This is a surprisingly difficult list to make!
It’s hard to believe that Marvel has put out eighteen superhero movies since we first got the Iron Man movie that set the stage back in 2008.
It’s equally hard to believe, though I suppose it shouldn’t be that surprising, that while some were just fantastic, others were pretty lackluster. I definitely found myself shuffling a few movies back and forth as I worked my way through the list from 2008 to present, and I hope that Infinity War ends up just blowing everything else out of the water, but we’ll see. 😉
I’m not going to say a lot for every one of these, but here’s how my ranking ended up along with a few notes here and there…
- Captain America: The First Avenger – My all-time favorite Marvel movie to date – first it was Iron Man, but I just loved the sincerity that Chris Evans brings to this character, and his early chats with Dr. Erskine about being a good man I think really speak to the heart of who Captain America is.
- The Avengers – The BIG blockbuster, back when The Avengers were only half a dozen kids trying to save the world! After the other Phase 1 movies all teased up to forming a team of heroes, Joss Whedon did an incredible job of making this movie HUGE, from the reveal of the first heli-carrier to the battle for New York itself!
- Iron Man – I honestly really loved the first movie, despite not caring for the character as much as he’s evolved in the MCU, but just watching Iron Man walk out of that cave for the first time or fly into the night sky will always be awesome!
- Black Panther – Wonderful.
- Iron Man 2 – I don’t really go back and watch this much, but for the most part it really is one of the better Marvel movies. I never cared for how they re-cast War Machine, but the chemistry was good and it was still early enough in the MCU that seeing all of those robots fighting was pretty impressive!
- Guardians of the Galaxy – A much different Marvel movie than I had been expecting, but the Guardians are a much different brand of heroes, so that’s why I think it really worked. Curious to see how they mesh together with the Avengers in Infinity War.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier – This movie took a while to grow on me because I didn’t care for the Dr. Zola’s head in a computer act, but the rest is actually pretty solid. Plus we get to see more of Black Widow … why hasn’t she gotten her own movie yet???
- Thor: Ragnarok – I thought it was decent, but not as groundbreaking as a lot of other people thought it was.
- The Avengers: The Age of Ultron – The first Avengers movie was pretty tough to live up to, and adding more heroes to the mix was tricky. Plus, X-Men had already done Quicksilver way better, so that was a bit of a disappointment. 😛
- Thor – The rest of the movie really isn’t that bad, but I kind of hated Natalie Portman in it.
- Doctor Strange – So basically House gets in a bad car accident and ends up getting rewarded with superpowers for it. Huh.
- Ant-Man – No size-pun intended, but this kind of felt like half of a Marvel movie.
- Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2 – I feel like Mantis could’ve made this movie a whole lot shorter if she had really wanted to!
- Thor: The Dark World – *yawn*
- Captain America: Civil War – Can’t we all just get along?!
- Iron Man 3 – Me no like sad Tony Stark.
- The Incredible Hulk – I barely even remember this coming out. *shrug*
- Spider-Man: Homecoming – Tobey Macguire is my Spider-Man.
What’s your Top 3 look like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe???