Iron Man (Image: Paramount Pictures), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Image: Sony Pictures); all other photos courtesy of Marvel StudiosGraphic: Rebecca Fassola
Conventional critical wisdom holds that the floor and the ceiling of the 15-year-strong Marvel Cinematic Universe, a.k.a the MCU, are not so far apart—that in devising a recipe for success, the company has managed to avoid any outright disasters, even as its principle of quality without risk more or less negates the possibility of a true pop masterpiece of the genre. Still, as anyone who’s sat through both Eternals or Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and the Oscar-winning zeitgeist phenomenon Black Panther can surely attest, there remains a range of quality within this franchise of franchises. Which is to say, while most MCU movies have been hits, they are not all created equal.
How does Marvel’s latest cinematic installment, The Marvels, measure up to the 32 movies that have come before it? Here The A.V. Club offers our comprehensive ranking, from worst to best, for every Marvel movie to date, going all the way back to Iron Man in 2008. Like the studio, we wouldn’t dream of spoiling our endgame, but here’s a hint: Ed Norton fans, this won’t be your day of vindication.
This list was updated on November 10, 2023.
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Much has been made of the way drops unfrozen war hero Steve Rogers (a soulfully sincere Chris Evans) into its own modern version of a 1970s political thriller. That element is definitely there in the paranoia that colors its trust-no-one narrative, to say nothing of Robert Redford’s appearance as a shady politician. It’s just kind of an accent—a genre flavor. The Winter Soldier refines, rather than shatters, the MCU mold, which is key to why it’s the franchise’s rip-roaring highpoint. The Russo brothers, in their first gig for the studio, deliver fully on their mandate, offering all the team-building rapport (between Cap and Black Widow, Nick Fury, and The Falcon) and future-sequel setup required of a post-Avengers installment. But they also augment the usual CGI fireworks with some truly exhilarating practical stunt work, and push the company’s character-first ethos even further, locating multiple dimensions in their title Avenger, a rah-rah, fish-out-of-water anachronism grappling with our troublesome political now. The Winter Soldier isn’t the funniest or the most extravagantly shot movie in this forever franchise, nor does it boast the scariest villain or strongest performances. But it might be the platonic ideal of a Marvel movie: the kind of exciting, propulsive Hollywood thriller the studio is capable of creating when firing on all cylinders. Hopefully, there’s still room for its (relatively) leaner brand of superhero spectacle in the aftermath of Endgame. [A.A. Dowd]
