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

2019 – All Wrapped Up!

British cinema had a stand out year in 2019, taking the lead at the Golden Globes with Sam Mendes picking up both Best Director and Best Picture – Drama awards for his World War I epic 1917, and the UK box office well and truly booming over the course of the past 12 months.

Although the UK box office may have been largely dominated by American studio pictures, that’s not to say British titles didn’t make an impact. Successes came in all shapes and sizes. Downton Abbey took a remarkable £28.2m at the UK box office this summer with a sequel already rumoured, Dexter Fletcher’s Elton John biopic Rocketman was the 11th biggest film of the year in the UK grossing £23.4m, Last Christmas, the Christmas hit featuring the music of the late, great George Michael and Yorgos Lanthimos’ weird yet wonderful historical drama The Favourite both did extremely well, earning themselves a place in the top 20 films of the year.

There’s no doubt that the champions of film for 2019 were the cinema giant Disney however, with 4 of the top 5 films of the year being their property. They simply dominated the UK box office and, perhaps even more impressively, the worldwide box office too. Thanks to Disney’s ownership of Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar they took the world by storm, not only with these huge franchise films (Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) but also with their self-created live-action and animated offerings (such as The Lion King and Frozen II).

Here were the top 5 films of 2019 at the UK box office: 

Avengers: Endgame – Disney – $114.9m/£88.4m
The Lion King – Disney – $93.4m/£71.9m
Toy Story 4 – Disney/Pixar – $82.8m/£63.7m
Joker – Warner Bros. – $72.3m/£55.6m
Frozen II – Disney – $65.05m/£50.07m

Avengers: Endgame not only topped the UK chart but back in July it became the highest grossing film of all time knocking James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar (2009) off the top spot.

Frozen II also broke records with its massive November release making it the highest grossing animated film of all time with a whopping £50m, taking over from its predecessor Frozen (released in 2013) which earned £44.5m.

The list of top ten worldwide releases of 2019 looks very similar to that of the UK, Disney dominating the field with other big studio films filling the few gaps in between…

The top 10 highest grossing movies of 2019 at the worldwide box office:

Avengers Endgame – Disney – $2.7b
The Lion King – Disney – $1.6b
Frozen II – Disney – $1.3b
Spiderman: Far From Home – Disney/Sony – $1.13b
Captain Marvel – Disney – $1.12b
Toy Story 4 – Disney/Pixar – $1.07b
Joker – Warner Bros. – $1.06b
Aladdin – Disney – $1.05b
Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker – Disney/Lucasfilm – $989m
Fast & The Furious: Hobbs & Shaw – Universal – $758m

2019 was the first time the worldwide box office exceeded $42billion, taking an estimated $42.5billion, 25% of which came from China.

Hollywood relies heavily on the Chinese box office for the success of its films. Due to Chinese release regulations, the China Film Association will only allow 34 foreign films to have cinematic releases in any one year, so gaining one of these coveted spots is essential for the US studios to ensure successful releases.

The Chinese box office has a huge influence on the global box office. Out of the top 10 Chinese films of 2019, only 2 of them were foreign titles and both from the United States: Avengers: Endgame and Fast and The Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

22% of the total box office takings for Avengers: Endgame came from China. This is a huge amount to come from one country and considering the total box office takings for the year in China was $8.76b/61.32b yuan, this is a huge push for films like Avengers: Endgame, and seems to indicate that the country’s severed ties with Disney may have ended – this originally happened after the bad box office performance of the 1998 animated Disney classic Mulan and the controversial Disney-funded film Kundun, released in the same year.

The new live-action remake of Mulan, due to be released in 2020, is already surrounded by controversy due to the badly timed release of the trailer, given all the political discomfort in Hong Kong. However, Disney are hoping, due to the remakes’s cultural accuracy, that it will succeed in the box office and get a China release.

The biggest film of the year in China was the fantasy animated film Ne Zha which took a record breaking $713mil/5bil yuan.

Safe to say that despite the political issues in China and the supposed disagreements between the CFA and Disney, big studio’s can still rely upon China’s cinema goers to boost their box office takings. Predictions are being made that in 2020 China will be the biggest single cinema market in the world with the expectation that the box office revenue will practically double.

And thanks to the success in China, and around the world, Avengers: Endgame quickly became the biggest film of all time; 12 years in the making and 22 films later audiences around the world saw the anticipated fate of all their favourite Marvel characters. Avengers: Infinity War was released 12 months prior and was the perfect build up to the epic finale, presenting us with the supervillain Thanos who would come to wipe out half of all living things with the snap of his fingers, literally. Audiences and critics alike loved the series ending film and the Critics Choice Awards 2020 even named it the Best Action Film of 2019.

Disney didn’t miss a trick in 2019. Not only did they finally wrap up the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it, but they also released the epic conclusion to the 42 year old Skywalker Saga in the form of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Despite not doing as well financially at the box office as Endgame, The Rise of Skywalker was a huge hit and the 9th biggest film of the year grossing $989,569,690. 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened to mixed reviews but was a huge box office hit – bigger than that of its sequel – making it the second biggest Star Wars film ever with a worldwide box office total of $1,332,539,889.

What Next?

2020 is going to see a continuation of both the Marvel and Star Wars franchises but in different forms. Although Endgame wrapped up the Avengers films, Marvel has plenty more hits in the pipeline, the first being Black Widow (May 1st, 2020); a prequel story telling us more about Scarlett Johansen’s super spy Natasha Romanoff and her star studded family. Florence Pugh (Little Women) stars alongside David Harbour (‘Stranger Things’) and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite).

Although it may have come to the end of its fictional time line, Disney and Lucasfilm have a lot planned for the future of the galaxy far, far away. Disney is soon to launch its own streaming service in th UK, Disney + (already available in other territories), with the hotly anticipated series ‘The Mandalorian’ available to watch on launch. Disney are also in the early stages of production for a series looking at the life and times of Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, with Ewan McGregor set to star.

Out of eight 2019 films making it onto the billion dollar list, six of them are Disney property. The biggest surprise to make it into the elite club was Warner Bros.’ October release Joker. Directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Joker had a remarkable impact on the box office, causing conversations to start all over the world and appreciation for Phoenix’s performance being the hot topic. Joker brought a huge £57.9million to the UK box office, making it the fourth biggest hit of the year and the biggest ever hit in the country for a DC Comics film. A comic book film about a stand up comedian who isn’t funny is not something that seems like it’s going to work, but something about Phillips and Phoenix’s dynamic resonated with audiences up and down the country.

We have had a lot of film successes to celebrate over the past 12 months, but with success comes failure, and although the top 20 is dominated by remakes, sequels, prequels and reboots, it doesn’t always guarantee you a secure place at the top of the charts. We saw that with the 2019 reboot of Charlie’s Angels, starring Kristen Stewart and directed by Elizabeth Banks, which grossed a measly £1.13m at the UK box office. Rebooting a beloved franchise is clearly not always the best way to go. The previous trilogy starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu opening weekend took a huge $40m in North America back in 2000, while this new film opened to only $17.8m (and these figures don’t even account for inflation).

Other rebrands of pre-existing material that offered large cinematic releases, but garnered less cinematic audiences this year were features such as X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Terminator: Dark Fate and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, none of which grossed more than £7.3m in their lifetime run in the UK.

Despite the abysmal reviews Tom Hooper’s musical adaptation of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s hit stage show “Cats” received on first release, the film’s opening weekend gross of £3.2m may not have been the shockingly low response we were expecting. However, with a predicted loss of $70m globally, it should still be considered as one of the biggest flops of 2019.

2019 was a big year for films, with two major franchises coming to an end (one being the biggest film of all time), animation film records being broken in the form of Frozen II and Ne Zha, and independent cinema being seemingly more popular than ever. It’s safe to say 2019 was a year of cinema worth celebrating.

You can support Charlie in the following places:

Twitter: @funnyoldworldx
Website: Funnyoldworld

In this edition of ranked, we’re ranking each of these 9 releases from worst to best based on artistry and cultural significance.

Have an opinion? Make sure to leave a comment or tweet us!

9. Hellboy

Lionsgate
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church

In a year of many highs for the superhero/comic book movie sub-genre, the Hellboy reboot from Centurion director Neil Marshall and Lionsgate wasn’t one of them.

Coming some 15 years after Guillermo Del Toro first introduced the character to the silver screen, the remake was perhaps inevitable, but in the midst of Del Toro’s resurgence as a leading Hollywood creative figure following his Best Director Oscar win in 2018 for The Shape of Water, comparisons were perhaps even more likely to be negative than they may have been previously, the 2019 version opting to take a gamble on gore being its defining factor; perhaps using it as a mask for the missing creativity apparent in its creatures, narrative and action set-pieces.

This was a misfire that may warrant a sequel as being unnecessary.

Recommended for you: 2018 Superhero Movies Ranked

8. Brightburn

Sony Pictures
Director: David Yarovesky
Starring: Jackson A. Dunn, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman

Marketed as a James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) project asking “what if Superman was evil?”, Brightburn excited many a comic book movie fan for its intriguing idea that stood out from the rest of what we had become used to seeing. A superhero-horror movie seemed like a huge step for the sub-genre, but it offered way too little by the way of its superhero promise, the film instead being “structured and paced more like a contemporary possession or haunted house movie”, according to Jacob Davis in his The Film Magazine review.

Shallow in terms of character and world building, and ultimately underwhelming in other aspects given its promising premise, Brightburn was a gamble we’re glad Sony Pictures took, but one that ultimately didn’t pay off in terms of quality of product, critical reception or box office dollars; making it a somewhat unexpected 2019 superhero movie dud.

7. Dark Phoenix

20th Century Fox
Director: Simon Kinberg
Starring: Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Dark Phoenix was re-shot and rescheduled in the build-up to its Summer 2019 release, and with issues behind the scenes regarding its studio 20th Century Fox being bought out by Marvel overlords Disney, and the likelihood of Marvel Studios incorporating the X-Men IP into their studio because of that purchase, Simon Kinberg’s passion project seemed sent out to die. Perhaps that’s why they removed “X-Men” from the film’s title…

What Dark Phoenix did right, it did pretty well – there was a fantastic train battle sequence that was reminiscent of some of the X-Men franchise’s greatest moments – but the film suffered from a lack of originality in a number of key aspects (including a finale massively similar to Avengers: Infinity War) and looked cheap; the re-shoots probably being to blame for the massive lack of cinematic qualities on offer in a number of sequences.

To say goodbye to nearly 20 years of the X-Men like this was disappointing, and to still be waiting for a good Dark Phoenix Saga film after two tries is beyond disappointing, but Dark Phoenix managed to offer sparks of something special that at least lifted it from our bottom spot.

Recommended for you: Every X-Men Movie Ranked

It’s not been a bad year for the UK box office, with the total takings of 2019’s top 10 highest grossers (at time of writing) being approximately £388,967,274 (according to Box Office Mojo and google money converter). So today we are going to look at how the top 10 currently stands.

Which movies have earned the most in the UK so far? And what have critics and audiences had to say about them?

10. The Secret Life of Pets 2 – £19,570,258

The latest offering from Illumination managed to rake in the box office, despite a rather lukewarm reception.

Audience Reception: 90% – Rotten tomatoes / 6.6 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “A sequel that feels less necessary than willed into being, but that doesn’t mean it’s not pleasantly entertaining.”

9. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – £21,219,615

While the concluding How to Train Your Dragon movie wasn’t as successful for Dreamworks Animation as its predecessors at the box office, it continued to impress both audiences and critics in equal measure.

Audience Reception: 87% – Rotten Tomatoes / 7.6 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “Who would have thought that DreamWorks’ “How To Train Your Dragon” would end up as one of the best film trilogies out there?”

8. Rocketman – £23,572,360

This Elton John biopic followed in the footsteps of last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody to become a smash hit across the UK.

Audience Reception: 88% – Rotten Tomatoes / 7.6 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “Rocketman is an honest, heartfelt tribute to Elton John’s music and his public image.”

7. Dumbo (2019) – £26,964,177

The first of Disney’s live-action remakes this year left an odd taste in the mouths of cinemagoers. As despite its high takings, no one seemed overly enthused about it.

Audience Reception: 51% – Rotten Tomatoes / 6.4 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “The problem with this latest entry in Disney’s ever-expanding range of recycled classics isn’t that it hews too close to the studio’s original animated masterpiece, but that its many departures only muddle the original’s nursery-rhyme simplicity.”

6. Spider-Man: Far From Home – £31,524,501

The most recent film in the ever dominant MCU, like many of its predecessors, deftly managed to please both audiences and critics.

Audience Reception: 95% – Rotten Tomatoes / 7.9 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “It’s not quite the home-run of Homecoming, but Far From Home isn’t far from matching it, with heaps of humour, energetic action, and the answers Endgame left you craving.”

5. Aladdin (2019) – £37,496,448

Unlike Dumbo, Aladdin did managed to please audiences. Critics, however, were very mixed.

Audience Reception: 94% – Rotten Tomatoes / 7.4 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “Another lavish and largely entertaining Disney re-do, with strong turns from Massoud and Scott. But…Smith’s genie performance feels disappointingly constrained — both by overdependence on the original and some ghastly CGI.”

4. The Lion King (2019) – £37,816,339

The latest Disney remake has, in only 2 weeks, already proven to be Disney’s most successful solo developed project in the UK. It also managed to capture the love of the general public.

Audience Reception: 88% – Rotten Tomatoes / 7.2 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “Unfolding like the world’s longest and least convincing deepfake, the new “Lion King” fatally misunderstands what once made Disney special.”

3. Captain Marvel – £42,632,688

Despite its divided reception by both audiences and critics, Captain Marvel continued to prove the power of the MCU’s marquee value.

Audience Reception: 55% – Rotten Tomatoes / 7.0 – IMDb

Critical Reception: “Captain Marvel is … a solid enough movie, but it suffers from an overbearing need for its agenda to be pushed – had it been handled with a little more care, it could have been fantastic.”

2. Toy Story 4 – £53,611,537

9 years after Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4 finally made it to cinemas. It continued the high standards set by the original Toy Story films, opening to almost unanimous praise across the board.

Audience Reception:  94% on Rotten Tomatoes / 8.2 – IMDb (#170 on IMDb’s top 250 films)

Critical Reception: “This franchise has demonstrated an impressive ability to beat the odds and reinvent itself…It’s a toy store of ideas, with new wonders in every aisle.”

1. Avengers: Endgame – £94,559,351

Lastly, we come to the highest-grossing movie of the year (and of all time). After over a decade of build-up, the MCU finally culminated with a fond farewell that pleased almost everyone.

Audience Reception: 91% – Rotten Tomatoes / 8.7 – IMDb (#24 0n IMDb’s top 250 films).

Critics Reception: “Avengers: Endgame is all that you hope it’ll be and a bag of chips. The Russo brothers hit all the right notes from start to finish, and the ending in particular is thoroughly satisfying.”

So ends the UK box office top 10 of the year so far…

With big releases like IT: Chapter 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker coming up, this year’s top 10 may even beat last year’s top 10 gross (approximately £523,006,040). We’ll just have to wait and see.

Written by Josh Greally

To support Josh Greally and read more articles like this, make sure to click through to the following links:

Website – bigpicturefilmclub.com
Twitter – @BigPicFilmClub
Facebook – /BigPictureFilmClub
Josh’s Author Profile – BPFC
Josh’s Twitter – JoshG_Media

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

The current lady-of-the-moment is an Oscar and BAFTA-winning actress with a long list of reputable works. For over ten years, Larson has been working on an array of mainstream and independent movies, as well as her own pieces such as The Arm (2012) which won the Short Film Special Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival.

If you’re interested in catching up on where our Captain Marvel has been and what we can hope to expect from her in the future, here’s a list of Brie Larson’s best silver screen performances from her career thus far.

In no particular order…

1. Room (2015)

Brie Larson’s staple movie has to be Room.

An adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel of the same name, this piece enabled Larson to bag multiple awards, many for Best Actress. This intriguing and moving story follows a woman who has been held captive for seven years and, in that time, has given birth to her son who is now five. Born in captivity, the boy knows nothing of the outside world and his mother has lost seven years of her life, yet their relationship holds a bond like no other. This is an eye-opening and enchanting narrative, showing the range of Larson’s acting talent.

2. Captain Marvel (2019)

Brie Larson’s recent success comes directly from her achievements with Marvel Studios. Captain Marvel, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, is the most recent instalment in the franchise, and ties in with Avengers: Endgame. It is the twenty-first film in the Marvel franchise and is based on the Marvel Comics character Carol Danvers. Portraying an iconic female lead, Larson has branched out to a much wider audience, becoming a solid role model for young girls and MCU fans alike.

3. Unicorn Store (2017)

Larson’s feature-length directorial debut premiered on Netflix in 2019 almost two years after its initial showing at the Toronto International Film Festival. The coming-of-age comedy movie follows Kit (Larson), a failed artist who moves back home after getting stuck between a rock and a hard place. After finding an office job, she receives a mysterious letter inviting her to ‘The Store’, a place that sells “what you need”. Enigmatic and quirky, this movie has been highly rated by critics, calling it a “willfully quirky wisp of a film”; Larson’s direction and performance anchoring every minute of the film.

4. The Glass Castle (2017)

Starring alongside Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts, The Glass Castle shows Larson in another solemn role. Adapted from the memoirs of Jeanette Walls, the film explores the life of the author and her childhood. Although reviews for this film were mixed, the performances from Larson and Harrelson in particular have been highly praised.

5. Short Term 12 (2013)

This independent drama has been recognised for its realism and understanding, with Brie Larson’s performance being greatly received. Grace (Larson) is the young supervisor of Short Term 12, a group home for troubled teenagers. Director Destin Cretton based Short Term 12 on his own experience working in a similar facility and cast a plethora of up and coming names including Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out), Stephanie Beatriz (“Brooklyn 99”) and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody). Hard-hitting and emphatic, this movie is a prime example of why Brie Larson is such a reputable actress, her performance here being possibly the most underrated of her career.

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.

Captain Marvel (2019)
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Screenwriters: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson-Dworet
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mandelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Lashana Lynch, Clark Gregg, Rune Temte, Gemma Chan, Algenis Perez Soto, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Akira Akbar

It has been eleven long years since the MCU began, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man rocketing the newly birthed Marvel Studios into the stratosphere, and while female figurehead The Wasp may have been a titled co-star for the Ant-Man sequel in 2018, it has taken until the Universe’s 21st movie for us to finally get a female fronted superhero film from the monarchs of all things action-fantasy-adventure. In Captain Marvel, through the creative visions of screenwriter-director duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (It’s Kind of a Funny Story; Mississippi Grind), the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally has its own franchise-leading female – a woman so powerful she can single-handedly defend planets against invasion, but one whose extra-terrestrial qualities never out qualify her central-most gift: being human.

Told across multiple timelines in conjunction with the heroine’s re-establishing of her long-lost memories, Captain Marvel offers a complex study of repressed grief and overcoming barriers (mental and physical), though it is never dragged into any realm one could consider less than “fun” – fun ordinarily being a lazy word with which to explain superhero movies, but a word entirely encapsulating of this often comedic action film that maintains a “living on another planet” element of light-hearted oddness throughout its run-time.

The picture in this respect isn’t all that deep – it isn’t the sort of character study one could analyse like a Black Panther, for example – but it does ensure that the multi-universe-spanning, planet defending plot of the film remains easy to follow despite the picture jumping between memory and reality. Captain Marvel is easy to invest in and the hero at the centre of the piece, Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) therefore becomes the hinge around which all thematic exploration and narrative twists and turns tend to orbit – she truly is the star of the film, and Brie Larson delivers a performance worthy of grabbing your attention.

Written with a certain sensibility that separates her from the rest of Marvel’s quietly established female heroes, the character of Carol Danvers was already quite strong on the page, but the work that Brie Larson does in establishing her as a likeable and ultimately relateable superhero is quite the achievement. Larson, whose work on the likes of Room and Short Term 12 is well known for its quality and gravitas, has typically been able to give a legitimately human touch to each of her characters, her portrayal of a character with a lot of self-doubt but inner strength defining her career milestone performances, with her performance as Captain Marvel in this film being no different. In the shape of Larson, Carol Danvers isn’t just an almost all-powerful superhero, she’s vulnerable and sad, though she’s also the sort of person that would spark a smile and tease you for liking the cat if you ever tried to get her to open up. It’s somewhat apropos that Larson offers such vulnerability underneath an upbeat persona in a movie she is supported by one of the very best at doing so, Annette Bening. Few could have argued the choice of her casting when she was announced, but as of now it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else in the iconic super-suit.

So-impressive-it’s-almost-unnoticeable de-ageing and a bunch of 90s nostalgia moments – slow loading times on computers, pagers, even Nine Inch Nails t-shirts – earn Captain Marvel a unique spot in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe from a visual standpoint, though much of the action tends to feel vague in the same fashion we’ve become accustomed to in the less creative of Marvel’s big-budget offerings (we’re not getting Russo Brothers levels of action here, that’s for sure). It seems to be the curse of the franchise-openers Marvel offer, and does tend to make this picture in particular drag on throughout several sequences – sequences that may have been cut by a studio more intent on maintaining engagement.

The length of the film (just over 2 hours) is perhaps the biggest downside to Captain Marvel as it’s quite easy to see where a good 30 minutes or so could have been cut. The elongation of a story that would have satisfied the hardcore Marvel fans as a 90 minute intermediary between Avengers films and offered a quick, fun standalone for those less familiar with the MCU, ultimately damaged the momentum of a picture already struggling to establish meaningful opponents for the would-be hero. It seems like now, even after 20 films, Marvel still struggle to offer antagonists worthy of their screen time, and that the good and the bad of their movies are still presented to us as a part of the story we just have to accept, rather than something we’re taught to believe. At times, this film was bogged down by the necessary action beats the Marvel formula dictated and it seemed more obvious in this film than many others just where the powers at Marvel and the directors had different intentions, with the directors clearly pushing for stronger elements of backstory and drama against Marvel’s typically quippy and action-heavy formula. The disconnect between the two visions was ultimately one of the movie’s most damaging aspects, halting momentum at key points and sometimes derailing trains of thought that developed as the movie went on, though it must be noted that this never quite detracted from the overall positivity surrounding the picture.

It is, after all, the positivity surrounding Captain Marvel that makes it such an important film, and while the finished product is hardly of the standard of the franchise’s biggest breakout hits Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther, it remains a watchable and at times exciting release that has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from Marvel: incredible CG, a strong hero, talented and interesting side acts, and a mild feeling of empowerment. Larson is the hero we’ve all been waiting for and Captain Marvel is the sort of movie that lives up to its billing. This is not only an enjoyable and rewatchable superhero movie, but one that could act as a sturdy springboard for one of our next generation’s most important superhero icons. You won’t have your socks blown off, but it’ll be a fun couple of hours for those expecting Marvel-tinted wish fulfilment.

15/24

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

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.