Ranking the MCU

What I’ve Seen:

1. Black Panther

• The Good: This film doesn’t need the rest of the MCU; has a thought of thoughts about globalism, racial identity, diaspora, ethics; sympathetic villain; high drama; character development; stunning production and costume design; every performance except Andy Serkis; Coogler behind the camera filming action super legibly and without too many cuts, on a script he wrote.

• The Bad: Andy Serkis is having fun but doesn’t really fit; the final battle is unnecessary; not enough Kaluuya; the CGI gets a little iffy in the final battle.

• The Verdict: I ranked it among my top 10 of the decade, but this is the only superhero film we needed in the last 10 years and makes me wish that Marvel would take more chances. This film is #1 and it’s not even close.

2. Captain America: Civil War

• The Good: Zemo; introducing Black Panther in a way that affects the plot; consideration with the previous films’ collateral damage; the fact that our heroes do come to blows with each other onscreen; the staging of action scenes; the fact that I haven’t thought about an Infinity Stone; the fact that global politics and power balance is on the film’s mind; the focus on Cap and the Winter Soldier’s relationship and stories balanced with Iron Man’s – this is how you do it.

• The Bad: Introducing Spider-Man to no effect on the plot, making this movie just over-stuffed as a result; Marvel’s lack of guts for not killing any characters, including Don Cheadle’s semi-useless War Machine; the over-editing of action scenes; no definitive statement on global politics despite going out of their way to include them.

• The Verdict: The best film that features Cap, Iron Man, and the extended crew is the one that doesn’t feature an extraterrestrial threat. If this film had the guts to kill a hero or two, it would be higher on my list.

3. Iron Man

• The Good: No other heroes; RDJ’s performance; thoughts about the arms-dealer industry; Favreau’s SUPER SOLID direction; the film’s balance of humor with a little drama.

• The Bad: Jeff Bridge’s performance; the hero/villain show-down feels far less grounded than the rest of the film.

• The Verdict: It all started here, and it’s still quite good – if only we could return to a time where films like this were rare treats, as opposed to a formula to be replicated.

4. Avengers: Endgame

• The Good: The guts to kill several characters, including Iron Man and essentially Captain America; the “time heist” section is fun; Renner’s involvement as Hawkeye; the extended runtime allowing this thing to be well-paced; the meta-text of RDJ and Chris Evans bowing out at the end of this film; the final battle is pretty satisfying; Brolin as Thanos; “on your left”.

• The Bad: The cringey “girl power” moment trying to make up for a decade of neglect; thinking too hard about what we’re seeing; an awful lot of explaining this late in the saga; this isn’t the final film; brushing off Black Widow’s death quickly in a 3-hour movie; Professor Hulk; Fortnite, dabbing, etc.

• The Verdict: Starting off without half our heroes is great for this movie’s storytelling, since our characters are crucially allowed to breathe. The over-stuffed final battle and extended denouement feel like a great cap to 10 years of films – normally I don’t like these films being reliant on other films for their story, but this is a special case.

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

• The Good: Robert Redford; D.C. vibes; thrilling action and gunplay; thoughts about espionage, black ops, Operation Paperclip, shady U.S. government actions; Black Widow growing into a real character; Captain America getting further disillusioned; the action, again, but this time the action featuring the Winter Soldier.

• The Bad: The finale is unnecessarily high-stakes when it could have been as intimate and character-focused as everything else; leaps in logic around the finale; the lack of message on shady U.S. dealings despite having thoughts about them; the evil doctor in the computer.

• The Verdict: This is a great action thriller for about 75% of its runtime leading to a standard superhero climax that doesn’t quite tonally match what this film does at its best, but it’s an exciting ride that introduced the Russo brothers to the MCU.

6. The Avengers

• The Good: Having only 6 heroes allows each of them to be dynamic and authentic; Loki when he was pure villain is quite fun; Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye; the battle of New York; Agent Coulson’s death; the guy playing Galaga; no thoughts of Infinity Stones; this movie isn’t actively setting up any sequels, it just leaves room for them; dynamic camera movement; Ruffalo’s nervy, skittish performance as Bruce.

• The Bad: Stellan Skarsgard in this movie is a little much; Joss Whedon’s worst over-editing instincts and some unnecessary canted angles are on display here; Black Widow isn’t fleshed out as a character; I’m still not sure what to make of Thor.

• The Verdict: Remember the pitch for this? “The bad guy from Thor has the cube from Captain America”. Good times. This film takes itself and its subject matter quite seriously while leaving room for jokes, and I really dig that.

7. Avengers: Infinity War

• The Good: A downer ending! Stakes! Death throughout!; watching all these characters bounce off each other and interact (especially when Iron Man meets the Guardians); Brolin as Thanos; Thor embracing the dark side; some great spectacle; cross-cutting between the battle at Wakanda and the conflict on Titan.

• The Bad: Banner having Hulk ED; very weird pacing; overstuffed cast means no character development; who are those four beings with Thanos?

• The Verdict: This movie is about two things: uniting the MCU in one place, and capturing Thanos’ rampage as he acquires the stones. It’s an interesting watch, a non-stop ride, but not interested in anything approaching thematic depth.

8. Guardians of the Galaxy

• The Good: The soundtrack; every performance (including voice) except Bradley Cooper as Rocket; the dramedy tone throughout the film; the planet-hopping; weaving our main characters’ backstories into the plot leading to character-based flawed decision-making.

• The Bad: Not a Rocket fan; what’s John C. Reilly doing here?; I didn’t need a Star Wars movie at the end of this, nor a dance-off; characters who are obviously good guys pretending that they’re antiheroes because they have a semi-edgy “past”.

• The Verdict: This movie was an absolute sensation the summer it debuted, and that’s a testament to the unexpected success found when Marvel – wait for it – took a risk.

9. Thor: Ragnarok

• The Good: Let Hemsworth be funny; Taika Waititi creates some seriously funny visual gags; Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett are having the time of their lives; Karl Urban plays a guy named Skurge; Korg the rock monster; some of Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie; the old-school, synth-heavy soundtrack.

• The Bad: This film is poorly paced in the first 45 minutes, and honestly kinda the whole time with Waititi’s ADHD writing, directing, editing – how am I supposed to register these jokes?; a little too much weird onscreen; a little too obsessed with being the “cool” Marvel movie to care about anything interesting.

• The Verdict: This film was a huge upgrade for Thor/Hemsworth, an interesting film in the broader constellation of the MCU but lacks anything approximating depth.

10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

• The Good: There’s jokes; baby Groot is fun; Michael Rooker’s Yondu and Kurt Russell’s Ego are very solid characters; pretty sure Elizabeth Debicki is in this; a fairly significant death.

• The Bad: Sly Stallone; this film is trying awfully hard in every moment, and Dave Bautista’s Drax seems to fall the most victim to that; did you notice how none of my good points included anything related to the plot? That wasn’t a mistake.

• The Verdict: We’re drifting into the most disposable, shallow, and uninteresting of the MCU’s entries here. Proceed with caution.

11. Avengers: Age of Ultron

• The Good: As in 2012, Whedon cooks up some interesting action set pieces; tension brews between Iron Man and Cap; Quicksilver is killed in his first film; James Spader as Ultron; some vague thoughts about security vs. freedom; a deeper dive into Hawkeye’s personal life.

• The Bad: I love RDJ as much as the next guy, but he’s a little too quippy; this film is obsessed with its own sequels, especially when Thor goes and has a vision in a cave somewhere; speaking of, this movie has no idea what to do with half its main characters despite the fact they've each appeared in at least three films by now.

• The Verdict: It wasn’t my first disappointment in the MCU, but it was high-profile enough to get Joss Whedon bounced – maybe that was a good thing.

12. Captain America: The First Avenger

• The Good: Chris Evans’ introduction/performance as Captain America; some well-realized period details for the smart WWII setting; Hugo Weaving being in the movie; the sequence on the plane is pretty exciting.

• The Bad: Not sure about Tommy Lee Jones; the most interesting part of the movie is handled with montage; some weird cuts all over the place make this movie strangely paced with scenes feeling unfinished.

• The Verdict: This movie ends up being forgettable but fine overall. Our superhero fatigue hadn’t fully set in yet, but within a few years of its release we were ready for more interesting and original ideas within these movies. Cap makes us feel good though, so that’s nice.

13. Thor

• The Good: The introduction/performance of Hemsworth as Thor and Hiddleston as Loki; Idris Elba being involved; Thor’s “fish out of water” situation being on Earth; brother-on-brother jealousy that leads to violence.

• The Bad: Branagh’s direction – why so many unnecessary slants?; Thor’s fellow warriors; thinking we would get invested in the frost giants; cheesy writing all over the place; poorly-staged action.

• The Verdict: Thor, like Cap, benefits from more films that dare to take risks with him as a character – this one isn’t exactly worth a revisit except for Asgard/Loki stuff that matters later on (or does it?).

14. The Incredible Hulk

• The Good: Hulk-outs being horrible and horrifying; Banner’s attempt at isolation and reckoning with being dragged into conflict; the final showdown.

• The Bad: Most of the performances, Roth in particular; most of the direction and editing; most of the writing.

• The Verdict: Yeah, we’re in the bottom tier here. Makes sense why Norton was replaced and this movie was more or less brushed off. I think if Iron Man wasn’t so good, this movie could have tanked the larger MCU plans.

15. Iron Man 2

• The Good: The Grand Prix scene is cool; glad to meet Black Widow; Samuel L. Jackson gets to be funny in this one; Don Cheadle as an upgrade to Terrence Howard; Iron Man and War Machine vs. the drones.

• The Bad: Both the villains’ performances, knowing that Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke are in fact good actors; I’m not sure what Stark’s character is doing in this movie; most of the jokes really don’t land.

• The Verdict: This movie may have looked good, but it was quite a mess story-wise. After this film, Favreau stopped directing these and instead put his efforts into re-making the Jungle Book and Lion King in case you want to know how bad a reputation this movie has.

16. Thor: The Dark World

• The Good: Whenever they let Thor be funny; the dimension-hopping climax is pretty fun; Hiddleston showing even more vulnerability as Loki; Chris Evans’ cameo as Loki imitating Captain America.

• The Bad: Natalie Portman’s Jane getting possessed; trying to make us care about the dark elves; continuing to spend time with supporting characters from the first one who aren’t Idris Elba.

• The Verdict: The Godfather Part II this is not; fortunately for the MCU, 2012’s The Avengers had guaranteed this franchise was sticking around, and this movie can be skipped on any marathon you’re having.

What I Haven’t (tell me what’s worth it!):

• Iron Man 3 (2013)

• Ant-Man (2015)

• Doctor Strange (2016)

• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

• Captain Marvel (2019)

• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

• WandaVision

• Falcon and the Winter Soldier

• Loki