Everybody loves a good Marvel film. That’s why we get so excited when new projects under its belt are announced. However, that excitement has turned into utter disappointment in the past thanks to the following movies.
A lot of Marvel movies have been released over the last two decades. Most of them are insanely fun, some of them even turned out to be masterpieces, and a few have been so bad we like to pretend like they didn’t happen (looking at you, Daredevil). However, it doesn’t matter how good of a reception a project has, there’s one thing that’s almost always consistent: every single one has a lot of buzz behind them.
Whether it is a sequel to an already-established saga or an adaptation of an obscure superhero group (like The Guardians of The Galaxy), audiences are always waiting for the next Marvel movie. We often craft theories on what might happen next, and we like to be on the lookout for any news on upcoming films to get a better idea of what might await when we go to the theater. Sometimes our excitement gets the better of us, and while most of the time that can pay off just fine, there are cases where the outcome is… disappointing, to say the least.
There have been some Marvel projects that made us regret getting our hopes so high about them in the first place. That’s not to say all the movies included in this list are terrible or unwatchable by any means, but every single one failed to live up to their expectations for one reason or another. So without further ado, it’s time we talk about the nine most disappointing Marvel movies to date and why exactly they couldn’t stick the landing.
9. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
There’s an argument to be made that Phase 4 of the MCU has been, by far, the worst chapter in Marvel’s saga of interconnected projects. Things didn’t feel the same after Earth’s Mightiest Heroes managed to put an end to Thanos’ plan in Avengers: Endgame. As such, audiences started to wonder if there was ever a need to keep the MCU alive or if it would’ve been better to end it on a high note with Iron Man’s death. However, for better or worse, Marvel had no intention of stopping.
Phase 5 needed to start off with a bang to make everybody feel optimistic about the MCU again. So it didn’t matter what project was going to be the first on the slate, it needed to deliver an unforgettable experience for the better. And wouldn’t you know it, that project just so happened to be Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quauntumania.
Aside from expecting the movie to be good for Marvel to make a statement, numerous signs indicated audiences were in for an amazing experience. Peyton Reed, the movie’s director, claimed Scott Lang’s latest adventure wasn’t going to be a “palate cleanser” just like previous entries in the Ant-Man saga. Instead of delivering a fun, isolated experience with a scope the size of an ant, Peyton wanted to tell a narrative worthy of being on an Avengers film. To prove that, Kang the Conqueror himself was announced as the main antagonist of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quauntumania. That was huge news. After all, Kang would be the one to replace Thanos as the big bad of the MCU for its Multiverse Saga.
Paul Rudd also claimed he wanted the Ant-Man character to go through a re-invention of sorts, similar to what Thor: Ragnarok did for the God of Thunder. But even with all the good news, audiences weren’t quite hoping for the movie to be a huge success. So with tempered expectations, fans went to the movie theater… and they still left with disappointment.
There are many reasons for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quauntumania’s failure. The script wasn’t polished at all, the reshoots were evident, and the special effects looked pretty terrible (especially on M.O.D.O.K.). Speaking of which, the villains of the movie were a huge disappointment as well, and many of the jokes failed to make audiences laugh. Taking all of that into account, it comes as no surprise Scott Lang’s latest adventure succeeded in disappointing audiences who didn’t have the highest of expectations to begin with.
8. Eternals
While many fans were worried for the MCU’s future after Avengers: Endgame premiered, it seemed Marvel had no intention of slowing down. After Phase 4 was announced, two projects caught everyone’s attention: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals. After all, they would introduce brand-new heroes on the big screen and they were also the perfect opportunity for Marvel to prove they could still tell entertaining stories without characters like Iron Man or Captain America.
Fans were skeptical in the beginning, but news regarding Eternals quickly started to roll out. First of all, it was announced that Chloé Zhao signed as the movie’s director. That surely alleviated some of the worries, especially considering Chloé is an amazing filmmaker who had just won an award for her exceptional work in Nomadland. Shortly after that, Kevin Feige said the Eternals pitch was the best he’d ever heard out of all of the superhero projects he’d worked on. That statement blew everybody’s mind. If the leading man behind the MCU had such high praise for the Eternals, then maybe Marvel was set to create something unique with it.
Even if Phase 4 started a little bit clumsy with Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings premiered to amazing critical reception. Its great success made audiences optimistic about the MCU’s next project, and wouldn’t you know it, that was Eternals. The movie, which was filled with an all-star cast, was slowly gaining more and more excitement. After all, Marvel had a history of making great films about an unknown group of superheroes in the past. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume that was set to happen once again.
Unfortunately, Eternals couldn’t quite hit the mark. It was Marvel’s first true miss on Rotten Tomatoes and the first sign that maybe Phase 4 wasn’t shaping up to be all that great. Worse of all is that the film truly felt unlike anything Marvel had ever done before. Maybe if it had been a success then more risks would’ve been taken with projects such as Thor: Love and Thunder or Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. But even if the film’s script and pacing were the true culprits behind its underwhelming reception, maybe Marvel just decided to play it safe from that point onwards.
7. Iron Man 2
It may have been released long ago, but we haven’t forgotten about it.
Iron Man 2 could be considered the first major MCU disappointment ever. Granted, The Incredible Hulk premiered before it, and it can be argued Edward Norton’s first and only go as Bruce Banner had a worse reception than Iron Man’s second stand-alone adventure. However, the big difference between those two projects was the amount of expectations people had before entering the theater.
The very first Iron Man movie was an incredible success and a refreshing surprise for audiences around the world. In a time when superhero movies weren’t as popular as they are today (and Iron Man wasn’t a household character either), Jon Favreau needed to craft an amazing and unique film for Marvel to use as a foundation to build a universe of interconnected stories. Fortunately, that’s exactly what he did. Everybody fell in love with the reckless billionaire, and we were all eager to see where his adventures would take him next. After all, sequels can expand on the things that worked right the first time around and fix whatever mistakes were made along the way.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 and X-Men: United proved it was more than possible to create a successful follow-up to an already excellent superhero movie, so it wasn’t a surprise many expected Iron Man 2 to go down that road. Unfortunately, the movie couldn’t quite reach those same heights. Instead, it went the opposite way and delivered a narrative that didn’t turn out to be memorable even if it wasn’t necessarily bad. It was just… disappointing.
Iron Man 2 couldn’t decide if it wanted to double down on Tony’s alcoholism, on the world-building, or on the storyline that saw the government try to get its hands on the Iron Man armor. In the end, it tried to be many different things without succeeding in most aspects. Even when the film itself isn’t as bad as people say, we can’t deny it didn’t meet the high expectations it had on its shoulders either.
Every character and plot line felt undercooked and without enough depth to be memorable. The villains didn’t have any redeeming qualities whatsoever, and how could they? We barely spent any time getting to know them or their motivations. And even though we were introduced to key characters such as War Machine and Black Widow, neither one of them was a major driving force behind the movie’s story. Instead, their roles mostly came down to beating down bad guys and, occasionally, Tony himself. This is one of those instances when the motto “less is more” could’ve proven to be right.
6. Thor: Love and Thunder
Up until 2017, Thor was the founding Avenger with the most underwhelming solo projects in comparison to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Even if Iron Man 2 wasn’t as good as many hoped, it was still better than Thor: The Dark World by all means. Besides, every Captain America film was outstanding in its own way, and they all easily bested the two big-screen adaptations of the God of Thunder that were released until that point. However, everything changed when Thor: Ragnarok hit theaters.
Taika Waititi directed an incredible movie that proved to be an exciting breath of fresh air for its titular hero and the MCU as a whole. Audiences got to see a side of the Norse God that could be fun as opposed to just serious and dramatic.
Thanks to that, Thor: Ragnarok was enjoyed by everyone regardless of their age or whether they liked its protagonist or not. That became apparent in the film’s box office as it earned over 854 million dollars, becoming the highest-grossing project in the God of Thunder’s saga. So when Marvel announced Taika Waititi would be back to helm another Thor solo adventure on the big screen, fans couldn’t help but feel hopeful for the future of the hero ever since the inception of the MCU.
Thor: Love and Thunder seemed to have all the right pieces to make for an unforgettable experience. Great director? check. The introduction of Jane Foster as Mighty Thor? check. Award-winning actor Christian Bale interpreting the terrifying role of Gorr, butcher of Gods? check and check. So it was both surprising and incredibly disappointing when the movie turned out to be the exact opposite of what everybody thought it was going to be.
There are many problems with Thor: Love and Thunder. We never saw the god butcher kill any gods, the special effects were exceptionally bad, and worse of all: the movie never took anything seriously. Even if we loved the brighter tone of Thor: Ragnarok, it seems Marvel mistook having fun with being nonsensically childish. When you put all of the negatives together, It’s easy to see how the high expectations everyone had for this movie didn’t pay off in the slightest.
5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The first Amazing Spider-Man film had a lot to live up to. After all, any superhero movie would have a hard time trying to surpass the heights reached by the first two Spider-Man movies directed by Sam Raimi. Due to that, Sony and Mark Webb decided to go in a different direction when rebooting the character with Andrew Garfield in the lead. And while the result wasn’t exactly a resounding success, it did provide a solid foundation for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to build upon.
Before Andrew Garfield’s second go as the wall-crawler premiered on the big screen, people couldn’t help but feel cautiously optimistic. Sony listened to the criticism of the first Amazing Spider-Man movie and decided to give Peter a new suit that seemed like it was ripped up straight from a comic book. Additionally, rumors were floating around that indicated Sony was trying to adapt one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever in the form of The Night that Gwen Stacy Died. As if it wasn’t enough, we were also promised a definite resolution for the “untold story” behind the death of Peter’s parents (since that plot was left in the air once The Amazing Spider-Man 1 ended).
But even if everything indicated The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was shaping up to be one of the best superhero projects to date, people still thought too many characters were going to be sharing the screen. After all, trailers and promotional images revealed Rhino, the Green Goblin, and Electro were all going to make appearances. Fortunately, Mark Webb tried to set everyone’s mind at ease by claiming the film wasn’t going to be “overcrowded”. With that statement, everything was looking good for our favorite friendly neighborhood hero for a moment, but then… the movie happened.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starts off great with superb swinging scenes that lifted the hopes of many fans worldwide. That made it more heartbreaking when the spell wore off and audiences realized they were in for a messy experience (to say the least). It was insanely disappointing to see how Sony repeated all the same mistakes that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 had with even more problems added to the mix. While there were little moments of brilliance scattered through The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the result was such a disappointment that it put the final nail in the coffin of Andrew Garfield’s short-lived portrayal of Spider-Man.
Yes, it was that underwhelming.
4. X-Men: The Last Stand
Back in the early 2000s, superhero movies weren’t as popular as they are today. However, there were two franchises that proved to be a major exception to that rule: Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Bryan Singer’s X-Men. Both of them started off amazingly and had an even greater follow-up that made audiences excited for the third entry on their respective sagas. Unfortunately, history wasn’t kind to either one of them, and much to everybody’s disappointment they both ended on a flat note.
X-Men: The Last Stand had a lot of problems behind the scenes. Original director Bryan Singer moved on from the X-Men franchise to direct Superman: Returns. A replacement was eventually found in the form of Matthew Vaughn, the man behind amazing blockbusters such as Kingsman and Kick-Ass. Unfortunately, Matthew also ended up passing on the project due to the short amount of time he had to make his vision come true and because he didn’t want to be remembered as the man who made a bad X-Men movie (which was probably the best as he later had the chance to create a good X-Men project).
Eventually, Brett Ratner signed as the movie’s director. But while a leading man was eventually found for X-Men: The Last Stand, there were a lot of problems with the script. Fox thought the Dark Phoenix Saga was too dark to be the main focus of a multi-million mainstream movie. So rewrites were made to ensure the “cured” storyline from the Astonishing X-Men also had as much protagonist.
Of course, all of this happened without audiences knowing about it. Everything fans knew was that mutants were about to face their greatest challenge yet and that two of the most beloved X-Men stories were going to be adapted on the big screen. That, coupled with the success of previous movies of the franchise, made everybody insanely excited about what Fox and Brett Ratner were creating. But we all know how that story ended.
X-Men: The Last Stand had many problems, but even if it wasn’t a terrible movie it certainly didn’t meet expectations either. While nobody truly believed the movie represented the final entry of the X-Men saga, it was still underwhelming to watch it for the first time. There were many unnecessary deaths, there was way more focus on the action than on delivering a deep story, and there were segments that felt a little too crowded. So even if there are positives to salvage from the film, we can’t deny it was a disappointment when it first came out.
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron
Before Avengers: Age of Ultron premiered, its director talked about how he was taking inspiration from The Godfather Part 2 to make a cohesive sequel that would, hopefully, be better than its predecessor. That was a huge statement to make, especially when considering The Godfather Part 2 is one of the greatest sequels ever made in cinema history. Since that was the bar that Earth’s Mightiest Hero’s reunion was set to surpass (and since the first Avengers movie was such an incredible success), it came as no surprise that many fans couldn’t wait to see the movie for themselves.
The very first trailer and footage for Avengers: Age of Ultron were shown exclusively to people who attended Marvel’s Presentation at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2014. However, none of that footage made its way online, meaning most fans had to resign to reading online reactions and descriptions of what was shown. Worst of all, everybody at San Diego Comic-Con seemed to love what Marvel presented. There was a lot of praise for the trailer’s darker tone, the terrifying portrayal of Ultron, and the chemistry between all the Avengers. All the positive reactions along with anticipation for the trailer made people incredibly excited about the movie.
Eventually, people couldn’t wait any longer, and the trailer leaked online for everyone to see. So did that first look live up to the huge amount of expectations? Well, I think it’s fair to say it even surpassed it. Everyone loved the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron and, for a moment, it seemed Marvel was about to pull off the impossible and make a sequel that would put in the dust the very first Avengers movie. Unfortunately, Thanos said it best: “Reality is often disappointing”.
Avengers: Age of Ultron isn’t terrible by any means. It contains thrilling action sequences, polished special effects, and plenty of enjoyable moments (such as the party where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes tried to lift Thor’s hammer). Unfortunately, those positives weren’t enough to make it surpass the success of its predecessor or live up to the insane amount of expectations people had. Besides, the movie was too crowded for its own good, and it had a lot of confusing moments that made it an uneven experience.
Ultimately, Avengers: Age of Ultron is without a doubt the worst Avengers big-screen project to date. It’s undeniable that any film where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes make an appearance will have sky-high expectations. However, we know it’s possible to live up to that amount of excitement as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame have proved. So, maybe there’s a reality where Age of Ultron blew everyone’s mind. However, it certainly wasn’t this one.
2. X-Men: Apocalypse
There was a total of four projects released between X-Men: United and before X-Men: Days of the Future Past. Out of those four projects, X-Men: First Class was pretty great, X-Men: Origins Wolverine was so bad even Deadpool had to kill himself in that movie, and the other two had somewhat mixed receptions (though it’s common to hear The Wolverine was a good popcorn flick while X-Men: The Last Stand was just downright disappointing). So even if the Mutants’ saga had a solid start with its first two projects, it was later proven that their movies could either be a hit or a miss.
It wasn’t until Bryan Singer returned to direct Days of the Future Past that fans witnessed another triumphant project reminiscent of the earlier days of Marvel movies. As if it wasn’t enough, Deadpool was released two years later to massive critical acclaim. Thanks to that, it looked like the Mutants’ saga was back on top of its game and nothing could bring it down. So after it was announced that Bryan Singer would once again be at the helm of another X-Men film, fans couldn’t help but be excited beyond belief.
X-Men: Apocalypse looked like it was going to be the biggest, and the best X-Men movie up until its release. Oscar Isaac was cast as Apocalypse, one of the greatest Marvel villains on comic book pages with god-like powers. Not only is Oscar an insanely good actor, but he also landed the role of an insanely powerful character. That pairing made audiences worldwide excited for what was about to come. Besides, after X-Men: Days of the Future Past, it looked like we were going to be in for an amazing treat.
Unfortunately, X-Men: Apocalypse was neither the biggest X-Men movie ever nor its best. While Dark Phoenix proved to be the worst project in every aspect, it didn’t disappoint nearly as much. After all, there were no indications that something was going wrong with Apocalypse. But its crowded script and misuse of its titular villain made it a forgettable experience that let many fans down.
1. Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 isn’t terrible by any means. At worst, it is an “okay” movie that couldn’t give Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man the farewell he deserved. Besides, it could be argued it isn’t the worst big-screen adaptation of the wall-crawler we’ve seen in recent years. Yes, there were some key problems with it, but it was also filled with excitement and jaw-dropping special effects. If you watch the movie today, chances are you’ll have a good time with it. However, if you watched it for the first time when it premiered back in 2007… oh, man.
Sam Raimi not only crafted a rather amazing film with Spider-Man 1, but he was also the author behind the masterpiece that was Spider-Man 2. As such, expectations were at an all-time high before Spider-Man 3 premiered. To make matters worse, excitement only grew stronger after it was announced that Venom would finally make its big-screen debut. Of course, back then we had no idea that Sam Raimi didn’t find the symbiotic character compelling at all. We were all just happy to know Spidey would fight his opposite in what many believed would be the wall-crawler’s greatest adventure yet.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see the movie had a lot of pressure behind it and that it would’ve been nearly impossible for it to please everybody. However, back then all that we could think of was how Spider-Man 2 took the world by surprise, and how Spider-Man 3 had every chance to capture lighting in a bottle once again. Sandman, the new Gobling, and Venom were all going to make an appearance, leading us to believe Peter was about to face his greatest battle yet. And while that was somewhat true… we didn’t know how messy the result would be.
Nowadays it’s easy to laugh at a “Bully Maguire meme” and forget just how bad that scene really was when audiences first watched it. Besides, it’s normal for current superhero movies to include a lot of characters and feel crowded in a way that isn’t necessarily messy. However, Spider-Man 3 was one of the first Marvel movies where it felt like too much was going on at the same time. To make matters worse, not only did Spider-Man 3 act as a disappointing event on its own, separated from the other projects in its saga, but it also retconned the identity behind Uncle Ben’s killer back in Spider-Man 1, changing the way we look at that movie as well.
Today, it’s easy to look past all of the negative details that plagued Toby Maguire’s last stand-alone adventure as our friendly neighborhood hero. However, the feeling was the exact opposite back in 2007, and it still hurts to think about it.
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