Editor’s note: This is the first in a series looking back at the Marvel film’s leading up to Thursday’s release of Captain America: Civil War.

It’s quite amazing how far Marvel has come. What once seemed like an impossible fantasy became a reality when this studio created, not merely a series of comic book movies, but an entire cinematic universe with an overarching story divided among several different characters. Now on May 6 we will see Captain America and Iron Man face off in the biggest battle in the franchise by far. This is the start of the road to Civil War.

So with that said, let’s take a look back at the film franchises that have brought us to this point, beginning with the Iron Man trilogy.

IRON MAN

What makes the first film really stand out from other superhero films is not only the extremely well-written script and characters, but the performances from the cast, in particular Robert Downey Jr. Downey Jr. had a massive falling out as an actor, to the point where it seemed he would never act in a major film again. However after fighting for the role of Tony Stark for a long time, he had made one of the greatest comebacks in entertainment history.

Downey makes the character of Tony Stark one of the most likeable film leads in recent history, especially with how easy it could’ve been to do the opposite. The rest of the cast does a great job as well: Gwyneth Paltrow plays off of Downey’s mannerisms with ease, Jeff Bridges makes for a good, harsh, almost father figure-type character, Paul Bettany is hilarious as JARVIS and Terrence Howard is great as James Rhodes.

The most enjoyable scenes are ironically not the Iron Man scenes, but simply any scene featuring these great characters having any sort of conversation. This is mostly due to all of the cast’s superb improv abilities since at the time of filming much of the script had been incomplete, and the actors and director had to work around that.

However, there is still one problem. Toward the end of the film one of the supporting characters becomes the main villain and tries to kill Tony Stark with their own weapon. While the character is still fun to watch with Tony, his motivation is extremely weak. It’s as if the writers had a really great script written, but then realized they were making a superhero film and needed to include a supervillain, so they wrote him in at the last second for one 10-minute fight scene at the end of the film.

But this one issue doesn’t get in the way too much and Iron Man is still an extremely fun, well-written, fantastically-acted, and superbly-directed beginning to this series.

IRON MAN 2

The second film is another story. For a film that seems to have a simple premise, Iron Man 2’s issue is that there’s way too much going on, most of which gets resolved way too fast. Sub-plots such as SHIELD monitoring Tony’s house, Pepper not knowing of Tony’s condition, Tony’s worry of losing the arms race, and Rhodes getting the War-Machine suit and working with Justin Hammer just complicate the plot.

Once again the main villain is a weak link, even with a great actor like Mickey Rourke. Unfortunately, he has nothing to work with aside from one or two cool moments. After one fight with Iron Man, the character is absent from the film until the last 20 minutes. This was a huge wasted opportunity given the character’s history with Stark, and the great chemistry shown between the two in the one scene where they truly interact.

However there are some positives to Iron Man 2. The cast is still a joy to watch with newcomers Don Cheadle as James Rhodes and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. While Terrence Howard was good as Rhodes in Iron Man, Cheadle is far more suited for the role, seeming less like a pushover and more of a tough older brother to Stark. Rockwell as Justin Hammer is very fun and enjoyable villain to watch.

While Iron Man 2 is not without its redeeming values, as a whole it falls flat, focusing more on advertising future movies and less on making a self-contained story. Thankfully Marvel seemed to have learned a lot from this installment and have deviated from doing this.

IRON MAN 3

The final film in the trilogy is kind of a mixed bag. It’s a film with a lot of promise that only somewhat lives up to it. The great things it shares in common with the previous films are still a joy to watch, and what’s not so great about the franchise brings the film down a few points.

The story wonderfully brings Tony Stark’s long story arc full circle, showing that even when he’s not in the suit, when he’s just himself, he is still Iron Man. A lot more is at stake this time, with the President being in danger and the villain attacking Tony’s loved ones directly.

The villain in this film continues the trend of having potential but not living up to it, but it’s far more irritating this time. At first it seems that Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin could be one of the scariest villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but toward the end of the film there is a twist that completely negates all that the villain has done, and makes him far less threatening.

Despite this issue, Robert Downey Jr, his supporting cast, the dialogue, and set pieces still bring the film far above your basic action film and make Iron Man 3 a worthwhile watch.

Overall the Iron Man series has its ups and downs, but those downs are not enough to render the films unenjoyable. It’s a fun superhero trilogy that is sure to make for a great movie marathon.