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? I made this list from scratch three times, and it changes shockingly little, so I’m sticking to my guns, I suppose!
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!
You can check out part 1 here!
30. Captain America: Brave New World
Directed by: Julius Onah
What do you get when you take the new Captain America and Falcon and put them in a spy-thriller type film set in Washington, D.C. that centers around a conspiracy involving the Celestial in the ocean and the multiple nations racing to mine the new alloy discovered in it (adamantium!) and an unseen force manipulating events? A really kick ass Captain America story, it sounds like!
Also, the Captain America in this story is Sam Wilson and one of the conspiracies is it seems Isaiah Bradley was brainwashed into attempting to kill the President! Sounds awesome!
Then what if I told you that the real villain of the story is the Leader, aka Sam Sterns from waaaaaay back in the Incredible Hulk, and that he was going to destroy President Thaddeus Ross by turning the world against itself and turning him into the thing he hates most: a Hulk?
You’d probably say it suddenly feels like you’re supposed to be in a Hulk movie, and you’d be right. The only thing missing from this movie, however, is the freaking HULK! Why they didn’t use Zemo as the villain here, or any number of other Cap villains, is beyond me. Or, if you’re going to use Hulk villains, fine, but also use Bruce Banner, maybe make a subplot Sam trying to reconstitute the Avengers? I dunno.
It’s not bad. It’s just weird.
* * * * * *
29. Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2
Directed by: James Gunn
While still a very entertaining entry in the Guardians trilogy, part 2 is just missing a little bit of the innovation and charm of parts 1 and 3.
Kurt Russell’s Ego is an interesting antagonist, and Mantis is a welcome addition to the crew, as is Yondu, for the very brief time he acts as a Guardian. There is some cool conflict between Nebula and Gamora that develops their relationship a bit further, Rocket has some great scenes, and there are a lot of great jokes, but the real star of the show is probably baby Groot.
I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!
* * * * * *
28. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Considering the circumstances the film was made under with the death of its star, Chadwick Boseman, before filming began requiring a total overhaul after the decision was made not to recast T’Challa, it’s not half bad. Granted, losing the Namor-T’Challa rivalry was a blow, and not having T’Challa around requires a good chunk of this movie to focus on forcing Shuri to accept the mantle in his stead, but it still mostly works.
Huge kudos to writer/director Ryan Coogler and his team for the cinematography; if nothing else, this is a good-looking film!
Thankfully, Namor mostly works here, even if he’s very different from his comic book counterpart at times. I don’t mind the reworking of his history to get away from the use of Atlantis, especially after DC beat Marvel to it by showing their Atlantis in the Aquaman films. His rivalry with the Black Panther, and the rivalry between Talokan and Wakanda, builds up to a pretty high degree by the end, including some regicide, so it’ll be interesting to see how he is used opposite Shuri in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
The reveal that T’Challa had a son with Nakia who is being raised in secret is cool, and it’s been confirmed T’Challa, son of T’Challa, will be featured in Black Panther 3.
* * * * * *
27. Dr. Strange In The Multiverse of Madness
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Wanda’s heel turn would have felt a bit more natural if the writers of this film had actually watched WandaVision, but as a whole it works for me. What doesn’t work is Billy and Tommy Maximoff’s ice cream song. It should be a war crime.
Dr. Strange’s trip through the multiverse with America Chavez spends most of its time in two realities, which is a little bit of a letdown, but in one of those we meet John Krasinski’s Reed Richards, Anson Mount’s Black Bolt, Hayley Atwell’s Carter and Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and in the other Dr. Strange fights a corrupted version of himself in the bones of the Sanctum Sanctorum in a decimated reality before using the Darkhold to send his spirit across realities into his corpse in the main reality (a multiversal thing) so that he can use necromancy and dark magic to attack the Darkhold possessed Scarlet Witch. So, yeah, we really only see two new realities in any depth, but they make good use of the time spent in them.
A welcome return from Sam Raimi, dutch angels, crash zooms and all!
* * * * * *
26. Avengers: Age of Ultron
Directed by: Joss Whedon
I don’t think there is much argument that this is the least of the Avengers movies, but it’s still a really good time, all told.
Sure, it’s a bit of a mess, and the Ultron design leaves much to be desired (it’s his face), and the whole Banner/Black Widow thing feels awkward and forced, but the action scenes are great, the characters all ‘feel’ right, the Cap/Tony relationship gets a little rockier, and it expands the universe in some new and exciting ways, even if the director was kicking and screaming half the time.
We also get introduced to some big-time Avengers here and the roster grows with the introduction of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision, and the tragically temporary addition of Quicksilver.
Some big-time bonus points for the opening sequence with the Avengers taking out the last Hydra base, and of course for the insane Hulk/Iron Man fight.
* * * * * * *
25. Thor 
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
People forget what a big swing this seemed like: Thor wasn’t exactly a household name yet, and almost nobody knew who Chris Hemsworth or Tom Hiddleston were. They smartly filled the cast with quality, established actors like Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins.
The origin story of Thor being a total monster on the battlefield but a bit too big for his britches, as they say, pretty much everywhere else. After Thor leads Loki and some friends into battle with the Frost Giants in the frozen realm of Jotunheim he opens the kingdom of Asgard up to potential war, and Odin, thinking ‘god my kids suck’, kicks Thor down to earth and strips him of his power.
It was a lot of fun to see Thor being this unstoppable force, then being unable to function in almost any real capacity on Earth/Midgard. There is some really terrific humor mined from the ‘fish out water’ aspect, like Thor always smashing his cups and loudly calling for another, or when he enters a pet store demanding a horse.
Hiddleston’s Loki is wonderful, and his sense of betrayal when he learns he has not been told the truth of his parentage feels earned. Bonus points for the use of the Destroyer armor!
* * * * * *
24. Captain Marvel
Directed by: Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden
This movie gets way too much hate. Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is charming and fun when the story lets her be, but it’s hard to be funny and charming when you’re either in the midst of a war or worried about piecing your memory together because everything you thought was real was a lie. Her relationship with Nick Fury is great and allows a bit of much needed character development for Fury after like 12 years of movies.
The way Carol’s memories were tampered with is interesting, and I liked how they established the story as the good and noble Kree defending freedom and all that’s good from those low-down, disgusting Skrulls, but by the end of the second act you realize Carol and the audience have both been had, and the imperialistic, fascist Kree are about as far from being the good guys as it gets.
Yon-Rog might not be a headline grabbing villain, but Jude Law does a great job of portraying him. The real villain here is the Supreme Intelligence, but I’m not going to lie, I really wanted to see the giant green head in a jar instead of ‘everyone sees something different’. Not a fan of the film’s version of Mar Vell, either, but this is Carol’s movie, so it’s not a big deal.
* * * * * *
23. Black Widow
Directed by: Cate Shortland
The most delayed movie ever (probably not true), when it was finally dropped in the middle of the Covid pandemic (remember that?) it was a very welcome escape from worrying about masks and sanitizing everything in sight and Tiger King.
It’s odd to make a solo movie about a founding Avenger (in the films) AFTER they’re dead, but that’s what happened! Black Widow takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, so it’s kind of-sort of a prequel, in a sense.
It’s great to spend more time with Natasha and reinforces what many of us had been saying since Phase 2 was announced: she needed a solo movie! We could have had 2 or 3 of the point this one finally came out. That said, it was pretty awesome and introduced the MCU to the new star Black Widow in Natasha’s ‘sister’ Yelena and to everyone’s favorite, her ‘father’ the Red Guardian! The dynamics between Natasha and each of her ‘family’ members is great, but it’s her big-little sister relationship with Yelena that really carries the movie.
* * * * * *
22. Shang-Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
This may seem a bit low, but I just don’t care for the third act nearly as much as the rest of the film, so it loses some points for me.
Simu Liu is fantastic as Shang-Chi, and I’m dumbfounded that there hasn’t been a sequel yet, although I’m very much looking forward to seeing how he’s used in Avengers: Doomsday. He’s got the potential to be one of the main characters if they’d let him.
The direction is fantastic, as we will learn is no fluke later on as Cretton is awesome, particularly in some of the action set pieces when they do some fun stuff with camera angles and creative shots. The bus fight and the scaffolding outside the building fight particularly come to mind.
I love how they tied in the use of the Ten Rings name in the first Iron Man, and especially the use of the ‘Mandarin’ in Iron Man 3. The REAL Mandarin, although he doesn’t ever go by the name, is Wen Wu, Shang Chi’s father, and he has 10 big ass rings that are incredibly powerful that make him damn near unstoppable. It’s a shame things got into mystical dragons and magic lands, because the immortal crime boss father and criminal sister is more than enough to make a really compelling story.
* * * * * *
21. Captain America: The First Avenger
Directed by: Joe Johnston
The final film before the great experiment that was the Avengers, like the first Thor movie, this one was a really big swing. It can be a hard sell in countries outside of America to get behind the iconography of American military might being the best hero, but Jonston makes some really terrific decisions in how the movie presents itself and the tone he was going for, and as a result instead of some cheesy 2000’s superhero movie this feels more like a pretty timeless Indiana Jones-esque adventure. As a result, what could have been a mess becomes one of the most beloved MCU films.
Evans is, of course, incredibly well cast as Steve Rogers, and I love the uses of Stanley Tucci as Dr. Erskine and everyone loves old grouchy ass Tommy Lee Jones.
The relationship between little Steve and the bigger, tougher Bucky is an interesting subversion of the relationship from the comics and is itself inverted once Steve ain’t so little. It would have been nice if we spent a little more time with the two of them and the Howling Commandos during the war instead of just a montage.
The Red Skull and Hydra could have been a lot scarier, the Skull in particular, but the version we get here fits the tone of the movie quite well, considering they were going more for ‘action adventure for all ages’ film rather than ‘nightmare inducing comic accurate Red Skull’.
The humor is great throughout the film, but I really love the “I’ve knocked out Adolf Hitler over 2oo times” bit.
* * * * * *
That’s for part 2!
Stay tuned for more of your favorite MCU films in part 3, covering rankings 20-11!
Remember to check part 1 out here if you haven’t already!
