Marvel Rankings

Throughout the last month, I have steadily been working my way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It started before the coronavirus hit, so I'd probably not be writing this post if not for that and certainly wouldn't have written it this fast.  I very quickly wanted to rank them as I was watching them, which made it easier for the final ranking, and I started by posting them on Twitter.  It became clear around halfway through this that it was not entirely feasible to stick to rankings on Twitter.  I also thought I'd need to explain myself.  Which I believe I do given some of the rankings are perhaps not quite in line with the popular consensus.  Although I honestly don't know the popular consensus, so maybe it's exactly the same.

I decided to organize the movies by giving them up to 4 stars.  This helped immensely when figuring out the rankings, as it simplified my process.  I would usually figure out a 1-4 star rating, look at the comparable movies, and decide where to put it.  Sometimes, the comparable movies were obviously better or worse, so I adjusted on the fly.  More importantly, I point out the stars to indicate that they're roughly comparable and the specific order is perhaps not as important.  I think most of the 2.5 star movies are interchangeable in quality, but I am firm in believing a 3 star movie is better than a 2.5 star movie.  So don't get too worked up if you think a movie in 18th place belongs in 12th place.  However, I really do believe the 11th place is better than the 12th place.  Make sense?

Let's get started.

4 stars

1. Iron Man (2008)

I saw Iron Man so long ago, I don't specifically remember how good I thought it was at the time.  I know I liked it.  But rewatching Iron Man, I was shocked by how great a movie it is.  It's fantastic.  It's basically a perfect movie.  I can't really imagine an origin story being better than Iron Man, honest to god.  Oh and the ending?  Big smile on my face.  I actually think Jeff Bridges provides one of the better villains of the MCU too (which... might say more about the rest of the villains but still).  While his motivations are perhaps undercooked, they don't really need to be anything more?  Unlike some other surprise villain reveals, his position in the company makes him not a good guy in the first place.  And I think Jeff and RDJ do a good job of conveying their bond pre-evil turn to sell the betrayal and create personal stakes.

This movie is ultimately responsible for the Marvel formula, the witty banter while fighting and undercut everything with a joke, but it never feels forced here, where it does a lot in later movies.  Which goes a long way towards explaining how that came to be the formula in the first place.  But sorry folks, no other movie ended up topping the very first movie in the MCU.

2. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

This is not a perfect movie even though I'm giving it the perfect grade.  But I will say I can't really imagine a superhero movie with this scope and challenge being better than this movie is.  There's just so much on this movie's plate and the fact that very little of it can be questioned is a miracle.  And what can be questioned could be called nitpicks.  I'd get into detail on those nitpicks, but the gist of it is "Some of the superhero characters' decision to take a certain side are perhaps not that well developed" but I'm not sure there was a way around that and I was ultimately able to talk myself into why characters chose which side.  I just wish the movie didn't make me do that.

But the central two characters - Tony Stark and Steve Rogers - are very well developed, and this is where a benefit of a Marvel universe really comes into play.  On top of that, this movie has what is easily the best and smoothest new superhero introduction in the Marvel Universe in Black Panther.  T'Challa has an arc that could have been its own movie.  He was included so that they could have a third party with their own motivations and it could not have been more successful.  They also get points for introducing Spiderman, although his introduction is very much extraneous and not all that vital to the movie, even though he's a lot of fun and adds a good amount of humor.

3.5 stars

3. Black Panther (2018)

When you get right down to motivation, performance, and connection to the hero, Killmonger is the best villain in the MCU.  He's not the most dangerous (Thanos obviously), but he is the best.  I don't really agree with them, but there's a reason that there's a sizable contingent of fans who say "Killmonger was right."  He certainly brings up good points, as all good villains should.  That's the main reason Black Panther is as high as it is.  It isn't higher because W'Kabi (played by Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya) wasn't better developed.  Or developed at all.  His turn to support Killmonger is weak, considering he's great friends with T'Challa and his wife is on opposite sides as him.  And then he changes his mind later.  Neither of these actions are all that meaningful to us, because he gets no characterization at all.  The final battle is a little weak as well, although I personally think it's made up for by the dying scene.

4. Thor: Ragnorak (2017)

This movie is 130 minutes of fun.  It's fair to say it's the funniest movie in the MCU by a good margin.  The best parts of the previous two Thor movies was clearly the comedy, and director Taika Waititi mines as much comedy out of this movie as possible.  It's essentially a straight up comedy.  They hired Cate Blanchett for the villain part and she acts the hell out of the part, but she can't really escape the weak villain thing that plagues most MCU movies.  It's not quite getting the best score, because I didn't really like anything about the Odin parts of this movie, although I'm glad they let Anthony Hopkins ham it up when Loki was pretending to be him at least so his part wasn't completely useless.

5. Avengers (2012)

Here's a possibly underrated movie.  I'm not exactly sure of its reputation at this point, but I just know that it's impossible for this movie to not feel slight in comparison to the Avenger team-ups that follow this.  And it has its fair share of things I could complain about.  I almost feel guilty complaining about Thor and Iron Man fighting, because it was studio mandated, but well it sure as hell feels studio mandated.  This movie still has quite a few awesome sequences: the opening scene, Black Widow's introduction (to this movie, not the MCU), and Hulk smashing Loki is just great.  Also the groundwork for future infighting is started here, without it feeling like something purely there to set up another movie (something future movies are guilty of doing)

6. Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)

This is a movie that doesn't quite hold up as well as the first viewing experience.  It's inspired by the 70s conspiracy theories, but for being that movie, it doesn't have any "we don't know who is on our side or not."  I mean theoretically the movie has that, but not really.  Once Captain America enters the elevator after meeting Robert Redford, the good guys always know who the bad guys are.  But I can't hate too much on a movie that really upped the action sequence of the MCU, including introducing inventive ways for Captain America to use his shield.  Plus, there's that elevator scene and Nick Fury needing to escape his car.  Also, I really wish the Bucky-Steve friendship was better developed at this point - admittedly more of a failure for the first movie - and they were going for the surprise reveal, but I think an opening scene of Bucky and Steve in the 40s would have reminded us better.  I like to think these movies work as standalone but if that was the case, we'd have zero reason to care about Bucky and Steve as friends.

3 stars

7. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

This movie is fairly recent, so I'll just give a warning here: SPOILERS.  STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS.  I think the time travel aspect mostly worked, but I'll also say: it made it fucking impossible for me to figure out where to rank this.  I get a headache trying to make sense of the time travel stuff, especially the Captain America part, which is touching, but also... would definitely change things!  There's tons of small shit like that where you have to turn off your brain and I do not like having to turn off my brain when watching movies!  But the time travel arcs also lead to lots of really cool moments that wouldn't be possible otherwise, so...?  Also Black Widow and Hawkeye's fates should have switched places.  Hawkeye became a fucking mass murderer and now he's just gonna go back to his family like nothing happened?  Nah, that dude should have died instead.  And holy hell the disparity between how Iron Man's death was treated compared to Black Widow is a fucking travesty.  She was an Avenger, or a part of Shield, longer than Tony was!  She's just as integral to the them.  Anyway, there's also a lot "FUCK YEAH" parts of the movie, which make this, as I said, impossible to rank.  Movies with these type of problems usually accompany less FUCK YEAH moments, and movies with this many FUCK YEAH moments usually accompany a movie with less problems.  So this is my solution?  I don't know.

8. Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

I liked the Tobey Maguire movies and I don't necessarily think he's a flaw in those movies, but he just happened to be in good movies, instead of being the reason the movies were good.  He never at any point feels like a teenager.  Tom Holland, on the other hand, does.  I appreciated the villain in concept more than execution, although the execution when Peter Parker shares the car ride with him is certainly great.  While any Spiderman story is going to have his personal life infect his real life, I think the movie stacked the deck a ridiculous amount to where anyone could put together that he's Spiderman.  Which is of course how the villain figured it out (and the best character development he gets, oddly enough, is at the end when he refuses to reveal he knows it's Peter Parker).  Anyway, this is clearly a blast of a movie and that's really what matters.

9. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

This is one of those movies where it feels like my complaints are inextricably tied to the ambitions of the movie: there's just no way of avoiding them.  For one, too many characters get absolutely nothing to do.  Which yes, is a function of the ambition, but one thing that is avoidable is the movie's treatment of Captain America, who's basically the heart and soul of these movies and gets NOTHING (He gets a lot of screentime in Endgame, but I don't think it makes up for this).  Bruce Banner battles with the Hulk, Iron Man gets a whole fatherhood thing with Peter Parker, Thor gets some PTSD-like small moments, Wanda and Vision are connected to raise the personal stakes, but Captain America?  Nothing.  Black Widow too, whose arc in Endgame makes her lack of doing anything here more annoying to me.  Anyway, the Wanda and Vision thing didn't work for me either.  I am not invested in them as a couple.  Vision has been completely useless since he was created despite seemingly having the powers that could beat any of the human Avengers.

The other problem is a plot one and that's Peter Quill being the stupidest character alive.  There had to be a way for them to film some version of what happens without Peter Quill fucking everything up.  I am legitimately knocking off half a star for that shit.  But I watched this in theaters and the power of the last 15 minutes sure goes a long way.  It's also a nonstop action ride, which is thrilling the first time, less so in subsequent viewings, which is why it's at a solid 3 star and not higher.

10. Spiderman: Far From Home (2019)

There's a part of me that thinks I'm overrating the Spiderman movies and if you think that, I'm not sure I can disagree.  One of the main beefs against Spiderman, MCU-version, is that giving him Tony Stark tech removes some of who is as a character, and I'm sympathetic to that viewpoint, but at the same time, I think Holland sells the necessary parts of him to still feel like he's still Spiderman.  The weak point of this movie, and it's kind of the point, is the action, which almost feels tacked-on in some of these MCU movies. Which is kind of weird because it's ostensibly an action movie, but I'm not really watching these movies for the action.

11. Ant-Man (2015)

This movie was most definitely unfairly judged by a certain circle of moviegoers and critics.  They wanted an Edgar Wright movie, and this was not an Edgar Wright movie.  Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Wright fan, so this was not remotely an issue for me.  Also Paul Rudd goes a long way.  And Michael Peña regularly stole scenes in this movie.  This is another example of a movie with just a nothing villain, and I really have no idea why Marvel has such a villain problem.  But this is a light and breezy movie that knows exactly what it is and I give it points for that.

2.5 stars

12. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

I did not realize how forced the family aspect of this movie was until rewatch.  It really isn't earned at all.  They're entertaining swashbucklers who have competing goals and are forced into a prison together.  They all team up and break out because they all want to break out and then that is apparently enough for them to feel like a family even though that's not really consistent with the characters as they were introduced whatsoever.  Also there's unmemorable villains and then there's this guy who somehow achieves another level of unmemorable you didn't think possible.  Anyway, the first hour or so of this movie is just about perfect, I just think it would have worked slightly better if James Gunn had found a way to continue having the characters uneasily work together for the rest of the movie instead of forcing the family part, which again pretty much comes out of nowhere.

13. Thor (2011)

It's really too bad the first 20 or so minutes after the humans find Thor are kind of a drag on this story, because it's otherwise a very good origin story.  I guess it was necessary to give backstory to the conflict that would ensue and give a history lesson, but it just kind of goes on and on and isn't that interesting.  Once Thor jumps back onto Earth for a good fish-out-of-water comedy, the movie works very well.  I also enjoyed the Shakespearian themes, which I guess is why Kenneth Branaugh directed it.  Like I said, it's just those 20 minutes of exposition that make this more boring than it should be.

14. Captain America: First Avenger (2011)

I think Chris Evans excellent performance carried this movie, because there's really not much else there.  Stanley Tucci is also excellent and more fleshed out than anyone else.  But as far as Peggy Carter and Bucky Barnes, the movie simply gives us two likable actors and doesn't really do any work to develop them at all.  "You like this actor, so you like this character" is pretty much the only development either get.  This movie also has that awful scene where pre-fame Natalie Dormer makes out with Rogers just to make Peggy jealous.  But they weren't a thing?!  Were they supposed to be a thing at this point?  The movie should have made that clear!  Anyway, it was the worst form of forced conflict.  Here's another bland villain.  But this movie nailed the important part of the movie: Captain America.

15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

The family thing works better here.  In some ways I think this is a better movie than the first one.  And Kurt Russell is certainly more memorable than the first villain.  But I think they bit off more than they can chew with his apparent motivation, which is so utterly alien of a concept, I cannot imagine any human remotely wanting to be in his place.  He's a god so he has different goals, but he's supposed to convince Peter Quill to join him, and Quill is human enough that I can't imagine it ever being a desirable position.  Like living alone in the universe for eternity - welcome to my hell!  For real, it sounds more like hell to me than any convincing argument.  So that's where the movie loses me.

16. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Here's the counterpoint to Civil War.  Much like Civil War, Age of Ultron has a lot on its plate.  There's a lot of emphasis on future Marvel developments, more than we knew at the time.  This movie wasn't exactly poorly reviewed at the time, but I've never seen a movie's reputation go down quicker than this one.  A lot of it works though.  But it's the downside to what happens when you put too much on your plate.  It didn't really help that Quicksilver was in both this and X-Men and this was clearly the less memorable and inferior version.

17. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Boy do I not get the love for this movie!  It's fine.  I want to blame it for the fact that some people really, really love Shane Black, but I happen to like The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Lethal Weapon a lot!  So I feel like I'm the target audience to overrate it.  Part of the problem with this movie, and I think Black absolutely knows this, is that it's kind of nonsense.  It's as silly as the second Iron Man, but the movie seems to know that.  It's fun, don't get me wrong.  But this has a contingent of fans who like this movie a lot more than I understand.  I watched it for the first time a couple weeks ago, and I imagine this is one of the more rewatchable movies from Marvel of the 2.5 star variety.  So I'll give it that.

18. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

The sequel of Ant-Man actually got better reviews than the first one, which is a little confusing to me.  I'm guessing a large part of the charm is that the stakes are refreshingly low.  Lower than the first movie really.  It's a madcap type movie.  It's ever so slightly worse than the first one to me, because the first one asks you to accept less flaws than this one does.  The movie has so much made up technobabble that the movie even makes fun of itself for it.  Like everything about the quantum, just no.  Michelle Pfeiffer is fine after 30 years there, but also it's incredibly dangerous if you're there for a short amount of time?  There's no rules.  Just make shit up so the screenwriters can have conflict.  Also him having to be home before the cops just makes it seem like Scott has a transportation device, because it doesn't seem possible that he beats the cops every time, especially when they have like a five minute head start on him at the end!

2 stars

19. Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange reminds me of Avatar, the 2009 blockbuster hit.  I should have seen it in theaters, and since I didn't, I'm probably not going to think as highly of this film as people who did.  Also like Avatar, it's beautiful, but there's not much here.  I don't know if it's in the comics, but I think it's completely silly how Doctor Strange got himself injured.  We get it.  He's an insufferable dick with no regard for everyone else.  I would have liked this movie more, but Doctor Strange is the only actor who's developed at all.  Rachel McAdams is wasted.  Mads Mikkelsen tries his best, but he's wasted too.  Chiwetel Ejiofor is clearly set up for a sequel which is pretty annoying.  Focus on the movie you're making now!

20. Captain Marvel (2019)

I wanted to like this movie more and I thought I would.  There's just something that isn't quite clicking in this movie.  It's set in the 1990s and it sure feels like it.  And I mean that it feels like a superhero movie made in the 1990s and that is not a compliment.  The 90s references are beat you over the head obvious.  The fight scenes at the end, in all their CGI-ness, just don't look good.  I did enjoy the buddy comedy of Fury and Carol Danvers, which compromised most of this movie.

21. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

This is obviously the first movie inverted, with Jane being the fish-out-of-water element.  Which is a good idea in theory, but it's not as funny.  Tom Hiddleston is basically the only reason to watch this movie, stealing pretty much every scene he's in and providing most of the humor and fun.  Again, the villain is played by a great actor who ends up being yet another bland Marvel villain.  I seriously don't know why they have so much trouble with the villains.

1.5 stars

22. Iron Man 2 (2010)

I'm giving this 1.5 stars, so you'll have to believe me when I say this is better than I remember.  I obviously didn't think that highly of it going into my rewatch.  Black Widow's introduction makes this basically watchable, if not good.  Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke should work better than they do, but they don't work at all.  And Tony Stark spends this whole movie behaving like an idiot.  Not a huge departure from his normal self, but it's just not that fun to watch.  It's just not very well-written as a movie.  Sorry Justin Theroux.

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

This movie is just so ridiculously boring.  The director's filmography is a warning to not watch this movie: Transporter 2, Now You See Me.  I mean this is easily the worst directed of the Marvel movies.  In concept, what's on screen could work, and the actors certainly have the talent to make it work.  But the Hulk being on the run from the government is the entire movie.  There's very little plot.  This bewilderingly got good reviews at the time, and I think it got a bit lucky coming when it did.  I don't remember the Ang Lee Hulk, but this was a straight action movie, which was evidently what people wanted.  I'm sure I'd like the Lee version better than this movie.

And there you have it.  All 23 movies ranked.  I'm sure there will be disagreements, and I hope I explained my positions well, even if you disagree.