Ranking All 23 Marvel Movies With The Release Of 'Spider-Man: Far From Home'
With ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ releasing tonight, it’s time to answer the question on everyone’s mind: where does it rank amongst the other 23 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies? We reviewed the movie last week and both loved it, but is it better than ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ or even close to the Infinity Gauntlet movies? Let’s break it down…
Is it cheating to call the Infinity Gauntlet movies, ‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ and ‘AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR’, 1A and 1B? Yes? Okay, well then, in that case, ‘Endgame’ gets the default number one slot because of the greatest in-theater moment in the history of movies.
Both movies have their own incredible elements, from the emotion and development in ‘Endgame’ to the presence of the villain, Thanos, in ‘Infinity War’. ‘GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY’ also has a 93/100 for me, but I will rank it third without much hesitation due to the scope and execution of the Infinity Gauntlet duo. ‘Guardians’ is still incredible, however, and without a doubt the best non-team-up movie in the MCU. The cast meshed together as well as any group of Marvel characters and James Gunn wove together a brilliant, unique cosmic blast of a movie with one of the best movie soundtracks ever made. The first movie in the entire saga, ‘IRON MAN’, still holds and is a testament to why all of this has worked out so well. Robert Downey Jr.’s casting as Tony Stark could not have been more perfect. ‘THE AVENGERS’ being good, let alone even just working at all, with so many stars and characters helped pave the way for what we have today. ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER’ and ‘THOR: RAGNAROK’ showcased the best of both Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth and their directors, the Russo Bros. and Taika Waititi, are the best Marvel Studios has to offer. Meanwhile, I am fairly confident that everyone is going to love ‘SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME’ (it is my favorite Spider-Man movie, though, keep in mind I do not love the Tobey Maguire movies as much as most do) and especially my guy Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio. ‘BLACK PANTHER’ boasts a perfect villain in Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger and the movie would find itself further up the list if not for a fairly anti-climatic final battle. The tenth spot is a tough one, but ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR’ gets the slot even though I have been told I seem to like it less than most people do. The villain’s motivation and how it impacts and creates the central conflict is the main thing that gives me pause over ranking the movie higher.
Speaking of movies that people have a differing opinion on than me, let’s look at ‘GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2′, a movie that gets a bad rap at times. The music is as good as the first movie and might work even better. Is it as well-paced? No, but ‘Guardians Vol. 2′ delivers from start to finish. ‘SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING’ nailed the “friendly neighborhood” vibe and set up Holland as the perfect young Spider-Man. We begin to dip on scores a little bit as we move to ‘ANT-MAN’ and ‘DOCTOR STRANGE’ with 64/100’s at number-13 and number-14 respectively. The movies both have some slight issues (I still wish we could have gotten Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’) but Paul Rudd and Benedict Cumberbatch were fantastic additions to the MCU. I still enjoyed ‘CAPTAIN MARVEL’, but have slotted it down a bit as the year has gone on. I personally like Brie Larson and the vibe of the movie, and Ben Mendelsohn as the Skrull villain Talos is one of my favorite characters from any MCU movie. ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER’ is also brought down a bit by perception, as it really is a pretty solid movie, but it’s safe to say Chris Evans was not totally comfortable in the role at that point in time. The importance of ‘ANT-MAN AND THE WASP’ to the MCU is pretty funny when you step back and think about its Quantum Realm elements, but it was a good follow up to its predecessor that felt like it was one step away from being truly great. But… PAUL RUDD!
We’ve now reached movies in the 70’s or below and we start with ‘AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON’. The follow-up to the smash hit ‘The Avengers’, no movie has aged worse in the MCU than ‘Ultron’. There are a ton of fantastic elements, but overall the movie just doesn’t work all that well. I am a big James Spader fan, and he did a solid job with Ultron, but they took a pretty pivotal, important villain and rushed him along into a version that didn’t hit home for me. Team-up movies don’t work great (hello, some DC movies) when the antagonist doesn’t draw you in emotionally. Here’s an unpopular opinion: I really don’t despise ‘IRON MAN 2′. You can roast me for this, maybe I give it a pass because I love Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke. Rounding out the Top 20 is the first ‘THOR’ movie, which is pretty rough around the edges and almost a completely different Thor in terms of character and acting compared to what we have today.
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The bottom three movies are pretty justifiable in their place in my opinion. ‘THOR: THE DARK WORLD’ wasn’t much worse than the first movie, but at least the original was somewhat livelier and had more heart (it is pretty funny how relevant ‘The Dark World’ is in ‘Endgame’ considering how people feel about it). The twist in ‘IRON MAN 3′ was awful, plain and simple, and ruined the movie for me. Lastly, ‘THE INCREDIBLE HULK’ gets hate for not really feeling like a part of the MCU after they re-casted Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner… but let me assure you, it’s not a very good movie on its own.
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Where do you have all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ranked? Which ones do you agree, or disagree with? Don’t forget to subscribe to Lights, Camera, Pod, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram and join in on the conversation on our Reddit.