MCU Marathon Plan

Evening, I assume it'll be evening by the time I get around to releasing this suitably ambitious agenda. Age of Ultron is set to drop on the 22nd, 23rd or 24th but I'll not be seeing it until a little later because I am old and frail. When I get out of bed everything snaps, crackles and pops.

That' phase one and two, I forgot all about Ant Man!
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At an earlier time I proposed an epic Marvel Cinematic Universe Marathon, MCUM if you will. My initial reaction was to whip out a spreadsheet and calculate the length of aforementioned MCUM. I listed the films and realised the task before me was way longer than I'd initially thought.

1Phase One: Avengers Assembled	Run time, Minutes
1.1 Iron Man(2008)	126
1.2 The Incredible Hulk(2008)	112
1.3 Iron Man 2(2010)	124
1.4 Thor(2011)	115
1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger(2011)	124
1.6 Marvel's The Avengers(2012)	143
2Phase Two
2.1 Iron Man 3(2013)	130
2.2 Thor: The Dark World(2013)	112
2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier(2014)	136
2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy(2014)	121
Total	1243

The total run time would be 1243 minutes or 20 hours and 43 minutes. Now that's not so long but I know that around Iron Man 3 I would lose the will to live.

1Phase One: Avengers Assembled	IMDB rating
1.1 Iron Man(2008)	7.9
1.2 The Incredible Hulk(2008)	6.9
1.3 Iron Man 2(2010)	7.1
1.4 Thor(2011)	7
1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger(2011)	6.8
1.6 Marvel's The Avengers(2012)	8.2
2Phase Two
2.1 Iron Man 3(2013)	7.3
2.2 Thor: The Dark World(2013)	7.1
2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier(2014)	7.8
2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy(2014)	8.2

I then drew up a plan to watch the stronger films but to watch the weaker ones simultaneously in groups of three. My personal view is that Iron man, Captain America 1, The Avengers, Captain America 2 and Guardians are the strongest. I enjoy Hulk, Thor and Iron Man 2 but they are not so great. Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 drive me to distraction.

That's what the revised running order would have looked like.

1. Iron Man
2. Hulk + Iron Man 2 + Thor - Simultaneously reduced run time from 351 mins to 124 mins
3. Captain America 1
4. Avengers
5. Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 - Simultaneously reducing  total run time from 242 mins to 130 mins
6. Captain America 2
7. Guardians

This would cut the run time by 339 minutes to 904 minutes or 15 hours and 4 minutes. Whilst that is much more manageable I would switch off around the 10 hour mark, when Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 are playing I would zone out and not enjoy the rest of it.

To try and make it clearer I've colour coded the grouped films. Green for solo and yellow for simultaneous play. It looks horrendous I know.

1Phase One: Avengers Assembled	Run time, Minutes	Reduced run time, Minutes
1.1 Iron Man(2008)	126	126
1.2 The Incredible Hulk(2008)	112
1.3 Iron Man 2(2010)	124	124
1.4 Thor(2011)	115
1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger(2011)	124	124
1.6 Marvel's The Avengers(2012)	143	143
2Phase Two
2.1 Iron Man 3(2013)	130	130
2.2 Thor: The Dark World(2013)	112
2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier(2014)	136	136
2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy(2014)	121	121
Total	1243	904

I then thought I could split it in two, phase one and phase two. Keeping the simultaneous play, it's too good not to use. Day one would be longer than day two.

1Phase One: Avengers Assembled	Run time, Minutes	Reduced run time, Minutes
1.1 Iron Man(2008)	126	126
1.2 The Incredible Hulk(2008)	112
1.3 Iron Man 2(2010)	124	124
1.4 Thor(2011)	115
1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger(2011)	124	124
1.6 Marvel's The Avengers(2012)	143	143
Total	744	517
2Phase Two
2.1 Iron Man 3(2013)	130	130
2.2 Thor: The Dark World(2013)	112
2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier(2014)	136	136
2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy(2014)	121	121
Total	499	387

Day 1: 517 minutes = 8 hours and 37 minutes
Day 2: 387 minutes = 6 hours and 27 minutes.

A weekend task that is eminently doable. Here's some straw to break this camels back. I am working, if you can call my investment hocus pocus working. Plus I'm studying for a resit of my current nemesis F3. In good conscience I can't commit that much time in one go, burn through an entire weekend of potential studying. I say potential because I am an nth level procrastinator.

With all those lofty ideas out of the way I've settled into a pace akin to a leisurely stroll. That is to say that I'll be watching one or two a day in the run up to Age of Ultron! Lucky for me I've got the phase 1 box set and Iron Man 3 is available on Netflix. The remaining three phase two films are a reasonable £9.99 from Amazon instant and Google play. That does add up to £30 all for the sake of a leisurely MCUM. But I'll no doubt rewatch these over and over again. So I'll get my money's worth.

Planned view date	1Phase One: Avengers Assembled
15/04/15	1.1 Iron Man(2008)
16/04/15	1.2 The Incredible Hulk(2008)
17/04/15	1.3 Iron Man 2(2010)
18/04/15	1.4 Thor(2011)
19/04/15	1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger(2011)
20/04/15	1.6 Marvel's The Avengers(2012)
	2Phase Two
21/04/15	2.1 Iron Man 3(2013)
22/04/15	2.2 Thor: The Dark World(2013)
23/04/15	2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier(2014)
24/04/15	2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy(2014)

So there it is my master plan for rewatching a bunch of films in time for the second Avengers flick.