{"id":138113,"date":"2019-03-08T23:23:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T06:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138113"},"modified":"2019-03-08T23:23:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T06:23:06","slug":"ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/08\/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the release of\u00a0<em>Captain Marvel,\u00a0<\/em>we now have 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One can look around on the Intertubes and find all sorts of force-ranking of worst-to-best of those films. I figure I should probably do something similar to that.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AsCCZbsj7Mg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>That said, I hate force-ranking, both because it lacks gradation and because my rating of something has a certain plus-or-minus on any given day or viewing. So instead, I&#8217;m going to lump these films into four tiers. Even here, I can be swayed, or can appreciate that a given movie is hardly a uniform blessing or curse &#8212;\u00a0<em>Thor: The Dark World<\/em> is overall a plodding disappointment,\u00a0<em>except<\/em> for any scene where Loki is on-screen.<\/p>\n<p>So, here we go, the movies (I&#8217;m leaving out TV\/streaming service shows) with release year and MCU &#8220;Phase&#8221;. There&#8217;s no particular order within any given tier, and keep in mind that, even with this ranking, I lurves &#8217;em all.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>FOURTH TIER<\/strong> &#8211; Problematic, despite some good moments.<\/span><br \/>\n<em>Iron Man 2<\/em> (2010) I<br \/>\n<em>Iron Man 3<\/em> (2013) II<br \/>\n<em>Thor: The Dark World<\/em> (2013) II<br \/>\n<em>Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/em> (2014) II<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>THIRD TIER<\/strong> &#8211; Entertaining but not memorable<\/span><br \/>\n<em>Incredible Hulk<\/em> (2008) I<br \/>\n<em>Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2<\/em> (2017) III<br \/>\n<em>Captain Marvel<\/em> (2019) III<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>SECOND TIER<\/strong> &#8211; Perfectly respectable, enjoyable, noteworthy, and well-done<\/span><br \/>\n<em>Doctor Strange<\/em> (2015) III<br \/>\n<em>Ant-Man<\/em> (2015) II<br \/>\n<em>Avengers: Infinity War<\/em> (2018) III<br \/>\n<em>Captain America: The First Avenger<\/em> (2011) I<br \/>\n<em>Captain America: Civil War<\/em> (2016) III<br \/>\n<em>Thor: Ragnarok<\/em> (2017) III<br \/>\n<em>Thor<\/em> (2011) I<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>FIRST TIER<\/strong> &#8211; Exemplify (in a variety of ways) what a super-hero movie can be<\/span><br \/>\n<em>The Avengers<\/em> (2012) I<br \/>\n<em>Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> (2014) II<br \/>\n<em>Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/em> (2017) III<br \/>\n<em>Iron Man<\/em> (2008) I<br \/>\n<em>Captain America: Winter Soldier<\/em> (2014) II<br \/>\n<em>Black Panther<\/em> (2018) III<\/p>\n<p>The only one not listed above is\u00a0<em>Ant-Man and the Wasp<\/em> (2018) III, which, for a variety of unessential reasons, I haven&#8217;t yet watched.<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to critique any given rating. This is my opinion, obviously, and I would expect anyone else&#8217;s mileage to vary.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-138115\" title=\"marvel cinematic universe (mcu)\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe-650x366.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe-650x366.jpg 650w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe.jpg 825w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the release of\u00a0Captain Marvel,\u00a0we now have 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One can look around on the Intertubes and find all sorts of force-ranking of worst-to-best of those films. I figure I should probably do something similar to that. That said, I hate force-ranking, both because it lacks gradation and because my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/08\/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-2.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[525,41],"tags":[1234],"class_list":["post-138113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-media-movies","tag-mcu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/marvel_cinematic_universe.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49953,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/28\/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":138113,"position":0},"title":"Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Mar-15 9:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a bad analysis, overall. I'd probably bump both Thor and \"Agents of SHIELD\" a rank or two higher, and \"Hail to the King\" and Captain America a rank or two lower, but it's a good write-up.The MCU, for all that Warners\/DC, Sony, and now Paramount are trying to imitate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46092,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/28\/the-marvel-cinematic-universe-strikes-back.html","url_meta":{"origin":138113,"position":1},"title":"The Marvel Cinematic Universe Strikes Back","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Oct-14 2:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Following up on DC's recent fleshing out of their slate of films, Marvel has further detailed their coming entries, adding both some new heroes to the MCU as well as giving titles for some of the sequels.2015- Avengers: Age of Ultron- Ant-Man2016- Captain America: Civil War- Doctor Strange2017- Guardians of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44197,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/06\/the-marvel-cinematic-universe-and-the-march-of-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":138113,"position":2},"title":"The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the March of Time","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Aug-14 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As far as I know, Kevin Feige and Marvel have been pretty quiet about the subject, but the clock is ticking on the MCU's stars. There was a lot of talk from and about Robert Downey, Jr, hanging up the Iron Man role after the next Avengers movie (though I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/falcon-black-old-captain-america-4-147165B15D.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49530,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/10\/spider-man-will-join-the-marvel-cinematic-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":138113,"position":3},"title":"Spider-Man will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Feb-15 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Albeit with some contractual strings attached back to Sony.I would be more excited about this if I were more of a Spider-fan. In general, though, I find him ... meh. Mostly stand-alone, witty banter, tragic relationships, web-slinging and all that -- I just don't see him fitting into what has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37805,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/13\/marvel-cinematic-universe-even.html","url_meta":{"origin":138113,"position":4},"title":"Marvel Cinematic Universe even&#8230;","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Jun-13 10:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Marvel Cinematic Universe evening, rewatching \"Captain America\" and \"Thor\". Both appeal to different comic geek aspects of me.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129150,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/16\/the-ultimate-marvel-cinematic-universe-infographic.html","url_meta":{"origin":138113,"position":5},"title":"The Ultimate Marvel Cinematic Universe Infographic","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Dec-15 11:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a pretty darned amazing unified history of the MCU (though only as accurate as the latest movie and\/or press release). Brilliantly done. The Thor-y of Everything A visualisation of the links between past, present and future films, shorts and TV shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. @FlexibleHead View\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138116,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138113\/revisions\/138116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}