What will be the best-regarded MCU film?

[daredevil1]

I think Infinity War is the best, but Endgame will be remembered most fondly over time for representing all of them and sticking the landing. No Way Home, the bloom will come off the rose eventually and people will start to see the flaws/pandering. Iron Man 1, I never thought was that great at all, and gets grandfathered in as some masterpiece mainly out of nostalgia. When it came out people really regarded it as only marginally better than Ghost Rider but not on the level of the Spidey or X-Men movies; it's okay, has a ton of third act problems, it's mostly given too much credit for starting the whole thing. That summer it was completely overshadowed in terms of hype and reception by The Dark Knight, it's revisionism that this has flipped now to people thinking it was some game changer out of the gate. If there was no MCU, after Iron Man 2 it would probably be forgotten in the way the Fantastic Four films are now.

[80sbaby]

I think Infinity War is the best, but Endgame will be remembered most fondly over time for representing all of them and sticking the landing. No Way Home, the bloom will come off the rose eventually and people will start to see the flaws/pandering. Iron Man 1, I never thought was that great at all, and gets grandfathered in as some masterpiece mainly out of nostalgia. When it came out people really regarded it as only marginally better than Ghost Rider but not on the level of the Spidey or X-Men movies; it's okay, has a ton of third act problems, it's mostly given too much credit for starting the whole thing. That summer it was completely overshadowed in terms of hype and reception by The Dark Knight, it's revisionism that this has flipped now to people thinking it was some game changer out of the gate. If there was no MCU, after Iron Man 2 it would probably be forgotten in the way the Fantastic Four films are now.

This is completely wrong. Ironman was always lauded and held in extremely high esteem. That's not revisionist at all. People went crazy about that film when it came out and that's why it's rightfully seen as RDJ's comeback. It was a game changer, without question.

[thwhtGuardian]

I think Infinity War is the best, but Endgame will be remembered most fondly over time for representing all of them and sticking the landing. No Way Home, the bloom will come off the rose eventually and people will start to see the flaws/pandering. Iron Man 1, I never thought was that great at all, and gets grandfathered in as some masterpiece mainly out of nostalgia. When it came out people really regarded it as only marginally better than Ghost Rider but not on the level of the Spidey or X-Men movies; it's okay, has a ton of third act problems, it's mostly given too much credit for starting the whole thing. That summer it was completely overshadowed in terms of hype and reception by The Dark Knight, it's revisionism that this has flipped now to people thinking it was some game changer out of the gate. If there was no MCU, after Iron Man 2 it would probably be forgotten in the way the Fantastic Four films are now.

That's one of the silliest things I've ever seen written here.

Sure, the Dark Knight blew it away that summer but only marginally better than Ghost Rider? Nope, it was definitely seen as something bigger and more important than that as soon as the trailer dropped never mind when it actually came out.

[Castle]

I think Infinity War is the best, but Endgame will be remembered most fondly over time for representing all of them and sticking the landing. No Way Home, the bloom will come off the rose eventually and people will start to see the flaws/pandering. Iron Man 1, I never thought was that great at all, and gets grandfathered in as some masterpiece mainly out of nostalgia. When it came out people really regarded it as only marginally better than Ghost Rider but not on the level of the Spidey or X-Men movies; it's okay, has a ton of third act problems, it's mostly given too much credit for starting the whole thing. That summer it was completely overshadowed in terms of hype and reception by The Dark Knight, it's revisionism that this has flipped now to people thinking it was some game changer out of the gate. If there was no MCU, after Iron Man 2 it would probably be forgotten in the way the Fantastic Four films are now.

Eh, I am not sure about the Ghost Rider comparison, since I never saw the film. I imagine ghost rider just had a bad script? Iron Man script was not bad just dense.

I know people had issues with the screenplay. me included as already mentioned because it was heck of lot simplistic compared to many of the past marvel films from spiderman/x-men. However I know the performances of RDJ, Terrance Howard, VFX, Jon Favreau's Direction and even Cinemathogprhay was quite lauded. MCU movies did not look as cartoonish or as manufactured made back then with Iron Man 1 as they do now which includes infinity wars.

[Mormel]

That's very funny, because I distinctly recall that Iron Man garnered praise from both critics and movie-goers alike. Yes, it was a movie that came out in the slipstream of The Dark Knight, and like that movie and other comic book adaptations that were being released around the same time, it went for verisimilitude and being 'grounded in a real-world setting'. Both the semi-ad-libbed dialogue throughout the movie as well as the sense of humour it had made it stand out from other superhero films, as did the special effects in bringing the Iron Man suit alive. Was it a smash hit blockbuster monster on the level of the later MCU films? Of course not, but it did lay that first groundwork which Marvel Studios would build upon. But at the time no one could have predicted to which heights they would take it. Saying that the first Iron Man movie was a dud, now that's revisionist.

[The Kid]

Either Iron Man or Black Panther. Voted BP since it had less votes though

[daredevil1]

This is completely wrong. Ironman was always lauded and held in extremely high esteem. That's not revisionist at all. People went crazy about that film when it came out and that's why it's rightfully seen as RDJ's comeback. It was a game changer, without question.

Liked Downey and enjoyed the film? Sure. Crazy about it? Eh. My point is not that it's horrible by any means, just that it's completely revisionist that anyone thought it was a "game changer" at the time. Yes I can admit it in some ways was in 2021, but people go to the opposite end and pretend X-Men 2000 and Spidey 2002 did nothing for comic movies.

That's one of the silliest things I've ever seen written here.

Sure, the Dark Knight blew it away that summer but only marginally better than Ghost Rider? Nope, it was definitely seen as something bigger and more important than that as soon as the trailer dropped never mind when it actually came out.

My point is that people liked Ghost Rider, it made a ton of money. Again, you're all getting offended at the suggestion that, in 2008, it wasn't seen as "important." A great many people enjoyed it, and they also enjoyed Fantastic Four. Some people have been writing about it and making a thing since then that it stuck, but a lot of you are basing this on what the comic sites/Wizard built it up as. We had seen serious Marvel comic movies before, we had seen great actors cast before. I think of this as the same revisionism that has made Spider-Man 2 into the best of the Spider-flicks, when there's now kind of a social media "narrative" everyone agrees with. All of them were liked, even Spider-Man 3. It's fandom who had the consensus on all this, Variety certainly didn't have a front page article "Iron Man comes out: History changed!"

[80sbaby]

Liked Downey and enjoyed the film? Sure. Crazy about it? Eh. My point is not that it's horrible by any means, just that it's completely revisionist that anyone thought it was a "game changer" at the time. Yes I can admit it in some ways was in 2021, but people go to the opposite end and pretend X-Men 2000 and Spidey 2002 did nothing for comic movies.

And I'm saying you're 100% wrong. It was seen as a game changer at the time of release, mostly due to Downey's performance, how good the armor looked on screen and also the Avengers stinger at the end. People were HYPED! And nobody is claiming those other movies are irrelevant. You're attacking a strawman.

[Surf]

The Winter Soldier, easily.

The Winter Soldier.

It's Captain America, Winter Soldier. Which should be on your list.

Winter Soldier, by a mile.
/thread

[BeastieRunner]

Am I the only one who thinks winter soldier was just okay?

Winter Soldier did nothing new for the MCU. I think it got more praise at the time more being "darker" than its contemporaries.

If we're comparing it to Cap films, you have Civil War that at least inverted the climax (small action set piece versus over-the -top set piece), which was different from most of the other super hero stuff at the time.

[daredevil1]

And I'm saying you're 100% wrong. It was seen as a game changer at the time of release, mostly due to Downey's performance, how good the armor looked on screen and also the Avengers stinger at the end. People were HYPED! And nobody is claiming those other movies are irrelevant. You're attacking a strawman.

We'll have to agree to disagree, but not really a "strawman" on my part. There was no social media for anyone to have a consensus on, so we have to go by what there was at the time- fandom's reaction, message boards, Wizard, our people. Which yes, was pretty much what you describe. But I'm talking about the general public majority. Entertainment media was all-in on Indiana Jones that summer, and nobody ended up really caring. But the hype was so massive for The Dark Knight it was inescapable, and normies weren't really still on about Iron Man.

[Noodle]

Winter Soldier did nothing new for the MCU. I think it got more praise at the time more being "darker" than its contemporaries.

I'd say the complete destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D was pretty impactful on the MCU, considering how heavy of a part it played in most the movies leading up to it.

But even then, I'd place Winter Solider on top not because of anything related to the MCU as a whole, but because it's just a really good movie.

[Kirby101]

The thing that made Winter Soldier the best movie is it was the BEST MOVIE. It was a spy thriller and superhero flick together. It had a story that most in the audience could not see coming a mile away. It had a superstar villain and made Black Widow a true top hero. (more so than IM 2). But mainly it was just a great action flick and gave us a great modern Cap.

[Kirby101]

We'll have to agree to disagree, but not really a "strawman" on my part. There was no social media for anyone to have a consensus on, so we have to go by what there was at the time- fandom's reaction, message boards, Wizard, our people. Which yes, was pretty much what you describe. But I'm talking about the general public majority. Entertainment media was all-in on Indiana Jones that summer, and nobody ended up really caring. But the hype was so massive for The Dark Knight it was inescapable, and normies weren't really still on about Iron Man.

Until it came out, was a massive hit and green lit the entire MCU. What happened before it came out is immaterial.

[The Kid]

Iron Man made close to 600 million dollars in 2008 which was a lot for the time. It was a smash hit. Sure, the MCU didn't become a billion dollar franchise but at the time, there had only been 3 billion dollar movies ever. The first Iron Man was a huge hit and the biggest thing going into Avengers. Compared to Thor and Captain America which were just modest successes, it was Iron Man and the box office it and the sequel made that really gave the first Avengers a lot of hype and momentum