Marvel Movies from Best to Worst (Revamped)

Marvel Movies from Best to Worst (Revamped)

Updated editorial of Every Marvel film that has been released to THEATERS from 1998 to now. Starting with the first Blade movie, I will go through all 27 films released this generation and rank them.

Editorial Opinion
By MadJakHatesSpinoffs - Jul 05, 2012 06:07 PM EST
Filed Under: Other
Source: comicbookmovie.com

I did this post over a month ago and have made a few changes. This is my updated list of every Marvel film that has made it to theaters this current comic film generation starting with the first Blade movie in 1998. I am not including any straight to DVD, animated or Howard the Duck. So, here is my very opinionated, updated list. Let me know if you agree with me or if you think my opinions are totally off the chart. Here goes...along with Amazon stars. I know I'm not going to make everyone happy, but oh well.

The Excellent (5 Stars)
1. The Avengers (2012)
2. X-Men 2: United (2003)
3. Iron Man (2008)
4. Spider-Man (2002)
5. X-Men (2000)

The Good (4 Stars)
6. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
7. Captain America (2011)
8. X-Men First Class (2011)
9. Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
10. Blade 2 (2001)
11. Blade (1998)
12. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
13. Iron Man 2 (2010)
14. Thor (2011)

The Okay (3 Stars)
15. The Punisher
16. X-Men Origins Wolverine
17. X-Men 3
18. Blade Trinity

The Sucky (2 Stars)
19. Daredevil (2003)
20. Fantastic 4: Rise of Silver Surfer (2007)
21. Ghost Rider (2007)
22. Fantastic 4 (2005)
23. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
24. Punisher War Zone (2008)

The So Bad I Wanted to Shoot a Possum (1 Star)
25. The Hulk (2003)
26. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
27. Elektra (2005)

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MadJakHatesSpinoffs
MadJakHatesSpinoffs - 7/5/2012, 7:06 PM


I don't know why I always have so much trouble putting pictures in the first article posts. Oh well, here's one.
MadJakHatesSpinoffs
MadJakHatesSpinoffs - 7/5/2012, 7:07 PM


let me try this again.
GreenHalJordan
GreenHalJordan - 7/5/2012, 7:25 PM
I agree the directors cut was MUCH better than DD, and i didnt mind the regular cut anyways.
RidiculousFanBoyDemands
RidiculousFanBoyDemands - 7/5/2012, 8:30 PM
The Hulk is the most underrated comic book movie of all time. It was beautifully shot and very well made.
Minotauro
Minotauro - 7/5/2012, 9:14 PM
Your "3 star" all the way down to the "1 star" can all be grouped together as bad.
sikwon
sikwon - 7/5/2012, 9:45 PM
honestly, howard the duck should be on this list. i love that movie.
incrediblesuperbatspider
incrediblesuperbatspider - 7/5/2012, 9:51 PM
The Hulk2003 is soo underrated
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 7/5/2012, 10:09 PM
I like CBMs too!
-_-

I loved the Hulk... not as much as Iron Man or X2, but pretty close to Spider-man. It definitely has the better cast.
LoudNoises
LoudNoises - 7/5/2012, 10:31 PM
I thought blade was better than blade 2. But that is a very fair list. I'm glad you have X-men and X2 above X-men first class. I just don't see how people think first class is the best X-men film.
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 7/5/2012, 11:19 PM
Because of Michael Fassbender x James McAvoy
LoudNoises
LoudNoises - 7/6/2012, 1:08 AM
@Tainted87

Yeah, they are good actors. But I just cannot watch first class without cringing during so many parts. Anything to do with beast was terrible. Same with most of the younger cast, especially the entire scene where they give each nick names. The villains were handled poorly, 2 out of the 4 villains barely spoke or didn't speak at all, they were just there. I hated the beginning where he tried to duplicate what Singer did because it didn't look nearly as good as Singers version and the scene following it where young Eric meets Shaw was so unemotional and poorly acted that Shaw killing his mother right in front of him had no impact on me at all. That scene sets up Magneto's whole revenge story and it fell completely flat. Sorry for ranting. I just don't understand why this movie is considered good. Aside from Fassbender and McAvoy (Fassbender more so than McAvoy) I can find much at all to like about it.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 7/6/2012, 3:14 AM
@ loud noises

haha, im with you, but you left out the horrible Syfy Channes special effects at the end when all the flying mutants were fighting each other. Seriously, if you cant make it look halfway decent, then don't do the scene. Am I right?
ralfinader
ralfinader - 7/6/2012, 6:43 AM
Disagree with a few things on the list, but this is all opinion anyways. I haven't seen the new Spidey or GR yet, but based on what I have seen, here is my list, best to worse:

1. The Avengers (2012)
2. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
3. Iron Man (2008)
4. X-Men 2: United (2003)
5. Blade (1998)
6. Thor (2011)
7. Captain America (2011)
8. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
9. Blade 2 (2001)
10. X-Men (2000)
11. Spider-Man (2002)
12. Daredevil (2003)
13. Iron Man 2 (2010)
14. X-Men 3
15. Punisher War Zone (2008)
16. Fantastic 4 (2005)
17. Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
18. X-Men First Class (2011)
19. Blade Trinity
20. Ghost Rider (2007)
21. The Hulk (2003)
22. Fantastic 4: Rise of Silver Surfer (2007)
23. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
24. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
25. Elektra (2005)
26. The Punisher
27. X-Men Origins Wolverine

Please note that my personal butthurt factor is taken into account on my list (otherwise, Elektra would be at the bottom of my list too)
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 7/6/2012, 9:19 AM
No, Elektra was BAD, bad. Unfinished effects, characters unrelated to Elektra (Typhoid Mary, Stone, Green Lantern's Tattooed Man...) being set up against her, not to mention some of the worst ideas in CBM history, poor fight scenes, annoying characters, TERRIBLE costuming, lack of faithfulness to the comics.... none of these come close to the fact that this movie is another reason why studios don't have faith in female leads.

First Class - I don't think we're going to agree on anything there, so I'm not going to argue about it, but I think it's better than all but X2.
TheLokey1
TheLokey1 - 7/6/2012, 9:36 AM
The hulk and ghost rider sov should be ahead of blade trinity, ghost rider, and fantastic 4. Those movies were incredibly unimaginative and poorly acted. The hulk may have been a little bork g but it was a much better character piece than those other three movies and the comic panel style was at least interesting. Ghost rider sov gets a lot of flack and I can understand why but it was still a much better film than the original. It actually had action scenes! There is next to nothing I could actually consider an action scene in the original and it's filled with cringe worthy dialog to boot. Sov has got some interesting camera work going for it too which helps overlook some of the (intentionally) ridiculous scenes.
superbatspiderman
superbatspiderman - 7/6/2012, 9:50 AM
This is a very fair list even though I would put Iron Man ahead of The Avengers. Yes the Avengers is a great film but it didn't have the heart and the moral undertones that Iron Man had.

The Punisher is probably the most underrated CBM ever it is also one of my favorite revenge movies. Tom Jane was excellent in that movie and he had some pretty badass lines.
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 7/6/2012, 10:20 AM
The Punisher will always have a special place with me. It was filmed all over the Tampa Bay area, which is where I'm from. Tom Jane was awesome too.
MoonDoggyX
MoonDoggyX - 7/6/2012, 10:58 AM
No offense MadJakHatesSpinoffs, but this list seem fo have a bit of hindsight bias in the way that almost all of the newer movies get 5 or 4 stars. I'm too lazy to redo the whole list, but the top 5 should be apparent...

1: Iron Man
2: Spiderman 2
3: X-Men 2
4: The Avengers
5: The Incredible Hulk

X-Men First Class is overrated, And X-Men 3 is underrated. Everyone Talks about how well Fassbender and McAvoy did(they were good), but still, they couldn't hold a candle up to Stewart and McEllen, IMHO. The scene in X3 when ProfX and Magneto confront Phoenix at Jean's house alone was better than anything that XM:FC had to offer. If I were just to rank the X-Men franchise, it would be...

1: X-Men 2
2: X-Men 3
3: X-Men: First Class
4: X-Men
5: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hulk(2003) is definitely underrated. People give it a lot of crap because at release it was compared to Spiderman both critically and financially. There were a few sparks of genius in this film, though. Hulk vs the Tanks is still one if the most iconic scenes in CBM History.

As Far as the Marvel Studio films, a lot of them are higher on the list that they deserve if they were to be judged in their own merits and not as part of Avengers Phase 1. Where they should be is...

5 Stars: Iron Man
4.5 Stars: The Avengers
4 Stars: The Incredible Hulk
3.5 Stars: Iron Man 2
3 Stars: Thor, Captain America

Avengers was SO close to being the best CBM ever, it didn't take itself seriously enough when it needed to. The same laughs that made the first 2 acts so entertaining did not let up in the third act which made the invasion not feel so threatening...
justified1
justified1 - 7/6/2012, 12:06 PM
move the punisher to great
AC1
AC1 - 7/6/2012, 1:18 PM
I thought Daredevil was OK, and I haven't even seen the directors cut. I also wouldn't put X-Men, X2 or Spider-Man in the top five.

I've never seen a Punisher film, nor any of the Blade films, so my list would go something like this:

The Excellent - Avengers, Iron Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, X-Men First Class
The Good - Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man, Iron Man 2, X2
The OK - Daredevil, Spider-Man 3, X-Men
The Sucky - X-Men Origins: Wolverine (up until they show Deadpool, then I stop watching), Hulk
The Worst of the Worst - Everything else, then Howard The Duck and Elektra
AC1
AC1 - 7/6/2012, 1:20 PM
And to clarify, Avengers, Iron Man, and TASM are on a par as number 1 for me
MadJakHatesSpinoffs
MadJakHatesSpinoffs - 7/6/2012, 2:12 PM
The reason I did not include Howard the Duck was because it was made in the 80's long before any of these other films came out. Not to mention it was more of a Lucas film than a Marvel film, so it was kind of in a world of its own.

I can justify my list pretty well. Most every movie that has come out in the past 4 years has been pretty decent (minus War Zone). I enjoyed all 5 of the Avengers prequels. You had 5 good movies that built up and led to one great one.

Elektra may have been the worst comic movie I have seen yet. Weak script, bad acting, one dimensional characters, boring movie. I also thought The Hulk was a snoozefest. Ang Lee should never direct a comic or action film. He's much better at directing cowbows breaking each other's butts.
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 7/6/2012, 9:33 PM
Your last remark just set me off your articles completely - good job. He's the director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - and if you can't see how versatile and talented Ang Lee is as a director, then you're blind.
Name
Name - 7/7/2012, 3:13 AM
Insulting those who dont agree with you?, nice.
Vafrous
Vafrous - 7/7/2012, 5:06 AM
I personally think that X-Men should be lower than what it is on the list. I just found it really bland at times. I also think that Captain America was a much better film than the first Iron Man, but hey, that's just me...
inky
inky - 7/8/2012, 1:58 PM
its never fair to compare the movies in this way as earlier ones suffered and later ones learnt from the mistakes of earlier ones in most cases.
let alone different directors with their own methods and views, it realy makes these comparisons only good to keep older films in the public's mind.
i have to admit some of the movies listed realy should have been shelved or destroyed on completion.
and when you limit a list like this to one era you overlook some good and awfull movies from before.
how i see it is each movie has its merits and all have there weaknesses you cant please all the people all the time.
MadJakHatesSpinoffs
MadJakHatesSpinoffs - 7/8/2012, 5:00 PM
OK, maybe that sounded bad. To anyone else reading, let me make myself more clear. I am not saying Ang Lee is a bad director. I am not saying that Ang Lee did not make a relevenat homosexual movie. What I am saying is that Ang Lee is a much better director for romance films than action films. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was foreign wushu epic, but it doesn't exactly fit the mold for a standard American action film.
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