Over 15 years and 33 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has thrown countless seemingly insurmountable obstacles and more than a few apocalyptic events at their line-up of superheroes trying to save the world, the universe and reality itself. Their villains are at the head of all of this; crazed scientists, treacherous government agents, brutal alien warlords, amoral industrialists, gods and monsters and everything in between, an MCU villain can be so many things. Some were unfortunately the weakest elements in the movies they appeared in, being either generic, poorly served by the script or misjudged in their performances, while others ended up being memorable highlights even above the title costumed characters. 

There are often multiple antagonists in these superhero stories so we’ve tried to stick to one villain per MCU film. This is except where it’s the same antagonist carried over into a sequel film, and in cases where there’s more than one threat to our heroes. In these instances, we’ve focussed on the most active baddies or the masterminds of the various diabolical plots.

This ranking will be based on the level of threat the various bad guys pose to our supremely skilled and miraculously superpowered heroes, the diabolical creativity of their respective master plans and the sheer evilness of their actions. Spoilers ahead!

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

31. Malekith – Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“Look upon my legacy, Algrim. I can barely remember a time before the light.” 

A dark elf conqueror with a vendetta against Asgard for a defeat in ancient times, Malekith is reawakened and plots to snuff out the light across the universe (because his kind really like the darkness of the void).

A hugely distinct and memorable villain from the comics became one of the most boring to ever antagonise a superhero movie. Whatever Christopher Eccleston was trying to do with his performance after undergoing many uncomfortable hours in the makeup chair was lost in a brutally hacked film edit and an all-round po-faced determination to live up to the “dark” of the title.

Note: dark is not the same as interesting. 

30. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash – Iron Man 2 (2010)

“You come from a family of thieves and butchers, and like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your history.”

Whiplash is a Stark-hating, parrot-loving nuclear physicist/inventor with arc reactor-powered whips and an army of drones to carry out his revenge.

Mickey Rourke got a lot of jobs in quick succession as various shades of tough guy in this period. The Wrestler this is not, and he doesn’t exactly stretch himself as Ivan, offering a barely passable Russian accent and playing with a toothpick as a poor substitute for a more intricate characterisation as he plots vaguely defined Cold War-fuelled vengeance on Tony Stark and the American Military Industrial Complex.

29. Emil Blonsky/Abomination – The Incredible Hulk (2008)

“If I took what I had now, and put it in a body that I had ten years ago, that would be someone I wouldn’t want to fight.”

Abomination is an unstable British Black Ops asset who volunteers for a series of dangerous experimental super soldier treatments in order to capture the Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk worked best when it was Marvel’s answer to a Universal Monster movie, but one of its weakest elements was having Blonsky as its villain. Roth is fine, but he just wasn’t all that threatening, the character thinly sketched as a violent jerk with a superiority complex. When he finally transforms into his bony green alter ego Abomination for a CG smashathon in Harlem, it becomes almost impossible to care.

Recommended for you: Once More with Feeling – 10 More of the Best Remakes

28. Dar-Benn – The Marvels (2023)

“I always come back.”

Continuing what Ronan the Accuser started, Kree warrior Dar-Benn seeks to unite the two powerful Cosmic Bands in order to open portals across the galaxy to pillage resources from countless worlds to restore her dying planet of Hala and reassert her species’ dominance in the galaxy.

The problem with Dar-Benn is not her evil-for-the-right-reasons master plan or her relative threat level to our heroes (which is considerable considering that with space-magical enhancement she can hold her own against three formidable supes at once), it’s that there’s nothing else to her.

We needed more time for layers to come though Zawe Ashton’s broad, pantomimey performance and she too often feels like a retread of the kinds of villains we’ve seen in the MCU many times before, just a means to an end.

27. Ava Starr/Ghost – Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

“It hurts. It always hurts.”

The Marvels Review

A scientist’s daughter with an unnatural condition that causes her to painfully phase in and out of the physical realm, Ghost resorts to stealing Pymtech to survive.

Ghost is an admirable attempt to make something interesting out of a gimmicky physics-based villain. The character is let down not by Hannah John-Kamen’s engaging and tortured performance but by her essential irrelevance to the film’s main plot and lack of enough meaningful screen time. It’s almost like they only decided late in the day that Ant-Man and the Wasp should have an antagonist at all, and that may have been the wrong decision for this particular movie. 

26. Ronan – Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

“I don’t recall killing your family. I doubt I’ll remember killing you either.”

Ronan is a Kree fanatic who courts war and is gathering enough power to wipe the planet Xandar from the galaxy.

Ronan, with his war paint, samurai helmet and big hammer has a strong look, and thanks to Lee Pace he is given an imposing presence and a rumbling voice. But you’d struggle to claim he had much in the way of depth as a character. He wants a weapon to destroy a planet because because he’s from a war-like race and that’s about it, though Pace’s affronted expression and confused “what are you doing?” as Star-Lord dances in front of him as he’s trying to trigger an apocalypse is pretty memorable.

25. Darren Cross/Yellowjacket – Ant-Man (2015)

“Did you think you could stop the future with a heist?”

Ant-Man Review

Hank Pym’s protégé, ouster and successor at his company, Yellowjacket seeks to weaponise and sell Pym’s shrinking technology to the highest bidder.

Marvel has a lot of evil CEOs in its rogues gallery and Corey Stoll brings plenty of punchable arrogance to his performance as Darren Cross. He murders rivals and exterminates animal test subjects without second thought, seemingly motivated by Pym not trusting him with the secrets of his technology (though really it’s because he enjoys doing it). 

Cross does have probably the most gruesome villain death in the MCU so far, and it’s no more than he deserves.

“There was an idea…”

Said idea was different to almost every version of the big screen superhero seen previously. Rather than each costumed hero existing in their own sealed-off vivariums, what if they could all share one interconnected universe containing a single ever-evolving and expansive story?

Once the idea gained traction, billions of dollars, and many “phases” of franchise continuity, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) became the envy of every studio with a lucrative intellectual property to siphon and thus many attempts were made to replicate the success of the “Marvel Formula”.

Much like the James Bond series in the decades before it, the MCU is primarily a producer-led franchise, the ultimate mastermind behind the project being Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, though distinct directors like Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon and Taika Waititi have certainly left their mark on their respective entries in the ongoing series.

What keeps us (and wider box office audiences) coming back, aside from the ever-increasing levels of superhero spectacle and long-form storytelling borrowing liberally from 80-plus years of comic books, is the time you’re afforded to grow to love the characters and their relationships with each other, especially in the ambitious team-up Avengers movies.

In this edition of Ranked we at The Film Magazine are assessing every entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and because fans have very different opinions on the best, the worst and everything in between regarding this series, we’ve attempted to find a balance between average critical consensus and general audience reception, as well as genre innovation and the lasting impact on popular culture, to order all of them definitively from worst to best.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration… Every MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

33. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

“A guy dressed like a bee tried to kill me when I was six. I’ve never had a normal life.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

The Ant-Man films are probably the most inconstant sub-series in the MCU, quality wise, but because the final chapter of their trilogy tries to go both big and small, it well and truly overreaches itself.

Pitting the Lang/Van Dyne family against Kang the Conqueror in the Quantum Realm, force of nature Jonathan Majors playing a fascinating villain isn’t quite enough to save Peyton Reed’s threequel from being just an eye-catching jumble of mismatched, tonally confusing ideas.

For Kang’s first, less maniacal appearance and the start of this whole Multiverse Saga, make sure to watch Season 1 of ‘Loki’.

32. Eternals (2021)

“We have loved these people since the day we arrived. When you love something, you protect it.”

Eternals Review

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) is a great director, no doubt, but she was just not a good fit for the MCU in this story of space gods guiding humanity’s progress. Considering the usually grounded and singular vision of her work, this was a particularly crushing disappointment for most audiences.

The ambition and epic millennia-spanning scope of Eternals sadly did not pay off in this jarring, misjudged slog of a final product that couldn’t even be saved by a stellar and diverse cast. 

31. The Marvels (2023)

“Listen to me, you are chosen for a greater purpose. So you must go. But I will never let you go.”

The Marvels Review

The Marvels smartly builds a lot of its appeal around its central team-up of Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan as their power usage causes them to swap places across the universe, but their found family warmth and oodles of charisma can’t overcome all the film’s flaws.

This needed more purposeful storytelling, a villain that doesn’t feel like a retread of what came before and more direct confrontation of the darker implications of the story. The musical elements will likely make an already decisive movie more so, but the MCU overall could do with some more audacious imagery like what Nia DaCosta does with alien cats.

Watching ‘Wandavision’ and ‘Ms Marvel’ through beforehand will certainly help you connect with two of the three leads that bit quicker.

30. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

“Whosoever holds these weapons, and believes in getting home, if they be true of heart is therefore worthy, and shall possess… for limited time only, the power… of Thor!”

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Taika Waititi is the kind of distinct voice that gave the MCU a jolt in the arm when it was most needed, and he was vital in reinvigorating the Thor series, but the tonal balance and technical polish certainly felt off in 2022 release Thor: Love and Thunder.

Good performances from Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale, and some memorable set pieces aside, Thor’s latest adventure battling a god-killer with his now superpowered ex-girlfriend Jane Foster at his side feels like too many mismatched stories smashed together.

Recommended for you: Taika Waititi Films Ranked

29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“One son who wanted the throne too much, and other who will not take it. Is this my legacy?”

The God of Thunder’s third film appearance tries to live up to its title with a story of dark elves trying to snuff out all light in the universe. Sadly, a late change in director – Alan Taylor taking over from would-be Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins – and extensive Loki-centric reshoots didn’t help an already disjointed film feel any less so.

Thor’s dynamic with his Earthbound friends is still funny and more Loki (shoehorned in or not) is always a good thing with Tom Hiddleston in the role, but the storytelling is inconsistent at best and Christopher Eccleston under heavy prosthetics as Malekith may be the most boring villain in the MCU so far.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

“The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you’re in.”

The MCU’s first direct sequel went bigger and darker with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark fighting a vengeful Russian inventor, a rival industrialist and potentially fatal health problems. Unfortunately, this ended up being a much less focussed, overblown and not all that compelling movie.

Scarlet Johansson makes her debut as Black Widow here, though she’s just a generic sexy spy at this point and not yet given the dimensions other writers would later bestow. The action is decent enough, but you wouldn’t lose out on much of you skipped over Iron Man 2 on your next MCU rewatch.

27. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

“You know, I know a few techniques that could help you manage that anger effectively.”

Lacking the clear intentions and boldness of many subsequent MCU movies, The Incredible Hulk is stylistically old-fashioned but works slightly better if you view this as a big-budget tribute to sympathetic monster movies (this one was made by Universal, after all).

A movie filled with false starts and one-off appearances (most obviously Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner would be recast with Mark Ruffalo for The Avengers in 2012), very little was carried over to the wider franchise right up until Tim Roth’s reappearance in ‘She-Hulk’ fourteen years later.

This is generally uninspiring stuff, with its most interesting man-on-the-run elements cribbed from the 1970s ‘Incredible Hulk’ TV show.

Recommended for you: Where to Start with Universal Classic Monsters

On the screen, Marvel Studios’ trusted output has been received positively by critics and audiences alike, the majority of its thirty feature releases being well received and worthy of their hype, even their so-called “calculated risks” being more often refreshing to their already established formula than detrimental to their overall output.

Cinema has been forever changed by the dawn of Marvel’s big screen dominance and old-school serial approach to storytelling, Disney’s newly ordained crown jewel inspiring every rival studio and aspirational production company to gobble up trusted IPs and set forth plans for so-called Movie Universes based around everything from fellow superheroes to famous board games, reinvented children’s cartoons to horror characters.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are putting the world’s most influential film franchise under the microscope to compare every feature length Marvel release with one another to determine which MCU films are the best and which are the worst, judging each on artistic merit and cultural impact.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter. 

30. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

To this day, Louis Leterrier’s 2008 MCU contribution The Incredible Hulk is the forgotten member of the family. And, while this isn’t necessarily this distinctly average film’s fault and is actually more to do with Edward Norton refusing to return to his role as the Hulk following strained relationships with both director and studio, as well as how the rights to the Hulk character are locked in a contract that limits Marvel Studios from telling a standalone story with Mark Ruffalo, a lot can still be said for how dated this film is – The Incredible Hulk playing a lot more like Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four and X-Men: Origins – Wolverine than the later and much more tasteful Marvel Studios offerings to come in this list.

Recommended for you: Every X-Men Movie Ranked

29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The worst of a bad bunch of uninspired sequels, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World not only seemed absent of the comedy and much of the mythology of the original Thor film but it also hit at precisely the wrong time – that being between the much more highly anticipated Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the year after the original The Avengers.

Thor 2 was generic in a Suicide Squad “angry swirl of evil descending from the sky for no reason” kind of way; a movie so uninspired Chris Hemsworth has openly spoken about how he almost quit the role because of it; a perfectly serviceable sequel (especially at the time), but one of little consequence or imagination that few get excited to rewatch – an MCU entry that time hasn’t been very kind to.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

The first Iron Man was such a huge success creatively, artistically, critically and financially for Marvel Studios that a quick-turnaround 2nd movie was demanded to bolster Phase One’s launch – a period in the history of the MCU that was a lot more rocky than many are willing to admit.

Iron Man 2 was a failure in all of the ways Iron Man was a success, apart from financially, offering bland and sometimes barely comprehensible moments of action, dialogue and character. As a result, Iron Man 2 fits right in alongside the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man as a very particular brand of cheesy and uninspired comic book movie that was made more to earn a quick buck than it was to fulfil any creative or artistic need. It has its moments – which movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man doesn’t? – but thankfully the MCU has proven itself to be better than this in its other phases since.

27. Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

Coming between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – ie, post-snap – Ant-Man and The Wasp was put in an awful position to succeed, the creative minds behind the film having to choose between embracing the actions of Infinity War or ignoring them altogether. They chose the latter (at least until the film’s final moments), but what fans wanted was something of an indicator as to what was to come in Endgame, or at least a taste of post-Infinity War’s MCU landscape, and the comedy-centred light-heartedness of an Ant-Man movie was an example of Marvel Studios not taking a minute to read the room.

More than that, Ant-Man and The Wasp felt scaled down from the original, its outlandish creative ideas brought into line with the wider MCU look and feel of things, making what seemed like a promising sequel to a moving and hilarious comedy one of the studio’s most formulaic and typically “superhero movie” releases to date – the “formula” not being necessarily bad, but certainly overplayed.

26. Eternals (2021)

Eternals Review

Eternals came with a lot of hope and expectation given the nature of the original material it was being adapted from and how it was the first MCU entry to be directed by an Oscar-winning director (Chloé Zhao). Ultimately, it proved too much of a mix of the trusted Marvel formula and director Zhao’s trademark directorial style, the clashes between action and existentialism forcing a disjointed rhythm in the filmmaking that made Eternals feel way longer than it was (which was one of the longest MCU films in history) and hit home way less effectively than anyone would have hoped.

As a product of the world’s largest production arm, Eternals was hopefully diverse from cast to crew, but ultimately this release had two authorial presences that seemed to clash on screen, this already troubling combination being amplified by its position in the MCU as a part of the studio’s fourth phase and thus responsible for a number of story elements and character introductions barely relevant to its standalone narrative.

25. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Despite featuring one of the most empathetic and exceptionally-performed villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe history, Thor: Love and Thunder was a messy fourth instalment in the God of Thunder’s individual franchise, a film that flipped between tones as if at a loss at how to create both meaningful drama and laugh-out-loud comedy.

In comparison to post-2012 Marvel releases, the action was relatively poor too. Gone were the exceptionally choreographed sequences of the mainstream Avengers films or the differing styles of Black Widow, Doctor Strange and Shang-Chi, and in its place were bland and almost inconsequential battles repeated, a few moments of awe failing to rectify for a movie’s worth of oversights.

Thor: Love and Thunder is an enjoyable time at the movies. It will make you laugh and it does have some interesting moments, but these pros are simply too few and far between to make for a strong (or even meaningful) MCU entry.

24. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Adored by some and maligned by others, Iron Man 3 simply came about much too early, screenwriter-director Shane Black’s offerings of genre and trope deconstructions – most notably the choice to twist a genuinely fascinating villain into a trope-ridden stereotypical bad guy as a form of commentary – being things usually reserved for the dying days of a genre, not for one of its peaks.

This film was the follow up to The Avengers where Tony Stark had almost died, so Black’s smarts didn’t hit as they could have much later in the studio’s line-up – people wanted emotion and stakes, as well as suitable conclusions to character arcs, and Black’s work was seen to undermine that, the very strong work in several aspects of this film ultimately shunned to the background of a film dominated by a creator’s singular intention seemingly forced into the canon at the wrong time.

Recommended for you: 5 Great Comedies from the Past 5 Years That You Should Watch To Keep You Going

Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers and more have become the new Hollywood A-List, and the movies of Marvel, DC and so on, have proven to be greatly influential when it comes to the direction of Hollywood itself. Their importance is unquestioned, their power and dominance unrivalled; but what are the films that brought us here? Which comic book movies have been the most important in establishing the genre, shaping it, moulding it?

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we offer the 10 Most Important Comic Book Movies Ever. These films have been judged with regard to their importance to the landscape in which they were released, their lasting influence, and their roles in bringing about change and revolution to both the comic book genre and, further, cinema itself.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

1. Superman (1978)

There were superhero films released before Superman in 1978, but besides the TV movie Batman (1966) there was little by way of memorable fare or major productions. Richard Donner’s big budget studio-driven offering changed all that.

By 1978 Superman was already a cornerstone of American culture, a poster boy for the best of the best and the values we should all strive to uphold. He was America’s unproblematic hero in a time of great division, heightened paranoia, and conspiracy come to life. Warner Bros put an astonishing $55million behind bringing him to the big screen, which in relation to modern day $200-300million movies may not seem like a lot but in context to releases of the time was an astronomical amount: just a few years earlier The Godfather had been made for $6million, Jaws for $9million, and Star Wars for $11million; even 80s hits like E.T., Indiana Jones and Back to the Future were made for under $20million. But Superman embodied society’s need for escapism and, as such, the budget seemed well spent. Superman birthed the modern superhero’s position at the top of the box office, crowning its run with close to $300million in box office receipts at a time of great financial destitution, but perhaps most importantly it reminded the world that Hollywood could still offer the best form of fantastical escapism, the burgeoning television market left in the dust.

Clean cut, better-than-good heroes have rarely been so exceptional, and the superhero genre would not be what it is without Donner and star Christopher Reeve in particular. The themes, tropes and expectations founded in their work have since proven to be the backbone of every film on this list.

Recommended for you: Superman Movies Ranked

2. Blade (1998)

A studio actioner led by an African American was important even before the mainstream conversation caught up, and Blade was probably the first non-Batman comic book adaptation to look and feel like the superhero juggernauts to come.

Without Blade we would not have got the next film on this list, nor many of the comic book films released in the 2000s. Wesley Snipes’ vampire hunter was brought to life in a sub-par era headlined by Steel and Judge Dredd, and yet it burst through the narrow expectations set by other films in the genre to become something altogether more memorable. It was, in the midst of the late 90s’ boom of youth culture, embraced as the antithesis of the campy, family-orientated, (mostly) cheap movies that had made up the comic book adaptations of the decade, its R rating (18 in the UK) giving it an edge that the rebellious teens of Generation X ate up as readily as their hardcore wrestling and Nu metal. Blade all-but saved superhero cinema after its brief Batman bubble was brutally burst by Joel Schumacher and Warner Bros in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and set a new template for what comic book adaptations could be. The rest is history.

The proof of Blade’s importance as an early comic book film comes via this one simple fact: before Blade, Marvel had only ever allowed one of their properties to be adapted for film and released in cinemas, the box office dud Howard the Duck – after Blade, they partnered with studios on eighteen different releases in the next ten years, two Blade sequels included. This 1998 film was revolutionary for comic book IP licensing and thus the future of the blockbuster landscape, and Wesley Snipes’ on-screen presence helped to legitimise the comic book film adaptation as a concept whilst reinforcing the importance of representation on screen.

One of the most popular franchises within the Marvel Cinematic Universe has long been Guardians of the Galaxy. Helmed by James Gunn, these operatic space adventures have been box office hits (totalling over $1.6billion worldwide) and fan favourites (an average of 89.5% on RottenTomatoes). Now however, the director is suggesting that this ragtag group’s third outing will be their last.

Speaking on Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast, Gunn stated:

“This is the end for us, the last time people will see this team of Guardians.”

While this doesn’t rule out future Guardians film, it does heavily imply that the team audiences are familiar with will likely come to an end.

“I want to give people the wrap up that they deserve for this story,” Gunn added, having directed and written the first two instalments in 2014 and 2017.

No story elements are currently known, but Gunn assures that the film will be a grand finale.

“It’s big; it’s so, so big and dark, and different from what people might be expecting it to be.”

The story will likely see the team deal with the consequences of Avengers: Endgame, which resurrected original member Gamora. Will Poulter (Midsommar; The Revenant) joins the cast as Adam Warlock, an artificial being created to destroy the Guardians.

Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049), who stars as Drax the Destroyer, has also opened up about the third film being the finale. Speaking to Marvel-centric podcast, Phase Zero, he says: “It’s our third film, we’re gonna wrap it up. And it’s been a hell of a journey with a few bumps. So, I’m looking forward to this, man. My cast and obviously the director, James Gunn, they’re like family to me.”

The Guardians films brought a lot of attention to Bautista from non-wrestling fans, and Drax allowed him to explore his comedic side as an actor. He adds, “This is kind of where my journey started. It’s come full circle and I’m looking forward to wrapping it up. And it’s bittersweet. I mean, I’ve been doing Guardians since 2013. When this comes out, it’ll be in 2023, so that’s a 10-year journey. All things must end. “I’m looking forward to kind of wrapping this up with my friends and family.”

Meanwhile in 2021 James Gunn directed The Suicide Squad for rival studio Warner Bros., based on characters from the DC universe. A spinoff series, following John Cena‘s character Peacemaker has recently began airing on HBO Max, created by Gunn. Warner Bros. executive Walter Hamada has confirmed that Gunn will return to DC for future projects.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is schedule to release on 5th May 2023, but fans can see the beloved team even earlier with this year’s ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’, set to debut on Disney+ in December.

The team at The Film Magazine have come together to offer a limited series of audio essays on cinema’s most romantic moments, with 7 team members in total contributing heartfelt and at times personal insights into the magic of the great romances of the past century or so.

In this eclectic mix of romantic moments, episodes vary from a classic like A Matter of Life and Death as chosen by Katie Doyle, to the most lucrative box office smash of all time, Avengers: Endgame as chosen by Beth Sawdon.

In this mini-series from The Film Magazine and available via PodBean, you can listen to episodes on the following films from the following writers (and in this case speakers). Please click the episode of choice to listen to each individual episode:

• Ep. 1 – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Joseph Wade)
• Ep. 2 – Avengers: Endgame (Beth Sawdon)
• Ep. 3 – Witness (Mark Carnochan)
• Ep. 4 – Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Sam Sewell-Peterson)
• Ep. 5 – The Full Monty (Annice White)
• Ep. 6 – Wild at Heart (Jacob Davis)
• Ep. 7 – A Matter of Life and Death (Katie Doyle)

A written accompaniment of Joseph Wade’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind essay is available here, while The Film Magazine also hosts reviews of Avengers: Endgame, The Full Monty and A Matter of Life and Death.

In this series produced by The Film Magazine, each episode was written and read by the individual authors, each of whom were given the freedom to approach the subject as they saw fit. Experienced in the world of online publishing, each member of this series also boasts an impressive academic background.

Each of the 7 hosts can be found on Twitter in the following places:

• Joseph Wade – @JoeTFM
• Beth Sawdon – @FlipendoFilms
• Mark Carnochan – @MarkJurassic
• Sam Sewell-Peterson – @SSPThinksFilm
• Annice White – @AnniceWhite_
• Jacob Davis – @JacobFilmGuy
• Katie Doyle – @Katie_TFM

For more on each of the subject matters available in this series, check out our ranking of every MCU movie (including Avengers: Endgame) in our MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Ranked article and our Where to Start with David Lynch piece.

If you like what we made, please leave a comment below or tweet us @thefilmagazine.

A fifth installment of the successful John Wick action franchise starring Keanu Reeves (Bill & Ted, Toy Story 4) has been confirmed by Lionsgate, according to Deadline. The film will be shot back to back with the fourth film, intended to begin production in early 2021.

In an earnings call, the CEO of Lionsgate, John Feltheimer, stated: “We’re also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theaters Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year.” Reeves is currently shooting the fourth Matrix film for Warner Bros.

The John Wick franchise has proven to be critically and commercially successful with its first three installments, so it comes as no surprise that Lionsgate are keen to start work on more films. To date, the series has amassed $584.2m, with each film making more than the predecessor. John Wick: Chapter 3 made $326.7m against a $75m budget, showing how profitable the films are for the studio.

Fans can expect a more connected story between the two films, as is usually the case with films shot consecutively. Examples include The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies as well as MCU movies Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. No story details are currently known for either film however.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is currently scheduled to release on 27 May 2022 with Chapter 5 yet to be slated by Lionsgate.

Here are the Top 10 Most Streamed Netflix Original Movies:

1. Extraction – 99 million streams
2. Bird Box – 89m streams
3. Spenser Confidential – 85m streams
4. 6 Underground – 83m streams
5. Murder Mystery – 83m streams
6. The Irishman – 64m streams
7. Triple Frontier – 63m streams
8. The Wrong Missy – 59m streams
9. The Platform – 56m streams
10. The Perfect Date – 55m streams

Topping off the list is this year’s Extraction starring Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Ragnarok). The film reunited the global star with producers Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed Avengers: Endgame, coincidentally another record breaker – the highest grossing theatrical film of all time. Of course, the current global situation may be responsible for this film charting so high, as audiences have only had access to streaming for new releases due to theaters being closed. This film was released during the lock down period.

Some of the most acclaimed Netflix originals have not made the list, such as Roma and Marriage Story, which were both heavy awards contenders. The exception to this would be Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Irishman which was also nominated for a slew of awards, including 10 nominations at the 2020 Oscars.

One reason why this appeared on the list while the other two did not, could be due to the sheer amount of star power: Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino and Pesci to name a few. Audiences are likely familiar with their work and the crime genre, which has proven to be popular in Hollywood for much of the past century with classics such as The Godfather and Goodfellas. Star power is a key factor in a lot of the other films on the list, with most having a big name in the leading role, such as Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool 2; The Hitman’s Bodyguard) in 6 Underground, Sandra Bullock (Demolition Man) in Bird Box and Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems) in Murder Mystery. 

Unlike The Irishman however, a lot of the other films are more action based as opposed to dialogue focused. Triple Frontier, Extraction, Spenser Confidential and 6 Underground are all action films. These are more friendly to casual audiences and therefore reach a wider appeal. This suggests that these films are more entertaining to viewers who just want to watch a film in a leisurely way.

Another commonality some of the films share is their global appeal. Extraction, for example, takes place in India. 6 Underground features a diverse cast and multiple locations, such as Florence and Hong Kong. Murder Mystery is a globe-trotting crime thriller and Triple Frontier is primarily set in South America. Their popularity not only illustrates the importance of representation, but also proves how much of a global player Netflix has become in targeting specific national demographics. Further proof of this is The Platform, which is a Spanish language film.

Overall, we can draw a few conclusions from the data provided. First and foremost, Netflix are relentless in releasing successful original content – they are clearly succeeding and proving that despite the escalation of the streaming wars, they are still sat securely at the top. The data also suggests Netflix follow a formula to make their films as popular as possible. This formula produces films that have a global appeal through a diversity in cast and location, as well as a focus on action, which casts a wider net on the potential audience. Additionally, the inclusion of a big name actor usually results in better viewing figures as it provides familiarity, the service’s latest action hit The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron being a recent example.

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But, as any fan of the genre will tell you, elements of science fiction are prevalent across all genres in all forms of media, with film specifically looking to mold sci-fi to whichever other genre or sub-genre it can find, the results at times being spectacularly bad and at other times truly exceptional.

The concept of time travel is just one of the many ways that science fiction can be molded into something else, the very notion of travelling backwards (or far forwards) through time being inherently sci-fi but also lending itself to increasing the enjoyment of action movies, fantasy tales, comedies and even romantic dramas. Time travel is one of science fiction’s great means of philosophical exploration and presentation, and is therefore welcomed across all forms of cinema as a beacon through which films old and new can do the same.

It will be these films that we explore in this article; the very best of time travel outside of the straight sci-fi movie; some excellent examples of films that incorporate time travel without wholly immersing you in an entirely new world; a Top list of 5 Movies About Time Travel for People Who Don’t Like Sci-Fi.

Let us know of your suggestions for great time travel movies in the comments after reading this piece, and be sure to follow us on Twitter for updates on more articles like this.

1. The Superhero Movie – Avengers: Endgame (2019)

If time travel movies are exceptional in any regard, it’s in the catharsis they can offer. There are arguably no more cathartic than Avengers: Endgame.

This slot could have gone to X-Men: Days of Future Past or even Deadpool 2, but no superhero movie has ever done time travel quite as effectively as Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios’ expectation-shattering series conclusion revisiting the franchise’s best moments in a time-hopping sequence relatable to Back to the Future and notably inspired by the same movie, the concept of time travel proving vital not only to the plot (the success of the Avengers’ mission), but just as important to character pay offs and gratification, stitching ten-plus years and twenty-plus movies into a cathartic conclusion for the franchise.

Time travel here is sci-fi, fantasy and action, all in the easy to digest but emotionally charged presentation Marvel Studios always offers, so while it may still be a little much to those against the very notion of science fiction, Endgame is undeniably a must-see touchstone of our culture and an unmissable time travel film.

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2. The Rom-Com – Groundhog Day (1993)

Few out and out romantic comedies have tested the waters of time travel, possibly due to the concept’s reliance upon taking certain themes seriously and therefore not making for the same snappy, throwaway goodness that most rom-coms strive for, but Groundhog Day is an outstanding example.

Bill Murray offers one of his very best, and certainly one of his most iconic, sarcastic leading men roles as a news reporter reliving the same day over and over again. There are many spiritual and religious theories that can be applied to the moral edge this film’s narrative takes, but at its heart Groundhog Day is a time travel rom-com about one man’s journey from bitter asshole to appreciative, loving asshole, and we all love Bill Murray just that little bit more for it.

A shout out also goes to 13 Going On 30 for its reverse-Big time travel amalgamation that won the hearts of millennials the world over.

Despite earning praise from all corners of the film industry for her performance in Midsommar specifically, Pugh was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her performance as Amy March in Little Women, and her role as Amy March alone. The nomination had the same feeling as many other of the Oscars’ nominations have had over the years; that of a collective of people coming to celebrate the yearly output of the industry’s greatest actors by nominating them for just one of their performances in any given year of multiple fantastic performances.

It’s understandable, too. There can only be 5 nominees per acting category after all, and it was noticeably strange (and surprising) to see Pugh’s awards competitor Scarlett Johansson pop up in both the Supporting Actress and Lead Actress categories during this year’s nominees announcement. But, with all the times throughout history that actors have offered stellar work on multiple ocassions without any conversation regarding the difficulty of embodying several different personas back-to-back – Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name and The Shape of Water; Alessandro Nivola in You Were Never Really Here and Disobedience, for example – perhaps it’s time that The Academy embraced the idea of rewarding actors for their ability to perform to terrifically high standards multiple times in any given calendar year.

And we thought we’d given them a hand…

In this list, we’re nominating five actors (male and female) who would have likely been nominated for a hypothetical Most Extraordinary Overall Output award at the 2020 Oscars. As the title of the award suggests, we’ll be judging actors and actresses based upon the quality of their output over two or more films in the 2019 calendar year.

Vote for which actor you feel would win the award in the comments at the end of this article, and let us know if you think of any other actors who could have been nominated. Alternatively, Tweet us!

1. Florence Pugh

Movies: Fighting With My Family; Midsommar; Little Women

There’s a reason that this article started with Florence Pugh; she’s had a stellar 12 months.

The release of Fighting With My Family seemed like a launch point for the performer, despite stellar performances in Lady Macbeth (2016) and Outlaw King (2018) creating a buzz around the young Brit in the years prior. The true life story of one of professional wrestling’s most out-there characters allowed Pugh to excel in a portrayal that had both mainstream appeal and a tasking artistry to it, but it was in the summer’s horror release Midsommar that the then 23 year old began to see the fruits of her labour, audiences and critics alike lauding her transformative work at the centre of Ari Aster’s much discussed follow up to Hereditary.

In Midsommar, Pugh could put forth an innocence and fragility at times showcased in Fighting With My Family, as well as a sinister edge and distinct power that had been on offer in Lady Macbeth. She grew with the movie, excelling as its centrepiece in a truly star-making turn.

In Little Women, the same combination of youthful innocence was again matched by a similarly as distinct inner power and truth, Pugh’s stand out scene – a rant in confrontation to Timothee Chalamet’s Laurie berating her life choices – being presented with a stiff upper lip not too dissimilar to her earlier and more niche work.

2019 was an Oscar-worthy year for Florence Pugh because she offered so much variety in roles of varying stature across films with distinctly different intentions, excelling in each of them as if a natural at comedy, drama and horror all at once.

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2. Robert Pattinson

Movies: High Life; The King; The Lighthouse

When looking back on the career of Robert Pattinson, it is likely that 2019 will be remembered as one of his most important and one of his most stellar.

The actor, most famously remembered for his role in the Twilight franchise, has been working largely in independent and auteur-driven fare ever since, 2020 marking 10 years of excellent non-Twilight work that seemed to reach its pinnacle with High Life and The Lighthouse in 2019.

Though his role in Netflix’s The King was divisive to say the least, Pattinson’s output as a deeply intrinsic, angry and yet responsible man in Claire Denis’ sci-fi drama High Life was one of distinct opposition to much of his expressive, angry work in Robert Eggers’ mystical thriller The Lighthouse, yet each were phenomenal expressions of a talent that is becoming more and more undeniable as each performance comes and goes. Soon enough he’ll be a Best Actor nominee, and arguably he could have been twice over in 2019, but regardless of the current nominees and the culture that still unfairly surrounds Pattinson, this past year was one incomparable to many others in the industry; a simply superb 12 months.

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