Back in 2008, people were expecting the superhero movie bubble to burst. Sure you had massive hits coming out like The Dark Knight and Iron Man, but surely audiences would get tired of the genre, right? Marvel might have been setting up some Avengers thing, but would the studio actually pull it off? Iron Man could have been a fluke; it's not like that Incredible Hulk movie did particularly well. Ten years later, of course, this all sounds ever so silly. Not only was The Avengers a hit, it was a $1.5 billion worldwide hit, one praised by critics and fans alike. The current iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be wrapping up in 2019 with Avengers 4, but Marvel Studios isn't going to stop any time soon, and audiences are not tiring of these heroes in the least.
With 20 films in 10 years, the streak of quality the studio has kept up is kind of astonishing. Only two or three entries could really be deemed "bad." The rest are at varying levels of goodness, a few even reaching greatness. Few other movie studios aside from Pixar or Ghibli can claim that level of quality control, and those two studios don't pump out films as fast as Marvel does! Other attempts at "cinematic universes" have fallen, but the MCU stays strong. Here's our attempt to rank all 20 of these films by overall quality. If you happen to agree or disagree, please let us know in the comments which MCU films are your favorites (and your least favorites)!
20 THE INCREDIBLE HULK
The Incredible Hulk is the Marvel movie Disney wants you to forget. It's both the least essential film in the MCU and the worst. Perhaps Edward Norton's cut would have been better. There are at least some fragments of good ideas in the finished film. The "man on the run" action in the first act, for example, works well enough, and it's also cool at times how it frames The Hulk closer to monster than a superhero.
More than anything, though, The Incredible Hulk is just incredibly boring. It's the most humorless MCU film, but at the same time, it's hard to take seriously. The effects definitely haven't aged well (heck, they weren't exactly cutting edge back in 2008). The only thing it really has in common with other MCU films is, sadly, a rather lame villain.
19 IRON MAN 2
Iron Man 2 only squeaks by as better than The Incredible Hulk by virtue of having a sense of humor. Robert Downey Jr.'s shtick was still relatively fresh in 2010, and there are mild surface pleasures scattered throughout this sequel. The substance of the story, however, is both lacking and frustrating.
The sequel pretty much undoes all of Tony's growth in the first film. Once again he's an obnoxious jerk who needs redemption, but where he redeemed himself in the first film by escaping his father's military-industrial complex legacy, Iron Man 2 weirdly lionizes Howard Stark. It's thematically confused, and the attempts to build up future movies feel shoehorned. It's impressive Marvel Studios recovered so well from this early rough spot.
18 THOR: THE DARK WORLD
The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 are actively bad movies, while Thor: The Dark World is just the most generic MCU entry. Nothing about it is truly awful except for wasting Christopher Eccleston in a dull villain role, but has anyone actually rewatched this film? Mostly it does the bare minimum of what's needed (some snark here, some cool action there) to be mildly entertaining without being memorable.
The film's generic quality probably has a lot to do with being the most "by committee" production: two different directors, Patty Jenkins and Alan Taylor, got fired from this movie. The one quality which genuinely elevates the movie is how great Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are as Thor and Loki.
17 THOR
The first Thor movie is pretty wonky as a film, but it stands above The Dark World by virtue of a stronger vision and character development. Kenneth Branaugh's directing isn't great (there's about 50% too many Dutch angles), but he at least had a distinctive perspective and knew how to get audiences to care about what was, in 2011, Marvel's silliest-sounding story.
Loki was, for a long time, the gold standard for Marvel villains, and while a lot of his popularity is due to The Avengers, Thor built the groundwork for him to be genuinely sympathetic. His evolution from innocence to villainy, as well as Thor's journey from arrogance to heroism, provides a simple but effective emotional hook for a middling movie.
16 THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
Before fanboys started begging for the (possibly nonexistant) Zack Snyder cut of Justice League, the most in-demand superhero movie director's cut was the Joss Whedon cut of The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Whedon was famously unhappy with how the final film turned out, and as long as the movie is, it feels like it would actually be better with an extra hour.
Age of Ultron tried to give some depth to all of its characters. Sometimes it worked (Hawkeye's family), other times it was questionable (the mixed treatment of Black Widow). Mostly it was just cramming in too much plot without enough breathing room. It sometimes achieves the chemistry that made the first Avengers so fun, but not enough.
15 SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
If nothing else, Spider-Man: Homecoming is unbelievably charming. It's good it's so charming, because it doesn't have that much else going for it. The young actors are all great, the high school comedy vibe is truly enjoyable and Michael Keaton's Vulture provides the right level of menace as one of the MCU's better villains.
On a story level, though, it's lacking, failing to follow through with any real hardship, consequences or growth for Peter Parker. Compared to the other Phase 3 films, it's also notably visually bland and disappointing on the action front. Given the excellent casting foundations, hopefully future Spidey films will commit to stronger senses of both style and substance.
14 ANT-MAN AND THE WASP
Like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ant-Man and The Wasp is pure fluff. It squeaks ahead of that other arthropod-themed superhero movie by virtue of more inventive action scenes. Watching people, cars, buildings and Pez dispensers shrink and grow is still as fun to watch as it was in the first Ant-Man.
The story -- what little there is -- is pretty much just an excuse for action and jokes. The characters, however, are still likeable (and you truly like almost ALL of them; it's actually impressive Marvel made a film without a traditional villain), but there's more in the way of setting up sequel hooks than there is in terms of actual development and pay-off.
13 DOCTOR STRANGE
In terms of plot, Doctor Strange would seem like the most typical Marvel movie: it's Iron Man but with magic. In terms of its strengths and weaknesses, however, it's almost the anti-Marvel movie. Your typical Marvel movie (in Phases 1 and 2, at least) had great writing, passable visuals, and stories that lost momentum in the big CGI climaxes.
Doctor Strange is, weirdly, the opposite. The dialogue is functional but unexceptional, with the jokes often falling flat. Visually, however, the film's a masterpiece, and the film's final act is extraordinarily clever and exciting. It's not a great movie, but one that showed Phase 3 was willing to experiment and take risks.
12 THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
The Avengers: Infinity War perfectly recreates the experience of a big "event" comic brought to the big screen. However, while such event comics can be a lot of fun, the biggest superhero stories are rarely the best ones. Such is the case with Infinity War, a movie of overwhelming scope that's ever so slightly underwhelming when it comes to involvement on the human scale.
Thanos carries much of the movie as a compelling villain protagonist. The heroes opposing him get their cool moments, but they've mostly been better served by their own movies. Ultimately the best part of Infinity War is its daring cliffhanger. Depending on the follow-through, this ranking could rise or sink.
11 ANT-MAN
Like Thor: The Dark World and Age of Ultron, the original Ant-Man had an infamously troubled production. Edgar Wright was developing the film for years but had it taken away from him a little over a year away from the film's release date! Fortunately, new director Peyton Reed was able to salvage a solidly good movie out of this mess.
Wright's influence is still felt in the film's action scenes, which are some of the most entertaining in the whole MCU, while some of the changes to the script -- such as making Hope Van Dyne an actual character -- are definite improvements. As Marvel films go, it's formulaic (the bland villain being the worst offender), but it's still incredibly satisfying and well-executed.
10 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
Selling today's audiences on wide-eyed old-fashioned idealism is no easy task, yet Chris Evans makes it seem effortless. Captain America: The First Avenger benefits a lot from its amazing star-making performance, but the foundations are right there in the script, perfectly making Steve Rogers a hero to root for even before he becomes Captain America.
The first half or so of the movie, up through the reveal of Red Skull, is pretty great. The boot camp scenes and the "Star Spangled Man" musical number are fantastic. First Avenger falters in its rushed second half, brushing through so much action in montage form that it feels like Cap's WWII adventures could have had enough substance to support their own franchise.
9 IRON MAN
The film that started it all, Iron Man deserves a ton of credit as the strong foundation on which the rest of the MCU was built. So many "cinematic universes" have made the mistake of failing to start off with a solid good movie (Tom Cruise in The Mummy, anyone?). Iron Man, however, got audiences hooked into this universe and kept them invested through the ups and downs of Phase 1.
It's a fairly standard superhero origin story, but the first Iron Man told its story well, elevated by its career-saving central performance by Robert Downey Jr. Though it did establish precedent of Marvel's climaxes being less exciting than their build-ups, Iron Man kept audiences' attention all the way through.
8 IRON MAN 3
Yeah, the divisive Iron Man 3 is actually the best Iron Man movie (by a slim margin, admittedly), and it's because of the Mandarin twist which angered so many comics' purists. The twist was surprising, hilarious and a smart piece of political commentary. It was really the only way you could portray that character in a movie in the 21st century.
That element of surprise was the only thing really lacking in the original Iron Man. Shane Black's threequel continues from the solid foundation of action and humor Jon Favreau's original film while infusing it with his personal style. Tony's bad decisions may be frustrating, but the movie presents a perfectly believable characterization for the hero struggling with post-Avengers PTSD.
7 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2
If Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 isn't quite as thoroughly enjoyable as its predecessor, it still deserves credit for the ways it manages to improve upon the first film. On the surface level, it's even more visually stunning. On a more serious level, it works as a surprisingly sophisticated examination of surviving abusive families, while also lending much more depth to the ensemble's female characters.
Unfortunately, the jokes are more repetitive this time around, the music isn't quite as perfectly integrated and the story doesn't have the same propulsive momentum. Even if it falls short compared to the original Guardians of the Galaxy, however, James Gunn deserves credit for a respectable follow-up.
6 CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
In the "too many characters" subgenre, Captain America: Civil War surpasses the likes of Age of Ultron and even Infinity War by virtue of its tight thematic focus. The conflict between Captain America and Iron Man is emotionally gripping, even devastating, because both of the feuding sides are right in their own way.
Dividing the rest of the Avengers into teams gives everyone a connection to the central clash of ideals, while Black Panther and Spider-Man steal the show with their introductions to the MCU. The movie contains two of the best superhero fights ever put to screen: the absurdly entertaining airport battle and the tragic final stand-off between Tony, Steve and Bucky.
5 THOR: RAGNAROK
For Phase 3, Kevin Feige has lent a lot more creative freedom to Marvel Studios' directors. Thor: Ragnarok is one of the most successful results of this change, saving the Thor series from mediocrity by letting Taika Waititi wave his freak flag wild. It turns out Taika's flair for absurd, off-beat comedy was just what these films needed.
Ragnarok is a deeply and delightfully silly film, even when its story also gets dark and serious. It's the prettiest MCU film, the one which looks and feels most like a Jack Kirby comic. As with all the best Marvel movies, the character work is excellent: Valkyrie instantly became a favorite, and this is the closest thing we'll get to a truly great Hulk movie.
4 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
The MCU's Captain America is the hero that the DCEU's Superman should have been, a beacon of moral strength in a compromised world. The Winter Soldier uses Captain America's "man out of time" nature for the purpose of some of the MCU's most mature social commentary. In 2014, some dismissed the film's political conspiracy plot as outlandish. Four years later, it reads like prophecy.
Directors Anthony and Joe Russo keep things exciting with relentless yet still grounded action sequences. The film also makes great use of Black Widow, Falcon and Nick Fury as supporting characters. The only part of the movie which feels relatively lacking is, oddly enough, the story of the Winter Soldier himself.
3 THE AVENGERS
The Avengers was the moment the MCU officially took over all of pop culture. You were there, and you remember it all: the Avengers assembling for the first time. Loki and Black Widow facing off. Shakespeare in the Park. Poor Phil Coulson. "I'm always angry." "Puny god." Iron Man going through the wormhole. Shawarma.
Just listing out those moments brings back great memories. Even if you had hopes for Joss Whedon's big superhero crossover film in early 2012, nobody knew it was going to be that satisfying. A brilliantly written comedy of personality clashes building up to an astonishing action climax, the joy of the experience has been hard to match.
2 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
The Avengers had the advantage of five films preceding it to get audiences attached to its cast of characters. Guardians of the Galaxy made audiences fall equally in love with its super-team in just one movie, and a team 99% of viewers hadn't even heard of before this movie at that! If Marvel Studios could get audiences feeling as deeply about a violent raccoon and his talking tree friend as they did about Iron Man, they could do anything.
Guardians instantly stood out stylistically, with its bright colors and '70s pop hits, and set the tone for future cosmic Marvel movies. James Gunn spent his career alternating between weirdo cult films and mainstream blockbusters. With Guardians, he bridged the gap between the two.
1 BLACK PANTHER
Black Panther could have settled for just being "black Iron Man" and it would have still been a ginormous hit. Luckily for everyone, Ryan Coogler's vision was a lot more ambitious than that. Black Panther works as a superhero film, yes, but it's more than that: it's a fantasy epic that constructs a world like nothing seen on screen before while also commenting on real world issues.
You didn't need to have ever seen a Marvel movie before to appreciate Black Panther's stunning artistry and excellent cast of characters. The real standout in an ensemble filled with standouts is Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger, a truly tragic and sympathetic villain who's right about enough things he's actually able to change the hero's mind.