All 32 MCU Titles Ranked
Welcome back to HLS Entertainment! It is 2022 a new year so you know what that means, let us look through the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe and come up with a new MCU ranking. At this point there have been 32 MCU properties, films and tv shows, total and it is time we see where all they rank! I am going to go through each property putting the IMDb score next to it and discussing likes and dislikes for the property. Yes, the list starts with #31 after saying there are 32, just go with it trust me. Before we get started, be sure to follow me on Twitter @HaroldLStokes and let me know what your top 5 for the MCU are! On to the ranking!
31. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
IMDb Score: 6.6
The forgotten Marvel Studios film, The Incredible Hulk was the SECOND film in the entire MCU releasing just a few months after Iron Man in 2008. The movie starred Edward Norton as the MCU's original Bruce Banner before Mark Ruffalo took over the role for the first Avengers film. It is a fine movie; it is about as good as you can expect from a non-Nolan trilogy/pre MCU 2000's comic book flick. It follows Bruce as he is on the run from the US Government, more specifically William Hurt's General 'Thunderbolt' Ross. Hurt has since shown up in multiple MCU properties such as Civil War and Infinity War / Endgame, as well as Tim Roth just made a quick appearance in Shang-Chi. But sadly, Liv Tyler's Betty Ross and Tim Blake Nelson's Samuel Sterns aka the Leader have yet to show back up in the MCU (fingers crossed for She-Hulk).
30. Hawkeye (2021)
IMDb Score: 7.7
Listen before you freak out on me, the show is fine. I enjoyed it, but the quality of the writing and special effects was so far below the standards of the MCU. This show should have bee 10 episodes, the story is not fleshed out at all, character stuff is the highlights because we love these characters and actors, but the actual story is pitiful. This show seems like it was effected/changed the most by the pandemic (aside from tFaWS cutting a whole subplot) and seeing all the deleted scenes showing we were supposed to get Fisk EARLY in this show proves that. Whatever decision was made (maybe they did not finish up enough or ran out of shooting days) they decided to change this story basically into a murder mystery instead of a straightforward story of Kate's hero's journey.
29. What If...? (2021)
IMDb Score: 7.5
Another fine show that was fun, and I am sure if animation is your thing, I bet you adored this show. I enjoy animation and watch a ton of it, but I for sure have a live action bias. The main gripe with this show is the receptiveness, especially early on, of just redoing an MCU with one or two tweaks. They moved past that and had an incredible ending (and apparently has a missing Gamora episode) so I am looking forward to seeing season 2 continue this idea.
28. Thor the Dark World (2013)
IMDb Score: 6.8
It is funny that I think this is a top tier most over hated MCU film while also having it at number 28. I see the irony, but I really enjoyed serious Thor. As a Doctor Who fan I have a soft spot for this movie having Christopher Eccleston as the main villain Dark Elf Malekith. This movie was given new life with Endgame, making people want to go rewatch it and see how it lines up, I think this movie is just better than people give it credit for. I cannot wait to get to rewatch it when I do my Thor film rewatches before Thor Love and Thunder.
27. Thor (2011)
IMDb Score: 7.0
Phase one MCU was special man. It was wild because so many of the actors chosen like Chris Hemsworth were not big actors at all prior to this role. The films held a weird obvious studio ick to them but there were such glimmers of what was to come in them once Marvel Studios was separate from Paramount, is Paramount losing Marvel Studios the biggest bag fumble of all time? This movie is a perfect example of what I mean, Hemsworth is a star, but this movie also gave us a gigantically popular fan favorite character in Loki and did a great job of being our first real connection in this shared universe and they did that with Clark Gregg aka Agent Coulson. This was not a quick post credit scene one liner; this was an entire character (and secret SHIELD organization) that moved right along from Iron Man 2 straight into Thor just a few months later.
26. Iron Man 2 (2010)
IMDb Score: 6.9
Speaking of Iron Man 2 was our first thought out introduction to this wider MCU world being an actual thing, also it introduced us to Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff... or Natalie Rushman. This film brilliantly brushed past the recasting of Rhodey to Don Cheadle with a quick one liner earlier in the film. Also, I just NEED Sam Rockwell to return as Justin Hammer already (fingers crossed for Armor Wars). We finally got more than of a post credit scene of Samuel L Jackson's incredible Nick Fury. This movie is just a lot funnier and cooler than people remember, make some popcorn and dive back into this one.
25. Ant-Man (2015)
IMDb Score: 7.3
How can you not love Paul Rudd? This movie just has so much heart in it and has such a wonderful cast of actors across the board but suffers from having a very lack luster villain. In other MCU films with this exact same problem they made sure to not focus too much on the villain themselves but this one tried a bit too hard in focusing on Darren Cross instead of just giving us more scenes of Paul Rudd interacting with his wonderful family or Ant-thony. One thing looking back on this film to note is, the Ten Rings were among the buyers trying to get Cross's Yellow Jacket tech. If this list had sections of "bad" "good" and "great" I feel like this movie is the beginning of the "good" section.
24. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
IMDb Score: 6.9
Our first introduction to the beloved Captain Steve Rodgers as a scrawny kid from Brooklyn was a delightful one that perfectly set him up as a true hero and soldier for what is right and standing up to bullies. I also think it is wild to remember that they made this film having no idea that Winter Soldier would ever be made four years later. I want so much of this movie to be paid off with nods in the eventual Fantastic Four film, I am hoping for a displaced marvel's first family from the 50's-60's so how great would it be if Reed was at the Stark Expo. Maybe he was running the exhibit that showed the original android Human Torch that we briefly see in this film. Really my only gripe with this film is something that I totally get was done to save budget, the quick goofy cut scene of Cap taking out Hydra bases. That should have been the cool scenes showing off Cap and the Howling Commandoes.
23. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
IMDb Score: 7.0
I loved how this movie took the situation they were aware of in the first, obvious it should have been Hope in the suit and showed us why that is the case. Evangaline Lily's Hope really gets to shine in this movie and show off how great she is. For two films I have ranked 23/25 I really do think this franchise could be the future of the MCU. With Ant-Man and the Wasp 2 Quantumania coming out in 2023, it really might be the big shift of the MCU (I expect the Young Avengers actual formation to happen in that film).
22. Captain Marvel (2019)
IMDb Score: 6.8
Smile this movie was awesome. Captain Marvel really might be a character that I want more from the most. In this movie "Vers" has been trained to be a stoic soldier and to follow orders, but for just a few scenes we get to see the true Carol Danvers as she fights to escape the Skrull ship, and she lets loose being flippant and powerful. Loved it. But once she arrived on Earth, she goes back into soldier mode and slowly loosens back up with Fury and the Rambeaus. The de-aging tech in this movie was wild, Samuel L Jackson was 69-70 while filming this and they made him look pretty dang close to how he actually looked in the 1990's.
21. Iron Man 3 (2013)
IMDb Score: 7.1
Ah the first MCU Christmas movie, and like all great Christmas movies (Miracle on 34th Street, Trading Places and Die Hard) it was released in the summer. Shane Black directed an incredible film that was just derailed by certain groups of fans being upset about the Mandarin twist. Please go rewatch this movie it is really well done and hilarious, and with Ben Kingsley's return in Shang-Chi this movie is worth a timely rewatch. Also, one really random thing that I saw on twitter the other day, do people not realize this entire movie is a self-reflection story that Tony tells Bruce? That is why he narrates and the whole purpose of seeing Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner in the post credit scene. PSS yes, the kid from the funeral is in this movie.
20. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)
IMDb Score: 7.3
This was supposed to be the very first MCU show on Disney+ but things were reshuffled due to covid, including this shows sub plots. It has been widely covered and discussed about the vaccine sub plot that was removed from this show changing things, and I hope we eventually get to see how good the show should have been. It is wild to think it ranks this high even with that big issue, I am VERY excited for Captain America 4 with this shows showrunner Malcom Spellman set to return to write the movie. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan just need to be in as many things as possible together, could you imagine these two in a "Nice Guys" type buddy cop film?
19. Black Widow (2021)
IMDb Score: 6.7
This movie is one that is going to climb everyone's ranking the further we get from the release. I feel like so many people slept on this very well-done film because it was "too late". Get over it, if this movie came out in 2015, we wouldn't have the wonderful Florence Pugh playing Yelena, be grateful for that and move past that hang up. I love how this movie really highlighted how Natasha has done some really messed up things and does not forgive her for them but just shows how she is just doing her best to make up for it. I will dearly miss Scarlet Johansson's Natasha Romanoff going forward but this movie gave us a whole cast of fun interesting characters to care about going forward. Here is my Black Widow breakdown and theories blog!
18. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
IMDb Score: 7.4
Far From Home does something a feel like has not really been done in film format before, it was our epilogue to the Infinity Saga. Up until this point we had spent 20+ films building to the fight with Thanos and that story obviously left shockwaves. This movie helps pick up the pieces for Peter himself and for the audience of losing the godfather of the MCU RDJ's Tony Stark. This film shows us how the world at large is handling "the blip" and the return of people who were gone for five years and helps deal with the idea of course there would be a power vacuum, so Mysterio the fake hero was perfect. Oh yeah, this movie also set up Skrulls being on Earth playing Nick Fury while he is off in space doing only Feige knows what.
17. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
IMDb Score: 7.5
Of the 2021 MCU films I feel like this movie very easily is the world I need to see more of ASAP. I need more Ta Lo (I definitely think it will be slid in as one of the seven capital cities of heaven), I need to know who the rings are calling at the end (I think it is the Makluans but that is a long explanation click here and scroll down to theories for the explanation) and I just need to see more Wong karaoke. This movie is a victim of a common complaint of mine for 2021 MCU properties, where certain parts of the CGI and VFX just do not hold up to MCU standards but that is something that can easily be forgive given covid times and with how well done the rest of the movie is.
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
IMDb Score: 7.3
This movie held the title of most over hated MCU movie for so long I think it has started to finally go the other way. This movie did SO much set up while fitting into its own story it is very impressive. Something I genuinely have never understood the complaint of is people saying they set up too much in MCU films, who cares? As long as they do not distract from the movie and helps move its own plot along then genuinely, who cares? Enjoy the tease and move on. The one most pointed to is the Thor scenes of him going off on his own for answers. People complain saying that is entirely set up but in reality, it entirely served this movies purpose because it was the enlightenment Thor needed to help Tony finish Vision. Which continued a running gag about Thor's Hammer throughout the film and which is paid off again with Thor and Vision fighting Ultron together. Go rewatch this movie, it is very well done.
15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
IMDb Score: 7.6
Sequels rarely live up to their original, but this film did its best to do so. I am not sure if any Guardians film will top James Gunn introducing all of us to this wonderful space opera with a throwback soundtrack world, but I can guarantee I will be there for every wonderful attempt. If the first movie is about finding your own family this one is about dealing with your family drama. I know that is way too simplistic way to breakdown those two films, let's just go rewatch them both. This film is probably where the "great" section begins in this ranking.
14. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
IMDb Score: 7.4
Homecoming really might easily be the most rewatchable MCU film to me. It lands the John Hughs tone while being sure to pay homage in a delicate way that I think most directors would have stumbled over. Friendly reminder to anyone who wrongly tries to call this an Iron Man movie or call this Peter Parker "Iron Boy jr." RDJ has less than 15 minutes of screentime in this 2 hour and 13-minute film and was on set for about 3 days total apparently. The whole point of this movie was Peter becoming his own person and this is perfectly shown by his own little pep talk he gives himself while being crushed by a building.
13. WandaVision (2021)
IMDb Score: 8.0
"What is grief, if not love persevering?" is one of the greatest lines ever written and I will not hear otherwise. If you are active on twitter, you might have seen the giant fandom for this show get a little carried away at times, but that does not change how incredible this show was. This show deals with grief so beautifully, sets up a potential villain turn for Wanda, while also expanding the magical side of Marvel (my favorite side), all while being a goofy yet creepy sitcom for half of the show? Bravo balancing that.
12. Avengers (2012)
IMDb Score: 8.0
It feels just wrong to have this movie outside the top ten. This movie did something that had never been done before in proficiently combining four different movie franchises (5 films) into an excellent singular story. This movie would be the greatest achievement to most film franchises but within the MCU it is just another great film that keeps getting topped as time goes on. I really hope we remember to appreciate how hard this movie was to pull off going forward.
11. Black Panther (2018)
IMDb Score: 7.3
Black Panther is a near perfect film for the first hour and forty minutes of this movie then sadly has a below average ending. This movie deserves every ounce of praise it receives, and we need to continue to recognize its greatness, but that does not make it perfect. I love this movie and it is certainly up there with Homecoming as one of the most rewatchable MCU films. Taking out the big team up movies this movie might have the best cast out of all of the MCU, just so much talent all across this film. It would be a missed opportunity to not mention how absolutely perfect Chadwick Boseman was in the titular role and he is very much missed now and will be forever.
10. Doctor Strange (2016)
IMDb Score: 7.5
Doctor Strange is my favorite comic book character so I have a very obvious bias towards this movie. With that being said I genuinely believe it earned a top 10 spot and will be very difficult to knock out of this spot. We seriously do not talk about enough how groundbreaking the visuals for this entire film were, and yes, I am still mad it lost to the live action Jungle Book for the best visual effects Oscar but after seeing Jon Favreau talk about them in the behind the scenes show for the Mandalorian I get it. They created a whole new technology, but man did Doctor Strange deserve more love. Benedict Cumberbatch was not my first choice to play the role of Doctor Stephen Strange but he certainly proved me wrong and has been incredible in the role ever since.
9. Loki (2021)
IMDb Score: 8.3
Man, I still think about this show months later, I need to do a binge when I get a free weekend. Tom Hiddleston joined the MCU back in 2011's Thor and has just had a stranglehold on the fanbase ever since. I feel like this show has been some of his very best work period not just in the MCU. If you want to say WandaVision down to be a show about grief, then this show is about identity. Who is Loki? what does it mean to be Loki? Is Loki just evil, or an agent of chaos? Or can he be truly good. This show has all the brilliant visuals you'd expect while did not get bogged down in the usual "third act" big final fight with the bad guy sequence. The ending of Loki is essentially just a conversation, and it is some of the best scenes in the entirety of the MCU. Those scenes introduced us to potentially our new Thanos in Jonathan Majors He Who Remains/Kang, and dear goodness was Jonathan Majors incredible just eating up those scenes. Here was my final Loki episode breakdown!
8. Eternals (2021)
IMDb Score: 6.5
Something that genuinely bothers me is if this movie was still EXACTLY the same but not made by Marvel Studios this film would currently be celebrated as the incredible follow up film for Chloe Zhao and it would be up for Best Picture. I honestly believe that. This movie was the MCU Oscar bait film that was incredibly well done, but people want to root for the MCU to fail so badly they just hopped on the undeserved early hate this movie received. Art is subjective and everyone is allowed their own opinions but if you think this film is ANYWHERE near as bad as one like Thor the Dark World? Just keep that opinion to yourself. Here was the big preview I did for Eternals!
7. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
IMDb Score: 7.9
Taika Waititi performed magic with this movie. The Thor franchise was all but dead, Chris Hemsworth was ready to move on from the role and leave the MCU and then in walks in the amazing goofy ball artist that is Taika. We talk about all the time the magic of the MCU is it all connecting, but Kevin Feiges best attribute might be picking directors. Snagging TV and indie directors and putting their universe in their hands has worked out brilliantly for the MCU, by the way I think we might be in the new version of that with writers in the MCU. The dull Shakespearean Thor became self-referential comedy gold, it is a story about a god of sparkles it is okay to have fun.
6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
IMDb Score: 7.8
I get it, but I hate when this movie is referred to as Avengers 2.5. I have some very strong feelings about this movies story and meaning that I will get into in a moment, but I just wanted to say the Russo brothers did such an incredible job balancing this globetrotting story while introducing Black Panther and Spider-Man brilliantly. Why this isn't Avengers 2.5, the heart of this story is Steve Rodgers moral dilemma. Loyalty to his country and his life's work versus loyalty to his best friend. Steve is wrong throughout this entire movie and makes many "selfish" decisions but that is the point. That is why he surrenders the shield. Just the opportunity to try to save his best friend's life is worth burning the world down to Steve. We all need friends like Steve Rodgers.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 (2014)
IMDb Score: 8.0
James Gunn shocked the world making a movie that made all of fall in love with a talking tree and racoon. Shocking does not even really describe this movie; this movie was pure "we trust the Marvel Studios logo", no studio should have greenlit this movie, but Feige and Gunn made magic. It really is insane this movie ever happened, like how did those production meetings go "oh don't worry we got star power, we got Bradley Cooper to voice a racoon and Vin Deisel saying four words total". This is still a top tier movie soundtrack that is just worth throwing on by itself.
4. Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)
IMDb Score: 7.7
After Avengers Age of Ultron Joss Whedon said he wanted to step away from doing Marvel movies because of the stress of doing it, and doing it perfectly, this left the MCU without a "big game" director. Anthony and Joe Russo had just completed this incredible film and then were given the keys to Cap 3, Civil War and eventually Avengers3/4. The Russos might be the best thing to ever happen to the MCU. But they never would have gotten to that point if not for their first MCU project Winter Soldier. I don't obviously I put it at four, but many people argue that this is still the best comic book movie of all time forget just the MCU. This movie sets Steve on the path for Civil War perfectly, sows his distrust for the government and made Bucky into a fan favorite character.
3. Iron Man (2008)
IMDb Score: 7.9
Up until this year I have been arguing that this is the best solo comic book character movie of all time we will discuss what passed it next but first we need to remember and pay respects to Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau for being the reason the MCU even exists. If this movie did not work the MCU does not exist, and they went way above and beyond just working. They created a "real" superhero world, they made it believable that a man could build a suit of armor and fly around the world and save people. I mean WHAT? It is hilarious when you find out a big reason why Tony Stark is essentially just RDJ is because most of the dialogue and scenes were just made-up day of on set according to many interviews following the movie including Jeff Bridges essentially saying, "they had no script". This is of course, including the film's final line which RDJ changed to "I am Iron Man".
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
IMDb Score: 8.7
Does this count as a solo film? It is three heroes, but they are all Peter Parker and Dr. Strange is really just a side character. I might be deciding right now that I am going to count this as a team up film. That does not change just how wonderful this movie is, seeing all three Spider-Men leap off the Statue of Liberty and swing off each other might only be second to the end of Endgame for the coolest moments in any comic book movie. I am sure the 8.7 will fall a bit as time goes on but I really am not upset at it being that high, this movie is so good. I made a logic decision previously about my number 1 and if you read my previous rankings you might know this, I am accepting to prior knowledge necessary for this movie to mean so much as a given. Spider-Man is the biggest character in the world, and it would be very hypocritical of me to not rank this film this high and then turn around and have the same #1. Here is the preview I did for No Way Home before the film came out!
1. Avengers Infinity War / Endgame (2018/2019)
IMDb Scores: 8.4 / 8.4
These movies were supposed to be part 1 and part 2 to begin with and I will treat them as such until someone provides me an argument that changes my mind. It takes a decade worth of 20+ movies for this movie to even be possible and they did it. Marvel Studios earned this incredible culmination and honestly, they could have stopped making movies after that for good or done a complete reboot and I think we all would have accepted it. Now, thank God they did not do either of those things and we have been getting just wonderful MCU magic since. But I do not know what can ever top this incredible accomplishment. I do not think it is facetious to call this the greatest film accomplishment of all time and it should be treated as such.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my ranking! If you are curious how 2021 changed my rankings, I did a previous one last year after Black Widow, but I had not added any of the Disney+ shows at that point, you can see that list here! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @HaroldLStokes for more film, comic book movies as well as football content! Be sure to keep an eye out for the Third Annual HLS Movie Awards blogs starting to come out this week! I will link to the first one here once it is out!
