We’ve ranked all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies through The Marvels.
Ranking all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films might seem like a tall task, but someone has to do it.
The biggest cinematic undertaking of the last 15-plus years, Kevin Feige’s grand attempt to serialize blockbuster storytelling has featured some ridiculous highs and some bleak lows.
We’ve gone through all 34 of the MCU’s films, from 2008’s Iron Man to this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine, and ranked them according to quality. We don’t include the streaming series in this list, either; just the movies.
While you’ll notice a high number of recent MCU films toward the bottom of the list, keep in mind that the series’ struggles post-Avengers: Endgame have been substantial, largely because of storytelling issues.
Believe it or not, Deadpool & Wolverine is really good. Here’s why.
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe slammed down the blockbuster dunk of a decade with Avengers: Endgame, the studio behind it made an incredibly regrettable error that nearly undid everything that came before. It kept going.
The finality of what absolutely should’ve been the last Avengers film instantly got zapped out with a barrage of slop content meant to boost up a streaming service (except you, first season of Loki, you’re innocent) and mostly wayward films that couldn’t help but scream to you to come back next week before the sun even set on the end credits. And whatever the heck Eternals was.
The real Marvel Cinematic Universe successes post-2019 have been the final Guardians of the Galaxy film and the Sam Raimi Doctor Strange film, one the end of a standalone trilogy from a filmmaker that just bolted for the competition and the other a gleeful subversion that caught flak from some fans for daring to actually make any of this series morally complicated.
With declining box office receipts and lukewarm reviews, MCU head honcho Kevin Feige stares down the first real studio catastrophe in its existence, its strict adherence to minimal risk finally collapsing on shotty visual effects, radioactive storytelling and boredom out the wazoo. Sure, people ate up the Spider-Man movie with all the Spider-Men, but that wasn’t even the best Spider-Man movie of this decade (hey, Miles Morales).
The grandest irony is the best thing Feige has produced this decade came from trash heap he escaped at the beginning of his career and inherited from a bunch of nauseating studio merger nonsense: the Fox-Marvel-a-verse.
Marvel Studios
Watching Deadpool & Wolverine is like hanging out with that friend from high school who you always used to get in trouble with, felt you should maybe distance from once you got older and eventually relented to welcome back into your life because, in the end, the fun is just too good to miss out.
As much as you’d worry Feige’s suffocating corporate tidiness and cheeky PG “made you look” double entendres would swallow the Deadpool formula whole into something fitting the Disney affiliation, the “Merc with a Mouth” meta meat monsoon sweeps up the MCU into its most purely enjoyable project in half a decade.
For once, you actually feel like the studio is having fun with itself and trying to find some sense of hard-earned finality like James Gunn did with his final Guardians film instead of trying to pull the franchise like a Stretch Armstrong until the latex rubber pops and the gelled corn syrup gets everywhere.
Instead of trying to retcon a major character by saying he was an alien this whole time (see Invasion, Secret), Feige seemingly closes his eyes long enough to let Ryan Reynolds and his merry band of merciless marauders poke fun at how bad the MCU has been lately and try to argue that maybe treating happy endings like scabs to be picked off isn’t the best idea to respect your widely-beloved movie series.
Marvel Studios
The third Deadpool relishes in its spritely irreverence like it always has while still having the gall to tug at your heartstrings here and there, if only because the Marvel brand has become so ubiquitous in our culture and our memories. Even the most shameless cameo from 2005 makes you wince a little to let the nostalgia make you feel old and long for the simpler, stupider days of trashy superhero movies with Evanescence needle drops, television actors masquerading as movie stars and horrible computer graphics.
Deadpool & Wolverine feels like Costco-sized wish fulfillment for all the millennial fans of the Fox Marvel movies that seemed destined for the dumpster once Disney scarfed up their parent studio, as Hugh Jackman comes back once again as a variant of his take on Wolverine and the X-Men lore plays heavily into the plot. He’s splendid, as is the way the film weaves in Emma Corin’s evil Charles Xavier twin sister and all the ragtag characters from Fox Marvel’s past we wouldn’t dare spoil for you.
Indeed, there are countless Fox Marvel cameos to make the greying nerds yelp in celebration, but they’re not just shoehorned in for pandering satisfaction. The entire movie is a half-drunk, slap-happy eulogy to a time when you didn’t get the same dad gum superhero movie series multiple times a year and on your television streaming services, one where you could run from the heroes until you started to miss them again. It’s a film practically begging its cosmic overlords to let things die and honor their flawed accomplishments by refusing their exhumation for marketing opportunities.
Marvel Studios
The film does so by ignoring its own pleas with reckless abandon, the film’s opening scene such an aggressively garish disrespect to the emotional anchor weight of the Logan ending that it somehow does blindfolded backflips into unbelievable levels of endearment. By being so willing to do something positively grotesque with one of the great superhero finales ever, you feel the unabashed love and respect for why that ending is such a wallop in ways the MCU feels allergic to finding in its own movies. Bringing Jackman back feels so craven on paper, but Deadpool & Wolverine manages to do so earnestly without letting the parody of the decision fade fully into the background. There’s method to the madness.
In Feige’s world, you either refuse to take a joke or refuse to take it seriously, creating a tonally confusing vacuum where punchlines get strewn about like Legos on the carpet and generational emotional payoffs get undone a week later by multiverse nonsense. The Deadpool formula has no time for such tepid commitment, jumping butt-naked into its darkest, gut-busting vices and winningly brash, radio-pop soundtrack choices.
While it feels a bit self-defeating for a movie so passionately begging for the MCU to learn from its mistakes of oversaturation to be juxtaposed with Feige even vaguely discussing a world where the studio resurrects Robert Downey Jr.’s very, very dead Iron Man, you still appreciate Wade Wilson’s wisecracking wisdoms. His trolling is also deathly sincere, opposed to the cloying irony that has so often plagued these recent Marvel films when they’ve tried to be funny.
Marvel Studios
Deadpool & Wolverine is a very good X-Men movie, an absolutely hysterical Deadpool movie and probably the most daring MCU movie not directed by Gunn or Raimi since the first Black Panther. It’s also the anti-MCU movie, flipping through a dusty scrapbook from under the bed that reminds us unceasing uniformity never beats a fast food meal with a last, greasy bite.
After all the silly handwringing about Martin Scorsese correctly saying that the MCU films aren’t classical cinema, how delightful to finally get one of these movies that’s so comfortable in its identity as theme park fun that it gets much closer to a cinematic standard than any of its boring peers.
This isn’t Lawrence of Arabia, but it’s sure better than Ant-Man: Quantumania. Even Deadpool knows when it’s time to shut up and let someone else do the talking.
Marvel Studios lost yet another director for its Blade reboot. Here are five replacement suggestions.
Marvel Studios will have to go back to the drawing board on its Blade reboot, as the project has lost a second director.
The Wrap reported on Wednesday evening that Yann Demange (White Boy Rick, ’71) had departed the upcoming superhero film that has two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali attached to star as the sword-wielding vampire.
With Demange’s departure, Marvel will either have to delay the film once more from its Nov. 7, 2025, release date or scramble to find a replacement.
With the source material stepped in the horror/thriller genre, the studio will have to be careful when identifying a third possible candidate to helm the project. However, plenty of good options are out there for the studio.
Here are our five suggestions that might be able to finally get Blade ’25 over the finish line and potentially to its 2025 release date.
Aneesh Chaganty
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
After strong work on innovative thrillers like Searching and Run, Chaganty deserves his call up to the majors. He’d be an inspired pick that could bring a fresh perspective to the MCU, particularly with the way he mounted an impressive Hitchcock riff with the severely underrated Hulu thriller Run. Marvel should consider giving him a call to hear his vision for a Blade flick.
Robert Rodriguez
Hubert Vestil/Getty Images
If Marvel wants a steady hand who has both worked with Ali and knows vampires well, Rodriguez would be a really nice fit. He worked in the fangs department with From Dusk Till Dawn, and he directed Ali as one of the antagonists in his Alita: Battle Angel adaptation. Rodriguez has worked for decades as one of the most interesting genre filmmakers out there, and he recently worked with Disney on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Watching Rodriguez direct Ali as Blade just sounds too enticing.
Misha Green
Jesse Grant/Getty Images
If Marvel likes the talent pool from Lovecraft Country (Demange helmed the pilot), why not get the showrunner? Green is working on her directorial debut with Lionsgate right now, but perhaps she’s got time to work in the Blade reboot into her schedule? She’s clearly got the genre understanding and the television experience Marvel likes in its directors, and it’d be great for Green to get this type of opportunity after Lovecraft Country‘s unfortunate end.
Victoria Mahoney
Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Netflix
Speaking of Lovecraft Country veterans, Mahoney directed an episode of the action-horror series and has just helmed The Old Guard 2 for Netflix. She was also the first woman to hold directorial duties on a Star Wars film in 2019 with her second unit work on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. If her schedule opens up for Marvel’s timeline, they should absolutely give her a call for the Blade movie. Her work within the Mouse House would be key here, as she knows what goes into making one of its tentpole films.
Steven Caple Jr.
John Phillips/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Caple has turned in two successful studio blockbusters in his career with Creed II and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and he’d give Marvel someone who has worked with big canvases very recently who might prove himself to be a sound fit for what they want to do with Blade. His Creed II work in particular shows his eye for impressive action choreography, and that could translate very well for what a Blade movie would require.
Marvel’s highly-anticipated reboot of the Fantastic Four announced its primary cast back in February but the upcoming superhero film has reportedly added another key cast member and it’s a move that will surprise many superhero fans.
Ozark star Julia Garner will join the cast of Fantastic Four as the iconic Silver Surfer, according to a report from Deadline. Like the rest of the cast, Garner is a fast-rising star in Hollywood who got her start on TV, earning three Emmys for her work in Ozark as well as another nomination for the limited series Inventing Anna.
The gender-flip casting move will certainly come as a surprise to some but there’s plenty of precedent from Marvel Comics. Garner will reportedly play Shalla-Bal, a character who first appeared all the way back in 1968 and has donned the mantle of the Silver Surfer multiple times over the years various Marvel Comics stories.
Julia Garner to star as the Silver Surfer in Marvel Studios' #TheFantasticFour.
She'll play a Shalla-Bal version of the character in the movie.
Shalla-Bal is the love interest of Norin Radd, but she became a Silver Surfer herself on Earth-9997.
The Fantastic Four is not set in the MCU, and they rlly want to set that point across by using alternate universe elements like these. pic.twitter.com/Wqz1jtQyds
Some big changes are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s no secret that Marvel needs a hit, and badly. The blockbuster franchise that took over the box office for the better part of a decade has finally started to look mortal.
The Marvels lost money at the box office, something previously unheard of for a Marvel Studios film, while off-screen troubles have led to numerous projects being delayed, revamped or potentially even scrapped altogether.
The Hollywood Reporter released a new report detailing some of the big changes being made behind the scenes at Marvel Studios as parent company Disney attempts to get its superhero cinematic universe back on track. Here are some of the biggest revelations from THR’s report and how they could impact the MCU going forward.
It’s been five years since Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige announced the Fantastic Four was finally coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. Now on Valentine’s Day of 2024, we finally know who will be playing Marvel’s “first family” and when the film will hit theaters.
Accompanied by a snazzy new logo with a 1960’s aesthetic (perhaps suggesting the time period in which the film will be set?), Marvel dropped a graphic featuring the new cast as well as the film’s official release date of July 25, 2025.
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon-Moss Bachrach and Joseph Quinn will take on the roles for the MCU.
Happy Valentine’s Day from Marvel’s First Family! Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn are The Fantastic Four.
Marvel Studios has a lot riding on this movie after a disappointing 2023 at the box office followed by strike-related delays that have led to a lull in their normal breakneck pace of new releases. Let’s take a closer look at the cast for one of the MCU’s most important movies to date.
The Marvels director Nia DaCosta found inspiration in one of the most divisive Final Fantasy projects – Advent Children
The Marvels director Nia DaCosta found inspiration in one of the most divisive Final Fantasyprojects – the CGI animated film Advent Children. Or more specifically, Advent Children’s style and fight scenes.
DaCosta made the comments in an interview with IGN ahead of The Marvels’ Nov. 10, 2023, release date.
“It’s just an amazing, amazing movie, and has really great fight scenes and has a really great ending sequence with the main character being thrown into the sky by all the other characters,” DaCosta said. “I didn’t want The Marvels to look like a video game in the sense that it’s more linear, but it’s the best kinds of games and stories that inspires me to play and I think inspires people to see movies like this.”
The Marvels Director Nia DeCosta loves Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and used it as a reference when pitching #TheMarvelspic.twitter.com/NERqWsoOtS
Advent Children looks exceptional, especially for a 2005 CGI movie, but it doesn’t always go over well with series fans. It’s an odd sequel, set two years after Final Fantasy 7, but one year before Dirge of Cerberus, where a bunch of evil little Sephiroth spirits try to revive him using what’s left of Jenova, because apparently there were parts of the alien creature left (of course there were).
It was the start of Final Fantasy 7’s transformation from an introspective game about identity and purpose to a connected universe with a sometimes-flimsy story and even flimsier reason for existing. Maybe that’s fitting for Marvel depending on your relationship with the ever-growing superhero franchise, but the impenetrable plot didn’t endear Advent Children to critics and fans then or now.
It did, however, give Square Enix plenty of fuel for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, both of which play around with the game-slash-series’ established lore in creative ways.
The Marvels is in theaters from Nov. 10, 2023, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launches on Feb. 29, 2024 for PS5 on two discs.
We’re sorry, Marvel. We owe you an apology. We weren’t really familiar with your game.
Marvel Studios just dropped a new trailer for its latest show, Echo, and fans are surprisingly hyped for its premiere.
Since 2020, Marvel has been scrambling to recreate its success leading up to 2019’s blockbuster smash Avengers: Endgame. As pressures and demands grew, Marvel needed to ensure fans had access to its content as much as possible. That meant releasing more movies and shows, even if the scripts were half-baked and the storylines didn’t make sense.
Unfortunately, a boatload of bad decisions has led to several missteps, and the quality that Marvel was once praised for has been slowly evaporating. Yet, that hasn’t stopped Marvel from trying.
The company is back with Echo, a brand-new show that features a deaf Native American superhero, Maya Lopez, who fans first saw in the 2021 series Hawkeye.
No bad deed goes unpunished.
All episodes of Marvel Studios' #Echo, a new Original series, streaming January 10 on @DisneyPlus & @Hulu.
Echo is the first Marvel show that will debut simultaneously on Disney+ and Hulu. Also, fans are getting several surprises: all episodes are available to watch at once, and the series will be rated TV-MA.
When the show’s trailer dropped Friday, fans couldn’t get over how good it looked.
The path to good intentions is secretly paved with gluttony, and the ghost of decisions past is currently driving a massive bus down the road.
If you think you’re lonely now, wait until you’re no longer able to distinguish a Marvel project from anything else.
That’s the reality Marvel Studios is facing. Several missteps have created a swirling microcosm of chaos that is slowly growing into an impossible mountain to climb.
“The quality is suffering,” says Joanna Robinson, co-author of the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. “In 2019, at the peak, if you put ‘Marvel Studios’ in front of something, people were like, ‘Oh, that brand means quality.’ That association is no longer the case because there have been so many projects that felt half-baked and undercooked.”
We’ve already seen Thor, Black Panther and Spider-Man so far
Lionel Messi said his Marvel-themed celebrations were an idea thought up by his three sons.
After scoring during several Inter Miami home games in the Leagues Cup, Messi has celebrated with poses from Thor, Black Panther and Spider-Man.
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Messi said that his sons Thiago, Mateo, and Ciro came up with the idea for the celebrations amid a summer of heavy Marvel movie watching.
“My three sons are still on vacation, have not started school yet, so every night we watch Marvel superhero movies,” Messi said. “They came up with the idea and asked that whenever I have a game and score a goal, I do a Marvel superhero celebration.
“That’s how it started, and we continued that ritual. Each time we watched a new movie, we would practice a goal celebration. But I only do them for home games, when the kids are here, near me, so we can share those moments. When I see them in the stands, that is when I do them.”
Messi has had plenty of opportunities for celebrations in his brief Inter Miami career thus far, scoring nine goals in just six Leagues Cup games since making his debut last month.
Don’t expect any Marvel celebrations, however: The game will take place at Geodis Park in Nashville.
[afflinkbutton text=”Watch Messi and Inter Miami on Apple TV” link=”https://apple.co/3OIMOOh”]
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