7. Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
Perhaps the most pivotal moment in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga came to pass with the release of Deadpool and Wolverine. The title alone is enough to excite Marvel fans, but the fact that it is an MCU movie is simply extraordinary, as Marvel Studios found a way to incorporate Ryan Reynolds’ Merc With A Mouth and Hugh Jackman’s claw-wielding Logan into the franchise. The result was incredible.
I can’t fully put into words how well Deadpool and Wolverine exceeds at what it sets out to do. It’s a bloody, violent, hilarious movie that makes history as the franchise’s first R-rated installment, and it’s all of that while continuing to pay tribute to both the Deadpool and X-Men franchises.
The chemistry between Jackman and Reynolds ensures that the long-awaited team-up thrives, as they light up the screen faster than a snap of Pyro’s fingers. And the action scenes – oh man, the action scenes – are among the MCU’s finest, as the double act slice and dice their way through anything that moves.
After a lackluster year in 2023, it was hoped that Deadpool and Wolverine would be the major comeback that the MCU needed. It was all of that and more, producing something truly magical in the process. Outrageous in every single way imaginable, but magic too.
As the chaotic duo like to say: “LFG!”
6. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Even “the most anticipated movie of 2021” never felt like a fitting enough title for Spider-Man: No Way Home. A film that was, in all honesty, one of the most anticipated of the decade, it vowed to finally follow through on the promise of the multiverse that its predecessor teased us with, using that film’s genuinely jaw-dropping cliffhanger to spawn a narrative that would see Peter Parker reach out to Doctor Strange for help in changing the timeline and making everyone forget that he was Spider-Man.
The subject of endless rumors about which actors and characters from Marvel’s past would surface throughout the movie, No Way Home had a reputation too big for even it to handle. Or at least that should have been the case. But it wasn’t, as the mammoth expectations ultimately fueled its success. Why? Because the movie was so good in spite of the returns of Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman and the Lizard, not because of them.
As someone who has always wanted that little bit more from the MCU’s Spider-Man movies, this was finally the one that took it over that finish line for me. An emotional rollercoaster from start through finish, and full of nostalgic fanservice along the way, Spider-Man: No Way Home is truly the ultimate Spider-Man movie, and it didn’t just live up to the hype; it exceeded it.