Marvel Studios Cinematic Collection Phase 1

Before I get started on the collectible side of this item, I wanted to briefly say that all the movies in this collection rank at least an A.Iron Man is now a classic, marrying Robert Downey Jr. with a role that almost seemed written for him. His personality brings to life a great classic superhero in a way I didn't expect. I was never a huge Iron Man comic fan as a child, but I knew the nuances of the actual character, and Downey nails it spot on. Iron Man 2 is a good continuation of the first, and tries to evolve the character amidst great special effects and visual eye candy. Some say it suffers for being a lead in to the Avengers, however I disagree. While it does serve as a bridge for the upcoming Avengers movie, I do not think it took away from the overall story. And seeing as 3 picks up right after the Avengers movie then the Avengers can almost be considered "Iron Man 2 1/2", as that movie favored his character more so than the other players in the stunning ensemble cast.The Incredible Hulk was a much much much improved version than the Ang Lee movie. This version tends to rely more on the old t.v. show starring Bill Bixby (which everyone loved) over the over the top/overly experimental version Lee put out. Unfortunately actor/studio disputes kept him from being in any future installments but the Hulk in the avengers worked for that movie (so hopefully they'll at least keep it going in that direction rather than doing reboot after reboot)Thor is more or less what you'd expect and Natalie Portman shines as the mere mortal who helps Thor She turns a character that usually ends up being a disposable character in these type of movies into something a lot more substantial and meaningful. And the casting of Thor himself was spot on as well.Captain America was pretty straight forward, it told the origin story rather well and where it ended up is pretty much true to the comic and brings him into modern times just in time for the Avengers.As for the Avengers well, we all know that was a great film, the action sequences were relentless but not done in that chop-chop manner in which you don't actually see the action. Of course its' over the top, but how can you have this many superheroes in one movie and have it not be over the top? It never goes into camp though. Very well written, acted and the story well executed. Even the Hulk turned out to be a surprisingly humorous and rewarding addition to the cast (I had my misgivings about putting him in the same movie as his more human counterparts, and I was wrong to worry)Now on to the reason most are reading this review for, the actual collector's edition. I do not understand why, in the negative reviews, everyone keeps calling this cheap or a waste of money. What were you expecting for $150? This isn't an actual movie prop. It's meant to have that cool/wow factor but there are limitations with this type of collectible. If everyone who left negative reviews got what they wanted this case would cost close to $300. And well, that's just not marketable.Yes the case is plastic, but it's still cool. I do wish the clasps were made more like a real suitcase, but the way it is made seems like it will last for quite awhile. Usually with things like this you "play" with it many times in the first few days, and if you haven't seen the movies yet, you'll open it to get the discs out, but after a period of time has passed you will only open it sporadically anyway and that's to show it to others or whatever. It has a button you can push on the top to shine the light on the front of the case (avengers logo). When you open it there are nice L.E.D.s which shine their blue light on the inside cover (and again on the emblem) and another light underneath the tesseract. While, the tesseract itself may seem underwhelming it's still cool. but I do not know how they could have made this light up better or more like the movie without it being more expensive.The movies are great, and they are housed in small folders with more artistic type art for covers. When I speak of this case, and say that it is worth the price, I am NOT including the 3d blu rays that are included (for three of the movies) as I do not use 3d yet, and even though I love movies I find the 3d movies to be more distracting than awe inspiring. And as one reviewer noted if you were to go just by the cost of the blu rays (single discs) you pay no more than $25 a piece. So when people say this set is a waste of money, I can't agree. I am not sure why Iron Man didn't include the bonus features disc (it would have been nice since three of the movies are two discs each and the other three are single discs, instead of a 3d disc I would have preferred the extras discs. But the inclusion of a bonus disc (exclusive to this set) somewhat makes up for that.I loved the folders and how it's made to look like classified files on the main players. The inclusions of Thor's Driver's License, or Natalie Portman's work badge are nice. The fake newspaper clippings about Iron Man are great if for nothing more than the fact that it's made/aged to look like a newspaper article and on the back are other fake articles rather than a blank page or filler-type which they usually use to make the articles look great on screen but upon closer inspection you realize it's just random words. Here it's actual made up articles that seem as if they are part of a real paper. The trading cards included with Captain America is a nice touch as well. as is the AIM business card Tony Stark received in the 3rd movie. Everything seems well thought out and authentic. There are many more little nick knacks that are included, and well I won't ruin the fun for everyone, they are great to look at and show off. So is this set worth it? Yes.I can't imagine any fanboy/fangirl being disappointed. there is enough to keep your interest and the movies are awesome. This is a great item to have in your collection, whether you are a comic collector, movie collector or someone who just likes delving into a fictional world and being surprised at the level of detail involved. This is a great item to have. It's for the grown up kid in all of us.

Nice collection

I'm not sure where all of the naysaying is coming from. The fact is....this is a highly imaginative presentation of these movies, and when I picked it up from the post office this morning, it was more than I'd hoped for. Consider it this way: The current Amazon price ($150) divided equally between the six movies values each movie at $25, hardly unreasonable for Blu-Ray, and especially considering three of them feature 3-D versions as well. (I paid the $140 pre-sale price back in August, valuing the movies at $23 each from my own pocket). That essentially makes absolutely everything else included entirely free:1) The suitcase. I honestly cannot fathom what people are referring to when they are reviewing this as being cheaply made. It is more realistic than I would have expected, and the artificial circuitry inside it achieves maximum "cool factor." The repeated complaints that the discs are hard to remove is laughable. I'd barely opened the case when my 3-year-old daughter pulled Thor smoothly and effortlessly out. And as for the clips and hinges being weak and fragile? Again, it's been opened and closed several times today with no threat to their survival.2) The Tesseract. I know there have been complaints about some of these not working, but I suspect that has less to do with the fact that it wasn't lighting up the way people expected and more to do with the fact that it doesn't give them magical powers. These are the same unrealistic people who were expecting the briefcase to be metal. Come on, people. The fact is, even without the rapid-pulsing glow, just the constant glow underneath that lights up the whole inner parts of the briefcase (including the Tesseract) as well as the icon on the outside of the briefcase offers an awesome effect.3) The Artifacts. Seriously, the degree of detail and imagination that went into the artificial memorabilia far exceeded my expectations. I would have been satisfied with a couple of tongue-in-cheek character profiles. These items go far beyond that. I don't want to go into detail so as to allow people the same joyful ear-to-ear grin it gave me, but allow me to say that there was far more here both in quantity and quality than I ever hoped for. I can't wait to study each item closely.4) Bonus Disc. I haven't even inserted this yet, let alone viewed it. I have seen plenty of reviewers claim it wasn't nearly as much as they expected. But remember that the $25 valuing of the movies doesn't include this disc. Anything included on it is extra, and therefore FREE. Stop complaining.5) Digipak cardboard slipcases with new cover art. Some may scoff at my including this as a feature, but truth be told, these very cool new illustrated art covers for the movies are a huge selling point to me. Very classy move on this inclusion.Of course then there is the simple fact that the movies themselves are fantastic. So if you already own all six movies on Blu-Ray, is this worth it? Very possibly not. But no one ever claimed that the briefcase and enclosed items were worth $150, and I think that's what a lot of reviewers are forgetting. The assumption here is that the people buying it probably own between zero and three of these movies (at least on Blu-Ray). I myself only own Thor and Captain America. I didn't mind the $40-$50 hit I took by purchasing these twice. Someone who owns all six movies already (or I'd say at least four) will want to think seriously about the level to which they care about the extra goodies.But is Amazon overpricing this for what it is and includes? Absolutely not.