I had an Avengers movie marathon yesterday. Watched in this order: Captain America, Hulk (Not IH), Thor, Iron Man, Avengers. I watched in this order to replicate the order that the characters were introduced by Marvel comics in the 60s. I purposely excluded IM2 and IH. I just didn't think those two films were that good.
Surprisingly, the continuity held up very well. The only minor continuity errors I found were:
- In Avengers, Stark and the Widow acknowledged that they had previously met.
- In Thor, Coulson states that Stark doesn't keep him very well informed on new weapons, even though they haven't met in my chronology.
- In Avengers, Banner talks about trashing Harlem.
- In Hulk, the Hulk is way too large.
All of these were pretty minor continuity errors in my eyes.
What really stood out was how all of the individual movies, even Iron Man were played pretty straight. Robert Downey delivers a lot of quips in IM, but they are appropriate to Stark's character. Then by the time we get to Avengers, everyone thinks they are the class clown, with their little smarmy remarks, most of which aren't funny. The two truly humorous moments are both delivered by the Hulk, when he sucker punches Thor and then when he thrashes Loki. While sitting by myself, I actually laughed out loud at the Loki thrashing, even though this is the fourth time I have seen this film.
I'm not sure how the continuity would hold up if I continued on to IM3. I've only seen that film once and don't remember all of the continuity details too well. I think the sudden intro of the Iron patriot would be awkward without the lead up from IM2. Maybe I will rent it tonight.