For years, Marvel was cranking out movie hit after hit! For a stretch between 2008 and 2019 and even after that, Marvel had so many of the highest-rated and highest-grossing movies every year. Looking back, some of those Marvel movies were a bit overrated. We picked seven of the most overrated Marvel movies of all time for this list.
It feels like the pendulum swung back a little too far in the anti-superhero movie sentiment lately. While the quality might slipped recently, I think the fervor around these movies shifted.
I feel like I should preface this list with this: I don't think any of these movies are bad movies! I like all of them, but these are the movies where the discourse and praise outran just how good the movies actually are. That's all! We also included Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, along with the X-Men movies, for this list.
With that said, let's dive in and get the list started with the first MCU movie, Iron Man!
Iron Man
- Release Date: May 2, 2008
- Director: Jon Favreau
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Shaun Toub, and more
Iron Man is officially the first movie of the MCU. It's easily one of the most influential MCU movies when you look at the full scope of what has been accomplished. So much of what led to the MCU's success is on display in Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect person to usher in a new era of cinema, and he gave a lot of credibility to the franchise that I don't know would have happened with a lesser actor or star. He was ready for this moment, and it opened up a universe of possibilities, commercially but also from a story perspective.
With that said, there are some big flaws with Iron Man from a story and character development perspective. The movie is entertaining and well made, but is it one of the best MCU movies of all time? Looking back, it's probably in the Top 10-15 range for me! I love Tony Stark, but the movie just feels a little too cookie-cutter. It's not hard to see where things are going. There isn't much development beyond Tony Stark, which obviously sets the stage for where the MCU goes next. But, as a movie, it leaves a little bit on the table from a story and development perspective for me, especially when it's forming the basis of the MCU and is paid off in Avengers: Endgame.
Again, Iron Man is one of the better Marvel movies. At the time, it was a game-changer. Looking at the movie more than 30 MCU movies later, there are some things that could have been done differently. Is it the most overrated MCU movie? Definitely not!
Up next is the most controversial selection on this list!
Avengers: Endgame
- Release Date: April 26, 2019
- Director: Joe and Anthony 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, Josh Brolin, and more
Avengers: Endgame is one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. It ended the most successful phase of the MCU, for the most part. Technically, Spider-Man: Far From Home officially ended Phase 3 of the MCU, but Endgame was the crown jewel of that phase and perhaps the entire MCU so far.
Avengers: Endgame is a fantastic movie and a massive achievement in filmmaking. This movie had been in the works for years with so many major movies and storylines leading to the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. I think Endgame is the best Avengers movie of all time, and there's no doubt it's one of the biggest superhero movies of all time. How this movie looks and feels, along with the number of characters, is incredible, for sure.
I do think the movie is a smidge overrated, though, especially from a story perspective. I'm not a huge fan of the "let's go back in time and stop the villain" storylines, and that's basically what Endgame is. It negates everything that happened, basically, before that part of the story. It feels like, based on how Endgame goes about it, that Infinity War didn't actually matter. That's just not true. We see how things were changed in the movies that followed, but that's how it feels to me at the moment.
I love the massive showdown with Thanos, which leads to Tony Stark sacrificing himself, Steve Rogers staying in the past and living a full life, and more. There are some great moments in this movie. And yet, I can't help but wonder if it would have been better if it was different. Infinity War started something really special with so many heroes working together. Then, Endgame features a skeleton crew of sorts until the very end. I get why it has to be that way, but I also don't get why it has to be that way. I'd have loved to see Thanos win, kill off a few characters,
Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Release Date: July 7, 2017
- Director: Jon Watts
- Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., and more
Spider-Man: Homecoming is another movie like Avengers: Endgame. There are so many things I love about this movie. It's Tom Holland's first standalone MCU movie. The movie has an incredible cast with Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, and more. I love the tone and vibe of the movie, especially compared to how heavy the other Spider-Man movies feel. There are some light-hearted moments. Overall, Holland's Peter Parker is super fun to watch.
From a story perspective, Spider-Man: Homecoming is not one of the best MCU movies of all time, though, and that's where Homecoming is positioned on so many lists of the best Marvel movies. Homecoming's story is good, but it's not great or out of this world. It's a pretty basic MCU story without very many twists or turns aside from the conflict and connection Peter has with Adrian Toomes / Vulture (Michael Keaton).
It makes sense to start small with Peter Parker. He's a young superhero, so maybe saving the world isn't a great place to start, but it feels like Vulture, maybe, wasn't the right villain for this movie. Maybe there's another direction they could have gone to up the stakes but also leave room for fans to get to know these great characters better. I do think that Keaton does a fantastic job as Vulture. His motivations come through and make sense, which is not something that's always super apparent in the MCU.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is, again, a good MCU movie, but is it one of the best of all time? Probably not.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Release Date: July 6, 2018
- Director: Peyton Reed
- Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Hannah John-Kamen, David Dastmalchian, Tip "T.I." Harris, Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale, Randall Park, Abby Ryder Fortson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Douglas, and more
Ant-Man and the Wasp is the sequel to Ant-Man. It's interesting to me that this movie's Rotten Tomatoes score is the 14th-highest of any of the MCU movies with an 87% critical approval rating. I like the first two Ant-Man movies, but that feels far too high for this movie. The first Ant-Man is definitely the better movie, although Ant-Man and the Wasp is much bigger in scale.
Ant-Man and the Wasp continues Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) story as he continues to work with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) as they try to save Janet Pym, who is trapped in the Quantum Realm. Overall, it's an intriguing story, but it lacks an antagonist. We're so used to Marvel movies with a big bad that needs to be stopped. That's not really the case in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and I think the story suffers because of it. Yes, this movie connects a lot of dots, especially with the Quantum Realm storylines, but Ghost is one of the most underdeveloped villains in the MCU, if we can even call her that That's a big problem to me.
Looking back, it makes sense why Ant-Man and the Wasp needed to happen. It has huge ramifications for Avengers: Endgame, even though fans don't know that at the time. Still, I think this movie could have been better with some more fine-tuning of the plot, focusing more on Ghost, and incorporating some of the heist elements on display in the first Ant-Man.
The Avengers
- Release Date: May 4, 2012
- Director: Joss Whedon
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, and more
The Avengers is the Marvel movie that proved what was possible for all these heroes to co-exist on-screen. It was a massive undertaking to make this movie, and there's a lot of The Avengers that works. The launch of the Avengers Initiative brings Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Hulk together for the first time to stop Loki, who has launched an assault on Earth. He tries to conquer the planet, while the Avengers try to stop him.
My main qualm of The Avengers is that it feels like a half-baked story. Loki's motivations and the threats they pose aren't fully understood. It's not exactly necessary, but the stakes feel artificially elevated at times. I'm all for the heroes getting together, too, but the team's friction also feels unnatural sometimes in the film. I think the ramp-up to The Avengers could have been a little longer, as well. Things happen quite quickly, which works because it's exciting. It gets the adrenaline going for viewers, but I think the story skips a few steps going from Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor right into The Avengers.
While this is one of the most important movies of the MCU, there's a lot of The Avengers that doesn't really work, and it doesn't totally make sense to me why this movie has such a high score on Rotten Tomatoes. Again, it's a good movie. It's better than half of the MCU movies for sure, but it's not a Top 10 MCU movie. I think it gets the love that it does because of what it means to the MCU rather than what the movie is about.
Logan
- Release Date: March 3, 2017
- Director: James Mangold
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Dafne Keen, and more
Logan is a great movie! Don't get me wrong. This is an incredible take on Wolverine's story, but is it one of the best Marvel movies of all time? That's debatable.
The film is set in the future where mutants haven't been born in decades. Logan follows a much older Logan (Jackman), also known as Wolverine, and Charles Xavier (Stewart), also known as Professor X, who is very sick, as they try to keep Laura (Dafne Keen), a young mutant, safe from those who wish to exploit her.
To me, Logan isn't that overrated, but it definitely feels a little overrated when it's considered one of the best superhero movies of all time. Yes, it's a great story that's so much more gritty and violent than what we've come to expect from Marvel and the X-Men. I think that works super well. I just find it hard to compare it to some of the movies that we think of when we think about Marvel. How can we consider it one of the best superhero movies of all time when it's missing so many of the elements that most, if not all, superhero movies have? It's so much less ambitious from a VFX and inclusive perspective than other Marvel movies.
From a story perspective, it's so much more ambitious than the X-Men movies and many Marvel movies, so I do feel a bit hypocritical complaining about the lack of actual story in so many MCU movies and then criticizing Logan. I don't think I'm being overly critical, though. It's just apples and oranges, you know? It's very difficult to compare when Logan is just so much different than most of the Marvel movies released over the last 15 years.
Captain America: Civil War
- Release Date: May 6, 2016
- Director: Joe and Anthony Russo
- Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Marisa Tomei, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, Martin Freeman, William Hurt, Daniel Brühl, and more
I feel like I'll take some heat for this one, but Captain America: Civil War is, for all intents and purposes, the third Avengers movie. It's much more about the Avengers than it is about Captain America. That's one of the main problems I have with the movie, which is not bad by any stretch. It's just not as good as it's made out to be.
For me, Civil War ranks No. 2 or No. 3 on the list of Captain America movies. It's probably better than The First Avenger, although I really like that movie because it paints the whole picture of who Cap is, what he stands for, and what he's been through. Civil War, on the other hand, feels like we're just watching a family break apart because Mom and Dad (Captain America and Iron Man) can't get their stuff together. It's embarrassing!
I also don't love the whole Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) villain story. Like, please just wrap it up and get on with it! I would have much preferred another villain for Captain America to take down. Maybe that's just me, though!
Civil War is such a huge Marvel Comics arc that they needed to bring to the big screen, but there was a better way to do it and also make another Captain America movie. It feels like this movie was always just a bridge to get Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Maybe that's unfair because some crucial things happen and details are worked out, but it's just not that enjoyable of a movie experience to be considered among the best of the MCU.