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Ranking Marvel’s Movies

Iron Man 2

20. Iron Man 2

Directed By:  Jon Favreau

Written By: Justin Theroux

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Synopsis:  With the world now aware of his identity as Iron Man, Tony Stark must contend with both his declining health and a vengeful mad man with ties to his father’s legacy.

Quick Take: The first thing people point to with Iron Man 2  is how it unnecessarily forced in S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers just to build up anticipation for the upcoming movie. That sin is unforgivable and shows why world building does nothing but hurt someone’s ability to make a cohesive story. There are things to enjoy like improvements with action, Robert Downey Jr.’s presence,  and Sam Rockwell doing what he can with a nothing character. I enjoyed how it tried to touch on the ‘Demon in a Bottle’ storyline, but being a summer blockbuster it was never able to go all the way.

 

 

Spider-Man

19. The Amazing Spider-Man

Directed By: Marc Webb

Written By: James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Synopsis: Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father’s former partner.

Quick Take: After the complete disappointment that was Spider-Man 3  something needed to be done to right the ship. The Amazing Spider-Man tried to right the wrongs, and for the most part it was a welcome change of pace. Sure it has some very questionable moments, like the infamous crane sequence  or Peter Parker doing his version of Air Spidey, but Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone where given enough room to make the movie their own. Director Marc Webb brought his ability to depict young love and placed it in a comic book setting.

 

The Punisher

18. The Punisher

Directed By: Jonathan Hensleigh

Written By: Jonathan Hensleigh, Michael France

Starring: Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Samantha Mathis

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%

Synopsis: An undercover FBI agent becomes a vigilante assassin and sets out to unleash vengeance upon the corrupt businessman who slew his family.

Quick Take: A great  amount of people really despise this movie, and I can somewhat understand why. However, for me this is the closest we have ever come to a good Punisher movie. Thomas Jane makes a fine Punisher, and truly enjoyed a lot of the action sequences. Sure having random thug after random thug just show up as his apartment for no real reason is not the best example of storytelling, but it also led to a very fun fight between The Punisher and the Russian.  Perhaps ending the movie with a gigantic flaming skull in a parking lot was pushing things a tad bit too far. Luckily we have the short Dirty Laundry  to dream of what could have been if this was successful.

 

 

thor-unleashed

17. Thor

Directed By:  Kenneth Branagh

Written By: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne, and J. Michael Straczynski

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

Synopsis: The powerful but arrogant god Thor is cast out of Asgard to live amongst humans in Midgard (Earth), where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.

Quick Take: When Marvel announced their plans for The Avengers  the one movie I worried about the most was Thor. It is akin to making Lord of the Rings and Star Wars  at the same time and throwing in a rainbow bridge just to make things more difficult. What made Thor work was Chris Hensworth and Tom Hiddleston. Their chemistry and hatred for one another was palpable.  Much of the action in Thor is lackluster, but their relationship adds a great deal to make those scenes work. If anything they should have focused on that relationship more, because as some of the deleted scenes show there were an assortment of great moments they didn’t use.

 

 

the-wolverine

16. The Wolverine

Directed By: James Mangold

Written By: Mark Bomback and Scott Frank

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Tao Okamoto

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%

Synopsis: When Wolverine is summoned to Japan by an old acquaintance, he is embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons.

Quick Take: The Wolverine  had one huge thing going for it—very low expectations. I still hope we get to see  the Darren Aronsfsky Wolverine movie  someday, but James Mangold did an admirable job when he took up the position of director when Aronsfsky left. He took Wolverine back to his roots and placed him into a classic samurai story.  Actual stakes were added to the action by removing Wolverine’s healing factor. Adding tension to scenes that would others be absent of it. It does fall off the rails in the last twenty minutes with the Silver Samurai Transformer. Before those closing moments we were finally getting the Wolverine movie we all wanted.

 

 

Stephen-Dorff-un-spin-off-de-Blade-en-prevision_portrait_w532

15. Blade

Directed By: Stephen Norrington

Written By: David S. Goyer

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%

Synopsis:  A half-vampire, half-mortal man becomes a protector of the mortal race, while slaying evil vampires.

Quick Take: When you look at the rising history of comic book movies there are limited few that people point to as huge steps forward for the franchise. Blade  is certainly one of those steps. Before Blade  Marvel’s attempt to making movies were embarrassing. It took a character that was unknown to most and redefine him to something bigger and better. It also showed a comic book movie does not always have to be cartoonish. Wesley Snipes made such a huge impact with the character that the actual comic book version was altered to match his take. Not many actors can claim that feat.

 

 

hulk

14. The Incredible Hulk

Directed By: Louis Leterrier

Written By: Zak Penn

Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Synopsis: Dr. Bruce Banner, thanks to a gamma ray experiment gone wrong, transforms into a giant green-skinned hulk whenever his pulse rate gets too high. Meanwhile, a soldier uses the same technology to become an evil version of the original.

Quick Take: There are certain movies on this list that I know I probably enjoy more than most people. The Incredible Hulk  is probably an example of that. I enjoyed the way it meshed the feel of the classic television series, with the comic, and even taking elements of the previous Hulk  movie.  We got some of the explosive Hulk action with a rampaging battle at a college campus and a monster brawl between the Hulk and Abomination. Tim Roth made a great foible for The Hulk, it was too bad his character got really crazy really quickly.  Edward Norton also made a pretty good Bruce Banner.

 

 

 

xavier-and-the-x-men

13. X-Men

Directed By: Bryan Singer

Written By: Tom DeSanto

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Synopsis: Two mutants come to a private academy for their kind whose resident superhero team must oppose a terrorist organization with similar powers.

Quick Take: With Blade I mentioned movies that we can look at as stepping-stones of the genre, and the next big stepping stone was X-Men. When you look back at the first X-Men movie with today’s eyes it looks rather cheap, like a middle of the road TV pilot. Considering its budget was half the catering budget for The Avengers  you can let that slide. What it got right from the start was the relationships between the main characters, most notably the kinship that formed between Wolverine and Rogue. It was an economic script that accomplished a lot, including explaining the X-Men world rather concisely.

 

 

rsz_thor_2_the_dark_world_1

12. Thor: The Dark World

Directed By: Alan Taylor

Written By: Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

Synopsis: When Jane Foster is possessed by a great power, Thor must protect her from a new threat of old times: the Dark Elves.

Quick Take: Thor: The Dark World  took what the first movie accomplished and did it bigger and better. For one the special effects were greatly improved and the action felt it better suited these god like creatures. Tom Hiddleston stole every scene he was in, and was somehow able to take a character that nearly destroyed all of New York and make him into a sympathetic figure.  Some of the forced comedy **cough** Kat Dennings**cough** was a little to sitcom heavy, but the final portal battle sequences was one of the best action set pieces of last year.

 

blade ii

11. Blade II

Directed By: Guillermo del Toro

Written By: Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, and David S. Goyer

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 59%

Synopsis: Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires

Quick Take: Rule #1 on how to make a movie better. You insert Guillermo del Toro  (or Gizmo Del Toro for those who listen to Talking in Circles). Guillermo admitted the only reason he made this movie was to make Hellboy, and lucky for us he did. His style and knowledge of horror brought new life to Blade as he took everything that came before and improved it greatly.  Wesley Snipes had yet to go completely crazy, and had great report with Ron Perlman and the rest of his team. Having Blade fight alongside a team of vampires could have been a huge mistake, but it added a complex dynamic that was not there previously.

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Dan Clark

A fan of all things comics, movies, books, and whatever else I can find that pass the time. Twitter: @DXO_Dan Instagram: Comic_concierge

20 Comments

  1. LOL the funny thing with the jab at me with my hate at Reynolds is Blade Trinity came AFTER Van Wilder, and I barely noticed the bad national lampoon humor from him in Blade Trinity. So I can now say there are two Ryan Reynolds movies I won’t hate on him for…. Blaed Trinity and Safe House….. the rest are all just various twisted Van Wilder humor like rehashes. The more ironic thing is that I somewhat enjoy the van wilder movie. After all it has Paul Gleason in it… and anything with him is awesome!

    As far as the rest of your list I’m surprised IM3 was that high, and I still say the FF films from Tim Story are good… not great, but by no means the worst marvel property films out there. Interesting a good list though! I could have sworn you’d have put SM3 lower than you did…. me personally the FF films are better than it.

    1. Thanks! That wasn’t really a job at you, forgot you had an issue with him. Reynolds sense of humor is just that way. He was that way on Two Guys and a Girl before Van Wilder. If you are going to blame him from rehashing his style then you have to do the same for Eddie Murphy whose characters are pretty similar. Beverly Hills Copy and 48 Hours are near exactly the same character. Tim Allen made an entire show based on the same stand-up he did for years,

      The 2nd Fantastic Four movie has moments, the first is rather forgettable.

      1. lol I thought the jab was funny even not directly at me…… the first FF film is awesome for the Ben and Johnny scenes every time Evans and Chiklis were on screen was hilarious.

  2. Very good list, Dan. First Class is an amazing and very enjoyable film. I recently rewatched it before seeing Days of Future Past and I love so much about that film. It’s great. I need to see Iron Man 3 again, but I didn’t enjoy it upon the first viewing. In fact, the first Iron Man is the best and only one I own. I will revisit The Incredible Hulk since I have it on Blu-ray but haven’t watched it since I saw it in theaters. Blade 2 and 3 didn’t do much for me, but I have a feeling if I revisit Blade II I may enjoy it a lot. Del Torro’s films are usually quite enjoyable, and I loved Pacific Rim. As I said, good list, Dan.

  3. I don’t mind the ’89 Punisher. I think its a decent movie for the time. I may even call it the best Punisher movie. Spider-Man should not be in the Top 10, maybe Top 15. Avengers being at 5 seems a little too low. But your complaints are at least justified. I am glad to see X:Men: First Class up high cause that is quite the underrated movie.

    1. Like I mentioned I enjoy the Spider-Man. I know for some they are yesterday’s news but I still enjoy them.

  4. Amazing Spider-Man 2 should be higher. Iron Man 3 should be lower, and The Avengers should be number 1. My Top 5 are 1. The Avengers 2. X-Men: DOFP 3. Iron Man 4. Spider-Man 2 5. X2

    1. Thanks. Yes I know some enjoyed AMS2. I did not. I do like your top 5 there though. Not a bad list if I say so myself.

  5. Honestly not a bad list. Don’t agree with it completely. At least it is not a paint by numbers list. A lot of surprises.

  6. Great list as always Dan!! I think the majority of your rankings are spot on. It is, as you say, ‘your list’ so I won’t fault you for an apparent Captain America/Spider-Man(Maguire Style) bias ;) – Myself personally, I could not rank any of the Maguire Spider-Man films ahead of the two Garfield ones…they just are thin and lifeless for me in comparison to the latest two. I like you changing it up and putting X-Men First Class at #1 over something like the Avengers. I guess I need to re-watch Winter Soldier, because although I really enjoyed the film, at first glance I would put it as the worst of the three super-hero films thus far for 2014. Hoping on re-watch I will see what everyone else sees in that one that they don’t see in ASM2. Again, love the list – great job as always Dan!

    1. Thanks! We kind of talked AMS 2 to death, but the one issue I will always have with that movie is how the biggest villain is happenstance. Thanks for the support as always. Also I think my Spidey basis is more of a Sam Raimi bias than a Toby bias. .

  7. I would put Avengers #1 no matter what anyone says. That’s one of my all time favorite movies period. I don’t care if its not ‘deep’ its fun and that’s what I want with a movie.

  8. Yeah I gotta have Avengers number 1 on my list as well. IM3 wouldn’t be nearly this high for me. I’m surprised by the Tom Jane Punisher remarks. I really dug that movie, I would move that one up. And of course sneak Blade II a few spots higher ;) Great list tho Dan! I agree with most for sure

  9. Nice to see First Class at the top. Love that movie. Not convinced it’s the best but still, nice to see it reigning supreme on someone’s list.

    1. Thanks. There’s something about First Class. Mainly the actors and direction that puts it over the top for me.

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