Dare I try to do the nearly damn impossible and rank the film entries in the MCU?
It’s a very daunting task, because how do you choose between some of these? It might have been easier to do a tier-ranking list, but what are you gonna do?
The important thing to remember with the below list is that these are ranked not by cinematic achievement or a carefully plotted out chart or an algorithm to determine what are truly the best MCU entries. These are based solely on how much enjoyment I derive from them. You might think I’m a madman, or that finally (FINALLY!) somebody truly gets you, but regardless of whether or not you disagree with my choices (I’m sure Erik will have a completely different breakdown) I hope you enjoy reading!
38. Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
Directed By: Peyton Reed
The weakest (film) entry in the MCU is still a very enjoyable, weird tale. It suffers from the disconnect between it and the previous two films, as well as having the vast majority of the film taking place on a green screen (or the Volume?). You don’t get the funny visual jokes of regular household items being huge or growing and shrinking a laboratory or car. Kang’s role here feels underserved and doesn’t do a whole lot to set him up as the Big Bad he was originally intended to be.
* * * * * *
37. Thor: Love & Thunder
Directed By: Taika Waititi
Where the jokes and wit in Thor: Ragnarok helped lighten the tone and endear you to the characters, here it seems like Waititi is trying to make a comedy and this story about a man betrayed by his God and essentially murdering religions while a cancer patient tries to fight him by using her ex-boyfriend’s power keeps forcing itself into a goofy, lighthearted tale of Thor being silly.
It’s not without its merits: Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher is fantastic, and incredibly creepy. The scene where the Thors and Valkyrie try to fight him is terrific. However, there is far too much wasted time and nonsense that steals the screen time needed for Gorr’s story and character to further develop. The same applies to Jane Foster’s arc as the Mighty Thor.
Also, I’m annoyed that the status quo of Thor hanging with the Guardians of the Galaxy was tossed aside so quickly, and of course the entire thing is played for jokes in this movie.
* * * * * *
36. The Incredible Hulk
Directed By: Louis Letterier
The black sheep of the MCU, and the last solo Hulk movie we’re likely to get for a good while, there is still a very fun action movie here with some awesome Hulk action. Edward Norton isn’t a bad Bruce Banner and is likeable enough in the role. The story takes elements from the 60’s TV show, the Bruce Jones/John Romita Jr Hulk comics, and visually feels as much like the Italian Job or a monster movie as it does a superhero film.
Tim Roth is an admittedly odd choice to play Emil Blonsky, aka the Abomination, although he does a pretty decent job. Weird that the American team is using a teeny-tiny British operative to go after Hulk, and weird that Blonsky isn’t Russian, but it’s not a big deal. It doesn’t matter where you’re from when you get kicked in the damn face by the Hulk, either way you’re going to end up in a full body cast if you’re lucky.
* * * * * *
35. Iron Man 2
Directed By: Jon Favreau
Easily the weakest of the Iron Man films, Iron Man 2 is still a very fun, albeit very flawed, movie. Its biggest problem is its villains: Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is wonderfully sleazy, but he’s never really a threat to Tony, and whatever the hell Mickey Rourke was doing as Whiplash wasn’t working. It seems quite a lot of his character’s story was cut out of the final film that explained some of his idiosyncrasies and gave some much needed depth, which is a shame, because it could have gone a long way to improving the movie.
Black Widow is introduced here, and a subplot involving Tony’s body rejecting the arc reactor brings SHIELD and Nick Fury into the story where we get some hints that there is more to them than previously thought, including the fact that Howard Stark, Tony’s father, was a founding member. The coolest thing, though, is the introduction of Jim Rhodes as War Machine. Teased towards the end of the first film, it was worth the wait for the scene with Iron Man and War Machine fighting Whiplash’s HAMMER drones back-to-back.
Also, a post credit scene teased Thor for the first time!
* * * * * *
34. Thor: The Dark World
Directed By: Alan Taylor
Inferior to the first film in pretty much every way but still finds ways to be a lot of fun- mostly by forcing Thor and Loki to work together, much to Thor’s chagrin.
Instead of the fish-out-of-water tale in the first film, much of the Dark World takes place in Asgard and other realms before ending primarily on Earth, so much of the charm the first movie has is lacking here. The villains are also criminally underserved by the story, as dark elf Malekith is one of Thor’s most dangerous, cunning and despicable villains but here he is given about as much to do as a dishtowel. The same goes for Kurse, an incredibly powerful foe that is basically a mute henchman here.
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is great, as always.
* * * * * *
33. Ant-Man & The Wasp
Directed By: Peyton Reed
A fun little palate cleanser after the intensity of Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp may be Marvel’s funniest film. Scott’s suit malfunctions lead to some very funny visuals and set pieces, and pretty much every interaction with is daughter, Cassie, is hilarious (“You’re the world’s greatest grandma”).
While the ‘villain’ is hardly a villain, and most of everything that causes conflict is based on misunderstandings, there is still enough going on to keep the overarching story moving forward while a lot of time is spent introducing Hope Van Dyne’s version of the Wasp (and she’s awesome).
It’s fun and harmless. You’ll probably enjoy it but can be forgiven for forgetting 99% of the movie a month later.
* * * * * *
32. The Marvels
Directed by: Nia DaCosta
These bottom 9 films are all pretty closely grouped together as far as how I would rank them, and a lot of what I said about Thor: the Dark World and Ant-Man & the Wasp can be applied here.
The villain, Dar-Benn, is so underdeveloped it’s almost hard to believe it’s not on purpose, and once you realize she’s essentially using the villains’ evil plot in Spaceballs it’s really hard to take her seriously.
The three leads are all doing a nice job, although Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel outshines the other two. The contrivance of them switching physical spaces with one another when two of them use their powers at once leads to some really fun, inventive action scenes, and once the movie allows the three of them to get over the somewhat contrived grievances between them and we see them start to bond and get along it really starts to improve.
Bonus points for being the first MCU appearance of the Beast!
* * * * * *
31. Eternals
Directed by: Chloe Zhao
Some really interesting concepts, very creative ways to display powers being used, some bold character choices and comic accurate Celestials bump this one up a few spots for me.
Like most of the films on this end of the list the villain(s) are pretty weak, although once Ikaris shows his loyalty to the Celestial cause over the other Eternals that improves a good bit. It’s also very satisfying to see Makkari beat the crap out of him in the best depiction of super speed ever put on film.
The relationships between the Eternals feel nuanced and it’s interesting to see how a family unit made up of immortals develops and degrades over time.
It will be very interesting to see if they ever follow up on the rather large consequences of this film. Will we ever see Dane Whitman be the Black Knight? Will we ever see what happened to Sersi and if the Eternals joined by Pip and Star Fox were able to find her? Who knows? It took like half a decade for them to follow up on the gigantic half-born Celestial corpse sticking out of the ocean.
* * * * * *
That’s it for part 1! Stay tune for part 2, where we will cover numbers 30-21!
