Seems like we should have a thread where people can maintain their personal rankings and discuss the various criteria they use.

Firstly, here's a list of the current MCU movies (stolen from Wiki):

Phase One
1.1 Iron Man (2008)
1.2 The Incredible Hulk (2008)
1.3 Iron Man 2 (2010)
1.4 Thor (2011)
1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
1.6 Marvel's The Avengers (2012)

Phase Two
2.1 Iron Man 3 (2013)
2.2 Thor: The Dark World (2013)
2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
2.5 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
2.6 Ant-Man (2015)

Phase Three
3.1 Captain America: Civil War (2016)
3.2 Doctor Strange (2016)
3.3 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
3.4 Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
3.5 Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
3.6 Black Panther (2018)

Now, my list (as of 2/19/2018):

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. Spider-Man: Homecoming
3. Black Panther
4. Iron Man
5. Guardians of the Galaxy
6. Thor: Ragnarok
7. Ant-Man
8. Doctor Strange
9. Captain America: Civil War
10. The Avengers
11. Captain America: The First Avenger
12. GotG Vol 2
13. Iron Man 3
14. Thor
15: Thor: The Dark World
16. Iron Man 2
17. The Incredible Hulk
18. Avengers: Age of Ultron


Basically each section (top, middle, and bottom) all have a lot of vying for position, so it comes down to what works for me. Happy to discuss in more detail, but also hope you'll contribute your own rankings!

Hulk and Panther pending...

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3. Ant-Man
4. Captain America: Civil War
5. Iron Man 2
6. The Avengers
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming
8. Iron Man
9. Thor: The Dark World
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
11. Iron Man 3
12. GotG Vol 2
13. Doctor Strange
14. Thor
15. Thor: Ragnarok
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron

I dislike the over use of comedy in most of these films.

I realize it's just two of us, but I do wonder if AoU takes the overall bottom spot.

I don't hate the movie by any means, but it is just so weak compared to the good ones, it really stands out.

Ooooh! Okay, let's see...

1) Black Panther (2018)*
2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
3) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
4) Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
5) Captain America: Civil War (2016)
6) Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
7) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
8) Iron Man (2008)
9) Ant-Man (2015)
10) Marvel's The Avengers (2012)**
11) Thor (2011)
12) Doctor Strange (2016)
13) The Incredible Hulk (2008)
14) Iron Man 2 (2010)
15) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)***
16) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
17) Thor: The Dark World (2013)
18) Iron Man 3 (2013)

* This was a hard one for me, as it really should be 1 and 1A, but I have to give a slight edge to the Panther. Considering Winter Soldier has been up there for a long time for me, I guess it had to get dethroned eventually.

** The more I thought about Avengers... well, it was good, but it wasn't as good looking back as I like to think it was. Honestly, if I have a holiday weekend where I'm doing NOTHING, going back to rewatch all the movies isn't a bad idea.

*** This is about where I'd go from MCU movies being good to mediocre. GOTG2 just had very uneven humor compared to the first movie, and it felt like it reset the character development from the first GOTG. I do like humor in Marvel movies, or in general, but overdoing it undercuts the drama. And I think GOTG2 is guilty of that.

Surprise, AoU wasn't in the absolute bottom for me! Mainly because I think I could watch that over Iron Man 3 (despite All Hail the King, I feel that "twist" was idiotic on a bad M Night Shyamalan movie level) or Thor The Dark World (dark elves are basically Romulans without the bird fetish).

I haven't seen them all.

Antman is my top. It stands on it's own without being part of a series.

Civil War is up there too. Best management I've seen of that many major characters. Winter Soldier is also one of the best.

Incredible Hulk is underrated.

Spider-man was good in the last third, but I wasn't digging the Ironman Junior vibe of the majority of the movie.
Also, I'm glad they didn't retell the origin, but it felt really weird not having any mention of Uncle Ben. There was no "Great Power, Great Responsibility" or any of the standard Spidey stuff. I can't even remember if he had Spider sense. Instead he had Siri... I know the producers wanted to appeal to "the young people," but if you're going to remove the essential elements from Spider-man, you might as well make a new character.

The first Avengers movie was cool for being the first of it's kind. It wasn't an awesome movie, but it was fun at the time.

I didn't really like any of the Ironman movies or GotG but I don't hate them. Even Ironman 3.

Dr. Strange... I hoped for so much more. I wanted that trippy vibe of the 70's comics. Instead it was just Inception effects straight through. Only the Dormammu scene had some of the spirit I was looking for.

The first Captain America movie felt like they were phoning it in. Like "we want to make Avengers but need to introduce everyone. We weren't interested in this movie, but it has to be done. Bare with us."

I hate the first 2 Thor movies. They feel like Pirates of the Caribbean. Haven't seen the third yet.

AoU is the bottom by a lot. It sucked. I was shocked by how bad it was. I think it was the worst superhero movie I've ever seen. At least I had fun laughing about how bad Elektra was. After AoU I couldn't say anything and neither could my friends. It was like hearing your beloved grampa say something racist. Super awkward.

My rankings, from favorite to least favorite:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
The Avengers (2012)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Iron Man (2008)
Black Panther (2018)
Dr. Strange (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Ant-Man (2015)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Thor (2011)
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Winter Soldier transcends the MCU. It's that good on every level.
The Avengers was an absolute revolution that has upended Hollywood and turned the MCU into literally the biggest movie franchise in history, by far.

I'm surprised to see so much dislike for Age of Ultron. It wasn't a perfect movie, but I feel like the negativity toward it is mostly revisionist. It got an A Cinemascore, meaning it was well-received by the audience at the time.

I am obviously a huge MCU fan, and I like that of the 18 films they've released to date, most are good to great and only a few stray down to mediocre.

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't enjoy AoU at the time. It has moments that are fun/good, but the overall experience was slow and awkward.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. The Avengers
4. Thor: Ragnarok
5. Captain America: Civil War
6. Black Panther
7. Captain America: The First Avenger
8. Iron Man
9. GotG Vol 2
10. Ant-Man
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Iron Man 3
13. Iron Man 2
14. Doctor Strange
15. The Incredible Hulk
16. Thor: The Dark World
17. Thor


Honorable mention: Spider-Man: Homecoming: Haven't seen it, still have no urge to see it. This doesn't mean I think it would be bad if I did see it.

I'll also say that I've watched all of these movies in the past 2 months, and yes, The Incredible Hulk was a bad movie but it doesn't come close to how bad the (first 2) Thor movies were.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Black Panther (2018)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Dr. Strange (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
The Avengers (2012)
Ant-Man (2015)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Iron Man (2008)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Thor (2011)
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Iron Man 3 (2013)



Edit: I saw Black Panther. I really like some of the tech concepts and the plot twists. Very well done there. Killmonger felt almost oversold. The plotline made sense, but revenge seemed too one note for me. He lacked depth which was fine for Klaw, but for a main villain I wanted a bit more than came through. Minor gripe and not something that dings the movie too heavily for me, but it was there. It's a 4a/4b with Thor: Ragnarok for me. Very good, but the Cap movies have it slightly better for me.

Some general observations. I’m not naturally a Cap fan, but I definitely think the Cap movies as a whole are a cut above the rest, especially Winter Soldier. I know I’m in the minority, but I dig Ultron. Admittedly, I’ve seen it a lot as my son likes it, but I think it’s grown on me. There are no bad movies to me. There are mediocre, but the new Fantastic 4 movie made these mediocre at worst.

I considered throwing the X-Universe movies in there for comparison, but I resisted. Ditto for the TV series. Kneejerk reaction says that Deadpool, Logan, and Luke Cage would be toward the top while Runaways and X-Men:Apoc would be rather low.

I've been wondering if people's rankings of Iron Man 3 have been including All Hail the King as a de facto extended post-credit sequence.
Honestly, one of its greatest achievements is establishing that the boundaries of New York City continue beyond Lower Manhattan. That, and you will marvel at Billy Elliot's American accent.

I'd never watched it until now.

I'm just down for Shane Black's snap and pacing.

I also didn't know about the Hail to the King short until now.

I disliked it at the time. Didn't really care what other people were saying.

It was a heart-breaker because until then my friend and I were happy that there had never been a really bad MCU movie. There were a few boring ones, but they all had their own style. This was the first one that just felt amateurish and the ride home after it was pretty quiet.

The pacing was really, really terrible. Parts that should have been cool (like Hulk vs Hulkbuster) felt like cheap fan-service because the plot was so thrown together. I think the only scene I liked was the final scene of Vison and Ultron.

This is tricky, as I like Age of Ultron better than most and I've only seen some of these once.

1. Black Panther
2. The Avengers
3. Captain America: The First Avenger
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. Iron Man
6. Guardians of the Galaxy
7. Captain America: Civil War
8. Avengers: Age of Ultron
9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
10. Ant-Man
11: Thor: Ragnarok
12. Iron Man Three
13: Iron Man 2
14: The Incredible Hulk
15: Doctor Strange
16: Thor
17: Spider-Man: Homecoming
18: Thor: The Dark World



Some of these toward the middle are just a toss-up, really.

I was determined enough to like Age of Ultron that I saw it a bunch of times just to get over the Ultron that wasn't so I could enjoy the Ultron that was, and now I like watching Robot James Spader say things.

Thor 3 was fun, but overall felt a smidge empty to me. Spider-Man: Homecoming, I enjoyed, but halfway through, I came to the conclusion that "This is good, but I have no interest in ever seeing this again." Thor 2, all I remember is the 3-Stooges hammer-jumping through dimensions at the end. While introducing my girlfriend to the MCU, it's the one movie I keep saying "you don't really need to see that." Maybe IM2 and IM3 are the same, but watching RDJ do his thing will always add an extra flavor to it.

The Avengers is super high on the list because as soon as that hole in the sky rips open, the rest of the movie is the culmination of all fanboy nerd dreams through the lean years of Marvel bankruptcy and decades of waiting. That's what nerds wanted to see in a movie, and it finally happened.

Cap 1 is still my favorite because I love the setting, I love Hayley Atwell and Tommy Lee Jones, and I love how understated Steve/Peggy is. Civil War, I enjoyed, but I get annoyed at heroes fighting heroes at the expense of having quality villains - although Zemo was pretty solid, it's been a recurring problem in the MCU. I'm still curious to see if they can pull off a more traditional, non-smart-mouthed villain with Thanos.

I may just be on a post-Panther high after being a longtime Panther nerd, but it feels so complete and full of freshness and things that needed to be said and things that needed to be seen. Plus I feel vindicated having been a longtime champion of the Priest books, and freakin' M'Baku is now a fan favorite character.