The Marvel Cinematic Universe, is there anything else like it out there? Never before has a studio attempted such an ambitious series of interconnected shared universe movies (and TV shows). What's more, most of them are actually pretty good and all of them are at least fun and enjoyable. Marvel imbues its movies with a true sense of fun, a love for the material, and a definite sense of humor. As I write this, Marvel is twelve movies in with no signs of slowing down.
Once we got to double digits, people began ranking them because, Internet. Here's my take on how they stack up to one another. You may find it a little different than most.
Iron Man 2
Widely considered to be "the worst" of Marvel's movies, Iron Man 2 is not really that bad and the worst Marvel movie is still better than most of the other popcorn movies out there. I mean, it's certainly miles better than any of the Transformers movies. While it suffers from being a little overstuffed (a sin shared by some of the later Marvel movies) Iron Man 2 still features some great action sequences like the Grand Prix showdown with Whiplash and the debuts of Black Widow and War Machine. In the overall narrative of the MCU, Iron Man 2 does a lot of heavy lifting that pays off in later movies. It not only develops a lot of backstory for the Starks, SHIELD, and the Avengers Initiative, vibranium, but it also establishes an evolution and lineage of the Iron Man tech, for example Vanko's drones are clear predecessors to the Iron Legion from Age of Ultron.
The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk is treated like the red-headed stepchild of the MCU. It was overshadowed by Iron Man when it was first released and Edward Norton was quickly replaced by Mark Ruffalo in subsequent movies. Since there has not been another solo Hulk movie, most of the characters introduced have not reappeared, such as the Hulk villain the Leader, who was introduced in this movie never to be seen again. The Incredible Hulk almost feels a little disconnected from the rest of the series because of this but the movie is a lot of fun and definitely has an important place in the franchise. I mean, it's about as good as you can expect a movie based on the Hulk to be. It also features Tim Roth as a mercenary who is given a bootleg version of the Captain America super soldier serum and who later becomes The Abomination. Unfortunately, this character has not been seen in any other Marvel projects which is a pity because he's one of the better MCU villains.
Thor
Thor was a risky proposition for Marvel. The Asgardian alien/god and his world was always going to be a tricky proposition on screen but director Kenneth Branaugh does a great job bringing the Asgardian world and its relationships to life. Thor has a satisfying arc from warrior bro to worthy wielder of Mjolnir. Nathalie Portman, Idris Elba, and Anthony Hopkins round out the fantastic cast. Tom Hiddleston makes his debut as Loki, Marvel's most compelling villain to-date.
Iron Man 3
While Iron Man 3 is wildly overrated, it does feature a great performance from Robert Downey, Jr and although its idiosyncratic take on the genre grows a little thin, you have to admire the fact that it is so different from its predecessors and from superhero movies in general. Iron Man 3 takes the series into a definite buddy action movie territory with some interesting noire elements. However the movie seems a bit enchanted with its own stylistic wanderings and is bit too long as a result. It also badly fumbles its villains. Not only is the Mandarin squandered in an admittedly ballsy fake-out but the Extremis "fire people" are pretty silly. Also, in terms of the whole MCU, it feels like all of the resolutions and conclusions of this movie end up being forgotten by the time we see Tony Stark again.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Age of Ultron is overstuffed with characters and goings-on to be a really satisfying movie which is really too bad because it has a lot of good stuff happening in it. Ultron is a genuinely interesting and compelling villain (although one with a truly stupid plot) and the movie crackles with that trademark Whedon dialogue. But instead of really developing characters and relationships, the movie introduces characters and doesn't give them their proper space to breathe. We never really get to know Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver or Vision and one of the primary Avengers, Thor, is MIA throughout much of the movie while Hawkeye-the least interesting Avenger-gets an extended amount of screentime.
Thor: The Dark World
While Thor: The Dark World suffers from perhaps the MCU's least developed villain (which is saying something) the sequel to Thor is kind of an underrated movie that went a long way to broaden the scope of the MCU. Before Guardians of the Galaxy Thor: The Dark World, took the Marvel movies into a distinctly space opera direction, much of this movie feels more Star Wars than superhero. What's more, this movie features a truly fun and clever action sequence at the end involving wormholes and multiple planets and a compelling performance from Tom Hiddleston that keeps you guessing until the end and elevates the whole movie.
Ant-Man
Especially coming right after Ultron, Ant-Man is a refreshingly focused superhero movie about an unlikely hero who can shrink in size and control ants. It has a small cast and few connections to the larger MCU, which is a nice change. It actually reminds me quite a bit of the original Iron Man movie in that it is a redemption story about a flawed hero and his relationship to a mentor character. It also features a nice pair of father/daughter story lines that feel fresh in the context of a MCU movie and it is anchored by a nice performance from Michael Douglas and the best digital de-aging I have ever seen. Visually, Ant-Man has a lot of fun with its hero's shrinking ability and it has some really memorable small-scale action sequences. It's not every adventure movie that features its climactic battle on a toy Thomas the Train set.
Captain America: The First Avenger
In their welcome attempts to mix up genres, Marvel envisioned their first Captain America movie as a legit Golden Age comic book movie set during World War II and it's a lot of fun. Thankfully, a lot of time is spent developing Cap's as a skinny, bullied New York kid and you get a good sense of his character and point of view as opposed to him just being a lab experiment or jingoistic superman. Hugo Weaving is great as Red Skull, a villain many of us would like to see return to the MCU. This movie also introduces Peggy Carter, who would go on to be a mainstay of the MCU movies and TV shows.
The Avengers
In my mind, The Avengers is Marvel's most impressive (although not necessarily best) movie. Given the difficulty of doing a movie like this and all of the potential pitfalls, how did this movie end up being so damn good? Writer/Director Joss Whedon deftly manages a large group of characters in a movie that never feels overstuffed. He manages a large urban alien invasion sequence at the film's climax that avoids becoming the dreary disaster porn that you see in contemporary movies like Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Importantly, this team of superhero misfits actually manages to save people unlike the impression left from Man of Steel. Perhaps best of all, The Avengers never really looses its focus on the fact that despite the special effects and action, the most interesting thing are these characters and their relationships and interactions with one another.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
While the first Cap movie was a period war movie, its sequel is in the style of a 1970's conspiracy thriller and has Captain America teaming up with Black Widow to take on a SHIELD agency that has long been infiltrated by Hydra. Needless to say, this a monumentally consequential story for the MCU. Despite the big scope, Winter Soldier is sharply focused and features some great action such as Cap's elevator encounter with a group of would-be assassins.
Iron Man
The movie that started it. Prior to the release of Iron Man in 2008 it was far certain the movie would even be a hit let alone spawn a monster franchise of eleven other movies and (so far) three TV shows but thanks to a career defining performance from Robert Downey, Jr, a cool and fun tone, and surprisingly photogenic armor suit, Iron Man was a big hit and the foundation on which the entire MCU rests. You can't really overestimate how much of RDJ's performance contributed to the success of the movie as he really turned Tony Stark into a funny and unforgettable character and I think the success of Iron Man helped Marvel learn what their live action brand would be: interestingly flawed characters and a sharp sense of humor.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Fun, delightfully idiosyncratic, warm, and weird, Guardians of the Galaxy was Marvel's biggest gamble and became a runaway success, considered by many to be the best MCU movie to date. It might be a lesson to Marvel that one its best-loved and most successful movies was one with only a tangential connection to rest of the Earth-bound movies. Free to be its own spacey, weird thing and largely unencumbered by connectivity to other movies, Guardians has a genuinely different feel from the rest of the MCU movies. Although, despite a movie full of vivid and interesting characters, it has one of the dullest villains to date.
