Avengers movies ranked
There have been four Avengers movies so far, and even more movies are on the way in the very near. As we wait for more news about the upcoming movies, we thought it would be a great time to rank the Avengers movies.
There have been 31 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of those 31 movies, it’s hard to argue that many have been as impactful as the four Avengers movies. In terms of scale, the Avengers movies, overall, have much higher stakes and many more heroes and villains involved than most of the other MCU movies. For that reason, it made it much harder to rank these movies. Three out of the four movies on this list are very, very good movies. One is not so much, but we’ll get into that shortly.
We shared the list of the Avengers movies in order:
- Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Let’s get the ranking of the Avengers movies started with, sadly, the worst Avengers movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
4. Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Release Year: 2015
- Directed by Joss Whedon
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Linda Cardellini, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, and Samuel L. Jackson
Avengers: Age of Ultron is the worst Avengers movie, and it’s not even close. The other three Avengers movies are far superior in every way. Overall, Age of Ultron is not bad, necessarily. It’s just not up to the standard that Marvel set with The Avengers, Infinity War, and Endgame, and that’s what we’re comparing today.
In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark and the others are still dealing with the damage and toll of Loki’s invasions of New York City. While the heroes pulled together and won the battle, Tony is focused on making sure that never happens again. Using tech from Loki’s scepter, Tony uses it in his Ultron system, which is basically supposed to keep Earth and everyone on it safe from outside attacks. Well, it doesn’t go to plan. Ultron, voiced by James Spader, turns on humans and tries to wipe out humanity to save the Earth. It’s like Thanos’s plan, but instead of achieving balance, Ultron’s plan is just to kill everyone, and it almost does.
Age of Ultron is a necessary part of this larger story, and it includes some incredible introductions (Wanda Maximoff). But, I think that’s the problem. It feels too much like a stepping stone to get into some of the later drama of the MCU instead of a complete story.
Enough about this movie, let’s talk about the third-best Avengers movie.
3. Avengers: Infinity War
- Release Year: 2018
- Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldaña, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt
Avengers: Infinity War is a great movie, and I take no joy in ranking it as the third-best Avengers movie, especially because it’s one of the best MCU movies so far. The Avengers line is just that good, though.
In Infinity War, Thanos comes to Earth and continues his mission to find the Infinity Stones. Around the world, the Avengers make a united stand to stop him.
Avengers: Infinity War is so good for a variety of reasons. Up to this point, we hadn’t seen a team-up of this magnitude in the MCU so far, and it was pure magic. Seeing the dynamic of all these heroes united (kind of) to take down Thanos and his cronies was amazing to see. Obviously, we all know how it ended, which set up the story for Endgame.
One of the other reasons that Infinity War works so well is how great of a villain Thanos is. There are so many jokes about Thanos now, but he was awesome in Infinity War and Endgame. There’s no doubt that Thanos has been the best villain we’ve seen in the MCU so far. It’s going to be incredibly difficult for Marvel to top this.
For the second-best Avengers movie, we have to go back to where it all started.
2. Marvel’s The Avengers
- Release Year: 2012
- Directed by Joss Whedon
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson
Marvel’s The Avengers is so awesome! It’s the sixth movie of the MCU, and when it came out, it was just a force of nature in bringing Marvel fans into the franchise and creating new fans. Seeing Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Loki together was outstanding.
In the movie, Earth’s Avengers come together to stop Loki from invading and taking over the planet. It features an epic battle in New York City as Loki’s forces enter Earth through a wormhole that he created with the tesseract, which obviously has major significance later in the MCU.
It’s so wild that Whedon was able to create such a massive hit with The Avengers and stumbled when it came to Age of Ultron, but I guess it was easier to move the story forward with the first big Avengers meeting rather than advance the story forward in a way that felt natural.
The Avengers, in my opinion, proved to fans that Marvel had the vision and a plan to make that vision come to life. It’s amazing to see how they were able to set up the events of about 20+ movies with the events of The Avengers.
I was so tempted to keep The Avengers as the top Avengers movie, but I couldn’t. I had to go with truly the best Avengers movie, and one of the best MCU movies of all time.
1. Avengers: Endgame
- Release Year: 2019
- Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Josh Brolin
Avengers: Endgame, for a time, was the highest-grossing movie in history, and for good reason. The film brings stories and arcs started in the first 21 MCU to a close. After the Snap in Infinity War wipes out half of the population, a small group of remaining Avengers, led by Tony Stark/Iron Man, go back in time to reverse the future and stop Thanos.
Avengers: Endgame, compared to all the other Avengers movies, is not that much better in my opinion. In terms of the story, The Avengers is probably better. But, when you factor in everything, especially the emotional arcs of many of these heroes, it’s a no-brainer which movie is better. Endgame is the resolution to this arc that started way back in Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers.
It will be hard for the MCU to ever live up to the hype created in and around Endgame. It was such an incredible arc and involved so many crucial heroes. For those reasons, Endgame is the best Avengers movie we’ve seen so far.
The good news is there are more Avengers on the way soon. Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars are scheduled to be released in 2025 and 2026. Both movies are part of Marvel’s Phase 6.