Collin Willis

With Spider-Man: No Way Home dropping later this week I decided to do a 2021 MCU Rewatch. This was the first time I’d seen all but a few of these films in the nearly three years it had been since I rewatched them for Avengers: Endgame so I was curious to see how my ratings might change. For reference, here is a ranking list that I made sometime last year:

Refined Tastes

My movie tastes have changed a lot the past few years. Despite its general terribleness, the pandemic opened the door for me to exit the mainstream a little bit and dive into the wonderful history of the movies. With nothing new releasing for nearly a year, I had plenty of time to widen my cinematic palette and try new things. I discovered movies that I loved like The Last Temptation of Christ, The Player, and Die Hard. I began my (nearly finished) quest to watch every Sean Connery film. My tastes changed and after being disappointed in 2021’s MCU movies I was curious to see if I’d still feel the same magic, the same spectacle that I’ve always associated with these movies.

Bingo

It turned out that many of my opinions did change. There were movies I loved that I found I now only liked. There were movies I didn’t care for that I found new admiration for. Best of all, the ones that had been major events in my life still packed all of the magic and enjoyment I’d remembered them having. The MCU gets dragged into the “cinema vs entertainment” debate a lot. And while I don’t think these movies deserve the same level of discourse and reverence as something like Lawrence of Arabia or The Godfather, I don’t think it’s such a bad thing for a movie to be entertaining. So yes most of these movies aren’t aiming for deep commentary on society’s ailments, but who ever said they had to be? I think George Lucas said it best in a quote that I’ll have to paraphrase because google makes it hard to find and I don’t feel like rereading his 500 page biography this afternoon to find it. “My movies are like theme park rides, you get off and you immediately want to go again.” This idea sums up my take on the MCU, it’s a spectacle and that’s pretty cool too.

Rankings

Because everything is still a competition, it’s time to break down the franchise from worst to best. I think that the MCU has very few absolute stinkers. Most of these movies, even the more generic ones, are at the very least watchable. I will not be taking the Disney + shows into consideration because 6hr seasons of TV play by different rules than 2.5 hr movies.

These rankings will not follow the list above but my updated 2021 rankings.

26. Thor: The Dark World

This movie is drab. There’s very little substance here and Thor: The Dark World struggles to create a compelling villain or do anything new with its hero. The reframing of Asgard is nice and Tom Hiddleston really rounds out his Loki but there’s nothing really here. It’s unfunny, it’s unimaginatively directed, and it offers nothing to get excited about.

25. Thor

Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearian superhero flick is one of the more stylistically distinct entries in the MCU and it should be applauded for that. However, it’s weaknesses outnumber it strengths. I think this movie’s comedy holds up but there’s so little action that the flimsy story doesn’t have enough flash to keep it interesting all the way through. There’s a reason why Thor was a B-list hero before this movie and his rather predictable origin story holds Hemsworth’s hammering hero back.

24. Captain Marvel

Brie Larson is one of the most talented actors within the MCU and Captain Marvel gives her absolutely nothing to work with. So much of this movie is bland space exposition and so little of it is Carol getting the opportunity to push herself and create change through choice. Captain Marvel is a horrific example of what happens when your movie tells instead of shows. The interesting world of the Skrulls is bogged down in bland action sequences and a half-baked genocide shoved down your throat at every turn.

23. Black Widow

Black Widow is at its best when it sits its main family down at the table to talk, to joke, and to take a crack at each other’s tough exteriors. It’s greatest weakness is that at some point it has to turn itself into a big action movie. Ray Winstone plays the most forgettable of MCU villains at the tail end of one of the MCU’s most forgettable films. For the MCU, Black Widow is too little too late.

22. The Incredible Hulk

It seems funny now, but Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk had to work hard to distance itself from Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003. It does so in a way that feels really truthful to the 1970s series that I grew up watching reruns of. In a lot of ways, this movie is one of the more intricate character studies of the MCU. However, much like Black Widow it inevitably has to lead to two monsters punching each other and the villain combo of General Ross and the Abomination never quite reaches the level of Bruce Banner and his inner demon.

21. Eternals

Eternals takes some really big swings, but it also takes some very big misses. I admire Chloe Zhao’s more nuanced take on superhero-dom and the exploration of gods living amongst men. However, its massive cast of D-list superheroes never get the chance to develop into anything spectacular. There is simply too much going on for this movie’s big swings to hit anything more than grounders.

20. Iron Man 2

When this movie acts as a sequel to Iron Man it does so fantastically. When this movie acts as a prelude to The Avengers, it does so poorly. Iron Man 2 takes Tony Stark in a lot of interesting new directions, prodding his vulnerability as self proclaimed defender of freedom and analyzing how the world would react to a reckless playboy declaring himself god. Yet it gets constantly bogged down in an illness that only exists so that we can meet a few other Avengers and play around with a Tesseract storyline that is literally never mentioned ever again in 20+ movies.

19. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Much like Iron Man 2, Age of Ultron‘s greatest weaknesses come from its role as second act. This movie is responsible for setting up so much of what was to come that it chokes out the more interesting aspects of its own story. It promises much more than it delivers and Ultron suffers to realize his true potential as the Avenger’s most prominent villain because of it.

18. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Vol 2 has one of the most solid emotional cores of any MCU film and it’s one of James Gunn’s greatest strengths as a writer. However, this movie also feels very unrestrained in the wake of the original and a lot of James Gunn’s loud humor falls flat. It also suffers from a very weak plan to annihilate the universe, taking away from the compelling conflict built between Peter and his planetoid father.

17. Ant-Man

Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man is in on the joke. Everyone in this movie is aware that they are in a heist movie about a dude who can shrink and talk to ants. As a result, this movie is incredibly fun. It is also one of the best shot MCU movies and the work being done behind the camera makes this a really sleek and stylish romp through locations and set pieces that only an actor the size of an ant can bring to life.

16. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Despite an obnoxiously long title, Shang-Chi is mostly a triumph. This movie has a lot of fun taking the most obscure MCU debut to date and building him into a formidable franchise lead. It explores the more grounded elements of this franchise really well, but it loses a lot of its good graces in a paint by numbers, end of the world third act. The first two acts are so strong that the third act is incredibly disappointing.

15. Spider-Man: Far From Home

This movie gets a lot of flack for revolving so much around a dead character not even in the movie. However, Peter and Tony’s relationship was the core of Phase 3 and this movie does a good job as an epilogue to Endgame whilst serving as another fun romp with Holland’s Spider-Man. The drone CGI battle loses me a lot but Mysterio is a fantastic villain and that dynamic was a lot of fun to explore.

14. Spider-Man: Homecoming

A reinvention of the spider wheel that merges what works with the previous two Spider-men into the MCU. It mirrors the Spidey comics that ran when I was a kid (the ultimate run) and establishes the emotional core of Phase 3 between Peter and Tony. It also delivers one of the MCU’s most grounded and well rounded villains in Michael Keaton’s Adrian Tombes/ The Vulture. The twist that he’s Liz’ dad is fantastically hidden and well played by both Keaton and Holland.

13. Guardians of the Galaxy

This movie changed the landscape for Marvel by proving that they could make anything. Taking a D-list team of heroes that had been introduced after the release of Iron Man, and hiring indie edgelord James Gunn, Marvel turned something uncertain into gold. This movie is heartwarming, funny, and weird. It’s not my favorite MCU movie but it sure is a treat.

12. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This movie reshapes Captain America in the same way that Ragnarok would later reshape Thor. It gives the MCU’s boy scout and edge and presents and interesting superhero action movie for a post 9/11 world. I don’t think it ponders as boldly as its sequel but the elements in play regarding SHIELD, Hydra, and the surveillance state are really interesting in their own right.

11. Ant-Man and the Wasp

The internet throws this movie a lot of hate and I don’t understand why. This is a delightful movie with absolutely no consequences. It’s so small in comparison to Infinity War (which released two months before it) that its able to lock in on the fun and flash of a superhero movie. It has a wonderful triangle of villains that aren’t quite villains and uses its whole cast to great effect. Once again everyone involved is in on the joke and it makes this movie one of my favorites to revisit.

10. Avengers: Infinity War

This movie does the seemingly impossible, mashing several dozen of the MCU’s heroes into one movie that has actual coherence and meaning. This movie belongs to Thanos and Thor, but it manages to find space for everyone else in its massive cast. You definitely still feel a little of the bloating, but the spectacle and villain are so great that its faults can be easily ignored. This is the film that took the MCU to the world-stopping level that its on now for good reason.

9. Iron Man 3

Another movie that gets a lot of flack but I will defend Iron Man 3 to the death. Shane Black is a fantastic director and he manages to balance the larger than life hijinks of an Iron bodysuit with the grim reality of terrorism. By stripping Tony of his armor we get to see a vulnerability in the character that really only exists at the beginning of Iron Man (2008). Killian might end up a rather generic villain but the Mandarin twist is absolutely delicious and Ben Kingsley eats that scene up.

8. Black Panther

Black Panther‘s third act has its faults, and the countrywide conflict between warring tribes really tarnishes the heart of the story. However, these faults are pretty minor in comparison to the work being done in the first two acts. This is the first, and probably only, MCU movie I’d consider to be “cinema”. Not just because of the importance of Black and African culture taking the lead in a major blockbuster, but because of the way this film addresses imperialism and conquest through its comic book characters. Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa is instantly an icon and a hero. It’s a shame that we’ll only ever get to see him helm this one film as T’Challa because he truly created something special.

7. Thor: Ragnarok

I am a huge Taika Waititi fan, two of his movies (What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt of the Wilderpeople) sit in my top 100. He created the Thor movie that was finally able to break the mold and crack this character. The humor and the heart of Taika Waititi are what took Thor from a second stringer to the main event and Waititi manages to round out the Loki storyline while pushing Thor into a place where he can compete as lead with the likes of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

6. Iron Man

The one that started it all. This is one of the few superhero movies at that time to feel like something that came out of the real world. It’s funny considering where the franchise would go, but Tony Stark fighting terrorists in the Middle East really locked this movie into the cultural and political moment. It also proved that these movies could be fun without having to dial the vaudevillian antics up to 11. Jon Favreau created a moment here and even after 25 sequels and 13 years this movie still sits with the crème of the crop.

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

Longtime VFX whiz Joe Johnston has been around for it all. Working on the first Star Wars and a gaggle of Spielberg and Lucas projects as well as his own solid directorial projects, this man has been a key player in the blockbuster game since the beginning. He delivers one of the most stylish MCU movies by utilizing the period piece of the character and playing into the Red Skull’s quest for world domination. Johnston really cracks the naivety of the Steve Rogers character and leans into the vaudevillian aspects that Iron Man eschews.

4. Doctor Strange

This is my favorite Superhero Origin movie. Doctor Strange really stands apart in the MCU in the way that the film loathes its main character. Steven Strange is a horrible person. He’s selfish, he’s arrogant, and he’ll happily cut anyone around him for the chance to show off. Even as this movie rounds him out, it never loses that edge to him. He’s arguably a much more heroic person at the film’s end, but he still serves himself and his own ego. This movie offers a lot of really tender, poignant moments between Steven and the Ancient One, creating one of the most intimate commentaries the MCU has to offer. And all of this is stacked on a visually ambitious film that plays with the space and time bending elements of magic to create a masterpiece within the genre.

3. Avengers: Endgame

No movie in the MCU has ever had this much weight upon its shoulders. Endgame had to deliver on an 11 year arc, close out the MCU’s most developed villain, and find fitting ends for Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow. It follows up the sprawling saga of Infinity War with a much more intimate romp through the MCU’s history with only a handful of its most beloved heroes. Endgame delivers on it all. It’s not a perfect movie but it juggles every ball it’s got in the air so well that it might as well be. It understands the levity of superheroics but is also locked in what makes people love these characters. And it all culminates in spectacle that just leaves you feeling giddy no matter how many times you watch it.

2. The Avengers

In the wake of pretty much every MCU movie from the past five years, this film feels laughably small. It’s hard to think that this was once considered a large ensemble. Yet the make it or break it risk that Marvel Studios took with the Avengers couldn’t have come off better. It plays its heroes off of each other really well and manages to believably bring them together and split them apart repeatedly. It ends with a really well directed final battle that while set against a horde of faceless CGI aliens never loses its intimacy. The stakes feel real and Loki develops into one of the MCU’s most formidable characters as he challenges Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

1. Captain America: Civil War

This movie takes the source material to its apex. There are few comic book movies on par with this one, let alone above it. Civil War takes the grounded political commentary of The Winter Soldier and puts a more personal spin on it through the post-modern lens of Tony and Steve. It’s no Watchmen but it’s as close as we’ll ever get within this large of a sandbox. It delivers on the spectacle, the airport sequence is the MCU’s best, while also finding unique ways to develop Tony and Steve and shatter their relationship. Civil War has it all and it’s been my favorite to revisit ever since it came out in 2016.

Wrap-Up

My feelings towards these movies didn’t change drastically but there were definitely a few shake ups that I didn’t expect. I’ve put my old and my new list side by side for comparison below.

Be on the lookout for my ranking of every Spider-Man movie later this week!