- Washington Free Beacon - https://freebeacon.com -

Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies, Ranked

Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters tonight. (My review drops tomorrow.) So, to get us ready for this momentous event, let's take a moment to definitively rank the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

(Nerd Note: The "Marvel Cinematic Universe" is comprised of the Avengers-affiliated movies, basically. So, no Spider-Man flicks, no X-Men flicks, no Fantastic Four flicks, etc. We're just talking about the Marvel Studios-owned properties: Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and the Avengers. Got it? Good.)

10. Iron Man 2

It pains me to put this here, because Robert Downey Jr. is the best, but man. This movie. They tried to do too much with it, in terms of setting up the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result, the plot really suffered. Couple of great set pieces, though!

9. The Incredible Hulk

You forgot this one exists, didn't you? I'm a bit surprised that they aren't trying to make a Mark Ruffalo-led standalone Hulk film. But maybe Marvel finally realized he works best in very small doses.

8. Thor: The Dark World

I wanted to put this one a bit higher if only because Tom Hiddleston is so good as Loki. But I simply didn't care at all about the villain of the picture. He's an angry elf, or something? Blah.

7. Captain America: The First Avenger

Totally competent. Totally forgettable. Did a decent job of leading into Avengers, which is really the only thing it had to do.

6. Iron Man 3

I'm pretty sure he's only actually Iron Man for about 20 minutes in this movie. And yet it still works! That Downey Jr. is something else. Wish it would've had a slightly better villain.

5. Thor

I would say that the biggest surprise of the MCU so far is just how good Thor was. I mean, it's not high art or anything. It's not, like, a four star go-to. But it's very funny and the Loki-Thor-Odin dynamic has some real pathos. It's too bad they didn't bring director Kenneth Branagh back for the sequel.

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

A solid action flick with pretensions a bit too big for its britches. Also, Robert Redford was right. (So is TV's Andy Levy.)

3. Iron Man

The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Iron Man are all basically 1a, 1b, and 1c as far as I'm concerned. I'll go with Iron Man here if only because I think the other two work a bit better as a whole. That being said, Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. deserve a ton of credit: Without this film being a rollicking success—a fun, clever, well-put-together action flick—the rest of the MCU falls apart. I find it hard to believe that anyone pours $150 million into Thor if Iron Man doesn't do $300 million domestic.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy

I mean, it is better than Star Wars.

1. The Avengers

I wanted to be a contrarian and I could nitpick—the Chitauri are dumb, the Coulson scene loses its power given that Marvel decided to resurrect him, the idea of putting Black Widow on the team is incredibly silly, etc.—but why bother? It's so fun and so funny that you can't help but enjoy yourself. Plus, it has my single favorite shot of all ten movies: the one where Captain America leaps in front of the old European man who says he will never kneel before Loki.

USA! USA! USA!