- The 2010s was the decade of the superhero movie.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe took over multiplexes and the "Avengers" movies wrapped up in the most satisfying way imaginable with "Endgame."
- The DC Extended Universe stumbled with "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" but found its footing when they introduced Wonder Woman and then gave her a standalone movie.
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Following is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: The 2010s was the decade of the superhero movie. We saw the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe along with a bunch of onscreen appearances of heroes from DC, the X-Men, and even Pixar. Here are the top moments and scenes from superhero movies in the last decade.
- Just leave her alone and everything will be fine.
- The anti superhero film "Kick-Ass" helped usher in the decade of the superhero. The movie is probably remembered for this scene where the 11 year old Hit Girl takes out an entire room of henchmen.
- Meenie, miney, mo.
- The R rated superhero flick didn't start and stop there.
- Oh, oh hello.
- 2016's "Deadpool" was an envelope pushing smash.
- Did I leave the stove on?
- The movie's opening car chase truly exemplifies the spirit of the film where you have Deadpool just breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience while taking out the bad guys.
- Rich Corinthian leather.
- Ugh.
- We'll say Ryan Reynold's third attempt at being in a superhero movie went a lot better.
- Stop or we will shoot.
- Freeze him Charles.
- I can't.
- [Cop] Hands up!
- The X-Men prequels started off really strong early in the decade and then ended on a disastrous note. Let's just cherish this shoot in Quicksilver time, which is one of the coolest slow motion shots since "The Matrix's" bullet time. The super fun sequel rightly teamed up Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne. The movie's most memorable scene comes when The Wasp has to fend for herself in the kitchen. Meat tenderizers are flying at her, she has to shrink and grow and deal with all these other related kitchen objects. And it's really a chance for Evangeline Lilly to shine. Marvel waited way too long to make it's first female superhero movie. 11 years into the MCU the studio delivered Captain Marvel and gave us this scene showing everybody why Carol Danvers is the most powerful hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Carol is being held by the Supreme Intelligence, rips out her power dampener and delivers this line.
- I've been fighting with one arm tied behind my back, but what happens when, I'm finally set free.
- Then she fully powers up into her binary form and we see just how powerful Captain Marvel really is. For Guardians we could've gone with Groot dancing or even Quill dancing, but sometimes a memorable moment, it's not even about the characters. Take this scene where the Guardians fly into the lawless Nowhere and David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" is blasting on the soundtrack. ♪ Freak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah ♪ Not only is it full of awesome establishing shots further building out Marvel's galactic onscreen presence, but unknown to us at the time, it also sets up the location of a pivotal scene from "Infinity War". Freak out, far out, indeed.
- [Mera] Welcome home.
- Speaking of sweeping landscapes, how about the first glimpse of Atlantis in "Aquaman." Who could've thought the Atlantis of the comics could be brought to life so vividly. Just watch the giant tortoises and whales flying over your head and let your imagination run wild. Bonus points to this movie for including a few things constantly mocked about Aquaman and making them kind of awesome.
- Okay now I can turn invisible. Selecting a bagel. Act super normal.
- Spider-Man?
- You know that's funny, I get that a lot.
- Spider-Man had a very weird decade. He was portrayed by multiple actors and was the subject of a massive fight between two rival studios. This was one of the high points of Spider-Man on the big screen. In fact "Into the Spider-Verse" even picked up the Oscar for best animated film. Wanna know why this movie got that Oscar? Just take a look at this stunning scene where Peter B. Parker and Miles Morales are swinging through the woods. Miles is finally starting to get the hang of the web slinging.
- Okay, thwip and release. Thwip and release. Thwip
- And release.
- You're a natural. Thwip
- Release!
- It's one of the many moments where this movie feels like a comic book come to life. And speaking of animated superheros Fans waited 14 years between "The Incredibles" and "The Incredibles 2". That first movie ended with a tease of baby Jack Jack's powers, emphasis on powers, plural. In the sequel, Jack Jack's powers went berserk when he went head to head with a raccoon. He was zapping it, smacking it, even tried to set it on fire. Really makes me wish Pixar would get into the superhero business full time. Marvel's on screen battles have just gotten better and better as time has gone on. This battle for Asgard on the Rainbow Bridge is set to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" making it the perfect combination of song and fight scene. And when the song gets to "Valhalla, I am coming"♪ Valhalla, I am coming ♪ Valkyrie, long associated with Valhalla in Norse mythology, is swaggering across the bridge to enter the fight. And Thor's other allies, Loki, Hulk, Korg, Heimdall, and the rest of Asgard are all doing their part to take Hela and her forces down. With a brand new director, "Thor Ragnarok" was a breakthrough moment for the character on the big screen giving him much more humor than he had before.
- You're late.
- You're missing an eye.
- At the end of this movie, Cap wakes up in what he thinks is the 1940's only to discover that he's been frozen for 70 years. He's eventually met by Nick Fury. The twist was executed well and the movie also ended with one of the most heartbreaking lines in any superhero movie.
- Yeah, I just, I had a date.
- Steve Rodgers would finally get that date with Peggy in Endgame. And speaking of twists
- Don't hurt the face. I'm an actor.
- In "Iron Man 3", The Mandarin, who we're led to believe is the main villain, is nothing more than an actor.
- Just a role, The Mandarin, see it's not real.
- It's a clever twist, but also one of the MCU's most divisive moments. This never actually happened in the comics and if you we're a fan of them, you we're kind of deprived of the chance to see Iron Man face off against one of his oldest foes. Me, I feel like Marvel didn't have a whole lot of options. It was the studios fix for a character who was developed around a whole lot of racist tropes and stereotypes.
- At least you talk. Who are you?
- It doesn't matter who we are.
- "The Dark Night Rises" was gonna have a tough time topping 2008's "The Dark Night", but it came pretty close in this thrilling opening scene, which introduced us to Tom Hardy's Bane. It's an unforgettable opening, not just because they filmed it in real planes and also not because all of your friends had terrible Bane impressions after this movie came out.
- No one cared who I was til I put on the mask.
- The script says do a Bane voice but mines really bad. I was born in the dark. I can't do one. Wonder Woman makes her grand entrance, a bright spot in an other wise awful movie and a sign, not fully realized at the time, that there was a brighter future ahead for the DC Extended Universe. Just try to get that theme music out of your head. We're gonna come back to Wonder Woman in a little bit.
- Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?
- Now, this is among the absolute best fight scenes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe and it's not on a giant battlefield. It's just Captain America, a bunch of Hydra soldiers, and a very cramped elevator. This scene was so memorable, that it showed up again in "Endgame". This was by far the best of the solo Wolverine movies. It was the dark and emotional portrayal that the character always deserved. I could choose any action sequence from this movie that gave it it's R-rating, but Logan's death, really felt like everything was coming full circle, and it was truly the end of an era.
- Don't be what they made you.
- Logan's entire life has been a battle and he can finally be at peace. Now give us an X-23 movie already.
- Where is this one from?
- The Bobo Ashanti tribe from present-day Ghana, 19th century.
- "Black Panther" was a groundbreaking moment in pop culture. It's Best Picture nomination can attest to that, but it's not the movies hero I want to talk about. It's the villain, Killmonger, and his intro.
- How do you think your ancestors got these? You think they paid a fare price? Or did they take it like they took everything else?
- Perhaps you're already thinking "Hey is it even fair to call this guy the villain?"
- But I see through you.
- "Doctor Strange" expanded the MCU far beyond normal fighting. Nowhere is that more apparent than when Doctor Strange first meets The Ancient One and she takes him on quite the trip.
- [The Ancient One] What mysteries lie beyond the reach of your senses.
- The visuals feel like a callback to the original Steve Ditko creations from the '60s and it set up a lot of what was to come with reality bending and time travel later on in the MCU.
- Mysterio takes Spider-Man through a mind bending trip through a whole bunch of projections. It's mesmerizing and terrifying. Just look at zombie Tony Stark. This already feels like a sequence fans will be talking about for a very long time and other Spider-Man movies, both animated and live action, are gonna have a hard time topping it. The third Captain America movie isn't just about Cap. During a pivotal battle at an airport in Berlin, the Avengers found themselves divided. On one side, we had Iron Man joined by Spider-Man, Black Panther, and War Machine. And on the other, we had Captain America, with Falcon, Winter Soldier, and Giant Man. Scarlet Witch made cars fly through the air, Ant Man grew to the size of a skyscraper, and Spider-Man made "Star Wars" jokes.
- Hey guys! You ever see that really old movie, "Empire Strikes Back"?
- Jesus, Tony. How old is this guy?
- I don't know, I didn't carbon-date him.
- This made watching the team fall apart completely worth it. DC got ahead of the MCU with this female led superhero film. Set during the first World War, includes this thrilling scene set in No Man's Land where Diana marches across the battlefield drawing all the enemy fire so the soldiers can advance. If this sequence doesn't make you a Wonder Woman fan, nothing could. So, we've hit the top 3 and, yes, it's just going to be the Avengers movies here on out. When you think of superhero films from the last decade or so, this is probably the first image that comes to mind. At that point, we'd been waiting four years since the first Iron Man movie to see the core Avengers all together in one shot, suited up and ready for action. And this image is just straight up iconic. It's rare to see a superhero movie end on such a downer, but the snap in "Infinity War" proved to be the "Empire Strikes Back" of Avengers movies. And we we're left to wonder for an entire year how those heroes would come back. Because the movies make way too much money to not bring them back. This was the hardest movie to pick a scene from, so we're gonna cheat and say the entire third act because technically it's the ending to 21 other movies and it delivered. You have Thor, Cap, and Iron Man coming together for one last stand. A throwback to the first Avengers movie when they first came together and fought over Loki. And if you saw this in theaters, you really thought one of them was gonna die here. But no, the Russo's decided to instead deliver on more than a decade of teases and build ups. Cap shows he's worthy by wielding Mjolnir and summoning the lightning. He straps on his shield for what he thinks will be the last time and Sam gives us a callback to Winter Soldier to let Cap know the cavalry has arrived.
- [Sam] On your left.
- Don't say it, don't you say it.
- On your left.
- Come on!
- It looks like all of Wakanda is there. All the wizards are there. Valkyrie has shown up on her Pegasus. Even Pepper Potts is there in the Rescue Suit. And Captain America delivers the iconic battle cry that fans have been waiting years to hear.
- Avengers! Assemble.
- They could have just left it at that. But nope the battle still gave us some great moments. Tony and Pepper fight back to back. Tony finally hugs Peter. There's the gauntlet relay. All the female Avengers come together. If you saw this in theaters, especially opening weekend, then you know how much the audience cheered for each and every one of those moments. And how dusty the theater got for Tony's funeral. That ending is why I paid to see this movie in theaters three times.
[Producer]: You saw it three times in theaters?
- You didn't? Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
[Captain America]: That is America's ass.