Top 20 Marvel Movies (Part I)

With a tumultuous summer of super-hero movies, and none more on the horizon until Avengers 2 breaks every record next May, we thought it was a good time to pause and evaluate the top 20 Marvel movies (so far). Each entry includes a short synopsis, some video, and the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score and worldwide gross (unadjusted).

20. Punisher: War Zone

RT score: 27%

Box office: $10 million

PWZ got lost in the 2008 super-hero shuffle that included Iron Man, Dark Knight, Hellboy 2, Incredible Hulk, and Hancock, but you should still check it out.

The movie is well made, although the Punisher is a bit unremarkable for a mass audience. Nothing separates him from a standard action hero. What makes Frank interesting in the Marvel Universe is his role as an antagonist or unwitting ally to Spider-Man, Daredevil, or whomever. But in a movie on his own, he's nothing special.

What makes PWZ so much fun is that Frank Castle is played Ray Stevenson, who went onto better (but alas not much bigger) things in Thor. When I watch this, I imagine it's Volstagg just cosplaying with Neuman (Wayne Knight as Microchip) and McNulty (Dominic West as Jigsaw).

19. Amazing Spider-Man

RT score: 73%

Box office: $758 million

This is certainly a well-made movie, but it's impossible to appreciate on its own. We've already seen this story (and this time it isn't as much fun) and this movie's existence meant Spidey won't be in Avengers 2.

What works in ASM best is Capt. Stacy – he fits perfectly with the Spider-Man trope of teenage problems (the guy who doesn't want you messing with his daughter also doesn't want you messing with his crime-fighting).

This is best when Stacy criticizes Spidey for blowing his car-robbery sting. Peter thinks of course he knows better than the adults, but later realizes that – hey – the authorities do know what they're doing (!) which is a rare defiance of the Hollywood trope that teenagers are always smarter than grown-ups. Well played.

But … they killed Capt. Stacy at the end. Because reset button.

18. Spider-Man 3

RT score: 63%

Box office: $891 million

The Nostalgia Critic points out for all the hate this film got, there are three moments that make the audience gasp:

•When Peter almost loses the ring

•When Mary Jane kisses Harry

•When Peter shoves Mary Jane in the bar

He says that any movie that can make everyone gasp not once but thrice isn't all that bad, and he's got a great point. The proposal scene is great too, and I like the idea of Peter dealing with success in this one, rather than failure and struggle as in the previous 2. However, they dropped that more interesting idea in the first act in favor of a pointless revenge thing.

And of course I never get sick of Bruce Campbell.

17. The Wolverine

RT score: 69%

Box office: $415 million

People were really ready to stop caring about Wolverine, but you can't argue with the formula Wolvie + ninjas = win. While I would have liked Ellen Page's Kitty Pryde to be Logan's sidekick, the film still works without her. It's frankly remarkable for Hollywood to do a movie – even one set in Japan – that doesn't needlessly Anglicize a single character!

Also it's incredible that the film's train fight is so similar to the one in Spider-Man 2 but also feels so fresh.

16. X-Men: First Class

RT score: 87%

Box office: $353 million

I was embarrassed while watching this to realize that Fassbender and MacAvoy are better in these roles than Sir Ian and Sir Patrick (as blasphemous as that might sound to say).

But here's why it's not ranked higher: the movie sold itself as a character-driven origin story about Xavier and Magneto, but there was nothing new about Erik becoming Magneto and nothing at all about Charles becoming Professor X. Our main character has absolutely no arc. We don't see him learning about his powers and – more importantly – how to use them ethically. When he's hitting on babes in the bar would have been a great opportunity for him to realize that with great power comes something something.

It would be cool if Xavier's paralysis was a result of his mind powers overwhelming his own motor control. So they could have done a hubris thing where he tried to stretch his mind powers too much and hurt himself. Throw in an Icarus allegory and scene!

First Class also inspired one of the best HISHEs out there.

15. Thor: The Dark World

RT score: 65%

Box office: $645 million

The cleverest thing about Thor 2 is how it feels like a romantic comedy that just happens to have super-heroes –a great way to get girls into the movie theater. Kudos for that!

Other people seemed to REALLY like this, which is fine. But to me it's just a serviceable sequel. Of the three recent Marvel movies with exactly the same ending (Guardians and Avengers are the other two), Thor 2 has the least memorable climax.

The MCU's take on Thor/Asgard – "we're futuristic but also medieval" thing doesn't really work – just always feels off, like the 80s Flash Gordon movie or Krull. Thor is supposed to be a "fish out of water," but if he's really from a futuristic society that's beyond ours, then he wouldn't be a fish out of water, he'd be the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, right?

Still – as long as they keep making the franchise about Loki, I'll keep watching:

14. Incredible Hulk

RT score: 67%

Box office: $262 million

The most under-rated of the Marvel Studios films, Incredible Hulk made a bold choice of showing audiences a character that, five years previously, they'd decided they didn't care about. For better or worse, IH standardized the Hollywood reboot. Before Hulk, the only major reboots we'd seen were Batman Begins (2005) and Casino Royale (2006) – both very popular franchises that had seen multiple iterations.

The decision to play up the character's legacy from the TV show was an excellent one, and the performances all around are terrific. Plus IH's end credits scene, moreso than the Nick Fury Easter Egg, defined the idea of the shared cinematic universe – remember this was three years before Captain America and Thor.

As time goes on, and Mark Ruffalo makes the role more his, IH will fall even farther into the background, but it's still worth a watch.

13. X-Men

RT score: 82%

Box office: $296 million

Given the success of Avengers, Spider-Man, and Batman movies in recent years, it's hard to remember the time when the X-Men were the most popular comic book franchise there was. Thanks to the team's success in the 90s, we got this – the Nevermind of comic book movies.

The best thing about X1 is also the worst thing about it: Wolverine. Hugh Jackman and the script wonderfully convey the gruff sweetness of the character.

On the other hand the film set the precedent for Wolverine overwhelming everything. Part of this was his over-the-top conflict with Cyclops. Remember, Cyclops literally saves Wolverine's life from Sabretooth and takes him from penury and Canadian cage-fights to a literal mansion … and as a way of saying "thank you," Wolverine threatens to beat him up, calls him a dick, steals his motorcycle, and tries to screw his wife.

Our hero, everybody!

12. Iron Man 2

RT score: 73%

Box office: $624 million

People rag on this. While it's not as strong as its two brothers, it features:

•More Sam Jackson than almost any other Marvel film

•Black Widow, who is (to date) the only successfully realized female super hero on screen

•All the Sen. Gary Shandling / Washington stuff

•Awesome suitcase armor

•Roger Sterling as the Henry Jones Sr. of the Marvel franchise

•The phrase "drone better"

•Iron Man

Seriously, brah? All this isn't good enough for you? I think if some better decisions had been made during editing people would like it more. This alternate opening is soooo much better than what they actually used in the film.

11. Spider-Man

RT score: 89%

Box office: $821 million

There was a time when only nerds knew the phrase "with great power, comes great responsibility." This movie, of course, changed all that. While so many subsequent super-hero pictures have learned the lessons of this film, both good and bad (Green Goblin's weird Power Rangers armor), Spider-Man still holds up very well so many years later.

Fun fact: each Spider-Man movie has made less money (domestically) than the one before.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for part 2 --- or read it. Right now!