This is a Substack devoted to constitutional law & politics, but it’s been a tough academic term (in a tough academic year, during a horrific last 4 years), and so I’m wasting some time by ranking all MCU movies and related Disney+ shows.
I largely agree. I generally enjoyed the ones you ranked 27 (Ant-Man) and higher. And I didn't especially enjoy any of the ones you rank worse than 27, and I wouldn't mind if they were snapped out of existence. It's a pretty hard line. I likewise think Ultron is under-rated, Iron Man 2 was a huge letdown, and Endgame (though it's no Scorsese film) did an admirable job of bringing that whole era and set of characters to a close.
Except:
* Thor: Love and Thunder isn't great by any means, but I think it's more coherent than Ant-Man Quantumania, and more engaging than Thor: The Dark World, and I think its final act was endearing in a way. Perhaps on par with Guardians Vol 3, (which I also didn't like very much) for its similarly uneven tone, weird characterizations, and messy plot. Does any of this matter? No.
* I don't think What If? is bad at all. Nor is it good. It's just different. It just is.
* Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was unique and some parts I really liked, but there were way too many bad parts to overlook. Feels like a film that could have been saved in editing, by cutting parts out (or off). A good film with a demon hand.
* Black Widow was pretty weak and honestly unmemorable, which is unfortunate. It's one of the most recent films I've watched and I can barely remember what happens. Would rank it low, like Eternals (for entirely different reasons).
* Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was an impossible task and (unsurprisingly) they couldn't pull it off. It was far too long, the side plots felt contrived and unnecessary, the action was uninspired, and I don't remember any of it as being fun in any way. Just depressing, from start to finish, and not a "good" way. The only good thing was the "villain" who kind of stole the show, which is a problem.
* I'd rank the first Captain America higher than 15. All the Cap films were top tier. This one I think was only as hokey/campy as intended, perfectly pulpy.
* Shang-Chi was okay, but I wouldn't rank it that high. It was engaging enough, but it felt pretty messy and uneven. At best like an Ant-man or Captain Marvel, which is to say serviceable.
* I liked WandaVision a lot when Wanda or Vision (or both!) were on screen. But the ending was underwhelming, and every scene focused on the sidekicks and supporting characters deserved a degaussing. It loses a lot of points for that.
But I can't disagree much with the rest of your top tier. Sure, a bit higher here or little lower there -- they're all great.
Unfortunately the only and surprisingly good Marvel film since Endgame (2019) was Spider-Man: No Way Home. (Though TV largely pulled its weight, and Far From Home was o-kay.) Every one of the other films either suffered from 3rd act problems of various degrees (like Eternals, Panther, Guardians, Shang-Chi) or felt like a mess (Guardians, Quantumania, Strange, Shang-Chi), or were just kind of "duds" to my mind (Widow, Panther, Quantumania). A mediocre film might get by with one of those failings, but can't survive two, while a good movie will be coherent, engaging, and deliver a smart 3rd act, together. Hopefully Marvel delivers that again, some day.
Solid list and I'm totally with you in putting the Hawkeye series pretty high up. The Hailey Steinfeld / Florence Pugh pairing was delightful enough to paper over most of the (now typical) plot contortions needed to pimp other MCU properties. And it actually gave the old Hawkeye a respectful and heartfelt send-off (what a contrast to Disney's treatment of legacy characters in the Star Wars films!). Sobering to see how few of the high ranked entries are from the last few years, though. And, given the MCU's once reputation for consistent quality, it was an eye-opener to realize that — for me — only the top third (if that) merit a second viewing.
That's fair, although I'm probably not quite that harsh (in fact, I've given almost everything at least a second viewing, minus Secret Invasion, which I will never watch again).
From the machine-generated opening credits to its paralyzing fear of possibly confusing the audience, Secret Invasion is a stunning misfire. My guess is that it was swamped with executive notes trying to shape it into a “second screen” experience, for watching while you’re also on your phone. Thus, a nominal espionage thriller with shapechanging characters goes out its way to tell you in every scene who is and isn’t a Skrull, and whether they’re a good guy or a bad guy. Maybe we can just call it the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel can memory-hole it with the rest?
All completely Greek to me sir as I have not turned on my tv in a quarter century. Never had cable, don’t have bandwidth to stream anything now, dumped Netflix years ago anyway. But we thank you for your selfless service.
It's a pretty solid list. I found your rankings of the Spider-Man movies interesting, a lot of people seem to rank Homecoming the highest but No Way Home packed a powerful punch.
Five people UNSUBSCRIBED after this post went up. Killjoys.
I largely agree. I generally enjoyed the ones you ranked 27 (Ant-Man) and higher. And I didn't especially enjoy any of the ones you rank worse than 27, and I wouldn't mind if they were snapped out of existence. It's a pretty hard line. I likewise think Ultron is under-rated, Iron Man 2 was a huge letdown, and Endgame (though it's no Scorsese film) did an admirable job of bringing that whole era and set of characters to a close.
Except:
* Thor: Love and Thunder isn't great by any means, but I think it's more coherent than Ant-Man Quantumania, and more engaging than Thor: The Dark World, and I think its final act was endearing in a way. Perhaps on par with Guardians Vol 3, (which I also didn't like very much) for its similarly uneven tone, weird characterizations, and messy plot. Does any of this matter? No.
* I don't think What If? is bad at all. Nor is it good. It's just different. It just is.
* Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was unique and some parts I really liked, but there were way too many bad parts to overlook. Feels like a film that could have been saved in editing, by cutting parts out (or off). A good film with a demon hand.
* Black Widow was pretty weak and honestly unmemorable, which is unfortunate. It's one of the most recent films I've watched and I can barely remember what happens. Would rank it low, like Eternals (for entirely different reasons).
* Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was an impossible task and (unsurprisingly) they couldn't pull it off. It was far too long, the side plots felt contrived and unnecessary, the action was uninspired, and I don't remember any of it as being fun in any way. Just depressing, from start to finish, and not a "good" way. The only good thing was the "villain" who kind of stole the show, which is a problem.
* I'd rank the first Captain America higher than 15. All the Cap films were top tier. This one I think was only as hokey/campy as intended, perfectly pulpy.
* Shang-Chi was okay, but I wouldn't rank it that high. It was engaging enough, but it felt pretty messy and uneven. At best like an Ant-man or Captain Marvel, which is to say serviceable.
* I liked WandaVision a lot when Wanda or Vision (or both!) were on screen. But the ending was underwhelming, and every scene focused on the sidekicks and supporting characters deserved a degaussing. It loses a lot of points for that.
But I can't disagree much with the rest of your top tier. Sure, a bit higher here or little lower there -- they're all great.
Unfortunately the only and surprisingly good Marvel film since Endgame (2019) was Spider-Man: No Way Home. (Though TV largely pulled its weight, and Far From Home was o-kay.) Every one of the other films either suffered from 3rd act problems of various degrees (like Eternals, Panther, Guardians, Shang-Chi) or felt like a mess (Guardians, Quantumania, Strange, Shang-Chi), or were just kind of "duds" to my mind (Widow, Panther, Quantumania). A mediocre film might get by with one of those failings, but can't survive two, while a good movie will be coherent, engaging, and deliver a smart 3rd act, together. Hopefully Marvel delivers that again, some day.
Solid list and I'm totally with you in putting the Hawkeye series pretty high up. The Hailey Steinfeld / Florence Pugh pairing was delightful enough to paper over most of the (now typical) plot contortions needed to pimp other MCU properties. And it actually gave the old Hawkeye a respectful and heartfelt send-off (what a contrast to Disney's treatment of legacy characters in the Star Wars films!). Sobering to see how few of the high ranked entries are from the last few years, though. And, given the MCU's once reputation for consistent quality, it was an eye-opener to realize that — for me — only the top third (if that) merit a second viewing.
That's fair, although I'm probably not quite that harsh (in fact, I've given almost everything at least a second viewing, minus Secret Invasion, which I will never watch again).
From the machine-generated opening credits to its paralyzing fear of possibly confusing the audience, Secret Invasion is a stunning misfire. My guess is that it was swamped with executive notes trying to shape it into a “second screen” experience, for watching while you’re also on your phone. Thus, a nominal espionage thriller with shapechanging characters goes out its way to tell you in every scene who is and isn’t a Skrull, and whether they’re a good guy or a bad guy. Maybe we can just call it the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel can memory-hole it with the rest?
Knowing nothing of Guardians and seeing it in theatres and loving it is one of my favorite movie memories.
Yep. I was already a big MCU fan by that point but had no idea of what to make of the Guardians trailers and walked in curious. Walked out joyous.
All completely Greek to me sir as I have not turned on my tv in a quarter century. Never had cable, don’t have bandwidth to stream anything now, dumped Netflix years ago anyway. But we thank you for your selfless service.
It's a pretty solid list. I found your rankings of the Spider-Man movies interesting, a lot of people seem to rank Homecoming the highest but No Way Home packed a powerful punch.
OMG, you forgot Werewolf By Night!!! 😜
Great list but what order do you watch them in?
I watch in order of release date (but I have no beef with people who watch in-universe chronological order).