With Captain America: Civil War coming out in May (which looks awesome by the way), I thought I’d go through and rank all the movies of the MCU so far. They’ve done a great job with these movies for the most part (Civil War looks like it has the chance to be the best), but their have definitely been a couple of duds. So I’m going to give my personal rankings of the movies so far, from 12 to 1.
*I am not including the series that have been done, as good as Daredevil and Jessica Jones were, I still view them as separate. SHIELD and Agent Carter never really peaked my interest though to be honest, though them now being on Netflix helps.
The Meh Tier
12. Iron Man 2 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72% My Rating: 6.0
In my opinion, Iron Man 2 is the worst and most underwhelming of the MCU movies by far. It could partially be because I had high expectations going into it (Iron Man was awesome and adding Mickey Rourke as the villain should have made it legit), but it really just kind of stunk. The one saving grace was the post credit scene (found here) which was awesome.
11. Thor: Dark World Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66% My Rating: 6.2
Coming in as the second worst is Thor 2. I give it the slight edge over Iron Man 2, because the dynamic of Thor and Loki was decent, but the movie overall was super super underwhelming.
10. The Incredible Hulk Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67% My Rating: 6.4
Edward Norton was an interesting choice for Hulk, but the movie just didn’t work. The movie was caught up between having Banner on the run, and having the Hulk be a superhero, which was a tough balance that they just couldn’t find. Ruffalo has been great as the Hulk in the movies since this.
The Good, Not Great Tier
9. Iron Man 3 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79% My Rating: 7.5
Iron Man 3 was definitely a major improvement on number 2. The whole idea of the Mandarin not really being “the bad guy” was a cool concept that I thought they pulled off pretty well. Its a decent movie.
8. Thor Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77% My Rating: 7.8
When I first saw Thor in theaters I thought it was awesome, like 9 out of 10, but upon rewatching it I didn’t like it quite as much. Hemsworth makes a great Thor, and having Portman and Stellan Skarsgard as supporting actors helped hide its flaws, but the flaws were still there. My main problem was that the high point of the climax lasted when Thor fights that giant robot thing, lasted I don’t know about 10 seconds.
The Really Good Tier
7. Capt. America: The First Avenger Rotten Tomatoes: 79% My Rating: 8.0
Captain America 1 was solid in every way. Good acting, good plot line, not too long, kept you interested. It was also cool cuz this was the first movie where you could really see the avengers coming together a little bit. Red Skull was an awesome villain, and Tommy Lee Jones was awesome in his bit part as well.
6. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron Rotten Tomatoes: 74% My Rating: 8.0
The Second Avengers barely misses my top 5. I thought it was a solid flick, but definitely had some flaws. It was a bit too long, I thought the whole Hawkeye storyline was a bit cliché, and while Ultron was a cool villain, it was kind of hard to figure out his whole deal. But, still, definitely a good movie. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were cool additions (too bad quicksilver had to die). Having Vision join at the end was sweeeet. And the scene with all of them trying to lift Thor’s hammer was hysterical.
The Top Five
5. Ant-Man Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80% My Rating: 8.1
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Ant-Man. First off its kind of a weird character overall, and with Paul Rudd playing a super hero I was skeptical to say the least. But they created a solid movie, that was funny and well done. Rudd was really good in his role. Evangeline Lilly is a total smoke who is going to be awesome as Wasp (in Civil War?). And T.I. Michael Pena and that Russian dude were great as comic relief.
4. The Avengers Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% My Rating: 8.5
Avengers comes in as my number 4 movie of the MCU. The battle of New York was such an unbelievable battle scene, has to be one of the best in movie history. The chemistry of the whole ensemble was key for not only this movie, but for the whole film universe to be a success moving forward.
3. Iron Man Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% My Rating: 8.8
The first Iron Man comes in as my number 3. Not only is it an awesome movie, but if it wasn’t such a success (both critically and commercially), then the rest of these movies would never have come out. Downey Jr. kills it as Iron Man, its really the perfect casting. And Jeff Bridges is such a dick head in this, he knocks the villain role out of the park.
2. Guardians Of The Galaxy Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% My Rating: 9.1
Guardians comes in as number 2. Guardians was so cool in so many ways. First off, I had never heard of them, all of the other characters/movies that have come out I either read some of their comics, or at least new their basic facts. But not with Guardians it was all new to most people who saw it. The cast and characters were awesome. The soundtrack was awesome. The look and feel of the movie were awesome. Just a super fun movie all around.
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier Rotten Tomatoes: 89% My Rating: 9.3
The Winter Soldier has my vote as the best movie of the marvel cinematic universe (as of right now). One of the reasons I view it as the best is that on its own its a great movie, even if the rest of the MCU wasn’t around. The introduction of Falcon was awesome and he’ll be a major character moving forward. Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier was AWESOME. Such a great character who will hopefully be more than a bit player moving forward. Samuel L Jackson, Scar Jo, and Robert Redford were awesome in their supporting roles.
*Winter Soldier will be hard to top, but I’m optimistic that some of the movies moving forward will challenge for the top spot (Civil War, Doctor Strange).
*I also found this cool graphic of marvel characters and what studios have their film rights. Pretty cool that Sony is willing to work with Marvel Studios to have Spiderman included in Civil War and beyond.