An Experimental MCU Viewing Order
This post is the last in a two-part series on making a Marvel Cinematic Universe binge work.
- In the previous one, I picked out which movies I’d actually watch and which I wouldn’t.
- Here, I offer a new take on the question of what order I’ll watch them in.
There’s a central reason I am putting this much thought into it:
I cannot possibly commit to watching 22 Marvel movies.
Sorting movies into must-watch, optional, and don’t-watch bins mitigates that. But it’s worse:
I don’t actually know how many movies I can commit to watching.
- As noted earlier, I watched ten movies in the 2010s decade.
- I don’t have friends watching along with me, or a pre-existing interest in comics.
- I’ve got work, and exercise, and therapy, and other entertainment to fit this in around!
So I’m worried about the risk that I’ll get bored and give up on the project in the middle.
It was with that in mind that I decided on watching them in an experimental order.
Watch order options
A Place To Hang Your Cape covers the main MCU viewing order options out there:
- Chronological order, which is easy to follow but may not introduce the world well;
- Release order, which is pretty natural but can be chronologically confusing.
They create their own hybrid, which they call “Cape Order”, to smooth over the issues.
Their work is great for the new viewer whom I think probably typical, but I’m not that viewer.
- I imagine a new MCU viewer likely beginning with a fixed, known level of interest.
- This means they are going to be well served by a fixed, known viewing order.
- However, as noted above, I am only finding out my interest level as I go.
- A plan to get me to Endgame in 13 movies doesn’t help if I run out of steam after eight.
What would a watch order designed to support the less committed viewer look like?
- How might the start be chosen to hook the viewer in for the maximum possible ride?
- How might the structure be designed to permit a graceful but satisfying exit at any point?
With contemplation (and without stats this time), I devised an experiment to try on myself.
And that brings me to early this afternoon, playing the first movie in my binge…
Infinity War first
…which was Infinity War. Yeah, the, uh, the next-to-last one in the saga.
The actual steps in the viewing order I’m attempting will be:
- Watch Infinity War first.
- Watch required films (6) in release order.
- Watch optional films (about 5) in rating order until satisfied.
- Watch Endgame last.
That is, I’m treating this entire story cycle as flashbacks between halves of the conclusion.
This order is constructed for addressing the two concerns I set out above.
First, Infinity War first commits the viewer to finishing at least the required watching.
- You can start telling the stories with Iron Man, and hope the viewer will stay interested.
- Or you can start at the first half of the climax – and they’ll have to know what led up to it.
- I know which one is more likely to keep me going if I decide this binge is getting difficult.
Second, rating order lets the viewer decide where to call it quits and watch Endgame.
- After the top six, the next several in rating all look pretty independent of each other.
- Each will likely tell me some more things I want to know about Infinity War or Endgame.
- But each one will, in expectation, tell me less of that material than the last.
- So “when do I go watch the last one?” should just reduce to “when I’ve had enough”.
What I bring to this to make it work
And so the thing to be asked is, well, doesn’t this trade off a lot of storytelling quality?
- If the final two films build substantially on the prior ones, how will I follow it?
- That is, doesn’t starting with Infinity War diminish the experience of Infinity War itself?
Yes, it does! I accept that. This is a purposeful trade-off for commitment and convenience.
- I’m not sure I would make it all the way to the end doing it any other way.
- I’d rather have a suboptimal experience getting there than risk not doing so at all.
However, I don’t expect Infinity War to be completely ruined for me, for two reasons:
- I accept the reality of ambient spoilers.
- I trust Marvel Studios (now Disney).
First, pretending to have no ambient knowledge of the MCU phenomenon just seems useless.
- No, I don’t know what happens in the movies, because I haven’t watched them.
- But that doesn’t mean I don’t know things about them! It’s too late to pretend I don’t.
- Endgame’s promotional material alone reveals, say, the two-part nature of the finale.
- This and other ambient info can be expected to help me get this movie well enough.
- Why act like I’m an utterly blank slate when that’s an impossible state in this culture?
Second, I trust the filmmakers enough to believe that they made a movie I can at least grasp.
- It makes no financial sense to make a movie only for those who’ve seen 20 others.
- Rather, I have to think they were made to sell tickets even to folks new to their universe.
- Surely they planned around Infinity War being the only Marvel movie many ever saw.
- Infinity War is a highly well-received movie, in a heavily engineered franchise.
- I must imagine it was made so as to make sense for naive viewers like me at some level.
Reports will have to wait
As noted, I dived in to this deep end earlier today. So what did I think?
Well… I’m keeping that to myself for now. I’ll report on the experiment as a whole later.
That seems like my best shot to keep you coming back, if you’ve read this.
The only one I’ve seen before is Iron Man, so Captain America’s up next weekend.