Watching 25+ movies sounds daunting, but it’s really not that bad. At the onset of 2021, I embarked upon a rewatch of the feature films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from 2008’s Iron Man to 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, before eventually screening 2021’s Black Widow in a theater (my first time back in one of those since March 2020) and returning a few months later to see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home all on the big screen. These are fun movies that often get at and invoke deeper themes; they’re action-packed with tons of levity and bring characters you’ll love down the line, even if you don’t care for them initially.
But back to that main point—watching everything. Look, obviously a 25+ project or list of anything is a lot to take on, and it sure sounds like it, too. But breezing through a rewatch (or a first watch) of the MCU is really not all that much when you think about it in the context of the way we now watch and binge TV. 28-29 movies (more on that in a bit) in the range of 2-3 hours each comes out to the equivalent of somewhere around 4-5 seasons of a prestige drama. It’s a lot, but a far cry from insurmountable.
Marvel Studios
Memories are fickle, people change, opinions change, and things take on new contexts. Rewatching movies with the privilege of hindsight can often be rewarding, and this is especially the case when watching through the MCU’s three existing phases.
Through the years, Kevin Feige and the MCU team have done a really great job of building out what almost feels like a house brand or formula; they know what makes a good movie, and what fans of the genre and the characters tend to like. Which makes it difficult, really, to rank one of these movies ahead of another. And that’s why for this particular exercise the movies are ranked in tiers. Essentially, that means that among each given tier, the movies are more or less interchangeable. Obviously, a decision had to be made among those tiers to put one movie in front of another, and those decisions are what they are. But the films among the tiers are so close they feel like they can be basically swapped in and out to your liking.
One note? You may notice one early MCU movie missing from the ranks—that’s right: we aren’t including 2008’s The Incredible Hulk in this list. Yes, it’s technically part of the canon, but between not being available on Disney+ (which is not a complete detractor—the two Spider-Man movies certainly make our list), having a different lead actor, having a number of discontinued plot threads, and coming at a time when the MCU didn’t quite know what it was doing, it just doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of what we’re doing here. If you want to watch it for a complete picture of everything happening, then by all means, go for it. But we think The Avengers gives more than enough context when introducing Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner to carry you through the rest of the run.
So, uh, that’s enough wind up for now. The movies below are ranked from worst to best, and as a bonus each movie will have a descriptor of just how much MCU knowledge you need to really appreciate everything that’s going on. And one more thing? These movies aren’t bad. OK, maybe Thor: The Dark World is bad. But even the ones on the lower end of the list are fun, have some great moments, and serve to develop characters who usually wind up paying off in the long run.
OK. Phew. Here we go:
The ‘Honestly, Not Great’ Tier
28. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Marvel Studios
Thor: The Dark World isn’t all bad. There are some funny moments (Thor hanging his hammer up on a hook in Dr. Selvig’s apartment like it’s an umbrella? Classic!), some great character moments (particularly around the death of Frigga, Thor and Loki’s mother), and Chris O’Dowd is there, so that’s cool. But boy oh boy is it kind of all over the place. Malekith is the MCU’s worst villain by far, and the whole plot of the movie feels kind of half-baked. At least Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is around to be his usual off-the-charts entertaining for all of his screen time—and he makes the ending far, far better than the rest of the movie deserves.
MCU understanding needed? Probably worth checking out Thor and The Avengers beforehand, but you can understand enough without those still too, probably.