‘Worst To Best’ TOP 5 best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
‘Worst To Best’ TOP 5 best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
In general, Marvel has been pretty good at quality control. There are no outright disasters in the MCU canon, and even slight disappointments like Eternals and Thor: The Dark World have their champions. Unfortunately, though, there are plenty of titles that fall into a murky middle: They work, but they’re not exactly great.
There have been times, though, over the course of Marvel’s long history, where the studio has managed to make movies that felt like more than just the latest movie in a long line of assembly-like products. These are the movies that hit the high bar of excellence audiences expect from Marvel, and rise to the top of the MCU.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Not an obvious choice for the top spot, perhaps, but Guardians Vol. 2 has all the things that made the first Guardians great, but it seems like Gunn is even less inhibited in this sequel. The colors are brighter, the jokes are bigger, and everything just seems more perfectly calibrated. Introduce Kurt Russell as a father figure and eventual big bad, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a great Marvel movie. Guardians Vol. 2 is a great time, but it also features some of the best character arcs in the entire MCU, from Rocket’s realization that he needs his friends to Yondu’s recognition that he was Peter’s father, whether he wanted the job or not.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp may be the most unimportant Marvel movie, and that’s part of what makes it so great. The movie takes the madcap energy that defined Ant-Man and pushes it to new levels, even as it elevates Evangeline Lilly’s Hope into a co-lead. The action here is crisp and clean, and the movie’s climax feels truly unique, in part because the stakes are relatively low. Ant-Man and the Wasp may be the funniest Marvel movie, and it is certainly the silliest, and that makes it endlessly rewatchable.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
The first Captain America movie is so great because it’s really a war movie with superhero trappings. The film’s ensemble is almost entirely contained in this installment, and the central love story between Steve and Peggy was so compelling that it wound up being the conclusion to his entire arc almost a decade later. Steve Rogers remained one of the great characters in the MCU all the way through Endgame, but he was never better than in this first installment when he’s more useful as a symbol than as an actual soldier.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Another movie that seemed almost impossible, and works better than it should have, Avengers: Endgame is exactly what everyone wanted it to be. The first hour, which is genuinely melancholy and downbeat, builds beautifully to the time heist, and then eventually to the final battle that takes up the last act. It’s a movie that everyone involved knew they couldn’t afford to mess up, and they didn’t. Cap finally gets to say “Avengers, assemble,” and then people proceed to lose their minds for about 30 minutes. Avengers: Endgame is funny, moving, and above all, a triumph.
