Marvel movies ranked from worst to best

If you were to sit down to watch the entire Marvel oeuvre, it would take you 63 hours and 34 minutes.

If you have the bladder for that kind of marathon, there are a few ways to go about it. You can watch the movies in the order they came out (starting with Iron Man), in the order they were set (with Captain America: The First Avenger), or in the favorite "reverse ice cream" method - starting at the bottom and working your way up to the cherry on top.

So this is every Marvel movie ranked from worst to best.

29. 'Eternal' (2021)

The film that brought artistic anxiety, Angelina Jolie and awkward sex scenes is also the only Marvel movie that's really boring. A movie about a supergroup of cosmic gods spanning 7000 years of human history really shouldn't be this vanilla. The ambition was there, but it was best when Harry Styles appeared during the post-credits scene - just as everyone was leaving the cinema…

28. “Thor: The Dark World” (2013)

Thor in the real world? The big one. Thor in a strange space world? Awesome. Thor in his own rainbow magical world of ice elves? Funny. Made before anyone knew that Chris Hemsworth should always act in comedies.

27. “Iron Man 2” (2010)

The problem with Iron Man 2 is that Iron Man isn't in it. Appears at the beginning to fight against with a whip Mickey Rourke topless, and yet at the end to fight a bunch of flying drones, the rest of the movie is just Robert Downey Jr. who got drunk, frolicked around and drooled over Scarlett Johansson.

26. "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)

Following The Avengers was always awkward, but the sequel Joss Whedon ended up falling into all the holes that his first film managed to avoid. Overlong, overstuffed and underwhelming, the film remains the most expensive Marvel film ever made.

25. “The Incredible Hulk” (2008)

Often overlooked because it's just part of Marvel, 'The Incredible Hulk' is a movie that would surely have done a lot better if Edward Norton hadn't fallen out with Marvel and ended up being replaced Mark Ruffalo. Norton makes a great (angrier/meaner/sadder) Hulk, but his movie feels a bit forgotten.

24. 'Thor' (2011)

Thor's first film is one where you can see Marvel working the formula in real time. Trying a bit of serious Lord of the Rings stuff with a bit of wacky fish-out-of-water comedy, the two halves of Marvel sat a bit awkwardly next to each other in 2011 - with Kenneth Branagh apparently more interested in royal politics than watching Chris Hemsworth eat Pop-Tarts.

23. "Black Widow" (2021)

They finally gave Scarlett Johansson something more than just kicking people, Black Widow set her up with a decent vehicle. But the last act fell apart when the action moved to a big flying factory in the sky.

22. “Iron Man 3” (2013)

The best thing about Iron Man's third solo outing was how genuinely funny it was - with writer/director Shane Black who nailed the tone throughout Iron Man 3 to give Robert Downey Jr. gave the script it always deserved. Until the finale, the film was witty and entertaining.

21. 'Captain Marvel' (2019)

Landing an unstoppable Superman in the middle of LA in 1995 should have been much more Terminator 2 than Captain Marvel did. Arrival scenes and a decent 90s jukebox soundtrack aside, the rest of the movie ends up feeling like any other Marvel movie. Brie Larson is fantastic, but it really deserved a better movie.

20. “Ant-man” (2015)

It's pretty hard to watch Ant-Man now after seeing the opening scene of The Bois season XNUMX. Far, far from that image, Marvel's smallest character is the one with the most charm - Paul Rudd acts like he's still in the movie Judd Apatow while disabling Soviet missiles and raising giant pet ants.

19. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018)

Downloading the first movie halfway after it Edgar Wright "jumped off the ship", the director Peyton Reed took the sequel and made Ant-Man a bit better - turning the movie into a more entertaining story, and there's a shrinking/growing car chase.

18. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019)

The journey! Marvel abandons its American/Eastern European stock to blow up the most beautiful parts of Venice instead. Peter Parker is still in school, but seems far from home, so the scenes in this movie are much more fun. Also, the movie gets points for finally zendaya appears in multiple frames.

17. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021)

No Spider-Man movie is better than Into The Spiderverse, and 'No Way Home' fails the attempt. Spending too long recreating that annoying meme that points to Spider-Man, the third movie Tom Holland did end his Spider-Man trilogy with all the fun and mayhem.

16. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022)

Marvel's version of everything, everywhere, all at once was also Doctor Strange's version Sam Raimi. It's a character who can do anything he puts his mind to and ends up traveling through alternate dimensions, fighting his evil self. A crazy horror comedy for anyone who ever thought Marvel needed more zombies.

15. “Captain America: Civil War” (2016)

Is this really a Captain America movie or just The Avengers? Brothers Russian proved how good they are at juggling multiple characters at once for a movie about super-friends starting to become super-friends. Smarter and cleaner than most of the actual Avengers movies.

14. "Doctor Strange" (2016)

What if Marvel made a start? Taking all the best ideas Christopher Nolan and using them in a movie you didn't really have to think about, director Scott Derrickson he pushed Eastern mysticism through the Disney machine to create one of the most visually striking Marvel films.

13. “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022)

Taika Waititi is great at being really silly and really sentimental at the same time, and his sweet-and-sour style is sprinkled throughout the Tor 4 movie that gives you a great laugh before it hits you right in the heart. Hemsworth's love for his own hammer is hilarious, while Batman brings the courage.

12. 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (2011)

Director Joe Johnston had already made one of the best superhero movies with The Rocketeer, so he was the perfect choice for Marvel's own World War II Saturday matinee. Chris Evans was brilliant as wacky Steve and Super Steve, turning Cap into his own Indiana Jones. This is one of Marvel's best backstories.

11. "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021)

Less of a superhero movie and more of an old-school Disney fairy tale, Marvel's first Asia-led outing has some of the best action scenes in the franchise. Partly because the special effects are so slick, partly because they're edited to let you see what's going on (the fight on the bus!), but mostly because Aquafina was in them.

10. "Iron Man" (2008)

The One That Started It All is also the most straightforward film in Marvel's oeuvre - mostly because it's the only one that didn't arrive with baggage. 90 percent of what makes up Iron Man is Robert Downey Jr., grinning and grinning his way through a great robot movie, as if he didn't know he'd be attached to the film franchise for the next decade...

9. 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' (2017)

Arguably the only Marvel superhero who could lead the franchise even without donning a super suit, Spider-Man is the heart of the MCU. Other Spider-Men have been there before, but Tom Holland did it better - giving us an awkward high school comedy John Hughes about real teenage heroes.

8. 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019)

It's hard to separate the two parts of the highest-grossing movies of all time because they're essentially two halves of the same blockbuster. The culmination of everything the MCU has been building since 2008, and two of the most maximalist films ever made. "The End of the Game" gets the best billing, but the weaker final shot puts it just behind the first part.

7. “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)

There was a terrible moment in 2018 when everyone thought everyone was dead. Ending with a shot that silenced the cinema. “Infinity War” was Marvel's boldest movie — even if it was undone by a sequel that brought back most of the big deaths. Still one of the biggest mishaps in movie history - at the end of another big superstar showdown.

6. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2” (2017)

Maybe not as fun, funny or fresh as the original, but a sequel James Gunn is still one of the sharpest tools in Marvel's lineup. Vol.2 is multi-million dollar irreverence at its finest.

5. “Black Panther” (2018)

Marvel's first black superhero got a gold stand-alone movie that arrived too late. Undoubtedly less revolutionary than the movie that could have been made about the same character, Black Panther follows the same pattern as most of the other MCU movies, but it did so with a much better cast and something of real value.

4. “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017)

2017 was a good year for the MCU. Coming right after “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Guardians 2,” Ragnarok doubled down on Marvel's weird/funny new tone to hit the most stoic Avenger with fluorescent paint, space gladiators, and Jeff Goldblum.

3. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014)

If Taika Waititi and James Gunn the directors who make the MCU fun, the Russo brothers are the ones who give it weight. Inspired by the gritty political thrillers of the 70s, the Russos brought Robert Redford for a spy thriller with grounded action and a solid script. This is the movie that seems like it would convert the most skeptics.

2. 'The Avengers Assemble' (2012)

If there is a perfect MCU movie, it has to be Avengers Assemble. The most complete, balanced, joyous and exciting mix of everything the franchise does well came together in 2012 for the first ever super-team showdown. Marvel spent the next decade repeating the formula, with varying degrees of success, but they never improved on the original - a movie that brought the whole group together to fight an alien invasion in the middle of New York City.

1. "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014)

As great as the first Avengers movie is, it can't quite beat a talking raccoon, a dancing potted plant, and the best mash-up this side of Tarantino. Like Star Wars with its jokes, the first Guardians showed us what Marvel looks like when it doesn't take anything but action seriously - giving us a lovable gang of space pirates led by a regular guy from Earth who looked like he was trying too hard. The ultimate summer superhero movie.