My Favourite Marvel Movies | Blogmas Day 8

Hey Guys x

Of course I was going to do a Marvel themed post at some point, and my movie-based Blogmas seemed like the best time!

In this post I'll be ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, from worst to best in my opinion. I won't be ranking 'The Incredible Hulk' or 'Doctor Strange' because I haven't seen either of them yet.

I hope you enjoy this, and if you're not a fan of Marvel, I hope this persuades you to watch some of the movies!

12. Iron Man 2


So, Iron Man 2 is last on my list. I think it's been widely established among MCU fans that this movie wasn't the greatest, and I have to agree. I like the movie, I think the humour is great and obviously the acting is amazing, but as a whole, it doesn't do anything to advance the MCU. This film's villain, 'Whiplash', doesn't really pose that much of a threat, they defeat him quite easily at the end of the film, and I wasn't worried at any point that they might not beat him. Of course, this film was the introduction of both Don Cheadle as 'Rhodey' (previously played by Terrance Howard) and Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, but even these great characters couldn't make up for the weak plotline of the film.

11. Thor: The Dark World


Just like the Iron Man sequel, the Thor sequel also wasn't the best addition to the MCU. The Thor movies have always felt a bit separate from the MCU, made even more so by the absence of Thor in the 'Captain America: Civil War' movie, so it was never going to be particularly high in this list. However, the amount of time that the main characters spend on Asgard in this one made me disconnect from it a bit more. In addition, just like the Iron Man 2 movie, I never felt like the main characters were in any real danger, I wasn't worried about what would happen, and the outcome of the film was kind of predictable. Having said that, the very end of the film wasn't predictable, and was a good twist, which would have been great if it wasn't a twist that they'd done once before.

10. Guardians of the Galaxy


I've only seen this once or twice, which is probably why it's quite far down on this list. However, I did like it when I initially saw it. it has a great cast, Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana are particular favourites of mine. I guess the main thing about it for me was that I didn't really understand first time around what the orb (I think that's what it's called) represented. I'm still a bit hazy on the infinity stones, but I saw this before I saw a lot of the other movies so it was really unclear to me, which made me like the film less. In addition to that, I always knew that they were going to join the Avengers sometime, but I didn't know how they'd connect, and I still don't really know how this will be done, so I connected with the film a lot less for this reason.

9. Thor


I'm not the biggest fan of origin stories, I much prefer the characters getting straight into the action, so that's always a factor in whether or not I like a film. I like the way that Thor began. the fact that he was the mischievous one who upset his father, that was a nice dynamic. However, I didn't really like the film in general that much. I didn't get why Jane and Thor fell for each other, there was nothing in it other than the fact that they're both hot. In addition to this, we never really understand why Loki did what he did, as he's shown initially as the innocent little brother, but suddenly just switches and becomes this manipulative guy. The acting was great, the characters if isolated were great characters, but together, it wasn't a great film. It wasn't the worst film, and I'd definitely watch it if it came on, but as MCU films go, not the best.

8. Ant-Man


Now we're getting into the films that are much harder to place! Again, not a fan of origin stories, but I love the introduction of Ant-Man! This film had a really good cast, it was really funny, and I'd definitely watch it again. However, when you look at the quality of some of the other MCU films, it isn't the best. A lot of the other films mean a lot to the story, this is kind of it's own story. We get the introduction of Ant-Man, Hank Pym and the Wasp, and they're all great characters, and if this was a stand-alone film, it would be great! But within the world of these bigger pieces, it just didn't seem that significant. Having said that, definitely watch this if you get the chance because it is a really good film!

7. Captain America: The First Avenger


I love all of the Captain America films, but this is definitely the worst one in my opinion. First of all, it's set during the second world war. That is essential for the movie, and it's a good thing that they did it like that, but it definitely made me enjoy it less because I felt like I couldn't relate to it. It also annoyed me that no one respected Steve or saw how great he was (apart from Bucky and Peggy) until he was tall and had muscles, and could prove himself. And suddenly, he meant more than all the other soldiers who had been fighting for their country the entire time! However, in terms of this film's placement within future MCU films, it was a really great introduction to the friendship of Steve and Bucky. If anything, I'd like to see this dynamic a bit more - you can never have too much Steve and Bucky! I also would have liked to know Skinny Steve a bit more before 'normal' Steve took over.

6. Avengers: Age of Ultron


A lot of people really didn't like this movie. For me, I quite enjoyed it! I liked seeing the gang together again, I liked Ultron as a villain, I liked how the dynamics between the characters had changed from the first Avengers movie, and I liked the introduction of the new characters, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The main thing that I didn't like about this film was the need to attach Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) to a guy. As much as I like Banner, it was clear that there wasn't any chemistry between him and Romanoff, and that they were kind of just forced together. But I thought the film was written really well, there was a great injection of humour, and the characters had really grown from their first few films. In my opinion, it was quite a successful sequel!

5. Iron Man 3


This is another film that people tend not to like, so when I watched it, I was quite surprised at how good it was! It was a follow on from the first Avengers movie and I think it was a really good way to show how Tony Stark had grown since then, with his new inventions and his relationship with Pepper, as well as his panic attacks, which I think should have been made more prevalent. However, I liked the twist with the Villain, it was great, if a little bit predictable, but there were a lot of turns that you couldn't quite guess, which made the film a really interesting, fun watch. Give this one a chance even though Iron Man 2 wasn't great!

4. Iron Man


Now, I know I said that I don't like origin stories, but this film is an exception. We needed an introduction to Iron Man and this was the best way to do it. For me, Iron Man has the most interesting origin story, and I think that this was done really well. In addition to this, we have Jeff Bridges in this movie, which makes it great because he's an amazing actor! But also, the villain was unexpected, and was someone that posed a genuine threat to Tony Stark, as well as the people around him, which made the film great and really tense, which is what you want when you're watching an action movie! Overall, a really great movie that I would recommend to everyone!

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier


Number three goes to The Winter Soldier! In my opinion, this movie was basically flawless, there's nothing that I'd really change. It featured the introduction of Sam Wilson, one of my favourite characters, as well as introducing the villain, the Winter Soldier. I loved the way that Cap had fully got into his leadership role after the first Avengers movie, and I think that there was not one character that was portrayed wrongly or in a bad light. It was well written, well directed, well acted and I just love it so much! It was the second MCU movie I ever watched and I could watch it over and over with no problem because you realise something new each time you watch it!

2. Captain America: Civil War

Civil War. It came out this past summer, and I just thought it was incredible. The Captain America franchise is one that just keeps getting better and better and better. It was the film of the summer, and I loved it so much! It introduced new characters, put characters together that haven't been on screen together before, each character gets a good amount of screen time, and there's absolutely nothing that I would change, apart from seeing Bucky and Falcon together a bit more. Every single character not only deserved to be there, but made sense, everything worked, I understood everything first time around and would watch it over and over again. There's not enough time to say all the good things that I want to say about this film, there's too much good! But overall, it's so close to being the best MCU movie ever and I hope that the Marvel movies continue to be at this standard!

1. The Avengers

OK, so my favourite MCU film has to be, without a doubt, the first Avengers movie! It was the first MCU movie I ever saw, and I just fell in love with it right away. It was the first time all of the team were introduced to each other, which automatically makes it really significant because it's what the whole MCU is based on, a group of superhero's working together to save the world. It had a really fantastic villain in Loki, who is better in this film than he was in the Thor movies, and we also get to formally meet some shield agents, as well as getting our first real experience with Hawkeye. For me, there is no film in the MCU that will ever be able to top the significance of this one. If you're not familiar with the MCU, start with this. Once you see this, you won't be able to stop yourself from watching all the other films in this group. It's a great introduction, and everything is perfect.

Thank you for reading.

It's 17 days until Christmas!

Come back tomorrow for Blogmas day 9!