With the release of the third installment in the Captain America franchise at the end of the week, the Marvel powerhouse will most probably continue to cement it’s reputation as the greatest cinematic, comic book authority. DC’s fate seems slightly up in the air at the moment after Batman vs. Superman generally underwhelmed both critics and audiences.
There’s been over 40 live action productions based on Marvel Comics, and with another dozen scheduled for release between now and 2019, they are more or less unstoppable at the box office. It took a while for the momentum to really get going with a few turkeys, box office bombs and a lack of consistency throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s. It wasn’t really until the end of the 00’s that the formula really began to gel. There’s a remarkable amount of diversity in the releases and a staggering range of quality.
From critical disasters and box office bombs:
To superb sequels:
To poor sequels:
To something for the kids:
To something for the grown ups:
Small budgets:
Big budgets:
Oscar winners/ nominees:
Razzie winners / nominees:
And a whole bunch of production companies trying to keep things in order.
Over the years Marvel films have had spectacular highs and colossal lows. Even attempting a top 10 makes my brain hurt, but I will give it my best shot. The first order of business is to address the elephant in the room, and to just get it out of the way early on.
Deadpool does not feature in my top 10. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as impressed with it as the rest of the world was. Don’t get me wrong, generally it was a very enjoyable comic book romp, but I didn’t feel it was anything spectacular or groundbreaking. I’m afraid the constant wisecracks and one liners from Ryan Reynolds did, after a while, begin to grate on me a bit. It was perfectly entertaining for the 1hr and 48 minutes that it was on, but I didn’t feel it was as cutting edge or as innovative as it’s being hailed as. I know, I’ll get lynched for this, but I felt the latest Fantastic Four film was more offbeat in terms of production. Granted what it attempted to do was a spectacular failure, but Deadpool is still definitely restricted by the Marvel franchise and and formula. Whereas it appears to be giving a middle finger to ‘the system’, it’s still very much bound by their rules, and there’s nothing that excess gore and foul language will be able to do about that.
Anywho, if I still have any readers left after that paragraph, here’s my top 10 live action Marvel films.
10. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Spider-Man has been a bit all over the place over the years. By Spider-Man 3 director Sam Raimi has completely lost the plot. It was a mess of a film. Similarly, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from 2014, sent the franchise to pot.
Spider-Man had one of the quickest turn around in superhero history. With only five years between Raimi’s trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man reboot in 2012, Spidey will now be featured in the new Captain America film under Marvel Studios, played by a different actor. This new Spidey will be a separate entity from Columbia’s Spider-Man trilogy and 20th Century Fox’s Amazing Spider-Man series. Confused? Well to put it simply, Spider-Man is one of my favourite Marvel characters. Over the last couple of decades there’s been a number of films, some good and some bad. Spider-Man 2 would be the high water mark for me, and Toby Maguire is still the definitive Peter Parker. Andrew Garfield (as much as I like him) was just a tad cool, witty and trendy for the role. I like my nerds as crippling socially awkward and anxious as possible.
9. Ant-Man (2015)
I was extremely apprehensive before viewing Ant-Man. After keeping abreast of the original developments involving Edgar Wright directing the film and co-writing the script with Joe Cornish, I was very excited. When I learnt that Edgar Wright had left the project and the script was being re-written, alarm bells started ringing. I’m a big fan of Edgar Wright, so this seemed to be sacrilegious. His replacement, Peyton Reed was mainly known for directing mediocre comedies such as The Break Up, Bring it On and Yes Man. The alarm bells got louder and louder and, with re-writes and changes in personnel. Ant-Man began to sound like a doomed project.
I really enjoyed the finished product. After guffawing at the Thomas the Tank Engine scene in the trailer, the rest of the film did not disappoint. It’s nice when Marvel step aside from the heavyweight heroes and focus on the lesser known, smaller (in every sense of the word) films.
8. X-Men: First Class (2011)
X-Men is another series that’s been a bit shaky over the years.  With 7 X-Men features since 2000 and another 1 set for release later this year, the franchise dipped a bit in the middle. First Class was a “back to the drawing board” response to X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Both of which failed to impress fans and critics. Set in the 1960’s, the film is a period piece about the early life of Charles Xavier, Erik Lensherr and Raven (Mystique). With cameos and references to an eclectic mix of mutants in the Marvel back catalogue, First Class is 1 of my favourites in the series. I’m a big fan of director Matthew Vaughn, and I loved how stripped down and straight forward the story was. The series snowballed after the first release as things became, bigger, louder, sillier and more unnecessarily complicated. First Class took it back to its roots and gave a fascinating character study of two of the most famous protagonists and antagonists in the history of comic books.
7. X2 (2003)
Bryan Singer. The instigator. Before his X-Men in 2000. There was nothing really. A couple of okay Batman films from the 80’s / 90’s. Couple of Superman’s in the 80’s and a few one offs here and there over the years. From the 21st century onward filmmakers finally had the relevant cinematic technology to bring to life some of the more fantastical heroes. Singer managed to do this brilliantly, and as well as great casting, great story telling and great visuals, Singer also managed to produce a superhero film that could be taken seriously. The sequel to X-Men required Singer to up the ante. So he did. After the first time I saw it, X2 became my favourite X-Men film and has retained that title ever since. The opening sequence featuring Nightcrawler breaching Presidential security is still one of the finest moments in the history of superhero films.
6. Iron Man (2008)
I class Iron Man as a surprise hit. There’s no denying it’s one of the finest comic book films ever made, but I’m not sure how it did it.  It was the first release from Marvel Studios and it set the ball rolling for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released at a similar time to Spider-Man 3, The Dark Knight, X-Men Origins, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man for my money was up against it. Taking a comparatively lesser known superhero, a lead actor who had been off the boil for years and wasn’t anywhere near the A-List status that he’s at now, a director (Jon Favreau) who’s only sci-fi adventure film to date (Zathura) was a complete box office flop and a newly formed production company seemed to be rather risky indeed.
Al this aside, it’s just a ridiculously great movie, and it was overwhelmingly successful. Robert Downey Jr. is so engaging as Tony Stark. The story is exciting and comprehensible, the effects are great, the supporting cast are superb, the soundtrack kicks ass and when you hold it up against other Marvel releases of the time, it’s light years ahead of the game. It restored humor, wit and invention to the genre and catapulted Downey Jr and Favreau to super-stardom establishing them as major players in their respective fields.
5. Iron Man 3Â
Just nudging out Iron Man on the list Iron Man 3 tops if for me as the favourite in the series. After the disappointment of Iron Man 2, I didn’t particularly have high hopes for the third. After 6 MCU releases in 4 years culminating in 2012’s Avengers Assemble, things were getting very loud and noisy. With back to back features, all intertwining and playing off each other, the franchise needed to just calm down a little bit. So it did. Instead of cranking it to the next level and potentially imploding in on itself, Iron Man 3 takes a step back and is the most reflective Marvel film to date. It becomes more of a Tony Stark character piece as he tries to come to terms with the horrors of New York in The Avengers. Of course you have your whiz bang, smashy smashy segments as well, naturally. But Iron Man 3 is an extremely intelligent addition to the franchise, that displays another side of Tony. His vulnerable side.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Again, when seeing the marketing for Guardians I was struggling to see how they would make it work. It’s the most full on science fiction film in the Marvel back catalogue. It seemed to be far removed from the other releases and didn’t appear to fit into the extended Universe as comfortably as the other Earth based features. Chris Pratt as the leading man, was not yet established as a major star. The writer / director James Gunn was most known for low budget indie horror / comedy films, and it was released within 12 months of The Wolverine, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Some seriously big sequels. I (along with the rest of the world) was completely charmed by it. It was like seeing Star Wars again but as an adult. It’s just a fabulous space romp, with brilliantly funny dialogue, great performances and characters and a completely offbeat 70’s pop soundtrack. The soundtrack definitely helps ground the film into some kind of reality you can relate to and I was amazed to find myself genuinely caring for an anthropomorphic raccoon and a walking tree-like-humanoid.
3. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
I remember seeing the trailer for Captain America in the cinema, and my heart sinking. As an Englishman I didn’t feel I could stomach a flag-waving, pro-American, two hour rendition of Star Spangled Banner. I was rather ignorant to the character in general. Captain America had never really been in the British consciousness like Batman, Superman or Spider-Man etc. My assumptions were quickly banged to rights and upon my first viewing of the film, ‘Cap’ quickly became my favourite Avenger, my favourite Marvel film series and one of my favourite superheros to date. The film actually addresses my initial reservations and is self referential about the cheesy potential of the character. The film manages to be old fashioned and traditional whilst retaining a modern edge. It manages to be tongue-in-cheek and lighthearted towards the character without being apologetic.
In an era of dark, troubled and conflicted superheros it was so refreshing to see a hero that stands for nothing other than good. The main antagonists in the film, the Red Skull, are a fantastic nemesis and it was such a great black and white example of good vs. evil.
2. Avengers Assemble (2012)
A perfect example of why Joss Whedon is “the man”. I’ve been a fan of Buffy and Angel for years. I love Firefly and Serenity, and even one of the greatest films ever made, Toy Story, has Joss Whedon’s DNA all over the screenplay. What he achieved with The Avengers was nothing short of miraculous. He took half a dozen larger than life characters, a ridiculous budget and made a Joss Whedon film. At no point does it feel like he’s had to compromise his vision, and the finished product is one of the finest Marvel films ever made. To be able to juggle that many main characters (who all need screen time), that many plot developments and keep everything tied together neatly to lead into the next installment of the franchise is not easy. But the film is hilarious, moving, action packed and most importantly, coherent. At no point does it feel overly long or dull and the flourishes of comedy “asides” are the funniest moments in a Marvel film to date.
The Hulk is another of my favourite comic book characters and finally, a cinematic Hulk has worked completely. I didn’t actually mind Ang Lee’s Hulk from 2003 or the Marvel Studios Incredible Hulk from 2008, perhaps because I have so much fondness for the character. The films just didn’t quite pull it off though. As part of an ensemble the Hulk character works unbelievably well. He has some of the most moving, most action packed and funniest moments in the entire film. I’m so glad they managed to crack it.
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Similarly to Iron Man 3, Cap 2 took the series in a different direction. The majority of the drama plays out as a conspiracy thriller. With twists, turns and bursts of action, The Winter Solider really stands out from the other Marvel films as something different. Naturally they are obliged to have the big action set pieces, the special effects and the tie-ins with the franchise, but comparatively it’s such an intelligently done, slow burning drama. With fantastic character development for both Cap and Black Widow, it’s another brilliant example of the franchise slowing down a little bit and becoming a tad more reflective. I was curious to see how they would adapt the Cap story for the modern world, after the previous film being set in the 40’s, but any concerns I had about how they would do it were put to rest instantly.
Well, that hard to whittle the list down to a top 10.
Honorable mentions go out to X-men: Days of Future Past, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Wolverine that got ummed and arred over and were all up for consideration at some stage.
It’s clear to see (as my top 3 films all heavily feature Steve Rogers) that I am rather biased with my choices. Needless to say my anticipation for Civil War is grand and I am very much #TeamCap.
Take care.
paulonfilm 