It’s been a long, often painful journey, but here we are: 36 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies deep, and the franchise has clearly hit a creative wall. So what better time to look back and ask the big question—what actually worked over the last 17 years?
IndieWire decided to tackle this heroic task, ranking all 36 Marvel movies , and—brace yourself—they crowned “Black Panther” as the best of the bunch. Yes, that “Black Panther. “” I remember panning the film when it came out and, oh boy, the inbox flooded with digital torches and pitchforks. The very first email I received that night was a gem:
Shut up about Black Panther Racist! You are going back in time with segregation. Shame on you, dumb c*nt!
Charming, right?
But seriously—does anyone with a functioning sense of taste still believe “Black Panther” is the pinnacle of the MCU? Back in 2018, the entertainment press was practically canonizing it as high art. All we could do was smile and blink.
Even Bret Easton Ellis had a few choice words at the time, reflecting on the critical swooning, and controversially, theorizing that critics were not praising the film for actual artistic merit:
Representation is so important to them. And with a huge fatuous inclusivity and diversity push. What the most flattering pose might be in the moment — as if inclusivity and diversity have anything to do with awarding a movie’s merits. Yes, this is the culture they are pushing, and it is rather nauseating.
Of course, the hate mail wasn’t just about “Black Panther” — it was about daring to criticize superhero movies at all. That, thankfully, has changed. Now it’s trendy to hate Marvel. Amazing what a few years of lazy storytelling and CG sludge will do to a brand.
Still, buried under the mountain of mediocrity, there are some genuine gems in the MCU lineup. Even Francis Ford Coppola—who famously called Marvel movies “despicable” —admitted he liked “Deadpool” (which, for the record, isn’t technically MCU).
Coppola: “I liked Deadpool, I thought that was amazing.”
Actual quote.
So, here are the eight Marvel films I think are actually worth a damn. They didn’t sell out story for spectacle, and they had enough vision to feel distinct:
Avengers: Endgame
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Iron Man
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & 2
Captain America: Civil War
Thor: Ragnarok
Iron Man 3
I’ve only seen each of these once, so I can’t vouch for how well they’ve aged—but at least they made an impression the first time around. And these days, that’s more than you can say for most Marvel output.