If everything works out according to plan — and yes, we know that’s a big if — 2021 is going to be a great year for Marvel fans.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now slated to kick off in May 2021 with the release of Black Widow. That long, long-awaited film, set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, will expand on Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) backstory and answer questions about what really happened to her in Budapest.
The Eternals, the movie based on the 1976 Jack Kirby comic series, originally slated for release in November 2020, will now open in November 2021. And that’s not all — in October, film crews were spotted in San Francisco capturing an action sequence for Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings. That film is slated for release in July 2021.
Of course, coronavirus concerns and theater closures could delay these dates further — nothing is set in stone. Still, it’s great knowing there’s a solid slate of Marvel movies out there, just waiting for the right time to be released.
That said, it’s hard to believe that Marvel can recapture — or even surpass — the success it had in the last decade with the first three phases of the MCU. The final film in the Avengers saga, Avengers: Endgame (2019), toppled James Cameron’s Avatar as the top grossing movie of all time while getting plenty of favorable reviews from the critics. Captain Marvel made $1 billion at the box office, making it the first female-led superhero film in history to do so. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the other epic Marvel films — Deadpool, anyone? — that were released in-between the big-budget blockbusters of the 2010s.
With so many great films in the Marvel library, we thought it would be a great time to rank each and every Marvel film to hit theaters, MCU or not, going all the way back to the 1998 Wesley Snipes film Blade. To do so, we used the Metacritic Metascore, a unique scoring system that weighs and averages movie reviews from the nation’s top critics.
Our list is filled with masterpieces… and a small handful of duds. (Hey, nobody’s perfect!) Which Marvel movie took top honors in our ranking? Take a look for yourself.
55. Fantastic Four (2015)
The Fantastic Four reboot, starring Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan, is “worse than worthless,” according to Rolling Stone.
54. Punisher: War Zone
A reboot of the Punisher franchise, War Zone is “another violently unsuccessful attempt to bring this comic book character to screen,” per Empire.
53. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
The Ghost Rider sequel — with Nicolas Cage returning to play Johnny Blaze — is “a surprisingly underpowered excursion,” says Empire.
52. The Punisher
Thomas Jane stars as the deadly vigilante in this “moronically inept and tedious piece of death-wish trash,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
51. Elektra
A spin-off of Daredevil, Elektra is “not stupid enough to qualify as good, dumb fun,” per the Austin Chronicle.
49 (tie). Ghost Rider
The beloved Cage stars as a superstar motorcycle rider turned devil’s bounty hunter in this film that’s “great stupid fun as long as someone else is buying the tickets,” according to the Boston Globe.
49 (tie). Venom
CNET says that this Tom Hardy-led film is “the dumbest movie ever.”
48. Blade: Trinity
The third Blade film — also featuring Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel — is a “sucky vampire flick,” per the New York Post.
46 (tie). X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The first film in the Wolverine standalone trilogy is “silly and typical,” says the New York Daily News.
46 (tie). Fantastic Four
The first Fantastic Four is “an over-inflated B-movie with no grace, no subtext, no wit,” according to Slate.
45. Daredevil
Before he was Batman, Ben Affleck portrayed blind lawyer-turned-vigilante Daredevil. The 2003 film is unfortunately “tacky and disposable,” says The New York Times.
43 (tie). Dark Phoenix
This final film in the X-Men saga failed to impress critics or moviegoers, raking in just $252 million at the box office on a $200 million budget.
“The good news is that Dark Phoenix is an improvement from its Apocalypse predecessor,” writes our own Brandon Davis in his review of Dark Phoenix. “The bad news is that the bar was already pretty low.”
43 (tie). The New Mutants
This “painfully average” 2020 release with weak dialogue, originally scheduled for release years ago, was “force-fed to an audience in the middle of a pandemic when theaters aren’t actually all that safe, just because its new studio parent just wants to be rid of it,” per Comicbook’s own Charlie Ridgely.
41 (tie). Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
This Fantastic Four sequel is “an improvement of sorts over the lifeless 2005 edition,” says the Hollywood Reporter.
41 (tie). Blade
This 1998 vampire film “doesn’t manage to work up a whole lot of suspense,” according to The Globe and Mail.
39 (tie). Blade II
The Blade sequel is “as soulless as they get,” according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
39 (tie). X-Men: Apocalypse
The ninth entry in the X-Men saga “feels flat, disjointed, with too many moving parts,” says the Arizona Republic.
38. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Andrew Garfield reprises his role as the friendly neighborhood Spidey in this sequel that is “bloated and often boring and has absolutely no reason to exist, but it also hits its marks,” per New York Magazine.
36 (tie). Thor: Dark World
The Thor sequel “has its moments of visual invention and self-aware humor — mostly when the hero’s trickster brother Loki is around — but otherwise it’s an awkwardly plotted extravaganza,” according to the Boston Globe.
36 (tie). Hulk
The biggest problem with Ang Lee’s Hulk is “that there isn’t enough Hulk in it,” says the Miami Herald.
34 (tie). Thor
The fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is “eminently missable, though the mosaic design of Asgard, Thor’s mythical realm, is pretty cool,” per the Chicago Reader.
34 (tie). Iron Man 2
The sequel to Iron Man “isn’t as much fun as its predecessor,” says Variety.
33. X-Men: The Last Stand
The Last Stand is the “weakest chapter in the X-Men series,” says Rolling Stone.
32. Spider-Man 3
The third and final Spider-Man to feature Tobey Maguire as the web-slinging hero is “not dull, exactly, but neither is it much fun,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
30 (tie). The Wolverine
The sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Wolverine is “an intermittently exciting action film anchored by a strong performance by [Hugh] Jackman, who embodies Wolverine like no one else could,” says USA Today.
30 (tie). The Incredible Hulk
Starring Edward Norton, The Incredible Hulk “gets the job done with minimal artistry and a lot of noise,” according to the New York Post.
29. Iron Man 3
The third Iron Man is “missing that old Tony Stark spark,” says the Tampa Bay Times.
26 (tie). X-Men
Film.com says that X-Men is “nearly the perfect balance between straight-faced pulp action and amused wonder at the outlandish world of comic books.”
26 (tie). Ant-Man
Paul Rudd’s debut as Ant-Man is “spry and often funny, despite its familiarity,” per the Village Voice.
26 (tie). Captain Marvel
Though this fun Brie Larson-led film drew the attention of review trolls on Rotten Tomatoes, reviewers without an ideological axe to grind had generally positive things to say about it.
In his review of Captain Marvel, our own Brandon Davis writes the movie “offers up a complex, heartfelt tale which will leave audiences (especially the young girls watching) feeling inspired and satisfied.”
24 (tie). X-Men: First Class
This prequel to X-Men is “good enough to rejuvenate a franchise stuck on idle,” per the Arizona Republic.
24 (tie). Deadpool
Ryan Reynolds’ turn as the fourth-wall breaking vigilante Deadpool is “a big bowl of fun filled with great stunts, gory fight scenes, and sexy poses,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
21 (tie). The Amazing Spider-Man
This reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, starring Garfield, is “probably not as good as you hoped or as bad as you feared,” says Movieline.
21 (tie). Avengers: Age of Ultron
The second Avengers film is “all rush and sensation with little substance,” according to the Miami Herald.
21 (tie). Captain America: The First Avenger
The first film to watch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The First Avenger is “corny, old-fashioned pulp fun,” says Entertainment Weekly.
20. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy is “an extravagant and witty follow-up, made with the same friendly virtuosic dazzle,” per Variety.
17 (tie). X2: X-Men United
The sequel to the first X-Men is “an obvious improvement on its predecessor: It looks more expensive, and its special effects seem to swoop out of nowhere,” says Salon.
17 (tie). Deadpool 2
The followup to Deadpool is “very good at … flattering the audience into feeling like it’s in on the joke,” according to the Boston Globe.
17 (tie). Avengers: Infinity War
CNET believes that Infinity War is “the best Avengers movie yet.”
16. The Avengers
The original Marvel superhero ensemble is “more solid and satisfying than terrific,” per the Chicago Tribune.
15. Spider-Man: Far from Home
This 2019 sequel starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio sees our titular hero travel on a school trip to Europe.
“It is thrilling, it is fun, it is unpredictable, and it is full of heart,” writes Comicbook’s Brandon Davis in his review of Spider-Man: Far From Home, calling the movie a “home run.”
13 (tie). Ant-Man and the Wasp
The Ant-Man sequel is a “good-natured epic, dedicated to the non-tech principle of dispensing plain old pleasure,” says The Wall Street Journal.
13 (tie). Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The second Captain America film is “an often breathlessly exciting action thriller told with humor and intelligence,” per USA Today.
12. Doctor Strange
Benedict Cumberbatch’s debut as Doctor Strange “boasts an underlying originality and freshness missing from the increasingly cookie-cutter comic-book realm of late,” says Variety.
10 (tie). Spider-Man
The original Spider-Man film is “disarmingly likable, and touching in unexpected ways,” according to The New York Times.
10 (tie). Spider-Man: Homecoming
Tom Holland’s first standalone film as Peter Parker “gets everything right about this beloved Marvel character,” according to our sister site GameSpot.
8 (tie). X-Men: Days of Future Past
8 (tie). Thor: Ragnarok
Ragnarok is “a goofy, kitschy- but- fun romp and the most purely entertaining of the three Thor movies,” says IGN.
7. Captain America: Civil War
A pseudo-Avengers film, Civil War is “an exciting, often giddy pop pleasure,” says Screen International.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy
Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax and Rocket’s first adventure is “giddy, ridiculous fun, a witty, wacky and wonderfully generous sugary gift of a film,” according to Time Out London.
5. Logan
Jackman’s final film as Wolverine is “a rather brilliant mesh of dystopian and superhero tropes that proves to be as entertaining as it is timely,” per the Film Stage.
4. Avengers: Endgame
The thrilling conclusion to the Avengers saga has broken all sorts of box office records: Avengers: Endgame has grossed nearly $2.8 billion worldwide.
Michael Burgin of Paste explains the magic of the film: “Comic book fans know the thrill of following all your favorite characters through a multi-issue storyline that culminates in a ‘universe at stake’ ending. Now, thanks to 21 movies in 11 years and one massive, satisfying three-hour finale, moviegoers do, too.”
3. Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr.’s first turn as the billionaire playboy turned superhero “abounds in that rarest of superpowers: charm,” according to Slate.
2. Spider-Man 2
“Love, death, hope, and hatred: Spider-Man 2 has ’em all, in spades,” says the Austin Chronicle.
1. Black Panther
GameSpot says this trip to Wakanda is “a top tier Marvel movie with all the humor, style, action, passion, and fun that the MCU has come to embody. Black Panther is a cultural event that’s going to be hard for Marvel to top, no matter how many worlds Thanos conquers.”
Related Posts
-
Marvel Legends Captain America and Spider-Man Action Figures
