16: Thor The Dark World – 5.5/10
The worst MCU Film for most in DiscussingFilm. It has weak comedy, no developed villains and all of the actors, except Hemsworth and Hiddleston seemed like they don’t want to be there. The only positives are the action and the CGI, both are solid but at this point you expect from MCU films.
15: Iron Man 2 – 5.9/10
Without Robert Downey Jr, this would be far worse film overall. The action is brilliant and the characters are even better but the majority of problems with this are centered around the forced set up for the Avengers where at a point it just gets overwhelming and just makes you want to stop watching.
14: The Incredible Hulk – 6.8/10
The Incredible Hulk followed shortly after Iron Man but unlike all the other movies in the MCU, it was produced by Universal Studios. The film struggled to find good box office numbers and any solid reviews. This may not be the worst MCU film, however for many it is the most forgettable. This movie however had some very strong ratings from all across DiscussingFilm and was not shy of many people’s top 5, which could come down to the contained story and Hulk being many people’s favourite character.
13: Thor – 6.8/10
Thor was solid set up for the character in future movies and that’s really all. This is far better than the likes of Iron Man 2 and its own sequel but it’s only better by not being as bad, it only has an handful of stand out moments, one especially when Thor fights the Destroyer, solidifing how great both the visuals and actions were in the film, but the rest is pretty by the books.
12: Doctor Strange – 7.5/10
Doctor Strange is average for the MCU and that’s not a bad thing, this film is great in comparison to its competitor of 2016: X-Men Apocalypse. It suffers from setting up sequels and keeping in its comfort zone slightly but this film makes up for it with incredible special effects and end fight against the villain, which will lead to an likely excellent sequel which will take the Doctor Strange franchise out of its comfort zone.
11: Ant Man – 7.6/10
Ant Man, despite being so low on the list is incredibly solid. This film establishes develops and sets up a whole new side to the MCU. Scott Lang is played brilliantly by Paul Rudd and makes you sympathetic to him and his daughter Cassie. The visuals stand out well in this film and really show the amazing possibility of Marvel’s special effects.
10: Iron Man 3 – 7.7
Despite the controversy surrounding the villain, Iron Man 3 was very well written with some of the best humour the MCU has ever had, as well as having an interesting twist on a magic character like The Mandarin. This movie also finished Tony Stark’s arc that began in 2008’s Iron Man. However, in places the CGI was flawed which was fixed by the next appearance of the character with some slight problems with the villain and story itself.
9: Avengers: Age of Ultron – 8.0/10
This movie was good but stood in an odd positionwith is lots for people to like but also to dislike, the dialogue on average was very good, especially when Paul Bettany’s The Vision was brought onto the screen but then sometimes it was overwhelming how jokey it was and it just got annoying. The action was great as you would expect and the characters and chemistry only built that, whilst also being strengthened.
8: Captain America: Civil War – 8.2/10
By far one of the stand out films in the MCU, putting the two biggest heroes in the MCU against each other, this film touches briefly but well upon the political side which, in the comics is something mainly dealt with characters such as the Fantastic Four. The two stand out moments of this film are: the airport fight and the final fight, being two of the best that Marvel has had to offer.
7: Guardians of the Galaxy – 8.4/10
This movie came shortly after Captain America: The Winter Soldier and while not being as good of a film, it was a great sci-fi and comedy and stands very high. There was not much character development outside of Chris Pratt’s Star Lord but most of the humour was on point as with the CGI of Rocket Raccoon and Groot. A major character of the movie was the soundtrack in the same way New York is a character in Spider-Man, the soundtrack was fun and joyful but had its own emotional weight when you see how hard Peter Quill keeps hold of his Walkman.
6: Iron Man – 8.5/10
This movie began it all, without this movie, the MCU as it is today would not exist, this movie while the weaker effects had a clear presence, it did give audiences a quality cast and perfect story as the foundations of this universe. Iron Monger felt rushed but at this point in time, the MCU films just had to begin with an good film to blow everyone away, with actors such as Robert Downey Jr being praised as one of the best comic book movie castings.
5: The Avengers – 8.6/10
In retrospective, The Avengers is not as good as everyone believed it was initially, but this movie changed Hollywood undeniably. This movie proved that a connected film universe can work, something many companies have attempted and have had varying degrees of success with. This movie was the first appearance of Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk who managed to win around audiences after the departure of Edward Norton. The villain was good but followed many clichés. The cast had perfect chemistry that was further built on in the sequel.
4: Captain America: TFA – 8.7/10
Captain America: The First Avenger was a thrilling period piece and origin story to the First Avenger, which also succeeded at bringing the character into the modern day both in the MCU and for general audiences. The film marks the beginning of the strongest trilogy in the MCU and still stands as one of the best MCU films along with its successors.
3: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – 8.8/10
The spectacular follow-up to a great film, it boasts a new amazing soundtrack coupled with much more character development, though it’s not perfect. The villains are all great and the design for each character is improved. One downfall however is the comedy, many of the jokes miss the mark and the special effects are not as good as the previous. The villain of Ego the Living Planet is solid but not brilliant, which is good enough since there were rare signs of good MCU villains at that time.
2: Spider-Man Homecoming – 9.0/10
At the time of writing, the movie is the latest entry to the MCU and has the character on loan from Sony, this was the characters third movie reboot and was a very highly rated film, showing us arguably the most comic accurate versions of Spider-Man and Peter Parker. The film showed Peter Parker balancing school with life as a superhero, unlike the previous two interpretations of the character, he will not be leaving high school any time soon and will continue to have these struggles that make the comic book character so appealing. The villain of the Vulture, played by Michael Keaton has been commonly referred to as one of the best MCU villains, as his motivations are clear and you sympathize with him.
1: Captain America: The Winter Solider – 9.3/10
This movie is the best movie in the MCU by far, and is honestly hard to write about, the directors did a fantastic job, the cast were at their best and the villains of HYDRA have been a main stay in places like AGENTS OF SHIELD and were a big part of Avengers: Age of Ultron. This film covered themes most comic book movies would not go near and while not changing the comic book movie landscape like The Avengers, it did a solid job at making both an fantastic comic book movie and movie in general.
That is DiscussingFilm’s rankings currently for the entire MCU excluding THOR RAGNAROK which will have just released so make sure to check out that film and show us your rankings for the MCU.
