Your Top Marvel Films

Ant Man just came out and with it it feels as if at least a dozen new Marvel flicks have hit the screens since the last time we did something like this. That, and Rotten Tomatoes just did a small feature ranking all the Marvel films (though I'm not sure how they could put Spider-Man 2 behind X-Men ToFP, Guardians, and Avengers...Spidey 2 actually scored higher...
www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/marvel-movies-worst-to-best/

Anyway, I wasn't won over by Guardians or Avengers 2 all that much, though Daredevil (the TV show...if it counts) is a new one I'd add to my list. So, my list is basically the same...in order:

Spider-man
X-Men
Blade
Daredevil
Spider-man 2
Avengers
X-Men 2

everything else...

Now you're talking my language Mr. White.

My list consists of...
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Those dudes nailed it)
2. X2: X-Men United
3. The Amazing Spider-Man (I'm an apologist for this movie)
4. Iron Man
5. The Avengers

For a long time Spidey 1&2 were big favorites but in my opinion they don't hold up well. Darn shame.

It's hard not to put X-Men first, it re-defined the superhero film and is the model all these movies seem to be taking from at this point. I really loved X2 as well.

So maybe

X-Men and X2
Captain America and Winter Soldier
Avengers

A special mention should go out to Agent Carter for being as good as any of the movies and easily the best Marvel TV show. Probably the best super hero show period.

Tim Champlin wrote: Now you're talking my language Mr. White.

My list consists of...
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Those dudes nailed it)
2. X2: X-Men United
3. The Amazing Spider-Man (I'm an apologist for this movie)
4. Iron Man
5. The Avengers

For a long time Spidey 1&2 were big favorites but in my opinion they don't hold up well. Darn shame.

I think replace Amazing Spider man with Spiderman 2 and that's my list. Winter Soldier really felt like a spy movie with Super Heroes.

1) Captain America: The First Avenger
2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3) Guardians of the Galaxy
4) Spider-Man 2 (Raimi)
5) Iron Man 3

Mr. White wrote: Blade

That's an interesting choice. I prefer Blade 2 over Blade but that's mostly due to the villain's plot in the first one. I never understood why he wanted to change all of humanity into vampires. I still think it's silly. Did I miss something that would help me make sense of his master plan, Mr. White?

As far as a top 5 Marvel list is concerned:
1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Marvel's Daredevil (Netflix series)
3. Iron Man
4. X-Men: First Class
5. Captain America: The First Avenger

Blade.

Remember this came out at a time when the only Marvel films to be had where the Dolph Lundgren Punisher, the rubber eared Captain America, and the bootleg Corman FF.

Seeing a real deal Marvel hero (even a 'B-lister') on the screen with a sizable budget was...well...marvelous. That opening scene in the underground discotheque is still one of my favorite film openings. I'm also partial to the ending with Blade in Russia. In between was a movie that had a lot of style, kick-ass action, a neat story, and some cool characters (Snipes with his martial arts background was very convincing as Blade and, yeah, I dug Whistler). Oh, and a sweet '68 Dodge Charger!

Sure the White Wolf Vampire thing was still in full bloom, but this was more Hunter and that was my language. Overnight, this flick turned our Feng shui rpg campaign from Big Trouble in Little China's 'against ancient sorcery' to 'Monster Hunters Inc'.

Being the first film, there were things alluded to (other hunters) that were fun to imagine...but when they popped up in later films...not so fun to actually see on screen (a crime of many sequels). However, I still enjoy this movie and consider it the first of this new era of Marvel films.

In regards to the main baddie...yeah, it was an odd plan, but ya' know...some motherf*ckers always trying to ice skate uphill.

I think this is all I've seen.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America 2: Winter Soldier
Spiderman 2
X-Men 2: United
Captain America
Avengers
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Spiderman
X-Men
X-Men: First Class
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Thor
Blade
Incredible Hulk
Thor 2: Dark World
Iron Man
Iron Man 3
Blade 2
Wolverine

Now the rest I don't like.

Howard the Duck
Iron Man 2
Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four 2: Silver Surfer
Blade 3
X-Men 3: Last Stand
X-Men: Origins Wolverine
Punisher War Zone
Punisher
Spiderman 3
Daredevil (Affleck)
Hulk (Ang Lee)

If we're able to include Netflix Daredevil, that would be right after Winter Soldier on my list.

Lantern, I'm curious as to why you prefer First Avenger over Winter Soldier. I really love both movies, Winter Soldier just seems to do better popularity wise around the board. I'm interested to see if WS lacks something for you that FA has.

1. Iron Man (for me, this really sets the bar. I thought it was perfect and tons of fun. Great origin story too)
2. The Avengers
3. Guardians of the Galaxy (i'm thinking of bumping this up to #2)
4. Spiderman 2 (i remember thinking Kirsten Dunst was totally decent in this. Hate that ending tho)
5. X-Men: First Class

I think those are the only five I really like a lot. Everything else hasn't aged well at all.

First Avenger just has more heart in it than Winter Soldier. We get to see Steve Rogers for a while before he volunteers for the super-soldier program and I loved getting to know the character and what he stood for despite being a medically challenged little guy. I took it hook, line, and sinker that Steve Rogers was a good man at his core and that's a credit to the writing and the performances, not the least of which was offered up by Stanley Tucci.

There's more to the buddy relationship between Steve and Bucky Barnes as well and I bought into their relationship, which is played to a perfect culmination in Winter Soldier.

First Avenger also gave us a glimpse of Red Skull and how his vision for the world differed from his Nazi allies, so I'll give the villain edge to First Avenger over Winter Soldier. I couldn't even tell you who the Winter Soldier villain was besides Robert Redford and HYDRA. Decent enough threat but I much prefer the dark mirror foil of the Red Skull over the big brother conspiracy of the sequel.

Plus, First Avenger has Agent Carter. Seriously, that actress needs more work.

All told I love'em both but the nod goes to First Avenger for the superior cast and introduction to Steve Rogers. Plus, I dig the Star and Stripes and love the patriotic themes throughout the story over the darker themes in Winter Soldier. To me the two movies are night and day in terms of atmosphere and message but there's no denying how relevant the questions Winter Soldier pose are to national security and how one goes about enforcing it. Questions I am sure will cause conflict in the upcoming Civil War movie.

1. Iron Man. It's the only one that is not only a great superhero film, but also a good film, in general. Downey nails the role and the story is a great modern update of the origin.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's well written, decently acted, and veers more toward story and away from explosions.
3. The Avengers. It's one of the best superhero movies ever, because it engages most of the standards (heroes must fight on first meeting, etc.) but does so with tongue seriously in cheek. Watching Scarlett Johansson beat the crap out of 3 guys while tied to a chair may be the best scene of any of them.

The rest are all jumbled in there after that; some good (X-Men: First Class), some not so good (Iron Man 2 and 3.) So far, the only real failures of the modern (post-2000) era have been a couple of the Spider-Mans.

Even though Avengers sort of fumbles at the end (the Chitauri, really?), up until the last act it's just about perfect in terms of capturing the actual look and feel of reading an ongoing superhero serial. It hits so many perfect notes- the great hero-versus-hero matchups, mind control/switching sides, a great villain popping up and causing trouble, everybody getting a highlight moment...and then that shot of the team, finally together on the streets of NYC- the best single comic book moment in a film to date.

So I'd have to say it's hard to top Avengers, overall...but it kind of cheats because it laid the groundwork in no less than four other films and skipped over the dreaded "origin story" impetus that kept so many comic book films from being really good until 3/4 of the way through their runtime.

Second I would slate Winter Soldier. There's big sections of that film that almost make you forget that it's a superhero movie because it's a good movie, first and foremost. But more importantly, it digs in a little deeper than most other Marvel fare, getting into Cap's character and issues of duty, remaining moral in a world that doesn't seem to have any, and understanding that being a hero sometimes means defiance rather than subservience. In terms of action, there's plenty of great Cap stuff in there...but then you've got bits like the thing at the beginning where he meets Sam. You see that he's still Steve Rogers and he's really just kind of a regular dude. But more importantly, a soldier that connects immediately with a veteran from a war fought fifty years later.

Third, it's hard to not peg Guardians in there because it's just a really well done, fun film that is light on its feet. It's such an assured picture, which I think is why it did so well- nobody expected anything out of it, and the whole production just kind of says "it's all good, we got it". There is some really bad plotting, Ronan turns out to be a pretty lousy villain and it suffers from that whole thing where you are shown something that has little context outside of connecting elements to other movies. But then you have Groot and Rocket snatching Quill and putting him in a giant sack. A funny, colorful picture that I think is going to have a great sequel.

Fourth gets a little hazy, those top three are really the best of what they've got out there (having not seen Ant Man). I would actually probably put Iron Man 3 here because it's so offbeat. It's a smaller, really kind of weirder movie that feels almost like one of those interlude storylines between the bigger arcs in the comics. It gets into Tony's PTSD, which is a pretty interesting way to tie to Avengers, and you get this really unexpected take on Mandarin. I think this is Marvel's riskiest film so far, and it mostly pays off in another more character-oriented film than many expected.

Both Thor films are OK, I hated the first one when I saw it but it's grown on me- almost completely because of Hemsworth's performance and because I just love Thor. First Avenger was good, but it felt really old fashioned...as in, 1990s old fashioned. Definitely a Joe Johnston film. Hulk was kind of off, just not as compelling and the depiction in Avengers sort of blew it away.

Age of Ultron was really a mess overall, but I loved it. Big, stupid movie with lots of fun stuff. And Vision.

X-Men/X-Men 2 were alright but badly aged in light of the Marvel MCU stuff. Last Stand was HORRIBLE. First Class, OK, Days of Future Past, OK. Spider-Man aged badly too. Spider-Man 2 is still quite good, largely thanks to Molina's Doc Ock. Spider-Man 3 was terrible, but everybody knows that. The first Wolverine was bad, the second one was OK but I have no desire to ever see it again.

Blade was great- total exploitation junk. Blade 2 was just as good. Blade 3 was awful apart from Jessica Biel's midriff.

Howard the Duck- WTF.

All Punisher movies are terrible.

Wait- what about BIG HERO 6?!

1. Guardian's of the Galaxy. Note: The Rocket Avatar, not Spider Man, Iron Man or Cap.
2. The Avengers
3. Iron Man
4. Big Hero 6
5. Winter Soldier <- I've only watched once. I been meaning to re-watch.

Honorable mention: Spider Man 2 and 1 were great in there day

Michael Barnes wrote: It gets into Tony's PTSD, which is a pretty interesting way to tie to Avengers, and you get this really unexpected take on Mandarin.

According to one of the Marvel One-Shot's, which I believe are considered canon, that was not the real Mandarin. Just someone who took the name because he thought the Mandarin didn't exist. The real Mandarin could still show up later.