13. Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2's biggest flaw was Whiplash... Not that he isn't a good character, in fact I thought Mickey Rourke's take on physicist Ivan Vanko was quite good. The problem then? He wasn't the main villain! Instead Sam Rockwell is, that's right Scary Sam himself. We get one showdown between Iron Man and Whiplash and it's in the first half of the movie... Snooze!
12. Thor
Thor was a fun fish out of water story, unfortunately it didn't do much else well. Sure they could've done some Norwegian God epic, but we knew when Marvel hired Shakespearean actor-director extraordinaire Kenneth Branagh to helm it we we're getting something different, and a lot of times different is a good thing.
I stand by the fact that Ed Norton made a great Bruce Banner, unfortunately this film underwhelmed and led to the re-casting which brought in Mark Ruffalo. Too bad the script was all over the place as was the films tone... And Liv Tyler? Really? No amount of Norton and Roth could overlook the fact that they decided to cast Steven Tyler Jr. in this film,
10. Thor: The Dark World
Nothing more than a popcorn flick... But I go to the movies to be entertained and eat popcorn so it's not all bad I just can't say I left the film saying "wow I really loved what they did there" or "when the director shot that I got chills" like the movies above it on this list.
9. Captain America: The First Avenger
"...I had a date" of the feels! Let's be honest this film is so campy but it makes the proceeding Cap films better by understanding the nature of Bucky and Steve's relationship... But again it's oh so campy.
Bumbling actor Ben Kingsley's Mandarin aside, Iron Man 3's only real flaw is the fact that it didn't have any real consequences. Sure Tony wanted to save Pepper but I mean it's not like he was going to kill her. The iron legion was confusing but their appearance in Ultron made them make sense at least.
7. Guardians Of The Galaxy
I didn't love Guardians as much as the rest of the world did but I can't deny that's it's not a great movie. The upbeat soundtrack, the characters that you buy into each and every move they make because you're so invested in them which keeps the plot moving because you want to see them succeed for various reasons depending on which Guardian you're looking at. Great space opera, but the bottom line is space opera's aren't really my thing so when I want to see comedy in the MCU I'd look to...
Ant-Man is a fun ride, everyone including crotchety Michael Douglas is perfectly cast. Sure there are some minor flaws but nothing that you can't look past with ease. Although this movie turned out so magnificently I can't help but wonder what would've been had Edgar Wright stayed on course and helmed this flick... Probably would've found itself in the Top 5 but how high could it of gone? We'll never know.
5. Avengers: Age Of Ultron
I know this movie had it's detractors... Hell I was one of them. After the first viewing I pointed out all the flaws I seen which made for an underwhelming experience. But watching it a second time a few days later I was able to appreciate it for what it was, warts and all. It still was inferior to it's predecessor on the great movie scale but at least Ultron seemed to be a villain that would actually require all of The Avengers to stop (sorry Loki), so at least that was believable.
The newest entry into the MCU! Only time will tell if this movie trends upwards or downwards after a couple of viewings but right now it's firmly in the Top 5. I don't get the Avengers 2.5 argument, sure they were mostly all there and had a fight at the airport but other than that it was basically the Cap stars (Widow, Falcon, Cap, Bucky) and Iron Man. It's a mature take on it's content like it's predecessor but this was still lighter fare, which is fine... It is the Russo's specialty after all.
3. The Avengers
Alright I admit that I'm likely reaching with this one. Sure The Avengers is not a bad movie but is it a top 3? Most would argue no. But dammit, I can't help but feel good about it. We waited four years to get to the point where Hulk, Cap, Thor and Iron Man would team up against a major earth threat (Loki? Really?). In any event the event did not disappoint as The Avengers broke all kinds of box office records and showed us that Marvel is not slowing down anytime soon!
People seem to forget as time passes how incredibly important Iron Man, it wasn't just the launching point of the MCU but had it of been a dud we likely would've never gotten the MCU. Remember Disney did not yet own Marvel so the Marvel Studios folks were co-producing with Universal at the time and although the dream was to eventually have an Avengers film they needed to make money first so they took out a 225 million dollar revolving loan to produce it. Had Iron Man of bombed I'm sure they would've scrapped the idea altogether. Fortunately it was an incredible success at the time that only Batman and Spider-Man films had any degree of recent success. Too bad it wasn't strong enough to beat our #1 film.
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Winter Soldier was old school action at it's finest. The CGI was at a minimum compared to it's counterparts giving us hard-nosed action. All this with a backdrop of a political thriller proved that the Russo brothers knew how to handle a Marvel franchise. The Iron Man franchise had tried to dabble in the political thriller waters and has mostly failed so The Winter Soldier was a breath of fresh air setting up the notorious Hydra agency led by a diabolical and suave Robert Redford. Not to mention our first look at Sam Wilson's Falcon, a role that seems to be turning into the Nick Fury of old since he pops up everywhere.
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