Miles of Movies

#1 Captain America: Civil War

Score: 9 ½

Captain America: Civil War is Marvel’s most mature film. It takes its characters and gives them clear motivations that have been set up. On top of that, it introduces new characters while maintaining its clear focus. The fight scenes are incredible, and the film has some really hard-hitting scenes. It might not be as “fun” as The Avengers, but I think it’s better.

#2 The Avengers

Score: 8 ¾  

The Avengers is a perfect combination of fun, comedic writing, and characters that get a good amount of screentime. The movie doesn’t add too many characters, but wisely uses what has already been established.

#3 Iron Man

Score: 8 ¾

This film did a great job of introducing us to a great character. It tells a pretty well-rounded origin story and features a great, star-making performance from Robert Downey Jr. Though perhaps not as fun as the two films above, Iron Man is a solid movie.

#4 Guardians of the Galaxy

Score: 8 ¼

A terrible villain and a few tonal inconsistencies keep this movie from being as great as it could have been. But it’s still probably the most fun I’ve had watching a superhero film. It took characters like Groot and Rocket Raccoon that could have been awful and made them the best part of the film.

#5 Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Score: 7

A well-directed action movie that made Captain America, a hero who I didn’t think could carry his own movie after an origin story, into one of my favorite of the lot.

#6 Black Panther

Score: B+

A great villain completely makes this movie. The supporting cast and a really emotional story are just gravy. The CGI is overused and bad in some spots and the first half is a little forgettable but the movie as a whole is one of the better entries into the Marvel canon.

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#7 Ant-Man

Score: 7 ¾

A hilarious heist film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Ant-Man is the most unexpectedly good film of this lot. Its character is ridiculous, but it uses that to its advantage.

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#8 Spider-Man: Homecoming

Score 7 ½

Tom Holland shines as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and the film gives him a good high school comedy story and a not-as-good Avengers tie-in story to play with. A lack of stakes drags the film down while a surprising twist helped to prop it back up.

#9 Thor: Ragnarok

Grade: B-

This is a really entertaining film that really changed the character of Thor. I was frustrated by its inability to take any scene seriously, especially when some characters die, but I still really enjoyed it.

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#10 Avengers: Age of Ultron

Score: 7

This film was incredibly bloated, adding four new characters to its already full roster. But it was still an entertaining film that did its best to give its characters great lines.

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#11 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Score: 6 ¼

A film with great visuals, hilarious moments, and not much else. The first film was unfocused but could get away with it due to its originality. This film has the same focus problem but without the originality to cover it up. Still entertaining.

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#12 Doctor Strange

Score: 6

A visually stunning film that was too short to properly explore some good themes, this film is still entertaining the whole way through. It creates a cool character and provides magic as a new path for Marvel to explore.

#13 Captain America: The First Avenger

Score: 6

A decent action film that tells the origin story of Captain America and has a good message. Not much more than that, but still entertaining.

#14 Iron Man 3

Score: 6 ¾

Did a good job of exploring the aftermath of the events of The Avengers, particularly in the usually cocky and confident Tony Stark. That having been said, this film is dumb at best, and focuses on Stark’s stupid suits. It takes a villain and pretty much makes him the punchline of a joke, which was funny at the time but definitely was wasted potential when you sit down and think about it.

#15 Thor

Score: 5 ¼

Thor did a good job of setting up its character, but was a mindless fest of pretty poor visual effects and some annoying side characters. That is, except for Loki, who is pretty devious and awesome.

#16 Thor: The Dark World

Score: 4 ¾

This film doesn’t make a lot of sense, and features probably the lamest villain in the Marvel Universe (even lamer than the villain in Iron Man 2). Still, it has Thor and Loki in it, and the movie makes the most of them.

#17 The Incredible Hulk

Score: 3 ¾

The Incredible Hulk’s beginning is actually pretty good, but then it gets bogged down in a terrible romance that completely tanks the film. Edward Norton is great, but Liv Tyler is really not. Add a generic military villain to the mix and you get a rather bland movie.

#18 Iron Man 2

Score: 1 ½

This race to the bottom wasn’t even close. Almost nothing happens in Iron Man 2. The first half is almost unwatchable garbage that makes no sense at all and is all over the place. It gets better in the second half, in that it became watchable, but still bad. I never want to watch this movie ever again. With luck, I won’t ever have to.

The Official

Marvel Cinematic Universe Film Ranking