All MCU Movies Ranked 2024: The Best MCU Movies (S Tier)
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Unintentionally, all of the tiers in this ranking mirror each other. There are exactly 17 movies in the lower three tiers and upper three. There are also 4 movies in S Tier and 4 in F tier. I think this balance makes sense since I wasn’t too critical in the F Tier, but very exclusive in S Tier. These are movies that rise to the highest degree of MCU storytelling and importance.
Worst in Tier: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Tony Stark once said to Peter Parker, “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.” He could only say that because he proved it in Iron Man 3 first.
This movie once again shows Tony’s humanity as he struggles with PTSD from the Battle of New York and growing anxiety over where the path he was on would lead him. It feels like at this point he already knew one day he’d die as an Avenger, but that doesn’t stop him from going toe to toe with the Mandarin and Aldrich Killian. The destruction of his house symbolizes the end of his playboy lifestyle as he starts to embrace who he is meant to be, Iron Man.
Along the way we get some great scenes, Tony overcoming the loss of his suit with a simple trip to the local hardware store, Tony saving people falling out of a plane while he’s not even there, and Trevor fooling everyone into thinking he’s the Mandarin. But the real greatness of this movie comes from where Tony ends up as a character at the end. They could have easily kept on making more individual Iron Man movies, but it felt fitting to end with Iron Man 3 because Tony finally arrives at the place where he needs to be to fulfill his destiny in the rest of the MCU story.
Black Panther (2018)
One of those MCU movies that was a global phenomenon, Black Panther was everything you could hope for in a new superhero movie which finally introduces more diversity that was seriously lacking in the MCU at this point. Chadwick Boseman was the perfect fit for the understated and noble T’Challa and the pitting of him against Killmonger worked so well because they were really two sides of the same coin.
Everything in Black Panther seems carefully thought out. From the style to the soundtrack, everything made you believe Wakanda was a real place. The fighting is cutting edge and the scenery is unique and colorful. Even the technology they used seemed like it could be realistic in some distant future, and it’s great to see Shuri as the brains behind T’Challa’s iconic suit.
It’s hard to find a flaw with this movie except that it should have come out sooner. Marvel fans had to wait far too long to see a person of color take front and center in their own movie. If they put this much care into the writing and creation of all of their recent content, I’m sure the MCU would be far better for it.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
I see The Winter Soldier as the pivot point for the MCU. It’s what brings the Avengers from more of a ground operation to a universal one because we see the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. Up until now, Nick Fury had been largely responsible for the creation and success of the Avengers, but he starts to fade into the background here. This eventually allows for other Avengers that are not under S.H.I.E.L.D. jurisdiction to come into play, and even opens up opportunities for offworld heroes like the Guardians of the Galaxy.
That is the macro importance of The Winter Soldier, but at a micro level, this movie is just a great spy movie that happens to have superheroes. You get the dynamic team up of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff who are perfect for the undercover quiet missions we see them starting off on. That all changes when Bucky Barnes enters the picture as the Winter Soldier, but we get one of the best hand-to-hand combat fights between him and Steve here. We also get Nick Fury holding his own before he has to go into the shadows, and you see how important he was to the Avengers early on. The conflict between Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. started with Captain America, and it’s fitting it comes to a boiling point in his movie. The fall of S.H.I.E.L.D also starts the Avengers on the path to a break up in Civil War, I’m sure if S.H.I.E.L.D was still around Nick Fury wouldn’t have let anything that went down with the Sokovia Accords happen.
The Winter Soldier is so good on an individual movie level, that you don’t always see the big picture meaning behind it until you take a bird’s eye view of the MCU. But the fact that it has all the great action sequences and twists of a great spy movie while having extraordinary importance on the MCU at large is what makes it so great.
Best Marvel Movie: The Avengers (2012)
This was the first MCU movie I ever saw in theaters so you could say there is a nostalgic aspect to putting it as number one. Yet I would argue that this movie is objectively one of the best and most important in the MCU. You could say that about others, Iron Man and Captain America movies were important individual movies, but this was the first time they were actually putting these heroes together and labeling them as a team. That doesn’t always work. If you need proof, look no further than the 2017 Justice League movie.
Everything is set perfectly in this film for the future. From the first introduction between Steve and Tony, you can see the tension which eventually escalates in Civil War. We also see two infinity stones come into play under the same wielder with Loki having the Mind Stone in his scepter and the Space Stone in the Tesseract. Even the Chitauri are important since they become a symbol of Thanos’ army later.
The choice of Loki as the villain is also a perfect one as he is complex and brings out the best and worst of all the characters. It allows us to see the depth of Clint and Natasha’s friendship, the intelligence of Bruce Banner with the scariness of the Hulk, and the biggest pain point for Thor as his family is once again at the center of his issues. Nothing is given to the Avengers. They fight internally and get outplanned in their first encounter with Loki, but they all grow and learn from that experience so that when they first form that iconic circle in New York, it feels like they earned the right to be there.
Iron Man may have launched the MCU, but the Avengers is what made people realize that it would actually work.
We’ve finally ranked all 34 MCU movies to date! What did you think of our list? Tell us what your favorite MCU movie is down below!
Ranking the MCU in 2024
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