As amazing as it is that Marvel has built an entire cinematic universe and made it work well enough that they're planning multiple movies years in advance, it's equally amazing that they have well over ten movies to choose from and that the top ten are all good. So let's get into the fun part of this list.
9. Spider-Man
High school me would be SO MAD that Spider-Man came in at number eleven (and also confused that there were ten other movies that qualified) but that's the bounty Marvel has delivered unto us. Even today, after we've had 27 Marvel movies (god, I'm not counting the Blade movies, guys!) and some that have truly changed the game, Spider-Man still holds up. The only big flaws I can point to now, after getting a chance to look back, have to do with characters. I don't think Peter Parker is developed as much as he really ought to be, which is depressing because it's Peter that's brought people to the comic for over fifty years now. Still, it's a good movie and a lot of the effects still look good twelve years later.
8. X-Men: First Class
This one is an interesting one particularly because of the team they built. This isn't about, as you may have guessed, the original five X-Men being trained by Charles Xavier in a world that hates and fears them. It's about a group of mutant teenagers, only one of which is in that original five group from the comics but the rest are interesting and diverse choices (who'd've thought that Havok and Darwin would make the new squad). It was also a bold enough statement that it's launched another X-Men movie franchise that has a new movie coming out this year and another one coming just a year or two afterwards. It's building an interesting world around new and different mutants. Hoping that the new ones don't go too dark; that's part of what DC is doing that's maybe not going to pay off.
7. Amazing Spider-Man
I said that Spider-Man lacked a developed personality for Peter Parker; he's a bit of a blank slate in that one. He's a nerd, sure, but only kind of? He's a nerd that looks like Tobey Maguire and that mostly just seems kind of awkward more than anything else. This Peter Parker isn't so much a nerd as an outcast. He's well-developed and you can see him fitting into the Spider-Man mythos as much as any interpretation of Peter Parker. Andrew Garfield is genuinely fun to watch in the role and you understand how he immediately took to the Spider-Man identity. Of course, Lizard looks pretty terrible and there are some moments that maybe could have been improved here and there, but it's a really fun movie and one that sets up a neat little world all to itself.
6. Thor
Thor gets a couple of bonus points because it was just the second movie in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe and it was Thor. Those italics are both because movie titles should be italicized but also for emphasis, guys. Thor, as a character, was a big ol' risk for Marvel to turn to, particularly to turn to second (emphasis). A world that had just liked Iron Man, a pretty fun movie about a snarky but very human character who uses science and engineering to be a superhero, and had just liked The Dark Knight about a normal human with above average fighting skills and resources fighting a psychopath, was now asked to embrace something straight out of fantasy. There are a lot of things that bug me about this movie when I watch it on TV (whoa dutch angles, some strangely goofy moments, a bit of a weak final boss battle) but there's plenty of really great stuff to it too. The portrayal of Thor, Loki, and other Asgardians, a lot of the writing, strong pacing and development, etc. All of that worked for me. I think, as you can see here, that Thor is the weakest of the Phase One movies, but it's certainly not a weak movie.
5. Spider-Man 2
After a really strong first entry with Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 perfected the tone and the characters we'd liked so much from the first movie while giving us a compelling villain with a heartbreaking turn from good to evil. Spider-Man is a character defined by his own personality and by his villains and this, though a little different than the classic representation of Doctor Octopus, was as good a defining piece as ever. Good action, good characters, good writing, and a movie that really just felt...well, good. It still holds up, too.
4. X2
This one was on TV just the other day and, I gotta tell you, it holds up pretty well. The effects, the story, the characters, they're all present and accounted for. It may not even be as good a movie as some of the ones it's outranked here but it lands a little better on this list because of how much of an improvement it was and the fact that it feels like it may have been released this year and would still work. Can't give it a lot more praise than that.
3. Iron Man
This is one of the big ones. It represents the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something so big that it's now generated billions of dollars in revenue (over a billion on Avengers alone, guys) and franchises within franchises. To do that requires a real A+ effort and it's not made any easier by the idea that they had to kick the whole thing off with a character somewhat foreign to mainstream audiences. It's not Spider-Man. It's not Wolverine. It's Iron Man. He's not exactly a household name before 2008. But here we are, three Iron Man movies later, not to mention the slew of other movies, and this one still works. It loses some points for the rather over-the-top final boss battle that has some bad dialogue and some "this is the best we can come up with for a villain" feel to it, but it's still a pretty great movie.
2. Captain America
It's legitimately hard for me not to pop this one down at number one. Captain America is not an easy movie to make, and certainly not an easy one to make well. Mainstream audiences don't know much about Captain America except as a reference for "PATRIOTISM" so to make a movie where he's eminently and unironically a good guy in a world where we like our heroes cynical and jaded was a bold move. At the same time, the movie doesn't miss a single beat. It's recently made its way on to cable and so FX has been running it pretty constantly and, frankly, I can't help watching it all the way through every time it's on. There's not a bad scene in the movie. I watch the origin part going "geez, this is the best part of the movie," then I say that for just about every part of the movie. I think Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter is the best love interest in any of the movies so far, a character who is independent and strong even without Extremis running through her veins. I think Chris Evans plays Steve with such heart and such understanding that it shines through just about any other character Marvel Studios has developed. If anything, I think maybe Red Skull is a little weak, but that's really searching for problems. God, I love that movie.
1. The Avengers
What, was I not going to pick the movie that made a billion dollars and seamlessly tied together all of the characters the movies had developed before? This movie was an INSANE risk, something that had never been done before in movies, and yet it worked amazingly well. It doesn't hurt that Joss Whedon was the brain behind it, sure (full disclosure: I'm watching Firefly as I write this list), but this was a risk even after they hired the much beloved director to helm it. In a world where we want our action dark and gritty, Avengers went out of its way to be just a shade lighter than everything else. It was action-packed and fun and smart and fully realized right from the start. The success of Avengers cemented the superhero movie genre for years to come. Every character (with the possible exception of Hawkeye but that's understandable) gets a fair shake here and, even more impressively, every single one leaves the movie stronger than it entered. Really great work and the obvious number one pick for any list like this.
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