A Marvelous List

What feels like a huge chunk of my Facebook feed has been filled lately with friends re-watching (and/or ranking) Marvel movies in anticipation of Avengers: Infinity War. I certainly did not re-watch them all -- hats off to those of you who made time for that. Nonetheless, with virtually no reconsidering, here's my ordered list:

Unranked

--) The Incredible Hulk. This is the one MCU movie I have yet to see. I really haven't made the time, because basically everyone tells me I shouldn't really bother. Well, okay then. Some day, maybe.

Lower Tier

(Not to be watched again, unless you're watching them all in order.)

17) Thor. Very pretty. Rather dumb. Not very fun. Apply all those comments to both the movie and the title character.

16) Iron Man 2. For every good element (Scarlett Johansson, RDJ chewing the scenery), there's an equal and opposite terrible element (poor juggling of all the characters, an uninteresting villain).

15) Thor: The Dark World. More Loki, which is great. Also more of everything else that wasn't great about the first Thor, so boo.

Middle Tier

(I'd watch any of these again. But I'm pretty sure The Avengers is the only one I actually have.)

14) Iron Man. I know fans will rage that I've put this all the way down here. But the movie's villain comes on late, like an afterthought. (This is the main reason I wanted to organize these movies into "tiers," too -- I think there's an enormous jump in quality between Thor: The Dark World and this.)

13) Captain America: The First Avenger. I really liked this movie and there's amazing casting all around. That said, the director here also made The Rocketeer, and it feels like he's re-using a lot of his same tricks here.

12) Iron Man 3. Fans will also rage that I put this so high. "Not enough Iron Man," some say -- but it's Tony Stark who's actually interesting. (Any way, you get all the Iron Mans -- Men? -- you could ask for in the finale.) "They screwed up the Mandarin!" Maybe; I never read the comic. I love the reunion of Robert Downey Jr. and writer/director Shane Black. There are currents of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang here that play great.

11) Avengers: Age of Ultron. You can tell they were messing with Joss Whedon more than he was prepared to cope with. His trademark wit is there, but sometimes feels forced. Plot points feel shoved in to set up future movies at the expense of this one being great. The most emotionally resonant moments are often the most slowly paced. Still, lots of great interactions between the characters.

10) Doctor Strange. Fun, but my opinion of it has tarnished a little since I first saw it. Marvel already did "pompous ass brought low to then rise up again on the side of right" with Iron Man. Also, Benedict Cumberbatch can play this kind of pompous ass in his sleep.

9) Ant-Man. Also cribbing the Iron Man formula, this time in how the villain is business, and his motivations financial. But there's a subtle shift in the character arc here, in that the lead doesn't start out high before sinking low. There are enough ways that "reluctant criminal" reads to me as different from "egotistical jerk." And Paul Rudd is clearly having fun, which to me makes the movie more fun.

8) The Avengers. Love me some Joss. It says a lot about the quality of recent Marvel movies that this is his triumph in the franchise, and I rank it this far down the list.

7) Black Panther. Solid movie, but for me, the main character gets overshadowed by all the other great characters in the film. But hey, high-class problem to have so many interesting people in one movie.

6) Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. A more emotionally deep story than the original film, which is a plus. But it splits the team up for most of the movie, denying us of all the different possible character interactions that made the first one so great.

5) Thor: Ragnarok. They finally figured out that Chris Hemsworth is funny, and paired him with a funny writer-director. Suddenly, Loki isn't the only good thing about a Thor movie.

4) Guardians of the Galaxy. The formula here often reads like "The Avengers in Space." But sorry, Joss, I think this "Avengers" is put together a little better.

Upper Tier

(To me, these are the "grade A" -- or A- -- movies in the MCU.)

3) Spider-Man: Homecoming. Tom Holland is the best Spider-man in my book, not mopey like Tobey Maguire, and more authentic than Andrew Garfield. The movie has maybe the best Marvel villain -- well, okay, maybe not better than Loki, but certainly more relatable. The interconnectedness of the MCU movies is leveraged for good storytelling instead of cross-promotion.

2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Hero on the lam is a great subgenre in the action genre, and this movie does it wonderfully. Great use of Black Widow and Nick Fury. Tension that actually works.

1) Captain America: Civil War. This could be recency bias talking, as this is the one Marvel movie I've recently re-watched. But the tightrope act of using so many characters effectively is so difficult, and so well done here, I give it the top spot. It's also great that characters have to take moral stands, and that each choice actually makes sense for the given character. The movie sparks actual thought, too; I've heard fans debate whether Tony or Cap is right here, and it feels meaningful and interesting.

There you go. Now let the Infinity War begin.