Ranking The Marvel Movies

This film does for the X-Men franchise what Batman Begins accomplished. Everything from the cast to the story, set around the Cuban Missle Crisis, makes this throughly entertaining and a refreshing spectacle.

It's a sentimental favorite more than anything. Still, before the big comic book movie boom of the last few years, Blade proved to be exceedingly entertaining as an action movie.

I can understand why this one is so unpopular. Personally, I think Ang Lee did a fantastic job of creating a comic book movie that is more of a character study than it is an action movie.

I'll give Joss Weadon credit. He managed to take every cliche in the book and make it interesting. Take the sum of all of the Avengers movies to this point and it's exactly what you'd hope for: pure entertainment.

Much like Blade, The Punisher doesn't have the same feel as the other Marvel movies. It is dark, gritty and extremely violent. But what else would you expect from the Punisher?

Guillermo del Toro keeps the awesomeness of Blade alive, throwing some unique visuals and exciting action into the mix.

X2 continues the story of the X-Men with a bit more patience and intrigue than the first movie. With a superb ending that leaves you hungry for more, it's a shame that hunger has yet to be satisfied.

Thor is an interesting character in the Marvel universe, mainly because he isn't just any other comic book hero: he's the freakin' god of thunder! The movie is dazzling and epic, though it probably should be another half hour longer.

Captain America is an icon, plain and simple. Fortunately, Joe Johnston uses his talent of creating a vintage backdrop to present this origin story the way it should be done. Thanks to a lot of camp and a lot of action, this is a solid entry in the Marvel movie universe.

It isn't vastly different from Hulk, but it is much more lighthearted than the Ang Lee version. Edward Norton plays the part of Bruce Banner well, though he doesn't get much help from Liv Tyler.

As pure entertainment value is concerned, it's hard not to like Robert Downey Jr. as the sharp-witted and arrogant Tony Stark. But the movie never seems to "take off" after the first half hour or so.

It wasn't the first Marvel comic book movie, but you might as well say it is. Aside from the Punisher and Blade movies, every other Marvel comic book movie has followed in the same vein as X-Men. The movie itself is good, but not amazing.

Kiss Kiss, Iron Man. Shane Black might have had his high points in the 80's and 90's, but he missed the target on this one. As a movie, it is plenty of fun, even if the story is wildly incoherent. It's a step up from Iron Man 2, but a huge step down after The Avengers.

It isn't easy to defend this movie, most notably because of Ben Affleck. But the story manages to work just well enough to keep your attention.

This is not how the Blade series should have ended, even though it has plenty of positive moments. Ryan Reynolds has some of the funniest lines, which probably shouldn't be repeated in proper company.

There isn't a whole lot to cling to with this movie, except for maybe a few well-choreographed moments and an extremely hot Jessica Alba.

Again, not a fitting end to the series. While attempting to introduce more characters to the fray, Brett Ratner just convolutes what could have been the best X-Men movie in the franchise.

This is what happens when production problems and a bad screenplay get forced through just to make money.

Calling it the "best" of the Spider-Man movies isn't that great of an honor. Alfred Molina gives the film some character, but in the end it suffers the same problems as the first movie.

When I read the comics as a kid, the thought of knowing Wolverine's origin story would have been exciting. But if I knew it was this, I would have been just as disappointed. Note to Marvel: do Deadpool right or not at all.

So what's wrong with it? The visuals are annoyingly corny, Kirsten Dunst can't act to save her life, and Tobey Maguire constantly fails to reach an emotional peak. Spider-Man was my favorite character as a kid, but now I see why: he's a character for children.

You know who's not a character for children? The Punisher! I like Ray Stevenson, but this movie is an appalling failure. It's more comic than the Tom Jane movie, but it's still very stupid.

This movie could have been a lot better, even more so than Daredevil. But it never attempts to be anything more than a spin-off of something that wasn't that great to begin with.

Everything is wrong in this movie. It follows the same formula as the first two. There are far too many characters to create any sort of flow. Above all, they ruined one of the coolest villains in all of Marvel, primarily because they thought Topher Grace could do him justice.

The effort is meh. The execution is okay. The acting is appalling. The story lines vanish. The villain is weak. Overall, there isn't much that makes this reboot any different than the train wreck that is Spider-Man 3.

Much like Spider-Man 3, this movie tries to do too many silly things that just bring the whole thing down. Whether it's a budget issue or what have you, the poor handling of Galactus was the icing on the cake of disappointment.

Marvel has given us so many unique and cool characters. But so many of them will likely be ruined by poor development choices. Case and point: Ghost Rider, a truly awesome character, should never, ever, EVER have been played by Nicolas Cage. Beyond that mistake, the movie is an utter catastrophe from the get-go.

I haven't seen it. Probably better that way.