The last time we did something like this, it was 2013 and Captain America: Winter Soldier hadn’t even come out yet.
The MCU is so expansive that it would be difficult for a lot of people to rank them in order from favorite to least favorite, so… what’s your favorite, and least favorite? If you want to rank them, or put them in a tier order, you can.
ABSOLUTE FAVORITE
The Avengers. It’s the greatest of the bunch, in my opinion. It’s got Tony, Steve, Natasha, and Loki, four of my favorite characters. It’s got classic comedic moments (“ten bucks says you’re wrong”) and brilliant action.
TIER ONE (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Black Panther Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (I must have watched the scene in which Yondu and Rocket kill the Ravagers a hundred times). Thor: Ragnarok Iron Man Captain America: Civil War Avengers: Endgame
TIER TWO
Captain America: The First Avenger Iron Man 3 Spider-Man: Homecoming Avengers: Infinity War Guardians of the Galaxy Thor
TIER THREE
Iron Man 2 Thor: The Dark World Captain Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron
HAVEN’T SEEN
The Incredible Hulk Ant-Man Doctor Strange Ant-Man and the Wasp Spider-Man: Far From Home Black Widow
Favorite: Probably Guardians of the Galaxy. All of the wacky fun of The Fifth Element, except while actually being a good movie.
Close behind, and might edge out Guardians on any given day: Avengers Assemble or Captain America: The First Avenger. Black Panther is pretty high up there, too, mostly because of Shuri.
Least favorite: Thor: The Dark World. Though I will admit that the interactions between Thor and Loki are great. They’re just not enough to carry the whole movie.
Just a little ahead of it is Avengers Endgame. Mostly, this is because I’m picky about my time travel movies. When you take pains to lay out the exact details of how time travel works in your story, and then blatantly violate those rules left and right, it pulls me right out of the movie. Plus, most of the Marvel movies, they actually made a good faith attempt to make the science as true as possible, within the bounds of being a superhero story. The Ant-Man movies couldn’t do that, and instead worked on Saturday Morning Cartoon Physics, which worked OK for them, because they were cartoony movies. But Endgame ended up having to force that cartoony physics onto the rest of the MCU, where it didn’t fit nearly as well.
I haven’t seen: The Incredible Hulk, any of the Spider-Mans, nor Black Widow, nor any of the TV series.
Thor Ragnarok is by far the best, only genuinely great movie in the MCU for me. Actually genuinely very funny and still a great action romp that kept it together for a great ending.
Guardians of the Galaxy (probably slightly ahead of the pack), Black Panther, the Avengers and Ironman films are the next tier. Well made enjoyable action films, thoroughly watchable films but not great. Maybe I’m just an old cynic but I have real trouble believing these will have a lasting impact the way Star wars, star trek or Indiana Jones did.
Wayyy at the bottom are the spiderman films which have been, at best, barely watchable.
Should add these are the live action spiderman films. Spiderman Into The Spiderverse is amazing and (if it counts as MCU) up there with Thor Ragnarok as the best.
If you like comedic, you have to watch the Ant-Man movies.
Paul Rudd’s comedic timing is perfect, but he’s not even the funniest guy. You canNOT beat Michael Peña narrating the heist backstory, or Ant-Man’s daughter lying to the FBI (that’s in Ant-Man & The Wasp; she’s also in the funny/sweet beginning scene).
And if anyone hasn’t seen Thor: Ragnarok, do. For Jeff Goldblum if nothing else. I have a friend who loathes “spandex hero” movies, but he loves “T:Rags”.
We got Diz+ (mostly because WandaVision was about to start…) and I’ve been rewatching all the Marvel movies.
Y’know what? The ones I remember as Okay… are Great!, and my least favorites are better than I remember them.
In some cases, it’s due to lowered expectations. Hmm, this is all true for Star Wars films as well. F’rinstance, younger me was soooo hyped for Return of the Jedi, and was let down after Empire’s excellence.
Ragnarok is my favorite, with Guardians 1, Infinity War, and Endgame in the second group.
Worst would probably be Thor or Age of Ultron. Captain Marvel was a disappointment because it was as almost as bland as Thor, but with the MCU having gotten so much better in between. Iron Man 2/3, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Hulk are all pretty forgettable movies too.
Am I the only one that really dislikes Civil War? I know the MCU is filled with scenes contrived solely for visual badassery but still, there’s something about “We are some of the smartest and most capable people in the world, so let’s stand in two lines, run at each other and hit things like some hyperviolent game of Red Rover” that just struck me as unutterably stupid.
If I had to pick three favourites off the top of my head, I’d go with Iron Man (the first one), Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardian of the Galaxy (the first one).
I started losing interest starting with Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Favorite has been and always will be Captain America: Winter Soldier. Worst is probably Thor: The Dark World, but I still rewatch it. It has some redeeming qualities. And actually watching it after Endgame and Loki (TV Show) improve it. Here’s my ranking:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Captain America: Civil War
Iron Man
Thor: Ragnarok
Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel’s The Avengers
Iron Man 3
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Ant-Man
Black Panther
Captain America: The First Avenger
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Doctor Strange
Captain Marvel
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Iron Man 2
Thor
The Incredible Hulk
Thor: The Dark World
I haven’t seen Black Widow yet. I’m giving Spider-Man: Far From Home an “Incomplete”. I’ve only seen it once and long after it came out, so all the big twists and plot points were spoiled for me. I remember thinking it was pretty “meh” at the time. I need to watch it again.
There has not yet been an MCU film that I disliked, though some were a lot better than others. Overall, the “second” movies (Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World, Age of Ultron, etc.) under a title seem to be difficult to do well, and a lot of them wind up in the bottom tier of my list, though Winter Soldier is the exception that proves the rule here.
My favorites are Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man, Winter Soldier, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, and Doctor Strange. I also have a fond place in my heart for the first Thor film – it’s not great, but Thor has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters, and it was fun to see Asgard, as well as see Thor’s supporting cast.
My least-favorite is Age of Ultron. While there are some neat plot elements in it, including the introductions of Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver, the action sequences are tedious and, IMO, poorly shot.
For me, by far Endgame is the worst. I don’t remember disliking Dark World, but I dislike Endgame so much it almost retroactively makes me dislike the other movies, knowing where their stories end up.
Personally, I would say it’s easier for “origin story” movies to be better because they’re generally more about characters interacting and less about punching the latest wave of CGI minions.
I think it’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but there’s only one candidate for the Worst: Captain Marvel.
It was poorly cast or made poor use of good actors, had a pretty mediocre script that spent too much time meandering, is filled with plot holes or weirdly irrational and irrelevant information, and features flat & tedious characters arcs and a a deeply offensive protagonist. It fundamentally makes the MCU somewhat worse just by existing.
All of the MCU Spider-Man movies have been Sony productions. Spider-Verse doesn’t have any explicit connections to the MCU yet, but there’s a good chance that changes in the next batch of MCU films.
Let’s see. I would say:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Cap America, Black Widow, and Falcon)
Iron Man 3 (Iron Man and War Machine)
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Spider-Man: Homecoming (Spider-Man and Iron Man)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Of the “Team-Up” movies, really just Endgame (except for the brief Cap vs. Cap fight). Infinity War just has the short fight with the Guardians.
