Ranking all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films might seem like a tall task, but someone has to do it.
The biggest cinematic undertaking of the last 15-plus years, Kevin Feige’s grand attempt to serialize blockbuster storytelling has featured some ridiculous highs and some bleak lows.
It’s changed the way Hollywood looks at its intellectual properties, and it’s trying to figure out its uncertain future after briefly imploding under the weight of its massive overreach into film and streaming television.
We’ve gone through all 33 of the MCU’s films, from 2008’s Iron Man to last fall’s The Marvels, and ranked them according to quality. We don’t include the streaming series in this list, either; just the movies.
While you’ll notice a high number of recent MCU films toward the bottom of the list, keep in mind that the series’ struggles post-Avengers: Endgame have been substantial, largely because of storytelling issues.
As much as those films showed real promise, they represented a Marvel Studios that lost its consistency, hence the recent efforts to retool the universe.
Before we get to the sole MCU film of 2024 in Deadpool & Wolverine, let’s dive into how the 33 films that came before it stacked up against each other.
33. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
This is truly the low point in the MCU, a film that purely exists to connect dozens of uncompelling dots to a future that probably now won’t happen because of Jonathan Majors being booted from his role as Kang for his legal issues. The film tries to find its own path into the James Gunn-iness of the Galaxy of the Guardians movies, but it fails miserably in that pursuit. We love Paul Rudd, but not even he could save this one from itself.
It’s everything wrong with the MCU at its worst: corporate product that exists to expand the empire rather than tell a compelling story with relatable characters.
32. Eternals
Chloé Zhao is an incredibly talented filmmaker who is responsible for some of the best films of the last decade. Eternals is sadly not one of them. Pairing Zhao with the MCU just simply didn’t work for either party, producing a largely lifeless superhero slog that very much overstays its welcome. Zhao’s natural lighting works incredibly for her arthouse films, but it’s not a match for studio filmmaking. It’s just a huge miss by a major talent, which happens.
31. Thor: Love and Thunder
Taika Waititi’s long-anticipated to the incredibly fun Thor: Ragnarok was an absolute stinker for most of its runtime, one that lost its grip the tonal excellence of its predecessor and wastes a very fun Christian Bale villainous turn. It’s not the worst of the bunch necessarily, but it’s perhaps the biggest disappointment on the list.
30. The Marvels
Nia DaCosta is another incredibly talented filmmaker whose Marvel project went off the rails because of the MCU nightmare machine’s malfunctioning. The film’s story is nearly incoherent, and it leaves a few inspires set pieces to dry with nonsensical villainy and far too much reliance on having seen multiple television shows to understand what’s going on in totality. We don’t blame DaCosta for this; the signs of life feel directly linked to her creativity.
29. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 is one of the best movies of the 2010s, so it hurts our hearts to rank his MCU movie so low on this list. It’s an occasional chore, one that cannot link its kung-fu homages to the CG messiness that envelops the film by its third act. Tony Leung is as good as advertised, but the rest of this movie struggles to live up to that performance.
28. Black Widow
The first sign of trouble in the post-Avengers: Endgame MCU, Black Widow just felt too little, too late, an attempt to make up for the unfairly procrastinated Black Widow origin movie that can’t match its compelling human moments with its bland action set pieces. We liked the cast, but it didn’t live up to the potential of telling Natasha Romanoff’s backstory.
27. Ant-Man and the Wasp
The clever bits can’t quite save this one from forgettable territory, even if it’s a step ahead than the rest of the movies on this list. Ant-Man’s first film is the best of the bunch, while this one just felt too small and unimportant in the grand scheme of things to really register. Rather than use that smallness to its advantage, it just felt a bit superfluous. It’s not bad, though.
26. Captain Marvel
Brie Larson is a terrific actor, but the origin story for her Captain Marvel doesn’t quite live up to what it could’ve been. It is a fun 90s adventure film, and it was about time for the MCU to give a woman her own film in the series. We just wish it was, y’know, more deserving of the moment, even if the moment in and of itself boosts this one up a bit.
25. Thor: The Dark World
This one gets a bad rap. It’s by no means a great movie or anything, but it’s got a very good Tom Hiddleston performance and moves at a satisfying clip. The elven villains are notoriously bad, but the rest of the film is alright.
24. The Incredible Hulk
While it pales in comparison to Ang Lee’s thrilling 2003 Hulk, Edward Norton’s lone venture into the MCU as the angry green guy was a perfectly suitable introduction for the character. It’s hard that it’s been so long since this one came out, but it’s better than you remember.
23. Avengers: Age of Ultron
Definitely the weakest Avengers film, this overstuffed sequel still found a way to take the series into a refreshingly dark direction while giving Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye a nice spotlight to work with. Still, this one hasn’t aged nearly as well as it played in the moment.
22. Spider-Man: No Way Home
The weakest of the Jon Watt/Tom Holland Spider-Man films, this one is like a tasty burrito that is so overstuffed that it falls out the bottom and gets all over your lap when you try to eat it. The film’s second act is as good as advertised, but you have to wade through a very uneven first half to get there. It’s darn good when it wants to be, but it needs a much tighter edit.
Coasting on the nostalgia of yesterday can only get you so far when the jokes aren’t landing and the plot gets a little too convoluted. Thank goodness this one found its footing in the second act and eventually lived up to the potential.
21. Iron Man 2
It was always going to be hard to live up to Iron Man, but Iron Man 2 is probably the MCU film that deserves more credit than it gets. It’s a very enjoyable sequel that deepens the journey for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark while zeroing in on some really well-crafted fight scenes. It’s a good film; flawed, sure, but we’ve missed this kind of effectively contained storytelling in these movies.
20. Ant-Man
The remnants of Edgar Wright’s scrapped vision for this film and Rudd’s impossibly buoyant charm helped the first Ant-Man movie stand out. While it’s still a step behind some of the better origin films, it’s the best Scott Lang movie of the three. It’s funny, it’s got a good heist and, again, there are a few scenes in this that feel preserved from Wright’s ideas. We’ll take it.
19. Thor
Kenneth Branagh’s take on the Norse god definitely just scratched the potential that Waititi found with Thor: Ragnarok, but it’s still a very enjoyable origin tale that took full advantage of Branagh’s Shakespeare background in building the Asgardian palace intrigue. It also is the film that first understood how funny Chris Hemsworth could be with good material.
18. Spider-Man: Far From Home
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio and some really clever visual effect sequences give the second Spider-Man a real jolt, as the lighter elements of Holland’s take on the character meshed well with the way this one raised the stakes. It’s a good Spider-Man flick, even if the Tony Stark tech of it all got a little tiring.
17. Avengers: Infinity War
The first half of the conclusion to the Infinity Saga left viewers in limbo with a gut punch of an ending, even if it wasn’t hard to see how it would all get undone in the next movie. It felt like half a journey, and what you do to get there isn’t necessarily as compelling as what came after it. However, it’s hard to knock the MCU with finding this dour a story and sticking to it to the closing credits. For a year, Marvel wasn’t afraid to avoid a happy ending. That was nice; they should do it again some time.
16. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
A clever political thriller disguised as a Captain America movie, this one really showed audiences that the MCU could branch itself into some really interesting directions that would pay off in the future. It felt a bit riskier than some of its predecessors, and it complicated the universe in some welcomed ways. It’s not quite the achievement it’s made out it be, but it’s quite good.
15. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
A spectacular opening to lament the loss of Chadwick Boseman, Ryan Coogler’s directorial savvy and a very complicated villain in Namor helped lift the second Black Panther film through the tragedy of Boseman’s loss. That alone is cause for respect. Even if this one falls into the CG fight mess of most of the MCU films, it’s still one of the better titles on this list.
14. Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange got one of the best origin films in this series, one that utilized filmmaker Scott Derrickson’s genre bona fides with some mind-bending visuals to couple with Benedict Cumberbatch’s memorable take on the Sorcerer Supreme. Also, adding Benedict Wong to these movies was such a smart move. He never wastes a second of his screen time.
13. Spider-Man: Homecoming
The first Holland Spidey film is also the best, one that felt refreshingly removed from the MCU ongoings and scaled down Peter Parker’s universe into a New York City-set drama with real stakes and effective coming-of-age comedy. Michael Keaton’s Vulture is one of the MCU’s best and believable villains.
12. Captain America: Civil War
While the MCU never fully capitalized on the fascinating rift between Captain America and Iron Man, this film deserved a lot of credit for creating that fraction in the first place. The airport battle is still one of the best scenes in all of these movies, and the introduction to Holland’s Spider-Man is still such a joy and the best use of his iteration of the character in this series.
11. Captain America: The First Avenger
The first Captain America film is still the best, as Joe Johnston’s World War II action-adventure did an incredibly effective job of introducing Steve Rogers and underscoring the scrappy virtues that defined the character. Chris Evans earned his star power in this role, and he was never better than here.
10. Iron Man 3
Getting Shane Black to make an Iron Man movie just felt too good to be true, as this fantastically entertaining third Tony Stark solo venture took the markings of a great Shane Black movie and put them in the MCU to great effect. It’s a very subversive, introspective film, one replete with great action sequences and a bad guy switcheroo for the ages. It’s the most underappreciated film in this series by far.
9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
One of the best films post-Avengers: Endgame by a country mile, Sam Raimi’s thrilling, unpredictable Doctor Strange sequel took some bold steps to complicate the MCU while playing into those Raimi staples that make him one of the best filmmakers to ever work in the genre. Elizabeth Olsen’s fascinating heel turn for Wanda Maximoff is still one of the bravest decisions in any of these movies, and Raimi knew exactly how to capitalize on it.
It was so gratifying to have Raimi back in the genre, and this was a clear highlight for the MCU to learn from and build off of in the future.
8. Thor: Ragnarok
Perhaps the most purely fun MCU film to date, Waititi revived the Thor movies in stellar fashion with this incredibly funny, consistently impressive action comedy that boasted freakin’ Cate Blanchett as its bad guy. There are so many inspired bits in this movie, capped with a technicolor smackdown finale that rivals any other in the MCU. This movie is just a blast.
7. Avengers: Endgame
Even the most cynical person had to give the MCU its flowers for nailing this grand finale to a decade-plus of storytelling, as the Infinity Saga came to its grand conclusion. It’s a gripping spectacle that closes out so many storylines with a satisfying cap and gave Downey Jr. and Evans some rich material for their final outings as Iron Man and Captain America.
The series may never reach this fever pitch again, but we’re glad we got to watch the plan come together in such a memorable way.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2
Gunn is the best filmmaker to ever work in the MCU, and his Guardians of the Galaxy films are the gold standard for this series as a whole. The second installment richened the characters while also giving Michael Rooker’s Yondu one of its best character arcs. Kurt Russell was such an inspired bit of casting as Ego, and the film just packs such a wallop with its deeply emotional finale. We dare you not to cry at what happens during the Cat Stevens needle drop.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3
Gunn’s final outing in the MCU with his Guardians was also one of the best MCU films, period. Exploring Rocket Raccoon’s heartbreaking backstory and welding that with its main story arc just hit like a ton of bricks, as Gunn refused to let this one pass him by without a statement. The film’s final dance scene to Florence & The Machine is just such a joyous summation of why these movies worked so well and why they’ll be so missed in Gunn’s hands.
4. The Avengers
Probably one of the most exciting blockbusters of the 2010s, the first Avengers film was a genuine moment in pop culture, one that pulled off a teamup movie that had never been attempted before in film history. It set the standard incredibly high for how these multi-hero movies would go, and we’re not sure any of the films to come after it ever cleared the bar.
3. Black Panther
Coogler’s masterful first Black Panther film is also one of the best blockbusters of the 2010s, one that created an indelible moment in pop culture that widened spectacle representation in a way that felt sustainable. This one is just everything good about superhero films, from the stellar craftwork to Coogler’s sharp eye for staging the material and Michael B. Jordan’s unforgettable villainous turn that refused easy explanations.
Of course, Boseman’s memory lingers high on this one in the rearview, as it was his true moment to shine in the role that defined him.
2. Iron Man
As hard as it is to believe, Downey Jr. was not one of Hollywood’s biggest stars before his first Iron Man movie came out. This film not only led to perhaps the greatest comeback in acting history, but also launched the MCU in spectacular fashion. It’s perhaps the most grounded Marvel film to date, but it’s also one of the absolute best for a reason. Everything is owed to Iron Man, a film that launched a moment and set a standard that hasn’t always been reached.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy
The pinnacle of the MCU was also its greatest risk, as it took a genre filmmaker who had never worked with this big a canvas before in Gunn and some of Marvel’s most obscure characters and made a masterpiece out if it.
Guardians of the Galaxy essentially changed the way that superhero movies could be made, adding in a cosmic sense of irreverence and a template for building lovable characters out of oblong sketches. It launched Chris Pratt to stardom and turned Rocket Racoon and Groot into household names. It also showed how putting in the right amount of heart and pathos can essentially make even the strangest of characters the most cheerworthy of heroes.
We’re not sure the MCU will ever top the first Guardians film, as it’s the shining standard for what Marvel movies can be. Take risks; hire good filmmakers who fit the mold and let them cook; cast wisely; let these things breathe without so much responsibility to the grander universes. If we can get at least one more movie from Marvel as great as this, it’s a huge win.
