Over 15 years and 33 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has thrown countless seemingly insurmountable obstacles and more than a few apocalyptic events at their line-up of superheroes trying to save the world, the universe and reality itself. Their villains are at the head of all of this; crazed scientists, treacherous government agents, brutal alien warlords, amoral industrialists, gods and monsters and everything in between, an MCU villain can be so many things. Some were unfortunately the weakest elements in the movies they appeared in, being either generic, poorly served by the script or misjudged in their performances, while others ended up being memorable highlights even above the title costumed characters. 

There are often multiple antagonists in these superhero stories so we’ve tried to stick to one villain per MCU film. This is except where it’s the same antagonist carried over into a sequel film, and in cases where there’s more than one threat to our heroes. In these instances, we’ve focussed on the most active baddies or the masterminds of the various diabolical plots.

This ranking will be based on the level of threat the various bad guys pose to our supremely skilled and miraculously superpowered heroes, the diabolical creativity of their respective master plans and the sheer evilness of their actions. Spoilers ahead!

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31. Malekith – Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“Look upon my legacy, Algrim. I can barely remember a time before the light.” 

A dark elf conqueror with a vendetta against Asgard for a defeat in ancient times, Malekith is reawakened and plots to snuff out the light across the universe (because his kind really like the darkness of the void).

A hugely distinct and memorable villain from the comics became one of the most boring to ever antagonise a superhero movie. Whatever Christopher Eccleston was trying to do with his performance after undergoing many uncomfortable hours in the makeup chair was lost in a brutally hacked film edit and an all-round po-faced determination to live up to the “dark” of the title.

Note: dark is not the same as interesting. 

30. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash – Iron Man 2 (2010)

“You come from a family of thieves and butchers, and like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your history.”

Whiplash is a Stark-hating, parrot-loving nuclear physicist/inventor with arc reactor-powered whips and an army of drones to carry out his revenge.

Mickey Rourke got a lot of jobs in quick succession as various shades of tough guy in this period. The Wrestler this is not, and he doesn’t exactly stretch himself as Ivan, offering a barely passable Russian accent and playing with a toothpick as a poor substitute for a more intricate characterisation as he plots vaguely defined Cold War-fuelled vengeance on Tony Stark and the American Military Industrial Complex.

29. Emil Blonsky/Abomination – The Incredible Hulk (2008)

“If I took what I had now, and put it in a body that I had ten years ago, that would be someone I wouldn’t want to fight.”

Abomination is an unstable British Black Ops asset who volunteers for a series of dangerous experimental super soldier treatments in order to capture the Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk worked best when it was Marvel’s answer to a Universal Monster movie, but one of its weakest elements was having Blonsky as its villain. Roth is fine, but he just wasn’t all that threatening, the character thinly sketched as a violent jerk with a superiority complex. When he finally transforms into his bony green alter ego Abomination for a CG smashathon in Harlem, it becomes almost impossible to care.

Recommended for you: Once More with Feeling – 10 More of the Best Remakes

28. Dar-Benn – The Marvels (2023)

“I always come back.”

Continuing what Ronan the Accuser started, Kree warrior Dar-Benn seeks to unite the two powerful Cosmic Bands in order to open portals across the galaxy to pillage resources from countless worlds to restore her dying planet of Hala and reassert her species’ dominance in the galaxy.

The problem with Dar-Benn is not her evil-for-the-right-reasons master plan or her relative threat level to our heroes (which is considerable considering that with space-magical enhancement she can hold her own against three formidable supes at once), it’s that there’s nothing else to her.

We needed more time for layers to come though Zawe Ashton’s broad, pantomimey performance and she too often feels like a retread of the kinds of villains we’ve seen in the MCU many times before, just a means to an end.

27. Ava Starr/Ghost – Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

“It hurts. It always hurts.”

The Marvels Review

A scientist’s daughter with an unnatural condition that causes her to painfully phase in and out of the physical realm, Ghost resorts to stealing Pymtech to survive.

Ghost is an admirable attempt to make something interesting out of a gimmicky physics-based villain. The character is let down not by Hannah John-Kamen’s engaging and tortured performance but by her essential irrelevance to the film’s main plot and lack of enough meaningful screen time. It’s almost like they only decided late in the day that Ant-Man and the Wasp should have an antagonist at all, and that may have been the wrong decision for this particular movie. 

26. Ronan – Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

“I don’t recall killing your family. I doubt I’ll remember killing you either.”

Ronan is a Kree fanatic who courts war and is gathering enough power to wipe the planet Xandar from the galaxy.

Ronan, with his war paint, samurai helmet and big hammer has a strong look, and thanks to Lee Pace he is given an imposing presence and a rumbling voice. But you’d struggle to claim he had much in the way of depth as a character. He wants a weapon to destroy a planet because because he’s from a war-like race and that’s about it, though Pace’s affronted expression and confused “what are you doing?” as Star-Lord dances in front of him as he’s trying to trigger an apocalypse is pretty memorable.

25. Darren Cross/Yellowjacket – Ant-Man (2015)

“Did you think you could stop the future with a heist?”

Ant-Man Review

Hank Pym’s protégé, ouster and successor at his company, Yellowjacket seeks to weaponise and sell Pym’s shrinking technology to the highest bidder.

Marvel has a lot of evil CEOs in its rogues gallery and Corey Stoll brings plenty of punchable arrogance to his performance as Darren Cross. He murders rivals and exterminates animal test subjects without second thought, seemingly motivated by Pym not trusting him with the secrets of his technology (though really it’s because he enjoys doing it). 

Cross does have probably the most gruesome villain death in the MCU so far, and it’s no more than he deserves.

“There was an idea…”

Said idea was different to almost every version of the big screen superhero seen previously. Rather than each costumed hero existing in their own sealed-off vivariums, what if they could all share one interconnected universe containing a single ever-evolving and expansive story?

Once the idea gained traction, billions of dollars, and many “phases” of franchise continuity, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) became the envy of every studio with a lucrative intellectual property to siphon and thus many attempts were made to replicate the success of the “Marvel Formula”.

Much like the James Bond series in the decades before it, the MCU is primarily a producer-led franchise, the ultimate mastermind behind the project being Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, though distinct directors like Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon and Taika Waititi have certainly left their mark on their respective entries in the ongoing series.

What keeps us (and wider box office audiences) coming back, aside from the ever-increasing levels of superhero spectacle and long-form storytelling borrowing liberally from 80-plus years of comic books, is the time you’re afforded to grow to love the characters and their relationships with each other, especially in the ambitious team-up Avengers movies.

In this edition of Ranked we at The Film Magazine are assessing every entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and because fans have very different opinions on the best, the worst and everything in between regarding this series, we’ve attempted to find a balance between average critical consensus and general audience reception, as well as genre innovation and the lasting impact on popular culture, to order all of them definitively from worst to best.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration… Every MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

33. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

“A guy dressed like a bee tried to kill me when I was six. I’ve never had a normal life.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

The Ant-Man films are probably the most inconstant sub-series in the MCU, quality wise, but because the final chapter of their trilogy tries to go both big and small, it well and truly overreaches itself.

Pitting the Lang/Van Dyne family against Kang the Conqueror in the Quantum Realm, force of nature Jonathan Majors playing a fascinating villain isn’t quite enough to save Peyton Reed’s threequel from being just an eye-catching jumble of mismatched, tonally confusing ideas.

For Kang’s first, less maniacal appearance and the start of this whole Multiverse Saga, make sure to watch Season 1 of ‘Loki’.

32. Eternals (2021)

“We have loved these people since the day we arrived. When you love something, you protect it.”

Eternals Review

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) is a great director, no doubt, but she was just not a good fit for the MCU in this story of space gods guiding humanity’s progress. Considering the usually grounded and singular vision of her work, this was a particularly crushing disappointment for most audiences.

The ambition and epic millennia-spanning scope of Eternals sadly did not pay off in this jarring, misjudged slog of a final product that couldn’t even be saved by a stellar and diverse cast. 

31. The Marvels (2023)

“Listen to me, you are chosen for a greater purpose. So you must go. But I will never let you go.”

The Marvels Review

The Marvels smartly builds a lot of its appeal around its central team-up of Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan as their power usage causes them to swap places across the universe, but their found family warmth and oodles of charisma can’t overcome all the film’s flaws.

This needed more purposeful storytelling, a villain that doesn’t feel like a retread of what came before and more direct confrontation of the darker implications of the story. The musical elements will likely make an already decisive movie more so, but the MCU overall could do with some more audacious imagery like what Nia DaCosta does with alien cats.

Watching ‘Wandavision’ and ‘Ms Marvel’ through beforehand will certainly help you connect with two of the three leads that bit quicker.

30. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

“Whosoever holds these weapons, and believes in getting home, if they be true of heart is therefore worthy, and shall possess… for limited time only, the power… of Thor!”

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Taika Waititi is the kind of distinct voice that gave the MCU a jolt in the arm when it was most needed, and he was vital in reinvigorating the Thor series, but the tonal balance and technical polish certainly felt off in 2022 release Thor: Love and Thunder.

Good performances from Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale, and some memorable set pieces aside, Thor’s latest adventure battling a god-killer with his now superpowered ex-girlfriend Jane Foster at his side feels like too many mismatched stories smashed together.

Recommended for you: Taika Waititi Films Ranked

29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“One son who wanted the throne too much, and other who will not take it. Is this my legacy?”

The God of Thunder’s third film appearance tries to live up to its title with a story of dark elves trying to snuff out all light in the universe. Sadly, a late change in director – Alan Taylor taking over from would-be Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins – and extensive Loki-centric reshoots didn’t help an already disjointed film feel any less so.

Thor’s dynamic with his Earthbound friends is still funny and more Loki (shoehorned in or not) is always a good thing with Tom Hiddleston in the role, but the storytelling is inconsistent at best and Christopher Eccleston under heavy prosthetics as Malekith may be the most boring villain in the MCU so far.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

“The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you’re in.”

The MCU’s first direct sequel went bigger and darker with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark fighting a vengeful Russian inventor, a rival industrialist and potentially fatal health problems. Unfortunately, this ended up being a much less focussed, overblown and not all that compelling movie.

Scarlet Johansson makes her debut as Black Widow here, though she’s just a generic sexy spy at this point and not yet given the dimensions other writers would later bestow. The action is decent enough, but you wouldn’t lose out on much of you skipped over Iron Man 2 on your next MCU rewatch.

27. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

“You know, I know a few techniques that could help you manage that anger effectively.”

Lacking the clear intentions and boldness of many subsequent MCU movies, The Incredible Hulk is stylistically old-fashioned but works slightly better if you view this as a big-budget tribute to sympathetic monster movies (this one was made by Universal, after all).

A movie filled with false starts and one-off appearances (most obviously Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner would be recast with Mark Ruffalo for The Avengers in 2012), very little was carried over to the wider franchise right up until Tim Roth’s reappearance in ‘She-Hulk’ fourteen years later.

This is generally uninspiring stuff, with its most interesting man-on-the-run elements cribbed from the 1970s ‘Incredible Hulk’ TV show.

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In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are taking a look at these 8 films, the Best Picture nominees that found massive box office success. These are movies that smashed records and received critical praise, while managing to reach the masses and enthral Oscar voters. From pioneers in special effects to genre-defining stories of love and loss, these blockbusters pursued the highest artistic integrity, became touchstones in cinema, and stayed with us long after the lights went up. From fantasy epics to disaster movies, supervillain origin stories to legacy sequels, here is Every $1Billion+ Best Picture Nominee Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

8. Joker (2019)

Joker Review

Set against the backdrop of the increasingly volatile and corrupt home of Batman, Gotham City, Joker tells the story of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), an aspiring stand-up comic who just can’t catch a break. After an assault on the subway results in a violent and deadly confrontation, Arthur slowly descends into madness and unknowingly becomes the symbol of the oppressed and downtrodden.

Joker’s success can largely be attributed to our collective thirst for something outside the increasingly predictable, paint-by-numbers formula of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gone are the witty one-liners and post-credits scenes; say goodbye to the colorful and smooth spandex suits and lengthy action sequences. Instead, director Todd Philips opts to paint a grim and intimate portrait of a man just trying to get by; a man largely ignored and abused by the system. Clearly inspired by the films of Martin Scorsese, namely Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Joker is frustratingly self-serious, desperately trying to say something deep and meaningful without saying much of anything at all.

Whilst Joker falls short thematically, it excels in performance. Joaquin Phoenix, who won his first Oscar for this role, is tremendous. Following in the footsteps of Cesar Romero, Jack Nicolson and Heath Ledger, Phoenix makes the Joker his own, breathing new life into a character that has been a constant presence for comic book fans for more than 80 years.

Despite the divisive response amongst audiences and critics, Joker no doubt made its mark on the superhero genre. In addition to its nomination for Best Picture, the film was nominated for a total of 11 Oscars, breaking The Dark Knight’s previous record of 8 nominations for a superhero movie.

Recommended for you: 2020 Oscars Best Picture Nominees Ranked

7. Avatar (2009)

James Cameron is no stranger to box office success. With Avatar, Cameron managed to beat his own record, unseating Titanic as the highest-grossing film ever made. At the 82nd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, and won 3. The film was in development for roughly a decade whilst Cameron waited for the right technology to become available. When it eventually premiered in 2009, Avatar was groundbreaking – showing off numerous innovations in visual effects, including motion capture.

Avatar takes place sometime in the distant future. Earth’s resources are depleting and humans have set their sights on mining and colonizing the moon of Pandora. Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is selected for the avatar program and tasked with earning the trust of the indigenous Na’vi people and convincing them to relocate. But when Jake meets and falls in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), he must decide whose side he’s really on and what he’s willing to fight for.

While Avatar’s visuals were unmatched at the time, its storytelling leaves something to be desired. The dialog is often stilted and the characters, especially Jake and his fellow Marines, sound more like video game Non-Player Characters (NPCs) than real people. The narrative is one we’ve seen countless times before, and although the story is largely predictable, it’s also accessible, which no doubt helps with regard to the film’s wide appeal.

On the screen, Marvel Studios’ trusted output has been received positively by critics and audiences alike, the majority of its thirty feature releases being well received and worthy of their hype, even their so-called “calculated risks” being more often refreshing to their already established formula than detrimental to their overall output.

Cinema has been forever changed by the dawn of Marvel’s big screen dominance and old-school serial approach to storytelling, Disney’s newly ordained crown jewel inspiring every rival studio and aspirational production company to gobble up trusted IPs and set forth plans for so-called Movie Universes based around everything from fellow superheroes to famous board games, reinvented children’s cartoons to horror characters.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are putting the world’s most influential film franchise under the microscope to compare every feature length Marvel release with one another to determine which MCU films are the best and which are the worst, judging each on artistic merit and cultural impact.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter. 

30. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

To this day, Louis Leterrier’s 2008 MCU contribution The Incredible Hulk is the forgotten member of the family. And, while this isn’t necessarily this distinctly average film’s fault and is actually more to do with Edward Norton refusing to return to his role as the Hulk following strained relationships with both director and studio, as well as how the rights to the Hulk character are locked in a contract that limits Marvel Studios from telling a standalone story with Mark Ruffalo, a lot can still be said for how dated this film is – The Incredible Hulk playing a lot more like Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four and X-Men: Origins – Wolverine than the later and much more tasteful Marvel Studios offerings to come in this list.

Recommended for you: Every X-Men Movie Ranked

29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The worst of a bad bunch of uninspired sequels, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World not only seemed absent of the comedy and much of the mythology of the original Thor film but it also hit at precisely the wrong time – that being between the much more highly anticipated Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the year after the original The Avengers.

Thor 2 was generic in a Suicide Squad “angry swirl of evil descending from the sky for no reason” kind of way; a movie so uninspired Chris Hemsworth has openly spoken about how he almost quit the role because of it; a perfectly serviceable sequel (especially at the time), but one of little consequence or imagination that few get excited to rewatch – an MCU entry that time hasn’t been very kind to.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

The first Iron Man was such a huge success creatively, artistically, critically and financially for Marvel Studios that a quick-turnaround 2nd movie was demanded to bolster Phase One’s launch – a period in the history of the MCU that was a lot more rocky than many are willing to admit.

Iron Man 2 was a failure in all of the ways Iron Man was a success, apart from financially, offering bland and sometimes barely comprehensible moments of action, dialogue and character. As a result, Iron Man 2 fits right in alongside the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man as a very particular brand of cheesy and uninspired comic book movie that was made more to earn a quick buck than it was to fulfil any creative or artistic need. It has its moments – which movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man doesn’t? – but thankfully the MCU has proven itself to be better than this in its other phases since.

27. Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

Coming between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – ie, post-snap – Ant-Man and The Wasp was put in an awful position to succeed, the creative minds behind the film having to choose between embracing the actions of Infinity War or ignoring them altogether. They chose the latter (at least until the film’s final moments), but what fans wanted was something of an indicator as to what was to come in Endgame, or at least a taste of post-Infinity War’s MCU landscape, and the comedy-centred light-heartedness of an Ant-Man movie was an example of Marvel Studios not taking a minute to read the room.

More than that, Ant-Man and The Wasp felt scaled down from the original, its outlandish creative ideas brought into line with the wider MCU look and feel of things, making what seemed like a promising sequel to a moving and hilarious comedy one of the studio’s most formulaic and typically “superhero movie” releases to date – the “formula” not being necessarily bad, but certainly overplayed.

26. Eternals (2021)

Eternals Review

Eternals came with a lot of hope and expectation given the nature of the original material it was being adapted from and how it was the first MCU entry to be directed by an Oscar-winning director (Chloé Zhao). Ultimately, it proved too much of a mix of the trusted Marvel formula and director Zhao’s trademark directorial style, the clashes between action and existentialism forcing a disjointed rhythm in the filmmaking that made Eternals feel way longer than it was (which was one of the longest MCU films in history) and hit home way less effectively than anyone would have hoped.

As a product of the world’s largest production arm, Eternals was hopefully diverse from cast to crew, but ultimately this release had two authorial presences that seemed to clash on screen, this already troubling combination being amplified by its position in the MCU as a part of the studio’s fourth phase and thus responsible for a number of story elements and character introductions barely relevant to its standalone narrative.

25. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Despite featuring one of the most empathetic and exceptionally-performed villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe history, Thor: Love and Thunder was a messy fourth instalment in the God of Thunder’s individual franchise, a film that flipped between tones as if at a loss at how to create both meaningful drama and laugh-out-loud comedy.

In comparison to post-2012 Marvel releases, the action was relatively poor too. Gone were the exceptionally choreographed sequences of the mainstream Avengers films or the differing styles of Black Widow, Doctor Strange and Shang-Chi, and in its place were bland and almost inconsequential battles repeated, a few moments of awe failing to rectify for a movie’s worth of oversights.

Thor: Love and Thunder is an enjoyable time at the movies. It will make you laugh and it does have some interesting moments, but these pros are simply too few and far between to make for a strong (or even meaningful) MCU entry.

24. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Adored by some and maligned by others, Iron Man 3 simply came about much too early, screenwriter-director Shane Black’s offerings of genre and trope deconstructions – most notably the choice to twist a genuinely fascinating villain into a trope-ridden stereotypical bad guy as a form of commentary – being things usually reserved for the dying days of a genre, not for one of its peaks.

This film was the follow up to The Avengers where Tony Stark had almost died, so Black’s smarts didn’t hit as they could have much later in the studio’s line-up – people wanted emotion and stakes, as well as suitable conclusions to character arcs, and Black’s work was seen to undermine that, the very strong work in several aspects of this film ultimately shunned to the background of a film dominated by a creator’s singular intention seemingly forced into the canon at the wrong time.

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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Director: Ryan Coogler
Screenwriters: Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole
Starring: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Martin Freeman

On 28 August 2020, the world woke to the heartbreaking news that Chadwick Boseman had passed away. He was only 43 and had been battling cancer in secret for some time. This left Marvel Studios and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler with an unthinkable dilemma: to recast, or to acknowledge the in-universe death of one of your most prominent lead characters? They went with the far the more respectful second option, and so the sequel to one of the biggest hits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had the added challenge of paying tribute to its dearly departed star in addition to telling a new and expansive story.

A year after the untimely death of her brother King T’Challa, Shuri (Letitia Wright) has thrown herself into her work to avoid confronting her grief, leaving her mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) to represent Wakanda on the global stage as ruler, the title of Black Panther vacant. When a new threat emerges in the shape of Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), the warrior-king of the powerful aquatic nation of Talokan, Shuri must rally her allies and embrace her destiny if Wakanda and the nations beyond it stand any hope of survival.

The world has changed. The MCU may not have experienced a Coronavirus pandemic, but half of it was snapped out of existence for five years by intergalactic tyrant Thanos. Friends and loved ones were torn apart, including Ramonda who lost both her children to “The Blip” and was then reunited with them briefly after the events of Avengers: Endgame only to lose her son all over again to human mortality. In the absence of heirs to the throne, hungry eyes have been on Wakanda, and UN member states have been performing incursions for their precious vibranium metal deposits. Everything comes to a head when the previously unknown Talokanil people attack the surface world to protect their own stores of vibranium, drawing out the isolationist Wakandans to take action of their own. 

Tragic circumstances have promoted Black Panther’s memorable supporting cast to main players, and everyone in the ensemble is given new depths and plenty of interesting things to do. One of the best things about the first Black Panther is how it saw T’Challa relying on a close support network of family and friends to effectively perform his role as superhero, and it is these same loved ones – Shuri, Ramonda, love of T’Challa’s life Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), and loyal bodyguard Okoye (Danai Gurira) – that are tasked here with continuing his legacy as best they can.

When it comes down to it, for all its spectacular, multi-tiered action and dazzling portrayals of hidden futurist worlds inspired by African and Mesoamerican cultures (much respect to returning production designer Hannah Beachler here), this is a film about legacy and a mother’s need to give her children a future. Namor’s origins are told through the lens of his mother’s experiences in 16th Century Mexico, and in one of the film’s standout scenes a particularly powerful, distraught Angela Bassett takes the floor in her throne room to illuminate the grief she has been through. The script from Coogler and Joe Robert Cole can at times be too tell-not-show, but in this moment Ramonda’s assembled audience need to be told in no uncertain terms.

Namor just shouldn’t work in live-action. Amazingly though, in the capable hands of a charismatic Huerta and Marvel’s digital artists (a couple of dodgy CG transition shots aside), this wing-footed merman is actually made to look pretty cool, and scary. Dubbed K’uk’ulkan by his people after the Mayan serpent deity, Namor commands a near-invulnerable army as well as the ocean itself, and thus every creature that inhabits it becomes a weapon in his hands. In a particularly striking image lifted straight from the “Avengers vs X-Men” comic storyline, Wakanda’s capital city feels the full force of Namor’s wrath, and like the best antagonists in the MCU such as Black Panther‘s Killmonger, he is both terrifying and fully understandable in his worldview. Why should the colonialist nations of the world feel they have the right to the resources of two small but advanced nations who have kept to themselves for centuries?

The film is a long one, at just over 2 hours 40 minutes it is the second-longest in the MCU after Phase 3 finale Endgame. While it could possibly do with a little tightening here and there, and less “Lord of the Rings ending syndrome” in its final few minutes, there is a sizeable ensemble of characters to serve here, not to mention having to close out Phase 4 of the MCU, set up new characters who will have large parts to play going forward (like teen genius Riri Williams/Ironheart, played by Dominque Thorne), and of course pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman – it’s difficult to see where the cuts could come.

The main problem aside from having to balance respect for an unexpectedly departed star with moving a franchise and its characters forward is that the slightly unwieldy script is very stop-start-stop-start. The world-building could always be more elegant, the story’s shift of gears less noticeable, but the character work is on point and there are plenty of individual moments in the film (from the intimate to the epic) that will stay with you.

Wakanda Forever has the unenviable task of eulogising the dearly departed and carrying a long-running franchise on the road to its future. Chadwick Boseman tragically died before his time and so this film does the rare thing of showing that superheroes might be stronger, faster and more powerful than us, but most are are not immune to illness and to grief. Ryan Coogler’s film does about as well as you might reasonably expect at balancing many disparate elements, and while this undoubtedly ended up as a very different film to the one it started as, Wakanda Forever makes a heartfelt connection and delivers memorable action in spades as well as some of the best performances in the entire MCU.

19/24

Recommended for you: Every MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Ranked

pic.twitter.com/aZ2JzDf5ai

— Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) August 29, 2020

The actor, whose career will be best remembered for roles highlighting social injustices and empowering black people, rose to prominence on the big screen in 2013 Baseball drama 42 and was the lead actor in Marvel’s Black Panther.

In his role as King T’Challa, Boseman contributed to an amassed gross over $5billion at the worldwide box office from his debut in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War to 2019’s highest grossing film of all time Avengers: Endgame.

Black Panther was seen as a cultural milestone, with the film marking the first time in history that a release directed by a black man (Ryan Coogler) and starring a predominantly black cast had reached a gross of over $1billion at the worldwide box office. It was also the first superhero film to ever receive a nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Boseman is said to have worked one last time as T’Challa, offering his voice to Disney Plus series ‘What If…?’, with episodes scheduled to be released in 2021. It is not known whether his work was completed or whether it will be used.

His final film performance will be in the posthumous role of Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a George C. Wolfe directed adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play. Boseman has already been seen on screen this year in a central role on Spike Lee’s lauded Vietnam war revisitation Da 5 Bloods, in which he played an integral member of the central group who passed away far too early but left an indelible mark on each person he touched. The role, given the circumstances, now feels apropos.

Speaking at a Hollywood Reporter Roundtable in 2018, Boseman said of the experience of black people in creative industries that ‘most people don’t even see acting as a possibility – it is not a viable career option for most of us’ and that, as an actor, “you’re pulling from things that most people don’t obviously deal with. You’re dealing with intimate parts of your reality, political parts of your reality, social parts of your reality that most people don’t have to deal with on a day to day basis. You do it because you love it, you don’t do it because of what people think – you know; I want to be famous. That’s not what it is.”

Chadwick Boseman passed away peacefully at his home in the company of his immediate family after a battle with colon cancer that included surgeries and chemotherapy, and was never made public.

Tributes have already begun to flood in, with fellow Avengers star Mark Ruffalo tweeting the following and #WakandaForever trending on Twitter.

It was the highest honor getting to work with you and getting to know you. What a generous and sincere human being. You believed in the sacred nature of the work and gave your all. Much love to your family. And much love from all of us left here.

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) August 29, 2020

But first, here’s to another decade of bold filmmaking voices making their mark, reaching wide-ranging audiences and continuing to progress the art form in an uncertain world. 

Cheers!

1. Clio Barnard
The Arbor (2010) – The Selfish Giant (2013) – Dark River (2017)

A distinct female voice working prolifically within the British film industry and thus far not straying from her Yorkshire home county or compromising on her darkly poetic style, Clio Barnard is a pariah. 

BAFTA and BIFA award nominee Barnard has moved fluidly between docu-drama and geographically rooted dramatic storytelling. Her stories have universal impact but make a particular connection with viewers from West Yorkshire who recognise the bleak-beautiful landscapes and people.

The one to watch: The Selfish Giant

Inspired by Oscar Wilde but feeling more Dickensian and ploughing its own furrow, The Selfish Giant follows two Bradford teen tearaways whose friendship has to survive poverty and adult manipulation. It hits you like a train, always feels genuine and leaves you with unforgettable imagery.

Recommended for you: Dark River (2018) Review

2. Damien Chazelle
Whiplash (2014) – La La Land (2016) – First Man (2018)

Critical darling he may be, but this not without reason as Damien Chazelle has proven himself a stylistically confident young actor’s director, working intensively with his cast and crew to produce his dazzling vision.

Chazelle has confidently tackled the musical, the biopic and Oscar-winning drama, but never presents them quite in the conventional sense. He’s romantic but a realist, so his characters usually have something fundamental missing in their lives or a nigh-on impossible dream they’re shooting for.

The one to watch: Whiplash

The presentation of the psychology of obsession marked Whiplash out, but everyone remembers the barnstorming performances, how Chazelle managed to make a student playing the drums and his teacher saying “Not quite my tempo” more unbearably tense than Neil Armstrong landing on the moon with a faulty guidance system.

Recommended for you: La La Land (2017) Review

3. Ryan Coogler
Fruitvale Station (2013) – Creed (2015) – Black Panther (2018)

Ryan Coogler’s filmmaking captures the zeitgeist. He has a vivid and distinct voice, inescapably rooted in a culture and experiences, and he never disguises it in his work, even as he has moved into the mainstream.

The deeply-held feelings in evidence in all of his work, the deconstruction of injustice and cultural bias in the American experience are presented to us in an appealing, vivid aesthetic. Michael B. Jordan has become Coogler’s figurehead, his mouthpiece to convey earnest, passionately held ideas about the world as they have both moved from the indie to the blockbuster stage.

The one to watch: Fruitvale Station

Oscar Grant’s story was one that needed to be told and should have been more widely known the world over; an injustice that needed to be given a voice. An unremarkable man seemingly living another unremarkable day in his life takes a tragic and history-shaping turn.

Recommended for you: Black Panther (2018) Review

We’re all interested to see how the big M will adapt as they move into the post-Endgame era. Will the universe sit in a holding pattern until the X-Men arrive? What will the next event be? How will new streaming platform Disney+ change the amount of film content they release?

Here are 10 things we could and probably should see from the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the next 10 years. 

1. T’Challa’s Character Development

As we move into a new era of Marvel, likely to be without Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, it’s unclear how the group dynamic will change. Who will be an Avenger? Who will be the leader? Will any of that even matter?

Of course, the team-ups will have to continue – the culmination of the films to an event blockbuster is Marvel’s thing – but what will T’Challa’s role be?

We’ve seen his leadership ability, we’ve seen his strength and we’ve seen how valuable he is in technological terms. That’s all secondary to character, though…

In Black Panther, we saw T’challa change his outlook on his family, country and the world. How will he handle the consequences of his actions if it leads to another incident like Ultron? What flaws will develop over his next appearances, and how will he respond? Or will he get the Captain America treatment, where his flaw is that he’s just way too good? I hope for the former as the best characters in the Marvel films are the ones that go through lots of change.

2. Reincorporating Characters Into New Roles

Hero identities change all the time in comic books. How many Robins has Joker killed now? The first one became Nightwing…

We just saw all the different Spider-Man iterations in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, so film audiences are familiar. Plus, Marvel isn’t a stranger to changing actors for a role. The only difference is the new character.

It has been theorized (based on contracts) that Bucky is set to become Captain America. Like Steve, he’s a super soldier, and he’s been turned from being a sleeper agent into a good guy now. Shuri’s technological proficiency could give her an upper-hand in becoming Iron Heart, Iron Man’s female successor. Thor, assuming he survives Endgame, is still the protector of eight realms, which would make it cool to see him appear in cameos just as Fury does. Thor theoretically has the ability to travel to any character in the MCU, so seeing him deliver exposition in post-credit scenes would be fun. Don’t completely eliminate what we’re familiar with, even if they are relegated.

3. A Good Ruffalo Hulk Film

The Incredible Hulk is a weird movie. Edward Norton stars in it, its cinematography dates it in the mid-2000s and it shows us that Bruce can’t have sex. There are some good things contained within it, like editing in rhythm with Banner’s rising heart rate and seeing how he learned to control himself, but overall the execution is lacking compared to what has followed. While it’s possible Mark Ruffalo could fulfil his contractual obligation to Marvel by featuring in upcoming film, I would prefer to see him sent off (if he is) in his own feature. It could be a way to introduce a new recurring character or technology while also bringing closure to the Hulk we know and love. Unfortunately, I think it’s much more likely that he appears in something like Black Widow because of the relationship between Universal and Marvel that has caused tensions across all these years regarding solo film rights.

4. More Cosmic Marvel

Between Guardians 1 & 2, Thor 2 & 3, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War and Captain Marvel, it’s fair to say we’ve seen some excellent output from Cosmic Marvel.

There are so many different settings to explore and weird characters to meet. Of course we’ll see more in the sequels to the aforementioned films (crossing my fingers for a Thor 4), but an Eternals film is also in development which has the potential to incorporate space (the Eternals are superhuman beings created by Celestials tasked to protect Earth against the Deviants), though it’s likely an Eternals film is more akin to Thor or Captain Marvel than a straight cosmic adventure. There’s also a chance we could get a lot of it in a future Fantastic Four film now that Disney own the rights to that franchise. The color and set design of cosmic films give us all a good break from the typical Marvel look, so in an age where intrigue will inevitably be tested, I say the more the better.

5. More Visual Variety

Marvel’s best possible next step in its cinematic evolution is growing beyond its formulaic standards of cinematography. Don’t get me wrong, the movies look good and achieving this kind of visual cohesion is certainly impressive, but the camera, lighting and editing mostly lack a personal touch. With the universe firmly established, Marvel should allow more room for creative freedom. I think Thor: Ragnarok and the Guardians films are each proof that giving a director allowance to execute their vision can still bring in money, so please give us Edgar Wright and Ava DuVernay’s superhero movies (we were promised them with Ant-Man and Black Panther respectively). Give Spike Lee or Quentin Tarantino a call. You have the money to convince them.

More different is a good thing.

A memorable acceptance speech from Actress In A Leading Role winner Olivia Colman who got a standing ovation for one of the most endearing moments in recent memory, meanwhile Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper went viral for their hugely passionate performance of “Shallow” from A Star Is Born.

The major controversy of the night was Green Book winning the Best Picture award despite recent commentary from within the industry regarding its problematic premise and presentation.

Here is the full list of 2019 Oscars winners:

Best Picture – Green Book

Black Panther
BlackKklansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice

Directing – Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)

Spike Lee (BlackKklansman)
Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
Adam McKay (Vice)

Actor in a Leading Role – Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)

Christian Bale (Vice)
Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)
Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate)
Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)

Actress in a Leading Role – Olivia Colman (The Favourite)

Yalitza Aparicio (Roma)
Glenn Close (The Wife)
Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born)
Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Actor in a Supporting Role – Mahershala Ali (Green Book)

Adam Driver (Blackkklansman)
Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born)
Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me)
Sam Rockwell (Vice)

Actress in a Supporting Role – Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)

Amy Adams (Vice)
Marina De Tavira (Roma)
Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)

Costume Design – Black Panther

Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Favourite
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots

Film Editing – Bohemian Rhapsody

BlackKklansman
The Favourite
Green Book
Vice

Original Score – Black Panther

BlackKklansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns

Animated Short Film – Bao

Animal Behaviour
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends

Live Action Short Film – Skin

Detainment
Fauve
Marguerite
Mother

Sound Editing – Bohemian Rhapsody

Black Panther
First Man
A Quiet Place
Roma

Sound Mixing – Bohemian Rhapsody

Black Panther
First Man
Roma
A Star Is Born

Animated Feature Film – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet

Cinematography – Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)

Cold War
The Favourite
Never Look Away
A Star Is Born

Documentary Feature – Free Solo

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
Of Fathers and Sons
RBG

Documentary Short Subject – Period. End of Sentence.

Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat
A Night At the Garden

Foreign Language Film – Roma

Capernaum
Cold War
Never Look Away
Shoplifters

Makeup and Hairstyling – Vice

Border
Mary Queen of Scots

Visual Effects – First Man

Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story

Adapted Screenplay – BlackKklansman

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Can You Ever Forgive Me
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born

Original Screenplay – Green Book

The Favourite
First Reformed
Roma
Vice

Original Song – “Shallow” (A Star Is Born)

“All the Stars” (Black Panther)
“I’ll Fight” (RBG)
“The Place Where Lost Things Go” (Mary Poppins Returns)
“When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

Production Design – Black Panther

The Favourite
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma

Film Totals: 

4 – Bohemian Rhapsody
3 – Black Panther
3 – Green Book
3 – Roma
1 – A Star Is Born
1 – Bao
1 – BlackKklansman
1 – The Favourite
1 – First Man
1 – Free Solo
1 – If Beale Street Could Talk
1 – Period. End of Sentence.
1 – Skin
1 – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
1 – Vice

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In this edition of Ranked, the 8 chosen 2019 Best Picture Oscar nominees are to be ranked from worst to best based on their quality, appeal and importance as a piece of cinematic art from the year 2018.

Agree? Disagree? Please join the conversation in the comments below!

8. Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody Review

An uplifting and engaging medley of Queen greatest hits Bohemian Rhapsody may have been, but Oscar Best Picture contender it most certainly should not have been.

Shoddy editing brought together the overtly bland visions of two directors – one of whom was fired midway through production for turning up late and/or intoxicated on many an occasion and has since been accused by dozens of people of sexual misconduct and assault towards minors – and the overall presentation of lead character Freddie Mercury’s bisexuality left a lot to be desired.

Bohemian Rhapsody simply catalogued a series of important band moments, making excuses for hit after hit while offering very little under the surface. More than high art, Bohemian Rhapsody was a nostalgia trip for fans of the more socially acceptable and universally appreciated aspects of Queen and particularly Freddie Mercury, a picture with one very good performance in the midst of an otherwise safe product – “product” being precisely what it was.

There seems to be at least one film on the Best Picture list each year that is far behind the rest of the pack. In 2019, that film is the messy and troublesome Bohemian Rhapsody.

7. A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born Review

A Star Is Born proved to be an important starting point for the directorial career of debut feature director Bradley Cooper and the acting career of first-time feature lead Lady Gaga with both offering quality work in their respective roles, but the remake was hardly the ground-breaking work of what else is to come on this list, nor did it offer new themes or explorations that weren’t already on offer in any one of its numerous predecessors.

The music was generally good and the way Cooper shot the concerts in particular brought to life the music industry in a way unmatched by even the most sophisticated of live concert recordings, and Cooper himself was fantastic as the alcoholic co-lead struggling to adapt to his waning stardom. Gaga also seemed to hit expectations out of the park while the small supporting cast did more than enough to support her progress, but the film did suffer from an off-beat editing style that destroyed the pacing and left many a moment on the precipice of tugging heart strings without ever truly delivering. It seems that A Star Is Born was judged against low expectations of a first time director and star as opposed to against the very best in its field, the box office hit perhaps being included as much for its popular appeal as its overall quality.

Recommended for you: A Look Inward – Introspection in A Star Is Born