Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ranking all 18 movies after Black Panther
By Mike McNulty
Credit: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios; poster for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
When Stan Lee decided to bring Captain America back into the comics after a two decades, he came up with a very simple and ingenious idea. Since the Marvel Universe, originally, moved in real-time, Steve Rogers was in suspended animation since the end of World War II. The result of this “Rip Van Winkle” effect instantly turned Cap into an outsider, a quality which also made heroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk popular with fans. As World War II becomes more and more distant, so does Cap’s feelings of being a man out of time.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier perfectly captures this. It’s also one of the few superhero movies which doesn’t feel like a superhero movie. Yes, it has several fantastic elements like the S.H.I.E.L.D. hellicarriers, cyborg assassins, and winged flight suits, but they seem to overwhelm the movie. Like The Dark Knight was a crime drama, Winter Soldier is a spy and conspiracy thriller first, emphasizing verisimilitude over spectacle. The reason most the fight sequences seem real is that most of them are, although there are some clear, but minimal CGI assistance.
The cast is also excellent across the board. Chris Evans turns in his best work as Steve Rogers, as does Scarlet Johansson as the Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury. Anthony Mackie is also terrific as Sam Wilson, a.k.a. The Falcon, and Sebastian Stan as the brainwashed, resurrected Bucky Barnes really gives a powerhouse near-silent performance. That someone of Robert Redford’s caliber also stars in the film, and does such an excellent job as Alexander Pierce, further instills the idea that that’s more to Winter Soldier beyond super powers and spandex.
If the Marvel Cinematic Universe has an equivalent to The Dark Knight, then Captain America: The Winter Soldier would definitely be it. It isn’t just a movie which can be enjoyed by superhero fans, but also by those who aren’t superhero fans. Hence why it deserves its place as the number one Marvel Studios film.
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Do you agree with this list? How would you rank the Marvel Studios films, and where would you place Black Panther? And, with two more films—Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp—about to debut this year, where do you believe they will rank alongside the other movies?