense. You'll have a better understanding of events if you watch the movies in which they happen. The end credit scenes also contain important teasers for the next movie as well as future films.