‘Avengers: Infinity War’, the most recent film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was just released, and it was wonderful!

If you are someone who has not indulged in the Marvel films yet, this 10-year anniversary is not the best place to start, as it is somewhat of a naval-gazing celebration of the world that Marvel Studios have created over the years, and therefore a bit confusing to newcomers.

 

If you have time, you should see all the 18 movies that preceded ‘Infinity War’ before seeing it.

But if you don’t have that much time to spare, here are the four movies I think you need to see to get an appreciation for what people love about these films.

 

1 – The Avengers

This was the culmination of Iron Man 1 & 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Despite being the sixth movie in a series, you can easily start here, as the film-makers anticipated a much bigger turnout for this film than the others, and therefore made it easily accessible for new viewers.

I would also still rank this as the best of the movies, but only barely as the latest films have all been incredible. By watching this one first, you can pretty quickly find out if this series is something for you or not.

 

2 – Guardians of the Galaxy

This movie is a fun space-adventure, with a heart of gold and an amazing soundtrack!

You will be surprised by how much you care about the relationship between a walking tree and a talking raccoon.

Along with the titular characters, it introduces the ‘Infinity War’ villain Thanos, the powerful Infinity Stones, and Thanos’ abusive relationship to his daughters.

The second Guardians movie is amazing aswell, and I would recommend seeing it, but it is not as essential to the wider story as the first one is.

 

3 – Captain America: Civil War

Some readers may be wondering why I am skipping ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’.

While the second Avengers film does introduce the important ‘Infinity War’ characters The Vision and Wanda Maximoff, I think that you get a good enough picture of these characters from ‘Civil War’.

On top of that, ‘Civil War’ is much more important to the character-dynamics going into ‘Infinity War’, while also introducing a few more great characters to this world, like Black Panther, and another which I will not spoil for you here.

 

4 – Thor: Ragnarok

This is the third Thor movie, but what you have not already been introduced to about The God Of Thunder in ‘The Avengers’, this film covers in the first few minutes.

It also features a scene showcasing the powers and personality of Doctor Strange (the sorcerer supreme), which is why I did not see the need to add his movie to this list.

I really liked the comedy in this film, but some may find it a bit too quippy.

Still, there is plenty to like about the film even if the jokes fall flat for you, and the character-journeys of both Thor and The Hulk continues directly from this movie into ‘Infinity War’.

 

Bonus – Black Panther

This film gives you an introduction to a key location and some really cool characters, and will increase your appreciation of a big chunk of ‘Infinity War’.

It is a really good movie with a afro-futuristic setting, which you don’t see too often in fiction.

You could skip this one and still get all the info you need about Wakanda and the Black Panther by watching ‘Civil War’, but many think that this is the best one out of all the Marvel films, so you should probably make time for it.

 

5 – Avengers: Infinity War

This ten-year anniversary is a visual and emotional fireworks-display like no other.

I heartily recommend watching it as soon as possible, before getting some story-beats spoiled for you.

This is also one of those movies that is worth seeing on the big screen, as the sense of scale is something I think will be slightly lost on a TV-screen.

Hope I have helped convince at least a few of you to give this movie a shot, even if this is not your usual genre of entertainment 🙂

 

If you want to see more than the six movies I have listed here, I would first watch this video which lists the Marvel movies and TV-shows, from worst to best.

I hope you get as much enjoyment out of them as I do 😀