12. 'Iron Man 2'
Year: 2010
Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Clark Gregg, John Slattery, Samuel L Jackson
Marvel's follow up to "Iron Man", the global smash that validated their studio, has always been given less respect than it deserves. Granted, the sequel probably had too much universe building going on, but it also skillfully substituted Cheadle for Terrence Howard and introduced the Black Widow (Johansson). Moreover, Mickey Rourke did everything possible to make his dialogue unintelligible while still making Whiplash one of Marvel's most visually impressive and 'genuinely' scary villains. Did the movie also need a second villain played by Sam Rockwell or a third act battle that never seemed to end? Probably not, but it was still entertaining as hell to watch.
11. 'The Incredible Hulk'
Year: 2008
Director: Louis Leterrier
Actors: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell
Edward Norton seems like ideal casting for Bruce Banner, and it will always seem like a shame that Norton didn't get a chance to play with the rest of "The Avengers". I love Ruffalo in the role, but I thought Norton got the tortured nature of Bruce Banner right as well, and there are some great sequences in the film. I think this is about as good as a conventional Hulk movie can be, and the real key if they want to make further adventures is to take the Hulk out of the mundane and push him to some fantastic places.
10. 'Thor: The Dark World'
Year: 2013
Director: Alan Taylor
Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Chris O'Dowd, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson,
It was clear as soon as "Thor" opened in theaters that Tom Hiddleston was a break-out star, and "Thor: The Dark World" makes excellent use of the rancid chemistry between the brothers. It also did a great job of opening up the universe more than the first film did, giving it a better sense of scope. The bad guys in the film are some of the weakest in any of the Marvel movies, but Loki picks up the slack, and the film ends with one of the biggest dangling cliffhangers in any movie so far.
9. 'Iron Man 3'
Year: 2013
Director: Shane Black
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Ty Simpkins
By the third film in any series, it's easy to start repeating what has come before, but Marvel wisely tried something different with the third "Iron Man", and hiring Shane Black to add his voice to the mix turned out to be very smart. Aside from a clever way of defining The Mandarin, a racially-difficult character to say the least, the film also benefitted from the fact that no one writes smart-ass for Downey better than Black does. The result really did feel like the end of something and the start of something else, and it suggests that Marvel can engineer sequels that don't just feel like retreads.
8. 'Captain America: The First Avenger'
Year: 2011
Director: Joe Johnston
Actors: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Richard Armitage, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Samuel L. Jackson
This is, quite thoroughly, all-American. Super wholesome, romantic, borderline trite and gosh-dernded innocuous, the first of the two "Captain America" films introduced a very likeable Chris Evans as a mythological beast in soldier's clothing. Marvel kept this story clipping along, with its past tense as much as the present, lingering more on his character than making the combat and the warring witty. Cap stands out with a heart that wants to blend in. No wonder an "Avengers" movie worked in his favor.
7. 'THOR'
Year: 2011
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg
"Guardians of the Galaxy" might be the first deep-dive into the cosmos for Marvel, but some seeds were planted with 2011's "Thor". It's a movie many dismiss, with its modest "Masters of the Universe" fish-out-of-water narrative taking place in a seemingly propped-up New Mexico town, but there was still plenty of Asgard to play with. Mostly it's just a charming entry in the canon and one, at least in my opinion, that deserves more love.
