The Aftermath Of New York-Avengers Night Part lll: The Final Act

Tonight's marathon brings an epic closure to the three part friday saga in which the assembling of the Avengers team was shown with characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, as well as characters like Hawkeye, Black Cat, and Nick Fury. We also saw the origin story of Peter Parker in The Amazing Spiderman as well as Bruce Banners background story in Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk film. Now that the first Avengers film has been covered, the time has come to show the aftermath of New York, as well as providing a fitting closure to preparing for the release of Age Of Ultron. For tonight's fitting end to the Avengers trio of marathons, we have on the menu:

Iron Man 3 2013, Thor ll The Dark World 2013, Amazing Spiderman 2 2014, and Captain America 2: Winter Soldier

The epic finale to the three week spring of Marvel movies ends here. The fight comes to a fitting end as the newest installment in the Avengers franchise opens a week from now. For what it's worth, it's been a fun ride. We begin the evening with Iron Man 3, the third installment in the trilogy that started Marvels glorious run starring Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man 3 centers around Tony Stark's world being torn apart by an evil terrorist called the Mandarin. He begins an odyssey of rebuilding himself and seeking vengeance for the Mandarins actions, while also fighting to protect the one thing he holds dearly in the world which is his love Pepper played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Nominated for an oscar for best visual effects and going down as the top grossing film of 2013, Iron Man 3 was met with generally positive reviews from critics citing an improvement over the shortcomings of Iron Man 2, however drew further criticism because of controversial decisions made within the film such as a somewhat devastating plot twist about two thirds into the film involving the Mandarin's true identity, and Tony Stark having a vital piece removed from his body questioning where does the character go from here in regards to Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Iron Man 3 has flaws but works effectively as being the first film to take place after the events of New York. The second installment in this evenings lineup is Thor ll starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. Picking up where the first film left off and after the events of New York, the film follows Dr. Jane Foster being cursed with a powerful object, leaving Thor to protect it before an army and its ruthless leader get their hands over it and take over the Earth. While Thor ll may lack some of the heart and wit of the first film, it still manages to entertain and be a worthy addition in the Marvel universe with high stakes action and humor. The third film in the lineup is a throwback to last weeks origin story for Peter Parker/Spiderman with The Amazing Spiderman ll. Starring Andrew Garfield in the lead role, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Chris Cooper and Jamie Foxx, the film focuses on New York being put under siege by Oscorp, making it Spiderman's duty to save the city he swore to protect along with those he loves. Amazing Spiderman ll was met with heavily mixed to negative reviews for repeating some of the same mistakes as Spiderman 3, except with this film it attempts to build up the Sinister Six. The unfortunate downfall to this new series is that Marvel recently acquired the rights to Spiderman, vowing to start fresh with the character so that he can be introduced in future Avengers movies yet leaves this film rather open ended. Whatever the future of Spiderman may be, Amazing Spiderman ll fits nicely in this lineup showing the escalation of events that have occured since the end of the first movie while blending in nicely with the other films. The fourth and final film in the marathon is a fitting end to the Avengers series of marathons. It is not only the best sequel post Avengers but leaves the door open nicely for the next installment in the Avengers franchise. Captain America 2: Winter Soldier has the character of Steve Rogers aka Captain America struggling to embrace his role in todays world compared to being in World War ll. He teams up with another Super Soldier named The Black Widow to battle a new threat from history. That villain becomes known as the Winter Soldier.

So what are these films trying to say message wise within all the chaos and mayhem. Iron Man 3 says to keep what you love close and safe. Thor ll: The Dark World says that some people are not cut out to be king. Amazing Spiderman ll says to make your own path and that love can be difficult for superheroes. Captain America 2: Winter Soldier ultimately says that power corrupts and creating a new world can ultimately become difficult.

Our characters for this evening: