Honest Trailer - MCU

MCU is the 300th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell, Danielle Radford and Lon Harris. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the first 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Iron Man (2008) to Captain Marvel (2019) (but not Avengers: Endgame (2019) or Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)). The video is 9 minutes and 10 seconds long. It was published on June 18, 2019 and was celebrated as the series' official 300th episode. It has been viewed over 2.8 million times.

Watch Honest Trailers - MCU on YouTube

"Welcome to the MCU, a TV series made of movies about comic books where magic is actually science." ~ Honest Trailers - MCU

Script []

In a world where a bankrupt comic book company sold the film rights to its best characters for peanuts because they thought movies would be a good way to (coughs) sell more comics, a young executive [Kevin Feige] will do what he can with the rejects no one wanted and do so well they get bought out by Disney -- before it was cool [Logos for: Lucasfilm, 21st Century Fox & Hulu]

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (except for Endgame)

Welcome to the MCU, a TV series made of movies about comic books where magic is actually science, but science is basically magic, and meet your typical MCU protagonist, a loner with no pets, no biological siblings, and whose only friends are their co-workers. [shows window scene from Doctor Strange] Aw. -- whose personality can range from light-hearted quipster...

Tony Stark: I’m sorry, earth is closed today.

...to stern duty-bound military type...

Captain America: You get hurt, hurt ’em back. You get killed, walk it off.

...and on a long enough timeline, everyone becomes a quipster!

Nick Fury: B*tch, please. You’ve been to space.

Follow along on their hero's journeys, where, after a motivating Uncle Ben situation, they’ll get a transformational hair style, cut some carbs, and find the strength to boldly say their superhero name out loud. [shows everyone saying their names]

But people say a hero is only as good as their villain, and thank God that’s not true or the MCU would be hot garbage. Thrill as they spare ten minutes to establish a bad guy (Vulture and Red Skull), who’s just like the hero (Iron Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Iron Man again and Hulk.) But, eeeeevil (Iron Monger, Eric Killmonger, Kaecilius, Yellowjacket, Whiplash and Abomination), or a faceless horde -- Can’t feel bad if it doesn’t have a face -- or actually a pretty awesome characte- and they’re dead. (Killmonger, Hela, Ego and Alexander Pierce are shown along with their death scenes.) But, everyone knows the real villain of the MCU is daaaads. [shows clips of everyone talking about their fathers]

Tremble before the girth of a meticulously planned story, told across 23 separate movies, all about Thanos killing half the universe. Well, first he has to get an Infinity Gauntlet. [shows the fake Infinity Gauntlet from Thor: Ragnarok] No, not that gauntlet. [shows the real Infinity Gauntlet from Avengers: Age of Ultron] Yeah, yeah, that one, and then gather the Infinity Stones. Well, send proxies to get them, and he gives one away? But, eventually, he’ll get the stones, some aren’t stones. But then, he’ll kill half the universe; which also doesn’t make much sense. Oh, also, the timeline doesn’t work out. Hmm, maybe this wasn’t so planned out after all. But the films do sort nicely into three distinct phases: The ”Conventional Pop Songs“ Phase [Phase 1], the “Boundary Pushing Experimental” Phase [Phase 2], and the “Woo! We can do no wrong! I’M A GOLDEN GOD!!” Phase [Phase 3], and if rock docs have taught me anything, Phase 4 will have the MCU puking in the gutter, wondering where it all went wrong.

Journey from the farthest reaches of Viking Space, to alternate dimensions, to the wonders of Earth. [shows Zootopia, then red markers over it] Oops, that one’s Zootopia -- and marvel at how everything still kinda looks and feels the same, as visionary indie filmmakers are funneled into the Marvel style of overtly digital video where everything is CGI, every story is full of sexless romance that never takes off, bloodless violence that never leaves more than a couple of forehead scrapes, lifeless soundtracks with more Dad Rock than you can shake a pair of middle aged screenwriters at, or toothless comedy that’s just saying pop culture things [shows everyone doing pop culture references, then shows clips from Pixels, then red markers over it] Oops, that’s Pixels.

So settle in for an interconnected movie-verse, that had a 1-in-14,000,605 shot of working. But those odds didn’t stop every other studio from awkwardly mashing their IPs together like a junior high dance floor, leaving Marvel as the only one standing in a dying industry...

Captain America: I can do this all day.

...but launching a whole new industry of Marvel movie news, theory and analysis, channels that just complain about Marvel movies, and even comedy web series that would have died a long time ago if Marvel movies weren’t so popular. (coughs) So one way or another in the end, everyone is getting paid by Disney. You shills.

Starring:

Science Geniuses [shows clips of everyone talking about science; Bruce Banner: "It can achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."; Hank Pym: "Quantum phase is when an object moves through different states of matter."; Erik Selvig: "An Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a theoretical connection between two different points of space time-", Jane Foster: "It’s a wormhole."; Bill Foster: "The Quantum system would revert back to separate states of matter."; Shuri: "Why didn’t you just reprogram the synapsis to work collectively?"; Maria Hill: "When did you become an expert in thermo-nuclear astrophysics?" Tony Stark: "Last night."];
Jumping Out of Airplanes [shows people jumping out of airplanes];
“People of Color” [different colored people];
Leg Scissors [shows people doing leg scissors];
Trains? [shows clips of trains];
Audis (unless you’re Ant-Man, then you’ll get a Hyundai and you’ll like it);
Dual Wielding [shows people using things with two hands];
Dick Measuring [shows people talking about size; Tony Stark: "You have a big gun. You are not "the big gun""; James Rhodes: "Tony, don’t be jealous."; Hulk: "Hulk like, raging fire. Thor like, smoldering fire."; Bill Foster: "My record? 21 feet." Scott Lang: "Not bad." Bill Foster: "You?" Scott Lang: "65 feet." Bill Foster: "Whoa. Huge." Scott Lang: "Yeah, 65."];
You Get An Iron Man Suit! And You Get An Iron Man Suit! And You Get An Iron Man Suit! [shows War Machine and Bruce Banner’s Hulkbuster and Pepper Potts in Mark 42];
Weird Non-Stan Lee Cameos [shows clips of random celebrities];
Multi-Hit Combos [shows people hitting multiple enemies with one shot and numbers as hit scores];
Are You Sure You Know How To Fly This Thing? [shows clips of people asking if they knew how to fly aircrafts]; Young Nick Fury: "You know how to fly this thing?" Carol Danver: "Uh, we’ll see."; Loki: "I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing." Thor: "I said how hard could it be?"; Thor: "Here take the wheel." Bruce Banner: "No! I don’t know how to fly one of these!" Thor: "You’re a scientist, use one of your PhD's."];
and never forget that for all of Guardians 1, they’re sitting in Star-Lord’s jizz. [Star-Lord: “If I had a black light, this place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting.”] Ugh. Gross, dude.

The NeverEnding Story

Aw, man. We forgot to say anything about the ABC shows, Netflix series, one-shots and spin-offs! Eh, so did Kevin Feige.

Trivia[]

Honest_Trailers_Commentary_-_MCU — Honest Trailers Commentary - MCU

To create this Honest Trailer, the writers first came together to discuss tropes of the MCU series. Then they divided up the films between the team and took notes. These notes were complied in a shared Google Doc. Several recurring tropes were identified through this process, for example the prevalence of father issues.
There were several deleted jokes from this video, including a quip about the surprisingly large number of "car fights" in the MCU movies.
This is the third longest Honest Trailer ever - behind only Game of Thrones Vol. 3 and Doctor Who (Modern) Honest Trailer.
Screen Junkies have made individual Honest Trailers for every single movie in the MCU: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel, except for Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. They have also made Honest Trailers for many other movies based on Marvel Comics characters. See list of Honest Trailers for more information.

Watch the full Honest Trailers Commentary on YouTube

Reception[]

Honest Trailers - MCU has a 97.8% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Reviews for this Honest Trailer were incredibly positive, with many media critics praising the video for playfully pointing out the MCU's flaws while also celebrating its achievements. For example, Nicole Drum of ComicBook.com wrote "the video is a humorous attempt to poke a bit of fun at the MCU while also honoring the popularity of the films." Likewise, Ryan Scott of MovieWeb wrote that Screen Junkies had "left no stone unturned in their journey to, with equal parts love and truthfulness, send up the most popular brand in cinematic entertainment." Tito W James of Comicon said the video was one of the greatest Honest Trailers of all time.

Many commentators agreed with Screen Junkies' many observations about the MCU's shortcomings. Ryan Scott noted "The Honest Trailer gang rightfully points out that this is, essentially, a TV series about comic books that just so happens to take place on the big screen. They also point out common tropes, such as magic and science being one and the same, protagonists being loners and ever-changing hairstyles." Eric Ital of Bro Bible made similar remarks, writing "from the overly formulaic nature of the films, to the consistent lack of quality villains, to the Dads being the *real* bad guys of the MCU, Screen Junkies is uniquely able to precisely identify all of the below-the-surface flaws that make the Marvel Cinematic Universe perhaps not as perfect as you believe it to be." Bayani Miguel Acebedo of Epic Stream appreciated Screen Junkies' breakdown of the three phases of the MCU, noting that the Honest Trailer contains "an interesting breakdown of the three MCU phases where the first one was pretty conventional, the second one pushed new boundaries, and the third one just had Marvel going all out with their IP."

In addition, many media critics praised the Honest Trailer for putting the MCU into a broader context and for highlighting how its success has changed the industry. Nicole Drum wrote that the video "notes a very abbreviated take on the origins of the MCU -- specifically the crack about how Marvel Studios took characters "no one wanted" and turned it into a truly epic franchise." Bayani Miguel Acebedo observed "the trailer also pokes fun at the other cinematic franchises trying to replicate what Marvel did to no success. As of now, Marvel is at the top of the cinematic universe food chain, and not even DC has bee able to topple that status." In a similar vein, Ryan Scott wrote "As fun as it may be to pick this franchise apart, its success is undeniable and it has, for better or for worse, totally reshaped the industry." Echoing this sentiment, Sandy Schaeffer of Screen Rant agreed that "the MCU has also benefitted Hollywood at large and helped to keep the industry afloat at a time when theater attendance is continuously eroding in the face of streaming services and other home entertainment options. At one point, Screen Junkies even admits that it owes much of its own recent success to the MCU."