With "Spider-Man: Far from Home" having been in theaters for over three weeks now, Phase III of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in the books. As such, it is now time to rank these 11 movies, meaning I have been really enjoying the process of watching and re-watching a lot of them in preparation for making this list, which was a tricky one to put together because I actually enjoyed all 11 of these to various degrees. Some fell in place rather easily, but a lot of them were so close together that it stressed me out. That resulted in plenty of Phase III Netflix binging because most of them are currently up on Netflix... for now. If you don't follow the MCU as closely as I do, Phase II concluded with "Ant-Man" in 2015 while Phase III began with "Captain America: Civil War" in 2016. That gave us a solid three years of Phase III, which concluded the Infinity Gauntlet story arc while giving us a quick hint of what's next for Phase IV, which begins next May with the long awaited "Black Widow." Before we begin, a quick warning. There will be spoilers for "Captain Marvel," "Avengers: Endgame" and "Spider-Man: Far from Home" here. I'm not saying you have to close this if you haven't seen either of those, but you might want to quickly scroll past their respective paragraphs.
11- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
I will contend that the Marvel has not yet made a bad movie. Even the likes of "Thor: The Dark World" and "Iron Man 2" have enough good moments in them to save them from being outright terrible, even though neither of those are movies wherein I really care to go watch again. But in my opinion, "Guardians 2" came awfully close to being that first bad movie in the MCU. That was really disappointing for me because, even though I was more harsh on the first "Guardians" than most, I always had hope that the sequel would be where this crew would shine now that their origin story is out of the way. But for the first half of the movie, it was painfully unfunny with not much focus or direction, no character development, decent songs that simply didn't stand out, and not much in terms of story. Luckily things kicked into full gear in the second half, especially when Ego revealed what he did to Star Lord's mother. And the Yondo stuff was beautiful. But even with all of this, it still felt like more of a filler episode of a superhero show with Ego being more of a monster of the week rather than a consequential villain. When the most interesting part of your movie was the introduction of Adam Warlock in the credits, that's a problem. But hey, there's hope for "Guardians 3," right?
10- Black Panther
Does this selection make me racist? The cynical white dude didn't like the black superhero film. Well, if I'm getting my "I would've voted Obama for a third term" moment out of the way (that's a "Get Out" reference if you didn't catch that), I love the character of Black Panther. His introduction in "Civil War" was excellent and made me super excited for his movie. When we got that movie, the look of Wakanda was amazing and there were a lot of other excellent characters, including a very sympathetic villain in Killmonger. I even loved the African-themed score. So all the pieces were in place for this to be a great movie. But for crying out loud, regardless of how culturally relevant your film is, I NEED A FRACKING STORY. That's where this movie fails. The first half of the movie is actually rather boring. After years setting up Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaue, they toss him in the trash for the sake of a plot device. Kendrick Lamar's excellent soundtrack gets used as background noise at best. Then after wandering around in nothingness for a while, the second half of the movie becomes "The Lion King," but with Wakandian characters. Then we finish with a final battle that ranks as one Marvel's worst. The Russo Brothers did a much better job with these characters in their three movies.
9- Ant-Man and the Wasp
Coming directly after "Avengers: Infinity War" was quite the task. For me personally I think this was well timed because, after a movie so emotionally heavy and traumatizing, I rather enjoyed being able to just sit back and relax while enjoying a simple Marvel movie without a ton of stakes or emotional weight. In hindsight, though, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" does suffer quite a bit from the lack of Edgar Wright. Granted, Edgar Wright left the original movie before it was finished, but his influence was present throughout, which is why "Ant-Man" is one of my favorite Marvel movies. "Ant-Man and the Wasp" lacks the sharpness, the wit and the creativity of the first, but it's still a solid movie. I really liked the inclusion of Laurence Fishbourne as one of Hank Pym's original partners Dr. Bill Foster, aka Goliath. And I liked his connection with our movie's main "villain," that being Ghost. I put that in quotations because she's really not a villain. She's a fascinating character with a really good arc, played fantastically by Hannah John-Kamen who just happened to have gone through a lot in her life and was at the end of her rope. Also, completely stealing the show (well, kinda, she is in the title) is Evangeline Lilly finally dawning the Wasp suit. She proved she belongs in the MCU.
8- Spider-Man: Far from Home
This is our most recent film in the MCU. One that I thought that was going to kick off Phase IV, but learned in April was actually the final film in Phase III, much like it was "Ant-Man," not "Avengers: Infinity War" that closed off Phase II. Given that this is our most recent movie, I will still tread lightly. However, I will get into a bit more details than I did in my review, so be warned. The thing I liked most about "Far from Home" was the contrast between it and "Homecoming." In "Homecoming," Peter Parker was so full of adrenaline after "Civil War" that he only cared about the superhero stuff. He had to learn to properly prioritize his home life. But in "Far from Home," Peter has just had enough superheroing for a while. He just wants to escape and spend time with the girl he likes, and his other friends, on a class trip to Europe. All of that was phenomenal. Where the movie slightly lacks is in the superhero stuff that, while entertaining, doesn't really provide anything new. Specifically we have Jake Gyllenhaal bringing his all to Mysterio. He makes that character crazy and intimidating. And there's some legit "Doctor Strange" level trippiness with Spider-Man vs. Mysterio. He's just not as interesting of a villain as Michael Keaton's Vulture due to the way his character was written.
7- Captain Marvel
Brie Larson really set off the angry, white internet trolls camping out in their parents' basement with her press tour of this movie. They were so angry at her comments against white males that they started an aggressive anti "Captain Marvel" campaign that failed so miserably I find it hilarious. Brie Larson had the last laugh there as "Captain Marvel" became the latest MCU film to top $1 billion worldwide. All that aside (especially since she was REALLY just trying to be inclusive to the minorities), I legitimately enjoyed "Captain Marvel." Is it as good as "Wonder Woman"? Of course not. But few superhero movies are. Was it super political? Sure. But that didn't bother me. I've watched and enjoyed all four seasons of "Supergirl," which is exactly what this show reminded me of. Carol Danvers and Kara Danvers even have nearly identical names and fairly similar stories. It was "Supergirl" meets "Star Trek," I should say. Carol Danvers is part of a Star Trek like team of Kree, trying to figure out who she is and what her powers are, while they fight off the enemy team of the Skrulls. But... PSYCH! The good guys are bad and the bad guys are good. It was fun, especially when she unlocked her full powers. Continuity errors with the MCU are my biggest complaints.
6- Spider-Man: Homecoming
It was rather risky to reboot Spider-Man yet again after "Spider-Man 3" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" both killed their respective Spider-Man franchises. But Sony needed to continue to make movies somehow or else they lose their rights. So they went in complete panic mode, putting into production an animated Spider-Man movie, a Spider-Man-less Venom movie, then came crying to Marvel for help in making a new live action Spider-Man movie. Turns out all three avenues were hugely successful. With "Spider-Man: Homecoming," the deal to let Spider-Man be a part of the MCU if Marvel helped Sony make better movies was absolutely brilliant because that gave us a completely new and fresh version of Spider-Man who actually looked and acted like a teenager (even though Tom Holland is not). Marvel also very cleverly shook up the Spider-Man lore a bit so this didn't feel like a rinse, wash and repeat. The movie did lag a bit in the high school drama element, but it's more than made up for with Michael Keaton's villain Adrian Toomes, aka Vulture, who is such a normal, relatable human, yet becomes very intimidating when he needs to. That moment when he's driving Peter and Liz to the dance. Holy cow! One of the best moments ever in a Spider-Man movie as well as the MCU.
5- Captain America: Civil War
Even though I jokingly refer to this as "Avengers 2.5," I still am impressed at how much of a Captain America movie this still feels like, despite having nearly everyone in the MCU in it. The continuing story of Captain America and Bucky is the forefront here, and Helmut Zemo is introduced as a rather compelling villain, who is vastly underrated when it comes to MCU villains. But of course the Iron Man vs. Captain America conflict is the main show in the movie. In which case, I find myself rather easily entertained when we bring all of these characters together. It's just a lot of fun. However, I am a bit critical of this movie for two reasons. One, they killed off Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones, in the opening act for the sake of a plot device. Two, the whole vigilante story arc is very tired on me. Every superhero series has to cross the bridge of government/city vs. the superheroes and this was the MCU's version of that. So I was slightly unimpressed with it as a whole, despite being entertained, especially with the airport sequence. Even though that battle had zero stakes, it was still super fun. HOWEVER, the movie saved itself with the end battle of Captain America vs. Iron Man, when there was stakes. It was an extraordinary finale that helped bump this movie up several notches.
4- Thor: Ragnarok
"Thor: Ragnarok" easily wins the award for the biggest surprise in the MCU. I'm one who will defend the original "Thor" as a vastly underrated film. It's emotional and entertaining. A great introduction to Thor. But it is one that gets a bit lost in the shuffle. And it's certainly not helped by the fact that "Thor: The Dark World" is one of the worst in the MCU, only saved from being an outright terrible movie by Loki. Thus I was kinda done with the character of Thor and wasn't really looking forward to a third Thor movie. That is until I saw the trailer, which had me stunned. And of course the movie itself was absolutely incredible. Director Taika Waititi, known for "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" and "What We Do in the Shadows," not only saved this franchise, but completely revitalized the character of Thor and transformed him into one of the MCU's best characters. This he did by letting Chris Hemwsorth be his silly, goofy self while constructing a narrative that was zany and fun. It was one part "Planet Hulk" and another part "End of Asgard," but not in a dark and dreary sort of way. But through the hilarious aspects of the film, Thor himself is given a great arc in the film, thus this movie has a surprising bit of emotion. All this comes together in what is one of the MCU's most rewatchable films.
3- Doctor Strange
I often get very picky with origin stories these days. It's just very easy to get caught up in all the origin story tropes and make a fairly boring and cliche movie. I call it origin-story-itis. With that in mind, I myself was very surprised by how captivated I was with "Doctor Strange" because this very much is an origin story that follows a lot of traditional formulas. I think the biggest reason why I was so captivated was because this is a movie that completely changed the MCU by introducing elements of magic and sorcery along with introducing alternate dimensions in being able to manipulate time and space. It was a brand new world for me, thus it felt fresh and unique. I also really loved Stephen Strange's arc in the movie. Yes it was fairly traditional, but the execution was done so well that it reminding me of Bruce Wayne in "Batman Begins," which is the gold standard for origin stories. Stephen Strange going from a selfish, arrogant doctor to the Sorcerer Supreme was an excellent journey. Then when he got that point, and became good with the mystic arts, this was one of the most wildly entertaining movies I've seen. The space and time manipulation reminded me of the world-building dream sequences in "Inception." Thus we have "Batman Begins" meets "Inception." An impressive combo.
2- Avengers: Endgame
And we have our final two. Picking between "Infinity War" and "Endgame" was very stressful for me. I had to give "Endgame" a couple of months for the dust to settle, then I rewatched "Infinity War" on Netflix shortly before seeing "Endgame" for a second time. And even then I argued with myself quite a bit before finally choosing "Infinity War" as my favorite. But really it was like picking my favorite "Lord of the Rings" movie. Yeah, if you force me I will say "Return of the King," but the three movies are really just one giant movie, just like "Infinity War" and "Endgame" really fit best if watched together. When push comes to shove, my compromise is that the final battle sequence in "Endgame" is my favorite moment in all of the MCU due to the culmination of 11 years and 22 films with the conclusion of this Infinity Gauntlet story arc. It's a film that rewards the fans who have been there from day one. So from Cap yelling, "Avengers assemble!" to Tony Stark stopping Thanos after saying, "I am Iron Man," that's the pinnacle of all Marveldom. But this is a post where I'm ranking movies, not best moments. That's where I realize that there's a lot more to nitpick with "Endgame." Even though it's one of the most rewarding movies ever, as a whole it's not as good of a film as "Infinity War."
1- Avengers: Infinity War
If I'm being honest, watching "Infinity War" after knowing the events of "Endgame" does make for a different experience, but I still can't push aside the wide-range of emotions that I was experiencing while watching "Infinity War" for the first time. I remember going into the movie somewhat skeptic. Yes, I like my Avengers team-up movies, but this was the moment that every movie in the MCU prior to this one was building up to. It needed to more than just a fun adventure in stopping the next big baddie. The movie needed to mean something. It needed to have stakes. Thanos needed to become the Darth Vader of the MCU by mopping the floor with the Avengers and, likewise, "Infinity War" needed to become the "Empire Strikes Back" of the MCU. That was a high bar to set and I didn't think they could do it. But the did. And for the first time in an MCU film, I was nervously sitting on the edge of my seat having no idea what was going to happen and who was going to make it out alive. Seeing characters that I grew to love getting wiped out and not knowing if they're coming back was quite traumatic. This was a movie all about Thanos. And the construction of the film as a whole in setting him up as this supervillain was beautiful. And in the end... he won. How often does that happen?
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That does it with my ranking of Phase III! But how does Phase III fit in with the rest my rankings of the MCU? Yes, I've compiled that list, too. But first, my ranking of Phase I and II:
Phase I:
1- The Avengers
2- Iron Man
3- Thor
4- Captain America: The First Avenger
5- Iron Man 2
6- The Incredible Hulk
Phase II:
1- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2- Iron Man 3
3- Ant-Man
4- Guardians of the Galaxy
5- Avengers: Age of Ultron
6- Thor: The Dark World
And now to put it all together! All 23 movies in the MCU ranked! Just keep in mind that this big master list is the one that is most subject to change, especially since there's some of them that I haven't watched in a while. But for now, this is what I'm going with:
Phase I - III:
1- Avengers: Infinity War
2- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3- The Avengers
4- Avengers: Endgame
5- Doctor Strange
6- Thor: Ragnarok
7- Iron Man 3
8- Iron Man
9- Ant-Man
10- Captain America: Civil War
11- Spider-Man: Homecoming
12- Guardians of the Galaxy
13- Avengers: Age of Ultron
14- Thor
15- Captain Marvel
16- Spider-Man: Far from Home
17- Ant-Man and the Wasp
18- Black Panther
19- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
20- Captain America: The First Avengers
21- Thor: The Dark World
22- Iron Man 2
23- The Incredible Hulk
And now it's your turn. Let me know how you rank Phase III and/or the entire MCU!
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