This past weekend saw The Winter Soldier take the number one spot for a third week in a row. It has to date surpassed 200 million domestically and it shows no real sign of slowing down. It’s a long way off The Avengers (623 million) but it may end up being either the 2nd or 3rd highest grossing film that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe when all is said and done. There has been nine films thus far. Let’s take a look at how I rank them and see if you agree.
9. Iron Man 3 – The second highest grossing film is also my least favorite. I do think being the first film to come out after The Avengers, gave this mediocre at best film the box office edge. The action and the overall acting is not the issue. Robert Downey, Jr. is still the man. However, when the powers that be decided to take the villainous character of the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and make him into a gag character killed it for the diehard Iron Man fan. To Marvel’s credit, they tried to rectify this with the “All Hail the King” one shot film that put the “Who is the real Mandarin?” back in play. Whether the character will play a role in future films or not remains to be seen.
8. Iron Man 2 – This sequel was highly anticipated but fell short due to a villain overload and a less than interesting Whiplash played by Mickey Rourke. IM2 has Tony Stark in the wake of his Iron Man revelation at the end of the first film battling the U.S. Government, Justin Hammer (a Stark wannabe weapons manufacturer) and the aforementioned Anton Vanko aka Whiplash with a personal vendetta against Tony. Although it was nice to see the first appearance of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the first real appearance of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), it was just too much going on and very little direction. IM2 should have been better.
7. The Incredible Hulk – This one is tricky. It’s the least grossing film and its lead actor Ed Norton is not part of cinematic universe. The Incredible Hulk came on the heels of the ultra successful first Iron Man film and the failure of the original Hulk film. A double whammy. The Incredible Hulk is leaps and bounds better than Ang Lee’s Hulk of a few years earlier. Tim Roth as Abomination was great and Norton was a formidable Bruce Banner/Hulk. With that said, With Mark Ruffalo set to play the role for a second time in Avengers 2, I look forward to a possible solo effort and a definitive take on the Mean Green Machine.
6. Thor – This film and its introduction of the Norse God of Thunder made me a fan. Chris Hemmsworth is terrific in the title role and Marvel has done a great job casting its leads. I would’ve given this film a slight edge over its sequel if only we saw more of Thor as the Thor than we did. With that said, we get into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. and we get a glimpse of a future Avenger in Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). But more importantly, we get Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who maybe as valuable to the cinematic universe from the villain perspective as the heroes themselves.
5. Thor: The Dark World – The only reason why it’s ahead of the first Thor is because we get more of the title character as his God-like self than we did in the original. Also, the Loki-Thor relationship further develops into what could end up being one hellava showdown when Thor 3 hits theaters in the not so distant future. Lots of fun and one of the better sequels to come around.
4. Captain America: The First Avenger – I really loved this film and it has stood up over time. It’s the second best origin film on this list and it’s one of the very best origin films period when it comes to comic book films in general. The First Avenger much like its sequel The Winter Solider feels more like a regular film than a generic superhero film. A great supporting cast led by Hugo Weaving as Red Skull and veteran actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci, along with Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan makes this one of the better acted films of all of them. I appreciate the look and feel of this WW2 story. Chris Evans has grown so much as an actor. And as much as Downey
3. The Avengers – Sheer popcorn fun. There is no other way to describe it. There was a four year, five film buildup for the commencement of this nerdgasm. Is it the perfect comic book film? No not quite. But it’s one of the most enjoyable. Director Joss Whedon is a fanboy who gets it. He knows how to work a story and get an ensemble cast of this size and make everyone relevant. Not an easy task to be sure but he pulls it off. The Avengers was a thrilling and wild ride that reminds the dork in me why I love comics so much. And why I dreamed of seeing my childhood heroes up on the silver screen.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier –The best of the sequels to date. And very close to being the best of them all. Unlike all the others, TWS has a sense of reality between its conspiracy theories, government overreach and military involvement. Certainly relevant topics given today’s paranoid world. The pacing and the action is spot on and Chris Evans just continues to shine in the title role. Joining Captain America’s quest for the truth is Scarlett Johansson once again as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and newcomer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka Falcon. All three put on worthy performances. Most notably Mackie. Screen legend Robert Redford gives a solid performance as Alexander Pierce a senior leader at S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sebastian Stan does a solid job as The Winter Soldier/James “Bucky” Barnes.
1. Iron Man – Simply put, Iron Man was the perfect origin film with the best casting of a lead ever. Downey is so perfect in the role that Marvel Comics ended up redoing the look of Tony Stark in their comics to look more like Downey Downey
Marvel has stated that it has a blueprint for three phases to its universe. The Avengers ended Phase One and Iron Man 3 kicked off Phase Two with Thor: The Dark World and The Winter Soldier building upon that. Throw in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD into the mix and the future for Marvel and its properties seem to be unlimited.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
