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.

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It is thanks in no small part to the seven releases of these three studios that cinema-going numbers reached a ten year high this Autumn, 2021’s late blockbuster season proving to be too strong of a pull for audiences desperate for a little bit of escapist fun.

This has been one of the most fascinating years in the genre’s history, with one of the year’s releases coming per the demands of fans and another leaning heavily into nostalgia for the early days of CG-driven superhero cinema, and yet there hasn’t been a necessarily terrible comic book movie release. In 2021, every comic book film from DC, Marvel and Sony has offered its own draw, creating a rich palette of post-Endgame superhero fun.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are judging each of 2021’s comic book movies by artistic merit, critical reception, audience perception and overall importance to the comic book sub-genre, to rank each from worst to best in this: 2021 Comic Book Movies Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

7. Eternals

Eternals Review

Eternals, Marvel Studios’ first comic book movie to be directed by an already Oscar-winning filmmaker (Chloé Zhao), sits in the lowest slot in this list not because it was bad but because it was simply too disjointed.

Perhaps the most fascinating mainstream misfire of the year, Eternals had hints of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland peaking through the Marvel curtain but ultimately felt like the product of two contrasting visions that featured not nearly enough of the slow-burn existentialism of the director’s work or the colour-blasting visual extravaganzas of its studio.

It seems like each of the characters were probably far more interesting in earlier drafts of the script before Marvel had the chance to remind those working on the film that they had to include fight scenes, and the reputation of cast members like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek speaks to that. Ultimately, however, Eternals was pulled in too many directions, mixing naturalistic lighting with CG effects to create a bland palette, and needing to include way too many titbits and character introductions to move beyond expository dialogue and trope-ridden narrative beats.

6. Black Widow

Black Widow Review

Despite suffering from the trademarked villain problem of earlier Marvel movies, Black Widow at least offered something fun and relatable for fans of the MCU’s longest-standing female Avenger to sink their teeth into.

Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz were welcomed additions to the cast, and director Cate Shortland certainly made the most of each of their talents, creating a believable albeit disjointed family dynamic and solidifying each as memorable Marvel side-characters with the potential to one day lead their own franchises.

The frustrating lack of creativity that lumbered the final act with yet another Marvel “falling from the sky” ending, and the film’s out-of-place positioning on the Marvel calendar (coming after Avengers: Endgame), dragged down an otherwise solid MCU entry that will by no means be remembered as one of the studio’s best movies but will work as a strong final hurrah for an underpowered but vital Avenger.

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Black Widow (2021)
Director: Cate Shortland
Screenwriter: Eric Pearson
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, Ray Winstone

2nd July 2019. That was the last time we had a Marvel movie released on the big screen. Two whole years. That day marked the release of Spider-Man: Far from Home, a portrayal of the aftermath of the events seen in Avengers: Endgame and a movie that allowed fans of the franchise to grieve the loss of many major characters through the eyes of Peter Parker. Now, two years on, with the release of Black Widow fans can celebrate one of the many characters lost in Avengers: Endgame, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson).

Natasha’s dark past has often been referred to in her appearances throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and so Black Widow appropriately feels like a much darker entry into the franchise. This darker tone is a welcomed one and allows for the latest entry into the MCU to feel more fresh. Such a unique take also allows for director Cate Shortland to make an impact with her use of darker imagery and generally darker ideas.

Shortland’s efforts at the head of the production are severely let down by Eric Pearson’s script however, which is tonally a mess. In Pearson’s defence, Black Widow is a Marvel movie, rated 12A (PG-13), and there is only so dark a movie of this type can go, but the injections of humour into the film do come across as incredibly jarring, the two opposing tones of the film clashing in an ugly way with scenes jumping from Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Natasha describing what they had experienced in the Red Room in grim detail to goofy family melodrama. Admittedly there are a fair share of laughable moments, but these usually come at the expense of the characters, tone and any kind of deeper meaning.

Unsurprisingly this causes far more misses than hits when it comes to new characters. The biggest casualty is Natasha and Yelena’s father Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) – a Russian so stereotypical that he literally has “Karl Marx” tattooed across his knuckles and is more often than not the cause for jarring shifts in tone whilst simultaneously working as the funniest part of Black Widow – and Natasha’s ally Mason (O-T Fagbenle) – who is useful in moving certain plot points from one to another but who will also go down as one of the most painfully unfunny side characters in MCU history. Natasha’s mother Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) plays an important role in the movie and is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Black Widow due to Weisz’s role in a blockbuster for the first time in years, but she is sadly an incredibly dull character who does very little and is ultimately forgettable by the end. By far the greatest new addition into the world is Natasha’s younger sister Yelena Belova, adding some of the better humour into the film and overall being a charismatic character who is a welcome sidekick of sorts for Natasha. Florence Pugh is very good in the role and proves with the character of Yelena that she really can play anyone.

As for the villains of Black Widow, it seems Marvel have reverted to type by once again making any antagonists the weakest aspects of their movie. What Natasha Romanoff is taking down is seemingly more important than who, and the choreography in the fight scenes feels nothing more than run of the mill. Ray Winstone puts in a good performance as Dreykov and the character is fun, but sadly he isn’t featured enough and his impact is therefore limited to “all tell” and very little by way of things to show for it.

What Black Widow was trying to achieve is admirable: the idea of revealing more of this iconic Marvel character’s past, particularly from her era in the Red Room, opens the film up creatively and allows for much darker material than the MCU would ordinarily provide; and the film works to bring more meaning to Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff’s Avengers: Endgame death. In some ways this is present in the final product and works well, but in others it seems lost or undermined. Natasha’s end in Endgame was to many a perfect, heart-breaking end to one of the most beloved characters in the franchise. For that to be her final appearance would have worked as a sombre and emotional end. Though Black Widow brings more background to Scarlett Johansson’s franchise leader, it never quite feels essential.

Of course, Black Widow having her own stand-alone movie is a good thing, especially given that she’s only the 2nd female superhero in the MCU to do so. However, with Captain Marvel being set twenty-plus years before Endgame and Black Widow being set 7 years before Natasha would meet her demise in the same movie, it is a great shame that these long-awaited woman-fronted standalones have been nothing more than simple transitional movies within Marvel’s wider franchise output.

Black Widow isn’t all bad: Shortland directs efficiently, the performances are reasonably good (especially those of Florence Pugh and Scarlett Johansson) and some of the humour does work. However, for every hit there is a miss and although the darker side of Black Widow does make the film feel somewhat fresh, in many other ways it fails to be enough to separate this latest Marvel Studios release from your typical mid-tier entry into the MCU.

13/24

Of the ten highest grossing films of 2020, nine of them were released prior to the first UK national lockdown in March. The only post-lockdown film to make the list is Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet, earning a respectable £17.4 million, resulting in third place.

The highest grossing film of the year was 1917 from director Sam Mendes. The Film Magazine described the Oscar nominated film as having “technical dazzle and no-nonsense characterisation” that resulted in one of the strongest war films in recent years. It seems audiences felt the same, with the war epic grossing twice as much as its runner up. 1917 made $44 million in the UK, a nice feather in the cap of distributor eOne, usurping the top position from Disney who’ve reigned at the top for each of the last four years.

The only Disney film to crack the top ten was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was released in December of 2019. In an ordinary year, this list would likely have swayed heavily in Disney’s favour. Some of the studios biggest tentpoles, such as Marvel’s Black Widow, have been pushed back to 2021 while other big hitters like Mulan and Pixar’s Soul were moved to streaming service Disney Plus.

Coming in fourth is the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence vehicle Bad Boys For Life. This film was the highest grossing English language film worldwide, making $426.5 million, so its high placement on the UK domestic list falls in line with the worldwide trend.

Oscar and BAFTA Best Picture winner Parasite placed eighth on the list with £12.1 million, making it the only foreign language film to make an appearance. Its awards success and critical buzz no doubt secured it a well deserved place on the list. Earlier in 2020 the film became the highest grossing foreign language film ever released in the UK.

Finally, Sonic The Hedgehog made £19.3 million, placing second on the list. This is a victory for video game movies which have typically performed poorly at the box office. A sequel is currently in development.

The full list of films can be seen below:

1. 1917 – £44.0 million (eOne)

2. Sonic The Hedgehog – £19.3 million (Paramount)

3. Tenet – £17.4 million (Warner Bros)

4. Bad Boys For Life – £16.2 million (Sony)

5. Dolittle – £15.9 million (Universal)

6. Little Women – £15.3 million (Sony)

7. The Gentlemen – £12.2 million (Entertainment)

8. Parasite – £12.1 million (Studiocanal)

9. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – £11.3 million (Disney)

10. Jumanji: The Next Level – £11.0 million (Sony)

We’re all interested to see how the big M will adapt as they move into the post-Endgame era. Will the universe sit in a holding pattern until the X-Men arrive? What will the next event be? How will new streaming platform Disney+ change the amount of film content they release?

Here are 10 things we could and probably should see from the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the next 10 years. 

1. T’Challa’s Character Development

As we move into a new era of Marvel, likely to be without Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, it’s unclear how the group dynamic will change. Who will be an Avenger? Who will be the leader? Will any of that even matter?

Of course, the team-ups will have to continue – the culmination of the films to an event blockbuster is Marvel’s thing – but what will T’Challa’s role be?

We’ve seen his leadership ability, we’ve seen his strength and we’ve seen how valuable he is in technological terms. That’s all secondary to character, though…

In Black Panther, we saw T’challa change his outlook on his family, country and the world. How will he handle the consequences of his actions if it leads to another incident like Ultron? What flaws will develop over his next appearances, and how will he respond? Or will he get the Captain America treatment, where his flaw is that he’s just way too good? I hope for the former as the best characters in the Marvel films are the ones that go through lots of change.

2. Reincorporating Characters Into New Roles

Hero identities change all the time in comic books. How many Robins has Joker killed now? The first one became Nightwing…

We just saw all the different Spider-Man iterations in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, so film audiences are familiar. Plus, Marvel isn’t a stranger to changing actors for a role. The only difference is the new character.

It has been theorized (based on contracts) that Bucky is set to become Captain America. Like Steve, he’s a super soldier, and he’s been turned from being a sleeper agent into a good guy now. Shuri’s technological proficiency could give her an upper-hand in becoming Iron Heart, Iron Man’s female successor. Thor, assuming he survives Endgame, is still the protector of eight realms, which would make it cool to see him appear in cameos just as Fury does. Thor theoretically has the ability to travel to any character in the MCU, so seeing him deliver exposition in post-credit scenes would be fun. Don’t completely eliminate what we’re familiar with, even if they are relegated.

3. A Good Ruffalo Hulk Film

The Incredible Hulk is a weird movie. Edward Norton stars in it, its cinematography dates it in the mid-2000s and it shows us that Bruce can’t have sex. There are some good things contained within it, like editing in rhythm with Banner’s rising heart rate and seeing how he learned to control himself, but overall the execution is lacking compared to what has followed. While it’s possible Mark Ruffalo could fulfil his contractual obligation to Marvel by featuring in upcoming film, I would prefer to see him sent off (if he is) in his own feature. It could be a way to introduce a new recurring character or technology while also bringing closure to the Hulk we know and love. Unfortunately, I think it’s much more likely that he appears in something like Black Widow because of the relationship between Universal and Marvel that has caused tensions across all these years regarding solo film rights.

4. More Cosmic Marvel

Between Guardians 1 & 2, Thor 2 & 3, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War and Captain Marvel, it’s fair to say we’ve seen some excellent output from Cosmic Marvel.

There are so many different settings to explore and weird characters to meet. Of course we’ll see more in the sequels to the aforementioned films (crossing my fingers for a Thor 4), but an Eternals film is also in development which has the potential to incorporate space (the Eternals are superhuman beings created by Celestials tasked to protect Earth against the Deviants), though it’s likely an Eternals film is more akin to Thor or Captain Marvel than a straight cosmic adventure. There’s also a chance we could get a lot of it in a future Fantastic Four film now that Disney own the rights to that franchise. The color and set design of cosmic films give us all a good break from the typical Marvel look, so in an age where intrigue will inevitably be tested, I say the more the better.

5. More Visual Variety

Marvel’s best possible next step in its cinematic evolution is growing beyond its formulaic standards of cinematography. Don’t get me wrong, the movies look good and achieving this kind of visual cohesion is certainly impressive, but the camera, lighting and editing mostly lack a personal touch. With the universe firmly established, Marvel should allow more room for creative freedom. I think Thor: Ragnarok and the Guardians films are each proof that giving a director allowance to execute their vision can still bring in money, so please give us Edgar Wright and Ava DuVernay’s superhero movies (we were promised them with Ant-Man and Black Panther respectively). Give Spike Lee or Quentin Tarantino a call. You have the money to convince them.

More different is a good thing.

With the fresh stench of blood and gun powder in the air, the lone figure turns and delivers the obligatory one-liner to camera…

“Manly man, I’m a big strong man doing man-man things, yeah, bang bang.”

Okay, so that’s a little juvenile, but this was pretty much the landscape of action films back in the day. The very idea that the figure appearing from the smoke, having just turned a bunch of nameless faces into swiss cheese be a woman, was one seldom heard of. And whilst it’s taken a long time for females to share equal spotlight with the men in the action arena, Hollywood has finally started to throw an extra couple of X chromosomes into the mix.

While female heroes are much more common on the big screen these days, the origins of the female action star can probably be traced back to the 1970s. Blaxploitation movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown made Pam Grier as bad-ass behind the barrel of gun as any Hollywood hard nut of the time.

However, one could argue that Princess Leia was the first widely regarded female action hero, holding her own alongside Luke and Han in 1977s Star Wars, and playing a vital part in the destruction of the Empire.

The late Carrie Fisher’s performance as Leia Organa of Alderaan is nothing short of iconic, and her status is well and truly set in the pantheon of great female heroes, transcending both gender and genre to become one of the most beloved characters of all time.

Jumping to hyper speed and landing in another galaxy not so far away, we arrive in the deepest, darkest corner of space, aboard the starship Nostromo, for Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).

Coming off the success of Star Wars, Alien was put on the fast track by the studio in the hope they could capitalize on the sudden sci-fi boom – only this time with a horror element thrown in for good measure. But where many were expecting the only non-testosterone-filled member of the crew to meet some grisly, bloody end, and have a male thwart the alien threat as per usual horror/sci-fi fare, the film did the unexpected by having the sole survivor be none other than a wuh…wuh…woman!

Sigourney Weaver played Ellen Ripley over four movies and went on to establish herself as the queen of sci-fi. But did you know that this almost didn’t happen as the part of Ripley was originally written for a male? Director Scott described his decision to swap the role for a woman as follows: “I just had a thought. What would you think if Ripley was a woman? She would be the last one you would think would survive—she’s beautiful.”

Yes, Ellen Ripley proved that women could get just as down and dirty (and covered in alien goo) as the men, implanting, much like a face-hugger would, the notion that a woman could be an action icon too.

In the 1980s everything suddenly got bigger. Power was the name of the game, not just in the political landscape, but also on our movie screens, and no one encapsulated power quite like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Big and bad-ass with bulging biceps became the staple for action heroes in the 80s, and if the women wanted to hang with the guys, they were expected to be the same.

Two women who possessed such qualities were Grace Jones and Brigitte Nielsen (both of whom appeared opposite Schwarzenegger) as tall, muscular, world-weary Warriors.

In Conan the Destroyer (1984) supermodel/singer Jones played the ferocious bandit Zula who joined Conan on his quest after being freed from vengeful villagers. Wielding nothing but a Bo staff and sporting a sweet ‘Fresh Prince’ hairdo, Jones made Zula a stand out character in an otherwise camp, silly and quite frankly boring sequel. It’s worth pointing out that Zula was originally a male in comic books – Conan is a Marvel comics property – but director Richard Fleischer sought to swap out the role for a female as to avoid only casting females in the ‘damsel in distress’ role that was so common at the time.

Jones would later go on to appear in A View to a Kill as Christopher Walken’s evil henchwoman, May Day.

A year later (in 1985), Schwarzenegger would once again pick up the sword, playing yet another bulked-up, prehistoric protector. This time, however, the show belonged to the titular Red Sonja, played by Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen as the female answer to the baby-oiled barbarian.

Red Sonja, although ultimately a camp, cringe-worthy slog of a movie, worthy of any ‘Mystery Science Theatre 3000’ episode, did, in fact, give the world the type of female action hero that it was sorely lacking for the time.

And so came the 90s… and with it an evolution of the action hero.

The notion of super-jacked, six-packs on legs was now an antiquated one, and the public wanted heroes they could relate to. In the men’s corner, we got Bruce Willis as the wise-cracking, beat cop-turned-bad-ass John McClane in the Die Hard sequels (the first coming out in 1988), as well as Nicolas Cage as the overly expressive, slightly coo-coo go-to action star of hit films Face-Off and Con Air, to name just two.

In the women’s corner, there was a similar shift in hero type. Women no longer needed to muscle-match with the men. Instead, filmmakers flipped the script, casting cutesy girl-next-doors as the next big action stars. Sure, there were a few hangovers from the 80s. Sarah Conner of The Terminator series went and got all beefed-up with a machine gun in the 1991 follow-up, but the scales were definitely tipping in a new direction.

In 1992, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ gave us the most unlikely of action heroines. Buffy Summers was a typical young, popular high-school beauty, who one day was approached by the mysterious Donald Sutherland and told of her true destiny as ‘The Slayer’: a chosen one charged with fighting the forces of evil.

Despite the film’s poor reception, the film gave birth to an icon that would later be re-envisioned on the small screen (in 1996) and remain one of the most beloved and influential female action heroes ever.

In The Fifth Element (1997) we were introduced to yet another unlikely heroine in Mila Jovovich’s Leeloo. In the film, Leeloo is a supreme being who takes the form of a beautiful, orange-haired woman to help defeat a dark force known as the Great Evil.

The character became an instant fan favourite (as did the film, earning a cult following for its futuristic aesthetic and humorous tone) as she emphasised a vulnerability and child-like view of the world, all the while making the character strong, funny, endearing, and more than adept at handing any alien its own ass.

This new vision of female ass-kickery was echoed in many other female lead actioners during this time, including a previous Luc Besson film, La Femme Nikita (1990) and the similarly themed (albeit less nuanced, but a lot more fun) The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996).

And thus came the 20th Century…

2001 marked a colossal shift in the political arena, and once again our on-screen heroes felt the shift too, undergoing another transformation in the wake of 9/11. Whereas in the 90s heroes could get away with a fly by the seat of your pants mentality, relying on lucky escapes followed by a perfectly timed one-liner, the movie-going audience now wanted our heroes to be more competent and highly trained. Hollywood responded with male-led action films like the Bourne franchise, Mission Impossible sequels and Taken. All government men, with a specific set of skills, able to nullify their enemy with expert precision. And yeah, the women got an upgrade too.

In Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), not only were fans treated to a much-beloved video game character hitting the silver screen and busting up all manner of ancient rock monsters and out of control robots, but audiences got a new action star in Angelina Jolie who would go on to star in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Wanted and Salt. Now, say what you want about the film and its sequel Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (both of which deliver on action, but little else), but there’s no denying the importance of Tomb Raider as a stepping stone in the rise of the female action hero, even going on to spawn a new incarnation in last year’s Tomb Raider reboot.

A year later, another video Game made its motion picture debut in 2002’s Resident Evil. The protagonist of the film, Alice, an amnesiac with mysterious ties to the Umbrella Corporation, was an original creation for the big screen treatment of the zombie-centric franchise. This change in source material gave the series the opportunity to power-up its female star with not only an extraordinary set of abilities but multiple clones of herself to truly unleash a more efficient death toll – it’s just a shame the series strayed from its horror roots in favour of slow motion stunts and dodgy wire-work.

Other notable heroines from this era include Uma Thurman’s The Bride, from Tarantino’s Kill Bill series – a women intent on getting revenge on those who left her for dead – and Kate Beckinsale’s leather-clad Lycan hunting Selene from the Underworld franchise, both of whom became regular entries on ‘greatest female hero’ lists and frequent cosplay choices for fans worldwide.

It’s also worth giving a special shout out to Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, who has starred in many action roles over the years, including centrally in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Tomorrow Never Dies.

And finally, we come to the tens? Tenties? Not sure what the official name for this decade is. Tennies? Oh, forget it, let’s just say 2010 and onwards.

Enter the superheroes…

While superhero movies have been around for a lot longer, their cinematic origins arcing all the way back to 1978’s Superman, the recent influx of superhero cinema certainly took a giant leap forward when Fox’s soon to be vanquished X-Men franchise kicked off back in the summer of 2000.

There had previously been a few attempts at a female-led superhero film over the years, including Supergirl (1984), Catwoman (2004) and Elektra (2005), all of which failed to live up to expectations. Having tried a couple times and failed, Hollywood was convinced that people didn’t want to see female superheroes, despite making numerous male-led superhero films that bombed equally as bad at the box office.

Still, we did get superpowered women on the big screen, they just had to be surrounded by a bunch of men.

Most notably, we were gifted with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, who popped up first in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and hit big with audiences, playing a huge part in success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the following years.

Surprisingly, only now, years after fans demanded a stand-alone Black Widow feature is the assassin-turned-Avenger finally getting her own solo outing, due to begin production this year for a (presumed) 2020 release.

But in 2017, Hollywood finally blinked, and the world got a female superhero film it could be proud of in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman. Gal Gadot, who had shown up as a scene-stealer in the much-maligned Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, gave females a true action icon as the amazonian princess, inspiring generations of girls who would now grow up with a kick-ass female superhero to call their own. The film became such a success, in fact, it went on to outperform every other film in the DCEU at the American box office and earn the series its first fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The triumph of Wonder Woman also gave the Hollywood big-wigs the confidence to go ahead and produce more female superhero films, including the 21st entry from Marvel Studios: Captain Marvel (which, to be fair, was in production long before Wonder Woman even came out.)

Academy Award-winning actress Brie Larson will play the titular hero come March 8th, hoping to smash both those pesky Skrull’s and global ticket sales in equal measure, and help permanently solidify a female presence in an otherwise male-dominated genre.

From desperately fighting to stay alive, to flat out fighting for the hell of it, the female action hero has broken free of its male constraints over the decades and risen to be a force to be reckoned with. So here’s hoping the future landscape of action films continue to feature progressive male and female characters alike, as well as give audiences worldwide heroes they can truly believe in.

Shortland, known for her work on Lore (2012) and Berlin Syndrome (2017), will become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first solo female director, following in the footsteps of Anna Boden who is set to co-direct Captain Marvel (2019) with Ryan Fleck.

The long-awaited Black Widow will act as a prequel of sorts to The Avengers (2012), with Scarlett Johansson reprising her role for Marvel Studios’ 2nd ever female-centred release.

Jac Schaeffer, the writer behind the female-centric remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, is working on the most recent version of the script.

There are currently no details regarding a potential release date for this film.

Source: THR

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Avengers: Age Of Ultron is undoubtedly one of the biggest releases of the 2015 calendar year. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and (many) others come together only once every so often, and their collaborative efforts are eagerly anticipated by the masses in such a way that The Avengers is no longer a nerdy comic book venture, but a pop culture phenomenon destined to surpass $1billion at the box office.

This second Avengers movie ticked the vast majority of the boxes that every sequel must tick. It was more action packed with larger set pieces, it utilised the dialogue better than the original, and it was a story that sought even more investment than Avengers 1. No longer was it necessary to build each character’s relationship to one another and this made Avengers 2 feel more refined with every piece of dialogue becoming necessary to the over-arching plot, leading to a more enjoyable experience in many ways. This refined presentation with regard to character development was emphasised with a huge action sequence at the very beginning of the film that not only illustrated how sleek the film was going to be, but also helped to lay down the marker: “We’re turning it up a notch”.

With many of the characters’ back stories already being presented to us in the previous instalments, Age of Ultron was able to open up the back stories of characters like Hawkeye, Hulk and Black Widow; something that helped to create a welcomed feeling of freshness.

It was, however, the presentation of “the twins” where praise for Whedon’s writing is less easy to come by. Quicksilver was vastly underutilised, and while it was impossible to predict that his appearance would match that of Evan Peters’ in X-Men: Days of Future Past, I did come away from this film thinking that Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character needed a little bit more investment in order for the conclusions to his story to make more of an emotional impact.

Scarlet Witch, on the other hand, was brilliantly presented and could well be the shining light of the whole film. Her development was worthwhile and her difference as a “miracle” was such that she would consistently juxtapose the massive action sequences with her own intricacies and powers. This made her stand out from the rest of the group without needing to do that much talking. Witch’s eventual unleashing of her powers was probably the best moment of the film and was in many ways reminiscent of the awesome opening to X-Men (2000) in which Magneto’s powers came to light because of his permanent removal from his mother’s life in the Nazi POW camps.

Despite the obvious positives regarding the writing and presentation of most of the characters, Age of Ultron failed to live up to the “event movie” status of its predecessor. This is perhaps a natural conclusion to come to given the fact that seeing said characters interact and battle with one another was not totally brand new this time around, but there seemed to be something missing nonetheless.

Another less-than positive outcome from Age of Ultron was (as always seems to be the case with Avengers movies), the villain. The title “Age of Ultron” seemed to have everything set up for the ultimate bad guy that would bring about massive levels of investment at seeing his comeuppance, yet the tightly managed run-time barely left enough of a reason to truly believe in the legitimacy of his threat. Unlike Loki in Avengers 1, Ultron didn’t turn any of the good guys bad nor did he have a solid and humane reason for being like he was. He was a robot who wanted to fix the world and then, for no reason at all, wanted to destroy everyone on it. His character, like much of the movie’s secondary characters, was one that had to be taken at face value to enjoy and was very much presented in such a way that you couldn’t question a single one of his actions or statements because of the unrealistic answers you’d likely receive. Ultron was ultimately used to develop Paul Bettany’s Vision character.

As was the case with Avengers Assemble/The Avengers, Joss Whedon directed and co-wrote a movie that more than lived up to the hype and ultimately delivered what was expected of it: one of the best movies in the franchise. Whether it surpassed The Avengers is a debate that can be left for another time, but there’s no doubting that Avengers: Age of Ultron was a huge success in terms of its value for money. Age of Ultron managed to be a feast for the eyes while tugging on the heart strings and being an almost overwhelmingly good representation of its genre.

17/24

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