Since 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown into a behemoth of a franchise, becoming one of the most financially successful and beloved film series of all time. Topping out at more than 35 movie installments — and at least a dozen more TV offerings — the MCU canon is vast, but not all entries are created equal.
In the nearly two decades of its existence, Marvel Studios has had some magnificent highs and some underwhelming lows. But which MCU movie is the absolute best of the best? To determine ScreenRant’s official MCU movie ranking, we collected opinions from the site’s top Superheroes experts and combined them into a single list, with editorial adjustments made where necessary.
The result is ScreenRant’s definitive ranking of every MCU movie released so far. The list includes contributions from me, ScreenRant’s Superheroes Senior Editor; Movies Deputy Editor, Todd Gilchrist; Superheroes editor Zoe Miskelly; and Star Wars Senior Editor, Tom Bacon. Superheroes writers who also contributed include Felipe Rangel, Kevin Erdmann, Lewis Glazebrook, Nicolas Ayala and Ollie Bradley.
37. Thor: The Dark World
Thor: The Dark World is undoubtedly one of the MCU’s least memorable movies, weighed down by a bland script and a completely wasted Christopher Eccleston. Despite having all the freedom to do it, Thor: The Dark World fails to build meaningfully on Thor’s arc or his romance with Jane Foster. Its use of an Infinity Stone also feels like a huge missed opportunity.
Buried under those shortcomings are some elements that deserve credit. Brian Tyler’s score remains the most powerful in the Thor trilogy, and Asgard’s mythos has never had such a grand sense of scale. Remarkably, Thor: The Dark World features the richest exploration of Loki’s grief and humor. Thor and Loki’s brotherly bond gives the film an emotional spine it otherwise lacks.
Ultimately, Thor: The Dark World is a middling MCU chapter whose flaws outweigh its strengths, but not enough to render it entirely disposable. It’s a movie defined more by missed potential than lasting impact. Still, it remains a necessary stepping stone in Thor and Loki’s MCU journey.
Contributed by writer Nicolas Ayala
36. The Incredible Hulk
Released at the dawn of the MCU, The Incredible Hulk quickly revealed the franchise’s growing pains. Brought down by thin character work, sluggish pacing, and Edward Norton’s lack of chemistry with Liv Tyler, The Incredible Hulk undermined the impact of its hero’s introduction. While not a complete failure, it felt far less assured than Iron Man, released just weeks earlier.
Yet with time, The Incredible Hulk remains the MCU’s clearest exploration of Hulk’s duality. Its lack of Marvel’s trademark quips works in its favor today, and its plot is fully grounded in Hulk’s timeless paranoia and loneliness. The Incredible Hulk achieves a serious tone that no later Hulk appearance has fully recaptured.
Visually, The Incredible Hulk improved Hulk’s color and design in comparison to Ang Lee’s 2003 movie, but the quality of its CGI textures and animation dropped. Flaws like erratic pacing and flat romance still linger. However, The Incredible Hulk’s action, score, and tone can be better appreciated after several supporting appearances by Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk.
Contributed by writer Nicolas Ayala
35. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a movie whose shortcomings, at least within the larger MCU, aren’t all its own fault. Specifically, after casting Jonathan Majors as its villain, Kang the Conqueror, no one could have anticipated that the actor’s then-budding career would be spectacularly derailed by misbehavior in his personal life, jeopardizing what seemed to be a multi-film, multi-year plan in which he would become the MCU heroes’ most formidable adversary.
More broadly, Marvel’s overconfidence in announcing this plan would also quickly be overshadowed by a severe and immediate decline in audience enjoyment of pretty much all of the post-Endgame films. That said, this movie really does stink. Truthfully, Majors is actually pretty great as Kang regardless of what you think of him personally.
But Quantumania’s five writers, perhaps burdened by larger obligations to the MCU, fail to answer some very basic narrative questions (like, seriously, why does Janet refuse for so long to reveal Kang’s identity?) and otherwise subscribe to an approach that seems to boil down to “more is better.” Consequently, it’s busier than it is beautiful despite some particularly elaborate production design, and as a result, a slog to get through.
Contributed by Deputy Editor Todd Gilchrist
34. Captain America: Brave New World
If Captain America: Brave New World can be summed up in one way, it is that Anthony Mackie deserved better. After becoming Captain America, facing the racist backlash that came with it, and tackling that backlash with an effective story about a Black man representing a country that may not always have represented him, Captain America: Brave New World should have been better.
The film had the chance to double down on the messaging of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and give Mackie’s Sam Wilson a big-screen debut that matches the best of the MCU, all while solidifying him as Captain America. Sadly, Captain America: Brave New World stumbled in many ways.
Red Hulk was cool, as were some of the action sequences, and Mackie gives it his all, but the character writing and plot were simply not up to scratch.
Captain America: Brave New World is essentially a copy of its predecessors, complete with brainwashed super soldiers, a man behind the curtain, and a central trio of Captain America, Falcon, and a Black Widow seeking answers. This gave Mackie shockingly little to work with amidst wider Incredible Hulk narratives. As a result, Captain America 4 unfortunately failed its titular hero.
Contributed by writer Lewis Glazebrook
33. Ant-Man and the Wasp
In retrospect, Ant-Man and the Wasp looks like one of the earliest signs of Marvel stumbling. The movie wasn’t originally part of the Phase 3 slate at all, and it’s reasonable to assume Peyton Reed’s sequel was largely greenlit to help set up Avengers: Endgame‘s Quantum Realm plot. Even there, it stumbled, with interesting ideas relegated to later movies.
The characters in Ant-Man and the Wasp all lacked depth. Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost was envisioned as a character profoundly shaped by her experience of chronic pain, but she was utterly undeveloped; when Michelle Pfeiffer’s (underserved) Janet Van Dyne heals her, we have no idea who Ghost will go on to be now. Nor did Marvel, until Thunderbolts* at least.
Ghost is the obvious example, but none of the characters really get the chance to shine. Janet is basically the movie’s MacGuffin rather than a character in her own right, while Laurence Fishburne’s Bill Foster — a superhero in his own right in the comics — isn’t even a competent antagonist. Walton Goggins’ Sonny Burch has been forgotten.
Sadly, Ant-Man and the Wasp just feels like a missed opportunity.
Contributed by Senior Editor Tom Bacon
32. Iron Man 2
There’s a sense in which Iron Man 2 foreshadows all the MCU’s greatest weaknesses. Releasing in 2009, Jon Favreau’s movie sees Marvel dive deep into the shared universe setup, and the result is a movie that just doesn’t cohere at all. It’s fun, filled with character, but it just doesn’t have much depth at all.
This was forgivable in 2009, given Iron Man 2 is literally only the third movie in the MCU’s Phase 1, and Marvel was still figuring out what worked and what didn’t. The problem, though, is that Marvel didn’t really learn from these missteps. The very visible flaws in Iron Man 2 would recur time and again over the next two-dozen movies.
Iron Man 2 (just about) works despite its plot and writing, and only because of the strength of its cast; Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow all shine. Still, it can never be considered one of the MCU’s stronger entries, explaining why it’s so low on this ranking.
Contributed by Senior Editor Tom Bacon
31. Thor: Love And Thunder
While Thor: Love and Thunder is not the hero’s worst movie, since that falls to The Dark World, its placement towards the very end of the ranking is earned. The film had the hard task of following Thor’s best streak in the MCU, which went from Thor: Ragnarok to Avengers: Infinity War to Avengers: Endgame.
Director Taika Waititi decided to delve even deeper into the comedic elements that made Ragnarok the hit that revitalized Chris Hemsworth’s Thor as a character. However, choosing to do that for a film with inherently dark storylines like Jane Foster’s cancer arc and Gorr the God Butcher’s debut was a confusing choice. Marvel ended up failing to live up to expectations.
All told, Thor: Love and Thunder is a tonal nightmare. The film desperately tries to balance Hemsworth’s comedy as Thor with emotional moments featuring Natalie Portman’s Jane and Christian Bale’s Gorr, but fails tremendously. The movie needed to have gone firmly in one direction or the other. The result is a messy adventure that feels rather silly and lacks the emotional punch its story needed.
Contributed by writer Felipe Rangel
30. Black Widow
Black Widow would, perhaps, have been a good movie if it had released a decade earlier, before the death of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff in Avengers: Endgame. Cate Shortland’s Black Widow couldn’t quite decide whether it was supposed to be a coda for Natasha, or an origin story for Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova.
There’s a lot to like about Black Widow; the spy drama is good, some of the fight scenes are enjoyable, but this lack of identity can be felt in every scene. It culminates in a post-credit scene showing Yelena’s grief interrupted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, as though the movie itself was eager to forget emotion and move on with the MCU setup.
Marvel never really knew what to do with Black Widow. Natasha’s character arc is inconsistent, with some frustrating missteps along the way. All this came to a head in a very disappointing solo movie, one that really should have been a lot better.
Contributed by Senior Editor Tom Bacon.
29. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness followed Spider-Man: No Way Home’s lead by leaning into the Multiverse Saga’s cornerstone concept. Or, at least, it was supposed to. Although Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness debuted a distinctly multiverse-centric character with America Chavez, the movie’s title may have over-promised.
Just three universes were spotlighted, including the MCU’s mainline Earth-616, while a scene featuring Doctor Strange and America tumbling through 16 more was frustratingly fleeting. Earth-838 debuted the Illuminati, a scene that ultimately became a centerpiece for criticisms leveled against the Multiverse Saga’s perceived cameo baiting.
Although director Sam Raimi’s horror expertise was ideally suited to the Darkhold-corrupted Scarlet Witch, the beloved Wanda Maximoff’s sudden pivot into villainy so soon after WandaVision was jarring, culminating in a death that felt unwarranted and premature. Still, the movie wasn’t devoid of merits.
The visuals remain some of the MCU’s most exhilarating, while Xochitl Gomez made a strong MCU debut as America Chavez. Elizabeth Olsen delivered one of her best performances as the tragic arch-villain. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness also took risks that showed a willingness to break the formula, even if they ultimately failed to pay off.
Contributed by writer Ollie Bradley
28. Eternals
You can’t fault Chloé Zhao’s Eternals for its ambition. Visually, it’s one of Marvel’s most unique and distinctive movies, with some absolutely stunning cinematography; even superpowers are realized in remarkably creative ways. The casting is incredible, and it’s almost impossible to pick out a single stand-out among them.
And yet, there’s a reason Eternals didn’t quite work. The script attempts to marry an incredibly dense amount of cosmic lore with beautiful, intimate character studies, and the pieces just don’t go together well. It’s like two different films have been combined, and the result is less than the sum of its parts.
With hindsight, it’s clear Eternals was one of Marvel’s greatest failures. Kumail Nanjiani has revealed he was signed up for six movies, a video game, and even a theme park ride, giving a sense of Marvel’s own ambition for this franchise. It’s rather a shame that it all came to nothing.
Contributed by Senior Editor Tom Bacon.
